Elector of Hanover (1692–1714) and King of Great Britain and Ireland (1714–27). His mother Sophia (1630–1714), a granddaughter of James I, and her issue were recognized as heirs to the throne of England by the Act of Settlement (1701), which excluded the Roman Catholic Stuarts. He succeeded peaceably to the throne on Queen Anne’s death in 1714, and the Jacobite rebellion a year later helped to unite the country behind him. He had little sympathy for British constitutionalism, the need to accept the limitations of Parliament and ministers, and he disliked England, spending as much time as possible in Hanover. But he developed a good command of English, despite his German accent, and his unswerving support for Walpole from 1721 helped to consolidate the supremacy of the Whigs. He ruled without a queen, having divorced his wife, Sophia Dorothea, in 1694.