George III killed in 1786

[Mad Bad Rabbit]

On August 2, 1786, a madwoman named Margaret Nicholson approached King George III with what she claimed was a petition (actually a blank piece of paper), then tried to stab him with a grapefruit knife.

POD: she uses a sharper,rustier knife instead. The wound is not deep, but it becomes infected. Bleedings, poultices, and mercury salts don't help, and a few weeks later, King George III dies of septicemia.

- - -

That brings us to his son, George IV, who's secretly living in sin with his Catholic mistress Maria Fitzherbert; and who's also up to his eyeballs (several hundred thousand pounds) in debt.

- Is knowledge of the Fitzherbert affair more likely to become public, if he's not just heir, but about to be crowned?

- Would knowledge of the affair be enough to bar him from the throne? His mock-marriage the previous December wasn't valid under English law since George III didn't approve it -- otherwise he'd definitely be barred under the Settlement Act -- but it was a crime for him to partake in it.

- Assuming he does take the throne, he's broke, and Parliament probably won't lend him any money for coronation -- who can he borrow from? The Duke of Orleans, maybe?

- He will probably appoint Charles James Fox as PM ; how will that affect British policy when the French Revolution breaks out?

 

[The Professor]

Definitely a major public scandal and a review of Parliament's relationship with the Crown.
There's a small possibility someone claims his marriage is valid and seeks to bar him from the throne. I do wonder also if he gets declared unfit to reign and Regency declared. We could have a very different view of what the Regency Period means ITTL!
Assuming he does get the throne then he'll have a lot of concessions to give Parliament. Depending on the Whig-Tory ratio this may mean an earlier or later Catholic Emancipation Act

 

[Simon]

One interesting thing could be Catholic emancipation if Pitt still becomes Prime Minister and is able to pass an Act of Union with Ireland bill at some point, since it was meant to be the quid pro quo for union but then George III threw a spanner in the works because he thought it clashed with his Coronation Oath. The future George IV actually proposed a Catholic Emancipation Bill for Ireland 1797 but later on lobbied against the Catholic Relief Bill of 1813, apparently in part influenced by his father's actions, the Coronation Oath, and possibly just becoming somewhat older and more conservative. Would a younger George IV without the example of his father be more amenable to the idea of emancipation as part of an act of union? That could really unleash the butterflies with regards to Ireland if it was passed.

 

[Tonifranz]

George IV throws Pitt out and Fox becomes PM.

George IV calls a new election, and the Foxites win a majority of the House of Commons, as did every party in power before the Reform Act of 1832.

If the French Revolution happens, how will Fox deal with it? He was in sympathy with it, but what happens when it turns violent? In OTL, he sympathized with it even when it turned sour, but as PM, would he still see the French Revolution with favor even after such? Would the French revolutionaries still declare war on Britain with a PM who is openly favorable to the French Revolution?