1.
Godfrey Kneller
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Kneller was born Gottfried Kniller in the Free City of Lübeck, the son of Zacharias Kniller, a portrait painter. Kneller studied in Leiden, but became a pupil of Ferdinand Bol, the brothers came to England in 1676, and won the patronage of the Duke of Monmouth. He was introduced to, and painted a portrait of, Charles II, in England, Kneller concentrated almost entirely on portraiture. His portraits set a pattern that was followed until William Hogarth, nevertheless, he established himself as a leading portrait artist in England. When Sir Peter Lely died in 1680, Kneller was appointed Principal Painter to the Crown by Charles II, in the 1690s, Kneller painted the Hampton Court Beauties depicting the most glamorous ladies-in-waiting of the Royal Court for which he received his knighthood from William III. He produced a series of Kit-cat portraits of 48 leading politicians and his paintings were praised by Whig luminaries such as John Dryden, Joseph Addison, Richard Steele, and Alexander Pope. On the landing in Horsham Museum hang works of art from the Museums extensive painting collection, featuring a large 18th-century portrait of Charles Eversfield and his wife, in the painting Eversfield is giving his wife some violets which signifies fidelity, love and honesty. It is likely that the picture was cut down at some time as it was unusual to stop just below the knee and he married a widow, Susanna Grave, on 23 January 1704 at St Brides Church, London. She was the daughter of the Reverend John Cawley, Archdeacon of Lincoln and Rector of Henley-on-Thames, Kneller died of fever in 1723 at Great Queen Street and his remains were interred at Twickenham. He had been a churchwarden at St Marys, Twickenham when the 14th-century nave collapsed in 1713 and was active in the plans for the reconstruction by John James. His widow was buried at Twickenham on 11 December 1729, a memorial was erected in Westminster Abbey. Knellers will gave a pension of £100 a year to his assistant Edward Byng, Byng also inherited the drawings in Knellers studio. Kneller and his wife had no children together, the site of the house Kneller built in 1709 in Whitton, near Twickenham, became occupied by the mid-19th century Kneller Hall, home of the Royal Military School of Music. As to thinking better or worse of mankind from experience, some cunning people will not be satisfied unless they have put men to the test, there is a very good story told of Sir Godfrey Kneller, in his character of a Justice of the peace. In his hometown Lübeck there are works to be seen in the St. Annen Museum and his former works at St. Marys Church were destroyed by the Bombing of Lübeck 1942. A large oil portrait of James VII of Scotland hangs on the staircase of private members Club, The Caledonian Club, in Belgravia
2.
William III of England
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It is a coincidence that his regnal number was the same for both Orange and England. As King of Scotland, he is known as William II and he is informally known by sections of the population in Northern Ireland and Scotland as King Billy. William inherited the principality of Orange from his father, William II and his mother Mary, Princess Royal, was the daughter of King Charles I of England. In 1677, he married his fifteen-year-old first cousin, Mary, a Protestant, William participated in several wars against the powerful Catholic king of France, Louis XIV, in coalition with Protestant and Catholic powers in Europe. Many Protestants heralded him as a champion of their faith, in 1685, his Catholic father-in-law, James, Duke of York, became king of England, Ireland and Scotland. Jamess reign was unpopular with the Protestant majority in Britain, William, supported by a group of influential British political and religious leaders, invaded England in what became known as the Glorious Revolution. On 5 November 1688, he landed at the southern English port of Brixham, James was deposed and William and Mary became joint sovereigns in his place. They reigned together until her death on 28 December 1694, after which William ruled as sole monarch, Williams reputation as a staunch Protestant enabled him to take the British crowns when many were fearful of a revival of Catholicism under James. Williams victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 is still commemorated by the Orange Order and his reign in Britain marked the beginning of the transition from the personal rule of the Stuarts to the more Parliament-centred rule of the House of Hanover. William III was born in The Hague in the Dutch Republic on 4 November 1650, baptised William Henry, he was the only child of stadtholder William II, Prince of Orange, and Mary, Princess Royal. Mary was the eldest daughter of King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland, eight days before William was born, his father died of smallpox, thus William was the Sovereign Prince of Orange from the moment of his birth. Immediately, a conflict ensued between his mother the Princess Royal and William IIs mother, Amalia of Solms-Braunfels, over the name to be given to the infant. Mary wanted to name him Charles after her brother, but her mother-in-law insisted on giving him the name William or Willem to bolster his prospects of becoming stadtholder. William II had appointed his wife as his sons guardian in his will, however, Williams mother showed little personal interest in her son, sometimes being absent for years, and had always deliberately kept herself apart from Dutch society. Williams education was first laid in the hands of several Dutch governesses, some of English descent, including Walburg Howard, from April 1656, the prince received daily instruction in the Reformed religion from the Calvinist preacher Cornelis Trigland, a follower of the Contra-Remonstrant theologian Gisbertus Voetius. The ideal education for William was described in Discours sur la nourriture de S. H. Monseigneur le Prince dOrange, in these lessons, the prince was taught that he was predestined to become an instrument of Divine Providence, fulfilling the historical destiny of the House of Orange. From early 1659, William spent seven years at the University of Leiden for a formal education, under the guidance of ethics professor Hendrik Bornius. While residing in the Prinsenhof at Delft, William had a personal retinue including Hans Willem Bentinck, and a new governor, Frederick Nassau de Zuylenstein
3.
William Blathwayt
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Born in the parish of St Martin-in-the-Fields in London, Blathwayt was born to a well-to-do family of Protestant merchants and lawyers. His father, William Blathwayt senior, was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford, William junior followed the same route, enrolling at the Middle Temple in 1665. He joined the service in 1668 when his uncle Thomas Povey. Returning to London in the early 1670s, Blathwayt became an Clerk of the Privy Council in Extraordinary and he was considered as a very fit person to be assistant to the secretary of the council, becoming heavily involved in the administration of Englands colonies in North America. It was in this capacity that he became a key figure in American affairs and he was responsible for establishing the charter of the Crown colony of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, the predecessor of the state of Massachusetts. He did much to trade in America and the Caribbean, promoting the slave trade and benefiting considerably from gifts. In October 1686, he became a Clerk of the Privy Council in Ordinary and that same year, he married Mary Wynter, a wealthy heiress. In 1683, Blathwayt obtained by purchase the office of Secretary at War and he effectively established the War Office as a department of the government, although he had very little input into the actual conduct of wars. Issues of strategic policy during wartime were managed by the Northern and Southern Departments and he was a witness for the prosecution at the Trial of the Seven Bishops in 1688. He became a Whig Member of Parliament for Bath in 1693 and he built a large mansion house for himself at Dyrham Park near Bristol, which he decorated with numerous Dutch Old Masters and sumptuous fabrics and furnishings. His descendents sold a part of his art collection in 1765. Blathwayt retired to Dyrham in 1710 and he remained there until his death in 1717, he is buried in the local churchyard. London, Smith, Elder & Co. p.206, the Lords of Trade and Plantations, 1675-1696, Winfred T. Root William Blathwayt, a late 17th Century English Administrator, G
4.
Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke
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Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke was an English politician, government official and political philosopher. He was a leader of the Tories, and supported the Church of England politically despite his antireligious views, in 1715 he supported the Jacobite rebellion of 1715 which sought to overthrow the new king George I. Escaping to France he became minister for the Pretender. He was attainted for treason, but reversed course and was allowed to return to England in 1723 and he is best known as the philosopher of the Country Party. Henry St John was most likely born at Lydiard Tregoze, the seat in Wiltshire. St John was the son of Sir Henry St John, 4th Baronet later 1st Viscount St John and it is possible he was educated at a Dissenting academy. He travelled to France, Switzerland and Italy during 1698 and 1699, oliver Goldsmith reported that he had been seen to run naked through the park in a state of intoxication. Swift, his friend, said that he wanted to be thought the Alcibiades or Petronius of his age. In 1700, he married Frances, daughter of Sir Henry Winchcombe of Bucklebury, Berkshire and he became a Member of Parliament in 1701, representing the family borough of Wootton Bassett in Wiltshire, as a Tory. His seat was Lydiard Park at Lydiard Tregoze, now in the Borough of Swindon, in March 1702, he was chosen commissioner for taking the public accounts. After Queen Annes accession, St John supported the bills in 1702 and 1704 against occasional conformity, and took a leading part in the disputes which arose between the two Houses. In 1704, St John took office with Harley as secretary at war, thus being brought into relations with John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough. He supported the bill for requiring a property qualification for a seat in parliament. In 1712, he was the author of the bill taxing newspapers, because of the diversity of aims among the allies, St John was induced to enter into separate and secret negotiations with France for the security of English interests. In May 1712, he ordered the Duke of Ormonde, who had succeeded Marlborough in command, subsequently, St John received the congratulations of the French foreign minister, de Torcy, on the French victory over Prince Eugene at Denain. In June 1712, St Johns commercial treaty with France, establishing trade with that country, was rejected by the House of Commons. The treaty was presented in the Commons by Arthur Moore as St John had been created Viscount Bolingbroke earlier that year, at least 40 or so from the Tories voted to reject the treaty. In August 1712, Bolingbroke went to France and signed an armistice between England and France for four months, in March 1711, when the Marquis de Guiscard made an attempt on Harleys life, Bolingbroke assumed temporary leadership of the ministrys affairs
5.
Tories (British political party)
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The first Tories emerged in 1678 in England, when they opposed the Whig-supported Exclusion Bill which set out to disinherit the heir presumptive James, Duke of York. This party ceased to exist as a political entity in the early 1760s. A few decades later, a new Tory party would rise to establish a hold on government between 1783 and 1830, with William Pitt the Younger followed by Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool. When the Whigs subsequently regained control, the Representation of the People Act 1832 removed the rotten boroughs, in the following general election, the Tory ranks were reduced to 180 MPs. Under the leadership of Robert Peel, the Tamworth Manifesto was issued, however, Peel lost many of his supporters by repealing the Corn Laws, causing the party to break apart. One faction, led by the Earl of Derby and Benjamin Disraeli, survived to become the modern Conservative Party and this action resulted from this parliament not allowing him to levy taxes without yielding to its terms. In the beginning of the Long Parliament, the Kings supporters were few in number, the increasing radicalism of the Parliamentary majority, however, estranged many reformers even in the Parliament itself and drove them to make common cause with the King. By the end of the 1640s, the radical Parliamentary programme had become clear, reduction of the King to a powerless figurehead, and replacement of Anglican episcopacy with a form of Presbyterianism. This prospective form of settlement was prevented by a coup détat which shifted power from Parliament itself to the Parliamentary New Model Army, the Army had King Charles I executed and for the next eleven years the British kingdoms operated under military dictatorship. Charles II also restored episcopacy in the Church of England and these acts did not reflect the Kings personal views and demonstrated the existence of a Royalist ideology beyond mere subservience to the Court. These interests would soon coalesce as the Whigs, as a political term, Tory entered English politics during the Exclusion Bill crisis of 1678–81. The Whigs were those who supported the exclusion of James, the Duke of York from the succession to thrones of Scotland and England & Ireland, and the Tories were those who opposed the Exclusion Bill. The Whigs tried to link the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the Duke of Ormonde, with the foremost Irish Tory, Redmond OHanlon, in a supposed plot to murder Titus Oates. The Whig Bishop of Meath, Henry Jones, offered OHanlon a pardon and a bribe if he would testify to Parliament that Ormonde was plotting a French invasion. In December 1680, the government seized these letters and the plan collapsed. they call me names, Jesuit, Papish, Tory. I hear further since that this is the distinction they make instead of Cavalier and Roundhead, now they are called Torys, the rebellion of Monmouth, the candidate of the radical Whigs to succeed Charles II, was easily crushed and Monmouth himself executed. In the long run, however, Tory principles were to be severely compromised, James II, however, during his reign fought for a broadly tolerant religious settlement under which his co-religionists could prosper—a position anathema to conservative Anglicans. James attempts to use the church to promote policies that undermined the churchs own unique status in the state
6.
Brasenose College, Oxford
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Brasenose College, officially The Kings Hall and College of Brasenose, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1509, with the College library and current chapel added in the mid-seventeenth century, the Colleges New Quadrangle was completed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with additional residence areas completed in the 1960s and 1970s. As of 2012, it has an endowment of £90 million. For the four degree years 2011/2014, Brasenose averaged 10th in the Norrington Table, Brasenose is home to one of the oldest rowing clubs in the world, Brasenose College Boat Club. The history of Brasenose College, Oxford stretches back to 1509 and its name is believed to derive from the name of a brass or bronze knocker that adorned the halls door. The first principals navigated Brasenose, with its Catholic sympathisers, through the reformation, most of Brasenose favoured the Royalist side during the English Civil War, although it produced notable generals and clergy on both sides. The library and chapel were completed in the century, despite Brasenose suffering continuing money problems. The post-1785 period would see an era of prosperity of the college under Principal William Cleaver, the college began to be populated by gentlemen, its income doubling between 1790 and 1810, and academic success considerable. Efforts to reconstruct Brasenose were not completed, however, until the half of the century with the addition of New Quad between 1886 and 1911. The mid-Century Royal Commissions were navigated – although they were opposed in form, the election of Charles Heberden as Principal in 1889 led to a gradual reversal in Brasenoses academic failures, although its sporting performance suffered. Brasenose lost 115 men in the First World War, with its numbers greatly reduced. Lord Curzons post-War reforms were successfully instituted, the inter-war period was defined by William Stallybrass, who as fellow and eventual Principal dominated college life. Brasenose once again produced top sportsmen – cricketers, rowers, and this came at the cost of falling academic standards and poorly performing finances, which would see Stallybrass authority challenged. He died in an accident before he could be forced out. After the war, sporting achievements waned but academic success did not improve significantly, the 1970s saw considerable social change in Brasenose, with more post-graduate attendees and fewer domestic staff. In 1974 BNC was one of the first mens colleges to admit women as members, the others being Jesus College, Hertford, St Catherines. Law continued to be a subject for Brasenose, as was the emerging subject of Politics, Philosophy and Economics. Brasenoses finances were secured, and it entered the twenty-first century in a good position with regards financial, extracurricular
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