3. George III

    George III (reigned 1760 - 1820) was determined to appoint his own ministers and reassert some of the Monarch's independence lost under the first two Georges. However, George's accession in 1760 marked a significant change in Royal finances; it was agreed that the whole cost of the Civil List should be provided by Parliament in return for the surrender of hereditary revenues by the king for the duration of his reign. His reign saw the loss of the American colonies in 1783. After an uprising in Ireland in 1798, the Act of Union of 1801 linked Ireland and England and dissolved the Irish Parliament; instead Irish representatives went to the Westminster Parliament. George was a conscientious King and a devoted father and husband; his interest in botany and farming earned him the nickname “Farmer George.” In 1788 he became mentally deranged, although this may have been due to porphyria, a hereditary physical disorder. George recovered by 1789, but then relapsed, becoming permanently deranged in 1810.

George III

    George IV (reigned 1820 - 30) was 48 when he became Regent in 1811. He had secretly and illegally married a Roman Catholic, Mrs Fitzherbert. In 1795 he officially married Princess Caroline of Brunswick, but the marriage was a failure and he tried unsuccessfully to divorce her after his accession in 1820. Their only child Princess Charlotte died giving birth to a stillborn child. An outstanding, if extravagant, collector and builder, George IV acquired many important works of art, built the Royal Pavilion at Brighton, and transformed Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace. George's fondness for pageantry helped to develop the ceremonial side of monarchy. After his father's long illness, George resumed royal visits; he visited Hanover in 1821, and Ireland and Scotland over the next couple of years.      Beset by debts, George was in a weak position in relation to his Cabinet of ministers. His concern for royal prerogative was sporadic; when the Prime Minister Lord Liverpool fell ill in 1827, George at one stage suggested that ministers should choose Liverpool's successor. In 1829, George IV was forced by his ministers, much against his will and his interpretation of his coronation oath, to agree to Catholic Emancipation. By reducing religious discrimination, this emancipation enabled the monarchy to play a more national role. George's profligacy and marriage difficulties meant that he never regained much popularity, and he spent his final years in seclusion at Windsor, dying at the age of 67.

George IV

    At the age of 13, William became a midshipman and began a career in the Royal Navy. In 1789, he was made duke of Clarence. He retired from the Navy in 1790. Between 1791 and 1811 he lived with his mistress, the actress Mrs Jordan, and the growing family of their children known as the Fitzclarences. William married Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen in 1818, but their children died in infancy. The third son of George III, William became heir apparent at the age of 62 when his older brother died. William's reign (reigned 1830 - 37) was dominated by the Reform crisis, beginning almost immediately when Wellington's Tory government supported by William lost the general election in August 1830. Pledged to parliamentary reform, Grey's Whig government won a further election which William had to call in 1831 and then pushed through a reform bill against the opposition of the Tories and the House of Lords, using the threat of the creation of 50 or more peers to do so.     The failure of the Tories to form an alternative government in 1832 meant that William had to sign the Great Reform Bill. Control of peerages had been used as a party weapon, and the royal prerogative had been damaged. The Reform Bill abolished some of the worst abuses of the electoral system, for example: representation for so called “rotten boroughs”, which had long ceased to be of any importance, was stopped, and new industrial towns obtained representation. The Reform Act also introduced standardised rules for the franchise and, by extending the franchise to the middle classes, greatly increased the role of public opinion in the political process. William understood the theory of the more limited monarchy, once saying “I have my view of things, and I tell them to my ministers. If they do not adopt them, I cannot help it. I have done my duty.” William died a month after Victoria had come of age, thus avoiding another regency.

William IV