George V (Georg Friedrich Alexander Karl Ernst August; 27 May 1819 – 12 June 1878) was the last king of Hanover, reigning from 18 November 1851 to 20 September 1866. The only child of King Ernest Augustus and Queen Frederica, he succeeded his father in 1851. George's reign was ended by the Austro-Prussian War, after which Prussia annexed Hanover.
George spent his childhood in Berlin and in Great Britain. He lost the sight of one eye following a childhood illness in 1828,[2] and in the other eye following an accident in 1833.[3] His father had hoped that the young prince might marry his cousin, the future Queen Victoria, who was older by three days, thus keeping the British and Hanoverian thrones united. However, nothing came of the plan.[4]
Crown Prince
Upon the death of King William IV and the accession of Queen Victoria to the British throne, the 123-year personal union of the British and Hanoverian thrones ended because Hanover's semi-Salic law prevented a woman from ascending its throne. The Duke of Cumberland succeeded to the Hanoverian throne as Ernest Augustus, and Prince George became the Crown Prince of Hanover. As a legitimate descendant of George III in the male line, he remained a member of the British royal family and second in line to the British throne until the birth of Queen Victoria's first child, Victoria, Princess Royal, in 1840. Since he was totally blind, there were doubts as to whether the Crown Prince was qualified to succeed as king of Hanover, but his father decided that he should do so.[5]
From his father and from his maternal uncle, Prince Charles Frederick of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, one of the most influential men at the Prussian court, George had learned to take a very high and autocratic view of royal authority.[5] During his 15-year reign, he engaged in frequent disputes with the Hanoverian Landtag (parliament).
Unlike his father, the King had a deep aversion to Prussia, which bordered on the Kingdom of Hanover in the west and east. George was generally supportive of the Austrian Empire in the Diet of the German Confederation. He also refused Prussia permission to build the railway line from the Prussian garrison town of Minden to the Prussian naval port in Wilhelmshaven.
Against the decision of his parliament, he refused to agree to the Prussian demand for neutrality and thus a break with the German Confederation in the upcoming German War, but joined the other loyal central states.[7] As the Austro-Prussian War started, the Prussian government sent a dispatch on 15 June 1866 demanding that Hanover enter into an alliance with them and Hanoverian troops submit to their authority or face war.[8] Despite previously having concluded that Hanover could not win an armed confrontation with Prussia, George remained protective of his throne and refused the ultimatum.[9] Contrary to the wishes of the parliament, Hanover joined the Austrian camp in the war. As a result, the 20,600-strong Hanoverian Army surrendered on 29 June 1866 following the Battle of Langensalza, although tactically successful but hopelessly outnumbered in soldiers. George V had joined his army headquarters in Göttingen. The Kingdom of Hanover was then occupied by Prussian troops. Austria lost the war and several of its Central German allies were annexed by Prussia, such as the Electorate of Hesse and the Duchy of Nassau. George firmly rejected an abdication in favour of his son Ernest Augustus, as suggested by Queen Marie in order to be able to possibly save the existence of the Kingdom.
The Prussian government formally annexed Hanover on 20 September 1866, despite the King of Prussia, William I, being a first cousin of King George V of Hanover; their mothers were sisters. The deposed King never renounced his rights to the defunct throne or acknowledged Prussia's actions. He went into exile in Austria. While the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I successfully campaigned for the continuation of the Kingdom of Saxony at the Prague peace negotiations, he did nothing to prevent the annexation of Hanover.[10] The Prussian interest in the land bridge between the two parts of Prussia seemed to leave him little hope.
Queen Marie with their children stayed at Marienburg Castle (Hanover) for a year, but then followed her husband. They initially lived in Vienna, where George bought a house that is now the Czech Embassy,[11] but in 1868 bought a summer villa in Gmunden, Austria, which they soon used as their main residence.
From exile he appealed in vain for the European great powers to intervene on behalf of Hanover. From 1866 to 1870, George V maintained the Guelphic Legion partially at his own expense, hoping that a Franco-Prussian war would lead to the reconquest of his kingdom.[9] In Paris he had the magazine Situation published, which daily attacked the new order of things in Germany in the most violent terms and fueled France's hatred of a Germany that was becoming more and more Prussian. Much to his disappointment, Napoleon III lost the Franco-Prussian War in 1871.
All of this ultimately led to Prussia suspending financial compensation that had already been promised and confiscating his private assets. The Prussian Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck had the sequestered assets, the so-called Guelph Fund, managed by a special Prussian commission in Hanover and used the proceeds "to combat Guelph activities".[12]
While in exile, he was appointed an honorary full general in the British army in 1876.[13]
George V died at his residence in the Rue de Presbourg, Paris, on 12 June 1878. He had come there to seek financial and political support for a re-establishment of his legion. After a funeral service in the Lutheran Church at the Rue Chaucat,[13] his body was removed to England and buried in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle.[6][14][15]
Legacy
The King supported industrial development. In 1856 the "Georgs-Marien-Bergwerks- und Hüttenverein" was founded which was named after him and his wife. The company erected an iron and steel works which gave the city Georgsmarienhütte its name.[16]
Titles, styles, honours and arms
Titles and styles
27 May 1819 – 20 June 1837: His Royal Highness Prince George of Cumberland[17]
20 June 1837 – 18 November 1851: His Royal Highness The Crown Prince of Hanover[18]
18 November 1851 – 12 June 1878: His Majesty The King of Hanover[19]
By grant dated 15 August 1835, George's arms in right of the United Kingdom were those of his father (being the arms of the United Kingdom, differenced by a label argent of three points, the centre point charged with a fleur-de-lys azure, and each of the other points charged with a cross gules), the whole differenced by a label gules bearing a horse courant argent.[39][40]
He removed the label after his father's death in 1851.[41]
^ abWeir, Alison (18 April 2011). "The House of Hanover". Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy. Random House. p. 291.
^Georg Schnath: Georg V.. In: Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). Vol. 6, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1964
^Heinzen, Jasper. The Guelph 'Conspiracy': Hanover as Would-Be Intermediary in the European System, 1866–1870. The International History Review 29, No. 2 (2007), pp. 258–281.
^ abSchmitt, Hans A. Prussia's Last Fling: The Annexation of Hanover, Hesse, Frankfurt, and Nassau, 15 June – 8 October 1866. Central European History 8, No. 4 (1975), pp. 316–347.
^Barbara Beck: Die Welfen. Das Haus Hannover 1692–1918 (The Guelphs. The House of Hanover 1692-1918). Wiesbaden 2014, p. 155
^Dieter Brosius: Welfenfonds und Presse im Dienste der preußischen Politik in Hannover nach 1866. (Guelph fund and press in the service of Prussian politics in Hanover after 1866). In: Niedersächsisches Jahrbuch für Landesgeschichte (Lower Saxony yearbook for regional history), Vol. 36 (1964), pp. 172–206.
^ abcThe Complete Peerage, Volume III. St Catherine Press. 1913. p. 576. Under "Duke of Cumberland".
^Boase, Frederic Boase (1892). Modern English Biography: A–H. Netherton and Worth. p. 1821.
^Staatshandbücher für das Herzogtum Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha (1843), "Herzogliche Sachsen-Ernestinischer Hausorden" p. 6
^M. & B. Wattel (2009). Les Grand'Croix de la Légion d'honneur de 1805 à nos jours. Titulaires français et étrangers. Paris: Archives & Culture. p. 469. ISBN978-2-35077-135-9.
1 Not a British prince by birth, but created Prince Consort. 2 Not a British prince by birth, but created a Prince of the United Kingdom. Princes whose titles were removed and eligible people who do not use the title are shown in italics.
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