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The Margraftum is a small enclave in North West Germany
squeezed between Hannover, The Netherlands, Denmark
and the North Sea. It came into being during the twelfth
century, and achieved the status of Margraftum as a result of the Peace
of Augsburg
of 1555. When the pot boiled over in
1618 and the Thirty Years War started, the then Margrave,
Karl-Friederich II raised a force of some 4,000 men
organised into three regiments of Foote (Pike and Musket
armed) six troops of Horse and a company of artillery ( 8
light guns, ranging from robinets to sakers). |
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During this period the portion of the population suitable
for military service diminished greatly and in order to
maintain the size of his army, Margraf Johannes recruited Scottish
and English mercenaries, stipulating only that they be
physically fit and of the Protestant religion. Many of
these hired mercenaries returned to Britain on the outbreak of
the English Civil War in 1642.
The years from 1648 until 1701 saw little military
activity on the part of the Margraftum, Johannes being
more concerned with rebuilding his land's shattered
economy. However, 1655 saw Johannes honouring his alliance
with Sweden in the First Northern War
1655-1660 The restoration of the status quo ante-bellum
in 1660 by the
Treaty of Kardis disgusted
Johannes, and he withdrew from active participation in the
military/political field, preferring to concentrate on
re-building.
Johannes died in 1700, the title passing to his nephew
Albrecht I. Albrecht was at first content to continue his
uncle's policy of non-involvement, but the outbreak of the
War of The Spanish Succession involved a
general arming of the German princedoms; Albrecht realised
that his uncle's policy of pacifism placed the Margraftum in
danger and raised the first standing army.
This army consisted of The Guards Regiment (1 battalion)
and three Regiments of Foot (2 battalions) 2 Regiments of
Horse, 1 Regiment of Dragoons, 1 Regiment of Artillery (3
companies of six 6pdr guns) plus a company of engineers
and supporting services. Apart from the Regiment Garde zu
Fuss, regiments were known by their Colonel's names
(Albrecht defrayed the expense of raising these troops by
issuing Commissions of Arrays to trusted subordinates and
allowing them to become proprietors of the regiments).
Acknowledging the Margraftum's old links with Sweden, and
out of a desire to differentiate his troops from those of
Prussia, Albrecht decreed that the uniform coat colour was
to be "medium blue" and that breeches,
waistcoats and belts were to be buff in colour. Grenadiers
and Gunners were to wear caps, while all other troops were
to wear a "round hat, well cocked at three
points".
Albrecht joined the Emperor's faction in this war,
establishing close links with both Prussia,
and Braunschweig,
alongside whose
troops the Margraf''s forces fought. The end of the war by
the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), saw
Prussia's recognition as a Kingdom who viewed Ober Nord
Westfalen and
Braunschweig as a useful allies to the west
of Hannover.
In 1714 Queen Anne of England died and the English
Parliament invited Elector George of Hannover to assume
the throne. Albrecht realised that this move gave a
previously impoverished Hannover potential access to much
greater resources, and together with Braunschweig, Ober
Nord Westfalen formed a
pact of triple alliance with Prussia (The Convention
of Bremen 1716).
The corner stone of Albrecht's foreign policy was to
prevent encroachment by Hannover, who had already
instigated a series of diplomatic squabbles over the
ownership of some small towns and villages on the
Margraftum's South Eastern border, and to resist attempts
by Denmark to annex the northern Kreise. Only Albrecht's
alliance with Prussia and Braunschweig prevented more
overt coercive measures on the part of either aggressor.
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The alliance came under
immense strain when in 1741 Friederich II of Prussia,
"Frederick the Great" (Der Alte Fritz) launched the
Silesian War, otherwise known as the
War of the Austrian Succession. Due in no small part
to the covert support that France supplied to Prussia,
both Ober Nord Westfalen and Braunschweig took a stance opposed
to Prussia, and it was only by demanding that Ober Nord
Westfalen abided by the terms of the alliance that the Margraf
despatched a token force to serve with the Prussians.
Continuing French involvement and a more overt alliance with
Prussia, brought France's hereditary enemies, Britain and
the Dutch republic into the conflict. Britain's
involvement brought Hannover into the fray and offered
Ober Nord Westfalen and Braunschweig a stronger alliance in the
face of mounting Prussian pressure.
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| Empress Maria Theresa in 1749 |
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Frederick II of Prussia |
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Britain's intervention on the side of
the Holy Roman Empire was due to Louis XV's threat to the security
of Hannover (George II's ancestral lands). The alliance between
Ober Nord Westfalen and Britain built upon the foundations laid during
the War of the Spanish Succession and was to be repeated during the
Seven Years' War, and had the effect of lessening Hannoverian claims on
the Margraftum's South Eastern marches. |
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Louis XV of France
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George II of Great Britain
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The thirty years between
the end of the Seven Years' War and the wars foisted upon Europe by the
infant French Republic were spent in restoring the Margraftum's finances
and the cutting of a navigation canal between the Baltic and North Sea coasts.
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Events in France shook the western
world. The Revolution's most desperate act, the execution of the French Monarch
(Louis XVI), the proclamation of a republic and the declaration of war
against most of Europe, caused outrage amongst the other crowned heads of Europe,
who, fearing the import of such radical ideas into their own states,
took what they saw as an opportunity to crush the new-born
French Republic. As an ally
of Prussia, now ruled by Frederick-William II (the Nephew of 'Der Alte
Fritz'), Ober Nord Westfalen took part in the early campaigns,
which almost saw the end of the fledgling republic, but the
anti-French alliance was stopped in its tracks by the Battle
of Valmy, 1792, ("The Cannonade of Valmy"). After the withdrawal of Prussia
and her allies from
the anti-French alliance, Ober Nord Westfalen remained at peace until
the ill-fated expedition to Hannover under the command of the British
Lord Cathcart in 1805. As part of the peace negotiations, Ober Nord
Westfalen was compelled to pay indemnities to France.
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| Louis XVI of France |
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Napoleon Bonaparte |
Smarting
under this burden, the Margraf was more than willing to join in
Prussia's disastrous campaign of 1806, which culminated in the double
disasters of Jena and
Auerstadt. The consequences of this campaign
forced Ober Nord Westfalen into the French puppet state of the
Confederation of the Rhine. As a reluctant member of the
confederation, Ober Nord Westfalen was compelled to pay for French
Garrisons on ONW territory and to supply troops to the
French army, including a contingent sent in 1809 to Spain to participate
in the Peninsular
War, and in 1812 to Russia, where once
again they fought under the command of the Prussian army. With the
signing of the Convention of Tauroggen, Ober Nord Westfalen joined
Prussia and other North German states in the Befreiungskrieg, which
culminated in the expulsion of the French from German territory, the
occupation of France and the abdication and exile of Bonaparte to Elba. |
