By George! The King is Dead. Time to Party!

AUTHORS NOTE: I know I said this would be the last George blog, but I lied. My summing up will have to wait until next week because I haven’t dealt with His Majesties funeral or anything! My bad. 🙁

Said The Times of his Majesties passing:
“There never was an individual less regretted by his fellow creatures than the deceased King. What eye has wept for him? What heart has heaved one throb of unmercenary sorrow?…For the Leviathan of the haute ton, George IV, if ever he had a friend -a devoted friend from any rank of life- we protest that the name of him has never reached us.”

Tsk, tsk. He WAS the King, after all. The immediate cause of the King’s death was “the rupture of a blood vessel in the stomach.” Although the doctors also found “many of his internal organs were in an unhealthy condition.” Surprise! Among the first order of business was to open the will. According to Waten Waller, “His will was opened…there was nothing in it to annoy the present King.”

That may have been all fine and well for William, but for Lady Conyngham, alas, The Duke of Wellington was in charge of executing the will. He made official the King’s wish that Mrs Fitzherbert receive 10,000 pounds annually. He took care of other outstanding debts, but it would be years before all His Majesties creditors were satisfied, even then…But the late King’s desire that Lady Conyngham should get everything else? When pigs flew, as far as the Duke was concerned. He turned over the rest of the King’s worldly goods to William, secure in the knowledge that His New Majesty wouldn’t give Lady C a farthing.

Now, as my loyal readers know, George IV loved a spectacle. His coronation blow-out was managed by His soon-to-be-Majesty brilliantly, given the number of people involved, the multiple venues and the anticipated number of spectators. His dinner parties were legendary, particularly during his Regency. His funeral would be a spectacle as well. But not as His Majesty would have wished. According to one historian; “The scene inside the chapel, as far as could be discerned in the smoke from the Guardsmen’s guttering flambeaux, was far from dignified.”

King-to-be William loudly cracked off-color jokes, glad-handed people like a veteran politician and left before the service was over. According to one of the Times reporters; “We never saw so motley, so rude, so ill-managed a body of persons. They who first entered not only seized the best places, but prevented others from taking any.”

And William was hardly alone among the late King’s brothers to be less than devastated at the event. According to Agar-Ellis “Sussex and Cumberland looked awfully fierce in their black cloaks…Some of the figures in the chapel were incomparably absurd. The Duke of Buckingham squatting down in a stall, exhausted. (As well he might, he had to help carry the pall into the chapel. It took ten men.) looked exactly like a giant tortoise. The horrid nervous grimaces of the Duke of Norfolk and the awkward gestures of Lord Coyngham were all in their different ways most ludicrous.”

Such absurdity was seemingly lost on the general population. “Most people seemed indifferent, and the rich principally seemed concerned that his death would interfere with their plans for the summer.” Wrote one person. Bookmakers at Brook’s and other establishments had been kept busy taking bets on when His Majesty would snuff it.

All this is not to say that there were no touching moments or that no one cared. One such moment happened quite in private. With only the Duke of Wellington present. The King had requested that he be buried in his night clothes with “whatever ornaments might be upon his person at the time of his death.” Wellington promised that this would be done. It was not until after the king’s death that he realized why His Majesty had been so specific about “ornaments on his person.”

After the King had already been placed in his coffin, Wellington noticed a black ribbon around the King’s neck, curious, he “drew aside the collar of the night shirt to reveal a diamond locket containing the miniature portrait of Mrs Fitzherbert.” The Duke was quite touched by this. He told a Mrs. Dawson-Damer about it. She, in turn, told Mrs Fitzherbert. Mrs Fitzherbert said nothing. But it was seen “that some large tears fell from her eyes.”

The late King’s sisters were grief stricken. As Prince Regent and as King he had always been unfailingly kind to them. He tried to to run interference between the princesses and mom and dad, particularly mom, when there was trouble in that quarter. He tried to help them acquire “independent establishments” when life at the palace became intolerable.

Even Mme de Lieven, who said such catty things about him while he was alive , confessed that she heard the news of his death with “real sorrow.” She went on to say that “he was very polished. For my part I had never known a person like him, who was also affectionate, sympathetic and gallant.”

This was a point almost everyone who knew him had made. When he chose to be, he was the most polished gentleman on Earth. He could charm nearly anyone. Even his bitterest political enemies were caught off guard when they met him one on one. These are wonderful and admirable traits in a person, but they did not make him a good King. And a good king he was not. To the people of London, the passing of George IV was hardly a tragedy.

The streets had “more the appearance of rejoicing than mourning.” According to Lord Howick. There was “no sign of sorrow to be seen except a single shutter before the windows of the shops. It looked much more as if some good news had arrived than anything else.” Pick pockets had a field day among the crowds celebrating in the streets. “The quantity of watches, money, etc; that fell into the hands of the marauders was of an immense amount in value, almost to surpass belief.” Said Joseph Jekyll.

Also surpassing belief was the amount of public money spent on His Majesty over the course of his life. But more on that next week.

— Mr. Al