Royal Babylon (6 page)

Much more is now known about the disorder, which, although quite rare in Europe, occurs frequently in South Africa, and recent research exposes serious flaws in the porphyria theory. Temporary mental illness of the type displayed by George III is not a proven symptom of porphyria. Most cases in this century have been preceded by barbiturate abuse—a substance unheard of in George III's day. Even if temporary insanity was a characteristic of porphyria, this retrospective diagnosis runs into another serious problem. George III and his wife had fifteen children whose descendants went on to populate virtually every royal household in Europe. If the King had porphyria there can hardly have been a royal family in Europe that was not tainted by it. The South African model shows that there should have been a far greater concentration of porphyriacs in the British royal family, and a much greater distribution throughout the royal families of Europe. Widespread evidence of the illness would surely have been very easy to detect. Hunter and Macalpine's scholarly research turned up several royal invalids displaying some of the lesser symptoms of porphyria, including stomach cramps, cataracts, painful joints and the like, but these were common ailments which could have any number of simple explanations. Even the discoloration of the King's urine, the most important evidence underpinning Hunter and Macalpine's theory, could have been caused by overprescription of purgatives.

The precise nature of George III's illness is essentially unprovable, but it continues to be a talking point for medical
historians and within the British royal family. The present heir to the throne, Prince Charles, who for obvious reasons doesn't favor any theory suggesting an inheritable disorder, metabolic or otherwise, was once persuaded to contribute the foreword to a biography of George III, and apparently believes that his predecessor's illness could have been caused by lead poisoning. Many historians, however, are now returning to the pre-1960s assessment that George III suffered from a psychiatric disorder, a condition which was aggravated by the bestial medical treatment meted out to him by the Willises and others.

Although the war with America was long over by the time of his illness, political stress could have been an important factor. The cumulative stress of a long and difficult reign could have brought about the onset of mental illness. Many of the King's symptoms were compatible with schizophrenic or manic-depressive mental illness. Schizophrenia is not always a permanent or a degenerative condition, and it can often lead to temporary remission or even complete recovery. Manic-depressive insanity can often reveal itself in incoherence and gastrointestinal problems. It is very likely that George III had a genetically flawed central nervous system which made him predisposed toward manic-depressive illness, and his incompetent doctors subjected the weakened King to so much pain and humiliation that they just broke his spirit and caused him to have a complete mental breakdown. His final illness at the age of seventy-three was in any event almost certainly senile dementia, a natural condition unconnected with his earlier attacks.

Whatever the cause of George III's illness, it was bad news for his family. The fear that the madness that afflicted the King might resurface was, in the words of Hunter and Macalpine, “a possibility which hung over them like the sword of Damocles.”
Although George III's ghastly eldest son, “Prinny,” could barely contain his glee at being proclaimed Regent, he nevertheless lived in permanent dread that his father's condition would strike him down too. In fact, every one of the seven sons secretly feared that they might also be tainted by hereditary mental illness. It was never mentioned in public, but the Prince of Wales's letters to his brothers show that they were all comparing notes about it and were arriving at their own conclusions.

Indeed, the subject of mental instability was undoubtedly a big conversation killer around the royal dining table at Windsor long before George's illness took hold, because the King had a brother-in-law who was evidently stark raving mad.

         

King Frederick V, ruler of Denmark from 1746 to 1766, was a vain and eccentric man who bizarrely had his portrait painted at least seventy times by the same artist, Carl Pilo. He was also a dedicated philanderer whose unfortunate lifestyle led to his premature death, aged forty-three, from the effects of syphilis and delirium tremens. It was in his dwarfish son Christian VII, however, that syphilis had the most marked effect.

For most of King Christian VII's long reign he was obviously insane, although for the best part of forty-two years the people of Denmark were completely unaware that they had a lunatic on the throne. Little was known of the King's mental condition outside royal circles, most Danes believing that their King's conspicuous aversion to public appearances was excused by the fact that he was being kept a prisoner and was being maltreated or drugged. Even when the full story broke years
later, the Danish establishment put out an official version of the King's mental condition which avoided mention of either hereditary insanity or mental illness caused by syphilis. Danish history books taught that King Christian VII had simply become a little odd because he had been sexually abused by pageboys when he was a child.

Christian acquired a royal prince's taste for bad company, liquor and whores at a very early age. He demonstrated a keen intellect but was subject to extreme mood swings—a symptom often associated with dementia praecox or schizophrenia. He was extremely aggressive. At night he stalked the streets of Copenhagen with a gang of equerries, brandishing a spiked wooden club. He and his friends ran riot, often completely destroying shops and brothels. He also acquired a fascination for public executions, secretly watching dozens of them in disguise. Occasionally he would play at mock executions. He was a sadomasochist and had a rack made for himself, on which he lay while his friend Conrad Holcke beat him until he bled.

When he was only seventeen years old and already an alcoholic roué, Christian was betrothed to George III's sister, the fifteen-year-old Princess Caroline Matilda. Although she was a plain-looking girl, she charmed everyone who met her with her natural grace and innocence; everyone except her deranged husband that is, who treated her from the first with undisguised hostility by hanging her portrait in the royal lavatory. Caroline Matilda quickly found out about some of her husband's more loathsome habits, which according to the eminent Danish psychiatrist Christiansen included habitual overindulgence in masturbation, although not such complete overindulgence that he couldn't find energy to spend at least some of his time with his mistress or his boyfriends.

In 1768, soon after Caroline had done her duty by giving birth to a bouncing Crown Prince, the Danish King was required to make an official state visit to England and France—a tricky operation as Christian was already obviously losing his mind. King George III had heard all the stories about his brother-in-law and anticipated his visit with barely concealed dread. To the immense relief of all concerned, especially the Danish government, Christian behaved relatively normally: normally enough at least for both Oxford and Cambridge Universities to award him honorary degrees, and for him to be loudly cheered on the streets of London. In fact, during his visit Christian and his gang had conspicuously frequented a number of London brothels and wrecked the lodgings provided for them at St. James's Palace. From a Danish point of view, however, things could have been a lot worse.

For most of this foreign tour Christian had been accompanied by his traveling court doctor, a forty-year-old Prussian, Johann Friedrich Struensee. Dr. Struensee took a lot of the credit for the success of the tour, especially for Christian's restrained behavior, and was rewarded with unlimited access to the King. What most people were not aware of at this time was that the ambitious doctor had also become Queen Caroline's lover.

As soon as King Christian returned to Denmark, however, he lapsed back into insanity, suffering from hallucinations and delusions that he was illegitimate and not Denmark's true king. He spent his days running around his palace, bashing his head against the walls until he drew blood, smashing his windows and furniture.

The opportunist Struensee enjoyed complete control over both the mad King and his young, impressionable Queen. With
the mad Christian's acquiescence, Struensee became in effect the most powerful man in Denmark—a Danish-royal-family version of Rasputin. The doctor had such a mysterious hold over the royal couple it was rumored in the Danish court that he was also the King's lover. Christian had in fact once confided to his doctor that he didn't want to be King anymore and suggested that he and Struensee run away together.

Although Struensee spoke little Danish, he began to throw his newfound political weight about. He quickly made enemies, including the old Dowager Queen Juliane, who was ambitious for her own mentally infirm and physically malformed son, Christian's half-brother Frederick. In 1771 Queen Caroline gave birth to a daughter, Princess Louise. The paternity of the child was one of Denmark's most poorly kept secrets, and the Danish press named Dr. Struensee as the father. Struensee was arrested in January 1772 and charged with high treason and adultery. He was tortured into confession and three months later sentenced to death. On April 28 his right hand was chopped off while he was still fully conscious, then he was decapitated and his body was quartered and exposed on a wheel. The Dowager Queen Juliane watched the execution, grinning, through an opera glass. She complained later that the only detail that had spoiled her otherwise perfect day was that Caroline Matilda's body hadn't been tossed into the death-cart as well.

Queen Caroline might have very easily lost her head as well if her brother hadn't been King George III. The British envoy, Sir Robert Murray Keith, informed the Danish court that England would declare war if King George's sister was harmed in any way. With ten Royal Navy ships already heading in her direction, Denmark backed down and Caroline was sent into comfortable exile at Celle in Hanover. She never returned
to Denmark or saw her children or her family again, and died in 1775 aged twenty-three.

King Christian lived on for another twenty years, completely mad and unaware of either the banishment or subsequent death of his estranged wife. He was dragged out to make the odd ceremonial appearance when affairs of state demanded it, but was otherwise immured in his palace.

         

In November 1995, Diana, the Princess of Wales, created a media sensation when she admitted adultery and doubted her estranged husband's suitability to be King. The Princess used a controversial TV interview before an estimated fifteen million in Britain alone to discuss her bulimia, self-inflicted harm, the pressures of being a royal, her husband's adultery with Camilla Parker Bowles, and hinted that it might be better for her eldest son, Prince William, to succeed the Queen. Although most neutral observers found her TV performance to be reasonably restrained and self-controlled, at times she struggled to contain her emotions and the establishment went on the attack. Government minister Nicholas Soames, a personal friend of Prince Charles, described the Princess as showing “the advanced stages of paranoia” to the point of “mental illness.” Harold Brooks Baker, editor of
Burke's Peerage
, said the interview showed Diana to be unsuited to her role as Princess and future Queen, and that she had shown herself to be “very mentally disturbed,” adding, “There is no possibility that she is capable of the duties she took on when she married Prince
Charles .  .  . I feel sorry for this woman but it does not make sense to allow her to destroy the monarchy.”

It was grotesquely ironic that the Prince of Wales's supporters should have accused Diana of being mentally ill, given that insanity is something of a Windsor family tradition.

The theory that the British royal family suffers from a form of hereditary insanity has a long and interesting history. The strange behavior of at least two, and possibly three, of George III's immediate successors points to a far more widespread family problem. In 1788 the royal physician, Dr. Zimmerman, was the first to dare hint at this in public when he wrote, “It has come to our knowledge that several members of the Royal Family and in particular his Royal Highness the Duke of York and Prince Edward [the Duke of Kent, Queen Victoria's father] are subject to the same paroxysms, and this arouses our suspicion of a hereditary predisposition.” At the parliamentary inquiry into George III's illness in 1810, the Windsor physician Dr. William Heberden concurred that the royal family was probably genetically blighted.

In the palaces of Europe it was widely believed that the British royal line of succession was tainted with hereditary insanity. There were extraordinarily few proposals for the hands in marriage of George III's six eligible daughters. The second U.S. President, John Adams, misunderstood the business of royal dynastic purity and was briefly determined to marry his son to one of George III's daughters, but in the end he too was scared off by the family mental illness.

The King's eldest son, Prinny, looked at his world through a more or less permanent fog of alcoholic intoxication. Many people who were personally acquainted with him, including a
few doctors and several close friends, thought that the Prince of Wales, apart from being a dissolute and totally irresponsible drunk, was also quite mad. The Duke of Wellington for one was convinced that he was mentally deranged, and made comments to that effect several times. The King's own younger brother, the Duke of Cumberland, also believed Prinny was mad.

After the birth of his daughter Charlotte, the Prince had a nervous breakdown and made a will leaving everything he had to “Maria Fitzherbert who is my wife in the eyes of God and who is and ever will be such in mine.” As soon as he recovered he had the will put aside and forgot all about it.