The last Hessian losses were recorded in 1784. William IX, who succeeded Karl as Landgraf in 1785, responded to critics by revising land inheritance laws in ways intended to leave more muscle on family farms. The conscription system was modified to eliminate the complex structure of occupational deferments. The concept of “expendability” was applied to the entire male population, the term of service reduced to 12 years as a tradeoff. Administered with a cautious eye on local reactions, the revamped system for practical purposes restored the army to its central place in Hessian society.

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William IX was Francophobic—a tendency encouraged after 1789 by the serious direct threat revolutionary France posed to the small German states across the Rhine. The Landgraf was correspondingly willing to engage his army for lesser sums than his predecessor. Britain, however, was still a reliable paymaster and partner, willing to pay premium prices for good men. A four-year treaty of alliance in 1787 provided annual payments for 12,000 troops never called on to deploy—among the few cases of “something for nothing” in the subsidy system’s history. A series of treaties in 1793 and 1794 brought 12,000 men plus artillery into British service, where they fought as well as ever in the Low Countries and Westphalia. Hessian regiments served in Ireland against the 1798 Revolution, with more success than their predecessors in North America. William was able to parlay his troops’ service into an electoral title from the Holy Roman Empire in 1803. Three years later, in the aftermath of the Battle of Jena, Hesse-Kassel was merged into the Confederation of the Rhine, and William was an exile in Austria. Hessians continued to fight across Europe under foreign colors, this time French ones. But the Hessian mercenary state had passed into history—and into myth.

For further reading, Dennis Showalter recommends: The Hessians, by Rodney Atwood, and The Hessian Mercenary State, by Charles W. Ingrao.

This article was written by Dennis Showalter and originally published in the October 2007 issue of Military History Magazine. For more great articles, subscribe to Military History magazine today!

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