#johnstuart3rdearlofbute

Secret Influence Directing The New P-l-t by John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, Drawings and Prints

Medium: Hand-colored etching

The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1959 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Hello! Apologies for the late reply, college is beating my butt- and I had to take some time to decide how I’d like to word this. (I’m not gonna bombard you with an essay unfortunately)

-Firstly, I love weird questions, I usually have a weird answer for you jajaa

-Secondly:

In my- to quote- “professional” opinion, both from a historical standpoint, and from my own research- I don’t believe the two of them had anything sexual going on as far as I can tell. Bute devoted himself to his wife and held religious beliefs against adultery, and besides- most of the allegations of them having an affair stemmed from a xenophobic rhetoric against Bute, along with the public viewing Princess Augusta as easily influenced and weak. What we know from multiple accounts of documents is that the two had a very close relationship that really did mutate very quickly from a wholesome, tight knit companionship into this greedy, power hungry, domineering situation on Bute’s end (Though let’s be truthful, Augusta most likely did assume she had Bute on a leash.)

I personally don’t take any of my Bute ship drawings seriously, especially Grenville/Bute drawings. I really just do it for fun, but it’s also important to remember that these scenarios aren’t at all historically accurate, and claiming that they were absolutely 100% gay for eachother is possibly harmful to their own person, considering that these people are..yknow..historical figures

AT THE END OF THE DAY