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| George I in his coronation robes by Sir Godfrey Kneller Public domain |
The Georgian period witnessed major developments in the British state and the lives of the people. It was far less dramatic than the seventeenth century but in a different way, the period was just as revolutionary.
The eighteenth century was the inheritor of the Glorious Revolution of 1688-9, which saw the overthrow of the Catholic monarch James II and his replacement by his Protestant nephew, William of Orange. It ended the prospect of a centralized and absolute monarchy. Power was increasingly located in the ‘King in Parliament’, and after 1689 Parliament became a permanent part of the constitution. It sat every year, and its work-load dramatically increased.
Religion played a major role in the state Although the eighteenth century is often seen as a century of religious apathy, Britain was a profoundly Christian country and witnessed two waves of a major religious revival, the first beginning in the 1730s, the second in the 1790s. Religious sectarianism had not disappeared and anti-Catholicism remained a ferocious force. The establishment in England was firmly Anglican. The monarch had to be Protestant. The Toleration Act (1689) granted freedom of worship to Protestant Dissenters, but they were (at least in theory) barred them from public office. In Scotland, Presbyterianism was the established religion. A series of penal laws, especially harsh in Ireland, discriminated powerfully against Roman Catholics.
The nation state of Great Britain had come came into being. Wales had been peacefully absorbed into England in the sixteenth century but until the Union of Parliaments in 1707 Scotland remained an independent state. The Glorious Revolution acted as a powerful catalyst for political and economic unity. It was fear of a disputed succession that had led to the union of parliaments. This was an economic as well as a political union. Scots now paid the same taxes and customs duties and competed for the same government and administrative posts. But since the Revolution settlement the Scots had been permitted to maintain their own law, and Presbyterianism remained the established religion. Ireland had its own parliament in Dublin, composed entirely of members of the Protestant ascendancy, even though 90 per cent of the population were Roman Catholic.
Georgian Britain was a hierarchical society Politics was dominated by the aristocracy who (along with the bishops) made up the House of Lords. Most members of the Commons were connected in some way to the aristocracy as heirs, relations, or clients. The aristocracy and country gentry retained enormous prestige throughout the period (though anti-aristocratic rhetoric increased from the end of the century). The ‘middling sort’ (not referred to as the 'middle classes' before the 1790s) were increasingly numerous and wealthy, but on the whole they did not aspire to political power. However, they mixed socially with the upper classes in 'polite' society.
The majority of the population was poor – though the degrees of poverty varied greatly and most visiting foreigners were struck by the comparative prosperity of the English. Few believed it was appropriate for the ‘lower orders’ to have a political voice.
Britain was an increasingly wealthy trading nation During this period national wealth doubled in real terms. The consequence (and the cause) was a growing domestic market which could only be satisfied through commercial expansion, both at home and overseas. London was the largest city in western Europe and the provincial towns grew in wealth. Britain sought and won an empire in the West Indies, North America, and Asia against international competition and by the end of the period was indisputably the world’s great imperial power.
Britain was also a major European power engaged in a series of wars against other European countries, notably France. She fought the ‘second Hundred Years War’ in 63 of the 144 years between 1689 and 1815 (44 per cent), all but one of them victories. These wars created their own institutions for tax gathering, financial investing and military administration - and in doing so they transformed the British state.
Conclusion
- Georgian Britain was the inheritor of the Glorious Revolution. It was not a democracy but the monarch's power was restricted by Parliament.
- It was a relatively prosperous country, a trading nation with a consumerist economy.
- It fought a series of largely successful wars against France and by the end of the period the British Empire was the largest the world had ever seen.
