Last of the Stuarts; First of the Hanoverians

     300 years ago today, a Queen died and was succeeded by a King.

     But this was no ordinary change of the guard for the British monarchy. Indeed, this day marks one of the most significant turning points in the history of Britain and its ancient and venerable institution. It marked the end of one royal dynasty which had gone through much social, political, and religious upheaval, and the beginning of another, which paved the way to the development of the modern pattern of British governance that we know today.

Statue of Queen Anne, the last Stuart monarch, outside of St. Paul's Cathedral.
Image Credit: Peter Weis via Wikimedia Commons cc

     It had been over twelve years since Queen Anne had acceded her brother-in-law, William III & II, to the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland. During that period, her armies had won many a great victory in Continental Europe during the War of the Spanish Succession under the command of her leading captain-general - John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, whose greatest triumph was arguably the defeat of the French at the Battle of Blenheim.

     However, Anne's finest hour may have been the moment when two of her kingdoms - England and Scotland - were joined together to form a new country under the name of Great Britain, and it was the United Kingdom of Great Britain that rose to new heights to become the greatest power in Europe, and which was on its way to becoming a world power.

     But for all of the public achievement, Anne was unable to do the one thing required of every sovereign: producing an heir to the throne. Having gone through 17 pregnancies (from 1684 to 1700) via her husband, Prince George of Denmark, only one child - Prince William, Duke of Gloucester, survived infancy, but he was in precarious health throughout his life, and died aged 11 in 1700. The result was that there was nobody to succeed Anne, who was heir to the throne following her brother-in-law King William.

William III & II and Mary II.

     William himself became King during the Protestant-led Glorious Revolution of 1688-89, in which William's Catholic father-in-law and uncle - James VII & II - had fled Britain and was more or less deposed. Under the English Bill of Rights and the Scottish Claim of Right, William and his wife, Mary (James' eldest daughter) were made joint monarchs of England, Scotland, and Ireland. If they died without heirs, then the crowns would pass on to Anne - the younger daughter of King James - and her heirs. The point was to prevent the restoration of James and (after his death in 1701) his only surviving son, James Francis Edward Stuart, who were now exiled in France.

     In 1694, Queen Mary died aged 32 without having produced an heir, and William ruled alone until his death in 1702. With the passing of Prince William two years earlier, the prospect of a Catholic Stuart restoration seemed imminent, so in 1701, the English Parliament passed the Act of Settlement, which barred Catholics from succeeded from the throne, as well as anybody married to a Catholic. It also provided that in lieu of any legitimate heirs by either William or Anne, Sophia of Hanover and her heirs would inherit the throne of England.

The Act of Settlement, which largely governs succession to the British Crown to this day.
Image Credit: Torsten Bätge via Wikimedia Commons cc

     Sophia of Hanover was a daughter of Elizabeth Stuart, who in turn was the only surviving daughter of James VI of Scotland and I of England and Ireland. She was married to the German Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Elector of Hanover and had a grown son, Georg Ludwig, who by this time had succeeded to his hereditary titles and offices. Though there were over 50 Catholic's ahead of them, Electress Sophia and her son were the first Protestant's on the list, and that was all that mattered.

     In England the issue of the succession was settled, but in Scotland, whilst there were similar feelings towards having a Catholic king, there was also a sense of loyalty to the Stuart family, who had originated from Scotland and reigned in that country since 1371.

Flag of Scotland

     In response to the English, the Scots Parliament passed – and Queen Anne granted Royal Assent to – the Act of Security in 1703, which declared that the next monarch of Scotland should be Protestant and of the royal line, but should not be the same person who succeeded Anne to the Crown of England (probably in the hope that James Stuart would convert), unless the English granted freedom of trade to Scottish merchants within England, Ireland, and the overseas colonies.

Flag of England

     With the ball back in England’s court, it then passed – with Anne’s assent – the Alien’s Act of 1705, which declared that all Scots were to treated as aliens in England (save for those already living there) unless Scotland either repealed the Act of Security or agreed to a union with England. The Scots chose the latter option, and a set of commissioners from both countries were appointed by the Queen, who met in London to hash out an agreement.

     The result was the 1707 unification of Britain into a single country under a single parliament and a single crown, which was governed under the terms of the Act of Settlement - ensuring that there would be a Protestant Hanoverian succession throughout the island nation.

The original Union Flag of Great Britain.

     This island nation of Great Britain - Britannia - would go on to emerge as a leading world power, but Queen Anne would not long savor this triumph. Plagued by ill health throughout her life, she became increasingly corpulent and lame in her later years, and her end finally came on August 1, 1714. Her heir, Electress Sophia of Hanover, had died on May 28th of that year following a collapse resulting from running to shelter during a storm.

     This meant that Sophia's eldest son, Georg Ludwig (with his name Anglicized as George Louis) was proclaimed King of Great Britain and Ireland. George I - great-grandson of James VI & I - arrived in Britain on September 18th and was crowned at Westminster Abbey on October 20th.

First of the Hanoverian's - George I of Great Britain and Ireland

     His accession and coronation marked the end of the House of Stuart - which had ruled for 343 years - and with it, the theory of Divine Right, in which many of its members believed. It was this belief in Divine Right and Absolutism, and the very rejection of these principles by the British people, which arguably cost Charles I and James VII & II the throne, and led to the creation of a limited - or constitutional - monarchy in which the monarch respects the will of Parliament and observes limitations on his or her authority.

     With George I being German, not knowing English, and more interested in foreign affairs and the affairs of his native Hanover, he left the day-to-day business of running Britain to trusted and capable ministers, one of whom, Robert Walpole, emerged in 1721 as the first Prime Minister. As the century went on, it would be relationships between the early Hanoverian monarchs (George I, his son - George II, and great-grandson - George III) and Parliament that would decisively change the way Britain was governed.

     The monarchy itself took on a German identity, and even though every monarch beginning with George III was born and raised in Britain and spoke English as their first language, members of the Royal Family continued marrying Germanic royalty and practiced German customs. This would continue for the next 200 years until the House of Windsor was born in 1917, and it was from this royal line begun by George I that we have the reigning monarch - Elizabeth II.

     Indeed, the arrival of the Hanoverian's in 1714 changed the trajectory of the monarchy and of Britain.