Hanover - King George I

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Full Name: King George I
Father: Ernst August, Duke of Brunswick and Elector of Hanover
Mother: Sophia Stuart
Born: May 28, 1660 at Osnabruck, Hanover
Ascended to the throne: August 1, 1714 aged 54 years
Crowned: October 20, 1714 at Westminster Abbey
Married: Sophia Dorothea of Celle, on 1682
Children: One son, one daughter, three illegitimate children
Died: June 11, 1727 at Osnabruck, aged 67 years, and 12 days
Buried at: Leineschlosskirche, Hanover

King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1714. He was the son of the first elector of Hannover, Ernest Augustus (1629–1698), and his wife Sophia, and a great-grandson of James I. He succeeded to the electorate in 1698, and became king on the death of Queen Anne. He attached himself to the Whigs, and spent most of his reign in Hannover, never having learned English.

He was heir through his father to the hereditary lay bishopric of Osnabrück and the duchy of Calenberg, which was one part of the Hanoverian possessions of the house of Brunswick. He acquired the other part by his marriage to Sophia Dorothea of Zell (1666–1726) in 1682. They were divorced in 1694, and she remained in seclusion until her death. George's children were George II and Sophia Dorothea (1687–1757), who married Frederick William (later king of Prussia) in 1706 and was the mother of Frederick the Great.

Parliament, seeking to ensure a Protestant line of succession to oppose the claim of the Catholic James Edward Stuart, made George third in line after Queen Anne and his mother. He was supported upon his succession by the Whigs, especially Stanhope, Charles Townshend, and Robert Walpole. The king grew more and more dependent upon his advisers as scandal surrounded him; his supporters turned against him, demanding freedom of action as the price of reconciliation.

Timeline

1714	George I, the first Hanoverian King, succeeds his distant cousin, Anne.
1714	A new Parliament is elected with a strong Whig majority led by Robert Walpole.
1715	The Jacobite rising begins in Scotland intending to place the ‘Old Pretender” James Edward Stuart, heir to James II on the throne. The rebellion is defeated.
1716	The Septennial Act allows for General Elections to be held
1717	Townshend is dismissed from the government by George, causing Walpole to resign
1719	Defoe publishes Robinson Crusoe
1720	South Sea BubbIe bursts, leaving many investors ruined.
1721	Sir Robert Walpole returns to government as First Lord of the Treasury where he remains in office until 1742. He is effectively the first Prime Minister.
1722	Death of the Duke of Marlborough.
1726	First circulating library in Britain opens in Edinburgh, Scotland.
1726	Jonathan Swift publishes Gulliver’s Travels.
1727	Death of the scientist, Isaac Newton.
1727	George I dies in Hanover, aged 67.