 |
|
|
 | | |  |
Fanny Burney: Royal Servant |
 |
Resignation
This was a time of relief and rejoicing for the court, but for Fanny, life seemed ever more bleak. Mrs Delany, who had been a refuge from Schwelly’s unpleasantness, had died, leaving her acutely aware of her separation from friends and family. 
Windsor as it is today
© Ian Britton, freefoto.com |
She became so ill that even her father urged her to resign, she left the court in July 1791 having served just ten days short of five years. Though she had thought she had a servant for life, Queen Charlotte did not resent her departure and awarded her a pension of £100, half her salary. This pension sustained her in her marriage three years later to a penniless refugee from the French Revolution, Alexandre d’Arblay, and for the rest of her long life. Until her death in 1817, the Queen sought out Madame d’Arblay’s company and Fanny kept the friendship of the princesses, visiting and taking tea with the survivors when they were all old ladies.
After her own death in 1840, an edited version of Fanny’s journals was published and eagerly read, particularly for her years spent at court. Royal service is an ambiguous business: it is one of Fanny’s achievements, and a measure of her humanity, that despite her personal unhappiness she enables us to sympathise with both sides of the mistress/servant divide.
Words: Hester Davenport
Your comments
| |
 Print this page |
|
Archive
Look back into the past using the Legacies' archives. Find nearly 200 tales from around the country in our collection.
Read more > |
| | |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
| The 成人快手 is not responsible for the content of external Web sites. |
| | | |
| | |
| |
|
