FOREWORD TO THE YALE EDITION (by Jeremy Black)
The father's plans for his son
The family's advancement and George's marriage
The primogeniture struggle
George's divorce
The Königsmarck myth
George at the helm
The prospect of England
Struggle over the English succession between George and his mother
Wider German horizons
Losses of friends and companions
Hanover and Celle united
George's household after 1698
The War of the Spanish Succession
Death of queen Anne: the ‘Act of Settlement’ put into effect
Great Britain at the time of George's accession
George and the party system
The king's English
The royal household
The struggle for place and profit
Promotion by title
The Hanoverian succession
George I's image
The Jacobite ‘Fifteen’
European issues 1716–17
The ministerial crisis
Quarrel in the royal family
Lessons learnt
European peace plans
Success in the south
Partial success in the north
Shifts of emphasis
IX Peace, its problems and achievements
The South Sea bubble
George, a captive of his ministers?
George as a patron of the arts
Unfinished business
Alliances and counter-alliances
War or peace?
George's last journey
The balance sheet
MAP 1: George's Hanoverian dominions and the near neighbours of his electorate