Pains and Penalties Bill 1820 - Background

Background

In 1795, George, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of King George III of the United Kingdom, married Duchess Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. The marriage, however, was disastrous; each party was unsuited to the other. They separated after the birth of their only child, Princess Charlotte of Wales, the following year. Caroline was soon banished from court, and eventually departed England for the European mainland. On the death of George III on 29 January 1820, George became King as George IV, and Caroline became queen consort. However, the King refused to recognise Caroline as Queen, and commanded British ambassadors to ensure that monarchs in foreign courts did the same. Her name was omitted from the liturgy of the Church of England, and George acted to exclude her at every opportunity. In June, Caroline returned to London to assert her rights as queen consort of the United Kingdom.

George despised her, and over the preceding few years had collated evidence to support his contention that Caroline had committed adultery while abroad with Bartolomeo Pergami, the head servant of her household. The day after her return to England, George submitted the evidence to the Houses of Parliament in two green bags. The contents of the bags were identical; one copy was presented to the House of Lords by the Prime Minister, Lord Liverpool, and the other was presented to the House of Commons by the Foreign Secretary, Lord Castlereagh. Each requested that the Houses set up a confidential enquiry to examine the contents of the bags. Replying to Castlereagh in the Commons, Caroline's Attorney General, Henry Brougham, demanded that the papers be disclosed to the public. Brougham was in the opposition Whig party, and knew that public sympathy rested with Caroline, rather than her husband or the government, which was weak and unpopular. Disclosure of George's own adulterous affairs, or even his scandalous and illegal previous marriage to Maria Fitzherbert, could destabilise the Tory government led by Lord Liverpool.

In an attempt to construct a compromise, Castlereagh and the Duke of Wellington met with Brougham and Caroline's solicitor Thomas Denman. William Wilberforce secured time for negotiation by persuading the Commons to adjourn the debate on the bags. However, the negotiations were fruitless; the government offered Caroline £50,000 a year to live abroad as a Duchess, but Caroline insisted on her right to be Queen and dismissed the money as a bribe. Wilberforce moved a motion in the House requesting that Caroline not insist on all her claims, which was passed by a wide margin of 394–124. However, the public was still solidly behind Caroline, and she rejected Wilberforce's request. George Canning, who may have been a former lover of Caroline, threatened to resign from the government in protest at the proceedings against her. If Canning resigned, the government would almost certainly fall. In the end, either he was persuaded not to resign or his resignation was refused. His eldest son had recently died and, rather than be involved in the debate, Canning left Britain on a tour of Europe to recover from his grief.

On 27 June, the Lords rejected a motion made by the Whig leader Lord Grey to abandon the investigation, and the bags were opened and examined by a committee of 15 peers. A week later, the chair of the committee, Lord Harrowby, reported back to the House. The committee decided that the evidence was of such a grave and serious nature that it should be the subject of a "legislative proceeding". In reply, Lord Liverpool announced that a bill would be introduced the following day.