I can't remember if it was mentioned, but I imagine that the 1839 Treaty of London that formally recognised Belgium's independence and determined the Belgian-Dutch border to be pretty much as it is today went ahead as OTL. Only thing I can think of changing is relations between the two royal families being somewhat stronger than OTL, after all Leopold is Victoria's uncle.
Crown Imperial: An Alt British Monarchy
- Thread starter Opo
- Start date
Thanks for this! You've reminded me of something I meant to add to the notes in the last instalment. I had included the 1839 Treaty of London in a previous instalment and then cut it because it just didn't seem to fit there. I'd intended to slot it back in at a later date and it totally slipped my mind. To remedy that, I've decided to make retroactive mention of it when we cover the conference in Brighton in February 1840 because it's quite an important thing and needs a mention. It's not ideal and it irks me that it should have gone in earlier but these things happen.
So yes, the Treaty of London signed in 1839 did happen as in the OTL and at last, the British can welcome King Leopold to London without upsetting the Dutch. As to how that impacts Victoria who is a member of the Dutch Royal Family, that's probably one for Crown Imperial: Victoria but I'll try and make mention of it where I can. Thanks again for reminding me of this!
Cheers!
Avoiding the Crimean War would save an enormous number of lives, and prevent some of the worst military screwups in European history. But, without those same mistakes, what would be the impetus for the reforms that the Army undertook in the aftermath? The thought of the British Army entering the late 19th Century operating in much the same way as it had at the start makes me break out in a cold sweat, to be quite honest.
GV: Part Two, Chapter 13: A Question of Confidence
King George V
Part Two, Chapter Thirteen: A Question of Confidence
Part Two, Chapter Thirteen: A Question of Confidence
It took 8 days for Lord Cottenham to return from his Surrey mansion to London in the aftermath of the Great London Flood. Whilst the waters had receded, many roads were either blocked, untraversable or congested. But this was only part of the reason why the Prime Minister did not return to the capital immediately after being summoned by King George V. He was also scared. He had been given reports of mass protests and one memorandum from the Home Secretary failed to omit a gruesome detail in describing an incident in Bethnal Green where dockers rioted, murdered four Special Constables and then marched through the streets with an effigy of Lord Cottenham…which they burned. The Prime Minister was deeply shaken by this, remarking to his Chief Whip Edward Stanley, “Am I really to be the next Newcastle then?” [1]. But Stanley’s patience with his dithering charge had run out. It was time for Cottenham to either face the music or resign. The party could no longer bear the weight of the Prime Minister’s indecisiveness.
The King’s patience was wearing thin too. When Charlie Phipps informed him that the Prime Minister would not be able to attend an audience for at least a week, the King slammed his hand on his desk and shouted, “Damn that old foozler!” [2]. He fumed quietly for hours, mulling the situation over and over in his head. He believed he knew what to do but he needed advice. He was loathe to call on the Duke of Cambridge for such counsel until he knew that the plan formulating in his mind was actually possible but who else was there? He could hardly ask the Prime Minister on this occasion. The answer was to be found in the evening newspaper. There was a brief mention of Lord Lyndhurst who would depart in a few days time for Madeira, having been advised by his doctors that he needed to “take the air” after a nasty bout of bronchitis. Lyndhurst was just the man the King needed.
John Copley, 1st Baron Lyndhurst.
Lyndhurst had always been regarded as a trusted friend to the older generation of the Royal Family. During the Duke of Clarence’s tenure as King’s Regent, the Lyndhursts were regular faces at court and the late Lady Lyndhurst had briefly served as a lady in waiting to the Dowager Queen Louise. Clarence set great trust in Lyndhurst’s advice, no doubt because of his impressive legal career. Over the years he had served as Solicitor General, Attorney General, Master of the Rolls and then he had spent 11 years as Lord High Chancellor during the premierships of Lord Eldon and the Duke of Wellington. He was still an active member of the House of Lords and though a Tory peer with a reputation as an obstructionist during the last few years of Whig government, even his political adversaries respected his fair and even-handed approach to the big issues of the day. King George V believed that Lyndhurst could advise him well, but he did not wish there to be a repeat of the embarrassment he had suffered when calling upon the Duke of Wellington (a former Tory Prime Minister) for his assessment of the current situation faced by his incumbent Prime Minister (a Whig).
George needed an excuse to call Lyndhurst to the Palace. Then it came to him. The old man had been ill, by the accounts of the newspapers very gravely so, and there could be nobody more worthy of an honour from the Crown than he. The Duke of Buckingham and Chandos had died in the January of 1839. He had been a Knight of the Garter. Now there was a space in that highly exclusive group, a space which the King believed would be perfectly filled by none other than Lord Lyndhurst. It would be a reward for his long service to the Crown, his support of members of the King’s own family but most importantly, it would give the King an unimpeachable motive for inviting Lyndhurst to call upon him before he departed for Madeira. George asked Charlie Phipps to make the necessary arrangements, though naturally no insignia was to be presented until Lyndhurst’s investiture on St George’s Day, 1840. But the honour could be gazetted at any time, allowing the recipient to use the style of ‘Sir’ and the post-nominals of KG.
The King threw everything he could at this little plot. He asked the Queen if she might put together a small luncheon in Lord Lyndhurst’s honour, but the guest list must be strictly en famille. The Dowager Duchess of Clarence was back in England and temporarily staying at Clarence House with Princess Augusta before returning to Witley Court. She was to be accompanied by Sir John MacDonald, an old war hero who had served the late Duke of Clarence as an ADC in the last few years of his life. The Cambridges were invited, and rest of the party was made up of the King and Queen, Lord and Lady Lyndhurst (his second wife), Charlie Phipps and the Duchess of Sutherland.
The whole thing appeared as an informal luncheon to recognise Lord Lyndhurst’s achievements and to celebrate his appointment as a Knight of the Garter surrounded by those, he had served for over 40 years. The menu was less informal. Asked by her husband to ensure the Lyndhursts were given the very best, the meal was to include Longe de veau á la broche au jus, garnie de pommes de terre á la béchamelle (Spit roasted loin of veal covered in a bechamel sauce served with buttered potatoes), Terrines de Foies Gras Belle Vue (goose liver paté glazed in aspic) and Compôte de Reine Claude (poached greengages in sweet white wine and served with English custard). The King asked that the champagne be “liberally served”.
Throughout the luncheon itself, Lord Lyndhurst sat next to Queen Louise. Wearing a pale blue satin dress decorated with pearls (diamonds were never worn at the Palace until after luncheon during George V’s reign, unless the luncheon was a state occasion when tiaras for those who had them were mandatory), the Queen amused Lord Lyndhurst so much that by the time the meal came to an end, he had forgotten to turn, totally ignoring the Dowager Duchess of Clarence on his right. It didn’t matter. He was in a buoyant mood (though he did weep twice when he was reminded that the King had just awarded him the highest order of chivalry in the country) and when the luncheon was over, he didn’t really want to leave. Which is exactly what the King wanted.
The Queen invited the ladies to tour the Picture Gallery with her. Linking arms with Lady Lyndhurst, Louise led the women out of the dining room calling back to the Duke of Cambridge; “Uncle Cambridge dear, you must come with us, I’m hopeless at knowing who the people are in all these pictures”. The King nodded silently to the Duke who took the arm of his wife and trooped along behind the Queen. Sir John MacDonald felt obliged then to aid the Dowager Duchess of Clarence through the gallery, leaving only Charlie Phipps, Lord Lyndhurst and the King behind in the dining room. Phipps had been well prepared.
“If you will excuse me Sir, I have some letters to write”
The King waved a hand, lit a cigarette and waited for Phipps to close the door.
“Well Lyndhurst”, George smiled, his belly full of the rich food he had just enjoyed, “I hope you like the way we do things here now. A little different to my father’s day, what?”
“Without offending the memory of His Late Majesty”, Lyndhurst winked, “I am glad to see it Sir. The food is quite excellent now and it’s a pleasure to actually be allowed to finish it...”
The two men laughed.
“Kingship suits you Sir, if I may say so?”
“You may but I might disagree with you”, the King replied, “It’s rather like living one’s life in a big game of chess. You can’t move until you’ve read the rules three times over or you risk making a fool of yourself and nobody believes you really know how the game is played”
Lyndhurst laughed again.
“A very apt metaphor Sir. I can sympathise. So many times in government I found myself in that same situation. Of course, the most frustrating thing was seeking advice. Knowing who one could and couldn’t approach. Seeking counsel and not quite knowing where best to find it”
The King grinned. He’d been rumbled. Lyndhurst was not offended.
“If I may Your Majesty”, he began, “I found it best then to talk in hypotheticals”
“Quite”, the King replied, blowing a cloud of smoke up into the ceiling of the room, “And you’re right Lyndhurst, I do have something on my mind I think would suit a hypothetical. I remember from my lectures with that God awful man Stockmar that there was a time when my grandfather felt he must dismiss his government”
Lyndhurst nodded; “In 1783 Sir. Your Majesty’s grandfather dismissed the Fox-North Coalition because Fox wished to nationalise the East India Company”
The King berated himself privately for a moment that he hadn’t paid all that much attention to Stockmar’s little talks on politics.
“Yes”, he nodded, “But what then? I mean, the country had to have a government, what?”
“He appointed Pitt the Younger Sir. Temporarily of course. Three months later there was a general election and fortunately, Pitt was victorious. Dare I say his success was guaranteed then only because the people believed that Pitt had the support of Your Majesty’s grandfather”
The King stubbed out his cigarette. He immediately lit another. The moment had come to put a hypothetical to Lord Lyndhurst which had been on the King’s mind for a few days now. The two situations were not exactly similar, but it was the constitutional aspect of his plan which he needed advice upon and which he clearly could not seek from a member of the government. The thought had first struck him when he had met privately with Sir James Graham on the evening of the Great Thames Flood. Graham had mentioned that in his view, what the country really needed was a general election. The people would calm down for a few months believing they were about to affect change in their favour and whoever won would have a fresh mandate to make the big changes needed to remedy the current situation. Graham naturally hoped he would be the one to receive that mandate, but it was something he said that the King could not help but puzzle over; “It is Your Majesty’s government. You are quite entitled to remind the Prime Minister that he serves at your pleasure”.
“Hypothetically speaking Lyndhurst”, the King said slowly, “if a King followed that example, he would be honour bound to appoint another Whig, would he not?”
Lyndhurst shook his head; “Not necessarily Sir. You see, the Sovereign has the right to ask anybody to form a government in his name. Technically speaking that person need not even be elected by the people, some of our best Prime Ministers never saw a ballot box let alone campaigned for a vote in their favour. But by convention, the person called represents the party with the largest number of seats in the Commons. It is a question of confidence, Your Majesty. The Sovereign must have confidence not only in the person of the Prime Minister but in that individual’s ability to command a majority in the House to provide effective and stable government”
“Yes, I know that. I suppose what I’m really asking is…. what if the King were to ask the Leader of the Opposition to form a government? I mean to say, the King might wish to appoint a Tory and not a Whig”
“He might Sir. He might equally wish to appoint a Unionist, or a Radical come to that. But if your hypothetical applies to today, and it grieves me as a Tory to say it, I do not believe my party could form a government. We have no hope of a majority in the House. A general election may give us that majority but then, as with Your Majesty’s grandfather, there will be those who believe that the Sovereign indicated a political preference which could, I’m afraid, put His Majesty at odds with the people if they do not choose to follow his indication of preference at the ballot box. And if that happens, the King might find himself forced to bring back a government he dismissed which would produce an even greater constitutional crisis.” [3]
The King stood up. Lyndhurst struggled to his feet. Five courses so early in the day had slowed him down somewhat. George shook Lyndhurst’s hand and patted him on the shoulder. He thanked him for his advice.
“Forgive me but I haven’t given you any advice Sir”, Lyndhurst corrected, “I merely debated hypothetical situations with His Majesty after a damn good luncheon. For which my wife and I were very grateful and most honoured at Your Majesty's kind invitation”
And with that, Lyndhurst bowed his way out of the room leaving the King alone with his thoughts.
Queen Louise.
At the other end of the Palace, the Queen bid farewell to Lady Lyndhurst. The Dowager Duchess of Clarence and the Duchess of Cambridge chose to stay on for a while, joining the Queen in her drawing room. They were soon joined by Lady Dorothy Wentworth-Fitzwilliam carrying the Princess Royal in her arms. She transferred the infant to her mother’s arms.
“Have you been introduced to Dolly, Aunt Adelaide?”, the Queen asked. The Dowager Duchess lifted her lorgnette and peered at the 17-year-old Lady Dorothy. Dolly curtseyed and smiled.
“Such a pretty young thing”, she said, not really terribly interested, “Will she be joining us at Windsor for Christmas?”
The Queen nodded. She had demanded that Lady Dorothy be permanently in the Princess Royal’s company until the royal party left for Germany in January. She needed to be absolutely sure that Missy had taken to Dolly and vice versa. She need have no fear. In later years, Missy would recall that Dolly was; “So very good, so very dear and quite unlike those horrible governesses one reads about in fairy stories. Though I’m afraid she had us all quite under her spell and none of us dare contradict her as she grew older. Even my father gave in when she made what otherwise would have been seen as an impertinent remark or unreasonable request. We did not mind because there was no greed or malice in her. She was the gentlest of souls, though outwardly a little terrifying to those who met her when she was aged”.
Queen Louise had finally accepted what was to be. From now until her daughter’s departure, she absolutely refused to spend more than one moment longer than necessary apart from Missy. She comforted herself that as soon as she went into her second confinement, she would have been kept apart from the Princess Royal anyway. After that, she could cling to other excuses; the new baby needed her full attention, it was too cold and damp in England in the winter and Missy might catch a chill, she would see her again in the Spring…these were the thoughts which helped the Queen through each day. But the Duchess of Cambridge could sense the Queen’s pain. So too could the Dowager Duchess of Clarence. If anybody knew how a mother’s heart could grieve for the absence of a child, it was her. She tactfully changed the subject.
“Has Georgie decided what to do with St James’?”, she asked, sipping a glass of milk, “I’m told the floods did terrible damage to the ceilings”
“Oh, but it was never pleasant there dear”, Augusta chipped in, “It’s so dark and gloomy. I shouldn’t want to live there; I think Sophia only lasted as long as she did in that little rabbit hutch because she was already half mad”
Queen Louise laughed. She twisted the Princess Royal’s curls gently between her fingers as the ladies talked.
“He’s going to ask that nice young man Burton to do something about it”, Louise replied, “He’s the fellow who is helping us at Broadwindsor. He’s very handsome and very clever and Georgie says he’s quite the very best man for the job. Oh dear, it really is too tiresome to think we have to keep St James’ when none of us care for it. But Georgie says that we must”
Decimus Burton was the son of the architect James Burton who had worked alongside John Nash in creating many of the palatial townhouses which sprang up in the early 19th century in Marylebone. He had been commissioned to design Hanover House for the King and Queen at Broadwindsor but there had been problems with the land and the whole project had been delayed. It might not be ready now for another 14 months at least. As for St James’, clearly it would need a new roof, ceilings and some minor refurbishment to restore the damaged rooms within but the King couldn’t help but wonder if it might not be time to add another wing to the palace to provide some apartments for the future generations of the Royal Family. Burton had therefore put together some designs and in the Prime Minister’s continued absence, he met with George two days after the Lyndhurst luncheon to present the King with his ideas.
Decimus Burton.
Burton's audience with the King took place in the newly named ‘Blue Closet’, a modest salon that led off from the Blue Drawing Room installed during the reign of George IV. Queen Louise had redecorated the salon in shades of duck egg blue with matching brocade drapes with silver thread embroidery. All of the furniture in the ‘Closet’ was taken from the stores which held the vast collection of the late Prince Regent which had formerly been at Carlton House and included a pair of priceless Louis XIV end tables veneered with ivory and inlaid with a deep blue velvet panel that could be flipped over to reveal forest scenes depicted in blue-painted horn and more oak veneered ivory. There was also an impressive display of Delftware in cabinets banking the walls, the most recent acquisition to the collection being a 17th century Delft flower pyramid that stood 5 feet tall and was a gift from Princess Victoria to mark the first anniversary of the Coronation of King George V and Queen Louise. Delftware had been popular in England since the 17th century but thanks to Louise’s newfound love for the pieces, it enjoyed a revival in England leading to the so-called “Blue and White Period” of 1840 – 1855.
As the King studied Burton’s drawings, his eye was caught by a design for a portico which Burton had cut out from another design and pasted on to his design for the new wing of St James’ Palace. “Where is this from?”, he asked, “It isn’t a new design is it?”
Burton shook his head; “No Sir, that is taken from my father’s design from The Holme at Regent’s Park. I was looking at those drawings for inspiration and I thought the portico fit Your Majesty’s brief perfectly”
“I should say so”, the King nodded approvingly, “You haven’t got the original with you?”
Burton went over to the chest that been hauled into the Blue Closet by two footmen. He began sifting through the papers within, finally returning with a kind of scroll. With the King’s help, he unrolled the Burton Map, the original copy of which is now held (and is on permanent display) at London’s Burton Museum housed in Chitty Street. The infamous Map had been drawn not by Decimus Burton but by his father, James Burton, in 1812. At that time, the Prince Regent wished to embark upon a total redesign of Regent’s Park with the luxurious terraces which surrounded the 400-acre Royal Park in Lisson Grove (and which were all owned by the Crown Estate) funding the construction of a vast new complex of fashionable villas, pavilions, a theatre, a boating lake and even a royal palace. The plans had been quickly abandoned after a handful of villas were completed; the first of which Decimus Burton now lived in and was known as The Holme. It wasn’t so much that the plans were not very good or that the project was predicted to run to at least £500,000 (the equivalent of around £22m today) but rather, the Prince Regent had become bored and distracted. When he died in 1815, those who had expressed an interest in taking a villa in the park withdrew their deposits and the whole scheme was forgotten. Until now. [4]
Using ink pots, pencils, glasses and ornaments, Burton talked the King through how the Regent’s Park development had been intended to work. The original idea had been to build a new royal palace in the Inner Circle of the park with smaller villas constructed in the Outer Circle. The entire park would be closed to the public with an 8ft high wall installed around the peripheral edge. A home farm was to be created to supply the new estate with food and the whole complex was to be protected from the Barracks which James Burton had built in Clarence Street. With this in mind, all of the new roads and buildings which were already constructed according to the Burton Map had been given suitably royal names, Hanover Lane, Cumberland Street, Augusta Place etc. The King was suddenly very interested. Though not in the repairs for St James'.
Regent's Park as it was in 1839. It is possible to see the surrounding terraces but also the completed villas from the 1802 design just on the outside of the Inner Circle.
But he had concerns. The cost would surely be so enormous as to be prohibitive. Not only that, but the public had become used to using Regent’s Park as a popular recreation site. Closing off access and building a wall to shield a grand new palace would hardly go down well in the current political climate and with growing social unrest. Still, Regent’s Park was a Royal Park and since the loss of Kensington, the Royal Family were simply delaying the inevitable. In years to come, there wouldn’t be room to accommodate its members and then there would have to be a flurry of spending to acquire new properties both in and outside of London. Decimus Burton agreed that the plans would need a thorough overhaul if the King wished to salvage them. But he also reminded George that the Great Thames Flood would lead to a building explosion as the new face of London rose from the floodwaters. He had even heard that the new Palace of Westminster was to be delayed for another six months because the foundations that had already been laid before the flood had simply broken apart in the rush of the water. Many MPs were asking for the Barry and Pugin design to be revisited – or even scrapped entirely.
The King left the matter with Burton. “We shall continue in the meantime with the works at St James’. With the Portico. But I like that map, Burton. I really do. See what you can do with it, what?”. And so it was that the King unknowingly began the journey to perhaps his greatest contribution to the capital of his kingdom. The plans would change dramatically but in years to come, Londoners would look back at his remarkable foresight and vision which undoubtedly gave the city it’s most spectacular (and most popular) tourist attraction. In the meantime, the King remained in the Blue Closet mulling over the designs he had just seen. In the grim pessimism of the last few months, he had failed to appreciate the exciting possibilities the new decade might bring. His first twelve months after his Coronation had been a baptism of fire but now, as he looked out of the window into the streets below, he couldn’t help but feel a glimmer of hope that all would be well again very soon.
[1] In TTL, the 4th Duke of Newcastle was killed by the mob during the Days of May. You can find more details here: https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...-british-monarchy.514810/page-9#post-22598579
[2] A charming word from the period meaning incompetent or clumsy.
[3] William IV’s dismissal of Lord Melbourne didn’t happen in our TL but the incident shows just how far the Sovereign could go if he believed the government of the day posed a risk to the stability of the country. But this move was a risk in itself for reasons outlined here by Lord Lyndhurst.
[4] This was a real proposal in the OTL. Nash and Burton designed a huge new redevelopment of Regent’s Park for the Prince Regent, but he never revisited it after the initial structures were completed; probably because he had no money left or because he was building similarly ambitious new projects elsewhere. He had to choose which he wanted more, Regent’s Park or the Royal Pavilion. He went with the latter.
The next post won’t be a regular instalment, rather it’ll be a kind of appendix to this one explaining the Burton Plan and looking at the new map which I’ve had to recreate from descriptions of the original design and then shape it to our TL. I’ll put more detail into the origin of all this into that appendix and hopefully it’ll all become a bit clearer.
Thanks to all for reading and have a great weekend!
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I've been reading this for a while.
I can't see Charlotte marrying the Tsarevich, it's just too challenging politically, and I reckon Charlotte might realise living in Russia would be a huge culture shock.
If something were to happen to George and his infant daughters (given the high childhood mortality rates) then having the wife of the Russian tsar as queen could cause serious problems, far more than a personal union with the Dutch? (Is Victoria the Dutch crown princess?)
I can't see Charlotte marrying the Tsarevich, it's just too challenging politically, and I reckon Charlotte might realise living in Russia would be a huge culture shock.
If something were to happen to George and his infant daughters (given the high childhood mortality rates) then having the wife of the Russian tsar as queen could cause serious problems, far more than a personal union with the Dutch? (Is Victoria the Dutch crown princess?)
I think those are very fair points which we'll definitely address as this plot line develops.
As you say, this wouldn't be a simple match by any means (though far more complicated engagements were carried off than this one).
I have a list of things which would most likely be raised as objections/demands/causes for concern (Charlotte Louise's place in the Line of Succession for example) and we'll focus on each of these in turn as we head into marriage contract negotiations. That said, many proposed royal marriages fell apart just days before these contracts were signed - sometimes after years of careful planning. In situations like these, nothing is decided until everything is decided.
As always, thankyou for reading!
P.S - At the moment in TTL Victoria is the daughter-in-law of the Prince of Orange.
As you say, this wouldn't be a simple match by any means (though far more complicated engagements were carried off than this one).
I have a list of things which would most likely be raised as objections/demands/causes for concern (Charlotte Louise's place in the Line of Succession for example) and we'll focus on each of these in turn as we head into marriage contract negotiations. That said, many proposed royal marriages fell apart just days before these contracts were signed - sometimes after years of careful planning. In situations like these, nothing is decided until everything is decided.
As always, thankyou for reading!
P.S - At the moment in TTL Victoria is the daughter-in-law of the Prince of Orange.
No, I think she will, and do you know why? Because George isn't having a daughter named Charlotte. I couldn't understand why George wouldn't name a daughter after his beloved sister. But if she's converting to Orthodoxy and taking up a new name, then George can name a daughter after her without using the name Charlotte... 😉
I think it was let slip that Charlotte would have two marriage ceremonies as well, one perhaps in Britain and the other elsewhere.
*Poirot has entered the chat*
There are two ceremonies yes. But one is not necessarily a marriage ceremony, it's more something that forms part of the celebrations when Charlotte Louise eventually does marry.
Hahaha!!*Poirot has entered the chat*
There are two ceremonies yes. But one is not necessarily a marriage ceremony, it's more something that forms part of the celebrations when Charlotte Louise eventually does marry.
GV: Part Two, Appendix I: The Burton Plan
King George V
Appendix I: The Burton Plan
OriginsAppendix I: The Burton Plan
Fig. 1
When Henry VIII began the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536, many priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland found their assets seized to provide an increased income for the English Crown. The great royal land grab saw many monasteries forced to hand over lands they had held for centuries. The nunnery at Barking Abbey was no different despite it's status as a "Royal Monastery", given in honour of it's links to the Tudor Dynasty. Jasper and Edmund Tudor were raised and educated at Barking during the tenure of Katherine de la Pole as Abbess. Henry VIII cared little for these family ties and during the Dissolution, all lands owned by the Abbey at Barking became the property of the Crown. One such leasehold was the Manor of Tyburn. Tied to the neighbouring Manor of Lisson, Tyburn had been held by Barking Abbey for centuries, indeed, Tyburn is listed as an asset of the Abbey in the Domesday Book of 1086. Now however, it belonged to the Crown.
The manor was comprised mostly of lands which cut through the Forest of Middlesex and Henry VIII decided to put this land to better use than the Abbey ever had, creating a royal hunting park for himself with the 12th century manor house at Tyburn becoming a royal hunting lodge. This lodge was used by Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I as a kind of royal retreat and over time, the 400 acres of the forest saw it's trees felled and walls built to keep the public out. Tyburn would stay this way until the English Civil War when in 1646 it was seized by Cromwell and portioned off into small holdings. A further 16,000 trees were felled to create more and these small holdings were then leased to the highest bidders to raise the huge sum needed for Cromwell to pay back wages to his New Model Army.
Tyburn Park might have stayed a collection of small farms and cottages were it not for the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660. Charles II demanded that his lands at Tyburn be returned to him and when the Chief Leaseholder at Tyburn objected, he was summarily executed. Other leaseholders were brave enough to raise petitions to be granted compensation for the seizure of lands they had leased in good faith but they were ignored. The King had his park once more. The fences which separated the small holdings were torn down and the walls torn down by Cromwell around the 400 acres of Crown Land were replaced. But His Majesty quickly tired of Tyburn and so in 1668, Charles II "disparked" the land and turned it over to dairy farming to keep the Royal Household supplied with milk, butter, cheese and cream. It stayed this way for almost 100 years.
In 1760, King George III surrendered the revenues from Crown Lands in exchange for the Civil List but the park land remained the property of the Sovereign as part of the Crown Estate. When the Crown Lands were surveyed in 1794, John Fordyce (the Surveyor General) singled out Tyburn Park as being suitable for new development. Many believed this to be impossible however as the land was mostly heavy clay soil and there were no ground wells to supply fresh water. Now renamed Marylebone Park, the 400 acres which had played host to Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Cromwell and Charles II, were put under the control of the Department of Woods and Forests and in 1810, the Prince Regent proposed John Nash and James Burton to the Department's Commissioners as the perfect team to develop what would become known as Regent's Park.
The idea was to create an exclusive development with royal patronage. Nash planned a huge summer palace to be placed in the "Inner Circle" (which at that time was known as Jenkin's Nursery and which provided summer fruits and vegetables to local merchants) with 50 detached villas scattered throughout the park which would remain closed to the public. In the Outer Circle, elegant terraces would be constructed and the rents on these townhouses paid to the Crown to provide an increased income and to pay back the costs of the redevelopment. But the Prince Regent got carried away. By the time the plans were finalised, Nash and Burton had been asked to include plans for a new thoroughfare (Regent's Street) which would connect Regent's Park to the Prince Regent's London residence, Carlton House. There was talk of draining the lake and cutting a new canal around the perimeter edge of the park to resemble Venice. Deer were to be reintroduced, the Prince wanted a pavilion, a theatre and even a swimming pool with bathing machines to be included in the designs.
The cost had become so enormous that the plans were abandoned. Nash no longer saw the plan as financially viable. But it must be said too that a contributing factor was the Prince Regent's inability to focus on one project at a time which frustrated Burton. When the Prince was told that he could either afford the Regent's Park development (a sound business investment for the future if he pared back his designs) or he could have his Royal Pavilion in Brighton instead (little more than a grand folly), George went with the Pavilion. Nash left the project but Burton continued to put together plans, hoping the fickle Prince Regent might yet change his mind. He even built eight villas in the park as model homes, one of which became his permanent London residence, The Holme. The Prince Regent could not be persuaded however and even though the terraces designed by Nash had been constructed by the time the Prince died in 1815, his interest in the Regent's Park development totally disappeared long before that. With the Prince Regent's death, the plans were mothballed.
By 1839, members of the public were admitted to Regent's Park on Sundays for the price of 1d to enjoy one of the largest green spaces in the capital and it seemed that the future of Regent's Park was to serve as little more than a recreation ground. A boating house was added to the Regent's Park lake in the mid 1820s and by the end of that decade, a generous portion of land had been leased to Sir Humphrey Davy who, alongside Sir Stamford Raffles, used their little corner of the park as a home for the Zoological Society of London (now London Zoo). Designs for bandstands and a cricket pavilion were put forward but never built. But with the loss of Kensington Palace (and the surrounding parkland) in 1831 and the damage taken by St James' Palace following the Great Thames Flood of 1839, Regent's Park looked to have it's illustrious past as the site of a royal residence restored.
The Burton Plan
In 1839, Decimus Burton (the son of James Burton) was commissioned by King George V to draw up plans for the renovation of St James' Palace. These were not particularly grand or expensive designs and the brief was in fact very simple; repair the damage done following the Great Thames Flood and add a new wing to provide apartments for a future generation of the Royal Family. It was during their audience to discuss these plans that the King noticed some of Burton's designs had been cut from a different set of plans and pasted on to the design for the new wing of St James'. Burton produced his father's map for the proposed redevelopment of Regent's Park. The King was impressed.
The Royal Family owned many properties throughout the country with most of their summer residences located in Surrey. They also had Windsor and various residences there such as Frogmore and Fort Belvedere. But their London residences were now limited to Buckingham Palace, Marlborough House and St James' Palace. Carlton and Kew had been dispensed with and Kensington had burned to the ground, the surrounding parkland given to the people of the Borough by the Duke of Clarence during his time as King's Regent. When the Duke of Cambridge succeeded Clarence, he raised the issue of royal accommodation but it was George V who took up the baton. He foresaw a time when the Crown might be forced to lease townhouses for it's members to have a permanent base in London, or to buy larger properties as they came up for sale. The extension of St James' was only a short term measure - indeed, so hastily was it constructed (and so cheaply) that it actually became a burden needing constant renovation until finally the George V Wing was demolished entirely in 1922.
King George V had nothing much in common with his late uncle, the Prince Regent. He saw why Nash and Burton's original designs had failed. Firstly, the Prince Regent wanted 50 detached villas built which would be leased to aristocratic families. This number was dropped to 28 but only eight had thus far been built and with the exception of Decimus Burton who inherited The Holme from his father, none of the properties were actually used by their leaseholders as permanent residences. The idea of an exclusive development was not financially sound, but the proposal that the rents from the surrounding terraces could be used to off-set the running costs of a palace at Regent's Park was actually quite a good one, the King thought. But George had other concerns; the enormous cost still seemed prohibitive. George was by no means a poor man. Since his father's death in 1827, he had received £50,000 a year from the Civil List as a personal salary held in trust which would be made available to him upon reaching the age of majority. The Duke of Clarence was the senior trustee and whilst others encouraged him to invest it, Clarence refused. He protected it with an iron will, even using some of his own income to defray expenses to ensure the King's trust fund would never be touched.
George V's annual civil list salary was now set at £60,000 a year and his wife received £50,000 a year. Her private fortune was modest in comparison to the King's but the money that came with her at the time of her marriage was now deposited into the King's personal monies. With other income from existing rents and investments which were not considered to be part of the Crown Estate revenues, it is estimated that George V had a personal private fortune of around £1.8m. In modern currency, that sum would be worth around £110m today. We do not have any records of other monies he may have inherited but a safe estimate has been given of a further £600,000 (£36m today). But it must be remembered that of that £1.8m, most was tied up in property he could not sell or in rents and leases which varied annually based on individual agreements made when new properties or estates were acquired or leases renewed. The King had already made spending commitments, most notably in the construction of Hanover House in Broadwindsor which was also designed by Decimus Burton, and in 1841, he gave serious consideration to scrapping the HMS George and building a new Royal Yacht.
The King's relationship with money was an intriguing one. Unlike many of his predecessors (and his eventual successor), he sought to personally fund the projects he embarked upon rather than charging them to the public purse through increases to the Civil List. He had no doubt learned from the mistakes of his late father (who had triggered public outrage when he tried to gain more money from parliament to build a new palace at Kew) and from the example of the Duke of Clarence who believed that the monarchy must never be seen to spend extravagantly, particularly during times of financial crisis or war. George adopted a golden rule very early on in his reign, a rule which all members of his family were expected to live by; the monarchy must be seen to "give back" more than it took. Whilst it is true that the King spent money over the course of his reign which doubled the size of the Royal Collection, remodelled and extended Buckingham Palace and St James', provided him with two new Royal Yachts, acquired four new country estates for the Crown and committed himself to the Burton Plans of 1840, he never did so without ensuring that his reasons were sound, costs were kept as low as possible and that the people could never accuse him of being greedy or lavish.
With this in mind, the King himself sat with the original Burton Map and made some drawings of his own. He showed these drawings to Decimus Burton and by the spring of 1840, they had come up with a proposal which seemed to be financially sound and (they hoped) acceptable to the public. Gone were the frivolous follies of grand villas and a personal theatre, new canals and pavilions. Instead, the Burton Plan which was finally presented to the Cabinet for it's advice (and unusually, it's approval) looked to transform 400 acres of royal parkland in London into a kind of miniature garden city. The King insisted that a new palace at Regent's Park must be as self-sufficient as possible. Cleverly, he also asked Burton to ensure the palace could accommodate certain state occasions which would (if money was ever short) allow the Crown to seek a modest reimbursement from the Civil List on the grounds that the palace had been used (albeit temporarily) to carry out a function of the Crown which the Civil List must then pay for. But it would remain a private residence, not an official one.
Initially, the King refused to break his golden rule on spending. His people were suffering as a result of the financial crisis. The workhouses were full and many were dying of starvation. But Burton advised the King that, if he approved the proposals in principle, work was unlikely begin for at least a year anyway. By that time, the situation may be very different. George was still reluctant. Burton's plans still included the high walls proposed by the Prince Regent and he could not consider building what appeared to be an enclave for the wealthy in one of the most fashionable parts of London at a time of great hardship. The monarchy must never be seen to spend extravagantly...it must give back more than it took...
With all this in mind, these were the plans submitted to the Cabinet in the Spring of 1840.
Fig. 2
Comparing Fig 2. with Fig 1., the changes are clearly very dramatic. But every inch of Regent's Park was carefully considered in the initial design process. How might it be used? How much would it cost? What would it's function be? What would the public think of it? To understand this, we have to view the 1840 plans in some detail.
The Three Royal Parks
The most obvious change is the division of Regent's Park's 400 acres into three separate and distinct new royal parks. They were to be named as follows;
1. Regent's Park, to honour the memory of the Prince Regent
2. Lisson Park, taking it's name from the adjoining manor of Tyburn
3. Home Park, a kind of inner-city farm to provide Lisson with food
Regent's Park was to be the second largest park of the three and was to be given in perpetuity to the people of the borough, just as Kensington Park had been following the Kensington Palace Fire. More public gardens than park, there was to be no entry fee charged and rather than just being open to the public on Sundays, Regent's Park was to be opened 365 days of the year. William Townsend Aiton, one of the founders of the Royal Horticultural Society and the Director of Kew Gardens was asked to landscape several areas intended to give the public something to do other than wander aimlessly around the park. He would also provide the garden designs for Lisson Park.
Incorporating the lands owned by the Zoological Society of London (of which the King was Patron)*, access to Regent's Park was to be gained through a new avenue that led from Macclesfield Gate to the centre of the park. Here, visitors could enjoy what are known today as the Chinese Gardens but were then named the Adelaide Gardens, a collection of formal gardens laid out in a large square with small gravel paths dividing it into four quarters. Leading on from the gardens, visitors could then head east along Clarence Avenue, passing under John Nash's Marble Arch and onward to a Romanesque pavilion known as the Clarence Memorial and which would house an 8ft stone statue of the late Duke of Clarence. In later years, the memorial would be nicknamed 'Billy's Temple' because of it's appearance but it would also form part of 'Lover's Lane'.
The statue of Prince William, Duke of Clarence depicted the Duke in his Garter Robes with his arm outstretched pointing down to the Adelaide Gardens. In the centre of the walk ways there, a (slightly smaller) statue of his wife, Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen. She was pointing towards the Duke. Nobody quite knows how or when the tradition began but from around 1850 onwards, nervous young men would invite their would-be brides to join them for a walk in Regent's Park. Making their way to the Marble Arch, they would propose marriage in the spot where it was said the pointing hands of the Clarences met. Therefore, Clarence Avenue became known as 'Lover's Lane' and the Marble Arch as 'The Wedding Arch'. The tradition of proposals taking place here diminished in the 1880s and seems to have stopped entirely by the turn of the century, yet for many years if a boy asked a girl's father if he might take her walking in Regent's Park, it was understood that his intentions were to propose marriage.
Instead of walls, the King opted for black wrought iron fences. These kept people out of Lisson Park (as did carefully positioned guards huts) but they still allowed them to see what was beyond. In other words, the public felt they had been given a generous gift from the King, had not lost access to the park and could still see the entirety of it if they made the complete journey around the Outer Circle. Regent's Park was to be the first phase of the development and it was hoped that by giving the public this space for daily recreational use free of charge, there would be no animosity to His Majesty moving on to phase two...Lisson Park.
*See: https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...-british-monarchy.514810/page-6#post-22558302.
Lisson Park
Lisson Park was to be the largest of the three new parks and was designed to be a brand new private royal estate. A fence (the thicker black line in Fig. 2) was to cut off the vast majority of Regent's Park which put the lake and the existing villas into it's borders with new paths laid for better access. The name was chosen by King George V based on how he wished his new palace to be known. He didn't like the idea of the house becoming known as Regent's Park Palace, nor did he like Burton's suggestion of Marylebone Park or Marylebone Palace. George eventually settled on taking the name of Lisson from the ancient manor which had adjoined Tyburn but Lisson only gave it's name to the park itself when the designs were finally sent for Cabinet approval. By that time, George had decided that the palace complex in the Inner Circle would be known simply as 'Park House' and it's address; Park House, Lisson.
Let us begin with the Palace itself, the largest structure to be designed by Burton and the biggest to feature in the Three Royal Parks.
Park House was the name given to the largest of three properties to be built in the Inner Circle. Surrounded by new pathways and banks of trees designed by Townsend Aiton with connecting paths and an inner courtyard, Park House was to be comprised of 30 rooms (8 of which were reserved as State Apartments) running across three storeys. In addition to these apartments, there was a library, ballroom, smoking room and billiard room as well as a private salon for the Queen which connected to a music room. Burton took inspiration for it's design from a heraldic crosslet with galleries connecting the building at the north and south doors but with colonnades at the east and west doors allowing carriages to traverse the entire complex along Townsend Aiton's courtyard. It was to be constructed in Portland Stone with statues and friezes along the colonnades depicting the Kings and Queens of the House of Hanover and their coats of arms. Lisson as an estate was to be a glorious tribute to the royal house which had reigned since 1714.
Park House was to be used only by the Sovereign and his consort and was to incorporate two generous suites named the King's Apartments and the Queen's Apartments. The main staircase which greeted visitors at the East Door (facing the avenue which led down to Cumberland Terrace) would not be new, rather it would be "borrowed" from the abandoned Carlton House (which was due to be sold to off-set some of the costs of building Park House) and moved piece by piece to it's new home. To the north and south of the main house, two matching "terraces" were to be built and divided into three with porticos separating each third. This would provide six large "town houses" (though conjoined as one building) on each side of Park House and they were to be named; York Lodge, Gloucester House, Kent Place, Clarence Lodge, Cambridge House and Sussex Place. The first three were located in what was called the North Terrace, the latter three in the South Terrace.
Moving outside of the "Inner Circle", there were three large detached villas (already built) which had between 20-40 years left on their lease. Burton owned one outright, The Holme, whilst the others were currently being leased to tenants by their original owners who had purchased 100 year leases when the villas were first built. Burton "gifted" The Holme to the Crown and the remaining two villas closest to the Inner Circle were "reclaimed" with the Crown paying the leaseholders for the remaining years of their tenancy with 25% compensation for an early closure. This would allow these three properties to be leased to extended members of the Royal Family. 4 of the other 5 villas scattered through the park were also reclaimed but these were reserved for senior courtiers. The only fly in the ointment proved to be Miss Margaret Taylor, the sister of Lieutenant General Herbert Taylor who had purchased a villa on the eastside of the Park. When he died in March 1839, Miss Taylor moved into the house which had 78 years left on the lease. She refused to leave. So it was that the fence to mark the borders of Lisson had to be placed behind the gardens of the villa which came back into royal ownership when Miss Taylor died in 1852 but which was then sold on as it fell out of the bounds of the park.
The division of the four "Inner Circle" properties was to be as follows:-
Park House: The King and Queen
St John's Lodge: The Prince of Wales (when there was one, and only then from age of 18)
The Holme: The Princess Royal (when there was one, and only then from the age of 21)
South Villa: The Duke of York (when there was one, and only then from the age of 18)
The overspill of royal children, uncles, aunts and cousins would be housed in the Terraces.
The gardens of Lisson Park were inspired by the concept of honouring the House of Hanover. So we see Hanover Gardens, a beautiful circle of manicured flower beds which actually had a practical purpose of allowing carriages to turn. Further above, we see three connecting semi-circles. These were designed by the King himself (and which Burton felt disrupted the neatness of his theme) and were to provide memorials to King George I, King George II and King George III. The appropriately named King's Walk would allow visitors with the permission to do so to enter the park through the newly created East Gate and to follow an avenue along to an entrance to Regent's Park. Burton accepted the designs for King's Walk but questioned why the semi-circles did not appear to be even - that which housed the memorial to George II appeared slightly larger. Everybody who knew the King personally was well aware that this was deliberate; George II was his personal hero.
You will also notice in Fig. 2 that there is a strange dotted purple line cut along the edge of the lake to just above Chester Terrace. This land was reserved for further building should the need arise; replicas of The Holme were proposed to house anybody who might find there to be "no room at the inn" if the Terraces became full. These villas could be built as required, fairly cheaply too, and would each have a generous allocation of garden space with new pathways cut to join them to King's Walk. It was also to be announced that for as long as this area of Lisson Park remained vacant of additional houses, it would be opened to the public free of charge every St George's Day. Londoners were also allowed in on special days to line Hanover Avenue to cheer as the Royal Family entertained foreign guests at Park House.
Home Park
Home Park was the smallest of the three new Royal Parks and was not really designed to be a Park at all. The King envisaged that the main entrance to the Inner Circle would be the avenue that led through Hanover Gardens. The avenue which ran up from Park Square would become the main entrance for the troops stationed at the nearby barracks behind Clarence Street. On one side of Prince Edward Avenue would be a small dairy farm. On the other, walled gardens to provide herbs and other produce for the royal kitchens at Park House. Of the three parks, only Home Park was to be entirely closed to the public. To ensure that all three parks were well protected, guard houses were to be built at every entrance but Prince Edward's Gate would admit nobody except those who lived at Lisson or worked at Home Park.
Miscellaneous
There are a handful of points of interest on the Burton Plan of 1840 which are worthy of note. The first is St Katharine's Church or to give it it's full name The Royal Foundation of St Katharine. Originally a medieval church and hospital next to the Tower of London, the buildings which housed both the church and the hospital were demolished in 1825 to build St Katharine Dock. The Crown allocated land in Marylebone for a new church opposite Regent's Park. A royal peculiar, it was renamed the Royal Foundation of St Katharine and the intention in 1840 was that members of the Royal Family in residence at Lisson would be able to travel the short distance to St Katharine's on foot and worship there on Sundays.
Another point of interest is the Queen's Path. This grey dotted line which follows the left hand outer edge of the Lisson Park Lake had been a popular walk way for some time. Though technically trespass, a blind eye was turned to allow Londoners to wander along the edge of the lake on Sunday afternoons and ran from Hanover Terrace to York Terrace. As part of the designs, the walkway was renamed the Queen's Path and was to continue to be opened to the public on Sunday afternoons (free of charge) with another fence installed to keep anybody from wandering too far from the path onto royal property.
Finally, there is the area of Regent's Park given to the Zoological Society of London. This was protected in these designs and in 1840, the King began to apply pressure to the Fellows of the Society (of which he was patron) to open the menagerie to the public. Most were horrified by the prospect. The Zoo was not a place for the public to gawp or stare at the animals, it was a serious scientific endeavour for the study of zoology. The Society soon changed it's view when the King indicated that he might not feel able to continue as it's Patron if they did not give him what he wanted. But George V was only partially victorious in this battle; the Society agreed to open it's doors to the public on condition that they be allowed to charge 1s&6d (around £5 today) as an entrance fee. George was unhappy but knew it was possibly the best outcome he would get, and so he accepted.
Notes
I must point out that no map actually exists (at least not in the public domain) of the plans for Regent's Park. I had to use my very poor photo editing skills to reconstruct the original plans onto the first map - so I apologise if the scale is off, that's beyond my capabilities! I also had to find fonts that fit the original and then carefully cut out little pieces and spin them around/join them to bring the vision to life. It isn't perfect but I hope everyone can see what the vision was!
That said, it's worth saying that the second map is not what the Prince Regent had in mind - at least not entirely. I've had to put onto the original map what I believe George V's interpretation of the project would be and this is the result. This map will be with us for a while and I'll be sure to put in close ups of certain areas to show more detail as we go along with images of the works as they take shape.
With that said, if anybody has any questions about all this, please feel free to ask! I've spent about 8 weeks researching and designing this so I have lots of useless information to share if requested.
That's right yes, this ceremony was usually a key part of the wedding ceremonies held a few days before the marriage was due to take place and marked the beginning of formal celebrations which often lasted anywhere from 7-10 days.
GV: Part Two, Chapter 14: A Clean Slate
King George V
Part Two, Chapter Fourteen: A Clean Slate
The King’s confidence had been greatly boosted by his audience with Lord Lyndhurst, yet he was still reluctant to use his reserve powers to dismiss his Prime Minister. Whilst clearly Cottenham was not suited to the position and the country’s domestic situation was declining by the day, it was the Whig majority in the Lords which made him hesitate. His first instinct was to ask Sir James Graham to form a government. It would mean indicating a political preference and as Lord Lyndhurst had warned, the subsequent general election might yet return the Whigs; in which case, the King would find himself plunged into a constitutional crisis of his own making. But it was very unlikely that the Tories could form a government even if the King went with his first choice. That meant that dismissing Cottenham would see yet another Whig installed as Prime Minister with no obligation to call a general election for years to come. There was only one thing to do; to lay his case before Lord Cottenham, raise his concerns and make clear just far he was prepared to go.Part Two, Chapter Fourteen: A Clean Slate
Lord Cottenham eventually found his way to Buckingham Palace 8 days after first being summoned for an urgent audience with the King following the Great Thames Flood. When he finally arrived, the King was shocked at the state of the man. Cottenham looked totally drained, he was sweating profusely, and his hands seemed to be shaking. The Prime Minister was clearly not a well man. Yet this did not dampen George’s frustration with Cottenham. Though he respected the Prime Minister for his many years of service to the country, he could not allow himself to lose focus and fail (as he had with Lord Melbourne) to be assertive. As the two men stood (this time, George did not invite Cottenham to sit in his presence, neither did he offer him any refreshments after his long journey), the King began by expressing how disappointed he was that it had taken so long for the Prime Minister to return to London. There was, the King explained, a very important situation developing which he felt quite entitled to raise with the Prime Minister as urgently as possible, and he had been denied that chance by Cottenham’s refusal to leave his country estate in Surrey sooner.
“I quite understand Your Majesty”, the Prime Minister began, “But indeed, it was that situation which delayed me. I did not wish to come before you Sir without being in full possession of the facts, otherwise I should be neglecting my duty to keep Your Majesty fully informed”
George was keen to move on. He knew Cottenham was easily side-tracked.
“Of course, Sir”, Cottenham continued, “We did not foresee this situation because we were perhaps not better informed by Your Majesty’s Private Secretary. As it is, I cannot speak for all members of my Cabinet because some have not returned to London, but those I have conversed with did express some regret that the Russian matter had not been put before us sooner”
“The Russian matter?”, George was puzzled, “What do you mean by that?”
“Why, the marriage of Her Royal Highness Princess Charlotte Louise to the Tsarevich of Russia Sir. As I say, we had no idea until a few days ago that the situation had got this far and so I had to seek the advice of the Cabinet before I could come to the Palace to discuss the matter with Your Majesty”
George was thrown totally off course.
“Prime Minister, that is not the situation I was discussing, I asked you here because I- “
But Cottenham wasn’t listening.
“The fact is Sir that I’m afraid to say many of my cabinet colleagues have concerns, and I share those anxieties to a certain degree, which is why I took advice before I came here today. Though naturally I apologise for that delay Your Majesty, I do believe we should get to that matter before any other business”.
What on earth was happening? The King had summoned Cottenham with the intention of dismissing him. Or at least to advise him to go to the country in a general election. Yet here was Cottenham discussing a marriage proposal which had not yet come but which apparently had already been discussed in Cabinet. The King had no choice but to address the matter, but he was determined not to lose sight of his original goal. He gave in and motioned to Cottenham to sit down. The old man practically fell into a chair clutching his papers to his chest as if to protect himself from an onslaught. Affixing a pair of pince-nez, Cottenham looked down at the papers and without making eye contact with the King, began to deliver the Cabinet’s verdict on the possibility of a Russian match for the King’s sister. The Prime Minister was perhaps not as addled as he seemed.
Lord Cottenham.
Cottenham had been made aware that the King was furious that the Prime Minister had left London for Crowhurst on the day of the Great Thames Flood. He was even more irritated that it had taken so long for the Prime Minister to return to Buckingham Palace. Fortunately, the Marquess of Normanby had passed on a little tittle-tattle which Cottenham believed might buy him a little time with His Majesty – at the very least, it would wrong foot him. Normanby had dined at Stafford House the previous evening as a guest of the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland. During the course of the evening, the Duke asked Normanby what he made of the King’s sister marrying the Russian Tsarevich. The Duchess tried to change the subject, but Normanby wanted details and continued to press for them. The Duke continued on oblivious to his wife's signals to change course; “They say he’s going to propose to her at Brighton in February. Surely the government has been consulted? Russians at the Palace indeed. I couldn't stomach it, I don't know many who could".
But the government had not been consulted and for very good reason; the 1772 act of parliament which concerned Royal Marriages clearly stated that only the reigning monarch could give or withhold consent for marriages within the Royal Family. The Prime Minister’s opinion was often asked as a courtesy but there was no legal requirement for the government to approve of a marriage. Besides which, the King only had his sister’s word that the Tsarevich intended to propose, and he felt that until a formal offer was made, there was simply no point in raising the matter with Lord Cottenham. Not that he could have, by the time the King had been informed by Princess Charlotte Louise that she believed Sasha was about to pop the question the Prime Minister was on his way to Surrey. George fought hard not to be distracted but now the issue had been raised, he had no choice but to address it.
“The concerns of the cabinet fall into three distinct categories Your Majesty”, Cottenham continued, offering up a few papers to the King, still without making eye contact, “For brevity, I would suggest they run as follows: the political, the social and the constitutional”
George sat down and lit a cigarette. He put the papers Cottenham had given him onto the table in between them. “Why don’t we begin with the constitutional, Prime Minister?”, he said tersely.
“Very good Your Majesty”, Cottenham said, finally looking up from his documents at the King, “It is a question of the succession you see. At the present juncture, Her Royal Highness is second in line to the throne after the Princess Royal. Naturally she will become third in line when Her Majesty is delivered of her second child”
“Our. Child”, the King corrected. He could feel his shoulders tightening.
“As you say Sir”, Cottenham said, ignorant to the offence he had caused, “Now of course, the Cabinet wishes nothing but health and happiness to You and your children, but we must be practical. If the last 20 years has taught us anything it is that the unexpected can often occur. Your Majesty’s late father was known as the Unexpected King for that very reason. We must ask ourselves what might happen if the Princess Charlotte Louise found herself first in line once more and what the consequences of that may be if Your Majesty were to predecease her. You see Sir, if Her Royal Highness marries the Tsarevich and then were to be called upon to serve as Queen, the Crowns of Britain and Russia would be pushed into a personal union and that could never be acceptable, neither to the government nor to the British people”
The King tried his best to remain calm but, in his mind, he was screaming. Cottenham was now proposing worst case scenarios to try and derail their meeting which was only scheduled to last for another 20 minutes. Whilst the King had considered the constitutional issues that may arise from his sister’s potential marriage with the Russian Tsarevich, it could hardly be regarded as an urgent priority. The Prime Minister continued on, almost becoming obvious in his attempts to run down the clock.
The King's Rooms (Study and Sitting Room) at Buckingham Palace, photographed in 1882.
“The Cabinet believes that there must be a clear guarantee that a personal union between the two crowns be avoided in the future and you can hardly blame them Your Majesty, after all, Russia can hardly be classed an ally to this country though naturally we have fought on the same side in the recent past”
“And how do you propose to prevent that 'personal union' Prime Minister?”
“Oh, it’s quite simple Sir”, Cottenham smiled, “The solution came to me this morning. With Your Majesty's permission, I should like to introduce an amendment to the Act of Settlement of 1701. As it stands, no member of the Royal Family may renounce their rights of succession to the throne and therefore parliament is bound to accept any marriage, however politically unsuitable, if the Sovereign grants His consent. But I must offer the Cabinet reassurance that that the Princess could not serve simultaneously as Queen of England and as Empress of Russia*, nor could her future children claim succession rights in this country. And I believe introducing a mechanism which allows Her Royal Highness to renounce her succession rights would provide that reassurance"
The King snapped to his feet, motioning to Cottenham to stay seated. The Act of Settlement? Succession Rights? Politically unsuitable marriages? Who on earth did the Prime Minister think he was? George walked over to the window, gripping the wooden sill hard to steady himself.
“The political then”, he said through gritted teeth.
“I beg Your Majesty’s pardon?”
“What are the political objections?”
“Oh, I see Sir”, Cottenham began to ramble again, “Well no doubt Your Majesty is aware of the rivalry we have with the Russians, especially in the light of the situation in Afghanistan. Indeed, that is why we have called for the conference in Brighton next year. This Great Game must be brought to a swift conclusion. But if the Princess intends to marry the Tsarevich, the Russians may feel they are at an advantage, and it won’t end there Sir. Has Your Majesty considered what might happen if the Princess married the Russian crown prince and then a state of war was to exist in the future between our two countries? The Princess Charlotte Louise would find herself categorised as an enemy of this nation Sir. And what if the Russians chose to invade…oh let’s say…France or Prussia? Will the connections between the royal houses demand Britain ally herself to the Russian cause? It doesn’t bear thinking about Your Majesty, the situation would be untenable, the people would not accept it. And neither would the government. Your Majesty must know the Russians remain a most untrusted people in the eyes of your subjects, the people feel a great sense of affection for the Princess, they may be prone to anti-monarchist demonstrations if such a marriage were to go ahead. And they may even- “
“How can they demonstrate Prime Minister, when there will be very few of them left if this situation continues?”
The King had reached his breaking point. He fixed Cottenham with a wide-eyed stare. His face was blushing red.
“I don’t follow Your Majesty”
“You don’t follow? Good God man, are you totally blind to what is all around you? In the last week alone, 6,000 have died of starvation. Half the city is filled with the homeless begging for a crust, they have nowhere to sleep, they have no work, even the churches have been forced to close their doors for they haven’t the room to take them all. And you come here to warn me about the public mood?”
There was a period of silence. Cottenham looked down bashfully at his papers.
“Where were you Prime Minister?”, George barked, “I asked to see you a week ago, that was not an invitation, that was a command from your Sovereign. A command which you chose to ignore”
“I did not ignore it Sir...I was indisposed”
“Indisposed, was it? Well, I was not indisposed”, George replied, rounding on Cottenham, “I was here, at my desk, trying to make some sense of your endless memorandums which are suspiciously lacking any mention of food shortages, riots or unemployment. I suppose you have seen today’s morning news? An army of 10,000 Chartists rising up in Wales. 22 dead, 234 arrested. The price of a 4lb loaf is now sixpence. Sixpence!”
Cottenham began to rise awkwardly to his feet; “I had no idea Your Majesty was so well informed”, he said. He sounded as if he were on the verge of tears.
“Prime Minister, you do not have my leave to go”, the King warned, “Resume your seat Sir. I am yet to finish”
Cottenham was stunned. In all his years in the service of the Crown, he had never been admonished by the Sovereign before. He knew the jig was up. In his few days away at Crowhurst in the privacy of his study, he had drafted a letter of resignation to the King. He simply could no go on. The stress of the office was taking its toll on his health and now it had been made clear to him that he had no control left over government policy. When he did propose a solution to the food crisis, the Chief Whip informed him that the policy had already been decided. Stanley’s agreement with Lord John Russell had kept the backbenches on Cottenham’s side and had seen him through a vote of no confidence - the Whigs must now apply Lord John's solution to the food shortage. Not only that but Stanley had given a list to the Prime Minister of names which must feature in a reshuffle that had to take place no later than just after the Christmas recess. Cottenham couldn’t even choose his own ministers anymore.
“Please Your Majesty”, he held up a hand, signalling defeat, “I beg for your patience. I apologise for my tardiness, but I confess, I left Downing Street to evaluate my position. I fully intended to come here today and offer you my resignation but I…I am too ashamed Sir”
George felt his anger dissipate a little. Here was a man in his mid-60s who had spent his whole life in the cut and thrust world of politics. Now he was broken and exhausted. The King walked over to a table and poured the Prime Minister a brandy. Passing it to Cottenham, George resumed his seat opposite.
“Ashamed indeed. I disagree with your approach to this mess but what is there to be ashamed of?”, he said, as the Prime Minister reached for a handkerchief to dab his moist eyes.
"I shall be the shortest serving Prime Minister in this Kingdom's history Sir", Cottenham wobbled, "My name shall forever be synonymous with failure"
“Oh poppycock", the King said kindly, "There is no shame in doing the honourable thing. And as for failure, it's those who come after us who determine that. They very well might brand me a failure. But we can't sit still to protect a legacy. My uncle spoke very highly of you, you have served the Crown and the country to the very best of your ability. But we must all accept the limitations of our service. I too will confess when you arrived here today it was my intention to dismiss you. But now I see that would have been an insult to your character. I do not wish to belittle you or make you feel shame. But I have a responsibility to see that my government is acting on the urgent needs of the people. I must put them first”
Finally, the two men had reached an agreement, though they did not yet speak the terms out loud. Cottenham did not wish to continue in office. The King had expressed, in a kind and gentle way, that he felt he no longer had confidence in the government. What might have been a constitutional crisis was now reduced to the King and the Prime Minister sat quietly together at Buckingham Palace, brandy in hand, all options on the table but one; Cottenham could no longer stay as Prime Minister. He drained his glass. For a moment or two, the only sounds to be heard were the gentle ticking of the mantle clock and the crackle of logs in the grate of the fireplace. Cottenham cleared his throat.
“Your Majesty”, he said, “I should like to ask you…to advise…I should like...to request that Your Majesty dissolves parliament before the Christmas recess with a view for a general election to be held no later than March. And I should humbly ask Your Majesty to allow me to continue to serve as your Prime Minister until the result of that general election is known. Regardless of the outcome, I offer my word of honour to Your Majesty that I shall resign as soon as the public have indicated their preference”.
The King nodded his agreement; “I think that is a fine approach Prime Minister”, he said kindly, “A very fine approach indeed. And at the risk of embarrassing you, I do not believe it could have been done with more dignity”. Cottenham buffered himself against the arm of the settee and hauled himself out of his seat. His eyes were moist again, bloodshot and watery. His voice trembled a little. In his memoirs, Cottenham did not reveal what had passed between them that day but when he spoke of George V, it was with nothing but admiration; "His Majesty was then a young man, new to Kingship. But I saw in him all the fine qualities that have since come to define him and I say without fear of contradiction that there can be no minister of the Crown who has not benefitted from his counsel, or been supported by his generosity of spirit".
“It has been a great honour to serve you Sir”, Cottenham said as he bundled his papers away into a red leather pouch, “A very great honour indeed. I shall make all the necessary arrangements of course, and if Your Majesty allows, I should like to return next week to discuss the situation on food shortages”. The King nodded and gave a generous smile to his Prime Minister as he began to bow his way out of the room. George lit a second cigarette and made his way to his desk.
“Oh”, Cottenham said loudly as he reached the door of the King’s Study, “There is just one more thing Your Majesty...”
“Yes, Prime Minister?”
“Tobacco is a most disgusting material Sir; it's use is impolite to others and injurious to the health”
And with that, Lord Cottenham left the room.
The political situation was far from settled, but the King’s audience that day marked some hope that the Winter of Discontent might soon give way to a Spring of Hope. Feeling confident that he had “done his duty”, George decided that he had one more issue to settle before leaving early for Windsor to spend his last Christmas with his daughter Missy before she left for Germany. There could be no better time to put all outstanding business to rest and whilst he had demanded an audience with Lord Cottenham and been kept waiting, it was the King who had been delaying the request for a meeting sought by the Duke of Sussex who was now back in London.
Sussex House.
But instead of bringing the Duke to the Palace, the King decided he would go and visit his uncle instead. He had learned the art of the ambush. The Duke of Sussex lived at the appropriately named Sussex House in Hammersmith, a modest manor which had not been spared damage in the Great Thames Flood. As a result, the Duke had taken up temporary residence in Belgravia in a townhouse loaned to him by the Earl of Caithness who had already left London for his Scottish estate at the Castle of Mey. Accompanied by Charlie Phipps, the King arrived at the fashionable three storey house in Ebury Street and was greeted by a butler who asked for his name and his reason for calling to see His Royal Highness. The poor old man almost dropped to the floor when the reply came; “I am George and I have come to see my Uncle Sussex. Is he at home?”.
The butler led the King into the Morning Room of the house and rushed to the library to fetch the Duke. As he began to dash up the stairs, the Duchess of Inverness caught sight of the hurry and curious as to what was happening, wandered into the Morning Room. She came face to face with the King. She had not been in the royal presence before. She curtseyed low as George approached. He shook her hand.
“Duchess, I must extend my apologies to you for arriving unannounced. I hope my visit is not inconvenient”
“Your Majesty is most welcome”, Cecilia replied. The King could not help but be impressed by how stoic she was. She quickly excused herself on the pretext of finding the Duke who appeared a few moments later in his smoking jacket and cap.
“Good morning Uncle”, the King said tersely, “I hope you are as glad to see me as your wife appeared to be”
“Of course, of course”, the Duke said, flustered and nervous, “Might I fetch you something? Tea perhaps? Or a little sherry?”
“No no”, the King said, helping himself to a chair and motioning that his uncle should do the same, “I shall not be here for very long. I came to make my position clear and I hope you will appreciate that I do not represent others in our family for I am sure their opinion is quite different from mine. Though we are all agreed that your little excursion in Saxony was a damned foolish thing and quite beneath you”
The Duke of Sussex said nothing. He was deeply embarrassed. It was only during his return journey from Hanover that he had been able to contemplate the recklessness of his actions. By marrying Cecilia again and by accepting a foreign title for her in an attempt to boost her reputation in England, he feared he had gone too far and risked being alienated from his family (and from court) forever.
“There are people in this country, very senior people, who seem to believe they have the right to determine the direction of the personal affairs of my family”, the King continued, “And I intend to disavow them of that belief. You know only too well that the only person who can give consent for a marriage of the member of the Royal Family is the Sovereign. Consent which was denied to you because you did not feel that requirement applied to you”
“It was not- “
“I am speaking Uncle”, the Duke of Sussex sat down and said nothing. He did not dare. He had not seen the King for some time, but he was much changed. Not only was he taller with a small moustache on his upper lip, but he was altered in his personality too. He was somehow…bolder. He did not speak as a child seeking approval or praise, rather he almost reminded Sussex of the Duke of Clarence in the way he spoke with an authority that seemed to run through him like rings in a tree. This was not Georgie, the boy King longing for his mother’s love or pulling his sister’s hair. Neither was it the adolescent King tearing about Windsor Great Park with his friends’ playing soldiers. This was King George. Young perhaps, but clearly in far better command of his place in the world and what that meant.
“I shall make this offer to you only once”, the King said brusquely, “So I suggest you do not interrupt me for I may change my mind. I am prepared to recognise your marriage. I am also prepared to invite your wife to my court on the occasions I deem her presence to be appropriate. I cannot promise she will be received kindly by others but that is not my concern. I only wish to do what I believe to be right. In recognising your marriage, your wife shall become a member of our family and I intend that she should not be insulted in any way. For that reason, I am content that she should share your title. I will also make arrangements for you both to be given a property at Windsor for your use as a private residence. However…”
The Duke sat up in his chair. The very thing he’d wanted was right there for the taking.
“You will never again hold an appointment in my name”, the King said bluntly, “You will agree not to make any future appearances in the House of Lords and you will retire all patronages and posts you currently hold. You are retired Sir. And you will live out your retirement quietly, causing no further scandal or outrage, with your wife and my blessing to do so. Do not ask me for any more than that for if you do, I shall change my mind the moment I leave this house. Now…are those terms acceptable to you?”
Cecilia Underwood.
The Duke of Sussex was so stunned that he could not argue with the King’s conditions. Whilst he had hoped a role might be found for him upon his return to England, he accepted that his recent behaviour could hardly put him in the running for anything of consequence. And retirement might not be so bad. He was fast approaching 67 years old. He was in good health (not having inherited the Hanover gene for excess where his diet was concerned) and he might yet live another 20 years. He had served his country well, he believed, despite his notorious relationships with those deemed “unsuitable” by his family. If the price of happiness was a forced retirement? So be it. He nodded his agreement and moved forward, taking the King’s hand and kissing it softly.
“I…I hardly know how to thank you Georgie”
“Don’t thank me”, George said sarcastically, “I should worry more as to how you’ll outrun Aunt Mary. Once she has skinned me alive, you shall be her next victim”
And with that, Charlie Phipps draped the King’s fur stole around his neck and the two departed leaving the Duke of Sussex to sink into his chair, totally startled by what had just transpired. Phipps remarked; “That was a noble thing Sir”. But the King did not reply. He believed he may yet live to regret his decision and in truth, as with Lord Cottenham, he had changed his mind only when confronted with the situation. Initially he had intended to offer absolutely no concession to his uncle, to throw him on the scrap heap, cut his allowance and banish him from court.
But there had been enough misery of late. George wanted to head in 1840 with a clean slate and the opportunity of a fresh start. But more than that, he wished to spend Christmas with his wife and daughter at Windsor free from the trials and tribulations of political chaos and family dramas. The new decade ahead looked uncertain, but George had begun to feel secure in his position for the very first time. He finally felt like a King.
Notes
*Yes, she would be Queen of the United Kingdom etc etc and Empress consort of Russia but at this time, most still referred to the monarch as being King or Queen of England. Queen Victoria in the OTL always referred to herself as such until she became Empress of India when suddenly she quite liked reminding people of all the territories she reigned over. But for the most part, in her diaries she refers to herself as Queen of England. Politicians of the day did likewise in every day speech though the proper form would of course have been used in parliament etc. So whilst it's not correct, it is the accurate vernacular of the time.
And finally 1839 comes to an end! I know at times it must have felt like we were stuck in treacle not moving forward so thank you for sticking with TTL! As I said before, I wanted to ensure that the first year of the King's reign as an adult was packed with detail so that later on we can see just how far he progresses (or not as the case may be).
The only other note I have here is regarding the King's decision to finally draw an end to the Sussex nonsense. For those not up to speed with it, the Duke of Sussex first married Cecilia Underwood in 1831. Technically, there was absolutely no reason as to why she wasn't suitable. Kings and Princes had been marrying commoners for centuries (Elizabeth Woodville and four of Henry VIII's wives...) but the Hanoverians considered themselves a cut above previous dynasties and preferred inter-marriages among the (usually German) royal houses.
Underwood wasn't exactly "common" though. She was the daughter of the Earl of Arran and her siblings and half-siblings had pretty much all married into the British aristocracy. She wasn't a Roman Catholic, nor was she a divorcee (she was a widower). The only reason the Duke of Sussex's marriage to her became controversial was because he married her without the permission he needed under the Royal Marriages Act of 1772. He just assumed that as his first marriage (again, contracted without permission) would be declared legally void then so too would his second.
In our TL, Underwood was made Duchess of Inverness in her own right. The same happened in 1840 in the OTL. Queen Victoria was actually quite generous in allowing her aunt (sort of) to accompany the Duke of Sussex to court on a regular basis which had never been allowed before and only then because Sussex was her favourite uncle. She did consider taking the same action our George V has here but Prince Albert advised her against it. He believed that it would set a dangerous precedent and that it would also upset too many older members of the family. By 1843, Sussex was dead and the matter had resolved itself.
The situation is slightly different here for obvious reasons; George is trying to assert himself as King and as head of the family. In this chapter, he takes the opportunity to do both.
So Cottenham’s out
I wonder who could replace him?
I felt bad for Cottenham. He just had too much responsibility on him. I wonder what is going to happen to all the deals that Cottenham made to stay in office?
I wonder who could replace him?
I felt bad for Cottenham. He just had too much responsibility on him. I wonder what is going to happen to all the deals that Cottenham made to stay in office?
Well, he's not going to ask Melbury - he was discounted when Cottenham was asked, likewise with Bessborough. Which, for me, does rather lean towards Normanby as the likely candidate for PM.
The marquess of Normanby is Charles Phipps’s(George’s Secretary) brother. So I wonder if Charles might encourage the King to choose his brother.
I would agree that Normanby is the obvious candidate, though I would say (and this could entirely be my fault and I haven't made it clear enough in the last instalment, in which case, apologies!) he may not get the chance.
Cottenham has come to a kind of gentleman's agreement with the King to resign after the General Election whatever the outcome. So if the Whigs hold onto power, he'll willingly step aside for someone like Normanby or Lord John Russell, he just wants to stay in place until then. And for selfish reasons really, he simply wants to add a few weeks to his tenure so it doesn't look quite as bad in the record. Not a great reason for clinging to power but it's not that rare either.
Cottenham has come to a kind of gentleman's agreement with the King to resign after the General Election whatever the outcome. So if the Whigs hold onto power, he'll willingly step aside for someone like Normanby or Lord John Russell, he just wants to stay in place until then. And for selfish reasons really, he simply wants to add a few weeks to his tenure so it doesn't look quite as bad in the record. Not a great reason for clinging to power but it's not that rare either.
Oh, no, that was clear - it's just that if the Opposition get in, the PM presumably be Graham, but that means the more interesting question is if the Whigs cling to power despite Cottenhams mishandling of the flood, then who who step up to the plate.
I think George not asking Graham to consider forming a government could backfire, though. His decision not to ask Cottenham for his resignation after the flood, could appear to be veiled approval of his actions, and sway the vote towards the Whigs exactly as George hoped to avoid. I do think the non-London voters might sway to the other side, though - seeing so much of the civil contingencies fund allocated to relief is not going to help bridge the national divide
I think George not asking Graham to consider forming a government could backfire, though. His decision not to ask Cottenham for his resignation after the flood, could appear to be veiled approval of his actions, and sway the vote towards the Whigs exactly as George hoped to avoid. I do think the non-London voters might sway to the other side, though - seeing so much of the civil contingencies fund allocated to relief is not going to help bridge the national divide
Ah I see!
And yes, your point about the non-London voters is very true, especially as many of them already deserted the Whigs for the Tories or the Unionists in the last election.