The Impeachment of the House of BrunswickBradlaugh, Charles
History
The Impeachment of the House of Brunswick
Bradlaugh, Charles
Great Britain -- History -- 1714-1837; Hanover, House of
On such occasions, we are told, not only did they turn their
parents into ridicule, and blab the secrets of the chamber of sickness
at Windsor, but the Prince even went to such unnatural lengths as to
employ his talents for mimicry, in which he was surpassed by few of his
contemporaries, in imitating the ravings and gestures of his stricken
father. As for the Duke of York, we are assured that 'the brutality of
the stupid sot disgusted even the most profligate of his associates.'"
Even after the King's return to reason had been vouched by the
physicians, William Grenville, writing to Lord Buckingham, says that the
two princes "amused themselves with spreading the report that the King
was still out of his mind." When the great thanksgiving for the King's
recovery took place at Saint Paul's, the conduct of the Prince of Wales
and the Duke of York, in the Cathedral itself, is described "as having
been in the highest degree irreverent, if not indecent." Sir William
Young writes to Lord Buckingham, "The day will come when Englishmen will
bring these Princes to their senses." Alas for England, the day has not
yet come!
In 1789, a great outcry was raised against the Duke of York on account
of his licentiousness. In 1790, the printer of the _Times_ newspaper
was fined £100 for libelling the Prince of Wales, and a second £100
for libelling the Duke of York. It was in this year that the Prince
of Wales, and the Dukes of York and Clarence, issued joint and several
bonds to an enormous amount--it is said, £1,000,000 sterling, and
bearing 6 per cent, interest. These bonds were taken up chiefly abroad;
and some Frenchmen who subscribed, being unable to obtain either
principal or interest, applied to the Court of Chancery, in order to
charge the revenues of the Duchy of Cornwall. Others of the foreign
holders of bonds had recourse to other proceedings to enforce their
claims. In nearly every case the claimants were arrested by the
Secretary of State's order, and sent out of England under the Alien Act,
and when landed in their own country were again arrested for treasonable
communication with the enemy, and perished on the scaffold. MM. De
Baume, Chaudot, Mette, Aubert, Vaucher, and others, all creditors of the
Prince, were thus arrested under the Duke of Portland's warrant, and
on their deportation rearrested for treason, and guillotined. Thus were
some of the debts of the Royal Family of Brunswick settled, if not paid.
Honest family, these Brunswicks!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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