On This Date in History: Following the French and Indian War,
Britain was left with a huge war debt. That particular conflict
began in 1754 but got folded into a larger scale European war
between the French and English that became known as the Seven
Years War that concluded in 1763. Londoners were getting tired
paying higher taxes to pay for the war and so the Crown had to
look for other sources of income. King George III had risen to
the head of the monarchy at age 22 at the death of his
grandfather. Now, the previous two kings had been rather weak
and Parliament had seized the lead in establishing policy in the
English government. With the encouragement of his mother, George
removed from power the coalition of Whigs who had been running
the government. He used patronage to establish a new coalition
that would allow him to have control over Parliament. While the
old Whig coalition had been quite stable, George’s new coalition
created ministries that proved not to last too long with each
lasting in office but