George II

... was born in Hanover, Germany, in 1683 – either at the Herrenhausen Palace or at the Leine Palace, depending on which source you believe.

In 1701 (towards the end of the reign of William III), the Act of Settlement made George's grandmother, Sophia of Hanover, second in line to the British throne, after Princess (later Queen) Anne. (Sophia was the grand–daughter of James I of England, via his daughter Elizabeth; she had ten elder siblings, but was the pre–eminent Protestant in the succession.)

Sophia died in June 1714, and Queen Anne died on 1 August of the same year, leaving Sophia's son George, the Elector of Hanover (who was born in Hanover in 1660) to succeed her as George I of Great Britain. He died in 1727, and his son succeeded him as George II.

George II's eldest son, Frederick, was born in Hanover in 1707. He died in 1751, aged 44, when he was Prince of Wales. His death has in the past been attributed to a burst lung abscess, caused by a blow from a cricket ball or a real tennis ball, but it is now thought to have been caused by a pulmonary embolism.

Frederick's eldest son – another George, destined to become George III of Great Britain – was born at Norfolk House, St. James's Square, London, in 1738. Norfolk House had been built in 1722 for the Duke of Norfolk, who loaned it to the royal family from 1737 to 1741 as a residence for the Prince of Wales.

In 1760, George II suffered the indignity of dying on the toilet. He was succeeded by his grandson as George III, who thus became the first Hanoverian king to have been born in Great Britain.