Events

This lecture examines how George III, from his early years as Prince of Wales in the 1750s through to the twilight of his active rulership in the early nineteenth century, was educated in constitutionalism and the law of nations, how he gathered and processed information about imperial and international affairs, and how this constitutional and juridical knowledge shaped his understanding of international relations, the American Revolution, and the abolition of slavery, among other pressing contemporary questions. From an examination of the Georgian Papers at Windsor Castle and the King’s Library at the British Library, a new picture emerges of George III as an unusually thoughtful, engaged, and at times surprisingly radical student of Montesquieu and Blackstone, and hence as a modernising monarch uniquely well equipped to reflect on the changing nature of sovereignty in an age of revolutions.

The lecture was originally scheduled to take place in March at King’s College London, but in the absence of any possibility of holding a live event which could accommodate a large audience, we have agreed with Professor Armitage and the Sons of the American Revolution to hold the event as a live online lecture to be followed by a live Q&A session. The lecture will also be recorded and made available on the GPP website after the event.

The lecture is free to attend, but those wishing to hear it on 16 December and engage in the Q&A need to register on Eventbrite. The lecture will be delivered over Zoom. To sign up, please go to

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/george-iii-and-the-law-of-nations-tickets-131182320853

David Armitage is the Lloyd C. Blankfein Professor of History at Harvard University and an Affiliated Faculty Member at Harvard Law School. He is also an Honorary Professor of History at both the University of Sydney and Queen’s University Belfast and an Honorary Fellow of St Catharine’s College, Cambridge. He is the author or editor of eighteen books, among them The Ideological Origins of the British Empire (2000), The Declaration of Independence: A Global History (2007), Foundations of Modern International Thought (2013), The History Manifesto (2014, co-auth.), and Civil Wars: A History in Ideas (2017). He has held fellowships and visiting positions in Australia, Britain, China, France, Germany, South Korea, and the United States, and this academic year he is the Sons of the American Revolution Visiting Professor at King’s College London in association with the Georgian Papers Programme and the Royal Archives.