Читать книгу A History of England, Period III. Constitutional Monarchy - J. Franck Bright - Страница 17

Table of Contents

1702–1714.

Born 1665 = George of Denmark.

CONTEMPORARY PRINCES.

France.	Austria.	Spain.	Russia.	Prussia.
Louis XIV., 1643.	Leopold I., 1658.	Philip V., 1700.	Peter the Great, 1689.	Frederick I., 1701.
	Joseph I., 1705.
	Charles VI., 1711.

Sweden.	Denmark and Norway.
Charles XII., 1697.	Frederick IV., 1699.

POPE.—Clement XI, 1700.

Lord Chancellors.	Archbishop.	First Lords of the Treasury.
Sir Nathan Wright, 1700.	Thomas Tenison, 1694.	1702. Godolphin.
William Cowper, 1705.		1710. Poulett.
Sir Simon Harcourt, 1710.		1711. Harley.
		1714. Shrewsbury.

Chancellors of the Echequer.	Secretaries of State.
1702. Henry Boyle.	1702 Nottingham. / Hedges.
1708. John Smith.	1704 Harley. / Hedges.
1710. Robert Harley.	1706 Harley. / Sunderland.
	1708 Boyle. / Sunderland.
	1710 Boyle. / Dartmouth.
	1710 St. John. / Dartmouth.
	1713 St. John. / Bromley.

Power of Marlborough.

In passing to a new reign we pass to no new epoch. No new principles are at work, no new influences visible. The same constitutional growth which had been gradually developing itself since the Revolution makes its way steadily onwards. The sole difference is the difference in the person of the sovereign. In the yet unfixed state of the Constitution this might have introduced important changes, and did in fact, by the absence of the strong personal character of William, tend to easier and more complete development of parliamentary action. But the importance of the Queen was much neutralized by the complete mastery exercised over her mind by the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough. The effect of Marlborough's supremacy was to reproduce almost exactly the circumstances of the former reign. Though an immoral politician, a self-seeking and avaricious man, Marlborough was too great not to appreciate the grandeur of William's European schemes. Thus, as far as European policy was concerned, he passed almost completely into that King's place, pledged both by his natural intellect and by his personal interests to pursue very much the same course as William had taken. It is scarcely going beyond the truth to call the earlier part of Anne's reign the reign of the Duke of Marlborough; and he encountered exactly the same difficulties, and was reduced to exactly the same straits, as his predecessor had been in his attempts to carry out a national policy without regard to party.