George III (born June 4 [May 24, Old Style], 1738, London—died January 29, 1820, Windsor Castle, near London) king of Great Britain and Ireland (1760–1820) and elector (1760–1814) and then king (1814–20) of Hanover, during a period when Britain won an empire in the Seven Years’ War but lost its American colonies and then, after the struggle against Revolutionary and Napoleonic France, emerged as a leading power in Europe. During the last years of his life (from 1811) he was intermittently mad, and his son, the future George IV, acted as regent.
