George III

George III (1738–1820) was the king of Great Britain during the American Revolution. He assumed the throne in 1760 and led Britain through the last years of the French and Indian War (also known as the Seven Years’ War). In the 1760s, with the passage of economically oppressive acts such as the Stamp Act of 1765 and Townshend Acts of 1767, many colonists in British America began to view the king as a tyrant, even though the king himself was not primarily responsible for the enactment of those policies.

By July 4, 1776, in the Declaration of Independence, the Continental Congress declared George III in “absolute tyranny over these states.” The king had become a hated symbol of imperial rule. After the British defeat in the American Revolution, George III continued to lead Great Britain until he was incapacitated by illness in 1810.