Modern monarchy evolved during the Hanoverian period. Increasingly, the sovereign reigned, rather than ruled, over his/her people. The rights of the sovereign became confined to the rights of being informed, of advising, and of warning those in whom actual power was invested, i.e. the government.
The monarch came to be seen more as a figurehead than as a participant; George II was the last king to lead his troops into battle, at Dettington in 1747. Later sovereigns confined their martial activities to reviewing their armed forces, and undertaking military training. As Head of the Church of England, the monarch was expected to set a moral example. Few of the Hanoverians were capable of this. It was left to George III and Queen Charlotte, Queen Adelaide, and Queen Victoria and Prince Albert to set moral standards acceptable to their people, and which we now think of as Victorian. In this way, the monarchy became very much a domestic institution, and to this day a constitutional sovereign leading an exemplary family life has a very much better chance of achieving popularity than one who might be described as ‘playboy’. One is reminded, when reflecting upon this, of the Victorian lady who went to watch a performance of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra:‘So unlike the home life of our own dear Queen!’ she commented.
The Hanoverians were very much a German dynasty; even Queen Victoria spoke with a German accent. They married German princes or princesses. Apart from George IV and Victoria, they had little time for the arts, although George I and George II patronised Handel. They were not popular monarchs, and suffered scathing portrayals by the caricaturists of their time. They were licentious and uncouth; even Victoria was highly sexed, and in her youth revelled in being ‘decadent’. George I and George II saw Britain as secondary in importance to Hanover, which did not endear them to their new subjects. Yet this dynasty, which began so unpromisingly with George I, ended in a blaze of glory as Victoria, the Queen-Empress, celebrated her Diamond Jubilee four years before her death in 1901, amidst scenes of unprecedented adulation and reverence. Thus was the monarchy pulled from the mire to the pinnacle of respectability where it has remained, almost constantly, to this very day.
George I
FATHER: Ernest Augustus
He was the son of George, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneberg, by Anne Eleanor, daughter of Louis, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, and he was born on 20 or 30 November, 1629/30, at Herzberg, Germany. He married Sophia of Bohemia on 30 September, 1658, at the Castle Chapel, Heidelberg, Germany. He was elected Prince Bishop of Osnabrück in 1661, and succeeded his father as Duke of Hanover and Brunswick-Lüneberg in 1679; he was created Elector of Hanover in 1692 (this conferred upon him the right to elect the German Emperor). He died on 23 January, 1698, at Schloss Herrenhausen, Hanover, and was buried in the Chapel of the Leine Schloss, Hanover. His remains were later removed to the Chapel of Schloss Herrenhausen, Hanover.
Ernest perhaps had the following illegitimate issue:
By Clara Elizabeth Meisenburg, wife of Francis Ernest, Count von Platen:
1 Sophia Charlotte, Countess of Platen, Baroness von Kielmansegge, Countess of Leinster, Baroness of Brentford, and Countess of Darlington (1673?–1725). She later became the mistress of her half-brother, George I.
2 George Louis.
3 Charles Augustus.
4 Caroline.
By the Marchesa Paleotti of Bologna:
5 Unnamed son.
6 Laura (?).
MOTHER: Sophia
She was the daughter of Frederick V, King of Bohemia and Elector Palatine of the Rhine, by Elizabeth, daughter of James I, and she was born on 13/14 October, 1630, at the Wassenaer Court Palace, The Hague, Holland. She died on 8 or 14 June, 1714, at Schloss Herrenhausen, Hanover, and was buried in the Chapel of the Leine Schloss, Hanover. Her remains were later removed to the family vault in the Chapel of Schloss Herrenhausen, Hanover.
SIBLINGS:
1 Frederick Augustus
He was born on 3 October, 1661, at Hanover, Germany. He was killed on 31 December, 1690 (O.S.) or 10 January, 1691 (N.S.), fighting the Turks at the Battle of St Georgen, Siebenbürgen, Transylvania.
2 Stillborn twins
They were born in February, 1664, at Heidelberg, Germany.
3 Maximilian William
He was born on 13 (O.S.) or 23 (N.S.) December, 1666, at Schloss Iburg, Hanover, and died on 16 (O.S.) or 27 (N.S.) July, 1726, at Vienna, Austria.
4 Stillborn son
He was the twin of Maximilian, and was born in December, 1666, at Schloss Iburg, Hanover.
5 Sophia Charlotte
She was born on 12 October, 1668, at Schloss Iburg, Hanover. She married Frederick III of Brandenburg, later Frederick I King of Prussia (1657–1713), on 8 or 28 September, 1684, at Schloss Herrenhausen, Hanover, and had issue:
1 Frederick Augustus (1685–1686).
2 Unnamed son ( b.& d.1687).
3 Frederick William I, King of Prussia (1688–1740); he married Sophia Dorothea, daughter of George I, and had issue.
Sophia died on 21 January (O.S.) or 1 February (N.S.), 1705, at Hanover, and was buried in the Royal Chapel, Berlin, Germany.
6 Charles Philip
He was born on 3 or 13 October, 1669, at Schloss Iburg, Hanover. He was killed on 31 December, 1690, or 1 January, 1691, fighting the Turks at the Battle of Pristina, Albania.
7 Christian
He was born on 19 or 29 September, 1671, at Schloss Iburg, Hanover. He drowned on 31 July, 1703, in the River Danube, near Ulm, during the Battle of Munderkingen.
8 Ernest Augustus
He was born on 7 (O.S.) or 17 (N.S.) September, 1674, at Osnabrück, Hanover. He was elected Prince Bishop of Osnabrück in 1715. He was made a Knight of the Garter on 3 July, 1716, and was created Duke of York and Albany and Earl of Ulster on 5 July, 1716. He died on 14 August, 1728, at Osnabrück, Hanover.
GEORGE I
Baptised George Louis, he was born on 28 May (O.S.) or 7 June (N.S.), 1660, at Osnabrück, Hanover. He succeeded his father as Duke and Elector of Hanover on 23 January, 1698. He was made a Knight of the Garter on 18 June, 1701, and was naturalised as a British subject in 1705. He succeeded his third cousin, Queen Anne, as King of Great Britain on 1 August, 1714, and adopted the style King of Hanover also on the same day. He was crowned on 20 October, 1714, in Westminster Abbey.
George I married, on 21 November, 1682, at Celle Castle Chapel, Germany:
Sophia Dorothea
She was the daughter of George William, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneberg-Celle, by Eleanor, Countess of Williamsburg, daughter of Alexander II d’Olbreuse, Marquess of Desmiers, and she was born on 3 February, 5 September or 15 September, 1666, at Celle Castle, Germany. She was divorced by Prince George on 28 December, 1694, on the grounds of her adultery with Count Philip Christopher von Königsmarck. She was forbidden to remarry, and was confined to the Castle of Ahlden for the rest of her life, being styled Duchess of Ahlden from February, 1695. She was never Queen of England. She died on 2 (O.S.) or 13 (N.S.) November, 1726, at the Castle of Ahlden, Hanover, Germany, and was buried in Celle Church, Germany.
Issue of marriage:
1
George II(
2 Sophia Dorothea
She was born on 16 (O.S.) or 26 (N.S.) March, 1685 or 1687, at Hanover. She married Frederick William of Prussia, later Frederick William I, King of Prussia (1688–1740), firstly on 17 November, 1706, at Hanover, and secondly on 28 November, 1706, at Berlin, Prussia, and had issue: