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Monarchy, Cabinet, Dirty Taxes at the Crossroads
The monarchy had lost its Britishness. The carefully developed responsibility of monarchs had been kingship - the promise to protect the people from invaders and lawmakers in return for the right to rule. When in the past, a king or queen talked about "my people" there was a sense of responsibility but most of all, identity. This, essential part of kingship, had gone. George I became king of Great Britain for political reasons. His first qualification was that he was Protestant.
The Prime Minister stabilized the economy, the monarchy and the Whig Party. He held all political threats at bay and the opposition gathered around the Prince of Wales, who was banished from Court in 1717. The Prince and his wife Caroline of Ansbach established their own court at Leicester House.
Charles Townshend |
CHARLES TOWNSHEND (1675-1738)- Second Viscount Townshend
- Known as Turnip Townshend because of his agricultural innovation
- The brother-in-law of the future Prime Minister Robert Walpole (they were both from Norfolk)
- A commissioner of the 1707 Union with Scotland
- Formed, with Stanhope, a Whig government and Walpole became his Chancellor of the Exchequer
- When Sunderland and Stanhope persuaded George I to sack Townshend, Walpole also resigned
- Returned to Government and eventually retired in 1730 to spend more time with his ideas on crop rotation and turnips
In the 18th Century, more than 1,007 turnpike acts were passed. It was the main means of improving the road system by taxing people who used the roads.
DANIEL DEFOE ON ROAD TOLLS
"...Turn pikes or toll bars have been set up on the several great roads of England, beginning at London and proceeding thro' almost all those dirty deep roads in the Midland Counties especially; at which, turn pikes all carriages, droves or cattle and travellers on horseback are oblig'd to pay an easy toll; that is to say, a horse a penny, a coach three pence, a cart fourpence, at some six to eight pence, a wagon six pence, in some a shilling. Cattle pay by the score, or by the herd, in some places more. But in no place is it thought a burthen that ever I met with, the benefit of a good road abundantly making amends for the little charge the travellers are put to at the turn pikes...". Perhaps this was the official line, but the people rioted against toll tax in 1726.
 
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| 1694 | Death of Mary II
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| 1701 | Death of James II
Louis XIV of France recognizes the Old Pretender as king
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| 1702 | Anne becomes queen
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| 1704 | Battle of Blenheim
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| 1706 | Battle of Ramilles
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| 1707 | Act of Union with Scotland
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| 1711 | Marlborough dismissed
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| 1714 | Death of Queen Anne
Death of Sophia, Electress of Hanover
George I becomes king
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| 1715 | Jacobite revolt
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| 1716 | Septennial Act passed
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| 1717 | Triple Alliance is formed against Spain
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| 1718 | Quadruple Alliance is formed
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| 1720 | South Sea Bubble bursts
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| 1722 | Walpole becomes Prime Minister
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| 1727 | George I dies
George II becomes king
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