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.

Western Australia Introduces Royal Succession Legislation

     The process of fully implementing the new royal succession laws took one step closer being completed this week when on Tuesday, February 25th, the Succession to the Crown Bill 2014 was introduced in the State Parliament of Western Australia, where it had its first reading before the legislature.

Parliament House in Perth, Western Australia

     These legal changes were agreed to in principal by the 16 countries in which Queen Elizabeth II is head of state at the 2011 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Perth, Australia. Once enacted by all Commonwealth realms, the new laws will replace male preference primogeniture with absolute primogeniture for the descendants of Prince Charles and anyone else in the succession born after October 28, 2011. This means that females will no longer be leap-fogged by their younger brothers (as has happened numerous times over the centuries). In addition, the reformed laws will end the disqualification of members of the royal family who marry Roman Catholics, and limit the need for the monarch's consent for royal marriages to the first six people in the line of succession. However, the prohibition on Catholic's becoming monarchs remains, and monarchs must be in communion with the Church of England.

     The United Kingdom, Canada, Jamaica, New Zealand, and most of the other realms have already either passed their new laws or have asserted that their constitutions either implicitly or explicitly state that the lawful succession in those countries automatically mirrors the succession laws in the United Kingdom, and that there is therefore no requirement to pass new legislation.

Coat of Arms of the Commonwealth of Australia

  
     In Australia, the laws governing succession are embedded at the Federal (national) and State levels, and therefore each State Parliament and the Federal Parliament in Canberra had to act. At a meeting of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) in April 2013, it was agreed that each of the six Australian States will pass legislation enabling the Federal Parliament to make the necessary changes for Australia and six states. However, Queensland and (apparently) Western Australia have opted to make changes to their own State laws as well as requesting the Federal Parliament to do the same.

     Western Australia and South Australia are currently the only States that have yet to pass the enabling legislation. Once this happens - and the bills receive Royal Assent to become law - the Federal Parliament in Canberra will pass its own legislation to change the royal succession and marriage laws, and upon the passage of this legislation, the process will be complete in Australia. 

     After Australia, the remaining Commonwealth realms that have not officially enacted the new succession laws are: the Bahamas, Barbados, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. 

     Barbados and Saint Kitts and Nevis have passed succession bills that are currently awaiting Royal Assent.

Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada in Toronto in 2010. Under the current succession laws,
she would not have bee Queen if her parents had had a son after she was born.

     The others have agreed to the reforms in principle, but have not yet taken formal action (though it is believed that they may follow the lead of Jamaica and other realms that have asserted that domestic legislation is not necessary on the grounds that the UK succession automatically mirrors the succession in their countries). 

     However, in anticipation that some realms may take longer than others, the Commonwealth leaders also agreed that the changes would come into force only after being enacted in all of the realms, and that they will retroactively take effect on October 28, 2011 – reflecting the time at which the succession changes were agreed to in principle during the CHOGM in Perth. 

     With the birth of a boy – Prince George – there has now been little impetus to immediately change the law in some realms since the effect will be moot for at least another generation. However, with the Australian process one step closer to completion, hopefully the remaining realms will act as soon as possible.



Photo Credit: Nachoman-au via Wikimedia Commons cc, David (dbking) via Flickr cc

Ten Facts You May Not Know About the Monarchy

1. The official residence of the British monarch is St. James's Palace, though no sovereign has lived there in over 200 years. It is the most senior royal palace in the United Kingdom, having been built in 1536 by Henry VIII, and therefore gives its name to the the royal court - the Court of St. James. Ambassadors and high commissioners are still accredited to the Court.

2. Buckingham Palace has been the official London residence of the monarch since 1837, and is the administrative headquarters of the monarchy.

3. The monarchy can trace its roots over a thousand years back to the kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England and early Scotland.

4. Richard II of England is the only king to have been married and buried at Westminster Abbey.

5. It is illegal to call, in print, for the abolition of the monarchy and the punishment is life imprisonment. The law dates back to 1848, and also makes it a crime to "imagine" overthrowing the Crown or waging war against it, but the law has not been enforced since 1879.

6. By tradition, monarch's are forbidden to enter the House of Commons at the Palace of Westminster. Charles I did so in 1642 to unsuccessfully arrest five of its members for treason, which led the First English Civil War. George VI briefly visited the Commons in 1950 to view the reconstruction work that had taken place following the Nazi bombings during World War II.

7.  The British monarch is also reigns over the Channel Islands as the Duke of Normandy, since the islands - which are off the coast of France - are the remains of the Duchy of Normandy and are not part of the United Kingdom. Along with the Isle of Man, they are known as Crown Dependencies.

8.  Edward VIII is the only monarch to have voluntarily abdicated the throne.

9.  The monarchy is the oldest-functioning political institution in Europe.

10. In the United Kingdom, the full title and style of the reigning monarch is:

Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.

Moment in Royal History - January 27

1606 - Trials begin for Guy Fawkes and others who were conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot

 

Guy Fawkes being captured.

      The Gunpowder Plot was a scheme that had been plotted by a group of English Catholics to assassinate James VI & I following their disappointment in failing to secure greater religious toleration under the Protestant King's administration.

     Led my Robert Catesby, the Plot involved blowing up the Palace of Westminster on November 5th while the King was in attendance at the State Opening of Parliament, following which, there would a revolt resulting in the placement of James's daughter Elizabeth Stuart as a Catholic monarch.

     Fortunately for King James, someone sent a tip-off letter, and on the night before the State Opening, the cellars under the House of Lords were searched. At around midnight, Guy Fawkes was discovered guarding 36 barrels of gunpowder, and was arrested. Had explosives gone off, much of British royal family and the English political elite would have been wiped out. As it was, the plan was thwarted, and the conspirators were put on trial.

A personal event with a slight royal connection

The Main Library at the University of Georgia

     Also on this day, there was an event of personal importance for myself that has a bit of royal connection. My alma mater, the University of Georgia was founded in 1785 by the Georgia General Assembly in Savannah, Georgia as the first publicly-chartered institution for higher learning the United States. Located in Athens, GA, it ranks among the top public universities in the country. The University is named for the State of Georgia, which in turn was named in honor of King George II of Great Britain and Ireland.


Photo Credit: Chuck via Flickr cc

Moments in Royal History: January 20

1265 – The first English parliament conducts its first meeting held by Simon de Montfort in the Palace of Westminster.

Westminster Hall, the venue of the first English parliament.

     The Parliament was summoned on December 14, 1264 by Simon de Montfort, the French-born nobleman who was the leader of a rebellion against King Henry III, and who was against the King's use of near absolute power without the council of the wider community of the realm. De Montfort had defeated Henry at the Battle of Lewes earlier that year, captured his son Edward, and forced him to become a king in name only whilst De Montfort and his government of barons ruled in the King's name.

     Previous parliaments and assemblies had been gathered beforehand, but this Parliament was the first to include elected representatives for the counties and boroughs, which expanded its membership beyond the titled nobility. Although it was not summoned or sanctioned by the King, it is considered to be the first meeting of Parliament as we know it today.

1356 – Edward Balliol gives up his claims to the Scottish Crown.

Arms of the Kingdom of Scotland

     Balliol was the son of John Balliol, the deposed and disgraced King of Scotland. Edward III of England - whose grandfather Edward I had all but placed John Balliol on the Scottish throne - backed Edward's attempt to seize the throne from David II of Scotland, who was still a child upon the death of his father, Robert the Bruce. Taking advantage of the unstable political environment, Balliol took the Crown and managed to briefly rule Scotland from 1332 to 1336, when he was deposed by forces loyal to King David. Balliol lived for the rest of his life on an English pension in obscurity.

1649 – Charles I of England, Scotland, and Ireland goes on trial for treason and other "high crimes".

Trial of King Charles I

     The trial was conducted by the Rump Parliament of England, which had expelled members who were allies of the King, or at least willing to negotiate with him over the Church, taxation, the army, and other issues over which Parliament had been fighting the King for several years. 

It declared itself the supreme power of the land, with the right to make laws without the consent of the King or the House of Lords, and its members viewed Charles as a treasonous tyrant who must pay for his crimes against England. The King's "crimes" were numerous, including the accusations that he attempted to rule with the consent of Parliament, but what broke the camel's back for some parliamentarian's was Charles's collusion with the Scots, who had invaded England to help place Charles back on his throne and to wipe out the Parliamentarian-backed New Model Army.

     The King refused to recognize the trial, believing it to be illegitimate on the grounds that as King, he was answerable only to God and that an earthly court had no jurisdiction. However the court responded that has King, he was entrusted with limited power according to the laws of the land. The eventual result of the trial was the King's conviction and execution on January 30, 1649.

1936 - George V dies and his eldest son becomes Edward VIII becomes King of the United Kingdom.

George V

     At his beloved estate at Sandringham, the King - who had celebrated his Silver Jubilee during the previous year - went to bed on the 15th of January complaining about a cold. He grew weaker and slipped in and out of consciousness over the next couple of days, during which he asked his secretary: "How is the Empire?" The secretary replied: "All is well, sir, with the Empire", and the King gave a smile before becoming unconscious again. On the night of the 20th, the King bellowed "God damn you!" to his nurse as she was giving him sedative, in what would be his last words, before passing away just before midnight.

In 1986, it was revealed that the leading physician, Lord Dawson, had hastened the King's death by injecting him with cocaine and morphine. Dawson, whose wrote this and other information about that night in his diary, explained that this was done to prevent more stress on the royal family and to ensure that the death occurred at around 11:55 PM so that it would be featured in The Times and other respectable morning publicans, as opposed to what he termed "less appropriate ... evening journals."

Edward VIII as Prince of Wales in 1919.

     Upon George's death, his eldest son Edward, Prince of Wales became Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, the British Dominions, and Emperor of India. Edward would abdicated before the year was out, and was succeed by his brother Albert, Duke of York, who became George VI. Thus did 1936 became known as the Year of the Three Kings.

1965 – Birth of Sophie, Countess of Wessex

HRH The Countess of Wessex

     Today, the Countess of Wessex, wife of Prince Edward - the youngest child of the Queen - turns 49 years old. 

     Sophie is the daughter of a tire salesman and a secretary, and after completing her schooling, she worked in the public relations industry for several years. She met Prince Edward in 1993, and the couple were married in 1999 at a ceremony in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle. They have two children: Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor and James Mountbatten-Windsor, Viscount Severn. 

     Since becoming a full-time working member of the Royal family in 2002, she has gradually come into her own as important part of the monarchy with her brand of grace and charm. Her public profile has increased as she hosted numerous receptions, including one at Buckingham Palace last year to commemorate the 50^th anniversary of the Doctor Who television series. The Countess has also made several official visits - either solo or with Edward - to represent the Queen, as well as herself, and in October of last year, she became the first Global Ambassador of the Duke of Edinburgh's Award while in South Africa, where she was learning how the award's scheme was helping to improve the prospects of young people in a local community.

     Sophie is said to be on very good terms with the Queen. They share an interest in history (especially military history in Sophie's case), and have been known to spend hours together in the archives under Windsor Castle. According to Ingrid Seward, editor-in-chief of Majesty Magazine, courtiers report that the Countess fills in the gap of female companionship left by the late Princess Margaret - the Queen's only sibling - and her mother, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.

On This Day: January 4

Modern interpretation of the flag of Wessex.

     In 871, King Æthelred of Wessex fought and was defeated at the Battle of Reading by Danish invaders alongside his brother, who would become Alfred the Great.

Charles I of England, Scotland, and Ireland

     In 1642, King Charles I entered the House of Commons at the Palace of Westminster with armed soldiers to arrest the following five Members of Parliament:

• John Hampden, MP for Buckinghamshire
• Arthur Haselrig, MP for Leicestershire
• Denzil Holles, MP for Dorchester
• John Pym, MP for Tavistock
• William Strode, MP for Bere Alston

     Charles was a devout establishment Anglican who believed that these Puritan men had encouraged the Presbyterian Scots to invade England during the Bishops Wars, and were plotting to turn the people of London against him. He then decided to have the members arrested for treason.

     Upon entering the Commons, Charles sat in the Speaker's chair and demanded that the men be handed over. When he realized that the men were not there, he said: "I see the birds have flown," and then asked the Speaker of the House, William Lenthall, if he had knowledge of their movements or had seen them earlier. Lenthall replied that he was a servant of the Commons, and as such, was not authorized to speak unless the members directed him to do so. As it was, the five members had been warned about Charles and escaped by boat through the back of the Commons chamber facing the River Thames, while the King and his soldiers entered from the landward side at the front.

     This ill-fated move by King Charles stiffened Parliamentary resolve against him and he lost the support of London. He moved his court to Oxford, and from there the battle lines were drawn for the English part of the British Civil Wars.

King Charles awaiting his trial.

     Exactly seven years to the day after Charles I attempted to arrest the Five Members, and in so doing, started the English Civil Wars, it was decided by the Rump Parliament to put the King on trial for treason.

     Charles had been a prisoner of the English Parliament at the end of the First English Civil War, but attempted to make deals various parties. In 1647, he made a deal (in bad faith, likely) with his Scottish subjects to establish Presbyterianism throughout the British Isles if they sent an army to invade England and restore him to his throne in London.  The result was the Royalist Uprising in May 1648 and the Second Civil War in which the Scots invaded England and several rebellions took place in Kent, Essex, Cumberland, and South Wales. The Parliamentarian New Model Army, composed mainly of religious Independents with no loyalty to established faiths, crushed the rebellions and defeated the Scots at the Battle of Preston.

     The Presbyterian-dominated Parliament voted to continue negotiations with the King, but Oliver Cromwell and the Army were through with negotiating. They seized the King, placed him under their direct custody, and then purged Parliament of the 150-strong Presbyterian majority, leaving a "rump" (or remainder) of 50 Independents. This Rump Parliament declared itself the supreme power of the land, with the right to make laws without the consent of the King or the House of Lords, and its members viewed Charles as a treasonous tyrant who must pay for his crimes against England. The eventual result was the King's trial, conviction, and execution on January 30, 1649.

The Banqueting Hall on Whitehall Road

 
     In 1698, the Palace of Whitehall in London was destroyed by fire. 

     It was originally known as York House, and was occupied and expanded by Cardinal Thomas Wolsey in the 15th Century. Following Wolsey's removal by Henry VIII, the King acquired the building and made further renovations and expansions.

     It became a principal royal residence, and at it's height, the Palace complex was the largest in Europe - bigger than the Vatican and Versailles, containing over 1,500 rooms and covering 23 acres of central London. 

     With regard to the fire, it was reported that a Dutch servant left linen drying by a charcoal fire. The fire got out of control, creating an inferno which spread rapidly, and burned down the entire complex. Notable works of art, including Michelangelo’s Cupid and Holbein’s original famous portrait of Henry VIII, were lost to the flames. Only the Banqueting House survived.

     The Banqueting House had been designed and built in 1622 by Inigo Jones under James VI & I. It was from this building that James's son Charles I was led onto an outdoor scaffold and executed before the public.

     Today, the Palace gives its name to Whitehall Road, on which many administrative buildings of the British government are located, which is why such agencies are collectively referred to as "Whitehall."

George V, King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions Beyond the Seas, Emperor of India

     In 1912, King George V issued a Royal Charter that incorporated the Boy Scout Association (now the Scout Association) throughout the British Empire for "the purpose of instructing boys of all classes in the principles of discipline loyalty and good citizenship."

     Scouting had been the brainchild of Brigadier-General Robert Baden-Powell, and after the formation of several Scouting patrols and the wildly successful publication of his book, Scouting for Boys, the Scouting Movement had become widespread. The Boy Scout Association was created in 1910 to bring a national structure to the Scouts in the United Kingdom, and the Movement spread out across the Empire and the world. In the same year that the Royal Charter was issued, the Boy Scouts of America was formed, and eventually received its own charter from the US Congress.

     Today, the Scout Movement numbers over 40 million members worldwide (including yours truly) - which is a combination of Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Girl Guides, and various co-educational groups. In the United Kingdom, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent is the President of the Scout Association and the Queen is its Patron.


Photo Credit: Hogweard via Wikimedia Commons cc