This short book is a treatise published at Edinburgh in 1745 that attempts to counter Jacobite claims that George II was not the rightful king of Great Britain. The book, which had first been published in 1743, explored the idea of ‘hereditary right’, a statement made by the future George I in 1710 on learning that he was likely to take the Crown. This phrase had been chosen in an attempt to thwart any belief that George would be usurping the throne or that he had been chosen by Parliament to be king. However, following his accession in 1714, Jacobites, who favoured the restoration of the Stuart line, ridiculed this statement, declaring that George was 58th in line to the throne and had no right to take it, except due to the 1702 Act of Settlement that had removed all Catholics from the line of Succession.

To combat the Jacobite argument, the author of this work, George Ballantyne, used English medieval history to declare that the Hanoverian concept of ‘hereditary right’ was correct. His arguments relied on the annulment of the first marriage of King John in 1199 having rendered all of his children — including his successor, Henry III — illegitimate. This ascertained that if Henry III and his descendants had no lawful claim to the throne, neither did the Jacobites due to the Stuarts being descended from Henry. The Hanoverian dynasty, therefore, due to their direct descent from Matilda, the sister of John and the only one of his siblings to bear legitimate children, had the ‘supreme hereditary right’ to the throne and as such the true claim to rule Great Britain.

Due to its binding, this book was one of those selected by Olwen Hedley in the 1960s as a fine example of bookbinding in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle. Hedley’s ‘Additional Bookbindings’ serve as a supplement to the catalogue of fine bindings compiled in 1893 by the Royal Librarian Richard Rivington Holmes.

Binding information

Contemporary red goatskin binding with gold-tooling on both sides and spine. Both sides re-backed onto restored spine, also in red goatskin.

On both sides, an outer roll tool border of gemstones and flower-heads, surmounted on either wide by a triangular roll border; in each of the inner corners, a corner tool of two flower heads surrounded by an architectural border; in the centre, the arms of Frederick, Prince of Wales, surrounded by the garter, surmounted by an imperial crown and lion, itself surrounded by curling vines, flanked by a crowned lion and unicorn supporters, all above an unfurling ribbon with the motto: ‘ICH DIEN’.

Sides and insides of both sides gold-tooled with triangular roll.

Spine divided into six compartments with raised bands. Second compartment tooled single fillet border and the title: ‘HERED- / -ITARY / RIGHT’, all other compartments tooled with single fillet border, swirl and flower tools and a central lily tool.

Contemporary marble endpapers; all edges gilt.