How did the German House of Hanover ever end up on the British throne?
This episode explores how it happened and the ensuing fight with the supporters of a rival dynastic claim - The Jacobites.
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For 100 years, four Hanoverian kings named George sat on the throne.
They were to oversee the last major land battle ever fought on British soil, the conquest of India and Canada, the loss of the American colonies, victory over Napoleonic France, the birth of the industrial (& agricultural) revolutions, the arrival of Britain’s canal system and first steam locomotives.
They were to see the the luxuriant John Nash style buildings showing off Britain’s growing wealth..a wealth based on an ever-growing empire and, unfortunately on the slave trade.
But that industrialisation also caused immense social and economic hardship, which built a clamour for reform, not just of living conditions but of the way Britain was ruled too.And in this volatile world, the wiff of revolution was in the air.
Welcome to the story of the Georgians.