William IV

William IV A King at Sea by Roger Knight, Penguin, 86 pages, £10.99

Penguin have long been the purveyors of good ideas for short books. Who remembers Penguin 60s, the simple little extracts that fitted neatly into a pocket for a quiet escape to the pub?

Beginning last year, they have set out to capture a short picture of every monarch from Athelstan (924-7) to Queen Elizabeth II. In doing so they have enlisted the penmanship of some of our finest writers. Philip Ziegler has written on GeorgeVI and David Cannadine on George V. Elizabeth II was awarded to Douglas Hurd. The project will be completed by 2018 when the aptly named Edmund King will write about Henry I.

They are attractive volumes, produced by Allen Lane, and easy enough to read in a day. I decided on William IV to dip my toe in the water because I had only read briefly about him and do not have the courage to embark on Philip Ziegler’s landmark study from forty years ago.

There is a reverence for some of the monarchs of the past, some of which is earned. The commonly held belief that Alfred was Great and Edward II was a disaster is difficult to shake. In this short study of William IV the author makes it quite clear that the life of Billy can be split into two stages: ignorant, loud-mouthed drunken buffoon, and more pleasant amenable but tired old king. The drunken years are by far the most interesting.

William’s father, George III, did things by the book. He educated his first son (later the Prince Regent and then George IV) in statecraft, and hated him with a vengeance. His second son, the idle and unpleasant Frederick, was bussed off to Germany to learn some diplomacy (a failure) and catch venereal diseases. William, as third son, was passed off at the age of thirteen to the Navy for the life of a sailor.

Roger Knight explains at length that William was a disaster. Promoted above his abilities because of his position in line to the throne, he needed skilled advisors to steer a course for him – many of whom he ignored. He spent years drinking in ports in the Caribbean, whoring, gambling, and generally being a nuisance. When the time came to step up and actually do something (Empire-building struggles against France and Spain) his chance to shine came but was prevented by his father. Indeed, the only redeeming feature of these years appears to have been the good relationship he built up with a young Nelson, by then preparing for greatness. William also cultivated a rather different relationship with Rachel Polgreen, a freed slave, in Bridgetown, Barbados.

There is some interesting content about the Reform Act, which came during William’s reign. He appears to have been able to steer a sensitive course through the initial stages of the attempt to widen the franchise, only to get cold feet halfway through. It defined his short reign, and he was in some ways the last monarch to wield any influence on parliament.

It is quite a skill to summarize a life in less than a hundred pages, and it makes it a very handy reference. The only thing missing, in my humble opinion, is a bit of detail about William’s many illegitimate children. With Dorothea Jordan he had ten children, and they are only alluded to briefly. Who knows how things might have gone if one of his legitimate heirs had survived?

I will be dipping next into the life of William II (Rufus), and I might even take him to the pub.