by Lucy Worsley
death, 1;
George II’s plan for, 1;
hostile relationship with father, 1, 2;
naval and military feats, 1;
Queen Caroline’s advice to, 1;
resignation from military commissions, 1
William of Orange, Prince, 1, 2, 3
Wilmington, Lord, 1
Windsor Castle, 1, 2, 3
Wolfe, General James, 1
women: changing attitudes to sexuality of, 1;
double standards regarding sexual activities of, 1, 2;
George III’s caution over, 1;
low status yet influence at court, 1;
three who dared to be different, 1
Women of the Bedchamber, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Wren, Sir Christopher, 1
Wyndham, William, 1, 2
xenophobia, 1
Yarmouth, Countess of see Wallmoden, Amalie von
Yeomen of the Guard, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Younger, Dr (Dean of Salisbury), 1
George I, George II and their courtiers favoured Kensington Palace, surrounded by its famous gardens, as a healthy summer holiday home.
Courtiers having tea at Lord Harrington’s house. Henrietta Howard (wearing a gold-coloured dress), the king’s mistress, is sitting at the card table in the centre. Her head is inclined towards the man near the fireplace: George Berkeley, the true love of her life. He was first her secret lover and then her second husband.
The King’s Grand Staircase, leading up to the state apartments at Kensington Palace. Everyone of influence in Georgian England came up these stairs, hoping to speak to the king. Forty-five members of the royal household observe the king’s visitors from the painted walls.
Peter the Wild Boy has curly hair and holds up a sprig of oak: a reminder of his feral life in the forest before he was found and brought to court as a pet. To the left, Dr Arbuthnot, satirist, medical doctor, and Peter’s tutor and friend, leans on the stout stick he always carried because of his limp.
Mohammed (left) has a blue cloak. His colleague is Mustapha (right), with white turban and beard. These two were among George I’s most trusted servants, and their intimacy with the king aroused much envy. Gossipy Londoners reported that the king ‘keeps two Turks for abominable uses’.
Is this Mrs Tempest? We know that Queen Caroline’s pretty milliner is shown somewhere on the staircase, and this lady has a hyperfashionable black hood as a milliner might. There’s a rumour that the page boy in blue worked for Henrietta Howard.
Robert and Franciscus: the assistants who helped the pushy painter William Kent to complete the staircase with its portraits of the servants at court.
The staircase still holds many secrets, such as the identities of these ladies. According to the secret language of the fan, William Kent jokingly depicted several of the women servants signalling a series of similar messages: ‘I am married’, ‘leave me alone’ and just plain ‘no’.
A shy and apparently grumpy man, King George I was widely misunderstood by the English courtiers. Only his servants and mistress saw him off duty, when he was relaxed and good company. But it is true that he could be exceedingly cruel: he imprisoned his wife for adultery, hated his son and kidnapped his grandchildren.
The Cupola Room at Kensington Palace: commissioned by George I in the hope of hosting parties even more lively and popular than his son’s. The job of painting the room was won by the cheeky upstart William Kent. This was an early project for the artist who went on to create the definitive look of the Georgian age.
Sir James Thornhill: the older, well-established painter who had fully expected to decorate Kensington Palace. His nemesis William Kent ousted him from the commission in the cut-throat battle of the painters which unfolds in Chapter Three.
The coming man: the talented and bumptious William Kent, with his actress-mistress, Elizabeth Butler. William Kent, ‘very hot and very fat’, eventually died of ‘a life of high feeding and much inaction’.
Herrenhausen: the beautiful garden palace outside Hanover where George I invested much money and effort. He missed this place dreadfully when he inherited the crown of Great Britain, and was travelling back to it at the very moment of his death. Below is his mausoleum, overlooking his beloved gardens.
George I’s wife had a prolonged and flagrant extra-marital affair with a Swedish count. Legend tells that George I had his wife’s lover murdered, and the body thrown into the River Leine at this very spot. George I’s son, George II, never saw his mother again after she was imprisoned for adultery.
Mustapha and Mohammed in the garden of a German hunting lodge. Born in the Ottoman Empire, the king’s two Turks were captured in war and taken to Hanover, where they converted to Christianity and entered royal service. In the final stage of an amazing journey, they came with George I to Kensington Palace in 1714. One of Mohammed’s tasks was to treat the king’s haemorrhoids, and Mustapha administered his laxatives.
Flawed but fascinating, George II and Queen Caroline were real human beings trapped in their royal roles. George II could fly off the handle but could write a good love letter, while Caroline, fat and funny, was the cleverest queen consort ever to sit on the throne.
Frederick, Prince of Wales and his sisters. These are the three ‘little princesses’, Anne, Amelia and Caroline, whom George I snatched from their parents during the terrific quarrel of 1717. Goggle-eyed and musical Fred, so passionately hated by his parents, performs with his sisters in the garden of Kew Palace.
William Hogarth’s painting of a theatrical performance, with Queen Caroline’s younger daughters in the audience. The lady reaching down to the floor is Mary Deloraine. She was a later mistress of George II’s: sad, selfish and a hopeless alcoholic.
John Hervey, holding his ceremonial purse of office as Lord Privy Seal. He was the vicechamberlain of the court and had many vices, including chronic indiscretion. He abandoned his beautiful wife Molly in favour of an unhappy series of male lovers.
John Hervey’s letter book has had thirteen pages mysteriously cut out. A pr udish Victorian descendant probably wished to destroy the evidence of his affairs with men.
Peter the Wild Boy’s collar shows his name and address so that strangers could bring him home.
The strangest royal love triangle in history. In one corner, Queen Caroline. In later life the immensity of her bosom was legendary. When she sat for this portrait in 1735, aged 52, she was already suffering in secret from the umbilical hernia of which she would die two years later.
Henrietta Howard at the age of 35. Beautiful, melancholy and hard-of-hearing, she was both Queen Caroline’s servant and King George II’s mistress. She maintained this delicate balancing act for many years, but at high cost to her sense of self-worth and integrity.
George II in old age, standing at the top of the King’s Grand Staircase at Kensington. In this portrait he looks kindly and relaxed, quite unlike his younger tempestuous self. He became rather sentimental in his old age, once he’d lost everyone he’d ever loved.
About the Author
Lucy Worsley is Chief Curator of the Historic Royal Palaces, based at Hampton Court. She also appears regularly on radio and television, on BBC1’s The One Show, as well as Timewatch and other history programmes. She is soon to present her own history series for the BBC. Lucy is the author of Courtiers: The Secret History of Kensington Palace and Cavalier: A Tale of Chivalry, Passion and Great Houses.
Please drop in at www.lucyworsley.com for more information.
By the Same Author
CAVALIER
Copyright
This ebook edition published in 2010
by Faber and Faber Ltd
Bloomsbury House
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London WC1B 3DA
All rights reserved
© Lucy Worsley, 2010
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This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly
ISBN 978–0–571–25826–0
