William IV, Britain’s “Sailor King”, ascended to the throne late in life, he’s best known for overseeing the pivotal Great Reform Act of 1832, which modernised the electoral system. His reign, though short, was a period of significant social and political change, paving the way for the Victorian era.
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Well everyone, it’s taken us nearly seven years, but with this video we have covered the lives of every Post 1066 English and British Monarch apart from Charles III. If you would like some more Saxon Kings in the future as well as Monarchs from other countries please leave a comment and give this video and post a thumbs up!
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Amazing coverage, just one minor correction though, Victoria was not named Victoria, that was her chosen Regnal name, her first name is actually Alexandrina, Victoria is her middle name
She would have possibly been also named Augusta, Georgiana or Charlotte but these names were dropped by order of George IV during the regency
I learned a ton! Thank you!
He was actually William 11 of Britain and William 1V of England.
King William IV
Yes please. Anglo-Saxon Kings are interesting. What I have never seen on YouTube or mainstream media is the story of the angles and saxons before we came to England. So anything about our pre English history would be much appreciated.
I believe the first saxons were led by a leader called Hengest. Is there anything about him in the history of Germany. ???
@PeopleProfiles Thank you for this most interesting documentary about the life and reign of King William 1V. I'm a Maori native from New Zealand. From 1831 to 1835 the native Chiefs of New Zealand engaged with King William regarding protection and trade. In this period the Chiefs wrote to him to provide protection from English criminals who were committing crimes against the natives and settlers arriving from Britain. James Busby was despatched to NZ as British Resident and was instrumental in creating a constitutional governance framework recognizing the exclusive sovereignty of the Chiefs. During this period the Chiefs of New Zealand reaffirmed and declared theirs and New Zealand's sovereign independence in October 28, 1835 under the constitution of He Wakaputanga the Declaration of Independence. In the year prior in 1834 the flag of the United Tribes of New Zealand was inaugurated by the Chiefs in order that New Zealand could participate in international trade as a sovereign nation. King William is cited as having given his seal of approval to the 1835 Declaration of Independence after he it was agreed in the same declaration he would protect the independence of the Chiefs.
Bro I've skipped so many of these videos because your voice is SO ANNOYING!!! you need a different narrator.
Abolished Slavery….BUT..Someone slipped up & it WASN'T made OFFICIAL ….Until the year 2010 (?) (According to QI)
I love English history 5th Hanoverian from George the 1st
William the 4th and Queen Adelaide
"I can't let my third son hang around my eldest; he might pick up a bad habit of drinking! I know exactly what to do. Let's send him to the Royal Navy!"
An interesting tale but the narrator's outdated mode of speech is a turn off … who even speaks like that today ? … ponderously slow and enunciating every syllable … it had me reaching for the off switch.
Portugal was not conquered by Napoleon as well, with the help of their British allies.
The Portuguese Royal family also escaped to their Brazilian colony.
1:13:07 I believe he willed himself to live until his niece turned 18, thus avoiding a regency directed by her mother. God works in mysterious ways ❤.
One of the most important Acts that was passed during the reign of William IV was the Church Act of 1836 in the Colony of New South Wales, drawn up by newly-appointed Attorney-General, John Hubert Plunkett, the first Roman Catholic to be appointed to high office in the Colony, and assented by Governor Sir Richard Burke. This effectively disestablished the Church of England in Australia, and paved the way for religious tolerance culminating in the principle of Freedom of Religion in Australia. It also facilitated government funding for education, reinforcing the principle of separation of Church and State in Australian governance. Burke and Plunkett knew what they were doing; I doubt whether the news had even reached the King before he died. Nevertheless, it remains one of the most far-reaching, pivotal reforms of his reign.
Charles's coronation was in 2023, not '22. Less than a year after succession, though, unlike his mother's – 16 months, and her father George VI's coronation, which was planned for his brother Edward VIII and was also 16 months after the death of George V.
What an eventful if short period of rein! Many thanks for this documentary, it was immensly interesting to get to know more about king William IV who has centainly been often overlooked even when the events happened during his rein were being discussed.
Great video but goodness these kings are pointless. Parliment doing the work and accomodating these wasters with shiny gongs.
I will again ask for you to cover Kublai Khan. Surely there is enough material for a video?
should do some Scottish monarchs, good examples would be Jamee IV, James V, William the lion, Alexander III, Constantine II
The Kingdom of Hannover did not survive until the proclamation of the German Empire of 1871 shown in the video. Hannover was annexed by Prussia in 1866, five years earlier.
Peter Ustinov was the best at playing William IV
Lay aside an entire day in order to listen to this video. Very informative, but exceedingly verbose
I’ve finally been able to finish my binge of the English / British kings and queens. Thank you for that. I think a series on the best and worst Popes or great knights and men at arms like William Marshall or El Cid would be interesting.
While this was a good overview by the writer, it has missed perhaps of of the King's biggest legacies, although not of his making. In 1836 the new free State of South Australia was created and its capital city was called Adelaide after Queen Adelaide. There is a picture of her in the noteworthy Adelaide Town Hall. The main street cutting Adelaide in half is King William Street (where the head office of my bank is situated). Today Adelaide is a modern soophisticated Australian city of 1.2 million people bigger than all the cities of England other than London. It has an opera house and three vibrant universities and is connected to the UK and Asia via British Airways and Quantas. Many of you will know SA as the home of the famous Barossa Valley where you find Penfold Wines and Jacobs Creek wines.
Adelaide had Stuart heritage and likely the same Hughes disease as Anne
The Main Street of Adelaide,the capital city of South Australia is King William Street.
Queen Adelaide (Wife of William IV) was the first monarch too have her own Railway Carriage which still exists and is in the National Railway Museum at York in the UK. I have heard of William IV he had a very un royal life and experiences which I think equipped him for life as a King
No monarch of Great Britain was ever in more danger of loosing it all than William IV. The end of the monarchy was very possible. The mood of Europe was revolutionary. The lid had barely been clamped down on the French revolution and Europe was building back up towards 1848. If William had made any more than a very few, very minor missteps, Victoria would not have been given a chance. The best that "an unknown slip of a girl" might have got would have been to be sent packing back to Cobourg with her mother. William worked on his PR and keep his own opinions under wraps.
The 1832 enfranchisement was modest, but it was a step toward universal suffrage. He was a better King than Nyone thought and by sheer will to live saw his niece Victoria's 18th birthday, thus Verting the need for a regency thus crushing the schemes of Victoria's mother a d her partner in crime (so to speak) John Conroy.
No mention is made of the most significant advance during his reign …the railway system.
Britain's basic railway system was approved and built during his reign.
William the Fault, a king by default.
The monarchical system is a bit of a straight jacket. He clearly loved the actress and had children but they couldn't get married and so the kids couldn't inherit causing a bit of a succession crisis. Also a system that withholds voting rights and basic human freedoms desperately needed to change.
Williams IV:s younger brother Ernest Augustus who also becam king is even more fogotten I guess, he was also very unlikely to become king but he succeded William as king of Hannover since they barred women from the succession.
I have a deep respect for this particular king. Seemingly a placeholder king until Queen Victoria, yet the more you learn, the more you discover. There's so much more to William IV than it seems, which this documentary proves. Bravo! For a future episode, I would love to see Franklin Pierce (14th US president), any of the Dollar Princesses (American heiresses wed to British nobles), and perhaps John Marshall (a US Chief Justice of the Supreme Court). Thank you!
Request: King Karl XIV Johan of Sweden and Norway aka Marshal Bernadotte. One of the most implausible rags to riches stories of ALL time. Founder of the modern Swedish state and in a love triangle with Napoleon.
Very underrated king.
Who Knew That Centuries Later The Royal Family Would Betray Canada.
Thank you so very much for filling in the blanks of my personal temporal continuum. And on my birthday…
🎂🐒😄