On January
29, 1820, George III of Great Britain died. He was succeeded by his eldest son,
George, who would become George IV of Great Britain.
George III
was ill at the time. In 1810, after the death of his favorite daughter Princess
Amelia, George’s health deteriorated quickly. He was already suffering from
rheumatism pain and almost blind due to cataracts, but the stress made it all
worse. He couldn’t rule the kingdom, so passed the Regency Act of 1811, where
his son George would act as regent.
By May
1811, George was declared insane and lived at Windsor Castle in seclusion. Between
this point and his death, he suffered from dementia, total blindness and
deafness. He didn’t even understand that he’d been declared King of Hanover in
1814 and wasn’t stable enough to mourn the death of his beloved wife in 1818.
It was a
devastating end to a relative popular monarch, even if he did lose the trust of
the Colonies. Around half of the people in the Colonies still had trust in and respect for their king.
During his
time of incapacitation there were fears about the line of succession. Only
George’s eldest son had a legitimate heir, Princess Charlotte. When she died in
childbirth in 1817, Britain was left without an heir after George’s children.
The Government didn’t want the same thing to happen as did with previous
dynasties, so the sons of George were encouraged to quickly marry and procreate.
George’s
fourth son, Edward, became the father to Alexandrina Victoria. However, George
wasn’t in a mental state to know this or in a state to mourn the death of
Edward six days before his own death.
At the time
of his death, George was 81 years and 239 days old. His reign lasted for 59
years and 96 days. He had the longest reign and lived longer than any of his
predecessors, something that only Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II have
done since.
While
George IV would become king, he would die 10 years later. George’s brother
William became William IV but died in 1837. The crown eventually passed to
Edward’s daughter Alexandrina, who decided on the name Queen Victoria of Great
Britain.
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