“judge what it was to have a drunken husband on one’s wedding day, and one who passed the greatest part of his bridal night under the grate, where he fell, and where i left him.” leslie carroll examines the malodorous mésalliance of caroline of brunswick and king george iv Not so sweet Caroline arris, i am not well, get me a princesses were deemed eligible, and most of glass of brandy,” the Prince of them were to be found amid the tiny German Wales said curtly. James Harris, duchies. “One damned German frau is as the Earl of Malmesbury, good as another,” George insisted, informing embarrassed for both Caroline and the his father “very abruptly” in August 1794 HPrince, diplomatically endeavoured to that he had “broken all connections with smooth things over. “Sir, had you not better Mrs Fitzherbert” and was ready to begin “a have a glass of water?” more creditable line of life” by marrying the “No,” the Prince replied, adding an oath Princess of Brunswick. presumably too crude for Malmesbury to That autumn the Earl of Malmesbury record in his diary. “I will go directly to the was dispatched to Brunswick, charged Queen.” George then turned on his heels and with escorting Caroline to England. His strode out of the room without another word. diary entry describes her “pretty face – not The astonished 26-year-old Caroline expressive of softness – her figure not graceful of Brunswick, first cousin to the Prince of – fine eyes – tolerable teeth, but going – Wales, inquired of Malmesbury (in French): fair hair and light eyebrows, good bust “My God! Is the Prince always like that? I – short, with what the French call épaules find him very fat and nothing as handsome impertinentes [broad shoulders]… Vastly as his picture.” happy with her future expectations…” The royal match, made first in haste and However, Malmesbury quickly realised then in Hanover, might just as well have that Caroline was thoroughly unsuited to begun in Hell. The Prince had not planned becoming Princess of Wales. Although to take a wife – beyond the Catholic Maria her own father admitted that her high Fitzherbert, whom he had clandestinely spirits (bordering on nymphomania) were wed a decade earlier (see JARW No.39). It ungovernable, her hoydenism was nothing was only the sheer magnitude of his debts compared to her hygiene. In an era when – which by 1794 had topped £600,000 – nearly everyone had bad teeth, hers were and his father’s promise to pay them on his worse and Malmesbury had to introduce wedding day that spurred his decisions to her to a brush and tooth powder as well as assume the invalidity of his secret marriage the joys of soap and water. Malmesbury also Samuel Lane’s portrait of Queen Caroline. and to find a suitable bride. discovered that Caroline’s undergarments – From Kings & Queens by Richard Cavendish The pickings were slim; only Protestant her “coarse petticoats and shifts and thread and Pip Leahy © David & Charles Ltd 34 35 Caroline’s wedding to George, from George III: a life in caricature, by Kenneth Baker © Thames & Hudson stockings” – were not only shabby, but were haired bride glittered with diamonds and filthy and smelled rank, “never well washed or grinned from ear to ear, almost bursting with changed often enough”. happiness. In contrast, the podgy, drunk On Easter Sunday, April 5, 1795, the groom, who had made it down the aisle quite future bride and groom met for the first literally supported by two unmarried dukes, time in the Duke of Cumberland’s rooms wept through the ceremony when he wasn’t at St James’s Palace. In accordance with the ogling Lady Jersey. At one point, the Prince protocol that she had struggled to absorb, rose to his feet in the middle of the service, Caroline, vulgarly dressed and overly rouged, looking as though he were about to bolt. thanks to the malevolent coaching of the Potentially the most embarrassing Prince’s mistress, Lady Jersey, curtseyed moment came when the Archbishop set deeply to George, a florid faced, heavyset down the book after asking whether any dandy with powdered ringlets. According person knew of “a lawful impediment why to Malmesbury: “He raised her (gracefully the couple should not be joined together enough) and embraced her, said barely one in holy matrimony”. The air was thick with word, turned round [and] returned to a tension. Would someone mention the distant part of the apartment.” This retreat Catholic Mrs Fitzherbert, to whom the was followed by the now famous request for Prince was illegally wed? The Archbishop brandy. looked long and hard from the Prince to the Was it Caroline’s looks or her body King and back again. The chapel remained odour that repulsed the Prince of Wales? silent and the ceremony continued. Malmesbury had cautioned the princess to On his wedding night, through a haze of wash herself thoroughly all over. brandy, the Prince must have gritted his teeth As the wedding approached the King and thought of £600,000 (£46 million, or and Queen subtly offered their heir an “out”. $74 million, in today’s money), fantasising Her Majesty drew the Prince aside and told about the improvements that he could now him: “You know, George, it is for you to say make to his home, Carlton House. whether you can marry the Princess or not.” Caroline was mortified, humiliated and But the Prince was dreaming of a clean disgusted by his behavior. She confided to credit report; as distasteful as things were, he Lady Charlotte Campbell: “Judge what it was was not about to back out. Caroline, too, was to have a drunken husband on one’s wedding ever the pugnacious Brunswicker. She knew day, and one who passed the greatest part of that the prize was not George – it was queen his bridal night under the grate, where he fell, of England. and where I left him.” George, who started drinking steadily Miraculously, during one of George’s three days earlier, and Caroline were three drunken and disappointing married in the hot, stuffy and remarkably performances in the bedroom he successfully ill-illuminated Chapel Royal on the evening impregnated Caroline. No one was more of April 8, 1795. Clad in silver tissue lace surprised than she, given the brief and festooned with ribbons and bows and a robe unhappy saga of their sex life. of ermine-lined velvet, the dumpy flaxen- On January 17, 1796, Caroline of 36 37 Brunswick gave birth to “an immense girl”, Commission of Cabinet ministers to examine Princess Charlotte. The succession now the witnesses who had provided it. secured, the kingdom rejoiced. So did the The proceedings, called “The Delicate Prince of Wales. His duty done, he assured Investigation”, began on June 1, 1806. At issue Malmesbury that “the child just born ... was Caroline’s alleged adulterous behavior certainly will be the last as I declare I can and whether William Austin, a boy whom never approach [Caroline] again, for she she had adopted as an infant in 1802, was in never washes or wipes any part of her body”. fact Caroline’s illegitimate son. Indeed, the arrival of Charlotte did not After hospital records revealed that reunite the Waleses in a lovefest of domestic Willy Austin was the son of an unemployed harmony and marital bliss. In fact, George dock worker and his wife, the Lord took great pains to avoid seeing his wife. Commissioners ruled, on July 4, 1806, that the Caroline was instructed to remain more or Prince had no grounds for a divorce because less secluded in London with a short list of his wife had been cleared of committing socially appropriate visitors – including her any specific crime. Nevertheless, Caroline’s Lady of the Bedchamber, none other than the indiscreet conduct resulted in the termination Prince’s mistress Lady Jersey. Known as the of all contact with her daughter, Princess Carlton House System, it was George’s way Charlotte. of keeping his wife “in order lest she should Caroline was in marital purgatory, in her keep me so”. words “a princess and no princess, a married Caroline was utterly miserable. Lady woman and no husband – never was dere a Sheffield, who dined with the Princess in poor devil in such a plight as I”. Brighton in late July 1796, noted that “her In 1814, after enduring nearly twenty lively spirits which she brought over with her years as a royal outcast, the Princess of Wales are all gone, and they say the melancholy and made the decision to leave England for the anxiety in her countenance is quite affecting”. Continent. At the age of 46 she embarked, The Waleses mutually agreed to separate on August 9, attended by an assortment in the spring of 1796, never again to sleep of English attendants and companions. In together and to remain man and wife in a desire to travel anonymously, she styled name only. The formal separation agreement herself as the Countess of Wolfenbüttel, was finalised in December and in the despite the large box that she always carried summer of 1798 Caroline took up residence in marked “Her Royal Highness, Princess of Montague House at the edge of Greenwich Wales, to be always with her”. As her ship put Park. The following year she was regularly out to sea, she was observed to be weeping. entertaining several of the most prominent In Italy Caroline began an affair with Cabinet ministers – including the Prime 32-year-old Bartolomeo Pergami, a tall, dark Minister himself, William Pitt. Indulging and handsome stud from an affluent Crema her flirtatious personality, she was rumored to family.