When we left off, Mr. Al hinted that George’s next “true love” would not be a goody-two shoes like Miss Hamilton. Boy was he right. Take it away, Mr. Al.
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The lucky lady was Mrs. Mary Robinson. She was the beautiful daughter of an American whaling ship captain and an Irish actress. Dad abandoned the family when Mary was quite young to set up a whaling station in Canada and live with the Eskimos.Mom took Mary to London and enrolled her in a dance academy while she continued her acting career. Mary’s dance instructor noticed that she seemed to have a certain something, acting wise, and brought her to the attention of David Garrick, one of the most famous actors of the English stage. He auditioned her, gave her some small roles, liked what he saw and finally offered her the role of Juliet.
She was a hit. Before the season was out she was the toast of the London stage. She was also, unbeknownst to most people; a former jailbird and a lady who collected rich lovers the way others would collect snuff boxes. The stint in jail wasn’t her fault. Her high living husband got himself into a jam over gambling debts and went on the street to get the money to pay them off.
Bad mistake. When he couldn’t pay THOSE debts off, he was tossed into prison. Back in those days it wasn’t considered Christian to separate a man from his loving family just because he was naughty. So they threw Mary and their infant daughter into the jug as well. By the time they got out, the couple seemed to have reached an understanding. Mary was going back on stage and she was going to have rich boyfriends. Hubby was going to keep his mouth shut and disappear when she was entertaining said boyfriends.
Mary discovered the Prince’s intentions during a Royal Command performance of “A Winters Tale” She had been cast as Perdita. At one point she was standing at the edge of the stage, directly beneath the Prince’s box. She heard him make the most complimentary statements about her. Jeepers! She was flattered to distraction! What she hadn’t considered was that, standing where she was, the Prince had an unobstructed view of one of her more notable physical features. I’ll bet he said nice things about her!
After the usual flood of letters, notes and messages sent through trusted friends, the Prince and Mary began to see each other, secretly, they thought, throughout the winter of 1777-78. Nothing about the Prince stayed secret for long. Soon the relationship was the talk of London. This didn’t bother the Prince overly much because he soon got bored with Mary and began to look for another True Love.
Before their final parting, however, the Prince went and did something really stupid. He promised, verbally at first, then in writing when Mary insisted on it, to give Mary 20,000 pounds sterling when he turned twenty-one. She held him to it when he tried to break up. He tried ignoring her. She went to the King. The king was appalled. The Prince still tried to weasel out of it. Mary threatened to have his love letters published. That did the trick. No pun intended.
Mary finally settled on 5,000 cash upfront and a 500 pound annuity for the rest of her life. That annuity would continue to be paid to her daughter after Mary’s death to the tune of 250 pounds per year. All this while the Prince was still sixteen. Mum and dad were fit to be tied. Dad, true to form, sent his son a long letter on the subject of proper behavior while he lived under their roof. Basically, the Prince was under house arrest.
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And she actually got the money? Amazing.
Alice
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