Hanoverian Army

The Hanoverian Army (German: Hannoversche Armee)

was the standing army of the Electorate of Hanover from the
seventeenth century onwards. From 1692 to 1803 it acted in
defence of the electorate. Following the Hanoverian Succession
of 1714, this was in conjunction with the British Army with
which it shared a monarch. Hanoverian troops fought in the
War of the Austrian Succession, Seven Years' War and
American War of Independence during the eighteenth century.
The Flag of Hanover.
After Napoleon's invasion and incorporation of Hanover into
the Confederation of the Rhine in 1803, 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 final defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo.[1] Following the Congress of Vienna,
Hanover was elevated into a kingdom. It continued to be directly 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, particularly during
the 1715 and 1745 Jacobite Risings.[2] The term Army of Hanover may refer to a French military
formation centred on Hanover during the Napoleonic Wars.

Background
The Guelph family had a long history in the Holy Roman Empire.
By the seventeenth century a branch of the family reigned over
territories in Northern Germany centred around the city of
Hanover, at a lesser level to the Electors who elected the
Emperors.

From Hanover the ambitious Ernest Augustus incorporated

various hereditary possessions into a larger, single state. Through
his wife Sophia his children also acquired a distant claim to the
English, Scottish and Irish thrones as descendants of James VI
and 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.[3] In these years an increasing George, Prince of Hanover led
professionalism marked out the Hanoverian troops, alongside Hanoverian troops during the
those of another northern Protestant state Brandenburg-Prussia. Siege of Vienna (1683).
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 fully confirmed by the Imperial Diet until
1708.[4] 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 campaigns 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 which excluded rival Jacobite claimants.

Eighteenth century

War of the Spanish Succession

In 1701, the Act of Settlement passed in the Parliament of England backing the House of Hanover,
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's French forces. During the
war, an estimated 16,000 troops raised by Hanover were paid for subsidies by Britain and the
Dutch Republic.[5]

Early in the war George oversaw an invasion of Brunswick a

smaller, pro-French neighbouring state.[6] Hanover despatched
a contingent to serve in the Allied Army under John Churchill,
1st Duke of Marlborough, taking part in numerous campaigns
including the decisive victory at Blenheim. Hanoverian hopes
that George might become commander of the Allied coalition
were unfulfilled.[7] 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.[8] Under the Elector's son Prince
George, Hanoverian troops played a
At a strategy conference held in Hanover April 1708, George major part in Marlborough's major
believed that he had persuaded Marlborough and Prince victory at the Battle of Oudenarde in
1708.
Eugene of Savoy 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
Marlborough used the threat of George's Imperial army as a diversion to support his own offensive,
leading to his victory at the Battle of Oudenarde and the capture of Lille.[9] 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 Joseph I in Vienna diverted away troops and
crucial resources to other theatres and he was left with too few men to take the offensive.[10]
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 Baden (1714) brought a final end to the war.[11]

Union with Britain

As Queen Anne grew increasingly ill in 1713-14, Hanoverian supporters moved 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 alone. 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.

Despite inheriting the throne of the larger Britain, George remained fixated on the electorate, and
particularly wanted to advance Hanover's claims in the Great Northern War against Sweden. Over
time the engagement of British troops in support of Hanoverian goals became controversial in
Britain and came under attack from the Patriot Whigs, while in Hanover there was a broad
acceptance of subordinating the Hanoverian Army to Britain's foreign policy.

In 1719 during the War of the Quadruple Alliance with Spain, 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.[12] Peace was agreed by the Treaty
of The Hague in 1720.

War of the Austrian Succession

When the War of Jenkins' Ear broke out between Britain and
Spain in 1740, Hanover was not directly involved. This changed
when Charles VI of Austria died in October of the same year.
George II, as elector of 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 Albert of Bavaria,
while Britain staunchly supported the new ruler of Austria, Maria
George, Elector of Hanover led
Theresa, who was attacked from several directions, including by
Allied forces to victory at the
George II's Prussian nephew Frederick II who annexed Silesia.
Battle of Dettingen in 1743.
In response 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.[13] They also employed Hessian troops, from the
neighbouring Hesse-Kassel which had strong traditional ties to Hanover through marriage and
military alliance. The Hanoverian Army fought at the battles of Fontenoy and Lauffeld amongst
others. At the Battle of Dettingen the Anglo-Hanoverian forces were commanded by George II, the
last British monarch to lead his troops on the battlefield. A landing by Charles Edward Stuart in
Scotland launched a fresh Jacobite rising led to the redeployment of British and allied German
troops to counter the threat, which was largely ended at the Battle of Culloden in 1746.

References
1. Field p.100
2. Newman & Brown p.189
3. Hatton p.43
4. Thompson p.92
5. Smith p.74
6. Hatton p.88-90
7. Hatton p.100
8. Hatton p.101-2
9. Hatton p.102-03
10. Hatton p.103-104
11. Hatton p.105
12. Black p.76
13. Black p.111

Bibliography
Black, Jeremy. The Continental Commitment: Britain, Hanover and Interventionism 1714-1793.
Routledge, 2005.
Black, Jeremy. European Warfare in a Global Context, 1660–1815. Routledge, 2007.
Falkner, James. Fire Over the Rock: The Great Siege of Gibraltar. Pen and Sword, 2009.
Field, Andrew W. Wellington's Waterloo Allies: How Soldiers from Brunswick, Hanover, Nassau
and the Netherlands Contributed to the Victory of 1815. Pen and Sword Military, 2022.
Hatton, Ragnihild. George I: Elector and King. Thames and Hudson, 1978.
Hofschröer, Peter. The Hanoverian Army of the Napoleonic Wars. Bloomsbury Publishing,
2012.
Newman, Gerald & Brown, Leslie Ellen. Britain in the Hanoverian Age, 1714-1837: An
Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis, 1997.
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.
Thomson, Andrew C. Britain, Hanover and the Protestant Interest, 1688-1756. Boydell Press,
2006.
Tzoref-Ashkenazi, Chen. German Soldiers in Colonial India. Routledge, 2015.

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