50 Fun Facts About King George III

Which job gave King George III a nickname, first used to mock his homely tastes and later to praise his thrift?

Farmer George began as a jibe and ended as a compliment, setting the king's plain, thrifty habits against his eldest son's extravagance.

Which planet, discovered in 1781, did its discoverer first name George's Star in honour of King George III?

Uranus was first named Georgium Sidus by astronomer William Herschel, who earned a £200 yearly royal salary. Britain's Nautical Almanac kept the royal name until 1850.

Which famous London royal residence grew from a house King George III bought as a family home?

Buckingham Palace began as Buckingham House, which the king bought as a private home for his wife; it became known as The Queen's House.

In which hit musical does King George III sing comic break-up songs to his rebellious American colonies?

Hamilton uses the king as comic relief in numbers such as You'll Be Back, a role first played on Broadway by Jonathan Groff.

Which festive tradition did King George III's German-born wife introduce to Britain at a children's party in 1800?

The Christmas tree grew out of a custom from her German homeland, where she had earlier decorated a single yew branch for the royal household.

Which child prodigy composer, then aged eight, performed for King George III and his queen in London in 1764?

Mozart played tricky pieces at sight to the amazement of the court, then accompanied the queen while she sang an aria.

After a gunman shot at King George III in a London theatre in 1800, what did the king do during the interval?

He fell asleep, quite unbothered, after the pistol shot missed him in the royal box at Drury Lane. The shooter, James Hadfield, was acquitted as insane.

What was the lead from King George III's toppled New York statue reportedly melted down to make in 1776?

Musket balls for the Continental Army are said to have been cast from the 4,000-pound gilded statue, which showed the king on horseback in Roman dress.

Which Netflix period drama spawned a spin-off series about King George III's wife as a young queen?

Bridgerton led to a 2023 prequel that follows the royal couple from their first meeting, with Corey Mylchreest as the young king and James Fleet as the older one.

Which long-reigning queen, who came to the throne aged 18 in 1837, was King George III's granddaughter?

Victoria was the only legitimate child of the king's fourth son, Edward. She inherited the crown because her uncles left no surviving legitimate children.

Which German princess did King George III marry in 1761, only hours after she first arrived in London?

Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz reached London in the afternoon and was married that same evening. The couple went on to have 15 children.

At which royal residence beside the Thames did King George III live out his last decade in seclusion?

Windsor Castle was where he died in 1820, aged 81, by then blind and increasingly deaf. He is buried there in St George's Chapel.

Which title did King George III's eldest son hold while ruling in his sick father's place from 1811?

Prince Regent was the future George IV's title for almost nine years, a period whose fashions and buildings are still called Regency style.

King George III inherited the throne in 1760 from which relative, because his own father had already died?

His grandfather George II outlived his own heir, Frederick, who died in 1751 when the future king was only twelve.

Which German territory did King George III rule for his whole reign without ever once visiting it?

Hanover was his family's homeland, and he was its elector and later its king, yet he spent his entire life in southern England.

In which American port did colonists dump tea into the harbour in 1773, protesting a tax King George III kept?

Boston saw the tea go overboard after most other duties had been withdrawn; the king wanted the tea duty kept as one tax to uphold the right to levy them.

Which 1815 battle in present-day Belgium ended the long wars against Napoleon during King George III's reign?

Waterloo was won by the Duke of Wellington's allied army when the old king was too ill to rule, so his eldest son was governing in his place.

Which 1805 sea battle, won by Admiral Nelson, ended fears that Napoleon would invade King George III's Britain?

Trafalgar came two years after the king reviewed 27,000 volunteers in Hyde Park and vowed to lead his troops himself if an invasion force landed.

In which church were King George III and his bride crowned together, a fortnight after their wedding?

Westminster Abbey hosted the double coronation on 22 September 1761; the wedding itself had taken place in the Chapel Royal at St James's Palace.

Which 1776 document lists 27 grievances against King George III, accusing him of tyranny over the colonies?

The Declaration of Independence blames the king personally, though modern historians say that before the war he mostly backed measures his ministers chose.

Which seaside town became a fashionable resort after King George III spent fourteen summer holidays there?

Weymouth in Dorset hosted him between 1789 and 1805, and he even ventured into the sea there in a bathing machine.

Which politician was only 24 when King George III appointed him prime minister in December 1783?

William Pitt, known as Pitt the Younger, was expected to fall within weeks, so rivals mocked his mince-pie administration. It lasted seventeen years.

Which prime minister led King George III's government through the American Revolutionary War from 1770 to 1782?

Lord North asked more than once to step down as the war went badly, but he stayed in office at the king's insistence until 1782.

Which Virginia town saw the 1781 British surrender that led King George III to accept defeat in America?

Yorktown saw Lord Cornwallis give up his besieged army in late 1781, and the news brought down the king's prime minister the following year.

Which future US president met King George III in 1785 as his new country's minister to Britain?

John Adams heard the king say he had been the last to agree to the separation, but would be the first to welcome the friendship of the United States.

Which 1776 pamphlet by Thomas Paine called King George III the Royal Brute of Great Britain?

Common Sense was read aloud in taverns and meeting places across the colonies, spreading its case against rule by any monarch at all.

Which 1765 tax on colonial documents and newspapers was scrapped a year later with King George III's support?

The Stamp Act's repeal was so popular in America that New Yorkers put up a statue of the king in thanks.

King George III dropped a centuries-old claim to be king of which country from his royal titles in 1801?

France had been claimed by English monarchs since Edward III in the Middle Ages. The king also turned down a grander new title, Emperor of the British Isles.

Which rare blood disorder did a 1966 study blame for King George III's bouts of madness, a theory now disputed?

Porphyria was widely accepted for decades and shaped the famous play and film about him, but recent scholars think bipolar disorder is more likely.

Which poison turned up at high levels when preserved strands of King George III's hair were tested in 2005?

Arsenic may have come from his medicines or cosmetics, and it can cause the kind of blood disorder that one theory blames for his illness.

Which prime minister of King George III was shot dead in the lobby of the House of Commons in 1812?

Spencer Perceval is the only British prime minister ever assassinated. His killer, a merchant with a grievance against the government, was hanged a week later.

The death of which youngest daughter in 1810 did King George III blame for his final descent into illness?

Amelia, whom he fondly called Emily, was the last of his 15 children and is often said to have been his favourite. She died after years of tuberculosis.

Which Dutch master painted The Music Lesson, bought by King George III when it was credited to another artist?

Vermeer's signature had been misread as that of Frans van Mieris, so the king gained a masterpiece almost by accident when he bought a whole collection in 1762.

King George III's collection of 65,000 books now fills a six-storey glass tower inside which London institution?

The British Library has held the books since 1997. Before that they spent 170 years in a gallery built for them after his son gave them to the nation.

Which London art institution, known for its Summer Exhibition, did King George III found by personal act in 1768?

The Royal Academy of Arts began with 34 founder members and money from the king's own purse, and its yearly show has been staged without a break ever since.

Which four-tonne carriage, ordered for King George III in 1760, has been used at every coronation since 1831?

The Gold State Coach was meant for his own crowning but was not ready in time, so it was only finished the following year.

King George III had a private observatory built at Richmond to watch which planet cross the Sun in 1769?

Venus was watched by the king himself through a reflecting telescope, and his superintendent recorded that he was first to see it touch the Sun's edge.

Which explorer's first Pacific voyage went ahead after the Royal Society asked King George III to finance it?

James Cook sailed in HMS Endeavour in 1768 with royal approval, and the navy added a confidential mission to search for undiscovered lands.

Which Australian city began as a convict colony founded by the First Fleet in 1788, during King George III's reign?

Sydney grew from Sydney Cove, which the fleet's commander named after Lord Sydney, the Home Secretary who had decided to send the convicts there.

What did the act King George III signed into law on 25 March 1807 ban throughout the British Empire?

The slave trade was outlawed after the bill passed both houses of Parliament with large majorities, though slavery itself stayed legal in most of the empire until an 1833 act.

A tall tale from King George III's illness claimed he shook hands with a tree, believing it was which country's king?

Prussia's king was the supposed tree, but the tale was one of many false rumours that spread while doctors struggled to explain his condition.

After Britain's defeat in the American war, what did a despairing King George III draft but never deliver?

An abdication notice was written out when his prime minister fell, but he stayed on the throne, accepted the loss and authorised peace talks.

The future King George III inherited his father's title as duke of which city, a dukedom later held by Prince Philip?

Edinburgh was the title he was known by for just three weeks in 1751, until George II made him Prince of Wales. The dukedom had first been created for his father in 1726.

Which Spanish sheep breed, prized for its fine wool, was bought in 1792 to found King George III's royal flock?

Merino sheep were bought for the king by Sir Joseph Banks, and animals from the first sale of the royal stud in 1804 were later shipped to Australia.

Which gold coin, first struck in 1817 late in King George III's reign, shows Saint George slaying a dragon?

The sovereign's dragon scene was designed by Benedetto Pistrucci, whose initials B P can be spotted beside the date.

Which actor earned an Oscar nomination for playing King George III in the 1994 film about his madness?

Nigel Hawthorne had already won an Olivier Award for the same part on stage, and the film version brought him a BAFTA for Best Actor.

King George III personally tested a marine timekeeper for which clockmaker, then urged him to petition Parliament?

John Harrison's H5 watch was checked daily at the palace for ten weeks in 1772 and proved accurate to within a third of a second a day.

Which Scottish earl, once tutor to the young King George III, became his prime minister in 1762?

Lord Bute was the first prime minister from Scotland after the 1707 union, and his teaching may have sparked the king's love of scientific instruments.

Which World Heritage Site in London did King George III enrich with the help of botanist Joseph Banks?

Kew Gardens also holds the plain brick house he bought in 1781 as a nursery for the royal children, now known as Kew Palace.

Which worldwide conflict, ended by the 1763 Peace of Paris, left King George III's Britain dominant in India?

The Seven Years' War won Britain the whole of Canada, and ministers then decided the American colonists should help pay for their own defence.