Last week when I posted http://aliceaudrey.wordpress.com/2008/03/11/by-george-what-a-mess/ what I was really supposed to post was what follows. My apologies. Go ahead Mr. Al:
Although there were many stories of the Princes bad behavior during this time, The truth seems to be that he behaved himself. More or less. Those close to the Royal Family reported that the Prince’s behavior was sober and solicitous. By the end of November, when it became clear the King would not quickly improve, it was decided to move him to the palace at Kew. There were some problems with this.
First, the palace at Kew was a summer residence. It wasn’t insulated, its fireplaces were more or less decorative, it was drafty as a belfry, there was no winter bedding or food and it had been shut up since the end of summer. Secondly, the King didn’t want to go there. This was a small matter, because the King was now under the care of Doctor Francis Willis. Dr. Willis had some decidedly medieval ideas about mental illness, among them was, because the patient is insane, the patient is always wrong.
Dr. Willis cared not a whit that the King was the King. If there was to be any improvement in His Majesties condition, then he, Dr. Willis, must have complete control. His Majesty was not willing to submit to yet another quack. That didn’t matter either. Dr. Willis had the confidence of the Queen, and that was, in the final analysis, what counted. For the unruly King there was the “Throne;” Basically an electric chair without the electricity. Whenever George acted up, he got the throne. Whenever his Majesty made “crazy” talk, the throne. Refuse to take his medicine? The throne.
Faced with a trip to Kew in the throne, the King submitted quietly. He didn’t stay that way once he got there. After arriving, he was informed that he would not be allowed to see the Queen or his daughters. This was counter to what he had been promised earlier. He became excessively violent; he “swore and uttered strange indecencies.” This was to be par for the course for the foreseeable future.
While all this was going on, conflicting doctor’s reports were causing panic to set in. Stocks were being affected, no politician could be certain of his position. The Tories didn’t know if they would be keeping their jobs. The Whigs didn’t know if they would be getting the Tories jobs. The government was afraid to make long range plans. As if all this were not enough, it seemed, at least to the Prince and the Duke, that the Queen was going far out of her way to poison relations between the two and the rest of the family.
They claimed that whenever they tried to visit, Her Majesty refused to allow them to even look in on their father, let alone talk to him. It was certainly true that Her Majesty had instituted strict visitation rules when it came to the boys. However, she had reason. The King had already reacted violently to an earlier visit. In fact, it had taken three gentlemen-in-waiting to prevent the King from bashing the Prince’s head in. I think the Queen could be forgiven for not wishing to risk a repeat performance.
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