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George III's medical records put online in royal first, revealing reading King Lear worsened his madness

Allan Ramsay, 'George III', 1761-2 - Royal Collection Trust/© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
Allan Ramsay, 'George III', 1761-2 - Royal Collection Trust/© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

King George III suffered a bout of mental illness after reading King Lear - Shakespeare’s play about a monarch who descends into madness - according to royal medical records which have been published online for the first time.

Documents detailing how the “ungovernable” king was put in a straight jacket and tied down during the 1789 Regency Crisis also reveal how Shakespeare’s tragedy left the sovereign in an “agitated and confused” state. The play, originally drafted in 1605, was not performed during George III’s reign because it was regarded as insulting.

The revelation that the then 51-year-old king was “maddened” by the plot, which sees Lear divide his kingdom according to the flattery his three daughters bestowed on him, is at odds with the 1994 film of Alan Bennett’s play, the Madness of King George, which suggests the ruler was temporarily cured after reading a moving passage from the play.

Mark Gatiss, who is currently playing George III in a revival of the play at Nottingham Playhouse recently revealed how he had drawn on his experiences growing up opposite a psychiatric hospital in County Durham to prepare for the role.

Mark Gatiss as George III - Credit: Manuel Harlan/Manuel Harlan
Mark Gatiss as George III Credit: Manuel Harlan/Manuel Harlan

According to the papers released by the Royal Archives - the first royal medical records ever to be published - George III suffered significant periods of ill health during his 60-year reign from 1760 to 1820 which were largely misunderstood and treated with “remedies” such as purging, bleeding, blistering and even doses of opium.

Changes in the King’s manner and health during 1788-89 - when parliament tried to establish a regency because of his behaviour - were documented in a diary kept by his Equerry, Robert Fulke Greville. In an entry from October 1788, he notes that “His Majesty had become more peevish than he used to be” and is agitated and talking incessantly and incoherently.  

By December, the King’s health has worsened and a physician, Dr Francis Willis, who has experience of dealing with mentally ill patients, is summoned. Later that month, on 20 December, the King’s condition has deteriorated still: “H.M became so ungovernable that recourse was had to the strait waistcoat: His legs were tied, & he was secured down across his Breast, & in this melancholy situation he was, when I came to make my morning Enquiries.”

Throughout George III’s illness, the Prince of Wales (latterly the Prince Regent and then George IV), received regular letters from his father’s physicians. In one, dated 18 December 1788, Sir Lucas Pepys informs the Prince of a deterioration in his father’s health, which he attributes to the King’s reading of Shakespeare: “This morning he is in nearly the same state he was in the evening, but is more agitated and confused, perhaps from having been permitted to read King Lear.”

Letter from Sir Lucas Pepys to the Prince of Wales, 18 December 1788, citing King Lear as a reason for George III's "madness"  - Credit: Royal Archives/Royal Archives 
Letter from Sir Lucas Pepys to the Prince of Wales, 18 December 1788, citing King Lear as a reason for George III's "madness" Credit: Royal Archives/Royal Archives

By March 1789, the King had recovered but he suffered further spells of ill health in 1801 and 1804, before the final, long period of illness from 1810 until his death in 1820.

A volume entitled “The Progress of the Symptoms of the King’s Illness since November 1810” provides a daily account of the King’s wellbeing and highlights the close monitoring he was subject to.  The entry for 21 March 1811 states: “There is a nervousness and anxiety to be declared well; and a distrust of the physicians. Slept four hours. Occupied when awake in adjusting the bedclothes, by rolling them down and up again. Did not talk much but twice betrayed delusion.”

The regular reports to the Prince of Wales continued until the King died, aged 81. The final letter sent that day, signed by four physicians Henry Halford, Matthew Bailie, Robert Willis and David Dundas, states:  “His Majesty's pulse is still regular, but very feeble, and we cannot conceal from Your Royal Highness our fears that His Majesty may not be spared to us much longer.”

The documents were released as part of the Georgian Papers Programme, which is transforming access to over 350,000 papers in the Royal Archives and Royal Library relating to the Georgian period.