CHAP. III - George I

Summary

Into this society, which in all essential particulars was a foreign world to him, the Elector of Hanover was now to enter as King. The hereditary right, which helped him to this, was but a very distant one; only on account of his Protestantism was he called in, in order to maintain the Protestant parliamentary constitution, which had been established since the Revolution of 1688. The Commonwealth of England could not do without a king; but at no price would they grant to the hereditary prince of the house of Stuart that authority, which necessarily must remain attached to the crown; because with his Catholic predilections, he would have exercised it in a direction contrary to the established state of things. The chief reason for calling in the house of Hanover lay in this anxiety respecting the Pretender. That it came to this, in spite of a great party, which held fast to strict hereditary right, and in spite of the powerful support which such right found from time to time, was the result of the two last wars, which had been carried on with energy by the nation. It maybe regarded as the final victory of the Revolution of 1688.

This was the reason why the proclamation of George I, of whom personally so little was known, so far from being regarded with indifference, was welcomed with joyful acclamations.