Page 84 - BBC History - September 2017

Out & about / History Explorer

to diagnose the problem, the royal family
turned to Dr Francis Willis, who was
thought to be an expert in mental health
conditions. “Willis believed that mental
illness was caused by overexcitement and
could be cured by calm and control,” says
Foreman. “The treatments applied to the
king reduced him to a childlike figure. If he
became manic or overexcited, he was placed
in a straitjacket (his “hated waistcoat”). He
was denied a knife and fork at mealtimes,
which meant much of what he ate was soft
nursery food that could be eaten with a
spoon or hands. The king wasn’t even
George III’s tin bath in the royal kitchens, the only part of the service wing that still remains allowed out of the house by himself and had
to earn privileges such as seeing his family or
wrangling that was taking place at the time his first serious bout of mental illness, widely using cutlery.”
and eventually became a victim of it. He was attributed to the genetic blood disorder George was confined to the ground floor
unfairly branded a tyrant by Americans porphyria. Symptoms displayed during what of the Dutch House, and a visit today takes
wanting independence from Britain as well was probably a mild attack of the disorder in you through some of the rooms occupied
as by the Whigs at Westminster who 1765 had been put down to a period of during his periods of illness. Shoes echo on
resented their fall from power on George’s depression and a serious chest infection. But floorboards, left bare because of the king’s
accession to the throne. in 1789, the affects of the illness could no hatred of carpet when incapacitated. The
“But George was far from tyrannical, even longer be ignored. small, panelled schoolroom at the front of
in his dealings with America. He took his Symptoms of porphyria include skin the house was turned into the king’s library,
responsibilities as king incredibly seriously, sensitivity, strong abdominal pain and and once boasted a number of works from
agonising over decisions and passionately bluish urine, accompanied by psychiatric his magnificent collection of 65,000 books
devoted to his country. The idea that symptoms, all of which George III displayed. and manuscripts.
he was an ogre who wanted to suppress the Alongside severe stomach pains and terrible In the 18th century, the west side of the
rights of Englishmen and limit freedom insomnia, the king experienced convulsions Dutch House was connected to a service
of speech and freedom of the press was so violent that his pages were forced to sit on wing where George III was kept secluded.
simply a concept that his enemies could use him to keep him safe on the floor until the Most of this was demolished in 1881 but
against him.” fits had passed. visitors can still see a door in the Page’s HISTORIC ROYAL PALACES
The king’s behaviour, too, was affected by Waiting Room that once led to the area where
The ‘mad king’ the condition. He became manic, often the king slept and underwent treatment.
George III’s dismay at losing the American behaving inappropriately towards women, “During the 18th century, the four
colonies is well recorded. Although he and experienced hallucinations. On one
strongly objected to American independence occasion he planted a beef steak in the
from Britain, he accepted that the way in ground, fully believing it would grow into a
which the colonies were being ruled did beef tree. On another, at Windsor Castle, the
need reforming. king was seen talking to, and trying to shake
“America is lost! Must we fall beneath the hands with, an oak tree, believing it was the
blow? Or have we resources that may repair king of Prussia. Meanwhile, at Kew, he
the mischief?” he wrote in the 1780s, would become obsessed with, and try to
commenting on America’s fight for its climb, the Great Pagoda, a 50 metre-high
independence. But the colonies were structure that still stands today.
eventually lost and, in 1782, British forces To hide the true extent of his illness,
in America surrendered. George was moved under duress from
The 1780s were to bring more heartache Windsor Castle to the relative privacy of
for George III when in 1788–89 he suffered Kew. With a team of court physicians unable

THE KING EXPERIENCED CONVULSIONS SO
VIOLENT THAT PAGES WERE FORCED TO SIT
ON HIM TO KEEP HIM SAFE ON THE FLOOR

84 BBC History Magazine