perhaps no chapter in the social history of royalty has given us a more vivid insight into the merry doings of the sovereigns of the past, in our own and other countries, than that which deals with their drinking and revelry. indeed, moralists, at one time or another, have been more or less severe in their strictures on what they regarded as the undue freedom displayed at court festivities, when not infrequently king as well as courtiers were in a state of deplorable incapacity.
the orgies, for instance, in which peter the great revelled were, it is said, as reckless and abandoned as those of his contemporary the regent d’orleans; but probably no one save peter would have employed them to ascertain the hidden thoughts of his courtiers. according to de villebois,[11] he was in the habit of inviting men whom he secretly disliked, in order that he might carefully note down the words which escaped them when drunk, and sometimes even for the purpose of getting rid of them by inducing them to drink themselves to death. the immediate cause of his{38} own death was the aggravation of a loathsome disease, under which he had long been labouring, by a debauch at one of his conclaves—those travesties of the election of a pope which, “amidst the most outrageous drunkenness and the grossest buffoonery, he held yearly, partly in order to keep up the contempt of his subjects for the latin church, and partly also to ridicule the office of patriarch, which he had abolished.”[12] and, similarly, frederick william i. of prussia, who himself was a hard drinker, loved to make his guests drunk; his daughter even states that he did so to her bridegroom, the hereditary prince of bayreuth, on his wedding-day. carlyle has fully described the royal tap-rooms which were established in berlin, at potsdam, and during summer at wusterhausen, as a source of recreation at the court of frederick william i. that at berlin, furnished in the dutch fashion, has been kept unaltered, with the large silver beer can from which the malt liquor was drawn by means of a tap into the jugs and tankards. the visitor is shown, too, the strangers’ book, in which the autographs of frederick the great and the czar peter are preserved.
but perhaps one of the most drunken and dissolute monarchs that ever disgraced a throne was one of peter’s predecessors, ivan iv., of whom it has been said that he was “ever exemplarily devout when he was most stupidly drunk.” his habitual intemperance, however, made him cruel, prompting him to commit all kinds of diabolical crimes—his{39} indulgence in strong drink eventually rendering him hopelessly insane; for what other excuse could be made for his conduct as exemplified in his smiting his own son dead by blows from an iron bar in a fit of fury.
the merits of french wines were long ago appreciated by royalty, and in early times our own wine trade with france was very considerable when english kings were proprietors of the french wine districts. but it would seem that even royalty has cracked legions of bottles in discussing the divers deserts of burgundy and champagne, although it is said imperial authority is in favour of the latter. when the emperor wenceslaus visited france in the fourteenth century to negotiate with charles vi., it was impossible ever to get him sober to a conference. “it was no matter,” he said; “they might decide as they liked, and he would drink as he liked, and then both parties would be on an equality.”
in the midst of the distress with which france was harassed in the reign of charles vii., and while the english were in possession of paris, his majesty amused himself with balls, entertainments, and revelry. the brave la hire, coming to the king one day for the purpose of discussing with him some important business, found him actively occupied in arranging one of his pleasure parties, who asked what he thought of his preparations. “i think, sire,” he said, “that it is impossible for any one to lose his kingdom more pleasantly than your majesty.{40}”
and another french king who brought into more or less contempt the throne was francis i., by giving himself up to his pleasures. it is said that he framed a court of which licentiousness was the custom, and from which justice, temperance, and every christian as well as chivalric virtue was banished.[13]
the king of hungary was in the habit of sending yearly to the abdicated polish king, stanislaus leczinski, at nancy, a little cask of imperial tokay, which was received at the gates of his palace under an escort of grenadiers. but, as it has been observed, “little casks will soon run dry if the spigot be often turned,” and when the tokay was out, stanislaus would sigh for more. he was not able to purchase it, for the produce was small and imperial property. he resolved to imitate it, and after various trials he succeeded, by mixing burgundy with ingredients only known to himself, in composing what he thought might pass for tokay. he kept his secret, and when the annual imperial cask arrived—it contained but a hundred bottles—he made presents of his own tokay to his courtiers, and kept the genuine wine for himself. the lords of the court were “delighted at the favour conferred on them, but when they discovered that his ex-majesty had distributed no less than six hundred bottles, they thought of the readiness of his concocting hand,{41} and laughed at the trick he had played them. the stanislaus tokay was not consumed so quickly as the imported wine, but it rose in value with its years, a single bottle having fetched the exorbitant price of forty-two francs. it was indifferent wine, but an ex-king made it, and the price was paid not merely for the liquor, but for the name of the composer.” but this is only one of the many amusing anecdotes related of stanislaus, who was famed for being the most courteous of hosts, entertaining not only nobles but artists, and philosophers, at his well-laden table. indeed, after his abdication, stanislaus kept a princely establishment, the splendour and cost of which was not infrequently the subject of comment. on one occasion, when he heard that the daughters of louis—adelaide and victoria—had set out from metz to luneville to visit their grandfather, the ex-king ordered magnificent preparations for their reception, which prompted his steward to remark that so much splendour was not needed for his “petites filles”; but stanislaus, with a smile, replied: “mes petites filles sont plus grandes que moi.”
the dissolute and extravagant habits of the court of gustavus iii. of sweden were most severely condemned, and rightly so, for we are told that whilst revelry and pageantry in constantly varying shapes distinguished his effeminate and luxurious court, misery and famine extended themselves rapidly amongst the labouring poor, from one extremity of sweden to another. the groans of the wretched who perished of want, the curses of the degraded paupers who were reduced to seek{42} for such food as the king’s well-fed hounds would have turned from with loathing, produced not the least retrenchment. meanwhile gustavus continued his guilty magnificence, heedless of, and indifferent to, the misery around him; and which, it is said, was greatly aggravated, if not actually caused, by his wasteful magnificence and profligacy. it is not surprising that the excessive taxation necessary to support the king’s expenditure and extravagances found vent in dangerous disturbances.
it would have been well had he taken a lesson from the great christina, who, it is said, occasionally passed days without drinking, detesting wine and beer, and having no special taste for any other liquid, with the exception of rose-water, of which she was extremely fond. oftentimes when young she would repair to the dowager’s toilet-table, and there refresh herself with her favourite cosmetic, until she was one day caught in the act, when “the dowager lady administered to her such a whipping that christina could never think of it, to her latest hour, without a feeling of uneasiness.”
the able ruler of denmark for sixty years, the defender of the reformed religion—christian iv.—was not above enjoying a carouse, and on his visit to this country in 1606 he was invited with his brother-in-law, james i., to a festival at theobalds, the seat of the prime minister cecil, lord salisbury, when it appears that the revels were marked by scenes of intemperance, an amusing account of which has been left by sir john harrington. he tells us that “the sports began each day in such{43} manner and sort as well-nigh persuaded me of mahomet’s paradise. we had women, and indeed wine too, of such plenty as would have astonished each beholder. our feasts were magnificent, and the royal guests did most lovingly embrace each other at table. i think the dane had strangely wrought on our good english nobles, for those whom i could never get to take good liquor now follow the fashion, and wallow in beastly delights. the ladies abandon their sobriety, and are seen to roll about in intoxication. in good sooth, the parliament did kindly to provide his majesty so seasonably with money, for there have been no lack of good living, shows, sights, and banquetings from morn to eve.” from this and similar accounts, the danish and english monarchs seem to have had a good time, and not to have spared the costly liquor put before them, abandoning themselves to unrestrained excess. but some excuse must be made for the royal delinquents on this occasion, when it is remembered that it was a special gala time in honour of the danish sovereign.
charles v., emperor of germany, drank in proportion as he ate, excess in each case having hastened the termination of his failing health. iced beer was one of his favourite drinks, which was often administered as soon as he rose in the morning. when roger ascham saw his majesty on one occasion in germany, on st. andrew’s day, sitting at dinner at the feast of the golden fleece, he writes: “he drank the best that i ever saw. he had his head in the glass five times as long as any{44} of us, and never drank less than a good quart at once of rhenish”—a no mean performance.
but suffering, caused by chalk-stones and gout, did not induce him to moderate his mode of living, and to be more sparing in his tankards of ale and flasks of wine. and, unfortunately, his medical men had not the moral courage to dissuade him from drinking what was daily aggravating his gout, but allowed him to satisfy every appetite by providing palliations. and so he went on in his excesses, till his frame, worn out by disease, sank from exhaustion. it would appear that this monarch’s drinking proclivities were at the time well known in this country, as may be gathered from a return which was made by order on the occasion of his visit to henry viii. the city authorities appear “to have been afraid of being drunk dry by the swarming flemings in the emperor’s train. to avoid such a calamity, a return was made of all the wine to be found at the eleven wine merchants and the twenty-eight principal taverns then in london; the sum total of which was 800 pipes.”
in alluding to henry viii., it may be noted that history has given many anecdotes of the drinking habits of his predecessors on the english throne. thus rapin observes that william i. balanced his faults by “a religious outside, a great chastity, and a commendable temperance, but that his son was neither religious, nor chaste, nor temperate; whilst malmesbury adds that he met with his tragical end in the new forest after he had{45} soothed his cares with a more than usual quantity of wine.”[14]
the tragedy of henry i.’s reign was the loss of the ill-fated white ship with prince william, only one out of its 300 passengers surviving to tell the tale—a poor butcher of rouen, named berthould, who climbed to the top of the mast, and was rescued by some fishermen. to quote an oft-told story, king henry and his heir embarked at barfleur for england in separate vessels, when the prince, to make the passage pleasant, not only took with him a number of the young nobility, but ordered three casks of wine to be given to the crew, with the result that the sailors were for the most part intoxicated when they put to sea at nightfall, and allowed the vessel to strike upon a rock. it is recorded that henry was never again seen to smile, although he survived this terrible event fifteen years, having hastened his end by a surfeit of lampreys.
unlike their father henry ii., geoffrey, richard, and john were far from abstemious. according to giraldus, so dissolute and hot was geoffrey in his youth, that “he was equally ensnared by allurements, and driven on to action by stimulants;” whilst one of the metrical romances of the period has left a graphic picture of the royal yuletide revelry at this period, which lasted for twelve days, during which time excess rather than sobriety was the rule. d’aubigné, quoting from matthew paris, declares that john died of drunkenness and{46} fright—a statement endorsed by sir walter scott in his “ivanhoe,” where he writes: “it is well known that his death was occasioned by a surfeit upon peaches and new ale.” an amusing anecdote tells how, when king john made his last visit to nottingham, he called at the mayor’s residence, and at the house of the priest of st. mary’s. but, finding neither ale in the cellar of the one nor bread in the cupboard of the other, he ordered every publican in the town to contribute sixpenny-worth of ale to the mayor yearly, and every baker to provide the priest with a halfpenny loaf weekly.
edward i. found little pleasure in the pleasures of the table; but his successor, edward ii., is said to have given way to intemperance, and it has been suggested that “had not the banqueting-room been oftener employed than the council-chamber, opportunities might not have occurred for the rebellion of favourites, for which the festal board was answerable.” the mad dissipation of henry v. when prince of wales has been immortalised by shakespeare, but, to his credit, the responsibility of the crown made him an altered man, and among his troops at agincourt drunkenness was counted a disgrace. indeed, so impressed was henry with the bane of intemperance that it is said he would gladly have cut down all the vines in france. the last years of edward iv.’s life were spent in luxurious and intemperate habits, which had most fatal effects on his health; and some idea of the lavish expenditure at this period may be gathered from the paston letters, where an account is given of an
[image unavailable.]
edward i.
{47}
intended progress of his majesty, wherein sir john paston is urged to warn william gogney and his fellows “to purvey them of wine enough, for every man beareth me in hand that the town shall be drank dry, as york was when the king was there.”
and coming down to henry viii. again, it appears that he was often intoxicated, and found pleasure in keeping the lowest company. and, as it has been observed, “his right hand, wolsey, was actually put in the stocks by sir amias powlett, when he was rector of lymington, for drunkenness at a neighbouring fair.”
the consort of queen mary soon found out the favourite english drink, and for the first time he drank some ale at a public dinner, remarking that he had come to england to live like an englishman. elizabeth seldom drank anything but common beer, “fearing the use of wine, lest it should cloud her faculties.” and leicester writes to burleigh that at a certain place in her majesty’s travels “there was not one drop of good drink for her, ... he were fain to send forthwith to london, and to kenilworth, and divers other places where ale was; her own ale was so strong as there was no man able to drink it.” but, abstemious and temperate as her majesty was, exception has been taken to the costly extravagance displayed at the kenilworth pageant, when, it is stated, no less than 365 hogsheads of beer were drunk, in addition to the daily complement of 16 hogsheads of wine.
james i. was fond of drink, and reference has{48} already been made to the visit of his jovial brother-in-law, which led to one more scene of inebriety. his partiality was for “sweet rich wines,” and coke tells us that he indulged “not in ordinary french and spanish wines, but in strong greek wines.” even when hunting he was attended by a special officer, who constantly supplied him with his favourite beverages. on one such occasion coke’s father managed to obtain a draught of the royal wine, which, writes his son, “not only produced intoxication, and spoiled his day’s sport, but disordered him for three days afterwards.”[15] it is said, however, that james would next day remember his excesses, “and repent with tears;” and as mr. jesse adds, “the maudlin monarch weeping over the recollections of the last night’s debauch must have been an edifying sight to his courtiers.”
whatever the failings of charles i. might be, he could not be accused of that indulgence in strong drinks which had caused so much scandal in previous reigns. thus lord clarendon writes: “as he excelled in all other virtues, so in temperance he was so strict, that he abhorred all debauchery to that degree, that at a great festival solemnity where he once was, being told by one who withdrew from thence, what vast draughts of wine they drank, and that there was one earl who had drunk most of the rest down and was not himself moved or altered, the king said that he deserved to be hanged; and that earl coming shortly after into the{49} room where his majesty was, in some gaiety, to show how unhurt he was from that battle, the king sent one to bid him withdraw from his majesty’s presence; nor did he in some days after appear before him.”
but the same could not be said of charles ii., concerning whose revels many curious anecdotes have been told. at a supper given by the duke of buckingham he tried to make his nephew, the prince of orange, drunk. the prince was somewhat averse to wine, and at the period in question was paying his addresses to his future consort, the princess mary. however, having been induced to join in the evening’s debauch, he became the gayest and most frolicsome of the party. on their breaking up, the prince even commenced smashing the windows of the maids-of-honour, and “would have forced himself into their rooms had he not been timely prevented.”[16]
an account of one of charles’s debauches after a hunting party in 1667 is amusingly told by pepys,[17] who heard it from sir hugh cholmely, an eye-witness. “they came,” he says, “to sir g. carteret’s house at cranbourne, and there were entertained, and all made drunk; and being all drunk, armerer did come to the king and swear to him: ‘by g—, sir,’ says he, ‘you are not so kind to the duke of york of late as you used to be.’ ‘not i?’ says the king; ‘why not?’ ‘why,’ says he, ‘if you are, let us drink his health.’ ‘why,{50} let us,’ says the king. then he (armerer) fell on his knees and drank it; and having done, the king began to drink it. ‘nay, sir,’ says armerer, ‘by g—, you must do it on your knees.’ so he did, and then all the company: and having done it, all fell a-crying for joy, being all maudlin and kissing one another; the king the duke of york, and the duke of york the king, and in such a maudlin pickle as never people were.”
on another occasion charles was dining with sir robert viner, during his mayoralty, when he rose to depart. the good mayor, however, had indulged rather too freely in his own wines, and taking hold of the king, he swore that he should remain and have another bottle. charles, it is said, “looked kindly at him over the shoulder, and repeating with a smile a line of the old song—
‘he that’s drunk is as great as a king’—
remained as long as he wished.”[18]
and it is worthy of record that when ford erected waterworks on the thames in front of somerset house, the queen of charles ii.—after the manner of the princess borghese, who pulled down a church next to her palace because the incense made her feel sick and the organ produced headache—ordered the works to be demolished since they obstructed a clear view on the river. it may be mentioned, too, that at this period tea as a beverage was in favour at the court of charles{51} ii. owing to queen catherine, who had been used to drink it in portugal.
james ii., on the other hand, was most averse to hard drinking, and a contemporary writes how “the king, going to mass, told his attendants he had been informed that since his declaring against the disorder of the household, some had the impudence to appear drunk in the queen’s presence; ... but he advised them at their peril to observe his order, which he would see obeyed.”
the drinking habits of william iii. are well known, and the banqueting-house at hampton court, which was used by him as a smoking and drinking room, has been described as a royal gin-temple. among his drinking companions were lord wharton and the earl of pembroke. in one of his moments of hilarity he said to the former: “i know, tom, what you wish for: you wish for a republic. i shall bring over king james’s son.” to which lord wharton replied, “that is as your majesty pleases.” william, having been warned that the earl of pembroke was quarrelsome over his cups, said, “i will defy any one to quarrel with me, as long as i can make the bottle go round.” but the king was mistaken, for that night pembroke used language personally offensive to him, and was carried drunk from the apartment to bed. the next morning, alarmed at his conduct, he hastened to the palace to ask forgiveness.
“make no apologies,” replied the king. “i was told you had no fault in the world but one, and i am{52} glad to find it is true, for i dislike people who have no faults.”[19]
the scandal of the time, too, accused the queen of fondness for drink, but it is certain that her physicians warned her against a strong spiritual cordial which, when ill, she was in the habit of taking in large quantities.
one of the failings laid to the charge of queen anne was a love of strong drink; but, as it has been remarked, “the supposition that she was in the habit of having secret recourse to the bottle, as affording the means of adventitious excitement, seems to rest on the widespread scandal of the period and a few contemporary lampoons.” in some verses, “on queen anne’s statue in st. paul’s churchyard,” this allusion is made:—
“here mighty anna’s statue placed we find,
betwixt the darling passions of her mind;
a brandy-shop before, a church behind.
but why the back turned to that sacred place,
as thy unhappy father’s was—to grace?
why here, like tantalus, in torments placed,
to view those waters which thou canst not taste;
though, by thy proffered globe, we may perceive,
that for a dram thou the whole world wouldst give.”[20]
and again:—
“when brandy nan became our queen,
’twas all a drunken story;
from noon to night i drank and smoked,
and so was thought a tory.{53}
brimful of wine, all sober folk
we damned, and moderation;
and for right nantes we pawned to france
our goods and reputation.”[21]
but the duchess of marlborough, despite her hostility to the queen’s memory, defends her character from this aspersion: “i know,” says she, “that in some libels she has been reproached as one who indulged herself in drinking strong liquors, but i believe this was utterly groundless, and that she never went beyond such a quantity of strong wines as her physicians judged to be necessary for her.”
coming to the hanoverian period, if george ii. reflected little dignity on the throne, he is said to have been over his punch a cheerful and sometimes an amusing companion. despite his inordinate love of women, he was always temperate, whereby, says lord waldegrave, he was preserved from many of the infirmities of old age. george iii., too, was most abstemious, and a story is told that, on his visit to worcester in 1788, the mayor, knowing that his majesty never took drink before dinner, asked him if he would be pleased to take a jelly; whereupon the king replied, “i do not recollect drinking a glass of wine before dinner in my life, yet upon this pleasing occasion i will venture.” a glass of rich old mountain was served, when his majesty immediately drank “prosperity to the corporation and citizens of worcester.” that the king continued to adhere to his rigid habit may be illustrated{54} by an incident which happened twelve years afterwards. one morning, when visiting his stables, he heard this conversation between the grooms: “i don’t care what you say, robert, but every one agrees that the man at the three tuns makes the best purl in windsor.”
“purl, purl!” said the king promptly. “robert, what’s purl?” which on his majesty being informed was warm beer with a glass of gin, caused him to add, “i daresay, very good drink, but too strong for the morning; never drink in the morning.”
but george iv. was the opposite of his predecessor, for intemperance, as it has been said, was a feature of his moral career, a proclivity which huish informs us very nearly cost him dear while yet a youth.[22] at a dinner-party at lord chesterfield’s house at blackheath, the guests drank to excess and engaged in riotous frolic. one of the company “let loose a big fierce dog, which at once flew at a footman, tore one of his arms terribly, and nearly strangled a horse. the whole party now formed themselves into a compact body and assailed towzer, who had just caught hold of the skirts of the coat of his royal highness, when one of the guests felled the dog to the ground. in the confusion the earl of chesterfield tumbled down the steps leading to his house, and severely injured the back of his head. the prince, who scarcely knew whether he had been fighting a dog or a man, jumped into his phaeton and there fell asleep, leaving the reins to his uncle, the duke of cumberland, who drove him safely to town.”
one of the strangest acts of his life was his conduct upon the arrival of his bride-elect, caroline of brunswick, which lord malmesbury thus tells: “i introduced the princess caroline to him. she very properly attempted to kneel to him. he raised her (gracefully enough) and embraced her, said barely one word, turned round, retired to a distant part of the apartment, and calling me to him, said, ‘harris, i am not well; pray get me a glass of brandy.’ i said, ‘sir, had you not better have a glass of water?’ upon which he, much out of humour, said with an oath: ‘no; i will go directly to the queen.’” no wonder the princess remarked to malmesbury, “mon dieu, est-ce que le prince est toujours comme cela?” according to lord holland, on his wedding-day the prince had drunk so much brandy that he could scarcely be kept upright between two dukes.
another bacchanalian story is associated with the pavilion at brighton. it seems that the duke of norfolk—now a very old man, and celebrated for his table exploits—had been invited by the prince to dine at the pavilion, who had concocted with his royal brothers a scheme for making the old man drunk. every person at table was enjoined to drink wine with the duke—a challenge which the old toper did not refuse. but “he soon began to see that there was a conspiracy against him; he drank glass for glass; he{56} overthrew many of the brave. at last the first gentleman of the empire proposed bumpers in brandy. one of the royal brothers filled a glass for the duke. he stood up and tossed off the drink. ‘now,’ said he, ‘i will have my carriage and go home.’ the prince urged him to remain, but he said ‘no,’ for he had had enough of such hospitality.” the carriage was called, and he staggered in as best as he could, and bade the postillions drive to arundel. they drove him for half-an-hour round and round the pavilion lawn; the poor old man fancied he was going home: the liquor had proved too potent for him. and when he awoke that morning he was in bed at the pavilion.
the king’s successor, william iv., was a strong advocate for temperance, although he enjoyed his wine and entered heartily into the merriment of the social board. it is related how, on the death of the keeper of bushey park, william, then duke of clarence, appointed the keeper’s son to succeed him. this young man broke his leg, a circumstance which elicited the practical sympathy of the duke. but on his recovery the young man took to drinking, to check which propensity the duke required his attendance every night at eight, when, if he appeared the worse for drink, he reprimanded him the following morning. the prince’s efforts were fruitless, for the keeper died of intemperance soon afterwards.