George III, in full George William Frederick 1738-1820
King of Great Britain and Ireland and of Hanover

George was born in London, the eldest son of Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales. In 1760 he succeeded his grandfather, George II, as King of Great Britain and Ireland and Elector of Hanover (King of Hanover from 1815). He was the first of the House of Hanover to command general respect on becoming sovereign, and at the outset he conciliated all classes of his subjects. In 1761, he married Charlotte Sophia, Princess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, although various affairs and an illegitimate child were rumoured.

George was eager to govern as well as reign, and friction soon arose between him and his people. William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, was the popular idol; but the king disliked Pitt and his policy, and for much of his reign appointed others as Prime Minister. During the two years' administration of George Grenville, the first attempt to tax the American colonies was made. In Lord North George III found a Minister after his own heart, and North remained at the head of the government from 1770 to 1782. During his administration the American colonies, exasperated at renewed attempts at taxation, declared their independence (4 July 1776) and eventually achieved it by the treaty of peace with Great Britain signed in 1783.

The determination of the king not to grant any concessions to those whom he deemed rebels caused the struggle to be much protracted. Lord North was succeeded by the Marquess of Rockingham, who died after four months in office. Among his colleagues were Charles James Fox, Edmund Burke and Richard Brinsley Sheridan, whom George detested, and who, when Lord Shelburne took Lord Rockingham's place, refused to serve with him; but he secured William Pitt, the Younger, as Chancellor of the Exchequer. The friends of Fox and the followers of Lord North overthrew Shelburne in 10 months; and the coalition ministry of William Cavendish Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland, lasted only eight months (1783). In the interval the king compelled his Ministers to resign, called Pitt to office in December 1783, then dissolved parliament. Pitt remained in office for 18 years. The complete victory of his party at the general election in 1784 was a triumph for the king as much as for Pitt; there was now an end to the supremacy of the old Whig families.

When the union between Ireland and Great Britain was proposed, George III wrote to Pitt characterizing it as one of the most useful measures of his reign; but when the union was effected (1 January 1801), and Pitt proposed carrying out his pledges as to Catholic emancipation, the king refused his assent. Pitt resigned; he later resumed office, but died in 1806.

In 1810 the Princess Amelia, George's favourite child, fell dangerously ill; this preyed on the king's mind, and hastened an attack of mental derangement, not the first he had had. He also lost his sight, and his ailment is now believed to have been caused by porphyria. In 1811 the Prince of Wales was appointed regent, and although the king lived on until January 1820 he did not recover.

Bibliography: John Brooke, George III (1972); J Clarke, The Life and Times of George III (1972); J Steven Watson, The Reign of George III (1960).