Franz Joseph Haydnâs âLondonâ symphonies.
Her memoirs illustrate perfectly the atmosphere of the Court of a king and queen who encouraged the arts and sciences as perhaps no other monarchs have done. As a writer in the London Chronicle of May 1764 recognized, âThe fine arts, hitherto too much neglected in England, seem now to rise from oblivion, under the reign of a monarch, who has a taste to perceive their charms, and a propensity to grant his royal protection to whatever can embellish human life.â 25
âUneasy lies the head that wears the crownâ
Unfortunately this renaissance did not last. The autumn of 1788 brought a chill wind: the King suffered a serious mental breakdown. He had had an earlier illness, believed to have been similar, in 1765, from which he soon recovered. He recovered from the 1788 breakdown in the next year but it was the harbinger of a gathering storm, which eventually by 1810 was to destroy the Kingâs sanity. George III, who had been hailed as the âApollo of the Artsâ, slowly dwindled into a sad old man, blind and deaf, shut away at Windsor.
The history of the Kingâs âmadnessâ can be sketched only lightly here. The current theory that he suffered from porphyria might well be true, but it is worth pointing out that even without it, the pressures weighing on him were enough to strain his mental health.
During his reign he was battered by a succession of public and private tragedies, and he lost early the support of the man on whom he had completely relied. The Earl of Bute was an excellent tutor and his good influence in the education of George III should not be underestimated. But Bute, like many academics before and since, was out of his depth in the harsh world of politics. Besides, Bute was a Scot, and the 1745 rising of the Young Pretender (Bonnie Prince Charlie) was not forgotten â Buckingham House was called âHolyrood Houseâ by the satirists. The King made Bute his Chief Minister but in 1763 he resigned, leaving hispupil to stand on his own two feet and make his own decisions at a critical time. Bute retired to a house at Kew, where he wrote his botanical works and encouraged the Queen and her daughters in their studies and flower painting. In vain the young King searched for a substitute. Chief Ministers succeeded each other in rapid succession: George Grenville followed Bute in 1763, Rockingham followed Grenville in 1765 and Grafton followed Rockingham in 1766. The only minister of great stature, the elder Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, whom the King, after initial hostility, came to respect, suffered a nervous breakdown in 1767. Had he still been in charge, the waste and folly of the conduct of the American War of Independence might have been avoided. As it was, the King was guided through the years of war by the ineffectual Lord North, who, though painfully aware of his own inadequacy, could not persuade the King to allow him to retire. To a king with a deep sense of royal duty, losing the American colonies was a bitter blow.
The pressures on George III were all the more heavy because, even had he been willing to delegate responsibility, after the resignation of his adored Bute there was no one he could trust. He felt he must oversee everything, from the hanging of pictures to the personal supervision of the defence of London during the Gordon riots.
The Gordon riots, named after Lord George Gordon, were provoked by a move to relax the intolerant laws against Roman Catholics. In the summer of 1780 drunken mobs were wrecking the City of London, setting on fire houses belonging to anyone sympathetic to the Catholics. Several thousand troops were quartered in the grounds of the Queenâs House, and the King spent the night with his men, as Henry V had before the Battle of Agincourt. Finding that they were sleeping on the ground, he promised them that âstraw would be brought for the next night & my servants
Her memoirs illustrate perfectly the atmosphere of the Court of a king and queen who encouraged the arts and sciences as perhaps no other monarchs have done. As a writer in the London Chronicle of May 1764 recognized, âThe fine arts, hitherto too much neglected in England, seem now to rise from oblivion, under the reign of a monarch, who has a taste to perceive their charms, and a propensity to grant his royal protection to whatever can embellish human life.â 25
âUneasy lies the head that wears the crownâ
Unfortunately this renaissance did not last. The autumn of 1788 brought a chill wind: the King suffered a serious mental breakdown. He had had an earlier illness, believed to have been similar, in 1765, from which he soon recovered. He recovered from the 1788 breakdown in the next year but it was the harbinger of a gathering storm, which eventually by 1810 was to destroy the Kingâs sanity. George III, who had been hailed as the âApollo of the Artsâ, slowly dwindled into a sad old man, blind and deaf, shut away at Windsor.
The history of the Kingâs âmadnessâ can be sketched only lightly here. The current theory that he suffered from porphyria might well be true, but it is worth pointing out that even without it, the pressures weighing on him were enough to strain his mental health.
During his reign he was battered by a succession of public and private tragedies, and he lost early the support of the man on whom he had completely relied. The Earl of Bute was an excellent tutor and his good influence in the education of George III should not be underestimated. But Bute, like many academics before and since, was out of his depth in the harsh world of politics. Besides, Bute was a Scot, and the 1745 rising of the Young Pretender (Bonnie Prince Charlie) was not forgotten â Buckingham House was called âHolyrood Houseâ by the satirists. The King made Bute his Chief Minister but in 1763 he resigned, leaving hispupil to stand on his own two feet and make his own decisions at a critical time. Bute retired to a house at Kew, where he wrote his botanical works and encouraged the Queen and her daughters in their studies and flower painting. In vain the young King searched for a substitute. Chief Ministers succeeded each other in rapid succession: George Grenville followed Bute in 1763, Rockingham followed Grenville in 1765 and Grafton followed Rockingham in 1766. The only minister of great stature, the elder Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, whom the King, after initial hostility, came to respect, suffered a nervous breakdown in 1767. Had he still been in charge, the waste and folly of the conduct of the American War of Independence might have been avoided. As it was, the King was guided through the years of war by the ineffectual Lord North, who, though painfully aware of his own inadequacy, could not persuade the King to allow him to retire. To a king with a deep sense of royal duty, losing the American colonies was a bitter blow.
The pressures on George III were all the more heavy because, even had he been willing to delegate responsibility, after the resignation of his adored Bute there was no one he could trust. He felt he must oversee everything, from the hanging of pictures to the personal supervision of the defence of London during the Gordon riots.
The Gordon riots, named after Lord George Gordon, were provoked by a move to relax the intolerant laws against Roman Catholics. In the summer of 1780 drunken mobs were wrecking the City of London, setting on fire houses belonging to anyone sympathetic to the Catholics. Several thousand troops were quartered in the grounds of the Queenâs House, and the King spent the night with his men, as Henry V had before the Battle of Agincourt. Finding that they were sleeping on the ground, he promised them that âstraw would be brought for the next night & my servants
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