Brothers and sisters in revolt

After a family quarrel in 1717, George I ordered his son and heir’s imprisonment in the Tower. His ministers had to explain that in England not even a king could dispense with habeas corpus. The King considered bundling the future George II on to a man-of-war bound for the West Indian plantations, but reluctantly conceded to English niceties. Obedience to the law and public opinion did not suit a man who had dedicated his first 54 years to the interests of Hanover before inheriting the British throne in 1714. In his small and happy German kingdom, George had personal power and was treated with honour by his deferential subjects; the British, by contrast, revelled in the tittle-tattle of royal scandal and subjected monarchs to strict conditions. Managing the royal family was an irksome business in his new realm.

In the years before he became king, George’s great-grandson was made to confront the duties of a British monarch. Under the tutelage of that dour stoic the Marquis of Bute, George III understood that he must subordinate his passions and restrain his desires. The burden of kingship was painful; the example of morality he must show his subjects called for constant self-abnegation. George swallowed his master’s precepts, and when he fell in love with the 15-year-old Lady Sarah Lennox it was a moment of profound personal crisis. In the midst of this turmoil he learnt that indulgence of emotion was a luxury not permitted a king. Therefore — ‘contrary to my passions’, as George said — he buried his feelings and scoured the Berlin Almanach for suitable German princesses as soon as he came to the throne in 1760.