George IV 1762-1830
King of Great Britain and Ireland and of Hanover

Born in London, he was the eldest son of George III, and owing to his father's insanity he became prince regent (1811), succeeding in 1820. Until the age of 19 he was kept under strict discipline, against which he sometimes rebelled. Secretly, in 1785, he went through the ceremony of marriage (1785) with Mrs Maria Fitzherbert, a Roman Catholic, which was canonically valid, but not acceptable in English law. In 1795 he married Princess Caroline of Brunswick, but later tried to divorce her, causing a scandal in which the people sympathized with the queen. Though a professed Whig when Prince of Wales (out of antagonism to his father), as George IV he governed, as his father had done, with the aid of the Tories. He was a man of culture and wit, leaving to the nation a valuable collection of books and paintings, and also a patron of the arts, recognizing the genius of John Nash as an architect and town planner, and supporting Wyatville's restoration of Windsor Castle.

Bibliography: Joanna Richardson, George the Magnificent (1966)