As I continue trying to learn enough about politics and foreign policy of the 1720s to pretend I might write a fic set in 1730, there's one thing my sources aren't giving me the kind of detail I want on: the Mecklenburg crisis.
What I know
Mecklenburg is fairly big and borders Prussia and Hanover, so they have a significant geopolitical interest in what goes on in Mecklenburg.
One of the turning points of the Great Northern War is when Peter the Great decides to winter his troops in Mecklenburg in 1716, making G1 incredibly nervous about whether he intends to use Mecklenburg as a base to take over neighboring principalities in the HRE.
In that same year, Peter marries his niece Catherine (daughter of Ivan V) to Karl Leopold, duke of Mecklenburg. They will be the parents of Anna Leopoldovna, future regent of Russia, mother of Ivan VI, enjoyer of threesomes with Lynar and other women, wife of EC's brother Anton Ulrich, and eventual prisoner in Middle of Nowhere, Russia.
In 1717, Peter is succesfully pressured by other European powers into pulling his troops out of Mecklenburg, so that ends up being a tempest in a teapot.
Duke Karl Leopold manages to piss off his nobility *and* Emperor Charles VI to the point where there's a Reichsexekution against him in 1719.
Hanover and Prussia jointly take over the rule/administraton of Mecklenburg?? Wikipedia is vague on the specifics here.
Mecklenburg becomes such a point of contention between FW and G1, later G2, for the entire 1720s that it comes up more often than Jülich-Berg. France is successfully pressured by its ally Britain into threatening to go to war if FW invades Mecklenburg.
Wikipedia:
After the death of George I (1727), the execution of the Reich was overturned. Although the emperor had the power to execute the execution of the empire, he lacked the power and the means to remove the foreign troops from Mecklenburg-Schwerin. The Elector of Hanover and the King in Prussia pressed for payment of the costs they had incurred in the execution of the Reich. Since a settlement of the conflict initially failed, Karl Leopold was finally deposed in 1728 by the Reichshofrat in Vienna in favor of his brother Christian Ludwig II .
In 1733, deposed Karl Leopold tries to take power back, with Prussian support.
What I don't know
What outcome does FW want in Mecklenburg? Why is he threatening armed intervention every other page in my reading?
Why outcome do G1 and G2 want in Mecklenburg? Is it coming up on every other page as a point of contention just because they *don't* want their rival FW gaining an advantage over Hanover in a neighboring territory, or is there more to it? If FW didn't care, would G1 and G2 still care?
Why is FW trying to restore Karl Leopold to power? What does he get out of this?
I'm annoyed because Black assumes you know all about the Mecklenburg crisis, and he refers you to an unpublished dissertation that's not for sale, is held only by the University of London, is not available for download on EThOS, and cannot be ordered by interlibrary loan. It's even in English! But I can't get it. Wikipedia helped, but not to the level of detail I want.
Do any of our Germans know more about this episode? And in particular, what's going on in FW's and G1/G2's heads?
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Mecklenburg crisis
Date: 2021-12-13 10:20 pm (UTC)What I know
Mecklenburg is fairly big and borders Prussia and Hanover, so they have a significant geopolitical interest in what goes on in Mecklenburg.
One of the turning points of the Great Northern War is when Peter the Great decides to winter his troops in Mecklenburg in 1716, making G1 incredibly nervous about whether he intends to use Mecklenburg as a base to take over neighboring principalities in the HRE.
In that same year, Peter marries his niece Catherine (daughter of Ivan V) to Karl Leopold, duke of Mecklenburg. They will be the parents of Anna Leopoldovna, future regent of Russia, mother of Ivan VI, enjoyer of threesomes with Lynar and other women, wife of EC's brother Anton Ulrich, and eventual prisoner in Middle of Nowhere, Russia.
In 1717, Peter is succesfully pressured by other European powers into pulling his troops out of Mecklenburg, so that ends up being a tempest in a teapot.
Duke Karl Leopold manages to piss off his nobility *and* Emperor Charles VI to the point where there's a Reichsexekution against him in 1719.
Hanover and Prussia jointly take over the rule/administraton of Mecklenburg?? Wikipedia is vague on the specifics here.
Mecklenburg becomes such a point of contention between FW and G1, later G2, for the entire 1720s that it comes up more often than Jülich-Berg. France is successfully pressured by its ally Britain into threatening to go to war if FW invades Mecklenburg.
Wikipedia:
After the death of George I (1727), the execution of the Reich was overturned. Although the emperor had the power to execute the execution of the empire, he lacked the power and the means to remove the foreign troops from Mecklenburg-Schwerin. The Elector of Hanover and the King in Prussia pressed for payment of the costs they had incurred in the execution of the Reich. Since a settlement of the conflict initially failed, Karl Leopold was finally deposed in 1728 by the Reichshofrat in Vienna in favor of his brother Christian Ludwig II .
In 1733, deposed Karl Leopold tries to take power back, with Prussian support.
What I don't know
What outcome does FW want in Mecklenburg? Why is he threatening armed intervention every other page in my reading?
Why outcome do G1 and G2 want in Mecklenburg? Is it coming up on every other page as a point of contention just because they *don't* want their rival FW gaining an advantage over Hanover in a neighboring territory, or is there more to it? If FW didn't care, would G1 and G2 still care?
Why is FW trying to restore Karl Leopold to power? What does he get out of this?
I'm annoyed because Black assumes you know all about the Mecklenburg crisis, and he refers you to an unpublished dissertation that's not for sale, is held only by the University of London, is not available for download on EThOS, and cannot be ordered by interlibrary loan. It's even in English! But I can't get it. Wikipedia helped, but not to the level of detail I want.
Do any of our Germans know more about this episode? And in particular, what's going on in FW's and G1/G2's heads?