By George! The Prince’s Ship Almost, Maybe, Comes In

Between her own behavior, the rumors running around, and the reaction of the crown, Princess Caroline had found herself in a lot of hot water. Let’s see how the Prince was doing.

While the situation with his wife was not improving, the Prince’s political prospects had improved markedly. In 1805, the Addington government collapsed. This created opportunities for the Whigs that they were quick to take advantage of. The party’s fortunes further increased with the death of Pitt, at age 46, in1806. The new government, which became known as the “ministry of all the talents” was stacked in the Whigs favor. Lord Grenville, a longtime Fox ally, became Prime Minister.

With his appointment he demanded that Fox be appointed Foreign Secretary. The King acquiesced to this with a glum “I thought so.” When Fox visited the Queens apartments to kiss the Royal Hands as a mark of his willingness to serve Their Majesties, he was pleasantly surprised to discover the Queen being very civil toward him. It was a great surprise to many others considering that the Queen had refused to speak to Fox since 1788.

Other prominent Whigs filled out the administration. Earl Spencer became Home Secretary. William Windham, the Secretary for War and the Colonies. Charles Grey, whom we met earlier when the Prince tried to get him to publically explain away his sort-of marriage to Mrs. Fitzherbert; became First Lord of the Admiralty. The Prince’s old chum, the Earl of Moira, became Master General of the Ordinance. Other offices were filled with Good Party Men.

All in all, the Prince was looking at blue skies and smooth sailing. That didn’t stop him from complaining that he had not been closely consulted as regarded appointments. He had borrowed money from some of those fellows! What if they wanted it back!? What the Prince had apparently failed to notice was that there had been a seismic shift in government power.

As Lord Melville had pointed out, power had passed from the King to his son. Never before in the Prince’s life had he had such potential to wield supreme executive power. Yes, the King was still alive, but he was not at all well. And making long range plans on the bet that he would get well, and stay that way, was not where the smart money was going. Indeed, the Prince was now “looked up to as the fountain of office, honor, and emoluments.” Nice work if you could get it. The Prince was not in the least shy about asking the government to take care of his chums. After all, the Prince was now His Royal, but not quite yet, Majesty.

Said Lord Holland, the Prince’s recommendations were “greatly attended to.” What a lucky fellow the Prince was, except for one small detail. All these offices now occupied by the Whigs had people in them before they came along. The previous office holders were, of course, Tories. The “ins” were now the “outs.” And like “outs” throughout history, they immediately started laying plans to get back in. They had a firm friend to help them. Princess Caroline.

Just as the Prince had turned Carlton House into a Whig dinner party venue, so Princess Caroline’s Montague House became the gathering spot for disaffected Tories. Princess Caroline had no more political sense than her husband. But, like her husband, she didn’t need any. Her value to the Tory party was not what she knew or could do for them in the immediate future. Her prime value rested in who she would one day become, the Queen of England.

One thing that needed tending to was her reputation. Not much could be done about the gossip; particularly since Caroline herself couldn’t see the problem with her behavior. Something could be done, however, about the “delicate investigation.” The Prince had hoped for proof of adultery He didn’t get it. The commissioners, did tell the Prince he had every right to believe his wife had committed adultery, even if they couldn’t prove it. They basically told Princess Caroline, “Prove you are not having sex outside your marriage.”

How she was supposed to prove the improvable was her problem. The commission’s final report had already cost her the confidence of her uncle, the King. She was banished from all family functions while her daughter was being raised in Their Majesties household. The Princess’s new Tory friends were going to go to work on the commission’s report and drive a stake through its heart. Lord Castlereagh, former Secretary of State for War, Lord Eldon, former Lord Chancellor, The Duke of Cumberland, the Princesses brother in law and an arch-conservative and former Attorney General Spencer Perceval were on the case.

One fact was glaringly evident. The Princess was never allowed to appear before the commission and defend herself. Much of the “evidence” wasn’t evidence at all in any legitimate legal sense. It was salon gossip given a thin veneer of evidential fact mainly by virtue of it being accepted as evidence by the commission. Nearly all the witnesses that presented the most damning stories were long time employees of the Prince before taking positions in Caroline’s household. Even the commission had a hard time justifying the inclusion of their stories into the public record.

What Caroline’s supporters wanted to accomplish first, was to restore Her Highness’s reputation with the King and Queen. His Majesty was sympathetic, but he REALLY did not wish to revisit that unholy mess. Caroline’s supporters had no intention letting him ignore it. With the Whigs in Whitehall, only His Majesty could restore her good name. But he had to do so publically.

All of his adult life King George the Third found himself being forced to deal with problems he would have preferred avoiding simply because the politicians he counted on to take care of things failed him. As occasionally happened, these politicians discovered that it was to their advantage to let the King take the heat for unpopular measures. The business of the commission’s final report was just such a situation.

His Majesty, however, knew a skunk when he smelled one and had his own plan for dealing with the report without getting sprayed.

– Mr. Al