Coat of arms of King George III of England in St Mary's church, Iwerne Minster. Painting on canvas.
"This Norman church dedicated to St. Mary was built on a slight rise towards the eastern part of the village and possibly over an earlier structure. Work started in about 1100 AD when the quarrymen and masons were drafted-in. The workmen would have lived in the village for some years during the build. Much of their original work survives, bearing witness to their skills. Take special note of the pillars of the nave arcades with scalloped capitals, the depressed church arch, the north chapel with its pair of narrow deeply splayed windows, the round arches of the north aisle and its west window, all the work of these early craftsmen. The transitional pointed arches of the south aisle may be of the same date. Conveniently, at the time the church was being built there was a quarry directly opposite the site, but it has long since been filled-in.
The walls of St. Mary’s are of flint and rubble with ashlar dressings; the roofs are stone-slated and tiled. The nave, north aisle and north transept are of the mid 12th century and, says the RCHM, “they appear to be parts of an important church”. It is thought the original church was cruciform in plan and probably had a south tower. Late in the 12th century the south aisle was added on the west of the presumed south tower. Early in the 13th century the north transept was rebuilt. The chancel, west tower, south and west walls of the south aisle and the south porch are all of the 14th century. The tower is 60 feet in height, buttressed on three sides and crowned by a battlemented parapet. William of Wykeham was a great builder of churches and in 1361 was prebend for Iwerne in Shaftesbury Abbey. It is thought he may have promoted the building of the tower.
In the 15th century the chancel arch was widened and a steeple was added to the west tower – a rarity for Dorset. The nave was heightened during the 16th century and clerestory windows were installed.
In 1807 Thomas Harvey and Christopher Senior made extensive alterations to the church, which were not universally appreciated and in some quarters referred to as “mutilation rather than restoration”. We know that Thomas Harvey was a churchwarden. The steeple was cut down in size: originally it rose 40 feet above the tower but was reduced to about half that. The steeple is octagonal, with ribbed angles and has two traceried bands around it; a finial and a weather vane complete it. The rood loft, said to have been the most perfect in the county, was removed along with the steps leading to it and a deep gallery was put up across the tower arch at the bottom of the nave.
Then in 1871 T.H. Wyatt, a well known church architect who had built and restored many churches, was brought in to restore the church. He removed the gallery and replaced the old high pews with pitchpine seating, at the time considered fashionable. A squint was opened up in the north chapel and a north vestry was added. The south chapel was added in 1890. It is a memorial to Lord Wolveton by his widow."
SOURCE - (Visit Link)
The heraldry of this coat of arms inside the church dates to the Hanoverian period 1801–1816. The Hanoverian dynastic arms have been moved to an inescutcheon with an electoral bonnet. George III was King of England from 1760 to 1820.
"Under King George III of the United Kingdom, a proclamation of 1 January 1801 set the royal style and titles and modified the Royal Arms, removing the French quarter and putting the arms of England, Scotland and Ireland on the same structural level, with the dynastic arms of Hanover moved to an inescutcheon."
SOURCE - (visit link)
"George III was born on 4 June 1738 in London, the eldest son of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha.
He became heir to the throne on the death of his father in 1751, succeeding his grandfather, George II, in 1760. He was the third Hanoverian monarch and the first one to be born in England and to use English as his first language.
George III is widely remembered for two things: losing the American colonies and going mad. This is far from the whole truth.
George's direct responsibility for the loss of the colonies is not great. He opposed their bid for independence to the end, but he did not develop the policies, such as the Stamp Act of 1765 and the Townshend duties of 1767 on tea, paper and other products, which led to war in 1775-76 and which had the support of Parliament.
These policies were largely due to the financial burdens of garrisoning and administering the vast expansion of territory brought under the British Crown in America, the costs of a series of wars with France and Spain in North America, and the loans given to the East India Company (then responsible for administering India).
By the 1770s, and at a time when there was no income tax, the national debt required an annual revenue of £4 million to service it.
The declaration of American independence on 4 July 1776, the end of the war with the surrender by British forces in 1782, and the defeat which the loss of the American colonies represented, could have threatened the Hanoverian throne.
However, George's strong defence of what he saw as the national interest and the prospect of long war with revolutionary France made him, if anything, more popular than before.
The American war, its political aftermath and family anxieties placed great strain on George in the 1780s. After serious bouts of illness in 1788-89 and again in 1801, George became permanently deranged in 1810.
He was mentally unfit to rule in the last decade of his reign; his eldest son - the later George IV - acted as Prince Regent from 1811. Some medical historians have said that George III's mental instability was caused by a hereditary physical disorder called porphyria.
George's accession in 1760 marked a significant change in royal finances. Since 1697, the monarch had received an annual grant of £700,000 from Parliament as a contribution to the Civil List, i.e. civil government costs (such as judges' and ambassadors' salaries) and the expenses of the Royal Household.
In 1760, it was decided that the whole cost of the Civil List should be provided by Parliament, in return for the surrender of the hereditary revenues by the King for the duration of his reign.
The first 25 years of George's reign were politically controversial for reasons other than the conflict with America. The King was accused by some critics, particularly Whigs (a leading political grouping), of attempting to reassert royal authority in an unconstitutional manner.
In fact, George took a conventional view of the constitution and the powers left to the Crown after the conflicts between Crown and Parliament in the 17th century.
Although he was careful not to exceed his powers, George's limited ability and lack of subtlety in dealing with the shifting alliances within the Tory and Whig political groupings in Parliament meant that he found it difficult to bring together ministries which could enjoy the support of the House of Commons.
His problem was solved first by the long-lasting ministry of Lord North (1770-82) and then, William, from 1783, by Pitt the Younger, whose ministry lasted until 1801.
George III was the most attractive of the Hanoverian monarchs. He was a good family man and devoted to his wife, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, for whom he bought the Queen's House (later enlarged to become Buckingham Palace). They had 15 children, 13 of whom reached adulthood.
However, his sons disappointed him and, after his brothers made unsuitable secret marriages, the Royal Marriages Act of 1772 was passed at George's insistence. (Under this Act, the Sovereign must give consent to the marriage of any lineal descendant of George II, with certain exceptions.)
Being extremely conscientious, George read all government papers and sometimes annoyed his ministers by taking such a prominent interest in government and policy.
His political influence could be decisive. In 1801, he forced Pitt the Younger to resign when the two men disagreed about whether Roman Catholics should have full civil rights. George III, because of his coronation oath to maintain the rights and privileges of the Church of England, was against the proposed measure.
One of the most cultured of monarchs, George started a new royal collection of books (65,000 of his books were later given to the British Museum, as the nucleus of a national library) and opened his library to scholars.
In 1768, George founded and paid the initial costs of the Royal Academy of Arts (now famous for its exhibitions).
He was the first king to study science as part of his education (he had his own astronomical observatory), and examples of his collection of scientific instruments can now be seen in the Science Museum.
George III also took a keen interest in agriculture, particularly on the crown estates at Richmond and Windsor, being known as 'Farmer George'.
In his last years, physical as well as mental powers deserted him and he became blind.
He died at Windsor Castle on 29 January 1820, after a reign of almost 60 years - the third longest in British history."
SOURCE - (visit link)