The year 1760 in the history of Great Britain was to be the beginning of a completely new era, which the courtly aristocracy was not yet aware of. Shortly after the death of George II, his 22-year-old grandson sat on the throne George III (for relatives George William Frederick). It was he who became one of the biggest stars of the Netflix hit “Queen Charllot: A Tale from the Bridgerton World” and the object of sighs of a large number of fans. Was he really as handsome as he was Corey Mylchreestwho got this role? We don’t know that. Certainly, however, he was struggling with a rather embarrassing illness that tarnished his image in the eyes of the court. But let’s start from the beginning…
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Queen Charlotte and George III, or great love and great fall
As we have already guessed, the series Shondy Rhimes “Queen Charlotte”although it is fiction, it is based on the prototypes of the actual rulers of Great Britain – King George III and his wife Charlotte, whose joint reign falls in the years 1760-1820. Songs, poems and legends were written about their love, but was it really as romantic as it might seem?
When the 22-year-old George was about to succeed his grandfather, the priority of the court was to find a court for him a wife whose noble birth would match the impeccability of the new majesty. And you need to know that although the task itself does not sound too demanding, it took the king’s advisers a lot of time. Ultimately, the choice fell on 17-year-old Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, a rural region of Germany. Young, inexperienced, delicate, but at the same time distinguished by exceptional intellect and knowledge – she was simply perfect. And so, just six hours after the arrival of the future wife of the king in England, the couple stood on the wedding carpet.
Given the circumstances of their wedding, you might think that George III and Charlotte lived more side by side than together, but the truth is quite different. The young couple turned out very similar in interests and beliefs. They both wanted to nurture family life, they both showed great love for music and the idyllic life of the countryside. Interestingly, the king loved the company of farmers, farmers and servants and greatly appreciated looking after their crops or breeding This earned him great respect among his subjects. The irrefutable proof of the great love of the royal couple is, above all, the correspondence that has survived to this day.
No one has ever been as pleasantly surprised as I was an hour ago to receive a letter from Your Majesty, for which I am deeply grateful. I’m glad you’re still well and that you’re enjoying your journey. I look forward to Wednesday evening to embrace and congratulate Your Majesty on your return to us. The children are, thank God, in perfect health and show you both their love and their duty, Octavius ​​especially wants to be with dad, on a horse, but not on a ship. In the evening I will be on the terraces where I will make many people happy with good news from you, but I am sure that no one’s happiness is equal to the happiness of the one who has received it and who signs it with the greatest love and affection. Your Majesty’s most beloved and devoted wife
– wrote Queen Charlotte to King George III in 1781. And speaking of children, Charlotte and George have been busy. The secrets of their marriage bed theoretically remain secrets to this day. However, no one was particularly eager to get to know them, because there were as many as fifteen proofs of a happy life. Yes, the queen extended the family by as many as fifteen people “Nice bunch, isn’t it?” However, this idyll did not last long. In 1765, dark clouds hung over the loving Buckingham Palace – which the sovereign had purchased for his wife less than four years earlier.
What did King George III suffer from? There were more theories than solutions
As we read in the work of Timothy J. Peters “The madness of King George III: a psychiatric re-assessmet”, just five years after their marriage, King George began to show the first symptoms of severe depressioni. However, it is difficult to call it common, because apart from purely psychosomatic symptoms, his body was fighting with bleeding and chest pain. The doctors were helpless, and the court ruled: their king was just mad. Even on the official website of the royal family there is a very blunt mention:
George III is widely known for two things: the loss of the American colonies and madness. However, this is far from the whole truth.
Specialists have been arguing for years about what disease George III was struggling with. The real answer to their questions has probably been lost somewhere in history, but several theories have been developed over the centuries. The first of them comes from the 1960s, when Ida Macalpine and Richard Hunter in the “British Medical Journal” pointed to porphyria, a metabolic disorder that affects the nervous system. However, new research suggests that researchers were highly selective in reporting and interpreting signs and symptoms. It is also claimed that they wanted to remove the “stain of madness” from the Windsor family at all costs.
The aforementioned Timothy J. Peters instead stated that King George III most likely suffered from recurrent mania, which may have been bipolar disorder. He also noted that the ruler was then diagnosed with “manic-depressive psychosis”. This theory has received wide approval from the scientific community. Peter Garrard and Vassiliki Rentoumi, analyzing letters written by George III in The Acute Mania of King George III: A computational linguistic analysis, added that according to the modern classification of mental illness, mania seems to be the diagnosis that best fits available behavioral data. The official website of the royal family states:
We may never know exactly what was wrong with George III. He may have suffered from hypomania, but researchers studying his papers have found that breakdowns often occurred as a result of tragic events, including the untimely death of his youngest daughter, Princess Amelia.
No matter what, one thing is certain: King George III went a long way to become a “normal” man and ultimately never reached his goal. However, the whole drama of this situation has one more branch. It is the way in which the then medics tried to cure their ruler.
“Queen Charlotte” versus reality. Inhuman medicine, attempted rape and a tragic end
Day by day, George III’s condition became more serious. The king was very nervous, sometimes unnecessarily. He started fights, talked about everything he could think of, became manic and perverted. According to historians, he even tried to rape his own daughter. The medics knew they had to act, though they didn’t quite know how. The fans of the series “Queen Charlotte” were very impressed by the attempts to treat the ruler. They were bestial and ruthless. Unfortunately, they were not just a director’s fantasy. According to Anthony Addington, medicine at the time believed that the only cure for madness was suffering.
The treatments that King George was subjected to were painful and inhumane. They included e.g. straitjacket, bloodletting, skin scorching, and arsenic torture. Dr. Francis Willis, one of the doctors treating the ruler, wrote in his diary:
His Majesty’s feet were dipped in hot water and vinegar for half an hour. Soon after, His Majesty looked so exhausted, as if his existence became even more painful – his pulse also accelerated rapidly.
In the last decade of his life, in addition to acute mania and blindness caused by bilateral cataracts, King George III probably also suffered from dementia. So what was wrong with the ruler? From today’s perspective, one thing can be said: whatever happened to him, it is clear that doctors at that time did not have the tools to treat effectively. The comforting fact is that Queen Charlotte did indeed care for her husband until his death.
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
