Monarchs of the House of Oldenburg of Great Britain
1714-1737: William IV (1)
1737-1751: George I (2)
1751-1799: William V (3)
1799: Ernest ‘The Four Month King’ (4)
1799-1802: Anne II (5)
1802-1836: Mary III (6)
1836-1856: Alex I (7)
1856-1912: George II (8)
Replaced by Alex II of Plantagenet of Great Britain
(1) Under the Reign of his Mother, Anne, future William IV was a byword for rebellious, youthful royalty by thwarting all the expectations of him from his parents on down. Parliamentarians hoped that he'd take after his father with little interest in politics - instead he often intrigued with the Opposition. William spent most of his reign trying to outshine his Mother, and going the wrong way about it. His needless, costly intervention in the Great Northern War did little apart from kill off Marlborough prematurely for a pyrrhic victory. Investment of royal finances in the South Seas Bubble ruined his standing with Parliament after the re-surging Whigs refused to pay his debt. The 5 years of gridlock until William relented and allowed Walpole to form a Ministry. William spent the rest of his life in austerity, mainly in Scotland where he came up close with '35 Jacobite Rebellion in which he commanded the Army that turned away the Old Pretender at Falkirk. He would die from complications with injuries from the battle two years later.
(2) Unlike his father George was a quiet and calm individual who didn’t care for war and crazy investments instead enjoying Arts, Theatre and the company of other men. Letting the Whigs run most of the affairs of the nation George would spend most of his time funding the artists, poets and playwrights which would include the creation of the Great British Institute of Art in 1745. George’s forays into international affairs were about quietly expanding the influence of Great Britain, including marrying Amalia of Nassau-Orange family in 1738 (an awkward relationship that would bring three children) which would help solidify a new relationship between the historic rivals Britain and the Netherlands against France and Spain. He would also support and fund the aims of the new United East India Company in 1750, a joint Dutch-British company that would dominate trade, control of India and East Asian adventures in the years to come. George wouldn’t see it though, abruptly catching pneumonia in 1751 and dying not long after.
(3) Wanting to emulate his father, William was determined to expand the nascent British Empire and that looked to cause war with France - but when Prussia preemptively attacked Saxony in 1756, William's goverment kept Britain out of the resulting Two Year War. Much like his father, he wanted to avoid a serious conflict. Unfortunately, the end result was the French-led forces dominating the continent and a series of wars in India, the Americas, the Channel, and even the Netherlands, which fell and caused a wave of refugees (a number to Ireland, causing a brief war there). William was popularly portrayed as "the Second Conqueror" but was actually an increasingly morose figure, seeing a reign of nothing but bloodshed. While the wars ended when France was humiliated by the Louisiana Revolution of 1782-4 - and the new republic happily traded with British North America, boosting the colony's standing - William would remain haunted by Britain suffering the same fate as the Dutch until he died in his sleep.
(4) Ernest didn’t want to be King. The now 54 year old King had spent much of his life in the Army taking part in various conflicts before accepting a post as the Governor of British North America. With the death of his older brother who had left no heirs Ernest was hastily made King and whisked back to a broken Britain. Immediately Ernest let it be known that he didn’t want to be King but that he would hold off abdicating until a suitable heir was sorted out from his various daughters. Ernest’s short rule was more about making sure that Britain economy was up and running and also about increasing the standing of British North America which would be given representatives in Parliament. Ernest’s most important policy though was probably making becoming part of the Continental Alliance which include countries like Prussia, the Holy Roman Empire, Denmark, Italy and many more all united in there hatred towards France. After his Four Months as King Ernest abdicated for a suitable heir and he would head back to British North America, to live out his remaining days expanding the colony and make alliances with the various emerging nations there.
(5) Anne was the second daughter but married to Prince Francesco of the Sicilies, and so having her as monarch would help cement the Italian Collective into the Continental Alliance. Greatly disinterested in the role of monarch and having never expected to have to do it, she was happy enough rubber-stamping the actions of Parliament and going to various diplomatic functions across Europe. This was greatly exploited by the Whigs, who were able to talk her into making public approval of the Reform Act of 1801 that expanded the voting franchise and erased some seats. Unfortunately for Whig free reign, Anne contracted pneumonia on one trip to Denmark and died en route home.
(6) Mary was a lot of things, ambitious, cunning and manipulative, she was also the third daughter of Ernest. Upon succeeding her lackadaisical sister she immediately made herself know, she would become firm friends with the Earl Grey who would become Prime Minister of the new Whig Government. Not long after she would marry rather inexplicably to Alexander I of Russia but this was a way to get the Russian Empire into the Continental Alliance. This would all come to ahead with the War of the Continent in 1810 in which the Continental Alliance would slowly crush the Franco-Spanish alliance over the course of four years. In the 1814 Peace Treaty Britain would gain various French Colonies in India and Asia, cause the creation of the Dutch Empire ruled by the new William of Orange (who was married to Mary’s sister Louise) and secure it’s status as one of the growing powers in Europe.
Mary’s rule after that would be about keeping the various rulers of Europe happy whilst increasing the prestige of Britain further with ventures into China and the Pacific. Meanwhile revolutionary trouble at home would be quashed under the leadership of Lord Byron of the Whigs, alongside this advancements in technology from locomotives to continuous industrialisation would make Mary’s reign be seen as a time of great and profound change. By the time of her death from stomach cancer Mary would be seen as one of the greatest British monarchs in recent times and her death greatly mourned.
(7) Alex was definitely the son of Alexander I of Russia. He was just born a bit early. There was definitely not a strained relationship in the palace.
He was his mother's son, trained to be as cunning and manipulative as her, but the sheer size of the Empire and the growing power of parliament & democratic rule meant there was little need for ambition on his part, nor much scope. He instead continued to act as a geopolitical asset and often played games with (increasingly sharp) MPs and the smarter Lords. It was his mix of bribes, lies, and backstabbing that helped a favoured Prime Minister get Irish Home Rule through the Lords and swing the Irish in letting "Prince/Princess of Ireland" be the second-child version of "Prince/Princess of Wales". In a similar act, he married one of the spare princesses of the Empire of Mexico (white, of course) to shore up the American Peace. While other powers began to establish more colonies in Africa, Britain stuck to its existing empire and might, feeling secure in the world.
In the 1850s, things changed: the old Continental Alliance (now France and Spain were too reduced to be a problem) began to fragment as Italy, the Netherlands, and Denmark all wanted to greater expand into Africa and didn't want the other blocking them. Britain felt this wasn't their issue until international trade began to be affected. Alex once again went out to manipulate and wheeler-deal, but this was a new era and the three nascent empires were less willing to listen. Honour and money were at stake and why shouldn't they have what Britain did? When Alex passed away of the same cancer as his mother, it was seen by doomsayers as an omen that the Long Peace (except for those "minor" shooting matches in Asia) was ending.
(8) It has often been said that there is no better metaphor for the vast changes faced by Britain and the globe in the latter half of the nineteenth century than George II. Initially marked for a naval career, George had barely taken his first command before he was catapulted to first in line after his older brother's death from typhoid and less than a year handed the crown after his father's death. No body initially expected much from the Sailor King, but they were to be surprised be his pragmatism, resolution and even-handedness which set him apart from his predecessors and contemporaries.
At first resistant to the idea of part-taking in politics on the scale his father had, George was soon forced to change his mind when he suddenly sacked his Prime Minister, and father's favourite, Lord Palmerston at the height of the Trieste Affair, an act which probably averted Britain from a continental war is was then unequipped to fight. This was to be telling of George's approach to his ministers, seeing himself as the ringmaster of a circus than a chief puppeteer, a skill which became more valuable as the old division between Whig and Tory collapsed. He often butted heads with the two Prime Ministerial giants that people most associate with the era: Randolph Churchill and his Imperial successors to the Tory legacy for their excesses in the pursuit of death or glory in Africa and the 1895 'devil's pact' with the revanchist Bourbon League; lamented the rise of the 'Celtic fringe' and Home Rule fetishism of D.A. Thomas's continuation Whigs; and shuddered as more of the working class took Morris's Commonweal Party seriously.
As a result of the new Political extremes in Britain, more foreigners believed George to be the only sane man in England. This meant he was almost abused by successive governments as an unofficially official Foreign Secretary, with his yachts nicknamed 'the floating Foreign Office'. This suited George just fine as the chance to play sailor meant he didn't have to mourn the naval career he'd been cheated of quite so much, and also travelled to the farthermost corners of his Empire. He became the first reigning monarch to visit North America in 1860 and did not leave the continent for 5 years, often called the most radical of the colonies history. While there he opened the new House of Assembly for the Colonial representatives which stands to this day in Williamsburg, Virginia, signing the Declaration of Freedom which ended for good and all the exceptions America and the Caribbean had to British abolition of slavery and finally accepted the title Emperor of America cementing British rule of everything East of the Mississippi and North of the Great Lakes.
George's Golden jubilee was high mark of the era, as the largest assembly of crowned heads arrived in London to mark the occasion - for many, it would be the last time they assembled for peace. The outbreak of war in 1910 took George, and the most of the world, totally off guard. His diaries account for his usual frustration with his ministers, but also his fellow monarchs, especially his Scandinavian nephew, Christian X. The strain of the war ultimately proved to much for George. Amidst another quarrel with his Prime Minister, Joseph Chamberlain, over his shared surname with the Emperor of Scandinavia, the King was sent to launch the new Argonaut-class, HMS Alex I. Half-way through the ceremony, the King took ill and was rushed to hospital and died of a heart attack during an attempt to remove a stomach ulcer. It fell to his son to win the peace his father had died for.
