By George! A Girl is Sprung!

The English royalty during the Regency had bad luck in marriage. Or should I say they were dysfunctional? We’ve already seen how his brother, the Duke of Cumberland made out.

The next sibling to marry was a princess. Princess Mary was the Prince Regents favorite sister. She kept up a steady flow of chatty, gossip filled letters from the “nunnery” and he reciprocated with small gifts.

The truly astounding thing about the marriage, however, is that The Queen approved of it. Everyone was surprised, pleasantly so, at Her Majesties attitude. The Prince was glad that mom was being so reasonable. What he was not happy about was Mary’s choice of husband.

Mary was marrying the Duke of Gloucester. The Duke, at the tender age of nineteen, had been promoted to the rank of general over Prinny’s head while his Royal Highness was boldly cavorting with his regiment on the dangerous battlefields near his pavilion at Brighton. The Duke went on to endear himself with the Prince by championing Princess Caroline at every opportunity. Tender feelings were further established by the Duke taking Charlotte’s side when she broke into open rebellion.

In fact, stories had reached dad that Charlotte had her eye on Gloucester as a potential husband, if she could just get dad to drop his fixation on the Prince of Orange. Dad chose not to believe this. If we are to take Charlotte’s physician, Doctor Stockmar’s word for it, it is not hard to understand why.

The good doctor described Gloucester as being; “Large and stout, but with weak, helpless legs….Prominent meaningless eyes; without being actually ugly a very unpleasant face with an animal expression.” Doctor Stockmar didn’t care for Gloucester any more than the Prince Regent did.

As to whether Mary was in love with him, only she could say. But she had always liked him and the two had got on very well together in the past. And…marring him would get her out of the nunnery and bring her her own money.

Her mind was made up. The wedding took place at the Queens House on July 23 1816. It was “a most disorderly affair.” Apparently, because it was at mom’s house, the Prince Regent didn’t have a hand in planning it. That is unfortunate, because it could have used it.

According to one historian, “The room was excessively hot and over crowded; the seating so badly arranged that only a few people in it could see what was happening; the congregation so restless and talkative that the Lord Chief Justice called out jocularly, “Do not make noise in that corner of the room, if you do you shall be married yourselves.”

The bride looked as if she were about to faint; her sisters and her ladies could not stop crying. The Regent, who was giving his sister away “several times had recourse to his pocket handkerchief.” The Queen seems to have been almost alone in remaining dry-eyed throughout the lengthy and disorganized proceedings.”

The Duke of Clarence wished to be next in the marriage sweepstakes. His desire to settle down would have been admirable had he met a suitable woman whom he loved. This was not the case.

He had already met a most unsuitable woman, a Miss Jordan, and produced ten illegitimate children. He had no intention of marring her because doing so would not gain him one extra shilling in allowance. And he needed all the shillings he could get because he was 56,000 pounds in the red over gambling debts. The Prince Regent doubted ANY woman would have him and told him so. But if the Duke had little money, he had pluck to burn. The search for a wife was on!