Due to the frequent intermarriage between European royal families, the father of George I, the founding king of this dynasty, was German, and his mother was Sophia, the granddaughter of Stuart James II, so both George III's grandfather and father had a strong German accent. George III was born and educated in England. He has complete contact with the British and has never been to Hanover, Germany. He was the first monarch to speak fluent English after Queen Anne's death. British people who hate and fear foreigners are very concerned about these things.
George III didn't study well, but he took pains to do his duty as a king. Few monarchs are as aware of their responsibilities to God and his subjects as he is. The king is a devout young man. Unlike George II, he is very religious. George III spent a lot of time praying every time in his life.
After George III came to power, the urgent task was to rectify the notorious arrogance and extravagance in his grandfather's court. A month after he ascended the throne, he issued a proclamation encouraging filial piety, faithfulness, propriety and chastity. When the king is nervous, he speaks quickly, stutters a little, and clicks in the pause. To this end, someone once slandered the king, saying that he had shown signs of insanity. Compared with George I and George II, George III is somewhat dull and rigid. Although what he did was distorted, which was much more serious than that of any British monarch, although he also made mistakes, he was the only person in Hanover Palace who could be called upright and noble.
After choosing a suitable German princess Charlotte as the queen, George III set out to destroy the power of the Whig Party in Britain. This group has been controlling the government since 17 14. In the past, George II personally selected ministers, but only for the narrow privileged class of professional politicians. George III refused to accept this restriction, which is not unconstitutional. At this time, countries in continental Europe have established enlightened monarchies, but George III did not want to follow suit, but personally asked about state affairs. Unlike his grandfather George II, he lived in Hanover for a long time and lived a comfortable life, while the power of the king was marginalized.
Although George III was welcomed by all political parties when he ascended the throne, his early rule was shrouded in the shadow of political instability, which was largely caused by major differences over the seven-year war in China. George's increasing trust and dependence on Tory officials made the Whig Party, which has always dominated politics, very dissatisfied, and even condemned George's behavior as a dictator, just like Charles I.1In May 762, George III dismissed old Peter and the Duke of Newcastle, the prime minister, and took charge of his teacher, john stewart, the Earl of Bout. Earl Bout was related to the royalist party in James II, and later joined the Whig Party, which represented the interests of the emerging landlords and the bourgeoisie, but he did not hold an important position in the party. Moreover, he comes from Scotland, which is still regarded as a land of alienation by the British. These conditions are unfavorable to Bout, and the opponents of Lord Bout even spread rumors, accusing him of being the lover of the Queen Mother, so George III naturally encountered a lot of resistance. In order to keep Bout's power, George III adopted some bribery methods that even he hated. 1763, bout tried to conclude a peace treaty with France through parliament, and then resigned. He doesn't want to face an all-out attack.
The Whigs returned to power under the leadership of george grenville. The relationship between the Prime Minister and George III is the most unpleasant. The Prime Minister accused George III of ingratitude in Congress. The king hit back at him and said, "He's been bothering me for two hours, so I'll look at my watch and see if he can bother me for another hour." During the political crisis caused by the conflict between the king and the prime minister, the king had to vilify himself by street tabloids catering to low tastes. At the end of the same year, the British government issued the Royal Proclamation 1763, which stipulated the boundary line to limit the continuous expansion of British colonies in North America to the west. The original intention of the announcement was to force North American colonists to negotiate with Native Americans, so as to reduce the frontline wars caused by land disputes and thus save huge military expenditures. Although this so-called "announcement line" did not have much influence on most colonists who had settled down, it caused strong dissatisfaction among colonists in the border areas, which became one of the fuse of disputes between the North American colonies and the British government and one of the reasons for the outbreak of the American War of Independence. On the other hand, the average American colonists always have to pay very low taxes to the British government, but at the same time, Britain has to deploy a large number of troops in the United States to suppress the uprising of local aborigines and prevent French aggression against American colonies, which makes Britain's military expenditure in the United States very heavy. In order to balance the expenditure, the grenville government issued the Stamp Duty Act in 1765, which levied stamp duty on every document in the British North American colonies. At that time, even newspapers levied stamp duty, which made the propaganda against taxation widely circulated in North America. At the same time, grenville gradually lost George's support because he tried to weaken the monarch's privileges. George tried to persuade old Pete to get married, but he didn't succeed. Later, George was once ill (some people think that this disease is a harbinger of his future mental disorder). After his recovery, he successfully formed a cabinet with Charles Watson-Wentworth, Marquis of Rockingham, and then grenville was dismissed.
With the help of old Pete, Lord Rockingham successfully withdrew the extremely unpopular stamp duty bill in grenville, but his government was not strong, which made him quickly replaced by old William Pitt in 1766, and George even made old Pete an aristocrat of Count Chatham. Lord Chatham and George III withdrew the bill, which made their popularity in American colonies soar. People in new york thanked them and erected their bronze statues in the city. Lord Chatham put the Duke of grafton in charge of the government in 1767 due to illness, but the Duke of grafton did not officially become prime minister until 1768. His government collapsed in 1770 and the Tories came back to power.
George III kept changing prime ministers, four times. Ministers talked about it one after another, saying that the king did not give his ministers the support they deserved, nor did he discuss it with them arbitrarily, but asked Bout, who "sneaked into the background". The contradiction between George III and the Prime Minister shows that a government without the king's full trust will not live long. However, similarly, without the respect and support of the Parliament, the Prime Minister cannot stand on his feet. 1770, George III thought that he had found an ideal figure acceptable to the king and parliament, that is, the above-mentioned childhood friend Lord North of the king.
Prime Minister North received the support of the parliamentary majority in 10. Judging from the political background of Britain, George III's judgment is correct. Although some newspapers say that choosing the north proves that the king is stupid-one fool is chosen by another. Even later historians thought Noon was "the worst prime minister in British history". In fact, this 1760 "inexperienced doll" has now become an alert politician. North is an excellent MP, a competent speaker and an excellent peacetime prime minister.
Lord North, the new Conservative Prime Minister, and his government are very concerned about America's growing dissatisfaction with Britain. In order to appease the American colonists, he recovered most of the taxes collected from the American colonies, but only kept a tea tax. Tea tax is very important to Britain. George III even said that the tea tax is a tax of "reserving rights (taxing American colonies)" in Great Britain. However, in 1773, in order to oppose the tea tax, a group of thugs in Boston boarded a tea freighter moored in Boston harbor and poured tea into the sea to demonstrate. This is the well-known Boston tea incident. The incident caused a great reversal in Great Britain, and public opinion was also dissatisfied with the North American colonists. Chatham, who sympathized with the North American colonists, also supported Lord North and characterized the incident as "undoubtedly criminal in nature". Lord North retaliated after the tea incident, including closing Boston Harbor and amending the Massachusetts Constitution, so that the upper house of the local legislature was appointed by the monarch instead of being elected by the lower house. These measures further aroused the dissatisfaction of the colonists, who even called them "intolerable bills." Some scholars believe that until this time, George III still tends to "solve problems by political means". Although he sometimes doubted the validity of the cabinet's suggestions, he still listened to the cabinet's suggestions, and only from what happened from 1763 to 1775, George III should not be directly responsible for causing the American revolution. The American War of Independence broke out in New England in April 1775 because of the armed conflict between the British regular army and the colonial militia. After a year of fighting, the British colony in North America declared its independence from the King of Great Britain in July 1776 and established the "United States of America". The Declaration of Colonial Independence also made many accusations against the British king, legislature and all citizens, including accusing George of "abandoning the government affairs here" ... plundering our waters, trampling on the coast, burning towns and showing off the remaining people. When these comments reached George, he felt indignant. In the war, the British army successfully captured new york on 1776, but then British Lieutenant General john bull surrendered at the Battle of Saratoga, which largely led to the failure of the British counterattack from Canada. By 1778, France (the main competitor of Great Britain) signed a friendship treaty with the newly born United States, which made the situation in Britain more severe. At this time, Lord North proposed that Lord Chatham should take over as Prime Minister, but George III refused, and put forward a counter-proposal, asking Lord Chatham to take up the cabinet position and cooperate with Lord North. Chatham eventually refused to cooperate and died in the same year. At that time, Britain and France were at war and declared war on Spain in 1779.
Although his ministers disagreed, George III still stubbornly hoped that Great Britain would fight the American revolutionary army to the end, while some ministers, such as Lord Gul and Lord weymouth, were unwilling to resign one after another because the war had hurt their dignity. Lord North, the Prime Minister, shared the same views with his colleagues and told them to George, but he didn't follow them in the end. George finally gave up the idea of continuing to send more troops to suppress the United States, thinking that "keeping Pennsylvania is a joke" and there is no hope of regaining New England. But he still made up his mind to "never recognize the independence of the United States, and promised to punish their intransigence forever with endless protracted war." George's plan was to keep 30,000 soldiers stationed in new york, Rhode Island, Canada and Florida, and the rest were responsible for attacking French and Spanish troops active in the West Indies. In order to punish Americans, he planned to destroy their coastal commercial ports, blow up their docks, plunder and burn their coastal towns (such as New London, Connecticut), and lift the control over Indians attacking civilians in colonial border areas. George also believes that these actions can effectively encourage local royalists to split the continental congress, "constantly make the rebels feel annoyed, uneasy and sleepy, and one day, they will naturally and inevitably turn their dissatisfaction and disappointment into remorse and self-blame", thus begging him to return to power. But these plans of George III did harm to royalists and loyal Indians. The protracted war gave France and Spain the opportunity to organize a joint fleet to attack the British Isles at any time, thus putting London in danger.
178 1 year, after the news that British leaders defeated and surrendered Charles Cornwally near Yorktown reached London, Prime Minister Noon and George III were attacked by conservative forces. They called North "the man who lost America". As a result, he resigned as prime minister the following year. Under the persuasion of Lord North, George III gave up the idea of abdication, accepted the fact that Great Britain was defeated in North America and decided to authorize peace talks. The Treaty of Paris and the Treaty of Versailles were confirmed in 1783, marking the official end of the American War of Independence. The former demands that Britain recognize the United States, while the latter demands that Britain give up Florida and New Spain and allow the French to pass through the waterways near Newfoundland. Catherine II, the queen of the Russian Empire who organized an armed neutral alliance during the war, once said, "I would rather shoot myself than allow the United States to be independent like George III of Britain." 1785, john adams of the United States became the first American envoy to Britain. At this time, George III has obeyed the world pattern and accepted the new relationship between Britain and the United States. He said to Adams: "I am the last person to agree to separation, but I will be the first person to welcome the friendship of the United States as an independent regime." 1782 After the collapse of Lord North's cabinet, Lord Rockingham of Whig Party came to power for the second time, but died after only a few months in office. As a result, George chose Earl Shelbourne as the new prime minister. However, Charles James Fox, a Whig politician, refused to serve in Lord Shelburne's cabinet and asked the king to appoint the Duke of Portland as Prime Minister. By 1783, Shelbourne was successfully ousted by the House of Commons, and his government was replaced by Fox-Northern Alliance. The government is led by the Duke of Portland; Fox is the foreign minister; Lord North is the home secretary, but the Duke of Portland is only the nominal head of government, and the real power is in the hands of Fox and Lord North. This fox is a famous British politician and speaker. He portrayed George III as an autocratic tyrant in Parliament. He pursued revenge crazily and exhausted the blood, sweat and wealth of his subjects. Fox demanded more restrictions and humiliation on the king's power.
George III was uneasy about appointing people he didn't want to serve in the cabinet, but Portland's cabinet quickly established an advantage in the House of Commons, making it difficult for him to replace it. In addition, George is also very dissatisfied with the government's plan to transfer the governance power of the Indian government from the British East India Company to the Congressional Commissioner through the introduction of the India Act. Shortly after the House of Commons passed the draft, George authorized Lord Temple to tell the nobles in the House of Lords that whoever voted for the draft was his enemy. As a result, the draft was rejected by the House of Lords under his intimidation. Three days later, the Portland cabinet collapsed.
The next Prime Minister is William Pitt, who is only 24 years old. Peter was hand-picked by George III. In the past few months, the newly formed Peter government has always been defeated in parliament. 1783+02+ 17, the parliament passed a motion condemning the royal family's influence behind the parliamentary vote, which was a "major crime" and Lord Temple was forced to resign. Temple's resignation caused confusion to the government. Three months later, the government lost the majority of the parliament and dissolved, but the king refused to accept Peter Jr's resignation. When it came to the general election, the king took out a lot of his own financial resources to support Peter Jr., and as a result, Peter's opponent Fox lost. George III carefully chose such a moment, because the state did not allow the illegal expansion of the king's power, nor did it allow the government to oppose the king's power. The powerful people felt that Fox had gone too far and turned to support the king. George III's choice of Peter is probably an excellent proof that the king knows people and is good at their duties. Peter has been prime minister for 19 years. At this dangerous moment, fortunately, it is little Peter, not the dissolute fox, who runs the country. For George III, the appointment of Peter Jr. as Prime Minister is a victory, because it proves that he can choose the Prime Minister through his own interpretation of public opinion and public opinion, without having to obey the majority in the House of Commons. During Peter's tenure as Prime Minister, George supported many of his political goals and awarded many new noble in an unprecedented way, thus gaining sufficient support in the House of Lords. During Peter Jr.' s tenure as Prime Minister and for some time afterwards, George III enjoyed a high reputation in England, and the public generally supported his Pacific exploration, which led to the establishment of the colony of New South Wales in Australia in 1788. By 1793, Lord Magalny, George III's special envoy to China, and his deputy, Sir Stanton, led a delegation to Beijing to meet the Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty. They also attended the 80th birthday celebration of Ganlong in chengde mountain resort. On the other hand, George was willing to use his private funds to support academic institutions such as the Royal Academy of Art, and science and industry in Britain also developed greatly at that time.
18 The 1980s was the best era under George III. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Peter Junior, Britain quickly recovered its prosperity and self-confidence. George III was in middle age. He looks very brave and young because of his simple diet and exercise. Except for an illness in 1765, the king has been in good health.
George III was a kind and loyal husband. Although she is not very handsome in the eyes of women, Queen Charlotte is very satisfied. She once said that her marriage with the king was happy, and she had never felt a moment of sadness since she got married. Most English people admire their king's loyalty to the queen, which is in sharp contrast with his two previous Hanover monarchs. They gave birth to 15 children, and no one can say that there is no one in the world of kings. The atmosphere in the court was relaxed. The king no longer pretends to be serious as he did when he first ascended the throne. When he likes singing and dancing or reciting poems, he can't help laughing like everyone else. Because the competent Prime Minister Peter manages the state affairs in an orderly way, George III has no political pressure and can study his botany. He once wrote a pamphlet on improving agriculture under the pseudonym of Ralph Robinson. Intellectually, the king started slowly, but he caught up. In the 1980s, he was no less than most European monarchs.
But George III also had a headache: the hostility between him and his eldest son, the future Regent, became more and more serious. The Hanover family seems to have a "tradition" of discord between father and son. George I was at odds with Augustus, George II clashed with "poor Fred", and now there is a split between George III and the Crown Prince. It should be said that both of them made mistakes. George III's weakness is that he cares too much about children. He really loves his son, but he hopes the prince will always be like a child. The "absorbent cotton" air in the court is too dull and restrained for a dynamic young prince. In order to break through these constraints, he has done all kinds of bad things. However, George III's reaction to his son's foolish behavior was more sadness than anger. But compared with poor Fred before, today's prince is much luckier. He has nothing to complain about. However, George III's health began to deteriorate at this time, and there were also mental problems. 1in the summer of 788, the king fell ill. 10, 16 On this day, after riding a horse in the rain, George III suddenly twitched, and then the king behaved abnormally and kept talking. About this time, it is said that there was a famous oak tree incident, saying that the king talked to an oak tree as if it were the king of Prussia. The story was told by a boy who was expelled from the Wang family, and people were dubious about it. 1788 At the beginning of his illness, George was still sober enough to announce that the National Assembly would adjourn on September 25th, but his condition took a turn for the worse. 10.5, 1788+ 165438, George III bumped into the prince while dining at Windsor Castle and tried to hit his head against the wall. The king kept mumbling, foaming at the mouth, and his eyes were bloodshot, which looked like two purple grapes.
Knowing that the king was still alive, but he was delirious, the queen ordered him to be transferred out of Windsor Castle and sent to a village called Qiu on the outskirts of London to recuperate. The way the doctors treated the king was outrageous. The attending doctor of George III is a doctor named Francis Willis, who is the owner of a private madhouse in Lincolnshire. The main ways to deal with it are reprimanding, threatening and wearing tight clothes. If the king refuses to eat or make noise, he will tie his legs to the bed and tie him with a wide cloth belt. Later, a special chair was used to restrict his movements. Ironically, George III called this terrible thing "the coronation chair". The real coronation chair brought him supreme majesty, and this thing only brought humiliation. Dr Willis is not the only quack. There was also a doctor named Warren, who insisted on coating the king with poisonous insects and mustard sauce. He said that the blisters caused by this would be very painful and would attract the king's "bad liquid." The treatment of quacks can only delay the recovery of patients.
5438+065438+1When Congress reconvened in June, George failed to deliver the policy address at the opening ceremony of Congress as usual. Traditionally, Parliament could not resume the debate without the first speech of the monarch, but when George did not make a speech, Parliament resumed its meeting to debate whether the Regent was needed.
After George's chaos, Charles James Fox and Pete immediately started a quarrel about government governance. Although both sides agree that the Prince of Wales, the eldest son and legal heir of George III, is the most reasonable regent, there are significant differences on the legal basis of regency. Fox thinks that the Prince of Wales has the absolute right to represent his sick father, but Peter retorts that the Regent should be nominated by Congress first. In addition, because the parliament resumed without an impromptu speech, the acceptability of the parliament became a big question, which delayed the debate on regency. According to the past practice, once the king fails to attend the opening ceremony of the National Assembly, the Chief Commissioner can be appointed on his behalf through the Letters Patent, and the relevant Letters Patent must be stamped with the national seal to have legal effect. In order to solve the problem of parliamentary acceptability, Peter suggested that the judge in charge of the trust of the national seal should affix the national seal to the patent without seeking the consent of George III. Although the actions of the Chief Justice may be illegal, the Letters Patent must have legal effect as long as it is stamped with the national seal. Prince Frederick, the Duke of York, the second son of George III, once criticized Peter's proposal as "unconstitutional and illegal", but appointed a parliamentary commissioner as suggested, and the parliament officially resumed in February 1789. After the parliament resumed, the government immediately issued a draft regent, authorizing the Prince of Wales to be the regent, but at the same time, it imposed many restrictions on the regent's power. The draft regency was passed in the House of Commons in the same month, but before the draft was submitted to the House of Lords for voting, George III's illness suddenly recovered, which made the draft regency abandoned. After George recovered from his illness, he confirmed that the use of the national seal and the appointment of the Chief Commissioner were legal and effective actions, and he returned to control the country.
Since then, doctors and historians have been arguing about George III's illness. One school thinks that the king's illness is best explained by psychology, while the other thinks that he suffers from a rare medical disease. If the second explanation is correct, then, strictly speaking, George is not suffering from any "insanity" disease. Others think that the king worked too hard and the loss of American colonies was a trauma inducing factor. It seems that George III should be a respected squire, but he really can't be king.
Later, when researchers analyzed George III's illness, they thought that the patient had an unusual porphyria, and it was not until the 1930s that the symptoms associated with the disease were clarified, such as tachycardia, severe rash, bloodshot eyes, edema of feet and redness of urine.
Porphyropathy is the name of a disease that causes porphyrin metabolism disorder. This metabolic process produces red pigment in the blood. If there is too much red pigment, urine will change color and the whole nervous system, including the brain, will be poisoned. This explanation sounds strange, but it is completely consistent with George III's illness. When George III was ill, the British people still loved and respected him. 1788 165438+ In October, when people thought that the king was dying and the prince ascended the throne, the stock market was in chaos. Most people congratulated the king on his timely recovery. The king's trip to the south of England in 1789 was very successful. Arches were erected in every village, and the whole village came out to welcome him. When the king took a sea bath, the local band stood in the sea and played God Bless the King. After George III recovered from his illness, Prime Minister Peter Junior's support for him increased. On the contrary, the support of Fox and the Prince of Wales has declined. 1789, when the French Revolution broke out and the French royal family was overthrown, many British landlords and gentry were very worried. By 1793, France declared war on Great Britain, and George allowed Peter to raise the tax rate, expand the army, and temporarily terminate the right of habeas corpus in wartime. Great Britain initially formed the first anti-French alliance with Austria, Prussia and Spain, but the alliance soon broke down in 1795 because Prussia and Spain made peace with France privately. Great Britain, Austria, Russia and the Ottoman Empire formed the second anti-French alliance in 1799, but after the defeat of the alliance in 1800, only Great Britain continued to fight against Napoleon, the first ruling country of France.
1800 On May 5th, George was killed by James hadfield who was suffering from religious paranoia. He stood on the wooden box in the orchestra pit and shot the king twice. The bullet missed and embedded itself in the wall of the box. George III ordered the performance to continue. He was so calm that he dozed off during the intermission. Before that, he was stabbed twice by mentally handicapped people in 1786 and 1790, but both ended in failure. George often forgives these insane assassins, which has a positive impact on their support.
During the Napoleonic Wars, there was a quiet period, which allowed Prime Minister Peter to concentrate on Ireland. 1798 There was an uprising in Ireland. After the uprising was suppressed, the parliaments of Britain and Ireland passed the joint bill of 1800, which unified Great Britain and Ireland into one country on 180 1+0 and named the country "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland". George III took this opportunity to give up the title of "French King" claimed by successive British monarchs since Edward III. During the merger of Great Britain and Ireland, it was suggested that Qiao Yan's title be changed to "Emperor of Britain and Hanover", but George supported the tradition of retaining the title of "king" used by British kings in previous dynasties without changing it to "emperor".
As part of his Irish policy, Peter planned to remove some legal restrictions on Roman Catholics in Great Britain and Ireland after the merger, but George III claimed that liberating Catholicism would violate his oath to defend Protestantism when he was crowned. George III once said:
Where in this world do I have the right to keep every word of that oath, especially the one who asked me to defend Protestantism? ..... No, no, I'd rather beg for bread in Europe than approve of these measures. I can give up my throne and power; I can move from my palace to the farmhouse; I can put my head on the chopping block and end my life; But I can't break my oath.
Faced with the opposition of the king and the British people to the religious reform policy, Peter threatened to resign. Almost at the same time, George III fell ill for a short time, and after he recovered, he even blamed the illness on the Catholic problem. Finally, on March 180 1 2008 14, Peter ceased to be prime minister and was replaced by henry addington, Speaker of the House of Commons. During Addington's tenure, he opposed the liberation of Catholicism, established an annual accounting system, abolished income tax and began disarmament. 180 1 year reconciled with France, 1802 signed the Amiens Peace Treaty.
George himself did not believe that a "real" peace could be reached with France only by the Amiens Peace Treaty. He only regards peace as an "experiment". Not long after, 1803, the two countries declared war again, but public opinion generally did not believe that Ardington first met to lead the country to fight. On the contrary, the public's eyes turned to Peter Jr. 1804, and George was once again affected by his old illness. After his recovery, Addington announced his resignation and Peter became prime minister again. Peter had sought to appoint Fox to the Cabinet, but George III was dissatisfied with Fox's encouragement to the Prince of Wales to lead a luxurious life and opposed his joining the Cabinet. Fox's failure to join the Cabinet made Lord william wyndham grenville, another Whig leader, feel unfair and refused to join the Cabinet. After Peter came to power, he made great efforts to form another anti-French alliance with Austria, Russia and Sweden, but like the last anti-French alliance, this third anti-French alliance was immediately disintegrated in 1805 because of the famous battle of Audsley. But before that, in the Battle of Trafalgar, the French fleet was destroyed by Lord horatio nelson, a British naval general, which ensured that Britain was free from the danger of invasion.