Chapter 1

Lord George Gainsborough, 5th Earl of Poole, 26 June, 1830

Frederick William Augustus of Saxe-Coburg Saalfeld, Duke of Edinburgh was born to Princess Charlotte of Wales and Prince Leopold on the inauspicious date of Fifth November, 1817. Tragically, the boy’s mother died two days thereafter, and his care became subject to a bitter dispute between his father and grandfather, then the Prince Regent. Upon obtaining the throne in his own right, King George IV took charge of the boy, taking him to live at Windsor with him. He given into the care of a nursemaid by the name of Twygg, who had rather odd ideas about education, and his early life consisted of a mixture of her instruction and the malign influences of his royal grandfather. As His Majesty declined, however, the Cabinet was able to persuade him to set up a school, directed by Twygg, at which the Prince would be educated with a number of similarly aged youths of noble birth, whom it was hoped would have a positive influence on the boy. Because Twygg believed that frequent sea-baths were conducive to good health, the school was set up near His Majesty’s rather garish Pavilion at Brighton, and built in a similar style. I was despatched there together with the Archbishop of Canterbury upon the death of King George IV to retrieve the new King.