Ferocious criticism
Few monarchs - not even Aethelred the Unready - have received more abuse than George III. 'The royal brute' was Tom Paine's choice description of him in the pamphlet 'Common Sense' (1776), and George's final descent into darkness and insanity brought from the young Percy Bysshe Shelley not compassion but 'an old, mad, blind, despised and dying king'.
'... his determination to wind up the Seven Years War brought about a clash with Pitt the Elder on the first day of George's reign ...'
The writings of Horace Walpole and Edmund Burke portrayed him as a hypocrite and deceiver, and 19th-century liberal historians ransacked language to condemn him. George Otto Trevelyan insisted that George III 'invariably declared himself on the wrong side in any controversy', and William Lecky wrote that, 'it may be said, without exaggeration, that George III inflicted more profound and enduring injuries upon his country than any other modern king'.
Even George's virtues were turned against him. Unlike his predecessor and successor, he had no mistresses to support - consequently his court was declared to be dull. His personal tastes were frugal - which allowed Gillray, the cartoonist, to ridicule the king breakfasting with relish on a boiled egg, or advising his daughters to drink tea without sugar.
He was a peacemaker - indeed, his determination to wind up the Seven Years War brought about a clash with Pitt the Elder on the first day of George's reign: consequently Junius, the English political author, accused the king of cowardice.
Published: 2004-01-30
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