A Royal History of England
George III (1738 - 1820)
George III
IT is unfortunate that when we think of George III today, his name conjures up an image of an old, mad King, bearded and disturbed. This impression was reinforced by Nigel Hawthorne’s excellent performance in the awardwinning 1994 film, “The Madness of King George”.
We tend to forget that George was 22 when he came to the throne. He was extremely health conscious, with a very 21st-century attitude towards diet and exercise, and was over seventy before his mind deteriorated.
He was our first Hanoverian monarch to have an English accent. “Born and educated in this country, I glory in the name of Briton,” he declared to Parliament on his accession.
When George was ten years old his father gave him written instructions about how to behave as a Prince: “Convince this nation that you are not only an Englishman, born and bred, but that you are also this by inclination.” It was advice that George took to heart and he gloried in being English, never going abroad.
Prince George William Frederick was born two months prematurely at Norfolk House, St James’s Square, London on June 4, 1738. He was the eldest son of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and his wife, Augusta. They were living at Norfolk House because the Prince of Wales had been evicted from Kensington Palace following a dispute with his father.
George became Prince of Wales aged twelve following the sudden
death of his father, who was struck on the head by a cricket ball. He was raised by his mother and her friend John Stuart, the 3rd Earl of Bute.
George became King on October 25, 1760. He was out riding near Kew when a messenger brought him the news that George II had died.
Horace Walpole later wrote that the new King “seems all good nature and wishing to satisfy everybody; I saw him again yesterday and was surprised to find the levee room had lost so entirely the air of the lion’s den.
“I saw him afterwards on the throne, where he is graceful and genteel, sits with dignity, and reads his answers to addresses well.” Walpole later described the new King as “tall, his countenance florid, and good natured; his manner graceful and obliging.”
Once on the throne, George was keen to find a suitable bride before the Coronation. Before his accession, he had a dalliance with a cobbler’s daughter, Hannah Lightfoot, and he fell in love with Lady Sarah Lennox, but it was considered important that he married someone of royal birth.
He eventually married Princess Sophia Charlotte of MecklenburgStrelitz (known as Charlotte) on September 8, 1761, at the Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace. She was selected for him by the Earl of Bute and the couple had not met before she came to England for the wedding.
Charlotte was not considered a great beauty, with an upturned nose, pallid complexion and thin figure. Although her grasp of the English language was poor when she arrived, her surviving letters and notes show that within a year she had mastered the language. Despite being strangers, the couple got on well and remained devoted to each other. Where earlier monarchs had kept mistresses, George III was very much the family man.
The Coronation of the King and Queen was held at Westminster Abbey two weeks after their wedding. George was crowned using the State Crown of George I, the frame of which can be seen today at the Tower of London.
The King and Queen lived at Windsor Castle, with the White House in Kew Gardens as a private retreat. As with Queen Elizabeth II, London was very much a place of business and Windsor was home.
Even in his sixties, George would ride from the Queen’s House (Buckingham Palace) to Windsor Castle after dinner so that he could sleep in his own bed.
George and Charlotte had 15 children between 1762-1783; nine sons and six daughters. Thirteen survived, unusual for the 18th century. They were loving parents and Charlotte instructed their governess to treat the children as if they were her own. In the royal archives there is a height chart that George compiled, with very precise measurements of his children as they grew.
Once on the throne, George tried to regain the power of the Crown lost by his predecessors. Feeling that the Whigs were too powerful, he put his Tory friends in senior positions and the government became known jokingly as “the King’s Party”.
George was actively involved in all aspects of England’s domestic policy, although there was antagonism between him and his first Prime Minister, William Pitt the Elder.
Pitt was soon replaced with George’s friend and former tutor, the Earl of Bute, which resulted in further discontent that the King’s friends were being given political power.
Bute proved to be extremely unpopular, was not up to the job and resigned within a year. Several more Prime Ministers followed in the first decade of the reign until the King appointed his friend, Lord North, who remained in power for 12 years.
At the start of the reign Britain was a leading colonial power, but soon began to impose duties on imports to the colonies to help recover some of the costs incurred during the Seven Years War (1756-63). It caused unrest and by 1770 all duties had been repealed, except on tea. Supported by Parliament, George refused to budge on the “tea tax”.
Discontent was exacerbated by the Tea Act of 1773, which allowed the British East India Company to sell tea to America without paying 25% tax on it, giving them the monopoly on tea sales. This led to a revolt on December 16, now known as the Boston Tea Party, when demonstrators threw a whole cargo of tea from the British East India Company into Boston harbour – 342 crates valued at £18,000. This act of rebellion was the spark that led to the American Revolution. The British Government took action and ceased sea trade from Boston until the cost of the destroyed tea had been paid for. The spark turned into flames and by 1775 the American War of Independence had begun. British soldiers were sent out believing that it would be a short skirmish, but had not bargained for the strength and passion of the 13 original British colonies fighting for their cause.
In America, George III was considered to be a despot and a tyrant. A huge gilded, lead statue of him on horseback was unceremoniously pulled down and the lead melted to make 42,088 musket balls which were fired at British troops.
After the decisive Battle of Yorktown in 1781, led by George Washington against Lord Cornwallis, the British surrendered. The war officially ended in 1783 when the Treaty of Paris brought about the separation of the 13 British colonies, which were formed into a United States of America. Consequently, George III is considered to be the last King of America. On the other hand, he was the first King of Australia!
Although he never left England, George had a passionate interest in exploration and discovery, and encouraged the voyages of Captain James Cook. In 1770 the east coast of Australia was explored by Cook and the colony of New South Wales was founded in the name of the British sovereign in 1788. Five more colonies were formed in the years that
followed. Cook also founded the penal colony of Botany Bay. In India, British rule expanded and the first Governors General were sent out.
Despite the gain in territory, George considered abdication after the loss of America. He had begun to feel that he was a virtual slave, surrounded by ministers that he could not trust. His personal power diminished, he handed control of the Government to William Pitt the Younger, aged 24. Pitt remained England’s Prime Minister for nearly 25 years, with only one term out of office.
Across the channel, many were losing their heads during the French Revolution, and Pitt needed extra income in case of a war with France or Spain. The French were unpopular in England at this time, as they had supported the American colonists rather than their British neighbours.
Conflicts eventually came, but the Duke of Wellington and Lord Nelson steered Britain successfully through. The Battle of Trafalgar was won in 1805 and Waterloo ended the French threat in 1815.
There were many other successes during George III’S reign. Great Britain and Ireland were united with a single Parliament, so that Irish ministers sat at Westminster following the 1801 Act of Union. George III became officially King of the United Kingdom of Britain and Ireland.
In 1807 the slave trade was abolished in areas under British control, although it would be another quarter of a century before slavery was abolished altogether.
Financially, interest rates remained stable throughout the reign. Although the national debt had risen considerably due to overseas conflicts, Pitt’s introduction of income tax and a huge increase in foreign trade kept Britain financially secure.
The textile industry was transformed by mechanical inventions such as the Spinning Jenny. The steam engine was developed under inventor and engineer James Watt, and George Stephenson built his first locomotive in 1814. The iron and steel industry flourished, too, which in turn led to the construction of wrought-iron bridges, steel ships and, eventually, the railways. The industrial revolution created jobs in many manufacturing towns and cities, although led to unemployment in areas where machinery began to do the work that humans had once done manually.
George had a particular interest in agriculture and was nicknamed “The Farmer King”. He created model farms at Windsor and in the 1780s wrote a series of essays about agricultural improvements, crop rotation and animal husbandry under the pseudonym Ralph Robinson.
George was an avid writer and kept almost every piece of correspondence, note and essay that he wrote and received. In 2015 it was announced that the Queen was going to allow thousands of the King’s private papers to be available for all to see online and many can now be seen at https://gpp. rct.uk. The digitised versions reveal how legible George III’S handwriting was, and his intelligence and attention to detail shines through.
George wanted improvements in education, particularly literacy, so that children could read the Bible. His long reign saw some great figures emerge in art and literature, including Thomas Gainsborough and Jane Austen, along with poets such as Byron, Keats and Shelley.
George set up The Royal Academy of Arts to promote art and design with education and exhibitions throughout Britain. Painter Joshua Reynolds was appointed its first president. The Encyclopaedia Britannica was published for the first time. George was an avid collector of books. His library, some 65,000 works, is housed at the British Museum. He also collected maps and works of art and was a champion of science who loved scientific instruments. His collection is now in London’s Science Museum, one of the most comprehensive assemblies of 18th-century instruments and apparatus to survive.
He had received lessons in physics, chemistry and astronomy as a child. He had the King’s Observatory built at Richmond Park. From there, George and Charlotte watched the planet Venus pass between the sun and the earth on June 3, 1769. Fascinatingly, George wrote that the transit of Venus would not be seen again until 1874 and 2004. On June 8, 2004 Venus once again passed between the sun and earth.
He was a devout Christian and prayed quietly for many hours each day. His prayer book still exists and it is noteworthy in that he has crossed out “our gracious King” in the prayer for him and replaced it with the words “a most miserable sinner”.
The King was also musical and loved playing the harpsichord. He took a keen interest in furniture, and a great deal of pieces that he collected now adorn rooms at Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace, including many clocks. One of the most impressive clocks that George purchased was made for him by Eardley Norton in 1762. It has a 24-hour dial, records the day and month and shows the position of the
sun and planets, phases of the moon and high and low tides at 32 named sea ports. It cost the King £1,042 and is still working perfectly today.
George enjoyed going to the theatre, but nothing too highbrow. He loved comedy, particularly clowns, and relished it if humorous references were made to him from the stage.
He was happy to walk around Windsor in simple clothes, chatting to the public, often about farming issues. People recorded that he spoke very quickly and often ended his questions with “Hey? Hey?” or “What? What?” to encourage a speedy response.
To mark his Golden Jubilee in 1810 Madame Tussaud made a wax figure of him and a cast from her original mould is on show at Kew Palace, so we can see what he looked like.
Three particular items from George III’S reign particularly stand out for the people of England. Firstly, he purchased Buckingham House in 1761 as a London home for the Queen, renaming it The Queen’s House. Thirty years later it became known as Buckingham Palace. Fourteen of George and Charlotte’s children were born there.
Secondly, he had the magnificent Gold State Coach built in 1762. Now usually referred to as the Coronation Coach, it weighs four tons and cost £7,562 to construct. Notoriously uncomfortable for its passengers, it was built to impress and show Britain’s powerful position. It has taken every monarch since George IV to their Coronation.
Finally, the Union Flag, popularly known as the Union Jack, in its present design was created in 1801 to mark the Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland. The Palace, the Coach and the Flag are three instantly recognisable British icons.
He survived two assassination attempts. In 1786 a woman named Margaret Nicholson presented a petition to the King outside St James’s Palace, but had a knife concealed in the document. As the King leaned forward to take it, she removed the knife and aimed it twice at his heart.
“The poor creature is mad. Do not hurt her. She has not hurt me!” he shouted as his bodyguards attempted to restrain the woman. His popularity increased as a result of the way he had conducted himself during the attack and security subsequently increased to eleven bodyguards instead of four.
In 1800 the King was at the Drury Lane Theatre for a performance of The Marriage of Figaro when James Hadfield shot twice at the royal box. The King did not flinch as the bullets missed him by inches. He stayed calm, watching the performance. When the National Anthem was sung at the end, the lead singer, Michael Kelly, sang a verse that had quickly been written by theatre manager and owner Richard Brinsley Sheridan: From every latent foe, From the assassin’s blow, God save the King! King George’s first bout of “madness” was in 1765, but he recovered within four months. Today doctors identify the King’s condition as possibly being porphyria, a genetic disease caused by an enzyme deficiency. Symptoms include anxiety, abdominal pain, seizures, paranoia, hallucinations, confusion, and skin problems. His first major breakdown came at the age of fifty in 1788. During a dinner at Windsor Castle he attacked his eldest son and was said to be foaming at the mouth. In the following days his health deteriorated. But he appeared to recover by New Year, and recently-released correspondence shows him to be very rational. At his own request, he visited an asylum to speak to people suffering from mental illness, almost a form of counselling.
To benefit his health, the King and his family went to Weymouth every summer, where he bathed in the sea and took long walks through the Dorset countryside. In 1792 he purchased Frogmore House as a private retreat for Charlotte, which she called “Paradise”.
Their youngest child, Princess Amelia, died prematurely from tuberculosis in 1810 at the age of 27. George, now aged 72, had a major mental breakdown brought on by grief and it became clear that he could no longer fulfil his royal duties.
He was kept a virtual prisoner at the White House, Kew, and for the next 10 years his son, also George, ruled as Prince Regent. George III was last seen in public on May 21, 1811, and retired to Windsor Castle. From then onwards he descended into a world of his own, dishevelled, with a long beard, his eyesight and hearing impaired. On one occasion he got out of his carriage in Windsor Great Park and greeted an oak tree, believing that it was Frederick the Great of Prussia.
He died at Windsor on January 29, 1820. At the time he was Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, having been on the throne for 59 years and 96 days. This record was to be beaten by Queen Victoria in 1901 and Queen Elizabeth II in 2015, but George remains the longest reigning King of England. “It was consoling,” political hostess Harriet Arbuthnot wrote after the funeral, “that such a sovereign was followed to his last home by countless thousands of affectionate subjects, drawn to the spot . . . to pay a last tribute of respect and to shed a tear of affection and gratitude over the grave of him who, for 60 long years, has been the Father of his people.”