Members of the society spent an enjoyable Friday evening at the National Portrait Gallery exploring portraits of Harmless Hanoverians and Victorious Victorians in a tour led by Blue Badge Guide Caroline Piper. In doing so we covered 200 years of history from 1714 to 1910. We started with the first of the Hanoverian dynasty, George I, a man who barely spoke any English and was greeted with initial abuse as a “turnip head” by his British subjects. We discussed the threats to his and subsequent Hanoverian rule from the Jacobites and from their own terrible family relationships between father and eldest son. It is amusing to think that the patriotic anthem Rule Britannia began life as political protest song for a group of politicians clustered around George II’s eldest son Frederick, in opposition to the king’s foreign policy in Europe.
We discussed the huge changes in economy, politics, government and empire that occurred in the 18th century before coming face to face with the fantastically flattering portrait of the Prince Regent (George IV) by Thomas Lawrence. During his reign scandal reached a new high and respect for the monarchy fell to a new low. Nothing sums it up better than the Times obituary which commented “There never was an individual less regretted by his fellow-creatures than this deceased king”
Things appeared to settle down in the 19th century with the long reign of Queen Victoria and her scandal free, respectable marriage to Prince Albert. However, all was not what it seemed on the surface, with Victoria’s passionate temper and jealous, all-consuming love for Prince Albert creating many rows behind the scenes. The prize for most saccharine and sickly work of art went to the plaster cast copy of a statue of Victoria and Albert where she gazes up at him in adoration. The dysfunction continued after Albert’s death with incredibly strained and difficult relations between Queen Victoria and all her children. Given that background it was amazing that Bertie, their eldest, acquitted himself so admirably upon his accession to the throne as Edward VII.
At the end of the tour the group were in agreement that the Hanoverians might not have been as harmless as popular comedies such as Blackadder might suggest and that beneath the surface image of the victorious Victorian age, there bubbled a very dysfunctional royal family!
Organised by Caroline Piper