The Queen Caroline Affair

Encyclopaedia entry on Caroline of Brunswick. Following the Peterloo massacre and the Cato Street conspiracy, the Queen Caroline Affair was the final great political and cultural event of the trilogy that spans the years 1819-1821. It was also the final banner under which both radicals and reformers could unite – until the Reform riots ten years later. The Queen Caroline Affair, as William Hazlitt would later note, became the concern of all sections of society: It was the only question I ever knew that excited a thorough popular feeling. It struck its roots into the heart of the nation; it took possession of every house or cottage in the kingdom; man, woman, and child took part in it, as if it had been their own concern [...]