made to the democracy were withdrawn and further restrictive measures were introduced in 1851 and 1852.
Mecklenburg-Strelitz adopted the constitution of the sister duchy by an act of September 1755. In 1806 it was spared the infliction of a French occupation through the good offices of the king of Bavaria; in 1808 its duke, Charles (d. 1816), joined the confederation of the Rhine, but in 1813 he withdrew therefrom. Having been a member of the alliance against Napoleon he joined the Germanic confederation in 1815 and assumed the title of grand duke.
In 1866 both the grand dukes of Mecklenburg joined the North German confederation and the Zollverein, and began to pass more and more under the influence of Prussia, who in the war with Austria had been aided by the soldiers of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. In the Franco-German War also Prussia received valuable assistance from Mecklenburg, Duke Frederick Francis II. (1823–1883), an ardent advocate of German unity, holding a high command in her armies. In 1871 the two grand duchies became states of the German Empire. There was now a renewal of the agitation for a more democratic constitution, and the German Reichstag gave some countenance to this movement. In 1897 Frederick Francis IV. (b. 1882) succeeded his father Frederick Francis III. (1851–1897) as grand duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and in 1904 Adolphus Frederick (b. 1848) a son of the grand duke Frederick William (1819–1904) and his wife Augusta Carolina, daughter of Adolphus Frederick, duke of Cambridge, became grand duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. The grand dukes still style themselves princes of the Wends.
See F. A. Rudloff, Pragmatisches Handbuch der mecklenburgischen Geschichte (Schwerin, 1780–1822); C. C. F. von Lützow, Versuch einer pragmatischen Geschichte von Mecklenburg (Berlin, 1827–1835); Mecklenburgische Geschichte in Einzeldarstellungen, edited by R. Beltz, C. Beyer, W. P. Graff and others; C. Hegel, Geschichte der mecklenburgischen Landstände bis 1555 (Rostock, 1856); A. Mayer, Geschichte des Grossherzogtums Mecklenburg-Strelitz 1816–1890 (New Strelitz, 1890); Tolzien, Die Grossherzöge von Mecklenburg-Schwerin (Wismar, 1904); Lehsten, Der Adel Mecklenburgs seit dem landesgrundgesetzlichen Erbvergleich (Rostock, 1864); the Mecklenburgisches Urkundenbuch in 21 vols. (Schwerin, 1873–1903); the Jahrbücher des Vereins für mecklenburgische Geschichte und Altertumskunde (Schwerin, 1836 fol.); and W. Raabe, Mecklenburgische Vaterlandskunde (Wismar, 1894–1896); von Hirschfeld, Friedrich Franz II., Grossherzog von Mecklenburg-Schwerin und seine Vorgänger (Leipzig, 1891); Volz, Friedrich Franz II. (Wismar, 1893); C. Schröder, Friedrich Franz III. (Schwerin, 1898); Bartold, Friedrich Wilhelm, Grossherzog von Mecklenburg-Strelitz und Augusta Carolina (New Strelitz, 1893); and H. Sachsse, Mecklenburgische Urkunden und Daten (Rostock, 1900).
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