George III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death in 1820. He was concurrently Duke and Prince-elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg in the Holy Roman Empire before becoming King of Hanover on 12 October 1814. He was a monarch of the House of Hanover, but unlike his two predecessors, he was born in Great Britain, spoke English as his first language, and never visited Hanover.George's life and reign, which were longer than those of any of his predecessors, were marked by a series of military conflicts involving his kingdoms, much of the rest of Europe, and places farther afield in Africa, the Americas, and Asia. Early in his reign, Great Britain defeated France in the Seven Years' War, becoming the dominant European power in North America and India. However, many of Britain's American colonies were soon lost in the American War of Independence. Further wars against revolutionary and Napoleonic France from 1793 concluded in the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.
In the later part of his life, George had recurrent, and eventually permanent, mental illness. Although it has since been suggested that he had bipolar disorder or the blood disease porphyria, the cause of his illness remains unknown. After a final relapse in 1810, a regency was established. His eldest son, George, Prince of Wales, ruled as Prince Regent until his father's death, when he succeeded as George IV. Historical analysis of George III's life has gone through a "kaleidoscope of changing views" that have depended heavily on the prejudices of his biographers and the sources available to them.
Wikipedia
“Nothing important happened today.”
It is widely believed that George III wrote this in his diary on July 4, 1776, the day the American Revolution began. In fact, this was made up by the scriptwriters of the series The X Files, as George III did not write a diary.
Misattributed
Arnold Hunt, curator at the British Library, says King George never kept a diary http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11703583.
Misattributed
“By God, Harrison, I will see you righted!”
Said ca. 1772, speaking to John Harrison's son William. Quoted in Dava Sobel, "Longitude" (1995, Fourth Estate Limited. London. Printed 1998. ISBN 1-85702-571-7), p. 147
Source: Address to Parliament http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/timeline/amrev/shots/address.html (27 October 1775).
Source: To John Adams, as quoted in Adams, C.F. (editor) (1850–56), The works of John Adams, second president of the United States, vol. VIII, pp. 255–257, quoted in Ayling, p. 323 and Hibbert, p. 165.
From George III's letter of February 15, 1775 to Lord North, quoted in the <i>Edinburgh Review</i> (July 1867) from the originals at Windsor.
Source: Google Books, The Edinburgh Review volumes 126–126, February 13, 2020 https://books.google.com/books?id=qpiQgE49-P8C&pg=PA18&lpg=PA18&dq=Once+vigorous+measures+appear+to+be+the+only+means+left+of+bringing+the+Americans+to+a+due+submission+to+the+mother+country,+the+colonies+will+submit&source=bl&ots=mL-ddKwu1s&sig=ACfU3U1guuvPa24Ta-4K5vWkF6OP4D6HXA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjel-HFgM_nAhUB2FkKHUaSBEkQ6AEwCXoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&f=false,
Source: Letter to Lord Grenville (25 October 1795), quoted in The Manuscripts of J. B. Fortescue, Esq, Volume III (1899), p. 143
Source: Letter to Lord Sandwich (5 September 1779), quoted in The Correspondence of King George the Third from 1760 to December 1783, Volume IV: 1778–1779, ed. Sir John William Forstecue (1927), p. 435
Source: Letter to the Earl of Bute (c. 1761–1762), quoted in Letters from George III to Lord Bute, 1756–1766, ed. Romney Sedgwick (1939), p. 77
Source: Letter to the Earl of Bute (November 1760), quoted in Letters from George III to Lord Bute, 1756–1766, ed. Romney Sedgwick (1939), p. 50
