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©Cheryl Bolen
In the century and half since the
last princess died, no one has ever before had the fortitude to chronicle the
lives of the six daughters of George III (1738-1820) and his wife Charlotte of
Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1744-1818). Until Flora Fraser.
Fraser is the author of the 2006
book, Princesses: The Six Daughters of George III.
One of England’s premier biographers
of the late Georgian era, Fraser (Beloved Emma) first became acquainted
with the princesses when doing archival research for her biography (Unruly
Queen) of their sister-in-law, the Prince Regent’s wife, Princess Caroline.
"Given other circumstances, the
letters of these six royal sisters might have been filled only with Court
gossip, pomp and fashion," Fraser writes. "Instead their
correspondence makes harrowing reading, revealing the humility with which they
met pain and horror, the tenacity with which they pursued their individual
dreams, and the stratagems they devised to endure years of submission and
indignity."
The circumstances which catapulted
their lives onto a sorrowful trajectory, of course, were the intermittent bouts
of the king’s insanity which commenced a nine-year regency after he was
declared incompetent to rule.
His first occurrence of the illness
was in 1788; it was another 23 years before the regency became official. Sadly,
it was during those years the princesses came of age, only to be denied the
opportunities for gaiety and marriage. The king’s illness turned a concerned
mother into a domineering tyrant who deprived the princesses of any hopes for
happiness.
During those years, the princesses
were forced to forgo personal pleasures or aspirations for matrimony for fear
it would incite another relapse in the father who was so excessively fond of
his daughters.
To a one, all the princesses wished
to marry, to have their own homes, to have children. Most of them would be
denied these simple pleasures.
The king himself said in 1805 — when
the Princess Royal was 39 and the youngest princess, Amelia, 22 — "I
cannot deny that I have never wished to see any of them marry: I am happy in
their company, and do not in the least want a separation."
When he spoke those words,
"Royal," as the eldest sister was always called, was the only sister
to have married. Her father had refused many offers for her hand, a fact that
embittered her. She finally succeeded in marrying a widow, the Hereditary
Prince of Wuttemberg, when she was thirty.
She was thrilled to escape "The
Nunnery," a title the princesses themselves dubbed their residences at Kew
Palace and Windsor Castle. She never regretted the decision to marry. While she
never bore a live child, she was an indulgent mother and grandmother to her
step-children and may have been the happiest of the sisters.
None of the sisters would ever
become a mother, though the fourth princess, Sophia (1777-1848), gave birth
secretly to an illegitimate child sired by her father’s equerry, who was more
than thirty years older than she. She never married.
Amelia died of tuberculosis at the
age of twenty-seven, which many think contributed to her father’s final fall
into hopeless insanity. Even on her deathbed, her family would not allow Amelia
to marry the young officer she had been in love with for eight years.
Her sister, Princess Augusta
(1768-1840), also fell in love with a military man, Gen. Sir Brent Spencer.
When she was 43 she wrote a letter to the regent that begged to be allowed to
marry the man who had shared her "mutual affection" for twelve years.
Request refused, she died a spinster.
Princess Mary had more luck. She
demanded the regent allow her to wed her cousin, the Duke of Gloucester, whose
father was her father’s brother. The regent reluctantly agreed. At age forty,
she finally married. While it is doubtful she was in love with her husband, she
relished the first liberty she had ever tasted.
The sister who had most wanted to
marry and had dreamed of bearing a child, Princess Elizabeth, finally was
granted one of her wishes. At age forty-eight and well past child-bearing
years, she married the Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg and had a happy marriage for
eleven years.
Fraser’s research is meticulous,
right down to the names of the royal wet nurses and the salary paid to them.
Almost all of the research is original, delving into letters in collections,
archives, and libraries across the globe, a feat that had to have taken several
years.
For the casual reader, there are a
few problems. First, it is difficult to chronicle six lives at once
chronologically. We get a snippet of one sister, but the narrative thread drops
while there is an awkward transition to another sister because of chronological
constraints. Therefore, the book makes for dry reading and lacks dramatic
structure.
For the historian, this work is a
gem.—Cheryl Bolen’s Christmas novella, ExSpinster
by Christmas, releases on Nov. 15.
http://kindlel.ink/Ex-Spinster
http://nookl.ink/Ex-Spinster
Princesses: The Six Daughters of George III
Flora Fraser
Anchor Books, 2006
478 pages; $16.95
Review © Cheryl Bolen
In the century and half since the last princess died, no one has ever
before had the fortitude to chronicle the lives of the six daughters of George III
(1738-1820) and his wife Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1744-1818). Until
Flora Fraser.
One of England’s premier biographers of the late Georgian era, Fraser (Beloved
Emma) first became acquainted with the princesses when doing archival
research for her biography (Unruly Queen) of their sister-in-law, the
Prince Regent’s wife.
"Given other circumstances, the letters of these six royal sisters
might have been filled only with Court gossip, pomp and fashion," Fraser
writes. "Instead their correspondence makes harrowing reading, revealing
the humility with which they met pain and horror, the tenacity with which they
pursued their individual dreams, and the stratagems they devised to endure
years of submission and indignity."
The circumstances which catapulted their lives onto a sorrowful
trajectory, of course, were the intermittent bouts of the king’s insanity which
terminated in a nine-year regency after he was declared incompetent to rule.
King George III
His first occurrence of the illness was in 1788; it was another 23 years
before the regency became official. Sadly, it was during those years the
princesses came of age, only to be denied the opportunities for gaiety and
marriage. The king’s illness turned a concerned mother into a domineering
tyrant who deprived the princesses of any hopes for happiness.
During those years, the princesses were forced to forgo personal
pleasures or aspirations for matrimony for fear it would incite another relapse
in the father who was so excessively fond of his daughters.
To a one, all the princesses wished to marry, to have their own homes, to
have children. Most of them would be denied these simple pleasures.
The king himself said in 1805 — when the Princess Royal was 39 and the
youngest princess, Amelia, 22 — "I cannot deny that I have never wished to
see any of them marry: I am happy in their company, and do not in the least
want a separation."
When he spoke those words, "Royal," as the eldest sister was
always called, was the only sister to have married. Her father had refused many
offers for her hand, a fact that embittered her. She finally succeeded in
marrying a widower, the Hereditary Prince of Wuttemberg, when she was thirty.
She was thrilled to escape "The Nunnery," a title the
princesses themselves dubbed their residences at Kew Palace and Windsor Castle.
She never regretted the decision to marry. While she never bore a live child,
she was an indulgent mother and grandmother to her step-children and may have
been the happiest of the sisters.
Princess Sophia
None of the sisters would ever become a mother, though the fourth
princess, Sophia (1777-1848), gave birth secretly to an illegitimate child
sired by her father’s equerry, who was more than thirty years older than she.
She never married.
Amelia died of tuberculosis at the age of twenty-seven, which many think
contributed to her father’s final fall into hopeless insanity. Even on her
deathbed, her family would not allow Amelia to marry the young officer she had
been in love with for eight years.
Her sister, Princess Augusta (1768-1840), also fell in love with a
military man, Gen. Sir Brent Spencer. When she was 43 she wrote a letter to the
regent that begged to be allowed to marry the man who had shared her
"mutual affection" for twelve years. Request refused, she died a
spinster.
Princess Mary had more luck. She demanded the regent allow her to wed her
cousin, the Duke of Gloucester, whose father was her father’s brother. The
regent reluctantly agreed. At age forty, she finally married. While it is
doubtful she was in love with her husband, she relished the first liberty she
had ever tasted.
The sister who had most wanted to marry and had dreamed of bearing a
child, Princess Elizabeth, finally was granted one of her wishes. At age
forty-eight and well past child-bearing years, she married the Landgrave of
Hesse-Homburg and had a happy marriage for eleven years.
Fraser’s research is meticulous, right down to the names of the royal wet
nurses and the salary paid to them. Almost all of the research is original,
delving into letters in collections, archives, and libraries across the globe,
a feat that had to have taken several years.
For the casual reader, there are a few problems. First, it is difficult
to chronicle six lives at once chronologically. We get a snippet of one sister,
but the narrative thread drops while there is an awkward transition to another
sister because of chronological constraints. Therefore, the book makes for dry
reading and lacks dramatic structure.
For the historian, this work is a gem.
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