The last king of America The misunderstood reign of George III

Review by Booklist Review

Vilified in the United States for that long list of grievances constituting the bulk of the Declaration of Independence, King George III had to endure intrigue and controversy within his home realm. Biographer Roberts (Napoleon, 2015) rescues this ill-fated monarch from a lot of myth. Thanks to Queen Elizabeth II's recent opening of royal archives, new facts have appeared that make George III appear much more enlightened. As a young prince, George had a good education not only in history and politics, but also in the arts, particularly in music and theater. He came to the throne in an era of intense strife within British society. Foreign wars proved costly, and the rise of Napoleon after the French Revolution threatened Britain's security. On a personal level, George was blessed with an apparently very happy marriage to Charlotte and their fifteen children. Roberts details the king's frequently difficult relations with his prime ministers and the disastrous effects of his bipolar disorder on both the nation and the king's family. Roberts here renders George III a figure more tragic than malicious.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

"The American Revolution is a testament not to George III's tyranny, which was fictitious, but to Americans' yearning for autonomy," according to this meticulously researched revisionist biography. Historian Roberts (Churchill: Walking with Destiny) paints the British monarch, who ruled from 1760 until his death in 1820, as "well-meaning, hard-working, decent, dutiful, moral, cultured and kind," the near-polar opposite of the "wicked tyrannical brute" described by Thomas Paine and other American patriots. In Roberts's view, George III was a loving husband and father, a champion of the Enlightenment, and a constitutional monarchist who ruled in a tumultuous era when America was reaching "political maturity" and Britain's victory in the Seven Years' War brought uncertainty about how the empire would be run and who would pay for it. Roberts blames policy mistakes such as the repeal of the Stamp Act on parliament's factious politics; contrasts George's "staunchly conservative" economic views with those of Prime Minister William Pitt, who oversaw "millions spent on an ever expanding theatre of conflict"; and alleges that the king suffered from "recurrent manic-depressive psychosis," rather than a hereditary blood disorder, as was commonly believed. Though Roberts occasionally forgoes nuance in favor of salvaging his subject's reputation, this is an eye-opening portrait of the man and his times. (Nov.)

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Review by Library Journal Review

George III of England: cold-hearted, cruel, and villainous? Not so, posits historian Roberts (winner of the Wolfson History Prize for Salisbury: Victorian Titan) in his new biography, which while decidedly sympathetic to its subject--sometimes to excess--nevertheless presents a convincing case. This is not the first revisionist treatment of the monarch, who reigned from 1760 until his death in 1820, but Roberts's extensive use of primary-source letters, essays, and other personal documents recently made available by the Georgian Papers Programme offers much fresh evidence that George III was not the arrogant and vindictive tyrant portrayed in popular culture, but rather an intelligent and conscientious king whose idealistic goals were stymied by political frictions and the misfortune of mental illness. A practiced hand at thoroughly detailed histories and biographies, Roberts keeps the lengthy text vivid and engaging as he untangles the inciting factors of American Revolution and the various Parliamentary conflicts that dogged George III's reign, especially after the Seven Years' War. The author has a deep knowledge of this era, having previously written the bestselling Napoleon: A Life. VERDICT A deep, expansive study not only of George III but also of the political and social complexities of England and the United States during his reign.--Kathleen McCallister, William & Mary Libs., Williamsburg, VA

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

A revisionist portrait of a maligned monarch. English historian and biographer Roberts, winner of the Wolfson History Prize and many other honors, draws on abundant archival sources to create a deeply textured portrait of George III (1738-1820), whom he calls "the most unfairly traduced sovereign in the long history of the British monarchy." Countering the characterizations of George as pompous and cruel, promulgated in such plays as Alan Bennett's The Madness of George III and Hamilton, Roberts argues that the king was an intelligent, astute leader, dedicated to upholding the British Constitution. In addition to his passion for the arts and sciences; he was "well-meaning, hard-working, decent, dutiful, moral, cultured and kind." A shy child, he was by no means backward, although his own mother thought he "was not quick." Nevertheless, Roberts found that "his exercise books in the Royal Archives show that George was perfectly competent at reading and writing English by the age of nine." By 15, he could translate classical texts, including philosophy. His father died when he was 12, and his grandfather was cruel and abusive, leading young George to see as his "surrogate father" John Stuart, a handsome, charming man 25 years older, who "introduced George to many of the artistic and intellectual passions of his life, and to the people who stimulated them." Stuart long served as George's confidant, adviser, and, briefly, prime minister. Roberts capably traces the complicated machinations that led to George's selection of Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz as his wife; the roiling politics of 18th-century England; the gossip and power play that threatened his authority; the American colonists' inevitable break from British rule (nothing to do with taxes, Roberts argues); and five episodes of manic-depressive psychosis--not, as many historians have believed, porphyria. Vividly detailed, the author's life of George is comfortably situated in the context of British, European, and Colonial history. A capacious, prodigiously researched biography from a top-shelf historian. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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