This article is about the specific polity Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt and therefore only includes events related to its territory and not to its possessions or colonies. If you are interested in the possession, this is the link to the article about the nation which includes all possessions as well as all the different incarnations of the nation.
If you are looking for the page with the statistics about this polity you can find it here:All Statistics
When the Landgriave of Hesse, Philip I, died in 1567, Hesse was divided between his four sons from his first marriage. As a result of the Napoleonic Wars, the landgraviate was elevated to the Grand Duchy of Hesse following the Empire's dissolution in 1806.
Establishment
January 1568: When Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, died in 1567, his territory was divided between his sons from his first marriage. This division led to the creation of Hesse-Kassel, Hesse-Darmstadt, Hesse-Marburg, and Hesse-Rheinfels, weakening the overall power and influence of the Hesse territory.
Chronology
Interactive Chronologies with maps are available in the section Changes Navigation
After the death in 1567 of Philip I, the Landgraviate of Hesse was divided between the four sons of his first marriage.
Were a series of wars in Europe (and the overseas possessions of European countries) the 16th, 17th and early 18th that started after the Protestant Reformation. Although the immediate causes of the wars were religious, the motives were complex and also included territorial ambitions.
2.1.Thirty Years' War
Was a war that took place mainly in central Europe between 1618 and 1648. The war began as a religious conflict between Catholics and Protestant in the Holy Roman Empire but then escalated into a conflict for the hegemony in Europe between Habsburg Spain and Austria, Sweden and France.
2.1.1.Bohemian-Palatine period
Was the first period of the Thirty Years' War. It started with a protestant revolt in Bohemia, at the time a territory of the Habsburg Domains.
2.1.1.1.War in Palatinate
Was the theatre of war in Palatinate during the first phase of the Thirty Years' War.
December 1621: German Protestant military leader Christian of Brunswick takes Amöneburg, not far from Mainz.
September 1622: From the summer of 1622, the territories of the Palatinate on the right bank of the Rhine were occupied by the troops of the Catholc League. Frederick V of the Palatinate eventually lost his electoral dignity on February 23, 1623, which was transferred to Maximilian of Bavaria.
2.1.2.Swedish Period
Was the third main period of the Thirty Years' War. It started with the intervention of the Kingdom of Sweden.
December 1631: Gustav Adolf II of Sweden crosses the Rhine with his army and besieges Mainz.
December 1632: Swedes under Wolf Heinrich von Baudissin take Deutz.
2.1.3.Franco-Swedish Period
Was the fourth main period of the Thirty Years' War. It started with the intervention of the Kingdom of France.
2.1.3.1.North German Front (Sweden)
Was the north German front during the Franco-Swedish period of the Thirty Years' War.
November 1637: After the death of Swedish King Ferdinand II, his son and successor Ferdinand III brought the Swedish troops back to Pomerania, leaving the territories occupied by Sweden in Germany.
2.1.4.Peace of Westphalia
Were a series of treaties that ended the Thirty Years' War. Catholics and Protestants were redefined as equal in the territories of the Holy Roman Empire. There were major territorial adjustments. In particular, France, Sweden and Brandenburg had major territorial gains, and several religious territories of the Holy Roman Empire were secularized.
January 1649: Based on Gustav Droysen's Map of the Holy Roman Empire at the time of Thirty Years' War.
2.2.Nine Years' War
Was a conflict between France and the Grand Alliance, a coalition including the Holy Roman Empire, the Dutch Republic, England, Spain, and Savoy. It is considered the first war that saw fighting globally because battles occured in Europe, America, Africa and India.
2.2.1.Rhineland Theatre (Nine Years' War)
Was the Rhineland Theatre of the the Nine Years' War.
January 1689: Several towns fell to the French without resistance, including Oppenheim, Worms, Bingen, Kaiserslautern, Heidelberg, Speyer and, above all, the key fortress of Mainz.
2.2.2.Peace of Ryswick
Were a series of treaties that ended the Nine Years' War.
September 1697: Peace of Ryswick (1697): France kept Strasbourg but returned Freiburg, Breisach, Philippsburg and the Duchy of Lorraine to the Holy Roman Empire.
Was a global conflict that involved most of the European great powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. At the end of the war the main winner was Great Britain, that obtained territories in North America, the Caribbean and India, becoming the most powerful maritime and colonial of the European powers.
3.1.Central German Theatre
Was the theatre of war in central Germany of the Seven Years' War.
3.1.1.Rhineland Theatre (Seven Years' War)
Was the theatre of War in the Rhineland during the Seven Years' War.
April 1759: The French under General Victor-François de Broglie obtained a victory against British, Hanoverian, Hessian, and Brunswick forces in the Battle of Bergen.
August 1759: On 1 August 1759, the Anglo-German army of Ferdinand Prince of Brunswick-Lüneburg, routed the French during the Battle of Minden.
July 1760: French general de Broglie launched an offensive in the direction of Hesse, defeating Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel's forces on July 10 at the Battle of Korbach.
July 1760: The Battle of Warburg was fought on 31 July 1760 during the Seven Years' War. The battle was a victory for the Hanoverians and the British against the French army.
Were a series of conflicts between France and several European monarchies between 1792 and 1815. They encompass first the French Revolutionary Wars against the newly declared French Republic and from 1803 onwards the Napoleonic Wars against First Consul and later Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. They include the Coalition Wars as a subset: seven wars waged by various military alliances of great European powers, known as Coalitions, against Revolutionary France - later the First French Empire - and its allies.
January 1803: Friedberg annexed by Hesse-Darmstadt.
February 1803: Reichsdeputationsschluss: the Imperial Recess of 1803, was a resolution passed by the Reichstag (Imperial Diet) of the Holy Roman Empire. The law secularized nearly 70 ecclesiastical states and abolished 45 imperial cities to compensate numerous German princes for territories to the west of the Rhine that had been annexed by France as a result of the French Revolutionary Wars.
January 1804: The Imperial City of Wimpfen is acquired by the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt.
August 1806: The grand duchy originally formed on the basis of the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt in 1806 as the Grand Duchy of Hesse.
4.1.War of the First Coalition
Were a series of wars between the Kingdom of France (later the French Republic) and several European Monarchies. The French Revolution had deteriorated the relations of France with the other European countries, that tried several times to invade France in order to crash the revolutionary government.
January 1795: The French armies drove the Austrians, British, and Dutch beyond the Rhine, occupying Belgium, the Rhineland, and the south of the Netherlands.
4.1.1.Rhineland campaign of 1792
Was a French military campaign in the Rhineland.
October 1792: The French army penetrated as far as Frankfurt, which surrendered.
4.1.2.Flanders Campaign
Was a French military campaign in the Flanders.
June 1795: Territory evacuated by the French at the end of the Flanders Campaign. The surrender of Luxembourg on 7 June 1795 concluded the French conquest of the Low Countries, thus marking the end of the Flanders Campaign.
4.1.3.Rhine campaign of 1796
Were a series of battles in the Rhineland during the War of the First Coalition.
July 1796: French forces occupied the city of Giessen.
July 1796: French forces occupy the city of Friedberg.
4.1.4.Rhine campaign of 1800
Was one of a series of battles in the Rhineland during the War of the First Coalition.
October 1796: The French retreated across the rivers Rhine and Elz, destroying all the bridges.
4.1.5.Treaty of Campo Formio
Was a treaty between France and Austria that ended the War of the First Coalition.
January 1798: The Treaty of Campo Formio was signed on 17 October 1797 (26 Vendémiaire VI). The treaty transferred the Austrian Netherlands to France. The territories of Venice were partitioned, most were acquired by Austria. Austria recognized the Cisalpine Republic and the newly created Ligurian Republic. Extension of the borders of France up to the Rhine, the Nette, and the Roer.
4.2.War of the Second Coalition
Was the second war that saw revolutionary France against most of the European monarchies, led by Britain, Austria, and Russia, and including the Ottoman Empire, Portugal, Naples, and various German monarchies. Prussia did not join this coalition, and Spain supported France.
4.2.1.Suvorov Swiss campaign
Was a military campaign led by Russian general Alexander Suvorov against France that took place in Switzlerand.
October 1799: The Russian troops were forced by the French to abandon their hold on the left bank of the Rhine.
4.2.2.Treaty of Lunéville
Was a treaty between the French Republic and the Holy Roman Empire that formally ended the partecipation of Austria and the Holy Roman Empire in the War of the Second Coalition.
February 1801: The Treaty of Lunéville was signed in the Treaty House of Lunéville between the French Republic and Holy Roman Emperor Francis II. Certain Austrian holdings within the borders of the Holy Roman Empire were relinquished, and French control was extended to the left bank of the Rhine, "in complete sovereignty" but France renounced any claim to territories east of the Rhine. Contested boundaries in Italy were set. The Grand Duchy of Tuscany was awarded to the French.
January 1584: Hesse-Rheinfels was created as a cadet line of Hesse for Philip II, Landgrave of Hesse-Rheinfels (1541-1583), landgrave from 1567 until 1583. This line of Hesse-Rheinfels died out in 1583 with the childless Philip II. Hesse-Rheinfels was divided between Hesse-Kassel, which received the main part, and Hesse-Darmstadt and Hesse-Marburg.
January 1605: When Louis IV, Landgrave of Hesse-Marburg, died without male issue, his territory was ceded to the landgraviates of Hesse-Kassel (Marburg) and Hesse-Darmstadt (Gießen, Nidda).
January 1669: Hesse-Homburg was formed into a separate landgraviate in 1622 by the landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt; it was to be ruled by his son, although it did not become independent of Hesse-Darmstadt until 1668.
January 1788: Based on Gustav Droysen's Map of the Holy Roman Empire in the XVIII century.
Disestablishment
August 1806: The grand duchy originally formed on the basis of the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt in 1806 as the Grand Duchy of Hesse.
Selected Sources
Addington, L. (1994): The Patterns of War Since the Eighteenth Century, Bloomington (USA), p.24
Alison, A. (1835): History of Europe, W. Blackwood and Sons, pp. 86-90.
Articles secrets et convention additionelle du traité de Campo Formio. Retrieved on March, 24th 2024 on https://books.google.de/books?id=SStJAAAAcAAJ&dq=Trait%C3%A9%20de%20paix%20de%20Campo%20Formio&hl=de&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q=Trait%C3%A9%20de%20paix%20de%20Campo%20Formio&f=false
Battle of Warburg. BritishBattles.com. Retrieved on 30 march 2024 on https://www.britishbattles.com/frederick-the-great-wars/seven-years-war/battle-of-warburg/
Droysen, G. (1886): Historischer Handatlas, Bielefeld and Leipzig (Germany), p. 48
Droysen, G. (1886): Historischer Handatlas, Bielefeld and Leipzig (Germany), pp. 42-43
Droysen, G. (1886): Historischer Handatlas, Bielefeld and Leipzig (Germany), pp. 46-47
Exshaw, A. (1763): A Compleat History of the Late War, pp. 282-283
Frieden von Campoformio. Retrieved on March, 24th 2014 on https://books.google.de/books?id=UbGMtENHaBIC&pg=PA9#v=onepage&q&f=false
Gagliardo, J. (1980): Reich and Nation: The Holy Roman Empire as Idea and Reality, 1763–1806, Bloomington (USA), p. 192
Kreins, J. (2003): Histoire du Luxembourg, Paris (France), p. 63
Poole, R.L. (1902): Historical Atlas of Modern Europe, Oxford (United Kingdom), Plate XI
Schmidt, G. (2006): Der Dreißigjährige Krieg, Munich (Germany), p. 65
Swiss campaign of Suvorov and his wonder-heroes. Top War. 30 September 2011. https://en.topwar.ru/7227-shveycarskiy-pohod-suvorova-i-ego-chudo-bogatyrey.html
Treaty of Ryswick (English version), https://bonoc.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/tratado-ryswick.pdf
.svg.png.webp)
Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt
