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John Robethon, originally Jean Robethon (died 1722) was a French Huguenot diplomat naturalised English. He served as secretary to William III and to George I of Great Britain.
Robethon was born at Authon-du-Perche, north-west France, into a Calvinist family. He is said to have joined the service of King William III when Prince of Orange only. He came to England about 1689, and was naturalised in 1693, being employed by William III, at first in a humble capacity. In 1693 he acted as secretary to Baron Schütz, the Hanoverian envoy in London. Afterwards he passed into the service of the Earl of Portland who, when ambassador to Paris in 1698, took Robethon with him. [1]
In September 1698, Robethon became private secretary to William III. Among William's correspondents, Robethon made an important contact in George William, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, who visited England in 1701. On William's death in 1702, Robethon transferred his services to the Duke, who died in 1705. Robethon then was employed by his son-in-law, George Lewis, the future George I of Great Britain. [1]
Robethon held the threads of an extended European correspondence. The leading Whigs in England kept themselves in touch with the House of Brunswick, and the letters from the Elector's family to their supporters in England were drafted by Robethon. The Duke of Marlborough paid him well for information on the intrigues of Louis XIV at the court of Saxony. Robethon also worked to assist Marlborough in neutralising Charles XII of Sweden, and undermining overtures Louis made to the allies in 1707. He was well informed about the Old Pretender. Worldly, adept and well briefed on English politicians, Robethon had influence with George I, though not with the ladies of the court. [1]
In 1714 Robethon accompanied George I to England, as secretary and counsellor, but was not easily accepted. Sunderland used him and Bothmer in 1716 to split the king from Robert Walpole, who disliked Robethon. Before the return of Walpole to power, Robethon's influence waned. [1]
Robethon made the first French translation of Alexander Pope's An Essay on Criticism (in verse), which was published in Amsterdam and London in 1717. [1] In 1721 he was appointed governor of the French La Providence Hospital in east London. [2] He died in London on 14 April 1722. [1]
Some of Robethon's correspondence was in 11 volumes of Hanoverian letters with the Stowe MSS., now in the British Library. The collection was formed around the Electress Sophia's papers, which were entrusted to Robethon by George I on his mother's death in 1714. They were later sold by the executors of the secretary's son, Colonel Robethon, in 1752, to Matthew Duane, and while in his hands were seen by James Macpherson. They were subsequently purchased by Thomas Astle, and in 1803 by the Marquess of Buckingham. [1]
Robethon married Claudine Maxwell, nicknamed "Madame Grenouille", in 1703; she survived him. They had a son, George William Frederick. The couple seem to have had pensions from both George I and his son. [1] [3]
George II was King of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover) and a prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire from 11 June 1727 (O.S.) until his death in 1760.
George I was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1 August 1714 and ruler of the Duchy and Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover) in the Holy Roman Empire from 23 January 1698 until his death in 1727. He was the first British monarch of the House of Hanover.
Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford,, known between 1725 and 1742 as Sir Robert Walpole, was a British statesman and Whig politician who is generally regarded as the de facto first prime minister of Great Britain.
The Kingdom of Great Britain, officially called Great Britain, was a sovereign state in Western Europe from 1 May 1707 to 1 January 1801. The state came into being following the Treaty of Union in 1706, ratified by the Acts of Union 1707, which united the kingdoms of England and Scotland to form a single kingdom encompassing the whole island of Great Britain and its outlying islands, with the exception of the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. The unitary state was governed by a single parliament and government that was based in Westminster. The former kingdoms had been in personal union since James VI of Scotland became King of England and King of Ireland in 1603 following the death of Elizabeth I, bringing about the "Union of the Crowns". From its inception, the kingdom was in legislative and personal union with the Kingdom of Ireland. Following the accession of George I to the throne of Great Britain in 1714, the kingdom was in a personal union with the Electorate of Hanover.
The House of Hanover, whose members are known as Hanoverians is a German royal house that ruled Hanover, Great Britain, and Ireland at various times during the 17th to 20th centuries. The house originated in 1635 as a cadet branch of the House of Brunswick-Lüneburg, growing in prestige until Hanover became an Electorate in 1692. George I became the first Hanoverian monarch of Great Britain and Ireland in 1714. At Victoria's death in 1901, the throne of the United Kingdom passed to her eldest son Edward VII, a member of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The last reigning members of the House lost the Duchy of Brunswick in 1918 when Germany became a republic.
Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland, KG, PC, known as Lord Spencer from 1688 to 1702, was an English statesman and nobleman from the Spencer family. He served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1714–1717), Lord Privy Seal (1715–1716), Lord President of the Council (1717–1719) and First Lord of the Treasury (1718–1721).
Field Marshal John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll, 1st Duke of Greenwich,, styled Lord Lorne from 1680 to 1703, was a Scottish nobleman and senior commander in the British Army. He served on the continent in the Nine Years' War and fought at the Battle of Kaiserwerth during the War of the Spanish Succession. He went on to serve as a brigade commander during the later battles of the War of the Spanish Succession. Next he was given command of all British forces in Spain at the instigation of the Harley Ministry; after conducting a successful evacuation of the troops from Spain, he became Commander-in-Chief, Scotland. During the Jacobite Rebellion, he led the government army against the Jacobites led by the Earl of Mar at the Battle of Sheriffmuir. He went on to serve as Lord Steward and then Master-General of the Ordnance under the Walpole–Townshend Ministry.
The Tories were a political faction and then a political party in the parliaments of England, Scotland, Great Britain, Ireland and the United Kingdom. Between the 1670s and 1830s, the Tories contested power with their rivals, the Whigs.
William Cadogan, 1st Earl Cadogan, was an Irish-born British army officer whose active military service began during the Williamite War in Ireland in 1689 and ended with the suppression of the 1715 Jacobite Rebellion. A close associate and confidant of the Duke of Marlborough, he was also a diplomat and Whig politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons from 1705 until 1716 when he was raised to the peerage.
John Murray, 1st Duke of Atholl, KT, PC was a Scottish nobleman, politician, and soldier. He served in numerous positions during his life, and fought in the Glorious Revolution for William III and Mary II.
Sir William Wyndham, 3rd Baronet, of Orchard Wyndham in Somerset, was an English Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1710 to 1740. He served as Secretary at War in 1712 and Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1713 during the reign of the last Stuart monarch, Queen Anne (1702–1714). He was a Jacobite leader firmly opposed to the Hanoverian succession and was leader of the Tory opposition in the House of Commons during the reign of King George I (1714–1727) and during the early years of King George II (1727–1760).
The Whig Junto is the name given to a group of leading Whigs who were seen to direct the management of the Whig Party and often the government, during the reigns of William III and Anne. It was the inspiration for Benjamin Franklin's Junto in 1727 Philadelphia upon his return from London. The Whig Junto proper consisted of John Somers, later Baron Somers; Charles Montagu, later Earl of Halifax; Thomas Wharton, later Marquess of Wharton, and Edward Russell, later Earl of Orford. They came to prominence due to the favour of Robert Spencer, 2nd Earl of Sunderland and during the reign of Queen Anne, Sunderland's son, the 3rd Earl succeeded his father. Opponents gave them the nickname "the five tyrannising lords". Other figures prominent around the edges of the Junto include Sir John Trenchard and Thomas Tollemache.
Lieutenant-General Charles Butler, 1st Earl of Arran, de jure3rd Duke of Ormonde (1671–1758) was an Irish peer. His uncle Richard was the 1st Earl of Arran of the first creation. The titles were re-created for Charles in 1693. His elder brother, the 2nd Duke of Ormonde, was attainted during the Jacobite rising of 1715, but in 1721 Arran was allowed to buy the estate back. At the death of the 2nd Duke he succeeded as de jure 3rd Duke of Ormonde in the Peerage of Ireland but did not claim the title.
Sir William Dawes, 3rd Baronet, was an Anglican prelate. He served as Bishop of Chester from 1708 to 1714 and then as Archbishop of York from 1714 to 1724. Politically he was a Hanoverian Tory, who favoured the Hanoverian Succession.
General Henry Lumley was a British soldier and Governor of Jersey.
James Vernon (1646–1727) was an English administrator and Whig politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons between 1679 and 1710. He was Secretary of State for both the Northern and the Southern Departments during the reign of William III.
The Jacobite rising of 1715 was the attempt by James Francis Edward Stuart to regain the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland for the exiled House of Stuart.
William Clayton, 1st Baron Sundon of Sundon Hall, Sundon, Bedfordshire was a British Treasury official and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1716 to 1752.
The Atterbury Plot was a conspiracy led by Francis Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester and Dean of Westminster, aimed at the restoration of the House of Stuart to the throne of Great Britain. It came some years after the unsuccessful Jacobite Rising of 1715, at a time when the Whig government of the new Hanoverian king was deeply unpopular.
Sophia Charlotte von Kielmansegg, Countess of Darlington and Countess of Leinster (1675–1725) was a German-born courtier. A half-sister of George I of Great Britain, to whom she was close, she moved to England in 1714 shortly after the Hanoverian succession, where she became an influential figure of his court.
