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52
The Duchess of Marlborough, who had been very friendly and close to Queen Anne, was replaced by a
lady, supporting the Tories. They came to power in 1712 and began negotiating peace with France. The Treaty
of Utrecht was signed in 1713 according to which the Crowns of France and Spain were never to be united,
Britain gained many advantages–new territories, such as Gibraltar, Minorca, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia,
and the right to sell slaves to the Spanish colonies. Great Britain had became a great European power.
Queen Anne was the last Stuart monarch, she died in 1714; and according to the Act of Settlement, she was
succeeded by Protestants of Hanoverian Dynasty. George I (1714-1727) was an elderly and unpreposessing
German who could speak no English.
The consequences were that
the
Whigs surrounding the King were handed over many of the royal
prerogatives and their leader became the Chair man of the King's Council. That was the beginning of the
Cabinet system of Government in Great Britain, with a Prim Minister presiding over the Cabinet.
The Whig domination lasted for half a century. It was troubled by the Jacobite Rebellion in 1715 and by the
growing National Debt. It had been create to help to pay for war, and by 1713 it had risen to ?54 million.