George I's linguistic weakness was supposedly the reason for the preference shown to his German advisors over most English politicians, who were for the most part similarly limited in their knowledge…

BSECS Annual Conference: the annual meeting of the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies is Europe's largest and most prestigious annual conference

Dish, with decoration of King George I, lead-glazed earthenware with slip-trailed decortion, made by Ralph simpson. English, Burslem, Staffordshire, about 1715

18th-century Britain is notorious for corrupt and restrictive politics, when few could vote, bribery and debauchery were commonplace. But it was also an age when modern democracy was being shaped.