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The Last Night at the Proms, of which Rule Britannia is an essential element
Britain's greatest naval commander of the mid-century, George Anson, embarked on an epic circumnavigation in September 1740, with orders to attack Spanish possessions. The actor David Garrick made a sensational debut, as Richard III. In Rome, Pope Clement XII died and was succeeded by Benedict XIV. In Russia, there was a palace coup which placed the Czarina Elizabeth on the throne.
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The novel Pamela, by Samuel Richardson, appeared to acclaim in 1740. At one level a simple morality tale, involving a servant who preserves her virtue and marries her employer, it has become a text much pored over by modern analysts, seeking the essential truths about the status and role of women.
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| Day 371
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| 1740-1741
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By Derek Brown
 The 20-year reign of Prime Minister Robert Walpole was passing not very peacefully to its close. Britain was at war with Spain, and increasingly embroiled in the latest European convulsion over the Austrian succession. Walpole had no enthusiasm for war, and in consequence was a lacklustre wartime leader. His last trump card was a massive parliamentary majority, but that evaporated in the general election of April 1741, leaving him with a threadbare margin of around a dozen votes.
While England bayed for Spanish blood, and Scotland chafed under English rule, appalling tragedy was being visited upon Ireland. A succession of rotten harvests was followed by singularly harsh winters in 1739-40 and 1740-41. By the drought-stricken spring of 1741 the food supply had run out, and the Irish poor were dying in droves, from starvation or disease. Around 400,000 were carried off by the famine, out of a population of no more than three million.
 The War of the Austrian Succession had been brewing for years, since the Emperor Charles VI had first mooted passing on the throne to his daughter, Maria Theresa. By the time he died in 1740 Europe was divided into armed camps. Britain and Hanover backed the new empress, but France - eager to carve up the sprawling Hapsburg possession, supported rival claimant Charles Albert of Bavaria.
Prussia was also eyeing the potential spoils, but was preoccupied with the illness of King Frederick William. In May 1740 he died, to be succeeded by his son Frederick, known to history as The Great. Father and son had been bitter, even deadly rivals, but now their messy family feud was over. In December the young king seized his chance and sent an invading army into Silesia.
In the Americas, Britain's war with Spain was a desultory affair. In January 1740, Governor James Oglethorpe of Georgia invaded Florida, to little effect. The following year Admiral Edward Vernon tried to capture Cartagena on the Spanish Main. He failed, though you would never guess from the tone of his letter home. Many of the 13 colonies were less concerned with the Spanish threat, as with the danger of rebellion by their brutalised and desperate slave populations. In January 1740 around 50 slaves were hanged in Massachusetts, after the discovery of a claimed conspiracy to revolt. The following year, after a series of arson attacks in New York and a patently spurious witch hunt, 29 slaves were executed. Eleven of them were burned alive.
 War fever was running high in England. While the mob clamoured for Spanish blood, men and women of fashion were also raising their voices for king and country. In August 1740 a new song by Thomas Arne, with words of the deepest patriotic hue, was heard for the first time by high society attending a glittering masque at Cliveden, Buckinghamshire. It was Rule Britannia.
| Tomorrow
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The Prime Minister's downfall leaves the King in tears, the Hallelujah chorus brings the king to his feet, the war of Austrian Succession sees the King leading from the front, and Broughton attempts to bring moderation to boxing
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