Monarchs

George III (1760-1820)

Written by Nick Healey, a student from Hove Park Upper School.

George III, son of Frederick, Prince of Wales and Charlotte, succeed his grandfather, George II in 1760. In 1761 he married Caroline of Mecklenburg-Strelitz who bore him 10 sons and 6 daughters. Here is a brief list of events that happened in Georges reign:

1738 - Born in London.

1761 - George purchased Buckingham House from the Dukes of Buckingham and converted it into the Palace of which can be seen today. He never actually lived in it. Queen Victoria (1837-1901) was the first British monarch to live in it.

1762 - Birth of the future George IV. 1765 - The Stamp Act was passed through Parliament. It was the first direct tax imposed on the American colonies.

1772 - The Royal Marriages Act was passed which forbade members of the Royal Family from marrying Roman Catholics and ordered that marriages could only take place with royal consent.

1773 - The Boston Tea party. 342 chests of tea were thrown into Boston harbour in the North of England in protest of taxation on tea.

1776 - Thomas Paine wrote the pamphlet 'Common Sense'. 4th July 1776 - America declared Independence from Britain, which set on train a series of events, which led to the American War of Independence (1776-83).

1780 - The Gordon Riots. 1781 - Attempt to assassinate the King by Margaret Nicholson was foiled.

1783 - Discovery of the planet Uranus by William Herschel who named the planet georgium sidus ('The Star of George').

1784 - At the age of 24, William Pitt the Younger became Britain's youngest ever Prime Minister. (Terms of Office:

1784-1801, 1804-6) 1788 - The first colonists to Australia arrived as convicts from Britain who had been sentenced to deportation.

October 1788 - whilst out riding George succumbed to the first of many bouts of madness (later diagnosed as porphyria).

1789 - French Revolution. French Monarchy abolished as Louis XVI and Marie Anntoinette were guillotined. 1791 - Birth of only legitimate grandchild Charlotte to George, Prince of Wales and Caroline of Brunswick.

1791-2 - Thomas Paine wrote the pamphlet 'The Rights of Man'.

1796 - Physician Edward Jenner discovered vaccination to prevent smallpox by injecting the milder form, cowpox.

1797 - The Spithead Mutiny.

1801 - Act of Union formally united Ireland with Britain creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

21st October 1805 - Battle of Trafalgar. Admiral Horatio Nelson defeated Emperor Napoleon's Grande Armiee and disrupted his plans to invade Europe and Britain.

1807 - The British Parliament abolish the Slave Trade. (Eventually abolishing slavery in 1834.

1811 - George III had another, more serious bout of madness but this time never recovers. Consequently, his son, George, Price of Wales, is sworn in as Regent after two months of decision making.

11th May 1812 - Assasination of Prime Minister Spencer Perceval by John Bellingham in the lobby of the House of Commons. The only Prime Minister to be assassinated.

1815 - Battle of Waterloo. The 'Iron Duke' of Wellington again defeated Napoleon and Napoleon was permanently exiled to the remote island of St. Helena. Three days later he abdicated.

1816 - Princess Charlotte married Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg.

1817 - The death in childbirth of the only legitimate heir to the throne, Charlotte, sparked off a Succession Crisis in which the Kings four eldest sons had to dispose of their mistresses and marry to produce heirs. The eldest of these, Edward, Duke of Kent's daughter eventually succeeded to the throne in 1837 as Queen Victoria.

1819 - Peterloo Massacre. 11 people died when a peaceful protest about the Six Acts turns violent.

1820 - After a 60-year reign - the longest by a British king - George III died and is succeed by his son George IV.