Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 21.djvu/197

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terrace of Windsor Castle accompanied by his daughters. His temper was gentle and his manner quiet; he attended daily morning service at chapel. In the autumn of 1810 he was much distressed by the illness of his favourite daughter Amelia [q. v.] On 24 Oct. he showed signs of approaching derangement of mind (Rose, ii. 447), and on the 29th Perceval found him incapable of transacting business. His malady continuing, the Regency Bill was passed in January 1811, but on 5 Feb. Eldon, who went to see him in order to ascertain that it was necessary to put the great seal in commission for the purpose of giving the royal assent to the bill, found him so much better that he was embarrassed (ib. p. 481). The king spoke of the regency with resignation, and almost with cheerfulness. The bill gave the care of the king's person to the queen. On 21 May 1811 he was able to ride through the Little Park at Windsor, a groom leading his horse. Soon after this, however, he became worse (Auckland Correspondence, iv. 66), and the remainder of his life was spent in mental and visual darkness, with very few momentary returns of reason. His bodily health was good. On the death of the queen in 1818 the guardianship of his person was entrusted by parliament to the Duke of York. Early in January 1820 his bodily powers decayed, and on the 29th he died very quietly in his eighty-second year, six days after the death of his fourth son, Edward, duke of Kent. After lying in state on 15 Feb. he was buried on the night of the 16th in St. George's Chapel, Windsor. He had fifteen children by his queen, Charlotte—nine sons (the first christian name only is given in each case): George, who succeeded him (1762–1830); Frederick, duke of York (1763–1827); William, duke of Clarence, afterwards William IV (1765–1837); Edward, duke of Kent (1767–1820); Ernest, duke of Cumberland and king of Hanover (1771–1851); Augustus, duke of Sussex (1773–1843); Adolphus, duke of Cambridge (1774–1850); Octavius (1779–1783); and Alfred (1780–1782); and six daughters: Charlotte, queen of Würtemberg (1766–1828); Augusta (1768–1840); Elizabeth, princess of Hesse-Homburg (1770–1840); Mary, duchess of Gloucester (1776–1857); Sophia (1777–1848); and Amelia (1783–1810).

At Windsor Castle are portraits of George by Dupont, Gainsborough, and Beechey. At Hampton Court is a family picture by Knapton, including George as a boy, besides portraits by West and Beechey. Portraits by Richard Wilson (as a boy) and by Allan Ramsay are in the National Portrait Gallery. A colossal equestrian statue by Westmacott terminates the long walk in Windsor Park.

[Jesse's Memoirs of the Life and Reign of George III, 3 vols. 2nd edit. 1867, contains many personal details, but is greater in gossip than in weightier matters; Adolphus's History of England during reign, 7 vols. 1840, has the merits and defects of a nearly contemporary work; Massey's History, 4 vols. 2nd edit. 1865, ends at 1802, dispassionate, though judging George rather severely; Mahon's (Stanhope's) Hist. vols. iii–vii. 3rd edit. 1853, ends at 1783, clear and trustworthy, though dull; May's Const. Hist. 3 vols. 5th edit. 1875; Lecky's Hist. of England during the Eighteenth Century, vols. iii–vi. 1882–7. For early years Earl Waldegrave's Memoirs, 1821, 4to, ends 1758; Bubb Dodington's Diary, 1785, ends 1761; Lady Hervey's Letters, 1821; Harris's Life of Lord-chancellor Hardwicke, 3 vols. 1847, especially useful for 1760; Walpole's Memoirs of Reign of George II, 2 vols. 4to, 1822; Earl of Chesterfield's Letters, 5 vols. ed. Mahon, 1845. Monthly Magazine, vols. li. lii., Notes and Queries, 1st ser. vol. x., Authentic Records, 1832, and Thoms's Hannah Lightfoot, &c., 1867, contain the ‘Fair Quaker’ scandal. Walpole's Memoirs of reign, 4 vols. 1845, Last Journals, 2 vols. 1859, and Letters, ed. Cunningham, 9 vols. 1880, must be taken with allowance for the writer's love of gossip and personal hostility to the king. Political correspondence and memoirs, representing party views, chiefly valuable down to 1783, are: Russell's Bedford Correspondence, vols. ii. and iii. 1842, ends 1770; Grenville Papers, vols. ii. iii. and iv., ed. W. J. Smith, 1852, valuable to 1770; Albemarle's Memoirs of the Marquis of Rockingham, 2 vols. 1852; Chatham Correspondence, 4 vols. 1838; Albert von Ruville's Life of Pitt, Earl of Chatham, 3 vols. Stuttgart, 1905, English translation, 1907; Corresp. of George III with Lord North, 1768–83 (from originals at Windsor), ed. Donne, 2 vols. 1867, with good introd. and notes; Fitzmaurice's Earl of Shelburne, 3 vols. 1875; Russell's Memorials and Correspondence of C. J. Fox, 4 vols. 1862, down to Fox's death in 1806; Nicholls's Recollections, 2 vols. 1820; Justin Winsor's Narrative and Critical Hist. of America, 1888, vol. vii. chaps. i. and ii. Letters of Junius, 2 vols. ed. Bohn. Authorities chiefly valuable after 1783 are: Lewis's Administrations of Great Britain, 1864; for personal details, court, &c.: Autobiography and Correspondence of Mrs. Delany, ed. Lady Llanover, 6 vols. 1861–2, vols. ii. and iii. 2nd ser.; Diary and Letters of Madame d'Arblay, 7 vols. 1842–6; Mrs. Papendiek's Journals, or Court and Private Life in the Time of Queen Charlotte, ed. Mrs. Broughton, 2 vols. 1887; Jubilee Year of George III, an Account of the Celebration of 25 Oct., reprinted 1887; Quarterly Review, vols. xxxvi. cxxxi. Memoirs and correspondence, chiefly political: Wraxall's Historical and Posthumous Memoirs, 5 vols. 1884, of no great value for the king's life; Duke of Buckingham's Court and Cabinets, 4 vols. 1853, begins 1782, con-