ACCESSION OF GEORGE IV.
A.D. 1820
GEORGE IV. had long governed the empire, so that the acquisition of the crown effected no other change than that of the title of regent to king. The assumption of this new dignity, however, was followed by perplexities of great magnitude. He had long repudiated his wife, now Queen Caroline, and she had been living in foreign lands as an exile. This step had alienated the affections of his people from him; and at his accession to the throne, when he was induced to extend the limits of the hostility he had displayed towards his consort, they became, out of sympathy for an injured and helpless female, still more embittered against him. His accession to the throne, however, gave Caroline an opportunity of retaliation, which, as will be seen, she was not backward in exercising.