Massive release of Georgian royal documents

[Jerry Russell]

https://href.hypotheses.org/1356

Launched by Her Majesty The Queen in 2015, the Georgian Papers Programme (GPP) is an interdisciplinary partnership to conserve, digitise and catalogue 425,000 pages of material held by the Royal Archives and Royal Library relating to the Georgian period, 1714–1837, encompassing the reigns of the five Hanoverian kings (George I, George II, George III, George IV, and William IV). The papers include private, official, and financial material pertaining to the monarchs and their families, papers of various courtiers and ministers, and in addition records which relate to the running of the Georgian royal households. The papers are invaluable in all areas of eighteenth-century study, for they shed light on matters of political, social, economic and military history, as well as international relations and medical knowledge in the Georgian period.
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A recent BBC 2 documentary "George III: The Genius of the Mad King" is available on Amazon and Roku; I've watched about half of it so far. The blurb at Roku claims: "After 200 years under lock and key, all the personal papers of one of our most important monarchs are for the first time seeing the light of day." This is also the impression I got from watching the video -- that the royals are saying they're releasing every last piece of paper they have. And while it's certainly difficult to be confident that some key papers might not have been squirreled away, on the other hand King George could hardly have had enough time to write much more than the alleged quantity of documents.

So if our theories about the American Revolution (as derived largely from Tupper Saussy) are correct, there ought to be some clues in these documents now being released. Maybe it's time for a review...

 

[Richard Stanley]

I would imagine that the examination of these materials will be valuable, proving more context. But as well, I'm guessing that any sensitive documents that might deviate from the surface narratives received special handling and were segregated. This making it easier to cull from the balance of material. The Queen, a direct descendant, can then say that they are absolved of such accusations.

 

[Jerry Russell]

Tupper Saussy's book views King George III as a very weak ruler, and indicates that John Stuart (Earl of Bute) and later Bute's secret protege, George Grenville, were the real policymakers. Bute's mausoleum was decorated with an eye of Horus, which (at least according to Saussy) identifies Bute as a closeted Freemason.

Under Bute's direction, the British government instituted a series of provocations including 'writs of assistance' (warrants for land search and/or seizure), duties and tariffs, and stamp taxes, all serving to assist American Freemason propagandists pushing for separation. Meanwhile, George III was watching, dismayed and helpless, as the American colonial empire was lost.

If correct, this picture shows an interesting division within the elite. King George, after all, was no less of a blue-blood than Bute. Yet according to Saussy, he was not viewed as a reliable protagonist in the drama, but more of a problem to be worked around.

 

[Richard Stanley]

England, by the time of the Hanoverians, was well into the age of the modern bureaucratic state begun by Thomas Cromwell, under Henry VIII, and the Parliament had ever increasing relative power as well. As such, more influential power (especially over foreign policy) was likely wielded from behind the crown, which has frequently been the case with such 'viziers' generally, e.g. Joseph and his pharaoh. This is likely one reason that there wasn't so much objection to 'foreigners' ascending the crown, in addition to helping solve the post-Tudor chaos.

In that chaos, Charles I and II were also Stuarts, and were highly suspected of being crypto-Catholics. Charles I believed in the divine right of kings, and as such felt that he should be able to levy taxes without Parliamentary consent.

I wonder if George III's foibles might be seen somewhat as parallels to Trump's manifold instabilities as the "stable genius". BTW, Jesus was the boy genius that was born in a stable.