George III was the British monarch whose statue was toppled in New York City in July 1776.
After the Declaration of Independence was read publicly in New York on July 9, 1776, an angry crowd pulled down the equestrian statue of George III in Bowling Green. The statue had been erected in 1770 to honor the reigning British king, but revolutionary opposition had transformed its meaning by 1776.
The monument was made of lead and later broken apart. Some pieces were reportedly transported to Connecticut, where part of the metal was used to cast bullets for the Continental Army. The event became a dramatic physical rejection of royal authority in a city that would soon be occupied by British forces.
George III was king throughout the American Revolutionary War, but the statue incident should not be confused with the destruction of a different royal monument in Boston or with the later treatment of his image in Britain. The New York statue stood in Bowling Green, near the southern end of Manhattan.