Product Description

The family of George II has been ill-served by history and by most historians. He was a German, the last British monarch to have been born outside of Great Britain, but by the end of his long reign the House of Hanover was firmly established as the British ruling family, while the dangerous and more legitimate claims of the Stuarts had finally been laid to rest. It has been said that he was the first British king to wield little real power, but he was the first genuinely to understand the concept of constitutional monarchy and allow his ministers to guide him, although he certainly made them suffer in the process. The family has been further neglected because the early death of his eldest son, Frederick, the Prince of Wales, meant that the succession passed to George's grandson, the familiar 'mad' George III. This, and the tendency of European royalty to use a very limited number of Christian names, has caused a genealogical 'blurring' that has erased the family of George II from the consciousness of history. To make matters worse, Frederick has usually been viewed through the distorting glass of his father's often unreasonable animosity rather than for his actual contribution. His brother, the Duke of Cumberland, has been dismissed simply as the Butcher of Culloden and his lifetime achievements overlooked. Anne, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange is the only English princess ever to rule in her own right in a foreign country but she is virtually unknown. And their four sisters are even less remembered. Royal Discord seeks to redress the balance and restore the members of this remarkable family - with their undoubted strengths and their undeniable weaknesses - to a fitting place in the pageant of not just British but European history.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #294623 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 232 pages

Customer Reviews

A "forgotten Royal Family" - the sons and daughters of George II
Veronica Baker-Smith says in her foreword that the reign of George II and his family has received hardly any attention, seemingly lost between George I who gained the throne and the well-known rule of "mad" King George III and his scandalous sons. And if I look at my own library it is actually true. There are of course tons of books on George III and all his children, a few on George I but just three on George II, his wife and his mistress, the later has only recently been published. But there is none on his sons and daughters. One knows maybe about "the king who never was" Prince Frederick of Wales and his brother the Duke of Cumberland better as the butcher of Culloden, but the daughters... which daughters. So the book really fills a gap and I enjoyed very much reading it.

It is written with a great flow, knowledge and sympathy without being blind to the short-comings of the Princes and Princesses.

Being half Dutch it is great to learn quite a bit about the House of Orange and maybe its worse times due to the personalities of its Princes. The parts of the book dealing with Anne, the Princess Royal and Princess of Orange, are the best. I feel that she is a bit too generous with the Duke of Cumberland and quite a few questions remain with regards to Prince Frederick. The Princess Amelia seems to be quite a character. The author feeds the reader only with a few bits about Princess Louisa, Queen Consort of Denmark, and this is disappointing. Princess Mary as princess of Hesse fares only slightly better.

All in all, a great addition of my library and one gets curious and wants to learn more about this "forgotten royal family".

royal discord revisited
Do not be put off by the rather academic cover- this is a page turner! Not only does Veronica Baker-Smith take a subject that has been neglected by others but she gives it a life and immediacy that I have rarely come across in historical biography - her exhaustive research covers all areas of Georgian life to the extent that I felt I inhabited it myself. The book certainly offers a serious re-evaluation of the politics of the day, a time of great upheaval in Europe with echoes of the present day, it is also tremendously funny and moving. A vital new piece of scholarship, brilliantly written by someone who obviously understands human nature as well as she understands history. Even if you think you are not interested in this period, you will want to read this book

Liked a bit more
Would have liked to have found out some more about King George's other daughters Princess Mary and Princess Louise whose descendants played important roles in the history of Denmark.