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00:00Georgian Britain across the course of little more than a century a nation was
00:09transformed from an inward-looking state that had just emerged from a bitter
00:14civil war to a global superpower but it wasn't English kings who oversaw this
00:23change it was German nobility shipped in from Hanover the Georgian kings were
00:32dysfunctional detested each other and were loved and loathed by the public in
00:37equal measure there are saturable cartoons that depict him as a tenant what
00:43starts off as a private quarrel becomes a public sensation if it looks like your
00:49dad has exiled your mom that probably leads to a certain element of
00:54dysfunction early on in life these are the backstabbings feuds and betrayals
01:00which shaped an entire era of British history Britain is continually at war in
01:07the 18th century the shocking stories of the Georgian Kings his mother called him
01:14a monster he was so besotted it's almost like stalker behavior George goes oh
01:21it's not allowed well that's interesting I'm going to do it anyway
01:26a time when in the monarchy it was mayhem
01:32George the third a monarch remembered for his madness in later life and the brutal
01:44treatments he endured but his reign began with so much promise
01:50the first Hanoverian king born in Britain who would dedicate his life to his country and its people
02:00a devoted husband who created the modern image of a royal family
02:07but then his reign was shaken by events both at home and abroad the loss of the Americas revolution
02:19in France then finally his own inescapable decline
02:24to understand the real impact of George's time on the throne
02:31you have to go back to a time long before these events
02:34when George was just a young prince whose future was bright
02:39on the 4th of June 1738 Frederick Prince of Wales son of George the second and heir to the British throne
03:01and his wife Augusta welcome into the world George named after George the second the newborn's
03:09grandfather
03:14Frederick knew that life as an heir came with its unique challenges with his father George the second
03:21in Britain he had spent his childhood in Germany without either of his parents and as a result he
03:29has a difficult relationship with his father the king he wanted to make sure that young George's
03:36upbringing would be very different obviously knew that his son was going to become king eventually and I
03:44think he did the best to prepare him with George's education what we have is an heir to the throne who's born on British soil who's
03:53imbued with the values of the British Constitution he sees himself and is encouraged to see himself as extremely English
04:00English so Frederick was more present and saw his son which is a great great improvement upon the other kings and their sons
04:09I think by all accounts relationship between Prince George and Frederick the Prince of Wales is
04:13is it's pretty good by Hanoverian standards
04:17as second in line to the throne young George is being prepared to fulfill his destiny to become King of Britain
04:25but what no one could have predicted was that fate would intervene and accelerate George's path to the crown
04:31it was assumed that George's father Prince Frederick would take the throne after the death of his father George the second
04:38would take the throne after the death of his father George the second but at the age of just 44 Frederick dies unexpectedly
04:46this was not planned for this was not expected in the slightest I think it was a great shock for the public
05:00obviously like they thought they had the succession nicely lined up and here we have the heir just popping his
05:06clogs very early you what Frederick's death does for for George is it changes the game in a really unexpected way
05:14he's invited to step up to those responsibilities far sooner than he he would otherwise have been
05:20despite his untimely death Frederick didn't leave 11 year old George entirely without a father's guidance
05:30he had been writing a book intended for just a single reader
05:35his son
05:38I had a gift from your father
05:44it's a manual book of sorts your father wanted to prepare you to rule to learn from the mistakes of the past
05:58thank you
06:03it contains within it all of the key principles that Frederick sees as crucial to the kind of continuance of the
06:11Hanoverian dynasty
06:15in his own life Frederick has observed his father George the second and his grandfather George the first in the role of king and
06:23he's very aware of some of the mistakes they've made not least their ongoing commitment to Hanover and their
06:30refusal to completely shake their German identity and Frederick is someone who's very focused on being British and
06:38and it's something that he drums into his own son
06:41in this manual to be a king and part of Frederick's duty is to mold him into the man that he wants him to
06:49be into the ruler that he will need him to be one day
06:51I think also that might have added to the pressure
06:54he's been given this thing only as a child and he must thought oh my god I must live up to my father's expectations
07:01but it isn't only his father's expectations young George now has to live up to
07:06George the second the man who had been such a distant father to Frederick was now taking
07:12a much greater interest in the boy who would succeed him
07:17so once Frederick has died and is removed from the picture the young George is really thrown
07:22into the power of his grandfather George the second who is notoriously a little bit difficult he's had
07:30very very very difficult relationship with George's father Frederick and George is expected to
07:37overlook this and to be obedient to his grandfather and to learn from him as much as possible
07:45at the forefront of George the second's mind must have been the successful continuation of the
07:52Hanoverian line to do that George must take a wife and sire an heir
08:00but the 21 year old prince is in no rush to marry his mother decides to intervene
08:09George the third himself never really showed a very active interest in getting a wife
08:14so there was a bit of political maneuvering between George the second and princess Augusta
08:20picking a suitable spouse for a monarch was an incredibly complex process in the 18th century and
08:28getting it right was absolutely paramount you needed someone who not only would be able to provide heirs
08:35and healthy airs at that but also someone who could survive and enhance court life intelligent
08:41curious but not too intelligent not too curious they they must not overshadow the king that's very important
08:49i suppose you brought me here to talk about who it is i am to marry your grandfather and i have already
09:01selected two choices befitting of your station i see your grandfather suggests sophie caroline of brunswick
09:09woof and buttle and my choice frederica of sax gotha my choice would put you in better stead
09:18i hear frederica has an interest in philosophy yes she's a very learned girl by all accounts
09:26well then she can't do what i am a pious man mother marrying a philosopher is a dangerous undertaking for
09:37someone who has faith don't you think where else to look not in england it would seem you had to
09:47look outside the country which left you with how many protestant princesses were there who were they
09:54and how did you actually go about choosing a wife reluctant to have decisions made for him
10:02george decides to take a more active role in the choosing of his bride given a list of potential
10:09suitors he strikes them all off except one there is another possible suitor a bit provincial but not as
10:21educated if that's what you're worried about what's her name princess charlotte
10:32from this uh the more surprising choice ended up being princess charlotte of mecklenburg strelis
10:43she wasn't necessarily an immediate first choice i don't think anyone would have actually picked her
10:48out of the list that was there but she filled the bill she was 17 she seemed to be amiable and amenable
10:59she seemed like she was rational and sensible they initially thought oh yeah this is this is like
11:03a really simple country girl this will be like perfect for a queen
11:10with the choice made charlotte is summoned from germany to england to wed george
11:18having never met the chances of a love match are far from certain
11:23she speaks some english not brilliantly and she's marrying a man who she's never met
11:35their first meeting was actually quite um awkward she couldn't get her words out she was confused
11:41there's rumors that she uh threw up over him she's visibly shaking she feels sick but
11:50she goes ahead with it because she has very little choice because it's her duty because that's the
11:55pressure that's placed on her these kinds of uh royal relationships could be absolutely disastrous
12:02but despite their slightly awkward first meeting it is soon clear that george and charlotte
12:09are in fact a good match
12:24come let me show you around the palace
12:26luckily their love story uh actually took a better turn after their initial meeting
12:40he wanted to make it a success but the fact that it then blossomed into love was just a happy
12:46coincidence he's looking for a real partner on a human level she provides the the foundation to his life
12:52and the foundation to a fantastic relationship and they have at least 25 years of very happy times
12:59together they were probably the most stable relationship of the hanoverians they had 15 children
13:07it is all but expected for the monarch to take a mistress but george is different he not only loves
13:14his wife but he is faithful to her and never takes a lover it was very unusual for a monarch especially
13:22when this was so common at the time it might have been because he didn't want to emulate his father
13:31or his grandfather for that matter i suspect it was more because of the fact that he was quite
13:39concerned about respectability morality um sort of doing things by the book i think that the public
13:48embraced this i think he was seen as a bit of a breath of fresh air in that sense that he was actually
13:53a very moral upstanding uh monarch in comparison to past and present kings this notion of the royal
14:01family as an institution i think is one of the real legacies that he creates
14:09but then in the autumn of 1760
14:13the same year george and charlotte meet and wed george's grandfather george ii dies
14:21far sooner than he ever expects the 22 year old heir to the throne is now king of britain
14:28he probably thought he had so many more years to prepare really shook him to his core and he took it
14:40much to heart when he eventually becomes king it's as someone who is very aware of duty of the weight that
14:51he is having to carry and he he takes that very very seriously he wants to be seen and sees himself as
14:58the patriot king empowerment is he emphasizes the fact that he is british he says born and educated in
15:06this country a glory in the name of britain and that really a thing in a nutshell explains how he feels
15:13the old king had been on the throne for for some people more than their their lifetime and so
15:19consequently this is a new star he's young and he's fresh he's a good looking man it's a positive
15:28thing with the public behind him george begins to draw on his private passions to implement his vision
15:38for britain
15:41george iii spends a lot of time on his personal interests
15:45in a way because he can make them national interests he's very interested in the kind of
15:50latest scientific developments he's hugely interested in natural science in agriculture
15:58he was actually a pretty good architectural draftsman the monarch therefore the nation can be identified or
16:06defined through the buildings they're building and it's incredibly important to him it's very very personal
16:12to him as is patronage of the arts and culture it's not just a hobby it's it's part of his job he's a true
16:21man of the enlightenment
16:26but just as george's plans for the nation are set into motion and less than five years into his reign
16:33he is struck by a sudden illness
16:35so in 1765 george the third had what might be considered his first bout of madness to use the term
16:44that they used in the 18th century and it started with him coughing he had a fever headaches stomach
16:51ache and apparently blue urine he's sometimes delirious he's aggressive he behaves in an erratic way he
16:58shouts the first period of illness took george the third by surprise there was no previous indication
17:06that he wasn't well the cause of george's illness has long been debated by doctors and historians
17:16today it is generally agreed that he was probably suffering from a form of bipolar disorder with acute
17:25mania so medical understandings of mental illness were very narrow in the 18th century kings are meant
17:33to be infallible they can't be ill they certainly can't be mentally ill because how can they then rule
17:38the country or how can we trust their judgment this was something that they hadn't necessarily encountered
17:43before parliament were actually so concerned that they very quickly rushed through a regency act
17:49the regency act proposed a process for which an individual could be called upon to rule in place of
17:58the king should he be unfit to rule in this first instance george stages a quick recovery but the
18:09knowledge that he might again fall ill sees him eager to decide for himself who should act in his place
18:20it is decided queen charlotte will act as regent in my absence
18:25your grace if i may the queen is not yet 21 only when she comes of age can she be named as regent and
18:33the act enshrined into law
18:37what about my mother princess augusta well i don't think what maybe we should ruminate
18:45a little more no this is to be signed into law immediately your grace there's no hurry no you
18:52don't understand if the next attack of this illness is to prove more serious
18:58my country must be protected do you all understand yes your grace
19:04there is a common uh conception that king george the mad king was always suffering from mental
19:14illness and it isn't the case that's a short bout of being unwell this was a very short illness he did
19:21recover quickly and the act was then repealed but what this does show is the immediate panic that
19:27this particular incident caused even though it was quite short lasting his first bout of illness
19:33actually results in a huge rise in public support so the fact that he gets through this illness and
19:40he survives it's really important to to kind of how um he's sort of perceived across the the breadth of
19:49the british public
19:55but just as soon as george stages a recovery political disaster is looming not at home but in
20:03britain's colonies in america it's clear that the future of britain's wealth lies in this relationship
20:12with north america and all the goods that can come from there but they feel that they ought to have the
20:18right to govern themselves and that they're being ruled by a king who is out of touch with their needs
20:23with the environment they live and work in from george iii's perspective um the americans are sort of
20:29being unruly children they're rising up against their father and that shouldn't be the american
20:37colonies are starting to grow restless over their lack of autonomy but rather than take this into
20:43account george takes a roll of the dice that would prove fatal to britain's relationship with those
20:49colonies he increases taxes in america to help pay for public spending in britain
21:00there's a series of policies that are brought in to try and make money the the real frustration
21:07is that parliament has decided not to tax british citizens in mainland britain and they offload that
21:15financial burden to the colonists the americans say we're not going to pay for that if you don't give
21:22his representation and they're essentially the same as british people why are we getting taxed for no
21:30reason there's growing resentment towards britain and specifically to george iii who's painted as a
21:38tyrant ruling this colony from afar without any real care for the difficulty that people there might be
21:45facing that's when the cracks begin to show the great surprise is how quickly that relationship
21:54deteriorates the taxing of the american colonies is the catalyst that brings about one of history's
22:02most famous acts of rebellion there were opportunities to back out but neither side was going to at that
22:09point there was only going to be escalation these are the fuse boxes for what then becomes the american
22:16war of independence so uprisings start happening what britain has to do to try and keep control of
22:24america's is send military forces and effectively start to meet the americans in military conflict in
22:32physical battles by 1775 britain and america are at war in terms of george iii's role in this you know no
22:46monarch is going to want to lose his his colonies he might not be riding into battle like a previous
22:53george george but he is in lots of ways more engaged
23:08what are the updates on our troops in the north
23:12washington has prevented a breakout in new york city while militia forces have conquered western
23:19great and our response the winter has slowed proceedings to a snail's pace it is a stalemate your
23:29grace stalemate and the south the colonial forces are undermanned underfunded and under equipped
23:41i need accurate numbers on all of our troops how much provisions they need food supplies ammunition
23:49if we are to win this war we need a full picture on what is happening on the ground
23:55and we are going to win this war
24:02despite george's determination british forces do not overpower the fired up american troops
24:10leading to one of the nation's most significant historical defeats
24:15and arguably the kind of most modern military of the day can't secure victory is a real shock
24:26they overthrow the rule of the british in order to create a government for their own nation
24:36and on a global playing field britain is seen as weak by other people because they couldn't retain what
24:44what they owned the colonies that britain had spent a hundred years or so
24:52laying their foundations in are lost and george actually writes the words america is lost in his journal
24:58there is a huge kind of public disappointment huge public outrage at the loss of the americas to lose
25:13that it's not just an economic failure not just political failure but also a psychological one for
25:20george third because he then has to situate himself within the context of his forebears as the one who lost
25:28the rest with britain both defeated and globally humiliated george hits rock bottom
25:39such is the depth of his despair that the king even comes close to throwing in the towel
25:48he even considers giving up the crown considering advocating his responsibility is the nation his
25:57responsibility is the british empire any loss of that is a personal loss and that must have had a massive impact
26:13and for him to lose america is a huge blow that arguably um takes its toll on his physical and mental
26:22health as much as his political health the long-term impact is a kind of re-focusing and a kind of
26:29re-constituting of perhaps what it means to be british in the aftermath of the american war of independence
26:37to rebuild britain's reputation and his own popularity amongst his subjects george turns to the one thing he
26:45he thinks he can count on family the judge the third he has a new level of scrutiny on him at that very
26:55time which no previous monarch would have experienced he invests really heavily in how he's perceived and
27:01how his family are perceived so i think the way in which george starts to position himself as a sort of
27:06a much more as a kind of family man one could see that as a kind of you know visceral reaction and
27:16response to an unprecedented humiliation on a global stage it is this narrative george the third tries to
27:26encourage everyone in the family to uphold but is often excessive and reckless firstborn young george needs
27:35more convincing do you know what i heard today pray tell i heard that you enjoy the company of drunkards
27:48and gamblers and that you've also been cavorting with those who have dubbed me a tyrant have you
27:56called me here to chastise me for my choice in friends no but we must not be governed by our own
28:02desires but our sense of duty to our great country as such we must regulate both our public and private
28:11life why should this great country care what i do behind closed doors because if you've been already
28:20condemned by the people parliament will not help you to achieve your aims whether you care or not
28:28what what they think of you matters
28:34as soon you understand that the better but it isn't just prince george who is reluctant to stick to the
28:42rules of his father's pr campaign george is really having to manage the family image when behind the scenes
28:51it's a little bit of chaos his siblings weren't necessarily uh following in his footsteps george iii's
28:59brother prince henry was known as something of an adulterer he got into a a dispute with lord grosvenor
29:06because he was caught in bed with his wife lady grosvenor and ended up having to give him around 10 000
29:13pounds which would be over 2 million pounds compensation in today's money and henry isn't the only sibling
29:21disobeying george's rules his littlest sister was called caroline matilda
29:29she was married to the future christian the seventh of denmark he had a royal physician called dr strunzer
29:40and she fell in love with this amazing man because he was a man of the enlightenment and so they struck
29:45up a relationship and got caught out dr strunzer was executed she was divorced and exiled within the
29:54country and she died never having seen her children ever again it's effectively sort of egg on the face
30:01of george and and charlotte who are trying to keep this extremely moral careful regulated court
30:11to bring the royal family to order george iii seeks the help of parliament and the royal marriage act is
30:18introduced any descendant of george iii had to get permission from the monarch to marry this was george
30:26the third's way of trying to control who was um able to marry into the royal family but the challenges
30:35of george's reign are beginning to take a psychological toll i think that he found that very hard and i think
30:44it deeply impacted his mental health and made him spiral a little more quickly perhaps
30:54then a family catastrophe exposes the true severity of george's illness
31:01in the 1780s he loses two of his younger sons called alfred and octavius who are one and four when
31:10they die they die after smallpox inoculation and he's so hard hit by the deaths of these two little
31:18boys that he hallucinates and sees them he thinks that they're still alive and he he's caught like
31:24having conversations with his sons and when he comes to again he remembers that they are dead all over
31:31again
31:34may victor you're a prince
31:36my son
31:43you grew up to be a fine young man i'm sure
31:47now
32:00let me tell you about the time when i met your mother
32:06please
32:23george's hallucinations mark the beginning of a prolonged and severe bout of mental illness
32:30He goes through a long extended period of, you know, about, what, six months, I suppose,
32:37delusions, of paranoia, of violence, of absolute non-stop talking.
32:43And it's these kinds of elements of what they term sort of madness or insanity
32:49that really characterize this as much more of the madness of King George.
32:55They bring in mad doctors to deal with him.
32:58It's quite a horrendous situation.
33:00And so they were trying to medically cure his mental illness,
33:04but they didn't truly understand it, so it was almost impossible for them to do it.
33:10And that means subjecting the King to a variety of brutal treatments,
33:16ones his devoted wife Charlotte had to watch him suffer through.
33:22King George III was forcibly dunked into her water.
33:26He is bled repeatedly.
33:28He's put into straight jackets.
33:30Treatments that, of course, in his delirious state, he cannot understand.
33:35It was never going to cure him and actually did more harm than good.
33:38So that poor man went through a terrible time.
33:42He was going to cure him.
33:44Nevertheless, and no thanks to months of quack treatments, George makes a recovery.
33:52But only in time for trouble to loom from just over the channel.
33:57In France, where revolution is brewing.
34:00as we enter into the later 18th century will begin to see the dismantling of the uncontested
34:12power of Kings already the power of Kings in England is limited but on the continent this
34:19has begun to shift by 1788 France as a state is unable to function because the levels of debt
34:31are so much higher you have the first estate which is the clergy the second estate which is
34:36the nobility and the third estate which is everyone else all of the money is held by the first and
34:43second estates who do not pay tax and the third estate pay all of the tax Marie Antoinette and
34:51King Louis XVI both got this reputation of being these big spenders and being really out of touch
34:57this utter inequality and lack of power to change those rules led to the solution and the solution
35:07is just to remove those people can entirely at that point the revolution takes off the French
35:15Revolution begins with the storm of the Bastille attacks upon the monarchy which leads to the
35:21execution of King Louis and his wife Marie Antoinette and ultimately the end of the monarchy
35:27the impact of the French Revolution is to create these fears in Britain that the revolutionary fervor is
35:38going to spread there is a very keen sense that this is not very far away from home that revolution in
35:44France was terrifying for George that fear that terror is that another king Louis the 16th has been
35:53executed and if it can happen to that king then it can happen to George this fear is only intensified
36:04when French revolutionaries decide that reform in their own country alone isn't enough
36:12what the new French Republic tries to do is export the revolution to other monarchies which is essentially a
36:21declaration of war on any constitutional monarchy so France declares war on Britain in 1793
36:29never before has Britain indeed the monarchy itself been so in need of a strong and stable king to lead
36:41them through this conflict but George suffers another personal loss which triggers his final and most extreme
36:49bout of illness one from which he never recovers his favorite daughter is Princess Amelia and Princess
37:01Amelia is suffering possibly from tuberculosis she died very slowly and painfully and this took a huge toll on
37:14George and they both declined together that seems to be the final triggering point that that precipitates
37:21him into this final period of manic depression madness dementia
37:27plan on me your majesty and your wife expressed that you needed my attention yes it will go interrupt in a private conversation
37:40who is it you're talking to sire
37:46you've done I'm talking to my daughter
37:49my daughter
37:51Your daughter. Princess Amelia. I see. She is dead. I know. I'm telling her about
38:13her funeral. His last public appearance, the symptoms of insanity were very obvious. So
38:25he did not appear in public again after that point. The minute that he is no longer able
38:32to even assume this idea of being a figurehead, let alone have any contribution towards it,
38:37the reliance on those military leaders, those tacticians, those advisors, all of the people
38:42in parliament that are actually the people running the British side of the war becomes
38:47paramount. George III isn't aware of any of it. Given the country's desperate need for
38:55a stable ruler, the decision is finally made that King George III is officially unfit to
39:02rule. The Regency Act is set into motion immediately.
39:08The workings of government had been prepared for this eventuality after the first bout of
39:14mental illness. And they moved very quickly to appoint George IV as the Prince Regent.
39:21Prince George was very excited to become the Regent. He was a king in waiting and he wanted,
39:29you know, more power, he wanted more money and he desperately wanted to be in charge.
39:37Due to the king's health, we are authorised, as per the terms of the Regency Act, to name
39:45you Prince Regent in his stead.
39:48Fetch me a bottle of brandy. Brandy, Your Grace?
39:52We must celebrate. Celebrate?
39:55Of course, I want a banquet for a party thrown in my honour.
40:04Prince George acts as Regent for nine years. A period in which the war with France comes to an end,
40:12with Britain victorious at the Battle of Waterloo. All the while, his father, now having lost almost
40:19all grip on reality, lives out the tortuous, tragic final years of his life in isolation.
40:30Despite their loyal and loving marriage, George and Charlotte's life together ends in heartache.
40:36Charlotte spends her final years watching her husband deteriorate, so much so that he forgets who she is entirely.
40:48He didn't know that Queen Charlotte had died.
40:55He didn't mourn her because he just had no comprehension at this point. It was much,
41:00much more serious and much more sustained.
41:05Despite nearly a decade hidden away from his people and plagued by the depths of his suffering,
41:12George III's death in 1820 marks the end of what still remains today,
41:18the longest rule of any male monarch in British history.
41:30The great tragedy of George III is when he ascends to the throne, he's 22,
41:39he is young, he is vibrant, he is intelligent, he is charismatic, he is, you know, everything if
41:48you wanted to kind of have the idea of a male leader in people's minds, people would have wanted.
41:55And there is this kind of vitality.
41:58And at the end of his reign, when he's in his 80s, you have this really tragic kind of ending.
42:05You know, all that intelligence, all of that vitality, all of that physical health just being removed.
42:14And having a figure or an idea of a figure who is dependent entirely on other people,
42:21he cannot protect his people because he is entirely dependent on other people.
42:27George III's reign has been overshadowed by his madness because it was so shocking at the time to
42:32have a monarch unable to rule. And I think as a result, it really scarred the public psyche,
42:38and which is why we still remember it today. But George's reign was so much more than his madness.
42:43What George III offers throughout that period is continuity. And I think also what he
42:50and those around him realise is that for the monarchy to endure, for the monarchy to survive,
42:57it has to kind of modernise, it has to shift, it has to evolve over time. It's
43:06the periods and the moment in which the foundations of, you know, I would argue kind of all forms of
43:13modern life have thought through and tested and trialled for the first time.
43:19A monarch's legacy is rarely easily defined. But for George III, a monarch who wanted nothing more than
43:29to succeed, but who faced such profound personal and public hardship, the success of his reign is more
43:37difficult to measure. Whilst he may be remembered for his madness, the changes George oversaw and the
43:47virtues he had held so dear since the beginning of his reign undeniably changed Britain and kept him in
43:55the public's favour.