Caroline of Ansbach, Queen of Great Britain, died in November 1737 after twelve days of severe abdominal pain. The cause was an injury she had been concealing for thirteen years. From whom?
Caroline had ruptured an umbilical hernia during the birth of her youngest daughter Princess Louisa in 1724. She concealed it from her husband, her physicians, her ladies-in-waiting, and the wider court for thirteen years. The 18th-century English aristocratic-female taboo against acknowledging any bodily defect — and the matching social taboo that prevented royal physicians from examining the queen's abdomen without explicit permission — made the concealment possible. The hernia ruptured on 9 November 1737; she did not admit its existence until 13 November; surgical intervention by John Ranby on 18 November came too late. She died on 20 November, aged 54. George II outlived her by 23 years and never remarried.
Read the full story →Caroline of Ansbach, Queen of Great Britain, had been carrying a strangulated umbilical hernia for fourteen years when it ruptured in November 1737. She had concealed it from everyone including her doctors. She died after twelve days of pain. She was 54.
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