[electronic resource]

An inquiry into the political efficiency of the 'carnivalesque' response to the Queen Caroline Affair of 1820

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Essay from the year 2011 in the subject Art - History of Art, grade: 1, University College London, language: English, abstract: Britain was undergoing some important changes. Following the Manchester PeterlooMassacre of 1819 the government introduced the so-called Six Acts which prohibitedcongregation of more than fifty persons on matters regarding the state withoutpermission, accelerated the speed of prosecution for libel, and put further restrictionnewspaper publications.1 By 1824 the act was partially revoked, and 1832 marked thelong-awaited Reform Act, which enfranchised more men and revised representation fromnewer boroughs. In this light the Queen Caroline Affair of 1820 provided the occasionfor effective public ridicule of the oppression under the guise of carnivalesqueconviviality and caricature. This movement of the working class from subjects to citizensthrough their engagement with fearless carnivalesque subversions of the establishedsystem using the wronged Queen Caroline as the icon of mistreatment by the governmentwill be the main focus of this essay.The affair at its core is not more than a domestic quarrel between George IV, andhis unwanted wife, Caroline of Brunswick. In 1795, the king ended his illicit marriage toMaria Anne Fitzherbert in order to marry a more noble Caroline, the arrangement wasone of convenience for George IV, as the Parliament promised to pay off his substantialdebt if the notorious dandy agreed to live a more subdued life with his new wife. Themarriage was doomed from the beginning when George IV humiliated Caroline beforeshe even met him when he sent his new mistress Lady Jersey to be her lady-in-waiting.2Shortly after the wedding, with Caroline pregnant, they separated and Caroline livedapart from the court. Already by 1807 George IV was attempting to rid himself of hishomely wife by launching a 'Delicate Investigation' on the grounds of a rumor thatCaroline's adopted son was actually her bastard. The investigation concluded thatalthough some of her behaviour is indiscrete there are no grounds for divorce.3 Despiteher proven innocence, she was ostracized at court, excluded from attending importantstate events, and after a series of humiliations and restrictions on seeing her daughter, Princess Caroline chose to go abroad in 1814.4 After the death of George III, Carolineelected to return to Britain to claim her rightful place as the Queen beside George IV, however this proved to be difficult, and this is where the Affair begins.5

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1 online resource (16 pages)

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English

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9783656179733

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Electronic books
ART 

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