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00:001716, December. Drury Lane Theatre, London.
00:10The future George II narrowly escapes an assassination attempt on his life.
00:17While his coolness under pressure earns him widespread admiration,
00:22this was a bright moment in a life overshadowed by family rifts and hatred.
00:31George's lifelong conflict with his father tarnished his whole life.
00:38In time, poisoning his relationship with his own son.
00:43And threatening the entire Hanoverian succession.
00:48But to understand the trials and tribulations of George II's reign,
00:53you have to go back to the very start.
01:00Born in Hanover in 1683, to George Ludwig and his wife Sophia Dorothea,
01:08young George was always aware he would one day govern the electorate of Hanover,
01:13part of the Holy Roman Empire.
01:14But at this point, neither he nor his father knew that one day they would be kings of Britain.
01:21Young George was the product of a deeply unhappy marriage.
01:25He would have been more than aware of his parents' extreme and often physical conflicts.
01:31George's father was unfaithful.
01:36But when his mother threatened to abscond with her lover, George's father had her exiled in a distant castle.
01:43This enforced separation means that from the age of 11, George grows up effectively motherless.
01:54The absence of his mother and the way in which she was removed from his life,
01:58I don't think George II ever really forgave his father for that.
02:03George is very much a mummy's boy in the sense that he nurtures an imagined memory of his mother.
02:11He holds a kind of candle for this memory of a sort of idealised mother figure against the kind of brutal reality of his father.
02:21George's relationship with his controlling, emotionally distant father never recovers from the deep scars left by this massive childhood trauma.
02:37Having suffered the fallout of his parents' catastrophic marriage, George is acutely aware of the importance of finding a compatible wife.
02:45Not only someone with whom he might have a happy life, but a woman up to the role of the title she would inherit.
02:52He was interested for his own sake to choose someone that he wanted to live with,
02:57which in a way would have been unusual for the time because most of these kinds of royal marriages were very, very much organised by the parents.
03:06And George seems to have had much more freedom of movement in that way than some of his contemporaries.
03:12Having surveyed the dynastic marriage market, cultured Caroline of Ansbach emerges as the front runner.
03:22There were several reasons to choose Caroline because she was not only a beautiful woman, but she was very well educated.
03:30She was a smart person.
03:32Despite Caroline's accomplishments, George is determined she will be marrying him for love, not status.
03:39To see if they are truly compatible, he arrives in Triesdorf in Ansbach in a not entirely convincing disguise, calling himself Monsieur de Bouche.
03:50Quite beautiful, no?
03:51Very.
03:52Have we met?
03:53Monsieur de Bouche.
03:54Oh.
03:55I don't remember seeing you arrive.
03:56I probably went unnoticed.
03:57I had only a small retinue.
03:58A humble entrance for a humble man.
03:59Now that, Monsieur de Bouche, I do not believe.
04:03Well, believe me when I say, you may not remember me arriving, but you will remember me when I leave.
04:16There's a definite formative element to this, that he is, it's a little bit flirty, it's a little bit playful. You know, he's performing his interest in her.
04:34She's about eight months older than he is, and he's not as much into philosophy as she is, but the two of them clicked.
04:41The lovestruck pair marry just a few months later.
04:45It's a lovely thought to think that George II actually fell in love with his wife upon seeing her.
04:52Once married and living in Hanover, George's priorities shift to another equally pressing concern.
05:03His lust for military glory.
05:06As a future elector of Hanover, George is keen to prove himself on the battlefield.
05:12One of the things we need to bear in mind in terms of 18th century court culture is the significance of kind of military service.
05:19Being able to demonstrate martial prowess is a source of honor, of prestige.
05:26You need to demonstrate that they're good military leaders that defend their subjects.
05:33But his father does not approve.
05:37The answer is no. This is outrageous.
05:41I'm a grown man and yet you treat me like some petulant child.
05:45Then maybe you should stop acting like one.
05:48I want to do this for the good of our country.
05:52Give me an heir and secure our line and you can go thirsting for glory in whatever war you like.
06:00Fortunately for George, he doesn't have to wait long for his passport to freedom.
06:05In 1707, two years after they're married, Caroline gives birth to their first son, Frederick.
06:15A year later, the war of Spanish succession breaks out across Europe.
06:20And with his father's request for an heir fulfilled, this provides George with the perfect opportunity to prove his military mettle.
06:28On July the 11th, 1708, he leads the Allied cavalry into battle at Oudenard.
06:38In the fierce fighting which follows, he narrowly escapes death.
06:42He miraculously survives what is quite a brutal and bloody battle.
06:49His horse is actually shot out from underneath him.
06:52It's a really pivotal moment that he's almost wiped out.
06:56There's, you know, a very thin line between survival and death in this battle and he manages to stay on the right side of it and survive.
07:04Reports of the young soldier's heroism filter across to Britain.
07:11Though it will be another six years before George's father accedes to the British throne,
07:17young George's popularity sows the seeds for a bitter rivalry between father and son.
07:24George's victory in battle is not only the thing that catapults him to new fame and new popularity,
07:30but it also sows a seed in the relationship with his father, the older George.
07:36And there's a tension that starts to brew there.
07:43In 1714, following the death of Britain's last Stuart monarch, Queen Anne,
07:50George's father accedes to the throne, making George and Caroline Prince and Princess of Wales.
07:55The couple join him in moving to Britain.
08:00On October the 20th, George's father is crowned George the First of Great Britain.
08:06But the establishment of the House of Hanover does nothing to bring the Prince and his father together.
08:13In fact, their fractious relationship soon erupts into overt and very public hostility.
08:20From the very start, the Prince and Princess of Wales wanted to portray themselves as British,
08:35almost in antithesis to George the First, who was seen as incredibly German.
08:38And as a result, they had this sort of butting of heads because the Prince and Princess of Wales were seen as young and maybe fun and more of the opposition.
08:51Unlike his shy, socially awkward father, the Prince and his wife love being in the public spotlight.
08:58Much to the King's irritation, the Prince quickly becomes the toast of London.
09:06They dine in public, they have balls, they have a wonderful time and he markets himself brilliantly to the British people.
09:14A bizarre incident on an outing to the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane provides the Prince with an unlikely PR coup.
09:29Oh, this is boring.
09:31Stupid George.
09:33During the performance, a crazed man bursts into the theatre.
09:38He comes in with several loaded guns.
09:43One of the guns go off.
09:45And the bullet whizzes into the box and goes over his shoulder.
09:49Unperturbed, George remains in his seat while the would-be assassin is apprehended.
09:57The rapturous reports of the Prince's bravery only serve to stoke his father's sense of insecurity.
10:18The King is determined to assert authority over his son.
10:22So when, soon after, Prince George and Princess Caroline give birth to their second son in 1717, the King insists on choosing the Godfather himself.
10:36His choice, his close political ally, the Duke of Newcastle.
10:40George II is kind of furious about it because he hates the Duke of Newcastle and they have a massive falling out and it all kind of goes south from there.
10:53After the ceremony, a heated quarrel breaks out between the Duke and the Prince.
10:58Even though George said to him, you villain, I'll find you. Newcastle misheard him. He thought that George, Prince of Wales, was challenging him to a duel.
11:09George claims his thick German accent has led to an innocent comment being misheard, but his father refuses to accept his son's side of the story.
11:22Firing off an angry letter, he banishes the Prince from St. James's palace.
11:30Caroline leaves with him, but the King delivers the killer blow by demanding the couple's children remain behind in the palace.
11:39Banishment from the palace doesn't necessarily mean banishment from the kingdom, you know, they're not riding off on horses at midnight.
11:48But what it means is that they are denied access to the King, to their own children, who are the royal grandchildren, who are kept on display in the royal court.
11:57When it comes to family, the decisions of the King are absolute.
12:06Prince of Wales feels that he should have a right to his children, but basically, at law, it's proven to him that the King actually controls his grandchildren and the children are effectively his to deal with.
12:20Forced into exile, George and Caroline set up home in Leicester House.
12:30This separation, this forced separation between George and Caroline and their children cuts them really deeply.
12:38It causes serious trauma, essentially.
12:41And when they do and they manage to see their children, Caroline reportedly faints because it's just so overwhelming to her.
12:47It proves to be a separation that has tragic consequences.
12:54When the new baby George falls gravely ill, George and Caroline are finally permitted to see their son.
13:03But it's too late. He dies at three months old.
13:08Overcome with grief and anger, Prince George's relationship with his father hits an all-time low.
13:22I think the crucial moment in terms of that flip between when son becomes more popular than father,
13:29is when the son is able to exert independent political patronage.
13:35So, in the case of George I and George II, is when George II removes himself from the court of St James and sets up a new household at Leicester House.
13:47Because what you then have is a physical space where opposition and debate and discussion can take place.
13:54And you're not under your dad's roof either, which I think is really significant.
14:00But Parliament is growing tired of having to deal with a feuding king and his heir.
14:07Prime Minister Robert Walpole encourages the king to reconcile with his son for the sake of the nation.
14:14Reluctantly, the two Georges apologise.
14:23However, in 1726, Sophia Dorothea dies, still in exile.
14:30It has been 32 years since George was last able to see his beloved mother.
14:35Beneath the surface, Prince George's bitterness towards his father has continued to fester until the very end.
14:46Your Grace!
14:48What is it that's so important?
14:53My apologies, Your Grace. It's your father.
14:56Speak it out, Walpole!
14:58He's dead, Your Grace.
15:02I took him long enough.
15:05Did you have to wake me up for this?
15:09My apologies, Your Grace.
15:12Walpole!
15:14My mother.
15:17I want her portraits back up on the walls.
15:19With the death of his father, George is finally free to carve out a future of his own.
15:33On October the 11th, 1727, George and Caroline are crowned king and queen of Great Britain and Ireland.
15:41With Handel, Zadok the priest, ringing out across Westminster Abbey, it's a moment of triumph for George.
16:00Specially composed for the occasion, the anthem will be performed at the coronation of every British monarch from then on.
16:16But the family scars remain, and history is about to repeat itself now with George II and his son, Prince Frederick.
16:33When George II first came to Britain with his father, he and Caroline were made to leave their firstborn son, Frederick, behind.
16:46At the Palace of Harenhausen in Hanover, aged just seven, he remained as a representative of the electorate.
16:55It would be another 14 years before he'd see his parents again.
17:00Frederick is left behind in Hanover because, again, it is important to have a male heir to shore up any questions around dynastic succession in a European context.
17:13So Frederick is left as the kind of proxy head of the state of Hanover for over a decade.
17:22The prolonged separation has devastating consequences on Frederick's relationship with his parents.
17:32Frederick doesn't really have a place emotionally within the family.
17:37Although he's made Prince of Wales, they immediately feel aggrieved because it sort of disturbs the family image that they had created.
17:47You know, they grew distant, of course. He didn't see them. He felt abandoned.
17:51And as a result, that sort of set the tone for when he eventually came to Britain for the first time.
18:02Increasingly resentful of his absent parents, Frederick racks up more than £100,000 of debt in Hanover's gentleman clubs and gambling dens.
18:12Following his father's coronation, Frederick, now aged 21, is summoned to England to become the new Prince of Wales.
18:22But it's not exactly a joyous family reunion.
18:26He was in his early twenties and he wanted to have fun.
18:29And so he annoyed his parents by gambling, drinking, whoring around, to the point that his mother called him a monster.
18:41And they were deeply, deeply divided about everything.
18:45In sort of classic Hanoverian fashion, we've got a dysfunctional relationship between father and son at this point in time.
18:56Everything that George II did to his father, Frederick would go on and do to him kind of in spades.
19:02So Frederick understood that he needed to court popular opinion.
19:06He loved to be seen in St. James's Park.
19:09He loved to be seen amongst the masses and show himself to be a man of the people.
19:15There was a sense of history repeating itself.
19:18Prince Frederick at his home would entertain members of the opposition,
19:24very much showing his political allegiance was not aligned with his father, George II.
19:29While Frederick is now purposefully annoying his parents and at the same time courting favour with the British public,
19:45his father is spending more and more time back in Hanover.
19:48Hanover had been his inheritance in a sense.
19:59Hanover gives him a place where he can, in a sense, perhaps maybe be more relaxed in a way than he is in England.
20:08It's in a sense, it's almost like a summer palace for him.
20:11But Hanover has other attractions too.
20:22While Caroline remains a close political confidant throughout his reign,
20:27this doesn't stop George taking a succession of mistresses.
20:30Following a visit to Hanover in 1735, Amélie von Valmodern becomes the latest.
20:42Back in London, the King's increasingly frequent trips to Hanover spark fierce criticism.
20:48It gets to the point where he's not here so much that the British people are increasingly resentful of him.
20:56And there's even one story of someone putting a lost notice on one of the doors of the palaces.
21:02If you find my king, can you please return him to Britain? He appears to not be here.
21:06George is canny enough to realise that if the Hanoverian dynasty is to survive, he must keep both Parliament and the British public on site.
21:19In 1728, he implements a Regency Act, a law nominating someone to rule in his place when he is out of the country.
21:29He chooses not Frederick, his heir, but his wife, Queen Caroline.
21:38It is very likely that George II came to this conclusion largely because of the political opposition that his son had.
21:49So that he didn't change too much in terms of the political workings of Parliament while he was away in Hanover.
21:56Because these visits were quite extensive. They weren't just a week or two weeks. They were several months.
22:02Frederick believes he's been overlooked and goes to even greater lengths to goad his father.
22:09One summer, there's a delay where George can't get back from Hanover because the sea is stormy and travel is impossible.
22:16And so Frederick lays these little seeds of gossip in the royal court that the king has drowned, that the ship has gone down.
22:27And what this does is not only disrupt the apple cart of George's well-laid plans at court and the way that he maintains power and the reputation that he has.
22:36But it actually bolsters Frederick's reputation, his popularity. People start to shift their focus away from George II.
22:46Exasperated by his son's endless acts of defiance, George decides that the only way to bring him to heel is to marry him off.
22:55Surveying the dynastic marriage market, his eyes alight on German 16-year-old Magdalena Augusta Anhalt-Zerbst.
23:09She is considered to be quite mousy. She's quite a sort of physically diminutive small person.
23:16And the idea is that she will bring him back down to earth in some way.
23:23In May 1736, Augusta arrives in England, clutching her favourite doll and unable to speak a word of English.
23:36But for money-driven Frederick, she's the answer to all his prayers.
23:40Once they tie the knot, his annual allowance is set to triple.
23:47This meant that he could finally get the money that he wanted and he thought that this would give him more standing in society
23:54and maybe his father would start to sort of respect him more because he will be a father and a husband.
24:04The wedding takes place just a few days later.
24:09As ever, securing the line of succession is the priority.
24:13Within a year, Frederick and Augusta are expecting their first child.
24:19But rather than healing old wounds, the birth only widens the rift between prince and king.
24:26Traditionally, a royal baby must always be born under the same roof as the reigning monarch
24:31to ensure that they can bear witness to the arrival of their newest heir.
24:36But Frederick has other plans.
24:39So determined is he to make sure his first child won't be born under his much hated father's roof.
24:46He risks the lives of mother and baby.
24:48Augusta is spending the evening with Frederick and her parents-in-law at Hampton Court Palace.
24:55When Augusta goes into labour, the king, the queen and the princesses are upstairs playing cards.
25:00And she's carried down the back stairs, labouring, she's in intense pain, her waters are broken.
25:08Poor Augusta's in the midst of labour.
25:11Frederick calls a carriage, you know, basically bundles her into this carriage.
25:16That is then sent at full tilt for St. James's Palace, which is miles away.
25:25But when they arrive at St. James's Palace, there's nothing ready for them at all.
25:30Nobody knew that they were coming.
25:32There's no midwife there.
25:34And Augusta is forced to give birth basically between two tablecloths because there's no sheets on the bed.
25:39And the baby Augusta is born sort of 15 minutes after they arrive.
25:43It's incredibly dramatic.
25:44It's a miracle that both Augusta and her daughter survived.
25:50On discovering the following morning that Augusta has given birth to a baby girl, Caroline cannot contain her anger.
26:01Have you heard about this birth?
26:04I would hardly call it that.
26:07The latest in the line of succession almost squeezed out onto the floor of a carriage.
26:12Not exactly a dignified beginning to life.
26:17I could have him hanged and the Lord knows what his father will do.
26:23To the King and Queen, Frederick's actions are an act of extreme provocation.
26:31They were absolutely outraged.
26:36They were so annoyed with their son that he had dared to deny them to see and to witness as was custom.
26:44And also how dangerous to endanger the wife, you know, the life of his wife and unborn child who was potentially the heir.
26:50And so this went down really, really badly.
26:56Deploying the same tactics against his son as his own father had used against him.
27:02The King banishes the Prince from the court.
27:04It shows a complete lack of self-awareness on George II's part and a lack of awareness that this is history repeating itself.
27:12But far worse, family turmoil awaits the troubled King.
27:21In November 1737, Caroline falls ill with a mysterious stomach complaint.
27:28Her condition rapidly deteriorates.
27:37George is beside himself with grief.
27:41Despite his serial infidelity, he cannot imagine life without his beloved wife.
27:50He remains at her side to the very end.
27:53There's a really lovely moment where you see the tenderness of George II that you often don't see.
28:06On her deathbed, she says, you can marry again, you can marry.
28:10And he goes, no, no, I will be content with my mistresses.
28:13What he means here is that there's a difference in his mind between love and lust.
28:17And I think that's a really important distinction that Queen Caroline held for him is that she was love, whereas the mistresses were more lust.
28:28With the death of Caroline, George and Frederick are left alone to rub along as best they can.
28:35Despite their mutual loathing, Frederick still has an important role to play within the family, securing the Hanoverian succession.
28:44In 1738, a year after his mother's death, Augusta gives birth to a baby son, George.
28:57Nobody knows that it will be him, not Frederick, who will become king.
29:05Frederick may have fulfilled his dynastic duty, but there is no letting up in hostilities between George II and his son.
29:12In a blatant act of defiance, Frederick embarks upon open warfare on the king from his new rival court in Leicester House.
29:24In the 1730s, we begin to see a shift in terms of the relative significance of different parts of the armed forces.
29:30For George II, the emphasis and the excitement has always been around a land-based European system of armies and conflicts.
29:42For Frederick and the next generation of politicians who are earning their stripes in the 1730s, the future lies at the hands of the navy.
29:49And Britain is an island nation, they say, and our strength should be at sea.
29:57In 1740, Frederick attends a theatrical review in which a new song, Rule Britannia, is sung.
30:04Rule Britannia, Britannia rule the waves.
30:11The words are a thinly disguised attack on his army-loving father.
30:17What's so striking about this first performance of Rule Britannia is it is about an aspiration for Britain to rule the waves.
30:27In that first performance, it's rule the waves, it's about what might happen in the future, rather than as we sing it now, Britannia rules the waves, you know, saying that it's kind of already happened.
30:41But Frederick is wrong about the navy.
30:45The biggest threat to Britain and the Hanoverian line doesn't lie overseas, but at home.
30:51For the second time in the Georgian era, the Jacobites are the crown's most dangerous adversary.
31:01As supporters of the descendants of the last Stuart King to rule Britain, James II, they regard the Hanoverians as usurpers of the British throne.
31:12This support comes from a large Catholic community because, of course, James II himself was a Catholic.
31:21But equally, it's a threat that is under the surface and invisible.
31:27It's at the heart of British power. It's in London, in Parliament, in the Royal Court.
31:32And it's one that is always dripping in the background.
31:35In a dramatic turn of events, in 1745, the Jacobite threat turns into armed insurrection.
31:47What makes this rising different to all the others that have come before is that Charles Edward Stuart himself eventually arrives on British soil.
31:57The grandson of James II, Charles Edward Stuart, better known as Bonnie Prince Charlie, is the poster boy for the Jacobite movement.
32:10In July 1745, the would-be king set sail from France to Scotland.
32:17Staking his claim to the throne, he assembles an army and marches south towards London.
32:30When Charles Edward Stuart's Jacobite forces start to move through the English landscape, there is a real panic in England, in particular,
32:40and people start to try and head south away from the army.
32:44And actually, lots of people join the Jacobite army as it moves through towns, those who have Jacobite sympathies.
32:53By December the 29th, the army has reached as far south as Derby.
32:59This is a moment of extreme jeopardy for the House of Hanover.
33:03This really unsettled, as you can imagine, really unsettled, not just George II, but the whole political establishment,
33:12because they knew that all the constitutional compromises had been achieved up to that point.
33:18The role of parliament was sort of at risk.
33:24But when the anticipated support from France fails to materialise, the Jacobites are forced to retreat.
33:31Then, in 1746, at the Battle of Culloden, troops led by George's younger brother, the Duke of Cumberland,
33:43launch a surprise attack on the Jacobite army.
33:46The result is a crushing defeat.
33:49The British victors show no mercy.
33:52In the aftermath, thousands of men are killed.
33:55The aim was to annihilate Jacobitism politically, physically and economically.
34:02When they won the Battle of Culloden, they did not stop there.
34:06They ran after the survivors, killed the wounded, attacked bystanders.
34:11The battlefield is strewn with thousands of dead.
34:16And this marks the end, essentially, of the Jacobite cause.
34:22The Bonnie Prince, Charles Edward Stuart, escapes through the Highlands and Islands of Scotland and makes his way back to Europe.
34:30The brutality with which he puts down the supporters of the rebellion and Cumberland, the nickname, the Butcher.
34:42With the Jacobite cause resolutely quashed, the future of the House of Hanover is finally secure.
34:50They were a competing dynasty, so from the George's perspective, this was a victory.
34:58A horrible one, a bloody one, but still a victory.
35:02Really what this represents is the moment of confirmation of the Georgian line of succession.
35:08It's George II's huge triumph to secure the throne for him and for his bloodline going forward.
35:19And it really puts the threat of Jacobitism in Britain to bed.
35:25It's not the end of everything, but it's certainly the end of the action that can provide any real threat.
35:31But just as it seems George's reign is about to enter calmer waters, once again, a family drama threatens to derail everything.
35:44Six years later, aged only 44, Frederick, the future king, dies suddenly.
35:51What Frederick's death does for George is, of course, there probably is a kind of personal, emotional element.
36:01But I, my sense of it is that the real concern or the real opportunity, if you like, is it kind of, it changes the game in a really unexpected way.
36:11Finally overcoming the years of constant feuding, the aging king reaches out to his now widowed daughter-in-law.
36:21Augusta is totally devastated, as you can imagine, but his father, who he'd had a terrible relationship with, took it quite stoically.
36:31But in private, when he went to see Augusta, they apparently cried for hours together.
36:36So that's quite sad, considering they'd never truly reconciled.
36:39With the unexpected death of the heir to the throne, and George himself now in his late 60s, all eyes are on Frederick's firstborn son, the king's grandchild, George.
36:53With the death of his father, young George is now first in line to the throne.
36:58But he is only 12 years old, and too young to accede to the throne where anything to happen to his grandfather.
37:04This was not planned for. This was not expected in the slightest.
37:10That's why it comes back to the kind of significance of, of what does it mean to educate a prince in the 1750s.
37:16The idea that your heir, your new heir, is in their early teens, and up until they're 18, they will require a regency.
37:29So it really changes, it kind of changes the political game quite considerably.
37:34And so for George II, the kind of question is, how do we manage that kind of regency relationship?
37:41A new regent must be picked immediately.
37:43The obvious candidate to become regent is George II's second-born son, the Duke of Cumberland, the Butcher of Culloden.
37:54But George II is wary of his ruthless reputation.
37:58While we mourn the death of the prince, there is of course the issue of who will act as regent in your absence.
38:05What about the Duke of Cumberland?
38:09No?
38:11Can I really trust him to rule in my absence?
38:13Well, he is your eldest son.
38:15He's too controversial. The people hate him. Some call him the Butcher of Culloden.
38:19A worthy accolade?
38:20For a general, not a regent. Unless he plans on wreaking havoc on my subject.
38:29There is of course Augusta. I know you had your differences, but as the prince's spouse, she might be the more favourable choice.
38:39Then the matter is settled. The regent will be Augusta, but there will be no further discussions on the matter.
38:44By picking his son's widow, Augusta, the ageing king finally manages to achieve some kind of family harmony.
38:58But by now, he is becoming increasingly frail.
39:03Towards the end of his life, George II's health is seriously deteriorating.
39:07And he's spending more and more time in bed. He has various ailments.
39:13Blind in one eye, deaf and increasingly immobile, George withdraws from public life.
39:20His final nine years are spent almost entirely in isolation, following the same day-to-day routine.
39:28In 1756, another major conflict breaks out in Europe.
39:33It is the start of what will become known as the Seven-Year War.
39:38A series of decisive victories over the French will ultimately leave Britain a global superpower.
39:44When it really kind of hits, it's so tied up with the growth of empire, land grab, you know, in all parts of where the British are trying to take control or retain control of places that they have.
40:03They are already claiming ownership.
40:06But the spoils of that war will only be enjoyed by George's heir.
40:11Because, before the war is won, the reign of George II comes to an end.
40:16On October the 25th, 1760, the king rises early, as is his custom, and drinks his habitual cup of chocolate.
40:26And then he needs to go to the loo, so he goes to the clothes store, and it's quiet, but then there's like a loud thud and a bang, or something like that.
40:36George II is found dead on the floor of his bathroom, aged 77.
40:50By now, Frederick's son George is 22, and able to take the throne himself.
40:59Despite George II's somewhat ignominious ending, he leaves behind an important legacy.
41:06The House of Hanover is finally secure.
41:09The fact that, again, in 1760, we have a kind of smooth transition, I think says a lot for what George II achieves during his reign.
41:21This is not a monarchy that falls apart. It's not a monarchy that is being riven by revolution or rebellion.
41:30So continuity and security, in a sense, I think are really important.
41:35He brought this country forward and shepherded in kind of a new era, really.
41:42Globally for Britain, they're on the cusp of something really interesting.
41:46George's death ushers in a new era for Britain, one of unrivaled global dominance and wealth.
41:58It will lead to a very different set of challenges for his grandson, George III.
42:04Next time.
42:18George III becomes the first Hanoverian king born in Britain.
42:24A devoted husband who created the modern image of a royal family.
42:30But a king whose reign was shaken by events both at home and abroad.
42:41The loss of the Americas.
42:44Revolution in France.
42:47And then his own inescapable decline into madness.
42:52The two...
43:06Space Launching
43:16andenbroek
43:19You