Lot 30: Benjamin Arlaud (Swiss, circa 1670-after 1731) George I (1660-1727), King of Great Britain (1714-1727), wearing armoured breastplate with tied white stock, red cloak and blue sash of the Order of the Garter, his curled brown wig worn long

George I (1660-1727), King of Great Britain (1714-1727), wearing armoured breastplate with tied white stock, red cloak and blue sash of the Order of the Garter, his curled brown wig worn long.
Watercolour on vellum, signed on the reverse and dated Ben: Arlaud/ pinxit ad viviam/ anno 1709 and later inscribed King George the First, silver-gilt frame, engraved on the reverse King George 1st.
Oval, 80mm (3 1/8in) high

George I, born a relatively minor German prince and a great-grandson of James I, inherited the English throne upon the death of his distant cousin, Queen Anne (see lots 4 & 7), in 1714. In an age when many feared a return to the Catholic faith, George's Protestantism made him appear a desirable choice when the government deliberated the succession in 1701.

As king, George never enjoyed great popularity in the country he came to rule. His grasp of the English language was shaky and he spent as much as one-fifth of his reign in his native Hanover, the territory from which the dynasty he founded took its name. He was famously cruel to his wife, Sophia Dorothea, whom he suspected of infidelity, and he kept her imprisoned in a castle in Germany. It was even rumoured that he had ordered her lover to be murdered. In later life, George was also at odds with his son, the future George II, thus setting the precedent for the notoriously bad relations the Hanoverian kings had with their heirs.

The reign of George I was marred by the First Jacobite Rebellion in support of the exiled Stuarts in 1715 and by the economic crisis precipitated by the collapse of the South Sea Company in 1720. In the wake of these events, the government gained an ever greater share of the power that had formerly resided in the hands of the sovereign and Robert Walpole was voted First Lord of the Treasury - in effect, the first Prime Minister.

George died on a visit to Hanover on 11 June, 1727, and was buried in the chapel of Leine Castle. His remains were moved to Herrenhausen after World War II.