The Scandal of George III's Court

By Catherine Curzon

From Windsor to Weymouth, the shadow of scandal was never too far from the walls of the House of Hanover. Did a fearsome duke really commit murder or a royal mistress sell commissions to the highest bidders, and what was the truth behind George III's supposed secret marriage to a pretty Quaker?With everything from illegitimate children to illegal marriages, dead valets and equerries sneaking about the palace by candlelight, these eyebrow-raising tales from the reign of George III prove that the highest of births is no guarantee of good behavior. Prepare to meet some shocking ladies, some shameless gentlemen and some politicians who really should know better. So tighten your stays, hoist up your breeches and prepare for a gallop through some of the most shocking royal scandals from the court of George III's court. You'll never look at a king in the same way again…

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pen and Sword
• Release date: Oct 30, 2018
• ISBN: 9781473872530

Catherine Curzon

Catherine Curzon is a royal historian who writes on all matters of 18th century. Her work has been featured on many platforms and Catherine has also spoken at various venues including the Royal Pavilion, Brighton, and Dr Johnson’s House. Catherine holds a Master’s degree in Film and when not dodging the furies of the guillotine, writes fiction set deep in the underbelly of Georgian London. She lives in Yorkshire atop a ludicrously steep hill.

Book preview

THE SCANDAL OF GEORGE III’S COURT

For Adrian Lukis and Caroline Langrishe, with much love and many thanks for cocktails, friendship and memories to treasure!

THE SCANDAL OF GEORGE III’S COURT

Catherine Curzon

First published in Great Britain in 2018 by

PEN AND SWORD HISTORY

an imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

Yorkshire – Philadelphia

Copyright © Catherine Curzon, 2018

HB ISBN 978 1 47387 251 6

PB ISBN 978 1 52675 163 8

eISBN 978 1 473872 529

Mobi ISBN 978 1 473872 523

The right of Catherine Curzon to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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Contents

Acknowledgements

List of Illustrations

Cast of Characters

Introduction

Chapter 1 The Fair Quaker

Chapter 2 The Sins of the Sisters

Chapter 3 Carry On Cumberland

Chapter 4 Scandalous Siblings

Chapter 5 Perdita and Pickle

Chapter 6 An Unfatherly Act

Chapter 7 The Seaside Stranger

Chapter 8 A Grand Old Scandal

Chapter 9 The Bloody Triangle

Afterword

Bibliography

Notes

Acknowledgements

A big and not at all scandalous thank you to the team at Pen and Sword, particularly Jon, because what’s better than cake and good company? Huge thanks as ever to Lucy, my fierce and fabulous editor, for raising the difficult questions!

To all at The Foxglove and The Peppercorn, for tea, gin and a comfy corner, thank you, thank you, thank you and a big (but not too big) woof from Pippa.

To all the readers who have ever stopped by the virtual salon or opened one of my books, I am in your debt. Let me repay you with tea, but please don’t all come knocking at once.

As ever, big hugs and a scandalous ‘merci’ are due to friends all over the world for their encouragement, friendship and fabulousness. And what would I do without the mighty Terriers, who drag me out of the eighteenth century now and then? Kathryn, this is all your fault for buying that ticket. You’re to blame.

To Pippa, Nelly and the Rakish Colonial - you keep the home fires burning.

And that makes you the most awesome of all.

List of Illustrations

1. George III. William Wynne, after Allan Ramsay. 1791.

2. Queen Charlotte. Thomas Gainsborough.

3. The royal family of England in the year 1787. Thomas Stothard. 1800.

4. The royal family of George III: George, Prince of Wales, Frederick, Duke of York, W. Henry, Duke of Clarence, Prince Edward. 1795.

5. The royal family of George III: Princess Royal, Princess Augusta Sophia, Princess Elizabeth, Princess Mary. 1795.

6. Princess Caroline Matilda, Queen of Denmark. James Watson, after Francis Cotes. 1771.

7. The Prince of Wales and the Duke of York. Valentine Green, after Benjamin West.

8. Prince Henry, Duke of Cumberland. Thomas Watson, after Joshua Reynolds.

9. Her Royal Highness the Princess Elizabeth. William Ward, after Johann Heinrich Ramberg. 1801.

10. Princess Sophia of the United Kingdom. Anonymous.

11. Maria, Countess of Waldegrave. James McArdell, after Joshua Reynolds.

12. Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester. Anonymous.

13. Mrs Robinson. Joshua Reynolds. 1784.

14. George the Fourth when Prince of Wales. After Sir Joshua Reynolds.

15. Mrs Fitzherbert. John Condé, after Richard Cosway. 1792.

16. The modern paradise, or Adam and Eve regenerated, showing the Prince of Wales and Maria Fitzherbert. William Humphrey. 1786.

17. Prince Frederick Henry, Duke of Cumberland. Anonymous.

18. Florizel and Perdita. Anonymous. 1783.

19. Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex. After William Skelton.

20. Augustus d’Este. Richard Cosway. 1799.

21. Mrs. Jordan in the Character of the Comic Muse. Thomas Park, after John Hoppner. 1787.

22. King William IV when Duke of Clarence. Henry Dawe. 1827.

23. The humbug or an attempt at tragedy, with the Jordan [struck through and replaced by] Joram Upsett, showing Mrs Jordan and the Duke of Clarence. 1791.

24. Ernest Augustus, King of Hanover. H R Cook, after G Saunders.

25. Fashionable Contrasts - or The Duchess’s little shoe yielding to the magnitude of the Duke’s foot. James Gillray.1792.

26. His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent. Thomas Cheesman, after Muller.

27. His Royal Highness Frederick, Duke of York. John Jackson. 1822.

28. The Modern Circe or a Sequel to the Petticoat, showing Mary Anne Clarke and Wardle. Isaac Cruikshank. 1809.

29. Fanny Burney. Charles Turner. 1840.

30. A man disappearing into a cracked chamber pot which has the legs of woman; implying the illicit relationship between the Duke of Clarence and Mrs. Jordan. James Gillray. 1791.

31. Horatio Walpole, Earl of Orford. W Evans. 1811.

32. George III as he was in his final illness. Charles Turner. 1820.

Plate 2: Courtesy Met Museum, under Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication CC0 1.0 Universal licence. http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en

Plates 10, 12, 17, 19, 24: Courtesy of Internet Archive Book Images. Public domain.

Plates 1, 7, 8 and cover image of George III by Richard Houston, after Johan Zoffany: Courtesy of Rijksmuseum, under Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication CC0 1.0 Universal licence. http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en

Plate 6: Courtesy of The National Gallery of Art. Public domain.

Plates 9, 11, 13, 15, 21, 22, 25: Courtesy of The Yale Center for British Art. Public domain.

Plates 20, 30, 32: Courtesy Wellcome Library, London, under Creative Commons Attribution only licence CC BY 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Plates 16, 18, 23, 28: From the British Cartoon Prints Collection (Library of Congress). No known restrictions on publication.

Plates 3, 4, 5, 14, 26, 27, 29, 31: From The New York Public Library Public domain.

Cast of Characters

The House of Hanover

In a world of dukes and duchesses, princes and princesses, it’s easy to confuse your Cumberlands. Here’s a quick guide to the siblings and children of George III. Their significant others are in italics - official spouses only, or we could be here a long, long time!

The King and Queen

George III

Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

The King’s Siblings… and Their Spouses

Princess Augusta, Duchess of Brunswick

Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel

Prince Edward, Duke of York and Albany

Princess Elizabeth

Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh

Maria, Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh

Prince Henry, Duke of Cumberland and Strathearn

Anne, Duchess of Cumberland and Strathearn

Princess Louisa

Prince Frederick

Caroline Matilda, Queen of Denmark and Norway

Christian VII of Denmark and Norway

The King’s Children… and Their Spouses

George IV

Caroline of Brunswick

Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany

Princess Frederica Charlotte of Prussia

William IV

Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen

Charlotte, Princess Royal

Frederick I of Württemberg

Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn

Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld

Princess Augusta Sophia

Princess Elizabeth

Frederick VI, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg

Ernest Augustus, King of Hanover

Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex

Lady Augusta Murray (annulled)

Lady Cecilia Buggin

Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge

Princess Augusta of Hesse-Cassel

Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh

Prince William Frederick, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh

Princess Sophia

Prince Octavius

Prince Alfred

Princess Amelia

Introduction

‘Love, and Scandal, are the best Sweeteners of Tea […] but, in my Opinion, Scandal is the sweetest of the two, and least dangerous.’

Henry Fielding’s words, first spoken at Drury Lane in 1728, are as true today as ever. As the twenty-first century unfolds, the public’s thirst for scandal shows no sign of waning. Each generation may think that its scandals are the most shocking that have ever been revealed and that there can be nothing as sordid as that morning’s tabloid revelations, but each generation is soon proved wrong.

In fact, gossip, scandal and all manner of dubious dealings have long since fuelled the engine of societies across the world and for the Georgians, there was nothing more delicious than a little salacious tidbit, all the more so if its tentacles reached as far as the throne room itself.

When it came to the Hanoverian kings of Great Britain, the gossip-hungry public was in for a real treat. One thing was certain, as long as the four King Georges sat on the throne, there was always something shocking in the headlines.

When my first book, Life in the Georgian Court, was published in 2016, it was a source of great delight for me to see how many people just couldn’t get enough of Georgian scandal. The response to the brief collection of shockers contained in that book was so great that it gave me a wonderful insight into just how much we still love a bit of eighteenth century drama. I decided that the time had come for a second helping.

You will find some of the scandals from my first book retold here, for some are too juicy not to include. In those cases. each one is examined in far greater depth, offering an insight into some classic royal embarrassments from the supposedly dull court of George III. After all, one could hardly dip into the scandals of George III’s reign without including both Mrs Jordan and Mrs Robinson, not to mention the tragedy of Caroline Matilda. Diving into newspapers, letters and memoirs of the era, one can almost hear the frustrated monarch stamping his feet on the throne room floor and asking why people couldn’t just behave!

This jaunt through the scandals of the court of George III will take readers from the palaces of Britain all the way to Denmark. Far from being an exhaustive compilation of every scandal that gripped the Georgian public - for that you would need many volumes of encyclopedia - think of this as a cornucopia of some of the most eyebrow-raising episodes. The reign of George III was an eventful time in the history of the family that came from Hanover, bringing with it the most shocking and rip-roaring period in the history of the British Isles. You will not find in-depth political analysis here, though there are, of course, many excellent volumes that provide this, but instead a rogue’s gallery full of lovers, lords and layabouts. Some of them were irresistible, some of them were reprehensible and one or two managed to be both!

Think of this book as your window into the coffeehouses of eighteenth century Britain, complete with a fire blazing in the grate and a gossipmonger sitting happily beside the hearth sharing larger than life tales with those who stumble into her purview! Where better to spend a few hours than deep in the scandalous Georgian court?

Long before the days of spin doctors, press relations and a well-massaged media, in the eighteenth century, it was a case of anything goes. From shady business deals gone sour, mistresses bent on revenge and shadowy rumours of men who wielded the power to get away with murder, not to mention clandestine weddings, illegitimate children and the shadow of the executioner’s blade, the Georgians had it all. Welcome to a world where even the most well-bred and illustrious wearer of the most magnificent crown in the land could be caught with their breeches down, in more ways than one!

Chapter 1

The Fair Quaker

‘This week has seen the exposure of a stupid and mischievous fable respecting the family of George III which has been floating about for half a century, which is in some quarters, we believe, an article in the popular historic creed.’¹

Unlike George III, I have never been one for rules. Yet when one is writing a book, one must by necessity have some rules, or where would we all be? So we find ourselves at the opening of this book, at the pinnacle of the mountain, if you will, looking down on illegitimate spouses and children, murderous valets and scheming sorts, and in these very first pages, the rules will be broken.

Call it authorial privilege.

The scandalous stories within these pages are all events that occurred during the reign of George III and involved one or more of his family members. So you shall not find the imprisoned Sophia Dorothea of Celle examined here nor the case of the outrageous Bartolomeo Pergami and his magnificent whiskers, but there are plenty of other memorable sorts to take their not-so-illustrious places.

But here at the start, before we have even met the cast who make up our stories, the one rule that has been established is to be broken, for the tale of Hannah Lightfoot might have occurred during the time of George III, but it didn’t become a true scandal until many, many years later. Yet it strikes me as the perfect story to open our journey with, for it paints a picture of a George III that we won’t come across again. Instead that unfortunate king is forever caught in the public consciousness as one of two things - either the monarch who lost America, or the man who lost his mind. Yet in these pages we will meet a man of piety and duty, married to a wife of similar standards and opinions and heading a court full of brothers, sons and even the occasional daughter who seemed determined to create havoc, moral standards be damned.

George was the second child born to Frederick, Prince of Wales, and his wife, Augusta of Saxe-Gotha. At his birth he was so weak that few expected him to live. Yet he defied the odds and didn’t only survive, but flourished. Frederick, George’s father, was the favourite grandson of George I but was rather less popular with his own father, George II, and the pair was bitterly estranged.

Frederick died when George was just 12-years-old and suddenly, quite out of nowhere, the sheltered young man found himself next in line to the British throne. The prolonged estrangement of the Wales household from that of the sovereign’s thawed as Frederick’s widow Augusta sought out what help she could to raise her bereaved brood and where would be a better place to start than with the old king himself? The estrangement was swiftly healed as the fatherless family was reunited with the monarch and George II, once again, clasped his grandchildren and daughter-in-law to the royal bosom.

Time was short, for the old king wasn’t getting any younger and no one knew how many years remained before George, now Prince of Wales, would take his place. In the event, he was just 22-years-old when he assumed the throne in 1760 and unlike the other Georges with their love of the ladies, this George was single but definitely not in the mood to mingle. But what of the years between Fred’s death and that of George II? Were there adventures in the youth of George III? Some say yes.

So it was that the young man was drawn back into the heart of the royal family and as he was trained in the ways of kingship, his devotion and piety only increased. The history of the House of Hanover was littered with scandal that arose, the young man couldn’t help but think, from too much indulging of base desires. It was those desires that had landed his great grandmother, Sophia Dorothea, in prison for thirty years², and had seen his predecessors bring a legion of mistresses into the royal palaces. This had caused a rift between George I and his son, George II, that was later echoed in the estrangement of George II and Frederick, Prince of Wales. Frederick died before George III was an adult, but familial rot was a fact of life for the esteemed House of Hanover.

In his youth, George witnessed firsthand the power of scandal when his bereaved mother, Augusta, sought out a new male role model for her fatherless son. She didn’t choose a member of the royal family but a Scottish politician, John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute. Bute was a long-time friend of the Prince and Princess of Wales, whom he had met during a card game at Egham Races when rain forced the horses back into their stables and the spectators undercover. Intelligent, respectful, a little bit stern and very respectable indeed, Augusta thought Bute was the perfect choice to guide her son into manhood.

Yet the public didn’t share Augusta’s adoration of Bute, whom they suspected of winning the role not due to his brain, but another part of his anatomy entirely. Bute was tall, handsome and famed for his fabulous legs. In short, he was just the sort of man to comfort a grieving widow.

If you get my drift.

Horace Walpole³ - who else? - had much to say on the matter of Augusta’s attachment to Bute. He prudently refrained from making any conclusions of his own, but he was happy to record the rumours in his wonderfully gossipy journals. It is a quintessentially Walpoleish tale, scandalous, saucy and just the sort of story that kept the court wheels turning.

‘It had already been whispered that the assiduity of Lord Bute at Leicester House, and his still more frequent attendance in the gardens at Kew and Carlton House, were less addressed to the Prince of Wales (the future George III) than to his mother [Augusta]. The eagerness of the Pages of the Back-Stairs to let her know whenever Lord Bute arrived [and some other symptoms] contributed to dispel the ideas that had been conceived of the rigour of her widowhood.’⁴

And Bute, as Walpole noted, was doing little to dispel such rumours. In fact, if one was being particularly critical, one might almost accuse him of encouraging them. After all, he made no effort to blend in, and seemed to delight in being the centre not only of royal attention, but of the public’s chatter too.

‘On the other hand, the favoured personage [Bute], naturally ostentatious of his person and of haughty carriage, seemed by no means desirous of concealing his conquest. His bows grew more theatric, his graces contracted some meaning, and the beauty of his leg was constantly displayed in the eyes of the poor captivated Princess.’⁵

In the press, Bute and Augusta became the targets of merciless swipes and she was caricatured as The Wanton Widow. Though these swipes began before George came to the throne, they went on for years. When Bute became Prime Minister, they got louder still, eventually forcing his resignation. Bute was a talented and experienced statesman but he found himself helpless against accusations of rising to the top on the strength of his prowess in Augusta’s bedroom. The allegations led John Wilkes⁶ to pen a far from respectful bit of poetry.

‘Where all must rise, or not coherent be,

And all that rise must rise in due degree,

Then in the scale of various Pricks, ‘tis plain

Godlike erect, BUTE stands the foremost man.’

Rest assured that the rather obvious double entendre is exactly what Wilkes was aiming for. By his usual standards, this was positively affectionate!

I never said he was subtle.

It’s important to note that there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that Bute and Augusta were lovers, but that didn’t matter to the Georgian scandal mongers. It was a lesson well-learned for George who, though protected to some extent from what was being written about his mother, was hardly completely ignorant of it. Bute had been appointed to guide the fatherless Prince of Wales safely through adolescence and there was nothing more to it than that, but gossip rarely listens to the facts. Instead George saw first-hand how a decision taken with the very best of motives could easily become something else, something sordid and forbidden. It was not a lesson he would quickly forget.

And he didn’t come to the throne without knowledge of those aforementioned dalliances of his predecessors either. George I openly lived with his long-term mistress, Melusine von der Schulenberg, and she was mother to three illegitimate children by him. His son, George II, was bitterly estranged from George I⁷ and kept plenty of mistresses of his own, chief among them the famed Henrietta Howard, Countess of Suffolk. He in turn was estranged from his son, Frederick, Prince of Wales, father of George III⁸. Though Frederick and George III were close as father and son, the young king would have been all too aware of the not always happy romantic history of the House of Hanover. It was because of this chequered family past that George was determined to be the man who broke the mould. He would take no mistresses nor father any illegitimate children, making him unique among the King Georges.

Yet the weight that George bore on his slender shoulders was heavy, for the fate and moral fibre of a nation was now depending on him. Much was made of the fact that he was the first of the Georgian kings to be born and raised in Britain, and when Frederick died he left a letter for his son that clearly mapped out his expectations for the young man’s eventual reign. The letter was catchily titled, Instructions for my son George; drawn by my-self, for his good, that of my family, and for that of this people, according to the ideas of my grandfather, and best friend, George I.

Frederick’s words were written out of ‘the tenderest paternal affections’ and he entrusted the letter to the Princess of Wales, who was in turn entrusted with reading it to the young man and passing it into his custody when he became king. As well as wise words on balancing the books, keeping the politicians and courtiers sweet and the importance of stressing his Englishness, Frederick reminded George that above all things, his life must be one of faith.

‘I conclude, with recommending you, the Princess, the rest of my children, and all your subjects, to the protection of God Almighty; which, depend upon it my son, you will have, if you fear and obey Him.’⁹

George III feared and obeyed the word of God to his dying day. Even in the throes of madness, when he could not recognise his own family and was strapped down to a restraining chair, his doctors praised him when he stopped jabbering and chattering long enough to pray for his own recovery. He followed the highest moral standards and expected his family to do likewise. This is the king, let us not forget, who would one day issue a Royal Proclamation For the Encouragement of Piety and Virtue, and for the Preventing and Punishing of Vice, Profaneness and Immorality, aimed at improving the moral health of the nation.

So much for our leading man; what about his leading lady for this particular chapter?

Hannah Lightfoot was born, according to the scant details that remain of her life, in 1730 in St John¹⁰, Middlesex. She was the daughter of a shoemaker, Matthew, and Mary, his wife, and was raised a Quaker. Hannah’s father died when his little girl was just three-years-old and she went to live in London with her uncle, who was a linen draper. When she was in her early twenties, Hannah married a grocer named Isaac Axford, but the marriage was not a happy one. Before two years had passed, Hannah was estranged from Axford and by