Hi Max: The website someone suggested does not tell you very much. Here are the dates you want:
The Kingddom of Hannover existed from 1714 to 1866 with a ten year gap in the middle 1803-1814 when Napoleon conquered it and called it a Department of the French Empire. After 1866 it was a province of Prussia.
From 1692 - 1714 it was the Electorate of Hannover ( the so-called 9th Electorate - strictly speaking the name was correctly the Electorate of Braunschweig-L�neburg, but Ernst August lived and ruled from Hannover instead of Celle and liked the name Hannover better)
Prior to 1692 it was a small part of the Duchy of Braunschwein-L�neburg all the way back to Heinrich der L�we in the 12th century.
Heinrich united many small areas to become the Duchy of Saxony - roughly comparable to what is now Neidersaschen. Prior to that Hannover, per se, did not exist but the general area was known as Saxony ( not present day Saxony which was only added to the Empire by Heinrich).
From AD772-782 Charlemagne (Karl der Grosse) conquered it and added it to the Frankish Empire - which later became known as the Holy Roman Empire. And all of the above was a part of the Empire until 1806.
Prior to Charlemagne's conquest it was always known as Saxony way back to Roman times when the Romans tried to conquer it, but failed to do so.
There is your history in a very small nutshell. Hope it helps. I might add that from the Prussian conquest (1866) until 1932 there was a strong independence movement in Hannover (they hated the Prussians and wanted to be free of them).
I might also add that if you want more details of all this history from 782-1891, you should read my novels The Saxon Chronicle. They will give you all of the above in a very easily readible form. Jane
Jane Swan
jeswansong@earthlink.net
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