August 21st: William IV

Born on this date in 1765 was William IV, King of Hanover and of Great Britain and Ireland.

1. William was the third son of George III, so it wasn't expected that he'd ever be king. However, when his two older brothers both died without having any legitimate children, he ascended to the throne at the age of 64, the oldest person so far to do so.
2. He was known as "the Sailor King" because he served in the Royal Navy from the age of thirteen. He lived the life of a normal sailor, doing his share of the cooking and going out with his shipmates to get drunk. He even got arrested in Gibraltar after a brawl, but once the authorities realised who he was they let him go. The only difference in his life and that of other sailors was that he had a tutor on board. Later in his career he served under Horatio Nelson and became good friends, often eating together. William gave the bride away at Nelson's wedding.
3. While serving in New York during the American War of Independence, he narrowly escaped being kidnapped by George Washington's men. George Washington fully approved of the plot, provided the prisoners would be treated with dignity. However, it never happened because the British got wind of it and assigned bodyguards to William, so he no longer walked around the city on his own.
4. William left the Navy in 1790, but three years later when Britain declared war on France, he wanted to be made captain of a ship so he could join in. He repeatedly asked for a ship, but his requests were ignored. The fact he'd broken his arm after falling downstairs when drunk didn't help, and possibly the fact he'd spoken in the House of Lords against the war helped even less. Even though he did what we would call a U-turn today and spoke in favour of it the next year, the Admiralty still ignored him. He did get appointed an admiral eventually, but only nominally. He got to visit the troops and watch Antwerp being bombarded from a church steeple. On that occasion, he narrowly escaped death when a bullet pierced his coat.
5. His other career was in politics. For some reason, his father refused to make him a duke like his older brothers; so William threatened to stand as a prospective MP in the Commons instead. George III clearly thought William being a duke was the lesser of the two evils and made him Duke of Clarence and St Andrews and Earl of Munster. As a politician, he opposed the abolition of slavery, believing freedom did slaves little good, having seen the poverty some of them lived in out in the colonies. On the other hand, he was in favour of abolishing laws against dissenting Christians and allowing people who had committed adultery to marry again.
6. Because he was not expected to be king, marriage and legitimate issue wasn't a priority at first. There was a law at the time which stated that descendants of George II had to seek permission from the monarch or the Privy Council before they could marry - which meant William and his brothers had mistresses rather than wives. William lived with an actress called Dorothea Bland, better known by her stage name, Mrs. Jordan ("Mrs" to explain a pregnancy at the start of her career, and "Jordan" because she had crossed the water from Ireland to Britain). They had ten illegitimate children who were given the surname "FitzClarence". After 20 years they split up. Mrs Jordan was given custody of her daughters and an allowance, on condition she didn't go back to acting. Eventually she did, when one of her daughters' husbands got into debt - and lost her remaining daughters and the allowance. She had to flee to France when she was in debt herself and died in poverty there in 1816.
7. In 1817, Princess Charlotte of Wales, then second-in-line to the British throne, died, leaving the king with twelve children but no legitimate grandchildren. So it became imperative that one of the dukes had to produce an heir. Both William's brothers were in poor health and their wives were past childbearing age, so the pressure was on William. He courted several potential wives, but they were either disapproved of by the Prince Regent or they turned him down. William did marry, eventually - he married Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, the daughter of George I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen. He was 50, she was 25. However, another heir to the throne was not to be - the couple had two daughters, neither of which lived very long, and Adelaide had three miscarriages.
8. William had a habit of going for walks by himself in London or Brighton. Perhaps that was why he was healthier than his older brothers.
9. He was a popular king at first. The people saw him as approachable and down to earth and the Prime Minister at the time, Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, is known to have said that he got more work done with William in a few minutes than he had with his brother in several days.
10. William too died without having any legitimate children, but by now there was another niece to succeed him - Victoria. He and Adelaide were fond of her, and William hoped to live until the girl was 18, because he disliked her mother and dreaded the thought of her being made Regent. He died a month after Victoria's 18th birthday.

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