King George V
Part Two, Chapter Thirty Five: Old Foes
In the days before the King and Queen departed for Germany, an unexpected note came from Kew Palace, now the official residence of the King’s mother, the Dowager Queen Louise. Louise had lived entirely alone at Kew since 1838 and was allowed few visitors, none of them members of the Royal Family for fear she may try to rehabilitate herself or cause further troubles. In the early days of her confinement at Kew, the Queen was not allowed to send or receive any letters but this had been slowly relaxed so long as a list was kept of whom precisely the Dowager Queen was corresponding with. It appears that (perhaps for form’s sake), the Queen Mother’s sister Grand Duchess Marie had sent her a letter with news that Duchess Caroline (the Dowager Queen’s niece) was to be married. It was not an invitation, Grand Duchess Marie knew better than that, yet the Queen Mother was becoming restless. Shut out for longer than she had imagined she might be, she sent a note to her son informing him that she intended to go to Neustrelitz for the ceremony. She did not expect to accompany the King and Queen, she would make her own travel arrangements and she would find suitable accommodation nearby with friends in Neustrelitz so that any contact with her son would be minimal. Had she asked permission, it is possible that Queen Louise might have convinced the King to accept the Queen Mother’s request. Instead, the King dispatched Charlie Phipps to Kew on an unenviable mission.
Phipps noted in his diary that the Dowager Queen “looked so much older than her years” (she was after all only 47) and that her dress was “somewhat shabby, the lace on her cuffs frayed and her hair speckled with grey”. Kew itself was described as “damp, gloomy and devoid of any charm” and Phipps noted that many of the rooms were kept shuttered, the furniture covered with large grey dustsheets. The Dowager lived in just three rooms at Kew, using the King’s Breakfast Room as a kind of all day salon connected to the King’s Closet and the King’s Bedroom. Little had changed in the décor since the reign of King George III, though the Dowager Queen had substituted the King’s bed for that of the late Queen Charlotte found in the Queen’s Apartments. “There were no family portraits on display”, Phipps recalled, “They had been replaced with oils of vases of flowers or scenes from Windsor”. The Queen Mother’s staff were few in number, restricted only to a lady’s maid called Wilson and a butler called Stafford. These aged retainers had been in the service of the Royal Family since the late 1760s and were both approaching their mid-70s. They served the Dowager Queen devotedly, yet it was a far cry from the days when Louise ruled the royal residences with a rod of iron.
Kew Palace, once known as the Dutch House but known today as the Dower House at Kew.
The King’s Private Secretary had the delicate task of explaining to the Queen Mother that the King had forbidden her to leave Kew and that she should not expect to make the journey to Neustrelitz. Having seen the Dowager Queen at close quarters in years gone by, Phipps dreaded the inevitable hysterics and yet he was in for a surprise. When he told Louise that the King “would prefer her to remain at Kew”, she simply nodded in agreement.
“As His Majesty wishes”, she said quietly, continuing with her embroidery as Phipps spoke. Making to leave, the Dowager asked Phipps if he might stay to tea. He could hardly refuse. He half expected her to ask questions about the family; was the King well? Were her grandchildren happy and healthy? Yet the Queen Mother had only one topic of conversation on her mind, indeed, Phipps quickly worked out that the Dowager Queen had never intended to go to Neustrelitz at all; she wanted more money and the only way to get it was to corner Phipps and send him back to Buckingham Palace with her request. She explained that her allowance had been so drastically cut (from £45,000 a year to just £10,000) that she could not afford to maintain Kew and that if she did not receive an increase in her annuity she would have to ask the King to find a more suitable home for her to live in.
“Of course, it is so very silly that Marlborough House is now empty…”, she said airily, “It was always such a comfortable residence, though heaven knows what state I should find it in now after my daughter’s…renovations…”
“I must warn you Ma’am that I feel it unlikely that His Majesty will consider an increase to any allowances this year”, Phipps said tentatively, “The cost of living remains high and the King does not feel the Royal Family should be seen to ask for additional sums until the crisis is resolved. As for Marlborough House…”
“I would be quite prepared to move my household there by the Spring”, the Dowager Queen replied, ignoring Phipps’s warning completely, “Pray God the increase in my allowance will allow me to find better servants. They really are so very lazy. They complain they have nothing to do but I tell them, we have plenty to do. They shall have to retire before I am returned to court, I fear they could never adjust”. [1]
Phipps raised an eyebrow. After thanking the Dowager for his tea, he made the journey back to Buckingham Palace. He decided not to present the Dowager Queen’s request to the King but rather to take it to her niece, daughter-in-law, namesake and successor, Queen Louise. Louise knew that any mention of the King's mother was likely to send George into a sulk, the mere mention of her name having long been prohibited at court. Yet she had some sympathy with her aunt. Regardless of how she had treated her children and putting to one side the fact that she was so deeply unpopular with the people and with the Royal Family itself, the Queen promised Phipps she would try and find a solution. She secretly sent a promissory note to her aunt for £5,000 with a card that read “With deepest affection, Louise R”. The Queen decided it was a small price to pay to keep her mother-in-law from antagonising the King with her requests. It proved to be so. At least for a time, anyway.
The Dowager Queen Louise.
King George and Queen Louise left England in the second week of May 1841 and made the long journey to Berlin where they were to stay at the Charlottenburg Palace, a familiar setting to both. The King had visited Berlin twice before, once in 1834 on his first foreign tour and again with his wife in 1840 for the funeral of King Frederick William III. This time however, the mood at the Schloss was far more celebratory and King Frederick William IV and his wife Queen Elisabeth were delighted to welcome their British counterparts to the Charlottenburg. They were housed in the East Wing where the Queen’s aunt and namesake, Luise, had lived with her husband Frederick William III until her untimely death in 1810 at the age of 34. Indeed, at the welcome ceremony Queen Elisabeth presented Queen Louise with a portrait of the late Prussian consort as a gift which now hangs at Lisson Park in the Queen's Library. As a further reinforcement of family ties, King Frederick William IV presented Queen Louise with the insignia of the Order of Queen Louise in the rank of Dame First Class which she wore to the state banquet that evening, the King beside her wearing the insignia of a Knight of the Order of the Black Eagle given to him in 1834 by the Prussian King’s late father when George V was just 14 years old.
Much of this visit was purely ceremonial, the real diplomatic advantages to be won discussed in back rooms by the Prussian and British foreign ministers, Lord Stanley having joined Their Majesties for the first leg of their German tour. He would later meet with them again at the start of Hanover Week which inadvertently began the custom of the British Foreign Secretary forced to attend the week-long itinerary of parades and dinners in Hanover which almost all of Lord Stanley’s successors came to regard as a dreaded inconvenience before the task was passed over to a junior minister representing the Foreign Secretary instead. Yet despite government officials taking the lead in the talks in Berlin, there was an opportunity for George to lend a hand. In private talks with the King of Prussia, he was able to highlight the difficulties ahead where the quota system of the Straits Pact was concerned and in a roundabout way, he tried to make King Frederick William understand that Britain had her concerns that the quotas must be equally balanced to make the Pact a success. Frederick William agreed. In truth, he was not happy that Baron von Werther had given Prussian approval to the Pact at Hampton Court and he made it abundantly clear that Prussia would only accept the most minimal presence of Russian warships going through the Turkish Straits.
However, this did not mean that the King and Queen’s visit to Berlin had been a waste of time. Indeed, they were well received in the Prussian capital with thousands turning out to see them as they paid visits to the Brandenburg Gate, the Gendarmenmarkt with it’s imposing French and German cathedrals and of course, the Königliches Schauspielhaus where the royal couple were treated to a performance of
Oberon by Carl Maria von Weber, one of the most influential figures in German Romantic Opera. This would have significant repercussions later on when the King and Queen returned to England. The King’s Theatre had renamed itself in honour of Queen Louise in 1838 but now, the Queen improved her relationship with the house company who became the first theatre company in England to be given royal patronage as ‘The Queen’s Players’. They were financially supported by Her Majesty personally who hand-picked the plays they would perform and Queen Louise promoted the company further by attending their first opening night in October 1841 when the Players staged a revival of the popular play
The Maid of Mariendorpt by James Sheridan Knowles. Today, the Queen’s Players still exist and retain their home at the Queen’s Theatre. Since 1895, they have presented awards to prominent actors, playwrights and directors, the most prestigious being the Queen Louise Medal whose recipients have included Sir Noel Coward, Richard Burton, Sir Lawrence Olivier and Dame Maggie Smith.
But the royal couple’s visit to Berlin also saw them make a new acquaintance who would become particularly important for those studying the lives of the British Royal Family in the future as well as the art world. Franz Winterhalter was a German painter born in Baden in 1805 and with the patronage of Baden’s Grand Dukes, he quickly established himself as a favoured court painter who excelled in portraiture. The King and Queen met Winterhalter on their visit to the Prussian Academy of Arts and by September, George V had commissioned him to create a portrait of Queen Louise. Winterhalter’s portrait so impressed the royal couple and was so well-liked by King George V that he would continue to offer patronage to Winterhalter until the painter’s death in 1873. Winterhalter painted the Princess Royal in 1842 and almost every member of the British Royal Family sat for Winterhalter between 1841 and 1870. But Winterhalter’s portrait of Queen Louise is also notable for whilst the King wished her to be depicted in her full regalia with tiara, orders and her coronation robes, the artist disagreed. Instead, the Queen wore a simple green silk gown trimmed with white organza speckled with pearl bead work. When George V saw the final work, he remarked; “Two things are clear to me. The first is that my wife is the most beautiful woman in the world. The second is that Mr Winterhalter is the greatest artist of his generation”.
Queen Louise by Winterhalter, 1841. [2]
With an agreement worked out on the forthcoming talks to set the quota system implemented by the Straits Pact, the King and Queen enjoyed the last remaining days of their hosts’ generosity. Yet the farewell banquet was overshadowed by the presence of one guest the King did not relish meeting again: his uncle, the Duke of Cumberland. Word had been sent ahead of George and Louise to the Prussian court that the King would welcome the addition of his cousin Prince George of Cumberland to the guestlist, George having also been invited to accompany the King and Queen to the wedding of the Crown Prince of Denmark and Duchess Caroline in Neustrelitz. But whether by accident or design, the King of Prussia extended this invitation to Prince George’s father who had lived in Berlin since his ignominious retreat from Britain over a decade or so earlier. The Duke was now an old man of 70, almost completely bald but for a few wisps of white hair at his temples though his impressive moustaches were still as thick and full as ever. He was to be seated beside Queen Louise at the farewell banquet (with King Frederick’s younger brother and eventual heir Prince Wilhelm of Prussia on the other side) and the Duke immediately caused a stir when he arrived in his uniform as a British Colonel and his insignia as a Knight of the Order of the Garter with none of his Prussian decorations on show.
For nearly three hours, the Duke loudly complained to his niece Queen Louise that the Cumberland lot was not a happy one. The Duchess was gravely unwell, laid low by a nasty infection of the chest. But the real cause of her malaise, the Duke insisted, was their living conditions. Much like his old ally the Dowager Queen at Kew, Cumberland had seen his annuity from the Civil List cut but for very different reasons. Officially, the Duke lived abroad and as such, was only entitled to a modest salary from the Crown. Unofficially, it was no secret that the King disliked his uncle and saw no reason why he deserved an inflated allowance. There had been a clash between the royal couples following the death of the Queen’s aunt the Princess of Thurn and Taxis, the Duchess of Cumberland insisting that Louise had no right to inherit jewels which she felt should go to the Princess’ immediate family instead. Now jewels were on the Cumberlands’ list of grievances once again.
When Queen Charlotte died, her vast collection of jewels was divided among her children according to a carefully compiled list she had diligently kept for many years as she acquired new pieces. Her successor, Queen Louise (King George V’s mother, now the Dowager Queen) took great pains to distribute the jewels as her mother-in-law had requested but when it came to the Cumberlands, there was no bequest listed. This was little wonder; Queen Charlotte bitterly opposed the Duke’s wife even though Frederica was her niece and she forbad the Duke from visiting her. They remained estranged and were not reconciled when Queen Charlotte died in 1818 and whilst the Duke received a substantial sum when his father King George III died in 1820, he now seemed to believe that there was a part of his mother’s estate to which he was still owed; he wanted his share of Queen Charlotte’s collection of jewels. [3]
“Of course, I have not pressed the matter before Sunny”, he told Queen Louise at the Charlottenburg, using her nickname in a display of cringe-making overfamiliarity, “But you see, Freddie’s doctors tell me we should find a house away from Berlin. The air is not good for her here. But as I told them, my purse doesn’t run to it. Can’t run to it. And then I remembered that I never did settle that matter....”
Queen Louise sipped a glass of cold Riesling.
“I shall ask Phipps to look into for you Uncle”, she said kindly, “Now I think it may be time to turn, I-“
“Phipps is it? I shall make a note of that”, Cumberland interrupted, “You see I do have a list, in fact I could have a copy sent for, dash it all, where is that man Hoffer?”
The Duke looked about for his manservant.
“Please don’t worry Uncle”, the Queen reassured Cumberland politely, “We can discuss it at another time”
“Quite so”, the Duke nodded with his mouthful of meringue, “I asked George to mention it but he’s so unreliable, head in the clouds most of the time. Of course, I did mean to raise the matter with you at Neustrelitz but much as your dear mother begged me to attend, I can’t leave Freddie until she is recovered. She would have been here tonight of course but…well, that is how things are. I had hoped Georgie would visit her before he leaves…”
“Really Uncle, I will ask him, I promise you but I –“
Try as she might, Queen Louise was caught in Cumberland’s sights and for the rest of the meal, she was forced to listen to his litany of financial woes and thinly veiled digs at his brothers alive and dead. When the banquet was finally over, Louise told the King what had transpired, George having successfully ignored the Duke for most of the evening.
“Visit Aunt Freddie?”, the King laughed, “That wicked old creature? Good heavens no. A pound to a penny she's fit and well and wants to catch us on that blessed jewellery business again. I've sent a note back with George but I can think of nothing I want to do less than go to that horrid little townhouse of theirs to sit through another three hours of begging”
“You didn’t sit through it!”, Louise protested with a smile, “I did!”
Arriving at Neustrelitz a few days later, George and Louise were delighted to be in the company of far more agreeable relations. But there was also the thrill of being reunited with the Princess Royal, brought to Neustrelitz by Princess Augusta of Cambridge from Bautzen a little earlier than planned. The three-year-old was given a special role to play at the wedding ceremony of Crown Prince Frederick and Duchess Caroline as a flower girl, dressed in a pale lilac gown with small white roses sewn into her hair. This moved the King enormously and it was important to both George and his wife to see their daughter taking on all the usual activities which might be offered to other children of her age, despite her disability. The wedding itself was notable for other reasons too; the groom caused concern among those gathered when it became clear he was intoxicated at the ceremony, so much so that he briefly sat down to steady himself during the service leaving his wife standing alone for a few moments at the altar. Queen Louise confided in her mother Grand Duchess Marie that she thought Caroline had made a terrible mistake; “That isn’t for you to say”, Marie sniffed, “Really Sunny, you should not say such things. Be happy for your sister!”. In fact, the Queen was right. Within just 5 years, the Crown Prince’s excessive drinking and shameless womanizing led to scandal and divorce. Caroline later remarked of her erstwhile husband; “He really was much too bizarre!”. [4]
Before leaving Neustrelitz, George was disappointed to hear that his cousin the Earl of Armagh was to leave the party early and head back to Berlin. His mother, the Duchess of Cumberland, had taken a turn for the worse.
“Oh George, that really is too bad”, the King said, a little insensitively, “You see, I have been speaking with Aunt Adelaide and I had something I wanted to put to you. She no longer wishes to stay at Bushy Park and though Uncle William intended her to have the place for her lifetime, she’s far more comfortable at Witley. So I wondered if you might possibly consider becoming my Ranger of the Park? The allowance isn’t much but the house is quite charming and I would pay for all the renovations you need. Think it over would you? We’d very much like to see more of you and you should be with the family more, not stuck here in Berlin with so little to do”.
The Earl of Armagh thanked the King for his generous offer. He too was sad to be leaving Neustrelitz early. Though he was naturally worried for his mother’s health, he had been greatly enjoying himself, especially when he found himself in the company of his cousin, Princess Auguste of Hesse-Kassel. Auguste had just turned 18 and was considered a great beauty with all the charm and elegance the Hesse princesses had become known for. It appears she liked Prince George too, attracted by his confidence despite his physical difficulties. She sat next to him at the wedding breakfast given in honour of the newly-weds and later wrote to Queen Louise asking if she thought she might write to him, or whether it may give the wrong impression. [5]
Auguste of Hesse-Kassel.
Louise gently nudged Prince George in the right direction so that a letter reached Rumpenheim before Augusta made the first move. Romance was in the air elsewhere at Neustrelitz. Before the guests departed, a special ball was held at which Prince William of Hesse-Kassel announced that his daughter Louise (a former favourite of King George V) was engaged to be married to Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg. The King and Queen were delighted for the couple, though George privately noted that Christian had limited prospects and that Louise “may have to rough it as the poor fellow hasn’t two pennies to rub together”. Nonetheless, George and Louise liked Christian for his unassuming and jovial nature and they invited the couple to visit them in England before the year was out, that visit cementing a long-standing friendship between the King George V and the future King Christian IX of Denmark. [6]
From Neustrelitz, the King and Queen made their way to Hanover. Following criticism the previous year that they had by-passed Hanover without so much as a by-your-leave, the King had decided to implement something known as Hanover Week which would see Their Majesties pay an annual visit to the Kingdom taking up residence at Herrenhausen for just seven days during which time they would pack in all the usual trappings of their day-to-day duties in England in just one week. Initially, the British government was apathetic to the idea and most expected it may prove to be something of a busted flush. Yet when the King and Queen arrived for the welcome parade, it appeared that everyone and his wife had turned out to see Their Majesties. Swapping their coach for a landau at Schulenberg, the King and Queen waved to the assembled crowds as they made the short journey to Herrenhausen. There, a regimental band played
God Save the King and other popular marches as the Viceroy, the Duke of Cambridge, handed over his sword to the King who touched it with a gloved hand before the Duke replaced it. This was to signify that whilst the King had formally taken up residence in Hanover, the Viceroy remained his chief representative. There was a balcony appearance before a grand luncheon attended by the great and good of the land with just a few hours rest before a gala was held in the palace ballroom.
The following day, the King and Queen travelled by carriage again to the Assembly building where George V delivered an address on the theme of “well-established dynastic ties transformed into a new (but no less fond) relationship between the Sovereign and his loyal subjects in Hanover”. For those critics who felt that the British monarchy had treated Hanover as a kind of personal holiday home rather than as a serious extension of their birth right, the King’s address was music to their ears. Those who had published harsh critiques of the King’s decision in 1840 to skip a visit to Hanover were not silenced, rather they now wrote glowing letters of praise instead. There was no time for the King to congratulate himself on his innovation, however. After the meeting at the Assembly, the royal couple rushed back to Herrenhausen where a luncheon was held for the Privy Council of Hanover. The following day, a garden party was on the agenda for 300 specially invited guests to be hosted in the impressive grounds of the King’s official residence in his Kingdom of Hanover. But that summer was particularly hot and just an hour before the garden party was due to begin, the Queen had to disappoint the eager crowds desperate to catch a glimpse of her and ask her Aunt Augusta to deputise for her instead. She was exhausted from the endless round of engagements and needed time to rest if she was to make the Guelph Day parade the following morning.
The first ever Guelph Day was held on the 24th of June 1841 and was modelled on the Garter Day parade held annually at Windsor. Ostensibly it was held to celebrate the Royal Guelphic Order and on this inaugural Guelph Day, Letters Patent were issued to modify the constitutional of the Royal Guelphic Order founded by the late Prince Regent. George V limited the number of Knights Grand Cross to just 24 and for the first time, it was announced that women were to be admitted to what was to become the senior Royal House Order of the British Royal Family. Queen Louise was the first Dame Grand Cross of the Order, the second being the Duchess of Cambridge. Both received pale blue sashes with a glittering diamond breast star enamelled with the white horse of Hanover on a red background in the centre just before the parade began and were formally invested with the King draping white and light blue mantles around their shoulders and placing bonnets with white and blue plumes upon their heads. These robes had been designed by the Prince Regent in 1815 but had never actually been worn before, there never being an occasion at which the costume seemed necessary. Some modifications were made to the robes, the Knights spared the gloves and spurs which everybody agreed looked quite ridiculous. Now, the most esteemed members of the Royal Guelphic Order donned their medieval-inspired attire and began their stately march from the Palace forecourt through the Gardens where a fleet of carriages stood waiting to take them to the Garrison Church for a special service of thanksgiving.
The Prince Regent's design for the robes to be worn by his Knights of the Royal Guelphic Order.
King George was delighted with the success of the first Hanover Week bar the service at the Garrison Church which he thought particularly shabby. For this reason, he commissioned a brand-new church to be built in Hanover and set the task of designing it to his favourite architect Decimus Burton. The Royal Guelphic Chapel was to be built on the site of the Garrison Church which was demolished in 1842 and the chapel’s construction completed in 1844. As at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, the banners of the Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Guelphic Order were to be displayed in the Quire and as a tribute to the Duke of Cambridge, orders were given that his standard was to fly above the chapel whenever he was in residence at Herrenhausen. A statue of the Duke was placed above the door of the chapel in 1851 and though it was intended to honour future viceroys in the same way, this was never followed through and so today it is only the Duke of Cambridge who looks down in effigy as tourists make their way into the chapel.
Though the King and Queen might usually travel to Leipzig or Bautzen in the summer to spend time with the Princess Royal, the addition of their visit to Prussia and the bringing forward of Hanover Week saw their schedule become so arduous that instead they opted to head south to spend a week at Rumpenheim with their uncle William of Hesse-Kassel before travelling on to Rheinstein Castle near Wiesbaden as guests of Prince Alexander of Prussia. Rheinstein was officially the home of Alexander’s father Prince Frederick but he was in Berlin and Prince Alexander was using the castle for the duration of the summer. It was later to become Alexander's favourite residence and King George V spent many happy summers there when the Princess Royal eventually left Leipzig. The King had not seen Alexander for some time and though one might assume there would be a degree of awkwardness, the Prince having abandoned his mistress Rosalinde Wiedl who now found herself a close friend and confidant of King George, it was not unusual for such women to hop between European courts as they found and lost favour with Kings, Grand Dukes and Princes.
But when George and Louise arrived, they found a sober atmosphere awaiting them. News had just come from Berlin that the Duchess of Cumberland had died. She was 63 years old. As well as being an aunt to both King George V and Queen Louise, Frederica was also the grandmother of Prince Alexander, his grandfather Prince Louis Charles of Prussia being Frederica’s first husband who died in 1796. As a mark of respect, all festivities planned for the King and Queen’s stay at Rheinstein were cancelled, though it must be said that neither Prince Alexander nor King George V had any real affection for the late Duchess. The King sent a letter of condolence to his uncle and another to his cousin the Earl of Armagh but there was no question of the King and Queen heading back to Berlin for the funeral. At her own request, the Duchess had opted for her remains to be buried at the New Crypt at the Johanniterkirche in Mirow. The Duke had hoped to construct a vast mausoleum for his family in the grounds of the church but he insisted he could not afford to do so, the basis of yet another request for more money from his nephew. [7]
Despite his animosity towards his aunt, the King ordered that a Service of Thanksgiving be held for the Duchess at St George’s Chapel, Windsor upon Their Majesties’ return from Germany. It was sparsely attended. When Princess Mary was asked why she had bothered to go at all when everybody knew she hated her sister-in-law, she replied unkindly; “Because I wanted to be quite sure she was really dead”. Though the King had invited his cousin Prince George to England to represent his father at the service, the Duke (perhaps not unreasonably) turned up with him. Cumberland made heavy weather of his return to England and though he might have re-opened either of his homes at Windsor or Kew, he opted instead to rely on the generosity of the King and Queen by availing himself of a suite of rooms at Windsor Castle. He showed no great eagerness to return back to Berlin but given the circumstances, King George was forced to bite his lip and tolerate his uncle’s prolonged presence.
It was just a few days after the memorial service held for the Duchess of Cumberland at Windsor that Queen Louise was taken unwell. She had been pale for a few days, overly tired and prone to bouts of vomiting. She was experienced enough to know what her symptoms meant and yet she dared not suggest the cause until it was officially confirmed by Dr Alison; Her Majesty was pregnant once again. She heaved a huge sigh of relief for privately she had been worried that her miscarriage at the turn of the year might mean she could no longer conceive a child. Dr Allison reassured her that it was very unlikely she would face a similar outcome. She was in good health and all signs pointed to the delivery of a healthy child sometime after Christmas. But as delighted as the King was, he was taking no chances this time. Against her wishes, George insisted that the Queen remain at Windsor until the baby was born. She was not to undertake any official engagements, neither was she to risk any long journeys to other royal residences. He demanded a daily medical examination of his wife and ordered that the reports from these be presented to him each day so that he could be absolutely certain that all was going well with the Queen’s pregnancy.
This caused a certain degree of frustration on the Queen’s part. But it also led the King to lose his temper with his uncle, the Duke of Cumberland. The Earl of Armagh had by this time accepted the King’s kind offer to reside at Bushy Park at Ranger (this also made him the ex-officio Lieutenant of Hampton Court Chase, which the Earl particularly enjoyed) and he quickly set about listing the redecoration plans the King had so generously promised to pay for. But the Duke of Cumberland began to interfere. Furthermore, he kept sending Queen Louise little notes reminding her of their conversation in Berlin regarding Queen Charlotte’s jewels. Cumberland was even more invested in the matter now that he was a widower, feeling that his Berlin townhouse was far too big for him alone. He would need to find a smaller residence, he said, though the houses he had in mind did not come with small price tags. When the King discovered that his uncle had been badgering the Queen, he immediately dispatched Phipps to make it clear to the Duke that he was fast outstaying his welcome. It had been four weeks since the Duchess of Cumberland was honoured with a memorial service at St George’s and now, Phipps suggested as diplomatically as he could, it might be time for the Duke to consider returning home to Germany.
“Oh but I can’t do that”, the Duke objected, “You see, I do not yet know where home shall be from now on. In fact, I was thinking of opening the Lodge until I find somewhere more suitable. Though it’s likely to be difficult…money doesn’t stretch as far as it used to”.
Eventually, the King gave in. He offered his uncle a lump sum of £10,000 to be used to top-up his bank balance and this allowed the Duke to purchase Schloss Elze, a 16th century modest manor house in Hildesheim. It was here that the Duke of Cumberland would spend the last years of his life. Increasingly bitter, he constantly requested further financial assistance from his nephew but his requests fell on deaf ears and an increase in his allowance never materialised. In 1845, he shocked the Royal Family by taking himself a new wife, Edith Wegener, the daughter of a business associate 24 years his junior. Less than six months later, Wegener deserted her new husband and left him alone at Schloss Elze. She was never heard from again but it is believed that she took with her the remainder of Cumberland's fortune. He died on the 18th of November 1851 at the age of 80 and by his own request, was buried alongside his wife in Mirow. [8]
The news that the Queen was expecting another child began to occupy the King's mind constantly, much to the exhaustion of those around him. Naturally he worried that things may go wrong as they had before. Yet he could not hide his excitement either. He was determined the child was to be a boy and though this may tempt readers to imagine he had a kind of Henry VIII style obsession with securing a male heir, in reality he just wanted a son with whom he could share his interests. The King’s journal at this time reveals that as soon as the Queen’s pregnancy was confirmed, George began making lists of suitable names;
George was not to be considered (“There are too many
Georges already”) and the King issued instructions to Charlie Phipps that the moment the Queen gave birth and the announcement was made, he would create his son Prince of Wales without delay as he did not wish to wait until the christening. Likewise, the royal nursery was to have a complete overhaul before the baby’s arrival and Major Smith was asked to begin the search for a suitable military colleague of good standing to serve as Head of the Prince of Wales’ Household from the very start.
One thing was certain; this baby was the most eagerly anticipated arrival in all England and nobody could get a word of sense from the King for as long as he anxiously awaited the arrival of his son and heir.
Notes
[1] As stated in a previous chapter, this never happens but in 1841, the Dowager Queen would still have hope that her estrangement (and virtual confinement to Kew) is only temporary.
[2] Winterhalter's
Unknown Woman in Green conveniently doubles for Queen Louise here!
[3] This is based on a real life difference of opinion the Duke of Cumberland (as King of Hanover in the OTL) with his niece Victoria. He complained that the Queen was refusing to hand over "my diamonds" and went so far as to seek legal arbitration to determine ownership. Naturally the matter was settled in Victoria's favour which did little to repair the frosty relationship between the two.
[4] A real quote from Duchess Caroline in reference to her former husband.
[5] She was actually known as Augusta but I use the alternative spelling here because we already have Augusta of Hesse-Kassel (the Duchess of Cambridge) and Princess Augusta of Cambridge, so Auguste is easier in the long run!
[6] The Danish succession crisis is far too complex to get involved in in any great detail here so forgive this relatively brief description of events.
[7] Obviously in the OTL she was buried at the Mausoleum at Herrenhausen as Queen consort of Hanover, a position she never held in TTL.
[8] It's unlikely we'll meet the Duke of Cumberland again so giving this insight into his future seems appropriate. Naturally in the OTL none of this happened because he was King of Hanover and I had to plot out what I thought was most likely for him as an extended member of the Royal Family living in a kind of self-imposed exile.
Double helpings today!
This is mostly because I realise the last two chapters have been very politics/diplomacy heavy and haven't really moved us on all that much in time. So to correct the pace a little and to provide something different for readers I know prefer the focus to be on the Royal Family themselves, we have an additional instalment today which I hope everyone enjoys. As ever, many thanks for reading!