The King's Mistress: The True & Scandalous Story of the Woman Who Stole the Heart of George I (29 page)

The good duchess . . . [our] fast friend

– Townshend to Walpole on their friendship with Melusine

With the crisis of the South Sea Bubble behind her and the familial breach healed, Melusine was at the height of her influence. She had become the main conduit to George, and she would remain so from 1722 until his death in 1727. As Beattie explains:

After the establishment of the Walpole ministry she looms large in the correspondence of Townshend, Newcastle [Secretary for the South from 1724] and Walpole. She became an invaluable intermediary for them with the king, and though her assistance does not of course explain Walpole’s success, her management of George I and her help in securing the closet undoubtedly helped to establish and maintain Walpole’s strong and stable administration . . .
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The French ambassador, Count Broglio, acknowledged her huge importance in his missives to Louis XV:

As the duchess of Kendal seemed to express a desire to see me often, I have been very attentive to her; being convinced that it is highly essential to the advantage of your majesty’s service to be on good terms with her, for she is closely united with the three ministers who now govern [Walpole, Townshend and Newcastle]; and these ministers are in strict union together, and are as far as I can judge, well inclined . . .
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Broglio also gives us fascinating information regarding Georg August’s position after the family split:

The Prince of Wales endeavours to obtain information of what passes, from persons who are attached to him; but he learns nothing either from the king, the duchess [Melusine], or the ministers. The king goes every afternoon at five o’clock to the duchess, the ministers occasionally attend; and it is there that affairs which require secrecy are treated . . .
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Later in the month, Broglio continued, intriguingly: ‘I am convinced that she [Melusine] may be advantageously employed in promoting your majesty’s service, and that it will be necessary to employ her; though I will not trust her further than is absolutely necessary . . .’
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Melusine’s first loyalty, he noted, would always be to George.

Melusine enjoyed George’s complete confidence, and for the last five years of his reign we see him entrusting her with diplomacy and his most private affairs to an extent that he never had before. She figured regularly in the correspondence of foreign diplomats in London, not only that of Count Broglio, but also in the letters of Pozobueno, the Spanish ambassador, and Karl Josef von Palm, the Imperial resident to his master the Emperor. It is Palm’s letters that show us Melusine’s high standing with the Empress, Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel: Melusine frequently corresponded with her as a way of enabling the Emperor and George to exchange views through discreet diplomatic back channels. In an interesting twist, Elisabeth Christine was the granddaughter of Anton Ulrich, who had fought so hard to undermine George’s family’s claim to the electoral cap. Had he succeeded, Melusine would have simply been the mistress of a minor German prince, and in no position to correspond with the Empress.

Here Melusine can be seen acting in a traditional queenly role as she pursued gentle, ‘feminine’, diplomacy. It was Melusine, for
instance, who handled much of the correspondence with Charles Whitworth, the British envoy to Prussia – logical perhaps, as she was young Sophia Dorothea’s regular correspondent. In May 1721 she wrote to Whitworth regarding the dismissal of George’s Prussian granddaughter Wilhelmine’s governess, Miss Letti, a very intimate family matter:

I have not omitted to mention to the king the subject of your letter . . . He agrees with the reasons to dismiss Mme Letti and his Majesty is totally in agreement with the queen [Sophia Dorothea, queen of Prussia]. To tell you sir that I have never regarded Miss Letti as a person well qualified especially to raise a princess and I am ecstatic that in her place you have chosen Mme Sonsfeld . . . I have the honour to know her and I have always regarded her with good feeling and I am persuaded that the court will never regret the choice.
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According to Wilhelmine’s memoirs, Miss Letti was something of a sadist and would regularly beat her, either on her own initiative or acting on Sophia Dorothea’s orders. Miss Letti was also a protégée of Sophia Charlotte’s, which may have had something to do with Melusine’s approving her dismissal. After leaving the Prussian court, however, Miss Letti turned up in England, where Sophia Charlotte gave her a pension.

Melusine wrote to Whitworth later in the month, assuring him of George’s high regard for him: ‘that one could not be more in his majesty’s favour than you are now and the full confidence that the king has in you . . .’
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And such was George’s confidence in Melusine that in 1722 he persuaded the Emperor to honour her with the position of Princess of the Holy Roman Empire. The
Daily Journal
reported: ‘The Duchess of Kendal, Countess of Schulenburg, is, of the Emperor’s
free inclination, advanced to the Dignity of a Princess of the Empire, without any charge.’
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But the relationship was not always entirely harmonious. We have at least one example of George losing his temper with Melusine. Worried for his health, she objected to his excessive drinking with Robert Walpole in Richmond Park:

where the king after shooting . . . passed the afternoon drinking punch, of which he was excessively fond, in an easy and convivial manner. The duchess [Melusine], alarmed at this familiar intercourse, and anxious to render these visits less frequent, attempted, by means of some of her German friends, who were generally of the party, to break up the meeting sooner than the usual time of retiring; but their attempts having no effect . . .
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George was furious.

It was during the visit to Hanover in 1723 that Melusine’s mutually rewarding relationship with the ministerial triumvirate – Walpole, Townshend and Newcastle – really came to fruition and worked in her favour to save her relationship with George.

Sophia Charlotte’s sister-in-law, Sophie Karoline von Platen (she had married Sophia Charlotte’s brother, Ernst August von Platen in 1697), had remained in Hanover, despite her husband’s departure with George for England in 1714. They had separated some time before, and the countess preferred to stay in Hanover. As we have seen, contemporaries and later gossips such as Horace Walpole believed that when George came to England he had Sophie Karoline von Platen as one of his three mistresses, along with Melusine and Sophia Charlotte. They speculated that Sophie Karoline had only stayed behind in Hanover because she was Catholic, and was concerned that the ‘militant’ Protestant English might treat her badly.

George’s payment of Sophie Karoline’s daughter Amalie’s dowry added fuel to the rumours that she was one of the king’s mistresses, although as Hatton points out, George may have paid it because her husband was a trusted servant. It is more likely, however, that George paid the sum because he believed von Platen to be his half-brother, and Amalie his niece. The fact that von Platen was christened Ernst August makes it probable that he was another of the old Elector’s children with his mistress, Klara.

George was very fond of Sophie Karoline. She was the niece of his old governess, Katharine von Harling, and as such George had known her for much of his life. Katharine was one of the Electress Sophia’s dearest friends, and young Sophie Karoline must have been a part of the family’s intimate circle. Clavering’s letter to his sister Mary Cowper illustrates how Sophie Karoline disliked Melusine and was extremely jealous of her status at court. She was two years younger than Melusine and probably felt usurped by her lightning establishment as George’s
mâitresse en titre
so soon after her arrival at the Hanoverian court in 1690.

1723 saw one of the longest sojourns of the reign in Germany, partly because George took the opportunity to make his only visit to Prussia to see his daughter and son-in-law. The party began at Bad Pyrmont to rest and revitalize, then moved to Herrenhausen, followed by Göhrde, then Hanover. Melusine entertained lavishly at all of their homes, particularly at Göhrde, where the hunting made it a favourite because George was at his most relaxed.

George and Melusine were accompanied by George’s secretaries of state, Townshend and Carteret. After the deaths of Stanhope and Sunderland, Carteret had become the nominal leader of their Whig followers, and this faction was often at odds with Walpole and Townshend’s group within the party. In Hanover events came to a head as Melusine championed Walpole and Townshend against Carteret. Sophie Karoline was the catalyst.

Carteret, mistakenly perceiving Sophie Karoline’s influence with George to be such that if cultivated, it could rival Melusine’s, sought to bring her to England. The plan prompted a flurry of letters between Walpole and Townshend, determined to keep her out.

At the end of August 1723, Walpole wrote to Townshend from London:

Another report that has obtained very much is, that lord Carteret had endeavoured or procured the bringing over the countesse of Platen into England. ’Tis great pity, my lord, that some check cannot be given to these proceedings, which although they may seem trivial have their ill effects . . . And I find these reports are not confined to England; but my son [Horace Walpole], who returned hither last night from Paris, tells me . . . the lady’s journey is received there as a settled point . . .
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Townshend however was able to reassure him at the beginning of September that: ‘Count Lippe’s story of the countess of Platen is certainly a lie. I am informed from very good hands, that she has not the least thought of going for England . . .’
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To gain Sophie Karoline’s favour, Carteret attempted to raise the rank of Amalie’s prospective in-laws. Amalie’s fiancé was Henri Philippeaux, comte St Florentin, son of the marquis de la Vrillière. Now Carteret lobbied hard to have the de la Vrillières raised to the rank of
duc et pair
, or ‘Peer of France’. This was the highest honour below that of the king and it was bestowed on only a very few of the nobility. Carteret’s attempts however failed. (He was aided by Sir Luke Schaub, one of George’s diplomats.) Louis XV evidently felt too much pressure, and George found himself embarrassed;
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whereupon Carteret’s standing with George fell somewhat, to the delight of a gleeful Walpole and Townshend.

But as late as November, Melusine remained fearful that Sophie
Karoline would contrive to get herself to England. She was used to coping with Sophia Charlotte and her sulks and tantrums, and found Caroline’s dislike of George’s half-sister a useful check. But Melusine feared the upset to her immediate family’s equilibrium that the arrival of a hostile Sophie Karoline would mean. Townshend reflected these fears – he was plainly in Melusine’s daily confidence – to Walpole:

. . . the match . . . going on, his majesty has been pleased upon this occasion, to think of making a present to the countess of Platen, towards the charges of fitting the young lady [Amalie] out, and of removing with her to Paris. As the countess is none of the best economists, and her family affairs are by that means in no very good function, the king has thoughts of making her a present of three thousand pounds . . . I have acquainted the duchess [Melusine] with my writing to you on this subject, who is perfectly easy in our helping this matter forward, but is very much disturbed at the prospect . . . of the countess’s making use of the interest this match will give her at the court of France, towards removing into England, which may so much easier be compassed from thence, than from this country . . .
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Sophie Karoline, encouraged by Sophia Charlotte, was particularly unbearable that year – she may have been rubbing Melusine’s nose in her daughter’s glorious match. Melusine had the still unmarried young Melusine with her, and according to Townshend, she too was enraged at Sophie Karoline’s conduct. But it was not the enormous sum of money George gave to Sophie Karoline, or the rumours that George was infatuated with her and that Amalie was his daughter, or even the fear of her coming to England to live in close proximity to her that bothered her the most, it was a close friend’s betrayal of her with Sophie Karoline that made her so miserable.

Christian Ulrich von Hardenberg formed part of George’s most intimate circle. He had been in his service since 1707 and had accompanied him to England; he was one of the few Hanoverians to remain after 1716 and he was a close friend to both George and Melusine. But by 1723 he was desperate for promotion to first minister of Hanover, replacing the now elderly Bernstorff, who was to retire. Townshend, Walpole and Newcastle all favoured it, as did Melusine. George probably did from an early stage but typically was in no hurry to make a formal appointment. Melusine, under pressure from Hardenberg, pushed it as far as she could with George, but he was irritated and she had no success, at least not at first. She was devastated when Hardenberg, rather than waiting for her gentle influence to take effect, ran to Sophie Karoline to see what she could do for him with the king. Townshend reported all to Walpole:

I am now able to send you an account of the whole progress and happy termination of an affair, which has given me the only solid uneasiness I have felt since my being here, and which looked so unpromising in some of its aspects, that I did not care to alarm you with any part of it, till all was over, and it had taken its turn one way or other. While we were extremely intent on guarding against the attacks of our enemies, and had all the success that way which could be desired; it happened, that the indiscretion of some of our friends, had like to have ended in worse consequences than the utmost efforts of the former could have brought about. The marshal [Hardenberg] even since his being here, has been labouring in the most eager and impatient manner to get himself declared minister [first minister]: and not being able to carry his point with that ease and expedition he wished for, he threatened, and certainly had thoughts of quitting the king’s service altogether, and carried his indiscretion so far as to grow very negligent in his attendance, and even to withdraw himself from court for some weeks, under frivolous pretences. But this was not all; for though the duchess [Melusine] acted a very sincere part towards him in this affair, and strained her interest, perhaps farther than was advisable, to gratify his eagerness and ambition; yet the marshal, partly through impatience and partly through a falsehood and indirectness, too habitual to him . . . could not forbear making his court privately to persons of the opposite faction [Sophie Karoline], and looking out for assistance in that quarter, from whence accounts of all his practices were constantly brought round to the duchess.
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