Autobiography of Miss Cornelia Knight: Lady Companion to the Princess Charlotte of Wales

This two-volume Autobiography by Cornelia Knight (1757-1837) was published in 1861. It was complied by the military historian Sir John Kaye from her journals and a memoir based on them, written late in life and remaining incomplete at her death. Cornelia Knight, the daughter of an admiral, was highly educated: she knew ten languages, was skilled at painting and drawing, and published novels and poetry. In 1813 she was appointed to the household of Princess Charlotte of Wales. In 1814, the Prince Regent dismissed all his daughter’s attendants, and Knight returned to a life of literature and European travel. Volume 1 covers her childhood, time spent in Italy with Sir William and Lady Hamilton and Lord Nelson, her appointment as companion to Princess Charlotte, the princess’s refusal, in 1814, to marry the Prince of Orange, and the subsequent events which led to Knight’s dismissal.