Footnote 188:
The continuous series of the letters addressed by her youngest son,
Duke Ernest Augustus, to his friend J. F. D. von Wendt, breaks off in
November 1713.
Footnote 189:
He had, as Lord Cornbury, been Governor of New Jersey and New York,
where he left no honoured name behind him.
-----
The events which had crowded on one another between the death of the
Electress Sophia and that of Queen Anne belong, not to Sophia’s
biography, but to that of the sovereign whose Heir Presumptive was now
Sophia’s son. That this heir was a ruling foreign prince, whom no
immediate descent or early associations connected with the House of
Stewart, and whose own dealings (apart from his mother’s) with English
politicians had been to all intents and purposes entirely with Whigs,
could not but intensify the aversion from the Hanoverian Succession
entertained not only by the Jacobites but also, though in a less degree,
by those of the Tories whose political sentiments were in nearest touch
with theirs. The bonds of party union had just been drawn closer among
the Tories at large by the Schism Act, and the Church had been more
decisively than before rallied to the Government. But even so, Oxford
was still unable to make up his mind to risk everything by inviting or
allowing the Pretender to appear on English ground. Hence, not quite a
fortnight after the Electress Sophia’s death, the proclamation against
the Pretender was issued, and, a fortnight later (July 9th), Parliament
was prorogued to an early date in August.
During the interval, it was manifest, the Queen must make up her mind
between her two chief counsellors, of whom one still thought it possible
to tack and tack about, while the other was still hoping for a wind so
strong and straight that he might drift before it into the desired port.
The Queen decided for Bolingbroke, and, on July 27th, Oxford was
dismissed from office. Bolingbroke’s moment had come, but he was unequal
to its call. Instead of bringing the Pretender to England, he thought
that even now there remained time for him to weld the Tory party still
more closely together, by means of his Church policy above all, and to
form a Jacobite Ministry that would be in readiness at the critical
moment, while in any case the Whigs must be prevented from bringing over
the Elector or the Electoral Prince in the interval. Bolingbroke and
those in his confidence were very hopeful in this their brief day of
authority; but the Whigs were more than hopeful—they were prepared.[190]
The organisation set on foot by their leaders overspread the country,
and the very symbol or token of action was agreed upon, while
Marlborough was waiting at Ostend to resume the command of the army.
And, throughout the great body of the middle classes in England—among
the Nonconformists in particular—a ready expectancy awaited the
accomplishment of the Protestant Succession.
-----
Footnote 190:
The Whig ‘plot’ to which Mr. Sichel refers in his _Life of
Bolingbroke_ p. 351, as revealed by Chesterfield at a later date,
seems to belong to March 1714, when the Queen had (on the 11th) a
sudden attack of erysipelas.
-----
At last, and with a most extraordinary rapidity in the sequence of its
events, the end came. The malady to which Queen Anne was to succumb
announced itself on July 27th. By July 30th the anxiety had become so
grave that, at a meeting of the Cabinet and of a few Privy Councillors
not forming part of it, presided over by Shrewsbury, orders were issued
to close the ports, to hold twenty men-of-war in readiness, and to make
the Lord Mayor responsible for the safety of the City of London. On the
following day, the control of affairs finally passed out of
Bolingbroke’s hands, when, after a meeting of the whole Privy Council,
at which Bothmer and Kreyenberg were present, the Queen, in accordance
with the Council’s recommendation, placed the Lord Treasurer’s staff in
Shrewsbury’s hands. A courier was sent to Strafford at the Hague, to
remind the authorities there of the guarantee to which they were bound
by treaty; and the British troops were recalled from the Netherlands.
Early in the morning of August 1st, the Queen lay dead. Everything was
in readiness. Kreyenberg made his appearance with a box containing the
commission of the Lords Justices; and of the eighteen names included in
it thirteen were found to be those of Whigs. During the morning, Peers,
Privy Councillors, and Members of the House of Commons flocked in to
append their signatures to the proclamation notifying the death of Queen
Anne and the accession of King George. It was read by the heralds at
Charing Cross and Temple Bar, and within the City; and a few days later
the King was again proclaimed there, as well as at Edinburgh and Dublin.
The Houses of Parliament, which had assembled for formal business on the
day of the Queen’s death, four days later voted loyal addresses to her
successor.
Bothmer, who had controlled the entire process of these
transactions,[191] had promptly despatched his secretary, Goedeke, to
carry to King George the great news of his accession. He arrived at
Hanover on the morning of August 6th, just a day after Secretary Craggs,
who brought, with other missives, a letter addressed to the Elector on
the day before the Queen’s death, and informing him that everything was
in readiness for his immediate journey to England so soon as that death
should actually have taken place. On August 8th, the Earl of Dorset—a
young Whig Lord, described, in his later days, by a severe critic as ‘a
perfect English courtier’—arrived from England with his suite, to make
the official announcement on behalf of the Lords Justices. Doubt has
been thrown on the statement that Goedeke, having reached Hanover,
communicated the news to Clarendon, who had returned from dining with
the Elector and Baroness von Kielmannsegg at her villa, Fantaisie, and
who at once bore the tidings to George I at Herrenhausen. In any case,
the formal announcement to the new King was made by Dorset on August
9th, when he was received by George in the flower-garden of the Orangery
at Herrenhausen. Inasmuch as, on that very day, the Earl of Berkeley
assumed the command of the imposing naval squadron which, a little more
than a week afterwards, anchored off the Dutch coast, there was no
reason why the new King should delay his departure. Whether, however,
because of his confidence in the circumspection of his English friends,
or because of his attachment to his Electorate, George I was in no
hurry. To be in no hurry may be accounted one of the minor virtues in a
monarch. He left Herrenhausen on the morning of August 31st, bidding
farewell to his and his mother’s favourite place of sojourn in words
which, if the court chronicler is to be trusted, betray more of
sentiment than he was in the habit of expressing, but at the same time
show him to have had no intention of breaking with the traditions of the
past. ‘Farewell, dear place, where I have spent so many enjoyable and
tranquil hours. I leave you, but not for ever; _for I hope to see you
again from time to time_.’
-----
Footnote 191:
It was Bothmer who advised the destruction of a packet of letters
found in the Queen’s private apartments by the Lords Justices and
himself, and who, during the burning of them, thought that he
recognised the handwriting of the Pretender.
-----
In the same spirit, George I’s departure was left unmarked by any
solemnity or ceremonial whatever. He was accompanied on his journey by
his son, with whom the death of the old Electress seems to have
furnished him with an opportunity of placing himself for the time on
seemlier terms. The Princess (Caroline of Ansbach) followed rather
later, with her children.[192] The King’s favourite brother, Prince
Ernest Augustus, remained behind in Hanover, chiefly, no doubt, in order
that he might fill the Elector’s place at the Privy Council there, and
also for the purpose of taking care of his expectations at Osnabrück,
which were realised a year later, when he succeeded to the bishopric
formerly held by his father, his elder brother, Maximilian William,
being, as a convert to Rome, left out in the cold. Six months later, the
Bishop[193] was created Duke of York. At the Hague, the royal party was
joined by Baroness von Kielmannsegg; Melusina von der Schulenburg
followed in due course. With the King were his prime minister,
Bernstorff, and Baron von Schlitz-Görz, who was to succeed Bernstorff in
the same capacity at Hanover, besides three Privy Councillors, of whom
Robethon was one, and a small Chancery staff. The chief officers of the
Hanoverian Court, and a fairly ample household, including ‘Mr. Mehmet
and Mr. Mustapha,’ live remembrances of the King’s Turkish campaigns,
raised the royal retinue to the moderate total of something less than
one hundred persons.
-----
Footnote 192:
So late as a fortnight after Queen Anne’s death, the Duchess of
Orleans mentions a report that the English people were quite contented
to have George I for their King, but on condition that the Electoral
Prince should never be his successor. Probably, Elizabeth Charlotte’s
personal prejudices inclined her to give credit to this ridiculous
rumour; for she is unable to forego the opportunity of alluding to
George Augustus’ ‘ill ancestry.’—O. von Heinemann, _Geschichte von
Braunschweig und Hannover_, vol. iii. p. 228, mentions, without
reprobating, the mendacious ‘Court scandal,’ explaining the quarrel
between father and son by a supposed passion of the former for his
daughter-in-law!
Footnote 193:
His letter describing his early days in his episcopal city gives a
delightful picture of still life. ‘I have allowed myself the pleasure
of taking a walk along the ramparts, in which all the small boys of
the town have accompanied me.’
-----
Bolingbroke afterwards asserted that King George, though he had quitted
Hanover in the apparent resolution of leaving the Tory Government in
England unmolested, had during his stay in Holland, in consequence of
earnest importunities on the part of the Allies, and particularly of
Heinsius and some of the Whigs, come to a contrary decision. How far
this assertion, and the belief that the impeachment of the Tory leaders
was due more particularly to the inspiration of Bothmer, are correct,
the present is not an occasion for enquiring; but enough has been said
in the course of this narrative to indicate that George I was not easily
led, or easily turned.
On September 16th, 1714, the new King of Great Britain sailed from
Oranie Polder; on the 18th he landed at Greenwich; and two days later he
held his entry into London. His Coronation took place at Westminster
Abbey on October 18th. Few men who have laid claim to so dazzling and so
elusive a prize as that which fell to his lot have maintained their
claim with so calm a resolve and so consistent a self-restraint. Whether
or not circumstances—such as an armed landing on the English coast by
the Pretender, or merely his personal appearance on English soil—might
have led to a counter-attempt on the part of the Heir Presumptive to
assert his claim to the throne in person, who shall say? And who will
lay it down whether in putting his right to the test, even at the risk
of civil war, he would have done wrong? Such a step he had not been
called upon to take; and his course of conduct had remained consistent
throughout. Although he had little personal inclination for the change
which his accession to the British throne involved, this should not
detract from the tribute due to his conduct before that accession. As
his claim descended to him from his mother, so he had inherited from her
some, though not all, of the qualities which, in her, well became the
Heiress of Great Britain. True to the friends of his House, and without
fear of its enemies, he professed no feeling which he did not entertain,
and shrank from no duty that was imposed upon him.
The princely sense of honour to which the Electress Sophia and her son
were true in accepting the great responsibility to which they were
called by the Act of Settlement was beyond a doubt their primary motive
in meeting it. But, at the same time, they were alike fully conscious of
the significance of the cause embodied in the Protestant Succession; nor
was the triumph of that cause, to which Sophia looked forward with
hardly a thought of self, merely or mainly the fulfilment of a great
dynastic ambition.