Jaksokuvaus
We’ve seen how the British war in North America led to yet another world war, and how that war then reacted back on the American fighting by, in effect, making the victory of the rebel colonists ultimately all but certain. In this episode, we think about what the impact of all that was on life in Britain itself. There, it played a huge role in the never-ending battle between royal and parliamentary power. The king, George III, was fighting to hang on to his still considerable prerogative, in particular to appoint ministers, including the leading figure in a government, increasingly though still not officially called the Prime Minister. Against the king and his loyal government, led by Lord North, many in the Whig Opposition wanted to see power move still further towards the parliamentary side. With the war not going particularly well, and indeed going exceptionally badly in North America, North found his position increasingly embattled. And the Opposition moved in for the kill, to bring him down and to claw more authority from the king. Successfully in the end. Though North did have the last laugh. Which must have been fun, though perhaps not enough to make up for the failure of his administration… Illustration: Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guildford (Lord North in his time as Prime Minister), by Nathaniel Dance, 1773-74. National Portrait Gallery 3627. Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License