It was a happy period in his life that ended abruptly with the death of Queen Anne and the downfall of the Tory government. The opposing political party, the Whigs, came to power with King George I, whose reign would last from 1714 to 1727. Prime Minister Robert Walpole became the dominant party and government leader under King George. A strong leader, Walpole believed firmly in the right of the British government to oversee and regulate Irish affairs.
As early as the 1500s, England had exerted power over Ireland and fought to make the country a subordinate kingdom, a colony loyal to the British monarchy. By 1700, however, the Irish, who had their own Parliament and cultural identity, felt they were an independent nation that simply shared a king in common with the English. The British government recognized the Irish Parliament as a legitimate body, but felt that the Irish House of Lords was subordinate to the British House of Lords and passed a law to that effect in 1720. Known as the Act of 1720, the measure increased a trend set by the long-standing Poynings Law of the 1500s, which had removed the right of the Irish government to meet or pass laws without England's approval.
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