Henry Wyatt 1794 - 1840 Portrait of Field Marshal Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, K.g.,g.c.b. 1763 - 1827

Henry Wyatt 1794 - 1840

Portrait of Field Marshal Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, K.G.,G.C.B. 1763 - 1827

oil on board

38.10 x 30.48 cm. (15 x 12 in.)

This portrait is after the portrait painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence of which there are a number of versions painted by the artist. Henry Wyatt and was a distinquished pupil of Lawrence and was known to have painted a number of versions of this portrait, for which this is one version. Frederick, Prince, duke of York and Albany (1763–1827), army officer and bishop of Osnabrück, was the second son of George III and Queen Charlotte. He was born at St James's Palace, London, on 16 August 1763, and on 27 February 1764 was elected to the bishopric of Osnabrück through his father's influence as elector of Hanover. The bishopric, a principality in the Holy Roman empire, alternated between a Catholic prelate and a protestant prince; as the latter, Frederick was never intended to take holy orders. On 1 November 1780 he was gazetted a colonel in the army. In the following year he went to Hanover to study French and German, and visited the Austrian and Prussian military manoeuvres. He was appointed colonel of the 2nd Horse Grenadier Guards on 23 March 1782; was promoted major-general on 20 November 1782; and was made lieutenant-general on 27 October 1784, when he became colonel of the 2nd or Coldstream Guards. On 27 November 1784 he was created duke of York and Albany in the peerage of Great Britain, and earl of Ulster in the peerage of Ireland. He retained the bishopric of Osnabrück until 1803.

In 1787 the duke of York, always his father's favourite son, returned to England. His first residence was at Allerton Mauleverer, near Knaresborough in the West Riding of Yorkshire, acquired in 1786 from the revenues of the bishopric of Osnabrück, and he spent time there in 1787 and 1788, but sold the estate during that year in order to live nearer London. It was rumoured that he had actually lost it playing cards, as on his return he established a reputation as a great gambler, particularly at the card game faro. In July 1788 he moved to his new seat of Oatlands Park, near Weybridge in Surrey. He took his seat in the House of Lords on 27 November 1787, and on 15 December 1788, on the question of the regency in opposition to Pitt's Regency Bill, he made a speech which attracted attention, as it was held to convey the sentiments of his elder brother, the prince of Wales, afterwards George IV. On 26 May 1789 he fought a duel on Wimbledon Common with Colonel Charles Lennox (afterwards fourth duke of Richmond), who was aggrieved by some of the duke's remarks. The duke coolly waited for Lennox's shot, and then fired in the air. His courage and his refusal to use his rank to decline the challenge were much applauded. In January 1791 a marriage was arranged for York with Frederica Charlotte Ulrica Catherina [Princess Frederica of Prussia] (1767–1820), eldest daughter of Frederick William II, king of Prussia, and his first wife, Elizabeth of Brunswick. The couple had met in Berlin and the marriage was celebrated there on 29 September 1791, and at Buckingham House (later Palace) on 23 November. There were no children of the marriage; husband and wife soon separated, and the duchess of York retired to Oatlands Park. A modest, self-effacing woman, she cared little for London society, preferring the company of her pet dogs, and attending church every Sunday. Her sympathy with the estranged princess of Wales and her daughter Charlotte incurred the prince regent's resentment, but she was liked and respected by the rest of the family. She died on 6 August 1820, of consumption, and was buried in Weybridge church on 14 August. On the outbreak of war in 1793 George III insisted that York should take command of the British contingent dispatched to Flanders to co-operate with the Austrian