But with the increased
strength of Parliament, he had found it impossible to
direct the politics of the country with the help of the Tories
while the Whigs had a majority in the house of Commons.
Therefore the Tories had been dismissed and the Cabinet Council
had been composed entirely of Whigs. A few years later
when the Whigs lost their power in the House of Commons, the
king, for the sake of convenience, was obliged to look for his
support among the leading Tories. Until his death in 1702,
William was too busy fighting Louis of France to bother much
about the government of England. Practically all important
affairs had been left to his Cabinet Council. When William's
sister-in-law, Anne, succeeded him in 1702 this condition of
affairs continued. When she died in 1714 (and unfortunately
not a single one of her seventeen children survived her) the
throne went to George I of the House of Hanover, the son of
Sophie, grand-daughter of James I.
This somewhat rustic monarch, who never learned a word
of English, was entirely lost in the complicated mazes of England's
political arrangements. He left everything to his Cabinet
Council and kept away from their meetings, which bored
him as he did not understand a single sentence. In this way
the Cabinet got into the habit of ruling England and Scotland
(whose Parliament had been joined to that of England
in 1707) without bothering the King, who was apt to spend
a great deal of his time on the continent.
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