In 1820, King George III of England dies at Windsor Castle.

His son George, Prince of Wales, who has been serving as the de facto monarch for the past ten years, will be crowned King George IV. The succession will be greeted with a sense of relief throughout the British Empire, for the old king had been ill for a decade, during which Prince George had served as regent.

And in the American colonies, the death of George III will be quietly celebrated, for many older Americans still remember with bitterness the exploitive economic measures he and his Parliament instituted beginning in the 1750s, which had led to the unsuccessful colonial revolt of the mid-1770s, and the repression which had followed the rebellion. The jackbooted, red-uniformed 'Order Police' established in the colonies after the uprising are still a feared and hated presence there, and it is quietly hoped that the new king may withdraw them.