Howard's Preliminaries Of The Revolution

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In the mid-18th century, England crowned a new king, an Englishman who acceded “I am born for the happiness or misery of a nation.” George William Frederick inherited the throne of a country strife with war and deeply in debt from his grandfather King George II in 1760 at the age of 23. Being groomed from birth to reign, and taught by his mother and Lord Bute to rule and impose his own will, he refused the advice of great Whigs in control of Parliament. Conversely, in Preliminaries of the Revolution, George Elliott Howard describes a government in which Parliament held the most power. This king desired a retrogressive movement for the English Constitution Howard argued, one who intended to govern as well as reign, much to the dismay of the House of Commons.
Although naive in the tradition of a constitutional king, George built up arbitrary power through bribes and money. Overconfident in his judgment and ability, the young king demanded his ministers adopt …show more content…

At the end of the Seven Years War, the French Minister declared: “England will, one day, call upon her colonies to contribute towards supporting the burdens which they have helped bring upon her; and they will answer by making themselves independent.” In 1763 Parliament looked to the American colonies for financial relief, a debt they believed just for protection the Crown had provided to the colonies in time of war. Despite this effort, creditors began to worry if or how the debt from the Britain and France war would be repaid. As a result, the combination of debt and erratic actions of Parliament compelled George to agree to more taxation of the colonies. The King’s private papers from The Royal Archives reveal that while George failed in his duty as King by agreeing to taxes on the American colonies, it was Parliamentary decisions that led to a reluctant rebellion - the American

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