George II (1683-1760) was born November 10, 1683, the only son of George I and Sophia. Though devoted to Hanover, of which he was elector, George was more active in the
English government than his father had been. Caroline of Ansbach (whom he married in
1705 and had three sons and five daughters), through the subtle influence she exerted over
him, furthered the ascendancy of the great Whig minister, Sir Robert Walpole.

The early part of his reign was peaceful and notably prosperous. However, just as George had quarreled with his father over personal matters, so his own son Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales, was strongly at odds with the king and became nominal head of the opposition group that ousted Walpole in 1742. In the War of the Austrian Succession, George led his troops in person at the battle of Dettingen (1743) the last time a British monarch did so.

In 1745/46 the last uprising of the Jacobites was suppressed. England was expanding as a commercial and colonial power and clashed with France in India and America as well as in Europe in the complex struggle known as the Seven Years War (1756-63). The principal ministers after the fall of Walpole were Henry Pelham, his brother, Thomas Pelham-Holles, Duke of Newcastle, and William Pitt, later Earl of Chatham, the architect of England's victory in the Seven Years War. George II died of a stroke on October 25, 1760 and was succeeded by his grandson George III.