BIB_ID
428493
Accession number
MA 14286.27
Creator
Knox, Maria, 1795-1822, sender.
Display Date
Nasirabad, India, 1821 April 22.
Credit line
Bequest of Gordon N. Ray, 1987.
Description
1 item (4 pages) ; 25.3 x 20.2 cm
Notes
Address panel with remains of seal: Mrs. Colonel. Butler / Care of G. Cruttenden Esq. [crossed out] / Calcutta [crossed out] / Barrackpore / 22d April.
Caroline of Brunswick was the wife of King George IV. The two were estranged for nearly their entire 25 years of marriage. When George IV ascended to the throne, he attempted to divorce Caroline in order to prevent her from becoming Queen. He accused her of adultery, and had the Bill of Pains and Penalties introduced in Parliament to allow a divorce. The hearings for the bill became a de facto trial of Caroline for adultery. A massive public controversy accompanied the hearings. See Jonathan Fulcher, "Queen Caroline Affair," in The Oxford Companion to the Romantic Age, edited by Ian McCalman et al. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999).
Forms part of a collection (MA 14286.1-66) of letters written by Maria Knox to her mother, Mrs. Harriet Butler.
Caroline of Brunswick was the wife of King George IV. The two were estranged for nearly their entire 25 years of marriage. When George IV ascended to the throne, he attempted to divorce Caroline in order to prevent her from becoming Queen. He accused her of adultery, and had the Bill of Pains and Penalties introduced in Parliament to allow a divorce. The hearings for the bill became a de facto trial of Caroline for adultery. A massive public controversy accompanied the hearings. See Jonathan Fulcher, "Queen Caroline Affair," in The Oxford Companion to the Romantic Age, edited by Ian McCalman et al. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999).
Forms part of a collection (MA 14286.1-66) of letters written by Maria Knox to her mother, Mrs. Harriet Butler.
Provenance
Bequest of Gordon N. Ray, 1987.
Summary
Reporting that "we have all been so full of the unfortunate Queen it is not possible to meet any one without talking of it", and further commenting of Caroline of Brunswick, "I do think her an admirable Woman to have stood thru such fiery ordeals as those through which she has passed," although "I know she is no favorite of yours dear Mam." Writing that she has not heard from "our dear Girl," meaning one of her sisters, and that she and her niece Mary "have both benefited by their trip to Lemington." Commenting on her mother's deliberations on whether to move to England. Commenting on Mrs. Farrington's unhappy marriage and reporting that "Mrs. F [Fagan] and I have only met once since the reconciliation ... I am in fact much inclined to keep aloof for I hear she has misrepresented many things I said and did." With a postscript noting "the death of Col. Marlord (59th) at Dinapore after a short illness."
Catalog link
Department