George III was born George William Frederick in London on 4 June 1738, the eldest son of Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales, and Augusta, daughter of Frederick II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha. As a child he was taught by Dr. Francis Ayscough, who later became dean of Bristol Cathedral. Apart from a series of tutors and preceptors, young George had little contact with the outside world. His later love for the theater and for collecting scripts of plays was fostered by the childhood performances in which he participated with other children at his home, Leicester House. After the death of his father in 1751, his father's trusted supporter, John Stuart, third Earl of Bute, became George's main instructor and, soon, his constant companion and confidant.
In September 1761 George married Charlotte Sophia, younger sister of Adolphus Frederick IV, Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. They had fifteen children over a twenty-one-year period-the oldest, the future George IV, born in 1762, and the youngest, Amelia, born in 1783. They settled into a life of complete domesticity, going out, it is said, only to the theater.
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