Caroline's father, Margrave John Frederick of Brandenburg-Ansbach, belonged to a branch of the House of Hohenzollern and was the ruler of a small German state, the Principality of Ansbach.

After Caroline was orphaned at a young age, she moved to the enlightened court of her guardians, King Frederick I and Queen Sophia Charlotte of Prussia.

At the Prussian court, her previously limited education was widened and she adopted the liberal outlook possessed by Sophia Charlotte, who became her good friend and whose views influenced Caroline all her life.

Caroline was born on 1 March 1683 at Ansbach, the daughter of John Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, and his second wife, Princess Eleonore Erdmuthe of Saxe-Eisenach.

Caroline and her only full sibling, her younger brother Margrave William Frederick, left Ansbach with their mother, who returned to her native Eisenach.

She was renowned for her intelligence and strong character, and her uncensored and liberal court attracted a great many scholars, including philosopher Gottfried Leibniz.

"[12] In June 1705, Sophia Charlotte's nephew Prince George Augustus of Hanover visited the Ansbach court, supposedly incognito, to inspect Caroline, as his father the Elector did not want his son to enter into a loveless arranged marriage as he himself had.

[23] In contrast with George Augustus and his mother, Sophia Dorothea, Caroline was known for her marital fidelity; she never made any embarrassing scenes nor did she take lovers.

Like Elizabeth, the Electress's rights are denied her by a jealous sister [Queen Anne], and she will never be sure of the English crown until her accession to the throne.

Since George I had repudiated his wife, Sophia Dorothea of Celle, in 1694 before he became King of Great Britain, there was no queen consort, and Caroline was therefore the highest-ranking woman in the kingdom.

At the baptism, George Augustus fell out with his father over the choice of godparents, leading to the couple's placement under house arrest at St James's Palace prior to their banishment from court.

Caroline struck up a friendship with politician Sir Robert Walpole, a former minister in the Whig government who led a disgruntled faction of the party.

The prince was isolated politically when Walpole's Whigs joined the government,[43] and Leicester House played host to literary figures and wits, such as John Arbuthnot and Jonathan Swift, rather than politicians.

She helped to popularise the practice of variolation (an early type of immunisation), which had been witnessed by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Charles Maitland in Constantinople.

[47] In praising her support for smallpox inoculation, Voltaire wrote of her, "I must say that despite all her titles and crowns, this princess was born to encourage the arts and the well-being of mankind; even on the throne she is a benevolent philosopher; and she has never lost an opportunity to learn or to manifest her generosity.

[52] Over the next few years, the King and Queen fought a constant battle against their eldest son, Frederick, Prince of Wales, who had been left behind in Germany when they came to England.

During her regency, a diplomatic incident with Portugal (where a British ship had been seized on the Tagus) was defused, and the negotiation of the Treaty of Seville between Britain and Spain was concluded.

An investigation into the penal system uncovered widespread abuses, including cruel treatment and conspiracy in the escape of wealthy convicts.

[55] In March 1733, Walpole introduced an unpopular Excise Bill to parliament, which the Queen supported, but it gathered such strong opposition that it was eventually dropped.

She commissioned works such as terracotta busts of the kings and queens of England from Michael Rysbrack,[58] and supervised a more naturalistic design of the royal gardens by William Kent and Charles Bridgeman.

[64] George's absences abroad were leading to unpopularity, and in late 1736 he made plans to return, but his ship was caught in poor weather, and it was rumoured that he had been lost at sea.

[66] Frederick applied to Parliament unsuccessfully for an increased financial allowance that had hitherto been denied him by the King, and public disagreement over the money drove a further wedge between parents and son.

In fact, Augusta's due date was earlier and a peculiar episode followed in July in which the prince, on discovering that his wife had gone into labour, sneaked her out of Hampton Court Palace in the middle of the night, to ensure that the King and Queen could not be present at the birth.

Traditionally, royal births were witnessed by members of the family and senior courtiers to guard against supposititious children, and Augusta had been forced by her husband to ride in a rattling carriage for an hour and a half while heavily pregnant and in pain.

With a party including her daughters Amelia and Caroline and Lord Hervey, the Queen raced over to St James's Palace, where Frederick had taken Augusta.

[70] According to Lord Hervey, she once remarked after seeing Frederick, "Look, there he goes—that wretch!—that villain!—I wish the ground would open this moment and sink the monster to the lowest hole in hell!

[77] She asked her husband to remarry after her death, which he rejected saying he would take only mistresses; she replied "Ah, mon Dieu, cela n'empêche pas" ("My God, that doesn't prevent it").

[83] A satirical verse of the period went:[84] The memoirs of the 18th century, particularly those of John, Lord Hervey, fed perceptions that Caroline and Walpole governed her husband.

R. L. Arkell wrote "by her acumen and geniality, [Caroline] ensured the dynasty's rooting itself in England", and William Henry Wilkins said her "gracious and dignified personality, her lofty ideals and pure life did much to counteract the unpopularity of her husband and father-in-law, and redeem the early Georgian era from utter grossness.

"[86] Although modern historians tend to believe that Hervey, Wilkins and Arkell have overestimated her importance, it is nevertheless probable that Caroline of Ansbach was one of the most influential consorts in British history.