William, Duke of Clarence, also William IV, King of Britain and Ireland (1765–1837): A midshipman in the navy at the age of thirteen, the Duke of Clarence eventually became in turn rear admiral, vice admiral, admiral and finally, in 1811, admiral of the fleet. Like many of his brothers he was terrible with money and his private life was not exemplary, although he was devoted to his mistress, the actress Mrs Jordan, with whom he had ten illegitimate children known as the FitzClarences. She died in 1816 and, after Princess Charlotte’s death in 1817, the Duke joined the rush to provide a new heir to the throne, marrying Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen in 1818 in a childless but happy union. Known as the ‘Royal Tar’ and ‘old Tarry Breeks’, the Duke was often vulgar, thought nothing of talking aloud during church and swore like a trooper, but he was also affable and unpretentious and generally well-liked. In 1830 he became King William IV, the ‘sailor king’, and in many respects proved to be a surprisingly able monarch.
Edward, Duke of Kent (1767–1820): Like his brother Frederick, the Duke of Kent also went into the army but proved so pedantic that he caused a mutiny in Gibraltar. He was recalled from the post and promoted to field marshal. After Princess Charlotte’s death he ended relations with his mistress of twenty-seven years, Madame St Laurent, and married Victoria of Saxe-Coburg with whom, in 1819, he fathered the new heir to the throne, Princess Victoria.
Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland (1771–1851): Trained in the Hanoverian army, the Duke of Cumberland saw much active service and eventually transferred to the British army where he became a field marshal. A brave and able commander, he lost an eye during a battle in 1794 which did not help to endear him to a public already inclined to dislike him. His popularity in Britain was not helped by rumours that he had murdered his valet and fathered a child on his sister Sophia. In 1837 he became King of Hanover by right of heredity and enjoyed popular support in that kingdom until the end of his life.
Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex (1773–1843): More interested in books and music than most of his siblings, Sussex was a placid individual, though a staunch liberal and a kind uncle. When his niece, Princess Charlotte, fled from Carlton House to her mother’s residence at Connaught Place, after refusing to marry the Prince of Orange, Sussex responded immediately to her cry for help and played a conciliating and supportive role in resolving the issue.
Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge (1774–1850): The youngest of seven sons, Cambridge was also in the military, though with a less colourful career than any of his brothers. Conservative in both his domestic life and his politics, unlike his brothers, Cambridge was restrained in his spending and eschewed keeping a mistress. He did, however, scramble to marry and produce an heir after the death of Princess Charlotte, marrying Princess Augusta of Hesse-Cassell with whom he had two daughters and a son.
Octavius (1779–1783): His father, George III, said of him, ‘There will be no heaven for me if Octavius is not there.’ Died in infancy.
Alfred (1780–1782): He died in infancy.
Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg (1790–1865): Leopold first came to England in 1814 as part of the Russian royal entourage visiting for the Peace Celebrations. A younger son of Prince Francis of Saxe-Coburg, he was a pleasant, serious and handsome man whose lack of fortune did not initially recommend him to the Regent as a suitable husband for his daughter Charlotte. The couple were married in 1816, however, and Leopold was devastated by Charlotte’s death the following year. He remained in England for many years but in 1831 was elected King of Belgium. He eventually married Marie-Louise of Orléans, daughter of Louis Philippe of France.
Princess Charlotte and Prince Leopold.
Charlotte Augusta Matilda, the Princess Royal (1766–1828): Known in the family as the Princess Royal (to avoid confusion with her mother from whom she took her name), Princess Charlotte was a shy, quiet woman who endured a constricted childhood in the strait-laced royal household dominated by her dictatorial mother and conservative father. Neither of her parents encouraged her to marry and denied her the opportunity to do so, despite offers from scions of several royal houses. Eventually in 1797, after much delay, she was finally allowed to wed the Prince of Württemberg.
Princess Augusta Sophia (1768–1840): Princess Augusta was a lively and engaging child who captured the affections of those who knew her. She suffered from her parents’ repressive attitudes, however, and her hopes for marriage and an independent life were blighted when she fell in love with an English army officer. They never married but maintained a relationship until her lover’s death in 1828.
Princess Elizabeth (1770–1840): Known to her sisters as ‘Fatima’ because of her liking for food, Princess Elizabeth was a plump, spirited young woman who was often ill as a child and probably suffered from a milder form of the family malady. She wanted to be married, but a promising relationship with Louis Philippe, the exiled eldest son of the Duke of Orléans was thwarted by the Queen. She eventually married Frederick, Prince of Hesse-Homburg, established a new home in Europe and lived happily ever after with ‘her Fritz’.
Princess Mary (1776–1857): Generally held to be the beauty of the family and known as ‘dearest Minny’, Princess Mary was a much-loved and caring sister. She was a comfort to her mother which may have been why, of all the royal sisters, Mary gained the Queen’s approval of her marriage to her cousin William Frederick, Duke of Gloucester (illegitimate son of George III’s brother). Mary was the longest-lived of George III’s children; she attended the Great Exhibition of 1851, knew all of Queen Victoria’s offspring, and died at the age of eighty.
Princess Sophia (1777–1848): Another of the royal sisters to suffer from the family malady was Princess Sophia. Intelligent and beautiful, she never married. Sophia suffered bouts of ill health and depression throughout her life yet, although she was disliked by her mother, her sweet disposition made her the favourite of many.
Princess Amelia (1783–1810): The youngest of fifteen, Princess Amelia was born after her brothers Octavius and Alfred, both of whom died in infancy. Loved by everyone, she was her father’s favourite and her death in 1810 was believed to have contributed to the King’s final descent into madness.
INFLUENTIAL WOMEN
Jane Austen (1775–1817): An English novelist, Austen was born in Steventon, Hampshire, the second youngest of seven siblings. Her father was rector at Steventon where they lived until she was twenty-five after which the family moved to Bath and then Chawton. Austen began writing as a child and developed a keen eye for human foibles and the vagaries of English class and society. Her incisive and witty novels about ordinary people have made her one of the world’s best-known authors. Four of her six novels were published anonymously before her death in 1817 and the last two appeared posthumously in 1818. Austen died in her sister Cassandra’s arms in Winchester on 18 July 1817.
Jane Austen.
Frances (Fanny) Burney, Madame D’Arblay (1752–1840): English novelist and dramatist Fanny Burney’s first novel, Evelina, was published anonymously in 1778. Her father was a music historian and composer whose ambitions caused him to press his daughter to accept a position in the royal household where she served as second keeper of the robes to Queen Charlotte until ill health forced her to retire. In 1793 she married a French refugee, General D’Arblay, and travelled with him to France. The D’Arblays were interned by Napoleon from 1802 to 1812 and were in Brussels during the Battle of Waterloo, accounts of which may be read in her well-known Diaries. Madame D’Arblay spent some time in Bath where Fanny, Lady Spenborough, encountered her buying ribbons in a shop in Gay Street in Bath Tangle.
Fanny Burney.
Mary Anne Clarke (1776–1852): Beautiful and determined, Mary Anne Clarke was the daughter of a London stonemason and became mistress to the Duke of York. He established her in a house in Gloucester Place but also made available a second house at Weybridge—not far from Oatlands where he spent weekends with his wife. The cost of keeping up two households far exceeded her annual £1,000 allowance s
o Mary began selling army commissions on the side. An untimely end to the affair prompted her to reveal her activities to the Whig opposition and the ensuing public inquiry forced the Duke, in his role as Commander-in-Chief of the army, to resign. An attempt by Mary to capitalise on the scandal with a ‘tell all’ book entitled The Rival Princes was mildly successful.
Maria Edgeworth (1767–1849): She came to fame with the publication of her novel of Irish life, Castle Rackrent, published in 1800. Her work influenced Walter Scott, with whom she corresponded, and was also acknowledged by Jane Austen in Northanger Abbey. She wrote a number of other novels and children’s stories and was adept in her portrayal of Ireland’s people and places.
Margaret Mercer Elphinstone, Viscountess Keith, Countess de Flahault (1788–1867): Close friend and confidante of the heir apparent, Princess Charlotte, Mercer Elphinstone was the only child of one of Nelson’s superiors, Admiral Keith. Eight years older than the princess, Mercer supported and advised her by visiting and corresponding over several years. The two women shared similar political views and after 1811 the Prince Regent was inclined to disapprove of Mercer’s influence on his daughter. Mercer was one of a handful of people summoned by Charlotte to aid her after she had run away to her mother’s home in 1814. She also acted as an intermediary in the Princess’s relationship with Prince Leopold. Mercer also corresponded with Lord Byron and in 1814 he gave her his famous Albanian costume. Lady Lynton in A Civil Contract scored a great hit when Miss Elphinstone attended her rout party just after Princess Charlotte had run away.
Mrs Fitzherbert, Maria Anne Fitzherbert née Smythe (1756–1837): Already twice widowed when she met the Prince of Wales in 1784, Maria Fitzherbert was a charming, graceful woman with golden hair, a good figure and a comfortable income; she was also a devout Catholic. The Prince became enamoured of her and in 1785 overcame her resistance and married her—an illegal act which contravened both the Act of Succession (forbidding marriage to a Catholic) and the Royal Marriage Act (royal offspring under twenty-five needed the monarch’s permission to marry). For several years Mrs Fitzherbert was treated in many respects as the Prince’s lawful wife but by 1793 he had become involved with the acerbic and ambitious Lady Jersey and by 1794 his debts were so great that he began casting about for a lawful bride acceptable to the parliament who would increase the annual amount paid to the Prince in the event of such a marriage. Perhaps because of her faith, or because she loved him, Mrs Fitzherbert quietly stood aside when her Prince married Caroline of Brunswick and took him back again after the mismatched couple separated. The relationship lasted until 1806 when the Prince turned his attention to Lady Hertford. Mrs Fitzherbert eventually withdrew from his life, living quietly in London and Brighton, where a statue of her wearing three wedding rings (one for each husband) was erected after her death in 1837. In Regency Buck Mrs Scattergood expressed the opinion of many in the period when she said that she had always felt Mrs Fitzherbert to be the Prince’s ‘true wife’.
Mrs Fitzherbert.
Isabella Anne Ingram Shepherd, Marchioness of Hertford (1760–1836): One of the Prince’s most enduring mistresses, Lady Hertford began her relationship with the heir to the throne in 1807 when she was forty-six and he was still Prince of Wales. The affair continued until 1819 when he transferred his affections to Elizabeth, Countess Conyngham. Lady Hertford was a tall, elegant and attractive woman, whose husband was a wealthy Tory peer. She was disliked by some among the ton, including Mrs Dauntry in Frederica who thought her an ‘odious woman’ and worried that in the event of Queen Charlotte’s death the Regent might allow his mistress to play host at the Drawing-rooms. The Regent was also good friends with Lady Hertford’s rake-hell son, Lord Yarmouth.
Lady Jersey, Frances, 4th Countess of Jersey (1753–1821): Frances, Lady Jersey was forty-one and a grandmother when she became the Prince of Wales’s mistress. She was a friend of his mother’s and had known him for years. An attractive, clever woman with an acerbic tongue and ambitions of acquiring royal influence, she deliberately set out to capture the Prince and ruthlessly encouraged him to cast off his morganatic wife, Maria Fitzherbert, in favour of herself. In 1794 she actively encouraged him to marry his unsuitable bride, Caroline of Brunswick—ostensibly to cement her own position as his mistress but also to negate Mrs Fitzherbert’s claim to be his lawful wife. In 1796, after the birth of his daughter, the Prince tired of Lady Jersey and ended the relationship.
Mrs Jordan, Dorothea Jordan née Bland (1762–1816): A successful actress for almost thirty years, Mrs Jordan often appeared at Drury Lane theatre to great acclaim and was best known for her feisty comic roles. In 1790 she met the Duke of Clarence (later William IV) and became his mistress. Their relationship endured for over twenty years and they had ten children together, collectively known as the FitzClarences.
Lady Caroline Lamb.
Lady Caroline Lamb (1785–1828): Born Lady Caroline Ponsonby, daughter of the Earl of Bessborough, she married William Lamb in 1805. A tempestuous, highly strung and impulsive young woman, Caro Lamb may have been as much a victim of her social context as of her own over-emotional personality. Both her mother and her aunt had affairs (although very discreetly) and she grew up with illegitimate half-sisters and cousins. Her own affairs were wildly indiscreet and in 1812 she developed a grand passion for Lord Byron, whom she famously described as ‘mad, bad and dangerous to know’. Caroline could be fascinating but the affair lasted less than a year as Byron became disenchanted with her demanding, histrionic behaviour (not altogether unlike his own). Socially damaged as a result of the liaison, she was totally ostracised when, in 1816, she published a romantic novel, Glenarvon, in which she had caricaturised several of society’s elite.
Ann Radcliffe (1764–1823): Generally considered one of the originators of the Gothic novel, Ann Radcliffe became famous for her tales with a supernatural element. Her first book, Romance of the Forest (1791), brought her wide acclaim but it was The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) that established her as a popular writer. She was widely admired by contemporary authors and her work influenced the writings of both Percy Shelley and Byron. It was books like Mrs Radcliffe’s which provided the material for Amanda’s extraordinary stories in Sprig Muslin.
Clara Reeve (1729–1807): Following in the footsteps of Horace Walpole and his famous Gothic novel The Castle of Otranto, Clara Reeve won renown for her 1777 book The Champion of Virtue, a Gothic Story, later renamed The Old English Baron. She also gained acclaim for her enduring study of the evolution of writing from epic to romance to novel in The Progress of Romance.
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797): An early feminist thinker and writer, Mary Wollstonecraft worked as a teacher, translator and literary advisor before publishing two landmark texts: Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (1787) and Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792). In 1792 she went to Paris and met Gilbert Imlay, an American businessman with whom she had a daughter (and who Drusilla Morville in The Quiet Gentleman thought she would have liked better than Mr Godwin). They were never married but his infidelities led her to two suicide attempts. The couple gradually moved apart and in 1796 Mary again met William Godwin and they became lovers. They married in 1797 after Mary became pregnant and she died ten days after giving birth to a daughter who would as Mary Shelley, one day, write Frankenstein.
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797–1851): Mary Shelley was best known for her novel Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (1818), written in response to a challenge laid down by Lord Byron at a congenial gathering of literary friends during a summer at Lake Geneva. The daughter of the feminist author Mary Wollstonecraft and the writer William Godwin, Mary eloped with the poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley, in 1814, and married him after his first wife’s suicide in 1816.
INFLUENTIAL MEN
Lord Amherst, William Pitt 1st Earl of Amherst (1773–1857): Pitt was a diplomat and in 1816 embarked on a diplomatic mission to China. Meg’s husband Lord Buckhaven accompanied him there in Cotillion. The
mission was not a success but in 1823 Lord Amherst was appointed governor-general of India.
Henry Peter Brougham, later 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux (1778–1868): A noted intellectual and lawyer, in 1802 Brougham helped to found the Edinburgh Review making regular contributions which helped to establish the journal as one of the foremost political periodicals of the nineteenth century. In 1810 he entered parliament as a liberal Whig with a concern for reform, and spoke out against slavery and in favour of public education and legal reform.
Lord Byron.
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (1788–1824): Educated at Harrow and Cambridge, Byron received poor reviews for his early work. He travelled extensively in southern Europe, enjoyed a dissipated life, and returned to England with ample new material for his verses. In 1812 he gained overnight fame with the publication of the first two cantos of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. Dark and handsome, fêted and adored by upper-class society, he became the model for the ‘Byronic hero’. In 1815 he married the heiress Annabella Milbanke, from whom he separated the following year. His earlier affair with Lady Caroline Lamb, his rakish lifestyle and rumours of a liaison with his half-sister, Augusta Leigh, eventually saw society turn against him, prompting Byron to leave England, never to return. He died at Missolonghi in Greece.
Lord Castlereagh.
Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh (1769–1822): Elected to the Westminster parliament in 1794, Castlereagh became a brilliant war minister who consistently supported the British campaign against Napoleon. He appointed Wellesley (later the Duke of Wellington) to command the army and in 1812 became foreign secretary and leader of the House of Commons. He was married to Lady Castlereagh, one of the patronesses of Almack’s.