GEORGE III: (1738-1820) The King writes on the 'Chicanery' of the Fox-North Coalition

GEORGE III: (1738-1820) The King writes on the 'Chicanery' of the Fox-North Coalition

GEORGE III: (1738-1820) King of Great Britain and Ireland 1760-1820. A good A.L.S., with his initials GR, one page, 4to, Queen's House (Greenwich, London), 24th March 1783, to 'My Lord'. The King expresses his desire to see his correspondent as early as possible that morning, and therefore 'shall not detain you now by a long Epistle', continuing 'After every sort of Chicanery from the Coalition to which I have opposed the only weapon an honest Man can employ Streight Dealing, I have brought it to the repeated refusal of laying a Plan of Arrangements before Me for my consideration, upon which Mr. Pitt consented to my breaking off all further Negociation last Night' and further remarking 'He has said every thing but that He will engage to remain at the head of the Treasury, which his delicacy made him wish to deferr saying till this morning, when I am to expect him'. With blank integral leaf (two very minor traces of former mounting to the upper corners of the verso). A letter of interesting political content. Some very light, extremely minimal age wear, VG

The Fox-North Coalition was a government that held office in Great Britain in 1783 and was headed by Charles James Fox and Lord North. King George III despised the government, and held a particular hatred towards Fox, but found that no other ministry could be formed despite several offers to William Pitt the Younger. This reduced the King to the lowest point of his political career and he even contemplated abdication, however within a year the King dramatically turned the situation around. The American Revolutionary War had formally ended in September 1783 with the signing of the Treaty of Paris. Pitt's proposal of electoral reform placed the coalition government under strain, and at the same time the British East India Company found itself in trouble. Fox and the coalition proposed nationalising it (their 'Chicanery') and the East India Bill was introduced and passed in the House of Commons. King George III remained deeply opposed however and told the House of Lords that he would regard any peer who voted for the bill as his enemy. The bill was subsequently defeated in December 1783 and the King immediately dismissed the coalition. It was succeeded by a government formed by William Pitt the Younger.

William Pitt (1759-1806) The Younger. British Prime Minister 1783-1801, 1804-06. At the time of the present letter Pitt was serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer, a post he would leave on 31st March 1783. By December of the same year King George III had entrusted Pitt as the country's new patriotic and capable leader, apponting him Prime Minister of Great Britain, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons.