George IV Hanover (1762-1830 AD)
George IV, King of England (1820-1830 AD)

 

George IV Hanover, King of England, the eldest son of George Hanover III, King of England, was born in 1762. George IV rebelled against his father's strict discipline. At the age of eighteen he became involved with an actress, Mrs. Perdita Robinson. This was followed by a relationship with Lady Melbourne. The Prince of Wales also rebelled against his father's political views. Whereas George III preferred Tory ministers, George IV, Prince of Wales, was friendly with the Whigs, Charles Fox and Richard Sheridan. In 1784 the Prince of Wales, met and fell in love with Mrs. Maria Fitzherbert, a widow and Roman Catholic. Fitzherbert refused to become his mistress and eventually George agreed to marry her. The marriage was kept a secret as under the terms of 1772 Royal Marriages Act, it was illegal for a member of the royal family to marry a Roman Catholic.

By the 1780s the Prince of Wales had become a gambler, a womanizer and a heavy drinker. He was deeply in debt and when Parliament agreed to increase his allowance, George III remarked that it was "a shameful squandering of public money to gratify the passions of an ill-advised young man."

The Prince of Wales continued to overspend and by 1795 he had debts of £650,000. In an effort to persuade Parliament to pay off his debts, George IV agreed to marry his cousin, Caroline of Brunswick. After the birth of a daughter, Princess Charlotte, on 7th January 1796, the couple lived apart.

In 1811 King George III suffered another bout of insanity. He was no longer able to continue with his royal duties and the Prince of Wales was appointed regent. For years the Prince of Wales had been making promises to the Whigs that he would favor their political party when he replaced his Tory father. However, this did not happen, and he quickly became an ultra Tory supporting the policies of Lord Liverpool and his government.

In his youth the Prince of Wales agreed with his friend Charles Fox about the unfairness of the laws that discriminated against Roman Catholics and Protestant Nonconformists. Once in power George IV changed his views and became a strong opponent of Catholic Emancipation. He also abandoned his support for those Whigs who were arguing for parliamentary reform.

The Prince of Wales was impressed by the work of the architect, John Nash. He commissioned him to design Regent's Park and its environs of curved terraces. He also arranged for Nash to create Buckingham Palace out of Buckingham House and the rebuilding of the Royal Pavilion at Brighton.

On the death of his father in 1820 George became king. Caroline of Brunswick returned to England to claim her rights as Queen. George IV persuaded Lord Liverpool and his government to bring in an Act of parliament to deprive her of the title Queen and to declare the marriage "for ever wholly dissolved, annulled and made void". The Whigs opposed the measure and their were public demonstrations against the new king.

Queen Caroline appeared at George IV's coronation but she was turned away from the doors of Westminster Abbey. This resulted in further public demonstrations but this came to an end when Caroline died suddenly on 7th. of August, 1821.

George IV was the antithesis of his father: conservative in his infrequent political involvement and licentious in affairs of the heart. He was a patron of the arts who left many wonderful artifacts for posterity. He had his father's immense book collection donated as the foundation of the British Museum Library and his penchant for building projects inspired the "Regency" style of architecture.

George IV was an enigma: bright, witty and able on the one hand, indolent, spoiled, and lazy on the other. The Duke of Wellington described him as such: "He was the most extraordinary compound of talent, wit, buffoonery, obstinacy, and good feelings, in short, a medley of the most opposite qualities, with a great preponderance of good - that I ever saw in any character in my life."

George IV's indulgent lifestyle seriously damaged his health. By the 1820s he was extremely overweight and was addicted to both alcohol and laudanum. George IV also began showing signs of insanity. He told people that he had been a soldier and insisted he had fought at the Battle of Waterloo. The king became more and more a recluse at Windsor Castle and eventually died on June 26, 1830 after a series of strokes brought on by a hemorrhage in his stomach.
 

George IV's Genealogy
A guide to the monarch's ancestors and offspring. These trails can lead you through the history of Europe's royal houses and to some unexpected places.