Queen Caroline Memorial Pendant
CAROLINE REGINA - OB. AUG. 7 1821
A BELOVED MOTHER & AFFLICTED QUEEN
A remarkable antique pendant commemorating Queen Caroline of Brunswick. Queen Caroline, the estranged wife of the King (George IV), was adored by the people of England. Her husband... less so. The two married in 1795 so that the then Prince of Wales could clear his (massive) debts. £630,000 which was an astronomical sum in those days; equivalent to around £65 million (or $86 million). Needless to say it was not a marriage of love, indeed the two were said to have detested each other and the Prince Regent - "Prinny" - had secretly married Maria Fitzherbert, his true love (ahem) a few years earlier. But she was Catholic.
When George became King in 1820 he filed for divorce and stripped Caroline of her royal titles, going so far as to block her from his coronation in July 1821. When she attempted to enter Westminster Abbey, famously declaring "I am the Queen of England," the guards slammed the door in her face. From wikipedia.org:
The night following Caroline's failed attempt to attend her husband's coronation, she fell ill and took a large dose of milk of magnesia and some drops of laudanum. Over the next three weeks, she suffered more and more pain as her condition deteriorated. She realised she was nearing death and put her affairs in order. Her papers, letters, memoirs, and notebooks were burned. She wrote a new will, and settled her funeral arrangements: she was to be buried in her native Brunswick in a tomb bearing the inscription "Here lies Caroline, the Injured Queen of England". She died at Brandenburgh House in Hammersmith at 10:25 pm on 7 August 1821 at the age of 53. Her physicians thought she had an intestinal obstruction, but she may have had cancer, and there were rumours at the time that she had been poisoned.
I do not know what the pendant is made of... it appears to be bog oak (rather than gutta percha or vulcanite or jet).
Era: Georgian, circa 1821
Size: 4.8cm (including bail) by 3.1cm
Marks: None, fittings are base metal
Condition: Good antique condition; a split to the reverse, see images.
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[Last updated: 28th February 2026]
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Condition
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