Lady Cowper's Diaries May 1720

by iMonarchy https://www.flickr.com/photos/imonarchy/ (Creative Commons)

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1st May 1720  

Prince at Chappell.  Time enough before the King went.  Observ’d the King did not speak to him.  The Princess not there.  If she dont [sic] go to the drawing room to morrow I fear people won’t believe the King receivd her too kindly.  

Princess not willing to give the key to me.  Pretends Lady D[eloraine] will be disobliged and quit.  When the Princess promis’d it to me she offer’d it her self & said that the King had ask’d it for his neice, but she answer’d that I have [promised it] to my Lady Cowper none but she can ever have the key.  To which he replied indeed Madam tis true when one reflects upon it, it is her due & I ask pardon.  I am in the wrong.  

How comes Lady D[eloraine] to be so disobliged now, when it was refused her thus.  Does flying about at Richmond & with the Prince make this necessary…I am quite sick of such usage.  

3rd May 1720  

Lord Cowper at the House of Lords.  Consideration of the Calico bill to be put off for six weeks.  The Weavers very discontented.  People assaulted by them in the streetsthat are dress’d in Calico…  

4th May 1720  

…One of Walpole’s great Arts to please the Princess has been by making her a Stock Jobber in the South Sea.  They bought in for her that very morning before the great debate & it was us’d to the Members of Parliament as argument they [the Prince and Princess] were both for the project…  

8th May 1720  

Lord Cowper went to Chappell.  The King, the Prince of Wales & the Princess of Wales there.  Dumb Show between the King & the Prince.  The King does not speak to Lord Cowper.  Looked strangely out of humour & confounded.  The Prince follow’d him into his room – not spoke to at all…  

…The Princess in transports of joy at the imaginary success of her Court Arts.  Much below the understanding, talents & capacity God has given her.  But I have often observ’d one may live so long among simple people, that one lets down one’s understanding so low, not to frighten them, that at last one quite loses it.  The old wise man said tell me thy Company & I will tell thee what thou art…    

[Note: The events recorded for May 1720 reflect two major historical developments. The first is the quarrel between King George I and the Prince of Wales (the future George II) prompted by the King’s jealousy of his son’s popularity and the Prince’s support for his father’s political opponents. A formal reconciliation was arranged around this time by Walpole, but there was never any genuine warmth between father and son. The second is the “South Sea Bubble”, a period of frantic investment in the South Sea Company, fed by exaggerated claims about the company’s trading opportunities. The inevitable crash ruined people at all levels of society.]