0:00:04 > 0:00:07For centuries, kings and queens have been set apart
0:00:07 > 0:00:11from the rest of us, depicted as god-like giants
0:00:11 > 0:00:15or virile warriors,
0:00:15 > 0:00:19or fertile mothers of the nation.
0:00:19 > 0:00:22But if you strip away the regal facade,
0:00:22 > 0:00:24the reality is very different.
0:00:24 > 0:00:31We've had mad monarchs and bad ones, and sexually inadequate kings
0:00:31 > 0:00:33and infertile queens.
0:00:33 > 0:00:36In this series, I'm going to reintroduce you
0:00:36 > 0:00:41to our monarchs as human beings, people rather like you and me.
0:00:41 > 0:00:44I'm going to investigate their medical problems,
0:00:44 > 0:00:48study their doctors' reports, read their private letters
0:00:48 > 0:00:51and examine their most intimate possessions.
0:00:51 > 0:00:55I'm going to reveal the chinks in the royal armour,
0:00:55 > 0:00:59because I believe, ironically, that the lives of these kings and queens,
0:00:59 > 0:01:04the survival of the monarchy, the fortunes of the nation, have
0:01:04 > 0:01:09been determined not so much by their strengths but their weaknesses.
0:01:18 > 0:01:22In this programme, I'm looking at a new chapter in the history
0:01:22 > 0:01:26of the monarchy, from the decline and fall of the Stuarts to the
0:01:26 > 0:01:32coming of a new dynasty, the House of Hanover, Georges I to IV.
0:01:32 > 0:01:36These kings and queens weren't just accountable to God,
0:01:36 > 0:01:39but to their people and to parliament.
0:01:39 > 0:01:42Now, if cracks appeared in the monarchy,
0:01:42 > 0:01:45parliament could step in and take control.
0:01:45 > 0:01:48They could depose a king, manage the succession
0:01:48 > 0:01:52and lay down the law, not only on how a monarch should rule
0:01:52 > 0:01:55but, most importantly, who should rule.
0:01:55 > 0:02:00Their mental and physical weaknesses became evermore important,
0:02:00 > 0:02:04because not only did their subjects observe them, they exploited them.
0:02:17 > 0:02:22On the 10th of June 1688, the reigning Stuart monarch,
0:02:22 > 0:02:26James II, succeeded where so many of his predecessors had failed -
0:02:26 > 0:02:29he'd produced a son, a healthy male heir.
0:02:29 > 0:02:33Traditionally, the arrival of a royal baby should have
0:02:33 > 0:02:35resulted in national celebrations,
0:02:35 > 0:02:41but this time the birth of a son was to trigger the king's downfall.
0:02:41 > 0:02:46The problem with James II was that he converted to Catholicism.
0:02:46 > 0:02:49In a country that was now firmly Protestant,
0:02:49 > 0:02:51Catholicism meant tyranny.
0:02:51 > 0:02:55It meant absolute rule like they had on the continent.
0:02:55 > 0:02:59And James didn't help matters with his autocratic manner.
0:02:59 > 0:03:03He appointed his Catholic friends to high office.
0:03:03 > 0:03:08He seemed really to believe that he was semi-divine, appointed by God.
0:03:08 > 0:03:12And once he had a baby boy, a male heir to follow on from him,
0:03:12 > 0:03:16it looked like Catholicism was on its way back.
0:03:16 > 0:03:20Many of James's subjects were determined to stop that.
0:03:22 > 0:03:25The Protestant elite would no longer sit back
0:03:25 > 0:03:30and allow biological inheritance of divine right to determine who
0:03:30 > 0:03:33would govern them, and they now engineered a coup.
0:03:33 > 0:03:36Their choice of leaders were James's nephew William
0:03:36 > 0:03:38and his own daughter Mary.
0:03:40 > 0:03:45Ten years earlier, James had married off his daughter Mary
0:03:45 > 0:03:49to her cousin William of Orange, the ruler of the Dutch.
0:03:49 > 0:03:53These two were both staunchly Protestant and for them
0:03:53 > 0:03:57matters of religion would take precedence over family loyalty.
0:03:59 > 0:04:03In November 1688, William landed with an army
0:04:03 > 0:04:07and within days James had fled into exile on the continent.
0:04:07 > 0:04:11The coup was achieved so swiftly that for William and Mary
0:04:11 > 0:04:15and their supporters it became known as the Glorious Revolution.
0:04:17 > 0:04:21Soon afterwards, William and Mary met here at Whitehall Palace,
0:04:21 > 0:04:25with both houses of Parliament, and were offered and accepted the crown.
0:04:41 > 0:04:45This event marked a cataclysmic break with the past.
0:04:45 > 0:04:48It was the beginning of a whole new stage
0:04:48 > 0:04:50in the history of the monarchy.
0:04:50 > 0:04:55William and Mary didn't assume the throne through divine right,
0:04:55 > 0:04:58they were given the right to reign by Parliament.
0:04:58 > 0:05:02In effect, their people had decided that they were fit to rule,
0:05:02 > 0:05:07and now the people would hold William and Mary to account.
0:05:07 > 0:05:11Up there on the ceiling, their great-grandfather James I
0:05:11 > 0:05:15is shown rising up to Heaven as one of the gods,
0:05:15 > 0:05:18but the new king and queen were to have their feet
0:05:18 > 0:05:21kept very firmly on the ground.
0:05:26 > 0:05:29William and Mary showed this change in royal status
0:05:29 > 0:05:32not only by words but by actions.
0:05:32 > 0:05:35Earlier monarchs had performed a ceremony called
0:05:35 > 0:05:38touching for the king's evil.
0:05:38 > 0:05:42People suffering from the disease of scrofula, the king's evil,
0:05:42 > 0:05:46would queue up in order to be touched by the reigning monarch
0:05:46 > 0:05:51in the belief that the power to heal lay in royal hands.
0:05:51 > 0:05:55These ceremonies were performed here at the Banqueting House.
0:05:55 > 0:05:59But William and Mary immediately refused to do this,
0:05:59 > 0:06:02believing that they were only human like the rest of us.
0:06:08 > 0:06:12This Glorious Revolution had changed the political constitution.
0:06:14 > 0:06:16But some things hadn't changed -
0:06:16 > 0:06:20a monarch was still expected to reign and reproduce.
0:06:20 > 0:06:24It was now William and Mary's biological constitution
0:06:24 > 0:06:28that would determine whether they were up to the job.
0:06:28 > 0:06:31And now that they were the servants of their people,
0:06:31 > 0:06:36their physical and mental condition would be judged as never before.
0:06:36 > 0:06:39This is as close as we're going to get to meeting William
0:06:39 > 0:06:41and Mary face to face.
0:06:41 > 0:06:46These aren't some dodgy 1970's museum display, these items,
0:06:46 > 0:06:51with the clothes and the jewels and even the hair, are 300 years old.
0:06:51 > 0:06:54These waxworks were made shortly after their deaths
0:06:54 > 0:06:59and they form part of a tradition of making an effigy of a king or
0:06:59 > 0:07:01queen for use in their funeral.
0:07:01 > 0:07:04Mary here is in her early 30s.
0:07:04 > 0:07:07She was a statuesque woman, nearly six feet tall.
0:07:07 > 0:07:09And although she was quite plump,
0:07:09 > 0:07:12she was considered to be a great beauty,
0:07:12 > 0:07:14in contrast to William, her husband,
0:07:14 > 0:07:17who doesn't quite match the image of the conquering hero.
0:07:17 > 0:07:19He was born a sickly child
0:07:19 > 0:07:24and even as an adult he wore a body brace to help with his hunched back.
0:07:24 > 0:07:27He was four inches shorter than his wife,
0:07:27 > 0:07:31a fact that's glossed over here by his being placed on a little stool.
0:07:33 > 0:07:35William's diminutive stature was just a joke
0:07:35 > 0:07:38to many of his new subjects,
0:07:38 > 0:07:41but his chronic ill health had some serious consequences.
0:07:44 > 0:07:47From childhood, William had suffered from asthma.
0:07:47 > 0:07:50His problems were worsened by his move to England
0:07:50 > 0:07:53and his new home in damp and smoky London.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58Within a year of the invasion, William's health had got so bad
0:07:58 > 0:08:01that his doctors advised him to move out of the capital.
0:08:03 > 0:08:06So William and Mary set up home at Hampton Court,
0:08:06 > 0:08:08out in the countryside.
0:08:15 > 0:08:18Over the next few years they completely remodelled the dank
0:08:18 > 0:08:23and rambling Tudor palace into an airy baroque masterpiece,
0:08:23 > 0:08:26reminiscent of the palaces they'd left behind in Holland.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32William's physical health improved, but it was still poor enough
0:08:32 > 0:08:36for his subjects to question his fitness for his duties.
0:08:41 > 0:08:45Now, these little clothes look like they belong to a child,
0:08:45 > 0:08:47but actually they were William III's.
0:08:47 > 0:08:49- Royal socks...- Yes.
0:08:49 > 0:08:53..And a W at the top to show that they belonged to William himself,
0:08:53 > 0:08:55and the tiny vest.
0:08:55 > 0:08:59Look how small his chest was, this was his asthmatic chest.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02So here we've got a man who has health problems.
0:09:02 > 0:09:06He has asthma, he's very small, he's got some sort of
0:09:06 > 0:09:09curvature of the spine and he's moved out to Hampton Court
0:09:09 > 0:09:11cos he's got breathing problems -
0:09:11 > 0:09:13his little chest can't cope with the fog in London.
0:09:13 > 0:09:15What does this mean?
0:09:15 > 0:09:17Well, the main problem was that he's removing
0:09:17 > 0:09:19himself from the centre of power.
0:09:19 > 0:09:22And he's not bringing all the courtiers with him,
0:09:22 > 0:09:23they have to make the trip out,
0:09:23 > 0:09:27and they feel that they're being cut-off from power.
0:09:27 > 0:09:32And so it fuels this sense that he's a foreigner, he's not one
0:09:32 > 0:09:37of them, that he might not be ruling in the interests of the elite.
0:09:37 > 0:09:39William is also childless.
0:09:39 > 0:09:43This is a big problem and he gets pamphlet criticism for it.
0:09:43 > 0:09:45One of them says he's got no children
0:09:45 > 0:09:48because he's an un-performing puny prig.
0:09:48 > 0:09:51Underperforming, well, quite possibly, yes.
0:09:51 > 0:09:55Mary never did get pregnant and her lady's maid was always
0:09:55 > 0:09:58reputed to have said the problem wasn't with Mary but with William.
0:09:58 > 0:10:01He just couldn't get it up, so to speak.
0:10:01 > 0:10:04So there may well be fertility problems there or
0:10:04 > 0:10:06he may just not have been interested or
0:10:06 > 0:10:09he may have been gay as many of the rumours suggested.
0:10:09 > 0:10:12He grew up in a very masculine environment
0:10:12 > 0:10:15and spent most of his time on campaign with men.
0:10:16 > 0:10:20Parliament was frustrated with William's performance as king.
0:10:20 > 0:10:23He'd produced no offspring and they believed that he was
0:10:23 > 0:10:27subordinating their interests to his old grudge against France.
0:10:27 > 0:10:30But William was equally frustrated with them,
0:10:30 > 0:10:34cursing the pageantry of the British system.
0:10:34 > 0:10:38This was especially the case because King Billy believed that he
0:10:38 > 0:10:41was fulfilling the royal role he'd signed up to -
0:10:41 > 0:10:46a Protestant promise to defend the nation against Catholicism.
0:10:46 > 0:10:50Over the years, he'd spend more and more time on his anti-Catholic
0:10:50 > 0:10:55campaigns abroad, leaving his wife Mary to rule in his stead.
0:10:55 > 0:10:58For Mary, it was a daunting proposition.
0:10:58 > 0:11:01Being thrust forward like this only reminded her of her
0:11:01 > 0:11:06inadequacies as a woman, as a would-be mother and,
0:11:06 > 0:11:10worst of all, as a daughter who'd utterly betrayed her father.
0:11:12 > 0:11:14Mary was effectively the regent whilst he was away
0:11:14 > 0:11:17and she exercised government on his behalf.
0:11:17 > 0:11:19Was she any good at that?
0:11:19 > 0:11:22Well, it wasn't something that she wanted to do at all and,
0:11:22 > 0:11:25if we look at her memoirs, she actually says quite explicitly
0:11:25 > 0:11:29that she doesn't think women should do politics, so to speak.
0:11:29 > 0:11:32"My opinion having ever been that women should not
0:11:32 > 0:11:34"meddle in government, I have never given myself to be
0:11:34 > 0:11:37"inquisitive into those kinds of matters."
0:11:37 > 0:11:40She's very insecure about doing this,
0:11:40 > 0:11:44she doesn't feel confident and is always terrified that she's going
0:11:44 > 0:11:47to make a mistake and that William's going to be cross with her.
0:11:47 > 0:11:50Mary also has tremendous difficulty, doesn't she,
0:11:50 > 0:11:53with the role of being a daughter, a good daughter?
0:11:53 > 0:11:58She does, because she's actually taken part in deposing her father.
0:11:58 > 0:12:01And this is something that does weigh very heavily with her and
0:12:01 > 0:12:05she was never, obviously, never happy about doing it in the first place.
0:12:05 > 0:12:09But her father is putting the emotional pressure on her
0:12:09 > 0:12:11all the time and he writes to her
0:12:11 > 0:12:14in very, sort of, emotionally blackmailing terms and...
0:12:14 > 0:12:16- Putting on the guilt.- Absolutely.
0:12:16 > 0:12:19So we have this letter here threatening that the
0:12:19 > 0:12:22curses of an angry father will fall upon her, that she
0:12:22 > 0:12:26has broken the fifth commandment and can never be forgiven.
0:12:26 > 0:12:29It's a very, very difficult situation for her
0:12:29 > 0:12:32and would have put her under enormous psychological stress.
0:12:39 > 0:12:44Despite William's physical frailty and Mary's mental fragility,
0:12:44 > 0:12:47they were a pretty good king and queen.
0:12:47 > 0:12:51But I do get the sense this is at a high personal price,
0:12:51 > 0:12:56that they'd both rather have been somebody else, somewhere else.
0:12:56 > 0:12:58Mary was quite explicit about this.
0:12:58 > 0:13:04"As queen," she said, "I must grin when my heart is fit to break.
0:13:04 > 0:13:09"I must talk when my heart is so oppressed I can scarcely breathe."
0:13:09 > 0:13:14And William spoke of the heavy burden he had to carry.
0:13:14 > 0:13:18Monarchy was no longer a right to be enjoyed -
0:13:18 > 0:13:20it was a task to be endured.
0:13:24 > 0:13:28Tragically, although Mary had been much healthier than her husband,
0:13:28 > 0:13:33at the age of 32 she caught smallpox and died within a week.
0:13:36 > 0:13:39William continued to reign alone for the next eight years
0:13:39 > 0:13:45until he had a riding accident in the grounds of Hampton Court Palace.
0:13:45 > 0:13:48For the king who'd ridden into battle on numerous occasions
0:13:48 > 0:13:51the cause was rather ignominious -
0:13:51 > 0:13:54his horse had tripped on a molehill.
0:13:54 > 0:13:58This statue of William III was put up following his death and if
0:13:58 > 0:14:03you look closely at it you can see that the horse's back leg is just
0:14:03 > 0:14:07making contact with the molehill - the horse is just about to trip.
0:14:07 > 0:14:10From this point onwards,
0:14:10 > 0:14:14the king's exiled Catholic enemies over the sea in France
0:14:14 > 0:14:19would raise a toast to a certain gentleman in a black velvet coat.
0:14:19 > 0:14:23This was the velveteen mole that made the molehill
0:14:23 > 0:14:26that caused the death of the Protestant King.
0:14:29 > 0:14:33Despite all the sacrifices William and Mary had made
0:14:33 > 0:14:37for the monarchy, they'd failed in their most important royal duty.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40They died childless. Biology had let them down.
0:14:44 > 0:14:47But the newly-empowered Parliament had stepped in to manage
0:14:47 > 0:14:51the succession and they'd already chosen a replacement.
0:14:53 > 0:14:57It had been decided that Mary's sister Anne would succeed
0:14:57 > 0:14:59if William and Mary didn't produce an heir.
0:14:59 > 0:15:04This would ensure that a Protestant would remain on the throne.
0:15:04 > 0:15:08What parliament hadn't foreseen and couldn't control
0:15:08 > 0:15:11was that biology might not deliver once again
0:15:11 > 0:15:16and that Anne would also have difficulties bearing children.
0:15:16 > 0:15:21Anne's gynaecological record was horrific and saddening.
0:15:21 > 0:15:26In 16 years she had 17 pregnancies.
0:15:26 > 0:15:3012 of them ended in miscarriage or stillbirth
0:15:30 > 0:15:34and of her surviving children, the oldest only lived 11 years.
0:15:34 > 0:15:38Anne's friends said there was nothing more moving
0:15:38 > 0:15:42than to see the queen and her husband mourning together
0:15:42 > 0:15:45as the little coffins mounted up.
0:15:45 > 0:15:48Sometimes they would weep together,
0:15:48 > 0:15:52other times they just sat in silence, hand in hand.
0:15:52 > 0:15:56It was unimaginably awful.
0:15:56 > 0:16:01To this day, no-one really agrees on the reason behind Anne's suffering.
0:16:01 > 0:16:04At the time, doctors were beginning to manage the dreadful
0:16:04 > 0:16:09uncertainties of pregnancy, with new technology such as the forceps.
0:16:09 > 0:16:13Unlike us, they also believed that they knew the cause of her
0:16:13 > 0:16:17condition, but it depended upon a view of the body that had
0:16:17 > 0:16:19prevailed since medieval times.
0:16:19 > 0:16:22Clearly there's something wrong with Anne.
0:16:22 > 0:16:24What did contemporaries think it might have been?
0:16:24 > 0:16:28They would have explained it in terms of her humeral constitution.
0:16:28 > 0:16:32At this time, bodies were understood as made up of four humours -
0:16:32 > 0:16:35blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm.
0:16:35 > 0:16:40And they had qualities of hot, dry, cold and moist.
0:16:40 > 0:16:44And as she became progressively larger, shall we say,
0:16:44 > 0:16:49they would have understood it as having an imbalance in her humours,
0:16:49 > 0:16:53and so they would have explained her constitution
0:16:53 > 0:16:55as her being cold and moist.
0:16:55 > 0:16:59Predominantly, she had things like watery eyes, for example,
0:16:59 > 0:17:04and that would have affected her reproductive capacity.
0:17:04 > 0:17:09So in a book like this, it explains one of the causes of abortion
0:17:09 > 0:17:13or miscarriage as being due to viscous, slimy, slippery,
0:17:13 > 0:17:16phlegmatic, watery humours,
0:17:16 > 0:17:19so that the conception would slip out of the womb -
0:17:19 > 0:17:23it would be unable to stay within the body
0:17:23 > 0:17:25and, therefore, more likely to miscarry.
0:17:25 > 0:17:28Clearly, women don't experience birth problems
0:17:28 > 0:17:30because they're too slippery.
0:17:30 > 0:17:32Do you think there are any more convincing
0:17:32 > 0:17:34explanations for her problems?
0:17:34 > 0:17:39In these sorts of books of advice, Jane Sharp's work on midwifery...
0:17:39 > 0:17:40Oh, yeah.
0:17:40 > 0:17:44..She says quite clearly that fat, overindulgent city women who
0:17:44 > 0:17:48eat too much and have access to far too many delicacies are far
0:17:48 > 0:17:53more likely to have difficult labours and a hard time childbearing
0:17:53 > 0:17:57than your labouring women who were leaner and healthier as a result.
0:17:57 > 0:17:59Even today, if somebody's overweight,
0:17:59 > 0:18:01if they're obese and they want to have children,
0:18:01 > 0:18:04the first thing they're told to do is to lose weight!
0:18:04 > 0:18:05Yes, absolutely.
0:18:05 > 0:18:08They were well aware at the time that these kinds of issues
0:18:08 > 0:18:13with body size had an impact on one's reproductive capacity.
0:18:14 > 0:18:18By the time Anne became queen in 1704,
0:18:18 > 0:18:21she was described as being sick with grief.
0:18:21 > 0:18:24All of her children had died and
0:18:24 > 0:18:26after so many complicated pregnancies
0:18:26 > 0:18:29she had no chance of producing any more.
0:18:29 > 0:18:34She took the throne knowing that she was the last in her line,
0:18:34 > 0:18:36that she was a stopgap queen,
0:18:36 > 0:18:40and that Parliament would choose her successor.
0:18:41 > 0:18:46And this meant that she was deeply in thrall to her politicians.
0:19:03 > 0:19:06This period was the golden age of Parliament.
0:19:06 > 0:19:09The packed House Of Commons saw debates that were lively
0:19:09 > 0:19:12and violent and passionate!
0:19:12 > 0:19:15It also saw the beginnings of the two-party system -
0:19:15 > 0:19:18people talked about the rage of parties.
0:19:18 > 0:19:22These weren't modern political parties with manifestos
0:19:22 > 0:19:27and an elected leader, they were rough, loose groupings.
0:19:27 > 0:19:31On one side were the Whigs, who were a bit more go-ahead
0:19:31 > 0:19:33and interested in matters of finance.
0:19:33 > 0:19:35On the other side, the Tories,
0:19:35 > 0:19:39more conservative and deeply devoted to the Church of England.
0:19:39 > 0:19:43The rise of the two-party system presented a further
0:19:43 > 0:19:45challenge to the monarchy -
0:19:45 > 0:19:49how to satisfy two opposing factions at the same time.
0:19:49 > 0:19:53For Anne, there was a fine line to tread between pleasing the few
0:19:53 > 0:19:58and alienating the many, because the politicians knew that
0:19:58 > 0:20:02if they could exploit any weakness exhibited by the royal family,
0:20:02 > 0:20:06the personal and political rewards were potentially enormous.
0:20:09 > 0:20:11This is Blenheim Palace.
0:20:11 > 0:20:14It was owned by John Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough,
0:20:14 > 0:20:17a prominent Whig politician, and built
0:20:17 > 0:20:20after his victory against the French at the battle of Blenheim.
0:20:24 > 0:20:29At the time, it was bigger, better and more costly
0:20:29 > 0:20:32than any of the royal palaces.
0:20:32 > 0:20:34But its building was deeply contentious
0:20:34 > 0:20:37and led to public riots, because it was commissioned for the Duke
0:20:37 > 0:20:42by Queen Anne herself and she paid for it with public money.
0:20:43 > 0:20:48After his victory, you can see why the Duke deserved his palace,
0:20:48 > 0:20:51but you can also see why other people would be jealous
0:20:51 > 0:20:53and make accusations of favouritism.
0:20:53 > 0:20:57Anne herself was very well aware of this danger.
0:20:57 > 0:21:02She said, "I mustn't put myself in the hands of any one party."
0:21:02 > 0:21:05But the real problem wasn't Anne's preference for a political party
0:21:05 > 0:21:08or a male favourite, the problem was her relationship
0:21:08 > 0:21:12with a woman, the Duke's wife, Sarah.
0:21:25 > 0:21:28This is Sarah, the Duchess of Marlborough,
0:21:28 > 0:21:31surrounded by all of her children.
0:21:31 > 0:21:34She was notoriously powerful at the court of Queen Anne.
0:21:34 > 0:21:38Sarah held all the top jobs - she was Mistress Of The Robes,
0:21:38 > 0:21:40she was Keeper Of The Privy Purse.
0:21:40 > 0:21:44In portraits you sometimes see her with her golden key of office.
0:21:44 > 0:21:47This key unlocks the queen's private rooms.
0:21:47 > 0:21:50It was like the key to the queen herself.
0:21:50 > 0:21:52Because of her access,
0:21:52 > 0:21:57Sarah was a powerful friend to her political allies, the Whigs,
0:21:57 > 0:22:00but she was dangerous if you crossed her, and some people thought
0:22:00 > 0:22:04there was something unhealthy about her relationship with the Queen.
0:22:07 > 0:22:10So these are early 18th Century playing cards
0:22:10 > 0:22:11with scenes from life at court.
0:22:11 > 0:22:14They're like little windows into the palace.
0:22:14 > 0:22:16They're rather good, aren't they?
0:22:16 > 0:22:20And this one shows Queen Anne in private with all of her attendants.
0:22:20 > 0:22:22These are the ladies of the bedchamber.
0:22:22 > 0:22:26Now, queens had always had ladies of the bedchamber, but Sarah is
0:22:26 > 0:22:29so prominent amongst them that this causes problems, doesn't it?
0:22:29 > 0:22:32Yeah, I mean, she was far more than a servant.
0:22:32 > 0:22:35They were very close friends by this point.
0:22:35 > 0:22:38What's unusual about this level of intimacy between
0:22:38 > 0:22:40a queen and her subject?
0:22:40 > 0:22:44Well, I think what they started to do that was unusual was
0:22:44 > 0:22:47to talk to each other as if they were equals.
0:22:47 > 0:22:50And, you know, as we can see from letters like this that Anne,
0:22:50 > 0:22:55this is one from Anne to Sarah, they decided to take on names
0:22:55 > 0:22:58in their correspondence of Mrs Morley and Mrs Freeman.
0:22:58 > 0:23:00So Anne writes in the persona of Mrs Morley
0:23:00 > 0:23:03and she calls Sarah Mrs Freeman.
0:23:03 > 0:23:06And, you know, they're young women at this point who are casting
0:23:06 > 0:23:10themselves as if they are just ordinary bourgeois,
0:23:10 > 0:23:12middleclass housewives talking to each other.
0:23:12 > 0:23:15This seems to me quite dangerous really,
0:23:15 > 0:23:17because, even though contemporary friendship was framed as
0:23:17 > 0:23:20two women as equals, this is the Queen and her servant!
0:23:20 > 0:23:24Yeah, and by the time Anne's queen it's a very subversive
0:23:24 > 0:23:27and dangerous relationship in the eyes of many people.
0:23:27 > 0:23:31Why were the male courtiers and politicians so frightened of Sarah?
0:23:31 > 0:23:34They believed that she had much more direct political influence
0:23:34 > 0:23:36than in fact she had.
0:23:36 > 0:23:40She is seen as the Whigs' agent trying to constrain the Queen
0:23:40 > 0:23:42and make her do what the Whigs want.
0:23:42 > 0:23:44But what's interesting is that
0:23:44 > 0:23:47it's Sarah herself who starts to drop hints.
0:23:47 > 0:23:50When she feels threatened that other women are later going to
0:23:50 > 0:23:54usurp her position and come into that role, she starts to say
0:23:54 > 0:23:57that Anne's relationships with women are unnatural.
0:23:57 > 0:24:00So Sarah herself is using this sort of scurrilous language
0:24:00 > 0:24:03about lesbianism as a way of attacking Anne?
0:24:03 > 0:24:07She's saying, "Unless you keep me as your favourite, I will reveal all."
0:24:07 > 0:24:09Yeah, she keeps all of Anne's letters
0:24:09 > 0:24:12and she refers to them as her "vouchers of truth."
0:24:12 > 0:24:16And from about 1708, she starts making veiled threats
0:24:16 > 0:24:21that if she's not kept in favour, she will publish these letters.
0:24:21 > 0:24:25In the end, Sarah's threats and the growing public disquiet
0:24:25 > 0:24:27became dangerous for Anne.
0:24:27 > 0:24:32In 1710, the writer Jonathan Swift published an article accusing
0:24:32 > 0:24:36the Marlboroughs of embezzling funds intended for Blenheim Palace.
0:24:37 > 0:24:41Anne finally had to banish her favourite from court.
0:24:43 > 0:24:46Anne presents a paradox as queen.
0:24:46 > 0:24:50Despite her problems with her gender and her gynaecological issues
0:24:50 > 0:24:53and her unfortunate choice of friends,
0:24:53 > 0:24:55she was a very diligent monarch.
0:24:55 > 0:24:59She attended more cabinet meetings than any other king or queen
0:24:59 > 0:25:02and we can give her the credit for good intentions.
0:25:02 > 0:25:08As she said herself, "Those who come after me may be more capable,
0:25:08 > 0:25:12"but they cannot discharge their duties more faithfully."
0:25:21 > 0:25:24Although Anne may not have been the greatest monarch,
0:25:24 > 0:25:27her subjects became very affectionate towards her,
0:25:27 > 0:25:32recognising a good queen who had done her best.
0:25:32 > 0:25:37And in 1714, when she'd been languishing in bed for over a year,
0:25:37 > 0:25:39they were truly distressed.
0:25:41 > 0:25:45Anne had suffered from ill health for her entire life.
0:25:45 > 0:25:49The consequences of her obesity, her gout
0:25:49 > 0:25:54and her 17 pregnancies had finally caught up with her.
0:25:54 > 0:25:56I believe that this bed was commissioned
0:25:56 > 0:26:01for a very special purpose - that she intended to die in it.
0:26:01 > 0:26:06This was a queen whose mortality could be publicly acknowledged,
0:26:06 > 0:26:09who was human like the rest of us.
0:26:09 > 0:26:13Anne's death brought the weakness of the Stuart family to a head.
0:26:13 > 0:26:15With her, they finally lost the throne.
0:26:15 > 0:26:19This dynasty's various failings had given their people
0:26:19 > 0:26:22additional strength and power.
0:26:22 > 0:26:26Parliament had repeatedly stepped in, either to correct or to
0:26:26 > 0:26:31compensate for the weaknesses of the various Stuart kings and queens.
0:26:31 > 0:26:36Parliament had executed Charles I, forced the exile of James II,
0:26:36 > 0:26:39chosen a successor for William and Mary.
0:26:39 > 0:26:43And then we had Anne, the most tragic queen in British history -
0:26:43 > 0:26:47theologically fit to rule, but biologically cursed.
0:26:50 > 0:26:53When Anne's medical problems threw the succession into doubt,
0:26:53 > 0:26:56Parliament once again stepped in.
0:26:56 > 0:27:00They passed the Act Of Settlement, setting out who should rule
0:27:00 > 0:27:03after her and, more importantly, who shouldn't.
0:27:05 > 0:27:11It now became law that no Catholic could ever again sit on the throne.
0:27:11 > 0:27:15Parliament were absolutely desperate to find
0:27:15 > 0:27:17a Protestant successor to Anne.
0:27:17 > 0:27:22At this point, they overlooked no less than 50 of her relatives
0:27:22 > 0:27:24on the grounds that they were Catholic.
0:27:24 > 0:27:29Eventually they settled on this rather unprepossessing candidate,
0:27:29 > 0:27:34Georg Ludwig, ruler of the tiny German principality of Hanover.
0:27:34 > 0:27:38He was short, he was quiet, people called him a blockhead
0:27:38 > 0:27:40and he was German.
0:27:40 > 0:27:42But at least he was Protestant.
0:27:44 > 0:27:49In August 1714, the diminutive Georg Ludwig arrives in England
0:27:49 > 0:27:51with his German entourage in tow.
0:27:53 > 0:27:56Georg landed just over there in Greenwich to make his
0:27:56 > 0:27:58formal entry into London
0:27:58 > 0:28:02and he was crowned in Westminster Abbey on the 20th of October.
0:28:02 > 0:28:06But pretty soon questions were asked about his qualifications
0:28:06 > 0:28:08for his new job.
0:28:08 > 0:28:11It became clear that his English wasn't good enough
0:28:11 > 0:28:14for him to understand the coronation ceremony.
0:28:14 > 0:28:18He got a bit bored. Things had to be explained to him in Latin.
0:28:18 > 0:28:21Soon afterwards he had to make his speech to open Parliament
0:28:21 > 0:28:25and again his language skills let him down.
0:28:25 > 0:28:29He started to read out his speech, he struggled, he gave up,
0:28:29 > 0:28:32one of his subjects had to finish it for him.
0:28:32 > 0:28:36It wasn't a very gracious way to begin a new reign.
0:28:36 > 0:28:40Where Georg failed in terms of language and likeability,
0:28:40 > 0:28:43he was a great success in terms of biology.
0:28:43 > 0:28:45Unlike the previous Stuarts,
0:28:45 > 0:28:48this new Hanoverian had produced children -
0:28:48 > 0:28:51a daughter and, even more importantly, a son and heir.
0:28:51 > 0:28:57This new George, George II, received a warm welcome from his subjects
0:28:57 > 0:29:00because of the smoothness of the succession.
0:29:00 > 0:29:03But he too had image problems.
0:29:03 > 0:29:06Like his father, he'd been born in Hanover.
0:29:06 > 0:29:08He spoke English with a thick German accent.
0:29:08 > 0:29:11He was just a little bit too foreign.
0:29:11 > 0:29:15Also like his father, though, George could perform.
0:29:15 > 0:29:19He and his wife Caroline produced no less than eight healthy children.
0:29:22 > 0:29:26The Hanoverians had won the battle against biology, but in producing
0:29:26 > 0:29:31a royal family they found themselves waging a very personal war.
0:29:33 > 0:29:37The toxic relationship that developed between George II
0:29:37 > 0:29:42and his eldest son Frederick would tear this family apart.
0:29:42 > 0:29:46Even worse, it would threaten the power of the monarchy
0:29:46 > 0:29:49just as much as the infertility of the Stuarts.
0:29:51 > 0:29:56In 1737, Prince Frederick's wife became pregnant.
0:29:56 > 0:29:59What he should have now done was tell King George
0:29:59 > 0:30:02and Queen Caroline so that they could make preparations
0:30:02 > 0:30:05to be present at the birth of their first grandchild.
0:30:05 > 0:30:09They had this right to ensure that a true heir to the throne
0:30:09 > 0:30:10was being born.
0:30:14 > 0:30:16On the night that her waters broke,
0:30:16 > 0:30:20the royal family were all here at Hampton Court Palace.
0:30:20 > 0:30:23But instead of summoning his parents,
0:30:23 > 0:30:26Frederick got his wife, bundled her down this staircase,
0:30:26 > 0:30:30pushed her into a carriage, and drove her through the night,
0:30:30 > 0:30:3515 miles over bumpy roads to St James's Palace.
0:30:35 > 0:30:37This was his wife's first child!
0:30:37 > 0:30:40This is frightening and dangerous for her!
0:30:40 > 0:30:42But to Frederick,
0:30:42 > 0:30:45it was more important that he annoyed his parents.
0:30:47 > 0:30:50Queen Caroline's servants woke her up with the news
0:30:50 > 0:30:52that labour had started.
0:30:52 > 0:30:55"I'll go to my daughter-in-law," the Queen said.
0:30:55 > 0:31:00But the servants said, "You'll have to go to St James's Palace."
0:31:00 > 0:31:01She did.
0:31:01 > 0:31:05She got in her coach and there was this farcical midnight chase.
0:31:05 > 0:31:10When she arrived, it was too late, the baby had been born.
0:31:10 > 0:31:14And when King George II heard about it, he exploded with rage!
0:31:14 > 0:31:18This was a declaration of all-out war.
0:31:22 > 0:31:26In an earlier age, this royal family feud might have remained
0:31:26 > 0:31:30private or at least confined to court circles.
0:31:30 > 0:31:33But now, with print culture everywhere,
0:31:33 > 0:31:37the monarch's family business was everybody's business.
0:31:39 > 0:31:42The Gentleman's Magazine has a series of letters
0:31:42 > 0:31:46between the King, the Queen and the Prince of Wales about this event.
0:31:46 > 0:31:49You know, this is Dallas on-screen, in a sense,
0:31:49 > 0:31:52and that's what you're getting played out here in this book.
0:31:52 > 0:31:55Who starts it, then? The King goes first, doesn't he, I think?
0:31:55 > 0:31:56The King goes first.
0:31:56 > 0:31:58- He shouldn't have done that. - Absolutely.
0:31:58 > 0:32:00And basically, "Not only shouldn't you have done that,
0:32:00 > 0:32:03"but we had made all these preparations for it and I'm
0:32:03 > 0:32:07"absolutely furious, I'm completely furious at what you've done."
0:32:07 > 0:32:10What do you think the root cause was of all this bad blood
0:32:10 > 0:32:11between the father and the son?
0:32:11 > 0:32:14It would be nice to say that it's just something that
0:32:14 > 0:32:16runs in the Hanoverian blood, but it isn't.
0:32:16 > 0:32:19This is something that goes to the heart of monarchy
0:32:19 > 0:32:21and it's the first time really,
0:32:21 > 0:32:24after the Hanoverian succession, that we've got a big family
0:32:24 > 0:32:27on the throne and as soon as you get family, you get family politics.
0:32:27 > 0:32:30It's really ironic, isn't it, that the Tudors and the Stuarts
0:32:30 > 0:32:32struggled so much with fertility,
0:32:32 > 0:32:35they couldn't provide heirs very easily,
0:32:35 > 0:32:38then with the Hanoverians, we've almost got too many of them?
0:32:38 > 0:32:40Entirely so. That's exactly the case.
0:32:40 > 0:32:43The whole notion of monarchy depends upon the fact that you've got
0:32:43 > 0:32:45to go and have an heir and a spare, if possible,
0:32:45 > 0:32:48but at least you've got to have an heir.
0:32:48 > 0:32:51And once you've got an heir that's fine, but you set yourself up
0:32:51 > 0:32:54with a whole other series of issues and problems.
0:32:54 > 0:32:57And the primary problem you've got then is that
0:32:57 > 0:33:01you've got a reminder of your own mortality standing next to you.
0:33:01 > 0:33:04And as that person becomes an adult
0:33:04 > 0:33:08they can start a rival court and they can lure off people.
0:33:08 > 0:33:10They're the promise of the future,
0:33:10 > 0:33:13they're the hope for the future, and so there's all kinds of tensions,
0:33:13 > 0:33:17envy, jealousy, fears of mortality, never mind the fact that the parents
0:33:17 > 0:33:20may not actually like the son or the son may not like the parents.
0:33:20 > 0:33:22It's called the reversionary interest, isn't it?
0:33:22 > 0:33:25Because all he can do as Prince of Wales
0:33:25 > 0:33:27- is offer the reversion of posts... - That's right.
0:33:27 > 0:33:31..When they fall empty, when the King dies. So, it's all "here's one for the future."
0:33:31 > 0:33:33Yeah, here's one for the future and, of course,
0:33:33 > 0:33:37if you are on the outs with the king as a politician,
0:33:37 > 0:33:40it provides you with an alternative court.
0:33:40 > 0:33:43You can move over to go and, you know,
0:33:43 > 0:33:45side with the Prince of Wales for a while.
0:33:45 > 0:33:47So when we think back to Henry VIII,
0:33:47 > 0:33:49to disagree with the king was treason,
0:33:49 > 0:33:51you could even lose your head for it.
0:33:51 > 0:33:55But by the 18th century, it is possible to disagree with
0:33:55 > 0:33:59the king safely, you just become a member of the Loyal Opposition.
0:33:59 > 0:34:02Yes. His Majesty's Loyal Opposition - some place where people
0:34:02 > 0:34:08who are disaffected with the current monarch can safely congregate.
0:34:08 > 0:34:13This addition of politics to a family row caused a complete
0:34:13 > 0:34:17breakdown of communication soon after the baby fiasco.
0:34:22 > 0:34:25What I find almost tragic is the way that this
0:34:25 > 0:34:29quarrel between parents and child was never resolved.
0:34:29 > 0:34:32A few months later, Caroline lay dying.
0:34:32 > 0:34:36This is a very intimate sketch of the queen on her deathbed.
0:34:36 > 0:34:39She'd been suffering from an umbilical hernia.
0:34:39 > 0:34:42The treatment had been botched by her doctors.
0:34:42 > 0:34:44This was ironic, because Caroline had been a huge
0:34:44 > 0:34:47supporter of science and the medical profession.
0:34:48 > 0:34:52During the ten days it took her to die, her son Frederick
0:34:52 > 0:34:58repeatedly tried to inveigle his way into the palace to see her.
0:34:58 > 0:35:01We just don't know whether this was more politics
0:35:01 > 0:35:04or whether he genuinely missed his mother.
0:35:04 > 0:35:09Either way, because of the inversion of normal family relationships
0:35:09 > 0:35:13Caroline still insisted that she hated her son.
0:35:13 > 0:35:17And when she died, it was without ever having set eyes on him again.
0:35:20 > 0:35:23Once again, the royal family's dysfunctional behaviour
0:35:23 > 0:35:26gave the politicians the chance to exploit
0:35:26 > 0:35:30the weaknesses of the monarchy to their own advantage.
0:35:33 > 0:35:38And the situation would have a very personal effect on George himself.
0:35:38 > 0:35:42Queen Anne's physical health had caused her untold mental anguish
0:35:42 > 0:35:48and the psychological mind games played out between father, son
0:35:48 > 0:35:53and the politicians had an equally dire effect on George's wellbeing.
0:35:56 > 0:35:59George found it incredibly frustrating dealing with
0:35:59 > 0:36:01politics and politicians.
0:36:01 > 0:36:03He'd always had a terrible temper.
0:36:03 > 0:36:05Sometimes he used to kick his hat
0:36:05 > 0:36:09and even his wig around the room during a tantrum.
0:36:09 > 0:36:13"The Devil take Parliament," he'd shout, "the Devil take this
0:36:13 > 0:36:17"whole island, as long as I can be out of it and go back to Hanover."
0:36:17 > 0:36:21And his frustration had its effect on his health.
0:36:21 > 0:36:25All his life he'd suffered from angina or chest pains, particularly
0:36:25 > 0:36:31after dinner, and when he died in 1760 it was of a heart attack.
0:36:31 > 0:36:35When his body was cut open, they found that the right ventricle
0:36:35 > 0:36:40had burst and that the whole organ was full of coagulated blood.
0:36:40 > 0:36:42It's as if he died of crossness.
0:36:43 > 0:36:46A picture of the King's autopsied heart was published in
0:36:46 > 0:36:48The Gentleman's Magazine,
0:36:48 > 0:36:51as if for the entertainment of the reading public.
0:36:51 > 0:36:55And there was a sense by the middle of the 18th century, that the
0:36:55 > 0:36:59monarchy had become just another part of the London tourist industry.
0:36:59 > 0:37:02One guidebook said that you should go and see
0:37:02 > 0:37:04the lions at the Tower Of London,
0:37:04 > 0:37:08you must see the tombs at Westminster Abbey, see the plays,
0:37:08 > 0:37:11see the operas and the royal family.
0:37:14 > 0:37:19The greatest tragedy was that all the anxiety and loathing between
0:37:19 > 0:37:25the father, the mother and the son had proved totally unnecessary.
0:37:25 > 0:37:29Frederick actually predeceased his father George,
0:37:29 > 0:37:31dying of a blood clot on the lung.
0:37:31 > 0:37:35All the efforts the politicians had made to play father
0:37:35 > 0:37:39and son off against each other had been pointless.
0:37:39 > 0:37:44In the end, the crown actually passed to George II's grandson,
0:37:44 > 0:37:46yet another George, the third in a row.
0:37:49 > 0:37:51The only winners in this sorry situation were
0:37:51 > 0:37:54the newspaper-reading public.
0:37:54 > 0:37:56The health of their new ruler would provide
0:37:56 > 0:37:59the juiciest royal soap opera of them all.
0:38:02 > 0:38:05Like Queen Anne, George III presents a paradox.
0:38:05 > 0:38:08He did have one enormous weakness -
0:38:08 > 0:38:13his episodes of so-called madness that have come to define his reign.
0:38:13 > 0:38:17On the other hand though, he did rule for 60 years.
0:38:17 > 0:38:21One of the longest reigns of any British monarch.
0:38:28 > 0:38:31When George was suffering from his episodes of madness
0:38:31 > 0:38:35he was imprisoned at Kew Palace,
0:38:35 > 0:38:37isolated from his court,
0:38:37 > 0:38:41even kept apart from his wife and children.
0:38:52 > 0:38:57These are George's clothes that show some of the signs of his illness.
0:38:57 > 0:39:02We know this shirt belonged to him, it's got GR and a little crown.
0:39:02 > 0:39:07And it's been made extra big, there's extra fabric under the arms,
0:39:07 > 0:39:09so that his pages could dress him
0:39:09 > 0:39:11when he wasn't able to do it for himself.
0:39:14 > 0:39:17The waistcoat is even more poignant.
0:39:17 > 0:39:20You can see how the shoulders have been enlarged
0:39:20 > 0:39:23so that his servants could put it on him,
0:39:23 > 0:39:28and down the front there is food, or maybe dribble.
0:39:28 > 0:39:30When he couldn't feed himself
0:39:30 > 0:39:34he was fed from a cup with a spout, like a child.
0:39:34 > 0:39:36The royal servant who gave this waistcoat
0:39:36 > 0:39:39to a souvenir hunter apologised.
0:39:39 > 0:39:42He said, "This is the only garment that was available.
0:39:42 > 0:39:44"The others were just too soiled."
0:39:47 > 0:39:50Although his doctors tried desperately to find a cure,
0:39:50 > 0:39:53no-one could really agree what the problem was.
0:39:53 > 0:39:57For a long time, George's illness has been attributed to
0:39:57 > 0:40:01a physical genetic blood disorder, porphyria.
0:40:01 > 0:40:05But now doctors are beginning to question this diagnosis.
0:40:07 > 0:40:11One of the symptoms of porphyria is blue urine
0:40:11 > 0:40:14and George's medical records show that he had this.
0:40:14 > 0:40:17But doctors looking recently at these records
0:40:17 > 0:40:22have noticed that he was being treated with extract of gentian.
0:40:22 > 0:40:26This comes from a root of the plant that has deep purple flowers.
0:40:26 > 0:40:29It's still used today as a pick-me-up.
0:40:29 > 0:40:32If you take this, your urine will go blue.
0:40:32 > 0:40:35So did George have porphyria or was the blue urine
0:40:35 > 0:40:37just a symptom of his medicine?
0:40:40 > 0:40:43Clinical neurologist Dr Peter Garrard has been studying letters
0:40:43 > 0:40:47George wrote before enduring his madness
0:40:47 > 0:40:52with the same techniques he uses to diagnose his modern patients.
0:40:52 > 0:40:54So I've got a letter here that George wrote
0:40:54 > 0:40:58while he was coming to the end of his period of illness,
0:40:58 > 0:40:59his first period of illness.
0:40:59 > 0:41:01And the one you've got in your hand
0:41:01 > 0:41:05was written just before he started to become ill.
0:41:05 > 0:41:07And what are the main differences between them?
0:41:07 > 0:41:08What are we looking out for?
0:41:08 > 0:41:11One of the most striking things about this letter is
0:41:11 > 0:41:12the length of the sentences.
0:41:12 > 0:41:15If you look at the letter that you've got in your hand
0:41:15 > 0:41:17there are maybe 400 words
0:41:17 > 0:41:20and it's divided up into five or six sentences and that's...
0:41:20 > 0:41:22- That's normal.- ..And that's the kind of way in which you or I
0:41:22 > 0:41:24would divide up our letters.
0:41:24 > 0:41:27But if you look at this letter, which is much longer,
0:41:27 > 0:41:31it's maybe 500 or 600 words, there are only two sentences in it.
0:41:31 > 0:41:34So he's writing these massively long sentences
0:41:34 > 0:41:36and that's something that seems to be
0:41:36 > 0:41:42a feature of the kind of verbal verbosity that's associated with
0:41:42 > 0:41:46the manic phase of a psychiatric illness like bipolar disorder.
0:41:46 > 0:41:50It's almost like he's giving out an explosion of words
0:41:50 > 0:41:52and this matches what his doctors are telling us as well.
0:41:52 > 0:41:56They describe how he suffered from "an incessant loquacity,"
0:41:56 > 0:42:00and he would talk and talk until the foam ran out of his mouth...
0:42:00 > 0:42:04- Right.- ..And he can talk no more. It's a harrowing image.
0:42:04 > 0:42:07- He talks himself completely out of words.- Mmm.
0:42:07 > 0:42:12And he's probably having difficulty expressing his ideas concisely
0:42:12 > 0:42:16because, if you look at one of these hugely long sentences,
0:42:16 > 0:42:19not only is it long but it's also very complex.
0:42:19 > 0:42:21In fact, if you model that in a simple way by counting
0:42:21 > 0:42:25the number of verbs that he uses in that second sentence,
0:42:25 > 0:42:27you can count as many as eight.
0:42:27 > 0:42:29So eight verbs in a single sentence.
0:42:29 > 0:42:33Sentences that you or I use typically contain one or at the most two verbs,
0:42:33 > 0:42:35so it's highly complex.
0:42:35 > 0:42:38You can also look at how sophisticated the word usage is
0:42:38 > 0:42:40at the individual level.
0:42:40 > 0:42:44So he starts to introduce words which attract very
0:42:44 > 0:42:46high sophistication scores.
0:42:46 > 0:42:49Words here like "unattentive" or "the utmost."
0:42:49 > 0:42:52So it's like the reading level of the language is increased?
0:42:52 > 0:42:54Yes, that's a very good way of putting it.
0:42:54 > 0:42:57Isn't it quite unusual that he's using more sophisticated words
0:42:57 > 0:43:00when he's ill? I would have expected the other way round.
0:43:00 > 0:43:03Well, it's well-known that this kind of creativity is
0:43:03 > 0:43:07a feature of the manic end of the spectrum of mood disorders.
0:43:07 > 0:43:12So at one end we have the kind of extreme pathological levels
0:43:12 > 0:43:15of sadness that we refer to as depression, and at the other end
0:43:15 > 0:43:19we have these harmful and abnormal levels of happiness
0:43:19 > 0:43:24or euphoria, and that's the state which we refer to as mania.
0:43:24 > 0:43:29I think that these letters have great similarities with the kinds of
0:43:29 > 0:43:35verbal activity that people that we treat and see today with mania show.
0:43:35 > 0:43:39And do you think, then, that the evidence of these letters
0:43:39 > 0:43:42shows that George wasn't suffering from porphyria, that he must
0:43:42 > 0:43:46have had some sort of psychiatric disturbance, a period of mania?
0:43:46 > 0:43:49I don't think there can be any doubt any more
0:43:49 > 0:43:52that the porphyria hypothesis is completely dead in the water,
0:43:52 > 0:43:54and that this was a psychiatric illness,
0:43:54 > 0:43:57and that these periods that his doctors described, these are
0:43:57 > 0:44:01reflections of, classic reflections almost, of manic behaviour.
0:44:05 > 0:44:09At the time of George's madness of 1789,
0:44:09 > 0:44:12its causes were hotly debated,
0:44:12 > 0:44:16but its political effects were a far more serious concern.
0:44:18 > 0:44:21The King wasn't dead, so couldn't be written off completely,
0:44:21 > 0:44:26but he was totally incapacitated and holed up at Kew Palace.
0:44:27 > 0:44:30Who was going to rule in his place?
0:44:33 > 0:44:36The king's illness now became a ferociously fought over
0:44:36 > 0:44:38political battleground.
0:44:41 > 0:44:44Its effects were felt not only by the king,
0:44:44 > 0:44:48but also by his son, his politicians, and the whole nation.
0:44:50 > 0:44:54During the episodes of so-called madness, George disappears.
0:44:54 > 0:44:57What does this mean for the politicians?
0:44:57 > 0:45:01Well, clearly when he's first incapacitated in 1788 to 1789,
0:45:01 > 0:45:05there's a big debate about what powers should be given
0:45:05 > 0:45:09to his son, who is going to act as regent.
0:45:09 > 0:45:13And there's a really fierce debate about what powers to give -
0:45:13 > 0:45:17whether the regent should exercise full kingly powers or not.
0:45:17 > 0:45:19I like the caricature here that shows us
0:45:19 > 0:45:22there's a literal tug of war between the Whigs and the Tories.
0:45:22 > 0:45:24- And here's George's son sitting by...- Yeah.
0:45:24 > 0:45:27..And the Whigs and the Tories are literally having a tug of war
0:45:27 > 0:45:28over the crown, aren't they?
0:45:28 > 0:45:31That's right, the government and the opposition
0:45:31 > 0:45:34are really fighting over this, because the opposition is friendly
0:45:34 > 0:45:37and well disposed to the prince regent, who likes them.
0:45:37 > 0:45:41And they hope that if he's given full kingly powers
0:45:41 > 0:45:43that'll help them to come into government.
0:45:43 > 0:45:46Whereas the government, which has supported the old king
0:45:46 > 0:45:48and doesn't really much like his son,
0:45:48 > 0:45:52is fearful that if he does get full regal powers they'll be out.
0:45:52 > 0:45:55So this is a battle between government and opposition
0:45:55 > 0:45:59ins and outs as much as it's a battle between Whigs and Tories.
0:45:59 > 0:46:02What would have happened to politics if the King had just
0:46:02 > 0:46:05disappeared off the scene, gone mad for the rest of his life?
0:46:05 > 0:46:08Well, presumably this really would have mattered even more,
0:46:08 > 0:46:11because then there would have been a decision as to what
0:46:11 > 0:46:14kind of powers to allow the prince regent to have.
0:46:14 > 0:46:17And this is what the real battle's about.
0:46:17 > 0:46:19It reveals a lot, I think, about the nature of monarchy
0:46:19 > 0:46:22and the powers the monarch still has.
0:46:22 > 0:46:25The monarch is still the linchpin of the whole political system.
0:46:25 > 0:46:27You still need the support of the king
0:46:27 > 0:46:29if you're going to form a government.
0:46:29 > 0:46:32Ironically, in this moment of great weakness
0:46:32 > 0:46:36the monarchy had actually revealed its strength.
0:46:36 > 0:46:39George's pain was shared by the whole nation, who feared
0:46:39 > 0:46:42the consequences of the power struggle if he failed to recover.
0:46:44 > 0:46:47So when George did unexpectedly get better in 1790,
0:46:47 > 0:46:51the nation breathed a sigh of relief.
0:46:51 > 0:46:54# God save the King
0:46:54 > 0:46:57# God save the King... #
0:46:57 > 0:46:58To the joy of his people,
0:46:58 > 0:47:02George returned to rule for another 20 years
0:47:02 > 0:47:04until his gradual decline.
0:47:06 > 0:47:10Here we've got a couple of George's signatures from 1803,
0:47:10 > 0:47:141809 and there's a very clear deterioration, isn't there?
0:47:14 > 0:47:16There certainly is.
0:47:16 > 0:47:19I mean, the first one is a pretty legible signature.
0:47:19 > 0:47:22The second one just looks like a splurge on the paper.
0:47:22 > 0:47:26I suppose we've got to take into account that he is really
0:47:26 > 0:47:30getting quite an old man by the time the second signature's there,
0:47:30 > 0:47:32his eyesight's deteriorating.
0:47:32 > 0:47:35I think these things need to be taken into account.
0:47:35 > 0:47:38I think people have got the wrong idea about George.
0:47:38 > 0:47:42They've overlooked the fact that his reign was 60 years long,
0:47:42 > 0:47:44- pretty stable on the whole, and he wasn't...- Yep.
0:47:44 > 0:47:47..Mad for all of that time by any means, was he?
0:47:47 > 0:47:48Certainly not.
0:47:48 > 0:47:51I mean, the last few years he was clearly incapacitated,
0:47:51 > 0:47:54but most of his long reign he's fully active
0:47:54 > 0:47:57and playing the full part of a constitutional monarch.
0:47:57 > 0:48:01Despite his bouts of madness, George was one of the longest reigning
0:48:01 > 0:48:04and most successful British kings,
0:48:04 > 0:48:08his weaknesses even reinforcing the power of the monarchy.
0:48:10 > 0:48:15But George couldn't escape the Hanoverian dynasty's fatal flaw -
0:48:15 > 0:48:19the bad blood that set one generation against another.
0:48:20 > 0:48:22Like his Hanoverian predecessors,
0:48:22 > 0:48:28George III had no difficulty with fertility. He had 15 children.
0:48:28 > 0:48:31These little items were all souvenirs kept by
0:48:31 > 0:48:34the royal babies' wet nurse as mementoes.
0:48:34 > 0:48:38Here's a tape measure recording their heights.
0:48:38 > 0:48:42And she remembers the king being a kind father, who would
0:48:42 > 0:48:46get down on the floor and play with the children under the table.
0:48:46 > 0:48:49But despite this loving start in life,
0:48:49 > 0:48:53all of the children would face future problems.
0:48:53 > 0:48:56This little red sash belonged to Prince Frederick.
0:48:56 > 0:48:59He would go on to resign as Commander Of The Army
0:48:59 > 0:49:02because his mistress was caught selling commissions.
0:49:02 > 0:49:06Little Prince William, owner of these gloves,
0:49:06 > 0:49:09would go on to have ten illegitimate children with an actress.
0:49:09 > 0:49:13Their sister Charlotte, owner of these mittens, would marry
0:49:13 > 0:49:17a German duke who ended up on Napoleon's side against the British.
0:49:17 > 0:49:21This is a lock of hair belonging to Edward,
0:49:21 > 0:49:24who got expelled from the army for brutality.
0:49:24 > 0:49:27And the blue sash here belonged to the Prince Of Wales,
0:49:27 > 0:49:29the future George IV.
0:49:29 > 0:49:32He had the worst problems of them all.
0:49:34 > 0:49:38This stylish and flamboyant image is how George IV would have
0:49:38 > 0:49:40wanted us to remember him.
0:49:40 > 0:49:43But it's incredibly flattering, considering that contemporaries
0:49:43 > 0:49:49saw him like this - overweight, self-indulgent and debauched.
0:49:49 > 0:49:54Everyone knew that this king was a womaniser, a gambler,
0:49:54 > 0:49:59a spendthrift, and addicted to drink and drugs.
0:49:59 > 0:50:03It's hard to feel much sympathy for George, but his transformation
0:50:03 > 0:50:07into one of the least fit rulers in British history
0:50:07 > 0:50:09is actually quite tragic.
0:50:09 > 0:50:12And to understand why, we have to go back to his childhood.
0:50:12 > 0:50:18So this jigsaw of the counties of England was used to teach
0:50:18 > 0:50:20the future George IV about geography?
0:50:20 > 0:50:24Indeed, and he will visit each part of the country which is
0:50:24 > 0:50:28shown on this map in later years - Ireland and Scotland,
0:50:28 > 0:50:32and probably the first monarch of that era to do so.
0:50:32 > 0:50:35I presume this was used at Kew Palace,
0:50:35 > 0:50:38where he was sent with his brother to be educated away from,
0:50:38 > 0:50:41actually, the royal parents and the other royal children,
0:50:41 > 0:50:43and they had quite a strict timetable, didn't they?
0:50:43 > 0:50:46Oh, they did, they worked until 8.00 in the evening on prep
0:50:46 > 0:50:49and shared this kind of monastic existence,
0:50:49 > 0:50:51cut off from the rest of the family.
0:50:51 > 0:50:54The big problem was discipline, because his father had instructed
0:50:54 > 0:51:00his tutors to instil knowledge into him with a rod, as it were.
0:51:00 > 0:51:03Would you say that he was quite a talented student?
0:51:03 > 0:51:06I think he was a good student, but the problem was
0:51:06 > 0:51:09he was so rebellious and he objected to the discipline
0:51:09 > 0:51:12and the system that his father had insisted on.
0:51:12 > 0:51:16So half the time he was in trouble - rebellious, being beaten.
0:51:16 > 0:51:21An eyewitness describes himself and his brother being flogged like dogs.
0:51:21 > 0:51:23It alienates him and turns him into a rebel,
0:51:23 > 0:51:29so he becomes obsessed with annoying his father by not performing, almost.
0:51:29 > 0:51:32I think that when we look at George IV's childhood
0:51:32 > 0:51:37we can see the seeds being sewn of the man that he will become.
0:51:37 > 0:51:40Absolutely. In fact, his life could be seen, later life,
0:51:40 > 0:51:45as a reaction against this kind of deprived, as he saw it, childhood.
0:51:45 > 0:51:50And everything he did, the scrapes he got into, were a reaction.
0:51:54 > 0:51:56As a result of his draconian upbringing,
0:51:56 > 0:52:00George began to rebel against his father.
0:52:00 > 0:52:02History was repeating itself
0:52:02 > 0:52:06as the father-son relationship disintegrated.
0:52:06 > 0:52:10George's self-indulgent personality is epitomised by his most
0:52:10 > 0:52:15extravagant creation, the royal pavilion at Brighton -
0:52:15 > 0:52:19a pleasure palace where he would party and indulge his enormous
0:52:19 > 0:52:23appetites, literally at the expense of the public.
0:52:25 > 0:52:29Here's a really graphic illustration of the king's self-indulgence,
0:52:29 > 0:52:34George's breeches, with their 54-inch waist.
0:52:34 > 0:52:38You can see here how his valet laced him into them at the back.
0:52:38 > 0:52:44This curious object is a replica of what was called the king's belt.
0:52:44 > 0:52:46Effectively, it's a corset.
0:52:46 > 0:52:50When the painter David Willkie came to take a portrait of the King,
0:52:50 > 0:52:52he was kept waiting for hours
0:52:52 > 0:52:56while the royal servants trussed George up into this thing.
0:52:56 > 0:52:59When the king finally appeared Willkie said,
0:52:59 > 0:53:03"He looked like a sausage about to burst out of its skin."
0:53:06 > 0:53:11As you might expect, though, Willkie didn't paint what he saw
0:53:11 > 0:53:13but what the king wanted him to see.
0:53:13 > 0:53:16His work shows a commanding, heroic figure,
0:53:16 > 0:53:20with the sitter's weight problems carefully concealed.
0:53:23 > 0:53:25George did have some talents,
0:53:25 > 0:53:29he was stylish and had terrific visual flair.
0:53:29 > 0:53:32His wife said he would have made a good hairdresser.
0:53:34 > 0:53:38But George was the king, and with his fundamental character flaws
0:53:38 > 0:53:41he simply wasn't cut out for the job.
0:53:46 > 0:53:50In an age of endless satirical pamphlets and cartoons,
0:53:50 > 0:53:54George was under greater public scrutiny than any previous monarch.
0:53:54 > 0:53:57And quite frankly, his subjects weren't impressed
0:53:57 > 0:54:02by his behaviour or sympathetic to his self-inflicted ill health.
0:54:02 > 0:54:06This is an incredibly disrespectful image, isn't it, of George IV?
0:54:06 > 0:54:10Well, it sums up all the vices that he is heir to, in a sense -
0:54:10 > 0:54:15gluttony, an overfilled chamber pot, vials of laudanum.
0:54:15 > 0:54:17That's a cure for stinking breath
0:54:17 > 0:54:20that one over there in the background.
0:54:20 > 0:54:24Oh look, Debts of Honour Unpaid and gambling dice.
0:54:24 > 0:54:27Empty bottles down underneath the table.
0:54:27 > 0:54:31And it's called A Voluptuary Under The Horrors Of Digestion.
0:54:31 > 0:54:34- Digestion. - Oh, he's eaten too much. Oh dear.
0:54:34 > 0:54:37- That's it.- The costume that he's wearing is significant here.
0:54:37 > 0:54:41He's in a buff-coloured waistcoat, and bursting out of his
0:54:41 > 0:54:44buff-coloured breeches, and he's wearing a dark blue coat.
0:54:44 > 0:54:46This is the sort of uniform of the Whig Party.
0:54:46 > 0:54:50Yes, it was, and he would have been wearing this to annoy his father,
0:54:50 > 0:54:53as most of what he did at this period was to annoy his father.
0:54:53 > 0:54:57You could say that George IV believes almost in nothing.
0:54:57 > 0:55:01His whole early life and certainly his political opinions
0:55:01 > 0:55:03are a reaction against his father.
0:55:03 > 0:55:07His father had a very firm moral agenda, but George
0:55:07 > 0:55:11went out of his way to violate every single one that he could.
0:55:11 > 0:55:14And I think that's one of the kind of sad aspects of his reign,
0:55:14 > 0:55:17is the way that he retreated from kind of,
0:55:17 > 0:55:20what would you call it, sensible contact with the people.
0:55:20 > 0:55:24- He became ill, he became a recluse... - Mmm.
0:55:24 > 0:55:27..And he cut himself off and lived at Windsor
0:55:27 > 0:55:30whilst the world almost went on without him.
0:55:30 > 0:55:32He is almost a political irrelevance.
0:55:32 > 0:55:35We can really see this in this very striking caricature.
0:55:35 > 0:55:39Here's George, enjoying himself with courtiers, party going on.
0:55:39 > 0:55:43Outside we have despair, we have death, we have criminals
0:55:43 > 0:55:47being hung, we have their wives and children begging for help.
0:55:47 > 0:55:51And the chilling thing is that he's completely ignoring them.
0:55:51 > 0:55:54That seems to be the most despicable part of his rule.
0:55:54 > 0:55:57Absolutely. And this is a time of huge social changes
0:55:57 > 0:56:00with the Industrial Revolution, with poverty,
0:56:00 > 0:56:03and he is almost irrelevant to all that.
0:56:03 > 0:56:07He is this clownish figure who's almost opted out
0:56:07 > 0:56:09of doing anything sensible.
0:56:10 > 0:56:14Through his bad-boy behaviour and consequent ill health,
0:56:14 > 0:56:16George had weakened the power
0:56:16 > 0:56:20and image of the monarchy more than any of his predecessors.
0:56:20 > 0:56:24On a rare occasion he did try to stand up to parliament,
0:56:24 > 0:56:28threatening to abdicate if it acted against his wishes.
0:56:28 > 0:56:31Though the politicians just shrugged their shoulders
0:56:31 > 0:56:33and told him to go right ahead.
0:56:35 > 0:56:41By 1830, the year in which George died, he was almost blind,
0:56:41 > 0:56:44delirious much of the time, a recluse.
0:56:44 > 0:56:47He was clearly incapable of rule.
0:56:47 > 0:56:49But he still hadn't lost his appetite.
0:56:49 > 0:56:51Here's a description of his breakfast
0:56:51 > 0:56:53in this last year of his life.
0:56:53 > 0:56:58He had a pigeon and beef steak pie, of which he ate two pigeons
0:56:58 > 0:57:01and three beef steaks.
0:57:01 > 0:57:05Two thirds of a bottle of white wine, two glasses of port,
0:57:05 > 0:57:09a glass of brandy, some dry champagne.
0:57:09 > 0:57:13And the first of 250 drops of laudanum -
0:57:13 > 0:57:16that's opium dissolved in alcohol.
0:57:16 > 0:57:20All this sounds quite funny, but clearly it isn't.
0:57:20 > 0:57:23This is a man who is genuinely sick.
0:57:23 > 0:57:28On the 26th of June 1830, George's overindulgences caught up
0:57:28 > 0:57:33with him and he died of a burst blood vessel in his stomach.
0:57:34 > 0:57:39After the King's death, his obituary in the Times newspaper had
0:57:39 > 0:57:44this to say, "There never was an individual regretted less
0:57:44 > 0:57:48"by his fellow creatures than this deceased king.
0:57:48 > 0:57:51"What eye has wept for him?"
0:57:52 > 0:57:56Under George, the monarchy had become an irrelevance.
0:57:56 > 0:58:00It would be left for the next generation to pick up the pieces.
0:58:02 > 0:58:06In the final episode, I'm going to explore how the monarchy had
0:58:06 > 0:58:11to reinvent itself after George IV's disastrous performance as king.
0:58:11 > 0:58:14Although no longer political players,
0:58:14 > 0:58:17the royal family were still national figureheads.
0:58:17 > 0:58:20But with public opinion becoming more important
0:58:20 > 0:58:24than their privacy, their physical and mental problems
0:58:24 > 0:58:27would continue to challenge their fitness to rule.
0:58:42 > 0:58:45Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd