ABSTRACT
When George I ascended the British throne in 1714, the succession to the crown had been a matter of dispute for at least 28 years. Ever since the Glorious Revolution the claims of the senior branch of the Stuarts had been in conflict with those of James II’s daughters, Mary and Anne, and those of William III, Mary’s husband. But in many ways the succession had become a matter of dispute even earlier, in the late 1670s, when the Whigs had tried to exclude the Duke of York from becoming king after his brother’s death. If anything, the Hanoverian claims to the crown (although based on the Act of Settlement of 1701) were even more controversial than those of William and Mary and Queen Anne, as the Hanoverians were only distantly related to the royal dynasty.
