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 will was dated only the day previous to her Majesty’s demise.
It had been put together at various periods since the 2nd of the
previous May, by an officer of her Majesty’s establishment--General
Taylor. About a fortnight previous to her Majesty’s decease she was
for the first time made acquainted with her dangerous condition by a
communication delicately conveyed to her by order of the Prince Regent,
and to the effect, ‘that if her Majesty had any affairs to settle it
would be advisable to do so while she had health and spirits to bear
the fatigue.’ The royal sufferer well comprehended what was meant
by such a message, and was very seriously affected by it. She had
entertained strong hopes, amounting almost to confidence, that by the
skill of her medical attendants she would be again restored to health.
This recommendation to set her ‘house in order’ was an announcement
that her case was hopeless. Affected as she was, she did not lose her
dignity or self-possession, but resigned herself to death, even while
regretting she was about to depart from life. This was natural; and
as there had never been any false sentiment about Queen Charlotte, so
was she above exhibiting any in her last moments. Her patience was
extreme, and in the acutest of her agony she never once suffered a
murmur of complaint to escape her.
It has been said that the Queen left no diamonds to her daughter, the
Dowager Queen of Wurtemburg. She left her, however, a superb set of
_garnets_. The reason assigned was, that garnets were the only precious
stones that could be worn with mourning, which the Dowager Queen had
announced her intention of wearing for life. Queen Charlotte had,
as ladies averred who spoke with _connaissance du fait_, the finest
wardrobe in Europe, the highly-consoled legatee of which was Madame
Beckendorff, the Queen’s chief-dresser. It may be noticed here that
the Queen’s debts--chiefly contracted, it was said, by allowing her
contributions to charitable objects to exceed her available income,
which is no excuse whatever for any one incurring debt--amounted to
9,000_l._ The debt was acquitted out of the produce of the sale of the
diamonds.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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