Simming in the rain

Line, as her family affectionately called her, enjoyed a charmed but sheltered childhood and grew up into a quiet, studious and religious young woman.

Though she had long been intended to marry Prince Ulrich of D-------, the nephew and heir presumptive to her aunt's husband ( @crownsofesha), these plans were abandoned when her health worsened drastically following the death of her beloved father in 1794. It seems her family had little hope of her marrying afterwards, as she was discussed as a potential successor to another aunt as Abbess of F------.

Nonetheless in 1796 she was married to Prince Octavius, Duke of R--------, a younger brother of the king of W--------- ( @royaltysimblr). The marriage, which neither of them had wanted, was unhappy from the beginning- too different were their characters, views and habits. Karoline devoted herself wholly to the education of their three children for the high office in store for them, a path on which she continued undeterred after her husband's death.

Her ambition paid off when her son George became King George ii of W--------- in 1817, however her triumph was as shortlived as her sons. In 1822 her only remaining child Mary ascended the throne and refused to have anything to do with her. Though they reconciled eventually the days of Karoline's political influence in W--------- were over.

When the Jacoban elder line of K-------- died out in the male line with the death of her eldest brother in 1832 Karoline was chief among the K--------er princesses unsuccessfully lobbying against the succession of the Peteran sideline.

1852 saw the engagements of two granddaughters of the late Tsar Alexey Grigoryevich in rapid succession.

Jekaterina Jurjewna had been considered as a bride for Prince Lambert of K........ when he met the young Princess Dorothea by I........ and insisted he would marry "her or no-one". His cousin Prince Leopold was thus sent to sort things out with Jekaterina's family, and soon proposed marriage to her himself. The two of them were considered the only happy marriage among the royal family of K........, within which they took a central position as eminence grisée especially after the ascension of Leopold's nephew Heinrich at just 21.