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."

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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