"Mrs Jordan's Profession" by Claire Tomalin

Mrs (Dora) Jordan was the stage name of an actress who wowed the London and provincial stage in the run up and during the Napoleonic wars. Although she never formally married (the 'Mrs' part of the stage name enabled her to muddy the waters regarding her marital status) she had one child very young and another two with a Mr Ford before becoming the long term mistress of the Duke of Clarence (third son of George III and subsequently King William IV) and having ten children with him, living in a degree of domestic bliss, mostly while continuing to appear on the stage. It was an interesting biography of a woman who must have been incredibly strong: she was born in relative obscurity and poverty and her hard work and talent on the stage meant that she was the breadwinner for her entire family for most of her life; the Duke was always in debt and although he did give her an allowance she regularly helped him out financially. It demonstrates that even in times that were even more misogynistic than today, a strong women had the ability to transcend classist and sexist discrimination.

Mrs Jordan was an unfortunate stage name in that it was slang for a chamber pot, leading to a field day for cartoonists.

Her children:

• Fanny, daughter, perhaps as a result of rape, of Richard Daly, married Thomas Alsop and had a daughter. Dora was forever baling them out financially. Fanny, without much talent, went on the stage and, after Dora's death) to New York where she killed herself using laudanum. No one knows what happened to the daughter.
• Dodee, daughter of Richard Ford, married Frederic March who precipitated Dora's eventual bankruptcy when she gave him permission to draw on her bank and became responsible for his massive debts; they had children.
• Lucy, daughter of Richard Ford, married an elderly general and had ten children, three of whom had children.
• Of the Duke's children (all illegitimate grandchildren of George III):
• George became Earl of Munster, the line continues although George, disappointed at not being properly recognised by that prude Queen C}Victoria, his cousin, committed suicide.
• Sophia married Sir Philip Sidney, become chatelaine of Penshurst Place and spawning the Barons de L'Isle, now Viscounts
• Henry served in the army and navy and died aged 20
• Mary married Charles Fox
• Frederick married Lady Augusta Boyle
• Elizabeth married the Earl of Errol and her daughter married the Earl of Fife whose daughter produced talented offspring including John Julis Norwich and whose son married the daughter of Edward VII producing Princess Alexandra who married Prince Arthus of Connaught whopse son is the Earl of Macduff.
• Adolphus  died aged 54
• Augusta married twice, firstly an Erskine; offspring continue
• Augustus  married Sarah Gordon and their offspring continue
• Amelia married Viscount Falkland and had a daughter.

Many of the things that interested me about this book were because I used to live in Sunbury-on-Thames (which housed a boarding school where a young Augustus went) near Hampton (whose parish church was frequented by the King, his mistress and their illegitimate offspring) and my Dad worked at the National Physical Laboratory which was built around Bushy House, the home to the Duke of Clarence, Mrs Jordan and the FitzcClarences (it had a water closet on every floor and, later, both a bath and a shower. I know Richmond, where Prince William lived in Ivy Lodge on a terrace close to the Thames, and Petersham, where Dora Jordan lived with her first 'husband' Richard Ford and where Clarence bought Petersham Lodge. She also played in the "very good theatre" in Margate: it's still there. This gave me a special interest.

Otherwise I was interested by the people Mrs Jordan bumped into who included:

• Richard Brinsley Sheridan, playwright (eg The Rivals) and owner of Drury Lane Theatre; also the great-uncle of gothic novelist Sheridan LeFanu
• Charles James Fox, politician, whose relative Mary married
• Fanny Burney, a rather prudish novelist who was a royal hanger-on
• Samuel and William Ireland who 'discovered' a forged Shakespeare play, Vortigern, which was put on stage by Sheridan for one night (it was booed and hissed off the stage), Mrs Jordan starring. Peter Ackroyd wrote The Lambs of London, a novel which tells about this attempted fraud.
• Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a Canbridge undergraduate and fan
• William Hazlitt, a theatre critic
• Charles Lamb, a young clerk and fan

Other interesting moments:

• "Money, and the confidence of money, was the message of all this paving, lighting, bridging, sewerage, brick and stucco." (C 3)
• "Art and public morality do not always face in the same direction." (C 3)
• "Sheridan was interrupted in the middle of seducing a governess ... even as Fox was persuading Elizabeth [Sheridan's wife] to forgive him." (C 7)
• "Oh for England and the pretty girls of Westminster; at least to such as would not clap or pox me every time I fucked." C 8; but this is a quote from a letter written by Prince William, late Duke of Clarence; later King William IV on 23rd July 1784
• "It is hard to believe that Margate once rivalled Brighton as a fashionable resort." (C 13)

An intertesting portrait of an incredible strong woman.

April 2020; 335 pages

"The Prince who would be King" by Sarah Fraser

This is the biography of Prince Henry (1594 - 1612), eldest son of King James I (of England) and VI (of Scotland) who died as Crown Prince and Prince of Wales at the age of 17 before fulfilling any of the promise he showed (though "he could be bumptious and immature at times"; C 20). His death led to the succession of his younger brother Charles as King Charles I.

As with many biographies, it is of most interest because of the other people who were around at the time. Prince Henry's coterie included:

• Thomas Coryat: a traveller and travel writer who introduced the fork to England and the word umbrella; he died in India and is memorialised by Robin Lloyd-Jones in the unjustly forgotten novel Lord of the Dance), 
• Sir Thomas Chaloner: who was friends with alchemist and magician John Dee and discovered alum on his Yorkshire estate and exploited it
• Thomas Harriot, Henry's tutor, who as scientist and mathematician advanced navigation, created a phonetic alphabet for the Algonquin tribes he encountered in North Carolina while visiting Sir Walter Raleigh's ill-fated Roanoke colony , discovered Snell's Law before Snell, developed algebraic symbols, and used a telescope to observe sunspots
• George Chapman who dedicated his translation of the Iliad to Prince Henry
• Cornelius Drebbel who later went on to test the world's first submarine in the Thames
• Ben Jonson who wrote a number of masques for Henry and also wrote plays such as the Catiline which criticised the "giants of the earth" who "asset-strip the whole earth for their personal gain" (C 24)

Memorable moments:

• Quoting James I & VI: "The highest bench is the sliddriest to sit upon" (C 4)
• "Extreme Calvinism and the idea of a contractual, not absolute, monarchy often went hand in hand." (C 5)
• "Tacitus ... concluded that men in positions of power must exercise Stoical self-control ... [but] what Stoics thought of as their own moral constancy might lead to a high-minded fanaticism and an even worse tyranny" (C 16)
• "How could the people enjoy their liberties when they were left too poor to act?" (C 24)
• "Yearning to soar above the grey compromises necessary to everyday life, he was a glory-hunting young man. He risked developing the affliction of visionaries and heroes, who can become inhuman in the pursuit of their vision." (C 29)

This was a well-written history whose short chapters kept the pace up. It cast light upon an era about which I was unfamiliar but which is just as interesting as any other time and deserves my further study.

January 2020; 266 pages

"King Charles II" by Antonia Fraser

They say that biographers fall in love with their subjects. Antonia Fraser seems to be one of many ladies to have fallen for the charms of King Charles II.

I can understand how the similarities have promoted the affection:

• Antonia Fraser is pro-royalty; she herself believes she is entitled to be called 'Lady' Antonia Fraser because she is the daughter of a hereditary earl. 
• Antonia Fraser is a Roman Catholic and Charles allegedly became a Catholic on his deathbed

But the biographer's bias shows. She appears to believe that Charles was an astute political operator whose reign brought blessings on his realm. I think Charles was lucky to become King after eighteen years of civil war and republicanism, when the republican government was in chaos after the death of Cromwell so that consequently people were frightened of a return to civil war. He had a long honeymoon period as a result of this but as his reign went on things started going wrong. For example, five years after he was restored there was the Great Plague, the year after brought both the Great Fire of London and the disastrous Anglo-Dutch naval war. And then the mask of the Merry Monarch started to slip:

• He called Parliament regularly in order to squeeze taxes from them to fund his extravagant court and his wars; when they sought legislation he regularly prorogued parliament to prevent this happening.
• Printers and publishers were pilloried and penalized for producing dissenting opinions. (C 25)
• He tried to ensure that the judiciary were Tory and insisted that they held their posts not, as before, until they did something to forfeit them, but at the royal pleasure. “By the end of 1683 eleven judges had been removed - at the King's wish.” (C 25)
• Members of Parliament who disagreed with him were, sometimes, locked up in the Tower. There was a debate about whether the King’s prorogation of Parliament had exceeded the limits so that Parliament was automatically dissolved (which would require a General Election before a new Parliament could be called. “The King was furious.” The leaders of the opposition were imprisoned in the Tower. (C 21) 
• He tried to gerrymander Parliament. At the time MPs were selected by chartered cities and boroughs. He found pretexts to withdraw a number of charters of places that returned MPs he didn't like and amended the charters so that the appointment of corporation officials was subject to a veto from the King; since these were the people who selected the MPs he was effectively trying to 'stack' parliament. “The excuse for giving for calling in the charter of York had at least a nice period touch to it. The Lord Mayor was said to have refused a mountebank permission to erect a stage, although the fellow had been recommended by the King himself.” (C 25) “The varied popular reaction was less important than the fact that the warrants on the new charters all contained the vital clause which gave the King a veto over the election of the officers. Suitable Tory figures locally would see to it that equally suitable Tory figures were returned to Westminster.” (C 25)
• He ruled for long periods without Parliament. Since he was therefore unable to raise extra taxes he made a secret treaty with the King of France (Louis XIV) who paid him secret subsidies. He therefore became an English King in the pay of a French one (and this secretly so that the public, Parliament and indeed most of his ministers, never found out). One would have thought this would have been an impeachable offence in any other person but Antonia Fraser never censures Charles. 

AF chronicles all these things but seems content with them. It seems that an autocratic ruler is OK with her provided that he is charming (and, of course, with the true royal blood running in his veins).

For example, in 1673, Charles indulges in that typical gesture of autocrats, a display of military might. 

“When he drew up the army at Blackheath in the autumn of 1673, it was a gesture widely interpreted as menacing towards the capital. But no evidence has ever been found that Charles II intended to parody in such a way the actions (and mistakes) of his predecessor Cromwell.” (C 20) Although AF acknowledges that it was "widely interpreted as menacing" she acquits Charles of any such intent and at the same time manages to smear Cromwell who, if he was an autocrat, had at least achieved his position through merit rather than by virtue of his parents.

As with so many histories and biographies I was enchanted by some of the details:

• Charles was so dark he was nicknamed The Black Boy, a name still commemorated in English pub signs. (C 1)
• At the Battle of Edgehill the young princes Charles and James “were left in the charge of Dr William Harvey, the famous physician” (C 2)
• When Charles was in exile in France, it was the time of the Fronde “from the stone bearing sling” rebellion (C 4)
• In France the Peace of Westphalia which ended the Thirty Years War was swiftly followed by the Fronde rebellion: “The granary of this particular peace contained within it the seeds of popular dissidence” (C 5)
• Attempting to escape England, Charles missed one boat because the captain was locked in his bedroom by his wife who suspected he was having an affair. (C 8)
• The word yacht comes from the Dutch jaght schip (hunt ship). (C 11) 
• When Charles's new bride, Portuguese Catherine of Braganza, arrived in England “one of her first actions was to ask for a cup of tea ... tea drinking had been known in England before this date but it was extremely rare.” (C 13)
• The ‘CABAL’ of Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley and Lauderdale gained power after the downfall of Hyde. (C 16)
• “In November 1670 the Dublin Gazette actually ceased to appear on the wonderful - for Ireland - grounds that ‘there was no news’.” (C 19)
• When the king had a fever he was cured by “by ‘the Jesuit’s powder’, actually an early form of quinine imported from the South American bark cinchona.” (C 23)

Other memorable moments:

• “Less admirable attributes may take root in the wintry soil of adversity. These include the ability to mislead or trick” (C 6)
• “Having lit a candle to the devil, King Charles II could not expect other lights to shine as well.” (C 6)
• “The Scots were probably not a people it was immediately possible to love, if you had been nurtured in the courts of England and France.” (C 6)
• The Duke of Buckingham “sulked in the most childish and public manner ... refusing to change his linen in protest.” (C 7)
• “Frances Stewart could claim to have possessed the heart, as opposed to that more frequently bestowed gift, the body of King Charles II.” (C 15)
• The General Election of 1679 was “marked by such heavy drinking on all sides that ‘Sober Societies’ were later formed in towns - an interesting example of locking the stable door after the horse has fully refreshed itself.” (C 22)
• The Duke of Monmouth: “He could not ... conceive of a course of action or an opinion without wishing to give it immediate expression. ... he was one of nature's roosters and could not emulate a mole to save his life.” (C 22)
• “As Buckingham rightly observed, a King is supposed to be the Father of his People, and Charles II was certainly the father of a good many of them.” (C 24)
• In 1682 the Duke of York was “shipwrecked off Yarmouth with much loss of life, although as James himself rather callously remarked, no one ‘of quality’ was drowned. ... It was his entourage who beat off the desperate ‘lesser’ passengers with their swords.” (C 25)

An interesting biography of a monarch but rather spoiled by the biographer's obvious bias. Charles II was a charming man who, probably because the English were still scarred from the Civil War, managed to preserve his throne despite his absolutist policies. His brother lasted only three years following the same direction before being overthrown and replaced with the first monarch who ruled with Parliament, rather than despite them. 

December 2019, 469 pages

Also written by Antonia Fraser:

• The Gunpowder Plot

"Bertie: a life of Edward VII" by Jane Ridley

Three stars: Good.

This is an authoritative and lively biography of King Edward VII. He was born the eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and named Albert Edward but called Bertie. His mother was a controlling and domineering woman who adored his pious father and had little love left for her children. What was worse, Bertie's elder sister Vicky was an academic genius who so outshone him in the classroom that he seemed to be a dunce.

An important moment in his life came when he discovered sex. This was his 'Fall'. His parents were horrified. Shortly afterwards Prince Albert died and Victoria blamed her son (rather than the state of the drains in the royal residences). So he was thick and morally suspect. Even after his wedding to Princess Alexandra he continued to enjoy the favours of the noble and not-so-noble ladies who fell for him; he was surrounded by mistresses and scandals.

He surprised everyone when, after a very long wait for his mother to die, he succeeded to the throne and became a surprisingly good king; Prince Hal made good.

This is a thoroughly researched biography (she debunks many of the claims for royal bastards) and it is well written so that it keeps going. Perhaps the nicest touch is the author's occasional flashes of humour, for example when she notes that one of Bertie's favourites, a courtesan nicknamed Skittles, has a blue plaque on the same street as Florence Nightingale and sardonically comments "Both women did much of their work in bed". There are interesting insights: the only way that Bertie could gain access to Foreign Office documents is when someone found a duplicate key to the red boxes and gave him it but there were initial problems because you had to insert the key in a certain way before it would turn properly. There are also lots of interesting connections with famous people, from the father of Alice In Wonderland, to the mother of Winston Churchill.

However, it remains a competent biography of a man whose life was not so very interesting. Most of his life was spent in dinner parties and country house shoots. Unless one is an ardent royalist there is not much that is exciting here.

Interesting with flashes of humour. January 2014; 477 pages