Mad King of Britain: King George III 👑 Private Lives of Monarchs | Smithsonian Channel

[CLASSICAL MUSIC] [GRUNTING] NARRATOR: But of course, when we think of King George III, we think first of his so-called madness-- the recurring bouts of terrible mental illness which affected the king from 1788 until the end of his life. For many years, the cause of the king's illness was believed to be an inherited condition called porphyria. But very recent research has shed some doubt on that. DR. DOMINIC SELWOOD: George III had three very serious episodes of insanity. We don't know exactly what it was. People have come up with different ideas over the years. For a long time, it was porphyria. It's possible. People now like to talk more about a bipolar disorder, which is also possible. But what is certain is that he had serious insanity for these periods. DR. MATT GREEN: The loss of the American colonies dealt a extremely severe psychological blow to the king. Just imagine you have this huge empire. Territorially, it was the biggest empire the world had seen since Rome. And then suddenly, a whole part of it is just lopped off. It's gone. It's vanished. It's not part of Britain anymore. REBECCA RIDEAL: It was a trait of his that if he allowed himself to be upset by something, he really went into a deep state of melancholy. And this was the biggest shake-up of his life that he'd had to that date. HALLIE RUBENHOLD: He lost a tremendous amount of land, a tremendous amount of territory which belonged to Britain. And so that was a personal failure. And George saw it as a personal failure. And in fact, he even drafted a resignation letter which he never submitted. But it's unlikely that he ever fully recovered from this terrible loss.

Channel: Smithsonian Channel

Views: 81,834

Keywords: George III, Great Britain, resignation, 1788, Monarch, Rebecca Rideal, England, Hallie Rubenhold, Matt Green, Documentary, private lives, UK, insanity, empire, mental illness, colonies, Dominic Selwood, smithsonian, porphyria, bout, madness, loss, bipolar disorder, melancholy, Waistcoat, babble, Kensington palace, sleeve, Isabella Coraca, london, disability, hallucination, mad king, mad King George, crazy king, king's madness, Smithsonian king, Prince Regent, King George III, mad British king, sad

Id: Jh0RV27qxSA

Length: 1min 58sec (118 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 24 2019