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.

The delivery was traumatic: St James's was not ready to receive them, no bed was prepared, no sheets could be found, and Augusta was forced to give birth on a tablecloth.

Caroline was relieved to discover that Augusta had given birth to a "poor, ugly little she-mouse", rather than a "large, fat, healthy boy" as the pitiful nature of the baby made a supposititious child unlikely .

[2] In its original form, Alfred contained only eight vocal sections and the overture, including the famous patriotic song "Rule, Britannia!".

This obstacle was overcome by a reason described by Horace Walpole: "Lady Augusta was lively, and much inclined to meddle in the private politics of the Court.

As none of her [The [Dowager] Princess [of Wales]'s] children but the King, had, or had reason to have, much affection for their mother, she justly apprehended Lady Augusta instilling their disgust on to the Queen.

Her exceeding indolence, her more excessive love of privacy, and the subjection of being frequently with the Queen, whose higher rank was a never ceasing mortification, all concurred to make her resolve, at any rate, to deliver herself of her daughter.

"[5]On 16 January 1764, Augusta married Charles William Ferdinand at the Chapel Royal of St James's Palace.

[4] This attitude did not change with time, and twenty-five years after her marriage, she was described as "wholly English in her tastes, her principles and her manners, to the point that her almost cynical independence makes, with the etiquette of the German courts, the most singular contrast I know".

In her retreat, Augusta amused herself by spending her days eating heavy luncheons, gossiping and playing cards with her favourites, often receiving English guests.

Shortly after the birth of her first daughter, she wrote: "No two people live better together than we do, and I would go through fire and water for him",[4] and it was noted that she seemed to be unaware of his flirtations in London.

[10] Augusta attended her mother's deathbed during her second visit to England, and upon her return to Brunswick, extended her period of mourning, which eventually led to her retirement from participation in court life.

When her sister, Queen Caroline Matilda of Denmark, was convicted of adultery and exiled near Brunswick in Celle, Augusta would regularly visit her for weeks on end, much to the disapproval of her husband and parents-in-law .

[4] In 1777, Augusta announced to her husband that she would retire from court life to oversee the upbringing of their children and perform religious studies under the Bishop of Fürstenberg.

The Swedish Princess Hedwig Elizabeth Charlotte described her, as well as her family, at the time of a visit in August, 1799: Our cousin, the Duke, arrived immediately the next morning.

The Hereditary Prince, chubby and fat, almost blind, strange and odd — if not to say an imbecile — attempts to imitate his father but only makes himself artificial and unpleasant.

[11] In 1806, when Prussia declared war on France, her husband, the Prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, 71 at the time, was appointed commander-in-chief of the Prussian army.

She remained there with her niece, the Duchess of Augustenborg (daughter of her sister the late Queen Caroline Mathilde of Denmark), until her brother George III of the United Kingdom finally relented in September 1807, and allowed Augusta to come to London.

[13] Through her great-granddaughter Princess Pauline of Württemberg, she is an ancestress of the present Belgian, Danish, Dutch, Luxembourgish, Norwegian, and Swedish royal families.