Footnotes

• 'I CANNOT SAY I REGAIN THAT CHEARFULNESS I EXPECTED' – KING GEORGE III CONVALESCES FROM MADNESS. The King had shown symptoms of illness (now widely thought to have been porphyria) in the summer of the previous year and by December was so ill he was placed under the care of Dr Willis, who confined him to a straight-jacket and restraining chair. But three days before the Regency Bill was due to take effect that February he showed signs of recovery, and a service of thanksgiving was held at St Paul's that April. He remained weak however. The resolution the King makes in this letter – written two days after the Fall of the Bastille, to his trusted advisor Lord Thurlow – that he "will cautiously pursue the mode prescribed and not by impatience destroy the advantage proposed" clearly reflects the methods of Willis, the mad-doctor who had so recently treated him, who thought insanity was essentially a result of over-agitation, the cure for which lay in calmness and control.

Category: Books / Books, Maps and Manuscripts