Original subtitles

NARRATOR: Georgian Britain.

Across the course of little more than a century,

a nation was transformed from an inward-looking state

that had just emerged from a bitter civil war

to a global superpower.

But it wasn't English kings who oversaw this change.

It was German nobility, shipped in from Hanover.

The Georgian kings were dysfunctional,

detested each other

and were loved and loathed by the public in equal measure.

There are satirical cartoons that depict him as a turnip.

What starts off as a private quarrel becomes a public sensation.

MAN: If it looks like your dad has exiled your mum,

that probably leads to a certain element of...of dysfunction

early on in life.

NARRATOR: These are the backstabbings, feuds and betrayals

which shaped an entire era of British history.

(SLURPS)

Britain is continually at war in the 18th century.

NARRATOR: The shocking stories of the Georgian kings.

His mother called him a monster.

He was so besotted.

It's almost like stalker behaviour.

George goes, "Oh, it's not allowed?

"Well, that's interesting. I'm going to do it anyway."

NARRATOR: A time when in the monarchy,

it was mayhem.

A new king, with a brand-new name,

George I, is about to take to the throne.

His accession will usher in a new era,

one which will change British and global history forever.

But born and brought up in Hanover,

this is a man who never expected to be king,

catapulted onto the British throne by an extraordinary sequence of events

which neither he nor his new subjects could have imagined.

He doesn't get off to a good start.

A man whose inscrutable demeanour

hides the darkest of secrets.

(SHOUTING)

He struggles throughout his reign

to win the hearts of his subjects

and faces armed rebellion in defence of the House of Hanover.

To understand the upheaval his arrival created,

you have to go back to the beginning,

to a time before Georg Ludwig had any clue he would one day rule Britain.

The eldest son of Ernst Augustus,

Duke of Brunswick-Lueneburg,

and his wife, Sophia,

Georg Ludwig is born on 28 May 1660 in Hanover...

..a small yet influential territory in the Holy Roman Empire.

So the Holy Roman Empire was very, very complicated.

It was basically a patchwork of different territories.

Supreme sovereignty was held by the, um, House of Habsburg

as...as...as emperors.

NARRATOR: Within that empire,

territory equals wealth and influence,

and Ernst is determined his son shall marry well

to enhance the family's position.

The focus very much was on

consolidating and improving

their own kind of prominence

within the Holy Roman Empire.

NARRATOR: By the time Georg is 20 years old,

plans are already in place

for him to marry his cousin,

Sophia Dorothea of Celle.

It's part of the Hanoverian master plan

to unite the Hanoverian lands with the lands of Celle,

and they devise doing that

by marrying Sophia Dorothea to the future George I.

She was seen as the perfect bride for him,

because she was going to come with a...a huge dowry.

She was going to inherit a lot of her father's lands,

he was the duke of Brunswick, and so, as a result,

this was a really good political match.

NARRATOR: But the decision for Georg to marry for land, not love,

will have disastrous consequences

that will reverberate down the family line for generations.

As first cousins,

Georg and Sophia have known each other for years

but have never got on.

So Sophia is less than enthusiastic

about the prospect of a dynastic marriage

to the less than gorgeous Georg.

I'm not going to marry that repulsive pig snout.

I know what type of man he is!

He is cold, stiff and a bore.

That brute even fathered a bastard at the age of 16!

Do they want me to be chained to a man like that forever?

Well, do they?

They will have to drag me to the altar

if they think that I'm going to wed such a creature.

I'm not going to marry him!

(CHURCH BELLS RING)

NARRATOR: But despite her misgivings, the marriage goes ahead.

Initially, both sides try to make a go of the arrangement.

AMY BOYINGTON: When they married, she was young,

and I think she came to the, uh, Hanoverian court, you know,

willing to be a good wife,

ready to sort of, uh, uh, embrace her role.

It's important kind of dynastically for it to work.

The Hanoverians are very, very aware of

the need for their future to be conserved.

They've always got one eye on what's going on further down the line.

NARRATOR: Within a year, Sophia also fulfils HER side of the contract.

In November 1683, she gives birth to a son, another Georg.

WOMAN: I think politically,

they'd done their job.

They had produced an heir.

And...for Sophia,

that was her principal role within the marriage.

NARRATOR: They may have forged the perfect dynastic union

and produced an heir,

but the marriage itself proves to be a disaster.

Sophia Dorothea is a very, very different person to George I.

She loves to party. She loves to be seen.

She loves all of the glamour and glitz of the court.

And that is completely different to George I's personality.

NARRATOR: As his ill-fated marriage falls apart,

Georg's eyes alight on Sophia's maid of honour,

Melusine von der Schulenburg.

She may be no great beauty,

but Melusine proves to be the love of Georg's life

and a vital support when, years later,

the German aristocrat unexpectedly becomes king of Britain.

AMY JANE HUMPHRIES: Melusine von der Schulenburg,

she is very, very different in temperament to Sophia Dorothea.

So for George I, she is a breath of fresh air.

Melusine was tall, and she was very thin, but she was a calm person,

and that, I think, appealed to George I really quite strongly.

(SHOUTING)

NARRATOR: Sophia Dorothea does not take kindly

to her husband's open flaunting of his relationship with Melusine,

and there are frequent violent fights between husband and wife.

The arguments between the two of them are explosive.

She has a real temper.

And when he is provoked, he does too.

It...it's definitely not a kiss and make up afterwards.

NARRATOR: Increasingly alienated,

Sophia also starts looking for love outside of the marriage.

She finds it in the arms of a dashing Swedish count,

Philipp von Koenigsmark.

It's not like, um,

Sophia Dorothea was looking for an affair,

but there was this beautiful guy,

and he promised her to...

..to get her out of that marriage.

And, unfortunately,

everyone knew about that affair.

NARRATOR: Matters come to a head when Georg discovers

his wife is planning to run away with the count.

He was outraged, which is, you know, surprising

considering HE was having open affairs all the time.

It changes from an affair

that's potentially just personally embarrassing

to a state problem that impinges on the future security of the dynasty.

And so a decision is made by Ernst August, George I's father,

that Koenigsmark has to go.

(BELL TOLLS) (WINGS FLAP)

(BIRD HOOTS)

NARRATOR: One night, as he's making his way to Sophia's bedchamber,

Koenigsmark is set upon and strangled.

(FIGHT SOUNDS)

His body is later found in the Leine River.

Many suspect his murder is at Georg's bequest.

There's some evidence that he probably made this count disappear,

that he had him sort of... made him...

..swim with the fishes, as it were, in the Leine River.

(LAUGHS)

There's a question as to whether, uh...

..whether George I is complicit in this

or whether this is something that is, uh...

..that is sort of done

and enables the king some plausible deniability.

NARRATOR: But Georg's vendetta against his wife doesn't stop there.

In 1694, he divorces Sophia Dorothea

and then banishes her to the castle of Ahlden,

where she remains under effective house arrest

until the end of her life.

After George found out that his wife cheated on him,

she even wasn't allowed to see the children anymore.

NARRATOR: With Sophia out of sight and mind,

Georg can concentrate on his duties.

By now, his father has been awarded

the prestigious title of prince-elector of Hanover.

So, the Roman Empire was ruled by an emperor.

It's not a king.

The emperor gets elected.

And to be prince-elector, you were able to vote

who's the next emperor.

So you're very powerful.

NARRATOR: When his father dies, in 1698,

the title of prince-elector is passed on to Georg.

A peaceful and secure future stretches ahead of him.

Or so he thinks.

By twist of fate,

Georg is about to undergo

a very different kind of ennoblement.

(SHOUTING)

Across the Channel, in Britain,

the succession has been far less clear-cut.

The country is still recovering from a violent civil war

between the Catholic-sympathising House of Stuart

and the firmly Protestant Parliament.

In 1688,

Catholic King James II is deposed and flees to France.

The 1701 Act of Settlement is passed,

barring Catholics from ever becoming monarch.

But in solving one crisis, Parliament only creates a bigger one.

Queen Anne is the reigning monarch.

Though a Stuart, she is Protestant, and Parliament is content.

But Anne has suffered 17 miscarriages,

and there are growing fears she will not provide a Protestant heir

before she dies.

It's really difficult for her to take,

because it compounds the fact that

as a dynast, if you like, she's sort of failed.

And that's really unfair,

because it's...these are...these are factors out of her control.

But in terms of securing the line of succession,

she has been un...unsuccessful.

NARRATOR: With Anne unlikely to provide an heir,

the search is on for her nearest Protestant relative.

But this is easier said than done.

All of Anne's immediate relatives are Catholics.

So Parliament needs to cast the net wider.

In an unforeseen turn of events,

the House of Hanover is about to move centrestage.

Anne's closest Protestant relative

turns out to be living not in Britain

but across the English Channel, in the Holy Roman Empire.

It is Georg Ludwig's mother, Sophia, the electress of Hanover.

It takes...

..passing over 50 people

to find someone who's suitable.

And the person who's suitable is Sophia, the electress of Hanover,

who is a little bit older than Anne.

She is living in Germany. She's never been to Britain.

NARRATOR: Despite there being

many closer blood connections to the throne,

an unsuspecting Georg leapfrogs over all but his mother

to become second in line to the British throne.

It's quite extraordinary, really, to think

that you were so far down the line of succession,

you probably never even thought about it.

But for him, I think, his priority was Hanover.

And so, because this wasn't necessarily

something that WAS set in stone,

he wasn't prepared to give it much airtime in his own head.

(BELLS TOLL)

NARRATOR: But Georg's mother never does become queen.

Your Grace.

GEORG: Yes?

There's been some news

regarding your mother.

NARRATOR: Georg's mother dies,

making him first in line to be king of Britain.

With Queen Anne already sickly,

it is just eight weeks

before he is catapulted onto the throne.

(SEAGULLS CRY) (WAVES SPLASH)

A month later, Georg sets sail across the English Channel

towards an uncertain future.

This is a man who barely speaks any English,

certainly not conversationally,

and who has spent very little time travelling outside of Hanover,

let alone to Britain itself.

He has no sense of the country

or the subjects that he's going to be governing.

And it must have appeared an incredibly daunting time for him.

(BIRDSONG)

NARRATOR: On September 18, 1714, Georg lands at Greenwich.

(CHEERING)

Curious to see their new German-born king,

a huge crowd has gathered along the quayside.

When George I arrives in Britain, it's one of those, um,

really great times where he allows the pomp and ceremony

to play up around him.

He's not somebody who's very showy, he's not very glamorous,

but he allows it to unfold around him.

But it would have been a magnificent spectacle on...

..uh, from Greenwich up the Thames.

NARRATOR: The crowd is particularly intrigued

by the striking figures of the king's two female companions,

neither of whom appears to be the queen.

He does bring with him two women who are very, very important to him.

One is his mistress, Melusine von der Schulenburg,

and then the other one is his half-sister, Sophia von Kielmansegg.

And they are instantly sort of

the...the objects of fascination for the British people, because...

..it's immediately assumed that they are both his mistresses,

and they formed a very curious kind of coterie around the king

that not everyone could understand.

NARRATOR: Georg's unusual companions may set tongues wagging,

but the Protestant establishment cares little

about his amorous arrangements.

All that matters to Parliament

is that the new king already has suitable, Protestant, heirs lined up

to succeed him -

his son, Georg,

and his grandson, Frederick.

He already has a son who is married

and who is busy having his own children at this point.

They are a ready-made package, and...

..as such, they are moved together to Britain and installed there as...

..a new and hopeful dynastic line.

NARRATOR: On October 20,

Georg is crowned king at Westminster Abbey.

The Abbey is packed with the great and the good.

When he is crowned king,

at the ceremony, everyone present is delighted,

because to them, he represents stability,

a Protestant king who is securing their land, their money,

their positions and their power.

George I is a strategic necessity for Britain.

The key thing is that he is a Protestant

and that he's...he has secured,

uh, the Protestant succession.

(SHOUTING)

NARRATOR: But out on the streets, and across the country,

it is now a very different story.

MADELEINE PELLING: There's rioting.

There's shouts of "No Hanover!"

There's graffiti that says "No foreigners."

And in one small village,

the villagers even dressed their maypole in black,

as though in mourning, for the old Catholic way of doing things,

um, to...

..absolutely not welcome in the new king.

(SHOUTING)

He's still very much seen as a foreigner,

as someone that doesn't necessarily understand English customs.

WOMAN: English is not his first language.

Is he gonna be here very much?

Does he even like England?

So I think a lot of people are sort of...

..disturbed by the sudden change.

NARRATOR: Georg's origins in Hanover are the object of much derision.

As soon as George arrives, he's nicknamed the Turnip King.

People in the street put turnips on sticks and parade them around.

And this is absolutely not something affectionate.

This is a way of, uh, identifying him as

coming from a provincial backwater,

as being no better than a farmer.

Turnips were not British, uh, native vegetables.

They were from Europe.

And it's a way of kind of identifying him,

uh, and mocking him.

(SHOUTING)

NARRATOR: The rioting continues for several days after the coronation.

This isn't an isolated incident and the complaints of a few people.

This is the pretty united voice of the nation,

that the ordinary men and women of Britain

do not accept this king as their ruler.

NARRATOR: It's not the welcome the king has been hoping for.

They hate me. They all hate me.

(SIGHS) Your Grace.

You're their sovereign.

They don't hate you.

They admire you. They respect you.

They were booing me.

Your Grace. You call that respect?

You tell me that I misheard them,

that they were cheering me?

(SCOFFS) Spare me!

(CLOCK TICKS)

NARRATOR: Georg is acutely aware

of the need to shift the popular perception of him

as a foreign pretender to the British throne.

Following the coronation,

Georg Ludwig begins to sign his name George Rex, a more British moniker.

But he's going to need far more than a new signature

to win over a fractious and divided kingdom.

I think any observer would be delusional

to think that this is the end of the story,

that it's gonna be easy.

It's by no means...

..certain that he's gonna be around for long.

(SHOUTING)

NARRATOR: Horrified by the ferocity of the protests,

George takes solace in the arms of his mistress, Melusine,

still his closest confidante.

But people are poking fun at HER too.

GEORGE I: You know what they're calling you?

(SCOFFS) Something nice, I hope.

The maypole.

The what?

(LAUGHS)

On account of your nubile figure.

(LAUGHS) I don't take it as a compliment.

You should.

Maypoles are tall and slender, sturdy.

Oh. Oh!

Your charm leaves much to be desired.

Good job that I am King, then. (SIGHS)

You are a fool, my love.

(LAUGHS)

(KISSES HAND)

NARRATOR: Whilst the public is uncertain about their NEW king,

one group is violently opposed to George's accession -

the Jacobites,

a group of dissenters who oppose the Protestant line of succession.

They believe James II

should never have been exiled

and that the true heir to the throne is his Catholic son,

the self-styled James III.

In Britain, there is a significant amount of support

for the Jacobite cause,

for putting the Stuarts back on the throne.

This support comes from,

uh, a large Catholic community,

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

and we see that a lot, particularly in Scotland,

in the Highlands of Scotland.

NARRATOR: By October 1715,

a 20,000-strong army, led by the earl of Mar,

has taken control of most of Highland Scotland

and is advancing south across the border.

Just one year after George's coronation,

the fledgling House of Hanover is looking precarious.

In late December, James sets sail from France

and lands in Scotland,

to stake his claim as the rightful ruler of Britain.

But the Jacobite advance stalls.

They had been hoping that James would bring

further military support with him from France,

but the would-be king arrives alone and morale quickly evaporates.

I'm not sure Mar was the best military commander.

Erm, twice, he retreated at the wrong moment,

thinking he had won the battle,

and that's how the governmental, uh, forces managed to push them back up,

erm, in Scotland toward Perth.

NARRATOR: By late January, the rising collapses

and James beats a hasty retreat back to France.

The Jacobite threat has been extinguished,

but it remains a ticking time bomb.

It was still a shock wave for the Hanoverians, and it reminded them...

Which I think was probably what the Jacobites wanted.

..it reminded them that they were vulnerable,

and, actually, this was a throne that was contentious

and something that they'd hadn't consolidated

and they didn't have a really firm hold on,

and so I think that had a real impact on what they did next

in their attempts to sort of make themselves

more secure on the throne.

NARRATOR: Acutely aware that his reign may end as quickly as it began,

George embarks on a much-needed PR campaign.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

And nothing quite says "Like me" more than throwing a massive party.

In July 1717,

George hosts a lavish spectacle on the River Thames.

Surrounded by a flotilla of boats and watched by thousands of onlookers,

he sets off upriver on the royal barge.

He understands that this is not just necessarily a jolly on the water

but something that's really, really important

in terms of him presenting himself as a monarch

and presenting himself as a convincing monarch,

with all of the kind of trappings of royalty.

(CLASSICAL MUSIC)

NARRATOR: On one of the barges,

an orchestra plays the specially commissioned Water Music,

conducted by the composer himself,

naturally a German, George Frideric Handel.

The atmosphere for this amazing concert was electric.

Essentially, everybody in London pooled out onto the streets.

They were all aligning along the banks

and just watching this amazing concert going on before their eyes.

It was free for them, of course.

And this really did, um, an amazing job

at trying to make the king more relatable.

He seemed... like, if you like music...

..everybody likes music, and here he was,

putting on this amazing performance, for everyone.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

For most people in that audience, this is an incredible moment.

It's a building of atmosphere and spectacle,

the like of which has not been seen in London.

And it's really a flagship moment, erm, for George.

It offers a sense of hope and possibility and optimism

for what Britain is going to become.

(OPERATIC SINGING)

NARRATOR: George also knows that it's his Protestant faith

and string of heirs-in-waiting

that are the strongest cards in his hand.

Where he actively makes attempts

to create an image for himself,

it is as this kind of

Protestant warrior king,

the sort of...the...the... the military defender of the faith.

I think that's really... that's really, really significant.

NARRATOR: To promote that image,

George commissions a huge mural of the Royal Family

to adorn the new Painted Hall

at the Royal Hospital for Seamen in Greenwich.

By now, George's son, the future George II,

has been joined in England by his wife, Caroline,

and their four young children.

You have this wonderful image of the Hanoverian succession

on the far wall, and...

..they are presenting themselves as a continuation of the monarchy,

of the British line of succession,

and it's sort of writ large all of their ambition.

NARRATOR: The pomp and the paintings have been successful moves

in George's campaign for rehabilitation.

But then the king's hands-on attempt to shore up the British economy

by involving himself in a new business venture

proves to be a total disaster.

The idea is Britain can start to concentrate

on more significant things,

such as reviving its economy, such as thinking about the ways in which

it can bolster and encourage, uh, commercial trade,

the way in which London starts to develop as a...

..as a cultural and commercial hub.

NARRATOR: In 1720, the heavily indebted British government

brokers a deal with a newly created financial enterprise

called the South Sea Company.

In return for having the monopoly

over the trading of slaves and luxury goods to the Americas,

the company agrees to pay off those debts.

(INAUDIBLE)

South Sea Company having the monopoly on trade,

it means, then, that they are able to dominate

those expanding markets, of Brazil in particular,

but also along the South American coastline,

with new markets opening up, as gold, for example,

then sugar is being discovered,

but also the supply of slaves

expanding and proliferating across West Africa.

So being able to dominate that market

means multiple profits at both ends.

(SHOUTING)

NARRATOR: So sure is the South Sea Company of its own success,

it guarantees those who buy shares a 6% return.

The public clamours to take part

in this government-backed get-rich-quick scheme.

The market goes wild. Everybody wants some shares in this company.

It's gonna be

like winning the lottery.

You've got to get these shares.

NARRATOR: Thinking it will improve his image,

George is readily persuaded to become governor of the company.

The royal endorsement sends the price of shares through the roof.

Many people would be surprised today

to think that kings would be so directly involved

in the mercantile industry,

but they are from the time of Elizabeth I

investors in these expansionist enterprises.

NARRATOR: Between March and August 1720,

the price of South Sea stock rises tenfold,

to an eye-watering £1,050 a share,

around £60,000 in today's money.

But this is an enterprise built on sand.

The South Sea Bubble is about to burst

as spectacularly as it has risen.

The South Sea Company doesn't actually really make that much money,

which creates the problem,

so they're buying up all of this debt

and turning it into stock, that is creating this bubble,

but the pop happens because there's no substance to this bubble at all.

And the minute that it becomes apparent

that this isn't going to be long-lasting,

as they thought it was gonna be,

people begin to sell up, and then the price drops dramatically.

NARRATOR: The value of stocks collapses by 80%,

plunging the country into a catastrophic financial crisis.

Thousands are bankrupted,

and there is widespread anger across the country.

It was such a big deal that...

..even in pubs, they would have playing cards

representing the South Sea Bubble crisis.

And there were games invented, like,

"I'll give you two of MY playing cards for one of yours"

that were sort of South-Sea-Bubble-crisis-themed.

You know, even people who couldn't read and who were just in a tavern

would be aware of what was happening.

NARRATOR: In the aftermath of the crash, it becomes apparent

that vast bribes have been paid

to keep the share price artificially inflated.

George and his mistress, Melusine, are heavily implicated.

Chief among the people that are given stock

is Melusine von der Schulenburg,

and she, obviously, as George's mistress,

puts him in a very difficult position.

He has stock. She does.

When the bubble bursts, it puts the king and the monarchy

in a really, really difficult position,

and it's embarrassing for the Crown.

NARRATOR: As fortunes are lost,

George's reputation falls to an all-time low.

If you take the kind of...all the good PR stuff that George I does,

the South Sea Bubble,

which is largely... very much out of his control,

has a huge negative impact on the way the monarchy is seen,

and this sense that it's a corrupt institution

has the potential to really destabilise the Hanoverians.

NARRATOR: But dislike for George isn't limited to his subjects.

The king's personal life is equally full of turmoil,

a legacy from the events that took place in Hanover

long before George had even set foot on British soil.

George's brutal treatment of his exiled wife, Sophia,

is traumatising for their young son, George,

later to be George II.

Young George was the apple of his mother's eye,

and he adored her in return,

which is why their enforced separation

creates an intense dislike of his father.

If it looks like your dad has exiled your mum

and probably had your mum's lover murdered,

that probably leads to a certain element of...of dysfunction

early on in life.

See, that's the sort of starting point for...

..for George II's upbringing.

NARRATOR: The loathing between the two Georges intensifies

when George I becomes king.

The resentment that George I has towards his son

comes out of the fact that in Britain, after the succession,

George II, as prince of Wales, is much more popular than George I.

There is very much a temperamental difference,

George II being really showy and really gregarious and outgoing

and George I being a little bit sort of more retiring.

NARRATOR: The fraught relationship comes to a head

when the king starts interfering

in his son the prince of Wales's affairs.

The first real break, and visible break,

between the future George II and his father, George I,

happens at the...the christening of

George Prince of Wales's youngest son.

George I is very anxious that one of the godparents

should be the duke of Newcastle.

The duke of Newcastle is the kind of grand old man of British politics,

a figure who has been around the block a fair few times,

but what he offers for George I is that level of sort of stability.

It's a targeted political decision,

designed to signal certain messages.

NARRATOR: But the prince is furious at his father's meddling.

How dare you pick him to be my child's godfather?

He is a good choice!

You've done this to spite me, haven't you?

You know I can't stand that man.

I have done this for the country,

for our legacy.

If we are to protect the line of succession, we must assimilate!

Pull yourself together!

NARRATOR: As sovereign,

the king's wishes inevitably trump those of his son.

And during the christening service,

a fierce quarrel breaks out between the prince of Wales

and his child's new godfather, the duke.

After a heated argument, the duke alleges

that Prince George has challenged him to a duel,

a terrible affront.

When King George hears the rumour, he is furious with his son.

The prince of Wales claims the duke misheard an entirely innocent remark,

but the king is having none of it.

He said, "If you're not going to apologise to my friend,

"I am banishing you from the palace, from court,"

which was a huge deal.

George I, I think, thinks if he gets rid of the prince of Wales,

then the prince of Wales will become sort of contrite

and ask for his forgiveness, and it will bring him back to heel.

NARRATOR: When the prince refuses to apologise,

the king takes drastic action,

banishing his son and daughter-in-law from the court

while insisting their three young children

stay behind in St James's Palace.

Tensions between father and son escalate to stratospheric levels.

With his family AND his country turned against him,

George begins to spend more and more time

in the other place he not only rules but considers his true home -

Hanover and the palace of Herrenhausen.

We say he moved to England, but...

..his heart belonged to Hanover.

That's the reason why he always came back to Hanover.

Hanover was an escape for him,

but also just an opportunity for him to recharge his batteries,

which I think is really important, because...

..ruling Britain in the 18th century is not easy either.

NARRATOR: Being in Hanover also enables him

to keep an eye on political affairs playing out in the electorate.

But splitting his time between Hanover and Britain

does nothing to improve George's relationship

with either his British or German subjects.

He still saw himself very much as a...as a German prince.

From his perspective the centre of power lay,

it was on the Holy... in the Holy Roman Empire.

And so I think he had to keep an eye on this, you know,

to see how things were going.

So he was between a rock and a hard place,

where he has to try and appease

two different groups of subjects who have competing...

..kind of draws on his time.

George I didn't find that balancing act very natural.

NARRATOR: As George struggles to balance his roles

as both king of Britain and elector of Hanover,

a bizarre twist of fate presents him with the opportunity

to enhance his battered reputation.

In 1726, a feral young boy

is discovered in a forest just a few miles from the palace.

He was no older than 10, 11, 12, that kind of age,

and he was unable to speak.

He was...completely wild and apparently orphaned.

NARRATOR: On hearing of the discovery,

George orders the foundling to be brought before him.

Is this him?

What's your name, boy?

Oh.

I asked you a question. Tell me your name.

(BOY GROWLS)

NARRATOR: Captivated by his strange behaviour,

George makes him a member of the royal court

and brings him back to London,

where he becomes known as Peter the Wild.

Peter's arrival at the palace causes a sensation.

AMY BOYINGTON: He was considered an oddity

but also, like, this...

..almost like a circus, um, sort of performer,

because he didn't understand etiquette, of course.

He was unable to relate to people in any shape or fashion.

On the one hand, he belongs to

an older tradition in Europe of...

..jesters,

figures of entertainment.

On the other hand, he is absolutely central

to these Enlightenment questions

that are beginning to emerge in this period

about civilisation, about human nature, what it means to be human.

(INAUDIBLE)

NARRATOR: Whilst Peter the Wild

initially increases George I's popularity,

soon, everyone tires of the novelty of his exotic human pet.

Peter is eventually dismissed and sent to live on a farm,

whilst George is back to square one again.

The heavy burden of ruling two different states

and constantly having to fight for the public's affections

are taking their toll on the king.

In 1727, while travelling back once more to his beloved Hanover,

King George I suffers a massive stroke.

His ever-loyal mistress, Melusine, who has been travelling separately,

rushes to be by his side.

My darling, I'm here!

I'm here! (PANTS)

MAN: I'm afraid he's gone.

Gone?

(SOBS)

Leave us!

(SOBS)

(SNIFFS)

NARRATOR: At the time of his death,

George has been 13 years on the British throne.

Against all odds, he's managed to hold onto the Crown

and pass it to his heir,

even if only to the son he loathes so much.

AMY BOYINGTON: His reign was not considered that successful,

so when he actually DID die, I think people were...

..not necessarily relieved but they didn't mourn him too...too long.

You could almost view George I's reign

as sort of a transition period between

a really difficult period of British history

and a really kind of shaky start to a new dynasty.

The legacy that... that George leaves behind is...

..one of stability.

He himself isn't a particularly popular monarch.

He's certainly not a charismatic one.

But he instils in Britain

not only a sense of optimism and the future that's to come

but he actually leaves the nation a...

..functioning, if slightly dysfunctional, Royal Family.

He came at a period of chaos, and by the time of his death, erm,

things had calmed down considerably.

The succession shows, actually,

just how successful George I had been

in those 13 years of his reign,

that there is a...

..by European standards,

incredibly smooth transition to the reign of his son.