The Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel was founded by William IV the Wise, the eldest son of Philip I. On his father's death in 1567, the Landgraviate of Hesse was divided into four parts. William IV received about half of the territory, with Kassel as his capital. Hesse-Kassel expanded in 1604 when Maurice, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel inherited the Landgraviate of Hesse-Marburg from his childless uncle, Louis IV, Landgrave of Hesse-Marburg (1537–1604).
Amalie Elisabeth vigorously advanced the interests of Hesse-Kassel. After expelling Imperial troops from Hesse-Kassel, she sent troops to take the city of Marburg, which her father-in-law had lost to their Hesse-Darmstadt relatives. At the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, Hesse-Kassel was further rewarded with most of the County of Schaumburg and the newly secularized Hersfeld Abbey. Amalie Elisabeth also introduced the rule of primogeniture to prevent Hesse-Kassel from being divided again in the future. However, her health was ruined by the stresses of the war, and she died in 1651.
Hesse fought on the side of Coalition in the War of the First Coalition, against the First French Republic. In 1801, they would cede territories on the west bank of the Rhine to France. Following the reorganization of the German states during the German mediatisation of 1803, the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel gained land and was raised to the Electorate of Hesse and Landgrave William IX was elevated to Imperial Elector, taking the title William I, Elector of Hesse. The principality thus became known as Kurhessen (aka Kurfürstentum Hessen), although still usually referred to as Hesse-Kassel.
In 1806, William I was dispossessed by Napoleon Bonaparte for his support of the Kingdom of Prussia in the War of the Fourth Coalition. Kassel was designated as the capital of a new Kingdom of Westphalia, where Napoleon appointed his brother Jérôme Bonaparte as king. Following Napoleon's defeat in 1813, the elector was restored. At the Congress of Vienna, a number of Napoleonic electorates were elevated to kingdoms, and William tried to secure recognition as King of the Chatti. However, he was rebuffed by the Great Powers, who listed him as a "Royal Highness" along with the other grand dukes.[4] To secure his pre-eminence over his cousin, the Grand Duke of Hesse in the former Hesse-Darmstadt, William chose to keep his title of Prince-Elector. The rulers of the Electorate of Hesse became the only Prince-Electors in the German Confederation, even though there was no longer a Holy Roman Emperor for them to elect.
Hessian troops in foreign service
The Landgraves of Hesse-Kassel were famous for renting out their army to other European nations during the 17th and 18th centuries. It was a widespread practice at the time for small countries to rent out troops to larger countries in exchange for subsidies. International jurists drew a distinction between mercenaries and auxiliaries. Mercenaries served in foreign armies as individuals, while auxiliaries were sent by their ruler to the aid of another ruler.[5]
Hesse-Kassel took the practice to an extreme, maintaining 5.3% to 7.3% of its population under arms in peacetime in its history, however was known to double that in times of war. This was a higher proportion than even Prussia,[6] a country that was so heavily militarized that it was described as "not a country with an army, but an army with a country". The Hessian army served as a readily available reserve for other European nations.[7] During the American Revolutionary War, the Kingdom of Great Britain rented thousands of German troops to fight in the Thirteen Colonies, half of whom came from Hesse-Kassel and nearby Hesse-Hanau. Due to this, American colonists in the colonies referred to all German troops serving with the British with the synecdoche "Hessian".[8]
^Atwood, Rodney (2002). The Hessians: Mercenaries from Hessen-Kassel in the American Revolution. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. p. 1. ISBN9780521526371.
^Black, Jeremy (1994). European Warfare, 1660-1815. London: Routledge. ISBN9781135369552. Whereas in the mid-eighteenth century Austria and Russia had between approximately 1.1 per cent and 1.5 per cent of their population in the army, the percentage for Prussia for 4.2. ... In 1730, a year of peace but also of war preparations, Hesse-Cassel had 1 in 19 of the population under arms.
^Kennedy, David M. (2012). The American Pageant. Cengage Learning. p. 147. Because most of these soldiers-for-hire came from the Germany principality of Hesse, the Americans called all the European mercenaries Hessians.
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