Rostock Inheritance Agreement

The Rostock Inheritance Agreement () describes several agreements reached by the Hanseatic city of Rostock with the dukes of Mecklenburg as landlords.
The inheritance agreements should not be confused with the State Constitutional Heritable Settlement (; LGGEV) of 1755, which Duke Christian Louis agreed with the duchy's estates ("Landstände") combining the knights' federation ("Ritterschaft") and the chartered cities eligible for the estates ("Seestädte" and "Landstädte" forming together the "Landschaft"), which also included the city of Rostock. This led to a permanent involvement of the estates in the government of the state and from then on blocked constitutional development in the modern sense. The strength of the estates, opposing dynastic divisions, kept Mecklenburg together, at times partitioned into several branch duchies with each its own government but one common body of the estates. And the power of the estates held down the dominance of the monarchs and successfully blocked absolutism in Mecklenburg.