Виктория Холт - Caroline the Queen

Continuing to knot, the Queen made no answer, but her fingers faltered and the thread became tangled and her efforts to untangle it were fruitless. She held it nearer the candle and in doing so snuffed out one of them.

‘Why must you be so awkward?’ demanded the King. ‘Why can’t you sit quietly as I do. Why must you always be doing that silly, childish stuff....’

He rose suddenly and stumped out of the room. It was ten minutes before his usual time to retire. A bad sign when he began breaking habits.

Caroline knew where he had gone.

It was to his own apartments to write a long sixty-page letter to Madame de Walmoden, telling how he longed to be in Hanover and that he would soon be there in spite of them all.

* * *

‘Sir,’ said Walpole, ‘you cannot go to Hanover until after the marriage of the Prince of Wales.’

‘Well, where is this bride of his? Why is her coming postponed?’

‘In a matter of this sort negotiations always take a little time, Your Majesty.’

‘A little time! I tell you I have made up my mind to go to Hanover in May and nothing ... nothing is going to stop me.’

‘But the Prince of Wales’s marriage, sir ...’

‘I don’t care about the Prince of Wales’s marriage. He can go without a marriage. He can have a marriage without me. But I am going to Hanover in May. And you may try to stop me, but you won’t succeed.’

Walpole saw that the King was a man bemused. There was no point in delaying tactics. In fact they must be hurried on, for clearly the King would become more unpopular than ever if he could not attend his son’s marriage because he had gone off to visit his mistress.

On the 25th of April, the Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha arrived at Greenwich. She was seventeen, very shy, and could not speak a word of English.

The royal family behaved towards her as it had to the Prince of Orange and ignored her coming. The Prince of Wales, however, went to Greenwich to meet her.

When she saw Frederick she was delighted for he exerted all his charm. He was very pleased, first because he had wanted a wife for so long and secondly because she was so young and clearly in awe of him. It was so rarely that anyone was in awe of Frederick that he appreciated this very much.

The young girl had stayed the night in Greenwich Palace and here she first saw Frederick.

He took her hands and kissed her warmly. His German was fluent and she told him that she was delighted because she was a little frightened to be among all these foreigners; but Frederick did not seem like a foreigner : when he spoke he seemed as German as she was.

Frederick said he would teach her to be English and she need have no fear of anything while he was there to protect her.

Her eyes were wide with admiration and it was very clear to all the observers that the young couple were pleased with each other.

He was not tall, but his expression was charming and he only looked sullen when he was not smiling, and he had many smiles for her; his eyes were a startling blue and his complexion fresh. She thought him very handsome although he was smaller than she was.

She had the charm of youth, and although she was tall and slender she moved rather awkwardly, never having been taught deportment, but this gaucherie pleased Frederick. He did not want a poised and too beautiful young bride.

That was a very happy meeting and Frederick told her that the royal coach would take them to Lambeth and then they would sail down to Whitehall by barge which would give her an opportunity of seeing the city of London.

She clasped her hands and said that she thought what she had seen of England was wonderful, so different from everything at home. All the people were so sumptuously dressed, and she was going to enjoy so much learning to know England and to understand the English, but just at first she was a little frightened.

There was nothing to fear, said Frederick. She would have the Prince of Wales to protect her.

* * *

The King was waiting in the drawing room at St James’s Palace to greet his prospective daughter-in-law.

He was slightly mollified because it was only April and she was here and he would be able to leave for Hanover without upsetting people by not staying for his son’s wedding.

The Queen stood beside him—a little drawn though smiling perhaps too affably, too joyously. Lord Hervey was close to her and so was Lady Sundon, both watchful, both guessing how weary the Queen was, and Lady Sundon knowing of the pain and its cause.

The King’s good temper was rapidly disappearing, because the Prince and Princess were late.

He looked at his watch. They should have been here half an hour ago!

He said: ‘The King and the Court have been waiting for half an hour and still the Prince has not brought his bride.’

‘The river is crowded today, Your Majesty,’ volunteered the Duke of Grafton. ‘No doubt their barge is being impeded.’

‘Time is time, Grafton, craft or no craft, and I do not like impudent puppies who keep me waiting.’

It seemed as though the bride would be greeted with scowls and reproaches as the time went on, and still the couple did not arrive.

Each minute increased the King’s anger, and when news was brought that the barge had reached Whitehall and the Princess was being carried across St James’s Park in a Sedan, he was almost on the point of retiring to his own apartments.

They could hear the cheers of the people as the Prince and his bride in their Sedans came nearer. The King remained grimly silent; and he did not speak until the Prince led in his bride.

It was not without grace that Frederick presented his shy bride to his parents.

And because she had the charm of youth and because she was so much in awe of him, the King’s anger disappeared.

Augusta dropped the deepest curtsey the King and Queen had ever seen and remained kneeling until George said in a soft and kindly voice : ‘You may rise, my dear. Let us look at you. Why, I think the Prince is most fortunate. Welcome to England, my dear.’

Augusta blushed and looked very pleased; so that in spite of the fact that she had arrived an hour late, this was forgotten and the first meeting was a success.

There was no point in waiting for the wedding. Indeed in the King’s opinion, there was every need that the ceremony should take place without delay, for once it was over he would start making preparations to leave for Hanover and no one was going to stop him.

The Princess looked very attractive in her gown of crimson velvet with its rows of ermine, wearing a crown with one bar, set with diamonds. She was led in the procession to the chapel by her young brother-in-law-to-be, William, Duke of Cumberland, with the Duke of Grafton and Lord Hervey in attendance with the ladies of her household; and the Bishop of London performed the ceremony.

Afterwards at supper, the Prince of Wales sat on the King’s right hand with his brother William, and on the Queen’s left hand sat the Princess of Wales and her sisters-in-law, the four Princesses.

The Queen spoke very kindly to the bride and found her so modest that she could not help liking her, but, as she said afterwards to Lord Hervey, she feared she was a little stupid and that her mother was to be blamed for not giving her a better education. ‘Nevertheless,’ she added, ‘I daresay she will suit Fred the better for that.’

Then of course there followed that ceremony of undressing the bride which was done by the four Princesses, and she was put to bed to await the coming of the Prince who eventually appeared in a cloth of silver nightgown and nightcap of fine lace.

Ministers and courtiers walked through the bedchamber to see the young couple in bed; and in spite of her awkwardness and shyness in company, the Princess of Wales seemed not in the least disturbed, for already her husband seemed to have inspired her with confidence.

The King, in his wedding clothes of gold brocade, embroidered with large flowers in silver and pale colours, cut short the ceremony, and taking the Queen’s hand, gave the signal to retire and leave the young couple alone.

As they walked out the King commented on the costumes of Lord Hervey and the Duke of Grafton; he had noted the diamond buttons and was calculating that they must have cost somewhere in the region of three to five hundred pounds.

The Queen replied that it was fitting they should on such an occasion. ‘As long as,’ she added, ‘they do not outdo Your Majesty in their splendour, which it is clear they did not.’

In her own yellow silk trimmed with pearls and diamonds, with diamonds at her throat and on her hands, Caroline herself was a glittering figure and the King looked at her with approval. Her gown was low cut revealing that bosom which he had once called the most beautiful in the world.

But his satisfaction was short-lived.

‘No Englishman knows how to dress,’ he said. ‘I suppose it is because no English tailor knows how to make a suit.

‘You are comparing them with their Hanoverian counterparts,’ the Queen could not resist saying, and she added quickly to change the subject. ‘Perhaps now that he is married, Frederick will give us less trouble. She seems a pleasant creature, though dull, and I think she should suit him well.

‘They have dressed themselves up for this wedding as they never did for my birthday,’ grumbled the King.

But he was not seriously angry. He was thinking: The wedding is over. I shall be in Hanover for May as I promised.

* * *

The Duchess of Marlborough laughed at the marriage. ‘A Princess of where, pray? Saxe-Gotha? What is Saxe-Gotha? Young Fred will regret the day he didn’t get Lady Di.’

And she jeered at the preparations and said that she had heard the bride was a nice little thing but stupid.

‘He’ll have his regrets before long!’

But Frederick was not regretting. Nor was his bride. They were greeted by cheering crowds wherever they went. The people liked them. Just wait, thought Frederick, until we have a son. Then the people will be all for the Prince of Wales. They’re tired of bad-tempered George, anyway.

He would get his hundred thousand a year. He was going to ask for it as soon as it was possible to do so. He would get his privileges. When the King went off to his mistress he, the Prince of Wales, would be the Regent.

Everything was going to be different now. And it was all due to his dear little Augusta who adored him and wanted to do everything to please me.

When he said to her that he knew just the lady to fill the vacant post among her ladies in waiting, she listened eagerly.

‘It’s Lady Archibald Hamilton,’ he said. ‘I will present her to you.’

‘Please do,’ cried Augusta. ‘Is she young?’

‘You would not call her so.... She is twice your age.’

Augusta clapped her hands with pleasure. ‘I was afraid she might be young and beautiful,’ she said.

There were some things she had learned evidently, thought Frederick.

And when Lady Archibald Hamilton was presented to her, Augusta thought her, although a little stern, a very gracious lady.

‘Lady Archibald Hamilton hopes for a post in your household,’ said Frederick. ‘I hope you will agree with me that no one could be more suitable.’

And of course Augusta agreed with her husband.

IN the middle of May the King left England for Hanover. The Prince was sulking because once more he had been passed over and the Queen was made Regent.