The Fortune Hunter: A German Prince in Regency England

The two decades after Waterloo marked the great age of foreign fortune hunters in England. Each year brought a new influx of impecunious Continental noblemen to the worlds richest country, and the more brides they carried off, the more alarmed society became. The most colourful of these men was Prince Hermann von Pckler-Muskau (1785-1871), remembered today as Germanys finest landscape gardener. In the mid-1820s, however, his efforts to turn his estate into a magnificent park came close to bankrupting him. To save his legacy his wife Lucie devised an unusual plan: they would divorce so that Pckler could marry an heiress who would finance further landscaping and, after a decent interval, be cajoled into accepting Lucies continued residence. In September 1826, his marriage dissolved, Pckler set off for London.