King George I, King George II, King George III, King George IV and Queen Victoria. All Hanoverian Monarchs of the United Kingdom but the House of Hanover also presented us with another King – William IV. He may not have brought the Hanoverians to Britain like his great-grandfather or had the lengthy reign like his father and his niece but he was King nonetheless, a King whose reign saw immense reform in Britain and the ascendency of the House of Commons. In short William IV had a short but eventful reign and it is here we tell the story of the ‘Sailor King’.
Most of William’s early life was spent either at Richmond Palace or Kew Palace where private tutors educated him. At the early age of thirteen, William joined the Royal Navy as a midshipman and was present for the Battle of Cape St Vincent in 1780 during the American War of Independence. Not only this but, during the war he also served in New York. Whilst serving in New York Prince William (as he was known then) was embroiled in a plot to kidnap him, approved by the first President of the USA George Washington. Thankfully the plot did not come to fruition – after the British learnt of the plot, many guards were assigned to the Prince who had until that time freely walked the streets of New York alone. In 1785 William became a Lieutenant and the following year was made Captain of HMS Pegasus. The same year he was stationed in the West Indies under Horatio Nelson, William and Horatio became great friends and dined together nightly, William even insisted on giving Nelson’s bride away at his wedding! William was given command of the frigate HMS Andromeda in 1788.
In 1820 William’s Father King George III died and his elder brother the Prince Regent became King George IV. William was now second in the line of succession placed only behind his brother Frederick Duke of York. This was now a time when the prospect of William becoming King was high, both the King and Frederick had no legitimate issue to succeed them and both were very unhealthy men. When the Duke of York died in 1827, William who was over sixty years old, became heir presumptive. Also, in 1827 William was made Lord High Admiral by the incoming Prime Minister George Canning. Whilst in office William had repetitive conflicts with his Council, which was composed of Admiralty officers. These conflicts finally came to a head in 1828 when William was put to sea with a fleet of ships, leaving no clue as to where they were going and remaining away for ten days. These actions caused the King (through the new Prime Minister Arthur Wellesley) to request his resignation as Lord High Admiral, with which William complied. The remaining time of King George IV’s reign, William spent in the House of Lords where he supported the Catholic emancipation bill against the opposition of his younger brother Ernest Augustus. While William was serving in the House of Lords, the King’s health continued to deteriorate and it was obvious that the King was nearing death. No matter what genuine affection William felt for George, as his brother and as King, this could not hide the rising anticipation William felt for the fact that he would soon be King.
King George IV died in 1830.
King George IV died on 26th June 1830 and having no surviving legitimate issue, his brother succeeded him as King William IV. Aged 64, at that time he was the oldest person to assume the British throne. In contrast to King George IV, who spent most of his time at Windsor Castle, King William would often (especially during the early times of his reign) walk unaccompanied through London or Brighton, depending on where he was staying. King William IV did his utmost to endear himself to his people, he dismissed his brother’s French chefs and German band replacing them with English ones, much to the approval of the people. George IV’s painting collection was given to the nation and although his brother had begun the renovation of Buckingham Palace (formerly Buckingham House), William refused to live there and twice tried to give away the Palace, once to the Army to use as barracks and once to Parliament after the Houses of Parliament burnt down in 1834.
At the time, the death of a Monarch required fresh parliamentary elections, therefore a general election was called in 1830. The Duke of Wellington’s Tories lost ground to the Whigs under Charles Grey, although the Tories still had the largest number of seats. The Tories were bitterly divided and when Wellington was defeated in the House of Commons, Lord Grey formed a government. One of Lord Grey’s pledges was to reform the electoral system, which since the fifteenth century had seen few changes, the inequalities in the system were large, for example large towns such as Birmingham or Manchester elected no members while small boroughs (known as rotten boroughs) such as Old Sarum, which only had seven voters, were sending two members to parliament. It was this desire for reform that would signal the start of a crisis for King William IV.
The first reform bill of 1831 was defeated in the House of Commons and so Grey urged the King to dissolve parliament which would in turn force a general election upon the country. William was hesitant to do so, having only just come through a general election, he knew the country was in a state of over excitement, he was fearful of violence. He was though irritated by the actions of the opposition, who had announced their intention to move a passage of address against dissolution to the House of Lords. It was these actions that made King William decide to travel to the House of Lords in person to prorogue parliament, this would stop all debate and prevent the pass of an address. King William did just this, he arrived at the chamber and hastily put on his Crown and dissolved parliament there and then. Although the reformers rejoiced at the news of a fresh general election, they did not rejoice at the Second Reform Bill being rejected in October 1831, which in turn resulted in ‘Reform Riots’ across the country. In the face of these riots, Grey and his government urged the King to appoint new peers in order to get the Reform Bill passed in the House of Lords, although reluctant, King William agreed and appointed just enough peers in order to pass the Bill. On the Bill’s third attempt, it was not rejected outright by the House of Lords however they did begin to amend its basic character – once again Grey and his ministry were not happy with this and so appealed to the King, they said that if the King did not force the Bill through in its entirety then they would resign. The King refused and thus Grey resigned.
The crisis came when William decided to ask Wellington to reform his government, Wellington did not have the support like Grey did and hence the King’s popularity sank to an all time low. Rubbish was flung at his carriage and he was publicly hissed at, it was this pressure that forced King William to reappoint Grey and his ministry and to threaten to appoint more peers in order to pass the reform bill. It was this threat that ensured the Reform Act 1832 was passed without a hitch and it was the passing of this act that restored the popularity of King William IV to an all time high.
Both King William IV and Queen Adelaide were very fond of their niece, Princess Victoria of Kent. Their attempts, however, to forge a close relationship with the girl were dampened by the conflict between the King and Victoria’s mother, the Duchess of Kent (who was married to the King’s late brother Prince Edward, Duke of Kent). The King was angry over what he saw as disrespect from the Duchess to the Queen. He took the opportunity to say what he felt at what proved to be his last birthday banquet in 1836, a speech which is dramatized in the film The Young Victoria by Jim
Queen Victoria was the niece of King William IV
Broadbent playing the King, he says “I trust to God that my life may be spared for nine months longer…. I should then have the satisfaction of leaving the exercise of the Royal authority to the personal authority of that young lady, heiress presumptive to the Crown, and not in the hands of a person now near me, who is surrounded by evil advisers and is herself incompetent to act with propriety in the situation in which she would be placed” The speech caused Victoria to burst in to tears and only after difficult persuasion did her mother not leave immediately after the dinner. The evil adviser the King was talking about was of course John Conroy, the Duchess’s private secretary.
Queen Adelaide attended the dying King William devotedly in 1837, not going to bed herself for more than ten days at one point. King William IV died on 20th June 1837 at Windsor Castle where he was eventually buried. His dying wish was fulfilled though, he survived just long enough for the Country to avoid a Regency, the Crown passed to his brother’s daughter, Princess Victoria of Kent, who became Queen Victoria, a Queen who was of age, exactly what William wanted. Under Salic law a female could not rule Hanover so therefore the Hanoverian Crown went to William’s brother, Ernest Augustus thus ending the personal union of Britain and Hanover which had existed since 1714.
Although the reign of King William IV was short it was in no doubt eventful. The ascending power of the House of Commons and decline in the House of Lords were marked by the Reform Crisis, a crisis that could have seriously damaged the reputation of King William. In my opinion, like many lesser knownMonarchs, King William IV was a popular, capable and devoted Monarch of this country, it was only events out of his control that could have impacted upon his legacy. I also think we have to thank King William IV for one of our greatest monarchs ever, Queen Victoria, had it not been for his determination to avoid a regency then maybe, just maybe, the independent reign of Queen Victoria may not have happened, as we know if the evil adviser John Conroy had his way, Victoria would not have reigned by herself at all.
What do you think? Was King William IV a great King? Is he a forgotten Hanoverian? And just what did he bring to the role of King that others before and after him didn’t?
Featured Photo Credit: Statue of King William IV – Greenwich Park via photopin (license)
Photo Credit: BiblioArchives / LibraryArchives via photopin cc
Photo Credit: George IV statue via photopin (license)
Very interesting – I was unaware of all the details. I feel William IV was a good man, and tried hard to be a good monarch.
Interesting that nothing was mentioned about his longtime mistress Mrs. Jordan. Are there any known records or books written about his illegitimate children he had with Mrs. Jordan???
Claire Tomalin has written a book about this titled Mrs. Joran Profession. It’s very good and points out how hard working and talented Mrs. Jordan was and how much she contributed to his comfortable and stable life as a Prince. She deserves to be mentioned in any biography of William IV. Queen Adelaide preserved her letters to the King by the way. She was a good enough woman not to wipe away the relationship of twenty years. The same can’t be said of the rest of the Royal Family.
I think that King William IV is a much over looked and forgotten monarch because he had the misfortune of falling in between the long reigns of his father King George III and his neice Queen Victoria, and the recency then short reign of his unpopular brother King George IV, who is remembered more for the opulent buildings the monarchy is associated with today- Buckingham Palace and the remodel of Windsor Castle- both over budget, and his massive debts that he had ran up in this life of excess. William IV was and older man, who spent his life at sea, and so by the time he because king, he knew that he his time was to be short and that is only real purpose was bridge the gap between his brother to his neice, and that he probably wanted to pass to her a stable crown that actually was very rocky when he came to the throne- his father was a much loved monarch but his last years were spent locked away from his job and the public as we went “mad”, leaving the nation to be in the hands of his greedy, self absorbed, spend crazy elder brother. The nation was playing a waiting game at that point for the time that his other niece (daughter of George IV), Princess Charlotte would come to the throne and they pinned their hopes on her, only for her to die in child birth and throw the family into chaos as there was the rush of the other brothers to marry and produce legitimate heirs. William married Adelaide, his other younger brother the Duke of Kent married Princess Victoria and had their daughter Princess Alexandrina Victoria before he suddenly died leaving her the next heir to the throne and the hope of saving the monarchy from being swept aside like it had been in France and the armed rebellions that were sweeping Europe at the time. He wanted to be close to his niece and train her, but her mother prevented that from happening, so he did the best he could do and stablized the monarchy, worked to give it a better image, as the Hanoverian years prior where the Prince’s, himself included, openly had illegitimate children all over the place, and lived extravagant lives that caused them to be very unpopular with the people. His short time on the throne was spent showing the people that he was willing to listen, work for reform and be a calming person with the nation and work with the government to be to change the systems for the betterment of the nation and stop the collapse of their way of life. He put aside his mistress, showed devotion to his wife and compared to his brother spent very frugally instead of running up massive debts like the rest of his brothers had. And by living to see his neice turn 18 he guaranteed that Conroy did not use his sister-in-law, who could have been the regent, to enact his will upon the nation. So that when he died, his neice Victoria, who had lived a cut off, sheltered (and in all cases could be considered a mentally abusive) life, was suddenly given complete freedom in her life, she was able to banish those that had mistreated her to the far reaches of the palace, refusing to have them in her presence, the lessons she had saw from watching her uncles and their ways, and the example as a simple more down to earth person was a great example for her to follow, and I think it really set the tone for her reign, which was helped by Prince Albert’s influence later on, both of which set the foundation for the monarchy that exist today
Um, how could he be the subject of a kidnap plot by PRESIDENT George Washington DURING the revolution?
Um, how could he be the subject of a kidnap plot by PRESIDENT George Washington DURING the revolution?