The Creevey Papers
Thomas Creevey to Eleanor Creevey, 20 July 1811
“20th July, 1811.
“. . . Prinny’s attachment to the present Ministers, his
supporting their Bank Note Bill, and his dining with them, must give them all
hopes of being continued, as I have no doubt they will. . . . The folly and
villainy of this Prinny is certainly beyond anything. I
was forcibly struck with this as I passed Perceval’s* kitchen just now, and saw four man cooks and
twice as many maids preparing dinner for the Prince of Wales and
Regent—he whose wife Perceval set up against him in
open battle—who, at the age of 50, could not be trusted by the sd.
Perceval with the
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| 146 | THE CREEVEY PAPERS | [Ch. VII. |
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unrestrained government of these realms during his
father’s incapacity—he who, on his last birthday at Brighton,
declared to his numerous guests that it was his glory to have bred up his
daughter in the principles of
Mr. Fox—he who, in this very
year, declared by letter to the said Mr. Perceval, and
afterwards had the letter published as an apology for his conduct, that he took
him as his father’s Minister, but that his own heart was in another
quarter—by God! this is too much. We shall see whether he does dine there
or not, or whether he will send word at 5, as he did to poor Kinnaird, that he can’t come. I have been
walking with Kinnaird, and this excuse that came too late
from Prinny, the Duke of
York and the Duke of
Clarence has evidently made a deep impression upon his
lordship’s mind against the Bank Note Bill, and everything else in which
the Regent takes a part.”
John Bellingham (1770-1812)
The bankrupt tradesman who assassinated the prime minister Spencer Perceval in the House
of Commons 11 May 1812; unrepentant, he was tried and executed within a week. Byron
witnessed his execution.
Princess Charlotte Augusta (1796-1817)
The only child of George IV; she married Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg in 1816 and died
in childbirth the following year.
Charles James Fox (1749-1806)
Whig statesman and the leader of the Whig opposition in Parliament after his falling-out
with Edmund Burke.
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.
Charles Kinnaird, eighth baron Kinnaird (1780-1826)
The son of George Kinnaird, seventh baron Kinnaird; he was Whig MP for Leominster
(1802-05) before he succeeded to the title. He was the elder brother of Byron's friend,
Douglas Kinnaird.
Spencer Perceval (1762-1812)
English statesman; chancellor of the exchequer (1807), succeeded the Duke of Portland as
prime minister (1809); he was assassinated in the House of Commons.
