Sophia of Hannover
De Sophia Naturalization Act, voluit de Act for the Naturalization of the Most Excellent Princess Sophia, Electress and Duchess Dowager of Hanover, and the Issue of her Body is een wet die in 1705 werd aangenomen door het Engelse parlement, die in feite een nadere regeling inhield van de Act of Settlement uit 1701 die regelde dat de protestantse nakomelingen van keurvorstin Sophia van Hannover de Engelse troon zouden erven.
Almost immediately after the adoption of the Act of Settlement, it was realized that Sophia, although designated as the tribal owner of the English royal house, did not possess English nationality. The Naturalization Act, now, ruled that Sophia and all her offspring (issue of her body) would automatically obtain English nationality. This was initially the case of her son George of Hanover, who, nine years after the adoption of this law, would rule the British throne as King George I. Excluded - as in the Act of Settlement itself - only those descendants who were Roman Catholics, or who married someone belonging to the Church. Because the law was no longer a pretext for the automatic acquisition of English, later British citizenship, there was a large company - from non-British nobility, who could claim British citizenship.
The law was abolished in 1948, with the provision that it remained valid for all those born before 1948. The only one who - successfully - appealed to the law was Ernst August, Duke of Brunswijk, recognized in 1957 as a British citizen. According to the Naturalization Act, the Dutch princess and former queen Beatrix (who are on the line Sophia - George I - George II - Augusta Frederika of Hanover - Augusta Caroline of Brunswijk - Paul van Württemberg - Pauline of Württemberg - Helena van Nassau-Weilburg) Emma of Waldeck-Pyrmont - Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands and Queen Juliana of the Netherlands descend from Sophia of Hanover), by law, to British citizenship. Her sister, Princess Margriet of the Netherlands, is in this way British citizen. For their sisters Irene and Christina, this is no longer because they both married Catholic men. In addition, Irene also converted to Roman Catholic faith. For later generations of the Orange House, the law is no longer valid.
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