UNHAPPY CAROLINE

Evening Post, Issue 113, 10 November 1930, Page 13

UNHAPPY CAROLINE

'a queen yet not a queen

Poor Caroline of Brunswick! And yet the epithet hardly seeuis to fit the courageous woman who was loved by the people and hated by her infamous husband; it was almost a compliment to be hated by George, Prince of 'Wales, Prince Kegent and George IV. At any rate she was unfortunates (says "John o' London's Weekly")Her story is clearly told, with unfailing interest and just .sufficient detail, by his Honour Sir Edward Parry in "Queen Caroline." "I set out," says the author, "to draw a portrait of Caroline the woman rather than to discuss the political history in which her life was entangled"; but, he adds, "you can never get away from the foulness of political conspiracies." The Prince married Caroline, to put it crudely, for her money; her fortune would pay off a few of his debts. The fact that he was already married to Mrs. Fitzherbert did not deter him. When she was "formally introduced to her future husband" he embraced her and abruptly strode away. Caroline, an observant young woman, saw that he had been drinking, and she also saw that he was fat. It is quite probable that, un-courtier-like, she made fuu. of his fatness, which may have partly accounted for his insane hatred of her. For his hatred was insane. He refused to live with her, he tried to take her child from her, and when she left England to escape from his persecution he paid, at the public expense, a disreputable horde of spies to invent disgusting stories of unchastity about her. These witnesses completely broke down in crossexamination when the Bill of Pains and Penalties —miscalled the trial of Caroline came before the House of Lords —and was dropped. KBFUSBD ADMITTANCE. No doubt Caroline was a little indiscreet; she was not like her husband's tame mistresses; she could fight with dignity and tenacity. And she was not altogether dignified in her private life; she was fond of romps and impromptu dances; she over-dressed —or underdressed —and sho painted and powdered too lavishly. She was also charitable, and given to good, works. It was stated against her, on the authority of _ the perjured Lady Douglas, that a little boy whom she had adopted and educated, with other children at Greenwich was her child; this was conclusively disproved. When the Prince Regent became King, Caroline returned to England to claim her place as Queen. He would neither sec her nor admit her to the coronation ceremonies. Even when sho died, weary and content to leave the world, at the age of fiftythree, lie must needs harry her body on its way to the coast for transmission to her native soil for burial. He was afraid of demonstrations against himself if the hearse passed through the city; but in spite of. his efforts to prevent it tiae crowd had its way. Judge Parry, like Brougham who defended the Queens before the House of Lords, seems to have begun his investigations with a slight suspicion that she might not have been entirely innocent, but ended them with the conviction that she was. ,