GEORGE II. succeeded his father as king of England in the 45th year of his age. He was b. at Hanover on Oct. 80 1683, and married Carolina Wilhehnina, daughter of the markgraf of Anspaeh. She is said to have been a woman of uncommon attainments in literature, theology, and politics, and her death in 1737 was reckoned a public loss. The king himself did not aspire to a code of morals different from his fathers, nor to any intellectual accomplishments except those of a soldier. He was present at the battle of Dettingen in 1743, and with the assistance of the earl of Stair he gained it: the French being entirely defeated, and very efficient service rendered to Maria Theresa of Hun gary, who had besought it to prevent the partition of her dominions. His second son, the duke of Cumberland, was not so fortunate, for the English forces under him were defeated with great loss in 1745 at Fontenoy by the French under the famous marshal Saxe. In the same year (1745) prince Charles Stuart, son of the old pretender, landed in Scotland with seven officers, and arms for 2,000 men. After some transient successes, he was completely defeated at Culloden, April 16, 1746, and what is known as the &wad Rebellion, was brought to an end. (See STUART, CHARLES EDWARD.) The duke
of Cumberland, whose barbarities in the suppression of the insurrection earned him the name of the "bloody butcher," returned to the command of the English forces on the continent, and was repeatedly beaten by marshal Saxe and the French; much that Marlborough had gained being lost. In india, colonel, afterwards lord Clive, gained various victories, the chief of them being the victory at Massey in 1756, which laid the foundations of the British East Indian empire; and during the next three years the British dominion in North America was extended and strengthened by the victory of Wolfe on the heights of Abraham, and by the subsequent surrender of Quebec. British allied troops contributed to the Hanoverian victory at Minden in 1739. George died Oct. 25, 1760, in the 77th year of his age, and the 34th of his reign. Generally, the reign of George H. was a prosperous one: according to Hallam, "the most prosperous period that England had ever known;" and it was this, not less from the acquisition of flew territory than from the conquest of new fields of thought effected by Pope, Hume, Samuel Johnson, Fielding, Smollett, Reynolds, Hogarth, and many others.