Electorate of Hanover
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Electorate of Hanover Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg Kurfürstentum Hannover Kurfürstentum Braunschweig-Lüneburg | |||||||||||
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1692–1814 | |||||||||||
Status |
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Capital | George III William Frederick | ||||||||||
History | |||||||||||
• Elevation to Electorate | 1692 | ||||||||||
• Inherited Lüneburg and Saxe-Lauenburg | 1705 | ||||||||||
• Electorate formally approved | 1708 | ||||||||||
1714 | |||||||||||
• Acquired Bremen-Verden | 1715 | ||||||||||
• Merged into Kingdom of Westphalia | 1807 | ||||||||||
• Re-established as Kingdom of Hanover | 1814 | ||||||||||
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Today part of | Germany |
The Electorate of Hanover (
The
The prince-elector of Hanover became
Name
In 1692, Emperor
The electoral coat of arms and flag (see info box upper right of this article) displayed the Saxon Steed (German: Sachsenross, Niedersachsenross, Welfenross, Westfalenpferd; Dutch: Twentse Ros / Saksische ros/paard; Low Saxon: Witte Peerd) is a heraldic motif associated with the German provinces of Lower Saxony and Westphalia, and the Dutch region of Twente as the electorate covered large portions of the original stem Duchy of Saxony.
Geography
The electorate comprised large parts of the modern German state of Lower Saxony in Northern Germany. Beside the Principality of Calenberg it also included the former princely lands of Göttingen and Grubenhagen as well as the territory of the former County of Hoya.
In 1705, Elector
In 1700, the territories forming the electorate introduced, like all other Protestant territories of
History
In 1692, the Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold I, elevated George's son, Duke Ernest Augustus to the rank of elector of the empire as a reward for aid given in the War of the Grand Alliance. There were protests against the addition of a new elector, and the elevation did not become official (with the approval of the Imperial Diet) until 1708, in the person of Ernest Augustus's son, George Louis. Though the elector's titles were properly duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and elector of the Holy Roman Empire, he is commonly referred to as the elector of Hanover after his residence.
Hanover acquired Bremen-Verden in 1719.
The electorate was legally bound to be indivisible: it could add to its territory, but not alienate territory or be split up among several heirs; and its succession was to follow male primogeniture. The territory assigned to the electorate included the Brunswick-Lüneburg principalities of Calenberg, Grubenhagen, and Lüneburg (even though at the time Lüneburg was ruled by Ernest Augustus's older brother) and the counties of Diepholz and Hoya.
Link with Great Britain
In 1714,
George Louis died in 1727 and was succeeded by his son
In 1731, Hanover also gained
In Hanover, the capital of the electorate, the Privy Council of Hanover (electoral government) installed a new ministry in charge of the Imperial Estates ruled by the electors in personal union. It was called the Department of Bremen-Verden, Hadeln, Lauenburg and Bentheim. However, the electors spent most of their time in England. Direct contact with the electorate was maintained through the office of the German Chancery, situated in St James's Palace in London.
Seven Years' War
During the
In the summer of 1757, the
French Revolutionary Wars
After the war ended, peace prevailed until the
Napoleonic era
During the
As part of the
After Britain, this time without any allies, had declared war on France (18 May 1803), French troops invaded Hanover on 26 May. According to the Convention of Artlenburg (5 July 1803), confirming the military defeat of Hanover, the Hanoverian Army was disarmed, and its horses and ammunitions were handed over to the French. The Privy Council of Hanover, with the minister Friedrich Franz Dieterich von Bremer holding up the Hanoverian stake,[clarification needed] fled to Saxe-Lauenburg, across the Elbe, which was ruled by Britain and Hanover in personal union. Soon, the French also occupied Saxe-Lauenburg.
In the autumn of 1805, at the beginning of the War of the Third Coalition against France (1805), the French occupying troops left Hanover in a campaign against Austria. British, Swedish and Russian coalition forces captured Hanover. In December, the French Empire, since 1804 France's new government, ceded Hanover, which it no longer held, to Prussia, which captured it in early 1806.
On 6 August 1806, the
Following the
However, the government of George III did not recognise the French annexation and was at war continuously with France for the entire period, and Hanoverian ministers continued to operate out of London. The Privy Council of Hanover maintained its own separate diplomatic service, which maintained links with countries such as Austria and Prussia. The Hanoverian Army was dissolved, but many of the officers and soldiers went to England, where they formed the King's German Legion. That was the only German army to fight continually throughout the Napoleonic Wars against the French.
French control lasted until October 1813, when the territory was overrun by Russian troops, and the Battle of Leipzig later that month spelled the definitive end to the Napoleonic client state of Westphalia, as well as the entire Confederation of the Rhine, and the rule of the House of Hanover was restored. The former electorate became the Kingdom of Hanover, which was confirmed at the Congress of Vienna in 1814.
Electors of Hanover
The electorate was legally indivisible: it could add to its territory, but not alienate territory or be split up among several heirs, as had been the rule before, which led at times to a multitude of
In 1692, at its upgrading to the rank of electorate, its territory comprised the Brunswick-Lüneburgian principalities of
Although the
Elector | Dates of reign | Succession | Notes | |
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George I Louis Georg Ludwig |
1708–1727 | Son of Ernest Augustus. | Became King of Great Britain and Ireland in 1714. Acquired Bremen-Verden in 1719. | |
George II Augustus Georg II. August |
1727–1760 | Son of George I. | Acquired the Land of Hadeln in 1731.
| |
George III William Frederick Georg III. Wilhelm Friedrich |
1760–1806 | Grandson of George II. | Became King of the Great French War: lost (early 1801), restored (April 1801), lost (May 1803), restored (Autumn 1805), lost (early 1806), and restored (October 1813). .
Although the electoral title became defunct with the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, George did not recognise that dissolution. Proclaimed King of Hanover in early 1814 and was broadly recognised as such during the 1814–1815 Congress of Vienna |
Notes
- ^ During the 18th century, whenever war was declared between Great Britain and France, the French army invaded or threatened to invade Hanover, forcing Great Britain to intervene diplomatically and militarily to defend the Electorate. In 1806, George III even declared war on Prussia after King Frederick William III, under heavy pressure from Napoleon, had annexed George III's German possessions.[2]
References
Citations
- ^ Heide Barmeyer. "Hannover und die englische Thronfolge" (PDF). H-Soz-Kult. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
- ^ Auguste Himly, Histoire de la formation territoriale des États de l'Europe centrale. 1876, vol. 1, pp. 95–96.
- ISBN 978-1-84383-300-0.
- ^ a b Wilson 2016, p. 583.
- ISBN 978-3-8258-7551-0.
Sources
- ISBN 978-0674058095.
- Ford, Guy Stanton (1903). Hanover and Prussia 1795-1803: A Study in Neutrality. Columbia University Press.