The Princess-Dowager was hooted as she drove through the streets of Canterbury on her way to Dover, and so great was her unpopularity that it was rumoured that London would be illuminated in honour of her departure. The Princess, as announced, travelled first to Brunswick, where she was received by her daughter Augusta and the rest of the ducal family with honour and affection. It was arranged that the King and Queen of Denmark, who were then at Traventhal, should also journey to Brunswick and join the family circle. Everything was prepared for their coming, the town was decorated and a programme of festivities drawn up, when suddenly the Grand Marshal of the King of Denmark arrived at Brunswick with the news that the Queen was ill, and unable to travel so far. That Matilda’s illness was feigned there can be little doubt, for she was well enough the next day to go out hunting as usual with Struensee by her side, and in the evening she played cards until midnight. The incident showed how greatly the Queen had changed, for Matilda’s family affections were strong, and under other circumstances she would have been overjoyed at the prospect of meeting her mother after years of separation, and seeing again her favourite sister Augusta. But Struensee knew that the journey of the Princess-Dowager boded no good to his plans, and persuaded the Queen to offer this affront to her mother.
The Princess-Dowager, who had a shrewd idea of the nature of her daughter’s illness, was not to be outwitted in this way, and she proposed a meeting at Lüneburg, a town situated between Celle and Hamburg, in the electorate of Hanover. Lüneburg was much nearer Traventhal than Brunswick, and Matilda could not excuse herself on the ground of the length of the journey. If she made that pretext, the Princess-Dowager proposed to come to Traventhal, where she might have seen more than it was desirable for her to see. So Struensee made the Queen choose what he thought was the lesser evil, and write to her mother that she would meet her at Lüneburg; but he was careful to deprive the visit of every mark of ceremony, and to make it as brief as possible.
The King and Queen of Denmark arrived at Lüneburg late in the evening, attended only by Struensee and Warnstedt, who were seated in the coach with them. Matilda did not bring with her a lady-in-waiting, and one coach only followed with a couple of servants and some luggage. There was no palace at Lüneburg, and the King and Queen lodged for the night in one of the fine Renaissance houses in the main street of the old town. The interview between the Princess-Dowager and her daughter took place that same evening, late though it was. Struensee was present in the room the whole time, though the Princess-Dowager pointedly ignored him. She addressed her daughter in English, of which she knew Struensee was ignorant, but to her anger and surprise Matilda pretended to have forgotten it, and she answered always in German that Struensee might understand. Under these circumstances the conversation was necessarily constrained and formal; the Princess-Dowager did not conceal her displeasure, and retired to bed discomfited.
The next morning at eleven o’clock she sent for her daughter again, and this time succeeded in having a talk with her alone. What passed between them cannot certainly be known, but its import was generally guessed. The Princess-Dowager was said to have told her daughter that the dismissal of Bernstorff would be much regretted by George III., as he had always been a friend of England and its royal family, and it would, moreover, be disastrous to Denmark. Whereupon the Queen haughtily rejoined: “Pray, madam, allow me to govern my kingdom as I please”. The Princess, annoyed by this want of respect, unmasked her batteries forthwith, and roundly scolded her daughter for the extraordinary favours she gave to Struensee. Matilda at first would not listen, but when her mother persisted, and declared that her conduct would end in disgrace and ruin, she retorted with an allusion to the supposed liaison between her mother and Lord Bute, which wounded the Princess past forgiveness. The interview only widened the breach. As a matter of form the King had invited his mother-in-law to Copenhagen, but the invitation was now curtly refused. The Princess saw that she could do no good, and she did not care to countenance by her presence a state of affairs of which she did not approve. The King and Queen of Denmark left Lüneburg in the afternoon, the Princess a few hours later; mother and daughter parted in anger, and they never met again.
Struensee must have felt a great sense of relief when the King of Denmark’s coach rolled out of Lüneburg on the way back to Altona. He had dreaded the meeting between the Queen and her mother, and had striven to prevent it by every means in his power. But when that was no longer possible, he had long and anxious consultations with the Queen, and prompted her how she was to act and what she was to say. Even so he could not be quite sure of the line the Princess-Dowager might take. If she had spoken to her daughter gently, reasoned with her, pleaded with her in love, and appealed to her with tears, she might have had some effect, for Matilda was very warm-hearted and impressionable. But these were not the stern Princess’s methods; she had been accustomed to command her children, and her haughty, overbearing tone and contemptuous reproaches stung the spirited young Queen to the quick, and made her resent what she called her mother’s unjust suspicions and unwarrantable interference. So the result was all that Struensee wished. Woodford, who had been commanded by George III. to attend the Princess-Dowager during her stay in Lüneburg, writes in a despatch of “the agitation that was visible in Mr. Struensee upon his arrival first at Lüneburg, and the joy that could be seen in his countenance as the moment of departure approached”.[134]
[134] Woodford’s despatch to Lord Rochford, marked “private,” Hamburg, August 21, 1770.
Struensee now felt that the time was ripe for him to come forward as the exponent of a new foreign policy for Denmark, and as the reformer of internal abuses. He was no longer the doctor, but the councillor and adviser of the Crown. He had flouted Russia and prevailed against the influence of England. What power was there to withstand him?