As Charles Howard was working his charms on young Henrietta in 1705, far away at the electoral court of Hanover there was another young man thinking of marriage. He was George Augustus, son of George Louis and his unfortunate wife, Sophia Dorothea of Celle. Perhaps because his own marriage to Sophia Dorothea had ended so horribly, George Louis was determined that he wouldn’t impose a bride on his son without letting George Augustus have some say in the matter too.
Dowager Electress Sophia, George I’s formidable and well-connected mother, had long since decided that Princess Caroline of Ansbach would make the ideal wife for her grandson. Following the death of first her father then her mother after a brutal second marriage, Caroline had been raised at the Prussian court by the king and queen, Frederick I of Prussia, and Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, George Louis’ sister. As a friend of Caroline’s late mother, Sophia Charlotte was more than happy to take the orphaned girl into her household and raised her as though she was her own daughter. Princess Caroline was young, well brought up and, crucially, Protestant. She was also intelligent, cultured and entirely unpolitical, or so the Hanoverian contingent believed. History would prove them very wrong on that score.
With his family poised to one day sit on the British throne, George Augustus was one of the most eligible bachelors on the continent, and both he and his father were keenly aware of the fact that the young man would make a tempting prospect indeed for any would-be brides with ambition. For that reason, they came up with a plan to let the couple meet without telling Caroline that George was in fact heir to the electorate of Hanover, not to mention the throne of Great Britain. Only then could they be sure that she wanted George Augustus for the right reasons, rather than financial ones.
Sophia Charlotte of Hanover died in February 1705, plunging the Prussian court into mourning. It was still in mourning for its late queen when George Augustus paid a visit to Triesdorf that summer. He arrived without ceremony and was travelling under the assumed name of Monsieur de Busch, ostensibly to ensure that the 22-year-old Caroline had no idea who he was. Whether she had seen through his subterfuge or not must remain a mystery but as the summer progressed, the young couple fell head over heels for each other. It was a fairy tale romance and when Caroline learned of her suitor’s true identity, she professed to be stunned. By then George Augustus and Caroline of Ansbach were in love, and they were married on 2 September 1705. It sounds like a fairy tale, but we must ask whether Caroline knew who Monsieur de Busch was all along. She very probably did, but it doesn’t make for such a good legend.
All of this was watched with interest by the most ambitious and well-connected English courtiers. It was by now virtually guaranteed that the electoral family was destined to rule Britain when the still childless Queen Anne died, and every courtier wanted to be the new monarch’s favourite when that moment came. Dowager Electress Sophia and George Louis weren’t about to come to England to meet them, so those who sought advancement decided that they should go to Hanover instead. If the streets weren’t quite paved with gold, then at least dreams might come true at the hands of the Hanoverians.
Money and hangers-on poured into Hanover and amongst those who watched with growing interest was the miserable Henrietta Howard. If she could only finance a trip to the continent, she was sure that she would be able to turn her family fortunes around at the electoral court of George Louis. When Henrietta told Charles of her plans, he enthusiastically supported them, though he did nothing to fund the trip. Henrietta sold what few possessions she could still call her own and squirrelled away the money in her travelling fund. How heartbreaking it must have been when Charles stole that meagre travelling fund and gambled it away.
Now the Howards truly had nothing except Henrietta’s little income from her trust fund. Once again she began to hide her money away, living in poverty whilst her errant husband plunged deeper than ever into vice. He had so little care for his wife that she was reduced to trying to sell her own hair to a wigmaker, but when she was offered the derisory sum of eighteen guineas, she resolved to keep it instead. When Henrietta told Charles about the pittance that the wigmaker had offered for her crowning glory, he mocked her reticence and said he was only surprised she had received such a generous offer. Henrietta was thoroughly humiliated, but though life at home might be miserable, her cherished plans to go to Hanover and secure a comfortable future for her little boy gave her something to focus on. Every single penny went into the pot until she had reached her target, but even then, there was something else that was playing on Henrietta’s mind.
Ever since the birth of Henry Howard seven years earlier, the only constant in his life had been his mother. The little boy’s father had been mostly absent, and he had been dragged from slum to slum, sometimes under an assumed name, living in penury and waiting for the next heavy knock at the door. Henrietta’s meagre savings would only pay for two to go to Hanover, and there was no possibility of leaving Charles behind. Whoever she entrusted with the care of Henry is unknown, but it’s likely that she appealed once more to the Howards of Audley End for help. She would certainly have known the little boy would be safe with his paternal family.
Once she had said goodbye to her son, Henrietta packed what few things she still possessed and she and Charles began the journey to Hanover, where George Louis and Melusine sat at the head of the court. Henrietta little knew it at the time, but it was his son with whom she would make the biggest splash.