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till the loan was repaid. Few such loans ever were repaid, and so a perpetual debt was created called the ‘National Debt’, which has now increased to an enormous amount. But people are always glad to lend money to the Crown, because they know they will get the interest on it paid quite punctually. As long as we pay the interest on this National Debt we are still paying for some of King Willam’s wars and for those of all later sovereigns; but we need not grumble, because, if these great wars had not been fought, there would have been no British Colonies or Empire, and probably no independent Great Britain; our country would have been a province of France. So let King William sleep in peace.
Anne, 1702–14; her character.Queen Anne’s wars were going to be very successful indeed, though they continued till the last year of her reign. She herself was almost the stupidest woman in her dominions; but she was a good and kindly soul, devoted to the Church of England, and had generally the sense to leave affairs of State to her ministers. She called herself a Tory, and her ministers called themselves Tories; but they were going to fight a ‘Whig war’. By this I mean a war to maintain the Protestant Kings in England, and to increase the trade and Empire of England. The Duke of Marlborough.And so they really had to act as Whigs. The hero of that war was John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, the greatest soldier England ever produced. He was not only great in planning a Campaign and in fighting a battle, but also in his care for his soldiers, their food, their clothing, their comfort and their pay. Also he was very clever at keeping the allies of Great Britain united. These allies—Dutch, Austrians and Germans, were very difficult to manage;
