Posted by José on 21/1/2011, 18:28:56, in reply to "Re: Could the union have survived?"
User logged in as José
79.168.254.225
What if William IV had had a son ?
Would he have remained King of Hannover ?
What if Friederich III had not died of cancer the year he arrived to the throne thus blocking the way to Bismarck and Wilhelm II ?
Who would he have married ? Certainly not Vicky the eventual cousin of the british king.
And by not marrying Vicky, what would his son and heir be like ?
So many questions 
.
--Previous Message--
: I agree with you Damian. I think there was
: little to stop German unity during that time
: period. It was inevitable. I do think that
: Britain would have wanted to not be caught
: up into wars with Prussia, Austria and
: France over this issue.
:
: There was no real positive political benefit
: for the personal union between Britain and
: Hanover so I can see Parliament pressuring
: the king to let that go.
:
: If a more liberal Germany had been created,
: which was poorly attempted in the late
: 1850s, then a liberal German linked with a
: liberal Britain would have been a distinct
: possibility.
:
: --Previous Message--
: --Previous Message--
: If William IV had been succeeded by a male
: heir and thus keeping the personal union of
: the British crown with that of Hanover would
: have impacted the balance of power in the
: German territories.
: The king of Hanover would have had the might
: of the British empire at his disposal. I
: would even go so far as to guess that the
: Prussian kings would not have made it to
: emperors. A new version of the Holy Roman
: Empire with the Habsburg emperor or a
: different kind of construction without a
: real head of state.
:
: It's fascinating to speculate on how the
: Hanoverian link with Britain would have
: adapted to or survived the growing demands
: for national unity amongst the Germans.I
: think the ambitions of Prussia,especially
: under Bismarck,would still have been there.I
: think the growing pressure on the British
: monarch to avoid getting caught up in the
: internal politics of the German states and
: to avoid the even more alarming possibility
: of being dragged into European wars on the
: side of Austria or France to check Prussia's
: ambitions or vice versa would have placed an
: intolerable strain on the Monarch's role vis
: a vis Hanover.My personal opinion is that
: Britain would not,in the end,have tried to
: stop Prussia's drive to unite Germany but
: pressure from the British Parliament would
: have forced the monarch to abdicate as
: sovereign of Hanover in favour of a younger
: son or one of his Cumberland cousins.Britain
: was too concerned with its growing world
: empire at this point and did not wish to get
: involved with European affairs unless it
: absolutely had to and certainly not for the
: sake of Hanover!
:
:
:
Message Thread | Skip to this response ↓
« Back to index