Donald Satz <[log in to unmask]> inquires: >This isn't a significant matter, but I always assumed than Handel was a >German composer who happened to write many works while living in England. >Did he change his citizenship? Was anything like this done formally during >the 1700's? Matters of citizenship were handled quite differently back then. Besides, there was no German state in the 18th century--just scores of German-speaking sovereignties. The Georgian Kings of England were also kings of Hanover, and the early ones spoke German primarily. Handel would not have been considered English by English society but because of his elevated social position that shouldn't really have mattered to him. To travel abroad you carried nothing resembling a modern passport. A paper from a government office with an official seal on it would do, and if there were questions, then the consul or ambassador, or minister,of the country concerned would proovide guidance on the basis of his own judgement to the authorities making the inquiries. Remember, too, that many high ocfficials both in the civil and military services back in that day could be aliens who were recruited for their abilities or their connections. (There were plenty of Gemran, Polish, French and whatnot officers in the forces commanded by George Washington.) Denis Fodor