Lives of the Queens of England of the House of Hanover, volume 2 (of 2)Doran, Dr. (John)
History
Lives of the Queens of England of the House of Hanover, volume 2 (of 2)
Doran, Dr. (John)
Hanover, House of; Queens -- Great Britain -- Biography
The Princess Elizabeth subsequently addressed a letter to Dr. Thomas
Willis, in which she states that she has the Queen’s commands to inform
him that ‘the subject of the Princess of Wales is still in the King’s
mind, to a degree that is distressing, from the unfortunate situation
of the family.’ The writer adds: ‘The Queen commands me to say, that
if you could see her heart, you would see that she is guided by every
principle of justice, and with a most fervent wish that the dear King
may do nothing to form a breach between him and the Prince. For she
really lives in dread of it; for, from the moment my brother comes
into the room till the instant he quits it, there is nothing that is
not kind that the King does not do by him. This is so different to his
manner when _well_, and his ideas concerning the child (the Princess
Charlotte) so extraordinary, that I am not astonished at mamma’s
uneasiness. She took courage, and told the King that now my brother was
quiet he had better leave him, as he (the Prince) had never forbid the
Princess seeing the child when she pleased. To which he answered, “That
doesn’t signify. The Princess shall have her child; and I will speak
to Mr. Wyatt about the building of the wing to her present house.” You
know full well how speedily every thing _is now ordered_ and done.’
‘The Princess spoke to me on the conversation the King had had with
her--expressed her distress; and I told her how right she was in
not answering, as I feared the King’s intentions, though most rightly
meant, might serve to hurt and injure her in the world.’ For a few days
the symptoms ameliorated; then, on the 12th of June, Dr. Thomas Willis
wrote to Lord Chancellor Eldon: ‘His Majesty still talks much of his
prudence, but shows none. His body, mind, and tongue are all upon the
stretch every minute; and the manner in which he is now expending money
in various ways, which is so unlike him when well, all evince that he
is not so right as he should be.’ The Queen, to use her own words,
built her faith upon the Chancellor, and doubted not of his succeeding
in everything with his Majesty. ‘He failed in some nevertheless. He
urgently requested the King to allow Dr. Robert Willis to remain in
attendance on him. The King hated all the Willises, and Dr. Robert not
less than any of them. He concludes a note to Lord Eldon on the 21st of
June by saying: ‘No person that has ever had a nervous disease can bear
to continue the physician employed on the occasion. This holds much
more so in the calamitous one which has so long confined the King, but
of which he is now completely recovered.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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