Hesse, Landgraviate of

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HESSE, LANDGRAVIATE OF

HESSE, LANDGRAVIATE OF. The Hessian landgraviate, a precarious political amalgam in the west central part of the Holy Roman Empire, exemplified the changing fortunes of German territorial organization over the early modern period. General notice of the territory's history is usually focused at the apex of its development as a strong, unified principality under Landgrave Philip the Magnanimous (ruled 1509–1567), who played a major role in the Protestant Reformation. Philip's medieval predecessors had ruled various regional configurations shaped and reshaped more by historical contingencies than by any consistent program, and four such units constituted the major divisions of the landgraviate: the two traditional regions of Lower Hesse focused on Kassel, and Upper Hesse consisted of Marburg (contiguous only after inheritance of the county of Ziegenhain in 1437) and the county of Katzenelnbogen, itself divided into two noncontiguous regions around Rheinfels and Darmstadt.

By 1500 these (and other) parts of the landgraviate already formed a unified territorial base for the dynamic politics Philip undertook after 1518 that would leave a singular imprint on European history. After he helped to defeat Franz von Sickingen's "knights' revolt" in 1523, internal noble opposition to strong landgravial rule dissolved, and Philip went on to crush several peasant uprisings in 1525. His introduction of Protestantism in 1526 was notable for charitable and educational achievements (hospitals, preparatory schools, Marburg University) and a moderate stance between Lutheranism and Zwinglianism, but Philip failed in his effort to foster doctrinal accord among Protestants at his Marburg Colloquy of 1529. To resist Charles V's reimposition of Catholicism, Philip helped forge the Schmalkaldic League in 1531 and led its victorious restoration of the deposed Duke Ulrich of Württemberg in 1534. His notorious bigamy of 1540 weakened his leadership in the Protestant camp, however, and exposed him to the imperial ban. After his five-year imprisonment following Protestant defeat in 1547, Philip emerged ill and politically cautious, even as he continued to promote doctrinal compromise among Protestants.

The scandal caused by Philip's bigamy carried fateful consequences for his landgraviate. To appease sons from both of his marriages, he abandoned his original intention of primogeniture, made lesser provisions for the seven illegitimate heirs, and divided his unified territory among the four sons from his first marriage: half went to the oldest, William IV (ruled 1567–1592) in Kassel, a quarter went to Ludwig IV in Marburg, while sons Philip and George I each got an eighth in Rheinfels and Darmstadt, respectively. Although they maintained many common institutions and managed to cooperate, gradually the heirs moved apart, especially on religious issues. Ludwig espoused an orthodox Lutheranism, also embraced by his brother George and nephew Ludwig V in Darmstadt, while his nephew Moritz the Learned (landgrave 1592–1627) moved Hesse-Kassel toward Calvinism. The childless deaths of all but two of Philip's sons brought territorial adjustments and eventual survival of two Hessian landgraviates centered in Kassel and Darmstadt, which engaged in bitter disputes over their joint inheritance of Hesse-Marburg in 1604. Their decades-long conflict merged with the disastrous Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), with its confusing reversals of military and political fortunes, economic devastation, and an estimated 40 to 50 percent population loss for Hesse. As Lutheran Darmstadt tied itself firmly to the emperor's cause and the Calvinist line barely survived political elimination through resolute leadership and alliances with foreign powers, they set patterns for their two distinct histories thereafter.

While they faced similar challenges after 1648—demographic and economic recovery, extreme indebtedness, limited resources—Hesse-Darmstadt and Hesse-Kassel developed rather different profiles as middle-sized German states. The Lutheran landgraviate maintained limited foreign policy objectives within the Habsburg orbit, suffered heavily from Louis XIV's aggression, and never managed debt relief. Nor could the administratively weak territory (organized as ten non-contiguous holdings) assert sovereignty over its collateral line in Hesse-Homburg. While it fostered education and attempted cameralist policies, Hesse-Darmstadt's endemic poverty coexisted with a sometimes flourishing high culture, as at Countess Caroline's court (1765–1774), admired throughout the German states for its musical and literary patronage.

Distinguished for its line of vigorous, highly competent Calvinist rulers, Hesse-Kassel reestablished its sixteenth-century reputation as a well-administered state. Its wartime experience led the seventeenth-century landgraves to enlarge their armies and to supplement their limited resources by leasing troops to other rulers, a common practice that they exploited consistently and successfully. From the 1680s onward this military trade enabled the dynasty to assume a subsidiary but noticeable role in European power politics, particularly within Protestant alliances among Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden, and north German states like Brandenburg-Prussia (Hesse-Kassel's closest ally and model). Military and cameralist policies combined to increase resources, provide a modicum of public welfare and tax relief for an overburdened populace, and support the artistic and intellectual patronage that made eighteenth-century Kassel a striking home for Enlightenment institutions.

See also Calvinism ; Germany, Idea of ; Holy Roman Empire ; Lutheranism ; Schmalkaldic War (1546–1547) ; Thirty Years' War (1618–1648).