Today's monarch of Great Britain is a man of so many faces. To some, he was a good and kind king, mindful of normal matters, and in many ways, the one "good" Hanoverian king. To others, he was a lunatic who talked to potted plants and fondled young girls. To the Americans, he was a petty tyrant who denied them representation but lorded over them like a self-important god king, to many of the English, he was sometimes beloved, sometimes an embarrassment and a popular subject of ridicule. To still many more, he was a dutiful husband, a devoted father, and a generally likable fellow. Who was George the III? Why is he such a controversial figure in history? Why was he so damned unlucky? Read on!
I give you, George William Frederick Brunswick Luneberg, AKA George III, AKA "Farmer George." - Was born in London in 1738. He was 2 months premature, which normally would have been a death sentence. However, he beat the odds and survived. His father was Frederick, the hateful son of George II. - He was the oldest son of a rather large family. Unlike his next youngest brother, Edward, who was a talkative, naughty boy, George William was actually very shy and reserved. Intelligent but well mannered, his tutors liked him. He was the first Hanoverian monarch to have been born in England, his primary language was English, (Although he had a German accent,) and he spoke both English and German fluently. - He took an interest in science and math, riding and fencing, theater and art. He was a well rounded and intelligent boy, and was known to discuss politics with adults at the young age of 8. - When he was 12 years old, his father died suddenly. Long neglected by his grandfather, the king, George William was suddenly thrust into the duties and responsibilities of being the Prince of Wales. Though George II took more interest in him, the prince was pretty much left to his own devices. - He was close to his mother, the Dowager princess of Wales. When George II offered a home to prince George, both mother and son refused. The Dowager Princess knew very well that the king had hated her husband, and she was not about to let her son move into what she saw as a "morally decadent court." (She was probably right to do so... the Hanoverian kings were all exceedingly lusty and decadent, and Prince George was only 18, a perfect age to wind up losing ones' self to hedonism.) - Prince George fell in love at 21, and wanted to marry. However, he was not allowed, as his responsibility was to have a political marriage. Love was for mistresses and chambermaids, after all! George II picked a woman for him to marry, but George and his mother didn't like her at all. They delayed responding to the request, and luckily for prince George, the "Old George" on the throne died the next year... on a throne of a different sort. - At age 22, George William became King George III. By now, the English people didn't put much hope in yet another "German" king, and not much was expected from him. They just hoped he wouldn't be a woman chasing drunkard like his predecessors. - Finally, Parliament and matchmakers found Princess Charlotte of Macklenberg, a German girl of noble bearing. George III agreed to marry her, and did so... he didn't even meet her until the day of the ceremony. No one expected what happened next... the King and Queen fell in love... and not just a small bit of love... not a dutiful love... they were truly dedicated to each other and had 15 children together. George would never take a mistress, (though people wrongly assumed he did,) and remained dedicated to his wife his entire life... unlike his father, uncles, grandfather, great grandfather, or any of his sons. George III was an anomaly. - Now king, the young George III had a daunting task ahead... the seven years war was raging on, (called the French-Indian war in the American colonies,) the people hated his family, and England was losing money fast. The first thing he did was to distance himself from Hanover. (He would actually never go there, even though he was king there, too.) This did much to gain the support of the people, but not enough for them to trust him. - Now, he had to mollify a bitterly divided Parliament. While his grandfather had famously favored whatever side he wished at whatever given moment he wished, George at least TRIED to keep everyone happy. Even so, the Whigs blamed George for many of their woes, and claimed he was an autocrat. In order to endear himself to them, George III agreed to end taxation as an income for the royalty. Instead, Parliament would handle all taxes, and the throne would gain a permanent allowance. Separating the throne and Parliament should have smoothed things over... instead, people started wondering why they needed a king at all. - Devoting himself to the arts, George III gave huge sums of money to the Royal Academy of Arts. When Parliament refused to give him more, he started using his own money for art and science research grants. Slowly, George began to gain popularity in England. - George III always loved science, in particular farming science. He took great joy in raising livestock, trying new farming techniques, and doing things in a "common" way. He had an abundance of common sense. His detractors snickered and called him "Farmer George." While it was meant as an insult, George wore it as a badge of honor, and the common folk saw it as a way to say he was like them, not an uppity noble. - The problem in the American Colonies was starting to become apparent. England had paid vast sums of money to defeat the French in what would become Canada, and it was important to keep the colonists from moving further west into Louisiana territory... as part of England's arrangement with France. In 1763, George issued a proclamation limiting the colonists and barring them from moving further west, or south down into Florida. This angered many vocal colonists. - Parliament decided that the colonists should pay extra taxes in order to pay for protection from Native Americans and French invasion. George III agreed with this. Grenville, the Prime Minister, issued the "Sugar Act" and the "Stamp Act." The Americans were not angry at the cost of the Tax, but they were outraged that they had no say in what could or could not be taxed, since they were actually BARRED from holding office in Parliament. The cry of "No taxation without representation" began to be chanted and cried from every corner of the American Colonies. - King George was actually offended by the Americans doing this... while he knew he was not an autocrat, he was offended that he was getting blamed for all of it. After all, the Americans were burning effigies of HIM, not Grenville. George was always mocked by the English people, but to have the Americans do it seems to have really upset him. He refused to budge on his proclamations, and supported Parliament at first. - However, when the situation worsened, George removed Grenville from office and replaced him. He tried to get William Pitt the elder to return, to no avail. Eventually, he settled on Lord Rockingham, the leader of the opposition, to try to defuse the situation and get the Americans to pay their extra taxes. This wasn't successful, either. - Rockingham, with the King and Pitt's help, repealed the unpopular Stamp Act. (By now, not one person in the colonies was brave enough to try to collect it, anyway!) This actually made the colonists very happy. Celebrations of the King were suddenly happening everywhere. People in New York erected statues of Rockingham and Pitt, and "God Save the King" was again popular to say in the Americas. (Yes, my American friends, this happened.) George rewarded them both, even making Pitt the Earl of Chatham. Members of the old government tried to re-enter Parliament, only to have King George run them out again. Everyone was so pleased that things were shaping up, that they didn't even seem to mind that much that George was just firing MPs willy nilly... the Tories returned to power not with a huge election or a fierce battle... but with the blessing of the people. - Now emboldened, George began to meddle more. He was sickened by the behavior of his brothers. One openly admitted to adultery with a married woman, then later married a low-born widow. Another brother married outside of royalty without even consulting with king George. Outraged at being brushed aside, George pushed an act through Parliament that said that no member of the Royal family could marry without permission of the sovereign. Wildly unpopular with his own family, this would serve to be the cause for George III's own battle with his heir. Like every other Hanoverian monarch, George III would grow to hate his son, prince George Augustus Frederick. ("Prinnie" to those who didn't like him much.) But when he passed this law, Prinnie was only 8 years old. - George continued to meddle in Parliamentary affairs. The wave of popularity couldn't last, and soon George was at odds with his government and the people of the colonies once again. The people of America were grumbling again, this time about duty exemptions that let companies like the East India Company sell common goods far cheaper in the Americas than American producers could. Parliament decided to remove all of them... except for one. The exemption on tea would continue, so as to not COMPLETELY capitulate to the uppity colonists. While not a majorly expensive tax, it was particularly onerous to the Americans, because pretty much EVERYONE drank tea. In response, Americans tossed an entire boatload of tea into Boston harbor. The "Boston Tea Party" outraged not only the king, but also Parliament and the wealthy of England in general. - Although he personally had no hand in the Tea Exemption or the Tea Tax in general. (Remember, Parliament did all that,) George was squarely blamed by the Americans for the fiasco. George supported the tax, if not by direct word, then at least by inaction. In truth, George simply valued his ministers more than the colonists, which made sense. His ministers were in London, not half a world away. - Parliament punished the Americans by passing the "Intolerable Acts." At this point, war was likely inevitable. - While George did not desire war, he really didn't have much to say in the matter. The Americans did appeal to him directly, but no monarch would have ever simply allowed one of their colonies to simply walk away just because they wanted to. George sided with his ministers, and the Americans broke out in open revolt. - The war was initially quite popular in England. Many British believed that the Americans were being quite unreasonable in blaming George and refusing to pay taxes. Recruitment was rather easy, and for a time, England was winning the war. However, France entered an alliance with the Americans. Soon Spain and the Netherlands joined them, too. Britain was suddenly on the defensive at home, and George was on the defensive from his own people. The war was costly, and with the Spanish, Dutch, and French all boycotting England, the economy was collapsing. Riots broke out. The prime minister tried to resign twice, but George III wouldn't let him. - Eventually, General Cornwallis surrendered, and England was forced to acknowledge the USA as an independent country. George III was fairly decent about the whole thing, telling John Adams that while he (the king) was the last to agree to independence, he would be the first to become friends with the new country. - This fiasco completely turned public opinion against Parliament and King. Ministers loyal to George were run out on a rail, and George was forced to accept ministers not to his liking. In particular, he hated Charles Fox, who was friends with his now adult son, "Prinnie." Fox and Prince George were becoming notorious for their drinking and womanizing, and the very pious, very moral George III blamed Fox for his son's debauchery. - George III continued to meddle in Parliament, trying to sway votes and appoint ministers he could control. Finally, George tossed out dozens of MPs, and threatened the new ones to vote his way or fear his wrath. Parliament, now quite sick of the king's meddling, passed a resolution making the interference of the monarch in Parliamentary votes a "High Crime." They had almost literally slammed the door in George's face. However, their victory quickly turned to defeat. By ousting Temple, (George's man,) from the Prime Minister's seat, they opened the door for William Pitt to return. Pitt won in the resulting chaos, and George finally had a Prime Minister he could work with. He saw this as vindication, and continued to meddle as much as he could. - After the economy stabilized, (Pitt was good at his job,) George reinvented himself. Publicly, he focused on his strengths. Showing off his piety and his devotion to his family, he became quite popular again. The people liked the fact that FINALLY, a Hanoverian wasn't a womanizing drunk. His brothers were, his sons were, but the KING wasn't.... and so, the fickle people of England began to support the king again. Things would have been great, but fate decided to lay George low before he could do anything else. - The king began to behave erratically. He gained weight. His urine was purple. While the cause of all this is still debated, it is known that he had high levels of arsenic in his system. (Possibly from his wigs or cosmetics.) He began to rave at nothing, sometimes speaking so constantly for hours on end that he would lose his voice. He spoke to trees. He believed that meat could be planted to make a meat tree. He began groping young girls on staff, seemingly unable to stop himself. He didn't recognize even his beloved wife Charlotte. - Medical treatments for insanity were barbaric at the time. They slathered the king in mustard. They burned his forehead with a hot poker. The screamed in his face and scared him at all hours of the night and day. This, of course, only made things worse. It seemed George III was a lost cause. Parliament declared a regency should be set up. - Pitt and Fox both agreed that the Prince of Wales should be regent... however, Pitt said it was his right as prince, whereas Fox was more progressive, and disagreed with that assessment. The two fought over how to best "Present" the regency to the Prince. Meanwhile, Prince George continued to allow the doctors to torture his ailing father. - Minutes before George III was deposed in favor of his son's regency, the king seemed to make a miraculous recovery. He stormed into Parliament, demonstrating his ability to be lucid, and the regency was over before it began, much to the Prince's chagrin, which he was quite vocal about. - Now back on the throne, King George set about bringing his drunken lout of an heir to heel. Prince George, like Frederick and George II before him, had set up a rival court, undermining the king as much as possible. King George, a devout and hard working Anglican, demanded that the prince stop his life of debauchery, sex, and drinking. The Prince refused. However, "Prinnie" was now deeply in debt. King George offered to pay off his debts if he would marry a respectable woman, Caroline of Brunswick. It came to light that the Prince had already married Maria Fitzherbert, a woman who was not only twice-widowed and divorced, but a CATHOLIC!!! If this marriage stood, the prince could never take the throne. So, George III simply had the marriage quietly declared invalid, and the prince was forced to marry Caroline. This, of course, led to the prince deeply and passionately despising his father for the rest of his life... and he took it out on Caroline. - By now, France was in full revolution. George was just as scared of revolutionary fervor as any other monarch, and made efforts to crush such thoughts in England. Dissent was openly and harshly punished, and old treason laws began to be dusted off and used again. - When Napoleon took over France, England was terrified. Ireland, looking for safety, finally signed an act of union with England, long hated. This turned Great Britain into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. George III also formally renounced the long used "King of France" title the English monarchs had used since Edward III. It was, after, all, rather pointless now that France's monarch was dead. - George III threw himself into opposing Napoleon. Though he signed a peace with France early on, it was just a way for George to bide his time. Whether or not George III would have been successful in stopping Napoleon is moot, as before he could do much, his debilitating insanity suddenly returned. - Though he was in and out of lucidity, he managed to keep working. However, Pitt and Fox died within the next few years, and George was faced with another hostile Parliament. When Parliament tried to pass a law allowing Catholics to rise to any rank in the military, the pious George was so incensed that he demanded the act's renunciation, and a promise from Parliament that they would never try to pass a law like that again. - When George stood up to the new Parliament, he became popular with his people again. Now aged, nearly blind with cataracts, and sick, people loved their "Farmer George." The resented the excesses of Parliament and the Crown Prince, and though stodgy, old, half mad, George III was pious and faithful to his wife. George wouldn't have long to enjoy his new popularity, though... in 1810, he finally slipped permanently into insanity. - In a rare lucid moment, sad, broken, and sick George III handed the regency over to his detested son, who became George IV, Regent King. George III, now in his late 70s, was shut away for fear of embarrassing himself or his family. He no longer bathed or groomed, was half deaf and completely blind. He lost all sense of who he was or who his family was. He was wheeled out for a Christmas celebration one year, but all he could do was talk in gibberish, constantly, for more than 3 days straight. His wife died in 1818, and George III had no idea. Mostly forgotten and ignored, George III died two years later, in 1820. He was 81 years old. He had reigned for 60 years, the longest reign of any until Victoria and Elizabeth II. |
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