By George! The Duke of Clarence Makes Himself At Home

As we saw last week, Prince William sailed the seven seas, just the way George III liked it, up until something better came along. Any guesses what?

The change, as was often the case with these boys, was a lady. Sailor Billy, or the Duke of Clarence, as he was now officially known, had met the woman of his dreams. Her name was Dorothea Jordan. She was a famous comic actress of the London stage. This was good because she would need a sense of humor for her relationship with The Duke.

She was three years younger than Sailor Billy and already had four children. By two different men. Neither of whom she was married to. But that was the sort of technicality that Sailor Billy refused to be bothered by. How unbothered was he? The Duke and Dorothea went on to have ten kids of their own, five boys and five girls.

For a number of reasons the Admiralty felt that Billy should leave off being a sailor. The Navy was finally beginning to acknowledge that the harsh disciplines that the Navy was infamous for were counter productive. There had already been some well-publicized mutinies over the matter and public opinion came down firmly on the side of the “tars”, as the common sailors were known. Sailor Billy had a well-earned reputation as a particularly harsh captain. Even his brother officers were afraid of him. Now that he was officially a Duke, the Navy saw a way to gracefully get rid of him.

His taste for the lash was not the only reason the navy wanted him out of the way. As a Duke, he now had the right to speak his mind in the House of Lords. He did so without restraint. In 1793 he made a series of speeches in defense of the slave trade. This was very hot button issue in England at the time. It was not something the Royal Family wanted to be associated with. Nor was the Navy keen to have its more prominent officers make pro-slavery speeches.

At one point The Duke felt obliged to apologize to William Wilberforce, an MP who would become famous on both sides of the Atlantic as an abolitionist. The Prince shrugged off his brother’s speeches with the remark that William was “as good natured a fellow as existed; he meant no harm; but he paid not the smallest regard to the truth.”

While these brothers were being allowed to try their hand at military glory, what of the youngest brother who could not?  Prince Augustus was a sensitive and artistic fellow. He left for Germany with his older brothers Ernest and Adolphus to do his bit for the family tradition of staying out of England. Like his brothers, he studied for an eventual stint in the army. But when he came of age, His health was considered so precarious that it was decided by dad that he should stay out.

Of course, if he was too un-well to serve in the army, he was too un-well to return to England. Europe had all sorts of wonderful spas that a boy of Augustus’s delicate condition could retire to. First to Switzerland Augustus traveled. Eventually he settled in Rome. Dad told him that this was done for his health. Augustus wasn’t fooled for a minute. Like his brothers, he knew he had been banished from England. Like his brothers, he was bitterly resentful toward his father because of it.

And, like his brothers, he was going to do something to let dad know how he felt.

This blog was written by Mr. Al