Kurhannoversche Army

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kurhannoversches Infantry Regiment von Behr 1735 (1783: No. 7-A) at the review of Bemerode

The origins of the electoral Hanoverian army are generally determined to be 1617 for the principalities of Grubenhagen and Calenberg . But it was not until the Thirty Years' War that a standing army developed . Especially as part of the imperial army on the imperial side, electoral Hanoverian troops fought in various wars, for example in the Great Turkish War 1685–1699 and in the Spanish , Polish and Austrian War of Succession . The army was disbanded in 1803 after its defeat in the coalition war against Napoleonic France. A large number of the officers, but also the soldiers, went to Great Britain to continue fighting against Napoléon in the King's German Legion .

history

With an increasingly dense network of ordinances, military service was regulated from the second half of the 17th century. Immediately after Ernst August took office in 1679, he upgraded. When he took office he commanded 3,500 men, in 1684 the army was 14,450 men. Such a large army could not be supported with the finances of the principality. The elector was therefore dependent on lending his troops to other warring states and on subsidy payments . 5500 Hanoverian soldiers fought on the side of the Republic of Venice in Greece against the Ottoman army in the Great Turkish War from 1685 to 1689 . The army was also used for political bartering. For example, Ernst August rented further troop units to the Habsburg emperor in the war against the Ottomans to recognize his electoral dignity . Of the 15,120 men who die Arme counted in 1692, 5,000 fought in Hungary and 7,500 in Flanders, while only 2,620 men remained in their own country. In 1690 the Hanoverian soldiers received uniform uniforms. The equipment has also been standardized. Every musketeer received a matchlock rifle with a bayonet until 1693 . Salaries, accommodation and meals were also standardized.

Due to the Peace of Rijswijk in 1697, the strength of the Electorate of Hanover had to be reduced to 7,000 men, as no more subsidy payments were received. By 1705 the army again numbered almost 13,000 soldiers. In 1705 the electoral troops were expanded to include the regiments of the Principality of Lüneburg -Celle. As a result, the army grew to a strength of 22,000 men and became one of the largest in the Holy Roman Empire. After the War of the Spanish Succession and a brief deployment in the Great Northern War during the siege of Wismar and the armed imperial execution against the Duchy of Mecklenburg from 1717 to 1718, a long period of peace followed, during which Kurhannover had to station its army on the territory of Kurhannover for a longer period of time. Due to the dynastic connections with England, regular subsidy payments from England flowed into the electorate, so that the army could be maintained in the long term.

Due to the close ties to the British army of the king and elector, Hanoverian troops often fought alongside British troops. In the Seven Years War (1756–1763) there was an alliance alongside Hanoverian and British troops from Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel , Hessen-Kassel and Prussian troops. In the run-up to the American War of Independence , Kurhannovian troops replaced the British troops on Menorca and Gibraltar that had moved overseas in 1775 . The Hanoverian troops in Gibraltar successfully defended the positions against Spanish attacks. Hanoverian troops also took part in the British war against France in the East Indies (1782–1792). Also under British pay, electoral troops participated in the First Coalition War (1792–1797) against revolutionary France (1793–1795). The electorate's army was disbanded in 1803, but a large part of the officers and soldiers went to Great Britain and were re-established there as the King's German Legion . It was the only German troop that was continuously fighting the French army and took part in the battles on the Iberian Peninsula , in northern Germany ( Göhrde ) and Copenhagen . In the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 they defended the important outpost of La Haye Sainte .

Development of the strength of the Electorate of Hanover in the 18th century:

year 1714 1724 1731 1741 1744 1747 1748 1755
soldiers 17,380 15.282 19,936 24,982 25,564 26,468 26,471 29,130

organization

The highest administrative authority of the army was the war chancellery , which was led by five to seven officials. With the General Staff and the War Commissariat , there were two other bodies that supported the work of the War Chancellery.

The entire army consisted of the three branches of arms infantry , cavalry and artillery . The foot troops made up the largest number of the army. They included the 188-strong guard who were used as bodyguards for the Elector and British King on visits. In 1729 the cavalry consisted of 12 and the infantry of 20 regiments. The regiments were distributed over the entire territory of the electorate.

gallery

See also

swell

  • Reinhard Oberschelp (ed.): King Georg II during the mustering of his Hanoverian troops. Low and High German poems from the years 1729 to 1755 (Small Writings of the Lower Saxony State Library, 3), Hildesheim 1992.

literature

  • Viktor von Diebitsch: The electoral Hanoverian troops in the East Indies 1782–92 , in: Hannoversche Geschichtsblätter 1 (1898), pp. 67–128.
  • Johann von Diest: Economic Policy and Lobbyism in the 18th Century. A source-based reassessment of the mutual influence of government and business in Brandenburg-Prussia and Kurhannover (Dominion and social systems in the early modern period, 23), Göttingen 2016.
  • Joachim Niemeyer, Georg Ortenburg (ed.): The Chur-Braunschweig-Lüneburg Army in the Seven Years War. In: The “Gmunden magnificent work”. Beckum 1976
  • Ralf Pröve: Standing army and urban society in the 18th century: Göttingen and its military population 1713–1756. Walter de Gruyter, 1995
  • Ralf Pröve: Tax deduction and economic development: Economic change through the establishment and presence of standing troops in Kurhannover (1665–1756) , in: Yearbook for Economic History 2 (1994), pp. 71–96.
  • [Felix] Schütz von Brandis: Overview of the history of the Hanoverian army from 1617 to 1866. From a Hanoverian hunter. (Edited by Johann Karl Hermann] Freiherr von Reitzenstein) Hanover and Leipzig 1903 (sources and representations on the history of Lower Saxony; vol. 14). (Reprint: LTR Verlag, Buchholz-Sprötze 1998).
  • Chen Tzoref Ashkenazi: "The Indian corruptions have always been known as cruel in history". Letter from a Hanoverian officer from British India, 1784 , in: Niedersächsisches Jahrbuch für Landesgeschichte 90 (2018), pp. 101-136.
  • Wilhelm von Wersebe: History of the Hanoverian Army. Hanover 1928, online

Web links

Commons : The Chur-Braunschweig-Lüneburg Army  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Schütz von Brandis, overview….
  2. ↑ cf. Wersebe, 1928, pp. 208ff.
  3. ↑ Pröve 1995, p. 20
  4. ^ Niemeyer / Ortenburg 1976: 47