Hanoverian Accession

Queen Anne died without surviving children in August 1714, and the Act of Settlement directed the crown to the nearest eligible Protestant heirs of Sophia of Hanover. Sophia had died only weeks earlier, so her son George Ludwig, Elector of Hanover, inherited the British throne as George I and founded the British branch of the House of Hanover.

The succession changed court politics as the new royal family, its German household and its British supporters competed for influence. Whig dominance strengthened, Tory figures associated with the previous ministry were displaced or investigated, and the unresolved Stuart claim helped fuel Jacobite opposition.