The Revolutionary War's chief villain is being rehabilitated — just in time for America's 250th

By — Laurie Kellman, Associated Press Laurie Kellman, Associated Press Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/the-revolutionary-wars-chief-villain-is-being-rehabilitated-just-in-time-for-americas-250th Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter The Revolutionary War's chief villain is being rehabilitated — just in time for America's 250th World Jun 3, 2026 4:55 PM EDT LONDON (AP) — "Mad" King George III — the villain of "Hamilton," "Schoolhouse Rock" and the Revolutionary War — has undergone a makeover in time for America's 250th birthday. He's been known in the United States for centuries as the English ruler who lost the American colonies. You might remember him as the maniacal monarch from the Broadway musical or the subject of the 1990s play and film, " The Madness of King George." Americans of a certain age would recall him as the tyrant who taxed them without consent in the song, " No More Kings." Educate your inbox Subscribe to Here’s the Deal, our politics newsletter for analysis you won’t find anywhere else. Except the runup to the Revolutionary War didn't happen quite that way — a point worth noting in this age of disinformation, misinformation and "alternative facts." In George's time, Parliament approved laws and taxes, as it does now. And that list of 27 complaints against the king in the Declaration of Independence? Mostly "wartime propaganda," according to British historian Andrew Roberts, who says all but two crumble under scrutiny. Historians now generally agree: George was not mentally ill during the Revolution. READ MORE: What illness did King George III have? "Truth became the first casualty of the American War of Independence, as it is in most wars," Roberts wrote in his 2021 biography, "The Last King of America." "The American Revolution is a testament not to George III's tyranny, which was fictitious, but to Americans' yearning for autonomy." America's backstory, as told by the Founders, is up for review The American origin story is rooted in the notion that George III was its vanquished villain, an irrational tyrant who oppressed the American colonists. Scholars began pushing back against that narrative before the United States' bicentennial, with the Prince of Wales writing a spicy rebuttal in 1972. "If the average schoolchild remembers anything about history after leaving school, he will remember that George III was mad," that prince, now King Charles III, wrote in the foreword to a biography on his five-times great grandfather. "If he is American as well then madness is often given as a reason for the 'irrational' behavior of the King toward the Colonists, making it necessary for them to declare independence." Perhaps, he closed, "Americans will soon come to see the true George III without bias and traditionally held opinions." WATCH: Ken Burns' 'The American Revolution' explores the beginnings of the nation's democracy George inherited the throne f