Queen Charlotte's George III Diagnosis: What is the King Sick With?
After debate over the years, it seems we finally have an answer.
King George III has been known for years as Mad King George. In the musical Hamilton, the king is clearly a little unhinged – although there is no specific mention of any illness or disease. His mental health was also the subject of Alan Bennett’s play The Madness of King George.
But the exact nature of his condition remains up for debate. In his play, Bennett focuses on the king’s diagnosis of porphyria, a genetic liver disorder that results in several physical symptoms, including confusion. It can also turn a sufferer’s urine blue.
Accounts of the king’s bluish urine were used (years after his death) to determine that porphyria was most likely to be the illness that caused his episodes of ill mental health. And at the time Alan Bennett wrote The Madness of King George in 1991, this was conventional thinking.
However, it’s now believed that the king may have suffered from bipolar disorder. A study carried out just over a decade after Bennett wrote The Madness of King George looked at some letters written by the monarch.
Dr Peter Garrard and Dr Vassiliki Rentoumi of St George’s University, London noticed long, rambling sentences in letters penned during bouts of illness, which they say appear to indicate bipolar disorder rather than porphyria.
This theory, they argue, is backed up by accounts from the time that described how the king would speak until he foamed at the mouth.
These days, bipolar is generally considered to be the reason for King George III’s bouts of mental illness. But how does that explain the blue tinge to his urine?
Well, one of the medicines given to the king when he was ill, was based on a Gentianaceae, a species of plants with blue flowers. The colouring in the flowers has been known to turn urine blue – which means it may be that one of the key factors in retrospectively determining that the king suffered from porphyria may simply have been a reaction to his prescription.
Regardless of the exact diagnosis, the term Mad King George seems a little harsh for a man that spent 60 years on the throne and was largely responsible for the modern monarchy which displays a soft power rather than an aggressive rule of its subjects.
In a time of great social and industrial change, King George III is widely viewed by historians as a good monarch. His nickname somewhat tarnishes that reputation.
Source: BBC.