Loryn's British Royalty Page - The House of Hanover

Loryn's British Royalty Page
The House of Hanover

George I (George Louis) (3/28/1660 - 6/12/1727)

Born in Hanover
Married Sophia Dorothea in 11/1682, divorced 1694
Children - George, Sophia Dorothea
Succeeded as Elector of Hanover in 1698, as Duke of Zell in 1700, and King of Great Britain and Ireland on 8/1/1714
Died at Osnabruck after a paralytic stroke caused by indigestion from melons consumed when he wasn't fully recovered from sea-sickness
Buried at ______________
The first English king of the House of Hanover, he was the son of Ernst Augustus, Elector of Hanover, and Sophia, granddaughter of James I of England. During his reign his great concern was Hanover, not England. Thoroughly German, he never learned to speak English and spent most of his time in Hanover. His unpopularity contributed to a disturbed early reign marked with Jacobite plots to replace him with the Old Pretender, James Stuart. George only appointed Whigs as his ministers and advisors, since he rightfully thought the Tories were favorable to the Stuart cause. His chief ministers James Stanhope and Robert Walpole established sound foreign and domestic policies. In 1717 the Triple Alliance with Holland and France was concluded. The Hanoverian succession was guaranteed.

George II (George Augustus) (11/10/1683 - 10/25/1760)

Born in Herrenhausen, Hanover
Married Caroline of Anspach in 1705
Children - Frederick, Anne, Amelia, Caroline, George, William, Mary, Louisa
Succeeded as King of Great Britain and Ireland and Elector of Hanover on 6/12/1727
Died at Kensington Palace from a burst blood vessel
Buried in Westminster Abbey
Like his father, he was more interested in Hanover than in England. During the War of the Austrian Succession, George subordinated England's interests to those of Hanover. He was as unpopular as his father. George did really contribute to England's progress because he took the advice of ministers, mainly Walpole and William Pitt the elder. The successful suppression of the last major Jacobite rebellion and the successful prosecution of the Seven Years' War marked George's reign.

George III (George William Frederick) (6/4/1738 - 1/29/1820) aka Farmer George

Born at Norfolk House, St James' Square
Married Charlotte Sophia of Mecklinburg-Strelitz
Children - George, Prince of Wales; Frederick, Duke of York; William, Duke of Clarence; Charlotte; Edward, Duke of Kent; Augusta; Elizabeth; Ernest, Duke of Cumberland; Augustus, Duke of Sussex; Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge; Mary; Sophia; Octavius; Alfred; Amelia
Succeeded as King of Great Britain and Ireland and Elector of Hanover on 10/25/1760; King of Hanover after 1815
Died at Windsor of old age
Buried at St George's Chapel, Windsor
He was the son of Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales. The first Hanoverian to be born and educated as an Englishman, George was primarily interested in England instead of Hanover. By 1763 he managed to regain many of the powers which powerful Whig ministries had appropriated during the previous two reigns. He dismissed several ministers who didn't satisfy him, and he found a firm supporter in Lord North (Prime Minister from 1770-82). Lord North agreed with and executed the royal policies which provoked the American Revolution. The conclusion of the revolution almost induced George to abdicate and North was forced to resign. George strongly favored war France (1793-1815), which came about because of the French Revolution.
In 1809 George became blind. As early as 1765 he had suffered from dementia. His mental derangement reoccurred to such an extent in 1788 that a regency bill was passed, but George recovered almost a year later. In 1811 he became hopelessly insane, and his son acted as regent until George's death in 1820. Reportedly, George's madness was a result of the disease porphyria.

George IV (George Augustus Frederick) (8/12/1762 - 6/25/1830)

Born at St James' Palace
Married (1) Maria Smythe Fitzherbert in 12/1785
Married (2) Caroline Elizabeth Amelia of Brunswick (1795-1796)
Children - (2) Charlotte (died in childbirth at age 17)
Succeeded as King of Great Britain and Ireland and Hanover on 1/29/1820; Regent since 2/1811
Died at Windsor of the effect of obesity on the heart, suffering from dropsy, gout, gall stones, and blindness, and overdosed with laudenum
Buried in St George's Chapel, Windsor
As Prince of Wales, George became notorious for his profligacy and extravagance. He married Mrs Maria Anne Fitzherbert (1756-1837) in 1785, but he allowed Parliament to declare the marriage illegal to obtain money for his debts. In 1795, again to pay off more debts, he agreed to marry his cousin, Caroline of Brunswick, but they were violently estranged after the 1796 birth of their daughter, Princess Charlotte. His misconduct made him unpopular, alienated the people, and was reported to have contributed to his father's illness. George, however, was very clever and had gracious manners; he was called 'the first gentleman in Europe'. He became Prince Regent in 1811 and king in 1820. The great act of his reign was the Catholic Emancipation Act.

William IV (8/21/1765 - 6/20/1837) aka the Royal Tar/Sailor King/Silly Billy

Born at Buckingham Palace
Married Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen
Children - Charlotte and Elizabeth, who both died after birth
Succeeded as King of Great Britain and Ireland and Hanover on 6/25/1830
Died at Windsor of a circulatory disorder aggravated by asthma
Buried in St George's Chapel, Windsor
He entered the British Navy in 1779 as a midshipman and in 1790 attained the rank of rear admiral. In 1789 he was made Duke of Clarence. About 1791 he began a relationship with Irish actress Dorothea Jordan (1762-1816), by whom he had 10 illegitimate children. In 1818 he married Adelaide, daughter of the Duke of Saxe-Meinengen; their two daughters died in infancy.
William was warm-hearted, well intentioned, and rather eccentric. He had little political sense and was known to make fatuous public statements. The major event of his reign was the passage of the Reform Bill of 1832. It was enacted after William finally agreed to create, if needed, a sufficient number of new peers to the House of Lords. The abolition of slavery (1833), the reform of the poor laws (1834), and the Municipal Reform Act (1835) were immediate results of the great constitutional change. He was the last British ruler to try to force parliamentary acceptance of an unpopular ministry (the one headed by Sir Robert Peel, 1834-5). William's British crown went to his niece Victoria while his Hanover crown went to his brother Ernest Augustus (1771-1851).

Victoria (5/24/1819 - 1/22/1901)

Born at Kensington Palace to Edward, Duke of Kent, and his wife
Married to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha on 2/10/1840 at Chapel Royal, St James' Palace
Children - Victoria, Princess Royal, Queen of Prussia and Empress of Germany; Edward, Prince of Wales; Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse; Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha; Helena, Princess of Schleswig-Holstein; Louise, Duchess of Argyll; Arthur, Duke of Connaught; Leopold, Duke of Albany; Beatrice, Princess of Battenberg
Succeeded as Queen of Great Britain and Ireland on 6/20/1837 and Empress of India in 1877
Died at Osborne, Isle of Wight, of old age
Buried at the Royal Mausoleum, Frogmore, Windsor
Victoria was proclaimed queen on 20 June 1837 and was crowned on 28 June 1838 at Westminster Abbey. Legislation passed during her long reign include: penny postage establishment (1840); amendments to Poor Laws of Scotland (1845) and Ireland (1847); repeal of Corn laws (1846); Irish encumbered estates act (1848); repeal of Navigation laws (1849); removal of the disabilities of the Jews (1858); Reform Act of 1867; the dis-establishment of the Irish Church (1869); Elementary Education Act (1870); abolition of religious tests in universities (1871); Irish land acts (1870, 1881); abolition of purchase in the army (1871); Scots education act (1872); and the Franchise bill of 1884, among others.
Important national and international events during Victoria's reign include: Canadian rebel (1837-8); Afghan War (1838-42), Chinese Opium War (1840-2); Catholic hierarchy establishment in England (1850); Crimean War (1854-6); transfer of India from East India Company to the Crown (1858); complicated relations with the US during the American Civil War (1861-5); Abyssinian War (1867-8); Zulu War (1879); Transvaal War (1880); virtual establishment of British domination in Egypt (1882); Burmese conquest (1885); Boer War (1899-1902); the Australian Federation (1900-1901); among others.
Victoria celebrated her Golden Jubilee in 1887 and her Diamond Jubilee in 1897. Hers was the longest reign in British history. The leading feature of the Victorian era was "the new conception of the British monarchy which sprang from the development of the colonies and dependencies of Great Britain, and the sudden strengthening of the sense of unity between them and the mother country. The crown after 1880 became the living symbol of Imperial unity."

Loryn's British Royalty Page The House of Hanover

Loryn's British Royalty Page
The House of Hanover