George III is remembered in history today as a King who was plagued with many problems
regarding his mental health.
He was a man who continued to relapse through the decades, however in 1810 his eldest son
the Prince of Wales became known as the Prince Regent.
George III had been incapacitated, and was considered unfit to rule and his son then
was calling the shots across England.
But George III was the longest lived and longest reigning British monarch at the time, but
his son would succeed him becoming known as George IV.
But George IV in his final years was himself plagued by poor health and he put weight on
at the same speed as Henry VIII did and he was also a very heavy drinker.
But as time caught up with him, his body would struggle and he was described by one observer
as ‘wasting away frightfully day after day,’ and he was described as being so obsessed
that ‘he looked like a great sausage stuffed into the covering.’
But what is the story of the painful death of King George IV?
Join us as we find out and to support our channel please make sure to subscribe.
George IV was the eldest son of George III, and it was said when he was 17 that he had
become ‘too fond of women and wine,’ but his father was not the fondest of his heir.
The prince in 1784 met Maria Fitzherbert and married her secretly on the 15th December
1785, however this marriage was declared invalid as members of the royal family under the age
of 25 were forbidden to marry without the consent of the King.
But in order to get Parliament to pay his debts, the prince entered a loveless marriage
with his cousin Caroline, but a few weeks after the birth of their only child the couple
separated and Carolin in 1814 went to live in Italy.
But as mentioned in November 1810, George III became unfit to rule and then afterwards
the prince became the regent under the Regency Act 1811.
George kept many of his father’s ministers, and this benefitted England as others were
prepared to leave the war with France and to allow Napoleon to become the master of
Europe.
But Britain would triumph over Napoleon in 1815, but when George IV became King, Carolin
returned to claim her right as the Queen consort.
A bill to deprive her of these rights was introduced to the House of Lords, but was
never voted on by the commons.
George IV’s coronation occurred on the 19th July 1821 and it was huge and lavish.
His crown contained 12000 diamonds, and 2000 people attended the coronation banquet.
Caroline also showed up asking to be crowned, but he was refused entry.
He was not enamoured by his Prime Ministers, and George was considered an intellectual
and a key fan of the arts.
He commissioned the royal pavilion in Brighton which was designed like a Mughal palace, and
he also restored much of Windsor Castle.
But George had ruled as regent from 1811 and then as King for just 10 years until he died
in 1830.
His reputation across the country was mixed, as one writer wrote of his death ‘there
never was an individual les regretted by hi fellow low creatures than this deceased king,’
but those who knew him liked him.
But throughout his life, George was known for his love of food and wine, and he had
huge banquets.
But this led to him becoming rather large, and he then developed gout.
Paintings made of him were much more flattering than what was reality, and Queen Victoria
would later say of her uncle that, ‘his face was covered with grease,’ however his
last years were charachterised by poor health including conditions such as rheumatism, dropsy
and the hardening of his arteries.
He may have also been suffering from the onset of dementia, but George lived his final years
inside the privacy of Windsor Castle and he was known to have spent days on end in bed,
and he also suffered from breathlessness which left him half asphyxiated.
By 1827 George was being carried around up and down the stairs and was wheeled around
in a wheelchair, and he became even more reclusive.
There were great efforts made to stop people seeing the King being carried to his carriage,
and he spent the last few years of his life at Windsor,
George it’s believed also became blind in one eye and he took medication for his bladder
pains, and he spent a lot of his time drugged up.
He then by spring of 1830 was very unwell.
One witness referred to his as ‘as blind as a beetle,’ and he was forced to stamp
legislation with his signature as he did not know what he was signing for.
His weight at this time was around d 20 stone and the attacks of breathlessness continued
and he was forced to sleep upright in a chair and the doctor had to drain fluid from his
abdomen.
Bu the King did still want to live, and he had a huge appetite.
For breakfast it was said he had, ‘a pigeon and beef steak pie, three parts of a bottle
of Mozelle, a glass of dry champagne, two glasses of port and a glass of brandy followed
by medication.
It was said that, ‘his majesty’s constitution is a gigantic one and his elasticity under
the most severe pressure exceeds what I have ever witnessed.’
George then dictated his will and in his final months he became very devout to his faith,
and he confessed that he regretted his miserable life but wanted mercy to be shown upon him.
But he was unable to lie down, and then he caught a cough which caused problems, but
then he said that in private, ‘things are coming to a conclusion.
I shall be released about Monday.’
On the evening of the 25th June 1830, the King was seriously ill and he was asleep in
a specially fitted chair, and he leaned onto the table and rested his forehead on one hand.
His physician had been sent away for the night, and his close friend Sir Jonathan Wathen Waller
sat with him holding his hand, as the King wanted constant reassurance., at 1:45am he
awoke and asked for medicine before he fell sleep, and he then at 3am work asking for
his night chair.
The King felt very faint and asked for the windows to be opened and then the doctor was
summoned.
The King exclaimed, ‘My dear boy this is death.
George then closed his eyes and lay back in his chair.’
He had passed a very bad bowel movement tinted with blood, and this caused great worry.
But then at 3:15am George IV died.
An autopsy of King George IV showed that he had died from upper gastrointestinal bleeding
following the rupture of a blood vessel in his stomach, and a large tumour the size of
an orange was found on his bladder.
Also his heart was enlarged and his valves had become blocked.
He was then buried in St George’s Chapel inside of Windsor Castle, the home he greatly
loved.
George IV was then succeeded his his brother William IV.
But George IV was a King who drank and ate to excess a huge amount and he put a lot of
weight on throughout his life.
Many of his portraits show him standing proudly looking slender, but this was not the case
and he was a king who stepped in a number of times to help his father rule who was not
capable at times.
But George suffered throughout his life with his own problems regarding his health, and
at the end of his life he spent the last of his days living reclusively inside Windsor
Castle.
He is laid to rest today in the royal vaults with many other monarchs including the recently
deceased Elizabeth II.
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