The Rockingham government had come to power and Parliament is debating whether to repeal the stamp tax or to send an army to enforce it.

Benjamin Franklin testifies in Parliament in 1766 that Americans already contribute heavily to the defense of the Empire.

He says that local governments had raised, outfitted, and paid twenty-five thousand soldiers to fight France—as many as Britain itself had sent—and spent many millions from American treasuries doing so in the French and Indian War alone.

London has to deal with fifteen hundred politically well-connected British Army soldiers.

The decision is to keep them on active duty with full pay, but they have to be stationed somewhere.

Stationing a standing army in Great Britain during peacetime is politically unacceptable, so the decision is made to station them in America and have the Americans pay them.

The soldiers have no military mission; they are not there to defend the colonies because there is no threat to the colonies.

Benjamin Franklin explains that further taxes to pay for theses troops are unjust and might bring about a rebellion.

Parliament agrees and repeals the tax (February 21, 1766), but insists in the Declaratory Act of March 1766 that they retain full power to make laws for the colonies "in all cases whatsoever".

The repeal nonetheless causes widespread celebrations in the colonies.

Representatives from a number of the Thirteen Colonies assemble as the Stamp Act Congress in response to the Stamp Act 1765, to call into question the right of a distant power to tax them without proper representation.

The British Parliament is now faced with colonies who refuse to comply with their Act.

This, combined with protests that have occurred in the colonies and, perhaps more importantly, protests which have arisen in Great Britain from manufacturers who are suffering from the colonies' non-importation agreement, all lead to the repeal of the Stamp Act.

Normally the economic activity in the colonies would not have caused such an outcry, but the British economy is still experiencing a post-war depression from the Seven Years' War.

Another reason for repeal of the Stamp Act is the replacement of George Grenville, the Prime Minister who had enacted the Stamp Acts, by Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham.

Rockingham is more favorable towards the colonies and furthermore he is antagonistic towards policies that Grenville had enacted.

Rockingham invites Benjamin Franklin to speak to Parliament about colonial policy and he portrays the colonists as in opposition to internal taxes (which are derived from internal colonial transactions) such as the Stamp Act had called for, but not external taxes (which are duties laid on imported commodities).

Parliament now agrees to repeal the Stamp Act on the condition that the Declaratory Act is passed.

On March 18, 1766, Parliament repeals the Stamp Act and passes the Declaratory Act.

The Declaratory Act proclaims that Parliament "had hath, and of right ought to have, full power and authority to make laws and statutes of sufficient force and validity to bind the colonies and people of America ... in all cases whatsoever".

The phrasing of the act is intentionally unambiguous.

In other words, the Declaratory Act of 1766 asserts that Parliament has the absolute power to make laws and changes to the colonial government, "in all cases whatsoever", even though the colonists are not represented in the Parliament.

The British government also makes overtures to the Dutch to come to a speedy conclusion of hostilities, especially after the Cabinet of Lord North is replaced by that of Rockingham and Fox in March 1782.

Fox immediately proposes a separate peace on favorable conditions to the Dutch government.

Unfortunately for the Dutch they have just bound themselves closer to France by agreeing to act "in concert" with France in naval actions and therefore a separate peace is no longer an option.

A real military alliance with France is, however, still blocked by the stadtholder, despite the fact that many in the Republic favor it.

The war, as far as it goes, is fought in three main theaters.

Britain blockades Dutch ports in Europe, and embarks on expeditions to seize Dutch colonial properties throughout the world.

These are almost entirely successful; only an attempt to capture the Dutch castle at Elmina on the Africa's Gold Coast (modern Ghana) fails.

While many Dutch territories in the West Indies are taken by the British, some, like Curaçao, are not attacked due to their defensive strength.

The North ministry resigns after losing a motion of no confidence on March 22, 1782, following the British defeat at the Siege of Yorktown during the American War of Independence.

The Whig Lord Rockingham, previously Prime Minister from 1765–1766, forms a government.

The Rockingham Whigs have generally been sympathetic to the cause of the Colonists and under Rockingham the British government begins the negotiations leading to the Peace of Paris that will conclude the war.

Rockingham's death on July 1, 1782 causes a split in the ministry.

The Home Secretary Lord Shelburne is appointed to succeed him but several members of the government refuse to serve under him and resign.

These "Portland Whigs" (named after their nominal leader the Duke of Portland, but in reality led by Charles James Fox) ally in opposition with Lord North and will bring down the Shelburne ministry in March 1783, coming to power as the Fox–North coalition.

The Whig Lord Rockingham had become Prime Minister for the second time with the collapse of Lord North's ministry in 1782, but died within months.

The King had then appointed Lord Shelburne to replace him

Charles James Fox, however, had refused to serve under Shelburne, and demanded the appointment of the Duke of Portland.

In 1783, the House of Commons forces Shelburne from office and his government is replaced by the Fox–North Coalition.

The Duke of Portland becomes Prime Minister, with Fox and Lord North as Foreign Secretary and Home Secretary, respectively.

The King dislikes Fox intensely, for his politics as well as his character; he thinks Fox is unprincipled and a bad influence on the Prince of Wales.

George III is distressed at having to appoint ministers not of his liking, but the Portland ministry quickly builds up a majority in the House of Commons, and n be displaced easily.

He was further dismayed when the government introduces the India Bill, which proposes to reform the government of India by transferring political power from the East India Company to Parliamentary commissioners.

Although the King actually favors greater control over the Company, the proposed commissioners are all political allies of Fox.

Immediately after the House of Commons passes it, George authorizes Lord Temple to inform the House of Lords that he will regard any peer who votes for the bill as his enemy.

The bill is rejected by the Lords; three days later, the Portland ministry is dismissed, and William Pitt the Younger is appointed Prime Minister, with Temple as his Secretary of State.

On December 17, 1783, Parliament votes in favor of a motion condemning the influence of the monarch in parliamentary voting as a "high crime" and Temple is forced to resign.

Temple's departure destabilizes the government, and three months later the government will lose its majority and Parliament was dissolved; the subsequent election will give Pitt a firm mandate.