Caroline Matilda had been unprepared for her role as the wife of an ill and unstable king. The 16-year-old’s difficulties in establishing her own position at court are evident from her letters to her brother. The court was blighted by favouritism and the tension created by Christian’s stepmother, who wanted her own son, Christian’s half-brother, to become prince regent.
Caroline Matilda eventually found a close confidante in her Chief Court Mistress, Louise von Plessen. But Louise von Plessen was forced to leave court in the spring of 1768, shortly after the birth of the eagerly awaited heir to the throne, leaving Caroline Matilda even more isolated.
Altona, 20 October 1766
Reproduction
The Royal Archives, London © His Majesty King Charles III 2025
GEO/MAIN/52290
Andreas Brynich
Oil on canvas, 1742
Allgemeiner Hannoverscher Klosterfonds
The daughter of a Danish envoy, Louise von Plessen became a lady-in-waiting to Christian’s grandmother, Queen Sophie Magdalene, when she was just a girl. Widowed at a young age, she became Chief Court Mistress to the young queen Caroline Matilda in 1766. She won Caroline Matilda’s trust by criticising Christian’s excesses, but this also caused her to fall out of favour at court. She moved to Celle, where she met Caroline Matilda again in 1772.
Christopher Foltmar
Watercolour on gouache, around 1760
The Tansey Miniatures Foundation 11115
Christian’s stepbrother, who was four years younger than him, was also considered to be impaired in his intellectual development. This may have been due to the weakness of their father, Frederick V of Denmark, who ever since his youth had lived a dissolute life of sexual and alcoholic excess, and who died of the effects of alcoholism when he was only 42 years old.
Carl Gustav Pilo
Oil on canvas, around 1752
Bomann Museum Celle / City of Celle
BM00737/ST
When Christian was three years old, his mother died during her sixth pregnancy. Not long afterwards his father married Juliana Maria, a Welf princess from Brunswick. A year later she gave birth to Christian’s stepbrother, Frederick, who she hoped would inherit the throne. This meant that she and Christian never became close.