George III is most remembered as the mad king who lost the American Colonies. However his tragic life consisted of much more tragedy than that implies.
Born 2 months premature, he wasn’t even expected to live long.
He had some learning delays, such as not being able to read properly until age 11, which annoyed his father greatly and estranged the two.
Still, George III matured into a steadfast king; diligent, dutiful, and habitually moderate.
He was frugal in an age of excess, pious at a time of impiety. His interests ranged from physics and theology and his 65,000 books would stock the British national library.
He was a devoted family man, unlike many monarchs of his day.
In 1761, he chose an obscure, drab German princess sight unseen to be his queen and married Charlotte in St. James’s Palace 6 hours after her arrival in London. The union proved fertile as they had 15 children together.
George III reigned at the end of the Seven Years’ War in 1763 when victory over France and Spain created the first British Empire including enormous territorial gains in Canada, the West Indies, and half a billion acres in America between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River.
Mental Illness and the Regency
Wealth and status could not protect the king from suffering extreme bouts of mental illness—some so severe that he was incapacitated and unable to make decisions for his realm. George’s mental health issues were well-documented by his equerry, Robert Fulke Greville, and Buckingham Palace.
It is believed that George’s first bout of mental illness surfaced around 1765. He spoke endlessly, often for hours, and sometimes without an audience, causing himself to foam at the mouth and lose his voice.
He rarely slept. He shouted unintelligibly at advisers who spoke to him, and wrote lengthy letters to anyone and everyone, with some sentences being hundreds of words long.
With the king unable to function effectively, his mother Augusta and Prime Minister Lord Bute somehow managed to keep Queen Charlotte unaware of what was happening.
In addition, they conspired to keep her ignorant of the Regency Bill, which decreed that in the event of George’s full incapacity, Charlotte herself would then be appointed Regent.
In fact, he was heavily monitored by staff at all times, even while he slept.
In 2018, the records were made public for the first time.
In 1788, Dr Francis Willis wrote:
“H.M became so ungovernable that recourse was had to the strait waistcoat:
His legs were tied, & he was secured down across his Breast, & in this melancholy situation he was, when I came to make my morning Enquiries.”
Scientists and historians have debated for over two centuries about the cause of the famous “madness.” One 1960s study indicated a link to the hereditary blood disorder porphyria.
People suffering from porphyria experience acute anxiety, confusion, and paranoia.
However, a 2010 study published in the Journal of Psychiatry concluded that George probably didn’t have porphyria at all.
Using the evidence of thousands of George III’s own handwritten letters, Dr Peter Garrard and Dr Vassiliki Rentoumi have been analyzing his use of language. They have discovered that during his episodes of illness, his sentences were much longer than when he was well.
A sentence containing 400 words and eight verbs was not unusual. George III, when ill, often repeated himself, and at the same time his vocabulary became much more complex, creative and colorful.
These are features that can be seen today in the writing and speech of patients experiencing the manic phase of psychiatric illnesses such as bipolar disorder.
Mania, or harmful euphoria, is at one end of a spectrum of mood disorders, with sadness, or depression, at the other. George’s being in a manic state would also match contemporary descriptions of his illness by witnesses.
Sometimes he suffered from convulsions, and his pages had to sit on him to keep him safe on the floor.
The researchers have even thrown doubt on one of the key points in the case for porphyria, the blue urine.
George III’s medical records show that the king was given medicine based on gentian. This plant, with its deep blue flowers, is still used today as a mild tonic, but may turn the urine blue.
So maybe it wasn’t the king’s “madness” that caused his most famous symptom. It could have simply been his medicine.
Some twenty years later, after the Revolution had ended, George had a relapse.
Charlotte was, by now, aware of the existence of the Regency Bill; however, her son, the Prince of Wales, had designs of his own on the Regency.
When George recovered in 1789, Charlotte held a ball in honor of the King’s return to health—and deliberately failed to invite her son. However, the two of them formally reconciled in 1791.
George eventually descended into permanent madness, and in 1804, Charlotte moved into separate quarters.
George was declared insane in 1811, and agreed to be placed under Charlotte’s guardianship, which remained in place until Charlotte’s death in 1818.
By a series of military conflicts involving his kingdoms, much of the rest of Europe, and places farther afield in Africa, the Americas, and Asia England was far in debt.
Further wars against revolutionary and Napoleonic France from 1793 concluded in the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, put England at a more powerful stance in world politics.
At the same time, George III consented to his empire being placed in the hands of his son, the Prince of Wales, as Prince Regent.
In total , George III reign lasted 60 years, which has only been surpassed in length by his two descendants Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II.
Abdication Letter
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