As a spy, he was not exactly James Bond. He was in his sixties, and was forever complaining that he was not paid properly — but he did keep up a steady stream of information for George III, and even had a direct channel of communication to the king.
So effective was he as a secret agent that, 200 years later, nothing more is known of him than his codename: Aristarchus....
The ageing spy who saved George III
Valentine Low
January 28 2017
The Times
George III had been targeted for assassination by the French in the Queen’s garden — now Buckingham Palace — according to the shadowy spy Aristarchus
As a spy, he was not exactly James Bond. He was in his sixties, and was forever complaining that he was not paid properly — but he did keep up a steady stream of information for George III, and even had a direct channel of communication to the king.
So effective was he as a secret agent that, 200 years later, nothing more is known of him than his codename: Aristarchus.
The existence of Aristarchus — named after the ancient Greek astronomer — has been revealed as the papers on George’s reign, held in the Royal Archives, go online for the first time today. The Georgian Papers Programme, a collaboration between the Royal Collection Trust, King’s College London and US partners, will allow 350,000 papers to be made available to academics and the public by 2020. Of those, 300,000 have never been published before.
A BBC Two documentary on George to be shown on Monday features a letter from Aristarchus to the king in 1780 warning of a French plot to assassinate him. “My last Dispatches from Paris happily discover a secret Plot against your Majesty’s Life,” he wrote.
George had been seen walking late at night in disguise in the Queen’s garden at what is now Buckingham Palace, Aristarchus told him. As a result, the French had chosen that as the “most favorable spot” for the execution of their “horrid and bloodthirsty machination”.
In another letter of 1781 he told how Benjamin Franklin, who was in France at the time, had arranged for an agent to climb into a chimney to eavesdrop on the conversation of Emperor Joseph II of Austria when he visited Paris. “The method projected by Franklyn is for this Spy to get himself concealed in the Chimney or behind the Arras of the Room,” wrote Aristarchus. “Money is not to be spared on this account.”
Andrew O’Shaughnessy, author of The Men Who Lost America, said that the Aristarchus letters had been overlooked because they were not included in the collection of George’s correspondence edited by Sir John Fortescue, the Royal Librarian, in the early 20th century. “It is possible that he was either a conduit for many spies or that there was more than one person using the pseudonym,” said Dr O’Shaughnessy, professor of history at the University of Virginia.
“He was based in London but had access to intelligence abroad, especially in Paris. The quality of his information is very variable and in many cases impossible to verify. However, it is not without substance. He was constantly complaining that his wages were in arrears and that he could not get payment from Lord North [the prime minister]. There is one letter in which he describes himself as ‘your amanuensis’ and says he is in his late sixties but feels like a man half his age.”
At the same time as they are working on the digitisation of the papers from 1714 to 1837, the team at the Royal Archives are also preparing for the release of papers from the Victorian period, with those from the early 20th century likely to follow. The first 33,000 pages released today include relatively lucid letters written by the king during his madness, and correspondence which sheds new light on the affair between Princess Amelia, his youngest daughter, and Charles Fitzroy, the king’s equerry who was nearly 20 years her senior.
She wrote to him as “My ever dearest and most beloved darling” and called him her husband, even though they were not married. When she died of TB, aged 27, she left all her property to Fitzroy, but he was persuaded by the Prince of Wales to hand it back to her family.
Her death left the king so distraught that it may even have been responsible for his last bout of madness. Robert Hardman, the documentary presenter, says: “Two days after Amelia’s death the king had a relapse, and had to be confined in a straitjacket once more.”
George III – The Genius of The Mad King will be broadcast on BBC Two on Monday 30th January at 9pm.
Frugal king saw off Napoleon
George III is the longest-reigning king in British history, and the third longest-reigning monarch after Queen Elizabeth II and Queen Victoria. He ruled from 1760 to 1820.
● He was the first Hanoverian monarch to be born in Britain and to use English as a first language.
● He may have lost the American colonies, but in his reign Britain defeated France in the Seven Years’ War, became the dominant European power in India, and defeated Napoleon at Waterloo.
● The mental illness he suffered in later life, which led to the Prince Regent ruling, has been attributed to the blood disease porphyria. Recent theories claim that obstructive jaundice may have been the initial culprit, followed by bipolar disorder.
● Derided as “Farmer George” by his critics, he remained popular, not least for the defeat of Napoleon.
● Frugal and thrifty, he kept the interiors of the royal palaces at a “healthy chill”. In 1795 he told the royal household to serve nothing but brown bread to set an example during a time of war.
The ageing spy who saved George III | News | The Times & The Sunday Times
So effective was he as a secret agent that, 200 years later, nothing more is known of him than his codename: Aristarchus....
The ageing spy who saved George III
Valentine Low
January 28 2017
The Times
George III had been targeted for assassination by the French in the Queen’s garden — now Buckingham Palace — according to the shadowy spy Aristarchus
As a spy, he was not exactly James Bond. He was in his sixties, and was forever complaining that he was not paid properly — but he did keep up a steady stream of information for George III, and even had a direct channel of communication to the king.
So effective was he as a secret agent that, 200 years later, nothing more is known of him than his codename: Aristarchus.
The existence of Aristarchus — named after the ancient Greek astronomer — has been revealed as the papers on George’s reign, held in the Royal Archives, go online for the first time today. The Georgian Papers Programme, a collaboration between the Royal Collection Trust, King’s College London and US partners, will allow 350,000 papers to be made available to academics and the public by 2020. Of those, 300,000 have never been published before.
A BBC Two documentary on George to be shown on Monday features a letter from Aristarchus to the king in 1780 warning of a French plot to assassinate him. “My last Dispatches from Paris happily discover a secret Plot against your Majesty’s Life,” he wrote.
George had been seen walking late at night in disguise in the Queen’s garden at what is now Buckingham Palace, Aristarchus told him. As a result, the French had chosen that as the “most favorable spot” for the execution of their “horrid and bloodthirsty machination”.
In another letter of 1781 he told how Benjamin Franklin, who was in France at the time, had arranged for an agent to climb into a chimney to eavesdrop on the conversation of Emperor Joseph II of Austria when he visited Paris. “The method projected by Franklyn is for this Spy to get himself concealed in the Chimney or behind the Arras of the Room,” wrote Aristarchus. “Money is not to be spared on this account.”
Andrew O’Shaughnessy, author of The Men Who Lost America, said that the Aristarchus letters had been overlooked because they were not included in the collection of George’s correspondence edited by Sir John Fortescue, the Royal Librarian, in the early 20th century. “It is possible that he was either a conduit for many spies or that there was more than one person using the pseudonym,” said Dr O’Shaughnessy, professor of history at the University of Virginia.
“He was based in London but had access to intelligence abroad, especially in Paris. The quality of his information is very variable and in many cases impossible to verify. However, it is not without substance. He was constantly complaining that his wages were in arrears and that he could not get payment from Lord North [the prime minister]. There is one letter in which he describes himself as ‘your amanuensis’ and says he is in his late sixties but feels like a man half his age.”
At the same time as they are working on the digitisation of the papers from 1714 to 1837, the team at the Royal Archives are also preparing for the release of papers from the Victorian period, with those from the early 20th century likely to follow. The first 33,000 pages released today include relatively lucid letters written by the king during his madness, and correspondence which sheds new light on the affair between Princess Amelia, his youngest daughter, and Charles Fitzroy, the king’s equerry who was nearly 20 years her senior.
She wrote to him as “My ever dearest and most beloved darling” and called him her husband, even though they were not married. When she died of TB, aged 27, she left all her property to Fitzroy, but he was persuaded by the Prince of Wales to hand it back to her family.
Her death left the king so distraught that it may even have been responsible for his last bout of madness. Robert Hardman, the documentary presenter, says: “Two days after Amelia’s death the king had a relapse, and had to be confined in a straitjacket once more.”
George III – The Genius of The Mad King will be broadcast on BBC Two on Monday 30th January at 9pm.
Frugal king saw off Napoleon
George III is the longest-reigning king in British history, and the third longest-reigning monarch after Queen Elizabeth II and Queen Victoria. He ruled from 1760 to 1820.
● He was the first Hanoverian monarch to be born in Britain and to use English as a first language.
● He may have lost the American colonies, but in his reign Britain defeated France in the Seven Years’ War, became the dominant European power in India, and defeated Napoleon at Waterloo.
● The mental illness he suffered in later life, which led to the Prince Regent ruling, has been attributed to the blood disease porphyria. Recent theories claim that obstructive jaundice may have been the initial culprit, followed by bipolar disorder.
● Derided as “Farmer George” by his critics, he remained popular, not least for the defeat of Napoleon.
● Frugal and thrifty, he kept the interiors of the royal palaces at a “healthy chill”. In 1795 he told the royal household to serve nothing but brown bread to set an example during a time of war.
The ageing spy who saved George III | News | The Times & The Sunday Times
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