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Would you like to inspect the original subtitles? These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:00:08,040 --> 00:00:12,520 In 2014, it's 300 years since King George I and his family 2 00:00:12,520 --> 00:00:16,520 arrived in Britain to begin the Georgian era. 3 00:00:16,520 --> 00:00:19,360 This was the age in which modern Britain, 4 00:00:19,360 --> 00:00:22,400 as we know it, would be formed. 5 00:00:22,400 --> 00:00:26,240 Why should we care about these Georgians? They didn't give us 6 00:00:26,240 --> 00:00:30,240 the industry of the Victorians or the sensational head-chopping 7 00:00:30,240 --> 00:00:32,000 of Henry VIII. 8 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:35,920 But they did champion the idea of liberty and make Britain 9 00:00:35,920 --> 00:00:37,960 a more open society. 10 00:00:37,960 --> 00:00:40,040 One in which satire flourished 11 00:00:40,040 --> 00:00:43,400 and a new form of expression was invented, the novel. 12 00:00:46,040 --> 00:00:50,640 Bizarrely, this Georgian age, that seems so quintessentially British, 13 00:00:50,640 --> 00:00:55,600 actually has a story beginning here in Hanover, in Northern Germany. 14 00:00:58,360 --> 00:01:01,600 As outsiders, the first German Georges 15 00:01:01,600 --> 00:01:03,880 were able to be modernisers. 16 00:01:03,880 --> 00:01:07,680 It was on their watch that cabinet government first emerged. 17 00:01:09,600 --> 00:01:12,960 For this series, I've been given access to the Royal Collection. 18 00:01:12,960 --> 00:01:16,480 These pieces have been brought together for an exhibition at the 19 00:01:16,480 --> 00:01:18,440 Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, 20 00:01:18,440 --> 00:01:21,280 telling the story of the first Georges 21 00:01:21,280 --> 00:01:23,960 through art works they commissioned or owned. 22 00:01:26,560 --> 00:01:28,840 We tend to think of the Georgian era 23 00:01:28,840 --> 00:01:31,920 in terms of the madness of King George III 24 00:01:31,920 --> 00:01:36,200 or the heroines of Jane Austen, but I think the key to it all 25 00:01:36,200 --> 00:01:38,120 lies right at the start in the 26 00:01:38,120 --> 00:01:41,320 reigns of the first two Georgian Kings. 27 00:01:41,320 --> 00:01:45,280 Under George I and George II, Britain became the world's 28 00:01:45,280 --> 00:01:49,480 most liberal and cosmopolitan society. 29 00:01:49,480 --> 00:01:53,600 We owe so much to these German Kings who made Britain. 30 00:02:06,640 --> 00:02:11,560 In 1701, Britain faced a big problem. 31 00:02:11,560 --> 00:02:14,560 The heir to the throne, Princess Anne, 32 00:02:14,560 --> 00:02:19,040 had failed to provide the royal family's next generation. 33 00:02:19,040 --> 00:02:22,560 She'd gone through 17 pregnancies 34 00:02:22,560 --> 00:02:25,120 in a desperate attempt to produce an heir... 35 00:02:28,520 --> 00:02:31,640 ..but her last surviving son had just died. 36 00:02:34,760 --> 00:02:38,200 Parliament took drastic action. 37 00:02:38,200 --> 00:02:40,960 They had the idea of importing a 38 00:02:40,960 --> 00:02:44,280 ready-made royal family from overseas. 39 00:02:50,080 --> 00:02:54,440 This is one of the most important documents in the whole history 40 00:02:54,440 --> 00:02:56,360 of the British monarchy. 41 00:02:56,360 --> 00:02:59,480 This is the piece of parchment that changed history. 42 00:02:59,480 --> 00:03:04,000 It's the Act of Settlement from 1701, that sets out who can 43 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:08,120 and importantly who can't be King or Queen. 44 00:03:08,120 --> 00:03:11,200 First of all, you've got to have some Stuart blood. 45 00:03:11,200 --> 00:03:13,440 You've got to be related either to 46 00:03:13,440 --> 00:03:16,480 the late Queen Mary or to Princess Anne. 47 00:03:16,480 --> 00:03:20,240 But, trumping that, you've got to be a Protestant. 48 00:03:20,240 --> 00:03:22,960 As it says here, if you profess the 49 00:03:22,960 --> 00:03:27,600 popish religion or marry a papist, you shall be excluded. 50 00:03:32,440 --> 00:03:35,360 This act came into force as a result 51 00:03:35,360 --> 00:03:39,200 of what Protestants called the Glorious Revolution. 52 00:03:40,800 --> 00:03:44,600 This was when James II was chucked off the throne for his 53 00:03:44,600 --> 00:03:49,400 Roman Catholic sympathies and his belief in the divine right of Kings. 54 00:03:51,840 --> 00:03:55,160 James II was now in exile in France, 55 00:03:55,160 --> 00:03:58,200 but with the British Protestant royal line dying out, 56 00:03:58,200 --> 00:04:02,880 Parliament needed to find a new ruler, who wasn't Catholic. 57 00:04:06,920 --> 00:04:09,120 Who should rule next? 58 00:04:10,800 --> 00:04:14,680 So now the Protestant aristocracy of England have to look back up 59 00:04:14,680 --> 00:04:19,360 the Stuart family tree in search of a Protestant heir. 60 00:04:19,360 --> 00:04:24,560 We go through James II, Charles II, Charles I, we get right back up 61 00:04:24,560 --> 00:04:28,680 to James I and through his daughter Elizabeth, 62 00:04:28,680 --> 00:04:30,800 we find here Sophia. 63 00:04:33,080 --> 00:04:36,640 Electress Sophia of Hanover is pivotal in the history 64 00:04:36,640 --> 00:04:38,320 of the British monarchy. 65 00:04:38,320 --> 00:04:42,400 She was the next Protestant in the royal Stuart line. 66 00:04:43,600 --> 00:04:46,320 That looks quite simple but it wasn't. 67 00:04:46,320 --> 00:04:51,040 Queen Anne had actually had no less than 50 nearer relatives 68 00:04:51,040 --> 00:04:55,520 than Sophia who were all passed over on the grounds that regrettably 69 00:04:55,520 --> 00:04:58,440 but unacceptably they were Catholics. 70 00:05:03,160 --> 00:05:06,640 Sophia was the matriarch of a princely family 71 00:05:06,640 --> 00:05:10,840 who ruled the remote German territory of Hanover, 72 00:05:10,840 --> 00:05:14,360 but now she was first in line to the British throne. 73 00:05:16,720 --> 00:05:21,000 Sophia forms part of a very German tradition of royal women 74 00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:24,240 leading the social and the intellectual life of a court. 75 00:05:24,240 --> 00:05:27,160 Very unlike the British tradition, where we have the 76 00:05:27,160 --> 00:05:32,480 badly-educated princesses Mary and Anne who were as dull as ditchwater. 77 00:05:32,480 --> 00:05:35,840 In her statue, Sophia is holding a book by her personal friend, 78 00:05:35,840 --> 00:05:37,600 the philosopher Leibniz. 79 00:05:37,600 --> 00:05:41,440 And she and Leibniz exchanged many, many letters discussing questions 80 00:05:41,440 --> 00:05:43,880 like the nature of the human soul. 81 00:05:43,880 --> 00:05:46,560 As well as Peter the Great of Russia, 82 00:05:46,560 --> 00:05:49,000 it was said that Louis XIV himself 83 00:05:49,000 --> 00:05:51,200 was in love with her brilliance! 84 00:05:52,680 --> 00:05:55,240 Sophia was thrilled about her new status 85 00:05:55,240 --> 00:05:57,600 and was desperate to come to London. 86 00:05:57,600 --> 00:06:02,880 But Queen Anne didn't want a rival queen, particularly one who was a 87 00:06:02,880 --> 00:06:07,040 whole lot cleverer, showing her up in her own kingdom. 88 00:06:07,040 --> 00:06:11,320 Sophia just had to sit and wait for Anne to die. 89 00:06:11,320 --> 00:06:16,520 So, why have you never heard of Queen Sophia I of Great Britain? 90 00:06:16,520 --> 00:06:19,920 She would have been very good at the job, she was intelligent 91 00:06:19,920 --> 00:06:22,400 and rational. She was tolerant 92 00:06:22,400 --> 00:06:25,480 and enlightened but very unluckily 93 00:06:25,480 --> 00:06:30,160 just two months before Queen Anne died, Sophia was out here in the 94 00:06:30,160 --> 00:06:34,960 gardens and it was during a thunder storm that she drops down dead. 95 00:06:36,520 --> 00:06:39,920 It's rather melancholy being here in her boudoir, 96 00:06:39,920 --> 00:06:44,840 and thinking about Sophia, the greatest Queen we never had. 97 00:06:47,680 --> 00:06:51,160 Sophia did not die in vain. 98 00:06:51,160 --> 00:06:54,280 Her descendants would inherit the British crown. 99 00:06:56,800 --> 00:07:00,240 It was her eldest son, George Ludwig, who was to become 100 00:07:00,240 --> 00:07:04,400 King George I of Great Britain. 101 00:07:04,400 --> 00:07:07,960 Unlike his mother, he was uncharismatic, 102 00:07:07,960 --> 00:07:12,200 not particularly impressive and he already had enemies. 103 00:07:16,960 --> 00:07:20,120 Without the Act of Settlement, George's distant cousin, 104 00:07:20,120 --> 00:07:24,160 the Catholic James Stuart, would have become King James III. 105 00:07:24,160 --> 00:07:26,840 He was in exile in France. 106 00:07:26,840 --> 00:07:28,960 Although he was only 13 years old, 107 00:07:28,960 --> 00:07:32,560 he was already plotting how to get his crown back. 108 00:07:38,840 --> 00:07:42,880 So, when George arrived to start his new life as King of England 109 00:07:42,880 --> 00:07:47,680 and Scotland, he was getting into a pretty tricky situation. 110 00:07:47,680 --> 00:07:52,200 He sailed up the River Thames and landed here at Greenwich, 111 00:07:52,200 --> 00:07:56,360 but he didn't exactly receive a royal welcome. There was a mix up. 112 00:07:56,360 --> 00:08:02,000 The crowd that had gathered mistook George's son for their new king, 113 00:08:02,000 --> 00:08:04,040 so when George himself disembarked, 114 00:08:04,040 --> 00:08:08,200 the spectators had sort of dribbled away. 115 00:08:08,200 --> 00:08:11,000 George's new kingdom really was new. 116 00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:14,320 The splicing together of England and Scotland had only 117 00:08:14,320 --> 00:08:17,280 taken place seven years previously. 118 00:08:17,280 --> 00:08:19,080 Things were unstable. 119 00:08:19,080 --> 00:08:23,000 If I was a gambler, I wouldn't have put much money on the survival of 120 00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:26,120 this Hanoverian dynasty. 121 00:08:28,760 --> 00:08:35,440 George I was crowned at Westminster Abbey on the 20th of October, 1714. 122 00:08:35,440 --> 00:08:39,320 All the great and good of Protestant Britain were in attendance. 123 00:08:42,120 --> 00:08:45,440 This is the actual crown that George wore 300 years ago. 124 00:08:47,240 --> 00:08:52,360 It doesn't have any real jewels in it because George, being frugal, 125 00:08:52,360 --> 00:08:53,960 rented them. 126 00:08:56,160 --> 00:09:00,160 And look at the great, big cross on the top. It was George's Protestant 127 00:09:00,160 --> 00:09:02,440 religion that had put him on the throne. 128 00:09:02,440 --> 00:09:04,880 And in this coronation, for the first time, 129 00:09:04,880 --> 00:09:07,520 a copy of the Bible, in English, 130 00:09:07,520 --> 00:09:09,880 a key text of the Protestant Reformation, 131 00:09:09,880 --> 00:09:11,920 was carried in the procession. 132 00:09:13,360 --> 00:09:16,080 But poor, old George's English language skills 133 00:09:16,080 --> 00:09:17,800 weren't his strongest point. 134 00:09:17,800 --> 00:09:20,840 You can't blame him. It was, after all, his fourth language. 135 00:09:20,840 --> 00:09:24,680 Unfortunately, though, it was now the language of his new subjects 136 00:09:24,680 --> 00:09:27,240 and he couldn't really speak it very well. 137 00:09:27,240 --> 00:09:30,160 He couldn't understand what was happening in the ceremony. 138 00:09:30,160 --> 00:09:33,280 But, nevertheless, the establishment were delighted. 139 00:09:33,280 --> 00:09:36,160 One spectator said that the sight of the coronation 140 00:09:36,160 --> 00:09:38,360 brought tears to her eyes. 141 00:09:38,360 --> 00:09:41,920 They felt that everything was safe now. Their liberty, 142 00:09:41,920 --> 00:09:44,720 their property and their religion. 143 00:09:52,360 --> 00:09:56,600 But the coronation was preaching to the converted. 144 00:09:56,600 --> 00:09:59,440 To many of his newly Georgian subjects, 145 00:09:59,440 --> 00:10:03,920 the idea of being ruled by a German took some getting used too. 146 00:10:05,440 --> 00:10:08,000 George's coronation at Westminster Abbey 147 00:10:08,000 --> 00:10:10,360 was slightly marred by xenophobia. 148 00:10:10,360 --> 00:10:12,520 Spectators were heard to call out, 149 00:10:12,520 --> 00:10:15,200 "Down with the German!" and "Out with the foreigners!" 150 00:10:15,200 --> 00:10:18,920 If you look at the popular protests against George at this time, 151 00:10:18,920 --> 00:10:21,440 there's quite a funny theme running throughout them. 152 00:10:21,440 --> 00:10:25,440 This idea that that Hanover is a place full of yokels. 153 00:10:25,440 --> 00:10:29,120 In pamphlets, we see pictures of George hoeing a row of turnips, 154 00:10:29,120 --> 00:10:31,840 there's a song calling him "Turnip Head". 155 00:10:31,840 --> 00:10:34,440 And I'm sorry to say that on the day of the coronation, 156 00:10:34,440 --> 00:10:38,480 one man was pulled out of the crowd for brandishing one of these - 157 00:10:38,480 --> 00:10:40,400 it's a turnip on a stick. 158 00:10:40,400 --> 00:10:44,160 # Of all the roots of Hanover, the turnip is the best 159 00:10:44,160 --> 00:10:46,000 # 'Tis his salad when 'tis raw 160 00:10:46,000 --> 00:10:48,200 # And his sweetmeat when 'tis dressed 161 00:10:48,200 --> 00:10:50,200 # Then a hoeing he may go 162 00:10:50,200 --> 00:10:51,640 # May go, may go 163 00:10:51,640 --> 00:10:54,600 # And his turnips he may hoe. # 164 00:10:54,600 --> 00:10:56,800 The turnip was a foreign vegetable 165 00:10:56,800 --> 00:10:59,840 that suggested George's German roots. 166 00:10:59,840 --> 00:11:01,600 Indeed singing the "Turnip Song" 167 00:11:01,600 --> 00:11:04,960 became a popular way to protest against the new King. 168 00:11:04,960 --> 00:11:10,240 The Jacobites, supporters of the would-be King James III, loved it! 169 00:11:12,400 --> 00:11:16,400 It wasn't the most auspicious of starts. 170 00:11:16,400 --> 00:11:20,800 And the balance of power between King and Parliament had shifted. 171 00:11:20,800 --> 00:11:25,160 Parliament thought that their new pet king ought to follow their rules 172 00:11:25,160 --> 00:11:27,680 and do what they wanted. 173 00:11:27,680 --> 00:11:31,840 The King was not even allowed to leave his new country without 174 00:11:31,840 --> 00:11:34,440 Parliament's permission! 175 00:11:34,440 --> 00:11:37,000 George I was a lot less wealthy 176 00:11:37,000 --> 00:11:41,120 than some of his contemporary European counterparts. 177 00:11:41,120 --> 00:11:45,680 He just didn't have the cash to splash on palaces like Versailles. 178 00:11:45,680 --> 00:11:50,680 Parliament gave him just £700,000 a year, 179 00:11:50,680 --> 00:11:53,560 not enough to run a really big court. 180 00:11:53,560 --> 00:11:57,160 George quickly realised he needed to work with Parliament 181 00:11:57,160 --> 00:11:58,920 and not against them. 182 00:11:58,920 --> 00:12:02,080 Some of his Stuart predecessors had been constantly head-to-head 183 00:12:02,080 --> 00:12:06,720 with Parliament in some very violent and destructive confrontations, 184 00:12:06,720 --> 00:12:10,400 insisting upon their divine right to rule, 185 00:12:10,400 --> 00:12:13,280 but George was much more conciliatory. 186 00:12:18,480 --> 00:12:20,240 He had to be. 187 00:12:20,240 --> 00:12:22,800 Parliament had given the throne to George 188 00:12:22,800 --> 00:12:27,200 and perhaps they would take it away from him. 189 00:12:27,200 --> 00:12:31,240 He was a monarch appointed not by God, but by men. 190 00:12:32,800 --> 00:12:35,600 Here at the Painted Hall in Greenwich 191 00:12:35,600 --> 00:12:38,000 is George's mission statement. 192 00:12:40,120 --> 00:12:43,680 It was his promise to the British to be the King they wanted. 193 00:12:46,000 --> 00:12:49,920 Desmond Shawe-Taylor is Surveyor of The Queen's Pictures 194 00:12:49,920 --> 00:12:54,280 and an experienced decoder of Georgian art. 195 00:12:54,280 --> 00:12:56,960 What was the aim of this big painting at the end? 196 00:12:56,960 --> 00:13:01,040 It is to show the arrival of the Hanoverians as the fulfilment 197 00:13:01,040 --> 00:13:05,200 of the destiny of the Glorious Revolution. I think that's the idea. 198 00:13:05,200 --> 00:13:09,960 So, we've got William and Mary up here and then Queen Anne. 199 00:13:09,960 --> 00:13:13,200 And then, on the end wall, on the high altar as it were, 200 00:13:13,200 --> 00:13:15,280 George I and his large family. 201 00:13:15,280 --> 00:13:17,040 They are a race, aren't they? 202 00:13:17,040 --> 00:13:18,760 There's a huge number of them. 203 00:13:18,760 --> 00:13:22,240 There are plenty of them, there are lots of progeny, exactly. 204 00:13:22,240 --> 00:13:25,880 And I think that's an important part of the Hanoverian offer, as it were. 205 00:13:25,880 --> 00:13:27,960 So, talk me through who they all are. 206 00:13:27,960 --> 00:13:30,360 It starts with Sophia, the matriarch of the dynasty. 207 00:13:30,360 --> 00:13:34,040 Absolutely, there's the Electress Sophia of Hanover. 208 00:13:34,040 --> 00:13:36,760 Her son, George I, sits on the throne, 209 00:13:36,760 --> 00:13:40,120 with his elbow firmly resting on the globe, designs for... 210 00:13:40,120 --> 00:13:42,720 - Expansion! - Yeah, a bit of expansion going on. 211 00:13:42,720 --> 00:13:47,240 And then his eldest son, George II, stands on his left-hand side. 212 00:13:47,240 --> 00:13:50,800 And is it an accident that they're facing away from each other? 213 00:13:50,800 --> 00:13:52,800 Well, it's certainly suggestive if it 214 00:13:52,800 --> 00:13:55,080 is an accident because they didn't get on. 215 00:13:55,080 --> 00:13:57,800 By contrast, the poor, old Queen Anne sitting up all lonely, 216 00:13:57,800 --> 00:14:00,800 in solitary splendour in the sky. No children at all. 217 00:14:00,800 --> 00:14:05,000 The artist has absolutely exploited that to give a sense of homely 218 00:14:05,000 --> 00:14:07,080 reassurance to this new dynasty. 219 00:14:07,080 --> 00:14:10,800 Particularly in the way that the grandchildren are presented, 220 00:14:10,800 --> 00:14:13,760 playing around on the very steps. 221 00:14:13,760 --> 00:14:16,400 As allegories of art and culture, yes, 222 00:14:16,400 --> 00:14:22,720 but also as the idea of a sort of uncomplicated domestic life. 223 00:14:22,720 --> 00:14:25,160 This is something which the new dynasty is bringing. 224 00:14:25,160 --> 00:14:28,000 What are the differences between the Stuarts 225 00:14:28,000 --> 00:14:30,960 and the Hanoverians in the way they're depicted then? 226 00:14:30,960 --> 00:14:34,760 Well, it may be just an accident of what space was available but 227 00:14:34,760 --> 00:14:38,840 it seems as if the Hanoverians are bringing us right down to earth. 228 00:14:38,840 --> 00:14:42,200 - With a bump, almost. - With a bump, exactly. - Here they are, 229 00:14:42,200 --> 00:14:43,720 face to face, shake hands! 230 00:14:43,720 --> 00:14:47,880 The illusion, instead of the idea that the vault is open to the sky 231 00:14:47,880 --> 00:14:51,600 and you just, sort of, look up and wonder. The illusion is that there is 232 00:14:51,600 --> 00:14:55,760 a series of steps leading up from the high table 233 00:14:55,760 --> 00:14:58,760 to the throne upon which George I sits. 234 00:14:58,760 --> 00:15:00,840 So, one can just walk up and meet him. 235 00:15:00,840 --> 00:15:04,400 And, in fact, the artist himself, James Thornhill, is showing 236 00:15:04,400 --> 00:15:08,640 himself standing on that step, almost like a footman pointing to the King. 237 00:15:08,640 --> 00:15:12,880 Saying, "Yes, go and talk to him...he's fine." 238 00:15:12,880 --> 00:15:16,120 So, it's not really a revolution, this, it's more of an evolution. 239 00:15:16,120 --> 00:15:18,680 I think that's what they would like us to think. 240 00:15:20,320 --> 00:15:23,560 This was a Georgian manifesto. 241 00:15:23,560 --> 00:15:27,720 The King wanted people to know that he was offering a very different 242 00:15:27,720 --> 00:15:30,520 proposition to those tyrannical, 243 00:15:30,520 --> 00:15:34,040 absolutist, pig-headed old Stuarts. 244 00:15:37,800 --> 00:15:41,560 George I set up home at Kensington Palace, 245 00:15:41,560 --> 00:15:45,440 and here on the stairs are portraits that he had painted 246 00:15:45,440 --> 00:15:47,440 of members of his household. 247 00:15:48,560 --> 00:15:53,160 Quite unusually, his lower servants are included. 248 00:15:53,160 --> 00:15:57,400 They were an international lot and this caused trouble at court. 249 00:15:59,720 --> 00:16:03,040 The most infamous example relates to the King's supposed 250 00:16:03,040 --> 00:16:04,640 pair of mistresses. 251 00:16:04,640 --> 00:16:09,080 The Elephant, the fat one, and the Maypole, 252 00:16:09,080 --> 00:16:12,320 the ever so slightly thinner one. 253 00:16:12,320 --> 00:16:16,880 The fat one, the Elephant, was in fact the King's illegitimate 254 00:16:16,880 --> 00:16:22,320 half-sister, and he just had the one skinny mistress, the Maypole. 255 00:16:22,320 --> 00:16:26,520 This reputation that George developed as a sort of deviant 256 00:16:26,520 --> 00:16:31,080 sexual athlete, in fact, came from the xenophobic British courtiers. 257 00:16:31,080 --> 00:16:33,840 The naughty Lord Chesterfield, for example, 258 00:16:33,840 --> 00:16:37,280 put it about that the King rejected no woman 259 00:16:37,280 --> 00:16:41,920 if she were "Very willing, very fat, and had great breasts!" 260 00:16:41,920 --> 00:16:46,240 With the consequence that candidates for the position of royal mistress 261 00:16:46,240 --> 00:16:49,640 strained and swelled to put on weight. 262 00:16:49,640 --> 00:16:52,600 Some succeeded and others burst! 263 00:16:53,960 --> 00:16:56,360 All of the foreigners close to the King 264 00:16:56,360 --> 00:17:00,000 came in for this sort of scurrilous sexual slander. 265 00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:03,560 Including the King's two Turkish valets, seen here. 266 00:17:03,560 --> 00:17:07,520 This is Mustafa, with the white beard, and Muhammad, 267 00:17:07,520 --> 00:17:09,160 in the blue cloak. 268 00:17:09,160 --> 00:17:12,560 Mustafa was very close to the King, he helped him 269 00:17:12,560 --> 00:17:17,240 to get dressed in the mornings and even treated his haemorrhoids. 270 00:17:17,240 --> 00:17:19,880 Of course, gossip grew up about this. 271 00:17:19,880 --> 00:17:24,440 People said that the King keeps his Turks for abominable uses. 272 00:17:26,840 --> 00:17:31,280 But these same aristocrats who criticised George behind his back 273 00:17:31,280 --> 00:17:35,480 were probably as keen as anybody to curry favour with the new regime. 274 00:17:38,080 --> 00:17:41,560 This even extended to copying George's taste. 275 00:17:41,560 --> 00:17:46,360 The new dynasty were early adopters of a brand-new architectural style. 276 00:17:46,360 --> 00:17:50,560 It was the complete opposite to the fancy French showiness 277 00:17:50,560 --> 00:17:52,440 loved by the Stuarts. 278 00:17:52,440 --> 00:17:56,040 We can see the prototype round the back of Hampton Court Palace. 279 00:17:56,040 --> 00:17:58,680 This looks like a little country house 280 00:17:58,680 --> 00:18:00,680 but it isn't, it's a new kitchen 281 00:18:00,680 --> 00:18:04,200 added to Hampton Court by George I for his German cooks. 282 00:18:04,200 --> 00:18:06,800 They made his German sausages in there. 283 00:18:08,000 --> 00:18:12,400 This is the first building in Britain in the Neo-Palladian style. 284 00:18:12,400 --> 00:18:16,120 It's very stark and simple and symmetrical, 285 00:18:16,120 --> 00:18:18,400 not much external decoration. 286 00:18:18,400 --> 00:18:22,920 And the secret of its success lies in the harmony of the proportions, 287 00:18:22,920 --> 00:18:27,120 the relationship between the horizontal and the vertical. 288 00:18:27,120 --> 00:18:31,480 This style would catch on and all over Georgian Britain you'd find 289 00:18:31,480 --> 00:18:34,960 country houses sprouting up that looked just like this. 290 00:18:37,120 --> 00:18:41,880 This was a new orderly and rational way of seeing the world. 291 00:18:41,880 --> 00:18:45,800 And you just need to look at cities like Bath and Edinburgh to see that 292 00:18:45,800 --> 00:18:47,520 it would catch on. 293 00:18:51,560 --> 00:18:56,400 The inspiration was the 16th century architect, Andrea Palladio, 294 00:18:56,400 --> 00:18:59,880 who had recreated the works of the ancient Romans. 295 00:18:59,880 --> 00:19:03,200 Neo-Palladianism was ancient Rome 296 00:19:03,200 --> 00:19:07,560 brought back to life with an Anglo-Saxon twist. 297 00:19:07,560 --> 00:19:12,080 The Georgians were saying, "Britons, we are the heirs to the power of 298 00:19:12,080 --> 00:19:15,680 "Rome and together we can build a new empire!" 299 00:19:17,440 --> 00:19:21,160 An important promoter of this new style of Neo-Palladianism was 300 00:19:21,160 --> 00:19:25,120 Lord Burlington, a member of the King's inner circle. 301 00:19:26,880 --> 00:19:31,040 Burlington's own house, at Chiswick, is a magnificent example, 302 00:19:31,040 --> 00:19:34,760 as I'm shown by the architectural historian Carole Fry. 303 00:19:37,480 --> 00:19:41,240 So, Carole, tell me why this is a Neo-Palladian room that we're in? 304 00:19:41,240 --> 00:19:44,800 Well, it picks up on Roman antique architecture. 305 00:19:44,800 --> 00:19:48,880 So, everything about this room is referenced to an antique source. 306 00:19:48,880 --> 00:19:52,840 Erm, for example, the coffered ceiling is a direct replica 307 00:19:52,840 --> 00:19:55,840 of the Basilica of Maxentius, in Rome. 308 00:19:55,840 --> 00:20:00,400 And we've got these very ornate pediments and yet the room remains 309 00:20:00,400 --> 00:20:04,400 very cold and spartan and very sparse, 310 00:20:04,400 --> 00:20:08,080 which was a trait of Neo-Palladian architecture. 311 00:20:08,080 --> 00:20:12,160 Burlington was a taste-maker and a trendsetter. 312 00:20:12,160 --> 00:20:16,000 Chiswick was a Neo-Palladian masterpiece, but there was something 313 00:20:16,000 --> 00:20:19,400 else going on under the Georgian veneer. 314 00:20:19,400 --> 00:20:22,840 There is some very questionable imagery in this building, 315 00:20:22,840 --> 00:20:25,240 treasonous imagery, which doesn't need to be here. 316 00:20:25,240 --> 00:20:28,280 Treasonous imagery is hidden within this building, you're saying? 317 00:20:28,280 --> 00:20:29,920 Yes, not hidden very well. 318 00:20:29,920 --> 00:20:32,520 It's there to be seen if you have eyes to see it. 319 00:20:32,520 --> 00:20:35,720 The painting up there of Charles I and his family, 320 00:20:35,720 --> 00:20:39,040 and he was a very great Stuart King and that's hanging over that 321 00:20:39,040 --> 00:20:41,760 doorway, directly in front of the door. 322 00:20:41,760 --> 00:20:44,080 So, as soon as visitors would come in, 323 00:20:44,080 --> 00:20:46,800 they would see the old Stuart King hanging there. 324 00:20:46,800 --> 00:20:48,320 Not very Hanoverian. 325 00:20:48,320 --> 00:20:50,960 They are the guys who were out of power, they'd been exiled. 326 00:20:50,960 --> 00:20:52,480 Absolutely! 327 00:20:52,480 --> 00:20:54,920 What's going on with the star that we're standing on? 328 00:20:54,920 --> 00:20:58,080 That's important because this is the Order of the Garter, which was an 329 00:20:58,080 --> 00:21:01,160 honour given out by Kings, and 330 00:21:01,160 --> 00:21:03,680 the fact that this is placed underneath this 331 00:21:03,680 --> 00:21:05,560 painting of the Stuart King, it is 332 00:21:05,560 --> 00:21:08,840 possible that Lord Burlington was alluding to the fact that 333 00:21:08,840 --> 00:21:12,160 actually he had been give the Order of the Garter by the exiled 334 00:21:12,160 --> 00:21:14,920 King, the would-be James III. 335 00:21:14,920 --> 00:21:18,200 Lord Burlington, he's right at the heart of the Hanoverian 336 00:21:18,200 --> 00:21:21,320 establishment, his wife works for Caroline, the princess. 337 00:21:21,320 --> 00:21:24,280 Isn't this just a mad conspiracy theory? 338 00:21:24,280 --> 00:21:28,040 It could be indeed but then one has to wonder why he did incorporate 339 00:21:28,040 --> 00:21:31,120 - these treasonous images into his building. - That's a very good point. 340 00:21:31,120 --> 00:21:33,680 I can show you some more if we head through into that room. 341 00:21:33,680 --> 00:21:36,160 Take me to your secret clues! 342 00:21:36,160 --> 00:21:39,320 As you can see up there, it's the 2nd Earl of Burlington, 343 00:21:39,320 --> 00:21:41,320 so the Earl's father. 344 00:21:41,320 --> 00:21:43,960 And he's sitting with two of his close cronies. 345 00:21:43,960 --> 00:21:46,120 And they're obviously having a toast, 346 00:21:46,120 --> 00:21:47,920 they've each got a glass of wine. 347 00:21:47,920 --> 00:21:49,600 The central figure is the Earl 348 00:21:49,600 --> 00:21:52,760 and he is holding a ring over the contents of his glass, 349 00:21:52,760 --> 00:21:55,560 which, literally, was a toast across the water. 350 00:21:55,560 --> 00:21:58,160 So, he was toasting Kings across the water. 351 00:21:58,160 --> 00:22:01,960 Which was none other than the exiled James III, as he would have been. 352 00:22:01,960 --> 00:22:05,160 - Who's living in France across the Channel. - Precisely. 353 00:22:05,160 --> 00:22:07,680 So, that is a piece of Jacobite propaganda, 354 00:22:07,680 --> 00:22:09,400 there's no doubt about it. 355 00:22:09,400 --> 00:22:11,480 Now, if what you're saying is right 356 00:22:11,480 --> 00:22:14,240 and people right at the heart of the Hanoverian establishment, 357 00:22:14,240 --> 00:22:16,320 living in New Palladian buildings 358 00:22:16,320 --> 00:22:19,600 could be secretly expressing treason through their architecture, 359 00:22:19,600 --> 00:22:23,200 what does that say about the stability of the Georgian monarchy? 360 00:22:23,200 --> 00:22:24,840 Well, it wasn't very stable. 361 00:22:24,840 --> 00:22:27,520 There was a lot of support for the Jacobites. 362 00:22:27,520 --> 00:22:29,480 Nobody knew which way it was going to go. 363 00:22:29,480 --> 00:22:33,040 In living memory, we had kings that had been ousted from the throne 364 00:22:33,040 --> 00:22:34,360 and new ones brought in. 365 00:22:34,360 --> 00:22:37,400 And we also had kings that had been returned from exile, 366 00:22:37,400 --> 00:22:39,280 like Charles II in 1660. 367 00:22:39,280 --> 00:22:41,560 So, it was an uncertain time. 368 00:22:41,560 --> 00:22:44,120 There was almost a civil war going on under the surface 369 00:22:44,120 --> 00:22:45,920 and no-one knew who to support. 370 00:22:50,960 --> 00:22:55,680 1715 brought the first big crisis of George's reign - 371 00:22:55,680 --> 00:22:57,800 a rebellion by the Jacobites. 372 00:22:58,880 --> 00:23:04,120 They intended to replace George with his Catholic nemesis James III 373 00:23:04,120 --> 00:23:08,440 and were joined by some disgruntled Tory members of Parliament. 374 00:23:10,800 --> 00:23:13,440 One of them shouted out in a debate that George 375 00:23:13,440 --> 00:23:15,560 "could never love Britain". 376 00:23:17,360 --> 00:23:21,600 The rebellion was crushed, but it made George paranoid. 377 00:23:21,600 --> 00:23:25,280 He turfed out all Tories from his inner circle, 378 00:23:25,280 --> 00:23:29,280 and their rival Whigs were allowed to govern unchallenged. 379 00:23:29,280 --> 00:23:33,720 But there was still the problem of Jacobite propaganda - 380 00:23:33,720 --> 00:23:36,080 George the turnip-headed yokel. 381 00:23:38,920 --> 00:23:41,800 To counter this image of George as a turnip-head, 382 00:23:41,800 --> 00:23:46,520 his supporters described him as "George the Dragon Slayer". 383 00:23:46,520 --> 00:23:50,800 They associated him with the patron saint of England, 384 00:23:50,800 --> 00:23:54,440 the soldier saint, who ever since the Reformation 385 00:23:54,440 --> 00:24:00,000 had been shown slaying the Dragon of Popery or Roman Catholicism. 386 00:24:00,000 --> 00:24:04,400 Associating German George I with the very English Saint George 387 00:24:04,400 --> 00:24:06,920 did a lot to naturalise his foreignness. 388 00:24:08,440 --> 00:24:13,600 I think that this portrait of George is the most important of his reign. 389 00:24:16,560 --> 00:24:19,000 Because this image would pass through the hands 390 00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:21,600 of every single one of his subjects. 391 00:24:22,920 --> 00:24:24,600 It's being worked on here 392 00:24:24,600 --> 00:24:28,200 at the Royal Collection Trust's Conservation Studios. 393 00:24:31,920 --> 00:24:34,760 This portrait of George I was painted 394 00:24:34,760 --> 00:24:37,640 just seven months into his new reign. 395 00:24:37,640 --> 00:24:40,880 He's projecting quite a serious and sober image here, 396 00:24:40,880 --> 00:24:42,560 the main colour is grey, 397 00:24:42,560 --> 00:24:47,160 there isn't the sort of flamboyance of his Stuart predecessors. 398 00:24:47,160 --> 00:24:50,520 And the picture is in profile, and that's because it was used 399 00:24:50,520 --> 00:24:54,800 for the image on his coins - these little mini portraits of the King 400 00:24:54,800 --> 00:24:57,480 were the closest that most of his new subjects 401 00:24:57,480 --> 00:24:59,200 were ever going to get to him. 402 00:24:59,200 --> 00:25:01,920 Another important thing is that he's dressed in armour, 403 00:25:01,920 --> 00:25:05,560 he's saying, "I'm not afraid to fight for my rights!" 404 00:25:05,560 --> 00:25:07,880 And he'd spent most of the 1690s 405 00:25:07,880 --> 00:25:12,720 fighting for Christianity against the Muslim Ottoman Empire. 406 00:25:12,720 --> 00:25:14,800 This is an important part of his image - 407 00:25:14,800 --> 00:25:17,000 "Onward Christian Soldiers!" 408 00:25:18,240 --> 00:25:21,320 George had one more advantage - 409 00:25:21,320 --> 00:25:23,640 he was a man. 410 00:25:23,640 --> 00:25:25,960 Daniel Defoe was one of many writers 411 00:25:25,960 --> 00:25:28,120 who rejoiced that Queen Anne was gone. 412 00:25:28,120 --> 00:25:31,240 There was no longer a useless "woman on the throne", 413 00:25:31,240 --> 00:25:35,480 he wrote, "but a warrior king, able to wield the sword". 414 00:25:35,480 --> 00:25:38,480 And George also benefitted from the fact 415 00:25:38,480 --> 00:25:42,280 that people didn't know that much about him. 416 00:25:42,280 --> 00:25:44,800 Some people could say that George was a turnip-head 417 00:25:44,800 --> 00:25:47,880 and some people could say he was a dragon slayer, 418 00:25:47,880 --> 00:25:51,720 because he seemed to have a curious absence of personality. 419 00:25:51,720 --> 00:25:53,960 He was quite shy and retiring, 420 00:25:53,960 --> 00:25:56,320 he was difficult to get to know. 421 00:25:56,320 --> 00:26:00,880 But his sobriety and frugality - he was very careful with his money - 422 00:26:00,880 --> 00:26:04,480 did have a particular appeal, though, to a nation of shopkeepers. 423 00:26:08,640 --> 00:26:13,360 Britain was fast becoming the most commercially successful country in Europe. 424 00:26:13,360 --> 00:26:17,920 Daniel Defoe picked up on this when he wrote his book, 425 00:26:17,920 --> 00:26:21,800 A Tour Through The Whole Island Of Great Britain. 426 00:26:21,800 --> 00:26:25,320 It's a rough guide to Britain from Leith to London. 427 00:26:25,320 --> 00:26:28,280 Just one of the many markets Defoe describes 428 00:26:28,280 --> 00:26:31,320 is London's Leadenhall, which has 429 00:26:31,320 --> 00:26:36,920 "infinite provisions of all sorts, be it flesh, fish or fowl". 430 00:26:36,920 --> 00:26:40,960 Professor John Mullan believes that Defoe captures a period 431 00:26:40,960 --> 00:26:44,960 of the most rapid economic growth that Britain had never seen. 432 00:26:44,960 --> 00:26:47,400 What's the point of this survey of the markets 433 00:26:47,400 --> 00:26:49,480 and the tour around the whole country? 434 00:26:49,480 --> 00:26:52,080 Well, because he's trying to get a picture of the island 435 00:26:52,080 --> 00:26:56,040 and its history, but also of its activity - 436 00:26:56,040 --> 00:26:57,800 of the island NOW. 437 00:26:57,800 --> 00:27:00,880 And he's interested in Britain as a whole, isn't he? This is important. 438 00:27:00,880 --> 00:27:02,640 Absolutely. 439 00:27:02,640 --> 00:27:06,120 I mean, England and Scotland are unified in 1707 440 00:27:06,120 --> 00:27:09,160 and Defoe is a great fan of this project 441 00:27:09,160 --> 00:27:13,160 and he thinks that ability of people in different parts of Britain - 442 00:27:13,160 --> 00:27:16,400 notably Scotland and Wales - to come together 443 00:27:16,400 --> 00:27:18,840 into one commercially unified whole 444 00:27:18,840 --> 00:27:22,960 is a sign that the British are sort of modern and enlightened 445 00:27:22,960 --> 00:27:26,240 in a way that those Continentals aren't at all. 446 00:27:26,240 --> 00:27:29,160 And do you think that he was a supporter of the people at the top, 447 00:27:29,160 --> 00:27:30,960 the Hanoverian monarchs themselves? 448 00:27:30,960 --> 00:27:33,280 George I and George II, what did he think of them? 449 00:27:33,280 --> 00:27:36,880 I think he thought the Hanoverian monarchs were absolutely necessary, 450 00:27:36,880 --> 00:27:40,960 because they were there to stop us having a Catholic king 451 00:27:40,960 --> 00:27:44,480 who would be a tyrant and tell everybody what to do 452 00:27:44,480 --> 00:27:51,160 and would return us to a court-centred tyrannical state. 453 00:27:51,160 --> 00:27:53,320 So, they were important, 454 00:27:53,320 --> 00:27:56,760 but to fend things off rather than to DO things, actually. 455 00:27:56,760 --> 00:27:58,440 They were a safe-guard. 456 00:27:58,440 --> 00:28:01,800 So, in this very bustling, commercially successful Britain, 457 00:28:01,800 --> 00:28:04,760 where's the place for religion? What does he think about that? 458 00:28:04,760 --> 00:28:09,240 He says, "There is no Protestant and Catholic in a good bargain." 459 00:28:09,240 --> 00:28:13,480 In other words, he thinks that, in a proper commercial nation, 460 00:28:13,480 --> 00:28:16,480 religious toleration is much more likely. 461 00:28:16,480 --> 00:28:19,120 People won't worry about their differences, 462 00:28:19,120 --> 00:28:21,680 because the things that bind them together - 463 00:28:21,680 --> 00:28:24,760 the business of making money - is much more important. 464 00:28:24,760 --> 00:28:26,520 Those are important words, then. 465 00:28:26,520 --> 00:28:29,800 "There is no Protestant or Catholic in a good bargain." 466 00:28:29,800 --> 00:28:33,440 Yes, when you're doing the deal, 467 00:28:33,440 --> 00:28:37,240 you're not worrying about your petty differences. 468 00:28:37,240 --> 00:28:43,680 And he does believe that trade actually unifies a nation. 469 00:28:46,840 --> 00:28:49,920 This was a brave, new economic world 470 00:28:49,920 --> 00:28:53,720 where religious bigotry gave way to profit. 471 00:28:53,720 --> 00:28:56,600 George I was tolerant in religious matters, 472 00:28:56,600 --> 00:29:00,840 and saw economic progress as a solution to society's divisions. 473 00:29:01,840 --> 00:29:04,440 Britons didn't yet love their new ruler, 474 00:29:04,440 --> 00:29:07,840 but they were pretty pleased with the stability that he was providing. 475 00:29:07,840 --> 00:29:12,840 He was beginning to win grudging affection outside the palace gates. 476 00:29:12,840 --> 00:29:16,360 But the greater threat came from inside. 477 00:29:16,360 --> 00:29:20,640 He was the head of the most dysfunctional royal family since Henry VIII. 478 00:29:22,240 --> 00:29:26,320 Meet Sophia Dorothea. This is the ex-wife of George I, 479 00:29:26,320 --> 00:29:29,520 she's a very significant person in the royal family. 480 00:29:29,520 --> 00:29:33,640 She is, after all, the mother of the future king, George II, 481 00:29:33,640 --> 00:29:37,320 and yet this is the only contemporary portrait of her 482 00:29:37,320 --> 00:29:39,960 in the whole of the Royal Collection. 483 00:29:39,960 --> 00:29:41,800 There's a reason for that - 484 00:29:41,800 --> 00:29:45,440 she was talked about in whispers at the court of George I 485 00:29:45,440 --> 00:29:47,320 because of what she'd done. 486 00:29:50,440 --> 00:29:53,400 Back in Germany, before coming over to Britain, 487 00:29:53,400 --> 00:29:59,600 George had married his first cousin, Sophia Dorothea of Celle. 488 00:29:59,600 --> 00:30:03,160 But it wasn't a love match, it was a marriage of state, 489 00:30:03,160 --> 00:30:05,680 a strategic move by the House of Hanover 490 00:30:05,680 --> 00:30:08,640 to increase its territory. 491 00:30:09,520 --> 00:30:14,240 Sophia and George cared little for one another, 492 00:30:14,240 --> 00:30:19,200 but George DID care about his dignity and his reputation. 493 00:30:20,880 --> 00:30:24,800 Sophia started an adulterous relationship with a Swede, 494 00:30:24,800 --> 00:30:28,120 Count Konigsmark, who was serving in the Hanoverian Army. 495 00:30:28,120 --> 00:30:32,360 Unfortunately, they weren't discreet - their letters got out. 496 00:30:32,360 --> 00:30:34,520 Here's a sample from him to her. 497 00:30:34,520 --> 00:30:39,280 "What joy! What rapture have I tasted in your arms! 498 00:30:39,280 --> 00:30:42,560 "Ye Gods! What a night I spent!" 499 00:30:42,560 --> 00:30:46,520 With this sort of thing circulating through the drawing rooms of Europe, 500 00:30:46,520 --> 00:30:48,040 George was humiliated. 501 00:30:49,480 --> 00:30:54,240 A scandal was about to unfold which would inflame court gossip 502 00:30:54,240 --> 00:30:57,560 and spawn conspiracy theories for years to come. 503 00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:01,480 It all came to a head here at the family's palace 504 00:31:01,480 --> 00:31:03,520 on the River Leine. 505 00:31:03,520 --> 00:31:06,080 One night, here at the Leine Palace, 506 00:31:06,080 --> 00:31:08,160 we hear that Count Konigsmark 507 00:31:08,160 --> 00:31:11,480 was creeping through the corridors to Sophia's room 508 00:31:11,480 --> 00:31:14,080 when he was set upon by an assassin. 509 00:31:14,080 --> 00:31:16,120 And this is the spot in the river 510 00:31:16,120 --> 00:31:19,800 where the Swede's dead body is said to have been thrown. 511 00:31:23,400 --> 00:31:26,640 The culprits were never apprehended. 512 00:31:26,640 --> 00:31:28,720 The whole affair was hushed up 513 00:31:28,720 --> 00:31:32,640 and George never spoke about his estranged wife, 514 00:31:32,640 --> 00:31:35,440 her lover or the murder ever again. 515 00:31:36,800 --> 00:31:40,480 Count Kongismark's disappearance was wrapped up in mystery, 516 00:31:40,480 --> 00:31:43,920 but we do know exactly what happened next to Sophia - 517 00:31:43,920 --> 00:31:47,080 she was put on trial for the crime of adultery, 518 00:31:47,080 --> 00:31:50,560 she was divorced by her husband and his punishment 519 00:31:50,560 --> 00:31:53,320 was to lock her up in a remote German castle 520 00:31:53,320 --> 00:31:54,880 for the rest of her life. 521 00:31:54,880 --> 00:31:57,760 That sounds pretty bad, but there was worse. 522 00:31:57,760 --> 00:32:00,200 The couple had a son, another George, 523 00:32:00,200 --> 00:32:04,080 the future George II of Great Britain. He was only 11, 524 00:32:04,080 --> 00:32:06,640 Sophia was now parted from her son 525 00:32:06,640 --> 00:32:09,720 and he would never see his mother again. 526 00:32:11,640 --> 00:32:15,360 This left a massive gap in the young Prince George's life, 527 00:32:15,360 --> 00:32:18,120 for which he naturally blamed his father. 528 00:32:20,320 --> 00:32:22,760 It was this traumatic event that triggered 529 00:32:22,760 --> 00:32:25,480 what you might call an Oedipal conflict 530 00:32:25,480 --> 00:32:28,480 between George I and his son, Prince George. 531 00:32:30,840 --> 00:32:34,360 This feud would have a cataclysmic effect on the royal family 532 00:32:34,360 --> 00:32:36,320 for decades to come. 533 00:32:39,040 --> 00:32:41,640 Not even Prince George's marriage 534 00:32:41,640 --> 00:32:44,760 and the birth of his own children could heal the rift. 535 00:32:48,240 --> 00:32:51,800 The tension escalated here at St James's Palace over 536 00:32:51,800 --> 00:32:54,880 the birth of the prince's second son - yet another George. 537 00:32:58,000 --> 00:33:02,360 An embarrassing kerfuffle broke out at this baby's christening. 538 00:33:02,360 --> 00:33:06,640 The occasion was gate-crashed by a favoured courtier of the King. 539 00:33:06,640 --> 00:33:09,560 The prince was pretty annoyed at this and he said, 540 00:33:09,560 --> 00:33:11,640 "You are a rascal, I will find you!" 541 00:33:11,640 --> 00:33:12,880 The implication was, 542 00:33:12,880 --> 00:33:15,600 "I'll find you later to give you a piece of my mind." 543 00:33:15,600 --> 00:33:19,720 But, unfortunately, because of the prince's thick German accent, 544 00:33:19,720 --> 00:33:24,120 what the guy heard was, "You are a rascal, I will fight you!" 545 00:33:24,120 --> 00:33:26,800 He took it as an invitation to a duel, 546 00:33:26,800 --> 00:33:29,720 a dreadful breach of court etiquette. 547 00:33:29,720 --> 00:33:33,200 The King got to hear of this and he was furious. 548 00:33:33,200 --> 00:33:36,600 He decided to banish his son and his daughter-in-law, 549 00:33:36,600 --> 00:33:41,040 the Prince and Princess of Wales, right out of St James's Palace. 550 00:33:42,760 --> 00:33:46,840 All this was embarrassing for the prince and princess, 551 00:33:46,840 --> 00:33:48,520 but worse was to come. 552 00:33:48,520 --> 00:33:52,240 The King decided to keep behind their children, 553 00:33:52,240 --> 00:33:57,520 his grandchildren, as hostages to ensure future good behaviour. 554 00:33:57,520 --> 00:33:59,480 The Princess of Wales was in tears, 555 00:33:59,480 --> 00:34:02,840 as she said goodbye to her three little girls 556 00:34:02,840 --> 00:34:04,960 and to her newborn baby boy. 557 00:34:04,960 --> 00:34:09,160 This little boy soon fell sick and the Princess of Wales believed 558 00:34:09,160 --> 00:34:12,080 that the King gave him the wrong medical treatment. 559 00:34:12,080 --> 00:34:14,080 Shortly afterwards, he died. 560 00:34:14,080 --> 00:34:17,720 In the National Archives, there's an account of money paid 561 00:34:17,720 --> 00:34:20,560 for a pitiful little square of black velvet, 562 00:34:20,560 --> 00:34:23,320 just big enough to cover the coffin of a baby. 563 00:34:26,520 --> 00:34:30,640 Now, between father and son, there was all-out war. 564 00:34:33,400 --> 00:34:35,560 The courts of Europe could talk about nothing else 565 00:34:35,560 --> 00:34:37,520 but the British royal scandal. 566 00:34:40,800 --> 00:34:45,040 In London, the nobility began to take sides. 567 00:34:45,040 --> 00:34:48,040 Once the court had split into two factions, 568 00:34:48,040 --> 00:34:51,280 each developed its own separate social life. 569 00:34:51,280 --> 00:34:55,600 At the King's court, people tended to be older and more respectable, 570 00:34:55,600 --> 00:34:57,240 at the Prince of Wales's court, 571 00:34:57,240 --> 00:35:00,080 the courtiers were younger and more dynamic, 572 00:35:00,080 --> 00:35:03,320 and at this court, they had the better parties. 573 00:35:03,320 --> 00:35:09,600 At these parties, people had so much fun that some virgins conceived. 574 00:35:09,600 --> 00:35:13,040 Now, you might think that this was dangerous and destabilising, 575 00:35:13,040 --> 00:35:17,080 but there is an argument that this was a healthy development 576 00:35:17,080 --> 00:35:19,680 in a parliamentary democracy. 577 00:35:19,680 --> 00:35:22,480 Because if you wanted to criticise the King, 578 00:35:22,480 --> 00:35:25,280 you didn't have to take up arms or commit treason, 579 00:35:25,280 --> 00:35:28,320 you could just go to a different type of social event. 580 00:35:28,320 --> 00:35:33,080 The concept of His Majesty's Loyal Opposition had been born. 581 00:35:35,320 --> 00:35:37,480 The Prince of Wales's new court 582 00:35:37,480 --> 00:35:40,640 effectively became a home for rebels. 583 00:35:40,640 --> 00:35:43,760 After the Whigs won a great landslide victory 584 00:35:43,760 --> 00:35:46,960 in the elections of 1722, many of the defeated Tories 585 00:35:46,960 --> 00:35:49,400 went round the corner from the royal palace 586 00:35:49,400 --> 00:35:53,600 to Prince George's house in Leicester Square instead. 587 00:35:53,600 --> 00:35:56,760 It was a way of showing dissatisfaction with the King 588 00:35:56,760 --> 00:35:59,040 that wasn't quite as drastic 589 00:35:59,040 --> 00:36:02,240 as joining James III and the Jacobites. 590 00:36:02,240 --> 00:36:05,560 Quarrels like this, between loyal fathers and sons 591 00:36:05,560 --> 00:36:07,600 exacerbated by the politicians, 592 00:36:07,600 --> 00:36:10,280 would happen throughout the 18th century. 593 00:36:14,240 --> 00:36:18,080 This new vision of Britain, with its opposition and disputes - 594 00:36:18,080 --> 00:36:20,520 its "freedom of speech", if you like - 595 00:36:20,520 --> 00:36:23,960 appealed to one of the greatest thinkers in Europe. 596 00:36:25,920 --> 00:36:28,440 He went by the pen name of Voltaire 597 00:36:28,440 --> 00:36:30,440 and his fiery political views 598 00:36:30,440 --> 00:36:34,800 had already seen him persecuted by the French government. 599 00:36:36,600 --> 00:36:39,080 "How I love English boldness!" 600 00:36:39,080 --> 00:36:43,320 said Voltaire. "How I love those who say what they think! 601 00:36:43,320 --> 00:36:47,400 "Those who only half think are only half alive." 602 00:36:47,400 --> 00:36:49,440 Voltaire knew what he was talking about, 603 00:36:49,440 --> 00:36:51,160 because saying what he thought 604 00:36:51,160 --> 00:36:53,680 had got him into terrible trouble in France. 605 00:36:53,680 --> 00:36:56,920 So much so that he had been put in prison in the Bastille twice. 606 00:36:56,920 --> 00:37:01,720 So, in 1726, to seek asylum from all of this, 607 00:37:01,720 --> 00:37:03,440 he'd come over to England. 608 00:37:04,640 --> 00:37:08,560 What Voltaire found was a culture of tolerance. 609 00:37:08,560 --> 00:37:10,640 Indeed, in comparison to France, 610 00:37:10,640 --> 00:37:13,840 he labelled Britain as a "land of liberty". 611 00:37:15,480 --> 00:37:17,200 Professor Nicholas Cronk believes 612 00:37:17,200 --> 00:37:20,600 that George I's rather liberal view of kingship 613 00:37:20,600 --> 00:37:24,120 allowed writers like Voltaire to thrive. 614 00:37:25,640 --> 00:37:28,760 When Voltaire came to England, then, things were very different. 615 00:37:28,760 --> 00:37:32,080 - What differences did you notice? - In France, under the Ancien Regime, 616 00:37:32,080 --> 00:37:34,600 for the most part, writers lived through patronage. 617 00:37:34,600 --> 00:37:37,320 So, you find an aristocrat, maybe the king, 618 00:37:37,320 --> 00:37:40,600 who gives you a pension and you dedicate your works... 619 00:37:40,600 --> 00:37:43,440 - You suck up, basically. - You suck up, basically! 620 00:37:43,440 --> 00:37:47,000 When Voltaire comes to England, what he finds is a society 621 00:37:47,000 --> 00:37:51,600 where the court is much less all-powerful than it is in France. 622 00:37:51,600 --> 00:37:55,440 It doesn't have the same glitz or prestige, but at the same time, 623 00:37:55,440 --> 00:37:58,720 there are more centres of power outside the court. 624 00:37:58,720 --> 00:38:02,560 There is a political debate between the two Houses of Parliament 625 00:38:02,560 --> 00:38:05,000 and the King, so that's not like the French system. 626 00:38:05,000 --> 00:38:08,640 Voltaire later writes that, "I think and I write like an Englishman." 627 00:38:08,640 --> 00:38:11,000 This was clearly an important time for him. 628 00:38:11,000 --> 00:38:13,640 Voltaire comes to London and finds that there are Catholics 629 00:38:13,640 --> 00:38:15,320 and Jews, as well as Anglicans, 630 00:38:15,320 --> 00:38:18,320 so there is, of course, greater tolerance than there is in France. 631 00:38:18,320 --> 00:38:19,840 The idea that the English were free 632 00:38:19,840 --> 00:38:21,960 was something that they were very pleased about, 633 00:38:21,960 --> 00:38:23,920 so to some extent, Voltaire's picked this up 634 00:38:23,920 --> 00:38:25,640 from the contemporary English press. 635 00:38:25,640 --> 00:38:29,000 You find it in The Spectator or The Craftsman or whatever. 636 00:38:29,000 --> 00:38:30,680 We'd like to think he's very grand 637 00:38:30,680 --> 00:38:33,400 about the big, noble ideals of the freedom of mankind. 638 00:38:33,400 --> 00:38:36,240 I think, for him, it's also about freedom of the writer. 639 00:38:36,240 --> 00:38:39,800 He just sees that there is a literary space in England, 640 00:38:39,800 --> 00:38:43,320 partly because of these different forms of publication 641 00:38:43,320 --> 00:38:46,480 where he thinks a writer can express himself differently 642 00:38:46,480 --> 00:38:48,640 from a writer in France who is much more 643 00:38:48,640 --> 00:38:50,560 tied into how things are at court. 644 00:38:50,560 --> 00:38:54,480 What's the best-known work that Voltaire produced during this time in England? 645 00:38:54,480 --> 00:38:56,680 He's most famous for the book that, in French, 646 00:38:56,680 --> 00:38:59,800 is called The Lettres Philosophique - "The Philosophical Letters". 647 00:38:59,800 --> 00:39:03,240 In England, it was published as The Letters Concerning The English Nation. 648 00:39:03,240 --> 00:39:07,240 This is a book where he talks about English liberty, he talks about English religions, 649 00:39:07,240 --> 00:39:09,920 he talks about English toleration of different religions 650 00:39:09,920 --> 00:39:12,880 in a way that is quite flattering to the English, 651 00:39:12,880 --> 00:39:17,240 and the English liked it cos they liked being praised by a foreigner. 652 00:39:17,240 --> 00:39:20,000 So, it has a rather extraordinary parallel career. 653 00:39:20,000 --> 00:39:22,880 The Lettres Philosophique was condemned and burnt 654 00:39:22,880 --> 00:39:25,640 in the Paris law courts and Voltaire was forbidden 655 00:39:25,640 --> 00:39:28,320 from ever using the title again in any publication. 656 00:39:28,320 --> 00:39:29,520 Whereas, in England, 657 00:39:29,520 --> 00:39:32,440 the Letters On The English Nation is republished in Edinburgh 658 00:39:32,440 --> 00:39:36,160 and Dublin and Glasgow and it's an 18th-century British best-seller. 659 00:39:37,720 --> 00:39:41,360 Voltaire wrote that the English were the only people on Earth 660 00:39:41,360 --> 00:39:44,960 who'd been able to limit the power of kings 661 00:39:44,960 --> 00:39:47,960 by establishing wise government. 662 00:39:47,960 --> 00:39:49,720 This meant that all over Europe, 663 00:39:49,720 --> 00:39:54,680 George I got a reputation as a protector of progressive views. 664 00:39:55,840 --> 00:39:58,600 But, in Britain, his reputation had taken a knock 665 00:39:58,600 --> 00:40:00,440 after the christening quarrel. 666 00:40:01,880 --> 00:40:05,760 The King's supporters were defecting to the Prince of Wales's court, 667 00:40:05,760 --> 00:40:08,680 and he had to try to win them back. 668 00:40:08,680 --> 00:40:13,680 He embarked on a plan to redecorate Kensington Palace. 669 00:40:13,680 --> 00:40:15,800 He hoped there to host parties 670 00:40:15,800 --> 00:40:19,040 that would be THE most spectacular in London. 671 00:40:22,000 --> 00:40:24,800 Now, this room is pretty sensational, 672 00:40:24,800 --> 00:40:26,280 take a look at that ceiling! 673 00:40:39,360 --> 00:40:43,360 This is the Cupola Room. The commission for it was fought over 674 00:40:43,360 --> 00:40:46,080 between designers of the old guard, 675 00:40:46,080 --> 00:40:48,920 still working in the 17th-century style, 676 00:40:48,920 --> 00:40:53,560 and adopters of the new Georgian look that would define the future. 677 00:40:53,560 --> 00:40:57,560 Everybody expected that this plum royal commission 678 00:40:57,560 --> 00:41:00,000 would go to Sir James Thornhill, 679 00:41:00,000 --> 00:41:03,160 who'd been mopping up all the work of this type - 680 00:41:03,160 --> 00:41:06,000 but Thornhill had got a bit complacent 681 00:41:06,000 --> 00:41:08,160 and the King liked a bargain. 682 00:41:08,160 --> 00:41:12,360 Thornhill's estimate was £800 - an awful lot of money. 683 00:41:12,360 --> 00:41:16,320 So, the King was persuaded to look at a young, new painter instead - 684 00:41:16,320 --> 00:41:19,160 William Kent, fresh back from Rome. 685 00:41:19,160 --> 00:41:22,640 He wanted the job, his estimate was half of Thornhill's. 686 00:41:24,400 --> 00:41:26,360 William Kent got the commission 687 00:41:26,360 --> 00:41:28,840 and this was what he produced. 688 00:41:28,840 --> 00:41:31,720 Kent is playing with perspective, 689 00:41:31,720 --> 00:41:36,080 turning this room into a space seemingly twice as tall. 690 00:41:36,080 --> 00:41:39,080 He uses paint to emulate architecture. 691 00:41:40,600 --> 00:41:44,640 But his more traditional colleagues found it garish and tasteless. 692 00:41:46,040 --> 00:41:49,520 It's not surprising that there was a bit of carping and nay-saying 693 00:41:49,520 --> 00:41:51,600 when this room was first completed 694 00:41:51,600 --> 00:41:54,560 because the British just weren't used to this sort of thing. 695 00:41:54,560 --> 00:41:58,560 It's like a completely fake Roman palace interior 696 00:41:58,560 --> 00:42:00,360 made out of wood and paint 697 00:42:00,360 --> 00:42:04,400 and William Kent was doing something entirely new here. 698 00:42:07,680 --> 00:42:11,720 Kensington Palace would be Kent's breakthrough in Britain. 699 00:42:11,720 --> 00:42:16,400 Rufus Bird is Deputy Surveyor of The Queen's Works of Art 700 00:42:16,400 --> 00:42:20,880 and believes that Kent was the first interior designer. 701 00:42:20,880 --> 00:42:24,200 He wanted to get involved in every single aspect. 702 00:42:24,200 --> 00:42:27,200 He was a complete... Sort of attention to detail in every corner, 703 00:42:27,200 --> 00:42:31,160 so, if furniture was going to go into interiors that he designed, 704 00:42:31,160 --> 00:42:34,600 he wanted to make sure that it harmonised perfectly. 705 00:42:34,600 --> 00:42:37,200 - A bit of a control freak? - A little bit, perhaps, yeah. 706 00:42:37,200 --> 00:42:38,920 And, just looking at it, 707 00:42:38,920 --> 00:42:41,880 what are the visual clues that this is a Kent design? 708 00:42:41,880 --> 00:42:45,880 Firstly, you have this very obvious Roman symbolism. 709 00:42:45,880 --> 00:42:48,320 The particular elements are the fish scales 710 00:42:48,320 --> 00:42:50,320 which you see on the panels of the legs 711 00:42:50,320 --> 00:42:53,800 and the fish scales are associated with dolphins in the 18th century, 712 00:42:53,800 --> 00:42:57,000 and dolphins drew the shell chariot of Venus 713 00:42:57,000 --> 00:42:59,880 and there is this large shell in the centre here 714 00:42:59,880 --> 00:43:02,800 and there is another shell at the top of the back there. 715 00:43:02,800 --> 00:43:06,200 Why is William Kent making all of these classical references? 716 00:43:06,200 --> 00:43:09,920 In the early 18th century, Kent had been to Italy, 717 00:43:09,920 --> 00:43:13,560 and came back filled with the desire 718 00:43:13,560 --> 00:43:15,880 to bring Italy and Rome 719 00:43:15,880 --> 00:43:19,800 and the patterns associated with Ancient Rome into Britain, 720 00:43:19,800 --> 00:43:22,480 and so, this is a major change that we see. 721 00:43:22,480 --> 00:43:26,000 So, France in the 17th century had been this dominant artistic leader 722 00:43:26,000 --> 00:43:29,360 if you like, and then, in the 18th century, 723 00:43:29,360 --> 00:43:31,080 it's Kent and his supporters 724 00:43:31,080 --> 00:43:33,760 who really want to bring Italy into England. 725 00:43:33,760 --> 00:43:36,840 Would you describe it as almost like a bit of stage scenery? 726 00:43:36,840 --> 00:43:40,760 - Not intended for use, but to look good. - Exactly. That's right, yeah. 727 00:43:40,760 --> 00:43:43,680 And so often, court functions, particularly at this date, 728 00:43:43,680 --> 00:43:46,360 are great theatrical events 729 00:43:46,360 --> 00:43:48,840 and the spectacle was all. 730 00:43:48,840 --> 00:43:52,280 The furnishing of the rooms was just as important as what people wore 731 00:43:52,280 --> 00:43:54,200 and how they populated those spaces. 732 00:43:56,800 --> 00:44:02,120 It was Kent who heralded in an entirely new kind of Georgian interior 733 00:44:02,120 --> 00:44:07,280 and helped make George I's parties a glamorous success. 734 00:44:07,280 --> 00:44:10,200 Kent's triumphant progress up the social ladder 735 00:44:10,200 --> 00:44:14,120 from humble sign-painter to royal decorator 736 00:44:14,120 --> 00:44:18,720 reveals what was now possible in terms of social mobility in Britain. 737 00:44:23,760 --> 00:44:27,680 And around this time, George I decided to celebrate 738 00:44:27,680 --> 00:44:32,000 his own meteoric rise by constructing a scientific marvel! 739 00:44:36,040 --> 00:44:39,800 It was back in Hanover that George I spent a huge amount of money 740 00:44:39,800 --> 00:44:44,160 on the most technologically ambitious project of his reign. 741 00:44:44,160 --> 00:44:46,480 When this fountain was first switched on, 742 00:44:46,480 --> 00:44:49,280 it was the tallest fountain in Europe. 743 00:44:49,280 --> 00:44:51,760 It was based on ideas of Liebnitz 744 00:44:51,760 --> 00:44:55,160 and it spurts up 35 metres into the air. 745 00:44:55,160 --> 00:44:57,440 It isn't just a toy, 746 00:44:57,440 --> 00:44:59,760 the fountain is actually an analogy 747 00:44:59,760 --> 00:45:02,120 for the rise of the House of Hanover. 748 00:45:02,120 --> 00:45:04,720 They, too, spurted up, defying gravity. 749 00:45:04,720 --> 00:45:08,320 They went from being a second-rate princely house 750 00:45:08,320 --> 00:45:11,480 to being one of the most important dynasties in Europe. 751 00:45:14,120 --> 00:45:17,160 George fancied himself as an enlightened monarch 752 00:45:17,160 --> 00:45:19,760 interested in learning and science. 753 00:45:20,920 --> 00:45:24,080 And he now turned his attention to the British economy. 754 00:45:25,120 --> 00:45:28,720 He needed to deal with the problem of the national debt 755 00:45:28,720 --> 00:45:31,720 and his administration took a gamble 756 00:45:31,720 --> 00:45:35,640 on a new emerging phenomenon - the stock market. 757 00:45:35,640 --> 00:45:37,680 They sold the nation's debt 758 00:45:37,680 --> 00:45:41,120 to a private business, the South Sea Company, 759 00:45:41,120 --> 00:45:43,360 in exchange for a monopoly 760 00:45:43,360 --> 00:45:47,600 in the fledgling British slave trade. 761 00:45:47,600 --> 00:45:49,400 If that wasn't dodgy enough, 762 00:45:49,400 --> 00:45:51,360 the company then issued shares 763 00:45:51,360 --> 00:45:53,840 and the British were such big fans of gambling 764 00:45:53,840 --> 00:45:57,320 that they bought in their thousands. 765 00:45:57,320 --> 00:46:01,720 By 1720, this financial revolution was well under way, 766 00:46:01,720 --> 00:46:06,760 and I think of this activity of share trading as very characteristic 767 00:46:06,760 --> 00:46:09,000 of this early Georgian period. 768 00:46:09,000 --> 00:46:11,880 People now realised that you could make money 769 00:46:11,880 --> 00:46:14,360 out of servicing the debts of other people. 770 00:46:14,360 --> 00:46:16,000 Doesn't that sound familiar? 771 00:46:18,120 --> 00:46:22,120 George was about to plunge Britain into financial chaos. 772 00:46:22,120 --> 00:46:25,640 The whole affair became known as the South Sea Bubble. 773 00:46:28,600 --> 00:46:31,560 Shares prices rose so quickly that the company 774 00:46:31,560 --> 00:46:35,320 was worth £2.5 trillion in today's money. 775 00:46:35,320 --> 00:46:38,400 There were even playing cards produced 776 00:46:38,400 --> 00:46:42,320 that charted this frenzy of speculation. 777 00:46:42,320 --> 00:46:45,240 Dr Helen Paul is an economic historian 778 00:46:45,240 --> 00:46:50,640 who has investigated the boom and bust of the South Sea Company. 779 00:46:50,640 --> 00:46:55,000 What was the atmosphere like in 1720 as the prices began to rise? 780 00:46:55,000 --> 00:46:57,560 The prices went up far too high to be sustainable 781 00:46:57,560 --> 00:47:00,600 and once you realise that you've got naive investors coming in, 782 00:47:00,600 --> 00:47:04,120 other people try to buy the same shares to sell out to them, 783 00:47:04,120 --> 00:47:06,840 but you've also got a lot of money coming in from Paris 784 00:47:06,840 --> 00:47:09,080 where the stock market recently crashed, 785 00:47:09,080 --> 00:47:12,440 trying to find a safe haven. That pushes up prices. 786 00:47:12,440 --> 00:47:14,600 Eventually, the bubble has to burst 787 00:47:14,600 --> 00:47:18,560 and when the smart money leaves, everyone else panics. 788 00:47:18,560 --> 00:47:21,440 So, this man has lost money in the company, 789 00:47:21,440 --> 00:47:24,680 he's actually thrown himself from the window here. 790 00:47:24,680 --> 00:47:27,240 "A ruined South Sea Jobber of renown 791 00:47:27,240 --> 00:47:30,640 "who leaps from a lofty window, headlong down." 792 00:47:30,640 --> 00:47:32,520 Oh, dear, and it's saying, 793 00:47:32,520 --> 00:47:35,920 "South Sea stock! Oh, those villains!" 794 00:47:35,920 --> 00:47:38,160 There was a huge amount of outcry. 795 00:47:38,160 --> 00:47:41,120 People were called the "South Sea sufferers". 796 00:47:41,120 --> 00:47:44,200 There was a lot of debate about whether people who gained money 797 00:47:44,200 --> 00:47:47,040 should be forced to hand it back. 798 00:47:47,040 --> 00:47:50,040 But, people who gained money didn't say very much about it. 799 00:47:50,040 --> 00:47:52,360 Is it the beginning of a sort of fear, 800 00:47:52,360 --> 00:47:55,320 a tarnishing of the image of stock market? 801 00:47:55,320 --> 00:47:58,840 There'd always been the sense that finance was somehow dirty. 802 00:47:58,840 --> 00:48:00,200 Land was so important, 803 00:48:00,200 --> 00:48:03,800 these people were not necessarily the landed class, 804 00:48:03,800 --> 00:48:07,760 so there'd always been this sense of grubbiness about it. 805 00:48:07,760 --> 00:48:11,160 And there was a lot of criticism of financiers per se, 806 00:48:11,160 --> 00:48:13,960 many of whom were assumed to be foreigners and Jews, 807 00:48:13,960 --> 00:48:17,880 Catholics and other alleged undesirables. 808 00:48:17,880 --> 00:48:21,640 So, this card here shows a Jewish broker 809 00:48:21,640 --> 00:48:25,480 being forcibly baptised in a horse pond. 810 00:48:25,480 --> 00:48:27,400 "Drown the Jewish dog!" 811 00:48:27,400 --> 00:48:30,440 - There he goes, into the pond. - This is just one card. 812 00:48:30,440 --> 00:48:32,600 There are several that are anti-Semetic. 813 00:48:32,600 --> 00:48:35,160 And it says here, "All the Jews deserve as much." 814 00:48:35,160 --> 00:48:37,720 So, blame the Jews for this particular bubble? 815 00:48:37,720 --> 00:48:41,120 That's right, but Jewish people have been associated 816 00:48:41,120 --> 00:48:44,240 with usury or finance for many centuries. 817 00:48:47,560 --> 00:48:50,720 This really unpleasant anti-Semitism 818 00:48:50,720 --> 00:48:54,880 exposed the holes in Georgian Britain's facade 819 00:48:54,880 --> 00:48:57,760 as a land of liberty and tolerance. 820 00:48:57,760 --> 00:49:01,320 To make things worse, the corruption of the South Sea scandal 821 00:49:01,320 --> 00:49:05,680 went right to the heart of Government. 822 00:49:05,680 --> 00:49:08,120 Backhanders were paid to politicians 823 00:49:08,120 --> 00:49:10,760 and insider trading was rife. 824 00:49:15,920 --> 00:49:20,280 When the bubble burst, George had to call in a fixer. 825 00:49:20,280 --> 00:49:24,480 He chose his closest political ally, Robert Walpole. 826 00:49:28,680 --> 00:49:33,360 Having sold his shares at the top of the market, though, people thought 827 00:49:33,360 --> 00:49:37,160 that Walpole, too, had his snout in the South Sea trough. 828 00:49:38,680 --> 00:49:40,400 This is Change Alley in the city 829 00:49:40,400 --> 00:49:42,680 and it was in the coffee houses along here 830 00:49:42,680 --> 00:49:47,080 that the wheeling and the dealing of the South Sea Bubble took place. 831 00:49:47,080 --> 00:49:50,800 When it burst, they were full of panic and fear, 832 00:49:50,800 --> 00:49:54,840 and now, up pops Robert Walpole to limit the damage. 833 00:49:54,840 --> 00:49:58,200 He was put in charge of an investigation into the crisis 834 00:49:58,200 --> 00:50:00,800 but it didn't really go anywhere. 835 00:50:00,800 --> 00:50:03,320 It was thought that he protected prominent people 836 00:50:03,320 --> 00:50:06,720 from charges of bribery and corruption 837 00:50:06,720 --> 00:50:10,520 and because he'd shielded them from the consequences of their actions, 838 00:50:10,520 --> 00:50:13,880 people called him the "Screen Master General". 839 00:50:17,960 --> 00:50:21,760 There was a growing feeling that, once again, the elite had won, 840 00:50:21,760 --> 00:50:25,320 but Walpole didn't get off entirely scot-free. 841 00:50:25,320 --> 00:50:29,280 There was a new force at work in Georgian society - satire. 842 00:50:32,840 --> 00:50:36,200 One of the Georgian age's most notorious images 843 00:50:36,200 --> 00:50:38,520 is Walpole's huge naked bottom 844 00:50:38,520 --> 00:50:41,200 blocking the way into the Treasury. 845 00:50:41,200 --> 00:50:44,160 To get on in 18th-century government, 846 00:50:44,160 --> 00:50:46,400 this is what you had to kiss. 847 00:50:48,080 --> 00:50:51,640 These satirists used lewd images and language 848 00:50:51,640 --> 00:50:53,520 to skewer hypocrisy, 849 00:50:53,520 --> 00:50:58,320 from a diving competition into the sewers of Fleet Street 850 00:50:58,320 --> 00:51:02,440 to a giant weeing on the royal palace. 851 00:51:02,440 --> 00:51:05,680 They were reaping the benefits of a very strange thing 852 00:51:05,680 --> 00:51:09,320 that had happened at the end of the previous century. 853 00:51:09,320 --> 00:51:12,080 According to contemporary satirist Martin Rowson, 854 00:51:12,080 --> 00:51:16,440 parliament had inadvertently made this satire boom possible. 855 00:51:17,600 --> 00:51:20,560 Could you print anything you wanted? 856 00:51:20,560 --> 00:51:22,920 It's, I think, one of the most beautiful moments 857 00:51:22,920 --> 00:51:25,760 certainly in British and probably in world history, 858 00:51:25,760 --> 00:51:27,240 because it was an accident. 859 00:51:27,240 --> 00:51:30,360 If they were meant to be renewing the Licensing Act 860 00:51:30,360 --> 00:51:34,160 which was essentially press censorship, the Royal Licence. 861 00:51:34,160 --> 00:51:37,400 And somebody forgot to put it in the parliamentary timetable. 862 00:51:37,400 --> 00:51:39,800 Suddenly, Pandora's Box was opened. 863 00:51:39,800 --> 00:51:43,000 - You could print anything you wanted? - You could print anything you wanted. 864 00:51:43,000 --> 00:51:49,160 There was a sudden eruption of freedom of speech and of satire. 865 00:51:49,160 --> 00:51:53,160 And whereas people had previously been writing satires on behalf of rich and powerful men 866 00:51:53,160 --> 00:51:56,640 to attack other rich and powerful men - which meant that they had a protector - 867 00:51:56,640 --> 00:52:00,080 now, they could write whatever they wanted. 868 00:52:00,080 --> 00:52:03,480 So, you could now print all kinds of naughty stuff with impunity? 869 00:52:03,480 --> 00:52:08,560 It meant suddenly the people were liberated to satirise everything. 870 00:52:08,560 --> 00:52:11,720 And after Leveson last year when people were saying, 871 00:52:11,720 --> 00:52:14,800 "We fought! We fought for centuries for this freedom of the press!" 872 00:52:14,800 --> 00:52:16,800 No, we didn't! It just happened by mistake 873 00:52:16,800 --> 00:52:19,800 because somebody forgot to put it in the parliamentary timetables. 874 00:52:19,800 --> 00:52:24,560 And it's what led to our understanding in the 18th century. 875 00:52:24,560 --> 00:52:30,480 It's not necessarily been the age of George I, George II, George III, 876 00:52:30,480 --> 00:52:34,520 but the age of Swift and Pope and Hogarth, 877 00:52:34,520 --> 00:52:36,720 and later, Gillray and Sterne. 878 00:52:36,720 --> 00:52:40,320 There is this open sewer of satire running through the Enlightenment. 879 00:52:40,320 --> 00:52:43,480 How popular was this? Who did it appeal to? 880 00:52:43,480 --> 00:52:45,240 It's a weird relationship, 881 00:52:45,240 --> 00:52:49,120 because, on the one hand, this is scurrilous, filthy stuff, 882 00:52:49,120 --> 00:52:52,000 but on the other hand, the people who bought Gillray's stuff 883 00:52:52,000 --> 00:52:55,560 and who bought Hogarth's stuff were the people who were being satirised. 884 00:52:55,560 --> 00:52:57,560 They understood it was part of the joke. 885 00:52:59,120 --> 00:53:04,560 Satire allowed people to criticise the highest echelons of society 886 00:53:04,560 --> 00:53:07,960 without getting thrown into the Tower Of London. 887 00:53:07,960 --> 00:53:10,680 But the satirists upped the ante again - 888 00:53:10,680 --> 00:53:13,560 when writers such as Jonathan Swift were bold enough 889 00:53:13,560 --> 00:53:17,080 to have a go at the monarchy itself. 890 00:53:17,080 --> 00:53:19,240 In Gulliver's Travels, 891 00:53:19,240 --> 00:53:23,400 Swift has his main character, Lemuel Gulliver, 892 00:53:23,400 --> 00:53:25,840 wash up on the island of Lilliput. 893 00:53:25,840 --> 00:53:28,960 Here, he found a tiny royal court 894 00:53:28,960 --> 00:53:32,960 where everyone is obsessed with climbing the greasy pole. 895 00:53:34,600 --> 00:53:37,440 How did Swift satirise the monarchy? 896 00:53:37,440 --> 00:53:39,600 Gulliver's Travels is a prolonged satire 897 00:53:39,600 --> 00:53:41,960 on the whole notion of courts. 898 00:53:41,960 --> 00:53:43,680 So, there's all this stuff about 899 00:53:43,680 --> 00:53:46,880 people having to jump over higher sticks to get preferment, 900 00:53:46,880 --> 00:53:50,400 courtiers having to do this rope dance on a tightrope. 901 00:53:52,080 --> 00:53:55,960 The levels of corruption, the levels of venality... 902 00:53:57,200 --> 00:54:01,200 It's not that difficult a satire to say these people who thought 903 00:54:01,200 --> 00:54:04,240 they were such great men are really little tiny things. 904 00:54:04,240 --> 00:54:06,480 And, of course, all the people in George I's court 905 00:54:06,480 --> 00:54:08,080 recognised what it was all about. 906 00:54:08,080 --> 00:54:11,400 Did these people not mind Jonathan Swift laughing at them? 907 00:54:11,400 --> 00:54:12,520 It is part of the game. 908 00:54:12,520 --> 00:54:16,000 If you're in a position of power over your fellow citizens 909 00:54:16,000 --> 00:54:18,360 and you can't take a joke about yourself, 910 00:54:18,360 --> 00:54:22,200 then, really, you're not quite the thing, you're not quite right, 911 00:54:22,200 --> 00:54:23,920 because you should recognise 912 00:54:23,920 --> 00:54:27,200 that your position is inherently ludicrous. 913 00:54:30,160 --> 00:54:34,520 All this satire was so popular that the King and the politicians 914 00:54:34,520 --> 00:54:36,800 had to take it took it on the chin. 915 00:54:36,800 --> 00:54:40,440 Better to laugh along, pretending you were in on the joke. 916 00:54:41,960 --> 00:54:44,880 But it was Robert Walpole, not the King, 917 00:54:44,880 --> 00:54:47,520 who was the greatest target of fun. 918 00:54:47,520 --> 00:54:52,800 George I often just wasn't there. He'd gone back to Germany. 919 00:54:55,000 --> 00:54:59,160 Here's George I on a happy hunting holiday back in Hanover. 920 00:54:59,160 --> 00:55:01,040 These are his ancestral forests. 921 00:55:01,040 --> 00:55:04,720 You get the sense that this is where he thinks he really belongs 922 00:55:04,720 --> 00:55:07,200 and he's brought an awful lot of people with him. 923 00:55:07,200 --> 00:55:10,480 You can see here the whole of his German household, 924 00:55:10,480 --> 00:55:13,320 there are Mustafa and Muhammad, his valets, 925 00:55:13,320 --> 00:55:18,360 but he's also brought with him some prominent British politicians. 926 00:55:18,360 --> 00:55:21,360 Milord Townsend, as it says here, he was a top Whig, 927 00:55:21,360 --> 00:55:25,640 and here we have Milady Townsend - he's brought his wife with him. 928 00:55:25,640 --> 00:55:29,120 And this is a real problem - when the King comes over to Germany 929 00:55:29,120 --> 00:55:30,960 and he brings all these people, 930 00:55:30,960 --> 00:55:33,920 it's like he sucks all the life out of the British politics. 931 00:55:33,920 --> 00:55:36,720 Nothing can happen in London without him 932 00:55:36,720 --> 00:55:39,560 and something of a power vacuum opens up. 933 00:55:45,160 --> 00:55:49,480 And when the King's away, Walpole will play. 934 00:55:49,480 --> 00:55:52,480 Many of George's ministers were strongly opposed 935 00:55:52,480 --> 00:55:55,000 to his frequent visits to Hanover 936 00:55:55,000 --> 00:55:58,880 but Walpole saw them as an opportunity. 937 00:55:58,880 --> 00:56:02,760 This was the origin of modern government. 938 00:56:02,760 --> 00:56:06,920 When the King was away in Germany, his ministers got into the habit 939 00:56:06,920 --> 00:56:11,960 of meeting by themselves without him, making autonomous decisions. 940 00:56:11,960 --> 00:56:14,800 These meetings of the government ministers were chaired by - 941 00:56:14,800 --> 00:56:17,120 who else? - Sir Robert Walpole. 942 00:56:17,120 --> 00:56:19,520 He was first amongst the equals 943 00:56:19,520 --> 00:56:23,360 and he came up with the concept of cabinet solidarity. 944 00:56:23,360 --> 00:56:25,560 Once they'd all agreed on a policy, 945 00:56:25,560 --> 00:56:29,280 they had to defend it in public or else resign. 946 00:56:29,280 --> 00:56:32,280 This is the essence of the system of cabinet government 947 00:56:32,280 --> 00:56:33,920 that we still have today. 948 00:56:37,840 --> 00:56:41,480 George had always kept his Hanover base. 949 00:56:41,480 --> 00:56:45,160 I wonder if, deep down, he was worried that Parliament 950 00:56:45,160 --> 00:56:48,440 would change their mind and take away his throne. 951 00:56:49,440 --> 00:56:51,280 He needn't have worried. 952 00:56:51,280 --> 00:56:55,360 For the century before his reign, Britain had been eating itself, 953 00:56:55,360 --> 00:56:57,280 there had been civil wars 954 00:56:57,280 --> 00:57:00,640 and revolutions and disputes about inheritance. 955 00:57:01,720 --> 00:57:04,760 With George I, though, came stability, 956 00:57:04,760 --> 00:57:08,800 freedom of speech and modern government. 957 00:57:08,800 --> 00:57:12,120 George may not have been the sharpest or brightest 958 00:57:12,120 --> 00:57:14,080 or most vigorous king, 959 00:57:14,080 --> 00:57:16,680 but thanks to his benign rule, 960 00:57:16,680 --> 00:57:19,400 Britain was on the way to becoming truly great. 961 00:57:22,640 --> 00:57:27,120 For himself, though, George still called Hanover home. 962 00:57:28,560 --> 00:57:32,400 Indeed, he was travelling back here at the very moment of his death. 963 00:57:33,960 --> 00:57:36,520 George's body ended up in this mausoleum, 964 00:57:36,520 --> 00:57:39,800 overlooking his beloved Palace of Herrenhausen, 965 00:57:39,800 --> 00:57:43,000 the place he never really wanted to leave. 966 00:57:43,000 --> 00:57:46,360 Some of George's British subjects called him "Lucky George", 967 00:57:46,360 --> 00:57:50,320 this man who had so unexpectedly inherited their throne. 968 00:57:50,320 --> 00:57:52,720 But I think of him as "Unlucky George". 969 00:57:52,720 --> 00:57:55,000 He never really wanted to leave Hanover, 970 00:57:55,000 --> 00:57:57,280 he was deeply unlucky in his personal life 971 00:57:57,280 --> 00:58:01,480 with his divorce and his terrible relationship with his son. 972 00:58:01,480 --> 00:58:03,400 The history books have overlooked him 973 00:58:03,400 --> 00:58:05,960 because he wasn't showy, he had no charisma, 974 00:58:05,960 --> 00:58:10,400 but sometimes it's the quiet ones that you've got to watch. 975 00:58:10,400 --> 00:58:15,320 I think I'd say not so much "Lucky George", but "Lucky Britain". 976 00:58:17,640 --> 00:58:21,200 Next time, as their personal divisions deepen, 977 00:58:21,200 --> 00:58:24,360 the royal family have to deal with a new force 978 00:58:24,360 --> 00:58:28,680 that's reshaping Britain - the power of the public. 979 00:58:28,680 --> 00:58:33,800 This is a very dangerous moment for the Hanoverian royal family. 980 00:58:33,800 --> 00:58:36,960 If any one of them were to make a mistake, 981 00:58:36,960 --> 00:58:39,400 it could break the monarchy. 81922

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