Welcome to House of History. Last week we looked at the first of the Hohenzollerns and
the complex marriage and inheritance politics that led to a territory that somewhat resembled
what would one day be known as Prussia. As these inheritance claims came to fruition
the Thirty Years’ War broke out, one of the bloodiest wars in European history. For
Brandenburg, without any natural borders and with remote territories, it was a disaster.
Demographic records show that during the entire war, about half of its population died, with
some territories losing up to 80 percent of its population!
It is an interesting time for Brandenburg-Prussia because during this time we will see the destruction
and economic standstill of Brandenburg in part due to its ineffective and weak ruler,
Georg Wilhelm, while at the same time the war gave rise to his son, one of the strongest
and most important rulers the territories have ever had.
Welcome to the complete history of Prussia.
-intro-
Brandenburg-Prussia in 1618
Uniting the geographically dispersed territories of Jülich-Cleves, the Duchy of Prussia and
Margraviate of Brandenburg under one ruler in personal union skyrocketed the potential
of the Hohenzollern clan. As you can see on this map, their territories were not merely
a German principality anymore. Whereas Brandenburg was a fief of the Holy Roman Empire, the Duchy
of Prussia was a fief of the Polish King. Hohenzollern territories now bordered Poland
and Russia in the East and the Netherlands in the West. Johann Sigismund could not enjoy
this potential for too long, however. He drank and ate himself to an early grave and passed
away in December 1619. He was succeeded as Elector of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia
by his 25-year-old son, Georg Wilhelm. Now, the new Elector wasn’t a man with a strategic
eye, foresight or determination. Poor timing had it that it was just then what would become
the Thirty Years’ War broke out. Brandenburg entered this conflict utterly unprepared.
When in May 1618 in Protestant Bohemia 2 Catholic representatives of the Catholic Holy Roman
Emperor Ferdinand II were thrown out of a window, the so-called Third Defenestration
of Prague, it marked the beginning of a conflict that would lead to an incredibly bloody and
devastating war. The Catholic Emperor and Protestant forces both within the Holy Roman
Empire and external powers such as Denmark, Sweden, Spain, the Dutch Republic and France
fought the subsequent war mostly within the territories of the Empire. International power
struggles such as control of the Baltics and the traditional rivalry between Bourbon France
and the Habsburgs were also fought within the German lands.
Now, just to describe Brandenburg’s precarious situation, imagine the following. To its south
were hereditary lands of the Habsburg Bohemian Crown, Lusatia and Silesia. To its west was
Electoral Saxony, a traditional ally of the Emperor. Then, directly to its north the Protestant
Baltic powers, Denmark and Sweden could march over its undefended borders. Our Elector didn’t
have the financial or military means to defend his new territories and as such pursued a
policy of staunch neutrality. Unfortunately, Georg Wilhelm’s father had aligned Brandenburg
with the Calvinist Dutch to secure the Jülich Cleve succession a decade earlier. At Georg
Wilhelm’s court the Catholic count Adam von Schwarzenberg, his primary advisor, persuaded
the Elector to align himself with the Catholic Emperor. Meanwhile, the 2 most prominent privy
councillors supported the Protestant cause. Georg Wilhelm’s priority wasn’t the war,
but attempt to have the Polish king acknowledge his claim to the duchy of Prussia. After all,
formally, the Polish King was still the feudal overlord of the Duchy. Unfortunately for the
Elector, his mother pursued a policy of her own. She married her daughter to the King
of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus. The Elector was very opposed, considering the Polish Crown
was at war with Sweden. The Polish King Sigismund suspected a Hohenzollern conspiracy, putting
Georg Wilhelm in a difficult position. Now, as you can probably tell, the Elector was
pushed between forces that he had no control over. History was incredibly hard on him,
something he himself already realized early during his reign: ‘It pains me greatly,’
he wrote in July 1626, ‘That my lands have been wasted in this way and that I have been
so disregarded and mocked. The whole world must take me for a cowardly weakling.’ And
unfortunately for him, in 1626 the worst was yet to come.
The Palatinate
So, the Elector had managed to keep Brandenburg out of the conflict between Poland and Sweden
at the outset of the war. He pursued the same policy with regard to the Protestant insurgency
in Bohemia. Considering Bohemia’s Elector, Frederick V of the Palatinate, the ‘Winter
King’ led the insurgency and was his brother-in-law, the Elector gave his moral support. But when
the Winter King went to war, the Elector stayed out of the conflict.
In November 1620 the Battle of White Mountain between Catholic Imperial and Bohemian forces
was fought. The Catholic forces emerged victoriously and all those that supported the ‘rebels’
were deprived of their properties. Six years later Georg Wilhelm’s other sister
was married off to Bethlen Gabor, a Transylvanian Calvinist Prince who had a track record of
wars against House Habsburg. Yet, even though the two sisters were married to the enemies
of the Habsburgs, Georg Wilhelm did all he could to assure his loyalty to the Catholic
Emperor, steering clear of the anti-imperial alliance closed two years earlier between
Denmark and England. Due to its stubborn neutrality, Brandenburg
drifted into isolation as the war was waging on, both around its territory but occasionally
within its borders, at its periphery. Brandenburg’s neighbour, John Georg of Saxony was negotiating
with the Catholic parties. In the North-west, the Elector’s possessions were occupied
by imperial troops under Count Tilly after he emerged victorious from the Battle of Stadtlohn.
Meanwhile, the opposition to the House of Habsburg, namely France, England and the Scandinavian
states, started planning a coalition. The Elector only played a marginal role on the
fringes of these negotiations, being a pawn for the great powers waging war in the Empire.
He figured he had to collect funds to raise an army, albeit a small one, to protect his
territories. Unfortunately for him, that was easier said than done when an entire empire
is burning and with troops quartering in its economic hubs, running them to a standstill.
Neutrality
Eventually, the Elector managed to cling on to his neutrality by recruiting a force of
3000 soldiers in an attempt to prevent the Danish commander Count of Mansfeld from crossing
the Altmark and Priegnitz in early 1626. Well, this failed miserably. Mansfeld’s forces
won and Mayhem broke out, churches were plundered, towns were razed, villages torched and inhabitants
slaughtered. These Danish forces now quartered in Brandenburg as if it was their own, although
it was a short-lived occupation. Because in April 1626 at the Battle of Dessau
Bridge, Imperial forces under Albrecht von Wallenstein defeated the Protestant forces
of Mansfeld. In August that year, the Imperial forces under Count Tilly decisively pushed
forces under Danish King Christian back at the Battle of Lutter. The Danes retreated,
leaving a trail of destruction. The Imperial forces advanced, destroying everything the
Danes had not already. Furthermore, they seized Magdeburg and Halberstadt for their troops
to quarter. These were crucial economic hotspots of Brandenburg.
Now, as this was happening King Gustavus Adolphus landed in Ducal Prussia. He closed the territory
off from the sea and quartered his troops there, operating against Poland, disregarding
the Elector’s claim over the Duchy. Furthermore, the Neumark was plundered by Cossack mercenaries
and Mecklenburg was bestowed to the imperial commander Count Wallenstein as punishment
for its Duke’s support to the Danes. It became very clear Brandenburg’s life
expectancy was evaporating rapidly if the Elector didn’t act. As such, his arm was
twisted in joining the Catholic-Imperial camp. He abandoned his policy of staunch neutrality
by signing the Treaty of Königsberg after the defeat of Mansveld. From now on, he had
to accept imperial garrisons to quarter on his territories. If anything the burden on
Brandenburg increased, for commander Wallenstein was notorious for extracting provisions, lodgings
and payment for his troops from the local population. Brandenburg was in ruins.
Switching sides
By the late 1620s, the Catholic forces seemed to reach their zenith of power. Our Elector
didn’t notice any of it, however. As a matter of fact, the Emperor seemed to completely
disregard his interests, even though they formally were allies. In 1629 Emperor Ferdinand
II issued the Edict of Restitution, reclaiming all ecclesial buildings Catholics had possessed
in 1552. This would have disastrous results for Brandenburg, where many of these buildings
had come under Protestant control. And then, in 1630, Sweden dramatically entered
the war on the Protestant side. Ten years before, much to the Elector’s opposition,
his mother had married his sister to King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, who was now invading
the Holy Roman Empire. The Swedish King didn’t have any allies within the Empire and figured
his brother-in-law would make an ideal one. Clinging on to his policy of neutrality, the
Elector was hesitant. Considering the Swedish King had waged wars against Russia, Poland
and led conquests into the Baltic, which included the occupation of the Elector’s Ducal Prussia
(!) it is not too difficult to see why. Furthermore, the Swedish King had even forced the elderly
Duke of Mecklenburg to write him into his inheritance for the duchy, directly undercutting
the Elector’s agreement with its northern neighbour!
The Elector returned to his policy of neutrality trying to form a neutral bloc with its neighbour,
Saxony. As he was negotiating, the Swedish forces clashed with imperial troops across
the Neumark, routing the imperials. After that strong victory, the Swedish King demanded
an alliance. Although the Elector protested, the Swedish King simply marched his troops
towards Berlin. Intimidating the Elector, the poor man saw no other way but to throw
in his lot with the Swedes. One reason, besides Swedish intimidation, for switching, was the
fact that the Imperial forces had recently sacked the Protestant city of Magdeburg with
over 20.000 casualties as a result. The war crime damaged the prestige of the Emperor
beyond repair, especially in The Elector’s eyes. His uncle happened to be the administrator
of the city. From June 1631, the Elector reluctantly agreed to Swedish troops quartering within
his territories and he paid a monthly contribution to the Swedes.
The Indecisive Elector
Right as the Elector had switched to support the Swedes, the balance of power once again
shifted. The Swedish king died in a cavalry melee at the Battle of Lützen in late 1632.
After the Swedes suffered another crushing defeat 2 years later at Nördlingen, Emperor
Ferdinand decided to sway the Elector to sign a peace treaty. The Peace of Prague offered
amnesty, but no toleration of Calvinism. Meanwhile, in the background, the Swedes were still pestering
the Elector for a treaty. He once again decided to try his luck at the Imperial side, in May
1635, together with Saxony, Bavaria and several other German territories. Imperial troops
were dispatched to Brandenburg to “safeguard” the Mark, the Elector was promised Pomerania
after the war and given the title Generalissimus. Ironic, considering his military ineptitude.
You won’t be surprised by now: as the Elector was raising 25000 troops to support the imperial
side, once again the balance of power shifted. At the battle of Wittstock in October 1636,
the Swedes defeated a Saxon army and once again became the powerhouse of the region.
To sum up the last several years: our poor Elector attempted to drive the Swedes out
of his territories all the while failing to claim the Duchy of Pomerania.
During these last years, Brandenburg was ravished and plundered by all sides that participated
in the war. Even the Elector’s own mercenaries razed the Mark, as he was unable to pay them.
After the Swedes invaded Brandenburg in late 1637, the Elector, by now a broken man, was
forced to flee to the relative safety of Ducal Prussia to the east. He settled in Königsberg,
where on 1 December 1940 Georg Wilhelm, Margrave and Elector of Brandenburg, Duke of Prussia,
passed away. His Margraviate of Brandenburg was described by contemporaries as “being
at the point of dissolution”. With many territories, including economic hubs, losing
upwards of 80 percent of their population, this isn’t too difficult to imagine. Perhaps
the final days of the short-lived realm of Brandenburg-Prussia had arrived, with its
history rapidly fading in obscurity.
A New Elector Rises
After Georg Wilhelm passed away, he was succeeded by his 20-year-old son, Frederick Wilhelm.
And this new elector was the complete opposite of his father. Both contemporary sources and
historiography describe his reign as a model of a ruler, dedicated to his office. A “potent
icon within the Hohenzollern tradition” if you will. A man that future generations
would certainly aspire to model themselves after.
After his father’s death, he did not return to the burning and looted Brandenburg until
March 1643. A letter from his Viceroy, Albrecht II certainly gives a vivid account of the
situation Brandenburg was in: “The country is in such a miserable and impoverished condition
(...) and the cart driven so deep into the mud, that it cannot be extricated without
the special help of the Almighty.” According to a contemporary privy councillor it was
only a matter of time until Poland would seize Prussia. Pomerania was to stay under Swedish
occupation and Kleve under Dutch control. In short: Brandenburg was on the edge of the
abyss. In order to restore the peace in his territories, the new Elector figured a capable
and disciplined military was required. It became the central tenet of his reign that
would last for 48 years. But before he had that army, during the last phase of the war,
he managed to play the international system to the degree that he actually managed to
emerge as a war profiteer from this devastating conflict. So, with 8 more years of war upon
his ascension to the throne, how did he do it?
Well, towards the end of the war, the French wanted a German client state to support them
in future conflicts. Due to French support, the Elector managed to gain the eastern portion
of Pomerania from the Swedes (a French ally). Then, a French-Swedish alliance pressured
the Holy Roman Emperor to compensate Brandenburg for the lost portions of Pomerania by granting
it lands from the former bishoprics of Halberstadt, Minden and Magdeburg. After the peace of Westphalia
in 1648, concluding this bloody conflict, Brandenburg became bigger than neighbouring
Saxony - it became the second-largest German territory after that of the Habsburgs themselves.
The new Elector had managed all this when Brandenburg was still a plundered mess, with
a military that was still in ruins. It was all diplomacy. Aside from the territorial
acquisitions, the Peace of Westphalia curtailed the Emperor’s powers. It resulted in all
prince-electors of the Empire becoming virtual sovereigns within their territories.
With all this new potential the new Elector, 28 years old by the end of the war, embarked
on his new mission: to gain sovereignty over Ducal Prussia from the Polish Crown. How he
managed to achieve that, we will see next week. But there is a reason why this young
Frederick Wilhelm would enter the history books as Prussia’s “Great Elector”.
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