Original subtitles

[Music]

the story of the kings and queens of

England is more surprising than you

might

think it's a fine drama a thousand years

of tales of lust and betrayal of heroism

and cruelty of mysteries murders

tragedies and

triumphs and it's also quite unlike the

history of other countries royalty the

thing about the kings and queens of

England is that they're totally

different from anywhere else which

probably explains why they're still in

business when almost everywhere else

they've either been given the chop or

have stopped being Regal this program

looks at England's monarchs from the

death of Queen Anne to the accession of

Victoria well Britain's monarchs

actually and if you look at Europe at

the start of this story in

1714 you'll see just what I mean a

European king is an absolute ruler Louis

I 14th Peter the Great Philip i f of

Spain Frederick William of Prussia all

men of unlimited power it's not like

that in

Britain Queen Anne has died there are no

Protestant stewards left the Protestant

line to the English Throne now passes

through James's granddaughter Sophia who

had married a German Prince with the

title of elector of Hanover and then

from her to her son George Lewis whose

inher Ed that Antiquated title into one

quarter of the royal coat of arms pops

the amazingly complicated device of a

54-year-old German prining and when he

comes to England for his coronation he

knows perfectly well that he's not going

to be anything like those other

rulers he will be almost powerless so it

really doesn't matter that he can't

speak a word of

English at the opening of parliament

King George stood in silence while his

words were read by the Lord Chamberlain

the crown that had belonged to Normans

French plantagenets Welsh Judas and

Scottish Stewarts had now passed to the

German

hanoverians the new King's son George

Augustus arrived from herrenhausen to

take his seat in the House of Lords as

duke of rothy heir to the

throne before leaving Germany he proudly

declared I have not a drop of blood in

my f which is not

English Ry of course is a Scottish Juke

George Augustus did share one trait with

his father's English subjects a hearty

dislike of King George and for the same

reason 20 years before George became

king of England something very

mysterious had happened to his wife's

best friend The Dashing count

konigsmark his wife princess sfia Dortha

had come to detest her husband who spent

his time either engaged in Endless

European Wars or enjoying his various

mistresses

kerik's Mark tried to help her escape

from Hanover he

failed the count simply disappeared from

the face of the Earth actually his body

was shoved under the floorboards of the

princess's dressing

room and the princess was banished and

imprisoned her son George Augustus never

forgave his father in fact father son

detestation would be the defining Mark

of the hanian dynasty they thrived on it

the English weren't too keen on that

sort of behavior either they might have

been more sympathetic if they'd approved

of the two mistresses that George

brought with him but they called them

the mapole and the elephant and decided

they were simply greedy Germans with

their snouts in the

trough and there were Scottish noblemen

who thought that with George lacking

support in England this might be an

opportunity to hand the thrown back to

the Stewart family and in particular to

James II's son living in France and

known as The

Pretender the French thought this would

be a great

idea Louis the 14th's mistress Madame de

Mantino even presented him with a song

to be sung on his accession it had

originally been written for Louie to

celebrate his recovery from a surgical

procedure on his

bottom she translated it for the man who

should she thought be James VII of

Scotland and why not James III of

England God save the

gracious King Long

Live

no King God Save the

King the song turned out to be a bigger

hit than the man Jacobite rising of 1715

was a complete flop and after spending a

couple of months wandering around the

highlands James went home to

France George's Throne was safe he spent

every winter in Hanover and left the

government of England to his

ministers his own work was done by a new

figure the Prime Minister a politician

acting as a king substitute the first

man to take on this role was Robert

Walpole since Walpole didn't speak

German the pair of them communicated in

school booy

Latin King George died a sudden death in

1727 while in Hanover aged

67

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his son was living in Richmond forbidden

by the old man to take any part in court

life or even to see his own

children when Walpole came with the news

of his father's death George II appears

to have regarded it as a wind up that is

one big

lie but the outcast Prince was indeed

now George II by the grace of God King

of Great Britain France and Ireland

defender of the faith elector of Hanover

Duke of brunsick lunberg and jke of

cah when he'd been convinced he came

here to Leicester Square at the time it

was Lester house where he'd been running

his own court and here he was attended

by the Archbishop of Canterbury who

formerly presented him with his father's

will Royal Wills had once been the most

powerful doctor doents in the world when

William the Conqueror and Henry II died

their Wills established who would rule

after them George took his father's will

and instead of opening it shoved it in

his pocket it was never seen again to

the great disappointment of his father's

Mistresses George II's wife Queen

Caroline had very firm ideas on what

should happen next and her husband was

quite

obedient the result was that everyone

who' been hoping for their own promotion

in a changed government was

disappointed Walpole remained prime

minister he'd promised her that she

would get a personal Grant of £1,000 a

year double the offer his opposition

came up with and very little actually

changed at all that included the

traditional hostility between anyone

called King George and his

son the son in question was now of

course the son of

georgei Prince

Frederick according to Queen Caroline he

was the greatest ass the greatest liar

the greatest Canali and the greatest

beast in the whole world and we

heartedly wish he was out of it she

would have said it in German George

agreed with the queen and refused to

allow Frederick to marry princess

Willamina of Prussia on the entirely

sensible grounds that I did not think

that in crafting my halfed cockcum upon

a mad woman would improve the

breed Prince Frederick's view of his

father was by contrast quite balanced

and

objective he's an obstinate

self-indulgent miserly martinette is an

insatiable sexual

appetite obstinate yes self-indulgent a

fair point

misery well he had slash Frederick's

allowance to make him less of a social

Rival martinette Well certainly a man of

Relentless and determined regular

routine and the sexual appetite we

assume that is his right for instance he

began seriously lasting after the

beautiful young wife of the count of

vmod when he met her in Hanover in 1735

and he told the queen that you must love

saal moodin for she loves

me the popular view of the King was that

he was a Randy buffoon he seems to been

flattered by the jokes about his sexual

efforts as his father had once done

Frederick ran his own alternative Court

which was far more popular than the

Kings King George II didn't like that my

God popularity always makes me sick but

this makes me

vomit the pair of them even patronized

rival operatic outfits the king and his

Entourage went to see handle at the Hay

Market handle had written George's

coronation anthems his music was Grand

and glorious altogether suitable for

magnifying the greatness of a

self-important Royal

[Music]

personage The Prince and his crowd

stayed away they went instead to the

theater Royal in Lincoln's in fields

that was where Opera was being

transformed into popular musical theater

the biggest hit was the Beggars Opera a

vigorous tale of the criminal classes

which lots of people said said was

intended as a satire on the court and

War Pole's government when you the age

be cautious and S lest the court

offended should

be if you mention Vice so Bri is so Pat

to all the trip each CRI that was led at

me it was all very entertaining watching

royalty playing out their family

quarrels but they were not quite reduced

to the level of powerless

performers King George was a fighting

man like his father head of the army and

very much engaged in the quarrels

between the rulers of Continental Europe

Walpole tried hard to keep him out of

Wars but in 1739 the king got his way

and England went to war with

Spain this was the start of a steadily

growing involvement in the power

struggle between France Prussia and the

hapsburg Empire its culmination for

George came in June

1743 he found himself under attack by

the French at a German Village called

dingham his horse bolted but George

stood in front of his troops waved his

sword and made a rather ponderous but

actually rather Brave Little speech now

boys now for the honor of England F

behave bravely on the French with soon

run and so he became the last English

king to lead his troops in battle it was

a fierce fight and George emerged a bit

of a hero but he didn't rule the country

governments and ministers came and went

not because he wanted them but because

Parliament wanted them in fact George

called himself a prisoner on the throne

in 1745 he played no part in the battles

of Preston pans or kudon which were far

more important to the throne than the

Battle of detan after all they were

battles for the throne itself the cause

of King James Stewart the king who' fled

from William of Orange in 1688 had never

been forgotten by the Scottish

Highlanders its supporters supporters of

a Roman Catholic monarchy were called

jacobites the Latin for James being

Jacobus James's son The Pretender had

tried and failed to take the throne in

1715 and now 30 years on he was known as

the old

Pretender his son Charles born in Rome

was the young

Pretender Bonnie Prince Charlie to his

supporters Charles kmir was 25 years old

pale thin romantic and brave and he

decided that George was so unpopular it

would be a dole to take

over he turned up at his own expense in

the herdes and summoned the Scottish

Clans most of them responded but out of

a combination of loyalty and Desperation

rather than

[Applause]

conviction but things went rather well

for the rebels they were

enthusiastically welcomed into Edinburgh

and roundly defeated the government Army

at Preston pans the news created a

passion of patriotism when it reached

London the city might have lampooned the

court and sneered at it but this was

different that evening the King was

visiting the theater The King's theater

Drury Lane and the orchestra struck up a

tune which they just got hold of

God

gracious King Long

Live no

no King God Save the

King the audience loved it none of them

knew that it had been the old Pretenders

music or the king of Fran's the songer

changed sides and became the national

[Applause]

anthem actually it became everybody's

anthem at one time or another Frenchmen

Germans Russians Swiss leniners swedes

Danes and Americans have all swelled

with patriotic Pride to exactly the same

tune but when God saved the king became

London's big hit it was because no one

could see how the king would be saved

any other way Marshall Wade the best

officer in the government Army said that

Scotland was lost and England would fall

prey to the first Comer Lord grant

thatall wa may by thy Mighty Aid

Victory bring

may he

s hush and like a t Rush

re go to crush God Save the

King the rebels took Manchester then

Derby London trembled but not as much as

the clansmen they marched expecting

England to rise in their support and the

French to invade instead they had no

support at all

most fundamentally they realized that

the English would never accept a Roman

Catholic

King they'd outflanked a large English

army but it was now on their tail and

another was coming up from London so

back they went and the clansmen were

finally slaughtered in their thousands

at kudon in April

1746 Charles hid out for months in the

Scottish islands hunted through the

mountains by troops and with a price on

his head but protected by tribal

loyalties until he finally escaped back

to

France and the clan culture of the

Highlands was systematically and

ruthlessly extrated clans were dispersed

their leaders imprisoned or executed

plaid and weaponry and bag pipes were

banned the Woodby Charles III made a

bizarre secret return to England in 1750

where he converted to protestantism and

expected this would encourage his

supporters to have more

hope they were more impressed by his

degree of attachment to the bottle not

so much the king over the water as the

king under the table King George was in

no danger

now George also found his other great

enemy removed his son Frederick died in

1751 he'd been hit hard in the stomach

by a tennis ball and the resulting

abdominal Elsa burst and killed

him the new heir to the throne was was a

12-year-old child Frederick's son

George but the great problems of the

Kingdom were outside the king's grasp

his country was now a great Imperial

trading power with huge involvements in

India the East Indies North America and

the

Mediterranean so was

France at the same time Continental

Europe was constantly boiling over into

war and Hanover was in the middle of

that in 1756 the Great Powers finally

locked horns in a Do or Die struggle

that would girdle the whole world this

would become the Seven Years War it was

truly the first world

war Britain fought in the name of its

king but that King now neither directed

policy nor took part in the

battles a new world in fact Affairs were

so far out of the king's control that

when he dismissed ministers he didn't

like they came right back again so far

as the English were concerned this was

just how things ought to be Englishmen

were entitled to Liberty the despots

were on the other side Catholic France

and Austria their whole life Commerce

industry and fighting force was directed

by Royal tyrants who ruled over starving

and Powerless peasants and on the other

side Protestant Britain whose commerce

was run by men of business whose

industry was directed by free Tradesmen

whose Army and Navy were run by Heroes

and manned by proud freemen and whose

Court was the center of society not of

autocratic power and that was how many

of the British really did see

it of course they were also fighting of

despotic pressure but that was a minor

detail the general perception was that

this was a war of free Britains against

European despots poor George died at the

height of the war in 1760 and it didn't

matter at

[Music]

all his grandson now George III was 22

years old he had been brought up by his

mother a German princess in her

imitation of the very differential Court

of Han he learned the European idea of

what a king should be an enlightened

despot who whose power was absolute and

was to be used for the benefit of

mankind this was of course very far from

the English notion of kingship in which

the King was the leading figure in

society but whose power was entirely

controlled by

Parliament he immediately set to work as

a bossy quick-speaking managerial King

deliberately folish I will have no

Innovations in my time what

what he read widely he was fascinated by

machinery and agriculture he was a man

delighted by the Agricultural and

Industrial revolutions and he was

determined to restore the crown to what

he saw as its proper position a position

abandoned in his view by George's one

and two unlike them he'd been born in

England and spoke good English even if

his grasp of grammar was ropey and he

had no old or young Pretender to

challenge him at the opening of his

first Parliament he declared born and

educated ated in this country I glory in

the name of

Britain Parliament was controlled by one

party the wigs effectively an oligarchy

of rich men who ran the country by a

system of bribery patronage and nepotism

George felt that it was his job to

improve

matters and so began the most

catastrophic Reign since James

II if it hadn't been for George III's

attempt to turn back the clock the

inhabitants of New York might still be

using British passports and the

inhabitants of Los Angeles and Miami

Spanish

ones now there's a thought to break the

power of the wigs he set about creating

what was almost his own political party

a group of MPS known as the king's

friends he took back the power of

Distributing positions and favors from

the government and did it himself so he

soon built up a collection of political

dependents his first objective was to

bring an end to the war he didn't at all

share the anti-french views of the wick

Prime Minister William pit it took a lot

of political manipulation but in 1763

with pit removed from Power a peace

treaty was signed by this stage the war

had actually been one Pit's policies had

resulted in Britain becoming the

dominant colonial power in the world

Britain was more or less Undisputed

ruler of North America India the

Caribbean and much besides and George

took the credit the glory and tried to

take control end of the Seven Years War

in

1763 the king of England ruled over more

of the world than any man since genis

Khan an empire about five times larger

than Rome of course he wasn't in the

position of an Asiatic Tyrant or even

your common or garden European despot

his control would have to be through

Parliament his power was limited to

choosing ministers and even that

wouldn't work if Parliament in the

country wouldn't stomach him as George

kept finding out his solution was to do

all he could to increase his own

influence in Parliament in effect get

stuck right into Political

intrigues since it was illegal to report

parliamentary debates people became very

suspicious of what was going on he spent

huge sums on trying to influence

elections and would even personally go

out canvasing on one occasion for

instance bustling into a draper shop

saying the queen wants a gown wants a

gown announcing who to vote for and

rushing out

again and since George was closely

engaged in politics people naturally

blamed him personally when things went

wrong when Parliament rejected a bill

that would have helped the spittle

fields Weavers the Weavers marched off

to find the king at

Wimbledon shades with the peasants

Revolt George listened to their

complaints and persuaded them to go back

home but when they realized he wasn't

going to help they rioted and he

personally ordered out the troops he

said he would put himself at the head of

the army or do anything else to save his

country he also had a hand in creating

the notorious Stamp Act of 1765 which

tried to make the English colonists in

America pay a tax on

paper this was the moment at which the

whole language of politics began to

change one Virginia colonist declared

Caesar had his Brutus Charles I his

Cromwell made George III profit from

their

example the cromwellian revolution of

the previous Century had certainly been

driven by the connection between

Taxation and Liberty the issue now was

that the 13 English colonies in America

had their own governments run by their

own local oligarchies and raising their

own taxes the idea that they could be

taxed by the oligarchy in London headed

by the King was totally

outrageous they would have no way to

influence what what was done or what

they had to

pay colonists who supported the

government were threatened by their

compatriots some were tarred and

feathered and by the time the ACT came

into effect there wasn't a single person

who'd accepted the job of commissioner

to collect the tax it had to be

repealed there was similar alarm in

England as in his attempt to control

Parliament George arrested his leading

critic there John wils mobs rioted in

the of wils and Liberty and threatened

the King wils was released and it was

established that there was a legal right

to report and criticize what happened in

Parliament but by 1770 he had created

the political system he wanted the

political parties had collapsed and he

had a docile chief minister Lord North

with a parliamentary majority through

whom he could run things the way he

thought they should be George liked

running things popularly known as farmer

George he took took a very close

interest in modern farming methods

developing animal breeds and new crops

these were the same modern farming

methods which by enclosing common lands

and creating large self-contained Farms

were breaking up Village communities all

over England and creating a new class of

half starved landless wage

laborers bad Harvest didn't help nor did

a collapse in trade the colonists in

America were showing their anger by

refusing to import any anything from

Britain Lord North decided the best

thing to do was repeal all the taxes on

them except for a symbolic tax on tea 3

years later he arranged another Act of

parliament to try to help the East India

Company sell more tea in America and

radicals in Boston retaliated with a

symbolic tea party at which men dressed

as Native Americans dumped the tea in

the

harbor the reaction in England stirred

by the popular press was that the

colonists must be punished George

certainly shared that view blows must

decide whether they are to be subject to

this country or

independent misunderstanding the

strength of feeling and of organization

against them the Government tried to use

too little force and triggered a

fullscale

rebellion the rebel colonists proclaimed

their independence in 1776 and with the

backing of a large part of popular

opinion in England George was determined

to fight them and crush them the result

as many less warlike Englishmen had been

warning was disaster for England even

Lord North wanted out but George was in

charge the American Revolutionary War

became a campaign not against unjust

government or English rule but against

the very principle of monarchic

government George's determination to be

active in government and place himself

at the heart of politics created a new

Republican movement a language in which

to attack the rule of Kings the piece of

Versa in 1783 forced Britain to

recognize the United States of America

six years later their host at Versailles

Louis the 16th of France was himself

called on by a revolutionary crowd who

carried him off and set up their own

Republic the process of destroying

monarchy was

underway did George understand what he

D he certainly Fred about the American

disaster and perhaps it was his own

sense of failure that made him display

signs of mental disturbance in 1788

talking incessantly and behaving oddly

his doctor thought making him bleed

would help when that failed the Prince

of Wales took over the

treatment the Prince of Wales was 26

years old a dashing if rather fat man

about town and in the grand tradition of

their Hanoverian ancestors King George

and his son hated each

other the prince lived in the house

pought for his mother the Duke of

Buckingham's magnificent home near St

James's park it was still called

Buckingham house he liked it so much he

eventually built a rather dull Palace

around

it when he came of age he'd set up his

home in clarence's house taken his seat

in the House of Lords and set about

being a thorn in Daddy's flesh partly by

opposing his father's ministers and

partly by his wildly extravagant social

life in the course of which he secretly

married a glamorous Widow Mrs Fitz

Herbert after a passionate wooing

process that included theatrically

stabbing himself to safely produce as

much blood as

possible the marriage was illegal he

wasn't allowed to Wed without the king's

consent it was also significant that the

lady was a Roman Catholic in 1780

anti-catholic riers stirred up by Lord

George Gordon had taken over London for

a week eventually dispersed by troops on

the king's orders the Gordon riots ended

with 290 people dead and 25 ring leaders

hanged not of course Lord

George priny as his friends called him

spent his time in gambling clubs in the

company of dandies like Bo brumel and

put much energy into building the

bizarre and spectacular Pavilion in

Brighton that's where he was when he

heard that the King was mentally ill and

he hurried off to Windsor to take over

28 years old he was going to be

Regent when the king saw his son he

physically attacked him he threw priny

against the wall the poor boy burst into

tears there was then a huge political

battle over what powers the regent would

be allowed to have his own bunch of

politicians led by Fox on one side and

the Kings led by pit on the

other Fox's supporters saw pit as a sort

of fungus with as many arms as an

octopus growing on and taking over the

Royal

dungill and the prince of Wales brought

in his own physician to treat the king

or torture

him the Royal Physicians blistered the

king's forehead to draw the poison out

of his

brain forced him to take useless drugs

ordering servants to sit on the King

when he resisted and refused to let him

have a fire in his room during the

terribly cold

winter all this when the country was

anticipating French invasion and radical

revolution and volunteer regiments were

being formed as a desperate line of

defense very

desperate finally new Physicians were

brought in who gave the king gentler

treatment and he recovered in 1801

before the arguments over how the

Regency would function had been resolved

the King was back in charge but not in

the way he had been the American defeat

had been a personal disaster for him and

dramatically weakened his political

position in an effort to reassert it

he'd installed a 24y old as prime

minister and Chancellor of the ex cheer

thinking that here at least was a

politician he could control but William

Pit's son pit the younger was shrewd

capable and fully understood that George

depended on him so he held all the cards

and it was pit who had to decide how to

deal with the spread of revolutionary

Republican ideas from America and France

into England the same ideas that have

been voiced in America about no taxation

without representation were being heard

in England where huge new manufacturing

towns had grown up which had no Member

of

Parliament 3 years after the French

Revolution political reform societies

called corresponding societies were

founded in England riots were breaking

out in the Midlands in East Anglia in

Scotland attempts were made to kill the

king he was booed and stoned in in

London and the French legislature passed

a fraternal decree offering Aid to all

people seeking to throw off the chains

of tyranny once War began with

revolutionary France political

radicalism was plainly treason wasn't it

the government decided on a policy of

aggressive repression habius Corpus was

suspended people could be imprisoned

indefinitely without trial the

government charged people with treason

for organizing public meetings calling

for political

reform when they were acquitted Acts

were passed which extended the

definition of treason to include

speaking or writing or bringing the king

or his government into

contempt to back it up a system of

internal spying and Azon provocateur was

instituted postmasters were given the

job of reporting to the home office

anything suspicious that they heard or

that went through the mail public

meetings needed special

licenses when William Blake The Artist

found a soldier in his garden he drove

him out shouting damn the king and damn

all his soldiers they're all his

slaves bad

idea he was put on trial for

sedition the king himself was actually

quite popular he was generally seen as a

kind-hearted slightly buffer sort of a

person but he was still ultimately in

charge of what was going on and when

even pit insisted that Catholics would

have to be allowed the same rights as

Protestants and permitted to stand for

Parliament George forced him to

resign the issue had come to the four

because of Ireland if england had some

potential revolutionaries how many more

had Ireland a land where an oppressed

Catholic majority were ruled by imported

Protestant colonists and an ideal

staging post for a French

invasion in 1801 Ireland was

incorporated into Great Britain creating

the the United Kingdom it was an attempt

to make Ireland more secure the fact

that at the same time the king forly

abdicated his meaningless title of King

of France shows exactly where the threat

was coming

from but if Ireland was to be truly

United with England there would have to

be Catholic

emancipation and King George wouldn't

have

it whatever might have happened could

not have been worse than what did

Ireland still bleeding it's

now the shadow of George III Lies Over

The History of the World more Darkly

than most people

realize as with the American disaster it

seems as though one part of his mind was

determined to make him feel the full

weight of his responsibility and once

more his mental state

degenerated he made a slow recovery

enough to sack his ministers in 1805

when they tried to lift the restrictions

on Catholics becoming Military Officers

but he was becoming blind and infirm and

in 1810 his mind finally

collapsed no one's quite sure what was

wrong with him but a strain of

hereditary Insanity had run through the

royal family ever since Henry VI's

marriage to cathine De valoir blind and

deaf suffering from abdominal pains and

dementia his body lived on but his Reign

was

over priny took over at

[Music]

last

[Music]

by this time European monarchy had been

transformed the enlightened desports had

fallen Napoleon's empire had swallowed

them up replacing them with dictators

from his own family or under his

control even Hanover had been

overwhelmed the tar still survived but

Napoleon was about to invade Russia

Britain stood virtually

alone and in Britain the ancient

principle of the royal prerogative was

now in the fat clammy hands of a

gambling massively indebted roly poly

Dandy with a passion for show and

splendor but the military Genius of

Wellington and Nelson didn't need a king

to guide it so under his uninspiring

even ridiculous leadership Napoleon Was

Defeated and the de crowned heads of

Europe were brushed down and put back on

their Thrones why the ruler of the

United Kingdom even became king of

Hana priny had been against everything

his father stood for but now he was in

power he suddenly adopted all his

father's political principles especially

his determined opposition to letting

Catholics have civil rights and to any

reform of

parliament elections were basically a

fce with some MPS representing

constituencies with almost no voters and

the vast majority of people

unrepresented the king thought this was

fine lots of other people didn't and

this became a desperate issue in the

years after the Napoleonic War there

were thousands of unemployed ex soldiers

there was an agricultural depression

made worse by the terrible summer of

1816 and there was increasing

unemployment due to the use of new

machinery and the prince of wales's

appetite for luxurious silverware and

Furniture grew

mountainous graffiti appeared saying

death or the Regent's

head at the end of 186 there was a

fullscale riot in London aimed at

setting up a radical government the next

month the prince Regent's Carriage was

mobbed on his way to open

Parliament the Grim apparatus of

repression was revived the death penalty

was restored for unlicensed public

meetings printers of seditious material

were to be seized there was plenty of

seditious material the prince Regent was

a laughing stock the flood of

caricatures and satires was

Unstoppable his extravagance was

spectacular a few years earlier the

government had agreed to clear his huge

debts on condition that he made a legal

marriage the victim selected was his

cousin Caroline of Brunswick a Charming

friendly and unassuming young lady who

was also a bit of an

exhibitionist he spent the wedding night

drunk after 9 months to the day Caroline

gave birth to a daughter but by then her

husband had long abandoned

her he devoted himself to the pursuit of

motherly Mistresses and treated Caroline

with a cold brutality which really

defined his personal style he was more

of a passer than a regent and the

Brighton Pavilion made that declaration

loud and clear

George III finally died in 1820 having

notionally reigned for 60 years the

longest Reign until Victoria and he was

81 the longest life of any British ruler

so

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far prin was now King his wife Caroline

now decided to come to England from her

Exile on the continent and take her

place at her husband's coronation an

immediate attempt was made to pass an

act of parliament divorcing the royal

couple but it was dangerously unpopular

and had to be abandoned she turned up

for the coronation at Westminster Abbey

but the door was closed in her face the

coronation fabulously expensive was

performed in complete privacy she went

away brokenhearted and died Less Than 3

weeks later her body was to be returned

to Brunswick for

burial the king nervous of a riot

insisted that the coffin should not be

transported through the city of London

but it was seized by londoners who

staged their own funeral procession with

it and were gunned down by the house

guards at hide Park

Corner afraid of being attacked and

afraid of being laughed at because of

his great swollen body from 1823 King

George IV avoided being seen in public

he even built a tunnel to allow him to

get from his rooms in Brighton Pavilion

to the riding school in private and of

course it was said ever since that it

connected to his mistress's

house it became essential for the

government to break the king's

opposition to reform especially with

regard to Catholics but he held the

power of veto the arguments went on hour

after hour day after day with the King

becoming more enraged and more ill until

finally he

broke by February of 1830 he was

partially blind and raving convinced

that he'd commanded a division at watero

and ridden a winning race at

Goodwood and so he died and they found

50 years of coats boots and pantaloons

and countless bundles of women's love

letters of women's gloves of locks of

his many mistress's hair why on Earth

did Britain need a king what use was he

to man or beast why in heaven name

wasn't there a revolution the truth is

no one knows some historians think it

was a result of methodism becoming

popular diverting poorer people's energy

from politics into religion some think

it was patriotism in the Age of Empire

that king and country was a slogan that

helped people pull together against

Napoleon but perhaps given the riots

rebellions and mutinies it was due more

to the efficiency of the police state

and the forcefulness of repression

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and lurking at the back of people's

minds was the distant memory of what it

had been like when there had been a

revolution the Grim rule of cromwell's

major generals echoed and made more

Terrible by the vision of the guillotine

in

France always keep a hold of nurse for

fear of finding something

worse despite George's enthusiastic

sexual Enterprise he had only produced

One legitimate child and she died in

childbirth the heir to the throne was

his brother William who was

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54 he had been sent into the Navy as a

Young Man where he developed into a

severe disciplinarian and a stickler

etiquette after he left he took an

actress Mrs Jordan as his mistress had

lots of illegitimate children and was

given to making tactless speeches with

not much

intelligence he eventually had made a

royal marriage to another German

Protestant Princess and Mr King and Mrs

Queen lived at pushy to the north of

London like a quite ordinary

couple William insisted that his

coronation should only cost a tenth of

his brothers and he was known to give

people a lift in his Carriage all this

made him rather popular

but when it came to parliamentary reform

he turned out to be as resistant as any

other Hanoverian King by now the popular

pressure for changing the voting system

into something more representative was

virtually irresistible giving more men

the vote having MPS for the new towns

and secret ballots this would give the

commons more power so the House of Lords

was resisting it and Williams sided with

them by 1832 there seemed a real

possibility of civil war or revolution

ution it's possible that if the royal

family were part of the aristocracy as

in every other country with a king that

would have

happened but the king and queen had

their family roots in Germany and there

was no natural alliance between them and

the great aristocratic

families William was weak and was

forcefully persuaded to give way and

Britain was started on the road to

democracy after the Reform Bill of 1832

with no more rotten Barrow and greatly

reduced scope for electoral corruption

it was no longer possible for the king

to play politics inside Parliament to

the same extent the monarchy would now

be forced back into its constitutional

box and it was no longer sufficiently

dangerous to be worth the trouble of a

revolution when he died in 1837

William's legitimate children were

already dead the heir to the Throne was

the daughter of his brother Edward a

young girl of

18 she would make a demure and pretty

little Queen who could leave the

business of running England to the

professionals couldn't

she to test your knowledge of the

decadent George IV Sky digital viewers

press read on UK TV history next the

modern kings and queens of England

coming up here on history and starting

on documentary The Best of British Blue

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