George III (1738-1820). Autograph letter signed ("George R.") to his son Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany. Weymouth, 5 September 1800.

One page, 9 x 7 1/4 in. (229 x 184 mm), folds. Framed and matted with an engraved portrait, overall 19 1/4 x 11 3/4 in. Unexamined out of frame.

In full: "My dear Frederick, Yesterday I received your Box containing the Monthly Returns of the foot guards, except that of the 3rd Reg't, the Monthly Returns of Quarter, the Weekly States, and Monthly Returns of the Hospitals. Also the Recommendations for Commissions the Regulars, and the [illegible] for the Sutherland Fencibles, which I approve. This morning came your letter explaining the cause of Lieut. Gen. Lake's [illegible] for India without calling here as he had proposed. I am sorry to find...[illegible]...has such frequent returns of his Asthma. I ever remain, my dear Frederick, your Most Affectionate Father."

King George III began regular visits to the small Dorset seaside town of Weymouth in 1789, after being advised that "taking the water" might be beneficial to his mental health following a bout of mania the previous year so severe that it provoked a governmental crisis that resulted in the drafting of the Regency Bill of 1789 which would authorize the Prince of Wales to take on the duties of regent if the King were incapacitated. George's presence at Weymouth made it one of the world's first modern tourist destinations; as a tribute to him, the Osmington White Horse was cut into the limestone of Osmington Hill in 1808, followed by the installation of the King's Statue in 1810.

During his summer 1800 visit, George's second eldest son, Prince Frederick, was acting as Commander-in-Chief of the British military forces. Despite strategic blunders and setbacks in his early years, he eventually grew into the role, with Sir John Fortescue writing that he did "more for the army than any one man has done for it in the whole of its history" (The Oxford Illustrated History of the British Army, p.145). He established the Royal Military College and the Royal Military Asylum in 1801, the latter of which housed children orphaned by the Napoleonic Wars.

This lot is located in Chicago.