"Memoirs of the Reign of King George the Third" in 4 volumes are a historical account written by Horace Walpole that comprises the first twelve years of the reign of George III. George III (c. 1738-1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 1760 until the union of the two countries in 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death in 1820. He was a monarch of the House of Hanover, but unlike his two predecessors, he was born in Great Britain, spoke English as his first language, and never visited Hanover. George's life and reign, which were longer than those of any of his predecessors, were marked by a series of military conflicts involving his kingdoms, much of the rest of Europe, and places farther afield in Africa, the Americas, and Asia. Early in his reign, Great Britain defeated France in the Seven Years' War, becoming the dominant European power in North America and India. However, many of Britain's American colonies were soon lost in the American War of Independence. Further wars against revolutionary and Napoleonic France from 1793 concluded in the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.