GEORGE III. (1738-1820). King of Great Britain and Ireland, 1760-1820. He was born on June 4, 1738, and succeeded his grandfather, George II. His father was Frederick Lewis, Prince of Wales, and his mother was Augusta, daugh ter of the Duke of Saxe-Gotha. His early educa tion was the occasion of much quarreling between his father and grandfather, and suffered in con sequence. His governor and preceptors were often changed, in accordance with their supposed political influence on his character. He grew up with a limited education; he spoke French and German, but knew little Latin and less Greek. His English was poor in conversation, and worse in writing. He spelled badly, and had no taste for literature. Nevertheless, he began the famous collection of books and manuscripts which, under the name of King's Library. is one of the great est treasures of the British Museum, and he had a genuine appreciation of music.
George III. had but average ability, but more than average obstinacy. Although a great stick ler for formalities and royal dignity. he was simple and economical in his tastes, which were emphatically those of the middle class. He had a taste for farming, and was fond of petty me chanical contrivances, and was often derisively called 'Farmer George' and 'the royal button maker' He was sincerely pious, and, unlike his immediate predecessors and successors, was high ly moral. He married in 1761 the Princess Charlotte Sophia, daughter of the Duke of Meck lenburg, and became the father of fifteen chil dren. He was a man of great courage, and in moments of danger preserved the greatest dignity. At the time of the Lord George Gordon riots his was the only clear head in the Council, and it was due to his advice that the riots were sup pressed.
George III. was perhaps the most important figure in the British constitutional development of the eighteenth century. In his boyhood his mother had instilled exalted notions of the royal prerogative into his mind. The Earl of Bute, his chief instructor later, by his influence emphasized these tendencies. His plan was to do away with the party system as it then existed, and to re sume the powers of the Crown which had been appropriated by the Cabinet Ministry. From the time of the accession of the House of Hanover the Whig oligarchy had controlled Parliament, and by their chosen Ministers ruled the King. George III. designed to break up this oligarchy, and to make himself the ruler. He differed from the Stuarts in that he proposed to rule constitu tionally, with the consent of Parliament; and from the Pitts in that he wished to overthrow the oligarchy by exercise of the royal power, in stead of appealing to public sentiment. He re assumed the Crown patronage which had passed into the hands of the Cabinet, and by it organized a group of politicians upon whom he could de pend. The 'King's friends' thus became an im portant factor in politics. He did not hesitate to use corruption to gain his ends, both in gen eral elections and in securing Parliamentary votes, according to the custom of his age. Al though at times the nation disapproved of his policy, yet in the main it supported his measures, and the Whig oligarchy was finally broken.
The history of the reign of George III. is a description of the struggle he made to put his political theories into practice. After the fall of Pitt, under whom England had entered upon a brilliant career of victory and conquest in the Seven Years' War, he succeeded in 1761 in intro ducing some of his own friends into the Whig Ministry of Newcastle, and on the retirement of the latter in the following year he made Bute, his favorite, Prime Minister. nut there was great prej udice against Bute, on account of his Scotch na tionality and well-known opinions on the royal prerogative. He was not a man of sufficient ability to overcome this prejudice, and, recognizing his failure, resigned in 1763. Meanwhile the Whig Party had broken up into three factions, and the King invited George Grenville, the leader of those whose opinions differed least from his own, to form a. new Cabinet. He approved of the prose cution and exile of the Radical leader Wilkes by Grenville, and the Stamp Act • (1765) taxing the American colonies. But being unable to tolerate Grenville's rudeness and dictatorial at titude, he dismissed him, and reluctantly ad mitted the Rockingham Ministry, which repre sented the most liberal of the Whig factions, and the only English party that made no use of Par liamentary corruption. Their liberal measures, notably the repeal of the Stamp Act, displeased the King, and in 1766 he invited Pitt, whom he made Earl of Chatham, to form a Cabinet. Pitt's Cabinet was formed, but the King's plans were frustrated by the failure of the Prime Minis ter's health. During the Ministry of Grafton that followed, the King approved of Townshend's im port duties levied on America in 1767, and also of the exclusion of Wilkes from the House of Commons, although the attitude of the House was in opposition to the best political and legal thought of the day. On the resignation of Graf ton he at last found in Lord North a Minister after his own heart. North honestly agreed with the King's ideas, and tried to carry them out. He was firm and able, seldom gave offense, and had great tact for managing Parliamentary majorities. During his long Ministry (1770-82) the King virtually directed political affairs, as his correspondence with Lord North shows (ed. by W. B. Doane, London, 1867). Throughout the American War, of which he was strongly in favor, his wishes controlled the Ministry, the Commons being a mere instrument in his hands. After the French-American alliance he alone wished to continue the war, refusing to allow Lord North to resign. When at last the inevi table resignation came, he contrived to break up the second Rockingham Ministry, through the influence of Shelburne. On the downfall of the Shelburne Ministry he defeated by his personal efforts the combination Ministry of Fox and North. In the face of a hostile majority he ap pointed the younger Pitt as Prime Minister, and the electors signified their approval by returning a Tory majority to Parliament.