The New Murrey and Blue blog

This is a four-part series on More4, presented by Suzannah Lipscomb and with a focus on the Hanoverian era. It started with financial scandals, such as George IV’s extravagance and his brother‘s mistress who sold army commissions. The second episode was about sexual scandals and rumours, such as Edward VII’s mistresses and the male brothel at Cleveland Street that supposedly involved his son, the Duke of Clarence.

It is, however, the third episode, covering  that should be most relevant to late mediaevalists. It began with the Amy Robsart mystery, concluding that her death would most benefit William Cecil. Then came Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, Elector of Hanover and last surviving uncle to Victoria, whose valet is supposed to have tried to kill him before taking his own life in difficult circumstances.

Finally, there was the future George I and his wife, Sophia Dorothea, who he divorced and imprisoned for life in 1694 after her affair with the Swedish diplomat Count Philip Christoph von Konigsmark, who disappeared that year. Remains purporting to be the Count were found in the Leineschloss Castle in 2016 and analysed, but found to contain animal bones plus those of five humans, excluding himself.

The fourth episode discussed the marital difficulties the royal family have encountered, with some of the cases covered by Royal Marriage Secrets: Henry VIII‘s first annulment, self-organised, the contrast between the uxorious George III and his brothers, including the Duke of Cumberland, that led to the Royal Marriages Act 1772, as well as George IV with Maria Smythe and then Caroline of Brunswick, followed by her trial and exclusion from his coronation, concluding with Princess Margaret and Group Captain Townsend.