GEORGE IV. became king of Great Britain on his father's death. He had been vir tual sovereign during the long period of his father's last insanity, as prince regent. He was born on Aug. 12,1762, and died on June 26,1830. That he should have lived so long as 67 years is not the least notable circumstance connected with a life that has supplied as much material for scandal as any in English history. George IV. had con siderable intellectual ability and address, could tell stories well, and enjoyed every day without thinking of the next. His personal attractions, and his position, together, led many in his lifetime to style him, not without sincerity, "the first gentleman of Europe ;" but the decay of king-worshp, and the growth of morality, have not allowed that to continue to be the opinion of his countrymen. His frailties, and those of his royal namesakes, have been mercilessly exposed by Thackeray in his Four Georgcs (1861). Unfortunately for their memory, no man of Thackery's abilities has set himself to look for their virtues and their good deeds to England—which were not few—and for which they have earned the gratitude of patriots, not mere blind worshippers of royalty.
The marriage of George IV. was specially unfortunate. ' He entered into it on April 8,1791, with his cousin Caroline Amelia Elizabeth, second daughter of the .duke of Brunswick, under the pressure of debt, and of his father, and their conjugal happiness, if it ever existed, did not last many weeks. The princess Charlotte Augusta was horn of the Jan. 7,1796, and shortly after, her parents separated, having ceased to speak to each other months before. See CAROLINE. The princess Charlotte had married prince Leopold, afterwards king of Belgium, and she died in childbed on Nov. 6,1817, greatly to the grief of the whole nation.
Royal visits to Scotland and Ireland; the aid rendered to the Greeks by the British fleet in the battle of Navarino (1827), which secured the independence of Greece; and the passing (1829) of the Roman Catholic relief bill (q.v.), (so odious to his father), are the most notable incidents of this king's reign. He was succeeded by his brother Wil liam, duke of Clarence, who had entered the navy in his youth.