GEORGE I. 



GEORGE I. 



back of a camel. Their remains were thrown into the sea ; the popular 

 leaders of the tumult declaring their resolution to disappoint the devo- 

 tion of the Christians, and to intercept the future honours of these 

 martyrs, who had been punished, like their predecessors, by the enemies 

 of their religiou. The date of the canonisation of St. George is un- 

 certain ; but he was recognised as a saint by Pope Gelasius in 494. 

 Some Roman Catholic and Anglican writers however dany, or doubt, 

 the identity of the St. George of the calendar with George of 

 Cappadocia. 



The reader who would enter into the history of St. George of Cappa- 

 docia as the patron saint of England may consult ' The Historic of that 

 most famous Saint and Souldier of Christ Jesus, St. George of Cappa- 

 docia, asserted from the fictions of the middle ages of the Church and 

 opposition of the present,' by Dr. Peter Heylyn, 4to, Lond., 1631 and 

 16.13 ; ' A Dissertation on the Original of the Equestrian Figure of the 

 George and of the Garter, ensigns of the most noble order of that name,' 

 by John Pettingall, 4to, Lond., 1753 ; and Dr. Pegge's ' Observations 

 on the HUtory of St. George, the Patron Saint of England,' in the 

 ' Archjeologia,' vol. v., p. 1-32. 



When the English Crusaders went to the East in 1096, they found 

 St. George received among the Christians as a warrior-saint, with the 

 peculiar appellation of ' Tropaeophoros (Tp<nrcuo<f>^pos) the victorious.' 

 They had some knowledge of him before as a saint and martyr, having 

 read of him in that capacity in their Calendars and Martyrologies ; 

 and, after the succour which he wai supposed to have afforded them 

 at the siege of Antioch, they adopted him as the patron of soldiers. 

 As such, Edward III. made him patron of the Order of the Garter; 

 and be thus gradually became considered as the patron of chivalry, 

 and the tutelar saint of England. 



(Moreri, Diet. Jhtt., ton., v., folio, Paris, 1759: G., pp. 152, 153 ; 

 Gibbon, Decline and Pall, chap, xxiii.; and the Ada Sanctorum of 

 the Bollandatt, Month of April, torn, iil, p. 100-163; De S. Georgia 

 Afcgalo-Martyre, Jec.) 



GEOKGE (LOUIS) I., King of Great Britain. After the exclusion 

 of James II. and his son in 1GS9, the nearest heirs to the throne in 

 the lineal order of succession were 1, The Princess Mary of Orange, 

 eldest daughter of James II.; 2, the Princess Anne of Denmark, 

 younger daughter of James II. ; 3, William prince of Orange, son of 

 Mary, eldest daughter of Charles I. By the declaration of both houses 

 of the convention on the 12th of February 1689, it was resolved that 

 after the decease of the prince and princess of Orange, the crown 

 should descend, first, " to the heirs of the body of the said princess ; 

 and for default of such issue, to the Princess Anne of Denmark, and 

 the heirs of her body ; and for default of such issue, to the heirs of 

 the body of the said Prince of Orange." This settlement was con- 

 firmed in the second session of the first parliament of William and 

 Mary, by the statute 1 W. and M., s. 2, c. 2, commonly called the 

 Bill of Rights. In the preceding session however, when the Bill 

 of Rights was first brought forward, the king had instructed 

 his minister* to propose a clause for a further limitation of the suc- 

 cession, failing heirs of his own body, to the Electress Sophia of 

 Hanover. The electres* of Hanover (or, as appears to be the more 

 correct electoral style, of Brunswick and Luneburg), being the youngest 

 of the ten children of Elizabeth, queen of Bohemia, the daughter of 

 James I., stood in the regular order of inheritance, not only after the 

 descendants of Henrietta, the younger daughter of Charles I., from 

 whom sprung the royal houses of Savoy, France, and Spain, but also 

 after the descendants of her own elder brothers, Charles Louis, elector 

 paUtiue, the ancestor of the houses of Orleans and Lorraine, and 

 I, through whom the houses of Salm, Creel, Bourbon, Conty, 

 Maine, Modcna, and the Imperial family were brought into the line of 

 succession. All these families however were Roman Catholics ; that of 

 Hanover was the nearest 1'rotestant family after the house of Orange. 

 The proposition for the insertion of the name of the Princess Sophia 

 in the bill respecting the settlement of the succession was mode, 

 according to the ting's desire, in the House of Lords, and adopted 

 there ; but when the bill was sent down to the Commons, the clause 

 was opposed both by the Tory and by the Republican parties, though 

 on opposite principles, and was thrown out in spite of all the exertions 

 of the court. The consequence was, that after the bill bad been under 

 discussion for about two months, it was for the present allowed to drop 

 altogether, on the birth (24th of July) to the Princess Anne of a son, 

 William, afterwards proposed to be created Duke of Gloucester (he 

 died before the patent paused the great seal), by which it seemed to 

 be rendered of less pressing importance. When it was brought in 

 gain in the following session, the proposition respecting the Princess 

 Sophia was not renewed ; but by a clause excluding Papists, the suc- 

 cession, as King William himself expressed it in writing to her on the 

 subject, was " in a manner brought to her door." The death of 

 Queen Mary however (January 1, 1695), and that of the Duke of Glou- 

 cester, the last of seventeen children that hod been born to the Princess 

 of Denmark (30th of July, 1700), made it extremely desirable that 

 the matter of the succession should no longer remain unsettled. The 

 subject accordingly was strongly recommended to the attention of 

 parliament in the royal speech delivered February 10, 1701. The 

 recommendation was coldly received by the majority of the House of 

 Commons; but at length, by the contrivance, it is said, of the parties 

 opposed to the scheme, the further limitation of the crown to the 



Electress Sophia and her heirs was formally proposed by Sir John 

 Bowles, " who," says Tindal, " was then disordered in his senses, and 

 soon after quite lost them." It is affirmed that a proposition was 

 now made by several iufluential members of the Upper House to the 

 ambassador of the Duke of Savoy, that that prince should send oue of 

 his sons to be educated as a Protestant in England, in which ease they 

 gave their assurance that the plan of the Hanoverian succession should 

 be defeated; but the duke would not consent. Meanwhile a bill, 

 founded on the motion of Sir John Bowles, was introduced into the 

 House of Commons ; and although it remained in suspense for many 

 weeks, it was eventually carried through both house?. This is the 

 12th and 13th Will. III., c. 2, which declares that the crown of England, 

 France, and Ireland, " after his majesty aud the Princess Aune of 

 Denmark, and in default of issue of the said Princess Anne and of 

 his majesty respectively," should descend " to the most excellent 

 Princess Sophia, electress and duchess-dowager of Hanover, and the 

 heirs of her body, beiug Protestants." The settlement thus made was 

 further confirmed the next session by the 13th Will. III., c. 6, called 

 the Abjuration Act, from the oath abjuring allegiance to the pretender 

 therein enjoined to be taken and subscribed. The clause imposing 

 this oath was carried in the House of Commons by only one vote; tho 

 Tories, by whom it was opposed, endeavouring to strengthen their 

 cause by insinuations (which were most probably entirely without 

 foundation) that the court now meditated the bringing in of the 

 Hanover family even before the Princess Anne. Several attempts 

 were made after this to prevail upon the parliament of Scotland to 

 adopt the same settlement for the crown of that kingdom which had 

 thus been established for the English crown ; but they were all in- 

 effectual, till the object was at last accomplished in 1706 by the Treaty 

 of Union, the second article of which declared " that the succession 

 to the monarchy of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, and of the 

 dominions thereunto belonging, after her most sacred majesty, and in 

 default of issue of her majesty, be, remain, and continue to the most 

 excellent Princess Sophia, electress and duchess-dowager of Hanover, 

 and the heirs of her body, being Protestants, upon whom the crown 

 of England is settled" by the act already mentioned. Before this, 

 by the 4th Anne, c. 1 and 4, the Princess Sophia, " and the issue of her 

 body, and all persons lineally descending from her, born or hereafter 

 to be born," were naturalised, so long as they should not become Papists. 

 By the 4th Anne, c. 8, also, the next Protestant successor to the throne 

 was empowered to name any additional number of persons to act with 

 seven lords-justices appointed in the statute to administer the govern- 

 ment between the death of the queen and tho arrival of the said 

 successor in the kingdom. Most of these arrangements were confirmed 

 by various clauses in the 6th Anne, c. 7, entitled 'An Act for the 

 Security of Her Majesty's Person and Government, and of the Succes- 

 sion to the Crown of Great Britain in the Protestant Line.' Finally, 

 by the 10th Anne, c. 4, passed in 1711, precedence was given to the 

 Princess Sophia, to " the most serene elector of Brunswick Lunen- 

 burg, her son and heir-apparent, the most noble George Augustus, 

 electoral prince of Hanover aud duke of Cambridge, only son of the 

 said most serene elector, and nlso the heirs of the body of the said 

 most excellent princess, being Protestants, before the Archbishop of 

 Canterbury, and all great officers, and the dukes, and all other peers 

 of these realms." The Hanoverian succession was guaranteed by the 

 treaty concluded with the United Provinces of Holland in 1706, by the 

 Barrier Treaty between Great Britain and Holland in 1709, and by the 

 Treaty of Guarantee between the same powers in 1713 ; and the vali- 

 dity of the settlement was acknowledged by the Treaties of Peace con- 

 cluded in the last-mentioned year, at Utrecht, between Great Britain 

 and France, and between Great Britain aud Spain. (' General Collec- 

 tion of Treaties,' vol. L p. 434 ; voL ii. p. 479 ; and vol. iii. pp. 364, 

 398, and 470.) 



After the accession of Anne, no party affected so great a zeal for the 

 Hanoverian succession as the extreme section of the Tories, or 

 Jacobites, whose object, of course, was anything rather than really to 

 support the parliamentary settlement. In 1705, Lord Rochester, one 

 of the heads of this faction, first intimated obscurely in the House of 

 Lords, and more openly among his friends, his intention of proposing 

 that the Electress Sophia should be invited to come over to reside in 

 England. The real object was to irritate the queen, who was 

 known to be strongly averse to the presence of the electress, or indeed 

 of any member of the electoral family in England, and to embarrass the 

 Whigs, who if they assented to it would probably cut themselves off 

 from all chance of favour with the court, of which they were at this 

 time in expectation, while by resisting it they would endanger both 

 their popularity with the nation and also perhaps the confidence of 

 the Hanoverian family. The next session a motion that the heiress 

 presumptive to the throne should be invited over was formally made 

 in the House of Lords by Lord Haversham, but after a warm debate 

 (at which the queen was present), it was rejected by a great majority. 

 Some years after, in altered circumstances, nearly the same game was 

 attempted to be played by the Whigs, at whose instigation, in April 

 1713, the Hanoverian resident, Baron Schiitz, suddenly made applica- 

 tion to the Lord Chancellor Harcourt for a writ of summons to the 

 House of Lords to the Electoral Prince (afterwards George II.), who 

 had been made a British Peer in 1706, by the title of Duke of Cam- 

 bridge. This application, mid a report which was at the same time 



