by Jean Plaidy
‘That is sheer nonsense.’
‘Everything he does is sheer nonsense. But I have asked to see his debts and I’ll have a detailed account of everything he’s spent before I see that they’re settled.’
‘Oh dear, what a trial he is. How could he have become like this?’
The King had the answer to that. It was: ‘Fox.’ He went on: ‘Women chatter. If you hear anything about this affair you should let me know without fail.’
‘Women chatter far too much.’
‘That’s true, and talk much nonsense, but this is an important matter. Nothing that comes to light should be ignored. I don’t like these rumours of marriage. That’s what makes me anxious.’
‘It would be impossible for him to marry her. The Marriage Act would prevent its being legal.’
‘I should not like him to go through a form of marriage with a virtuous lady.’
‘He would never dare. He knows the law. Whatever madness he is capable of he knows that as Prince of Wales he dare not marry without the consent of you and the Parliament.’
‘He should know that.’ The King was silent; he was thinking of a youthful folly of his own. He wished he could forget it, but he doubted he ever would. Hannah Lightfoot, the beautiful Quakeress, with whom he had been in love when he was a younger man than the Prince was now, and with whom he had gone through a form of marriage, often came out of the past to remind him.
He dared not think of her. When he did he heard voices in his head. And he was as much afraid of those voices as the Queen was.
The Prince returned to Carlton House in a distracted state.
‘What can I do?’ he wailed. He summoned Georgiana and Charles James Fox. He demanded that they help him; they must advise him. Maria had fled. What was he going to do? He declared he could not live without her.
They sought to advise. Charles suggested a little patience. Something would happen. Perhaps she would write. Georgiana offered comfort; but nothing could appease him.
‘There is only one thing I can do,’ he said. ‘I must find her. I must cross to the Continent without delay.’
‘You have forgotten,’ Charles reminded him, ‘that as Prince of Wales you cannot leave the country without the King’s consent.’
‘Then I must get that consent.’
‘His Majesty will never give it that you may follow a woman you are hoping to make your mistress.’
‘My wife,’ cried the Prince. ‘My wife.’
‘Terms which, in this case, His Majesty would find synonymous.’
‘I care nothing for His Majesty’s opinion,’ cried the Prince recklessly; which made Mr Fox shake his head sadly, a gesture intended to remind the Prince, most tactfully, that His Majesty’s opinion in this case was one which could not be ignored.
The Prince asked his father for an audience, and when the King received him the latter was pleased to notice that there was a new humility in his manner.
‘Your Majesty, I have come to ask permission to go abroad.’
‘Abroad. What for? The people won’t have that. The Prince of Wales’s place is in this country. Don’t you know that, eh, what?’
‘I have incurred many debts.’
‘Natural enough … when you consider the way you live. Dashing all over the place … down to Brighton … Carlton House. And gambling too. What are your gambling debts, eh, what? And the money you spend on women. It does not surprise me that you have debts.’
‘My expenses are great.’
‘Must be … Must be … Gambling … women … they are very expensive pastimes.’
‘Your Majesty cannot realize how expensive.’
There he was, the young rip. Sneering. What do you know of these things? No, thought the King, I have occupied my time with State matters. He wanted to shout that at the fellow, but he knew the sort of retort that would bring to those insolent lips. Perhaps it would have been better for the country if you had occupied yourself with gambling and women instead of politics. It might have been slightly less expensive than the loss of the Colonies.
They were always at the back of his mind – those Colonies. They and the Prince of Wales were the biggest anxieties of his life.
‘And so,’ said the King, ‘you are in difficulties.’
‘I owe money in all directions.’
‘So you think you can run away and escape your creditors, eh?’
‘I think it would be well to get away for a while.’
‘And this is your reason for wanting to go?’
‘Yes, sir.’
Liar, thought the King. You want to go in search of the widow who has run away and left you. Good sensible woman. To think that his subjects had to run away to escape the importunings of the Prince of Wales! A pleasant state of affairs!
‘I could not give my consent to your going abroad,’ said the King flatly. ‘And I should like to have further details of your debts. I want an explanation of all details. And then we will see what can be done about settling them. And if this should be possible, I hope you will let this be a lesson to you.’
The Prince was not listening. He was frantic. Any other man could have been free to leave the country if he wished, but he was a prisoner.
He rode out to Chertsey. Fox was not at home but Lizzie was there to comfort him … if it had been possible to give him any comfort.
‘Lizzie, Lizzie, what can I do?’
‘There must be something,’ she comforted. ‘I will talk it over with Charles. There must be a way out.’
‘I don’t even know where she is. I’ve been to see the old buffoon and he talks about details of debts. How do I know how the money is spent? But he is determined I shan’t go abroad. He knows why I want to go. Everyone gossips. And the sanctimonious old humbug preaches to me. “Gambling and women,” he says, and licks his lips because he’s never had either.’
‘Your Highness should plan calmly, I think.’
He seized her hands. ‘How, Lizzie? How?’
‘Well, let us think. If we could find out where she was, you could perhaps write to her.’
Letters! Soothing balm always! And he had a way with a pen which might move her. When she had thought he was dying she had relented so far as to allow him to put that ring on her finger, to sign the document. If he could move her with his pen …
He looked hopefully at Lizzie.
‘But where … where is she?’
‘We shall have to find out.’
‘And then I shall not be able to go to her. Then there are only letters. Oh, Lizzie, if you knew the depth of my feelings.’
‘I do,’ she said gently.
‘You can’t, I have never experienced this passion before during the whole of my life. I will never know another moment’s peace until she comes back to me.’ He threw himself on to a couch and covering his face with his hands, wept.
Lizzie Armistead told Charles Fox afterwards that although she had heard him express himself somewhat emotionally before she had never seen him act so violently. He was half laughing, half crying; he lay on the floor and rolled backwards and forwards; he struck his forehead and frightened Lizzie because she thought he was going mad.
‘Your Highness,’ she begged, ‘I pray you get up and sit down. Nothing can be solved by rolling on the floor.’
‘What can be solved standing up?’ he demanded.
‘Calm thinking might bring us to a solution.’
‘Lizzie, I will tell you this: I shall forgo the Crown. If I cannot as heir to it marry where I will then I shall abandon my claim to it. I have my brothers. I shall sell everything I have – jewels, plate, everything. I shall find Maria and fly with her to America.’
America, thought Lizzie. A rather unfortunate choice. She wondered how the Americans would greet the son of the King who had been their greatest enemy.
But this was not the occasion to point it out to the Prince.
She had an idea. ‘Your Highness cannot go abroad, that is certain since the King
forbids it, but why should others not go and at least find out where she is. If you traced her you could write to her and I believe your letters would be most persuasive.’
‘Lizzie,’ he said. ‘God bless you. You were always my good friend.’
There was one man who could find Maria if anyone could. That was the Duc d’Orléans, who was at this time in England. The Prince was certain that Maria had gone to France, because she knew the country well and it would be a second home to her. Orléans was living in London with Grace Elliot who, not very long ago, had been the mistress of the Prince of Wales.
Theirs had been a comfortable love affair – no protestations of devotion on either side. Grace – known as Dally the Tall, because she had a tall and willowy figure and before her marriage to a Dr Elliott she had been a Dalrymple – was a gay young woman who had had a host of lovers and she and the Prince had parted without regrets and therefore as the best of friends.
When the Prince invited Orléans to Carlton House and confided his troubles, the Frenchman was full of sympathy.
‘She is in your country, I am sure of it,’ cried the Prince. ‘But I do not know where.’
‘It should not be impossible to find out,’ replied Orléans. ‘Such a beautiful Englishwoman would create talk wherever she went.’
The Prince clenched his hands together at the thought of his infinitely desirable Maria in that country where men were noted for their gallantry. What if someone were able to offer her what the Prince was not … honourable marriage?
‘I must find her,’ he cried. ‘I want to tell her that I will give up everything … simply everything in order to marry her.’
The Due nodded sympathetically. He thought the Prince a fool who did not know what he was talking about. Give up a crown for this plump matron? Orléans had his eyes on another crown and from the reports he heard from his spies all over his country, and particularly those who prowled about the Palais Royale, affairs in France were working towards some sort of climax which could be very beneficial to the Due d’Orléans.
He was a very ambitious man and although not yet forty, owing to the life he had led he had developed that revolting skin disease which made his hair fall out and his complexion hideous to behold; but these disabilities affected him little in society because they were offset by his fortune and his connection with the royal family of France.
It suddenly occurred to him that this might be a very propitious time to return to France, for if interesting events were about to take place it was as well to be on the spot.
He could go back to Paris, setting new fashions in his pink coat, top boots and leather breeches; he would have his English-style carriage over there, introduce horse-racing; and at the same time let the people know how much better affairs were run in England than in France.
Here was an excellent excuse for returning. Not because affairs were taking an interesting turn; not because the news he heard from his spies was setting him on the alert; not because he wished to be at hand to help disconcert his cousin, the King, and the woman he hated most in the world, the Queen of France – but to help his friend and kinsman, the Prince of Wales, to find a woman who had run away from him.
‘I doubt not that I could have her whereabouts discovered in a week or so.’
‘Is that possible?’
‘If I went to France and saw to this matter myself.’
‘But … you do not wish to leave England.’
‘In the service of my dear friend I would do anything.’
‘You mean that you would …’
The Due bowed gracefully. ‘For you, my dear friend and Prince, I would do much.’
The Prince fell on to the Due’s neck and embraced him, forgetting for once that horrible skin disease.
And the Due, full of plans, left with Grace for France where he set about introducing English fashions, undermining the throne of France and finding Maria Fitzherbert.
As he had predicted, this last was simple.
He discovered that Mrs Fitzherbert had gone first to Aix-la-Chapelle, but because she did not wish to stay too long in one place and believed that it would be suspected that, in view of the fact that she knew that country well, she would have gone to France, had crossed the frontiers and was visiting the Hague.
So now he knew and he was all impatience to visit Holland. First, though, his debts must be paid before he could leave the country. The King had been brooding over those debts for weeks and had made no announcement. So he went to see him again.
The Prince had changed, and the King was quick to notice this. A little of the arrogance had disappeared; he looked pale – and, yes, he had grown a little thinner.
Some good has come out of this then, thought the King.
‘Sir, you have promised to settle my debts.’
‘I must first have a full account of how they were incurred. There is this item.’
Oh God, thought the Prince. What is he talking about?
‘I want a full account of how this £25,000 is made up.’
‘I have no idea.’
‘But you must have an idea … a sum like this. How could you run up debts for that amount without knowing how, eh, what?’
‘I tell you I have no idea.’
‘Then you go away and think about it. I don’t believe you can’t know how such a large sum of money was spent. If it’s a debt you’re ashamed to explain then I ought not to pay it.’
‘Sir, I wish to go abroad.’
‘Well, sir, I should remind you that that is something you cannot do without my consent. And I do not give that consent. You understand me, eh? You understand, what?’
Miserably, his heart full of hatred towards his father, the Prince left.
But at least he knew where she was, and there was the comfort of pen and ink-pot. He wrote pages to her which gave him some pleasure. He would shut himself in his apartments and cover sheet after sheet. Although the Prince had been deeply affected by women since his adolescence he had never before been in love like this. The most surprising thing of all was that he remained faithful. No other woman could be of the slightest interest to him. All through the winter his only comfort was talking to his friends about his devotion to Maria, writing impassioned letters to her, keeping couriers running back and forth across Europe. These were often arrested as spies and only the help of the Duc d’Orléans saved them from imprisonment. When he explained that the mission of these men was love and not espionage they were immediately freed and given every facility to reach Maria.
But she stubbornly remained out of the country in spite of his appeals and everyone now understood that Maria Fitzherbert was not playing a waiting game in the hope of luring the Prince to indiscretion; she really was the deeply religious woman she had made herself out to be and she would not consider living with the Prince on any terms but marriage.
Sir James Harris, the English Ambassador to The Hague, came to London to report and the Prince seized the opportunity of sending for him.
Harris had been a friend of the Prince; and as ambassador in a country such as Holland over which the French and the English were fighting for control, he was often in the depths of intrigue. He was therefore in close touch with the King and his ministers, and understood many of the problems not only of State but of the royal family.
Like all those who wished the family well, he deplored the Prince’s absorbing passion for a woman whom he could not marry and who had refused to live with him on any other terms. If Mrs Fitzherbert had given in, the problem would have been immediately solved; it was ironical, but it was Mrs Fitzherbert’s virtue which was causing such concern.
The Prince greeted Harris warmly at Carlton House and immediately came to the reason for his visit.
‘I want to know whether it would be possible for me to go to The Hague as a private person, and if I did how would you, as the King’s representative there, receive me?’
Harris was alarmed. So much depended on his answer, but he hesitated
only briefly and said: ‘I should be very sorry to see Your Highness in Holland otherwise than in a character which would allow me to receive you in a manner comformable with the respect and affection I bear Your Highness. Your coming abroad, however, without the King’s consent, would imply that you came after having been refused it. You may rest assured that in this case I should have received orders as to how I should act on your arrival and however much these orders were in contradiction to my feelings, as the King’s servant, I should be obliged to obey them.’
‘I should be the last person to ask you to do otherwise. But what can I do? Am I refused the right of every other individual? Cannot I travel legally as a private person, without the King’s consent?’
‘It seems immaterial to know whether Your Highness can or not, since it is evident that you cannot with any propriety to the public or satisfaction to yourself, cross the seas without it.’
‘Why not? I wish to travel economically, to be unknown and to live in retirement.’
‘I confess that no event would give me so much pain as an Englishman to see a Prince of Wales abroad under such a description.’
‘But what can I do? The King suggests I put aside £10,000 a year to pay my debts at a time when, with the strictest economies, my expenses are twice my income. I am ruined if I stay in England.’
‘Your Royal Highness will find no relief in travelling in the way in which you propose. You will be slighted or the object of intrigue.’
‘What can I do? The King hates me. He has hated me since I was seven years old.’
‘His Majesty may be dissatisfied with Your Highness but surely he cannot hate you. I am convinced that nothing would make him and the Queen so happy as to restore their affections to you. This would be the greatest blessing to the nation and comfort to the royal family.’
‘That may be so but it cannot be. We are too wide asunder.’
‘I do believe Your Highness should try every possible means before you carry into execution your plan of travelling.’
The Prince sighed. ‘I see I shall have to think it over.’
Couriers were leaving Carlton House for Germany as well as Holland, for the Prince was now writing not only to Maria but also to his brother Frederick. Frederick had been his close companion in youth and the affection between them had been great; they had helped each other out of many a scrape and the fact that they had been parted was an added grievance against the King. When the Prince had heard that his brother was to be sent to Germany to train for the Army, he himself had begged for a commission that they might continue to be together. Why could they not both serve in the English Army? Why must Frederick go to Hanover? All the objections had been ignored and the brothers parted. But they had declared they would be friends for ever.