Shee, Martin Archer; Portrait of William IV; https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/work-of-art/O2483 Credit line: (c) (c) Royal Academy of Arts / Photographer credit: John Hammond /
I’m still working my way through all the British kings! William IV seems super random to bother with a whole post about him, but I tried to pack him into my recent post on George I & II and Trystan thought the jump was weird. So blame her!
William (1765-1837) was king of Britain between his elder brother George IV and Queen Victoria. He married Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, didn’t get as involved in politics as his predecessors but was nonetheless king during an era of reform, including the abolition of slavery. None of his children survived him, so his niece (daughter of his younger brother) Victoria succeeded him.
William is another relatively minor king on screen; he shows up in:
- Ernst G. Schiffner in Mädchenjahre einer Königin (1936)
- Tom Gill in The First Gentleman (1948)
Plus:
Scott Forbes in Mrs. Fitzherbert (1947)
A film about the relationship between the future George IV and his mistress/morganatic wife, Maria Fitzherbert. William was George’s younger brother.
Peter Ustinov in Victoria and Albert (2001)
William was, of course, king before Queen Victoria, so he shows up in this bio-series as an elderly man to kick things off.
Toby Jones in Amazing Grace (2006)
William, while still prince, is around for various Parliamentary shenanigans during the fight against the slave trade.
Jim Broadbent in The Young Victoria (2009)
Once again, you gotta have the Old King at the beginning of any Queen Victoria biopic, apparently!
Seamus Dillane in Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story (2023)
One of the early-20s louche, layabout sons shown at the end of this very fictionalized biopic about William’s mother, Queen Charlotte, is William.
Have you ever noticed William IV on screen in frock flicks? Do tell!
Seamus Dillane is in the foreground of the first Queen Charlotte pic, far left in the group photo
So Tousled Smolder-y Guy, got it!
It’s interesting that some of my all time favorite actors (Ustinov, Jones, Broadbent) have taken this role on. I’ve only seen “The Young Victoria” out of them so far, but I’ll have to have a marathon now.
Gosh, all those sons are pretty cute, but I’ll still take the puppy.
PUPPY
The scene in Victoria & Albert (2001) where he epically goes off at Victoria’s mother at his own birthday party is fantastic. All the more so because it was very closely based on what he actually said historically.
He’ll always be Pineapple Head to me!
Rex Factor for the win!
Historical quibble: rather like His Late Majesty King Charles the Second (Who interestingly enough also had a strong connection to the Royal Navy and the sea), His Late Majesty King William IV left no legitimate issue but a whole brood of natural children.
To his credit, they were only technically illegitimate (He regarded himself as married to their mother, but George III refused to approve the marriage), but they were still ‘Fitzclarence’ and not … hmmm, this was before the Royals really did surnames.
One of my only regrets about THE GREAT is that there was never a joke about what the family lives of other European monarchs of the day were like – with the gag being that after several minutes of Kings, their wives and their mistresses being numbered the King of England, Scotland and Ireland (“AND FRANCE!”) has a little black book the length of his wedding certificate.
(A nod to His Late Majesty King George III being notably uxorious).
Bonus points if, the British ambassador looking a little embarrassed at His Britannic Majesty’s lack of game, some kind soul hands the ambassador an opportunity to point out just how many, many, many children their Britannic Majesties have.