"He is decidedly disturbed," said Sir William Duncan, one of the chief doctors.
"This is disaster. The Prince of Wales is not yet three. It will mean a Regency.”
"Come, sir. You go too fast. He has a violent chill, and there is a rash on his chest. This may be the delirium of passing fever.”
Grenville looked relieved. "But this must be kept a secret until we are sure.”
The doctors agreed with this; and Grenville said that either the Queen or the Princess Dowager should be informed, and perhaps they should choose the Princess Dowager as the Queen was pregnant.
The Princess was stunned. "This is terrible," she cried. "George ... deranged ... and the Prince not yet three years old. Leave me. I will see you later. I must think about this.”
And as soon as she was alone she sent an urgent message to Lord Bute. He came at once, and she told him what the doctors had told her.
"He has been acting strangely lately. What does Charlotte say?”
"Charlotte does not know. The news was brought to me and I have given orders that she shall not be told.”
"But she is the Queen.”
The Princess shrugged her shoulders. "It is better that she does not know, until we have decided what should be done. I have said that because of her condition it is better for her to be told that the King is suffering from a chill and a fever and no one but his doctors must be with him for fear it is contagious.”
Bute was struck by her calm. She did not waste time on sympathy for the King. She was immediately planning what effect his illness would have on the Crown, and who would be at hand to become the power in the land. The Princess Dowager was determined that she should be the one. Therefore the Queen was a menace, and the Queen should be kept in the dark.
"I shall give orders at once," she said, 'that Charlotte shall not be told the nature of his illness; moreover, I shall ensure that Charlotte does not see him.”
At Richmond with her children Charlotte received a message from her mother-in-law which told her that the King was suffering from a violent chill and fever. The doctors believed that the Queen should not visit him as it might be infectious and she had the child she was carrying to consider.
She would be kept informed.
Charlotte thought: It is all this anxiety. The bickering ministers, the terrible lampoons about his mother and her lover. But in her heart she knew it was largely due to the Hannah Lightfoot affair.
But we are married now, she thought. And even if George and Frederick are bastards, the children we have in the future will not be.
During the weeks that followed Charlotte was in a state of anxiety; at times she thought of ignoring the Princess's orders and going to see the King to tell him not to worry. They were married now, for that which had taken place under the guise of a masque was a true ceremony.
She had Dr. Wilmot's assurance on it. He must forget the past; he must never go to see his son by Hannah Lightfoot; he must forget that indiscretion of his youth and all would be well. She went to her nursery to see the children. Young George, a very handsome child, was already aware of his importance. He knew he was Prince of Wales and his nurses were indulgent to him and he had already been informed that he would one day be king. He was so bright, so precocious, so interested in everything - a perfect boy.
"Where is Papa?" he asked. "Why does he not come to see me?”
"He will, my darling. As soon as he is able.”
The little boy thought it strange that his father should be so dilatory in giving himself the pleasure of seeing the little Prince of Wales whom everyone adored. Somewhere, thought Charlotte, there is another boy, who may be calling himself the Prince of Wales. But no, he would not dare!
Hannah would have seen to that. She had been a sensible woman and she must have loved George to give him up as she did. She tried to soothe herself, but as the weeks passed, she began to feel apprehensive about the nature of George's illness since she was not allowed to see him.
The King's health improved and Charlotte was with him again. She was shocked by the change in him. His youth had gone forever. He had a nervous way of speaking, repeating sentences and asking impatiently "What? What?" before one had time to answer.
Charlotte talked to him of the children and that comforted him to some extent. She said not a word of the masque and the ceremony through which they had gone. She determined that never again if she could help it would she mention Hannah Lightfoot's name. Hannah was dead; Charlotte and George had been remarried however oddly and even though Charlotte refused to admit that that second strange ceremony had been necessary, she was very relieved that it had taken place.
George suffered depressions. He believed that everyone was against him. He wrote to Lord Bute: Everyday I meet with some insult. I have been in a fever ... My very sleep is not free from thinking of the men I daily see ... Excuse the incoherency of my letters. But a mind ulcerated by the treatment it meets with from all around, it is the true cause of it.
When Bute received this letter he was disturbed. In the first place the fact that George had written to him seemed to imply that he had forgotten the break in their friendship and believed himself to be back in the old days of confidence. He talked to the Princess about it and they were very disturbed.
But during a moment of intense clarity the King decided that he might at some time become unfit to govern and that it was necessary to bring into force a Regency Bill. He consulted Blackstone, the authority on law who told him that a new Act would not be necessary as the present Act dealt with all possibilities. In the event of his dying or becoming unable to govern the Princess Dowager would automatically become Regent.
George said: "My mother is no longer young." And he thought: She and Lord Bute would rule together and neither of them is capable of it.
"No," he went on, "I wish to introduce a new Regency Bill and I will name my Regent and it shall be a secret until I allow it to be known.”
Blackstone said that this was a matter for him to discuss with his ministers and the King hastily called them together to tell them of his decision. After much discussion the Bill was passed which would empower the King, in case of his death or incapacity, to name the Regent, limiting the choice to the Queen or members of his own family.
To Charlotte life had become alarming. She was not sure what was going to happen next. The illness of the King, and his strange behaviour which continued intermittently worried her. And she knew that in the streets there were whispers about the King's strange malady. But as the weeks passed he grew better; and in August in Buckingham House she gave birth to her third son. He was christened William; and as she held him against her and rejoiced in his coming she told herself that no one on earth could say he was not the legitimate son of the King and Queen of England.
The royal nursery
In the nursery at Kew, George reigned supreme. At four years old he was precocious, clever, bright, aware of his importance. He heard the servants whispering about the Prince of Wales and he knew it was himself.
"One day," he boasted to his brother Frederick, "George the Prince will be the King.”
Poor Frederick tried to imagine how a boy of four could be king and wear a crown. Wouldn't it keep slipping off his head?
"Silly child," retorted George, "I'll have a big head then.”
"God help us," said Lady Charlotte Finch, their governess. "It's big enough now.”
Young George was seen surreptitiously touching his head to see if it really was big enough to carry the crown. The servants, watching, laughed together. "Master George can't wait," they said.
"Not yet five and imagining himself the King already.”