I believe in the British Monarchy, but royals like George IV tempt me to change my mind.

George, the oldest son of the infamous King George III, was about as problematic as a Prince of Wales could be. He hung around with all sorts of inappropriate women; he illegally married a Catholic who was older than he was -- and he spent money so freely that, at one point, his debts exceeded £600,000. That's in circa-1800 pounds, too. This was the period of the Napoleonic Wars, and you could have equipped a small army for what Georgie Porgie wasted.

George wanted more money, but his father the King wasn't going to give it to him as long as he wasn't going to produce an heir. (And he couldn't produce a legal heir by his Catholic wife Maria FitzHerbert because, A., she was Catholic, and B., she never did have children. In any case, since the marriage was illegal, any children they had couldn't have inherited.) So, since George needed the money, he basically made an offer to his father: pay me, and I'll marry the first available Protestant German noblewoman available. Who turned out to be Caroline of Brunswick, the daughter of the Duke of Brunswick by George III's sister. (Yes, Caroline, was George Junior's first cousin.)

The problem is, George and Caroline had never seen each other, and she turned out to be a little odd. Not necessarily unattractive -- most reports say she was pretty as a girl, although she was getting a little dumpy as she reached her mid-twenties. But George himself, who was older still, had also gone to pot; he had no right to complain. She was also peculiar -- one suggestion is that she had the porphyria that her uncle George III was also thought to have. I think it far more likely that she had autism (I'm autistic myself, so I can say that without prejudice), but in any case, she wasn't particularly good with people and often was exceptionally blunt. It disconcerted people.

The first time they met, George basically took one look at her and went and got drunk. But the wedding was scheduled for three days later. He got drunk again, went through with it, slept with her for perhaps just one night, managed to get her pregnant, and stopped talking to her. In essence he threw her out of his house. Later he would oppress their daughter Charlotte so much that she -- the #2 in line for the throne behind the by-then-insane George III and Georgie Porgie the Prince Regent -- tried to run away and had to basically be imprisoned to keep her from being allowed to talk to her friends.

I'm tempted to say that that was George's good side. The man was a bully and an incompetent and cruel as well. And Caroline was his innocent victim.

So that's the situation of this biography. The relationship of George and Caroline has been the subject of many books (and might even be, in fact, the source of the rhyme "Georgie Porgie Pudding and Pie," although there are other candidates with better cases). This is neither the oldest nor the newest account -- but it's the most irritating of the four that I've read. For starters, even though it was written as recently as 1980, it seems to assume that husbands and non-reciprocal rights to boss their wives. And, too, it has no sympathy for Caroline's psychological problems. It doesn't matter whether they were porphyria or autism or something else; Caroline had shown up in England wanting to be a good wife, and George had treated her like a boor and made everything her fault. If he had tried to understand and respect her, all their problems -- the quarrels, the public spats that caused the public to support her and hate him, the failure to have another heir or even to find a good friend -- could surely have been overcome, or at least reduced. And author Holme should have understood that Caroline deserves sympathy and support, not fault-finding.

Bottom line: There is just too much "Blame Caroline" in this book. I don't think it represents the actual situation. And even if I'm wrong and it is entirely factual, there are no lessons to be learned from it except "Don't be like George IV." Please, please don't be like George IV. ( )