© Richard Randall

Caribbean

Sundries

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In 1715, when not even a year had passed after George's accession, he was faced with a Jacobite Rebellion, which became known as "The Fifteen". The Jacobites sought to put Anne's Catholic brother, James Francis Edward Stuart (whom they called "James III", and who was known to the English as the "Old Pretender") on the Throne. The Pretender instigated rebellion in Scotland, where support for Jacobitism was stronger than in England. John Erskine, 6th Earl of Mar, an embittered Scottish nobleman who had previously supported the Glorious Revolution, led the rebels. The Fifteen, however, was a dismal failure; Lord Mar's battle plans were poor, and the Old Pretender had not arrived in Scotland in time. By the end of the year 1715, the rebellion had all but collapsed. Faced with impending defeat, Lord Mar and the Pretender fled to France in the next February. After the Fifteen was crushed, the British government dealt with the insurgents harshly. Several prisoners were executed; the remainder were enslaved in the colonies. Numerous Scottish noble families lost their estates.

Several members of the Tory Party sympathised with the Jacobites. George I began to distrust the Tories, and power thus passed to the Whigs. Whig dominance would be so great under George I that the Tories would not return to power for another half-century. As soon as the Whigs came to power, Parliament passed the Septennial Act, which extended the maximum duration of Parliament to seven years (although it could be dissolved earlier by the Sovereign). Thus, Whigs already in power could remain in such a position for a greater period of time.

War and rebellion

After his accession in Great Britain, George's relationship with his son (which had always been poor) worsened. George, Prince of Wales constantly encouraged opposition to his father's policies. His home, Leicester House, became a meeting place for the King's political opponents. In 1717, the birth of a grandson led George I to quarrel with the Prince of Wales. The Prince and Princess of Wales, as well as their children, were all thrown out of the royal residence. George I and his son would later be reconciled, but would never again be on cordial terms. Such father-son hatred and poor non-father son relationships appears to have recurred among the Hanoverian monarchs; George II, for example, almost exiled his son, the Prince Frederick, Prince of Wales, to the British colonies; George III was loathed by his son George IV; William IV loathed his sister-in-law the Duchess of Kent; Victoria and her son Edward VII were distant toward one another; George V had a poor relationship with his son Edward VIII; the Duchess of Windsor was not accepted by the Windsors for many years.

George I was active in directing British foreign policy during his early years. In 1717, he contributed to the creation of the Triple Alliance, an anti-Spanish league composed of Great Britain, France and the United Provinces. In 1718, the Holy Roman Empire was added to the body, which became known as the Quadruple Alliance. The subsequent War of the Quadruple Alliance involved the same issue as the War of the Spanish Succession. The Treaty of Utrecht had allowed the grandson of Louis XIV, Philip, to succeed to the Spanish Throne, on the condition that he gave up his rights to succeed to the French Throne. Upon the death of Louis XIV, however, Philip attempted to violate the treaty and take the Crown of France. But with even the French fighting against him in the War, Philip's armies fared poorly. As a result, the Spanish and French Thrones remained separate.

George I was faced with a second rebellion in 1719. The Old Pretender sought to fight in "the Nineteen" with Spanish aid, but stormy seas allowed only about three hundred Spanish troops to arrive in Scotland. The Pretender set up his government near Eilean Donan Castle on the west Scottish coast, only for it to be destroyed by British ships a month later. Attempts to recruit Scottish soldiers yielded a fighting force of only about a thousand men. The Jacobites were poorly equipped, and were easily defeated by British artillery. The Scotsmen dispersed into the Scottish Highlands, and the Spaniards surrendered. The invasion of 1719 never posed any serious threat to the Government, and further Jacobite plots were even more farcical.

Ministries

In 1717, when the Whigs came to power, George's chief ministers included Sir Robert Walpole, Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend, James Stanhope, 1st Viscount Stanhope (afterwards 1st Earl Stanhope) and Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland. In the same year, Lord Townshend and Walpole were removed from the Cabinet by their counterparts; Lord Stanhope became supreme in foreign affairs, and Lord Sunderland the same in domestic matters.

Lord Sunderland's power began to wane in 1719. He introduced a Peerage Bill, which attempted to limit the size of the House of Lords (mostly composed of Tory aristocrats), but was defeated. An even greater problem was the South Sea Bubble. In 1719, the South Sea Company proposed to convert £30,981,712 of the British national debt. At the time, government bonds were extremely difficult to trade due to unrealistic restrictions; for example, it was not permitted to redeem certain bonds unless the original debtor was still alive. Each bond represented a very large sum, and could not be divided and sold. Thus, the South Sea Company sought to convert high-interest, untradeable bonds to low-interest, easily-tradeable ones. The Company bribed Lord Stanhope to support their plan; they were also supported by Lord Sunderland. Company prices rose rapidly; the shares had cost £128 in January 1720, but were valued at £550 when Parliament accepted the scheme in May. The price reached £1000 by August. Uncontrolled selling, however, caused the stock to plummet to £150 by the end of September. Many individuals—including aristocrats—were completely ruined.

The economic crisis, known as the South Sea Bubble, made George I and his ministers extremely unpopular. Lord Stanhope died and Lord Sunderland resigned in 1721, allowing the rise of Sir Robert Walpole. (Lord Sunderland retained a degree of personal influence with George I until he died in 1722.) Walpole became George's primary minister, although the title "Prime Minister" was not formally applied to him; officially, he was only the First Lord of the Treasury. His management of the South Sea crisis helped avoid a dispute between the King and the House of Commons over responsibility for the affair.

Walpole strengthened his influence in the House of Commons through bribery. The Septennial Act, by lengthening the terms of members of the House from three to seven years, greatly aided Walpole's corrupt efforts. As requested by Walpole, George I created a new order of chivalry, The Most Honourable Order of the Bath. Walpole rewarded political supporters and bribed others by offering them membership of the prestigious organisation.

Walpole thus became extremely powerful; he, not the King, truly controlled the government. Walpole was allowed to choose and remove all ministers; George I merely rubber-stamped his decisions. George I did not even attend meetings of the Cabinet; all his communications were in private. George I only exercised substantial influence with respect to British foreign policy. He, with the aid of Lord Townshend, arranged for the ratification of the Treaty of Hanover, which was designed to protect British trade, by Great Britain, France and Prussia. Some of George I's successors—most notably his great-grandson, George III—attempted to reverse the shift in power, but proved unsuccessful.

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