Princesses: The Six Daughters of George III

After THE UNRULY QUEEN I was already an admirer of this author but now I am in awe of her. Knowing the mountain of original sources Fraser used I find her selections, editing and writing of the overall narrative simply wonderful. It is a very complicated landscape The Princesses lived in and yet the author has succeeded in not only turning up the volume on each Princess as an individual, but portrays the dynamics of that huge family within one of the most turbulent periods of modern history. Also, explanations of the manners and mores of the times are seamlessly interwoven, which in turn nicely contrasts public propriety with the daily private reality. I have a large George III library and this is a valuable addition to it.

The ebb and flow of human relationships is common to all ages; the ways in which these connections are expressed is dictated by their context. Flora Fraser's "Princesses" reveals to us women whose emotions are not at all unfamiliar to us, but whose time compels their expression (or suppression!) in ways that seem foreign to Americans of the 21st century. The six daughters of George III of England and his wife Queen Charlotte (who also had nine sons) were born between 1768 and 1778--the youngest died in 1857. Only three of them were allowed to marry, and that only in their middle age. (Their papa didn't want to part with them.) That did not prevent them from leading active, and sometimes dangerous, romantic lives--perhaps the more active from being restricted. There were consummated and unconsummated affairs, an illegitimate child, possible incest, and perhaps a secret marriage or two. (The House of Windsor has nothing on the House of Hanover when it comes to scandalous affairs of the heart.) The abundant letters which passed between the sisters themselves (Charlotte, Augusta, Elizabeth, Sophia, Amelia, and Mary) and the rest of the family provide the chief means of knowing them. I had always thought of George III and his family as still being fundamentally German, but nothing could be more English in sense and feeling than these letters. They are surprisingly contemporary to modern ear and eye, and they are extremely lively, full of feeling, and very literate--to me, an eye-opener. At the heart of "Princesses" lies the madness of their father. The sisters grew up in a hierarchical (and a man's) world in which there were many rules and not many options for those who flouted them; their father was at the top of the pinnacle. (It was George who in fact signed the Royal Marriages Act which, with certain exceptions, prevented those of the blood royal from marrying without the king's previous consent.) The sisters already knew how loathe the king was to see them leave the family circle, very likely for a foreign country, even when he was in good spirits. After the king's first bouts with ill health, would any "good" daughter want to take the chance of disturbing his mental balance (and thus the balance of the kingdom) by requiring his approval of her marriage? How would a daughter cope with the inappropriate sexual activity of her mentally troubled father? How would she relate to a mother who turned her father out of the bedroom when that daughter believed that this precipitated the king's sexual misbehavior? If you are an affectionate woman of some intelligence, but in a position of some prominence, how do you make a life for yourself under these circumstances?--questions that do not arise solely in eighteenth century Britain. Flora Fraser allows us to look over the ladies' shoulders as they cope with these trials, with each other, and with the rest of their world.

Flora Fraser is the next generation in the fine biographical/historical tradition of her mother Lady Antonia Fraser and her late grandmother Elizabeth (Countess of) Longford. Like her forebears, Fraser combines scholarship with an elegant and witty writing style to produce books which illuminate and engage. King George III's six daughters tend to get short shrift from historians and biographers who focus on their father, their brothers, and their niece Queen Victoria. The prevailing picture of them is of six mousy women pushed into the background. Fraser has pulled Charlotte, Augusta, Elizabeth, Mary, Sophia, and Amelia out of the shadows and let us see that they had strong personalities and lives of their own. The six princesses were victims of circumstance even more than most eighteenth century royal women. Ordinarily they would have been married off to men they scarcely knew almost as soon as they reached puberty in order to strengthen Britain's alliances. George III, however, had been horrified by the ill treatment two of his own sisters received at the hands of unloving husbands, and he was determined that his own daughters would not suffer such a fate. Unfortunately his paternal affections did not extend to allowing his daughters to marry Englishmen they loved, and only meant that he turned down overtures from many foreign princes, usually without consulting his daughters at all. Furthermore, as the princesses reached marriageable age the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars meant many possible suitors were now the enemies of Britain and thus out of bounds. Finally, George III's bouts of madness/porphyria attacks made him unable to entertain marriage offers, and his wife Queen Charlotte's deep depression over her husband's malady meant that she could not be a matchmaker either. Bereft of the chance to be proper wives and mothers (the only acceptable role for nearly all women of the period) the princesses lived under their parents' noses well into middle age. They developed literary and artistic interests and were patrons of British charities, and managed little flirtations and dalliances here and there with gentlemen of the court. One of Augusta's liaisons possibly ended in (an illegal) marriage, while Sophia actually produced an illegitimate child. The princesses were dutiful and loving children to their increasingly difficult parents and were supportive siblings to their rackety brothers, who were also denied the chance to legally marry women they loved. It was only in middle age that some of the daughters married, Charlotte and Elizabeth to German princelings, Mary to an English cousin. Charlotte probably had the most adventurous life, living in Wurttemburg right through several invasions by Napoleon and having to flee for her life at one point (Fraser's description of her life in temporary exile, accompanied by two kangaroos, is among the most amusing of the many anecdotes in the book.) The fine human qualities of the d

Perhaps best known in the United States as being the British king who wanted the colonies to pay for military protection with things like the tax on tea, George III was King of England from 1760 until 1820. He fathered fifteen children, six of whom were daughters, this is their story. The King's growing madness is heavily emphasized in this story. And this is fitting because this was a growing part of the lives of the children. Ms. Fraser did a remarkable job with this book. It is based on the extensive letters between Queen Charlotte and the six girls. It is not a typical biography talking of the major events of King George's rule, it is the personal story of this group of women trying to live a semi-normal life amidst life at the court. It is a fascinating book that looks at a time far removed from ours.