Events
- 1 January - Count Carl Gyllenborg, the Swedish ambassador, is arrested in London over a plot to assist the Pretender James Francis Edward Stuart.
- 4 January - The Dutch Republic, Britain and France sign the Triple Alliance.
- February - As part of the treaty between France and Britain, James Stuart leaves France and seeks refuge with the Pope.
- 2 March - Dancer John Weaver performs in the first ballet in Britain, shown at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, The Loves of Mars and Venus.
- 31 March - Benjamin Hoadly, Bishop of Bangor, extends the Bangorian Controversy by delivering a sermon to, and supposedly at the request of, King George on The Nature of the Kingdom of Christ with the text "My kingdom is not of this world" (John 18:36), concluding there is no Biblical justification for church government.
- 24 June - Grand Lodge of London and Westminster, the first Freemasonic Grand Lodge (now the United Grand Lodge of England), is founded.
- 1 July - Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, is acquitted of conspiracy with the French to put the Pretender on the throne.
- 17 July - George Frideric Handel's Water Music performed on a barge on the River Thames for King George I.
- September - The first known Druid revival ceremony is held by John Toland at Primrose Hill, in London, at the Autumnal Equinox, to found the Mother Grove, which is later to become the Ancient Order of Druids.
- November - A rift between the King and his son the Prince of Wales leads to the latter being banished from the royal household.
- The King ceases to attend meetings of the Cabinet regularly.
- The Board of Ordnance establishes an Officer Corps of Engineers within the British Army, the immediate predecessor of the Royal Engineers.
Read more about this topic: 1717 In Great Britain
Famous quotes containing the word events:
“As I look at the human story I see two stories. They run parallel and never meet. One is of people who live, as they can or must, the events that arrive; the other is of people who live, as they intend, the events they create.”
—Margaret Anderson (1886–1973)
“The return of the asymmetrical Saturday was one of those small events that were interior, local, almost civic and which, in tranquil lives and closed societies, create a sort of national bond and become the favorite theme of conversation, of jokes and of stories exaggerated with pleasure: it would have been a ready- made seed for a legendary cycle, had any of us leanings toward the epic.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“One cannot be a good historian of the outward, visible world without giving some thought to the hidden, private life of ordinary people; and on the other hand one cannot be a good historian of this inner life without taking into account outward events where these are relevant. They are two orders of fact which reflect each other, which are always linked and which sometimes provoke each other.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)