73 



GEORGE IV. 



GEORGE IV. 



directions of the king. Their successors were, for the first few days, 

 Lord Bruce (immediately afterwards created earl of Aylesbury), and 

 then the Duke of Montague, as governor; Lieutenant-Colonel Hotham 

 as sub-governor ; Dr. Hurd, bishop of Lichfi eld and Coventry (after- 

 wards of Worcester), as preceptor ; and the Rev. William Arnold as 

 sub-preceptor. 



The prince, notwithstanding murmurs and remonstrances, of which 

 notice began to be taken in the public prints, was kept by his father 

 in a state of unmitigated pupilage till he was nearly eighteen, his 

 seclusion being divided between Buckingham House, Kew, and 

 Windsor. It was not till the year 1780 that the princes began to 

 appear much in public. From this time the life of the Prince of 

 Wales for many years belongs for the most part to the Ctironique 

 ScandaUute ; but among the various persons of both sexes with whom 

 he was connected, there are a few names that may be said to have 

 already become historic, and that cannot altogether be passed over. 

 The first of bis many connections of a similar nature that became 

 notorious was with Mrs. Mary Robinson, then an actress and the wife 

 of an attorney. This lady (whose maiden name was Darby, whose 

 early years were superintended by Mrs. Hannah More, who in the 

 latter part of her life became the mistress of Colonel Tarleton, and 

 died at Englefield Green, at the age of forty-two, in 1800, after having 

 made herself well known by her novels and verses, as well as by her 

 adventures) has told her own story in her own way in her ' Memoirs,' 

 published after her death by her daughter. She was four years older 

 than the prince, and already of damaged reputation, when she first 

 caught his attention, in 1730, while acting Perdita in the ' Winter's 

 Tale ; ' her influence lasted for not quite two years. 



In December 17su, on the departure of the Bishop of Osnaburg for 

 Germany, where he remained for seven years, a separate establishment 

 on a small scale was formed for the prince; and having now become 

 legally bis own master, he was from this time much in the public eye. 

 It was now that he entered upon his intimacy with Charles Fox, 

 Sheridan, and other leaders of the Whig party, who happened acci- 

 dentally to be also among the most distinguished patrons of the 

 fashionable gaiety and licence of the day. One of the persons also 

 with whom he formed the closest friendship about this time was the 

 afterwards notorious Duke of Orleans, then styled the Duo de Chartres, 

 who paid long visits to London in 1733 and several following years. 

 With these associates the prince indulged without restraint his pro- 

 pensities for gambling, horseraciug, and other kinds of extravagance 

 and dissipation. He also adopted warmly and openly the politics of 

 his Whig companions, and this at once placed him in direct opposition 

 to hi* father's government. In April 1733 however his friends, under 

 the name of the Coalition Ministry, forced themselves into power, and 

 on the opening of parliament, on the llth of November following, 

 the Prince of Wales wan introduced with great ceremony into the 

 House of Lords aa Duke of Cornwall, and took his place among the 

 supporters of the new administration. They had, immediately after 

 entering upon their places, laid before the king the claims of the 

 prince for an augmented establishment and allowance. The ministers 

 demanded 100,0001. a year, but the king would not consent to more 

 than 50,0001., with an allowance of OO.OuOi. as an outfit ; the prince 

 had besides about 14,000i. a year as duke of Cornwall. At the same 

 time Cailton House was assigned to him as a residence. He stood by 

 his friends on their expulsion a few mouths afterwards, and took an 

 active part iu the private movements that were entered into without 

 success for their reinstatement. In 1736 the subject of the prince's 

 pecuniary embarrassments, which had become extremely pressing, was 

 first mentioned in the House of Commons by his friend Sneridau, and 

 this led to a negocutiou with the king, who however, after keeping 

 expectation in suspense for some time, finally refused to sanction any 

 measures of relief. In these circumstances the prince resolved to 

 break up his establishment, and to limit hU expenditure to 50001. 

 a year, reserving the reet of his income for the payment of his debts. 

 It was a short time before this that he had formed the most celebrated 

 and lasting of his female attachments, that namely with Mrs. Fitz- 

 herbert, the daughter of a Roman Catholic gentleman of Shropshire, 

 who had already been married first to Mr. Weld of Lulworth Castle, 

 and secoudly to Colonel Fitzherbert. The particulars of this marriage 

 are sufficiently noticed under FITZHEBUERT, MAUIA, vol. ii. coL <JM. 

 By the terms of the Royal Marriage Act, the marriage of the prince 

 with her, in whatever circumstances it took place, could not have 

 been legal; but the point which occasioned the greatest public outcry 

 was the fact of Mrs. Fitzherbert being a Roman Catholic, and as such, 

 a person by marrying whom the prince by the Act of .Settlement 

 would have become incapacitated to inherit the crown. The state of 

 the prince's pecuniary affairs was again brought before parliament hi 

 April 1737 by Alderman Newuham, one of the members for London ; 

 and on this occasion Mr. Fox came down to the house, and, on the 

 express authority of the prince, characterised the supposed marriage 

 with Mrs. Fitzherbert as a thing which not only had not happened, 

 but which was even impossible to have happened. To a farther 

 question he answered, " That he denied the calumuy as false in Mo, 

 in every sense of fact aa well as law ; " he added that he spoke from 

 direct authority. There can be no question that Mr. Fox had been 

 made to believe that not even any ceremony of marriage had ever 

 been performed. It is sid that Mrs. FiuLerbert, upon learning what 



had taken place, insisted, as the condition on which she would consent 

 again to see the prince, that Mr. Fox's declaration should be as publicly 

 and authoritatively retracted as it had been made ; but it was found, 

 after some attempts, that this could not be managed, and the lady 

 soon afterwards yielded the point. She would never however speak 

 to Mr. Fox again, who also complained strongly of the equivocating 

 manner iu which the prince expressed himself on the subject. 



The further parliamentary agitation of the prince's pecuniary diffi- 

 culties in 1787 was prevented by the king at last giving his consent to 

 a grant of 160,0002. for the payment of his son's debts, and of 20,0002. 

 for completing the repairs of Carlton House. Both these sums were 

 greatly inadequate, but the arrangement afforded some relief for the 

 moment, and enabled the prince to resume his former state and habits 

 of life. The king's illness, in the close of the year 1788, and the pro- 

 ceedings that took place in regard to the proposed regency, have been 

 noticed in the preceding article. Upon this occasion Mr. Fox asserted 

 that the " exercise of the royal power was the clear right of the heir 

 apparent, being of full age and capacity, during the king's incapacity ; " 

 but he afterwards admitted that " the heir apparent had no right to 

 assume the executive power," aud that, although the right was in the 

 prince, " it was subject to the adjudication to him of its possession 

 aud exercise by the two houses." It may be doubted how far his 

 position was strengthened or made more intelligible by this quali- 

 fication. On the king's recovery both he and the queeu showed 

 themselves deeply offended with the conduct of the prince during his 

 father's illness, although no distinct charge of undutifulneas appears 

 to have been alleged. A reconciliation however was effected about 

 the beginning of the year 1790, through the interposition, it is under- 

 stood, of Lord Thurlow, who had his own ends to serve. The king 

 however would not consent to relieve the prince from his fast increasing 

 embarrassments by another application to parliament except upon the 

 one condition, that he would marry. 



It was in the summer of 1791 that a transaction occurred which 

 made a great noise at the time and long afterwards the retirement of 

 the prince from the turf, in consequence of the decision of the Jockey 

 Club, that he must either take that step or dismiss a servant whom 

 they held to be guilty of unfair management in relation to a particular 

 race with one of his master's horses. The character of the tribunal 

 is perhaps hardly such as to entitle us to draw from this decision 

 any conclusion unfavourable to the prince, who is said to have had 

 only a few hundred guineas depending on the race ; aud the circum- 

 stances seem to make it altogether improbable that either he or his 

 servant was guilty of the foul play imputed. The prince stood by 

 his servant, aud settled on him an annuity of 2001. a year. He soon 

 after sold off all his horses, to the uminber of 500, and again retrench- 

 ing his expenses, and shutting up Carlton House, devoted the greater 

 part of his income to the payment of his creditors. He now also 

 publicly separated himself from Mr. Fox and his party by a speech in 

 the House of Lords, the first he had ever delivered, on the 31st of May 

 1792, in which he declared his adherence to that section of his party 

 which had gone over to the minister, in the division which had taken 

 place on the subject of the French revolution. He afterwards took 

 a formal leave of his old friends in a letter addressed to the Duke of 

 Portland. 



At length, in the summer of 1794, the prince, borne down by the 

 heavy aud rapidly augmenting load of his iucumbrances, yielded to 

 the demand so long urged by his father, and consented to marry. His 

 unfortunate marriage with his cousin, Caroline Amelia Elizabeth, 

 second daughter of the Duke of Brunswick and the Princess Augusta 

 [GEOBQE 11I.J, took place on the 8th of April 1795. On this hia 

 income was raised to 115,0002. a year, 25,0001. being deducted from 

 that sum for the payment of his debts, which according to the state- 

 ment made to parliament amounted to about 650,0002. Disgust aud 

 alienation, as is well known, soon followed between the newly-married 

 parties. So early as the beginning of June, the princess demanded 

 the removal of Lady Jersey, who was one of her ladiea in waiting ; 

 this the prince positively refused. The birth of a daughter, the late 

 Princess Charlotte Augusta, on the 7th of January 179t>, produced no 

 return of atfectiun ; they continued to live for some mouths longer 

 under the same roof, but without speaking to each other ; a complete 

 separation then took place, the princess retiring with her infant first 

 to the village of Charlton, near Greenwich, and afterwards to 

 Blackheath. 



There are no events requiring much notice in the prince's history 

 for some years after this. Ho frequently solicited his father to give 

 him a military appointment, and a short time before the breaking out 

 of the rebellion of 1798 he requested, it is said, to be allowed to 

 undertake the chief government of Ireland; but all these petitions 

 met with a determined refusal. About this time also he partially 

 renewed his connection with Mr. Fox aud his old friends but it was 

 now more an association of conviviality than of politics. The priuce 

 came nevertheless to be popularly considered as again the head or 

 rallyiug-post of the Whig party ; and on that and other accounts the 

 estrangement between him and his father soon became as complete as 

 before. His conduct to the Princess of Wales was viewed by the 

 kiug with the deepest displeasure. In these circumstances H natu- 

 rally happened that the Tories at this time clung to the princess, aa 

 their opponents did to her husband. Such was the political situation 



