Hanover, house of
Hanover, house of,
ruling dynasty of Hanover (see HanoverHanover, Ger. Hannover, former independent kingdom and former province of Germany; Lower Saxony, NW Germany. Very irregular in outline, Hanover stretched from the Dutch border and the North Sea in the northwest to the Harz Mts. in the southeast.
..... Click the link for more information. , province), which was descended from the GuelphsGuelphs
, European dynasty tracing its descent from the Swabian count Guelph or Welf (9th cent.), whose daughter Judith married the Frankish emperor Louis I. Guelph III (d. 1055) was made (1047) duke of Carinthia and margrave of Verona.
..... Click the link for more information. and which in 1714 acceded to the British throne in the person of George IGeorge I
(George Louis), 1660–1727, king of Great Britain and Ireland (1714–27); son of Sophia, electress of Hanover, and great-grandson of James I. He became (1698) elector of Hanover, fought in the War of the Spanish Succession, and in 1714 succeeded Queen Anne
..... Click the link for more information. . George was the grandson of James I's daughter Elizabeth, queen of Bohemia, and the son of SophiaSophia
, 1630–1714, electress of Hanover, consort of Elector Ernest Augustus. She was the daughter of Frederick the Winter King and Elizabeth of Bohemia, who was the daughter of James I of England.
..... Click the link for more information. , electress of Hanover, and his succession to the throne was based on the Act of SettlementSettlement, Act of,
1701, passed by the English Parliament, to provide that if William III and Princess Anne (later Queen Anne) should die without heirs, the succession to the throne should pass to Sophia, electress of Hanover, granddaughter of James I, and to her heirs, if they
..... Click the link for more information. (1701). His successors were George II, George III, George IV, and William IV. The Salic law barred women from the succession in Hanover, and when William IV's niece, VictoriaVictoria
(Alexandrina Victoria) , 1819–1901, queen of Great Britain and Ireland (1837–1901) and empress of India (1876–1901). She was the daughter of Edward, duke of Kent (fourth son of George III), and Princess Mary Louise Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld.
..... Click the link for more information. , succeeded (1837) to the British throne, the crowns of Hanover and Great Britain were separated. Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, so her descendants belonged to the house of WettinWettin
, German dynasty, which ruled in Saxony, Thuringia, Poland, Great Britain, Belgium, and Bulgaria. It takes its name from a castle on the Saale near Halle. The family gained prominence in the 10th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. . Ernest AugustusErnest Augustus,
1771–1851, king of Hanover (1837–51) and duke of Cumberland, fifth son of George III of England. At the accession of his niece Queen Victoria, the crowns of England and Hanover were separated, since succession in Hanover was only through the male
..... Click the link for more information. , son of George III, became (1837) king of Hanover and was succeeded by George VGeorge V,
1819–78, last king of Hanover (1851–66), son and successor of Ernest Augustus. He was blind after 1833. Fearing Hanover's absorption by Prussia, he sided with Austria in the Austro-Prussian War (1866).
..... Click the link for more information. , who lost the crown in 1866.
Bibliography
See A. Redman, The House of Hanover (1960, repr. 1968).
Hanover, House of
the dynasty of English kings from 1714 to 1901. It superseded the Stuart dynasty. Representatives of the dynasty were George I (ruled 1714-27), George II (1727-60), George III (1760-1820), George IV (1820-30), William IV (1830-37), and Victoria (1837-1901). Edward VII, who was the son of Victoria and the prince consort Albert, a representative of the German dukes of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, was the first king of the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha dynasty (which in 1917 became the Windsor dynasty).