Thus died the first of our Hanoverian Kings. To judge him impartially we must take into consideration his environment and the age in which he lived. So viewed, there is something to be said in extenuation, something even in his favour. His profligacy was common to the princes of his time, his coarseness was all his own. He was a bad husband, a bad father, bad in many relations of life, but he was not a bad king. He kept his compact with England, he was strictly a constitutional monarch, he respected the rights of the people, and his views on civil and religious liberty were singularly enlightened. His excessive fondness for Hanover was an undoubted grievance to his English subjects, but, on the other hand, it did him honour, as it showed that he did not forget his old friends in the hour of prosperity. Though as King of England he was a stranger in a strange country, and surrounded by faction and intrigue, he played a difficult part with considerable skill. The great blot upon his reign was the execution of the Jacobite peers; the great stain upon his private life, the vindictive cruelty with which he hounded his unfortunate wife to madness, and death. For the first he was only partly responsible, the second admits of no palliation. Yet with all his failings he was superior to his son, who now succeeded him as King George the Second. FOOTNOTES TO BOOK II, CHAPTER XI: [117] GEORGE II.=CAROLINE OF ANSBACH. | +---------+ | +--Frederick Lewis, Prince of Wales, b. at Herrenhausen, 1707. | M., 1736, Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, d., 1751. | Had issue, George III. and others. | +--Anne, Princess Royal, b. at Herrenhausen, 1709. | M., 1733, Prince of Orange, d. 1759. | +--Amelia Sophia Eleanora, b. at Herrenhausen, 1710, d. 1786, | unmarried. | +--Caroline Elizabeth, b. at Herrenhausen, 1715. d. 1757, unmarried. | +--George William, b. 1717, at St. James’s Palace, died in infancy. | +--William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, b. at Leicester House, 1721, | d. 1765, unmarried. | +--Mary, b. at Leicester House, 1722. | M., 1740, Frederick of Hesse Cassel, d. 1772. | +--Louisa, b. at Leicester House, 1724. | M., 1743, King of Denmark, d., 1751. [118] Wentworth Papers. Lord Berkeley to Lord Strafford, 12th November, 1720. [119] _The Weekly Journal_ or _British Gazetteer_, 7th March, 1724. [120] _The Daily Post_, 3rd March, 1725. [121] _The Daily Journal_, 14th March, 1726. [122] _Ibid._, 1st April, 1727. [123] _The Daily Journal_, 31st October, 1726. [124] Brice’s _Weekly Journal_, 8th April, 1725. This picture may still be seen at Kensington Palace. [125] Walpole, Townshend and the Duke of Newcastle. [126] _La Correspondance Secrète._ Count de Broglie to the King of France, 6th July, 1724. [127] _Ibid._, 10th July, 1724. [128] _La Correspondance Secrète._ Letter of the King of France to the Count de Broglie, 18th July, 1724.