On Tuesday 19 May 1795, King George III held a grand fête at Frogmore House in the grounds of Home Park, Windsor (around half a mile from Windsor Castle), celebrating both Queen Charlotte’s 51st birthday and the recent arrival and marriage of his new daughter-in-law, Caroline, Princess of Wales (she’d married the Prince of Wales, later George IV, just weeks earlier, on 8 April).
The fête was in the style of a Dutch Fair. This was in honour of some recent guests: William V, the Prince of Orange and Nassau-Dietz and his family had fled their Netherlands home after the French army had invaded, and headed for exile in England. (The Prince of Orange’s wife, Wilhelmina of Prussia, was the aunt of Princess Frederica Charlotte, the wife of George III’s second son, Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany.)
Their Majesties and the Orange Family, &c. &c. dined at half past three in a grand saloon, superbly ornamented, in Fête Champêtre. Four tents were fitted up in front of the saloon for the reception of their noble guests.
The presence of one guest was extremely contentious. Frances Villiers, Countess of Jersey was there, the Prince of Wales’ mistress despite his recent marriage. The prince famously hated Caroline, his wife, disliking her at first sight while Lady Jersey reigned supreme in his affections for some time. It was reported – wrongly, as it turned out – that Lady Jersey was pregnant with the prince’s child, and was ‘particularly distinguished’ at the fête held at Frogmore House. In fact, it was not Lady Jersey who was with child, but Caroline, Princess of Wales.
Dancers and singers from Windsor and Covent Garden, dressed in rustic character formed part of the day’s entertainment. The pastoral idyll was thrown into chaos and gales of laughter though, when the pretend haymakers were interrupted by ‘a set of ass-racers, whose obstinate steeds, in the confusion, threw some of the blushing maids on the very haycocks they had just been raising’.
George III’s eldest daughter, Princess Elizabeth had been the brains behind the Dutch fair, organising the day with the assistance of the Orange family.
The booths, which were numerous, displayed a collection of articles for sale, from the dairy to a lady’s toilet; the purchase money, which was voluntary, was dropt by the purchase into boxes appropriated for the charity schools of Windsor.
While the fair continued into the evening, the royal family and their especial guests gracefully retired from the gardens of Frogmore House and made their way to Windsor Castle where a ball and supper was held.
The Frogmore Estate has been owned by the royal family from the 1500s, although Frogmore House dates from the late seventeenth-century. Various tenants lived there (including one of Charles II’s illegitimate sons) until Queen Charlotte bought the house in 1792, as an idyllic and peaceful country mansion to which she and her unmarried daughters could retreat from court life.
After the 1795 fair, a nine-year programme of alterations was embarked on; the house was enlarged and extended, and pavilions added at the wings.
Of course, the Frogmore Estate is back in the news right now as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex (and their new baby, Archie), have made Frogmore Cottage their new home.
Sources:
Norfolk Chronicle, 23 May 1795
The Times, 25 May 1795
great post and perfect for my purpose as I’m going to give a talk on Frogmore next week! Just two corrections: it was not George III who bought Frogmore, it was Queen Charlotte herself (Richmond House was bought by him as a present for the Queen, and I don’t know who was the first to confuse those two but several recent publications repeat it, I know), and Queen Charlotte was the brains behind all parties at Frogmore, while Princess Elizabeth was the creative artist and Master of the Revels.
For the transactions, see Olwen Hedley, Queen Charlotte, 179ff. and n14 p. 348, for some of the parties at least, the georgianpapersproject has published a few of her letters that reveal her behind-the-stage influence. Queen Charlotte had given similar parties before.
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Thanks for the extra info. You are quite right about the purchase; the reference we’d used was one of those which had confused the issue, and we have changed our blog to reflect that. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.
The newspapers we used in our research are referenced at the end of the article. They said ‘the whole was under the direction of the Princess Elizabeth, assisted by local hints from his Royal Highness the Prince of Orange and family’, hence us describing her as the brains behind the operation.
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This post is wonderful! Two other small quibbles: first, wouldn’t the Prince’s mistress have been Sarah Villiers’ mother in law, Frances? Second, according to her biography, Frances WAS pregnant at the time of the party, since she gave birth the following October.
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My mistake, it should have read Frances Villiers and not Sarah; thanks for pointing that out. The biography, is that the one by Tim Clarke? The DNB doesn’t mention that Frances gave birth to a child in 1795.
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One of the exciting things about Frances Villiers is the seriously challenging nature of finding out about her! The DNB entry isn’t particularly good. Tim Clarke’s biography does indeed mention the baby boy, who was born in October, and who only lived until the following June (1796). I presume people thought the baby was fathered by Prinny, but I’m not sure why the record is so silent about this child, since so many noble children of the time were known to be illegitimate, including, reputedly, four others of Lady Jersey’s older children. Lady Jersey’s tombstone states that she had three sons and eight daughters by George Bussy Villiers, Fourth Earl.
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