William IV of the United Kingdom
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William IV (William Henry) (21 August 1765 – 20 June 1837) was King of the United Kingdom and of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death. William, the third son of King George III and younger brother and successor of King George IV, was the penultimate monarch of the House of Hanover. During his youth, he served in the Royal Navy; he was afterwards nicknamed the Sailor King. His reign was one of several reforms: the poor law updated, municipal government democratised, child labour restricted and slavery abolished throughout the British Empire. The most important reform legislation of William IV's reign was the Reform Act 1832, which refashioned the British electoral system. William did not meddle in politics as much as either his brother or his father, though he did prove to be the last monarch to appoint a Prime Minister contrary to the will of Parliament (in 1834).
Early life
William was born on 21 August 1765 at Buckingham House, the son of King George III and Queen Charlotte. He had two elder brothers (Prince George, Prince of Wales and Prince Frederick, Duke of York), and was not expected to inherit the Crown. He was baptized in the Great Council Chamber of St James's Palace on 18 September 1765 and his godparents were the Duke of Gloucester, Prince Henry and Princess Augusta Charlotte.At the age of thirteen, he joined the Royal Navy as a midshipman, and was present at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent in 1780. He served in New York during the American War of Independence. While the prince was there, George Washington approved a plot to kidnap the prince, writing "The spirit of enterprise so conspicuous in your plan for surprising in their quarters and bringing off the Prince William Henry and Admiral Digby merits applause, and you have my authority to make the attempt in any manner, and at such a time, as your judgment may direct. I am fully persuaded, that it is unnecessary to caution you against offering insult or indignity to the person of the Prince . . . " The plot did not come to fruition; the British heard of it and doubled the prince's guard.
William became a Lieutenant in 1785 and a Captain the following year. In 1786, he was stationed in the West Indies. Horatio Nelson wrote of William, "In his professional line, he is superior to two-thirds, I am sure, of the [Naval] list; and in attention to orders, and respect to his superior officer, I hardly know his equal."
William sought to be made a Duke like his elder brothers, and to receive a similar Parliamentary grant; but his father was reluctant. To put pressure on him, William threatened to run for the House of Commons for the constituency of Totnes in Devon. Defeated, George III created him Duke of Clarence and St Andrews and Earl of Munster on May 16, 1789, supposedly saying, "I well know it is one more vote added to the opposition."
Duke of Clarence
The newly created Duke ceased his active service in the Royal Navy in 1790. He was promoted to Rear-Admiral upon retirement. When the United Kingdom declared war on France in 1793, he was anxious to serve his country, but was not put in command of a ship. Instead, he spent time in the House of Lords, where he defended the exorbitant spending of his brother, the Prince of Wales, who had applied to Parliament for a grant for relief of his debts. He also spoke in favour of slavery (which, although it had virtually died out in the United Kingdom, still existed in the British colonies); he used his experience in the West Indies to defend his positions.After he left the Royal Navy, the Duke of Clarence had a long affair with an Irish actress, Dorothea Bland, better known by her stage name, Mrs Jordan. From 1791, the couple had at least ten illegitimate children, who were given the surname "FitzClarence." The affair would last for twenty years before ending in 1811. In that same year, Clarence was appointed Admiral of the Fleet. When Princess Charlotte, his niece by the Prince Regent died in childbirth in 1817, the King was left with twelve children--and no legitimate grandchildren. The race was on among the Royal Dukes to marry and produce an heir. On 13 July 1818, he married Princess Adelaide, daughter of the Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, a woman half his age. Though he had been able to father at least ten illegitimate children by Mrs Jordan, Clarence had only two short-lived children by his wife: Charlotte Augusta Louisa (who died on 21 March 1819, the day of her birth1) and Elizabeth Georgina Adelaide (20 December 1820 - 4 March 1821).
Clarence's elder brother, the Prince of Wales, had been Prince Regent since 1811 because of the mental illness of their father, King George III. In 1820, the king died, leaving the Crown to the Prince Regent, who became King George IV. As the new King was estranged from his wife and had no surviving legitimate children, the Duke of Clarence was second in the line of succession to the Throne, preceded by his brother, Frederick, Duke of York. When the Duke of York died in 1827, Clarence, then more than sixty years old, became heir presumptive. Later that year, George IV appointed Clarence to the office of Lord High Admiral, which had been in commission (that is, exercised by a board rather than by a single individual) since 1709. While in office, Clarence attempted to take independent control of naval affairs, although the law required him to act, under most circumstances, on the advice of at least two members of his Council. The King, through the Prime Minister, requested his resignation in 1828; the Duke of Clarence complied.
Despite the difficulties which the Duke experienced, he did considerable good as Lord High Admiral, abolishing the cat o' nine tails for most offenses other than mutiny and requiring regular reports of the condition and preparedness of each ship. He commissioned the first steam warship and advocated for more. William's biographer, Phillip Ziegler, points out that holding the office permitted William to make mistakes and learn from them--a process that might have been far more costly had he done so as King.
Note 1: Some sources cite 27 March 1819.
The Reform Crisis
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At the beginning of William IV's reign, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington was Prime Minister. During the general election of 1830 (the death of the monarch then required fresh elections), however, Wellington's Tories lost to the Whig Party under Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey. When he became Prime Minister, Lord Grey immediately announced that he would attempt to reform an electoral system that had seen few changes since the fifteenth century. The inconsistencies in the system were great; for example, large towns such as Manchester and Birmingham elected no members, whilst minuscule boroughs such as Old Sarum (with seven voters) elected two members of Parliament each. Often, the small boroughs—also known as rotten boroughs and pocket boroughs—were "owned" by great aristocrats, whose "nominees" would invariably be elected by the constituents.
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