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13 unusual facts about George IV of the United Kingdom


A23 road

The increase in population of Brighton in the late eighteenth century, which transformed it from a small fishing village to a large seaside resort, enhanced the importance of this road, as did the residence there of George IV, as Prince of Wales, who made Brighton a place of fashion.

Bearer of the Royal Banner

In 1821 the 8th Earl officiated at the Coronation of George IV, but in the following year Henry Scrymgeour-Wedderburn carried the royal banner at Holyroodhouse during the King's visit.

Chubb detector lock

The Chubb lock reportedly became popular as a result of the interest generated when George IV accidentally sat on a Chubb lock that still had the key inserted.

City of Brunswick

In 1841, Thomas Wilkinson, one of the major landowners in the area named his estate Brunswick, after Princess Caroline of Brunswick, wife of King George IV of England.

Country Bankers Act 1826

The Country Bankers Act 1826 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom enacted during the reign of George IV.

George, Prince of Wales

George IV of the United Kingdom, from his creation as Prince of Wales in 1762 until his accession to the throne in 1820

Great Queen Street

There is a pub called "The Prince of Wales" at 45 Great Queen Street, presumably named after the future George IV who was the Grand Master of the Freemasons in 1809.

Jean Théodore Latour

Latour was appointed official pianist to the Prince Regent (later King George IV of the United Kingdom).

Kennington Road

With the growing popularity of Brighton as a resort in the later eighteenth century it became part of the route there, used by George IV on his excursions there and later for other London to Brighton events such as the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run.

Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829

To overcome the vehement opposition of both the House of Lords and King George IV, the Duke of Wellington worked tirelessly to ensure passage in the House of Lords, and threatened to resign as Prime Minister if the King did not give Royal Assent.

Thomas Hingston

In 1822 he won the medal offered by George IV to Edinburgh University for a Latin ode on the occasion of his visit to Scotland.

Thomas Zouch

The official verses on the accession of George III contained a Latin poem by him; to those on that king's marriage he contributed a Greek poem, and he supplied English verses for the sets on the birth of the Prince of Wales and the peace of Paris, which are quoted with praise in the Monthly Review (xxviii. 27–9, xxix. 43).

Victorian morality

For instance, her uncle George IV was commonly perceived as a pleasure-seeking playboy, whose conduct in office was the cause of much scandal.


1815 in the United Kingdom

The Prince Regent divides the Order of the Bath into three classes: the Knights Grand Cross, Knights Commander and Companions.

Adam Buck

His patrons included Angelica Catalani (an opera singer), JP Kemble, Sir Francis Burdett, Thomas Hope, George IV, the duke of York and his mistress Mary Anne Clarke.

Borghese Vase

On a reduced scale, the vases made admirable wine coolers in silver, or in silver-gilt, as Paul Storr delivered them to the Prince Regent in 1808 (Haskell and Penny 1981:315.) John Flaxman based a bas-relief on the frieze of the Borghese Vase.

Cornwall, Ontario

It was later renamed Cornwall by the British for the Duke of Cornwall, by proclamation of Prince George, and in 1834 the town became one of the first incorporated municipalities in the British colony of Upper Canada.

Denis Dighton

He subsequently fell from royal favour when his intermediary with the Prince Regent, Sir Benjamin Bloomfield, lost his place in the royal household, to be replaced by Sir William Knighton.

Frederick Christian Lewis

He engraved Sir Thomas Lawrence's crayon portraits and was engraver of drawings to Princess Charlotte, Prince Leopold, George IV, William IV, and Queen Victoria.

Haußelberg

In 1820 King George IV of England tasked the Professor of Astronomy and Director of the Observatory at Göttingen University, Carl Friedrich Gauss, to survey the Kingdom of Hanover.

History of Freemasonry

The delegation included the Duke of Atholl, Grand Master of the Ancients, and Past Grand Master Mason of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, and the Earl of Moira, Acting Grand Master of the Moderns (the Grand Master being the Prince of Wales).

John Anthony Fonblanque

He was one of the Whig 'friends' of King George IV when Prince of Wales and is also said to have been a personal friend of his Royal Highness.

John Crosdill

In 1782, Crosdill was appointed chamber musician to Queen Charlotte and violoncello instructor to the Prince of Wales (later George IV).

Joseph Spear

Spear was serving aboard the latter vessel when she was used to carry Caroline of Brunswick from Cuxhaven to Greenwich in March 1795 for her marriage to the Prince of Wales.

Kiveton Park

The building was demolished by George William Frederick Osborne, 6th Duke of Leeds in 1812, with local legend stating that the demolition was the result of a bet with the then Prince of Wales (subsequently George IV of the United Kingdom).

Octavius Wigram

At the coronation of King George IV at Westminster Abbey in 1820, Wigram was on duty, guarding one of the doors of the Abbey, when the new king's estranged wife Queen Caroline tried unsuccessfully to enter the Abbey by force.

Princess Amelia of the United Kingdom

Her godparents were The Prince of Wales (Amelia's eldest brother), The Princess Royal (her eldest sister), and The Princess Augusta Sophia (her second eldest sister).

She was twenty-one years younger than her eldest sibling George and nearly seventeen years younger than her eldest sister Charlotte.

Rodney Stone

The book includes vignettes of a number of historical personages, notably the Prince Regent, Lord Nelson, Sir John Lade, Lord Cochrane and Beau Brummell.

Sir John Hamilton, 1st Baronet, of Woodbrook

In 1813 after four years continuous campaigning, Hamilton was forced to return to England on sick leave and during his absence he was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Tower and Sword by the Portuguese monarchy and was knighted by the Prince Regent as well as being made honorary colonel of the 2nd Ceylon Regiment.

St John the Baptist's Church, Brighton

Many refugees from the French Revolution settled in Brighton after escaping from France; and Maria Fitzherbert, a twice-widowed Catholic, began a relationship with the Prince Regent (and secretly married him in 1785 in a ceremony which was illegal according to the Act of Settlement 1701 and the Royal Marriages Act 1772).

St. Paul's Church, George Street, Nottingham

Paul's Chapel of Ease', as it was then called, public opinion was running high against King George IV for he had refused to allow his wife Caroline to be crowned, notwithstanding this, the King's Coronation was celebrated in Nottingham by the firing of several volleys in the Market Place by the 7th Dragoon Guards, and the Yeomanry Cavalry.

Test Act

The necessity of receiving the sacrament as a qualification for office was repealed in 1828 under George IV and all acts requiring the taking of oaths and declarations against transubstantiation were repealed by the Catholic Relief Act 1829.

Walter Montagu Douglas Scott, 5th Duke of Buccleuch

King George spent some days in 1822 as the Duke's guest at Dalkeith Palace, the first visit of a reigning Hanoverian monarch to Scotland.

Washing the Ethiopian white

Satirising the mistress of the future George IV, it shows Frances Villiers, Countess of Jersey, sitting in an arm-chair while two ladies wash her face, which has the complexion of a mulatto.