King George III
1738 – 1820 · Generation XXXI · King of the United Kingdom (r. 1760–1820) · House of Hanover
George III (1738–1820). King of the United Kingdom (r. 1760–1820). Married Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz in 1761. Reigned for almost sixty years through revolution and war; his later years were clouded by illness. The first Hanoverian king born in Britain, he spoke English as his first language and never set foot in Hanover. His reign carried the crown through the Seven Years' War, which left Britain the dominant power in North America and India, then through the loss of thirteen American colonies and the long wars against revolutionary and Napoleonic France. Under him the Acts of Union of 1800 joined Great Britain and Ireland into the United Kingdom, and in 1807 the transatlantic slave trade was banned across the empire. After a final relapse in 1810 his eldest son governed as Prince Regent; at his death he was the longest-lived and longest-reigning British monarch to that point.
One of 34 people of House of Hanover (from 1700) in this archive. Called from Germany by the Act of Settlement; the Georges, then Victoria.
Line of descent: Owen Tudor → Edmund Tudor → King Henry VII → Margaret Tudor → King James V of Scotland → Mary Queen of Scots → King James I → Elizabeth Stuart → Sophia of Hanover → King George I → King George II → Frederick Prince of Wales → King George III.
Parents
- Frederick Prince of Wales (1707 – 1751)
- Augusta of Saxe-Gotha (1719 – 1772)
Siblings
- Augusta of Great Britain (1737 – 1813)
- Edward Duke of York (1739 – 1767)
- Elizabeth of Great Britain (1741 – 1759)
- William Henry Duke of Gloucester (1743 – 1805)
- Henry Duke of Cumberland (1745 – 1790)
- Louisa of Great Britain (1749 – 1768)
- Frederick of Great Britain (1750 – 1765)
- Caroline Matilda of Great Britain (1751 – 1775)
Partners
- Married Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1744 – 1818) in 1761 — 15 children together
Children
- King George IV (1762 – 1830)
- Frederick Duke of York (1763 – 1827)
- King William IV (1765 – 1837)
- Charlotte, Princess Royal (1766 – 1828)
- Edward Duke of Kent (1767 – 1820)
- Augusta Sophia of the United Kingdom (1768 – 1840)
- Elizabeth of the United Kingdom (1770 – 1840)
- Ernest Augustus King of Hanover (1771 – 1851)
- Augustus Frederick Duke of Sussex (1773 – 1843)
- Adolphus Duke of Cambridge (1774 – 1850)
- Mary Duchess of Gloucester (1776 – 1857)
- Sophia of the United Kingdom (1777 – 1848)
- Octavius of the United Kingdom (1779 – 1783)
- Alfred of the United Kingdom (1780 – 1782)
- Amelia of the United Kingdom (1783 – 1810)
Life
- 1738 — Born
- 1760 — George III becomes king on the death of his grandfather, George II.
- 1761 — Married Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
- 1788 — George suffers his first attack of porphyria.
- 1810 — Final illness of George III leads to his son becoming Regent in 1811.
- 1820 — Died
- 1820 — Death of King George Ill, aged 81 years