The English Historical Review Advance Access originally published online on March 4, 2009
The English Historical Review 2009 CXXIV(507):283-312; doi:10.1093/ehr/cep003
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© The Author [2009]. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
Hephaestion and Alexander: Lord Hervey, Frederick, Prince of Wales, and the Royal Favourite in England in the 1730s*
St Hilda's College, Oxford
University of Reading
Correspondence: Dr Hannah Smith, St Hilda's College, Oxford OX4 1DY, Hannah.smith{at}st-hildas.ox.ac.uk
Correspondence: Professor Stephen Taylor, Department of History, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading, Berkshire RG6 6AH, s.j.c.taylor{at}reading.ac.uk
This article explores the intense and ultimately embittered relationship between Frederick, prince of Wales and John, Lord Hervey, Vice-Chamberlain to Frederick's father, George II. It is argued that an understanding of their relationship, and the possible reasons behind its collapse in early 1732, can help to illuminate broader debates about the nature of English politics and society in the early eighteenth century. The relationship highlights the continuing vitality of notions of the royal favourite during a period when court politics was being transformed by the development of a parliamentary monarchy. Furthermore, because Hervey has emerged in recent years as a key figure not only in the study of the court and politics, but also in the history of sexuality, a reappraisal of his relationship with Frederick has implications for our understanding of aristocratic libertinism, sexual attitudes, and male friendship. The article goes on to consider the Patriot opposition attacks on Sir Robert Walpole and his supporters, popular concern over the rise of sodomy, and the construction of Hervey as a sexual deviant in the writings of figures such as William Pulteney and Alexander Pope. Thus, Frederick's and Hervey's relationship also offers a case study in the interaction between the court, the opposition, and popular opinion at a moment when the development of the public sphere was forcing the early Georgian monarchy to engage, in ever more subtle ways, with its image.
* This paper springs from a joint project on John, Lord Hervey, which the authors intend will lead in due course to a new edition of his ‘Memoirs’ and correspondence. An early version of it was given at ‘Politics and patronage: a tercentenary colloquium for Frederick, Prince of Wales’, held at the History of Parliament, London, in April 2007. We would like to thank Robin Eagles and Matthew Kilburn for the invitation to participate in that colloquium and all who attended for their comments. Later versions were given at the Graduate Seminar in History 1680–1850, held at Lincoln College, Oxford, in January 2008, and the colloquium on ‘Monarchy in early modern Britain’, held at Jesus College, Oxford, in February 2008, and we are grateful to the participants at both those events for their comments. We would also like to thank Michael Schaich for some valuable references and comments, Marilyn Morris, both for reading the paper and for sending us a copy of her work in progress on Hervey, the staff of the Bury St Edmunds branch of the Suffolk Record Office for their efforts in making the Hervey papers as accessible as possible and the Provost and Fellows of Worcester College, Oxford, for permission to reproduce ‘Il est d'un Roy de se vaincre soy mesme’.