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Director's Statement
George III was King of England from 1760 to 1820. During this often tumultuous 60-year reign, England suffered the humiliating loss of the American colonies while great constitutional battles led to the ascendancy of parliamentary over monarchical power, a process speeded by the crisis of the illness of the King.
Was King George "mad?" Probably not, although he displayed all the symptoms of madness due to "porphyria," a metabolic imbalance that reproduces all the symptoms of mental illness. Combined with the physical debilitation caused by the barbaric treatments of the royal doctors, King George was forever remembered as the "Mad Monarch."
King George III was first ill in 1788. His malady was to recur for short periods throughout the remainder of his life until his death in 1820. lt wasn't until much later, with the emergence of Dr. Willis's journals and the diaries of Sir George Baker, the first physician to attend the King, that historians were able to piece together the full extent of the King's baffling illness.