The Trial of Queen Caroline: The Scandalous Affair That Nearly Ended a Monarchy

The prize for the worst-behaved British royal couple goes not to Charles and Di but to George IV and Caroline, whose escapades heated up the early 19th-century scandal sheets and incited riots not long after the French monarchs were beheaded. When he married his first cousin Caroline, George was already vilified in the press for his unlawful marriage to a Catholic, his womanizing, financial extravagance, obesity and egotism. Caroline—poorly educated, magnanimous and reckless—became the darling of the people and the press, an advantage she exploited when her hubby cut her out of his will days after their daughter Charlotte's birth. The couple separated in 1797, barely two years after their wedding, but the escalating discord turned political after George restricted Caroline's access to Charlotte and she retaliated by championing the opposition Whigs. In 1820, George had Caroline tried for adultery to strip her of her title and gain a divorce. As this well-researched, competently written but uninspired account by a London journalist relates, the brouhaha spurred political reforms, and the queen triumphed at court but was still barred from George's coronation a few months later and died shortly thereafter. Illus. (Aug. 7)