A Biography of King George III
Hopefully the gap between this post and the next one won't be nearly as long.
The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III By: Andrew Roberts
Publication Date: November 2, 2021 Date Finished: April 20, 2022
Rating: 7/10
Andrew Roberts would take exception to the portrayal of King George III in Lin Manuel Miranda’s smash musical hit Hamilton. Roberts’ full-throated defense of the 18th and early 19th century King of Great Britain and Ireland and elector of Hanover would make a professional publicist proud. While The Last King of America feels in danger of turning into a hagiography at times, Roberts shows the receipts in his defense of the monarch from what he views to be injustices of his historic reputation. The biography is extensively researched (the bibliography and notes on other sources was too long for me to do more than skim) and the author had access to recently released documents from the era from the Royal Archives. George III had many shortcomings as a man and as a political leader, but Roberts convinced me he did not earn the contempt with which he is regarded by many today.
Like most Americans of my generation, I imagine, my views of George III have been colored by Thomas Paine’s Common Sense (which I’ve never read in full), and the charges leveled against him by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence. In contrast, Roberts offers a compelling argument that if he was truly the power-hungry tyrant the US Founding Fathers portrayed him as, England would have enforced more draconian policies and war strategies against the American colonists and most likely faired better in the US War of Independence. In fact, the actions the Americans implored the King to take would have been overriding the rulings and desires of his government and Parliament and would actual have been an instance of him reaching beyond his powers in the British unwritten constitution.
George III was a pious and devout man in an age of licentiousness. He was raised by his father (before the Prince of Wales untimely young death) and his mentor and long serving Prime Minister (it was in the era George III that the more modern idea of a Prime Minister developed) John Bute to value personal liberty and integrity. He desired nothing more than to be a “patriot king” and be a good steward of the state’s finances, in contrast to his spendthrift Hanoverian forbearers.
Roberts is one of the leading conservatives in the history writing game of today, so it makes sense why George III would earn his sympathy more than other historians. Roberts points out the irony in the US Constitution and how it has evolved resulting in the US chief executive now wielding exponentially more power than its current counterpart in the UK.
Tim, I have to admit that I have accepted the general view of George III presented in American mythology. One thing I've often wondered about, but haven't really looked into, was the way slavery was abolished in the Kingdom vs. the US. Why did it take the most devastating war in human history (at the time) here where it seemed to be so easily accomplished there. I'm thinking that maybe here it was a regionalized issue, while there it may have been just a commercial or moral issue.
Does Roberts address this question and George's role in the abolition of slavery. It seems that the Crown would have had a major role on such a significant issue.