1741 in Great Britain

13 February – Robert Walpole, the Prime Minister, introduces the term "balance of power" in a speech in Parliament.^[2]
14 February – Irish-born actor Charles Macklin makes his London stage debut as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, pioneering a psychologically realistic style with Shakespeare's text revived, replacing George Granville's melodramatic adaptation The Jew of Venice.^[3]^[4] Kitty Clive plays the travesti role of Portia.^[5]
March – Lancelot "Capability" Brown joins Lord Cobham's gardening staff at Stowe, Buckinghamshire.^[6]
13 March – The Royal Navy brings 180 warships, frigates and transport vessels, led by Admiral Edward Vernon, to threaten Cartagena, Colombia, with more than 27,000 crew against the 3,600 defenders.^[7]
13 April – The Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, is established to train officers of the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers.^[8]
9 May – War of Jenkins' Ear: Battle of Cartagena de Indias – Spain's defenders in New Grenada, under the command of General Blas de Lezo, defeat Vernon's Royal Navy force, leading to a British retreat to Jamaica.^[9]
14 May – HMS Wager, one of the vessels of George Anson's voyage around the world is wrecked on the coast of Chile, killing most of the surviving crew.^[10]
21 May – George II orders the British Army to prepare for an invasion of Prussia to defend his Electorate of Hanover.^[11]
11 June – 1741 British general election, begun on 30 April, concludes with Prime Minister Robert Walpole's Whigs retaining their majority in the House of Commons but losing control of a number of rotten and pocket boroughs^[12] with 44 seats lost to candidates who have defected to the new Patriot Whigs to oppose Walpole's policies.
18 July – War of Jenkins' Ear: Invasion of Cuba – Admiral Edward Vernon arrives at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba.
4/5 August–9 December – Vernon captures Guantánamo Bay and renames it Cumberland Bay. His troops hold it but are resisted by local guerrilla forces and withdraw.^{[citation needed]}
22 August–14 September – George Frideric Handel composes the oratorio Messiah in London to a libretto compiled by Charles Jennens,^[13] completing the "Hallelujah Chorus" on 6 September.^[14] It receives a private rehearsal in Chester in November while Handel is en route to Dublin.
12 October – George II, as Elector of Hanover, signs the Neustadt Protocol with France, but fails to inform his British government until after his return from Germany.^[15]
19 October – Actor David Garrick makes his London stage debut, in the title role of Shakespeare's Richard III,^[13] having made his professional debut at Ipswich in Oroonoko earlier in the year.
11 December – At 11 a.m. a "fire-ball" and explosion, perhaps resulting from a meteor, is heard over southern England.^[16]
Summer – Upper Priory Cotton Mill is opened in Birmingham as the world's first mechanised cotton mill by Lewis Paul and John Wyatt; although this is not a commercial success, other Paul-Wyatt cotton mills follow.^[17]
Henry Hoare begins to lay out the landscape gardens at Stourhead, Wiltshire.

1741 in Great Britain

Incumbents

Events

Publications

Births

Deaths

See also

References

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