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A QUEEN OF TEARS
A QUEEN OF TEARS
CAROLINE MATILDA, QUEEN OF DENMARK AND NORWAY AND PRINCESS OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND BY W. H. WILKINS M.A., F.S.A. Author of “The Love of an Uncrowned Queen,” and “Caroline the Illustrious, Queen Consort of George II.” WITH ILLUSTRATIONS IN TWO VOLUMES Vol. I. LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON NEW YORK AND BOMBAY 1904 Some years ago, when visiting Celle in connection with a book I was writing on Sophie Dorothea, The Love of an Uncrowned Queen , I found, in an unfrequented ga
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PREFACE
PREFACE
A word of explanation is perhaps necessary for the first few chapters of this book. In all the biographies of Caroline Matilda written in any language, her life in England before her marriage has received scant consideration, probably on account of her extreme youth. As her parentage and education were largely responsible for the mistakes of her later years, I have sketched, with some detail, the characters of her father and mother, and her early environment. This plan has enabled me to describe
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CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER I.
A few weeks after this rupture the illustrious Queen Caroline died, to the great grief of the King and the nation. Her death widened the breach in the royal family, for the King considered that his son’s undutiful conduct had hastened his mother’s death. Frederick now ranged himself in open opposition to the King and the government, and gathered around him the malcontent politicians, who saw in Walpole’s fall, or Frederick’s accession to the throne, their only chance of rising to power. The foll
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CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER II.
[11] The authenticity of this letter is doubtful. It first appeared in a work entitled Memoirs of an Unfortunate Queen, interspersed with letters written by Herself to several of her Illustrious Relatives and Friends , published 1776, soon after Matilda’s death. Some of the letters may be genuine, others are undoubtedly spurious. The Princess was better educated than the majority of English ladies of her time, many of whom could do little more than read and write (but seldom could spell) with th
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CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER III.
The Princess-Dowager was unmoved by the popular clamour, and her influence over the young King remained unshaken; indeed it was rather strengthened, for his sense of chivalry was roused by the coarse insults heaped upon his mother. Lord Bute continued to pay his visits to Carlton House as before, the only difference made was that, to avoid the insults of the mob, his visits were paid less openly. The chair of one of the Princess’s maids of honour was often sent of an evening to Bute’s house in S
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CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER IV.
King Frederick was overwhelmed with grief at his consort’s death and refused to be comforted. He could not mention her name without weeping; he commanded the deepest court mourning for a year and prohibited all public amusements for the same period. Yet, like many bereaved widowers, before and since, the more deeply this royal widower mourned his wife, the more quickly he sought consolation by giving her a successor. Six months of the stipulated mourning had scarcely passed when the King cast of
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CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER V.
This policy of keeping the heir apparent in ignorance of the constitution and government of the country was part of a set plan. The Ministers wished to retain all power in their own hands, and they viewed with alarm the possibility of a new ruler taking the initiative. For the King of Denmark and Norway in those days was no mere puppet of sovereignty. He was invested with absolute power, and was in theory, at any rate, as much an autocrat as the Tsar of all the Russias. The late King, from indol
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CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VI.
Not much time was allowed the young Princess for reflection, for soon after the message was received from the Danish court her marriage and departure were pushed on with all speed. On June 3, 1766, a message from the King was delivered to Parliament asking for the marriage portion of the Princess Matilda. After some debate, more on matters of form than the actual sum, a portion was voted of £100,000. This important preliminary over, the King decided that his sister was to be married by proxy in
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CHAPTER VII.
CHAPTER VII.
MARIAGE À LA MODE. 1766-1767. The court of Denmark over which Matilda was now the reigning Queen, though not the ruling spirit, was the last place in the world for a young and innocent girl to be sent alone. It was a hotbed of intrigue, a stye of vile epicurism, where even decency was disregarded. Cunning as foxes, and like foxes in their lust and greed, the majority of the courtiers thought only of advancing their personal interests at the expense of each other, or by vain and frivolous amuseme
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CHAPTER VIII.
CHAPTER VIII.
The immediate result of Madame de Plessen’s interference was to drive the King still further into dissipation and folly. Prevented from enjoying his wife’s society as he would, he spent his evenings with his friends, who included the wildest spirits of the court. The King’s evening parties, which he held in his own rooms, had long ceased to bear even a superficial resemblance to the celebrated gatherings of Frederick the Great; they assumed by degrees a more and more noisy and riotous character.
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CHAPTER IX.
CHAPTER IX.
THE BIRTH OF A PRINCE. 1768. Queen Matilda gave birth to a son and heir—the future King Frederick VI.—on January 28, 1768. Titley thus records the event: “Yesterday the Queen of Denmark fell in labour, and about ten o’clock at night was happily delivered of a prince, to the extreme satisfaction of her royal consort and the whole court. The Queen, God be praised, and the new-born prince are this morning both as well as can be expected. This very important and much desired event happened but an ho
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CHAPTER X.
CHAPTER X.
Christian VII. had invited himself to the English court, and came as a most unwelcome guest. His visit was singularly ill-timed, for the Wilkes riots had taken place recently, and the King was unpopular, and much worried and annoyed. Moreover, the court was in mourning for the Princess Louisa Anne, and the King wished to give none but the absolutely necessary receptions this year. He disliked festivities as much as the King of Denmark revelled in them, and he grudged the outlay which the visit o
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CHAPTER XI.
CHAPTER XI.
Thus did Denmark welcome home her prodigal son. Queen Matilda had spent the greater part of the time since the King left her at Frederiksborg, [109] some twenty miles from Copenhagen. Frederiksborg was the most magnificent of the country palaces of the Danish King, and has well been called the “Versailles of Denmark”. It stands to this day, and the site is one of the most picturesque in Europe; the buildings cover three islands in a lake, connected by bridges, the palace proper occupying the thi
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CHAPTER XII.
CHAPTER XII.
In 1757, when Struensee was twenty years old, his father received “a call” to become chief preacher of the principal church of Altona, a city situated on the northern bank of the Elbe, within the kingdom of Denmark. This change in the family fortunes was destined to exercise a material influence on Struensee’s future. The young doctor accompanied his father to Altona, and in a few months was appointed town physician, and country physician of the adjacent lordship of Pinneberg and the county of R
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CHAPTER XIII.
CHAPTER XIII.
Struensee also advised the Queen that it was bad for her to remain so much alone. She must have amusement, surround herself with cheerful people and join in the court festivities. He hinted that it was advisable for her to take a more promi nent part in these ceremonials, not only because of her health, but because it was incumbent upon her position as the reigning Queen, which, he added discreetly, some people about the court did not seem to respect as they should do. Matilda, who was not very
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CHAPTER XIV.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE QUEEN’S FOLLY. 1770. Struensee, who was now sure of his position with the King and Queen, resolved to carry out his plans, and obtain the object of his ambition—political power. In order to gain this it was necessary that the ministers holding office should one by one be removed, and the back of the Russian party in Copenhagen be broken. The Queen was quite agreeable to every change that Struensee suggested; she only stipulated that her detested enemy, Holck, should go first, and his friends
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CHAPTER XV.
CHAPTER XV.
At Hirschholm the Queen made appointments in her household to fill the places of Madame von der Lühe, Fräulein von Eyben and others dismissed at Traventhal. The Queen’s chief ladies were now Madame Gahler, Baroness Bülow and Countess Holstein. They were three young, beautiful and lively women, not too strict in their conduct, and the husbands of all, needless to say, were friends of Struensee. Madame Gahler was the wife of General Gahler, who held high place in the councils of Traventhal. Baron
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CHAPTER XVI.
CHAPTER XVI.
There was undoubtedly some jealousy mingled with this dislike of the Empress Catherine for a woman she had never seen. “The Semiramis of the North” regarded herself as one to whom the ordinary rules of life and conduct did not apply, nor even the immutable laws of right and wrong. She was a woman of destiny, a sublime figure, above, beyond and apart from all meaner mortals. Yet this foolish Matilda with her bourgeois favourite and paltry intrigues had presumed to challenge comparison with one wh
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CHAPTER XVII.
CHAPTER XVII.
[153] Translated from the original document in the royal archives of Copenhagen. The constitution which the King in this decree stated that his ancestors received from the nation was the Lex Regia , or royal law of Denmark and Norway, promulgated in 1660 by Frederick III. It had its origin in a revolution against the power of the nobles, who had reduced the King to a mere puppet of sovereignty, and formed an oligarchy which governed the country entirely in their interests. Frederick III. freed h
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CHAPTER XVIII.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Hitherto the Danish court, outwardly at any rate, had respected Sunday, and the King and Queen had been regular in attendance at public worship. Now, though the King and Queen went to church sometimes to keep up appearances, Sunday was purposely selected as a day of pleasure. For instance, one Sunday at Hirschholm there was a steeple-chase in the royal park, and the King gave prizes to the winners. The races attracted a large and disreputable crowd. Nor was it enough to slight religious convicti
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CHAPTER XIX.
CHAPTER XIX.
THE DICTATOR. 1771. When the court removed from Copenhagen to Hirschholm for the summer, it was officially announced that the Queen was likely again to become a mother. The fact had long been known to people about the court, but the publication of it was unduly delayed. Some months before its announcement Gunning wrote to England: “As no declaration has yet been made of her Danish Majesty’s pregnancy, I have long entertained scruples with regard to the propriety of mentioning it; but as nobody s
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A QUEEN OF TEARS
A QUEEN OF TEARS
CAROLINE MATILDA, QUEEN OF DENMARK AND NORWAY AND PRINCESS OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND BY W. H. WILKINS M.A. , F.S.A. Author of “The Love of an Uncrowned Queen,” and “Caroline the Illustrious, Queen Consort of George II.” WITH ILLUSTRATIONS IN TWO VOLUMES Vol. II. LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON NEW YORK AND BOMBAY 1904...
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CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER I.
Osten also had differences with Struensee, which at one time he carried to the point of sending in his resignation. [1] But he was “told that his services in the post he now filled could not be dispensed with, that he was not only useful but necessary, and that he might be assured his remonstrances would always have their weight”. [2] So Osten, though he hated and despised Struensee quite as much as Rantzau did, consented to remain, and, wily diplomatist that he was, performed the difficult task
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CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER II.
[10] Translated from the original document now preserved in the royal archives at Copenhagen. According to Keith this placard was probably a hoax, but it had a dire effect upon Struensee. “A paper,” Keith writes, “was fixed up in the public squares of this city, setting a price upon his head, and this stratagem—for I can only look upon it as such—had like to have produced a very strange effect, as I am assured for some days he was preparing to leave Denmark, and that the appearance of fifty men
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CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER III.
There was certainly no danger to the King. The people regarded him as a prisoner in the hands of the unscrupulous Minister, and their desire was to deliver him from that bondage. The Queen was only in danger because of her blind attachment to Struensee. If he could be removed, or induced to resign quietly, all would be forgiven her, for her youth, her inexperience and her infatuation aroused pity rather than anger in the breast of the multitude. But, as Struensee’s accomplice, she shared in his
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CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER IV.
When they rose from their knees, all the conspirators, guided by Jessen and headed by the Queen-Dowager, went silently along the dark passages to the apartments of the King. In the ante-chamber they found the King’s valet fast asleep. They roused him, and told him they wished to see his Majesty immediately. Seeing the Queen-Dowager and Prince Frederick, the valet was willing to obey without demur; but the main door of the King’s bed-chamber was locked from within, and they were therefore obliged
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CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER V.
The King held a court in the afternoon at the palace, and was supported on one side by the Queen-Dowager and on the other by his brother. The court was crowded, and by a very different class of people to those who had appeared during the brief reign of Struensee. Many of the nobility, who had heard the glad news, hurried into Copenhagen to personally offer their congratulations to the three royal personages on the overthrow of the detested German Junto. All the Queen-Dowager’s party, all the pri
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CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VI.
Whether Ball was muzzled or not there is no record to tell, but the events at the Danish court having culminated in the catastrophe of January 16, it was only a question of time for the scandal to be bruited abroad in every court in Europe, and in England too. As early as January 23 a London newspaper created great excitement by the following paragraph: “It is affirmed by letters from the continent that a royal princess is certainly detained in a tower, inaccessible to every creature, except suc
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CHAPTER VII.
CHAPTER VII.
In her lonely prison Matilda had ample time for reflection. She reviewed the events of the past few months and her present situation, and she saw, now that it was too late, that the advice and remonstrances of her mother and brother had been given in all good faith. She saw, too, that any hope of deliverance must come from England, and that she could expect nothing from her imbecile husband and the relentless Queen-Dowager and her adherents. For weeks she was kept uncertain of the fate that awai
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CHAPTER VIII.
CHAPTER VIII.
The first week of the trial was occupied in preliminaries, such as taking the depositions of witnesses. These witnesses were many in number. The most prominent of them was Fräulein von Eyben, who had been maid of honour to the Queen. This woman, whose virtue was by no means above suspicion, had been thrust upon the Queen by Holck after the dismissal of Madame Plessen. The Queen had never liked von Eyben, and when she became mistress of her own household, she dismissed her. That she was wise in d
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CHAPTER IX.
CHAPTER IX.
[56] Münter wrote a full and particular account of his efforts, entitled, Narrative of the Conversion and Death of Count Struensee , by Dr. Münter. This book was translated into the English by the Rev. Thomas Rennell: Rivingtons, 1824. It contains long and (to me) not very edifying conversations on religion which are alleged to have taken place between Struensee and the divine. But since these are matters on which people take different views, it is only fair to say that Sir James Mackintosh awar
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CHAPTER X.
CHAPTER X.
Brandt had also received a copy of his sentence from Bang, and, like Struensee, immediately petitioned the King for mercy. It was generally expected that the royal clemency would be exercised in his case. The judges who tried the case had no option but to pass sentence, but some of them had hoped that the extreme penalty of the law would be mitigated. It was the King’s business to sign the sentences, but the question of whether he should, or should not, confirm them was first discussed by the Co
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CHAPTER XI.
CHAPTER XI.
After the sentence of divorce was pronounced, Keith had insisted upon seeing the Queen. For some time this request was refused, or rather he was always put off on one pretext or another. But Keith clamoured in season and out of season at the doors of the Christiansborg, and became so threatening that at last the crafty Osten and the vindictive Juliana Maria had to give way, and most unwillingly gave leave to the English envoy to visit his Sovereign’s sister. But this permission does not seem to
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CHAPTER XII.
CHAPTER XII.
The Queen remained at Stade two days, and then travelled by way of Harburg to Göhrde, a distance of thirty miles, where she was to remain until the castle of Celle was ready for her reception. Göhrde had formerly been a hunting-box of the Dukes of Celle. It was a long, low, unpretending house of brick and timber, and the accommodation was so limited that most of the suite had to be lodged in cottages hard by. Göhrde was situated in the midst of a forest, far removed from any town, and the Queen
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CHAPTER XIII.[94]
CHAPTER XIII.[94]
[95] Rantzau went to the south of France. He died in 1789, in his seventy-second year. [96] A few years later Osten was recalled, and appointed President of the Supreme Court in Copenhagen, but he fell again with Juliana Maria’s Government, and died in 1797 at the age of eighty years. [97] Köller-Banner died at Altona in 1811. [98] The only one that remains of Struensee’s institutions to this day is the foundling hospital, which was so bitterly attacked at the time of its foundation. The King, w
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CHAPTER XIV.
CHAPTER XIV.
[105] Wraxall’s Posthumous Memoirs , vol. i. Queen Matilda’s end was tragically sudden—so sudden as to call forth the wildest rumours of foul play. A report was current in Celle that the Queen was poisoned at the instigation of her deadly enemy, Juliana Maria, acting through the agency of a negro, named Mephisto, who was cook at the castle. It was said that he first gave a poisoned cup of chocolate to a young page in the Queen’s household, and seeing that it worked with fatal effect, he poisoned
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CHAPTER XV.
CHAPTER XV.
[115] Woodford’s despatch, Copenhagen, December 5, 1772. The Crown Prince showed his character soon after he attained his legal majority, for though only a lad of fourteen, he expressed strong dissatisfaction concerning the cabinet orders reintroduced by Guldberg—the same kind of cabinet orders as had cost Struensee his head—and protested. Guldberg sent an insulting message in reply to the Crown Prince’s protest, and Eickstedt forced the young Prince to make an apology. Frederick’s remonstrance
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PRINTED BOOKS, PAMPHLETS, ETC.
PRINTED BOOKS, PAMPHLETS, ETC.
THE ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY PRESS LIMITED THE ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY PRESS LIMITED New and Cheaper Edition. 8vo., 12s. 6d. net With Frontispiece and other Illustrations Caroline the Illustrious Queen-Consort of George II. and sometime Queen-Regent A Study of her Life and Time BY W. H. WILKINS, M.A., F.S.A. AUTHOR OF “THE LOVE OF AN UNCROWNED QUEEN” In the Preface of this book the Author remarks that it is characteristic of the way in which historians have neglected the House of Hanover that no life wit
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Sport and Pastime.
Edited by HIS GRACE THE (EIGHTH) DUKE OF BEAUFORT, K.G., and A. E. T. WATSON. Edited by A. E. T. Watson . Crown 8vo., price 5 s. each Volume, cloth. * * * The Volumes are also issued half-bound in Leather, with gilt top. Price 7s. 6d. net each. Edited by A. E. T. Watson . Crown 8vo., price 5 s. each Volume, cloth. * * * The Volumes are also issued half-bound in Leather, with gilt top. Price 7s. 6d. net each. LOGIC, RHETORIC, PSYCHOLOGY, ETHICS, &C....
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