 |
| Carl Leopold of Mecklenburg-Schwerin |
In March of 1719 Mecklenburg was involved in a
short military conflict with Hannover. I found a couple of interesting
materials about it, & will place them here in the blog. I will start from a
list of Mecklenburg troops.
Carl Leopold of Mecklenburg-Schwerin succeeded
his brother Frederick William in 1713. He tried to establish absolutism in his
dukedom, but it resulted in a conflict with local estates. Duke repressed them
by force & even executed some of the leaders of resistance. His opponents
asked Emperor to protect their rights & imperial legislation. In October of
1717 Reichshofrat (Court Council of the Holy Roman Empire) issued a verdict that
the Duke would submit to all imperial decrees, return property confiscated from
the nobles, re-established old rights of the estates & cancel new taxes. The
right of execution was given to the Hannover & Brunswick-Wolthenbuttel.
Carl Leopold disagreed with the court decision
hoping on Russian support & his own military forces. By the beginning of
1719 Mecklenburg army consisted of 3 Mecklenburg cavalry regiments (15 coys), 4
Mecklenburg foot regiments (6 batts), 2 Russian foot regiments on Mecklenburg
service (4 batts) & 2 battalions of Land-Miliz.
The story with Russian regiments is very
interesting. Duke Carl Leopold was married in 1716 to Catherine, a niece of the
Peter the Great. Next year Russian Tzar agreed to provide 3,000 of Russian
soldiers in Mecklenburg army to support his new relative in the internal
conflict with local estates. They were Viatskiy & Yaroslavskiy Foot
regiments. That time Russian foot regiments were of 8 fusilier coys only, their
grenadier coys since 1708 were detached to form converged grenadier regiments.
Grenadiers of Viatskiy & Yaroslavskiy regiments were in Campenhausen Grenadiers,
which was in Baltic provinces in 1717. So, two grenadier companies were taken
from Lacy Grenadiers which was in Pomerania that time. Finally Viatskiy &
Yaroslavskiy regiments entered Mecklenburg service in April 1717 of one
grenadier & 8 fusilier coys each (ab. 1,500 each). Russian officers were
mostly from gentry. That time they kept lifelong military service to the Tzar. But
when they entered Mecklenburg service, they realized that they could easily get
retirement & officially return home in their estates. So, many Russian
officers asked Karl Leopold to retire in 1717-19 & were replaced by German
officers.
Mecklenburg army,
March 1719.
Troops & uniforms (from Hall R. Mecklenburg’s Military from 1650 to 1719. CD-room. 2003. P.
26-27).
 |
Mecklenburg infantry uniforms, 1717-19
(From Hall R. Mecklenburg's Military from 1650 to 1719. 2003) |
Generals: general-majors Curt Christoph von
Schwerin & Detloff von Flohr, brigadiers Philipp Detloff von Kahlden &
Waldow.
Cavalry:
·
Leibregiment
zu Pferde under Brig. Waldow [1702/01], 5 companies, 400 men. Uniform: blue
with blue facings.
Very interesting project presenting a reconstructed view of Moscow Kremlin around 1800. Dedicated to the fans of the Napoleonic era :).