The Royal Pavilion in Brighton, begun in 1787 for George, Prince of Wales, King George III’s son. It captures Britain’s love for India, a love which King George’s grand-daughter Victoria cherished perhaps more than any other of our monarchs.
EARLY in Anne’s reign, the crowns of Scotland and England, each inherited separately from her great-grandfather James VI and I, were combined into one, and the Scottish Parliament was merged with Westminster’s. Thus when she died without issue in 1714, her second cousin George, Elector of Hanover in Germany, became King George I of Great Britain.
The Act of Settlement in 1701 had disqualified James Stuart, son of James II, and Anne’s half-brother, because he was a Catholic. Rebellions by his supporters, the Jacobites, in 1715 and 1745, stirred much romantic feeling, but had little effect.
George II’s son Frederick died before inheriting the crown; but Frederick’s son George III came to the throne in 1760 with Britain enjoying an unprecedented prosperity: her Industrial Revolution was gaining momentum, and trade with India’s princes was almost a monopoly. The loss of the American colonies to independence in 1776, however, and the news of a bloodthirsty republican revolution in France in 1789, left Britain shaken and on edge.
Précis
The Act of Settlement banned Catholics from the English throne, so on Anne’s death in 1714 her closest Protestant relative, George of Hanover, became King of Great Britain (the Scottish and English crowns merged in 1707). By George III’s accession in 1760, Britain was a world-leader in industry and trade, but revolutions in America and France left the nation anxious. (57 / 60 words)
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