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George I of Great Britain

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: British History
1500-1750; Monarchs of Great Britain

                               George I
   King of Great Britain and Ireland; Elector of Hanover; Duke of
   Brunswick-Lüneburg (more...)
   Portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller
   Portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller
      Reign    1 August 1714 – 11 June 1727
   Coronation  20 October 1714
   Predecessor Anne
    Successor  George II
     Consort   Sophia Dorothea of Celle ( 1682 - 1694)
                                Issue
   George II
   Sophia, Queen in Prussia
                              Full name
   George Louis
   German: Georg Ludwig
                                Detail
   Titles
   HM The King
   HRH The Elector of Hanover
   HSH The Hereditary Prince of Hanover
   HSH The Hereditary Prince of Brunswick-Lüneburg
   HSH Duke Georg Ludwig of Brunswick-Lüneburg
   Royal house House of Hanover
     Father    Ernest Augustus, Elector of Hanover and Duke of
               Brunswick-Lüneburg
     Mother    Sophia, Countess Palatine of Simmern
      Born     28 May 1660
               Leine Castle, Hanover
      Died     11 June 1727 (aged 67)
               Osnabrück, Hanover
     Burial    4 August 1727
               Herrenhausen Palace, Hanover

   George I (George Louis; 28 May 1660 – 11 June 1727) was the first
   Hanoverian King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, from 1 August
   1714 until his death. He was also the Archbannerbearer (afterwards
   Archtreasurer) and a Prince Elector of the Holy Roman Empire.

Early life

   George was born on 28 May 1660 in Hanover, Germany. He was the eldest
   son of Ernest Augustus, Elector of Hanover and Duke of
   Brunswick-Lüneburg, a German prince, and of his wife, Sophia. His
   grandmother was the sister of Charles I of England and his
   great-grandfather was James I of England. Duke George of
   Brunswick-Lüneburg, as he was then known, was the heir-apparent to his
   father's German territory.

   In 1682, George married his first cousin, the Princess Sophia of Celle,
   who was the only child of his father's elder brother. They had two
   children, George (b. 1683) and Sophia Dorothea (b. 1687). The couple
   were however soon estranged; George preferred the society of his
   mistress, Ehrengard Melusine von der Schulenburg, whom he later created
   Duchess of Munster and Kendal in Great Britain, and by whom he had at
   least three illegitimate children.

   Sophia, meanwhile, had her own romantic connection with the Swedish
   Count Philip Christoph von Königsmarck. Threatened with the scandal of
   an elopement, the Hanoverian court ordered the lovers to desist, and
   George appears to have countenanced a plan to murder Königsmarck. The
   count was killed in July 1694, and his body was then thrown into a
   river. The murder appears to have been committed by four of George's
   courtiers, one of whom is said to have been paid the enormous sum of
   150,000 thalers, which in that day was about one hundred times the
   annual salary of the highest-paid minister.

   George's marriage to Sophia was dissolved, not on the grounds that
   either of them committed adultery, but on the grounds that Sophia had
   "abandoned" her husband. With the concurrence of her father, George had
   Sophia imprisoned in the Castle of Ahlden in her native Celle. She was
   denied access to her children and her father, and forbidden to remarry.
   She was however endowed with an income, establishment and servants, and
   was allowed to ride in a carriage outside her castle, albeit under
   supervision.

Early reign

   In 1698, Ernst August died, leaving all of his territories to George,
   with the exception of the Prince-Bishopric of Osnabrück. (The
   Prince-Bishopric was not an hereditary title; instead, it alternated
   between Protestant and Roman Catholic incumbents.) George thus, on 23
   January 1698, became Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (also known as
   Hannover, after its capital), and thereby the Archbannerbearer (a
   prestigious sinecure) and, most importantly, a Prince-Elector of the
   Holy Roman Empire. His court in Hanover was graced by many cultural
   icons, such as the mathematician Gottfried Leibniz and the composer
   Händel.

   Shortly after George's accession to his paternal dukedom, the
   Parliament of England passed the Act of Settlement 1701, whereunder
   George's mother, the Electress Sophia, was designated heir to the
   British Throne if the then-reigning monarch (William III) and his
   sister-in-law Princess Anne of Denmark (the later Queen Anne) both died
   without issue. The succession was so designed because Sophia was the
   closest Protestant relative of the British Royal Family; numerous
   Catholics with superior hereditary claims were bypassed. In England,
   the Tories generally opposed allowing a foreigner to succeed to the
   Throne, whilst the Whigs favoured a Protestant successor regardless of
   nationality. George is said to have been reluctant to accept the
   English plan, but his Hanoverian advisors suggested that he should
   acquiesce so that his German possessions would become more secure.
         British Royalty
         House of Hanover
             George I
      George II
       Sophia, Queen in Prussia

   Shortly after George's accession in Hanover, the War of the Spanish
   Succession broke out. At issue was the right of Philip, the grandson of
   the French King Louis XIV, to succeed to the Spanish Throne under the
   terms of the will of the Spanish King Charles II. The Holy Roman
   Empire, the United Provinces, England, Hanover and many other German
   states opposed Philip's right to succeed because they feared that
   France would become too powerful if it also could control Spain.

   George's support for England may have conciliated many Englishmen, but
   it did not impress the people of Scotland. The English Parliament had
   settled on Sophia, Electress of Hanover, without consulting the Estates
   of Scotland (the Scottish Parliament). In 1703, the Estates passed a
   bill that declared that they would elect Queen Anne's successor from
   amongst the Protestant descendants of past Scottish monarchs. This
   successor would not be the same individual as the successor to the
   English Throne, unless numerous political and economic concessions were
   made by England. The Royal Assent was originally withheld, which caused
   the Scottish Estates to refuse to raise taxes and threaten to withdraw
   troops from the army fighting in the War of the Spanish Succession. In
   1704, Anne capitulated, and her Assent was granted to the bill, which
   became the Act of Security 1704. Angered, the English Parliament passed
   several measures which restricted Anglo-Scottish trade and crippled the
   Scottish economy. In 1707, the Act of Union was passed; it united
   England and Scotland into a single political entity, the Kingdom of
   Great Britain. The rules of succession established by the Act of
   Settlement were retained. The House of Hanover was not entirely
   acceptable to many Scotsmen, as would be later reflected by rebellions
   during George I's reign.

   In 1706, the Elector of Bavaria was deprived of his offices and titles
   for siding with France against the Empire. In 1708, the Reichstag, or
   Imperial Diet, formally confirmed George's position as a Prince-Elector
   and in 1710 conferred upon him the dignity of Archtreasurer of the
   Empire, formerly held by the Elector Palatine - the absence of the
   Elector of Bavaria allowed a re-shuffling of offices. The War of the
   Spanish Succession would continue until 1713, when it ended
   indecisively with the ratification of the Treaty of Utrecht. Philip was
   allowed to succeed to the Spanish Throne, but he was removed from the
   line of succession to the French Throne.

Accession in Great Britain

   George's mother, the Electress Sophia, died only a few weeks before
   Anne, Queen of Great Britain. Although there were fifty-two possible
   heirs to the throne of Great Britain at the time and the fact that
   direct lines were considered to be direct through males and not women,
   pursuant to the Act of Union 1707, George became King of Great Britain,
   when Anne died on 1 August 1714. George strongly agreed with the ideas
   of the Whigs at the time.

   He did not arrive in Great Britain until 18 September; during his
   absence, the Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench acted as a regent.
   George was crowned at Westminster Abbey on 20 October.

   Upon his accession the practice relating to the dignity of princes was
   changed. Before the Hanoverians, the only princely dignities were those
   of Prince of Wales (customarily granted to the heir-apparent) and
   Princess Royal (customarily granted to the Sovereign's eldest
   daughter). The other members of the Royal Family were only entitled to
   the styles "Lord" and "Lady". George I, however, was accustomed to the
   German practice, whereunder the princely dignity was more common.
   Consequently, the Sovereign's children and grandchildren in the male
   line became Princes and Princesses styled "Royal Highness," and
   great-grandchildren in the male line became Princes and Princesses
   styled "Highness".

   George I primarily resided in Great Britain, though he often visited
   his home in Hanover. During the King's absences, power was vested
   either in his son, George, Prince of Wales, or in a committee of
   "Guardians and Justices of the Kingdom". Even whilst he was in Great
   Britain, the King occupied himself with Hanoverian concerns. He spoke
   poor English; instead, he spoke his native German, or French. Since
   many believed that he was not fluent in English, George I was ridiculed
   by his British subjects, and many of his contemporaries thought him
   unintelligent. During his reign, the powers of the monarchy diminished
   and the modern system of government by a Cabinet underwent development.
   Towards the end of his reign, actual power was held by a de facto Prime
   Minister, Sir Robert Walpole.

   In 1715, when not even a year had passed after George's accession, he
   was faced with a Jacobite Rebellion, which became known as "The
   Fifteen". The Jacobites sought to put Anne's Catholic half-brother,
   James Francis Edward Stuart (whom they called "James III", and who was
   known to his opponents as the "Pretender") on the Throne. The Pretender
   instigated rebellion in Scotland, where support for Jacobitism was
   stronger than in England. John Erskine, 22nd Earl of Mar, an embittered
   Scottish nobleman who had previously supported the "Glorious
   Revolution", led the rebels. The Fifteen, however, was a dismal
   failure; Lord Mar's battle plans were poor, and the Pretender had not
   arrived in Scotland in time. By the end of the year 1715, the rebellion
   had all but collapsed. Faced with impending defeat, Lord Mar and the
   Pretender fled to France in the next February. After the rebellion was
   defeated, although there were some executions and forfeitures, the
   government's response was generally mild.
   Monarchical Styles of
   King George I of Great Britain
    Reference style  His Majesty
     Spoken style    Your Majesty
   Alternative style Sire

   Several members of the Tory Party sympathised with the Jacobites.
   George I began to distrust the Tories, and power thus passed to the
   Whigs. Whig dominance would be so great under George I that the Tories
   would not return to power for another half-century. As soon as the
   Whigs came to power, Parliament passed the Septennial Act 1715, which
   extended the maximum duration of Parliament to seven years (although it
   could be dissolved earlier by the Sovereign). Thus, Whigs already in
   power could remain in such a position for a greater period of time.

War and rebellion

   After his accession in Great Britain, George's relationship with his
   son (which had always been poor) worsened. George, Prince of Wales
   constantly encouraged opposition to his father's policies. His home,
   Leicester House, became a meeting place for the King's political
   opponents. In 1717, the birth of a grandson led George I to quarrel
   with the Prince of Wales. The Prince and Princess of Wales, as well as
   their children, were all thrown out of the royal residence. George I
   and his son would later be reconciled, but would never again be on
   cordial terms.

   George I was active in directing British foreign policy during his
   early years. In 1717, he contributed to the creation of the Triple
   Alliance, an anti-Spanish league composed of Great Britain, France and
   the United Provinces. In 1718, the Holy Roman Empire was added to the
   body, which became known as the Quadruple Alliance. The subsequent War
   of the Quadruple Alliance involved the same issue as the War of the
   Spanish Succession. The Treaty of Utrecht had allowed the grandson of
   Louis XIV of France, Philip, to succeed to the Spanish Throne, on the
   condition that he gave up his rights to succeed to the French Throne.
   Upon the death of Louis XIV, however, Philip attempted to violate the
   treaty and take the Crown of France. But with even the French fighting
   against him in the War, Philip's armies fared poorly. As a result, the
   Spanish and French Thrones remained separate.

   George I was faced with a second rebellion in 1719. The Jacobites
   managed to secure the support of Spain, but stormy seas allowed only
   about three hundred Spanish troops to arrive in Scotland. A base was
   established at Eilean Donan Castle on the west Scottish coast, only for
   it to be destroyed by British ships a month later. Attempts to recruit
   Scottish soldiers yielded a fighting force of only about a thousand
   men. The Jacobites were poorly equipped, and were easily defeated by
   British artillery. The Scotsmen dispersed into the Highlands, and the
   Spaniards surrendered. The invasion of 1719 never posed any serious
   threat to the Government.

Ministries

   In 1717, when the Whigs came to power, George's chief ministers
   included Sir Robert Walpole, Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend,
   James Stanhope, 1st Viscount Stanhope (afterwards 1st Earl Stanhope)
   and Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland. In the same year, Lord
   Townshend and Walpole were removed from the Cabinet by their
   counterparts; Lord Stanhope became supreme in foreign affairs, and Lord
   Sunderland the same in domestic matters.

   Lord Sunderland's power began to wane in 1719. He introduced a Peerage
   Bill, which attempted to limit the size of the House of Lords (mostly
   composed of Tory aristocrats), but was defeated. An even greater
   problem was the South Sea Bubble. In 1719, the South Sea Company
   proposed to convert £30,981,712 of the British national debt. At the
   time, government bonds were extremely difficult to trade due to
   unrealistic restrictions; for example, it was not permitted to redeem
   certain bonds unless the original debtor was still alive. Each bond
   represented a very large sum, and could not be divided and sold. Thus,
   the South Sea Company sought to convert high-interest, untradeable
   bonds to low-interest, easily-tradeable ones. The Company bribed Lord
   Stanhope to support their plan; they were also supported by Lord
   Sunderland. Company prices rose rapidly; the shares had cost £128 in
   January 1720, but were valued at £550 when Parliament accepted the
   scheme in May. The price reached £1000 by August. Uncontrolled selling,
   however, caused the stock to plummet to £150 by the end of September.
   Many individuals—including aristocrats—were completely ruined.

   The economic crisis, known as the South Sea Bubble, made George I and
   his ministers extremely unpopular. Lord Stanhope died and Lord
   Sunderland resigned in 1721, allowing the rise of Sir Robert Walpole.
   (Lord Sunderland retained a degree of personal influence with George I
   until he died in 1722.) Walpole became George's primary minister,
   although the title " Prime Minister" was not formally applied to him;
   officially, he was only the First Lord of the Treasury. His management
   of the South Sea crisis helped avoid a dispute between the King and the
   House of Commons over responsibility for the affair.

   Walpole strengthened his influence in the House of Commons through
   bribery. The Septennial Act, by lengthening the terms of members of the
   House from three to seven years, greatly aided Walpole's corrupt
   efforts. As requested by Walpole, George I created a new order of
   chivalry, The Most Honourable Order of the Bath. Walpole rewarded
   political supporters and bribed others by offering them membership of
   the prestigious organisation.

   Walpole thus became extremely powerful; he, not the King, truly
   controlled the government. Walpole was allowed to choose and remove all
   ministers; George I merely rubber-stamped his decisions. George I did
   not even attend meetings of the Cabinet; all his communications were in
   private. George I only exercised substantial influence with respect to
   British foreign policy. He, with the aid of Lord Townshend, arranged
   for the ratification of the Treaty of Hanover, which was designed to
   protect British trade, by Great Britain, France and Prussia. Some of
   George I's successors—most notably his great-grandson, George
   III—attempted to reverse the shift in power, but proved unsuccessful.

Later years

   George, although increasingly reliant on Sir Robert Walpole, could
   still have removed his ministers at will. Walpole was actually afraid
   of being removed towards the end of George I's reign, but such fears
   were put to an end when George I died in Osnabrück from a stroke on 11
   June 1727. George was on his sixth trip to his native Hanover, where he
   was buried, in the chapel at Herrenhausen Palace.

   George I's son succeeded him, becoming George II. George II, like his
   father, faced a Jacobite Rebellion. The Rebellion of 1745 ("the
   Forty-Five"), however, was better led than the Fifteen and Nineteen.
   The Jacobites were nonetheless defeated at the Battle of Culloden in
   1746, effectively ending their resistance.

   George II seriously contemplated removing Sir Robert Walpole from
   office, but was prevented from doing so by his wife. During George II's
   reign, the power of the Sovereign further deteriorated, and the power
   of the Prime Minister increased. George II's grandson and successor,
   George III, was often engaged in constitutional struggles with his
   ministers. By the reign of George III, however, the Prime Minister's
   power had grown so much that the King was often forced to appoint
   junior ministers against his will. After George III's reign, Sovereigns
   almost never exercised influence over the composition of the Cabinet.
   The decline of the power of the Sovereign, which had begun during
   George I's reign, was almost complete during the reign of the last
   Hanoverian monarch, Victoria.

Legacy

   George I was extremely unpopular in Great Britain, especially due to
   his supposed inability to speak English; recent research, however,
   reveals that such an inability may not have existed later in his reign.
   His treatment of his wife, Sophia, was not well-received. The British
   perceived him as too German, and despised his succession of German
   mistresses. He earned the appellations "Geordie Whelps" and "German
   George".

   Although unpopular, the Protestant George I was seen by most as a
   better alternative to the Roman Catholic Old Pretender. William
   Makepeace Thackeray indicates such ambivalent feelings when he writes,
   "His heart was in Hanover. He was more than 54 years of age when he
   came amongst us: we took him because we wanted him, because he served
   our turn; we laughed at his uncouth German ways, and sneered at him...
   I, for one, would have been on his side in those days. Cynical, and
   selfish, as he was, he was better than a King out of St Germains, the
   Old Pretender with a French King's orders in his pocket, and a swarm of
   Jesuits in his train."

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Titles

     * 28 May 1660- 18 December 1679: His Serene Highness Duke Georg
       Ludwig of Brunswick-Lüneburg
     * 18 December 1679- October 1692: His Serene Highness The Hereditary
       Prince of Brunswick-Lüneburg
     * October 1692- 23 January 1698: His Serene Highness The Hereditary
       Prince of Hanover and Brunswick-Lüneburg
     * 23 January 1698- 1 August 1714: His Royal Highness The Elector of
       Hanover, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg
     * 1 August 1714– 11 June 1727: His Majesty The King

Styles

   In Great Britain, George I used the official style "George, by the
   Grace of God, King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, Defender of
   the Faith, etc." In some cases (especially in treaties), the formula
   "Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Arch treasurer and Prince-Elector of the
   Holy Roman Empire" was added before the phrase "etc."

Arms

   George I's arms were: Quarterly, I Gules three lions passant guardant
   in pale Or (for England) impaling Or a lion rampant within a tressure
   flory-counter-flory Gules (for Scotland); II Azure three fleurs-de-lys
   Or (for France); III Azure a harp Or stringed Argent (for Ireland); IV
   tierced per pale and per chevron (for Hanover), I Gules two lions
   passant guardant Or (for Brunswick), II Or a semy of hearts Gules a
   lion rampant Azure (for Lüneburg), III Gules a horse courant Argent
   (for Westfalen), overall an escutcheon Gules charged with the crown of
   Charlemagne Or (for the dignity of Arch treasurer of the Holy Roman
   Empire).

Ancestors

   CAPTION: George's ancestors in three generations

   George I of Great Britain Father:
   Ernest Augustus, Elector of Hanover Father's father:
   George, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg Father's father's father:
   William, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg
   Father's father's mother:
   Dorothea of Denmark
   Father's mother:
   Anne Eleonore of Hesse-Darmstadt Father's mother's father:
   Louis V, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt
   Father's mother's mother:
   Magdalena von Brandenburg
   Mother:
   Sophia of the Palatinate Mother's father:
   Frederick V, Elector Palatine Mother's father's father:
   Frederick IV, Elector Palatine
   Mother's father's mother:
   Louise Juliana of Orange-Nassau
   Mother's mother:
   Elizabeth of Bohemia Mother's mother's father:
   James I of England
   Mother's mother's mother:
   Anne of Denmark

Issue

   Name Birth Death Notes
   George II 10 November 1683 25 October 1760 married, 1705, Caroline of
   Ansbach; had issue
   Sophia, Queen in Prussia 26 March 1687 28 June 1757 married, 1706,
   Frederick William, Margrave of Brandenburg (later Frederick William I
   of Prussia); had issue

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