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LED

Queen Caroline Token?

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Would anyone be able to tell me what this is?  I presume it is not a coin but a token of some kind.  Which Queen Caroline is it?  I haven't been able to find it illustrated in a book or anywhere on line.

Carolina (1a).jpg

Carolina (1b).jpg

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This would be Caroline of Brunswick, wife of George IV of England. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_of_Brunswick

It is likely this was struck during George IV's reign (1820 to 1830) in support of the Queen. As you can read in the wikipedia page, George was being pretty unpleasant about his Queen and there was strong popular support for her. Hence tokens/medallions were struck for popular consumption and as gaming tokens.

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And as someone who has collected this type of token in the past, it's completely unknown to me. Certainly never seen her backed with the royal CoA before.

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Guest LED

Thank you.  I am glad to have an idea of what it is.  I found several tokens among my dad's English coins but the others either showed up on line or I found something similar enough to give me an idea what they were.  This was the only one about which I couldn't find anything at all.

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Yours is technically a counter or jeton, but that doesn't get us any nearer an identification/origin. I'll dig through some of my old paper files and magazines at the weekend.

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More interesting info about caroline from Wickopedia

Caroline of Brunswick (Caroline Amelia Elizabeth; 17 May 1768 – 7 August 1821) was Queen of the United Kingdom by marriage to King George IV from 29 January 1820 until her death in 1821. She was the Princess of Wales from 1795 to 1820.

Her father, Charles William Ferdinand, was the ruler of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel in Germany, and her mother, Augusta, was the sister of the British king George III. In 1794, she was engaged to her first-cousin and George III's eldest son, George, despite the two of them never having met and George already being illegally married to Maria Fitzherbert. George and Caroline married the following year, and nine months later Caroline had a child, Princess Charlotte of Wales.

Shortly after Charlotte's birth, George and Caroline separated. By 1806, rumours that Caroline had taken lovers and had an illegitimate child led to an investigation into her private life. The dignitaries who led the investigation concluded that there was "no foundation" to the rumours, but Caroline's access to her daughter was restricted.

In 1814, Caroline moved to Italy, where she employed Bartolomeo Pergami as a servant. Pergami soon became Caroline's closest companion, and it was widely assumed that they were lovers. In 1817, Caroline was devastated when her daughter Charlotte died in childbirth; she heard the news from a passing courier as George had refused to write and tell her. He was determined to divorce Caroline, and set up a second investigation to collect evidence of her adultery.

In 1820, George became king of the United Kingdom and Hanover. George hated her, vowed she would never be the queen, and insisted on a divorce, which she refused. A legal divorce was possible but difficult to obtain. Caroline returned to Britain to assert her position as queen. She was wildly popular with the British populace, who sympathized with her and who despised the new king for his immoral behaviour. On the basis of the loose evidence collected against her, George attempted to divorce her by introducing the Pains and Penalties Bill to Parliament, but George and the bill were so unpopular, and Caroline so popular with the masses, that it was withdrawn by the Tory government. In July 1821, Caroline was barred from the coronation on the orders of her husband. She fell ill in London and died three weeks later; her funeral procession passed through London on its way to her native Brunswick, where she was buried.

A very sad story later to be repeated with charles II

 

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A very sad story later to be repeated with charles II

WHAT! :wacko:

Was that taken from Wiki?

Edited by Rob

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No but charles III was who I ment

His being given an arranged mariage  to someone who he never loved (Diana)

And them spliting up and living separate lives  with bitterness and argueing  (Point scoring off each other and bitching)

Rumours of diana having umpteen affairs  (you have to be born royal for that to be ok)

 

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P.S do you think diana would be invited to charles coronation if she was still alive of course?

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1 hour ago, copper123 said:

P.S do you think diana would be invited to charles coronation if she was still alive of course?

You think he will be coronated? . Long time ago it was foretold (don't ask me how they worked out it was charles lol)  Charles will never reign as king . So begs the question pop down to ladbrokes and see what odds  they give on William :P

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Everyone wants a willy

Nobody wants a right charlie

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More about george IIII and caroline

Why the Prince of Wales, the son of King George III agreed to marry the fat, ugly and tactless Caroline of Brunswick is something of a mystery, except that he needed the money!

The Prince of Wales, know as Prinny, was a well known womaniser and at the age of 17 he had an affair with an actress Mary Robinson. When he was 23 he fell in love with a beautiful Catholic, Mrs Fitzherbert. He was so besotted with her that he persuaded her to go through with a secret marriage. The marriage was conducted in secrecy in her house where a Church of England clergyman performed the ceremony for a fee of £500.

George IV CCThey were very happy together for eight years but by then Prinny was in debt to the tune of £630,000, a tremendous sum in those days.

The only way that he could pay off his debts was to marry and furnish the country with an heir, then Parliament would pay his debts.

In 1795 Prinny was introduced to his potential bride, Caroline of Brunswick. Caroline was short, fat, ugly and never changed her undergarments, and rarely washed. Her body odour was overwhelming.

After embracing her, Prinny retired to the far end of the room and said to the Earl of Malmesbury: “Harris, I am not very well, pray get me a glass of brandy”.

He continued to drink brandy for three days until the morning of the wedding.

He was so drunk on their wedding night that he collapsed into the bedroom grate and remained there until dawn. Nevertheless, their only child Princess Charlotte was conceived, so he obviously managed to do what was required of him by his country.

Caroline of Brunswick WKPDPrinny found Caroline so disgusting that he refused to live with her and a year after their wedding he sent her a note tactfully informing her that she could do as she liked, as he would not be having ‘relations’ with her again. Caroline took this to mean that she could do as she wished.

Rejected by her husband she went to live at Blackheath, London where her behaviour became more than a little extreme. In her room she had a clockwork Chinese figure that performed gross sexual movements when wound-up. She also was given to dancing around in front of her guests in a manner that was most indelicate, exposing most of her body.

In 1806 rumours began to circulate that a four year-old child in her entourage, William Austin, was her son. His father was said to be a footman.

A Royal Commission was set up called the ‘Delicate Investigation’, but nothing could be proved against her.

In 1814 Caroline left England and proceeded to shock the people of Europe. She danced at a ball in Geneva naked to the waist, and in Naples she became the mistress of King Joachim, Napoleon’s brother-in-law.

In January 1820 King George III died and Prinny became King George IV and so Caroline became Queen.

The government in England offered Caroline £50,000 if she would stay out of the country, but she refused and came back, where she settled in Hammersmith to the intense embarrassment of all concerned.

Caroline, her Italian Secretary and her Valet LIN

On the 17th August the House of Lords took the offensive by demanding that Caroline appear before them. The aim of the House of Lords was to dissolve the marriage on the grounds that Caroline had been involved with a man called Bartolomeo Bergami, (‘a foreigner of low station’) in a most degrading intimacy.

Caroline was very popular with the London ‘mob’ whilst King George was not. They surrounded the House of Lords every day; her coach was escorted by the cheering mob whenever she had to appear there. The evidence against her was plentiful. It seems that during a cruise she slept on deck in a tent with Bergami and took her baths with him in full view of the other servants. In Italy her mode of dress was bizarre to say the least; she was in the habit of wearing dresses open to the waist.

Trial of Queen Caroline of Brunswick WKPD
(detail from) The Trial of Queen Caroline 1820 by Sir George Hayter

After 52 days the divorce clause was carried but after the brilliant oratory of Lord Brougham in her defence, the Lords decided to drop it.

George IV’s Coronation was to be the 29th April 1821. Caroline asked the Prime Minister what dress to wear for the ceremony and was told that she would not be taking part in it.

Nevertheless Caroline arrived at the door of Westminster Abbey on the day demanding to be admitted. She shouted “The Queen…Open” and the pages opened the door. “I am the Queen of England,” she shouted and an official roared at the pages “Do your duty…shut the door” and the door was slammed in her face.

Undaunted, Caroline drove back to her house and sent a note to the king asking for a Coronation ‘next Monday’!

She died 19 days after her frustrated attempt to get into the Abbey.

She was buried in Brunswick, and on her coffin was inscribed… ‘CAROLINE THE INJURED QUEEN OF ENGLAND’.

 

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She sounds as mad as a hatter, or should that be the Queen of Hearts?

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9 hours ago, copper123 said:

Why the Prince of Wales, the son of King George III agreed to marry the fat, ugly and tactless Caroline of Brunswick is something of a mystery, except that he needed the money!

 

George IV CC

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 

He was no oil painting either. Speaking of which, that royal "portrait" you've posted bears about as much relation to reality as William Wyon's effigy on the coinage. Pistrucci was rather closer to the mark but even he had probably omitted the warts and pox marks.

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this is true - the thing that really pissed prinny of IMHO was being forced to marry a german who his father aproved of .

Like most of the georges his fav hobby was upseting his father

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