| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
He was born in Copenhagen, a son of King Frederick III of Denmark, and was considered a suitable partner for Anne, Denmark being, like Britain, a Protestant country; at that time, it was not considered likely that Anne would become queen. They were married on July 28, 1683, at St James's Palace, London. George was subsequently created a British subject and a Knight of the Garter, and was given several titles, including Duke of Cumberland.
His marriage to Anne was successful, although from seventeen pregnancies between 1684c and 1700 only one son, William, Duke of Gloucester , survived infancy, only to die of smallpoxSmallpox (also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera is a highly contagious disease unique to humans caused by two virus variants called Variola major and Variola minor. major is the more deadly form, with a typical mortality of 20-40 percent o in 1700Events January 1 Russia accepts Julian calendar. January 1 in around this year, Germany and Denmark- Norway adopt the Gregorian calendar, including the convention that New Year's Day is January 1st. January 26 Massive earthquake hits British Columbia. at the age of eleven.
The social and political grouping centred on Prince George and Princess Anne was known as the 'Cockpit Circle' after the Cockpit, their London residence (on the site of what is now Downing StreetDowning Street is the world-famous street in central London which contains the buildings that have been, for over two hundred years, the official residences of two of the most senior British cabinet ministers, the First Lord of the Treasury, an office hel in WestminsterWestminster is the name of a city that covers much of central London, located to the west of the ancient City of London, and which has been the principal seat of government in England for more than nine hundred years. Both cities, and much of the surround). Anne's older sister Mary (later Queen Mary II) had moved to the Netherlands after her marriage to William of Orange; Protestant opposition to James was therefore increasingly focussed on Anne and George instead of Mary, the heiress apparent. In 1688 the decision of William, Mary, George and Anne to desert the embattled James IIJames II of England and VII of Scotland ( 14 October 1633 16 September 1701) became King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 6 February 1685. He would prove to be the last Catholic monarch to reign over England, Scotland or Ireland. His subjects distrus was instrumental in whittling away the king's legitimacy and paved the way for the Glorious Revolution of 1689, which was led by William and supported by George, at the nominal head of the Lord High Admiral's Regiment, disbanded the following year. The Holland Regiment took its place as 3rd Regiment of Foot with Prince George as its honorary colonel.
William had apparently refused to attend James II's coronation in 1685 because George, as a senior member of a European royal family, would outrank him as elected stadhouder of a republic; this mistrust was overcome during the revolution of 1688-89 but dogged relations between George and William during the latter's reign. Some degree of reconciliation was achieved on Queen Mary's sudden and unexpected death from smallpox in 1694; but George did not play a senior role in government until his wife Anne succeeded William in 1702.
George was an able administrator and military strategist, and as Lord High Admiral, 1702 - 08, officially headed the Royal Navy in support of the military activities of Anne's favourite, the Captain-General Lord John Churchill, first Duke of Marlborough. On his death in 1708, Anne was desolate, and although she refused initially to put the Navy into commission she was unable to bring herself to sign papers in George's stead.
King Charles II, his wife's uncle, famously said of Prince George, on the occasion of his marriage to Anne, 'I have tried him drunk, and I have tried him sober; and there is nothing in him'. He was not seen as one of the most colourful political characters of his day, but he was a skilled strategist and an able administrator, and a loyal and supportive husband to Queen Anne. By all accounts their marriage was a devoted and loving one in spite of their earlier personal tragedies.
His official portrait, signed by Sir Godfrey Kneller, is at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London.