House of Hanover but to her uncle, the Duke of Cumberland. In 1901, when Queen Victoria, the last British monarch provided by the House of Hanover, died, her son and heir Edward VII became the first British Monarch of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Edward taking his family name from that of his father, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. After the death of William IV in 1837, the following kings of Hanover continued the dynasty: The Kingdom of Hanover came to an end in 1866 when it was annexed by Kingdom of Prussia and the king of Hanover (and duke of Cumberland) forced
Kingdom of Hanover with some smaller states to form the current state of Lower Saxony in West Germany, later Germany. The territory of Hanover had earlier been a principality within the Holy Roman Empire before being elevated into an electorate in 1708, when Hanover was formed by union of the dynastic divisions of the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg, excepting the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. After his accession in 1714, George Louis of the House of Hanover ascended the throne of Great Britain as George I, and Hanover was joined in a personal union with Great Britain. Descendants of Hanoverians who fought alongside the British in