Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What a story! In a time when love had nothing to do with marriage, Caroline, Princess of Brunswick had an arranged marriage with George, Prince of Wales. They met only after they were engaged, and immediately hated each other. Still they went through with their marriage, and even produced one offspring - Charlotte ('an immense girl').

Charlotte's early death (Age 21, in childbirth) paved the way for George to finally decide to get rid of Caroline. And the way to do that required a proof of adultry. (Neither George nor Caroline seemed to live a life of piety). But proof at a trial was another matter, especially when Caroline was more popular than George.

It is an interesting book, a description of times that were different than ours. It probably should have come out during the Bill and Monica circus. Well, maybe the times weren't so different after all.

Popular history at its very best. Thorough without being tedious; smoothly readable without being condescending; fascinating without being narcissistic. Oddly reminiscent of media and popular firestorms over the Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill and Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky, and makes us ponder how close we still are to 1820 -- it is easy to imagine CNN covering this story. Buy it even if you think you have no interest in the subject; within a few pages, you will. I have read other books on this subject but none that connect the controversy so well to other political and social developments in the UK at the time of Queen Caroline's trial.

The story is absoutely fascinating. The book is poorly written, chronologically insecure(what year are we in now?)and far too long!