The Reign of George VI, a Fantasy of 1763
I.F. Clarke describes how the eighteenth century saw the beginnings of popular predictive fiction that attempted, in terms of politics or science, to forecast the life of later centuries.
King George VI came to the throne on February 16th, 1900, at a time of exceptional panic and alarm. Throughout the second half of the nineteenth century it had become increasingly obvious that sooner or later the British people would have to oppose the swift Russian advance across Europe. It is true that at first the occupation of Poland and Sweden had not seemed unduly menacing; but, when the Tsar suddenly overran Denmark and Norway, the situation of the United Kingdom became so dangerous that it was difficult to see how the country could hope to succeed in any war against Russia. The Tsar’s alliance with the French had closed Europe to the British; and the rapid expansion of the Russian fleet between 1886 and 1897 meant that the nation faced its most serious naval danger since the time of the Spanish Armada.
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