The discourse presented in this episode meticulously unravels the historical narrative surrounding King George III, a figure often caricatured as a tyrannical ruler in the context of the American Revolution. As we delve into the complexities of his reign, we confront the adage that history is written by victors, illuminating the profound impact of victorious narratives on the legacy of defeated figures. The episode embarks upon a critical examination of the prevailing myths that have shrouded George III in infamy, particularly focusing on the accusations of tyranny levied against him. Through an exploration of newly accessible historical documents, we endeavor to paint a more nuanced portrait of this monarch, positing that the prevailing perceptions may be steeped in confirmation bias originating from the narratives of those who sought independence from British rule. As we scrutinize his policies and the tumultuous political landscape of the time, the discussion invites listeners to reconsider the validity of the claims made against George III, ultimately questioning the fairness of historical judgments rendered without comprehensive context.

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History is often written by the victors.

This is more evident when the losers vanish from the annals of history altogether.

This falls apart when you begin to compare and contrast the empires that remain long after the battles in which they lost took place.

The story becomes more nuanced and harder to differentiate with passive reading trying to escape centuries long amount of propaganda and spun narratives.

One such case is that of the last king of America, George iii.

Modern representations paint George as an oaf of a ruler with a lack of compassion and general moral compass.

Historical documents from our side of the pond do things in a similar fashion with the Founding Fathers, alluding to him as an amoral tyrant in the Declaration of Independence.

But is this fair?

Is this the confirmation bias by the people who wanted to be free to rule themselves?

What merit is there to any of the things levied against George?

In this part one of three, we will be looking into the man behind the myths, the opposing side to the American Revolution, and the man who seemingly fumbled the future superpower of the world.

So powder your wig, fix those bayonets and get ready for another episode of the Remedial Scholar.

That's ancient history.

I feel I was denying critical need to know information.

Belong to the museum room.

Stop skipping your immediate class.

Welcome everyone to the Remedial Scholar.

I am your ever faithful and obedient servant Levi.

I promise there won't be too many Hamilton references, especially not in this episode.

But there's going to be some.

There has to be because you know that's the most recent depiction of him in anything.

So before we get to that, my lovely remediated people still workshopping what to call you.

Besides the voices in my head, just a couple things to go over.

Firstly, thank you to everyone who has continued to write reviews on Apple podcasts Spotify.

Obviously if you're listening to this, you notice that I'm by myself in this episode and like I said at the beginning of the episodes with some people in them, it's not going to be an every time thing.

It's just kind of when it works out for, for the topic, for the guest, all the things.

So it's just going to be me.

But that's all right.

Thank you for, you know, anybody showing.

So in the show some love.

We got a new website, the remedial scholar.com there's merch.

Pretty cool.

You can listen to the show right there.

There's an embedded player on the website.

You can check out the new merch.

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But if you're new, don't feel obliged to do any of that.

Just listen to the show for a few episodes, see if you like it before you dedicate any monetary decisions to my ramblings.

All right, enough begging.

Get on with it, Levi.

Okay, so this episode is going to be pretty interesting.

Well, this series, really, if you're aware of even the slightest bit of American history, this is one of those things that people like, know very loosely.

Not something that comes in front of our mind.

Right.

It's.

It's not something that should either.

It's not something that we really think about regularly, but every now and then it kind of weasels its way in.

Why would we think about it?

You know, George III lost his power over the United States before the turn of the 19th century.

And, you know, we're close to the 250th birthday of the US as an independent nation, so why does it matter?

Why bother with a story about a king who barely ruled over the precursor to our nation, who was painted as a power hungry psychopath who wanted to kill everyone and everything to pacify any resistance?

Well, because almost everything we learn in the United States about King George III is pretty much categorically false.

Up until recently, there's a lot of world that did not know anything about him, Right?

So it's not just a knock on our education system, it's just the way things kind of shook down.

And, you know, our education system isn't helping.

Because of this, we now have a much better look at the insights of the once deemed Mad King.

And there's a couple reasons why he's called the Mad King, and I'll get to that in a minute.

But, you know, only 15% of them had ever been published to that point.

So this is huge.

This is a very instrumental thing for historians being able to piece together a much more complete and nuanced version of George than, you know, anybody had ever done before.

There's a lot of things that we have been passing along as gospel truth when the reality is far more interesting.

And lastly, before we get started, I want to share that I'm not doing this out of an apologist revisionist reinterpretation of the villain of my country's origin story.

I know that in the modern era many assume the worst when any contradictory words come about against their home country, you know, especially this one.

I love this country.

Like, I.

It's been a big part of my life.

I was part of the military defending the constitution of this country.

I did that because it's something I believed in, believe in.

And you know, while it does a lot of things wrong, there's also a lot of things that it has done great and I'm proud to be a part of that.

But, you know, I think it symbolizes to many people the trajectory of which it took to become its own boss.

Right.

That's like a.

The American dream is like America in history.

Like, oh, hey, you, you worked out from underneath this guy who was a very bad boss and then he became your own boss and look at you running the stuff.

But I don't know, I don't think, especially back in like the 18th century that having a decentralized authority was like the best thing for anybody.

So I'm not saying that we should have stayed under the King's rule or anything like that.

I think, you know, if you contemplate some of the bosses that you've ever had in your life, the ones who, you know, you, who see you regularly and have like a vastly more complete and understanding realistic interpretation of your job, versus the ones who like never see you, their bosses.

Right.

And expectations that they might have are a little bit different than the one who actually sees you on a regular basis.

Right.

Well, now imagine that on a massive scale, the only means of communication are that of writings in which the speed is dedicated by wind on the ocean.

So, you know, two to three months depending on when in the year they're going.

So all that to say, I'm not trying to say that George was perfect or even innocent of anything.

And I'm saying America is better off and it didn't really make sense for us to be under the rule anyway when you look at it just logistically.

But I just want in authenticity sake, to share all of this stuff to kind of get a better perspective on what happened and how we got to where we are.

Right.

So the first part of this three parter is going to involve going over a brief history of or where the British Empire is at the time of the Hanoverian ascension and the Hanoverian.

I'll get into what that means and basically there's a whole lot of change in turnover before King George III took power.

And so there's a lot of stuff to discuss and then cover, you know, some of the economical things that changed before he came into power and where Britain sat with other superpowers at that time.

His birth into, you know, his life, death of his grandfather, and then him being the king, and then the first, like 5ish years of him being king is how it's going to shake out between this and the.

The next two episodes.

So it's a.

It's a lot.

I understand that it's a lot.

And I was writing this and I got to 12, 000 words in the.

The one and only episode.

And I was like, well, not gonna be able to do this.

And then I got about 8,000 words into the second episode after I'd already split the two and I hadn't even gotten to the revolution yet.

So I just like, well, we gotta, we gotta stagger this, but it'll be fun.

It's like a little bit of a, you know, I don't know the word, but it's, it's gonna be good.

I'm excited to tell you all about it because there's a lot of things that I learned and that's usually a good sign.

So with that being said, let's get into it.

To effectively tell his story, King George iii, we need to place.

We need to go to the place where he was born at the British Empire.

And obviously, you know, so like I said, his, his life's not really taking place in a vacuum and it's one of the most expansive and colonial powers that he ends up becoming a king of.

So it's like, yeah, there's some stuff that was going on beforehand.

It's on, it's coming up.

It's not like where.

When you think of like the British Royal Navy and all that stuff, that is like more in the 19th century.

And this is not.

Then they're doing.

They're sitting pretty good, but not completely where you like think of just massive superpower British Empire.

Right.

Would they do have the American colonies?

Right, That's.

You probably heard of those.

There's 13 of them.

They do have money flowing back and forth from that.

And then, you know, they have some stuff in the Caribbean which is also fruitful, pun intended, because there's some fruit there.

They also had massive export in America thanks to some of the colonies with their cotton and different things like tobacco, which made some Major profits for some residents of Virginia and Maryland anyway.

And then the Caribbean also had like sugar and also tobacco.

But another big part is obviously the slave trade which is going strong at this point.

You know, in the middle of the 18th century, it's the triangular trade as it is sometimes referred to.

Shipment of slaves from Africa to the Caribbean and then from there to either north or South America.

A lot of people don't know this, but most of them ended up in South America.

Maybe, maybe a lot of people do know that.

I learned that and I was like, what?

No, that doesn't make sense.

But it does if you think about it anyway.

And then while in, in north or South America they are actively working in labor camps to do xyz and then those goods sent back to England and then British being able to sell it to the rest of Europe.

Yeah.

So the British also benefited from having colonized a lot of places.

And like I said, it's not, they're not to like their huge colonization, naval supremacy as they would be, but they're in this next 50 year block, they're going to really kick it up a notch.

So they did have.

Still their navy was not where it should be, but it was in a pretty decent spot.

They were holding their own against Spain and France and even at this point had taken down some Spanish armadas and you know, gotten some of the precious Spanish silver.

Right?

Yeah, but not, not where it could be, not where it would be yet in the 18th and 19th century and things weren't perfect.

Obviously there was some troubles brewing.

Crazy, I know.

Particularly just before George was born.

The powers of the world were struggling to make trade across the open ocean successfully and safe without those pesky pirates interrupting things.

Of course.

I've talked to ad nauseam about pirates.

If you're unaware, there's a two parter that you can check out done by yours truly which paints a much more detailed and vivid picture than I'm going to right now.

But the powers of the world relied heavily on the transport of their goods across and money across water.

Especially when the big three were all in Europe and their colonies were everywhere else.

So this was plunderers delight to the pirates.

And they took full advantage before being used by those empires against one another in the form of privateers.

You know, the proxy battles did little to ease the tensions between these nations.

And it wasn't long before, you know, they just all started fighting openly.

Not a good sign as you can imagine.

Was not good for the common person outside of just being a potential casualty of war.

They also typically were the financial backing when it came to the increased enlistment and outfitting.

British budget could surge anywhere between 60 to 80% when war broke out.

Around half of that went straight to the military.

And 7 to 9 million of that was for the military.

So that's a huge increase.

Geez, that sounds well and good, but where did this money come from?

Who has this much money in 18th century Britain?

Right, well, this is a key part to the future struggles with many of the colonies belonging to Britain.

So backing up a tad.

In the 17th century, Britain created a new system of national banking to offset the issues that came with traditional means of raising money to fight wars.

Things like raising taxes, taking loans from goldsmiths and merchants and what have you.

And the typical ways that you could, you know, raise money just weren't going to cut it this time.

This was also compounded by the numerous defaulted debts that the House of Stuart had piled up during their dynastic run.

And the system was created, that was created, made it a little easier for the Crown to borrow money by way of a group of wealthy merchants that would pool their money together, loan it to the Crown, and then they would receive a charter to run a bank and then also a promised percentage of interest paid every year.

Also agreed to never force the full payback of the original loan, just the guaranteed interest payments.

And this made it a lot more digestible for the common citizen with the money going towards the success of the nation and wasn't backed by the word of the Crown.

Now, this national debt was a big reason that the 18th and 19th centuries belonged to Britain in terms of success, right?

It allowed them to build their massive navy, fund global wars against France, expand their colonies and fund industrial development, all while not like taxing people till.

Till death, basically contrary to popular colonial opinion.

But all, not all, was not sunshine, rainbows, right?

This money came at a price.

Parliament promised to pay back the investors with the revenue and then the taxes, which meant that the taxes were placed on everything.

It also meant that taxes increased on things that they were already on.

And that meant, you know, customs and Duties for imports were more and more common and this was transferred down the line to the poor of the empire who saw every part of their lives becoming subject to taxes unless they were, you know, a little more self sufficient.

Right.

While the poor paid taxes on everything, the creditors in the middle grew their wealth by buying the bonds, cash, cashing them in and then loaning the money to the government and then earning the interest that the government paid.

So it's like this free money, weird pyramid scheme thing going.

This would create tensions on its own, but it did benefit Britain overall in terms of expansion.

It prevented currency collapse, kept the government functioning, smoothed out costs of wartime and enabled long term planning.

And it did also make war easier to fund, which is why there was so much more war.

It locked the public into paying this interest by way of taxes for generations and shifted the political power towards the financiers and took away from the rural commoners.

And I tell you all that to say the national debt at the time of George's birth was around 2 to 3 million pounds on interest alone and would increase as time went on.

Naturally, the debt itself was closer to 47 million pounds.

And you have this massive debt spread across their empire and the common people taking on a big brunt of this potentially.

And we know, you know, Texas played a big part of the American Revolution.

Spoiler alert.

So this is a big part of the reign of George iii.

And this only grew since after George's birth, many wars began and only increased this burden.

The last little bit before we get to George is going to be the name of his house.

It might seem pointless, but it is part of the history and does somewhat kind of define what's going on.

Now the Stuart.

Sorry.

The first monarch, of course was Stuart Little.

No, God, no.

Funnily enough, we have covered this family and their ascension to the throne.

Assession accession to the throne in the Gunpowder Plot episode when Hank, Hank number eight, couldn't get his wife Parente and then he divorced, which made the Pope mad and then he made the English Protestant, made Church of England, right?

Protestant Reformation, all this stuff.

And then he died and his only surviving son died and then his daughter Mary took over.

Bloody Mary tried to bring the Catholic Church back to England, but after she died and her sister Elizabeth the First took power, the religion went back to Protestantism.

Elizabeth was the last Tudor monarch, right?

And then when she died, was also without a child.

So then the throne went to her cousin, James Charles Stewart.

And this is who the Gunpowder Plot was trying to kill and place his daughter, Elizabeth Stewart, who is believed to be sympathetic or more sympathetic to Catholics on the throne.

Not important.

But this is.

Obviously known for more than just being the namesake for Blackbeard ship, but mostly that she was the last Stewart to be a monarch.

And then when she got she, she was pregnant 17 times and none of them survived, which is tragic, but that's what happened.

So her half brother, James Francis Edward Stewart.

Mr.

I need four more names.

Was passed over for George of Hanover.

Right.

That's why we have we got a German king now, Hanover in the German region.

King of England, German.

People aiding this battle made a good point though.

Since there were, you know, 50, some potential heirs to the throne that were passed over simply because they were Catholic, it would not be the last time that they would try to regain power either.

So with that being said, let's welcome our little tiny tyrant into the fold.

Timing of his birth, pretty important.

So his youth was very much imprinted by the sort of chaos of the time.

The informative child.

The formative childhood years were full of stories of the potential overthrowing of their, you know, dynastic presence.

He was born to Frederick Louis, or probably Louis, right, Prince of Wales and Princess Augusta of Sax Gothica.

Gothica Sax Gotha, a territory in the Holy Roman Empire.

Since he was born in London, he was actually the first king of the Hanoverian line to have English as his first language.

Also first one to be born in England, so that's crazy.

His great grandfather and grandfather before him both spoke German from birth.

Well, not from birth, but you know what I mean.

This would serve him very well.

As people within the UK proper, rather like George, they, you know, he's pretty popular.

By the time his, his run was over there, you'd be hard pressed to find somebody saying bad things about him.

Um, but it's more, it's more than Just he was born there and spoke English, but that's part of it.

He was also popular with his father, which is rather surprising given the complete dysfunction of the Hanoverian dynasty.

George number one hated George number two.

And George 2.0 then in turn hated Frederick.

George III's dad.

Frederick loved his baby boy, though I kind of wonder if this is part of.

If this part was like a departure from the German style of parenting, right?

Being replaced by a more.

It's weird to call British more warm, but compared to German, I would assume Frederick was 100 in on his family being raised British.

He wanted everybody to live the British life because, you know, hey, we're going to be kings for the foreseeable future.

Unless something crazy happens, we should probably represent the place that we're going to rule a little bit.

And I know the American view of the British can see them as stiff and unwelcoming up to noses and whatnot, but German hospitality is one, is one that nobody signs up for.

Right?

That is.

It's a joke.

Like, I'm sure it is very welcoming, but like, I don't know, there's.

There's a stereotype of Germans being like, you know, very blunt and cold and, you know, so I wonder if that's part of it, but who knows?

What we do know is that Frederick broke this generational trauma, loved his children.

George II and Fredward were opposed in more terms than just family dynamics.

G2, George number two, Gatorade fuel held drastically different political views, which typically shouldn't be that big a deal in the family circle, with the exception of believing something ridiculous or dangerous or dumb.

But when your family is of the royal one, this is kind of a constant concern.

Difference in views was centered around the type of monarch George II was and what kind of monarch Frederick wanted to be.

To understand this rift, we gotta do some background on 18th century British politics.

Everybody's favorite thing.

Two parties dominated the Tories and the wigs.

And by two parties, I mainly mean one, but there's two mage one in.

In the fold that we're going to talk about.

Both names originated as insults during the Glorious Revolution when the Hanoverian family took the crown.

Tori derived from an Irish Toriad.

I don't, I don't know if that's how.

There's a lot of, like, accent marks on that word and I'm probably butchering it, but it basically is like a Catholic bandit or highwayman.

And wig comes from wigamore, which is a term for Scottish Presbyterian rebels, which it originally meant cattle Drover or fanatic.

So a lot of really wide definitions for some of these words.

It's either a Presbyterian rebel, cattle driver or a fanatic.

Take your pick.

How mean are you being to your cows?

Anyway?

The Tories supported the Stuart lineage and the Whigs, aligned with the Hanoverian, favored the constitutional monarchy.

Kings ruling by consent rather than divine right.

This left the Whigs in control for decades.

That's why it kind of said that mainly just the Whigs at this point.

They married other Whigs, socialized with other Whigs, consolidated power among the aristocratic.

I don't know why that word trips me up.

Aristocratic families and the bankers who had invested in the new national debt system.

Over time, Tories began attracting rural and working class supporters.

But the labels became increasingly muddied by George II's reign.

Party lines had blurred considerably, though George II remained loyal to the Whigs, who had supported his family's claim to the throne.

Now Frederick, Prince of Wales, George III's dad, took a different path.

They became admirers of1 Henry St. John Bolingbroke.

Bolingbroke.

This guy's super fascinating.

He's got a very interesting history.

Rose rapidly thanks to his commanding oratory skills.

Peers considered him perhaps the finest speaker of his generation by those who have heard him.

But this also triggered his downfall, because the Whigs accused him of betraying Britain by siding with the French.

He'd also been dealing been involved in Jacobite dealings as Queen Anne's health was beginning to decline.

He formally joined the Jacobite court as a Secretary of State for James Edward Stuart, the would be king.

Right.

So he's double exiled.

Crushed by these failures, Bolingbroke turned to philosophy and religion, corresponding with thinkers like Voltaire and writing essays on history, politics and faith.

He was literally friends with Voltaire, so that's pretty cool.

Circulated writings advocating for a unified party devoted to country's betterment rather than fictional interest.

But after a decade of gaining no traction, he left England again, returning to his studies.

He had made enemies and had a reputation for flying off the handle at the slightest crisis.

Though he was remembered for his oratory and sharp critique of the Whig dominance.

Three years after his death, a trove of his secret writings was published, revealing his religious views, which proved extremely controversial at the time.

He was essentially a deist.

He believed in a rational, natural religion discovered through reason and personal spirituality, rejected biblical authority and viewed organized Christianity as useful social institution for maintaining order rather than divine truth.

What is insane?

He'd kept those views hidden, knowing they would destroy him further.

And he was right.

One contemporary called him a scoundrel who, quote, charged a blunderbuss against religion and morality, but had not the resolve enough to fire it off himself, leaving half a crown to beggarly Scotchman to drink or to draw the trigger after his death.

Fair criticism, but also, like, why invite more press persecution in your life if you're him?

You know what I mean?

Like, who cares?

You're not going to convince anybody.

Just let it go.

Anyway, sorry for that little diversion, but I just.

I was like, reading more and more about that guy.

I'm like, this guy is super ahead of his time, I think.

But back to George and Frederick.

Frederick the Pinch of Wales began reading this text, right?

The the Patriot King and largely loved it.

His followers and supporters all did, too.

And maybe there was a lot of like, well, they love it because he's going to be the king.

And they're like, so anyway, it really did seem to be revolutionary in terms of how it would shake things up.

And, you know, this put him at odds with his father, who just happened to be the king.

I guess, like, if your kid starts reading books about how to be better at your job written by a guy who tried to get your.

You fired several times, I don't know.

Doesn't really explain why George number one hated George number two, but, hey, I can't find all the answers all the time.

Now these same things also made George 2 hate George 3 by proxy.

As fed as Frederick definitely imparted his view on young George.

The views of the Whig special interest groups, the evil of political parties, the idea of nation over the government, governing like a father to his people, trusting in the vast colonies of the nation rather than the other nations.

He's all put Fred and son at odds with George ii, by extension the Whig party.

George II also hated that Fred and G3.

George III were more fond of England rather than vacationing in Hanover, which George II did quite a bit.

So.

And he was allegedly at his happiest when he was back in Hanover.

So there's that.

Now into George's childhood.

Common opinion and myths have portrayed George III as somewhat feeble minded.

I think this is due partially to his later mental illness diagnosis, which is what I was talking about earlier.

You know, they talk about the mad King and he did have documented mental illnesses, but this is going to be more chronologically, so I'm not going to talk about that yet, but just something to keep in mind.

But contemporaries did think that he was feeble minded, that he had been.

Had he been born in a common life, he would have been nothing more than a general laborer, which I feel like is not really exactly the most direct critique you can give someone, like especially back then, because, you know, most people are laborers and especially back then, like that's what everybody did.

So rather than like a little bit of people, like, yeah, if you weren't born a king, you'd probably be a laborer.

Yeah, that's the odds, man.

Anyway, the fact of the matter, especially with all these papers being released and also by this book that I read for this episode, the Last King of America by Andrew Roberts, which I leaned on heavily for these episodes, is that it's not super true.

Right.

He had some difficulties with his education, but by 11 he could read and write in Latin.

He also spoke two other languages outside of English and wrote prophetically as he grew up.

You know, once he had a proper tutor, his education was not really a problem at all.

It's just in terms of how kids learn, everybody learns a little bit different and he didn't find it right away.

Other lessons that he really enjoyed, you know, or took included astronomy, mathematics, history, music, geography, commerce, agriculture and constitutional law.

George was really interested in the sciences.

He began collecting his own bit of research and conducting some of his own as well.

By the time of his death, he had collected around 65,000 books which were accessible to any scholar.

And then like during his lifetime, like if you're a major researcher scholar, petition the king to look at his books, which is kind of a crazy concept.

Imagine you're just like in his library looking at stuff and then he just walks in.

You're like, play cool, play cool.

And then when he died, it went to the, the British Museum.

So he also would have his own astronomical observatory, huge collection of scientific instruments, and would even write economic papers under a pseudonym.

So that's kind of cool.

He was very studious even after childhood into his adulthood.

But like I said, just need a little more focused approach for learning.

Now his childhood, not exactly the happy go lucky I'm the King's grandson, as you might believe, right.

His dad Frederick, the only guy in his family that liked him, died when he was 12.

When George was 12, Frederick was 44.

Super sudden death.

His death is attributed to bursting of an abscess in the lung, which was apparently gained after an in.

After a hit to the chest during a cricket match.

And modern scholars believe it was a pulmonary embolism.

And that's not great.

His death, it really puts pause on everyone because he was the heir apparent, right?

He was the guy that was the next one.

Now with him gone, the direct line was to that of young George.

Now this really like ramped up the time frame in which his studies become serious.

You know, it's unfortunate, but hey, you're going to be king.

Sorry your dad's dead, but you're going to be king, so you better start learning now.

Like, it was very rigorous.

His grandfather had been sort of forced to care about this young boy who he previously hated.

Death of his father, George III inherited the title of Duke of Edinburgh.

Duke of Edinburgh.

And three weeks later was anointed as the Prince of Wales.

Okay.

Which is also the title.

Title that his father helped.

Random fact.

Frederick is the most recent Prince of Wales to not go on to be king.

Pretty crazy.

George's mother, Augusta, also saw to it that he received a more focused and personalized education fit for a future king.

A personal friend of his father, John Butte, became his tutor and advisor.

The adherence to the moral and focused advice began quickly as his family, particularly the hangers on for the King and Hanoverian line, loved to gamble and party.

Augusta and Butte kept him away from that lifestyle, encouraging his education and instilling the importance of his values.

Now his grandfather even tried to give George iii Grand Palace, St James's Palace, a regal and magnificent place of refuge which had long since become the place to be if you are young, rich, on the come up wig aristocrat who wanted to rub elbows with others like you.

Also the place in which his father Frederick had been evicted from at the request of George ii.

So weird.

Augusta and Beau advised him to reject this gift, partly to keep him from the lifestyle of the rich and famous, as it were, but also to keep him close to home so they could continue to expand his education.

George also exhibited a fair bit of melodramatic tendencies as a boy you know well, and a man you know too, as I briefly touched on.

He had written such things as I will die, I will rather die 10,000 deaths and struggle at the at the impious feet.

He had written things such as the I will rather die 10,000 deaths than struggle at the impious feet.

And then describing.

He was describing a fatal political alliance at this point.

He also wrote that he should be quote, retarding to some uninhabited cavern that would prevent me from seeing the sufferings of my countrymen and the total destruction of this monarchy.

So pretty chill.

Pretty, pretty chill.

No, this seems like your typical teenage angst from a snobby well to do child.

But I think it's worth noting here that the language of the day also kind of favored the melodrama.

This is the type of phrasing that was not so much commonplace or it was commonplace, but it was like not take it as seriously as we might take it today.

His morals were further put to the test early on as the end of the decade.

Nice.

Sweet Dreams Are Made of.

No, that would be crazy.

That would mean Annie would be like 200 years older than she was.

But anyway, George was smitten with young Sarah.

Sure, it was probably some hormonal obsession of a 19 year old, but that has toppled many of us and many nations as well.

He was advised against it at the behest of Butte.

And ultimately, George did relinquish his lust for Sarah, writing on the event quote, the interest of my country shall ever be my first care, my own inclination.

Shall ever submit to it.

Submit to it.

I am born for the happiness or misery of a great nation and consequently most often act contrary to my passions.

Yeah, sorry about the bad accent, but I'm gonna keep doing it.

Talk about drama.

Talk about a drama.

Prince of Wales, right fellas?

No, but you know, just how astute and forward thinking of him to just not just do what his heart is demanding because you know it's gonna benefit the country that he's gonna be a king of.

Sarah.

You know, she was a lovely bed, but non royal, could not be seated at the throne.

Sawyer.

She was somewhat notable in the Aristotle aristocratic scene at the time.

She was once popular to men to woo.

She was, she was the, the bees knees, the real cat's pajamas, you know what I mean?

But yeah, after George was like, hey man, not my bag.

I gotta find somebody that's good for the country.

She got married three years after that, which is probably good because that makes her like 14 when he was pursuing her when she was 19, but still a little weird, I don't know.

And she was married to this next guy for 14 years.

She got married at 14.

No, never mind.

I thought, I thought it was.

Never mind, I thought, I thought it worked out.

But anyway, back to George, George ii.

He, he was, he was gonna help George III find a bride.

He was gonna find a queen for his grandson.

And you know, he did so in, in the most German way possible.

He rather heavy handedly recommended Princess Sophie Caroline of Brunswick Wolfenbuttel.

George actually resisted this weird.

His mother of course played a part in his resistance.

You know, what was a rush?

He didn't need to get married off right away.

He's.

His grandpa is trying to find him a wife.

Grandpa, AKA the King, you know, hey, why the rush?

You know.

So now the search is ramping up.

Now we're putting him on the Bachelor, we're getting him going.

Many things were on the line.

Outside of his wife and future heirs, England was also now in the like at this point in the middle of the Seven Years War, which is, you know, for the American folks listening, French and Indian War, you might heard of it.

Major impacts on his reign as king as well as our future as a country.

So I do want to stop paint a picture of the Seven Years War, named for having lasted six years, eight months, three weeks and three days, began as a territorial dispute in the American Colonies, My God.

We have covered some of the colonial expansion history of North America, but really quick.

Spain and France unable to really hold any real permanent settlements, except for France kind of had the Midwest and Canada a little bit.

So essentially, England got a really good, strong foothold on the East Coast.

And, you know, like I said, France had some in Canada, Louisiana scattered around the Midwest.

Very successful, though, in terms of trade networks with local tribes because.

And because of this, France basically decided that the entire Mississippi river basin was there, was theirs.

They were really the only ones to agree to that.

But, you know, not a whole lot of people countering it either.

They began to build forts in the Ohio River Valley, staking claim in this area and also working to prevent further expansion westward by the British colonists.

Colonists were not pumped, feeling that French forts so close to their settlements was bad for business.

And, you know, they wanted to have the access to the fertile land of the Ohio River Valley, which I feel like is probably more of the reason, but what do I know?

They also felt that the French would use their good relationship with the native tribes in the area to attack the settlers.

Lucky guess.

Both the British and the colonial governments tried to resolve their issues with diplomatic measures, but France just kept building forts.

The French responded in kind on 3 July, capturing Washington in the process.

This kicked off the war.

And while it was a proxy war for most of the time, both Britain and France did send troops and ships to the war as well.

The local tribes did side with the French in effort to force out the English encroachment, feeling that the French would be, you know, the lesser of the white devils that came, as it were.

The French and British had also been fighting for the better part of like 800 years at this point, so it kind of just seemed like bad blood.

This really ended up being a much more global affair.

But with the British crown focused on more than just colonies in England proper, it became very expensive.

France had allied themselves with the Holy Roman Empire, which was now a big chunk of what we know as Germany.

And not all of it went, you know, with France.

A few territories sided with Britain, of course.

Hanover being one of them.

The homeland of the king at the time the war kicked off meant that it absolutely had to be defended.

Can't let the hometown down by the end of the decade.

While George III was still swooning over Sarah Lennox.

The war had largely been won.

Major wins in Quebec and Montreal.

So that's why in the US we only really view it as the French and Indian War, because those are the only people we fought and it didn't last the full seven years for us.

So.

But it was pretty global.

It was.

I mean a lot of people do consider it one of the first world conflicts just because it did end up taking place on so many continents.

So George III announced as king, he does his accession and you know, gets to work trying to figure everything out.

Brought up speed rapidly on the war front, which I doubt took very long.

He was probably privy to a lot of this anyway, budgetary stuff, of course, finding a wife.

His crowning was met with a bit of glee, partly because so few people cared to mourn for the recently deceased George II, but also because this 22nd year old seemed to have all the right stuff.

He's a great king.

Contemporaries applauded his nationality, claiming he probably couldn't even find Hanover on a map.

Which isn't being rude, it was complimenting him that he cared more about England.

Right.

Even the ever contentious Horace Walpole stated that he was rarely enamored by by royalty.

He had to admit that the new king gives all the indications of imaginable and being amiable.

Horace also being the child of Robert Walpole, who I previously talked about being the opposition to Bolingbroke.

So yeah.

Others described him as tall, full of dignity, good natured, graceful, obliging.

He was once shy as a childhood, you know, this demeanor was replaced with that of a more confident, well mannered man, which contrasted with some of his siblings who did not receive the same tutelage.

His major acceptance of this new nation became the first king Charles beat.

He being the first king since Charles the first to have been born in England was a big deal to people.

He loved this identity.

He wanted nothing more than to be the best king that he could for his country and took great pride in that.

He was not particularly popular as he began to make decisions with the incumbent government bodies, you know, despite having meetings with the major power players at the time, all of which felt slighted in one way or another.

I think it was probably due to the fact that he was of the tutelage of a close friend.

Of his father, who also bequeathed him a sort of handbook for his political and moral views.

Right.

Has put him at odds with many in the wigs, you know.

Right.

All these wigs that are in power don't like that because he's.

He's looking to un.

Monopolize this.

So, yeah, they felt threatened, even if he really hadn't even done anything yet.

You know, boy, is you're gonna do something, we just can't prove it yet.

We're gonna find out.

Though I suppose it's worth noting that they had a reason to feel somewhat nervous.

You know, although George would go on to be sort of a backseat constitutional monarch, he disliked the established Whigs who were in power, and, you know, they represented the status quo, complacency, political monopolization, which might sound ironic for a king to be concerned about that, but it was true.

And I think it's also pretty significant that the first few years of his reign were rather tumultuous, to say the least.

I feel like people remember the first years forever if they are bad enough.

Right.

He became the king in the middle of essentially the very first World War, though in, like, location, not a name.

Right.

He came into power with many of the members of government having been used to do things and have been used to things being the same way that they had always been right to them because they were the aristocracy, they were the Whigs.

They had been in power for some of these people's whole lives.

Right.

The special interest groups, the bankers, the lawyers, all the major part of this group.

He comes in, tries to make some decisions that will help the country, but doesn't like the war so much, makes some enemies because of it.

It's tough, and then there's some calm before things kick off again, you know, like 15 years.

George was not for the war, stating as much to his confidant Bute.

Right.

Even in his declaration of accession, he drafted one version that said a bloody war, which did not earn him any favors with one William Pitt the Elder.

Now, this guy had a pretty contentious relationship with the king from even before he was king.

He witnessed the great orator in action.

Pitt is the orator in this case, having seen the man sway public opinion before.

He was like, I didn't even know you could do that.

George even thought that Pitt was a potential ally in office, but was angered when Pitt called for a British invasion.

Of Germany, particularly to protect the lands of Hanover.

In fact, many of the people who opposed the young king early on had much to say about Hanover, more than he did.

And that's where his entire family's from.

So that's kind of crazy.

Also, the questions on if bloody in that comment, the bloody war, was it meant as like it's violent or like that bloody war?

So who knows?

The war would continue and so would the search for a queen.

Obviously, you can't have a war, not have your most valuable piece, right?

She can move anywhere.

There was a commission of sorts put on by the upper levels of government, but the king decided to conduct his own private search.

He had actually kept this effort completely sacred from everyone in Parliament, in the House of Lords, which is super impressive for the time.

George put together a team, a crew for one last ice the target, a young lady's heart.

This was a pretty unusual way to do things, as it was often the cabinet that would put together selection and then they would go from there.

Right.

It would be beaut.

George himself and a real curveball of a name.

One Baron von Munchausen.

Now, I did not expect this at all, and I had to rewind several times in the audiobook to make sure I heard it correctly.

And if you're confused right now, that's okay.

I'm gonna explain it.

If you're like, wait a minute, I know that name.

Yeah, it's.

It's the Munchausen is.

Is the name of a syndrome and sub.

Syndrome, Munchausen syndrome by proxy, right?

It's a whole can of worms.

It's named after the cousin of this guy who helped George find a queen, Baron Hieronymus von Munchausen, who served as the Prime Minister of Hanover under George ii.

And then when he retired, he just started telling stories, didn't care if they were true or not, just started saying stuff.

And his name has been synonymous with lies and embellishments ever since.

That's a long title for a book.

Also, his name specifically conjures up Gypsy Rose Blanchard for me, right?

She was the victim of Munchausen by proxy by way of her mother.

None of that's important, but it was kind of weird, so I had to address it.

But what is important is that they made a list and it was largely added to by his.

Himself, George himself, and then a couple coming from his constituents.

There was like eight names in total, which is pretty selective.

But they found one that suited his needs.

He wanted a woman who was first and foremost Protestant, obviously.

Can't have those pesky Catholics in the throne room steal everything.

No, he wanted someone who was pleasant, bright, cultured, fertile, nice, and utterly uninterested in politics.

That's all right.

Doesn't want to take his.

His work home with him.

I like it kind of hard when your work is your own, but I get it.

He also went outside of Britain to find someone, which is interesting given his love of being so British.

Right.

The last name on the list was the one he eventually chose, Charlotte of Mecklenburg Sterrets Stretch.

For some reason, Charlotte is described often and depicted often as being ugly.

And I don't really understand why.

Not super important to the story at all.

But you know, when you refer to royalty, you're not really thinking about overall beauty, but rather station.

You know, the marriage brings to the crown, how it benefits the king in the situation and Queen, you know, they're the ones looking for marriage.

But it is weird that that is something that gets brought up when the marriage was.

Marriage offer was made, it was done so in secrecy, right.

So they sent an emissary to do so.

Colonel David Graham.

Old Dave Graham, the Graham Crackers, as they call him, was sent by request of George's mother.

And then when he returned, he gave a report to the Princess of Wales.

Or.

Sorry, he gave a report to the Princess.

I just said Princess of Wales for no reason.

He stated that she was, quote, not a beauty, but what is little inferior.

She's rather amiable in her face.

Otherwise agreeable than otherwise.

Jesus.

Okay, guy was really blunt.

Blunt as a wall.

Translation, she ain't pretty, but she ain't ugly.

Hard to tell because everybody looks the same in paintings from this time.

But I guess if you're expecting Princess Zelda and like a regular lady comes up, might shock you.

I don't know.

There were also rumors afoot that she was of mixed race.

Oh my God.

She was a tad more tan than everybody else, coinciding with her auburn hair.

It is suspicious mainly to me.

How are you gonna have red hair and tan skin?

Burn the witch.

Anyway, the pair had not met until six hours before their wedding.

That's crazy.

There's not even nine in there.

Anyway, met him on the 8th of September, the most important day in history.

Everybody knows that.

And married him that same day.

So pretty Cool day overall.

A lot of cool things happening on the 8th of September.

I know that my birthday, in case anybody wants to send me a present or something.

Anyway, they were married at the chapel.

Chapel Royal St. James's Palace.

And I guess it was really fun because they were at dinner following the ceremony until three in the morning.

Then they did the thing.

Maybe the book that I was talking about earlier, Andrew Roberts, states, quote, the new queen later played on the harpsichord and sang before a supper that went on until 3am when the two virgins retired to bed.

Nice.

I know it was, you know, a real descriptor, like they were virgins because, like, that's how they did it for, you know, very strict religious people.

But it makes me think of that scene in Clueless where Brittany Murphy, my late wife Rip, tells Alicia Silverstone's character that she's a virgin who can't drive.

You know, so I know it's not an insult, but that's what comes to my brain and you're listening to me and that's the kind of stuff you got to put up with.

So, anyway, Charlotte may have been the.

Anyway, Charlotte may have been the last name added to the list, but definitely became clear that she was one of the best fits for the role.

She was often described as shy and quiet at first, but when she got to know you, she would not stop talking.

Same.

The pair were crowned on 22 September, making them officially the King and Queen of England.

And the event was the talk of the town across the vast British Empire.

Cannon fire ordered in places like Boston to commemorate the good news.

Right.

Locals cheered with one Bostonian stating, quote, I've been.

Oh, he's from Boston.

I have been here for 16 years.

That.

No, it's Australia.

Why does everything go back to Australia?

And I don't know one single man, but, well, this is written very badly.

This is how they talk back then, though I know of one single man but would risk his life and property to save the king.

The third new king got right to work in a focused manner.

And up to this point, he really had only focused on a few issues he felt were close to his personal morals.

Okay, in simple terms, he's tired of all you sinners tramping around all willy nilly.

Wasn't a power thing for George.

He really believed that vice had Corrupted the lives of his subjects who would otherwise be virtuous in their lives.

He didn't think that he needed to crack down on it because people were having too much fun and he didn't like it.

He thought they were ruining the country.

And so he's like, we gotta stop now.

Hardly the first king of England to declare it was amoral to partake in vice.

He was the first in a long time to adhere to this personally.

He's actually part of a very few group of monarchs in Europe who never took a mistress, which is pretty crazy.

He had a distaste for things like that.

He felt that the, quote, petticoat government, as he called it, played a part in corrupting every British dynasty since Charles the First.

And it would not infect his.

He paid mistresses of his grandfather and not another payment to the mistress, to a mistress from the monarchy would be made for 60 years after that, which is pretty impressive.

This actually drew praise from people all the way in the colonies as well.

A young lawyer in Boston stated that George's moral proclamations were sentiments worthy of a king.

Patriot king, my God, he said.

The movie.

What?

That's crazy.

Which, you know, chimed on the political template by which George planned to rule.

That lawyer, John Adams.

John Adams, I know him.

He also made some financial decisions that don't seem super smart from a money making aspect, but I don't hate it.

He announced that he would hand over the revenues from Parliament, or revenues from, not Parliament, from the crown to Parliament.

In exchange, he would receive £800,000 a year for life.

Now, this was a flat amount.

So regardless of.

So regardless of family size, economic inflation, that money stayed the same.

This is where critics take issue with this, but like, that's still kind of crazy money per year, right?

I looked up some historical currency calculators.

It's like having $223 million a year.

So I think he's gonna be okay.

It's.

It's extra money.

It's revenue right above positive.

So I think he's fine.

He was also very financially frugal in comparison to some of his predecessors or, you know, competing monarchs in Europe.

Lou.

His next action was the war.

Obviously this was a little more important of a matter, but also kind of difficult to navigate, considering all that was involved.

He had already made statements that indicated he was very much against it in general, but also stated he wasn't against it.

If it was practical, that Read as being against it to his constituents.

In his first speech as king, he stated, quote, I shall endeavor.

Why am I ah.

Right.

I shall endeavor to prosecute in the manner most likely to bring honorable lasting peace.

It's going to be Australian.

I'm just deciding it.

He's, you know, he's got German parents.

What do you want?

That's.

That's what that means.

British.

British accent plus German parents, Australian accent.

I mean I don't make the rules anyway.

You know.

He basically was like, I'm gonna say it's just and necessary, but this is kind of only to smooth things over.

I mentioned his movements to try and prevent any rift from falling between him and the popular William.

The Brad Pitt popular is probably an understatement.

He actually, you know, he was a hero of the people at the king's coronation.

You know when the king gets his big crown and stuff.

And that's like a huge moment because that's your new guy for like ever until he dies.

Pitt had a larger like response to him showing up to the event than the king and queen did when they made their entrance.

That's crazy.

People outside swarmed his carriage and even were kissing his horses.

Totally normal behavior.

Also knowing that Benjamin Franklin was at this coronation makes it very implausible but not impossible that Benjamin Franklin kissed a horse.

We have no proof.

I'm going to say he did.

Pitt had at one point made it seem likely that he was on the side of the king in terms of the war.

But they had mutually.

Sorry.

They had mutually agreed on the blue water strategy of expansive naval presence and colonial progression.

But then Pitt flipped and said Europe was more important.

He argued that Prussia needed to be subsidized and that they needed to fight Germany.

And this upset George quite a bit.

The conversation seemed to sour a bit and Pitt felt very aware by this.

So Pitt declared his resignation and he went to personally turn in his seals and authority.

Seals of authority to the king was shocked when he was met with George expressing his sadness in losing such a hard working an able member of the government.

And George respected this life of work despite being at odds over the war.

Right.

George awarded him with an annual pension of £3,000 for the remainder of his life.

And the life of his eldest son.

Pitt stated, confessed, I had but too much reason to expect your majesty's displeasure.

I did not come prepared for this exceeding goodness.

Part of me, sir, it overpowers me, it oppresses me.

He then burst into tears.

Kill him with kindness, man.

This was also twofold because while it surprised pit with the gratitude, it also made it apparent that the King was generous to the man so that he decided to try and take him down.

Or had he decided to try and take him down using his resignation as a weapon for public sentiment?

It would be pretty hard to argue because he's like, you quit.

But he was like, so nice to you.

Yeah, but trust me, he's bad.

Meanwhile, the British military was succeeding in victories across the globe.

Victories in Manila.

It's in the Philippines.

World War.

I'm telling you.

Havana came.

And despite the good news, the King was now con concentrated and concerned with negotiations of peace at each Victory would hinder that in different ways.

Right.

Like every time you do good and you take more land, that piece is a little harder to.

To get people to sign on to.

George continued his determination to break from the Whig monopoly as well.

His youth prevailed a bit in some of this as he had begun to move through his political enemies in a very uncalculated manner.

A big part of this was elevating his longtime tutor and personal confidant to a member of the House of Lords.

Butte being squash made him a little bit of an unpopular choice.

His connection to the Tory movement and his last name being Stuart also points to contention, points of contention for many Whigs in the government.

There were also some dubious dealings in terms of forcing Pitt's hand at the resignation and also resignation.

The current Prime Minister, the Duke of Newcastle, following this butte was made the de facto prime minister.

And people were not pumped about this.

He was accosted by the public while traveling about in his carriage.

Filth, as it is described, thrown at it as he rode by.

Insults also thrown at him, received assassination threats.

You know, a normal type of fan mail.

He would only be prime minister for just under a year.

And you would think that the conclusion of a war would make people happy, but it didn't.

Weird.

People are never satisfied.

Critics of the peace treaty viewed it as too lenient on the French and the Spanish, which end up.

It seemed that the Whigs who remained did so in great anger in spite towards what was becoming of their former dynasty.

Right.

In December 65 people who voted against the treaty and against the peace were purged from the government, which was massive.

He's regretting his decisions.

Britain gains Canada, including the Great Lakes regions, Illinois county or Illinois country, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, St. Vincent, Tobago, Dominica, Grenada, Senegal, Menorca, all from the French.

And then he, they get Florida from the Spanish.

And we've talked about that before.

French presence in India was also reduced to a minimal trading post.

These agreements basically turned Britain into the mega power that we think of imagining.

Colonial Britain, major hold on North America, now the Caribbean, big chunks of Asia, much, much more.

Took a huge hit from the Spanish and French both territorially and and economically.

Seemed like Britain could do no wrong at the end of this, but is noted in the Andrew Roberts book quote, she had crushed her enemies but lost her friends.

And I think that's a very accurate way to view the fallout of the Seven Years War.

Following the war and gained territories, George had issued new colonies in Quebec, east and West Florida and the Windward Islands to join the 13 other colonies.

This also gave new colonies the right to call general assemblies, which is their local government.

Black Sabbath place, then the Rolling Stones, right?

Yeah, no, but Keith Richards was in attendance.

8 year old, moderately okay piano player Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart played for three hours, then returned to the palace several times over the next few years.

Pretty cool.

He was also commissioned by Queen Charlotte to write some music.

So he wrote six different things for her.

Overall, his first five years as king, not too bad.

His accession was publicly applauded.

His moral tone and ideals were welcomed.

Nice congrats.

No King Henry debacle for George.

He had seen the end of the Seven Years War, although not particularly as effective as he had probably hoped, or as soon as he probably hoped.

He was patron to the arts and sciences.

He donated money to various intellectuals, of course, hosted Mozart, dismantled the Whig oligarchy as it were.

Remain dignified and gracious with his enemies, even making them cry during their resignations, which is a power move now.

This also meant he alienated the political establishment.

He also promoted a longtime friend to the high positions which did not earn him a lot of favors and it got that guy harassed constantly.

He made enemies by forcing people out.

Even if decisions were made with the best intentions, this can blacken the reputation.

So that's tough.

That is little to no unity in an office that essentially oversees the actual part of the government that makes the decisions regularly.

And I think it's also difficult to contextualize this.

It's because George III is really this midpoint for a transition from monarchies of medieval feudalism to a modern and less hands on style monarch, right?

More of a figurehead for a nation, not so much that grand authority, you know, as people were becoming more involved and more well read and you know, it was more about everybody in an area instead of just the one guy making decisions.

He still had power for sure, but it was dwindled down, you know, both by the expansion of Parliament and of his own decisions to be more of a constitutional monarch rather than like an absolute monarch.

Despite what the Whigs might have you believe whatever way you view his first five years, you know, the view of George III would change severely within the decade to follow.

But again won the war, lost their friends.

The fallout from the end of the Seven Years War was just beginning.

And soon more decisions would ignite the powder keg which would knock loose one of Britain's biggest meal tickets.

And that is where we're going to leave this one.

An empire blooming following a major victory, a major war, only to begin having stress fractures all around.

I hope this provided a good understanding of the beginnings of the man that we view as the ultimate opposer in our fight for independence in our country.

And in the next part we're going to be going into first major moves of said revolution, right?

We have a little bit of time before that actually starts.

So you know, the next 5ish years and then the there's a couple acts that come about that definitely make things a little more tense and we're going to talk about how Georgie Boy felt about them, how things would progress into all out conflict and haven't even gotten to his mental illness yet.

So I highly suggest you return for the second half of this story.

Well, second, third I guess.

Don't forget to look up our friends who are in the description of the episode.

Check out our new web website.

Funky fresh designs and stuff.

Hit us up on socials.

And until next time, keep questioning the past.

The future will thank you.

Bye.