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It took a while, but I finally finished "The Strangest Family", the book about the four Georges who ruled England from 1714-1830. (It's 600+ pages in length and very dense.) The author, Janice Hadlow, certainly understood George III, his wife Charlotte and their fifteen children. Ms. Hadlow goes into great depth on her subjects, not at all afraid to draw psychological profiles of each and everyone of them, all of whom had noticeable tics and foibles. It is George III who really takes center stage, however, as he was well aware of just how screwed up his male antecedents were and was determined not to fall into the same traps they had fallen into. He wanted a loving, open family that could overcome the Hanoverian tendency of keeping your offspring miserable, wanting the heir apparent (and his siblings) to back him in his positions, and not be in opposition either personally or politically. In other words, he worked hard to be the right kind of parent, whatever that means, and of course, he failed miserably.
The King/heir relationship is essentially fraught. It can't help but be. The eldest son, George, was a clever, well read and capable individual and his earliest goal was to be given respect and responsibility. When that wasn't possible, he wanted money so that he could at least create his own home. Hence he was reluctantly given Carlton House (a residence near Buckingham House) by his father (torn down in the early 19th century) which became a money pit for what was spent on its extraordinary decor. In essence, The Prince's personal life, his spendthrift ways, his liaisons with numerous women, his marriage to a Catholic widow which was not legal (George III made certain that no member of the Royal family could marry without his permission by the Royal Marriages Act of 1772) led to terrible relations with his father. Debt was his constant companion and George III and Charlotte, always fearful of the public response to the matters of family, did not cope at all well with this wayward son and heir to the throne. Indeed, George's favorite son was his second son, Frederick, a fact that he did not hide from his eldest son.
The heir apparent, however, did cause ripples in the design world. When Carlton House was given to him, the Prince wanted to create an interior equal to his status. He turned to the architect, Henry Holland, who was influenced by the young French architects, Percier and Fontaine, who would go on to design extensively for Napoleon and were essential in the creation of the Empire Style. Their contribution was to pull away from the dominant style of 1780's England, the work of Robert Adam and his Roman based neo-classicism. Neo-classicism was not the problem, it was just that the current iteration of neo-classicism was too frilly for the Prince's taste. A stripped down neo-classicism ensued, one where the standard tropes such as trailing vines or flower husks, were excised. The vocabulary of moldings was simplified, as were legs--to wit the saber leg and geometry was accentuated. This new classicism caught on with the bon ton of the world of fashion, most notably with Thomas Hope, the scion of a Scottish/Dutch banking family and a collector who designed his home in London in Duchess Street in this new, rather austere, style.
When I wrote recently that fashion does not follow a straight line, the dabbling into the austere classicism, particularly in furniture, had many outlets. For example, Thomas Chippendale the Younger designed the furniture for the library in Stourhead and it differs in feel and style from what Hope designed and yet it has some similarities. But Hope's furniture had a more cerebral and symbolic quality as he drew in classical idioms from Egypt and other corners of the Middle East. There were others, of course, the famous furniture maker George Bullock, who started life as a sculptor but who wandered into furniture design, and who made a lasting mark with his Grecian, neo-classical inspired designs. (He also worked in Gothic and Elizabethan styles.) And there was George Smith who, like Bullock, went beyond classicism. But between 1780 and 1840, English design leaned most heavily, but not solely on neo-classicism, and this is partly attributable to the Prince and his spendthrift ways at Carlton House where he aimed to be a taste maker. He succeeded, but one of the costs was his relationship to his parents. The Georges were a fated lot.
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