AGM and Talk

Our formal Annual General Meeting will last about 30 minutes, and be followed by:

First, a brief update from our Friends of Fairfax House Memorial Student Estee O’Connor about her research into the 19th century history of the house.

Second, a special guest lecture, ‘Enlightened Princesses’ by Dr. Samantha Howard, Historic Royal Palaces.

Enlightened Princesses

While much as been written and discussed about the Hanoverian Kings – as men and monarchs in connection with the birth of a new dynasty, the growth of empire, and the loss of America, the role played by their wives –  the women, have never been carefully evaluated. The lives of Caroline of Ansbach (1683-1737), Augusta of Saxe-Gotha (1719-1772) and Charlotte of Mecklenberg-Strelitz (1744-1818) straddle the long eighteenth century. Caroline, the wife of the future George II, arrives in London in 1714 as the first Hanoverian king, George I is crowned. She becomes Queen Consort after her husband succeeds his father in 1727. Augusta is married to Frederick, Caroline’s eldest son but never becomes queen as her husband dies young – however as mother of the next king, George III, she becomes crucial to the shaping of the next reign. Her son, George III, marries Charlotte in 1761. All three women experienced triumphs, trials and tribulations worthy of today’s celebrity-culture focused mass media. As royal consorts they were expected of course to fulfil their primary role – that of producing royal heirs, but they also had to negotiate their German identity while also remaining faithful to their adopted British nation. They had to navigate the inherently political nature of public and private life at court during a period that saw an information revolution with the mass circulation of newspapers, journals and magazines providing commentary, debate and critique. This year these princesses are the subject of a major collaborative exhibition between the Yale Center for British Art, and Historic Royal Palaces. Showing at Kensington Palace, London from 22 June -12 November, Enlightened Princesses: Caroline, Augusta, Charlotte and the Shaping of the Modern World will explore the roles they played in the promotion of the arts and sciences in Britain during a time of change so dynamic that it rivals our present age.

Focussing on Charlotte, who gained prominence as Queen, albeit unwillingly as a consequence of the illness of her husband – ‘mad’ King George III, and the reckless profligacy of her eldest son, the Prince of Wales, later George IV, I will explore in more detail some of the ways in which this princess, whose predecessors shaped her agency, played a vital part in influencing our nation’s culture, providing a legacy which has a continuing resonance in the world we know today.

Biography: Dr Samantha Howard

Samantha Howard was a member of the team at the Fairfax House Museum in York, before joining the curatorial department at Historic Royal Palaces in 2014. She is now working with the senior curator at Kensington Palace on a major exhibition project in partnership with the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Connecticut. The exhibition – ENLIGHTENED PRINCESSES: Caroline, Augusta, Charlotte and the Shaping of the Modern World – explores the roles played by Queen Caroline, Princess Augusta and Queen Charlotte in the promotion of the arts and sciences in eighteenth-century Britain; it opens next year at the Center in New Haven in February before transferring to Kensington Palace in June 2017. She is a University of York alumna; she attained her MA in Eighteenth-Century Studies and her PhD in Art History. Her main research interests are eighteenth-century visual cultures; portraiture and graphic satire, Empire and British identities in the long eighteenth century.

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