Who were the Georgians?

I’m very excited that my novel, A Kiss for a Highlander, will be published by Samhain Publishing in May 2015. The book is the first in The Georgian Rebel Series, set in eighteenth century England and Scotland. But who were the Georgians?

The Georgian era spanned the reigns of the first four Hanoverian kings of Great Britain. They were George I, George II, George III and George IV, who was the Prince Regent prior to ascending the throne. The Georgian period started in 1714 and ended in 1830.

What was their claim to the throne? When George I became king in 1714, there were fifty seven people with a better claim than his. But they were all Catholics and it was the Hanoverian Elector’s Protestant faith that secured him the throne. The Act of Settlement of 1701 was designed to secure Protestant succession and guarantee a parliamentary system of government.

King James II had fled England in 1688 during ‘The Glorious Revolution’. His Catholicism and belief in the divine right of kings did not sit well with the parliamentarians, and his father Charles I, had lost his life for adhering to just such beliefs.

The throne was offered to James’s daughter, Mary, who ruled jointly with her husband, William of Orange. They had no children and were succeeded by Mary’s sister, Anne. Although Anne gave birth to 17 children, only one, the Duke of Gloucester, survived infancy. When he died, aged 11, Sophia, Electress of Hanover (granddaughter of King James I) became heir to the throne. Electress Sophia died just months before Queen Anne and her son, George Louis (Georg Ludwig) became George I of Great Britain.

I love this era. From the changing fashions of powder, patch, tricorn hats and cloaks through to the gentler garments of the Regency. The swashbuckling days when men would fight duels over an imagined slight to the formality that was a rehearsal for Queen Victoria’s reign (which followed). My Georgian heroes and heroines are of their time and yet have a reason to rebel against it. I can’t wait to share their stories with you!

My Pinterest board about life in Georgian England is here:
http://www.pinterest.com/JaneGodman/life-in-georgian-england/