Down with the House of Hanover

By Ed Iverson

On Tuesday we celebrated Independence Day. Our usual practice is to attend a fireworks display put on by the cooperation of civil government and generous businesses in the area.

The best we ever attended originated from South Lake Tahoe. They erupted over the lake and were perfectly framed by the surrounding Sierra Nevada mountains. On several occasions we took a picnic to Nevada Beach and spent the day fooling around in anticipation of the splendid display scheduled for nightfall.

A friend of mine has taught his children and now his grandchildren to shout "Down with the House of Hanover!" when the really big crackers go off. He is an inveterate teacher. He believes that every occasion is an opportunity to teach a lesson to his growing brood. So what's his point about the "House of Hanover?"

In the early 1700s, Hanover was one of many small German "states." By the intricacies of European royal intermarriage, the ruling family of Hanover became allied with the English monarchy. When "Good Queen Anne" died in 1714 with no heir, the royal succession fell upon the protestant German princes of the House of Hanover. George I took the British throne in that year. The last Hanoverian "king" was actually a queen. Queen Victoria, the last of her line, died in 1901. It might be said that England was ruled by German royalty for nearly two centuries.

The third Hanoverian king ascended to the British throne in 1760 and died 60 years later. Like several other Hanoverians, George III was known to travel one sandwich short of a full lunch. He was eventually certified insane and Queen Charlotte pinch hit for his last 10 years.

The astute observer will note that his rule overlapped the founding of the United States. George III was on the British throne in 1776. When the big rockets go off on the night of the fourth, we might celebrate the successful uprising against the tyranny of George III by shouting "Down with the House of Hanover."

Just what was wrong with George III and his house? We tend to believe that the American quarrel with England was pragmatic and not principled. Our society is largely relativist. We don't really understand principles. We don't speak that language anymore, and we ignorantly assume that no one ever spoke that language. But the founding fathers were men of principle.

George III was opposed not because he was a king, but rather because as king he had refused to fulfill his duties to protect the American colonists. He had instead taken sides against his loyal subjects. That made him a tyrant. A man resisting a tyrant is not the same kind of person as a scofflaw chafing under legitimate authority. The fact that we no longer grasp this essential distinction is central to our modern predicament.

George was the king of the colonies, but not in the same way as he was the king of England. The colonies existed because of their contract (charter) with the king. They promised loyalty to the king in exchange for his protection. The English Parliament had no jurisdiction over the colonies, and particularly no authority to lay tax. Parliament was never in on the original deal. Indeed, the royal charters granted colonies exclusive jurisdiction to lay their own taxes and pass their own laws.

When Parliament taxed the colonies, George sided with Parliament and began to enforce these illegitimate taxes with military force. By this action he violated his own charter. The American colonists did not rebel against the king. They were abandoned by the king.

Now here is the truth: The Declaration of Independence was not an expression of rebellion against lawful authority. Rather, it was a public acknowledgement that the king had broken his own contract and abandoned the colonies.

Moreover, colonial leaders had remonstrated with the king for years before they announced this "divorce." Only after numerous "petitions for redress" seeking to restore the former good relations, only after many disappointing rejections, did the American colonists finally shout "Down with the House of Hanover!"