Prussia was undoubtedly one of the most important actors in Europe’s Early- and Late Modern periods.
It has a fascinating history and geographically and politically, up until the early 18th century,
it did not make much sense for Prussia to become a Kingdom. And in total, the Kingdom would only
exist independently for 170 years before becoming part of the German Empire in 1871.
By the late 17th century, the territories that would eventually become the Kingdom of
Prussia were still disjointed. Brandenburg lay at the centre,
north within the Holy Roman Empire. To the west were the duchies of Cleves, Mark and Ravensberg.
The Hohenzollerns, Brandenburg-Prussia’s ruling dynasty, inherited these some 70-years earlier.
And to the far east, on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea, was the Duchy of Prussia.
Although ruling over the territories within the Holy Roman Empire as a sovereign, on paper
Electors were still subservient to the Emperor. As for the Duchy of Prussia, it lay outside
the Holy Roman Empire, but the Hohenzollerns merely held it as a fief from the Polish King.
The Great Elector (1640-1688)
Around the mid-17th century developments began taking place that would lead to Prussia becoming
a Kingdom. The Thirty Years’ War lasting from 1618 to 1648 ravaged the Holy Roman Empire
and its principalities. Frederick Wilhelm, the Great Elector, ascended to the throne in 1640
and did everything he could to rebuild Brandenburg. The population was replenished
with edicts of religious toleration, attracting an influx of immigrants. Attracting French subsidies
ensured the rebuild of Brandenburg-Prussia’s army. That rebuilding of the military led to
a remarkable feat. Nine years after the Thirty Years’ War ended, in 1657, the Elector managed
to obtain sovereignty over (east) Prussia. So, how exactly did he pull that off?
The Second Northern War Broke out in 1655 between Sweden under the ambitious Charles X Gustav and
Polish-Lithuania, Denmark-Norway and the Moscow Tsardom. By this time, the Elector expanded his
army to between 10 and 20 thousand soldiers - quite a contrast to his territories’ burning
mess seven years earlier. Initially, the Elector allied himself with Royal Prussia, ruled by the
Polish King in Personal Union. Sweden initially emerged victorious after several battles.
The Polish King was forced into exile, and Sweden began marching their troops into Ducal Prussia.
Upon realising that he would not win against Sweden, the Elector agreed to Swedish peace
terms instead. He now accepted Ducal Prussia as a fief from the Swedish, instead of the Polish king.
In turn, he had to supply the Swedish with troops. In July 1656, a combined Swedish-Prussian force
routed the Polish-Lithuanian army at the Battle of Warsaw. Yet the tide of war was
slowly turning against the Swedes, and in turn, for more troops and aid, the Swedish King agreed
to grant the Elector actual sovereignty over Ducal Prussia. The thing is, within too long,
even those extra troops didn’t make the difference, and the Poles expelled Sweden.
So the promise of sovereignty over Ducal Prussia was meaningless. The Polish King
was back in the saddle. Fortunately for the Elector, a conflict between the Russian Tsar
and the Polish King came up. Casimir decided it would be best to neutralise Brandenburg,
so he wouldn’t have to worry about the Elector. Coincidentally, Emperor Ferdinand III died in
April 1657. Electors of the Holy Roman Empire could cast their vote for the new Emperor.
Now, our Elector saw a possible great trade-off. He traded his vote for the new Emperor
for concessions over Ducal Prussia from the Polish King. In September, at Wehlau,
a secret treaty was signed where Ducal Prussia was ceded ‘with absolute power’ to the Elector.
In turn, the Elector changed sides and waged war against his former allies, the Swedes. A steamroll
campaign followed, and by 1659 Brandenburg-Prussia controlled nearly all of Swedish Pomerania. But
the French came to back up Sweden and prevented the Elector from conquering these new territories.
Not too long after, in February 1660, the King of Sweden died. The war participants signed the Peace
of Oliva, concluding the Second Northern War. The treaty confirmed the international recognition of
the Elector’s sovereignty over Ducal Prussia, a significant acquisition. Following this
bloody war, one of the Hohenzollerns territories had become fully sovereign.
When the Great Elector passed away in 1688, after reigning over his lands for 48 years,
his son Frederick inherited many disjointed territories from the Rhineland to the Eastern
Baltic. His father was able to see the promised land - but not to enter it.
Prussia’s First King (1688-1713)
Frederick wasn’t the heir apparent for all his life. His older brother Charles Emil commanded
an army during the Franco-Dutch War in the 1670s when he fell ill and passed away.
The bond between Frederick and his father was strained
to the degree that he ran away in 1687, fearful that his father’s new wife wanted to poison him.
Still, they resolved the dispute right before his father’s death, and when he passed away,
Frederick succeeded him as Frederick III, Elector of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia.
As he ascended, the nine-year war broke out between France and a great Alliance of Austria,
the Dutch Republic, England, among other states and duchies, and Brandenburg-Prussia.
Being a son of an Oranje-Nassau, Frederick became one of the most loyal allies of Willem
III of Orange. While Brandenburg and Prussia were safe from war, the duchies in the West
under Hohenzollern control did see warfare. Frederick visited the Dutch republic twice
during that time, with the war being concluded in 1697. During these years something else
was brewing in the background, something that would characterise Frederick’s reign.
At least from 1696 onwards Frederick actively pursued several diplomatic negotiations towards
a goal that would change the position of House Hohenzollern forever: he wanted to acquire a royal
title. But acquiring the title of ‘King’ wasn’t as clear-cut as it may seem, and for years, Frederick
embarked on painstaking negotiations with multiple influential parties on the European theatre.
Holy Roman Empire and its Kings
Now, to understand how an Elector of the Holy Roman Empire would be able to crown himself King,
we have to go back to the Treaty of Westphalia, by this point signed half a century ago.
The conditions of the treaty that ended the Thirty Years’ War curtailed, if not destroyed, the power
of the Holy Roman Emperor. The prestige of the office had eroded. German princes virtually became
sovereigns of their estates, and they certainly felt like it. Yet it was forbidden for anyone to
hold the title of King within the Empire. It would be an unwise provocation that would certainly
warrant a military response if an Elector suddenly crowned himself king within the Empire. It was not
until Napoleonic times, a century later, that the Kings of Bavaria, Saxony and Württemberg
came into existence, and their ascension to the throne signalled the real end of Empire.
Within the Holy Roman Empire, only two royal titles were permitted: that of King of the
Romans (held by the Emperor) and King of Bohemia. But some Electors of the Empire were Kings… of
territories outside of the empire. They made use of a loophole, so to say. Royal crowns of
foreign territories were acquired to boost the prestige of a House. Thus, for example,
Augustus II “the Strong” of House Wettin, was Elector of Saxony but became King of Poland in
1697 when he was elected as such; George I of House Welf was King of Great Britain from 1714
whilst also being Elector of Hanover. As Frederick III became the Elector,
he now doubled as both an Elector within the Empire and a sovereign over Ducal Prussia. The
opportunity to become King presented itself, just like it had to the Welfs and Wettins...
The negotiations began during the 1690s, and it would take several years of complex and tricky
talks between him and both Emperor Leopold I and Augustus the Strong, King of Poland. As often
happened in the history of Prussia, the Elector owed a good fortune to international developments
he had no control over. In 1700, over in Habsburg Spain, Charles II passed away without children.
As a result, several monarchs claimed the right to the Spanish throne,
a dispute that would eventually lead to the War of the Spanish Succession between the Habsburgs,
Bourbons and their allies. Frederick had supported a candidate for the Spanish throne,
Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, hoping that he would manage to gain a royal title through that channel.
And, well, Leopold required the Elector’s support when that war finally broke out.
Frederick exploited this, and in return for the Krontraktat, or Crown Treaty,
the Elector eventually pledged his support for the Emperor. He supplied 8000 soldiers
and in return the Emperor ‘acknowledged’ the Royal title. The Elector had a more difficult
time convincing Augustus the Strong, King of Poland, to acknowledge his royal title. In fact,
Augustus declared the coronation illegal and reasoned Ducal Prussia still belonged to Poland.
The Elector had to concede a bit here, which led to the unusual title of “King in Prussia”.
Augustus made sure the Elector was aware of his subservient position to his. After all,
Poland still laid claim to Western Royal Prussia and Augustus wasn't eager to give Frederick any
reason to assert a claim to that territory. There were others that opposed the coronation:
the Papacy and the Teutonic Order did not recognise Frederick’s ambition
to acquire the title. Frederick’s ancestor, Duke Albrecht, was Grandmaster of the Teutonic Order.
In 1525, controlling the territory, which now was the Duchy, he simply split off from the
Teutonic Order and declared himself Duke of the region. As such, they had not even
recognised Duke Albrecht’s secularisation of the territory nearly 200 years before.
Perhaps the influence of the Order was already waning; as far as we know their loud objections
did not matter. Frederick III, Elector of Brandenburg, Duke of Prussia,
managed to push through his plans to acquire the first Royal title for House Hohenzollern.
An incredible coronation
On the 18th of January 1701, Elector Frederick III of Brandenburg was crowned in Königsberg.
It was an event full of splendour, riches and grandiosity. The coronation was the
most expensive single event in the history of Brandenburg-Prussia. Around twice the annual
revenue of the entire Hohenzollern administration was spent on the ceremony. And Frederick, well,
he was henceforth known as Frederick I, King 'in' Prussia. An interesting detail is that his second
wife, the cultured Sophie Charlotte, princess of Hanover, opposed the marriage as she figured it
was against Hanoverian interests (and during the coronation, she found it boring to the degree that
she distracted herself with snuff). Nevertheless, Frederick first crowned himself and then his wife,
a symbolic gesture of worldly power and House Hohenzollern’s superior position compared to all
other German dynasties. The Hohenzollern territories were from this moment on
simply referred to as ‘Prussia’, even though the majority of their lands lay outside of Prussia.
Thank you for watching this video.