Queen Caroline Used Merlin’s Cave to Make the Hanoverians Seem More British

When Queen Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach wanted to strengthen her family’s standing in Britain, she reached not for a palace renovation or a formal proclamation, but for Merlin. In 1735, Caroline commissioned Merlin’s Cave in the gardens of her palace at Richmond. The Gothic, thatched attraction contained wax figures of Merlin, legendary prophets and other figures associated with Britain’s distant past. Some visitors considered it an oddity; one critic reportedly described its figures as “a great many strange puppets.” According to Smithsonian Magazine, the grotto served a political purpose beyond entertainment. Caroline’s family, the House of Hanover, had inherited the British throne only in 1714 and remained vulnerable to accusations that it was a foreign dynasty. Supporters of the exiled Stuart line still regarded James Francis Edward Stuart as the rightful ruler, and uprisings had taken place in 1715 and 1719. The Hanoverian monarchy also faced an internal image problem. George II and Caroline were embroiled in a feud with their son, Frederick, Prince of Wales, threatening the appearance of dynastic unity. Arthurian legend offered Caroline a way to associate the dynasty with a shared British past rather than relying solely on hereditary claims. The attraction focused on Merlin rather than Arthur himself. In Arthurian tradition, Merlin advises the king, interprets Britain’s history and foretells its future. That made him a useful symbol for connecting Britain’s legendary origins with the Hanoverian monarchy’s present rule and hoped-for continuity. The cave’s symbolism may also have addressed the royal family’s division. A 1735 poem by Anglo-Welsh writer Jane Brereton portrayed Merlin urging Frederick to fulfill his obligations to his father and continue the Hanoverian line. The poem suggests that some contemporaries read the attraction as an appeal for reconciliation. Caroline’s opponents, however, turned the grotto into a target. The satirist Caleb D’Anvers mocked it, while critics associated Merlin with Robert Walpole, Caroline’s Whig ally, portraying the legendary magician as an untrustworthy figure. The reactions showed that political rivals understood the message, even if they rejected it. The result was an unusual example of 18th-century image management: a royal garden folly used to present a German-origin dynasty as part of Britain’s historic national story.