II.

Early Life

The grandson of George II, George was the first of the Hanoverian house to be born and educated in Britain, a matter in which he expressed considerable pride. He learned German, but English was his first language and he never visited Hanover, or, indeed, travelled beyond England. His youthful education was undertaken by a succession of private tutors, under the governorship, first, of James, Earl Waldegrave, and subsequently of John Stuart, Earl of Bute. That Bute influenced the young prince in the direction of a more authoritarian style of monarchy, though widely believed at the time and subsequently, is a myth. The king's youthful essays in the Royal Archives, annotated by Bute, reveal a deep respect for the British constitution (especially the Bill of Rights of 1689) and the authority of Parliament.