The Creevey Papers
Thomas Creevey to Elizabeth Ord, 12 August 1820
“Liverpool, 12th August.
“I left Knowsley yesterday. Lord Derby has received a letter from Lord Roslyn, telling him there had been a devil
of a blow up between the King and Duke of York. The latter wanted to absent himself
from the approaching trial of the Queen;
I presume from feelings of delicacy in his situation as having lost his
wife.† The King, however, was furious, and has commanded the Duke to be present on Thursday. . . . I cannot resist
the curiosity of seeing a Queen tried. From the House of Lords or from
Brooks’s you shall have a daily account of what passes.”
Queen Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1768-1821)
Married the Prince of Wales in 1795 and separated in 1796; her husband instituted
unsuccessful divorce proceedings in 1820 when she refused to surrender her rights as
queen.
Frederick Augustus, Duke of York (1763-1827)
He was commander-in-chief of the Army, 1798-1809, until his removal on account of the
scandal involving his mistress Mary Anne Clarke.
Edward Smith Stanley, twelfth earl of Derby (1752-1834)
Grandson of the eleventh earl (d. 1776); educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge,
he was a Whig MP for Lancashire, a friend of Charles James Fox, nephew of John Burgoyne,
and a committed sportsman.
