The grandson of King George II, George III came to the throne after his death, due to the previous death of his father Prince Frederick. King George III was easily the most popular Hanoverian monarch. He was the first British sovereign since Queen Anne died that did not speak with a German accent. He was the first Hanoverian monarch to be British first and foremost and did not spend half his reign in Germany like his father & grandfather. He was also devoted to the idea of constitutional monarchy and felt that it was his duty to carry out the will of the people as expressed through parliament.
George III was never comfortable in the stuffy court atmosphere in London and always preferred rural life to the trappings of royalty. He even wrote gardening pamphlets under a false name. He gained alot of public admiration due to his generosity. From 1760 he donated about 14,000 pounds a year to agricultural causes. This would be equal to 560,000 in today's British pounds. Acts such as this caused many people to nickname him "Farmer George". In 1809 King George III donated 6,000 pounds (240,000) to prisoners and debtors' causes. George III was the first British monarch to give monetary aid to the public out of his own pocket.
However, the one event King George III will always be remembered for is the American Revolution. In this, much undue blame has been heaped on the king for supporting the acts of parliament. He was in favor of the colonies helping shoulder the burden of the war with France in which Britain had supplied troops to defend the American colonies from French attacks. He did cause a stir in the colonies by his decree reserving the land west of the colonies for the Native Americans. The many trappers and frontiersmen in the colonies naturally wanted this land for themselves. The subsequent revolution was very much a threat to prestige in Great Britain. In fact, King George was more upset that his brother monarchs in France and Spain would stab him in the back than the fact that some colonists were refusing to pay taxes. When King Louis XVI fell victim to a revolution in his own country, King George III said God was punishing the French monarch for aiding the Americans.
However, despite the loss of the American colonies King George remained in the good graces of the public. The world-wide conflict with France, Spain, and Holland was won and the "rally effect" from the start of the Napoleonic Wars also helped his popularity. When King George survived an assassination attempt at a crowded theatre, the people were so impressed with his calm courageousness that the entire theatre stood up and belted out three rounds of "God Save the King".Towards the end of his 60-year reign, the second longest in British history, George III began to fall victim to dimensia and was kept in doors. However, right up to his death, the people fondly remembered King George for the monarch he had been rather than the senile old man he had become. |
