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No sooner was George settled on his throne than a rebellion began. Supporters of the son of James II, who were known as Jacobites, proclaimed that James Francis Edward Stuart, to give him his full name and take up some space, was the rightful King of Scotland. Soon they had control of a large part of Scotland, mainly in the north, but government forces defeated them in two battles in November 1715.
On 22 December 1715 JFES arrived in Scotland. He landed at Peterhead but soon caught a fever, Scotland is cold in winter and JFES had come from France. He spent January at Scone Palace but on learning George I's forces were approaching, jumped on board a boat in Montrose and went back to France.
This did not make him very popular with those who had decided to fight with him in Scotland and when he got back to France he wasn't popular there either. After all the French had only recently signed a bit of paper saying they wouldn't support any outside claim to the English throne.
James, who would be known as the Old Pretender for reasons which you will also later discover, then spent the next 51 years living abroad under the protection of the Roman Catholic church. He died, aged 77, and was buried in St Peter's Basilica in Rome, a very famous church. He claimed to have been King of England since William died in 1702 which made his make-believe reign one of 64 years 3 months and 16 days. This was longer than any actual monarch until Queen Elizabeth II went past that on 23 May 2016.
Meanwhile, having got rid of his rival, George set about being ruler of England while still being the ruler of Hanover. There had been a clause in the Act of Settlement which said no British monarch could leave the country without the permission of Parliament but this was removed in 1716. George went home in 1716, 1719, 1720, 1723 and 1725 but still spent 80% of his reign in England.
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