TWO PLUMP HANOVERIANS

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32524, 6 February 1971, Page 10

TWO PLUMP HANOVERIANS

Poor Fred and the Butcher. By Morris Marples. Michael Joseph. 231 pp. Bibliography, Index. Morris Marples has followed up his fascinating study of the daughters of King George 111 (“Six Royal Sisters”) with an equally absorbing one of their grandfather, Frederick, Prince of Wales, and their great-uncle, William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland. Propaganda which was a notable vehicle both for sycophancy and vilification in the eighteenth century has always played a part in obscuring historical data, but Mr Marples has succeeded in drawing two credible pottraits of his subjects though the one of Cumberland—that very controversial figure—is touched here and there by personal predilection. King George n had always been at loggerheads with his father who had repressed him in every possible way, and his own dealings with his son and heir followed a similar pattern. From the age of seven until he was 21 Fredenck was brought up in Hanover, largely by servants, and was never allowed to visit the country he would ultimately be expected to rule. His epitaph, when he died at the age of 44 (preceding his father’s demise by nearly ten years) conjures up a vision of complete futility—“ Poor Fred who was alive is dead. There is no more to be said.” And because his mother. Queen Caroline had taken against him as much as his father had done it must be concluded 200 years later that there was something unlovable about him. Yet, in this study of his life he is shown to have made some half-hearted attempts to bridge the gap that yawned so widely between him and his family, though there is evidence enough of his irritating qualities. He was vain, frivolous, and extravagant, with a love of low company which may well have stemmed from his upbringing. His marriage to Princess Augusta of Saxe Coburg did not improve matters as his unpopularity with his family rubbed off on to her, and she soon became embroiled in the unedifying squabbles which bedevilled the domestic lives of them all. The birth of a son—afterwards King George lll—which secured the succession did nothing to abate the situation, and the fea<* that Frederick might try to stage a coup d'etat and seize the throne was ever present in his father's mind. Yet “Poor Fred” was the first of the Hanoverians to try to instil in his son a patriotic love of his English heritage. George 111 on his accession bore witness to this training by saying “I glory in the name of Britain.” George Il's younger son suffered none of the frustrations of his elder brother. His father loved him and engaged able tutors to carry out his education, at the same time encouraging the boy's military ambitions. Himself the last British monarch to lead his troops in battle (Dettingen 1743) George II was happy to bestow rapid promotion in the army on his intrepid son. There is plenty of evidence to show

that Cumberland was a good soldier, yet his only victory in battle (at Culloden) was to heap discredit on his head. In his European campaigns he was always at a disadvantage by having to command a mixed force (which did not hesitate to disobey his commands) and was defeated at Fontenoy, and some years later at Lauffeld by the redoubtable French general Marshal Saxe. Among his own men, to whom he was generous and sympathetic, he was deservedly popular, though a strict disciplinarian, who could remorselessly enforce the cruel punishments in vogue at the time. In his campaign against the Scots in 1746 he acquired the name of "Butcher,” but the author refutes this allegation, attributing the excesses of the British troops in hunting down fugitives after Culloden to the genuinely brutal General Hawley who was entrusted with the task. During the closing years of a short life (like his brother he died at the age of 44) Cumberland became enormously fat, and retired more and more into sedentary pursuit; though as Ranger of Windsor Forest he took his duty seriously, and employed a large number of necessitous old soldiers in constructing Virginia Water, and in improving his own residence, Cumberland Lodge in Windsor Great Park. "The sullen Hanoverian" as his enemies called him after the Culloden tragedy was in fact an amiable enough character, and the author gives him credit for his virtues while admitting his failings. The book is evocative of an age in which the ruling house in Britain was gradually shedding the Hanoverian tradition of coldness and rigidity. It is well illustrated. An African city City Politics: A Study of Leopoldville 1962-3. By J. S. La Fontaine. Cambridge University Press. 247 pp. Politics is the activity of the elite who seek power. The political elite is a class of powerful men in their early maturity who have wealth and some education and who are linked together by multiple ties and divorced from the masses by background and success. This is the main- conclusion drawn from a detailed study of political leadership in the city of Kinshasa, formerly Leopoldville, capital of the Congo, in the years immediately following independence. The political party represented a mobilisation of the leader’s support and having demonstrated its existence he could allow it to revert to potential rather than actual show. At the time of the study, no one political party dominated Parliament and the Prime Minister’s government was one of individuals. In 1962 Leopoldville was not merely the centre of national politics, it was a city in a state of crisis. There was soaring inflation, seething unrest and serious over-crowding as people poured in from the interior. Yet there was a working system of social relations which survived the upheaval and showed no evidence of any basic dislocation. The author believes that the demand for social and political change there will come from movements of youth. In the towns and countryside there are growing numbers of young men leaving school with no occupation and no employment prospects but with a desire to make their way in the world and acquire the material possessions of a modem way of life. Students returning from abroad can be expected to provide the leadership for a radical political movement. There have been many changes since this study was made. Leopoldville is now Kinshasa, General Mobutu has reestablished the Congo as an independent national force in African and international affairs and economic revival has calmed the turmoil of the immediate post-independence years. “City Politics” not only represents Leopoldville as it was at one point of time in its turbulent recent history, but also describes some of the more enduring features of life in an African city.