Caroline of Ansbach married George Augustus, the Electoral Prince of Hanover, the future George II, in 1705. She was seen as a protestant heroine in Britain as she had earlier turned down marriage to the Holy Roman Emperor because she could not bring herself to convert to Catholicism. When he met her, George was immediately struck with her ‘good character’ and ‘would not think of anybody else after her’ according to the British envoy at the time. When her father-in-law was proclaimed King of Britain, the whole family moved to England but she had to leave behind her seven-year-old son, Frederick, as the representative of the dynasty in Hanover. One contemporary commentator noted that her ‘power was unrivalled and unbounded’ and that ‘she directed everything … either at home or abroad’ and when she died in 1734 George was distraught. The miniature may have been painted in Hanover at the time of the wedding or perhaps at the coronation of her father-in-law as George I in 1714. When she arrived in England ‘she charmed all who were presented to her by her grace and affability’ according to a contemporary account. The artist, Benjamin Arlaud, was probably born in Geneva around 1670. He and his brother, Jacques Antoine, came from a family of clockmakers. Not many miniatures can be attributed to him with certainty but his work was of a high quality and he often delineated the eyebrows, upper eyelids and the corners of the eyes with red and shaded the face with greenish grey. George Vertue, the engraver and antiquary, noted he was ‘limner to the (King or Queen) till he died – whether he had Salary or not I can’t tell’ and described him as a ‘Master of his Art’. The Royal Archives contain no record of his appointment nor of any salary being paid.