This book is an investigation of one of the most significant episodes in British political history. Though it lasted barely a year the first Rockingham Administration has had immense influence on the traditional interpretations of the reign of George III. For Whig historiography it provided essential evidence of cardinal points in the Whiggish creed—of the constitutional impropriety of George III's conduct, and of the consistently pro-American bias of the party of Rockingham and Burke during the American Revolution. A detailed reassessment of this evidence, particularly with reference to the much neglected early months of the Administration when the King's uncle, the Duke of Cumberland, was effectively Prime Minister, is long overdue.