WILLIAM IV (1765–1837), king of Great Britain and Ireland, third son of George III and of his queen, Charlotte Sophia of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, was born in Buckingham Palace on the morning of 21 Aug. 1765, and was baptised by the archbishop of Canterbury (Thomas Secker) as William Henry. On 5 April 1770 he was nominated a knight of the Thistle. His early years were passed for the most part at Kew, where he was educated under the charge of Dr. John James Majendie [see under Majendie, Henry William] and Major-general Budé, a Swiss with a commission in the army of Hanover. While William was still a child the king, his father, determined that he should serve in the navy, and on his visit to Portsmouth in May 1778 had arranged with Captain Robert Digby [q. v.] that he should, in due time, go to sea with him. He also talked the matter over with Sir Samuel (afterwards Viscount) Hood, then commissioner in the dockyard, to whom he wrote, 12 July 1778, asking him ‘to write down what clothes, necessaries, and books he ought to take. … He has begun geometry, and I shall have an attention to forward him in whatever you may hint as proper to be done before he enters into that glorious profession.’ In May 1779 it was arranged that the boy should embark on board the Prince George, Digby's flagship, and on the 27th the king wrote to Hood that he had ‘sent an hair-trunk, two chests, and two cots done up in one mat to be delivered unto you for the use of my young sailor. … I flatter myself you will be pleased with the appearance of the boy, who neither wants resolution nor cheerfulness, which seem necessary ingredients for those who enter into that noble profession.’ On 11 June the king wrote again, introducing Mr. Majendie, ‘who is to attend my son on board of the Prince George, to pursue his classical studies. The young midshipman will be at the dockyard between one and two on Monday (14th). I desire he may be received without the smallest marks of parade. I trust the admiral will order him immediately on board. … The young man goes as a sailor, and as such, I add again, no marks of distinction are to be shown unto him; they would destroy my whole plan.’ It had, however, been provided that he should be allowed ‘a small place made with light sufficient for following his studies.’
As soon as he arrived he was sent on board the Prince George, on whose books he was borne as an ‘able seaman;’ Henry Majendie being borne as a midshipman. In the Prince George he took part in the August cruise of the Channel fleet under Sir Charles Hardy (1716?–1780) [q. v.], and in the relief of Gibraltar in January 1780. On 18 Jan. 1780 he was rated midshipman. The familiar story of his having been seen doing duty as a midshipman by the Spanish admiral, Don Juan de Langara, belongs to this time. Langara, who had been taken prisoner in the action off Cape St. Vincent [see Rodney, George Brydges, Lord], was, while at Gibraltar, paying a visit to Digby on board the Prince George, and is said to have exclaimed, when the prince reported his boat ready, ‘Well does Great Britain merit the empire of the sea, when the humblest stations in her navy are supported by princes of the blood’ (Drinkwater, Siege of Gibraltar). The broad facts of the story are probably historical; but it may be doubted if any Spanish admiral in 1780 would have spoken of Great Britain as meriting the empire of the sea. Other stories told of the same time—the prince's quarrel with a midshipman named Sturt, and his fight with Lieutenant Moodie of the marines—are probable enough; that Sturt and
