The Queen’s funeral took place on the 2nd of December, at Windsor. It was a public funeral, in the accepted sense of that term, but the arrangements were inappropriate. The procession mainly consisted of military, horse and foot, as if they had been escorting a warrior, and not a woman, to the tomb. The members of the peerage did scant honour to the Queen whom they had professed to reverence when alive. Few, and those not of note, were present. The absence of peeresses was especially noted. Indeed the public funeral of Charlotte was more private than the private funeral of her predecessor Caroline.
The will of Queen Charlotte was that of a woman of foresight and good memory rather than of feeling and affection. The document was proved by Lord Arden and General Taylor, the executors. It was in the General’s handwriting, and was witnessed by Sir Francis Millman and Sir Henry Halford. The personal property was sworn to as being under 140,000l.
The substance of the will was as follows:—The royal testatrix directed that her debts and the legacies and annuities noticed in her will should be paid out of the personalty, or sale of personals, if there should not be wherewith in her Majesty’s treasury to provide for those payments. The personal property was of various descriptions; part of it comprised the real estate in New Windsor, which she had purchased of the Duke of St. Albans, and which was known as the Lower Lodge (left to the Princess Sophia); but the personalty of the greatest value may be said to have been those splendid jewels which she cherished so dearly, and for which she affected to have such little care. These the systematic Sovereign divided into three parts—those presented to her by the King on her marriage, worth 50,000l.; those presented to her by the Nabob of Arcot, for the acquisition of which she paid by a temporary forfeiture of what she very little regarded—popular favour; and those purchased by herself, or which she had received as presents on birthday occasions. Such souvenirs were to her the most welcome gifts that could be made to her on that or any other anniversary. Of these jewels she made the following disposal: She directed that the diamonds given to her by the King on her marriage should revert to him only on condition that with survivorship there should be recovery of his mental faculties. If he were not restored to reason, she then directed—what he never would have consented to had his reason been restored to him—that they should be made over to the Crown of Hanover, as an heir-loom. Such a disposal of property which should have remained in England transferred the diamonds to Hanover whenever that kingdom should be divided from England by the accession, in the latter country, of a Queen—who, according to the law of Hanover, could not reign in that continental kingdom.
The splendid tribute which the Nabob of Arcot had deposited at her feet she divided among four of her daughters. The excepted daughter was the Queen of Wurtemburg, whom she looked upon as exceedingly well provided for. To the remaining four the careful mother did not bequeath the glittering gems, but the value of them after they were sold, and after certain debts were discharged from the produce of the sale. The four princesses divided between them what remained. The jewels which she had bought, or had received as birthday presents, were also to be divided among the same four daughters, according to a valuation to be made of them. The diamonds were valued at nearly a million. In ready money the Queen left behind her only 4,000l.
Frogmore was bequeathed to the Princess Augusta; and the plate, linen, pictures, china, books, furniture, &c., were left to the four princesses already named. Of her sons the testatrix made no mention, nor to them left any legacy. There were other persons mentioned, but who came off as badly as though they had never been named. Her Majesty directed that certain bequests as set down in certain lists annexed to her will, and to which due reference was made, should be paid to them; but not only were no such lists so annexed, but it was ascertained that her Majesty had never drawn any out herself nor directed any to be drawn by others.
There was, however, another list, touching which the aged Queen had been by no means so forgetful. This list contained a detail of property which the testatrix declared she had brought with her, more than half a century before, from Mecklenburgh Strelitz. Thither she ordered it to be sent back—to the senior branch of her illustrious house. After millions received from this country during her residence in it, she would not testify her gratitude for such munificence by permitting it or her family in England to profit by the handful of small valuables she had brought with her from Strelitz. To the head of the house of Mecklenburgh Strelitz reverted the few old-fashioned things brought over here in the trunks of the bride; and, if they have been worth preserving, the old-world finery of Sophia Charlotte of Strelitz and England is now possessed by the Grand Duchess of Mecklenburgh, the daughter of Charlotte’s son, Adolphus of Cambridge.
The will was dated only the day previous to her Majesty’s demise. It had been put together at various periods since the 2nd of the previous May, by an officer of her Majesty’s establishment—General Taylor. About a fortnight previous to her Majesty’s decease she was for the first time made acquainted with her dangerous condition by a communication delicately conveyed to her by order of the Prince Regent, and to the effect, ‘that if her Majesty had any affairs to settle it would be advisable to do so while she had health and spirits to bear the fatigue.’ The royal sufferer well comprehended what was meant by such a message, and was very seriously affected by it. She had entertained strong hopes, amounting almost to confidence, that by the skill of her medical attendants she would be again restored to health. This recommendation to set her ‘house in order’ was an announcement that her case was hopeless. 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 she 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. She left her, however, a superb set of garnets. The reason assigned was, that garnets were the only precious stones that could be worn with mourning, which the Dowager Queen had announced her intention of wearing for life. Queen Charlotte had, as ladies averred who spoke with connaissance du fait, the finest wardrobe in Europe, the highly-consoled legatee of which was Madame Beckendorff, the Queen’s chief-dresser. It may be noticed here that the Queen’s debts—chiefly contracted, it was said, by allowing her contributions to charitable objects to exceed her available income, which is no excuse whatever for any one incurring debt—amounted to 9,000l. The debt was acquitted out of the produce of the sale of the diamonds.
While on the subject of the will and the jewels, it may not be amiss to mention that the Queen, after wearing her diamonds and other gems on public occasions invariably consigned them to the care of Messrs. Rundell, Bridge & Co., the well-known goldsmiths of Ludgate Hill. The Queen herself put her diamonds into the hands of one of the partners of that house, by whom they were conveyed to the Bank. The only exception to this rule was after the last drawing-room was held by her, when her Majesty was too ill to make her usual consignment, and retired rather hurriedly to Kew. A few days subsequently, the diamonds were placed in the ordinary London guardianship by the Princess Augusta, who carried them up expressly from Kew. The Queen, however, held in her own keeping the ‘George’ and the diamond-hilted sword worn on public occasions by her consort. These were kept in a cabinet at Windsor Castle. Immediately after the Queen’s death this cabinet was examined by the Prince Regent, but neither ‘George’ nor diamond-hilted sword was to be found therein; and the heir was not more astonished than perplexed, for the Queen had left no intimation as to where the valuables were deposited.
The inquiry set on foot was not at first encouraging. Suggestions could only be made that the coveted property might have been deposited by the late Queen in some of the cabinets, which would remain locked until after the royal funeral. Some surmised that George III. himself had stowed them away, and that his heirs might be extremely puzzled to discover the place of deposit. This was considered the more likely, as her Majesty had, on one occasion, missed from her room a gold ewer and basin of exquisite workmanship, enriched with gems. They were missed previous to the last mental indisposition of the King, who professed that he knew nothing whatever about them, but greatly feared that they had been stolen by a confidential servant. His Majesty was strongly suspected of having been himself the thief. Many months after his malady had set in, the ewer and basin were discovered behind some books in his study, to which he alone had access. It is supposed that, having concealed them by excess of caution, he totally forgot the circumstance, through growing infirmity of intellect.