King of Britain for sixty years and the last king of what would become the United States George III inspired both hatred and loyalty and is now best known for two reasons as a villainous tyrant for Americas Founding Fathers and for his madness both of which have been portrayed on stage and screen.In this concise and penetrating biography Jeremy Black turns away from the imagemaking and back to the archives and instead locates Georges life within his age as a king who faced the loss of key colonies rebellion in Ireland insurrection in London constitutional crisis in Britain and an existential threat from Revolutionary France as part of modern Britains longest period of war.Black shows how George III rose to these challenges with fortitude and helped settle parliamentary monarchy as an effective governmental system eventually becoming the most popular monarch for well over a century. He also shows us a talented and curious individual committed to music art architecture and science who took the duties of monarchy seriously from reviewing death penalties to trying to control his often wayward children even as his own mental health failed and became Britains longest reigning king.