House of Hanover
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The House of Hanover (the Hanoverians) is a Germanic royal dynasty
which has ruled the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg (German:
Braunschweig-Lüneburg), the Kingdom of Hanover and the Kingdom of Great
Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland. It succeeded the House of Stuart as
monarchs of Great Britain and Ireland in 1714 and held that office until
the death of Victoria in 1901. They are sometimes referred to as the
House of Brunswick and Lüneburg, Hanover line. The House of Hanover is a
younger branch of the House of Welf, which in turn is the senior branch
of the House of Este, with all three being offshoots of the ancient
Saxon House of Wettin.
Queen Victoria was the granddaughter of George III, and was a descendant
of most major European royal houses. She arranged marriages for her
children and grandchildren across the continent, tying Europe together;
this earned her the nickname "the grandmother of Europe." She was the
last British monarch of the House of Hanover; her son King Edward VII
belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha since she could not
inherit the German kingdom and duchies under Salic law. Those
possessions passed to the next eligible male heir, her uncle Ernest
Augustus I of Hanover, the Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale—the fifth
son of George III. In the United Kingdom, after World War I, King George
V changed the house's name from Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the currently
serving House of Windsor in 1917. Both dynastic names are offshoots of
the 800-plus years old House of Wettin.
History
George, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, is considered the first
member of the House of Hanover. When the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg was
divided in 1635, George inherited the principalities of Calenberg and
Göttingen, and in 1636 he moved his residence to Hanover. His son, Duke
Ernest Augustus, was elevated to prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire
in 1692. Ernest Augustus's wife, Sophia of the Palatinate, was declared
heiress of the throne of Great Britain (then England and Scotland) by
the Act of Settlement of 1701, which decreed Roman Catholics could not
accede to the throne. Sophia was at that time the nearest Protestant
relative to King William III. William himself was actually of the Dutch
House of Orange-Nassau, but both his wife (co-ruler) and mother were
Stuart princesses.
Hanoverian kings: Great Britain and the United Kingdom
Ernest Augustus and Sophia's son, George I became the first
British monarch of the House of Hanover.
The dynasty provided six British monarchs:
Of the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland:
George I (r.1714-1727) (Georg Ludwig - George Louis)
George II (r.1727-1760) (Georg August - George Augustus)
George III (r.1760-1820)[2]
Of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland:
George III (r.1760-1820)
George IV (r.1820-1830)
William IV (r.1830-1837)
Victoria (r.1837-1901)
George I, George II, and George III also served as electors and dukes of
Brunswick-Lüneburg, informally, Electors of Hanover (cf. personal
union). From 1814, when Hanover became a kingdom, the British monarch
was also King of Hanover.
In 1837, however, the personal union of the thrones of the United
Kingdom and Hanover ended. Succession to the Hanoverian throne was
regulated by Salic law, which forbade inheritance by a woman, so that it
passed not to Queen Victoria but to her uncle, the Duke of Cumberland.
[3] In 1901, when Queen Victoria died, the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha
ascended to the UK throne as her son and heir, Edward VII, as son of her
husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, genealogically belonged to
that House — asserting, thereby, that the name of the UK’s Royal House
changed because the surname of his father was Edward VII's surname.
Kings of Hanover after the break up of the personal
union
After the death of William IV in 1837, the following kings of
Hanover continued the dynasty:
Ernest Augustus I (r. 1837-1851)
George V (r. 1851-1866, deposed)
The Kingdom of Hanover came to an end in 1866 when it was annexed by
Prussia. The 1866 rift between the House of Hanover and the House of
Hohenzollern was settled only by the 1913 marriage of Princess Viktoria
Luise of Prussia to Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick.
Duchy of Brunswick
In 1884, the senior branch of the House of Welf became extinct. By
House Law, the House of Hanover would have acceded to the Duchy of
Brunswick, but there had been strong Prussian pressure against having
George V of Hanover or his son, the Duke of Cumberland, succeed to a
member state of the German Empire, at least without strong conditions,
including swearing to the German constitution. By a law of 1879, the
Duchy of Brunswick established a temporary council of regency to take
over at the Duke's death, and if necessary appoint a regent.
The Duke of Cumberland proclaimed himself Duke of Brunswick at the
Duke's death, and lengthy negotiations ensued, but were never resolved.
Prince Albert of Prussia was appointed regent; after his death in 1906,
Duke John Albert of Mecklenburg succeeded him. The Duke of Cumberland's
eldest son died of a car accident in 1912; the father renounced
Brunswick in favor of his youngest son, who married the Kaiser's
daughter, swore allegiance to the German Empire, and was allowed to
ascend the throne of the Duchy in November 1913. He was a major-general
during the First World War; but he was overthrown as Duke of Brunswick
in 1918. His father was also deprived of his British titles in 1919, for
"bearing arms against Great Britain".
Claimants
The later heads of the House of Hanover have been:
George V (1866-1878)
Ernest Augustus, Crown Prince of Hanover (1878-1923)
Ernest Augustus III, Duke of Brunswick (1923-1953), son of the previous
Ernest Augustus IV, Prince of Hanover (1953-1987)
Ernest Augustus V, Prince of Hanover (1987-present)
Ernest Augustus, Hereditary Prince of Hanover (heir apparent)
The family has been resident in Austria since 1866; it has held
courtesy titles since 1919.
