A History of Germany Part 31

[Sidenote: 1714. THE PRAGMATIC SANCTION.]

By the Treaties of Stockholm, made in 1719 and 1720, Prussia acquired Stettin and all of Pomerania except a strip of the coast with Wismar, Stralsund and the island of Rugen, paying 2,000,000 thalers to Sweden: Hannover acquired the territories of Bremen and Verden, paying 1,000,000 thalers: Denmark received Schleswig, and Russia all of her conquests except Finland. The power of Poland, already weakened by the corruptions and dissensions of her n.o.bles, began steadily to decline after this long and exhausting war.

The collective history of the German States,--for we can hardly say "History of Germany" when there really was no Germany--at this time, is a continuous succession of wars and diplomatic intrigues, which break out in one direction before they are settled in another. In 1713, Frederick I. of Prussia died, and was succeeded by his son, Frederick William I.: in 1714, George I., Elector of Hannover, was made king of England, and about the same time the Emperor Karl VI. issued a decree called the "Pragmatic Sanction," establishing the order of succession to the throne, for his dynasty. He was led to this step by the example of Spain, where the failure of the direct line had given rise to thirteen years of European war, and by the circ.u.mstance that he himself had neither sons nor brothers. A daughter, Maria Theresa, was born in 1717, and thus the provision of the Pragmatic Sanction that the crown should descend to female heirs in the absence of male, preserved the succession in his own family, and forestalled the claim of the Elector of Bavaria and other princes who were more or less distantly related to the Hapsburgs.

[Sidenote: 1714.]

The Pragmatic Sanction was accepted in Austria without difficulty, as there was no power to dispute the Emperor's will, but it was not recognized by the other States of Germany and other nations of Europe until after twenty years of diplomatic negotiations and serious sacrifices on the part of Austria. Prussia received more territory on the Lower Rhine, the Duchies of Parma and Piacenza in Italy were given to Spain, and the claims of Augustus III. of Saxony and Poland were so strenuously supported that in 1733 the so-called "War of the Polish Succession" broke out. In the meantime, however, two other wars had occurred, and, although both of them affected Austria rather than the German Empire, they must be briefly described.

In 1714 the Emperor Karl VI. formed an alliance with the Venetians against the Turks, who had taken the Morea from Venice. The command was given to Prince Eugene, who marched against his old enemy, determined to win back what remaining Hungarian or Slavonic territory was still held by Turkey. The Grand-Vizier, Ali, opposed him with a powerful force, and after various minor engagements a great battle was fought at Peterwardein, in August, 1716. Eugene was completely victorious: the Turks were driven beyond the Save and sheltered themselves behind the strong walls of Belgrade. Eugene followed, and, after a siege which is famous in military annals, took Belgrade by storm. The victory is celebrated in a song which the German people are still in the habit of singing. The war ended with the Treaty of Pa.s.sarowitz, in 1718, by which Turkey was compelled to surrender to Austria the Banat, Servia, including Belgrade, and a part of Wallachia, Bosnia and Croatia.

Before this treaty was concluded, a new war had broken out in Italy.

Philip V. of Spain, incensed at not being recognized by Karl VI., took possession of Sardinia and Sicily, with the intention of conquering Naples from Austria. England, France, Holland and Austria then formed the "Quadruple Alliance," as it was called, for the purpose of enforcing the Treaty of Utrecht, and Spain was compelled to yield.

[Sidenote: 1711. RISE OF PRUSSIA.]

The power of Prussia, during these years, was steadily increasing.

Frederick I., it is true, was among the imitators of Louis XIV.: he built stately palaces, and spent a great deal of money on showy Court festivals, but he did not completely exhaust the resources of the country, like the Electors of Saxony and the rulers of many smaller States. On the other hand, he founded the University of Halle in 1694, and commissioned the philosopher Leibnitz to draw up a plan for an Academy of Science, which was established in Berlin, in 1711. He was a zealous Protestant, and gave welcome to all who were exiled from other States on account of their faith. As a ruler, however, he was equally careless and despotic, and his government was often entrusted to the hands of unworthy agents. Frederick the Great said of him: "He was great in small matters, and little in great matters."

His son, Frederick William I., was a man of an entirely different nature. He disliked show and ceremony: he hated everything French with a heartiness which was often unreasonable, but which was honestly provoked by the enormous, monkey-like affectation of the manners of Versailles by some of his fellow-rulers. While Augustus of Saxony spent six millions of thalers on a single entertainment, he set to work to reduce the expenses of his royal household. While the court of Austria supported 40,000 officials and hangers-on, and half of Vienna was fed from the Imperial kitchen, he was employed in examining the smallest details of the receipts and expenditures of his State, in order to economize and save. He was miserly, fierce, coa.r.s.e and brutal; he aimed at being a _German_, but he went back almost to the days of Wittekind for his ideas of German culture and character; he was a tyrant of the most savage kind,--but, after all has been said against him, it must be acknowledged that without his hard practical sense in matters of government, his rigid, despotic organization of industry, finance and the army, Frederick the Great would never have possessed the means to maintain himself in that struggle which made Prussia a great power.

Some ill.u.s.trations of his policy as a ruler and his personal habits must be given, in order to show both sides of his character. He had the most unbounded idea of the rights and duties of a king, and the aim of his life, therefore, was to increase his own authority by increasing the wealth, the order and the strength of Prussia. He was no friend of science, except when it could be shown to have some practical use, but he favored education, and one of his first measures was to establish four hundred schools among the people, by the money which he saved from the expenditures of the royal household. His personal economy was so severe that the queen was only allowed to have one waiting-woman. At this time the Empress of Germany had several hundred attendants, received two hogsheads of Tokay, daily, for her parrots, and twelve barrels of wine for her baths! Frederick William I. protected the industry of Prussia by imposing heavy duties upon all foreign products; he even went so far as to prohibit the people from wearing any but Prussian-made cloth, setting them the example himself. He also devoted much attention to agriculture, and when 17,000 Protestants were driven out of Upper Austria by the Archbishop of Salzburg, after the most shocking and inhuman persecutions, he not only furnished them with land but supported them until they were settled in their new homes.

[Sidenote: 1725.]

The organization of the Prussian army was entrusted to Prince Leopold of Dessau, who distinguished himself at Turin, under Prince Eugene.

Although during the greater part of Frederick William's reign peace was preserved, the military force was kept upon a war footing, and gradually increased until it amounted to 84,000 men. The king had a singular mania for giant soldiers: miserly as he was in other respects, he was ready to go to any expense to procure recruits, seven feet high, for his body-guard. He not only purchased such, but allowed his agents to kidnap them, and despotically sent a number of German mechanics to Peter the Great in exchange for an equal number of Russian giants. For forty-three such tall soldiers he paid 43,000 dollars, one of them, who was unusually large, costing 9,000. The expense of keeping these guardsmen was proportionately great, and much of the king's time was spent in inspecting them. Sometimes he tried to paint their portraits, and if the likeness was not successful, an artist was employed to paint the man's face until it resembled the king's picture.

Frederick William's regular evening recreation was his "Tobacco College," as he called it. Some of his ministers and generals, foreign amba.s.sadors, and even ordinary citizens, were invited to smoke and drink beer with him in a plain room, where he sat upon a three-legged stool, and they upon wooden benches. Each was obliged to smoke, or at least to have a clay pipe in his mouth and appear to smoke. The most important affairs of State were discussed at these meetings, which were conducted with so little formality that no one was allowed to rise when the king entered the room. He was not so amiable upon his walks through the streets of Berlin or Potsdam. He always carried a heavy cane, which he would apply without mercy to the shoulders of any who seemed to be idle, no matter what their rank or station. Even his own household was not exempt from blows; and his son Frederick was scarcely treated better than any of his soldiers or workmen.

[Sidenote: 1725. CONDITION OF GERMANY.]

This manner of government was rude, but it was also systematic and vigorous, and the people upon whom it was exercised did not deteriorate in character, as was the case in almost all other parts of Germany.

Austria, in spite of the pomp of the Emperor's court, was in a state of moral and intellectual decline. Karl VI. was a man of little capacity, an instrument in the hands of the Jesuits, and the minds of the people whom he ruled gradually became as stolid and dead as the latter order wished to make them. Their connection with Germany was scarcely felt; they spoke of "the Empire outside" almost as a foreign country, and the strength of the house of Hapsburg was gradually transferred to the Bohemian, Hungarian and Slavonic races which occupied the greater part of its territory. The industry of the country was left without encouragement; what little education was permitted was in the hands of the priests, and all real progress came to an end. But, for this very reason, Austria became the ideal of the German n.o.bility, nine-tenths of whom were feudalists and sighed for the return of the Middle Ages: hundreds of them took service under the Emperor, either at court or in the army, and helped to preserve the external forms of his power.

In most of the other German States the condition of affairs was not much better. Bavaria, the Palatinate, and the three Archbishops of Mayence, Treves and Cologne, were abject instruments in the hands of France: Hannover was governed by the interests of England, and Saxony by those of Poland. After George I. went to England, the government of Hannover was exercised by a council of n.o.bles, who kept up the Court ceremonials just as if the Elector were present. His portrait was placed in a chair, and they observed the same etiquette towards it as if his real self were there! In Wurtemberg the Duke, Eberhard Ludwig, so oppressed the people that many of them emigrated to America between the years 1717 and 1720, and settled in Pennsylvania. This was the first German emigration to the New World.

[Sidenote: 1733.]

After a peace of nineteen years, counting from the Treaty of Rastatt, or thirteen years from the Treaty of Stockholm, Germany--or rather the Emperor Karl VI.--became again involved in war. The Pragmatic Sanction was at the bottom of it. Karl's endless diplomacy to insure the recognition of this decree led him into an alliance with Russia to place Augustus III. of Saxony on the throne of Poland. Louis XV. of France, who had married the daughter of the Polish king, Stanislas Lesczinsky, took the latter's part. Prussia was induced to join Austria and Russia, but the cautious and economical Frederick William I. withdrew from the alliance as soon as he found that the expense to him would be more than the advantage. The Polish Diet was divided: the majority, influenced by France, elected Stanislas, who reached Warsaw in the disguise of a merchant and was crowned in September, 1733. The minority declared for Augustus III., in whose aid a Russian army was even then entering Poland.

France, in alliance with Spain and Sardinia, had already declared war against Germany. The plan of operations had evidently been prepared in advance, and was everywhere successful. One French army occupied Lorraine, another crossed the Rhine and captured Kehl (opposite Strasburg), and a third, under Marshal Villars, entered Lombardy. Naples and Sicily, powerless to resist, fell into the hands of Spain. Prince Eugene of Savoy, now more than seventy years of age, was sent to the Rhine with such troops as Austria, taken by surprise, was able to furnish: the other German States either sympathized with France, or were indifferent to a quarrel which really did not concern them. Frederick William of Prussia finally sent 10,000 well-disciplined soldiers; but even with this aid Prince Eugene was unable to expel the French from Lorraine. In Poland, however, the plans of France utterly failed: in June, 1734, King Stanislas fled in the disguise of a cattle-dealer. The following year, 10,000 Russians appeared on the Rhine, as allies of Austria, and Louis XV. found it prudent to negotiate for peace.

[Sidenote: 1740. DEATH OF FREDERICK WILLIAM I.]

The Treaty of Vienna, concluded in October, 1735, put an end to the War of the Polish Succession. Francis of Lorraine, who was betrothed to Karl VI.'s daughter, Maria Theresa, was made Grand-Duke of Tuscany, and Lorraine (now only a portion of the original territory, with Nancy as capital) was given to the Ex-King Stanislas of Poland, with the condition that it should revert to France at his death. Spain received Naples and Sicily; Tortona and Novara were added to Sardinia, and Austria was induced to consent to all these losses by the recognition of the Pragmatic Sanction, and the annexation of the Duchies of Parma and Piacenza, in Italy. Prussia got nothing; and Frederick William I., who had been expecting to add Julich and Berg to his possessions on the Lower Rhine, was so exasperated that he entered into secret arrangements with France in order to carry out his end. The enmity of Austria and Prussia was now confirmed, and it has been the chief power in German politics from that day to this.

In 1736 Francis of Lorraine and Maria Theresa were married, and Prince Eugene of Savoy died, worn out with the hardships of his long and victorious career. The next year, the Empress Anna of Russia persuaded Karl VI. to unite with her in a war against Turkey, her object being to get possession of Azov. By this unfortunate alliance Austria lost all which she had gained by the Treaty of Pa.s.sarowitz, twenty years before.

There was no commander like Prince Eugene, her military strength had been weakened by useless and unsuccessful wars, and she was compelled to make peace in 1739, by yielding Belgrade and all her conquests in Servia and Wallachia to Turkey.

On the 31st of May, 1740, Frederick William I. died, fifty-two years of age. He left behind him a State containing more than 50,000 square miles, and about 2,500,000 of inhabitants. The revenues of Prussia, which were two and a half millions of thalers on his accession to the throne, had increased to seven and a half millions annually, and there were nine millions in the treasury. Berlin had a population of nearly 100,000, and Stettin, Magdeburg, Memel and other cities had been strongly fortified. An army of more than 80,000 men was perfectly organized and disciplined. There was the beginning of a system of instruction for the people, feudalism was almost entirely suppressed, and the charge of witchcraft (which, since the fifteenth century, had caused the execution of several hundred thousand victims, throughout Germany!) was expunged from the pages of the law. Although the land was almost wholly Protestant, there was entire religious freedom, and the Catholic subjects could complain of no violation of their rights.

[Sidenote: 1740.]

On the 24th of October, 1740, Karl VI. died, leaving a diminished realm, a disordered military organization, and a people so demoralized by the combined luxury and oppression of the government that for more than a century afterwards all hope and energy and aspiration seemed to be crushed among them. The outward show and trappings of the Empire remained with Austria, and kept alive the political superst.i.tions of that large cla.s.s of Germans who looked backward instead of forward; but the rude, half-developed strength, which cuts loose from the Past and busies itself with the practical work of its day and generation, was rapidly creating a future for Prussia.

Frederick William I. was succeeded by his son, Frederick II., called Frederick the Great. Karl VI. was succeeded by his daughter, the Empress Maria Theresa. The former was twenty-eight, the latter twenty-three years old.

CHAPTER x.x.xIII.

THE REIGN OF FREDERICK THE GREAT.

(1740--1786.)

Youth of Frederick the Great. --His attempted Escape. --Lieutenant von Katte's Fate. --Frederick's Subjection. --His Marriage. --His first Measures as King. --Maria Theresa in Austria. --The First Silesian war. --Maria Theresa in Hungary. --Prussia acquires Silesia.

--Frederick's Alliance with France and the Emperor Karl VII. --The Second Silesian war. --Frederick alone against Austria. --Battles of Hohenfriedberg, Sorr and Kesselsdorf. --War of the Austrian Succession. --Peace. --Frederick as a Ruler. --His Habits and Tastes. --Answers to Pet.i.tions. --Religious Freedom. --Development of Prussia. --War between England and France. --Designs against Prussia. --Beginning of the Seven Years' War. --Battle at Prague.

--Defeat at Kollin. --Victory of Rossbach. --Battle of Leuthen.

--Help from England. --Campaign of 1758. --Victory of Zorndorf.

--Surprise at Hochkirch. --Campaign of 1759. --Battle of Kunnersdorf. --Operations in 1760. --Frederick victorious. --Battle of Torgau. --Desperate Situation of Prussia. --Campaign of 1761.

--Alliance with Russia. --Frederick's Successes. --The Peace of Hubertsburg. --Frederick's Measures of Relief. --His arbitrary Rule. --His literary Tastes. --First Division of Poland.

--Frederick's last Years. --His Death.

[Sidenote: 1728. YOUTH OF FREDERICK THE GREAT.]

Few royal princes ever had a more unfortunate childhood and youth than Frederick the Great. His mother, Sophia Dorothea of Hannover, a sister of George II. of England, was an amiable, mild-tempered woman who was devotedly attached to him, but had no power to protect him from the violence of his hard and tyrannical father. As a boy his chief tastes were music and French literature, which he could only indulge by stealth: the king not only called him "idiot!" and "puppy!" when he found him occupied with a flute or a French book, but threatened him with personal chastis.e.m.e.nt. His whole education, which was gained almost in secret, was chiefly received at the hands of French _emigres_, and his taste was formed in the school of ideas which at that time ruled in France, and which was largely formed by Voltaire, whom Frederick during his boyhood greatly admired, and afterward made one of his chief correspondents and intimates. The influence of this is most clearly to be traced throughout his life.

[Sidenote: 1728.]

His music became almost a pa.s.sion with him, though it is doubtful whether any of the praises of his proficiency that have come down to us are more than the remains of the flatteries of the time. His compositions, which were performed at his concerts, to which leading musicians were often invited, do not give any evidence of the genius claimed for him in this respect; but it is certain that he attained a considerable degree of mechanical skill in playing the flute. In after-life his musical taste continued to influence him greatly, and the establishment of the opera at Berlin was chiefly due to him. His father's persistent opposition rather fanned than suppressed the eagerness which he showed in this and other studies, as a boy; and doubtless contributed to a thoroughness which afterward stood him in good stead.

In 1728, when only sixteen years old, he accompanied his father on a visit to the court of Augustus the Strong, at Dresden, and was for a time led astray by the corrupt society into which he was there thrown.

The wish of his mother, that he should marry the Princess Amelia, the daughter of George II., was thwarted by his father's dislike of England; the tyranny to which he was subjected became intolerable, and in 1730, while accompanying his father on a journey to Southern Germany, he determined to run away.

His accomplice was a young officer, Lieutenant von Katte, who had been his bosom-friend for two or three years. A letter written by Frederick to the latter fell by accident into the hands of another officer of the same name, who sent it to the king, and the plot was thus discovered.

Frederick had already gone on board of a vessel at Frankfort, and was on the point of sailing down the Rhine, when his father followed, beat him until his face was covered with blood, and then sent him as a prisoner of State to Prussia. Katte was arrested before he could escape, tried by a court-martial and sentenced to several years' imprisonment. Frederick William annulled the sentence and ordered him to be immediately executed. To make the deed more barbarous, it was done before the window of the cell in which Frederick was confined. The young Prince fainted, and lay so long senseless that it was feared he would never recover. He was then watched, allowed no implements except a wooden spoon, lest he might commit suicide, and only permitted to read a Bible and hymn-book.

The officer who had him in charge could only converse with him by means of a hole bored through the ceiling of his cell.

[Sidenote: 1731. FREDERICK'S RESTORATION.]

The king insisted that he should be formally tried; but the court-martial, while deciding that "Colonel Fritz" was guilty, as an officer, a.s.serted that it had no authority to condemn the Crown-Prince.

The king overruled the decision, and ordered his son to be executed.

This course excited such horror and indignation among the officers that Frederick was pardoned, but not released from imprisonment until his spirit was broken and he had promised to obey his father in all things.

For a year he was obliged to work as a clerk in the departments of the Government, beginning with the lowest position and rising as he acquired practical knowledge. He did not appear at Court until November, 1731, when his sister Wilhelmine was married to the Margrave of Baireuth. The ceremony had already commenced when Frederick, dressed in a plain suit of grey, without any order or decoration, was discovered among the servants. The King pulled him forth, and presented him to the Queen with these words: "Here, Madam, our Fritz is back again!"