Life and Times of Her Majesty Caroline Matilda, Vol. 2 (of 3): Queen of Denmark and Norway, and Sister of H. M. George III. of EnglandWraxall, Lascelles, Sir
History
Life and Times of Her Majesty Caroline Matilda, Vol. 2 (of 3): Queen of Denmark and Norway, and Sister of H. M. George III. of England
Wraxall, Lascelles, Sir
Caroline Mathilde, Queen, consort of Christian VII, King of Denmark, 1751-1775; Denmark -- History -- Christian VII, 1766-1808
To these strange sentiments, which were probably poisoned by Count
Struensee, is attributable the fact, that her Majesty remarked to
witness 6, that she was well aware what people said about her, but did
not care for it; and further, that there was no harm in a wife being
unfaithful to her husband, if he became old, or she had been compelled
to marry him. The queen also stated to witness 10, that although she
knew what people said of her she would not alter her conduct. About
this time, in order to facilitate this improper intercourse, Struensee
asked for a _passe partout_ to the palace, which did not belong to his
office, as he has confessed.
With the same object the queen's sleeping cabinets at Christiansborg,
Frederiksborg, and Hirschholm, were at this time so arranged that
people could go from her rooms to Struensee's unnoticed. This was
especially the case in the autumn of 1771 at Christiansborg, when
the queen's bedroom was removed to the chapel corridor, which could
be reached by a private flight of stairs from the Mezzanine. It also
deserves mention, that after this bedroom and two other rooms had been
prepared, in 1770, for her Majesty's use, by her own orders, a privy
passage and stairs, which had always been closed, were opened, and
lamps were burning in the passage from three P.M. till eight in the
morning, though during the whole period the valets were not allowed to
look after the lamps. It was in one of these cabinets over the chapel
corridor that her Majesty drank tea and coffee with Struensee in the
morning.--(_Cfr._ the survey of the commissioners.)
The peculiar presents which her Majesty made to Struensee, and received
from him in return, are of importance when connected with what the
queen has acknowledged. Her Majesty received from Struensee a pair of
red-striped garters, which she always insisted on wearing, whether
she required them or not, (!) assuring her maids that they were
"sentiments' garters." The count confesses that the queen received
these garters from him. He alleges that he purchased them in Hamburg,
and the queen, seeing them once, kept them, because they were perfumed;
but he was paid for them.
Her Majesty also always carried about her person a green case, in which
was Struensee's portrait in Indian ink, and allowed no one to see it.
When she was delivered at Hirschholm, during the last summer, she asked
for this portrait, and gazed at it. On her departure for Kronborg,
on January 17, her Majesty took it with her, and when she arrived
at the castle she fastened it on her naked body, from which Madame
Schönberg dissuaded her. She now keeps it at night under her pillow,
for fear lest any one might take it from her.--(_Cfr._ statements of
witnesses 5, 6, 10, 12, 13; Maid Arnsberg's answers to question 29, and
Struensee's to question 227.)
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