George III of Great Britain

George III (George William Frederick) ( 4 June 1738 – 29 January 1820 ) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until 1January 1801 , and thereafter Kingof the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death. He was concurrently Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover), acquiring the additional title of King of Hanover on 12 October 1814 . George was the third Britishmonarch of the House of Hanover .

During George III's reign, Great Britain lost many of its colonies in North America ; the rebellious colonies later formed the United States . Also during his reign, the realms of Great Britain and Ireland united to form the United Kingdom. George III suffered from a mental disease, now thought to be porphyria . After a final relapse in 1811, George's eldest son, The Prince George, Prince of Wales reigned asPrince Regent. Upon George's death, the Prince of Wales succeeded his father to become George IV.

Early life

HRH Prince George of Wales was born at Norfolk House in London . He was the son of the Prince Frederick, Prince of Wales , and thereforethe grandson of George II. Prince George's mother was thePrincess of Wales (née Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha).

George II and the Prince of Wales had an extremely poor relationship. Prince George of Wales was consequently isolated fromcourt in his early years. In 1751 , the Prince of Wales died from a head injury, leavingPrince George the Dukedom of Edinburgh . The new Duke of Edinburghwas heir-apparent to the Throne, and was subsequently created Prince of Wales . His mother, the then-Dowager Princess of Wales, mistrustedher father-in-law; thus, she kept the Prince of Wales separate from his grandfather. An important influence on the new Prince ofWales' childhood was John Stuart, 3rd Earlof Bute , who would later serve as Prime Minister.

Marriage

George, Prince of Wales inherited the Crown when his grandfather, George II, died on 25 October 1760. After his accession, a search throughout Europe ensued for a suitable wife. On 8 September 1761 , the King married Princess Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz in the Chapel Royal , St James's Palace , London. A fortnight later, both were crowned at Westminster Abbey .

It is said that George III was smitten with another young lady, (the Lady Sarah Lennox , daughter ofCharles, 2nd Duke of Richmond) and actually winced when he first saw the rather homely Charlotte, whom he met on their weddingday. However, he gamely went ahead with his marriage vows, and, remarkably, remained devoted to her and never took a mistress (incontrast with both his Hanoverian predecessors). They had fifteen children—nine sons and six daughters—more than anyother monarch in British history. Two of his sons later became Kings of the United Kingdom; another son became King of Hanover; adaughter became Queen of Württemberg.

George was said to have married a Quakeress named Hannah Lightfoot on 17 April 1759 , prior to his marriage toPrincess Charlotte in 1761. If such a marriage had existed in 1761, then his marriage to Charlotte would have been bigamous andall of George's successors would have been usurpers. But no legal marriage to Lightfoot could have occurred. Hannah Lightfoot wasalready married to IsaacAxelford in 1753 . Lightfoot died in 1759, and therefore could not have producedlegitimate children from a marriage in April of 1759. George III's marriage in 1761 to Charlotte would therefore clearly not bebigamous. The marriage was mentioned in the 1866 trial of the daughter of impostress Olivia Wilmot, who claimed to be " Princess Olivia ." A forged marriagecertificate produced at her trial was impounded in 1866 and studied by the Attorney-General . It is now in the Royal Archives in Windsor Castle.

Early Reign

Upon his accession, George III agreed to surrender the revenues of the CrownEstate for such use as Parliament provided in return for fixed civil list payments. This action was the first by a Sovereign acknowledging parliamentary control over royal income and expenditure.George's original civil list was £723,000; the sum reached over £1,000,00 by the end of his reign. The arrangement whereunder theSovereign surrenders the revenues of the Crown Estate to the Treasury in return for civil list payments continues to thisday.

Under George III's Hanoverian predecessors, royal power and influence had severely deteriorated. George I was not an activeparticipant in British affairs (preferring to concentrate on his native Hanover), whilst George II was not confident enough tochallenge the opinions of his advisors. Furthermore, the earlier Hanoverian monarchs had severely undermined the two-partysystem, which pitted the Tories against the Whigs .George I felt that the Tories opposed his right to succeed to the Throne, and consequently excluded them from all power. TheTories ceased to be a meaningful political group, and all power was held by the Whigs.

George III, however, had a different view of his power; he sought to increase his own influence at the expense of hisministers. Those who supported the King's supremacy became known as the Tories, whilst those who opposed it continued to be knownas the Whigs. The Whigs subsequently became increasingly the party of the country's newer commercial and industrial interests,becoming in the latter stages of the reign the party of limited social and political reform.

The Whig Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle , George II's Prime Minister,continued to serve until 1761 . In 1762 , however,George appointed the Tory John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute. Lord Bute's administration was highly favourable to the King; theministers were referred to as the "King's Friends."

As George ascended the Throne, Great Britain was embroiled in the Seven Years' War (known in North America as the French and Indian War ). War policy was directed by William Pitt the Elder . Great Britainand Hanover both fought along with Prussia , and were opposed by several great worldpowers, including Austria , France , and Russia . Spain entered on the side oppositeGreat Britain in 1761 . The withdrawal of Russia in 1762 , however, led to the negotiation of the Treaty of Paris in 1763 . Under the Treaty, all of New France was lost to Great Britain. Great Britain also gained Florida from Spain. Despite the great gains in territory in the Seven Years' War, Great Britain was plungedinto a debt so large that, at one point, almost half of the national revenue went toward paying interest on it. The problem ofresolving this debt would indirectly lead to the American Revolution.

Conflict in North America

The rest of the 1760s was marked by bureaucratic instability, which led todenunciations of George III by the Whigs as an autocrat in the manner of Charles I . The incompetent Lord Bute (who had probably been appointed only because of hisfavourability to George's views on royal power) resigned in 1763, allowing the Whigs to return to power. After George Grenville became Prime Minister, he introduced the Stamp Act , which levied a stamp duty onvarious legal documents and publications in the British colonies in North America. Grenville attempted to reduce George III to amere puppet. The King requested William Pitt the Elder to accept the office of Prime Minister, but was unsuccessful. George thensettled on Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham , and dismissedGrenville in 1765 .

Lord Rockingham repealed Grenville's unpopular Stamp Act. He faced considerable internal dissent, and was replaced in 1766 by William Pitt, whom George created Earl of Chatham . Lord Chathamproved to be pro-American, criticising his colleagues' harsh attitudes towards the American colonists. George III, however,deemed that the chief duty of the colonists was to submit to him and to Great Britain. He resented the rebellious attitudes ofthe colonists. Lord Chatham fell ill 1767 , allowing Augustus Henry Fitzroy,3rd Duke of Grafton to take over government (although he did not formally become Prime Minister until 1768 ). Political attacks led him to leave office in 1770 , once againallowing the Tories to return to power.

The government of the new Prime Minister, Frederick North, Lord North , was chiefly concerned with the American Revolution . The Americans grew increasingly hostile to British attempts to levy taxes inthe colonies. In the Boston Tea Party , a Bostonian mob threw over 340 crates of tea into Boston Harbour to protestthe Townshend Acts , which levied a tax on tea and other imports. Inresponse, Lord North introduced the Punitive Acts (also called theCoercive Acts or the Intolerable Acts). The Port of Boston was shut down and legislative elections in the Colony of Massachusetts Bay were suspended.

Armed conflict broke out in America in 1775 . Some delegates to the Second Continental Congress drafted a peace proposalknown as the Olive Branch Petition , which wassubsequently rejected by the British. In 1776 , the colonies declared their independencefrom the Crown. The Declaration of Independence made several political charges against the Britishking, legislature, and populace. Amongst George's other offences, the Declaration charges, "He has abdicated Government here… He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people."

George III was indignant when he learnt of the opinions of the colonists. Whilst Great Britain originally fared well, theproverbial tide turned after the surrender of the British Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne after the Battle of Saratoga .In 1778 , France signed a treaty of friendship with the new United States. Lord North askedto resign power to William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, whom he thought more capable. George III, however, would hear nothing ofsuch suggestions; he suggested that Lord Chatham serve as a subordinate minister in Lord North's administration. Lord Chathamrefused to cooperate, and died later in the same year. George III was then at war with France, and in 1779 he was also at war with Spain.

George III obstinately tried to keep Great Britain at war with the rebels in America, despite the opinions of his ownministers. Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Gower and Thomas Thynne, 3rd ViscountWeymouth both resigned rather than suffer the indignity of being associated with the war. Lord North advised George III thathis opinion matched that of his ministerial colleagues, but stayed in office.

In 1781 , the news of Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis ' capitulation reached London;the Tory Lord North subsequently resigned in 1782 . George III accepted the defeat in NorthAmerica, and authorised the negotiation of a peace. The Treaty of Paris and the associated Treaty of Versailles were ratified in 1783 . The former treaty provided for the recognition of the new United States by Great Britain. The latter requiredGreat Britain to give up Florida to Spain and to grant access to the waters of Newfoundland to France.

Constitutional struggle

Several changes were made to the structure of the British government after the loss of the colonies. Since 1660 , there had been two chief cabinet officials, known as the Secretary of Statefor the Southern Department and the Secretary of State for the Northern Department . The former was responsiblefor Southern England, Ireland, and relations with non-Protestant European nations, and the latter for Northern England, Scotland,and relations with Protestant European nations. The Secretary of State for the Southern Department was formerly responsible forthe colonies, but this responsibility was transferred to the Secretary of State for the Colonies in 1768. All three positions were abolished afterthe British lost in North America. They were replaced with two new positions, those of Secretary of State for ForeignAffairs and Secretary ofState for Home Affairs .

In 1782, after twelve years in office, the ministry of Lord North ended. The Whig Lord Rockingham became Prime Minister forthe second time, but died within months. The King then chose William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne to replace him. Charles James Fox , however, refused to serve under Lord Shelburne, and demanded the appointment of William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland . In 1783 , the House of Commons forced Lord Shelburne from office. The Duke of Portland became PrimeMinister; Fox and Lord North, who held the offices of Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Secretary of State for HomeAffairs, respectively, were the individuals who truly held power, with the Duke of Portland acting as a figurehead.

George III was distressed by the attempts to force him to appoint ministers not of his liking. But the Portland ministryquickly built up a majority in the House of Commons, and could not be easily displaced. He was, however, extremely dissatisfiedwhen the government introduced the India Bill. Immediately after the House of Commons passed it, George informed the House ofLords that he would regard any peer who voted for the bill as his enemy. On 17December 1783, the bill was rejected by the Lords; on the next day, the Portland ministry was dismissed, and William Pitt the Younger was appointed Prime Minister.George III dissolved Parliament in March 1784 ; thesubsequent elections gave Pitt a firm mandate.

William Pitt

For George III, Pitt's appointment was a great victory. The King felt that the scenario proved that he still had the power toappoint Prime Ministers without having to rely on any parliamentary group. Throughout Pitt's ministry, George eagerly supportedmany of his political aims. To aid Pitt, George created new peerage dignities at an unprecedented rate. The new peers flooded theHouse of Lords and allowed Pitt to maintain a firm majority.

During Pitt's ministry, George III was extremely popular. The public supported the exploratory voyages to the Pacific Ocean which he sanctioned. George also aided the Royal Academy with large grants from his private funds. The British peopleadmired their King for remaining faithful to his wife, unlike the two previous Hanoverian monarchs. Great strides were made in science and industry .

George III's personal health, however, was in a poor condition. He suffered from a mental illness, now strongly believed to beporphyria. (A recent study of the King's hair samples reveal extremely high levels of arsenic , a possible trigger of the disease.) The King had previously suffered a brief episode of the disease in 1765 , but a longer episode began in 1788 . Though illduring the summer of 1788, George was sufficiently sane to prorogue Parliament from 25 September to 20 November . During the intervening time,however, George became seriously deranged and posed a threat to his own life. When Parliament reconvened in November, the Kingcould not, as was customary, communicate to them the agenda for the upcoming legislative session. According to long-establishedpractice, Parliament could not begin the transaction of business until the King had made the Speech from the Throne . Parliament, however, ignored the customand began to debate provisions for a regency.

Charles James Fox and William Pitt wrangled over which individual was entitled to take over government during the lunacy ofthe Soveriegn. Although both parties agreed that it would be most reasonable for George III's eldest son and heir-apparent, thePrince of Wales, to act as Regent, they disagreed over the basis of a regency. Fox suggested that it was the Prince of Wales'sabsolute right to act on his lunatic father's behalf; Pitt argued that it was for Parliament to nominate a Regent.

Proceedings were further delayed as the authority for Parliament to merely meet was questioned, as the session had not beenformally opened by the Sovereign. Pitt proposed a remedy based on an obscure legal fiction . As was well-established at the time, the Sovereign could delegate many of his functions toLords Commissioners by letters patent , which were validated by theattachment of the Great Seal . It was proposed that the custodian of the GreatSeal, the Lord Chancellor , affix the Seal without the consent of theSovereign. Although such an action would be unlawful, it would not be possible to question the validity of the letters patent, asthe presence of the Great Seal would be deemed conclusive in court.

George III's second son, the PrinceFrederick, Duke of York , denounced Pitt's proposal as "unconstitutional and illegal." Nonetheless, the Lords Commissionerswere appointed and then opened Parliament. In February 1789 , a Regency Bill, authorisingthe Prince of Wales to act as Prince Regent, was introduced and passed in the House of Commons. But before the House of Lordscould pass the bill, George III recovered from his illness under the care of Dr Francis Willis . He confirmed theactions of the Lords Commissioners as valid, but resumed full control of government.

Napoleonic Wars

George III's popularity experienced another surge after his recovery. The French Revolution , in which the French monarchy had been overthrown, worried many British landowners.France subsequently declared war on Great Britain in 1793 , and George III became the symbolof British resistance. George III allowed Pitt to increase taxes, raise armies, and suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in the war attempt.

As well-prepared as Great Britain may have been, France was stronger. The First Coaliton (which included Austria, Prussia and Spain) was defeated in 1798 . The Second Coalition (which included Austria,Russia, and the Ottoman Empire ) was defeated in 1800 . Only Great Britain was left fighting Napoleon Bonaparte , the military dictator of France.

After 1800, a brief lull in hostilities allowed Pitt to concentrate on Ireland ,where there had been an uprising in 1798. Parliament then passed the Act of Union 1800 , which, effective 1 January 1801,united Great Britain and Ireland into a single nation, known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. George used theopportunity to drop the claim to the Throne of France, which English and British Sovereigns had maintained since the reign of Edward III . It is sometimes suggested that George droppedthe claim pursuant to the Treaty of Paris or the Treaty of Amiens. Chronologically, neither would be logical; the Treaty of Pariswas signed in 1783, and the Treaty of Amiens in 1802 (after George actually dropped his claim to the Throne of France.) It wassuggested that George adopt the title "Emperor of the British and Hanoverian Dominions," but he refused. ( A. G. Stapleton writes that GeorgeIII "felt that his true dignity consisted in his being known to Europe and the world by the appropriated and undisputed stylebelonging to the British Crown.")

Pitt unpopularly planned to remove certain legal disabilities which applied to Roman Catholics after the Union. George III claimed that to "emancipate" Catholics would be to violatehis coronation oath, in which Sovereigns promise to maintain Protestantism. The King famously declared, "Where is the power onearth to absolve me from the observance of every sentence of that oath, particularly the one requiring me to maintain theProtestant Reformed Religion? … No, no, I had rather beg my bread from door to door throughout Europe, than consent to anysuch measure. I can give up my crown and retire from power. I can quit my palace and live in a cottage. I can lay my head on ablock and lose my life, but I cannot break my oath."

Faced with opposition to his religious reform policies, Pitt threatened to resign. At about the same time, the King sufferedan attack of insanity, but quickly recovered. On 14 March 1801, Pitt was formallyreplaced by the Speakerof the House of Commons , Henry Addington . As Addington was his close friend, Pitt remained as a privateadvisor. Addington's ministry was particularly unremarkable, as almost no reforms were made or new measures passed. In fact, thenation was strongly against the very idea of reform, having just witnessed the bloody French Revolution. Although they called forpassive behaviour in the United Kingdom, the public wanted strong action in Europe, but Addington failed to deliver. In October 1801, he made peace with the French, and in 1802, signed the Treaty of Amiens.

George III called the peace with the French an "experimental peace." In 1803 , the twonations once again declared war on each other. In 1804 , George was once again affected byhis illness; as soon as he recovered, he discovered that public opinion was strongly against Henry Addington, who was not trustedto lead the nation into war. Instead, the public tended to put more faith in William Pitt the Younger. Pitt sought to appointCharles James Fox to his ministry, but George III refused. The King disliked Fox, who had encouraged the heir-apparent, thePrince George, Prince of Wales to lead an extravagant and expensive life. William WyndhamGrenville, 1st Baron Grenville perceived an injustice to Fox, and refused to join the new ministry.

Pitt concentrated on forming a coalition with Austria, Russia and Sweden . The ThirdCoalition, however, met the same fate as the First and Second Coalitions, collapsing in 1805 . An invasion by Napoleon seemed imminent, but the possibility was extinguished after Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st ViscountNelson 's famous victory at the Battle of Trafalgar .

The setbacks in Europe took a toll on William Pitt's health. Pitt died in 1806 , onceagain reopening the question of who should serve in the ministry. Lord Grenville became Prime Minister, and his "Ministry of Allthe Talents" included Charles James Fox. The King was extremely distressed that he was forced to capitulate over the appointment.After Fox's death in September 1806, the King and ministry were in open conflict.The ministry had proposed a measure whereby Roman Catholics would be allowed to serve in the Armed Forces. George not onlyinstructed them to drop the measure, but also to make a written agreement not to introduce any similar measure in the future. Theministers agreed to drop the measure then pending, but refused to bind themselves in the future. In 1807, they were dismissed andreplaced by the Duke of Portland as the nominal Prime Minister, with actual power being held by the Chancellor of the Exchequer Spencer Perceval . Parliament was dissolved; the subsequent electiongave the ministry a strong majority in the House of Commons. George III made no further major political decisions during hisreign; the replacement of the Duke of Portland by Perceval was of little actual significance.

Later years

In 1810 , George became dangerously ill, the malady most likely having been triggered bythe death of the King's youngest and favourite daughter, the PrincessAmelia , from erysipelas . By 1811 ,George III had become permanently insane. Parliament then passed a Regency Bill, to which the Royal Assent was granted by the Lords Commissioners (who were appointed under the same irregular procedure aswas adopted in 1788). The Prince of Wales acted as Regent for the remainder of George III's life.

Spencer Perceval was assassinated in 1812 (he was the only British Prime Minister tohave ever suffered such a fate) and was replaced by Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool . Lord Liverpool oversaw Britishvictory in the Napoleonic Wars. The subsequent Congress ofVienna led to significant territorial gains for Hanover, which was upgraded from an electorate to a kingdom.

Meanwhile, George III's health deteriorated. In 1820 , George died blind, deaf, andinsane at Windsor Castle . By the time of his death, George III hadlived for over eighty years and reigned for almost sixty years—in each case, more than any other English or British monarchuntil that point. Neither record has been surpassed by any monarch since, with the exception of Victoria . George III is buried in St George's Chapel , Windsor.

George was followed by his eldest son (who became George IV). Next came another of George III's sons, who became William IV . William IV, too, died withoutchildren, leaving the throne to his niece, Victoria, the last monarch of the House of Hanover.

Legacy

Whilst tremendously popular in Great Britain, George III was hated by the rebellious colonists. The United States Declarationof Independence held him personally responsible for the political problems faced by the United States. The Declaration does notblame either Parliament or the ministers. Exposure to the views expressed in the Declaration has led the American public toperceive George III as a tyrant.

George III's insanity is the subject of the film The Madness of King George ( 1994 ), which was based onthe play The Madness of George III by Alan Bennet . The film concerns George's first bouts of insanity. George III was portrayed by Nigel Hawthorne , who received the Laurence Olivier Award and was nominated for an Academy Award for his role.

A bronze statue of George III lies in Trafalgar Square ,London.

Style and arms

In Great Britain, George III used the official style "George the Third, by the Grace of God, King of Great Britain, France andIreland, Defender of the Faith , etc." In 1801 , when Great Britain united with Ireland, George III took the opportunity to drop his claim to the French Throne.He also dispensed with the phrase "etc.," which was added during the reign of Elizabeth I . His style became, "George III, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of GreatBritain and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith."

Whilst he was King of Great Britain, George III's arms were: Quarterly, IGules three lions passant guardant in pale Or (for England) impaling Or a lion rampant within a tressure flory-counter-floryGules (for Scotland); II Azure three fleurs-de-lys Or (for France); III Azure a harp Or stringed Argent (for Ireland); IV tiercedper pale and per chevron (for Hanover), I Gules two lions passant guardant Or (for Brunswick), II Or a semy of hearts Gules alion rampant Azure (for Lüneburg), III Gules a horse courant Argent (for Westfalen), overall an escutcheon Gules charged with thecrown of Charlemagne Or (for the the dignity of Archtreasurer of the HolyRoman Empire).

When he became King of the United Kingdom, George III's arms were amended, dropping the French quartering. They became:Quarterly, I and IV Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or (for England); II Or a lion rampant within a tressureflory-counter-flory Gules (for Scotland); III Azure a harp Or stringed Argent (for Ireland); overall an escutcheon tierced perpale and per chevron (for Hanover), I Gules two lions passant guardant Or (for Brunswick), II Or a semy of hearts Gules a lionrampant Azure (for Lüneburg), III Gules a horse courant Argent (for Westfalen), the whole inescutcheon surmounted by an electoralbonnet. In 1816 , two years after the Electorate of Hanover became a Kingdom, theelectoral bonnet was changed to a crown.

Issue

See also

• List of British monarchs
• Prime Minister of theUnited Kingdom

References

• Farnborough, T. E. May, 1st Baron. (1896). Constitutional History of England since the Accession of George theThird, 11th ed. London: Longmans, Green and Co.
• "George III." (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed. London: Cambridge University Press.
• Hibbert, C. (1998). George III: A Personal History. London: Penguin Books.
• Röhl, J. C. G., Warren, M. & Hunt, D. (1998). Purple Secret: Genes, "Madness" and the Royal Houses of Europe.London: Bantam Press.
• TheRoyal Household (2004). "George III.", Official Web Site of the British Monarchy.