Product Description

The young George III was a poignant figure, humdrum on the surface yet turbulent beneath: hiding his own passions, he tried hard to be a father to his siblings and his nation. This intimate, fast-moving book tells the intertwined stories. His sisters were doomed to marry foreign princes and leave home forever; his brothers had no role and too much time on their hands - a recipe for disaster. At the heart of Tillyard's story is Caroline Mathilde, who married the mad Christian of Denmark in her teens, but fell in love with the royal doctor Struensee: a terrible fate awaited them, despite George's agonized negotiations. Around this tragedy, Stella Tillyard weaves the dramas of the rakish Duke of York; the Duke of Cumberland, caught up in a notorious divorce; the Duke of Gloucester, secretly married, to the fury of the King. Desperate for control, George constructed the Royal Marriage Act, which still bedevils the royal family today. At the same time he faced his tumultuous American colonies. And at every step a feverish press pounced on the gossip, fostering a new national passion - a heated mix of celebrity and sex. Tillyard conjures up a Georgian world of war and peace, the choppy seas and backwaters of international diplomacy in a changing world of ancient regimes and radical ideas - the history of private passions and public disgrace, rebellion and exile, in a curtain raiser to the revolutions which convulsed two continents.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #160960 in Books
• Published on: 2007-02-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

The Sunday Times
'More engrossing than most novels and a fascinating portrait of
royalty behaving badly'

David Isaacson, Daily Telegraph
'Wonderful'

Irish Times - Rev'd Claire Anderson-Wheeler
'Tillyard is a superb biographer - the wit, imagination and sheer
charisma of her narrative style is rare in non-fiction writing.'

Customer Reviews

A book that keeps its promises - excellent stuff!
I got this excellent book on a Friday afternoon and Sunday night I had read every pages of it. Does this say it all?!

It is one of these rare books one can not put down. Stella Tiltyard’s - already excellent - reputation will definitely increase through this book.

This is about King George III. and his brothers and sisters and their troublesome relationship. The three brothers who lived their lives not according to the King’s wishes and ideas, two of the, contracting marriages which were legal but not in line with the ideas of royal marriages as their spouses were any princesses. The two sisters who married according to their ranks had pretty miserable marriages and the youngest, Caroline Matilda caused as Queen of Denmark one of the greatest royal scandals ever.

Stella Tillyard describes all this very well and in a most interesting way because she does not describe just what the personalities involved but as well why. She puts things into context, explains the way of thinking of the persons, but as well the philosophy of the time, how the royal princesses and princesses took these on board, how and how far the actions were already founded in the childhood experiences of the princes and princesses. So this book is not just about a King and his siblings but about a whole area. One understands the emotional reasons why George III. more or less against all wanted and got the Royal Marriage Act, which still governs royal marriages and often had been quite a curse.

Stella Tillyard asked as well the question where the line between public and private life of royalty lies. Well isn’t that a question we are all too familiar with?

All in all, I can only recommend this book. Do not miss it! Is excelle

a book that keeps its promises - excellent stuff
I got this excellent book on a Friday afternoon and Sunday night I had read every pages of it. Does this say it all?!

It is one of these rare books one can not put down. Stella Tiltyard’s - already excellent - reputation will definitely increase through this book.

This is about King George III. and his brothers and sisters and their troublesome relationship. The three brothers who lived their lives not according to the King’s wishes and ideas, two of the, contracting marriages which were legal but not in line with the ideas of royal marriages as their spouses were any princesses. The two sisters who married according to their ranks had pretty miserable marriages and the youngest, Caroline Matilda caused as Queen of Denmark one of the greatest royal scandals ever.

Stella Tillyard describes all this very well and in a most interesting way because she does not describe just what the personalities involved but as well why. She puts things into context, explains the way of thinking of the persons, but as well the philosophy of the time, how the royal princesses and princesses took these on board, how and how far the actions were already founded in the childhood experiences of the princes and princesses. So this book is not just about a King and his siblings but about a whole area. One understands the emotional reasons why George III. more or less against all wanted and got the Royal Marriage Act, which still governs royal marriages and often had been quite a curse.

Stella Tillyard asked as well the question where the line between public and private life of royalty lies. Well isn’t that a question we are all too familiar with?

All in all, I can only recommend this book. Do not miss it! Is excellent!

A riveting read
Royals behaving badly really is the best label for this book. Caroline Mathilda's story as the divorced and disgraced Queen of Denmark is sad but set against the mores of the times and the execution of her lover, at least she kept her head! The tales of the marriages of George 111's brothers were equally entertaining and kept me engaged to the end. It's a wonderfully gossipy and scandalous work.