Hanover. 
beens Steet 
History. 
636 
The illustrious house of Hanover is descended from 
Margrave Azo, who possessed the Milanese, Genoa, and 
part of Lombardy, in the 11th century. He was suc- 
ceeded by Welpho the Fat, who married the Marchioness 
of Tuscany. Welpho having died without issue, his 
Italian estates, and the duchy of Bavaria, came into the 
possession of his brother Henry the Black, who obtain- 
ed the county of Luneburgh with his wife Wulphilda, 
daughter of Magnus Duke of Saxony. His son Henry 
the Proud having married the daughter of Lotharius 
IL. obtained along with her the duchy of Saxony, and 
the hereditary lands of Brunswick Nordheim, and Sup- 
plingenburg ; and the dominions of the family extend- 
ed from the Rhine to the Vistula, when her son Hen- 
ry the Lyon reduced the Slavi, on the coast of the Bal- 
tic. In 1179, he was put under the ban by the Empe- 
ror, and deprived of all his possessions in Italy and Swa- 
bia, and of the duchies of Saxony and Bavaria, He 
was allowed, however, to retain Luneburg, some*lord- 
ships, and his Slavian conquests. His son Otho ob- 
tained the imperial dignity in 1209 ; and, in the course 
of time, his family was divided into two branches, two 
of which now exist, viz. those of Wolfenbuttel and Zell. 
The first was founded by Henry, and the second by 
William, the sons of the Duke Ernest, who introduced 
into his dominions the reformed faith. Ernest Augus- 
tus, his grand nephew, and Elector of Hanover, mar- 
ried Sophia, the daughter of the Elector Palatine, and 
of Elizabeth, the daughter of James I. of England, and 
established the right of primogeniture in the Wilhelmine 
line. In the year 1714, George Louis his son succeeded, 
in virtue of the act of succession, (see Brirain,) to the 
throne of England, and since that time the kings of Eng- 
landhave been the electors of Hanover. Intheyear 1715, 
the Duchy of Verden was ceded to the Elector of Hano- 
ver by the alliance concluded at Wismar ; and in 1719, 
by the treaty of Stockholm, Bremen was also transferred 
to the elector, who, in 1732, obtained the emperor's in- 
vestiture for both Bremen and Verden. In October 1801, 
the Prussians, under the fatal influence of the govern- 
ment of France, had declared war against Great Bri« 
tain, and had taken possession of the electorate of Ha- 
nover ; but at the peace of Amiens, the electorate was 
restored to its lawful sovereign. The Bishopric of Osna- 
burg, or Osnabruck, which, by the peace of Osnaburg, 
was to be occupied alternately by a Roman Catholic 
and a Lutheran bishop, the last of whom must be se- 
lected out of the house of Brunswick Luneburg, was 
secularised by the treaty of Luneville, and was ceded 
by the treaty of Amiens, in 1802, to. George ILI. as 
elector of Hanover. 
When Bonaparte had determined to make war upon 
Great Britain, he marched his army into Osnaburg and 
Hanover. On the 9th of June 1803, the French under 
the command of General Drouet, took possession of the 
country and city of Osnaburg ; and, after a slight en- 
gagement, the convention of Suhlingen was entered in« 
to on the 3d of June 1803, between General Mortier 
and Marshal Walmoden, the commander of the Hano-« 
verian army. ‘The first consul immediately sent this 
convention to England, declaring that he would rati 
it as soon as it had been sanctioned by his Britannic Ma- 
jesty. The English government, however, refused to 
give any sanction to this convention. They averred, 
that the character of George III. as elector of Hanover, 
was distinct from his character as king of Great Bri- 
tain, and that in the year 1795, the French government 
had acknowledged his neutrality as elector of Hanover 
during the existence of a war with Great Britain. The 
. HANOVER. 
king therefore resolved to abstain from every act which 
might be considered as paar ore stipulations of 
the convention eee om the 3d of Pri Poe lin oe 
the deputies appointed by the regency over, 
the French rita ; until he should make an ap« 
peal to the empire and to the powers of Europe, who 
had pao at the Germanic constitution, and conse« 
quently his rights and possessions as a prince of the 
empire. On the 30th of June, General Mortier com< 
municated the resolution of the British government to 
Marshal Walmoden, and summoned him to surrender his 
army in 24 hours, to be sent prisoners of war into France. 
The Hanoverian general declared that his army should . 
erish in the field rather than consent to such humi« 
iating terms. General Mortier was thus induced to 
offer milder terms, and a capitulation was signed on the 
4th of July, by which tlie Hanoterah army laid down 
its arms, which, with all the artillery, was to be deli« 
vered up to the French, along with the cavalry and ar- 
tillery horses, to the amount of 4000. The soldiers 
were to return to their respective homes, and engaged. 
not to serve against the French till regularly ex- 
changed. 
Hanover continued in the possession of the French till 
the year 1806, when it was occupied by the Prussians. 
It was afterwards annexed to the new kingdom of West 
phalia, which was formed for Jerome Bonaparte. 
In consequence of the great events in 1813, (see 
France, vol. ix.) which have led to the liberation 
of Germany, Hanover was restored to its ancient 
rights, by the army of the Crown Prince of Sweden, 
It of course reverted to its legitimate sovereign at the 
treaty of Paris in 1814, and has since continued in a 
state of tranquillity and happiness. At the second 
treaty of Paris in 1815, the electorate of Hanover was 
converted into a kingdom. 
The population of Hanover is about 800,000 souls, F 
which gives about 1500 to every square German mile, 
The population of the principality of Osnaburg is about 
133,000; so that we have, according to Mangourit, 
Hanover Proper,......-. siete ee 16 800,000) 
Principality of Osnaburg ..... +. « «133,000 
Population of Osnaburg .... . . «933,000 
The following is another estimate of the population: 
Principality of Calenburg, ........ 210,000 
Principality of Luneburg-Zell, .... . 200,000 
Duchy OLBPAMehy, Pierie b/s aire newbie te ee 167,149 
Principality of Osnaburg, ..... 117,896 . 
Principality of Grubenhagen, ...... 80,000, 
Duchy of Saxe Lauenburg, ........ 40,000: 
County of Hoya. ......2..++.. 40,000 
Duchy of Verden, .......+.+.2+.-.- 30,000 
County of Diepholtz, 12,000 
ee oe ee see ee 
897,045. 
See particularly Mangourit’s Travels in Hanover, du- 
ring the time of its occupation by the French ; Catteau 
de Calleville’s Voyage en Allemande ; Peuchet’s Diction« 
naire de la Geogr. Commerg. ; and the article Harrz. 
HANOVER is a fortified town of Germany,. and ca- 
pital of the kingdom of the same name. It 1s situated 
ina sandy plain, on both sides of the river Leine, which 
divides it into two towns, viz, Old and New Hanover. 
The old town lies on the left bank of the river, which 
here forms two branches, and, after inclosing an island, 
they again reunite and become navigable. The old and 
1 
