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House of Hanover

The first of the Hanover Kings, George I, was only 52nd in line to the throne, but the nearest Protestant according to the Act of Settlement. Two descendants of James II, the deposed Stuart king, threatened to take the throne, and were supported by a number of 'Jacobites' throughout the realm.

The Hanoverian Succession was, so far as the predominant partner in the Union was concerned, accomplished without bloodshed; and, happily for the continental Powers of Europe, they were not drawn into a direct settlement by arms of the question of the British Succession, as they previously had been in the case of the Spanish, and afterwards were in that of the Austrian.

William III had been preparing to meet the succession problem for some time. In 1689 he had begun negotiations with the next available Protestant heir, Sophia of Hanover. Although there were many nearer relatives, they were all Catholics. However, Sophia, a granddaughter of James VI/I and one of William's cousins, was Protestant and therefore met one of the key criteria for succession to the English and Scottish crowns. She had married into the royal dynasty of one of the larger German principalities - Hanover - and was the mother of its ruling prince or 'elector', George. In the critical year 1688 Sophia, the youngest daughter of the Princess Elizabeth of England, was fifty-eight years of age. Sophia's eldest son, George Lewis (afterwards King George I) was in 1688 a man of twenty-eight years of age, to whom a son, George Augustus (afterwards George II) and a daughter (afterwards Queen of Prussia) had already been born. The policy of the House of Hanover as to the Succession in the years which ensued was one of waiting - patiently on the part of the Electress Sophia, and with something very like indifference on the part of her son.

A succession crisis was triggered by the death on August 7, 1700 of an 11-year-old boy, Prince William, Duke of Gloucester. The death of the young Duke of Gloucester left no life between the Electress Sophia and the throne but that of Queen Anne herself. The Act which in default of issue of the Princess Anne or King William settled the English Crown upon "the most excellent Princess Sophia and the heirs of her body, being Protestants," on June 12, 1701, received the royal assent. In the last days of August, 1701, the new Grand Alliance against France was concluded; and a few days later, by the deathbed of King James II, his son was recognised by Louis XIV as successor to the English Crown. The "indignity" (the word is Bentley's) filled all England with wrath. In January, 1702, was passed, together with an Act attainting the Pretender, the Abjuration Act, which made it obligatory to abjure him and to swear fidelity to the King and his heirs according to the Act of Settlement. Shortly afterwards (March 8) King William died; and a period, in some respects obscure, began in the history of the Hanoverian Succession, which extended over thirteen further weary years. The Electoral Prince was created Duke of Cambridge, and Knight of the Garter like his father - and that was all.

Queen Anne had married Prince George of Denmark. All her children had died before her, and Anne herself was in very poor health. In 1708 the death of Prince George of Denmark removed the last possibility of further issue from the Queen.

The old Electress Sophia of Hanover died on June 5, 1714, so, according to law, the next king would be her son, George Lewis, Elector of Hanover. George Lewis was a great friend of the Whigs, and the queen's Tory ministers felt sure that if he became king he would drive them from power. Lord Bolinglroke was the most brilliant but the least honest of the Tory statesmen. He formed a plan for securing the throne for Anne's brother, the son of James II, whom most Englishmen called The Pretender. The Whig's best security lay in the fact of Oxford and Bolingbroke's perfectly clear perception that, while it would at any time have been impossible to persuade the Queen to summon the Pretender to London, it would have been madness to bring him into England from Scotland; and that, so long as the Pretender refused to cease to be a Roman Catholic, he had no chance of the English throne.

On the other hand, Bolingbroke was convinced that a German Prince such as George Lewis could never permanently occupy the English throne. However, before his plans were ready, Anne suddenly died. The Elector of Hanover was now proclaimed George I on the day of the Queen's death (August 1) without opposition, and Bolingbroke had to flee the country. Thus Queen Anne was the last of the House of Stuart. Henceforward the House of Hanover reigned in its stead. In the new Parliament, which assembled on March 15, 1715, the Whigs commanded a large English majority, while of the Scottish seats the Jacobites, then on the eve of a rising, had only been able to secure an insignificant fraction.

For all that, the Hanoverian period was remarkably stable, not least because of the longevity of its kings. From 1714 through to 1837, there were only five monarchs, one of whom, George III, remains the longest reigning king in British History. The period was also one of political stability, and the development of constitutional monarchy. For vast tracts of the eighteenth century, great Whig families dominated politics, while the early nineteenth century saw Tory domination.

Britain's first 'Prime' Minister, Robert Walpole, dates from this period, and income tax was introduced. Towards the end of the Hanoverian period, the Great Reform Act was passed, which amongst other things widened the electorate. It was also in this period that Britain came to acquire much of her overseas empire, despite the loss of the American colonies, largely through foreign conquest in the various wars of the century. By the end of the Hanoverian period, the British Empire covered a third of the globe. The theme of longevity was set to continue, as the longest reigning monarch in British history, Queen Victoria, prepared to take the throne.

George I was more than fifty years of age when he became king. He knew nothing of England, and never even learned the English language. He had given abundant proof of military ability and courage, and he was fond of the pastimes which in his day commended themselves to his class. On the other hand, he was too old to shake off the absolutist habits of thought and conduct which had long become incompatible with the conditions of English political life. No one cared much for him, but Englishmen made him their king, as the only way of keeping out the Pretender. Under his rule the ministers could do almost what they liked, and so the system of Party Government which had begun with William III became fully established. The Tories lost their power and popularity. Hoth under George I and his son, George II, none but Whigs became the king's ministers.

The friends of the Pretender were much disappointed at the peaceable accession of George I. In 1715 The Jacobite tneJ stirred up a rebellion against the new revolt of king. Nothing much came of this in England, but a serious revolt broke out in the Highlands of Scotland. In those days the Highlanders lived quite a different life from that of the rest of the Scots or Englishmen. They were divided into clans, or great families, and each of these clans was ruled by a chieftain. They cared nothing for the law, and were often fighting with each other or uniting to plunder the people of the Lowlands. When the mass of Englishmen and Scots had ceased to care for the Stuarts, the Highlanders still remained their friends. They were splendid soldiers, and their fierce charge often threw the slow-moving regular soldiers of those days into utter confusion. In 1715, however, the Highlanders had a poor leader in the Earl of Mar. Before long the Pretender himself went to Scotland. But he was so dull and desponding that he killed all enthusiasm for his cause. The disgusted Highlanders went home, and the Pretender quickly returned to France.

George II was a thorough German, but he knew more than his father about England. Before he became king he had been jealous of Walpole. He was now wise enough to see that Walpole Prime was the best man to be his chief minister, and Minister - kept him on in office. Walpole soon won so strong a position that all the other ministers were forced to obey him. He was the first ruler who was called Prime Minister. As long as Walpole remained in power he kept England at peace. Before Walpole's fall the war with Spain had grown into a war with France also. The struggle was called the War of the Austrian Succession. England supported the claim of Maria the Austrian Theresa, a young girl, to the Austrian throne, while France and other powers wanted to divide her dominions between them.

One result of the war was that the Jacobites again rose in revolt against the House of Hanover. At last, in 1746, he was defeated by the king's second son, the Duke of Cumberland, at Culloden Moor, near Inverness. The Highland revolt was now cruelly put down by Cumberland, who behaved so brutally that people called him the butcher. Charles Edward escaped to the Continent. He lived for many years more, but soon lost all influence. On his death, and that of his brother, the unfortunate House of Stuart came to an end. Henceforth the House of Hanover remained firmly established on the British throne.

The Seven Years' War began with a struggle between the French and English for mastery in two remote parts of the world, America and India. A war, known as the French and Indian War, thus broke out in the backwoods of America, and the French got the better of it in all the early fighting. There was a similar struggle between the English and French in India. Up to this time India had been War with ruled by native princes, and the English French in and French only went there as traders. Thanks to the genius of William Pitt, the Seven Years' War, which had begun so badly for England, had now become the most glorious and successful war that was fought since the days of Marlborough. It was still going on when George II died in 1760, and was succeeded by his grandson, George III.

George III was born in England, and was proud of it. He was not very quick, but he was very persevering. He wanted to enjoy as much power as the law allowed him. He saw how the Whigs under George I and George II had taken away many of the powers that the king had once enjoyed. For that reason he hated the Whigs bitterly, and drove them from office as soon as he could.

When George III summoned his Tory cohorts from their long retirement outside English public life and attempted to reorganize the government on the lines of centralized rule and irresponsible monarchy, he took a very natural step and one quite in harmony with the views of a considerable body of influential Englishmen. The reaction from Hanoverian helplessness had set in, the age of machinery had arrived, commerce was seeking to strengthen old markets and to find out new ones.

He ended the war with France in 1763. He was in such a hurry to make peace that he did not win for Britain all that she might have got. Nevertheless, it was a very profitable peace for the country. By it England kept Canada and the chief power in India.

The Seven Years' War had cost England a great deal, and George thought that the Americans ought to pay something towards it. The great event of Lord North's ministry was the revolt of the American colonies. The Americans levied troops, and rose in revolt against King George. War broke out in 1775, and immediately afterwards the Americans issued a Declaration of Independence. France, Spain, and other old enemies of England took up the cause of the Americans. When peace was made in 1783 England was forced to acknowledge the independence of the United States.

George's chief desire was to choose his own ministers freely. Since the Revolution of 1688 the kings had gradually been forced to take as their ministers the leaders ot the party that was strongest in the House of Commons. George III wished to go back to the earlier custom, and have whatever ministers he thought best. He went to work in a very clumsy way to carry out his ideas. In 1793 England went to war against the French. England and France remained at war for more than twenty years, with only one short peace of a few months. It was a most desperate struggle. Pitt was not so successful a war minister as his father, and the French gained many victories.

In 1801, the Act of Union united the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, and King George III dropped the ancient claim to the French throne. George III died in 1820, after a reign of sixty years. In 1810 he had become insane, and his eldest son George, became ruler of England with the title of Prince Rejent. On the old king's death the regent became George IV.

George IV was a bad man and a feeble king. One good thing came from his weakness. He was not persevering enough to keep in his hands the power which George III had won back for the Crown. The consequence was that the ministers again became appointed by parliament rather than by the King. The Tories remained in power all through the reign of George IV. The Tories were not, however, all of the same mind. Most of their chief ministers were opposed to all reforms, but some of the Tories had. learned the more liberal teaching of William Pitt. Their leader was the brilliant George Canning, who gradually obtained a large share of power. A great many useful and wise changes were then carried out by Canning and his friends.

George IV died in 1830. As he had no children, his brother William became King William IV. Just before George's death the first railways worked by steam-engines were opened for traffic. Steam-engines had long been used ways. for pumping and for working machinery. They had now been employed for about twenty years for making ships travel independently of the wind. Now the locomotive steam-engine was invented, and soon became as important as the steamship. The first really important milway was that between Liverpool and Manchester, which was opened in 1830. Railroads and steamships soon became very common. They made it easier, quicker, and cheaper to move passengers and goods from one place to another. Britain was the place where they were first largely used. They enabled the country to take even a greater share in the trade of the world than it had gained already in the days of the younger Pitt. William IV was a good-natured and well-meaning king, though he was not very wise, and was very undignified.