A Queen of Tears, Caroline Matilde, Queen of Denmark and Norway and Princess of Great Britain and Ireland
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LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OP CAUFOftNU SAN DIEGO A QUEEN OF TEARS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. THE LOVE OF AN UNCROWNED QUEEN: SOPHIE DOROTHEA, CONSORT OF GEORGE I. AND HER CORRESPONDENCE WITH PHILIP CHRISTOPHER, COUNT KONIGSMARCK. NEW AND REVISED EDITION. With 24 Portraits and Illustrations. 8vo, i2s. 6d. net. LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO., LONDON, NEW YORK AND BOMBAY. >//'</ . 4'r //</</.> j*i. // A QUEEN OF TEARS CAROLINE MATILDA, QUEEN OF DENMARK AND NORWAY AND PRINCESS OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND BY W. H. WILKINS M.A., F.S.A. " Author of" The Love ofan Uncrowned Queen," and Caroline the Illustrious, Queen Consort of George II." WITH ILLUSTRATIONS IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. I. LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON NEW YORK AND BOMBAY 1904 PREFACE SOME years ago, when visiting Celle in connection with a book I was writing on Sophie Dorothea, The Love of an Uncrowned Queen, I found, in an unfrequented garden outside the town, a grey marble monument of unusual beauty. Around the base ran an inscription to the effect that it was erected in loving memory of Caroline Matilda, Queen of Denmark and Norway, Princess of Great Britain and Ireland, who died at Celle in 1775, at the age of twenty-three years. To this may be traced the origin of this book, for until I saw the monument I had not heard of this English Princess a sister of George III. The only excuse to be offered for this ignorance is that it is shared by the great majority of Englishmen. For though the romantic story of Caroline Matilda is known to every Dane she is the Mary Stuart of Danish history her name is almost forgotten in the land of her birth, and this despite the fact that little more than a century ago her imprisonment nearly led to a war between England and Denmark. Inquiry soon revealed the full measure of my ignorance. The dramatic tale of Queen Caroline vi PREFACE Matilda and her unhappy love for Struensee, her Prime Minister, has been told in Danish, German, French and English in a variety of ways. Apart from history and biography, it has formed the theme of novels and plays, and even of an opera. The most trustworthy works on the Queen and Struensee are written in Danish, a language not widely read. In English nothing of importance has been written 1 about her for half a century, and, owing to the fact that many documents, then inaccessible, have since become available, the books are necessarily incom- plete, and most of them untrustworthy. Moreover, they have been long out of print. My object, therefore, in writing this book has been to tell once more the story of this forgotten "daughter of England" in the light of recent his- torical research. I may claim to have broken fresh ground. The despatches of Titley, Cosby, Gunning, Keith and Woodford (British Ministers at Copen- hagen, 1764-1775) and others, quoted in this book, are here published for the first time in any language. They yield authoritative information concerning the Queen's brief reign at the Danish court, and the character of the personages who took part, directly or indirectly, in the palace revolution of 1772. Even Professor E. Holm, of Copenhagen, in his admirable work, Danmark-Norges Historie (published in 1902), vol. iv. of which deals with the Matilda-Struensee 1 I except Dr. A. W. Ward's contribution to the Dictionary of National Biography, but this is necessarily brief. A list of the books which have been written about the Queen in different languages will be found in the Appendix. PREFACE vii period, is ignorant of these important despatches, which I found two years ago in the State Paper Office, London. To these are added many docu- the Archives at ments from Royal Copenhagen ; most of them, it is true, have been published in the Danish, but they are unknown to English readers. I have also, in connection with this book, more than once visited Denmark, and have had access to the Royal Archives at Copenhagen, and to the palaces in which the Queen lived during her un- happy life at the Danish court. I have followed her to Kronborg, where she was imprisoned, and to Celle, in Germany, where she died in exile. My researches at this latter place may serve to throw light on the closing (and little-known) years of the Queen's brief life. She rests at Celle by the side of her ancestress, Sophie Dorothea, whose life in many ways closely resembled her own. A word of explanation is perhaps necessary for the first few chapters of this book. In all the bio- graphies of Caroline Matilda written in any language, her life in England before her marriage has received scant consideration, probably on account of her ex- treme youth. As her parentage and education were largely responsible for the mistakes of her later years, I have sketched, with some detail, the characters of her father and mother, and her early environment. This plan has enabled me to describe briefly the English court from the death of Queen Caroline to the accession of George III., and so to form a link with my other books on the House of Hanover. viii PREFACE My thanks are due to Miss Hermione Ramsden for kindly translating for me sundry documents from the Danish to Mr. Louis of for ; Bobe, Copenhagen, much information and to the Editor of interesting ; the Nineteenth Century and After for allowing me to re-publish certain passages from an article I recently contributed to that review on Augusta, Princess of Wales. I must also thank the Earl of Wharncliffe for permitting me to reproduce the picture of Lord Bute at Wortley Hall, and Count Kielmansegg for similar permission with regard to the portrait of Madame de Walmoden at Giilzow. W. H. WILKINS. November, 1903. CONTENTS CHAPTER I. PAGE BIRTH AND PARENTAGE i CHAPTER II. CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 19 CHAPTER III. THE BETROTHAL 35 CHAPTER IV. THE TRAINING OF A KING 52 CHAPTER V. "THE NORTHERN SCAMP" 70 CHAPTER VI. MATILDA'S ARRIVAL IN DENMARK 84 CHAPTER VII. MARIAGE A LA MODE 106 CHAPTER VIII. AT THE COURT OF DENMARK 124 CHAPTER IX. THE BIRTH OF A PRINCE 138 CHAPTER X. CHRISTIAN VII. IN ENGLAND 152 CHAPTER XI. THE PRODIGAL'S RETURN 175 b x CONTENTS CHAPTER XII. PAGE STRUENSEE IQ3 CHAPTER XIII. THE TEMPTER 209 CHAPTER XIV. THE QUEEN'S FOLLY 228 CHAPTER XV. THE FALL OF BERNSTORFF 251 CHAPTER XVI. QUEEN AND EMPRESS 265 CHAPTER XVII. THE REFORMER 280 CHAPTER XVIII. THE ORDER OF MATILDA 303 CHAPTER XIX. THE DICTATOR 328 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS QUEEN MATILDA (Photogravure). From the Painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1766 Frontispiece LEICESTER HOUSE, WHERE QUEEN MATILDA WAS BORN Facing page 4 FREDERICK, PRINCE OF WALES, FATHER OF QUEEN MATILDA. From the Painting by J. B. Vanloo at Warwick Castle, by permission of the Earl of Warwick ,, 14 MADAME DE WALMODEN, COUNTESS OF YARMOUTH. From the Painting at Giilzow, by permission of Count Kielmansegg , 24 JOHN, EARL OF BUTE. From the Painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds at Worthy Hall, by permission of the Earl of Wharncliffe , ,, 36 THE ELDER CHILDREN OF FREDERICK AND AUGUSTA, PRINCE AND PRINCESS OF WALES, PLAYING IN KEW GARDENS. From a Painting, temp, 1750 50 QUEEN LOUISE, CONSORT OF FREDERICK V. OF DENMARK AND DAUGHTER OF GEORGE II. OF ENGLAND. From a Painting by Pilo in the Frederiksborg Palace 62 KING CHRISTIAN VII. From the Painting by P. Wichman, 1766 76 KEW PALACE, WHERE QUEEN MATILDA PASSED MUCH OF HER From an GIRLHOOD. Engraving, temp. 1751 ,, go THE MARRIAGE BALL OF CHRISTIAN VII. AND QUEEN MATILDA IN THE CHRISTIANSBORG PALACE. From a Print Contemporary ,, 104 THE CHRISTIANSBORG PALACE, COPENHAGEN. From an Old Print, temp. 1768 120 ii xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS EDWARD, DUKE OF YORK, BROTHER OF QUEEN MATILDA. From the Painting by G. H. Every .... Facing page 132 QUEEN MATILDA RECEIVING THE CONGRATULATIONS OF THE COURT ON THE BlRTH OF THE CROWN PRINCE FREDERICK. From a Contemporary Print . 142 CARLTON HOUSE, PALL MALL, THE RESIDENCE OF THE PRINCESS-DOWAGER OF WALES. From a Print, temp. 1765 156 THE MASKED BALL GIVEN BY CHRISTIAN VII. AT THE OPERA HOUSE, HAYMARKET. From the "Gentleman's Magazine," 1768 ....... M M 172 THE PALACE OF FREDERIKSBORG, FROM THE GARDEN TERRACE. From an Engraving, temp. 1768 ,, 180 WILLIAM HENRY, DUKE OF GLOUCESTER, BROTHER OF QUEEN MATILDA. From the Painting by H. W. Hamilton, 1771 ,, 190 STRUENSEE. From an Engraving, 1771 ....,, 206 QUEEN SOPHIA MAGDALENA, GRANDMOTHER OF CHRIS- TIAN VII , 226 AUGUSTA, PRINCESS OF WALES, MOTHER OF QUEEN MATILDA. After a Painting by J. B. Vanloo . 244 GEORGE III., BROTHER OF QUEEN MATILDA. From a Painting by Allan Ramsay (1767) in the National Portrait Gallery .in 264 THE FREDERIKSBERG PALACE, NEAR COPENHAGEN. From a Print, temp. 1770 282 THE PALACE OF HIRSCHHOLM, TEMP. 1770 ...,, 304 Two RELICS OF QUEEN MATILDA IN THE ROSENBORG CASTLE, COPENHAGEN, (i) THE INSIGNIA OF THE . ORDER OF MATILDA ; (2) THE WEDDING GOBLET 330 QUEEN MATILDA AND HER SON, THE CROWN PRINCE OF DENMARK. From the Painting at the Rosenberg, Copenhagen ,, 348 CHAPTER I. BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. CAROLINE MATILDA, Queen of Denmark and Nor- way, Princess of Great Britain and Ireland (a sister of George III.), was born at Leicester House, London, on Thursday, July 22, 1751. She was the ninth and youngest child of Frederick Prince of Wales and of his wife Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, and came into the world a little more than four months after her father's death.