‘Discipline,’ said the King. ‘I will have discipline. I will beat discipline into you boys. You will not eat meat for a week and you will all be caned by me.’
The Queen was there too; and she tried to protest but the King looked at her in amazed surprise that she dared. She hated the boys to be beaten – particularly George.
George said: ‘But I was the one who started it. Your Majesty should not blame Frederick and William.’
St George and the dragon!
The Queen had looked fondly at her first-born but if the King approved of the sentiment he pushed it aside and the canings began. George yelled so they all yelled and the Queen stopped her ears and tried not to look and the King’s face grew redder as he said between strokes: ‘I… will… have… discipline in the nursery.’
When he had gone George told them that he had not cried because it hurt but because he wanted to shame Papa. He hated Papa and when he was King – which he would be one day – he would not be a bit like Papa, who (whispered low and with great daring) was a silly old fool and a lot of people thought so too – people in Parliament, for George had heard the servants talking. And because he hated Papa they must do so too and find ways of plaguing him and having disobedience in the nursery which should be ruled over by the Prince of Wales not the King of England. Thus the friction between George and his father began at an early age; and William and Frederick were staunchly behind George.
They were all high-spirited and while the King was busy preparing to lose the American Colonies and the Queen bearing children they managed to have a great deal of their own way. But always they stood together – the band of brothers – and it was the same when the other children joined the nursery.
William often remembered the occasion when George had jumped on a drum and broken it and they had thought what fun it would be to turn it into a carriage, and they wanted one of the young women attendants to sit in the drum that they might drag her round the floor.
‘Nothing of the sort, Your Highness,’ she said to George. ‘You had no right to jump on the drum.’
‘I have every right to do as I will here, Madam,’ said George, regally arrogant as he well knew how to be. ‘And now you will be seated in your carriage so that your three fine steeds can do their duty.’
‘I’ll do no such thing.’ William who had not yet learned that his brother did not approve of violence to ladies tried to push the attendant into the drum. In her efforts to evade him she threw him off with the result that he slid across the floor and cut his head open.
Lady Charlotte Finch hurried to the scene, demanding an immediate explanation. Prince William had attempted to strike her, the woman said, and she had merely tried to protect herself. She had not struck Prince William and he had only himself to blame for the cut on his head.
‘She did strike him,’ said George.
‘I did not, my lady,’ said the attendant. ‘He fell of his own accord after attempting to push me into the drum.’
But George knew that this incident could very likely result in a caning for William, but if the women struck him – which was forbidden – he could not be blamed for showing resentment.
Lady Charlotte Finch called another servant who had been a witness and who declared that the attendant did not strike Prince William; he had pushed her and in doing so had fallen and cut himself.
‘This is nonsense,’ cried George rushing in to protect William. ‘You did strike my brother. I say so. These maids will say anything to favour one another.’
What could Lady Charlotte do? She could only warn all concerned that there must be no more such trouble. It was said at Kew that if an attendant offended one brother he had offended them all; and it was clear that they would lie to defend each other if necessary. The point was that trouble for one was trouble for the others, and although Prince Frederick and Prince William might be dealt with, the Prince of Wales, with his charm, his quick wits and his ability to twist the truth to suit his own ends, was a formidable adversary.
Therefore many misdemeanours of the nursery were overlooked.
William had always been fascinated by the sea, just as George and Frederick were by the army. When his two elder brothers played with soldiers, William wanted ships.
The Queen reported this love of ships to the King who approved for once and said that when the time came William should go into the Navy and Frederick into the Army; as for George he would have to learn to be a king.
The Queen often doubted that the manner in which the boys were being brought up was most suited to a future monarch. The discipline the King insisted on was surely certain to produce rebellion in a character like that of the Prince of Wales. He grew more headstrong every day; and it was clear that when he at last broke free he would be like a frisky young horse who is determined to gallop anywhere… as long as he could revel in his freedom.
The Queen saw this, but the King could not, and ever since she had arrived in England – a plain little German princess in her teens who could scarcely speak a word of English – she had been made to realize that her duty was to bear the children; everything else might be left to the King, his mother and her lover Lord Bute. A frustrating state of affairs, but what could a humble princess do but bide her time. She lacked beauty, brilliance and all the graces it seemed, her only asset being her fecundity.
There was no doubt of that. The children had continued to arrive at regular intervals – in time fifteen of them, two of whom died in their infancy; but thirteen was a good number.
Both the King and Queen would have been happier in a less exalted position; and they tried to turn Kew – their favourite place of residence – into the home of a country gentleman rather than a royal palace. The King often wished he had been a farmer, for farming interested him more than state affairs. They were very depressing at this time in any case, with the colonists raising their voices against the mother country and half the House of Commons calling for stern methods to bring them to order and the other half advising placation. The King, with his firm ideas of the divine rights of Kings – and teaching his sons to have the same – could not understand why there should be any need to give the colonists what they asked. They were attempting to be disloyal to the crown, said the King. Let them feel the full weight of England’s displeasure.
There had been trouble with John Wilkes who had fought for free speech and whose actions the King had deplored. ‘Wilkes for ever!’ was a cry which made his eyes bulge with anger; yet it had been heard very frequently in the streets – and in the nursery too.
One day the King and Queen had been together – the Queen at her tatting, the King making buttons, a pastime from which he derived great pleasure and which his people derided as an unsuitable occupation for a King – when the door was thrust open by a very bold young Prince of Wales, with Frederick beside him and little William bringing up the rear.
It was rebellion against the lack of freedom in the royal nursery; it was the Prince of Wales, heedless of consequences, in revolt.
‘Wilkes for ever!’ cried the young childish voices.
And as the King hurried to the door he was just in time to see William being dragged out of sight by his brothers.
It was difficult to know how to punish such an action, said the King. It showed an interest in affairs which was commendable; it showed certain spirit; but it showed disrespect to their parents, which was disrespect to the crown.