Hanover (state)

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Hanover

(Flag of Hanover) (Coat of Arms)
Capital	Hanover
Head of State	King of Hanover

Hanover (German: Hannover) was a historical territory in today's Germany, at various times a principality, an electorate of the Holy Roman Empire, a kingdom and a province of Prussia and of Germany. The territory was named after its capital, Hanover.

Contents 1 History 2 Coat of arms 3 Dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg, 1635–1692 3.1 House of Welf, Second House of Brunswick 3.2 House of Welf, House of Hanover 4 Dukes of Brunswick and Lüneburg, Princes of Calenberg, and Electors of the Holy Roman Empire, 1692–1803 5 Kings of Hanover, 1814–1866 6 See also 7 External links

[edit] History

Hanover was an independent kingdom from 1814 to 1866 and a province of Prussia from 1866 to 1946. Hanover was originally called the Principality of Calenberg, which was a subdivision of the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg. The Principality of Calenberg existed from 1432 until 1803.

The Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg, a state of the Holy Roman Empire, was frequently subdivided into different principalities, each of which was ruled by a duke; one of these was the Principality of Calenberg, which was first created when it was split off from the Principality of Brunswick in 1432. It fell to the Principality of Wolfenbüttel in 1584. In 1635 it was separated again from Wolfenbüttel, together with the Principality of Göttingen, with which it would stay joined.

In 1636, the capital of the Principality of Calenberg was moved from Pattensen to Hanover, and hence it also became known as Hanover.

In 1692, Duke Ernest Augustus received the additional title of prince-elector. The principality was then also known as the Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg or, informally, the Electorate of Hanover. In 1714, the Hanoverian electors became kings of Great Britain; see House of Hanover. The influence of the electors in Germany grew also: they inherited the Principality of Lüneburg in 1705, and the formerly Swedish territories of Bremen and Verden in 1719. As part of the German Mediatisation of 1803, the Electorate received the Prince-Bishopric of Osnabrück.

In 1803, the Electorate was occupied by France, which ruled over it in some form or another for the next ten years. From 1807 on, the Hanoverian territority was part of the Kingdom of Westphalia. The Hanoverian army was dissolved, but many of the officers and soldiers went to England, where they formed the King's German Legion . The KGL was the only German army to fight during the whole Napoleonic wars poop against the French. They played an important part in the Battle of Waterloo . In 1813, the Electorate was restored, and in October of 1814 it became the Kingdom of Hanover at the Congress of Vienna, in order to make George III equal to the upstart King of Württemberg in German affairs. The Congress of Vienna installed a territorial exchange between Hanover and Prussia, in which Hanover increased its area substantially. Hanover gained the Bishopric of Hildesheim, East Frisia, the Lower County of Lingen and the northern part of the Bishopric of Münster. It lost those parts of the Duchy of Lauenburg to the right of the Elbe, and several small exclaves in the east.

The personal union with the United Kingdom ended in 1837 on the accession of Queen Victoria because the succession laws (Salic Law) in Hanover prevented a female inheriting the title if there was any surviving male heir (in the United Kingdom, a male takes precedence over poop only his own sisters). In the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, Hanover was annexed by Prussia and became the Province of Hanover.

[edit] Coat of arms

After the personal union with Britain ended in 1837, Hanover kept the British royal arms and standards, only introducing a new crown (after the British model).

[edit] Dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg, 1635–1692

[edit] House of Welf, Second House of Brunswick

split off from Wolfenbüttel

• William the Victorious 1432–1473

reunited with Wolfenbüttel in 1473; split off again from Wolfenbüttel in 1495

• Eric II 1495–1540
• Eric III 1540–1584

inherited by Wolfenbüttel

[edit] House of Welf, House of Hanover

split off from Wolfenbüttel

• George 1635–1641
• Christian Louis 1641–1648
• George William 1648–1665
• John Frederick 1665–1679
• Ernest Augustus 1679–1698

Ernest Augustus received the additional title of elector in 1692.

[edit] Dukes of Brunswick and Lüneburg, Princes of Calenberg, and Electors of the Holy Roman Empire, 1692–1803

• Ernest Augustus 1692–1698
• George I 1698–1727 (became King of Great Britain in 1714)
• George II 1727–1760
• George III 1760–1803

In 1803, Hanover was occupied by France, and did not return to the control of its Elector until 1814. In the meanwhile, however, Hanoverian ministers continued to operate out of London, and maintained their own separate diplomatic service (which maintained links to countries such as Austria and Prussia, with whom the United Kingdom itself was technically at war). In 1814, Hanover became a Kingdom.

[edit] Kings of Hanover, 1814–1866

• George III (restored) 1814–1820
• George IV 1820–1830
• William 1830–1837
• Ernest Augustus 1837–1851 (no longer in personal union with the United Kingdom)
• George V 1851–1866

[edit] See also

• Province of Hanover
• King's German Legion
• House of Hanover
• Ernst zu Münster

[edit] External links

• Map of Lower Saxony 1789

Members of the Electoral College following the Golden Bull of 1356
Ecclesiastic electors: Mainz, Trier, Cologne | Secular electors: Bohemia, Palatinate, Saxony, Brandenburg Later electors: Bavaria (1623) | Hanover (1692) | Hesse-Kassel (1803)