THE QUEEN'S FOLLY.
1770.
Struensee, who was now sure of his position with the King and Queen,
resolved to carry out his plans, and obtain the object of his
ambition--political power. In order to gain this it was necessary that
the ministers holding office should one by one be removed, and the
back of the Russian party in Copenhagen be broken. The Queen was quite
agreeable to every change that Struensee suggested; she only stipulated
that her detested enemy, Holck, should go first, and his friends at
court follow. Struensee agreed, but in these matters it was necessary
to move with great caution, and await a favourable opportunity to
strike. Quite unwittingly Holck played into his enemies' hands; the
great thing, as either party knew well, was to gain possession of
the King, who would sign any paper laid before him. A page, named
Warnstedt, who was always about the person of the King, was Struensee's
friend, and Holck therefore resolved to get rid of him and appoint a
creature of his own. He thought he could best effect this by taking the
King away from his present surroundings, and he therefore proposed
to Christian that he should make another tour through the Duchies
of Schleswig and Holstein. The King agreed, and Holck was jubilant,
for he knew that if he could only get the King to himself the power
of Struensee would be shaken. To his dismay, the Queen announced
that she intended to accompany her husband. She was anxious, she
said, to see the duchies, and had no intention of being left behind
again. Notwithstanding the difficulties which Holck raised, the King
offered no objection, and even expressed pleasure that his Queen would
accompany him. The Queen's going meant, of course, that her favourite
would go too. Struensee hailed the prospect of the tour; he had long
been wishing to get the King and Queen away from the capital in order
that he might better effect the changes he had in contemplation.
The preparations for the tour were pushed on apace. The King and Queen
were to be attended by a numerous suite. Holck, Struensee and Warnstedt
were to be in attendance, and all the ladies of the Queen's household.
Of ministers only Bernstorff, the Prime Minister, was to accompany
them, and the same council of three, Thott, Moltke and Rosenkrantz,
who had managed public business at Copenhagen during the King's former
tour, were to conduct it again, but under limitations. They received
express orders from the King not to have any transactions with foreign
envoys during his absence, and if any matter of urgency occurred they
were to communicate with him in writing before deciding on any plan of
action. These instructions were, of course, dictated to the King by
Struensee. Bernstorff was astonished and indignant when he heard of
them, for he guessed the quarter whence they came. He began to fear
that his position was threatened, and, too late, regretted that he had
not taken the repeated advice of his friends and removed Struensee
while there was time. He knew, though the English influence was on his
side, that he had nothing to hope from the Queen; he had offended her
past forgiveness by insisting on the dismissal of Madame de Plessen,
and by wishing to exclude her from the regency. He started on the tour
with great misgivings. But he had been in office so long that even now
he could not imagine the government of the kingdom going on without
him, forgetting that no man is indispensable.
On June 20, 1770, the royal party arrived at Gottorp Castle in
Schleswig, an ancient and unpretending edifice on the edge of a lake,
which was then occupied by Prince Charles of Hesse, whom the King had
appointed Viceroy of the Duchies. The Viceroy and his wife, Princess
Louise, drove out a league from Gottorp to meet the King and Queen, and
their greetings were most cordial, especially those between Matilda
and her sister-in-law. The King, too, was very friendly, though Prince
Charles saw a great change in him. He seemed to rally his failing
powers a little at Gottorp.
Prince Charles noticed with amazement how great a power Struensee
had acquired; it was the first time he had seen the favourite, and he
took a strong dislike to him, which, perhaps, coloured the description
he gave of the visit. "After an hour's conversation," writes Prince
Charles [on arriving at Gottorp], "in which we recalled past times, the
Queen took me by the arm and said: 'Now, escort me to Princess Louise's
apartments, but do not take me through the ante-chamber'--where the
suite were assembled. We almost ran along the corridor to the side
door by the staircase, and then we saw some of the suite coming
downstairs. The Queen espied Struensee among them, and said hastily: 'I
must go back; do not keep me!' I replied that I could not well leave
her Majesty alone in the passage. 'No! no!' she cried, 'go to the
Princess,' and she fled down the corridor." [Struensee had probably
forbidden the Queen to talk to the Princess alone.] "I was much
astonished, but I obeyed her commands. She was always ill at ease with
me when Struensee was present; at table he invariably seated himself
opposite to her."[125]
[125] _Mémoires de mon Temps._
Prince Charles and his wife noted with great regret the change in the
Queen; they remembered that she was only eighteen, they made allowance
for her good heart and her lively spirits, but even so they grieved to
see her forget her self-respect, and indulge in amusements which hurt
her reputation. They ascribed this change to the pernicious influence
of Struensee. She seemed frightened of him, and trembled, when he spoke
to her, like a bird, ensnared. Frequently he so far forgot himself as
to treat her with scant respect. For instance, Prince Charles writes:
"The King's dinner was dull. The Queen afterwards played at cards. I
was placed on her right, Struensee on her left; Brandt, a new arrival,
and Warnstedt, a chamberlain, completed the party. I hardly like to
describe Struensee's behaviour to the Queen, or repeat the remarks he
dared address to her openly, while he leant his arm on the table close
to her. 'Well, why don't you play?' 'Can't you hear?' and so forth. I
confess my heart was grieved to see this Princess, endowed with so much
sense and so many good qualities, fallen to such a point and into hands
so bad."[126]
[126] _Mémoires de mon Temps._
While the King and Queen were at Gottorp Struensee carried out the
first of his changes, and recalled Brandt to court. Brandt, it will
be remembered, had been banished from Copenhagen, and even from the
country, at the suggestion of Holck. He had sought to regain the King's
favour when he was in Paris, but again Holck intervened, and he failed.
He was formerly a friend of the Queen, which was one of the reasons
why Holck got rid of him, and he was also a friend of Struensee, who
had often, in his obscure days, visited at the house of Brandt's
stepfather. Struensee had, moreover, helped him in Paris. Brandt
had recently been so far restored to favour as to be given a small
appointment in Oldenburg, but no one expected that he would be recalled
to court, and Holck was astonished and dismayed when Brandt suddenly
appeared at Gottorp and was nominated a chamberlain by the King. Brandt
noticed his enemy's dismay, and said: "_Monsieur le Comte_, you look
as if you had seen a spectre. Are you afraid?" To which Holck bitterly
replied: "Oh no, _Monsieur le Chambellan_, it is not the spectre I
fear, but his return".
Matilda was unwell during her stay at Gottorp, and her indisposition
caused the court to remain there longer than had been intended.
Struensee saw Prince Charles's dislike of him, and was uneasy lest
he should gain an influence over the King. The silent condemnation
of the Viceroy made him impatient to be gone, and directly the Queen
was sufficiently recovered to travel she and the King set out for
Traventhal, a small royal castle in Holstein. This move furnished the
opportunity of getting rid of Holck and his following. The excuse put
forward was that Traventhal was not large enough to accommodate so
numerous a suite, and therefore Count Holck and his wife, his sister,
Madame von der Lühe, and her husband, Councillor Holstein, Chamberlain
Luttichau, Gustavus Holck, a page, Fräulein von Eyben, and two more of
the Queen's maids of honour, were ordered to go back to Copenhagen. All
these people were either related to Holck, or appointed through his
influence, and on their return to the capital they learned that they
were dismissed from office. Holck, perhaps in consideration of the fact
that he had once befriended Struensee, was granted a pension of two
thousand dollars, the others received nothing.
Bernstorff, who went with the King and Queen to Traventhal, as minister
in attendance, was not consulted concerning these dismissals, or in
anything about the court. Woodford, the English minister of Lower
Saxony, then at Hamburg, writes: "Mr. Bernstorff and the ministers
appear to be entirely ignorant of these little arrangements, the royal
confidence running in quite another direction".[127] And again: "With
regard to the court's movements at Traventhal, nothing is known, for
everything is kept a secret from those who, by their employments,
ought to be informed".[128] The Prime Minister, Bernstorff, was rarely
allowed to see the King, for Brandt, who had now stepped into Holck's
vacant place, was always with his master, and made it his business to
guard him against any influence that might be hostile to Struensee's
plans. Holck's sudden dismissal filled Bernstorff with apprehension,
which was increased by an important move which Struensee took soon
after the arrival of the court at Traventhal--a move destined to
exercise great influence on the future of both the favourite and the
Queen. This was the recall to court of the notorious anti-Russian,
Count Rantzau Ascheberg.
[127] Woodford's despatch to Lord Rochford, Hamburg, July 13, 1770.
[128] _Ibid._, July 17, 1770.
Schack Karl, Count zu Rantzau Ascheberg, whom for short we shall call
Count Rantzau, had succeeded (on his father's death in 1769) to vast
estates in Holstein. Gunning, the English envoy, thus wrote of him:--
"Count Rantzau is a son of the minister of that name who formerly spent
some years at our court. He received some part of his education at
Westminster School. His family is the first in Denmark. He is a man
of ruined fortunes. It would be difficult to exhibit a character more
profligate and abandoned. There are said to be few enormities of which
he has not been guilty, and scarcely any place where he has not acted
a vicious part. Rashness and revenge form very striking features in
his character. With these qualities he possesses great imagination,
vivacity and wit. He is most abundantly fertile in schemes and
projects, which he forms one day and either forgets or ridicules the
next. He would be a very dangerous man did not his great indiscretion
put it into the power of his enemies to render many of his most
mischievous designs abortive."[129]
[129] Gunning's despatch, Copenhagen, April 4, 1771.
Rantzau had led an adventurous and dishonourable career. In his youth
he had been a chamberlain at the Danish court, and had served in the
army, eventually rising to the rank of major-general. In consequence
of a court plot, he was banished from Copenhagen in 1752. He then
entered the French army, but in Paris he became enamoured of an opera
singer and resigned his commission to follow her about Europe. This
part of his career, which occupied nearly ten years, was shrouded in
mystery, but it was known that during it Rantzau had many scandalous
adventures. Sometimes he travelled with all the luxury befitting his
rank and station, at others he was at his wits' end for money. At one
time he lived at Rome, habited as a monk, and at another he travelled
_incognito_ with a troupe of actors. He had absolutely no scruples,
and seemed to be a criminal by nature. He was tried in Sicily for
swindling, and only escaped imprisonment through the influence brought
to bear on his judges. At Naples there was an ugly scandal of another
nature, but the French envoy intervened, and saved him from punishment,
in consideration of his birth and rank. In Genoa he got into trouble
through drawing a bill on his father, whom he falsely described as
the "Viceroy of Norway," but his father repudiated the bill, as he
had already repudiated his son, and again Rantzau narrowly escaped
gaol. With such a record Keith was certainly justified in saying of
him: "Count Rantzau would, ... if he had lived within reach of Justice
Fielding, have furnished matter for an Old Bailey trial any one year of
the last twenty of his life".[130]
[130] _Memoirs and Correspondence of Sir R. Murray Keith._
In 1761, after the death of the Empress Elizabeth, when a war seemed
imminent between Russia and Denmark, Rantzau, who wished to be on the
stronger side, went to St. Petersburg and offered his services to
Peter III., as a Holstein nobleman who owed allegiance to Russia rather
than to Denmark. But even the sottish Tsar knew what manner of man the
Holsteiner was, and rejected his offer with contumely. In revenge,
Rantzau went over to Catherine and the Orloffs, and was involved in
the conspiracy which resulted in the deposition and assassination of
Peter III. When Catherine the Great was firmly seated upon the Russian
throne she had no further need of Rantzau, and instead of rewarding
him, ignored him. Rantzau therefore left St. Petersburg and returned
to Holstein, a sworn foe of the Empress and eager for revenge on
her. It was during this sojourn in Holstein that his acquaintance
with Struensee began, and, as at this time Rantzau could get no help
from his father, Struensee is said to have lent him money to go to
Copenhagen, whither he went to regain his lost favour at the Danish
court. In this he was foiled by the influence of the Russian envoy
Filosofow, who was then all-powerful, and Rantzau was forced to return
again to Holstein, where he remained until his father's death in
1769--the year before the King and Queen came to Holstein on their tour.
Rantzau should now have been a rich man, for in addition to the
property he inherited from his father, he had married an heiress, the
daughter of his uncle, Count Rantzau Oppendorft, by which marriage the
estates of the two branches of the family were united. But Rantzau
was crippled with debt, and on succeeding to his inheritance he
continued to live a reckless, dissipated life, and indulged in great
extravagance. On the other hand, he was a good landlord to his people,
and they did whatever he wished. On account of his ancient name, vast
estates and the devotion of his peasantry, Rantzau had much influence
in Holstein, which he persistently used against Russia.
Rantzau and Struensee had not forgotten their covenant of years ago,
that if either attained power he should help the other. Even if
Struensee had been inclined to forget it, Rantzau would have reminded
him, but Filosofow's public insult made Struensee determined to break
the power of Russia in Denmark, and in Rantzau he found a weapon ready
to his hand. He determined to recall Rantzau to court, because he knew
that he, of all others, was most disliked by the Empress of Russia.
Therefore, when the King and Queen arrived at Traventhal, Struensee
wrote to Rantzau and asked him to come and pay his respects to their
Majesties. Rantzau was admitted to audience of the King and Queen, who
both received him very graciously. Rantzau was the most considerable
noble in Holstein, and moreover, any favour shown to him would
demonstrate that the Danish court would no longer brook the dictation
of Russia in domestic matters. Therefore, when Rantzau, prompted by
Struensee, prayed the King and Queen to honour him with a visit to his
castle at Ascheberg, they at once consented. Attended by Struensee
and Brandt they drove over from Traventhal and spent several days at
Ascheberg.
Rantzau entertained his royal guests with lavish magnificence, and,
favoured by brilliant weather, the visit was a great success. There was
a masque of flowers one day, there were rustic sports another, there
was a hunting party on a third, and banquets every evening. The Queen
took the first place at all the festivities (the King had ceased to
be of account), and the splendour of her entertainment at Ascheberg
recalled Elizabeth's famous visit to Leicester at Kenilworth. Though
Rantzau was fifty-three years of age, he was still a very handsome
man, a born courtier, an exquisite beau, and skilled in all the arts
of pleasing women. Had he been ten years younger he might have tried
to eclipse Struensee in the Queen's favour, but he was a cynical and
shrewd observer, and saw that any such attempt was foredoomed to
failure, so he contented himself with offering the most flattering
homage to the young Queen. As a return for his sumptuous hospitality,
Matilda gave Rantzau her husband's gold snuff-box set with diamonds,
which Christian had bought in London for one thousand guineas, and as a
further mark of her favour, the Queen presented colours to the regiment
at Glückstadt, commanded by Rantzau, of which she became honorary
colonel. The presentation of these colours was made the occasion of
a military pageant, and the court painter, Als, received commands to
paint the Queen in her uniform as colonel. This picture was presented
to Rantzau as a souvenir.
The royal favours heaped upon Rantzau filled the Russian party with
dismay. The visit to Ascheberg had a political significance, which was
emphasised by the Queen's known resentment of Russian dictation. One
of the Russian envoys, Saldern, had brought about the dismissal of
her chief lady-in-waiting; another, Filosofow, had publicly affronted
her favourite. The Queen neither forgot nor forgave. Woodford writes
at this time: "Her Danish Majesty, formerly piqued at M. de Saldern's
conduct, and condescending at present to show little management for
the Russian party, they are using every indirect influence to keep
themselves in place".[131]
[131] Woodford's despatch to Lord Rochford, Hamburg, July 20, 1770.
The defeat of the Russian party would involve necessarily the fall of
Bernstorff, who, more than any other Danish minister, had identified
himself with Russia. He was greatly perturbed at the visit to
Ascheberg, which had been undertaken without consulting him. After the
King and Queen returned to Traventhal the Prime Minister was treated
even more rudely than before; he was no longer honoured with the royal
invitation to dinner, but had to eat his meals in his own room, while
Struensee and his creatures revelled below. The object of these slights
was to force Bernstorff to resign, but he still clung to office, and
strove by all possible means to mitigate the anti-Russian policy of
the Queen and her advisers. To obtain private audience of the King
was impossible, though he was living under the same roof. Bernstorff
therefore drew up a memorandum, addressed to the King, in which he
forcibly pointed out the displeasure with which Russia would view
Rantzau's appointment to any office, not only because of his well-known
opposition to the territorial exchange, but because he was personally
objectionable to the Empress, who would resent his promotion as an
insult. Bernstorff's memorandum was read by Struensee and the Queen,
and though it made no difference to their policy, yet, as Struensee did
not wish to imperil the exchange, he made Rantzau promise not to meddle
further in this matter.[132] Rantzau gave the required promise, which
was duly communicated to Bernstorff, and with this negative assurance
he had to be content.
[132] Though the treaty was signed in 1768, the actual exchange of
territory between Russia and Denmark was not carried out until some
years later. The original understanding was that it should wait until
the Grand Duke Paul attained his majority and gave it his sanction.
The King and Queen remained at Traventhal nearly a month in seclusion.
The Queen was left without any of her ladies, and nearly the whole of
the King's suite had gone too. Except for Bernstorff, who was kept that
Struensee might have an eye on him, the King and Queen were surrounded
only by the favourite and his creatures. At Traventhal Struensee was
very busy maturing his plans. In concert with Rantzau and General
Gahler, an officer of some eminence who had been given a post in the
royal household, Struensee discussed the steps that were to be taken
for overthrowing Bernstorff and the other ministers, and reforming the
administration. There is nothing to show that the Queen took a leading
part in these discussions, though she was of course consulted as a
matter of form. Unlike her mother, the Princess-Dowager of Wales, or
her grandmother, the illustrious Caroline, Matilda cared nothing for
politics for their own sake, but she liked to have the semblance of
power, and was jealous of her privileges as the reigning Queen. When
she had a personal grievance against a minister, as against Bernstorff,
she wished him removed, and when she was thwarted by a foreign
influence, as in the case of Russia, she wished that influence broken;
but otherwise it was a matter of indifference to her who filled the
chief offices of state, or whether France or Russia reigned supreme at
Copenhagen. Her good heart made her keenly solicitous for the welfare
of her people, and some of the social reforms carried out by Struensee
may have had their origin with the Queen; but for affairs of state in
the larger sense Matilda cared nothing, and she lent herself blindly to
abetting Struensee's policy in all things. In complete abandonment she
placed her hands beneath his feet and let him do with her as he would.
Her birth as Princess of Great Britain, her rank as Queen of Denmark
and Norway, her beauty, her talents, her popularity, were valued by her
only as means whereby she might advance Struensee and his schemes.
Rumours of the amazing state of affairs at the Danish court reached
England in the spring of 1770, and before long George III. and the
Princess-Dowager of Wales were acquainted with the sudden rise of
Struensee, and the extraordinary favour shown to him by the Queen.
They also heard of the check which Russia had received at Copenhagen,
and the probability of Bernstorff (who was regarded as the friend
of England) being hurled from power to make room for the ambitious
adventurer. Too late George III. may have felt a twinge of remorse for
having married his sister against her will to a profligate and foolish
prince, and sent her, without a friend in the world, to encounter the
perils and temptations of a strange court in a far-off land. Moreover,
the political object for which Matilda had been sacrificed had signally
failed. The marriage had in no way advanced English interests in the
north. Russia and France had benefited by it, but England not at all.
Now there seemed a probability that, with the fall of the Russian
influence at Copenhagen, France, the enemy of England, would again be
in the ascendant there. Both personal and political reasons therefore
made it desirable that some remonstrance should be addressed to the
Queen of Denmark by her brother of England. The matter was of too
delicate and difficult a nature to be dealt with satisfactorily by
letter, and there was the fear that Struensee might intercept the
King's letter to the Queen. Even if he did not venture thus far,
he would be sure to learn its contents and seek to counteract its
influence. In this difficulty George III. took counsel with his mother,
with the result that on June 9, 1770, the Dowager-Princess of Wales set
out from Carlton House for the Continent. It was announced that she was
going to pay a visit to her daughter Augusta, Hereditary Princess of
Brunswick.
Royal journeys were not very frequent in these days, and as this was
the first time the Princess-Dowager had quitted England since her
marriage many years ago, her sudden departure gave rise to the wildest
conjectures. It was generally believed that she was going to meet Lord
Bute, who was still wandering in exile about Europe; some said that
she was going to bring him back to England for the purpose of fresh
intrigue; others that she was not returning to England at all, but
meant to spend the rest of her life with Bute in an Italian palace.
Against these absurd rumours was to be set the fact that the Duke of
Gloucester accompanied his mother, and more charitable persons supposed
that she was trying to break off his _liaison_ with Lady Waldegrave,
for their secret marriage had not yet been published. Some declared
that the Princess-Dowager and Queen Charlotte had had a battle royal,
in which the mother-in-law had been signally routed, and was leaving
the country to cover her confusion. Others, and this seemed the most
probable conjecture, thought that she was going abroad for a little
time to escape the scandal which had been brought upon the royal family
by her youngest son, Henry Frederick, Duke of Cumberland.
[Illustration: AUGUSTA, PRINCESS OF WALES, MOTHER OF QUEEN MATILDA.
_After a Painting by J. B. Vanloo._]
The Duke of Cumberland was the least amiable of the sons of Frederick
Prince of Wales. Physically and mentally he was a degenerate. Walpole
pictures him as a garrulous, dissipated and impudent youth, vulgarly
boasting his rank, yet with a marked predilection for low society.
Unfortunately he did not confine himself to it, but betrayed to her
ruin a young and beautiful woman of rank, the Countess Grosvenor,
daughter of Henry Vernon and wife of Richard, first Earl Grosvenor.
Lord Grosvenor discovered the intrigue, and brought an action of
divorce in which the Duke of Cumberland figured as co-respondent. For
the first time in England a prince of the blood appeared in the divorce
court, and, what was worse, cut a supremely ridiculous and contemptible
figure in it. Several of the Duke's letters to the Lady Grosvenor were
read in court, and were so grossly ill-spelt and illiterate that they
were greeted with shouts of derision, and furnished eloquent comment
upon the education of the King's brother.[133]
[133] Lord Grosvenor got his divorce, and the jury awarded him £10,000
damages, which the Duke had great difficulty in paying, and George
III., much to his disgust, had to arrange for settlement to avoid a
further scandal. So base a creature was this royal Lothario that he
abandoned to her shame the woman whom he had betrayed, and scarcely had
the verdict been pronounced than he began another disreputable intrigue.
It was easy to imagine, had there been no other reason, that the
Princess-Dowager of Wales would be glad to be out of England while
these proceedings were being made public. The King, who lived
a virtuous and sober life, and his intensely respectable Queen
Charlotte, were scandalised beyond measure at these revelations,
and the possibility of another, and even worse, scandal maturing in
Denmark filled them with dismay. At present the secret was well kept in
England. Whatever the English envoy might write in private despatches,
or Prince Charles of Hesse retail through his mother, or the Princess
Augusta transmit from Brunswick respecting the indiscretions of
Matilda, no whisper was heard in England at this time, outside the
inner circle of the royal family. Therefore all the conjectures as to
the reason of the Princess-Dowager's visit to the Continent were wide
of the mark. The real motive of her journey was not even hinted.
The Princess-Dowager was hooted as she drove through the streets of
Canterbury on her way to Dover, and so great was her unpopularity that
it was rumoured that London would be illuminated in honour of her
departure. The Princess, as announced, travelled first to Brunswick,
where she was received by her daughter Augusta and the rest of the
ducal family with honour and affection. It was arranged that the
King and Queen of Denmark, who were then at Traventhal, should also
journey to Brunswick and join the family circle. Everything was
prepared for their coming, the town was decorated and a programme of
festivities drawn up, when suddenly the Grand Marshal of the King of
Denmark arrived at Brunswick with the news that the Queen was ill,
and unable to travel so far. That Matilda's illness was feigned there
can be little doubt, for she was well enough the next day to go out
hunting as usual with Struensee by her side, and in the evening she
played cards until midnight. The incident showed how greatly the Queen
had changed, for Matilda's family affections were strong, and under
other circumstances she would have been overjoyed at the prospect of
meeting her mother after years of separation, and seeing again her
favourite sister Augusta. But Struensee knew that the journey of the
Princess-Dowager boded no good to his plans, and persuaded the Queen to
offer this affront to her mother.
The Princess-Dowager, who had a shrewd idea of the nature of her
daughter's illness, was not to be outwitted in this way, and she
proposed a meeting at Lüneburg, a town situated between Celle and
Hamburg, in the electorate of Hanover. Lüneburg was much nearer
Traventhal than Brunswick, and Matilda could not excuse herself on
the ground of the length of the journey. If she made that pretext,
the Princess-Dowager proposed to come to Traventhal, where she might
have seen more than it was desirable for her to see. So Struensee made
the Queen choose what he thought was the lesser evil, and write to
her mother that she would meet her at Lüneburg; but he was careful to
deprive the visit of every mark of ceremony, and to make it as brief as
possible.
The King and Queen of Denmark arrived at Lüneburg late in the evening,
attended only by Struensee and Warnstedt, who were seated in the coach
with them. Matilda did not bring with her a lady-in-waiting, and one
coach only followed with a couple of servants and some luggage. There
was no palace at Lüneburg, and the King and Queen lodged for the night
in one of the fine Renaissance houses in the main street of the old
town. The interview between the Princess-Dowager and her daughter took
place that same evening, late though it was. Struensee was present in
the room the whole time, though the Princess-Dowager pointedly ignored
him. She addressed her daughter in English, of which she knew Struensee
was ignorant, but to her anger and surprise Matilda pretended to have
forgotten it, and she answered always in German that Struensee might
understand. Under these circumstances the conversation was necessarily
constrained and formal; the Princess-Dowager did not conceal her
displeasure, and retired to bed discomfited.
The next morning at eleven o'clock she sent for her daughter again,
and this time succeeded in having a talk with her alone. What passed
between them cannot certainly be known, but its import was generally
guessed. The Princess-Dowager was said to have told her daughter that
the dismissal of Bernstorff would be much regretted by George III.,
as he had always been a friend of England and its royal family, and
it would, moreover, be disastrous to Denmark. Whereupon the Queen
haughtily rejoined: "Pray, madam, allow me to govern my kingdom as
I please". The Princess, annoyed by this want of respect, unmasked
her batteries forthwith, and roundly scolded her daughter for the
extraordinary favours she gave to Struensee. Matilda at first would not
listen, but when her mother persisted, and declared that her conduct
would end in disgrace and ruin, she retorted with an allusion to the
supposed _liaison_ between her mother and Lord Bute, which wounded the
Princess past forgiveness. The interview only widened the breach. As a
matter of form the King had invited his mother-in-law to Copenhagen,
but the invitation was now curtly refused. The Princess saw that she
could do no good, and she did not care to countenance by her presence
a state of affairs of which she did not approve. The King and Queen of
Denmark left Lüneburg in the afternoon, the Princess a few hours later;
mother and daughter parted in anger, and they never met again.
Struensee must have felt a great sense of relief when the King of
Denmark's coach rolled out of Lüneburg on the way back to Altona. He
had dreaded the meeting between the Queen and her mother, and had
striven to prevent it by every means in his power. But when that was no
longer possible, he had long and anxious consultations with the Queen,
and prompted her how she was to act and what she was to say. Even so he
could not be quite sure of the line the Princess-Dowager might take.
If she had spoken to her daughter gently, reasoned with her, pleaded
with her in love, and appealed to her with tears, she might have had
some effect, for Matilda was very warm-hearted and impressionable. But
these were not the stern Princess's methods; she had been accustomed
to command her children, and her haughty, overbearing tone and
contemptuous reproaches stung the spirited young Queen to the quick,
and made her resent what she called her mother's unjust suspicions
and unwarrantable interference. So the result was all that Struensee
wished. Woodford, who had been commanded by George III. to attend the
Princess-Dowager during her stay in Lüneburg, writes in a despatch of
"the agitation that was visible in Mr. Struensee upon his arrival first
at Lüneburg, and the joy that could be seen in his countenance as the
moment of departure approached".[134]
[134] Woodford's despatch to Lord Rochford, marked "private," Hamburg,
August 21, 1770.
Struensee now felt that the time was ripe for him to come forward as
the exponent of a new foreign policy for Denmark, and as the reformer
of internal abuses. He was no longer the doctor, but the councillor and
adviser of the Crown. He had flouted Russia and prevailed against the
influence of England. What power was there to withstand him?