Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 21.djvu/178

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George II
172
George III

Chron. Reg. 1717-18). (6) William Augustus, duke of Cumberland (1721-1765) [q. v.] (7) Mary, born at Leicester House on 22 Feb. 1722-3, married at Cassel on 2 July (N.S.) 1740 to Frederick, landgraf of Hesse-Cassel. The marriage proved unhappy, and a separation ensued. She died in 1772 (Hist. Reg. Chron. Diary, 1722-3; Gent. Mag. 1740, pp. 259, 359; Walpole, Memoirs, i. 405; Vehse, ii. 61). (8) Louisa, born at Leicester House on 7 Dec. 1724, married at Copenhagen on 11 Dec. (N.S.) 1743 to Frederick, prince royal, afterwards king, of Denmark. Walpole calls her a princess of great spirit. She died on 8 Dec. 1751 (Hist. Reg. Chron. Diary, 1724 ; Gent. Mag. 1743 p. 670, 1751 p. 572; Walpole, Memoirs, i. 227).

Madame Walmoden's second son, John Louis, born in 1736, and known at court as Monsieur Louis, was reputed to be the king's son, but was never acknowledged. He rose to the rank of field-marshal in the Hanoverian army, which he commanded during the French occupation in 1803 (Walpole, Reminiscences, cxxxiv; Veshe, i. 285).

[The principal authorities are Denkwürdige Lebensbeschreibung seiner jetzregierenden königlichen Majestät von Gross-Britannien, Georg II, Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1750; Horace Walpole's Memoirs of the Reign of King George the Second, ed. 1846; Horace Walpole's Reminiscences of the Court of George I and George II in Cunningham's edition of Horace Walpole's Letters; Onno Klopp's Fall des Hauses Stuart und die Succession des Hauses Hannover; Lady Cowper's Diary, 1714-20, ed. C. S. Cowper; Boyer's Political State of Great Britain; Historical Register; Salmon's Chronological Historian, ed. Toone; Coxe's Memoirs of John, Duke of Marlborough; Coxe's Memoirs of the Life and Administration of Sir Robert Walpole; Coxe's Memoirs of Horatio, Lord Walpole; Coxe's Memoirs of the Life and Administration of the Right Hon. Henry Pelham; Lord Hervey's Memoirs of the Reign of George the Second; Politische Correspondenz Friedrichs des Grossen; Wenck's Codex Juris Gentium; De Garden's Histoire Générale des Traités de Paix; Jenkinson's Collection of Treaties; Martens's Supplément au Recueil des principaux Traités; Memoirs of a Celebrated Literary Political Character (Glover); A Selection from the Papers of the Earls of Marchmont; Correspondence of John, fourth Duke of Bedford, ed. Lord John Russell; Waldegrave's Memoirs; Bubb Dodington's Diary. Elaborate biographies will be found in Vehse's Geschichte der Höfe des Hauses Braunschweig, and Smucker's Hist. of the Four Georges; Jesse's Memoirs of the Court of England from the Revolution of 1688 to the Death of George II contains a careful study of his character. An elaborate account of his policy during 'the Drunken Administration' of Carteret is given in Ballantyne's Lord Carteret, 1887. Some brief memoranda by the king on affairs of state are printed among the Townshend Papers in Coxe's Walpole, ii. 520 et seq.; a few letters to Frederick the Great occur scattered through the Politische Correspondenz above mentioned. His relations with Frederick are discussed at large in Carlyle's Frederick the Great. Lady Suffolk's Letters, ed. Croker, 1824, Lady Sundon's Memoirs, ed. Thomson, 1847, and the Letters of Horace Walpole, Lord Chesterfield, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, and Pope afford a lively picture of the court and society during his reign, which may also be studied as seen through the refracting medium of caricature in Wright's England under the House of Hanover. For a slight sketch see Thackeray's Four Georges.]

J. M. R.

GEORGE III, George William Frederick (1738–1820), king of England, eldest son of Frederick Louis [q. v.], prince of Wales, and Augusta, daughter of Frederick II, duke of Saxe-Gotha, was born on 4 June (N.S.) 1738, in Norfolk House, St. James's Square, London. When he was in his seventh year, Dr. Francis Ayscough [q.v.], afterwards dean of Bristol, was appointed his preceptor, but his early education was hindered by the quarrel between his father and grandfather, George II (Life of Hardwicke, ii. 312). In common with his brothers and sisters he acted in some plays which were performed by children at Leicester House (Letters of Lady Hervey, p. 147; Dodington, p. 31). In October 1750 Francis, lord North, was appointed his governor. He was much attached to his father, and was deeply affected at his death in March 1751. By the death of the Prince of Wales he succeeded to the titles of Electoral-prince of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Duke of Edinburgh, and other honours. His grand-father showed a kindly interest in him; on 18 April his household was declared, and on the 19th he was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester. Lord Harcourt was appointed his governor in the place of Lord North, Dr. Hayter, bishop of Norwich, his preceptor, and Stone and Scott his sub-governor and sub-preceptor. The next year a feud broke out among these officers. Stone, who was a man of learning, was suspected of Jacobitism, and Scott, who had been recommended by Bolingbroke, was also offensive to the whigs. Harcourt and Bishop Hayter declared that they would resign unless Stone and Scott were dismissed, and Harcourt accused them of instilling Jacobite and arbitrary principles into the mind of their pupil (Dodington, p. 193). In the end Harcourt and Bishop Hayter retired, and their places were taken by Lord Waldegrave and Dr. Thomas, bishop of Peterborough (for George's judg-