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I compared the two Georges in Stories of Faith and Courage from the Revolutionary War, the book I began researching decades ago. With Presidents Day taking place in February and America 250, I wanted to share these excerpts with you.
Enjoy!
Both wore wigs. Both bore tails on their coats. Both wore riding boots. Such was the wardrobe of the two most influential men of the 1700s. The colonial George Washington was only six years older than his king, George III. Because both were raised to be English gentlemen, they were quite similar. Yet, they emerged as far apart in sentiment as their birthplaces were in physical distance.
The difference was as simple as their headgear. One wore a tricorn, a three-sided farmer’s hat. The other inherited a crown. And on the day of his coronation, King George III lost a diamond from that corona.
The ceremony was awkward from the start. After the bishop placed the crown on George’s head, the king asked if he could place it on the altar as a gesture to the Almighty. The bishops agreed hesitantly, not because they objected to such a display of piety but because the move was a break with tradition.
After placing his crown on the altar, George turned to his wife, Charlotte, and asked her to do the same thing. Her tiara, however, was stuck so firmly to her head that she could not remove it without much embarrassment to her vanity. He did not press the issue. At the end of the ceremony, with the new monarch’s crown returned to his head, King George III and Queen Charlotte departed as regally as they had arrived.
“On the return of the procession, an incident occurred, which, had it happened among the nations of antiquity, would have been considered an omen of evil portent, which could only have been averted by a whole hecatomb of sacrifices,” British historian E. H. Nolan recorded. “The most valuable diamond in his majesty’s diadem fell from it, and was for some time lost, but it was afterwards found, and restored to his crown.”
It was not a sign of a moral lapse. “From the beginning to the close of his long reign, George III manifested a decent, moral, and religious life, which doubtless had very beneficial effects upon society at large,” Nolan wrote. “One of the first acts of George III was a proclamation ‘for the encouragement of piety and virtue, and for preventing and punishing of vice, profaneness, and immorality.’”
The loss of the diamond indicated the trouble with royalty. Few hats come with such valuable jewels as a crown. Few jobs come with such distractions and temptations for pride and power as kingships. Leaders lose their focus when they hold on too tightly to their acquisitions. Thomas Paine, author of the famed Common Sense, described the contradiction of monarchy this way:
“The state of a king shuts him from the world, yet the business of a king requires him to know it thoroughly,” Paine wrote.
Whether in the form of a cap or a crown, the garland of wisdom is the most splendid piece of headgear. Perhaps it was wisdom and justice, not a diamond, that King George III lost that day.[i]
“Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding. Esteem her, and she will exalt you; embrace her, and she will honor you. She will set a garland of grace on your head and present you with a crown of splendor” (Proverbs 4:7–9).
Prayer: Set a garland of grace on my head and let wisdom rule my decision making today.
[i] E.H. Nolan, The History of England, George III, Vol. 3a, (London: James S. Virtue, City Road and Ivy Land). Printed from http://www.gutenberg.org/files/19218/19218-h/smo3a.htm [accessed February 2007].
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