For more than 120 years (1714–1837) Great Britain was linked to the German Electorate, later Kingdom, of Hanover through Personal Union. This made Britain a continental European state in many respects, and diluted her sense of insular apartness. The geopolitical focus of Britain was now as much on Germany, on the Elbe and the Weser as it was on the Channel or overseas. At the same time, the Hanoverian connection was a major and highly controversial factor in British high politics and popular political debate. This volume was the first systematically to explore the subject by a team of experts drawn from the UK, US and Germany. They integrate the burgeoning specialist literature on aspects of the Personal Union into the broader history of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Britain. Never before had the impact of the Hanoverian connection on British politics, monarchy and the public sphere, been so thoroughly investigated.

For more than 120 years (1714-1837) Great Britain was linked to the German Electorate, later Kingdom, of Hanover through Personal Union. This made Britain a continental European state in many respects, and diluted her sense of insular apartness. The geopolitical focus of Britain was now as much on Germany, on the Elbe and the Weser as it was on the Channel or overseas. At the same time, the Hanoverian connection was a major and highly controversial factor in British high politics and popular political debate. This volume was the first systematically to explore the subject by a team of experts drawn from the UK, US and Germany. They integrate the burgeoning specialist literature on aspects of the Personal Union into the broader history of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Britain. Never before had the impact of the Hanoverian connection on British politics, monarchy and the public sphere, been so thoroughly investigated.

The Hanoverian succession of 1714 brought about a 123-year union between Britain and the German electorate of Hanover, ushering in a distinct new period in British history. Under the four Georges and William IV Britain became arguably the most powerful nation in the world with a growing colonial Empire, a muscular economy and an effervescent artistic, social and scientific culture. And yet history has not tended to be kind to the Hanoverians, frequently portraying them as petty-minded and boring monarchs presiding over a dull and inconsequential court, merely the puppets of parliament and powerful ministers. In order both to explain and to challenge such a paradox, this collection looks afresh at the Georgian monarchs and their role, influence and legacy within Britain, Hanover and beyond. Concentrating on the self-representation and the perception of the Hanoverians in their various dominions, each chapter shines new light on important topics: from rivalling concepts of monarchical legitimacy and court culture during the eighteenth century to the multi-confessional set-up of the British composite monarchy and the role of social groups such as the military, the Anglican Church and the aristocracy in defining and challenging the political order. As a result, the volume uncovers a clearly defined new style of Hanoverian kingship, one that emphasized the Protestantism of the dynasty, laid great store by rational government in close collaboration with traditional political powers, embraced army and navy to an unheard of extent and projected this image to audiences on the British Isles, in the German territories and in the colonies alike. Three hundred years after the succession of the first Hanoverian king, an intriguing new perspective of a dynasty emerges, challenging long held assumptions and prejudices.

A reappraisal of the links between Hanover and Great Britain, highlighting their previously un-explored importance.

A new examination of the links between religion and politics in the early eighteenth century, showing how the defence of protestantism became a major plank in foreign policy. Religious ideas and power-politics were strongly connected in the early eighteenth century: William III, George I and George II all took their role as defenders of the protestant faith extremely seriously, and confessional thinking was of major significance to court whiggery. This book considers the importance of this connection. It traces the development of ideas of the protestant interest, explaining how such ideas were used to combat the perceived threats to the European states system posed by universal monarchy, and showing how the necessity of defending protestantism within Europe became a theme in British and Hanoverian foreign policy. Drawing on a wide range of printed and manuscript material in both Britain and Germany, the book emphasises the importance of a European context for eighteenth-century British history, and contributes to debates about the justification of monarchy and the nature of identity in Britain. Dr ANDREW C. THOMPSON is Lecturer in History, Queens' College, Cambridge.

When George I, Elector of Hanover, was crowned King of England in 1714, he established a dynastic union between the two countries that endured until 1837, leaving many cultural and political accomplishments to posterity. The 300th anniversary of this union led the Institute of Landscape Architecture, Technische Universität Dresden, and the Centre of Garden and Landscape Architecture (CGL), Leibniz Universität Hannover, to take a critical look at the gardens that resulted. The symposium “Hanover and England: a union of state and garden / German and British garden culture between 1714 and today” was sponsored by the Lower Saxonian Ministry of Science and Culture. The resulting papers dealt with far more than garden history, addressing as well the background and channels by which ideas on art, agriculture, commerce, technology, literature and politics were exchanged. Given the encyclopedic interests of late 18th century thinkers, it was necessary to invite several academic disciplines to participate, in order to describe and discuss the cultural transfer between Great Britain and Hanover. The transfer of horticultural and artistic ideas very often flourished in the 19th century at different places. For this reason, the conference focused on two key aspects: the Hanoverian-British exchange between 1714 and 1837 (the period of the actual royal union) and the Anglo-German relations that endure to the present day. Als Georg I., Kurfürst von Hannover, 1714 zum König von England gekrönt wurde, begründete dies eine Personalunion zwischen den beiden Ländern, die bis 1837 bestand und der Nachwelt eine Vielzahl kultureller und politischer Errungenschaften hinterließ. Das 300-jährige Jubiläum dieses Zusammenschlusses nahmen das Institut für Landschaftsarchitektur der Technischen Universität Dresden und das Zentrum für Gartenkunst und Landschaftsarchitektur (CGL) der Leibniz Universität Hannover zum Anlass, sich kritisch mit den in dieser Zeit entstandenen Gärten auseinanderzusetzen. Das Symposium „Hanover and England: a union of state and garden / German and British garden culture between 1714 and today“ wurde vom Niedersächsischen Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur gefördert. Die Beiträge beschäftigten sich nicht nur mit Gartengeschichte, sondern widmeten sich auch dem Austausch von Ideen zu Kunst, Landwirtschaft, Handel, Technologie, Literatur und Politik. So schien es sinnvoll, unterschiedliche akademische Disziplinen zur Teilnahme einzuladen, um den kulturellen Transfer zwischen Großbritannien und Hannover zu untersuchen und zu diskutieren. Die Konferenz konzentrierte sich auf zwei Schlüsselaspekte: den hannoverisch-britischen Austausch zwischen 1714 und 1837 (die Zeit der Personalunion) und die deutsch-englischen Beziehungen, die bis heute andauern.

This biography evokes the pervasive importance of religion to Queen Victoria's life but also that life's centrality to the religion of Victorians around the globe. The first comprehensive exploration of Victoria's religiosity, it shows how moments in her life—from her accession to her marriage and her successive bereavements—enlarged how she defined and lived her faith. It portrays a woman who had simple convictions but a complex identity that suited her multinational Kingdom: a determined Anglican who preferred Presbyterian Scotland; an ardent Protestant who revered her husband's Lutheran homeland but became sympathetic towards Roman Catholicism and Islam; a moralizing believer in the religion of the home who scorned Sabbatarianism. Drawing on a systematic reading of her journals and a rich selection of manuscripts from British and German archives, Michael Ledger-Lomas sheds new light not just on Victoria's private beliefs but also on her activity as a monarch, who wielded her powers energetically in questions of church and state. Unlike a conventional biography, this book interweaves its account of Victoria's life with a panoramic survey of what religious communities made of it. It shows how different churches and world religions expressed an emotional identification with their Queen and Empress, turning her into an embodiment of their different and often rival conceptions of what her Empire ought to be. The result is a fresh vision of a familiar life, which also explains why monarchy and religion remained close allies in the nineteenth-century British world.