THE PRINCE COMES OF AGE
"The boy is good for nothing but to read the Bible to his mother,"
George II said one day of his grandson; and he sought for measures that
should emancipate the young man and tend to enlarge his knowledge of the
world. His first attempt in this direction, made in 1755 when he was in
Hanover, fluttered the dovecots of Leicester House, for the rumour flew
that the King was about to propose a marriage between the Prince of
Wales and a princess of the House of Brunswick. "Surely the King would
not marry my son without acquainting me with it, so much as by letter,"
said the Princess Dowager. "If the King should settle the match without
acquainting me, I should let him know how ill I take it, and I shall not
fail to tell him fairly and plainly it is full early." The report proved
to be not unfounded. At a German watering-place, George II had met the
Duchess of Brunswick with her two daughters, and had been so charmed
with the elder, Sophia,[76] that he declared if he had been twenty
years younger he would have married her himself.
[76] Princess Sophia Caroline Maria, elder daughter of the Duke of
Brunswick-Wolfenbuettel, who married the Margrave of Bayreuth in 1759.
[Illustration: _From a portrait by T. Frye_
GEORGE III]
When the King's wish became known to the Princess Dowager, she
determined by every means in her power to thwart it, and as a first step
told her son that his grandfather's only motive in proposing the
marriage was to advance the interest of Hanover. "The suddenness of the
measure, and the little time left for preventing it, at once unhinged
all the circumspection and prudence of the Princess. From the death of
the Prince, her object had been the government of her son; and her
attention had answered. She had taught him great devotion, and she had
taken care he should be taught nothing else. There was no reason to
apprehend from his own genius that he would escape her, but bigoted, and
young, and chaste, what empire might not a youthful bride (and the
Princess of Brunswick was reckoned artful) assume over him? The Princess
thought that prudence now would be most imprudent. She immediately
instilled into her son the greatest aversion to the match: he protested
against it."[77] Every artifice was employed by the Princess Dowager and
Bute to prejudice the Prince of Wales against Princess Sophia, her
personal attractions were depreciated, and she was represented as the
last person in the world likely to render the married state acceptable,
while on the other hand, "the charms, the mental qualifications, the
superior endowments, and the fascinating manners of a princess of a
house of Saxe-Gotha were the constant theme of panegyric, the diamond
could not surpass her eye in brilliancy, nor the snow the whiteness of
her skin." These descriptions fired even the Prince, who refused the
King's nominee, and made formal demands for a portrait of the Saxe-Gotha
beauty--a request that in royal circles is usually the first step
towards an alliance. Of course his grandson's action became known to the
King, who would not entertain the idea of his successor's union with a
princess of the Saxe-Gotha blood, which was notorious for a
constitutional malady. "I know enough of that family already," he said,
and no arguments could move him.
[77] Walpole: _Memoirs of George II_.
This, of course, put an end to the negotiations, but the Prince of
Wales, incensed, it was said, by the affront to his mother's family,
replied by refusing even to discuss any other alliance. "In vain his
Majesty importuned him; in vain the most serious and plausible
representations were made to him of the necessity of his marriage as an
act of state policy; in vain were all the arguments adduced which had
been so satisfactorily employed in the discussion of the Regency Bill,
concerning the danger which impends over the country, when the monarch
or the heir-apparent to the throne marries at a late period of his life,
thereby giving rise to the probability of a long minority: in vain the
character of the patriot prince was exposed to him, who ought to
sacrifice his private feelings to the welfare of the state. To all these
powerful and cogent reasons he granted a willing and respectful ear, and
an hour's private conversation with his mother effaced every impression
which they had made."[78]
[78] Huish: _The Public and Private Life of George III_.
When the King's project for the marriage of his successor fell through,
the ministers made an effort on their own account to withdraw the Prince
of Wales from the maternal influence, being thereto incited by the fact
that a bid for the young man's sympathies were being made by the
Opposition and that at his informal _levees_ Pitt, Lord Temple,[79] and
the Grenvilles[80] were frequently in attendance. The Duke of
Newcastle[81] and Lord Hardwicke[82], who also desired the favour of the
future sovereign, took alarm, and endeavoured, with a single diplomatic
stroke, to checkmate Pitt and his friends and separate mother and son.
Lord Waldegrave was sent by the King, at the instance of the ministers,
to state that now the Prince of Wales had attained the year of royal
majority, his Majesty would allow him L40,000 a year, and had given
orders to prepare for him Frederick's apartments at Kensington and those
of the late Queen at Kew. Upon receipt of this message a secret conclave
was held at Leicester House, and, as a result, the Prince sent a reply,
probably drawn up by Legge, that he would gratefully accept the
allowance, but preferred not to leave his mother.
[79] Richard Temple Grenville, afterwards Grenville-Temple (1711-1799)
on the death of his mother in 1752 succeeded to the earldom of Temple.
[80] Lord Temple's younger brothers, George Grenville (1712-1770),
sometime Prime Minister; James Grenville (died 1783). Their sister,
Hester, married William Pitt, afterwards first Earl of Chatham.
[81] Thomas Pelham-Holles, first Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne
(1693-1768).
[82] Philip Yorke (1690-1764), created Baron Hardwicke 1773; Lord
Chancellor 1737; created Earl of Hardwicke 1754.
As the latter proposal had not been made a condition of the grant,
ministers were non-plussed. "Was the gift to be revoked, because the
Prince had natural affection? Was the whole message to be carried into
execution, and a young man, of age by Act of Parliament, to be taken by
force, and detained a prisoner in the palace? What law would justify
such violence? Who would be the agents of such violence? His Majesty
himself and the late Prince of Wales had furnished the Prince with
precedents of mutinying against the crown with impunity. How little the
ministers, who had planned the first step, knew what to advise for the
second, was plain, from their giving no further advice for about a
month, and from the advice which they did give then, and from the
perplexity in which they remained for two months more, and from the
ignominious result of the whole transaction, both to the King and to
themselves at last."[83]
[83] Walpole: _Memoirs of George II_.
The King's offer had been made at the end of May or the beginning of
June, 1756, and the Prince of Wales, acting under his mother's
instructions, had followed up his second victory by carrying the war
into the enemy's camp, and expressing a desire that Lord Bute should be
appointed his Groom of the Stole. In July a second message in the King's
name was sent to the heir-apparent to inquire if he still adhered to his
desire to remain with his mother and to the demand for the appointment
of Lord Bute. This, intended as a warning or threat, failed of its
intended effect, for the Prince replied: "That since the King did him
the honour to ask him the question, he did hope to have leave to
continue with his mother, as her happiness so much depended on it--for
the other point, he had _never directly_ asked it--yet, since
encouraged, he would explain himself; and from the long knowledge and
good opinion he had of Lord Bute, he did desire to have him about his
person."
After this, there was nothing for it but surrender on the part of the
ministers, who could not but admit to themselves that they had played
the game and lost it. Lord Waldegrave was relieved from the post of
Governor, much to his pleasure, for he had found his servitude
uncongenial; and to the delight of the Princess Dowager, who had
unreasonably regarded him as a spy, and also of the Prince of Wales, who
had no liking for him, and subsequently denounced him as "a depraved,
worthless man, well-intentioned, but wholly unfit for the situation in
which he was placed." The King accepted Lord Waldegrave's resignation
with regret; and consented to bestow the gold key on Lord Bute only with
great reluctance--indeed, so strong was his feeling in the matter that
he refused to give the insignia of office himself as was usual, and sent
it by the Duke of Grafton, who slipped it into the pocket of the
recipient, and advised him to show no offence.
Bute kissed hands as Groom of the Stole in October, at the same time as
the other members of the Prince of Wales's new establishment, in which
Lord Huntingdon was Master of the Horse, Lord Euston, Lord Pembroke, and
Lord Digby, Lords of the Bedchamber; Lord Bathurst, treasurer; Hon. S.
Masham, Auditor; and Hon. James Brudenel, Master of the Robes. Andrew
Stone was appointed Secretary, and his first duty was to carry out his
master's wish that George Scott should not be retained in the Household.
"The reason given for his exclusion was, his having talked with contempt
of the Prince's understanding, and with freedom of the Princess's
conduct. The truth was, Scott was a frank man, of no courtly depth, and
had indiscreetly disputed with Lord Bute, who affected a character of
learning."[84] This prejudice was unfortunate, for, according to Rose,
Scott, though no courtier, was the sort of man who should have been kept
by George about his person. "I never knew a man more entirely blameless
in all the relations of life; amiable, honourable, temperate, and one of
the sweetest dispositions I ever knew."[85] But he was too clear-sighted
to be a welcome person in court circles and his lack of deference to
the fetish set up by the Princess Dowager was in her eyes unpardonable.
[84] Walpole: _Memoirs of George II_.
[85] Rose: _Diary_. Scott was subsequently appointed a Commissioner of
Excise.
From the appointment of his Household in 1856 so uneventful was the life
of the Prince of Wales that there is nothing to record of the years
intervening until he ascended the throne, to which he was called
suddenly. On October 25, 1760, George II rose at the usual hour,
seemingly in good health; but, as the page left the room after
breakfast, he heard a noise, and found the King had fallen from his
chair to the floor. "Call Amelia," said the monarch; and instantly
expired.
[Illustration:
_Photo by Emery Walker_
_Portrait by Allan Ramsay_
GEORGE III IN HIS CORONATION ROBES]