QUEEN AND NO QUEEN

Evening Star, Issue 20634, 6 November 1930, Page 6

QUEEN AND NO QUEEN

UNHAPPY CAROLINE OF BRUNSWICK Poor Caroline of Brunswick! And yet the epithet hardly seems to lit the courageous woman who was loved by the people and hated by her infamous husband; it was almost a compliment to he hated by George, Prince of Wales, Prince Regent and George IV, At any rate she was unfortunate (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.’ “ ! 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.” A MARRIAGE FOR MONEY. 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 Airs 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, uncourtier-like, she made fun of his fatness, which may have partly accounted lor his insane hatred of her. For his hatred was insane. Ho 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 uncliastity about her. These witnesses completely broke down in cross-examination when the Bill of Pains and Penalties—miscalled the. trial of Caroline —came before the House of Lords—and was dropped. INDISCRETION AND KINDNESS. 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 she 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 Kcgcn't became King, Caroline returned to England to claim her place as Queen. Ho would neither see her nor admit her in the coronation ceremonies. Even when she died, weary and content to leave the world, at the ago of fiftythree, ho must needs harry her body on its way to the coast for transmission to her native soil for burial. He jvas