Twenty years ago, as part of the larger NYPL exhibition "The Collecting Adventure, 1895-1995," then-Pforzheimer Collection Curator Stephen Wagner displayed some choice materials on England's Queen Caroline (1768-1821) and the Romantic poets' reactions to her controversial 1820 trial for adultery. Set up in the Salomon Room of what is now the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, the exhibition opened on September 30, 1995 and was to be up until the following February. Unfortunately, a massive ceiling leak forced the exhibit to close after only two days; it did not reopen.

Here I digitally present Stephen Wagner's exhibit (in the first of two blog posts), with some additions and alterations:

Sex, Lies, and Poetry: Royal Scandal

In the 1920s, when Carl Pforzheimer began putting together what would grow into the Shelley and His Circle collection, he did not wish simply to amass a roomful of "treasures" or literary highlights. From the outset, his intention was to document not only the private and creative lives of a small, closely connected group of writers, but also the social and intellectual milieu from which they sprang. Nothing illustrates his approach to collecting better than this aggregation of material generated by the Queen Caroline affair of 1820.

When the dissolute, spendthrift son of George III—referred to by his detractors as the "Prince of W[h]ales"—ascended the throne, he wished to rid himself of his wife, Caroline, from whom he had long been estranged, and instituted divorce proceedings against her in the House of Lords. The "trial" lasted for eleven weeks during the summer and autumn of 1820.

The grounds were adultery—potentially a capital offense when royalty was involved—and the correspondent was an Italian named Bartolomeo Bergami, Caroline's former courier and bodyguard, whom she had given the title of Baron. The testimony against her, drawn mostly from government spies and suborned servants, was collected and placed in the famous "green bag," the customary container for evidence.

The first witness for the prosecution was a surprise to the Queen: her former manservant, an Italian named Theodore Majocchi. When he was called to the stand, Caroline was so shocked that she let out a cry (heard by some as "Teodoro!" and others as "Traditore!") and stumbled out of the court. Majocchi provided damning testimony of inappropriate behavior between Caroline and Bergami (including bathing together, and sleeping in the same tent while on the road). Upon cross examination, however, Majocchi's answer to many of the defense attorney's questions was an improbable "Non mi ricordo" (I do not remember), which caused outbursts of laughter in the courtroom. His credibility as a witness was severely compromised.

The King was extremely unpopular, and his heavy-handed treatment of his wife—whatever the merits of his case against her—generated such an outpouring of sympathy for the Queen's cause that the regime itself was threatened. The liberal and radical opposition naturally sought to capitalize on the issue, and hundreds of pamphlets and broadsides quickly appeared, including several with cartoons by the brothers Robert and George Cruikshank, the most famous illustrators of the day.

After the trial, a bill to end the marriage and strip the Queen of her title failed in Parliament. She was not acquitted of the charges against her, but she maintained the right to be Caroline, Queen Consort of George IV.

Any sweetness in victory did not last. Months later, when the Queen showed up to attend her husband's coronation celebration, she was turned away for not having a ticket—a humiliation compounded by the jeers and hisses of the crowd. Less than two weeks later, after a brief put painful illness apparently caused by intestinal blockage, she died.

At the end of her funeral procession, mourning supporters placed an inscription on her coffin: "Caroline, the Injured Queen of England."

Part two of this two-part post will explore reactions to the Queen's trial in letters and poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron, and Leigh Hunt.