Editing George III (section)

===Government ===
[[File:National-Debt-Gillray.jpeg|thumb|In ''A new way to pay the National Debt'' (1786), [[James Gillray]] caricatured King George III and Queen Charlotte awash with treasury funds to cover royal debts, with Pitt handing him another [[money bag]].|alt=Centre: George III, drawn as a paunchy man with pockets bulging with gold coins, receives a wheel-barrow filled with money-bags from William Pitt, whose pockets also overflow with coin. To the left, a quadriplegic veteran begs on the street. To the right, George, Prince of Wales, is depicted dressed in rags.]]
With the collapse of Lord North's ministry in 1782, the Whig Lord Rockingham became prime minister for the second time, but died within months. The King then appointed [[Lord Shelburne]] to replace him. [[Charles James Fox]], however, refused to serve under Shelburne, and demanded the appointment of [[William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland]]. In 1783, the House of Commons forced Shelburne from office and his government was replaced by the [[Fox–North Coalition]]. Portland became prime minister, with Fox and Lord North, as foreign secretary and home secretary respectively.<ref name=dnb/>

The King disliked Fox intensely, for his politics as well as his character: he thought Fox unprincipled and a bad influence on the Prince of Wales.<ref>e.g. Ayling, p. 281.</ref> George III was distressed at having to appoint ministers not of his liking, but the Portland ministry quickly built up a majority in the House of Commons, and could not be displaced easily. He was further dismayed when the government introduced the India Bill, which proposed to reform the government of India by transferring political power from the [[East India Company]] to Parliamentary commissioners.<ref>Hibbert, p. 243; Pares, p. 120.</ref> Although George actually favoured greater control over the company, the proposed commissioners were all political allies of Fox.<ref>Brooke, pp. 250–251.</ref> Immediately after the House of Commons passed it, George authorised [[George Nugent-Temple-Grenville, 1st Marquess of Buckingham|Lord Temple]] to inform the [[House of Lords]] that he would regard any peer who voted for the bill as his enemy. The bill was rejected by the Lords; three days later, the Portland ministry was dismissed, and [[William Pitt the Younger]] was appointed prime minister, with Temple as his secretary of state. On 17 December 1783, Parliament voted in favour of a motion condemning the influence of the monarch in parliamentary voting as a "high crime" and Temple was forced to resign. Temple's departure destabilised the government, and three months later the government lost its majority and Parliament was dissolved; the subsequent [[1784 British general election|election]] gave Pitt a firm mandate.<ref name=dnb/>

[[File:Daughters of King George III.jpg|thumb|left|''The Three Youngest Daughters of King George III'' by [[John Singleton Copley]], {{c.|1785}}, depicting: Princesses [[Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh|Mary]] (left with tambourine), [[Princess Sophia of the United Kingdom|Sophia]] (upper right), and [[Princess Amelia of the United Kingdom|Amelia]] (baby).|alt=Imaginary garden scene with birds of paradise, vines laden with grapes, and architectural columns. The two young princesses and their baby sister wear fine dresses and play with three spaniels and a tambourine.]]
Pitt's appointment was a great victory for George. It proved that the King could appoint prime ministers on the basis of his own interpretation of the public mood without having to follow the choice of the current majority in the House of Commons. Throughout Pitt's ministry, George supported many of Pitt's political aims and created new peers at an unprecedented rate to increase the number of Pitt's supporters in the House of Lords.<ref>Watson, pp. 272–279.</ref> During and after Pitt's ministry, George was extremely popular in Britain.<ref>Brooke, p. 316; Carretta, pp. 262, 297.</ref> The British people admired him for his piety and for remaining faithful to his wife.<ref>Brooke, p. 259.</ref> He was fond of his children and was devastated at the death of two of his sons in infancy, in 1782 and 1783 respectively.<ref>Ayling, p. 218.</ref> Nevertheless, he set his children a strict regimen. They were expected to attend rigorous lessons from seven in the morning and to lead lives of religious observance and virtue.<ref>Ayling, p. 220.</ref> When his children strayed from George's principles of righteousness, as his sons did as young adults, he was dismayed and disappointed.<ref>Ayling, pp. 222–230, 366–376.</ref>