George II

George II. was born in Hanover in 1683, and succeeded his father in 1727. In 1705 he had married the Princess Caroline of Anspach. The Whig Administration of the preceding reign was continued. The period was one of political stagnation, but of great material prosperity, for Walpole took an enlightened interest in the progress of trade. His policy of peace and retrenchment was thwarted by a union of the discontented Whigs with the Tories, led by Bolingbroke, which was supported by Frederick, Prince of Wales, who had quarrelled with his father. Walpole was forced into a war with Spain in 1739, and finally driven from power in 1742. The struggle with Spain and France was. continued during the Ministries of Lord Wilmington (1742-43) and Henry Pelham (1743-54), and was carried on with vigour during the Seven Years' War (1756-63) by William Pitt (q.v.), who was Secretary of State in the Ministry of the Duke of Newcastle. The victory over the French at Dettingen (1743) was the last battle in which an English sovereign was personally engaged. A Jacobite rising in 1745-46 ended in the defeat of the Young Pretender at Culloden. The coarseness and brutality which characterised the social life of the time were to some extent diminished through the religious and philanthropic efforts of John Wesley (q.v.) and his associates. Neither the material prosperity of the reign nor the military lustre which the victories of Clive (q.v.) and Wolfe (q.v.) shed over its closing years can be in any way ascribed to the personal influence of the king. He died on October 25, 1760.