Welcome to House of History. Last week we have seen the Great Elector’s 48-year reign.
It was marked by war and struggle, but it ensured the future generations of House Hohenzollern
of one very important certainty: sovereignty over Ducal Prussia. This week his son, Frederick
III, makes work of the potential bestowed upon him. After succeeding his father as elector
of Brandenburg in 1688, he embarked on a painstaking process of diplomacy and negotiations. Eventually,
his efforts would be rewarded with the first royal title of the Hohenzollern family. Through
diplomacy, he had achieved what his father, quite literally, fought towards all his life.
Frederick III would become known as the first King in Prussia. Welcome to the complete History
of Prussia.
-intro-
Frederick III, Elector of Brandenburg, Duke of Prussia
As we will see in the future with many Hohenzollerns, Frederick was part of a rather large family
with brothers and sisters, and he wasn’t the firstborn son. Born in 1657 to Frederick
Wilhelm, the Great Elector and his first wife, Louise Henriëtte van Nassau, Frederick was
actually their third son. The first son was born during the last year of the Thirty Years’
War, 1648, and passed away shortly after. The second son, Charles Emil, did survive
infancy and was the expected heir to the throne for quite some time. Now, I delve into the
bond between fathers and sons in the aptly named series ‘Fathers and Sons’. Suffice
to say that Charles Emil was the Great Elector’s favourite, showing a keen interest in military
and state affairs from an early age, whereas Frederick was a more reserved boy, that enjoyed
arts and high culture. During the Franco-Dutch war in the 70s, Charles Emil commanded an
army, fell ill during the campaign and passed away of dysentery at the age of 19. Frederick
now became the designated successor of his father, who wasn’t too happy about it. The
relationship between the father and son did not improve during the Great Elector’s lifetime.
It got so bad that in 1687, following the death of Frederick’s third brother, Ludwig,
at the age of 20, Frederick became paranoid there was a plot to assassinate all male heirs
from his father’s first marriage. The would-be culprit was his father’s second wife, Sophia
Dorothea of Schleswig-Holstein because she would want to put her first-born son on the
throne. Eventually, the King of England and Holy Roman Emperor had to intervene to salvage
the bond between father and son - by this point the Great Elector had publicly declared
he cut out Frederick from the inheritance. Just a few months before his death in 1688
the problem was… ‘resolved’ and when the Great Elector passed away, Frederick became
Frederick III, Elector of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia. There were some issues with
the inheritance but eventually, Frederick prevailed and managed to maintain the integrity
of all territories. As he ascended, the nine-years 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 van Oranje. While Brandenburg and Prussia
were safe from war, the duchies in the West, here in green, that were 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 characterize 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, in order 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 own estates and
they certainly felt like it. Yet it was forbidden for anyone to hold the title of King within
the Empire - the Empire and Emperor still existed and it would be an unwise provocation
that would certainly warrant a military response if an Elector suddenly crowned himself king
within the empire. As a matter of fact, 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. During this time, 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 in order to boost the prestige of a House. 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. Unfortunately, under Frederick Wilhelm the
Great Elector, no foreign lands were waiting for House Hohenzollern... but a sharp observer
will have noticed that East Prussia, since 1466, had not belonged to the Empire but had
been under Polish sovereignty for several centuries. And last episode we have seen that
the Great Elector managed to gain sovereignty over Ducal Prussia during the Second Northern
War, first from Sweden, and after the Polish crown regained its power, from Poland. As
our Frederick III became the Elector, he now doubled as both an Elector in 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 difficult and tricky negotiations 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 good fortune to international developments he had no control
over. In 1700, over in Habsburg Spain, Charles II passed away without children. 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, in the
hopes that he would manage to gain a royal title through that channel. And, well, Leopold
definitely 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 West
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 recognize Frederick’s ambition to acquire the title. As a matter of fact,
they had not even recognized Duke Albrecht’s secularization of the territory, nearly 200
years before. The Teutonic Order, throughout the centuries, hadn't died out. It still existed
though they certainly had faded to the background ever since Grand Master turned Duke Albrecht's
decision to abandon his vows back in 1525. Its organization and recruiting structure
had survived throughout the centuries (it would not be until 1809 that Napoleon dissolved
the Order, although it continues to exist to this day). Now, after Albrecht secularized
the Duchy of Prussia, the Order had allied themselves with the House of Habsburg, perhaps
even less staunchly catholic than the Order (the Hoch- und Deutschmeister march is to
this day one of the most famous marches of the Austrian army). From the Habsburg stronghold,
Austria, the Order mustered up all its power and approached all those in their network
to prevent the illegitimate, and stolen by the Hohenzollerns, territory of Prussia to
be now recognized as a kingdom! 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 in order 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 the superior position of House Hohenzollern
as compared to all other German dynasties. We're all probably thinking it: 'in' Prussia...
the 'in' was a blemish. But while it was a concession Frederick was forced to make for
the sake of recognition, it only applied to the outside world. Internally, Frederick was
right from the start, the unchallenged first King of Prussia. He wasn't a Margrave of Brandenburg,
a Duke of Prussia, and a Count or Prince elsewhere. All his lands were now agglomerated as the
Kingdom of Prussia. I believe that is where we started the series on Prussia's history:
how did the sovereign Kingdom get its name 'Prussia', that far eastern territory that
wasn't even linked to Brandenburg, the central hub of the Hohenzollerns?
The people of Brandenburg, the Rhineland or Westphalia obviously never thought they would
call themselves Prussian, a territory far east that the vast majority of them never
even visited. But they didn't have a choice: their ruler was now the King 'in' Prussia
and they constituted Prussian subjects, governed by royal Prussian officials and garrisoned
by a royal Prussian army. Fortunately for the Hohenzollerns', human nature tends to
adjust to changes such as these within a few generations. It would not take long for the
subjects of the Hohenzollerns to agree to, even be proud of, their new name. It would
take two more generations until there would finally be a formal King ‘of’ Prussia,
though, which would be Frederick’s grandson, Frederick the Great.
The Cultured Hohenzollern
As the King got comfortable in his new position, he would not enter the history books as a
characteristically heroic king but as someone that enjoyed high culture, the arts, and looked
closely at court life in France in order to shape his own court life that way. He maintained
an educated court which stood out, considering the Margravate of Brandenburg was once known
for allowing the free reign of robber barons and the Prussia around the Vistula, with its
unruly bunch of nobles. Some historians describe him as vain, with his court a sad attempt
to mimic the Sun King of France and with his obsession for regal pomp and dignity partially
related to a spinal deformity that was akin to that of a hunchback. Ironic: Wilhelm II,
the last German Kaiser, over 2 centuries later, had a deformity of his arm, and the same obsession
with splendour. The Hohenzollern royal line began and ended with cripples.
Contemporaries remarked, though probably with a strong whiff of irony, that his capital,
Berlin, was the "Athens on the Spree". It was under this King, the first noteworthy
buildings were built in Berlin: the Palace and Armoury. An extensive pleasure garden
was constructed in Charlottenburg. The aesthetics of the capital radically increased and expenditures
of the Court skyrocketed. Furthermore, in 1688 Frederick appointed Samuel Pufendorf
as Court Historiographer. His father, the Great Elector, had invited Pufendorf but passed
away before he could arrive. The next 6 years Pufendorf would write a history of the Great
Elector’s reign, using archive documents, something that can be considered revolutionary
for the time. Before Frederick was crowned King he had already
founded the Academy of Arts and the Royal Scientific Society. He was a patron of the
arts, of Andreas Schlüter, a baroque sculptor and architect, among others. It was Schlüter
who designed sculptures and statues of the King’s predecessors, most notably the Great
Elector. It helped that he married a cultured and intellectual (second) wife, Sophia Charlotte
of Hanover, sister of King George I of England. At court she surrounded herself with philosophers
and was a patron of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, a multidisciplinary mathematician, philosopher,
physicist, historian, among many other areas of expertise. According to Frederick’s son
and successor, Frederick Wilhelm I, his court was 'the craziest household in the world'.
A telling example of the King’s taste for festivities and grandeur was the funeral after
the death of his second wife in 1705. Two battalions had to bring the corpse back to
Berlin while ‘the deepest mourning that is possible’ was to be observed. Long black
cloaks were the only attire allowed at court, and the entire court was transformed into
a building of mourning. Another interesting thing had happened three years later: in Switzerland
the principality Neuchâtel’s rulers house became extinct, and the protestant principality
wanted to avoid coming under Catholic rule. Although Catholic France tried very hard,
eventually the people of Neuchatel chose Frederick as their new ruler (I’ll save you the complicated
hereditary connections he based his claims on). From now on, the Principality of Neuchatel
was ruled in personal union with Prussia until 1806, when Napoleon removed the then-king,
and again from 1813 to 1840. It was a small principality and territory, but it does show
that the Prussian King started to earn international recognition within the European theatre.
As all this was going on the Spanish war of succession still waged on in the background.
Not that it affected the new King too much, after all, his participation was the trade-off
for the royal title. 6 noteworthy battles were fought by Prussia, including the battle
of Malplaquet in 1709. It is considered one of the bloodiest modern battles, with great
losses for Prussia and its allies. The King’s son, Frederick Wilhelm, distinguished himself
for bravery, earning him praise from the Duke of Savoy. His bravery in battle wasn’t too
surprising though, for the 21 year old would eventually become Frederick Wilhelm I, Prussia’s
Soldier King.
Was it worth it?
While I won’t cast judgment on whether the King’s endeavours were worth it, his grandson
Frederick II, who would become known as the Great, has. He called the pomp, money and
effort no more than an “indulgence of the Elector’s vanity”. “He was more concerned
with appearances than with useful things that are soundly made”. And to be fair, the King’s
court did incur more costs than it could sustain, but it wasn’t like he was a historical anomaly.
Then again, Frederick the Great was sharp enough to observe that it was also “a masterpiece
of statesmanship. It saved the house of Brandenburg from the yoke of servitude, `` referring to
Austria and other German princes. The royal title certainly embodied status,
power and prestige. The intangible benefits may have been greater than the temporary costs
attached to it. Ironically, it was the first and last generation of Hohenzollerns for a
long while that enjoyed a rich coronation ceremony. Frederick I, King in Prussia passed
away in 1713. His son succeeded him and dispensed entirely any coronation ritual and dismantled
the court establishment. He had developed a deep antipathy to these pompous aspects
during his youth. And his son, Frederick’s grandson, would take after his father and
sober the Prussian state as well. As such, Prussia evolved to a Kingdom without coronations.
Frederick managed to lay the basis for a population proud of calling themselves Prussians and
for Prussia to become a sovereign kingdom. His son was given the building blocks to expand
the army to the degree that Prussia could compare itself with other European Great Powers.
His epitaph is very fitting for his reign, for he would become Frederick Wilhelm I, Prussia’s
Soldier King. It took several centuries... but Prussia's real history, as a Kingdom,
had officially begun.
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