Princess Augusta of Hesse-Kassel

Princess Augusta of Hesse-Cassel, later Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge, (July 25, 1797 – April 6, 1889) was the consort of Prince Adolphus, 1st Duke of Cambridge, the tenth born child and seventh son of King George III of the United Kingdom and Queen Charlotte. The longest-lived daughter-in-law of George III, she was the maternal grandmother of Queen Mary, the consort of King George V of the United Kingdom.

Her Highness Princess Augusta Wilhelmina Louisa, the third daughter of Friedrich (III), Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, lord of Rumpenheim, and his wife Caroline Polyxena, daughter of Prince Karl Willem of Nassau-Usingen, was born at Rumpenheim Castle, Cassel, Germany. Her father, Landgrave Friedrich, was the youngest son of [[Princess Mary of Great Britain|Princess Mary (February 22, 1723 – January 14, 1772), the third daughter of George II of Great Britain. In 1803, her uncle assumed the title of Elector of Hesse-Cassel — whereby the whole extended Hesse-Cassel dynasty gained an upward notch in hierarchy, including young Augusta.

On 7 May at Cassel and then again on June 1, 1818, Princess Augusta married her second cousin, the Duke of Cambridge, when she was 21 and he was 43. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge had three children:

• Prince George, 2nd Duke of Cambridge (March 26, 1819 – March 17, 1904) who for two months was the future heir presumptive of the British throne, being the only child of that generation until the birth of the future Queen Victoria, whose birth displaced him.
• Princess Augusta of Cambridge (1July 19, 1822 – December 4, 1916), m. Friedrich Wilhelm, Grand Duke of Mecklenberg-Strelitz (1819–1904)
• Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge (November 27, 1833 – October 27, 1897) m. Prince Francis of Teck, later 1st Duke of Teck.

From 1818 until the ascension of Queen Victoria and the separation of the British and Hanoverian crowns in 1837, the Duchess of Cambridge lived in Hanover, where the Duke served as viceroy on behalf of his brothers, King George IV and King William IV. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge returned to Great Britain, where they lived at Cambridge Cottage, Kew, and later at St. James' Palace. The Duchess of Cambridge survived her husband by thirty-nine years, dying at the age of almost ninety-two.