George III (1738 - 1820)

Burns, a periodic Jacobite, indicated his views on this sovereign in the lines scratched on the window of the inn at Stirling where he was staying:

"Here Stewarts once in triumph reigned.
And laws for Scotland's weal ordained;
But now unroofed their palace stands,
Their sceptre's swayed by other hands;
Fallen indeed, and to the earth
Whence grovelling reptiles take their birth,
The injured Stewart line is gone
A race outlandish fills their throne;
An idiot race, to honour lost;
Who know them best despise them most."

When the king recovered from his first attack of insanity and the Regency Bill (on the departure of which Burns wrote an ode) had been thrown out, Thursday 23^rd April 1789, was set aside as a day of public thanksgiving for the King's recovery. Burns regarded the 'whole business as a solemn farce or pageant mummery' and accordingly wrote his 'Stanzas of Psalmody', which he sent to Stuart of The Star, signed Duncan M'Leerie. See M'Leerie, Duncan