GEORGE 



407 



general Abercrombie embarked, in 1758, with an 

 finny of 15,000 men, for an attack on Ticonderoga. 

 Black mountain, on the eastern side of the lake, 

 eighteen miles from the head, hns been ascertained, 

 by admeasurement, to be 2200 feet high. Many 

 points in and around the lake have historical reminis- 

 cences connected with them. 



GEORGE, the holy knight,. St; according to 

 nncient legends, a prince of Cap^adocia. His greatest 

 achievement was the conquest of a dragon, by which 

 he effected the deliverance of a king's daughter. He 

 is commonly represented on horseback, in full armour, 

 with the formidable dragon writhing at his feet. The 

 drawing is founded on the tradition that Aja, the 

 daughter of an ancient monarch, was met by a dra- 

 gon, which attacked her, and threatened to devour 

 her. At this fearful moment, the knight passed by, 

 slew the dragon, and rescued the lady. The legend 

 has, probably, come to us from the East, and belongs 

 to the age of the crusades. The ancient Christian 

 emperors bore the knight upon their standards. To 

 these sacred banners the crusaders attributed a mira- 

 culous power, and were sure of conquest while they 

 floated above their heads. The dragon denoted the 

 heathen or the Mussulman. This saint is the protec- 

 tor and patron of the English nation. St George is 

 the Christian Perseus. 



GEORGE, LEWIS, I., king of Great Britain, and 

 elector of Hanover, was the son of the elector Ernest 

 Augustus, by Sophia, daughter of Frederic, elector 

 ] 'ill; i tine, and grand daughter to James I. He was 

 born in 1660, and was early trained to arms under 

 his father. In 1G82, he married his cousin, Sophia 

 Dorothea, daughter of the duke of Zell. He then 

 engaged in the service of the emperor, and signalized 

 nis valour in three campaigns against the Turks in 

 Hungary. In 1700, he succeeded to the electorate; 

 and in this succession was joined in thealliance against 

 France. The command of the imperial army was 

 conferred upon him after the battle of Blenheim, in 

 1707; but, owing to jealousies among his confeder- 

 ates, lie resigned the command at the end of three 

 campaigns. At the peace of Rastadt, Louis XIV. 

 recognised the electoral dignity in the house of Lun- 

 enburg, as he had already, by the treaty of Utrecht, 

 recognised the succession of the same house to the 

 throne of Great Britain, which event took place on 

 the death of Anne, in 1714, when the elector was in 

 the fifty-fourth year of his age. On the accession of 

 George I. he was thrown into the arms of the whigs, 

 who alone maintained the principle by which the 

 Stuarts had been set aside. Owing to the disaffection 

 of the high church clergy and the Jacobites, tumults 

 ensued in various parts of the country, until at length, 

 in 1715, the earl of Mar openly proclaimed the Pre- 

 tender in Scotland. This insurrection, being ill- 

 seconded by the English Jacobites, was entirely 

 quelled, and several of the leaders lost their lives on 

 the scaffold. The disaffection to the new family con- 

 tinued, however, so great, that the whigs were driven 

 into some unpopular measures, with a view to sup- 

 port it, the most indefensible of which was the sep- 

 tennial act, extending the duration of parliament from 

 three years to seven. The king, who probably con- 

 sidered tile possession of the British crown precarious, 

 sought to increase the value of his German territories 

 by the purchase of Bremen and Verden, which acces- 

 sion he determined to support against the claims of 

 Sweden. This involved him in a quarrel with 

 Charles XII. who, in conjunction with the czar Peter, 

 projected an invasion of Scotland in favour of the 

 Pretender. To obviate this danger, George entered 

 into an alliance with Holland and France. The death 

 of Charles XII. in 1717, put an end to this alarm; 

 which was soon renewed by the project of the cele- 



brated Spanish minister, cardinal Alberoni, who 

 formed a quadruple alliance between the three 

 powers already mentioned, with the accession of the 

 emperor. The seizure of Sardinia, and invasion of 

 Italy by the Spaniards, gave pretence for the sailing 

 of a British naval expedition into the Mediterranean, 

 under Sir George Byng, who nearly destroyed the 

 whole of the Spanish fleet off Sicily. This success 

 was followed by the recovery both of Sicily and 

 Sardinia. Spain was obliged to accede to the terms 

 of the allied powers, and a pacification of the north of 

 Europe was effected by the mediation of Great 

 Britain. In 1722, a new conspiracy against the go- 

 vernment was discovered, which led to the apprehen- 

 sion of several persons, among whom was the cele- 

 brated A tterbury, bishop of Rochester, who was exiled 

 for life. In 1725, a treaty between Spain and the em- 

 peror excited king George's jealousy so much that 

 he deemed it necessary to counteract it by another 

 at Hanover, comprising most of the other European 

 powers. The Spaniards then commenced the siege 

 of Gibraltar ; but all differences were finally settled 

 by a negotiation, during which the king, who had 

 set out on a journey to the continent, was seized with 

 a paralytic attack, of which he died at Osnaburg, 

 June 11, 1727, in the sixty-eighth year of his age, 

 and the thirteenth of his reign. George I. was plain 

 and simple in his taste and appearance ; he possessed 

 much natural prudence and good sense, and his man- 

 agement of his German dominions was able. Having 

 put away his wife several years before his death, he 

 had female favourites, but was not governed by 

 them. 



GEORGE, AUGUSTUS, II., king of Great Britain, 

 son of George I., was born in 1683. He mar- 

 ried, in 1703, Wilhelmina Dorothea Carolina of 

 Brandenburg-Anspach, and came to England with 

 his father at the accession of the latter, and was 

 created prince of Wales. He was made regent dur 

 ing the king's visit to the continent in 1716, but, 

 a political difference ensuing, he lived some time 

 estranged from the court. This breach was finally 

 accommodated, and, in 1727, he succeeded to the 

 throne. He inherited in full force the predilection 

 of George 1. for Germany; and the same system of 

 politics and the same ministers continued to govern 

 the nation after his accession as before it. (See 

 JValpole, and Britain.) On the death of the em- 

 peror Charles VI., France and other powers en- 

 deavoured to strip his daughter, Maria Theresa, 

 of her inheritance, which conduct induced George 

 II., as guarantee of the pragmatic sanction, to de- 

 clare in her favour. An English army was accord- 

 ingly sent to the continent, and strengthened by a 

 body of Hanoverians in British pay. The king him- 

 self shared in the campaign, the conduct of which 

 was, however, intrusted to the earl of Stair. The 

 battle of Dettingen followed, in which the French 

 were defeated, but with little benefit to the victors, 

 who were obliged to quit the field of battle and 

 abandon their wounded. In this battle, the king 

 displayed great bravery; but, as he interfered with 

 the direction of lord Stair, that officer soon after 

 resigned in disgust, and the command of the army 

 was intrusted to the king's second son, William, 

 duke of Cumberland, who lost the bloody battle of 

 Fontenoi, in 1744, and the French remained ascend- 

 ant in Flanders during the rest of the war. In 1 745, 

 the young Pretender made a descent on the nor- 

 thern part of the island, and took possession of Edin- 

 burgh. Having defeated the royal troops at Preston- 

 pans, he entered England ; but, although he pene- 

 trated without opposition as far as Derby, the peo- 

 ple showed but little inrlination to his cause. The 

 arrival of the duke of Cumberland with several regi- 



