Category Archives: Regency

Persistent Prince – Part Two

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To be fair, the Princess Charlotte had been embroiled in a failed engagement with the Prince of Orange, a failed romance with a Prussian prince (or two, depending on who you ask) and quite possibly (ie, understandably) had her head turned by Lord Byron and his turquoise ring.

Lord Byron in Eastern costume

In any case, she had no interest in Prince Leopold.

It seems likes a minor footnote, yet the following excerpt leaves one in little doubt as to the prince’s intentions:

“He paid many compliments to Princess Charlotte, who was by no means partial to him, and only received him with civility. ..and when we drove in the Park, he would ride near the carriage, and endeavor to be noticed.”

–from the memoirs of Miss Cornelia Knight, companion to HRH Princess Charlotte.

Rebuffed, Leopold went back to the field of war. Napoleon had returned to the Continent and must be defeated.  By the time the conflict was over, Princess Charlotte had come to her senses.

I mean, look at him!  What’s not to like?

In my Notorious series, Vivien and Diana joined in the speculation swirling around the unknown prince and his temerity to ask the Regent for Charlotte’s hand.

“I hear that Prince Leopold is very handsome.  Do you suppose Princess Charlotte picked him out when the Allied sovereigns visited last year?” Vivien asked.

Diana snorted.  “Not as random as that, my dear.  Russian intrigue, I’ll warrant.”

“And how would you know?”

Diana grinned.  “I’ve made inquiries.  ‘Twas the Grand Duchess of Oldenburg who introduced Prince Leopold to the princess.  Putting a spoke in Prinny’s wheel and his plans for the Dutch marriage, so to speak.”

“But the Russians were in favor of the match, I thought.”

“Ah, that’s the intriguing part.   You know how Prinny keeps Princess Charlotte all shut up at Warwick House?”

That circumstance never failed to arouse Vivien’s sympathy for the princess.  “They say no one is allowed to see her since she broke off with the Prince of Orange.”

“Except the Tsar’s sister.”  Diana tilted her head in amusement, the jaunty angle of her shako hat almost arch in manner.  “I had it at the Jersey ball.  Countess Lieven swore the Grand Duchess prevailed on the Regent to allow her to see the princess–on the assurance she would get Charlotte to reconsider the dutchman’s suit.”

“And her ulterior motive?”

“She was escorted by none other than your handsome calvary officer from Saxon von something or other.”

The Tsar’s sister may have had yet another motive.  Her own sister needed a husband.  And no one except the Prince of Orange would do.

Persistent Prince – Part One

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Miss Catherine Middleton

I’m not convinced “Waity Katie” is an entirely accurate nickname.  With all the speculation and rumor over the last eight years, who was really the party that waited, or more importantly, the party that persisted?

During the Regency period, speculation and rumor also abounded.  Overwrought correspondence, backstairs intrigue and the unhappy marriage of Charlotte’s parents nearly scotched the unlikely courtship of England’s heiress by a penniless German prince–but for his persistence.

Leopold had no money but early on he had a way of attracting the rich and mighty, among them two emperors.  The first was Napoleon, who asked the young officer to join his army. In a fateful decision, Leopold instead accepted a commission in the Russian Imperial Army and went on to distinguish himself on the battlefield.  The Tsar brought him to England as a member of his retinue to celebrate the Allied victory over the Little Corporal.   It was then our hero was granted an audience with England’s princess.

Prince Leopold is introduced to Princess Charlotte

It seems Prince Leopold scarcely made an impression, favorable or otherwise, in Charlotte’s reception salon.

But he was persistent.

The Windsors aka Saxe-Coburg-Gothas

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Prince Leopold

Regency’s beloved Princess Charlotte married Prince Leopold, formally Leopold Georg Christian Friedrich, Prince of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld.  Saalfeld was switched out for Gotha.

You pronounce Georg GEE-org.

And here I was thinking Baroness Schrader was mangling the captain’s Christian name in The Sound of Music. The one with the smoky voice.  Sultry.  Cigarettes in long holders.  Glad to get that cleared up.

Prince William

Hmmm, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha:

Leopold was not fated to give his surname to a new English dynasty.  But later his nephew Albert did.

The Saxe-Coburg and Gotha dynasty of England became known as the Windsors.  It’s all of a piece.  And all in the family.

A year after the events in Notorious Vow, Diana announced her preference to stroll rather than ride with Vivien along Hyde Park’s Rotten Row.  She blamed Garnet’s pregnancy to justify this deviation.  Vivien was glad for the chance to walk with her friend for she had heard the Princess Charlotte had declared a preference for one of her suitors.

“I hear Her Royal Highness has fixed on some minor prince in the Emperor of Russia’s train,” Vivien remarked as they entered the Grosvenor gate of the park.

“I’ve heard that as well.  But Her Royal Highness may be fixed on the Emperor’s pet monkey for all Prinny cares.” Diana shook out the folds of her short pelisse.  It had just been made up by her modiste and featured the latest craze for Spanish buttons.  “The Regent is set on her marrying the Young Frog of Orange.”

“But why should he?” Vivien wondered aloud.  “Is he all that keen on a Dutch alliance now that Napoleon is defeated?”

Diana linked her arm through Vivien’s.  “The dutchman is willing to take Princess Charlotte out of the country.  Prinny has always been quite jealous of her popularity with the people.”

They walked in silence for awhile, broken only by various acquaintances that hailed them from time to time.

“Do you know his name?” Vivien presently asked.  “The German prince?”

“Prince Leopold of Saxon Schloss von something or other.”

“Oh, that cannot be his name.”  Vivien giggled.  “Be serious.”

“Does it matter?  Prinny is not going to let anyone have her that won’t take her away from England.  And Leopold hasn’t a feather to fly with.”

Regency Wedding

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These days it seems appropriate to be discussing royal nuptials.  Therefore, who can resist making comparisons?  I, for one, cannot.  

On this day, May 2nd, 1816, one hundred and ninety-five years ago, HRH Princess Charlotte, the Prince Regent’s daughter, married Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg.  After revisiting some primary historical sources, I have discovered the rather surprising conclusion that Kate and Wills have much in common with the most popular royal couple from the Regency era.

Of course, we can be reasonably sure of at least two major differences.  I refer to them below using my favorite scenes from Monty Python for purposes of illustration only.

Indulge me.

1)  We know that the heir-presumptive will not have to undergo the rigors of childbirth at the hands of nineteenth century obstetrics.  But if he should want to, please see  I want to be a woman at :22.

2) Kate won’t have to become King of the Belgians.  You see, they’ve already got one!  See the French taunting King Arthur at 1:22.   Well, some Belgians do speak French.

Sorry, sorry!  I just get carried away.

In the coming weeks some curious connections and common paths between the Regency and modern royal wedding will be presented.  Courtship, houses, dresses, manners and other momentous concerns will be examined.  With the help of some characters from my Notorious series.

Will you join me?

Regency sports car

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There were all kinds of carriages, suitable for a variety of purposes, during the Regency period.   In Persuasion, Anne Elliott pointed out to Captain Benwick that she believed they were living in a great age for poetry.  I feel the same way about the movies made within the last twenty years on Regency subjects.  Particularly their display of horses and carriages.  Willoughby drives Marianne in a phaeton (Sense and Sensibility, 1995), Sir Walter Elliott enters a town coach as he leaves Kellynch Hall (Persuasion, 1997), and Miss Elizabeth Bennett changes from her cousin’s gig to the public post-chaise, a large conveyance for regional travel (Pride and Prejudice, 1995).  Which she prefers to Lady DeBurgh’s barouche!

In Notorious Vow, Vivien is impressed by the earl of Northam’s customized tilbury, a light, fast, two-wheeled carriage normally designed for one horse, but which he had modified to be pulled by a pair of “sweet-goers” bred at Wimberley.

The image to the right is a phaeton driven by an intrepid female driver.  Read Heyer’s Regency Buck for an even more intrepid heroine who dares to drive her own racing curricle in a wagered race to Brighton that nearly lands her in the basket.  Her guardian, the Earl of Worth, has to employ his own record-setting team to catch her.

“You are not to be the judge of the propriety of my actions!  If it pleases me to drive a curricle to Brighton it is of no business of yours!”

“Do you think I will permit my ward to make herself the talk of the town?  Do you think it suits my pride to have my ward drive down to Brighton wind-blown, dissheveled, a butt for every kind of coarse wit, a object of disgust to every person of taste and refinement?”

Strong words indeed from a man to a woman whose wardship he never sought nor desired.   And small wonder it resulted in an unforgettable tension between two people hopelessly in love.

Regency Dining: two courses only?

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In Notorious Vow, Vivien finds her mother’s middle-class family has varying reactions to her new friendship with Lady Diana.  Her cousin Susan is brimming with curiosity over what the viscountess wears.  Her uncle in particular, a solid man of business, blames it all on the horse she mysteriously received as a gift.

“Aha.  It all comes back to that horse.  I expect you will keep the animal?”

Vivien smiled.  “Of course, Uncle.”

He rose and held out his arm to escort her into the dining room for dinner.  Meals at Camden Place were complex affairs with multiple courses and every formality observed. If Uncle Camden did not care what how the upper class dined, Vivien knew her aunt certainly did.

“You must find our supper paltry after dining at Northam’s table,” Mrs. Camden said as she entered with her daughter, Miss Susan Camden, a lively girl with a bouncing sort of prettiness.  

“It was only a light repast, Aunt.  Not above two courses and served on a buffet.”

“Two courses only?”

Vivien’s Aunt Camden has the same view of how the upper classes keep their table as Mrs. Scorton in Heyer’s Cotillion.  From a masterful passage on the abundance of the English table:

Mrs. Scorton was a lavish housewife, and prided herself upon the table she kept.  When the soup was removed, the manservant, assisted by a page and two female servants, set a boiled leg of lamb with spinach before his master, a roast sirloin of beef before his mistress, and filled up all the remaining space on the board with dishes of baked fish, white collops, fricassee of chicken, two different vegetables, and several sauce-boats…

Eliza asked (Kitty) how many courses Lady Buckhaven in general sat down to.  When she learned that her ladyship contented herself with a very much lighter diet, she exclaimed at it; and Mrs. Scorton blessed herself to think that she should keep a better table than a baroness.

“

Where is Wimberley?

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The earl’s proximity caused her to feel somewhat heated, and she moved away to look at an open-faced curio cabinet filled with

Coleshill House

objects. They included a series of miniature watercolors depicting two houses, one an English baroque with a pretty dome. She touched its frame, admiring the lovely home depicted, with its bold white casement windows and elegant chimneys. Its parkland was a wealth of varied landscaping, with huge oaks surrounding the whole.

“Wimberley,” Lord Northam said, following her. “It has been mine since before Northam came to me.”

Wimberley was the name of Russell’s marquisate in Notorious Vow.  He became marquess on the death of his maternal grandfather, long before the tragic death of his brother, which brought him the earldom of Northam.  

Originally bestowed on Lady Nellie’s family by Queen Anne, the principal jewel in the marquisate’s crown was its seat in Berkshire, which greatly resembled the now lost Coleshill House (pictured above).  Older than Northam Park by several decades, Wimberley was one of the first English country houses to feature a dome designed by Christopher Wren.  Like Coleshill, its main staircase was Italian in design, with impressive plasterwork throughout that emphasized Wimberley’s agricultural wealth.

Coleshill has a tragic history, however.  It had just been transferred to the National Trust when repairwork being carried out ignited the interior, leaving only a burned-out shell topped by its massive chimneys.  Its loss has been called “grievous beyond words.” (Country Life, 1952)  It contained a masterful display of decoration first introduced by Inigo Jones to the Stuart Court, and has never been replicated elsewhere.

The Promenade

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“A deuced fine animal,” one gentleman had shouted from his natty tilbury when Vivien entered the Knightsbridge gate at Hyde Park.

“But a mushroom aboard him,” another chortled, to the titters of several ladies in a nearby elegant landau.

Deeply embarrassed, Vivien nevertheless continued down Rotten Row, even as the rude ogling and catcalls of London’s highest society followed her.  She would be damned if she were to turn around.  Thor seemed to sense her distress, trotting forward strongly as if to demonstrate his disdain for what was said about his rider.

And what was said made one thing abundantly clear.  The dowdy spinster that rode the gentlemen’s hack was pretending to be something she was not.  One of them. 

Part of the opening scene in Notorious Vow, Vivien is met with a situation similar to that of the Emperor without clothes.  She does not fit in, but the following ladies do!   Because she does not have their birth, or fortune.

A Regent’s ransom

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George IV "Prinny" by Sir Thomas Lawrence (1822)

Her mother raised a dark eyebrow.  “I believe Lady Diana is something of a hoyden.  And the earl of Northam is a member of the Carlton House set, an intimate of the Regent.”  A mere man who kept very bad company.

The worst, in fact. 

Mrs. Montgomery had never sought to hide her disdain for the Regent.  He symbolized everything deplorable to the Camden family and their wool business. Profligate spending.  Irresponsible government.

“I was not aware,” Vivien replied, dismissively.  Lord Russell had cut the connection between her and Diana.  She would never see either of them again.  “What does it signify?  We’re talking about a chance meeting in the park.”

“A chance meeting?”  Her mother shook her head, hair as dark as Vivien’s own.   “My dear daughter, there are two calling cards on the foyer tray.  Belonging to Lady Diana and Northam’s mother, Lady Nellie.  Dansby took them this morning.”

Vivien jerked upright.  “They were here, in Knightsbridge?”  The heiress and her grandmother might as well have visited the moon.

Vivien’s mother in Notorious Vow is not alone in her opinon that Lord Northam is an intimate of the Prince Regent.  Prinny counts the wealthy peer as one of his friends, having great admiration for the earl’s famous racing stud Calumet.  Russell does not consider himself a member of the Carlton set, steering well clear of the Regent’s foibles that marred his reputation otherwise distinguished as a patron of the arts.  The prince might have been better remembered as an effective monarch had he availed himself of Russell’s sound advice.

The Carlton Set was named for the Regent’s opulent house in Pall Mall which he eventually demolished upon moving to Buckingham Palace. 

When Notorious Vow opens, the Regent’s debts had reached extraordinary levels.  They amounted to almost fifty million pounds sterling in today’s money.  Russell is tempted to employ his vast wealth as Marquess of Wimberley to redeem a large portion of his sovereign’s debt, in desperate exchange for a favor from the Crown.  

A favor that will win him the woman he loves.

A House Overlooking Hyde Park

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She went to the broad window and looked out.  As she suspected, it had an excellent view of the exact place where Russell had first warned her to stay away. 

“You were about to give me a masterful setdown then, were you not?” he asked, coming to stand behind her at the window.

“I’m glad I didn’t have the opportunity to do so,” she murmured in pleasure.  He had not left after all, and she was delighted, hardly caring that a small crowd of gawkers gathered in the street below.  Already there were those who hoped to catch a glimpse of London’s most scandalous couple.

In Notorious Vow, the villa featured in the above passage was inspired by Chandos House in Queen Anne Street.  You might know it from the superior Ang Lee-directed movie, Sense and Sensibility, which highlighted the bright interior of Mrs. Jennings’ London home. 

In my novel, Vivien was particularly enchanted that the villa was a stand-alone house, a rarity in London.  Its Georgian brick had been refaced with a creamy stucco exterior.  The bow windows on each floor gave an unhindered view of Hyde Park, ornamented on either side by beautifully carved pilasters.  The staircase (view to the right) from Buckingham House (demolished in 1908) played a notable part in the novel.