The House of Hanover

When Britain's last Stuart monarch, Queen Anne died in 1714, the crown of England passed by the 1701 Act of Setttlement to the Stuart dynasty's German Protestant cousins, the House of Hanover, or Brunswick-Luneberg in the person of King George I, who was actually 52nd in line to the throne at that time. The Act effectively excluded the hereditary Stuart heir, James II's Catholic son, James Francis Edward Stuart, thereafter referred to as the 'Old Pretender'.

The House of Hanover, a cadet branch of the German House of Welf or Guelph, itself a branch of the House of Este, whose oldest traceable members resided in Lombardy in the Dark Ages, produced five of Britain's monarchs.

On the death of William IV (1765-1837), the last Hanoverian king, Hanover and England ceased to share a ruler, Victoria (1837-1901), the daughter of Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent, fourth son of George III, suceeded her uncle in England but since the Salic Law (which prohibited the succession through the female line) prevailed in Hanover the dukedom was inherited by George III's fifth son, Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland.

On the death of Queen Victoria in 1901 the throne of Britain passed to the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, in the person of her son, Edward VII. The present head of the House of Hanover is Prince Ernst August of Hanover, who is married to Princess Caroline of Monaco.

Monarch		Birth & Reign	Married
George I		b.1660 son of - Ernest Augustus Elector of Hanover &Sophia of the Palatine r.1714 -1727	Sophia Dorothea of Celle
George II		b.1683 son of- George I & Sophia Dorothea of Celle r.1727-1760	Caroline of Anspach
George III		b.1738 son of- Frederick Prince of Wales & Augusta of Saxe- Gotha r.1760-1820	Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
George IV		b.1762 son of- George III & Charlotte of Mecklenberg-Strelitz r.1820 -!830	Caroline of Brunswick
William IV		b.1765 son of- George III & Charlotte of Mecklenberg-Strelitz r.1830-1837	Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen
Queen Victoria		b.1818 daughter of- Edward Duke of Kent & Victoire of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfield r.1837-1901	Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha