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Bizarre British Monarchy Facts That Sound Fake

Khalid Elhassan September 13, 2023 32 min

Monarch - England's royal swans — England's royal swans. The New York Times

The Last British Monarch to Personally Lead an Army Into Battle

Monarch - King George II at the Battle of Dettingen — King George II at the Battle of Dettingen. National Army Museum, London

George II (1683 – 1760) was King of Great Britain, Elector of Hannover, and Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire, from 1727 until his death in 1760. As Prince of Wales, he quarreled viciously with his father, King George I, and his residence became a gathering spot for dissidents. As a constitutional monarch, George II exercised little control over British policy, as that was controlled by Parliament. Nonetheless, his was a calm reign, and the British Empire prospered and grew in his years as monarch.

Born in Hannover, George was the last British monarch born outside Great Britain. He was also the last British monarch to personally lead an army into battle. The latter took place in 1743, in the War of the Austrian succession, when George commanded his troops in the Battle of Dettingen against a French army. Other than a scare in 1745, when Jacobins staged a failed rebellion to restore the ousted Stuart Dynasty to the throne, George’s time on the throne was relatively stable.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.