Volume 4, Number 4 · March 25, 1965
A King's Madness
By J.H. Plumb
The Royal Malady
by Charles Chevenix-Trench
Harcourt, Brace and World, 225 pp., $4.95
In the early summer of 1788, George III was gently but steadily going off his head. He had been mad before, early in his reign shortly after his marriage, but only briefly, and his cure had seemed reasonably complete. After all, he had withstood the strains and anxieties of twenty years of politics which included both the Wilkesite agitation and the loss of America. He was odd: everyone recognized that. He was both inordinately loquacious and inordinately curious. A day out with the King was always thoroughly exhausting; nevertheless his own stamina seemed unshakeable. He had ridden through the dangerous tempests of his domestic worries with the same resolution as that with which he had faced his public defeats. The scandalous life of the Prince of Wales infuriated him; he argued, pleaded, threatened, and cajoled in a tumult of verbiage, but at least his sanity held. As this summer wore on, however, the signs grew ominous. George III may or may not have shaken the lower bough of an oak tree in Windsor Park thinking it was the King of Prussia's hand and settled down to a long conversation with it, but certainly during his visit to Worcester he was extremely odd, climbing with the Queen all over a half-constructed china shop, up and down the ladders, bewildering the workmen with his rapid fire of questions to which he expected no answers. Then the physical symptoms started up—hives, swollen feet, cramp, bile, and chronic insomnia. After denouncing the importation of senna to his physician for three hours and sending a blank check to the actress, Mrs. Siddons, the Court and the politicians had to admit that the King was, mad. And Britain was plunged into a major constitutional crisis.
Review, 1054 words
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