THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 14, 1996 TAG: 9607150185
SECTION: COMMENTAR PAGE: J2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY GEORGE HOLBERT TUCKER
LENGTH: 86 lines
THE UNRULY QUEEN
The Life of Queen Caroline
FLORA FRASER
Alfred A. Knopf. 537 pp. $35.
If you are a British royalty buff and are becoming a trifle bored by the matrimonial squabbles of Charles, Diana, Andrew, Fergie and the other members of the House of Windsor currently washing their dirty linen in public, I heartily recommend that you divert yourself with this delightfully scandalous Regency romp.
Not only does The Unruly Queen: The Life of Queen Caroline reveal that today's self-centered royals are no better than their not-too-far-distant privileged kin, it also makes you wonder why the British have patiently endured the yoke of parasitic royalty for so long.
Caroline of Brunswick, Princess of Wales (1768-1821), the subject of Flora Fraser's sparkling and well-documented biography, was once characterized by English connoisseur of comedy Max Beerbohm, thus: ``Fate wrote her a most tremendous tragedy, and she played it in tights.''
A daughter of Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick, and the Princess Augusta, a sister of George III, Caroline became a pawn in a dynastic marriage at the age of 27 with 33-year-old George, Prince of Wales (1762-1830), who later became Prince Regent and the king of England.
A flighty, highly sexed product of royal inbreeding, Caroline regarded personal cleanliness as unimportant. Her husband, whose artistic tastes would have only qualified him as an excellent interior decorator, was fastidious in a period when regular bathing was regarded by many as effeminate. As a consequence, when Caroline was first presented to him, he gave one sniff and then called loudly for the brandy decanter.
The marriage was a farce from the beginning, not only because the couple were totally incompatible, but because the Prince was already a married man. But his secret union to Mrs. Maria Fitzherbert, which had taken place 10 years before his arranged marriage to Caroline, was illegal because Mrs. Fitzherbert was a Catholic. British law forbade any member of the royal family from marrying a member of the Roman faith.
The wedding ceremony was disastrous: The Prince was dead drunk. Later that evening, after the marriage had been consummated, the Prince staggered out of bed and spent the rest of the night sprawled on the hearth with his head dangerously near the grate.
The couple's only child, the Princess Charlotte, was born nine months later, and the Prince and Caroline went their separate ways. She eventually rented a country house near London and collected a raffish court around her.
Caroline became increasingly indiscreet, however, and this eventually led to a ``Delicate Investigation.'' Adultery on the part of a princess of Wales being a criminal act punishable by death, Caroline was fortunate that the testimony was so garbled and contrary. She got off with only a reprimand.
In the meantime, Caroline's cause had been taken up by the out-of-power Whig Party, and while this gained her a certain amount of popularity with the lower classes, it only incited the Prince's Tory ministers to continue to harass her. Finally, unable to take the heat from her royal persecutors any longer, Caroline shook off the dust of England and set out for the Continent. By then she was a blowsy, highly rouged 46-year-old buffoon. For the next six years she gallivanted about Europe, raising eyebrows wherever she went.
In Rome she flirted openly with the Pope. Later, she visited the Island of Elba where Napoleon had first been exiled and came away bearing a filched ebony billiard cue as a souvenir. Once she had worn out her welcome in Europe, Caroline departed for the Near East where she climaxed her pilgrimage by riding into Jerusalem ``astride an ass'' accompanied by her motley retinue.
When George III died in 1820, and her husband inherited the throne, Caroline decided it was high time to return to England. To prevent her ascension, the Tory government, spurred on by Geroge IV, introduced a ``Bill of Pains and Penalties'' into Parliament that would have given the new king grounds for a divorce.
The ensuing action, in which no decision was ever handed down, was a travesty, only producing a small library of smutty Grub Street journalism recording her real misconduct as well as much that was never proven against her.
When Caroline appeared at Westminster Abbey on Coronation Day to assert her rights, she was rebuffed by government officials. This was the crowning blow of Caroline's tragicomic life, and she died shortly afterward.
Flora Fraser is the daughter of biographer Antonia Fraser and granddaughter of biographer Elizabeth Longford. She lives in London. I defy any fair-minded reader to put down her Unruly Queen without feeling sorry for the misguided woman who was spiritually crucified by the British royal family and most of the aristocracy of her era. MEMO: George Holbert Tucker is a columnist for The Virginian-Pilot. by CNB