By George! What to Do With The Woman?

Mr. Al has now brought us well into the Regency, touching on such topics as Tsar Alexander, and Boue Brummel, but what of his dear wife, Princess Caroline?

The Prince’s treatment of his wife netted her a great deal of public sympathy. While he could exclude her from his personal life and from official functions, his control over her personal life was limited. He had to support her, parliament made sure of that. As long as she had her own household, he couldn’t really control who visited her. He was especially put out by the fact that many members of his own family would accept her invitations to come visit.

The Dukes of Gloucester, Sussex and Kent visited, as did the Duchess of York. Lord Byron dropped in from time to time. Many socially prominent people would come by. Some because they liked her, others because they knew they could twist the Prince Regent’s tail by doing so. For a while she was happy. She didn’t wish to be in her husbands company any more that he wanted her there. As far as she was concerned her Dear Husband could shag whomever he pleased. It was his reputation that suffered, not hers.

But the fact remained, she was the Princess of Wales, future Queen of England. And her brandy soaked whore-monger of a husband was getting away with treating her like an old boot. It was galling. More than that, it was boring. She felt she was missing out on the full social life she would have otherwise enjoyed as befitted a woman of her station.

That was another problem, although she didn’t realize it. She was the Princess of Wales. Officially, her station was so far above anyone else’s no one could tell her what to do. The only people who could, in theory, make her behave were her husband, the King and the Queen. Her husband didn’t care enough to really try, the King couldn’t and the Queen absolutely did not want to get involved. She considered the Princess to be a trial visited upon the Royal Family because of her son’s madding indifference to the whole subject of marriage. It wasn’t in her job description to fix that.

As her parents tried to warn anyone who would listen, the Princess, left to her own devices, would behave very badly indeed. Said Lady Charlotte Campbell, “She was always seeking amusement. And unfortunately often at the expense of prudence and propriety.” That was putting it mildly. Her choice of company was questionable. Her parties with the Better Sorts were leavened with persons of, if not low birth, then exceedingly bad manners.

Among her favorites was an Italian musician named Sapio. He brought along his entire family, also musicians. Although what they played did not impress Caroline’s English guests as music at all. “The horrible din of their music hardly stopped all evening.” Said Lady Campbell. Her Highnesses musical taste, or lack thereof, was among her lesser problems. Said Lady Elizabeth Foster; “No one has any doubts of the Princess having had attachments and even intrigues.” She went on to say that everyone was in agreement as to the Princesses “imprudence of conduct, indelicacy of manner and conversation, and criminal attachments.”

It was these “criminal attachments” that sparked the most comment and fueled the most salacious gossip. And all of London was absolutely mad for gossip. It also provided the Prince Regent with the ammunition he needed to keep Princess Charlotte away from mum. For a time, Charlotte could visit with mom once a week. This was changed to once every two weeks after the Prince decided that his wifes behavior was becoming especially bad.

While Caroline complained that being deprived of her daughters company was pain beyond endurance, Princess Charlotte was not particularly put out. Nor did she try to hide the fact that she found her mother a bore. Charlotte wrote of her unpleasant “duty” to call on mom at Kensington. She didn’t much care for visiting her father either. Although her dad wasn’t the problem. The Prince Regent had yet to display any Royal Backbone as regarded his brother, the Duke of Cumberland. Cumberland still clung to him like a tick. He seemed particularly in evidence when Charlotte came to visit. He would regale his niece with “rude banter and indecent jokes.” He also seemed to enjoy physically teasing her. Charlotte found him creepy in the extreme and detested him.

One thing became apparent early on. Charlotte was the weapon of choice for both parents. Neither mom nor dad were in the least bothered by thoughts of what this may have been doing to their daughter. While Caroline was quite public in venting her distress at being deprived of her beloved daughters company, largely at the insistence of her Whig advisor, Lord Brougham, she privately confessed to Lady Charlotte Lindsey that she delighted in using her daughter in her “warfare with the royal family.”

One tactic was to call on the Queen, unannounced, claiming that she had to see her daughter immediately. The once every fortnight visits were not enough! If the Queen were foolish enough to allow her an audience, which she did a couple of times, Caroline would launch into a laundry list of her son’s many sins and demand that Her Majesty do something about him. She usually asked for more money as well. Why, you couldn’t keep a flea alive on the pittance parliament had to pry out of her offish hubby’s grasping claws.

Caroline overplayed her hand rather badly with that one. At first, the Queen refused to see her. Then she refused to allow Caroline access to Windsor at all unless invited by Her Majesty, and Her Majesty only. This was to stop Caroline from cadging invitations to visit from the princesses in the “Windsor Nunnery.”

At one point, Caroline decided on a formal protest of her husbands behavior. A letter was sent to the Prince Regent. It was written by Lord Brougham, signed by Caroline and dispatched. It was soon returned, unopened, with the explanation that the Regent had “some years ago declared that he never would receive any letter or paper from the Princess. He intended to adhere to that determination.” Gosh, I wonder what caused him to say that?

The Princess would NOT be ignored. Lord Brougham, with Caroline’s consent, had the letter published in the Morning Chronicle. Which raises an interesting point about the press in that day and age.