11 June: George II

On this date in 1727 George II acceded to the throne of Great Britain. Here are a few things you may not know about George II.

1. He was the last British monarch born outside Great Britain - he was born and brought up in northern Germany.
2. He might never have been king were it not for the Act of Settlement 1701 and the Acts of Union 1707, which excluded Catholics. About fifty Catholics who were higher up the line of succession were knocked out by this, leaving his grandmother, Sophia of Hanover, next in line to the throne. When she died, his father George I, Elector of Hanover was next in line after the death of Queen Anne.
3. Despite being born in Germany and being heir to the British throne, he spoke only French up to the age of four when he learned German. He learned English and Italian later.
4. He came from a broken home - his father, who would become George I and his mother, Sophia Dorothea of Celle, cheated on each other and in 1694 their marriage was dissolved. She was denied any access to her children after that. It was probably for this reason that George I didn't want his son to have an arranged marriage. He wanted him to have a say in who he was to be married to. Negotiations involving Princess Hedvig Sophia of Sweden fell through. The next possibility suggested was Caroline of Ansbach. George went to her family's summer residence in disguise, using the name "Monsieur de Busch" to check her out. He liked what he saw and the couple married in Hanover in 1705.
5. There was an attempt on his life while he was still Prince of Wales. A would-be assassin attempted to shoot him in his box at the Drury Lane Theatre in December 1716. The assassin missed and killed a guard instead. He was apprehended.
6. George II didn't get on with his father. Possibly the elder George didn't like the fact his son seemed to be more popular than he was. Things came to a head at the Christening of George's second son, Prince George William. George I took it on himself to appoint the Duke of Newcastle, who his son didn't like, as one of the baptismal sponsors for the child. George and the Duke had a row at the christening which resulted in George and Caroline being banished from court while their children remained with the king. Prince George William died when he was three months old.
7. George didn't get on all that well with his son and heir, either. Frederick, Prince of Wales, had been left behind in Germany when his parents went to England and so Frederick and George never even saw each other for 14 years. George left Caroline, not Frederick, in charge of his affairs when he went abroad. Frederick died before his father, according to some sources, after being hit by a cricket or tennis ball. His son became George III when George II died.
8. George II was the last British monarch to lead an army into battle, at Dettingen in 1743.
9. George wasn't the least bit interested in literature, art or science - he much preferred hunting and Playing cards, so he donated the royal library to the British Museum in 1757.
10. On October 25 1760, he drank a cup of hot chocolate, went to the toilet and while he was in there, suffered an aneurysm which ruptured the right ventricle of his heart. He was 76. He was buried next to his wife Caroline and the coffin sides between them were removed to let their remains mingle.

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