George III and Empire

Type:

Book Chapter

Author:

G. M. Ditchfield

Published:

2002

Publisher:

Palgrave Macmillan UK

Although George III regularly used the expression ‘empire’ to signify British possessions overseas, he did not refer to himself as an ‘emperor’ and evolved no political or cultural theory of empire. He was well aware, however, of his imperial responsibilities. As a leading scholar has recently noted, ‘Monarchy was at the legal core of the empire’.1 The nearest which the empire could claim to a uniting bond was not any kind of common citizenship, but subjection to the Crown. The personality and political influence of the monarch were accordingly of the utmost importance. George III has been the subject of as much controversy in his imperial as in his domestic role. His imperial conduct, moreover, was perceived by his critics and defenders alike as closely intertwined with his monarchical practice in Britain. The American Declaration of Independence recited 27 specific grievances against George III before denouncing him as ‘A Prince whose character is... marked by every act which may define a Tyrant [and who] is unfit to be the ruler of a free People’.2 This was a view shared by a significant number of the King’s domestic opponents. On the other hand, the King was seen by many American loyalists and in some British quarters as a wronged yet merciful paternalist; on 4 November 1777 the Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser referred to him as ‘a much-offended and forgiving prince’. In the context of Ireland in the 1760s, the nineteenth-century English historian J. A. Froude …

Türkçe sayfa →