Hanover Kings and Queens
When Britain's last Stuart monarch, Queen Anne died in 1714, the crown of England passed by the 1701 Act of Settlement to the Stuart dynasty's German Protestant cousins, the House of Hanover, or Brunswick-Luneberg in the person of King George I, who was 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, hereafter 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, succeeded 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
Born
Reign
Daughter of Edward Duke of Kent & Victoire of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld R. 1837-1901
