1709. The French defeated by Marlborough and Prince Eugene at Malplaquet, in Flanders, but the loss of the victors was greater than that of the vanquished (Sept. 11).
1710. Dr. Sacheverell tried and convicted for publishing sermons reflecting on the revolution and the Protestant succession; but the lenity of the sentence was regarded as a triumph by the High Church party. Mrs. Masham obtained a complete ascendancy, and the duchess of Marlborough was dismissed at the beginning of the next year. Lord Godolphin and the other Whig ministers dismissed; Harley made chancellor of exchequer, and St. John secretary of state (Aug. 8). The allies, under General Stanhope, gained the battles of Almenara (July 27) and Saragossa (Aug. 20), but he was afterwards compelled to capitulate at Brihuega (Dec. 9), and General Staremberg, though nominally victorious at Villa Viciosa (Dec. 10), was obliged to make a forced retreat.
1711. Harley created earl of Oxford, and appointed lord treasurer. Marlborough forced the lines of the French, and took Bouchain, but was afterwards removed from office.
1713. Treaty of Utrecht: between France, England, and all her allies, except the emperor; a treaty most discreditable to the English ministry (April 11 and July 13).
The terms of this treaty were very much more favourable to the French than they could have reasonably expected, and than they would have been, had the Whigs remained in power. Among the principal terms that concerned England were—1, That the French and Spanish crowns should never become united; 2, That the Protestant succession should be acknowledged by France; 3, That the fortifications of Dunkirk should be destroyed; 4, That Hudson’s Bay, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Gibraltar, and Minorca should be ceded to England. The principal object of the war—the exclusion of the Bourbons from the throne of Spain—was not secured. At the close of the war the national debt was about £38,000,000.
1714. Death of the Princess Sophia. Schism Act passed. Harley removed from office, and succeeded by his colleague St. John, created Viscount Bolingbroke. He plotted to restore the Pretender on the death of the queen, but her sudden illness enabled the dukes of Shrewsbury, Somerset, and Argyle, three of the Whig leaders, to thwart his intentions, for the lord treasurer’s staff was bestowed on the first-mentioned peer—“the only individual who mainly assisted in both the great changes of dynasty of 1688 and 1714.”
The object of the Schism Act was to prevent Dissenters from acting as tutors or schoolmasters; but it did not come into operation, on account of the death of the queen.
HOUSE OF HANOVER.
George I.