The Guelph were originally Franconian noble family from the Meuse-Moselle area, which is known since the 9th century, and closely related to the imperial family of the Carolingian was used, which is the Guelph with a county in Upper Swabia belehnte and a sideline in 888 with the kingdom of Burgundy. When the family in the male line in 1055 with Welf III., Duke of Carinthia and Margrave of Verona, extinct, his sister married Kunigunde in the northern Italian family d'Este to which the subsequent younger Welf all belong. This set from 1070 (with interruptions) to 1180, the dukes of Bavaria, 1137-1180, the dukes of Saxony and from 1235 the Dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg.
1692 in the rose part of the Principality of Calenberg-Göttingen reigning line to Elector of Hanover on; she inherited in 1714 from the House of Stuart to the throne of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, she to 1901 as house Hannover occupied. The electorate of Hanover was in the Congress of Vienna in 1814 the Kingdom of Hanover applicable; the British monarch ruled it until 1837 in personal union, then - until the annexation by Prussia in 1866 - a returned to Germany branch of the British Royal Family. A senior line reigned in Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, the 1814 for Duchy of Brunswick was; after the extinction of this line in 1884 the Brunswick throne fell to the living in the Austrian exile Hanoverian line, but it could take until 1913, until the November Revolution 1918th. The Guelph thus had their power Zenit firstly in the Holy Roman Empire in the 12th century as a counterpart to the Staufer, the other in the 18th and 19th centuries as the kings of Great Britain and Ireland. They are, in addition to the Capetians and Reginaren, the oldest still existing high noble family in Europe.
On February 6, died in 1981 with the then 63 years old ex-Queen Friederike of Greece, daughter of 1918 dethroned Braunschweiger duke, the last time being Welfin who had innnegehabt a throne. Her nephew Ernst August of Hanover (born 1954), husband of Princess Caroline of Monaco is currently head of the Guelph family.
History
In the Guelph distinction is made between the older and the younger Welf, in the older also between the Burgundian (also known as Rudolf Inger) and Swabian Guelph, whose ancestral castle in Weingarten (Altdorf) in Schussental lay. The familial connection between these two lines is probably due to the same name, but not saved. Where does the name Welf (Italian: Guelfi, English: Guelph) stirred, is unknown. Only 700 years after the documentary first mention of the early medieval sex originated in the late Middle Ages (after 1485), the Declaration of that name the Guelph forecast.
The older Guelph
The Burgundian Guelph
The Burgundian Guelph submitted by the widely accepted view Josef Fleckensteins from the Frankish rule layer and occur first documented in the 8th century by Count Ruthard on, who is considered one of the ancestors of the family and by 746 holdings of Maas and Mosel, so in heartland of the Carolingian power acquired. Since the mid-8th century the Guelph were also in Upper Swabia wealthy, best known of which is their property in Weingarten (Altdorf).
After the family legend, the Guelph lead their pedigree until Edeko back, a Hun or Scythian prince currently Attila around 450 and father of Odoacer (see below). However, the secured stem series of family begins with Count Welf I. (819 testified). He succeeded in his position by the marriage of his two daughters Judith († 843) and Hemma († 876) with the Carolingian Louis the Pious († 840), the son and successor of Charlemagne, and with his son, King Louis German († 876), expand and consolidate.
Welf son Konrad founded the Burgundian line of Guelph, in the year 888 the throne of the Kingdom of Burgundy ascended (Upper Burgundy) and in 1032 with Rudolf III. Went out. By Adelheid, wife of Otto the Great, also presented this line early Empress of the Holy Roman Empire.
Welf II., Probably another son of Conrad, was Graf in Linzgau and Alpgau and is the progenitor of the Swabian Guelph, where the family relationships are not precisely known not only between him and Konrad, but also between him and his descendants. Only with Rudolf I., which is 935 testified, and his brother Konrad may be known as a saint Conrad of Constance, and both great-grandson of Welf II., Is backed up information again.
The Swabian Guelph
The Swabian Guelph based their power on extensive Allodial - and fief in Schwaben, Raetia and Bavaria.
Around the middle of the 9th century was the middle Schussental as county Schussen gau in possession of the Swabian branch of the Guelph (according to Josef Fleckenstein originally francs from the Meuse-Moselle area, which in Altdorf over the Martinsberg a Palatinate erected, her new family castle. To 935 founded the Guelph in Altdorf, a nunnery, the as grave Lege (family grave) was determined their sex, but was destroyed by fire in 1053. The nuns were initially relocated to the Martinsberg. Welf III., A great-grandson of Rudolf I was, 1047 the Duke of Carinthia appointed, with him went out the family in the male line but even eight years later.
Name and possession of Guelph were transferred to the son of his sister Cunegonde or Kunizza that about twenty years ago the Italian Marquis Alberto Azzo II d'Este. Had married; He is the progenitor of the younger Welf made by Este; This was just like the Guelph originally a Frankish sex from the circle of Charlemagne, which he in the Lombardy with the administration of counties had entrusted.
The younger Guelph (Welf house-Este, Duke of Bavaria and Saxony, from 1070)
Welf IV., The son of Kunigunde and Alberto Azzos was, in 1070 by King Henry IV. The Duke of Bavaria appointed. 1056 founded Welf IV after laying the ancestral castle of Altdorf on the neighboring one. Veitsburg in Ravensburg on the Altdorfer Martinsberg a new Benedictine monastery, with the monks of Altomunster was settled, today's Weingarten Abbey; Altdorfer the nuns settled in return the monastery Altomünster. With Welf IV., And his sons Welf V. and Henry the Black began the time in which the family of the German Empire in opposition to the Staufer played the central role, especially after Henry through his marriage to the Billungerin Wulfhild, heiress of territories to Lüneburg, the power of the Guelph in Saxony-founded and their son Henry the Proud by his marriage to Gertrude of Saxony, the only daughter of Emperor Lothar III., whose bruno African house owned by Brunswick and towards the end of his life, in addition to the title of Duke of Saxony acquired.
However, the looming because this position step to the kingdom failed to Guelph. Instead Heinrichs was 1138 of Staufer Konrad III. Selected - Henry abundance of power and his temper appeared the other princes too threatening. When Konrad von Henry demanded the renunciation of one of his two duchies, an argument arose, the imposition of the imperial ban on Henry and the withdrawal of both duchies. Although Heinrich Saxony was able to preserve against all attacks, but he died a year later, before he had reached the age of 32. years.
After the death of Henry the Proud, first took over his brother Welf VI. The leadership of the House and the administration of the Guelph family estates in Swabia since Henry the Lion, the only son of Henry the Proud, was not yet of age. 1142 he succeeded Konrad III. the return of the duchy of Saxe to Henry to claim a lion's. Markgraf Welf VI. founded in 1147, the Premonstratensian Steingaden as a family monastery and grave Lege.
Already around 1120 was Judith, sister of Henry the Proud and Welf VI., With Friedrich von Staufen, Duke of Swabia been married to a balance between Staufer cause and Guelph. From this marriage the later Emperor went Frederick Barbarossa forth, the 1151 reconciliation between his uncle Conrad III. Could cause and his Welf cousins. Konrad was in 1152 died and his successor Friedrich. As part of the reconciliation Heinrich received the Lion in 1156, the Duchy of Bavaria back. Welf VI. was Duke of Spoleto, and thus the most powerful man in the Italian part of the empire, as it due to its relationship with the house of Este also on Sardinia and as Margrave about Tuscia prevailed. In the Tübingen feud (1164-1166) showed the dependence of the Emperor of the Great of the kingdom as well as the complexity of the ruler-relationships that are not on the Hohenstaufen-Welf contrast must be reduced. As in 1167 but his only son Welf VII. On the malaria died, he lost interest in politics and bequeathed Frederick Barbarossa by Erbvertrag the Guelph house estates in Swabia, including Ravensburg and Altdorf, which have now been added to the Hohenstaufen house goods.
As a result, there was renewed conflict between the Emperor and his cousin Heinrich, in the course of which this is not just his duchies of Bavaria and Saxony lost (1179 outlawry, 1180 withdrawing Reichslehen), but also to England to his relatives from the house of Plantagenet from go exile had - his wife Mathilde was the sister of Richard the Lionheart. The power of Guelph in Germany had been broken, the duchy of Bavaria fell to the Wittelsbach family, who ruled there until 1918th. After a reconciliation with the emperor in 1194, he received indeed a part of his estates and titles back, the battle between Staufer (allied with the French royal house of Capet and Aragon) and Guelph (allied with the House Anjou - Plantagenet) but took away, reflects especially in intra-Italian clashes of loyal to the emperor and the Pope loyal party (the Guelphs and Ghibellines) resist.
German king and emperor (Hohenstaufen-Welf throne dispute 1198-1214 / 15)
A last gasp of Guelph opposition was the election of Otto IV., Son of Henry the Lion, in 1198 for anti-king to Philip of Swabia. After his assassination in 1208, Otto was in 1209 by Pope Innocent III. Of the first and only Guelph Emperor Holy Roman Empire crowned, but shortly afterwards because of his attempt to Sicily to integrate into the kingdom, under excommunication provided. 1214 Otto was defeated in the Battle of Bouvines the French King Philip II. August, which weakened him so that he in the struggle for the throne with Frederick II., Had no serious chances more, who had been elected in 1212 against king. Otto IV. Died in 1218 at the Harzburg, Friedrich II. Became his successor. About Ottos niece Agnes, daughter of Henry Langen, fell in 1214, the Palatinate to the Wittelsbach family.
Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1235-1806)
The Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg originated from the own assets of Guelph in Saxony. This had the child Otto, a grandson of Henry the Lion, on the Emperor Frederick II. Transferred and received it on 21 August 1235 the court day to Mainz as a fiefdom back. Name factors were the two largest cities of the territory, Braunschweig and Lüneburg. As an overall rule the duchy was however only up to the first division in 1269. In the southern part of the Duchy initially originated the principality of Brunswick with possessions around Braunschweig, Wolfenbüttel, Einbeck and Göttingen. In the northern part of the Duchy which was created Principality of Lüneburg with possessions in the room Lüneburg. Both principalities continued to form the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg, which persisted imperial law. In partition treaty had been agreed that both lines should carry the title "Duke of Brunswick and Lüneburg". In addition, should a number of possessions and righteousness remain in the possession of the whole house - so, inter alia the rights to the castle Braunschweig. Over the following centuries, it was several times divided. The resulting repeatedly constituent states were named as a rule after their respective residence. The various lines could inherit each other in a line extinction. So over the centuries the old, middle and new House of Brunswick, and the old, middle and new house Lüneburg emerged. The number of simultaneously ruling dynasties part varied between two and five. The principalities existed until the end of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation in the year 1806th.
Duchy of Brunswick (1814-1918)
After the Congress of Vienna that still exists until 1918 originated Duchy of Brunswick. It was identical to the territory of the Guelph Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and the Principality of Blankenburg, which during the French occupation from 1807 to 1813 the Kingdom of Westphalia had been incorporated. It consisted of several, noncontiguous parts: the area between Aller and Harz with Braunschweig, the territory between the Harz and Weser with Holzminden, Blankenburg am Harz with its surroundings, the Office Calvörde (enclosed by the province of Saxony), the Office Thedinghausen between Bremen and Verden and other enclaves. The New House of Brunswick, which reigned in the small duchy, was next to the Hanoverian the older line of Guelph. She died in 1884 with the heirless Duke Wilhelm of.
The Duchy of Brunswick was in 1884 after the death of William to the living in the Austrian exile Crown Prince of Hanover, Ernst August Duke of Cumberland (1845-1923), like. At the instigation of Bismarck, the Federal Council rejected the claimed regency. From 1884 to 1913 had the Prince of Prussia and Mecklenburg held the regency. Only through the marriage of his son Prince Ernst August (1887-1953) with Princess Victoria Louise, the only daughter of the last German Emperor Wilhelm II., Was carried out the re-occupation of the Duchy of Braunschweig by the Guelph. As the last Welf Duke Ernst August ruled out of the Hanoverian line the country Braunschweig from 1913 to 1918. After the November Revolution in Braunschweig in 1918 it was transformed in the Free State of Brunswick has to offer.
Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Hannover Kingdom
The Guelph part Principality of Calenberg-Göttingen was built by Emperor Leopold I in 1692 in gratitude for the support in the Nine Years War rewarded with the electoral dignity. For the Principality of Calenberg formed with the awarding of the Electorate Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg. To this end, the new (ninth) of cure was by the emperor in 1692 the Holy Roman Empire created. The in Principality of Calenberg ruling line of Guelph was this ninth Electorate awarded.
The new electorate was on the territory of Lower Saxony and parts of the country Saxony-Anhalt (with Office Calvörde and Blankenburg). It included the following territories of the Holy Roman Empire: the Principality of Calenberg, Principality Grubenhagen, county Hoya, Saxe-Lauenburg, Principality of Lüneburg (from 1705), the Duchy of Bremen and the Duchy of Verden (from 1715). Calenberg, Grubenhagen and Lüneburg were nominally part principalities of medieval Duchy of Brunswick and Lüneburg. It was originally the electorate a pure inland (Hanover region). Only with the acquisition of the Duchy of Bremen Kurhannover able to expand to the North Sea. The majority of the electorate was in the Lower Saxon Circle. The county Hoya and the Duchy of Verden were parts of the Lower Rhenish-Westphalian Circle. Residences were the Leineschloss in Hannover and Schloss Herrenhausen and Schloss Celle.
The Kingdom of Hanover was born in 1814 at the Congress of Vienna as a successor state of the Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg. First, until 1837, the king was the same King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
In the German War of 1866, the Kingdom of Hannover lost on the side of Austria and the German Confederation the war against Prussia, was annexed and was henceforth only province in the Kingdom of Prussia. The Guelph were, like the home Hesse -Kassel, dethroned by the Prussian Hohenzollern. The house Hannover represented since the death of the heirless - not childless - Duke William of Brunswick the whole house of Brunswick-Lüneburg. All Guelph family members bear the name "Prince (essin) of Hanover, Duke (in) of Braunschweig and Lüneburg".
Kings in the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The Elector of Hanover House ruled the UK and Ireland within five generations in personal union, which ended in 1837 after 123 years: Georg (e) I. (1714-1727), Georg (e) II. (1727-1760), Georg (e ) III. (1760-1820) and Georg (e) IV. (1820-1830). After Georg (e) IV. 1830 died childless, was his brother William IV. King of Great Britain, Ireland and Hannover. When he also died childless Wilhelm, boarded his niece Victoria as the last Welfin the British throne. From Victoria's husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, is derived from the current British royal family. It was in 1917 by Saxe-Coburg-Gotha in Haus Windsor renamed.
Kings in the Kingdom of Hanover
Since the different succession laws in Hannover a female heir to the throne only permitted when there was no male heir, Victoria could not be Queen of Hannover. Thus, her uncle, the Duke of Cumberland, was Ernst August I. 1837 First self-reigning King of Hanover (1771-1851). After his death his son succeeded George V as King of Hanover (1819-1878) to the throne. His reign was ended in 1866 by the Prussian annexation, after George V in the Austro-Prussian war had placed on the (inferior) Austrian side. 1866King George V went with his wife Queen Marie by Austria into exile. He died in 1878 in Paris, where the Guelph Legion had erected against Prussia, which is why Bismarck, the German private property of the king in the amount of 16 million thalers drafted in 1868 and in the Guelph Fund had transferred whose yields were initially used "to fight Welf machinations". George V was in the royal tomb of Windsor Castle interred. His widow lived until her death in the Queen Villa in Gmunden. Her grandson, Prince Ernst August (1887-1953), married in 1913 the Princess Viktoria Luise of Prussia, only daughter of the last German Emperor Wilhelm II., And was thus able to ascend the vacant throne of the Duchy of Braunschweig.
After the First World War
With the fall of the German monarchies in 1918 also duke had Ernst August of Brunswick and Lüneburg abdicate and went with his family into exile in Austria at Schloss Cumberland, which had already built his father in Gmunden.
The family returned in 1925 back to the former Duchy of Braunschweig. The Free State of Brunswick said the former ducal family, inter alia, Blankenburg Castle and the domain Hessen in today's district of Harz to. Ernst August, the son of the former German Emperor, successfully maintained its position as an independent contractor and changed 1931 the primary surname of Brunswick-Lüneburg again in Hannover, the official name (also the passport and civil status documents) until today is: Prince / Princess of Hannover Duke / Duchess of Brunswick and Lüneburg Royal Prince / Princess Royal of Great Britain and Ireland. The family members have the German, British and Austrian nationality; British family name Guelph with the addition of His / Her Royal Highness. However, since the outbreak of the First World War, a rift between the ruling royal family and its German branch line had occurred in 1914, the last Hanoverian Crown Prince was Ernst August on 13 May 1915 by King George V of the Garter revoked and on March 28, 1919 due to the Titles Deprivation Act of 1917, which "enemies of the British Empire" their British peerage took the British title 3rd Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, 3rd Earl of Armagh disallowed. The theoretical entitlement of Guelph on this item, however, was maintained.
During the Second World War, especially in the last months of the war, the Guelph on arms transactions were also indirectly involved in the exploitation of forced labor. In accordance with the Potsdam Agreement occupied in July 1945, the Soviet army among others Blankenburg and the "domain Hessen". The family was previously with the help of the British Army truck part of the movable property with the Marienburg take wherever they withdrew temporarily. The castle is accessible as a family museum of the public today. It is, together with the lands of the domain Calenberg, Prince Ernst August (* 1983 in Hildesheim) farms, which also includes the Fürstenhaus Herrenhausen belongs. His father Ernst August lives in the Austrian possessions.
1692 in the rose part of the Principality of Calenberg-Göttingen reigning line to Elector of Hanover on; she inherited in 1714 from the House of Stuart to the throne of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, she to 1901 as house Hannover occupied. The electorate of Hanover was in the Congress of Vienna in 1814 the Kingdom of Hanover applicable; the British monarch ruled it until 1837 in personal union, then - until the annexation by Prussia in 1866 - a returned to Germany branch of the British Royal Family. A senior line reigned in Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, the 1814 for Duchy of Brunswick was; after the extinction of this line in 1884 the Brunswick throne fell to the living in the Austrian exile Hanoverian line, but it could take until 1913, until the November Revolution 1918th. The Guelph thus had their power Zenit firstly in the Holy Roman Empire in the 12th century as a counterpart to the Staufer, the other in the 18th and 19th centuries as the kings of Great Britain and Ireland. They are, in addition to the Capetians and Reginaren, the oldest still existing high noble family in Europe.
On February 6, died in 1981 with the then 63 years old ex-Queen Friederike of Greece, daughter of 1918 dethroned Braunschweiger duke, the last time being Welfin who had innnegehabt a throne. Her nephew Ernst August of Hanover (born 1954), husband of Princess Caroline of Monaco is currently head of the Guelph family.
History
In the Guelph distinction is made between the older and the younger Welf, in the older also between the Burgundian (also known as Rudolf Inger) and Swabian Guelph, whose ancestral castle in Weingarten (Altdorf) in Schussental lay. The familial connection between these two lines is probably due to the same name, but not saved. Where does the name Welf (Italian: Guelfi, English: Guelph) stirred, is unknown. Only 700 years after the documentary first mention of the early medieval sex originated in the late Middle Ages (after 1485), the Declaration of that name the Guelph forecast.
The older Guelph
The Burgundian Guelph
The Burgundian Guelph submitted by the widely accepted view Josef Fleckensteins from the Frankish rule layer and occur first documented in the 8th century by Count Ruthard on, who is considered one of the ancestors of the family and by 746 holdings of Maas and Mosel, so in heartland of the Carolingian power acquired. Since the mid-8th century the Guelph were also in Upper Swabia wealthy, best known of which is their property in Weingarten (Altdorf).
After the family legend, the Guelph lead their pedigree until Edeko back, a Hun or Scythian prince currently Attila around 450 and father of Odoacer (see below). However, the secured stem series of family begins with Count Welf I. (819 testified). He succeeded in his position by the marriage of his two daughters Judith († 843) and Hemma († 876) with the Carolingian Louis the Pious († 840), the son and successor of Charlemagne, and with his son, King Louis German († 876), expand and consolidate.
Welf son Konrad founded the Burgundian line of Guelph, in the year 888 the throne of the Kingdom of Burgundy ascended (Upper Burgundy) and in 1032 with Rudolf III. Went out. By Adelheid, wife of Otto the Great, also presented this line early Empress of the Holy Roman Empire.
Welf II., Probably another son of Conrad, was Graf in Linzgau and Alpgau and is the progenitor of the Swabian Guelph, where the family relationships are not precisely known not only between him and Konrad, but also between him and his descendants. Only with Rudolf I., which is 935 testified, and his brother Konrad may be known as a saint Conrad of Constance, and both great-grandson of Welf II., Is backed up information again.
The Swabian Guelph
The Swabian Guelph based their power on extensive Allodial - and fief in Schwaben, Raetia and Bavaria.
Around the middle of the 9th century was the middle Schussental as county Schussen gau in possession of the Swabian branch of the Guelph (according to Josef Fleckenstein originally francs from the Meuse-Moselle area, which in Altdorf over the Martinsberg a Palatinate erected, her new family castle. To 935 founded the Guelph in Altdorf, a nunnery, the as grave Lege (family grave) was determined their sex, but was destroyed by fire in 1053. The nuns were initially relocated to the Martinsberg. Welf III., A great-grandson of Rudolf I was, 1047 the Duke of Carinthia appointed, with him went out the family in the male line but even eight years later.
Name and possession of Guelph were transferred to the son of his sister Cunegonde or Kunizza that about twenty years ago the Italian Marquis Alberto Azzo II d'Este. Had married; He is the progenitor of the younger Welf made by Este; This was just like the Guelph originally a Frankish sex from the circle of Charlemagne, which he in the Lombardy with the administration of counties had entrusted.
The younger Guelph (Welf house-Este, Duke of Bavaria and Saxony, from 1070)
Welf IV., The son of Kunigunde and Alberto Azzos was, in 1070 by King Henry IV. The Duke of Bavaria appointed. 1056 founded Welf IV after laying the ancestral castle of Altdorf on the neighboring one. Veitsburg in Ravensburg on the Altdorfer Martinsberg a new Benedictine monastery, with the monks of Altomunster was settled, today's Weingarten Abbey; Altdorfer the nuns settled in return the monastery Altomünster. With Welf IV., And his sons Welf V. and Henry the Black began the time in which the family of the German Empire in opposition to the Staufer played the central role, especially after Henry through his marriage to the Billungerin Wulfhild, heiress of territories to Lüneburg, the power of the Guelph in Saxony-founded and their son Henry the Proud by his marriage to Gertrude of Saxony, the only daughter of Emperor Lothar III., whose bruno African house owned by Brunswick and towards the end of his life, in addition to the title of Duke of Saxony acquired.
However, the looming because this position step to the kingdom failed to Guelph. Instead Heinrichs was 1138 of Staufer Konrad III. Selected - Henry abundance of power and his temper appeared the other princes too threatening. When Konrad von Henry demanded the renunciation of one of his two duchies, an argument arose, the imposition of the imperial ban on Henry and the withdrawal of both duchies. Although Heinrich Saxony was able to preserve against all attacks, but he died a year later, before he had reached the age of 32. years.
After the death of Henry the Proud, first took over his brother Welf VI. The leadership of the House and the administration of the Guelph family estates in Swabia since Henry the Lion, the only son of Henry the Proud, was not yet of age. 1142 he succeeded Konrad III. the return of the duchy of Saxe to Henry to claim a lion's. Markgraf Welf VI. founded in 1147, the Premonstratensian Steingaden as a family monastery and grave Lege.
Already around 1120 was Judith, sister of Henry the Proud and Welf VI., With Friedrich von Staufen, Duke of Swabia been married to a balance between Staufer cause and Guelph. From this marriage the later Emperor went Frederick Barbarossa forth, the 1151 reconciliation between his uncle Conrad III. Could cause and his Welf cousins. Konrad was in 1152 died and his successor Friedrich. As part of the reconciliation Heinrich received the Lion in 1156, the Duchy of Bavaria back. Welf VI. was Duke of Spoleto, and thus the most powerful man in the Italian part of the empire, as it due to its relationship with the house of Este also on Sardinia and as Margrave about Tuscia prevailed. In the Tübingen feud (1164-1166) showed the dependence of the Emperor of the Great of the kingdom as well as the complexity of the ruler-relationships that are not on the Hohenstaufen-Welf contrast must be reduced. As in 1167 but his only son Welf VII. On the malaria died, he lost interest in politics and bequeathed Frederick Barbarossa by Erbvertrag the Guelph house estates in Swabia, including Ravensburg and Altdorf, which have now been added to the Hohenstaufen house goods.
As a result, there was renewed conflict between the Emperor and his cousin Heinrich, in the course of which this is not just his duchies of Bavaria and Saxony lost (1179 outlawry, 1180 withdrawing Reichslehen), but also to England to his relatives from the house of Plantagenet from go exile had - his wife Mathilde was the sister of Richard the Lionheart. The power of Guelph in Germany had been broken, the duchy of Bavaria fell to the Wittelsbach family, who ruled there until 1918th. After a reconciliation with the emperor in 1194, he received indeed a part of his estates and titles back, the battle between Staufer (allied with the French royal house of Capet and Aragon) and Guelph (allied with the House Anjou - Plantagenet) but took away, reflects especially in intra-Italian clashes of loyal to the emperor and the Pope loyal party (the Guelphs and Ghibellines) resist.
German king and emperor (Hohenstaufen-Welf throne dispute 1198-1214 / 15)
A last gasp of Guelph opposition was the election of Otto IV., Son of Henry the Lion, in 1198 for anti-king to Philip of Swabia. After his assassination in 1208, Otto was in 1209 by Pope Innocent III. Of the first and only Guelph Emperor Holy Roman Empire crowned, but shortly afterwards because of his attempt to Sicily to integrate into the kingdom, under excommunication provided. 1214 Otto was defeated in the Battle of Bouvines the French King Philip II. August, which weakened him so that he in the struggle for the throne with Frederick II., Had no serious chances more, who had been elected in 1212 against king. Otto IV. Died in 1218 at the Harzburg, Friedrich II. Became his successor. About Ottos niece Agnes, daughter of Henry Langen, fell in 1214, the Palatinate to the Wittelsbach family.
Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1235-1806)
The Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg originated from the own assets of Guelph in Saxony. This had the child Otto, a grandson of Henry the Lion, on the Emperor Frederick II. Transferred and received it on 21 August 1235 the court day to Mainz as a fiefdom back. Name factors were the two largest cities of the territory, Braunschweig and Lüneburg. As an overall rule the duchy was however only up to the first division in 1269. In the southern part of the Duchy initially originated the principality of Brunswick with possessions around Braunschweig, Wolfenbüttel, Einbeck and Göttingen. In the northern part of the Duchy which was created Principality of Lüneburg with possessions in the room Lüneburg. Both principalities continued to form the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg, which persisted imperial law. In partition treaty had been agreed that both lines should carry the title "Duke of Brunswick and Lüneburg". In addition, should a number of possessions and righteousness remain in the possession of the whole house - so, inter alia the rights to the castle Braunschweig. Over the following centuries, it was several times divided. The resulting repeatedly constituent states were named as a rule after their respective residence. The various lines could inherit each other in a line extinction. So over the centuries the old, middle and new House of Brunswick, and the old, middle and new house Lüneburg emerged. The number of simultaneously ruling dynasties part varied between two and five. The principalities existed until the end of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation in the year 1806th.
Duchy of Brunswick (1814-1918)
After the Congress of Vienna that still exists until 1918 originated Duchy of Brunswick. It was identical to the territory of the Guelph Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and the Principality of Blankenburg, which during the French occupation from 1807 to 1813 the Kingdom of Westphalia had been incorporated. It consisted of several, noncontiguous parts: the area between Aller and Harz with Braunschweig, the territory between the Harz and Weser with Holzminden, Blankenburg am Harz with its surroundings, the Office Calvörde (enclosed by the province of Saxony), the Office Thedinghausen between Bremen and Verden and other enclaves. The New House of Brunswick, which reigned in the small duchy, was next to the Hanoverian the older line of Guelph. She died in 1884 with the heirless Duke Wilhelm of.
The Duchy of Brunswick was in 1884 after the death of William to the living in the Austrian exile Crown Prince of Hanover, Ernst August Duke of Cumberland (1845-1923), like. At the instigation of Bismarck, the Federal Council rejected the claimed regency. From 1884 to 1913 had the Prince of Prussia and Mecklenburg held the regency. Only through the marriage of his son Prince Ernst August (1887-1953) with Princess Victoria Louise, the only daughter of the last German Emperor Wilhelm II., Was carried out the re-occupation of the Duchy of Braunschweig by the Guelph. As the last Welf Duke Ernst August ruled out of the Hanoverian line the country Braunschweig from 1913 to 1918. After the November Revolution in Braunschweig in 1918 it was transformed in the Free State of Brunswick has to offer.
Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Hannover Kingdom
The Guelph part Principality of Calenberg-Göttingen was built by Emperor Leopold I in 1692 in gratitude for the support in the Nine Years War rewarded with the electoral dignity. For the Principality of Calenberg formed with the awarding of the Electorate Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg. To this end, the new (ninth) of cure was by the emperor in 1692 the Holy Roman Empire created. The in Principality of Calenberg ruling line of Guelph was this ninth Electorate awarded.
The new electorate was on the territory of Lower Saxony and parts of the country Saxony-Anhalt (with Office Calvörde and Blankenburg). It included the following territories of the Holy Roman Empire: the Principality of Calenberg, Principality Grubenhagen, county Hoya, Saxe-Lauenburg, Principality of Lüneburg (from 1705), the Duchy of Bremen and the Duchy of Verden (from 1715). Calenberg, Grubenhagen and Lüneburg were nominally part principalities of medieval Duchy of Brunswick and Lüneburg. It was originally the electorate a pure inland (Hanover region). Only with the acquisition of the Duchy of Bremen Kurhannover able to expand to the North Sea. The majority of the electorate was in the Lower Saxon Circle. The county Hoya and the Duchy of Verden were parts of the Lower Rhenish-Westphalian Circle. Residences were the Leineschloss in Hannover and Schloss Herrenhausen and Schloss Celle.
The Kingdom of Hanover was born in 1814 at the Congress of Vienna as a successor state of the Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg. First, until 1837, the king was the same King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
In the German War of 1866, the Kingdom of Hannover lost on the side of Austria and the German Confederation the war against Prussia, was annexed and was henceforth only province in the Kingdom of Prussia. The Guelph were, like the home Hesse -Kassel, dethroned by the Prussian Hohenzollern. The house Hannover represented since the death of the heirless - not childless - Duke William of Brunswick the whole house of Brunswick-Lüneburg. All Guelph family members bear the name "Prince (essin) of Hanover, Duke (in) of Braunschweig and Lüneburg".
Kings in the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The Elector of Hanover House ruled the UK and Ireland within five generations in personal union, which ended in 1837 after 123 years: Georg (e) I. (1714-1727), Georg (e) II. (1727-1760), Georg (e ) III. (1760-1820) and Georg (e) IV. (1820-1830). After Georg (e) IV. 1830 died childless, was his brother William IV. King of Great Britain, Ireland and Hannover. When he also died childless Wilhelm, boarded his niece Victoria as the last Welfin the British throne. From Victoria's husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, is derived from the current British royal family. It was in 1917 by Saxe-Coburg-Gotha in Haus Windsor renamed.
Kings in the Kingdom of Hanover
Since the different succession laws in Hannover a female heir to the throne only permitted when there was no male heir, Victoria could not be Queen of Hannover. Thus, her uncle, the Duke of Cumberland, was Ernst August I. 1837 First self-reigning King of Hanover (1771-1851). After his death his son succeeded George V as King of Hanover (1819-1878) to the throne. His reign was ended in 1866 by the Prussian annexation, after George V in the Austro-Prussian war had placed on the (inferior) Austrian side. 1866King George V went with his wife Queen Marie by Austria into exile. He died in 1878 in Paris, where the Guelph Legion had erected against Prussia, which is why Bismarck, the German private property of the king in the amount of 16 million thalers drafted in 1868 and in the Guelph Fund had transferred whose yields were initially used "to fight Welf machinations". George V was in the royal tomb of Windsor Castle interred. His widow lived until her death in the Queen Villa in Gmunden. Her grandson, Prince Ernst August (1887-1953), married in 1913 the Princess Viktoria Luise of Prussia, only daughter of the last German Emperor Wilhelm II., And was thus able to ascend the vacant throne of the Duchy of Braunschweig.
After the First World War
With the fall of the German monarchies in 1918 also duke had Ernst August of Brunswick and Lüneburg abdicate and went with his family into exile in Austria at Schloss Cumberland, which had already built his father in Gmunden.
The family returned in 1925 back to the former Duchy of Braunschweig. The Free State of Brunswick said the former ducal family, inter alia, Blankenburg Castle and the domain Hessen in today's district of Harz to. Ernst August, the son of the former German Emperor, successfully maintained its position as an independent contractor and changed 1931 the primary surname of Brunswick-Lüneburg again in Hannover, the official name (also the passport and civil status documents) until today is: Prince / Princess of Hannover Duke / Duchess of Brunswick and Lüneburg Royal Prince / Princess Royal of Great Britain and Ireland. The family members have the German, British and Austrian nationality; British family name Guelph with the addition of His / Her Royal Highness. However, since the outbreak of the First World War, a rift between the ruling royal family and its German branch line had occurred in 1914, the last Hanoverian Crown Prince was Ernst August on 13 May 1915 by King George V of the Garter revoked and on March 28, 1919 due to the Titles Deprivation Act of 1917, which "enemies of the British Empire" their British peerage took the British title 3rd Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, 3rd Earl of Armagh disallowed. The theoretical entitlement of Guelph on this item, however, was maintained.
During the Second World War, especially in the last months of the war, the Guelph on arms transactions were also indirectly involved in the exploitation of forced labor. In accordance with the Potsdam Agreement occupied in July 1945, the Soviet army among others Blankenburg and the "domain Hessen". The family was previously with the help of the British Army truck part of the movable property with the Marienburg take wherever they withdrew temporarily. The castle is accessible as a family museum of the public today. It is, together with the lands of the domain Calenberg, Prince Ernst August (* 1983 in Hildesheim) farms, which also includes the Fürstenhaus Herrenhausen belongs. His father Ernst August lives in the Austrian possessions.