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Sophia of the Palatinate (commonly referred to as Sophia of Hanover; 14 October 1630 – 8 June 1714) was made heiress to the crowns of England and Ireland by the Act of Settlement 1701 and, later, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain as part of the Act of Union 1707. Dying before she could become Queen, Sophia, a granddaughter James I of England, passed her claim to the thrones onto her eldest son, George Louis, Elector of Hanover, who ascended them as George I on 1 August 1714 OS.

Born to Frederick V, Elector Palatine, and Elizabeth of Bohemia in 1630, Sophia grew up in the Dutch Republic, where her family had sought refuge after the sequestration of their Electorate during the Thirty Years' War. Sophia's brother Karl Ludwig was, as part of the Peace of Munster, restored to the Palatinate. There, Sophia married, in 1658, Ernest Augustus of Brunswick-Lüneburg. Despite his jealous tempers and frequent absences, Sophia loved him, and bore him seven children to survive to adulthood. Initially a landless cadet, Ernest Augustus succeeded in having the House of Hanover raised to electoral dignity in 1692. Therefore, Sophia became Electress of Hanover, the title by which she is best-remembered. A patroness of the arts, Sophia commissioned the palace and gardens of Herrenhausen and sponsored philosophers, such as Gottfried Leibniz and John Toland.

Early life
A daughter of Frederick V, Elector Palatine, and Elizabeth Stuart, collectively referred to as the "Winter King and Queen of Bohemia", for their short rule in that country, Sophia was born in Weanner Hof, The Hague, Dutch Republic, where her parents fled into exile after the Battle of White Mountain. At birth, Sophia was granted an annuity of 40 thalers by the Estates of Friesland. Sophia was courted by her first cousin Charles II Stuart, but she rebuffed his advances as she thought a marriage to a dispossessed prince would be disadvantageous.

Marriage
Before her marriage, Sophia, as the daughter of Frederick V, Elector Palatine of the Rhine, was referred to as Sophie, Princess Palatine of the Rhine, or as Sophia of the Palatinate.

On 30 September 1658, Sophia married Ernest Augustus, at Heidelberg, who in 1692 became the first Elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg. Ernst August was a second cousin of Sophia's mother Elizabeth Stuart, as they were both great grandchildren of Christian III of Denmark.

Sophia became a friend and admirer of Gottfried Leibniz while he was a courtier to the House of Brunswick, from 1676 until his death in 1716, and a librarian at Hanover. This friendship resulted in a substantial correspondence, first published in the nineteenth century (Klopp 1973), that reveals Sophia to have been a woman of exceptional intellectual ability and curiosity. She was well read in the works of René Descartes and Baruch Spinoza. She encouraged her husband, brother and sons to read Spinoza and popularized his works at court.4

Sophia commissioned significant work on the Herrenhausen Gardens surrounding the palace at Herrenhausen, where she died.

Motherhood
Sophia had several children. Those who reached adulthood were:
 * George I of Great Britain (1660-1727)
 * Friedrich August of Brunswick and Lunenburg, Imperial General, (1661-1691)
 * Maximilian Wilhelm of Brunswick and Lunenburg, field marshal in the Imperial Army, (1666-1726)
 * Sophia Charlotte, Queen in Prussia (1668-1705)
 * Karl Philipp of Brunswick and Lunenburg, colonel in the Imperial Army, (1669-1690)
 * Christian of Brunswick and Lunenburg, (1671-1703)
 * Ernst August II of Brunswick and Lunenburg, Duke of York and Albany, became bishop of Osnabrück (1674-1728)

Sophia was absent for almost a year, 1664–5, during a long and convalescent holiday in Italy, but she corresponded regularly with her sons' governess and took a great interest in her sons' upbringing, even more so on her return. After Sophia's tour, she bore Ernest Augustus another four sons and a daughter. In her letters, Sophia describes her son as a responsible, conscientious child who set an example to his younger brothers and sisters.

Sophia was at first against the marriage of her son and Sophia Dorothea of Celle, looking down on Sophia Dorothea's mother (who was not of royal birth) and concerned by Sophia Dorothea's legitimated status, but was eventually won over by the advantages inherent in the marriage.

Heiress of the crowns
In September 1700, Sophia met her cousin, King William III of England, at Loo. Just two months before their meeting, Prince William of Denmark and Norway, King William III's nephew and son of the future Queen Anne, died. Given ailing William's reluctance to remarry, inclusion of Sophia in the line of succession was becoming more likely.

A year later, Parliament passed the Act of Settlement 1701 declaring that, in the default of legitimate issue from Anne or William III, the crowns were to settle upon "the most excellent princess Sophia, electress and duchess-dowager of Hanover" and "the heirs of her body, being Protestant". The key excerpt from the Settlement, naming Sophia as heiress presumptive reads:

Therefore for a further Provision of the Succession of the Crown in the Protestant Line We Your Majesties most dutifull and Loyall Subjects the Lords Spirituall and Temporall and Commons in this present Parliament assembled do beseech Your Majesty that it may be enacted and declared and be it enacted and declared by the Kings most Excellent Majesty by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spirituall and Temporall and Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same That the most Excellent Princess Sophia Electress and Dutchess Dowager of Hannover Daughter of the most Excellent Princess Elizabeth late Queen of Bohemia Daughter of our late Sovereign Lord King James the First of happy Memory be and is hereby declared to be the next in Succession in the Protestant Line to the Imperiall Crown and Dignity of the forsaid Realms of England France and Ireland with the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging after His Majesty and the Princess Anne of Denmark and in Default of Issue of the said Princess Anne and of His Majesty respectively.

Sophia was made heiress presumptive for the purpose of cutting off any claim by the Catholic James Francis Edward Stuart, who would otherwise have become James III & VIII, as well as denying the throne to many other Catholics and spouses of Catholics who held a claim. The act restricts the British throne to the "Protestant heirs" of Sophia of Hanover who have never been Catholic and who have never married a Catholic. Some British politicians attempted several times to bring Sophia to England in order to enable her to immediately assume the government in the event of Anne's death. It was also argued that such a course was necessary to ensure Sophia's succession, for Anne's Roman Catholic half-brother was significantly closer to London than Sophia. The electress was eager to move to London, but the proposal was denied, as such action would mortally offend Anne who was strongly opposed to a rival court in her kingdom. Anne might have been aware that Sophia, who was active and lively despite her old age, could cut a better figure than herself. Sophia was completely uncertain of what would happen after Anne's death, saying: "What Parliament does one day, it undoes the next."

When the law was passed in 1701, Sophia (age 71), five of her children (ages 35 to 41), and three legitimate grandchildren (ages 14 to 18) were alive. Although Sophia was in her seventy-first year, older than Anne by thirty-five years, she was very fit and healthy, and invested time and energy in securing the succession either for herself or her son. Currently, there are more than 5,000 legitimate descendants of Sophia, although not all are in the line of succession. The Sophia Naturalization Act 1705 granted the right of British nationality to Sophia's non-Catholic descendants; the Act was repealed by the British Nationality Act 1948.

Death and legacy
Although considerably older than Queen Anne, Sophia enjoyed much better health. In June 1714, Sophia was walking in the gardens of Herrenhausen when she ran to shelter from a sudden downpour of rain and collapsed and died, aged 83. Just a few weeks later, Anne died at the age of forty-nine, so Sophia came near to inheriting the British throne; and if she had done so, she would have been the oldest person to become British monarch.

Upon Sophia's death, her eldest son Elector Georg Ludwig of Hanover (1660–1727) became heir presumptive in her place, and weeks later, succeeded Queen Anne as George I. Sophia's daughter Sophia Charlotte of Hanover (1668-1705) married Frederick I of Prussia, from whom the later Prussian kings and German emperors descend. The connection between the German emperors and the British royal family, which was renewed by several marriages in future generations, would become an issue during World War I.

Titles and styles

 * 14 October 1630 – 30 September 1658: Her Serene Highness Princess Sophia of the Palatine
 * 30 September 1658 – 18 December 1679: Her Serene Highness Duchess Sophia of Brunswick-Lüneburg
 * 18 December 1679 - October 1692: Her Serene Highness The Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg
 * October 1692 - 23 January 1698: Her Most Serene Highness The Electress of Hanover
 * 23 January 1698 – 8 June 1714: Her Most Serene Highness The Dowager Electress of Hanover