America 250: How the Crown Learned from Losing America

0:03 Calarougus Shark Media. He lower. Welcome to Palace Intry Game, your host, Mark Francis. America's revolution is usually told as the story of Washington Jefferson in the Birth of a Nation. But this week on Palace Injury, we're telling a different story. Story from Buckingham House in Westminster, as America celebrates its two hundred and fiftieth birthday. Will follow events through the eyes of King George the Third as government and the British people. What did they know, what did they expect? And how did the loss of thirteen colonies ultimately reshape the crown itself? All this week in our afternoon editions will explore the Revolution as Britain lived it, one chapter at a time. When King George the Third died at Windsor Castle in January of eighteen twenty, the United States had already existed for more than forty years. The war was over, the colonies were gone. George Washington had been dead for two decades. Americans were already arguing among themselves about banks, tariffs, westward expansion in the future of their young republic An. Entire generation had grown up with no memory of British rule yet for the monarchy, the loss of America remained impossible to ignore. It's tempting to think of the American Revolution as a story that ended with the Treaty of Paris in seventeen eighty three for the United States. In many ways it did for the Crown. However, the consequences stretched far beyond the end of the war.

1:26 The monarchy spent the next century confronting a question that George had never successfully answered. How do you hold together a global empire when the people who lived within it increasingly wanted to govern themselves. George had confronted that question and lost his successes, would spend decades trying to find a better answer. The first test came north of the border. One of the lesser known consequences of the Revolution was the transformation of what would eventually become Canada. Tens of thousands of loyalists left the newly independent United States and settled in British North America. Many had lost home, businesses, and property because they had remained loyal to the Crown. Others simply no longer felt they had a place in the new republic. Their arrival changed Canada permanently. More importantly, it changed the way Britain thought about governing colonies. The memory of America hung over everything. British officials understood that they could not simply assume loyalty. They could not assume that distant populations would accept decisions made thousands of miles away in London. Forever the lesson had been expensive and painful, but it was impossible to ignore. By the time Victoria came to the throne in eighteen thirty seven, the monarchy was already operating in a different world than the one George had known. Victoria herself would become one of the most recognizable monarchs in history. Her reign lasted more than sixty years and coincided with an extraordinary period of imperial expansion.

2:48 Maps of the period often showed vast portions of the globe colored red to indicate British control. Yet the truly important development was not how much territory Britain possessed. It was how that territory was governed. Throughout Victoria's reign, the relationship between the Crown and many of Britain's overseas possessions evolved. Colonies increasingly gained local legislatures, local governments, and greater authority over their own affairs. The process was not always smooth. There were disagreements, setbacks, and occasional crises, but the direction of travel was unmistakable. Britain was gradually learning that local self government and loyalty to the crown did not have to be enemies. The idea would have sounded radical to many politicians in George's day. By Victoria's time, it was becoming accepted wisdom. When George the Fifth came to the throne in nineteen ten, the Empire was at its height.

3:37 Yet even then, the relationship between Britain and countries such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand looked very different from their relationship George the Third had attempted to maintain with the American colonies. The First World War accelerated the process. Canadian, Australian and New Zealand troops fought alongside the British, but they did so increasingly as national forces rather than simply colonial subjects. Their sacrifice strengthened national identities while simultaneously deepening emotional ties to the crown. The monarchy adapted again. The sovereign was becoming less a ruler of territories and more as symbol connecting different nations. Then came Queen Elizabeth the Second, with not a subtle shift, but a profound one. Will take a look at her reign after the break. If George the Third lost America, Elizabeth inherited a monarchy that had spent generations learning from that experience. When she became queen in nineteen fifty two, the Old Empire was fading across Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean independence movements were reshaping the political map. A less flexible institution might have fought those changes at every turn. Instead, Elizabeth presided over a remarkable transition. Countries became independent, many chose to remain within the Commonwealth. Others became republics while maintaining friendly relations with the crown. The monarchy survived not because it prevented change, but because it accommodated it. Perhaps no moment illustrates that transformation more clearly than Elizabeth's visit to the United States during the bi centennial celebrations of nineteen seventy six. The

5:10 symbolism was extraordinary. Two hundred years earlier, Americans had listed grievances against her ancestor and the Declaration of Independence. The document had accused King George the Third of abuses, tyranny, and injustice. It had announced the end of royal authority in America. Now his descendant was being welcome. There's a guest of honor. Speaking during the visit, Elizabeth addressed the complicated history shared by the two countries. She said, it is inevitable that in the course of history there should be differences and disagreements between governments and peoples. The line reflected a distinctly Elizabethan approach to history. No bitterness, no attempt to reopen old wounds, no suggestion that anyone should revisit the arguments of seventeen seventy six. Instead, there was an acknowledgment that nations evolve, relationships change, Former adversaries can become close allies. The visit was, in many ways the combination of a process that had begun with George's defeat.

6:02 The monarchy no longer measured its success by how much territory it controlled. It measured success by something else, entirely continuity. When King Charles the Third carries out engagements in Canada today, nobody imagines that Ottawa takes instructions from London. When members of the Royal family visit Australian nobody expects Parliament in Westminster to dictate Australian policy. Yet these countries remain connected to the Crown because they choose to be. History often remembers the American Revolution as the birth of the United States. That for the monarchy, it marked the beginning of a long and often complicated process of adaptation. The Crown that exists today is not the crown that governed the Thirteen Colonies. It has been reshaped by events, by experience, and perhaps most importantly, by mistakes. George the Third never found a solution to the American crisis, and when we look at modern Commonwealth, the relationship between Britain and Canada, or at the extraordinary site of an American president welcoming a British monarch to the White House, we are looking at the results of lessons first learned during the greatest feet of George's reign. The monarchy survived losing America. In the end, it survived because it changed, and they have it. If you'd like to email us our addresses the palaceintrig at gmail dot com, Please follow us on Spotify, Apple, and you can leave us a comment on Spotify. I'm Mark Francis.

7:17 My thanks to John McDermott. This is Palace intrigue and good turns.