extension of the order of the Bath. It now became apparent that the duke might possibly succeed to the throne of England. He accordingly married at Strelitz on 29 May 1815 his cousin, Frederica Caroline Sophia Alexandrina, daughter of the Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and widow of Prince Frederick of Prussia and of Prince Frederick of Solms-Braunfels. This marriage, solemnised according to the rites of the English church on 29 Aug. 1815 at Carlton House, received the consent of the prince regent, but was most obnoxious to Queen Charlotte, who until the end of her life absolutely refused to receive the Duchess of Cumberland. It was not popular among the English people, who were prejudiced against the duke, and even the tory House of Commons refused to grant him the increase in his income, from 18,000l. to 24,000l. a year, which was subsequently granted to the Dukes of Clarence, Kent, and Cambridge.
The accession of the prince regent as George IV greatly increased Cumberland's power. His influence over the king was only rivalled by that of the Marchioness of Conyngham, and Greville's ‘Journals’ show how that influence was consistently maintained. The duke had the power of a strong mind over a weak one, and this influence, always exercised in the tory interest, caused him to be absolutely loathed by the radical journalists. Yet he sought no wealth or honour for himself, and the only appointment he received was in January 1827, the colonelcy of the royal horse guards (the blues). The death of the Princess Charlotte, and then that of the Duke of York, brought him nearer to the throne, and his policy was closely watched. He opposed the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts with vigour, and when the Catholic Emancipation Bill was introduced into the House of Lords he said: ‘I will act as I believe my sainted father would wish me to act, and that is to oppose to the utmost the dangerous measure, and to withdraw all confidence from the dangerous men who are forcing it through parliament.’
The accession of William IV put an end to Cumberland's influence on English politics. One of the first measures of the new reign was the placing of the royal horse guards under the authority of the commander-in-chief of the army. This measure was contrary to old precedent. Cumberland regarded it as a personal insult to himself, and at once resigned the colonelcy of the blues. He continued to attend regularly in the House of Lords, and energetically opposed the Reform Bill of 1832, the Municipal Corporations Reform Bill, and the new poor law. This conduct made the duke still more obnoxious to the radical press and to the whig statesmen, and in 1832 a pamphleteer named Joseph Phillips published the statement that ‘the general opinion was that his royal highness had been the murderer of his servant Sellis.’ The duke prosecuted the pamphleteer, who was immediately found guilty by the jury without retiring, and sentenced to six months' imprisonment. Lord Brougham in the House of Lords went nearly as far, and deliberately called him to his face ‘the illustrious duke—illustrious only by courtesy.’ William IV did not hesitate to insult his brother also, and in 1833, full of reforming ardour, he granted a liberal constitution to his Hanoverian dominions, which was drawn up by Professor Dahlmann. This constitution was submitted by the king to his brothers, the Duke of Sussex and the Duke of Cambridge, who was governing Hanover as viceroy, but it was not even laid before Cumberland, the heir presumptive to the throne of Hanover. A further accusation was made openly in the House of Commons. The duke had been since 1817 grand master of the Irish Orangemen, and he was accused of making use of this position to pose as the defender of protestantism, and to tamper with the loyalty of the army. These accusations were only set at rest by the duke's categorical denial, and by the assistance he rendered in suppressing the whole of the Orange societies at the request of the government.
Upon the accession of Queen Victoria to the throne of England, the duke, under the regulations of the Salic law, succeeded to the German dominions of his family as King Ernest I of Hanover. He first took the oath of allegiance to the queen as an English peer, and then started for Hanover, where he took over the administration of his new kingdom from the Duke of Cambridge, who had acted as viceroy during the two preceding reigns. He at once cancelled the constitution, which had been granted by William IV, and assumed absolute power, a proceeding which drew down upon him the hatred of the liberal parties, both in England and in Hanover. The Hanoverian radicals conspired against him and projected open rebellion, and in the English House of Commons Colonel Perronet Thompson proposed that he should be deprived of his right to succeed to the throne if Queen Victoria should die. The fact that he was the next heir to the throne was the reason which urged the whig cabinet to hurry on the queen's marriage; and King Ernest, who had commenced his reign by quarrelling with the queen about the Hanover crown
