Sophia Naturalization Act 1705

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 & 5 Ann. c. 16.) in 1705. It followed the Act of Settlement 1701 whereby Dowager Electress Sophia of Hanover and her Protestant descendants were declared to be in the line of succession to the throne (her son George I later became king).

Sophia was not considered to be an Englishwoman as she had not been born in England. This Act naturalised her and "the issue of her body" as English subjects. Naturalisation was restricted to those of the Protestant faith. However, any person born to a descendant of Sophia could also claim to be the "issue of her body".

This was first tested soon after World War II, when Ernest Augustus IV, Prince of Hanover (1914–1987, father of the current Ernst August of Hanover) successfully claimed British nationality on this basis after considerable litigation.

The Act was repealed by section 34 of, and Part II of Schedule 4 to, the British Nationality Act 1948. However, any Protestant descendant of the Electress who had already been born when the repealing statute was enacted had already automatically acquired the status of a British subject, and so there are still people alive today who can claim British nationality under the Sophia Naturalisation Act. That was the case of Ernest Augustus himself, who was only recognized by the Courts as a British subject in 1957, years after the repeal of the Sophia Naturalisation Act. However, the Courts recognized that, as he was born and was a Protestant when the Act was still in force, by that fact he had already acquired citizenship, so that the repeal of the statute did not affect his situation.

See also

• History of British nationality law

External links

• Sophia Naturalization Act