Vickipedia

GEORGE III., son of Frederick Lewis, Prince of Wales, succeeded his grandfather, George II. He was born on the 4th June 1738, and died at Windsor Castle, on the 29th January 1820, in the 60th year of his reign, which was eventful as well as long. On 8th September 1761, he married the Princess Charlotte Sophia, daughter of Charles Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and was by her the father of fifteen children. His intellect was not of the strongest, but, like his two predecessors, he had firmness of purpose, and, in addition, a conscientiousness and sense of decorum unknown to them, while both friends and enemies could rely upon him—the one for favors, and the other for the reverse. His mind gave way several times—in 1764, in 1788, in 1801, in 1804; and in 1810, when the British were fighting behind the lines of Torres Vedras, his final insanity supervened. He had an abundance of cares, like most sovereigns. The Letters of Junius and the invectives of Wilkes annoyed him; so did the proposals to emancipate the Roman Catholics and the terrible French Revolution of 1789. His life was attempted by the maniacs Margaret Nicolson and a man named Hattield. The marriages of two of his brothers with the widows of subjects displeased him, and led to the passing of the Royal Marriage Bill, 12 Geo. III. c. 11, prohibiting the members of the royal family from contracting marriage without the consent of the king, if under twenty-five years of age, and the consent of parliament if above that age; and afterwards the undoubted debts and dissipation of his eldest son, who became George IV., his hardly doubtful marriage with Mrs. Fitzherbert, the Roman Catholic widow of two husbands, and the scandals of his public marriage with his cousin, Caroline of Brunswick, must have led the ‘ good old king’ to reflect that not even a ‘ marriage-bill’ could cure all the domestic miseries of monarchs. Nor were matters of national excitement and magnitude a wanting.

A bill, imposing certain stamp-duties upon the American colonies, which had been resolved to be inexpedient in 1764, was passed in March 1765, and repealed in 1766 by the Marquis of Rockingham’s ministry; and in 1767 the chancellor of the exchequer, Mr. Townshend, brought forward a plan for the taxation of these colonies, which led to their revolt, the colonists objecting to be taxed by a parliament in which they were not represented. In 1770, Lord North, the premier, brought in a bill for the repeal of all the recently imposed American duties, except the duty on tea, which was retained, to assert the English right to impose taxes on these colonies. In December 1773, ‘ Boston harbor is black with unexpected tea,’ cargoes of it being wantonly destroyed by the colonists ; and on 19th April 1775, hostilities commenced with the undecisive battle of Lexington, which on the 16th June was followed by that of Bunker’s Hill, which was a victory to the colonists, and helped to give them boldness to renounce the dominion of Great Britain, and publish the declaration of independence on the 4th July 1776. George Washington, a

colonel of militia, who had been appointed general of the insurgent colonists, took possession of Boston in that year, having compelled General Howe and the British troops to retire, and next year he gained an important advantage by the capture of Burgoyne’s army of 10,000 fine troops, British and German. The French, Spanish, and Dutch all threw their weight into the American scale, and the chequered and disastrous struggle ended in America by the surrender of Lord Cornwallis, with a British army of 6000, to Washington and the Marquis de la Fayette. The French suffered at sea by the gallantry of the British under Byron, Hood, and Rodney, this last having, in 1782, in the West Indies, obtained over them a naval victory by the hitherto untried method of breaking the enemy’s line. In that year, also, General Elliott repulsed the grand attack of the French and Spaniards, and put an end to their chances of success in the obdurate siege of Gibraltar. At Versailles, on 3d September 1783, a peace was concluded with France and Spain, in which the independence of the American states was recognized, not a little to the satisfaction of many of the English at home, who, besides being tired of the struggle, had throughout the contest sympathized with the American colonists, whose cause, originally good, had had its merits kept before the public mind by the eloquence of Chatham, Fox, and Burke, three of the greatest orators of all time.

Meanwhile, the British rule in India was consolidated, and this was effected in no insignificant degree under the governor-generalship of Warren Hastings, a most able but somewhat unscrupulous man. His trial for misrule and oppression, famous for the eloquent accusations of Burke and Sheridan, began in 1786, and was protracted for nine years. Wars with Hyder Ali and his :son Tippoo Saib were ended by the storming of Seringapatam in 1799.

The after-swell of the French revolution broke over all the continent of Europe in wave after wave of war. The aversion of Britain to the insane democracy of France was not concealed, and in 1793, a few days after the execution of their king, the French declared war against Britain. In the confused warfare that followed, the English, under Lord Howe, in 1794, defeated the French fleet in the channel; under Sir John Jervis they defeated the Spanish fleet off Cape St. Vincent in 1797; and also in that year, under Lord Duncan, they defeated the Dutch off Camperdown: and in 1798 Nelson was victorious on the Nile over the French fleet that had conveyed Napoleon Bonaparte and his troops to Egypt. In 1801, he bombarded Copenhagen, and partially destroyed the Danish fleet; and the forces under Sir Ralph Abercromby—who was mortally wounded—gained the victory of Alexandria over the troops which Napoleon had left in Egypt to menace the power of Britain in the East. On the 25th of March, 1802, the treaty of peace of Amiens was signed, but within a year. hostilities were renewed. In 1803, Hanover was occupied by the French. On October 21, 1805, Nelson lost his life, and gained his greatest victory of Trafalgar over the French and Spanish fleets. Napoleon’s splendid victory of Austerlitz over the Austrians and Russians December 1805, was survived only a few weeks by the great statesman Pitt, whose breaking heart and constitution could not sustain the shock of this last disappointment. Napoleon’s Berlin decree of 1806, and his Milan decree of 1807, declaring the British dominions in a state of blockade on purpose to destroy British commerce, was not supported by a sufficient navy to carry them into execution by capturing vessels trading with Britain; but they did no inconsiderable damage. In 1808, Sir Arthur Wellesley landed in Portugal, and defeated the French at Vimieira; but the advantage of this victory was thrown away in the Convention of Cintra. The retreat four months after, to Corunna of the English army under Sir John Moore, from overwhelming odds and its safe embarkation in January 1809, after the repulse of Marshal Soult, has secured a reputation for the able and distinguished general who fell there hardly inferior to that of those who died in the moment of victory. In April of that year, Sir Arthur Wellesley returned to the command in the Peninsula, and after conquering at Talavera on the 8th of July, wearing out the powers of the assailing French behind the lines of Torres Vedras during the last months of 1810, and conquering at Fuentes de Onoro in 1811, at Salamanca in 1812, at Vittoria in 1813 (as Lord Wellington), and in other battles and sieges, he drove the French out of the peninsula. The struggle was terminated on the eventful field of Waterloo (q. v.), 18th June 1815.

On the 1st of January 1801, Ireland was united to Great Britain and its separate legislation was abolished. During this reign many Scotchmen had forced their way to the first places in the state; all the Jacobite feelings had died out; and the Union had become not a legislative one merely, but a union of Society, literature, thought, and enterprise.

The most original and vigorous thought of this period found its expression in poetry, and among its great poets, the most noteworthy are Byron, Coleridge, Wordsworth, and Walter Scott, the last of whom is also at the head of all the writers of prose-fiction. In spite of the depressing effects of war, commerce greatly increased during the 60 years of this reign; and the revenue, which at the beginning of it was under nine millions, had, during the years of the French war, been increased more than sevenfold, thus showing, though by an undesirable method, the vast increase of the resources of the country. Chemistry and the steam-engine were beginning to alter the face of society. Among legislative reforms, the most conspicuous was the abolition of the punishment of death for minor crimes, and generally the statute-book, which had greatly increased, became more and more favorable to individual liberty.