Portal:Biography/Selected article/June 23

George I (George Louis; 28 May 1660 – 11 June 1727) was King of Great Britain and Ireland, from 1 August 1714 until his death. He was also the first de facto Prince-Elector of Hanover of the Holy Roman Empire. His father, Ernest Augustus, had been raised to the electorship in 1692, but the title was not ratified until 1708.

George was born in Germany, and eventually inherited control of a large swathe of Lower Saxony. His domains expanded during his lifetime as the result of a succession of European wars. At the age of 54, he ascended the British throne as the first monarch of the House of Hanover. Although many bore closer blood-relationships to the childless Queen Anne, the Act of Settlement 1701, which prohibits Catholics from inheriting the throne, designated her cousin, Sophia of Hanover, as heiress to the throne. Sophia was Anne's closest living Protestant relative but died a matter of weeks before Anne leaving the Protestant succession to her son, George. In reaction, the Jacobites attempted to depose George and replace him with Anne's Catholic half-brother, James Francis Edward Stuart, but their attempts failed. (Read more...)