House of Hanover

House of Hanover, British royal house of partly German stock that occupied the throne of Great Britain from 1714 to 1901. The Act of Settlement 1701 ensured that the throne of England should be Protestant, and that, on the death of Queen Anne, the crown should go to the Electress Sophia of Hanover, granddaughter of James I through his daughter Elizabeth, who had married the Elector Palatine. Sophia died two months before Queen Anne, so the crown went to her son George I in 1714. Aged 54, he was more interested in Hanover than England and spoke no English. He was succeeded in 1727 by his only son George II, who had also been born in Hanover. He too was regarded as a foreigner by many of his subjects. He was more of a soldier than a politician, and concluded a treaty with France during the War of the Austrian Succession without consulting his ministers. During these two reigns the Scots rebelled and supported the claims of the Catholic Stuarts, James Francis Edward Stuart, the Old Pretender, in 1715, and Charles Edward Stuart, the Young Pretender, in 1745.

George III, who was born in England, succeeded to the throne in 1760. He was the grandson of George II and, despite illness, won a great deal of respect from the people. His son, who acted as regent for part of the reign, succeeded him as George IV in 1820. In 1830 his brother William IV inherited the throne, and was succeeded by his niece Victoria, the daughter of the Duke of Kent, in 1837. Until Victoria's succession, Hanover had been joined to the British Crown; with Victoria's succession it reverted to the male line (Victoria's uncle), as under Salic law a woman was barred from inheritance.

In 1840 Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. On her death in 1901 the House of Hanover was succeeded by the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha—renamed the House of Windsor in 1917.