Princess of Wales Starts Married Life by Vomiting on her Wedding Dress and Her Mother in Law’s Gown
Augusta of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (1719 – 1772) was a German noblewoman who became Princess of Wales by marrying the Prince of Wales. Her marriage started inauspiciously, with a terrible wedding ceremony, and continued as disastrously as it had began. To cap of her marital bad luck, she was one of the only four Princesses of Wales who never got to become queen.
Augusta was born in Gotha, Germany, the second youngest of its duke’s 19 children. In 1736, at the young age of 16, and young for her age at that, she was sent to Britain, still clutching her doll, as the bride in an arranged royal wedding. She arrived in England not knowing a word of English, to marry Frederick, Prince of Wales, the son and designated successor of King George II.
To squelch rumors that the Prince of Wales was about to marry a British noblewoman, the royal family was in a rush to conduct the wedding. Almost immediately upon her arrival in England, Augusta was shoved into a wedding dress, and on May 8th, 1736, she was led up the aisle of the Royal Chapel in Saint James Palace to marry the 29 year old Frederick.
Finding herself in an entirely new environment, and taking part in a ceremony conducted in a language she did not understand, Augusta grew increasingly nervous. As the groom’s mother, Queen Caroline, translated from English into German and whispered it into Augusta’s ear, the bride suddenly vomited all over her wedding gown. As her mother in law lent a hand to wipe the mess off Augusta’s dress, the nervous bride had a second bout of the heaves, and vomited all over the queen.
Married life was just as awkward. The new Princess of Wales continued playing with her dolls, until her relatives finally forced her to stop. Her husband, taking advantage of his wife’s naivety, got Augusta to employ his mistress as her lady of the bedchamber, after convincing the gullible princess that rumors of the affair were fake news.
The Prince of Wales and his parents had a lot of family drama going on, and an unwilling Augusta was frequently dragged into the middle of the mess, taking fire from both sides. She nonetheless performed her expected role in the royal marriage, and gave birth to nine children. However, she never got the hoped for payout of becoming queen consort: her husband died before her father in law, and upon the latter’s death, the crown went to her son, George III.