On Jan. 29, 1820, 10 years after mental illness forced him to retire from public life, Britain's King George III, who lost the American colonies, died at the age of 82.

The grandson of Queen Victoria—and great-grandfather to King Charles III—George V was born third in the line of succession and did not expect to become king. That changed after his elder ...

While the reigns of George I and II had been marked by a royal detachment from the administration of American colonies, King George III asserted his claim on the colonies strenuously. The king saw ...