"I have not time to say more than to beg that you will give my duty to the Queen, and let her know that her army has had a glorious victory. The French commander and two of his generals are prisoners, and are in my coach; and I am following the rest. The bearer of this letter will give you an account of what has passed."

The battle of Blenheim was indeed "a glorious victory." It not only saved Vienna from the French, but also restored the ancient fame of the English soldiers.

The war continued for some years after this. In its latter part the Tories, who were opposed to the war, got control of the government in England. Lady Marlborough, also, foolishly quarreled with the Queen. The result was that Marlborough was removed from his command, and then the war did not go so well for the allies.

End of the war (1713).

At last, Louis XIV.-who was now nearing the close of his long reign-made peace. By the treaty of Utrecht (1713) the French Prince received Spain, with its colonies; but it was expressly agreed that France and Spain should never be united under the same King. The Austrians received most of the other Spanish possessions in Europe. England received the rocky fortress of Gibraltar, at the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea, which she had taken in the course of the war, and which she still retains. She also received Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and the Hudson Bay territory in America. Thus the War of the Spanish Succession not only saved her from having a Stuart King placed over her, but it marked a step in the building up of her colonial empire at the expense of France.

England

land

united.

Another event of importance in this reign was the union of England and Scotland. Ever since the time when James I. came to the English throneexcept for a short period under Cromwell- and Scotthe two countries had been ruled by the same King, though they had kept their separate Parliaments, and were otherwise separate nations. In Queen Anne's reign, this arrangement was ended by an Act of Union (1707). This provided that one sovereign and one

Notice the resemblance in shape to a lion lying down

Parliament should rule the two countries, under the name of "Great Britain." Scotland received a fair share of members in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, but neither the Scottish law nor the established Presbyterian church of Scotland was to be changed.

The union of the two countries is indicated in the national flag. The flag of England was white, with a large upright red cross; the flag of Scotland was blue,

with a diagonal white cross. In the new flag, the two crosses were united, and the corner of the flag in which the crosses were placed was called the "union." About a century later, Ireland was brought under the same Parliament with Great Britain, and its cross-a red diagonal was then added to the flag. When a flag is made up of the

Failure of

66

white, (2) a diagonal white cross, and (3) a diagonal red cross. As the reign of Anne came to a close, it looked as though the rule of a Stuart and a Catholic would be restored, after all. That this did not happen, Jacobite says a modern writer, was 'the greatest plans. miracle in English history." All of the chief positions in the government were in the hands of the Jacobites," or supporters of the line of James II.; and they were sending letters to the Pretender, and planning to make him King. But there was one difficulty-the fact that he was a Catholic. He was urged to give up his religion, or at any rate not to show himself openly a Catholic, but he refused.

66

"How could my subjects ever depend upon me, or be

happy under me," he wrote, "if I should use such dishonesty to get myself amongst them?"

Death of

This refusal did credit to his heart, but it made the task of his friends very difficult. The final defeat of their plans was due to the facts, first, that Anne died suddenly, in 1714, before the Queen Jacobites were quite ready; and second, that the Whig leaders acted promptly and decidedly. in forcing the Council to carry out the provisions of the Act of Settlement.

Anne.

The Electress Sophia had died shortly before this, and the heir to the German territory of Hanover, as well as to the kingdom of Great Britain, was her son George. He was accordingly proclaimed at once, as King of Great Britain, under the name of George I., and quietly succeeded to the throne. In this way the house of Hanover, which has ruled Great Britain down to our own day, and has widely extended the British Empire, first secured the crown of the island kingdom.

TOPICS FOR THOUGHT AND SEARCH

1. Find out what you can about Lady Marlborough and her connection with Queen Anne.

2. Read an account of the great writers of Queen Anne's reign (Addison, Swift, Defoe, Pope).

3. Was it better for England, in Anne's time, to be governed by the Whig party or the Tory party? Give your reasons. 4. In what ways was it an advantage for England and Scotland to be under the same Parliament?

5. Did William III. or Marlborough do more toward building up the British Empire? Give your reasons.

XXXI

THE FIRST HANOVERIAN KINGS

POINTS TO BE NOTICED

Dates of the reigns of George I. and George II.; characters of these Kings; how "Cabinet government' arose; Sir Robert Walpole the first Prime Minister; his policy.

Captain Jenkins and the war with Spain; this leads to the War of the Austrian Succession; why England was interested; attempt of the "Young Pretender" to gain the English throne; its failure; end of the war.

George I.
(1714-1727)

1760).

GEORGE I. was King of Great Britain for thirteen years, and his son, George II., was King after him for thirtythree. They were plain, commonplace perand George sons, without much ability, and were more II. (1727- interested in Hanover than they were in England. But they had the good judgment to put in office ministers whom Parliament trusted, and then let them run the government. The ministers usually belonged to the Whig party, for it was to that party that the Hanoverians owed their throne. The reigns of these first two Hanoverian Kings were mainly a time of peaceful development; but the period closed with a great war, from which England profited even more than it did from the time of peace.

Rise of
Cabinet

govern

George I. could speak no English at all, so he did not attend the meetings of his ministers; and George II., though he could speak English brokenly, followed the same practice. In this way it became the established principle that the ministers, who made up the "Cabinet," and were responsible for carrying on the government, should meet and discuss their plans without the King being present.

ment.