Royalty Celebrity Scandal - Marriage of George IV Prince of Wales and Caroline of Brunswick - Part 3

2020 marks the bicentenary of one of the great scandals of British history, namely the 1820 divorce trial of Queen Caroline in the House of Lords. Following the death of George III, Caroline decided to return to England to stake her claim as Queen. These cheap medals demonstrate the wave of public support which greeted her, fired up by the radicals who used Caroline as a way to undermine the King. Against all the best advice, George insisted on initiating divorce proceedings against Caroline for adultery. After years of paying spies to collect evidence, this was now officially presented in diplomatic bags. Known as the Green Bag, it sat on the main table in the Lords during the proceedings and became the perfect metaphor for artists like George Cruickshank, turning George into a laughingstock. Caroline's Chief Defence Counsel, the brilliant but mercurial Lord Broome, let it be known that whatever George's bag might contain, he could produce his own, far bigger and more incriminating, such as a previous marriage to a Catholic. The Chief Prosecution witness was a former servant of Caroline's, Theodore Maiochi, who gave sensational detailed evidence of the intimacy between Caroline and Bartolomeo Bergami. The nation was gripped and the Sunday papers went mad, as did the circulation figures. However, under cross-examination, Maiochi went to pieces, seemingly having a pang of conscience for his former generous employer. He stated on over 200 occasions, I don't recall, the case fell apart while the establishment looked on in horror with each new scandalous detail. Although the government achieved a slim majority in the Lords, the atmosphere was such that they feared the consequences of taking the case further. A year after Peterloo, revolution was in the air and the militia was on standby. Lord Liverpool withdrew the bill.