Women's Court and Society Memoirs, Part I

Amy Culley

Part I Editor: Amy Culley Volumes 1-2 [Lady Charlotte Bury], Diary Illustrative of the Times of George the Fourth (1838) As lady-in-waiting to the Princess of Wales (the future Queen Caroline), Lady Charlotte Bury was the intimate observer of a family drama played out on the public stage. Her Diary, published anonymously and covering the period 1810-15, presents a vivid portrait of the circle of the Princess of Wales, describing personalities, conversations, fashions, and royal dinner parties in detail. The tone of the Diary is at once sympathetic and critical, as Bury is keen to defend the Princess from false accusation and yet also keeps a wary distance from her disreputable court. The text also recounts Bury's travels across Europe, which are marked by Napoleon's return from Elba and Bury's reunion with the Princess in Italy. In this collage of journal entries and correspondence, Bury introduces a glittering cast of characters and provides a rare insight into the political machinations that surrounded the disastrous marriage of the Prince and Princess of Wales. Volumes 3-4 Catherine E Cary, Memoirs of Miss C E Cary (1825) Catherine Cary's unlikely narrative draws on the conventions of both Gothic fiction and the roman-a-clef. Allegedly the daughter of a Duke, Cary recounts the mysteries of her birth and presents a melodramatic account of her life that is characterized by pursuits and flights, disguises and mistaken identities, secret documents, attempted seductions, debts, and imprisonment. In detailing her connections with the court of Queen Caroline, Cary reveals conspiracies against the royal family and government ministers. She casts herself as the defender of truth and justice, bringing misdeeds to light and refusing to collaborate with the Queen's party, despite apparently being subject to intimidation, imprisonment, bribery, and blackmail by figures such as Alderman Wood and Lady Anne Hamilton. An appendix to the text provides further elaboration of these alleged plots, and it is through these documents that Cary attempts to authenticate her narrative and establish her innocence.