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The First Georgians episode 3
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00:00In 1743, King George II became the last British king ever to lead his troops in person on the battlefield.
00:13Now boys, he said, fire and be brave and the French will soon run!
00:24The battle was Dettingham here in Germany and the enemy was Britain's old adversary.
00:30France.
00:33George had reached the ripe old age of 59.
00:36Some of the British thought that the ageing king's military enthusiasm had got the better of him.
00:44But when they tried to shuffle the king off the battlefield for his own safety,
00:48he said, don't tell me of danger, I'll be even with them.
00:52Now George II was undeniably brave, but was he really acting in the best interests of Britain?
01:04German George II was a warrior king.
01:12He was using the power of Britain to protect his other realm, his native Hanover.
01:18But the British were more interested in ruling the waves than fighting continental wars.
01:26For this series, I've been given access to the Royal Collection,
01:30as pieces are brought together for an exhibition about the first Georgian kings,
01:34at the Queen's Gallery Buckingham Palace.
01:37This was a new dynasty, who found themselves fighting the French, the Jacobites,
01:44and each other all at the same time.
01:47It's remarkable that these Hanoverian kings didn't weaken the monarchy.
01:54They strengthened it.
01:56They helped transform Britain into a global superpower.
02:06What was George II doing on this foreign battlefield?
02:10This is exactly where his artillery was positioned.
02:13Well, this was part of the war of the Austrian succession.
02:16It was a gallant cause.
02:18It was the defence of the right of Maria Theresa of Austria
02:22to inherit her father's throne, even though she was a woman.
02:28But George had ulterior motives.
02:32He wanted to contain the French threat
02:35and protect the interests of Hanover's near neighbour, Austria.
02:40Although he was nearly 60, George II was determined to lead from the front.
02:45A cannonball went whizzing within half a yard of his head
02:48and his son, the Duke of Cumberland, got shot in the leg.
02:52But despite these close brushes with death, the battle was a success.
02:56You'd think that George II would be riding high after thrashing the French.
03:09But some of his British subjects weren't happy.
03:11On the battlefield of Dessingen, George had worn the yellow sash of Hanover.
03:20All the king's enemies at home seized upon the fact that he charged into battle
03:25wearing Hanoverian colours, not British.
03:28Some people went so far as to say that George was defending Hanover with the blood of proud Englishmen.
03:38It became such a PR problem that when this portrait was painted,
03:44George was portrayed wearing a sash that was tactfully and Britishly blue.
03:49Unsurprisingly, George's opponents sought to capitalise on this controversy.
03:59On the one side were the king's own supporters who wanted to defend the white horse of Hanover.
04:05This lot wanted a strong British army to get involved in continental wars to protect Hanover's interests.
04:11On the other hand, though, we have the Patriots, represented by the British lion.
04:17This lot thought that Hanover was a chink in Britain's defences.
04:21Forget Hanover, they said. Britain is an island nation defended by the sea.
04:30The Patriots were a charismatic group of politicians and poets.
04:35They counted both Whigs and Tories among their number.
04:39They were the original Eurosceptics.
04:44The Patriots believed Britain should go it alone, ignore continental disputes,
04:51build a strong navy and gain more colonies in America and round the world.
04:57This was the way, they argued, for Britain to secure international dominance.
05:02Now this lot needed a leader and they settled upon the king's eldest son, Prince Frederick, who by this point had become something of a professional activist.
05:14George II had always considered his eldest son Frederick to be the black sheep of the family.
05:23As people said, it ran in the blood of these Georgian monarchs to hate their eldest son.
05:30George II and Frederick had always had their petty feuds and squabbles.
05:34But now the king was really worried. Frederick was gaining political momentum.
05:41In 1740, Frederick was the inspiration for a new song that was to be the theme tune for these rebellious patriots.
05:49It was so scandalous that it had to be performed privately. So you might be surprised to learn that you know it already.
06:02Today, people think rule Britannia on the last night of the proms is a cheery celebration of Britishness.
06:19But this song was in fact an open revolt against King George II, as I suggested to the historian Dr Oliver Cox.
06:28I mean, when it's first performed, it's a royal revolt. It's a song for a prince against his father and against his father's prime minister.
06:38Rule Britannia as we sing it now is rule Britannia. Britannia rules the waves. It's a statement of present fact.
06:45When it's first performed in 1740, it's rule the waves. It's a command. It's an expectation that if we follow the patriots policies, Britain will rule the waves.
06:56The song goes on and on and on and on about this concept of liberty. What does that mean in the 18th century?
07:03One of the problems with the 1730s, as far as the patriots are concerned, is the liberty to choose their own representatives in parliament, the liberty to have to be protected from external invaders, the liberty to trade as they want to, is threatened and endangered.
07:21And what the patriots thought needed to happen was an emphasis on English liberty, the navy and trade. You've got these three important tenets that really bind everything that they say together.
07:34Frederick obviously is born and grows up in Hanover. He's the family's main representative there for the first part of his life. But then later on, he becomes awfully English, doesn't he?
07:47Yeah, he sort of rebrands himself.
07:49And whether it's a clever piece of sort of opportunistic politicking, in the sense that by acting far more English, he's able to bring in a sort of disparate group of the disaffected politicians and poets, who may one day be able to help him conceive of a coherence of opposition policy to his father.
08:10Does he do all this then just to annoy his dad?
08:13I think a lot of the difficulties and the issues that we see throughout the 1730s and 1740s is Frederick, you know, sticking his middle finger up at his dad.
08:22Frederick was the king in waiting, and he was frankly getting impatient for power.
08:35He now had his own rival court, and he began to tussle with his father, George II, over foreign policy and how best to tackle the French threat.
08:46Patriot William Pitt was just one politician who fought for Frederick's manifesto in Parliament. He felt that the electorate of Hanover was Britain's weak link.
08:58Pitt was a notoriously good orator. This is one wonderful speech that he made in the Houses of Parliament, complaining that the Hanoverian tail was wagging the British dog.
09:09Britain, Britain, he said, this great, this powerful, this formidable country is treated merely as the province of a despicable electorate.
09:20Clearly, this wasn't going to win him any favours with George II. And throughout the 1740s, Pitt was a lone voice in the wilderness, like Churchill before World War II.
09:31He was calling for more British self-confidence and aggression towards France, the seizing of French colonies in America. But nobody was listening.
09:43Pitt was right. The French were always looking for ways to destabilise Britain. And so they conspired with Jacobite plotters.
09:53George II's exiled rival, the pretender James Stuart, had a good blood claim to the British crown. But he'd been excluded for his Catholicism.
10:06This would-be King James III and his Jacobite supporters had been twiddling their thumbs in exile in Rome.
10:16But the French now threw them a lifeline. Military backing to attempt a coup in Britain.
10:23On the 23rd of July 1745, James III's son, Charles Edward Stuart, landed on the coast of Scotland and sounded the rallying cry.
10:40Charles, who was basically an Italian, was here to challenge George, a German, to the British throne.
10:48And here at the palace of Holyrood House is the man of the hour, Prince Charles Edward Stuart, a.k.a. the Young Pretender.
11:01Charles Stuart had been brought up in Rome, and he'd always been told that the British throne was rightfully his.
11:09If only he could go out and get it. This portrait is like a recruiting poster for the prince's supporters.
11:16He's saying here, your prince needs you!
11:19And what a dashing and handsome young prince he is.
11:22He's looking very martial in his armour.
11:25He's looking very official and respectable in his blue sash of the Order of the Garter.
11:31But on top of that, he's wearing the green ribbon with the cross of St. Andrews of the Order of the Thistle, the Scottish Order.
11:39And this is designed to appeal to his richest source of potential support, the Scots.
11:49The Stuarts had been Scottish kings long before they'd inherited the English throne in the 17th century.
11:56And many Scots, particularly in the Highlands, rallied to Charles Stuart's cause.
12:03George II's popularity was at a low point.
12:07His decision to go on fighting that war with the Austrian succession was seen as a pointless drain on British resources.
12:15It was mainly the old Protestant dislike and mistrust of Catholicism that was keeping King George II on the throne and the exiled Stuarts off it.
12:31Edinburgh should have been a stronghold for George II.
12:35But with a sword in one hand and a cross in the other, the young pretender simply strolled with his forces into the Scottish capital and took control.
12:44He got a mietous reception, particularly from two sections of the crowd.
12:51Firstly, the so-called common people.
12:53And secondly, the ladies.
12:55All the women got out their handkerchiefs and threw them into the street in front of him.
13:00And it was on this occasion that a new nickname was heard for Charles Stuart.
13:05People were shouting out, the Bonnie Prince Charlie.
13:13By now, Charles Stuart had got together an army of between 11,000 and 14,000 troops.
13:20His advisers encouraged him to seize the hour.
13:25To march on London to take the big prize.
13:29The British throne.
13:32Charles Stuart set up government here at the Palace of Holyrood House for five weeks.
13:37While he was here, he issued the Declaration of King James on behalf of his exiled father.
13:43This declaration appealed very cleverly to the self-interest of the British.
13:49It said that their German kings had been involving them in irrelevant foreign wars, wasting their resources, disrupting trade.
13:58And anyway, nobody wants to be ruled by a foreigner.
14:01You can see how this touched a nerve amongst Prince Frederick's group of patriots.
14:13Charles Stuart was being rather clever here.
14:16He knew that running down Hanover would appeal to the British public.
14:21Indeed, Sir Robert Walpole, when he was Prime Minister, had remarked that they would have been better off making Charles Stuart Elector of Hanover.
14:29Because the public will never fetch another king from there.
14:34During the weeks of Charles Stuart's advance south into England, tensions mounted in the Georgian court.
14:45George II, bursting for a fight as usual, was ready to get on his horse and lead the charge.
14:52Instead, though, his younger son, the rotund Duke of Cumberland, was hurriedly brought back from the war with the Austrian succession and sent north to face the Jacobite threat.
15:05There was no love lost between the sons of George II.
15:09That's Frederick, the Prince of Wales, and his younger brother, the Duke of Cumberland.
15:15They really were chalk and cheese. Frederick was thin and liked music.
15:20Whereas Cumberland was as fat as a Cumberland sausage, and he was a career soldier.
15:26Frederick was right to worry about the threat his younger brother represented.
15:31George II had even talked about a plan where Frederick would be shuffled out of the line of succession and given Hanover as a consolation prize.
15:39And the crown of Great Britain would be placed firmly on the head of the king's favourite son, Cumberland, instead.
15:51Cumberland now marched north for a showdown with the Jacobite army at Carlisle Castle.
15:58Meanwhile, his brother Frederick had Carlisle Castle recreated in spun sugar for a rather quirky dinner party rebellion.
16:08The Duke of Cumberland had liberated the city of Carlisle from the Jacobites.
16:13But Frederick wasn't very impressed by this. He decided to make a mockery out of it.
16:18One day for dessert, he ordered a model of the citadel of Carlisle to be made out of sugar.
16:24And after dinner, he bombarded it with sugar plums.
16:28Now, this must have been quite hilarious for Frederick's guests, and it may seem a little bit trivial.
16:33But actually, members of the royal family couldn't come right out and openly criticise each other.
16:40They had to express their opinions obliquely.
16:43And that's why their politics could be expressed through things like their puddings.
16:50Frederick was also making a bigger humanitarian point.
16:53He was a gentler character than his brother, and abhorred Cumberland's brutal approach to warfare.
17:03As Charles Stuart and the Jacobites retreated back north into Scotland,
17:08the Duke of Cumberland was beginning to pursue them with real ferocity.
17:12The struggle was a real ferocity.
17:13It was a real ferocity.
17:14The struggle, for the British throne, came to a storyline that has done a lot earlier,
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17:37who fled the laundering in the mother's Almae.
17:39He brutally retorted his nolus about sauvres.
17:40The struggle for the British throne came to a head here at Culloden,
17:46a battlefield that would become a byword for cruelty and bloodshed.
17:52This was the last battle ever to be fought on British soil.
17:57It was to be decided by two men in their 20s.
18:02Bonnie Prince Charlie was 25, and Cumberland's 25th birthday was the day before the battle.
18:10Kate Hurd, Royal Collection Trust's Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings,
18:15believes this watercolour is the closest we have to a visual first-hand account of Culloden.
18:22This picture sort of takes us to a ringside seat at the battle, doesn't it?
18:28How was the artist able to do that?
18:29We know that the artist was at the battle.
18:32He was working for the Duke of Cumberland as one of his draftsmen and surveyors,
18:35so we know that he was an eyewitness to the battle.
18:36Well, it looks like this side are winning, because they're always all coming forwards,
18:41but that's not actually what's happening, is it?
18:43No, you're absolutely right in that they are appearing to advance.
18:45They are advancing. It's the Jacobite troops on the right.
18:49They are doing this Highland charge, which is their characteristic means of fighting,
18:54and it had been very successful for them.
18:56They'd won the Battle of Preston Pans just earlier in the same manner,
19:00but what they are facing is devastating fire from the government troops.
19:05They've got better guns.
19:06They've got better guns, and they've loaded them with canister shot,
19:09which scatters shot across the field.
19:11There's the Duke of Cumberland sitting there watching.
19:14Was he a good commander, do you think?
19:16He had a lot to prove at this point.
19:18He'd recently suffered a really humiliating defeat against the French on the continent
19:22at the Battle of Fontenoy, and he'd come to deal with a Jacobite threat.
19:26We know that he sent spies to the Jacobite camp the night before,
19:30so he was forewarned of what was about to happen,
19:33and he also had the advantage in that the Jacobites had attempted a night raid,
19:37which had failed, so the soldiers were tired in a way that his soldiers weren't.
19:42It's very distressing, actually, because you've got all of these poor Highlanders
19:46running forwards with what looks like a pitchfork in his hand,
19:49and these guys are just shooting cannons at them.
19:52It was clearly a horrific battle, a great sort of toll.
19:57But there was another factor in the fall of the Jacobites.
20:03They'd been abandoned by their French allies.
20:08Things were now going well for the French on the continent.
20:11They no longer needed to employ diversionary tactics in Scotland.
20:15I met Dr Tony Pollard, a battlefield historian,
20:22who believes that Bonnie Prince Charlie didn't have any choice
20:26but to turn and face Cumberland's forces.
20:30Tony, why did Bonnie Prince Charlie have to stand and fight here,
20:33or why does he feel that he had to?
20:35There are a number of reasons, really.
20:37For the Jacobites, it's a last roll of the dice,
20:40and the option is either to fight here or disappear into the mountains
20:45and basically fight a guerrilla war.
20:47Wouldn't they have been really good at that?
20:48I'm sure they would have been, given the Highland backbone to the army,
20:52but the thing is that Charles is a prince,
20:55and princes do not fight guerrilla wars.
20:57Ah, it's a matter of masculine pride.
20:59There's very much a matter of pride.
21:01So, Bonnie Prince Charlie has his last great gamble.
21:04It fails.
21:05Just how bad was the defeat?
21:07For him, personally, it seems to have been catastrophic.
21:10He can't deal with the fact that this was it.
21:13But there are still men out there desperate to continue the fight,
21:16but he doesn't want to,
21:17and he disappears off into the heather famously.
21:21And so the Jacobite cause bleeds to death on Culloden Moor.
21:26What sort of reprisals did Cumberland start to take, then?
21:29This is where things get very nasty.
21:30Almost as soon as the gun smoke has cleared,
21:33the reprisals on the field begin,
21:35and wounded Jacobites are executed.
21:38Men are taken away and imprisoned temporarily, then executed.
21:42Civilians are kept away from the battlefield.
21:44So it beggars belief what might have gone on here.
21:48Now, some people have used the words ethnic cleansing
21:50to talk about these atrocities.
21:53Do you think that that's fair?
21:54Very much so.
21:55There is a concerted campaign, particularly in the Highlands,
21:58basically to wreak havoc and to take revenge.
22:01And there are some terrible stories.
22:03And Cumberland himself, at one point,
22:05wanted to exile most of the population of the Highlands to the Americas,
22:10so they couldn't cause more trouble.
22:11So it's an understandable response to these events.
22:15Mass killings and mass graves.
22:21Unspeakable atrocities were witnessed at Culloden.
22:29And in Scotland, the Duke is still known as Butcher Cumberland.
22:33Back in London, though, he was fated as the man who'd saved Britain.
22:47Handel's oratorio, Judas Maccabeus, including the words,
22:52See the conquering hero comes, was composed in his honour
22:56and rang out at St Paul's Cathedral.
22:58King George II had finally vanquished the Stuart Fret.
23:07A visitor to his crowded court reported,
23:11I never saw anyone in such glee as the king.
23:14You could also buy a little bit of the Hanoverian victory
23:23to take home with you in the form of these commemorative medals
23:26in gold or silver celebrating the Duke of Cumberland.
23:31And this is such a divisive image, isn't it?
23:34To the Hanoverian supporters in London,
23:37they would have seen here a conquering hero,
23:39a fine figure of a man.
23:41But if you show this image of the Duke with his jowls
23:44to a Scottish person, even today,
23:47they're likely to spit on it.
23:51And the Hanoverians weren't done with the Highlanders yet.
23:55George II got Parliament to pass the Dress Act
23:59that made it illegal to wear tartan
24:01and banned the bagpipes.
24:06Frederick disagreed with this heavy-handed treatment,
24:09but again he displayed his rebellion in quite a cunning way.
24:15He commissioned a painting of his son,
24:17the future George III, containing a coded message.
24:22People at the time thought that there was something
24:24very strange about this picture.
24:27It was painted only months after the Battle of Culloden,
24:30and yet the little boy is wearing tartan.
24:33This could have been family politics.
24:35This is Frederick and his children
24:38having a go at Frederick's brother,
24:40the Duke of Cumberland, the victor of Culloden.
24:43Maybe Frederick is saying,
24:45I have some sympathy for the vanquished Jacobites.
24:49And I'd like to think that this is Frederick
24:51trying to assimilate the style of the Scots
24:54back into Great Britain.
24:56It would eventually work very well.
24:59Tartan would become a symbol of romanticism
25:01rather than rebellion.
25:05Myth and romance swirl around our image
25:09of the brave Scots with their pitchforks
25:12being cut down by a high-tech army.
25:20In reality, though,
25:22Scotland was just as sophisticated
25:24a society as England.
25:26The Jacobites may have been in love with the past,
25:34wanting to turn back time to the days
25:37when kings had divine rights.
25:40But Scotland also boasted more progressive people,
25:44such as a group of new thinkers
25:46who were much more interested in shaping the future,
25:50the men of the Scottish Enlightenment.
25:53From poetry to pathology,
25:57Enlightenment thinking flowed out
25:59into all sorts of channels,
26:01including architecture.
26:03Those behind it thought that their future
26:05lay within the Union.
26:07So a competition to create
26:09a whole new quarter of Edinburgh
26:11was won by a design that featured
26:13a Union flag.
26:19George Street links the grand fur-affaires
26:21of Hanover Street and Frederick Street.
26:27But just why did the Scottish capital
26:30team with innovation?
26:32The answer was education,
26:35and education,
26:36and education.
26:37By 1750,
26:39the Scots were the most literate nation in Europe.
26:4275% of them knew how to read.
26:45And they also had five universities,
26:48as opposed to just two in England.
26:49At the Scottish universities,
26:52the fees were relatively low,
26:54and the social mix was relatively broad.
26:57Scottish people liked to joke
26:59that there were the same number of universities
27:00in the whole of England
27:02as there were in just the city of Aberdeen.
27:04There was also a practical bent to education in Scotland.
27:12Poor but ambitious Scots,
27:14armed with useful skills,
27:16found plenty of opportunity abroad
27:18in Britain's trade networks
27:20and new colonies.
27:22The Scots had failed to beat the English,
27:25so now it seemed like time to join them
27:28and make a profit.
27:31Professor Tom Devine
27:32believes that while the English
27:34ruled Britain's colonies,
27:36the Scots actually ran them.
27:38What were the practical effects
27:40of the Scottish Enlightenment
27:41when these well-educated Scottish people
27:44were going abroad
27:44to sort of practice it in other countries?
27:46The impact is significant
27:48across the Atlantic
27:49in the mid to late 18th century period
27:51because these new colonies,
27:54the North American colonies,
27:55what became the USA,
27:56is looking for ideas.
27:58It's looking, for example,
27:59it's looking for a kind of intellectual toolkit
28:01from European thinking
28:04in order to build up its institutions
28:07virtually from scratch
28:08and to a significant degree
28:10it gets them from Scotia.
28:12The most remarkable example
28:14was what was called
28:15the College of New Jersey,
28:16better known now as Princeton.
28:18Princeton was the seminary
28:20for the first generation
28:21of statesmen in the USA
28:22and Princeton's president
28:24was John Witherspoon,
28:26a Scottish cleric
28:28of the Enlightenment period.
28:30Do you think it's fair to say
28:31that the Scottish Enlightenment
28:32was a sort of engine
28:33driving the expansion
28:35of the British Empire?
28:36Well, it certainly was
28:37in terms of thinking
28:38and it certainly was
28:39in terms of the tremendous regard
28:41that during the Enlightenment
28:42Scotland developed
28:43for almost a reverence
28:44for learning
28:45and that was very important
28:47because not all emigrants
28:50into the empire
28:51in this period were literate.
28:53Scots had this particular advantage
28:55of literacy and numeracy.
28:58I mean, don't forget,
28:59you get Scottish stereotypes aplenty.
29:01The Scottish doctor,
29:02the Scottish physician,
29:03the Scottish engineer,
29:04beam me up, Scotty.
29:06So you've got these intelligent,
29:07well-educated,
29:08rational, commercially successful Scots.
29:11And greedy.
29:11But they're not making
29:12their own society fairer.
29:14Oh no, they're going off
29:15across the world
29:15to get rich elsewhere.
29:16It's important to recognise
29:18that among this range
29:20of influences,
29:22if you like,
29:22the intellectual engine
29:23of Enlightenment,
29:25I would argue
29:25the primary engine
29:27is materialistic.
29:30The reason why
29:31Scottish doctors
29:33went in their large numbers
29:34to the Caribbean
29:35was not simply
29:37to study disease
29:38or to provide support
29:41or healing.
29:43It was to make lots
29:44and lots
29:45of filthy liquor.
29:50One settlement
29:51that provided
29:52these kinds of opportunities
29:54was the new American colony
29:56of Georgia,
29:57named after King George II.
29:59In exchange
30:02for bringing education
30:03to the Native American population,
30:06Britain gained
30:06fertile territory
30:08for growing new empire products
30:10like tobacco.
30:12In 1734,
30:14the kings of this new world
30:17came to pay their respects
30:18to the king of the old.
30:21A party of chiefs
30:22from the Cherokee nation
30:24came here to this room
30:25in Kensington Palace
30:26to pay their respects
30:27to the king of Britain.
30:30Their leader
30:31was called Tomochichi.
30:32He came with his war captains
30:34and their faces
30:35were painted in red
30:36and black.
30:38The British thought
30:38it looked like
30:39they were wearing masks.
30:41As part of the welcome ceremony,
30:43Tomochichi was introduced
30:44to the ladies
30:45of the British court
30:46and he was asked to judge
30:48which of them he thought
30:50was the most beautiful.
30:52Tomochichi gave what I think
30:53is a very diplomatic answer.
30:55He said,
30:56I can't possibly tell
30:57because all you white folk
30:59look the same to me.
31:05The race was on
31:06to colonise the new world.
31:10And again,
31:11George II's Scottish subjects
31:13were helping to win it.
31:15Protecting George's
31:16lucrative frontier lands
31:18against the Spanish in Florida
31:20and the French
31:21in the Alabama basin
31:22were Scottish Highlanders
31:24who'd emigrated
31:25as soldier settlers.
31:27One of the first towns
31:29they founded
31:30was New Inverness,
31:32named after the home
31:33they'd left behind.
31:42Transporting the products
31:43of the empire
31:44safely back to Britain
31:45was not without risk.
31:50Vessels faced the hazards
31:51of piracy and shipwreck.
31:55Prince Frederick,
31:56still banging his patriot drum,
31:59believed that a strong navy
32:00to protect the trade routes
32:02was vital.
32:03And he said so
32:04on a visit to Bristol.
32:05When Frederick was entertained
32:08here at the Merchant's Hall,
32:10he was very lavishly
32:11with a hundred dishes
32:13on the table
32:13and he was mobbed
32:14by the wives
32:15of five hundred merchants.
32:17He made a speech
32:18that was all about
32:19the importance of the navy
32:20to protect the ships
32:22of all of these people
32:23carrying their cotton
32:24and their sugar.
32:26And this went down
32:27very well,
32:27as you might expect.
32:29He finished with a few
32:30rousing words
32:31on the importance
32:31of the advancement
32:32of trade,
32:34which has a valuable effect
32:35on the liberty
32:36and happiness
32:37of our nation.
32:39Cheers.
32:46All sorts of new
32:48empire goods
32:50were now available
32:51in Britain
32:51and keen consumers
32:53were to be found
32:54in the growing
32:55middling rank of society.
32:59Crucially,
32:59the Georgians now
33:00had a reliable system
33:01of credit
33:02you could order goods
33:04now and pay
33:05for them later.
33:08People could now buy
33:09not only what they needed
33:11but what they wanted.
33:13The British went mad
33:14for the so-called
33:15empire products,
33:16tea from China
33:17and textiles from India.
33:20And they also loved
33:21the 18th century phenomenon
33:22known as the toy shop.
33:24We're not talking here
33:25about toys for kids
33:26but for adults,
33:27little knick-knacks
33:28and table decorations,
33:30that sort of thing.
33:30Dr Johnson defined
33:32a toy
33:33as something for show
33:35rather than use,
33:36a petty commodity,
33:38a trifle.
33:39It was during this era
33:45that luxury
33:46became something
33:47of a buzzword.
33:50Paul Bertrand
33:52ran a fashionable
33:53toy shop for adults
33:55in Westminster
33:56where Frederick,
33:58Prince of Wales,
33:59extravagantly spent
34:00over £700
34:01in a single visit
34:02on knick-knacks.
34:04his purchases
34:08ranged from
34:09a silver corkscrew
34:10to a selection
34:12of antique porcelain.
34:16Frederick was desperate
34:17to look up-to-date
34:19because for the first time
34:20the royal court
34:22was not associated
34:23with all that was fashionable.
34:25You can see this
34:30in a very striking way
34:31if you look at
34:32what women
34:33were wearing at court.
34:36One of the most
34:37incredible dresses
34:38to have survived
34:39from the Georgian period
34:40is the Rockingham Mantua.
34:44Joanna Marshner,
34:45curator of the
34:46Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection,
34:49believes that
34:49this glittering relic
34:51was a fabulous creation,
34:52yes,
34:53but out of step
34:54with modern society.
34:56So Joanna,
34:57this is a dress
34:58fit to be worn
34:59at the Georgian court.
35:00You can just see
35:01this is the flashiest dress
35:03that you can even
35:03begin to imagine
35:04and it was really,
35:07really expensive.
35:08It is made out
35:09of the most precious
35:11textile.
35:11It's called
35:12an oris tissue
35:13woven with real silver.
35:15There was something
35:16a bit uniform-like
35:18about it too,
35:19wasn't there?
35:19You had to wear
35:20something like this
35:20if you were going
35:21to appear at court.
35:22The absolute
35:23courtly giveaway
35:24is that you wore it
35:26with a petticoat
35:27and the petticoat
35:28stemmed out from here
35:30and you can do
35:31the same thing
35:31on the other side
35:32and it is enormous.
35:33It would have come
35:34down like this
35:35and it stood out
35:37like a piece
35:38of pasteboard.
35:40It really was
35:41a bit like a billboard.
35:43This gives a sense
35:44of how impractically
35:46vast it is,
35:48doesn't it?
35:48It must have been
35:49pretty difficult
35:50to walk in
35:50but that's sort
35:51of the point
35:52of this type
35:53of dress,
35:54isn't it?
35:54This is a style
35:56of dress for a person
35:57who will go
35:57to one of these
35:58lovely gatherings
35:59and you would have
36:00stood there
36:01just looking
36:02glamorous and glorious
36:03and as this style
36:04falls away
36:05in fashionable circles
36:06in the court
36:08it gets ever
36:08more entrenched.
36:12Now yes,
36:12these dresses
36:13are spectacular
36:14and they're
36:15otherworldly
36:16but as the reign
36:17of George II
36:18goes on
36:19they're getting
36:19increasingly out
36:20of step
36:21with contemporary
36:22society.
36:23At court
36:24they're still
36:25wearing a type
36:26of dress
36:26that had been
36:27fashionable
36:27in the real world
36:2960 years before
36:30and there's
36:31a brilliant
36:32description
36:32from the very
36:33late Georgian period
36:34of an elderly
36:35court beauty
36:36going to the palace
36:37in one of these
36:39dresses
36:39wearing a bit
36:40too much make-up
36:41she's travelling
36:42by sedan chair
36:43and through
36:44its glass window
36:45she looks like
36:46a specimen
36:47from a natural
36:48history collection
36:50she looks like
36:51the fetus
36:52of a hippopotamus
36:53pickled
36:54in a bottle
36:55of brandy.
36:56The court
37:02was turning
37:02into an
37:03outsized
37:04bauble
37:04ornamentally
37:06important
37:07yet increasingly
37:09separate
37:09from the
37:10serious business
37:11of getting ahead.
37:13The drivers
37:14of taste
37:15were now
37:16the merchants
37:16the middling
37:17sort
37:18and they
37:21had a fresh
37:22passion
37:23the novel.
37:26The 18th century
37:29saw the birth
37:30of this new
37:31literary genre
37:32which was driven
37:33by a growing
37:34and increasingly
37:35literate middle
37:36rank in society
37:37but many novelists
37:40were keen
37:41on attacking
37:42the luxury
37:43enjoyed by
37:44their readers
37:45they believed
37:47that empire
37:48products
37:49were corrupting
37:50the British.
37:53One of the most
37:54vociferous
37:55critics of luxury
37:57was the Scottish
37:57writer
37:58Tobias
37:59Smollett
38:00in this novel
38:01Humphrey
38:02Clinker
38:02there's a sort
38:03of an anti-hero
38:04called Matthew
38:05Bramble
38:06and Matthew
38:07Bramble
38:07goes on this
38:08great voyage
38:08or adventure
38:09all around
38:10Britain
38:10and everywhere
38:11he finds
38:12debauchery
38:13and conmen
38:14and pimps
38:15and particularly
38:16the nouveau
38:17riche
38:18Smollett
38:19is very down
38:20on their
38:20empty glitter
38:21and glare
38:22now Tobias
38:23Smollett
38:24and Matthew
38:25Bramble
38:25are practically
38:26the same
38:26person
38:27and can claim
38:28to be
38:28the original
38:29grumpy
38:30old man
38:31Smollett
38:32had such
38:33a pessimistic
38:33and negative
38:34view of life
38:35that his rival
38:36writers
38:36called him
38:37snail fungus
38:39Smollett
38:45ridiculed
38:46the super
38:46rich
38:47in their
38:47mock
38:47Palladian
38:48palaces
38:49behind the
38:52facades
38:53of these
38:53la-di-da
38:54Georgian
38:54townhouses
38:55he said
38:55lay dirty
38:57secrets
38:58Smollett
39:02thought
39:02that Georgian
39:03cities
39:03were the
39:04grand
39:04sources
39:05of luxury
39:06and corruption
39:07and that
39:08their
39:09inhabitants
39:09were controlled
39:10by the
39:11demons
39:11of licentiousness
39:14Smollett
39:17was just
39:17one of
39:17many writers
39:18who revealed
39:19that the
39:20engine
39:20driving
39:21much of
39:21Britain's
39:22economic
39:22success
39:23was far
39:24less
39:24palatable
39:25than
39:26tea
39:26or sugar
39:27and
39:37professor
39:37James
39:38Wolvin
39:38has made
39:39the slave
39:40trade
39:40his
39:40life's
39:41study
39:42he
39:43believes
39:43that
39:43slavery
39:44seeped
39:45into
39:45every
39:46pore
39:46of
39:47Britain's
39:47emerging
39:48empire
39:48so how
39:54does this
39:54trade
39:54actually
39:55work
39:56how
39:56what other
39:57goods
39:57have
39:58involved
39:58we talk
40:00of it as
40:00a triangular
40:01trade
40:01it's much
40:01more complex
40:02geographically
40:02than that
40:03but nonetheless
40:03that's the
40:03basic
40:04core of
40:05it
40:05it's
40:05ships
40:06that leave
40:06here
40:07Bristol
40:07Liverpool
40:08London
40:08packed to
40:09the gunwales
40:10with produce
40:10from the
40:11hinterland
40:11metal goods
40:13but above all
40:13textiles
40:14for West
40:15Africa
40:15and in
40:16West
40:16Africa
40:16those goods
40:17are traded
40:18for Africans
40:18and they're
40:19traded with
40:20other African
40:20traders
40:20Africans
40:21providing
40:22the Africans
40:23for the
40:23slave
40:24ships
40:24and then
40:25they're
40:25shipped
40:25across
40:26in huge
40:26numbers
40:27the largest
40:27enforced
40:28movement
40:28of people
40:29ever
40:29to the
40:30plantations
40:31of the
40:31Americas
40:31the last
40:32leg is
40:33the leg
40:34that brings
40:34back the
40:35produce
40:35that the
40:35slaves
40:35had
40:36grown
40:36it's
40:37tobacco
40:37it's
40:38sugar
40:38it's
40:39dye
40:40dye
40:41stuff
40:41rice
40:42which we
40:42use
40:42for starch
40:4318th
40:44century
40:44clothing
40:45ladies
40:45fashion
40:45clothing
40:46starched
40:46and
40:46beautiful
40:47where's
40:47the
40:48starch
40:48come
40:48from
40:48rice
40:49and
40:49who
40:49grows
40:50the
40:50rice
40:50Africans
40:51in
40:51South
40:51Carolina
40:52what impact
40:53do you think
40:53that the slave
40:54trade had on
40:55Britain's economy
40:57then was it
40:57central to it
40:58historians have been arguing about this now for 50 60 years
41:02how central is the slave trade in the emergence of British economy
41:06it's very hard to pin down to numbers
41:08the knock-on effect of the slave trade is extraordinary
41:13who thinks if you're looking at small textile villages in Yorkshire that this is somehow
41:18rather driven by the slave trade who thinks of the trade in textiles from India
41:22that this has got something to do the slave trade but Africans in Jamaica and Barbados are clothed in cool-fitting cotton cotton goods from Gujarat
41:31the ramifications of the ramifications of the ramifications of the ramifications of the ramifications of it are extraordinary not merely in Britain but globally you're actually looking at a form of globalization in a world that doesn't use the word
41:40do you think people were aware of this sort of dirty secret behind their economic success
41:45there was a case of out of sight out of mind
41:48the British have traditionally not thought of slavery as something that's to do with them
41:51you know this is something to do with Africa or the Atlantic or the Americas
41:54whereas in fact it's British ships that take them over
41:57it's British money that makes it possible
41:59it's Britain that profits from its
42:00from slave work
42:02so that it's very easy to think of yourself as being
42:05committed to freedom and liberty
42:07and not remember that actually
42:10all of your material well-being is bound up with
42:13something quite different
42:14that is enslavement of millions of Africans
42:17Britain was helped in becoming
42:23the biggest slave trading nation in the world
42:26because it had a strong navy
42:27Prince Frederick's supporters
42:32singing Rule Britannia
42:33claimed that Britons never shall be slaves
42:36they were praising Britain's extraordinary liberties
42:42but by policing British trade routes
42:46the Royal Navy was helping to enslave millions of Africans
42:50the irony was lost
42:56not just on Frederick
42:57but on the majority of the British people
42:59his patriot faction had never been more influential
43:05King George II felt that he was losing the PR battle to his son
43:11and relations between them were as bad as ever
43:15there was still no love lost between father and son
43:21George II was overheard saying that he cared for his son
43:24no more than a louse
43:26and that when Frederick succeeded he'd ruin everything
43:29but the king was wrong about this
43:31when Frederick was only 44
43:36he quite unexpectedly died
43:38he'd been out in the rain
43:42he caught a cold
43:43and what actually killed him
43:45was a clot of blood on the lungs
43:47the news reached George II one evening
43:53when he was playing at cards
43:55with a whole load of courtiers
43:56now they all turned to look at him
43:59and they were closely watching him
44:01for further evidence that he'd hated his son
44:04and they thought that they'd found it
44:06because he didn't react at all
44:08his face was impassive
44:10this could have been cold-heartedness
44:13or it could have been that the king was just following rigid royal etiquette
44:18never to express emotion in public
44:20so we were never to have King Frederick I
44:30described by his supporters
44:32as the greatest king we never had
44:35Frederick had been the most popular member of the royal family
44:40but his funeral here at Westminster Abbey
44:45was marred by disorganisation
44:47heavy rain
44:48and a lack of refreshments
44:51it confirmed everything Frederick's friends believed about George II
44:57and his favouritism towards his younger son
45:00the Duke of Cumberland
45:01the death of his son got the king thinking about his own mortality
45:06and he now made a new will
45:08he designated his grandson
45:10the future George III as his successor
45:12the king's first idea had been to say
45:15that his second and favourite son
45:18the Duke of Cumberland
45:19should be regent if necessary
45:21but this wouldn't wash
45:23butcher Cumberland was just too unpopular
45:25in fact when Frederick died
45:28people on the street were heard to say
45:30oh we wish it had been his brother
45:32Frederick's death threw his patriot supporters into turmoil
45:41those who had hoped to rise to power in his reign
45:45were extremely disappointed
45:47their promised peerages had gone up in smoke
45:52but in the wake of Frederick's death
45:58it was his widow Augusta
46:01who reacted the most decisively
46:03one of the reasons that we don't fully understand the character of Prince Frederick
46:10is because his wife burnt his papers
46:12and she did it to control his lasting reputation
46:16so that no hint of scandal would get out
46:19I think that this shows that Augusta was quite a politically savvy person
46:25and it also demonstrates a certain steeliness
46:29she would now devote the rest of her life
46:32to looking after the interests of Frederick's son
46:34and hers
46:35the little boy who was her roots to power
46:38the future King George III
46:40Augusta was worried that if she antagonized King George II
46:51he could take her son away from her
46:54just as George I had taken Princess Caroline's children
46:58Augusta had lost her husband
47:03she didn't want to lose her children as well
47:07but she knew that she had to act cleverly
47:12and with subtlety
47:14Desmond Shaw Taylor
47:17surveyor of the Queen's Pictures
47:19believes that this portrait
47:21is Augusta's manifesto
47:24for becoming the matriarch
47:25of the Georgian dynasty
47:27what do you think Augusta's motivation was
47:30getting all this put together
47:32first of all this is a portrait of a widow
47:35painted in the same year that her husband has died
47:38they're looking quite cheerful
47:40and I think it's difficult immediately to understand that
47:43except I think that the idea is that
47:45you wear a black veil
47:47of course for form's sake
47:48but your duties of looking after your children
47:52and looking after the realm continue
47:55and you might as well undertake them in a cheerful way
47:58is she saying
47:59look he may be dead
48:00but his work continues
48:01I'm sure that's exactly the message
48:03that I'm carrying the flame
48:05it makes me think
48:06almost of a piece of propaganda
48:07for an election
48:08this is the team
48:09vote for us
48:10exactly
48:11on one side you have the
48:12role of the monarch
48:14represented here
48:15by the late heir to the throne
48:17Frederick Prince of Wales
48:18and on the other side
48:19you have Britannia
48:20that being the constitution
48:22and what's going on underneath Britannia
48:24that's all very significant
48:25that's the key
48:26I think to the entire allegory
48:28there are some scales
48:29and exactly balanced in scales
48:32are the crown
48:33and the cap of liberty
48:34the emblem of Britain
48:35the lion
48:36is holding another cap of liberty
48:38so if you want to take away
48:40the liberty of the British people
48:41you've got a lion to fight with
48:43the mere fact of
48:45presenting the royal family
48:47in this ingratiating fashion
48:49is an expression of British liberty
48:51what are the significance
48:52of the activities
48:53of the children then
48:55they're doing things
48:55that make Britain great
48:57aren't they
48:57yes
48:57in this era
48:59there was a convention
49:00that naval power
49:02was protective of liberty
49:04whereas
49:05the power of a standing army
49:08was sometimes thought
49:10to threaten liberty
49:11so that
49:12I think it is important
49:13that they're engaged
49:15in the defence of the realm
49:17but it's specifically
49:18in the naval defence of the realm
49:20Augusta was continuing
49:26Frederick's legacy
49:27promoting the patriot philosophy
49:30of liberty
49:31and a strong navy
49:33controlled here
49:34from the headquarters
49:35of the admiralty
49:36Britain was now
49:40the largest naval power
49:42in the world
49:43but this was turning us
49:44into a nation greedy
49:46for territory and conquest
49:47our continued skirmishes
49:51with the French
49:52built towards
49:53a new and global conflict
49:55the Seven Years War
49:57Britain was empire building
50:01we weren't content
50:02with our 13 colonies
50:04in the Americas
50:05we wanted more
50:06and this wasn't just
50:08a land grab
50:09it was a war over trade
50:11and trading routes
50:12I'm not exaggerating
50:13when I say
50:14that the question at stake here
50:15was global dominance
50:16by the British
50:17or by the French
50:19so the fighting
50:20was played out
50:21in America
50:22but also in Africa
50:23and India
50:25and down here
50:26in the Philippines
50:26with the Battle of Manila
50:28Winston Churchill
50:30came up with a good name
50:31for this conflict
50:32the Seven Years War
50:33he called it
50:34the First World War
50:37ever the old soldier
50:41the king went into
50:43battle mode
50:44coordinating army tactics
50:46with his favourite lieutenant
50:47the Duke of Cumberland
50:49he took to shuffling
50:53around the palace
50:54in the same old coat
50:55he'd worn
50:56at the Battle of Dettingen
50:57and he sent an army
50:59into Europe
51:00to face the French
51:01but it went badly
51:03George II was out of touch
51:07wars were no longer won
51:10by kings on horseback
51:11leading from the front
51:12what was happening in Europe
51:15was a bit of a sideshow
51:17this statue shows George II
51:20dressed as a Roman emperor
51:22and this was the context
51:24in which he used the word empire
51:26when he was talking about history
51:27when he was talking about the Romans
51:28the politician William Pitt
51:31on the other hand
51:32understood that Britain
51:33could aspire to have an empire
51:35in the present day
51:37Pitt knew that what was happening
51:39in Europe was important
51:40but it wasn't the most important thing
51:42what was at stake
51:43was domination of the globe
51:45here's William Pitt
51:52Secretary of State
51:54at home at Chatham House
51:56he was to become
51:57Earl of Chatham
51:58never short of confidence
52:02Pitt took military strategy
52:04firmly in hand
52:05his opening gambit was
52:09I'm sure I can save this country
52:12and no one else can
52:13during this time
52:17poor old William Pitt
52:18was ill
52:19so he had to stay at home
52:20here at Chatham House
52:21and all the great and the good
52:23came trooping up to his bedroom
52:24to discuss strategy
52:26there's a really nice picture
52:28of William Pitt
52:28being tucked up in bed
52:29and the room was very cold
52:31so the Prime Minister
52:32the Duke of Newcastle
52:33got into another bed
52:35on the other side of the room
52:36and together the two of them
52:38lay there
52:39shaping British foreign policy
52:40it was here
52:42that Pitt came up
52:43with his master stroke
52:44to use both the army
52:45and the navy
52:46he sent the British troops
52:48to the continent
52:49to tie down the French troops
52:51to keep them busy
52:52and meanwhile
52:53he sent the British navy
52:55all around the globe
52:56snapping up French colonies
52:58oddly
53:02it was only in the last gasp
53:04of George II's reign
53:05that these two elements
53:07the army of the king
53:09and Frederick's navy
53:10managed to come together
53:12to coalesce
53:13in this defining war
53:15with the French
53:161759
53:21was the year
53:22of military miracles
53:24with the triumph
53:26of all Pitt's plans
53:28Britain effectively
53:29became a world superpower
53:31George II was by now deaf
53:37and blind in one eye
53:38but the old king
53:40provided an excellent focus
53:42for national celebration
53:43in what became known as
53:45the Annus Mirabilis
53:46the miraculous year
53:48and yet his new empire
53:52was of little consolation
53:54to George personally
53:55in his youth
53:58George II
53:59had suffered
54:00from these terrible
54:01temper tantrums
54:02his rage
54:03had given him energy
54:04but as time went on
54:07his friends
54:08started to die off
54:09his children
54:11were dying
54:11one by one
54:13predeceasing him
54:14as he grew older
54:16he grew wiser
54:18and more contemplative
54:20and ironically
54:21this happened
54:22at the very same time
54:23that Britain grew ever more
54:25powerful and successful
54:27his beloved wife
54:30and five of his eight children
54:32were dead
54:33his famous military zeal
54:35was ebbing away
54:36and he regretted
54:38his former harshness
54:39and aggression
54:40George II's empire
54:44as it stood
54:45would not exist for long
54:47a generation later
54:51Britain would have to deal
54:52with the next conflict
54:53and the loss of America
54:55we had denied our colonies
55:00the liberty
55:00we so highly valued
55:02but Americans would want it
55:04badly enough
55:05to fight for it
55:06this was a war
55:10George II
55:10would not live to see
55:12he died on October 25th
55:151760
55:17the last of the German-born
55:19Georgian kings
55:20who came over from Hanover
55:21to plug Britain's dynastic gap
55:24the king who succeeded him
55:38couldn't have been more different
55:40George II's grandson
55:43George III
55:44would reject everything
55:46his grandfather stood for
55:48to become the patriotic
55:50British king
55:51his own father Frederick
55:53had never had the chance to be
55:55this coach was designed
56:00for the coronation of George III
56:02but unfortunately
56:03it's so fancy
56:04that it wasn't finished in time
56:06it has been used
56:07at every coronation since
56:09it weighs four tons
56:11and it takes eight horses
56:12to pull it
56:13but it isn't just a vehicle
56:15it's also a sort of rolling manifesto
56:18for the British monarchy
56:19George III's coach
56:23in the royal muse
56:24at Buckingham Palace
56:25depicts Britain's naval victories
56:27at the precise moment
56:29of her greatest triumph
56:30in the Seven Years' War
56:32if you want to see
56:34what ruling the waves looks like
56:37here it is
56:38in all of its gilded glory
56:40even Neptune
56:43and his four tritons
56:44are on the side
56:45of the British
56:47by the time we get
56:49to George III
56:50the process of transplantation
56:52from Hanover to Britain
56:54is pretty much complete
56:56and George III
56:57emphasised this
56:58in his first public speech
57:00he distanced himself
57:01from his father
57:02and his grandfather
57:03I was born and educated
57:05in this country
57:06he said
57:07I glory in the name
57:10of Britain
57:10beyond all the bling
57:23and the bombast
57:24this royal coach
57:26was saying
57:26that Britain's new king
57:28belonged to a confident
57:29and deep-rooted
57:31royal dynasty
57:32the Hanoverians
57:37had seen off
57:38every single threat
57:40to their survival
57:41the Georgian kings
57:44were like successful
57:45stepfathers
57:46to the nation
57:47they'd been brought in
57:49and grafted on
57:50and yet people
57:51began to accept them
57:52as part of the family
57:54because of their
57:55killer advantages
57:56their Protestantism
57:57and the support
57:58of Parliament
57:59people today
58:02often overlook
58:04the first two Georges
58:05but actually
58:06they were pretty
58:07successful as rulers
58:08under them
58:10Britain went from
58:10being a bit of
58:11a provincial backwater
58:13to a global superpower
58:15and this coach
58:17stands for Britain's
58:18self-confidence
58:19in 1760
58:21the Hanoverian dynasty
58:23was now secure
58:24but isn't it funny
58:26to think
58:27that the British monarchy
58:28was made in Germany
58:30the British monarchy
58:35the British monarchy
58:37the British monarchy
58:39the British monarchy
58:41the British monarchy
58:43the British monarchy
58:45the British monarchy
58:47the British monarchy
58:48the British monarchy
58:49the British monarchy
58:50the British monarchy
58:51the British monarchy
58:52the British monarchy
58:53the British monarchy
58:54the British monarchy
58:55the British monarchy
58:56the British monarchy
58:57the British monarchy
58:58the British monarchy
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59:08
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