The royal scoop: papers from King George go online
Documents show monarch followed empire closely
LONDON // Thousands of papers from Britain’s King George III went online on yesterday, including an essay by the monarch on losing America and details of his spy network.
About 33,000 pages were published by the Royal Archives, detailing the life and times of Britain’s longest-reigning king, who was on the throne from 1760 to 1820.
The papers bring new insights into a “complex, engaged polymath and highly informed monarch”, who was often called “mad King George”.
He suffered from a rare inherited blood disorder, porphyria. The symptoms – including insomnia, high blood pressure, confusion and sensitivity to sunlight – were seen as signs of insanity in the 18th century.
Oliver Urquhart Irvine, the Royal Archives librarian, said the new database, which has the support of Queen Elizabeth II, would open the historic papers to a global audience.
“You can feel the passion, personality, worries and triumphs of individuals who have shaped major events. It can change your perspective of history.”
George III was America’s last king. It was during his reign that Britain lost the 13 colonies, which declared independence as the United States in 1776 — an event lamented by the sovereign in an essay that is part of the digitised collection.
“America is lost!” the king writes, in a text that archivists have said was a near verbatim extract from a longer essay published by a different author.
A turning point in the US independence campaign – the 1781 Battle of the Chesapeake – is captured in a paper written by naval officer Samuel Hood.
“The king takes his job very seriously. He is processing knowledge on a proto-industrial scale as a part of his role,” said Andrew Lambert, professor of naval history at King’s College London. “He’s the best-informed chief executive this country has ever had.”
One of the key documents is a handwritten draft letter of abdication that he wrote in 1783. Heavily marked with corrections, it was written during a crisis caused by the difficulties in forming a government.
Referring to his apparent inability to resolve the crisis, he writes: “I am therefore resolved to resign my crowns and all the dominions appertaining to it to the Prince of Wales, my eldest son and lawful successor.” The letter was never lodged. The archive of 350,000 documents also contains personal correspondence, including letters between the king and his wife, Queen Charlotte, notes by him on the American war, a guide to “kingship” for his son and letters to relatives written during his bouts of illness.
There are also instructions to the explorer James Cook and details of King George’s spy network. In one document, a spy asks for payment for warning of a French assassination plot against the king.
Although George was king until 1820, his eldest son reigned from 1811 because of his father’s recurrent, and eventually permanent, mental illness.
An insight into the formal handover of power is given with two pages detailing the banquet for King George IV’s coronation, in 1821.
Publication of the papers is part of a five-year project covering the reigns of Britain’s four king Georges, from 1714 to 1830 and William IV, another son of George III and brother to George IV, who reigned from 1830-37.
View the documents at georgianpapersprogramme.com