Categotry Archives: George IV – Pre-Regency
By George! He Was Born to Lead.
When we left of last week, George IV was about to get his heart’s desire. Is anyone besides me wincing? It seems that The Prince had been after dad about military service for some time. Most of his brothers were getting to cover themselves in…um…glory…after a fashion…so why did he have to sit on the sidelines? There were some very good reasons for doing so. One, he was a spoiled, drunken womanizer with the impulse control of a three year […]
By George! Even the Sickly Can Raise Cain
Last week Mr. Al left us hanging with the intentions of Prince Augustus, George III’s youngest son, regarding the way his father exiled him from England. Let’s see what he does about it. In October of 1792 he wrote to the Prince of Wales that he longed to return home “after an absence of so many years. I have frequently wrote to His Majesty on this subject. The physicians have also informed The King it would be highly advantageous to […]
By George! The Duke of Clarence Makes Himself At Home
As we saw last week, Prince William sailed the seven seas, just the way George III liked it, up until something better came along. Any guesses what? The change, as was often the case with these boys, was a lady. Sailor Billy, or the Duke of Clarence, as he was now officially known, had met the woman of his dreams. Her name was Dorothea Jordan. She was a famous comic actress of the London stage. This was good because she […]
By George! A Sailor’s Life for Prince William
When Mr. Al left off last week, William was behaving just as frustrated and rake like as the rest of his brothers. The change in Sailor Billy’s life was that he had met the lady of his dreams. Sailor Billy, or the Duke of Clarence, as he was now known, had taken up with a well-known comic actress named Dorothea Jordan. Mrs. Jordan and Billy shared a number of traits. Not least was their attitude toward societal conventions. Miss Jordan […]
By George! They’re All Alike. Almost.
Last week and the week before we saw what Fast Eddie could do in the most “dismal” of places. Let’s see what dear old dad can do to him. Hover over the pictures to see the names. The King agreed with The Prince that Brother Edward should get the chance to be a hero. Only not on the European side of the Atlantic. Fortunately there was a kerfluffle with, who else, the French down in the West Indies. Prince Edward […]
By George! Prince Edward Won’t Have It!
It seems the royal brothers have a lot in common with George IV. When sent to a fine, upstanding community, what does Edward do? You’ll have to see for yourself. Sometime in 1790, Edward gave his “bearkeepers”, as he called them, the slip and went AWOL to England. Had he been a common soldier, he surely would have been hanged. Desertion in a time of war was a hanging offense in almost all armies well into the 20th century. […]
By George! He’s Not Giving Up on His Own Reputation
As we’ve seen over the last few weeks, actually over the life of this series, George IV had some serious problems with his family, his reputation, and his own emotions. When we left off, Brighton threw him a birthday party when his own parents ignored him. Over the course the following year, The Prince and the Duke tried to increase the fortunes of the Whig party in London. Little was achieved; not least because, politically speaking, The Prince and the […]
By George! What Manner of Company is This?
After all his efforts to repair the damage to his reputation, Gorge IV still couldn’t get a break with either his parents or the London press. What’s a poor boy to do? If he has the right kind of friends, go wild. The Barrymores, Duke, Countess, and two other brothers made for colourful copy. While riding down to Brighton, they enjoyed uprooting or otherwise changing roadsigns. Another endearing trick would be to, while riding through an unsuspecting village, have […]
By George! Trying to Look Respectable
Have you been wondering what Mr. Al meant about Queen Elizabeth the First and a sermon? Me too. One Sunday, during the reign of Elizabeth the First, her Majesty was attending services and found the preacher getting a bit long winded. Her pew was separate from the rest, of course, and surrounded by a privacy screen. She tapped on the screen with her fan as a signal to the preacher to wind things up. The preacher read the tap to […]
By George! What a Loving Family.
Mr. Al assures me this is the right one this week. So, let’s see if I can get this straight; George III went off his rocker. This caused all kinds of problems for those in government who then had to chose between – what did Mr. Al call it? Oh yes, “… an irascible, ill-educated, reactionary old coot who was, at the moment, a complete nutter; and the other, an emotionally stunted, but highly educated, alcoholic hedonist with no sense […]
By George! I Goofed!
Last week when I posted http://aliceaudrey.wordpress.com/2008/03/11/by-george-what-a-mess/ what I was really supposed to post was what follows. My apologies. Go ahead Mr. Al: Although there were many stories of the Princes bad behavior during this time, The truth seems to be that he behaved himself. More or less. Those close to the Royal Family reported that the Prince’s behavior was sober and solicitous. By the end of November, when it became clear the King would not quickly improve, it was decided […]
By George! What a Mess
When we left off last week George III had begun his slow decline into insanity while his boy, George IV, went on a bender. The government is up in arms, and the Queen is not pleased with her wayward children. The Prince and his brother were convinced that mom was motivated more by her hatred of them than by her concern for dad. It was true that the Queen seemed ready to believe almost any negative story concerning her […]
By George! Who Should Rule?
We continue from the discovery that all is not well with George III. Next week we will be taking a little break from the Regency to celebrate Mr. Al’s Tudor blogs. The week following we will once again trace the ways and means of a rake on the throne. For obvious reasons, those close to the King, both doctors and laymen, were reluctant to publicly declare His Majesty mad. It did not help that, because none of the doctors knew […]
By George! What is Happening to Daddy Kins?
To recap previous week’s blogs about Priny, the prince has built himself a couple of homes, secretly married Mrs. Fitzherbert, gotten kicked to the couch when he wouldn’t fess up to the world that he’d married her because he didn’t want to lose the throne, weaseled his way back into her good graces, and now runs off to London for some carousing with his brother. Mr. Al, take it away. Accompanying the Duke and Prinny to London was the head […]
By George! He’s a Model Citizen
When we left off last week Prinny had gotten everything he wanted and then some. He didn’t loose his crown, and he wasn’t sleeping on the couch any longer. Let’s see how he handles it. The faux orientalism that one sees at Brighton Pavilion today is not what guests to the first pavilion saw in the late 1780’s That pavilion was “a low Greco-Roman house faced with cream coloured tiles, the centerpiece of which was a domed rotunda encircled by […]
