As he owed his new position to Whig legislation (S479), he naturally favored that party and turned his back on the Tories (S479), who, deprived of the sunshine of royal favor, were as unhappy as their rivals were jubilant.  The triumphant Whigs denounced “the shameful Peace of Utrecht” (S512).  Next, they impeached the three fallen Tory leaders,[2] of whom Harley was the chief (S510), on a charge of treason.  The indictment accused them of having given back to Louis XIV, in the late war, more captured territory than was necessary.  Furthermore, they were said to be guilty of having intrigued to restore the House of Stuart with the design of making the “Pretender” King (SS490, 491).  Harley was sent to the Tower of London for a time; he was then acquitted and released.  Meanwhile his two indicted associates had fled to France.

[2] The three Tory leaders were Harley, now Earl of Oxford (S510), St. John (Viscount Bolingbroke), and Butler (Duke of Ormonde).  Bolingbroke and Ormonde fled to Frnce, where the first entered the service of the “Pretender,” but he was ultimately permitted to return to England.  Ormonde never came back.  Harley, as stated above, was sent to the Tower; while there he secretly wrote to the “Pretender” (S490), and offered him his services.

Later, the Whigs repealed two harsh religious statutes (S511) directed against Dissenters (S472), which the Tories and the High Churchmen had enacted in the previous reign for the purpose of keeping themselves in power.

The House of Hanover, also called Brunswick and Guelf

James (Stuart) I of England
I
+------------------======================
|                                       I
Charles I                     Elizabeth, m.  Frederick,
|                         Elector-Palatine,* and
-------------------------------           later King of Bohemia
|                |            |                         I
Charles II      James II      Mary, m.         Sophia, m. the Elector
|        William II of      of Hanover+
-----------------------      Orange                      I
|           |         |        |             George, Elector of
Mary, m.     Anne    James    William III of   Hanover, became
William III        Edward    Orange, became   George I of England,
of Orange,         Stuart,   William III of              1714
afterward          (the so-    England,                   I
William III        called “Old     1689               George II
of England         Pretender,                             I
b. 1688,                     Frederick, Prince of
d. 1765                     Wales (died before
|                       coming to the throne)
Charles Edward                            I
Stuart (the so-called     ============================
“Young Pretender"),       I          I               I
b. 1720, d. 1788      George IV     William IV    Edward,
Duke of Kent,
d. 1820
Elector-Palatine:  a prince ruling over the                     I