A Princely Dilemma

George, Prince of Wales & Princess Caroline Amelia Elizabeth of Brunwick. 8th April 1795

Ah, the joys of a royal wedding! The history, the pageantry, the romance! Er, yes, the romance. Maybe. Perhaps. Or not.

I’m often asked by readers why I write Regencies. My aunt assumes it’s because of the masculine fashions; you can always tell what a gentleman is thinking! Apart from that obvious advantage, what I love about the Regency, and late Georgian era generally, is that it is an age of contrasts. Extreme wealth and devastating poverty. A brutal penal code and the beginnings of political reform. A man might weep over a sentimental play one night and the next go to a cock fight to watch two birds battle to the death. The same gentleman who expects that his bride be a virgin has quite likely boffed half the married ladies and widows of his acquaintance.

And a Prince, known as the First Gentleman of Europe by virtue of his refined manners, could send his mistress down to Greenwich to meet his bride-to-be. Never mind that he took one horrified look at her on first meeting, set her away from him and called faintly for brandy, he still married her three days later. Caroline of Brunswick’s account of her wedding night with the Prince of Wales, later Prince Regent and George IV, has come down to us. Her bridegroom, having had recourse to the brandy bottle both before and after the ceremony, passed out in front of the fireplace, only recovering sufficiently to discharge his royal duties the next morning.

Not exactly the stuff of romance, is it? Yet when asked to write a short story based on an historical royal wedding to celebrate the upcoming marriage of Prince William of Wales and Ms. Kate Middleton, I picked this one. As royal marriages go, it’s one of the more disastrous on record, but I figured the contrasts and drama were built in. (The bits I’ve touched on here are only the tip of the iceberg that was the scandal-ridden marriage of the prince who became the Prince Regent, and George III’s niece, Princess Caroline Amelia Elizabeth of Brunswick-Wolfen-Büttel.)

So I looked for more contrasts. A devastatingly handsome duke threatened with financial ruin and the shy, plain heiress of a very wealthy merchant who is somewhat overawed by her aristocratic French grandmother. Surely they have enough problems. But this ill-assorted couple, trying to make the best of a marriage of convenience and give each other a chance, are confronted with a royal couple at odds with each other from the moment they meet. I did have a great deal of fun with this story. It’s a little earlier than anything else I’ve done, before the actual political Regency, and I definitely enjoyed giving a voice to the Prince of Wales and Princess Caroline. Fortunately Kester, Duke of Severn, and his bride do a much better job of sorting out their marriage than do the royal couple in the case.