However, Sophia was of German citizenship. This Act naturalized her, and the "issue of her body", as British subjects.
Thus, descendants of Sophia born after the act was passed could claim to be naturalized British subjects. However, the Act lay dormant until, soon after World War II, Prince Ernst Augustus of Hanover claimed British nationality on the grounds of being the issue of the Electress Sophia's body. The claim was rejected twice by the courts but finally allowed by the House of Lords (Attorney-General -v- HRH Prince Ernest Augustus of Hanover [1957] 1 All ER 49). The effects of the 1705 Act had been complicated slightly by the Royal Marriages Act1772, which included a proviso that the marriages of certain descendants of King George II would be null and void unless the consent of the Crown had first been obtained. This does not apply to the descendants of Princesses who have married into foreign families and, as most of George II's descendants were through the female line, the restriction has a limited effect.
Although the Act was repealed in 1949, it is still thought that some descendants of Sophia could lay claim to be a British subject.
Electress Sophia of Hanover (born Sophia, Countess Palatine of Simmern, at The Hague) (October 14, 1630 – June 8, 1714 in Herrenhausen) was the youngest daughter of Frederick V, Elector Palatine, of the House of Wittelsbach, the "Winter King" of Bohemia, and Elizabeth Stuart.
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.
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 Act for the Naturalization of the Most Excellent Princess Sophia, Electress and Duchess Dowager of Hanover, and the Issue of her Body was an Act of the Parliament of England (4 and 5 Ann.
It followed from the Act of Settlement 1701 whereby the descendants of the Electress Sophia of Hanover and heirs, were declared to be in the line of succession to the throne (her son George I later became king).
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