Georgia Southwestern State University
King George the Third and
The American Revolution
A PAPER SUBMITTED TO:
Dr. James Bagwell
FOR THE CLASS OF
HIST 4610: History of England Since 1603
BY
Americus, GA 31709
February 1, 2001
John Locke wrote, "Wherever Law ends, Tyranny begins." (1) George the third tried to undo the harm of George the first and second. They allowed the power of the king to be reduced. He was forced to have a prime minister and could not veto laws passed by parliament. "'Yet of all George III's achievements, the most significant must surely remain this, that in the dust, the British monarchy not only survived, but survived with its standing strengthened and its popularity enhanced.'" (2) George the third was a popular king.
Life before he became King
King George the third was born June 4, 1738 at Norfolk House. He was the son of Prince of Wales-Frederick Lewis and his wife Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha. He was the grandson of King George the second and Queen Caroline. He was born two months early and was baptized at St. James's as George William Frederick. He was first tutored by the Rev. Dr. Francis Ayscough who taught him to read and wright in English and German by the age of eight. King George the third first tutor had been replaced by George Lewis Scott. Prince Frederick died in 1751 at the age of forty-four. King George the third was given the title of Duke of Edinburgh and the Earl of Chester in addition to the title of the Prince of Wales. The king was told that his grandfather died on the morning of October 25, 1760. (3)
Life as the King of England
King George the third was to be married to Princess Sophie Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz on September 8, 1761. They were to also be coronated on the same day of their marriage. Horace Walpole described the young princess, "She is not tall nor a beauty. Pale and very thin; but looks sensible and genteel. Her hair is darkish and fine. Her forehead low, her nose very well except the nostrils spreading too wide. The mouth has the same fault, but her teeth are good." Horace Walpole described the king as "good-natured" and "full of dignity." He further wrote that the king's "manner is graceful and obliging ... the most amiable young man in the world." The coronation took place at Westminister Abbey with the Archbishop of Canterbury leading the crowning of the King and Queen of England. (4) King George the third had fifteen children. (5) "'George III never left the safe ground of parliamentary government, and merely acted the primus inter pares, the first among the borough-mongering, electioneering gentlemen of England. While the Stuarts tried to browbeat the house and circumscribe the range of its actions, George III fully accepted its constitution and recognized its powers, and merely tried to work it in accordance with the customs of the time.'" (6) George the third knew the customs and tried to follow them.
Problems in America
First, taxes upset the colonist. "When George Grenville was in office he had decided that it was only proper that at least part of the high cost of maintaining a force of ten thousand men in America, as a safeguard against French revenge and Indian depredations, should be met by the American colonists themselves, who, in his opinion, had contributed very little to the war effort." Greenville wanted to end the salutary neglect of the colonists. Hibbert added that: "Rockingham advised repeal of the Act. Grenville, whose legislation it had been, insisted that it must be enforced. The King, who continued to support the common view that Parliament had as unquestionable a right to tax American colonies as it had to tax British citizens, yet who appreciated the difficulties of enforcement, favoured a compromise by which the Act might be modified." (7) In the end, Greenville could not tax the colonists.
Second, the Boston Tea Party. Hibbert wrote that:
Smuggled tea was consumed in enormous quantities, while officially imported tea was ostentatiously declined by patriotic Americans, who termed it the 'beverage of traitors;' and when in November 1773 the British ship Dartmouth entered Boston harbour with a cargo of tea from India, to be sold in America by agents of the East India Company, there were loud demands that the ship and her cargo must sail away forthwith. ... One Member of Parliament, Charles Van, actually proposed that Boston should be destroyed like Carthage. ... The senior of these three generals, the Hon. William Howe, son of the second Viscount Howe, also had sympathetic feelings for the Americans and, as a Whig Member of Parliament for Nottingham, had opposed the Government's colonial policy.
The Indians were members of the Sons of Liberty. Hibbert added that: "The third general to arrive in Boston Harbour towards the end of May 1775 was Henry Clinton, a grandson of the sixth Earl of Clinton and cousin of the Duke of Newcastle, a competent officer but a difficult, tactless man." The Patriots appoint Washington as Commander-in-Chief. (8)
Third, the Revolutionary War in America. Hibbert wrote that:
The strength of the Army on paper was no more than 48, 647 men scattered about the globe. About 16,000 were in England and Scotland, 12,000 in Ireland, 9,000 in various garrisons in India, Africa, Minorca, Gibraltar and the West Indies, and some 8,000 in America. ... The Cabinet decided, therefore, that they would have to look to Germany for the men they could not find in Britain. So, in 1775, five regiments of Hanoverians became mercenaries for the British, four of them being sent to Minorca and Gibraltar to release British troops from the garrisons there. The Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, the King's uncle, was persuaded to part with some of his soldiers; other regiments came from the ruling families of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. (9)
Britain received most of its men from Germany.
Frederick North
"Lord North, who had already been sounded out, was then offered the premiership, and, having satisfied himself that the Opposition was not strong enough to push him out, he accepted the offer. By the end of March 1770 his authority in Parliament was unquestioned." (10) Lord North was a good prime minister during times of peace but was not good at conducting the war with America. "On 20 March [1782,] North announced his resignation to the House of Commons and the next day the King offered Shelburne the lead in a new ministry." (11)
Thomas Paine and Common Sense
Common Sense was first published by William and Thomas Bradford in 1776. "Even more than monarchy Paine detested the hereditary right of succession as 'an insult and imposition upon posterity. For all men being originally equals, no one by birth could have aright to set up his own family in perpetual preference to all others forever.'" From this quote you can tell that Paine had very little respect for the king. "'Ye that tell us of harmony and reconciliation, can ye restore to us the time that is past? ... Neither can ye reconcile Britain and America. The last cord is broken.'" Common Sense had a very important role in the American Revolution. "Common Sense had destroyed the awesome father figure of the king in the minds-even the hearts-of the American colonists." (12)
The Battle of Lexington
The first shots of the American Revolution occurred on April 19, 1775 at the Battle of Lexington. Some say it is "the shot heard round the World." The Americans had about seventy-eight men. The British had more then seven hundred and fifty men. The British said, "'Lay down your arms!'" This was followed by the order, "'Disperse, you rebels!'" Eight Americans were killed and ten were wounded. The British then marched to Concord. "The people of Massachusetts knew they had to defend their liberty. They began collecting cannon and gunpowder at Concord, 20 miles from Boston." The British wanted to take these materials. But the Americans stopped them. Three British were killed in Concord. The Americans shot at the British as they retreated to Boston. Eleven Americans were killed at the town then called Menotomy (now called Arlington). The British lost a total of two hundred and seventy-three. The Americans lost a total of one hundred. The American Revolution had begun. (13)
The Battle of Bunker Hill
The Battle of Bunker Hill was described as: "Sustaining severe losses, the British retreated in confusion to the base of the hill. Gage ordered a second charge, which was similarly repulsed. During the third British assault the American troops, having exhausted their ammunition, were forced to withdraw. The British then attacked and captured both hills. American losses in the battle totaled about 400 dead. The British suffered about 1000 killed and wounded, many of them officers." (14) The British could not afford victory at the cost of these many men. "When they counted their dead, the British recognized a bitter lesson: since their soldiers could only be replaced at great cost from overseas, they could not again suffer major casualties by attacking embattled American farmers who had defenses to crouch behind. When Washington became conscious of this British conclusion, it was to have a major effect on his strategy." (15) Washington wanted the British to defeat themselves by suffering great losses.
The Battle of Saratoga
The British commander was General John Burgoyne. The American commander was General Horatio Gates. General Washington sent a few reinforcements led by General Benedict Arnold. Arnold came up with the idea to fight in the woods instead of saying in the safety of the fortifications at Bemis Heights. Arnold lead a daring charge against the British. The British lost many men. General Howe failed to reinforce the British. "Soon Gates had almost 14,000 men. But he still hesitated to attack, preferring to play it safe." The British attacked but Gates ordered Arnold not to fight. Arnold refused to obey the order and joined in the battle. "Shouting 'Victory or death!' Arnold now led a charge on a British fort. Men followed him in the back gate while Morgan's men swarmed over the front walls. Arnold took a bullet in the leg, breaking his thigh bone. He was carried back to his tent in agony. But the Americans held the fort." On October 17, 1777, Burgoyne surrendered to Gates. Burgoyne had lost about half of his men. The Americans had won the Battle of Saratoga. "In Paris, Benjamin Franklin and other American diplomats used this victory to persuade the French to sign a treaty of alliance. The French promised to fight until America was independent. They also promised to lend Americans money and send them guns and ammunition. The Battle of Saratoga was the turning point of the American Revolution." (16) The Battle of Saratoga got the French in the war. The French would help us to win the last battle of the war.
The Battle of Yorktown
General Washington was the American in charge at the Battle of Yorktown. The British were lead by General Charles Cornwallis. The French army was led by Count de Rochambeau. The siege at Yorktown begins on October 9, 1781. "The British had recovered from their defeat at Saratoga in 1777 and shifted the war to the South. In 1780 they conquered Georgia and South Carolina. They seemed on their way to taking North Carolina and Virginia." Lafayette learned that the Southern army of Britain would be staying the winter at Yorktown. He sent word of this to Washington in New York. He then learned that soon the French fleet would be in Virginia. He decided to trap the British at Yorktown. "The men dug trenches night and day. They dragged the big siege guns onto firing platforms. A few days after Washington fired the first shot, more than 100 heavy guns were pounding the British. The French guns fired 'hot shot'-heated cannonballs-at British ships in Yorktown harbor and set some of them of fire. They knocked out British cannons. They tore gaps in the walls of forts." Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Hamilton led the capture of a fortification called Redoubt 10. The French captured another fortification called Redoubt 9. "From the redoubts, allied cannons could fire into the British lines." Cornwallis were trying to a breakout of the siege but this failed. "A few hours later, a British officer waving a white handkerchief mounted the top of the fort. ... The officer walked to the American lines and handed over a letter from Cornwallis, offering to surrender." Two days later the British formally surrendered. The British marched out of Yorktown to the tune of "The World Turned Upside Down." (17)
John Paul Jones
On December 7, 1775, John Paul Jones joined the Continental Navy as a first lieutenant on the ship Alfred. He was made a captain in 1776. "After boldly raiding the English seaside towns of Whitehaven and St. Mary's Isle and capturing or destroying several British merchant ships, Jones contemptuously remained in British waters and on April 24 defeated the twenty-gun sloop HMS Drake." France gave him a ship named Bonhomme Richard. "On September 23, 1779, Jones and the Bonhomme Richard engaged in a desperate, three-hour, moonlit battle with the superior, 44-gun HMS Serapis. With his ship smashed and sinking, and his British counterpart Richard Pearson urging him to surrender, the indomitable American commodore responded, 'I have not yet begun to fight!' Continuing the struggle against all odds, Jones eventually forced Pearson to capitulate." (18) John Paul Jones showed the British that America could beat them at sea.
Treaty of Paris
David Willson wrote the following about the Treaty of Paris:
By the terms of the peace (September 1783) the United States became independent. Her territory, with a northern frontier not very different from what it is today, was extended westward to the Mississippi, and south to the thirty-first parallel, leaving Florida in the hands of Spain. The treaty recognized the debts owed by Americans to Englishmen were valid debts. The Americans received no commercial privileges in Britain, but they secured the right to fish off the Newfoundland Banks and gave no guarantee that the loyalists would escape persecution. (19)
The Treaty of Paris officially ended the American Revolution in 1783.
Conclusion
George the third was a good King of England. Unlike the two previous kings he cared about England and the authority of the monarchy. He was a very popular king. He was a very moral king. He is not the Tarrant that Paine and other historians made him out to be. The lost of the colonies and the power of the king were too much for the king. He was to go through periods of insanity. If the historians are wrong on George the third then how many other people have they judged incorrectly.
WORKS CITED
Ayling, Stanley. 1972. George the Third. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 460. Quoted in Stuart E. Prall and David Harris Willson. A History of England, 4th ed., 506, n. 2. Fort Worth: Holt, Rinehart and Wilson, 1991.
Brooke, John. King George III. Frogmore, Great Britain: Panther, 1972.
Copeland, Robert D., Senior Editor. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary of Quotations. Springfield, Ma.: Merriam-Webster, 1992.
Encarta Encyclopedia. Electronic edition 2000. s.v. "Battle of Bunker Hill." Redmond, Wa.: Microsoft, 1999.
Fleming, Thomas. "The shot heard round the world." Boy's Life 87, no. 10 (October 1997): 28-31.
__________. "Turnaround at Saratoga." Boy's Life 87, no. 11 (November 1997): 34-37.
__________. "The world turned upside down." Boy's Life 87, no. 12 (December 1997): 22-25.
Flexner, James Thomas. Washington: The Indispensable Man. New York: Signet, 1984.
Hibbert, Christopher. George III: A Personal History. New York: Basic Books, 1998.
"John Paul Jones." American History. 32, no. 3 (August 1997): 32.
Leckie, Robert. George Washington's War: The Saga of the American Revolution. New York: HarperCollins, 1992.
Namier, L. B. 1930. England in the Age of the American Revolution. London: Macmillan, 4. Quoted in Stuart E. Paul and David Harris Wilson. A History of England, 4th ed., 505, n. 1. Fort Worth: Holt, Rinehart and Wilson, 1991.
Wilson, David Harris. A History of England, 2nd ed. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Wilson, 1972.
1. Robert D. Copeland, Senior Editor, The Merriam-Webster Dictionary of Quotations (Springfield, Ma.: Merriam-Webster, 1992), 426.
2. Stanley Ayling, George the Third, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1972), 460; quoted in Stuart E. Prall and David Harris Willson, A History of England, 4th ed. (Fort Worth: Holt, Rinehart and Wilson, 1991), 506, n. 2.
3. Christopher Hibbert, George III: A Personal History, (New York: Basic Books, 1998), 1-39.
4. Ibid., 40-56.
5. Ibid., 97.
6. L. B. Namier, England in the Age of the American Revolution (London: Macmillan, 1930), 4; quoted in Stuart E. Prall and David Harris Willson, A History of England, 4th ed. (Fort Worth: Holt, Rinehart and Wilson, 1991), 505, n. 1.
7. Christopher Hibbert, George III: A Personal History, (New York: Basic Books, 1998), 122-129.
8. Ibid., 138-148.
9. Ibid., 149-162.
10. Ibid., 140.
11. John Brooke, King George III, (Frogmore, Great Britain: Panther, 1972), 358.
12. Robert Leckie, George Washington's War: The Saga of the American Revolution, (New York: HarperCollins, 1992), 243-250.
13. Thomas Fleming, "The shot heard round the world," Boy's Life, 87, no. 10 (October 1997): 28-31.
14. Encarta Encyclopedia, 2000 ed., s.v. "Battle of Bunker Hill" (Redmond, Wa.: Microsoft, 1999), 1.
15. James Thomas Flexner, Washington: The Indispensable Man, (New York: Signet, 1984), 65.
16. Thomas Fleming, "Turnaround at Saratoga," Boy's Life, 87, no. 11 (November 1997): 34-37.
17. Thomas Fleming, "The world turned upside down," Boy's Life, 87, no. 12 (December 1997): 22-25.
18. "John Paul Jones," American History 32, no. 3 (August 1997): 32.
19. David Harris Willson, A History of England, 2nd ed. (New York, Holt, Rinehart, and Wilson, 1972), 533.
