All language subtitles for British Kings. The First Georges. Episode 2- George II - Part 1. Dr Lucy Worsley. Subtitles- ENG

It was a summer afternoon
in June 1727.

The King's Chief Minister,
Sir Robert Walpole,…

…turned up unannounced at the country residence
of George, Prince of Wales, and his wife Caroline.

He was out of breath,
and in a state of great panic!

Walpole was the bearer
of momentous news.

King George the First
was dead.

So Robert Walpole tried to get in,
to see the Prince and Princess of Wales,…

…but a lady–in–waiting said:
"Stop! You can't go in! They're asleep!"

But Sir Robert Walpole insisted!
He said: "I've got to go in with my news!"

And the poor, old Prince of Wales
was rather caught on the hop!

At the moment, when he learnt that he'd become
King George II of Great Britain and Ireland,…!

…he was probably
still buttoning up his breeches!

There was an element of farce
about this,…

…and George, as King,
would have to up his game!

No more afternoon naps
for him!

Four months later,
George was crowned at Westminster Abbey.

The coronation anthem, "Zadok the Priest",
was specially composed for the occasion by Handel.

It accompanied
George's transformation: …

…from Prince…

…to King!

George II's reign
would be long and turbulent.

German born, he found himself ruling a Britain
that was heading into the future at lightning speed.

New money had forged
a new middling sort of people in society,…

…who questioned
the established order.

Affairs of state were being discussed
in taverns and coffee houses,…

…and the Royal Family found themselves mocked
in newspapers, in satirical prints, and in the theatres.

It would've been difficult
for any dynasty, but this lot… was still new!

They only had shallow roots!

This was a very dangerous moment
for the Hanoverian Royal Family.

If any one of them
were to make a mistake,…

…it could break the monarchy!

But THIS was the most dysfunctional
Royal Family, since the Tudors.

Their feuding
would shake the state to its foundations.

The first Georgian Kings
have fascinated me for years.

And for this series, I've been given access
to pieces from the Royal Collection,…

…as they're prepared for an exhibition
at the Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace.

These works of art, many of them commissioned,
or owned, by the first Georgian Kings,…

…reveal how they had to adapt to a public
who were no longer merely just subjects.

And in doing THIS, the Hanoverians
invented the modern monarchy!

This is George II's bed.

At first glance, it may look
like any other grand Georgian bed,…

…but, actually,
this is his traveling bed,…!

…which could be collapsed down
into 54 separate pieces.

The original "flat pack".

The fact that George needed a special bed
for traveling tells us something important.

He was always, it seems,
popping off back to Hanover.

This was a real problem
for his British subjects.

It looked like George's heart
still lay in his homeland.

His absences reminded the British
that he was alien,…

…that he had another country
to think about, as well as Britain.

To many of them, George became
"the King who wasn't there".

And as well as the small matter
of ruling both Hanover and Britain,…

…much of the King's time
was taken up by his mistresses,…

…which was really quite annoying
to his long–suffering, but loyal, German wife.

Let me introduce you to Caroline.
She's my favorite Queen.

As you can see from the bust,…

…she's not exactly
a fairy tale princess.

She's middle–aged,…

…she's overweight,
she's had 8 children.

But she had this wonderfully warm
and witty personality.

It made her
very good at her job,…

…as Queen,
welcoming people to Court.

But there was much more complexity
and depth to her than that.

You do get the sense that she was bored,
and sort of blunted, by her royal duties.

She would rather have been cracking jigs,
with her clever friends, somewhere else.

And I think that if you look
at the corner of her mouth, here, it's twitching,…

…like she's about
to start laughing.

While the King
was prickly, and distant,…

…Caroline was highly sociable.

In her private apartments,
at Hampton Court,…

…she gathered together a sparkling circle
of intellectuals and wits.

Caroline, at heart,
was a warm and convivial person.

She loved to eat,
and she loved to talk.

The British courtiers
really relished…

…the way that she could remember
little personal details about each of them.

She'd say things like: …

…"My lord, how's your little girl?
Is she better?"

Or, one of them remembered,…

…"that the Queen was so interested
in my print collection…"

"…that I had to go home,
and get all the rest of my books to show her!"

Because of her husband's
poor social skills,…

…Caroline becomes the "user–friendly" public face
of the Hanoverian monarchy.

SHE was its likable
and approachable ambassador.

Caroline wielded
enormous power and influence,…

…especially over her husband.

This made her an indispensable ally
to the King's leading minister, Sir Robert Walpole.

As Prince of Wales, George had been wary of Walpole,
calling him a "rogue", and a "rascal".

But Caroline persuaded George, as King,
to keep Walpole on.

It proved to be a smart move:
Walpole could get things done!

Walpole was the ultimate fixer: …

…he spent a lot of time
whispering into people's ears,…

…"What about job 'X'
for person 'Y'?"

If you wanted your son
to be a captain in the Army, for example,…

…Walpole was your man!

His power was cemented when the King gave him
this house in Downing Street.

He accepted it, NOT as an individual,
but on behalf of his office,…

…which was
"First Lord of the Treasury",…

…as it still says
on the front door.

This job title is better known
to us today as "Prime Minister".

Downing Street
was Walpole's reward…

…for his ability to provide
a stable government…

…and a lavish budget
for the King's Court.

A year into his reign, George began making preparations
for his first trip to Hanover as King.

Now, WHO was going
to rule Britain?

Well, Parliament passed the "Regency Act",
putting Queen Caroline in charge.

And this confirmed what a lot of people already thought:
that Caroline was "the one who wore the trousers".

As the popular poem had it: …

…"You may strut, dapper George,
but 'twill all be in vain; …

"We know 'tis Caroline,
NOT YOU!, that reigns."

Caroline worked hard
to strengthen the Georgian dynasty,…

…and one way she did it was by publicly encouraging
the intellectual upheaval generally called "the Enlightenment".

As Princess of Wales, Caroline had brought about
a breakthrough in the fight against smallpox.

"The disease was attacking the population",
people said, "like a destroying angel".

Professor of Medicine Gareth Williams
is going to show me the grim details.

What we've got here
are the three key stages of the smallpox rash.

So, we've got the…
the early vesicles here.

Here are the pustules,
getting quite nicely developed.

And over there…
is the stage of the "confluent" rash.

This is where all the…
the pustules,…

…they're full of pus, and there are so many of them,
and you're left with something like that.

My goodness!

It was one of the great killers.
Smallpox actually killed 1 person in 12.

What happens in the early 18th century?
There's a change, isn't there?

Well, they got reports,
from Turkey…

…ah,… of a way
of preventing smallpox,…

…reported by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu,
who was a bit of a gal!

She was the wife
of the Ambassador to Turkey,…

…and she heard about an extraordinary practice,
which was giving a healthy child smallpox deliberately,…

…and…
it sounds completely counterintuitive,…

…but, in fact, it was actually one of the safest, and one
of the most effective, medical procedures of the day.

How did Caroline, who was then
the Princess of Wales, get to hear about it?

Well, it was through Lady Mary.

She became a good personal friend
of Princess Caroline, Princess of Wales.

Caroline said:
"Well, okay, let's see the evidence!"

So, the evidence
was quite bold, actually.

Lady Mary had her daughter inoculated,
with smallpox, uh,… the following spring.

This was in 1721,…

…and it was a really good time
to do this experiment,…

…because smallpox had broken out in London,
and people were running scared again.

So, Caroline is convinced
that this really works.

And it seems to me that the most important thing
that she does, is to inoculate her own children.

Exactly right! But the broader issue is that yes,
you've got a royal who's engaged,…

…you've got a royal who's
phenomenally bright,…

…and actually interested in…

…not just the people, and their… and their problems,
but in scientific and medical solutions to those problems.

It was this scientific approach
that separated Caroline and the Hanoverians…

…from their Stuart predecessors.

The Stuarts had often laid their hands upon the sick,
believing they had semi–divine powers of healing,…

…but Caroline placed her trust
in medicine, not magic.

The French philosopher Voltaire commented on smallpox
in his book, "Letters on England"…

He said that Europe thought the British crazy,
for this business of making a well child sick.

Voltaire tells us
that inoculation really caught on!

"England followed her example",
he says,…

…"and, since then,
at least ten thousand children…"

"…owe their lives to the Queen…"

"…and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu,…"

"…and as many girls
are indebted to them for their beauty."

Voltaire's book also highlighted
other great changes underway in Britain.

He noted how commerce had enriched the citizens,
helping to make them freer.

This freedom had in turn made
greater entrepreneurship possible,…

…widening wealth overall.

And nowhere was this more true
than in London!

Here, economic changes
were creating a new kind of behaviour.

There was lots of new money
in Georgian Britain.

A lot of it, in the hands
of a new rank of people in society.

They weren't aristocrats,
and they weren't the workers either.

They were what was called
"the middling sort".

Some of them were professionals,
like doctors, and lawyers, and clergymen.

Others ran shops,…

…or they were in trade, particularly
in the new products, like sugar, and cotton.

And like all these people here,
at the market,…

…they had money to burn,
on things that they didn't really need,…

…like vases, for their houses,
or trips to the pleasure gardens,…

…or really expensive
cups of coffee.

This emerging "middling sort"…

…differentiated Britain
from its Continental neighbors,…

…where the aristocracy
still held sway.

And with this new social class
came new spending power.

In 1720, a Yorkshire man called Charles Clay
came to London,…

…hoping that some of this new money
would come his way.

His particular wheeze was to construct
miraculously elaborate clocks,…

…which he then
displayed to the public, for a fee.

Rufus Bird is going to show me
one of Clay's craziest creations.

It was originally called
"The Temple and Oracle of Apollo".

It is, uh,…
an organ clock,…

…which,…

…curiously, has this magnificent
17th century Augsburg casket, resting on top of it.

And then in the pedestal, uh,…
you have this organ,…

…uh,… which, umm,… plays
10 different tunes, arranged by Handel.

How does it actually work?

If we open this door, here,
uh,… you can see inside.

There is, uh,… weights, and the pulley,
and then the… barrel organ itself.

– I can, um,… play a tune. Shall we play one?
– Yes! Let's hear it!

And who was he making it for?
What was the point of it?

It was a commercial enterprise.

We know that
through the advertisement which, uh,…

…his widow, uh,…
placed in, uh,… a newspaper, in 1743.

And I've got
a copy of it just here.

Mrs Clay describes this work of art
as being, uh,…

"…the whole exceeding by many degrees
anything ever exhibited to public view in any nation,…"

"…or by any artist whatsoever."

– Amazing! And it's yours for a shilling!
– That's right! You can see this,…

…and hear it…!

…for one shilling!

Fifty years earlier,…

…Charles Clay would have been making
a specialised item like this for a royal patron.

But in this new Georgian Age,…

…Clay could use his clocks to make a living
from very different patrons: …

…paying customers.

This early Georgian period
was fast becoming the age of the self–made man.

There was one individual who epitomized this:
Alexander Pope.

Pope was a satirist
with legendary bite,…

…who coined classic phrases, like: …

…"Fools rush in
where angels fear to tread".

But Pope is remembered as much
for his business nose, as for his heroic couplets.

He showed that a writer could earn a fortune
by selling his work directly to the public.

And his success allowed him
to live in some style!

Although his grand villa in Twickenham
no longer stands,…

…one intriguing part of it
has survived: …

…a grotto!

This is not just an exciting underground grotto,
it's also a museum of mineralogy.

Look at this crystal, set into the walls there.
It's winking at me.

And originally there were little fragments of mirror,
stuck in amongst the stones,…

…so when you came down here with a lamp,
and you turned it on,…

…suddenly, rays were shooting everywhere,
and the whole thing was glittering.

Oh! Now, I think that that is a piece
of "The Giant's Causeway".

You can see the six sides
of the basalt, there.

And there is a picture that shows Alexander Pope
doing some writing down here.

But you'd think
it was a bit dark for that.

Now, how did he pay
for all of this?

The answer is this book.

This is the pocket version
of his famous translation of the "Iliad", by Homer.

And he made money out of his work
like a modern author would.

He didn't have a single rich patron
funding his lifestyle.

He sold individual copies
to a broad range of people.

If you look at the first,
deluxe edition of the book,…

…you'll see the list of subscribers,
headed by Caroline.

So, she was acting here
as a new type of patron.

She's just buying the book,
giving him some money,…

…but, more importantly,
offering him her moral support,…

…so that other people
would buy the book too.

And they did!

It made him the equivalent,
in today's money, of 400 000 pounds,…

…what he needed to buy his villa,
and to build his grotto.

Pope was very proud of the way
he'd achieved all of this, independently.

He said, "I live and I thrive,
not indebted to any prince or peer alive".

However, Alexander Pope
was only 4 feet 6 inches.

He suffered from curvature of the spine,
and was a Catholic too.

He was always an outsider.

When he said he was in no one's debt,
he really did mean it.

Pope decided to write
his own version of Homer's "Iliad",…

…but his was going to be in English,
and it was going to be a great big spoof.

The poem was called
"The Dunciad".

From the very start
of the Dunciad,…

…it's clear that not even the royal family
are safe from Pope's poisonous pen.

"You, by whose care,
in vain decry'd and curst,…"

"…still Dunce the second
reigns like Dunce the first,…"

Who do you think
that he meant by that?

This blatant reference
to George the second…

…kicks off the depiction
of a society dominated by dimwits,…

…and ruled
by a King of the Dunces.

He was under the thumb
of a female character called Dullness.

She was very dreary,…

…and rather fat, too,…

…and by this,
Pope meant Caroline.

"Laborious, heavy, busy,
bold, and blind."

She ruled
in native Anarchy, the mind.

She'd been his big supporter as Princess of Wales;
but when she became Queen, she had other fish to fry.

Pope felt that he'd been neglected,
so he turned against her,…

…using his very wounding
weapons of words.

He basically says in the Dunciad
that she's a bit of a porker, and rather boring.

But just as Pope's relations
with Caroline turned sour,…

…another member of the royal family
was ready to take advantage.

Prince Frederick, Caroline's son, and heir to the throne,
befriended the poet in her place.

He was even painted with a copy
of Pope's translation of Homer in his hand.

Caroline now had a rival
in her patronage of the arts.

Frederick was a genuine
music lover.

Sometimes he'd give a concert, by an open window,
as the evening fell, playing his cello.

And all the court servants
would creep out into the courtyard to listen.

Frederick's parents felt
that this was undignified behaviour.

Vulgar!
Entertaining the masses?

You could forgive Frederick for thinking
that his parents had abandoned him.

When he was 7,
they left him behind in Hanover.

When George and Caroline
came over to London, in 1714,…

…there were
good political reasons for this.

Frederick was going to be
the family's representative in Hanover,…

…so that the people there wouldn't think
they'd been entirely forgotten about.

The problems emerged years later, when Frederick
came over to London himself, now a grown–up.

It wasn't just that he'd lost touch with his parents,
and needed to rebuild the relationship.

It was worse than that.

It turned out that he and his parents
couldn't stand the sight of each other.

And it was this hostility that would pose
the greatest threat to the Georgian monarchy.

Frederick's openness,
and his social nature,…

…were in marked contrast
to his grumpy father, George the second.

The Prince of Wales's common touch would be perfectly
captured in a painting by the artist Joseph Nichols.

This is St James's Park on a summer evening,
and everybody's out for a walk.

A French visitor tells us
that sometimes the park was so packed…

…that you couldn't help
touching your neighbour.

He says that
"some people came to see,…"

"…others to be seen,…"

"…all were
on the lookout for adventures."

He says that there were
many "priestesses of Venus" about in the park,…

…and the brilliant thing
about this painting is, that it's like a…

…a snapshot
of the whole of Georgian society.

We have low–life characters here,
like these ladies, feeding their babies.

Here is kissing going on,
here is a man taking a leak.

We also have commerce: these ladies
are selling cups of milk to the gentry.

Over here,
we have High Society.

This lady is taking snuff.

This foppish gentleman
is doing a very fancy French sort of bow.

And right at the centre of all of this
is Frederick, the Prince of Wales,…

…and that's what makes it
such a British scene.

In France,
the King was stuck out at Versailles.

He was aloof,
and remote from his people.

But Frederick thinks of himself
as the people's Prince.

He's got
the popular touch!

He's on a royal walkabout,
you can see people turning to watch him!

And this
is very typical of Frederick.

He doesn't position himself
above the crowd,…

…but right at its centre.

The royal court was no longer
setting the rules for fashionable life,…

…and Frederick responded…

…by joining in the contemporary craze
for refined, but informal, gatherings.

This was reflected
in a new kind of painting: …

…the "conversation piece".

Rather than formal group portraits,…

…conversation pieces showed people
actually enjoying each other's company.

Here's a lively dinner party,…

…with the host
dishing out lots of drinks.

Guests fumbling with each other,…

…and a fat clergyman looking on,
with worldly satisfaction.

Even the royal family
were depicted in this new style of painting.

This is an oil sketch
for a conversation piece of the royal family.

It was done by the artist
William Hogarth, on spec.

His hope was that the King would really like it,
and that he'd buy it.

It's got all the hallmarks
of a conversation piece.

It's a family scene: mother, father,
the children, all talking to each other.

But there were 3 very good reasons
that George II was never going to buy this picture.

Firstly, William Hogarth
wasn't an artist in favour at Court.

There, the work was dominated by his rival,
Queen Caroline's favorite artist, William Kent.

Secondly, the very idea that George II
would buy a piece of avant–garde art is ridiculous.

He didn't like art at all!

And thirdly, it's a bit of a farce,
because it looks like a happy family,…

…but, in fact,
this lot hated each other.

There were terrible rivalries and tensions
between these parents and these children.

Fortunately for Hogarth, he didn't actually
need royal patronage to be successful.

Like Alexander Pope, Hogarth was a freelancer
with an entrepreneurial streak.

This is
his very nice pad in Chiswick.

That he could afford it, shows how well
he understood what his customers wanted.

And what they wanted was PRINTS,
the original affordable art.

Britain went wild
for these characters and these images.

But what most people were seeing
wasn't Hogarth's own work.

To keep things exclusive,…

…he'd only produced enough prints
to go to his list of just over 1000 subscribers.

But, almost instantly, his rivals and copycats
started to produce cheap knock–offs.

The speed with which they did this
was incredible.

It was almost before
the ink had dried on the originals.

A set of Hogarth prints,
and of these knock–off copies too,…

…can be found
in the royal collection.

I'm meeting Senior Curator, Kate Heard,
to see how they differed,…

…and what – if anything –
the artist could do about it.

– So, I'm a subscriber,…
– Yeah…!
– …I've paid my money to Mr Hogarth,…
– Yeah…!

…and the print is going to come out.
What am i going to get?

You're going to get 6 prints,
of which this is the first one,…

…showing… the harlot,
of "The Harlot's Progress", arriving in London.

– Oohh, dear! She's a fresh young girl!
– Absolutely!
– We know that it's going to be bad!

Hogarth made 1240 of them,
and refused to make any more!

One of his great selling points
was that it's an exclusive thing.

You know, you subscribe, you pay upfront,
you're one of the club that can have them.

What did you do if you weren't a subscriber, then,
but you wanted to own these images?

Well, you could actually get hold…

…of slightly different copies.

Not the real thing, but pirated copies,
which were rushed out by the print sellers,…

…within a few weeks.

– And it's reversed as well, isn't it?
– Yes! That's because they're copying the original print.

– Umm,…
– So, somebody's drawing it, here it is,…

…and then he puts the ink on.

And then he turns it over.

And it turns up, back to front,
on the sheet of paper.

But they're not bad prints,
considering how quickly they were made!

And how did Hogarth respond
to all of this? What action did he take?

He was… furious! Umm,…
He'd had his initiative taken away from him,…

…and he got together
with a group of fellow print makers,…

…and they petitioned Parliament,…

…which in 1735
published a Copyright Act,…

…which allowed people like Hogarth, for 14 years,
to have the copyright over their images, over their prints.

– And if you copied the prints, you would be punished?
– You would be fined.

And that law stood
all the way until 1911!

– It was a very impressive piece of legislation.
– Was it known as Hogarth's Act?
– It's known as Hogarth's Act! Absolutely, yes!

If prints were popular,
newspapers were even more so.

During the course
of the 18th century,…

…newspaper production would rise
from 1 million to just over 14 million a year.

You didn't even need
to purchase a copy yourself.

Newspapers were available for browsing
in your neighborhood coffee house.

What's really surprising
is just how well informed people were!

Imagine that you and I are reasonably well–off,
reasonably intelligent Georgian chaps.

Before spending the afternoon
at the pleasure garden, or the theater,…

…perhaps we're going to pop into the coffee house,
to have a read of the newspapers.

What sort of information is available to us
in the London Journal of 1732?

Well, an enormous range!

Page 1 tells us
about Foreign Affairs.

We've got a report
from Paris.

Page 2 gives us a report from Hanover,
where the King is this week.

We've got a very detailed account
of what he's up to there.

On page 3
we've got a brand new FRUIT…!

…that's just been presented
to Queen Caroline!

It's ripe, and in a state of utmost perfection,
and it is a pineapple, a complete novelty!

Now, you and I are not members of the Court.
We're members of the public!

And this is an enormous range of information
that we've got access to!

Our Kings and Queens
aren't just faces on a coin.

They're real characters
in our minds.

This isn't just a newspaper!

It's an information superhighway!

And now the world and his dog
can have a well–informed opinion on current affairs.

What's more: the world and his dog
weren't going to keep their opinions to themselves.

Georgian coffee houses were called
the "penny universities".

Pretty much blind to social status,
they often hosted debating clubs.

There was more to this
than just passing the time.

The Georgians had this new belief
that you could refashion yourself into a person of taste,…

…by soaking up
the right kind of books and ideas.

To discuss all this, I'm meeting up with Lucy Inglis,
creator of the blog "Georgian London".

Is this about self–improvement? Is this about
Georgian people wanting to learn from each other?

Yes!
Very much about self-improvement.

The new concept
of the rising middle classes, and…

…what it was to educate yourself,
and improve yourself.

Umm,…

And there was also this idea,
that there was…

…only so much knowledge in the world,
and it could be known and mastered,…

…if you're only willing
to apply yourself.

That's a brilliant idea! You could read
every single book that existed, if you tried hard!

Pretty much, yeah!
Yeah!

What's this
you've got here on your computer?

This here is some information that I've gathered
about one society in particular, the Robin Hood Society.

They met
every Monday evening.

And what did they get up to
at these meetings?

Well,… they said,
first of all, that if…

…even though they would enjoy a Welsh rabbit,
and a pot of beer, it was not a drinking club.

It was a disputing one.

At those places men feed their bodies,
but at this one they feed their minds.

And what sort of people attended?

Well,…! We have a list of, uh,…
members of the club here.

Uh,… a baker, a doctor, a governor of the plantations,
a soldier, an author,…

– …a comedian, a house painter, a genius,…
– A genius!!

– A genius, yes!
– He's put that down, as his profession, a genius!

He was a genius!
A noted bug–doctor,…

– And a highwayman!
– No way!
– Yeah!
– A highwayman attended the club!

– Absolutely!
– A professional highwayman!
– Yeah!

And he was thought to be
one of the best debaters!

– But he couldn't…
– I bet! Did he use his gun?
– Heh, heh, heh!

– Bang!
– Yeah!

He couldn't stay off the roads, and he sadly
met a sticky end, at the end of a rope, at Tyburn.

– Oh, dear!
– I know!
– Lost to the club, I would think. Here!

So, here we have a network of people
who have only been brought together…

…by the club itself.

– They're from different ranks in society,…
– Yes!

And that is one of the key points of…
of all these clubs,…

…that they were bringing…
deliberately bringing people together, from all levels.

What did the King and the Government
think about these clubs?

Because sometimes they were debating questions
like, "Is the Prime Minister any good?"

– Yes.
– This is quite dangerous!
– Absolutely! Very dangerous!

The Robin Hood Society tried to get around this
by publishing their set of rules.

The things
they weren't going to discuss,…

…which was, uh,…
Politics and God.

Umm,… but, however, they…
they did discuss both!

Oh, that was just, "For sure, then,
we're not going to discuss this." But, really, we are!

Exactly! Which is why the… the members
were supposed to be known to each other.

So that you knew
if you had a spy in the camp.

This culture of debate meant that the decisions
of King and Parliament were held to public scrutiny.

In 1733, Sir Robert Walpole
introduced an Excise Bill to Parliament,…

…imposing a tax on popular commodities,
like wine and tobacco.

Now, nobody likes a new tax! Especially not,
the self–confident new London trading classes.

There were riots outside Parliament,
and Queen Caroline and Robert Walpole were burnt in effigy.

Crucially, though,
the King stood by his Minister.

He let it be known that, to oppose his Government,
was to oppose the King himself.

If you went against Walpole, then,
you were a traitor!

One of Walpole's opponents in Parliament
was Lord Cobham.

He had been a great supporter
of the Hanoverian monarchy,…

…but, for his disloyalty,
the King ejected Cobham from the House of Lords.

Cobham retreated
to his country house at Stowe.

Here, he planted his revenge,
in the form of Stowe's magnificent landscape garden.

In Georgian Britain,
even gardening was political.

The landscape garden
was supposed to embody British liberty.

A place where, as one Georgian put it,
"The eye can roam free".

But Stowe also delivered
a more pointed message.

Cobham hid within it a series of secret meanings,
or metaphors for contemporary politics and morality.

Now, you weren't expected to work out
all of these hidden secret meanings all by yourself.

You could buy a Guidebook to the gardens,
like this original Georgian version.

And it tells me
that at this spot, here,…

…I have a decision to make:
I can either turn…

…up that way,
which is the path of virtue,…

– up there, we have temples,
dedicated to virtue, and the heroes of history –,…

…or,… I can go down that way.
That's the route of vice.

Down there,
the book promises me "lustful monks",…

…"women out of control",…

…"group sex, and voyeurism".

The garden at Stowe
certainly drew in the crowds!

And Lord Cobham had thoughtfully built this inn
on the outskirts, to accommodate them all.

The tourists who chose the path of virtue
crossed a series of bridges,…

…to illustrate that a virtuous life
is never without its obstacles.

But I'm on the path of vice,…

…where visitors get titillation,
alongside moral instruction.

One of the stopping–off points
is the "Temple of Venus".

The book tells me
that the paintings in here…

…tell the story of this lady,
who runs away from her disagreeable husband,…

…and goes instead to revel with a beastly herd
of satyrs, these famously lascivious creatures.

So, it's basically
a temple to naughty women.

But we're still in the vice area of the garden,
don't forget, so we know NOT to follow their example.

Let's go on improving our characters
somewhere else!

But Cobham intended his garden
to offer something more than just moral instruction.

Stowe also reads
like a political pamphlet,…

…Cobham's own
"State of the Nation Address".

And some of his messages seem to be aimed
directly at Frederick, Prince of Wales.

Cobham and his group
of opposition politicians…

…had identified the Prince
as a potential leader for their cause.

At the heart of the garden
is the "Temple of British Worthies".

Here, I'm meeting Richard Wheeler,
to find out how this Pantheon of British heroes…

…is actually
an attack on George II.

Obviously, there's politics
going on here.

He's chosen some characters, but not others.
What… what was he trying to express?

Well, there's a subtext going on here, because
he had just broken from Sir Robert Walpole's Whig party,…

…to form his own internal Whig opposition,
the "Whig Patriots".

So we have King Alfred,
"the mildest, justest, most beneficent of kings",…

…everything that King George II
was not,…

…and beside him, there, the Black Prince,
"the terror of Europe, the delight of England",…

…everything to which
Prince Frederick aspired,…

…and, of course, Prince Frederick was the titular leader
of the Whig opposition to Sir Robert Walpole.

Why was Cobham
so much against Sir Robert Walpole?

Because he was our first Prime Minister,
and the idea of a Prime Minister was deeply objectionable,…

…that one person should rule
was dictatorial, absolutist,…

– Uhh!
– …and everything that was wrong!

So, according to the guidebook,
King Alfred's been picked out because…

…"he guarded Liberty,
and he was the founder of the English Constitution".

This is all significant, isn't it?

The English Constitution is probably
the most significant, because if anything…

…"works" at Stowe, it's the idea
of our old Gothic Constitution,…

…deriving from the Witan,
the Parliament of the Saxons.

So we have Alfred here,
the greatest of the Saxon kings,…

…and, on the hill behind,
you've got the "Saxon Temple",…

…which is otherwise known
as the "Temple of Liberty".

So, it's all anti–autocracy,…

…and the main point of which was that Parliament
chose the King, as it did in Saxon times,…

…and Ithink a lot of this
is instruction for Prince Frederick,…

…telling him how to behave
if he's going to be a patriot King.

One has to remember that…

…Lord Cobham and all his compatriots
were the ones who brought the Hanoverians over,…

…but they've got
to remain under control.

– Yes, yes!
– So, it's the Whig oligarchy
who are actually running the country,…

…and the King is
a constitutional monarch,…

…so the idea of the Constitution
is really important,…

…and the King's really…
doing what he was told!

Huh!

I guess that there's
no Germans here at all!

No, they're all over the other side of the garden,
in the garden of vice!

– I don't quite know why!
– Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!

None of this
was lost on Frederick,…

…who would commission an opera
in honor of Alfred, the great patriot King.

Frederick was emerging
as the leader of the opposition,…

…so his parents tried to rein him in,
by suppressing his allowance.

The simplest way for a Prince to up his income
was to get married.

But George and Caroline had deliberately put off
finding their son a wife.

Poor Fred was left on the shelf
until he was almost 30.

In April 1736,
his parents finally relented.

The German Princess, Augusta of Saxe–Gotha,
became Frederick's wife

Luckily for Augusta, Frederick liked
his princess bride, and got his pay rise.

But he was disappointed when it turned out
to be only 50 000 pounds a year,…

…half of what
he'd been expecting.

Now there was open conflict
between the Prince and his parents.

This was the beginning of an "annus horribilis"
for the Georgian monarchy.

And when the King
left for Germany – yet again! –

…his courtiers felt the force
of public opinion.

People got so fed up
with George constantly going off to Hanover,…

…that a mysterious spoof notice appeared,
stuck to the gates of St James's Palace.

It read: …

…"Lost or strayed,
out of this house,…"

"…a man, who has abandoned
a wife and six children!".

A reward was offered for information,
"of four shillings and sixpence,…"

…but you weren't to expect "any more money than that,
nobody judging him to deserve a 'crown'."

And Prince Frederick's camp were furious
that he hadn't been made Regent.

Caroline was, once again,
running the show.

And she was back
in full "social reformer" mode.

Once, her target
had been smallpox,…

…but she now wanted to clamp down
on a new blight sweeping London: …

…the craze for gin.

Londoners thought that, if beer came by the pint,
so too should this new drink called gin!

By the 1730s,
they were addicted to gin.

They were drinking 2 pints,
per head, per week!

His Majesty's Government
decided to reduce gin consumption…

…by increasing the price.
They put a big new tax on gin.

This went down very badly
with Londoners.

There were riots
about the gin tax.

Liquor shops were draped in black,
to mourn the death of gin drinking,…

…and there was an ominous new chant
amongst the crowds on the street.

They went: "No gin, no King!
No gin, no King!"

What did Prince Frederick do
to calm down the situation?

Well,…!
Nothing at all

In fact, he inflamed it! He was seen
going to a tavern, and drinking a glass of gin!

And by doing this, he was saying,
"I'm just like you: I like gin, and I don't like the King!"

Frederick's ingratiating ways
incensed Caroline

"My God!", she said,
"Popularity always makes me sick!"

"But Fred's popularity
makes me vomit!"

A storm was brewing.

In December, 1736,…

…King George was returning from Hanover,
when his ship was caught in a violent gale.

Rumours reached London
that he'd been lost at sea.

Caroline was distraught,
and also disgusted at Prince Frederick,…

…who was clearly relishing the prospect
of becoming King himself.

For a week,
the country held its breath.

Many were wishing
that the King had drowned.

But, finally, news arrived
that he was safe and well.

Back in London, George II now had to deal
with his upstart son, and mounting political opposition.

One of the best mouthpieces
for dissident voices was the theatre,…

…perhaps the most subversive art form
in Georgian Britain.

Not surprisingly, Prince Frederick
had already associated himself with the stage.

He had written his own comedy,
"The Modish Couple".

Here, at the Bristol Old Vic,
an original Georgian theatre,…

…its Artistic Director, Tom Morris, can explain
how the stage provided a platform…

…for mocking the ruling order.

We're standing on a stage, here;
it's not the way people think of a modern theatre.

We're not…

…kind of shut away
from the audience somewhere up there.

We're surrounded by them!

Huh!

And, what's more,…

…it's manifest
in the architecture of the building…

…that… different members of the audience
will have a different point of view.

Someone sitting over there…

…will necessarily have
a different point of view of this conversation…

…than someone sitting over there.
It's like a reverse shot!

If as an actor, then,
that person is booing,…

– Yeah…!
– …and that person is cheering,…

…can you sort of shut them out, and,…
and go with them?

Absolutely! And we know
that there were asides in Georgian theatre.

If you play an aside in a theatre like this,
you choose who you play to,…

…and you choose
who you don't play to.

– All right!
– Heh, heh, heh!

– Yes.
– So, you can constantly manipulate the…
the relationship with the audience.

When you look at 18th century plays,
they appear to be incredibly naughty!

They're always satirical, they're always causing trouble,
they seem to be against power, and authority!

Yeah!
I mean, Tom Thumb,…

…which is a pretty tough read,
I have to say,…

…is largely a sequence of knob jokes
about Robert Walpole, which obviously he hated!

Now, if you read the script,
he's not going to…

…say that.
He can't quite say that,…

…because it's all negotiated live,
with sort of double entendre,…

…in this kind of theatre,…

…where something
can be implied.

A joke aimed here can be shared,
to the exclusion of those people,…

…and the… and meanings are
kind of fluid, immediate, and transitory.

And that makes it
very threatening, politically.

In 1737, Sir Robert Walpole would try
to bring the curtain down on seditious theatres,…

…citing a play that – mysteriously –
hasn't survived: …

…"The Golden Rump".

The details of the play itself
are a bit mysterious,…

…but you can get a hint of what it was about
from this contemporary print,…

…called,
"The Festival of the Golden Rump".

The focus of the scene
is the King's bottom,…

…and this itself
was the focus of Georgian society,…

…because of a habit the King had
of turning his back…

…on people who were
out of favor at Court.

If the King didn't want
to speak to you,…

…he would turn around and show you his backside,
a technique that everybody called "rumping".

Also, everybody knew that part of the reason
the King had such a bad temper,…

…was because he suffered terribly
from the hemorrhoids.

In this print,
the King is shown as a satyr,…

…a creature that's out of control.
It's lashing out,…

In this case,
the satyr is kicking…

…a magician–like figure,…

…who represents Sir Robert Walpole.

But don't worry:
sensible Queen Caroline is here.

The Mistress of Medicine, she's going
to bring the King back under her control,…

…by giving him an enema.

She's injecting a magic potion
up the royal bum.

It's quite amusing to think that this play
was only performed in public…

…in the House of Commons.

What happened was that Sir Robert Walpole
"claimed" he'd been given a manuscript version of it,…

…and in order to show
how offensive and scandalous it was,…

…he read it out in Parliament.

Of course, everybody went:
"This is terrible! We can't have this!"

From now on, there would only be
2 licensed theatres in London,…

…and all new plays
had to be vetted by the Lord Chamberlain.

But there's a very attractive
conspiracy theory here. I like this one!

The idea is that perhaps Sir Robert Walpole
cooked the whole thing up himself!

Perhaps HE commissioned the scandalous play,
in order to create the outrage,…

…and to get
his censorship law passed!

In February, 1737,…

…Frederick took the feud with his father
right into Parliament.

His supporters backed a motion
to get the Prince's allowance increased.

Frederick's side
lost by only a few votes.

This was the most public affront yet
by the Prince to the King.

And, to make matters worse, Frederick and his wife Augusta
had moved into Kensington Palace,…

…where Frederick's habits
quickly began to grate on his mother.

The Palace was so claustrophobic…

…that Caroline had to come out into the gardens
to get a bit of privacy.

She loved walking!
She'd clack along, in her slippers, with red heels!

Other times, though,
she was trapped indoors.

Once she was looking
out of the window,…

…and she saw Frederick,
crossing the courtyard beneath her.

And she was heard to say:
"There he goes, that monster!"

"How I wish that a hole from hell
would open up, and swallow him!"

In July, 1737, this feud
finally came to a head.

The royal family
had assembled at Hampton Court…

…to witness the arrival
of Frederick's and Augusta's first child.

But Frederick was determined
to keep his parents away from the birth.

Augusta's labour pains
began in the middle of the night.

Now, you'd expect them
to call the midwife, and keep her in bed.

But no!
Her husband, Frederick, made her get up!

He made her walk downstairs,
and he bundled her into a carriage,…

…to drive 50 miles, through the night,
to St James's Palace!

Now, poor Augusta
was a teenager!

She was in a foreign land,
this is her first pregnancy,…

…and she spent her first labour
in a bumpy carriage, in the middle of the night!

This is terribly cruel behaviour
on Frederick's part!

Augusta was writhing about in agony,
and Frederick held her down with his weight.

He used so much force that he later said
he'd put his back out doing it!

When they arrived at St James's Palace,
they weren't expected,…

…so nothing was ready for them!
There weren't even any sheets for the bed!

And when the little baby girl was eventually born,
they had to wrap her up in a table napkin!

Frederick was successful
in tricking his parents out of their privilege…

…of being present
at the birth of their grandchild.

When Caroline
heard what had happened,…

…she too got up in the middle of the night,
and came dashing to St James's Palace,…

…but she was too late.
The baby was already born.

The next day, there was
an almighty uproar???!

And everybody knew about it!
It got into the newspapers!

This was a very dangerous moment
for the Hanoverian monarchy.

Both sides were damaged.

George II looked
like he couldn't even control his own family,…

…and as for Frederick,
he looked irresponsible!

He'd risk the life of his wife!

How could he be trusted with the future of the nation,
when the time came?

And, worst of all,
there was no prospect of reconciliation.

This quarrel looked set
to continue to the grave.

It would take
just that, a death,…

…to make the royal family
and the country take stock.

In November, 1737,…

…in her brand new library,
at St James's Palace,…

…Caroline…
was suddenly stricken with intense pain.

What was actually wrong with Caroline?
Well, nobody knew.

The doctors weren't allowed
to examine her body.

There was a sense
that this would have been undignified,…

…and also an idea that queens
weren't really made out of flesh and blood,…

…that they were never ill.

But poor Caroline
was clearly in agony.

She was put to bed,…

…and eventually the King insisted
that the doctors have a look at her stomach.

And then they discovered…

…that ever since the birth
of her last child,…

…Caroline had been suffering,…

…in secret,…

…from an umbilical hernia.

This is when a hole opens up
in the walls of the stomach. It's terribly painful!

Caroline had come to her crisis
because a little loop of her bowels…

…had popped out
through that hole.

What the doctors should have done,
is get the bowels,…

…push them back in, and sew up the hole.
That's what they would do today.

But Caroline's doctors
made a terrible mistake!

That little loop of bowels,…

…they cut it off!

Throughout all of this,
Caroline kept up her good spirits.

When the doctor came in to operate,
she encouraged him,…

…by saying, "Dr Ranby, just pretend
you're cutting up your ex-wife!

Her only concern seemed to be for the grief
of her husband and her children.

George II
now devoted himself to her care.

He sat by the bed in tears.

And when she was at death's door,
they had this very famous conversation.

She said to him: …

"I want you to be happy.
Marry again after I'm gone."

But he said: …

"No!"

"I will have mistresses."

And the implication was that the mistresses
had meant nothing to him.

He would never have
a second queen.

And when she died,…

…it was with her hand in his.

And where was Prince Frederick?

Despite the estrangement,
he had asked to come to his mother's bedside,…

…but the King
had forbidden it.

"Frederick…", he said, "shall not come,
and act any of his silly plays here".

When Caroline had heard this,
she'd deferred to her husband.

But, later, she sent a private message
of blessing and forgiveness to her son.

A piece of street poetry
summed up the public reaction.

"Death, where is thy sting,
to take the Queen, and leave the King?"

And what of the King?

Here is sad and lonely George,
all by himself, missing his wife.

He's gone to her library,
to have a look at the bust of her over the door.

This was a real low point
for George II.

Not only had he lost
his companion of 30 years.

He'd also lostan important political ally.

She had been
the friendly face of his regime.

He would eventually recover,
and, old soldier as he was,…

…go on to enjoy military victories
over the French and the Scots.

This period saw the development
of a well–informed and pugnacious public,…

…a new force
that challenged the old elite.

The world had changed, and sooner or later,
every monarchy across Europe…

…would have
to come to terms with it.

If you were an 18th century King or Queen,
you had 2 choices here: …

…either you could ignore all of this,
and hope that it went away,…

…– that's what they did in France,
and look what happened to them! –…

…OR, you could subtly change the way
in which you went about being a monarch.

And, in Britain, it was Queen Caroline
and Prince Frederick who really understood this!

So much so, that I think
they rather overshadowed George II.

Caroline had tried to help the British, promoting
science, and philosophy, and social improvement.

And Frederick
had embraced the people,…

…placing himself amongst the crowd,
rather than above it.

They somehow knew how to ease the friction
between the monarchy and the people,…

…and I think we can judge their success
by the fact that, 300 years later,…

…their descendants
are still on the throne.

Next time,
as Britain seeks to rule the waves,…

…King George's love of fighting
helps him overcome the death of his Queen,…

…renewing his sense of kingship,
as he leads his troops into battle.

"Now, boys!", he said,…

"Fire and be brave,
and the French will soon run!"