The Loveless Marriage

Author’s NoteKing George IV was one of the most interesting and at the same time most controversial Monarchs England has ever had. While his enemies, especially those who had supported the Queen, decried him and did everything they could to oppose him, but his charm, his good taste and his strong personality eventually won over the country. There were, however, undoubtedly episodes in his reign that were extremely unpleasant. One part of the British Isles that was always antagonistic to everything that the English did was Scotland. The Scots had never forgotten the appalling cruelty after the Battle of Culloden of the Duke of Cumberland and his troops. The Scots had recently suffered the Highland Clearances, when families who had lived for years on the same land were evicted, had their houses burnt down and many were sent across the seas to Canada. The Scotsmen, with their own historic feuds between the Clans, had long memories like elephants and they never forgot. In August 1822 the King decided to go to Edinburgh and it was the first visit of a British Monarch to Scotland for nearly two hundred years. Unexpectedly the visit was an enormous success, due mainly to Sir Walter Scott, who was called upon to be the Master of Ceremonies. He had already created a romantic atmosphere for Scotland by his novels and his poems. To entertain the King he produced Plaided Panorama, in which he made Edinburgh a stage for one of the most amazing and exciting parades of Scots, Highlanders and the Clans that had ever been seen. The Highland Regiments had already greatly distinguished themselves under the Duke of Wellington and fought brilliantly against Napoleon especially at the Battle of Waterloo. But the English had still to understand and to appreciate how much they had suffered. It was this visit by the King which changed the feelings of the Scots towards the English and of the English towards the Scots. His delightful good manners that had made him ‘The First Gentleman of Europe’, were exceeded only by the surprise he gave Scotland when he appeared in a kilt, plaid and bonnet. The number of people he met while he was in Edinburgh and the enthusiasm with which he was received by the crowds was something that Scotland would remember for a very long time. It did much to bridge the huge gulf, which before the King’s visit had divided the North of the British Isles from the South.