Memoirs of the Reign of King George the Second, Volume 1 (of 3)Walpole, Horace
History
Memoirs of the Reign of King George the Second, Volume 1 (of 3)
Walpole, Horace
Great Britain -- History -- George II, 1727-1760
[184] He died, [after much bodily and mental illness] November 2nd,
1759.
[185] The Princess Royal was so proud and ambitious, that one
day, when very young, telling the Queen how much she wished that
she had no brothers, that she herself might succeed to the Crown,
and the Queen reproving her, she said, “I would die to-morrow to
be Queen to-day!” On the Queen’s death, the Princess Royal, like
others, imagining the King must be governed by a woman, pretended
ill-health, and that her physicians had ordered her to Bath, and
came over; but having been so indiscreet as to let her motive be
known, the King would not sutler her to stop in London, but sent
her directly to Bath, and, on her return, back to Holland; nor ever
forgave her.
[186] Edward Coke, only son of Thomas, Earl of Leicester.
[187] Lord Chesterfield told Mr. Pelham from Lord Bolingbroke,
that Lord Egmont being sent by the Prince to Lord Bolingbroke
to consult on measures for opening his approaching reign, Lord
Bolingbroke desired him to open his plan; Lord Egmont said it would
be necessary for the Prince to begin with some popular act, and
proposed for that end, immediately to restore feudal tenures! Lord
Bolingbroke dissenting, they parted in heat.
[188] Vide the Appendix, I.
[189] This alludes to the proposal in the foregoing session, of
confining Murray in the dungeon called _Little Ease_.
[190] Henry St. John, Lord Viscount Bolingbroke, Secretary of State
to Queen Anne, had, on the accession of George the First, been
impeached for his share in the treaty of Utrecht, and fled. Sir
Robert Walpole (strongly against the inclination of his brother
Horace, Lord Townshend, and others of his friends) obtained his
pardon, though Lord Bolingbroke and his advocates afterwards
pretended that the Minister had no hand in it. The day after his
return he dined at Chelsea, to thank Sir Robert; but his confusion
and uneasiness were so great, that he had like to have been choked
with the first bit he ate, and was forced to rise from table. He
soon endeavoured to supplant Sir Robert, by the assistance of his
enemy the Duchess of Kendal, who obtained an audience for him in
the late King’s closet, where he presented a representation against
Sir Robert, which the King immediately afterwards delivered to
Sir Robert, and repeated the conversation to him. A parallel case
happened afterwards to the same Minister. Lord Stair endeavoured to
supplant him with Queen Caroline, and even was so hardy as to make
love to her, which not succeeding, he wrote a long letter to her,
and went the next morning for an answer. She sent him out word by
her Chamberlain, Lord Grantham, that she had given his letter to
Sir Robert Walpole, and had ordered him to deliver her answer. Lord
Stair saw his situation, and set out next morning for Scotland.
[191] On history, published since his death.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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