Queen Charlotte of England

“ Neither of the children of Charlotte who lived to ascend the throne resided in this palace. The old building was the property of a queen-consort, the new one was first occupied by a Queen-regnant, the daughter of Charlotte’s third son, Edward. The first great event in Queen Charlotte’s life, after she became mistress of Buckingham House, was her becoming the mother of him who destroyed it—George Augustus Frederick, Prince of Wales.
In 1762 Horace Walpole says: ‘The King and Queen are settled for good and all at Buckingham House, and are stripping the other palaces to furnish it. ”

“ Indeed, my dear mother, I like anybody better than my disagreeable grandmother, and I can never permit myself to remain with her so long again. When I am at the castle, I am seldom allowed to see my grandfather, the king; and, when I do, he scarcely looks at me, and seems extremely unhappy. When my royal father goes to the castle, he is always with the queen alone, and very rarely pays a visit to the king." Such was the ingenuousness of the Princess Charlotte. She would immediately speak the truth, and defy all results, rather than act with dissimulation to please or conciliate any one. ”

“ Her father died in 1604, and Charlotte spent most of her early days at Thouars, occasionally paying visits to her relatives at The Hague. Her mother came to England in 1625 in the train of Charles I's queen, Henrietta Maria, and during her visit arranged a marriage between Charlotte and James Stanley, lord Strange (afterwards seventh Earl of Derby) [q. v.] Charlotte was then staying at The Hague with Elizabeth, the daughter of James I and fugitive queen of Bohemia, whose husband, Frederick V, was Charlotte's cousin. ”

“ The influence of Queen Charlotte in political affairs, even had she been as much inclined to exercise it as her enemies charged her with, was but small. It could not be otherwise in a country with such a constitution as ours—a limited monarchy, the ministers of which are sure to be made responsible for grave consequences arising from the surrender of their authority to a power173 unrecognised by the constitution. That the influence, however, was not quite dormant was seen in the fact of the government paying the debts of her Majesty’s brother, the Prince of Strelitz, with 30,000l. ”

“ In May 1807 the Princess was accordingly received at court, at a drawing-room held by Queen Charlotte. The latter illustrious lady exhibited no demeanour by which it could be construed that she was happy to see her daughter-in-law. The utmost honour paid her was a cold and rigid courtesy. The Queen was again ‘civil, but stiff.’ The nobility and gentry present were more expansive in the warmth of their welcome. From them the Princess received a homage of apparently cordial respect. ”

“ Surely no one can doubt, after these disclosures, that the Princess Charlotte fell a victim to a vile conspiracy.
The murder of the Princess Charlotte proved the signal for letting loose the hounds of destruction [292] upon her heart-broken mother. On the morning of the second day after her majesty's return to Bath, a lady had a private audience with her. The object of the interview was, to offer the services of her husband (an officer in the navy) in the impeachment and intended destruction of the honour of the Princess of Wales. "What situation does the person occupy?" said the queen. ”

“ With something of like distaste the Queen acquiesced in the King’s wish to make a permanent residence of Windsor, for which purpose nearly the whole of the splendid library was removed from the Queen’s House to the castle.
Queen Charlotte preserved her quiet dignity and self-possession on all public occasions. Her bearing, according to Sir Jonah Barrington, ‘was not that of a heroine of romance, but she was the best bred and most graceful lady of her age and figure I ever saw; so kind and conciliating that one could scarcely believe her capable of anything but benevolence. ”

“ The hope was fulfilled, but death came in the morning. Never was woman more praised or censured than she. Her merit lay, perhaps, between both. Her son adored her, Queen Charlotte respected her, and a commercial country should reverence the memory of a woman who, out of her own jointure, paid off all the debts which her husband left at his decease. During the illness of the Dowager-Princess of Wales, her daughter, the Princess of Brunswick, arrived in England, on her mother’s invitation. The Princess was coolly treated by her brother, George III., and by Queen Charlotte. ”

“ When the general servility of the press to royalty is taken into consideration, it is hardly to be wondered at that people are misinformed as to the real characters of kings and queens. Take the following false and [304] most inconsistent eulogium, copied from the "Atlas" newspaper, as an example of this time-serving violation of truth:
"Queen Charlotte's constant attendance on the king, and her GRIEF FOR THE LOSS OF HER GRAND-DAUGHTER, gained ground on her constitution; and her majesty expired at Kew, on the 17th of November, 1818. ”

“ Affected as she was, she did not lose her dignity or self-possession, but resigned herself to death, even while regretting she was about to depart from life. This was natural; and as there had never been any false sentiment about Queen Charlotte, so was she178 above exhibiting any in her last moments. Her patience was extreme, and in the acutest of her agony she never once suffered a murmur of complaint to escape her.
It has been said that the Queen left no diamonds to her daughter, the Dowager Queen of Wurtemburg. ”

“ QUEEN VICTORIA
CHAPTER I ANTECEDENTS I
On November 6, 1817, died the Princess Charlotte, only child of the Prince Regent, and heir to the crown of England. Her short life had hardly been a happy one. By nature impulsive, capricious, and vehement, she had always longed for liberty; and she had never possessed it. She had been brought up among violent family quarrels, had been early separated from her disreputable and eccentric mother, and handed over to the care of her disreputable and selfish father. When she was seventeen, he decided to marry her off to the Prince of Orange ”

“ His affection for his mother was strong, and she deserved it. She was not a favourite with the people, and she did not deserve her unpopularity. George III. and Queen Charlotte visited her regularly every evening at eight o’clock. After one of these filial visits, in February 1772, when her health had been long declining, she expressed a hope that she might pass a good night. ”

“ In the January of this year, several most respectable individuals expressed an earnest desire to press for a public inquiry into the mysterious and hitherto-unaccounted-for death of her royal highness the Princess Charlotte. Among the rest was Lord Tullamore, who obtained an audience of the Earl of Liverpool for this purpose on the 18th. The premier, at first, treated his lordship with much coolness and reserve; but when Lord Tullamore mentioned the letter of Queen Charlotte to Dr. Sir Richard Croft, the noble earl exhibited signs of the most acute pain, and became dreadfully agitated. ”

“ She felt very timid the first day she entered upon her office, but Queen Charlotte was exceedingly gracious, and soon placed the new maid at her ease by treating her less like a servant than a friend. Nevertheless, she was glad to escape from the royal presence to dine with the ladies and gentlemen-in-waiting. The meals served for these court attendants were much more enjoyable than those at which their majesties presided, because there was less formality and ceremony. ”

“ It is one of the unnatural distinctions of royalty, and which is often fatal to the happiness of society, that their ways are not the ways of the other sons and daughters of humanity. Though royal blood is not of itself considered a barrier against marriage, the very few persons that are eligible to marry a king's daughter, besides the unsurmountable difficulties which religion opposes to such unions, makes them almost amount to absolute exclusion.
It would argue a callous heart not to feel the force of the above reflection, while speaking of the royal daughters of Queen Charlotte. ”

“ The imbecility of the king, owing to circumstances formerly noticed by us, as well as the horrors of a ruinous war, must also be ascribed to the dictatorial conduct of Queen Charlotte. The unjustifiable hatred her majesty imbibed against the Princess of Wales, and the consequent unfeeling demeanour she exhibited to that victim, would of itself be sufficient to refute the praises of her minions, and stamp her name with everlasting infamy. ”

“ The Queen was bent on winning for her son the hand of Mademoiselle, a granddaughter of France, and the greatest heiress there. If all were indeed lost in England, he would thus be far from a landless Prince, and her wealth might become a great assistance to the royal cause in England. ”

“ Once expressing a wish to be allowed to go and say ‘good-bye’ to a young friend who was about to leave England, Queen Charlotte remarked ‘it was contrary to princely dignity to seek after any one.’ Some young girls who had been allowed to come to Windsor, and were the companions of the Princess for an occasional day, were not allowed to grow into familiarity or intimacy. ”

“ His royal highness' marriage with a descendant of the Stuarts, though strictly legal, was never acknowledged by Queen Charlotte, and his only child, soon after its birth, was thrown upon the compassionate attention of strangers. As there is something so horrible relative to the death [306] of this amiable duke and duchess, and something so heartless and cruel in the treatment to which their only son has been subjected, we are induced, for the sake of truth and justice, to lay a brief statement of the matter before our readers. ”

“ The duchess was indiscreet enough to talk disparagingly of Queen Charlotte to the English ambassador; but she was so fond of gossip that she could not lose this opportunity of telling how she had been an object of envy and dislike to her sister-in-law, who had been ready to quarrel with King George because he had given her a handsome diamond ring on her marriage. "George is more kind-hearted than wise-headed," she added, "and loves me as well as he could love anybody." ”

“ Does not this neglect of the poor afflicted king reflect disgrace upon her majesty? The wife who forgets her duty to the man she has espoused is undeserving the respect of society. Who was Queen Charlotte, that the eyes of the public should be blinded, or their tongues mute, upon this apathy and unfeeling demeanour to the king, her husband, who had raised her from comparative poverty to affluence and greatness? Had similar inattention been manifested by the wife of a peasant, her neighbour's reproach would not have been wanting ”

“ Original
159dukes always present, it is no wonder that ladies attended regularly. A visit from Queen Charlotte's brother, Prince Charles of Strelitz, was an event that disturbed the court monotony somewhat, and so royally was that handsome young man entertained that his younger brother afterwards spent a month in England. On that occasion, several splendid fêtes were given in his honor by various members of the nobility. ”

“ It was43 in 1782 that Charlotte commissioned Hutten, the Moravian, to enter into correspondence with Franklin, with a view of conciliating matters with the United States.
The eldest son of Queen Charlotte began life very amply provided for; Parliament gave him 100,000l. as an outfit, and 50,000l. annually by way of income. ”

“ A devoted royalist, but not a sycophant, no one has proved more than she has the fallaciousness of Court favour. The Queen Charlotte never forgave her for having left her service to attend the young Princess Charlotte, and the Regent afterwards dismissed her in an unjust manner from the post in which he had himself placed her, and which every one who knows Miss Knight is confident she never was unworthy of. ”

“ They all wear long, white kid gloves, which extend nearly up to the elbow. Ostrich feathers bend or bow on the ladies’ heads, rising from the forehead, and curling gracefully at a considerable230 height. Near the bride are her ‘maids,’ Lady Mary Osborne, Lady Charlotte Legge, Lady Caroline Villiers, Lady Charlotte Spencer, Lady Caroline Waldegrave. When Queen Charlotte heard of this picture (she appears not to have sat for it) she is said to have declared that if it was brought into Windsor Castle she would go out of it. ”

“ In recurring to the period of Queen Charlotte's tyranny, the enlightened mind must feel petrified at the callous delinquency displayed by her ministers. It is indeed hardly to be credited, that she should have found men,—we will not say English-men, because some were of another country,—so congenial to her own views and sentiments. ”

“ Parry returned from their voyage of discovery in the Northern Seas, after a fruitless attempt to pass through Behring's Straits. They brought home some live Esquimaux dogs, sledges, &c., with specimens of mineralogy, botany, &c., which were deposited in the British Museum for public inspection.
On 17th of November, at Kew Palace, died her Majesty Queen Charlotte; she had been ailing ever since the previous year, when we have seen her at Bath, latterly she got much worse, but she bore up well against her fatal illness. She was buried, with great pomp, at Windsor, 2nd of December. ”

“ As soon as I had been seen by the Queen, for I was not spoken to, I returned to her Royal Highness, who in the mean while was left with the Duchess of Leeds, and she took her turn of going into the drawing-room. Princess Charlotte was greatly hurt by being thus treated as a child, but made no complaints, and was good natured with her family.
She met them that day at dinner at the Duke of Cambridge’s, and I was asked for the evening party there. His house, [129] though not very large, is handsome and comfortable. ”