GEORGE King of Great Britain, son of Ernst August, elector of Hanover, and of Sophia, a granddaughter of James I. of England, was b. May 28, 1660. According to the theory that the blood of James II. in the direct line was "corrupted," he was the nearest heir to the crown. On the death of Queen Anne, July 31, 1714, lie was instantly proclaimed king, and arrived in this country from hin electorate of Hanover, at the age of 54. • To him this country was to the last a foreign country, for which he had no love, and of the language, feelings, and thought of which he was profoundly ignorant. His affections remained with Hanover, but to Britain his alliances, experience, and fair abilities for business, resolutely exercised, were of considerable value. A king of More brilliant parts might have-been an impediment in the way of constitutional government adjusting itself to the habits of domestic peace and order after the dethronement of the Stuarts, whose ruined fortunes excited the pity of the people, and afforded a convenient cry for the minority, that declaimed in private, and wrote songs, and plotted against the imported king, whom they called a " foreign tyrant." Being supported by the whigs, and undis,guisedly partial to them, the tortes were adverse to him, as well as the .Tacobites, and they associated together to bring about a revolution. In Scotland. in 1715, the earl of Mar raised the standard of rebellion; and be had collected about 10,000 men, when be engaged the duke of Argyle with about half that number of men at Sheriffmuir, near Dunblane. It was a drawn battle, the left wing of both armies being victorious; but to the rebels it was not a victory, and it caused delay and checked_ their progress, and that was equivalent to a defeat, for the Highlanders, seeing little prospect of fighting and plunder, returned borne; and in that.part of the island the rebellion may
lie said to have burned out of itself. In England, it did not succeed so well; and it was ended miserably of the ipsurgents at Pieston. For this outbreak the earl of Derwentwater and viscount Icemnure were beheaded on Tower Hill, several officers were shot, many persons of distinction were attainted, about thirty of the less conspicious rebels were executed, and above 1,000 were transported to the plan tations. The earl of Mar and the pretender both escaped to France.
The next most notable and calamitous event of this reign was the failure of the South Sea company (q.v.). A quarrel with the Spaniards commenced in 1726, which issued in a somewhat unsuccessful expedition of admiral Hosier to their American possessions, and a fruitless attempt on Gibraltar (q.v.) by the Spaniards. In 1727, George I., who had, amid the splendors of British royalty, sighed for his fatherland and his family, set out for Hanover, and died of apoplexy on his way to visit his brother, who was bishop of Osnabrilek, on the night of the 10th or the Morning of the 11th of June. His life was not a happy one. His wife, Sophia Dorothea of Zell, to whom he was untrue, had solaced herself by yielding to the attentions of Philip von Koningsmark. On Sunday the 1st July 1694, the latter disappeared forever in a mysterious way, and on the 28th Dec. Sophia was divorced. The remaining 32 years of her life were spent as a prisoner in the fortress of Ahlden, where she died at the age of 60. There are clear glimpses of George I. in Carlyle's Life of Frederick the Great. Carlyle commends his talent for silence, and thinks him, in spite of appearances, a man of more human faculty, "chiefly of an inarticulate kind," than he generally gets credit for.