Henrietta must stay, thought the Queen; for in her mind Henrietta was linked with the old days.

Let a new mistress take her place—someone young, someone gay, someone less discreet, some power-hungry female? No! Henrietta must remain even though she was restive and wanting to go, even though the King was tired of her.

She put aside his letter and picked up the document on her table.

‘Thomas Ricketts,’ she read. ‘Fourteen years transportation for stealing a silver-hilted sword....’

Fourteen years ... away from home and family ... fourteen years to a strange land.

‘John Pritchard ... fourteen years transportation for house-breaking...

What happened to a home when a man was away from it for fourteen years? And how did he return?

She wrote across the documents. ‘The Queen wishes to know more of these cases.’


* * *

During those summer months when the King was away in Hanover, Caroline instituted an inspection of prisons and dismissed several jailors who had been caught acting cruelly towards poor prisoners.

She would have liked to reform the prisons, but this, Walpole assured her, was impossible. It would mean raising taxes which would be an unpopular move at the moment.

She must be content with setting up a regular inspection. Then certain evils could be put right providing it was not too costly to do so.

So she had to be satisfied with pardoning several poor wretches who were condemned to the gallows and saving others from transportation. She raised money to pay the debts of certain people who had been languishing for years in the debtors’ prisons.

She would have liked to go on with this work for she was sure there was a great deal to do.

But in September after a four months’ sojourn in Hanover the King returned.


* * *

The King left Hanover reluctantly. On his journey to the Palace when the people came out to see him pass he was sullen and scarcely returned their greeting.

‘How hot it is here,’ he said. ‘In Hanover there is a cool breeze.’

Oh dear, thought the Queen, the people are noticing. ‘The dust from the ground makes you cough. In Hanover there is no dust. What a noisy crowd! They could learn manners from us Germans.’

It was incredible that this was the man who had when his father was alive declared himself enamoured of England and all things English. It was not the English he had loved, but his father whom he had hated.

As soon as they sat down to a meal which was taken ceremoniously in public he complained that the food was ill-cooked. It was tasteless. It was not like the food he had had in Hanover.

And when he and the Queen were alone for the night he declared that in Hanover a man was a King even though he was an Elector. But in England though he was called a King he was a slave of his Parliament.

She agreed with him docilely enough and wondered whether he would now tell her that the women of Hanover were far more attractive than the women of England; but this he refrained from doing; and appeared to be satisfied with her.


* * *

Walpole took an early opportunity of laying his new scheme before the King. Caroline had already heard of it, but neither she nor Walpole anticipated any obstacle from George.

‘It is necessary as Your Majesty has often pointed out,’ said Walpole, ‘to raise taxes, and certain ideas Your Majesty put into my mind before your visit to Hanover have enabled me to come forward with a plan.’

The King did not question the fact that the ideas were his. Whenever Walpole told him this he believed it.

So he nodded agreeably and waited.

‘The largest proportion of taxation comes from the Land Tax, as Your Majesty is well aware,’ went on Walpole. ‘The landowners are restive. They remind us that during the war they were paying four shillings in the pound. Since we have had peace and cut the army costs we have been able to reduce this to two shillings in the pound. But the landowners say this is too much. I agree with Your Majesty that this tax should be spread and perhaps by so doing we could increase the revenue. I suggest that we bring wine and tobacco duties under the law of excise. This does not make a great deal of difference to the tax imposed. It is rather a different way of collecting. But of course in the wine and tobacco business there is a great deal of smuggling and this I hope to prevent and so increase revenue considerably.’

‘His Majesty is going to say that he approves of this wholeheartedly,’ said the Queen with a smile, ‘for I see he is thinking that the Civil List depends partly on these duties and if they are increased so will the Civil List be.’

‘I was going to say that,’ said the King with an approving nod.

‘It is true, of course,’ said Walpole with a smile. ‘I should now like to lay before Your Majesty my plan of the scheme.’

This he began to do while the Queen listened,, taking her cue when to speak from the minister; and in any case they had already decided how they would set the matter before the King. Not that George needed any persuasion on this occasion.

The new excise laws would increase the Civil List and that was good enough for him.


* * *

Bolingbroke, Pulteney, and Wyndham called a meeting of their friends in the Opposition.

‘Walpole is going to bring in his excise scheme,’ announced Bolingbroke. ‘He can fall on this, and we must see that he does.’

Pulteney pointed out that he would have the landowners with him because of the reduction of the Land Tax.

‘We must see that he has no one with him,’ retorted Bolingbroke. ‘This is an opportunity for which we have all been waiting. This is going to see the end of Walpole.’

‘What!’ cried Wyndham. ‘For a tax on wine and tobacco.’

‘We’ll call it a beginning.’ Bolingbroke’s eyes were aflame. ‘We’ll tell the country what it means. He will start on wine and tobacco and then it will be food . . . everything the people want to buy will be taxed. That will be our cry: “Down with the excise! “ ‘ He turned to Pulteney. ‘We’ll start at once in The Craftsman. “What is Robin the trickster doing now? He is tricking you of your hard earned wages. He is telling you it is only wine and tobacco. Wine and tobacco today. Bread tomorrow. It is only a matter of collecting the tax we will change? Yes, collect it so that more goes out of your pocket and more into Robin’s! “ ‘

‘You think it will be a big issue?’ asked Wyndham. ‘My friend, we are going to see that it is a big issue.’


* * *

Everyone was discussing the new excise proposals. In the coffee and chocolate houses they talked of nothing else. The Craftsman was handed from one to another. ‘Read this. Read what The Craftsman says.’

This was the end of freedom in England, The Craftsman told its readers. This was what Robin had been trying to bring about for years. He wanted to make the King an absolute monarch. Did the people remember that certain monarchs had believed in their Divine Right? They had a King who was more German than English, who preferred the little electorate of Hanover to the mighty country which was England. Between them he, his fat queen, and their henchman Walpole would ruin England; they would destroy the liberties of the people; it would be as though Magna Carta had never been signed. Robin was going to introduce his Excise Bill and lead them back to the dark ages.

‘To hell with these Germans!’ cried the people. ‘What are they doing here anyway!’

It was not only the Opposition who saw opportunities in the excise scheme. Many of Walpole’s own ministry were dissatisfied. Why had they not been given this or that job? Why were they in a minor ministerial position when their talents were so much greater than the men who had the jobs? Jealousy always walked side by side with ambition, and this was an opportunity to destroy the most successful minister of his day, the man who had brought peace and prosperity to England, the most powerful of all politicians, the man who had courted the Queen and won her approval so successfully that between them they had the King in leading strings.

These men called a meeting and selected one of themselves to go to the Queen and point out to her that she was being misled in this excise scheme by Walpole, of whom she had too high opinion; they were to ask her to dissociate herself and the King from the scheme and to let Walpole stand alone in its defence if he wanted to.

For this they chose a Scottish peer, John Dalrymple, Lord Stair.

Lord Stair had a great deal to recommend him for the task. He was a forthright man; he had been slighted and, he believed, treated very badly by Walpole, and he was one of his greatest enemies. He was fearless, and since he felt strongly would put the case well. He was no young fool, being nearly sixty; he was no respecter of persons, and as a Scotsman he had even less love for the Germans than the English had.

Stair had had an adventurous life. When he was only eight years old he had accidentally shot his elder brother, and although he had been pardoned for this his parents could not endure to have him near them constantly to remind them of what he had done, so he was put in the care of a tutor for three years and after that sent to his grandfather in Holland. His youth had been overshadowed by this event and as he had been entirely innocent it had set up a certain resentment in him. He had, however, become the friend of another strange and withdrawn man, William of Orange, and distinguished himself in battle, serving very successfully under Marlborough. Queen Anne had respected him and made him her ambassador to France, but when Marlborough fell, Stair fell with him.