TLIAW: The Ass In The Bandbox

[Mumby]

'I tell you Dean, Bolingbroke is incorrigible,' exclaimed Robert Harley.

'How so?' replied Jonathan 'Dean' Swift.

'Oh it's the business with France. We criticise the Whigs for their failure to make peace, but we can't do anything! Our hands are tied. But we must have peace. Even if we have to commit treason. The country simply cannot afford it.'

'I agree. Though, it's bound to be more of a problem for you, what with your... connections.' Jonathan tried to be tactful, but Robert was having none of it.

'You mean the followers of our beloved King Jacobus Beyond The Sea? There is no need for veils of rhetoric here, Dean. It is true I would favour a Stuart rather an a Hanoverian succession. But unlike Bolingbroke, it is not an end in itself for me. I desire it only for as long as there is advantage in it. I will not have England tied to some feudal German duchy, but equally I don't wish us to bow and scrape before the Kings of France.'

'Quite the knot you have to untie there.'

'Give me a sword and I would untie it! If only all problems could be solved as easily as Alexander did. But, that is not how one builds an empire that lasts.' A servant entered the room carrying a hatbox.

'A messenger brought this, m'lord.'

'Thank you,' replied Robert, turning to Jonathan he raised an eyebrow, 'A hat? Most irregular. I wonder who could have sent it...' He began to lift the lid, when Jonathan noticed a thread of packing string attached from the lid to some contrivance within. A chill suddenly went through him. He heard the warning catch in his throat, the string go taut, and then pull free. A terrible cracking boom filled the room with smoke, acrid and sulphurous. He felt a flash of pain in his gut and shoulder. Blinking back pain, he peered through the gunsmoke. Baron Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford and Earl of Mortimer had been shot at three points in his torso. His eyes stared at the ceiling, his breath rattling with every draw. Speckles of blood covered his chin as he laboured. Red soaked into his clothing. Jonathan looked at himself. He had sustained two bullet wounds, and he was bleeding. He found himself feeling like an observer to events, watching himself but not feeling as if he were actually there. He bellowed for help and within moments, servants were there trying to help their master and attending to him. But Jonathan was in no doubt. Harley was dead. And if he were dead, what would happen to England? What would happen to him?

 

[Mumby]

hwat

Don't be that guy.

What guy?

A dick.

Jeez.

Just ask me questions.

OK. What eez zees?

It's about one of Britain's lesser known assassination attempts. Back in 1712, the then Lord Treasurer, the closest you get to Prime Minister at that point in time suffered an attempted killing by means of hatbox.

Hatbox?

It's a box you keep hats in, dumbass.

I know that. But how do you kill a man with a hatbox?

It was full of loaded pistols, with the triggers attached to a thread. The thread was connected to the lid, so when you removed the lid, you fired the pistols which shot in all directions, so someone got hit.

Why didn't it work?

Well, because Jonathan Swift, he of Gulliver's Travels fame noticed the thread and had time to warn Harley and cut the thread. The so-called Bandbox Plot was quite infamous and did a lot to put the Whigs in disrepute and strengthen Harley. Harley had all sorts of problems but because of his strength, he was able to retain control until Queen Anne's death.

So what?

Well, Britain is quite unstable at this point in time. It's been only five years since the Act of Union, we are in the War of the Spanish Succession, the Jacobites are nearing relevancy. And Harley's right hand man, even if he didn't get on with him is the Viscount Bolingbroke, a more radical man who favoured the Jacobites and yet was anti-religious, a Tory who brought the Enlightenment to Britain, and whose ideas helped inspire the American Revolution fifteen years after his death. In our world, Harley suffered another less severe assassination attempt and while he recovered, Bolingbroke took charge on a temporary basis. His legacy was...mixed. Now, he gets a more permanent job at the top table...

So, what can we expect?

That's for me to know, and you to find out.

I am you, you know?

Shat it, you toilit.

 

[Mumby]

The War of the British Succession

Shortly after Harley's death Henry St John, the Viscount Bolingbroke, took the role he believed was his destiny. As leader of the Tories, and with the Queen's favour, he was now Lord Treasurer with far greater power than he had had before hand. He had been the primary of Britain in securing the Peace of Utrecht and he saw it through, seeing it signed by all except the Emperor by March 1713.

It was after peace was made that Bolingbroke began to pursue his own agenda. The Tories had been shored up by the assassination of Harley, with many blaming the Whigs and seeing them as a belligerent nest of vipers. While Bolingbroke was a polarising figure and couldn't rely on moderate Whigs, he didn't have to. The Tories had a powerful majority in the Commons, and because of the need to bring peace, had already managed to get the Queen to appoint Peers to the Lords to give him power there as well.

Bolingbroke sought to appease and bring forward the desires of the more extreme Tories in the government. Anti-Dissenting legislation was introduced, and via Lady Masham was able to extend a deal of influence over the Queen. In connivance with the French court, he began to manipulate the Queen toward a course of action which would put her half-brother, the Jacobite claimant James III and VIII, on the throne of Great Britain as opposed to the more widely accepted Hanoverian succession. Both he and the Queen could tell her health was deteriorating.

Bolingbroke remained careful to keep the Queen happy, knowing full well her capricious behaviour. On 27th July 1714, she agreed with Bolingbroke and other extreme Tories to hand the Crown to her half-brother upon her death. Bolingbroke began the necessary preparations, ushering troops into London to keep the city clamped down and to make the transfer of power as smooth as possible.

Anne died on the 2nd August, and not long after, James VIII began his journey to London, backed by a mixed army of exiles and Frenchmen. Landing in Kent, they marched north where the gates of London were thrown wide open and the new King was acclaimed by the Lord Treasurer Bolingbroke, in a moment he called the Second Glorious Revolution.

It was not to last. Parliament could not sit still for this. The moderate Tories were appalled that the law be so obviously subverted and while the extreme Tories rallied around Bolingbroke, the moderates shifted over to the Whig camp. The Duke of Marlborough became a rallying point of these moderate Tories, leading his soldiers westwards to Oxford. Parliament in London was purged of those who refused to recognise the legitimacy of King James. Most of those purged were arrested and put in the Tower of London, but a few joined Marlborough in Oxford where they established the 'Settlement Parliament' so named for their adherence to the terms of the 1701 Act of Settlement which established George, Elector of Hanover, as King of Great Britain.

News spread rapidly. Rebellion in favour of King James broke out in Scotland and Ireland, while areas of England dominated by High Church Anglican Tories suffered as Tories waged war with Whigs. The War of the British Succession had begun.

It did not take long for outside interests to involve themselves. Louis XIV was aging, but saw a chance to reverse the injustice of Utrecht by putting a pliant monarch on the throne of England, Scotland and Ireland, and breaking up the largest free trade area in Europe. He foresaw a powerful French Empire extending across Western Europe, ultimately capable of challenging Vienna for the title of heir to the Roman Empire. On the other side was the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI. By placing a vassal of his upon the throne of Britain, it's military might would be allied to his own, allowing him to counter the power of the Sun King in Versailles.

Civil War raged in every part of the British Isles, with moderate numbers of foreign soldiers pouring in. Then the Earl of Orford decisively turned against the Jacobites, purging the ranks of the Royal Navy of Jacobite sympathisers and turning against the foreigners, forming a wooden wall around England's coastline to prevent further landings and encroachments. The Royal Navy would suffer appalling losses but the War of the British Succession was to be a British affair.

The Civil War in Scotland was turning in the Jacobites favour with the prime cities of Dundee and Edinburgh taken and the army of Catholic Highlanders marching south, toward a Jacobite rebellion in Northumberland. William Wyndham had coalesced the Jacobite rebels in Western England under himself, and the Settlement Parliament was forced north, and the settled in Lincoln which was strongly Protestant territory. London remained in the grip of the Jacobites. It seemed that the Jacobites were in front, capable of rallying troops from Ireland to take control of Western Scotland, and bolster occupied regions so that more troops could be freed up.

The George came with his army of Protestant Germans, many of them mercenaries. Backed with Austrian gold, George was allowed through Orford's blockade. Landing in East Anglia, they bolstered the armies of the East, and marched south to take London. The siege of London was bloody, particularly as the German mercenaries utilised bloodthirsty tactics which had never really been used on the British mainland before, designed to starve out the city and deny them resources. The siege eventually broke in early 1716, but the King had fled West to Bristol where his New Cavalier Parliament met. A dividing line was emerging across the Kingdom, with West in the hands of the Jacobites and East in the hands of the Hanoverians.

The tactic of Marlborough now was to strike across country and take Wales, denying landing points for Irish troops and splitting the territory held by the Jacobites in half. The Welsh themselves were not hugely sympathetic to the Catholic and crypto-Catholic rulers, a substantial change from being one of the centres of support for King Charles I in the First British Civil War.

With Welsh rebels joining with Marlborough's forces, by the end of 1716, Wales was in their hands. James was feeling increasingly uncomfortable in Bristol, as violence continued in the West Country. He therefore moved himself and Parliament once more westwards, to Dublin where the New Cavalier Parliament sat when the Irish Parliament wasn't in session. Bolingbroke and other Jacobite leaders from Great Britain began to be displaced and undermined by Irish leaders. This undermined the morale of Jacobite forces in the remainder of England and resistance rapidly crumbled.

Marlborough and George now began the march north, an exhausting and nightmarish campaign as they slogged through Lancashire, Northumberland and into Scotland. The Hanoverians here finally were relieved and an army of Loyal Scots showed no mercy to their countrymen in quelling the revolt.

By the summer of 1717, Great Britain was reunited, but Ireland remained in rebellion. Louis XIV was dead, and his son was unwilling to spend any more blood or treasure helping James or his confederates. The British Hanoverians landed in Ulster to aid the Protestants and launched a naval attack on Dublin. The end was nigh for the Jacobites.

By the winter, the Jacobite cause was crumbling. James had fled, back to France, tearfully writing a farewell letter to Ireland. The ruthlessness of George I's armies of Germans and Britons caused long-lasting ire but held down the country for fear of reprisals. Without a King to rally around, the Irish Parliament surrendered, arresting and handing over the rebels in their number as well as the entire New Cavalier Parliament to win clemency. Bolingbroke and many others were hung, drawn and quartered for their crimes, the last traitors to be punished in this bloodthirsty fashion.

 

[ColeMercury]

Very interested to see where this goes.

 

[Mumby]

The Hanoverian Dynasty Part 1

The end of the War of the British Succession, or Second British Civil War, saw the Protestant Hanoverians confirmed as the true monarchs of Great Britain and Ireland, and an anti-Catholic hysteria grip the British nation. For most of the 19th century, the British government refused outright to align with Catholic states, leaving it somewhat diplomatically isolated. Britain would find allies in Prussia, Russia and Sweden, allies who frequently disagreed. The Tories would become critically marginalised, most of the moderates like Marlborough being forced into the Whigs by momentum, as the Tory name became associated with treachery and Popery.

George I may in another lifetime have been an absentee monarch. But having spent much gold and blood in taking his Kingdom, he was determined to rule it. He brought interpreters and other retainers from Hanover to ensure that the Kingdom was governed to his satisfaction. The Whigs, briefly assured of one party dominance, soon split. The Junto closed ranks around the King, and became associated with the King's very German court. They had been regenerated and shifted from a group around specific personalities to one which co-opted the 'King's Men' and many former Tories like Marlborough. In opposition were the Patriots who coalesced around the acrimonious relationship between King George and his son, also named George. The Patriots were the so-called Country Party, opposed to the Court Party. The Junto-Patriot Split would come to dominate British politics. However, for now, the very nature of the Patriots would mean internal division, allowing the Junto to divide and rule, meaning the King was able to exercise a great deal of personal power.

George demonstrated leniency in Ireland and Scotland, preserving the estates of many who had sided with the Jacobites. Twinned with the grassroots anti-Catholic hysteria, George was able to secure the loyalty of many previously Tory lords, who were absorbed into the Junto party. However, those who had led the rebellion were shown no mercy. The ringleaders were executed in grisly fashion and their estates forfeited to the Crown. Much of this land was sold to pay off mercenaries who had fought in the civil war, and this became known as the German Plantation. George granted peerages to several German lords and generals who had fought in Britain, and they became key parts of the Junto reign.

George encouraged the Junto's growth, and allowed them to secure control of the levers of power, especially the Septennial Act which extended the life of Parliaments to seven years. This in particular allowed George's ministers to rule on his behalf without fear of immediate overthrow. George was active in reversing the policies of Bolingbroke, in particular extending religious liberty to Dissenters. While this caused some problems amongst his Toryish ministers, he had no fear of major reprisals. This legislation did become something of a rallying call for the Patriots however.

Probably the biggest issue in Europe in the early years of George's reign was the War of the Triple Alliance, in which Phillip, King of Spain, sought to seize the throne of France after Louis XIV's death. With Britain's finances still in a ruin, George elected not to involve Great Britain in the conflict, though as Elector-Prince of Hanover, he did contribute to the Holy Roman Empire's involvement. As it was, Phillip V's ambition to rule both France and Spain was stymied, but in the negotiations, he was able to take back Spain's empire in Italy. Britain's lack of involvement, and the perceived victory of the Spanish led to a further rallying of the Patriots.

Due to George's policies, particularly the German Plantation, and the avoidance of war, one man emerged as George's attack-dog, the man who would become known as the Prime Minister. Robert Walpole skilfully managed the affairs of Parliament, picking and choosing ministers. As George aged, he left more of the work of government to Walpole, and he became the primary personality in the Junto. By the 1720s, George was effectively managing foreign policy and Walpole was managing domestic policy. George's influence over domestic direction was greater than it might have been however, as the King had to seek permission from Parliament whenever he wanted to leave the Kingdom for Hanover.

When George eventually died in 1727, he left the Kingdom in far better order than when he came to it. Her finances were in order, her succession was secured, Parliament was strong, as was the Crown, commerce was growing and so was the Empire. He was generally considered a good King, the bloody conflict of the civil war tarring any Jacobite romanticism with treachery. The German Plantation brought new culture to Britain and contributed to a changing national religious scene.

 

[Mumby]

The Hanoverian Dynasty Part 2

After George I's death, British politics altered. The Junto and Patriot parties became more divided and if not as formal as modern parties, they were certainly distinct. Upon taking the throne, George II wasted no time abandoning the Patriots. Now he was King, the Junto served his needs.

Like his father, George II was actively involved in the Kingdom's affairs, but his primarily concerned with matters of foreign policy. Pursuing a hardline anti-French, anti-Spanish policy, Britain went to war in the 1730s. A trend throughout George's reign was conflict and the expansion of the British Empire. The colonies in North America expanded in population, the East India Company expanded its grip on the subcontinent, and the South Seas Company built factories in Patagonia and on the coast of Southern Africa.

One of the more unpopular wars that George involved Britain in was the War of the Polish Succession, in which Britain intervened on behalf of the German states and Russia, forming a stronger bond with these states against the Bourbons. Augustus III was confirmed King of Poland, but Britain gained little of benefit from the conflict. There was also some controversy about British arms allowing an Austrian conflict on the continent that allowed Austria to advance against France in the Germanies and Spain in the Italies.

The war in Poland had another consequences. Walpole resigned from the government in 1734, furious with the King's taste for war. He appointed Spencer Compton, the Earl of Wilmington, to the office of First Lord of the Treasury. This came as no surprise, Wilmington having long been amongst the King's close retinue. However, Wilmington's control over policy was weak at best, and other personalities at the Cabinet table were soon directing policy to a much greater extent than he. This also allowed the King to more directly muscle in on policy making and attended some Cabinet meetings during Wilmington's tenure. Wilmington's appointment had another consequences however. It brought Patriots into government for the first time, and the King enjoyed the benefit of a broad-bottomed government.

The new blood took a critical eye to Walpolean patronage and sliced back expenditure to public offices, and enthusiastically backed the King's bellicose foreign policy. Their greatest impact was in domestic policy. Strong trade walls were built up, protecting British trade. The Patriots were deeply hostile to the concept of enriching other countries with British trade, and instead sought to pursue trade with the colonies or those states which accepted contracts with the Corporations.

This culminated in Britain's intervention into the War of the Austrian Succession on the Austrian side. The war expanded overseas, and Britain waged war with Spain and France, with a wide degree of success. With Britain's interests in North America and the South Seas, they achieved far greater victories here. When peace came, with Austrian victory, France had extended dominance in India, while Britain had annexed parts of French North America and formalised a border with Spain in South America. Spain had also retaken the remaining Austrian territories in Italy, and from this point onwards, Franco-Spanish relations began to deteriorate.

During the war, the King contended with Parliament, and was forced to bow to Parliament's wishes. Wilmington's popularity had continued to deteriorate, and after his death, the King tried to appoint Lord Carteret. This proved an impossible task and the King was forced to include more Patriots in the Cabinet.

With the death of Wilmington, the King was forced to appoint a Patriot, William Pulteney. Pulteney was backed by the Prince of Wales, and the King's position was undermined. Patronage was further pursued and corruption punished. However, when the Patriots mooted boundary reform, the Junto struck back, accusing them of closet Cromwellism. With patronage systems breaking down, the Patriots lost to the Junto in the general election of 1747, delivering a new Junto government. However, the Junto would never again have the overwhelming power that they had enjoyed under Walpole.

The rest of George's reign would continue to be dominated by Junto governments and the clash between his desire for war with France, and their desire for balanced books. When he died in 1760, Britain was at war with France, Spain and Austria, and was allied with Prussia and Russia. Britain's victory in that conflict would see the final sundering of the Bourbon Family Compact as Spain turned on France, the rise of Prussia as a great German power, and the ascent of Britain as a global military and commercial power.

 

[Corder]

Subbed. Very interesting.

 

[Jonathan]

Brilliantly written, mumby A world changed by a single Hat box

Will we see the first King Frederick of Great Britain?

 

[Mumby]

The Age of Revolutions

Frederick's accession to the throne came part way through a European War which at it's end saw Britain ascendant over the seas, France cowed in the Americas, the Bourbon Family Compact sundered, the Spanish Empire in South America compromised, Austria's dominance over Germany no longer guaranteed, and the collapse of Poland-Lithuania was accelerated.

While George II had been a Patriot before his accession and became a Junto when on the throne, Frederick was a Patriot through and through. While he continued to preside over the Kingdom's foreign policy, he left domestic affairs to his Ministers. Their first priority was to restore Britain's finances which had been wrecked by the global conflict. So the Patriot government in power raised taxes, particularly on non-Corporate colonies, and demanded higher dividends from the Corporations.

Enlightenment ideas had long been propagated and they had found a fertile nesting place in Britain's North American colonies. Many colonists had gone there with Dissenting or Non-Conformist religious views and this fed into an ideal of the state. But different parts behaved differently. In the aftermath of the Second British Civil War, many Catholics left England and Scotland, settling mostly in Quebec and Nova Scotia, while Irish Catholics settled in Newfoundland. Enlightenment ideas found less favour here, and there was a great deal of animosity between Protestant America and Catholic America.

Matters came to a head in the 1770s, as war broke out. Many colonies declared independence, and Britain's promise to protect the Catholic/High Anglican colonist's religious rights became a key part of her fight. Similarly, the British government offered freedom to slaves in return for their service in the fight. Ultimately, Britain failed to prevent the break away of several colonies, however the result wasn't the great continental power envisaged by many. The colony of New York had been retained, as had the Ohio Country, and broad swathes of the countryside remained contested. A British armed army of slaves would continue to cause trouble in the South for decades. In the peace negotiations, the then United Provinces recognised British rule over New York, the Ohio Country and some adjoining territory in Pennsylvania. Borders were formalised in New England, and Florida was ceded back to Spain.

In the aftermath of the Independence War, the country became known as the United Provinces of America. However, the nation soon began to break apart, partly because of geography, and partly because of politics. With New York between them, and only a tiny navy, New England was to all intents and purposes separate from the rest of the United Provinces. Different personalities dominated as well, different discourses were approved of. The Consitutional Convention collapsed in acrimony. New England separated off, becoming a centralised, federal state with similar mercantile and industrial urges to her mother country. The remainder of the United Provinces reconstituted itself as the American Confederacy, with a very loose central government, and an agrarian economic system. Each state would become influenced by her neighbours. New England would be influenced by Britain and would in many ways seek to emulate her. America became influenced by Spain and inspired by her great empire in the Americas.

The ideas of the Enlightenment spread elsewhere. France had intervened on the United Provinces' side, and ideas from the now American Confederacy were spreading to the Bourbon absolute monarchy. The American Revolution was relatively bloodless and pragmatic in the face of the French Revolution. Most of the French royal family was executed, as was a lot of the nobility, half of Italy and Germany was immolated by the Jacobins, and for twenty years, most of Europe went through repetitive cycles of war as they attempted to put another increasingly unlikely Bourbon monarch on the throne of France before being repulsed once more. Finally, a combination of Britain, Spain and Russia ended the conflict, and slaughtered the republic where it lay. The Balance of Power lay in ruins.

When the dust settled, Louis XIV's or perhaps more appropriately Phillip V's dream was complete. France and Spain were in personal union, as was most of Italy, bringing most of Western Europe under a Bourbon Dynasty based in Madrid. Britain and Russia formed an alliance with Austria and helped the Holy Roman Empire back onto it's feet to form a powerful opposition to the Bourbon Empire. The power of Spain was at least partially restrained by Austria's annexation of territory in Italy and France during the war.

Perhaps one of the deeper legacies of George II's reign which reverberated during the Revolutions was the division of his family domains. While Frederick, who considered himself British, inherited Britain his brother William became Prince-Elector of Hanover, and during the French Revolution expanded his domains which was confirmed with the Mediatisation of the Empire after the war. Hanover became 'Austria's Flank' helping to prevent Prussia from extending its power into other parts of Germany.

Overseas, Britain saw some major changes. Many Loyalists moved away from now independent colonies, mostly into British North America, but also into the colonies of the South Seas Company. As most of these Loyalist colonists originated from the American Confederacy, slavery would persist for a while in British South America, until it was abandoned in the 1820s as impractical, replaced by a ranching agriculture.

In Europe, the twin ideals of republicanism and nationalism had been unleashed. They would help draw the Holy Roman Empire together as a German nation-state, but would also lead to acrimony between the other domains of the Hapsburg Emperor. Republicanism was to become a perennial problem in both France, and the Americas. The ideal of constitutional monarchy was yet in it's infancy, but would become the main opponent of either strident republicanism or reactionary absolutism.