Electorate of Hanover
| Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg Electorate of Hanover |
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Kurfürstentum Braunschweig-Lüneburg Kurfürstentum Hannover |
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State of the Holy Roman Empire (1692–1714) Personal union with Great Britain (1714–1800) Personal union with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801–1807) |
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 Electorate of Hanover in 1789
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| Capital | Hanover | |||||||||
| Languages | West Low German | |||||||||
| Government | Principality | |||||||||
| Prince-elector | ||||||||||
| • | 1692–1698 | Ernest Augustus | ||||||||
| • | 1698–1727 | George I Louis | ||||||||
| • | 1727–1760 | George II Augustus | ||||||||
| • | 1760–1806 | George III William Frederick | ||||||||
| History | ||||||||||
| • | Elevation to Electorate | 1692 | ||||||||
| • | Inherited Lüneburg and Saxe-Lauenburg | 1705 | ||||||||
| • | Electorate formally approved | 1708 | ||||||||
| • | Personal union with Great Britain | 1714 | ||||||||
| • | Acquired Bremen-Verden | 1715 | ||||||||
| • | Merged into Kingdom of Westphalia | 1807 | ||||||||
| • | Re-established as Kingdom of Hanover | 1814 | ||||||||
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The Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg (German: Kurfürstentum Braunschweig-Lüneburg), colloquially Electorate of Hanover (Kurfürstentum Hannover or simply Kurhannover), was established in 1692 as the ninth Electorate of the Holy Roman Empire and formally approved in 1708.
It was ruled by the House of Hanover, a cadet branch of the House of Welf, which then ruled and earlier had ruled a number of principalities, which had several times been partitioned among several heirs from the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg. After 1705, only two of these territories existed. One was the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, which remained independent as the Duchy of Brunswick (new title adopted in 1815) until 1918. The other, the new Electorate, was based on the dynastic line of the Principality of Calenberg.
With the ascension of its prince-elector as King of Great Britain in 1714, it became ruled in personal union with Great Britain. As a consequence, a reluctant Great Britain was forced time and again to become involved with the fate of the German possessions of its King. However, internally, it remained a separately ruled territory with its own government and bodies. Merged into the Napoleonic Kingdom of Westphalia in 1807, it was re-established as the Kingdom of Hanover in 1814, with the personal union with the British crown lasting until 1837.
In 1692, Emperor Leopold I elevated Duke Ernest Augustus of the Brunswick-Lüneburg line of Calenberg, to the rank of prince-elector of the Empire as a reward for aid given in the Nine Years' War. There were protests against the addition of a new elector, and the elevation did not become official until the approval of the Imperial Diet in 1708. Calenberg's capital Hanover became colloquially eponymous for the electorate; however, officially it used the name Chur-Braunschweig-Lüneburg of the entire ducal dynasty.
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