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FREDERICK WILLIAM III. 



FREDERICK WILLIAM III. 



1028 



friendship, proposed to him to form a similar union in Northern 

 Germany; but, with still more manifest disrespect towards him, he 

 ordered tlio Hanse-Towns not to adhere to the contemplated confe- 

 deration, because he would take them uuder his immediate protection, 

 and he secretly enjoined several princes in northern Germany to 

 refuse any closer alliance with Prussia. At tho same time Von 

 Hardenberg, the successor of Count Haugwitz as prime minister of 

 Prussia, was attacked in the French official newspapers; nor was 

 there lack of articles in which Frederick William was ridiculed, or the 

 pride of his queen provoked. The majority of the Prussian nation, 

 headed by their queen Louisa, called loudly for war ; but the king 

 was now accustomed to neutrality, and time was required to prepare 

 him for acting with decision. A fresh insult from France at last 

 roused him from his state of indecision ; he learned, either through 

 his ambassador iu Paris, or indirectly through the British ministers, 

 that in the secret negociations which were then carried ou between 

 Great Britain and France, Napoleon had promised to restore King 

 George III. to the possession of Hauover. His language against 

 France became now bolder, and he listened to the proposal of the 

 Emperor Alexander, who promised to assist him with a powerful army if 

 he w.ould wage war with France. Under such circumstances hostilities 

 between Prussia and Great Britain were suspended, and Frederick 

 William sent big ultimatum to Napoleon, demanding that the French 

 armies should immediately evacuate Germany and, retire beyond the 

 Rhine ; that no German prince not belonging to the Rhenish confe- 

 deration should be prevented from adhering to the contemplated 

 Northern Confederation ; and that the i'russiau territories occupied 

 by the Grand Dul-e of Berg should be restored to Prussia. This ulti- 

 matum was rejected by Napoleon, who stood with his main army on 

 the frontiers of Franconia and Thuringia, The Prussian main army 

 wa iu Thuringia; it was composed of troops who, down to the 

 meatiest drummer, thought themselves equal to those warriors with 

 whom Frederick II. had resisted Europe, and it was increased by the 

 numerous and well-disciplined contingents of the Elector and Dukes of 

 Saxony, the Elector of Hesse Cassel, the Duke of Brunswick, and 

 several other princes, who had concluded an offensive and defensive 

 alliance with the King of Prussia. If King Frederick William had 

 possessed a little sagacity, he would have discovered that his hopes 

 rested on a rotten foundation, and that he was going to fight against 

 tho best general and the best troops in Europe, with an army whose 

 natural courage and excellent discipline were led to the Held by vanity 

 and overbearing insolence. 



The war broke out on the 1st of October 1 806 : a fortnight after- 

 wards the glory of the Prussian name was prostrated on the field of 

 Jena. The king behaved gallantly in this unfortunate battle ; he had 

 two horses killed under him, and his cloak was pierced by bullets. 

 Another fortnight, and Napoleon I. entered Berlin. The Prussian 

 army was annihilated : corps of 20,000 or 30,000 men, commanded by 

 heroes of the Seven Years' War, laid down their arms to small detach- 

 ments of the French. Spandau, Stettin, Custriu, Hameln, Glogau, 

 opened their gates, before their walls had been touched by a cannon- 

 shot ; Magdeburg surrendered without resistance, though occupied by 

 a garrison of 20,000 veterans, who were to defend there tho great 

 magazines of the army. " In the Seven Years' War," wrote Frederick 

 William to his queen, " Prussia stood alone against Europe, and was 

 often in a more dangerous position than now : we are not alone now, 

 we have Russia." Tnia ia another instance that the fact of Prussia 

 having been victorious in the Seven Years' War was still considered as 

 a proof that she would always remain so : but there is a difference 

 between talkiug of great things and doing them. The assistance of 

 Russia only delayed the ruin of Prussia. In the battle of Eylau (8th 

 of February 1807) both the French and the Russians claimed the 

 victory ; but on the 14th of June, the anniversary of the battle of 

 Hareugo, the fate of Prussia was decided in the field of Friedland. A 

 few days afterwards Napoleon entered Kcinigsberg, his troops pushed 

 still farther ou towards the Russian frontier, and before the month of 

 July the whole of the Prussian kingdom was in the hands of the 

 French, with the exception of a few fortified places, and Memel, an 

 open town in the extreme eastern corner of Prussia Proper. 



Both Alexander and Frederick William now sued for peace : separate 

 conventions of peace had already been made between Napoleon and 

 the German allies of Prussia, namely, Saxony and some smaller states. 

 The town of Tilsit was chosen as the place for the ensuing uegocia- 

 tiou.i. The three sovereigns were to meet on a raft constructed on the 

 river Niemen, which formed the boundary between Prussia and Russia. 

 The first interview took place between Napoleon and Alexander 

 alone, on the 25th of June 1807. On the following day Alexander 

 prevented Frederick William to his victor. Napoleon was haughty, 

 sometimes bitter ; Frederick William, worn out by care, showed him- 

 self cold and reserved, speaking little, yet betraying his personal hostile 

 feeling towards Napoleon. Some days afterwards Queen Louisa arrived, 

 and it was expected that she would succeed, through her amiable 

 character and ability, in bringing Napoleon down from his condi- 

 tions; for it was already known that he did not intend to give back 

 many of hia conquests. But so far was she from making the slightest 

 alteration in Napoleon's intentions, that ho treated her several times 

 rather rudely, giving her to understand that ho guessed very well the 

 motive of her presence at Tilsit. 



Peace was concluded at Tilsit on the 7th of July 1807. The first 

 article of this peace, referring to Prussia, ia a proof that Napoleon 

 not only despised Frederick William as a man, but wished to make 

 him feel it, for tho article begins with these words : " Moved by esteem 

 for the Emperor of Russia, and iu order to give a proof of his earnest 

 desire to unite the Russian and French nations through the bonds of 

 friendship and unalterable confidence, the Emperor Napoleon consents 

 to give back to the King of Prussia part of his conquered kingdom." 

 Upon this follows the description of those territories which Napoleon 

 gave back, but not of those which the vanquished party ceded, as is 

 generally the case in transactions of the kind ; and this circumstance 

 is another instance of Napoleon's desire to humble his unfortunate 

 enemy. By this peace Frederick William lost the greater part of his 

 realm ; all the territories west of the Elba, and nearly the whole of 

 his Polish dominions altogether about 70,000 English square miles, 

 with a population of 6,000,000. The Polish dominions were given to 

 the elector of Saxony, who had assumed the title of King of Saxony, 

 as the grand-duchy of Warsaw, except the district of Bialistok, which 

 Russia received ; and thus the Emperor Alexander was rewarded at 

 the expense of his unfortunate ally. Out of the German dominions 

 was created the new kingdom of Westphalia, and some parts were given 

 to Saxony and the grand-duke of Berg. The king was further required 

 not to prevent any German prince from adhering to the Rhenish Con- 

 federation ; to promise to become a member of this confederation at 

 some future time ; to reduce his army to 40,000 men, and to pay 

 146,000,000 of francs (nearly 6,000,000t sterling) to France. Till this 

 money was paid French troops were to occupy Berlin and the principal 

 fortresses of Prussia. 



Thus, one terrible blow prostrated Prussia, and reduced one of the 

 great monarchies of Europe to the rank of a third-rate power. The 

 remaining part of Prussia was completely exhausted. Upwards of 

 7,000,000/. sterling had been paid to Franco during the war under the 

 title of contribution or fine, according to the circumstances ; as much 

 in money or in value had been taken by the French soldiery ; and 

 wherever the French had been quartered and they had been quartered 

 in all parts of the kingdom the houses were burnt, the fields destroyed , 

 the cattle killed, and the horses taken away. Under these calamities 

 the king betrayed no symptom of despair. The re-organisation of his 

 kingdom occupied all his thoughts. Such a sudden downfall of his 

 power and glory at last taught him that he had laboured under a most 

 fatal mistake, that his glory was that of his ancestors, and his power 

 a phantom. Still at the mercy of Napoleon, he nevertheless conceived 

 the plan of removing the causes of so much evil, and of introducing 

 radical reforms into all the branches of administration ; and he carried 

 his plan out with a patience, a resignation, a perseverance, for which 

 he deserved more praise than he deserved blame for his insolent 

 conduct in the time of his prosperity. No sooner was the peace 

 concluded than he proceeded to St. Petersburg ; he afterwards lived 

 at Memel and Konigsberg till the French troops evacuated Berlin, 

 when he returned to his capital in December 1809, after an absence of 

 three years. Most of his ministers and many high functionaries were 

 dismissed, and the Baron von Stein appointed prime minister. Those 

 among the generals who had behaved like cowards in the field, or 

 shamefully surrendered the strongest fortresses, were tried and 

 punished ; others who had behaved well were promoted, and amor.g 

 these were the generals Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, the regenerators 

 of the Prussian army, and the brave Bliicher, who alone saved the 

 Prussian name from eternal disgrace, till he also was compelled to 

 surrender to the superior forces of Bernadotte after the battle of 

 Liibeck in November 1806. Stein having displeased Napoleon, the 

 king was obliged to dismiss him ; he appointed Von Hardeuberg in 

 his stead, who however acted in the same spirit as his predecessor. 

 Many important reforms were effected in the internal government ; 

 among others the last remnants of the bondage of the peasantry were 

 abolished; the exclusive privileges of the lower nobility were taken 

 away; government offices were thrown open, talent, learning, and 

 merit being declared to be the only qualifications required ; trade and 

 the exercise of all mechanical arts were made free, and the existing 

 corporations, with their exclusive privileges, were abolished ; tho 

 municipal corporations in the towns received (in 1808) privileges of 

 self-government of a nearly democratical character; the military 

 system was radically reformed : every subject able to carry arms was 

 declared under obligation to fight in case of necessity, and to serve in 

 the army three years ; so that, although the army was apparently only 

 40,000 men strong, it was really much stronger. The greatest diffi- 

 culties in the reformation of the kingdom arose from the state of its 

 finances ; a system of economy was therefore introduced of which 

 history offers few parallels. Frederick William set a noble example by 

 selling his plate and jewellery, for which he received several millions 

 of tualers from Hamburg merchants, and also many of the crown- 

 lands of which he was the owner ; and he sent his brother William to 

 Paris for the purpose of obtaining better conditions for the payment 

 of the sums due to France. On the 8th of September 1808 this prince 

 made an agreement with Napoleon's minister De Charnpigny, according 

 to which Frederick William was relieved from his obligation to enter 

 the Rhenish Confederation, and the French troops were to evacuate 

 Prussia, ou condition of 73,000,000 of franca being paid within twenty 

 days, and twelve bills given for 72,000,000 francs, each of 6,000,000 ot 



