1688–1815
The House of Hanover
King and warrior
In 1743, George II became the last British monarch to
lead his army into action at the Battle of Dettingen, in
the War of the Austrian Succession.
B EF O R E
The continuity that is key to the ideal of
monarchy had been hard to find in the
England of the 17th century.
STUART DIFFICULTIES
In 1603, the death of Elizabeth I, the “Virgin
Queen”, had brought a Scottish king to the
throne in the form of James I (James VI of
Scotland) ❮❮ 158–59. But since then, the Stuart
succession had been anything but smooth.
Charles I had so alienated his Parliament
that he fought a civil war with them and was
executed in 1649 ❮❮ 170–71. For just over
a decade after this, during the years of the
Commonwealth, the country was without
a king ❮❮ 172–73.
RESTORED—BUT RESENTED
The monarchy made its return with the
Restoration of Charles II in 1660 ❮❮ 176–77.
But Charles quickly upset Protestants in
Parliament and the country. His high-handed
style (and Catholic sympathies) stretched their
patience to the limits—and his younger brother,
James, promised to be even more absolutist in
his style. In 1688, a Dutchman, William, Prince of
Orange, was invited to take the throne as
England’s William III ❮❮ 188–89.
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In their search for a successor to maintain the sort of monarchy they wanted, the English had looked
first to the Netherlands. Now a German dynasty was to occupy the throne, but the Hanoverians were at
home among a people for whom Protestantism and patriotism were coming to mean the same thing.
A
new century heralded a new
succession crisis, and further
fears of Britain falling back into
“popish” hands. In 1702, Queen Anne
ascended the throne, and though no
one felt the least anxiety about her
loyalties, she was still a Stuart and the
daughter of James II, a Catholic king.
She was also going to die without an
heir, as her last surviving child, Prince
William, Duke of Gloucester, died in
1700, aged only 11 years. In 1701,
Parliament had rushed through the
Act of Settlement to preempt any bid
by the exiled James II himself, should
he outlive Queen Anne, or by his son
James Edward Stuart or daughter
Louisa Maria Teresa, if he should not.
Instead, the Act established that the
succession would go to the reliably
Protestant (and German) Sophia,
Electress of Hanover.
Union dues
Scotland’s Parliament, irritated at
England’s high-handed conduct in
passing the Act of Settlement without
consultation, brought in an Act of
Security in 1704, insisting on its right
to choose a monarch of its own. The
Westminster Parliament retaliated
with an Alien Act that marked out
Scots in England as foreigners to be
discriminated against—putting the
Scots and their economy at a major
disadvantage. In these less than ideal
circumstances, the Scottish Parliament
had little alternative but to commit
itself to a permanent relationship
with England. Both countries passed
complementary Acts of Union in 1707.
Sophia died just a few weeks before
Anne herself died, so on August 1,
1714, Sophia’s son became King
George I of Great Britain and Ireland.
A foreigner on the throne
George was aged 54 by the time he was
crowned king of a country to which he
was a stranger. His previous life as a
German prince included service in the
Hanoverian army in the War of the
Spanish Succession. Set in his ways,
he never became fully naturalized in
England—or in the language of English.
But staunch Protestantism mattered
more than nationality at this time.
After the failed Jacobite rising of 1715
to restore the Stuarts to the throne, and
a second minor scare in 1719, George’s
reign was comparatively secure, and for
the most part peaceful. George did,
however, take Britain into the War
of the Quadruple Alliance (1718–20),
fighting alongside the Dutch Republic,
Austria, and France to thwart Philip V
of Spain in his plans to take the French
throne and territories in Italy, over
which he felt his wife, Isabella Farnese,
was entitled to reign. In the realm of
domestic government, George’s fears
of Jacobitism led him to be suspicious
of the Tories—despite their traditionally
being the monarchical party—and
Long-reigning George III
George III, Britain’s third Hanoverian king, reigned for
almost 60 years, a record length of time for a monarch
on the throne, until later surpassed by that of his
granddaughter, Queen Victoria.
I N N O VAT I O N
HERSCHEL’S TELESCOPE
Born in Hanover in 1738, William Herschel
came to England in 1756. His fascination
with the precision craft of grinding lenses
and the mechanics of making telescopes
led to his interest in what they revealed.
With the help of his sister, Caroline, he
conducted systematic surveys of the
heavens, discovering the planet Uranus in
1781, and calling it Georgium sidus, the
“Georgian Star” or the “King’s Star”. A
fascinated George III further encouraged
these researches, making William the King’s
Astronomer in 1782. In 1785–89, William
built what was then the largest telescope
in the world (shown here). Its main
mirror had a diameter of 1.2m (4ft).
consequently into the embrace of the
constitutionalist Whigs, who favored a
diminution in the power of monarchy.
11 days were “lost” in September 1752
when Britain switched from the
Julian to the Gregorian calendar. New
Year’s Day, previously March 25, became
January 1 as a season-based year was
replaced by a strictly chronological one.
Soldier king
George II, who acceded to the throne in
1727, was also a veteran of the War of
the Spanish Succession. However, his
most ferocious fights had been with his
own father—the prince was arrested
and banned from the court after one
particularly bad quarrel in 1717.
An early event of George II’s reign
was the War of Jenkins’ Ear, fought
against Spain from 1739, over the right
of Britain to sell slaves in the Spanish
Empire (it was named after an English
sea captain, Robert Jenkins, wounded
by Spanish coastguards). Failure to
prosecute the war vigorously enough
contributed to the fall of Robert
Walpole’s Whig government. By 1742,
the war broadened out to become part
of the War of the Austrian Succession,
in which Britain sided with the
Austrian Maria Theresa, and her
“Pragmatic” party (in favor of bending
the rules to allow her succession to the
Habsburg throne as a female), against
France, who had Frederick II of Prussia
in its camp. The end of the War of the
Austrian Succession was little more

than a pause for breath before, in
1756, the same combatants (albeit
in a different combination of alliances)
became embroiled in the Seven Years’
War (see pp.212–13). Before this, in
1745–46, George had to overcome the
threat to the British throne of a new
Jacobite rebellion (see pp.202–03).
“Farmer George”
In 1760, a young king followed an
old one when George III came to the
throne. He was George II’s grandson,
not his son, and only 22 years of age.
His “madness”—porphyria, an inherited
disorder—was a feature of his later life.
Although he lost time to illness from
early on in his reign, he was generally a
force for stability and calm, despite his
accession being overshadowed by the
Seven Years’ War. The Hanoverian
dynasty seemed to have come of age as
Britain’s ruling house in him: English
was his first language and he never
visited Germany.
Yet his succession had come as a
surprise after the unexpected death
of his father, the Prince of Wales.
Brought up very strictly, George was
religious and was devoted to his wife
Queen Charlotte—despite not having
met her until their wedding day. His
down-to-earth manner and agricultural
interests earned him his nickname
“Farmer George”, but he was also a
highly educated and cultured man.
His interest in agriculture was actually
in the scientific innovations
TH E HOU SE OF HANOVER
AF TER
Cartoon of George IV
“To be or not to be?” The Prince
Regent asks himself what everyone So firmly established had the Hanoverians
else was asking in 1820: was he become that their foreign origins were
really ready to be king? more or less forgotten. Britain seemed
comparatively at ease with itself as the
transforming British century wore on—though the effects of
farming at the time (see tumults abroad were strongly felt.
pp.230–31). A passionate
reader and bibliophile, OVERSEAS THREATS
he established the King’s The rebellion of the American colonies
Library, London, and was was of direct concern, of course. Britain fought
a generous patron to the frantically to keep hold of its possessions
Royal Academy. 214–15 ❯❯. The French Revolution followed
George III broke the 236–37 ❯❯, but the specter of home-grown
Hanoverian mold by sedition was soon displaced by a well-founded
leaning toward the Tories, fear of Napoleon Bonaparte 240–41 ❯❯.
rather than to the Whigs,
in Parliament. He was FIT TO REIGN?
true to Hanoverian type, The monarchy, for the most part a tower
however, in having a of strength, briefly become the source of
difficult relationship instability in 1788 as George III’s failing health
with his son, although prompted the Regency Crisis 254–55 ❯❯. From
the Prince of Wales had the 1790s, the public airing of dirty linen brought
to step in as regent from the royal family into disrepute. The wild and
1811, when illness extravagant conduct of the future George IV as
incapacitated him. his father’s Regent from 1811 was hardly
calculated to redeem it.
“Born and educated in this
country, I glory in the Coronation of George IV
The coronation of George IV took place at Westminster
Abbey, London, in July 1821. It was marred by scandal
name of Briton.” when the new King’s estranged wife, Caroline, from
whom he had lived separately since 1796, came back
to London to claim her rights as queen.
GEORGE III, IN HIS ACCESSION SPEECH, OCTOBER 25, 1760
 1688–1815

B EF O R E

The Stuart family had started out in

medieval times as stewards to the Scottish
kings, but since then their ideas had
Scottish Jacobites
become much more exalted.
The struggles of the Stuarts to reclaim the Crown—for themselves and for Catholicism—continued
through the early decades of the 18th century. The ousted dynasty came back to haunt the Hanoverians
RIGHT TO RULE
James VI firmly believed in his “divine in a series of rebellions that rocked the state, reminding Britain of what had so nearly been.
right” to rule, and he took the same

conviction into his reign as England’s
James I ❮❮ 158–59. His son, Charles I, was
prepared to go to war with his Parliament
❮❮ 168–69, finally giving his life for his
principles—and pride ❮❮ 170–71. His
son, Charles II, managed to take back
the throne after years of exile ❮❮ 176–77.
A SECOND RESTORATION?
Charles II was succeeded by James II, whose
Catholicism and absolutism alienated
powerful Protestant subjects. In 1688 he
was toppled. ❮❮ 188–89. James and his
supporters—the Jacobites—fought back to
win the throne, but without avail ❮❮ 196–97;
though a Stuart did succeed William III, it was
the Protestant Queen Anne ❮❮ 200–01.
T
he Jacobites’ hopes rested with
James Francis Edward Stuart, or
James III, though his attempted
invasion of 1708 had failed. A Jacobite
rebellion in 1715 started promisingly
with the capture of Perth, but the Duke
of Argyll held Stirling. The Scottish clans
were divided: the Earl of Seaforth
was with the rebels, but his army was
harassed by hostile clans. A small force
invaded England, hoping to attract
sympathizers along the way; but on
November 14, the Jacobites were
defeated at Preston. Measures to prevent
future risings were introduced.
Taming the Highlands
The Disarming Act did what its name
implies, depriving the Highlanders of
their weapons. This was a cultural
attack as well as a military one, since
the dirk (long dagger), claymore
(broadsword), and target (small round
shield) were part of Highland dress.
British commander General George
Wade inspected Scotland in 1724 and
recommended large-scale infrastructure
improvements to help control the
region, with new roads and barracks,
and the founding of Fort William,

SON OF JAMES II (1688–1766)

THE OLD PRETENDER

James Francis Edward was the man

who would have been King James III
(James VIII of Scotland)—the rightful
“King Over the Water” as far as Jacobites
were concerned. Others claimed that
James II’s son had actually been an
imposter from birth; that he was
smuggled into Mary of Modena’s
bedchamber in a warming pan after
her own baby was stillborn.
James grew up in France. He returned
to Scotland in 1708 to reclaim his throne,
but his French invasion fleet was beaten
back before he could land. He fared
little better when he returned for
the rebellion in 1715.

202

Fort Augustus, and Fort
George. Even so, there
was an attempted rising
in 1719. This one relied
on Spanish help, the French
having now made their peace with
England. The invasion force was
dispersed by the weather; a few hundred
men were landed and managed briefly
to occupy Eilean Donan Castle, but were
defeated at Glen Shiel on June 10.
Efforts to “domesticate” the Highlands
continued with the establishment of
the Black Watch regiment in 1725.
Flintlock pistol
Firearms were improving fast: this silver-mounted,
sidelocked flintlock from the Jacobite era was not
just elegant, but easily reloaded and reliable.
Very much a Highland band in its
organization and tactics, it was at the
same time firmly loyal to the Crown.
The Young Pretender
“Bonnie Prince Charlie,” Charles
Edward Stuart, was the son of “Old
Pretender,” James Francis Edward.
With the War of the Austrian
Succession in 1743, the French were
again looking to make mischief for the
British. They agreed to provide naval
S C OT T I S H J A C O B I T E S
backing for an invasion of England,
but this fleet was broken up by storms.
France lost interest, but Charles kept
“We are sadly
planning. In July 1745, he turned up
virtually unannounced (and without convinced that
French troops) on the Scottish island of
Eriskay. His standard was raised at
Glenfinnan a few weeks later, despite
they are not
skepticism among the Highland chiefs.
Charles mustered 3,000 troops, and such raw
took Perth and Edinburgh. He lingered
there, posing as monarch, while many
of his troops dribbled away. He led what ragamuffins
was left of his force to an unexpected
triumph at Prestonpans, East Lothian, on
September 21. There was still no sign of
as they was
represented.”
a popular rising in his support. By now,
the Crown was organizing its forces.
Dissension split the Jacobite camp:
army general Lord George Murray WILLIAM WALPOLE IN A LETTER, AFTER
disagreed with Charles on just about
PRESTONPANS, SEPTEMBER 27, 1745
everything, including the idea of
invading England. Even so, in November
the Jacobites headed south via Carlisle
and Manchester, where a group of
English supporters joined them.
However, there was no rush to rally
to the Jacobite banner. At Derby, a
government agent told Charles that
a staunch defense had been prepared in
London (which was untrue). To Charles’s
disgust, the chiefs voted to withdraw to
Scotland to consolidate their position.
Bonnie Prince Charlie
After months on the run, the “Young Pretender,” lying Execution of Scottish clan chief
low on the island of Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides, Simon Fraser, chief of the Fraser clan and Jacobite
met Flora MacDonald. A supporter’s daughter, she helped supporter, was the last man to be beheaded on
him escape, disguising him as her maid Betty Burke. London’s Tower Hill on April 9, 1747.
AF TER
In the Highlands, whole communities
mourned their dead and surveyed the
smoking ruins of their homes and fields.
They would have to rebuild their lives—
without the support of cultural traditions
barred by vengeful and oppressive laws.
REACHING A SETTLEMENT
Many felt used and abandoned by those whom
tradition had set above them. They were to feel
the same sense of betrayal subsequently.
Clan chiefs, who turned into strutting aristocrats,
started clearing whole communities off
their ancestral lands 294–95 ❯❯.
For most in Scotland and England, though,
the crushing of the Jacobite rebellion in 1745 was
welcome. It brought a period of taking stock. The
Jacobites’ downfall confirmed for Britons that
their future was to be Hanoverian and
Protestant. Most were happy enough with the
settlement. The flowering of intellectual and
artistic culture in Glasgow and Edinburgh in the
late 18th century suggested that in some ways the
Union with England suited Scotland 224–25 ❯❯. FORT GEORGE, INVERNESS
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