QUEEN CAROLINE
Collection of memorabilia relating to the trial of Queen Caroline in 1820 mounted in three ...

QUEEN CAROLINE
Collection of memorabilia relating to the trial of Queen Caroline in 1820 mounted in three large albums

The collection comprises:
c.280 authorized notes of admission to the House of Lords between August and November 1820, addressed to the doorkeeper and signed by peers and bishops (including Lords Grey, Holland, Aberdeen, Grenville, Wellesley, Melbourne, Melville, Sidmouth, and Wellington), a letter signed by George IV ordering the Commissioners for Auditing the Public Accounts to discharge Viscount Castlereagh, Secretary of State, from rendering any account of the expenditure of 7,500, which was given to Thomas Coutts & Co. to discharge "the bills of the several authorized Agents appointed to consider the Enquiries respecting Her Majesty the Queen. Upwards of 200 contemporary prints The Trial of Queen Caroline in the House of Lords between August and November 1820 was one of the great scandals of the age. In the event, George IV's attempt to establish her adultery and secure a divorce failed and, to the delight of the public, she was acquitted. The document in the present collection, proving the King's use of his secret service to prepare the case, to the tune of 7,500, bears vivid witness to the determination he felt, in the first year of his reign, to rid himself of his official connection to a woman he had long despised and rejected. His wish was, as it happens, granted in the following year after she was physically barred from attending his coronation, took ill and died.