By George! Are They Really That Happy?

To all appearances, the mismatch between Prince George and Princess Caroline looked to have worked out. Appearances can be deceiving.

Despite happy reports from Brighton, things were far from well by the time the new princess arrived. For one thing, the Prince had taken up with Lady Jersey again. This probably came as no surprise to those who knew the Prince best. It did not help matters at all that Caroline’s reaction to this was to heap verbal abuse on her wayward husband. There were right ways and wrong ways to handle the Prince. Princess Caroline found every wrong way there was and exploited them to the fullest.

The vicious cycle had started and there was no stopping it. For one thing, its two principles were too emotionally immature to break it, and an interested third party, Lady Jersey, was doing her best to thwart reconciliation. Not that reconciliation ever had a chance. As Lady Jersey well knew, these two people should never have been allowed to be in the same room at the same time, let alone be married.

By the time the baby was born the Prince could hardly stand the sight of his wife. He definitely couldn’t stand the sound of her voice. At one point the Prince cornered Lord Malmesbury and demanded to know why he had received no warning as to Caroline’s “true nature.” Malmesbury replied that it was by the Kings order that he went to Brunswick to fetch the Princess. It was to the King and the King alone, that he was responsible. His Majesty never ordered, suggested, or even hinted that he wanted His Lordships opinion as to the Princesses personality.

If the Prince had a problem with that, he could take the matter up with His Majesty. The Prince clamed up, but it “left a rankle in his mind.” There would be more “rankles” to come. Like someone that had loaned the Prince a large sum of money, Princess Caroline found herself persona-non-grata in the Princes life.

His Highness would disappear for weeks at a time, visiting friends in the country, hunting, or more usually, “redecorating” his new palace in Brighton. His new pavilion was well underway and, rather than make her climb all the steps Mrs. Fitzherbert had to climb, the Prince thoughtfully installed Lady Jersey’s bedroom next to his. The Prince’s no-show behavior would have been more bearable to Caroline if she had had some sort of support network to fall back on.

Most unfortunately, her English was still rudimentary, her personality still abrasive, and her judgment still nonexistent. Lady Jersey was also still her Lady of the Bedchamber to the Princess. Quite a job title, that. The Princess had plenty of “rankles” of her own and Lady Jersey was at the top of the list. In April of 1796 the princess wrote to her husband that he had to find Her Ladyship a new job. It really burnt her bacon that she had to have her evening meal with this woman night after night. Sitting there, looking at Lady Jersey and knowing her dear, dear husband was making “The beast with two backs” with her was pain beyond endurance.

The Prince shot back with a letter of his own. The gist of it was, I’m no more happy being married to you than you are to me. Let’s both make the best of it by leaving off on complaining. As far as Lady Jersey was concerned, the Prince huffed, “Let me remind you, Madam, that the intimacy of my friendship with Lady Jersey… My mistress, as you so indecorously term her…under all the false colour that slander has given it, was perfectly known to you before you accepted my hand, for you yourself told me so immediately on your arrival here.”

He further pointed out that there were other servants she could talk to. It wasn’t as though Lady Jersey was her only option. To further prove that he Just Didn’t Get It, the Prince told his blushing bride that he was doing the best he could with limited resources. “I have been solicitous that you should have every gratification which the nature of the times, the manners of this country and the established customs of your rank would admit, with a due regard at the same time to the pecuniary difficulties I so cruelly and unjustly labor under.”

He REALLY Did Not Get It.

She shot back with another, longer letter. He didn’t care for her at all! He was nothing but a drunken, skirt-chasing lout, and his pal, Lady Jersey, she was nothing but a jumped-up whore! Or words to that effect. His response to that letter was another letter to her saying he had a perfectly happy home life until SHE showed up! And if she wanted to make nice and try to at least keep up a pretense of living together, he was down with that, he would be perfectly willing to give it a shot. As soon as she stopped being a flaming bitch! His happiness, which should, as a good wife, be her top priority, was “not to be effected by irritating insinuations or fretful complaints.”

He closed by hoping she would have the good grace to stop sending him annoying letters.

Her response to that was the longest and most incoherent letter to date. In it she demanded to know, in writing, what he expected of her. She also went much further than that. She said that if he desired to continue having it off with Lady Jersey, or any other home wreaking slut that was fine by her. She no longer expected or desired sexual contact with him. BUT…Under no circumstances would he, even in the event of the death of their daughter, try to produce another heir to the throne.

I don’t know if the Prince was familiar with the 18th century equivalent of  “run this past legal”, but he should have been. He had a document drawn up, in French, so Miss Hissy Fit wouldn’t go off on him about misunderstandings, and then he signed it. And that, he hoped, was that. Nope. She had one more letter to write. The Princess, unlike hubby, did know the 18th century royal equivalent of  “run this by legal.” It was, “I wonder what Uncle George would think of all this?”