George III on George Washington

In honor of Washington's Birthday (2/22), here is a story that probably best describes George III's respect for the leader of the American Revolution. 

George III of Great Britain and Ireland

     
     When the United States won its independence from Great Britain, King George III asked his American painter, Benjamin West, what George Washington - the Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army - would do after winning the Revolutionary War. West replied, “They say he will return to his farm.”

     The King - knowing that the victors usually took charge after a war - said, “If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world.”

Happy Birthday, George Washington

Moments in Royal History: January 29

1820 - George III of the United Kingdom dies at Windsor, and his son becomes King

George III

     In the last decade of his reign, George III had slipped into a permanent state of apparent mental illness. During his Golden Jubilee year of 1810, his youngest and favorite daughter Princess Amelia had died, and this caused the King much grief. In 1811, the Regency Act was passed, which made the King's son and heir, George, Princes of Wales the Regent of the United Kingdom - with the powers but not the status of a king. By the end of that year, it was clear that George III has became permanently incapacitated, and he lived in seclusion at a small apartment in Windsor Castle for the rest of his life.

     Eventually becoming blind and deaf, and also suffering from dementia, George was unable to comprehend that his prime minister, Spencer Percival had been assassinated in 1812 (the only British Prime Minister to be murdered in office), that he had been upgraded to the status of king in Hanover following the Congress of Vienna in 1814, or that his beloved wife Charlotte had died in 1818. He had essentially become dead to the world, and spent hours thumping on an old harpsichord, as well as speaking nonsense. In his last few weeks, he was unable to walk, and his fourth-eldest son, Edward, Duke of Kent died. Six days after Edward's death, George III passed away on January 29th at 8:38 PM with his second-eldest son, Frederick, Duke of York at his side, and he was buried on February 16th in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle. 

     At the age of 81, and having been king for over 59 years, he was the longest-lived and longest-reigning monarch in British history. Though having been overtaken by Queen Victoria and Elizabeth II in those categories, he remains Britain's longest-lived and longest-reigning king.

George IV in Highland attire.

     On that same day, the Prince Regent succeeded his father as George IV of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Had been exercising his father's powers for nearly ten years, so his moment of accession meant no significant change in his status except for that fact that he was now King in authority and name.

1856 - Creation of the Victoria Cross

Obverse containing the insignia of the Cross

     This military decoration was established by Queen Victoria in response to the fact that there was no official system of recognition of gallantry in the British Armed Forces, aside from honors such as the Order of the Bath, which was mostly the purview of high-ranking and long-serving officers. In the 1850's, the Crimean War resulted in many acts of extraordinary bravery by British soldiers being reported William Howard Russell, one of the first modern war correspondents, and public pressure mounted to create a new award to recognize servicemen for their exploits in battle and not simply for their length of service.

     With this in mind, the Victoria Cross was created in 1856 as the highest military award for "most conspicuous bravery, or some daring or pre-eminent act of valour or self-sacrifice, or extreme devotion to duty in the presence of the enemy" to members of the armed forces in countries throughout the British Empire and later, the Commonwealth. In the later 20th Century, some Commonwealth countries developed their own honors systems independent of the British/Imperial orders, and it became necessary to create new awards and decorations that were the equivalent of the ones issued from the UK. Canada, New Zealand, and Australia now have their own versions of the Victoria Cross. 

     Since its creation, there have been over 1,350 recipients of the Cross, and it is usually presented by the British monarch to the recipient or the next of kin at an investiture at Buckingham Palace.


Photo Credit: Richard Harvey via Wikimedia Commons cc

On This Day: January 1st - New Year's Day

Charles II in a portrait by Philippe de Champaigne during his exile, c. 1653

     In 1651, Charles II was crowned King of Scots at Scone Palace in Perthshire, Scotland.

     His father Charles I had been tried and executed in England, resulting in the abolition of the monarchy and the proclamation of a republic. In Scotland however, Charles II was proclaimed King of Great Britain and Ireland, and a Scottish army invaded England to restore him to his throne. But after this momentous occasion - the last coronation to be held in Scotland - Charles and his Royalist allies were defeated by Oliver Cromwell and the Parliamentarian New Model Army at the Battle of Worcester in September. Charles escaped into exile in continental Europe, and Cromwell conquered Scotland and Ireland to make them part of the republican Commonwealth, and was later made Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland – becoming a military dictator. Upon his death in 1658, he was succeeded by his son Richard, who lacked the political and military backing his father had, and resigned after eight months in office. In 1660, the Protectorate and Commonwealth were abolished, and Charles II was invited back to Britain to preside over the restoration of the monarchy in his three kingdoms.

James Stuart in a portrait by Antonio David, c. 1720.

     In 1766, James Francis Edward Stuart died at the age of 77 in Rome.

     James Stuart was the son James VII of Scotland & II of England and Ireland, who had been deposed during the Glorious Revolution of 1688-89 because of his Catholicism. In 1701, he became pretender to the throne upon the death of his father and attempted to regain it during the Jacobite Uprising in 1715. When it seemed that the Jacobite's had the upper hand following the indecisive Battle of Sheriffmuir, James landed in Scotland, and made his way to Scone Palace, the traditional coronation site for the King of Scots, where he announced his forthcoming coronation as James VIII & III. But his shy and cold manner in public failed to inspire confidence amongst his supporters, and the harsh winter only made matters worse. With the British Army in pursuit, James was pushed back to the Scottish coast, and eventually fled back to France. He would go on to live out the rest of his days (known as the Old Pretender) as a devout Catholic in Rome at the grace-and-favor of the Vatican.

George III, the first monarch of the United Kingdom

     In 1801, the Union with Ireland Act 1800, an act passed by the Parliament of Great Britain, and the Act of Union (Ireland) 1800, an act passed by the Parliament of Ireland came into effect, which formally merged the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

     Both countries had previously shared a monarch in an personal union, but they were now governed as a single country by the same parliament - the new Parliament of the United Kingdom in London at the Palace of Westminster, where over 100 Irish representatives were sent to join their English, Scottish, and Welsh colleagues.

     George III, now King of the United Kingdom, took the opportunity to drop his nominal title as King of France, which had been used by English and British monarchs since Edward III of England to signify their claims to the French throne (see post about Henry VI being crowned King of France). The French Revolution had brought down the monarchy, and so the title had become irrelevant anyway.

Queen Victoria being handed the Indian crown by Benjamin Disraeli.

     In 1877, Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India at a Durbar in Delhi.

     India had been under the control of the British East India Company, which been created for the purpose of trading with India and East Indies (now largely Indonesia). Following a revolt in 1857, India became directly governed by the British Crown, though no official title had been bestowed to Queen Victoria.

     It was Benjamin Disraeli, Victoria's 7th British Prime Minister, who pushed the Royal Title's Act of 1876 through Parliament, which bestowed the title - previously belonging to the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah II - to the 58 year old Queen. The title would be passed down to each successive monarch through George VI, who was the last Emperor of India and presided over the country's independence in 1947.

Royal Dates for December 31st

     I was unable to put these events into a formal posting, so I am going to briefly add them here.

     In 1660, Louis XIV of France granted the title of Duke of Normandy to James Stuart, Duke of York, who would become James VII & II in 1685

      In 1720, Charles Edward Stuart was born in Rome. He was the son of James Francis Edward Stuart, the Old Pretender to the British throne, and made a final attempt to seize the throne in 1745 which failed. He is popularly known as Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Young Pretender.

     In 1857, Queen Victoria chose Ottawa as the capital of Canada.

Royal College in America: Dartmouth

The Charter of Dartmouth College

     On this day in 1769, Dartmouth College in New Hampshire was established under a royal charter issued by King George III of Great Britain and Ireland, and with the leadership of three ministers: Eleazar Wheelock (a Congregationalist), Samson Occum (an early Native American Presbyterian clergyman), and Nathaniel Whittaker (also Presbyterian). 

     The charter created Dartmouth for the purpose of “education & instruction of Youth of the Indian Tribes in this Land in reading, writing & all parts of Learning which shall appear necessary and expedient for civilizing & Christianizing Children of Pagans as well as in all liberal Arts and Sciences; and also of English Youth and any others.”

George III

     It also provided for a trust to be established in Britain to raise funds for the new college, and the founding ministers crossed the Atlantic to promote Dartmouth amongst potential donors in Britain. Among the original benefactors and trustee’s were British statesmen in high office, including William Legge, Earl of Dartmouth, who was George III’s Secretary of State for the Colonies in North America, and the man for whom the college is named.

     Dartmouth was the ninth and last colonial college, and is the last royally-chartered institute of higher education in America.

     Today, Dartmouth is located in Hanover, New Hampshire, and is an Ivy League institution. It is considered to be among the most prestigious universities in the United States with an endowment of $3.7 billion. Included among its alumni are Nelson Rockefeller (41^st Vice President of the United States), 164 current and former members of the US Congress, Theodor Geisel (Dr. Suess), Fred Rogers (from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood), Robert Frost, Shonda Rimes (creator of the Scandal television series), and Jeffery Immelt (CEO of General Electric). 

Dartmouth Hall

     Depsite its charter’s call for the education of Native Americans, only 19 American Indian’s graduated from Dartmouth in its first 200 years. Recently, the college has renewed its commitment to invest in the education of Native American’s by establishing relevant academic and social programs. Since 1970, this commitment has resulted in the graduation of over 700 Native American’s representing over 200 tribes from Dartmouth, which is more than the other seven Ivy League institutions combined.