British Monarchs Who Ended Badly, Part 11: The German Georges and Robert Walpole

In 1714, the death of the last Stuart monarch, Queen Anne, brought the first of the Hanoverian line to the throne of the new Kingdom of Great Britain. 

The name "Hanoverian" name derives from the German principality of they ruled, Hanover. The first four Hanoverian kings were named George, and the period 1714 to 1830 is often called the Georgian Age. 

Hanover was one of some three hundred states that made up the Holy Roman Empire. As Voltaire correctly quipped, it was neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire. It had developed in the Middle Ages into a confederation of mainly German states presided over loosely by emperors from the Austrian Hapsburg dynasty. 

The prince of Hanover was an Elector, one of seven in the "empire." Their title came from their right to select the emperors. Since the 15th century they had always elected the emperors from the Habsburgs. 

In 1714, George, Elector of Hanover, became king of Great Britain, in accordance with the Act of Settlement of 1701. That act of Parliament barred Roman Catholics from inheriting the throne and provided that upon Queen Anne's death, the throne would pass to her closest Protestant heir. In 1701 that was George's mother Sophia, but she died just weeks before Anne. [Image: George I, by Sir Godfrey Kneller]

Most Britons grudgingly accepted their new foreign king. he might be German but at least he was not French or Catholic. The first two Georges were never exactly popular. 

A few months after George I's coronation, Scottish Jacobites rose on behalf of the exiled Catholic Stuart claimant, James "III," son of James II & VII. Their rebellion was quickly crushed, as were other risings and plots, but the threat of a successful Jacobite coup was not ended until the 1750s.  

George I was not the kind of person to inspire devotion or enthusiasm, even in his own family. He and his wife detested one another. Before inheriting the British crown, he had possibly murdered her lover. He also imprisoned her for life. 

George I arrived in England with two mistresses. He promptly conferred titles on them. One was tall and thin, the other large and heavy. The English dubbed them the Maypole and the Elephant. 

George I's heir, also called George, hated him, and the feeling was mutual. This family dynamic became a feature of the reigns of the first three Hanoverian kings. Father and heir never got on. 

The reigns of the first two Georges were marked by significant political developments. Parliament continued its march towards supremacy. The office of Prime Minister emerged for the first time. The job had -- and still has -- no existence in law. Like so much of the British political system, it is the product of traditional usage.

Historians generally accord the title of the first Prime Minister to Sir Robert Walpole. He rejected the title, which began as a term of scorn. An MP from Norfolk, he rose to power due to his administrative ability and skill in maintaining a working majority in Parliament. He also benefited from being a Whig. 

The Whigs were firm supporters of the Hanoverian dynasty. The Tories were much less enthusiastic. George I suspected that some Tories were closet Jacobites, and he was not entirely wrong. He favored Whig politicians and chose his ministers from their ranks. 

George I's reign ushered in what British historians have called the Whig Supremacy. It lasted until the 1760s. Walpole's tenure as prime minister lasted from 1721 to 1742, making him the longest serving as well as the first prime minister. His ascendancy was sometimes called the "Robinocracy" from Walpole's nickname, Robin.

An event we can relate to these days helped bring Walpole to power. It was The South Sea Bubble, a financial crash involving the South Sea Company. It was a monopoly company established in 1714 to trade with the Spanish empire in America, a trade in slaves and manufactured goods. 

The Company promised huge profits. It attracted many investors, including Walpole himself, who did well from it. A buying mania ensued and shares skyrocketed in price. But the great profits never materialized. The South Sea Company was essentially a Ponzi scheme. 

The company's crash exposed corruption on the part of its directors, who included leading government ministers. Their disgrace and Walpole's adroit management of the fallout left him in command of the cabinet. He also earned the admiration of the king for protecting his mistresses, who had been involved in the scheme, from prosecution. George I relied on Walpole to lead the government for the rest of his reign.  

George II, who inherited the throne in 1727, intended to replace Walpole, who he disliked for siding with his father. His politically astute queen, Caroline of Anspach, urged him to retain Sir Robert. 

Although George also took mistresses, he was devoted to Caroline and listened to her. He helped keep Walpole in power for another fifteen years. In 1735 he gifted the house at 10 Downing Street to Walpole. It has been the residence of British prime ministers ever since.

Unfortunately for Walpole, Queen Caroline died in 1737. George II was devastated. As she lay dying, he promised that he would never take another wife, only mistresses. He kept his promise.

[Image: George II and Queen Caroline]

Walpole's position was secure as long as he maintained the support of a majority in Parliament and the support of the monarch. Getting and keeping the majority was a difficult and unedifying business. It required lots of promises, threats, and above all, bribes. 

The bribes included titles, lucrative government jobs, and pensions. It was a constant balancing act, because the number of  bribes available was always insufficient for the number of those seeking them. 

I don't mean to claim that Walpole's political system was uniquely corrupt. It is how even "democratic" governments function to some extent even now, although the bribes may be different. 

[Image: Speaker Onslow, center, calling upon Walpole, left, to speak in the House of Commons, by William Hogarth, 1730]

Walpole was able to keep things running fairly smoothly into the early 1730s. After that, he faced increasing opposition from disgruntled Whigs who called themselves the "Patriots." As an opposition, they were more effective and dangerous than the Tories. They also had the support of Frederick Prince of Wales, who true to Hanoverian form, despised his father.

The Patriots claimed that under Walpole the executive had become too powerful, the government too centralized for the good of the country. Their trump card was their attacks on Walpole's foreign policy. 

Walpole favored a peaceful foreign policy, emphasizing negotiation and the promotion of trade. He was able to keep Britain out of war for most of his premiership. The Patriots denounced what they claimed was his failure to take a firm stand against the machinations of England's traditional enemies, France and Spain.

Their constant criticism gradually ate away like acid at Walpole's support in the country and Parliament. In the late 1730s the Patriots helped to whip up public demands for war against Spain. The pretext was Spanish mistreatment of British merchants trading to the Caribbean. The goal was to seize wealth and land from Spain's American colonies. 

In 1739, Walpole gave way to the public clamor, and declared war.  The "War of Jenkin's Ear" followed, named for an English ship captain who alleged that a Spanish coast guard officer inspecting his vessel had cut off his ear. Jenkins brought to Parliament, sparking widespread outrage. 

The war did not go well. The opposition blamed Walpole's policies and forced him from office in 1742. George II was nearly as devastated as when Caroline died. He wept on hearing that Walpole resigned, and awarded the former prime minister a seat in the House of Lords, as Earl of Orford. 

[Image: Walpole painted as a ranger at Richmond Park by John Wooten]

The War of Jenkins Ear merged with a broader European war in the early 1740s, the War of the Austrian Succession. Britain was now at war with France as well as Spain. The war ended in stalemate in 1748. 

The War of the Austrian Succession is notable in the history of the monarchy for one fun fact: it was the last time a British king led troops in battle, in 1743. The clash at Dettingen in Germany was technically a British/Hanoverian victory but had little effect on the outcome of the war.  [Image: George II at Dettingen by John Wooten]

The same war also saw the last battle fought on British soil, at Culloden near Inverness in Scotland. In April 1746, a Hanoverian army cornered and crushed Jacobite forces under Charles Edward Stuart, AKA Bonnie Prince Charlie. 

Culloden was more a massacre than a battle. Responsibility for the atrocities that followed belonged to William, Duke of Cumberland, a son of George II. Scots named a smelly weed toxic to horses after him: Stinking Billy. 

In retrospect, Culloden marked the end of the Jacobite threat to the Hanoverian dynasty. It also led to the destruction of the clan system in the Scottish Highlands, and eventually, the forced emigration of most Highland people to the Lowlands and other realms: Canada, the USA, Australia, and beyond. 

Today there are fewer people in the Highlands than in the 18th century. Sheep, hunters, and fishermen replaced the people, then tourists seeking the "romance" of the wild mountains, lochs, and glens. 

The peace of 1748 was merely a truce. By the mid 1750s Britain was once again at war with France, and eventually, Spain. It began in America, where it is still called the French and Indian War. It merged again into a broader European War, the Seven Years' War (1756-1763). 

The Seven Years' War started badly for Britain. It ended in triumph. The turnaround derived in large part from the leadership and strategies of William Pitt, who directed the war effort from 1757. Pitt was a leading member of the Patriot group of Whigs. 

[Image: William Pitt the Elder, later first Earl of Chatham by William Hoare]

George II hated Pitt. In addition to his constant attacks on the government and management of the war, Pitt had alleged that British interests were being sacrificed to the interests of Hanover, which he called "that despicable electorate."    

The king tried to keep Pitt out of government. He succeeded for several years. But as defeat followed defeat, he was forced to relent in 1757, and Pitt entered the cabinet to manage the war. 

Whether it was due to Pitt's leadership or not, cictory followed victory from 1758 on. New France (Canada and the land between the Appalachians and the Mississippi) became part of the British Empire, as did Spanish Florida and chunks of India and Africa.

George II did not live to see the outcome. By1760, he was blind in one eye and nearly deaf. On October 25, he died of heart failure (aortic dissection) while in his close stool (toilet) -- a rather undignified death for a king. 

On the plus side, George II lived to be 77, longer than any previous British monarch. He had outlived his eldest son and heir, Frederick, who died in 1754. He was succeeded by his grandson, who became George III, the first Hanoverian monarch born in Britain.  

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The War on Christmas

Ho! Ho! Ho! It's that jolly time of year again! That hilarious time in the USA when FOX News, Republicans, and rightwing Evangelicals profess outrage at the "War on Christmas." A fake outrage, of course, trotted out at years' end for political and cultural reasons, like keeping the poor in their place and working for peanuts. Not to mention keeping up donations to TV evangelists.

As a historian, I must confess that a real War on Christmas once took place. It was several centuries ago in the UK, with spillovers into Puritan America. And guess what? It was waged by Christians. They were called Presbyterians in Scotland and Puritans in England and New England. 

In England, the Puritans were on the winning side of of the Civil War between Parliament and Charles I in the 1640s. They famously closed the London theaters and executed the king. They also abolished the celebration of Christmas. They ordered that it be kept as a day of "fasting and humiliation." Try that today. 

In New England, transplanted Puritans did the same. They kept the ban in place until the 1850s. In the 1870s President Ulysses S. Grant declared Christmas a federal holiday throughout the US.

It may seem odd for Christians to ban Christmas, but the Puritans found no biblical justification for celebrating the birth of Christ. Nobody knew when he was born anyway. The Puritans also associated Christmas revels with sinful, ungodly behavior, not to mention Papists (Catholics). 

A wit once defined a Puritan as a person who was angry because somewhere, somebody was having a good time. That is a bit simplistic and unfair to Puritans as a whole, but the accusation fit some of them.

The Scots had preceded the English in the War on Christmas, as in so many aspects of British life. After the Presbyterian Church of Scotland came to dominate Scottish religious life in the late 16th century, they abolished the celebration of Christmas. 

Scotland's Christmas ceased to be a holiday of feasting, fun, and folly (if it ever was). It became just another dark, dank, and dreary winter day -- like a Scottish Sunday until recently. 

During the Civil War, Scots Presbyterians allied with like-minded English Puritans. They also made common cause in the war on Christmas. [Image: Parliamentary soldiers enforcing the ban on celebrating Christmas, c. 1640s, William Barns Wollen, 1900] 

In England, the Restoration of the Monarchy under Charles II ("The Merry Monarch") in 1660 also led to a restoration of traditional Christmas celebrations. They were still light years away from the materialistic orgies of today. That required the influence of American capitalism.  

In Scotland, the restoration of Christmas took much longer than in England. Presbyterian leaders continued to stifle enthusiasm for Christmas enjoyment for a couple of centuries. The difference shows in the holiday hierarchy of Scotland, compared to England, and most other civilized countries.

In Scotland, Christmas comes in a distant second to Hogmanay (New Years' Eve) as a real blowout. Think about it. The canny Scots simply transferred their serious celebrating from a sacred day to a secular one. Touché, Puritans! If you want to witness Scots letting their hair down these days, go to Edinburgh during Hogmanay! Or, just visit any Scots pub on a Saturday night. 

PS. If you go to the USA instead, be careful not to say "Happy Holidays!" or "Seasons Greetings!" And do not write "Merry Xmas" on your cards or gifts either. You may be accused of making war on Christmas, or even of Satanism. 

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Coronation! British Monarchs Who Ended Badly, Part 10: The Last Stuarts

The Glorious Revolution of 1688-89 produced the only joint monarchy in British history, William III (II in Scotland) and Mary II. Parliament made them monarchs in gratitude for Dutchman William's invasion, which its members saw as saving Protestantism from the Catholic James II. When James fled to France, Parliament declared he had abdicated, and the throne was vacant. 

The solution to filling the vacancy violated strict hereditary succession, which would have made James' infant son king. But the child had been baptized Catholic and was therefore unacceptable to most members of Parliament. Mary was second in line for the throne, and William, her cousin as well as her husband, fourth. Mary's sister, Anne, was third. 

Settling the throne on William and Mary jointly was accepted, if grudgingly, by most MPs in 1689. But it stored up problems for the future. Many people in Britain continued to support the claims of James and his heir. They are known to British history as Jacobites, from the Latin for James, Jacobus. In 1696, Jacobites tried and failed to assassinate William. 

William was initially a hero to most in Britain, especially after he defeated a Catholic army led by James in Ireland at the Battle of the Boyne and relieved the siege of Derry (AKA Londonderry) in 1690. 

Many English historians have called the Glorious Revolution the "Bloodless Revolution" because it avoided civil war. While that may be accurate enough in England, much blood was shed in Ireland, and some in Scotland as well. It also had some future stings in its tail. 

William's Irish victories inspired the creation of the anti-Catholic organization known as the Orange Lodge, which embitters the life of Northern Ireland to this day. The name derives from William's Dutch family, the House of Orange. (The reason the Dutch national football team wear orange.) In Northern Ireland, Orangemen march and beat the Orange Drum every year for "King Billy."

In the early years of their dual reign, Queen Mary was often the effective ruler in Britain. William was away on the Continent much of the time, directing the war with France. 

In 1694, Mary died of smallpox, and after that William ruled alone. She was a major loss to him, as she had social skills he lacked. He never remarried or took any mistresses, leading to (probably false) rumors of homosexuality. Courtiers viewed him as cold and aloof. His popularity with the public waned. 

One reason was resentment of his Dutch confidants and the Dutch businessmen who came to England during his reign. Anti-Dutch sentiment peaked just after 1700. It produced a brilliant response that speaks even today in our xenophobic world: a poem by Daniel Defoe, "The True Born Englishman." 

England owed major innovations to William and his Dutch followers. One was the creation of the Bank of England in 1694. Modelled on the Bank of Amsterdam, it soon became a financial powerhouse for the British government. The London Stock Exchange was also opened, modeled on that of Amsterdam. A third Dutch import was gin. 

War with France (The Nine Years' War) ended inconclusively in 1697. It broke out again in 1701 (War of the Spanish Succession). William did not live to direct the new war. He died a few months later, aged 51. 

His horse stumbled on a mole's burrow. William fell, breaking his collarbone. He died from the pneumonia that followed. After his death, gleeful Jacobites are said to have toasted "the little gentleman in the black velvet waistcoat," meaning the mole. 

William had never produced an heir. The crown passed to his sister-in-law, Queen Anne, who was much more popular than William. But Anne had no surviving heir either, despite numerous pregnancies. The death of her last surviving child, William, Duke of Gloucester, in 1700, created a dynastic and political crisis. [Image: Queen Anne, 1705, by Michael Dahl]

Anne was the last of the Protestant Stuart line. Fears grew that her death would lead to a restoration of her father the Catholic James II or his son (James "III"). 

To prevent this, the English Parliament passed the Act of Settlement in 1701. It barred Roman Catholics from the throne. It also provided that if William or Anne had no surviving issue, the throne would to Anne's nearest Protestant relative. She was a German princess, Electress Sophia of Hanover, a granddaughter of James I. Dozens of Anne's relatives had better hereditary claims to the throne, but they were all Catholic. 

The Act of Settlement only applied to England and Ireland. The English MPS did not consult the Parliament of Scotland, which was still a separate kingdom, although ruled by the same monarch since 1603. 

Soon after Anne became Queen, the Scottish Parliament declared that it would not necessarily select the same monarch as England after her death. They would do so, they declared, only if Scotland was granted free trade with England and its colonies. 

The fear that Scotland might choose to restore the Catholic Stuarts spurred efforts to achieve something James VI and I had proposed a century before: a formal union of the two kingdoms. 

After several years of negotiation, threats on both sides, and a good deal of bribery, the Act of Union passed through both parliaments. Finalized in 1707, it created the Kingdom of Great Britain with one parliament, located at Westminster. It is notable that, as a nation, Britain is nearly as young as the United States. The flag of the new nation combined the English Cross of St. George and the Scottish Cross of St. Andrew. [Image: First Union Jack, 1707-1800]

Many people on both sides of the border opposed the union. Angry Scots claimed that their leaders had sold off their parliament and independence for English gold. Disgruntled English folk were aghast at the prospect of being inundated with lean and hungry Scots barbarians looking to take over their jobs, money, empire, and women. [Image: A Flight of "Scotchmen" descending on London, 18th century]

Both nations benefited from the Union, in different ways. The Scots received the right to trade freely with England and its colonies, something Scots merchants had long desired. 

The Union created the largest tariff free economic zone in Europe at the time. Ironically, in 2016 the British (or rather the English) voted to leave today's largest free trade bloc, the European Union. "Brexit" is now one of the most decisive issues in British politics. 

In her later years, Queen Anne was plagued by ill health and obesity. At  times, she was disabled. She was often grumpy, but 17 pregnancies (at least) can do that. In the early part of her reign, she was close to Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, who became her close confidante for several years. 

Anne had appointed Sarah's husband John to command the army and made him Duke of Marlborough. He was the Wellington of his time, winning several key battles against the French. 

John's stunning victory at Blenheim in 1704 netted him a huge reward from Parliament, which he used to build the massive Blenheim Palace near Oxford. [Image: Blenheim Palace, designed by Sir John Van Brugh]

Despite Marlborough's success on the battlefield, the war dragged on for more than ten years. The Tories, mostly landed gentlemen, turned against the war because of its expense. It was largely funded by a tax on their land. 

Around the same time, Anne became estranged from Sarah Churchill. The breakdown of their relationship is portrayed in somewhat fanciful style in the otherwise excellent film The Favourite starring Olivia Colman. 

Anne didn't have a menagerie of 17 bunnies. They are there to represent the loss of her 17 children. There is also no evidence she was in a same sex relationship. She adored her husband George, Prince of Denmark, and lamented his death in 1708. 

Sarah's husband the Duke of Marlborough wanted to continue the war. Although he was a moderate Tory, he relied heavily on the support of Whig oligarchs to stay in his position. 

Anne preferred the Tories to the Whigs, partly because they were staunch defenders of her beloved Anglican Church. The Whigs defended the rights of Dissenting Protestants such as Presbyterians, Baptists, and Congregationalists.  

After 1710, Anne's support for Tory politicians and declining enthusiasm for the war brought the Tories to power. They began negotiations for peace with France and Spain, which was concluded in 1713 on terms quite favorable to Britain. 

The Peace of Utrecht ceded Nova Scotia and Gibraltar to Britain and added the right to trade with Spanish Empire in the New World. That included the right to send one shipment of enslaved Africans to be sold in the Spanish Caribbean. 

Anne's already poor health gave way in late 1713, and she died aged 49 after a stroke the following summer. Sophia, the aged Electress of Hanover, had died two months before. In July 1714, Sophia's son George, Elector of Hanover, became king of the new nation of Great Britain, courtesy of Parliament. 

The death of Anne was not only a change of dynasty. It was passing of an old mindset. She was the last British sovereign to use the monarch's veto power to stop an act of Parliament. She was also the last to touch for the King's Evil, or scrofula, a lymphatic disease caused by the tuberculosis bacillus. 

For a long time after her death, historians tended to dismiss Queen Anne as a nonentity: not very bright, bigoted, fat, and weepy. That view was largely based on the writings of her estranged confidante Sarah Churchill. 

Recent assessments of Anne stress the major accomplishments of her short reign: the Act of Union, victory in war, a flourishing economy, and greater political stability than Britain had known for a century, thanks to the development of a working two-party system. Governments came and went without violence.

Anne was a hardworking monarch despite her poor health. She had a major impact on many policy decisions. When she died, the new nation of Great Britain was verging on becoming the leading economic and imperial power in the world, for good and ill. Civil war and political revolution were left behind. Economic and Industrial Revolution lay ahead, under a new German dynasty, the Hanoverians.  

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