Is George Louis known to have considered the assumption of a different regnal name in Great Britain?
score:10
Short answer
It's hard to prove an absence of evidence, but there are good reasons why George I might not have considered changing his name: it was a common given name in George's family, and then there is the obvious link to St. George, patron saint of England. Further, there was no precedence (in England at least) at the time for a monarch changing name, and George was already a popular name in England.
Details
The name George (as noted by Generalissimo in his comment above) was a popular name for the House of Welf (or Guelf or Guelph). This, along with the link to St. George, is noted by Tim Blanning in his chapter in The Hanoverian Succession:
It was also a happy accident that the favourite first name of the Guelphs was ‘George’, allowing the pamphleteers and cartoonists to cross-refer to St George slaying the Catholic dragon. The author of ‘The Welcome’ (to George I), for example, revelled in the terror struck into the hearts of papists by the realisation that:
Their Popish Dragon now must lose his Sting,
Because St George our Champion is, and King.
Source: Tim Blanning, 'The Hanoverian Monarchy and the Culture of Representation'. In Andreas Gestrich and Michael Schaich (eds.), 'The Hanoverian Succession: Dynastic Politics and Monarchical Culture' (2015)
Perhaps a further point to consider is that there appears to be no precedent for an English monarch to change his or her name upon ascending the throne. You cite the Scottish example of Robert III but, as you pointed out, he had good reason not to use his birth name. Note also that the English monarchs who did not use their first given name as their regnal name (Alexandrina Victoria, Albert Edward VII and Albert Frederick Arthur George VI) did use another of their given names. George I's only other given name was Louis or Ludwig; why use one of these when George was already a popular name in England?
There is a commonly held view that George was little used in Britain until George I ascended the throne in the 1714. This, however, is simply not the case. In fact, George ranked within the top 10 most popular boys' names in England from the early 1500s at least, as we can see from Smith-Bannister's rankings
According to these rankings of most popular boys' names, George ranked between 6th and 10th for every decade between 1538 and 1700, and it's popularity continued until the 1930s.
As for options, you mention James. However, this would have been inappropriate given the divisions caused by James II's Catholicism and the emphasis on a Protestant succession to Anne. Henry would have been better, but Henry VIII's six wives would not have been seen as ideal (and all the Henrys before him were Catholics). More promising would be Edward, given Edward VI's impeccable Protestant credentials, or perhaps William, but I can find no evidence that these were considered.
Whatever the name, though, I can find no evidence that George (or anyone else) ever considered anything other than George. There is also no mention of George considering a name change in Ragnhild Hatton's comprehensive Yale English Monarchs title George I (of which I have a copy).
Other source:
Hannah Smith, Hannah Richardson, 'Georgian Monarchy: Politics and Culture, 1714-1760' (2006)
More post
- 📝 Was the U.S. Civil War unique regarding its relation to slavery? (people fighting for the freedom of a goup they were not part of)
- 📝 Are there any books on the recruitment of scientists from the Third Reich (Operation "Paperclip" and others)?
- 📝 Could Japan buy natural resources from European colonies before WW2?
- 📝 What does this Swedish sonar image depict?
- 📝 Why is Papadopoulos such a common surname in Greece?
- 📝 What was so "hot" about hot cakes?
- 📝 Why didn't Mao see that the "Great Leap Forward" would be such a disaster?
- 📝 Why are some Pharaohs depicted wearing the red or the white crowns even after the unification of Egypt?
- 📝 Was German ever an official language in the USSR?
- 📝 When and how did the idea of a "class-less" society originate in the United States?
- 📝 Did the people of the past consider plants alive?
- 📝 Under primogenture in 12th century France, if the eldest son predeceases his father, did the grandson or an younger son inherit?
- 📝 Did Nazi leaders consider continuing guerrilla warfare after the collapse of Germany?
- 📝 Why did Canada retain the rank of Brigadier General? But not Australia, New Zealand, or UK?
- 📝 What do we know about the character of William Adelin, son of Henry I?
- 📝 How accurate/realistic is the conception of 'the kindly slave owner'?
- 📝 Did NATO ever make plans for an unprovoked attack at the Soviet Union?
- 📝 Can you identify the plane in the picture?
- 📝 What was the military makeup of the Baltic tribes/Lithuania from 1200 to 1500 AD?
- 📝 What education path had to be followed to study law in 17th century Europe?
- 📝 How does this bird trap work?
- 📝 UK involvement in Yugoslavia during WW2
- 📝 The Overwhelming Success of Greeks
- 📝 What were the political and military constraints on Vercingetorix at Alesia?
- 📝 How effective were archers/ slingers / skirmishers in Greek, Roman and Medieval Period?
- 📝 How did lay people understand logic in the Greco-Roman world?
- 📝 Why did Spain trade Florida to the British in exchange for Havana?
- 📝 What is the historical significance of pottery?
- 📝 Is the Tokugawa escape scene in Clavell's "Shogun" historically accurate?
- 📝 Was there a King of England, or an heir to the throne, in 1831 who idolized Michael Faraday?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Is George Louis known to have considered the assumption of a different regnal name in Great Britain?
- 📝 If the Union Jack joins the flag of England and Scotland, why does it have a different shade of blue than the Scottish flag?
- 📝 Did Louis XIV actually say "The State? I am the State."? Could he have said it?
- 📝 Why did the Monitor and Merrimac (aka Virginia) have such radically different designs?
- 📝 Who is the latest famous person to have no known likeness?
- 📝 Why did Empress Elizabeth and Catherine the Great of Russia have such different policies toward Frederick the Great?
- 📝 Who is the last known non-natural US citizen who would have been eligible for the Presidency?
- 📝 What effect did the execution of Louis XVI have on French foreign policy?
- 📝 Does the Proto Canaanite ‘mother serpent’the Pyramid text of Unas/Wenis have another known name or epithet?
- 📝 What degree of relations did the different Hawaiian islands have between themselves before Kamehameha's unification?
- 📝 Would the gun crews have different responsibilities aboard a 17th century ship than on the USS Constitution?
- 📝 Is Russia a direct successor of the USSR? Could the USSR be considered to continue existing under a different name?
- 📝 On 1941 Dec 7, could Japan have targeted the Panama Canal instead of Pearl Harbor in a surprise attack?
- 📝 Did Adolf Hitler ever address the fact that his own appearance was almost an exact opposite of what he considered the ideal Aryan appearance?
- 📝 What knowledge may have been lost at the Library of Alexandria?
- 📝 Why didn't Hitler have more submarines in the English channel?
- 📝 Was there ever a treaty between 2 entities with significantly different translations to the detriment of one party?
- 📝 Why did the Soviet Union have multiple airplane manufacturers?
- 📝 (Why) are there two different versions of the photograph of inmates at the Buchenwald concentration camp?
- 📝 What did Germany do in World War II about the different rail gauge in the Soviet Union?
- 📝 Does any country have an official celebration for the annexation of foreign territory?
- 📝 Where would the first nuke have been dropped in Germany?
- 📝 Have fair-skinned peoples ever been the lower/oppressed class?
- 📝 Did the Pope's crossbow and archery bans have any effect?
- 📝 What is the source of quote attributed to W.E.B. Du Bois: "When you have mastered numbers..."
- 📝 Did the United States have a third atomic bomb to drop on Japan?
- 📝 Who, if anyone, was the first astronaut to return to earth in a different vessel?
- 📝 What would have been the typical drinks for a US farmer in the late 18th/early 19th century?
- 📝 Did the Romans have winter uniforms?
- 📝 Is there any evidence that Cleopatra and Caesarion considered fleeing to India to escape the Romans?
