Why the Prince of
Wales, the son of King
George III agreed to marry the fat, ugly and tactless Caroline of
Brunswick is something of a mystery, except that he needed the money!
The
Prince of Wales, know as Prinny, was a well known womanizer and at the
age of 17 he had an affair with an actress Mary Robinson. When he was 23
he fell in love with a beautiful Catholic, Mrs Fitzherbert. He was so
besotted with her that he persuaded her to go through with a secret
marriage, or he would kill himself. The marriage was conducted in
secrecy in her house where a Church of England clergyman performed the
ceremony for a fee of £500.
They were very happy
together for eight years but by then Prinny was in debt to the tune of
£630,000, a tremendous sum in those days.
The only way that he
could pay off his debts was to marry and furnish the country with an
heir, then parliament would pay his debts.
In
1795 Prinny was introduced to his potential bride, Caroline of Brunswick.
Caroline was short, fat, ugly and never changed her undergarments,
and rarely washed! Her body odor was overwhelming.
After embracing her,
Prinny retired to the far end of the room and said to the Earl of
Malmesbury - "Harris, I am not very well, pray get me a glass of
brandy".
He continued to
drink brandy for three days until the morning of the wedding.
He was so drunk on
their wedding night that he collapsed into the bedroom grate and
remained there until dawn! Nevertheless, their only child Princess
Charlotte was conceived, so he obviously managed to do what was required
of him by his country.
Prinny found
Caroline so disgusting that he refused to live with her and a year after
their wedding he sent her a note tactfully informing her that she could
do as she liked, as he would not be having 'relations' with her again.
Caroline took this to mean that she could do as she wished and so she
did!
Rejected by her
husband she went to live at Blackheath London where her behavior
became a little extreme. In her room she had a clockwork Chinese figure
that performed gross sexual movements when wound-up. She also was given
to dancing around in front of her guests in a manner that was most
indelicate, exposing most of her body.
In 1806 rumors
began to circulate that a four year-old child in her entourage William
Austin was her son. His father was said to be a footman.
A Royal Commission
was set-up, called the 'Delicate Investigation' but nothing could
be proved against her.
In 1814 Caroline
left England and proceeded to shock the people of Europe! She danced at
a Ball in Geneva naked to the waist, and in Naples she became the
mistress of King Joachim, Napoleon's brother-in-law.
In January 1820 King
George III died and Prinny became King George IV and so Caroline became
Queen!
The government in
England offered Caroline £50,000 if she would stay out of the country,
but she refused and came back where she settled in Hammersmith to the
intense embarrassment of all concerned.
On the 17th
August the House of Lords took the offensive by demanding that Caroline
appear before them. The aim of the House of Lords was to dissolve the
marriage on the grounds that Caroline had been involved with a man
called Bartolomeo Bergami, ('a foreigner of low station') in a most
degrading intimacy!
Caroline was
very popular with the London 'mob', King George was not, and they
surrounded the House of Lords every day, her coach escorted by the
cheering mob whenever she had to appear there. The evidence against her
was plentiful. It seems that during a cruise she slept on deck in a tent
with Bergami and took her baths with him in full view of the other
servants. In Italy her mode of dress was bizarre to say the least,
dresses open as far as her stomach.
After 52 days the
divorce clause was carried but after the brilliant oratory of Lord
Brougham in her defense, the Lords decided to drop it.
George IV's
Coronation was to be the 29th April 1821. Caroline asked the
Prime Minister what dress to wear for the ceremony and was told that she
would not be taking part in it.
Nevertheless
Caroline arrived at the Abbey door on the day demanding to be admitted.
She shouted "The Queen…Open" and the pages opened the door.
"I am the Queen of England," she shouted and an official
roared at the pages "Do your duty…shut the door" and the
door was slammed in her face.
Undaunted,
Caroline drove back to her house and sent a note to the King asking for
a Coronation 'next Monday'!
She
died 19 days after her frustrated attempt to get into the Abbey.
She
was buried in Brunswick, and on her coffin was inscribed… 'CAROLINE
THE INJURED QUEEN OF ENGLAND'