King George III Archives - 250 and Counting

The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry that was first created by King George I in 1725. It’s typically bestowed by a monarch based on the advice of His/Her Majesty’s government.

When General William Howe received his order, there was a single class called the Knight Companion. However, in 1815 this class was discontinued in favor of three separate classes for civilians and another three (with the same class names) for the Military Division.

Now, I said that George I instituted the Order of the Bath in 1725, and I was accurate about that, but it’s important to recognize that a literal bath was part of the ritual for a new knight in the Middle Ages, and therefore knights of any kind were known as “Knights of the Bath”. However, the last occasion on which knights were created in this fashion was in 1661. So George I was instituting a new Order, but not reinstating one, in the sense that he was not creating a standing group in which there was a fixed number of honorees.

The Order of the Bath, however, did take on some of the accoutrements of the Knights, including their motto (juncta in uno, “three joined in one”) and the badge design (three crowns in a plain gold oval). Interestingly, both the significance of the motto and the meaning of the design are lost to time, and anything ascribed to them nowadays is conjecture.

Most appointments to the Order were political in nature until about the 1770s, when they became more common for non-aristocratic naval, military or diplomatic achievements, likely because Britain was simply involved in more military activity at that point.

Women were first admitted to the Order in 1971. At this writing, according to Wikipedia, there are 46 people in the Order, plus a large number of Honorary members. Interestingly, the youngest member of the Order is 59 years old, not counting Prince William, who is 44; the oldest is 97 and is one of six members in their 90s.

So I’m thinking they’re sticking William at the card table in the corner so he can eat with the other kids.

The post An Honor For General Howe–October 16, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

When a statue of King George III was pulled down in New York, it was a good sign for the city, since there were times that it felt that the spirit of Independence was rather squashed by the sight of the British fleet, which was still arriving.

A brief digression: several years ago (ugh, longer ago than I care to remember) I took the opportunity to visit the City of the Museum of New York. It’s quite a cool museum that has hundreds of thousands of objects in its collection, with several thousands on display at any given time. They currently have a special exhibit called The Occupied City, which deals with New York City during the early years of the American Revolution.

According to an article I recently read in Smithsonian Magazine, which provided some of my research material for today’s episode, the Museum of the City of New York has, as part of this exhibit, an opportunity to virtually pull down the statue of King George III. Who can pass up something like that?

No kidding, if you’re in Manhattan, budget yourself a few hours to see this museum. You’re guaranteed to learn a lot of fascinating things. Then head on over to the New York Historical Society. They already pulled down their statue of King George III (today, in fact), but there’s still plenty to see and do. They’re on opposite sides of Central Park and about 30 blocks apart, but if you do it in that order, you’ll end your day close to Zabar’s and that’s a whole other experience for you.

Man, I miss living in New York.

The post Down With The King–July 9, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

There are a couple of things that it’s kind of important to remember about American history.

First, by this point Independence was still NOT on the table for the Continental Congress. That’s not to say that there wasn’t talk about it, but little of it was in earnest. Americans were fighting the British because of all the business that was going on in Boston. If everybody just settled down then the decision to politically separate wouldn’t have been made.

Second, once the war did start, it was by no means a foregone conclusion that the Americans would win. In fact, they didn’t have a snowball’s chance of winning. It took several years of effort and the help of at least a couple of other nations to get the job done. (And not to get too political, but current events have some of these same nations glancing at us askance, after all this time. )

The Continental Congress’ Committee of Proclamations studied King George’s announcement that the Colonies were in rebellion, and prepared a very careful response, including the suggestion that “rebellion” has no legal definition and is therefore semantically null. And for all that, it still holds out some hope that things can get back to normal, maybe.

The post Congress Responds to King George–December 6, 1775 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

In July 1775, there were still several delegates to the Second Continental Congress who thought that reconciliation with Britain was a possibility. There were a few others who may not have necessarily been of that opinion, but were willing to take a chance. Some of these men, led by John Dickinson, formed a committee to draft what’s come to be known as the Olive Branch Petition. The intent was to continue pledging loyalty to the King, but to simultaneously ask for some equitability in trade and tax regulations.

The document asked for a firm settlement to the Colonies’ grievances, and identified all of the colonies as signatories except Georgia. The only reason Georgia wasn’t named is because they only had one delegate at the time, and he wasn’t comfortable with speaking for the entire colony. Consequently, he abstained from many votes.

It was on this day that Congress learned what King George III had to say back in August regarding the Olive Branch Petition.

The post Congress Gets Bad News–November 1, 1775 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

We’re 300 days into 1775 and therefore 300 days into this show, and we’ve finally gotten to the point where British troops will be shooting at Americans because the two parties are officially at war.

Up until now, all the fighting was about control, because what better way to control people than by shooting at them?

But King George III’s declaration of rebellion in August was informal in nature. It wasn’t until he declared the Colonies to be in rebellion before Parliament that genuine attention was paid to it. It was still theoretically possible that the Colonists could back off and let things go to the way they were, but the odds were vanishingly small.

The post It’s Finally Official–October 27, 1775 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

When the Olive Branch Petition arrived in England, its contents hardly even mattered.

There were elements of Parliament who were strongly disposed toward punishing the Colonies, and punishing them hard. The folks who were still pro-American were dwindling in number, because of the way it could affect their political futures.

In short, the King had decided what he thought, and how he was going to handle it, and everyone else either bowed to it or faced losing their position. And it didn’t matter that he was a little bit crazy; he was the King and what he says, goes.

Presumably we’ve learned the lesson behind that kind of thinking.

The post August 23, 1775: George III Declares Rebellion appeared first on 250 and Counting.

As you may recall, several months ago some members of the Continental Congress thought it was important to make one last effort to reconcile with Britain before things got worse. So they composed the Olive Branch Petition and sent it off to England.

Transit times being what they were then, the petition took several weeks to get to its destination. In the meantime, things got worse.

So when the Olive Branch Petition arrived, nobody really cared. But there were two other documents that made matters worse. Plus, you know, all the shooting that went on in April. And in June.

The post August 13, 1775: The Olive Branch Petition Arrives in England appeared first on 250 and Counting.

In the past we’ve talked about the New England Restraining Act; today was the day that King George III actually put it into action.

To mark that day, Mike takes you through some of the details of the act and its impact on the trade in the Colonies, and the political impact in Britain.

The post March 30, 1775: King George III Restricts Trade appeared first on 250 and Counting.

When I (Claude) was younger, I read a Star Trek novel titled The Final Reflection by John M. Ford. Trek novels weren’t considered canon, and later events in the films and subsequent series kind of wiped out some of the concepts put forth in the book, but what I found fascinating was that it was told entirely from the Klingons’ point of view. (It also provided an interesting explanation regarding why Federation transporters give off a high-pitched whine.)

Before you think I’ve digressed before I’ve even started, my point here is that today’s episode focuses on a British military figure rather than one of the Founding Fathers or other Colonial figure. We’re taking an all-too-brief look at Lord Horatio Nelson, who did have an important life event take place on this day in 1775.

Also, when you listen to the episode, you’ll see I just have Star Trek on my mind.

The post February 19, 1775 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Only a few people had figured it out, and it’s not clear whether they were just guessing, but by this point in time both England and the Colonies were locked into a path that would lead inevitably to a shooting war.

To that end, Parliament approved sending over four thousand soldiers and sailors to the Colonies to help keep them in line. But it wasn’t as simple as that; there were still some people protesting the action, not that anyone listened to them.

Today we also peek in on someone who’s watching the action and has some thoughts.

The post February 15, 1775 appeared first on 250 and Counting.