HISTORIC 



HISTORIC BKBTOHBa XI, VI I. 



Till \ N i > T HE SEVEN YttAKS' WAR. 



Tur: ki!i k -.I..in of 1'ruHnia wan a creature of very gradual growth, 

 lake all ..ih.-r thing* that are great and roHpootworthy, it had 

 uiidud by wwdom and induHtry, and built up by Buffering, 

 ! perseverance. Not until tlm Thirty Years' War (*e 

 uihea, XLIII.) had revealed to them their rtrength, 

 and aUo given them the opportunity, did the Margrave* of 

 :ilnir^' think of enlarging their borders till they (should 

 be worthy the title of a kingdom. Hitherto the margrave* had 

 been content to bo chief among the feudal dependants on the 

 Emperor of Germany, and had found in the government of their 

 own states, and in the assertion of their dignity, employment 

 enough for their energies, and outlet enough for their ambition. 

 From a remote period that portion of Soythia which was 

 known as Germany hod been divided into a number of small 

 states, diffuring as to title and importance according to their 

 size, and according to the influence they were able to bring to 

 bear upon head-quarters. Over all was the imperial ruler, 

 elected by the chief of the lesser potentates, now from one 

 house, now from another, not having hereditary dignity at 

 least until quite modem times but chosen because he was con- 

 sidered to be the ablest man, the cunning (i.e., wisest) man, the 

 k> inimtf, the king, the man best able to serve the common weal. 

 The electors were seven in number the King of Bohemia, the 

 Duke of Saxony, the Margrave of Brandenburg, the Count Pala- 

 tine of the Rhine, and the Prince- Bishops of Mayence, Troves, 

 and Cologne, and these among themselves decided who should 

 be chief of the feudal union of states which was known as Ger- 

 many. According to the principles of the feudal system, each 

 of the seven electors much more, therefore, those lessor dukes 

 and counts who were not of sufficient importance to have a 

 voice in the imperial election was bound to render to the 

 emperor the allegiance of a vassal to a suzerain, an allegiance 

 which differed from a general and absolute allegiance in this, 

 that the vassal was in almost every department or relation of 

 life free to act as he pleased within his own territory, but in all 

 concerns which affected the union as a whole was bound to obey 

 the will of the emperor as dictator, to render him military 

 service, and to contribute towards the common expenses of the 

 empire. Thus, when the Turks by their armaments threatened 

 Western Europe, and commenced their attacks on the eastern 

 provinces of Germany, it was incumbent on all the princes of 

 the Germanic empire to lend a hand, and to give money towards 

 repelling the invaders ; but when it came to bo a question of 

 domestic administration, say in Saxony, the duke of that pro- 

 vince was not called upon by his allegiance to consult the 

 emperor in the matter, but possessed plenary power himself to 

 deal with the matter without right of appeal. 



There were very many of these petty states. When the 

 soldier-chiefs who lost occupied southern Scythia began to settle 

 down, they took possession of such lands as their own followers 

 happened to occupy, and holding them by the grace of God and 

 the strength of their strong sword-arms, assumed the govern- 

 ment of the territory, and succeeded in obtaining recognition 

 from the most powerful of their class, who in his turn, and by 

 virtue of the same title, assumed the title and position of 

 emperor, the representative of tho Western emperor of the 

 Roman empire, the King of Italy, and the arbiter of European 

 affairs. 



Tho title of " graf," or " grave," was equivalent to count, and 

 was the lowest grade of sovereign noble ; then came duke (from 

 the Latin dux, a leader) or herzog, signifying drawn out, elected, 

 raised ; and then came king, a title given to the holders of the 

 larger principalities. Markgraf, or margrave, signified a count 

 of the marches or borders, and was equivalent to the word 

 marquis ; a count-palatine signified originally a nobleman 

 attached to the imperial household or palace, but was after- 

 wards made to indicate the sovereign princes of those provinces 

 which the emperor had at one time or another conferred upon 

 officers of his palace. -From these dignitaries, who included 

 prince-bishops among their number, were selected the seven 

 electors to the empire, so that the title of elector came to be 

 one of special hononr, and was tanked on to tho other titles of 

 the possessor of it as distinctive and honourable. It was shared, 

 as already stated, by counts, dukes, kings, and prince-bishops. 

 Certainly not least among the electors was the Margrave of 

 109 N.E 



Brandenburg. Lord of the territory lying on the we*ternmo*t 

 borden of the empire, and including (since 1525) in hi* poa***- 

 Bion* the duchy of Prussia, he wa* exceedingly powerful, and 

 could help or disoblige hi* neighbour! to a Tory considerable 

 extent The neighbouring prince* therefore courted hi* favour, 

 and, where their interact* and not their jealonrie* were concerned, 

 depended upon him to rapport them against the power of the 

 prince* lying to the eastward. They rallied alto round him a* 

 against foreign foe*. Notwithstanding all these consideration*, 

 the Elector of Brandenburg remained loyal to the imperial 

 constitution till he could no longer do BO and preserve hi* elf- 

 respect, or even hi* independence. The Thirty Year*' War wa*, 

 a* has been shown, a war of religion, a war which went to the 

 root of the question whether Protestantism should or should not 

 exist in Germany in spite of tho will of the emperor, who wa* 

 wholly opposed to it, and entirely devoted to the Roman Catholic 

 faith. In this war, the Elector of Brandenburg, who had em- 

 braced the doctrine* of the Reformation, took part with the 

 Protestant side, and gavo in hi* hearty adheaion to Gustavus 

 Adolphus and his successors in command. One of the result* 

 of the war was to show him how strong he was, and also to con- 

 vince him, after tho spirit that had been displayed in conducting 

 tho war, that the old lines of the German constitution were for 

 ever obliterated, that is to say, that between him, those depen- 

 dent on him, and the emperor, the old principle of loyalty could 

 no longer exist. 



In 1701 the Elector Frederick, deeming himself strong enough 

 to make good his act against all the world, with his own hand* 

 crowned himself king, and announced to the world that his 

 name henceforth was not Elector of Brandenburg, but King of 

 Prussia. Tho house of Hapsburg sat on the imperial throne, 

 and hod procured that the dignity of emperor should bo 

 hereditary in the family. It could ill brook tho assumption of 

 kingly power by tho most powerful vassal of the empire in the 

 west ; but exhausted by the sustained efforts of thirty years of 

 war, it was not in a position to take exception practically to tho 

 move, though it viewed the rise of Prussia with dislike, and 

 waited for an opportunity of knocking it down again. 



Frederick the First survived for twelve years his assumption 

 of royal dignity, and during that time did his utmost to weld 

 into a coherent mass tho numerous parts which constituted his 

 dominions. Upon his successor, Frederick William, devolved 

 the task of preparing the new-born kingdom to guard against 

 the storm which sooner or later it was seen must burst upon it. 

 Not only was there the open hostility of Austria and her 

 dependent states to be overcome so soon as those states should 

 have sufficiently recovered to allow of their taking the field, but 

 there wero the jealousies of France and Russia to be met, and by 

 some means, probably not without violence, to be allayed. For 

 this work of preparation there was no fitter man than the 

 second King of Prussia. A man with few ideas some great 

 ones were among them he hod the courage and the pertinacity 

 to carry his ideas out to the fullest, and his aims were in the 

 main for tho advancement and benefit of Prussia as a European 

 power. He formed and organised the Prussian army on a model 

 upon which his successor, Frederick the Great, hardly improved ; 

 he laid the foundation of Prussian finance on that basis of thrift 

 which has been its chief and its most admirable characteristic 

 ever since. The idea of military organisation throughout the 

 country, so that every man of the population should be liable to 

 soldier-service, was this king's ; and so was the wisdom which 

 placed tho domestic laws upon a footing somewhat less unsatis- 

 factory than that on which they had hitherto rested. Yet ho 

 was a prince hated quite as much as ho was respected, particu- 

 larly in his own family, where he acted as an insane tyrant, going 

 the length on one occasion, when he hod goaded his son, the 

 crown prince, by repeated acts of oppression, into the idea of 

 deserting Prussia altogether, of condemning that son to death 

 as a deserter, and of actually causing his son's friend and com- 

 panion, Lieutenant Katte, to undergo the extreme penalty in the 

 presence of tho prince. Out of the school of this Tyrannns 

 came Frederick the Great ; from his brain issued, ready-made 

 and armed at all points, the kingdom of Prussia, as Minerva is 

 fabled to have done of old from the head of Jupiter. Into the 

 inheritance left by such a man came Frederick the Great, in the 

 year 1740, by which time the nations had had leisure to look 

 around, and to take notice of the new peer which had sprung 

 up among them. 



