The Royal Family has recently had some stick from the press, but both scandals and flak were far worse 200 years ago.

George III came to the throne in 1760. Affectionately known as ‘Farmer George’, he was a splendid chap and a keen champion of science and technology. His eldest son, however, was a selfish prat. George Augustus Frederick, Prince of Wales, loved fancy clothes, gambling, and women. He pulled his first lover, an actress, while still a teenager, and there were many more later, while his marital shenanigans make the present Prince of Wales look positively virtuous. In 1785 George married Maria FitzHerbert, but did so secretly and therefore illegally, since the Royal Marriages Act of 1772 decreed that no member of the royal family could marry without the consent of the king.

He soon got bored with Maria, and agreed that the marriage was void; he had squandered a fortune, and hoped that if he officially married Caroline of Brunswick, he could persuade parliament to pay off his debt. Unfortunately George and Caroline took an instant dislike to one another; when he first saw her he said ‘I am not well; please get me a glass of brandy.’ 

Meanwhile Farmer George, suffering from the inherited disease porphyria, had finally become mad, and in 1811 the Prince of Wales officially became Prince Regent. He was not at all interested in the affairs of state, but cared mainly about style, and befriended architect John Nash and society man Beau Brummel. The result? Regency splendour, from Regent’s Park and Regent Street to Cheltenham and Bath. George spent another fortune tarting up Brighton Pavilion and Buckingham Palace, and gradually descended into a slurry of over-indulgence in women, drink, and drugs.

The press loved all the extravagant scandal; there were endless articles and foul cartoons of the bloated and drunken prince. Essayist Charles Lamb - friend of the poets Coleridge, Shelley, and Byron - wrote of him

 Not a fatter fish than he

Flounders round the polar sea.

See his blubbers – at his gills

What a world of drink he swills…

This (or else my eyesight fails),

This should be the Prince of Whales.

When George eventually became king, Caroline turned up at the coronation to claim her rights as queen, but the doors of Westminster Abbey were slammed in her face. A right royal rumpus.