HANOVER QUIZ ANSWER Public Deposited

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  • The E-Sylum: Volume 7, Number 14, April 4, 2004, Article 15

    HANOVER QUIZ ANSWER

    Pete Smith writes: "I have a response to the question from
    Ron Haller-Williams about Hanover in the news. The town
    of Hanover, Massachusetts, was chartered in 1727, so
    there was little of note going on in 1714.

    Over in England, the House of Hanover began to rule under
    George I. His descendants included George II, (known to
    Wendell Wolka as George the Eye Eye) George III and
    George IV, known to students of the American Revolution
    and collectors of Conder tokens. The last of the Hanover line was
    Victoria.

    Thus, without George I from Hanover, there would have been
    no Victoria and Victoria's secret might be known as Bruce's
    secret.

    The connection between George I and Jill Goodacre is pretty
    obscure but shows how numismatic research can lead in many
    different directions."

    On a related note, Pete adds: "In phone conversations with
    Tom Fort, editor of The Asylum, we occasionally talk about
    Sports Illustrated swimsuit models and how a picture on the
    cover might increase membership interest in our journal.
    Although we had been unable to come up with a numismatic
    reason to put a swimsuit model on the cover, I feel a Victoria's
    Secret model would probably work as well. Thanks to The
    E-sylum for broadening our knowledge on the topic.

    Many of you know of my interest in author and dealer A.M.
    Smith. When I interviewed one of Smith's grandsons, I learned
    that his granddaughter (A.M. Smith's great-great-granddaughter)
    was pursuing a modeling career. I don't recall her name and
    have not followed her career. Perhaps I now have the incentive
    to pursue this more actively."

    In the opposite camp, Rich Kelly and Nancy Oliver write:
    "Up until the last issue of E-Sylum, we were very pleased with
    the intellectual content and conversation going on in each issue.
    However, in the most recent issue we were quite unhappy to
    see a link to the Victoria Secret website. We all get links for
    sexually oriented websites in our email and we hoped that the
    E-Sylum would be above this kind of garbage. Please refrain
    from such material that has nothing to do with numismatics or
    exonomania."

    [I'll grant you that the numismatic connection is scant, and I'm
    sorry you were unhappy with the inclusion of the links, which
    were not to Victoria's Secret, but other web sites. I would
    certainly not purposely include links to sexually oriented
    websites. While I looked at the linked pages and thought them
    harmless, I did not inspect the rest of the referenced sites.
    -Editor]

    Several other wrote in with the Hanover answer.
    Martin Purdy writes: "Maybe something to do with Queen Anne
    dying, having outlived all of her children, and the consequent
    need to import a distant cousin from Germany to take the
    CEO's job at UK Monarchy Inc.?"

    James Higby of Dixon, IL writes: "The answer to the Hanover
    question posed in E-Sylum is that King Georg of Hanover
    became King George I of England upon the passing of
    Queen Anne."

    John Isles, formerly of England, now a registered elector in
    Hanover, Michigan writes: "Well, obviously, because the Elector
    of Hanover became King George I of England."

    Supplying the complete answer to his question, Ron
    Haller-Williams writes:

    Short Version:
    When Queen Anne died in on August 1st 1714, her successor
    was her nearest Protestant relative. This was Georg Ludwig,
    Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and King of Hanover, better
    known to us as George I, our first "Hanoverian" king.

    Long Version (for those who want the background!):
    When Queen Anne died in on August 1st 1714, having had
    many children, all of whom had died in childhood or earlier,
    there would have been several claimants to the throne. In
    order of seniority, they were:

    1. Her half-brother James Francis Edward Stuart, "The Old
    Pretender", who saw himself as the rightful successor of their
    father James II. However, the British (English & Scottish)
    authorities were not willing to have a Catholic on the throne
    again, as made clear in the Act of Settlement (1701) and the
    earlier Bill of Rights (1689).

    2. Another Catholic, the Duke of Bavaria, descended from
    Henrietta, daughter of Charles I and thus a cousin.

    3. Her second cousin Georg Ludwig, Duke of Brunswick-
    Lüneburg and King of Hanover, one of the seven Electors of
    Holy Roman Empire (and its Arch-Treasurer!), better known
    to us as George I, our first "Hanoverian" king. His mother
    Sophia had been declared heir presumptive in the 1701 Act
    of Settlement, in default of any "heirs of the body" of Mary II,
    Anne, and William III.

    In order to prevent any upheavals or civil unrest, the death of
    Queen Anne was officially hushed up for a while, until there
    was confirmation of Georg's willingness to settle permanently
    in Britain and to rule here. His mother Sophia had died less
    than eight weeks earlier, but he soon decided: "I come for
    your good."

    This censorship, however well-intentioned, was technically
    high treason, punishable by death! News had leaked out,
    so when at last there was an official announcement of the
    Queen's death, the crowd chanted in derision "Queen
    Anne is dead - didn't you know?" and to this day "And
    Queen Anne is dead" is a standard rejoinder to somebody
    who bears stale news or states the obvious.

    Use of the form "Georg" above is NOT a typing error, but
    it seems appropriate to use the German form of the name
    there."

Source URL Date published
  • 2004-04-04
Volume
  • 7

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