Hesse-Hanau was a territory in the Holy Roman Empire . It emerged when the former county of Hanau-Münzenberg became a secundogeniture of Hesse-Kassel in 1760. When the reigning count, William IX , also became landgrave of Hesse-Cassel in 1785, the two governments began to merge, although the process was delayed first by French occupation, and later by incorporation into the French satellite duchy of Frankfurt . The incorporation of Hesse-Hanau with Hesse-Cassel was not completed until 1821.
16-437: When the hereditary prince of Hesse-Cassel, the later Frederick II , converted to Roman Catholicism , his father, the reigning landgrave William VIII decided to do what he could to limit his son's future realm. He therefore made the county of Hanau-Münzenberg, incorporated with Hesse-Cassel in 1736, a secundogeniture of Hesse-Cassel, transferring it to the oldest son of Frederic, the hereditary count William . As count William
32-636: The Jacobite rising . Although he supported the "Protestant succession" in Great Britain on this occasion, Frederick later converted from Calvinism to Catholicism . In February 1749, Frederick and his father visited the Archbishop-Elector of Cologne, Clemens August of Bavaria , who received Frederick into the Catholic Church . Despite his exertions in support of her father, Frederick's marriage with
48-632: The Prussian military. In 1760, he succeeded his father as Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel. Despite Frederick's Catholicism, the principality remained Calvinist, and Frederick's children were raised as Protestants in Denmark. During the 17th and 18th centuries, it was a fairly widespread practice for smaller principalities to rent out troops to other princes. However, this was carried on to excess in Hesse-Kassel, which maintained 7% of its population under arms throughout
64-560: The British princess was not a happy one. The couple were living apart from each other by 1747, and were formally separated in 1755. Mary moved to Denmark the following year to care for the children of her late sister Louise of Great Britain , who had died in 1751. All three of the couple's surviving sons moved with Mary to Denmark. Two of them, including Frederick's heir William, later married Danish princesses, their first cousins. The younger sons lived permanently in Denmark, rising to high office in
80-537: The court of their cousin; only William returned to Germany upon inheriting the principality of Hanau . He also later succeeded Frederick as Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel. Mary died in 1772, and Frederick lost little time in marrying again. On 10 January 1773, at Berlin, he married Margravine Philippine , daughter of Frederick William, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt and Sophia Dorothea of Prussia . No children were born of this marriage. After being formally separated from his wife in 1755, Friedrich entered active service in
96-518: The eighteenth century. Frederick hired out so many troops to his nephew, King George III of Great Britain , for use in the American War of Independence , that " Hessian " has become an American term for all German soldiers deployed by the British in the War . Frederick used the revenue to finance his patronage of the arts and his opulent lifestyle. The architect Simon Louis du Ry transformed for Frederick II
112-593: The erection of significant buildings in the capital of Hanau . Means for this came from the subsidies the reigning count received from his uncle, king George III of Great Britain. In return, Hesse-Hanau made available a contingent of 2,400 soldiers for the use of the British Crown in the American Revolutionary War . The Hesse-Hanau contingent in the American Revolutionary War, contained
128-562: The following units: Hesse-Cassel became an electorate in 1803, while Hesse-Hanau became the principality of Hanau. However, in 1806 the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved and Hesse-Cassel was incorporated into the French satellite Kingdom of Westphalia . Hanau came under French military occupation, then in 1810 was incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt , another French satellite. It
144-487: The government of the county. At the death of Frederick II in 1785, William became landgrave of Hesse-Cassel. The government of Hesse-Hanau remained in general separate from Hesse-Cassel. Cabinet and war office were, however, merged with those in Hesse-Cassel, and the court of appeal of Cassel got jurisdiction over Hanau in 1792. Until then Hesse-Hanau was ruled as an independent state, undergoing extensive modernizations with
160-489: The town of Kassel into a modern capital. Landgrave Frederick II died in 1785 at Weißenstein castle (Schloss Wilhelmshöhe) in Kassel. He was succeeded by his eldest surviving son, William . Jean-Pierre de Crousaz Jean-Pierre de Crousaz (13 April 1663 – 22 March 1750) was a Swiss theologian and philosopher . He is now remembered more for his letters of commentary than his formal works. De Crousaz
176-414: Was Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel) from 1760 to 1785. He ruled as an enlightened despot, and raised money by renting soldiers ( called "Hessians" ) to Great Britain to help fight the American Revolutionary War . He combined Enlightenment ideas with Christian values, cameralist plans for central control of the economy, and a militaristic approach toward international diplomacy. Frederick
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#1732872422376192-536: Was a pastor) of the French abbés of the 18th century. He studied in Geneva , Leiden , and Paris , before becoming professor of philosophy and mathematics at the academy of Lausanne in 1700. He was rector of the academy four times before 1724, when theological disputes led him to accept a chair of philosophy and mathematics at Gröningen . In 1726 he was appointed governor to the young prince Frederick of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel), and in 1735 returned to Lausanne with
208-1030: Was born at Kassel in Hesse , the son of William VIII, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel and his wife Dorothea Wilhelmine of Saxe-Zeitz . His paternal grandfather was Charles I, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel , and his paternal uncle was Frederick I of Sweden . His education was initially entrusted to Colonel August Moritz von Donop and then from 1726 to 1733 to the Swiss theologian and philosopher, Jean-Pierre de Crousaz . On 8 May 1740, by proxy in London, and on 28 June 1740 in person in Kassel , Frederick married Princess Mary , fourth daughter of King George II of Great Britain and Caroline of Ansbach . They had four sons: In December 1745, Frederick landed in Scotland with 6000 Hessian troops to support his father-in-law, George II of Great Britain, in dealing with
224-476: Was born in Lausanne , Switzerland. He was a many-sided man, whose numerous works on many subjects had a great vogue in their day, but are now largely forgotten. He has been described as an initiateur plutôt qu'un créateur (an initiator rather than a creator), chiefly because he introduced the philosophy of Descartes to Lausanne in opposition to the reigning Aristotelianism , and also as a Calvinist pedant (for he
240-612: Was not until after the German War of Liberation in 1813 that the sovereignty of Hesse-Cassel was restored. The incorporation of Hanau into Hesse-Cassel was, however, not completed until the death of prince-elector William in 1821, and the administrative reforms under his successor William II , when the county became the Landkreis of Hanau. Frederick II, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel Frederick II ( German : Landgraf Friedrich II von Hessen-Kassel ) (14 August 1720 – 31 October 1785)
256-557: Was underage, his mother the landgravine, princess Mary of Great Britain, ruled as his legal guardian . After his access to the throne of Hesse-Cassel in 1760, landgrave Frederick II repeatedly tried to reunite Hesse-Hanau with Hesse-Cassel, but his efforts failed due to the resistance of Great Britain and the Protestant estates . As further protection, troops from Hanover were garrisoned in Hanau. When William came of age in 1764 he took over
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