A Modern Quest for Knowledge into a Past World of Literature;
or ... Why did Jane Austen write her Famous Strawberry Party Scene?
'George'
Farmer George: The King Rewarding an Industrious Haymaker Near Weymouth.
Source: https://www.heritage-history.com/books/gaskoin/hanoverians/zpage231.gif
Ch8/2: St George, Patron Saint of England
Like St David of Wales, St Andrew of Scotland and St Patrick of Ireland, St George of England is a patron saint, who can be called on in times of great peril. In England, St George’s Day is celebrated on April 23rd.
St George is believed to have been a high-ranking officer in the Roman army who died in around AD 303. Apparently, though tortured by the Emperor Diocletian to make him deny his faith in Christ, St George showed great faith and did not succumb; he was eventually beheaded near Lydda in Palestine, and his head was taken to Rome where it was interred in the church dedicated to him.
Later stories of his courage spread throughout Europe, and the best-known one is about his killing of a dragon on the in Uffington, Berkshire. However, it is apparently unlikely that he ever visited England though his name was known there as early as the eighth-century.
It was King Edward III who made George the Patron Saint of England when in 1350 he formed the Order of the Garter in St George’s name. The image of St George was further advanced by Shakespeare who makes King Henry V finishing his pre-battle speech with the words: ‘Cry God for Harry, England and St George!’
Shakespeare/King Henry V:
KING HENRY
... I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, Straining upon the start. The game’s afoot. Follow your spirit, and upon this charge Cry “God for Harry, England, and Saint George!”
Alarum, and chambers go off. They exit
KING HENRY
... Shall not thou and I, between Saint Denis and Saint George, compound a boy, half French, half English, that shall go to Constantinople and take the Turk by the beard?[i]
Shakespeare mentions St George in other plays, such as Henry VI, Part I:
BEDFORD
... Bonfires in France forthwith I am to make,
To keep our great Saint George’s feast withal.
Ten thousand soldiers with me I will take,
TALBOT
... God and Saint George, Talbot and England’s right,
Prosper our colors in this dangerous fight!
TALBOT
... Saint George, and victory! Fight, soldiers, fight![ii]
[i] Shakespeare, The Life of King Henry V.
[ii] Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 1.
The Tomb of St George, Lod, Israel.
Source: https://www.historic-uk.com/assets/Images/tombofstgeorge.jpg?1390899978
Ch8/1: 'Farmer George'
George William Frederick III (1738–1820), king of Great Britain and Ireland (1760–1820), and elector of Hanover.
George III was born in England and the first Hanoverian monarch to be a native of his own kingdom. He was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two countries on 1 January 1801, following which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death in 1820.
King George III, who reigned longer than his predecessors lived to experience a series of military conflicts involving his kingdoms, much of the rest of Europe, and in Africa, the Americas and Asia. Great Britain defeated France in the Seven Years' War but lost many of Britain's American colonies in the American War of Independence. Later came the Napoleonic Wars which ended with the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.
In 1770, George III appointment of North, Frederick, Lord, 2nd earl of Guilford as 1st lord of the Treasury which inaugurated a period of political stability. Apparently, throughout North's twelve‐year premiership, the king behaved with impeccable constitutional propriety, and ministers, not the crown, were responsible for policy.
In the autumn of 1788 the king fell ill, and a regency crisis was triggered by the apparent madness of the king; however, the king recovered. In 1810 George III suffered a final decline into mental derangement, worsened by the fact that he developed dementia as well as becoming completely blind and increasingly deaf. George was succeeded by two of his sons, George IV and William IV, who both died without surviving legitimate issues, leaving the throne to the only legitimate child of the Duke of Kent, Victoria, the last monarch of the House of Hanover.
Besides being a devoted husband, and sincere Christian, George III was remembered as a hard‐working monarch, who took a keen interest in agriculture and who became known as 'Farmer George'.[i]
[i] Cannon and Crowcroft, ‘George III’.