KING GEORGE III (GREAT BRITAIN) - MILITARY APPOINTMENT SIGNED 03/01/1805 CO-SIGNED BY: JOHN (EARL OF CHATHAM) PITT - HFSID 169250

KING GEORGE III of the UNITED KINGDOM and JOHN PITT
Signed 1805 document appointing a new Second Captain
Military appointment signed "George R" as King of England and"Chatham" by Pitt as Master-General of the Ordnance. 1 page, 15x11½, with one paper seal on left. "Our Court at Saint James's", March 19, 1805. This document appoints John F. Burgoyne Esq., as a Second Captain in the Corps of Royal Engineers. King George III of the United Kingdom (1738-1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland until their union on January 1, 1802, after which was named the United Kingdom, and furthermore was Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg (part of the Holy Roman Empire), until his promotion as King of Hanover on October 12, 1814. He was the third British monarch from the House of Hanover, but unlike his Hanoverian predecessors, he was born in Britain, English was his first language, and he never visited Hanover. George's long tenure as King spanned many military conflicts in Europe and abroad in North America and India: early in his reign Great Britain defeated France in the Seven Years' War which made Britain the dominant European power in North America and India, although many of their colonies were soon lost in the American Revolutionary War. Most notably, King George III led the country against revolutionary and Napoleonic France in 1793, concluding with Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. However, George III earned his nickname "Mad King George" when later in his life he suffered from recurrent and eventually permanent mental illness (now believed to have been cause by the blood disease porphyria), and in 1810, after a final relapse, a regency under his son Prince Regent George of Wales (future King George IV) was established. His reputation as a King has never been flattering, in the United States he is often viewed as a tyrant, and in Great Britain he is often used as a scapegoat for the failure of imperialism, but really King George was just a victim of circumstances and illness in an era when the monarchy was continuing to lose political power. JOHN PITT, 2nd Earl of CHATHAM (1756-1835) is the eldest son of British Prime Minister William Pitt the Elder, and the older brother of Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger. Pitt served many various military and political offices throughout his career, including First Lord of the Admiralty (1788-1794), the Lord Privy Seal (1794-1798), and the Lord President of the Council (1796-1801). He commanded the British force in the unsuccessful Walcheren Campaign to the Netherlands during the Napoleonic Wars, and also served as Governor of Jersey (1807-1820) and Governor of Gibraltar (1820-1835). Lightly toned, soiled, stained and creased. Random ink stains. Folded thrice vertically. Folds are toned. Otherwise in fine condition.