British Monarchy and its influence upon governmental institutions
George, Elector of Hanover since 1698, ascended the
throne upon the death of Queen Anne, under the terms of the 1701 Act of
Settlement. His mother had recently died and he meticulously settled his
affairs in Hanover before coming to England. He realized his position and considered
the better of two evils to be the Whigs (the other alternative was the Catholic
son of James II by Mary of Modena, James Edward Stuart, the Old Pretender).
George knew that any decision was bound to offend at least half of the British
population. His character and mannerisms were strictly German; he never
troubled himself to learn the English language, and spent at least half of his
time in Hanover.
The pale little 54 year-old man arrived in Greenwich
on September 29, 1714, with a full retinue of German friends, advisors and
servants (two of which, Mohamet and Mustapha, were Negroes captured during a
Turkish campaign). All were determined to profit from the venture, with George
leading the way. He also arrived with two mistresses and no wife - Sophia had
been imprisoned for adultery. The English population was unkind to the two
mistresses, labeling the tall, thin Ehrengard Melusina von Schulenberg as the
"maypole", and the short, fat Charlotte Sophia Kielmansegge as the
"elephant". Thackeray remarked, "Take what you can get was the
old monarch's maxim... The German women plundered, the German secretaries
plundered, the German cooks and attendants plundered, even Mustapha and
Mohamet... had a share in the booty."
The Jacobites, legitimist Tories, attempted to depose
George and replace him with the Old Pretender in 1715. The rebellion was a
dismal failure. The Old Pretender failed to arrive in Britain until it was over
and French backing evaporated with the death of Louis XIV. After the rebellion,
England settled into a much needed time of peace, with internal politics and
foreign affairs coming to the fore.
George's ignorance of the English language and customs
actually became the cornerstone of his style of rule: leave England to it's own
devices and live in Hanover as much as possible. Cabinet positions became of
the utmost importance; the king's ministers represented the executive branch of
government, while Parliament represented the legislative. George's frequent
absences required the creation of the post of Prime Minister, the majority
leader in the House of Commons who acted in the king's stead. The first was
Robert Walpole, whose political mettle was tried in 1720 with the South Sea
Company debacle. The South Sea Company was a highly speculative venture (one of
many that was currently plaguing British economics at that time), whose
investors cajoled government participation. Walpole resisted from the
beginning, and after the venture collapsed and thousands were financially
ruined, he worked feverishly to restore public credit and confidence in
George's government. His success put him in the position of dominating British
politics for the next 20 years, and the reliance on an executive Cabinet marked
an important step in the formation of a modern constitutional monarchy in
England.
George avoided entering European conflicts by
establishing a complex web of continental alliances. He and his Whig ministers
were quite skillful; the realm managed to stay out of war until George II
declared war on Spain in 1739. George I and his son, George II, literally hated
each other, a fact that the Tory party used to gain political strength. George
I, on his many trips to Hanover, never placed the leadership of government in
his son's hands, preferring to rely on his ministers when he was abroad. This
disdain between father and son was a blight which became a tradition in the
House of Hanover.
Thackeray, in The Four Georges, allows both a
glimpse of George I's character, and the circumstances under which he ruled
England: "Though a despot in Hanover, he was a moderate ruler in England.
His aim was to leave it to itself as much as possible, and to live out of it as
much as he could. His heart was in Hanover. He was more than fifty-four 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. He
took our loyalty for what it was worth; laid hands on what money he could; kept
us assuredly from Popery and wooden shoes. 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."
GEORGE II (1727-60)
George II was born November 10, 1683, the only son of
George I and Sophia. His youth was spent in the Hanoverian court in Germany,
and he married Caroline of Anspach in 1705. He was truly devoted to Caroline;
she bore him three sons and five daughters, and actively participated in
government affairs, before she died in 1737. Like his father, George was very
much a German prince, but at the age of 30 when George I ascended the throne,
he was young enough to absorb the English culture that escaped his father.
George II died of a stroke on October 25, 1760.
George possessed three passions: the army, music and
his wife. He was exceptionally brave and has the distinction of being the last
British sovereign to command troops in the field (at Dettingen against the
French in 1743). He inherited his father's love of opera, particularly the work
of George Frederick Handel, who had been George I's court musician in Hanover.
Caroline proved to be his greatest asset. She revived traditional court life
(which had all but vanished under George I, was fiercely intelligent and an
ardent supporter of Robert Walpole. Walpole continued in the role of Prime
Minister at Caroline's behest, as George was loathe keeping his father's head
Cabinet member. The hatred George felt towards his father was reciprocated by
his son, Frederick, Prince of Wales, who died in 1751.
Walpole retired in 1742, after establishing the
foundation of the modern constitutional monarchy: a Cabinet responsible to a
Parliament, which was, in turn, responsible to an electorate. At that time, the
system was far from truly democratic; the electorate was essentially the voice
of wealthy landowners and mercantilists. The Whig party was firmly in control,
although legitimist Tories attempted one last Jacobite rebellion in 1745, by
again trying to restore a Stuart to the throne. Prince Charles Edward Stuart,
known as the Young Pretender or Bonnie Prince Charlie, landed in Scotland and
marched as far south as Derby, causing yet another wave of Anti-Catholicism to
wash over England. The Scots retreated, and in 1746, were butchered by the
Royal Army at Culloden Moor. Bonnie Prince Charlie escaped to France and died
in Rome. The Tories became suspect due to their associations with Jacobitism,
ensuring oligarchic Whig rule for the following fifty years.
Walpole managed to keep George out of continental
conflicts for the first twelve years of the reign, but George declared war on
Spain in 1739, against Walpole's wishes. The Spanish war extended into the
1740's as a component of the War of Austrian Succession, in which England
fought against French dominance in Europe. George shrank away from the
situation quickly: he negotiated a hasty peace with France, to protect Hanover.
The 1750's found England again at war with France, this time over imperial
claims. Fighting was intense in Europe, but North America and India were also
theatres of the war. Government faltering in response to the French crisis
brought William Pitt the Elder, later Earl of Chatham, to the forefront of
British politics.
Thackeray describes George II and Walpole as such, in The
Four Georges "... how he was a choleric little sovereign; how he shook
his fist in the face of his father's courtiers; how he kicked his coat and wig
about in his rages; and called everybody thief, liar, rascal with whom he
differed: you will read in all the history books; and how he speedily and
shrewdly reconciled himself with the bold minister, whom he had hated during
his father's life, and by whom he was served during fifteen years of his own
with admirable prudence, fidelity, and success. But for Robert Walpole, we
should have had the Pretender back again."
GEORGE
III (r. 1760-1820)
George III was born on 4 June 1738 in London, the
eldest son of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha.
He became heir to the throne on the death of his father in 1751, succeeding his
grandfather, George II, in 1760. He was the third Hanoverian monarch and the
first one to be born in England and to use English as his first language.
George III is widely remembered for two things: losing
the American colonies and going mad. This is far from the whole truth. George's
direct responsibility for the loss of the colonies is not great. He opposed
their bid for independence to the end, but he did not develop the policies
(such as the Stamp Act of 1765 and the Townshend duties of 1767 on tea, paper
and other products) which led to war in 1775-76 and which had the support of Parliament.
These policies were largely due to the financial burdens of garrisoning and
administering the vast expansion of territory brought under the British Crown
in America, the costs of a series of wars with France and Spain in North
America, and the loans given to the East India Company (then responsible for
administering India). By the 1770s, and at a time when there was no income tax,
the national debt required an annual revenue of £4 million to service it.
The declaration of American independence on 4 July
1776, the end of the war with the surrender by British forces in 1782, and the
defeat which the loss of the American colonies represented, could have
threatened the Hanoverian throne. However, George's strong defence of what he
saw as the national interest and the prospect of long war with revolutionary
France made him, if anything, more popular than before.
The American war, its political aftermath and family
anxieties placed great strain on George in the 1780s. After serious bouts of
illness in 1788-89 and again in 1801, George became permanently deranged in
1810. He was mentally unfit to rule in the last decade of his reign; his eldest
son - the later George IV - acted as Prince Regent from 1811. Some medical
historians have said that George III's mental instability was caused by a
hereditary physical disorder called porphyria.
George's accession in 1760 marked a significant change
in royal finances. Since 1697, the monarch had received an annual grant of
£700,000 from Parliament as a contribution to the Civil List, i.e. civil
government costs (such as judges' and ambassadors' salaries) and the expenses
of the Royal Household. In 1760, it was decided that the whole cost of the
Civil List should be provided by Parliament in return for the surrender of the
hereditary revenues by the King for the duration of his reign. (This
arrangement still applies today, although civil government costs are now paid
by Parliament, rather than financed directly by the monarch from the Civil
List.)
The first 25 years of George's reign were politically
controversial for reasons other than the conflict with America. The King was
accused by some critics, particularly Whigs (a leading political grouping), of
attempting to reassert royal authority in an unconstitutional manner. In fact,
George took a conventional view of the constitution and the powers left to the
Crown after the conflicts between Crown and Parliament in the 17th century.
Although he was careful not to exceed his powers,
George's limited ability and lack of subtlety in dealing with the shifting
alliances within the Tory and Whig political groupings in Parliament meant that
he found it difficult to bring together ministries which could enjoy the
support of the House of Commons. His problem was solved first by the
long-lasting ministry of Lord North (1770-82) and then, from 1783, by Pitt the
Younger, whose ministry lasted until 1801.
George III was the most attractive of the Hanoverian
monarchs. He was a good family man (there were 15 children) and devoted to his
wife, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, for whom he bought the Queen's House
(later enlarged to become Buckingham Palace). However, his sons disappointed
him and, after his brothers made unsuitable secret marriages, the Royal
Marriages Act of 1772 was passed at George's insistence. (Under this Act, the
Sovereign must give consent to the marriage of any lineal descendant of George
II, with certain exceptions.)
Being extremely conscientious, George read all
government papers and sometimes annoyed his ministers by taking such a
prominent interest in government and policy. His political influence could be
decisive. In 1801, he forced Pitt the Younger to resign when the two men
disagreed about whether Roman Catholics should have full civil rights. George III,
because of his coronation oath to maintain the rights and privileges of the
Church of England, was against the proposed measure.
One of the most cultured of monarchs, George started a
new royal collection of books (65,000 of his books were later given to the
British Museum, as the nucleus of a national library) and opened his library to
scholars. In 1768, George founded and paid the initial costs of the Royal
Academy of Arts (now famous for its exhibitions). He was the first king to
study science as part of his education (he had his own astronomical
observatory), and examples of his collection of scientific instruments can now
be seen in the Science Museum.
George III also took a keen interest in agriculture,
particularly on the crown estates at Richmond and Windsor, being known as
'Farmer George'. In his last years, physical as well as mental powers deserted
him and he became blind. He died at Windsor Castle on 29 January 1820, after a
reign of almost 60 years - the second longest in British history.
GEORGE IV (1820-30)
George IV was 48 when
he became Regent in 1811. He had secretly and illegally married a Roman
Catholic, Mrs Fitzherbert. In 1795 he officially married Princess Caroline of
Brunswick, but the marriage was a failure and he tried unsuccessfully to
divorce her after his accession in 1820 (Caroline died in 1821). Their only
child Princess Charlotte died giving birth to a stillborn child.
An outstanding, if extravagant, collector and builder,
George IV acquired many important works of art (now in the Royal Collection),
built the Royal Pavilion at Brighton, and transformed Windsor Castle and
Buckingham Palace. George's fondness for pageantry helped to develop the
ceremonial side of monarchy. After his father's long illness, George resumed
royal visits; he visited Hanover in 1821 (it had not been visited by its ruler
since the 1750s), and Ireland and Scotland over the next couple of years.
Beset by debts, George was in a weak position in
relation to his Cabinet of ministers. His concern for royal prerogative was
sporadic; when the Prime Minister Lord Liverpool fell ill in 1827, George at
one stage suggested that ministers should choose Liverpool's successor. In
1829, George IV was forced by his ministers, much against his will and his
interpretation of his coronation oath, to agree to Catholic Emancipation. By
reducing religious discrimination, this emancipation enabled the monarchy to
play a more national role.
George's profligacy and marriage difficulties meant
that he never regained much popularity, and he spent his final years in
seclusion at Windsor, dying at the age of 67.
WILLIAM IV (1830-37)
At the age of 13,
William became a midshipman and began a career in the Royal Navy. In 1789, he
was made duke of Clarence. He retired from the Navy in 1790. Between 1791 and
1811 he lived with his mistress, the actress Mrs Jordan, and the growing family
of their children known as the Fitzclarences. William married Princess Adelaide
of Saxe-Meiningen in 1818, but their children died in infancy. The third son of
George III, William became heir apparent at the age of 62 when his older
brother died.
William's reign (reigned 1830-37) was dominated by the
Reform crisis, beginning almost immediately when Wellington's Tory government
(which William supported) lost the general election in August 1830. Pledged to
parliamentary reform, Grey's Whig government won a further election which
William had to call in 1831 and then pushed through a reform bill against the
opposition of the Tories and the House of Lords, using the threat of the
creation of 50 or more peers to do so. The failure of the Tories to form an
alternative government in 1832 meant that William had to sign the Great Reform
Bill. Control of peerages had been used as a party weapon, and the royal
prerogative had been damaged.
The Reform Bill abolished some of the worst abuses of
the electoral system (for example, representation for so called 'rotten
boroughs', which had long ceased to be of any importance, was stopped, and new
industrial towns obtained representation). The Reform Act also introduced
standardised rules for the franchise (different boroughs had previously had
varying franchise rules) and, by extending the franchise to the middle classes,
greatly increased the role of public opinion in the political process.
William understood the theory of the more limited
monarchy, once saying 'I have my view of things, and I tell them to my
ministers. If they do not adopt them, I cannot help it. I have done my duty.'
William died a month after Victoria had come of age, thus avoiding another
regency.
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