All language subtitles for mayhem.secret.lives.of.georgian.kings.s01e02.1080p.hdtv.h264-cbfm_track3_[eng]

1716, December -

Drury Lane Theatre, London.

(ORCHESTRA PLAYS)

The future George II...
(GASPING)

..narrowly escapes an assassination
attempt on his life.

(MAN SHOUTS)

While his coolness under pressure
earns him widespread admiration...

(CROWD CHEERS AND APPLAUDS)
..this was a bright moment

in a life overshadowed by
family rifts and hatred.

George's lifelong conflict
with his father

tarnished his whole life,

in time, poisoning his relationship
with his own son

and threatening
the entire Hanoverian succession.

But to understand
the trials and tribulations

of George II's reign,

you have to go back
to the very start.

Born in Hanover in 1683

to George Ludwig
and his wife Sophia Dorothea,

young George was always aware

he would one day govern
the Electorate of Hanover,

part of the Holy Roman Empire.

But at this point
neither he nor his father knew that

one day, they would be
kings of Britain.

Young George was the product
of a deeply unhappy marriage.

He would have been more than aware

of his parents extreme,
and often physical conflicts.

George's father was unfaithful.

But when his mother threatened
to abscond with her lover,

George's father had her exiled
in a distant castle.

This enforced separation means that,
from the age of 11,

George grows up
effectively motherless.

The absence of his mother,

and the way in which
she was removed from his life,

I don't think George II ever really
forgave his father for that.

MAN: George was very much
a mummy's boy,

in the sense that he nurtures

an imagined memory of his mother.

He holds a kind of candle
for this memory

of a sort of idealised mother figure

against the kind of...
the brutal reality of his father.

George's relationship

with his controlling,
emotionally-distant father

never recovers

from the deep scars left by
this massive childhood trauma.

Having suffered the fallout of
his parents' catastrophic marriage,

George is acutely aware of

the importance of finding
a compatible wife -

not only someone with whom
he might have a happy life,

but a woman up to the role
of the title she would inherit.

He was interested, for his own sake,

to choose someone that
HE wanted to live with -

which, in a way, would have been
unusual for the time,

because most of
these kinds of royal marriages

were very, very much organised
by the parents.

And George seems to have had much
more freedom of movement in that way

than some of his contemporaries.

Having surveyed
the dynastic marriage market,

cultured Caroline of Ansbach
emerges as the front runner.

There were several reasons
to choose Caroline,

because she was not only
a beautiful woman,

but she was very well educated.

She was a smart person.

Despite Caroline's accomplishments,

George is determined she will be
marrying him for love, not status.

To see if they are truly compatible,

he arrives in Triesdorf in Ansbach

in a not entirely convincing
disguise,

calling himself Monsieur de Busch.

Quite beautiful, no?

Very.

Have we met?
Monsieur de Busch.

Oh. I don't remember
seeing you arrive.

I probably went unnoticed.

I had only a small retinue.

A humble entrance for a humble man.

Now that, Monsieur de Busch,
I do not believe.

Well, believe me when I say

you may not remember me arriving,

but you will remember me
when I leave.

There's a definite performative
element to this, that he is...

It's a little bit flirty,
it's a little bit playful.

You know, he's performing
his interest in her.

She's about eight months older
than he is

and he's not as much into philosophy
as she is,

but the two of them clicked.

The love-struck pair marry
just a few months later.

It's a lovely thought, to think that

George II actually fell in love
with his wife

upon seeing her.

Once married,
and living in Hanover,

George's priorities shift
to another equally pressing concern -

his lust for military glory.

As a future Elector of Hanover,

George is keen to prove himself
on the battlefield.

One of the things
we need to bear in mind,

in terms of 18th-century
court culture

is the significance of
kind of military service.

Being able to demonstrate
martial prowess

is a source of honour, of prestige.

They need to demonstrate that
they're good military leaders

that defend their subjects.

But his father does not approve.

The answer is no.

This is outrageous.

I am a grown man, and yet you
treat me like some petulant child.

Then maybe you should
stop acting like one.

I want to do this,

for the good of our country.

Give me an heir and secure our line

and you can go thirsting for glory
in whatever war you like.

Fortunately for George,

he doesn't have to wait long
for his passport to freedom.

In 1707,
two years after they're married,

Caroline gives birth to
their first son, Frederick.

A year later,

the War of Spanish Succession
breaks out across Europe,

and, with his father's request
for an heir fulfilled,

this provides George
with the perfect opportunity

to prove his military mettle.

On July the 11th, 1708,

he leads the Allied cavalry
into battle at Oudenaarde.

(EXPLOSIONS, SHOUTING)

In the fierce fighting
which follows,

he narrowly escapes death.

He miraculously survives

what is quite a brutal
and bloody battle.

His horse is actually
shot out from underneath him.

It's a really pivotal moment,
that he's almost wiped out.

There's, you know,
a very, um, thin line

between survival and death
in this battle.

And he manages to stay
on the right side of it and survive.

Reports of
the young soldier's heroism

filter across to Britain.

Though it will be another six years

before George's father accedes
to the British throne,

young George's popularity

sows the seeds for a bitter rivalry
between father and son.

Georgia's victory in battle

is not only the thing that catapults
him to new fame and new popularity,

but it also sows a seed
in the relationship with his father,

the older George.

And there's a tension
that starts to brew there.

In 1714,

following the death of Britain's last
Stuart monarch, Queen Anne,

George's father accedes
to the throne,

making George and Caroline
Prince and Princess of Wales.

The couple join him
in moving to Britain.

On October the 20th,

George's father is crowned
George I of Great Britain.

But the establishment
of the House of Hanover

does nothing to bring
the prince and his father together.

In fact, their fractious relationship

soon erupts into overt
and very public hostility.

From the very start,
the Prince and Princess of Wales

wanted to portray themselves
as British -

almost in antithesis to George I,

who was seen as incredibly German.

And, as a result, they had this
sort of butting of heads,

because the Prince and Princess
of Wales

were seen as young and maybe fun,
and more of the opposition.

Unlike his shy,
socially-awkward father,

the prince and his wife love
being in the public spotlight.

Much to the king's irritation,

the prince quickly becomes
the toast of London.

They dine in public. They have
balls. They have a wonderful time.

And he markets himself brilliantly
to the British people.

A bizarre incident on an outing
to the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane,

provides the Prince
with an unlikely PR coup.

Oh, this is boring.

Shh. Stop it, George.

During the performance,
a crazed man bursts into the theatre.

He comes in
with several loaded guns.

(CROWD GASPS, SCREAMS)

One of the guns go off.

And the bullet whizzes into the box
and goes over his shoulder.

Unperturbed,
George remains in his seat

while the would-be assassin
is apprehended.

(APPLAUSE)

The rapturous reports of
the prince's bravery

only served to stoke
his father's sense of insecurity.

The king is determined to
assert authority over his son.

So when, soon after,
Prince George and Princess Caroline

give birth to their second son
in 1717,

the king insists on
choosing the godfather himself.

His choice -
his close political ally,

the Duke of Newcastle.

George II is kind of
furious about it

'cause he hates
the Duke of Newcastle.

And they have a massive falling out,

and it all kind of goes south
from there.

After the ceremony,

a heated quarrel breaks out
between the Duke and the prince.

(INDISTINCT)
I can't remember!

Even though George said to him,
"You villain! I'll find you,"

Newcastle misheard him.

He thought that George,
Prince of Wales,

was challenging him to a duel.

George claims his thick German accent

has led to an innocent comment
being misheard,

but his father refuses to accept
his son's side of the story.

Firing off an angry letter,

he banishes the prince
from St James's Palace.

Caroline leaves with him,

but the King delivers the killer blow

by demanding the couple's children
remain behind in the palace.

DR PELLING: Banishment
from the palace

doesn't necessarily mean
banishment from the kingdom.

You know, they're not riding off
on horses at midnight.

But what it means is that
they are denied access to the king,

to their own children,
who are the royal grandchildren,

who are kept on display
in the royal court.

When it comes to family,

the decisions of the king
are absolute.

Prince of Wales feels that he should
have a right to his children,

but basically, at law,
it's proven to him

that the King actually
controls his grandchildren,

and the children are effectively
HIS to deal with.

Forced into exile,

George and Caroline set up home
in Leicester House.

This separation,
this forced separation

between George and Caroline
and their children

cuts them really deeply.

It causes serious trauma,
essentially.

And when they do, when they
manage to see their children,

Caroline reportedly faints,

because it's just
so overwhelming to her.

It proves to be a separation
that has tragic consequences.

When the new baby George
falls gravely ill,

George and Caroline are
finally permitted to see their son.

But it's too late.

He dies at three months old.

(SOPRANO SINGS OPERA)

Overcome with grief and anger,

Prince George's relationship
with his father

hits an all-time low.

I think the crucial moment,

in terms of that flip between

when son becomes
more popular than father

is when the son is able to exert
independent political patronage.

So, in the case of
George I and George II,

it's when George II removes himself
from the court of Saint James

and sets up a new household
at Leicester House.

Because what you then have
is a physical space

where opposition and debate
and discussion can take place.

And you're not
under your dad's roof either,

which I think is really significant.

But Parliament is growing tired of

having to deal with
a feuding king and his heir.

Prime Minister Robert Walpole

encourages the king
to reconcile with his son

for the sake of the nation.

Reluctantly,
the two Georges apologise.

However, in 1726,

Sophia Dorothea dies, still in exile.

It has been 32 years

since George was last able to see
his beloved mother.

Beneath the surface, Prince George's
bitterness towards his father

has continued to fester
until the very end.

Your Grace? (CONTINUES KNOCKING)

What is it that's so important?

My apologies, Your Grace.
It's your father.

Spit it out, Walpole!

He's dead, Your Grace.

Well, it took him long enough.

Did you have to wake me up for this?

My apologies, Your Grace.

Walpole.

My mother.

I want her portraits
back up on the walls.

With the death of his father,

George is finally free
to carve out a future of his own.

On October the 11th, 1727,

George and Caroline are crowned

King and Queen
of Great Britain and Ireland.

(CHOIR SINGS
HANDEL'S ZADOK THE PRIEST)

With Handel's Zadok The Priest
ringing out across Westminster Abbey,

it's a moment of triumph for George.

Specially composed for the occasion,

the anthem will be performed at

the coronation of every
British monarch from then on.

# God save the king

# Long live the king... #

But the family scars remain,

and history is about to
repeat itself now,

with George II
and his son, Prince Frederick.

When George II first
came to Britain with his father,

he and Caroline were made to

leave their firstborn son,
Frederick, behind.

At the Palace of Herrenhausen
in Hanover,

aged just seven,

he remained as a representative
of the electorate.

It would be another 14 years
before he'd see his parents again.

Frederick is left behind in Hanover

because, again,
it is important to have a male heir

to shore up any questions
around dynastic succession

in a European context.

So Frederick is left as the kind of
proxy head of the state of Hanover,

for over a decade.

The prolonged separation
has devastating consequences

on Frederick's relationship
with his parents.

Frederick doesn't really
have a place, emotionally,

within the family.

Although he's made Prince of Wales,

they immediately feel aggrieved,

because it sort of disturbs the
family image that they had created.

You know, they grew distant,
of course, he didn't see them.

He felt abandoned.

And, as a result,
that sort of set the tone

for when he eventually
came to Britain for the first time.

(LOUD CHATTER AND LAUGHTER)

Increasingly resentful of
his absent parents,

Frederick racks up
more than £100,000 of debt

in Hanover's gentlemen's clubs
and gambling dens.

Following his father's coronation,

Frederick, now aged 21,

is summoned to England
to become the new Prince of Wales.

But it's not exactly
a joyous family reunion.

He's in his early 20s,
and he wanted to have fun.

So he annoyed his parents by
gambling, drinking, whoring around,

to the point that
his mother called him a monster.

And they were deeply, deeply divided
about everything.

In sort of classic
Hanoverian fashion,

we've got a dysfunctional
relationship between father and son

at this point in time.

HUMPHRIES: Everything that
George II did to his father,

Frederick would go on and do to him,
kind of in spades.

So Frederick understood that
he needed to court popular opinion.

He loved to be seen
in St James's Park.

He loved to be seen
amongst the masses

and show himself to be
a man of the people.

There was a sense of
history repeating itself.

Prince Frederik, at his home,

would entertain members
of the opposition,

very much showing

his political allegiance was not
aligned with his father, George II.

While Frederick is now purposefully
annoying his parents,

and, at the same time, courting
favour with the British public,

his father is spending
more and more time back in Hanover.

Hanover had been his inheritance,
in a sense.

Hanover gives him a place
where he can, in a sense, perhaps,

maybe be more relaxed, in a way,
than he is in England.

It's, in a sense, it's almost
like a summer palace for him.

But Hanover
has other attractions too.

While Caroline remains
a close political confidant

throughout his reign,

this doesn't stop George
taking a succession of mistresses.

Following a visit to Hanover
in 1735,

Amalie von Wallmoden
becomes the latest.

Back in London,

the King's increasingly frequent
trips to Hanover

sparked fierce criticism.

It gets to the point
where he's not here so much

that the British people
are increasingly resentful of him,

and there's even one story
of someone putting a lost notice

on one of the doors of the palaces.

"If you find my king, can you please
return him to Britain?

"He appears to not be here."

George is canny enough to realise

that if the Hanoverian dynasty
is to survive,

he must keep both Parliament
and the British public on-side.

In 1728,
he implements a Regency Act,

a law nominating someone
to rule in his place

when he is out of the country.

He chooses not Frederick, his heir,

but his wife, Queen Caroline.

It is very likely that
George II came to this conclusion

largely because of the political
opposition that his son had,

so that he didn't change too much,

in terms of the political workings
of Parliament

while he was away in Hanover.

Because these visits
were quite extensive.

They weren't just
a week or two weeks,

they were several months.

Frederick believes
he's been overlooked,

and goes to even greater lengths
to goad his father.

One summer, there's a delay where
George can't get back from Hanover

because the sea is stormy
and travel is impossible.

And so Frederick lays
these little seeds of gossip

in the royal court

that the king has drowned,
that the ship has gone down.

And what this does
is not only disrupt the apple cart

of George's well-laid plans
at court,

and the way that he maintains power
and the reputation that he has,

but it actually bolsters Frederick's
reputation, his popularity.

People start to shift their focus
away from George II.

Exasperated by his son's
endless acts of defiance,

George decides that the only way
to bring him to heel

is to marry him off.

Surveying the dynastic
marriage market,

his eyes alight on German 16-year-old
Magdalena Augusta Anhalt-Zerbst.

She is considered to be quite mousy.

She's quite a sort of
physically diminutive, small person,

and the idea is that she will bring
him back down to earth in some way.

In May 1736,

Augusta arrives in England,

clutching her favourite doll,

and unable to speak
a word of English.

But for money-driven Frederick,
she's the answer to all his prayers.

Once they tie the knot,

his annual allowance
is set to triple.

This meant that he could finally
get the money that he wanted,

and he thought that this would
give him more standing in society,

and, you know, maybe his father
would start to respect him more

because he'll be a father
and a husband.

(BELLS PEAL)

The wedding takes place
just a few days later.

As ever, securing the line
of succession is the priority.

Within a year, Frederick and Augusta
are expecting their first child.

But rather than healing old wounds,

the birth only widens the rift
between prince and king.

Traditionally,
a royal baby must always be born

under the same roof
as the reigning monarch

to ensure that they can bear witness
to the arrival of their newest heir.

But Frederick has other plans.

So determined is he to make sure

his first child won't be born
under his much-hated father's roof,

he risks the lives
of mother and baby.

Augusta is spending the evening
with Frederick and her parents-in-law

at Hampton Court Palace.

When Augusta goes into labour,

the King, the Queen
and the princesses

are upstairs playing cards,

and she's carried
down the back stairs, labouring.

She's in intense pain.
Her waters have broken.

Poor Augusta's
in the midst of labour.

Frederick calls a carriage,

you know, basically bundles her
into this carriage.

That is then sent at full-tilt
for St James's Palace,

which is miles away.

And when they arrive
at St James's Palace,

there's nothing ready for them
at all.

Nobody knew that they were coming.

There's no midwife there,

and Augusta is forced to give birth
basically between two tablecloths

because there's no sheets
on the bed.

And the baby Augusta is born sort
of 15 minutes after they arrive.

It's incredibly dramatic.

It's a miracle that both Augusta
and her daughter survived.

On discovering the following morning

that Augusta has given birth
to a baby girl,

Caroline cannot contain her anger.

Have you heard about this...birth?

I would hardly call it that.

The latest in the line of succession

almost squeezed out
onto the floor of a carriage!

Not exactly a dignified
beginning to life.

I could have him hanged.

And the Lord knows
what his father will do.

To the king and queen,

Frederick's actions
are an act of extreme provocation.

They were absolutely outraged.

They were so annoyed with their son,

that he had dared to deny them
to see and to witness,

as was custom,

and also how dangerous,
to endanger the wife,

you know, the life of
his wife and unborn child,

who was potentially the heir,

and say this went down
really, really badly.

Deploying the same tactics
against his son

as his own father had used
against him,

the king banishes the prince
from the court.

It shows a complete lack of
self-awareness on George II's part,

and a lack of awareness that
this is history repeating itself.

But far worse family turmoil
awaits the troubled king.

In November 1737,

Caroline falls ill
with a mysterious stomach complaint.

Her condition rapidly deteriorates.

George is beside himself with grief.

Despite his serial infidelity,

he cannot imagine life
without his beloved wife.

He remains at her side
to the very end.

There's a really lovely moment

where you see the tenderness of
George II that you often don't see.

On her deathbed, she says,
"You can marry again."

And he goes, "No, no, I will
be content with my mistresses."

What he means here

is that there's a difference,
in his mind, between love and lust.

And I think that's
a really important distinction

that Queen Caroline held for him,
is that she was love,

whereas the mistresses
were more lust.

With the death of Caroline,

George and Frederick are left alone
to rub along as best they can.

Despite their mutual loathing,

Frederic still has an important role
to play within the family -

securing the Hanoverian succession.

In 1738,
a year after his mother's death,

Augusta gives birth
to a baby son, George.

Nobody knows that it will be him,
not Frederick,

who will become king.

Frederick may have fulfilled
his dynastic duty,

but there is no
letting up in hostilities

between George II and his son.

In a blatant act of defiance,

Frederick embarks upon
open warfare on the king

from his new, rival court
in Leicester House.

In the 1730s,
we begin to see a shift

in terms of
the relative significance

of different parts
of the armed forces.

For George II,
the emphasis and the excitement

has always been around a land-based,
European system

of sort of armies and conflicts.

For Frederick and the next
generation of politicians

who are sort of earning
their stripes in the 1730s,

the future lies at the hands
of the navy.

And Britain is an island nation,
they say,

and our strength should be at sea.

In 1740, Frederick attends
a theatrical revue

in which a new song,
Rule, Britannia!, is sung.

The words are
a thinly-disguised attack

on his army-loving father.

What's so striking about this first
performance of Rule, Britannia!

is it is about an aspiration
for Britain to rule the waves.

In that first performance,

it's "RULE the waves."

It's about what might happen
in the future

rather than as we sing it now,
"Britannia RULES the waves,"

you know, saying that
it's kind of already happened.

But Frederick is
wrong about the navy.

The biggest threat to Britain
and the Hanoverian line

doesn't lie overseas, but at home.

For the second time
in the Georgian era,

the Jacobites are the crown's
most dangerous adversary.

As supporters of the descendants

of the last Stuart king
to rule Britain, James II,

and they regard the Hanoverians
as usurpers of the British throne.

PELLING: This support comes from
a large Catholic community,

because, of course,
James II himself was a Catholic.

But equally, it's a threat that
is under the surface and invisible.

It's at the heart of British power.

It's in London, in Parliament,
in the royal court,

and it's one that is
always dripping in the background.

In a dramatic turn of events,

in 1745,

the Jacobite threat
turns into armed insurrection.

What makes this rising different

to all the others
that have come before

is that Charles Edward Stuart
himself

eventually arrives on British soil.

The grandson of James II,
Charles Edward Stuart -

better known
as Bonnie Prince Charlie -

is the poster boy
for the Jacobite movement.

In July 1745,

the would-be king set sail
from France to Scotland.

Staking his claim to the throne,

he assembles an army
and marches south towards London.

When Charles Edward Stuart's
Jacobite forces

start to move through
the English landscape,

there is a real panic,
in England in particular,

and people start to try
and head south, away from the army.

And actually, lots of people
join the Jacobite army

as it moves through towns,

those who have Jacobite sympathies.

By December the 29th,

the army has reached
as far south as Derby.

This is a moment of extreme jeopardy
for the House of Hanover.

This really unsettled, as you
can imagine, really unsettled

not just not just George II,

but the whole...
the political establishment,

because they knew that the all
the constitutional compromises

that had been achieved up to
that point, the will of Parliament

was sort of at risk.

But when the anticipated support
from France fails to materialise,

the Jacobites are forced to retreat.

Then, in 1746,

at the Battle of Culloden,

troops led by
George's younger brother,

the Duke of Cumberland,

launch a surprise attack
on the Jacobite army.

The result is a crushing defeat.

The British victors show no mercy.

In the aftermath,
thousands of men are killed.

The aim was to annihilate Jacobitism

politically,
physically and economically.

When they won
the Battle of Culloden,

they did not stop there.

They ran after the survivors,

killed the wounded,
attacked bystanders.

The battlefield is strewn
with thousands of dead,

and this marks the end, essentially,
of the Jacobite cause.

The Bonnie Prince,
Charles Edward Stuart escapes,

through the Highlands
and islands of Scotland

and makes his way back to Europe.

The brutality with which he puts down
the supporters of the rebellion

earned Cumberland the nickname
the Butcher.

With the Jacobite cause
resolutely quashed,

the future of the House of Hanover
is finally secure.

There were a competing dynasty.

So, from George's perspective,

this was this was a victory -

a horrible one, a bloody one,

but still a victory.

Really, what this represents

is the moment of confirmation
of the Georgian line of succession.

It's George II's huge triumph,

to secure the throne for him
and for his bloodline going forward.

And it really puts the threat
of Jacobitism in Britain to bed.

It's not the end of everything,

but it's certainly
the end of the action

that can provide any real threat.

But just as it seems George's reign
is about to enter calmer waters,

once again, a family drama
threatens to derail everything.

Six years later, aged only 44,

Frederick, the future king,
dies suddenly.

What Frederick's death does
for George is,

of course, there probably is a kind
of personal emotional element,

but I...my sense of it is
is that the real concern -

or the real opportunity,
if you like -

is it kind of it changes the game
in a really unexpected way.

Finally overcoming the years
of constant feuding,

the ageing king reaches out
to his now-widowed daughter-in-law.

Augusta is totally devastated,
as you can imagine.

But his father, who he'd had
a terrible relationship with,

took it quite stoically,

but in private,
when he went to see Augusta,

they apparently
cried for hours together.

So that's quite sad, considering
they'd never truly reconciled.

With the unexpected death
of the heir to the throne,

and George himself
now in his late 60s,

all eyes are on
Frederick's firstborn son,

the king's grandchild, George.

With the death of his father,

young George is now
first in line to the throne.

But he is only 12 years old,

and too young to accede to the throne

were anything to happen
to his grandfather.

This was not planned for. This was
not expected in the slightest.

That's why it comes back to
the kind of significance of

what does it mean
to educate a prince in the 1750s?

The idea that your heir,
your new heir,

is in their early teens,

and, up until they're 18,
they will require a regency.

So it really changes the political
game quite considerably.

And so for George II,
the kind of question is

how do we manage that
kind of Regency relationship?

A new regent
must be picked immediately.

The obvious candidate
to become regent

is George II's second-born son,

the Duke of Cumberland -
the Butcher of Culloden.

But George II is wary
of his ruthless reputation.

While we mourn the death
of the prince,

there is, of course, the issue of

who will act as regent
in your absence.

What about the Duke of Cumberland?

(CLEARS THROAT)
No?

Can I really trust him
to rule in my absence?

Well, he is your eldest son.
He's too controversial.

The people hate him.

Some call him
the Butcher of Culloden.

A worthy accolade.

For a general. Not a regent.

Unless he plans on
wreaking havoc on my subjects.

There is, of course, Augusta.

I know you had your differences,
but as the prince's spouse,

she might be the more...
favourable choice.

Then the matter's settled.
The regent will be Augusta.

There'll be no further discussions
on the matter.

By picking his son's widow, Augusta,

the ageing king
finally manages to achieve

some kind of family harmony.

But by now, he is becoming
increasingly frail.

Towards the end of his life,
George II's health

is seriously deteriorating,

and he's spending
more and more time in bed.

He has various ailments.

Blind in one eye, deaf,
and increasingly immobile,

George withdraws from public life.

His final nine years are spent
almost entirely in isolation,

following the same
day-to-day routine.

In 1756, another major conflict
breaks out in Europe.

It is the start of what will become
known as the Seven Year War.

A series of decisive victories
over the French

will ultimately leave Britain
a global superpower.

When it really kind of hits,

it's so tied up with
the growth of empire, land grab,

you know, in all parts of where

the British are trying to
take control or retain control

of places that
they already claim in ownership.

But the spoils of that war will
only be enjoyed by George's heir,

because, before the war is won,

the reign of George II
comes to an end.

On October the 25th, 1760,

the king rises early,
as is his custom,

and drinks his habitual
cup of chocolate.

And then he needs to go to the loo.

So he goes to the close stool,
and it's quiet,

but then there's a loud thud
and a bang,

or something like that.

(KNOCKS SOFTLY)

George II is found dead
on the floor of his bathroom,

aged 77.

By now, Frederick's son George is 22

and able to take the throne himself.

Despite George II's
somewhat ignominious ending,

he leaves behind an important legacy.

The House of Hanover
is finally secure.

The fact that again, in 1760,

we have a kind of smooth transition,

I think says a lot for what
George II achieved during his reign.

This is not a monarchy
that falls apart.

It's not a monarchy that is being
riven by revolution or rebellion.

So continuity and security,
in a sense,

I think are really important.

He brought this country forward

and shepherded in
kind of a new era, really.

Globally, for Britain,

they're on the cusp of
something really interesting.

George's death ushers in
a new era for Britain,

one of unrivalled
global dominance and wealth.

It will lead to a very different set
of challenges for his grandson,

George III.

Next time, George III
becomes the first Hanoverian king

born in Britain.

A devoted husband who created
the modern image of a royal family.

But a king whose reign was shaken
by events both at home and abroad...

..the loss of the Americas...

..revolution in France...

..and then his own inescapable
decline into madness.

Captions by Red Bee Media
(c) SBS Australia 2024