Hello, I'm Lucy Worsley, chief curator at Historic Royal Palaces.

You're listening to our podcast that explores the history and stories of our six palaces.

These talks are a collection of some of our best live events.

I really hope you enjoy listening.

The Georgian era was marked by the arrival of the Hanoverian kings.

This series, compiled from our archive, explores famous Georgians in all their glory.

In this talk, we hear about Lord Harvey, a Georgian courtier and politician who offers us an insight into the gossipy

court of George II and Queen Caroline.

The talk is entitled Up and Down the Backstairs, A Day in Queen Caroline's Private

Apartments with her friend and favourite Lord Harvey in the 1730s.

So, Lord Harvey, here he is, let me introduce you.

He was known as Harvey the handsome in the 1720s when he first came to court.

I don't know if you can really see it there, but he was considered a great, a sort of handsome

playboy.

I just let,

in the 1720s.

And the reason that he's most remembered today is his political memoirs,

which are in the vein of a kind of, they're sort of slightly gossipy,

they're quite detached and observant,

and in the vein of Chips Chanon or Alan Clark, he's equally as damning about himself as he is

about other people. And so those are the reason that he's principally remembered today.

But at the time, he was a sort of, in the way

...