Indiscretions of the Queen

A Wedding in Brunswick

THE Court of Brunswick was preparing to celebrate the marriage of Princess Charlotte Georgiana Augusta to Frederick William, Prince of Würtemberg. The Princess was sixteen years old but quite ready for marriage, for life at the Court of Brunswick was free and easy; and both she and her sister, Caroline Amelia Elizabeth, had never suffered the restrictions which were considered necessary in most royal courts. The girls had run wild, mixing with servants and villagers; and they already knew what obligations marriage entailed.

The Princess Caroline was in the schoolroom thinking about her sister’s marriage, wondering when there would be a similar occasion for her, and plaguing her governess, the Baroness de Bode, with questions.

‘Now, Baroness,’ she was saying, ‘whom do you think they will select for me?’

‘Your Highness knows that that day is some years distant.’

‘Some years?’ demanded Caroline. ‘But why, pray? If Charlotte can marry at sixteen, why not I?’

‘The Princess Charlotte is two years older than you.’

‘Two years? What is two years?’ Caroline narrowed her eyes and peered at her governess. ‘I should like you to know, Madam Baroness, that I am not lacking in experience.’

The Baroness gasped with horror, which made Caroline laugh. She is deliberately trying to shock me, thought the Baroness . Of course she is an innocent girl. Or is she? Oh, this family! They are all so— odd. Sometimes I wonder— And when I consider her brothers— Caroline watched her governess as she guessed the woman’s thoughts. She tossed back the long fair curls which hung over her shoulder and raised her light eyebrows; she was pretty and her figure was already well developed.

The Baroness thought : She has too much freedom. They all have too much freedom. ‘I beg of you,’ said the Baroness, ‘not to talk so freely.’

‘But I would be free. Why should I be caged— like a prisoner? I shall always be free. I shall do exactly what I want and when I have a husband— in two years time, because if Charlotte has one, why shouldn’t I— I shall see that he is aware of this.’

‘You talk in a most unbecoming manner.’

‘I say what I mean. Is there anything wrong with that?’

‘There could be a great deal. You should pray more.’

Caroline made a face. ‘Oh come, Baroness, everyone has a right to an opinion. You must admit that. I will never be anyone’s puppet. If I allowed myself to accept everything that I am told without reasoning I should be like a field that would not grow a single blade of grass. Have you always done everything that was expected of you? Have you always been so good?’

‘Indeed not. I fear I have often been wicked.’

‘Why?’

‘Why Your Highness, I suppose because an evil instinct impels me to do wrong.’

‘But why allow yourself to be impelled?’

‘I suppose because I could not overcome my bad nature.’

The Princess laughed aloud. Then you are like a piece of clay, Madam. That is all— a piece of clay, and therefore I do not think you are very wicked to allow yourself to be moulded.’

‘You must not think that whether we should be good or had does not rest with ourselves.’

‘But you have just said, Baroness, that you cannot help being bad. It is true.

We are all bad— very bad. But that was how we were created.’ She smiled mischievously. So you see, Baroness, it is no use your chiding me for this and that for I just cannot help it. I have no say in the matter. It is simply the way I was made.’

‘You talk too much.’

‘Of course,’ agreed Caroline. ‘Do I not do everything too much? But you will admit, Baroness, that it is better than not doing enough?’

‘You are determined to argue.’

‘And what better occupation? For how can we exercise our minds without arguments. But how did this start? Simply because I said that it will soon be my turn to have a husband.’

‘We cannot be sure—’

‘We can be sure of nothing in this world, you will tell me. But I am sure— about many things. I am sure it is good that Charlotte has a husband for she is the kind of girl who needs a husband— early.’

‘Your Highness!’

The Princess opened her eyes very wide and then laughed that rather wild laugh of hers which the Baroness always found a little alarming. And she added: ‘So am I.’

‘I hope—’ began the Baroness.

‘It is always good to hope,’ interrupted the Princess. ‘You even get what you hope for— sometimes.’ She shut the book on which they had been working with a final bang. ‘Now I really must go and fit on my dress. It must be ready for the wedding, must it not? We cannot have the bride’s sister— soon to be a bride herself perhaps— not looking her best. Who knows— there might be suitors for my hand at my sister’s wedding.’

She had gone, leaving the Baroness staring after her, asking herself if the Princess’s behaviour was a little more than odd. Or was it due to high spirits?

When one considered the others— one wondered.

From an upper window of the palace Caroline’s father Duke Charles William Ferdinand, saw his daughter cross the courtyard and come face to face with a young English boy who was being educated in Germany and living for a while at the Court of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.

He watched the young man pause, bow deeply and stand gazing at Caroline.

A pretty picture, thought the Duke affectionately. In his eyes Caroline was charming; she was so full of vitality, so natural and very pleasing to the eye, with those long fair curls. She had grown in the last few months and it might have been a woman standing down there. After Charlotte was safely launched it would be Caroline’s turn.

Not yet, he thought. He would keep Caroline at home as long as he could. He had admitted to his mistress, Madame de Hertzfeldt, that Caroline was his favourite child.

She was obviously flirting with young John Thomas Stanley down there, but if she had known that her father was watching she would have been alarmed, for he was the one person of whom she was in awe. Sometimes he wished that it were not necessary to inspire fear in his children; but of course it was particularly so with children such as his.

He frowned and turned away from the window as Madame de Hertzfeldt came into the room.

Approaching him she slipped her arm through his. ‘You’re anxious,’ she said, and glancing out of the window saw Caroline in the courtyard with the English boy. ‘Yes,’ she went on. ‘It will be her turn next and perhaps we should not delay too long.’

Her face still seemed to him the most beautiful he had ever seen; it was many years since he had noticed her and fallen in love with her. He thought now, as he had thought so many times before, how different everything would have been if he could have married her.

‘Charlotte is happily settled,’ she reminded him, and drew him away from the window.

‘A good match,’ he admitted. ‘You think she will settle?’

‘Now that she has a husband, she is more likely to.’ She did not add that Charlotte’s passing from his care to a husband’s was a relief to them all; but he knew she thought this for there were no secrets between them.

Tall, stately, beautiful and dignified, devoted to him and the affairs of Brunswick she was in all but name his Queen. Their son was the boy he would have liked to be his heir. A soldier, handsome and, in his father’s eyes, noble in every way, already making a brilliant career for himself— and like his mother, serene. Oh, God, he thought, how he admired serenity! It was because of that taint which sometimes he thought had smeared all his legitimate children.

‘I think,’ he said, ‘that Caroline will want a husband now that her sister has one.’

‘Caroline is a child yet.’

‘Do you think so? You saw her down there—’

Madame de Hertzfeldt was silent for a moment. Then she shrugged her shoulders. ‘Like her sister she has matured early. But you won’t have to raise the money for her wedding for a few years.’

‘It might not be easy. Her brothers—’ A look of pain crossed the Duke’s face and his mistress hastened to console him.

‘There is nothing wrong with Frederick William and the girls.’

‘Oh, my dear, what an affliction! My eldest son almost an imbecile, my second completely so and the third blind. What is wrong? Why should I be so cursed? If I had married you—’

‘We have been happy together for all these years.’

‘What should I have done without you?’

‘Why ask— when you have never been obliged to— and as long as it rests with me never will.’

He looked at her beautiful face and was reconciled to everything-an unhappy marriage with his English wife, even the fruit of that marriage which had caused such grievous disappointment. All these years they had been lovers— even before his marriage to Augusta, and he had refused to give her up when Augusta had arrived from England and found her installed as mistress of his household. And so she had remained in spite of Augusta’s protests and she had behaved with such dignity that in time even Augusta had come to accept her value.

‘If our son—’ he began, but she silenced him.

‘You have your legitimate heirs,’ she reminded him. ‘There is no gainsaying that.’

‘Only private people can expect happiness,’ he answered bitterly, ‘because they can choose their mates. The marriages of royalty scarcely ever result in happiness because they are not founded on love. They become embittered and often this is disastrous to the children of the marriage. They are often unhealthy in mind as well as body.’

She sought to comfort him. ‘Charlotte seems happy,’ she reminded him.

‘My dearest, I know you seek to comfort me. Charlotte is excited. She is like Caroline. They crave constant excitement. It is a sort of madness— no— no. It is a compulsion they have. I pray God Charlotte will be happy when the excitement is over.’

‘The excitement will go on for a time and perhaps she will soon have a child and that will sober her.’

‘Determined as ever to look at the brightest side, I see.’

‘Well let us at least enjoy that while we can. In any case, there may not be another side. Who shall say?’

He pressed her hand. ‘You are right as usual.’

She smiled at him, her eyes still a little anxious. Since he inherited the Dukedom some two years before, life had been less carefree. His father had been a spendthrift and Charles had taken over an almost bankrupt country. He had determined to bring his country to prosperity and practised economy as far as he could; but that was not easy and he had been trained as a soldier rather than a statesman. But Madame de Hertzfeldt was as good as any minister; he rarely made a move without consulting her and he had proved again and again that this was wise. It was she who had helped to arrange this match for Charlotte; and she would do the same for Caroline when the time came. She had suggested that the Princesses be brought up with religious freedom so that they could in due course become either Protestant or Catholic according to the religion which their future husbands might follow. This, she had pointed out, would make it so much easier to find husbands for them, since many good matches were lost through a difference in the religion of either parties.

What a Duchess she would have made! And he had to be content with Augusta who was constantly reminding everyone at Brunswick how much better affairs were managed in England under the rule of her brother King George III.

‘So,’ she said, ‘we will think only of the wedding celebrations and deal with future problems when they present themselves.’

The Duchess was talking to her daughter Charlotte, soon to be a bride.

‘Of course I could have wished we could have had an English Prince for you.

My brother’s son, the Prince of Wales, would be— let me see— Twenty, would it be? Yes, I should think twenty, and surely it is time he married, but do you think they would marry him to a Princess of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel? Oh no! The very suggestion would give my sister-in-law an apoplectic fit. How I hated that creature. She— Queen Charlotte— was one of the reasons why I was anxious to get away from England.’

‘Well, Mamma,’ said Charlotte pertly, ‘it is no use repining for the loss of the Prince of Wales now that I have my Frederick William. Würtemberg will have to do. And as the marriage is to take place within a day or so even if my wicked old aunt Queen Charlotte relented and sent me your nephew the Prince of Wales it would be, to say the least, a little awkward.’

‘Charlotte, you really are impertinent,’ said her mother mildly.

‘What do you expect when I am named after that wicked sister-in-law of yours?’

‘You happen, Charlotte, to be speaking of the Queen of England.’

‘And so, Mamma, were you a moment ago and every bit as disrespectfully.

Confess it.’

Oh dear, thought the Duchess. She would never be able to control these children of hers. It was the same with Caroline. The girls had their own way. But what can I do? she asked herself. I am not in command here. It is always Madame de Hertzfeldt. She is the Duke’s confidant. She decides all matters, even those concerned with my children. What a situation! I wish I’d never left England. She shivered. Fancy being there, with George expecting her to live with her sisters like nuns in a nunnery. No, this was preferable, even though she had an unfaithful husband who cared little for her, and children whom she could not control. Her children alarmed her. She could not bear to be in the company of her eldest boys. They seemed a continual reproach. Was it her fault? What had she done to produce those three boys who would never be able to rule? The youngest boy, thank God, was normal; and his father doted on him, and was terrified that some harm was going to befall him-his only normal son. He cherished the boy almost as much as he did Madame de Hertzfeldt— though not quite— No one could be quite as important to him as that woman!

Then there were the girls who were so wayward that they always seemed to get the better of her. They are so German, she decided ; and I am so English. Sometimes she felt it was not such a bad thing that she had a strong-minded woman like Madame de Hertzfeldt to help her control the girls. That woman, thought the Duchess petulantly, would control anybody.

‘Mamma,’ Charlotte was saying, ‘I have matters to which I must attend. So you must give me permission to leave you.’

The Duchess nodded and shaking her head sank down on to her sofa and stared blankly before her. How she had disliked this room! When she had first seen it, it had seemed so primitive after the apartments of St. James’s, Hampton Court and Kensington Palace. But she had grown accustomed to it. And she had not really been sorry to come here. After all, a woman must marry— and they might have given her a less attractive husband. Charles had at least been a hero when he had come to England to marry her. Not that he had been quite as handsome as she had pictured him, but the people had liked him. She remembered how they had been cheered at the Opera while George and Charlotte were received in silence. What a triumph! Serve them right. It was all jealousy— Charlotte’s fault, she was sure. George would never have had the gumption. Their mother had completely dominated him at that time, and he had done everything that she and Lord Bute told them.

But Charles had talked freely on English politics, which had angered them, and so instead of lodging him at one of the royal palaces they had put him in Somerset House and made their disapproval very clear to him as he was obliged to stay there without a royal guard. She too had been in disgrace for attempting to meddle in state affairs. And she had too! To think that she had helped to break up her brother’s romance with Sarah Lennox and as a result he had had Charlotte.

Not such a good move really— although Sarah Lennox was a silly little thing and if she had married George would probably have been no friend to the Princess Augusta.

All past history— but one could not help recalling it at times like these when there was a wedding in the family. And so she had come here and been horrified to see what a poor place the palace was and even more so when Charles had made it clear that he had no intention of giving up his mistress because he had acquired a wife and that the latter was of no great importance in his life— although he would endeavour to give her children— while the other woman remained supreme— What a position for a proud Princess to be forced into— and an English Princess at that. But she had succumbed and done her duty and produced her sons — two mentally-deficient, one blind, then her daughters and another boy— all of whom seemed brilliant in comparison with their brothers.

At least I have my children, though I have no control over them, she thought fretfully. They take no notice of what I say, and it is all due to the fact that they know who really rules here with the Duke. One would have thought he might have become tired of her by now. But that would not do. Who knew what arrogant upstart might take her place? The Duke alas was a very sensual man and was not entirely faithful even to Madame de Hertzfeldt; but of course none of his other peccadilloes were serious or long lasting; and on more than one occasion she had reported them to her great rival in order that they could be brought to a hasty conclusion. She supposed that she accepted Madame de Hertzfeldt who was such an admirable woman in so many ways, and while she took command of affairs she always openly paid the correct respect to the Duchess.

So the Duchess must be content with her lot for she would have been far less happy in England, she knew, living a life of dreary spinsterhood. She had realized that in February 1772 when she had gone back to England at the time of her mother’s death; but for the fact that her mother had wished to see her and they could not ignore her dying wish; Charlotte and George would have prevented her coming. As it was they had given her a little house in Pall Mall instead of lodging her at one of the royal palaces.

She recalled her anger and how she had almost returned to Brunswick before the funeral. It would seem that she was to be slighted everywhere.

How strange when she considered what a forceful young woman she had been at home in England as the Princess Royal.

But Charles had changed her. From the moment she had realized he intended to be master and had accepted her inability to prevent it, she had sunk meekly into her place, had borne his children— and the fact that the three boys were abnormal had perhaps contributed to her meekness accepted Madame de Hertzfeldt and even allowed her children to have some respect for the woman.

Now she sighed and thought of Charlotte soon to leave her home for a new life with a husband.

‘I pray,’ said the Duchess, ‘that she is more fortunate than I.’

Charlotte was a dazzling bride, for she was very pretty.

‘When she has gone,’ Caroline told the Baroness, ‘I shall be the prettiest princess at the Court because being the only princess I must be the prettiest.’

‘You occupy your mind with matters of no importance,’ she was reproved, at which she retorted that her beauty was of great importance. Did the Baroness forget that one day very soon— she would have to please a husband?

The Baroness sighed and reminded her of the serious little girl she had been and how when she had been asked in what country the lion could be found replied stoutly: ‘In the heart of a Brunswicker.’

‘I have heard the tale many times,’ said Caroline yawning. ‘What a horrid little creature I must have been— even worse then, than now.’

‘It was a good answer,’ replied the Baroness, ‘and I trust you will never forget it.’

‘Ah,’ retorted Caroline, ‘there is a sequel to the story. You’ve forgotten how I escaped from you all at carousel and rode round and round on the horses which was very dangerous you said and for which I should be punished, until I pointed out that fear was something a Brunswicker knew nothing about so how could you expect me, a Brunswicker, to be aware that I was causing you anxiety.’

‘You have always—’

‘Talked too much. So you have already told me. And I will repeat that when Charlotte has gone, I shall be the prettiest princess in Brunswick.’

But never, she thought when she was watching her sister at the wedding ceremony, as pretty as Charlotte.

She gazed at her father standing erect beside the bride ready to pass her over to her prince.

Dear Papa, he is the greatest man in the world, I believe, she thought. Neither of us will ever find a man to compare with him. And she began to picture herself standing there, all eyes on her in her bridal gown with the shadowy figure of a bridegroom beside her.

Later at the banquet in the great hall at the place of honour and Caroline continued to watch them. Charlotte was very gay, almost hysterically so. I know exactly how she feels, thought Caroline . For I should feel exactly the same.

How she would miss Charlotte! She turned to her brother Frederick William and said to him: ‘There are only the two of us left now, for you can’t count the others.’

Frederick looked rather shocked, but she laughed at him. It was silly to pretend. Everyone knew their brothers were shut away from the rest of the family because of the affliction, so why pretend?

Her eye caught that of John Stanley, the English boy who clearly showed how much he admired her. She would take the first opportunity of talking to him.

When the dancing began she went to him smiling. His eyes were full of admiration. ‘Of course,’ she said, ‘I am not supposed to talk to you in this way.’

‘N— no, Your Highness.’

‘But who cares for rules and etiquette? Do you?’

‘Not if you do not wish me to.’

‘Let us join the dancers. Then we shall be less conspicuous. Then I can talk to you. You will find that I talk a great deal. You come from England, do you not?

As you know the Duchess is English. She cannot forget it, and nor are we allowed to. Oh, you are shocked. How delightful! Do you think I am so very shocking?

But of course you do, and it would be foolish of you not to, because I am.

Shocking and indiscreet.’

‘Your Highness, I think you are—’

‘Yes, come along. Don’t hesitate. I dislike hesitation.’

‘I think you are very handsome.’

‘You think my looks are handsome, but that my speech is forward and immodest and just what a princess’s should not be?’

‘I think that only sweet words could flow from such lips.’

‘Oh, what a charming compliment. I do believe, John Thomas Stanley, that you have fallen in love with me. Oh, don’t deny it. It is all very right and proper, for if my sister has a lover, why should not I?’

John Stanley was overcome with dismay and pleasure. The Princess Caroline was not only the most beautiful girl he had ever met, she was the most unusual.

Her conduct was noticed.

What can one do with such a girl? sighed her mother to herself. She is wild— like all of them. We can only pray that she is not too wild. Her father promised himself that he would reprimand her later, but she would be sad missing Charlotte, so let her amuse herself a little on Charlotte’s wedding day.

Madame de Hertzfeldt was asking herself how much like her brothers Caroline might be and what was the right treatment to mete out to such a girl. A great responsibility rested on her guardians she felt sure. She must choose an opportunity to speak to the Duke about his younger daughter when matters of state were less burdensome.

So Caroline flirted openly with John Thomas Stanley; and when it was necessary to say goodbye to Charlotte the young man did much to reconcile her to the parting.

‘What I shall envy Charlotte most,’ declared Caroline to the long suffering Baroness de Bode, ‘will be her children. Oh, Baroness, how I long to have a child.’

The Baroness folded her hands together and looked up to the ceiling.

‘Now Baroness, what is wrong with that?’

‘It is an immodest subject.’

‘Nonsense. How could the world go on without children?’ ‘It is immodest for a young girl to— to—’

‘To talk of adding to the coming generations? But surely that would be a benefit to mankind. Admit it, Baroness.’

‘Your Highness, I do not know what will become of you. I tremble to think.’

‘Then you should think more, Madam, and it would, with practice, become less of an effort. That might cure the trembling. A little baby— a dear little baby — ! What a miracle! When shall I have a husband? How tiresome, that one must have a husband before one can have a baby, for do you know, Baroness, I think I should almost prefer the latter to the former.’

The Baroness put her fingers to her ears.

‘Pray remove your fingers,’ cried Caroline. I promise you I will no longer assault your ears. Instead I shall go to see my children.’

Caroline flounced out of the schoolroom, leaving the Baroness murmuring to herself: Should I speak to the Duchess? But of what use? It will have to be to Madame de Hertzfeldt. And what can one expect in a household when the wife takes second place to the mistress? Meanwhile Caroline rode out of the palace. She should have taken a groom with her, but she had no intention of doing so. First of all she would call on the newest arrival— a baby boy three weeks old. He had been a little sickly at birth and was improving now. She had ordered the cooks to send food to the household, for if the baby were to thrive, the mother must be well fed.

There he was in his crib. She lifted him out . I think he knows me. Look, he is smiling. She was happy, sitting in the old wooden rocking chair holding the baby. How they adored her, these cottage people. They called her ‘Good Princess Caroline’.

Good, she thought, for doing what I want. How easy it is to be good. She told the mother that food would arrive the following day and she would see that the baby was properly clothed. And after that she went on to see her next protégé. The people cheered her as she rode through the town They had all heard stories of her love for children and how households containing them benefited.

Any mother in distress only had to ask help from Princess Caroline and it came— not as they had been accustomed to receiving help from royalty, not an impersonal steward distributing a few comforts at Christmas-time, but with genuine interest. It did one good, many had said, to see the Princess Caroline come into a humble room and take a child upon her knees.

She never did so without saying to herself ‘Oh, if only I had a child of my own!’