Political Constitution, supplied a contingent of 7,227 men, with a reserve of 3,093, to the federal army, occupied the ninth place in the German confede•a tion (q.v.), and had 3 votes in the plenum or full council, mid 1 vote in the limited coun cil. Its army now forms the 25th division of the 3d army corps of the German empire. It is a limited monarchical state. Its ruler, who must be a Lutheran, bears the title of royal highness, and ranks as grand-duke of Hesse, and as a Rhenish grand duke. The succession is hereditary in the female line in default of male issue. In accordance with the law of 1856 there are two legislative chambers of representatives,which must be con voked at least once in every 3 years, but the real power of the government rests with the council of state and the 4 ministries into which the several branches of the administration are divided.
line of Hesse-Darmstadt, the second main branch of the house, is derived from the Hessian count, George I., who, on the death of his father, Philip the magnanimous, in 1567. obtained the upper countship of Katzenellenbogen,with the town of D.trmstadt for his residence, and succeeded in 1583, on the death of his brother with out heirs, to a third of the patrimony of the latter. He was succeeded in 1590 by his eldest son, Ludwig V., while his third sou, Frederick, becanie the founder of the Hesse Homburg lino (q.v.). Ludwig V., wilt/ acquired a portion of Upper Hesse, was the founder of the university of Giessen. Although Hesse-Darmstadt, like every other part of Germany, suffered considerably during the French revolutionary wars, it finally acquired a great addition to its territories through the agency of Napoleon. Ludwig X., who had succeeded his father as landgraf in 1790, joined the confederation of the Rhine, and after having acted against Austria in 1809, and in concert with the French in 1813, offered, after the battle of Leipsic, to act with the allies against France, on condition of being allowed to retain his various acquisitions of territory. He had assumed the title of grand-duke in 1806, and on that occasion he promulgated various legislative edicts, and annulled the pre-existing union of the Hesse-Darmstadt and the Hesse-Cassel diets. In
1814 he joined the German confederation, and made large cessions of territory to Prus sia, Bavaria, and Hesse-Cassel, receiving by way of indemnification a portion of the French department of Donnersberg, or Mainz, extending to the Lahn, and the greater part of the principality of Isenberg, in right o: which lie assumed the additional title of a Rhenish grand duke. In accordance with the decree of the federal diet, Ludwig gave his subjects a representative form of government in 1820, the scheme of which was, however, so obnoxious to the assembled states, that the grand-duke and his advisers were compelled to withdraw it, and to substitute another in its place. The task of framing this constitution occupied several diets in succession, and gave rise to much angry dis cussion within and without the chambers. The death, in 1830, of the grand-duke, who from various causes was endeared to his subjects, widened these differences, and angry discussions soon arose in regard to the civil list to be accorded to the new grand duke, Ludwig II. In the course of the next few years, one diet after another was convoked and prorogued, but no material change was effected in the relative position of the cham bers and the government. The death of the grand-duke, Ludwig II., In 1848, and the accession of his son and co-regent, Ludwig III., grand-duke until 1877, brought little change for the better. In the meantime it must, however, be admitted that, notwith standing frequent dissensions in church and state, the duchy made considerable advances in material prosperity; railways were opened, and new roads formed; monopolies and other commercial restrictions removed; greater freedom permitted in the curriculum of the university, and a more liberal spirit infused into the system of the education imparted in the national schools. Although these and many other improverrients were grudgingly yielded, they have been permanent, but the character of the grand-ducal policy has neither been liberal nor in accordance with the wishes and views of the majority of the people. See GERIIANY.