|
Dromo's Den
|
|
[Up] [Dromo's Den] George IV Biography GEORGE IV (George Augustus Frederick) (1762–1830). King of Great Britain and Ireland (1820–30). The eldest son of George III, he was born in St. James's Palace, Aug. 12, 1762, and was created Prince of Wales five days afterward. He was well educated and strictly disciplined, but displayed an ungovernable temper, and on attaining his majority became notorious for his profligacy and extravagance. He contracted a marriage with Mrs. Fitzherbert, Dec. 15, 1785; but in 1787, to obtain parliamentary assistance for his debts, he allowed Fox to deny the marriage in Parliament. On April 8, 1795, again to liquidate his debts, he married his cousin, Caroline Amelia Elizabeth, of Brunswick (q.v.). They had one daughter, the Princess Charlotte Augusta, born Jan. 7, 1796, who married Prince Leopold, afterward King of Belgium, but died in childbed, Nov. 6, 1817. George deliberately deserted his wife shortly after his daughter's birth; and his conduct towards her, his attempts to procure a divorce, his numerous mistresses, and general behavior, made him extremely unpopular, notwithstanding his cleverness, versatility, and gracious manner, which among a certain class of associates earned him the title of "the first gentleman in Europe." From a spirit of antagonism he supported the Whig opposition, and his father's insanity was partly due to his misconduct. He became Prince Regent in 1811, and King at his father's death, on Jan. 29, 1820. The Napoleonic wars; the War of 1812-15 with the United States; the aid rendered to the Greeks by the British fleet in the battle of Navarino (1827), which secured the independence of Greece; and the passing of the Roman Catholic Emancipation Bill (1829), are the notable events of his reign. He died at Windsor, June 26, 1830. Consult: McCarthy, History of the Four Georges and of William IV (4 vols., London, 1884–1901); Thackeray, Four Georges (ib., 1861); Lady Bury, Diary of the Times of George IV (ib., 1838); Croly, Life of George IV (ib., 1830); Huish, Memoirs of George IV (ib., 1830); Holland, Memoirs of the Whig Party (ib., 1854); Fitzgerald, Life of George IV (ib., 1881); Melville, The First Gentleman of Europe (ib., 1906); Wilkins, Mrs. Fitzherbert and George IV (ib., 1908). The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. IX (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 616. |