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November 30, 1719: Birth of Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, Princess of Wales. Part I

30 Tuesday Nov 2021

Posted by liamfoley63 in Duchy/Dukedom of Europe, Featured Royal, Kingdom of Europe, Royal Genealogy, royal wedding, This Day in Royal History

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Elector of Hanover, Frederick Louis of Great Britain, Frederick the Great of Prussia, Frederick William I of Prussia, George II, King of Great Britain, Lady Diana Spencer, Prince of Wales, Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, Princess of Wales

Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (November 30, 1719 – 8 February 8, 1772) was Princess of Wales by marriage to Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales, son and heir of King George II of Great Britain. She never became queen consort, as Frederick Louis predeceased his father in 1751. Augusta’s eldest son succeeded her father-in-law as King George III in 1760. After her spouse died, Augusta was presumptive regent of Great Britain in the event of a regency until her son reached majority in 1756.

Early life

Princess Augusta was born in Gotha to Friedrich II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (1676–1732) and Magdalena Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst (1679–1740). Her paternal grandfather was Friedrich I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, eldest surviving son of Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg.

In 1736, it was proposed that she marry 29-year-old Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales, eldest son of George II of Great Britain and his queen consort Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach. Originally, Frederick Louis intended to marry the eldest daughter of the King Friedrich Wilhelm I in Prussia.

A marriage alliance between Great Britain and Prussia had been an ambition for many years. However, when George II suggested that his eldest son would marry Louisa Ulrika of Prussia the eldest (unmarried) daughter of the King Friedrich Wilhelm I in Prussia, while George II’s second (unmarried) daughter, Amelia, would marry the eldest son of the Prussian king, future Friedrich II the Great, and King Friedrich Wilhelm I in Prussia demanded that his eldest son should likewise marry the eldest (unmarried) daughter, Anne, of the King of Great Britain, and George II refused to agree to this demand.

Princess Louisa Ulrika of Prussia ended up marying Adolf Fredrik, King of Sweden. Princess Amelia of Great Britain remained unmarried, while her sister Princess Anne married Willem IV, Prince of Orange. Friedrich II the Great of Prussia marriage Duchess Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern, daughter of Duke Ferdinand Albert II Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and his cousin Duchess Antoinette of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel in 1733. Elisabeth was the niece of Empress Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, wife of Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI.

Around the time the Prussian plan was cancelled, there were rumours that Frederick Louis might marry Lady Diana Spencer, granddaughter of the Duchess of Marlborough, and that such a marriage had been proposed when he visited the duchess’s lodge at Richmond. Queen Caroline felt a need to arrange a marriage for her son quickly, in order to preempt any possibility of such a mésalliance. She therefore suggested to the king that, when he next visited Hanover, he should also visit Saxe-Gotha and view the princesses there.

The king did so, and informed the queen that he considered Augusta suitable. When the matter was broached with Frederick, he simply replied that he would accept any bride his father decided was suitable for him. His attitude arose from a desire to obtain an additional allowance from Parliament to be financially independent of his father.

Augusta did not speak French or English, and it was suggested that she be given lessons before the wedding, but her mother did not consider it necessary as the British royal family were from Germany. She arrived in Britain, speaking virtually no English, for a wedding ceremony which took place almost immediately, on May 8, 1736, at the Chapel Royal in St James’s Palace, London.

Princess of Wales

Augusta of Saxe-Gotha left Hellevoetsluis April 17, 1736 and arrived at Greenwich on the royal yacht William and Mary on the 25th, where she was welcomed by her groom. On April 27, 1736, she was escorted to St James’s Palace, London, where she met the rest of the royal family, followed by the wedding ceremony at the Royal Chapel. When she was introduced to the royal family, she made a favorable impression on the king and queen by throwing herself on the floor before them in a gesture of submission.

During the first year of marriage, Augusta could be seen playing with her doll in the windows of her residence, until her sister-in-law, Princess Caroline, told her to stop. Frederick Louis took advantage of her inexperience when he had his then lover, Lady Archibald Hamilton, employed as her lady of the bedchamber after convincing her that there was no truth in the rumour of his affair. Augusta and Frederick Louis had nine children, the last born after Frederick Louis’s death.

Frederick Louis once stated that he would never allow himself to be influenced by his consort as his father was, and he thus never made Augusta his confidante. He did, however, instruct her to act in accordance with his wishes in his feud with his parents, and on several occasions, Frederick Louis reportedly instructed her to snub them.

When she attended the service of the German Lutheran Chapel, for example, which was also attended by the queen, Frederick instructed Augusta to make sure she always arrived after the queen, so that she would be forced to push in front of the queen to reach her place. This eventually made the queen insist that Augusta should be directed to her place by another entrance, which in turn caused Frederick Louis to instruct Augusta to refuse to enter the Chapel if the queen had arrived before her.

April 26, 1721: Birth of Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland & the Battle of Culloden

26 Sunday Apr 2020

Posted by liamfoley63 in Featured Monarch, Kingdom of Europe, Royal Genealogy, Royal House, Royal Succession, This Day in Royal History

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Battle of Culloden, Charles Edward Stuart, Duke of Cumberland, George II, Highlanders, House of Hohenzollern, James Francis Edward Stuart, King George II of Great Britain, King James II-VII of England and Scotland, Kingdom of Great Britain, Prince William Augustus of Cumberland

Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, (April 26, 1721 – October 31, 1765), was the third and youngest son of King George II of Great Britain and Ireland and his wife, Caroline of Ansbach, the daughter of Johann Friedrich, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, and his second wife, Princess Eleonore Erdmuthe of Saxe-Eisenach. Her father, a scion of the House of Hohenzollern, was the ruler of one of the smallest German states; he died of smallpox at the age of 32, when Caroline was three years old.

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William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland

William was born in Leicester House, in Leicester Fields (now Leicester Square), Westminster, London, where his parents had moved after his grandfather, George I, accepted the invitation to ascend the British throne. His godparents included the King Friedrich Wilhelm I and Queen Sophie in Prussia (his paternal aunt, Sophia Dorothea of Hanover the sister of George II, King of Great Britain, and the mother of Friedrich II, King of Prussia). The Prussian Monarchs apparently did not take part in person and were presumably represented by proxy.

On July 27, 1726, at only five years old, he was created Duke of Cumberland, Marquess of Berkhamstead in the County of Hertford, Earl of Kennington in the County of Surrey, Viscount of Trematon in the County of Cornwall, and Baron of the Isle of Alderney.

The young prince was educated well; his mother appointed Edmond Halley as a tutor. Another of his tutors (and occasional proxy for him) was his mother’s favourite Andrew Fountaine. At Hampton Court Palace, apartments were designed specially for him by William Kent. William’s elder brother Frederick, Prince of Wales, proposed dividing the king’s dominions. Frederick would get Britain, while William would get Hanover. This proposal came to nothing.

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George II, King of Great Britain and Ireland, Prince Imperial Elector of Hanover.

He had several mistresses but never married. He served in the army and for a short while in the navy and was wounded at the battle of Dettingen.

During the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–48), he became commander of the allied forces (1745) and was severely defeated by France’s Marshal Maurice de Saxe at the Battle of Fontenoy (May 11, 1745). His subsequent military failures led to his estrangement from his father, King George II (reigned 1727–60).

The lead to the Battle of Culloden: Background

In June 1688, two events turned dissent into a crisis; the first on June 10, was the birth of a son and heir, James Francis Edward, to King James II-VII of England, Scotland and Ireland, threatening to create a Roman Catholic dynasty and excluding his Anglican daughter Mary and her Protestant husband William IIII of Orange. The second was the prosecution of the Seven Bishops for seditious libel; this was viewed as an assault on the Church of England and their acquittal on June 30 destroyed his political authority in England. Anti-Catholic riots in England and Scotland now made it seem only Jame’s removal as monarch could prevent a civil war.

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Prince James Francis Edward, The Prince of Wales.

Leading members of the English political class invited Prince William III of Orange to assume the English throne; after he landed in Brixham on November 5, 1688, James’s army deserted, and he went into exile in France on December 23. In February the Convention Parliament grave the crown jointly to Prince William III of Orange and his wife Prince Marry eldest daughter of King James II-VII of England, Scotland and Ireland.

James Francis Edward was raised in Continental Europe. After his father’s death in 1701, he claimed the English, Scottish and Irish crown as James III of England and Ireland and James VIII of Scotland, with the support of his Jacobite followers and his cousin Louis XIV of France. Fourteen years later, he unsuccessfully attempted to gain the throne in Britain during the Jacobite rising of 1715.

Queen Anne, the last monarch of the House of Stuart, died in 1714, with no living children. Under the terms of the Act of Settlement 1701, she was succeeded by her second cousin George I of the House of Hanover, who was a descendant of the Stuarts through his maternal grandmother, Elizabeth, a daughter of James VI-I. Many, however, particularly in Scotland and Ireland, continued to support the claim to the throne of Anne’s exiled half-brother James Francis, excluded from the succession under the Act of Settlement due to his Roman Catholic religion.

On July 23, 1745 James Francis’ eldest son Charles Edward Stuart landed on Eriskay in the Western Islands in an attempt to reclaim the throne of Great Britain for his father, accompanied only by the “Seven Men of Moidart”. Most of his Scottish supporters advised he return to France, but his persuasion of Donald Cameron of Lochiel to back him encouraged others to commit and the rebellion was launched at Glenfinnan on August 19, 1745.

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Charles Edward Stuart “Bonnie Prince Charlie.”

The Jacobites won a battle at Falkirk between Edinburgh and Sterling in January 1746. The triumph was not followed up and counted for nothing as the Jacobites were being pursued by the Teutonic figure of William Augustus Duke of Cumberland. His temperament made him cruel by nature even to his own troops and had only genocidal contempt for Scott and I’ll Highlanders. The Duke of Cumberland preserved the strictest discipline in his unit. He was inflexible in the execution of what he deemed to be his duty, without favour to any man. In only a few cases he exercised his influence in favour of clemency.

Cumberland’s army at Culloden comprised 16 infantry battalions, including four Scottish units and one Irish. The bulk of the infantry units had already been defeated by the Jacobites in January at Falkirk, but had been further drilled, rested and resupplied since then.

On 8 April 1746, the Duke of Cumberland set out from Aberdeen for Inverness, and, on 15 April, the government army celebrated Cumberland’s twenty-fifth birthday by issuing two gallons of brandy to each regiment. That evening the Jacobites tried to carry out a night attack on the government encampment.

Night attack at Nairn

Jacobite lieutenant-general Lord George Murray was to cross the River Nairn and encircle the town, and confront Cumberland’s forces but there was only one hour left before dawn. After a heated council with other officers, Murray concluded that there was not enough time to mount a surprise attack and that the offensive should be aborted. Charles Edward Stuart was not told of the change of plan.

Not long after the exhausted Jacobite forces had made it back to Culloden, an officer of Lochiel’s regiment, who had been left behind after falling asleep in a wood, arrived with a report of advancing government troops. By then, many Jacobite soldiers had dispersed in search of food or returned to Inverness, while others were asleep in ditches and outbuildings; several hundred of their army may have missed the battle.

The Battle of Culloden

The morning of April 16, 1746 camel the decisive Battle of Culloden, in which the Stuart forces were completely destroyed.

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Prince Charles ignored the advice of general Lord George Murray and chose to fight on flat, open, marshy ground where his forces would be exposed to superior government firepower. He commanded his army from a position behind his lines, where he could not see what was happening. He hoped that Cumberland’s army would attack first, and he had his men stand exposed to the British Royal artillery.

The battle, which lasted only 40 minutes, resulted in bitter defeat for the heavily outnumbered Jacobites. Some 1,000 of the Young Pretender’s army of 5,000 weak and starving Highlanders were killed by the 9,000 Redcoats, who lost only 50 men.

The morning following the Battle of Culloden the Duke of Cumberland ordered his troops to show no quarter against any remaining Jacobite rebels (French Army personnel, including those who were British-or Irish-born, were treated as legitimate combatants). His troops traversed the battlefield and stabbed any of the rebel soldiers who were still alive.When Cumberland learned that a wounded soldier lying at his feet belonged to the opposing cause, he instructed a major to shoot him; when the major (James Wolfe) refused to do so, Cumberland commanded a private soldier to complete the required duty.

The British Army then embarked upon the so-called “pacification” of Jacobite areas of the Highlands. All those troops believed to be ‘rebels’ were killed, as were non-combatants; ‘rebellious’ settlements were burned and livestock was confiscated on a large scale. Over a hundred Jacobites were hanged. Women were imprisoned, and droves of people were sent by ship to London for trial; as the journey took up to 8 months, many of them died on the way.

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While in Inverness, Cumberland emptied the jails that were full of people imprisoned by Jacobite supporters, replacing them with Jacobites themselves. Prisoners were taken south to England to stand trial for high treason. Many were held on hulks on the Thames or in Tilbury Fort, and executions took place in Carlisle, York and Kennington Common.

The common Jacobite supporters fared better than the ranking individuals. In total, 120 common men were executed, one third of them being deserters from the British Army. The common prisoners drew lots amongst themselves and only one out of twenty actually came to trial. Although most of those who did stand trial were sentenced to death, almost all of these had their sentences commuted to penal transportation to the British colonies for life by the Traitors Transported Act 1746.

Flight of Bonnie Prince Charlie

Murray managed to lead a group of Jacobites to Ruthven, intending to continue the fight. Charles thought that he was betrayed, however, and decided to abandon the Jacobite cause.

Charles hid in the moors of Scotland, always barely ahead of the government forces. Many Highlanders aided him, and none of them betrayed him for the £30,000 reward. Charles was assisted by supporters such as pilot Donald Macleod of Galtrigill, Captain Con O’Neill who took him to Benbecula, and Flora MacDonald who helped him escape to the Isle of Skye by taking him in a boat disguised as her maid “Betty Burke”.

He ultimately evaded capture and left the country aboard the French frigate L’Heureux, arriving in France in September. The Prince’s Cairn marks the traditional spot on the shores of Loch nan Uamh in Lochaber from which he made his final departure from Scotland. With the Jacobite cause lost, Charles spent the remainder of his life on the continent.

Charles’s subsequent flight is commemorated in “The Skye Boat Song” by Sir Harold Edwin Boulton and the Irish song “Mo Ghile Mear” by Seán Clárach Mac Domhnaill.

Butcher Cumberland

Following Culloden, the Duke of Cumberland was nicknamed “Sweet William” by his Whig supporters and “The Butcher” by his Tory opponents the latter being a taunt first recorded in the City of London and used for political purposes in England. Cumberland’s own brother, the Prince of Wales (who had been refused permission to take a military role on his father’s behalf), seems to have encouraged the virulent attacks upon the Duke.

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Butcher Cumberland

The Duke’s victorious efforts were acknowledged by his being voted an income of £25,000 per annum over and above his money from the civil list. A thanksgiving service was held at St Paul’s Cathedral, that included the first performance of Handel’s oratorio Judas Maccabaeus, composed especially for Cumberland, which contains the anthem “See the Conquering Hero Comes”.

After Culloden

The Duke of Cumberland then returned to the war against the French; in July 1747 he lost the Battle of Lauffeld to Saxe. During the Seven Years’ War (1756–63) he was defeated by the French at the Battle of Hastenbeck (July 1757) in Hanover, one of George II’s possessions. Because he signed the Convention of Klosterzeven (September 1757), promising to evacuate Hanover, he was dismissed by his father, who repudiated the agreement. His refusal to serve as commander in chief unless William Pitt was dismissed as prime minister led to Pitt’s fall in April 1757. Following the Convention of Klosterzeven in 1757, he never again held active military command and switched his attentions to politics and horse racing.

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Cumberland’s final years were lived out during the first years of the reign of his nephew, George III, who acceded to the throne on the death of William’s father on October 25, 1760: Cumberland became a very influential advisor to the King and was instrumental in establishing the First Rockingham Ministry.

Cabinet meetings were held either at Cumberland Lodge, his home in Windsor, or at Upper Grosvenor Street, his house in London. The Duke of Cumberland never fully recovered from his wound at Dettingen, and was obese. In August 1760, he suffered a stroke and, on October 31, 1765, he died at his home on Upper Grosvenor Street in London at the young age 44. He was buried beneath the floor of the nave of the Henry VII Lady Chapel in Westminster Abbey. He died unmarried, without an heir and his titles reverted back to the crown.

This date in History: June 27, 1743. George II of Great Britain leads troops at the Battle of Dettingen during the War of the Austrian Succession.

27 Thursday Jun 2019

Posted by liamfoley63 in Featured Monarch, Kingdom of Europe, Royal Genealogy, Royal Succession, This Day in Royal History

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Battle of Dettingen, Elector of Bavaria, Elector of Hanover, Frederick the Great, George II, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VII, Holy Roman Empire, King Frederick II of Prussia, King George II of Great Britain, Pragmatic Sanction, War of the Austrian Succession

The War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748) involved most of the powers of Europe over the issue of Archduchess Maria Theresa’s succession to the Habsburg Monarchy.

The immediate cause of the War of the Austrian Succession was the death of Holy Roman Emperor Carl VI (1685–1740) and the inheritance of the Habsburg Monarchy, often collectively referred to as ‘Austria’ (see Map).

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Europe after the Treaty of Vienna (1738), Habsburg Monarchy in gold

Background

The 1703 Mutual Pact of Succession between Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I and his sons Archduke Joseph and Archduke Carl agreed that if the Habsburgs became extinct in the male line, their possessions would go first to female heirs of Joseph, then those of Carl. Since Salic law excluded women from the inheritance, this required approval by the various Habsburg territories and the Imperial Diet.

Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I died in 1711, leaving two daughters, Maria Josepha and Maria Amalia and his brother Carl succeeded his elder brother as Holy Roman Emperor Emperor Carl VI, King of Bohemia (as Carl II), King of Hungary and Croatia, Serbia and Archduke of Austria (as Carl III).

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Holy Roman Emperor Carl VI

Carl VI became the last male Habsburg in the direct line. In April 1713, he issued the Pragmatic Sanction, permitting female inheritance but then placing his own hypothetical daughters ahead of Joseph I’s. It’s interesting to note that at this juncture Carl suspected he wouldn’t have any male heirs.

On August 1, 1708, the future Holy Roman Emperor Carl VI married Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, the eldest daughter of Ludwig-Rudolph, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and his wife Princess Christine Louise of Oettingen-Oettingen.

When Carl’s daughter Maria Theresa was born in 1717, ensuring her succession dominated the rest of his reign. In 1719 Carl VI required his nieces Maria Joseph and Maria Amalia to renounce their rights in Maria Theresa’s favour in order to marry Friedrich-August of Saxony and Carl-Albert of Bavaria respectively. Carl VI hoped these marriages would secure his daughter’s position since neither Saxony or Bavaria could tolerate the other gaining control of the Habsburg inheritance but his actions undermined the logic of the settlement.

A family issue became a European one due to tensions within the Holy Roman Empire, caused by dramatic increases in the size and power of Bavaria, Prussia and Saxony, mirrored by the post 1683 expansion of Habsburg power into lands previously held by the Ottoman Empire. Further complexity then arose from the fact that the theoretically elected position of Holy Roman Emperor, which had been held by the Habsburgs since 1437, would be lost by the Habsburgs after the death of Emperor Carl VI.

Bavaria and Saxony refused to be bound by the decision of the Imperial Diet, while in 1738 France agreed to back the ‘just claims’ of Carl-Albert of Bavaria, despite previously accepting the Pragmatic Sanction in 1735. Attempts to offset this involved Austria in the 1734-1735 War of the Polish Succession and the Russo-Turkish War of 1735–1739, and it was weakened by the losses incurred. Compounded by the failure to prepare Maria Theresa for her new role, many European statesmen were sceptical that the Austrian lands could survive the contest that would follow Carl VI death, which finally occurred on October 20, 1740.

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Maria Theresa, Queen of Hungry and Bohemia, Archduchess of Austria

Immediately after her accession, a number of European sovereigns who had recognised Maria Theresa as heir broke their promises. Elector Carl-Albert of Bavaria, married to Maria Theresa’s deprived cousin Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria, coveted portions of her inheritance. Maria Theresa did secure recognition from King Carlo-Emmanuel III of Sardinia, who had not accepted the Pragmatic Sanction during her father’s lifetime, in November 1740.

In December the War of the Austrian Succession began when King Friedrich II of Prussia invaded the Duchy of Silesia and requested that Maria Theresa cede it, threatening to join her enemies if she refused. Maria Theresa decided to fight for the mineral Rich province.

Elector Carl-Albert of Bavaria invaded Upper Austria in 1741 and planned to conquer Vienna, but his allied French troops under the Duc de Belle-Isle were redirected to Bohemia instead and Prague was conquered in November 1741. So Carl-Albert was crowned King of Bohemia in Prague (December 19, 1741) when the Habsburgs were not yet defeated. He was unanimously elected “King of the Romans” on January 24, 1742, also with the vote of King George II of Great Britain (in his capacity as the Imperial Elector of Hanover) and became Holy Roman Emperor Carl VII upon his coronation on February 17, 1742.

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Holy Roman Emperor Carl VII, Elector of Bavaria

One important battle of the War of the Austrian Succession was the Battle of Dettingen which took place on June 27, 1743 at Dettingen on the River Main, Holy Roman Empire. The British forces, in alliance with those of Hanover and Hesse, defeated a French army under the duc de Noailles. King George II of Great Britain, Imperial Elector of Hanover, commanded his troops in the battle, and this marked the last time a British monarch personally led his troops on the field. The battle straddled the river about 18 miles east of Frankfurt, with guns on the Hessian bank but most of the combat on the flat Bavarian bank. The village of Dettingen is today the town of Karlstein am Main, in the extreme northwest of Bavaria.

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King George II of Great Britain at the Battle of Dettingen.

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George II, King of Great Britain and Ireland and Imperial Elector of Hanover.

Royal Numbering ~ Germany

15 Tuesday May 2012

Posted by liamfoley63 in From the Emperor's Desk

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Charlemagne, England, Ernest Augustus, George I, George II, George III, Germany, Hanover, Holy Roman Empire, Kingdom, Kingdom of Hanover, Napoleon, Otto I the Great, Scotland, William IV

Royal Numbering ~ Germany

Germany is a unique example in the topic of monarchy and with numbering their rulers. Unlike Britain and France and other states of Europe, Germany was slow in become a centralized nation-state. For centuries Germany was more of a geographical term than a name attached to a centralized nation state. Similar to France German history has its roots in the old Kingdom of the Franks. The Treaty of Verdun in 843 divided the Charlemagne’s empire. The eastern half of the kingdom retained the imperial title and from this entity evolved the Holy Roman Empire.

Even though Charlemagne is considered the Fist Holy Roman Emperor when he was crown Emperor on Christmas Day 800CE that state was something that developed through the centuries. I remember one historian saying that Charlemagne’s empire, thought to have reestablished the Western Roman Empire, was in reality was a state without a name. In 843 when the empire was divided the monarchs of the eastern half were titled Regnum Francorum Orientalium or Francia Orientalis: the Kingdom of the Eastern Franks. This Kingdom of East Francia lasted from 843 until 911 under the Carolingian Dynasty and the rise of the Ottonian Dynasty.

The imperial title lapsed after the death of Berengar I in 924 and would not be revived until Otto I, Duke of Saxony was crowned Emperor in 962. This is when the majority of historians believe the Holy Roman Empire began. The empire was a loose conglomeration of states with their own leaders who held titles either directly or indirectly from the emperor. The monarchy was elective but in practice it did become hereditary within certain dynasties with the election become a mere formality. The Archdukes of Austria of the Habsburg Dynasty held the title the longest. As territories merged or were annexed the rulers still held their titles and a right to sit in the imperial diet even though they no longer ruled over territory. There is not any discrepancy for the numbering of the emperors but there are some minor discrepancies and inconsistencies for the lesser states.

One of the places where there is a discrepancy in numbering is the Kingdom of Hanover. Prior to its elevation as a kingdom Hanover was an Imperial Electorate within the Holy Roman Empire ruled by a cadet line of the House of Guelph that ruled the various Brunswick duchies. In 1692 Emperor Leopold I installed Duke Ernst August of Brunswick-Lüneburg as Prince-Elector of Hanover. In 1698 Elector Ernst August was succeeded by his eldest son who became Elector Georg Ludwig of Hanover. In 1714 via the provisions of the Act of Settelment of 1701 in England and Scotland Georg Ludwig became King George I of Great Britain. In Hanover and Great Britain the numbering for these King-Electors was the same. In 1727 George I was succeeded by his son as George II and in 1760 his grandson succeeded him as George III.

In 1806 the Holy Roman Empire came to an end and Hanover became part of the Kingdom of Westphalia, a puppet state founded by Napoleon. After the defeat of Napoleon the Congress of Vienna restored George III to his Hanoverian territories and elevated Hanover to a Kingdom. Instead of starting a new numbering of as Kings of Hanover George III still retained his ordinal number. In 1820 George III was succeeded by his son who became George IV of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Hanover. In 1837 George IV was succeeded by his brother William IV who was known as Wilhelm I of Hanover.

Since succession to Hanover was governed by the Salic Law which barred women from inheriting the throne the personal union between Great Britain and Hanover ended in 1837 with the death of William IV. William IV was succeeded in Great Britain by his niece, Victoria, who reigned in Britain until 1901 and gave her name to the entire era. In Hanover the crown went to another brother of William IV, Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland.

This is where it gets tricky. In my view he should have been been called Ernst August II because the numbering for Hanover began with Ernst August in 1692. However, Ernst August was only an Elector in 1692 and never a King. His son, George I, was the first Hanoverian to hold the royal title of King…although he was a King of Great Britain not a King of Hanover. So it appears that the royal numbering of Hanover follows those with the title of King regardless if the person was not a King of Hanover.

 

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