In 1821, the British government was they were
so terrified of a dead woman that they literally
deployed armed cavalry to hijack her funeral
procession. Yeah, they actually tried to smuggle
her corpse out of London. Right. Just to prevent
a revolution and the resulting street battles
between the military and the public. They left
two people dead. Which is just incredible. What
do you think about it? It really is. And the
woman in the coffin. That was the Queen of England.
Welcome to today's deep dive. Thanks for having
me. I am really excited to dig into this one.
Same here. So today we are exploring the spectacularly
disastrous life and marriage of Caroline of Brunswick.
We're basing this on historical accounts of her
life. And our mission today for you, the listener,
is to uncover how a highly personal, messy relationship
transformed into a massive, basically a political
proxy war. Exactly. We're looking at how a royal
marriage became so incredibly toxic that it quite
literally caused riots in the streets. Yeah.
If you think modern tabloid celebrity drama is
wild, wait until you hear about this 19th century
PR battle. I mean, it's just off the charts.
It really is. Yeah. And I think it's important
to stress that this isn't just historical gossip.
You know, it's a really fascinating case study
in power dynamics, media manipulation, and the
consequences of profound social isolation. Definitely.
It shows how public opinion and personal vendettas
shaped history. So to understand this catastrophic
marriage, I feel like we first have to understand
Caroline's early life, right? Right. Because
you have to look at the extreme isolation and
honestly, the financial desperation that forced
these two entirely incompatible people together.
Yeah. Carolyn was born in 1768, and she actually
described herself later as a shuttlecock, caught
between her feuding parents. Which is such a
telling phrase. Her father had an official minterist
installed right in the court, and her mother,
she deeply resented it. So Carolyn is basically
watching this volatile territorial dispute from
day one, but her own upbringing was insanely
restricted, wasn't it? Oh, completely. She was
constantly supervised. She was kept away from
windows, she had basically zero contact with
men, and she was even forbidden to d - Wait,
forbidden to dance? Like at a royal court? Yeah.
If music started playing, her handlers would
literally force her to sit at a card table with
three older ladies just to keep her off the floor.
That is... I mean, that's just a psychological
pressure cooker. And it clearly created this
massive rebellious streak in her. Oh, for sure.
There's this one amazing anecdote where her parents
refuse to let her attend a ball. Oh, right, the
fake labor story. Yes. She didn't just pretend
to have a headache. She simulated being in severe
active labor just to force her parents to leave
the ball in an absolute panic. Which is just
such an extreme reaction. Right. They rush home.
They send for a midwife. And the second the medical
help arrives, Carolyn just drops the act. She
looks at her mother and says, no, madam, will
you keep me another time from a ball? Whoa. That
is, I mean, it's manipulative, but it's also
kind of brilliant. It really is. It shows this
sharp intelligence that was just completely starved
of any healthy outlet. But unfortunately, her
exit from that environment was arranged by people
who were just as trapped as she was. Yeah. Enter
George, the Prince of Wales, who, by the way,
was her first cousin. And he only agreed to marry
her because he was drowning in debt, right? Like,
Parliament basically bribed him. Exactly. They
offered to increase his allowance if he married
an eligible Protestant princess. But the kicker
is, George was already secretly married to a
woman named Maria Fitzherbert. Yeah, but because
that marriage was illegal under the Royal Marriages
Act, he was legally single. But emotionally,
he was completely unavailable. OK, let's unpack
this. Because this is essentially the worst arranged
Tinder date in history, but with geopolitical
consequences. That's a great way to put it. The
British Crown... sends this envoy, Lord Malmesbury,
to fetch Caroline from Brunswick. And his diaries
are just brutal. He notes her complete lack of
decorum, that she doesn't wash her clothes, and
that she has no acquired morality. But he also
notes that she's incredibly brave. On the journey
back to England, they actually get fired upon
by French cannons. Right, and her chaperones
are freaking out, but Caroline is just completely
unfazed. She was totally fearless. But I have
to ask, was Caroline's lack of hygiene and her
wild behavior an active rebellion, or was it
just profound ignorance because of how she was
raised? What's fascinating here is that Malmesbury's
comment about no acquired morality perfectly
answers that. Her isolation meant she had absolutely
no tools to navigate a place like the British
court. She just didn't know the rules. Exactly.
She didn't know the subtle etiquette or how to
hide her feelings, which made her an incredibly
easy target from the moment she arrived. And
the actual meeting between her and George is
just a disaster. Oh, it's painful. George takes
one look at her, turns around and immediately
ask for a glass of brandy. He is visibly repulsed.
And Caroline doesn't back down. She turns to
Malmesbury and says, George is very fat and looks
nothing like his handsome portrait. I mean, you
kind of have to respect the audacity. You really
do. Yeah. But because that initial meeting was
built on such intense mutual disgust, the marriage
was doomed upon arrival. Right. And so we get
to the wedding in April 1795. George is apparently
drunk out of his mind. He was. Caroline later
claimed that on their bridal night he was so
drunk he actually passed out under the grate.
And she just left him there. Just left him on
the floor. Wow. Yeah. And George later claimed
they only ever had sex three times in total.
But I guess those three times were enough, because
nine months later, Princess Charlotte is born.
Right. The heir to the throne. You'd think that
would secure Caroline's position, but George's
cruelty just escalated. Yeah. This part is wild.
Just days after their only child is born, George
rewrites his will. He leaves all his property
to Maria Fitzherbert. His illegal wife. Right.
And he leaves Caroline exactly one shilling.
One single shilling. It's so unbelievably vindictive.
So by 1796, they're living apart. Caroline moves
to Blackheath. And because she's so isolated,
she starts trying to build her own family. Exactly.
She starts adopting and fostering children, including
this three -month -old boy named William Austin.
But this attempt at, like, a normal domestic
life directly triggers a massive crisis. Yes,
the delicate investigation of 1806. Right. Her
neighbors, the Douglases, basically go to the
authorities and accuse Caroline of infidelity.
And they claim that baby William is actually
Caroline's illegitimate son. Which was a huge
deal. Four of the most eminent men in the country,
including the prime minister, are brought in
to investigate this. They interrogate her servants.
They look into rumors about her having affairs
with an admiral and a politician. And what happens?
They find absolutely nothing. the real mother
of the child, a woman named Sophia Austin, comes
forward and proves the baby is hers. So the commission
formally concludes there is no foundation to
the rumors. She is totally cleared. But here's
where it gets really interesting. She is completely
cleared by the top officials in the country,
but she is still punished. George restricts her
access to her daughter, Charlotte, to just once
a week. And only under strict supervision. Right.
So it feels like this investigation wasn't actually
about finding the truth at all. It was just about
establishing control. Why did George go to such
extreme lengths? Well, it's a mix of dynastic
paranoia and extreme double standards. Even a
rumor of Caroline taking lovers theoretically
threatened the royal bloodline. Because an illegitimate
child could mess up the succession. Exactly.
But the actual punishment keeping her from her
daughter, that was purely vindictive. It just
highlights the hypocrisy because George was constantly
having affairs and drowning in debt with zero
consequence. While Caroline is stripped of her
maternal rights just for being suspected of something.
Right. So. Realizing she could never win against
George in England, she eventually leverages her
situation. to buy her freedom. Yeah, she teams
up with this Whig politician, Henry Braum, and
starts a massive propaganda war. And it works.
She negotiates a buyout of 35 ,000 pounds a year
to just leave Britain. Which is a massive sum
of money at the time. So she essentially takes
a 35k buyout to become a 19th century digital
nomad and travel influencer. That is, yeah, that's
actually pretty accurate. She moves to Italy
and hires a servant named Bertolomeo Pergami.
who very quickly becomes her closest companion,
and pretty much everyone assumes they're lovers.
Oh, absolutely. And she doesn't just quietly
retire either. She institutes the Order of Saint
Caroline, makes Burghami the Grand Master, and
they just travel all over the Mediterranean.
They famously enter Jerusalem riding on donkeys
and camels in this huge procession. Right. But
seriously, was she just living her best life
out there? Or was this highly visible theatrical
public parade with purgami an act of provocation
against George? This raises an important question
about how royal women were expected to behave.
George wanted her to suffer quietly in exile.
So by mimicking the behaviors of a sovereign,
instituting chivalric orders and parading around,
she was absolutely defying him. She was refusing
to be invisible. Exactly. And it made her a massive
threat. We know it threatened George because
he sent international spies like Baron Amtata
to Italy. Yeah, Amtata is actively bribing her
servants to search her bedroom for proof of adultery.
And even Lord Byron is writing back to England,
spreading gossip about her and Prugami. But they
find no solid proof. Then a massive tragedy strikes.
In 1817, Princess Charlotte dies in childbirth.
It was devastating for the whole country. But
the way George handled it was just unbelievably
cruel. He refuses to tell Caroline. He absolutely
refuses. He delegates it to Charlotte's husband,
whose letter gets delayed. So Caroline only finds
out by pure chance. A passing courier just happens
to have a letter George wrote to the pope about
the death and Caroline intercepts it. It's heartbreaking.
And politically, it changes everything. With
Charlotte gone, Caroline lost her only protective
shield. She no longer had a daughter who would
one day be queen. Right. George realizes this
instantly and sets up the Milan Commission to
gather enough evidence of her adultery to force
a legal divorce. But then, in 1820, King George
III finally does. Which makes George V the king
and automatically makes Caroline the queen consort.
Exactly. The government is terrified she'll come
back, so they offer her 50 ,000 pounds a year
to just stay away and give up her title. But
her political allies advise her to refuse. So
she comes back to England and the public absolutely
erupts in support. There are literal riots in
her favor. So George retaliates with the Pains
and Penalties Bill of 1820. This is the trial
of the century. It really was. George couldn't
use a normal divorce court because standard law
allowed for recrimination. Meaning, if he accused
her... she could legally expose his decades of
affairs and his illegal marriage. Oh, he definitely
didn't want that. No. So he uses a parliamentary
bill to try and strip her title and dissolve
the marriage by state decree. And so the House
of Lords basically turns into a sensational public
trial. They're interrogating witnesses about
who slept where in Italy, if Caroline and Pragami
were seen kissing, the state of their bedsheets.
It's a total media circus. And through it all,
Caroline is incredibly defiant. I love her famous
joke from this period. She's in the middle of
this awful trial. And she jokes to her friends
that she actually had committed adultery once
with the husband of Mrs. Fitzherbert, meaning
the king himself. Yes. She is openly mocking
his illegal marriage while he's trying to ruin
her life for supposedly doing the exact same
thing. It's brilliant. And the public saw right
through the king's hypocrisy. The radical political
movement completely adopts her as their figurehead.
They're churning out pamphlets, political cartoons,
and they generate nearly a million signatures
in her favor. The pressure on the government
is so intense that they actually have to drop
the bill. They realized it was too unpopular
and might cause a literal uprising. So what does
this all mean? Like, why should you, the listener,
care about this messy royal divorce? How did
this flawed, chaotic queen become the absolute
champion of the British working class? If we
connect this to the bigger picture, It wasn't
because she was a perfect monarch. It was because
she was the ultimate victim of a deeply despised
king. Right. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Exactly. The writer, William Hazlitt, noted that
her trial was the only topic that took possession
of every single house in the kingdom. She was
a blank canvas. People projected their own demands
for political reform onto her? Defending Caroline
was the safest, most effective way for the public
to attack the establishment. But the tragedy
of being a blank canvas is that once the trial
is over, the public kind of moves on. They did.
The government offers her the 50 ,000 pounds
again, and this time she takes it. But George
still has one last humiliation for her, the coronation
in 1821. Right. Her advisors tell her not to
go, but she shows up anyway. And it is brutal.
She goes to Westminster Abbey and guards literally
hold bayonets under her chin to stop her. Doors
are slammed in her face. And the worst part is
the crowd. Yeah. The exact same people who were
rioting in her defense a few months earlier,
they actually jeer at her and mock her for being
undignified. Because her utility as a political
symbol was over. Without the threat of the King's
tyrannical bill, she wasn't a martyr for reform
anymore. She was just an estranged wife crashing
a party. That physical and emotional rejection
just breaks her. She falls violently ill the
very next night and realizes she's dying. But
even on her deathbed, she's still managing her
PR. Oh yeah. She orders her papers burned, rewrites
her will, and demands a very specific inscription
on her tombstone. She wants it to read, here
lies Caroline, the injured queen of England.
Which is just an incredible final move. She dies
weeks later at age 53. And that brings us right
back to the start of our deep dive. The funeral
riots. The government was so scared of her, even
in death, that they tried to reroute her coffin
away from the public. And the public responds
by building barricades. They hurl cobblestones
at the military. Soldiers open fire. Two men
are killed. But the public wins. They force the
coffin through London. She managed to cause a
massive riot from inside a coffin. It's wild.
Her final demand for that inscription served
as an eternal piece of PR, making sure history
recorded her grievance. They really did. So as
we wrap up, I want to leave you with a thought
to mull over. Think about how public figures
today are still used as proxy battlegrounds for
much larger political or social movements. Oh,
concept. Right. When you see a modern celebrity
scandal completely dividing a nation or tearing
up the Internet, ask yourself, Are people really
arguing about the individuals involved? Or are
they, just like the Crowns back in Carolina of
Brunswick in 1820, actually fighting about their
own frustrations with the establishment? That's
a great question to ask. Thanks for joining us
on this Deep Dive.