“The Hatred Which They Bear Towards Their Kings”: Hanoverian Perceptions of the Glorious Revolution

The Glorious Revolution of 1688-1689 was a political crisis widely perceived in continental Europe. Religious and constitutional struggles - which had shaken most European countries after the Reformation - seemed to have come to an unprecedented climax. Especially rulers and diplomats of the by-then multi-confessional and strongly federal Holy Roman Empire discussed the possible long-term effects with mixed feelings. Among the German-speaking aristocrats, the noble families of Brunswick-Luneburg and the Palatinate, who were directly related to the deposed Stuarts, took the greatest interest in English politics of the day. Diplomatic correspondence exchanged by Duke (Elector) Ernest Augustus with his resident H. Hüneken in The Hague and letters written by his wife Sophia reveals that Hanover held a consensual view of government, centered on the monarch as the figurehead of unity and peace. This irenic approach with clearly international concerns, however, contrasted sharply with the policy of competition and majority rule favored by a Whig-dominated Parliament in London. On these grounds, early Palatine and Hanoverian debates on the Glorious Revolution foreshadowed the controversies over the reign of King George I, who shared more values with his Stuart predecessors than classical Whig historiography allowed.