by Alex David
William alone: 28 December 1694 – 8 March 1702
Note: There was a gap of two months between the date when James II was considered to have vacated the English throne by fleeing the country, 11 December 1688, and the date when William and Mary were officially offered the crown by Parliament, 13 February 1689. During that time, whilst constitutional arrangements were being debated, England was governed by a committee composed of Lords, Commons and William himself as unofficial Regent.
Some chronologies eliminate this gap by backdating the start of William and Mary’s reign to 11 December 1688
however the actual chronology has been retained here since no monarch officially reigned during that time.
Birth:
William III: 4 November 1650, in Binnenhof Palace, The Hague, The Netherlands. Only child of William II, Prince of Orange, and of Mary, daughter of King Charles I and sister to Kings Charles II and James II.
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Mary II: 30 April 1662, in St James’s Palace, London.
Oldest surviving child of King James II and Anne Hyde (when Duke and Duchess of York). She and William were first cousins.
Consort:
William and Mary were married to each other.
Death:
Mary II: 28 December 1694, in Kensington Palace, London.
William III: 8 March 1702, in Kensington Palace, London.
Key Facts:
William and Mary were the first and only joint
monarchs in British history, equal in status and
constitutional power. In practice however William
exercised power alone. Mary happily confined herself to a passive role, except when acting as regent when
William was abroad. Mary’s popularity as a vivacious English princess compensated for William’s foreign
origins and dour personality.
They gained their throne through the Glorious
Revolution of 1688-89 by replacing the unpopular James II who fled the country after William landed in England at 142
the invitation of English political leaders. As part of the Glorious Revolution settlement that offered them their crowns, William and Mary agreed to restrictions on the power of the monarchy which effectively placed it under the authority of Parliament. This and other constitutional changes during their reign gave birth to constitutional monarchy in Britain.
William personally led troops to victory against
James II at the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland in 1690, fought by James to regain his throne. This battle, and the subsequent Battle of Aughrim in 1691, confirmed the Glorious Revolution and the Protestant succession in England, Scotland and Ireland. The Battle of the Boyne’s commemoration as a victory for the Protestant
succession later became a contentious issue in Northern Ireland.
William authorised—some say unwittingly—the
1692 Glencoe Massacre in Scotland when dozens of
members of the MacDonald clan were killed for failing to swear an oath of allegiance to William and Mary before the appointed deadline of 1 January 1692. The event increased William’s unpopularity as a foreigner.
William laid the foundations of British military
influence in Europe by involving England in a European coalition war against Louis XIV of France between 1689-143
1701. He spent regular periods on military campaigns in Europe and personally led troops into a battle, proving himself to be a capable, respected commander. His wars against France continued into the next reign.
Besides the birth of constitutional monarchy,
William and Mary’s reign also saw the adoption of the Bill of Rights in 1689, the establishment of the Bank of England in 1694, and the start of modern financial and banking practices imported from the Netherlands. Mary founded the Royal Naval Hospital at Greenwich in 1692
for the care of seamen injured in William’s wars.
Mary died suddenly in 1694 of smallpox, leaving
William personally heartbroken and ruling alone until 1702. As William and Mary had no children and their successor, Anne, was also childless by 1700, Parliament adopted the Act of Settlement in the last year of
William’s reign, passing the crown to the most suitable Protestant relative: William and Anne’s first cousin once removed, Sophia of Hanover, and her successors.
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Peculiar Fact:
William: William’s father, mother and wife all died suddenly of smallpox at different times in his life. Even in an age when the disease was rife, the chances of this happening to very close family members in succession were rare.
Mary: When Mary was first told at the age of 15 that she was arranged to be married to William she wept
uncontrollably for a day and a half. Their personalities were very different and William was notoriously plain, not to mention 4 inches shorter than Mary. With time however their relationship blossomed.
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Anne
Reign:
8 March 1702 – 1 August 1714
Birth:
6 February 1665, in St James’s Palace, London. Second surviving child of King James II and Anne Hyde (when Duke and Duchess of York).
Prince Consort:
Prince George of Denmark (1653-1708), son of King
Frederick III of Denmark.
Death:
1 August 1714, in Kensington Palace, London.
Key Facts:
The last monarch of the House of Stuart, Anne was
unable to provide for the succession after 18 pregnancies led to 17 miscarriages, stillbirths or children who died in 146
infancy. Her only surviving child, William, died at age 11
before she became Queen.
She became the first monarch of a united Great
Britain after the Act of Union, formally uniting England and Scotland into one nation, was passed in 1707. Her reign saw the continuing development of constitutional monarchy as cabinet ministers gained more power over policy making. She became the last monarch to exercise a veto over a Parliamentary bill in 1708, when she vetoed a bill that would have established a separate militia for Scotland after the Act of Union.
Although grossly overweight and almost infirm from
gout and rheumatisms by the time she became Queen,
Anne reigned with great diligence and conscientiousness.
She famously attended more council meetings during her reign than all the previous Stuart monarchs combined.
She had a close friendship with Sarah Churchill,
Duchess of Marlborough, who was her chief confidante and adviser for most of her life. The friendship caused a rift between Anne and her sister, Queen Mary II, which was not mended before Mary’s death. Anne’s friendship with Sarah Churchill eventually also ended acrimoniously in 1711 when the two women fell out over politics and personal friendships.
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She presided over the War of the Spanish
Succession, fought by Britain and its allies against France between 1702-1713 to prevent Louis XIV’s grandson
becoming king of Spain. British armies, led by the gifted general John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough (Sarah
Churchill’s husband), won great victories against the French including the Battle of Blenheim in 1704. The war established Great Britain as a major world power for the first time in its history, and gained it new territories in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Gibraltar.
Peculiar Fact:
Anne kept a 19-year-long correspondence with her close friend Sarah Churchill, but they never signed their letters with their own names. On Anne’s suggestion they used the names of Mrs Morley for Anne, and Mrs Freeman for Sarah, both to promote equality in their conversations and to preserve anonymity should the letters fall in the wrong hands.
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George I
Reign:
1 August 1714 – 11 June 1727
Birth:
28 May 1660, in Hanover, Germany. First son of Ernest Augustus,
Elector of Hanover, and of Sophia, Electress of Hanover, who was a granddaughter of King James I.
George was a second cousin to Queen Anne, King William III and Queen Mary II.
Queen:
None. He divorced his wife, Sophia Dorothea of Celle, before he ascended the British throne.
Death:
11 June 1727, at Osnabruck Palace, Osnabruck, Germany.
Key Facts:
George I was the first Hanoverian and first German
king of Great Britain. His family line was chosen to succeed the last Stuart monarch because of their descent 149
from James I, and because of their solid Protestantism.
He spoke little English, communicating instead through French and Latin whilst in Britain. At the time that he became king he was the oldest monarch on accession in English history, at the age of 54.
He had a difficult temper that caused strains within the Royal Family. Before he came to Britain George had divorced his wife and imprisoned her for life after she had had an affair, and had banned their children from seeing her. This caused a permanent rift between him and his eldest son and heir, George, who ended up
setting up a rival court in London as Prince of Wales in 1717.
As king he showed more interest in his possessions
in Hanover than in Britain. This, combined with his inability to communicate in English, meant that he
delegated much of British political decision-making to his council of ministers. This led to the establishment of the cabinet system and the rise of the first Prime Minister, Robert Walpole, in the 1720s.
Several Jacobite rebellions and plots took place
during his reign, organised by those who aimed to restore the Catholic heirs of James II to the throne. These included the Jacobite Rebellion of 1715 in Scotland, led by James the Old Pretender, which was defeated; and the 150
Atterbury Plot of 1722, a conspiracy to seize the
government in London that was foiled in its planning stages.
He was involved in the South Sea Bubble Crash of
1720, one of the first financial market crashes of modern times, caused by inflated share prices and company
corruption. George had invested in the company’s shares with other members of the Royal Family and was saved from disgrace only by the shrewd political management of the Prime Minister, Robert Walpole.
A great patron on music, he supported musicians
and opera composers in Britain and Hanover. His most famous contribution was bringing Georg F. Handel to Britain from Hanover, who later composed his famous Water Music suite of 1717 specifically for one of George’s summer fetes.
Peculiar Fact:
Before his death George promised the Duchess of Kendal, one of his mistresses, that if it were possible to pay her a visit from the other world he would do so. The Duchess recorded that soon after he died a large black bird flew into her room in her villa near London. She was
convinced that it was him so she treated it with the utmost respect until finally it flew away.
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George II
Reign:
11 June 1727 – 25 October 1760
Birth:
30 October 1683, in Hanover, Germany. First son of King George I (then Prince of Brunswick-Lüneburg), and of Sophia Dorothea of Celle.
Queen:
Caroline of Ansbach (1683-1737), daughter of Margrave John Frederick of Brandenburg-Ansbach, Germany.
Death:
25 October 1760, in Kensington Palace, London.
Key Facts:
The last king to be born outside Great Britain,
George only arrived in the country at the age of 30 but differently from his father he learned to speak English and to appreciate Britain. A great enthusiast of all military things, he was the last monarch to lead troops into 152
battle, in 1743 at the Battle of Dettingen, Germany, which was won against the French during the War of the Austrian Succession.
In 1745 he survived the last Jacobite rebellion
against Hanoverian rule in Britain, led by Bonnie Prince Charlie, son of the Stuart Old Pretender. The Prince marched from Scotland as far south as Derby, but turned back north without fighting when faced with a larger army. George II’s son, William Duke of Cumberland,
destroyed Bonnie Prince Charlie’s forces in the Scottish Highlands at the Battle of Culloden in 1746, the last pitched battle fought on British soil.
George fostered constitutional monarchy by
supporting the cabinet system and by abiding to
limitations imposed by the Glorious Revolution
settlement. His largely supervisory approach to
government throughout his long reign ensured that much royal power was permanently devolved to Parliament
and the Prime Minister.
His reign witnessed the growth of Great Britain as a major world power, with the country imposing
dominance upon the seas and growing in military
strength. Thanks to wars and trade, by George’s death in 1760 Britain had also become the world’s most
prosperous nation and held a growing Empire stretching 153
from the colonies of North America to trading outposts in Asia and Africa.
At the end of his reign George also presided over the Seven Years’ War, fought by Britain and France between 1756-1763 over colonial possessions abroad, and
considered to be the first truly global conflict. Britain fought France in Europe, North America, Africa, India, and won resounding victories thanks partly to the
superiority of its navy. The war gained Britain control of India and new territories in Canada and the Caribbeans.
His reign saw the beginning of several royal
traditions including the Trooping the Colour ceremony for the Monarch’s official birthday; the adoption of God Save the King as the national anthem; and the use of Zadok The Priest during the coronation ceremony.
Peculiar Fact:
Royal Family tradition holds that George II was once robbed while walking in the gardens of Kensington
Palace. He was taking a stroll one morning when a man jumped over the wall, approached the king, and
respectfully asked him to hand over his money, his watch, and the buckles of his shoes. After George handed over the items the robber climbed back up the wall and
disappeared.
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George III
Reign:
25 October 1760 – 29 January 1820
Birth:
4 June 1738, at Norfolk House, St James’ Square, London.
First son of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and of Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha. Grandson of King George II.
Queen:
Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1744-1818), daughter of Duke Charles Louis Frederick of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Germany.
Death:
29 January 1820, at Windsor Castle.
Key Facts:
The first Hanoverian king to be born in Great Britain, George was also at the age of 22 the youngest king to ascend the throne since 1547. Differently from his
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German predecessors, English was his first language and he never travelled outside Britain.
He tried to re-assert the monarchy’s influence in
government, previously eroded under George I and
George II, by appointing favourites as ministers and directly influencing policy. His attempts however made him unpopular and were ultimately unsuccessful. By the end of his reign the political power of the monarchy had greatly diminished.
He lost the American Colonies through the American
War of Independence in 1775-83 and was personally held responsible by the colonists for bringing about the conflict. Much of the criticism levelled by Americans against George III was unfair—they did not acknowledge Parliament’s role in bringing about the crisis—however the popular reputation of George as a tyrant in America has persisted
to this day.
Despite the loss of the American Colonies his reign saw a great expansion of the British Empire in Canada, India, Southeast Asia, South Africa, Australia and the Caribbeans. His reign also saw the abolition of the slave trade in British possessions in 1807.
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In 1801 he became the first king of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland after full political union was established between the two islands. George however was against Catholic emancipation—the repeal of laws against Catholics—and his opposition set back the cause of Catholic relief in both islands by 30 years, causing lasting resentment in Ireland.
In the second part his reign Britain witnessed the
French Revolution in 1789 and British military
intervention against Napoleon from 1803, including
Nelson’s famous victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.
