By George! “Now, about my allowance….”

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The Prince was wishing on moonbeams if he thought he would get 100,000 pounds. Negotiations dragged on. In the end Fox convinced the Prince to accept the 50,000 from the civil list and the Cornwall revenues with the understanding that a capital sum of 60,000 pounds would be provided separately, by Parliament. When would that happen? Um…later. The Prince accepted “in the handsomest manner.” Said Fox.

Carlton House was part of the deal. At the time the Prince took possession of it, it was nothing like the palace it would become. It was in Pall Mall, then, as now, a high rent neighborhood. And it had a garden that, in splendor, was all out of proportion to the house itself. The Prince’s grandmother, the Princess Dowager of Wales, a title once held by Anne of Cleves, had seen to that. She had spent lavishly on the garden and it was considered the most beautiful in London.

In fact, one of the Kings conditions for allowing the Prince to have the house was that he maintain the garden. He did. It was the scene of many a famous, or infamous, party. And now that the house was his, the Prince could begin an obsession that would last the rest of his life and put him millions of modern dollars in debt. Building and remodeling.

Didn’t the Czarina have the Winter Palace in St Petersburg? Didn’t the King of France have Versailles? Was his Highness supposed to be like his old man, saving candle stubs and toasting muffins in the fireplace? Not likely, Buster! The Prince had taste. He was not going to hide that under a bushel, thank you very much!

While building and expanding, he bought art. He bought furniture imported from around the world just for him. He sent buyers to France, Italy, the Netherlands, even the Middle East, to search for objects d’art, The finest china and crystal stemware for his dinner parties. Gold and silver plate, Gobelin tapestries, walls paneled in silk, nothing was too good, or too expensive.

By the spring of 1784 the house was ready for the Prince’s first official ball. People were stunned by the magnificence and expense of it all. So was the King. In letter after letter he admonished his boy to be more frugal. Yes, he had to maintain the garden and His Majesty realized that that was expensive. Of course the house needed repairs, His Majesty was aware that upgrades had not been done in a timely manner. But damn it all boy, silk wallpaper?

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