Onset of George III's Madness

November 1788

The king began to talk incessantly, froth at the mouth, and converse with trees in Windsor Park. His doctors, baffled, restrained him in a straitjacket and blistered his skin. Parliament debated a regency. He recovered by spring. His illness - perhaps porphyria, perhaps something worse - would return. Each crisis raised the specter of his son the Prince of Wales assuming power, a prospect that terrified Tories.