Ernest Augustus, King of Hanover
Ernest Augustus was King of Hanover from 20 June 1837 until his death in 1851. As the fifth son of George III of the United Kingdom and Hanover, he initially seemed unlikely to become a monarch, but none of his elder brothers had a legitimate son. When his elder brother William IV, who ruled both kingdoms, died in 1837, his niece Victoria inherited the British throne under British succession law, while Ernest succeeded in Hanover under Salic law, which barred women from the succession, thus ending the personal union between Britain and Hanover that had begun in 1714.
Portrait by Edmund Koken, after 1842
The young Ernest Augustus by Thomas Gainsborough, 1782
Prince Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, c. 1795
Ernest Augustus in an 1823 miniature based on an 1802 portrait by William Beechey
The King of Hanover was the official title of the head of state and hereditary ruler of the Kingdom of Hanover, beginning with the proclamation of King George III of the United Kingdom, as "King of Hanover" during the Congress of Vienna, on 12 October 1814 at Vienna, and ending with the kingdom's annexation by Prussia on 20 September 1866.
Last to reign George V 18 November 1851 – 20 September 1866
Image: George I of Great Britain 1715
Image: British School Portrait of King George II in armour
Image: George, Prince of Wales, later George III, 1754 by Liotard
