Virginia Cavaliers (historical) - Downfall of Berkeley

Downfall of Berkeley

The speedy downfall of Berkeley, however, had little effect in rescuing Virginia from the grasp of the Royalists. One of the court favorites to whom the soil of Virginia had been granted, Lord Culpeper, came out as governor, and a rapacious tyrant he was. In 1684, he was succeeded by Lord Howard of Effingham. Among the later governors were Nicholson, who had a notable career in New York, and Sir Edmund Andros, who had a more notable career in New England. In each of these, the colonists found a great improvement over Lords Culpeper and Effingham. But they fell short when compared with Alexander Spotswood, one of the ablest governors of colonial Virginia. The habit of governing through lieutenants, the governor residing in England, became prevalent early in the eighteenth century. One man, Douglas, was nominal governor for forty years, drawing a large salary, though he never crossed the Atlantic Ocean.(17)

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Famous quotes containing the words downfall of, downfall and/or berkeley:

    Children demand that their heroes should be fleckless, and easily believe them so: perhaps a first discovery to the contrary is less revolutionary shock to a passionate child than the threatened downfall of habitual beliefs which makes the world seem to totter for us in maturer life.
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    Children demand that their heroes should be fleckless, and easily believe them so: perhaps a first discovery to the contrary is less revolutionary shock to a passionate child than the threatened downfall of habitual beliefs which makes the world seem to totter for us in maturer life.
    George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)

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