Sophia was Electress of Hanover from 19 December 1692 until 23 January 1698 as the consort of Prince Elector Ernest Augustus. She was later the heiress presumptive to the thrones of England and Scotland and Ireland under the Act of Settlement 1701, as a granddaughter of King James VI and I. Sophia died less than two months before she would have become Queen of Great Britain and Ireland. Consequently, her son George I succeeded her first cousin once removed, Queen Anne, to the British throne, and the succession to the throne has since been defined as, and composed entirely of, her legitimate and Protestant descendants.

Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, was Prince of Calenberg from 1679 until his death, and father of George I of Great Britain. He was appointed as the ninth prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire in 1692.