1741 in Great Britain
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Events from the year 1741 in Great Britain.
Incumbents
- Monarch – George II
- Prime Minister – Robert Walpole (Whig)
- Parliament – 8th (until 27 April), 9th (starting 25 June)
Events
- 13 February – Robert Walpole, the Prime Minister, introduces the term "balance of power" in a speech in Parliament.[1]
- 14 February – Irish-born actor Charles Macklin makes his London stage debut as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, pioneering a psychologically realistic style with Shakespeare's text revived, replacing George Granville's melodramatic adaptation The Jew of Venice.[2][3]
- March – Lancelot "Capability" Brown joins Lord Cobham's gardening staff at Stowe, Buckinghamshire.[4]
- 13 March – The Royal Navy brings 180 warships, frigates and transport vessels, led by Admiral Edward Vernon, to threaten Cartagena, Colombia, with more than 27,000 crew against the 3,600 defenders.[5]
- 13 April – The Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, is established to train officers of the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers.[6]
- 9 May – War of Jenkins' Ear: Battle of Cartagena de Indias – Spain's defenders in New Grenada, under the command of General Blas de Lezo, defeat Vernon's Royal Navy force, leading to a British retreat to Jamaica.[7]
- 14 May – HMS Wager, one of the vessels of George Anson's voyage around the world is wrecked on the coast of Chile, killing most of the surviving crew.[8]
- 21 May – George II orders the British Army to prepare for an invasion of Prussia to defend his Electorate of Hanover.[9]
- 11 June – 1741 British general election, begun on April 30, concludes with Prime Minister Robert Walpole's Whigs retaining their majority in the House of Commons but losing control of a number of rotten and pocket boroughs[10] with 44 seats lost to candidates who have defected to the new Patriot Whigs to oppose Walpole's policies.
- 18 July – War of Jenkins' Ear: Invasion of Cuba – Admiral Edward Vernon arrives at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba.
- 4/5 August–9 December – Vernon captures Guantánamo Bay and renames it Cumberland Bay. His troops hold it but are resisted by local guerrilla forces and withdraw.
- 22 August–14 September – George Frideric Handel composes the oratorio Messiah in London to a libretto compiled by Charles Jennens,[11] completing the "Hallelujah Chorus" on 6 September.[12] It receives a private rehearsal in Chester in November while Handel is en route to Dublin.
- 12 October – George II, as Elector of Hanover, signs the Neustadt Protocol with France, but fails to inform his British government until after his return from Germany.[13]
- 19 October – Actor David Garrick makes his London stage debut, in the title role of Shakespeare's Richard III,[11] having made his professional debut at Ipswich in Oroonoko earlier in the year.
- 11 December: 11 a.m. – A "fire-ball" and explosion, perhaps resulting from a meteor, is heard over southern England.[14]
- Henry Hoare begins to lay out the landscape gardens at Stourhead, Wiltshire.
Publications
- April – Henry Fielding's An Apology for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews satirising Samuel Richardson's novel Pamela.[11]
- Isaac Watts' The Improvement of the Mind.
Births
- 6 January – Sarah Trimmer, née Kirby, writer for children (died 1810)
- 27 January – Hester Thrale, née Salusbury, diarist (died 1821)
- 17 March – William Withering, physician (died 1799)
- c. April/May? – Henry Cort, ironmaster (died 1800)
- 11 September – Arthur Young, agriculturist and writer on social and political matters (died 1820)
Deaths
- 21 February – Jethro Tull, agriculturist (born 1674)
- 10 April – Celia Fiennes, travel writer (born 1662)
- 24 May – Lord Augustus FitzRoy, Royal Navy officer (born 1716)
- August – David Owen, Welsh harpist (born 1712)
- 31 December – Andrew Archer, politician (born 1659)
References
- Cryer, Max (2010). Common Phrases: And the Amazing Stories Behind Them. Skyhorse Publishing. p. 26.
- Brown, John Russell (1993). Shakespeare's Plays in Performance. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 63.
- Simpson, Louis (1993-04-04). "There, They Could Say, Is the Jew". The New York Times. Retrieved 2013-09-04.
- Hinde, Thomas (1986). Capability Brown: the Story of a Master Gardener. London: Hutchinson. p. 19. ISBN 0-09-163740-6.
- Luna Guinot, Dolores (2014). From Al-Andalus to Monte Sacro. Trafford Publishing.
- "Royal Military Academy, Woolwich". Royal Engineers Museum. Archived from the original on 2008-10-06. Retrieved 2008-12-24.
- Drake, James D. (2008). "Cartagena, Expedition against". In Tucker, Spencer (ed.). The Encyclopedia of North American Colonial Conflicts to 1775. Harper Collins.
- Bown, Stephen R. (2005). Scurvy: How a Surgeon, a Mariner, and a Gentlemen Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail. Macmillan.
- Simms, Brendan; Riotte, Torsten (2007). The Hanoverian Dimension in British History, 1714–1837. Cambridge University Press. p. 1041.
- "Sir Robert Walpole". Prime Ministers in history. Prime Minister's Office. Archived from the original on 2008-08-21. Retrieved 2011-02-27.
- Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 308–309. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.
- British Library (London) MS RM.20.f.2, f106.
- Thompson, Andrew C. (2011). George II: King and Elector. Yale University Press. p. 140.
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. "a countryman ... saw a flash of Lightning Before he heard the Noise ... The sound was double ... a Ball of Fire ... took its Course to the East ... over Westminster ... it divided into Two Heads [and] left a Train of Smoke ... which continued ascending for 20 minutes".
See also
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