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Abstract
The character and reputation of Frederick, prince of Wales, have long divided historians. His apparently piecemeal efforts at opposition have been dismissed as lacking in focus, while his mercurial character and early demise have left him difficult to assess. The aim of this article is to attempt once more to reappraise the Prince both as a man at the head of a specific political interest but also more broadly as the symbolic figurehead of a wider patriot movement within society. Through analysis of the contemporary press, and of some of the key members of the Prince's own household, this essay will argue that Prince Frederick was more than just a figurehead for the patriots, if impeded by circumstances and occasionally distracted by his own protean tendencies.Footnote*
Notes
* An earlier version of this piece was given at the conference ‘Protean Patriots? New Research on the Patriot Opposition to Sir Robert Walpole’ held at Hampton Court in June 2013. I am grateful to the organizers, Oliver Cox and Jennifer Scammell, for inviting me to speak at that event and to Nigel Aston and the anonymous reviewers for their comments.
1 John Potter, Edward Chandler, and Thomas Secker, respectively. Unlike Potter, Secker (who later was translated to Canterbury) was deeply suspicious of Leicester House. See James Lees, ‘The Religious Retinue of Leicester House: Chaplains of Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales, 1729-51’, Journal for Eighteenth Century Studies 39 (2016).
2 The (Old) Pretender, James Edward Stuart, only son of James II; the son referred to here was his heir, Charles Edward Stuart, the Young Pretender. Historical Manuscripts Commission: Manuscripts of the Earl of Egmont [hereafter HMC Egmont], Diary of the First Earl of Egmont… (1923), vol. iii, pp. 178-9.
3 Patrick Dillon, The Much-Lamented Death of Madam Geneva: The Eighteenth Century Gin Craze (London, 2002), pp. 235-6.
4 The quakes did, though, inspire John Wesley to compose hymns in response to the events, and also inspired a series of articles in the press from various viewpoints attributing the earthquakes to both natural and supernatural causes. N. Rogers, Mayhem: Post-War Crime and Violence in Britain, 1748-53 (New Haven, 2012), passim.
5 The inspiration for the ‘patriot king’ was largely drawn from the work of Henry St John, Viscount Bolingbroke. Prince Frederick's image was also shaped by pieces within the newspaper associated with his movement, Common Sense, which ‘promoted the vision of Frederick as a constitutional prince of truly old English principles, offering patriotic harmony and reform in place of Hanoverian strife and corruption’, P. Langford, A Polite and Commercial People: England 1727-1783 (Oxford, 1989), p. 48. See also C. Gerrard, The Patriot Opposition to Walpole: Politics, Poetry and National Myth, 1725-1742 (Oxford, 1994), p. 3.
6 H. Smith, Georgian Monarchy: Politics and Culture, 1714–1760 (Cambridge, 2006); A.C. Thompson, George II (New Haven, 2011). This is in spite of a resurgence of interest in the Prince and his supporters. See for example, G. Glickman, ‘Parliament, the Tories and Frederick Prince of Wales’, Parliamentary History, 30,2 (2011).
7 See for example, A. Gestrich and M. Schaich (eds), The Hanoverian Succession: Dynastic Politics and Monarchical Culture (Farnham, 2015).
8 Gerrard, Patriot Opposition to Walpole, p. 58.
9 L. Colley, In Defiance of Oligarchy: The Tory Party 1714–60 (Cambridge, 1982), p. 222; idem, Britons: Forging the Nation 1707–1837 (New Haven, 1992), p. 206.
10 J. Black, George II: Puppet of the Politicians? (Exeter, 2007), p. 174.
11 R. Harris (ed.), A Leicester House Political Diary, 1742-3, Camden Miscellany 4th series, 31 (London, 1992), p. 380.
12 Lord Hervey and his Friends, 1726–38, based on letters from Holland House, Melbury, and Ickworth, earl of Ilchester (Giles Fox-Strangways) (ed.), (London, 1950), p. 123.
13 Bodleian Library, Oxford University, MS Gough. Suffolk 6, fol. 225.
14 O. Cox, ‘Frederick, Prince of Wales, and the First Performance of “Rule, Britannia!”’, The Historical Journal, 56 (2013), p. 936.
15 Henry Fielding, The True Patriot and Related Writings, W. B. Coley (ed.) (Oxford, 1987), p. 281.
16 J. Carswell, The Old Cause: Three Biographical Studies in Whiggism (London, 1954), p. 167.
17 George Henry Lee, 3rd earl of Lichfield.
18 Gerrard, Patriot Opposition to Walpole, p. 225; J.C.D. Clark, English Society 1688–1832 (Cambridge, 1985), p. 182.
19 Clark has argued that, far from setting out a specific programme, The Idea of a Patriot King rather offered inspiration for ‘an ideology sufficiently lofty and generalised to promote the unity of Whig and Tory elements in the Leicester House opposition’. Clark, English Society, p. 182.
20 Hannah Smith has pointed out that ‘patriotism is a notoriously protean concept’ embracing the ideas of Bolingbroke focusing on ‘a highly secularised definition of kingship’, owing much to Jacobite roots but that also ‘evoked ideas of active Protestant endeavour’. Smith, Georgian Monarchy, pp, 20-21. Isaac Kramnick has observed that Bolingbroke's inspiration as reflected in A Letter on the Spirit of Patriotism owed much to classical precedent. I. Kramnick, Bolingbroke and his Circle: The Politics of Nostalgia in the Age of Walpole (Cornell, 1992), p. 31.
21 After being turned out of court, Frederick lodged at various residences, including Norfolk House and Carlton House, as well as his rural retreats at Cliveden and Kew. In the early summer of 1741, he took on Leicester House, which gave its name to the movement associated with him. Daily Gazetteer, 15 June 1741.
22 Weekly Journal or British Gazetteer, 6 October 1716. An earlier letter published in the same paper described Frederick as ‘the peoples [sic] darling’. Weekly Journal or British Gazetteer, 18 August 1716. Frederick's familiarity even before his arrival in England was assisted by the distribution of portraits of him. For example, he appeared along with other members of his family as part of Penkethman's display at Bartholomew Fair in the summer of 1723. Weekly Journal or British Gazetteer, 24 August 1723.
23 Parliamentary Archives, LGC/5/1, fol. 137, Ancaster to Hon. Henry Finch, 18 April 1744.
24 General Evening Post, 5-8 September 1741.
25 Cox, ‘Frederick, Prince of Wales, and the First Performance of “Rule, Britannia!”’, 938; G. Bickham, The Beauties of Stow (1750; Augustan Reprint Society, Los Angeles, 1977), pp. 53-4.
26 Common Sense, 20 February 1742.
27 ‘Frederick, Prince of Wales, with members of “La Table Ronde”’, Charles Phillips, 1732 (Royal Collection); ‘The “Henry the Fifth” Club or “The Gang”’, Charles Phillips (attrib.), c.1730–35 (Royal Collection). Both pieces show the Prince surrounded by members of his set. In the first, they are sporting the Prince's ‘hunting livery’. The location depicted in the portrait of the ‘table ronde’ may be The White House at Kew, but may equally be an imaginary one. See https://www.royalcollection.org.uk/collection/406101/frederick-prince-of-wales-with-the-members-of-the-la-table-ronde [accessed 25 July 2016].
28 Tim Blanning, ‘The Hanoverian Monarchy and the Culture of Representation’, in Gestrich and Schaich (eds), The Hanoverian Succession, p. 143. According to Oliver Cox, Alfred ‘offered Frederick and his political allies … a standard of kingship against which his father could consistently be found wanting’. Cox, ‘Frederick, Prince of Wales, and the First Performance of “Rule, Britannia!”’, p. 938.
29 Evening Post, 18-20 July 1723.
30 Weekly Journal or British Gazetteer, 30 June 1722; Daily Journal, 2 July 1722.
31 The Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 offered Frederick an opportunity finally to demonstrate his abilities as a general, but he was refused permission. In September 1745, the duke of Newcastle was approached about sending Frederick to York to encourage the local population, while in December it was reported that Frederick was to ‘erect his standard among the free and loyal tin miners’ in Cornwall in the event the Jacobites attempted a landing in the west. Neither suggestion was acted on, leaving Frederick with little choice but to offer financial support for those involved in suppressing the rebellion. The National Archives, SP 36/69, anonymous to Newcastle, September 1745; London Evening Post, 7-10 December 1745; Fielding, True Patriot and Related Writings, p. 401.
32 Blue and red continued to be the colours associated with Frederick's son, George III, during whose reign military uniform came to be an acceptable form of dress at court. P. Mansel, ‘Monarchy, Uniform and the Rise of the Frac, 1760–1830’, Past and Present, 96 (1982), pp. 104, 111, 112. I am grateful to Nigel Aston for pointing this article out to me.
33 See for example the patriots' opposition to the imposition of naval uniforms in the 1740s. S. Kinkel, ‘Disorder, Discipline, and Naval Reform in Mid-Eighteenth-Century Britain’, English Historical Review, cxxviii, 535 (2013), pp. 1471, 1474.
34 D. Underdown, Start of Play: Cricket and Culture in Eighteenth-Century England (London, 2000), pp. 63-7, 75-7, 92.
35 London Evening Post, 11-13 September 1735.
36 Country Journal or The Craftsman, 18 November 1738.
37 Among the accounts for 1738/9 are a list of toy suppliers for Frederick's household, including £23 3s. spent at Chevenix's, the well-known toy retailer. British Library [hereafter BL], Add. MS 74240, fols 9-10.
38 BL, Add. MS 88883/8/1, pp. 62-3.
39 Underdown, Start of Play, p. 63.
40 London Evening Post, 28-31 March 1741, and 31 March–2 April 1741.
41 Daily Advertiser, 23 July 1745.
42 HMC Egmont Diary, ii. 197-8.
43 University of Nottingham Library, Ne C896, Avery to Prince Frederick, 20 February 1749.
44 HMC Dartmouth, iii. 160.
45 HMC Dartmouth, iii. 159-63.
46 Daily Courant, 9 June 1716.
47 BL, Verney MS (microfilm) M636/56, John Stone to Lord Fermanagh, 23 November 1721.
48 George Cholmondeley, Viscount Malpas, later 3rd earl of Cholmondeley, was Walpole's son-in-law.
49 Bodleian Library, Oxford University, G. Pamph. 1279, ‘A Poem on the arrival of His Royal Highness Prince Frederick’ (London, 1728).
50 Lord Hervey and his Friends, Ilchester (ed.), pp. 107-10; H. Smith and S. Taylor, ‘Hephaestion and Alexander: Lord Hervey, Frederick, Prince of Wales, and the Royal Favourite in England in the 1730s', English Historical Review, cxxiv, 507 (2009), p. 309.
51 F. Harris, A Passion for government: the life of Sarah duchess of Marlborough (Oxford, 1991), p. 280.
52 BL, Add. MS 61467, fols 24-6.
53 For details of Frederick's building projects and cultural connections in relation to his household see F. Vivian, A Life of Frederick Prince of Wales: A Connoisseur of the Arts (Lampeter, 2006), pp. 267-326.
54 The Correspondence of the Dukes of Richmond and Newcastle 1724-1750, T. McCann (ed.), Sussex Record Society 73 (Lewes, 1984), p. 12.
55 Daily Post, 29 January 1731; Saint Andrews University Library, Cheape papers, MS 36929/7/627, H. Cheape to his father, 6 February 1731.
56 HMC Polwarth, v. 145.
57 Daily Post, 10 December 1741; London Evening Post, 10-12 December 1741.
58 London Evening Post, 2-4 May 1738.
59 J.C. Sainty, Peerage Creations: Chronological Lists of Creations in the Peerages of England and Great Britain, 1649–1800, and of Ireland, 1603-1898, Parliamentary History Texts & Studies 1 (Oxford, 2008), p. 38.
60 R. Sedgwick (ed.), History of Parliament: The Commons, 1715–54 [hereafter HP Commons] (2 vols, London, 1970), ii, pp. 230-31, 395-6.
61 Carswell, The Old Cause, pp. 177-8.
62 Frederick declined to come out against the Excise openly in spite of the efforts of Chesterfield, Cobham and others to persuade him. Langford, Polite and Commercial People, p. 36.
63 According to Wiggins, the ‘Rumpsteak Club’ was made up of individuals ‘bound together almost entirely by the desire to see Walpole out of office’. L.M. Wiggins, The Faction of Cousins: A Political Account of the Grenvilles, 1733–63 (New Haven, 1998), p. 84. The etymology of the club's name came from the fact that it was ‘formed by those who had the royal back turned on them’, Langford, Polite and Commercial People, p. 35.
64 Carswell, The Old Cause, pp. 181-2, 183. The ‘fifty thousand pounds’ refers to an opposition attempt to increase the level of the Prince's annual allowance.
65 Royal Archives, Windsor, RA Geo/54047-8, 54051.
66 Daily Post, 22 September 1740.
67 Correspondence of the Dukes of Richmond & Newcastle, pp. 240-41. The earls of Berkeley were traditionally highly influential in Gloucestershire, where their seat, Berkeley Castle, was located.
68 Daily Gazetteer, 24 April 1741.
69 HMC Polwarth, v. 162.
70 A. Swatland, The House of Lords in the reign of Charles II (Cambridge, 1996), pp. 95-6; J. Anderson Winn, Queen Anne: Patroness of Arts (Oxford, 2014), pp. 383, 436.
71 HMC Egmont Diary, iii, pp. 191-2.
72 National Library of Scotland [hereafter NLS], Saltoun papers, MS 16586, fols 163-4; MS 16590, fols 53-4. I am grateful to Clyve Jones and Graham Townend for providing these references.
73 HMC Egmont Diary, ii, pp. 197-8.
74 This has recently been questioned in an article by Max Skjönsberg, ‘Lord Bolingbroke's Theory of Party and Opposition’, The Historical Journal (April 2016).
75 By the end of Queen Anne's reign party groupings were fragmented but the Jacobites were generally associated with a branch of the Tories. The Junto Whigs were among the most uncompromising of the Whig associations.
76 BL, Verney MS (microfilm), M636/55, Fermanagh to Ralph Verney, 27 May 1714.
77 A similar point might be made about Dodington. He had started out as a client of Edward Russell, earl of Orford, but on his mother's side he was related to the Temples, the opponents of Orford's Junto counterpart, Wharton, in Buckinghamshire. See Carswell, Old Cause, p. 136.
78 HP Commons, i, pp. 610-11.
79 HP Commons, i, p. 541.
80 Vivian, Life of Frederick Prince of Wales, pp. 152-3.
81 Frances Vivian is a noteworthy exception, granting Baltimore considerable significance in his relations with the Prince.
82 HP Commons, i, p. 518. As the holder of an Irish peerage, Baltimore was free to sit as an MP in the British House of Commons.
83 General Evening Post, 29-31 July 1735.
84 London Evening Post, 11-14 November 1738.
85 London Gazette, 20-24 June 1738. Baltimore stood proxy again in 1741 for the baptism of Princess Elizabeth Carolina, this time in place of the margrave of Anspach. London Gazette, 24-27 January 1741.
86 Daily Gazetteer, 19 May 1739.
87 Vivian, Frederick Prince of Wales, p. 378.
88 BL, Add. MS 47012A, fols 72-3.
89 Henry Howard, 4th earl of Carlisle, a consistent opponent of Walpole and adherent of Pulteney. He featured as First Lord of the Treasury in Frederick's plans for a future administration. HP Commons, ii, p. 153.
90 William Stanhope, earl of Harrington.
91 Frederick's chancellor and also attorney general for the county palatine of Durham.
92 George Lee was treasurer of the household of Princess Augusta and, like Baltimore, appointed a lord of the Admiralty in 1742. His appointment as chairman of the Commons committee for elections was the signal that Walpole had lost control of the House.
93 Vivian, Frederick Prince of Wales, p. 470.
94 HMC Egmont Diary, ii, p. 162.
95 London Daily Post and General Advertizer, 8 January 1735; HMC Egmont Diary, ii, p. 267.
96 London Evening Post, 23-25 April 1751.
97 Penny London Post, 10 October 1733.
98 Henry Brydges, marquess of Carnarvon, future 2nd duke of Chandos. A gentleman of the bedchamber from 1729, in 1742 he was appointed groom of the stole.
99 Hon. William Townshend, from 1729 one of the grooms of the bedchamber.
100 Francis North, 3rd Baron Guilford and 7th Baron North.
101 Lord Hervey's Memoirs, Romney Sedgwick (ed.), (London, 1952), pp. 303-04.
102 General Evening Post, 19-21 July 1739; 29 September–2 October 1739.
103 Langford, Polite and Commercial People, p. 14.
104 Charlotte Fitzroy married Sir Edward Henry Lee, created earl of Lichfield. Their daughter, Charlotte, was Baltimore's mother. The Tory leader, the 3rd earl of Lichfield, was thus Baltimore's cousin.
105 Lord Chesterfield's Letters, D. Roberts (ed.), (Oxford, 1992), p. 21.
106 It is hard to ignore that Common Sense reported on 6 February 1742 both the formal reconciliation between the Prince and the King as well as the promotion of Walpole as earl of Orford. The clear implication that Walpole's removal was the principal price demanded for healing the rift at court is inescapable. Common Sense or the Englishman's Journal, 6 February 1742. The Craftsman proved less easy to please and warned starkly that the removal of the First Lord of the Treasury was not enough to heal divisions. The Craftsman or Country Journal, 20 February 1742.
107 Westminster Abbey Archives [hereafter WAM], Pulteney papers, 64660.
108 Rushout was one of those appointed to the new board.
109 H. Fane was appointed chief clerk in the Treasury in August 1742 and T. Tompkins an under-clerk a few months before. A new messenger of the chamber, E. Bryant, was also appointed in February 1742. J. C. Sainty, Office-Holders in Modern Britain: I. Treasury Officials 1660–1870 (London, 1972), pp. 35, 37, 91.
110 J.C. Sainty and R. Bucholz, Officials of the Royal Household, 1660–1837: Part 1 (London, 1997), pp. 2, 58.
111 WAM, 64663, Bath to Zachary Pearce, 6 November 1742.
112 Correspondence of the Dukes of Richmond and Newcastle, McCann (ed.), p. 82.
113 Kinkel emphasizes that the Prince, ‘repeatedly promised to establish a militia, to reduce the size of both the army and the Navy, and to prohibit both land and sea officers under the rank of colonel or rear admiral from sitting in the House of Commons’. Kinkel, ‘Disorder, Discipline and Naval Reform’, p. 1480.
114 NLS, Saltoun papers, MS 6590, fols 83-5. Lord Somerville to [Lord Milton], endorsed 9 March 1742. I am grateful to Clyve Jones and Graham Townend for this reference.
115 J. Black, Robert Walpole and the Nature of Politics in Early Eighteenth Century England (Basingstoke, 1990), p. 99.
116 Quoted in T. Blanning, The Culture of Power and the Power of Culture: old regime Europe 1660–1789, (Oxford, 2002), p. 323.
117 Quoted in M. De-la-Noy, The King who Never Was: The Story of Frederick Prince of Wales (London, 1996), p. 214; D. Scott, Leviathan: The Rise of Britain as a World Power (London, 2013), p. 406.
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Notes on contributors
Robin Eagles
Robin Eagles is a senior research fellow at the History of Parliament, London, and is one of the contributors to The House of Lords, 1660–1715, ed. R. Paley, 5 vols (Cambridge, 2016).