Melbourne was not much of a solace during the trial itself, though. He was protective of Caroline (and Fraser is good on how much it mattered to her to have male protection) and left her an annuity at a point when she desperately needed it (George continued to own all proceeds of her writing, even after they separated). Melbourne comes out of the relationship fairly well. We still can’t be sure if she committed adultery with Melbourne, for example, and Fraser thinks she didn’t, given the tone of the letters between them even when closest.

Caroline was summoned only to be told that her son was dead.įraser gives insightful judgment on the questions that remain questions despite Caroline’s extensive archive. The servants weren’t able to care for the boy in the absence of proper medical help and he got blood poisoning. He was absent when their youngest son, Willie, went riding alone aged eight and fell off his pony.

And he doesn’t seem to have especially wanted to spend time with them himself. He kept proffering meetings with them and then changing his mind. What’s most painful about this story is that he was clearly using the children to punish and control Caroline. George simply moved the children to Scotland so they came under Scottish jurisdiction instead. Sadly, this didn’t change her own situation. Norton’s husband locked her out of the house, sued for adultery and shipped the children off to his relatives She used her skill as a writer and connections in parliament to initiate the Custody of Infants Act which was passed in 1839 and granted married women the right to petition for custody of children under seven. Caroline was declared innocent but was still prevented from seeing her children. Journalists including Charles Dickens flocked to report on this celebrity scandal in which much was made of her “mannish” wit and unwomanly, writerly ways – the Satirist newspaper styled her as “the unblushing one”. The man with whom she was supposedly having an affair was Lord Melbourne, the prime minister his close friendship with Caroline had largely been encouraged by her husband (Melbourne had got the cash-strapped George a job as a magistrate).

Royal Charles by Antonia Fraser