Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin

Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin Herzogtum Mecklenburg-Schwerin
State of the Holy Roman Empire State of the Confederation of the Rhine
← 1701–1815 →
Flag Coat of arms
Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Capital	Schwerin
Government	Monarchy
Grand Duke
- 1701–1713	Frederick William
- 1713–1728	Karl Leopold
- 1728–1756	Christian Ludwig II
- 1756–1785	Frederick II
- 1785–1815	Frederick Francis I
History
- Treaty of Hamburg	1701
- Raised to Grand Duchy	1815

Mecklenburg-Schwerin was a duchy in northern Germany created in 1348, when Albert II of Mecklenburg and his younger brother John were raised to Dukes of Mecklenburg by King Charles IV. Ruled by the successors of the Nikloting House of Mecklenburg, Mecklenburg-Schwerin remained a relatively poor state of the Holy Roman Empire along the Baltic Sea littoral between Holstein-Glückstadt and Duchy of Pomerania.

Origins

The dynasty's progenitor, Niklot (1090-1160) was a chief of the Slavic Obotrite tribe federation, who fought against the advancing Saxons and was finally defeated in 1160 by Henry the Lion in the course of the Wendish Crusade. Niklot's son Pribislav submitted himself to Henry and in 1167 came into his paternal inheritance as the first Prince of Mecklenburg.

After several divisions among Pribislav's descendants, Henry II of Mecklenburg (1266-1329) until 1312 acquired the lordships of Stargard and Rostock and bequested the reunified Mecklenburg lands - except the County of Schwerin and Werle - to his sons Albert II and John. After they both had received the ducal title, the former lordship of Stargard was recreated as the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Stargard for John in 1352. Albert II retained the larger western part of Mecklenburg and after he had acquired the former County of Schwerin in 1358, he made Schwerin his residence.

In 1363, Albert's son Duke Albert III campaigned in Sweden, where he was crowned king one year later. In 1436, the last Lord of Werle, William, died without a male heir. Because William's son-in-law, Ulric II of Mecklenburg-Stargard, had no issue, his line became extinct upon Ulric's death in 1471. All possessions fell back to Duke Henry IV of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, who was then the sole ruler over all of Mecklenburg.

In 1520 Henry's grandsons Henry V and Albert VII again divided the duchy, creating the subdivision of Mecklenburg-Güstrow, which Duke Adolf Frederick I of Mecklenburg-Schwerin inherited in 1610. In a second partition of 1621 he granted Güstrow to his brother John Albert II. Both were deposed in 1628 by Albrecht von Wallenstein as they had supported Christian IV of Denmark in the Thirty Years' War, nevertheless the Swedish Empire enforced their restoration three years later. When John Albert II son, Duke Gustav Adolph died without male heirs in 1695, Mecklenburg was reunited once more under Frederick William.

History

In June 1692 when Christian Louis I died in exile and without sons, a dispute arose about the succession to his duchy between his brother Adolphus Frederick II and his nephew Frederick William. The emperor and the rulers of Kingdom of Sweden and of Electorate of Brandenburg took part in this struggle which was intensified when, three years later, on the death of Gustav Adolph, the family ruling over Mecklenburg-Güstrow became extinct. In 1701, pushed by the Imperial state of the Lower Saxon Circle, the Treaty of Hamburg was signed, and the final division of the country was made. Mecklenburg was divided between the two claimants, the shares given to each being represented by the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, the part which fell to Frederick William, and the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the share of Adolphus Frederick II, roughly a recreation of the medieval Stargard lordship. At the same time the principle of primogeniture was again asserted, and the right of summoning the joint Landtag was reserved to the ruler of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. The continued conflicts and partitions weakened the rule of the dukes and affirmed the picture of Mecklenburg as one of the most backward territories of the Empire.

Mecklenburg-Schwerin began its existence by a series of constitutional struggles between the duke and the nobles. The heavy debt incurred by Karl Leopold, who had joined Russian Empire in a war against Kingdom of Sweden, brought matters to a crisis; Charles VI interfered and in 1728 the imperial court of justice declared the duke incapable of governing and his brother Christian Ludwig II was appointed administrator of the duchy. Under this prince, who became ruler de jure in 1747, there was signed in April 1755 the Convention of Rostock by which a new constitution was framed for the duchy. By this instrument all power was in the hands of the duke, the nobles and the upper classes generally, the lower classes being entirely unrepresented. During the Seven Years' War, Frederick II took up a hostile attitude towards Frederick the Great, and in consequence Mecklenburg-Schwerin was occupied by Kingdom of Prussia, but in other ways his rule was beneficial to the country. In the early years of the French Revolutionary Wars, Frederick Francis I remained neutral, and in 1803 he regained Wismar from Kingdom of Sweden, but in 1806 his land was overrun by the First French Empire and in 1808 he joined the Confederation of the Rhine. He was the first member of the confederation to abandon Napoleon, to whose armies he had sent a contingent, and in 1813-1814 he fought against France.

Aftermath

With the Congress of Vienna in 1815 Frederick Francis I of Mecklenburg-Schwerin received the title of a Grand Duke. After the fall of the monarchies in 1918 resulting from World War I, the Grand Duchy became the Free State of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. On 1 January 1934 it was united with the neighbouring Free State of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (both today part of the Bundesland Mecklenburg-Vorpommern).

See also

• List of dukes and grand dukes of Mecklenburg

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.