Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg

Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg Electorate of Hanover Churfürstentum Braunschweig und Lüneburg Kurfürstentum Hannover or Kurhannover
State of the Holy Roman Empire
←   ←   ← 1708–1803 1813–14 interrupted by Westphalia/First French Empire   →
Flag Coat of arms
The Electorate of Hanover in 1789.
Capital	Hanover
Government	Monarchy
Elector
- 1708-1727	George I Louis
- 1727-1760	George II Augustus
- 1760-1814	George III
History
- Elevation to Electorate	1692
- Formally approved	1708
- Battle of Nations	October 19, 1813
- Congress of Vienna	October 12, 1814

The Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg (informally the Electorate of Hanover; German: Churfürstentum Braunschweig und Lüneburg, colloquially Kurfürstentum Hannover or simply Kurhannover) was the ninth Electorate of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. It was a monarchy in Northern Germany, ruled by the House of Hanover, cadet branch of the House of Welf, which then ruled and earlier had ruled a number of principalities, which had several times been partitioned among several heirs from an earlier unitary territory named Brunswick-Lüneburg after the pertaining cities of Braunschweig (Brunswick) and Lüneburg (Lunenburg). The electorate comprised territories held by the dynastic line of Calenberg. With the ascension of its prince-elector as King of Great Britain in 1714, it became ruled in personal union with Britain and thus deeply involved into British foreign policy. However, as to the interior it remained a separately ruled territory with its own government and bodies. In 1814, it was transformed into the Kingdom of Hanover, with the personal union with the British crown lasting until 1837.

Official name and other name versions

In 1692, Emperor Leopold I elevated Duke Ernest Augustus of the Brunswick-Lüneburg line of Calenberg, to the rank of prince-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 until the approval of the Imperial Diet in 1708. Then George I Louis had already succeeded his late father and furthermore had inherited the Principality of Lüneburg, whose dynastic line was extinct in 1705. Calenberg's capital Hanover became colloquially eponymous for the electorate; however, officially it used the name of the entire ducal dynasty. In 1700 the territories forming the electorate introduced - like all Protestant territories of imperial immediacy - the Improved Calendar, as it was called by Protestants, in order not to mention the name of Pope Gregory XIII. So Sunday, the 18 February of Old Style was followed by Monday, the 1 March New Style.

History

Main article: History of Hanover

Link with Britain

In 1714, George Louis became king of Great Britain, so that the electorate and Great Britain were ruled in personal union. The possessions of the electors grew in Germany as well, as they de facto purchased the formerly Swedish-held duchies of Bremen and Verden in 1719. In 1728 Emperor Charles VI officially enfeoffed George II Augustus, who in 1727 had succeeded his father George Louis, with the reverted fief of Saxe-Lauenburg, which had de facto been ruled in personal union with Hanover and its one preceding Principality of Lüneburg since 1689.

Sketch map of the Electorate, ca. 1720, and its neighbouring territories, among others the ducal Principality of Brunswick and Lunenburg (Wolfenbüttel). George I Louis acquired Saxe-Lauenburg (by feoffment 1727) and Bremen-Verden (de facto 1719) for his electorate. George I Augustus gained the Land of Hadeln (1731), in the map the bulk of the beige tip at the Elbe estuary. Under George III the electorate acquired the Prince-Bishopric of Osnabrück (1803).

In 1731 Hanover gained as well the formerly Saxe-Lauenburgian exclave of Hadeln (since 1689 in imperial custodianship), conveying it to Bremen-Verden. It took George II Augustus until 1733 to get Charles VI to also enfeoff him with the Duchy of Bremen and the Principality of Verden, colloquially called Duchies of Bremen-Verden. At both feoffments George II Augustus swore that he would respect the existing privileges and constitutions of the estates in Bremen-Verden and in Hadeln, thus confirming 400-year-old traditions of estate participation in government.

In Hanover, the electoral capital, 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

Further information: Great Britain in the Seven Years War

In the course of the Anglo-French and Indian War (1754–63) on North American colonies Britain feared a French invasion in Hanover. Thus George II Augustus formed an alliance with his Brandenburg-Prussian cousin Frederick II, the Great combining the North American conflict with the Brandenburg-Prusso–Austrian Third Silesian or Seven Years’ War (1756–63).

In summer 1757 the French invaded Hanover and defeated George II's son William Duke of Cumberland, leading the Anglo-Hanoverian army, at the Battle of Hastenbeck and drove him and his army into remote Bremen-Verden, where in the former monastery of Zeven he had to capitulate on September 18 (Convention of Kloster-Zeven). But George II Augustus denied his recognition of the convention. In the following year the British army, supported by troops from Brandenburg-Prussia, Hesse-Kassel and the ducal Principality of Brunswick and Lunenburg (Wolfenbüttel) expelled again the occupants.

Hanover remained unaffected for the rest of the war and after its end peace prevailed until the French Revolutionary Wars started. The War of the First Coalition against France (1793–97) with Great Britain-Hanover and other war allies forming the coalition, didn't affect Hanoverian territory, since the first French Republic was fighting on several fronts, even on its own territory. However, men were drafted in order to recruit the 16,000 Hanoverian soldiers fighting in the Low Countries under British command against France. In 1795 the Holy Roman Empire declared its neutrality, comprising Hanover; however, a peace treaty with France was under negotiation until it failed in 1799. Brandenburg-Prussia, however, ended for its part the war with France by the Treaty of Basel (1795), stipulating Brandenburg-Prussia would ensure the Holy Roman Empire's neutrality in all the latter's territories north the demarcation line of the river Main, including the British continental dominions of Hanover, Bremen-Verden, and Saxe-Lauenburg. To this end also Hanover had to provide troops for the so-called demarcation army maintaining the armed neutrality.

Napoleonic era

In the course of the War of the Second Coalition against France (1799–1802) Napoléon Bonaparte urged Brandenburg-Prussia to occupy the continental British dominions. In 1801 24,000 Brandenburg-Prussian soldiers invaded, surprising Hanover, which surrendered without a fight. In April 1801 the Brandenburg-Prussian troops arrived in Bremen-Verden's capital Stade and stayed there until October of the same year. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland first ignored Brandenburg-Prussia's hostility, but when the latter joined the pro-French coalition of armed neutral powers such as Denmark-Norway and Russia, Britain started to capture Brandenburg-Prussian sea vessels. After the Battle of Copenhagen (1801) the coalition fell apart and Brandenburg-Prussia withdrew again its troops.

As part of the German Mediatisation of 25 February 1803, the Electorate received the Prince-Bishopric of Osnabrück in real union, whose every second ruler had been alternately staffed by members of the House of Hanover since 1662.

After Britain — this time without any ally — had declared war on France (May 18, 1803), French troops invaded Hanover on May 26. According to the Convention of Artlenburg (July 5, 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 minister Friedrich Franz Dieterich von Bremer holding up the Hanoverian stake, fled to the trans-Elbian Saxe-Lauenburg, ruled by Britain-Hanover in personal union. Soon later the French also occupied Saxe-Lauenburg.

In autumn 1805, at the beginning of the War of the Third Coalition against France (1805–6), the French occupational troops left Hanover in a campaign against Austria. British, Swedish and Russian coalition forces captured Hanover. In December the Empire of the French, since 1804 France’s new form of government, ceded Hanover, which it didn't hold anymore, to Brandenburg-Prussia, which captured it early in 1806.

On 6 August 1806 the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved, thereby doing away with the function of prince-electors electing its emperors. Thus the title of Elector of Brandenburg became meaningless for the Kingdom of Prussia. After it had turned against France, it was defeated in the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt (November 11, 1806), and France recaptured Hanover.

Following the Treaty of Tilsit in 1807 the new Kingdom of Westphalia was founded, ruled by Napoléon's brother Jérôme Bonaparte, then including territories of the former Electorate of Hesse-Cassel, the ducal Brunswick-Lüneburgian principality Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, and formerly Prussian territories. In early 1810 Hanover proper and Bremen-Verden, but not Saxe-Lauenburg, were also annexed by Westphalia. In an attempt to assert the Continental System the French Empire annexed in late 1810 all the continental North Sea coast (up till Denmark) and the areas along the sections of the rivers navigable for seagoing vessels, including Bremen-Verden and Saxe-Lauenburg and some adjacent territories of Hanover proper.

However, the government of George III did not recognise the French annexation, being at war continuously with France through 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 to countries such as Austria and Prussia, with whom the United Kingdom itself was technically at war. The Hanoverian army was dissolved, but many of the officers and soldiers went to England, where they formed the King's German Legion. The Legion was the only German army to fight continually during the whole Napoléonic wars against the French.

French control lasted until October 1813 when the territory was overrun by Russian Cossack troops, and the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig later the same month spelled the definitive end to the Napoléonic client state of Westphalia, as well as the entire Confederation of the Rhine, after which the rule of the House of Hanover was restored. The former electorate became the Kingdom of Hanover, confirmed at the Congress of Vienna in 1814.

Electors of Hanover

Main article: House of Hanover

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 — as used to be the rule before, having led at times to a multitude of Brunswick-Lüneburgian principalities. Its succession was to follow male primogeniture. Since this was against the Salic law, then valid for the ducal family, the change needed imperial confirmation, which Emperor Leopold I granted in 1692.

In 1692, at the upgrading to the rank of electorate, its territory comprised the Brunswick-Lüneburgian principalities of Calenberg and Grubenhagen, which the line of the former had already inherited in 1665. But until the confirmation of the electorate by the Imperial Diet in 1708 the Calenberg line further inherited the principality of Celle in 1705. Further included were the earlier acquired counties of Diepholz and Hoya.

Although the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved in 1806, George III's government did not consider the dissolution to be final, and he continued to be styled "Elector of Hanover" down to 1814.

Electors of Hanover
Image	Name	Date	Notes
	George I Louis or in British tradition George I	1708–1727	George Louis, son of Ernest Augustus. Became King of Great Britain in 1714. Acquired Bremen-Verden in 1719.
	George II Augustus or in British tradition George II	1727–1760	Son of preceding. Acquired the Land of Hadeln in 1731.
	George III	1760–1814	Grandson of preceding. Became King of the United Kingdom (including Ireland) in 1801. Acquired the Prince-Bishopric of Osnabrück in 1803. He lost, gained, lost again, and regained de facto power in Hanover by various occupations and annexations during the Great French War (1801–1813). Abandoned Electoral title and became King of Hanover in 1814.

References

Further reading

• Ford, Guy Stanton. Hanover and Prussia 1795–1803: a study in neutrality (1903).