George III (4 June 1738 – 29 January 1820) was the King of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg, and Archtreasurer and Prince-Elector of the Holy Roman Empire from 1760 until his death in 1820, succeeding George II of Great Britain and preceding George IV of Britain. A mentally-ill leader, George III was disliked by many and he lost the Thirteen Colonies during the American Revolutionary War of 1775-1783. However, under his rule the British defeated the French at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 during the Napoleonic Wars.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Portrait of King George
George was the son of Prince Frederick of Wales and the grandson of George II of Britain, and he was from the royal House of Hanover of Great Britain. He was a shy and reserved child but could comment on political events at the age of eight, and he was fluent in both English and German. In 1760, George became King of Great Britain after the death of his grandfather, and he married Charlotte of Mecklenburg, who became his Queen. George was known for his nonsensical outbursts and his sheer madness, and he was angered by Parliament's interference with his rule, attempting to be an absolute monarch without the restrictions of a constitution.
American Revolutionary War[]
King George in 1777
King George's early reign was marred by unpopularity due to Parliament's lack of support for him as well as his tyrannical rule both in the British Isles and in India and British America. He levied taxes on tea and other goods in the Intolerable Acts, leading to unrest in Boston that led to the 1770 Boston Massacre and the 1773 Boston Tea Party, two demonstrations that led to the King dispatching British Army troops to form a military government under Thomas Gage in Massachusetts. Eventually, militiamen decided to take up arms to drive the British army out of Boston, and on 18 April 1775 the King's soldiers fired on Boston militia at Lexington while trying to disarm them. The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first battles of the American Revolutionary War, which became a war by the Thirteen Colonies to fight for their independence from King George and the British Empire.
While around 20% of the American population supported King George and 50% was neutral, the war continued as General George Washington and his Continental Army stayed alive despite many defeats. King George's forces nearly defeated Washington in 1776 when they took over New York City, in 1777 at Brandywine and Germantown, in 1778 at Monmouth, and in 1780 at Charleston and Camden, but Washington's army remained strong and won great victories at Trenton in 1776, Princeton and Saratoga in 1777, Stony Point in 1779, and Cowpens and Yorktown in 1781. Eventually, the Kingdom of France, Spanish Empire, and United Provinces entered the war to assist the Americans, and the Royal Navy engaged the rival navies across the globe, while British possessions in India were threatened by France and Mysore. In 1781, Lord George Germain's cabinet in Parliament fell, and Parliament was unwilling to pay for the war after the crushing defeat at the Siege of Yorktown. In 1783, King George signed the Treaty of Paris with the Americans, granting independence to the United States. This was the first anti-colonial war, and it showed that spirited patriots could topple even the greatest empires.
French Revolution[]
King George was dominated by Prime Ministers because of the disaster that his rule had caused in the Americas, and in 1793 the First French Republic declared war on Britain during the French Revolutionary Wars to show the power of the new republic and its radical ideas. Britain went to war with the French Republic, and then the First French Empire under Napoleon in 1803. King George had little control, if any, over his government during these wars, as his son (the future King George IV of Britain) was his regent and controlled all matters of government. Upon his death in 1820, his son succeeded him.