In 1692, the Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold I, elevated George's son, Duke Ernest Augustus to the rank of elector of the empire as a reward for aid given in the War of the Grand Alliance. There were protests against the addition of a new elector, and the elevation did not become official (with the approval of the Imperial Diet) until 1708, in the person of Ernest Augustus's son, George Louis. Though the elector's titles were properly duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and elector of the Holy Roman Empire, he is commonly referred to as the elector of Hanover after his residence. Hanover acquired Bremen-Verden in 1719. The electorate was legally bound to be indivisible: it could add to its territory, but not alienate territory or be split up among several heirs; and its succession was to follow male primogeniture. The territory assigned to the electorate included the Brunswick-Lüneburg principalities of Calenberg, Grubenhagen, and Lüneburg (even though at the time Lüneburg was ruled by Ernest Augustus's older brother) and the counties of Diepholz and Hoya.
Link with Great Britain of Hanover (1727–1801). In 1714,
George Louis became king of
Great Britain and
Ireland and so the electorate and Great Britain and Ireland were ruled in
personal union. The possessions of the electors in Germany also grew, as they
de facto purchased the formerly
Swedish-held duchies of
Bremen and
Verden in 1719. George Louis died in 1727 and was succeeded by his son
George II Augustus. In 1728, Emperor
Charles VI officially
enfeoffed George II (gave him land in exchange for a pledge of service), with the reverted fief of
Saxe-Lauenburg, which had
de facto been ruled in personal union with Hanover and with one of its preceding
Principality of Lüneburg since 1689. In 1731, Hanover also gained
Hadeln. In return, Hanover recognised the
Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, which changed the Habsburgs' inheritance law. It took George II Augustus until 1733 to persuade Charles VI to enfeoff him also with the Duchy of Bremen and the Principality of Verden, colloquially called Duchies of Bremen-Verden. At both enfeoffments, George II Augustus swore that he would respect the existing privileges and constitutions of the
estates in Bremen-Verden and in Hadeln, thus confirming 400-year-old traditions of estate participation in government. In
Hanover, the capital of the electorate, the
Privy Council of Hanover (electoral government) installed a new ministry in charge of the
Imperial Estates ruled by the electors in personal union. It was called the Department of Bremen-Verden, Hadeln, Lauenburg and
Bentheim. Nonetheless, the electors spent most of their time in England. Direct contact with the electorate was maintained through the office of the
German Chancery, situated in
St James's Palace in London.
Seven Years' War During the
French and Indian War (1754–1763) in the North American colonies, Britain feared a French invasion of Hanover. George II
formed an alliance with his
Prussian cousin
Frederick II combining the North American conflict with the Brandenburg-Prusso–Austrian
Third Silesian, or Seven Years' War (1756–1763). In the summer of 1757, the
French invaded Hanover and defeated George II's son
Prince William, Duke of Cumberland, leading the
Anglo-Hanoverian army, at the
Battle of Hastenbeck and drove him and his army into remote Bremen-Verden, where in the former
Zeven he capitulated on 18 September (
Convention of Kloster-Zeven). George II did not recognise the convention, however. The following year, the
British Army, supported by troops from Prussia,
Hesse-Kassel and the
Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, again expelled the occupants. Hanover remained unaffected for the rest of the war.
French Revolutionary Wars After the war ended, peace prevailed until the
French Revolutionary Wars started. The
War of the First Coalition against France (1792–1797) with Great Britain, Hanover and other war allies forming the coalition, did not affect Hanoverian territory since the first
French Republic was fighting on several fronts, even on its own territory. Men were drafted to recruit the 16,000 Hanoverian soldiers fighting in the
Low Countries under British command against France. In 1795, the
Holy Roman Empire declared its neutrality, including Hanover, but a peace treaty with France was being negotiated until it failed in 1799. Prussia, however, ended for its part the war with France by the
Treaty of Basel (1795), which stipulated that Prussia would ensure the Holy Roman Empire's neutrality in all of the latter's territories north of the demarcation line of the River
Main, including the British continental dominions of Hanover, Bremen-Verden, and Saxe-Lauenburg. To that end, Hanover also had to provide troops for the so-called demarcation army maintaining the armed neutrality.
Napoleonic era During the
War of the Second Coalition against France (1799–1802),
Napoléon Bonaparte urged Prussia to occupy the continental British dominions. In 1801, there was an invasion of 24,000 Prussian soldiers that surprised Hanover, which surrendered without a fight. In April they arrived at Bremen-Verden's capital,
Stade, and stayed there until October. The
British first ignored Prussian hostility, but when the latter joined the pro-French coalition of armed neutral powers, including
Denmark-Norway and
Russia, Britain began to capture Prussian ships. After the
Battle of Copenhagen (1801), the coalition fell apart and Prussia withdrew its troops. As part of the
German Mediatisation of 25 February 1803, the electorate received the
Prince-Bishopric of Osnabrück in
real union, which had been ruled by every second ruler of the
House of Hanover since 1662. After Britain, this time without any allies, had declared war on France (18 May 1803), French troops
invaded Hanover on 26 May. According to the
Convention of Artlenburg (5 July 1803), confirming the military defeat of Hanover, the
Hanoverian Army was disarmed, and its horses and ammunitions were handed over to the French. The Privy Council of Hanover, with the minister Friedrich Franz Dieterich von Bremer holding up the Hanoverian stake, fled to
Saxe-Lauenburg, across the
Elbe, which was ruled by Britain and Hanover in personal union. Soon, the French also occupied Saxe-Lauenburg. In the autumn of 1805, at the beginning of the
War of the Third Coalition against France (1805), the French occupying troops left Hanover in a campaign against
Austria. British, Swedish and Russian coalition forces
captured Hanover. In December, the
French Empire, since 1804 France's new government, ceded Hanover, which it no longer held, to Prussia, which captured it in early 1806. On 6 August 1806, the
Holy Roman Empire was dissolved, thereby abolishing the function of prince-electors electing its emperors. After Prussia had turned against France in the
War of the Fourth Coalition, it was defeated in the
Battle of Jena-Auerstedt (11 November 1806), and France recaptured Hanover. Following the
Treaty of Tilsit in 1807, the new
Kingdom of Westphalia was founded, ruled by Napoléon's brother
Jérôme Bonaparte, then including territories of the former Electorate of
Hesse-Kassel, the ducal
Brunswick-Lüneburgian principality of
Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and formerly Prussian territories. In early 1810 Hanover proper and Bremen-Verden but not Saxe-Lauenburg were also annexed by Westphalia. In an attempt to assert the
Continental System, the French Empire annexed in late 1810 all of the continental
North Sea coast (as far as Denmark) and the areas along the sections of the rivers navigable for seagoing vessels, including Bremen-Verden and Saxe-Lauenburg and some adjacent territories of Hanover proper. The government of
George III did not recognise the French annexation, however, and was at war continuously with France for the entire period, and Hanoverian ministers continued to operate out of
London. The Privy Council of Hanover maintained its own separate diplomatic service, which maintained links with countries such as Austria and Prussia. The Hanoverian Army was dissolved, but many of the officers and soldiers went to England, where they formed the
King's German Legion. That was the only German army to fight continually throughout the Napoleonic Wars against the French. French control lasted until November 1813,
when the territory was overrun by Allied troops after the
Battle of Leipzig spelled the definitive end to the Napoleonic client state of Westphalia, as well as the entire
Confederation of the Rhine, and the rule of the
House of Hanover was restored. The former electorate became the
Kingdom of Hanover, which was confirmed at the
Congress of Vienna in 1814. == Electors of Hanover ==