Posted by Nellie on February 28, 2015, 12:50 am, in reply to "The Hanoverian Claim"
Information from George III & Queen Charlotte, Patronage, Collecting and Court Taste edited by Jane Roberts, Royal Collection Publications, 2004
The will divided her jewels in three groups - 1. The hereditary jewels from the collection of George II 2. The jewels 'Presented to me by the Nabob of Arcot' 3. The Queen's remaining jewels.
Re 1. - During the Jacobite uprising of 1745 George II had sent many important jewels to Hanover for safe keeping; in 1760 these were inherited by George III and were brought back to England. The jewels which had remained in England were bequeathed by George II to his second son, William, Duke of Cumberland, who sold them to his nephew, George III, for ₤54,900. The jewels suitable for female attire, from both sources, were presented to Queen Charlotte by George III prior to her wedding on 8 September 1761, as 'his gift to her and . . . her own to do whatever she pleased with.'
According to Queen Charlotte's 1818 will, the jewels would pass to George III should he 'be restored to a sound state of mind', and if not, 'to the House of Hanover, to be settled upon it, and considered as an Heir Loom, in the Direct Line of Succession of that House as established by the Laws and Constitution of the House of Hanover'. The collection thus passed to George IV.