A Royal Experiment

This groundbreaking royal biography offers “a fascinating, story-filled account” of King George III’s radical—and doomed—pursuit of familial happiness (The Guardian, UK).

King George III of Great Britain was determined to be different from his Hanoverian predecessors. Neither of the previous Georges was faithful to his wife, and both hated their own sons. Overall, their children were angry, jealous, and disaffected schemers, whose palace shenanigans made for royal embarrassment and salacious scandals.

Pained by his childhood amid this cruel and feuding family, George came to the throne aspiring to be a new kind of king—a force for moral good. And to be that new kind of king, he had to be a new kind of man. Against his irresistibly awful family background—of brutal royal intrigue, infidelity, and betrayal—George fervently pursued a radical domestic dream: he would have a faithful marriage and raise loving, educated, and resilient children.

In this acclaimed biography, Janice Hadlow shares a vivid and revelatory account of King George, Queen Charlotte, and their fifteen children as they struggled to undo generations of bitter dysfunction and pursue a passion for family.

A Times and Sunday Times Best Books of the Year