Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised Queen Anne
Speaker 1: didn't have any living heirs, and because England would need
Speaker 1: a Protestant monarch when she died, the throne would be
Speaker 1: going over to the Hanover branch of the family in Germany.
Speaker 1: With that in mind, a woman named Henrietta Howard and
Speaker 1: her husband Charles boarded a boat from England to Germany
Speaker 1: with one simple goal to go from penniless nobodies to
Speaker 1: official members of the new incoming royal court. Henrietta and
Speaker 1: Charles had gotten married six and a half years earlier.
Speaker 1: They had originally met under dire circumstances. Although Henrietta came
Speaker 1: from a noble family, it had fallen apart with the
Speaker 1: death of her mother, her father, and four of her siblings.
Speaker 1: At just sixteen, Henrietta had become the oldest surviving representative
Speaker 1: of the family. Medical bills were piling up and her
Speaker 1: fortune was in danger, so she sought out the help
Speaker 1: of the Hobart's family friends. Taking pity on Henrietta, the
Speaker 1: Hobarts invited her to stay with them in their Jacobean
Speaker 1: mansion near saffron Walden. There she met Charles, the family's
Speaker 1: youngest son, who was fourteen years older than she was.
Speaker 1: Charles was a high up military official at the time,
Speaker 1: nicknamed Salamander because he fought in the hottest parts of
Speaker 1: the battlefield. Other than that, Charles didn't have a lot
Speaker 1: going for him. Someone described him as quote wrongheaded, ill tempered, obstinate, drunken, extravagant,
Speaker 1: and brutal on account of his profligate drinking, spending, and
Speaker 1: sleeping around. We don't know what attracted them to each other.
Speaker 1: One of Henrietta's friends later wrote, quote how she came
Speaker 1: to love him or how he came to love anybody
Speaker 1: is unaccountable unless from a certain fatality, which often makes
Speaker 1: hasty marriages. Whether or not there was a timely motivating factor,
Speaker 1: it's undeniable that both Henrietta and Charles did have financial
Speaker 1: motives to get hitched. Even though Henrietta's family was in
Speaker 1: dire financial straits, her father had made sure that her
Speaker 1: large dowry would be protected before his death, which led
Speaker 1: to a potentially large payday for Charles. What's more, the
Speaker 1: terms of Henrietta's father's and great grandfather's wills stated that
Speaker 1: Henrietta would receive a significant inheritance and a hoddest income
Speaker 1: paid twice a year only if she got married. Shortly
Speaker 1: after the wedding, the marriage fell apart, with Charles frittering
Speaker 1: away their modest fortune with gambling and shopping. The couple's
Speaker 1: financial circumstances became quote the reverse of opulent. According to
Speaker 1: one contemporary, Charles fled to London to continue to party,
Speaker 1: abandoning Henrietta in Berkshire with their young son, who was
Speaker 1: born a year after the wedding. Henrietta insisted that she
Speaker 1: and Charles move in together in London, and once they did,
Speaker 1: things only worsened. As historian Tracy Borman put it, quote,
Speaker 1: her respectable life as a gentleman's daughter had been transformed
Speaker 1: into one of misery and humiliation as the wife of
Speaker 1: a notorious drunk and philanderer. The shame of her situation
Speaker 1: compelled her to live in crely apart from society, concealing
Speaker 1: herself and her misery from the world end quote. Any
Speaker 1: good will keeping their marriage together evaporated almost as quickly
Speaker 1: as they had fallen in love. As one friend at
Speaker 1: the time put it, quote, thus they loved, Thus they married,
Speaker 1: and thus they hated each other for the rest of
Speaker 1: their lives. Trapped in a loveless, brutal marriage, out of
Speaker 1: money and with her husband on the run from various creditors,
Speaker 1: Henrietta needed to find a way out. Luckily, political circumstances
Speaker 1: gave them the perfect opportunity. After the Glorious Revolution in
Speaker 1: sixteen eighty eight sparked a succession crisis, Parliament passed an
Speaker 1: Act of Settlement in seventeen o one, which allowed the
Speaker 1: Electoral House of Hanover to take over England once Queen
Speaker 1: Anne died. Henrietta planned to go to Germany and win
Speaker 1: the favor of the Hanover family to secure herself and
Speaker 1: her husband positions in the royal court. When the Hanovers
Speaker 1: eventually came to rule over England, it would be a
Speaker 1: long shot. Henrietta and Charles were from relatively small time
Speaker 1: aristocratic families that the Hanovers wouldn't have been familiar with.
Speaker 1: Henrietta didn't have the fancy clothes to woo the new
Speaker 1: royal family, and she had sold all of her furniture
Speaker 1: and jewelry in order to afford the voyage over to Germany.
Speaker 1: Worse yet, she had to bring Charles over to Germany
Speaker 1: with her, since a noble woman traveling alone would not
Speaker 1: have been a respectable look. Given Charles's bad temper and
Speaker 1: cold reserved personality, he could hurt their chances, but Henrietta
Speaker 1: didn't have any other options. Winning over the Hannover was
Speaker 1: her last resort. I'm Danish Schwartz and this is noble blood.
Speaker 1: After traveling, as Henrietta put it, in the meanest and
Speaker 1: most fatiguing manner, Henrietta and Charles found themselves in Hanover
Speaker 1: in early seventeen fourteen. It was up to them to
Speaker 1: endear themselves to the electoral family so they could eventually
Speaker 1: secure themselves spots in the royal court, or they could
Speaker 1: return to England in disgrace. Henrietta started at the task,
Speaker 1: immediately applying for an introduction. She quickly made an impression.
Speaker 1: She was an excellent courtier, both lively and demure. She
Speaker 1: quickly embedded herself within the royal household, spending nearly all
Speaker 1: of her free hours at the court in Herrenhausen trying
Speaker 1: to prove her worth. Soon she noticed that the electoral
Speaker 1: Princess Caredine of Ansbach took a particular liking to her.
Speaker 1: Caroline was known for her intellect and patronage of the arts.
Speaker 1: She rubbed shoulders with philosophers like Voltaire and the composer Handel.
Speaker 1: But Caroline's husband, Prince George the second of Hanover, couldn't
Speaker 1: have been less interested. He had once declared I hate
Speaker 1: poets and painters both, and called reading and learning something
Speaker 1: mean and below him. Henrietta expressed to Caroline a fondness
Speaker 1: for the mathematician Gottfried Liebnitz, whom Caroline had been studying
Speaker 1: under since she was a child. This so endeared Henrietta
Speaker 1: to Caroline that Henrietta was made an official Dame Dupillai.
Speaker 1: Despite George's distaste for anything intellectual, he was taken with
Speaker 1: Henrietta as well. Not only was she attractive, modest, and obedient,
Speaker 1: she was also a great listener. George was known to
Speaker 1: be extremely boring. One courtier described his tedious conversations about
Speaker 1: military victories or European royal genealogy as always the same thing,
Speaker 1: over and over again. But if Henrietta was bored to tears,
Speaker 1: she didn't show it. She always appeared genuinely wrapped. Caroline
Speaker 1: was relieved to have someone else listening to her husband's
Speaker 1: monotonous stories for a change. Even though Henrietta was making
Speaker 1: her name in the Hanover family, it wasn't enough. She
Speaker 1: also needed to make sure her husband, Charles could win
Speaker 1: over the Prince and Princess. Somehow, Charles managed to put
Speaker 1: his temper aside and charm the male members of the
Speaker 1: Hanover household, winning his spot in the Royal Court as well.
Speaker 1: After just six months in the Hanover household, Henrietta and
Speaker 1: Charles faced a turning point in their career. In August
Speaker 1: seventeen fourteen, the Electress George the Second Grandmother passed away,
Speaker 1: and a few weeks later, Queen Anne of England died
Speaker 1: as well. This made George the First the King of
Speaker 1: England and Caroline and George the Second the new Princess
Speaker 1: and Prince of Wales. After the coronation, Caroline and George
Speaker 1: the Second began to determine who would get spots in
Speaker 1: their new English Royal Court. All of the good will
Speaker 1: Charles and Henrietta had generated had to pay out. While
Speaker 1: Caroline and George had promised them positions that was no guarantee.
Speaker 1: Competition was fierce because George the First and his wife
Speaker 1: were estranged. There was no real queen consort, leaving Caroline
Speaker 1: as the best way for a woman to embed herself
Speaker 1: within the court. Other ladies of aristocratic heritage were bribing
Speaker 1: royal officials or using their family connections to secure their spots,
Speaker 1: which Henrietta, whose family was mostly dead or destitute, had
Speaker 1: no hope of doing. But luckily, the Princess appointed Henrietta
Speaker 1: a Woman of the Bedchamber on October twenty sixth, seventeen fourteen.
Speaker 1: Charles also landed a position in court, becoming a Groom
Speaker 1: of the Bedchamber to the new King, George the First,
Speaker 1: Caroline's father in law. Although Henrietta and Charles were technically
Speaker 1: employed in separate households, they got to live together in
Speaker 1: an apartment at Saint James's Palace rent free, a huge
Speaker 1: upgrade from the dismal flat that they had stayed in
Speaker 1: before they left for Hanover. They were also paid a
Speaker 1: significant salary, five hundred pounds a year for Charles and
Speaker 1: three hundred for Henrietta. Although the couple's financial standing improved,
Speaker 1: their marriage was still in shambles as Charles continued to
Speaker 1: berate and mistreat his wife. Even though Henrietta was still
Speaker 1: suffering in her marriage, at least she had her new
Speaker 1: position to distract her. As a woman of the bedchamber,
Speaker 1: she took turns with seven other women to be quote
Speaker 1: in waiting. When it was her turn, Henrietta got up
Speaker 1: before the princess, filled up her bath with hot water,
Speaker 1: said her morning prayers with her, and dressed her in
Speaker 1: her undergarments. Throughout the day, Henrietta would run whatever errands
Speaker 1: Caroline needed or attended to her appearance, before retiring to
Speaker 1: the princess's private apartments in the evenings to read, chat
Speaker 1: and play cards, or to accompany the princess to the
Speaker 1: drawing room if there were any formal gatherings. Afterwards, Henrietta
Speaker 1: would undress the princess and get her ready for bed,
Speaker 1: finishing her work as late as two in the morning.
Speaker 1: Being a woman of the ben chamber required putting in
Speaker 1: long hours and was often unpredictable, given that you would
Speaker 1: be attending to Caroline's every whim. The hardest part of
Speaker 1: the job for Henrietta, at least at the beginning, wasn't
Speaker 1: dealing with the princess, but rather dealing with the dramas
Speaker 1: of the rest of the court. Rivalries abounded, and quarrels
Speaker 1: among the ladies in waiting could start up over matters
Speaker 1: as small as who kissed the lady on the cheek.
Speaker 1: Henrietta tried to stay out of these squabbles and became
Speaker 1: known as the Swiss because of her neutrality. But Henrietta's
Speaker 1: neutrality would be put to the test. George the Second
Speaker 1: and his father, the King, had always had a fraught relationship,
Speaker 1: but their animosity was kept at bay until the christening
Speaker 1: of George the Second's son, George William. After a dispute
Speaker 1: over who should be the godfather of the child came
Speaker 1: to a head. The Prince went up to his father's
Speaker 1: chosen candidate and said, you are a rascal, but I
Speaker 1: shall find you. Unfortunately, his heavy German accent meant that
Speaker 1: everyone thought he had said I'll fight you. In response,
Speaker 1: George the First put his own son, the Prince of Wales,
Speaker 1: under house arrest. This left Henrietta out of work. She
Speaker 1: couldn't go to the Princess's apartment without a guardsman pointing
Speaker 1: a halbert at her breast, preventing her from entering. Prince
Speaker 1: and princess were under arrest at Saint James's for four
Speaker 1: days until the King expelled the royal couple from court.
Speaker 1: The chaos sent the palace into a tizzy, putting Henrietta's
Speaker 1: previously secure position at risk. Because Charles and Henriettetta now
Speaker 1: worked for households that were at war with each other,
Speaker 1: they were barred from living together at Saint James. Henrietta
Speaker 1: had to pick between staying with her abusive husband, potentially
Speaker 1: jeopardizing her position at court, or living separately from Charles
Speaker 1: and risking her reputation worse. It was now that Henrietta's
Speaker 1: health started to fail. She had suffered from horrible headaches
Speaker 1: throughout her twenties, and around this time she started losing
Speaker 1: her hearing. This was a huge blow, As Tracy Borman
Speaker 1: put it, quote, to be hard of hearing in a
Speaker 1: world that fed on gossip, intrigue, and scandal was clearly
Speaker 1: a great disadvantage. But still, the prospect of losing her
Speaker 1: hearing and staying with an abusive man seemed unbearable. After
Speaker 1: much deliberation, Henrietta approached Charles about a potential compromise. Charles
Speaker 1: immediately flew into a rage. That Henrietta would even consider
Speaker 1: choosing the princess over him. Steely with resolve, Henrietta left
Speaker 1: the apartments without taking any of her belongings. Charles sent
Speaker 1: a message that he no longer considered her his wife,
Speaker 1: and she made it clear that she was equally done
Speaker 1: with the marriage. Siding with Caroline and George the second
Speaker 1: over the King and her own husband was a startling
Speaker 1: show of loyalty. Henrietta threw herself into life at court,
Speaker 1: hosting dinner parties at Hampton Court and winning over all
Speaker 1: who attended. In spite of her difficult circumstances. She had
Speaker 1: as much good nature as if she had never seen
Speaker 1: any ill nature and had been bred among lambs and
Speaker 1: turtle doves instead of princes and court ladies. One dinner
Speaker 1: party attendee remarked among Henrietta's admirers, but as the Prince
Speaker 1: of Wales himself, not only was he attending all of
Speaker 1: Henrietta's dinner parties, he found himself visiting Henrietta's apartments more often,
Speaker 1: spending three or four hours at a time regaling her
Speaker 1: with his probably boring stories of his military achievements. It
Speaker 1: seemed he was on the hunt for a mistress. He
Speaker 1: had recently been rejected by another courtier. This left Henrietta
Speaker 1: with another difficult choice. The Prince was, despite his title,
Speaker 1: not exactly prince charming. He was dull, ugly, and, like
Speaker 1: her husband, prone to rages. If she pursued an affair
Speaker 1: with him, she would have a target on her back
Speaker 1: from the rest of the court, including potentially his wife Caroline,
Speaker 1: who was still her boss. Worse yet, Henrietta's marriage was
Speaker 1: not technically over, even though she was a strange from
Speaker 1: her husband, and cheating on him could put her reputation
Speaker 1: further at risk. On the other hand, pursuing an affair
Speaker 1: with the Prince of Wales could provide her with more money, power,
Speaker 1: and prestige at court, which Henrietta desperately needed to avoid
Speaker 1: a life of poverty with her husband. For better or
Speaker 1: for worse, an affair with the Prince could change her
Speaker 1: life forever. The affair probably began during the Prince and
Speaker 1: Princess's stay at Richmond from June to September seventeen eighteen.
Speaker 1: George and Caroline's summers away had a more casual atmosphere,
Speaker 1: as quote formal occasions tended to be replaced by intimate
Speaker 1: supper parties or evening strolls around the gardens. While the
Speaker 1: summertime atmosphere was romantic, George the Second's reasons for pursuing
Speaker 1: an affair with Henrietta were less so. George dutifully flirted
Speaker 1: with various courtiers, but he always reserved his true passion
Speaker 1: for his wife, even after thirteen years. Every evening after dinner,
Speaker 1: George spent hours in Caroline's chambers and said that no
Speaker 1: other woman could even buckle her shoe, but his wife
Speaker 1: guy energy bucked standards for royal masculinity. There was a
Speaker 1: rumor that Caroline truly wore the pants in the relationship.
Speaker 1: A contemporary said that George seemed to look upon a
Speaker 1: mistress rather as a necessary appertinence to his grandeur as
Speaker 1: a prince, than in addition to his pleasures as a man.
Speaker 1: Henrietta was an ideal choice. Not only was she a
Speaker 1: great listener to his boring stories, but she was also discreet, appeasing,
Speaker 1: and well liked, unlikely to spread rooms about how he
Speaker 1: was in bed or use her new power to sow
Speaker 1: discord among the rest of the court. It was an
Speaker 1: affair of convenience, in every sense a highly regimented person
Speaker 1: with a strict daily routine. George went to Henrietta's apartments
Speaker 1: every night at exactly seven o'clock, with quote such dull
Speaker 1: punctuality that he frequently walked about his chamber for ten
Speaker 1: minutes with his watch in his hand if the stated
Speaker 1: minute was not arrived. He did this while also visiting
Speaker 1: his wife at her bedchambers for two hours every night
Speaker 1: after dinner. If there was any interruption in this routine,
Speaker 1: he would fly into a rage. Despite the regimented new schedule,
Speaker 1: Henrietta's new role did have some perks. For one, George
Speaker 1: paid her an annual salary of two thousand pounds, which
Speaker 1: would be more than two hundred and fifty thousand pounds today.
Speaker 1: As the mistress to the heir to the throne, she
Speaker 1: was treated with more deference and respect by the rest
Speaker 1: of the court. George's wife, Caroline, had a remarkably lax
Speaker 1: stance on the affair, at least initially. One courtier said
Speaker 1: that she was so devoted to George's pleasures, which she
Speaker 1: often told him were the rule of all her thoughts
Speaker 1: and actions, that whenever he thought proper to find them
Speaker 1: with other women she even loved, whoever was instrumental to
Speaker 1: his entertainment. But Caroline did not tolerate the prospect of
Speaker 1: competing with another woman for political influence over the Prince.
Speaker 1: She worried that Henrietta would use her three or four
Speaker 1: hours a day with George to sway him politically. Henrietta's
Speaker 1: closest friends were powerful Tory politicians and sympathizers, who discussed
Speaker 1: their political opinions during her dinner soirese. Henrietta's own aspirations
Speaker 1: were modest. She was more interested in her own safety
Speaker 1: and security than any broader political gains. But Caroline, as
Speaker 1: a supporter of the opposing Whig Party, wanted to minimize
Speaker 1: Henrietta's threat to the status quo. Caroline began condescending to Henrietta,
Speaker 1: calling her my dear Howard, while giving her increasingly lowly tasks.
Speaker 1: She ordered Henrietta to kneel while she held her waist
Speaker 1: basin a subtle indignity. Henrietta did so, but as Caroline
Speaker 1: continued to undermine her, Henrietta snapped. One day she told
Speaker 1: off Caroline, refusing to kneel. Caroline responded, yes, my dear Howard,
Speaker 1: I am sure you will. Indeed you will go go
Speaker 1: fie for shame, Go my good Howard. We will talk
Speaker 1: of this another time. Caroline also exploited Henrietta's fear of
Speaker 1: returning to her abusive husband. She told another courtier she
Speaker 1: knew I had held her up at a time when
Speaker 1: it was in my power if I had pleased any
Speaker 1: hour of the day, to let her drop through my fingers.
Speaker 1: Thus humiliated, Henrietta knew that from that moment on she
Speaker 1: had no choice but to submit to Caroline's every whin
Speaker 1: having to negotiate between the desires of Caroline and George
Speaker 1: began to take a toll on Henrietta. One of her
Speaker 1: friends said that she was forced to live in the
Speaker 1: constant subjugation of a wife with all the reproach of
Speaker 1: a mistress, and to flatter and manage a man whom
Speaker 1: she must see and feel had as little inclination to
Speaker 1: her person as regard to her advice. Henrietta began to
Speaker 1: suffer more acute headaches and was at times bedridden, unable
Speaker 1: to attend to Caroline as she was supposed to. Henrietta
Speaker 1: was growing increasingly frustrated with her life at court and
Speaker 1: wanted to plot and escape. Shockingly, the Prince was amenable
Speaker 1: to helping her, fairly bored with her at this point,
Speaker 1: he gifted her some diamond jewelry, a ruby cross, a
Speaker 1: gold watch, and all of the furniture in her and
Speaker 1: her servant's rooms. He also gave her a stock worth
Speaker 1: eleven thousand, five hundred pounds in the south Sea Company.
Speaker 1: Better Yet, in the settlement, the Prince wrote that the
Speaker 1: gifts were for quote Henrietta Howard alone, and not for
Speaker 1: the use or benefit of the said Charles Howard. Her husband. Thrilled,
Speaker 1: Henrietta started building a house that would be hers alone
Speaker 1: for her to escape to, but she had to keep
Speaker 1: this a secret from her husband, who, again, even though
Speaker 1: they were estranged, would still try and rest control of
Speaker 1: her new fortune. Henrietta also had to hide her plans
Speaker 1: from Caroline, who, despite tormenting Henriett, preferred having her as
Speaker 1: her husband's mistress as opposed to somebody more ambitious and
Speaker 1: threatening to her power. One worthwhile thing to briefly point
Speaker 1: out here is even as Henrietta's new fortune would be
Speaker 1: allowing her to build her tenuous independence, she would be
Speaker 1: directly profiting from the oppression of others. The South Sea
Speaker 1: Company was involved in the transatlantic slave trade, and the
Speaker 1: materials that Henrietta was using to build her new house
Speaker 1: were sourced from the then British colony of Jamaica. This
Speaker 1: is one of the challenges when it comes to understanding
Speaker 1: historical figures, being able to put them in the context
Speaker 1: of when they lived, but also to try to understand
Speaker 1: that context and all of its complexities more fully. Anyway,
Speaker 1: it wasn't long before Charles found out about his wife's
Speaker 1: change in fortune. Immediately he started to blackmail her for
Speaker 1: the mo He petitioned the Archbishop of Canterbury to help him,
Speaker 1: knowing that if he brought the issue to trial in
Speaker 1: the ecclesiastical courts, he would have a bulletproof case. There's
Speaker 1: no chance that a judge would side with an unfaithful
Speaker 1: wife over her long suffering husband. The case would also
Speaker 1: be a public scandal, putting Henrietta's reputation at further risk.
Speaker 1: Charles also threatened her by preventing her from ever seeing
Speaker 1: her son again, a son she missed dearly, given that
Speaker 1: she hadn't seen him since she arrived in Hanover so
Speaker 1: many years ago. Caroline also learned of Henrietta's attempt to
Speaker 1: escape court, and she told her that she would happily
Speaker 1: let Henrietta quit if she returned to her husband, which
Speaker 1: Henrietta did not want to do under any circumstances. So
Speaker 1: Henrietta was biding her time at court while she continued
Speaker 1: to build a country home at Marble Hill with her
Speaker 1: new gifted fortune. Charles decided on a new tactic to
Speaker 1: try to rest control of the fortune from his wife.
Speaker 1: He got a warrant from the Lord Chief Justice to
Speaker 1: seize his wife wherever he found her. She was so
Speaker 1: afraid of her husband that Henrietta hid at Leicester House
Speaker 1: for weeks, knowing that Charles wasn't going to try and
Speaker 1: forcibly remove her from a palace. When June rolled around,
Speaker 1: the royal household was preparing for their annual summer retreat
Speaker 1: to Richmond, and Henrietta was terrified. She was worried that
Speaker 1: Charles would ambush her carriage on the way there and
Speaker 1: finally seize her for good. A duke told her that
Speaker 1: she could ride with him early in the morning before
Speaker 1: the rest of the coaches and stay in his more
Speaker 1: secure house to avoid her scheming husband. The plan worked.
Speaker 1: She made it to the Duke's house unscathed, but the
Speaker 1: experience terrified her. She wrote to one of her friends,
Speaker 1: I have not been abroad since I left London, nor
Speaker 1: have I courage yet to venture out. Her life would
Speaker 1: only get more complicated that summer. On June fifteenth, while
Speaker 1: the Prince and princess were taking an afternoon rest, they
Speaker 1: heard a knock at the door. The king had died.
Speaker 1: The Prince, of course, was furious, not because of his
Speaker 1: sudden promotion, but because the message had interrupted his precious
Speaker 1: daily routine. When he heard the news, he said, that
Speaker 1: is one big lie and left the room. From her
Speaker 1: isolation at the Duke's house, Henrietta weighed her options. The
Speaker 1: death of the king meant that her husband, who was
Speaker 1: installed in his court, was now out of a job,
Speaker 1: and he would probably be using everything in his power
Speaker 1: to try to steal her fortune and bring her back
Speaker 1: under his thumb. Even though Henrietta was trying to leave
Speaker 1: royal life altogether, the prince's promotion gave her an opportunity
Speaker 1: for even greater fortune, prestige, and security. She could become
Speaker 1: mistress to a king. After George the second became king.
Speaker 1: Politicians and courtiers alike began flooding Henrietta's apartments, trying to
Speaker 1: get her to put in a good word with the King.
Speaker 1: The busy and speculative politicians of the ante chamber, who
Speaker 1: knew everything but knew everything wrong, naturally concluded that a
Speaker 1: lady with whom the King passed so many hours every
Speaker 1: day must necessarily have some interest with him, and consequently
Speaker 1: applied to her, said one of her friends. Henrietta was
Speaker 1: apprehensive about all of these new requests and about her
Speaker 1: position in general. After the coronation, the royal family typically
Speaker 1: restructured their courts, Henrietta could easily be dismissed from her position.
Speaker 1: Henrietta's relationship with the new King, George, had been decaying.
Speaker 1: Even though he followed his routine of visiting her every
Speaker 1: day at seven, he was pretty much tiring of her. Once,
Speaker 1: a year after the coronation, she offended him by accident
Speaker 1: while they were walking together in the gardens at Saint James.
Speaker 1: He responded with such outrage that she worried she was
Speaker 1: going to be fired immediately. It's worth noting that perhaps
Speaker 1: this outburst was part of George's personality He had kept
Speaker 1: Henrietta around for almost ten years, longer than any of
Speaker 1: his other mistresses. After spending three or four hours a
Speaker 1: day with Henrietta for nearly a decade, the relationship had
Speaker 1: long lost whatever initial spark it had once had. Besides,
Speaker 1: at times, George burst intoge even at his own wife,
Speaker 1: who he was unquestioningly devoted to, in front of the
Speaker 1: entire court. Luckily, both the King and Queen kept Henrietta
Speaker 1: on as both a woman of the bedchamber and a
Speaker 1: royal mistress once George became king, but George's growing annoyance
Speaker 1: with Henrietta worried her. She still needed her position at
Speaker 1: court to avoid the wrath of her husband, who was
Speaker 1: preparing yet another strategy to steal her fortune. Late one night,
Speaker 1: Charles snuck into the inner courtyard of the palace and
Speaker 1: shouted his demands for Henrietta to return to him, waking
Speaker 1: up the whole of Saint James. He broke into the
Speaker 1: Queen's apartments, insisting on a position in the King's court
Speaker 1: and custody over his wife, before the royal guards carried
Speaker 1: him out by force. With her husband getting increasingly brazen
Speaker 1: and embarrassing, Henrietta was in a catch twenty two. As
Speaker 1: one of her friends put it, Henrietta simultaneously had a
Speaker 1: husband who ordered her home, who did not desire to
Speaker 1: have her there, and a lover who was to retain her,
Speaker 1: who seemed already tired of keeping her. With all of
Speaker 1: this stress around her, Henrietta's headaches worsened and she was
Speaker 1: bedridden for days. Miserable, she took a drastic and unprecedented step.
Speaker 1: She applied for a legal separation from her husband. Given
Speaker 1: that it was incredibly difficult, if not impossible, for a
Speaker 1: woman to legally divorce her husband at that time, Henrietta's
Speaker 1: best option was to seek out an informal divorce or
Speaker 1: a private deed of separation. It was still risky for
Speaker 1: a woman to seek out a deed of separation, as
Speaker 1: historian Tracy Borman explained, quote, in most cases, the wife
Speaker 1: would forfeit an any income she might have from real estate,
Speaker 1: as well as any future earnings or legacies, all of
Speaker 1: her personal property, and worst of all, custody of any children. Still,
Speaker 1: Henrietta found witnesses attesting to Charles's violence, cruelty, profligacy, and drunkenness,
Speaker 1: and with her lawyers, she managed to create a deed
Speaker 1: of separation that mandated that he could no longer claim, seize, retrain,
Speaker 1: or detain her, nor could he access any of her
Speaker 1: fortune aside from a twelve hundred pound yearly allowance. Charles
Speaker 1: agreed to the document, except he insisted on one edition
Speaker 1: that Henrietta could not pursue a legal divorce. Even though
Speaker 1: this was a major concession, they signed the deed and
Speaker 1: their separation was finally agreed to on February twenty ninth,
Speaker 1: seventeen twenty eight, after twenty two years of misery. Four
Speaker 1: years later, Charles was dead. Things were finally looking up
Speaker 1: for Henrietta. She is happier than I have ever seen her,
Speaker 1: said one of her friends. Not only was she free
Speaker 1: from her husband for good, her country house was finally completed,
Speaker 1: giving her a place to escape to Once her court
Speaker 1: life was officially over once more, she got a promotion.
Speaker 1: Charles's brother Edward had died and Charles had succeeded him
Speaker 1: as the ninth Earl of Suffolk, which made Henrietta a countess,
Speaker 1: even though she and her husband were separated. Her new
Speaker 1: title meant that she was too high status to hold
Speaker 1: her previous position as woman of the bedchamber, so she
Speaker 1: was promoted to Mistress of the Robes, the most senior
Speaker 1: member of the household. No longer did she have to
Speaker 1: kneel while holding Caroline's wash basin or attend to Caroline's
Speaker 1: every impulse. She even met a new romantic interest, George Berkeley,
Speaker 1: an affable gentleman with a good sense of humor. He
Speaker 1: couldn't have been more different from either George or Charles.
Speaker 1: Henrietta had been introduced to him through his sister, a friend,
Speaker 1: in seventeen thirty. While the two maintained a flirty friendship
Speaker 1: for a few years. After Charles's death, their relationship grew
Speaker 1: more passionate and openly romantic. In their letters, Henrietta flirtingly
Speaker 1: teased George about his ill breeding and forgetfulness, and called
Speaker 1: him dull and want of taste. Now that she had
Speaker 1: a lover, a posh country house, and a fortune to
Speaker 1: live off of, she felt more ready than ever to
Speaker 1: actually leave court. As one friend observed, she was tired
Speaker 1: of acting the mistress while she had in reality all
Speaker 1: the slights of a wife. She took a six week
Speaker 1: vacation in Bath to test the waters, making sure to
Speaker 1: return in time for King George's birthday on October thirtieth,
Speaker 1: but the King was not particularly happy to see her return.
Speaker 1: Angry that she had interrupted his routines and that she
Speaker 1: had entertained some of his political enemies in Bath, he
Speaker 1: avoided Henrietta at all costs. He did not go to
Speaker 1: her apartments as he had done once every day, nor
Speaker 1: did he even say hello during his birthday festivities. The
Speaker 1: snub shocked Henrietta. Even though she was ready to leave
Speaker 1: court for good, she wanted to do so on good terms.
Speaker 1: She met with the Queen, planning to seek her advice
Speaker 1: and offer her resignation. Knowing that the Queen might not
Speaker 1: grant her request to quit, Henrietta painstakingly prepared her case.
Speaker 1: She told Caroline that she wanted to quit her job
Speaker 1: at court, saying that she had taken to heart the
Speaker 1: public marks that the King had given me of his displeasure.
Speaker 1: But as she predicted, the Queen would not let her quit.
Speaker 1: She said that the ordeal at George's birthday festivities was
Speaker 1: just a minor spat, nothing worth quitting over. When Henrietta
Speaker 1: refused to budge, the Queen said, child, you do not
Speaker 1: know how differently. When you are out, people will behave
Speaker 1: suggesting that her friends may abandon her if she no
Speaker 1: longer occupied a position of political power. Henrietta replied, some
Speaker 1: people may show me it was the courtier and not
Speaker 1: me that was light. I cannot say that keeping of
Speaker 1: such acquaintance will be an inducement to keep me at court.
Speaker 1: After some deliberation, the Queen proposed a compromise that Henrietta
Speaker 1: could quit after taking a week to consider it. Henrietta
Speaker 1: took that week to try to get herself back into
Speaker 1: the King's good graces. George refused to see her in private,
Speaker 1: so she found him walking in the gardens at Kensington
Speaker 1: and tried to plead her case. He ignored her. She
Speaker 1: wrote him two letters that defended her conduct, begging for
Speaker 1: his understanding after an over twenty year affair, but he
Speaker 1: refused to respond. When the Queen told him that she
Speaker 1: was trying to get Henrietta to renege on her request
Speaker 1: to quit, the king told his wife, what the devil
Speaker 1: did you mean by trying to make an old, dull, deaf,
Speaker 1: peevish beast stay and plague me when I had so
Speaker 1: good an opportunity of getting rid of her. Henrietta failed
Speaker 1: to endear herself again to the King, and on November
Speaker 1: twenty second, seventeen thirty four, she finally resigned. Although Henrietta
Speaker 1: had left court on a sour note, her new life
Speaker 1: was now finally ready to unfold. She moved into her estate,
Speaker 1: marble Hill, which she had painstakingly constructed over so many years.
Speaker 1: Even though the Queen Caroline had warned her that she
Speaker 1: would lose her friends after leaving court, she hosted plenty
Speaker 1: of them at marble Hill at her many lavish dinner
Speaker 1: parties and salons. She maintained her relationship with George Berkeley,
Speaker 1: and on June twenty sixth, seventeen thirty five, the two
Speaker 1: got married at a small ceremony on the Berkeley family estate.
Speaker 1: Henrietta's life had become unrecognizable from the day she boarded
Speaker 1: the cheapest boat to Hanover in seventeen fourteen. Penniless and
Speaker 1: stuck with a cruel, abusive husband, she weathered her ex
Speaker 1: husband's attempts to tie her down and steal her money, power,
Speaker 1: and play at court. She weathered a decades long affair
Speaker 1: with a king who barely tolerated her, and a rivalry
Speaker 1: with the queen who controlled her future. In May seventeen
Speaker 1: thirty six, Henrietta set sail for Germany with her husband,
Speaker 1: once again, going overseas for only the second time in
Speaker 1: her life. This time it was a vacation. That's the
Speaker 1: story of Henrietta Howard, but stick around to hear about
Speaker 1: Henrietta's relationship with her Frenemi, Jonathan Swift. In seventeen twenty six,
Speaker 1: a new visitor began attending henrietta salons at Lesterhouse, Jonathan Swift,
Speaker 1: the author of Gulliver's Travels. They had mutual friends in
Speaker 1: the literary world, and one friend set the two up.
Speaker 1: He wrote to Swift in a letter, I can help
Speaker 1: you to a lady who is as deaf, though not
Speaker 1: as old as yourself. You'll be pleased with one another.
Speaker 1: You'll converse like spirits by intuition. When the two finally met,
Speaker 1: the friend right, they became close almost immediately. When Gulliver's
Speaker 1: Travels came out later that year, Henrietta was delighted, including
Speaker 1: references to the book in her letters. Swift pretended not
Speaker 1: to understand them because he published the book anonymously. The
Speaker 1: perverseness of your lines astonished me. He wrote, he was
Speaker 1: such a frequent visitor that he called himself the chief
Speaker 1: butler and keeper of the ice House of Marble Hill,
Speaker 1: which was still under construction at this time. But their
Speaker 1: convivial and close relationship came to an abrupt halt when
Speaker 1: George the Second took over the throne as King. Swift
Speaker 1: was hoping that Henrietta would put in a good word
Speaker 1: with him about making Swift the chancellor of Dublin University.
Speaker 1: He also wanted to secure a position for his friend
Speaker 1: John Gay, but Caroline, wanting to put Henrietta in her place,
Speaker 1: denied Gaze and Swift's requests. She put Gay in one
Speaker 1: of the lowest paid and least prestigious positions at court,
Speaker 1: and Gay turned it down. Even though Gay was sympathetic
Speaker 1: to Henrietta's difficult decision, noting that she had done what
Speaker 1: she could, Swift was incensed. I have long hated her
Speaker 1: on your account, more because you are so forgiving as
Speaker 1: to not hate her. Swift wrote to Gay, missus Howard
Speaker 1: was good for nothing but to be a rank courtier.
Speaker 1: He wrote, on another occasion, I care not whether she
Speaker 1: ever writes to me or no. She has cheated us
Speaker 1: all and may go hang herself. For the next six years,
Speaker 1: he continued to denigrate Henrietta in letters to his friends,
Speaker 1: and even published a poem about it. Many of the
Speaker 1: recipients of these letters were friends with Henrietta too, and
Speaker 1: tried to encourage Swift to bury the hatchet to no avail.
Speaker 1: In seventeen thirty one, Henrietta dent Swift a remarkably restrained
Speaker 1: letter imploring him to stop going after her so intensely.
Speaker 1: Quote you seem to think you have a natural right
Speaker 1: to abuse me because I am a woman and a courtier,
Speaker 1: she wrote. She ended her letter with a plea for
Speaker 1: forgiveness and that she wanted to follow her own inclination
Speaker 1: and continue very truly and very much his humble servant,
Speaker 1: polite until the end. Noble Blood is a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Manke. Noble Blood
Speaker 1: is hosted by me Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and
Speaker 1: research by Hannah Johnston, Hannahswick, Courtney Sender, Amy Hit and
Speaker 1: Julia Milaney. The show is edited and produced by Jesse Funk,
Speaker 1: with supervising producer rima il KLi and executive producers Aaron Mankey,
Speaker 1: Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.