Courtiers: The Secret History of the Georgian Court
Page 15
With the king’s death, Peter Wentworth found himself once again changing employer. He remained at Kensington Palace as an equerry in Queen Caroline’s household. This was his fourth royal job, as he’d served a prince, another queen and a king already.
Luckily, Wentworth had admired his new mistress ever since their very first encounter. It had taken place in the drawing room soon after Princess Caroline’s arrival in England. Thanks to a kindly act of the Lord Chamberlain, Wentworth was beckoned through the crowd ‘to kiss her Highness’s hand; she repeated my name aloud and smilingly gave me her hand’.104 Perhaps, like another lowly courtier introduced to Caroline, Wentworth found her compliments so ‘very gracious that they confounded’ him, and ‘blunder’d out a great deal of nonsense’ in reply.105
And now Peter Wentworth, like Peter the Wild Boy, found himself entering the special cadre of those whom Caroline cherished. She worked a kind of magic upon her favourite servants, drawing them into the circle of her charm, allowing them to see both her abundant affection for them and her private pain.
While many people lined up to puff and praise the new queen, Caroline was not universally liked outside her household. She presented such a graceful, gracious front to the world that some people distrusted it. Unlike her husband, who could not hide his feelings and would ‘kick whilst he obliged’, Caroline ‘would stroke while she hated’.106 But her bright and easy social manner disguised a certain vulnerability. She was constantly begged for one favour or another, and had to defend herself against the draining strain of making constant refusals. Viscountess Falmouth, for example, was thrown into a frenzy by the news that Caroline might ‘add some new ladies’ to her household, and begged for a personal appointment to put her case for a position. ‘I own to you’, she wrote in desperate hope, ‘I have been in such anxiety of mind, that I have not slept one wink all night.’107
Caroline may have been devious, guilty of empty smiles and empty words, but she needed to protect her vitality from these exhausting applications for help. When one lady arrived to beg for a rebel’s life, Caroline ‘could not bear to see her, but hastened out of ye drawing room into her own rooms and cried’.108 It was this, her softer side, which really made people fall in love with the queen. ‘I am so charmed with her good nature and good qualities’, wrote one devoted lady-in-waiting, ‘that I shall never think I can do enough to please her.’109
And now, as Peter Wentworth’s and Caroline’s paths converged, new hope was in sight for the unfortunate equerry. Ever since Caroline had ‘smilingly’ given him her hand, he had liked the princess, and in her service he would become her slave. He aspired to be one of the chosen few with whom Caroline would relax and become intimate. And, as a result, he resolved ‘never to be concern’d in liquor again’.110
Queen Caroline offered Wentworth no promotion and no extra money. But she gave him something much more valuable: sympathy and attention. She told Wentworth that she didn’t believe the occasional and perilous ‘idle stories’ of his being drunk on duty, because, as he said, ‘she sees me every day sober’.
Her kind words soothed his spirit: ‘Her Majesty has told me she knows none of my misfortunes has been my fault … She has said she pities me from her soul, & that I deserve a better fortune.’ 111
The neglected equerry had entered a warm new world.
Notes
1. BL Add MS 22227, f. 27r, Peter Wentworth to his brother (1 November 1718).
2. BL Add MS 31144, f. 488r, Peter Wentworth to his brother (30 July 1714).
3. BL Add MS 22227, f. 101, Peter Wentworth to his brother (22 October 1729).
4. Ibid., f. 28 (1 November 1718).
5. London Daily Post and General Advertiser, issue 493 (31 May 1736).
6. BL Add MS 31144, f. 570r, Peter Wentworth to his brother (21 September 1714).
7. Ibid., f. 480r, Peter Wentworth to his brother (3 August 1714).
8. Ibid., f. 493r, Peter Wentworth to his brother (6 August 1714).
9. Halsband (1965–7), Vol. 1, pp. 226–9.
10. Sherburn (1956), Vol. 2, p. 395.
11. John Gay, Poems (1720) pp. 279, 276.
12. Sherburn (1956), Vol. 1, p. 379, Alexander Pope to Martha Blount (December 1716).
13. Ibid., p. 512, Pope to Martha and Teresa Blount (17 September 1718).
14. BL Add MS 22626, ff. 60r-v, Henrietta Howard to John Gay (n.d.).
15. Halsband (1965–7), Vol. 1, pp. 226–9.
16. BL Add MS 31144, f. 532r, Peter Wentworth to his brother (2 November 1714).
17. Smith (1914), p. 135, Thomas Burnet to George Duckett (6 September 1717).
18. Ibid., p. 144, Thomas Burnet to George Duckett (5 March 1718).
19. Ibid., p. 170, Thomas Burnet to George Duckett (2 May 1719).
20. Williams (1963–5), Vol. 3, p. 294, Swift to Alexander Pope (16 July 1728).
21. Thomas Brown, Amusements Serious and Comical, Calculated for the Meridian of London (London, 1700), p. 15.
22. J. J. Cartwright (Ed.), The Wentworth Papers 1705–1739, selected from the private and family correspondence of Thomas Wentworth, Lord Raby, created in 1711 Earl of Strafford (London, 1883), p. 3.
23. BL Add MS 31144, f.516v, Peter Wentworth to his brother (1 October 1714).
24. BL Add MS 22227, f. 31r, Peter Wentworth to his brother (16 November 1718).
25. Gaunt and Knight (1988–9), Vol. 2, Chap. 4, p. 489
26. Saussure (1902), pp. 39–48.
27. Cowper (1864), p. 140.
28. Ibid., p. 38.
29. Thomson (1847), Vol. 2, p. 287.
30. RA GEO/ADD28/3, GEO/ADD28/12, GEO/ADD28/18, GEO/ADD28/20, transcripts by Mrs Clayton of letters from Caroline to Mrs Clayton (n.d.).
31. Saussure (1902), pp. 39–48; Hervey (1931), Vol. 1, p. 275.
32. Lewis (1937–83), Vol. 37, p. 341 (23 June 1752).
33. Hervey (1931), Vol. 1, pp. 275–6.
34. Thomson (1847), Vol. 1, p. 146 (22 April 1728).
35. Saussure (1902), pp. 39–48.
36. Walpole, Reminiscences (1818 edn), p. 101.
37. Lynn Hunt, The Family Romance of the French Revolution (London, 1992).
38. Duchess of Orléans to the Raugravine Louise, St Cloud (30 June 1718), quoted in Wilkins (1901), Vol. 1, p. 317.
39. BL Egerton MS 1710, f. 18r, Princess Amalie to the Countess of Portland (1733).
40. Hertfordshire Archives, MS DE/P/F134, f. 26r.
41. BL Egerton MS 1710, f. 1r, Princess Amalie to the Countess of Portland (August 1728).
42. RA GEO/MAIN/53038, p. 52.
43. Quoted in Alice Drayton Greenwood, Lives of the Hanoverian Queens of England (London, 1909), Vol. 1, p. 357 (N.B. Greenwood’s reference, BL MS Egerton MS 1700, is incorrect).
44. Hertfordshire Archives, Panshanger MS, Letterbooks, Vol. 5, pp. 24–5, Mrs Allanson to Lady Cowper (29 May 1718), quoted in Beattie (1967), p. 274.
45. Wright and Tinling (1958), p. 127.
46. BL Add MS 22629, f. 117.
47. Ibid., ff. 117–8.
48. Hervey (1931), Vol. 2, p. 406.
49. Paymasters’ Accounts for 1717, 1718, 1721 and 1723, quoted by Colvin (1976), p. 201.
50. HMC 12th Report, appendix, Part III, Cowper, pp. 115–6, Madame de Kielmensegge to Vice Chamberlain Coke (15 December 1716); Gaunt and Knight (1988–9), Vol. 2, p. 482; Count de Broglie to the King of France (10 July 1724), quoted in Wilkins (1901), Vol. 1, p. 376.
51. TNA LS 13/115 f. 127 (17 June 1724).
52. Count de Broglie to the King of France (10 July 1724), quoted in Wilkins (1901), Vol. 1, p. 376.
53. Isobel Grundy, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Comet of the Enlightenment (Oxford, 1999), p. 191.
54. HMC Polwarth, Vol. 1, p. 176 (7 February 1717).
55. HMC Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Marquis of Bath, Vol. 1 (London, 1904), p. 201, Shrewsbury to Robert Harley (25 April 1711).
56. BL Add MS 63764, f. 5r, Henry Savile to Lord Preston (Lon
don, 10 May 1682).
57. Bucholz (2000), pp. 209–10.
58. Jonathan Swift, Directions to Servants (London, 1745) p. 88.
59. The Hon. Peter Wentworth to the Earl of Strafford (10 August 1730), quoted in Wilkins (1901), Vol. 2, pp. 109–10.
60. Hervey (1931), Vol. 2, p. 345.
61. Stanhope (1774), Vol. 2, p. 214.
62. SRO 941/47/4, p. 337, John Hervey to Ste Fox (30 December 1731).
63. Anon., It cannot Rain (1726), p. 7.
64. Stanhope (1774), Vol. 1, pp. 89–90.
65. Quoted in Neil McKendrick, John Brewer and J. H. Plumb, The Birth of a Consumer Society: The Commercialization of Eighteenth-Century England (London, 1982), p. 59.
66. Fielding (1732), p. 16.
67. BL Add MS 22626, f. 116r, Thomas Allen to Henrietta Howard (17 December 1766).
68. TNA LC 5/158, p. 151 (2 May 1723).
69. Lord Berkeley of Stratton, quoted in Aston (2008), p. 185.
70. BL Add MS 31144, f. 516v, Peter Wentworth to his brother (1 October 1714).
71. TNA LS 13/173, p. 106, ‘Order for keeping the Court and Parke &c cleare from Beggars’ (2 May 1687).
72. HMC Egmont (1923), Vol. 2, p. 61 (wedding of Princess Anne to William of Orange).
73. Peter Wentworth to Lord Strafford (25 July 1729), quoted in Wilkins (1901), Vol. 2, pp. 123–4.
74. Thomson (1847), Vol. 2, pp. 39–40.
75. Beattie (1967), pp. 78–9.
76. TNA LS 13/115, f. 126v (2 June 1724).
77. The Earl of March, A Duke and his Friends. The Life and Letters of the Second Duke of Richmond (London, 1911), Vol. 1, p. 89; TNA LS 13/115, f. 126v (2 June 1724); references kindly provided by Esther Godfrey.
78. TNA LS 13/115, f. 126v (3 June 1724); March (1911), Vol. 1, p. 89.
79. Ibid., f. 126v (3 June 1724).
80. Ibid.; March (1911), Vol. 1, p. 89.
81. HMC 12th Report, appendix, Part III, Cowper (1889), p. 117.
82. www.oldbaileyonline.org, ‘The proceedings of the Old Bailey’, ref. t17310428-28
83. Ibid., ref. t17311208-58.
84. Gaunt and Knight (1988–9), Vol. 2, p. 512; TNA LS 13/84 (unpaginated); ‘The proceedings of the Old Bailey’, ref. t17361208-42.
85. Anon., Lewis Maximilian Mahomet (1727), p. 9.
86. Caudle (2004).
87. Anon., Lewis Maximilian Mahomet (1727), pp. 10, 13.
88. Hanover Archives, Cal. Br. 15 Nr. 2684, George II to Geheime Räte, St James’s, 28/1.8/2/1729, information kindly provided by Andrew Thompson.
89. From the king’s private accounts, quoted by Caudle (2004).
90. J. D. Griffith Davies, A King in Toils (London, 1938), p. 80.
91. Wilkins (1901), Vol. 1, p. 380.
92. Brooke (1985), Vol. 3, p. 121.
93. HMC, 12th Report, appendix III, Manuscripts of the Coke Family of Melbourne Hall, Derbyshire, belonging to the Earl Cowper (London, 1898), p. 187.
94. SRO 941/47/4, p. 45, John Hervey to Ste Fox (30 May 1727).
95. Wilkins (1901), Vol. 1, p. 381.
96. Coxe (1798b), Vol. 1, p. 266; Grieser (1956), p. 147.
97. Grieser (1956), p. 148.
98. HMC Polwarth, Vol. 5, p. 5, Arthur Villette to the Earl of Marchmont (June 1727).
99. Coxe (1798b), Vol. 1, p. 266.
100. The Historical Register, quoted in C. Gibbs, ‘George I (1660–1727)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 2004).
101. Coxe (1798b), Vol. 1, pp. 265–6.
102. Quoted in Marlow (1973), p. 212.
103. Hanover Archives, Cal. Br. 15 Nr. 2684, George II to Geheime Räte, St James’s, 28/1.8/2/1729, information kindly provided by Andrew Thompson.
104. BL Add MS 31144, f. 527v, Peter Wentworth to his brother (15 October 1714).
105. BL Add MS 47032, f. 346, Daniel Dering to Lord Egmont (June 1730).
106. Hervey (1931), Vol. 2, p. 495.
107. Thomson (1847), Vol. 1, p. 317.
108. BL Add MS 78465, f. 45r, Mrs Boscawen to Lady Evelyn (21 February 1716).
109. Cowper (1864), p. 21 (21 November 1714).
110. BL Add MS 22227, ff. 121–2, Peter Wentworth to his brother (3 August 1731).
111. Ibid., f. 8r, Peter Wentworth to his brother (2 September 1729); f. 101, Peter Wentworth to his brother (22 October 1729).
SIX
The Women of the Bedchamber
‘In courts … the affections of the heart are as much conceal’d as its substance.’1
(Lord Berkeley of Stratton)
In 1734, an uneasy love triangle existed at Kensington Palace. George II, the former Prince George Augustus, was by now well established as Britain’s king, and Caroline as his queen. For nearly twenty years now Henrietta Howard had soldiered on in the unglamorous, unenviable and unpaid job of George II’s acknowledged lover. She felt she’d seen quite enough of court life and yearned to escape.
The king, tired of his mistress, would have let her go. But Henrietta was a valuable servant to Caroline, and the queen wanted her to stay. This placed all three in an extraordinary dilemma.
*
The situation was most pressing, and most distressing, to Henrietta. She lived right at the very heart of the Georgian court. ‘There is no politician who more carefully watches the motions and dispositions of things and persons,’ people said, and she was legendary for her ‘imperceptible dexterity’ in negotiating court life.2 Yet Henrietta’s way of life was gradually taking its toll upon both her health and her happiness. Like all the courtiers, her daily struggle for survival at court meant that she was becoming a slave to deception.
Jonathan Swift, the outsider, was perceptive enough to notice the danger. He warned that Henrietta might ‘come in time to believe herself’ as she dealt out the courtier’s habitual half-truths and flattery. If this happened, it could have ‘terrible consequences’ for her.
In a particularly striking simile, Swift feared that Henrietta’s talents as a courtier would ‘spread, enlarge, and multiply to such a degree, that her private virtues for want of room and time to operate, must be folded and laid up clean like clothes in a chest’. All that was best about Henrietta’s character would remain hidden away until ‘some reverse of fortune’ should ‘dispose her to retirement’. 3
Henrietta hoped to escape from court while her integrity still remained intact and to put back on the ‘clothes’ of sincerity, wisdom and love that were so alien to a courtier’s role.
But the story of her difficult life so far suggested that this might be impossible.
*
Henrietta was born into the Hobart family of Norfolk. She’d been baptised in London on 11 May 1689, but her family’s main home was Blickling Hall near Norwich.4 Despite the grandeur of their country mansion, the Hobarts’ finances were precarious, and became even more so after Henrietta’s father was killed in a duel in 1698. Left orphaned by the death of her mother shortly afterwards, Henrietta at the age of sixteen assumed that marriage to the thirty-year-old Charles Howard would provide her with some measure of security.
She made the terrible mistake of marrying him in 1706. In time Henrietta would deeply regret placing her confidence in this ‘wrong-headed, ill-tempered, obstinate, drunken, extravagant, brutal’ reprobate.5 As one of her friends put it, ‘thus they loved, thus they married, and thus they hated each other for the rest of their lives’.6
The couple were genteel paupers, their shortage of money made all the more excruciating by the need they felt to hide it. Charles spent his early married life in London in gaming houses and brothels, while their lack of cash meant that Henrietta often felt the ‘smart of hunger’. ‘Despised and abused’ by her husband, she would later recall that during her young adulthood she ‘suffer’d all that poverty and ye whole train of miseries that attend it can suggest to any one’s imagination’.7
Her plan to travel to Hanover to look for work and escape a wretched life was spurred on by the birth of her
son, Henry, in 1707. She and her husband could hardly afford the journey. Their expenses were met by Henrietta selling even their ‘beds & bedding’, and she was offered eighteen guineas by a periwig-maker for her lovely long light brown hair. Her disagreeable husband’s only reaction was to say he thought it worth not nearly so much.8
Once in Hanover, Henrietta did indeed find gainful employment: as a Bedchamber Woman to Princess Caroline and, soon after that, as a mistress to Prince George Augustus. The arrangement seemed acceptable, almost respectable, to everybody.
It would indeed have been more scandalous for the prince to have remained faithful to his wife. Lord Chesterfield recommended that every gentleman should take a mistress as an important part of his education. In preference to learning ‘all Plato and Aristotle by heart’, he advised a youth to fall ‘passionately in love with some determined coquette’ who would ‘lead you a dance, fashion, supple, and polish you’.9 For Henrietta’s part, ‘the sacrifice she made of her virtue’ was for reasons more pragmatic than romantic: ‘she had felt poverty, and was far from disliking power’.10
Princess Caroline, the wronged wife, was not too put out either. Writing to Caroline from Paris, the Duchess of Orléans was warm in her recommendation of separate sleeping arrangements for a royal husband and wife. ‘It is nothing new for a husband to have a mistress,’ she claimed, and ‘you won’t find one in ten thousand who loves no one but his wife. They deserve praise if they simply live on good terms with their wives and treat them kindly.’11
Double standards, though, were firmly in place where women’s sexual activities were concerned.12 Legal opinion had it that a man’s wife was his possession just like his money, and for another man to sleep with her was ‘the highest invasion of property’.13 Men, then, would not put up with the infidelities that their wives had to tolerate: ‘forgiveness on the part of a wife’ was ‘meritorious; while a similar forgiveness on the part of the husband would be degrading and dishonourable’.14