© Richard Randall

Caribbean

Sundries

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Marriage

The Prince of Wales's debts continued to climb; his father refused to aid him unless he married his cousin, Caroline of Brunswick. In 1795, the Prince of Wales acquiesced. The marriage, however, was disastrous; each party was unsuited to the other. The two were formally separated after the birth of their only child, Princess Charlotte, in 1796, and remained separated for the rest of their lives. The Prince of Wales remained attached to Mrs Fitzherbert for the remainder of his life, despite several periods of estrangement.

Even before meeting Mrs Fitzherbert, the Prince of Wales had fathered several illegitimate children. His mistresses included Mary Robinson, an actress who got revenge for her rejection by selling his letters to the newspapers; Grace Elliott, the Scottish wife of a sought-after London physician; Olga Zherebtsova, a Russian noble lady who claimed to have had a child by him; and Frances, Lady Jersey, who dominated his life for some years.

Meanwhile, the problem of the Prince of Wales's debts, which amounted to the extraordinary sum of £660,000 in 1796, was solved (at least temporarily) by Parliament. Being unwilling to make an outright grant to relieve these debts, it provided him an additional sum of £65,000 per annum. In 1803, a further £60,000 was added, and the Prince of Wales's debts were finally paid.

Regency

In late 1810, George III was once again overcome by his malady following the death of his youngest daughter, Princess Amelia. Parliament agreed to follow the precedent of 1788; without the King's consent, the Lord Chancellor affixed the Great Seal of the Realm to letters patent naming Lords Commissioners. The Lords Commissioners, in the name of the King, signified the granting of the Royal Assent to a bill that became the Regency Act 1811. Parliament restricted some of the powers of the Prince Regent (as the Prince of Wales became known). The constraints expired one year after the passage of the Act.

As the Prince of Wales became Prince Regent, one of the most important political conflicts facing the country concerned Catholic Emancipation, the project to relieve Roman Catholics of various political disabilities. The Tories, led by the Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval, were opposed to Catholic Emancipation, whilst the Whigs supported it. At the beginning of the Regency, the Prince of Wales indicated that he would support the Whig leader, William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville. He did not, however, immediately put Lord Grenville and the Whigs in office. He claimed that a sudden dismissal of the Tory government would exact too great a toll on the health of the King (a steadfast supporter of the Tories), thereby eliminating any chance of a recovery. In 1812, when it appeared highly unlikely that the King would recover, the Prince of Wales failed to appoint a new Whig administration. Instead, he asked the Whigs to join the existing ministry under Spencer Perceval. The Whigs, however, refused to co-operate because of disagreements over Catholic Emancipation. Angrily, the Prince of Wales allowed Perceval to continue as Prime Minister.

When, in May 1812, John Bellingham assassinated Spencer Perceval, the Prince of Wales was prepared to reappoint all the members of the Perceval ministry under a new leader, except that the House of Commons formally declared its desire for a more "strong and efficient administration." The Prince of Wales then offered leadership of the government to Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley, and afterwards to Francis Rawdon-Hastings, 2nd Earl of Moira. He doomed the attempts of both to failure, however, by forcing each to construct a bipartisan ministry at a time when neither party wished to share power with the other. Using the failure of the two peers as a pretext, the Prince of Wales immediately reappointed the Perceval administration, with Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, as Prime Minister.

The Tories, unlike Whigs such as Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, sought to continue the vigorous prosecution of the war against the powerful and aggressive Emperor of France, Napoleon I. With the aid of Russia, Prussia, Sweden, Austria and other countries, the United Kingdom defeated Napoleon in 1814. In the subsequent Congress of Vienna, it was decided that the Electorate of Hanover, a state that had shared a monarch with Britain since 1714, would be raised to a Kingdom. Napoleon made a return in 1815, but was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo by Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, the brother of the Marquess Wellesley. Also in 1815, the British-American War (also called the War of 1812) was brought to an end, with neither side victorious.

During this period George as Regent took an active interest in matters of style and taste, and his associates such as the dandy Beau Brummell and the architect John Nash created the Regency style. In London Nash designed the Regency terraces of Regent's Park and Regent Street. George took up the new idea of the seaside spa and had the Brighton Pavilion developed as a fantastical seaside palace, adapted by Nash in the "Indian Gothic" style inspired loosely by the Taj Mahal, with extravagant "Indian" and "Chinese" interiors.

Reign

When George III died in 1820, the Prince Regent ascended the throne as George IV, with no real change in his powers. By the time of his accession, he was obese and possibly addicted to laudanum. He also showed some signs of the disease that had affected his father.

George IV's relationship with his wife Caroline had deteriorated by the time of his accession. They had lived separately since 1796, and both had affairs. Caroline had later left the United Kingdom for Europe, but she chose to return for her husband's coronation, and publicly asserted her rights. However, George IV refused to recognise Caroline as Queen, commanding British ambassadors to ensure that monarchs in foreign courts did the same. By royal command, Caroline's name was omitted from the liturgy of the Church of England. The King sought a divorce, but his advisors suggested that any divorce proceedings might involve the publication of details relating to the King's own adulterous relationships. Therefore, he requested and ensured the introduction of the Pains and Penalties Bill 1820, under which Parliament could have imposed legal penalties without a trial in a court of law. The bill would have annulled the marriage and stripped Caroline of the title of Queen. The bill proved extremely unpopular, and was withdrawn from Parliament. George IV decided, nonetheless, to exclude his wife from his coronation at Westminster Abbey, on 19 July 1821. Caroline died soon afterwards, on 7 August of the same year. It is rumoured that the King's close associate John Roberts played a part in Caroline's death.

George's coronation was a magnificent and expensive affair, costing about £943,000. The coronation was a popular event. Many across the nation bought souvenirs that bore copies of the coronation portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence. In 1822, the King visited Edinburgh for "one and twenty daft days." His visit to Scotland was the first by a reigning monarch since Charles II went there in 1650. The visit was organised by Sir Walter Scott, and increased the King's popularity.

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