Kingdom of Great Britain
United Kingdom, 1707–1801. Draft, not yet reviewed
The Kingdom of Great Britain was a sovereign state in Western Europe from 1707 to the end of 1800. It was created by the 1706 Treaty of Union and the Acts of Union 1707, which united the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland into a single kingdom, governed by a single parliament at the Palace of Westminster. The early years were marked by Jacobite risings, particularly the Jacobite rising of 1715, and the campaigns of Jacobitism ended in defeat for the Stuarts' cause in 1746. Victory in the Seven Years' War led to the dominance of the British Empire, and on 1 January 1801 Great Britain was merged into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
Seat of power: London
Rulers
Anne of Great Britain
Monarch of Great Britain, 1707–1714
Anne favoured moderate Tory politicians, who were more likely to share her Anglican religious views than their opponents, the Whigs. The Whigs grew more powerful during the War of the Spanish Succession, until 1710 when Anne dismissed many of them from office. Anne died without surviving issue and was the last monarch of the House of Stuart, succeeded by her second cousin George I of the German House of Hanover.
Portrait of Anne of Great Britain: Michael Dahl, Public domain, file
George I of Great Britain
Monarch of Great Britain, 1714–1727
During his reign the powers of the monarchy diminished, and Britain began a transition to the modern system of cabinet government led by a prime minister. Jacobites attempted, but failed, to depose George and replace him with James Francis Edward Stuart, Anne's Catholic half-brother. Towards the end of his reign, actual political power was held by Robert Walpole, now recognised as Britain's first de facto prime minister.
Portrait of George I of Great Britain: Workshop of Godfrey Kneller, Public domain, file
.jpg){kind=link}
George II of Great Britain
Monarch of Great Britain, 1727–1760
As king from 1727, George exercised little control over British domestic policy, which was largely controlled by the Parliament of Great Britain. As elector he spent twelve summers in Hanover, where he had more direct control over government policy. During the War of the Austrian Succession, George participated at the Battle of Dettingen, and thus became the most recent British monarch to lead an army in battle.
Portrait of George II of Great Britain: Thomas Hudson, Public domain, file
George III of Great Britain
Monarch of Great Britain, 1760–1801
He succeeded to the throne on George II's death in 1760. Early in his reign, Great Britain defeated France in the Seven Years' War, becoming the dominant European power in North America and India. However, Britain lost 13 of its North American colonies in the American War of Independence.
Portrait of George III of Great Britain: Allan Ramsay, Public domain, file
Culture
- Scotland continued to have its own universities, and its intellectual community, especially in Edinburgh, produced the Scottish Enlightenment, which had a major impact on British, American, and European thinking.
- The Hanoverian line of monarchs gave their names to the Georgian era, and the term Georgian is used in social and political history and for Georgian architecture. The term Augustan literature is often used for Augustan drama, poetry and prose, and refers to the influence of classical Latin from the ancient Roman Empire.
- The gorge exposed commercial deposits of coal, iron ore, limestone and fireclay, which enabled the rapid economic development of the area during the early Industrial Revolution.
Picture
The Iron Bridge in the Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire, built in 1779, was the first iron bridge of its kind in the world.
Image: Tk420, CC BY-SA 4.0, file
Sources
- Kingdom of Great Britain (Wikipedia)
- Kingdom of Great Britain (Wikidata)
- About the picture (Wikipedia)
Text adapted from the Wikipedia articles listed as sources, CC BY-SA 4.0.