Unable to shake the allegiance of John Frederick to the Lutheran faith,
Charles kept him and Philip of Hesse in captivity and began to take
advantage of his triumph, although Magdeburg was still offering a
stubborn resistance to his allies. By the capitulation of Wittenberg the
electorate of Saxony was transferred to Maurice, and in the mood of a
conqueror the emperor met the diet at Augsburg in September 1547. His
proposals to strengthen and reform the administration of Germany were,
however, not acceptable to the princes, and the main one was not
pressed; but the Netherlands were brought under the protection of the
Empire and some minor reforms were carried through. A serious quarrel
with the pope, who had moved the council from Trent to Bologna, only
increased the determination of Charles to establish religious
conformity. In consultation with both Romanist and Lutheran divines a
confession of faith called the _Interim_ was drawn up; this was in the
nature of a compromise and was issued as an edict in May 1548, but owing
to the opposition of the Romanist princes it was not made binding upon
them, only upon the Lutherans. There was some resistance to the
_Interim_, but force was employed against Augsburg and other
recalcitrant cities, and soon it was generally accepted. Thus all
Germany seemed to lie at the emperor's feet. The Reformation had enabled
him to deal with the princes and the imperial cities in a fashion such
as no sovereign had dealt with them for three centuries.
The imperial succession.
The revolt of Maurice of Saxony.
Being now at the height of his power Charles wished to secure the
succession to the imperial throne to his son Philip, afterwards Philip
II. of Spain. This intention produced dissensions among the Habsburgs,
especially between the emperor and his brother Ferdinand, and other
causes were at work, moreover, to undermine the former's position. The
Romanist princes were becoming alarmed at his predominance, the
Protestant princes resented his arbitrary measures and disliked the
harsh treatment meted out to John Frederick and to Philip of Hesse; all
alike, irritated by the presence of Spanish soldiers in their midst,
objected strongly to take Philip for their king and to any extension of
Spanish influence in Germany. Turkey and France were again threatening
war, and although the council had returned to Trent it seemed less
likely than ever to satisfy the Protestants. The general discontent
found expression in the person of Maurice of Saxony, a son-in-law of
Philip of Hesse, whose services to Charles against the league of
Schmalkalden had made him very unpopular in his own country. Caring
little or nothing about doctrinal disputes, but a great deal about
increasing his own importance, Maurice now took the lead in plotting
against the emperor. He entered into an alliance with John, margrave of
Brandenburg-Custrin, with another Hohenzollern prince, Albert Alcibiades
of Bayreuth, and with other Lutheran leaders, and also with Henry II. of
France, who eagerly seized this opportunity of profiting by the
dissensions in the Empire and who stipulated for a definite reward.
Charles knew something of these proceedings, but his recent victory had
thrown him partly off his guard. The treaty with France was signed in
January 1552; in March Henry II. invaded Germany as the protector of her
liberties, while Maurice seized Augsburg and marched towards Innsbruck,
where the emperor was residing, with the intention of making him a
prisoner. An attempt at accommodation failed; Charles fled into
Carinthia; and at one stroke all the advantages which he had gained by
his triumph at Muhlberg were lost. Masters of the situation, Maurice and
his associates met their opponents at Passau in May 1552 and arranged
terms of peace, although the emperor did not assent to them until July.
The two captive princes were released, but the main point agreed upon
was that a diet should be called for the purpose of settling the
religious difficulty, and that in the meantime the Lutherans were to
enjoy full religious liberty.
The peace of Augsburg.
Delayed by the war with France and Turkey, the diet for the settlement
of the religious difficulty did not meet at Augsburg until February
1555. Ferdinand represented his brother, and after a prolonged
discussion conditions of peace were arranged. Romanists and Lutherans
were placed upon an equal footing, but the toleration which was granted
to them was not extended to the Calvinists. Each secular prince had the
right to eject from his land all those who would not accept the form of
religion established therein; thus the principle of _cujus regio ejus
religio_ was set up. Although the Lutherans did not gain all their
demands, they won solid advantages and were allowed to keep all
ecclesiastical property secularized before the peace of Passau. A source
of trouble, however, was the clause in the treaty usually called the
ecclesiastical reservation. This required an ecclesiastical prince, if
he accepted the teaching of the confession of Augsburg, or in other
words became a Lutheran, forthwith to resign his principality. The
Lutherans denied the validity of this clause, and notwithstanding the
protests of the Roman Catholics several prelates became Lutheran and
kept their territories as secular possessions. The peace of Augsburg can
hardly be described as a satisfactory settlement. Individual toleration
was not allowed, or only allowed in unison with exile, and in the treaty
there was abundant material for future discord.
End of the reign.
After Maurice of Saxony had made terms with Charles at Passau he went to
help Ferdinand against the Turks, but one of his allies, Henry II. of
France, continued the war in Germany while another, Albert Alcibiades,
entered upon a wild campaign of plunder in Franconia. The French king
seized Metz, which was part of the spoil promised to him by his allies,
and Charles made an attempt to regain the city. For this purpose he took
Albert Alcibiades into his service, but after a stubborn fight his
troops were compelled to retreat in January 1553. Albert then renewed
his raids, and these became so terrible that a league of princes, under
Maurice of Saxony, was formed to crush him; although Maurice lost his
life at Sievershausen in July 1553, this purpose was accomplished, and
Albert was driven from Germany. After the peace of Augsburg, which was
published in September 1555, the emperor carried out his intention of
abdicating. He entrusted Spain and the Netherlands to Philip, while
Ferdinand took over the conduct of affairs in Germany; although it was
not until 1558 that he was formally installed as his brother's
successor.
Ferdinand I.
Ferdinand I., who like all the German sovereigns after him was
recognized as emperor without being crowned by the pope, made it a prime
object of his short reign to defend and enforce the religious peace of
Augsburg for which he was largely responsible. Although in all
probability numerically superior at this time to the Romanists, the
Protestants were weakened by divisions, which were becoming daily more
pronounced and more serious, and partly owing to this fact the emperor
was able to resist the demands of each party and to moderate their
excesses. He was continually harassed by the Turks until peace was made
in 1562, and connected therewith were troubles in Bohemia and especially
in Hungary, two countries which he had acquired through marriage, while
North Germany was disturbed by the wild schemes of Wilhelm von Grumbach
(q.v.) and his associate John Frederick, duke of Saxony. With regard to
the religious question efforts were made to compose the differences
among the Protestants; but while these ended in failure the Roman
Catholics were gaining ground. Ferdinand sought earnestly to reform the
church from within, and before he died in July 1564 the
Counter-Reformation, fortified by the entrance of the Jesuits into
Germany and by the issue of the decrees of the council of Trent, had
begun.
Administrative changes.
Under Ferdinand's rule there were some changes in the administration of
the Empire. Lutherans sat among the judges of the _Reichskammergericht_,
and the Aulic Council, or _Hofrat_, established by Maximilian I. for the
Austrian lands, extended its authority over the Empire and was known as
the _Reichshofrat_. Side by side with these changes the imperial diet
was becoming more useless and unwieldy, and the electors were gaining
power, owing partly to the _Wahlkapitulation_, by which on election they
circumscribed the power of each occupant of the imperial throne.
Maximilian II.
Ferdinand's son and successor, the emperor Maximilian II., was a man of
tolerant views; in fact at one time he was suspected of being a
Lutheran, a circumstance which greatly annoyed the Habsburgs and delayed
his own election as king of the Romans. However, having given to the
electors assurances of his fidelity to the Roman Church, he was chosen
king in November 1562, and became ruler of Germany on his father's death
nearly two years later. Like other German sovereigns Maximilian pursued
the phantom of religious union. His first diet, which met at Augsburg in
1566, was, however, unable, or unwilling, to take any steps in this
direction, and while the Roman Catholics urged the enforcement of the
decrees of the council of Trent the serious differences among the
Protestants received fresh proof from the attempt made to exclude the
Calvinist prince Frederick III., elector palatine of the Rhine, from the
benefits of the peace of Augsburg. After this Frederick and the
Calvinists looked for sympathy more and more to the Protestants in
France and the Netherlands, whom they assisted with troops, while the
Lutherans, whose chief prince was Augustus, elector of Saxony, adopted a
more cautious policy and were anxious not to offend the emperor. There
were, moreover, troubles of a personal and private nature between these
two electors and their families, and these embittered their religious
differences. But these divergences of opinion were not only between
Roman Catholic and Lutheran or between Lutheran and Calvinist, they
were, in electoral and ducal Saxony at least, between Lutheran and
Lutheran. Thus the Protestant cause was weakened just when it needed
strengthening, as, on the other side, the Roman Catholics, especially
Albert, duke of Bavaria, were eagerly forwarding the progress of the
older faith, which towards the end of this reign was restored in the
important abbey of Fulda. In secular affairs Maximilian had, just after
his accession, to face a renewal of the Turkish war. Although his first
diet voted liberal assistance for the defence of the country, and a
large and splendid army was collected, he had gained no advantage when
the campaign ended. The diet of Spires, which met in 1570, was mainly
occupied in discussing measures for preventing the abuses caused by the
enlistment by foreigners of German mercenary troops, but nothing was
done to redress this grievance, as the estates were unwilling to accept
proposals which placed more power in the emperor's hands. Maximilian
found time to make earnest but unavailing efforts to mediate between his
cousin, Philip II. of Spain, and the revolted Netherlands, and also to
interfere in the affairs of Poland, where a faction elected him as their
king. He was still dealing with this matter and hoping to gain support
for it from the diet of Regensburg when he died (October 1576).
Rudolph II.
Maximilian's successor was his son, Rudolph II., who had been chosen
king of the Romans in October 1575, and who in his later years showed
marked traces of insanity. The new emperor had little of his father's
tolerant spirit, and under his feeble and erratic rule religious and
political considerations alike tended to increase the disorder in
Germany. The death of the Calvinist leader, the elector palatine
Frederick III., in October 1576 and the accession of his son Louis, a
prince who held Lutheran opinions, obviously afforded a favourable
opportunity for making another attempt to unite the Protestants. Under
the guidance of Augustus of Saxony a Lutheran confession of faith, the
_Formula concordiae_, was drawn up; but, although this was accepted by
51 princes and 35 towns, others--like the landgraves of Hesse and the
cities of Magdeburg and Strassburg--refused to sign it, and thus it
served only to emphasize the divisions among the Protestants. Moreover,
the friendship between the Saxon and the Palatine houses was soon
destroyed; for, when the elector Louis died in 1583, he was succeeded by
a minor, his son Frederick IV., who was under the guardianship of his
uncle John Casimir (1543-1592), a prince of very marked Calvinist
sympathies and of some military experience. Just before this time much
unrest in the north-west of Germany had been caused by the settlement
there of a number of refugees from the Netherlands. Spreading their
advanced religious views, these settlers were partly responsible for two
serious outbreaks of disorder. At Aix-la-Chapelle the Protestants, not
being allowed freedom of worship, took possession of the city in 1581.
The matter came before the diet, which was opened at Augsburg in July
1582, but the case was left undecided; afterwards, however, the
_Reichshofrat_ declared against the insurgents, although it was not
until 1598 that Protestant worship was abolished and the Roman Catholic
governing body was restored. At Cologne the archbishop, Gebhard
Truchsess von Waldburg, married and announced his intention of retaining
his spiritual office. Had this proceeding passed unchallenged, the
Protestants, among whom Gebhard now counted himself, would have had a
majority in the electoral college. The Roman Catholics, however, secured
the deposition of Gebhard and the election in his stead of Ernest,
bishop of Liege, and war broke out in 1583. Except John Casimir, the
Protestant princes showed no eagerness to assist Gebhard, who in a short
time was driven from his see, and afterwards took up his residence in
Strassburg, where also he instigated a rebellion on a small scale. Thus
these quarrels terminated in victories for the Roman Catholics, who were
successful about this time in restoring their faith in the bishoprics of
Wurzburg, Salzburg, Bamberg, Paderborn, Minden and Osnabruck. Another
dispute also ended in a similar way. This was the claim made by the
administrator of the archbishopric of Magdeburg, a Hohenzollern prince,
Joachim Frederick, afterwards elector of Brandenburg, to sit and vote in
the imperial diet; it was not admitted, and the administrator retired
from Augsburg, a similar fate befalling a similar claim made by several
other administrators some years later.
The Protestant grievances.
After the death of Augustus of Saxony in February 1586 there was another
brief alliance between the Protestant parties, although on this occasion
the lead was taken not by the Saxon, but by the Palatine prince. Less
strict in his adherence to the tenets of Lutheranism than Augustus, the
new elector of Saxony, Christian I., fell under the influence of John
Casimir. The result was that Protestant princes, including the three
temporal electors, united in placing their grievances before the
emperor; obtaining no redress they met at Torgau in 1591 and offered
help to Henry IV. of France, a proceeding which was diametrically
opposed to the past policy of Saxony. But this alliance, like its
forerunner, was of very short duration. Christian I. died in 1591, and
under Christian II. electoral Saxony re-established a rigid Lutheranism
at home and pursued a policy of moderation and neutrality abroad. A
short time afterwards the militant party among the Protestants suffered
a heavy loss by the death of their leader, John Casimir, whose policy,
however, was continued by his nephew and pupil, the elector Frederick
IV. But neither desertion nor death was able to crush entirely the
militant Protestants, among whom Christian, prince of Anhalt
(1568-1630), was rapidly becoming the most prominent figure. They made
themselves very troublesome at the diet of Regensburg in 1593, and also
at the diet held in the same city four years later, putting forward
various demands for greater religious freedom and seeking to hinder, or
delay, the payment of the grant for the Turkish war. Moreover, in 1598
they put forward the theory that the vote of a majority in the diet was
not binding upon the minority; they took up the same position at
Regensburg in 1603, when they raised strong objections to the decisions
of the _Reichshofrat_ and afterwards withdrew from the diet in a body.
Thus, under Maximilian of Bavaria and Christian of Anhalt respectively
the two great parties were gaining a better idea of their own needs and
of each other's aims and were watching vigilantly the position in the
duchies of Cleves, Julich and Berg, where a dispute over the succession
was impending. While wars and rumours of wars were disturbing the peace
in the west of Germany the Turks were again harassing the east. The war
between them and the Empire, which was renewed in 1593, lasted almost
without interruption until November 1606, when peace was made, the
tribute long paid by the emperor to the sultan being abandoned. This
peace was concluded not by Rudolph, but by his brother, the archduke
Matthias, who owing to the emperor's mental incapacity had just been
declared by his kinsman the head of the house of Habsburg. Rudolph
resented this indignity very greatly, and until his death in January
1612 the relations between the brothers were very strained, but this
mainly concerns the history of Hungary and of Bohemia, which were
sensibly affected by the fraternal discord.
The Counter-Reformation.
By this time however, there were signs of substantial progress on the
part of the great Catholic reaction, which was to have important
consequences for Germany. This was due mainly to the persistent zeal of
the Jesuits. For a long time the Protestants had absorbed the
intellectual strength of the country, but now many able scholars and
divines among the Jesuits could hold their own with their antagonists.
These devoted missionaries of the church gave their attention mainly to
the young, and during the reign of Rudolph II. they were fortunate
enough to make a deep impression upon two princes, each of whom was
destined to play a great part in the events of his time. These princes
were Maximilian, duke of Bavaria, and Ferdinand, archduke of Styria, the
former a member of the house of Wittelsbach, and the latter of the house
of Habsburg. Maximilian became prominent in 1607 by executing an
imperial mandate against the free city of Donauworth, where a religious
riot had taken place, and afterwards treating it as his own. Rendered
suspicious by this arbitrary act, the Protestant princes in 1608 formed
a confederation known as the Evangelical Union, and in response the
Roman Catholics, under the guidance of Maximilian, united in a similar
confederation afterwards called the Catholic League. This was founded at
Munich in July 1609. As the Union was headed by the elector palatine of
the Rhine, Frederick IV., who was a Calvinist, many Lutherans, among
them the elector of Saxony, were by no means enthusiastic in its
support. It acquired, however, immense importance through its alliance
with Henry IV. of France, who, like Henry II., wished to profit by the
quarrels in Germany, and who interfered in the disputed succession to
the duchies of Cleves and Julich. War seemed about to break out between
the two confederations and their foreign allies over this question, but
after the murder of the French king in May 1610 the Union did not
venture to fight.
Ferdinand II.
Ferdinand was even more vigorous than Maximilian in defence of his
religion. On assuming the government of Styria he set to work to
extirpate Protestantism, which had made considerable progress in the
Austrian archduchies. Soon afterwards he was selected by the Habsburgs
as the heir of the childless emperor Matthias, and on coming to Vienna
after the death of that sovereign in March 1619 he found himself in the
midst of hopeless confusion. The Bohemians refused to acknowledge him as
their king and elected in his stead Frederick V., the elector palatine
of the Rhine, a son-in-law of the English king James I., and the
Hungarians and the Austrians were hardly less disaffected. As Ferdinand
II., however, he succeeded in obtaining the imperial crown in August
1619, and from that time he was dominated by a fixed resolve to secure
the triumph of his church throughout the Empire, a resolve which cost
Germany the Thirty Years' War.
The congress in Bohemia.
He began with Bohemia. Although supported by Spain he could not obtain
from this quarter an army sufficiently strong to crush the Bohemians,
and for some time he remained powerless and inactive in Vienna. Then at
the beginning of 1620 he came to terms with Maximilian of Bavaria, who,
after carefully securing his own interests, placed the army of the
League, commanded by the celebrated Tilly, at his disposal.
Conditionally the Union promised assistance to Frederick, but he wasted
several months and vaguely hoped that the English king would help him
out of his embarrassments. Meanwhile Tilly advanced into Bohemia, and in
November 1620 Frederick's army was utterly routed at the battle of the
White Hill, near Prague, and the unfortunate elector had just time to
escape from the kingdom he had rashly undertaken to govern. Ferdinand
drove to the uttermost the advantages of his victory. The Union being
destroyed and the Bohemian revolution crushed, attention was turned to
the hereditary lands of the elector palatine. The Spanish troops and the
army of the League invaded the Rhenish Palatinate, which was defended by
Frederick's remaining adherents, Christian of Brunswick and Count Ernst
von Mansfeld, but after several battles it passed completely into the
possession of the imperialists. Having been placed under the imperial
ban Frederick became an exile from his inheritance, and the electorate
which he was declared to have forfeited was conferred on Maximilian.
Danish interference in the war.
Thus ended the first stage of the Thirty Years' War, although some
desultory fighting continued between the League and its opponents. The
second began in 1625 with the formation, after much fruitless
negotiation, of a Protestant combination, which had the support of
England, although its leading member was Christian IV., king of Denmark,
who as duke of Holstein was a prince of the Empire, and who like other
Lutherans was alarmed at the emperor's successes. It was in this war
that Europe first became familiar with the great name of Wallenstein.
Unable himself to raise and equip a strong army, and restive at his
dependence on the League, Ferdinand gladly accepted Wallenstein's offer
to put an army into the field at no cost to himself. After Wallenstein
had beaten Mansfeld at the bridge of Dessau in April 1626, and Tilly had
defeated Christian of Denmark at Lutter in the succeeding August, the
two generals united their forces. Denmark was invaded, and Wallenstein,
now duke of Friedland, was authorized to govern the conquered duchies of
Mecklenburg and Pomerania; but his ambitious scheme of securing the
whole of the south coast of the Baltic was thwarted by the resistance of
the city of Stralsund, which for five months he vainly tried to take.
Denmark, however, was compelled to conclude peace at Lubeck in May 1629.
Dismissal of Wallenstein.
Intoxicated by success, Ferdinand had issued two months before the
famous Edict of Restitution. This ordered the restoration of all
ecclesiastical lands which had come into the possession of the
Protestants since the peace of Passau in 1552, and, as several
archbishoprics and bishoprics had become Protestant, it struck a
tremendous blow at the emperor's foes and stirred among them intense and
universal opposition. A little later, yielding to Maximilian and his
colleagues in the League, Ferdinand dismissed Wallenstein, whose
movements had aroused their resentment, from his service. A more
inauspicious moment could not have been chosen for these two serious
steps, because in the summer of 1630 Gustavus Adolphus left Sweden at
the head of a strong army for the purpose of sustaining the Protestant
cause in Germany. At first this great king was coldly received by the
Protestants, who were ignorant of his designs and did not want a
stranger to profit by the internal disputes of their country. A mistake
at the outset would probably have been fatal to him, but he saw the
dangers of his position and moved so warily that in less than a year he
had obtained the alliance of the elector of Saxony, a consequence of the
terrible sack of Magdeburg by the imperialists in May 1631 and of the
devastation of the electorate by Tilly. He had also obtained on his own
terms the assistance of France, and was ready to enter upon his short
but brilliant campaign.
The campaign of Gustavus Adolphus.
Having captured Frankfort-on-Oder and forced the hesitating elector of
Brandenburg, George William, to grant him some assistance, Gustavus
Adolphus added the Saxon army to his own, and in September 1631 he met
Tilly, at the head of nearly the whole force of the League, at
Breitenfeld, near Leipzig, where he gained a victory which placed North
Germany entirely at his feet. So utterly had he shattered the emperor's
power that he could doubtless have marched straight to Vienna; he
preferred, however, to proceed through central into southern Germany,
while his Saxon ally, the elector John George, recovered Silesia and
Lusatia and invaded Bohemia. Wurzburg and Frankfort were among the
cities which opened their gates to the Swedish king as the deliverer of
the Protestants; several princes sought his alliance, and, making the
captured city of Mainz his headquarters, he was busily engaged for some
months in resting and strengthening his army and in negotiating about
the future conduct of the war. Early in 1632 he led his troops into
Bavaria. In April he defeated Tilly at the crossing of the Lech, the
imperialist general being mortally wounded during this fight, and then
he took possession of Augsburg and of Munich. Before these events
Ferdinand had realized how serious had been his mistake in dismissing
Wallenstein, and after some delay his agents persuaded the great general
to emerge from his retirement. The conditions, however, upon which
Wallenstein consented to come to the emperor's aid were remarkably
onerous, but Ferdinand had perforce to assent to them. He obtained sole
command of the imperial armies, with the power of concluding treaties
and of granting pardons, and he doubtless insisted on the withdrawal of
the Edict of Restitution, although this is not absolutely certain; in
brief, the only limits to his power were the limits to the strength of
his army. Having quickly assembled this, he drove the Saxons from
Bohemia, and then marched towards Franconia, with the intention of
crossing swords with his only serious rival, Gustavus Adolphus, who had
left Munich when he heard that this foe had taken the field. The Swedes
and their allies occupied Nuremberg, while the imperialists fortified a
great camp and blockaded the city. Gustavus made an attempt to storm
these fortifications, but he failed to make any impression on them; he
failed also in inducing Wallenstein to accept battle, and he was forced
to abandon Nuremberg and to march to the protection of Saxony.
Wallenstein followed, and the two armies faced each other at Lutzen on
the 16th of November 1632. Here the imperialists were beaten, but the
victory was even more disastrous to the Protestant cause than a defeat,
for the Swedish king was among the slain.
The league of Heilbronn and the death of Wallenstein.
The Swedes, whose leader was now the chancellor Oxenstjerna, were
stunned by this catastrophe, but in a desultory fashion they maintained
the struggle, and in April 1633 a new league was formed at Heilbronn
between them and the representatives of four of the German circles,
while by a new agreement France continued to furnish monetary aid. Of
this alliance Sweden was the predominant member, but the German allies
had a certain voice in the direction of affairs, the military command
being divided between the Swedish general Horn and Bernhard, duke of
Saxe-Weimar. About this time some discontent arose in the allied army,
and to allay this Bernhard was granted the bishoprics of Wurzburg and of
Bamberg, with the title of duke of Franconia, but on the strange
condition that he should hold the duchy as the vassal of Sweden, not as
a vassal of the Empire. The war, thus revived, was waged principally in
the valleys of the Danube and the Rhine, the Swedes, seizing Alsace
while Bernhard captured Regensburg. Meanwhile Wallenstein was again
arousing the suspicions of his nominal allies. Instead of attacking the
enemy with his accustomed vigour, he withdrew into Bohemia and was
engaged in lengthy negotiations with the Saxon soldier and diplomatist,
Hans Georg von Arnim (1581-1641); his object being doubtless to come to
terms with Saxony and Brandenburg either with or without the emperor's
consent. His prime object was, however, to secure for himself a great
territorial position, possibly that of king of Bohemia, and it is
obvious that his aims and ambitions were diametrically opposed to the
ends desired by Ferdinand and by his Spanish and Bavarian allies. At
length he set his troops in motion. Having gained some successes in the
north-east of Germany he marched to succour the hardly pressed elector
of Bavaria; then suddenly abandoning this purpose he led his troops back
to Bohemia and left Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar in possession of the Danube
valley. It is not surprising that a cry, louder than ever, now arose for
his dismissal. Ferdinand did as he was required. In January 1634 he
declared Wallenstein deposed from his command, but he was still at the
head of an army when he was murdered in the following month at Eger.
Commanded now by the king of Hungary, afterwards the emperor Ferdinand
III., the imperialists retook Regensburg and captured Donauworth; then,
aided by some Spanish troops, they gained a victory at Nordlingen in
September 1634, the results of which were as decisive and as
satisfactory for them as the results of Breitenfeld had been for their
foes two years before.
France takes part in the war.
The demoralization of the Swedes and their allies, which was a
consequence of the defeat at Nordlingen, was the opportunity of France.
Having by clever diplomacy placed garrisons in several places in Alsace
and the Palatinate, the king of France, or rather Cardinal Richelieu,
now entered the field as a principal, made a definite alliance with
Sweden at Compiegne in April 1635, and in the following month declared
war and put four armies in motion. But the thoughts of many had already
turned in the direction of peace, and in this manner John George of
Saxony took the lead, signing in May 1635 the important treaty of Prague
with the emperor. The vexed and difficult question of the ownership of
the ecclesiastical lands was settled by fixing November 1627 as the
deciding date; those who were in possession then were to retain them for
forty years, during which time it was hoped a satisfactory arrangement
would be reached. The Saxon elector gained some additions of territory
and promised to assist Ferdinand to recover any lands which had been
taken from him by the Swedes, or by other foes. For this purpose a
united army was to serve under an imperial general, and all leagues were
to be dissolved. In spite of the diplomatic efforts of Sweden the treaty
of Prague was accepted almost at once by the elector of Brandenburg, the
duke of Wurttemberg and other princes, and also by several of the most
important of the free cities. It was only, in fact, the failure of
Saxony and Sweden to come to terms which prevented a general peace in
Germany. The Thirty Years' War now took a different form. Its original
objects were almost forgotten and it was continued mainly to further the
ambitions of France, thus being a renewal of the great fight between the
houses of Habsburg and of Bourbon, and to secure for Sweden some
recompense for the efforts which she had put forward.
Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar.
While the signatories of the peace of Prague were making ready to assist
the emperor the only Germans on the other side were found in the army
under Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar. The final stage of the war opened with
considerable Swedish successes in the north of Germany, especially the
signal victory gained by them over the imperialists and the Saxons at
Wittstock in October 1636. At the same time good fortune was attending
the operations of the French in the Rhineland, where they were aided by
Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar, a satisfactory financial arrangement between
these parties having been reached in the autumn of 1635. The year 1638
was an especially fortunate one for France and her allies. Bernhard's
capture of Rheinfelden and of Breisach gave them possession of the
surrounding districts, but dissensions arose concerning the division of
the spoil; these, however, were stopped by the death of Bernhard in July
1639, when France took his army into her pay. Thus the war continued,
but the desire for peace was growing stronger, and this was reflected in
the proceedings of the diet which met at Regensburg in 1640. Under Count
Torstenssen the Swedes defeated the imperialists at Breitenfeld in 1642;
three years later they gained another victory at Jankau and advanced
almost to Vienna, and then the last decisive move of the war was made by
the great French general, Turenne. Having been successful in the
Rhineland, where he had captured Philippsburg and Worms, Turenne joined
his forces to those of Sweden under Wrangel and advanced into Bavaria.
Ravaging the land, they compelled the elector Maximilian to sign a truce
and to withdraw his troops from the imperial army. When, however, the
allied army had retired Maximilian repented of his action. Again he
joined the emperor, but his punishment was swift and sure, as Turenne
and Wrangel again marched into the electorate and defeated the Bavarians
at Zusmarshausen, near Augsburg, in May 1648. A few minor operations
followed, and then came the welcome news of the conclusion of the
treaty of Westphalia.
The peace of Westphalia.
The preliminary negotiations for peace were begun at Hamburg and Cologne
before the death of the emperor Ferdinand II. in 1637. By a treaty
signed at Hamburg in December 1641 it was agreed that peace conferences
should meet at Munster and at Osnabruck in March 1642, the emperor
treating with France in the former, and with Sweden in the latter city.
The Roman Catholic princes of the Empire were to be represented at
Munster and the Protestants at Osnabruck. Actually the conferences did
not meet until 1645, when the elector of Brandenburg had made, and the
elector of Saxony was about to make, a truce with Sweden, these two
countries being withdrawn from the ravages of the war. In three years
the many controversial questions were discussed and settled, and in
October 1648 the treaty of Westphalia was signed and the Thirty Years'
War was at an end.
Effects of the Thirty Years' War.
The Thirty Years' War settled once for all the principle that men should
not be persecuted for their religious faith. It is true that the peace
of Westphalia formally recognized only the three creeds, Catholicism,
Lutheranism and Calvinism, but so much suffering had been caused by the
interference of the state with individual conviction, that toleration in
the largest sense, so far as law was concerned, was virtually conceded.
This was the sole advantage gained from the war by the Protestants. The
Catholics insisted at first on keeping all the ecclesiastical lands
which had been taken from them before the Edict of Restitution in 1629.
The Protestants responded by demanding that they should lose nothing
which they had held before 1618, when the war began. A compromise was at
last effected by both parties agreeing to the date 1624, an arrangement
which secured to the Catholics their gains in Bohemia and the other
territories of the house of Habsburg. The restoration of the elector
palatine to part of his lands, and his reinstatement in the electoral
office, were important concessions; but on the other hand, the duke of
Bavaria kept the Upper Palatinate, the elector palatine becoming the
eighth and junior member of the electoral college.
Loss of territory.
The country suffered enormous territorial losses by the war. Up to this
time the possession of Metz, Toul and Verdun by France had never been
officially recognized; now these bishoprics were formally conceded to
her. She also received as much of Alsace as belonged to Austria. To the
Swedes were granted Western Pomerania, with Stettin, and the
archbishopric of Bremen and the bishopric of Verden. These acquisitions,
which surpassed the advantages Gustavus Adolphus had hoped to win, gave
Sweden the command both of the Baltic and of the North Sea. In virtue of
her German possessions Sweden became a member of the Empire; but France
obtained absolute control of her new territories. There was a further
diminution of Germany by the recognition of the independence of
Switzerland and the United Provinces. Both had long been virtually free;
they now for the first time took the position of distinct nations.
The Reformation and the political constitution.
In the political constitution of Germany the peace of Westphalia did not
so much make changes as sanction those already effected. The whole
tendency of the Reformation had been to relax the bonds which united the
various elements of the state to each other and to their head. It
divided the nation into two hostile parties, and the emperor was not
able to assume towards them a perfectly impartial position. His imperial
crown imposed upon him the necessity of associating himself with the
Roman Catholics; so that the Protestants had a new and powerful reason
for looking upon him with jealousy, and trying to diminish his
authority. The Roman Catholics, while maintaining their religion, were
willing enough to co-operate with them for this object; and Germany
often saw the strange spectacle of princes rallying round the emperor
for the defence of the church, and at the same time striking deadly
blows at his political influence. The diet was a scene of perpetual
quarrelling between the two factions, and their differences made it
impossible for the imperial chamber to move beyond the region of
official routine. Thus before the Thirty Years' War the Empire had
virtually ceased to exist, Germany having become a loose confederation
of principalities and free cities. For a moment the emperor Ferdinand
appeared to have touched the ideal of Charles V. in so far, at least, as
it related to Germany, but only for a moment. The stars in their courses
fought against him, and at the time of his death he saw how far beyond
his power were the forces with which even Charles had been unable to
contend. The state of things which actually existed the peace of
Westphalia made legal. So nearly complete was the independence of the
states that each received the right to form alliances with any of the
others, or with foreign powers, nominally on condition that their
alliances should not be injurious to the emperor or to the Empire. Any
authority which still lawfully belonged to the emperor was transferred
to the diet. It alone had now the power of making laws, of concluding
treaties in the name of Germany, and of declaring war and
re-establishing peace. No one, however, expected that it would be of any
real service. From 1663 it became a permanent body, and was attended
only by the representatives of the princes and the cities; and from that
time it occupied itself mainly with trifles, leaving the affairs of each
state to be looked after by its own authorities, and those of the
country generally to such fortunes as chance should determine.
Continuance of the empire.
It would not have been strange if so shadowy an Empire had been brought
altogether to an end. Some slight bond of connexion was, however,
necessary for defence against common dangers; and the Empire had existed
so long, and so many great associations were connected with it, that it
seemed to all parties preferable to any other form of union. Moreover,
Sweden, and other states which were now members of the Empire, warmly
supported it; and the house of Habsburg, on which it reflected a certain
splendour, would not willingly have let it die. An Austrian ruler, even
when he spoke only in the name of Austria, derived authority from the
fact that as emperor he represented many of the greatest memories of
European history.
National life.
The effect of the Thirty Years' War on the national life was disastrous.
It had not been carried on by disciplined armies, but by hordes of
adventurers whose sole object was plunder. The cruelties they inflicted
on their victims are almost beyond conception. Before the war the
population was nearly twenty millions; after it the number was probably
about six millions. Whole towns and villages were laid in ashes, and
vast districts turned into deserts. Churches and schools were closed by
hundreds, and to such straits were the people often reduced that
cannibalism is said to have been not uncommon. Industry and trade were
so completely paralysed that in 1635 the Hanseatic League was virtually
broken up, because the members, once so wealthy, could not meet the
necessary expenditure. The population was not only impoverished and
reduced in numbers but broken in spirit. It lost confidence in itself,
and for a time effected in politics, literature, art and science little
that is worthy of serious study.
The princes.
The cities.
The princes knew well how to profit by the national prostration. The
local diets, which, as we have seen, formed a real check on petty
tyranny, and kept up an intimate relation between the princes and their
subjects, were nearly all destroyed. Those which remained were injurious
rather than beneficial, since they often gave an appearance of
lawfulness to the caprices of arbitrary sovereigns. After the Thirty
Years' War it became fashionable for the heirs of principalities to
travel, and especially to spend some time at the court of France. Here
they readily imbibed the ideas of Louis XIV., and in a short time nearly
every petty court in Germany was a feeble imitation of Versailles.
Before the Reformation, and even for some time after it, the princes
were thorough Germans in sympathies and habits; they now began to be
separated by a wide gulf from their people. Instead of studying the
general welfare, they wrung from exhausted states the largest possible
revenue to support a lavish and ridiculous expenditure. The pettiest
princeling had his army, his palaces, his multitudes of household
officers; and most of them pampered every vulgar appetite without
respect either to morality or to decency. Many nobles, whose lands had
been wasted during the war, flocked to the little capitals to make their
way by contemptible court services. Beneath an outward gloss of
refinement these nobles were, as a class, coarse and selfish, and they
made it their chief object to promote their own interests by fostering
absolutist tendencies. Among the people there was no public opinion to
discourage despotism; the majority accepted their lot as inevitable, and
tried rather to reproduce than to restrain the vices of their rulers.
Even the churches offered little opposition to the excesses of persons
in authority, and in many instances the clergy, both Protestant and
Catholic, acquired an unenviable notoriety for their readiness to
overlook or condone actions which outraged the higher sentiments of
humanity. In the free imperial cities there was more manliness of tone
than elsewhere, but there was little of the generous rivalry among the
different classes which had once raised them to a high level of
prosperity. Most of them resigned their liberties into the hands of
oligarchies, and others allowed themselves to be annexed by ambitious
princes. (A. W. H.*)
Ferdinand III.
Leopold I.
Louis XIV. of France.
War of Spanish Succession.
Ferdinand III. succeeded to the throne when the fortunes of his house
were at a low ebb, and he continued the Thirty Years' War, not in the
hope of re-establishing the Roman Catholic religion or of restoring the
imperial authority, but of remedying as far as he could the havoc caused
by his father's recklessness. After the conclusion of peace nothing
happened to make his reign memorable. His son Leopold I. was a man of
narrow intellect and feeble will; yet Germany seldom so keenly felt the
need of a strong emperor, for she had during two generations to contend
with a watchful and grasping rival. For more than a century it had been
the policy of France to strengthen herself by fostering the internal
dissensions of Germany. This was now easy, and Louis XIV. made
unscrupulous use of the advantages his predecessors had helped to gain
for him. Germany, as a whole, could not for a long time be induced to
resist him. His schemes directly threatened the independence of the
princes; but they were too indolent to unite against his ambition. They
grudged even the contributions necessary for the maintenance of the
frontier fortresses, and many of them stooped to accept the bribes he
offered them on condition that they should remain quiet. In his war with
the United Provinces and Spain, begun in 1672, he was opposed by the
emperor as ruler of Austria, and by Frederick William, the elector of
Brandenburg; and in 1675 the latter gained a splendid victory at
Fehrbellin over his allies, the Swedes. At the end of the war, in 1678,
by the peace of Nijmwegen, Louis took care that Frederick William should
be deprived of the fruits of his victory, and Austria had to resign
Freiburg im Breisgau to the French. Under the pretence that when France
gained the Austrian lands in Alsace she also acquired a right to all
places that had ever been united to them, Louis began a series of
systematic robberies of German towns and territories. "Chambers of
Reunion" were appointed to give an appearance of legality to these
proceedings, which culminated, in 1681, in the seizure of Strassburg.
Germans of all states and ranks were indignant at so gross a
humiliation, but even the loss of Strassburg did not suffice to move the
diet. The emperor himself might probably have interfered, but Louis had
provided him with ample employment by stirring up against him the
Hungarians and the Turks. So complete was his hold over the majority of
the princes that when the Turks, in 1683, surrounded Vienna, and
appeared not unlikely to advance into the heart of Germany, they looked
on indifferently, and allowed the emperor to be saved by the promptitude
and courage of John Sobieski, king of Poland. At last, when, in 1689, on
the most frivolous pretext, Louis poured into southern Germany armies
which were guilty of shameful outrages, a number of princes came forward
and aided the emperor. This time France was sternly opposed by the
league of which William III. of England was the moving spirit; and
although at the end of the war he kept Strassburg, he had to give up
Freiburg, Philipsburg, Breisach, and the places he had seized because of
their former connexion with Alsace. In the War of the Spanish Succession
two powerful princes, the elector of Bavaria and the elector of Cologne,
joined Louis; but as the states of the Empire declared war against him
in 1702, the other princes, more or less loyally, supported the emperor
and his allies. Leopold died during the progress of this war, but it was
vigorously continued by his son Joseph I.
Charles VI.
Pragmatic sanction.
Joseph's brother and successor, Charles VI., also went on with it; and
such were the blows inflicted on France by the victories of Blenheim,
Ramillies and Malplaquet that the war was generally expected to end in
her utter discomfiture. But the conclusion of the treaty of Utrecht by
England, in 1713, so limited the military power of Charles VI. that he
was obliged to resign the claims of Austria to the Spanish throne, and
to content himself with the Spanish Netherlands, Milan, Naples and
Sardinia. He cared so little for Germany, as distinguished from Austria,
that he allowed Louis to compel the diet to cede the imperial fortress
of Landau. At a later stage in his reign he was guilty of an act of even
grosser selfishness; for after the War of the Polish Succession, in
which he supported the claims of Augustus III., elector of Saxony, he
yielded Lorraine to Stanislaus Leszczynski, whose claims had been
defended by France, and through whom France ultimately secured this
beautiful German province. Having no son, Charles drew up in 1713 the
pragmatic sanction, which ordained that, in the event of an Austrian
ruler being without male heirs, his hereditary lands and titles should
pass to his nearest female relative. The aim of his whole policy was to
secure for this measure, which was proclaimed as a fundamental law in
1724, the approval of Europe; and by promises and threats he did at last
obtain the guarantee of the states of the Empire and the leading
European powers.
Growth of Prussia.
Maria Theresa.
Germany was now about to be aroused from the torpor into which she had
been cast by the Thirty Years' War; but her awakening was due, not to
the action of the Empire, which was more and more seen to be practically
dead, but to the rivalry of two great German states, Austria and
Prussia. The latter had long been laying the foundations of her power.
Brandenburg, the centre of the Prussian kingdom, was, as we have seen,
granted in the 15th century by the emperor Sigismund to Frederick, count
of Hohenzollern. In his hands, and in those of his prudent successors,
it became one of the most flourishing of the North-German
principalities. At the time of the Reformation Albert, a member of a
subordinate branch of the house of Hohenzollern, happened to be grand
master of the Teutonic Order. He became a Protestant, dissolved the
order, and received in fief of the king of Poland the duchy of Prussia.
In 1611 this duchy fell by inheritance to the elector of Brandenburg,
and by the treaty of Wehlau, in 1657, in the time of Frederick William,
the Great Elector, it was declared independent of Poland. By skill,
foresight and courage Frederick William managed to add largely to his
territories; and in an age of degenerate sovereigns he was looked upon
as an almost model ruler. His son, Frederick, aspired to royal dignity,
and in 1701, having obtained the emperor's assent, was crowned king of
Prussia. The extravagance of Frederick drained the resources of his
state, but this was amply atoned for by the rigid economy of Frederick
William I., who not only paid off the debts accumulated by his father,
but amassed an enormous treasure. He so organized all branches of the
public service that they were brought to a point of high efficiency, and
his army was one of the largest, best appointed and best trained in
Europe (see PRUSSIA: _History_). He died in 1740, and within six months,
when Frederick II. was on the Prussian throne, Maria Theresa claimed, in
virtue of the pragmatic sanction, the lands and hereditary titles of her
father Charles VI.
Frederick the Great.
First Silesian War.
Charles VII.
Second Silesian War.
Frederick II., a young, ambitious and energetic sovereign, longed not
only to add to his dominions but to play a great part in European
politics. His father had guaranteed the pragmatic sanction, but as the
conditions on which the guarantee had been granted had not been
fulfilled by Charles VI., Frederick did not feel bound by it, and
revived some old claims of his family on certain Silesian duchies. Maria
Theresa would not abate her rights, but before she could assert them
Frederick had entered Silesia and made himself master of it. Meanwhile,
the elector of Bavaria had come forward and disputed Maria Theresa's
right to the succession, and the elector of Saxony had also put in a
claim to the Austrian lands. Taking advantage of these disputes, France
formed an alliance with the two electors and with the king of Prussia
against Austria; and in the war which followed the allies were at first
so successful that the elector of Bavaria, through the influence of
France, was crowned emperor as Charles VII. (1742-1745). Maria Theresa,
a woman of a noble and undaunted spirit, appealed, with her infant son,
afterwards Joseph II., in her arms, to the Hungarian diet, and the
enthusiastic Magyars responded chivalrously to her call. To be more at
freedom she concluded peace with Frederick, and ceded Silesia to him,
although greatly against her will. Saxony also was pacified and retired
from the struggle. After this Maria Theresa, supported by England, made
way so rapidly and so triumphantly that Frederick became alarmed for his
new possessions; and in 1742 he once more proclaimed war against her,
nominally in aid of the emperor, Charles VII. Ultimately, in 1748, she
was able to conclude an honourable peace at Aix-la-Chapelle; but she had
been forced, as before, to rid herself of Frederick by confirming him in
the sovereignty of the territory he had seized.
Francis I.
After the death of Charles VII., Francis, grand duke of Tuscany, Maria
Theresa's husband, was elected emperor. Francis I. (1745-1765), an
amiable nonentity, with the instincts of a shopkeeper, made no pretence
of discharging important imperial duties, and the task of ruling the
hereditary possessions of the house of Habsburg fell wholly to the
empress-queen. She executed it with discretion and vigour, so that
Austria in her hands was known to be one of the most formidable powers
in the world. Her rival, Frederick II., was, if possible, still more
active. It did not occur to him, any more than to the other German
sovereigns of the 18th century, to associate his people with him in the
government of the country; he was in every respect a thoroughly absolute
sovereign. But he shared the highest ideas of the age respecting the
responsibilities of a king, and throughout his long reign acted in the
main faithfully as "the first servant of the state." The army he always
kept in readiness for war; but he also encouraged peaceful arts, and
diffused throughout his kingdom so much of his own alert and aggressive
spirit that the Prussians became more intelligent and more wealthy than
they had ever before been. He excited the admiration of the youth of
Germany, and it was soon the fashion among the petty princes to imitate
his methods of government. As a rule, they succeeded only in raising far
larger armies than the taxpayers could afford to maintain.
The Seven Years' War, 1756-1763.
Maria Theresa never gave up the hope of winning back Silesia, and, in
order to secure this object, she laid aside the jealousies of her house,
and offered to conclude an alliance with France. Frederick had excited
the envy of surrounding sovereigns, and had embittered them against him
by stinging sarcasms. Not only France, therefore, but Russia, Saxony and
ultimately Sweden, willingly came to terms with Austria, and the aim of
their union was nothing short of the partition of Prussia. Frederick,
gaining knowledge of the plot, turned to England, which had in the
previous war helped Austria. At the close of 1755 his offer of an
alliance was acceded to; and in the following year, hoping by vigorously
taking the initiative to prevent his enemies from united action, he
invaded Saxony, and began the Seven Years' War (q.v.), the result of
which was to confirm Prussia in the possession of Silesia.
Prussia now took rank as one of the leading European powers, and by her
rise a new element was introduced into the political life of Germany.
Austria, although associated with the Empire, could no longer feel sure
of her predominance, and it was inevitable that the jealousies of the
two states should lead to a final conflict for supremacy. Even before
the Seven Years' War there were signs that the German people were
beginning to tire of incessant imitation of France, for in literature
they welcomed the early efforts of Klopstock, Wieland and Lessing; but
the movement received a powerful impulse from the great deeds of
Frederick. The nation, as a whole, was proud of him, and began, for the
first time since the Thirty Years' War, to feel that it might once more
assume a commanding place in the world.
Partition of Poland.
Joseph II.
In 1772 the necessities of Frederick's position compelled him to join
Russia and Austria in the deplorable partition of Poland, whereby he
gained West Prussia, exclusive of Danzig and Thorn, and Austria acquired
West Silesia. After this he had to watch closely the movements of the
emperor Joseph II., who, although an ardent admirer of Frederick, was
anxious to restore to Austria the greatness she had partially lost. The
younger branch of the Wittelsbach line, which had hitherto possessed
Bavaria, having died out in 1777, Joseph asserted claims to part of its
territory. Frederick intervened, and although no battle was fought in
the nominal war which followed, the emperor was obliged to content
himself with a very unimportant concession. He made a second attempt in
1785, but Frederick again came forward. This time he formed a league
(_Furstenbund_) for the defence of the imperial constitution, and it was
joined by the majority of the small states. The memory of this league
was almost blotted out by the tremendous events which soon absorbed the
attention of Germany and the world, but it truly indicated the direction
of the political forces which were then at work beneath the surface, and
which long afterwards triumphed. The formation of the league was a
distinct attempt on the part of Prussia to make herself the centre for
the national aspirations both of northern and of southern Germany.
French Revolution.
The French Revolution was hailed by many of the best minds of Germany as
the opening of a new era. Among the princes it excited horror and alarm,
and in 1792 the emperor Leopold II. and Frederick William II., the
unworthy successor of Frederick the Great, met at Pillnitz, and agreed
to support by arms the cause of the French king. A more important
resolution was never taken. It plunged Europe into a conflict which cost
millions of lives, and which overthrew the entire states system of the
continent. Germany herself was the principal sufferer. The structure
which the princes had so laboriously built up crumbled into ruins, and
the mistakes of centuries were expiated in an agony of disaster and
humiliation.
End of the Holy Roman Empire.
The states of the Empire joined Austria and Prussia, and, had there been
hearty co-operation between the allies, they could scarcely have failed
of success. While the war was in progress, in 1793, Prussia joined
Russia in the second partition of Poland. Austria considered herself
overreached, and began negotiations with Russia for the third and final
partition, which was effected by the three powers in 1795. Prussia,
irritated by the proceedings of her rival, did as little as possible in
the war with France; and in 1795 she retired from the struggle, and by
the treaty of Basel ceded to the French republic her possessions on the
left bank of the Rhine. The war was continued by Austria, but her power
was so effectually shattered by blow after blow that in 1797 she was
forced to conclude the peace of Campo Formio. Napoleon Bonaparte, to
whose genius the triumph of France was mainly due, began separate
negotiations with the states of the Empire at Rastadt; but, before terms
could be agreed upon, war again began in 1799, Austria acting on this
occasion as the ally of Great Britain and Russia. She was beaten, and
the peace of Luneville added fresh humiliations to those imposed upon
her by the previous war. France now obtained the whole of the left bank
of the Rhine, the dispossessed princes being compensated by grants of
secularized church lands and of mediatized imperial cities (1803). The
contempt of Napoleon for the Empire was illustrated by his occupation
of Hanover in 1803, and by his seizure of the duke of Enghien on
imperial territory in 1804. In 1805 Austria once more appealed to arms
in association with her former allies, but in vain. By the peace of
Presburg she accepted more disastrous terms than ever, and for the
moment it seemed as if she could not again hope to rise to her former
splendour. In this war she was opposed not only by France, but by
Bavaria, Wurttemberg and Baden, all of which were liberally rewarded for
their services, the rulers of the two former countries being proclaimed
kings. The degradation of Germany was completed by the formation, in
1806, of the Confederation of the Rhine, which was composed of the chief
central and southern states. The welfare of the Empire was asserted to
be its object, but a body of which Napoleon was the protector existed,
of course, for no other purpose than to be a menace to Austria and
Prussia. Francis II., who had succeeded Leopold II. in 1792 and in 1804
had proclaimed himself hereditary emperor of Austria, as Francis I., now
resigned the imperial crown, and thus the Holy Roman Empire and the
German kingdom came to an end. The various states, which had for
centuries been virtually independent, were during the next few years not
connected even by a nominal bond. (J. Si.)
Prussia defeated at Jena.
Frederick William III. (1797-1840) of Prussia, the successor of
Frederick William II., had held aloof from the struggle of Austria with
France. This attitude had been dictated partly by his constitutional
timidity, partly by the desire to annex Hanover, to which Austria and
Russia would never have assented, but which Napoleon was willing to
concede in return for a Prussian alliance. The Confederation of the
Rhine, however, was a menace to Prussia too serious to be neglected; and
Frederick William's hesitations were suddenly ended by Napoleon's
contemptuous violation of Prussian territory in marching three French
brigades through Ansbach without leave asked. The king at once concluded
a convention with the emperor Alexander I. of Russia and declared war on
France. The campaign that ended in the disastrous battle of Jena
(October 14, 1806) followed; and the prestige of the Prussian arms,
created by Frederick the Great, perished at a blow. With the aid of
Russia Frederick William held out a while longer, but after Napoleon's
decisive victory at Friedland (June 14, 1807) the tsar came to terms
with the French emperor, sacrificing the interests of his ally. By the
treaty of Tilsit (July 9) the king of Prussia was stripped of the best
part of his dominions and more than half his subjects.
Napoleon in power.
Germany now seemed fairly in the grip of Napoleon. Early in November
1806 he had contemptuously deposed the elector of Hesse and added his
dominions to Jerome's kingdom of Westphalia; on the 21st of the same
month he issued from Berlin the famous decree establishing the
"continental system," which, by forbidding all trade with England,
threatened German commerce with ruin. His triumph seemed complete when,
on the 11th of October 1807, Metternich signed at Fontainebleau, on
behalf of Austria, a convention that conceded all his outstanding
claims, and seemed to range the Habsburg monarchy definitely on his
side. There was, however, to be one final struggle before Napoleon's
supremacy was established. The submission of Austria had been but an
expedient for gaining time; under Count Stadion's auspices she set to
work increasing and reorganizing her forces; and when it became clear
from Napoleon's resentment that he was meditating fresh designs against
her she declared war (1809). The campaign ended in the crushing defeat
of Wagram (July 6) and the humiliating treaty of peace dictated by
Napoleon at the palace of Schonbrunn in Vienna (October 14). Austria,
shorn of her fairest provinces, robbed of her oversea commerce, bankrupt
and surrounded on all sides by the territories of the French emperor and
his allies, seemed to exist only on sufferance, and had ceased to have
any effective authority in Germany--now absolutely in the power of
Napoleon, who proved this in 1810 by annexing the whole of the northern
coast as far as the Elbe to his empire.
Revival of Germany.
The very completeness of the humiliation of Germany was the means of her
deliverance. She had been taught self-respect by Frederick II., and by
her great writers in literature and philosophy; it was felt to be
intolerable that in politics she should do the bidding of a foreign
master. Among a large section of the community patriotism became for the
first time a consuming passion, and it was stimulated by the counsels of
several manly teachers, among whom the first place belongs to the
philosopher Fichte. The governments cautiously took advantage of the
national movement to strengthen their position. Even in Austria, where
on the 8th of October 1809 Metternich had become minister for foreign
affairs and the dominant influence in the councils of the empire, some
timely concessions were made to the various populations. Prussia, under
the guidance of her great minister Stein, reorganized her entire
administration. She abolished serfdom, granted municipal rights to the
cities, established an admirable system of elementary and secondary
education, and invited all classes to compete for civil offices; and
ample means were provided for the approaching struggle by drastic
military reform. Napoleon had extracted an engagement that the Prussian
army should be limited to 42,000 men. This was fulfilled in the letter,
but in spirit set aside, for one body of men was trained after another
until the larger part of the male population were in a position, when a
fitting opportunity should occur, to take up arms for their country.
War of Liberation.
The disastrous retreat of the French from Moscow in 1812 gave Germany
the occasion she desired. In 1813 King Frederick William, after an agony
of hesitation, was forced by the patriotic initiative of General Yorck,
who concluded with the Russians the convention of Tauroggen on his own
responsibility, and by the pressure of public opinion supported by Queen
Louise and by Hardenberg, to enter into an alliance with Russia. All now
depended on the attitude of Austria; and this was for some time
doubtful. The diplomacy of Metternich (q.v.), untouched by the patriotic
fervour which he disliked and distrusted, was directed solely to gaining
time to enable Austria to intervene with decisive effect and win for the
Habsburg monarchy the position it had lost. When the time came, after
the famous interview with Napoleon at Dresden, and the breakdown of the
abortive congress of Prague, Austria threw in her lot with the allies.
The campaign that followed, after some initial reverses, culminated in
the crushing victory of the allies at Leipzig (October 16-18, 1813), and
was succeeded by the joint invasion of France, during which the German
troops wreaked vengeance on the unhappy population for the wrongs and
violences of the French rule in Germany.
Long before the issue of the War of Liberation had been finally decided,
diplomacy had been at work in an endeavour to settle the future
constitution of Germany. In this matter, as in others, the weakness of
the Prussian government played into the hands of Austria. Metternich had
been allowed to take the initiative in negotiating with the princes of
the Confederation of the Rhine, and the price of their adhesion to the
cause of the allies had been the guarantee by Austria of their
independent sovereignty. The guarantee had been willingly given; for
Metternich had no desire to see the creation of a powerful unified
German empire, but aimed at the establishment of a loose confederation
of weak states over which Austria, by reason of her ancient imperial
prestige and her vast non-German power, would exercise a dominant
influence. This, then, was the view that prevailed, and by the treaty of
Chaumont (March 1, 1814) it was decided that Germany should consist of a
confederation of sovereign states.
The German confederation.
The new constitution of Germany, as embodied in the Final Act of the
congress of Vienna (June 9, 1815) was based on this principle. It was
the work of a special committee of the congress, presided over by
Metternich; and, owing to the panic created by Napoleon's return from
Elba (March 5), it remained a mere sketch, the hasty output of a few
hurried sessions, of which the elaboration was reserved for the future.
In spite of the clamour of the mediatized princes for the restoration
of their "liberties," no attempt was made to reverse the essential
changes in the territorial disposition of Germany made during the
revolutionary epoch. Of the 300 odd territorial sovereignties under the
Holy Empire only 39 survived, and these were readjusted on the
traditional principles of "compensations," "rectification of frontiers"
and "balance of power." The most fateful arrangements were naturally
those that affected the two leading powers, Austria and Prussia. The
latter had made strenuous efforts, supported by Alexander I. of Russia,
to obtain the annexation of the whole of Saxony, a project which was
defeated by the opposition of Great Britain, Austria and France, an
opposition which resulted in the secret treaty of the 3rd of January
1815 for eventual armed intervention. She received, however, the
northern part of Saxony, Swedish Pomerania, Posen and those
territories--formerly part of the kingdom of Westphalia--which
constitute her Rhine provinces. While Prussia was thus established on
the Rhine, Austria, by exchanging the Netherlands for Lombardo-Venetia
and abandoning her claims to the former Habsburg possessions in Swabia,
definitively resigned to Prussia the task of defending the western
frontier of Germany, while she strengthened her power in the south-east
by recovering from Bavaria, Salzburg, Vorarlberg and Tirol. Bavaria, in
her turn, received back the greater part of the Palatinate on the left
bank of the Rhine, with a strip of territory to connect it with the main
body of her dominions. For the rest the sovereigns of Wurttemberg and
Saxony retained the title of king bestowed upon them by Napoleon, and
this title was also given to the elector of Hanover; the dukes of
Weimar, Mecklenburg and Oldenburg became grand dukes; and Lubeck,
Bremen, Hamburg and Frankfort were declared free cities.
The federal diet.