The Shadow of Great Britain

Chapter 1786: Chapter 96: Even an Upright Official Finds Family Matters Hard to Judge (Part 2)

"Oh..." Arthur, hiding at the corridor’s corner to eavesdrop, couldn’t help but raise his hand to cover his face. He muttered, "Does the Duchess really have to disclose everything? She’s even mentioned the second Sophia... I thought the two of them got along well..."

Miss Flora Hastings heard this and gave him a gentle glare, tugging at his sleeve to signal him to stay silent.

Of course, they both knew what the second Sophia referred to. Here, Sophia was King William IV’s sister, Victoria’s aunt: Princess Sophia.

"Portrait of Princess Sophia" painted by British artist Thomas Lawrence in 1824, is now housed in Windsor Castle, Berkshire, UK.

Within the British Royal Family, Princess Sophia is quite an exceptional figure; she rarely appears in public and barely participates in various social activities in London, and remains unmarried to this day.

Logically, a British Princess should be a hot commodity in the marriage market, yet Princess Sophia remains unmarried, and there’s naturally a reason for that.

In fact, the Princess herself has always hoped to marry. Like most girls of her time, Princess Sophia longed to have her own family and children, and she had never lacked suitors.

Her father, George III, also doted on his daughters and promised them many times that when they reached the appropriate age, he would personally take them to Hanover to find the most suitable husbands among Germany’s finest young men.

Regrettably, when Sophia was 11 years old, George III began to show symptoms of insanity and never recovered since.

For the British Parliament, the British Government, and Britain’s constitutional system, the madness of this most powerful modern British monarch was absolutely a fantastic thing.

But for Princess Sophia, her father’s madness was the source of her unfortunate life.

After that, the Princess’s mother, Queen Charlotte, George III’s wife, became their guardian.

She was also the obstacle on the daughters’ paths to marriage.

Under Queen Charlotte’s strict supervision, the Princesses lived monastic lives; they were not allowed to interact with people outside the court. Therefore, apart from attendants, guards, or companions, they rarely had contact with men. Their greatest entertainment was listening to their mother read sermon texts or practicing embroidery.

The days were so dull that Princess Sophia even confided in her diary: "I would rather be a kangaroo."

These days lasted until 1811 when their brother George IV became Regent King. Although George IV was poorly regarded among the public, Fleet Street criticized him now and then for his extravagant lifestyle as Regent Prince.

However, George IV’s love for his sisters was exceedingly genuine. As soon as he became Regent King, he raised the marriage allowance for the princess from ten thousand pounds to thirteen thousand pounds and did all he could to support them entering the social circle, hoping to help them realize their wish to marry soon.

Unfortunately, his old mother Queen Charlotte was very angry with her son’s actions. She scolded George IV harshly, and he dared not confront his mother; thus, he had to apologize while cautiously mediating between both sides, trying to help his sisters maintain some independence as much as possible.

This "Royal Family underground battle" lasted until Queen Charlotte’s death in 1818, finally ending.

But by then, it was too late, as Princess Sophia was already 41 years old.

For European Royal Families, marriages capable of producing heirs were the ones deemed valuable. Furthermore, due to royal restrictions, Princess Sophia could not marry commoners or ordinary nobility. Therefore, by this time, her fate of being unable to marry was already sealed.

Nevertheless, she was finally free.

But why did Princess Sophia still seldom appear in social settings?

This leads to a potential royal scandal.

Rumors have long circulated in London about Princess Sophia’s incestuous relationship with her brother, the Duke of Cumberland. Furthermore, during King George IV’s reign, he reportedly warned his sisters not to be in a room alone with the Duke of Cumberland.

But these are ultimately street rumors; whether they’re true or false, perhaps only the parties involved know.

Compared to royal incest, Arthur thinks another piece of news might be more credible.

That is—Princess Sophia has an illegitimate child.

It is said that this is the child of Princess Sophia with Major General Thomas Gath, who is thirty-three years older than her.

As for why Arthur finds this news highly credible, it’s because he got word from Eld.

And Eld’s information came from Charles Grenville, Permanent Secretary of the Privy Council.

Though the Permanent Secretary of the Privy Council does not directly participate in policy-making, primarily responsible for recording and transmitting the King’s orders, Privy Council agendas and resolutions, due to the special nature of the job, he keeps close contact with permanent secretaries of various departments at White Hall, the King’s private secretary, Lord Chamberlain, and other chamberlains.

In other words, this guy often knows more than many Cabinet Ministers.

According to Eld, Charles Grenville was the kind of extremely vain, gossip-loving yet self-proclaimed objective person with a sharp tongue.

If he weren’t of noble descent, Mr. Grenville’s best destiny would certainly be a tabloid reporter.

Since 1821, when he was 27, this gentleman began serving in this position throughout the reigns of George III, George IV, and King William IV; hence, he is almost an expert on royal secrets during this period.

When Eld asked about Princess Sophia, a slightly tipsy Mr. Grenville responded, "Women can fall in love with anything, and the randomness of opportunity and emotion is more important than any specific intellectual or physical merit. Princesses isolated from the world had few opportunities to interact with men. Therefore, their emotions, like a blazing fire, were ready to fall into the hands of the first person able to approach them, not something too unusual."

Although Grenville did not explicitly state who Princess Sophia might have lost her virginity to, based on Eld’s thorough analysis and meticulous research, he concluded that it must be Major General Thomas Gath.

Because one of Eld’s aunt’s close friends once served as Princess Sophia’s maid, and according to that English aunt’s account, "Despite the large purple spot on his face, which makes him look far from handsome, the Princess’s affection for him was so intense that anyone with eyes could see she couldn’t help herself around him."

Generally speaking, Arthur is not too concerned about royal gossip, but Princess Sophia is an exception because Victoria’s old aunt now resides at Kensington Palace... Moreover, she shares a similar habit with the Duchess of Kent, entrusting everything to John Conroy and treating him as a deity.

In fact, Princess Sophia even took 4,000 pounds from her allowance to help Conroy buy a luxurious manor-style villa near Kensington Palace.

Initially, Arthur couldn’t figure out where Conroy acquired such abilities, not only managing the Duchess of Kent but also having Princess Sophia follow his lead.

However, after Eld proved the rumor of Princess Sophia’s illegitimate child to Arthur, he checked a bit through the plainclothes police nearby Kensington Palace and quickly pieced together the truth...