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The Hanoverian Army was the standing army of Hanover from the seventeenth century onwards. From 1692 to 1806 it acted in defence of the Electorate of Hanover. Following the Hanoverian Succession of 1714, this was in conjunction with the British Army with which it shared a monarch. After Napoleon's incorporation of Hanover into the Confederation of the Rhine in 1806, many exiled members of the army served in Britain's King's German Legion. In 1813 the Hanoverian Army was reformed under Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge and took part in the defeat of Napoleon. Following the Congress of Vienna, Hanover was made into a Kingdom. It continued to be tied to Britain until 1837 when, after the death of William IV, Hanover's Salic Law led it to crown Ernest Augustus in preference to his niece Queen Victoria. The Hanoverian Army was defeated in 1866 during the Austro-Prussian War and Hanover's independence ended. Hanoverian troops were subsequently incorporated into the Imperial German Army.
The symbol of the army, incorporated into many of its uniforms and banners was the White Horse of Hanover. The term "Hanoverian Army" is also sometimes used after 1714 to refer to British forces supportive of the House of Hanover against their Jacobite opponents.
Background
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The Guelph family had a long history in the Holy Roman Empire. By the seventeenth century a branch of the family reigned over a territory in Northern Germany centered around the city of Hanover, at a lower social level to the Electors who served and elected the Emperors.
From Hanover the ambitious Ernest Augustus incorporated the various hereditary possessions into a single state. Through his wife Sophia his children also acquired an at the time seemingly distant claim to the English throne as descendants of James I. The family further consolidated their possessions when Ernest Augustus's son George married his cousin Sophia Dorothea in 1682. The following year George commanded Hanoverian troops that took part in the successful defeat of Turkish forces at the Siege of Vienna. In these years an increasing professionalism marked out the Hanoverian troops, alongside those of another northern Protestant state Prussia.
The military support given by Ernest Augustus to the Emperor Leopold I saw Hanover promoted to effective electoral status in 1692, although this was not yet fully confirmed. From 1689 Hanover was a significant part of the Grand Alliance formed to check the expansion of Louis XIV, which fought French armies to a standstill in a series of bloody battles leading to the Treaty of Ryswick. In 1698 Ernest Augustus died, and his son George succeeded him. As well as his multiple German family alliances, George also had a now strong claim to the British throne through his mother due to his Protestant religion.
War of the Spanish Succession
editIn 1701, the Act of Settlement passed in London made the House of Hanover heirs to the throne, and from 1702 they were considered direct successors of Queen Anne. This brought the Hanoverian forces closer to their British allies, particularly after the outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession in 1702 where they both fought against Louis XIV and his allies. During the war, an estimated 16,000 troops raised by Hanover were paid for subsidies by Britain and the Dutch Republic.[1]
Early in the war George oversaw an invasion of Brunswick a smaller, pro-French neighbouring state.[2] Hanover despatched a contingent to serve in the Allied Army under Marlborugh, taking part in numerous campaigns including the decisive victory at Blenheim. Hanoverian hopes that George might become commander of the Allied coalition were unfulfilled.[3] In 1707 he was promoted to Imperial Field Marshal and given command of the Imperial forces along the Rhine, having been praised for his actions against Marshal Villars at the head of his Hanoverian forces.[4]
At a strategy conference held in Hanover April 1708, George believed that he had persuaded Marlborough and Prince Eugene to use their armies in Flanders as a feint to tie down French troops while he launched the main assault on the Rhine. However he had been deliberately misled and in fact Marlbrough used the threat of George's German army as a diversion to support his own offensive, leading to his victory at the Battle of Oudenarde and the capture of Lille.[5] Hanoverian troops took part at Oudernade with George's son George Augustus distinguishing himself in the fighting.
Although George was frustrated by the inactivity on the Rhine, he was still pleased by the Allied victories. His further ambitious plans for the following year involved a drive into Franche-Comté where it was believed a significant part of the population was opposed to Louis XIV. Once again George's plans were frustrated, as the Emperor in Vienna diverted away troops and crucial resources to other theatres and he was left with too few men to take the offensive.[6] Unwilling to continue after the problems of the 1709 campaign he resigned as commander of the army, and retired from active military service.
Hanoverian contingents continued to serve to the end of the war. In 1712 they refused an order by their new British commander Ormonde to march away to Dunkirk and remained to support Prince Eugene in his unsuccessful Battle of Denain and the Rhine campaign of 1713. Due to the withdrawal of British subsidies, Hanoverian forces fought on at their own expense until the Treaty of Rastatt brought a final end to the war.[7]
Union with Britain
editAs Queen Anne grew increasingly ill in 1713-14, the Hanoverians made moves to secure the succession to the British throne. The rival claimant James Stuart and his Jacobite supporters appeared ready to contest the crown. George issued Marlborough with a warrant to command British troops in the event of Anne's death, which would be reinforced by Hanoverian and Dutch troops. In the event the Hanoverian Succession passed off without major incident and was secured by British troops. The Jacobite rebellion that broke out the following year was defeated largely by British troops. The succession created a personal union between Hanover and Britain, and brought the Hanoverian Army into a fixed alliance with their British counterparts.
King George remained fixated on the Electorate, and particularly wanted to advance Hanover's claims in the Great Northern War against Sweden.
engagement of British troops in support of Hanoverian goals remained controversial and came under attack from the Patriot Whigs, while in Hanover there was a general acceptance of subordinating the Hanoverian Army to Britain's foreign policy.
In 1719 during the War of the Quadruple Alliance, with Spanish assistance the Jacobites attempted to launch another invasion of Britain. Although Hanoverian units were a significant part of the plan to defend Britain's coasts, bad weather stalled the main invasion and the diversionary attack on Scotland was defeated by local forces at the Battle of Glenshiel. Peace was agreed by the Treaty of The Hague in 1720.
War of the Austrian Succession
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When the War of Jenkins' Ear broke out between Britain and Spain in 1740, Hanover was not directly involved. Things changed when Charles VI of Austria died in October of the year. George, as Elector in Hanover and King of Great Britain, took different positions for his respective realms. As Elector of Hanover he agreed a treaty of neutrality with France and cast his vote in favour of their successful candidate Charles of Bavaria, while Britain staunchly supported the new ruler of Austria Maria Theresa who was attacked from several directions, including by George II's Prussian nephew Frederick who annexed Silesia.
However, Britain forged a coalition to support Maria Theresa and hired nearly 16,000 Hanoverian troops to serve in the Pragmatic Army assembled in the Low Countries.[8] They also employed Hessian troops, from the neighbouring Hesse-Kassel which had strong traditional ties to Hanover through marriage and military alliance.
Seven Years War
editDuring the Invasion Scare of 1756, Hanoverian troops were rushed to Britain to help defend the country against a threatened French landing. This was attacked by Patriot Whigs led by William Pitt, who portrayed them as enforcers of tyrannical absolute monarchy, but their presence was generally welcomed by the British public. The first French objective of the war turned out to be the island of Minorca, which fell in June 1756 and the Hanoverians were shipped back to the Electorate which now seemed in more immediate danger than Britain.
In June 1757 France launched an Invasion of Hanover. Led by George II's younger son the Duke of Cumberland, the Hanoverian Army attempted to resist the invaders at the hard-fought Battle of Hastenbeck. After inflicting significant casualties on the French, the Hanoverians were ordered to retreat. Demoralised,they headed northwards and the Electorate's capital at Hanover was captured. Cumberland agreed the Convention of Klosterzeven which permitted France to occupy the Electorate. The remainder of the Hanoverian Army fled across the River Elbe towards Hamburg.
The Convention was controversial in Britain, and George II repudiated it. He appointed Ferdinand of Brunswick, a general in Prussian service but related to the rulers of Hanover as a member of the House of Brunswick, as commander of the Hanoverian Army. During the winter of 1757 Ferdinand led a campaign that cleared the French out of the Electorate. The war ebbed and flowed over the following five years, but Ferdinand leading a joint force of Hanoverian, Hessian and British troops repulsed numerous French offensives most notably at the Battle of Minden in 1759. While French armies were tied down in Germany, Britain was able to captured many of France's possessions in the Americas, particularly the West Indian sugar-producing islands and Canada, which surrendered in 1760. This has led some historians to attribute the rise of the British Empire to the strategic success of Allied and Hanoverian forces in Germany. British leader William Pitt declared that "America was won in Germany".
Hanoverians fought at another major victory at the Battle of Villinghausen in 1761 which encouraged Pitt to take a hard line in peace negotiations with France. Their collapse led to a final year of fighting. The [[Battle of Willemstahl
advanced south and laid siege to Cassel
Elsewhere Britain captured Havana from Spain. Britain
American War of Independence
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Although a neutrality convention agreed with France following the latter's entry into the American War of Independence in 1778 spared the Electorate itself from invasion, Hanoverian troops served alongside British forces fighting in a number of theatres including India and most notably at the Great Siege of Gibraltar where they were led by August de la Motte. The first Hanoverian troops had moved into Gibraltar in October 1775. After the successful defeat of several Franco-Spanish attacks, the Hanoverian troops were allowed to add Gibraltar to their battle honours.[9] Hanoverian troops were not deployed to the rebellious Thirteen Colonies, although Hessian auxiliaries played a major role in the campaigns.
Napoleonic era
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under the Duke of York during the Flanders Campaign
Convention of Artlenburg in 1803.
France attempted to form a Hanoverian Legion from the occupied region, but recruitment was poor and the unit was ultimately disbanded after a friendly fire incident at the Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro in 1811.
Hundred Days
editMeant that two distinct Hanoverian forces served in the Allies Army Under Wellington.
Kingdom of Hanover
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In 1824 following upheaval in Portugal, and fear of invasion by neighbouring Spain, John VI of Portugal made a request for soldiers from Britain. Although initially agreed, political opposition caused to this to be changed to 6,200 Hanoverian soldiers. However objections from both the Hanoverian administration and Westminster led to this being abandoned.[10] Instead, in 1827 a fully British force was sent to Portugal to support its liberal government.
When George IV died in 1830, and was succeeded in by his younger brother William IV, a constituional problem began to become clear. As William had no legitimate heirs the succession in Britain would instead pass to Victoria, the daughter of his younger brother the Duke of Kent. However Victoria was barred by Guelphic law from taking the Hanoverian throne before any of her immediate male relatives. Consequently in 1837 when Victoria succeeded to the British throne, her uncle Ernest Augustus became King of Hanover and took command of its army, now independent of overall British command.
Hanover remained at peace throughout the reign of Ernest Augustus, but his successor George V of Hanover from 1851 faced a more difficult international situiation.
Prussian war
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In exile George maintained the Guelphic Legion in France until its disbandment in 1870.
References
editBibliography
edit- Black, Jeremy. The Continental Commitment: Britain, Hanover and Interventionism 1714-1793. Routledge, 2005.
- Falkner, James. Fire Over the Rock: The Great Siege of Gibraltar. Pen and Sword, 2009.
- Hatton, Ragnihild. George I: Elector and King. Thames and Hudson, 1978.
- Hofschröer, Peter. The Hanoverian Army of the Napoleonic Wars. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2012.
- Simms, Brendan & Riotte, Torsten. The Hanoverian Dimension in British History, 1714–1837. Cambridge University Press, 2007.
- Smith, Hannah. Georgian Monarchy: Politics and Culture, 1714-1760. Cambridge University Press, 2006.
- Tzoref-Ashkenazi, Chen. German Soldiers in Colonial India. Routledge, 2015.
External links
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