CAROLINE OF BRUNSWICK: (1768-1821) Queen Consort of the United Kingdom and Hanover 1820-21. Wife of King George IV.

A.L.S., Caroline, Princess de Galles, as Princess of Wales, in the third person (although also signed in a conventional manner at the conclusion), three pages, 4to, n.p. (Pesaro), 21st August 1818, to Professor Tamassini, in French. The Princess expresses her pleasure at the news that her correspondent's wife has safely given birth to a baby girl, and adds that she is looking forward to congratulating him personally on his next visit, further conveying the good wishes of 'Monsieur le Baron' (her lover, Bartolomeo Pergami), and continuing to explain that she will be especially pleased to see him again later in the year as she hopes that Cardinal Albani will be in Pesaro at that time, further noting that Marquis Antaldo's letters to their mutual friend Dr. Rosari appear to be censored by the police ('…comme la police est si inquiet a son suject….'). VGProvenance: The present letter originates from a collection formed in 1903 by A. M. Broadley, author of Chats on Autographs (1910). In his book Broadley observes 'The letters of the Princess of Wales…the Queen Caroline of 1820-21, are not very valuable, but they are curious. They are now quite as valuable as those of her worthless husband and his successor….'The marriage of the future King George IV to Caroline of Brunswick was a disaster from the outset, not least as Prince George was already secretly married to Maria Fitzherbert. In 1814, offended at her exclusion from the celebrations to mark the fall of Napoleon, Caroline moved to Italy where she employed Bartolomeo Pergami (mentioned in the present letter) as a servant. Pergami soon became Caroline's closest companion and lover. Gossip about her affairs and lifestyle was widespread and Hanoverian spies watched her in the hope of collecting evidence of her adultery which George required as the grounds for the divorce he desperately sought, but never obtained. When her husband finally acceded to the throne in 1820, Caroline was famously shut out of her own coronation.