BRUNSWICK, House of, a royal German house, the true founder of which was Albert Azo II, Marquis of Reggio and Modena, a descendant, by the female line, of Charlemagne, who had also extensive domains in Lombardy, and in 1047 married Cunigunda, heiress of the counts of Altorf, and thus united the two houses of Este and Guelph. The previous his tory of the Este family is uncertain. Guelph, the son of Azo, was created Duke of Bavaria, in 1071. He married Judith of Flanders, who was descended from Alfred the Great of Eng land. The most powerful of this line was Henry the Proud, who succeeded in 1125, and by his marriage with the daughter of Lotharius II acquired Brunswick and Saxony. Bruns wick ultimately fell to a younger branch of the family, and Otho, the great-grandson of Henry by this branch, was the first whp bore the title of Duke of Brunswick (1235). John, eldest son of Otho, founded the house of Lune burg. Albert the Great, a younger son of Otho,. conquered Wolfenbiittel, and on his death (1278) his three sons divided his dominions. Henry founded the house of Grubenhagen, Al bert became Duke of Brunswick and William Duke of Brunswick-Wolf enbiittel. Henry Ju lius, of this last branch, inherited Grnbenhagen. (1596). Ernst of Zell, of the second branch, who succeeded (1532), conquered the territories of Wolfenbiittel, and left two sons, by whom' the family was divided into the two branches of Brunswick-Wol f enbiittel (It) or Brunswick Luneburg, and Brunswick-Hanover, from the latter of which .comes the present royal family of Great Britain. The former was the German family in possession of the duchy of Bruns wick down to 1884, when this line became eie-' tinct on the death of the last duke, Wilhelm I, who ascended the throne of the duchy in 1831.
Ernst Augustus, of the Brunswick-Hanover house, was created Elector of Hanover in 1692. He married. Sophia, daughter of Eliza-' beth, the daughter of James I of England.
Their son George succeeded his father as Elector of Hanover in 1698, and was called to the throne of Great Britain as George I in 1714, under the Act of Settlement of 1701, which in vested the succession in the heirs of the Princess. Sophia, being Protestants, The British sover eigns continued to rule Hanover till the acces sion of Victoria, when the Duke of Cumber land succeeded. The present Duke of Cumber land, titular Duke of Brunswick and King of Hanover, would have become ruler of Bruns wick but for the events which transferred Hanover to Prussia; and Prince Albert of Prussia was elected regent of Brunswick in stead. On the latter's death in 1906, the Duke of Cumberland proposed the renunciation of the throne for himself and his eldest son, on con dition that Ernst August, his second son, should succeed. The offer was not accepted and the Duke of Mecklenberg became Regent. In 1913 Ernst August married the daughter of Wilhelm II, Emperor of Germany, and Brunswick was given him on condition of his renouncing all' claims to Hanover. Consult Fitzmaurice, 'Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Bruns wick' (London 1901) and Heinemann, (Ge schichte von Braunschweig and Hanover'. (Gotha 1882-92); Knoll and Bode, Was Her zogthum Braunschweig' (1897).