Courtiers: The Secret History of Georgian court

by Lucy Worsley

Paperback, 2011

Status

Available

Call number

942.134

Collection

Publication

Faber & Faber (2011), Edition: Main, 432 pages

Description

In the eighteenth century, the palace's most elegant assembly room was in fact a bloody battlefield. This was a world of skulduggery, politicking, wigs and beauty-spots, where fans whistled open like flick-knives.

Media reviews

lep.co.uk
For many, Kensington Palace will be forever regarded as the fashionable, and perhaps rather soulless, last home of Diana, Princess of Wales... But long before the glamorous royal took up residence in one of its elegant apartments, the palace was home to another less chic but equally controversial
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Princess of Wales. To read the full review - click on the link below
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2 more
Anyone who climbs the King’s Grand Staircase at Kensington Palace finds themselves watched by 45 gossiping servants. Porters and pages, musicians, milliners, mistresses and maids of honour crowd together in the candlelight of the upper gallery, craning their necks over the balustrade, dangling
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their babies and cuddling their lapdogs. To read the full review - click on the link below
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Courtiers – those men and women of non-servant rank who attend or divert monarchs – are a maligned lot. In 1770, William Hooper wrote that “the glory of a British monarch consists not in a handful of tinsel courtiers” but in the “freedom, the dignity and the happiness of his people”.
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Not many have sought to overturn that sentiment since then. To read the full review - click on the link below
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User reviews

LibraryThing member drmaf
This is a stunningly good book, I never thought I would become so involved in the lives of the court of the first two Georges. Written with humour, compassion, pathos and a deft idea for a good story, Worsley tells the stories of various courtiers during the reigns of George I & II, their successes
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and travails, their ups and downs, the price they paid to be at court, and how the court usually spat them out in varying degrees of good will or shame. Some thrived, some just survived, some went to the wall. Perhaps most compelling and tragic is the story of Peter the Wild Boy, who was found in the forests of Hanover unable to speak or behave in human society and brought to London as a curiosity. Living to a ripe he old age, he lived out his life happily after the court tired of him in a peaceful rural community. As well as the court, Worsley details the sad lives of the royals themselves, in particular the hatred between father and son that seemed endemic in the family. She effectively humanises the kings and queens, without ignoring their frequent nastiness. A great, very readable book, I loved it.
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LibraryThing member anutany
Royal courts were the pinnacle of wealth, power, and influence for much of the human history. This book discusses the courts of the first two Hanover kings of Great Britain: George I and George II. While the kings do not get a centre stage here the people who surrounded them daily do. Unhappy royal
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princes and princesses, loyal servants, and mistresses written about in a way that brings to live their petty squabbles, power struggles, intrigues, and disappointments. You can still meet many of the people who populate the pages of Courtiers by visiting Kensington Palace and taking its wide staircase—you will be the focus of the Georgian court staring at you through centuries old fresco.
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LibraryThing member Kellswitch
I found this book fascinating and an engaging read.
I had never paid much attention to the courts of George the I or II so a lot of this was new to me. A great deal of attention is always paid to the royal family and the mistresses but not usually as much to the every day courtiers both high and
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low born so it was really interesting to get more insight into their lives and it was especially fascinating to look into a court on the cusp of changing as the monarchy lost much of it's political influence but had great social influence.
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LibraryThing member JBD1
A romp through the courts of George I and II, but too scattershot for my liking - the narrative keeps jumping back and forth in time, so all the interesting anecdotes got lost for me amongst the chronological confusion. A few minor typographic and stylistic errors, too. Probably not a must-read for
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most folks.
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LibraryThing member maizie2004
A bitty book which could have been much better written. Worsley jumps about in time and leaves out information such as instead of telling us from the start that Geo II had a son left in Hanover he was suddenly introduced halfway through the book. Ooops, where did he come from?! TH White did
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Georgian scandal much better!

She also makes some irritating grammatical errors which I find unforgivable in an academic.
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LibraryThing member wealhtheowwylfing
Worsley tracks the people and art that populated the courts of George I and II of England. She has a very easy to read style, but cites well and was able to draw upon a good number of first-person sources. That said, there were three things I distinctly disliked about this book.

One, Worsley has a
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completely unearned appreciation for George II and his wife Caroline. Both of them seem to have been thoroughly unpleasant in several arenas, not least their treatment of their immediate family. The abuse, lack of support, and outright hatred shown by each of them toward their children soured me on both of them. In vain were Worsley's repeated reminders that Caroline was bffs with philosophers, or her assertion that George II's lack of reaction to Prince Frederick's death was due to "rigid royal training" (how then to explain his inattention to the funeral? Or for that matter, where was his "rigid royal training" during the ~70 years of George II throwing tantrums and exploding into feuds at the slightest instigation?).

Two, the politics, laws and wars of the age get hardly a mention. Surely actual events were just as important to understanding the Georgian court as knowing that the royal mistresses' rooms were damp?

And three, truly hideous line drawings interrupt the text to illustrate various personages. Not only do these drawings make everyone look like lumpy potatoes, but they also bear no resemblance whatsoever to their subjects' other portraits. What use ARE they? A poor choice, and an unnecessary one, given the good range and number of color paintings included.
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LibraryThing member wagner.sarah35
A good look at George II and his family on a very personal level. The early Georgian monarchs (George I and George II) lack the historical celebrity of their predecessors, but this book offers a compelling picture of life in the Georgian court for the lowly courtiers as well as for those vying for
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power. A fascinating set of characters and a very interesting read, especially when one understands context of the preceding and succeeding eras. A good introduction to 18th-century British royalty.
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LibraryThing member jakadk
A riveting piece of social and cultural history, exposing the often seedy underbelly of the glamour show that was Georgian England and its court. Dr. Worsley does an excellent job of portraying the characters featured on William Kent's Great Staircase at Kensington Palace in a way that makes them
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come to life in your mind. I bought it at a Dutch Auction booksale, and it has been hard to put down once I began reading it.
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LibraryThing member AdonisGuilfoyle
I bought Lucy Worlsey's history of the Georgian Court without thinking because discount but really enjoyed learning more about the first two King Georges! Worsley has a chatty descriptive style which really brings history to life, like gossiping about celebs - which is kind of what this is! We
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learn all about the lives and loves of Kensington Palace, from the Teutonic George I, brought in from Hanover to claim the throne, his eldest son George, who he all but disowned, popular Queen Caroline, and various mistresses and maids of honour, advisers, hangers on and servants (some of whom feature in the paintings by William Kent on the King's Staircase at Kensington, which I gather is what inspired the author). The 'gossip' includes who slept with who, pregnancy and childbirth, medical and personal ailments, food and drink, and the routine of life at court. I was surprised to learn that the royal court in early eighteenth century England was much the same as Versailles, regarding influence, mistresses and political power and intrigue, and that women were also given greater sexual freedom and power until the middle of the century.

One quibble I have with Worsley's take on sexual history is her discussion of gay (or 'homosexual', in her rather clinical phrasing) relationships. John Hervey, a courtier of Queen Caroline who married one of her maids of honour, was known to have both male and female lovers, yet Worsley writes: 'People in the eighteenth-century had no notion of a person’s being ‘homosexual’ as we would understand it today. But sexual relationships between people of the same gender nevertheless took place, and there’s no question that John Hervey was sexually attracted to both women and men.' I think the term she might be looking for is 'bisexual'? Even if Hervey had only married to avoid suspicion - which Worsley also states was unnecessary according to the 'private moral code' of the aristocracy - he was known to have taken other female lovers. Also, when discussing court architect William Kent and his 'lifelong patron and friend' Lord Burlington, the author skates around what is patently obvious about the two men - Kent was even buried in the Burlington family vault, next to his lover!

The real life 'characters' from history, from the King and his painful piles ('The king’s mood, even his bowel movements, could determine the fate of many, as even now he was called upon to make real decisions about the running of the country') to popular lady's maid Molly Lepel who married Hervey yet hated motherhood (‘I mortally hate children and am uneasy when they are in the room' - that's my girl!) and 'Peter the Wild Boy' (seriously), are like the cast of a modern day soap opera, casting off children and swapping lovers but I love that they were also very relatable in some ways.

Perhaps not the most comprehensive study of Georgian life but great fun to read!
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LibraryThing member Andy5185
Fascinating inside look at the lives of 16 courtiers represented in William Kent’s Grand Staircase painting that resides at Kensington Palace. Eighteenth century palace life seems more prison like to me than I ever could have imagined. Lucy Worsley so fantastically leads the reader through all of
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the escapades and secrets. Accessible and entertaining, albeit disturbing and shocking too. Humans truly are horrible.
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Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

2010

Physical description

432 p.; 5.3 inches

ISBN

0571238904 / 9780571238903

Barcode

91100000179308

DDC/MDS

942.134
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