George III
George III (1738-1820), King of Great Britain and Ire-land. Having succeeded his grandfather George II in 1760, he married Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz the following year. He was blamed by the Whigs for the political instabilities of the 1760’s and accused of trying to influence Parliament through corrupt ‘king’s friends’. During his reign the American colonies were lost and Britain fought the Napoleonic wars. After a breakdown in 1788 he suffered increasingly from fits of madness. By 1811 he was acknowledged to be insane and his son (later George IV) became regent.
