Princess Caroline of Brunswick (1768-1821)

Princess Caroline of Brunswick
from Huish's Memoirs of her late
 royal highness Charlotte Augusta (1818) 

Profile

Princess Caroline of Brunswick (17 May 1768 - 7 August 1821) was the hated wife of George IV. Her reckless behaviour was investigated twice by parliament and although the King failed to divorce her, she was deprived of being crowned as Queen.

Family history

Caroline Amelia Elizabeth was born on 17 May 1768, the second daughter of Karl Wilhelm, the Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, and Princess Augusta, the eldest sister of George III. She was brought up in the German principality with a great deal of freedom, resulting in unrestrained speech which tended to be vulgar and lacking in respect, particularly towards her mother. Unfortunately, her personal cleanliness also left much to be desired.

A disastrous marriage

On 8 April 1795, Princess Caroline and George, Prince of Wales, were married. From the outset, the prospects of a happy union were slim; in the event, it was an unmitigated disaster. The prince’s motivation for getting married was to appease parliament and persuade them to pay his enormous debts. Although he had separated from Maria Fitzherbert, his long-term mistress, George was at this time infatuated with Frances, Countess of Jersey, who had encouraged him to marry to shield their relationship.

George IV
from La Belle Assemblée (1830)

George disliked Princess Caroline on sight. He heartlessly made his mistress a Lady of the Bedchamber for his new wife and did not scruple to advertise that she was her rival. Lady Jersey’s behaviour towards Caroline was unkind and cruel; the prince treated Caroline with disdain and rudeness.

Princess Charlotte

The royal couple only remained together as man and wife for a few weeks, but Caroline fell pregnant; she gave birth to a daughter, Princess Charlotte Caroline Augusta, on 7 January 1796.

Princess Charlotte
from La Belle Assemblée (1816)

Separation

By March 1796, George wanted an official separation from his wife, but his father would not allow it. The prince refused to see his wife except on formal occasions, but nevertheless restricted Caroline’s freedom and access to her daughter. In 1805, the king, George III, made her Ranger of Greenwich Park allowing her greater independence and financial security.

The Delicate Investigation

In 1806, Lady Douglas, a former companion of the Princess of Wales, accused her of having given birth to an illegitimate child in 1802. The government made a thorough investigation into the claims which were proved to be unfounded. It appears that the child Caroline was accused of conceiving out of wedlock was William Austin whom she had legally adopted.

Spencer Perceval threatened to publish the findings of the investigation if Caroline was not fully restored to her royal position; “The Book” was printed despite Caroline being hastily received at Court and provided fuel for her supporters for many years.

The wayward wife

In 1814, Caroline was given leave to travel abroad, firstly to Germany and then on to Italy. Her behaviour at this time can only be described as reckless; she publicly engaged in adulterous affairs without the least discretion, the most notable of which was with Barolomeo Bergami, also known as Count Pergami.

The Queen Caroline Affair

When George acceded to the throne in 1820, Caroline technically became the Queen Consort of England and on 5 June, she arrived from Italy, amidst public rejoicing, to claim her rights as queen. George wanted to divorce his adulterous wife and deprive her of her rank.

In response, the cabinet introduced what is commonly known as the Bill of Pains and Penalties, which would have dissolved the king’s marriage and deprived her of her title. Her adultery was easily proven and the bill was passed by a small majority in the House of Lords, but it was dropped because of its widespread unpopularity.

Decline

Although championed by ardent supporters such as Sarah, Lady Jersey, Caroline’s popularity waned; she withdrew from public view, accepting a house and an allowance of £50,000 a year. She made one final attempt to be recognised as Queen; she attempted to enter the abbey for the coronation and be crowned alongside her estranged husband. She was refused admittance, despite the sympathy of the crowd, and gave up the attempt. She died just a few weeks later, on 7 August 1821, at Brandenburg House, the house of Elizabeth, Margravine of Brandenburg-Ansbach-Bayreuth.

Sources used include:
Chedzoy, Alan, Seaside Sovereign - King George III at Weymouth, (2003)
Fry, Plantagenet Somerset, The Kings & Queens of England & Scotland, (1990)
Harris, James, First Earl of Malmesbury, Diaries and Correspondence of James Harris, First Earl of Malmesbury, Volume III (1834)
Huish, Robert, Memoirs of her late royal highness Charlotte Augusta (1818)
Parissien, Steven, George IV, The Grand Entertainment (2001)
Watson, J. Steven, Oxford History of England: The Reign of George III 1760-1815, (1960)

Sarah Child Villiers, Countess of Jersey (1785-1867)

Sarah Sophia Villiers, Countess of Jersey © Rachel Knowles

Profile

Sarah Child Villiers, Countess of Jersey (4 March 1785 – 26 January 1867), was a leading figure in Regency society and one of the patronesses of Almack's Assembly Rooms.

Family history

Lady Sarah Sophia Fane was born on 4 March 1785, the eldest daughter of John Fane, the tenth Earl of Westmorland, and Sarah Anne Child.

Her mother, Sarah Child, was the only daughter and heiress of Robert Child, the senior partner in Child’s bank. He was vehemently opposed to her marrying the Earl and so the couple were forced to elope to Gretna Green, where they were married in 1782.

Heiress to Child’s fortune

Robert Child was so incensed that his daughter had married against his wishes that he cut her out of his will, determined not to let the Earls of Westmorland benefit from his wealth. Under the terms of his new will, everything was left in trust for his daughter’s second surviving son or eldest daughter.

On this basis, on her mother's death in 1793, Lady Sarah became heiress to all her grandfather's wealth, with an estimated income in the region of £60,000 a year. She was a very wealthy lady!1  She also inherited his position as senior partner of the Child and Co Bank, a role which she actively held from her majority in 1806 until her death.

The Earl of Jersey's seat at Middleton Stoney, Oxfordshire
from Oxfordshire, The history and antiquities of the hundreds
of Bullington and Ploughley by J Dunkin (1823)

Marriage and family life

Lady Sarah married George Villiers, Viscount Villiers, on 23 May 1804. George Villiers became the 5th Earl of Jersey on his father’s death in 1805. The Earl took his wife’s name in addition to his own by royal licence in 1819 and became known as George Child Villiers.2 The couple had seven children who survived infancy: George (1808), Augustus (1810), Frederick (1815), Francis (1819), Sarah (1822), Clementina (1824) and Adela (1828).

Although Lady Jersey had inherited Osterley Park from her grandfather, the couple chose rather to live at Middleton Park in Middleton Stoney in Oxfordshire, where Lord Jersey successfully bred and trained racehorses. When in London, they resided at 38 Berkeley Square.

 

Read more about Osterley Park here.

Osterley Park (2014)

“Queen Sarah”

Throughout the Regency period and beyond, Lady Jersey held a leading role in the ton, and was nicknamed “Queen Sarah” in acknowledgement of her position. According to Chancellor:

Her amiable manners, her interest in politics, her admirable linguistic powers, her kindly, genial nature, all combined to give her a sort of prescriptive right to the exalted sphere in which she moved.3

The first quadrille at Almack's
from The Reminiscences and Recollections of Captain Gronow (1889)

She was one of the patronesses of Almack’s Assembly Rooms, where she famously refused entry to the Duke of Wellington who turned up at the Rooms at seven minutes after 11pm when the doors were shut. On returning from Paris in 1815, she introduced the quadrille to the Rooms.

“Silence”

In her letters, Harriet, Countess of Granville, refers to Lady Jersey as “Silence”. The nickname does not appear to be used maliciously – it is rather a joke on her friend’s loquaciousness.

Captain Gronow describes Lady Jersey as being “inconceivably rude”, but Sir William Fraser describes her as being:

...very quick and intelligent, with the strongest sense of humour that I have ever seen in a woman; taking the keenest delight in a good joke, and having, I should say, great physical enjoyment of life.4

Sarah Sophia, Countess of Jersey
from The Illustrated Belle Assemblée (1844)

Lady Jersey was immortalised as Zenobia in Disraeli’s Endymion. She also featured as Lady Augusta in Lady Caroline Lamb's scandalous novel Glenarvon.

Political activist

For many years, Lady Jersey was an ardent supporter of the Whigs. She was a passionate advocate for Princess Caroline, Princess of Wales, and was her most prominent female supporter during the “Queen Caroline Affair” of 1820-21, when the Prince of Wales sought to prevent his estranged wife from assuming her role as Queen. Lady Jersey found herself under personal attack from John Bull, the most successful and widely circulated contemporary loyalist newspaper, which led to a libel suit against John Bull for impugning her honour.

By the end of the 1820s, she had switched her political allegiance to the Tory party and was championing Wellington and Peel. Her influence as a political hostess faded in the 1840s and she was eclipsed by others, particularly by her old rival Lady Cowper who had married Lord Palmerston in 1839.

Engraving of the Princess of Wales
from La Belle Assemblée (1807)

The other Lady Jersey

Lady Jersey is not to be confused with Frances Villiers, Countess of Jersey, her notorious mother-in-law, who was once mistress to George IV while he was Prince Regent and was instrumental in encouraging his hatred towards Princess Caroline.

Death

Lady Jersey died on 26 January 1867 at the age of 81 years. She left most of her property to her grandson, the 7th Earl of Jersey, but made generous bequests to her other grandchildren. She was buried at Middleton Stoney in Oxfordshire.

Rachel Knowles writes faith-based Regency romance and historical non-fiction. She has been sharing her research on this blog since 2011. Rachel lives in the beautiful Georgian seaside town of Weymouth, Dorset, on the south coast of England, with her husband, Andrew.

Find out more about Rachel's books and sign up for her newsletter here.

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Notes

1. The estimated income of £60,000 is from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (see below), but it gives no date as to which year it relates to. Taking 1804, the year of Sarah's marriage, as a base point and using the Measuring Worth website, an income of £60,000 would be equivalent to £4.12 million using the retail price index or an even greater £51.5 million using their average earnings method. Either way, it was a huge income!

2. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography suggests an earlier date of 1812.

3. Memorials of St. James’s Street and Chronicles of Almack’s by E Beresford Chancellor (1922).
4. Ibid.

For a discussion about relative costs in the Regency period, see my blog post: How much did a ticket to a Regency ball really cost?

Sources used include:
Chancellor, E. Beresford, Memorials of St. James’s Street and Chronicles of Almack’s (1922)
Dunkin, John, Oxfordshire, The history and antiquities of the hundreds of Bullington and Ploughley vol II (1823)
Granville, Harriet, Countess of, Letters of Harriet, Countess of Granville 1810-1845, edited by F. Leveson Gower (1894)
Gronow, Captain, The Reminiscences and Recollections of Captain Gronow (1889, 1900)
Reynolds, KD, Villiers, Sarah Sophia Child-, Countess of Jersey (1785-1867) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn May 2006, accessed 6 Oct 2012)

Photograph © RegencyHistory

Regency History's guide to Almack's Assemby Rooms

Highest Life in London - Tom & Jerry 'sporting a toe' among the

Corinthians at Almacks in the West by IR & G Cruikshank

in Tom and Jerry: Life in London by P Egan (1869 first pub 1821)

The importance of Almack’s

During the Regency period, Almack’s Assembly Rooms were at the heart of the London season. Their importance cannot be overstated. Possessing a voucher to enter the sacred portals of the rooms could make or break a young lady’s entrance into the ton and her chances of finding a suitable husband.

Captain Gronow declared in his reminiscences of 1814:

At the present time one can hardly conceive the importance which was attached to getting admission to Almack's, the seventh heaven of the fashionable world.1

According to Lord Lamington:

Almack's was the portal to that select circle of intellect and grace which constituted the charm of Society.2

The early days

Almack’s Assembly Rooms opened on 12 February 1765 in King Street, St. James's, in the heart of fashionable London.3 They were situated immediately to the east of Pall Mall Place and comprised

 … three very elegant new-built rooms, a ten-guinea subscription, for which you have a ball and supper once a week for twelve weeks.4

Willis's Rooms
from Old and New London by E Walford (1878)

The rooms were named after their founder, a Scotsman named William Almack.5 Almack also owned The Thatched House Tavern and founded a club for gentlemen that later became Brooks’s. On his death in 1781, the management of the rooms passed to Almack’s niece and her husband, Mr Willis.

During the first phase of the life of Almack’s, the rooms were home to a ladies’ club, where both sexes met to gamble, whilst dancing went on in the great room. It rivalled Carlisle House, whose entertainments, run by the redoubtable Madame Cornelys, were becoming increasingly scandalous. Almack’s combated the mixed nature of the Carlisle assemblies by developing an exclusiveness that set it apart.

When the Pantheon opened in 1772, Almack’s suffered a loss of popularity. Twenty years later, in January 1792, the Pantheon burned down and although rebuilt, it never rivalled Almack’s again.

The exclusive club of the ton

From the 1790s onwards, Almack’s entered a new phase. The excessive gambling disappeared, and the rooms became entirely given over to dances and assemblies. The exclusivity of the rooms increased and Almack’s became the place for a young lady to be seen to demonstrate her position in the ton and for a gentleman to go in search of a wife of good social standing. Hence, it was sometimes referred to as ‘The Marriage Mart’.

Almack’s exclusivity stemmed from the way that it restricted its membership. To attend a ball at Almack’s, it was necessary to procure a voucher, signed by one of the patronesses, and the patronesses kept lists of who was ‘in’ and who was ‘out’.

A printed copy of a genunie Almack's voucher used with
 kind permission STG Misc. Box 7 (Almack's Voucher)
© The Huntington Library, San Marino, CA

You can read more about the vouchers here: A genuine Almack’s voucher.

To be offered a voucher meant acceptance into the ton; to lose one’s voucher indicated social ostracism. This lasted until around 1824 when the exclusive nature of the club began to lessen.

As the English poet and wit, Henry Luttrell wrote in Advice to Julia (1820):

All on that magic List depends;

Fame, fortune, fashion, lovers, friends;

'Tis that which gratifies or vexes

All ranks, all ages, and both sexes.

If once to Almack's you belong,

Like monarchs you can do no wrong;

But banished thence on Wednesday night,

By Jove, you can do nothing right.6

When were the balls held?

The timing and frequency of the balls varied over time, but by 1818, a pattern of weekly balls held on Wednesday evenings during the season had been established.

According to Leigh’s New Picture of London (1818):

The balls at Willis's rooms, commonly called Almack's, are held every Wednesday during the season. They are very splendid, and are very numerously and fashionably attended. Some ladies are styled lady patronesses of these balls; and in order to render them more select, (the price being only seven shillings,) it is necessary that a visitor's name should be inserted in one of these ladies' books, which of course makes the admission difficult.7

The patronesses of Almack’s

Sarah Villiers, Lady Jersey © Rachel Knowles

The lady patronesses changed over time. Seven are mentioned in Gronow’s often-quoted list:

… the Ladies Castlereagh, Jersey, Cowper, and Sefton, Mrs Drummond Burrell, now Lady Willoughby, the Princess Esterhazy, and the Countess Lieven.8

They were not, however, all patronesses in 1814 as Gronow suggested. Other patronesses included the Marchioness of Salisbury and Lady Downshire.

According to Ticknor, writing in 1819, one of the ladies acted as the patroness of each ball.9

Vouchers were granted to those who met the criteria of the patronesses. This depended more on position in society, address, and behaviour than on wealth. If granted a voucher, a young lady could be introduced to suitable partners by the patronesses.

The rules of Almack’s

The first quadrille at Almack's c1815
from The Reminiscences and Recollections of Captain Gronow (1889)

Once your name was entered on the hallowed list and a voucher issued, you could purchase a ticket. For entry to Almack’s, you needed both a voucher and a ticket.

Luttrell wrote in his Advice for Julia (1820):

Suppose the prize by hundreds miss’d

Is yours at last. – You’re on the list. –

Your voucher’s issued, duly signed;

But hold – your ticket’s left behind.

What’s to be done? There’s no admission.

In vain you flatter, scold, petition,

Feel your blood mounting like a rocket,

Fumble in vain in every pocket.

‘The rule’s so strict, I dare not stretch it,’

Cries Willis, ‘pray, my lord, go fetch it.’10

By 1819, a rule was introduced that forbade entry to the rooms after 11 pm. Ticknor recounted the story of how the Duke of Wellington was famously turned away by Lady Jersey for arriving at seven minutes past eleven. Later, this rule was relaxed, and Ticknor recorded that in 1835, the doors were closed at midnight.

Another rule was dress. According to Captain Gronow, in 1814, there was a rule

… that no gentleman should appear at the assemblies without being dressed in knee-breeches, white cravat, and chapeau bras.11

Gronow wrote that the Duke of Wellington was once turned away for wearing trousers but I am inclined to doubt his memory as it seems unlikely that the Duke was turned away for being late and for wearing trousers and Ticknor is generally considered the more reliable source.

According to Moers, Almack’s served

… positively meagre refreshments: weak bohea, weak lemonade for variety, thin slices of brown bread and butter, biscuits and stale cake.12

Only country dances – both Scotch reels and English country dances - were performed until about 1815 when Lady Jersey introduced the quadrille and the Countess Lieven introduced the waltz.

Updated 12 June 2020

Rachel Knowles writes clean/Christian historical romance set in the time of Jane Austen. She has been sharing her research on this blog since 2011. Rachel lives in the beautiful Georgian seaside town of Weymouth, Dorset, on the south coast of England, with her husband, Andrew.

Find out more about Rachel's books and sign up for her newsletter here.

If you have enjoyed this blog and want to encourage me and help me to keep making my research freely available, please buy me a virtual cup of coffee by clicking the button below.

 

Notes

1. Gronow, Captain RH, The Reminiscences of Captain Gronow (1862).

2. Chancellor, E. Beresford, Memorials of St. James’s Street and Chronicles of Almack’s (1922).

3. Date from Walpole, Horace, The Letters of Horace Walpole, edited by P Cunningham, in eight volumes (1857) Volume 4 (1762-66) and confirmed by Gronow. Some sources say 13th or 20th.

4. In a letter from Gilly Williams to George Selwyn, 22 February 1765, in Jesse, John Heneage, George Selwyn and his contemporaries (1843).

5. EB Chancellor wrote that his name may have been a pseudonym to disguise his Scottish origins, as anything Scottish was out of favour at this time.

6. Luttrell, Henry, Advice to Julia (1820).

7. Leigh, Samuel, Leigh's New Picture of London (1818).

8. Gronow, Captain. The Reminiscences and Recollections of Captain Gronow (1862).

9. Ticknor, George, Life, Letters, and Journals of George Ticknor (1876).

10. Luttrell, Henry, Advice to Julia (1820).

11. Gronow, Captain. The Reminiscences and Recollections of Captain Gronow (1862).

12. Moers, Ellen, The Dandy (1960).

Sources used include:

Chancellor, E. Beresford, Memorials of St. James’s Street and Chronicles of Almack’s (1922)

Gronow, Captain. The Reminiscences and Recollections of Captain Gronow (1862)

Jesse, John Heneage, George Selwyn and his contemporaries (1843)

Leigh, Samuel, Leigh's New Picture of London (1818)

Luttrell, Henry, Advice to Julia (1820)

Moers, Ellen, The Dandy (1960)

Ticknor, George, Life, Letters, and Journals of George Ticknor (1876)

The Times digital archive.