Queen Caroline

This brief chapter contains those articles that I have copied from the newspapers concerning Queen Caroline.

It is not a complete collection of articles, many of which relate to the unsavoury investigations by the ministry into her conduct in Italy and the subsequent hearing of those allegations in parliament, all of which I have omitted. The editions of the Newspaper that contain these details are indicated in the text below.

Sat 21^st Feb 1795

16^th Sept 1794 – The Prince of Wales is obliged by the King to disconnect himself from his Catholic girlfriend. She has agreed to accept an annuity of £3,000 and a separate jointure of £1,800 which should allow her to maintain the lifestyle she has become accustomed to.

The reason is that the needs of diplomacy require the Prince’s marriage to Princess Caroline Amelia Elizabeth of Brunswick, George III’s niece. Lord Southampton has gone to Europe to demand the Princess’ hand. She was born in 1768 and is the 2^nd daughter of Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel and Princess Augusta, formerly Princess Royal in Britain, George III’s sister.

Sat 14^th Mar 1795

The marriage of George Prince of Wales to Princess Caroline of Brunswick was arranged by the King and his immediate advisers.

The Cabinet was not advised of it until he requested the Embassy to demand her hand.

Sat 5^th Sept 1795

On 8^th April George, Prince of Wales married Caroline of Brunswick in London.^[1]

Sat 28^th Nov 1807

The widowed Duchess of Brunswick is coming to England in HMS Clyde to live with her daughter, the Princess of Wales. They will reside at Hampton Court.

Mon 19^th Feb 1810 Extraordinary

The present Duke of Brunswick has arrived in England. He dined with his sister, the Princess of Wales, at Kensington Palace on 18^th Aug.

Sat 28^th Aug 1813

The Prince of Wales is making preparations for divorce. All the Princess’ servants have been interviewed:

Sir John Douglas has a house at Blackheath called Montague House. Charlotte, Princess of Wales used to visit his wife there from 1801 to 1804. The Princess is a vivacious and exhilarating woman. Sir Sidney Smith was also living in the house from the end of 1801. He had his own key to the private entrance from the park and came and went without the servants knowing it. Douglas says the Princess actually came to see Smith.

That same year she was visited by the painter Lawrence. They were occasionally together in the late evenings and Lawrence stayed overnight 2-3 times.

In 1803 she was also visited by Captain Manby. They were seen kissing lips. By 1804 she was pregnant. She was angry and told Douglas she would never be Queen. In May 1804 she went to Southend and waited six weeks for the arrival of the ship Africain. When it arrived Captain Manby came frequently to visit the Princess and dine at her apartments on the Cliff. She had a child with her who can be identified by a mark on his left hand. The father is said to be a chap named Austin. She also has another child whom she occasionally brings to Montague House.

This information was collected by four Commissioners appointed by George III in 1806 – Erskine, Spencer, Grenville and Ellenborough.

In the summer of 1812 the Princess again appeared to be pregnant.

The Princess’ defence was prepared by Perceval, Eldon and Plomer. She complains the ex parte nature of the evidence – half her household servants were taken away and interrogated. She lists the names of many men she has met and the reasons she met with them.

Sat 4^th Sept 1813

The Princess of Wales has been told advisedly that she is guilty of High Treason, a capital offence. This conclusion is contained in the report of the four Commissioners. She has applied to the King, who is certified unwell and under treatment, and asked for help and mercy. He has sent her copies of some of the affidavits against her.

Her first complaint is that the Warrant authorising the investigation is neither sealed nor counter-signed which would normally invalidate it, but two of the investigating Commissioners hold the offices of Lord Chancellor and Lord Chief Justice so she supposes it should be a legal document.

The Oaths administered to witnesses were administered by the Commissioners themselves. The investigation was conducted under their sole care without any formal judicial involvement and she is doubtful about its legality generally.

The King says the Commissioners have actually recommended taking no further action except possibly prosecuting the witness Lady Douglas. The accusations of pregnancy have been shown to be groundless. He says He is again allowed to see the Princess. However her personal conduct has fallen below the standard He expects.

Douglas’ supposed adulterers – Sir Sidney Smith, Captain Manby and Lawrence the painter – were not interviewed by the Commissioners.

Sat 25^th Sept 1813

Moira has written to a freemason of the Grand Lodge who is interested in press freedom. Moira says reporting of House of Lords debates is difficult because the reporters are forbidden to make notes. This is part of the reason why so many press reports are erroneous.

He says he was never involved in the witch-hunt against Princess Caroline as suggested in newspapers reporting House of Lords debates. His difficulty is a conversation he had with Kenney (since deceased) which seems to have implicated the Princess of Wales in adultery. Moira’s Masonic correspondent thinks he should not leave England until he has refuted Kenney’s charges.

Moira now says he interviewed only two of Lord Eardley’s servants (Kenney and Partridge) in 1806 concerning advice Eardley gave the Prince of Wales. He was the source of the information about Captain Manby:

‘The Prince of Wales told me Eardley’s story and I interviewed his porter and steward to corroborate it. I told them never to talk about events at Belvedere House and they agreed. It was Fanny Lloyd, the maid of the Princess, who alone circulated the story about a pregnancy.

I never leak to the press. I have only spoken to a reporter once. I have been misrepresented. I appeal to the Supreme Being for vindication.’^[2]

Sat 9^th Oct 1813

The Duchess of Brunswick has died. She was the last surviving sister of George III and mother of the Princess of Wales.

Sat 11^th Feb 1815

The Princess of Wales is in Hamburg where she is using the title Countess of Wolfenbuttel. She is en route to Brunswick.

Sat 4^th July 1818

The Regent’s wife, still known as the Princess of Wales and living in Italy, has sent a couple of her brother’s bonds (Frederick William, the late Duke of Brunswick – dead at Quatre Bras in June 1815) in for encashment. Both are for £15,000 but one is payable in Louis d’Ors. The other is a Sterling Bill and represents repayment of a 2-year loan the Princess made to her brother in Aug 1814.

Count Munster, for the Brunswick Treasury, has objected the Bills and the Earl of Liverpool, the other Executor of Brunswick’s will, agrees with him – they suspect the Princess has faked Brunswick’s acknowledgements as he gave three separate acknowledgements of the debt and the Executors have seen only two. They will pay nothing voluntarily until they see the third.

The dispute will be heard in Chancery which Court has already ordered that the third acknowledgement be produced.

Sat 21^st Oct 1820

George IV’s wife Caroline is a daughter of a former Duke of Brunswick. Her mother was one of George III’s sisters. She is accordingly a first cousin to her husband. She is now 52 years old.

Her father’s court at Wolfenbüttel was a centre of the allied cause in the late wars. Many gallant officers chose to reside there. There is also a large community of brave but unfortunate men of Wolfenbüttel who, for one reason or another, had become exiled from their homes. The Court displayed and encouraged a freedom of manners that we British have been conditioned to condemn. She grew up in this atmosphere and one of those gallant officers was her first love when she was just fifteen years old. Her attachment to him was so strong she endeavoured to evade her marriage to the future George IV in order to remain with him.

She was nevertheless brought to England and whilst she was able to successfully discourage George’s favour, neither she nor he could prevent their marriage which occurred in 1795. Her first lover soon died but she still resented the political influences on her life and separated from George within a year.

She lived at Montague House in Blackheath in 1801 and became friendly with Sir John and Lady Douglas. Sir John was the marine officer who distinguished himself with Sir Sidney Smith at Acre when Napoleon sought to use the port facilities. This friendship continued until 1804 when it was suddenly ended by Caroline in connection with a drawing she made that suggested an improper relationship between Lady Douglas and Sir Sidney.

Late the following year, Sir John Douglas, in a apparent tit-for-tat, revealed some personal information about Caroline but this was covered-up by the Duke of Kent. Unfortunately, the rumours continued and eventually provoked the Douglases into alleging that Caroline had a son in 1802 (referred to since as William Austin) and had been raising the boy herself. This brought the matter to the attention of George III who appointed four Lords to investigate. They concluded Caroline was bringing-up a boy but that they could find no evidence he was her son. There were some minor allegations that appeared to be established and the Whigs, who were in power in late 1806 / early 1807, commended the King to admonish Caroline. He did so.

Caroline requested an interview, He declined to give one and she became indignant. She had long been excluded from the Court at St James and wished to be received there to evidence her acceptance; she also wanted access to her first-born child, the Princess Charlotte; alternatively she would talk with the press. Then the liberal Whigs went out of office and, with the Prince of Wales’s friends thus diminished, the King was able to receive Caroline at Court.

Then George III became unwell, the Regency commenced and the Prince of Wales was effectively elevated to King assuring that no similar improvement occurred in the circumstances of his wife. In March 1813 Caroline wrote to the Speaker of the House of Commons criticising secret investigations and conclusions and demanding a fair hearing. She insisted on knowing the basis to the endless rumours about her and was accordingly applying to the peoples’ representatives for justice. A secret debate resulted in which Castlereagh told the representatives that there was no evidence known against Princess Caroline.

In 1814 she left England and commenced her long residence in various parts of Europe and Asia, eventually settling on the shores of Lake Como. She later sold this estate and moved to Pearo. In 1816 she learned of the marriage of her daughter and of her death in the following year.

Thereafter a barrister was sent from the Chancery Court to conduct another investigation into her conduct whilst in Italy and he returned with considerable evidence suggestive of impropriety for a married woman.

There is no doubt she is the wife of the reigning King of England but he has a few loop-holes through which to extract himself should he chose to do so. Her right to be crowned Queen does not ipso facto follow from the marriage alone. Whilst she is clearly in conflict with George IV and his advisers, she enjoys a splendid reputation amongst the British people who seem to adore her. She is now making the journey towards this country in short stages. It is necessarily slow because of the volume of negotiations that must be completed in its course.

As she approached Calais, ministerial activity increased, reminiscent of preparations for a Napoleonic invasion. All public business has been shelved. Liverpool has authorised Lord Hutchinson to offer her a deal whereby for £50,000 a year she will surrender her right to the Crown and her English title and agree not to come here ever again. If she turns Hutchinson down, she is to be threatened with arrest and prosecution the moment she lands at Dover. Its the usual political deal, but the ministry has routinely ignored public opinion in its calculations and must be very confident of squeezing the money out of the public representatives.

The Brunswicks are a courageous family. A high percentage of the male line has died on the battlefields of Europe. Caroline is in the family mould and will not be scared-off. She says she did not previously return to England because the ministry declined to give her the reception that was her due. She is now at Abbeville and has told Liverpool she will arrive at Calais on 3^rd June. She is travelling with a 3 year old girl whom she has adopted. Everywhere she calls herself the Queen of England. She has requested a Royal Yacht for her voyage across the Channel. Melville, for the ministry, replied that the King has gone away and His instructions cannot be had.

Some well-known Englishmen from the liberal side of the political spectrum have gone to France to welcome her. Throughout her journey through France the Bourbons have respected British ministerial wishes and ignored her but on arrival at St Omar, the Captain of the Guard offered her a Guard of Honour for as long as she stays. She politically declined this. The Mayor of Calais, a resolutely Anglophile town, has put his people on notice not to honour Caroline in any way – public demonstrations of support will result in imprisonment, he says. He has infuriated English residents of Calais.

Col Munroe, the commandant of the Dover garrison, has no instructions concerning Caroline’s arrival. He says, if he is allowed to use his own judgement, he will give her a Royal Salute. The people of Dover were delighted and a huge number of them turned-out, dressed as though for a fête, to welcome her. Caroline was visibly affected by the warm welcome. She no longer appears as bright and vivacious as at the time of her former residence but she has become considerably more elegant. The crowd was very large and Caroline sought refuge in the York Hotel whilst a carriage was procured from the Ship Hotel where she will stay. When the carriage arrived at the York, the crowd removed the horses and pulled it themselves.

Sat 4^th Nov 1820

Queen Caroline arrived in London unnoticed by the ministry or Crown but a large crowd turned-out at Alderman Wood’s house. She seems very popular. All the passers-by along South Audley Street were required by the crowd surrounding her carriage to doff their hats and acclaim Queen Caroline. She stayed at Wood’s house in South Audley Street on 4^th June and had a brief correspondence with Lord Hutchinson, after which she became concerned for her personal welfare and abruptly departed for Dover. She took the packet back to France that evening.

On 6^th June she returned. Brougham told the House of Commons that the ministry can no longer delay and must ‘grasp the nettle’.

Sat 4^th Nov 1820

House of Commons, 6^th June – Castlereagh came in with a message from the King. Bennett asked him if it was true that he had offered the Queen £50,000 to go away, as was reported in the newspapers. Castlereagh said Bennett was excited – ‘I will answer him when he cools off’. Beaumont said he also wanted to hear a denial.

Creevey had no doubts. He said the persecution of the Queen was done at the behest of the King. She was threatened with consequences if she set foot in England. This is not something the House of Commons should be concerned with – it is a domestic dispute.

Lord A Hamilton noted the House was already biased. We have already acted as required by the Minister. We struck-out the Queen’s name from the Liturgy. We had no reason to do so other than the Minister’s request. People are supposed to be considered innocent until proven guilty.

Brougham renewed his request to the minister to permit discussion. Ministers had to make-up their minds or the country would do so for them.

Sat 11^th Nov 1820

Castlereagh has responded to Brougham’s advice. He has addressed the House of Commons on the Queen. He will not reveal the charges against her but says they are serious. He proposes to appoint a Select Committee to consider the evidence.

There is a precedent for this course of action in the way the House of Commons dealt with the corruption allegations against Sir Thomas Rumbold when Governor of Madras.

Basically the Select Committee will be asked, like a Grand Jury, if a true Bill can be found. He asked MPs to remain focused and not to became emotional.^[3]

After this debate negotiations between the estranged parties resumed with the Queen soliciting ministerial proposals. Liverpool replied that his offer remained unchanged. The Queen replied that she expected to enjoy all the rights of a Queen of England and invited Liverpool’s concurrence.

Mon 20^th Nov 1820 Extraordinary

The House of Commons has debated the Queen. They now wish her name be restored in the Liturgy. They are considering the ministry’s claim of her adultery which is based on the report of a barrister sent out to Milan from London.

George IV wants a divorce and a Bill of Pains and Penalties (a Divorce Bill) has been read for the first time in House of Lords and served on the Queen by Black Rod. She understands she will not again see George IV. His coronation is postponed until this matter is cleared-up. The second reading of the Divorce Bill in the Lords is set down for 17^th August. The House of Commons has voted 78 / 28 not to provide the Queen with a list of prosecution witnesses against her. It was recognised to be unprecedented.

Nevertheless, a group of Italians arriving on the Dover packet appeared to be the prosecution witnesses and were attacked by local residents. The principal one is Bergami who used to sweep the floor at Sir Robert Taylor’s house. He did it diligently and Taylor made him a poll clerk at an election in which employment he attracted the attention of Graham who has since become a Judge. Graham encouraged Bergami to study law and the Italian thus improved himself to reach his present station. Whilst in Italy, the Queen made him her Chancellor although the King still considers him a floor-sweeper.

Meanwhile the bon mot in London is that drinking a toast to the Queen is misprision of adultery.

Sat 25^th Nov 1820

Queen Caroline was given a service of plate by George III in 1808. She used it daily in Kensington Palace until 1814 when, before she went on tour, she deposited in the Chamberlain’s office. Now she is back she has requested it be returned to her. The Chamberlain declined to do so saying it is property of the Crown.

Everyone in society needs a service of plate to entertain guests and she’s really irritated. Castlereagh has reported the incident in House of Commons in order, he says, to establish the veracity of the Chamberlain’s opinion of the law before someone else gets hold of the story.

Sat 20^th Jan 1821

London, 18^th Aug – The prosecution of the Queen has evoked immense popular interest and London is awash with troops of cavalry and infantry to maintain order. Addresses in support of the Queen are pouring in from all the counties. The ministry is openly called despicable for launching their prosecution but they are acting for the King and claim they have no choice.

Sat 20^th January 1821

All issues of Bombay Courier, from this issue to the 3^rd March 1821 edition, contain long and detailed accounts of the dispute with the Queen and the evidence at her trial.

Sat 3^rd March 1821

MPs have asked the ministry who will pay for the failed prosecution of Queen Caroline which is variously estimated to have cost £30,000 – £50,000. George IV is also Duke of Cornwall and the Duchy produces about £15,000 of revenue a year to the King from tin and copper mining and rents. One MP thought that if the Duke of Cornwall wishes to dispose of his wife, he has the means to pay the costs himself.

Hume recalled that Castlereagh told the House some years ago that payments of secret service money could not simply stop with the peace as there were details to clear-up and helpers to be pensioned off. Now it transpires it was secret service money that funded the Milan Commission (the adultery investigation) which was not the House of Commons’ intention. Maberly MP supposed that secret-service money was just another ministerial slush fund.

Castlereagh said he only used the secret service money until the matter became public, after which he got funding from the Treasury where their Lordships agreed the investigations were ‘civil contingencies’. The House then agreed to receive the accounts for party and party costs.

Sat 10^th March 1821

The Drury Lane Theatre got an unexpected response to its performance of Act IV Scene II of Othello, which was staged concurrently with the Queen’s trial:

Emilia:

I will be hanged if some eternal villain

Some busy and insinuating rogue

Some cogging cozening slave, to get some office,

Have not devised this slander. I’ll be hanged else (applause)

 

Iago:

Fi, there is no such man; t’is impossible

 

Desdamona:

If any such there be, Heaven pardon him.

 

Emilia:

A halter pardon him! And hell gnaw his bones! (loud applause)

Why should he call her whore? Who keeps her company? (great applause)

What place? What time? What form? What likelihood? (the pit stood and cheered)

The Moor’s abused by some villainous knave,

Some base notorious knave, some scurvy fellow.

Oh Heaven, that such companions Thou’dst unfold;

And put in every honest hand a whip,

To lash the rascal naked through the World,

Even from the East to the West (pit standing, hats waving, loud acclamations for several minutes.)

 

The costs of the Queen’s trial for public account will approximate £200,000 for the prosecution and £50,000 for the defence.

Sat 7^th April 1821

The ministry is using the votes in the House of Lords for / against the Bill of Pains and Penalties as the criterion of Caroline’s guilt or innocence. The Bill narrowly passed its 2^nd Reading only after ministers removed the clause requiring a divorce. The ministry has offered the Queen’s supporters in the House of Lords a deal – they will omit the charge of adultery if her supporters will sign-up for ‘a series of indecencies’. The deal was declined but most House of Lords members are dependent on the Crown for favours and may sacrifice the Queen to their own self-interest. Its also the case that the ministry is committed to a successful prosecution. It can hardly turn back now. Nevertheless, the public all totally support Caroline and do not care what parliament thinks.

She has had a bit of luck with a Hanoverian witness, the Baron Ompteda, who was formerly the King’s Hanoverian ambassador to the Pope. Hanover belongs to the House of Brunswick and Ompteda is a prosecution witness. Unfortunately, his evidence looked a bit jaundiced even to the prosecution. Ompteda wrote to several servants of the Queen offering rewards for their evidence, if it was appropriate, and his letters have been given to the Queen for use in her Defence. This has cast a shadow over the evidence of a series of Italian witnesses who did not tell a coherent story.

The second additional supplement to the Extraordinary Bombay Courier of Tues 7^th April 1821 deals with the unsavoury ministerial evidence of Queen Caroline’s adultery.

Mon 30^th April 1821 Extraordinary

The Bill of Pains and Penalties against the Queen has been abandoned by the ministry on 10^th Nov. The House of Lords majority was nine and the minister thought he had better not send the Bill to the House of Commons, which Members were demonstrably less supportive. The divorce clause was voted separately and carried by 67 votes but that too has been abandoned in view of public feeling.^[4]

Sat 12^th May 1821

The Common Council of the City of London has called a meeting to consider an Address to Queen Caroline on ‘her victory over a foul and atrocious conspiracy seeking Her Majesty’s destruction (and) aiming a blow at the known laws of the land.’ The eventual Address was toned-down but added an economic aspect – ‘the war exhausted the country’s resources but since the peace the ministry has gone on borrowing, using patronage to overcome parliamentary objections, and military force to overcome popular dissent’. They ask on behalf of the people for her help. The Queen reproved the Lord Mayor etc., for this.

The ministry prorogued parliament and offered an allowance to the Queen. She refused it saying it must come from parliament. The ministry just cannot get her to err, but then she is getting superlative advice from Brougham.

When Black Rod arrived at the House of Commons to call the MPs to the Lords to hear the report on the Queen he was shouted-out with cries of ‘shame, shame’. Castlereagh and Chancellor of the Exchequer immediately slipped away and many of the ministerial party attended the Lords but the rest of the MPs went home.

The Queens has gone to St Pauls Cathedral. A throne is installed there for royalty. The ministry could not stop her but ordered the Dean to ensure no sermon was preached. The whole of London turned-out along her route. She sat on the throne and the Cathedral quickly filled with a huge congregation. The only seats unoccupied were the Bishop’s and the Dean’s who, as dependants of the King, had other engagements.

Sat 26^th May 1821

The domestic difficulties of the British ministry are focusing. The Counties of Durham and Stafford contain many liberally-minded men of property who are calling for the protection of the Constitution in a politically correct sort of way, i.e. both against sedition and ministerial abuse.^[5] The financial distress of the country has not alone been sufficient to really threaten the ministry’s power. They can always call out the army and people are inured to their doing so.

The real cause of the threat to the ministry has been Queen Caroline. It is a simple homely issue that everyone can comprehend and identify with. The Queen has had the support of the female half of the population all along. Now a sufficient number of the male half has taken her side as well. Everyone knows the duties of a husband.

The Press – Times, Traveller, Star, Globe, True Briton and Observer – have greatly increased their circulation and have consistently taken a pro-Queen line which has deepened the chasm between the King and his minister on the one hand and the rest of the country on the other. More than one million 6d and 1/- pamphlets containing all the distressing details about the investigation and prosecution of the Queen have been sold in the last three months. Her distress has become Press profit. This has made the country members of the Commons uncomfortable and has brought ministerial control of their representation into question.

Sat 2^nd June 1821

It seems the 2^nd reading of the Bill of Pains and Penalties lost much support amongst the Peers who voted against it by a large majority. Incredibly the Archbishop of York was against too – he must have a death wish. He may have been responding to the Queen’s Protest to the Lords which categorises the trial as a contest between her and those who sit in judgment upon her.

Sat 26^th Jan 1822

George IV was crowned on 19^th July. Queen Caroline was not crowned. A letter from Sidmouth told her that the wives of English Kings do not have a right to be crowned and the King had not ordered it.

She died two weeks later of diarrhoea. She was bled, put in a warm bath, given arrowroot (which was temporarily effective) and finally opium but did not recover. She seemed to have relinquished the will to live. She said she had been killed by enemies but forgave them. She wished to be buried with her father and brother in Brunswick.

Her funeral was arranged early. At 7 am the procession set off from Brandenburg House. In spite of rain, the early hour and no publicity of the route, a considerable number of Londoners turned out. Hyde Park was filled with horsemen and pedestrians. The numbers of women well exceeded the men. A squadron of cavalry stood-by outside Brandenburg House and provided escort service. There was great popular opposition to soldiers guarding the hearse. When the cortege entered Hyde Park the people closed the gates. They wanted the route changed to pass through the City of London. The cavalry were ordered to clear the way and open the gates and some violence occurred. A magistrate (Sir Robert Baker of Bow Street Magistracy) was present and sanctioned the soldiers’ use of pistols on the crowd. Two people were killed and an unknown number injured.

The Executors of the Queen’s Will declined to surrender the body at first but the representatives of ministers insisted and no violence was offered them. A written Protest was drafted and handed to them. The ministry’s position is that the husband’s wishes concerning the burial arrangements of his wife over-ride other considerations.

The procession travelled west to Hammersmith then back to Romford and north to Chelmsford, Colchester and Harwich. She was taken aboard HMS Glasgow (Doyle) for the voyage across the North Sea to Cuxhaven. Coincidentally, it was Doyle who brought her to England from Cuxhaven in HMS Jupiter in 1795 to be married.^[6]

When the coffin was taken out of the hearse it was apparent that the gilt plate affixed to it with the Queen’s own epitaph (‘here lies Caroline of Brunswick, the injured Queen of England’) had been changed for a silver plate but the wording was not deciphered.

She has left her entire Estate to William Austin, the youth who has accompanied her since a tender age.

Sat 31^st May 1823

Napoleon’s wife the Empress Marie Louisa is now the sovereign of Parma. It is not mentioned in the London Press that Maria Louisa was an intimate friend of the late Princess of Wales – they toured Tuscany and lived at Leghorn together.