An act sweeping away rotten boroughs and extending the county and borough franchise (1832)
The Representation of the People Act, the Great Reform Act
Monarchs · Hanoverian
William IV
1765–1837
House of Hanover — the age of reform
In office: 1830–1837
The Sailor King came to the throne at 64, after a naval career, twenty years of domestic life with an actress and ten illegitimate children. His short reign was crowded with reform: the Great Reform Act, the abolition of slavery in the empire, the first effective factory act and the new Poor Law. He was the last sovereign to dismiss a prime minister against the wishes of parliament, and on his death the personal union with Hanover ended.
How to spot them
- ▸The Sailor King, or Silly Billy; third son of George III, Duke of Clarence
- ▸Twenty years with the actress Dorothea Jordan and ten FitzClarence children
- ▸The Reform Bill crisis: threatening to create peers to force it through the Lords
- ▸Succeeded by his niece Victoria; Hanover went to his brother Ernest Augustus under Salic law
In the reign
An act freeing some 800,000 people in the empire and voting £20 million in compensation — to their owners (1833)
The Slavery Abolition Act, which took effect on 1 August 1834
The first factory law with paid inspectors to enforce it, barring children under nine from textile mills (1833)
The Factory Act 1833
Six Dorset farm labourers are transported to Australia for swearing a secret oath (1834)
The Tolpuddle Martyrs, pardoned in 1836
An act abolishing outdoor relief for the able-bodied and herding paupers into union workhouses (1834)
The Poor Law Amendment Act, the target of Oliver Twist
Burning tally sticks in a stove set fire to the medieval parliament buildings, a blaze painted by Turner (1834)
The destruction of the old Palace of Westminster, 16 October 1834
A sovereign dismisses a prime minister who still commands the Commons — the last time it happens (1834)
The dismissal of Lord Melbourne, who was back in office within five months
The first act to compel the registration of births, marriages and deaths in England and Wales (1836)
The Births and Deaths Registration Act, in force from 1837 — the foundation of English genealogy
Quick-fire facts
- •Third son of George III; he joined the Royal Navy at thirteen, saw action at Cape St Vincent and was a friend of Nelson, at whose wedding he gave away the bride
- •Created Duke of Clarence and St Andrews in 1789; he was Lord High Admiral in 1827–28
- •He lived with the actress Dorothea Jordan for about twenty years and had ten illegitimate children, the FitzClarences
- •After Princess Charlotte's death he married Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen in 1818; their two daughters died in infancy
- •At 64 he was the oldest person to accede to the British throne until Charles III in 2022
- •During the Reform Bill crisis of 1832 he reluctantly agreed to create enough Whig peers to pass the bill, and the threat alone sufficed
- •Adelaide, South Australia, is named after his queen
- •He died at Windsor on 20 June 1837; because Hanover excluded female succession, the personal union of 123 years ended and Hanover passed to his brother the Duke of Cumberland
Drill it — 7 cards
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Sources
- The Royal Household — William IV (r. 1830-1837)
- Philip Ziegler — King William IV