George V of Hanover
George V, King of Hanover and 2nd Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, Georg Friedrich Alexander Karl Ernst August (
27 May 1819 –
12 June 1878) was the only son of
Ernst August I, King of Hanover and 1st Duke of Cumberland (fifth son of
King George III of the United Kingdom) and his wife
Princess Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. He was a first cousin of
Queen Victoria. He was the last sovereign ruler of the Kingdom of
Hanover and the ancestor of the German branch of the
House of Hanover.
His Royal Highness Prince George Frederick Alexander Charles Ernest Augustus, KG, was born in
Berlin. Originally styled Prince George of Cumberland, he spent his childhood in Berlin and in Britain. He lost the sight of one eye during a childhood illness, and the other in an accident in 1833. His uncle,
King William IV, created him a
Knight of the Garter on
15 August 1835.
Upon the death of William IV and the ascension of Queen Victoria, the 123-year personal union of the British and Hanoverian thrones ended because of the operation of
Salic Law in the German states. The Duke of Cumberland succeeded to the Hanoverian throne as King Ernst August I and Prince George of Cumberland became the Crown Prince of Hanover. As a legitimate male-line descendant of George III, he remained a member of the
British Royal Family and was second in line to the British throne until the birth of Queen Victoria's first child,
Victoria, Princess Royal, in 1841. Being totally blind there were doubts whether the Crown Prince was qualified to succeed to the government of Hanover; but his father decided that he should do so.
The Crown Prince succeeded his father as the King of Hanover and Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, as well as Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale (in the
Peerage of Great Britain) and Earl of Armagh (in the
Peerage of Ireland), on
18 November 1851, assuming the style George V. From his father and from his maternal uncle, Prince Charles Frederick of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1785â€"1837), one of the most influential men at the Prussian court, George had learned to take a very high and autocratic view of royal authority. During his fifteen-year reign, he engaged in frequent disputes with the Hanoverian Landtag (parliament). Having supported Austria in the Diet of the German confederation in June 1866, he refused, contrary to the wishes of his parliament, to assent to the Prussian demand that Hanover should observe an unarmed neutrality during the
Austro-Prussian War. As a result, the Prussian army occupied Hanover and the Hanoverian army surrendered on
29 June 1866, the king and royal family having fled to Austria. The Prussian government formally annexed Hanover on
20 September, but the deposed king never renounced his rights to the throne or acknowledged Prussia's actions. From exile in Gmunden, Austria, he appealed in vain for the European great powers to intervene on behalf of Hanover.
George married, on
18 February 1843, at Hanover, Her Highness Princess (Alexandrine)
Marie of Saxe-Altenburg (
14 April 1818-
9 January 1907), the eldest daughter of Josef, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg, by his wife Duchess Amelia of Württemburg.
King George V died in Paris in June 1878. He was buried in
St George's Chapel,
Windsor Castle.
Titles
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1819-1837:
His Royal Highness Prince George of Cumberland
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1837-1851:
His Royal Highness The Crown Prince of Hanover
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1851-1878:
His Majesty George V, King of Hanover, Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale
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Portrait
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