Fitzherbert, Maria Anne, 1756-1837; George IV, King of Great Britain, 1762-1830
'At this moment the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester came to town from
Weymouth. The King, as usual, vented his complaints to the Duke of
Gloucester. The King told the Duke that though, on the reconciliation,
he had told the Duke of Cumberland that all his doors would be opened
to him, "yet," said the King, "he comes to the Queen's house fourteen
times a week to my son, the Prince, and passes by my door, but never
comes in to me; and, if he meets me there, or when we are hunting,
he only pulls off his hat, and walks, or rides away. I am ashamed,"
continued he, "to see my brother paying court to my son." The King
resented it, and, though he invited the principal persons who hunted,
to dinner, he never invited the Duke of Cumberland. The Prince of Wales
seemed to be very weak and feeble. He drank hard, swore, and passed
every night in----: such were the fruits of his being locked up in the
palace of piety!
'The King further informed the Duke of Gloucester of his brother
Cumberland's outrageous letter, and said, "He has forced himself every
day into my son's company, even when he was at the worst." The Duke
said he wondered his Majesty had suffered it. "I don't know," replied
the King, "_I do not care to part relations_."'
'_May 4, 1781._[22]--The conduct of the Prince of Wales began already
to make the greatest noise, and proved how very bad his education had
been, or, rather, that he had had little or none; but had only been
locked up, and suffered to keep company with the lowest domestics;
while the Duke of Montague, and Hurd, Bishop of Lichfield, had thought
of nothing but paying court to the King and Queen, and her German
women. The Prince drank more publicly in the Drawing room, and talked
there irreligiously and indecently, in the openest manner (both which
were the style of the Duchess of Cumberland). He passed the nights in
the lowest debaucheries, at the same time bragging of intrigues with
women of quality, whom he named publicly. Both the Prince and the Duke
talked of the King in the grossest terms, even in his hearing, as he
told the Duke of Gloucester, who asked him why he did not forbid his
son seeing his brother. The King replied that he feared the Prince
would not obey him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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