Hanover

HANOVER

HANOVER. Hanover was one of the most important territories in the Holy Roman Empire, situated in the Lower Saxon region (Kreis) of northern Germany. It was ruled from the twelfth century by the Guelphs (Welfen), a once-powerful family that declined through frequent dynastic partitions. There were generally two major lines, designated by their principal duchies in Lüneburg and Wolfenbüttel. The latter was initially more important and became more generally known as Brunswick (Braunschweig) by the eighteenth century. Both lines frequently subdivided, with the Lüneburg branch splitting into the duchies of Celle and Calenberg in 1641. Hanover developed from the latter, taking its name from its principal town where the ruling branch set up residence in 1636. The entire area was flat and primarily agrarian, particularly with the decline of the Lüneburg salt springs and the mining region bordering the Harz Mountains after the sixteenth century.

The introduction of the Reformation was violently opposed by Duke Henry of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (ruled 1514–1568) until he was defeated by the Protestant Schmalkaldic League between 1542 and 1547. Thereafter, the Guelphs were solidly Lutheran and hoped to extend their regional influence by secularizing the neighboring prince bishoprics of Hildesheim, Osnabrück, and Paderborn. These ambitions drove them to ally first with Denmark, 1625–1629, and then with Sweden after 1631 during the Thirty Years' War, but they lacked the strength for a truly independent policy and shared the local defeats of their allies. Forced to make peace with the emperor in 1641, the Hanoverians had to be satisfied with partial control of Osnabrück, where their rule alternated with that of a local Catholic bishop.

The groundwork for Hanover's subsequent rise was laid by Duke John Frederick (1625–1679), who seized control of the duchy from his relations in 1665 and initiated a ruthless policy of military expansion, hiring troops to Venice, France, Spain, England, the Dutch Republic, and the emperor. His brother, Ernst August (1629–1698), continued this strategy after 1679, culminating in an alliance with Holy Roman emperor Leopold I. In return for substantial financial and military support against the Ottomans, Leopold made Ernst August an elector (Kurfürst), greatly increasing his prestige and influence within the empire. The ensuing controversy dominated imperial politics into the 1720s when an agreement was reached with the Wolfenbüttel line allowing them to inherit the new title if the Hanoverians died out. The other princes formally recognized it in 1708. Leopold also confirmed Ernst August's introduction of primogeniture, paving the way for his successor, George Louis (1660–1727), to inherit Celle when that line died out in 1705, doubling his territory. Within ten years, the new elector, whose mother was the granddaughter of James I of England, was catapulted into the front rank of European royalty when he inherited the British crown as George I with the backing of the English Parliament in 1714. He continued to pursue a primarily Hanoverian policy, joining the war against Sweden to capture its German possessions of Bremen and Verden in 1715. With the acquisition of the tiny county of Bentheim in 1752, Hanover reached its maximum extent of 10,214 square miles (26,455 square kilometers), and its population climbed slowly to 800,000 by 1803.

While the king-electors still visited Hanover, they became progressively more British than German, leaving government to the local nobles, who had a strong sense of responsibility, self-esteem, and corporate identity. Their rule was slow, orderly and mild. Although the new university at Göttingen, founded in 1734 and opened in 1737, rapidly became a model of enlightened learning, government remained conservative. Hanover remained a strategic liability for Britain until it was seized by France in 1803. The connection to Britain was severed in 1837 when Hanover became an independent kingdom until its annexation by Prussia in 1866.

See also George I (England) ; Hanoverian Dynasty (England) ; Saxony .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Birke, Adolf M., and Kurt Kluxen, eds. England und Hannover =England and Hanover. Munich, 1986.

Chance, John Frederick. George I and the Northern War. A Study of British-Hanoverian Policy in the North of Europe in the Years 1709 to 1720. London, 1909.

Dann, Uriel. Hanover and Britain 1740–1760: Diplomacy and Survival. Leicester, U.K., and Irvington, N.Y., 1991.

Hatton, Ragnhild. George I: Elector and King. Cambridge, Mass., 1978.

Hodgskin, Thomas. Travels in the North of Germany: Describing the Present State of the Social and Political Institutions . . . 2 vols. Reprint. New York, 1969. Originally published Edinburgh, 1820.

Schnath, Georg. Geschichte Hannovers im Zeitalter der neunten Kur und der englischen Sukzession 1674–1714. 5 vols. Hildesheim, 1938–1982.

Peter H. Wilson