Britain under the rule of a mentally disease king

Britain under the rule of a mentally diseased king

George III was the king of Great Britain and Ireland from 1760 to 1820. He suffered from several episodes of serious physical and mental  illness throughout his life. It is widely believed nowadays that the King had a hereditary disease called porphyria. The disease has a wide range of symptoms that vary from physical pain, nausea, insomnia and neurological symptoms such as forgetfulness and confusion. The king suffered attacks often, but the most important ones occurred in the early 1780s, 1801 and 1810.

The film “The madness of King George”  is set in the late 1700s when the king had been ruling for several years and started showing the first signs of his illness. At the beginning of the film, we noticed that George seemed very upset by the loss of the American colonies. He began to behave in a strange way and this called the attention of the people surrounding him.

Once it was clear that the King was no longer able to rule effectively, it was time to begin a treatment. In the film, we realized that there were different approaches to treat his disease. There was a physician who thought it was useful to examine his urine to diagnose him and determine how to help him recover. Then there was a doctor, Dr Willis who decided to take what we may call a behavioral approach by restraining the king whenever he misbehaved. What we should point out is that his disease at this point is recurrent and not permanent. He appears to be very ill at times and seems to improve or show lucidity at others. As the disease became worse, the king was taken by doctor Willis to a farm to continue his treatment there.

Meanwhile, one of his sons, the Prince of Wales, not worried by his father’s condition, wanted the parliament to pass a bill so that he would become Prince Regent. This basically means that he would have the power of a king but without being one. For parliament to allow this, he argued that his father could not longer rule, since he was disabled by his disease.

After some time of being in a medical treatment, and with the support of his wife, Queen Charlotte, George started showing signs of improvement. The films shows a "happy" ending in which the king apparently recovers from his illness and is able to rule again, smashing the hopes of people, like his son, who saw the king's moment of weakness as an opportunity to gain power. However, as we know, the illness reappeared years later and he remained seriously ill until his death.