The Prince Regent and His Circle:
In their own words
The siblings of George IV
George was the eldest of 15 children, 13 of whom survived into adulthood. He was closest to Frederick, the next eldest, but was also a friend, confidant and supporter of his sisters, who for the most part led a miserable, confined life in what they called 'The Nunnery'.
Frederick Augustus (1763-1827), duke of York. His father's 'dearest son', he was intermittently George's favourite brother, the prince of Wales teaching him to drink and gamble and leading to him being 'thoroughly initiated into the debaucheries of this metropolis'. Frederick received glittering military commands, culminating in his appointment as commander-in-chief of the British army. As head of the abortive Dutch campaign of 1799, he was given to marching men to the top of a hill and down again (hence the song 'The Grand Old Duke of York'). In 1809, he was dismissed from his post after a scandal over his mistress Mary Anne Clarke selling army commissions, but he was restored to his post when George became regent two years later. He died owing £700,000 (£35,089,266.74 in today's money).
William (1765-1837), duke of Clarence, later William IV. A boisterous, unintellectual boy, he was sent into the navy at the age of 14. He was later known for his violence and alcohol abuse. He fathered 10 children with his mistress, the actress Mrs Dorothy Jordan, before being forced into marriage with Princess Adelaide.
Charlotte (1766-1828), princess royal. Attractive but clumsier than her sisters, her shoe fell off at her first court ball while she was curtsying to the queen – Prince George held her hand in a 'graceful manner' while it was replaced. Shy (although she appeared arrogant), she begged George to find her a husband. Chaffing against 'The Nunnery' rules, she fell into a 'desperate state without hope' until she was happily married in 1797 to the hugely fat prince of Wurttemberg. (Napoleon said that God had created him to show how far human skin could be stretched without bursting.)
Edward Augustus (1767-1820), duke of Kent. 'False, hard and greedy, his so-called good qualities [are] only for show' was the verdict of Princess Dorothea Lieven, wife of the Russian ambassador. Irascible and argumentative, unpopular with all his siblings, he was often abroad with the army. In 1802, when he was governor of Gibraltar, he was sent home in disgrace following an encounter in which blood was shed, and then lived in semi-retirement. While he was at Gibraltar, a gypsy told him that 'he was to have many losses and crosses, that he was to die in happiness, and that his only child was to be a great queen'. He was indeed the father of the future Queen Victoria, but he died when she was only seven months old.
Augusta Sophia (1768-1840). More self confident and boisterous than her sisters, as a child she played cricket and football with her brothers. Her early marriage hopes were dashed by the king, who found fault with all her suitors and, in any event, didn't want her to marry before her sister Charlotte. As a result, she died unmarried after unrequited passions for the royal physician Sir Henry Halford and for her father's equerry General Sir Brent Spencer.
Elizabeth (1770-1840). Fat as a child, and an invalid, she was artistic and emotional, as well as interfering. There are rumours of an affair with a page – and a pregnancy. She sublimated her longing for babies into charitable work with orphans. She also produced engravings, collected porcelain and kept a set of Chinese pigs at the royal estate of Frogmore, near Windsor. When she was 48, she was married to the fat and malodorous Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg.
Ernest Augustus (1771-1851), duke of Cumberland, later king of Hanover. Despite the fact that he was tall and thin, gruff and taciturn – the temperamental and physical opposite of George – he was the prince of Wales's confidant. An assassination attempt by his valet Joseph Sallis grew into rumours that Sallis was his gay lover and that Ernest had murdered him. He is also reputed to have fathered a child with his sister Sophia, and tried to rape the lord chancellor's wife.
Augustus Frederick (1773-1843), duke of Sussex. No friend of George's, he championed his daughter and wife, Princess Charlotte and Queen Caroline, during the latter's trial. In Rome in 1793, when he was 20 and she was 25, he made a secret marriage to Lady Augusta 'Goosey' Murray, daughter of the earl of Dunmore. In 1831, a year after Augusta died, he eloped with Cecily Gore, duchess of Inverness. Both marriages were declared violations of the Royal Marriage Act and were subsequently dissolved. This also meant that Augustus's two children by Augusta were officially illegitimate. He became reconciled to George during the latter's last illness by presenting him with an invalid chair. Queen Victoria would later write that, when she was a baby, she was threatened with punishment by her 'uncle Sussex', and thus was always scared of him.
Adolphus Frederick (1774-1850), duke of Cambridge. Packed off to Germany to join the Hanoverian army, he impressed many with his happy demeanour and military bearing. He was very fond of interrupting church services: if the priest said, 'Let us pray,' Adolphus was likely to respond by bellowing, 'By all means!' Married to the glamorous Princess Augusta of Hesse-Cassel, he remained relatively debt-free and popular with the press.
Mary (1776-1857). George's favourite, she was affectionate and more contained but also more critical than her sisters. She was married, quite happily, at 40 to the dim duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh, known as 'Silly Billy'.
Sophia Matilda (1777-1848). Pretty, unruly, passionate and delicate, at the age of 22 she gave birth to an illegitimate child rumoured to have been fathered by her brother Ernest, but more likely by General Thomas Garth, an elderly, ugly equerry. Sophia led the life of a semi-invalid after the birth, and may have been a porphyria sufferer like her father. Despite this, she outlived most of her siblings.
Octavius (1779-1783). George III's favourite, he died in infancy at the age of four.
Alfred (1780–82). He died in infancy at the age of two.
Amelia (1783-1810). Gentle and unassuming, she lived a life of pain, suffering from tuberculosis and erysipelas, a painful skin inflammation. Prince George's godchild, he was steadfastly attached her and asked for (but never got) her death mask. The love of her life was the equerry Charles Fitzroy, but a proposed marriage was quashed by Queen Charlotte – Amelia never forgave her.
Note: The 15 children of George III and Charlotte gave them only six legitimate grandchildren.
