George IV--The Rebel Who Would Be King by Christopher Hibbert

Author:Christopher Hibbert
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2015-09-26T04:00:00+00:00

[27]

The Warwick House Affair

1814

‘Like a bird let loose from its cage’

CREEVEY, for one, looked forward to the next instalment of the drama with anticipatory delight. ‘Well, my pretty,’ he told his wife. ‘We have now a new game for Master Prinny. … Whitbread has shown me Princess Charlotte’s letter to the Prince of Orange. By God! It is capital … The marriage is broken off and … the reasons are – first, her attachment to this country which she cannot and will not leave; and, above all, her attachment to her mother, whom in her present distressed situation she likewise cannot leave. … What think you of the effect of this upon the British publick? … And what do you suppose has produced this sudden attachment to her mother? It arises from the profound resources of old Brougham.’

There was a further reason which Creevey did not know but which the Regent suspected, and that was that Princess Charlotte’s eye had lighted upon other Princes who were in London at that time and were more attractive than Prince William of Orange. There was Prince Augustus of Prussia, there was Prince Frederick of Prussia, and there was Prince Paul of Württemberg, all of whom, the Regent sourly noted, had called at Warwick House and none of whom was notably virtuous. After Prince Paul’s call, the Regent demanded a full report from the Duchess of Leeds who replied that both herself and Miss Knight had been present during the interview and added, ‘I am extremely concerned and surprised at your Royal Highness not condescending to take the slightest notice of me last night at Lady Hampden’s for I can with truth assure you, Sir, I have served your Royal Highness most honestly and faithfully in the most difficult situation in which human being ever was placed. My resignation is always ready to be laid at your feet.’

Another caller at Warwick House was the bland and good-looking Prince Leopold, third son of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, who had come over to England in the suite of the Tsar and who had served with the Russian army against Napoleon. Princess Charlotte invited him to breakfast; and it was thereafter rumoured in London, so Mrs Tomline, the Bishop of Lincoln’s wife, was assured, that it was this ‘new fancy’ which was the ‘real cause for the breaking off of the marriage’ to the Prince of Orange. The Regent, who was not informed of the invitation to breakfast, did not believe that Prince Leopold would be guilty of any impropriety: he was ‘a most honourable young man’ and had written him a letter perfectly justifying himself. But the Regent did not trust Prince Paul or either of the Prussian princes, particularly the handsome, disreputable Prince Augustus who, as the Duke of Kent said, was the ‘black sheep in his family’. The Regent had good reason not to trust the assured and experienced Prince Augustus, for between 11 June and the end of the month there had been at least two clandestine meetings between him and Princess Charlotte at Warwick House.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.