1 00:00:04,480 --> 00:00:08,040 This astonishingly lifelike portrait of King George III 2 00:00:08,040 --> 00:00:12,640 was moulded in wax by the famous Madame Tussaud two centuries ago. 3 00:00:12,640 --> 00:00:18,560 The year was 1809 and the King was about to mark his golden jubilee. 4 00:00:20,720 --> 00:00:24,160 Soon afterwards, he would vanish from public life - 5 00:00:24,160 --> 00:00:25,640 the king who went mad. 6 00:00:27,560 --> 00:00:31,840 Yet George III reigned longer than any king in British history, 7 00:00:31,840 --> 00:00:33,400 through tumultuous change. 8 00:00:35,040 --> 00:00:39,680 He was the last king of America and the first in Australia. 9 00:00:39,680 --> 00:00:44,000 On his watch, the United Kingdom and its flag were created 10 00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:45,840 and Napoleon defeated. 11 00:00:45,840 --> 00:00:50,040 He was a great collector, a champion of science, art and music, 12 00:00:50,040 --> 00:00:52,360 especially his beloved Handel. 13 00:00:52,360 --> 00:00:55,200 His reign ushered in the Industrial Revolution, 14 00:00:55,200 --> 00:00:58,120 his political battles helped shape the monarchy today. 15 00:00:58,120 --> 00:01:00,640 We have Buckingham Palace thanks to him. 16 00:01:00,640 --> 00:01:03,800 And all the while he was writing, writing. 17 00:01:06,800 --> 00:01:09,440 Now, for the first time, 18 00:01:09,440 --> 00:01:13,440 George III's private papers are being opened up for anyone to see. 19 00:01:13,440 --> 00:01:16,600 We can all discover a man whose devotion to his family 20 00:01:16,600 --> 00:01:19,960 and his coronation oath not only drove him 21 00:01:19,960 --> 00:01:22,280 but at times overwhelmed him. 22 00:01:31,240 --> 00:01:33,200 That manic monarch, 23 00:01:33,200 --> 00:01:36,320 so hauntingly captured by Madame Tussaud, 24 00:01:36,320 --> 00:01:38,160 can finally be revealed. 25 00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:01,360 George III was halfway through his reign 26 00:02:01,360 --> 00:02:04,120 when his first bout of mental illness began. 27 00:02:07,360 --> 00:02:08,960 It lasted four months, 28 00:02:08,960 --> 00:02:12,720 and then he wrote fondly to his wife, Queen Charlotte. 29 00:02:12,720 --> 00:02:14,400 "My dearest Charlotte, 30 00:02:14,400 --> 00:02:18,640 "I cannot but be deeply impressed by the consideration of how much you 31 00:02:18,640 --> 00:02:22,880 "must have been affected by the long continuance of my illness." 32 00:02:22,880 --> 00:02:28,200 His remarkably lucid words show how aware he was of his own predicament, 33 00:02:28,200 --> 00:02:30,760 a king desperate to avoid the family arguments 34 00:02:30,760 --> 00:02:33,680 that could trigger a repeat. 35 00:02:33,680 --> 00:02:37,240 "Though I do not mean to decline giving that attention to public 36 00:02:37,240 --> 00:02:39,240 "business which may be necessary, 37 00:02:39,240 --> 00:02:41,960 "yet I propose avoiding all discussions that may, 38 00:02:41,960 --> 00:02:46,280 "in their nature, agitate me, and consequently must, for the present, 39 00:02:46,280 --> 00:02:50,800 "decline entering on subjects which are not necessarily before me." 40 00:02:50,800 --> 00:02:53,360 "I shall ever remain, my dearest Charlotte, 41 00:02:53,360 --> 00:02:56,400 "your most affectionate husband, George R." 42 00:02:58,080 --> 00:03:03,240 This poignant and surprising letter has remained buried for 200 years. 43 00:03:03,240 --> 00:03:07,520 Now it is just one piece of a fascinating new historical jigsaw. 44 00:03:15,600 --> 00:03:19,360 Windsor Castle is the treasure chest of royal secrets. 45 00:03:19,360 --> 00:03:20,560 Here, in the Round Tower, 46 00:03:20,560 --> 00:03:22,840 are the personal papers of all British monarchs 47 00:03:22,840 --> 00:03:27,520 and their families, from George III right down to Elizabeth II. 48 00:03:27,520 --> 00:03:31,560 They've always been out of bounds except to a few select historians. 49 00:03:33,960 --> 00:03:36,640 Documents that you're wanting to keep forever, you think about 50 00:03:36,640 --> 00:03:39,720 a strong place to put them, and in the case of Windsor Castle, 51 00:03:39,720 --> 00:03:42,480 the very strongest place to put them is inside the Round Tower. 52 00:03:42,480 --> 00:03:46,120 And the Round Tower is built on the site where William the Conqueror 53 00:03:46,120 --> 00:03:47,680 founded the castle in 1070. 54 00:03:47,680 --> 00:03:49,120 The outside walls of the Round Tower 55 00:03:49,120 --> 00:03:51,520 were built in the mid-12th century, so a very sensible, 56 00:03:51,520 --> 00:03:53,960 very secure place to keep papers. 57 00:03:53,960 --> 00:03:56,320 Nowhere safer. Nowhere safer. 58 00:03:57,760 --> 00:04:02,400 What's happening here at the top of these 104 stone steps 59 00:04:02,400 --> 00:04:05,120 is history of sorts, too. 60 00:04:05,120 --> 00:04:07,920 Nearly two centuries after George III's death, 61 00:04:07,920 --> 00:04:09,360 all his private papers, 62 00:04:09,360 --> 00:04:12,200 hundreds of thousands of them, are being released to the world. 63 00:04:13,280 --> 00:04:16,560 Now, some may ask, why has it taken so long? 64 00:04:16,560 --> 00:04:19,720 But here, in this fortified royal vault, 65 00:04:19,720 --> 00:04:21,520 it's ground-breaking. 66 00:04:23,920 --> 00:04:26,160 Never before has a group of academics been allowed 67 00:04:26,160 --> 00:04:28,640 inside the inner sanctum 68 00:04:28,640 --> 00:04:31,320 to rifle through these invaluable documents. 69 00:04:33,040 --> 00:04:35,920 So the first visit of scholars from Kings College London, 70 00:04:35,920 --> 00:04:39,000 partners in this project, was a kind of royal revolution. 71 00:04:40,000 --> 00:04:43,760 If you could break yourselves into groups, 72 00:04:43,760 --> 00:04:46,960 three or four for each table. 73 00:04:46,960 --> 00:04:50,000 THEY CHATTER 74 00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:51,360 Can we sit down? 75 00:04:51,360 --> 00:04:53,280 Yes, please do. 76 00:04:53,280 --> 00:04:55,520 I'll go for 1780 and 26 too. 77 00:04:55,520 --> 00:04:58,000 Are we allowed to actually... 78 00:04:58,000 --> 00:04:59,320 Oh, absolutely. ..fondle them. 79 00:04:59,320 --> 00:05:01,040 I think that's the idea. Ah. 80 00:05:04,560 --> 00:05:06,080 Turbot, lobsters and shrimp. 81 00:05:06,080 --> 00:05:08,760 Exactly and a John Dory. 82 00:05:08,760 --> 00:05:11,760 The second course, we've got some impressive roasted poultry, 83 00:05:11,760 --> 00:05:14,280 starting with a pea fowl. 84 00:05:14,280 --> 00:05:16,720 He seems quite fond of the peacock, too. 85 00:05:18,920 --> 00:05:20,760 You know when you look at an archive, 86 00:05:20,760 --> 00:05:23,560 that was a piece of paper held by the person who wrote it. 87 00:05:23,560 --> 00:05:27,200 And it was their passions, their views on the world, their troubles, 88 00:05:27,200 --> 00:05:29,760 their difficulties and their successes as well. 89 00:05:29,760 --> 00:05:32,360 And that's what makes seeing original documents 90 00:05:32,360 --> 00:05:34,040 so exciting and so compelling. 91 00:05:36,520 --> 00:05:39,320 George's great collection covers not just the King, 92 00:05:39,320 --> 00:05:41,360 but the Queen and all their children. 93 00:05:41,360 --> 00:05:44,080 I understand you've made an interesting discovery already. 94 00:05:44,080 --> 00:05:46,120 Yeah. I wonder if I could just ask you about that? 95 00:05:46,120 --> 00:05:47,600 It's rather a heart-rending one. 96 00:05:47,600 --> 00:05:50,760 It's a short note from Queen Charlotte to 97 00:05:50,760 --> 00:05:54,960 Lady Charlotte Finch, the governess, 98 00:05:54,960 --> 00:05:57,600 with a little paper included. 99 00:05:59,160 --> 00:06:04,240 Just labelled, "Prince Alfred's hair, cut during his..." 100 00:06:04,240 --> 00:06:06,120 Illness? 101 00:06:06,120 --> 00:06:12,080 1782, at the lower lodge, I think, Windsor. 102 00:06:14,760 --> 00:06:20,360 And then a lock of Prince Alfred... Little Prince Alfred, who died, 103 00:06:20,360 --> 00:06:25,840 a golden lock of his hair sewn into it 104 00:06:25,840 --> 00:06:30,520 for her to remember him by, and thanking her for looking after him. 105 00:06:30,520 --> 00:06:32,800 What does it feel like to come across something like this 106 00:06:32,800 --> 00:06:35,680 when you've just arrived here in the archives? 107 00:06:35,680 --> 00:06:37,360 It's very... 108 00:06:37,360 --> 00:06:39,640 I mean, it's incredibly touching, 109 00:06:39,640 --> 00:06:41,960 but actually it's rather shocking 110 00:06:41,960 --> 00:06:44,640 how bright and shiny 111 00:06:44,640 --> 00:06:47,920 and now this lock of hair looks. 112 00:06:47,920 --> 00:06:51,800 You know, it could just have been cut off somebody's head. 113 00:06:51,800 --> 00:06:57,360 So it brings things alive while really being very moving, 114 00:06:57,360 --> 00:07:01,360 thinking about the death of a small child with golden curls. 115 00:07:06,600 --> 00:07:09,640 George III's papers won't be restricted to scholars 116 00:07:09,640 --> 00:07:12,200 who can make the journey to Windsor Castle, 117 00:07:12,200 --> 00:07:13,840 they're going public. 118 00:07:16,280 --> 00:07:19,240 Every single document has been digitally photographed, 119 00:07:19,240 --> 00:07:22,040 and there are some 350,000 pages, 120 00:07:22,040 --> 00:07:25,240 so that we can all see them online anywhere in the world. 121 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:31,880 Household ledgers, 122 00:07:31,880 --> 00:07:36,040 exchanges with prime ministers like Lord North and William Pitt, 123 00:07:36,040 --> 00:07:39,080 all the correspondence within the King's family, 124 00:07:39,080 --> 00:07:42,440 every private paper is coming out of the shadows. 125 00:07:44,320 --> 00:07:47,200 Wherever you are, you can work on George III, 126 00:07:47,200 --> 00:07:49,800 you can get into the heart of the Hanoverian Monarchy. 127 00:07:49,800 --> 00:07:51,800 Whether you want to know who his under footman was 128 00:07:51,800 --> 00:07:53,240 and how much he was paid, 129 00:07:53,240 --> 00:07:55,800 or his relationship with a prime minister, 130 00:07:55,800 --> 00:07:58,200 they will both be there and, curiously enough, 131 00:07:58,200 --> 00:08:01,120 you may find there is a connection between those things. 132 00:08:01,120 --> 00:08:04,440 This was done absolutely with the permission and 133 00:08:04,440 --> 00:08:08,760 authority of the Queen, who herself has approved this exercise 134 00:08:08,760 --> 00:08:11,880 and is keen to make these collections available. 135 00:08:11,880 --> 00:08:13,960 If I may introduce you to Professor Ed Byrne, 136 00:08:13,960 --> 00:08:15,120 Kings College, London. 137 00:08:15,120 --> 00:08:19,640 The Queen decided to open the whole Georgian papers project herself, 138 00:08:19,640 --> 00:08:23,000 with the British and American academics involved. 139 00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:26,480 Doctor Karen Wolf, William and Mary College. 140 00:08:26,480 --> 00:08:29,480 And Mr Peter Barber, head of the map collections at the British library. 141 00:08:31,240 --> 00:08:34,840 Your Majesty, we've laid out some items here in the library. 142 00:08:34,840 --> 00:08:39,040 Exploring the entire collection will take several years, 143 00:08:39,040 --> 00:08:42,000 but some of the early finds were presented for the launch, 144 00:08:42,000 --> 00:08:45,160 including this schoolboy essay on kingship. 145 00:08:45,160 --> 00:08:49,200 This is a essay by George III discussing his role in relation to 146 00:08:49,200 --> 00:08:50,960 Parliament. 147 00:08:50,960 --> 00:08:54,880 "The supreme power in England is divided into two branches - 148 00:08:54,880 --> 00:08:57,240 "the legislative, vested in the King, 149 00:08:57,240 --> 00:09:00,720 "the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament, the executive, 150 00:09:00,720 --> 00:09:02,640 "belonging to the King alone." 151 00:09:02,640 --> 00:09:05,080 The King was grappling with the issue of being a monarch 152 00:09:05,080 --> 00:09:08,520 of a country in transition from an older form of monarchy 153 00:09:08,520 --> 00:09:12,800 to the form that we begin to see emerging during his reign, and his 154 00:09:12,800 --> 00:09:17,200 ability to think these problems through on paper is a critical part 155 00:09:17,200 --> 00:09:20,080 of the development of the modern monarchy. 156 00:09:20,080 --> 00:09:23,680 But he's very much one of the founding fathers of the engaged 157 00:09:23,680 --> 00:09:27,240 constitutional monarchy we have today. 158 00:09:27,240 --> 00:09:30,320 These documents have not been seen and will really help transform our 159 00:09:30,320 --> 00:09:32,040 understanding of this period. 160 00:09:35,760 --> 00:09:39,320 All through his life, George was obsessive about recording it. 161 00:09:39,320 --> 00:09:42,920 Here is his memoir of the moment he was elevated from Prince of Wales 162 00:09:42,920 --> 00:09:44,680 to King, aged just 22. 163 00:09:46,600 --> 00:09:49,760 Curiously, he refers to himself in the third person, 164 00:09:49,760 --> 00:09:52,160 as if observing the making of the monarch. 165 00:09:53,920 --> 00:09:56,800 "The Prince of Wales was riding at a little after eight 166 00:09:56,800 --> 00:10:00,240 between Kew Bridge and the six-mile stone when a messenger told him 167 00:10:00,240 --> 00:10:04,280 "an accident had happened to the King. 168 00:10:04,280 --> 00:10:07,320 "The Prince returned to Kew and ordered his attendants to be silent 169 00:10:07,320 --> 00:10:09,640 "and pretended his horse was lame." 170 00:10:11,360 --> 00:10:13,960 It was October 1760. 171 00:10:13,960 --> 00:10:15,960 George's father was already dead, 172 00:10:15,960 --> 00:10:17,360 so he succeeded his grandfather 173 00:10:17,360 --> 00:10:20,040 to the thrones of both Britain and Hanover. 174 00:10:20,040 --> 00:10:22,480 But, unlike the earlier Georges, 175 00:10:22,480 --> 00:10:25,920 George III had been born in Britain and was proud of it. 176 00:10:28,760 --> 00:10:32,080 The Royal archives disclose how the making of this monarch had begun 177 00:10:32,080 --> 00:10:33,920 back in his childhood. 178 00:10:37,080 --> 00:10:39,840 Here we have George's very own instruction manual, 179 00:10:39,840 --> 00:10:43,280 written for him when he was just a boy of ten by his father. 180 00:10:43,280 --> 00:10:46,120 "Instructions for my son George." 181 00:10:46,120 --> 00:10:51,360 It contains advice he would try to follow for most of his life. 182 00:10:51,360 --> 00:10:55,760 "If you can be without war, let not your ambition draw you into it. 183 00:10:55,760 --> 00:10:57,000 "At the same time, 184 00:10:57,000 --> 00:11:00,440 "never give up your honour, nor that of the nation." 185 00:11:00,440 --> 00:11:03,960 And there are some useful tips for a young Hanoverian king. 186 00:11:03,960 --> 00:11:05,480 "Convince this nation 187 00:11:05,480 --> 00:11:08,760 "that you are not only an Englishman born and bred, 188 00:11:08,760 --> 00:11:11,360 "but that you are also this by inclination." 189 00:11:12,960 --> 00:11:16,360 Wise words that, as king, he took to heart. 190 00:11:16,360 --> 00:11:20,320 "Born and educated in this country," he proudly told Parliament, 191 00:11:20,320 --> 00:11:23,000 "I glory in the name of Britain." 192 00:11:23,000 --> 00:11:24,720 That's conscious, that's deliberate. 193 00:11:25,720 --> 00:11:28,120 He's made himself into a British monarch, 194 00:11:28,120 --> 00:11:30,200 and English is his first language, 195 00:11:30,200 --> 00:11:33,600 unlike his grandfather and his great-grandfather. 196 00:11:34,600 --> 00:11:37,600 And his interests are English, his culture is English. 197 00:11:37,600 --> 00:11:42,280 The United Kingdom, the technical phrase we use, and the Union Jack, 198 00:11:42,280 --> 00:11:44,680 they both come on his watch. 199 00:11:44,680 --> 00:11:47,360 There's financial advice from his father, too. 200 00:11:47,360 --> 00:11:50,960 "Employ all your hands and all your power to live with economy." 201 00:11:50,960 --> 00:11:53,080 Then he warns about the national debt. 202 00:11:53,080 --> 00:11:56,240 Which, "If not reduced, will surely one time or other 203 00:11:56,240 --> 00:11:58,920 "create such a disaffection and despair that 204 00:11:58,920 --> 00:12:01,600 "I dread the consequences for you, my dear son." 205 00:12:02,560 --> 00:12:06,880 He goes on, "The sooner you have an opportunity to lower the interest, 206 00:12:06,880 --> 00:12:08,680 "for God's sake, do it." 207 00:12:10,240 --> 00:12:12,560 In the event, interest rates stayed constant 208 00:12:12,560 --> 00:12:14,240 all through George III's reign, 209 00:12:14,240 --> 00:12:16,800 and Britain was at war for most of it. 210 00:12:18,040 --> 00:12:21,080 But from the start, he wanted to do things differently - 211 00:12:21,080 --> 00:12:24,120 from the way he ran the country to the way he travelled. 212 00:12:25,440 --> 00:12:27,320 After 33 years of George II, 213 00:12:27,320 --> 00:12:30,400 a new reign demanded fresh symbolism for the young monarch. 214 00:12:30,400 --> 00:12:34,080 The result was this, the grandest, 215 00:12:34,080 --> 00:12:37,760 the most over-the-top vehicle in royal history. 216 00:12:37,760 --> 00:12:41,280 Weighing four tonnes and costing £7,500, 217 00:12:41,280 --> 00:12:45,080 the golden state carriage took George III to Parliament in 1762 218 00:12:45,080 --> 00:12:47,440 and has been used in every coronation since. 219 00:12:49,000 --> 00:12:51,200 As successive monarchs have remarked, 220 00:12:51,200 --> 00:12:54,000 it's both very uncomfortable and very slow, 221 00:12:54,000 --> 00:12:57,480 but then it was never designed for a smooth, speedy ride. 222 00:12:57,480 --> 00:13:00,280 It was to be a work of art all by itself, 223 00:13:00,280 --> 00:13:03,800 a statement of resurgent British prosperity and power. 224 00:13:06,720 --> 00:13:08,880 George III was personally frugal, 225 00:13:08,880 --> 00:13:12,560 but he understood the power of his public image. 226 00:13:13,760 --> 00:13:17,640 He's painted in ceremonial garb for the great state portraits that are 227 00:13:17,640 --> 00:13:21,760 sent round the country to hang in town halls and other places. 228 00:13:21,760 --> 00:13:24,680 But when he attends public functions, 229 00:13:24,680 --> 00:13:29,080 he's wearing conventional, comfortable clothes. 230 00:13:29,080 --> 00:13:35,000 He's got this funny man of the people aspect to him 231 00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:37,040 that he likes going out, 232 00:13:37,040 --> 00:13:41,760 riding with his children round Windsor and asking farmers, 233 00:13:41,760 --> 00:13:44,480 "How do you do?" 234 00:13:44,480 --> 00:13:47,920 "Well, friend, where are you going? Hey? What's your name? 235 00:13:47,920 --> 00:13:51,440 "Hey? Where do you live? Hey, hey?" 236 00:13:51,440 --> 00:13:56,480 And in Windsor, he'll walk round the town or pop in on people. 237 00:13:56,480 --> 00:13:58,400 He understood it was best to appear 238 00:13:58,400 --> 00:14:00,520 to be a perfectly ordinary human being 239 00:14:00,520 --> 00:14:03,360 who happened to be filling the office of King. 240 00:14:03,360 --> 00:14:08,040 But in reality, there was nothing ordinary about George III. 241 00:14:08,040 --> 00:14:10,880 He arranged his own marriage to Charlotte, 242 00:14:10,880 --> 00:14:15,080 a German princess he'd never met, who bore him 15 children. 243 00:14:15,080 --> 00:14:19,000 He was driven by his sense of duty to his family and his country. 244 00:14:19,000 --> 00:14:23,600 He was methodical, pernickety, a man with never an idle moment. 245 00:14:25,560 --> 00:14:29,160 The digitisation of his personal archive allows us intimate access 246 00:14:29,160 --> 00:14:31,320 to a deep thinker with a good brain, 247 00:14:31,320 --> 00:14:34,240 an enquiring mind, a very complex monarch. 248 00:14:35,640 --> 00:14:39,800 It's quite an exciting moment because this is the first chance 249 00:14:39,800 --> 00:14:41,800 we've had to see the documents 250 00:14:41,800 --> 00:14:44,760 from the Georgian papers appearing online. 251 00:14:44,760 --> 00:14:49,040 And we can see here there's a range of essays George was writing, 252 00:14:49,040 --> 00:14:51,360 including this very striking selection 253 00:14:51,360 --> 00:14:53,080 of draft essays on despotism. 254 00:14:53,080 --> 00:14:57,400 But when we actually get to the document itself, 255 00:14:57,400 --> 00:15:00,120 George's writing about despotism as a problem, 256 00:15:00,120 --> 00:15:03,600 and it's this wonderful, clear handwriting, 257 00:15:03,600 --> 00:15:05,840 and even those people who are not specialists, I think, 258 00:15:05,840 --> 00:15:09,160 will be able to read pretty straightforwardly this sort of stuff. 259 00:15:09,160 --> 00:15:10,520 It is very clear, isn't it? 260 00:15:10,520 --> 00:15:12,640 "When we examine the annals of the world 261 00:15:12,640 --> 00:15:15,400 "from the beginning of government unto this day, 262 00:15:15,400 --> 00:15:19,120 "we shall find the generality of nations groaning under the 263 00:15:19,120 --> 00:15:20,880 "yoke of despotism." 264 00:15:20,880 --> 00:15:23,880 Groaning under the yoke of despotism. 265 00:15:23,880 --> 00:15:26,880 He's very clearly putting himself on the side of the angels, isn't he? 266 00:15:26,880 --> 00:15:28,680 Yes, he's considering himself as someone 267 00:15:28,680 --> 00:15:31,160 who's not going to be that kind of monarch. 268 00:15:31,160 --> 00:15:34,200 This is understanding how to avoid being a despot and how to 269 00:15:34,200 --> 00:15:36,880 be a good and patriotic king. 270 00:15:39,600 --> 00:15:42,680 But there was one place where George III was seen 271 00:15:42,680 --> 00:15:44,120 as a despot - America. 272 00:15:44,120 --> 00:15:46,800 With the six-pounder right here, I could use it to scare the enemy. 273 00:15:46,800 --> 00:15:49,280 Is that true, yes or no? CROWD: Yes. 274 00:15:49,280 --> 00:15:52,160 And I could use it to take the enemy out, is that true? CROWD: Yes. 275 00:15:52,160 --> 00:15:53,800 I love artillery, don't you? 276 00:15:55,200 --> 00:15:57,440 The struggle over American independence 277 00:15:57,440 --> 00:16:00,120 shattered some of the young king's aspirations. 278 00:16:00,120 --> 00:16:03,520 It was actually Parliament in Westminster that 279 00:16:03,520 --> 00:16:05,720 imposed taxes on the colonies. 280 00:16:05,720 --> 00:16:08,200 I need a fairly tall guy to work the other side 281 00:16:08,200 --> 00:16:09,640 of the gun, to be my loader. 282 00:16:09,640 --> 00:16:12,120 What began with protests like the Boston Tea Party 283 00:16:12,120 --> 00:16:13,600 escalated into revolution. 284 00:16:13,600 --> 00:16:16,640 The Americans chose to take things personally. 285 00:16:16,640 --> 00:16:18,840 Look at all these volunteers. 286 00:16:18,840 --> 00:16:20,440 The bad guy was the king. 287 00:16:20,440 --> 00:16:22,640 Step up to the gun. 288 00:16:22,640 --> 00:16:26,360 Even today, they relish their victory at the Battle of Yorktown. 289 00:16:26,360 --> 00:16:28,840 Here, at Yorktown, the artillery is behind earthworks. 290 00:16:28,840 --> 00:16:31,080 What's a good target for my artillery? 291 00:16:31,080 --> 00:16:33,760 Those two British frigates in the river. 292 00:16:33,760 --> 00:16:35,840 Everybody step into the gun. 293 00:16:35,840 --> 00:16:39,200 Good thing the British are not really coming today, huh? 294 00:16:39,200 --> 00:16:42,040 You know, George III was a mean, nasty monarch. 295 00:16:42,040 --> 00:16:45,160 And he was imposing taxes out of his own selfishness, 296 00:16:45,160 --> 00:16:47,120 and then he went crazy. 297 00:16:47,120 --> 00:16:49,680 He's a handy villain for people to have. 298 00:16:51,560 --> 00:16:54,200 Guys, if you want to cover your ears, now is the time. 299 00:16:54,200 --> 00:16:55,240 Fire! 300 00:17:01,520 --> 00:17:04,160 This portrait of the King wearing a red coat was 301 00:17:04,160 --> 00:17:05,840 one of George's favourites. 302 00:17:05,840 --> 00:17:09,200 Ironically, it was by an American artist, Benjamin West, 303 00:17:09,200 --> 00:17:11,480 and it portrays the King as a man of action. 304 00:17:12,600 --> 00:17:14,320 He famously said at the time, 305 00:17:14,320 --> 00:17:16,040 "If others will not be active," 306 00:17:16,040 --> 00:17:19,600 a dig at his prime minister, Lord North, "I shall drive." 307 00:17:20,960 --> 00:17:24,840 And the Royal archives reveal his compulsive interest in every aspect 308 00:17:24,840 --> 00:17:25,880 of the war effort. 309 00:17:27,560 --> 00:17:32,200 You really see it with these lists that he compiles. 310 00:17:32,200 --> 00:17:36,200 This is a memorandum he wrote to himself 311 00:17:36,200 --> 00:17:41,960 about how many troops would be needed in America. 312 00:17:41,960 --> 00:17:44,640 This is written early in the war. 313 00:17:44,640 --> 00:17:46,480 He is saying, 314 00:17:46,480 --> 00:17:51,480 we're going to need at least 38,000 troops over there and he lists 315 00:17:51,480 --> 00:17:55,320 where they'll be stationed and distributed. 316 00:17:55,320 --> 00:17:58,640 And it has such details like the need for... 317 00:17:58,640 --> 00:18:02,960 "52,000 blankets and 4,200 watch coats. 318 00:18:02,960 --> 00:18:06,400 "Wagons and harness for 68th Battalion, 319 00:18:06,400 --> 00:18:12,320 "277 wagons and 1,117 sets of harness." 320 00:18:12,320 --> 00:18:16,200 We tended to think about George as this kind of aloof figure 321 00:18:16,200 --> 00:18:20,720 who was above the frays, above politics, 322 00:18:20,720 --> 00:18:23,320 but when you look at his papers, when you look at 323 00:18:23,320 --> 00:18:25,240 his interactions with his ministers, 324 00:18:25,240 --> 00:18:28,840 he's very much engaged in the operations of government. 325 00:18:28,840 --> 00:18:32,720 The King kept a close eye on what the American rebels and their French 326 00:18:32,720 --> 00:18:34,840 allies were up to. 327 00:18:34,840 --> 00:18:36,440 This is a remarkable one, 328 00:18:36,440 --> 00:18:42,640 a list of the French fleet copied from government documents 329 00:18:42,640 --> 00:18:47,640 written in French showing the number of cannons on each ship. 330 00:18:47,640 --> 00:18:52,000 I was very surprised to find it in the King's handwriting. 331 00:18:52,000 --> 00:18:56,240 What does that tell us? It tells us he didn't have a secretary 332 00:18:56,240 --> 00:18:59,160 and it also shows his voracious interest 333 00:18:59,160 --> 00:19:01,200 in every detail of this war. 334 00:19:13,800 --> 00:19:17,120 It's perhaps surprising today's Americans 335 00:19:17,120 --> 00:19:19,920 are giving their last king a place of honour. 336 00:19:19,920 --> 00:19:22,680 They're making a new image of him two and a half centuries after 337 00:19:22,680 --> 00:19:24,680 destroying their last one. 338 00:19:24,680 --> 00:19:26,560 In this Brooklyn studio in New York, 339 00:19:26,560 --> 00:19:29,480 they specialise in recreating the past. 340 00:19:29,480 --> 00:19:31,280 They're building a George III 341 00:19:31,280 --> 00:19:34,600 for the new Museum of the American Revolution, 342 00:19:34,600 --> 00:19:37,240 and they're modelling it on the gilded statue 343 00:19:37,240 --> 00:19:40,400 of George as a Roman emperor that once stood in Bowling Green, 344 00:19:40,400 --> 00:19:42,600 on the southern tip of Manhattan. 345 00:19:45,400 --> 00:19:49,160 The Royal archives show that one of the King's own sons 346 00:19:49,160 --> 00:19:53,520 visited Bowling Green in the middle of the American war. 347 00:19:53,520 --> 00:19:55,920 Prince William, the future King William IV, 348 00:19:55,920 --> 00:19:58,960 was on active service with the Royal Navy at the age of 16. 349 00:19:58,960 --> 00:20:02,880 Writing home from New York, then still under British control, 350 00:20:02,880 --> 00:20:06,360 he tried to cheer his father with news of a great crowd crying 351 00:20:06,360 --> 00:20:08,360 "God bless King George," 352 00:20:08,360 --> 00:20:11,880 but he added that he walked past the pedestal of the statue 353 00:20:11,880 --> 00:20:16,400 of Your Majesty. The King must have known that five years earlier his 354 00:20:16,400 --> 00:20:20,640 statue had been torn from its plinth by revolutionaries shortly after 355 00:20:20,640 --> 00:20:22,880 the American Declaration of Independence. 356 00:20:24,200 --> 00:20:28,360 It was gold and blinded people when they looked at it. 357 00:20:28,360 --> 00:20:32,520 It was a mark of, we've made it as a civilisation and a culture. 358 00:20:32,520 --> 00:20:35,280 And you see in that moment the sort of the desecration 359 00:20:35,280 --> 00:20:36,640 of royal authority. 360 00:20:36,640 --> 00:20:39,920 You see that the Americans sort of shift their anger from Parliament 361 00:20:39,920 --> 00:20:41,880 to the person of the King. 362 00:20:41,880 --> 00:20:44,000 They put ropes around the statue 363 00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:48,160 and then the Sons of Liberty on the ground began to pull. 364 00:20:48,160 --> 00:20:52,440 Alas, it probably wasn't as exciting as they might have hoped 365 00:20:52,440 --> 00:20:55,240 since it was made of lead and very weak, 366 00:20:55,240 --> 00:21:00,120 it might have just bent at the ankles and fallen straight down. 367 00:21:00,120 --> 00:21:03,880 A little bit like the image of Saddam Hussein 368 00:21:03,880 --> 00:21:07,800 when he was pulled down in 2003 in Iraq. 369 00:21:07,800 --> 00:21:13,880 And that lead was melted down into 42,088 musket balls. 370 00:21:13,880 --> 00:21:17,080 And, even to this day, they are finding musket balls 371 00:21:17,080 --> 00:21:22,160 that came from King George's statue on revolutionary war battlefields. 372 00:21:22,160 --> 00:21:25,160 So the king ended up being fired back at the king's men? 373 00:21:25,160 --> 00:21:27,760 That's exactly right. The ultimate insult. 374 00:21:29,560 --> 00:21:32,480 The Royal archives reveal fresh evidence of the stress 375 00:21:32,480 --> 00:21:33,600 of war upon the King. 376 00:21:33,600 --> 00:21:37,680 He felt he had to bolster the government and make sure his 377 00:21:37,680 --> 00:21:40,400 long-serving prime minister, Lord North, 378 00:21:40,400 --> 00:21:42,120 had stomach for the fight. 379 00:21:42,120 --> 00:21:44,720 What is amazing about this letter, 380 00:21:44,720 --> 00:21:47,160 and again one of the benefits of actually being here 381 00:21:47,160 --> 00:21:49,560 and seeing letters first-hand, 382 00:21:49,560 --> 00:21:53,640 is that there have been constant drafts. 383 00:21:53,640 --> 00:21:57,480 He's clearly finding this a difficult letter to write. 384 00:21:57,480 --> 00:22:00,800 Yeah, he's agonising over this part here, isn't he? 385 00:22:00,800 --> 00:22:05,000 Yes, and you never normally see letters that are this messy. 386 00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:07,320 And obviously the one that he sent out 387 00:22:07,320 --> 00:22:09,520 would have been a fair copy of this. 388 00:22:09,520 --> 00:22:15,120 But you can also see his thoughts at the time of writing this letter. 389 00:22:23,080 --> 00:22:26,320 George had absorbed all the official information coming into the 390 00:22:26,320 --> 00:22:29,800 government, but in the Royal archives, there are some tantalising 391 00:22:29,800 --> 00:22:31,840 unofficial sources too - 392 00:22:31,840 --> 00:22:35,760 a private network of secret agents reporting directly to the King. 393 00:22:37,760 --> 00:22:40,720 Secret Service is getting 40,000. 394 00:22:40,720 --> 00:22:43,840 That's... That's quite a big increase. 395 00:22:43,840 --> 00:22:46,040 It was only 32 before. 396 00:22:46,040 --> 00:22:50,000 And this is actually, it was quite a revelation to me, 397 00:22:50,000 --> 00:22:55,760 he had a spy who wrote to him regularly called Aristarchus. 398 00:22:55,760 --> 00:22:59,720 In this particular letter, he says you've been seen walking around the 399 00:22:59,720 --> 00:23:05,240 Queen's garden in disguise at night-time... 400 00:23:08,120 --> 00:23:11,760 ..and the French are planning to assassinate you 401 00:23:11,760 --> 00:23:13,680 while you're doing that. 402 00:23:13,680 --> 00:23:16,520 And these letters are entirely unpublished, 403 00:23:16,520 --> 00:23:20,360 they're not mentioned in the major biographies of George III. 404 00:23:20,360 --> 00:23:25,080 So we've come across a sort of Georgian James Bond. 405 00:23:25,080 --> 00:23:31,640 Yes. With the difference that Aristarchus was in his late 60s, 406 00:23:31,640 --> 00:23:35,760 and he was clearly a lot less agile than Bond. 407 00:23:35,760 --> 00:23:39,680 Also, unlike Bond, he keeps having to ask to be paid. 408 00:23:39,680 --> 00:23:46,120 Britain's defeat in the American war was a bitter reverse for the King. 409 00:23:46,120 --> 00:23:48,760 "America is lost. 410 00:23:48,760 --> 00:23:52,440 "Must we fall beneath the blow?" 411 00:23:52,440 --> 00:23:54,360 But George swallowed his pride, 412 00:23:54,360 --> 00:23:57,440 and three years later, he graciously welcomed 413 00:23:57,440 --> 00:23:59,920 the first American ambassador to Britain. 414 00:24:03,280 --> 00:24:04,920 Away from the national stage, 415 00:24:04,920 --> 00:24:08,920 the King's attention to detail was just as intense at home. 416 00:24:08,920 --> 00:24:12,600 No previous monarch had devoted as much care to the raising 417 00:24:12,600 --> 00:24:15,560 of royal children as George III and his queen. 418 00:24:17,760 --> 00:24:20,040 Can I ask what it is you've got there? 419 00:24:20,040 --> 00:24:23,080 These are letters from Queen Charlotte to her governess, 420 00:24:23,080 --> 00:24:24,480 Lady Charlotte Finch, 421 00:24:24,480 --> 00:24:27,840 and they're talking about the setting up of the Royal nursery. 422 00:24:27,840 --> 00:24:30,920 She is saying that she's allowed to have two days off, 423 00:24:30,920 --> 00:24:34,360 which is to be at liberty, but when she's in the nursery, 424 00:24:34,360 --> 00:24:37,440 she is to think of the children almost as her own, 425 00:24:37,440 --> 00:24:40,120 which is quite a modern thought, I think. 426 00:24:41,600 --> 00:24:43,400 In his first year as king, 427 00:24:43,400 --> 00:24:47,320 George had drawn up his own shortlist of potential brides. 428 00:24:47,320 --> 00:24:50,480 Charlotte came top and the proposal was dispatched. 429 00:24:50,480 --> 00:24:53,360 He was 23, she was 17. 430 00:24:53,360 --> 00:24:57,040 A princess of the German duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. 431 00:25:00,640 --> 00:25:05,000 He sent an envoy to fetch her across a ferociously rough North Sea. 432 00:25:05,000 --> 00:25:06,960 The voyage took two weeks. 433 00:25:09,280 --> 00:25:15,880 You are expected to step up to the plate and become a British queen 434 00:25:15,880 --> 00:25:17,760 just like that. 435 00:25:20,800 --> 00:25:25,600 It's a terrible journey and the rough seas, the crossing. 436 00:25:29,360 --> 00:25:34,280 She didn't speak English, she didn't write English, 437 00:25:34,280 --> 00:25:39,160 but the King and she got on like a house on fire. 438 00:25:42,240 --> 00:25:45,400 Only a few hours after first setting eyes on each other, 439 00:25:45,400 --> 00:25:49,240 Charlotte and George were married and crowned King and Queen 440 00:25:49,240 --> 00:25:51,600 a fortnight later. 441 00:25:51,600 --> 00:25:55,400 A year on, Queen Charlotte was adapting to her new life. 442 00:25:55,400 --> 00:25:59,800 This is her first letter in English written to Lady Charlotte Finch, 443 00:25:59,800 --> 00:26:03,000 who was looking after her first-born prince, just six weeks old. 444 00:26:04,240 --> 00:26:06,840 "I hope, when I come to town, that your little jou jou 445 00:26:06,840 --> 00:26:08,800 "will be dressed in his frock. 446 00:26:08,800 --> 00:26:12,200 "The King and I embrace the pretty dear little man. 447 00:26:12,200 --> 00:26:13,800 "Your affectionate Charlotte." 448 00:26:16,880 --> 00:26:20,560 Lady Charlotte Finch would be with this fast expanding family 449 00:26:20,560 --> 00:26:22,560 for more than three decades. 450 00:26:22,560 --> 00:26:25,040 The King kept height charts of all his children 451 00:26:25,040 --> 00:26:27,160 in his typically exact way, 452 00:26:27,160 --> 00:26:29,760 measuring them to the nearest 16th of an inch. 453 00:26:31,440 --> 00:26:35,800 His ambition was to create a model royal family and to make sure people 454 00:26:35,800 --> 00:26:36,840 saw them, too. 455 00:26:39,120 --> 00:26:41,760 They were a very fertile couple. 456 00:26:41,760 --> 00:26:47,280 15 children born from 1762 to 1783. 457 00:26:47,280 --> 00:26:52,880 So that's quite a tough schedule for Queen Charlotte. 458 00:26:54,760 --> 00:26:56,160 Soon after their marriage, 459 00:26:56,160 --> 00:26:58,440 George had bought the house that would later 460 00:26:58,440 --> 00:27:02,360 become Buckingham Palace and renamed it the Queen's House. 461 00:27:02,360 --> 00:27:04,200 While the King was carrying out 462 00:27:04,200 --> 00:27:07,160 official duties nearby at St James's Palace, 463 00:27:07,160 --> 00:27:09,720 the Queen's House was home. 464 00:27:09,720 --> 00:27:12,000 And with his belief in the central importance, 465 00:27:12,000 --> 00:27:13,880 not just of the sovereign 466 00:27:13,880 --> 00:27:17,600 but of the Royal family, he provided the template for his granddaughter, 467 00:27:17,600 --> 00:27:21,760 Queen Victoria, and in so many ways for the modern monarchy. 468 00:27:33,040 --> 00:27:35,480 Here we have material in relation to the history of science. 469 00:27:35,480 --> 00:27:38,760 King George III's scientific instruments were presented 470 00:27:38,760 --> 00:27:40,200 to King's College London, 471 00:27:40,200 --> 00:27:42,520 and they are now on display in the Science Museum, 472 00:27:42,520 --> 00:27:46,480 including here, Eardley Norton's famous clock, 473 00:27:46,480 --> 00:27:49,720 which was in Buckingham House library and was given to him 474 00:27:49,720 --> 00:27:53,480 for his 27th birthday and is regarded, really, 475 00:27:53,480 --> 00:27:55,840 one of the finest clocks in the collection. 476 00:27:55,840 --> 00:27:57,640 Does it work? It does work. 477 00:27:57,640 --> 00:28:00,520 It will chime in just a few minutes, I should think. 478 00:28:04,040 --> 00:28:08,160 This astronomical clock had pride of place on the desk in George III's 479 00:28:08,160 --> 00:28:12,960 library and embodies the King's devotion to both arts and science. 480 00:28:15,520 --> 00:28:18,480 It not only tells the time in a 24-hour format 481 00:28:18,480 --> 00:28:22,400 but keeps track of the tides all round the British Isles, 482 00:28:22,400 --> 00:28:26,560 the movement of the planets and the phases of the moon. 483 00:28:26,560 --> 00:28:29,480 Do you have things, too, from George III? 484 00:28:29,480 --> 00:28:32,160 Well, we hold the George III science collection. 485 00:28:32,160 --> 00:28:34,680 Oh, right. Yes. Which is going to be redisplayed 486 00:28:34,680 --> 00:28:37,560 in a more central part of the museum very soon. 487 00:28:37,560 --> 00:28:41,760 We passed it on Monday. It looked terribly full. 488 00:28:41,760 --> 00:28:46,080 It is, absolutely. We get something like 24,000 people a day. 489 00:28:46,080 --> 00:28:49,840 Oh! It looked like it. 490 00:28:49,840 --> 00:28:53,160 And here we have what is rightly considered a landmark 491 00:28:53,160 --> 00:28:55,640 in astronomy and navigation, this is George III's account 492 00:28:55,640 --> 00:28:59,000 of watching the transit of Venus in Richmond Park, 493 00:28:59,000 --> 00:29:02,120 demonstrating his interest in astronomy and science. 494 00:29:02,120 --> 00:29:04,800 Really contemporary developments of the day. 495 00:29:05,800 --> 00:29:09,040 The King's document described what was going to happen when 496 00:29:09,040 --> 00:29:11,920 the planet Venus was seen to pass between the Earth and the Sun, 497 00:29:11,920 --> 00:29:14,440 timed to the nearest 30 seconds. 498 00:29:14,440 --> 00:29:17,200 And it's uncanny to realise George III 499 00:29:17,200 --> 00:29:20,640 was directly contemplating the 21st-century. 500 00:29:20,640 --> 00:29:25,600 Morally speaking, none now living will see the same phenomenon again, 501 00:29:25,600 --> 00:29:31,680 which will only happen again in 1874 and again in 2004. 502 00:29:36,920 --> 00:29:40,000 George was so excited that he had the King's Observatory 503 00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:42,640 built in time for the occasion in Richmond Park. 504 00:29:45,240 --> 00:29:48,520 On the day itself, he and the Queen went to the top. 505 00:29:50,840 --> 00:29:53,800 Though today it's in the midst of restoration, 506 00:29:53,800 --> 00:29:57,040 we can retrace their steps to the cupula, 507 00:29:57,040 --> 00:29:59,360 where the roof could be opened to the sky. 508 00:30:01,320 --> 00:30:05,520 Up here in the cupula is where the King and Queen actually watched 509 00:30:05,520 --> 00:30:11,040 the 1769 transit of Venus, though not on this particular telescope. 510 00:30:11,040 --> 00:30:15,080 But 250 years later, it's all in full working order. 511 00:30:15,080 --> 00:30:20,640 Just wind this handle and suddenly, with a bit of help from some WD-40, 512 00:30:20,640 --> 00:30:25,760 the aperture opens to reveal the heavens to the royal gaze. 513 00:30:25,760 --> 00:30:28,840 And then all the King had to do was walk over here, 514 00:30:28,840 --> 00:30:30,840 start winding this handle, 515 00:30:30,840 --> 00:30:35,360 and the whole cupula moves around to find the sun. 516 00:30:35,360 --> 00:30:38,760 And after all that it was probably just as well the clouds parted 517 00:30:38,760 --> 00:30:41,480 and it stopped raining just in time 518 00:30:41,480 --> 00:30:45,320 for the transit of Venus on June 3rd, 1769. 519 00:30:48,160 --> 00:30:49,920 Using a reflecting telescope, 520 00:30:49,920 --> 00:30:53,440 the king was the first to spot the outline of Venus, 521 00:30:53,440 --> 00:30:56,840 just as people did on June the 8th 2004. 522 00:30:56,840 --> 00:30:59,480 The forecasts were right! 523 00:30:59,480 --> 00:31:02,040 If Georgian astronomers could measure the transit precisely 524 00:31:02,040 --> 00:31:03,640 from different places on Earth, 525 00:31:03,640 --> 00:31:06,680 then they could work out the distance from Earth to Venus 526 00:31:06,680 --> 00:31:09,920 and, in turn, the size of the whole solar system. 527 00:31:09,920 --> 00:31:11,080 And they did. 528 00:31:11,080 --> 00:31:13,880 He takes his job very seriously. 529 00:31:13,880 --> 00:31:17,800 He's studious, he collects sheaths of paper, diagrams, 530 00:31:17,800 --> 00:31:19,200 scientific materials. 531 00:31:19,200 --> 00:31:21,520 He is processing knowledge 532 00:31:21,520 --> 00:31:25,240 on a proto-industrial scale as part of his role. 533 00:31:25,240 --> 00:31:29,800 So he's the best informed chief executive this country has ever had. 534 00:31:29,800 --> 00:31:34,080 It's an area of great polymaths, and I think people have argued that 535 00:31:34,080 --> 00:31:38,000 by the end of the 19th century, you just can't know about it. 536 00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:41,760 But in those days, you could know about geology, farming, astronomy, 537 00:31:41,760 --> 00:31:46,120 an interest in science, an interest in all sorts of other things, 538 00:31:46,120 --> 00:31:48,600 and I imagine he would have been quite fun to have dinner with. 539 00:31:48,600 --> 00:31:51,680 I don't know. On his good days, obviously. 540 00:31:59,760 --> 00:32:02,600 George III was always on the move. 541 00:32:02,600 --> 00:32:06,800 His constant journeying between his palaces in London, Kew And Windsor 542 00:32:06,800 --> 00:32:10,120 exasperated his family and court. 543 00:32:10,120 --> 00:32:12,040 Queen Charlotte wrote to her brother... 544 00:32:12,040 --> 00:32:15,440 "Our life, if you can call it life, is nothing but hurry. 545 00:32:15,440 --> 00:32:18,520 "We are often in three places in a week." 546 00:32:18,520 --> 00:32:21,640 Yet, paradoxically, George never went very far, 547 00:32:21,640 --> 00:32:25,280 never beyond the south coast, no further north than Worcester. 548 00:32:28,640 --> 00:32:31,840 But he travelled far and wide in his mind. 549 00:32:31,840 --> 00:32:36,240 George championed the long-running quest to calculate longitude at sea. 550 00:32:36,240 --> 00:32:39,880 He was a driving force behind the voyages of Captain Cook, 551 00:32:39,880 --> 00:32:42,160 who was originally sent to the South Seas 552 00:32:42,160 --> 00:32:44,040 to observe the transit of Venus. 553 00:32:45,120 --> 00:32:49,440 This exquisite map plots all three intercontinental voyages by Cook, 554 00:32:49,440 --> 00:32:52,800 who went on to plant the British flag in Australia and New Zealand 555 00:32:52,800 --> 00:32:55,360 and went in search of the Northwest Passage. 556 00:32:56,720 --> 00:33:01,280 It was drawn by the King's daughter, Sophia, at the tender age of 14. 557 00:33:03,280 --> 00:33:06,880 George's papers include secret instructions for Cook, 558 00:33:06,880 --> 00:33:08,480 with crucial advice. 559 00:33:08,480 --> 00:33:11,560 "Treat any locals you find with respect." 560 00:33:11,560 --> 00:33:17,440 "Endeavour by all proper means to cultivate a friendship with them, 561 00:33:17,440 --> 00:33:20,480 "making them presents of such trinkets that you may have on board 562 00:33:20,480 --> 00:33:22,160 "and they may like best. 563 00:33:22,160 --> 00:33:25,680 "Inviting them to traffic and showing them every kind of 564 00:33:25,680 --> 00:33:27,160 "civility and regard." 565 00:33:29,000 --> 00:33:31,280 George isn't going to go round the world in a ship, 566 00:33:31,280 --> 00:33:34,240 that's not the job a king does, but he does know who's doing that, 567 00:33:34,240 --> 00:33:36,120 and he is reading what they are writing, 568 00:33:36,120 --> 00:33:38,600 and he is following everything they're doing. 569 00:33:38,600 --> 00:33:40,640 He brought the world to him. 570 00:33:40,640 --> 00:33:42,280 He would have loved television. 571 00:33:42,280 --> 00:33:45,760 The whole point of his library and much of his archive 572 00:33:45,760 --> 00:33:48,720 is to collect that information so he can process it. 573 00:33:50,160 --> 00:33:53,720 George's only seafaring was the odd day trip to review the fleet, 574 00:33:53,720 --> 00:33:57,280 as we see here, with the King in his blue garter sash 575 00:33:57,280 --> 00:33:58,920 standing at the stern. 576 00:33:58,920 --> 00:34:03,720 This Englishman by inclination never set foot on foreign soil, 577 00:34:03,720 --> 00:34:06,240 not even to visit his throne in Hanover. 578 00:34:06,240 --> 00:34:08,360 And there was much to keep him at home. 579 00:34:14,680 --> 00:34:18,400 For the first half of his reign, George III was intimately and often 580 00:34:18,400 --> 00:34:21,360 bitterly involved in domestic politics. 581 00:34:21,360 --> 00:34:23,840 This is the 1780 general election. 582 00:34:23,840 --> 00:34:24,920 Here in the archives, 583 00:34:24,920 --> 00:34:27,080 we even find his private intelligence 584 00:34:27,080 --> 00:34:29,280 on the likely voting habits of each MP. 585 00:34:29,280 --> 00:34:31,000 Celebrity candidate, John Wilkes, 586 00:34:31,000 --> 00:34:34,000 one of the most famous radicals of the 18th century... 587 00:34:34,000 --> 00:34:36,120 Like those early essays, 588 00:34:36,120 --> 00:34:38,680 these papers show a king pondering his own role 589 00:34:38,680 --> 00:34:40,240 and the national interest. 590 00:34:40,240 --> 00:34:42,480 Pro, for the King. 591 00:34:42,480 --> 00:34:45,320 He thought he was bringing in a new form of politics, 592 00:34:45,320 --> 00:34:51,520 he felt that the political system was indeed incredibly corrupt. 593 00:34:51,520 --> 00:34:53,120 The King said he'd always wanted 594 00:34:53,120 --> 00:34:55,480 "to extinguish all odious party distinctions" 595 00:34:55,480 --> 00:34:57,880 and to get the greatest talents of the day 596 00:34:57,880 --> 00:35:00,520 to unite for the common good. 597 00:35:00,520 --> 00:35:02,840 But politics didn't work like that. 598 00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:07,080 This is really exciting because what we are looking at here 599 00:35:07,080 --> 00:35:10,840 is a series of letters that we've called "the King's experience" 600 00:35:10,840 --> 00:35:13,640 of one of the most important political crises 601 00:35:13,640 --> 00:35:16,640 of the 18th century, and indeed of longer. 602 00:35:16,640 --> 00:35:19,080 So we're able to trace this correspondence 603 00:35:19,080 --> 00:35:22,320 on a virtually day-by-day, even hour-by-hour, basis. 604 00:35:23,480 --> 00:35:26,440 The King was involved in an increasingly tetchy horse trading 605 00:35:26,440 --> 00:35:29,880 to get the leading politicians of the day to form a new government. 606 00:35:29,880 --> 00:35:33,800 It reached a crisis on March the 23rd, 1783. 607 00:35:35,920 --> 00:35:38,960 "Lord North, not having heard from you since the directions 608 00:35:38,960 --> 00:35:43,320 "I gave you yesterday, I must desire you will come instantly." 609 00:35:43,320 --> 00:35:47,200 It's a summoning of one of the key negotiators in this process 610 00:35:47,200 --> 00:35:49,200 of trying to form a new ministry. 611 00:35:49,200 --> 00:35:54,160 And we can see here the label he's attached to this, 612 00:35:54,160 --> 00:35:58,440 noting not only the date and where it was sent from 613 00:35:58,440 --> 00:36:00,160 but the time of day. 614 00:36:00,160 --> 00:36:02,560 30 minutes past ten. 615 00:36:02,560 --> 00:36:06,320 With his time stamping, rather like today's e-mails, 616 00:36:06,320 --> 00:36:08,640 George was ahead of his time. 617 00:36:08,640 --> 00:36:11,800 But these are messages being hurried back and forth across London, 618 00:36:11,800 --> 00:36:15,240 rather like cycle couriers might now hurry them across the capital. 619 00:36:15,240 --> 00:36:17,680 So you could have several letters going back and forth 620 00:36:17,680 --> 00:36:20,480 in the course of a single day, late into the night, 621 00:36:20,480 --> 00:36:22,040 early in the morning, 622 00:36:22,040 --> 00:36:24,280 as people are actually called in to see the monarch. 623 00:36:24,280 --> 00:36:25,800 And this is a Sunday as well. 624 00:36:25,800 --> 00:36:29,640 I mean, we're on the weekend. Yes, 23rd of March, 1783. 625 00:36:29,640 --> 00:36:32,920 The politicians were bargaining with the King over who should be in the 626 00:36:32,920 --> 00:36:36,800 cabinet, and the Duke of Portland, in line to be prime minister, 627 00:36:36,800 --> 00:36:39,040 was no pushover. 628 00:36:39,040 --> 00:36:43,040 So this is the final offer coming from the Duke of Portland. 629 00:36:43,040 --> 00:36:45,600 If that's no go, the Duke says that's it. 630 00:36:45,600 --> 00:36:49,720 And then he's writing off to Mr Pitt, William Pitt, 631 00:36:49,720 --> 00:36:50,960 the future prime minister, 632 00:36:50,960 --> 00:36:54,520 who will be his next and last throw of the dice here. 633 00:36:54,520 --> 00:36:56,840 "Mr Pitt is desired to come here, 634 00:36:56,840 --> 00:37:00,480 "the Duke of Portland has wrote an answer that ends in a declining to 635 00:37:00,480 --> 00:37:02,800 "prepare a plan for my inspection. 636 00:37:02,800 --> 00:37:07,080 "Consequently, the negotiation is finally ended. 637 00:37:07,080 --> 00:37:09,520 "Queen's House, March the 23rd, 1783. 638 00:37:09,520 --> 00:37:13,520 "48 minutes past 8pm." 639 00:37:13,520 --> 00:37:16,240 That's sort of dinner time on a Sunday night in March. 640 00:37:16,240 --> 00:37:18,720 That's right. And that's gone off to Mr Pitt, 641 00:37:18,720 --> 00:37:22,160 there is some runner rushing through London with that and then... 642 00:37:22,160 --> 00:37:25,080 Here's the very brusque note that's going out at the end 643 00:37:25,080 --> 00:37:28,800 of what's been a long day, no doubt, for the King, 644 00:37:28,800 --> 00:37:31,920 where he just wants to make sure everybody knows where we stand. 645 00:37:31,920 --> 00:37:35,000 He's saying, right to the Duke of Portland and Lord North. 646 00:37:36,400 --> 00:37:39,960 "The Duke of Portland, I shall not give him any further trouble." 647 00:37:39,960 --> 00:37:43,240 And Lord North was yet again in the doghouse. 648 00:37:43,240 --> 00:37:47,480 "Lord North must therefore see that all negotiation is at an end. 649 00:37:47,480 --> 00:37:50,200 "35 minutes past 10pm." 650 00:37:50,200 --> 00:37:53,600 The King felt let down by scheming politicians. 651 00:37:53,600 --> 00:37:56,440 There was no point, he thought, in going on. 652 00:37:56,440 --> 00:37:59,640 Just how serious the situation we've now got to becomes apparent 653 00:37:59,640 --> 00:38:02,000 if you look at the next document in the sequence, 654 00:38:02,000 --> 00:38:05,680 which gives me a bit of a frisson when you read it. 655 00:38:05,680 --> 00:38:10,240 "A long experience has gradually occurred my mind to accept the time 656 00:38:10,240 --> 00:38:13,640 "when I shall be no longer of utility to this empire. 657 00:38:13,640 --> 00:38:16,120 "That hour is now come." 658 00:38:16,120 --> 00:38:18,840 This is a draft of abdication. 659 00:38:18,840 --> 00:38:25,560 Gosh. So George is at the end of the line trying to work out what to do 660 00:38:25,560 --> 00:38:27,600 with this inability to form a government 661 00:38:27,600 --> 00:38:29,520 which he can have confidence in. 662 00:38:29,520 --> 00:38:32,080 He wants to be the person who ends party, 663 00:38:32,080 --> 00:38:36,840 brings together the most able to work in the national interest. 664 00:38:36,840 --> 00:38:40,520 And what this speech is basically saying is, "I've failed." 665 00:38:40,520 --> 00:38:43,360 What we see here, he's really troubled here, isn't he? 666 00:38:43,360 --> 00:38:47,520 Yes. There's a lot of redrafting and crossing out going on. 667 00:38:47,520 --> 00:38:50,080 This is written at a state of high agitation, I think. 668 00:38:50,080 --> 00:38:53,480 And you do get a sense of the troubled mind, 669 00:38:53,480 --> 00:38:57,320 the blotches and the scrawlings and scratching out, 670 00:38:57,320 --> 00:39:00,880 and we begin to come to the end of the line, 671 00:39:00,880 --> 00:39:03,400 and this is the key passage. 672 00:39:03,400 --> 00:39:07,320 "I am therefore resolved to resign my crown and all the dominions 673 00:39:07,320 --> 00:39:09,920 "appertaining to it to the Prince of Wales, 674 00:39:09,920 --> 00:39:12,200 "my eldest son and lawful successor, 675 00:39:12,200 --> 00:39:15,280 "and to retire to the care of my electoral dominions." 676 00:39:16,720 --> 00:39:20,080 This is somewhere alongside that Edward VIII speech, I think, 677 00:39:20,080 --> 00:39:24,120 in terms of the emotions that are on display here. 678 00:39:24,120 --> 00:39:26,440 And again, some ironies in this document 679 00:39:26,440 --> 00:39:30,880 because these electoral dominions he's talking about, like Hanover, 680 00:39:30,880 --> 00:39:33,440 his roots he feels are in England. This is an exile. 681 00:39:35,800 --> 00:39:39,320 But on reflection, George didn't sail off to Hanover. 682 00:39:39,320 --> 00:39:42,880 After all, he had plenty of family matters to sort out. 683 00:39:47,760 --> 00:39:51,000 This whole left column is the Prince Regent's dinner. 684 00:39:51,000 --> 00:39:55,080 And more meat and things on the sideboard. 685 00:39:55,080 --> 00:39:57,080 13 loins of veal. 686 00:39:57,080 --> 00:39:58,600 There's something sausages. 687 00:39:58,600 --> 00:40:01,720 Yes. A large capon roasted. 688 00:40:01,720 --> 00:40:03,480 Yeah. Or two. 689 00:40:06,400 --> 00:40:07,920 The King's eldest son, 690 00:40:07,920 --> 00:40:11,280 who would one day be Prince Regent and then King George IV, 691 00:40:11,280 --> 00:40:15,040 was infamous for his problems with wine, women and money. 692 00:40:15,040 --> 00:40:16,760 It's not hard to chart a link 693 00:40:16,760 --> 00:40:20,640 between the King's eventual breakdowns and turmoil at home. 694 00:40:20,640 --> 00:40:24,200 It had been a model family when the children were young, 695 00:40:24,200 --> 00:40:26,080 now came trouble. 696 00:40:26,080 --> 00:40:29,200 His sense of his position as a monarch makes it difficult for him 697 00:40:29,200 --> 00:40:32,040 to be anything other than a control freak with his family. 698 00:40:32,040 --> 00:40:35,400 He's seen what happens to monarchies when they get out of control, 699 00:40:35,400 --> 00:40:37,640 when the family structure breaks down, 700 00:40:37,640 --> 00:40:40,000 when people cut loose and go off and do their own things. 701 00:40:40,000 --> 00:40:41,640 He's very frightened of that. 702 00:40:41,640 --> 00:40:45,000 The stability of the monarchy is an essential prerequisite for the 703 00:40:45,000 --> 00:40:46,480 stability of Britain. 704 00:40:48,120 --> 00:40:52,480 By the time he turned 19, the Prince was already going off the rails, 705 00:40:52,480 --> 00:40:55,440 as the King reported to his prime minister. 706 00:40:55,440 --> 00:40:59,560 "I am sorry to be obliged to open a subject to Lord North that has long 707 00:40:59,560 --> 00:41:00,920 "given me much pain, 708 00:41:00,920 --> 00:41:04,400 "but I can rather do it on paper than in conversation. 709 00:41:04,400 --> 00:41:08,280 "It is a subject to which I know he is not quite ignorant. 710 00:41:08,280 --> 00:41:13,080 "My eldest son got last year into a very improper connection with an 711 00:41:13,080 --> 00:41:16,080 "actress and woman of indifferent character." 712 00:41:17,960 --> 00:41:21,520 The King made clear a multitude of letters had passed between them, 713 00:41:21,520 --> 00:41:24,480 which the actress was using to blackmail the Prince. 714 00:41:24,480 --> 00:41:27,280 So the King had asked an intermediary to buy her off. 715 00:41:29,040 --> 00:41:34,400 "He has her consent to get these letters on her receiving £5,000, 716 00:41:34,400 --> 00:41:36,440 "undoubtedly an enormous sum, 717 00:41:36,440 --> 00:41:39,920 "but I wish to get my son out of this shameful scrape." 718 00:41:41,640 --> 00:41:44,040 Lord North didn't disappoint this time. 719 00:41:44,040 --> 00:41:48,480 He'd ordered up the cash, roughly £750,000 in today's money, 720 00:41:48,480 --> 00:41:50,880 for what he called "special service". 721 00:41:50,880 --> 00:41:52,760 A sort of slush fund for the King. 722 00:41:52,760 --> 00:41:54,880 While several of George's sons 723 00:41:54,880 --> 00:41:58,120 were packed off to Hanover to learn some German self-discipline, 724 00:41:58,120 --> 00:42:00,840 his eldest son became even more of a problem. 725 00:42:00,840 --> 00:42:04,040 The King was infuriated by his scheming with the opposition 726 00:42:04,040 --> 00:42:06,200 in Parliament and also by his debts. 727 00:42:08,160 --> 00:42:10,760 Some years later, under a new prime minister, 728 00:42:10,760 --> 00:42:14,520 the King had the correspondence with his son copied into a book and wrote 729 00:42:14,520 --> 00:42:17,480 a stern note to say he was passing it to the PM. 730 00:42:18,720 --> 00:42:21,200 "I choose to deposit this copy with Mr Pitt, 731 00:42:21,200 --> 00:42:24,080 "that should the subject be mentioned in Parliament, 732 00:42:24,080 --> 00:42:27,800 "he may be fully apprised of the uniform conduct I have held, 733 00:42:27,800 --> 00:42:29,440 "the wishing to save a son, 734 00:42:29,440 --> 00:42:32,440 "at the same time, not forgetting what, as a king, 735 00:42:32,440 --> 00:42:34,040 "I owe to my people." 736 00:42:37,480 --> 00:42:39,280 All this was perhaps a key trigger 737 00:42:39,280 --> 00:42:41,440 for the King's first major breakdown in 1788 738 00:42:41,440 --> 00:42:45,320 and his incarceration at Windsor and Kew, 739 00:42:45,320 --> 00:42:48,200 sometimes in a straitjacket. 740 00:42:48,200 --> 00:42:51,880 It has been suggested it was the genetic disease porphyria, 741 00:42:51,880 --> 00:42:55,040 but modern opinion regards it as a form of bipolar disorder. 742 00:42:56,960 --> 00:43:00,160 Reading the case records, which are very detailed of course, 743 00:43:00,160 --> 00:43:04,760 and the statements by lots of people who saw him, 744 00:43:04,760 --> 00:43:06,840 it wasn't just he was talking very fast, 745 00:43:06,840 --> 00:43:08,680 he was talking ridiculously fast, 746 00:43:08,680 --> 00:43:11,920 leaping around from subject to subject, not making much sense, 747 00:43:11,920 --> 00:43:14,680 clearly very excitable, very irritable, 748 00:43:14,680 --> 00:43:17,000 sexually inappropriate at times, 749 00:43:17,000 --> 00:43:19,680 all of those things would suggest a diagnosis now 750 00:43:19,680 --> 00:43:21,600 we would call mania or hypermania. 751 00:43:24,400 --> 00:43:27,160 The equerry, who remained with the King, 752 00:43:27,160 --> 00:43:28,840 kept a daily journal of what he called 753 00:43:28,840 --> 00:43:31,800 "His Majesty's most serious and afflicting illness" 754 00:43:31,800 --> 00:43:35,280 while the King's physicians bickered over the proper treatment. 755 00:43:35,280 --> 00:43:38,440 In despair, they asked for the help of an obscure doctor from 756 00:43:38,440 --> 00:43:42,480 Lincolnshire, a landmark moment for psychiatrists. 757 00:43:42,480 --> 00:43:46,320 December the 5th, 1788, is a kind of big day for us 758 00:43:46,320 --> 00:43:49,320 because they admit that they are defeated 759 00:43:49,320 --> 00:43:51,640 and they call upon Francis Willis, 760 00:43:51,640 --> 00:43:54,560 who is a clergyman but he's also a doctor, 761 00:43:54,560 --> 00:43:56,960 and he is a specialist in lunacy. 762 00:43:56,960 --> 00:44:00,400 So this is probably the first time what you might call a consultant 763 00:44:00,400 --> 00:44:01,840 opinion in mental disorder 764 00:44:01,840 --> 00:44:04,440 is summoned into the exalted world of medicine. 765 00:44:04,440 --> 00:44:06,800 So it is a bit of a turning point. 766 00:44:06,800 --> 00:44:09,880 They've turned to a specialist to get specialist advice, 767 00:44:09,880 --> 00:44:11,200 and amazingly enough, 768 00:44:11,200 --> 00:44:15,200 it would appear to them, his advice seems to work. 769 00:44:15,200 --> 00:44:17,040 "My dear Frederick..." 770 00:44:17,040 --> 00:44:21,560 We discovered an intriguing letter from the King to his second son 771 00:44:21,560 --> 00:44:23,720 expressing concern about an old soldier 772 00:44:23,720 --> 00:44:25,480 with health problems of his own. 773 00:44:27,080 --> 00:44:28,400 "My dear Frederick, 774 00:44:28,400 --> 00:44:31,400 "I desire you will send the enclosed by this night's post. 775 00:44:31,400 --> 00:44:33,800 "I am sorry to hear the Grand Marshall 776 00:44:33,800 --> 00:44:35,480 "has had two fresh strokes 777 00:44:35,480 --> 00:44:39,880 "of apoplexy, as I fear he will not last long." 778 00:44:39,880 --> 00:44:41,960 He sounds calm and collected, 779 00:44:41,960 --> 00:44:45,760 yet it was written in the darkest days of George's own illness. 780 00:44:45,760 --> 00:44:47,880 It's hardly the letter of a mad King. 781 00:44:49,000 --> 00:44:53,320 "Believe me ever, my dear Frederick, your most affectionate father, 782 00:44:53,320 --> 00:44:57,560 "George R. Windsor, December 28th, 1788." 783 00:44:59,200 --> 00:45:02,200 I think you would say that is unexpected. 784 00:45:02,200 --> 00:45:05,520 When you look at the descriptions of what he was like earlier that month, 785 00:45:05,520 --> 00:45:08,400 that does seem quite a fast recovery, 786 00:45:08,400 --> 00:45:10,480 but then that does happen in psychiatry, 787 00:45:10,480 --> 00:45:13,040 and you do have moments of calmness in the storm. 788 00:45:13,040 --> 00:45:15,280 That certainly happens as well. 789 00:45:15,280 --> 00:45:18,520 On his recovery, he went on a visit to, of all places, 790 00:45:18,520 --> 00:45:19,880 a madhouse in Richmond, 791 00:45:19,880 --> 00:45:22,640 where he discussed the merits of straitjackets, 792 00:45:22,640 --> 00:45:24,400 as his equerry recorded. 793 00:45:24,400 --> 00:45:28,000 "Fortunately, His Majesty heard this ill-timed conversation without 794 00:45:28,000 --> 00:45:30,040 "the least agitation." 795 00:45:30,040 --> 00:45:32,640 Any diagnosis that we make, 796 00:45:32,640 --> 00:45:35,280 you shouldn't take this as being an absolute certainty. 797 00:45:35,280 --> 00:45:37,880 And I don't think we'll ever know fully 798 00:45:37,880 --> 00:45:40,080 what was wrong with King George. 799 00:45:40,080 --> 00:45:42,960 It was the prime minister, William Pitt the Younger, 800 00:45:42,960 --> 00:45:45,960 who passed on advice to the King from his doctors. 801 00:45:45,960 --> 00:45:47,640 Advice the King took to heart. 802 00:45:48,920 --> 00:45:52,800 "Mr Pitt humbly begs leave to acquaint Your Majesty that he finds 803 00:45:52,800 --> 00:45:55,680 "the physicians think it of the greatest consequence 804 00:45:55,680 --> 00:45:58,280 "for Your Majesty's recovery to change the air. 805 00:45:58,280 --> 00:46:01,560 "Fatigue in the meantime ought to be avoided." 806 00:46:16,440 --> 00:46:20,280 So George set off with the family to Weymouth in Dorset. 807 00:46:20,280 --> 00:46:23,920 It was the Royal seal of approval for British seaside holidays. 808 00:46:26,480 --> 00:46:30,600 The public flocked just to watch the King have tea, go to the theatre, 809 00:46:30,600 --> 00:46:32,640 take a boat trip around the bay. 810 00:46:32,640 --> 00:46:35,480 But it was quite hard not to bump into the monarch, 811 00:46:35,480 --> 00:46:40,000 for 14 summers he had his holiday home right here on the front 812 00:46:40,000 --> 00:46:42,000 at Gloucester Lodge. 813 00:46:42,000 --> 00:46:45,320 It was very public, and to begin with, 814 00:46:45,320 --> 00:46:48,680 this was rather...exciting. 815 00:46:50,320 --> 00:46:52,920 They were there for the King's health. 816 00:46:52,920 --> 00:46:57,200 So when they went sea bathing, it was also incredibly public. 817 00:46:59,560 --> 00:47:03,680 Every morning, he'd climb into a bathing machine just like this one 818 00:47:03,680 --> 00:47:06,720 and it'd be wheeled out over the sands into the water, 819 00:47:06,720 --> 00:47:08,080 and once he was there, 820 00:47:08,080 --> 00:47:11,400 he'd be helped out by two assistants called dippers 821 00:47:11,400 --> 00:47:14,000 who'd dunk him beneath the waves. 822 00:47:15,040 --> 00:47:17,000 On his first morning, 823 00:47:17,000 --> 00:47:21,200 there was another bathing machine alongside, it was full of musicians. 824 00:47:21,200 --> 00:47:23,400 And as George sank beneath the waves, 825 00:47:23,400 --> 00:47:26,240 the band struck up God Save The King. 826 00:47:35,160 --> 00:47:38,400 There were long rides through the Dorset countryside, too. 827 00:47:38,400 --> 00:47:40,480 Farmer George, as he was known, 828 00:47:40,480 --> 00:47:43,280 relished swapping notes on crops and livestock. 829 00:47:44,360 --> 00:47:47,480 The King loved Weymouth, come rain or shine, 830 00:47:47,480 --> 00:47:49,560 and Weymouth loved the King. 831 00:47:49,560 --> 00:47:51,800 His family had other ideas. 832 00:47:51,800 --> 00:47:54,400 While his sons spent as little time as possible, 833 00:47:54,400 --> 00:47:56,840 preferring the raffish charms of Brighton, 834 00:47:56,840 --> 00:47:59,240 his daughters had little choice. 835 00:47:59,240 --> 00:48:01,240 As Princess Mary complained, 836 00:48:01,240 --> 00:48:05,600 "This place is more dull and stupid than I can find words to express." 837 00:48:09,000 --> 00:48:11,160 The more his sons went their own way, 838 00:48:11,160 --> 00:48:14,600 the closer the King clung to his unmarried daughters. 839 00:48:14,600 --> 00:48:16,840 Their one solace was the bolthole 840 00:48:16,840 --> 00:48:19,800 their mother had found back home at Windsor. 841 00:48:19,800 --> 00:48:22,920 The King's illness and his outbursts terrified the Queen. 842 00:48:22,920 --> 00:48:24,760 She was never quite the same again. 843 00:48:24,760 --> 00:48:27,800 She desperately wanted somewhere to escape court politics 844 00:48:27,800 --> 00:48:31,600 and her erratic husband, somewhere she could pursue a life of her own. 845 00:48:31,600 --> 00:48:35,360 So she bought this small estate just below Windsor Castle and would 846 00:48:35,360 --> 00:48:36,960 retreat here as often as possible 847 00:48:36,960 --> 00:48:40,000 with her daughters to what she called "her little paradise". 848 00:48:42,640 --> 00:48:45,920 They would drive down to Frogmore House for day trips. 849 00:48:45,920 --> 00:48:48,880 It wasn't much of a paradise for the daughters. 850 00:48:48,880 --> 00:48:52,200 While the Queen enjoyed tatting, a form of lace-making, 851 00:48:52,200 --> 00:48:54,760 the increasingly frustrated princesses, 852 00:48:54,760 --> 00:48:56,880 longing for households of their own, 853 00:48:56,880 --> 00:48:58,880 did their best to while away the time. 854 00:49:00,680 --> 00:49:02,600 It's a very female place. 855 00:49:03,840 --> 00:49:07,160 One of the daughters, the artistic daughter, Elisabeth, 856 00:49:07,160 --> 00:49:09,200 paints a whole gallery. 857 00:49:10,560 --> 00:49:15,160 And to begin with, it's very much a place everyone likes going, 858 00:49:15,160 --> 00:49:19,920 but as the Queen's temper worsens, 859 00:49:19,920 --> 00:49:26,960 in a sense, it becomes a penance for the daughters to go there, 860 00:49:26,960 --> 00:49:31,040 and they're remaining in this sort of Gothic nunnery. 861 00:49:32,120 --> 00:49:35,200 They turned to whoever was near, 862 00:49:35,200 --> 00:49:38,320 which was of course the equerries at court. 863 00:49:40,240 --> 00:49:43,960 The King's youngest daughter, and his favourite, was Princess Amelia. 864 00:49:45,520 --> 00:49:48,960 The Royal archives reveal that a teenage flirtation 865 00:49:48,960 --> 00:49:52,240 with a soldier twice her age became an ardent love affair, 866 00:49:52,240 --> 00:49:54,280 but one that was doomed in a way 867 00:49:54,280 --> 00:49:57,440 that would trigger the King's final illness. 868 00:49:57,440 --> 00:50:02,040 There are few Georgian documents in this great archive as human, 869 00:50:02,040 --> 00:50:06,320 as intensely personal, as the correspondence of Princess Amelia. 870 00:50:07,440 --> 00:50:11,280 There are these letters, hundreds of them, often undated, 871 00:50:11,280 --> 00:50:12,880 often hard to read, 872 00:50:12,880 --> 00:50:16,920 but all bursting with passion for the man she could never marry. 873 00:50:19,080 --> 00:50:22,240 Charles FitzRoy was the King's trusted equerry, 874 00:50:22,240 --> 00:50:24,440 and Amelia was smitten. 875 00:50:25,600 --> 00:50:28,960 "My ever dearest and most beloved darling," she wrote. 876 00:50:28,960 --> 00:50:32,480 And, "Oh, God, I am almost mad for you." 877 00:50:32,480 --> 00:50:35,600 She sometimes signed her letters AFR, Amelia FitzRoy, 878 00:50:35,600 --> 00:50:37,680 and wrote as if they lived together. 879 00:50:39,080 --> 00:50:41,520 She's writing so frankly, 880 00:50:41,520 --> 00:50:47,280 although it took me by surprise when I first deciphered it, because, 881 00:50:47,280 --> 00:50:51,440 she says, "You're my husband." They haven't married, 882 00:50:51,440 --> 00:50:55,200 but in this fantasy life where she is buying the tea kettles 883 00:50:55,200 --> 00:50:59,720 and the silver and having them engraved, he is her husband, 884 00:50:59,720 --> 00:51:04,000 and so she can write to him on any matter. 885 00:51:06,680 --> 00:51:08,880 What gives this affair added poignancy 886 00:51:08,880 --> 00:51:12,760 is that Amelia's life was to be cut short at 27. 887 00:51:12,760 --> 00:51:14,240 She had tuberculosis. 888 00:51:16,080 --> 00:51:18,880 She's near death, in extreme pain... 889 00:51:20,440 --> 00:51:27,240 ..and this love for FitzRoy is her way of rising above that. 890 00:51:28,840 --> 00:51:31,600 Some three months before her death, Amelia wrote a will 891 00:51:31,600 --> 00:51:35,280 which was to prove highly sensitive to the Royal Family. 892 00:51:35,280 --> 00:51:38,600 She left almost everything to Charles FitzRoy, 893 00:51:38,600 --> 00:51:41,520 and to avoid any doubt, she itemised it. 894 00:51:41,520 --> 00:51:44,280 "All," - underlined - "my personal property." 895 00:51:44,280 --> 00:51:48,760 "Jewels, plate, trinkets of every sort, books, prints, pictures, 896 00:51:48,760 --> 00:51:51,320 "chattels and every article of furniture." 897 00:51:53,000 --> 00:51:57,240 The Queen, of course, if she knew, said nothing. 898 00:51:57,240 --> 00:51:59,360 The King knew nothing. 899 00:52:04,240 --> 00:52:08,680 October the 25th, 1810, was the actual day of the King's Jubilee, 900 00:52:08,680 --> 00:52:11,720 50 years on from that momentous ride near Kew. 901 00:52:13,000 --> 00:52:16,320 To mark the occasion, George appeared on the arm of the Queen. 902 00:52:17,840 --> 00:52:19,800 It was his last public engagement. 903 00:52:21,000 --> 00:52:23,720 He was now almost blind and had to stop writing. 904 00:52:25,480 --> 00:52:28,800 His daily visits to Amelia had been emotional. 905 00:52:28,800 --> 00:52:32,240 She was now fading, and that Jubilee day, 906 00:52:32,240 --> 00:52:35,200 her brothers were summoned to make their farewells. 907 00:52:37,440 --> 00:52:41,480 On November the 2nd, Amelia succumbed to the tuberculosis. 908 00:52:42,680 --> 00:52:44,960 The King was distraught. 909 00:52:44,960 --> 00:52:47,200 The news came in a letter from the King's doctor 910 00:52:47,200 --> 00:52:49,640 to the Prince of Wales. 911 00:52:49,640 --> 00:52:52,120 "It gives me pain to inform Your Royal Highness 912 00:52:52,120 --> 00:52:54,560 "that the Princess Amelia is no more. 913 00:52:54,560 --> 00:52:57,680 "I have just witnessed her last expiration." 914 00:52:57,680 --> 00:52:59,680 And he notes the time - 12 o'clock. 915 00:53:01,760 --> 00:53:04,280 In a separate letter that very afternoon, 916 00:53:04,280 --> 00:53:06,520 FitzRoy made clear the Prince of Wales 917 00:53:06,520 --> 00:53:08,360 had immediately been in touch. 918 00:53:08,360 --> 00:53:10,640 He'd wasted no time with condolences. 919 00:53:10,640 --> 00:53:13,520 He wanted FitzRoy to surrender his rights in the will. 920 00:53:15,280 --> 00:53:19,840 The next day, FitzRoy agreed to hand over all Amelia's property to 921 00:53:19,840 --> 00:53:21,640 the Prince and one of his brothers. 922 00:53:21,640 --> 00:53:25,240 They were to be residuary legatees for their beloved sister, 923 00:53:25,240 --> 00:53:27,920 the Princess Amelia, "In lieu of me." 924 00:53:28,920 --> 00:53:32,920 So FitzRoy is elbowed out. 925 00:53:32,920 --> 00:53:39,680 For them, it was just too incendiary an issue. 926 00:53:42,680 --> 00:53:44,920 Over the next six weeks or so, 927 00:53:44,920 --> 00:53:48,120 FitzRoy tried to retrieve his position, 928 00:53:48,120 --> 00:53:51,240 in increasingly tense exchanges with the Royal solicitors. 929 00:53:52,760 --> 00:53:53,960 He expressed, 930 00:53:53,960 --> 00:53:57,680 "Most decidedly my objection to any part of the jewels being sold." 931 00:53:57,680 --> 00:54:02,320 She'd wanted him to dispose of them as he thought best. 932 00:54:02,320 --> 00:54:06,040 The princes replied, they were surprised at his tone. 933 00:54:06,040 --> 00:54:09,160 The truth was they wanted to avoid a public scandal, 934 00:54:09,160 --> 00:54:12,000 and the Queen was anxious to protect the King. 935 00:54:12,000 --> 00:54:14,880 "There still remains one point to be broke to him, 936 00:54:14,880 --> 00:54:17,680 "namely poor Amelia's will, 937 00:54:17,680 --> 00:54:21,240 "the ignorance of which may lead to very unpleasant conversations." 938 00:54:22,320 --> 00:54:24,440 But events had overtaken them. 939 00:54:24,440 --> 00:54:26,560 Two days after Amelia's death, 940 00:54:26,560 --> 00:54:28,040 the King had a relapse 941 00:54:28,040 --> 00:54:31,440 and had to be confined in a straitjacket once more. 942 00:54:32,520 --> 00:54:35,400 His doctors were quizzed about his prospects. 943 00:54:35,400 --> 00:54:39,000 The archives contain their replies to a Royal questionnaire, 944 00:54:39,000 --> 00:54:41,080 and within days, the King had agreed his son 945 00:54:41,080 --> 00:54:42,680 should take over all his duties - 946 00:54:42,680 --> 00:54:47,200 the start of what became known as the Regency. 947 00:54:47,200 --> 00:54:50,800 The possibility that he has more than one affliction 948 00:54:50,800 --> 00:54:53,320 becomes increasingly more likely as you get older. 949 00:54:53,320 --> 00:54:57,000 Perhaps he suffers from dementia. We know he was blind. 950 00:54:57,000 --> 00:54:59,640 That could have been the result of some of the things he was given, 951 00:54:59,640 --> 00:55:03,520 by the way, or it could be that this is the late phase of his illness. 952 00:55:05,320 --> 00:55:09,440 George was moved to the secluded north-facing part of Windsor Castle, 953 00:55:09,440 --> 00:55:11,320 where although he couldn't see the view, 954 00:55:11,320 --> 00:55:13,840 he would stand by the window and salute as he heard 955 00:55:13,840 --> 00:55:15,920 the ceremonial guard march past below. 956 00:55:17,800 --> 00:55:20,240 In a touching letter to the new Prince Regent, 957 00:55:20,240 --> 00:55:23,360 the Queen said she'd been to see her husband. 958 00:55:23,360 --> 00:55:26,840 "The dear King talked much of his family with great affection. 959 00:55:26,840 --> 00:55:28,840 "He looks better than I have seen him 960 00:55:28,840 --> 00:55:31,000 "after any one of his other illnesses." 961 00:55:31,000 --> 00:55:33,800 But this time there would be no recovery. 962 00:55:42,520 --> 00:55:46,960 The twilight of George III lasted nine years. 963 00:55:46,960 --> 00:55:50,000 This startling drawing in the Royal Library 964 00:55:50,000 --> 00:55:51,760 captures his isolation, 965 00:55:51,760 --> 00:55:56,800 and was only seen after his death in January 1820, aged 81. 966 00:55:58,840 --> 00:56:01,760 Even then, his family felt it would be better received 967 00:56:01,760 --> 00:56:03,000 if changes were made, 968 00:56:03,000 --> 00:56:06,240 befitting the man they called "the father of his people". 969 00:56:08,000 --> 00:56:12,160 And words of mourning were added that Handel had set to music. 970 00:56:12,160 --> 00:56:15,440 Biblical words, that George would have known well. 971 00:56:15,440 --> 00:56:19,880 "Kindness, meekness and comfort were in his tongue. 972 00:56:19,880 --> 00:56:23,160 "If there was any virtue and if there was any praise, 973 00:56:23,160 --> 00:56:25,800 "he thought on those things." 974 00:56:25,800 --> 00:56:29,960 "His body is buried in peace, but his name liveth evermore." 975 00:56:31,680 --> 00:56:34,960 It had been an age of bloodshed and revolution, 976 00:56:34,960 --> 00:56:36,880 but not in George III's Britain. 977 00:56:38,160 --> 00:56:39,200 His contemporaries - 978 00:56:39,200 --> 00:56:41,160 Catherine the Great, Frederick the Great - 979 00:56:41,160 --> 00:56:43,720 these are revolutionary and dangerous figures. 980 00:56:43,720 --> 00:56:46,600 They destroy things. Napoleon destroys everything. 981 00:56:46,600 --> 00:56:51,760 George III makes everything secure and safe. 982 00:56:51,760 --> 00:56:54,920 We need to put him back as the presiding figure 983 00:56:54,920 --> 00:56:57,920 who has an active role interacting with the politicians, 984 00:56:57,920 --> 00:57:01,040 the statesman, the scientists, 985 00:57:01,040 --> 00:57:04,680 the warriors - and the scholars - who are creating a new Britain. 986 00:57:06,200 --> 00:57:08,560 None of this great project would have happened 987 00:57:08,560 --> 00:57:11,240 if the King hadn't been meticulous, obsessive even, 988 00:57:11,240 --> 00:57:14,520 about filing everything that came across his desk. 989 00:57:14,520 --> 00:57:18,520 And he was proud of it too - as, shortly before his final illness, 990 00:57:18,520 --> 00:57:21,480 he told his prime minister, Spencer Perceval. 991 00:57:21,480 --> 00:57:23,360 The King, Perceval noted, 992 00:57:23,360 --> 00:57:26,160 "mentioned his having preserved every political paper 993 00:57:26,160 --> 00:57:28,440 "that had come into his hands during his reign. 994 00:57:28,440 --> 00:57:30,400 "That he had already arranged all of them 995 00:57:30,400 --> 00:57:33,480 "from the time of Mr Pitt's first coming into office, 996 00:57:33,480 --> 00:57:36,440 "so that he could lay his hand at once upon any one." 997 00:57:36,440 --> 00:57:38,440 He added, "It's hard work." 998 00:57:40,160 --> 00:57:44,920 Historians get very excited about unseen documents. 999 00:57:44,920 --> 00:57:47,360 It's extraordinary, the riches of the archives. 1000 00:57:47,360 --> 00:57:50,120 Oliver can tell you I visited on Monday, 1001 00:57:50,120 --> 00:57:53,760 and I was practically levitating with enthusiasm. 1002 00:57:53,760 --> 00:57:56,440 It's really, really... Really quite rich and wonderful. 1003 00:57:56,440 --> 00:58:00,800 Well, I think there's so much here. Yes. The early reign and everything. 1004 00:58:02,280 --> 00:58:07,840 The lasting legacy of George III is an enduring constitutional monarchy. 1005 00:58:07,840 --> 00:58:12,320 His advice to his own young sons captures the essence of his vision. 1006 00:58:13,640 --> 00:58:17,280 "A bad prince may be restrained, and it is fit he should be so, 1007 00:58:17,280 --> 00:58:19,360 "by the British constitution. 1008 00:58:19,360 --> 00:58:23,440 "A good prince can never be embarrassed, much less distressed, 1009 00:58:23,440 --> 00:58:25,600 "by the natural effects of it. 1010 00:58:25,600 --> 00:58:30,040 "A King of Britain who has been bred to govern on such principles 1011 00:58:30,040 --> 00:58:34,320 "will place himself deservedly in the highest rank of humanity."