by Lucy Worsley
Caroline’s death also meant that no one at court had any further use for Peter the Wild Boy, so he was honourably retired to the country farm in Hertfordshire where Bedchamber Woman Mrs Titchborne had been accustomed to spend her summer holidays.150 The year 1735 had seen the death of his tutor, Dr Arbuthnot, who’d remained to the end ‘unalterable, both in friendship and quadrille’, and who was sincerely missed by his buddies for ‘the excellence of his heart’.151 But nobody at court much missed the ‘merry Doctor with his Wild Pupil’ in the face of their greater loss.152
Sir Robert Walpole was also left ‘in the utmost distress’ by Caroline’s death.153 And he may have the final thought on its cataclysmic significance.
‘Oh! my Lord,’ he exclaimed,
what a scene of confusion there will be! Who can tell into what hands the King will fall? Or who will have the management of him? I defy the ablest person in the kingdom to foresee what will be the consequence of this great event.154
Notes
1. Jonathan Swift, ‘Directions for making a BIRTH-DAY SONG, Written in the Year 1729’, in The Beauties of Swift: or, the favourite offspring of wit & genius (London, 1782), p. 211.
2. Pöllnitz (1739), Vol. 2, p. 435; Colvin (1976), p. 244.
3. HMC Egmont, Vol. 2 (1923), p. 325.
4. Sir John Soane’s Museum, Vol. 147/192–198; Marschner (2007), p. 271.
5. Ross (2006), p. 269 (John Arbuthnot to Jonathan Swift, 5 November 1726);Hervey (1894), Vol. 3, p. 37; Cowper (1864), p. 13.
6. Ilchester (1950), p. 269.
7. Quoted in Smith (2006), p. 36; Hastings Wheler (1935), p. 152, Lady Catherine Jones (24 December 1737).
8. HMC Egmont, Vol. 2 (1923), p. 446.
9. Clarke (1738), p. 25.
10. Hervey (1931), Vol. 2, pp. 372–3.
11. TNA SP 36/111, Ryder to Newcastle (16 October 1749).
12. Hervey (1931), Vol. 2, p. 485.
13. Ibid., Vol. 3, pp. 656–7.
14. Ibid., Vol. 2, pp. 372–3.
15. BL Add MS 22227, f. 157, Peter Wentworth to his brother (10 December 1734).
16. HMC Egmont, Vol. 2 (1923), p. 442.
17. Hervey (1931), Vol. 2, pp. 373, 374.
18. William Byrd, ‘A discourse concerning the plague’, in Maude H. Woodfin (Ed.), Another Secret Diary of William Byrd of Westover, 1739–1741, with letters and literary exercises 1696–1726 (Richmond, Virginia, 1942), p. 430.
19. Grundy (1999), pp. 99–100.
20. Coxe (1798b), Vol. 1, p. 274.
21. Woodfin (1942), p. 429.
22. Smith (2006), pp. 93–4.
23. Brice’s Weekly Journal (8 April 1726), p. 3.
24. Grundy (1999), p. 218.
25. E. F. D. Osborn (Ed.), Political and Social Letters of a Lady of the Eighteenth-Century (London, 1890), p. 25 (the ‘Lady’ is Sarah Osborn, née Byng).
26. Kroll (1998), p. 260.
27. Osborn (1890), p. 25.
28. BL Sloane MS 4076, f. 99r.
29. William Wagstaffe, A Letter To Dr Freind, Shewing The Danger and Uncertainty of Inoculating the Small Pox (London, 1722), pp. 5–6.
30. Grundy (1999), p. 217.
31. Adrian Wilson, ‘The Politics of Medical Improvement in Early Hanoverian London’, in Andrew Cunningham and Roger French (Eds), The Medical Enlightenment of the Eighteenth-Century (Cambridge, 1990), pp. 4–39.
32. Andrew Stone to the elder Horace Walpole (11 November 1737), quoted in John Heneage Jesse, Memoirs of the Court of England (London, 1843), Vol. 3, p. 105.
33. HMC Egmont, Vol. 2 (1923), p. 443.
34. BL Add MS 7075, f. 1v (7 January 1706).
35. TNA SP 81/162, f. 258r, Howe to Harley (Hanover, 1/5 February 1707).
36. Preussisches Staatsarchiv, Hanover, MS Y. 46c, XI, ff. 114–5, quoted in Arkell (1939), p. 46.
37. BL Add MS 61463, f. 88v, Mary Cowper to Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, Hampton Court (20 August 1716); BL MS Lansdowne 1013, f. 203, Dr White Kennet to Rev. Samuel Blackwell (9 November 1716).
38. BL Add 78465, f. 79v, Mrs Boscawen to Lady Evelyn (8 November 1716).
39. Cowper (1864), p. 126; Friedrich-Wilhelm Schaer (Ed.), Briefe der Gräfin Johanna Sophie zu Schaumburg-Lippe (Rinteln, 1968), pp. 46–8.
40. BL MS Lansdowne 1013, f. 203, Dr White Kennet to Rev. Samuel Blackwell (9 November 1716).
41. Cowper (1864), p. 127; BL Add 78465, f. 79v, Mrs Boscawen to Lady Evelyn (8 November 1716).
42. Cowper (1864), p. 127.
43. Kroll (1998), p. 201 (1 December 1716).
44. The London Gazette No. 5587 (5 November 1717).
45. Thomson (1847), p. 333, Countess Cowper to Mrs Clayton (undated but about the time that the Duke of Cumberland was born).
46. BL Add MS 20102, f. 24, Lady Carteret to Mrs Clayton (19 December 1724).
47. Ilchester (1950), p. 257.
48. RA GEO/ADD 17/75/85 (1733); Marschner (1997), p. 31
49. Medical information kindly provided by Dr Randle McRoberts.
50. HMC Egmont, Vol. 2 (1923), p. 443
51. Walpole, Reminiscences (1818 edn), pp. 89, 90.
52. Duchess of Marlborough to the second Earl of Stair (1 December 1737), quoted in Cunningham (1857), Vol. 1, p. cxlviii.
53. Hervey (1931), Vol. 3, p. 890.
54. Wraxall (1904), p. 257.
55. Sir Robert Walpole to his brother Horace Walpole (15 November 1737), quoted in Jesse (1843), Vol. 3, pp. 106–7.
56. Saussure (1902), p. 46.
57. Ilchester (1950), p. 182.
58. HMC Egmont, Vol. 2 (1923), p. 319.
59. Burford (1988), p. 42.
60. Pottle (1950), p. 227.
61. Hervey (1931), Vol. 3, p. 891.
62. Franklin (1993), p. 95.
63. Hervey (1931), Vol. 2, p. 490.
64. Nicolas Venette, Conjugal Love Reveal’d (seventh, English edn of 1720), pp. 161,118.a letter
from Mrs Selwyn to Mrs Lowther
65. Anon., The Ladies Physical Directory (‘the eighth edition, with some very material additions’, London, 1742), p. 70.
66. Harvey (1994; 2001), pp. 40–1.
67. ‘Prostitution’ in The Westminster and Foreign Quarterly Review, Vol. 53 (April–July 1850), p. 457.
68. Thomas Laqueur, Making Sex, Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud (Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, 1990).
69. Hervey (1931), Vol. 2, p. 609.
70. Verney (1930), Vol. 2, p. 129 (10 August 1738).
71. HMC Egmont, Vol. 2 (1923), pp. 424, 299.
72. Hervey (1931), Vol. 2, pp. 457, 502, 503.
73. BL Add MS 23728, f. 15, Countess of Hertford to Lady Luxborough (8 November 1745).
74. Coxe (1798b), Vol. 1, p. 272.75.
75. HMC Egmont, Vol. 2 (1923), p. 445.
76. TNA SP 84/161, p. 543, Poley to Harley (Hanover, 9 June 1705).
77. The Elector of Hanover to Privy Councillor von Eltz, Hanover (17 June 1705), quoted in Wilkins (1901), Vol. 1, p. 44.
78. Documents in the Royal Archives at Hanover, quoted in Wilkins (1901), Vol. 1, pp. 48–54.
79. TNA SP 84/161, p. 594, Poley to Harley (Hanover, 28 July 1705).
80. Preussisches Staatsarchiv, Hanover, MS Y. 46c, XI, ff. 106–111, quoted in Arkell (1939), pp. 23–4.
81. Hervey (1931), Vol. 2, pp. 641–2.
82. Advertised in the back of William Beckett, A Collection of Chirurgical Tracts (London, 1740).
83. Walpole, Reminiscences (1818 edn), p. 28.
84. Lewis (1937–83), Vol. 38, p. 456 (1 November 1764).
85. Cartwright (1883), p. 533.
86. Hervey (1931), Vol. 3, p. 906; Cartwright (1883), p. 533.
87. ‘Some curious Observations made (by my Friend John Ranby, Esq; Surgeon to his Majesty’s Household, and F.R.S.) in the Dissection of Three Subjects,1728’, in Beckett (1740), pp. 77–9.
88. Henry Fielding, Tom Jones (London, 1749; 1991), p. 302.
89. HMC Egmont, Vol. 2 (1923)
, pp. 444–6.
90. Hastings Wheler (1935), p. 153, Lady Catherine Jones (24 December 1737).
91. Brown (1700), p. 93.
92. John Ashton, Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne (London, 1882), p. 8.
93. Hervey (1931), Vol. 3, p. 881.
94. Ibid., p. 889.
95. Burford (1988), p. 31.
96. Hervey (1931), Vol. 2, pp. 580–2.
97. Brooke (1985), Vol. 1, pp. 151–2.
98. Hervey (1931), Vol. 3, pp. 885, 889.1895), p. 78,
99. HMC Egmont, Vol. 2 (1923), pp. 443–4.
100. Ibid., pp. 445–6.
101. Lady Jane van Koughnet, A History of Tyttenhanger (London, 1895), p. 78, ‘Copy’d from a Letter of Mrs. Purcel (a Dresser to ye late Queen) to a Lady at Bath’; another copy is at RA GEO/MAIN/52824, catalogued as ‘copy of a letter from Mrs Selwyn to Mrs Lowther’ (soon after 29 November 1737).
102. HMC Egmont, Vol. 2 (1923), p. 444.
103. BL 22227, f. 185, Peter Wentworth to his brother (19 November 1737).
104. Hervey (1931), Vol. 3, pp. 905–6.
105. Alexander Pope, ‘On Queen Caroline’s Death-bed’, in Norman Ault and John Butt (Eds), Alexander Pope, Minor Poems (London and New York, 1964), p.390.
106. HMC Egmont, Vol. 2 (1923), p. 445.
107. Hervey (1894), Vol. 3, p. 177, Lady Bristol to Lord Bristol (19 November 1737).
108. Koughnet (1895), pp. 77–8.
109. Hervey (1931), Vol. 3, p. 896.
110. Koughnet (1895), pp. 77–8.
111. HMC Egmont, Vol. 2 (1923), pp. 445–6.
112. Hastings Wheler (1935), p. 153, Lady Catherine Jones (24 December 1737).
113. HMC Report on the Manuscripts of the Earl of Denbigh, part V (London, 1911), p.225, J. Stanhope to Lady Denbigh (16 December 1737).
114. Clarke (1738), p. 35.
115. Hailes (1788), p. 13.
116. Jesse (1843), Vol. 3, p. 83.
117. Williams (1963–5), Vol. 5, p. 75, Charles Ford to Jonathan Swift (22 November1737).
118. Hastings Wheler (1935), p. 153, Lady Catherine Jones (24 December 1737).
119. Clarke (1738), p. 8.
120. Koughnet (1895), pp. 77–8.
121. Ibid., p. 78.
122. Cartwright (1883), p. 532.
123. Hennell (1904), pp. 194–5.
124. The Gentleman’s Magazine, Vol. 7 (December 1737), p. 765.
125. Hastings Wheler (1935), p. 153, Lady Catherine Jones (24 December 1737).
126. Hailes (1788), p. 37.
127. BL Add MS 74005, f. 21, ‘Sketch of Mr Walpole’s conduct’.
128. Hailes (1788), p. 40.
129. Coxe (1798b), Vol. 2, pp. 547–8.
130. Cartwright (1883), p. 538.
131. Ilchester (1950), p. 275.
132. Hervey (1894), Vol. 3, p. 188, Lady Bristol to Lord Bristol (13 December 1737).
133. Hervey (1931), Vol. 2, p. 577.
134. Ibid., p. 579; Cowper (1864), p. 11.
135. Hervey (1931), Vol. 2, p. 581; Vol. 3, p. 922.
136. Ibid., Vol. 2, p. 580.
137. BL Add MS 27735, f. 123r, Lord Gower (25 March 1736).
138. Cartwright (1883), p. 532.
139. BL Add MS 22227, f. 162v, Peter Wentworth to his brother (3 June 1735).
140. Ibid., f. 94r, Peter Wentworth to his brother (2 October 1729).
141. Ibid., f. 85r, Peter Wentworth to his brother (21 August 1729).
142. Ibid., f. 163, Peter Wentworth to his brother (9 August 1735).
143. BL Add MS 22229, ff. 216–17, Captain William Wentworth to Earl of Strafford (26 November 1737).
144. Hervey (1894), Vol. 3, pp. 192–3, Lady Bristol to Lord Bristol (22 December 1737).
145. Koughnet (1895), p. 77.
146. Quoted in Trench, p. 203.
147. Halsband and Grundy (1977), pp. 105–6.
148. HMC Egmont, Vol. 2 (1923), p. 459.
149. Halsband and Grundy (1977), pp. 105–6.
150. Anon., The annual register, or a view of the history, politics, and literature for the years 1784 and 1785 (London, 1787), p. 44, ‘a particular Account of Peter the Wild Boy; extracted from the Parish Register of North Church, in the County of Hertford’.
151. Sherburn (1956), Vol. 3, p. 58, Pope to Swift (9 October 1729); John Boyle, fifth Earl of Orrery, Remarks on the life and writings of Dr Jonathan Swift (London, 1752), p. 164.
152. Anon., It cannot Rain, part 2 (London, 1726), p. 7.
153. Robert Joseph Phillimore (Ed.), Memoirs and Correspondence of George, Lord Lyttelton, from 1734 to 1773 (London, 1845), Vol. 1, p. 89, Lord Chesterfield (15 November 1737).
154. Hervey (1931), Vol. 3, p. 904
NINE
The Rival Mistresses
‘A man at his time of day to be playing these youthful pranks, and fancying himself in love, was quite ridiculous.’1
(John Hervey)
It took five years for the answer to Sir Robert Walpole’s riddle to emerge.
In 1742, the drawing room at Kensington Palace would witness the deadliest duel yet in a long-running battle to establish who would ‘have the management’ of the monarch. Two main contenders had emerged, and two rival mistresses were fighting for the prize of Caroline’s vacant place in the king’s heart.
At the time of her death, some people had thought that George II would certainly die of grief, but others envisaged some eventual form of recovery. ‘Though he is certainly extremely dejected by the great loss,’ observed the Duchess of Marlborough, ‘a heart is a long time a-breaking; and I have known very few instances of dying from the passion of love.’2
Still others predicted that the king would mourn Caroline ‘for a fortnight, forget her in a month’ and then get hold of ‘two or three women … to lie with now and then’.3
But all the candidates for the position of royal lover hoped to become the main mistress, or mistress en titre as she was known in the continental courts. In that competition there could be only one real winner.
Sir Robert Walpole was extremely worried about who might end up on top: she might be avaricious; she might be ambitious; she might get the king into all sorts of scrapes. The sight of the elderly king hunting for women was beginning to amuse and to horrify: observers thought he was simply getting too old for japes of this kind. He was now nearly sixty, a considerable age by the standards of his century. People began to say that for an old man ‘to be playing these youthful pranks, and fancying himself in love, was quite ridiculous’.4
Ridiculous it may have been, but George II had warned his dying wife that he needed female company. And he didn’t just want sexual services. Despite his very public tantrums, in private he required constant reassurance and soothing, just like a cross little boy. It would be a tall order for any one woman to provide it.
The battle lines were clearly drawn in the years following Caroline’s death, and by 1742 just two strong contestants remained in the field. With John Hervey once again observing from the sidelines, the struggle was near its conclusion.
Which of the two rival mistresses, Hervey asked, could quench the king’s ‘amorous heat, so unexpectedly diffused through his veins at such years’?5
*
The battle of the mistresses came to its climax one drawing-room evening in October 1742. On one side was the plump and placid Amalie Sophie Marianne Wendt, who bore the married name of von Wallmoden. Dark-haired and twinkling-eyed, she had many aces in her hand.
Not least among them was the support of first minister Sir Robert Walpole. ‘I am for Madame Walmoden,’ he declared against all her rivals. ‘I’ll have nothing to do with your girls.’6
George II had met and fallen for the German Amalie well before Caroline’s death, during his summer visit to Hanover in 1735. Back then she was thirty-one, the daughter of an army family. Considering the close-knit nature of the Hanover community, it is not entirely shocking to discover that her grandmother had been an early mistress of
George I’s.7 Amalie was married to a magistrate named Adam Gottlieb von Wallmoden, and the couple had a son and daughter, Franz Ernst and Friderike. But happily, von Wallmoden proved a complaisant husband when his wife caught the king’s eye.
George II dallied with Amalie in Hanover long enough to cause serious dissatisfaction back in Britain. ‘The people belonging to the Court were uneasy at it, as it made the Court so much more unpopular,’ and ‘the tradesmen were all uneasy’ too because it was bad for business.8 Court events brought their best customers into town from their country estates, and they were not held when the king was away.
It seemed that this time George II might have been seriously wounded by Cupid’s arrow.
As was his usual habit, he had kept his wife fully abreast of this latest affair. ‘I know you will love the Wallmoden, because she loves me’ was one tactless phrase from him to her which the courtiers treasured.9
Caroline had also been treated to a full description ‘of Madame Wallmoden’s looks, brains and character’. His new lover was nowhere near beautiful, the king admitted, and she lacked a dazzling wit. But she was charming and possessed ‘a very agreeable countenance’ indeed.10
Those who knew Amalie remarked upon her ‘fine black eyes, & brown hair’.11 Short and ‘inclined to be corpulent’, she had a round face, large eyes and elegant hands. While she was certainly not ‘a perfect or a blooming beauty’, John Hervey found her stylish and charming: ‘a young married woman of the first fashion’.12 In fact, her succulent curves, combined with her restful, turtle-dove character, made it ‘impossible for any man of taste and sensibility to avoid being in love’ with her.13
Despite the delight he found in Amalie von Wallmoden’s company, guilt finally forced George II into coming home after his Hanover visit of 1735. He made his way back to London at top speed, once again to fall into the wide-open arms of his Caroline. She welcomed him warmly and without reproach, ‘glueing her mouth to his hand’.14 But thinking fondly of his beloved Hanover and his adored Amalie, George II was heard to grumble that the English were nothing but a race of ‘King-killers and republicans’, and that he had to pay them ‘not to cut his throat’.15