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You are here: UK History > Royal History > House of Hanover > William IV | The Sailor King
After George IV died without any surviving legitimate children, the crown went to his next oldest living brother, William, who ruled from 26th June 1830 as William IV King of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover until his death in 1837.
Born: 21st August 1765, Buckingham Palace, London
Died: 20th June 1837 (71), Windsor Castle, Berkshire
Reign: 26th June 1830 - 20th June 1837
Parents: George III and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Stelitz
Predecessor: George IV (brother)
Successor: Victoria (niece)
Spouse: Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen
Children: George FitzClarence, Earl of Munster; Henry FitzClarence; Sophia...Read More
After George IV died without any surviving legitimate children, the crown went to his next oldest living brother, William, who ruled from 26th June 1830 as William IV King of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover until his death in 1837.
Born: 21st August 1765, Buckingham Palace, London
Died: 20th June 1837 (71), Windsor Castle, Berkshire
Reign: 26th June 1830 - 20th June 1837
Parents: George III and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Stelitz
Predecessor: George IV (brother)
Successor: Victoria (niece)
Spouse: Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen
Children: George FitzClarence, Earl of Munster; Henry FitzClarence; Sophia Sidney, Baroness De L’isle and Dudley; Lady Mary Fox; Lord Frederick FitzClarence; Elizabeth Hay, Countess of Eroll; Lord Adolphus FitzClarence; Lady Augusta Gordon; Lord Augustus FitzClarence; Amelia Carey, Viscountess Falkland; Princess Charlotte of Clarence; Princess Elizabeth of Clarence.
Royal House: Hanover
William the penultimate monarch of Britain’s House of Hanover and until the ascension of Charles III, was the oldest person to assume the British throne. As he served in the Royal Navy for much of his youth and continued to be involved with the Admiralty, once he assumed the throne, he was known as the Sailor King, something that stuck with him until his death.
The third child of King George III and Queen Charlotte, William was born in the early hours of 21st August 1765 at Buckingham Palace. As he had two older brothers, George, the Prince of Wales, and Frederick, Duke of York, it was not ever expected that William would ever be crowned. As such, he started naval service at a young age.
Much like his brothers, he spent his early life living between Richmond and Kew Palace, where he was privately educated. At the age of 13, he joined the Royal Navy as a Midshipman and was present at the Battle of Cape St Vincent in 1780, this would be the start of a long career within the navy.
Because of his age, unlike other Midshipmen, William was accompanied by his tutor, but this was the only indication that he was a prince – reports show that he did his fair share of tasks and was one of the ship’s main cooks. He also got arrested with his shipmates after a drunken brawn in Gibraltar but was hastily released once identified as a Prince of Great Britain.
William didn’t just spend time in the navy, he also saw active duty in the army too. He served in New York during the American War of Independence and was the only member of the British royal family to visit the continent up to and through the revolution. There is evidence to suggest that George Washington was involved in a plot to kidnap him and ransom him back to the British, however, word got to the British and William was assigned guards, up until that point, he had spent his time there completely unescorted, something he would do regularly, even after becoming king.
Five years after appearing at the Battle of Cape St Vincent, he was made a lieutenant and became captain of his own ship the following year. By 1786, he was stationed in the West Indies under Horatio Nelson and the two became good friends and dined together nightly. The pair were so close in fact, that William gave away the bride at Nelson’s wedding. Throughout the later part of the 1780s, he was given command of further ships and embarked on several voyages. However, by the end of the decade, he had started to ask for the same rank and favours as his brother, who were both Dukes and received a parliamentary grant. George III was reluctant to bestow the same honours on William, so in retaliation, William threatened to stand for the House of Commons in the Totnes constituency in Devon. This appalled the king who hated the idea of his son making his case to the voters, resulting in him backing down and elevating William to the Duke of Clarence and St Andrews and the Earl of Munster in May of 1789. His political record was inconsistent and like many of the nobles at the time, couldn’t be ascribed to a single party. He did however publicly ally with the Whigs, like his older brothers had, likely because his father was a supporter of the Tories.
The majority of William’s younger years were spent in service to either the army or the navy, with William ceasing active service in the navy in 1790, the year after being made a Duke.
Three years after resigning his naval position, Britain declared war on France and William was eager to be involved. He expected, because of his previous experience, to be given command, but to his dismay, wasn’t. This was partly because he fell down some stairs while drunk and broke his arm and partly because when war started to look imminent, he gave a speech in the House of Lords opposing the war. He later changed his mind speaking in favour of the conflict in the hope that he could get involved, but it took until 1798 before he was made an admiral and this was a purely ceremonial role. Despite his repeated pleas, he was never given a command through the Napoleonic War, though did receive another honorary position in 1811, this time as Admiral of the Fleet. The closest he came to the conflict was when visiting troops in Antwerp when the city came under fire and a bullet pierced his coat – William wasn’t injured.
Without military or naval service to keep him busy, during this time, William spent time in the House of Lords where he spoke in opposition to the abolition of slavery, which although had been abolished in Britain was still legal in some of the colonies. In one speech, he claimed that the freemen in the Scottish Highlands had a worse standard of living than the indentured people of the West Indies. The fact that he had travelled widely gave weight to his arguments and many of his contemporaries perceived his position as being just.
In 1827, William was made Lord High Admiral, he was appointed by George Canning, the prime minister. At the time, the Lord High Admiral office was run by a board rather than as an individual. By now, William was in his sixties and following the death of his father in 1820 and then his brother the Duke of York in 1827, was now heir presumptive. His brother George, who had been ruling as Prince Regent while their father was unwell, was pronounced king in 1820.
While holding the office of Lord High Admiral, William repeatedly disagreed with the rest of the council, which came to a head in 1828, when William set sail with a squadron of ships, leaving no indication of where they were going. The fleet were MIA for ten days, leading to George IV requesting William’s resignation through the prime minister. William agreed and stepped down.
Despite this incident, William had a successful tenure as Lord High Admiral. He oversaw the abolition of the cat o’nine tails for everything other than mutiny. He attempted to improve the standard of naval gunnery and the implementation of regular reports on the upkeep of each ship. During his year with the council, he also commissioned the first steam warship and advocated for more to strengthen the navy’s position around the world. After stepping down, he spent most of his time in the House of Lords, where he caused issues for his younger brother the Duke of Cumberland, who was opposed to the Catholic Emancipation Bill.
By the early 1830s, it was obvious that George IV’s health was worsening and as he had no legitimate children and was separated from his wife, the likelihood of William becoming king increased. Although he was said to have been fond of his brother, historians say that he could not mask his anticipation at becoming king.
From 1790, William openly lived with an Irish actress known professionally as Mrs Dorothea Jordan, despite the title, she wasn’t actually married, and the pair cohabited for around twenty years. William appeared to enjoy the domesticity of their life and the couple lived quietly while entertaining various members of London society. Though his father, King George III was accepting of his son’s relationship, he wasn’t keen on them getting married. He recommended that he halve her allowance, but did make William the Ranger of Bushy Park, which included a large house, where he lived with his growing family. In fact, William remained there until he became king when he moved to Clarence House.
Together, William and Dorothea had ten illegitimate children, who were given the surname FitzClarence. They eventually went their separate ways in 1811, he gave her a financial settlement every year and she retained custody of their daughters on the condition that she didn’t return to acting. However, when she resumed her career in an effort to pay off some debt, William took their daughters into his care and stopped paying Dorothea for their maintenance. Following this, her acting career began to fail and she fled to France to escape her creditors. She died in Paris in 1816.
Much like his older brother George, William was deeply in debt around the time that he and Dorothea split. To try and overcome this problem, he made several attempts at marrying a wealthy heiress. There was also pressure to marry as by 1817, his father was left with 12 children and no legitimate grandchildren, which meant the dukes had to step up and produce an heir. Out of the three older brothers, William had an advantage – both the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York were childless and estranged from their wives at this point and both had numerous health difficulties. He simply had to have a child in wedlock or outlive them to have an impact on the throne.
He did find difficulty in locating a suitable match. His initial choices were denied by his older brother and he was turned down by several others. To add insult to injury, his younger brother was sent on a mission to Germany to find him a wife but ended up marrying her himself! Eventually, a princess was found who was willing to marry William and welcome his nine surviving children, several of whom were still young and in his care. William married Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Mirningen in 1818, the marriage lasted almost 20 years and was believed to be a happy one. Adelaide took William, his children and his poor finances in hand and the family moved to Germany where they lived for a year, during which almost all his debts were paid off. The couple had two daughters who died in infancy and both were believed to have been faithful. Adelaide had another greater impact on William – after getting married, he became a reformed character, he lived frugally, stopped drinking alcohol and went for hour long walks every day to maintain his health.
George IV died on 26th June 1830 without any surviving legitimate children, William was 64 years old when he ascended the throne and began ruling as William IV. Unlike his brother, he presented himself as being unassuming and stayed away from pomp and ceremony. George had spent most of his time at Windsor Castle and rarely made public appearances, whereas William would go for long walks unaccompanied around London or Brighton, which endeared him to the public. Throughout his reign, though there were ups and downs, he was mostly viewed as being approachable and down to earth.
The Prime Minister, Wellington, described him as being a conscientious worker, stating that he had done more business with William in 10 minutes than he had with his brother in as many days. It wasn’t just his conduct with parliament that was a contrast to George’s reign, William also dismissed the French chefs and German bands, replacing them with British ones and gave much of George’s art collection to the nation.
So frugal was he, that he refused to live at Buckingham Palace and even tried to give it away twice. Once to the army to be used as a barracks and once to parliament, who needed somewhere else to meet when the House of Parliament burned down in 1834. His informality was seen as both charming and unusual, especially when he would write to nearby hotels when staying outside of London to see if anyone he knew was staying and would like to join him. If he did locate any of his friends, he would insist on dressing down for dinner.
After taking the throne, William didn’t forget his nine surviving children. He made his oldest son an earl and bestowed titles on the others. Many of them requested additional money and positions, especially his sons who became fodder for the press.
During this era, the death of a monarch would require a general election. After George passed and William became king, there was a general election, which saw Wellington’s Tory government lose ground to Grey’s Whig government, but the Tories still had a larger number of seats. With the Tories divided, Wellington resigned and Lord Grey formed a government.
Once he had power, Grey pledged to reform the electoral system, which hadn’t been changed since the 15th century. The system was very inefficient, with larger places like Manchester and Birmingham electing no members of parliament, while smaller places, some of which only had seven voters, elected two members of parliament each. Often these small places, known as Rotten Boroughs, were controlled by aristocrats who would put forward candidates they could control. Secret ballots were also not used at the time, which pressured tenants to vote the way of their landowners.
The first Reform Bill was defeated and Grey asked William to dissolve parliament, which would spark a new election. William was initially hesitant but did as asked and the reformers were victorious. Reforms were put on hold for William’s coronation, which he initially tried to dispense with, feeling it was unnecessary with the Reform Crisis going on. He was persuaded to go ahead as planned but refused to celebrate the same way his brother had. George’s coronation was lavish and expensive, but William asked for a budget ceremony, causing the Tories to threaten a boycott. Apparently, William told them to go ahead.
Once the coronation was over, Grey convinced the king to create new peers in a bid to get the bill to pass in the House of Lords, it did, but with amendments. Grey, determined to get the bill through threatened to resign as a way for the king to force it though. William refused and accepted his resignation, offering the role back to Wellington. Wellington couldn’t get a majority and to avoid public unrest, Grey was reinstated, forcing William’s hand. Concerned by the threat of new peers joining the House of Lords, many of them chose to abstain in the vote, which passed the bill. It was a difficult time for the new king, but his popularity remained unscathed. This wasn’t the only reform to be passed during William’s reign, there were also updates to the poor law, restrictions on child labour and the abolition of nearly all slavery.
William was famous for being distrustful of foreigners, particularly the French – something he himself acknowledged as being prejudice. He felt strongly that Britain should not interfere in internal affairs of other nations which led to conflict from Lord Palmerston, the foreign secretary. He did however support Belgian independence, favouring his nephew in law for the newly created Belgian throne and supported the Suez Canal. Later in his reign, he flattered the American ambassador and used his personal charm to repair Anglo American relations.
As well as being King of Great Britain and Ireland, he was also King of Hanover, but didn’t spend much time on his German territories. The German people believed that Britain dictated Hanovarian policy as this was where the king lived, but this wasn’t the case. The Austrian chancellor, introduced laws curbing the German liberal movement, which caused issues with the British government, particularly Palmerston. Palmerston tried to convince William to influence the Hanovarians, but the people sided with Austrians and William declined to intervene, instead signing a new constitution which allowed the middle and lower classes more of a voice and expanding the role of the parliament. However, this was repealed by his brother Ernest, when he succeeded the Hanovarian throne on William’s death.
In comparison to the other monarchs of the House of Hanover, William’s reign was relatively short, but was eventful. The only real example we have of him interfering with politics during his reign was in 1834 when he became the last British sovereign to choose a prime minister contrary to the will of parliament. William had stepped in when the government was becoming increasingly unpopular, Lord Grey retired and was replaced by Viscount Melbourne, the former Home Secretary. It looked as though Lord Russell, another senior cabinet member, was likely to take on the job, but William disliked him immensely and instead set out to find a prime minister he could work with, settling on Robert Peel, a Tory politician. Although Peel initially agreed, he soon found that he couldn’t lead the government because although he was prime minister, the majority in the house were Whigs. To resolve the issue, parliament was dissolved so there could be a new election.
The Tories won more seats but were still the minority, leading Peel to resign and Melbourne returning as prime minister, where he stayed for the rest of William’s reign and Russell became Common’s Leader. From this point on, William and parliament had a mixed relationship.
The political landscape was fairly eventful under William, with the Reform Crisis marking the ascendancy of the House of Commons and the king’s unsuccessful attempt to get Peel the premiership, indicated the end of the political influence of the crown. Major reforms included the introduction of the Factor Act, which prevented child labour and the Poor Law Amendment Act which created provision for the destitute. William attracted criticism from both reformers and reactionaries who argued that the reforms went too far and not far enough.
In the later part of his reign, William was much affected by the death of his eldest daughter, who died due to complications in childbirth. At the time, he and his oldest son were estranged following arguments over his rights to titles and funds. William had hoped that the pair could reconcile, as his son sent condolences to the royal residence after hearing news of the death, but it wouldn’t come to be.
William and his wife was known to be very fond of his niece, who because of his lack of legitimate children, was the next in line for the throne. The Princess Victoria was the daughter of his brother Edward, the Duke of Kent, who died around the same time as George III. Both William and Adelaide attempted to forge a familial relationship with Victoria as she prepared to become queen, but an ongoing feud with her mother caused issues between them. William and his widowed sister in law had never really gotten along and William frequently said that he wanted to survive until Victoria turned 18 purely to stop his sister in law from becoming Regent. He got his wish, though he was mortally ill, he lived until the month after Victoria’s birthday.
Queen Adelaide remained by William’s side during the final stages of his illness and didn’t go to bed herself for more than ten days. He passed with her at his side in the early hours of the morning of 20th June 1837 at Windsor Castle. The crown in Great Britain and Ireland passed to Victoria, however because of Hanovarian law, she could not rule in Hanover, leading to an end of the personal union of the two nations, which had been in place since 1714. The Hanovarian crown instead passed to Ernest, the Duke of Cumberland, the fifth son of George III.
The main beneficiaries of William’s will were his eight surviving children, even those that he was estranged from in the later part of his life. Although he is not the direct ancestor of later monarchs, who are descended from Victoria, he has many notable descendants through his illegitimate children, including former Prime Minister, David Cameron.
Buckingham Palace, London
William's place of birth
Clarence House, London
William's preferred residence
House of Lords, London
Kew Palace, London
London Bridge, London
William opened the new London Bridge
Richmond Palace, London
Windsor Castle, Berkshire
William's residence at the time of his death
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