He was in the process of building a palace at Loo and I was surprised when he showed me the plans for it. Perhaps this was due to the criticisms Dr. Ken was still making about his neglect of me — but I did not want to look for that sort of reason.

I was excited. It was to be a wonderful palace.

“The garden will be large,” he said. “You might like to choose some of the flowers and say how you would like them to be laid. You will have your own suite there, of course, and you could make some suggestions about that.”

I threw myself wholeheartedly into the project. We arranged that under the windows there should be a fountain and, as I showed a preference for statues, they should be placed in the garden at spots of my choosing. It was all very interesting and I watched the erection of the palace with great delight. And what made it so pleasant was William’s changed attitude. He was more gracious; he suggested rather than ordered.

Frances wrote of her happiness with Sir Benjamin and the interests they shared, and I wrote back glowing of my life with William.

I loved the palace at Loo. I suppose because I had had a hand in its construction. I set up a a poultry garden where I hoped to breed various specimens of fowl. It was a great pleasure to go among them, feed them and have them fluttering all around me. So I spent a great deal of time at Loo.

Unfortunately, once the palace had been built, I saw less of William. I could not expect him to be at Loo when state affairs demanded his attention at The Hague.

There was news from England. My sister Anne was at the heart of a scandal.

She was sixteen years old now. I had been married before I reached that age. It was different now. The unpopularity of my father had increased since I left. Titus Oates had seen to that. The King was older, and his age and my father’s inability to get a son made it seem more possible that I — and William with me — would one day have the throne. And, of course, Anne would follow me, if I had no children, which seemed likely.

It was hard to contemplate Anne bestirring herself sufficiently to become involved in a scandal. I supposed it just happened round her. She was pretty in her way, in spite of being too fat; her complexion, when I had last seen her, had been very fresh and healthy-looking; and her rather vague look — due to her shortsightedness — could be very appealing to some.

In any case, it seemed that John Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave, had fallen in love with her. Their romance had been discovered and poor Mulgrave was in disgrace.

He was some years older than she was — about sixteen or seventeen, I heard — but a very handsome man with a great gift for words. I think she must have been charmed by his poetry.

However, when it was discovered that Mulgrave had plans to marry her — and had her agreement to this — there was trouble.

I could imagine Anne’s demeanor. She would smile her ineffectual smile and it would be realized that it was no use remonstrating with her.

It was different with poor Mulgrave. He was reprimanded and sent off to Tangiers. I heard afterward that the ship on which he had sailed leaked, and it was hinted that it was hoped to be rid of him at sea; but I did not believe that. My uncle would never be party to such a plan, but there will always be insinuations against people in high places; and when I discovered that the Earl of Plymouth was among those on board, I knew it was false, for the Earl of Plymouth was an illegitimate son of the King. My uncle loved all his children dearly and would never have allowed any of them to go to sea in a faulty vessel.

Mulgrave himself never brought such an accusation and declared that the unseaworthiness of the ship had not been discovered until they were halfway to Tangiers and that if it had been faulty when it set out it would have been quickly revealed.

Anne’s little flutter with Mulgrave had brought home the desirability of finding a husband for her before she was involved in further indiscretions.


* * *

PRINCE GEORGE OF HANOVER ARRIVED in Holland. He was on his way to England and we guessed the reason for this visit. It was to give him an opportunity of meeting Anne.

William was always affected by what was happening at the English court. Sometimes I thought it would have been happier for him if Mrs. Tanner had not seen that vision of the three crowns at his birth. Then perhaps he might not have been so obsessed by the need to get them. But perhaps, being the ambitious man he was, he would have wanted the crowns just the same.

George had a claim to the throne. His father Ernest Augustus had married Sophia, the daughter of Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, who was the granddaughter of James I of England. His connection with the Stuarts did not please William. I think William would have been happy if Anne had made her clandestine match with Mulgrave.

I had come out of seclusion at Loo for the visit of George of Hanover. I found him singularly unattractive; he was handsome in a way, but he had no charm or manner; he was simple in his dress and it was obvious that he was going to make no concessions to anyone. He had clearly inherited none of the charm of the Stuart clan. I wondered what Anne would think of him.

He did not stay long with us and after he had gone I waited eagerly for news of what had taken place on his meeting with my sister.

There were various versions, but the main one was that it had been far from successful. Elizabeth Villiers, I imagined, was the chief source of information, for she was in constant communication with her sisters who were at the court of England, and that meant she received the latest news from them. It was usually accurate.

It seemed George and Anne had not taken kindly to each other. Poor Anne! I expect she compared him with Lord Mulgrave, and the contrast must have been great.

How I wished I could have been with her, to have known her true feelings. Anne was not a letter writer; she had always avoided taking up her pen. She was quite different from me in that respect and any communication I had from her was brief. I did hope she was not too unhappy at this time.

I heard that George had been averse to the match after meeting Anne and Anne felt the same about him. So there could have been no regrets when the young man was recalled to Hanover and was almost immediately betrothed to Sophia Dorothea of Celle.

So George’s future was fixed, and I was sure someone would soon be found for Anne.

There was sad news from home. Little Isabella had died. I was desolate. I had grown to love my little half-sister when she had been with us and I guessed the anguish Mary Beatrice would be suffering. It was so cruel that this child — the only one who had managed to survive for a few years — should be taken from her.

My father wrote very sadly to me. I knew that he would be going through a very difficult time. The King was not in the best of health and there was uneasiness everywhere. He hoped that I was happy. Dr. Ken had reported that he was not pleased with the manner in which I was treated at my husband’s court.

I wrote to him and said that I was very well and by no means unhappy. Dr. Ken may have exaggerated. He did not really like being away from his own country and he had had some differences about religion with the Prince.

My father also said that he believed there were rumors circulating about himself, and he hoped nothing would be done to poison my mind against him. He wanted my assurances that the feelings we had had for each other were as they always had been.

I assured him that this was so, although I wondered afterward if this was entirely true. In the days of my childhood I had thought him godlike, perfect in every way; but recently I had felt a little impatient with him. I hated the conflict and it was becoming more and more clear to me that if my father had not flaunted his religion in such a way, many of our troubles need never have occurred.

When Dr. Ken went back to England he was replaced by Dr. Covell. Dr. Covell had traveled a great deal and was very different from Dr. Ken. He was more gentle, more inclined to keep his opinions to himself, but I quickly realized that he had no great fondness for William, and I was not surprised, for he was shocked, as Dr. Ken had been, by the lack of respect accorded me.

There was more news from England regarding Anne. This time her suitor was another George — the Prince of Denmark. By all accounts, he appeared to be a rather pleasant person, unassuming in the extreme, and because he was only the second son of King Frederick of Denmark, he could take up his residence in England and Anne would not be expected to leave her home. I could well imagine that this would make the young man very agreeable to her — and when I heard that Colonel Churchill was a friend of the Prince, who in turn thought highly of the Colonel, I was sure that Sarah would approve of him and that would count very highly with Anne. So I was not surprised when I heard she was satisfied with the match, and I rejoiced in this, for I did not want my sister to suffer as I had.

I was living a very quiet life at this time. Anne Trelawny was a great comfort and I also had my old nurse, Mrs. Langford, with me. Her husband was a clergyman and one of my chaplains. There were the Villiers and Betty Selbourne with Jane Wroth — now Jane Zulestein — and a rather pretty Dutch girl named Trudaine.

Another of the Villiers sisters had arrived in Holland. This was Catherine. She had married a Monsieur Puisars, a Frenchman who had a post at The Hague.