George IV

Biography

George Augustus Frederick was born at St James's Palace on 12 August 1762, the eldest son of George III and Queen Charlotte, and was made Prince of Wales within days. A gifted linguist, he set up his own household at eighteen and soon became known for heavy drinking, mistresses and debts, as well as for his ties to Charles James Fox and the Whigs, which set him against his father. In 1785 he secretly went through a marriage with the Catholic widow Maria Fitzherbert, a union void under the Royal Marriages Act, and Parliament later had to pay off his debts.

When George III became incapable in 1788, Parliament debated whether the prince had a right to rule as regent, but the king recovered before a regency was set up. With his debts still growing, he agreed in 1795 to marry his cousin Caroline of Brunswick, the condition his father set for helping him. The couple separated soon after the birth of their only child, Princess Charlotte, in 1796, and Charlotte died in 1817.

He became Prince Regent on 5 February 1811, when his father's final illness began, and king on George III's death on 29 January 1820. Through most of this period Lord Liverpool led the government, which saw Britain through to the final defeat of Napoleon. George spent lavishly on building, employing John Nash on the Royal Pavilion in Brighton and on Buckingham Palace and having Windsor Castle rebuilt, and his taste shaped the fashions of the Regency era. His attempt to divorce Caroline through the Pains and Penalties Bill of 1820 failed and made him deeply unpopular, and in 1829 he had to accept Catholic emancipation, which he opposed. He died at Windsor Castle on 26 June 1830 and was succeeded by his brother William IV.