George III is well known in children's history books for being the "mad king who lost America". In recent years, though, it has become fashionable among historians to put his "madness" down to the physical, genetic blood disorder called porphyria. Its symptoms include aches and pains, as well as blue urine.

Who was the real mad king?

Despite reigning for 60 years through war, industrial revolution and enormous social upheaval, George III is perhaps remembered first and foremost as "the mad King who lost America." Yet he was a monarch loved by his people, encouraged the arts and sciences and took a genuine interest in the well-being of his subjects.

What made King George 3 mad?

He was mentally unfit to rule in the last decade of his reign; his eldest son - the later George IV - acted as Prince Regent from 1811. Some medical historians have said that George III's mental instability was caused by a hereditary physical disorder called porphyria.