George

(LEWIS) I., king of England, B. at Osnaburg, 1660, was son of Ernest August us, Elector of Hanover, by Sophia, a grand-daughter of James I. In 1698 he s. his father in the Electorate, and on the death of Queen Anne, 1714, was declared her succe or on the British throne, by virtue of the Act of Settlement, which excluded the Roman Catholic descendants of James II. His reign was disturbed in 1715 by a rising of the Scots royalists, adherents of the exiled house of Stuart, an insurrection which was finally suppre ed in the year following. A victorious war against Spain; the famous South Sea Bubble; and the rise to power of the famous statesman Sir Robert Walpole, comprised the leading events which followed the Scottish outbreak. G. was ignorant of the English language, devoted to Germans and Germany, maintained some handsome mistre es, and was very generally disliked by the people he ruled over. D. 1727. - His son, G. (AUGUST US) 11., B. at Hanover, 1683, distinguished himself at the battle of Oudenarde, 1708, and as heir-apparent after his father's acce ion to the throne of England, maintained a court of his own in opposition to the king and his ministers. The chief events which followed his acce ion in 1727, maybe briefly summed up: Walpole still retained undivided power as first minister of the crown; in 1736, Frederick, Prince of Wales (like his father before him), entered into opposition to the king and his govt.,becoming the ally of William Pitt (Lord Chas am) and the Whig party. In the general European war of 1740, England joined Austria against Pru ia, France, and Spain, and the king in person commanded the British troops in the victory over the French at Dettingen, 1743. Two years later, the last Scottish insurrection broke out in behalf of the last prince of the exiled house of Stuart, Charles Edward (see STUART). In 1755, hostilities broke out anew against France, and England allied herself with Frederick the Great of Pru ia against that country during the Seven Years' War, 1756-62. In 1757 the illustrious Lord Chas am came to sway the destinies of his country, and to render her glorious through inaugurating by his spirit and energy a succe ion of brilliant victories in America, India, and on the ocean; and by his able administration of home affairs. G. II. D. in 1760, and was s. by his grandson,George III. G.'s only virtues were personal| courage,and a sense of justice.-G. III., B. 1738, was the eldest son of Frederick, Prince of Wales, by a prince of Saxe-Gotha. His reign, of 60 years' duration, was the longest and perhaps the most eventful in English annals. During that period occurred the American Warof the Revolution, by which England lost her transatlantic colonies, with the exception of Canada; the 466 999 PP Fig. 350.- ENGLISH COSTUMES (1770). long war with France and with Spain, made memorable by the victories of Hawke, Boscawen, Howe, St. Vincent, Duncan, Nelson, and Wellington, culminating on the field of Waterloo, 1776-1815; the No-Popery riots of 1780; the aberration of mind of the king, occasioning the elevation of his eldest son, the Prince of Wales, to the regency of the kingdom, . G. III. D. in 1820. Hewas in private life exemplary; a devoted lover of his country; a believer in the kingly prerogative; and, his political prejudices once aroused, a bigoted and unforgiving enemy.- G. IV., B. 1762, s. his father, the foregoing, in 1820. His early manhood was pa ed in di ipation and every kind of extravagance. In 1811, G.became regent of the kingdom, in consequence of the king's incapacitated mental state, and as head of the state he continued to carry out the Tory policy of the ministry. In 1820, he instituted charges of adultery against his queen, Caroline, who was consequently tried before Parliament, and triumphantly acquitted through the exertions of her counsel, Lords Brougham and Denman. This step on the king's part rendered him exceedingly unpopular, and his subsequent seclusion from court-life still more so. In 1828 the Duke of Wellington took office as premier, and in 1829 the Roman Catholic Disabilities Bill pa ed Parliament. G. IV. D. in 1830, 13 years after the death of his daughter and heir, and was s. by his brother William IV. G. IV., after his severance from Mr. Fox and the Whigs, took no part in political affairs, reserving his energies for the benefit of the fair sex, to which he was through life devoted. He was a confirmed sensualist; in manners, a polished gentleman; in dre and the cuisine, an arbiter of taste; had much wit and many graceful accomplishments, and but little heart. [s. 402]