Caroline the Queen

by Виктория Холт

  ‘It is the people of this country I think of.’

  ‘Then Your Majesty will rejoice in the prosperity we have brought to them and join with me in admitting that this prosperity is entirely due to peace.’

  ‘And when the French are in command of Europe what peace then?’

  ‘Your Majesty, countries rarely prosper from wars. This will be no easy conquest. And in the unlikely event of Louis’ and Fleury’s conquering Europe, France will be exhausted by the struggle and we so strong because of our exemption from it that we will be in command.’

  ‘We have our duty,’ said the King. ‘The Queen and I cannot hold up our heads if we desert our allies.’

  ‘Your Majesties will hold up your heads very proudly among the English if you keep them out of war.’

  The King began one of his harangues, not very logical, not very lucid, thought Walpole. What a German he is! His heart is in Germany. And he’s a fool—a conceited fool who wants to plunge this country into war so that he can parade as a brilliant soldier, so that he can come home and wear the crown of laurels. But it shall not be. This is my country as well as his and I am going to keep it at peace.

  And the Queen? He was disappointed in the Queen. She was a German at heart too. She could not conceive that the German Empire should be at war and she not with it. She had once seemed so loyal to England; she had really loved her new country. But she was ill. Walpole noticed the physical deterioration. There were times when she could scarcely stand for fatigue and she continued to, smiling, pretending, because in this royal family there was something shameful about confessing to physical defects.

  Mrs Clayton had some hold over her. Not that Mrs Clayton would ever dare threaten the Queen. It was as though she kept a secret and her reward for doing so was to be on very specially intimate terms.

  Strange that she should support the King in this. Was it love of Germany, the effect of fatigue, or the knowledge that the King was so set on going to war that he would never be deterred from this desire and she had no intention of attempting something which she knew could only end in defeat.

  Was she losing her physical hold on him? In spite of his infidelities he was still an uxorious husband. He thought Caroline beautiful; he spent his allotted time with her; her hold on him, Walpole had always known, was partly physical. If that side of their relationship ceased, immediately the bond would slacken. George was that sort of man.

  What an anxiety for the Queen!

  He brought his mind back to George’s torrent of words, but he was not going to be moved by them. He would lose his favour with them both rather than see England forced into a war which could do her no good and could be brought to no satisfactory conclusion. He thought Louis a fool to have put his father-in-law on the Polish throne for sentimental reasons, for that was what it amounted to. Cardinal Fleury, the real ruler of France, must have deplored that action, but at the same time was using the situation to make a fresh bid to satisfy French territorial claims.

  Foolish Louis! He, Walpole, would see that George should not be as foolish.

  George was glaring at him, eyes bulging, wig askew, cheeks purple; but Walpole lowered his eyes and said coolly : ‘If England takes part in this fight for a Polish crown, the Crown of England will as surely be come to be fought for as that of Poland. And now may I have Your Majesties leave to retire.’

  ‘You have ‘ shouted the King. ‘And go ... and don’t come back until you have some sense.’

  In the coffee house behind Buckingham House, Hervey waited for Anne Vane. He was eager. He had rarely enjoyed an adventure so much; not only had he an extremely pretty and experienced mistress but he was at the same time cuckolding his great enemy the Prince of Wales; he was also dabbling in intrigue because in all affairs at Court, however ineffectual he was as a man, the Prince was a figurehead and therefore of importance.

  Walpole was delighted with the information he could bring to him; and it was amusing and stimulating for Lord Hervey to be the close friend and informant of the Prime Minister.

  Anne came breathlessly and a little distraught.

  ‘My dearest,’ said Hervey, ‘what is wrong?’

  His heart leaped with excitement. Had the Prince discovered their liaison; he almost hoped he had because it would be so amusing.

  ‘It’s Fred.’

  ‘Naturally.’

  ‘He wants me to take a house in Wimbledon.’

  ‘He has discovered ...’

  She laughed. ‘Not he. There’d be real trouble if he had. He’s worried about FitzFrederick’s health and he thinks the air of London bad for him.’

  ‘He’s not tiring of you?’

  ‘No. Never! But he really is fond of FitzFred. He’s continually finding similarities in him to himself.’

  ‘I hope they are not obvious to others ... for poor little Fitz’s sake.’

  ‘No. He just imagines. But what about my going to Wimbledon?’

  ‘We’ll find a way.’

  ‘I shall have to come up ... at least once a week. You’ll have to come to my house there. We’ll have to give up this coffee house.’

  Hervey was not displeased. This gave a new impetus to the adventure.

  They embraced and afterwards talked of Frederick.

  ‘He wants to go to the wars.’

  ‘Like Papa to fight for Germany.’

  ‘He fancies himself as a soldier.’

  ‘They all do ... these Germans. It’s the military instinct. And Fred is angry because he is not allowed to go.’

  ‘They’re on at him all the time. Lyttleton and Chesterfield with Bolingbroke in the background. He ought to have this.... He ought to have that. Poor Bubb is going to be dropped soon. I don’t know how he’ll take it. The Opposition is going to agitate for war ... just to try to get Walpole out.’

  ‘They won’t. But it’s amusing to see them try.’

  ‘Let’s talk about Wimbledon and what we shall do when I’m there.’

  They arranged that Anne should come up to London one day a week to her town house. There she would keep only one servant while she was in Wimbledon and see that this servant was out when Hervey arranged to call.

  This seemed very suitable and having made their plans Hervey went straight to see Walpole to tell him the effect the King’s clamouring for war was having on the Prince of Wales and his enemies in the Opposition.

  He found Walpole in a state of great irritation.

  ‘I have just been given this paper,’ he told Hervey. ‘Look at it. In French! You can help me translate. It’s written by Haltorf.’

  ‘Ha!’ cried Hervey. ‘One guesses where Philip von Haltorf’s sympathies lie!’

  ‘Be fair to the man. He is a German, as well as minister in London for Hanoverian affairs.’

  ‘And so determined to sacrifice England for Hanover.’

  ‘As we are determined that England shall make no sacrifices for the Germans.’

  Hervey scrutinized the paper.

  ‘I see he is most disturbed by the growing power of France and the House of Bourbon. He recalls the wars of Queen Anne’s reign. He does not understand why the country which went to war then so readily should be so chary of doing so now. If England does not interfere, France will dominate England.’

  ‘I shall answer each paragraph separately.’

  ‘The King will be very peevish.’

  ‘My lord, England shall not go to war to please a peevish boy.’

  ‘Not when Sir Robert Walpole—and in his humble way Lord Hervey—are there to prevent it.’

  Walpole grasped his hand warmly and Hervey responded with real affection.

  * * *

  The King continued to fume and the Queen, to Walpole’s disappointment, remained sturdily beside her husband in this matter. ‘The first time I have known her judgment to fail,’ Walpole commented to Hervey. George’s temper grew worse and everyone who came near him suffered for it, the Queen most of all in spite of the fact that she supported hi
m in his desire.

  Walpole remained firm. England was not going to war under his leadership; and even the King had to admit that if the matter were put to the country the people would be behind Walpole.

  In spite of Hervey’s agreeing with Walpole the Queen liked him none the less. In fact he was growing more and more friendly with her; and this meant that he was on more intimate terms with the King.

  Caroline had asked the King to give him an extra thousand pounds a year.

  The creature is worth it,’ she said. ‘He is so diverting.’

  The King grunted that people at the Court should serve their Majesties for the honour of it, but he agreed that Hervey should have the money.

  As a result Hervey grew bolder and bolder and would joke with the Queen in the frankest way; and although she often reproved him for his lack of respect she always did so jokingly and did not wish him to change his manner towards her.

  Whenever she rode out he must be beside her chaise. Divert my attention, I pray you,’ she would say, ‘from these tiresome people who so like to hunt little animals to the death.’

  And he would remember the latest scandal and tell it so maliciously that she would indeed be diverted and find the hunt a pleasure instead of a bore.

  She would call him ‘child’ now and then; and refer to him as her ‘pupil’ and her ‘charge’. All this in the utmost affection; and she would even allow him to laugh at the Prince of Wales, and although she pretended to be shocked and would reprove him with mock sternness he knew that she liked this conversation better than that about anyone else.

  So during those months as the antagonism between the Prince of Wales and his parents grew stronger, so did the Queen’s affection for Lord Hervey.

  Once when Charlotte Clayton came in and found the Queen and Lord Hervey deep in bantering conversation, Caroline said: ‘If I were not so old I should be talked of for this creature.’

  Charlotte Clayton smiled benignly. Hervey had made sure that he kept in her good graces for Walpole had told him that it was his belief that Mrs Clayton had some hold over the Queen and therefore carried influence with her.

  * * *

  The Queen was delighted because her daughter Anne was coming to England for a visit. This was a great pleasure, for Caroline had only discovered how sadly she would miss her daughter when she had left; and often she would wake up in the night thinking of Anne with that grotesque creature beside her.

  And now Anne was coming home because the Prince of Orange was away from Holland fighting.

  When the King heard, he was half pleased, half angry. Of all his children, strangely enough he preferred Anne, although that did not mean he had a great affection for her because he cared little for any of his children. But he was sentimental enough to imagine he was pleased to have her home again. Then he began raging because Orange was fighting and he wasn’t.

  ‘That baboon! ‘ he said. ‘A soldier.’ He glanced in a mirror. Did he see himself as he really was? wondered Caroline. Or did some tall and handsome hero look back at him from the glass? ‘And here am I fiddle faddling at this Court when I should be there.’ Then another thought struck him. ‘I suppose Orange will pay for her journey.’

  The Queen soothed him as she so well knew how to do. ‘I am sure Anne will be so pleased that you are not at the wars,’ she said. ‘Otherwise she would miss the pleasure of seeing you.’

  He grunted, believing the Queen was right in that.

  But he continued to grumble about the ‘gros homme’his name for Walpole who had been so high-handed over this matter and was having his way, too, in keeping England out of the war.

  ‘A King’s not a King in this place,’ said George, kicking at a stool. ‘Now at Hanover ...’

  ‘Ah, yes! ‘ sighed the Queen.

  She too was thinking of the ‘gros homme’. He had opposed her over this and she was beginning to wonder whether he did not guide her as she guided the King. But it was the first real difference of opinion they had had; and she must remember that she was after all a German and that it was natural to feel this pull towards one’s own roots. It was the same with Walpole. He was English and to him Hanover was a remote Electorate and he was determined to see that it was never allowed to be an incumbrance to England.

  The King left her and she was glad that he had gone before Walpole called for his usual session with her.

  As she received him in her closet, she thought he looked less robust than usual; and when a man with his port-wine complexion looked a little pale he somehow contrived to look more ill than a man whose pallor was constant.

  This disagreement has upset him, thought the Queen.

  Walpole thought the Queen looked extremely fatigued and he was overcome with a sudden fear. Was she concealing an illness? It suddenly struck him that a knowledge of some disability might be the reason for Charlotte Clayton’s hold on her.

  He bowed and looked at her almost tenderly. But he could not resist saying what he had come to say.

  ‘I have just heard, Madam,’ he said, ‘that fifty thousand were slain this year in Europe. And not one of them an Englishman ‘

  ‘It is sad that fifty thousand have been slain,’ said the Queen.

  ‘But a matter of rejoicing for this country that not one of them is an Englishman. It brings satisfaction to know they owe their safety to those under whose care and protection they are, and to be able to say that while the rest of Europe has suffered England remains in its full and unimpaired vigour.’

  ‘You think only of England, Sir Robert.’

  ‘Ah, Madam, whatever motives of partiality sway me, ought they not naturally with double weight to bias you who have so much more at stake?’

  She smiled at him affectionately.

  ‘I see, Madam,’ he said, ‘that you are inclined to agree with me, and that gives me great pleasure.’

  Walpole commented to Lord Hervey afterwards that although the Queen’s good sense told her he was right, she was inclined to cling to her own opinions.

  Walpole shrugged his shoulders. ‘And if she cannot convince herself of what in her heart she knows to be right, what chance have I of doing so?’

  But as Hervey pointed out it was the government that decided the policy of the country, not the monarch. Absolute monarchy had gone out with the Stuarts.

  * * *

  Anne arrived surprisingly ebullient.

  She imparted the news to her mother with the greatest satisfaction. ‘I am to have a child, Mother.’

  ‘My dearest daughter!’ Caroline embraced her, and checked her own misgivings. What if Anne should give birth to a monster resembling its father!

  ‘I hope for a son, naturally,’ said Anne.

  ‘Your husband must be delighted.’

  ‘It is no more than Pepin expects.’

  Pepin! she spoke his name affectionately. How could she be so satisfied with her fate!

  But there was no doubt that she was delighted to be back in England and she expressed no anxiety because Pepin was at the wars.

  It seemed, thought Caroline, that all Anne cared about was her position; she had no reason to be very proud of it, but at least she had a husband who was a Prince and she was pregnant and might well give birth to a Prince. What an ambitious mother she would make!

  Her new status clearly delighted her as much as it infuriated Frederick. Lord Hervey discovered how angry he was through Anne Vane who said that he had become really bitter since his sister Anne had returned. Frederick would not be contented to remain unmarried and deprived of his rightful allowance much longer. There was going to be trouble with Frederick.

  Amelia told Anne to her face that she could not understand how she could possibly become pregnant by such a creature as the Prince of Orange.

  ‘In the usual way,’ retorted Anne tartly. ‘I often think of you, my poor sister, and what will become of you if. ever Frederick comes to the throne.’

  Caroline tried to make peace between the sisters, but Anne snubbe
d her and said she was even more sorry for her than she was for Amelia.

  In spite of differences with her sisters Anne was enjoying her visit. She spent a great deal of time with her mother and they talked of the problems of being married to a ruler of a state; and Caroline, in any case, was delighted to have her daughter with her.

  The King was pleased too. He made Anne walk with him, and he grew very sentimental about her and told her about the days when she had been a baby in Hanover.

  ‘Before we came to this place,’ he said darkly.

  ‘In the days when you were less important than you are now, Papa.’ Anne had a sharp tongue and had no intention of sparing anyone except Pepin.

  ‘Less important! Why I tell you this : In Hanover a ruler is a ruler. Here a King does what a fat man tells him to.’

  ‘The world takes more account of a King than an Elector, though,’ Anne replied.

  And he would have grown peevish if he had not schooled himself to believe he was a sentimental parent.

  When they had parted Anne met Lord Hervey on his way to her mother’s apartment.

  ‘You are in more constant attendance on my mother than the King,’ she commented.

  ‘It is Her Majesty’s wish that I divert her.’

  ‘As I am sure you do. Poor Mamma! I am glad that she has a little diversion. The company of some people must be very oppressive. I am glad that Lady Suffolk has been dismissed.’

  ‘Some of us, who are devoted to the Queen, fear that another might take her place who might be more troublesome and more powerful.’

  ‘Oh, I wish with all my heart that he would find someone else, then Mamma would be a little relieved of seeing him constantly in her rooms.’

  Lord Hervey made no comment, but he thought that the Princess Anne was as outspoken as he was, the difference being, of course, that he was only frank where he knew how his frankness would be received.

  * * *

  The King was taking a new interest in his young daughters, Mary and Louisa. Mary was now ten and Louisa nine.