Page:History of the Kings & Queens of England and Scotland.pdf/17

 of the Queen of Hungary, daughter of the late emperor. George espoused her cause, and an English and Hanoverian army was sent into the Netherlands, of which he took the command, and gained the battle of Dettingen; but his son, the Duke of Cumberland, was unsuccessful at Fontenoy.

In 1745, Charles, son of the old Pretender, landed in Scotland, for the purpose of making an attempt to gain the crown of his ancestors. After proclaiming his father king at Perth and Edinburgh, and defeating Sir J. Cope at Prestonpans, he marched into England, to within a hundred miles of the metropolis. He then returned into Scotland, and overcame General Hawley at Falkirk, but was at last defeated by the Duke of Cumberland at Culoden, and after suffering great hardships, made his escape into France; and some of his adherents being taken, suffered death as traitors. The war was put an end to by the treaty of Aix-la-chapelle. This treaty was little more than a temporary truce, as war was soon revived with the French, for the possession of Canada. This war at its commencement was unsuccessful, but the celebrated William Pitt, afterwards Earl of Chatham, being placed at the head of affairs, under his auspices Quebec was taken by the gallant Wolfe, who died in the hour of victory: this led to the possession of Canada, &c. The country after this was plunged into a continental war; and while victory was attending its arms by sea and land, the king was suddenly taken ill, and died on the twenty-fifth of October, 1760, in the seventy-seventh year of his age, and thirty-third of his reign. Eminent men in this reign:—Admiral Hawke; General Wolfe; William Pitt, Earl of Chatham; Lord Hardwick; Henry Pelham; Pope; Thomson; Young.