Convention of Klosterzeven
A British-paid army in Germany surrendered by convention in September 1757 and the agreement was repudiated within weeks. The Army of Observation was some 35,000 Hanoverians, Hessians and Brunswickers commanded by the Duke of Cumberland, George II's son, and its job was to protect the electorate of Hanover from a French invasion. It was beaten at Hastenbeck in July, retreated north-west to Stade at the mouth of the Elbe, and found itself pinned against the sea. The Danes mediated, and the convention signed at Kloster Zeven provided that the army would be dispersed rather than surrendered, the auxiliaries sent home and the Hanoverians confined to quarters — which left French forces free to move against Prussia and left Hanover occupied. Frederick, who had just lost at Kolin and had the Russians in East Prussia, called it a catastrophe. George II repudiated it on the argument that his son had exceeded his instructions, having sent instructions authorising him to negotiate. Cumberland resigned every appointment and never held a command again. Ferdinand of Brunswick took over the army in November, and did with it everything that had not been done: he cleared the French out of Hanover in a winter campaign, took the war back over the Rhine, and beat a larger French force at Minden in 1759. The episode is the clearest case in the war of a defeat produced by a political decision rather than a military one. Ferdinand's campaign afterwards is the least remembered part of the war and among the most consequential. Keeping a French army occupied in Germany for six years is why there were no French reinforcements available for Canada or India.
- Year: 1757 CE
- Category: Political
