<![CDATA[Dr Lucy Worsley is Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces, English historian, author and TV presenter. Dr Worsley recently agreed to an interview for her upcoming series: Hanoverians: The First Georges which will air on BBC Four this month.



Photos are courtesy of Dr Lucy Worsley and BBC Bristol

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No way! That’s just so unbelievably courteous of you. It’s entirely my pleasure!Well, nobody likes going off to catch the train to work on a rainy Monday morning, but when the destination is Hampton Court Palace it really helps. You’re right that in the curators’ team we never know exactly what’s going to turn up next. Each time we think of a new exhibition idea or research project, there is a smorgasbord of new stories to learn about.I’m particularly attracted to the character of Queen Caroline of Anspach, wife of George II. I think she’s very underrated among queens (people easily confuse her with the later Queen Caroline of Brunswick who got divorced from George IV in fine scandalous style). The earlier Queen Caroline, though, was the funniest, cleverest (and the fattest) queen consort we’ve ever had, and she brought a glittering circle of intellectuals and wits to court.I hope that the Turnip Song will go down well! At the coronation of George I, a spectator from the crowd was arrested for waving a turnip on a stick. His message was the German George came from rural Hanover, and place good only for the growing of vegetables. To talk about turnips was a way of insulting the Hanoverians, and expressing your support for their exiled rivals the Stuarts, and hence this song of popular protest about turnips. (Chorus: ‘And a hoe-ing he may go, may go, may go, and a hoe-ing he may go!’)You’re right: what initially attracted Britain to the Hanoverians was rather the negative fact they were not the Catholic Stuarts! This meant that Brtiain’s new kings and queens had to overcome xenophobia and prejudice as well as the culture shock of moving to a new country. During the period 1714 – 1760, though, they gradually put down roots in Britain. They were not flashy or charismatic (although George II’s warm and welcoming wife, Queen Caroline, did a lot to win over the establishment) but they brought stability and showed that, when necessary, they could put down rebellions with considerable brutality. By 1760, George III, who’d be born in Britain, could claim to be truly British. I think of them as like successful stepfathers, grafted onto a family, but eventually becoming part of it.When we were filming in Germany, we had such a warm welcome! There have been so many BBC film crews over there making programmes about the ‘other’ anniversary of 2014, that of 1914 and the start of World War One, that people seemed delighted that for once we didn’t want to talk about the war.At Historic Royal Palaces, we belong a rather curious club called ‘The Association of the Royal Residences of Europe’. We palace curators all meet up regularly in the various capitals of Europe to discuss matters of common concern, so I’m quite familiar with the continent’s royal buildings. I long to make a programme about the more exciting of those abroad.At the moment I’m taking what I think is a well-earned rest from book writing! But I’m still busy: I shall soon be launching my book ‘A Very British Murder’ book in the US (as ‘The Art of the English Murder’.)“Hanoverians: The First Georges will present the revealing and surprising story of Britain in the reigns of George I and George II (1714-60) – the age of the ‘German Georges’. In 1714, Britain imported a new German royal family from Hanover, headed by Georg Ludwig (aka George I) – an uncharismatic, middle-aged man with a limited grasp of English. Lucy Worsley explores how this unlikely new dynasty secured the throne – and how they kept it,” per the BBC.]]>