This is one of the series of forty-nine portrait miniatures (420431-420679; Royal Collection) of German and other forebears of the Hanoverian dynasty which were first recorded hanging in Queen Caroline's Closet at Kensington Palace by George Vertue in 1743.

The series can be dated fairly narrowly by internal evidence to the years between 1593-7 and appears to be the work of a single as yet unidentified miniature painter who worked mainly at the Brunswick-Lüneburg court but also visited Brandenburg and other centres. The artist was a naïve successor to the tradition of German court portraiture established by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553) at the court of the Elector of Saxony at Wittenberg.

The central figure in the set is William IV the Younger, son of Ernest I (420435) who is depicted with his fifteen children and with the consorts of his daughters. He succeeded his brother, Francis Otto, as Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg in 1559 and in 1561 married Dorothea (1546-1617), daughter of Christian III of Denmark.Two of his sons, George William, Duke of Celle, and Ernest Augustus, Elector of Hanover, were the grandfathers of George II.

Inscribed at the top in white: WILHELM DER JŰNGER HERZOG ZU BRAUNS: UND LUNEB:

Text adapted from The First Georgians: Art and Monarchy 1714-1760, London, 2014.