A FORGOTTEN
PRINCE OF WALES.
[Illustration]
[Illustration:
_National Portrait Gallery._ _Emery Walker._
FREDERICK, PRINCE OF WALES, AND HIS SISTERS AT KEW.]
A FORGOTTEN
PRINCE OF WALES
BY
CAPTAIN HENRY CURTIES
Author of “When England Slept,”
etc., etc.
LONDON
EVERETT & CO., LTD.
42 ESSEX STREET, STRAND, W.C.
Dedicated by permission
to
His Grace the Duke of Argyll, K.G.
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER I.
Which Seizes upon the Prince as he comes into the World 1
CHAPTER II.
The Falling in of a Great Legacy 12
CHAPTER III.
The Prince at the Age of Nine 18
CHAPTER IV.
In which England gets a new King and Queen 25
CHAPTER V.
A Double Event which did not come off 41
CHAPTER VI.
The Prince and the London of 1728 50
CHAPTER VII.
Peter Wentworth’s Letters on the Prince’s Life 60
CHAPTER VIII.
The Prince’s Embarrassments 73
CHAPTER IX.
The Duchess of Marlborough Throws for a Big Stake 83
CHAPTER X.
The Beautiful Vanilla 92
CHAPTER XI.
The Prince Asserts Himself 104
CHAPTER XII.
A Child Bride 121
CHAPTER XIII.
The Nuptials 141
CHAPTER XIV.
Lady Archibald 147
CHAPTER XV.
A Rope Ladder and Some Storms 153
CHAPTER XVI.
Parliament and the Prince’s Income 178
CHAPTER XVII.
A New Favourite and a Settlement 198
CHAPTER XVIII.
A Most Extraordinary Event 203
CHAPTER XIX.
Which Contains a Great Deal of Fussing and Fuming and a little
Poetry 221
CHAPTER XX.
The Prince is Cast Forth with His Family 247
CHAPTER XXI.
The Death of the Queen 261
CHAPTER XXII.
The Year of Mourning 282
CHAPTER XXIII.
A Husband and a Lover 294
CHAPTER XXIV.
The Reconciliation 306
CHAPTER XXV.
The Battle of Dettingen 312
CHAPTER XXVI.
Bonnie Prince Charlie 321
CHAPTER XXVII.
Summer Days 344
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Finis 354
CHAPTER XXIX.
The Final Scene 362
CHAPTER XXX.
The Residuum 378
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FREDERICK, PRINCE OF WALES, AND HIS SISTERS FRONTISPIECE
LEINE PALACE, HANOVER Facing page 10
MARY BELLENDEN 28
GEORGE II. 40
LORD HERVEY 96
MARY LEPEL 108
PRINCESS AUGUSTA 136
MARY BELLENDEN, DUCHESS OF ARGYLL 146
THE PALACE OF HERRENHAUSEN, HANOVER 156
SIR ROBERT WALPOLE 192
SARAH, DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH 240
QUEEN CAROLINE, AND THE YOUNG DUKE OF CUMBERLAND 262
PRINCE GEORGE AND PRINCE EDWARD 346
BUBB DODDINGTON 368
A FORGOTTEN PRINCE OF WALES.
CHAPTER I.
WHICH SEIZES UPON THE PRINCE AS HE COMES INTO THE WORLD.
On the fourth day of cold February in that cold town of Hanover, in
the year 1707, of a brilliant and beautiful young mother, in the great
palace on the little river Leine, was born--perhaps it would be more
correct to say crept into the world, for there was so little noise
about it--a Prince of whom in after years his father remarked: “My dear
first-born is the greatest ass and the greatest liar and the greatest
_canaille_ and the greatest beast in the whole world, and I heartily
wish he was out of it.”[1] If this worthy parent--who by-the-bye was
no less a personage than King George the Second of England at the time
of speaking--had any reason or truth in this most fatherly comment
with its charitable tail-piece by way of benediction, then must this
little German potentate--by accident King of England--have been gifted
in addition to his other fine and gentlemanly qualities of perception,
with the power of divining the future, for his dislike, nay, his
inveterate hatred, of this little vaunted first-born son commenced
at his earliest years. Why, the good God alone knows, for certainly
none of His creatures have ever up to the present time succeeded in
discovering the cause.
The beautiful young mother then, Caroline, a Princess of
Brandenburg-Ansbach, commonly called “Caroline of Ansbach,” married but
a year to her George Augustus--only the Electoral Prince[2] at that
time--lay happy in her bed in the palace, with her baby beside her,
whilst the cold river ran without and the winter winds blew among the
dear orange trees in the gardens she was so fond of two miles away at
Herrenhausen, and very few people in Hanover and still fewer in England
knew that a possible future Prince of Wales had been born into the
world, for perhaps after all, very few people very much cared. Anne of
England was still on the throne.
So quiet had this matter been kept and so great a surprise was the
event that Howe, the English Envoy, wrote home in the following
strain:--
“This Court having for some time past almost despaired of the Princess
Electoral being brought to bed, and most people apprehensive that her
bigness, which has continued for so long, was rather an effect of a
distemper than that she was with child, her Highness was taken ill last
Friday at dinner, and last night, about seven o’clock, the Countess
d’Eke, her lady of the bedchamber, sent me word that the Princess was
delivered of a son.”[3]
On the 25th February Howe writes again complaining bitterly like a
wicked fairy in a children’s tale, that he has not been invited to
the christening which had taken place a few days after the birth in
the young mother’s bedroom, when the child had received the names
of Frederick Louis. Furthermore, he had not been allowed to see the
baby--and presumably to kiss it--until ten days later! This visit,
however, appears to have mollified him, for he bursts forth into
description: “I found the women,” he says, “all admiring the largeness
and strength of the child.”
One can see them doing it, and the dry old Envoy--it is presumed he was
a bachelor as he makes no mention of his wife--looking on, and as much
at sea with regard to the “points” of a fine baby as a midwife would be
at a horse show.
But this unusual secrecy about the birth--which was attributed to
the child’s grandfather the Elector, afterwards George the First of
England, who was not on the best of terms with Anne our reigning
Queen--had another aspect. It was an age of suspicion, suspicion
especially of substituted heirs, and the foolishness of not inviting
the English Envoy to the birth according to custom, revolting as
it would have been to a young modest wife, might have seriously
prejudiced the child’s future had he not been born with, and had
to struggle against, so many of those distinctive bad qualities so
carefully nurtured and indulged by his father and grandfather. On a
later occasion his father remarked to his mother _a propos_ of these:
“_Mais vous voyez mes passions ma chère Caroline. Vous connaissez mes
foiblesses._” Yes, that affectionate and long-suffering lady _did_ know
his “foiblesses” before she had been his wife very long. Thoroughly to
appreciate the nest into which this unfortunate little Prince was born
and christened, it is necessary to turn for a moment to the habits and
customs of his father and grandfather.
Taking the latter first, the Elector and future King of England was
in the habit of retaining without any concealment whatever a minimum
of three mistresses. These ladies, this considerate old father-in-law
expected his son’s wife to receive and treat with civility, and strange
to say Caroline the Princess Electoral did it. Poor soul! She had much
more than that to wink at on her own account before long owing to the
before-mentioned “foiblesses” of her little husband.
The chief of her father-in-law the Elector’s little harem was a lady
of the name of Schulemburg, of an ancient but poor family, who had
occupied her exalted position almost from a very plain girlhood, and
whose name became subsequently very well known in England.
The first George never distinguished himself as a seeker after beauty.
The Schulemburg is described as a tall, thin person, quite bald,
wearing a very ugly red wig, and with an uncomely face much marked with
the smallpox. This disfigurement she endeavoured to cover with paint
with shocking results.
The lady occupying the second position in the seraglio who bore the
euphonic name of Kielmansegge, and was the separated wife of a Hamburg
merchant, was of exactly opposite dimensions, bulking large with great
unwieldiness, she, however, had no need to redden her cheeks, being
gifted by Nature with a plenteous colour which she vainly endeavoured
to assuage with layers of white powder.
The advent of this Ruler in public with either or both of these
fascinating ladies under his immediate protection must have added
considerably to his Electoral dignity.
The third of this honourable trio was, strange to say, a beautiful
young woman, the Countess Platen, married to a man whose family seems
to have provided courtesans for princes for generations, but it was
so far to the Count Platen’s credit that when his wife openly became
the Elector’s mistress he separated from her. This lady seems to have
simply thrust herself into the old Elector’s arms, and appears for
a time, at least, to have absorbed most of his superfluous elderly
affection.
But about the time that little Prince Frederick Louis, the subject
of these Memoirs, was about two years old, a little sister--Anne,
named apparently after the Queen of England--having joined him in
the nursery, a certain couple of adventurers--for they were nothing
better--Henry Howard, third son of the Earl of Suffolk, with his pretty
but unscrupulous wife Henrietta, made their appearance at the Court
of Hanover. They had come, like many others from England, to throw in
their lot with the Elector and his chances of becoming King of England,
which at that time were none too sure, but still a good sporting chance.
Henry Howard and his wife had come like the others to better their
fortunes, which apparently in their case had arrived at that stage when
they could not well be much worse.
It is reported that so short of money were they on their arrival
that Mrs. Howard had to cut off her beautiful hair and sell it--her
glory!--to provide a conciliatory banquet for some powerful Hanoverian
acquaintances. One can almost add a tear to those she surely shed
over the shorn locks in private. But the loss of her hair does not
appear to have handicapped her in any way from the point of view of
fascination. She quickly ingratiated herself with the Elector’s aged
mother, Sophia, granddaughter of James the First of England, and
Protestant heiress of England by Act of Parliament, talked English with
her, and became one of her intimate friends. From this, it was but a
step to the favour of Caroline, the wife of the Elector’s son, and
Mrs. Hettie Howard was by no means the kind of lady to let grass grow
under her feet. She was said to be a great adept at flattery, knowing
just how much to tickle the ears of Royalty with Electoral Royalty.
She tickled to such effect that she soon became one of the Princess’s
ladies-in-waiting, and as such no doubt had the privilege of dandling
our Prince Frederick as an infant in her arms.
But apparently she had not as yet hit her mark; it was at the heart of
the little Prince’s father that her darts were aimed, and certainly
never was a target more ready to receive them. George Augustus had
ever posed as a lady’s man, yet this incident was possibly the first
which opened the eyes of his young wife to his subsequently deplored
“foiblesses.” The Electoral Prince followed in the exemplary footsteps
of his father, the Elector; he started the nucleus of a harem, and Mrs.
Hettie Howard obligingly became the nucleus! One more good example to
set before the little Prince when his eyes--and ears--should open to
understand the wicked things of this world!
The comment of George Augustus’s aged grandmother the Electress on
this arrangement--with which, by-the-bye, she was rather pleased--was
quite German and appropriate. “Ah!” she remarked, “it will improve his
English.”
Though the position of the House of Hanover at this time with regard to
the throne of England was considered to be good, yet it was by no means
sure. The two following letters will, perhaps, throw some light on the
period.
The first is from Leibnitz, a _savant_ attached to the Court of
Hanover, but at that time in Vienna, and is addressed to Caroline, the
Electoral Princess, whom he had known as a brilliant girl under the
wing of her aunt Sophia Charlotte, sister of George, at the Court of
Berlin.
“Vienna,
“December 16th, 1713.
“I have not troubled your Highness with letters since I left Hanover,
as I had nothing of interest to tell you, but I must not neglect the
opportunity which this season gives me of assuring your Highness of my
perpetual devotion, and I pray God to grant you the same measure of
years as the Electress enjoys, and the same good health. And I pray
also that you may one day enjoy the title of Queen of England so well
worn by Queen Elizabeth which you so highly merit.
“Consequently, I wish the same good things to his Highness, your
Consort, since you can only occupy the throne of that great Queen with
him. Whenever the gazettes publish favourable rumours concerning you
and affairs in England, I devoutly pray that they may become true;
sometimes it is rumoured here that a fleet is about to escort you both
to England, and a powerful alliance is being formed to support your
claims. I have even read that the Tsar is only strengthening his navy
in order to supply you with Knights of the Round Table. It is time
to translate all these rumours into action, as our enemies do not
sleep. Count Gallas, who is leaving for Rome in a few days, tells me
that well-informed people in England think that the first act of the
present Tory Ministry will be to put down the Whigs, the second to
confirm the peace, and the third to change the law of succession. I
hear that in Hanover there is strong opposition to all this. I hope it
may be so with all my heart.”
The Princess Caroline’s reply.
“Hanover,
“December 27th, 1713.
“I assure you that of all the letters this season has brought me,
yours has been the most welcome. You do well to send me your good
wishes for the throne of England, which are sorely needed just now,
for in spite of all the favourable rumours you mention, affairs there
seem to be going from bad to worse. For my part (and I am a woman and
like to delude myself) I cling to the hope that, however bad things
may be now, they will ultimately turn to the advantage of our House.
I accept the comparison which you draw, though all too flattering,
between me and Queen Elizabeth as a good omen. Like Elizabeth, the
Electress’s rights are denied her by a jealous sister with a bad
temper[4], and she will never be sure of the English crown until
her accession to the throne. God be praised that our Princess of
Wales[5] is better than ever, and by her good health confounds all the
machinations of her enemies.”
Poor young Princess Caroline, “the Pure, the Great, the Illustrious,”
as Mr. Wilkins calls her. She must, but for her children, have found
it none too cheerful in that dreary old Leine Schloss by the river,
about which clung the then unsolved mystery of the disappearance of
Königsmarck, the lover of the Princess Sophie Dorothea--her husband’s
mother--as he left that lady’s chamber and was seen no more. A mystery
which remained a mystery until years after when, the floor of an
adjoining room being taken up, his body was found beneath.
But apart from this it must have been a dreary life for a young girl,
a life of looking on at much over-eating, and over-drinking perhaps,
too. A life of low sordid immorality going on under her very nose in
which her husband and his father played leading parts; a life in which
the higher side of her nature was never called upon, except for the
almost habitual display of charity and forbearance to others.
[Illustration: LEINE PALACE, HANOVER.
Birthplace of Frederick, Prince of Wales.]
Yet the higher nature was there despite her faults which were many; she
possessed the pure gold of a good heart, which saw her through many
trials and temptations, and left her, but for her conduct to her eldest
son--and some of her correspondence--a clean name in history.
But other more stirring thoughts soon filled the young mother’s head
than the frailties of her husband’s family, for when the sum of her
nursery reached four and the little Prince Frederick was in his eighth
year, the fruit of her hopes ripened, Queen Anne of England died, and
a lucky turn of politics in favour of the Whigs, laid open to her the
road to a throne.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. XX., p. 235. This remark is
attributed to both his father and mother.
[2] The Electoral Prince was the eldest son of the elector.
[3] Howe’s Despatch. Hanover, 5th Feb., 1707. From this it must be seen
clearly that the Prince was born on February 4th, not on February 5th,
as it has been stated.
[4] Queen Anne.
[5] The Electress Sophia, her husband’s grandmother.