Original subtitles

[Music]

you

the story of the kings and queens of

England is more surprising than you

might think it's a fine drama a thousand

years of tales of lust and betrayal of

heroism and cruelty of mysteries murders

tragedies and triumphs and it's also

quite unlike the history of other

countries royalty the thing about the

kings and queens of England is that

they're totally different from anywhere

else which probably explains why they're

still in business when almost everywhere

else they've either been given the chalk

or a stopped being regal this program

looks at England's molix from the death

of Queen Anne to the accession of

Victoria well Britain's monarchs

actually and if you look at Europe at

the start of this story in 1714 you'll

see just what I mean

a European king is an absolute ruler

louis xiv peter the great philip v of

spain Frederick William of Prussia all

men of unlimited power it's not like

that in Britain Queen Anne has died

there are no Protestant Stuart's left

the Protestant line to the English

throne now passes through James's

granddaughter Sofia who had married a

German prince with the title of elector

of Hanover and then from her to her son

George Lewis who's inherited that

antiquated title into one quarter of the

Royal coat of arms pops the amazingly

complicated device of a 54 year old

German princeling and when he comes to

England for his coronation he knows

perfectly well that he's not going to be

anything like those other rulers he will

be almost powerless so it really doesn't

matter that he can't speak a word of

English

at the opening of Parliament King George

stood in silence while his words were

read by the Lord Chamberlain the crown

that had belonged to Norman's

French Plantagenet Welsh Tudors and

Scottish Stewart's had now passed to the

German and a virions the new king's son

George Augustus arrived from

Herrenhausen to take his seat in the

House of Lords as Duke of Rothesay heir

to the throne before leaving Germany he

proudly declared I had not a drop of

blood in my veins such is not English

rotc of course is a Scottish dukedom

George Augustus did share one trait with

his father's English subjects a hearty

dislike of King George and for the same

reason 20 years before George became

king of England something very

mysterious had happened to his wife's

best friend the dashing count konigsmark

his wife Princess Sophia Dorothea had

come to detest her husband who spent his

time either engaged in endless European

Wars or enjoying his various mistresses

kernig schmuck tried to help her escape

from Hannover he failed the count simply

disappeared from the face of the earth

actually his body was shoved under the

floorboards of the princess's

dressing-room and the princess was

banished and imprisoned her son George

Augustus never forgave his father in

fact father son detta station would be

the defining mark of the Hanoverian

dynasty they thrived on it

the English weren't too keen on that

sort of behavior either they might have

been more sympathetic if they'd approved

of the two mistresses that George

brought with him but they called them

the Maypole and the elephant and decided

they were simply greedy Germans with

their snouts in the trough and there

were Scottish no woman who thought that

with George lacking support in England

this might be an opportunity to hand the

throne back to the Stuart family and in

particular to James the second son

living in France and known as the

Pretender

the French thought this would be a great

idea Louie the 14th mistress Madame de

Maintenon even presented him with a song

to be sung on his accession it had

originally been written for Louie to

celebrate his recovery from a surgical

procedure on his bottom she translated

it for the man who should she thought be

James the eighth of Scotland and why not

James the third of England

[Music]

say

the song turned out to be a bigger hit

than the man Jacobite rising of 1715 was

a complete flop and after spending a

couple of months wandering around the

Highlands James went home to France

Georgia's throne was safe he spent every

winter in Hannover and left the

government of England to his ministers

his own work was done by a new figure

the Prime Minister a politician acting

as a king substitute the first man to

take on this role was Robert Walpole

since Walpole didn't speak German the

pair of them communicated in schoolboy

Latin King George died a sudden death in

1727 while in Hanover aged 67

[Music]

his son was living in Richmond forbidden

by the old man to take any part in court

life or even to see his own children

when Walpole came with the news of his

father's death george ii appears to have

regarded it as a wind-up zet is one big

lie

but the outcast prince was indeed now

george ii by the grace of God King of

Great Britain France and Ireland

defender of the faith elector of Hanover

duke of brunswick-lüneburg and duke of

Celle when he'd been convinced he came

here to Leicester Square at the time it

was Leicester house where he'd been

running his own court and here he was

attended by the Archbishop of Canterbury

who formally presented him with his

father's will royal wills had once been

the most powerful documents in the world

when William the Conqueror and henry ii

died their wills established who would

rule after them George took his father's

will and instead of opening it shoved it

in his pocket it was never seen again

for the great disappointment of his

father's mistress's jaws a second's wife

Queen Caroline had very firm ideas on

what should happen next and her husband

was quite obedient the result was that

everyone who'd been hoping for their own

promotion in a change government was

disappointed

Walpole remained prime minister he'd

promised her that she would get a

personal grant of hundred thousand

pounds a year double the offer his

opposition came up with and very little

actually changed at all

that included the traditional hostility

between anyone called King George and

his son the son in question was now of

course the son of george ii prince

frederick according to queen caroline

he was the greatest ass the greatest

liar the greatest Canali and the

greatest beast in the whole world

and we hardly wish he was out of it she

would have said it in German George

agreed with the Queen and refused to

allow Frederick to marry princess with a

Mina of Prussia on the entirely sensible

grounds that I did not sing satin

crafting my half at Cox came upon a mad

woman with impulse of plead

Prince Frederick's view of his father

was by contrast quite balanced and

objective he is an obstinate

self-indulgent miserly martinet with an

insatiable sexual appetite obstinate yes

self-indulgent a fair point miserly well

he had slash Frederick's allowance to

make him less of a social rival martinet

well certainly a man of relentless and

determined regular routine and the

sexual appetite we assumed that it is

right for instance he began seriously

lasting after the beautiful young wife

of the count of all modern when he met

her in Hannover in 1735 and he told the

Queen that you mathlab Savannah Morden

for she loves me

the popular view of the king was that he

was a Randy buffoon he seems to been

flattered by the jokes about his sexual

efforts as his father had once done

Frederic ran his own alternative Court

which was far more popular than the

king's king george ii didn't like that

mine got popularity avez makes me sick

but this makes me vomit the pair of them

even patronized rival operatic outfits

the king and his entourage went to see

Handel at the Haymarket Handel had

written George's coronation anthems his

music was grand and glorious altogether

suitable for magnifying the greatness of

a self-important royal personage

[Music]

the Princeton's crowd stayed away they

went instead to the Theatre Royal in

Lincoln's Inn Fields that was where

opera was being transformed into popular

musical theater the biggest hit was the

beggar's opera a vigorous tale of the

criminal classes which lots of people

said was intended as a satire on the

court and war polls government when you

send surely it be cautious and siege

lest the Corps watch has happened it

should be if you mentioned by sublime

did so pets to all the tribe heat cries

that was levelled at me it was all very

entertaining watching royalty playing

out their family quarrels but they were

not quite reduced to the level of

powerless performers King George was a

fighting man like his father head of the

army and very much engaged in the

quarrels between the rulers of

continental Europe Walpole tried hard to

keep him out of wars but in 1739 the

king got his way and England went to war

with Spain this was the start of a

steadily growing involvement in the

power struggle between France Russia and

the Habsburg Empire its culmination for

George came in June 17 43 he found

himself under attack by the French at a

German village called getting on his

horse bolted but George stood in front

of his troops waved his sword and made a

rather ponderous but actually rather

brave little speech now boys now for the

honour of England found behave played

Leon's a French was soon won and so he

became the last English King to lead his

troops in battle it was a fierce fight

and George emerged a bit of a hero but

he didn't rule the country governments

and ministers came and went not because

he wanted them but because Parliament

wanted them in fact George called

himself a prisoner on this Rome in 1745

he played no part in the battles of

Preston pans or Culloden which were far

more important to the throne than the

Battle of getting him after all they

were battles for the throne it's

the cause of King James Stewart the king

who'd fled from William of Orange in

1688 had never been forgotten by the

Scottish Highlanders its supporters

supporters of a Roman Catholic monarchy

were called Jacobites the Latin for

James being jaqobis James's son the

Pretender had tried and failed to take

the throne in 1715 and now thirty years

on he was known as the Old Pretender his

son Charles born in Rome was the young

pretender Bonnie Prince Charlie to his

supporters Charles Casimir was 25 years

old

hail thin romantic and brave and he

decided that George was so unpopular it

would be a doddle to take over he turned

up at his own expense in the Hebrides

and some of the Scottish clans most of

them responded but out of a combination

of loyalty and desperation rather than

conviction

[Applause]

the things went rather well for the

rebels they were enthusiastically

welcomed into Edinburgh and roundly

defeated the government army at Preston

pans the news created a passion of

patriotism when it reached London the

city might have lampooned the court and

sneered at it but this was different

that evening the king was visiting the

theatre the King's Theatre Drury Lane

and the orchestra struck up a tune which

they just got hold of

[Music]

Oh

say

[Music]

the audience loved it

none of them knew that it had been the

old pretenders music or the King of

France's the song it changed sides and

became the national anthem

[Applause]

actually became everyone's anthem at one

time or another Frenchman Germans

Russian Swiss liftin Steiners Swedes

Danes and Americans have all swelled

with patriotic pride - exactly the same

tune but when God saved the king became

London's big hit it was because no one

could see how the King would be saved

any other way

Marshall weighed the best officer in the

government army said that Scotland was

lost and England would fall prey to the

first comer Lord grants third morsel

with me boy boy boy ta take 40 breathe

he sedition husk and like a torrent

rust-free burger US courts to flush for

save

the rebels took Manchester then Darby

London trembled but not as much as the

Klansmen they marched expecting England

to rise in their support and the French

to invade instead they had no support at

all most fundamentally they realized

that the English would never accept a

Roman Catholic King they'd outflanked a

large English army but it was now on

their tail and another was coming up

from London so back they went and the

Klansmen were finally slaughtered in

their thousands at Culloden in April

1746

[Music]

Charles hid out for months in the

Scottish islands hunted through the

mountains by troops and with a price on

his head

but protected by tribal loyalties until

he finally escaped back to France and

the clan culture of the highlands was

systematically and ruthlessly extirpated

clans were dispersed their leaders

imprisoned or executed plaid and

weaponry and bagpipes were banned the

would be Charles the third made a

bizarre secret return to England in 1750

where he converted to Protestantism and

expected this would encourage his

supporters to have more hope they were

more impressed by his degree of

attachment to the bottle not so much the

king over the water as the king under

the table King George was in no danger

now George also found his other great

enemy removed his son Frederick died in

1751 he'd been hit hard in the stomach

by a tennis ball and the resulting

abdominal ulcer burst and killed him

the new heir to the throne was a

twelve-year-old child

Frederick's son George but the great

problems of the kingdom were outside the

Kings grasp his country was now a great

Imperial trading power with huge

involvement in India the East India's

North America and the Mediterranean

so was France

at the same time continental Europe was

constantly boiling over into war and

Hannover was in the middle of that in

1756 the great powers finally locked

horns in a do-or-die struggle that would

girdle the whole world this would become

the Seven Years War it was truly the

first world war Britain fought in the

name of its king but that King now

neither directed policy nor took part in

the battles a new world in fact affairs

were so far out of the Kings control

that when he dismissed ministers he

didn't like they came right back again

so far as the English were concerned

this was just how things ought to be

Englishmen were entitled to Liberty the

despots were on the other side Catholic

France and Austria their whole life

commerce industry and fighting force was

directed by royal tyrants who ruled over

starving and powerless peasants and on

the other side

Protestant Britain whose commerce was

run by men of business whose industry

was directed by free tradesmen whose

army and navy were run by heroes and

manned by proud freemen and whose Court

was the center of society not of

autocratic power and that was how many

of the British really did see it of

course they were also fighting with

despotic Prussia but that was a minor

detail the general perception was that

this was a war of free Britons against

European despots poor George died at the

height of the war in 1760 and it didn't

matter at all

[Music]

his grandson now George the third was 22

years old he had been brought up by his

mother a German princess in her

imitation of the very deferential court

of Hannover he learned the European idea

of what a king should be an enlightened

despot whose power was absolute and was

to be used for the benefit of mankind

this was of course very far from the

English notion of kingship in which the

king was the leading figure in society

but whose power was entirely controlled

by Parliament he immediately set to work

as a bossy quick speaking managerial

King deliberately fogey ish

I have no innovations in my time what

what he read widely he was fascinated by

machinery in agriculture he was a man

delighted by the agricultural and

industrial revolutions and he was

determined to restore the crown to what

he saw as its proper position a position

abandoned in his view by George's one

and two unlike them he'd been born in

England and spoke good English even if

his grasp of grammar was rupee and he

had no old or young pretender to

challenge him at the opening of his

first Parliament he declared born and

educated in this country I glory in the

name of Britain Parliament was

controlled by one party the Whigs

effectively an oligarchy of rich men who

ran the country by a system of bribery

patronage and nepotism George felt that

it was his job to improve matters

and so began the most catastrophic rain

since James the second

if it hadn't been for George the Third's

attempt to turn back the clock the

inhabitants of New York might still be

using British passports and the

inhabitants of Los Angeles and Miami

Spanish ones now there's a thought to

break the power of the wigs he set about

creating what was almost his own

political party a group of MPs known as

the Kings friends he took back the power

of distributing positions and favors

from the government and did it himself

so he soon built up a collection of

political dependents his first objective

was to bring an end to the war he didn't

at all share the anti French views of

the Whig Prime Minister William Pitt it

took a lot of political manipulation but

in 1763 with Pitt removed from power a

peace treaty was signed by this stage

the war had actually been won Pitts

policies had resulted in Britain

becoming the dominant colonial power in

the world

Britain was more or less undisputed

ruler of North America India the

Caribbean and much besides and George

took the credit the glory and tried to

take control end of the Seven Years War

in 1763

the king of england ruled over more of

the world than any man since genghis

khan an empire about five times larger

than Rome of course he wasn't in the

position of an Asiatic tyrant or even

your common or garden European despot

his control would have to be through

Parliament his power was limited to

choosing ministers and even that

wouldn't work if Parliament in the

country wouldn't stomach him as George

kept finding out his solution was to do

all he could to increase his own

influence in Parliament in effect gets

stuck right into political intrigues

since it was illegal to report

parliamentary debates people became very

suspicious of what was going on he spent

huge sums on trying to influence

elections and would even personally go

out canvassing on one occasion for

instance bustling into a Draper's shop

saying the Queen wants a gun wants a

gown announcing who to vote for and

rushing out again

and since George was closely engaged in

politics people naturally blamed him

personally when things went wrong when

Parliament rejected a bill that would

have helped the Spitalfields weavers the

weavers marched off to find the king at

Wimbledon shades of the peasants revolt

George listened to their complaints and

persuaded them to go back home

but when they realized he wasn't going

to help they rioted and he personally

ordered out the troops he said he would

put himself at the head of the army or

do anything else to save his country he

also had a hand in creating the

notorious Stamp Act of 1765 which tried

to make the English colonists in America

pay a tax on paper this was the moment

of which the whole language of politics

began to change one Virginia colonist

declared Caesar had his Brutus Charles

the first his Cromwell may George the

third profit from their example the

Cromwellian revolution of the previous

century had certainly been driven by the

connection between taxation and liberty

the issue now was that the thirteen

English colonies in America had their

own governments run by their own local

oligarchies and raising their own taxes

the idea that they could be taxed by the

oligarchy in London headed by the King

was totally outrageous they would have

no way to influence what was done or

what they had to pay colonists who

supported the government were threatened

by their compatriots some were tarred

and feathered and by the time the Act

came into effect there wasn't a single

person who'd accepted the job of

Commissioner to collect the tax

it had to be repealed

there were similar alarm in England as

in his attempt to control Parliament

George arrested his leading critic there

John Wilkes mobs rioted in the name of

Wilkes and Liberty and threatened the

king Wilkes was released and it was

established that there was a legal right

to report and criticize what happened in

Parliament but by 1770 he had created

the political system he wanted the

political parties had collapsed and he

had a docile Chief Minister Lord North

with a parliamentary majority through

whom he could run things the way he

thought they should be George liked

running things popularly known as farmer

George he took a very close interest in

modern farming methods developing animal

breeds and new crops these were the same

modern farming methods which by

enclosing common lands and creating

large self-contained farms were breaking

up village communities all over England

and creating a new class of half-starved

landless wage labourers bad harvests

didn't help nor did a collapse in trade

the colonists in America were showing

their anger by refusing to import

anything from Britain

Lord North decided the best thing to do

was repeal all the taxes on them except

for a symbolic tax on tea three years

later he arranged another act of

parliament to try to help the East India

Company sell more tea in America and

radicals in Boston retaliated with a

symbolic tea party at which men dressed

as Native Americans dumped the tea in

the harbor

[Applause]

the reaction in England stirred by the

popular press was that the colonists

must be punished

George certainly shared that view blows

must decide whether they are to be

subject to this country or independent

misunderstanding the strength of feeling

and of organisation against them the

government tried to use too little force

and triggered a full-scale rebellion the

rebel colonists proclaimed their

independence in 1776 and with the

backing of a large part of popular

opinion in England George was determined

to fight them and crush them the result

as many less warlike Englishmen had been

warning was disaster for England even

Lord North wanted out but George was in

charge the American Revolutionary War

became a campaign not against unjust

government or English rule but against

the very principle of monarchic

government George's determination to be

active in government and place himself

at the heart of politics created a new

Republican movement a language in which

to attack the rule of Kings the Peace of

Versailles in 1783 forced Britain to

recognize the United States of America

six years later their host at Versailles

Louis the sixteenth of France was

himself called on by revolutionary crowd

who carried him off and set up their own

republic the process of destroying

monarchy was underway did George

understand what he'd done

he certainly fretted about the American

disaster and perhaps it was his own

sense of failure that made him display

signs of mental disturbance in 1788

talking incessantly and behaving oddly

his doctor thought making him bleed

would help when that failed the Prince

of Wales took over the treatment the

Prince of Wales was 26 years old a

dashing if rather fat man about town and

in the grand tradition of their

Hanoverian ancestors King George and his

son hated each other the prince lived in

the house bought for his mother the Duke

of Buckingham magnificent home near San

changes Park it was still called

Buckingham house he liked it so much he

eventually built a rather dull Palace

surrounded when he came of age he'd set

up his home in Clarence house taken his

seat in the House of Lords and set about

being a thorn in daddy's flesh partly by

opposing his father's ministers and

partly by his wildly extravagant social

life in the course of which he secretly

married a glamorous widowed mrs.

Fitzherbert after a passionate wooing

process that included theatrically

stabbing himself to safely produce as

much blood as possible the marriage was

illegal he wasn't allowed to Wed without

the Kings consent it was also

significant that the lady was a Roman

Catholic in 1780 anti-catholic rioters

stirred up by Lord George Gordon had

taken over London for a week eventually

dispersed by troops on the King's orders

the Gordon riots ended with 290 people

dead and 25 ringleaders hanged not of

course Lord George

Prinny as his friends called him spent

his time in gambling clubs in the

company of dandies like Beau Brummell

and put much energy into building the

bizarre and spectacular Pavilion in

Brighton that's where he was when he

heard that the King was mentally ill and

he hurried off to Windsor to take over

28 years old he was going to be Regent

when the King saw his son he physically

attacked him he threw Prinny against a

wall the poor boy burst into tears

there was then a huge political battle

over what powers the region would be

allowed to have his own bunch of

politicians led by Fox on one side and

the Kings led by Pitt on the other Fox's

supporters saw Pitt as a sort of fungus

with as many arms as an octopus growing

on and taking over the royal dunghill

and the Prince of Wales brought in his

own physician to treat the king or

torture him the Royal physicians

blistered the Kings forehead to draw the

poison out of his brain forced him to

take useless drugs ordering servants to

sit on the king when he resisted and

refused to let him have a fire in his

room during the terribly cold winter all

this when the country was anticipating

French invasion and radical revolution

and volunteer regiments were being

formed as a desperate line of defense

very desperate

finally new physicians were brought in

who gave the king gentler treatment and

he recovered in 1801 before the

arguments over how the Regency would

function had been resolved the king was

back in charge but not in the way he had

been the American defeat had been a

personal disaster for him and

dramatically weakened his political

position in an effort to reassert it

he'd installed a 24 year old as Prime

Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer

thinking that here at least was a

politician he could control that will

impede son Pitt the Younger was shrewd

capable and fully understood the gorge

depended on him so he held all cards and

it was Pitt who had to decide how to

deal with the spread of revolutionary

Republican ideas from America and France

into England the same ideas that had

been voiced in America about no taxation

without representation were being heard

in England where huge new manufacturing

towns had grown up which had no member

of parliament three years after the

French Revolution political reform

societies called corresponding societies

were founded in England riots were

breaking out in the Midlands in East

Anglia in Scotland attempts were made to

kill the king

he was booed and stoned in London and

the French Legislature passed a

Fraternal decree offering aid to all

people seeking to throw off the chains

of tyranny its war began with

revolutionary France political

radicalism was plainly treason wasn't it

the government decided on a policy of

aggressive repression habeas corpus were

suspended people could be imprisoned

indefinitely without trial the

government charged people with treason

for organising public meetings calling

for political reform when they were

acquitted acts were passed which

extended the definition of treason to

include speaking or writing or bringing

the king or his government into contempt

to back it up a system of internal

spying and as jean provocateur was

instituted post masters were given the

job of reporting to the Home Office

anything suspicious that they heard or

that went through the mail public

meetings needed special licenses when

William Blake the artist found a soldier

in his garden he drove him out shouting

damn the king and damn all his soldiers

they're all his slaves bad idea

he was put on trial for sedition the

king himself was actually quite popular

he was generally seen as a kind-hearted

slightly buffer his sort of a person but

he was still ultimately in charge of

what was going on and when even Pitt

insisted that Catholics would have to be

allowed the same rights as Protestants

and permitted to stand for Parliament

Georg forced him to resign

the issue had come to the fore because

of Ireland if England had some potential

revolutionaries how many more had

Ireland a land where an oppressed

Catholic majority were ruled by imported

Protestant colonists and an ideal

staging post for a French invasion in

1801 Ireland was incorporated into Great

Britain creating the United Kingdom it

was an attempt to make Ireland more

secure the fact that at the same time

the King formally abdicated his

meaningless title of King of France

shows exactly where the threat was

coming from but if Ireland was to be

truly United with England there would

have to be Catholic emancipation and

King George wouldn't have it whatever

might have happened could not have been

worse than what did Island still bleeds

now the shadow of George the third lies

over the history of the world more

darkly than most people realize

as with the American disaster it seems

as though one part of his mind was

determined to make him feel the full

weight of his responsibility and once

more his mental state degenerated he

made a slow recovery enough to sack his

ministers in 1805 when they tried to

lift the restrictions on Catholics

becoming military officers but he was

becoming blind and infirm and in 1810

his mind finally collapsed

no one's quite sure what was wrong with

him but a strain of hereditary insanity

had run through the royal family ever

since Henry the fifth marriage to

Catherine de valois blind and deaf

suffering from abdominal pains and

dementia his body lived on but his reign

was over Prinny took over at last by

this time European monarchy had been

transformed the enlightened despots had

fallen Napoleon's Empire had swallowed

them up replacing them with dictators

from his own family or under his control

even hannover had been overwhelmed that

Tsar still survived but Napoleon was

about to invade Russia Britain stood

virtually alone

and in Britain the ancient principle of

the Royal Prerogative was now in the fat

clammy hands of a gambling massively

indebted Rollie pollie dandy with a

passion for show and splendour but the

military genius of Wellington and Nelson

didn't need a king to guide it so under

his uninspiring even ridiculous

leadership Napoleon was defeated and the

D crowned heads of Europe were brushed

down and put back on their Thrones why

the ruler of the United Kingdom even

became king of Hannover Prinny had been

against everything his father stood for

but now he was in power he suddenly

adopted all his father's political

principles especially his determined

opposition to letting Catholics have

civil rights and to any reform of

Parliament elections were basically a

farce with some MPs representing

constituencies with almost no voters and

the vast majority of people

unrepresented the King thought this was

fine lots of other people didn't and

this became a desperate issue in the

years after Napoleonic war there were

thousands of unemployed X soldiers there

was an agricultural depression made

worse by the terrible summer of 1816 and

there was increasing unemployment due to

the use of new machinery and the Prince

of Wales's appetite for luxurious

silverware and furniture grew

mountainous graffiti appeared saying

death or the Regents head at the end of

1816 there was a full-scale riot in

London aimed at setting up a radical

government the next month the Prince

Regent's carriage was mobbed on his way

to open Parliament the grim apparatus of

repression was revived the death penalty

was restored for unlicensed public

meetings printers of seditious material

were to be seized there was plenty of

seditious material the Prince Regent was

a laughingstock the flood of caricatures

and satire was unstoppable

his extravagance was spectacular a few

years earlier the government had agreed

to clear his huge debts on condition

that he made a legal marriage the victim

selected was his cousin Caroline of

Brunswick a charming friendly and

unassuming young lady was also a bit of

an exhibitionist

he spent the wedding night drunk after

nine months to the day Caroline gave

birth to a daughter but by then her

husband had long abandoned her he

devoted himself to the pursuit of

motherly mistresses and treated Caroline

with a cold brutality which really

defined his personal style he was more

of a passion a regent and the brighton

pavillion made that declaration loud and

clear

George the third finally died in 1820

having notionally reigned for 60 years

the longest reign until Victoria and he

was 81 the longest life of any British

ruler so far Prinny was now king his

wife Caroline now decided to come to

England from her exile on the continent

and take her place at her husband's

coronation an immediate attempt was made

to pass an act of parliament divorcing

the royal couple but it was dangerously

unpopular and had to be abandoned she

turned up for the coronation at

Westminster Abbey but the door was

closed in her face the coronation

fabulously expensive was performed in

complete privacy she went away

brokenhearted and died less than three

weeks later her body was to be returned

to Brunswick for burial the king nervous

of a riot insisted that the coffin

should not be transported through the

City of London but it was seized by

Londoners who staged their own funeral

procession with it and were gunned down

by the House guards at Hyde Park Corner

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afraid of being attacked and afraid of

being laughed at because of his great

swollen body from 1823 King George the

fourth avoided being seen in public he

even built a tunnel to allow him to get

from his rooms in brighton pavillion to

the riding school in private and of

course it was said ever since that it

connected to his mistress's house it

became essential for the government to

break the king's opposition to reform

especially with regard to catholics but

he held the power of veto the arguments

went on hour after hour day after day

with the king becoming more enraged and

more ill until finally he broke by

february of 1830 he was partially blind

and raving convinced that he'd commanded

a division at Waterloo and ridden a

winning race at Goodwood and so he died

and they found 50 years of coats boots

and pantaloons and countless bundles of

women's love letters of women's gloves

of locks of his many mistresses hair why

on earth did Britain need a king what

use was it a man or beast why in

heaven's name wasn't there a revolution

the truth is no one knows some

historians think it was a result of

Methodism becoming popular diverting

poorer people's energy from politics

into religion some think it was

patriotism in the age of empire that

king and country was a slogan that

helped people pull together against

Napoleon but perhaps given the riots

rebellions and mutinies it was due more

to the efficiency of the police state

and the forcefulness of repression and

lurking at the back of people's minds

was the distant memory of what it had

been like when there had been a

revolution the grim rule of Cromwell's

major generals echoed and made more

terrible by the vision of the guillotine

in France

always keep ahold of nurse for fear of

finding something worse despite George's

enthusiastic sexual enterprise

he had only produced one legitimate

child and she'd died in childbirth

the heir to the throne was his brother

William who was 54 he had been sent into

the Navy as a young man where he

developed into a severe disciplinarian

and a stickler etiquette after he left

he took an actress mrs. Jordan as his

mistress had lots of illegitimate

children and was given to making

tactless speeches with not much

intelligence he eventually had made a

royal marriage to another German

Protestant princess and mr. King and

mrs. Queen lifted bushi to the north of

London like a quite ordinary couple

William insisted that his coronation

should only cost a tenth of his brothers

and he was known to give people a lift

in his carriage all this made him rather

popular but when it came to

parliamentary reform he turned out to be

as resistant as any other Hanoverian

King by now the popular pressure for

changing the voting system into

something more representative was

virtually irresistible giving more men

the vote

having MPs for the new towns and secret

ballots this would give the Commons more

power so the House of Lords was

resisting it and Williams sided with

them by 1832 there seemed a real

possibility of civil war or revolution

it's possible that if the royal family

were part of the aristocracy as in every

other country with a king that would

have happened

but the king and queen had their family

roots in germany and there was no

natural alliance between them and the

great aristocratic families William was

weak and was forcefully persuaded to

give way and Britain was started on the

road to democracy after the Reform Bill

of 1832 with no more rotten boroughs and

greatly reduced scope for electoral

corruption it was no longer possible for

the king to play politics inside

Parliament to the same extent the

monarchy would now be forced back into

its constitutional box and it was no

longer sufficiently dangerous to be

worth the trouble of a revolution when

he died in 1837 William's legitimate

children were already dead the heir to

the throne was the daughter of his

brother Edward a young girl of eighteen

she would make a demure and pretty

little queen who could leave the

business of running England to the

professionals couldn't she to test your

knowledge of the decadent George the

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