American Revolutionary War

One of Alexander's enterprises earned income from hiring auxiliary troops to King George III of Great Britain for the American Revolutionary War. He had nominal command over the "Frankish Army" of 1,644 mercenaries, of whom only some 1,183 returned to their homeland in 1783. The Margrave leased further troops to Holland. With these incomes, he paid down the principality's debts, which amounted to 5,000,000 guilders at the time he inherited the throne (1757). By the time of his abdication 34 years later, the principality's debt stood at only 1,500,000 guilders.

The end of the Margraviate

On 16 January 1791, Alexander sold his Margraviate to Prussia. The contract was arranged by Karl August von Hardenberg, who had been Acting Minister in Ansbach since 1790. Under the terms of the contract, Prussia paid the Margrave as compensation an annual stipend of 300,000 guilders. On 2 December, in Bordeaux, France, he signed his formal abdication as Margrave.

After abdication

Alexander's first wife, Frederica Caroline, died on 18 February 1791 in Unterschwaningen, where she had lived since separating from her husband. On 19 May of the same year, Alexander left Triesdorf for England. On 13 October or 30 October 1791, in Lisbon, Alexander married Elizabeth Craven, Baroness Craven (1750–1828), the daughter of the Earl of Berkeley and the widow of the William Craven, 6th Baron Craven, who had died shortly before.

Alexander sailed to England as a private citizen with his new wife, and there the couple dedicated themselves to breeding horses. By December 1791, he had found a property near the River Thames, Brandenburg House at Fulham, and in 1798, he acquired the Benham Park estate at Speen near Newbury in Berkshire. On 5 January 1806, aged 69, Alexander died after a short illness caused by lung disease. Today, a memorial in St Mary's Church in Speen, simply records "In Memory of the Margrave of Anspach, who died at Benham 5th January 1806".^[1]

The Franconian region over which Alexander had ruled changed hands many times. On 15 December 1805, in the first Treaty of Schönbrunn, Prussia ceded the Principality of Ansbach to France in exchange for the Electorate of Hanover; in 1806, Ansbach was acquired by the Kingdom of Bavaria in exchange for the Duchy of Berg, and soon afterwards the Prussian defeat at Jena on 14 October 1806 resulted in the Principality of Bayreuth also being ceded to the French in the Treaty of Tilsit of July 1807.^[2] In 1810, Bayreuth was acquired by Bavaria. In 1871, Bavaria became part of the new German Empire under the King of Prussia, but retained its internal independence, and it continues as a Land of the present-day Germany.

Arms