George V., ex-king of Hanover, born in Berlin, May 27, 1819. He is a son of King Ernest Augustus and of a sister of Queen Louisa of Prussia, and married in 1843 the princess Mary of Saxe-Altenburg. Although an early weakness of the eyes ended in total blindness, he succeeded to the throne on the death of his father, Nov. 18, 1851, and soon created dissatisfaction by his affiliations with eccentric and unpopular courtiers, and by his ultra-conservative principles. Although he was a Protestant and a grand master of freemasons, his Roman Catholic minister Windt-horst persuaded him to favor ultramontanes, • while he engaged a tutor of the same faith for his elder son, and the ex-queen was report-ed in 1871 to have joined the church of Rome. His unstable policy resulted in a perpetual change of ministers, and in 1865 he restored a reactionary cabinet under Bacmeister. Despite his relationship with the Prussian dynasty, and the remonstrances of his most influential favorite, the secretary general Zimmer-mann, he showed a deep aversion for Prussia; and as he ostentatiously sided with Austria at the outbreak of the war of 1866, his territory was invaded by the Prussians in June, and annexed by King William Sept. 20. He fled to Vienna, where he kept up an incessant agitation against Prussia; and as even after he had agreed, in February, 1868, to accept 16,000,000 thalers as an indemnity for his lost kingdom, he persisted in his spiteful attitude, the Prussian government ordered (March 2) the provisional suspension of the payment of that amount.