page_title: Hanau-Münzenberg
section_title: Secundogeniture within the Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel
hierarchical_section_title: Hanau-Münzenberg / History / Secundogeniture within the Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Die Kuranlage von Wilhelmsbad, errichtet im klassizistischen Stil.
context_page_description: The County of Hanau-Münzenberg was a territory within the Holy Roman Empire. It emerged when the County of Hanau was divided in 1458, the other part being the county of Hanau-Lichtenberg. Due to common heirs both counties were merged from 1642 to 1685 and from 1712 to 1736. In 1736 the last member of the House of Hanau died and the Landgrave of Hessen-Kassel inherited the county.
context_section_description: When the inheritance came to Hessen-Kassel technically Frederick I was sovereign there. But he had become King of Sweden, and so had placed his younger Brother William VIII in charge of the Landgraviate. Frederick I waived his inheritance of Hanau-Münzenberg in favour of his younger brother. So Wilhelm VIII became Count of Hanau-Münzenberg in his own right. In 1751 King Frederick died and William VIII succeeded him as Landgrave in Kassel. The next heir, Frederick II had secretly become Roman Catholic. When his father received this news finally he was not amused at all: He tried to secure that Frederick II couldn't change the confession of his lands in any thinkable way. One measure he took was to make Hanau-Münzenberg a secundogeniture of Hesse-Cassel known as Hesse-Hanau, and transfer it immediately to his grandson, William IX. William, still a minor when his grandfather died was put under the guardianship of his mother, Princess Mary of Great Britain, a daughter of King George II of England, excluding her Roman Catholic husband. So Hesse-Hanau was governed by Princess Mary from 1760 to 1764 and afterward by her son William IX. Only in 1785 he succeeded in Hessen-Kassel. So for nearly half a century after the acquisition of Hanau-Münzenberg by Hessen-Kassel in 1736 it stayed a separate most of the time. Only from 1786 on the integration into the Landgraviat took place gradually.
  Wilhelm IX used his reign in Hesse-Hanau of more than 20 years to develop his own policies. He took to building and developing the economy – most representative for this becoming the amusement facility of Wilhelmsbad east of Hanau. And he started here with renting troops to the British Crown. Later on a contingent of about 2,400 soldiers recruited in Hesse-Hanau served during the American Revolutionary War for King George III, an uncle to William IX.
  During this time the brothers Grimm were born in Hanau.
caption: Spa of Wilhelmsbad greated by William IX. of Hessen-Kassel as count of Hanau-Münzenberg
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