A Most Beguiling Accomplishment

Queen Charlotte presented the young George III as a hard-working man with no interest in love or marriage, requiring his mother to seek out a spouse for him to ensure the continuation of the British monarchy. You might be interested to know that the real George in fact sought out his own romance at this stage in his life, with a young woman of the British peerage — Lady Sarah Lennox. Lady Sarah Bunbury Sacrificing to the Graces by Joshua Reynolds, ca. 1764; Art Institute of Chicago 1922.4468 Lady Sarah Lennox was one of the famous Lennox sisters (“famous” if you’re into aristocratic Georgian England, anyway): the daughters of Sarah Cadogan and Charles Lennox, Duke and Duchess of Richmond, Lennox, and Aubigny. The Duke was the grandson of Charles II via his mistress Louise de Kérouaille; Charles II was a decent father to his many illegitimate children, granting them titles, incomes, and estates to set them up as part of the upper rank of his subjects. Charles Lennox’s father arranged h...

  Disclaimer: Lady Whistledown makes it very clear at the opening of the show that this is an alternate universe from reality, so I never expected it to line up with real history and I do not fault it as “wrong” for not doing so! But I will be comparing what happens on the show with reality for discussion purposes. A lot of this show revolves around dynastic politics, particularly of the House of Hanover. A brief background on the Hanoverians, which the show doesn’t get into: Queen Anne of Great Britain (that is, Olivia Colman in  The Favourite  (2018)) had no heirs. Because her nearest relations were Catholic and the British state was officially Protestant, the succession stepped around them and went to her nearest Protestant cousin, Sophia - Sophia was a granddaughter of King James I/VI of England and Scotland, and was married to the Elector of Hanover. By the time Anne died, Sophia had also died, and so the throne went to her eldest son, George I in 1714. George I was ...