[166]. “The Duchess of Oldenburg is spoken of as a very clever woman, and I am inclined to believe the truth of the report, by the observation she seems to take, not only of our places of entertainment, but of everything best worth seeing in this country. I understand she is a great favourite of Princess Charlotte, and gives her (as it is supposed) excellent advice about her conduct.”—Lady C. Campbell’s Diary, vol. i.
[167]. On the 20th of April, 1814.
[168]. Count Woronzow died in England on the 18th June, 1832. His daughter married the Earl of Pembroke, and was the mother of Lord Herbert of Lea. The Count left one son, whose name, as Prince Woronzow, became familiar to English ears during the Crimean war.
[169]. April 20th.
[170]. “Judge of the transport with which I seize my pen to apprise you that my daughter has acted with the greatest firmness, promptitude, and energy of character possible in the very intricate business concerning her marriage. She has manœuvred and conquered the Regent so completely, that there can be no more doubt that the marriage is broke off. The Prince Hereditary of Orange was secretly sent for by the Regent, and arrived under the feigned name of Captain St. George. Under that same name he presented himself next day at Warwick House early in the morning. She was in bed, and had not expected him in this country; Miss Knight received him. She had afterwards a long conversation with him, in which she showed him every letter that had passed between her father and her upon that subject. She then declared to him that she never would leave this country, except by an Act of Parliament, and by her own especial desire. She then desired that he might retire, and that she would not see him again till these matters were settled. Two days after he came again and brought a message from the Regent, in which he proposed to her that he would forgive and forget everything, and that she should immediately come to him, and that everything should be arranged in the most amicable manner. She declared that she would not see her father, or any of the family, till their consent to her remaining in this country had been obtained, or that otherwise the marriage would be broke off. She has received no answer since the course of a week from her father, and she supposes that the papers have been sent to Holland, to make the family there also a party concerned in a new political question for the future happiness of England. It has, in my opinion, nothing at all to do with the Dutch family. The Duchess of Oldenburg, I believe, is her chief adviser, and as she is a clever woman, and knows the world and mankind well, my daughter cannot be in better hands.”—Extract of Letter from the Princess of Wales in Lady C. Campbell’s Diary, vol. i. See Appendix.
[171]. “We are now fitting up the Duke of Cumberland’s house, to receive Alexander (Emperor of Russia) in, because we have none of our own. And in the mean time our future son-in-law lodges at his tailor’s! because he has neither house nor hotel to put his head in; and though we drink his health occasionally with three cheers, and twice as many speeches, we do not love him well enough to give him a good bed anywhere.”—Extract of Letter from Lord Granville to the Marquis of Buckingham, dated “Camelford House, May 9, 1814.” Memoirs of the Regency, vol. i.
[172]. There was precedent for this—see following extract from preamble of the statute 1 Mary, sess. 3, chap. 2, relating to the proposed marriage of Philip and Mary: “That the said Lord Prince shall not lead away the foresaid most Noble Lady out of the borders of her Highness’s realme, unless she herself desire it, nor carry the children that shall be borne of his matrimony out of the same realme of England; but to the hope of succession to come, shall there suffer them to be nourished and brought up, unless it shall be otherwise thought good by the consent and agreement of the nobilitie of England.”
[173]. “While every one in the three kingdoms was under the influence of excitement, it was not to be expected that her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales would remain unmoved. The Queen was about holding two Drawing-rooms, and as the Prince Regent intended to be present, his Royal Highness had requested her Majesty to intimate to the Princess of Wales his determination not to meet her, either in public or in private. The Queen was thus placed under the painful necessity of intimating to her Royal Highness that she could not be received at her Drawing-rooms. This was quite sufficient provocation for the inflammable nature of the Princess, and the following day her Royal Highness addressed the Queen at considerable length, apparently acceding to the prohibition, but threatening to appeal to the public. Her Majesty answered with characteristic dignity, which elicited a rejoinder from her angry daughter-in-law, which produced only a simple acknowledgment from the Queen. She then addressed herself to the Prince Regent, referring, as usual, to the declaration of her entire innocence by the Government in 1807, and giving him to understand that they must meet at the approaching marriage of their daughter, and at their coronation; adding, that the prohibition was rendered intolerable, in consequence of the distinguished visitors then flocking into the country; one of whom, the illustrious heir of the House of Orange, had ‘announced himself to me as my future son-in-law.’”—The Duke of Buckingham’s Memoirs of the Regency vol. ii.
Mr. Methuen, on the 4th of June, proposed in the House of Commons “that an humble address be presented to the Prince Regent, praying that he would be graciously pleased to acquaint the House by whose advice he had been induced to form the unalterable resolution of never meeting her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales, on any occasion, either in public or private.” After a brief and unimportant discussion, the motion was withdrawn.
[174]. “Her Royal Highness the Princess Charlotte arrived a few minutes after one o’clock, accompanied by Miss Knight, in an elegant and particularly neat and light state carriage, with three footmen and the coachman in new state liveries. She was received by the Duchess of Leeds and the dresser, who had previously arrived in her plain carriage, to attend her Royal Highness in dressing in a court dress for the first time, yesterday being her Royal Highness’s first appearance at a public Drawing-room. At the close of the Drawing-room, on her Royal Highness leaving the Palace, the Prince of Orange handed her Royal Highness to her carriage.”—Morning Chronicle, June 3, 1814.