THE ILLUSTRIOUS HOUSE of HANOVER Ann Lyon
Plymouth Law and Criminal Justice Review (2015) 1 THE ILLUSTRIOUS HOUSE OF HANOVER Ann Lyon1 The illustrious House of Hanover, And Protestant succession To them obedience do I swear While they can hold possession And in my faith and loyalty, I never more will falter And George my lawful king shall be! Until the times do alter. Anon. The Vicar of Bray, eighteenth-century satirical song Abstract The Hanoverian kings have attracted none of the affection the popular imagination accords to the Tudors and Stuarts, still less the romanticism. They are dismissed as a boorish bunch of Germans, with the possible exception of George III, who went mad and lost America, and perhaps George IV, who left the Brighton Pavilion as a monument to extravagance and had a decidedly colourful matrimonial history. When a reporter described the Queen as a 'scowly, jowlly Hanoverian', he was not being complimentary, and even Diana Princess of Wales once attributed many of her problems to marrying into a ‘German’ family. The truth is, as usual, more complex and infinitely more interesting, but, regrettably, little official notice is being taken of the 300th anniversary of the Hanoverian succession this year. This article seeks to redress the balance a little. Keywords: House of Hanover, royal succession, constitutional history, Act of Settlement Introduction Apart from a diversion through the female line in the person of Queen Victoria, and a change of name to Windsor, the House of Hanover has remained in place since 1714, to become the most enduring dynasty to
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