Original subtitles

Ruling for just 10 short years, George IV is the Hanoverian dynasty's

party prince...

..the polar opposite of his patriotic, dutiful father.

Talented and clever, but shallow at heart,

he dedicates much of his life to the pursuit of pleasure.

Displaying a gargantuan appetite for wine and women,

and racking up extraordinary debts,

his life is synonymous with excess and decadence.

A man with time on his hands to become a monster.

He dies obese, alcoholic and a drug addict.

His brief reign marks the end of the Georgian era.

So, what went wrong?

George Augustus Frederick is born on 12 August 1762.

Wild from a very young age, George's rebel ways aren't for lack of love

from his parents.

King George III and Queen Charlotte

actually had their first child

very early on in their marriage,

and they were delighted they had produced an heir.

They were actually, for a king and queen at that time,

quite maternal and paternal.

He's the absolute favourite of his mother.

She describes him as looking like a little angel.

She commissions endless portraits of him,

and, unfortunately for little George,

no-one says no to him,

and this is a problem that will continue

throughout his life.

Despite George III's ongoing mental illness that would eventually

see him removed from the throne,

the King's patriotism and dedication

had won over the British people and secured the Hanoverian dynasty.

He's determined to make sure his son grows up to be just as dutiful,

with an emphasis being placed on Christian piety.

This begins with Prince George's education.

(CLOCK TICKS)

He is a bright student, but lacks focus and interest,

much to the dismay of his teachers and father.

A lot of his tutors really struggle to control his behaviour.

They certainly try and he, you know, often gives them the run-around.

But when he shows a bit of laziness or he shows a little bit

of irritability, his father has him whipped.

Severely whipped.

George and his brothers.

His sister recalls seeing George whipped,

as she says, like a dog.

But the King's punitive measures spectacularly backfire.

The young prince rebels against his father's

strict moral code.

For George, the sole point of life is the pursuit of pleasure,

in all its forms.

He embarks on this career of sexual licentiousness at a very young age,

and women flock around him.

By the time he's 16, 17,

he's a notorious drunkard.

He's already sleeping with various mistresses.

He's exceeding his allowance.

All of this, at some level, is because he likes fun.

But there is also an element, I think, of,

"And this is really going to push back at my dad."

One of George's first passions is for a well-known actress,

Mary Darby Robinson.

The fact she is already married only increases her attraction.

Mary initially rejects his advances,

but George refuses to take no for an answer.

George, please.

No, no, listen, I mean it.

I'm married.

Not to mention I'm also five years your senior.

I'm not a child.

You are.

Your marriage is finished.

Anyone can see that it's been reduced to a droll, miserable union.

I said no.

I'll pay you.

20,000 to be mine.

What?

Would that make you change your mind?

But within a few months of securing Mary's affections,

he loses all interest in his leading lady,

leaving his father to pick up the £20,000 spent he promised her

when she threatens to publish his romantic letters.

George moves on to fresh conquests

while Mary is left a laughing stock.

For him, his amorous liaisons

are all about the thrill of the chase.

It's staggering how quickly he falls in love,

enjoys this passionate affair, says all the right things,

does virtually none of the right things, and moves on.

And I think he loved the idea of love,

and perhaps the more illicit nature of these liaisons, as well.

Frustrated at living under the same roof as his parents,

George persuades his father that greater independence

will steady his behaviour.

Reluctantly, the King agrees to increase his allowance

and arranges for the prince to set up home in Carlton House

on fashionable Pall Mall.

This was intended to be a space where he could define his own time,

his own freedom, and build up his position

as the Prince of Wales.

From an early age, George has shown a passionate interest in art

and architecture and immediately embarks on a major renovation.

And he sends out his agents around the world to bring back

tapestries and carpets and paintings and urns and ceramics.

Everything.

Carlton House finally a sort of metropolitan palace

that functioned in a way and at a scale and with a level

of decoration and a level of detail

that felt comparable to the best in Europe.

But rather than a base for the young prince

to establish himself as a worthy heir to the throne,

Carlton House comes to symbolise his profligacy and excess.

He's the party king. As a young man, he's a dancer.

There's numerous big dinners and banquets and, you know, things

going on almost every night, with music and cards

and...and a huge amount of drinking.

But his extravagant lifestyle leaves the prince with crippling debts.

He's racking up debts of tens of thousands of pounds.

That's in the 1770s.

And for someone like George III,

who was much more frugal in how he approached ideas,

it was seen as very wasteful, very gluttonous behaviour,

and not of the moral standing that he would want for his heir.

Now in his 20s, the party prince, once again,

falls head over heels in love,

this time with another actress,

28-year-old Maria Fitzherbert.

But there is a terrible problem.

Not only is she twice married,

she's a Catholic.

The whole reason why the three Georges before him are on the throne

was because they were Protestants.

They played strictly by the rules,

not only upholding the Protestant faith,

but refusing to countenance even fraternising

with Catholic women.

Unwilling to risk her reputation for a brief dalliance,

Maria initially rejects his advances.

But convinced she's his one true love,

the prince's strategy is to outact the actor.

Oh, the pain!

The pain of it all.

Ah! Your Highness.

I came as soon as I could.

They said you ran yourself through with a blade.

I did.

I chose to take my own life rather than live without you.

As I am close to the end,

will you do me one last act of kindness?

Yes, Your Grace.

Yes, Your Highness.

Will you take this gift of a ring and comfort me in my final moments?

Of course.

Thank you.

No.

Thank you,

for now we are finally betrothed.

We are what?

Betrothed!

You and I.

No, Your Highness.

And in the eyes of a witness, no less.

Are you not gravely ill?

Never felt better.

Alarmed by the prince's melodramatic posturing, Maria flees to Europe.

After firing off a stream of impassioned letters,

he manages to persuade her to return,

but only on the condition that they undergo a private,

informal marriage ceremony.

Now, that's against the law.

There's a Royal Marriages Act which says the Protestant heir

cannot marry a Roman Catholic.

And there's other legislation which says the King has to agree

if the person is, uh, not 25 years old, and George is 23.

But the young prince relishes and will do anything

to provoke his father's wrath.

He shows absolutely no hesitation in crossing the line

no-one has crossed before him.

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

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

They do have a marriage service, done by a fleet minister, um,

in her own house.

And this, of course, is problematic because it's not a legal...

..a truly legal marriage.

When rumours start to leak out that George has illegally married

a Catholic, his father is furious.

Tensions between the King and his son ratchet up a notch further.

The Prince of Wales actually risked a lot with his relationship

with Maria Fitzherbert.

And by the Act of Settlement, at the beginning of the century,

he could have actually lost his place

in the line of succession by marrying her

if the marriage was considered legal,

which, luckily for him, it wasn't.

But this just shows the level of devotion and infatuation

he had with Mrs Fitzherbert.

The prince's self-indulgent behaviour is a direct affront

to the patriotic values of his father.

Do you know what I heard today? Pray, tell.

I heard that you've been enjoying the company

of drunkards and gamblers.

And also that you've been cavorting

with those who have dubbed me a tyrant.

Have you called me here to chastise me

for my choice in friends?

No, but we must not be governed by our desires,

but our sense of duty to this great country.

And as such, we must regulate both our public and private life.

Why should this great country care what I do behind closed doors?

Because if you've already been condemned by the people,

Parliament will not help you to achieve your aims.

Whether you care or not, what they think of you matters.

The sooner you understand that, the better.

It's easy to get mad at George for spending all his time drinking,

but his dad won't let him behave in the ways that George feels

would give his life meaning.

George wants, for example, to be in the military,

like his brothers are, and he wants to climb up the hierarchies

of the Army or the Navy.

And his dad says, "Forget it. You are the heir.

"You cannot do that."

I think he thinks, "My dad won't let me have any meaningful role

"in public life, so if all that's left to me is drinking

"and gambling and running up debts, that's what I'm going to do."

But in 1788, King George III,

whose reign had already once been rocked by an unforeseen illness,

was struck by another sudden and more extreme bout of madness,

meaning George, the party prince, cannot ignore his date

with royal destiny.

What starts to swing it is what's called the 'regency crisis',

which happens in 1788, when George III declines

into some sort of mental eclipse.

So, George has several bouts of mental illness

throughout his life, um, potentially starting in the 1760s

and certainly by the 1780s into the 1790s.

He's not speaking very clearly.

He's very confused.

He's babbling.

He's repeating himself.

He's foaming at the mouth.

With the King's descent into madness,

a Regency bill is drawn up, appointing the Prince of Wales

Regent in his place.

George relishes the thought of the money and influence

that will come his way when the King relinquishes the throne.

We've got the Prince of Wales, who is effectively

champing at the bit, thinking this is going

to be the chance for him to be made Prince Regent

and be able to do whatever he wants.

But George III makes an unexpected recovery,

and the bill is repealed.

The general public erupts into celebrations

for the much admired king.

But one person who isn't celebrating is the Prince.

So, it's true then?

My father is sane once again.

Yes, Your Highness. The King has made a full recovery.

In fact, I'm told there is to be a ball to celebrate.

Your ticket has already been arranged.

Sell it for all I care. I shan't be going.

Many of your peers will be in attendance, Sire.

Let it be known that I forebay any of my so-called friends

from attending such a farce.

Do you hear me?

If they want to drink my champagne and eat my food,

they can damn well show me some respect.

I shall inform them.

Silly old goat.

Should have just stayed in bed.

The country would be better off.

Fearful of a relapse, George III once again attempts

to get his reckless son on the straight and narrow,

pressurising him to settle down and get married.

After surveying the royal marriage market,

the King selects cousin Caroline of Brunswick

from Germany as his top choice.

Caroline is selected as a suitable bride for George,

and he has very little say in the matter, and of course

is an already experienced lover.

He's incredibly promiscuous.

He has spent time and money and energy

on many different women up to this point.

The only reason he decides to do it is because he wants more money,

and his father says that he'll pay off some of his debts

if he marries Caroline.

But the first meeting with his future wife is a disaster.

Princess Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel.

Your Highness.

I am not well.

Fetch me a bottle of brandy.

Of course, Your Highness.

He's very fat.

He's definitely not as handsome as his portraits.

Despite the inauspicious first encounter,

their mutually beneficial

financial and political considerations prevail.

Within a few months, the couple are married.

At least the allowance is an aphrodisiac.

It's just another dimension in a family that's warring

with each other about behaviour

and...and the responsibilities of the monarchy.

But the wedding day is a calamity...

(CHURCH BELLS PEEL)

..as the inebriated prince barely makes it to the altar.

(GRUNTS)

Your Highness, please.

Leave me alone a while.

The princess awaits.

She can wait until hell freezes over,

for all I care.

(PANTS) Sire, please.

Unhand me at once.

You'll feel better when you're on your feet.

I highly doubt...

No!

Come on, sire. This way.

It was instant dislike and repulsion on both sides.

And yet, they had to, you know, do the deed that very night.

They apparently had intercourse three times.

And of one of those times, they conceived.

Now, their child, their only child, Charlotte,

is born pretty much nine months to the day.

That's the beginning of the relationship.

That's about as good as their relationship gets.

The ill-matched pair never recover from their catastrophic wedding.

She seemed good on paper, but it became apparent very quickly

that they were a terrible match,

probably the most terrible match ever, in the history

of the Hanoverian dynasty.

Their relationship is one of mutual hatred, really.

Um, there's certainly no love lost there.

There's no respect for each other.

She is loud. She's noisy.

She's not a good dresser.

She's just not the kind of woman he likes.

And he also seemed to intimate that...that she smelled.

Within a year, Caroline has departed the marital home...

..and much to George's annoyance, enjoys the pleasures of the flesh

just as much as he does.

Caroline is rumoured to have multiple lovers.

In the years afterwards, there's lots of sensational

gossip books that are written

about the scandals she's supposed to have been involved in.

She decides, "Well, if he can gamble and drink and have a string

"of sexual partners, I'd like some of that too, please."

And so, she becomes almost as reckless and outrageous

as he does.

Worse still for George, Caroline's support for various

philanthropic causes make her a far more popular figure

than her dissolute rake of a husband.

When Caroline goes out, she is cheered.

And whether it's to the play or whether it's to the opening

of something, or whether it's to some political event,

wherever she goes, a large portion of the press applauds her,

takes her side,

and this really irritates the Prince of Wales.

Determined to be rid of Caroline, the prince tries unsuccessfully

to have her charged with adultery.

Fed up with the rank hypocrisy of her philandering husband,

Caroline departs for Europe in 1814.

And as luck would have it, another thorn in George's side

is about to be dealt with,

as his father, the King, now aged 71,

descends into a madness from which he will never emerge.

Whatever happened to George III's health resurfaces,

and this time, it doesn't pass.

This time, he enters some kind of mental eclipse,

and he stays there.

He stays there from essentially 1810 until he dies.

Parliament rushes through a new Regency Act,

appointing George as Regent.

It's been a long wait of nine years.

Due to the King's health...

..we are authorised, as per the terms of the Regency Act,

to name you Prince Regent in his stead.

Fetch me a bottle of brandy!

Brandy?

Yes. We must celebrate.

Celebrate? Of course.

I want a banquet.

A party thrown in my honour.

By 1812, the prince has been granted the full powers of the monarch.

But while George is jubilant about his elevated status,

the British public are less than enthusiastic

about their new ruler.

The Prince of Wales becoming Regent caused a few concerns.

The main one was about his spending.

"How much money is he going to spend?"

"Is he going to be actually giving us a monarchy

"that's going to be reputable?"

Following the commercial success of George III's reign,

Britain is the richest, most powerful country in the world.

Now, the ecstatic prince can finally indulge his passion

for the finer things in life, with no one to restrain him.

When he becomes Prince Regent,

he's considerably older, 23 years older,

but he's excited in the same ways

about what it means in terms of wealth and power.

In 1815, George turns his attention to a passion project in Brighton.

George has been visiting the vibrant seaside resort

since he was a young man,

captivated by its devil-may-care aristocrats

and their dazzling social life.

The Prince of Wales loves going to Brighton,

for all kinds of different reasons.

And there is a farmhouse there,

and he acquires that, and he has an architect

turn it into a kind of neoclassical villa,

but modest.

But the prince is no lover of modesty,

and now that he is Regent,

with money no object, he scales up,

fulfilling a long cherished dream

of turning the seaside villa into an exotic pleasure palace.

If you want a sense of the exuberance and audacity

and creativity of George IV,

it's the Brighton Pavilion.

It's a mash-up of all different styles.

It draws from architectural styles in India.

The interior features Chinese elements.

There's gilded gold everywhere.

There's these rich fabric wallpapers, there's murals,

there's artworks hanging everywhere.

You would walk through, into this banqueting room,

this incredibly extravagant space full of incredible porcelain

and glassware and metal, silverware.

Designed by the brilliant architect John Nash, the Royal Pavilion

comes to symbolise the Regency period,

and in turn, transforms Brighton's fortunes, even if only turning it

into a playground for the wealthy aristocracy.

There's a sudden influx of fashionable Georgian people

coming from London, all making their way to party

with the Prince Regent.

And it's a sort of play den,

a quote-unquote "exotic" colonial palace

that celebrates Britain's empire

and George's role as the sort of decadent head

of all this hedonistic, plentiful-ness.

But beyond the glittering world of Brighton, Britain has spent

the entirety of the prince's regency at war with France in Europe.

Now, finally, in 1815,

after more than 20 long years of war,

Britain achieves incredible military success, defeating Napoleon

at the Battle of Waterloo.

When Wellington defeats Napoleon,

there is euphoria in Britain.

Napoleon is sent into exile, and peace comes to Britain

for the first time since 1793.

When the conflict first started,

Prince George had been eager to serve his country

on the battlefield, but his father, the King, had forbade it.

As a result, George had always resented his lack

of military experience,

now with the country's victory against France only serving

to increase his inner sense of emptiness.

Wellington.

Wellington, tell them.

Tell them how it was I who led the cavalry charge at Waterloo.

I've oft heard Your Majesty say so.

See? Exactly what I said.

Straight from the horse's mouth.

(LAUGHS)

For the rest of his life,

George persists in the fiction that he played a key part

in Napoleon's downfall.

That's the level of fantasy he was capable of.

But it speaks to how the enduring way

in which that grief,

frustration, sadness, whatever it was,

stayed in his...in his head.

With the defeat of Napoleon,

Britain's global dominance is without challenge.

But the public is now increasingly angry

about the unequal spoils of war.

There's a significant amount of unrest brewing in Britain,

and partly, this is a hangover from the war,

that veterans are returning home with limbs missing,

with mental injuries, as well, and finding that they cannot work,

or they're struggling to find a place for themselves

in the communities that they'd left.

The Napoleonic Wars have been a huge drain on the economy.

Faced with crippling taxes and soaring unemployment,

George's British subjects are starving.

The widespread suffering is in sharp contrast to the extravagant caprices

of the Prince Regent.

Graffiti appears on the walls of the Regent's main residence,

Carlton House - "Bread or the Regent's head."

Carlton House and Brighton Pavilion are symbols of excess.

They're...they're symbols of gluttony.

They are perceived as emblematic of a kind of corrupt, lascivious,

you know, individual that only is really looking after themselves.

By now, George has no-one to help him weather the storm.

In 1817, George's only child, Princess Charlotte,

the product of his brief and disastrous marriage to Caroline,

dies while giving birth to a stillborn son.

The nation is devastated.

She's a very popular figure and seen by many as the redeeming daughter

to a wayward Prince Regent and eventually King.

It is said that London ran out of black cloth for mourning

because everybody wanted to show their respect for the fallen

or the dead princess.

The death of Charlotte and her son rocks the foundations

of the House of Hanover to its core.

All of a sudden, the whole dynasty is sort of up in the air.

There's a huge question mark over who's going to inherit the throne.

George plunges into a deep depression,

and alcoholism consumes him.

We often see the Prince of Wales, as he was then,

as quite a happy figure, a very pleasure-seeking figure,

and not someone who necessarily holds deep feelings.

And yet, when his daughter died, he was inconsolable.

He wept in bed for weeks.

And I think that that's a really defining low point.

The string of family losses doesn't end there.

In January 1820, George loses the most towering figure

of his entire life when his father, George III,

having never recovered from his madness, finally dies.

Thousands turn out to mourn the death of a much loved monarch,

and his wayward son finally becomes King.

Having waited most of his life for this moment, and after nine years

as Prince Regent, 58-year-old George has meticulously planned

for this to be the coronation to end all coronations.

George IV loves performance, and he loves spectacle,

and so his coronation was an immense spectacle.

It's all very well choreographed, and it's all designed to show George

in the best light possible, which it does.

And part of the reason is because he did it.

He designed it.

He designed what he was going to wear.

He designed the whole thing.

The coronation banquet is the most extravagant in history.

The food and drink alone costs over £25,000 -

£3.5 million in today's money.

How can he have a celebration without, you know, gargantuan

quantities of food and drink, which is what he supplies.

And of course, he's able to lead the proceedings in eating

and drinking because he's very, very good at that.

In spite of all their reservations,

the spectacular coronation briefly tips the public

in the King's favour.

But George has never shown much interest in running the country.

He continues to spend eye-watering sums,

indulging his greatest passions - partying, drinking

and renovating royal palaces.

But there is one pressing political issue that, as King,

he cannot avoid -

the fight for Catholic emancipation.

Ever since the Act of Settlement in 1701, aimed at securing

the Protestant succession, Catholics' political and civil rights

have been severely curtailed.

The Catholics in Britain were very, very tired of these restrictions

on their liberties and wanted them removed, wanted to be emancipated.

In 1829, the government faces the prospect of a major

rebellion in Ireland.

George comes under increasing pressure

from the Duke of Wellington, now Prime Minister,

to give royal assent to a bill easing restrictions.

But despite his first illegitimate marriage

to Catholic Maria Fitzherbert,

George is fiercely opposed.

The Protestant faith underpins why the Hanoverian dynasty came

to rule Britain.

You don't expect me to sign this?

Only the signing of the Catholic Emancipation

will prevent a civil war in Ireland.

Poppycock.

If I may, Your Majesty...

I'll tell you what I believe.

I believe this is against everything that my sainted and revered

father believed in.

As upholder of the Protestant faith, it is my duty to veto

any such measure.

Look, why don't we have some more brandy and make sense

of this issue, mmm?

Your Highness. I'll order up a few bottles,

we can sit down and marinate our options.

Your Majesty, there are no options to save unrest and discontent.

Don't be a fool. Of course there are.

Your Majesty, if you don't sign this bill,

this country will be without a government.

I don't care.

If I'm going to be bullied into signing

this abomination of a bill,

I'll abdicate.

Your Majesty, please.

You think I'm bluffing?

You force my hand, I'll do it.

And then, you'll all suffer.

But by now, the balance of power has tipped in Parliament's favour,

and George finally agrees to sign the bill.

Passed in 1829,

the Catholic Emancipation Act enables Catholics,

for the first time in more than 130 years,

to be represented in Parliament,

an act which, perhaps unwittingly changed King George IV's legacy.

In some ways, it's really his parting gift to Britain,

and it's a way that he repairs something of his reputation.

It really marks the end of the Georgian era,

in which this question of Protestantism versus Catholicism

has shaped not only the events and battles and rioting

and struggles on the streets of Britain, but has also completely

dictated what's happening behind closed doors

in the royal courts.

George has finally done something to restore his tattered reputation.

But by now, his dissolute lifestyle is catching up with him.

As he nears the end of life,

George is an increasingly pitiful figure.

Years of partying have caught up with him.

His complexion is gone.

He's gone jowly,

he's gone fat, he's gone flabby, and he's ill.

He's in a huge amount of pain, increasing amounts of pain,

taking massive amounts of laudanum as he gets older.

It's a pretty sad scenario.

He became fairly bedridden.

He also didn't seem to have much zest for life, so I think

he was very depressed towards the end of his life.

So, yeah, I think it was a kind of a tragic end for him.

One of his few visitors is his niece,

the future Queen Victoria.

Give me your little paw.

It's beautiful.

It's yours.

Follow me, my dear.

Not so quickly, please.

Well, the relationship of George with his niece Victoria

is an extraordinary one, and her recollections of going out

in the carriage with her Uncle George

are quite remarkable.

She was pretty loving and fond in her recollections

of him as a person.

But their burgeoning companionship was cut all too short.

George IV dies on 26 June 1830, aged 68.

A miniature of Maria Fitzherbert, arguably his one true love, is found

around his neck.

But few mourn his departure.

When George IV dies...

..uh, The Times newspaper says,

"Never was an individual less regretted

"by his fellow creatures than this deceased king."

George is succeeded by his younger brother William,

but within seven years, he, too, dies, childless.

As the Georgian era draws to a close, Princess Victoria accedes

to the throne, and the extravagances of George IV are replaced

by the straight-laced virtues of the Victorian age.

Lots of Victorians looked back at the Regency and just gasped

that their grandfathers would tolerate that kind

of libertinism and that kind of drinking and excess.

You can see her reign as trying to repair the damage to the monarchy

that he inflicted upon it.

But despite George's many failings,

his passion for the arts and architecture underpins

the extraordinary cultural flowering

that takes place in Britain under his reign.

We still refer to his reign as the Regency period,

because it was the aesthetic of the time.

His idea of beauty, of architecture, of fashion

is still remembered today

because he had such a huge impact upon it.

As much as the perception of George IV was about opulence

and ostentation, the heart of that is, actually, he was a man

of great taste.

He was the leader of fashion.

He was at the vanguard of stylistic change.

George's death ushers in the end of the Georgian era...

..a period that has been one of the most tumultuous

in British history.

Despite the many foibles of George I,

II, III

and IV, their legacy endures to this day.

Britain today is entirely shaped by the Georgian period.

It's a fundamental part of British history

and a period that our understanding of

is...is fundamental to understanding what works and what doesn't work

in...in Britain today.

One of the main lessons one could take from the Georgian era

is the importance of being a pragmatist

and being a royal pragmatist.

That ability to...

I think, their ability to absorb change -

not necessarily embrace change, but I think to respond to change

over the long lifespan of this dynasty -

in that lies the key to their...their success.

Captions by Red Bee Media (c) SBS Australia 2024