31. George II

The Kings and Queens podcast

George II's (1727-60) temper was warm and impetuous but was good natured and sincere. He was unskilled in royal of talent of dissimulation, he always was what he appeared to be. He might offend but he never deceived. What you saw was what you got. Could Britain’s second Hanoverian king provide calm composure against the immense challenges presented by a new Jacobite claimant and the first true global conflict in an unforgiving environment led by burgeoning prime ministers?

Characters

George II – King of Great Britain, Elector of Hanover (1727-60)
Caroline of Ansbach – Queen consort of Great Britain, Electress consort of Hanover (1727-37)
George I – King of Great Britain (1714-27, Elector of Hanover (1698-1727), father of George II
Sophia Dorothea of Celle – mother of George II
Sophia of Hanover – Electress of Hanover (1692-98), heiress presumptive to the British throne, grandmother of George II
Ernest Augustus – Elector of Hanover (1692-98), grandfather of George II
Frederick, prince of Wales – eldest son of George II and Caroline, heir apparent to British throne
William, duke of Cumberland – youngest son of George II and Caroline, British army general
Philip Christoph von Konigsmarck – Swedish count and lover of Sophia Dorothea of Celle

Anne – Queen of Great Britain (1702-14)
John Churchill, the duke of Marlborough – British military commander under Queen Anne

James Stuart (the Old Pretender) – son of James II and Jacobite pretender
Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) – grandson of James II and Jacobite pretender, son of James Stuart
Robert Walpole – Prime Minister of Great Britain (1721-42)
Charles Townshend – Statesman and director of foreign policy under Walpole
Spencer Compton, earl of Wilmington - Prime Minister of Great Britain (1742-43)
Henry Pelham - Prime Minister of Great Britain (1743-54)
Thomas Pelham, duke of Newcastle - Prime Minister of Great Britain (1754-57, 57-62)
William Pitt – British statesman and informal leader (1756-61)
Horace Walpole – statesman and son of Robert Walpole

Mary Bellenden – mistress of George II
Henrietta Howard – mistress of George II
Amalie von Wallmoden – mistress of George II
John Hervey – courtier and political writer
George Friderich Handel – German-British composer

Robert Jenkins – Welsh mariner who sparked the War of Jenkin’s Ear
Robert Clive – general and governor of the Bengal Presidency
John Byng – British admiral at the Battle of Minorca
James Wolfe – general at the Battle of Quebec

Elizabeth Montagu – social reformer and literary critic
James Caulfeild, earl of Charlemont – Irish statesman

Credits

Music for the Royal Fireworks – George Frideric Handel
Concerto for flute in A minor – Johann Sebastian Bach
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