KING WILLIAM IV - MILITARY APPOINTMENT SIGNED 12/01/1830 CO-SIGNED BY: PRIME MINISTER WILLIAM (VISCOUNT MELBOURNE II) LAMB (GREAT BRITAIN) - HFSID 74330

KING WILLIAM IV [GREAT BRITAIN]
The King and his Home Secretary, future Prime Minister the Viscount Melbourne, sign the military appointment of James Pipon to the rank of Lieutenant for the 94th Regiment of the Foot
Military Appointment Signed: "William R[ex]" in faded black ink as King of the United Kingdom. Also, "Melbourne" as Home Secretary. 1 page, 13½x9¼, docketed on verso. Paper seal affixed in left margin with red wax. St. James Court, London, England. December 1, 1830. Appointment of James K. Pipon to the rank of Lieutenant in the 94th Regiment of the Foot. KING WILLIAM IV (1765-1837) was the third son of King George III. He was created Duke of Clarence in 1789 and sat in the House of Lords, where he opposed the emancipation of slaves. William became heir to the throne and Lord High Admiral in 1827 when his older brother Prince Frederick, Duke of York, died. When his eldest brother King George IV died in 1830, he succeeded him as King William IV. William was the last British sovereign to attempt to force a ministry (Sir Robert Peel, 1834) upon an unwilling majority in Parliament. William and his Queen Adelaide had no surviving children. When he died in 1837, he was succeeded by Victoria, the daughter of his younger brother Edward Duke of Kent, who had died in 1820. From 1714, when the Elector of Hanover was invited to assume the English throne as George I, he and his successors remained concurrently rulers of Hanover. During the lifetime of William IV, Hanover was aKingdom. It remained so until 1866, when it was annexed by Prussia and subsequently became part of the newly unified German Empire. After he became King, William never again visited Hanover, but he granted the Kingdom a constitution. VISCOUNT MELBOURNE (WILLIAM LAMB), 1799-1848, was Home Secretary in the Whig government of Earl Grey, a reform-minded administration pursuing electoral reform. He later served as Commissioner of the Treasury and then as Prime Minister (1834, 1835-1841). Normal mailing folds. Toned. Creased throughout. Slightly soiled. Lightly worn. Small ink stains throughout. Otherwise, fine condition.