George I of Great Britain

b. 1660; d. Osnabrück 1727

George was son of Ernest Augustus, afterwards Elector of Hanover. He married his cousin, Sophia Dorothea of Zell, who in 1694 was divorced by him because of her alleged misconduct with Count Königsmark. The latter was assassinated and Sophia remained imprisoned until her death in 1726. George's mother was Sophia, the granddaughter of James I, and the stipulation of Protestant succession to the throne of Britain gave the succession to the Hanoverian line by Act of Settlement in 1701.

In June 1714 the death of his mother made George heir to the British crown and he became king a two months later on the death of Queen Anne in August. George immediately travelled to England. His succession may be regarded as the final step in the Protestant revolution, and the stability of his crown may be gauged from the utter failure of the Jacobite rebellion in 1715. George was more interested in the affairs of Hanover, which he visited frequently, than those of Britain, and the effective government was carried out by a prime minister, Robert Walpole. George apparently regarded Britain merely as a great country of which he was the nominal ruler, and by means of which he could raise the prestige of Hanover and fill his pockets, and those of his German followers, with gold. He was patron of Handel. George died at Osnabrück and was buried at Hanover.

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