Court Life Below Stairs; or, London under the First Georges, 1714-1760 (-1830)

Chapter I

News of the King's Madness — Public Anxiety — The Prince's Conduct — What Captain Jack Payne wrote to Sheridan — Removal of His Majesty to Kew — Cruel Treatment of the King — A German Page — The Prince of Wales and Duke of York — Political Factions — The Plan of Regency — Dr. Willis and the King — Miss Burney Pursued by His Majesty — What Willis Said to the Chancellor — Recovery and Rejoicings — Thanksgiving at St. Paul's — The Bishop of Llandaff and the Queen — The Duke of York's Duel — The Queen smiles upon Colonel Lennox ... 1

Chapter II

The Royal Princes — The Duke of Clarence at the Queen's Lodge — Mrs. Jordan at Richmond — The Wicked Duke of Queensbury — Mrs. Jordan at Bushy Park — Colonel FitzClarence and the Lieutenant — The Duke of York 2_ CONTENTS. VI and his Duchess — Trial before the House of Commons — The Duchess of York and her Dogs — The Duke of Sussex and Lady Augusta Murray— The Duke of Cumberland — The Sellis Scandal — The Duke and Lady Graves — The Duke's Marriage — The Queen and the New Duchess 50

Chapter III

The Prince of Wales and his Difficulties — His Proposed Marriage — Lord Malmesbury at the Court of Brunswick — The Bride-elect — Her Journey to England and Reception by the Prince — Marriage and Honeymoon — The Evil Genius of her Life — The Story of the Lost Letters — The Prince's Debts — Disloyalty of the People — The Cry of ' No King !' — The King's Life Attempted — Birth of a Young Princess — The Prince's Separation from His Wife — The Lord Chancellor's Opinion of His Sanity — Mrs. Fitzherbert Communicates with Rome 106

Chapter IV

Attempts on the King's Life — Margaret Nicholson and His Majesty — The Queen seized with a Consternation — The Madman at Drury Lane — Despard's Conspiracy — The Prince of Wales once more in Debt— Signs of the King's Malady — His Majesty's Fear of a Regency —Speaks of Resigning the Crown— His Visit to the Princess of Wales— The Queen Plays a New Part— The Town Divided into Factions . . . 149

Chapter V

The Princess of Wales in Retirement— The Young Princess and her Mother— The Douglas Scandal and its Consequences—The Secret Commission — The Princess CONTENTS. VII Triumphs — Her Popularity Increased— The Real Lord Byron— The Princess's Indiscretions and Eccentricities — The Prince's Amour with Lady Hertford— The Re gency Commences — The Princess's Visit to Windsor — Fresh Insults— The Feelings of the People . 169

Chapter VI

The Reign of the Regent — A Levee at Carlton House — Difficulties of his Ministers — Visit of the Foreign Sovereigns to London — The Princess and the Emperor of Russia— At the Opera — The Prince of Orange and the Princess Charlotte — Anxiety of the Regent to get her out of the Kingdom — The Grand Duchess of Oldenburg's Opinion of the Regent — The Princess becomes Rebellious — She breaks off her Marriage — Wrath of the Regent — The Princess's Flight — A Royal Captive 210 CHAPTER VH. The Princess of Wales Determines to leave England — The Opinion of her Friends — The Regent Rejoices — Her Departure — The Princess Charlotte'sMarriage — Prince Leopold and the Mob — The Marriage Ceremony — Brief Illness and Death — Sorrow of the Nation — Indignations against the Queen and Prince — Marriages of the Royal Dukes — Death of the Queen — The last Days of the King— His Death . ... 252 CHAPTER VTH.

Schemes for a Royal Divorce — The Princess Abroad — The Milan Commission — The New Queen — Her Journey to London — The Trial begins — Lord John Russell's Hint to His Majesty — Italian Witnesses going to Westminster CONTENTS. VIII The — Accusations against the Queen— Bergami in the Tent — Result of the Trial and General Rejoicings — Public Feeling against the King — Pamphlets and Bal lads — The Broad-faced Naval Gentleman . 281

CHAPTER IX.

Queen's Thanksgiving — The Coronation and the King's Vanity — Exclusion of Her Majesty and its Effects — Her Death and Remarkable Funeral — Riots and Bloodshed — The King with his Irish Subjects — O'Connell and the Modern Cæsar — The King's Seclu sion — His Eccentric Life at Windsor— The Marchion ess of Conyngham and her Despotic Rule — The King's Last Days— His Love of Mimicry — His Hallucinations and Death

Chapter I

News of the King's Madness — Public Anxiety — The Prince's Conduct — What Captain Jack Payne wrote to Sheridan — Removal of His Majesty to Kew — Cruel Treatment of the King— A German Page — The Prince of Wales and Duke of York — Political Factions — The Plan of Regency — Dr. Willis and the King — Miss Burney Pursued by His Majesty — What Willis Said to the Chancellor — Recovery and Rejoicings — Thanksgiving at St. Paul's — The Bishop of Llandaff and the Queen — The Duke of York's Duel — The Queen smiles upon Colonel Lennox. MEANWHILE, the news of the king's madness spread throughout the kingdom, and the consternation and excitement which followed was intense. Vague reports, not only of the violence and hopelessness of his malady, but of his death, were whispered daily, and added to the agitation which possessed all B VOL. classes alike.

The stocks fell two per cent. ; petitions for His Majesty's restoration were offered up by all religious sects, and in the Jewish synagogues, before the Privy Council had framed a form of prayer to be used in the Church of England ; and men of all shades of political opinions hurried to town, anxious, and embarrassed that both Houses of Parliament stood prorogued to November 20, beyond which date no power existing in the State could postpone the meeting. Beyond all, a strong feeling pervaded the public mind that the king's death could bode no good to the country. His Majesty's most bitter affliction seemed indeed to suddenly stir a sense of loyalty in the hearts of the people. Sir Lucas Pepys, one of the royal physicians, told Miss Burney that none of his colleagues lives would be safe, if the king did not recover, and that they all received threatening letters daily.

Sir George Baker, another of the medical attendants, had his carriage stopped by the mob, who asked him how the king did, and, on his replying that his case was a bad one, they shouted out, ' The more shame for you.' ' WHAT WILL BECOME OF ME?' 3 But, if there was gloom and consternation abroad, there was fear and depression under the royal roof. The Prince of Wales took posses sion of Windsor, when all order was banished from the household ; and here he remained until the king's removal to Kew, believing he might at any moment be called upon to occupy the throne. The queen, stunned and miserable, lived entirely in two apartments, interfering in no way, and seeing only her daughters and a few of the ladies of her household. She was already slighted as if her reign were a thing of the past, scarce consulted in any of the arrangements concerning the king, and humili ated to find herself ignored by the physicians ; who, after leaving His Majesty, proceeded to make their reports to the prince, whom they regarded as the rising sun, and with whom they hoped in this way to gain favour.

Left almost friendless and hopeless, her sense of desolation and grief were extreme ; her cry, as Miss Bur ney tells us, ' " What will become of me ? What will become of me ?" uttered with the most piercing lamentation, struck deep and hard into all our hearts.' B The Duke of York, the king's second and favourite son, who had returned to England, and had been received with every demonstration of affection by the king a short time before his illness, now joined his brother in his con trol over the royal household, and became a partner in the disgraceful and unfeeling con duct which the heir to the crown publicly dis played. In the presence of the queen, they spoke of their father's malady in a brusque and heart less manner ; and, at a time when the king's malady was sought to be kept secret, the Prince of Wales introduced his friend Lord Lothian into His Majesty's room when it was darkened, that he might hear his ravings at a time when they were at their worst ; later on, he over hauled His Majesty's private cabinet, when he came upon some secret papers and ' a vast hoard ' of jewels and money.

When this latter fact be came known to Her Majesty, she, as the prince afterwards wrote in complaint to his father, ' con descended to a species and warmth of reproaches, into which nothing could have surprised or betrayed Her Majesty, but a degree of passion which I have never witnessed, nor believed to exist, in Her Majesty before.' CAPTAIN JACK PAYNE. 5 The prince was attended at Windsor by his personal and disreputable friend and private secretaiy, Captain, or as he was more generally and familiarly termed, Jack Payne, who had recently been refused admittance into Brookes' Club. This worthy gentleman had as little delicacy in speaking of the king's affliction as if it were a subject for amusement, or, indeed, as the prince himself ; and, as he considered ' all secrecy with regard to His Majesty's situation any longer almost inadvisable,' wrote full de tails of its various stages to his friends, Richard Brinsley Sheridan and Lord Loughborough ; moreover, these letters, in which ho ' spoke his mind freely,' scarcely conceal a desire, not limited to the captain, for the king's demise.

To Lord Loughborough he writes that His Majesty's ' dissolution is almost the best that can be hoped ;' and two days afterwards he says, 'From what I can understand from the best authority, the last stroke to this unhappy affair cannot be far off. It is what every person in a situation to see is obliged to wish, as the happiest possible termination to the present melancholy scene.1 To Sheridan, who was to have been prime minister under the new king's reign, the captain says, 'The Duke of York, who is looking over me, and is just come out of the king's room, bids me add that His Majesty's situation is every moment becoming worse. His pulse is weaker and weaker ; and the doctors say it is impossible to survive it long . . . Since this letter was begun, all articulation even seems to be at an end.' In his next epistle to the same friend, he writes that the king woke at night from a profound sleep, ' with all the ges tures and ravings of the most confirmed maniac, and a new noise in imitation of the howling of a dog . . . his theme has been all this day on the subject of religion, and of his being in spired ;' and again he speaks of an effort the king made to fling himself from a window.

But days passed, and though His Majesty in no way gave signs of recovering his reason, his physical health improved. It was then deemed advisable that he should be removed to Kew ; which would be more convenient to the phy sicians, as being nearer London, and they declared it likewise best for their patient, on account of the garden, as in Windsor there was REMOVING FROM WINDSOR. 7 none but what was public to the spectators from the ten-ace or tops of the houses. The queen's knowledge of the king's strong aversion to Kew made her consent to the change with great reluctance ; the prince, however, was in favour of his removal, and the physicians gave it as their unanimous opinion that such a step was now not only advisable, but necessary ; accordingly a privy council was held at Windsor with the Prince of Wales, when the Chancellor, Mr. Pitt, and all the officers of state, were summoned to sign permission for His Majesty's removal.

The only difficulty remaining was that of removing him quietly from his favourite Windsor. If they attempted force, Sir Lucas Pepys said, they had not a doubt but his smallest resistance would call up the whole country to his fancied rescue; yet how at such a time prevail by persuasion? The date fixed for his departure was November 29, a day of unusual depression to the queen and her household ; her mind, she said, 'quite misgave her about Kew; the king's dislike was terrible to think of, and she could not foresee in what it might end. She would have resisted the measure herself, but that she had determined not to have upon her own mind any opposition to the opinion of the physicians.' It was settled between the prince and the doctors that the queen, with the princesses, should quietly depart for Kew, when the king should be informed they had left, and permitted to go through their rooms to assure himself of the fact ; he was then to be allured to Kew on the promise of seeing them.

On the morning of the 29th, the royal household was in a state of confusion, packing and preparing for the removal ; physicians and pages whispering and plotting, the prince anxious, the princesses weep ing, with a chill foreboding at heart of impending misery. About ten o'clock the queen departed ; ' drowned in tears, she glided along the passage, and got softly into her carriage, with two weep ing princesses and Lady Courtown. Then followed the third princess, with Lady Charlotte Finch. They went off without any state or parade, and a more melancholy condition cannot be imagined. There was not a dry eye in the house. The footmen, the house-maids, the porter, the sentinels — all cried, even bitterly, as they looked on.' A DAY OF GLOOM. 9 The prince had, some days previously, driven to Kew, in order to make arrangements there according to his desires for the reception of the king, queen, and princesses.

Accordingly, when Her Majesty arrived, she found the names of those who were to occupy the various apartments written on the doors in chalk ; the house was in a miserable condition ; no fires were lighted, the rooms needed washing ; the wind blew through the ill-fitting windows and doors of the palace, which had never been intended for a winter residence; there were no carpets in the princesses' apartments, and everywhere, on this bleak November day, an air of chill dis comfort pervaded. Towards evening, the king with great difficulty was persuaded to quit Windsor ; he was accompanied by only three of his gentle men, but ahnost all the inhabitants of the town gathered round the railings to see him enter his carriage, many of whom believed they would never set eyes on him again. On pass ing through the gates of the park, he covered his face with his hands, and cried ; but, recovering presently, he spoke of the pleasure he would have in meeting his wife and daughters, a satisfaction cruelly denied him.

The Right Hon. William Massey, who derived the private in formation furnished in his ' History of England during the reign of George III.' from the diary of Lady Elizabeth Harcourt— lady of the bed chamber to the queen, and sister-in-law to General Harcourt, one of the king's favourite equerries— states that when His Majesty arrived at the palace, he found himself a prisoner. ' Proceeding,' the historian writes, ' towards the apartments he usually occupied, he was stopped, and conducted into a large room, where he found the pages who were to be his keepers waiting to receive him. The equerries, among whom was his faithful and valued servant, General Harcourt, according to the orders they had received, withdrew. The physician also who had accompanied the royal patient from Windsor, having consigned him to the charge of the pages, also thought proper to retire, and actually returned to London the same night.

The king then impatiently demanded to see his family ; and the promise under which he had been induced to leave his palace of Windsor THE KING MADE PRISONER. 11 was, in cruel mockery, fulfilled. The princesses were brought before the window ; the king, on seeing them, rushed forward to lift the sasb, but it was screwed down. A paroxysm was the immediate consequence of this cruel restraint ; the princesses were hastily removed, and the king was dragged from the window, entreating to be allowed to speak to his children.' Next morning, Miss Burney says she — by the desire of Her Majesty, who had passed a wretched night — went through the cold, dark passages to procure speech of one of the pages, when she learned 'the night had been the most violently bad of any yet passed — and no wonder.' In the seclusion of Kew Palace, the king's physicians, little understanding his malady and its treatment, no longer dealt with him as if he were a human being ; cruelty was indeed con sidered by the eminent medical faculty of the day the shortest method of restoring reason to the unfortunate victims they undertook to cure of insanity, and such was not spared the king.

From Massey's excellent history we learn that the king's body was enclosed in a machine which left him no liberty of action ; he was sometimes chained to a staple, frequently beaten and starved, and kept in subjection by menacing and violent language. All this was persisted in, though he was seldom violent, unless when provoked. His malady betrayed itself chiefly in ravings, that sometimes continued uninter ruptedly for a whole day, and, in one instance, for nineteen hours without intermission. His wife and daughters were not permitted to see him, and he was now chiefly entrusted to a German page named Ernst, whom royal patronage had lifted from an obscure position. This creature used to strike the helpless maniac, and on one occasion, when he wished to prolong his walk in the garden, Ernst seized him in his arms, carried him into his apartments, and, throwing him violently on a sofa, exclaimed to the attendants, ' There is your king for you.' This incident was remembered by His Majesty after his recovery, and was repeated by him to Lady Harcourt.

It made such an impression on him that he also mentioned it to Miss Burney. ' He gave me,' she writes, ' a history of his THE TOWN WAS DIVIDED. 13 pages, animating almost into a rage as he related his subjects of displeasure with them, particularly with Mr. Ernst, who, he told me, had been brought up by himself.' The Prince of Wales and the Duke of York were now seldom seen at Kew, but occupied themselves with schemes for the future, when the former should be proclaimed either king or regent. His faction was headed by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, in the absence of Charles Fox, who was, at the period when the king's illness was first discovered, travelling through France and Italy with Mrs. Armstead; the prince had dispatched a courier for him, his advice and assistance being sorely needed at this crisis by his friends, who looked for his coming ' as the Jews look out for their Messiah.' The whole town was divided into factions that raged with great vigour; the general voice being in favour of the king and Pitt, against the prince, whose reign they dreaded, and his dissipated followers.

These latter, urged on by the royal example, sought every means of ridiculing the king, and turning his affliction to heartless merriment. Massey gives it as an authentic fact that ' the Prince of Wales, who had a talent for mimicry, and indeed possessed the social qualities suited to the witty and profligate men and women with whom he lived, was in the habit of amus ing his companions by talcing off, as the phrase was, the gestures and actions of his insane father. That which he did himself, he suffered his friends to do ; and the standing topic in the prince's circle was ridicule of the king and queen.

The Duke of York vied with his brother in defama tion of his parents ; but he was wholly destitute of the lively talent which sometimes carries off the grosser parts of the most ribald discourse ; and the brutality of the stupid sot disgusted even the most profligate of his associates.' Captain Jack Payne must, of course, follow the royal example, and, according to Lady Har court, when he had ' one day uttered some ribaldry about the queen in the presence of the Duchess of Gordon, " You little, insignifi cant, good-for-nothing, upstart, pert, chattering puppy," said her Grace, " how dare you name your royal master's royal mother in that style ?" ' a hearty rebuke by which the gallant man scarcely profited, as may be judged from a MY BROTHER OF YORK. 15 letter, preserved in the Auckland correspondence, from Miss Sayer, whose information was derived from the said Duchess of Gordon, a staunch supporter of the king and Pitt. ' A few days ago,' says Miss Sayer, ' Mrs. Richard Walpole gave a supper to the two princes, Mrs. Fitzherbert, Colonel Fullarton, Jack Payne — who is such a favourite he is to be a Lord of the Admiralty, and leans on the prince as he walks, not the prince on him — Miss Vanneck and a few others.

The Duchess of Gordon the only Pittite. The prince says, " What a fine fellow my brother York is ! He never forsakes me. The other day, when we went to look for the king's money, jewels, &c, at Kew, as we opened the drawers, my mother looked very uneasy and grew angry. Says York to her, "Madam, I believe you are as much deranged as the king." Then says Jack Payne, after a great many invectives against Mr. Pitt, calling him William the Fourth, Wil liam the Conqueror, &c, "Mr. Pitt's chastity will protect the queen," which was received by all present as a very good thing. The Duchess of Gordon — for which you will like her, though a Scotchwoman— declared, if they began to abuse the queen, she would leave the room.' But at Brookes' Club indecent abuse of the king, queen, and Pitt was indulged in without reserve ; and a cant phrase used at the whist table was, ' I play the lunatic ' (the king).

The contest between the two political factions increased daily. The ladies who espoused the prince's cause wore Regency caps, badges, and ribbons emblematic of their party ; whilst their more loyal sisters refused to attend their private entertainments or visit them. Parliament assembled on November 20, but was again adjourned till December 4, in conse quence of the king's condition ; when it met on that date, both parties agreed to appoint a select committee to examine the king's physicians re garding the probable length which his madness might last. Six days later, the reports of the committee which declared His Majesty to be incapable of meeting parliament, or transacting any business, were laid upon the table of the House of Commons, when Pitt brought in a ' plan of Regency,' according to which the man agement of the king, and of the royal household WHAT CHARLES FOX SAID. 17 and all appointments concerning it, should be vested in the queen ; the royal authority being exercised by the Prince of Wales under certain restrictions.

These were that the prince was not to dispose of the king's real or personal property, nor grant any pensions, nor any office in revision, nor create any peers. Such restrictions were exactly those which the prince and his friends dreaded, and which they were now determined to oppose by might and main. Ac cordingly, Charles Fox rose to his feet, and, in an excited speech, declared the Prince of Wales had ' as clear a right to assume the reins of government, and fully exercise the powers of sovereignty, as if His Majesty had undergone a perfect and natural demise.' Pitt listened, with a smile of satisfaction, to these bold expressions, which, he felt convinced, were far more damning to the prince's party than any argument of which he could make use ; leaning across to the Treasury bench, he whispered to a friend, ' I'll un-whig that gentle man for the rest of his life.' No sooner had Fox sat down, than his opponent rose.

The doctrine, he said, they had just listened to was little less VOL. IV. . than treason to the Constitution. He ' met the claim of right preferred on behalf of the heir apparent with a positive contradiction, and denied that, under the circumstances, the Prince of Wales had any more right to assume the government than any other person in the kingdom. It was the province of Parliament, and of Parliament alone, to make provision for the government of the country, whenever any inter ruption, of the royal authority took place.' In a subsequent debate on this momentous question, Fox once more made a remark which by no means served the interests of his party. Pitt, he avowed, would have proposed no limita tion on the power of the regent, unless he had been certain that there would be a change of ministry ; and that, conscious of not having deserved the favour of the prince, he was en vious of his successors, and desirous to obstruct their credit.

Pitt's reply was at once spirited and prompt. ' As to my being conscious,' he said, ' that I do not deserve the favour of the prince, I can only say that I know but one way in which I, or any man, could deserve it, by having uni- A STRUGGLE FOR REGENCY. 19 formly endeavoured in a public situation to do my duty to the king, his father, and to the country at large. If, in thus endeavouring to deserve the confidence of the prince, it should appear that I, in fact, have lost it, however painful and mortifying that circumstance may be to me, and from whatever cause it may proceed, I may indeed regret it, but I will boldly say it is impossible I should ever repent it.' Whilst the Regency Bill was before Parlia ment, the prince lost no time in seeking friends to support his cause, an effort in which he was of course seconded by his brother ; the latter held a meeting in his own house, to confer with the Opposition, as the prince's political followers were styled, and made a speech, neither re markable for eloquence or intelligibleness, in favour of granting full powers to the regent.

Indeed, the prince now caused the report to be spread that he would not accept the regency under any restrictions ; furthermore, both he and his friends declared the king's madness was hopelessly incurable. The conduct of the royal brothers now be came, if possible, more reckless and dissipated C2 than before ; hopeful of the success of their plans, they enjoyed themselves without restraint ; dined publicly with their friends, and were seen at night continually at Brookes', where they gambled and got drunk. ' The behaviour of the two princes,' Mr. Granville writes to the Marquis of Buckingham, ' is such as to shock every man's feelings .... If we were together, I could tell you some par ticulars of the Prince of Wales' behaviour towards the king and queen within these few days that would make your blood run cold.' Lord Bulkeley adds his testimony. ' The princes,' he says, 'go on in their usual style, both keeping open houses, and employing every means in thenpower to gain proselytes ; attending the Beefsteak Club, Freemason's meetings, &c The Duke of York never misses a night at Brookes', where the hawks pluck his feathers unmercifully, and have reduced him to the vowels I 0 U.' It may be mentioned here that, eighteen months after the duke's return from Germany, he was indebted to his creditors for the sum of £60,000.

LORD LOUGHBOROUGH WALKED IN. 21 So assured was the prince that his hour of triumph was at hand that he already named some of his Ministers of State ; the Duke of York was to be appointed Commander-in-Chief; Sheridan, Treasurer of the Navy ; Fox, one of the Secretaries of State ; Earl Spencer, Lord- Lieutenant of Ireland ; Jack Payne was to be made an admiral at once ; and my Lord Lough borough, Lord Chancellor. Concerning this latter appointment, an amusing incident oc curred, which is given in the Auckland correspondence, on the authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury. ' On Friday night an odd thing happened,' writes his Grace, ' at a great assembly and ball at Devonshire House, given for all the world. When it was very full, the doors flew open, and " Lord Chancellor " was announced ; when lo !

Lord Loughborough walked in. The servant probably considered him, and had been used to call him so, three weeks ago.' The prince not only intended awarding his followers high offices of state, but his liberality went further, and he selected three of them as the future husbands of the three marriageable princesses ; however, this intended generosity on his part was principally contemplated by way of countenancing his own union with a subject. The party spirit which divided the town was not long in reaching the royal physicians. A short time after the king's removal to Kew, a fresh medical adviser, in the person of the Rev. Francis Willis, was added to their staff, which was yet further increased a little later on by the addition of his son, Dr. John Willis. The elder was a Lincolnshire clergyman, who had for some years made madness his special study, and who kept a private asylum, where he had given practical proofs of the success of his treat ment.