George I of Great Britain
Category:British monarchs\n
George I, George Louis (
May 28,
1660 -
June 11,
1727) was the first
Hanoverian King of the
Kingdom of Great Britain (as well as
King of Ireland) from
August 1,
1714, to
June 11,
1727. George, unlike most
British kings in the past 300 years, did not speak
English -- he spoke
German and was ridiculed by many of his subjects for this and for his succession of German mistresses, earning him the nickname
Geordie Whelps.
George was born on
May 28,
1660 in
Hanover, Germany, and was the son of the Electress
Sophia of Hanover who was a granddaughter of King
James I of England. In
1682, he married Sophia, Princess of Zelle, and they had two children.:
George also had at least three illegitimate children by his mistress
Ehrengard Melusine von der Schulenburg, whom he created sucessively Duchess of Munster and Duchess of Kendal.
George was
elector of Hanover from
1698 until his death in 1727.
George divorced Sophia in
1694. She had committed
adultery with the
Swedish count Philip Christoph von Königsmarck, whose murder at the command of Countess von Platen he seems to have countenanced, but the grounds for the divorce were not George's or Sophia's adultery, but Sophia's alleged "abandonment" of her husband. George had Sophia imprisoned in the Castle of Ahlden, where she remained until her death in
1726.
George's mother died only a few weeks before her cousin, Queen
Anne of Great Britain, and thus it was George who inherited the throne on Queen Anne's death on
August 1,
1714. The Hanoverian ruling family were the closest
Protestant relatives, but they faced opposition from supporters of the
Stuart pretender. An unsuccessful rebellion took place in
1715, in an attempt to put
James Francis Edward Stuart, the son of King
James II of England on the throne. See
Jacobitism.
George never learned to speak
English properly, and divided his time between Britain and his other territory of Hanover. He had a poor relationship with his own son, George, who was created
Prince of Wales shortly after arriving in Britain. The birth of a second grandson in
1717 was the occasion for a family quarrel, and the Prince of Wales was banished from the royal residence along with his wife and children. Some reconciliation was eventually achieved, but they were never on cordial terms.
The fact that George spoke poor English and was frequently out of the country (allied with the fact that he was, in the opinion of most contemporaries, not very intelligent), greatly aided the development of parliamentary and cabinet government. In
1721 Sir Robert Walpole became the King's first minister, and he is generally regarded as the first true
Prime Minister: a minister who was appointed by the King but who held office because he could command a majority in the
House of Commons. The other members of the Cabinet held office at Walpole's pleasure, not the King's. Although later Kings (notably
George III) tried to reverse this shift in power, it proved to be permanent.
George I died at Osnabrück in 1727 from a stroke while on his way to Hanover, where he was buried. His son succeeded him as King
George II of Great Britain.
{| border=2 align="center"\n|-\n|width="30%" align="center" rowspan="2"|Preceded by:
Anne\n|width="40%" align="center"|
King of Great Britain\n|width="30%" align="center" rowspan="3"|Succeeded by:
George II\n|-\n|width="40%" align="center"|King of Ireland\n|-\n|width="30%" align="center"|Ernest Augustus
\n|width="40%" align="center"|Elector of Hanover'''\n|}
\n\n\n\n\n
