George I | |
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George I's portrait, 1805 | |
1st King of the Cygnians | |
Reign | 1 January 1784 — 29 January 1820 |
Coronation | 5 May 1793 |
Predecessor | Throne created Himself (as King of the United Kingdom) |
Successor | George II |
Chancellors | Frederick Northam Charles Grey Robert Stewart |
Commander-in-Chief of the Cygnian Imperial Armed Forces | |
Tenure | 18 May 1784 — 29 January 1820 |
King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, France and Ireland | |
Reign | 25 October 1760 — 1 January 1784 |
Predecessor | George II |
Successor | Throne abolished Himself (as King of the Cygnians) |
Born | 6 December 1740 Buckingham Palace, London, United Kingdom |
Died | 29 January 1820 (aged 79) Mandurah Palace, Northam, TS, Cygnia |
Burial | St George Cathedral, Swanstone, Cygnia |
Spouse | Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz |
Issue | George II Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany William Charlotte, Princess Royal Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn Princess Augusta Princess Elizabeth Prince Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh Princess Sophia Prince Octavius Prince Alfred Princess Amelia |
House | House of Stuart-Campbell |
Father | William IV of the United Kingdom |
Mother | Caroline of Ansbach |
Religion | Church of England Anglican Church in Cygnia |
Royal Family of Cygnia |
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Notable deceased members
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V • T • E |
George I (George William Frederick; 6 December 1740 – 29 January 1820) was the first King of the Cygnians from the promulgation of the Imperial Constitution in 1792 until his death. He was also the last ruling monarch of the British Isles, having reigned in the United Kingdom of Great Britain, France and Ireland from 1760 until he was overthrown at the height of the French Revolution in 1783.
George acceded to the British throne on 25 October 1760 following the death of his father George II, and became George III of the United Kingdom. The 23 years of his reign in Britain was marked by colonial expansion in the Americas and Australia, although domestic issues became increasingly problematic, especially with growing unrest in France due to George's policy of transportation of French convicts to the colonies. In 1780 the French Revolution began with the storming of the Bastille in Paris. George was forced to admit French representatives to the House of Commons for the first time since the Ninety Years' War.
However, the uneasy peace that followed did not last long, for the French revolutionaries led by Maximilien Robespierre desired complete control over British territories. In January 1784, the United Kingdom descended into chaos once more. Revolutionaries stormed the Palace of Westminster, rounding up English MPs and Lords to be executed, including the Prime Minister, the Duke of Portland. It was in the midst of this violence that the King fled with his family and surviving senior members of the British government and royal household, first heading southwest to Cornwall before boarding ships and setting sail for the loyalist colonies of Australia.
Upon arrival in Perth in July 1784, the King summoned the six colonial Governors and announced his intent to federate the six colonies into a new country, to serve as the home of a new government in exile. On 12 July, the Proclamation of Federation was issued, uniting British Australia into a new Kingdom of Cygnia, and George became the fledgling nation's first head of state. George presided over Cygnia as it struggled to assert its independence from France, and in 1792 the war ended. On 5 May 1793, a new constitution was adopted for Cygnia, and George was officially crowned as George I, the first King of the Cygnians.
George's reign in Cygnia would last for another 27 years. During that time, Cygnia began to assert control over Britain's colonial possessions in the Asia-Pacific, settled the remainder of the Australian continent, and claimed legal succession from the United Kingdom. After the fall of Napoleon and his French Empire in 1815, Cygnia dispatched delegates to the Congress of Vienna to negotiate George's restoration to the British throne. However, this was foiled by the efforts of the new republican government, led by the Duke of Marlborough, that had emerged in the absence of the monarchy, and the delegates returned empty handed. George himself, however, would continue to assert his claim to the now-abolished British throne, as would his successors until the end of World War III.
In the later part of his life, George had recurrent, and eventually permanent, mental illness. Although it has since been suggested that he had bipolar disorder or the blood disease porphyria, the cause of his illness remains unknown. After a final relapse in 1810, a regency was established. His eldest son, George, Prince of Wales, ruled as Prince Regent until his father's death, when he succeeded as George II.
Titles[]
- 6 December 1740 – 31 March 1752: His Royal Highness Prince George
- 31 March 1752 – 20 April 1752: His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh
- 20 April 1752 – 25 October 1760: His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales
- 25 October 1760 – 29 January 1820: His Majesty The King
In the United Kingdom, George used the official style "George the Third, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith". When he was overthrown in 1784 and fled to Cygnia, he assumed the title "King of Cygnia", and maintained his other titles in pretence. In 1792, after the establishment of the Empire of Cygnia, George's style became "His Imperial Majesty George the First and Third, by the Grace of God, King of Cygnia, Great Britain, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith".
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