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English 309 Spring 2002


Charles I
The Stuarts and the Hanovers

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Schedule of Assignments

The Stuarts and the Hanovers

The Diary of Samuel Pepys

A Journal of the Plague Year

The Way of the World

The Collier Controversy

Absalom and Achitophel

The Stuart Monarchs after the Restoration
(click on the pictures to see a larger version)

Charles II: 1660-1685.  Restored to the throne after the decline of the Commonwealth government that followed the death of Oliver Cromwell.  He has Catholic sympathies, but he is not openly Catholic.   He has secret dealings with Louis XIV of France.  He suppresses Protestant Dissenters.  He has no legitimate children, though he has many mistresses and many illegitimate children, including the Duke of Monmouth, who has pretensions to the throne.

James II: 1685-1688. He is Charles’s younger brother, and he is feared by many because of his open Catholicism and his support for the powerful (and Catholic) Louis XIV.  Parliament tolerates him, expecting the succession to go to his Protestant daughters, until his son is born in the summer of 1688.  Once Parliament sees the threat of a Catholic succession, they force him out.  James flees to Paris, and Parliament claims he has abdicated.  They invite William and Mary (married cousins, who are both grandchildren of Charles I) to assume power.  James’s infant son will grow up to be known  as "The Old Pretender," and  the Old Pretender’s son is known as "Bonnie Prince Charlie"--both the center of threats to overthrow later English monarchs.  

William and Mary: 1688-1702 (Mary dies in 1694). Mary is daughter of James II  and is considered the closest legitimate heir (other than his infant son).  William is the closest possible legitimate male Protestant heir.  He is Dutch ("William of Orange") and is strongly opposed to Louis XIV; he spends much of his reign fighting France and fighting James’s attempts to regain the throne.

Anne: 1702-1714. Anne is the last Stuart ruler..  She is daughter to James II and younger sister  to Mary. Her husband, Prince George of Denmark, has been described as "an amiable nonentity" who took no part in ruling England. Like her sister Mary (and unlike her father and brother), Anne is a devout Protestant.  She is closely advised by John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, and others. Daniel Defoe was a spy for her government. She has 17 children, but none lives past the age of eleven. During her reign, the Union with Scotland is finalized, creating the foundation of the British Empire.

Hanoverian Monarchs

George I: 1714-1727.  First of the House of Hanover.  He is a great-grandson of  James I, but he isn’t particularly thrilled to find himself King of England (his mom wanted him to have the throne, and she is the one who agreed to the succession).  He arrives in England at age 54. He speaks no English and therefore relies heavily on his ministers, especially Robert Walpole.  He is at odds with his son, who will succeed as George II. Under the Hanoverians, the parliamentary system of government starts to assume a more modern form, with a powerful prime minister and a two-party political system (Whigs and Tories).  

George II: 1727-1760. He first tries to do without Walpole, but eventually Walpole comes back to power (thanks at least in part to the intervention of George’s wife, Queen Caroline, who is more intelligent and politically astute than her rather dull and pompous husband).  The precedent set by George I, of a ruling cabinet and prime minister that operated with considerable independence, is followed during the reign of George II and thus becomes standard policy. During his reign, the Young Pretender ("Bonnie Prince Charlie," grandson of James II) attempts to regain the throne and is defeated in the bloody Battle of Culloden that subjugates the Highland clans in Scotland.

George III: 1760-1820 (with time out for madness). The first Hanoverian to be  born in England.  He wants to regain the royal prerogatives abandoned by his father and grandfather.  He does not want to have to depend on any single prime minister, and runs through them quickly, which leads to some discontinuity and instability (and to the loss of the American colonies). His is a turbulent reign that witnesses the American and French revolutions and the Napoleonic Wars, among other conflicts.  George III’s periodic bouts with madness mean that much of the later part of his reign is conducted under the regency of his son, later to become George IV.