The eldest son of the future George II was born in Hanover, and he remained there until 1728, the year after his father – resident in Britain since 1714 – took the throne. His prolonged separation from his parents may have been one reason for his perennially strained relationship with them.

Over his next decade in Britain, he became a focus for opposition politics, establishing a rival court at his London home, Leicester House, which was particularly antagonistic to the de facto Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole. He also gained a reputation for drinking and womanising: in 1732, his mistress, his mother’s maid of honour, Anne Vane, gave birth to a son named FitzFrederick Vane, the ambiguity of whose paternity caused a minor scandal.

He apparently settled down in 1736, when he married Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, but the following year his relationship with his mother, in particular, apparently broke beyond repair when, realising Augusta was in labour, Frederick bundled her into a carriage in the middle of the night to drive to Hampton Court. Queen Caroline died a few months later, refusing to see her son.

Frederick continued to develop his status as opposition prince, establishing himself (in contrast to his father) as a patron of the arts, particularly the new ‘rococo’ style - exemplified by this whimsical portrait by Jacopo Amigoni.

Any hopes his allies may have had for his succession were, however, dashed in 1751, when the forty-four year-old prince suddenly died, a death traditionally attributed to a blow from a tennis ball, but possibly the result of an embolism. The title of Prince of Wales passed to his son, George – who, as King George III, would go on to have his own difficult relationship with his son, the future George IV.