#Prin 1795; 'fml i was w r o n g send help'

[a-royal-obsession]

The Prince of Wales to the Duke of York

Carlton House, 24 July 1791

I sit down to take the pleasantest of all tasks upon me, which is that of communicating good news, especially to those we love.

I was more happy than I can express at the communication which your letter contain’d, as well as the terms and manner in which you made me acquainted with your wishes and intentions. Whether I have used my best endeavours, feeble as they are, to second the warmest wishes of your heart I must leave to the success of your schemes and the pens of others better able to write and more used to description to paint to you, which I confess for every reason I feel myself wholly unequal to. You will not suspect me I am sure of wishing to tell you any falsehood and much less of any meaness to ingratiate myself on any occasion either with you or any other living person. Consequently I will dear brother, relate a plain statement of facts which no one but my father & mother beside myself can know, unless it is from the account they may have received from either one or other of us three.

I received your letter on Sunday sen’night last about two in the morning as I returned from Windsor where I had been spending the day with the King & Queen. George arrived about eleven at night but would not proveed on to Windsor as he understood I was expected in London. Immediately on the receipt of your letter I determined to go the ensuing day to see the King & Queen at Windsor and to communicate the contents of your dispatches, tho’ engaged to a large party at Kemshot, whom I left to shift for themselves till I had transacted your affairs with as little delay as possible. I first sent for Budé and ask’d him if he had received any letters for the King & Queen from you and if he knew the contents of them. He told me that he had and that he well knew that I was also acquainted with them. We then thought it best for him to go a few hours before me in order that the King’s mind might be prepared upon the subject previous to my going to discuss it with him. I arrived between three & four o’clock and put your letter into the King’s hands, his Majesty at the same time putting your letter to him into mine. He then was pleas’d to express himself as astonish’d that you should press so very strongly for an immediate answer, saying that you always thought that a thing could no sooner be thought of than put into execution. He said also that before he had received your letter he had received a dispatch from Lord Grenville containing a letter from Ewart, mentioning the state of your heart & mind and that it had been supposed to be the state of the case for these six years last past—that this had been the very first word he had ever heard on the subject, and that he had written Lord Grenville word so. He then ask’d me if I had ever understood anything upon the subject of your marrying from you directly, and hoped that you had mentioned it to me previous to having taken any resolution on that head, and even before you ever thought of having communicated it to him in the most distant way. In this his Majesty’s consideration flatter’d me, I cannot help confessing, very much. I then requested of him to listen patiently to me without interruption as I wish’d much in the presence of the Queen & him to express my sentiments fully and without reserve on the occasion in order to prevent every species of misunderstanding which might possibly arise if I did not take that opportunity of humbly laying my poor sentiments fully & unequivocally before them.

I then began with stating to their Majesties, or rather recalling to their recollection the manner in which we had been educated and brought up together—that we had never known but one wish, one mind & one affection from the moment of our birth towards each other to the present period—that consequently at this moment, which I considered perfectly in the light in which you stated it, as the moment in which you felt you had everything at stake, and in which everything that was nearest your heart was entirely wrapt up, it was a duty which I felt incumbent upon me, possessing still in the fullest force the sentiments which I have mentioned in the upper part of this page, to strain every nerve to promote the happiness of your future days by accomplishing the only object which could in my opinion, grounded on your own letter, trace the subsequent years of your life with scenes of undisturbed felicity & quiet. That I look’d upon this as the most essential crisis of your life—that it was only at moments like these that a man could know whom he had to depend upon, and that being call’d upon by you both as a brother & a friend I felt myself doubly bound to stand forth and to forward at any rate that which alone could with his Majesty’s consent form the happiness of your life. On his refusal the very reverse must be the infallible consequence. I then assured the King that you had taken no step in this business without having so far communicated your wishes to me on the subject of matrimony, and having been acquainted with my opinions, so that you were perfectly authorized at any time to take the step you had with regard to the Princess, in consequence of the conversations I told him we had had previous to your departure, and that altho’ I could not swear to your having absolutely told me you were determined upon marrying the Princess Frederiqua or any other woman before your return from Berlin, yet that I had entertained the strongest ideas that such was your intention and that in all probability it would be her. That to reduce into the shortest compass the conversations we had had together I would use as few words as I possibly could. That on your asking me my opinion relative to marrying myself, or as to my objecting to or approving of your marrying, should you have any such intention, I had answer’d as nearly as I can recollect in the presence of William, that as to marrying myself I had no such immediate intention or inclination, that I had wish’d some years ago to have gone abroad in order to have seen whether I could have met with a woman who would have been likely to have suited me—that his Majesty having objected to it, my views and intentions on that score instantly stopp’d. That I was come to a time of life when I thought I might be allow’d to have tolerably well weigh’d my own sentiments and prospects, that it was not everyone who could expect to be as lucky as his Majesty had been to meet with a person whose disposition suited so perfectly with his own as the Queen’s did, if one might presume to judge by the unanimity that appear’d to reign between them. That as to us Princes particularly the choice of a wife was indeed a lottery, and one from the wheel of which I did not at least at present intend to draw a ticket. There were very few prizes compared to the number of blanks. That I considered your situation as quite different—it was neither interest nor family views that had guided your choice—inclination & attachment had been the only motives which had led you to fix upon the Princess Frederiqua. That I accorded so perfectly to your way of thinking on that score, and my sentiments were so entirely the same, that I beleived I never should marry unless at the moment I did I thought I preffer’d the woman I was going to marry to every creature existing in the world, and knew enough of the disposition of my wife to think it would form the happiness and not the misery of my future days.* That I had likewise said to you when I gave you my assent, dear brother, to your marrying, supposing you thought it would be conducive to your happiness, that I did not at all mean to bind myself not to marry at any future period, but that I thought it most likely I should not, as the sentiments I had express’d were prejudices I could not get the better of, at the same time it was possible that sooner or later I might think of marrying, but at present, to speak of myself (without considering their Majesties) if you should marry a woman whom I approved of, & whose conduct towards me was such as I liked & felt pleased with, and that you had children, whom as your children I must naturally feel attach’d to, the inducement then would certainly be less to me to marry, tho’ I repeated I did not chuse by any means to bind myself that I should never take such a step. The King was so good as to assure me that he approved much of my sentiments, and added that even had you wish’d me to give you such an assurance, of which I took the liberty of assuring his Majesty you were quite incapable, he himself would have advised me to have said precisely what you recollect me to have said, and which I took the liberty of stating to him. I then presumed to urge to the King that as these were my sentiments, the absolute necessity of one of us marrying, and that as inclination led you to it and you had found a person so perfectly calculated to make you happy, I considered it it [sic] as the most fortunate event possible—for even had his Majesty been to point out the person he could have wish’d one or other of us to marry he could not have selected one more proper or one more accomplish’d or better calculated by birth, situation & education for an alliance than the Princess your heart had led you to fix on. That therefore I only wish’d his Majesty would be graciously pleased to listen to my entreaties in addition to yours and then I flatter’d myself that being acquainted with my sentiments & ideas and condescending to approve of them, I hoped his sanction & consent would be given as decidedly &  unequivocally as I freely acknowledged mine was. That all I could add on the subject was that I only hoped the King would be so good as to point out in what way I should act, what I should say, or how conduct myself to forward your views in every respect, and that I could assure him that I was selfish in so saying, for promoting your happiness was the surest way, my dearest Frederick, of promoting my own—and that I could also assure his Majesty that if any idea of settlement, for which he must apply to Parliament, he was to be deterr’d from that measure by thinking that some friends of mine, thro’ a blind zeal, might wish on an application being made for you to make use of the opportunity as a handle for endeavouring to encrease my income, I could assure his Majesty that neither directly nor indirectly would I countenance such a proceeding, nor give him the least trouble on an occasion which must give every individual of our family the truest pleasure, being the last man on earth who at any period of his life had been or ever would be guided by a personal or self-interested view.

Thus, my dear brother, have I related in as short a compass as I could what has pass’d with my father & mother, since which he has been kind enough to crown your wished with consent, tho to be attended with some little delay—which, tho not very accordant with your temper & disposition at any time, will I fear be still less so at the present moment. However, it must be submitted to, tho’ there are ways & means which I have been turning over in my mind to obviate perhaps this little temporary mortification if pursued with propriety & caution. But I will say no more at present, as you must be tired with my scrawl, except to express once more how truly I rejoice in the prospects of happiness which are now open to you, praying that you may long live to enjoy them, and hoping that you will beleive me thro’ life [etc.].

* In 1794 he chose as his bride Princess Caroline, whom he had never even seen and whose disposition would prove repugnant to him.