A while back we did a very similar Prussian stamp. See https://the-philatelist.com/2019/02/18/prussia-1861-the-great-questions-will-not-be-resolved-by-speeches-and-majorities-but-by-iron-and-blood/ . There is a reason the two stamps are so close. The area was about to join Prussia in the new German Empire. If they can just figure out how to bypass all the uncooperative Dukes. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
I don’t quite get the design of this stamp. The simple style of printing is called roulette and it is on very cheap paper. That would imply that it’s purpose was bulk postage. Yet the stamp value goes up 20 times is it has been postally canceled. That implies not many were used. I wonder if a large number were ordered from out of state printers and they barely arrived in time to be used before the post office of Brunswick merged. It was the last stamp issue of the Dutchy of Brunswick.
Todays stamp is issue A4, a 3 Groshen stamp issued by the Dutchy of Brunswick in 1865. It was a four stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $8 unused.
The Dutchy of Brunswick came into being in an area called Wolffenbuttell that had been part of the Kingdom of Westphalia until the Congress of Vienna in 1815, The Duke who received the area died in battle leading a volunteer unit called the Black Brunswickers alongside Austria against Napolean. His young son Charles II was Duke but the area was ruled by a regency dominated by the state of Hanover. Charles II was anxious for the right to rule and claimed majority upon hiting age 18. The Regency felt he should wait till he was 21 but they compromised on age 19. During that year Hannover drafted a new constitution that limited the Duke’s powers and the moneys and tributes that were due him. On taking power, Charles tried to have the new constitution annulled but none of the other German states agreed. His rule was considered corrupt and wasteful and during the troubles of 1830 his castle was attacked and burned to the ground, Charles escaped to Paris but did not abdicate. His younger brother William arrived in Brunswick a few days later and was welcomed by the people. At first he claimed to be acting as Regent for absent Charles but a year later declared himself Duke. Charles was outraged and tried to put together an armed mercenary force to march on Brunswick, but other German and French leader would not cooperate. He ended up settling in Britain and later Switzerland. He became a fairly notorious figure for although he was married to a lesser noble whose issue could not serve. Charles was constantly sueing gossip magazines for claiming he was often observed soliciting for homosexual sex. He died in Geneva and his fortune went to build a monument to Brunswick there.
Meanwhile his brother William actually was ruling in Brunswick. He never married and he fathered multiple children out of wedlock. They could not succeed him. William retained his title but allowed the Dutchy to pass into the North German confederation dominated by Prussia. His closest male relative was the recently deposed King of Hannover. Hannover had sided with Austria in the 1866 war with Prussia and was conquered. If William died the Dukedom would pass to the former King. This was not acceptable to Prussia unless he renounced his claim on Hannover which he never did. When William died a new Regency was arrainged under a Prince of Prussia. The former King of Hannover finally figured out how regain his families place at least partially. He renounced his claim in favor of his youngest son Ernst August who had married the daughter Kaiser Wilhelm II, the grandson of the Prussian King that took his Kingdom. In the good graces of Prussia again, the Regency ended and Ernst became the last Duke of Brunswick. The Weimar republic ended the position in 1919.
Well my drink is empty and one wonders what the regular person in Brunswick thought. From exile, Charles wrote that without him, Brunswick would inevitably fall to the socialists. It did that in 1919 but perhaps the people shouldn’t have been so quick to give up the ruined palace in 1830, could the socialists have been any worse? Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.