King George IV
1762 – 1830 · Generation XXXII · King of the United Kingdom (r. 1820–1830) · House of Hanover
George IV (1762–1830). King of the United Kingdom (r. 1820–1830). Married Caroline of Brunswick in 1795; they separated in 1796. Regent during his father’s illness, then king; a lavish builder and patron, famously estranged from his wife. Called “the first gentleman of England” for his charm and cultivated taste, he set the fashions of the Regency and gave the age its buildings — John Nash's Royal Pavilion at Brighton and a remodelled Buckingham Palace, Jeffry Wyatville's rebuilt Windsor Castle. Government he largely left to Lord Liverpool, whose long ministry saw Britain's final victory over Napoleon; after Liverpool retired, the king had to accept the Catholic emancipation he had opposed. His extravagance, and the scandal of trying to divorce Queen Caroline through the Pains and Penalties Bill, cost him popular respect and dimmed the monarchy's prestige. With his only legitimate child dead since 1817, the crown passed to his brother William.
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 → King George IV.
Parents
- King George III (1738 – 1820)
- Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1744 – 1818)
Siblings
- 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)
Partners
- Married Caroline of Brunswick (1768 – 1821) in 1795; they separated in 1796 — one child together
Children
- Charlotte Augusta of Wales (1796 – 1817)
Life
- 1762 — Born
- 1795 — Married Caroline of Brunswick
- 1796 — Separated from Caroline of Brunswick
- 1820 — George IV accedes to the throne, having spent the last nine years as Prince Regent for his blind and deranged father.
- 1820 — Trial of Queen Caroline, in which George IV attempts to divorce her for adultery. She has popular support and the divorce proceedings fail.
- 1821 — Queen Caroline is excluded from George's coronation.
- 1825 — Locomotion No.1, built by George Stephenson, pulls the world's first passenger train for Stockton to Darlington.
- 1830 — Died
- 1830 — George IV dies at Windsor, aged 67.