Caroline Matilda of Great Britain

Born posthumously in 1751, the youngest daughter of Frederick, Prince of Wales, Caroline Matilda grew up isolated from court life. At 15 she was married to her first cousin, King Christian VII of Denmark and Norway, who suffered from mental illness and remained cold throughout their marriage. She bore two children - the future Frederick VI and Louise Augusta, the latter likely fathered by Johann Friedrich Struensee, the German physician who entered royal service in 1769. Struensee won the Queen's heart, and as their affair deepened he accumulated power and pushed through sweeping reforms that Caroline Matilda backed. The changes made enemies: Christian VII's stepmother, Queen Dowager Juliana Maria, and her son Prince Frederick orchestrated a plot in 1772 that toppled them both. Struensee went to the executioner, Caroline Matilda to divorce and exile in Celle. She died there of scarlet fever in 1775, three weeks shy of her twenty-fourth birthday.