Royal Pains: A Rogues' Gallery of Brats, Brutes, and Bad Seeds by Leslie Carroll

Author:Leslie Carroll [Carroll, Leslie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Royalty, Nonfiction, History, Social Sciences
ISBN: 978-110147876
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2011-01-31T16:00:00+00:00

But in order to have a valid cause of action for adultery, the baron had to catch the lovers literally in flagrante. Passionate correspondence alone would not be enough to convict them, nor would the hearsay of hirelings. The testimony given by people of the lower orders against their social betters, and particularly against a prince of the blood, would never be accepted in court over Cumberland’s word.

During the last week in October 1769, Lord Grosvenor departed London for Newmarket, leaving his gullible wife with the impression that he was headed there to look at some new horses. Believing herself to be in the clear, the baroness clambered into the luxurious (and distinctive) family coach and set out via a circuitous route for Cheshire, a borough that her husband had represented as an MP, and where the Grosvenors always spent the two months before Christmas at the baron’s estate, Eaton Hall.

Cumberland’s carriage took the same roads, sometimes directly shadowing Henrietta’s, sometimes deliberately falling behind in order to maintain a discreet distance, and at other times overtaking them and speeding on ahead to the agreed-upon rendezvous point.

Because he had become so recognizable thanks to the caricatures in print shops, the duke traveled incognito. But his attempts at disguise, straight out of a comedy by Goldsmith or Farquhar, were so outlandish that they would have been laughed off the most provincial stage in the kingdom. Depending on the coaching inn, Cumberland pretended to be either a farmer or a Welshman, although he hadn’t the remotest bit of familiarity with either identity. At one inn, it perplexed the proprietor all the more that the purported Welshman spoke French to his dinner companions.

Henry and his entourage called even more attention to themselves in their endeavors to conceal their features. With their heads swathed in scarves, broad-brimmed hats shading their eyes, and sporting huge curly wigs and greatcoats—which were a favorite get-up of the duke’s—they looked and behaved so suspiciously that at several of their layovers the innkeepers’ staffs were certain they were cutpurses, cardsharps, or highwaymen.

Cumberland and Henrietta had made a plan: They would rendezvous at various locations along the way, and whoever was the first to arrive would mark their door with chalk so that the other lover could request an adjacent (and, if possible, adjoining) chamber. Lady Grosvenor was also traveling with her children (and, presumably, their nurse) and was careful to ensure that their rooms would in no way interfere with her plans for a nocturnal tryst.

Having arrived at Eaton Hall, the baron maintained his naive demeanor vis-à-vis his wife’s extramarital affair. He put her off the scent by feigning an intense interest in the breeding lines of various horses. Lady Grosvenor was either too self-absorbed, too clueless, or too much in love to catch on. Her letters to the duke prove that she genuinely thought she’d duped her husband into thinking the liaison had been severed. However, Grosvenor knew otherwise, thanks to voluable, and bribable, servants, in addition to tips

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