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The year of 1783 was one of the most important years in world history. For in that year, the American republic became independent, and King George III survived a constitutional crisis that could very well have changed the fate of Great Britain, and the world.

Part I: Crowns and Revolutions

Tis so much to be a king, that he only is by being so - Michel Eyquem de Montaigne


In mid-1783, Britain finally recognized the Treaties of Paris that granted American independence and returned Florida to Spain. Despite the general unhappiness with the war the war in the home islands, the opinion of the king only soured when the king recognized the American colonies impatience. While this alone was not enough to topple King George, it proved to be just a stepping stone towards his exile after the Constitutional Crisis of 1783. By the year 1783, the King’s choice of ministers was heavily influenced by the whims of the House of Commons, a fact he very much resented. The Commons voted to remove Lord Shelburne as prime minister and he was replaced by the William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portlandwith Charles James Fox and Lord North as foreign and home secretaries respectively. The King greatly disliked and mistrusted Fox, so he was particularly keen to take a firm stance when the when the government introduced the India Bill, which proposed to reform the government of India by transferring political power from the Honorable East India Company to Parliamentary commissioners. Although the King actually favored greater control over the Company, the proposed commissioners were all political allies of Fox. Immediately after the House of Commons passed it, George authorized Lord Temple to inform the House of Lords that he would regard any peer who voted for the bill as his enemy. The bill was rejected by the Lords; three days later, the Portland ministry was dismissed, and William Pitt the Younger was appointed Prime Minister, with Temple as his Secretary of State. On 17 December 1783, Parliament voted in favor of a motion condemning the influence of the monarch in parliamentary voting as a "high crime". While Temple considered resigning, the King refused to bow to Parliament’s demands, instead informing the Commons that he would insist on Temple staying on. In protest, the House of Commons dissolved, declaring to boycott any future election until Temple resigned and George issued an official apology. In a rage, the King went to the House of Lords declaring them as inheriting all the responsibilities of Parliament.

Whether it was his madness, which would seize much more apparently in the future, or his stubborn conservative nature, the King’s actions served as a catalyst which excited already simmering discontent with his rule. Both the Whigs and Tories of the Commons, led by Fox and North (albeit reluctantly, respectively, declared the King as having gone beyond his mandate and ordered him to be arrested and face impeachment. The Commons reconvened in York there summoned local military units and marched on London. Unable to count on the loyalty of his army, and facing trial with the likely possibilities of forced exile or execution, George III on the advice of William Pitt the younger chose to flee to Hannover, over which he was Prince-Elector. It was his first time stepping ashore to the land of his ancestors. After reconvening in London, the House of Commons decreed that King George III was stripped from his crown of the United Kingdom and Ireland, which the House of Lords quickly confirmed. The Duke of Portland was voted to stand as regent until another monarch could be found, possibly George IV, with Fox as Prime Minister, and William Pitt the Younger as Home Secretary (Lord North being too connected to the American Debacle during which he was the Prime Minister). The years of 1784-1786 proved to be years of economic and civil reform, particularly in Ireland in which Fox took a keen interest, due to his association with Irish activist Lord Fitzgerald. However, in 1787 the issue of succession of the English throne became more of a pressing issue with a gap dividing the personalities and policies of Fox and Pitt. While For preferred an immediate claiming of the throne by George IV, due to his exceedingly friendly relationship with the Prince of Wales, Pitt preferred a more a slower, more rigorous seeking of choosing another monarch, one less smitten with Fox’s personality.
Meanwhile, emboldened by Britain’s constitutional crisis, France was attempting to extend it s influence into India once more, despite the much stronger financial position of the East India Company. France invested a large amount of capital with the expectation of quick returns with the expected economic collapse of British influence in India. However, all it succeeded in doing was draining the already depleted French coffers. The personal interest King Louis XVI and his finance minister Jacques Necker, had in this scheme was particularly damning to the majority of French people, many of whom were starving for want of bread. The firing of Necker and his replacement by Charles Alexandre de Callone could not avert the fiscal disaster or appease the people. The Estates General was called together in May 1788 for the first time since 1614 to endorse new economic reforms, signaling the weakness of the French Monarchy. The result of this was the break out of the French Revolution.

Prime Minister Fox may well have seen his appointment of George IV made a reality if not for his excessive and seemingly blind support of the French Revolution. In April of 1789, well into the first year of the revolution, Fox gave a rousing speech to the House of Commons comparing the French Revolution to the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and how at this time the Commons should pass the Regency Bill and allow the return of George IV and to offer support to France as one constitutional monarchy to another. This offered murmurs of dismay and a few not to silent ‘nays’. At that moment Lord North stood up from his seat and declared his resignation from Fox’s government. Cheers and shouts of anger intermingled followed by cries for a vote of no confidence. The government of the Fox-Pitt coalition dissolved and was replaced by a Tory cabinet led William Pitt. One of Pitt’s First actions was to ask for a declaration of war of France in 1791 in response to the French invasion of Austria. Despite his support for heavy handed legislation that suppressed civil rights for the duration of the war, the Prime Minister’s overall handling of the conflict made him very popular among the people. The Honorable Opposition called Pitt a dictator of the sort of Oliver Cromwell; however, Pitt declared that upon cessation of hostilities he would lead the nation in the search of a new King.

Sadly, he would not live to see the day. The years of struggle and taken their toll and in 1806 William Pitt died of a stomach ulceration. Foreign Secretary William Grenville created a new ministry partially led by Fox as the new Foreign Secretary and also composed of Foxite Tories, and Whig supports of Grenville. While the new ministry failed to make peace with France, as was the expectation and ultimately led to its downfall, it did achieve manage to abolish the slave trade in 1807 and grant Catholic emancipation. Despite a bout of civil protest in 1798, during which there were whispers of a French supported revolution, no revolution occurred but it did highlight the issues faced by the Catholic Irish while demonstrating their loyalty to the government. Given the anti-clerical nature of France, it was deemed politically useful to emancipate the Irish Catholics and further gain their services for the British army. The Irish would prove their worth on the battlefields of Europe, particularly in the Peninsular Campaign.

Fox’s death in September of 1806 and Grenville’s in March of 1807 also meant the death of their ‘Ministry of Talents’. The Duke of Portland became the new Prime Minister with Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth taking his place as regent. He was head of another joint Whig-Tory cabinet until his death in 1809, after which he was replaced by Spencer Perceval as PM until his assassination by a disgruntled merchant in 1812. Tory leader Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool was ushered in as PM next. Liverpool's ministry was a long and eventful one. The War of 1812 with the United States and the final campaigns of the Napoleonic Wars were fought during Liverpool's premiership. It was during his ministry that the Peninsular Campaigns were fought by the Duke of Wellington.At the peace negotiations that followed, Liverpool's main concern was to obtain a European settlement that would ensure the independence of the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal, and confine France inside her pre-war frontiers without damaging her national integrity. At the congress, he gave prompt approval for Castlereagh's bold initiative in making the defensive alliance with Austria and France in January 1815. His next mission now that the war was over was to find a new king for Britain. However, domestic issues delayed his actions. Good harvests had increased the surplus of grains in Britain, bringing down the price. Heavily supported by major businessmen, the Importation Act of 1815 was passed to put heavy tariffs on foreign grains until a time that domestic products had risen to a sufficient value. Naturally, these “Corn Laws” were unpopular with both the working men and small farmers, particularly the Irish. Widespread disturbances occurred. Luddites began smashing machines, multiple protests were carried out. In response the government repealed Habeas Corpus in 1817. This ignited only more protests, one of which was bloodily broken up by a regiment of Dragoons in 1819, which became known as the Peterloo Massacre. This inspired the passing of Six Acts Law that repealed many civil rights. There were rumors of plots; some true others false, of plans to assassinate members of the government, including the Prime Minister. The Earlof Liverpool’s PM-ship may have ended up being remembered for bringing about the bloodshed of a new revolution if not for his drive to find a new monarch, which in his mind he believed would bring order to Britain’s chaos. In late 1820, the British foreign office approached the exiled Gustavus, Crown Prince of Sweden again (he, like other monarchs sought out at the time, were concerned with the rioting that looked like the beginnings of a revolution) and inquired as to his interest in ruling in Britain. Gustavus finally agreed, on the conditions that a new Importations Act was passed with a sliding scale written in to take into account the international average price of grains, and the Six Acts be suspended. The Tories were loath to give ground on issues they had argued so long for, but in the end the Duke of Liverpool’s insistence of solving the monarchical crisis trumped all other issues. On January 1, 1821, the Crown Prince of Sweden ascended the throne of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and was crowned Gustav I.

Appendix A: Hannover in the Napoleonic Wars
Though George III was the Prince of the Electorate of Hannover, real power was with his son George IV who wielded a great more control in Hannover then he would have been granted in Britain. In 1801, Hannover joined the coalition of pro-France neutral powers with Brandenburg-Prussia, Denmark-Norway, and Russia who didn’t trade with Britain. By the end of the year, that coalition had fallen apart. On August 6, 1806 the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved making Hannover an independent kingdom. Later that year Hannover and Prussia declared war on France only to be defeated and occupied. The Hanoverian leaders went into exile in Prussia, while a new a new regiment was raised (King’s German Legion) and transported to fight on the Russian front. The House of Hannover was restored in October 1813 when the Alliance of Nation drove the French out of their German client states for good. Considering the House of Hannover’s co-belligerent status towards Britain in 1801, they were not seriously considered for the British throne. George IV would preside over his nation as the first king of Hannover at the Congress of Vienna.


Appendix B: Scandinavia in the Napoleonic Wars and after
Gustav IV Adolf as king of Sweden was known by his vapid hatred for Jacobinism. Throughout the Napoleonic Wars, his country stood in support of Britain against Napoleon and his Continental System. However, his inept and erratic leadership affected his judgment in appointment of government and military leaders, ultimately resulting in the loss of Swedish Pomerania to France in 1805 and Finland to Russia in their 1808-09 campaign. These losses prompted a coup on March 7, 1809 with the Gustav being captured on March 13. He was forced to abdicate on March 29 and fled the country with his wife and son. His uncle was raised to the throne as Charles XIII with a new liberal constitution. Charles XIII oversaw the Union with Norway on November 4, 1814, which he ruled jointly until his death in 1818. Upon nearing death, he appointed as his heir John Bernadotte, a French general who commanded the respect of the Swedish military for his efficient and gallant and kind conduct against Swedish troops during the wars. He ascended the throne as Charles John XIV & III. While initially popular with the military, his ultra conservative policies clashed with his more liberal subordinates. The Gustavian minority also lobbied loudly for the overthrow of a foreign born king, an enemy no less, when a legitimate claimant to the throne existed (Crown prince Gustavus).
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