Justin Corfield George I 1660–1727 first Hanoverian king of England George I of England came to the throne of England through the Act of Settlement of 1701.. This legisla-tion, passed by
Trang 1full-color woodblock prints, developing a multicolor
technique using between four and 10 colors As a result
of advances in printing, illustrated books became
popu-lar, as well as handbills and advertising for theatrical
per-formances and geisha houses
In other areas of the arts, such as the Bunraku
pup-pet theater and Kabuki theater, attendance increased with
many ordinary people watching performances that had
been the preserve of the daimyo and the samurai Most
actors who had previously worked in traveling troupes
began to work in semipermanent theaters that allowed
them to have a more settled life The result was that
act-ing became a more respectable profession Playwright
Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653–1724) was the first to
use the Bunraku puppets to show everyday themes and
ordinary emotions, writing a total of 100 plays, which
were performed to large audiences
Although the Genroku period came to an end in
the early 18th century, the literary and artistic advances
were to be revived again during the Bunka-Bunsei
peri-od (1804–29), when Edo emerged as the sole cultural
center of Japan
See also Bushido, Tokugawa Period in japan;
Tokuga-wa bakuhan system, japan
Further reading: Dunn, C J
Everyday Life in Traditional Ja-pan London: B T Batsford Ltd, 1969; McClain, James L., and
Wakita Osamu, eds Osaka, the Merchant’s Capital of Early
Modern Japan Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999.
Justin Corfield
George I
(1660–1727) first Hanoverian king of England
George I of England came to the throne of England
through the Act of Settlement of 1701 This
legisla-tion, passed by the British parliament, ensured the
suc-cession of Protestant heirs to the throne of England
James II of the House of Stuart had been a Roman
Catholic and had been expelled in the Glorious
Revo-lution of 1688 Carried to England on a “Protestant
wind,” his daughter Mary and her husband, William
III of Orange, the stadtholder of the Netherlands, took
his place on the throne Although William would act
as king, it was always clear that he did so through his
wife, Mary The line of succession was established so
that if William and Mary were to die without
produc-ing an heir, the Crown would pass to Mary’s Protestant
sister, Anne Mary died in 1694, and William would
follow her in death in 1702 Anne, who had been born
in 1665, became queen on William’s death Anne, too, would die without issue in 1714, and, under the ex-plicit terms of the Act of Settlement, the throne passed
to Sophia, the electress of Hanover in Germany The English parliament decided to amend the law
of succession to the throne in favor of the Protestant House of Stuart In default of heirs from William III
of Orange—who had ruled alone in England after the death of Mary in 1694—or Anne, the act declared that the English Crown would devolve upon Princess Sophia and her Protestant heirs Ironically, Sophia died before Anne in August 1714 Therefore, the Crown of England passed to her son, who became George i, king of Great Britain and Ireland, as well as the elector of Hanover
in the Holy Roman Empire The lineage made George I’s succession direct and in accord with the Act of Suc-cession Born in 1660, George I was the son of Elec-tor Ernest and Sophia, who was the granddaughter of James I of England James himself, first the king of Scot-land, had established the Stuart dynasty on the English throne after the death of Queen Elizabeth I, the last of the House of Tudor to rule in England, in 1603 New in his realm, George I at first relied on advisers from Hanover Although he was not a man of particu-larly acute knowledge, as had been King Charles II, he was able to judge those who had talent He used these able men to govern his new kingdom for him Under George I, John Churchill, the first duke of Marlbor-ough, was allowed again to enjoy the fruits of his vic-tories, as England’s most respected general In politics, Robert Walpole was the brightest star A leading mem-ber of the Whig Party, Walpole became so central to the administration of government that some historians consider him the first British prime minister
However, Walpole’s period of favor with the king was relatively brief His concern that George I was sub-ordinating England’s interests to Hanover, especially since the British sacrifices in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–13), led to a complete rupture with the monarch Walpole left office and George’s own son, the future George II, left the royal palace to set up an opposing government Three years after he broke with Walpole, George I invited Walpole back to his govern-ment in 1720 Moreover, Walpole effected a reconcili-ation between the king and his son By 1724, Walpole and his brother-in-law, Charles, Viscount Townshend, virtually were the government
In foreign and military affairs, George I had diffi-culty in his choice of advisers In September 1715, John Erskine, the earl of Mar, raised the standard of Anne’s