Frederica was born 9 January 1848 in Hanover, the elder daughter of the Hereditary Prince of Hanover and of his wife, Princess Marie of Saxe-Altenburg. She held the title of Princess with the style Her Royal Highness in Hanover. In the United Kingdom, she held the title of Princess with the style Her Highness as a male-line great-granddaughter of King George III. She was known as "Lily" within her family. In January 1866, the Prime Minister of PrussiaOtto von Bismarck began negotiations with Hanover, represented by Count Platen-Hallermund, regarding the possible marriage of Frederica to Prince Albrecht of Prussia. These plans came to nothing as tensions grew between Hanover and Prussia finally resulting in the Austro-Prussian War. In 1866, Frederica's father was deposed as King of Hanover. Eventually, the family settled at Gmunden in Austria, where they owned Schloss Cumberland. Frederica visited England with her family in May 1876, and again, after her father's death, in June 1878.
Marriage
Frederica was courted by her second cousin, Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, and by Alexander, Prince of Orange. Frederica, however, was in love with Baron Alfons von Pawel-Rammingen, the son of a government official of the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Alfons had served as an equerry to Frederica's father. Alfons was naturalised as a British subject on 19 March 1880 and, on 24 April 1880, he and Frederica were married. The wedding took place in Windsor Castle presided by the Bishop of Oxford. Alfons' sister Anna was married to Baron Oswald von Coburg, the son of an illegitimate son of Prince Ludwig Karl Friedrich of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. Alfred Tennyson, the Poet Laureate, wrote a quatrain in honour of Frederica's marriage, focusing on her relationship to her blind father, who had died two years before: After their marriage Frederica and Alfons lived in an apartment at Hampton Court Palace. The apartment was in the south-west wing of the west front of the palace in the suite formerly called the "Lady Housekeeper's Lodgings". Frederica and Alfons had one daughter who was born and died at Hampton Court Palace:
Frederica and Alfons were frequent guests at Windsor Castle and at Osborne House.
Charitable works
Frederica was involved with numerous charitable activities. In August 1881 she established the Convalescent Home, an institution for poor women who have given birth but have been discharged from maternity hospitals. Because her father had been blind, she was a benefactress of the Royal Normal College and Academy of Music for the Blind at Upper Norwood. Frederica was interested in children and became patron of the Church Extension Association, then based in Kilburn, which wished to set up schools in Willesden, then a new suburb of London. On 24 July 1889 she opened Princess Frederica School in Kensal Rise. She was also patron of the Training College for Teachers of the Deaf at Ealing, of the Strolling Players' Amateur Orchestral Society, of the Hampton Court and Dittons Regatta of the Home for Foreign Governesses, of the Mission to the French in London, and of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. She was President of the Middlesex Branch of SSFA.
Frederica and Alfons gave up their apartment at Hampton Court Palace in 1898. While they continued to live part of the year in England, they subsequently spent more time in Biarritz in France where they had previously vacationed. They owned Villa Mouriscot there. Frederica died in 1926 at Biarritz. She was buried in the Royal Vault in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle. In 1927 a window in her memory was unveiled in the English Church in Biarritz.
