page_title: Pains and Penalties Bill 1820
section_title: Trial
hierarchical_section_title: Pains and Penalties Bill 1820 / Trial
caption_attribution_description: English: "Installation of a Knight Companion of the Bath" In this cartoon, Caroline, Princess of Wales and Bartolomeo Pergami, her head servant, share a bath. Caroline is showered by a spray from Pergami's crotch.
context_page_description: The Pains and Penalties Bill 1820 was a bill introduced to the British Parliament in 1820, at the request of King George IV, which aimed to dissolve his marriage to Caroline of Brunswick, and deprive her of the title of Queen of Great Britain and Ireland.
  George and Caroline had married in 1795, when George was still Prince of Wales. After the birth of their only child, Princess Charlotte of Wales, they separated. Caroline eventually went to live abroad, where she appointed Bartolomeo Pergami to her household as a courier. He eventually rose to become the head servant of her household, and it was widely rumoured that they were lovers.
  In 1820, George ascended the throne and Caroline travelled to London to assert her rights as queen consort of Great Britain and Ireland. George despised her and was adamant that he wanted a divorce. Under English law, however, divorce was not then possible unless one of the parties was guilty of adultery. As neither he nor Caroline would admit to adultery, George had a bill introduced to Parliament, which if passed would declare Caroline to have committed adultery and grant the King a divorce.
context_section_description: On 17 August 1820, the trial opened. Amid a large military presence, crowds gathered to watch the peers and the Queen attend Parliament. Once in their chamber, the Lords began the bill's second reading (the first reading was a formality). Lord Chancellor Lord Eldon, acting as the Speaker of the House, noted the absence of several peers, notably Lords Byron and Erskine, because they were either abroad or too elderly to attend. Caroline's brother-in-law, Prince Augustus, Duke of Sussex, asked to be excused from participating on the grounds of consanguinity. His request was granted, though his brother, Prince Frederick, Duke of York, announced that he would continue to attend.
  The first motion was moved by the Duke of Leinster, to the effect that the bill be dismissed. It was an initial test of the government's strength that would gauge support for the King. The motion was lost by 206–41. During the first day and the next, opening speeches by Caroline's defence team, Henry Brougham and Thomas Denman, were well received. In their speeches, Brougham and Denman hinted but did not state explicitly, referring only to "recrimination", that George could come off worse because of the bill if his own infidelities (such as his secret marriage to Maria Fitzherbert) were revealed in the course of the debate. In private, the Queen also turned the tables on the King by saying she "never committed adultery but once, and that was with Mrs Fitzherbert's husband".
  The prosecution case, led by the Attorney General for England and Wales Sir Robert Gifford, began on Saturday 19 August. The Queen did not attend. Gifford claimed that Caroline and Pergami had lived as lovers for five years from November 1814. He asserted that they shared a bedroom, were seen in each other's presence arm-in-arm, and were heard kissing. The Queen, he stated, changed clothes in front of Pergami and ate her meals with him. He said that Pergami was a married man, but although his child, sister, mother and brother lived in the Queen's household, his wife did not. The Sunday newspapers the following morning were filled with the salacious details of Gifford's speech. Gifford resumed his attack on Monday 21 August by recounting further outrageous revelations: Pergami and Caroline had been seen together on a bed in a state of undress; she had sat on Pergami's knee in public; she had taken baths accompanied only by Pergami. High society did not receive the speech well. They were appalled at Caroline's behaviour, but they were more appalled at George's. By forcing the details of Caroline's life into the public arena, George had damaged the monarchy and endangered the political status quo. Leigh Hunt wrote to Percy Bysshe Shelley, "The whole thing will be one of the greatest pushes given to the declining royalty that the age has seen."
  The first witness for the prosecution was an Italian servant, Theodore Majocchi. The prosecution's reliance on Italian witnesses of low birth led to anti-Italian prejudice in Britain. The witnesses had to be protected from angry mobs, and were depicted in popular prints and pamphlets as venal, corrupt and criminal. Street-sellers sold prints alleging that the Italians had accepted bribes to commit perjury. After Gifford's speech on 21 August, Caroline entered the chamber of the House of Lords. Shortly afterwards, Majocchi was called. As he was led in, Caroline rose and advanced towards him, flinging back her veil. She apparently recognised him, exclaimed "Theodore!", and rushed out of the House. Her sudden sensational departure was seen as a "burst of agony" by The Times, but others thought it the mark of a guilty conscience. It led her defence team to advise her against attending in future, unless specifically requested. Indeed, the evidence was so demeaning that the Queen did usually absent herself from the chamber, though she went to the House of Lords. According to Princess Lieven, Caroline passed the time by playing backgammon in a side-room.
caption: In this cartoon, entitled "Installation of a Knight Companion of the Bath", Caroline and Pergami share a bath. Caroline is showered by a spray of bathwater from Pergami's crotch.
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