A Prince, a Lord and a Maid of Honour, Part II
In 1732, writes Robert Halsband, ‘a young Lady lately much talk’d on among the polite Part of the World’ was safely delivered of the Prince’s son.
By January 1732 the Prince of Wales’s liaison with Anne Vane was so secure that at Court she was, in everything except name, his maîtresse en titre. By appointment she was still Maid of Honour to Queen Caroline.
At the end of January Miss Vane asked the Queen for a leave of absence from her duties as Maid of Honour; and the Queen, knowing that she was being kept by the Prince, sent word that she might go for good.
The Prince then installed her in a house in Soho Square, furnished it with fine silver and furniture, and presented her with £1,600 a year. There was good reason for her to give up her Court appointment - which in theory could be occupied only by a virgin - and for the Prince to subsidize her domestic life so generously.
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