This is a story of family
rows and intrigue that centres on three generations of the family
that ruled Hesse-Kassel – William VIII, his son Frederick II and
his grandson William IX. The history books don't go into their
personal relationships but you can read between the lines.
When
the hereditary prince of Hesse-Cassel, Frederick (later to be
Frederick II) , converted to Roman Catholicism in 1747, and,
incidentally, abandonned his family, 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,
which had been part of Hesse-Cassel since 1736, a secundogeniture of
Hesse-Cassel, transferring it to his grandson William. A
secundogeniture (from Latin:secundus "following,
second," and genitus"born")
was a dependent territory given to a younger son of a princely house
and his descendants, creating a cadet branch. This was a special form
of inheritance in which the second and younger son received more
possessions and prestige than he would have normally under the rules
of primogeniture. It avoided the division of the estate and gave
younger branches a stake in the stability of the house.
As
count William was underage, his mother the landgravine, princess Mary
of Great Britain, ruled as his legal guardian. His childhood was
mostly spent in Denmark. After his accession to the throne of
Hesse-Cassel in 1760, landgrave Frederick II repeatedly tried to
re-unite 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 the government of the
county. Two years later he signed an agreement with Great Britain to
supply troops when necessary. Both he and his father waived
the taxes of families of men who would serve in America.
Had father and son been reconciled by then?
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 the
erection of significant buildings in the capital of Hanau. Money 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.
