Background
He was born as the youngest son of Hereditary Prince Frederick of Hesse-Kassel (the future Landgrave Frederick II) and Princess Mary of Great Britain. He was the last surviving grandchild of George II of Great Britain, dying one month before Queen Victoria (granddaughter of his first cousin King George III) ascended to the throne. His father, the then hereditary prince (who reigned from 1760 and died in 1785) had in 1747 left the family and soon converted Catholicism, and in 1755 formally ended his marriage.
