20 October 2020

The Elector of Hannover

On October 20, 1714, George, Elector of Hannover, a distant Protestant relative of King James, underwent a form of 'Coronation' in Westminster Abbey.

Not a happy day. For half a century, Britain was to be sorely divided.

In towns all over England, the worthy common folk ... not the Whig Plutocracy ... rioted in protest. God bless them all. But this University had an even better idea than rioting.

Instead, on this day the University conferred on Sir Constance Phipps the honorary degree of DCL (Doctoris in Lege Civili).

Although Phipps (1656-1723) had been prepared, like many sound men, to serve the de facto regime of Anne, his practice as a barrister had been among staunchly Tory and Jacobite circles. He had achieved national hero-status by his participation in the defence of Henry Sacheverell (and, later, of Bishop Francis Atterbury for whom we in the Ordinariate have a great regard).

Confusion to Whiggery and Hannover Rats! Redeat Magnus ille Genius Britanniae!

10 comments:

Oliver Nicholson said...

Doctoris in Jure Civili ?
There are those who recall the MacMillan rendering: Jury Sieve-Eye-Lie

Woody said...

Have you ever discussed the Non-jurors here, Father? I would be interested to learn more about them, including their theology. Many thanks.

Percy said...

Both lines are imposters. The correct line flows through Blessed Margaret Plantagenet Pole.

John Patrick said...

Elizabeth, sister of Charles I married Frederick V Elector Palatine of the Rhine and King of Bohemia, whose grandson was George I. Since Anne was the granddaughter of Charles I, I guess they were 2nd cousins?

AndrewWS said...

I approve of people who spell Hannover the way the Germans do.

Voice from the roof top said...

Is there any descendant of Margaret Pole?

Grant Milburn said...

I was recently reading the accounts that James Boswell and Doctor Johnson wrote of the journey they made together in 1773 to the Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland. While on the island of Skye, they met with Flora MacDonald, famed for helping Charles Edward Stuart evade the government forces following the battle of Culloden in what Gaelic texts call Bliadhna a' Phrionnsa, the Year of the Prince. It is a stirring tale and Boswell includes a lengthy account of it

After that, I read the Wikipedia article on Flora MacDonald. In 1774 she and her husband moved to North Carolina. Then in 1780 they returned to Skye - because they had supported the Loyalist side in the American War of Independence. Delicious irony: Flora is in trouble for aiding a rebellion against George II, and then in trouble for opposing a rebellion against George III. The common thread seems to be her knack of choosing the losing side, which makes her (as Sellar and Yeatman would say) Wrong but Wromantic.

Percy said...

Yes. The senior line flowing from her descended through her eldest son, Henry, then his second son Henry and that Henry's daughter Catherine and thence through the earldom of Huntingdon, then the marquessate of Hastings, and then the earldom of Loudon, of which the 15th earl is the current holder and 25th generation from her.

William Tighe said...


"Is there any descendant of Margaret Pole?"

The male line of her Pole descendants died our with her grandson (possibly great-grandson) Germayne Pole, a Derbyshire recusant, in 1601, but there were numerous descendants in female lines, the most senior of these being the Earls of Huntingdon of the Hastings family, of which the line (with the title) is still extant.

William Tighe said...

" ... the most senior of these being the Earls of Huntingdon of the Hastings family, of which the line (with the title) is still extant."

I was mistaken; Percy is correct. On the death of the 10th Hastings earl in 1789 the Huntingdon title passed to a very distant cousin, but the 10th earl left a sister through whom the Clarence "claim" descended through an Earl of Moira to the marquessate of Hastings, and then to the earldom of Loudon.