For me, one of the great problems is that none of the first three Georges were very interesting personalities (while the fourth Geoge had an interesting personality, but is not pleasant to examine in too much depth). Interesting things happened to them, and they lived in interesting times, but I note even Lucy Worsley has struggled to do more than show what happened around George I, as opposed to focus on George himself, and has failed to convince me at any rate that the various advances of the period such as greater freedom of the press etc. occurred because of George I's benevolent hands-off governmental approach, rather than an enormous lack of interest in what happened in Britain. I think it quite right that Hanover celebrates, because that was where George's heart genuinely was, but the very muted approach of Britain to the Hanoverian succession is understandable in that this line was essentially the scraping of the bottom of the barrel to find a committed protestant candidate to stand against the horrors of popery, with many in front of him who had a better genealogical claim than he. I'll be interested to see what Lucy W's take on George II is - of course now she can look closely at Queen Caroline, much the more interesting of the two, and of course there's a lot to say about Georges III and IV. But I would certainly find it difficult to hang out the bunting for the Georges as a tribe, or to really pinpoint what would have occurred differently if they had not reigned and had a Stuart been on the throne, since the only way for the latter to survive as a dynasty would have been to increasingly give in to parliamentary rule and to commit to protestantism. So what - really - did they bring to Britain which was so wonderful that we should celebrate? (I hope this is not going to bring forth a "What have the Romans ever done for us?" response, i.e. "better sanitation and medicine and education and irrigation and public health and roads and a freshwater system and baths and public order....[and] peace" or something of that nature).
