Adolphus Frederick, 1st Duke of Cambridge

Adolph Friedrich, 1st Duke of Cambridge, as chief of the King's German Legion, 1806

Adolph Friedrich, 1st Duke of Cambridge

Prince Adolph Friedrich of Great Britain, Ireland and Hanover, 1st Duke of Cambridge (born February 24, 1774 in London , † July 8, 1850 there ) was a son of King George III. and British Field Marshal .

Life

Göttingen , memorial plaque for the former prince's house and its well-known guests

Coat of arms of Prince Adolph Friedrich

Adolph was born in Kew (London) as the seventh son of King George III. and his wife Sophie Charlotte von Mecklenburg-Strelitz born. He was baptized Adolph Friedrich after the queen's brother. He joined the British Army at the age of 16 . He studied at the University of Göttingen .

During the First Coalition War he was captured near Hondschoten in French Flanders in 1793 , but was soon exchanged. In 1798 he was promoted to lieutenant general . In 1800, as part of the moor colonization , he attended the establishment of a village, which he then named after himself: Adolphsdorf , a district of Grasberg since 1974 . In 1801 he went to Berlin to prevent the occupation of Kurhannover which had been decided there, but which he did not succeed. There was then another unsuccessful plan to put him at the head of the armed population of Hanover. He could only avoid surrender by handing the authority over to General Wallmoden . In 1803 he was appointed commander in chief of the newly founded King's German Legion stationed in England , which from 1816 was partially absorbed into the Hanoverian army .

On November 27, 1801, his father had bestowed on him in the Peerage of the United Kingdom the hereditary titles of Duke of Cambridge , Earl of Tipperary and Baron Culloden .

After the new occupation and elevation to the Kingdom of Hanover in 1814, Adolph was sent there on October 24, 1816 to act as governor-general . In 1819 the old estates constitution was reorganized and a bicameral parliament was introduced. After the unrest in Göttingen in 1831, Adolph Friedrich was also installed as viceroy . In a state reform of 1833, parliament and the people were granted further rights to a limited extent. After the death of his brother Wilhelm IV (the sailor king), Hanover fell to Ernst August , the older brother of Adolph Friedrich, in 1837 . Thereupon Adolph returned to Great Britain and was active here as president of many charities , some of which he founded himself - including the German hospital in London.

As viceroy and jovial governor of the Kings of Hanover, who resided in London until 1837, Adolph Friedrich was quite popular, not least in contrast to the autocratic reigning King Ernst August who followed him. The Cambridge Dragoons named after Adolphs Dukedom , a cavalry regiment, gave their name to the Cambridge Dragoons barracks in Celle, which the Bundeswehr used until 1995 . The march of the Hanoverian Cambridge Dragoon Regiment is part of the army march collection of the Bundeswehr. The memory of the Duke of Cambridge, who reigned in Hanover for more than two decades and was known as a drinking festival, was held for a long time in a Low German toast: Pitsche, pitsche, pitsche, the Duke of Cambridsche. Hey care, Hey care, Hey care, whether Hei still needs one? Hey, take another ... well, you toast!

In the vicinity of Göttingen he had two country estates: the Neuhaus hunting lodge and the Rotenkirchen palace . In 1829 he bought a city palace in London , which he lived in until his death and is now called Cambridge House after him .

Honors

Knight Companion of the Order of the Garter , 1786

Member of the Privy Council , 1802

Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Bath , 1815

Knight Grand Cross of the Guelph Order , 1815

Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Michael and George , 1825

From 1802 Adolph Friedrich was Honorary President of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences .

Gut Adolphshof near Hämelerwald , founded in 1827, was named after Adolph. He granted the founder of the estate financial support through a loan.

In 1839 an expedition of the Hudson's Bay Company named a bay in what is now Nunavut territory in northern Canada after the Duke Cambridge Bay .

progeny

He was married to Princess Auguste of Hesse . The following children were born from the marriage:

George William Frederick Charles (1819–1904)
Augusta Karoline (1822-1916); ⚭ Hereditary Grand Duke Friedrich Wilhelm of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1819–1904)
Mary (1833-1897); ⚭ Duke Franz von Teck , mother of Queen Mary

literature

Schaumann: Adolf Friedrich . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1875, pp. 103-105.
Wilhelm Rothert : General Hannoversche Biography , Volume 2: In the Old Kingdom of Hanover 1814–1866 ; Hanover: Sponholtz, 1914, pp. 20-34.
Eva Catherina Heesen: Adolph Friedrich, Duke of Cambridge as general governor and viceroy of Hanover, 1816–1837 (sources and representations on the history of Lower Saxony; 139), Hanover: Wehrhahn 2018, ISBN 978-3-86525-589-1 .

Individual evidence

↑ Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein (eds.) And a .: City Lexicon Hanover . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2009, ISBN 978-3-89993-662-9 , p. 12.
↑ In commemoration of this event, his great-great-great- nephew Prince Ernst August von Hanover donated a trophy to the Adolphsdorf shooting club in 1975 and allowed members to wear his family crest on their scarfs. Cf. Johannes Kessels, "Almost like a royal family: New majesties are all called Helmke or Kück", in: Wümme-Zeitung ; June 2, 2009.
↑ Dirk Böttcher , Klaus Mlynek , Waldemar R. Röhrbein , Hugo Thielen : Hannoversches Biographisches Lexikon . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2002, ISBN 3-87706-706-9 , p. 24.
↑ Man to . In: Der Spiegel . No. 17 , 1963, pp. 65 ( online ).
↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 24.

Web links

Commons : Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Information on www.welfen.de

predecessor	Office	successor
New title created	Duke of Cambridge 1801-1850	George

personal data
SURNAME	Adolphus Frederick, 1st Duke of Cambridge
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Adolph Friedrich of Great Britain, Ireland and Hanover, 1st Duke of Cambridge
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	British Field Marshal
DATE OF BIRTH	February 24, 1774
PLACE OF BIRTH	London
DATE OF DEATH	July 8, 1850
Place of death	London

[1] Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein (eds.) And a .: City Lexicon Hanover . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2009, ISBN 978-3-89993-662-9 , p. 12.

[2] In commemoration of this event, his great-great-great- nephew Prince Ernst August von Hanover donated a trophy to the Adolphsdorf shooting club in 1975 and allowed members to wear his family crest on their scarfs. Cf. Johannes Kessels, "Almost like a royal family: New majesties are all called Helmke or Kück", in: Wümme-Zeitung ; June 2, 2009.

[3] Dirk Böttcher , Klaus Mlynek , Waldemar R. Röhrbein , Hugo Thielen : Hannoversches Biographisches Lexikon . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2002, ISBN 3-87706-706-9 , p. 24.

[4] Man to . In: Der Spiegel . No. 17 , 1963, pp. 65 ( online ).

[5] Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 24.