The Hanoverian Succession
12/26/24 • 50 min
1 Listener
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the intense political activity at the turn of the 18th Century, when many politicians in London went to great lengths to find a Protestant successor to the throne of Great Britain and Ireland and others went to equal lengths to oppose them. Queen Anne had no surviving children and, following the old rules, there were at least 50 Catholic candidates ahead of any Protestant ones and among those by far the most obvious candidate was James, the only son of James II. Yet with the passing of the Act of Settlement in 1701 ahead of Anne's own succession, focus turned to Europe and to Princess Sophia, an Electress of the Holy Roman Empire in Hanover who, as a granddaughter of James I, thus became next in line to be crowned at Westminster Abbey. It was not clear that Hanover would want this role, given its own ambitions and the risks, in Europe, of siding with Protestants, and soon George I was minded to break the rules of succession so that he would be the last Hanoverian monarch as well as the first.
With
Andreas Gestrich Professor Emeritus at Trier University and Former Director of the German Historical Institute in London
Elaine Chalus Professor of British History at the University of Liverpool
And
Mark Knights Professor of History at the University of Warwick
Producer: Simon Tillotson
Reading list:
J.M. Beattie, The English Court in the Reign of George I (Cambridge University Press, 1967)
Jeremy Black, The Hanoverians: The History of a Dynasty (Hambledon Continuum, 2006)
Justin Champion, Republican Learning: John Toland and the Crisis of Christian Culture 1696-1722 (Manchester University Press, 2003), especially his chapter ‘Anglia libera: Protestant liberties and the Hanoverian succession, 1700–14’
Linda Colley, Britons: Forging the Nation 1707 – 1837 (Yale University Press, 2009)
Andreas Gestrich and Michael Schaich (eds), The Hanoverian Succession: Dynastic Politics and Monarchical Culture (Ashgate, 2015)
Ragnhild Hatton, George I: Elector and King (Thames & Hudson Ltd, 1979)
Mark Knights, Representation and Misrepresentation in Later Stuart Britain: Partisanship and Political Culture (Oxford University Press, 2005)
Mark Knights, Faction Displayed: Reconsidering the Impeachment of Dr Henry Sacheverell (Blackwell, 2012)
Joanna Marschner, Queen Caroline: Cultural Politics at the Early Eighteenth-Century Court (Yale University Press, 2014)
Ashley Marshall, ‘Radical Steele: Popular Politics and the Limits of Authority’ (Journal of British Studies 58, 2019)
Paul Monod, Jacobitism and the English People, 1688-1788 (Cambridge University Press, 1989)
Hannah Smith, Georgian Monarchy: Politics and Culture 1714-1760 (Cambridge University Press, 2006)
Daniel Szechi, 1715: The Great Jacobite Rebellion (Yale University Press, 2006)
A.C. Thompson, George II : King and Elector (Yale University Press, 2011)
In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio Production
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the intense political activity at the turn of the 18th Century, when many politicians in London went to great lengths to find a Protestant successor to the throne of Great Britain and Ireland and others went to equal lengths to oppose them. Queen Anne had no surviving children and, following the old rules, there were at least 50 Catholic candidates ahead of any Protestant ones and among those by far the most obvious candidate was James, the only son of James II. Yet with the passing of the Act of Settlement in 1701 ahead of Anne's own succession, focus turned to Europe and to Princess Sophia, an Electress of the Holy Roman Empire in Hanover who, as a granddaughter of James I, thus became next in line to be crowned at Westminster Abbey. It was not clear that Hanover would want this role, given its own ambitions and the risks, in Europe, of siding with Protestants, and soon George I was minded to break the rules of succession so that he would be the last Hanoverian monarch as well as the first.
With
Andreas Gestrich Professor Emeritus at Trier University and Former Director of the German Historical Institute in London
Elaine Chalus Professor of British History at the University of Liverpool
And
Mark Knights Professor of History at the University of Warwick
Producer: Simon Tillotson
Reading list:
J.M. Beattie, The English Court in the Reign of George I (Cambridge University Press, 1967)
Jeremy Black, The Hanoverians: The History of a Dynasty (Hambledon Continuum, 2006)
Justin Champion, Republican Learning: John Toland and the Crisis of Christian Culture 1696-1722 (Manchester University Press, 2003), especially his chapter ‘Anglia libera: Protestant liberties and the Hanoverian succession, 1700–14’
Linda Colley, Britons: Forging the Nation 1707 – 1837 (Yale University Press, 2009)
Andreas Gestrich and Michael Schaich (eds), The Hanoverian Succession: Dynastic Politics and Monarchical Culture (Ashgate, 2015)
Ragnhild Hatton, George I: Elector and King (Thames & Hudson Ltd, 1979)
Mark Knights, Representation and Misrepresentation in Later Stuart Britain: Partisanship and Political Culture (Oxford University Press, 2005)
Mark Knights, Faction Displayed: Reconsidering the Impeachment of Dr Henry Sacheverell (Blackwell, 2012)
Joanna Marschner, Queen Caroline: Cultural Politics at the Early Eighteenth-Century Court (Yale University Press, 2014)
Ashley Marshall, ‘Radical Steele: Popular Politics and the Limits of Authority’ (Journal of British Studies 58, 2019)
Paul Monod, Jacobitism and the English People, 1688-1788 (Cambridge University Press, 1989)
Hannah Smith, Georgian Monarchy: Politics and Culture 1714-1760 (Cambridge University Press, 2006)
Daniel Szechi, 1715: The Great Jacobite Rebellion (Yale University Press, 2006)
A.C. Thompson, George II : King and Elector (Yale University Press, 2011)
In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio Production
Previous Episode
The Antikythera Mechanism
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 2000-year-old device which transformed our understanding of astronomy in ancient Greece. In 1900 a group of sponge divers found the wreck of a ship off the coast of the Greek island of Antikythera. Among the items salvaged was a corroded bronze object, the purpose of which was not at first clear. It turned out to be one of the most important discoveries in marine archaeology. Over time, researchers worked out that it was some kind of astronomical analogue computer, the only one to survive from this period as bronze objects were so often melted down for other uses. In recent decades, detailed examination of the Antikythera Mechanism using the latest scientific techniques indicates that it is a particularly intricate tool for showing the positions of planets, the sun and moon, with a complexity and precision not surpassed for over a thousand years.
With
Mike Edmunds Emeritus Professor of Astrophysics at Cardiff University
Jo Marchant Science journalist and author of 'Decoding the Heavens' on the Antikythera Mechanism
And
Liba Taub Professor Emerita in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge and Visiting Scholar at the Deutsches Museum, Munich
Producer: Simon Tillotson In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio Production
Reading list:
Derek de Solla Price, Gears from the Greeks: The Antikythera Mechanism (American Philosophical Society Press, 1974)
M. G. Edmunds, ‘The Antikythera mechanism and the mechanical universe’ (Contemp. Phys. 55, 2014)
M.G. Edmunds, ’The Mechanical Universe’ (Astronomy & Geophysics, 64, 2023)
James Evans and J. Lennart Berggren, Geminos's Introduction to the Phenomena: A Translation and Study of a Hellenistic Survey of Astronomy (Princeton University Press, 2006)
T. Freeth et al., ‘Calendars with Olympiad display and eclipse prediction on the Antikythera mechanism’ (Nature 454, 2008)
Alexander Jones, A Portable Cosmos: Revealing the Antikythera Mechanism, Scientific Wonder of the Ancient World (Oxford University Press, 2017)
Jo Marchant, Decoding the Heavens: Solving the Mystery of the World’s First Computer (Windmill Books, 2009)
J.H. Seiradakis and M.G. Edmunds, ‘Our current knowledge of the Antikythera Mechanism’ (Nature Astronomy 2, 2018)
Liba Taub, Ancient Greek and Roman Science: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2022)
Next Episode
Plutarch's Parallel Lives
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Greek biographer Plutarch (c46 AD-c120 AD) and especially his work 'Parallel Lives' which has shaped the way successive generations see the Classical world. Plutarch was clear that he was writing lives, not histories, and he wrote these very focussed accounts in pairs to contrast and compare the characters of famous Greeks and Romans, side by side, along with their virtues and vices. This focus on the inner lives of great men was to fascinate Shakespeare, who drew on Plutarch considerably when writing his Julius Caesar, Coriolanus, Timon of Athens and Antony and Cleopatra. While few followed his approach of setting lives in pairs, Plutarch's work was to influence countless biographers especially from the Enlightenment onwards.
With
Judith Mossman Professor Emerita of Classics at Coventry University
Andrew Erskine Professor of Ancient History at the University of Edinburgh
And
Paul Cartledge AG Leventis Senior Research Fellow of Clare College, University of Cambridge
Producer: Simon Tillotson
Reading list:
Mark Beck (ed.), A Companion to Plutarch (Wiley-Blackwell, 2014)
Colin Burrow, Shakespeare and Classical Antiquity (Oxford University Press, 2013), especially chapter 6
Raphaëla Dubreuil, Theater and Politics in Plutarch’s Parallel Lives (Brill, 2023)
Tim Duff, Plutarch’s Lives: Exploring Virtue and Vice (Oxford University Press, 1999)
Noreen Humble (ed.), Plutarch’s Lives: Parallelism and Purpose (Classical Press of Wales, 2010)
Robert Lamberton, Plutarch (Yale University Press, 2002)
Hugh Liebert, Plutarch's Politics: Between City and Empire (Cambridge University Press, 2016)
Christopher Pelling, Plutarch and History (Classical Press of Wales, 2002)
Plutarch (trans. Robin Waterfield), Greek Lives (Oxford University Press, 2008)
Plutarch (trans. Robin Waterfield), Roman Lives (Oxford University Press, 2008)
Plutarch (trans. Robin Waterfield), Hellenistic Lives (Oxford University Press, 2016)
Plutarch (trans. Ian Scott-Kilvert), The Rise and Fall of Athens: Nine Greek Lives (Penguin, 2023)
Plutarch (trans. Ian Scott-Kilvert), The Age of Alexander: Nine Greek Lives (Penguin, 2011)
Plutarch (trans. Richard Talbert), On Sparta (Penguin, 2005)
Plutarch (trans. Christopher Pelling), The Rise of Rome (Penguin, 2013)
Plutarch (trans. Christopher Pelling), Rome in Crisis: Nine Lives (Penguin, 2010)
Plutarch (trans. Rex Warner), The Fall of the Roman Republic: Six Lives (Penguin, 2006)
Plutarch (trans. Thomas North, ed. Judith Mossman), The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans (Wordsworth, 1998)
Geert Roskam, Plutarch (Cambridge University Press, 2021)
D. A. Russell, Plutarch (2nd ed., Bristol Classical Press, 2001)
Philip A. Stadter, Plutarch and his Roman Readers (Oxford University Press, 2014)
Frances B. Titchener and Alexei V. Zadorojnyi (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Plutarch (Cambridge University Press, 2023)
In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio Production
If you like this episode you’ll love
Episode Comments
Featured in these lists
Generate a badge
Get a badge for your website that links back to this episode
<a href="https://goodpods.com/podcasts/in-our-time-history-1136/the-hanoverian-succession-80739030"> <img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/goodpods-images-bucket/badges/generic-badge-1.svg" alt="listen to the hanoverian succession on goodpods" style="width: 225px" /> </a>
Copy