52 Facts About George II of Great Britain

George II of Great Britain had a difficult relationship with his eldest son, Frederick, who supported the parliamentary opposition.

Prince Frederick died suddenly in 1751, before his father, and George was succeeded by Frederick's eldest son, George III.

George II of Great Britain was born in the city of Hanover in Germany, followed by his sister, Sophia Dorothea, three years later.

George II of Great Britain was confined to Ahlden House and denied access to her two children, who probably never saw their mother again.

Consequently, after his grandmother and father, George II of Great Britain was third in line to succeed Anne in two of her three realms.

George II of Great Britain was naturalized as an English subject in 1705 by the Sophia Naturalization Act, and in 1706 he was made a Knight of the Garter and created Duke and Marquess of Cambridge, Earl of Milford Haven, Viscount Northallerton, and Baron Tewkesbury in the Peerage of England.

George II of Great Britain's father did not want his son to enter into a loveless arranged marriage as he had and wanted him to have the opportunity of meeting his bride before any formal arrangements were made.

The English envoy to Hanover, Edmund Poley, reported that George II of Great Britain was so taken by "the good character he had of her that he would not think of anybody else".

George II of Great Britain was keen to participate in the war against France in Flanders, but his father refused to let him join the army in an active role until he had a son and heir.

In early 1707 George II of Great Britain's hopes were fulfilled when Caroline gave birth to a son, Frederick.

In 1708 George II of Great Britain participated in the Battle of Oudenarde in the vanguard of the Hanoverian cavalry; his horse and a colonel immediately beside him were killed, but George II of Great Britain survived unharmed.

The British commander, Marlborough, wrote that George II of Great Britain "distinguished himself extremely, charging at the head of and animating by his example [the Hanoverian] troops, who played a good part in this happy victory".

London was like nothing George II of Great Britain had seen before; it was 50 times larger than Hanover, and the crowd was estimated at up to one and a half million spectators.

George II of Great Britain courted popularity with voluble expressions of praise for the English, and claimed that he had no drop of blood that was not English.

George II of Great Britain made a royal progress through Chichester, Havant, Portsmouth, and Guildford in southern England.

The King was angered when George II of Great Britain, who disliked Newcastle, verbally insulted the Duke at the christening, which the Duke misunderstood as a challenge to a duel.

On one occasion, they secretly visited the palace without the approval of the King; Caroline fainted and George II of Great Britain "cried like a child".

George II of Great Britain was disillusioned with the terms of the reconciliation; his three daughters who were in the care of the King were not returned and he was still barred from becoming regent during the King's absences.

George II of Great Britain came to believe that Walpole had tricked him into the rapprochement as part of a scheme to regain power.

George II decided not to travel to Germany for his father's funeral, which far from bringing criticism led to praise from the English who considered it proof of his fondness for England.

George II of Great Britain suppressed his father's will because it attempted to split the Hanoverian succession between George II's future grandsons rather than vest all the domains in a single person.

Critics supposed that George II hid the will to avoid paying out his father's legacies.

George II of Great Britain asked Compton, rather than Walpole, to write his first speech as king, but Compton asked Walpole to draft it.

Walpole commanded a substantial majority in Parliament and George II of Great Britain had little choice but to retain him or risk ministerial instability.

Historians generally believe that George played an honorific role in Britain, and closely followed the advice of Walpole and senior ministers, who made the major decisions.

George II of Great Britain lent Walpole support by dismissing the bill's opponents from their court offices.

George II's relationship with his son Frederick, Prince of Wales, worsened during the 1730s.

When George visited Hanover in the summers of 1729,1732 and 1735, he left his wife to chair the regency council in Britain rather than his son.

The Prince of Wales put it about that the King was dying, with the result that George II of Great Britain insisted on getting up and attending a social event to disprove the gossip-mongers.

Parliament voted against the measure, but George II of Great Britain reluctantly increased his son's allowance on Walpole's advice.

George II of Great Britain banished him and his family from the royal court, much as his own father had done to him, except that he allowed Frederick to retain custody of his children.

George II of Great Britain was deeply affected by her death, and to the surprise of many displayed "a tenderness of which the world thought him before utterly incapable".

Johann Ludwig was born while Amalie was still married to her husband, and George II of Great Britain did not acknowledge him publicly as his own son.

Against Walpole's wishes, but to George's delight, Britain reopened hostilities with Spain in 1739.

George II of Great Britain spent the summers of 1740 and 1741 in Hanover, where he was more able to intervene directly in European diplomatic affairs in his capacity as elector.

George II of Great Britain was replaced by Spencer Compton, Lord Wilmington, whom George had originally considered for the premiership in 1727.

George II of Great Britain agreed to send 12,000 hired Hessian and Danish mercenaries to Europe, ostensibly to support Maria Theresa.

George II of Great Britain personally accompanied them, leading them to victory, thus becoming the last British monarch to lead troops into battle.

George II of Great Britain asked Lord Bath and Carteret to form an administration, but after less than 48 hours they returned the seals of office, unable to secure sufficient parliamentary support.

Pelham returned to office triumphant, and George II of Great Britain was forced to appoint Pitt to the ministry.

When Frederick died unexpectedly in 1751, his eldest son, Prince George II of Great Britain, became heir apparent.

George II of Great Britain said his son had "ruined me and disgraced himself".

William, by his own choice, resigned his military offices, and George II of Great Britain revoked the peace deal on the grounds that the French had infringed it by disarming Hessian troops after the ceasefire.

George II of Great Britain left instructions for the sides of his and his wife's coffins to be removed so that their remains could mingle.

George II of Great Britain donated the royal library to the British Museum in 1757, four years after the museum's foundation.

George II of Great Britain had no interest in reading, or in the arts and sciences, and preferred to spend his leisure hours stag-hunting on horseback or playing cards.

George II of Great Britain served as the Chancellor of the University of Dublin between 1716 and 1727; and in 1754 issued the charter for King's College in New York City, which later became Columbia University.

Nevertheless, in the memoirs of contemporaries such as Lord Hervey and Horace Walpole, George II of Great Britain is depicted as a weak buffoon, governed by his wife and ministers.

Biographies of George II of Great Britain written during the nineteenth and first part of the twentieth century relied on these biased accounts.

Since the last quarter of the twentieth century, scholarly analysis of surviving correspondence has indicated that George II of Great Britain was not as ineffective as previously thought.

George II of Great Britain was often able to prevent the appointment of ministers or commanders he disliked, or sideline them into lesser offices.

When George II of Great Britain became Prince of Wales in 1714, he was granted the royal arms with an inescutcheon of gules plain in the Hanoverian quarter differenced overall by a label of three points argent.