Queen's House by Edna Healey Read Free Book Online
Authors: Edna Healey
General one of the Greatness of the Sum demanded for it, the inconvenience of the situation,and other circumstances, therefore proceeded to the other offer of Montagu House ⦠32
The trustees therefore decided to purchase Montagu House in Bloomsbury, on the site of the museum today.
Eventually in 1761 Sheffield accepted George IIIâs offer of £28,000. * And so at last the house at the end of the Mall became the home of the royal family.
* He had many other palaces outside London: he built Richmond Palace and extended Greenwich Palace, where three Tudor monarchs were born.
â Traditionally Somerset House on the banks of the Thames had been assigned to the monarchâs consort as a dower house. Charles Iâs wife, Henrietta Maria, had lived there, and in 1761, by Act of Parliament, it had been settled on Queen Charlotte. On 12 April 1775, Lord North brought a message from the King to Parliament asking that âmore suitable accommodation be made for the residence of the Queen should she survive his majestyâ. On 26 April Parliament agreed that âthe Palace in which His Majesty resides, lately known by the name of Buckingham House & now called the Queenâs House be settled on the Queen in lieu of Somerset House, in case she should survive His Majesty. That⦠the said Palace be annexed to, & vested in the Crown of Great Britain.â Somerset House was to be Vested in His Majesty, his heirs and successors for the purpose of erecting & establishing certain public officesâ. The King was granted £100,000 towards the purchase and improvements of the Queenâs House and in consideration of the new use of Somerset House. (Source: Parliamentary History of England, House of Lords, vol. 18,15â17.)
* The Latin may be translated as: the household gods delight in such a situation; the country in the town; the too fastidious critic harms chiefly himself; and be slow to undertake an obligation, and quick to discharge it.
* The negotiations for the sale took some months. Arlington and the Duke of Buckingham had incorporated the old Mulberry Garden into their estate. These four acres were Crown Property and it took some time to establish the boundaries. Arlington had, never acquired the freehold: when his hundred years lease expired, this land would return to the Crown. Realising that this would make the sale more difficult, Sheffield agreed a reasonable price.
CHAPTER TWO
George III and Queen Charlotte
âRus in urbeâ
[the country in the town]
Inscription around the roof of the
Duke of Buckinghamâs house 1
âThe Queenâs Houseâ
On the morning of 25 October 1760, George II died at his palace at Kensington. He had outlived his wife, Caroline of Anspach, and his son Frederick, Prince of Wales, who had died nine years earlier. So it was his grandson, Prince George, who, at the age of twenty-two, became King. The young man, idealistic and dedicated, was determined to make a clean break with his predecessors. George I and George II had remained solidly German, spoke little English and were happy in Hanover at their palace of Herrenhausen. For them, possession of the English throne meant an extension of their military power in Europe. On the whole they were content to leave the running of the English government to their ministers. Both kings were openly immoral in their domestic lives. George I had divorced his wife and locked her away for life in a remote German castle, and consoled himself with his plain German mistresses. George II married a clever wife, who accepted her husbandâs infidelities and led her own interesting life in her dower house, Leicester House, where she entertained writers, painters and politicians, and at Richmond.
The new King had never known his grandmother, Caroline, but the echoes of violent family rows had reverberated through his childhood, as his father Frederick, Prince of Wales, had been detested with a paranoiac bitterness
The trustees therefore decided to purchase Montagu House in Bloomsbury, on the site of the museum today.
Eventually in 1761 Sheffield accepted George IIIâs offer of £28,000. * And so at last the house at the end of the Mall became the home of the royal family.
* He had many other palaces outside London: he built Richmond Palace and extended Greenwich Palace, where three Tudor monarchs were born.
â Traditionally Somerset House on the banks of the Thames had been assigned to the monarchâs consort as a dower house. Charles Iâs wife, Henrietta Maria, had lived there, and in 1761, by Act of Parliament, it had been settled on Queen Charlotte. On 12 April 1775, Lord North brought a message from the King to Parliament asking that âmore suitable accommodation be made for the residence of the Queen should she survive his majestyâ. On 26 April Parliament agreed that âthe Palace in which His Majesty resides, lately known by the name of Buckingham House & now called the Queenâs House be settled on the Queen in lieu of Somerset House, in case she should survive His Majesty. That⦠the said Palace be annexed to, & vested in the Crown of Great Britain.â Somerset House was to be Vested in His Majesty, his heirs and successors for the purpose of erecting & establishing certain public officesâ. The King was granted £100,000 towards the purchase and improvements of the Queenâs House and in consideration of the new use of Somerset House. (Source: Parliamentary History of England, House of Lords, vol. 18,15â17.)
* The Latin may be translated as: the household gods delight in such a situation; the country in the town; the too fastidious critic harms chiefly himself; and be slow to undertake an obligation, and quick to discharge it.
* The negotiations for the sale took some months. Arlington and the Duke of Buckingham had incorporated the old Mulberry Garden into their estate. These four acres were Crown Property and it took some time to establish the boundaries. Arlington had, never acquired the freehold: when his hundred years lease expired, this land would return to the Crown. Realising that this would make the sale more difficult, Sheffield agreed a reasonable price.
CHAPTER TWO
George III and Queen Charlotte
âRus in urbeâ
[the country in the town]
Inscription around the roof of the
Duke of Buckinghamâs house 1
âThe Queenâs Houseâ
On the morning of 25 October 1760, George II died at his palace at Kensington. He had outlived his wife, Caroline of Anspach, and his son Frederick, Prince of Wales, who had died nine years earlier. So it was his grandson, Prince George, who, at the age of twenty-two, became King. The young man, idealistic and dedicated, was determined to make a clean break with his predecessors. George I and George II had remained solidly German, spoke little English and were happy in Hanover at their palace of Herrenhausen. For them, possession of the English throne meant an extension of their military power in Europe. On the whole they were content to leave the running of the English government to their ministers. Both kings were openly immoral in their domestic lives. George I had divorced his wife and locked her away for life in a remote German castle, and consoled himself with his plain German mistresses. George II married a clever wife, who accepted her husbandâs infidelities and led her own interesting life in her dower house, Leicester House, where she entertained writers, painters and politicians, and at Richmond.
The new King had never known his grandmother, Caroline, but the echoes of violent family rows had reverberated through his childhood, as his father Frederick, Prince of Wales, had been detested with a paranoiac bitterness
Similar Books
Artifice (Special Forces: FJ One Book 2)
Adam Vance
Accidental Love
Lacey Wolfe
Deadly Deception (SCVC Taskforce)
Misty Evans
While Other People Sleep
Marcia Muller
Show Time
Sue Stauffacher
Carolyn Keene - Nancy Drew
The Kachina Doll Mystery
Fantasy of Flight
Kelly St. Clare
Charmed I'm Sure
Elliott James
Black Mountain
Greig Beck