Sophia Matilda Hanover (1777-1848) - Find a Grave Memorial

British Royalty. Princess of Great Britain and Ireland. Born Princess Sophia Matilda, she was the twelfth child and fifth daughter of King George III and Queen Charlotte. Described as pretty, passionate, and delicate, Sophia like all her sisters lived a very cloistered, miserable existence in her mother's household, which they would call "The Nunnery". Sophia fell in love girlishly with a much older man, General Thomas Garth, one of her father's equerries. Most historians and biographers agree that Sophia gave birth to an illegitimate son at the age of 22. Most agree that Garth was the father, as he immediately took in and raised the boy. Sophia never married, nor formed any other relationships after Garth. For much of her life after the birth of her son, she was very ill and for the most part an invalid. Some believe she suffered from porphyria like her father. Her health seemed to improve drastically (though she would remain weak and sickly) upon the death of her mother and the regency of her eldest brother, the Prince of Wales. For the first time she was free to look beyond her mother's court. In her later years, she became especially close to her niece, the young Queen Victoria, and wrote to her or saw her every day. Blind and deaf, Sophia died at Kensington Palace at the age of 70. As per her wishes, she was buried across the way from her brother Augustus, Duke of Sussex.

Bio by: Kristen Conrad