[The following is in regards to the marriage of the future British King George IV and Caroline of Brunswick.]
Prinney [George’s nickname] needed to get hitched – and fast. By 1794, he was an incredible £650,000 in debt (more than $40 million today), having spent wildly on art, building projects, fancy clothing, wine, and racehorses. Crisis hit when several angry tradesmen to whom he owed money filed a petition demanding payment. Parliament would agree to pay the debts only if the prince married. No one, least of all Prinney, cared who the bride was, as long as she was a princess, a Protestant, and in possession of a pulse.
Princess Caroline, the extremely available daughter of a powerful German duke, was the prince’s first cousin.
[…]
Though good-natured, Caroline was untidy, graceless, and chubby. She was also loud, vulgar, and devoid of tact or discretion. She liked to flirt, earning her a reputation as “very loose” and guilty of “indecent conduct.” She wasn’t stupid, exactly, but she was shallow. She loved gossip, asking impertinent questions, had a crude sense of humor, and was often childish and disrespectful. Adding to this pretty picture, Caroline didn’t wash, or at least not enough; her undergarments, too, went overly long between launderings. Were there ever two people more ill-suited for each other?
Things only got worse after their first meeting. Once the prince beat his hasty retreat, Caroline declared that he was fatter than in his portrait. At dinner that night, she was her worst possible self (trying to be clever but coming off as unhinged), as was Prinney (cold, rude, and drunk). But the show had to go on, and the couple was married two days later, on April 8, 1795. According to temporary reports, the bridegroom looked “like death” and was obviously wasted; weepy and loud, he had to be held up by his groomsmen, According to Caroline, he spent their wedding night passed out in the fireplace. They went on their honeymoon with all of his “constantly drunk and dirty” mates, plus his mistress to boot.
Source:
McRobbie, Linda Rodriguez. “Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, The Princess Who Didn’t Wash.” Princesses Behaving Badly: Real Stories From History-- Without the Fairy-Tale Endings. MJF Books, 2013. 214-15. Print.
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