Charles Chevenix Trench

George II
 

Because he was neither vulptuary, martyr nor lunatic, George II has almost escaped the attention of biographers. All that is commonly known of him is that he had no use 'for boetry and bainting' and was the last King of England to lead troops into battle – at Dettingen in 1743.

There was more to him than brute courage. The son of a disastrous marriage, he came to England with his father, the uncouth Elector of Hanover, who succeeded as George I on the death of Queen Anne. The new Prince of Wales, like all Hanoverian heirs, was on bad terms with his father. His court and that of his wife, the intellectual Caroline, whom he bullied, obeyed and adored, soon became a centre of political opposition.

George II's reign – after 1727 – was a turbulent formative period in British politics as well as one of victorious imperial expansion. He was served by two of our greatest statesmen, Walpole and the elder Pitt, and died universally respected as 'the good old King' and rightly, for in spite of his intellectual limitations he was one of England's better kings.

Charles Chevenix Trench sets his subject against the political and international background but also, drawing upon contemporary memoirs, letters, broadsheets and scurrilous verse, is able to portray for us the world of a shrewd, dogmatic and curiously attractive monarch.

Es hängt sicher mit dem freier gewordenen bürgerlichen und empfindlicheren politischen Moralgefühl zusammen, wenn ein kritischer Biograph viel Verständnis für diesen Choleriker aufbringen kann, ohne seine menschlich-allzumenschlichen Schwächen, die Grenzen seines Verstandes, Willens und Charakters zu verschleiern. Die englischen Quellen bieten dafür weit ergiebigere Unterlagen als die deutschen. Schon deswegen ist die Arbeit für uns wertvoll, auch wenn im Mittelpunkt selbstverständlich Georgs II. Rolle in der englischen Politik steht. Seine hannoversche Herkunft und lebenslängliche Verbundenheit werden nur soweit behandelt, als sie zur Charakterisierung und Beurteilung nötig sind, Hier über jede Formulierung zu rechten wäre ebenso unfair und unangebracht wie die notorischen Klagen über unbenutzte hannoversche Archivalien und Spezialliteratur. Manfred Hamann, Niedersächsisches Jahrbuch für Landesgeschichte 48 (1976), S. 456

Charles Chevenix Trench was born in India in 1914, and was educated at Winchester and Magdalen, Oxford. During the war he served in the Middle East, North Africa and Italy and was awarded an M.C. After a brief spell in the Indian Political Service he was employed as a District Commissioner in the Northern Frontier District of Kenya. He now lives in Ireland having taught for some years in the West Country. His previous books include My Mother Told Me, a saga of the travels of three English ladies over four continents at the beginning of this century; Portrait of a Patriot, a biography of John Wilkes; The Royal Malady, a study of the political crisis of 1788-89 provoked by George III's madness; The Poacher and the Squire, a history of poaching and game preservation in England; The Western Rising, an account of the Duke of Monmouth's rebellion; A History of Horsemanship and A History of Marksmanship.

Total Evaluation
Contents
Science
Maps
Illustrations
Remarks	As usual for English biographies of the Kings from Hannover their life before the reign is of minor importance and German sources are not used. This book seems to loose sight on the subject, George II, throughout the book, which is much more a political history of England during Georg II's reign. Many of the personalities of the time are characterized, a characterization of George II may be found on page 269, very near to the end of the book, and it is not the author's, but a citation from Lord Waldegrave. On page 9 of the book the author characterizes the Hannoverian Electress Sophia as "the greatest gossip in Europe", a characterization which fits the author better than the Electress, as every single piece of gossip, even if modern research prooved it to be untrue, appears in the book! We are still waiting for a scientific, modern biography of George II.

Published by The History Book Club, London 1973
ISBN 0 7139 0681 2
328 pages with 8 plates with b/w illustrations, 3 maps in text, out of print
The book may be ordered directly from the publisher.

Text and Illustration © 1973 The History Book Club
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