William IV (of England)

William IV (of England) (1765-1837), king of Great Britain and Ireland (1830-37) and king of Hannover (1830-37), during whose reign the first Reform Bill was passed.

William was born August 21, 1765, in London. The third son of King George III and younger brother of George IV, he entered the British navy in 1779, remaining in its service until 1787. He was made duke of Clarence in 1789. About 1791 he formed a liaison with the Irish actor Dorothea Jordon, by whom he subsequently had ten children. In 1818, after he unexpectedly came into the line of succession to the throne, he married a German princess, Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, by whom he had two daughters, both of whom died in infancy. He became king in 1830, succeeding his brother.

Warmhearted and well intentioned but rather eccentric, William had virtually no political judgment. The major event of his reign was the passage of the Reform Bill of 1832, which he was persuaded to support by his prime minister, Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey; it was enacted after William finally agreed to create, if necessary, a sufficient number of new peers to overcome the majority opposed to the bill in the House of Lords (see Reform Bills). The abolition of colonial slavery (1833), the reform of the poor laws (1834), and the Municipal Reform Act (1835) followed the 1832 reform of Parliament. William was the last British ruler to try to force parliamentary acceptance of an unpopular ministry, namely the one headed by Sir Robert Peel in 1834-35. William was succeeded to the British throne by his niece Victoria. The throne of Hannover was inherited by his brother Ernest Augustus.