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George was immediately proclaimed King of Great Britain and Ireland
after Anne’s death on 1st August 1714. However, he did not arrive
at his new realm until over a month later on 18th September and was
subsequently crowned on 20th October.
Compared with their Tudor and Stuart forebears, the House of
Hanover, or the Georgians as they are more popularly known, seem to
be at the back of peoples minds when we think of the British
Monarchy. And yet, the 300th anniversary of their accession seems
to be the perfect time to remember just what this dynasty achieved
in its 187 year-long reign on the British Throne.
Hanoverian Britain was a time that the works of Jane Austen, James
Watt and Alexander Pope emerged, while the British Museum
flourished. Samuel Johnson published the Dictionary of the
English Language, and Romantic poets and artists, such as
Wordsworth, Coleridge, William Blake and J. M. W. Turner, came to
define the Georgian age. Architecture developed in ways that had
never been seen before, with architects such as John Wood,
establishing new styles of palladian and neoclassical buildings
which we are lucky enough to still see today in cities such as Bath
and Edinburgh. This was even an era when a free press was founded.
(However, people chose to dismiss this because of the
somewhat unpopular King George II, the ‘madness’ of King
George III and King William IV’s decision to dismiss his
government.)
If none of this is convincing enough then just remember that the
House of Hanover gave this country our longest reigning monarch to
date; Queen Victoria. Surely the Victorian era is an achievement
alone to convince people that the Hanoverians were worthy of
their place on the British Throne.
What we must not forget is that although the 1st August 2014 marks
the 300th anniversary of the Hanoverian succession, it also marks
the
300th anniversary of the death of a Queen who is often
overlooked. Anne presided over an
age of artistic, literary and political advancement and as Queen,
she held her own in a male dominated society and in an age where
the influence of the Crown could be argued as seen
as decreasing. What’s more, Queen Anne became the first
Sovereign of Great Britain after the Acts of Union was passed.
Surely she is a monarch worth remembering?
So the House of Hanover may not appear in many big budget films or
be on the school syllabus, but for me and for many others they were
worthy of their place on the British Throne. When Dr Lucy Worsley gave
an interview to Royal Central on the Georgians
recently, she summed them up perfectly: “They were not
flashy or charismatic but they brought stability and showed that
when necessary, they could put down rebellions with considerable
brutality. By 1760, George III, who’d been born in Britain, could
claim to be truly British. I think of them as like successful
stepfathers, grafted on to a family, but eventually becoming part
of it”.
So, without sounding too clichéd, I would like to wish a Happy
Anniversary to one of the greatest dynasties Britain has ever
seen.
photo credit: ell brown via photopin
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