The King's Mistress: The True & Scandalous Story of the Woman Who Stole the Heart of George I by Gold Claudia

Author:Gold, Claudia [Gold, Claudia]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Quercus
Published: 2012-04-25T23:00:00+00:00

11.

Politics and Players

I will send you a general map of Courts; a region yet unexplored . . . all the paths are slippery, and every slip is dangerous.

– The Earl of Chesterfield writing to his son, 17491

After 1716 George never had fewer than twenty-five Hanoverian ministers in London.2 He needed them with him because, although now king of Great Britain, he remained Elector of Hanover, with full responsibility for the principality. His Hanoverian ministers were vital to carrying out his business there. They had an office in St James’s and their lodgings were either in the palace or nearby.

The Act of Settlement stated that no German could hold office or a title in England, and officially the Hanoverians were there solely to carry out George’s Electoral business. But in reality they became his unofficial advisers, together with Melusine, and to a lesser extent Sophia Charlotte. Naturally this meant that the ‘German cabal’ had a huge influence over how George conducted the nation’s business and who could rise at court.

The courtiers and George’s English ministers quickly realized that if they wanted to get anything done – preferment for a friend or relative, a bill passed through parliament, a title – it was best to approach the Germans to smooth the path. They acted as intermediaries between George and his English Secretaries of State, in large part because George’s English was, at least at first, extremely poor.3 Chief amongst them was Melusine, and certainly for the last five years of George’s reign, very little was done without her involvement. For example, in September 1723 Townshend, one of George’s English ministers, wrote to his brother-in-law Robert Walpole about the relatively small matter of a post in the king’s closet. Townshend wanted Sir William Irby to have the post but Melusine had a candidate of her own:

I must beg your pardon that I do not send you the King’s commands in relation to Sir Wm. Irby this post . . . I must acquaint you that since my writing to you on this subject, the Duchess [of Kendal] pleads a prior promise made to one Willard. However I will certainly get it for Sir Wm. Irby if it can be done without disobliging her which I am sure you will not desire.4

Later in the month Townshend, obviously less assured of success after conversations with Melusine, went on to say: ‘I hope Sir Wm. Irby’s business will succeed and that I shall get the Duchess to desist . . .’5 Although Townshend eventually triumphed and Irby was appointed at the beginning of 1724, it shows how integral Melusine’s approval was to everything within the king’s orbit.

Such was the importance of the Germans that in December 1714 Frederick Bonet, the Prussian Resident in London, told his master that the country was governed by Marlborough and Townshend, and also the Germans Bothmer and Bernstorff. In his opinion, he continued, the Germans were by far the most important of the four.6

Hans Kaspar von Bothmer had begun his service

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