Rebel Queen

The Age

Saturday October 7, 2006

Dianne Dempsey

Rebel Queen

Jane Robins Simon & Schuster, $34.95

IN 1794 PRINCESS CAROLINE of Brunswick, the plump and somewhat grubby future bride of the Prince of Wales, was bouncing around her German court without a care in the world. When the Lord of Malmesbury, an urbane diplomat, arrived at the court to arrange the marriage, it soon became clear that he had his work cut out for him. " 'My eternal theme to her,' he wrote, is 'to think before she speaks, to recollect herself'."

Indeed when Caroline arrived at the Prince's court in the following year she seems to have resembled a cross between Fergie and Diana. She had all of Fergie's crassness along with Diana's enemies. And as for Malmesbury, he was playing an increasingly frantic Henry Higgins to her less than teachable Eliza Doolittle.

Caroline was no match for George's first wife, Maria Fitzherbert, with whom George had conducted a morganatic marriage; nor was Caroline a match for his current mistress, Lady Jersey. After three years, Caroline gave up and established an alternative court in Europe.

When George was about to be made king, he tried to divorce Caroline on the grounds of adultery. Her trial was held in the House of Commons and Caroline's furious and vocal fans took to the streets, almost precipitating George's downfall.

While Jane Robins resists the temptation to paint Caroline as an unsung political heroine, she provides a wonderfully absorbing picture of the times. It was a time of the rise of public opinion; opinion that was influenced by a now powerful press and the proliferation of spiteful and lewd pamphlets that would make today's tabloids look like Bible tracts.

© 2006 The Age

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