Ernest Augustus I of the United Kingdom

Question is, would any of this matter after 1866

Well, Brunswick was a sovereign state of the German Empire so being the reigning duke was SOME kudos, and some power, some history still alive

Hannover, tho, wasn't tho might eventually have recovered it, who knows

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
Well, Brunswick was a sovereign state of the German Empire so being the reigning duke was SOME kudos, and some power, some history still alive

Hannover, tho, wasn't tho might eventually have recovered it, who knows

Best Regards
Grey Wolf

Well you did say a King Ernest might lead to civil war in Britain, and while a Anglo-Austrian Alliance might stop Bismark in his tracks[1], how do we know that Britain would get fully involved? Wasn't the foreign policy "let the Prussians take power" or something like that?

[1] I don't know if what I just said was possible or significant.
 
Well you did say a King Ernest might lead to civil war in Britain, and while a Anglo-Austrian Alliance might stop Bismark in his tracks[1], how do we know that Britain would get fully involved? Wasn't the foreign policy "let the Prussians take power" or something like that?

[1] I don't know if what I just said was possible or significant.

Regarding the latter part, the favour on which Prussia was looked dated to the marriage of Victoria's daughter Victoria to German Crown Prince Frederick - he was seen as Liberal (in a non-militaristic sense) and as Wilhelm I was a BIT old, Britain expected Prussia to soon be under Frederick, and reckoned a Prussian union of Germany would soon produce a nice parliamentarian friendly Germany, which seemed like a good idea !

The best laid plans of little squeaky rodents...

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
Regarding the latter part, the favour on which Prussia was looked dated to the marriage of Victoria's daughter Victoria to German Crown Prince Frederick - he was seen as Liberal (in a non-militaristic sense) and as Wilhelm I was a BIT old, Britain expected Prussia to soon be under Frederick, and reckoned a Prussian union of Germany would soon produce a nice parliamentarian friendly Germany, which seemed like a good idea !

The best laid plans of little squeaky rodents...

Best Regards
Grey Wolf

So if Ernest (or George) remain in power, then Prussia wouldn't have taken Hanover, however, if somehow the Chartists overthrow the monarchy, would that change anything?
 
So if Ernest (or George) remain in power, then Prussia wouldn't have taken Hanover, however, if somehow the Chartists overthrow the monarchy, would that change anything?

The Chartists didn't want to overthrow the monarchy, they wanted to reform Parliament. Also, a lot of the signatures on their petition turned out to be fraudulent so I don't think they were nearly as popular as claimed. For them to overthrow the Government would probably require something totally radical, such as a march turning ugly and ending up with the chance capture of Buckingham Palace and hot blood dictating actions. In such circumstances I think the Chartists would quickly lose their popular support and would be crushed by the military later. If somehow...somehow...their petition was granted (and even this is pushing it) then it would change British foreign policy, but it wouldn't change the reigning monarch and assuming a continuing UK-Hanoverian Personal Union I still think the Prussians would shy from attacking Hanover, even if the new Parliament was happy to consign Hanover to its fate.
 
The Chartists didn't want to overthrow the monarchy, they wanted to reform Parliament. Also, a lot of the signatures on their petition turned out to be fraudulent so I don't think they were nearly as popular as claimed. For them to overthrow the Government would probably require something totally radical, such as a march turning ugly and ending up with the chance capture of Buckingham Palace and hot blood dictating actions. In such circumstances I think the Chartists would quickly lose their popular support and would be crushed by the military later. If somehow...somehow...their petition was granted (and even this is pushing it) then it would change British foreign policy, but it wouldn't change the reigning monarch and assuming a continuing UK-Hanoverian Personal Union I still think the Prussians would shy from attacking Hanover, even if the new Parliament was happy to consign Hanover to its fate.

Well, the thing is that we are dealing with a monarch who was supposedly unpopular. I cant be too sure but I do see him using military force against the Chartists, this could lead to a more radical, more legitimate Chartist movement, which could be Republican in nature. But like I said, I cant be too sure, I'm not an expert.
 
assuming a continuing UK-Hanoverian Personal Union I still think the Prussians would shy from attacking Hanover, even if the new Parliament was happy to consign Hanover to its fate.

Falastur

I could be wrong but, butterflies aside, wasn't the point that Prussia clashing with Austria in the way it did effectively bound the other German nations to support Austria, which I think the vast majority did. That means that once it decided to take on Austria Prussia has no say on whether it fights Hanover or not.

Also, if Hanover is contractually bound to declare war on Prussia, what position does that leave Britain in? Especially if the monarch tying the two together is deeply unpopular. Could easily have some supporting Hanover/Austria while others oppose British involvement.

Have read that one reason why the Prussians annexed the entire kingdom after 1866 was that because Hanover was so hostile to them there was no alternative they could find without leaving it separate and hostile. [Sounds a bit strange so not sure about this. Could have been related more to the ruling family and general leadership rather than the population as a whole?]

Steve
 
Falastur

I could be wrong but, butterflies aside, wasn't the point that Prussia clashing with Austria in the way it did effectively bound the other German nations to support Austria, which I think the vast majority did. That means that once it decided to take on Austria Prussia has no say on whether it fights Hanover or not.

Also, if Hanover is contractually bound to declare war on Prussia, what position does that leave Britain in? Especially if the monarch tying the two together is deeply unpopular. Could easily have some supporting Hanover/Austria while others oppose British involvement.

Good point. I hadn't really thought of that side, I was just looking at it from a Prussia-Hanover angle.

Also in reply to your question about British involvement, it's just occurred to me that the Act of Succession (I think) bars monarchs from having the UK declare war if Parliament doesn't agree to it, so an unpopular monarch is unlikely to be able to use the British as a counterweight to threats to Hanover.
 
Good point. I hadn't really thought of that side, I was just looking at it from a Prussia-Hanover angle.

Also in reply to your question about British involvement, it's just occurred to me that the Act of Succession (I think) bars monarchs from having the UK declare war if Parliament doesn't agree to it, so an unpopular monarch is unlikely to be able to use the British as a counterweight to threats to Hanover.

I doubt that Royal-Parliamentary relations would be worsened should Parliament not provide help to Hanover, and seeing that we're dealing with George V, I'd expect he'd try to dissolve parliament in order to get his way, but that would mean it'd eventually lead to civil war.
 
Top