Prince Charles: Mad Monarch Lost Colonies

NewsMax ^ | 1/27/04 | Limbacher

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

If only King George III had been sane. He could have paid a royal visit across the Atlantic and calmed those pesky American freedom-lovers, and the United States would be under British rule today.

That’s the sentiment Prince Charles expressed about the ruler commonly referred to as the "Mad Monarch,” on the Timewatch television documentary recently.

The prince said George III could have influenced the revolutionaries determined to win independence from the Mother County.

But, as portrayed in the film "The Madness of King George,” it is believed the monarch had a condition called porphyria, a genetic disorder.

In spite of his mental problems, George III was still one of the most loyal and misunderstood rulers to ever grace the British throne, according to the Prince.

"Yet history remembered him above all as the ‘mad king’ or the ‘king who lost America’ – this is a travesty,” said Charles.

[coloradan]

George is therefore a victim in all this, and by having fought the revolution, the founders of this country were engaged in discrimination against the mentally challenged. We owe it to our diverse and tolerant reputation to apologize, pay damages for the harmful effects of this discrimination, and once again bow before the Crown of England.

[WinOne4TheGipper]

I need to brush up on "God save the Queen", then.

[Byron_the_Aussie]

Where's the rest of the Prince's comments? My Out Of Context Meter is in the red.

[Pharmboy]

One of the reasons poor old George lost the war was that he sent the wrong commanders. The Howe brothers were against fighting whom they thought were their brothers, and never prosecuted the war with a vengeance that might have destroyed the fledgling and poorly supplied Continental Army. And captured Washington (the General, not the city).

Washington captured, war over.

[Who dat?]

...and the United States would be under British rule today.

But in reality there's not much that's under British rule today, is there?

It's funny to think that the British, French, Portuguese, and Spain actually used to be major powers...

[mewzilla]

Fat George isn't the only royal loony.

[fishtank]

Prince Charles statue in Brazil

[lilylangtree]

Well if Chucky could have held onto his wife, Diana, she might be alive today still out sparkling him. Instead, Diana's dead, he's with horse-faced Camilla, and the both of them dullards seriously needing some shine.

[Alberta's Child]

I remember reading somewhere that the British royal family owns more real estate in the U.S. today than it did when the Thirteen Colonies were under British rule. Go figure, huh?

[onedoug]

So Charles thinks George was mad, eh? Now that's funny.

[freeeee]

If only King George III had been sane. He could have paid a royal visit across the Atlantic and calmed those pesky American freedom-lovers, and the United States would be under British rule today.

Hey Charles, why don't you sit down and read the Declaration of Independence and its long list of bloody and infamous crimes against the American people. Then take a moment to think if we would have been placated by a publicity tour.

What a dolt.

[mystery-ak]

They are still pining for the colonies...LOL

[mewzilla]

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

[mewzilla]

Think again, Chuckie.

[what's up]

Even Benjamin Franklin dreamed of Britain owning the States. He worked toward this end, but when it was proven to him time and time again that England was led by unreasonable, corrupt, power-hungry officials, Franklin cast his lot whole-heartedly with the Revolutionaries.

[freeeee]

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

No mealy mothed euphemisms there. I like it!

George III was a megalomaniac.

[mewzilla]

We misunderstood jack.

[Zeroisanumber]

I think that what Charles means is that if George III had been more responsive to colonial grievances, then England might well have held on to the American colonies.

I suppose that it's possible, but what GIII could have done to quell the revolution short of total local autonomy is beyond me.

Also I think that Charles is underestimating the instinctual urge of the average American to shoot at Redcoats. ;)

[Centurion2000]

I suppose that it's possible, but what GIII could have done to quell the revolution short of total local autonomy is beyond me.

If they had allowed the colonies representation in Parliament and never passed the Stamp, Tea or Townshend acts, the USA would be an British Dominion. The Southwest would be Mexico, the Missippi Valley would be South Quebec and Alaska would probably still be Russian.