{"id":24225,"date":"2023-04-25T22:32:08","date_gmt":"2023-04-25T20:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistoryrevealed\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=24225"},"modified":"2023-04-25T22:32:08","modified_gmt":"2023-04-25T20:32:08","slug":"sex-lies-and-lucky-escapes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistoryrevealed\/2023\/04\/25\/sex-lies-and-lucky-escapes\/","title":{"rendered":"Sex, lies and lucky escapes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ROYAL LIVES: GEORGIAN SCANDALS<\/h4>\n\n

Sex, lies and lucky escapes<\/h2>\n\n

From illicit affairs to assassination attempts, Felicity <\/strong>Day <\/strong>reveals the scandals that rocked the court of King George III and Queen Charlotte, whose relationship is the focus of a new Bridgerton <\/em>spin-off series<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Benjamin West\u2019s 1779 portrait of Queen Charlotte, wife of George III. Thirteen of the couple\u2019s children are visible in the background, some of whom would later become embroiled in embarrassing scandals <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

It\u2019s often said that the court of George III and Queen Charlotte was dull and censorious. \u201cThe palace of piety,\u201d Horace Walpole called it. The royal couple were famously frugal, and far from having a bevy of buxom mistresses like his grandfather George II, the king had no woman in his life but his wife, mother of his 15 children. He and Charlotte were known to look askance on the adultery and excesses of their aristocratic subjects. <\/p>\n\n

Yet their court was to be rocked by scandals \u2013 and the biggest of them were of the royal family\u2019s own making. <\/p>\n\n

\"\"
A painting depicts Frederica, the bride-to-be of Frederick, Duke of York, meeting in-laws George III and Queen Charlotte for the first time. The duke would prove to be a far from faithful husband <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
Criminal conversation<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n
\"\"
George III\u2019s brother, Henry, Duke of Cumberland, embarrassed the royal family with his philandering ways <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

It was one of George III\u2019s brothers who dragged the family into the scandal sheets in his first decade as king. In December 1769, the papers divulged that an assignation between Henry, Duke of Cumberland, and his lover, Lady Grosvenor (sister of one of the queen\u2019s ladies) had been interrupted by her husband\u2019s servants. The pair had been caught together in a bedchamber at a busy coaching inn in St Albans, their clothing in disarray. Lord Grosvenor had promptly hauled the duke into court, and during a trial for \u2018criminal conversation\u2019 with his wife, all manner of embarrassing details about the rakish royal were revealed \u2013 from the apparent enjoyment he had taken in dressing up in disguise for their secret trysts, to the lamentable spelling in his love letters.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

\"\"
The duke\u2019s affair with Lady Grosvenor landed him in court <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

Forced to foot the \u00a313,000 bill for damages and fees, the king was furious that his sibling had shown so little regard for the moral responsibility that he (and many of his subjects) believed came with exalted rank. But he was all the more angry in 1771, when he learned that the serially philandering Henry had taken to the altar flamboyant widow Anne Horton, daughter of a baron dubbed \u2018the King of Hell\u2019 thanks to his womanising ways. He described the union as \u201ca disgrace to the whole family\u201d \u2013 though it became far more than that. George\u2019s anger led to the creation of the Royal Marriages Act 1772 (see<\/em> box below), <\/em>which rendered illegal the marriage of any royal under the age of 25 without the monarch\u2019s consent, the only exception being descendants of princesses who married into foreign families. <\/p>\n\n

Whether it was because they knew that any marriage sanctioned by their father would prioritise European politics over passion, most of George and Charlotte\u2019s seven surviving sons chose lifestyles as rakish as their uncle Cumberland\u2019s.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

\"\"
A portrait of Maria Fitzherbert, with whom George, Prince of Wales entered into an illegal marriage <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

George, Prince of Wales distressed them particularly with a string of indiscreetly conducted love affairs, and was known to have defied his father\u2019s act and married a handsome Catholic widow, Maria Fitzherbert \u2013 only to cruelly cast her aside. His lawful marriage in 1795 to his cousin, Caroline of Brunswick, was to cause even more unwelcome chatter, as he paraded his mistresses at court while pointedly ignoring her, before subjecting the princess to an inquiry into allegations of her adultery and the birth of an illegitimate son. The so-called \u2018Delicate Investigation\u2019 of 1806 \u2013 which acquitted Caroline \u2013 was a private matter that in time became a very public scandal, the couple using the newspapers to air their grievances and the nation taking sides. The war of the Wales\u2019 took its toll on the queen especially. \u201cMy dislike to everything public is greatly increased,\u201d she told the king at one stage, having found herself caught in the middle of their marital drama. <\/p>\n\n

\"\"
The prince\u2019s legitimate marriage to Caroline of Brunswick was far from happy <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
Lives left in tatters<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n
\"\"
George and Charlotte\u2019s 12th child, Princess Sophia, had a son with one of her father\u2019s equerries<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

Interestingly, though, it wasn\u2019t only wayward sons she had to worry about; one of Charlotte\u2019s daughters also brought scandal to her door. Despite the six princesses interacting with few women, let alone men outside \u2018the nunnery\u2019 (as they called the royal household), in 1801, gossips began to debate whether Princess Sophia\u2019s illness the previous summer, while the court was at Weymouth, had, in fact, been a secret pregnancy. <\/p>\n\n

Her sister Elizabeth called it a \u201cfabricated and most scandalous and base report\u201d but historians now believe the rumour was true, and Sophia did indeed give birth to a baby boy in July or August 1800, fathered by one of the king\u2019s equerries, General Thomas Garth, and left with a tailor in the town, whose wife was supposed to pass him off as her own. Fuelled by Garth\u2019s adoption of the child, the reports gathered pace in the years after, when it was said the queen knew of the unvirtuous conduct of her daughter, reportedly so innocent that she had not even known she was pregnant. It appears the gossip did not then leak beyond the morally elastic world of the aristocracy \u2013 where such a \u2018false step\u2019 was not unheard of \u2013 but the scandal certainly damaged Sophia\u2019s reputation. \u201cI have lost myself in the world by my conduct,\u201d <\/span>she later admitted, \u201cand, alas, have felt it humbly, for many, many have changed towards me\u201d. Lonely, miserable and separated from her son, she lived the remainder of her life in seclusion. <\/p>\n\n

Leaving another royal reputation in tatters was the cash-for-commissions scandal in which Sophia\u2019s brother, Frederick, Duke of York, commander-inchief of the British Army, was embroiled by a vengeful former mistress, deprived of her promised allowance. When it exploded in 1809, it emerged that during their three-year affair courtesan Mary Anne Clarke had abused her access to the duke\u2019s official papers, taking bribes from military men in exchange for adding their names to the promotion lists which it was his job to authorise. Even her footman had managed to obtain a commission that way.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

\u201cAll manner of details about the rakish royal were revealed \u2013 including the apparent enjoyment he had taken in dressing up in disguise for secret trysts\u201d <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

\"\"
Rumours that Caroline had given birth to an illegitimate child became the subject of satire <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
Cut from ear to ear<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n
\"\"
An undated image of Clarke, who penned memoirs about the scandal <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

With a humiliating British retreat from Spain in the war against Napoleon very raw, Parliament had opted for an inquiry into the duke\u2019s complicity. A prince effectively on trial for corruption in the House of Commons was bad enough, but the glamorous Mary Anne was induced to testify against him and boldly stated that her lover had connived in her schemes. Her clever responses and double entendres made MPs laugh and stirred up more public outrage over the apparently immoral, indulgent lifestyles of the royal men. Some observers felt that it was a waste of parliamentary time \u201cwhen so many other important objects require[d] their attention\u201d but it was the hottest topic in town, spawning a veritable avalanche of cartoons lampooning the lustful duke. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cClarke\u2019s clever responses and double entendres made MPs laugh and stirred up more public outrage over the apparently immoral lifestyles of the royal men\u201d <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

\"\"
Cartoons mocked the Duke of York\u2019s affair with Mary Anne Clarke, who duped him into dishing out promotions to corrupt military men <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
\"\"
Ernest Augustus, who later became king of Hanover, was said to be of \u201cbad character\u201d <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

It eventually transpired that the names had been added to the lists without the duke\u2019s knowledge, but with public opinion against him, he was forced to resign. And the matter was not quite over even then. A hefty sum had to be paid to gag Mrs Clarke and suppress her memoirs, which threatened further embarrassment for the family.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Only a year later, yet another son, Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, found himself the talk of every dinner table, but in his case, it concerned something much more serious than an extra-marital affair: murder. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE THE DUKE OF CUMBERLAND\u201d had screamed the headlines, the papers revealing that in the early hours of 31 May 1810, the duke had been ferociously attacked with his own sabre as he slept, his assailant splitting open his skull with sufficient force to reveal his brains. Soon after the alarm had been raised, the duke\u2019s valet, Joseph Sellis, had been found locked in his room, \u201chis throat cut from ear to ear\u201d. <\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Another cartoon pokes fun at the duke\u2019s exoneration in March 1809 <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
A villain unmasked<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

The inquest concluded that Sellis had committed the bloody crime before taking his own life, but the verdict did little to quash talk of the affair. \u201cThe business is a most mysterious one,\u201d mused one lady, \u201cendless stories are circulated\u201d. Some of these concerned possible motives for the attack. Ranging from revenge for an affair between the duke and his wife to an angry rejection of his employer\u2019s homosexual advances, they rarely painted the royal in a good light. But there was a far more sinister rumour in circulation, too, which said the duke was not the victim but the villain. <\/p>\n\n

In the eyes of his critics he certainly looked the part, mostly thanks to a prominent battle scar on the side of his face. There was also his reputedly \u201cbad character\u201d \u2013 \u201cthe soldiers on guard say they wish he had been cut to pieces instead of wounded,\u201d said one report. And gossip had already coupled his name with another wicked crime: since 1804 members of the <\/span>haut <\/em>ton <\/em>had heard rumours that the father of Princess Sophia\u2019s child was actually her brother Ernest.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

\"\"
The House of Lords pictured during Caroline of Brunswick\u2019s 1820 \u2018trial\u2019 for adultery <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
The end of an error? <\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

The ladies of the royal family were certainly believed to be wary of him. Even his mother, Queen Charlotte, wrote that she was saddened by the attack \u201cindependent of one\u2019s feelings towards him\u201d. The crime scene had been disturbed, too, which only encouraged conspiracy theories. Not to mention that it did seem strange that the duke could have mistaken such a violent attack for a bat flying against his head, as he said in his evidence. Unsurprisingly, whispers about his own guilt persisted for the rest of his life. <\/p>\n\n

The family scandals rolled on and on, too. In 1813, Ernest was accused of influencing a parliamentary election in Weymouth, and in 1815 chose for his wife a princess who had publicly jilted his brother Adolphus (and was herself dogged by a rumour that she had poisoned her late husband). On and on they even went, too, after Queen Charlotte\u2019s death in 1818 and King George\u2019s in 1820. George IV attempted to divorce his wife Caroline in a sensational public \u2018trial\u2019 and then excluded her from his coronation in 1821 \u2013 spending the ceremony indecently winking at and sighing over his latest mistress instead. <\/p>\n\n

Then in 1829, Sophia\u2019s not-so-secret son hit the headlines when he attempted to blackmail the royals over his true parentage, and Ernest was accused of sexual assault. <\/span><\/p>\n\n

Little wonder that by 1837 the nation was ready for the comparatively boring court of Queen Victoria, as moral and dutiful as her grandparents George and Charlotte could have wished. <\/p>\n\n

<\/div>
\n

CAUGHT IN THE ACT <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
A controversial piece of legislation passed by George III went on to block several royal marriages \u2013 even as recently as the 1950s <\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Augustus Frederick secretly married Lady Augusta Murray in 1793, much to his parents\u2019 dismay <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t only George III\u2019s heir who defied his Royal Marriages Act of 1772. In 1793, the king\u2019s sixth son, Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex, secretly married Lady Augusta Murray, who went on to bear him two children. Their marriage was declared null and void in accordance with the act, however, and they eventually separated. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The future King William IV, meanwhile, was rumoured to have had his marital hopes dashed on its altar. Having abandoned his relationship with the actor Dorothea Jordan, with whom he had 10 illegitimate children, he was reportedly eager to wed heiress Sophia Wykeham, only for the match to be thwarted by Parliament and his eldest brother, by then Prince Regent. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The act even caused heartache in the 20th century, obstructing the marriage of Princess Margaret and her father\u2019s equerry, Peter Townsend, in 1955. The legislation was repealed as a result of the 2011 Perth Agreement, and now, only the first six people in the line of succession need permission to marry (and only if they wish to inherit the throne). <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Ashberry Cottage in Forest Hill, London \u2013 built on the site of a home where the future William IV is said to have lived with Dorothea Jordan <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n
\n\n

Felicity Day<\/strong> is a journalist specialising in British history and heritage. Her first book, The Game of Hearts: The Lives and Loves of Regency Women, <\/em>was published by Blink Publishing in September 2022 <\/p>\n\n

READ AND LISTEN <\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

For full details about Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, <\/em>TAP HERE.<\/a><\/strong> You can also learn more about the real history behind Bridgerton <\/em>at historyextra.com\/bridgerton<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n

ALAMY X12, GETTY IMAGES X3, BRIDGEMAN ART LIBRARY X1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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