Robert Walpole, Prime Minister of Great Britain. Part II

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Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach, Elector of Hanover, First Lord of the Treasury, King George I of Great Britain and Ireland, King George II of Great Britain, Prime Minister of Great Britain, Robert Walpole, South Sea Bubble

Rise to power

Soon after Walpole returned to the Cabinet, Britain was swept by a wave of over-enthusiastic speculation which led to the South Sea Bubble. The Government had established a plan whereby the South Sea Company would assume the national debt of Great Britain in exchange for lucrative bonds. It was widely believed that the company would eventually reap an enormous profit through international trade in cloth, agricultural goods, and slaves.

Many in the country, including Walpole himself (who sold at the top of the market and made 1,000 per cent profit), frenziedly invested in the company. By the latter part of 1720, however, the company had begun to collapse as the price of its shares plunged.In 1721 a committee investigated the scandal, finding that there was corruption on the part of many in the Cabinet.

Among those implicated were John Aislabie (the Chancellor of the Exchequer), James Craggs the Elder (the Postmaster General), James Craggs the Younger (the Southern Secretary), and even Lords Stanhope and Sunderland (the heads of the Ministry).

Both Craggs the Elder and Craggs the Younger died in disgrace; the remainder were impeached for their corruption. Aislabie was found guilty and imprisoned, but the personal influence of Walpole saved both Stanhope and Sunderland. For his role in preventing these individuals and others from being punished, Walpole gained the nickname of “The Screen”, or “Screenmaster-General”.

Premiership under George I

Under the guidance of Walpole, Parliament attempted to deal with the financial crisis brought on by the South Sea Bubble. The estates of the directors of the South Sea Company were used to relieve the suffering of the victims, and the stock of the company was divided between the Bank of England and East India Company. The crisis had gravely damaged the credibility of the King and of the Whig Party, but Walpole defended both with skilful oratory in the House of Commons.

Walpole’s first year as prime minister was also marked by the discovery of a plot formed by Francis Atterbury, the bishop of Rochester. The exposure of the scheme crushed the hopes of the Jacobites whose previous attempts at rebellion (most notably the risings of 1715 and 1719) had also failed. The Tory Party was equally unfortunate even though Lord Bolingbroke, a Tory leader who fled to France to avoid punishment for his Jacobite sympathies, was permitted to return to Britain in 1723.

During the remainder of George I’s reign, Walpole’s ascendancy continued; the political power of the monarch was gradually diminishing and that of his ministers gradually increasing.

In 1724 the primary political rival of Walpole and Townshend in the Cabinet, Lord Carteret, was dismissed from the post of Southern Secretary and once again appointed to the lesser office of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

In Ireland, Lord Carteret used his power to secretly aid in the controversy over Wood’s Halfpence and support Drapier’s Letters behind the scenes and cause harm to Walpole’s power. Walpole was able to recover from these events by removing the patent. However, Irish sentiment was situated against the English control.Townshend, working with the king, helped keep Great Britain at peace, especially by negotiating a treaty with France and Prussia in 1725.

Walpole was not consulted and stated that Townshend was “too precipitate” in his actions. Great Britain, free from Jacobite threats, from war, and from financial crises, grew prosperous, and Robert Walpole acquired the favour of George I.

In 1725 he persuaded the king to revive the Knighthood of the Bath and was himself invested with the order, and in 1726 was made a Knight of the Garter, earning him the nickname “Sir Bluestring”. His eldest son was granted a barony.

Premiership under George II

Walpole’s position was threatened in 1727 when George I died and was succeeded by George II. For a few days it seemed that Walpole would be dismissed but, on the advice of Queen Caroline, the King agreed to keep him in office.

Although the King disliked Townshend, he retained him as well. Over the next years Walpole continued to share power with Townshend but the two clashed over British foreign affairs, especially over policy regarding Austria. Gradually Walpole became the clearly dominant partner in government. His colleague retired on May 15, 1730 and this date is sometimes given as the beginning of Walpole’s unofficial tenure as prime minister.

Townshend’s departure enabled Walpole to conclude the Treaty of Vienna, creating the Anglo-Austrian alliance.OppositionWalpole, a polarising figure, had many opponents, the most important of whom were in the Country Party, such as Lord Bolingbroke (who had been his political enemy since the days of Queen Anne) and William Pulteney (a capable Whig statesman who felt snubbed when Walpole failed to include him in the Cabinet).Bolingbroke and Pulteney ran a periodical called The Craftsman in which they incessantly denounced the Prime Minister’s policies. Walpole was also satirised and parodied extensively; he was often compared to the criminal Jonathan Wild as, for example, John Gay did in his farcical Beggar’s Opera.

March 31, 1751: Death of Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales. Conclusion

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Augusta of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, Frederick-Louis, Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia, King George II of Great Britain, Prince of Wales, royal wedding, Wilhelmine of Prussia

Domestic life

Negotiations between George II and his brother-in-law Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia on a proposed marriage between the Prince of Wales and Friedrich Wilhelm I’s daughter Wilhelmine were welcomed by Frederick Louis even though the couple had never met.

The full plan was originally, Frederick Louis was intended to marry Princess Wilhelmine, the eldest daughter of the King Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia. A marriage alliance between Great Britain and Prussia had been an ambition for many years.

However, when George II suggested that his eldest son would marry the eldest daughter of the King of Prussia, while his second daughter, Princess Amelia, instead would marry the eldest son of the Prussian king, Crown Prince Friedrich, the King of Prussia demanded that his eldest son should likewise marry the eldest daughter, Anne, Princess Royal, of the King of Great Britain.

George II was not keen on these proposals but continued talks for diplomatic reasons. Frustrated by the delay, Frederick Louis sent an envoy of his own to the Prussian court. When the King discovered the plan, he immediately arranged for Frederick Louis to leave Hanover for England. The marriage negotiations foundered when Friedrich Wilhelm demanded that Frederick Louis be made Regent in Hanover.

Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia forced his son, Crown Prince Friedrich (later known as King Friedrich II the Great) to marry Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Bevern

On March 25, 1734 in the Chapel Royal at St. James’s Palace, Princess Anne the Princess Royal married Willem IV, Prince of Orange. She then ceased to use her British title in favour of the new one she gained by marriage.

Frederick Louis also almost married Lady Diana Spencer, daughter of Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland and Lady Anne Churchill. Lady Diana was the favourite grandchild of the powerful Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough. The duchess sought a royal alliance by marrying Lady Diana to the Prince of Wales with a massive dowry of £100,000. The prince, who was in great debt, agreed to the proposal, but the plan was vetoed by Robert Walpole and the king. Lady Diana soon married John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford.

Although in his youth he was undoubtedly a spendthrift and womaniser, Frederick Louis settled down following his marriage to the sixteen-year-old Augusta of Saxe-Gotha on April 17, 1736.

Princess Augusta was born in Gotha to Frederick II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (1676–1732) and Magdalena Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst (1679–1740). Her paternal grandfather was Frederick I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, eldest surviving son of Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg.

The wedding was held at the Chapel Royal at St James’s Palace, presided over by Edmund Gibson, Bishop of London and Dean of the Chapel Royal. Handel provided the new anthem ‘Sing unto God’ for the service and the wedding was also marked in London by two rival operas, Handel’s Atalanta and Porpora’s La festa d’Imeneo.

In June 1737, Frederick Louis informed his parents that Augusta was pregnant, and due to give birth in October. In fact, Augusta’s due date was earlier and a peculiar episode followed in July in which the Prince, on discovering that his wife had gone into labour, sneaked her out of Hampton Court Palace in the middle of the night, to ensure that the King and Queen could not be present at the birth.

George and Caroline were horrified. Traditionally, royal births were witnessed by members of the family and senior courtiers to guard against supposititious children, and Augusta had been forced by her husband to ride in a rattling carriage while heavily pregnant and in pain.

With a party including two of her daughters and Lord Hervey, the Queen raced over to St James’s Palace, where Frederick had taken Augusta. Caroline was relieved to discover that Augusta had given birth to a “poor, ugly little she-mouse” rather than a “large, fat, healthy boy” which made a supposititious child unlikely since the baby was so pitiful. The circumstances of the birth deepened the estrangement between mother and son.

Frederick Louis’ hier, the future King George III was born on June 4, 1738 in London at Norfolk House in St James’s Square. As he was born two months prematurely and thought unlikely to survive, he was baptised the same day by Thomas Secker, who was both Rector of St James’s and Bishop of Oxford.

Frederick Louis and Augusta eventually had 9 children in total, 4 daughters and 5 sons.

Frederick was banished from the King’s court, and a rival court grew up at Frederick Louis’s new residence, Leicester House. His mother fell fatally ill at the end of the year, but the King refused Frederick Louis permission to see her

His political ambitions unfulfilled, Frederick Louis died at Leicester House at the age of 44 on March 31, 1751

In the past this has been attributed to a burst lung abscess caused by a blow from a cricket or a real tennis ball, but it is now thought to have been from a pulmonary embolism. He was buried at Westminster Abbey on 13 April 1751. He is the most recent Prince of Wales not to have acceded to the British throne.

The Prince of Wales’s epigram (quoted by William Makepeace Thackeray, “Four Georges”):

“Here lies poor Fred who was alive and is dead,
Had it been his father I had much rather,
Had it been his sister nobody would have missed her,
Had it been his brother, still better than another,
Had it been the whole generation, so much better for the nation,
But since it is Fred who was alive and is dead,
There is no more to be said!”

February 17, 1861: Birth of Princess Helen of Waldeck and Pyrmont, Duchess of Albany

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Charles Edward of Albany, Duke of Albany, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Georg Victor of Waldeck and Pyrmount, Helen of Waldeck and Pyrmount, King George II of Great Britain, Leopold of the United Kingdom, Willem III of the Netherlands

Princess Helen of Waldeck and Pyrmont (later Duchess of Albany; February 17, 1861 – September 1, 1922) was a member of the British royal family by marriage. She was the fifth daughter and child of Georg Victor, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont, and his first wife, Princess Helena of Nassau.

Princess Helena of Nassau was the ninth child of Wilhelm, Duke of Nassau (1792–1839), by his second wife Princess Pauline of Württemberg (1810–1856), daughter of Prince Paul of Württemberg. She was the half-sister of Adolphe, Grand Duke of Luxembourg (then Hereditary Prince of Nassau). She was related to the Dutch Royal Family and also, distantly, to the British Royal Family through her father and mother, as both were descendants of King George II of Great Britain.

Helen was born in Arolsen, capital of Waldeck principality, in Germany. She was the sister of Friedrich, last reigning Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont; another sister Marie, was the first wife of Wilhelm II of Württemberg; and another sister was Emma, Queen consort of Willem III of the Netherlands (and mother of Queen Wilhelmina).

Along with Emma and a third sister, Pauline, Helen was considered as a second wife for their distant cousin Willem III of the Netherlands. She later met with another distant cousin Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, youngest son of Queen Victoria, at the suggestion of his mother. The two became engaged in November 1881.

On April 27, 1882, Leopold and Helen married in St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. After their wedding, Leopold and Helen resided at Claremont House. The couple had a brief, but happy marriage, ending in the hemophiliac Leopold’s death from a fall in Cannes, France, in March 1884. At the time of Leopold’s death, Helen was pregnant with their second child.

The couple had two children:

Princess Alice of Albany (1883–1981), later Countess of Athlone
Prince Charles Edward, Duke of Albany (1884–1954), later reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

Helen was also involved in several hospital charities and with those dedicated to ending human trafficking. During World War I, she organised much of her charity work along with that of her sister-in-law Princess Beatrice and husband’s niece Princess Marie-Louise to avoid the not-uncommon problem of conflicting (and sometimes misguided) royal war-work projects.

Later life

After Leopold’s death, Helen and her two children, Alice and Charles Edward, continued to reside at Claremont House.

After the death of her nephew, the Prince Arthur of Edinburgh, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1899, Helen’s sixteen-year-old son was selected as the new heir to the German duchy, and was parted from his mother and sister in order to take up residence there. When the First World War broke out 14 years later, Charles Edward found himself fighting in the German Army. As a result, he was stripped of his British titles by an act of Parliament in 1917.

By contrast, her daughter Alice remained in England and by marriage to Prince Alexander of Teck in 1904 became a sister-in-law of Queen Mary, consort of King George V.

Helen died on September 1, 1922 of a heart attack in Hinterriss in Tyrol, Austria, while visiting her beloved son, Charles Edward. Through her son, she is the great-grandmother of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.

September 15, 1666: Birth of Sophia Dorothea of Brunswick-Lüneburg-Celle. Conclusion.

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George William of Brunswick-Celle, Johann Friedrich Struensee, King Christian VII of Denmark, King Friedrich-Wilhelm I of Prussia, King George I of Great Britain, King George II of Great Britain, Princess Caroline Matilda of Great Britain, Princess of Ahlden, Queen of Denmark and Norway, Queen of Prussia, Sophia Dorothea of Brunswick-Celle, Sophia Dorothea of Hanover

Divorce and Imprisonment

Königsmarck was eliminated, but that was not enough to restore the Electoral Prince’s honor. He demanded a legal separation from his wife, with her as the only responsible part. Sophia Dorothea is transferred to Lauenau Castle in late 1694 and placed there under house arrest during the divorce proceedings. On 28 December 1694 the dissolutionSeptember 15, 1666: Birth of Sophia Dorothea of Brunswick-Lüneburg-Celle. Part I. of the marriage was officially pronounced with the Electoral Princess as the sole guilty party for “maliciously leaving her husband” (desertion). The fact that her husband, Georg Ludwig, had a long term mistress was not mentioned.

Sophia Dorothea was forbidden to remarry or seeing her children again; her name was removed from all official documents, she was no longer mentioned in the prayers and the title of Electoral Princess was stripped of her. After the verdict, she was sent to the remote Ahlden House, a stately home on the Lüneburg Heath, which served as a prison appropriate to her status. Although the sentence says nothing about continued imprisonment, she should never regain her freedom.

At the behest of her former husband and with the consent of her own father, Sophia Dorothea was imprisoned for life. He confiscated her assets brought into the marriage and gave her an annual maintenance. She initially received 8,000 thalers for herself and her court, later raised to 28,000 thalers (her father and former father-in-law had committed to this in equal parts). She was quartered in the north wing of the castle, a two-story half-timbered building. A guard of 40 men was deployed for Sophia Dorothea, five to ten of whom guarded the castle 24 hours. All her mail and visitis were strictly controlled; however, there was never any attempt at liberation or escape.

Initially, Sophia Dorothea was only allowed to walk unaccompanied inside the mansion courtyard, later also under guard in the outdoor facilities. After two years in prison, she was allowed to take supervised trips only within 2 kilometers outside the residence. Her stay in Ahlden was interrupted several times due to war events or renovation work on the residence. During these times she was housed in Celle Castle or in Essel. Her mother had unlimited visits. Her court included two ladies-in-waiting, several chambermaids and other household and kitchen staff. These had all been selected for their loyalty to Hanover.

Sophia Dorothea was allowed to call herself “Princess of Ahlden” after her new place of residence. In the first few years she was extremely apathetic and resigned to her fate, later she tried to obtain her release. When her former father-in-law died in 1698, she sent a humble letter of condolence to her former husband, assuring him that “she prayed for him every day and begged him on her knees to forgive her mistakes. She will be eternally grateful to him if he allows her to see her two children”. She also wrote to Electress Sophia in a letter of condolence that she wanted nothing more than “to kiss your Highness’ s hands before I die”. Their requests were in vain.

When Sophia Dorothea’s father was on his deathbed in 1705, he wanted to see his daughter one last time to reconcile with her, but his Prime Minister, Count Bernstorff, objected and claimed that a meeting would lead to diplomatic problems with Hanover; Georg Wilhelm no longer had the strength to assert himself against him.

After the devastating local fire of Ahlden in 1715, Sophia Dorothea contributed with considerable sums of money to the reconstruction.

Death and Burial

The death of her mother —the only one who until the end fight for her release— in 1722 leave Sophia Dorothea completely alone and surrounded only by enemies, with the lasting hope of seeing her children again. Her daughter Sophia Dorothea of Hanover the Queen of Prussia (husband of Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia) came to Hanover in 1725 to meet her father (who is now King of Great Britain since 1714); Sophia Dorothea, who dressed even more carefully than usual, waited every day at the window of her residence in vain for her visit, which never came.

In the end she only seems to have found pleasure in eating. Her defenses waned and became overweight due to the lack of exercise. Increasingly she suffered from febrile colds and indigestion. In early 1726 she suffered a stroke, and in August of that year she went to bed with severe colic, which she never left. She refused medical help and refused to eat.

Within a few weeks she grew emaciated. Sophia Dorothea died shortly before midnight on November 13, 1726 aged 60; her autopsy revealed a liver failure and gall bladder occlusion due to 60 gallstones. Her former husband placed an announcement in The London Gazette to the effect that the “Duchess of Ahlden” had died, but would not allow the wearing of mourning in London or Hanover. He was furious when he heard that his daughter’s court in Berlin wore black.

Sophia Dorothea’s funeral turned into a farce. Because the guards had no instructions in this case, her remains were placed in a lead coffin and deposited in the cellar. In January 1727 the order came from London to bury her without any ceremonies in the cemetery of Ahlden, which was impossible due to weeks of heavy rain. So the coffin came back into the cellar and was covered with sand. It wasn’t until May 1727 that Sophia Dorothea was secretly buried at night beside her parents in the Stadtkirche in Celle. Her former husband Georg Ludwig (now King George I of Great Britain), died four weeks later while visiting Hanover.

Inheritance

Sophia Dorothea’s parents must have secretly believed to the last that their daughter would one day be released from prison. In any case, in January 1705, shortly before her father’s death, he and his wife drew up a joint will, according to which their daughter receive the estates of Ahlden, Rethem and Walsrode, extensive estates in France and Celle, the great fortune of her father and the legendary jewelry collection of her mother. Her father appointed Count Heinrich Sigismund von Bar as the administrator of Sophia Dorothea’s fortune. He was twelve years older than the princess, a handsome, highly educated and sensitive gentleman, whom Sophia Dorothea showed deep affection for, which didn’t go unrequited. She named him as one of the main beneficiaries of her will, but unfortunately he died six years before her.

Trivia

Sophia Dorothea’s great-granddaughter Caroline Matilda of Great Britain, Queen consort of Denmark and Norway (1751–1775) shared her same fate. The youngest and posthumous daughter of Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales, by Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, Caroline Matilda was raised in a secluded family atmosphere away from the royal court. At the age of fifteen, she was married to her first cousin, King Christian VII of Denmark and Norway, who suffered from a mental illness and was cold to his wife throughout the marriage. She had two children: the future Frederik VI and Louise Augusta, whose biological father may have been the German physician Johann Friedrich Struensee.

After the Struensee affair in 1772, she was divorced from her husband, separated from her children and sent to Celle Castle, where she died three years later. In the crypt of the Stadtkirche St. Marien, both women are united in death.

September 15, 1666: Birth of Sophia Dorothea of Brunswick-Lüneburg-Celle. Part I.

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Frederick the Great of Prussia, Georg Ludwig of Hanover, Georg Wilhelm of Brunswick-Lüneburg-Celle, House of Brunswick, House of Guelph, King George II of Great Britain, Sophia Dorothea of Brunswick-Lüneburg-Celle

Sophia Dorothea of Brunswick-Lüneburg-Celle (September 15, 1666 – November 16, 1726), was the repudiated wife of future King George I of Great Britain, and mother of George II. The union with her first cousin was an arranged marriage of state, instigated by the machinations of his mother, Electress Sophia of Hanover. She is best remembered for her alleged affair with Philip Christoph von Königsmarck that led to her being imprisoned in the Castle of Ahlden for the last thirty years of her life.

Early years

Born in Celle on September 15, 1666, Sophia Dorothea of Harburg was the only surviving daughter of Georg Wilhelm Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg-Celle by his morganatic wife, Éléonore Desmier d’Olbreuse (1639–1722), Lady of Harburg, a Huguenot French noblewoman.

She grew up carefree in a loving environment: her parents were (in a rather exception among the married noble or royal couples of that time) deeply in love with each other and also gave warmth and affection to their bright and talented daughter.

Because Sophia Dorothea was the product of a morganatic union and without any rights as a member of the House of Brunswick, her father wanted to secured her future and transferred large assets to her over time, and this wealth made her an interesting marriage candidate.

Candidates for her hand included August Friedrich, Hereditary Prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Friedrich Charles, Duke of Württemberg-Winnental, Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria and even King Carl XI of Sweden.

Sophia Dorothea’s status became enhanced when by Imperial order dated July 22, 1674 and in recognition to the military assistance given by her father to Emperor Leopold I, she and her mother received the higher title of “Countess of Harburg and Wilhelmsburg” (Gräfin von Harburg und Wilhelmsburg) with the allodial rights over that domains.

At first, her parents agreed to the marriage between Sophia Dorothea and the Hereditary Prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, eldest son of their distant relative Anthon Ulrich, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and whom since the beginning supported the love affair of Georg Wilhelm and Éléonore. The official betrothal was signed on December 20, 1675, but unfortunately the groom was mortally wounded at the siege of Philippsburg on August 9, 1676.

Elevation of birth status and marriage

After the death of his daughter’s fiancé, Georg Wilhelm wanted to make an agreement with his brothers about the inheritance of the Duchy of Lüneburg and approached his younger brother Ernst August with talks about a marriage between Sophia Dorothea and Ernsr August’s eldest son Georg Ludwig; however, both his brother and sister-in-law, Sophia of the Palatinate, had misgivings about the proposed match due to the circumstances of Sophia Dorothea’s birth.

After the rebuffal of his daughter, Georg Wilhelm decided to improve once for all the status of Sophia Dorothea and her mother: by contract signed on August 22, 1675 and in open violation of his previous promise to never marry, Georg Wilhelm declared that Éléonore was his lawful wife in both church and state, with a second wedding ceremony being held at Celle on April 2, 1676.

Ernst August and specially his wife demonstratively stayed away from this second wedding. Twenty-two days later, on April 24, Éléonore was officially addressed as Duchess of Brunswick and Sophia Dorothea became legitimate.

This development of events greatly alarmed Georg Wilhelm’s relatives: now legitimated by the official marriage of her parents, Sophia Dorothea could threaten the contemplated union of the Lüneburg territories. Finally, by family agreement signed on July 13, 1680, Éléonore was finally recognized as Duchess of Brunswick and, most importantly, Sophia Dorothea was declared Princess of Brunswick-Lüneburg-Celle with all apertaining rights of birth. Also, Georg Ludwig’s parents finally agreed to the previously proposed marriage. To the horror of both Sophia Dorothea and her mother, Georg Wilhelm consented to the union.

The wedding took place on November 21, 1682 but since the beginning the union was a complete failure: the feelings of hatred and contempt that Sophia of the Palatinate had over her daughter-in-law were soon shared by her son Georg Ludwig, who was oddly formal to his wife.

Sophia Dorothea was frequently scolded for her lack of etiquette, and the two had loud and bitter arguments. Nevertless, they managed to had two children in quick succession: Georg August (born October 30, 1683 and future King George II of Great Britain) and Sophia Dorothea (born March 16, 1687 and by marriage Queen consort in Prussia and Electress consort of Brandenburg) as spouse of King Friedrich Wilhelm I in Prussia. She was the mother of Friedrich II, King of Prussia.

July 17, 1717 : King George I sponsors the premier performance of Handel’s Water Music on the Thames.

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City of London, Georg Ludwig of Hanover, George Frideric Handel, King George I of Great Britain, King George II of Great Britain, Royal Barge, The Thames River, Water Music

The Water Music is a collection of orchestral movements, often published as three suites, composed by George Frideric Handel. It premiered on July 17, 1717, in response to King George I’s request for a concert on the River Thames.

George I, King of Great Britain and Ireland. Duke and Elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover)

George I (May 28, 1660 – June 11, 1727) was King of Great Britain and Ireland from August 1 1714 and ruler of the Duchy and Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover) in the Holy Roman Empire from 23 January 1698 until his death in 1727. He was the first British monarch of the House of Hanover.

George Frideric Handel (born Georg Friedrich Händel; March 5, – April 14, 1759) was a German, later British, Baroque composer who spent the bulk of his career in London, becoming well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi and organ concertos. Handel received important training in Halle and worked as a composer in Hamburg and Italy before settling in London in 1712; he became a naturalised British subject in 1727. He was strongly influenced both by the great composers of the Italian Baroque and by the middle-German polyphonic choral tradition. He would become a huge influence on classical composers such as Mozart and Beethoven.

George Frideric Handel

First performance

The first performance of the Water Music is recorded in The Daily Courant, the first British daily newspaper. At about 8 p.m. on Wednesday, July 17, 1717, King George I and several aristocrats boarded a royal barge at Whitehall Palace, for an excursion up the Thames toward Chelsea. The rising tide propelled the barge upstream without rowing.

Another barge, provided by the City of London, contained about 50 musicians who performed Handel’s music. Many other Londoners also took to the river to hear the concert. According to The Courant, “the whole River in a manner was covered” with boats and barges. On arriving at Chelsea, the king left his barge, then returned to it at about 11 p.m. for the return trip. The king was so pleased with Water Music that he ordered it to be repeated at least three times, both on the trip upstream to Chelsea and on the return, until he landed again at Whitehall.

King George’s companions in the royal barge included Anne Vaughan, Duchess of Bolton, Harriet Pelham-Holles, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Evelyn Pierrepont, 1st Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull, Sophia von Kielmansegg, Countess of Darlington, Henrietta Godolphin, 2nd Duchess of Marlborough, and George Douglas-Hamilton, 1st Earl of Orkney.

Handel’s orchestra is believed to have performed from about 8 p.m. until well after midnight, with only one break while the king went ashore at Chelsea.

It was rumoured that the Water Music was composed to help King George refocus London attention from his son and heir (later George II of Great Britain), who, worried that his time to rule would be shortened by his father’s long life, threw lavish parties and dinners to compensate for it; the Water Music’s first performance on the Thames was the King’s way of reminding London that he was still there and showing he could carry out gestures even grander than his son’s.

June 28, 1757: Death of Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, Queen Consort in Prussia. Part IV.

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Charles I, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel., Frederick Louis Prince of Wales, Frederick the Great, Friedrich II of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia, King George II of Great Britain, Philippine-Charlotte of Prussia, Prince Friedrich of Bayreuth, Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, Wilhelmine of Prussia

Part IV

Sophia-Dorothea spent many days talking to her eldest son, Crown Prince Friedrich, in the library, and was informed of his plans to escape from his father’s custody. In August 1730, during a tour he made with his father through the provinces, Crown Prince Friedrich made an unsuccessful attempt to escape from Prussia, and was brought back a prisoner. The king informed the queen of the event through Sophie de Kamecke before their arrival.

Sophia-Dorothea, Queen Consort in Prussia

There were compromising letters by the queen and princess Wilhelmine in Friedrich’s portefeuille, which was forwarded to them by a friend after the arrest of Friedrich’s accomplice Katte. They burned the letters and replaced them with fabricated and uncompromising ones. However, “as there were near fifteen hundred of the originals, although we worked very hard, not more than six hundred or seven hundred could be completed in the time”.

The portefeuille was also filled with ornamental articles. When the portefeuille was later opened, Friedrich did not recognize its content. Grumbkow immediately suspected what had transpired and stated: “These cursed women have outwitted us!”

When the king returned, he told the queen that her son was dead. She replied: “What! Have you murdered your son?” When given the reply: “He was not my son, he was only a miserable deserter,” she became hysterical and screamed repeatedly: “Mon Dieu, mon fils! mon Dieu, mon fils!” The king then started to beat Wilhelmine and would possibly have killed her. Her siblings and ladies-in-waiting intervened.

Friedrich’s accomplice Katte arrived as a prisoner, so the king beat him instead. When Friedrich was imprisoned at the fortress in Küstrin, Grumbkow acted as mediator between Friedrich and his parents, managing to reconcile them.
The imprisonment was followed by continuous conflict between the king and the queen about the marriage of princess Wilhelmine. While the king pressed for a marriage to the Margrave of Schwedt or the Prince of Weissenfels, the queen exchanged secret messages with her daughter and urged her not to accept any other groom than the Prince of Wales.

Crown Prince Friedrich of Prussia

This conflict caused the king to threaten to beat the queen and have Mademoiselle Sonsfeld publicly whipped. Finally, Wilhelmine was formally offered the choice between the Margrave of Schwedt, the Duke of Weissenfels, or the Prince of Bayreuth. She chose to marry the latter (as she had not seen him but had seen and disliked the other two), on condition that her father free her brother.

Her decision was made against the will of her mother, who threatened to disown her for what she considered to be her daughter’s lack of courage, and ordered her not to speak to her future groom when he arrived. The king was furious at the cold demeanor of the queen during the following visit of the Prince of Bayreuth.

After the betrothal of Wilhelmine and the Prince of Bayreuth, a message arrived in which George II of Great Britain consented to Wilhelmine marrying the Prince of Wales without her brother marrying his daughter Amelia. This message convinced the queen that a Prussian-British marriage alliance was possible. She therefore made a point of harassing the Prince of Bayreuth to stop the wedding. On the day of the wedding (November 20, 1731), Sophia-Dorothea tried to delay the ceremony by disarranging her daughter’s hair every time it had been dressed, saying she was not satisfied with the effect, in the hope that a British courier might arrive in time to stop the ceremony.

King Friedrich-Wilhelm I in Prussia

When Crown Prince Friedrich was liberated after his sister’s wedding, Sophia-Dorothea resumed negotiations with Great Britain to marry him to Princess Amelia, and her next daughter, Philippine-Charlotte, to Frederick-Louis, Prince of Wales, which would complete her life project of a Prussian-British marriage alliance.

These plans was crushed in 1733, when King Friedrich-Wilhelm instead announced a marriage alliance with Brunswick by marrying Friedrich to Elisabeth-Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern and Philippine-Charlotte to Charles I, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.

But Sophia-Dorothea continued to pursue a Prussian-British marriage alliance, accomplishing a “reconciliation between the houses of England and Prussia negotiated by the Queen”, this time by the marriage of the Prince of Wales to her third daughter Louisa-Ulrika.

This plan was crushed upon the marriage of the Prince of Wales in 1736 to Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, Louisa-Ulrika went on to become the Queen of Sweden when she married King Adolf-Fredrik of Sweden on July 17, 1744.

June 28, 1757: Death of Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, Queen Consort in Prussia. Part II.

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Berlin, Emperor Peter the Great, Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia, Friedrich-Ludwig of Prussia, Gambling, King Friedrich I of Prussia, King George II of Great Britain, Princess Philippine-Charlotte of Prussia, Sophia Dorothea of Hanover

Crown Princess in Prussia

Sophia-Dorothea was described as tall, with a beautiful slender figure, graceful and dignified with big blue eyes. Though not regarded as strictly beautiful, she was seen as quite attractive at the time of her marriage and described as charming in her manners, making a good impression in Berlin. Friedrich-Wilhelm often called her “Fiekchen”.

Sophia-Dorothea and Friedrich-Wilhelm differed from each other in every aspect and the marriage suffered as a result. Sophia-Dorothea was interested in art, science, literature and fashion, while Friedrich-Wilhelm was described as an unpolished, uneducated and spartan military man with rough manners. Though he was never unfaithful to her, he was unable to win her affection. One of the most important differences between them was that Sophia-Dorothea, unlike her husband, loved entertainment, something he regarded to be frivolous.

Friedrich-Wilhelm contemplated divorcing her the same year they married and, judging by her letters, accused her of not wanting to be married to him. According to Morgenstern, “He had none of that astonishing complaisance by which lovers, whether husbands or friends, seek to win the favor of the beloved object.

As far as can be gathered from the words he occasionally let drop, the crossing of his first love might have been the innocent cause of this; and as the object of this passion, by the directions of her mother and grandmother, treated him with harshness, where, then, could he learn to make love?”
The birth of her firstborn son, Friedrich-Ludwig, in 1707 was celebrated greatly in Prussia, and Sophia-Dorothea successfully asked the king to liberate the imprisoned minister Eberhard von Danckelmann.

In 1708, after the death of her firstborn son, the physicians declared that Sophia-Dorothea was not likely to conceive again, which prompted the remarriage of her father-in-law. However, she gave birth to 14 children in all and 10 of them survived into adulthood.

Queen of Prussia

In 1713, her father-in-law King Friedrich I died and was succeeded by her spouse Friedrich-Wilhelm I, making her Queen in Prussia.

Friedrich-Wilhelm I, King in Prussia and Elector of Brandenburg

At the time of the accession, Prussia was at war with Sweden, and Sophia-Dorothea accompanied Friedrich-Wilhelm during the campaign of 1715, though she soon returned to Berlin to give birth to her daughter, Princess Philippine-Charlotte of Prussia. During the war, the king left directions to his ministers to consult her and take no action without her approval in the case of emergency.

In 1717, she hosted Emperor Peter I the Great of Russia on his visit to Berlin at her own palace Monbijou, as per the king’s request, which was vandalized as a result. Sophia-Dorothea’s first favorite was her maid of honor, von Wagnitz, who was dismissed after an intrigue in which Kreutz and her mother tried to make her the king’s mistress, as well as being a spy of the French ambassador Rothenburg.

Queen Sophia-Dorothea was admired for her gracious manners and nicknamed “Olympia” for her regal bearing, but scarred by smallpox and overweight with time, she was not called a beauty. She was known as extremely haughty, proud, and ambitious, but Friedrich-Wilhelm greatly disliked her interference in politics, as it was his belief that women should be kept only for breeding, and kept submissive as they would otherwise dominate their husbands.

Friedrich-Wilhelm viewed her interests in theater, dancing, jewelry and music as frivolous and resented any sign of her living a life independently from his authority: he particularly disliked her interest in gambling, and it is reported that she and her partners would have coffee beans ready on the table during gambling, so that if the king appeared, they could pretend to be playing with them rather than money.

On one occasion, the queen took the opportunity of the king being ill to host a ball at Monbijou with dancing and music, and where she herself gambled while wearing her diamond set. When the king suddenly arrived, the dancing and music stopped immediately, and the queen unclasped her jewelst and hid them in her pocket. His manner toward her was described as rough and so noted that when he displayed the opposite, it was seen as a surprise.

King George II of Great Britain

Upon the death of her mother in 1726, Sophia-Dorothea inherited a sum of three million pounds whereupon it attracted attention that Friedrich-Wilhelm suddenly treated her very well: the Imperial ambassador reported that this was merely because he wanted her money, and when she never received it (as her brother King George II of Great Britain refused to release the sum), Friedrich-Wilhelm resumed his usual abusive manner toward her. For her part, Sophia-Dorothea did not have a high opinion of the king’s military interest or skill, and at one occasion, when he spoke disparagingly of the English commanders retorted: “No doubt they must wish to give you the command of their army.”

Life of George I, King of Great Britain and Elector of Hanover. Part IV.

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Elector of Hanover, First Lord of the Treasury, George I of Great Britain, King George II of Great Britain, Prime Minister, Robert Walpole, South Sea Bubble

Within a year of George’s accession the Whigs won an overwhelming victory in the general election of 1715. Several members of the defeated Tory Party sympathised with the Jacobites, who sought to replace George with Anne’s Catholic half-brother, James Francis Edward Stuart (called “James III and VIII” by his supporters and “the Pretender” by his opponents).

George’s distrust of the Tories aided the passing of power to the Whigs. Whig dominance grew to be so great under George that the Tories did not return to power for another half-century. After the election, the Whig-dominated 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).

After his accession in Great Britain, George’s relationship with his son (which had always been poor) worsened. George Augustus, Prince of Wales, encouraged opposition to his father’s policies, including measures designed to increase religious freedom in Britain and expand Hanover’s German territories at Sweden’s expense.

In 1717 the birth of a grandson (future Frederick-Louis, Prince of Wales) led to a major quarrel between George and the Prince of Wales. The king, supposedly following custom, appointed the Lord Chamberlain, the Duke of Newcastle, as one of the baptismal sponsors of the child. The king was angered when the Prince of Wales, disliking Newcastle, verbally insulted the Duke at the christening, which the Duke misunderstood as a challenge to a duel.

The Prince was told to leave the royal residence, St. James’s Palace. The Prince’s new home, Leicester House, became a meeting place for the king’s political opponents. George and his son were later reconciled at the insistence of Robert Walpole and the desire of the Princess of Wales, who had moved out with her husband but missed her children, who had been left in the king’s care. But after the quarrel at the baptism, father and son were never again on cordial terms.

George-Augustus (George II) as Prince of Wales in 1716. Portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller.

In Hanover, the king was an absolute monarch. All government expenditure above 50 thalers (between 12 and 13 British pounds), and the appointment of all army officers, all ministers, and even government officials above the level of copyist, was in his personal control. By contrast in Great Britain, George had to govern through Parliament.

In 1715 when the Whigs came to power, George’s chief ministers included Sir Robert Walpole, Lord Townshend (Walpole’s brother-in-law), Lord Stanhope and Lord Sunderland. In 1717 Townshend was dismissed, and Walpole resigned from the Cabinet over disagreements with their colleagues; Stanhope became supreme in foreign affairs, and Sunderland the same in domestic matters.

The economic crisis, known as the South Sea Bubble, made George and his ministers extremely unpopular. In 1721 Lord Stanhope, though personally innocent, collapsed and died after a stressful debate in the House of Lords, and Lord Sunderland resigned from public office.

Sunderland, however, retained a degree of personal influence with George until his sudden death in 1722 allowed the rise of Sir Robert Walpole. Walpole became de facto Prime Minister, although the title was not formally applied to him (officially, he was First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer). His management of the South Sea crisis, by rescheduling the debts and arranging some compensation, helped the return to financial stability.

Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, KG, KB, PC (1676-1745), known between 1721 and 1742 as Sir Robert Walpole, was a British politician who is generally regarded as the de facto first Prime Minister of Great Britain.

As requested by Walpole, George revived the Order of the Bath in 1725, which enabled Walpole to reward or gain political supporters by offering them the honour. Walpole became extremely powerful and was largely able to appoint ministers of his own choosing.

Unlike his predecessor, Queen Anne, George rarely attended meetings of the cabinet; most of his communications were in private, and he only exercised substantial influence with respect to British foreign policy. With the aid of Lord Townshend, he arranged for the ratification by Great Britain, France and Prussia of the Treaty of Hanover, which was designed to counterbalance the Austro-Spanish Treaty of Vienna and protect British trade.

George, although increasingly reliant on Walpole, could still have replaced his ministers at will. Walpole was actually afraid of being removed from office towards the end of George I’s reign, but such fears were put to an end when George died during his sixth trip to his native Hanover since his accession as king.

King George suffered a stroke on the road between Delden and Nordhorn on June 9, 1727, and was taken by carriage to the Prince-Bishop’s palace at Osnabrück where he died in the early hours before dawn on June 11, 1727.

George surrounded by his family, in a painting by James Thornhill.

George I was buried in the chapel of Leine Palace in Hanover, but his remains were moved to the chapel at Herrenhausen Gardens after World War II. Leine Palace had burnt out entirely after British aerial bombings and the king’s remains, along with his parents’, were moved to the 19th-century mausoleum of King Ernst-August in the Berggarten. George was succeeded by his son, George-Augustus, who took the throne as George II.

It was widely assumed, even by Walpole for a time, that George II planned to remove Walpole from office but was prevented from doing so by his wife, Caroline of Ansbach. However, Walpole commanded a substantial majority in Parliament and George II had little choice but to retain him or risk ministerial instability. In subsequent reigns the power of the prime minister increased further at the expense of the power of the sovereign.

June 4, 1738: Birth of King George III of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

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Act of Settlement 1701, Charlotte Sophia of Mecklenburg- Strelitz, Electress Sophia of Hanover, Frederick II of Prussia, Frederick Louis Prince of Wales, Frederick the Great, George I of Great Britain, King George II of Great Britain, King George III of the United Kingdom, King George IV of the United Kingdom, King of Great Britain, King of Hanover, Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, Sophia of the Rhine (Electress Sophia)

George III (George William Frederick; June 4, 1738 – January 29, 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from his accession on October 25, 1760 until the union of the two countries on January 1, 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death in 1820. He was concurrently Duke and Prince-Elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg (“Hanover”) in the Holy Roman Empire before becoming King of Hanover on October 12, 1814. He was a monarch of the House of Hanover, but unlike his two predecessors, he was born in Great Britain, spoke English as his first language, and never visited Hanover.

George III, King of the United King of Great Britain and Ireland. King of Hanover

Family

George was born in London at Norfolk House in St James’s Square. As he was born two months prematurely and thought unlikely to survive, he was baptised the same day by Thomas Secker, who was both Rector of St James’s and Bishop of Oxford. One month later, he was publicly baptised at Norfolk House, again by Secker. His godparents were King Friedrich I of Sweden (for whom Lord Baltimore stood proxy), his uncle Friedrich III, Duke of Saxe-Gotha (for whom Lord Carnarvon stood proxy), and his great-aunt Sophia-Dorothea, Queen in Prussia (for whom Lady Charlotte Edwin stood proxy).

George II, King of Great Britain and Ireland.

George III was the grandson of King George II, and the eldest son of Frederick-Louis, Prince of Wales, and Augusta of Saxe-Gotha.

George III’s father was Frederick-Louis, Prince of Wales, (1707-1751), was heir apparent to the British throne from 1727 until his death from a lung injury at the age of 44. He was the eldest but estranged son of King George II and Caroline of Ansbach.

Under the Act of Settlement passed by the English Parliament in 1701, Frederick-Louis was fourth in the line of succession to the British throne at birth, after his great-grandmother (Electress Sophia of Hanover) paternal grandfather (George I) and father (George II). He moved to Great Britain following the accession of his father, and was created Prince of Wales. He predeceased his father, however, and upon the latter’s death on October 25, 1760, the throne passed to Prince Frederick’s eldest son, George III.

Frederick-Louis, Prince of Wales (Father)

George III’s mother, Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg was born in Gotha to Friedrich II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (1676–1732) and Magdalena Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst (1679–1740). Her paternal grandparents were Friedrich I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg and Magdalena-Sibylla of Saxe-Weissenfels, a daughter of August, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels, and his wife Anna-Maria of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Magdalena-Sibylla’snpaternal grandparents were Johann-Georg I, Elector of Saxony, and Magdalene Sibylle of Prussia.

Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (Mother)

Friedrich I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, was the eldest surviving son of Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg and his cousin Elisabeth-Sophie of Saxe-Altenburg.

Princess Augusta did not speak French or English, and it was suggested that she be given lessons before the wedding, but her mother did not consider it necessary as the British royal family were from Germany (Holy Roman Empire). She arrived in Britain, speaking virtually no English, for a wedding ceremony with Frederick-Louis, Prince of Wales, which took place almost immediately, on May 8,1736, at the Chapel Royal in St James’s Palace, London.

Although he was the first British King of the House of Hanover born in England with English his native language, the ancestry of George III was thoroughly German.

Marriage

In 1759, George was smitten with Lady Sarah Lennox, sister of Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond, but Lord Bute advised against the match and George abandoned his thoughts of marriage. “I am born for the happiness or misery of a great nation,” he wrote, “and consequently must often act contrary to my passions.” The prominent Lennox Family of Richmond were illegitimate descendants of King Charles II of England.

Lady Sarah Lennox

In 1753 attempts were made by King George II to marry his grandson George, Prince of Wales to Princess Sophie-Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, eldest daughter of Charles I, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, and his wife, Philippine-Charlotte of Prussia, sister of Friedrich II the Great of Prussia.

This was an attempt to improve relations with Prussia, as Sophie-Caroline was a niece of Friedrich II of Prussia and George II needed Prussian troops to help offset the alliance between France and Austria that had occurred as a result of the Diplomatic Revolution. Prince George’s mother, Augusta, Dowager Princess of Wales, thwarted George II’s plans, however, which increased tensions within the British royal family. Sophie-Caroline married Friedrich, Margrave of Bayreuth, instead.

Princess Sophie-Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel

Though this match was not to be, Sophie-Caroline’s brother Charles II, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, married George’s sister Princess Augusta in 1764, and George III’s son George IV married their daughter Caroline of Brunswick, thus continuing the close ties between the two houses.

The following year, at the age of 22, George succeeded to the throne when his grandfather, George II, died suddenly on 25 October 25, 1760, two weeks before his 77th birthday. The search for a suitable wife intensified. On September 8, 1761 in the Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace, the King married Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, whom he met on their wedding day.

Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was the youngest daughter of Duke Charles-Ludwig-Friedrich of Mecklenburg (1708–1752; known as “Prince of Mirow”) and of his wife Princess Elisabeth-Albertine of Saxe-Hildburghausen (1713–1761). Mecklenburg-Strelitz was a small north-German duchy in the Holy Roman Empire.

Young George III

A fortnight after the wedding on September22, both were crowned at Westminster Abbey. George remarkably never took a mistress (in contrast with his grandfather and his sons), and the couple enjoyed a genuinely happy marriage until his mental illness struck.

They had 15 children—nine sons and six daughters. In 1762, George purchased Buckingham House (on the site now occupied by Buckingham Palace) for use as a family retreat. His other residences were Kew Palace and Windsor Castle. St James’s Palace was retained for official use. He did not travel extensively and spent his entire life in southern England. In the 1790s, the King and his family took holidays at Weymouth, Dorset, which he thus popularised as one of the first seaside resorts in England.

George III’s life and reign, at 59 years, which was longer than those of any of his predecessors at the time, were marked by a series of military conflicts involving his kingdoms, much of the rest of Europe, and places farther afield in Africa, the Americas, and Asia. Early in his reign, Great Britain defeated France in the Seven Years’ War, becoming the dominant European power in North America and India. However, many of Britain’s American colonies were soon lost in the American War of Independence. Further wars against revolutionary and Napoleonic France from 1793 concluded in the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

George III, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, King of Hanover

In the later part of his life, George had recurrent, and eventually permanent, mental illness. Although it has since been suggested that he had bipolar disorder or the blood disease porphyria, the cause of his illness remains unknown. After a final relapse in 1810, a regency was established. His eldest son, George, Prince of Wales, ruled as Prince Regent until his father’s death, when he succeeded as George IV. Historical analysis of George III’s life has gone through a “kaleidoscope of changing views” that have depended heavily on the prejudices of his biographers and the sources available to them.

Changing Titles.

The nation went through many changes through his reign and his titles reflected these changes.

In Great Britain, George III used the official style “George the Third, by the Grace of God, King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, and so forth”. In 1801, when Great Britain united with Ireland, he dropped the title of King of France, which had been used for every English monarch since Edward III’s claim to the French throne in the medieval period. His style became “George the Third, by the Grace of God, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Defender of the Faith.”

In Germany, he was “Duke of Brunswick and Lüneburg, Arch-Treasurer and Prince-Elector of Hanover of the Holy Roman Empire” (Herzog von Braunschweig und Lüneburg, Erzschatzmeister und Kurfürst des Heiligen Römischen Reiches) until the end of the empire in 1806. He then continued as Duke until the Congress of Vienna declared him “King of Hanover” in 1814.