This talk has been rescheduled from November 2024

Join us for the third digital event exploring the life and work of Mary Robinson. This month, to mark Mary Robinson's birthday on 27 November, the exhibition's Curator explores Mary Robinson and the Royal Family.

In this online talk, exhibition Curator Emma Yandle will dive deeper into the history of Mary Robinson's relationship with the Royal Family. Through her short-lived romance with a teenage Prince of Wales (later King George IV), Mary Robinson was connected to the Royal family - financially, and reputationally - for the rest of her life. This talk will reconstruct that history: from the Prince of Wales' first impressions of Mary Robinson, held in the Royal Archives; to the intervention of King George III and negotiations with the Treasury; to a financial agreement that lasted the rest of Robinson's short-life, and ultimately passed to her daughter. Using surviving letters, press coverage and archival documents, it will offer unique insight into the 18th-century Royal family's treatment of a mistress, and the ongoing connection between Mary Robinson and the Prince of Wales, that far outlasted their seven-month affair.

About the Speaker: Emma Yandle is the curator of the exhibition Mary Robinson: Actress, Mistress, Writer, Radical. For the last four years she has been the Curator & Collections Manager at Chawton House, managing and interpreting a collection of over 4,500 historic works by early women writers. Past exhibitions include Trailblazers: women travel writers and the exchange of knowledge, at Chawton House, and Maps & Marvels, at the National Maritime Museum, Amsterdam. She is now undertaking a PhD with Royal Holloway, University and London, and the Royal Geographical Society, with IBG, on an AHRC-funded project entitled 'The Geographical Museum: Making Knowledge Through Objects.'

Tickets: £6