Prince Edward, Duke of Kent

Father of the Canadian Crown

Nathan Tidridge

• Publisher: Dundurn Press
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781459707917
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Historical Biographies
• Index: History

The story of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, is the story of early Canada.

The story of Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent (1767-1820) is also a story of early Canada. An active participant in the very genesis of the country, including discussions that would eventually lead to Confederation, the Prince lived in Quebec City, undertook historic tours of Upper Canada and the United States (both firsts for a member of the Royal Family) before he was stationed in Halifax, Nova Scotia, as commander-in-chief of British North America. Canada's maps are dotted with his name (Prince Edward Island the most obvious example), making him one of the most honoured among our forgotten historical figures.

Exiled from the court of his father, and accompanied by his long-time mistress Julie de St. Laurent, the 24-year-old Prince Edward Augustus arrived in Quebec City in 1791. His life became woven into the fabric of a highly-charged society and left an indelible mark on the role of the monarchy in Canada. Seventy years later the country would be united under the crown of his daughter, Victoria, Sir John A. Macdonald's "Queen of Canada."

1

Fourth Son of the King, 1767

To say that King George III and Queen Charlotte performed their royal duties of producing enough heirs to secure the throne is an understatement: all told, thirteen of their children survived into adulthood.

With all the necessary witnesses and members of the Royal family nearby, Prince Edward Augustus arrived around noon on November 2, 1767. The London Gazette proudly proclaimed to the country: “Her Majesty is, God be praised, as well as can be expected; and the young Prince is in perfect Health.”[1] Born at the residence of Queen Charlotte (on the site of what would become the modern edifice of Buckingham Palace), Edward is on record as being the largest baby she would ever have.

The infant prince was the newest member of the House of Hanover, the royal house of Great Britain since the death of the unhappy Queen Anne in 1714. Anne had no surviving offspring (despite seventeen pregnancies) to inherit the throne, and since the 1701 Act of Settlement barred Catholics from the British monarchy, the Crown passed to the granddaughter of King James I (he reigned 1603–25) Princess Sophia, Electress and Dowager Duchess of Hanover.[2] It was Sophia’s son who became King George the first of the Hanoverians (and Edward’s great-grandfather). Without the Act of Settlement, he would only have been 52nd in line to the throne.

Portrait of His Majesty, King George III, 1779, artist Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792). The painting hangs in the Senate of Canada. Legend has it that this portrait was donated by the King to thank the Canadian people for their loyalty.
Courtesy of the Senate of Canada

Prince Edward’s twenty-nine-year-old father was King George III. At that time he had only been on the throne for seven years of a reign that would last sixty years. Tall and slight, with the prominent eyes and large nose characteristic of the Hanoverians, George III may not have been remarkably handsome, but he was most certainly British. The first Hanoverian King to be born in England, George III was unique to his royal house in being the first monarch since Queen Anne to speak with an English accent — King George I didn’t speak a word of English, and George II only did so with a thick German accent. Even though his ancestral lands ere in Hanover (the King was also styled “Elector of Hanover”), the fiercely British George III would never step foot in his German territories.

In another departure from the traditions of the Royal family of the time, George III remained faithful to his wife, Queen Charlotte, from the day he married her in 1761. Physically and mentally, the young King was in his prime at Edward’s birth, unhindered by the madness — generally assumed to be caused by a hereditary blood disorder called porphyria[3] — that would afflict his final decades. Some of his doctors would attribute the King’s eventual dementia to his fidelity to his wife!

George III had not been destined to become King until his father, Prince Frederick Louis, died of a burst abscess in his lung in 1751, making the twelve-year-old Prince George heir to the Crown of his grandfather, King George II. Young George was quickly proclaimed Prince of Wales that year. The final nine years of the reign of King George II were dominated by the world’s first global conflict, the Seven Years’ War (1754–63),[4] but it was his grandson who would ultimately oversee its conclusion.

The Seven Years’ War began in North America as the French and Indian Wars, a series of conflicts along the frontier with British North America and involving such up-and-coming colonial officers as a young George Washington. Culminating on this continent with the epic Battle of the Plains of Abraham, the Canadian theatre of the war ended with the French governor general, the Marquis de Vaudreuil, surrendering to Lord Amherst (commander-in-chief of the British Forces in the continent) in Montreal on September 8, 1760.

One month after the fall of New France, King George II, suffering from chronic constipation, awoke early to drink his usual cup of hot chocolate. At 7:30 a.m. His Majesty was found slumped over his toilet after suffering a massive heart attack due to overexertion. It was a less than regal end to what had otherwise been a remarkable reign, and it was from that last throne that George II’s grandson would inherit the Crown of Great Britain, becoming King George III on October 25, 1760. The new King’s Canadian domain gained during the Seven Years’ War was formalized with the 1763 Treaty of Paris, under which the vast North American empire of French King Louis XV was transferred to George III.

The vigour (not only in producing children) represented by the youthful King George III at Prince Edward’s birth symbolized the rapidly expanding British Empire of the time — the new King had been embraced by his peoples (on both sides of the Atlantic). George III’s growing family was the focus of much interest in the Empire (particularly in the Thirteen Colonies of North America) and each birth was eagerly celebrated.

Prince Edward Augustus was the fifth child, and fourth son, born to the King and Queen. When it was certain that the young Prince would survive, at least into early childhood, he was christened “Edward Augustus,” after Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of York, the King’s younger brother who had just died in Monaco. In fact, the Duke’s body was lying in state at Westminster Abbey the day his namesake was born. In later years Prince Edward would confess to his chaplain, “My arrival was somewhat malapropos. Sometimes the thought has crossed me whether my inopportune appearance was not ominous of the life of gloom and struggle that awaited me.”[5]

Despite being born under a cloud, Prince Edward seems to have enjoyed a close relationship with both his mother and father. The King and Queen were loving parents, spending much time reading and playing with their children. The stiff formality of public life melted away behind closed doors as the King took to the floor on hands and knees, galloping with his children around rooms littered with toys, books, pencils and colourful drawings. Reminiscing about the life of King George III during the year of his death, Ingrim Corbin, of the London Missionary Society, offers this warm anecdote:

The King’s affection for his children was peculiarly tender, and was strikingly exemplified in the anxious solicitude of his enquiries after them when indisposed. It is well-known, that he would personally go to the lower lodge [part of Queen Charlotte’s residence], at the early hour of five in the morning, and, gently tapping at the door of their apartments, would enquire how they had passed the night.[6]

Even the King’s oldest son, the Prince of Wales (and future George IV), whose relationship with his father would radically deteriorate in his adolescent years, was recorded playfully sneaking up to the King’s door and yelling “Wilkes and No. 45 for ever!”[7] before running away to sounds of his father’s laughter (John Wilkes, a noted English republican, journalist, and politician had been a constant thorn in the side of George III).

Sadly, this laughter would not echo too far into the lives of the King’s sons. While the Princesses were always kept close to home (only three of the six were married off), a tradition existed in the House of Hanover of dysfunctional relationships between the men in the family — particularly between the reigning King and his oldest son. King George I hated the future George II,[8] who, in turn, would loath his heir, Prince Frederick. The same would be true for George III, especially in his relationship with his oldest son, Prince George Frederick.

As the boys grew up, the pious and monogamous lives lived by their parents would not be adopted by their sons, particularly the Prince of Wales and third son Prince William Henry (future William IV). Stories of the Princes visiting London’s brothels and clubs enraged the devoutly Christian King, and the illegal marriage of the Prince of Wales to Roman Catholic Maria Fitzherbert (barred under the Royal Marriages Act of 1772 brought in by George III for just such an occasion) devastated his parents.

By the 1780s the Prince of Wales was surrounding himself politically with adversaries of his father — notably republican Charles James Fox,[9] the archrival of William Pitt the Younger (the King’s prime minister). Within these circles the Prince of Wales was known for his mocking impressions of the King (especially when the King was suffering from one of his bouts of “madness”) and hard drinking. Amassing a tremendous debt, thanks to his lifestyle, the Prince of Wales was ridiculed in the press for his overeating, excessive drinking, and womanizing. A read through the journals of Queen Victoria reveals numerous accounts of George’s behaviour, both as Prince of Wales, and later as Prince Regent and King. Victoria recorded a conversation she had with Prime Minister Lord Melbourne (William Lamb) in which her mentor explained to the young Queen that he had never seen anybody eat or drink so much as George IV. The Queen quoted Melbourne, saying, “his spirits and love of fun [were] beyond everything.”[10]

As each of his other sons grew into adulthood, George III feared that they would stray from him (and his example) and fall under the influence of the Prince of Wales. These fears forced the Royal family into a series of “camps,” with some sons like Prince Augustus being favoured, and others, like Edward, being punished for straying too close to the lifestyles of their older brothers.

As well as being influenced by the toxic relationship developing between the King and the Prince of Wales, the young life of Prince Edward would also be dominated by the American Revolution. King George III is remembered as the man who lost the American colonies, and this must have hung heavily in the air as he played with his children on the floor of the Queen’s Lodge. The American Declaration of Independence was issued when Edward was six years old, and the 1783 Treaty of Paris when he was sixteen. When news of King George’s loss of America reached the ears of Russia’s Catherine the Great (who had been asked by George III for soldiers to help defend Canada during the conflict — a request she refused), the Empress quipped: “Rather than have granted America her Independence as my brother monarch, King George, has done, I would have fired a pistol at my own head.”[11]

Indeed, King George III was devastated by the loss of the Thirteen Colonies, even hoping for a great reconciliation and the reuniting of his kingdom. A 1783 draft of a speech to be given in Parliament, written by the King’s own hand, survives. In it he announced his intention to abdicate and place himself into permanent exile in Hanover:

A long experience and a serious attention to the strange Events that have successively arisen, has gradually prepared my mind to expect the time when I should be no longer of utility to this Empire; that hour has now come; I am therefore resolved to resign my Crown and all the Dominions appertaining to it to the Prince of Wales, my Eldest Son and Lawful Successor, and to retire to the care of my Electoral Dominions the Original Patrimony of my Ancestors.[12]

Ultimately, the King could not bring himself to leave Britain or relinquish his Crown, but it is clear that George III was tortured by his responsibility in losing America and this may have contributed to his short fuse in dealing with the antics of his sons.

In 1786, three years after the loss of America, King George III sent Prince Edward to the continent, placing him under the watchful eye of his older brother, Prince Frederick, Duke of York. Frederick, in turn, sent Edward to Lüneburg, assigning him to Lieutenant Colonel George Wangenheim, a trusted member of the Horse Guards. Given complete control over the Prince’s finances, Wangenheim reported directly to the Duke of York, and was responsible for reading Edward’s correspondences and managing his social engagements. Everywhere Edward travelled on the continent, Wangenheim was close behind.

Prince Edward seems to have been cursed with a weak constitution (in contrast with his father, who had never been sick, except for a brief illness in 1765), and a large portion of his letters home are preoccupied with reports of poor health. An undated note to his father complains: “The first lines which my hand is able to trace since my recovery from a violent rheumatism attended with fever, which nearly deprived me of total use of both my hands.”[13] Edward would ultimately be settled in Geneva, Switzerland, where he could benefit from the clean air and pleasant climate.

Sadly, it was while Edward was in Europe that King George’s bouts with “madness” developed, and the health of his sons became hot topics back in England. An unpublished manuscript by Nova Scotia historian Jean Donald Gow contends that many of George III’s sons also showed signs of the same mental illness that afflicted their father — especially Princes Edward and Frederick.[14] Undoubtedly, these concerns would haunt the Royal family, particularly as the King’s lapses into “madness” grew more frequent and violent during the close of the eighteenth century. Many of Edward’s letters highlighting his many ailments to his father during his time in Europe went unanswered — particularly during the King’s first bout of madness from 1787–89. It was during the autumn of 1788 that the King was found having a conversation with an oak tree, thinking that it was the King of Prussia.[15]

Isolated from his family in Geneva, Edward had grown to be a handsome six-foot-two-inch young man with penetrating blue eyes. As well as cutting a sleek profile in his military uniform, Edward, with the exception of the Prince of Wales, was considered the most intelligent of the brothers. A self-professed liberal, Prince Edward could carry conversations on a variety of topics if given the chance. Unlike his brothers, Edward also knew when to keep his mouth shut and had a capacity for quietness largely unknown to the Hanoverians. This silence, however, did not extend to the written word.

Quoting the Duke of Wellington, author Cecil Woodham Smith writes: “He united a pedantic love of detail with a love of interfering and setting right, and ‘maintained an active and very extensive correspondence, which three or four private secretaries were scarcely able to master.… His name was never uttered without a sigh by the functionaries of every public office.’”[16]

Edward’s correspondence was legendary — in 1806, he personally answered 3,850 letters without the aid of a secretary (for financial reasons he had dismissed them all by this time). In 1807, the number reached 4,500!

Away from his family, Prince Edward’s day-to-day habits included rising at 5:00 a.m., eating sparingly, and avoiding at all costs gambling and excessive drinking. The Prince did, however, develop an interest in the opposite sex, and it was not long before Edward found himself in a series of affairs with women such as Marianne Dulaque (star of the Théâtré de la Place Neuve). A man of the Arts (he loved music and theatre), Edward also enjoyed the women he met on the stages across Geneva. Unable to suppress the Prince’s youthful appetites, Wangenheim furiously wrote letters describing these affairs to the Duke of York, who passed them along to the King.

The final straw was Edward’s 1789 affair with Adelaide Dubus, a local musician six years his senior. The affair grew (despite Wang...