In the Pink

When Princess Charlotte died, her mother, Princess Caroline, was off toodling around in Europe while being watched by an eager to dislodge husband, George IV.

It’s hard to imagine that Princess Caroline did not know about all the people following her. What is really amazing is that she didn’t seem to care what her behavior was doing to her reputation. Said one historian; “For months past the Regent had been closely following his wife’s wild progress with intentness and disgust. Foreign rulers had been made aware that any favors granted her would cause grave displeasure in London.”

With England the preeminent economic power in Europe, such displeasure carried real consequences. As reports on Caroline continued to pile up, the Prince Regent decided to launch an official inquiry, the Milan Commission, into his wife’s disgraceful behavior. Word from abroad was that Caroline was not just behaving badly, she was behaving like a lunatic.

Three men, attorneys William Cooke and John Allen Powell and Major Thomas Henry Browne, an Italian speaking officer who served under Wellington in Spain, were dispatched to Italy to collect first hand reports on the Princess. In the summer of 1818 these gentlemen traveled wherever Caroline had traveled, taking down the “voluntary answers” of servants, sailors, innkeepers, gamekeepers, fishermen, postilions and gardeners.

Their inquiries were not without danger. Wrote Browne to the Prince; “The Princess is at the moment so completely surrounded by the family of Perigami (her lover and Chamberlain)and they are such a determined set of Ruffianos that they would not scruple at any act, however desperate, against those whom they might suspect of acting to their prejudice.”

The three men carried on regardless. By November of 1818 Browne reported that “no doubt everything had been completely proved.” That they had “collected sufficient evidence to warrant a public inquiry.” By the following July, the men had the sworn statements of eighty-five witnesses. Cooke wrote the Prince that, “We are under the necessity, therefore, of humbly stating that in our opinion this great body of evidence establishes the fact of a continued adulterous intercourse between the Princess and Perigami.”

It was not the Prince’s desire alone to prove this fact that made these men focus on adultery. By mid 1818, the Queen was rapidly approaching the end, many, including the Prince Regent, were sure that the Kings death was also near. It was imperative that Caroline be stripped of her title with a charge that none of her supporters could challenge. The charge of adultery served Henry VIII well enough, it being that such a charge against a Princess of Wales would automatically include a charge of high treason. If it was good enough for Henry, it would be good enough for the Prince Regent.

If Caroline was mostly unconcerned about what people were saying about her, she professed to be very upset about the way English persons were treating her. She claimed the English members of her “establishment” did not leave because they found her conduct distasteful, she got rid of them because they “cheated her outrageously.” Such a charge might have held more water if Caroline had not been lavishing expensive gifts on her lover, Bartolommeo (don’t ask me to pronounce it) Perigami.

“Like what, Mr Al? What did she give him?” I’m glad you asked. Like…Villa Cassielli, which she claimed cost “only” 7,500 pounds. This at a time when a skilled worker in London was clearing 40 shillings a year. What she didn’t add was the fact that she also bought all the furniture for the Villa, outfitted the kitchen, put horses in the stable, carriages, to give the horses something to do, linens for all the bedrooms, drapes and floor coverings, and, of course, paid for all the servants.

And this is only one example. Princess Caroline’s “personal household staff” consisted almost entirely of Pergami family members. It was not for nothing that Mr Browne feared for his life if the Pergami clan got wind of their plan to shut off the money spigot. With the Milan Commission up and running, Caroline’s supporters knew it was only a matter of time before the whole mess became front page news. Henry Brougham, a friend who pleaded with Caroline to remain in England, sent his brother, James, to Italy to meet with her.

The reason was two-fold. First, to get an up-close look at Caroline’s “lifestyle choices” and see how much of what was being said about her was true, and second, to offer the Princess a plan that the Broughams hoped would nip the Milan Commission in the bud. What James discovered confirmed the worst charge that the commission would raise. Princess Caroline and Pergami were indeed living as “husband and wife.”

He found Pergami himself to be a rather likable chap. “Remarkably good sort of man…very active, quite a different man from what I had expected.” Alas, he was shagging the Princess of Wales. A blind deaf-mute could prove that in court before his breakfast got cold. Time to lay out The Plan. Beat the Prince Regent to the punch. Have Caroline ask for a divorce! Or, at the very least, a Parliamentary separation.

This is what James suggested to his brother; “I should propose that she write a letter to the Prince stating her reasons for wishing a divorce or Parliamentary separation…You must give me the style of this letter, because she will ask me to write it for her, and it must be well done, as there is no saying what may be made of it hereafter. She should begin by asserting innocence…hightoned in the style of Mary Queen of Scots…accusing the Regent of plaguing her by these inquisitions, and by concluding by saying as her daughter is dead, and there is no hopes of her having any pleasure in England she thinks it better for both to separate. I am quite convinced that it is the very best thing that can be done on every account, and the sooner the better, before she loses more character, or in fact before England knows more of the matter.”
A good plan. Unfortunately for Caroline, her husband had other ideas.

-Mr. Al