THE BETROTHAL.
1760-1765.
The accession of George III. to the throne made at first little
difference in the lives of his brothers and sisters, especially of the
younger ones. It made a difference in their position, for they became
brothers and sisters of the reigning king, and the public interest
in them was quickened. But they remained under the control of the
Princess-Dowager, and continued to live with her in the seclusion of
Carlton House and Kew.
The Princess-Dowager's dominion was not confined to her younger
children, for she continued to exercise unbounded sway over the
youthful monarch. He held his accession council at her residence
at Carlton House, and there he delivered his first speech--not the
composition of his ministers, who imagined they saw in it the hand
of the Princess-Dowager and Lord Bute. "My Lord Bute," said the King
to the Duke of Newcastle, his Prime Minister, "is your very good
friend, he will tell you all my thoughts." Again in his first speech
to Parliament the King wrote with his own hand the words, to which we
have already alluded: "Born and educated in this country, I glory
in the name of Briton". Ministers affected to find in all this an
unconstitutional exercise of the royal prerogative, and the Whig
oligarchy trembled lest its domination should be overthrown.
Hitherto the influence of the Princess-Dowager with her eldest son,
and the intimate friendship that existed between her and Lord Bute,
had been known only to the few, but now the Whigs found in these
things weapons ready to their hands, and they did not scruple to use
them. They instigated their agents in the press and in Parliament,
and a fierce clamour was raised against the Princess as a threatener
of popular liberties. Her name, linked with Lord Bute's, was flung
to the mob; placards with the words "No Petticoat Government!" "No
Scottish Favourite!" were affixed to the walls of Westminster Hall, and
thousands of vile pamphlets and indecent ballads were circulated among
the populace. Even the King was insulted. "Like a new Sultan," wrote
Lord Chesterfield, "he is dragged out of the seraglio by the Princess
and Lord Bute, and placed upon the throne." The mob translated this
into the vulgar tongue, and one day, when the King was going in a sedan
chair to pay his usual visit to his mother, a voice from the crowd
asked him, amid shouts and jeers, whether he was "going to suck".
[Illustration: JOHN, EARL OF BUTE.
_From the Painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds at Wortley Hall, by
permission of the Earl of Wharncliffe._]
The Princess-Dowager was unmoved by the popular clamour, and her
influence over the young King remained unshaken; indeed it was
rather strengthened, for his sense of chivalry was roused by the
coarse insults heaped upon his mother. Lord Bute continued to pay his
visits to Carlton House as before, the only difference made was that,
to avoid the insults of the mob, his visits were paid less openly. The
chair of one of the Princess's maids of honour was often sent of an
evening to Bute's house in South Audley Street, and he was conveyed in
it, with the curtains close drawn, to Carlton House, and admitted by
a side entrance to the Princess's presence. These precautions, though
natural enough under the circumstances, were unwise, for before long
the stealthy visits leaked out, and the worst construction was placed
upon them.
In the first year of the King's reign the supremacy of the
Princess-Dowager was threatened by an attachment the monarch had formed
for the beautiful Lady Sarah Lennox, daughter of the second Duke of
Richmond. But the house of Lennox was a great Whig house, and its
members were ambitious and aspiring, therefore the Princess-Dowager
and Bute determined to prevent the marriage. That they succeeded
is a matter of history. Lady Sarah's hopes came to an end with
the announcement of the King's betrothal to Princess Charlotte of
Mecklenburg-Strelitz. The announcement was not popular, for the nation
was weary of royal alliances with the petty courts of Germany. But
the Princess-Dowager had made confidential inquiries. She was told
that Charlotte, who was very young, was dutiful and obedient, and no
doubt thought that she would prove a cipher in her hands. In this the
Princess-Dowager was sadly mistaken. Lady Sarah Lennox, or an earlier
candidate for the honour, a Princess of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, would
have been pliable in comparison with Charlotte of Mecklenburg, who, on
her arrival, showed herself to be a shrewd, self-possessed young woman,
with a tart tongue, and a full sense of the importance of her position.
Charlotte soon became jealous of her mother-in-law's influence over the
King. Her relations with her sisters-in-law also were never cordial,
and with the Princess Augusta she was soon at open feud.
George III. and Charlotte were married at the Chapel Royal, St. James's
Palace, on September 8, 1761, and a fortnight later were crowned
in Westminster Abbey. The Princess Matilda, then ten years of age,
witnessed her brother's wedding, but unofficially, from a private pew.
Her first public appearance was made at the coronation, when we find
her following the Princess-Dowager in a procession from the House of
Lords to Westminster Abbey. A platform, carpeted with blue baize and
covered by an awning, had been erected across Palace Yard to the south
door of the Abbey, and over this platform the Princess-Dowager and all
her children passed, except the King, who was to be crowned, and Prince
Edward and Princess Augusta, who were in their Majesties' procession.
"The Princess-Dowager of Wales," it is written, "was led by the hand
by Prince William Henry, dressed in white and silver. Her train, which
was of silk, was cut short, and therefore not borne by any person, and
her hair flowed down her shoulders in hanging curls. She had no cap,
but only a circlet of diamonds. The rest of the princes and princesses,
her Highness's children, followed in order of their age: Prince Henry
Frederick, also in white and silver, handing his sister Princess Louisa
Anne, dressed in a slip with hanging sleeves. Prince Frederick William,
likewise in white and silver, handing his youngest sister, the Princess
Matilda, dressed also in a slip with hanging sleeves. Both the young
princesses had their hair combed upwards, which was contrived to lie
flat at the back of their heads in an elegant taste."[16]
[16] _The Annual Register_, September 22, 1761.
For some time after George III.'s marriage the Princess-Dowager and
Bute continued to be all-powerful with the King. The aged Prime
Minister, the Duke of Newcastle, clung to office as long as he could,
but at last was forced to resign, and in 1762 Lord Bute became Prime
Minister. The Princess-Dowager's hand was very visible throughout
Bute's brief administration; her enemy the Duke of Devonshire, "the
Prince of the Whigs," as she styled him, was ignominiously dismissed
from office, and his name struck off the list of privy councillors.
Other great Whig Lords, who had slighted or opposed her, were
treated in a similar manner. Peace was made with France on lines the
Princess-Dowager had indicated before her son came to the throne, and
a still greater triumph, the peace was approved by a large majority
in Parliament, despite the opposition of the Whig Lords. "Now," cried
the Princess exultingly, "now, my son _is_ King of England!" It was her
hour of triumph.
But though the Whigs were defeated in Parliament, they took their
revenge outside. The ignorant mob was told that the peace was the first
step towards despotism, the despotism of the Princess-Dowager and her
led-captain Bute, and the torrent of abuse swelled in volume. One
evening when the Princess was present at the play, at a performance
of Cibber's comedy, _The Careless Husband_, the whole house rose when
one of the actresses spoke the following lines: "Have a care, Madam,
an undeserving favourite has been the ruin of many a prince's empire".
The hoots and insults from the gallery were so great that the Princess
drew the curtains of her box and quitted the house. Nor was this all.
In Wilkes's periodical, _The North Briton_, appeared an essay in
which, under the suggestive names of Queen Isabella and her paramour
"the gentle Mortimer," the writer attacked the Princess-Dowager and
the Prime Minister. Again, in a caricature entitled "The Royal Dupe,"
the young King was depicted as sleeping in his mother's lap, while
Bute was stealing his sceptre, and Fox picking his pocket. In _Almon's
Political Register_ there appeared a gross frontispiece, in which
the Earl of Bute figured as secretly entering the bedchamber of the
Princess-Dowager; a widow's lozenge with the royal arms hung over
the bed, to enforce the identity. Worst of all, one night, when the
popular fury had been inflamed to its height, a noisy mob paraded
under the windows of Carlton House, carrying a gallows from which hung
a jack-boot and a petticoat which they afterwards burned (the first
a miserable pun on the name of John Earl of Bute, and the second to
signify the King's mother). The Princess-Dowager heard the uproar from
within and learned the cause from her frightened household. She alone
remained calm. "Poor deluded people, how I pity them," she said, "they
will know better some day."
What her children thought of all this is not precisely recorded, but
it would seem that the King stood alone among them in the sympathy
and support he gave to his mother. Prince Edward, Duke of York, and
the Princess Augusta were openly hostile to Lord Bute. Prince Edward
declared that he suffered "a thousand mortifications" because of him.
Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester, was sullenly resentful,
and even Prince Henry Frederick, Duke of Cumberland, made sarcastic
remarks. What Matilda thought there is no means of knowing; she was
too young to understand, but children are quick-witted, and since her
favourite brother, Edward, and her favourite sister, Augusta, felt so
strongly on the subject, she probably shared their prejudices. There is
little doubt that the mysterious intimacy between the Princess-Dowager
and Lord Bute was the cause of much ill-feeling between her and her
children, and had the effect of weakening her authority over them
and of losing their respect. Years after, when she had occasion to
remonstrate with Matilda, her daughter retorted with a bitter allusion
to Lord Bute.
The Princess Augusta had inherited her mother's love of dabbling in
politics, and as her views were strongly opposed to those of the
Princess-Dowager the result did not conduce to the domestic harmony
of Carlton House. The Princess Augusta, of all the royal children,
had suffered most from the intimacy between her mother and Lord
Bute. Horace Walpole wrote of her some time before: "Lady Augusta,
now a woman grown, was, to facilitate some privacy for the Princess,
dismissed from supping with her mother, and sent back to cheese-cakes
with her little sister Elizabeth, on the pretence that meat at
night would fatten her too much".[17] Augusta secretly resented the
cheese-cakes, but she was then too young to show open mutiny. Now
that she had grown older she became bolder. She was the King's eldest
sister, and felt that she was entitled to a mind of her own. Therefore,
with her brother, the Duke of York, she openly denounced Lord Bute and
all his works, and lavished admiration on his great rival, Pitt. This
was a little too much for the Princess-Dowager, who feared that Augusta
would contaminate the minds of her younger brothers and sisters.
She resolved therefore to marry her to some foreign husband, and
thus remove her from the sphere of her present political activities.
Moreover, it was quite time that Augusta was married. She had completed
her twenty-sixth year and her youthful beauty was on the wane. "Lady
Augusta," writes Horace Walpole, "is not handsome, but tall enough
and not ill-made, with the German whiteness of hair and complexion so
remarkable in the royal family, and with their precipitate yet thick
Westphalian accent."[18]
[17] _Memoirs of the Reign of George III._, vol. iii.
[18] _Ibid._
Augusta might have married before, but she was extremely English in
her tastes, and had a great objection to leaving the land of her
birth. Neither her mother nor her brother would entertain the idea
of an English alliance, and so at last they arranged a marriage
between her and Charles William Ferdinand, Hereditary Prince of
Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, a famous soldier, and the favourite nephew of
Frederick the Great. The Prince arrived in England in January, 1764.
He had never seen his bride before he came, not even her portrait,
but when he saw her he expressed himself charmed, adding that if he
had not been pleased with her he should have returned to Brunswick
without a wife. Augusta, equally frank, said that she would certainly
have refused to marry him if she had found him unsatisfactory. They
were married in the great council chamber of St. James's Palace with
little ceremony. The bride's presents were few and meagre, and Augusta
declared that Queen Charlotte even grudged her the diamonds which
formed the King's wedding gift. Four days after the marriage a civic
deputation waited upon the pair at Leicester House, and presented an
address of congratulation. Princess Matilda was present, and stood at
the right hand of her mother.
The King did not like the popularity of his brother-in-law, and
therefore hurried the departure of the newly wed couple. The Princess
of Brunswick shed bitter tears on leaving her native land. The day she
left she spent the whole morning at Leicester House saying good-bye
to her friends, and frequently appeared at the windows that the
people outside might see her. More than once the Princess threw open
the window and kissed her hand to the crowd. It was very tempestuous
weather when the Prince and Princess set out on their long journey to
Brunswick, and after they had put to sea rumours reached London that
their yacht had gone down in the storm; but, though they were for a
time in great danger, eventually they landed and reached Brunswick
safely.
The marriage of the Princess Augusta was soon followed by the betrothal
of her youngest sister. The Princess Matilda was only in her thirteenth
year. But though too young to be married, her mother and the King,
her brother, did not think it too soon to make arrangements for her
betrothal.
The reigning King of Denmark and Norway, Frederick V., for some years
had wished to bind more closely the ties which already existed between
him and the English royal family. The late Queen of Denmark, Queen
Louise, was the youngest daughter of King George II. She had married
Frederick V., and had borne him a son and daughters. After her death
the King of Denmark cherished an affectionate remembrance of his Queen
and a liking for the country whence she came. He therefore approached
the old King, George II., with the suggestion of a marriage in the
years to come between his son, the Crown Prince Christian, then an
infant, and one of the daughters of Frederick Prince of Wales. After
George II.'s death the idea of this alliance was again broached to
George III. through the medium of Titley,[19] the English envoy at
Copenhagen.
[19] Walter Titley, whose name occurs frequently in the negotiations
of this marriage, was born in 1700 of a Staffordshire family. He was
educated at Westminster and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took
a distinguished degree. He entered the diplomatic service in 1728
and became _chargé d'affaires_ at Copenhagen in the absence of Lord
Glenorchy. In 1730 he was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister
Plenipotentiary. In 1733 Richard Bentley, the famous master of Trinity
College, Cambridge, offered him the physic fellowship of the College.
Titley accepted it, resigned his diplomatic appointment, but found
that he had become so much attached to his life at Copenhagen that he
was unable to leave it. The King of Denmark, with whom he was a great
favourite, urged him to stay, and the Government at home were unwilling
to lose a valuable public servant who possessed a unique knowledge of
the tortuous politics of the northern kingdom. So Titley resumed his
post and held it for the remainder of his life. He died at Copenhagen
in February, 1768.
The King, after consultation with his mother, put forward his second
surviving sister, the Princess Louisa Anne (who was about the same age
as the Crown Prince Christian), as a suitable bride. But Bothmar,
the Danish envoy in London, reported to the court of Copenhagen that
Louisa Anne, though talented and amiable, was very delicate, and he
suggested that the King of Denmark should ask for the Princess Matilda
instead. This Princess was the beauty of the family, and her lively
disposition and love of outdoor exercise seemed to show that she had a
strong constitution. George III. demurred a little at first, on account
of his sister's extreme youth, but after some _pour-parlers_ he gave
his consent, and the King of Denmark sent orders to Bothmar to demand
formally the hand of the Princess Matilda in marriage for his son the
Crown Prince. At the same time Bernstorff, the Danish Secretary of
State for Foreign Affairs,[20] wrote to Titley, acquainting him with
the proposed alliance, but asking him to keep the matter a profound
secret until all preliminaries were arranged.[21]
[20] Count Johan Hartvig Ernst Bernstorff was a Hanoverian by birth,
and a grandson of Bernstorff of Hanover and Celle, Minister of George
I. He early entered the service of Denmark, and represented his adopted
country as envoy at the courts of St. James's and Versailles. When he
left the diplomatic service he became Minister of State for Foreign
Affairs at Copenhagen, and filled other important posts. Finally he
became Count and Prime Minister. He must not be confounded with Count
Andreas Peter Bernstorff, his nephew, who was later Prime Minister of
Denmark under Frederick VI.
[21] Sa Majesté, qui se souvient toujours avec plaisir et avec la
bienveillance la plus distinguée, de vos sentiments pour sa personne,
et pour l'union des deux familles royales, m'a commandé de vous faire
cette confidence; mais elle m'ordonne en même temps de vous prier de
la tenir entièrement secrète, jusqu'a ce qu'on soit convenu de part et
d'autre de l'engagement et de sa publication. (Bernstorff to Titley,
August 18, 1764.)
A few days later Titley wrote home to Lord Sandwich: "I received from
Baron Bernstorff (by the King of Denmark's command) a very obliging
letter acquainting me with the agreeable and important commission which
had been sent that same day to Count Bothmar in London.... The amiable
character of the Prince of Denmark is universally acknowledged here, so
that the union appearing perfectly suitable, and equally desirable on
both sides, I hope soon to have an opportunity of congratulating you,
my Lord, upon its being unalterably fixed and settled."[22]
[22] Titley's despatch to Lord Sandwich, Copenhagen, August 29, 1764.
Within the next few months everything was arranged except the question
of the Princess's dower, which had to be voted by Parliament. In the
meantime a preliminary treaty between the King of Denmark and the King
of Great Britain was drafted and signed in London by Lord Sandwich on
the one part and Bothmar on the other. This was in the autumn, when
Parliament was not sitting, but the Danish Government stipulated that
the announcement of the marriage was not to be delayed beyond the next
session of Parliament, though the marriage itself, on account of the
extreme youth of both parties, would be deferred for a few years.
Accordingly, at the opening of Parliament on January 10, 1765, George
III. in his speech from the throne said:--
"I have now the satisfaction to inform you that I have agreed with my
good brother the King of Denmark to cement the union which has long
subsisted between the two crowns by the marriage of the Prince Royal of
Denmark with my sister the Princess Caroline Matilda, which is to be
solemnised as soon as their respective ages will admit".
In the address to the throne Parliament replied to the effect that
the proposed marriage was most pleasing to them, as it would tend to
strengthen the ancient alliance between the crowns of Great Britain and
Denmark, and "thereby add security to the Protestant religion".[23]
[23] Presumably the alliance would strengthen the Protestant religion
by weakening the influence of Roman Catholic France at Copenhagen. It
must be borne in mind that Denmark was then a much larger and more
important country than it is now. Norway had not broken away from the
union, and Denmark had not been robbed of the Duchies of Schleswig and
Holstein by Prussia.
On January 18 the King gave a grand ball at St. James's Palace in
honour of the double event of his youngest sister's betrothal and Queen
Charlotte's birthday. On this occasion the Princess Matilda made her
first appearance at court, when she opened the ball by dancing a minuet
with her brother, Prince Edward Duke of York. The Princess was then
only thirteen and a half years old, but she won the admiration of all
the court by her beauty and grace. She was very fair, with hair almost
flaxen in hue, pale gold with a gleam of silver in it, large tender
blue eyes, an arched nose, a well-shaped mouth (the underlip perhaps a
little too full), and a complexion like the wild rose. Her figure was
shapely and developed beyond her years, and she carried herself with
ease and dignity.
The feelings of the Princess Matilda, who was thus betrothed to a
Prince whom she had never seen, were not consulted in the slightest
degree. The proposed marriage seemed a suitable one; and it was more
brilliant than that of her sister, the Princess Augusta; moreover, it
would strengthen the political alliance between England and Denmark,
and, it was hoped, give England more influence in the Baltic. These
considerations were sufficient for her brother, George III., who must
be held directly responsible for this marriage. The question of his
sister's happiness, or unhappiness, did not enter. The child Princess
disliked the idea from the first; her ladies-in-waiting noticed that
so far from showing any pleasure at her added dignity she became
pensive and melancholy. She was too young to realise all this marriage
would mean to her, but she knew that it would involve exile from her
native country, and separation from her family, and she grieved much
in secret, though afraid to show her unhappiness openly. She gave some
hint of her feelings to her aunt, the Princess Amelia, soon after her
betrothal.
The Princess Amelia often went to Bath, then a very gay place, where
she played cards and talked scandal to her heart's content. She had a
great liking for her little niece, and she asked permission to take her
to Bath on one of these visits for a few weeks. Matilda, weary of the
dulness and seclusion of Carlton House, pleaded hard to go, but the
Princess-Dowager would not hear of it. She disliked her sister-in-law
and disapproved of her card-playing proclivities. Matilda was greatly
disappointed at her mother's refusal, and said that she had been
looking forward to the journey, for she loved to travel. The Princess
Amelia tried to cheer her niece, and remarked jocularly: "It will not
be long before you will have plenty of travelling". "I know what you
mean," said Matilda, "but surely it would be happier for me to stay
where I am, than go so far for a Prince I have never seen."
[Illustration: THE ELDER CHILDREN OF FREDERICK AND AUGUSTA, PRINCE AND
PRINCESS OF WALES, PLAYING IN KEW GARDENS.
_From a Painting, temp. 1750._]
The Princess found consolation in the thought that her dreaded
marriage would not take place for some time (it was to be deferred
for two years, until 1767), and in a few months after her betrothal
she recovered her spirits, and interested herself once more in her
gardening and other simple pleasures, and in little acts of beneficence
to the poor families whom she took under her especial protection at
Kew. She pursued her studies diligently, the better to qualify herself
for the high position she was intended to fill. At the suggestion of
the King of Denmark, she began to learn German, the language then most
spoken at the Danish court.[24] It is characteristic of the English
tendencies of Frederick Prince of Wales, that, though both he and his
wife were born in Germany, not one of their children was taught
German as a necessary part of his, or her, education, and several of
them remained ignorant of it.
[24] Letter of the Duke of Grafton to Titley, St. James's, March 14,
1766.
We must now give some account of the Princess Matilda's betrothed
husband, the Crown Prince Christian, and of the court of Denmark.