III.

The Reign of George III

On his succession to the throne on October 25, 1760, George III entertained the rather naive notion that he would sweep away the corruption and factious behaviour of George II's Whig ministers, notably the Duke of Newcastle, and inaugurate a reign of political virtue. His chosen instrument for so doing was Bute, a man unfit for the highest office, whose ministry lasted for only one year (1762-1763). Bute and his royal master extricated Britain from the Seven Years’ War in 1763, although this brought upon them much criticism and domestic unpopularity. There followed a series of brief, unstable administrations until January 1770, when George III found a personal friend as well as an able prime minister in Frederick, Lord North. Meanwhile he had become his own man, throwing off his dependence on Bute, a process strengthened by his marriage in 1761 to Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, with whom he was to have 15 children.

Of the problems—Ireland, India, and the metropolitan protest movements associated with John Wilkes—that faced North's ministry, the most pressing was that of the 13 British North American colonies. George III strongly favoured the policy of taxing America and of the use of force to sustain British sovereignty. But he was far from the sole instigator of that policy, which had the support of large parliamentary majorities and of substantial sections of public opinion. Moreover, the king never perceived the war as a struggle for his own independent authority but for that of Parliament and statute law. His own particular contribution was to insist on the continuation of the American War of Independence even when it was clearly lost. Never willing to admit a mistake, and possessed of a strong sense of self-righteousness, he accepted the resignation of North in March 1782 and American independence the following year in a most ungracious manner.

There followed a political crisis from March 1782 until the spring of 1784. Twice George III had to accept ministries dominated by his arch-critic Charles James Fox, for whom he conceived a real hatred (it was mutual), especially when Fox became a close friend of the king's eldest son, George, Prince of Wales. In 1782 and again in 1783 George III wrote drafts of a message of abdication and threatened to depart for Hanover. But in December 1783, in one of the most dramatic and controversial moves of his reign, he dismissed Fox from office, appointed the 24-year old William Pitt the Younger as prime minister and sustained him in office against powerful opposition attacks. His actions were vindicated in the general election of 1784, when Pitt won a handsome majority. Pitt, however, proved less deferential towards George III than North had been, maintaining a grip on policy-making, and gradually the king's active involvement in politics declined in importance, although he still retained the last word.

This development was accelerated by his serious illness in the winter of 1788-1789, when he appeared close to death. His malady was widely regarded as a form of insanity, although recent scholarship suggests that he experienced the mental consequences of the physical disease known as porphyria. On his recovery, he achieved a heightened popularity, evident in addresses of congratulations from all over the country. He gradually acquired the reputation of a reassuringly patriotic figure, whose interests, including farming at Windsor and the patronage of philanthropic concerns, were consistent with those of the nation. Even the profligate behaviour of his sons, gleefully reported in the press, only emphasized the contrast with the king's frugality and domestic virtue and aroused sympathy rather than hostility towards him.