Lives of the Queens of England of the House of Hanover, volume 1 (of 2)Doran, Dr. (John)
History
Lives of the Queens of England of the House of Hanover, volume 1 (of 2)
Doran, Dr. (John)
Hanover, House of; Queens -- Great Britain -- Biography
Nor was this the only church matter connected with the princess which
gave trouble to the Queen. The case of conscience was followed by a
case of courtesy, or rather, perhaps, of the want of it. The Queen
attended divine service regularly in the chapel in Kensington Palace,
and set a good example of being early in her attendance, which was not
followed by the Prince and Princess of Wales, when they also were in
residence at the palace. It was the bad habit of the latter, doubtless
at the instigation of her husband, not to enter the chapel till after
the service had commenced and the Queen was engaged in her devotions.
The princess had then, in order to get to the seat allotted to her,
to pass by the Queen--a large woman in a small pew! The scene was
unbecoming in the extreme; for the princess passed in front of her
Majesty, between her and the prayer-book, and there was much confusion
and unseemliness in consequence. When this had been repeated a few
times, the Queen ordered Sir William Toby, the princess’s chamberlain,
to introduce his royal mistress by another door than that by which
the Queen entered, whereby her royal highness might pass to her place
without indecorously incommoding her Majesty. The prince would not
allow this to be done, and he only so far compromised the matter, by
ordering the princess, whenever she found the Queen at chapel before
herself, not to enter at all, but to return to the palace.
Caroline, offended as she was with her son, would not allow him to
pretend that she was as difficult to live with as his father, and so
concealed her anger. Lord Hervey so well knew that the prince wished to
render the Queen unpopular, that he counselled his royal mistress not
to let her son enjoy a grievance that he could trade upon. Lord Hervey
said, ‘he could wish that if the prince was to sit down in her lap,
that she would only say she hoped he found it easy.’
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