George III

"George III" redirects here. For other uses, see George III (disambiguation).

George III
King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; King of Hanover; prev. King of Great Britain and Ireland; Elector of Hanover
Portrait by Allan Ramsay, 1762
Reign	25 October 1760 – 29 January 1820
Coronation	22 September 1761
Predecessor	George II
Successor	George IV
Burial	15 February 1820 St George's Chapel, Windsor
Spouse	Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Issue	George IV Frederick, Duke of York William IV Charlotte, Princess Royal Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent Princess Augusta Sophia Princess Elizabeth Ernest Augustus I of Hanover Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge Princess Mary Princess Sophia Prince Octavius Prince Alfred Princess Amelia
Names George William Frederick
House	House of Hanover
Father	Frederick, Prince of Wales
Mother	Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha

George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 1738 – 29 January 1820) (New Style dates) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until 1 January 1801, and thereafter of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death. He was concurrently Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, and thus Elector (and later King) of Hanover. The Electorate became the Kingdom of Hanover on 12 October 1814. He was the third British monarch of the House of Hanover, and the first of Hanover to be born in Britain and speak English as his first language. In fact, he never visited Germany.

George III's long reign was marked by a series of military conflicts involving his kingdom and much of the rest of Europe. Early in his reign, Great Britain defeated France in the Seven Years' War, becoming the dominant European power in North America and India. However, many of its American colonies were soon lost in the American Revolutionary War, which led to the establishment of the United States. Later, the kingdom became involved in a series of wars against revolutionary and Napoleonic France, which finally concluded in the defeat of Napoleon in 1815. In addition, during George's reign the realms of Great Britain and Ireland were joined, forming the United Kingdom.

Later in his reign George III suffered from recurrent and, eventually, permanent mental illness. This baffled medical science at the time, although it is now generally thought that he suffered from the blood disease porphyria. Recently, owing to studies showing high levels of the poison arsenic in locks of King George's hair, arsenic is also thought to be a possible cause of King George's insanity and health problems. After a final relapse in 1810, George's eldest son, George, Prince of Wales ruled as Prince Regent. Upon George's death, the Prince of Wales succeeded his father as George IV. George III was the grandfather of Queen Victoria.

Early life

Prince George of Wales was born in London at Norfolk House and was the son of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and the grandson of George II. Prince George's mother was Augusta of Saxe-Gotha. As Prince George was born two months premature and was thought unlikely to survive, he was baptised the same day by the Rector of St James's. He was publicly baptised by the Bishop of Oxford, Thomas Secker, at Norfolk House on 4 July 1738 (New Style). His godparents were the King of Sweden (for whom Lord Baltimore stood proxy), the Duke of Saxe-Gotha (for whom the Duke of Chandos stood proxy) and the Queen of Prussia (for whom Lady Charlotte Edwin, a daughter of the Duke of Hamilton, stood proxy).

George grew into a healthy child but his grandfather George II disliked the Prince of Wales and took little interest in his grandchildren. However, in 1751 the Prince of Wales died unexpectedly from a lung injury, and Prince George became heir apparent to the throne. He inherited one of his father's titles and became the Duke of Edinburgh. Now more interested in his grandson, three weeks later the King created George Prince of Wales. In the spring of 1756, as George approached his eighteenth birthday, the King offered him a grand establishment at St James's Palace, but George refused the offer, guided by his mother and her confidante, Lord Bute, who would later serve as Prime Minister. George's mother, now the Dowager Princess of Wales, mistrusted her father-in-law and preferred to keep George separate from his company.

Marriage

In 1759 George was smitten with Lady Sarah Lennox, daughter of the Duke of Richmond, but Lord Bute advised against the match and George abandoned his thoughts of marriage. "I am born for the happiness and misery of a great nation," he wrote, "and consequently must often act contrary to my passion." Nevertheless, attempts by the King to marry George to Princess Sophia Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel were resisted by him and his mother.

The following year, George succeeded to the Crown when his grandfather, George II, died suddenly on 25 October 1760. The search for a suitable wife intensified. On 8 September, 1761, the King married in the Chapel Royal, St James's Palace, Duchess Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, whom he met on their wedding day. A fortnight later, both were crowned at Westminster Abbey. George remarkably never took a mistress (in contrast with both his Hanoverian predecessors and his sons), and the couple enjoyed a genuinely happy marriage. They had 15 children – nine sons and six daughters.

Early reign

The first years of George's reign were marked by political instability, largely generated as a result of disagreements over the Seven Years' War. The favouritism which George initially showed towards Tory ministers led to his denunciation by the Whigs as an autocrat in the manner of Charles I. In May 1762, George replaced the incumbent Whig ministry of the Duke of Newcastle with one led by the Tory Lord Bute. The following year, after concluding the Peace of Paris ending the war, Lord Bute resigned, allowing the Whigs under George Grenville to return to power. Later that year, the British government under George III issued the Royal Proclamation of 1763 that placed a boundary upon the westward expansion of the American colonies. The Proclamation's goal was to force colonists to negotiate with the Native Americans for the lawful purchase of the land and, therefore, to reduce the costly frontier warfare that had erupted over land conflicts. The Proclamation Line, as it came to be known, was extremely unpopular with the Americans and ultimately became another wedge between the colonists and the British government that would eventually lead to war. With the American colonists generally unburdened by British taxes, the government found it increasingly difficult to pay for the defence of the colonies against native uprisings and the possibility of French incursions. In 1765, Grenville introduced the Stamp Act, which levied a stamp duty on all documents in the British colonies in North America. Meanwhile, the King had become exasperated at Grenville's attempts to reduce the King's prerogatives, and tried, unsuccessfully, to persuade William Pitt the Elder to accept the office of Prime Minister. After a brief illness, which may have presaged his illnesses to come, George settled on Lord Rockingham to form a ministry, and dismissed Grenville.

Lord Rockingham, with the support of Pitt, repealed Grenville's unpopular Stamp Act, but his government was weak and he was replaced in 1766 by Pitt, whom George created Earl of Chatham. The actions of Lord Chatham and George III in repealing the Act were so popular in America that statues of them both were erected in New York City. Lord Chatham fell ill in 1767, allowing the Duke of Grafton to take over the government, although he did not formally become Prime Minister until 1768. His government disintegrated in 1770, allowing the Tories to return to power.

The government of the new Prime Minister, Lord North, was chiefly concerned with discontent in America. To assuage American opinion most of the custom duties were withdrawn, with the exception of the tea duty, which in George's words was "one tax to keep up the right [to levy taxes]". In 1773, a Boston mob threw 342 crates of tea, costing approximately £10,000, into Boston Harbour as a political protest, an event that became known as the Boston tea party. In Britain, opinion hardened against the colonists, with Chatham now agreeing with North that the destruction of the tea was "certainly criminal". Lord North introduced the Punitive Acts, known as the Coercive Acts or the Intolerable Acts by the colonists: the Port of Boston was shut down and legislative elections in the Colony of Massachusetts Bay were suspended. Up to this point, in the words of Professor Peter Thomas, George's "hopes were centred on a political solution, and he always bowed to his cabinet's opinions even when sceptical of their success. The detailed evidence of the years from 1763 to 1775 tends to exonerate George III from any real responsibility for the American Revolution."

On George's accession, he ended hereditary revenues of Crown lands when he surrendered the Crown Estate to Parliament in return for a fixed civil list payment - the income retained from the Duchy of Lancaster. The King surrendered to Parliamentary control the hereditary excise duties, post office revenues, and ‘the small branches’ of Hereditary Revenue including rents of the Crown lands in England, (which amounted to about £11,000) and was granted a Civil List annuity of £800,000 for the support of his household and the expenses of Civil Government, subject to the payment of certain annuities to members of the royal family. Although the King had retained large Hereditary Revenues, his income proved insufficient for his charged expenses because he used the privilege to reward supporters with bribes and gifts. Debts amounting to over £3 million over the course of George's reign were paid by Parliament, and the Civil List annuity was then increased from time to time.

American Revolutionary War

The American Revolutionary War began when armed conflict between British regulars and colonial militiamen broke out in New England in April 1775. A month later, delegates of the thirteen British colonies drafted a peace proposal known as the Olive Branch Petition. The proposal was quickly rejected in London because fighting had already erupted. A year later, on July 4 1776 (American Independence Day), the colonies declared their independence from the Crown and became a new nation, the "United States of America". The Declaration was a long list of grievances against the British King, legislature, and populace. Amongst George's other offences, the Declaration charged, "He has abdicated Government here... He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people." George was indignant when he learned of the opinions of the colonists. In the war the British captured New York City in 1776, but the grand strategic plan of invading from Canada failed with the surrender of the British Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne at the Battle of Saratoga. In 1778, France (Great Britain's chief rival) signed a treaty of friendship with the new United States. Lord North asked to transfer power to Lord Chatham, whom he thought more capable. George, however, would hear nothing of such suggestions; he suggested that Chatham serve as a subordinate minister in Lord North's administration. Chatham refused to cooperate, and died later in the same year. Great Britain was then at war with France, and in 1779 it was also at war with Spain.

George III obstinately tried to keep Great Britain at war with the revolutionaries in America, despite the opinions of his own ministers. Lord Gower and Lord Weymouth both resigned rather than suffer the indignity of being associated with the war. Lord North advised George III that his (North's) opinion matched that of his ministerial colleagues, but stayed in office. Eventually, George gave up hope of subduing America by more armies. "It was a joke," he said, "to think of keeping Pennsylvania". There was no hope of ever recovering New England. But the King was determined "never to acknowledge the independence of the Americans, and to punish their contumacy by the indefinite prolongation of a war which promised to be eternal." His plan was to keep the 30,000 men garrisoned in New York, Rhode Island, in Canada, and in Florida; other forces would attack the French and Spanish in the West Indies. To punish the Americans the King planned to destroy their coasting-trade, bombard their ports, sack and burn towns along the coast (like New London, Connecticut), and turn loose the Indians to attack civilians in frontier settlements. These operations, the King felt, would inspire the Loyalists; would splinter the Congress; and "would keep the rebels harassed, anxious, and poor, until the day when, by a natural and inevitable process, discontent and disappointment were converted into penitence and remorse" and they would beg to return to his authority. The plan meant destruction for the Loyalists and loyal Indians, and indefinite prolongation of a costly war, as well as the risk of disaster as the French and Spanish were assembling an armada to invade the British isles and seize London.

In 1781, the news of Lord Cornwallis's surrender at the Siege of Yorktown reached London; Lord North's parliamentary support ebbed away and he subsequently resigned in 1782. After Lord North persuaded the king against abdicating, George III finally accepted the defeat in North America, 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 United States by Great Britain. The latter required Great Britain to give up Florida to Spain and to grant access to the waters of Newfoundland to France. When John Adams was appointed American Minister to Britain in 1785, George had become resigned to the new relationship between his country and the United States, "I was the last to consent to the separation; but" he told Adams, "I would be the first to meet the friendship of the United States as an independent power."

Constitutional struggle

With the collapse of Lord North's ministry in 1782, the Whig Lord Rockingham became Prime Minister for the second time, but died within months. The King then appointed Lord Shelburne to replace him. Charles James Fox, however, refused to serve under Shelburne, and demanded the appointment of the Duke of Portland. In 1783, the House of Commons forced Lord Shelburne from office and his government was replaced by the Fox-North Coalition. The Duke of Portland became Prime Minister; Fox and Lord North, Foreign Secretary and Home Secretary respectively, really held power, with 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 ministry quickly built up a majority in the House of Commons, and could not easily be displaced. He was, however, extremely dissatisfied when the government introduced the India Bill, which proposed to reform the government of India by transferring political power from the Honourable East India Company to Parliamentary commissioners. Immediately after the House of Commons passed it, George authorised Lord Temple to inform the House of Lords that he would regard any peer who voted for the bill as his enemy. The bill was rejected by the Lords; three days later, the Portland ministry was dismissed, and William Pitt the Younger was appointed Prime Minister, with Temple as his Secretary of State. On 17 December 1783, Parliament voted in favour of a motion condemning the influence of the monarch in parliamentary voting as a "high crime" and Temple was forced to resign. Temple's departure destabilised the government, and three months later the government lost its majority and Parliament was dissolved; the subsequent election gave Pitt a firm mandate.

William Pitt

Gold guinea of George III, dated 1789

For George III, Pitt's appointment was a great victory. The King felt that the scenario proved that he still had the power to appoint Prime Ministers without having to rely on any parliamentary group. Throughout Pitt's ministry, George eagerly supported many of his political aims. To aid Pitt, George created new peers at an unprecedented rate. The new peers flooded the House 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 that he sanctioned. George also aided the Royal Academy with large grants from his private funds. The British people admired their King for remaining faithful to his wife, unlike the two previous Hanoverian monarchs. Great advances were made in fields such as in science and industry.

However, by this time George III's health was deteriorating. He suffered from a mental illness, now widely believed to be a symptom of porphyria. A study of samples of the King's hair revealed high levels of arsenic, a possible trigger for the disease. The King may have previously suffered a brief episode of the disease in 1765, but a longer episode began in the summer of 1788. George was sufficiently sane to prorogue Parliament on 25 September 1788, but his condition worsened and in November he became seriously deranged, sometimes speaking for many hours without pause. With his doctors largely at a loss to explain his illness, spurious stories about his condition spread, such as the claim that he shook hands with a tree in the mistaken belief that it was the King of Prussia. When Parliament reconvened in November, the King could not, as was customary, communicate to them the agenda for the upcoming legislative session. According to long-established practice, Parliament could not begin the transaction of business until the King had made the Speech from the Throne. Parliament, however, ignored the custom and began to debate provisions for a regency.

Charles James Fox and William Pitt wrangled over the terms of which individual was entitled to take over government during the illness of the Sovereign. Although both parties agreed that it would be most reasonable for George III's eldest son and heir-apparent, the Prince of Wales, to act as Regent, they disagreed over the basis of a regency. Fox suggested that it was the Prince of Wales's absolute right to act on his ill 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 been formally 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 to Lords Commissioners by letters patent, which were validated by the attachment of the Great Seal. It was proposed that the custodian of the Great Seal, the Lord Chancellor, affix the Seal without the consent of the Sovereign. Although such an action would be unlawful, it would not be possible to question the validity of the letters patent, as the presence of the Great Seal would be deemed conclusive in court. George III's second son, the Prince Frederick, Duke of York, denounced Pitt's proposal as "unconstitutional and illegal". Nonetheless, the Lords Commissioners were appointed and then opened Parliament. In February 1789, the Regency Bill, authorising the Prince of Wales to act as Prince Regent, was introduced and passed in the House of Commons. But before the House of Lords could pass the bill, George III recovered from his illness under the treatment of Dr Francis Willis. He confirmed the actions of the Lords Commissioners as valid, but resumed full control of government.

French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars

After George recovered from his illness, his popularity, and that of Pitt, greatly increased at the expense of Fox and the Prince of Wales. 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 soon represented the British resistance. George 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 Coalition (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 First Consul of the French Republic. Perhaps surprisingly, a failed assassination attempt of May 15, 1800 was not political in origin but motivated by the religious delusions of his assailant, James Hadfield, who shot at the King in the Drury Lane Theatre during the playing of the national anthem.

Soon 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, on 1 January 1801, united Great Britain and Ireland into a single nation, known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. George used the opportunity to drop the claim to the Throne of France, which English and British Sovereigns had maintained since the reign of Edward III. It was suggested that George adopt the title "Emperor of the British and Hanoverian Dominions", but he refused. A. G. Stapleton writes that George III "felt that his true dignity consisted in his being known to Europe and the world by the appropriated and undisputed style belonging to the British Crown."

As part of his Irish policy, Pitt planned to remove certain legal disabilities that applied to Roman Catholics after the Union. George III claimed that to emancipate Catholics would be to violate his coronation oath, in which Sovereigns promise to maintain Protestantism. The King declared, "Where is the power on Earth to absolve me from the observance of every sentence of that oath, particularly the one requiring me to maintain the Protestant Reformed Religion? … No, no, I had rather beg my bread from door to door throughout Europe, than consent to any such 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 a block and lose my life, but I cannot break my oath." Faced with opposition to his religious reform policies from both the King and the British public, Pitt threatened to resign. At about the same time, the King suffered a relapse of his previous illness, which he blamed on worry over the Catholic question. On 14 March 1801, Pitt was formally replaced by the Speaker of the House of Commons, Henry Addington. As Addington was his close friend, Pitt remained as a private advisor. Addington's ministry was particularly unremarkable, as almost no reforms were made or measures passed. In fact, the nation was strongly against the very idea of reform, having just witnessed the bloody French Revolution. Although they called for passive 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 did not consider the peace with France as "real"; in his view it was an "experiment". In 1803, the two nations once again declared war on each other. In 1804, George was again affected by his recurrent illness; on his recovery, he discovered that public opinion distrusted Addington to lead the nation in war, and instead favoured Pitt. Pitt sought to appoint Fox to his ministry, but George III refused as the King disliked Fox, who had encouraged the Prince of Wales to lead an extravagant and expensive life. Lord 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 Third Coalition, 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 Admiral Lord Nelson's famous victory at the Battle of Trafalgar.

The setbacks in Europe took a toll on William Pitt's health. Pitt died in 1806, once again reopening the question of who should serve in the ministry. Lord Grenville became Prime Minister, and his "Ministry of All the Talents" included Charles James Fox. The King was conciliatory towards Fox, after being forced to capitulate over his 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 all ranks of the Armed Forces. George not only instructed them to drop the measure, but also to make an agreement to never set up such a measure again. The ministers agreed to drop the measure then pending, but refused to bind themselves in the future. In 1807, they were dismissed and replaced 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 election gave the ministry a strong majority in the House of Commons. George III made no further major political decisions during his reign; the replacement of the Duke of Portland by Perceval in 1809 was of little actual significance.

Later life

George, Prince of Wales, acted as Prince-Regent from 1811 to 1820

In 1810, already virtually blind with cataracts and in pain from rheumatism, George III became dangerously ill. In his view the malady had been triggered by the stress he suffered at the death of his youngest and favourite daughter, Princess Amelia. As the Princess's nurse reported, "the scenes of distress and crying every day…were melancholy beyond description." By 1811, George III had become permanently insane and lived in seclusion at Windsor Castle until his death. He accepted the need for the Regency Act 1811, to which the Royal Assent was granted by the Lords Commissioners, appointed under the same irregular procedure as was adopted in 1788. The Prince of Wales acted as Regent for the remainder of George III's life.

Spencer Perceval was assassinated in 1812 (the only British Prime Minister to have suffered such a fate) and was replaced by Lord Liverpool. Liverpool oversaw British victory in the Napoleonic Wars. The subsequent Congress of Vienna led to significant territorial gains for Hanover, which was upgraded from an electorate to a kingdom.

Half-Crown coin of George III, 1816. Click for notes.

Meanwhile, George's health deteriorated, eventually he became completely blind and increasingly deaf. He never knew that he was declared King of Hanover in 1814, or of the death of his wife in 1818. Over Christmas 1819, he spoke nonsense for 58 hours, and for the last few weeks of his life was unable to walk. On 29 January, 1820, he died at Windsor Castle. His favourite son, Frederick, Duke of York, was with him. His death came six days after that of his fourth son, the Duke of Kent. George III was buried on 15 February in St. George's Chapel, Windsor.

George was succeeded by two of his sons George IV and William IV, who both died without surviving legitimate children, leaving the throne to their niece, Victoria, the last monarch of the House of Hanover and the only legitimate child of the Duke of Kent.

Legacy

Signature of George III, c. 1790

Rare early signature of George III from document dated 27th October 1760

George lived for 81 years and 239 days and reigned for 59 years and 96 days — in each case, more than any other English or British monarch until that point. This record has been surpassed only once, by George's granddaughter Queen Victoria. His longevity is being approached by Elizabeth II, who will have lived longer as of mid-December 2007. George III's reign was longer than the reigns of all three of his immediate predecessors (Queen Anne, King George I and King George II) combined.

While tremendously popular in Britain, George was hated by revolutionary American colonists (approximately one-third of the population in the colonies). The grievances in the United States Declaration of Independence were presented as "repeated injuries and usurpations" that he had committed to establish "an absolute Tyranny" over the colonies. The Declaration's wording has contributed to the American public's perception of George as a tyrant. American resentment toward George was exacerbated by his failure to intercede personally on the colonists' behalf after the Olive Branch Petition. George was hated in Ireland for the atrocities carried out in his name during the suppression of the 1798 rebellion. In light of these concerns, British historians of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, such as Trevelyan, promoted hostile interpretations of George III's life. However, scholars of the later twentieth century, such as Butterfield and Pares, and Macalpine and Hunter, are more inclined to be sympathetic, seeing him as a victim of circumstance and illness. Today, the long reign of George III is perceived as a continuation of the reduction in the political power of monarchy, and its growth as the embodiment of national morality.

1887 illustration of George III

There are many cities and towns in former British colonies named Georgetown in honour of George III or his son, George IV. Statues of George III can be seen today in places such as the courtyard of Somerset House in London and in Weymouth, Dorset, which he popularised as a seaside resort (one of the first in England). A statue of George III was pulled down in New York at the beginning of the War of Independence in 1776 and two engravings of its destruction still exist (though one is wholly inaccurate).

The British Agricultural Revolution reached its peak under George III. The period provided for unprecedented growth in the rural population, which in turn provided much of the workforce for the concurrent Industrial Revolution. George III has been nicknamed Farmer George, for "his plain, homely, thrifty manners and tastes" and because of his passionate interest in agriculture.

George III in popular culture

George's insanity is the subject of the film The Madness of King George (1994), based on the play The Madness of George III by Alan Bennett. He was portrayed by Nigel Hawthorne, who received the Laurence Olivier Award and was nominated for an Academy Award for his role. The film concerns George's second bout of insanity in late 1788 and early 1789, while those in the royal court, including his own son (played by Rupert Everett) use this unfortunate situation as a way to sidestep regal authority.

The popular 1970s children's educational series Schoolhouse Rock features a song entitled "No More Kings" which paints George III as a tyrant reluctant to allow the colonies out from under his boot. King George III appears in the novel Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke, and the last episode of the BBC Comedy Blackadder the Third. In Douglas Adams's book, Life, the Universe and Everything, the character Arthur Dent refers to trees as 'those things people think you're mad if you talk to? Like George the Third.' George III's papers do not include a diary. The X-Files use an anecdote that George III's diary entry on July 4, 1776 read: "Nothing important happened today", as a plot device and as the title of its final season premiere.

The music theatre piece Eight Songs for a Mad King by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies depicts the increasing madness and eventual death of the king as he talks to birds. George III is also a key character is several episodes of the anime Le Chevalier D'Eon.

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Titles

Royal styles of George III Reference style His Majesty Spoken style Your Majesty Alternative style Sir

• 4 June 1738 – 31 March 1751: His Royal Highness Prince George of Wales
• 31 March 1751 – 20 April 1751: His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh
• 20 April 1751 – 25 October 1760: His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales
• 25 October 1760 – 29 January 1820: His Majesty The King

Styles

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

Arms

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

When he became King of the United Kingdom, his 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 double tressure flory-counter-flory Gules (for Scotland); III Azure a harp Or stringed Argent (for Ireland); overall an escutcheon tierced per pale and per chevron (for Hanover), I Gules two lions passant guardant Or (for Brunswick), II Or a semy of hearts Gules a lion rampant Azure (for Lunenburg), III Gules a horse courant Argent (for Westfalen), the whole inescutcheon surmounted by an electoral bonnet. In 1816, two years after the Electorate of Hanover became a Kingdom, the electoral bonnet was changed to a crown.

Ancestors

16. Ernest Augustus, Elector of Hanover

8. George I of Great Britain

17. Sophia, Princess Palatine of the Rhine

4. George II of Great Britain

18. George William, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg

9. Sophia Dorothea of Celle

19. Eleonore d'Esmier d'Olbreuse

2. Frederick, Prince of Wales

20. Albert, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach

10. John Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach

21. Sophia Margaret of Oettingen-Oettingen

5. Margravine Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach

22. John George I, Duke of Saxe-Eisenach

11. Eleanor Erdmuthe Louise of Saxe-Eisenach

23. Johanetta of Sayn-Wittgenstein

1. George III of the United Kingdom

24. Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha

12. Frederick I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg

25. Princess Elisabeth Sophie of Saxe-Altenburg

6. Frederick II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg

26. Augustus, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels

13. Magdalena Sibylle of Saxe-Weissenfels

27. Anna Maria of Mecklenburg-Schwerin

3. Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha

28. John VI, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst

14. Charles of Anhalt-Zerbst

29. Sophie Augusta, Princess of Holstein-Gottorp

7. Princess Magdalena Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst

30. Augustus, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels (= 26)

15. Sophia of Saxe-Weissenfels

31. Anna Maria of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (= 27)

Issue

Name	Birth	Death	Notes
George IV	12 August 1762	26 June 1830	married 1795, Princess Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel; had issue
Frederick, Duke of York	16 August 1763	5 January 1827	married 1791, Princess Frederica of Prussia; no issue
William IV	21 August 1765	20 June 1837	married 1818, Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen; no legitimate surviving issue
Charlotte, Princess Royal	29 September 1766	6 October 1828	married 1797, Frederick, King of Württemberg; no issue
Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent	2 November 1767	23 January 1820	married 1818, Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld; had issue (Queen Victoria)
Princess Augusta Sophia	8 November 1768	22 September 1840	never married
Princess Elizabeth	22 May 1770	10 January 1840	married 1818, Frederick, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg; no issue
Ernest Augustus I of Hanover	5 June 1771	18 November 1851	married 1815, Princess Friederike of Mecklenburg-Strelitz; had issue
Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex	27 January 1773	22 April 1843	married in contravention of the Royal Marriages Act 1772, (1) 1793 The Lady Augusta Murray; had issue; marriage declared void 1794; (2) 1831, The Lady Cecilia Buggins (later 1st Duchess of Inverness); no issue
Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge	24 February 1774	8 July 1850	married 1818, Princess Augusta of Hesse-Kassel; had issue
Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester	25 April 1776	30 April 1857	married 1816, Prince William, Duke of Gloucester; no issue
Princess Sophia	3 November 1777	27 May 1848	never married; believed by some to have had issue
Prince Octavius	23 February 1779	3 May 1783
Prince Alfred	22 September 1780	20 August 1782
Princess Amelia	7 August 1783	2 November1810	Possibly married Sir Charles Fitzroy; may have had issue

See also

• List of British monarchs
• American Revolutionary War
• List of mentally ill monarchs

References

• Cannon, John (Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2007), "George III (1738–1820)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, retrieved 2007-05-25 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
• Hibbert, Christopher (1999). George III: A Personal History. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 0140257373.
• Röhl, John C. G. (1998). Purple Secret: Genes, "Madness" and the Royal Houses of Europe. London: Bantam Press. ISBN 0-593-04148-8. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Thomas, Peter D. G. (1985). "George III and the American Revolution". History. 70 (228): 16–31.
• Trevelyan, George (1912). George the Third and Charles Fox: The Concluding Part of the American Revolution.
• Weir, Alison (1996). Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy, Revised edition. Random House. ISBN 0712674489.

Further reading

• Black, Jeremy. George III: America’s Last King. New Heaven, CT; London: Yale University Press, 2006 (hardcover, ISBN 0300117329).
• Bryant, Mark (2001) [1996]. Private Lives: Curious Facts About the Famous and Infamous. London: Cassell. ISBN 0-304-35758-8.
• Herbert Butterfield; George III and the Historians (1959) online edition
• G. M. Ditchfield. George III: An Essay in Monarchy (2003)
• Macalpine, Ida (1966). "The 'insanity' of King George III: a classic case of porphyria". Brit. Med. J. 1: 65–71. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• May, Thomas Erskine (1896). The Constitutional History of England Since the Accession of George the Third, 1760–1860 (11th ed. ed.). London: Longmans, Green and Co. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)
• Richard Pares; King George III and the Politicians (1953) online edition
• Earl Aaron Reitan, ed. George III, Tyrant Or Constitutional Monarch? (1964) - 106 pages
• J. Steven Watson; The Reign of George III, 1760–1815, 1960, the standard scholarly history online edition

External links

• Biography and signed documents