The King died in 1851, at the age of eighty, and left one son, George, who had been blind from his boyhood.

He was the last King of Hanover, being expelled by the Prussians in 1866.

On the failure of the Ducal line of Brunswick, the grandson of Ernest Augustus became heir to their dominions, he and his sons being now the sole male representatives of all the branches of the House of Brunswick, which a few generations ago was one of the most numerous and widely-spread ruling Houses in Germany.[1] [Footnote 1: Of the daughters of George III., Princess Amelia had died in 1810, and the Queen of Wuertemberg in 1828; two married daughters survived--Elizabeth, wife of the Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg, and Mary, who had married her cousin, the Duke of Gloucester, and lived in England.

There were also two unmarried daughters, the Princesses Augusta and Sophia, living in England.] The Duke of Sussex was in sympathy with many Liberal movements, and supported the removal of religious disabilities, the abolition of the Corn Laws, and Parliamentary Reform.
The Duke of Cambridge was a moderate Tory, and the most conciliatory of all the princes.

But for more than twenty years he took little part in English politics, as he was occupied with his duties as Regent of Hanover, where he did much by prudent reforms to retain the allegiance of the Hanoverians.