marriage.
Suddenly they were both brought to their feet by the sound of Charlotte bursting into âa violent fit of sobs and hysterical tearsâ.
The Regent had no idea what was happening. âWhat!â he said. âIs he taking his leave?â
âNot yetâ, said Charlotte, and then added that she was going to her room.
Tactful again, the Regent told the ladies that he and the Hereditary Prince were now late for a banquet and then hurriedly led him away.
When they were gone, Miss Knight asked Charlotte what was wrong, and she was not too surprised by the answer.
The Dutch Prince had just told the Princess that, when they were married, she would have to spend two or three months of every year in Holland.
C HAPTER N INE
Making the Best of it
T HE H EREDITARY P RINCE of Orange was sympathetic. Before he left to spend Christmas in The Hague, he did all that he could to reassure Charlotte. When they were married, he told her, he would never insist that she came with him every time he went to Holland. Perhaps she would only need to come for two or three weeks in each year, and since by then she would have her own household, she could of course bring all her ladies with her.
For Charlotte it was enough for now. At least the Dutch Prince was being honest with her. Her real rage was with her father, who had trapped her into a quick decision without telling her what it entailed.
She was sure that in the long run she could rely on her Whig friends to advise and protect her. They would never allow their future queen to leave the country against her will. And in the short run, marriage with the latest William of Orange was still the only available key to freedom and a household of her own.
But it looks as though she was trying a bit too hard to persuade herself that the price was reasonable.
She wrote to Mercer. ‘To say I am in love with him would be untrue & ridiculous but I will say that I think him the most natural, open & undisguised character that ever was. I am persuaded I shall have a very great regard & opinion of him wh. perhaps is better to begin with & more likely to last than love.’
Miss Knight was not so sure. She also wrote to Mercer. ‘She thinks, or at least says, no one has influenced her.’
But Miss Knight was able to supply a long list of friends, uncles, aunts and ministers who, in her view, had done precisely that. Almost the only people who had not, she wrote, were the Duchess and the ‘Bish-UP’, although even they ‘wished it sincerely’ and had simply seen fit to keep ‘clear of urging or advising’.
‘The thing in itself may tend to her happiness’, she wrote, ‘but tricks and deception to bring about anything are horrid.’
And she ended gloomily, ‘It remains now to make the best of it… to make her gain his confidence and he hers, and if possible to prevent their being governed by all these artful people. My great hope is that as there are so many, and of different views and interests, they may, though they joined in this, ultimately defeat each other’s purposes.’
Meanwhile it was Christmas. For a few days doubts were set aside.
Charlotte went to Windsor. The company at the castle was, as expected, ‘disagreeable’. But she was impressed twice: first by her father’s tactful success in persuading the Queen to accept her engagement to a member of the House of Orange; secondly by the talent of an actress called Miss Smith, who came to read excerpts from the comedies, and who was, in Charlotte’s opinion, ‘far superior to Mrs Siddons’.
She returned to London in an optimistic mood. On 4 January, she wrote to Mercer. ‘Holland is a very odd place I believe… Even now I doubt being much amused there… We must see what we can do to make it more Londonish & dandyish …’
7 January was Charlotte’s eighteenth birthday, a day on which most noble ladies would have had a ball. But for Charlotte it was subdued and insignificant. In the morning she
Suddenly they were both brought to their feet by the sound of Charlotte bursting into âa violent fit of sobs and hysterical tearsâ.
The Regent had no idea what was happening. âWhat!â he said. âIs he taking his leave?â
âNot yetâ, said Charlotte, and then added that she was going to her room.
Tactful again, the Regent told the ladies that he and the Hereditary Prince were now late for a banquet and then hurriedly led him away.
When they were gone, Miss Knight asked Charlotte what was wrong, and she was not too surprised by the answer.
The Dutch Prince had just told the Princess that, when they were married, she would have to spend two or three months of every year in Holland.
C HAPTER N INE
Making the Best of it
T HE H EREDITARY P RINCE of Orange was sympathetic. Before he left to spend Christmas in The Hague, he did all that he could to reassure Charlotte. When they were married, he told her, he would never insist that she came with him every time he went to Holland. Perhaps she would only need to come for two or three weeks in each year, and since by then she would have her own household, she could of course bring all her ladies with her.
For Charlotte it was enough for now. At least the Dutch Prince was being honest with her. Her real rage was with her father, who had trapped her into a quick decision without telling her what it entailed.
She was sure that in the long run she could rely on her Whig friends to advise and protect her. They would never allow their future queen to leave the country against her will. And in the short run, marriage with the latest William of Orange was still the only available key to freedom and a household of her own.
But it looks as though she was trying a bit too hard to persuade herself that the price was reasonable.
She wrote to Mercer. ‘To say I am in love with him would be untrue & ridiculous but I will say that I think him the most natural, open & undisguised character that ever was. I am persuaded I shall have a very great regard & opinion of him wh. perhaps is better to begin with & more likely to last than love.’
Miss Knight was not so sure. She also wrote to Mercer. ‘She thinks, or at least says, no one has influenced her.’
But Miss Knight was able to supply a long list of friends, uncles, aunts and ministers who, in her view, had done precisely that. Almost the only people who had not, she wrote, were the Duchess and the ‘Bish-UP’, although even they ‘wished it sincerely’ and had simply seen fit to keep ‘clear of urging or advising’.
‘The thing in itself may tend to her happiness’, she wrote, ‘but tricks and deception to bring about anything are horrid.’
And she ended gloomily, ‘It remains now to make the best of it… to make her gain his confidence and he hers, and if possible to prevent their being governed by all these artful people. My great hope is that as there are so many, and of different views and interests, they may, though they joined in this, ultimately defeat each other’s purposes.’
Meanwhile it was Christmas. For a few days doubts were set aside.
Charlotte went to Windsor. The company at the castle was, as expected, ‘disagreeable’. But she was impressed twice: first by her father’s tactful success in persuading the Queen to accept her engagement to a member of the House of Orange; secondly by the talent of an actress called Miss Smith, who came to read excerpts from the comedies, and who was, in Charlotte’s opinion, ‘far superior to Mrs Siddons’.
She returned to London in an optimistic mood. On 4 January, she wrote to Mercer. ‘Holland is a very odd place I believe… Even now I doubt being much amused there… We must see what we can do to make it more Londonish & dandyish …’
7 January was Charlotte’s eighteenth birthday, a day on which most noble ladies would have had a ball. But for Charlotte it was subdued and insignificant. In the morning she
Similar Books
