The Prince summoned the Master of His Royal Household and Cholmondeley saw at once that he was in a rage.

‘What do you think, Cholmondeley? I have just been summoned by my father and told that I must without delay do my duty as the husband of the Princess of Wales.’

Cholmondeley sighed.

‘Well,’ cried the Prince, ‘what have you to say? What do you think? That I should spend my life with that vulgar creature. Eh, what do you think, Cholmondeley?’

‘I think,’ said Cholmondeley, ‘that it is something Your Highness would not contemplate with pleasure.’

‘You’re right there, Cholmondeley. But I shall not contemplate it. I have no intention of living with her. In the first place I loathe her; I find her the most repulsive object I ever set eyes on. And in the second place I do not accept the fact that she is my wife.’

‘The Princess Charlotte—’

‘Oh, they have the heir. I’ve done my duty— all the duty I intend to do if it concerns that creature. I am going to make this very clear to her and to everyone.

I wish you to go to her without delay and tell her my feelings.’

‘If Your Highness will tell me exactly what you wish I shall be happy to comply with your instructions.’

‘Go to the Princess Caroline and tell her that I wish us to be formally separated. We shall each go our own way and our affairs will be of no concern to each other.’

Lord Cholmondeley looked uneasy but the Prince said peremptorily, ‘Go. Go at once. I wish there to be no delay.’

Caroline was in the nursery. In fact she rarely left it. She was like a merchant’s wife, said Lady Jersey, with her first child. No one would believe she was a future Queen of England.

When she heard that Cholmondeley had brought a message from the Prince of Wales she feared there would be an attempt to take her daughter from her. She had visualized it a thousand times. A visit from an important member of the Prince’s household; the order that the Princess Charlotte was to be conveyed to some new residence and put under the care of a governess, and taken away from her mother.

Her florid cheeks were a shade paler as she left the nursery and made her way to the apartment where Lord Cholmondeley was waiting for her.

He bowed and she cried out impatiently: ‘Yes, yes what is it?’

‘I have a message from His Highness, the Prince of Wales.’

‘Well, that’s a change. It’s not often that he honours me with his messages.’

But the fear stayed with her, and her bravado could not entirely hide it.

‘His Highness has commissioned me to say that he wishes for a separation.

You and he shall be entitled to act according to your wishes and one shall have no duty to the other.’

Caroline’s relief was obvious. ‘That’s fair enough,’ she said. ‘I can tell you, my lord, I’ll be as glad of it as he will. But one thing I do want to say is that I never wish to be forced to live with him as his wife again. I’d like to say this: I would agree to this separation provided this can be promised. Even if I lost my daughter—’ She shivered involuntarily at the idea— ‘I would never wish to resume marital relations with the Prince of Wales. If this could be promised, I should be agreeable to what he suggests.’

‘I feel certain that this could be arranged, Your Highness.’

‘I should want a written agreement of this, you’ll understand.’

‘I doubt not that His Highness would be delighted to give it,’ replied Lord Cholmondeley.

In Windsor Castle, the Prince of Wales sat at his bureau and wrote to his wife.

30th April, 1796Madam, As Lord Cholmondeley informs me that you wish I would define in writing the terms upon which we were to live, I shall endeavour to explain myself upon that bead with as much clearness and as much propriety as the nature of the subject will admit. Our inclinations are not in our power, nor should either of us be held answerable to the other because nature has not made us suitable to each other. Tranquil and comfortable society is, however, in our power; let our intercourse, therefore, be restricted to that, and I will distinctly subscribe to the condition which you require that even in the event of any accident happening to my daughter, which I trust Providence in its mercy will avert, I shall not infringe the terms of the restriction by proposing, at any period, a connection of a more particular nature. I shall now finally close this disagreeable correspondence, trusting that as we have completely explained ourselves to each other, the rest ofour lives will be passed in uninterrupted tranquility. I am, Madam, With great truth, very sincerely yours, George P. He smiled at what he had written. There. That was the end and it was amicable.

He sighed.

Never to have to be near her, never to have to touch her again.

He felt pleased with life.

Caroline was almost as pleased when she received the letter.

She was the Princess of Wales, yet she was free. No more restrictions. She was no longer accountable to her husband.

Let her keep her child, let her live her own life and she would be very contented to have come to England. She answered the Prince in French, accepting his terms with glee and telling him that she would never cease to pray for his happiness, sent a copy of the letter to the King who came to see her on receipt of it.

‘So you think that you cannot live together?’

‘Your Majesty will know the Prince’s views on that.’

‘Never heard anything like it,’ said the King. ‘Heirs to the throne are not expected to love their wives; only to have children.’

The two sometimes go together,’ suggested Caroline demurely and burst into loud laughter.

The King did not seem to take this amiss but grumbled to himself: ‘Young people— nowadays. When I was a young prince—’ Then he looked a little sad and went on: ‘You should live under the same roof, eh, what? It looks better. The people expect it.’

‘The people know the truth and I would not care to live under the same roof as my husband.’

‘ H’m. Have to see about it. An income you’ll want, too. Wife of the Prince— mother of the heir, eh, what?’

£20,000 a year, he was thinking. Have to consult Pitt. Why was it that this family could not seem to live in peace together? And where would she live?

Carlton House, eh? For while in any case.

Children! What a worry! Better not to have them if it could be avoided. But of course that was what they married for. The Prince of Wales had caused him as many as ten sleepless nights in a row since he came of age— and went on doing it too.

It was no use trying to bring them together if they had determined on parting.

It was amazing how news of the Court reached the gossip columns; there was a scandal about letters which had been written by the Princess of Wales to her family, intercepted and taken to the Queen. The stealer of the letters was of course Lady Jersey.

Her name was in every paper; there were obscene verses and even pictures of herself and the Prince, but the chief complaint against her was not so much that she was the mistress of the Prince and flaunted her ascendancy over the Princess, but that she was all the time acting as the Queen’s spy, intercepting the Princess’s private correspondence and giving it into the hands of her enemies.

Caroline had managed to win public approval. Her affable smiles and obvious pleasure in popularity delighted the people. Besides they had heard stories of her reception and they saw her as an injured woman. And why? Because of that voluptuary, their Prince of Wales, whose debts and adventures with women were a scandal; who had married the good and virtuous Maria Fitzherbert and discarded her.

But even more unpopular was Lady Jersey.

The comments in the press made it impossible for Lady Jersey to ignore them.

Something would have to be done she told the complacent and long suffering Lord Jersey and it was for him to defend his wife’s honour. His manners were too graceful for him to as much as smile at this. He was in fact noted for his beautiful manners. What would his wife wish him to do? She had only to say.

She had written to Dr. Randolph asking him to explain what had happened to a certain packet of letters which the Princess of Wales had entrusted to his care and so far had received no reply. Lord Jersey should without delay write to the doctor and tell him that he insisted on an explanation.

This the obliging Lord Jersey did and in such terms which Dr. Randolph dared not ignore them. He explained in detail how he had set out for Germany, been called back by his wife’s illness and had sent the packet of letters entrusted to him by the Princess of Wales back to her by way of Lady Jersey.

Lady Jersey wrote to say that she had not received that packet and was most uneasy about it. The fact that it had not been returned had been overlooked at the time as the Princess herself had not questioned its return. However, she would publish the correspondence and hoped that this would put an end to the cruel slanders against her.

Caroline read the papers and tried to remember what she had written in those letters. Comments on her new family. Of one thing she was certain. They would not have been very flattering.

She laughed at the affair. It was perfectly clear to her what had happened.

Lady Jersey had deliberately stolen the letters and sent them to the Queen.

Then she became angry. Why should she have that woman in her household?

Why should she allow herself to be spied on? She would endure it no longer.

When the King came to see her she told him that she wished to ask a favour of him.