[59] The Public Advertiser, October 1, 1766.
George III. personally superintended the arrangements for his sister’s marriage and journey to Denmark. We find from him the following letter to the Secretary of State:—
“I return you the proposed ceremonial for the espousals of my sister which I entirely approve of. The full power must undoubtedly ex officio be read by you, and the solemn contract by the Archbishop of Canterbury. I desire, therefore, that you will have it copied, only inserting the royal apartments of St. James’s Palace instead of the Chapel Royal, and my brother’s Christian name in those places where it has, I think, evidently been, through the negligence of the copier, omitted where he speaks. As in all other solemn declarations, that is always used as well as the title. The Archbishop should then have it communicated to him, that he may see whether it is conformable to precedents, besides the dignity of his station calls for that mark of regard from me.”[60]
[60] Letter of King George III. to the Right Honourable Henry Seymour Conway, Secretary of State, Queen’s House, September 20, 1766. British Museum, Egerton MS. 82, fol. 20.
On Wednesday, October 1, 1766, between seven and eight o’clock in the evening, the Princess Matilda was married by proxy to the King of Denmark in the council chamber of St. James’s Palace. Her brother, the Duke of York, stood for Christian VII., and the ceremony was performed by the Archbishop of Canterbury in the presence of the King, the Queen, the Princess-Dowager of Wales, and other members of the royal family. A large company of nobility, gentry and foreign ministers were also present. Immediately after the ceremony the Queen of Denmark, as she was called, received the congratulations of the court, but she looked pale and dejected and her eyes were full of unshed tears. The same evening the Queen took formal leave of her brother, George III.
Matilda slept that night at Carlton House, and the next morning at half-past six, in the grey light of a chill October dawn, she said good-bye to her mother, and set out on her long journey. Three coaches were waiting to convey the Queen to Harwich, the road was lined with infantry, and a company of Life Guards was drawn up to escort her as far as Mile End. These preparations caused a small crowd to assemble in Pall Mall. The parting between Matilda and her mother was most affecting. The marriage had been the Princess-Dowager’s pet project, but even she felt a pang when she bade her youngest child farewell and sent her to the keeping of a strange prince in a far-off land. Her farewell present to her daughter was a ring on which the words were engraved, “May it bring thee happiness”. When the young Queen came out of the house to enter her coach it was noticed by the waiting crowd that she was weeping bitterly, and this so affected many of the women and children that they wept in company. The Duke of Gloucester, Baron Bothmar,[61] the Queen’s vice-chamberlain, who had been sent from Denmark to escort her Majesty, and Lady Mary Boothby accompanied Queen Matilda. The Life Guards conducted her as far as Mile End, and were there relieved by a detachment of Light Dragoons who escorted the Queen as far as Lord Abercorn’s house at Witham, where it was arranged that she would dine and sleep the night. Of this stage of her journey it is written: “Her Majesty was dressed in bloom-colour with white flowers. Wherever she passed the earnest prayers of the people were for her health and praying God to protect her from the perils of the sea. An easy melancholy at times seemed to affect her on account of leaving her family and place of birth, but upon the whole she carried an air of serenity and majesty which exceedingly moved every one who beheld her.”[62]
[61] A brother of the Danish envoy at the court of St. James’s.
[62] Public Advertiser, October 5, 1766.
The next morning Matilda set out again, and escorted by another detachment of Light Dragoons reached Harwich soon after four o’clock in the afternoon, but the wind being in the north-east, and the sea rough, it was not thought advisable for her to embark. She therefore went to the house of the collector of customs where she supped and lay the night, and the next morning at half-past eleven went on board the royal yacht with her retinue. Here she took leave of her brother the Duke of Gloucester who returned to London. The wind was still rough and the yacht lay all the morning in the Roads, but towards evening, when the gale had abated, she set sail for the coast of Holland. Matilda came on deck and watched the shores of her native land until the last lights faded from her view.
The evening of her departure, it is interesting to note, the eloquent Nonconformist minister, George Whitefield, preached a sermon at his Tabernacle in London on the marriage of the youthful Queen, and concluded with an impassioned prayer for her future happiness.[63]