Whigs and Tories
Defined by the differences in stance on three issues; monarchy, religion and foreign policy. Monarchy
Tories embarrassed by disregard of principle of hereditary succession. Monarchical tendencies prevented them from plotting against William III.
Whigs played down advocacy of right to resist the monarch so as not to justify Jacobite position.
Religion
Tories were staunchly Anglican, Whigs promoted toleration of Protestant Dissenters.
Foreign Policy
Tories were against the continental wars of William III, Whigs wanted to prevent French influence in the Low Countries.
Reign of Queen Anne 1702-1714
The queen distrusted the Whigs, preferring Tories, who dominated the early part of her reign.
Act of Settlement
Death of Duke of Gloucester, Anne’s last remaining heir, in 1700 re-opened the question of succession. The Act of Settlement of 1701 prevented a catholic heir. It provides that only Protestant descendants of Sophia, Electress of Hanover, who have not, furthermore, married a Catholic, can succeed to the English Crown. Also meaning that it was to be Parliament and not the monarch that chose the heir to the crown.
Act of Security
Passed in the Scottish Parliament in 1704, gave Scotland the right to choose her own successor to Queen Anne, a protestant from the House of Stuart.
Regency Act
Passed in 1706 it provided for a Regency between the death of Anne and the first Hanoverian monarch.
Act of Union
Passed in 1707 it provided for the political incorporation of Scotland into England. This may have been a response to the Act of Security. Thus Scotland accepted a Hanoverian Succession and kept their own legal and education systems.
Reign of George I 1714-1727
During the brief period under the Regency Council that was dominated by Whigs, the Tory party became divided, some supporting George, others the restoration of the Stuarts. The failure of some prominent Tories to swear an oath of loyalty to George led to an era of Whiggish domination of politics.
There were riots around England to protest George’s coronation, whilst not overtly Jacobite they could be a warning from the Tory heartlands to the king.
Robert Walpole
Whig politician, in 1721 Sir Robert Walpole became the King's first minister, and he is generally regarded as the first true Prime Minister: a minister who was appointed by the King but who held office because he could command a majority in the House of Commons. The other members of the Cabinet held office at Walpole's pleasure, not the King's.
Reign of George II 1727-1760
Reign marked by two Jacobite uprisings. George II was the last monarch to fight alongside troops in battle.
His capable wife, Caroline, exercised political influence due to her friendship with Walpole that he may have cultivated in order to protect his position. She was also Regent whenever George was on one of his frequent visits abroad in Hanover.
Jacobites
Political movement dedicated to the return of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England and Scotland. It was so named after James VI of Scotland and I of England whose name in Latin is Iacobus Rex. Unsuccessful military campaigns in 1689 in Scotland and 1690 in Ireland where they were defeated at the Battle of the Boyne. An abortive campaign sponsored by the French in 1708 was thwarted by the Royal Navy, which prevented the French navy from landing the Old Pretender.
The ’15 and the ‘45
The Jacobite Rebellion of 1715 was signalled when the Earl of Mar raised the Stuart standard at Braemar after he had been twice snubbed by George I. ‘Bobbing John’ had been a supporter of the Glorious Revolution and the Act of Union. A lack of decisive action led to them losing the initiative when the nobles and clansmen outweighed the opposition army and an army of English Jacobites from the North East stood idle for the lack of orders. Finally the forces combined and marched on Lancashire where their cause was also well supported, however they were surrounded at Preston by mobilised Whig armies, leading to their surrender.
A campaign, sponsored by the Spanish in 1719 was defeated, firstly by storms which destroyed most of the invasion force before it even set sail and finally at the Battle of Glen Shiel.
The Second Jacobite Rebellion, led by the Young Pretender, Charles Edward Stuart, in his father's name, took place in 1745. Jacobite troops advanced into England as far as Derby before turning back. In 1746 they were finally defeated near Inverness at the Battle of Culloden by Hanoverian forces made up of English and Scottish troops. This battle crushed the rebellion and effectively ended Jacobitism as a serious political force in Britain.
Sources
J. D. Mackie, A History of Scotland, (1991)
F. McLynn, The Jacobites, (1985)
P. K. Monod, Jacobitism and the English People, 1688-1788, (Cambridge, 1993)
F. O’Gorman, The Long Eighteenth Century: British Political & Social History 1688-1832, (1997)
