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So Kelly could you tell us a bit about Queen Anne first?
Queen Anne was rumoured to have had a relationship with her childhood friend, Sarah Churchill who was the Dutchess of Malborough.
They called each other by familar terms which were a little bit taboo at the time.
So like pet names?
Yes, Mrs. Moore and Mrs. Freeman. I'm not entirely sure who was who. And they were very close.
Sarah gave more and more influence in court, she was quite manlipulative and a lot of people became quite upset about it.
How long were they friends for?
Around 35 years, yes so she had huge influence in court but in 1710 they had a masaive row at Kensington Palace over the amount of influence she had.
After that they never spoke to each other. She was sort of replaced in Anne's affections by a woman called Abigail Marshum and at the time Sarah spread
A lot of vicious rumours that she 'found her way into her heart and her bed'.
She doesn't sound very nice.
She wasn't very nice.
So what about the other person we are looking at?
Yes William III or William of Orange was believed to have had two key relationships in his life with two men that worked very closely with him.
So the first one was a guy called Hans, he was the job of 'groom of the stool' which was a very desirable job at the time.
So what did that job entail?
He was basically the person who wiped the King's bottom after he had been to the toilet.
And that was a desirable job?!
It was a very desirable job at the time basically because of the amount of time that the person got to spend with the King that was what made it desirable.
Not obviously because of what the job actually entailed. But this job was given to this man called Hans and he was made an Earl of Court.
And it was believed that their kind of friendship was something more than that. And then one day Hans just left, he left his job and completely left William's life.
Why did he resign so suddenly?
He did it because he felt like he had been replaced by a younger and more attractive man called Arnold, who was again given a job that involved spending
a lot of time on his own with the King. He was in charge of dressing him and getting him ready to go out for the day.
Surely not a master of the bed chambers?
Master of the bed chambers, that's the one! He was another man that William was rumoured to have been a bit more than friends with.
Of course this is all conjecture!