December 1774 - The Chessboard Negotiations

It's December 25th, 1774. American Independence is 557 days away.   On Christmas Day in London, a man almost 70 years old and a woman nearly 20 years younger than him celebrate the holiday by sitting down to play a game of chess.   The woman is named Caroline Howe, and she is the sister of two of Britain's most famous politicians and military leaders, Richard and William Howe, while man across from Caroline happens to be none other than Benjamin Franklin.   The game the pair played, which was part of a series of contests that stretched across the month of December, had much more at stake than simple winning and losing. For weeks these games had been the cover for secret negotiations between Franklin and members of parliament hoping to bring reconciliation between the American Colonies and the mother country.   This month's episode is focused on these secret chessboard negotiations, and how they fit into the wider story of British efforts led by Prime Minister Lord North to use the quiet winter months as an opportunity to seek an end to the rapidly escalating conflict, rather than choosing to prepare for looming war. But what came out of good intentions would instead cost Lord North and his nation dearly, as the British would pay a high price for the Prime Minister's failure to face the reality of the storm ahead.   Sources: 1774: The Long Year of Revolution by Mary Beth Norton   Liberty Is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution by Woody Holton   American Insurgents, American Patriots by T.H. Breen   The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III by Andrew Roberts   The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire by Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy   Those Damned Rebels: The American Revolution As Seen Through British Eyes by Michael Pearson   An Empire on the Edge: How Britain Came to Fight America Paperback by Nick Bunker   The Howe Dynasty: The Untold Story of a Military Family and the Women Behind Britain's Wars for America Hardcover by Julie Flavell