The Kingdom of Hanover (German: Königreich Hannover) was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic era.

Since its monarch resided in London, a viceroy, usually a younger member of the British royal family, handled the administration of the Kingdom of Hanover.

The personal union with the United Kingdom ended in 1837 upon the accession of Queen Victoria because semi-Salic law prevented females from inheriting the Hanoverian throne while a dynastic male was still alive.

The Treaties of Tilsit in 1807 joined it to territories from Prussia and created the Kingdom of Westphalia, ruled by Napoleon's youngest brother, Jérôme Bonaparte.

The Battle of Leipzig, shortly thereafter, spelled the definitive end of the Napoleonic client states, and the electorate was restored to the House of Hanover.

The new kingdom was also greatly expanded and became the fourth-largest state in the German Confederation (behind Prussia, Austria and Bavaria) and the second-largest in northern Germany.

Having succumbed to dementia prior to the elevation of Hanover, it is unlikely that he ever understood that he had gained an additional kingship, and he took no role in its governance.

When Queen Victoria succeeded to the British throne in 1837, the 123-year personal union of Great Britain and Hanover ended.

Unlike in Britain, semi-Salic law operated in Hanover, prohibiting the accession to the throne by a female if any male of the dynasty had survived.

Ernest Augustus, now the eldest surviving son of George III, succeeded to the throne as King of Hanover.

In 1848, the Lutheran parishes were democratised by the introduction of presbyteries (German: Kirchenvorstände, singular Kirchenvorstand; literally: church boards), elected by all major male parishioners and chairing each congregation in co-operation with the pastor, being before the sole chairman.

After the Prussian conquest in 1866, on 19 September 1866, the day before the official Prussian annexation took place and with the last summus episcopus, King George V of Hanover, in exile, the Kingdom's six consistories joined to form today's still-existing church body, the Lutheran State Church of Hanover.

[5] In 1842, Hanover finally granted equal rights to Jews and promoted to build up Jewish congregations, where this did not already happen earlier, and a superstructure of four regional land-rabbinates.

[7] In 1813, George III was restored to his Hanoverian territories, and in October 1814, they were constituted as the independent Kingdom of Hanover at the Congress of Vienna.

Hanover also annexed territories that had previously been ruled in personal union by its Elector, such as the Duchies of Bremen-Verden and the County of Bentheim.

It lost those parts of Saxe-Lauenburg to the northeast of the Elbe, which was assigned in personal union to Denmark, except the Amt Neuhaus.

The high-bailiwicks were subdivided into bailiwicks (German: Ämter, singular Amt), presided by a bailiff (Amtmann, plural Amtleute).

When the personal union with the United Kingdom ended in 1837 and Ernst August ascended to the crown of Hanover, he replaced their uniforms with Prussian Army-style ones, which included the pickelhaube spiked helmet for his Guard Corps.

During the Austro-Prussian War, the Hanoverian Army fought and defeated the Prussians during its march south towards Austria, at the Battle of Langensalza.

The centre of this coat of arms and royal standard included the original arms of Hanover, which consisted of the two lions of the Brunswick, the rampant lion with hearts of Lüneburg and the horse of Hanover, surmounted by the Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire for the Holy Roman office of Archbannerbearer/Archtreasurer.