The Grand Signior Retiring
This print shows the frail and pathetic Earl of Jersey opening the door and lighting the way to his wife's bed for the enormous and commanding Prince of Wales who tells the hapless husband (in French) that he can now, in effect, "get lost."
©National Portrait Gallery, London
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The Earl and the Countess of Jersey lived at Carlton House, the Prince's residence, while the earl's wife served as one of Princess Caroline's Ladies of the Bedchamber. The faithless Prince of Wales had designed her for that position even before Princess Caroline of Brunswick arrived for the arranged wedding with the Prince. So it is not a huge exaggeration to portray the Prince walking out of his own room (indicated by the plumed heraldic crest of his title) and into the bedroom of his favorite mistress, Lady Jersey, (indicated by the "Map of the Road into the Harbour of Jersey" on the door).
The print appeared May 25th, 1796, one day after The Jersey Smuggler Detected which also featured the adulterous relationship of the Prince and Lady Jersey. In that print, the focus had been on Caroline, the Prince's abused wife. Here the focus shifts to Lady Jersey's humiliated husband and the shabby treatment he is receiving from the imperious prince.
From December 1785, George, the Prince of Wales, had been not so secretly wedded to the Catholic widow Mrs. Maria Fitzherbert. But since the Royal Marriages Act (1772) refused to recognize marriages not approved by the King, the nuptials with Mrs. Fitzherbert were (from the British point of view) invalid. In fact, that alone made it possible for the Prince to marry Caroline of Brunswick and retain the right to succeed his father as King. So at the time of this print, the Prince indeed had a harem of sorts: two wives and a mistress, not unlike the harems the Ottoman Grand Signiors.
The quickly declining reputation of the Countess of Jersey can be seen in the difference between her portrayal in the two Gillray prints. She is visibly older and uglier here. And in subsequent Gillray prints, it only gets worse.
Sources and Reading
- Commentary from the British Museum on The Grand Signior Retiring
- "George IV of the United Kingdom," Wikipedia
- Frances Villiers, Countess of Jersey, Wikipedia
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