Caroline the Queen

Lady Sundon brought the Elixir and when she had taken it the Queen said she would rest a while.

The King came bursting into the bedchamber.

‘What’s this?’ he said. ‘What’s this?’

‘Her Majesty was taken ill at the library.’

‘A waste of money! Who wants libraries! ‘ Then he saw the Queen’s pale face and a look of fear came to his face. ‘You’re a fool,’ he shouted, ‘to tire yourself with these stupid things. Making libraries for a lot of boobies to gape at. No wonder you feel faint.’

The Queen knew that his abuse in a way measured his devotion for her. He attacked her because he was frightened.

So, she thought, I must look ill.

‘We shall cancel the drawing room,’ he said.

‘No,’ insisted the Queen. ‘I shall be well in an hour or so. If I sleep now I shall be fully recovered. It has been so before.’

The King was immediately cheered.

‘Stupid libraries for a lot of boobies! ‘ he muttered as he left her.

In the drawing room Lord Hervey approached the Queen’s table.

‘My God, Madam,’ he said, ‘are you ill?’

‘I have had a touch of my old enemy, the colic. I was at the library this morning when it started, so I came back and went to bed.’

‘You are still in pain, Madam. What did you take?’

‘Daffy’s Elixir. Dr Tesier recommended it.’

‘Madam, you should not be here. For God’s sake, go to your room.’

‘You are very vehement, my lord.’

‘I fear for you, Madam.’

The Queen did not meet his eyes. She tried to smile at someone who was approaching. Oh, God, she thought, let this pass. Let the King dismiss these people and let me get to my bed.

Lord Hervey stayed by her side.

God bless him, thought the Queen. He is a cynical man, worldly, perhaps a little wicked, but I love and bless him.

She was watching the King, eagerly waiting for him to retire. And now ... he was doing so and at last she was free.

Oh, the comfort of bed!

Lady Sundon was efficiently helping her to it.

‘Rest, Sundon. I need rest. Oh, my God, I feel so ill.’

‘Yes, Madam. I think I should send for the doctors.’

The Queen was very ill. There was no denying it. Many remedies had been tried; she had been given snake root and brandy, more Daffy’s Elixir, mint-water, and usequebaugh; she had been given clysters, and blooded, and nothing eased her.

The King was frantic with anxiety, cursing the Queen, the doctors, and all those who came near him.

‘She’ll be better soon,’ he insisted. ‘It’s a colic ... nothing more. She’s had colics before.’

She seemed a little quieter and the Princess Caroline sat by her bed with Lord Hervey, for although she wandered a little in her mind she seemed comforted to have them there.

She spoke suddenly to them and said: ‘I have an ill which no one knows of.’ And then she closed her eyes and seemed to sleep.

After that she seemed a little better and expressed her anxiety about the Princess Caroline who was herself ill and should not be sitting up; whereupon Lord Hervey said that he would keep watch by her bedside, and if there was any change in her condition he himself would tell the Princess Caroline without any disguise exactly how the Queen was.

Only then would the Princess leave her mother’s bedside.

The King said he would sit in the Queen’s bedroom with Lord Hervey and Sir Hans Sloane was sent for and, with Dr Hulse, ordered purging and blooding. Princess Amelia lay on a couch in the Queen’s bedroom; and once or twice during the night Lord Hervey went to report to the Princess Caroline what was happening in the sick room.

In the morning the Queen seemed a little better.

As the days passed it began to be believed that the Queen was dying.

The Prince of Wales came from Kew to Carlton House.

When the King heard this he shouted: ‘If the puppy should, in one of his impertinent affected airs of duty and affection, dare to come to St James’s he shall be told I wonder at his impudence. I am in no humour to bear with his impertinence and I shall tell him to get out of my house.’

But soon the Prince was letting it be known that he had come to Carlton House so that he might be near his mother, and this again set the King in a fury.

‘This is one of his scoundrel’s tricks,’ he cried. ‘I always hated the rascal and now I hate him more than ever. He wants to come here and insult his dying mother, but he shall not come here and act his silly parts, false, lying, cowardly, nauseous puppy. And suppose the Queen loved him as much as she hates him, she is not in a condition to bear the emotion.’

The King went to the Queen and sat down by her bed, scowling at her. Get well, that scowl seemed to say. How can I live without you?

She smiled at him and said she was surprised that the Prince had not sent to ask after her. ‘Sooner or later,’ she said, ‘I shall be plagued by some message because he will think it will look well to ask after me. No doubt he hopes I’ll be fool enough to let him come and give him the pleasure of seeing my last breath got out of my body, by which means he will have the joy of knowing I was dead five minutes sooner than he would in Pall Mall.’

‘You need not fear he will come here,’ said the King. ‘I have taken steps to prevent that.’

‘He is a sad wretch, and if I should grow worse and be weak enough in my ravings to ask for him, I beg of you understand that I am raving. Promise me now that you will not let him come to me.’

‘I promise,’ said the King.

The King bent over the Queen’s bed.

‘Caroline! ‘ he whispered.

She opened her eyes and looked at him.

‘I’m afraid your illness comes from a thing I have given you my promise never to speak of. I can no longer keep that secret.’

Caroline started out of her languor.

‘You must. You must.’

‘I ca

‘I beg of you ...’

There were tears on his cheeks. ‘I ca

‘Please … please....’

But he had turned away. She saw him talking to the doctors.

She saw the doctors approaching the bed; and she turned her face to the wall and wept.

An operation had been performed on the Queen, but the doctors feared they were too late to save her life. Now there could be no doubt that the Queen was dying.

The King was stricken with grief, roaring his rage one moment, breaking down and weeping the next.

The Queen was in great pain, and now that her secret was known she showed no desire to live. She seemed as though she were eagerly awaiting death.

The King would not leave her. He slept on her bed, giving her restless nights and enduring them himself.

‘I must be near her. She will be happier to know that I am near.’

He told everyone how good the Queen was, how there had never been another woman in his life whom he cared for as he cared for her.

He would sit by her bed and remind her of how he had come to court her. ‘I loved you then ... I love you now.

‘You ca

Then he would grow angry because she was restless. ‘You should sleep,’ he would shout at her. ‘How can you expect to rest when you won’t lie still a moment?’ Then he would go back to the days of their youth.

Did she remember when she had first come to Hanover ... the first days of their marriage? Monsieur de Busch ... the ardent young man who had come in disguise to court her ... and he turned out to be the Prince of Hanover, later to be King of England. Did she remember those days at Herrenhausen, at the Leine Schloss?