This engrossing biography of George IV, king of England from 1820 to 1830, gives a full and objective reassessment of the monarch€s character, reputation, and achievement. Previous writers have tended to accept the unfavorable verdicts of the king€s contemporaries that he was a dissolute, pleasure-loving dilettante and a feeble and ineffective ruler who was responsible for the decline of the power and reputation of the monarchy in the early nineteenth century. Now E.A. Smith offers a new view of George IV, one that does not minimize the king€s faults but focuses on the positive qualities of his achievement in politics and in the patronage of the arts.

Smith explores the roots of the king€s character and personality, stressing the importance of his relationship with his parents and twelve surviving siblings. He examines the king€s important contributions to the cultural enhancement of his capital and his encouragement of the major artistic, literary, and scholarly figures of his time. He reassesses the king€s role as constitutional monarch, contending that it was he, rather than Victoria and Albert, who created the constitutional monarchy of nineteenth-century Britain and began the revival of its popularity. Smith€s biography not only illuminates the character of one of the most colorful of Britain€s rulers but also contributes to the history of the British monarchy and its role in the nation€s life.