Absolutist monarchs Frederick William of Brandenburg-Prussia, the Great Elector 1620-88 Frederick William is known as the “Great Elector” because he’s great and he’s one of the Holy Roman Emperor’s Seven Electors. Just like his family going back: the Hohenzollerns, AKA the most important family in German history (they’ll unite Germany) and the Margraves of Brandenburg. But first, some general stuff on absolutist monarchs: 1. In an absolutist state, sovereignty is embodied in the person of the monarch. They believe in rule by divine right, meaning that they’re responsible to god alone for their decisions. This is a really convenient position to take if you’re king, if you can get other people to buy into it (they couldn’t in England) 2. They try to control 3 things a. Competing jurisdictions. For example, dukes have traditional sovereignty in the duchy: if you screw up, you answer to them. Absolutists don’t like this kinda stuff: they want to extend their authority to their entire kingdom, which means suppressing or eliminating these competing jurisdictions, thereby making your jurisdictional authority supreme. All absolutist monarchs of the era (like Frederic William) succeeded at this b. Competing institutions. i. Usually meaning the Church: Catholic or local Protestants. Protestant rulers usually accomplished this by making their church a state church. So the monarchs try to regulate religious sects. Most absolutist monarchs do that, anyway (not Frederic William) c. The Nobility. Remember the whole “greatest threat to a monarch” bit from way back at the beginning of class? Well, they are and the monarchs know that. 3. Abolish long-held liberties by certain groups or provinces w/in their realm. As an Example, Frederic William works to abolish certain privileges of his estates general. 4. If you don’t do these, you don’t get to be on the list (of absolute monarchs): a. Secure the cooperation of the one class who has historically been the greatest threat to monarchy: the nobility. Note, cooperation, not approval. So they need to be Machiavellian enough to control their nobility. b. Solve their financial problems. They have to become the most powerful financial force in their kingdom. This is done is by creating bureaucracies to direct the economic life of the country in the interest of the monarch (everybody does this). Said bureaucracies drive taxes higher and devise new taxes and stuff to raise more revenue for the monarch. They’re led by career officials appointed directly by the
monarch (and answerable directly to said monarch). Different monarchs get these officials from different places (Frederic William got his from the nobility, Louis XIV made sure NOT to hire any nobles for these jobs). i. Medieval monarchs never pulled this stuff off, since they didn’t have the financial resources. They frequently had to borrow money from their nobles to get stuff done, and it’s hard to boss around people who you owe money. Also see incidents like Eleanor of Aquitaine being richer than the French king at the time. c. Raise standing armies. These are pretty much a new thing. And the monarchs use them both externally, in wars of territorial aggression, and internally, to put down dissent and enforce decrees. Standing armies, being expensive, also require more revenue. And once you have standing armies, you also have compulsory military service (AKA the draft) A note: Absolutist Monarchs =/= Totalitarian. They don’t have the communications and weapons technology for that. Totalitarianism is a 20 th century thing. Back to Frederick William. He’s one of the most insightful and visionary rulers of his day. The best thing an absolutist ruler can be is a really good administrator, and he is exactly that. More than that, he’s a man with both a vision, the patience to lay the groundwork for that vision, and the humility to realize that he’ll be dead when it comes to fruition. His vision: a united Germany. And it won’t get done until 1871, 200 years after he dies. So he’s going to put Prussia in the game to unite Germany. And all this despite the fact that his peers never realize that he’s a big deal. As we can see from his life dates, Frederic William lived through most of the 30 years war, and was conscious for most of it. And it messed Brandenburg the hell up (Prussia too, but not as much). When he took over (in 1640), Brandenburg wasn’t exactly a powerhouse. This dude is a smart cookie (and fluent in 5 languages to boot), and has solid Protestant credentials: he’s married to the granddaughter of William the Silent (the great hero of the Dutch revolt. They love ‘hm in Holland). When he inherits the Hohenzollern lands, they’re scattered all over the place. He’s 20 and ready to rumble, and acutely aware of his country’s weaknesses and problems. And he has ideas on how to solve ‘em. His biggest problem? His lands are scattered all over: when he takes the throne, he’s got a chunk in the middle (around Berlin), a chunk in the east, and three small chunks in the west. So his land’s not contiguous. So his question is “how am I gonna defend all this?” and his answer “take everything in between”. Now how’s he gonna do that? Money, an army, and shrewd marriages.
In 1640, he knows that the freaking swedes and equally freaking poles have been walking forth across his territory, burning everything they can’t steal, killing people, and basically treating Brandenburg-Prussia like a giant piece of cake. So Frederick William needs an army. And no mercenaries. Mercenaries are unreliable scumbags. He’s seen what happens when you let mercenaries run all over central Europe: they turn it into one giant burning pile of crap (AKA the 30 Years War). So he needs citizen soldiers: they fight better, especially when defending their own land. So he needs a citizen army, but he has one of the smallest pops in Europe. But he knows that if he tries to build that army under the nose of the swedes and poles that they’ll attack him, since they want to fight it out with each other over who’s the dominant Baltic power, and they don’t want competition. But there are no poles or swedes in his western provinces… So that’s where he builds his army, with the Poles and Swedes none the wiser. So when he gets a seat at the table at the Peace of Westphallia, he also has an army: he’s not just there because he’s the Margrave of Brandenburg-Prussia, but because he’s the Margrave of Brandenburg-Prussia with an army. So he gets the best territorial settlement out of ANYONE (including France, Sweden, and Poland). He gets Magdeburg and Farther Pomerania, expanding his central territory significantly. Brandenburg itself is flat and agriculturally unproductive: it’s got loamy sandy soil. And Brandenburg itself is still cut off from the Baltic (though his eastern territories are not). The principle crops are grains. In fact, what they’re best at is grain crops and making beer (still are!). So they do that. Or, more specifically, they did that. Before the 30 Years War. And that’s effed up their economy and damaged their nobility, the Junkers (pronounced yun-kers, they’re the von Something families. As opposed to the van Somethings, who are Dutch). Frederic William’s a Calvinist, but his subjects are Lutheran. He doesn’t care, and so is pretty hands-off re: religion. Mostly because he doesn’t have any Catholics to deal with. He has bigger problems on his hands than religion. They’re called “Poles” and “Swedes”. So now he’s got an army and a sweet settlement. So now Poland and Sweden are like “dang, where’d you get that?” And now his army is the Prussian army. Which means that they’re damn hard to defeat: Prussians might sometimes lose in the end, but until they do, they’re had to beat. East Germany (where Prussia is) is hillier and more forested. The capital of Prussia is Königsburg. In 1640, When FW took power, Prussia was a Duchy, making him the Duke of Prussia. So, if Prussia’s a duchy, it’s a feudatory, meaning he holds by grace of somebody. Somebody who? The King of Poland. Uh oh. The problem is that sometimes the Estates General (quasi-legislative body of Prussia) goes whining to the King of Poland about decrees Frederick William makes that they don’t like, and he says they don’t have to do it. FW bides his time and waits until Poland and Sweden get in a war. He doesn’t have to wait long: by 1653,
he’s got an army of 8000 really well-trained Prussian troops (multiply x3 for Prussians). In 1655-1660, Sweden and Poland get in a fight. Frederick William sides with Sweden. At the point where Poland is losing the war, he goes to the King of Poland and says “I’ll switch sides if you give me Prussia.” And if the king doesn’t take him up on this, Sweden will win and he might get Prussia anyway! So the king of Poland agrees, Frederick William switches sides, Sweden loses, and Frederick William becomes The King In Prussia (for some reason, this is different between the King Of Prussia, but no idea how). So now he’s the direct sovereign of Brandenburg AND Prussia. And those other places too. And were still in the late 1650s! He’s not quite 40 yet! He also got involved in France Vs Holland wars, where he changed sides three times (always looking for the advantage) So, how’d he fund that army, anyway? He financed the entire government of Brandenburg-Prussia out of his pocket, but he couldn’t do that and fund the army. So he needs an army tax. He can levy excise taxes (taxes levied on the PRODUCERS of goods) without getting permission from the Estates General or the Brandenburg Estates. Estates
legislative bodies. He finds all the estates he has on
his various holdings to be a pain in the ass; absolutist monarchs don’t like this ‘rule of law’ crap, and thulsy must either bypass or co-opt their legislative bodies. Louis XIV just bypassed his. Frederick William has to deal with the Brandenburg Estates first, which means dealing with the Junkers. They’re primarily landowners (basically big-deal farmers), and are heavily involved in the grain trade (which got screwed by the 30 years war). Frederick William went to the Junker leaders and worked out a deal: if they let him levy an army tax, he’ll give ‘em the following perks: First, only Junkers can own land in Brandenburg (and can freely evict peasants from lands they occupy). Secondly, the Junkers are immune to certain taxes (not the army tax, though; stuff like salt taxes, household taxes, etc. right now the people of Brandenburg-Prussia are the most heavily taxed people in Europe). In return, they’ll support Frederick William’s army tax and get their political privileges severely curtailed (basically coopting the Brandenburg Estates into a rubber-stamp). Now he has to get the tax through his OTHER territories. The Prussian Junkers (and the western ones) are reluctant to approve it. He tells the Prussians to either approve the tax or collect it themselves, or he’ll send his army to collect it and he’ll make the Prussians of Kunningsburg (where the Estates are) responsible for billeting his army. They think he’s bluffing. He’s not. So once his army shows up, the Prussian Estates pass the tax, followed by the western ones. The Tax is passed with the assumption that it’s temporary and will only be collected for 2-3 years. After those 2-3 years are up, though, he keeps collecting it, but the
Junkers no longer have to pay, so they don’t object. So, yeah, Brandenburg-Prussia is heavily taxed. Like, 2* taxes per capita of France. And France had a revolution (partially) over those! So now he has to create that bureaucracy. Initially, the bureaucracy (the Generalkreigskommissariat in Brandenburg, the Kriegskammer in Prussia)’s purpose is to run the army. Maintaining the army’s expensive! They need food, water, guns, clothes, the works. Brandenburg-Prussia’s navy’s never good (with the exception of German U-Boats much later down the road), especially since Brandenburg’s landlocked. So he doesn’t need to spend as much as France (who has an army AND navy). By the time Frederick William dies, he’s got an army of 30,000. With a population base under 2 million. France has a 40-90k army with a pop of 40 million. Yeah. Plus Frederick’s army is well-armed and well-trained. And eventually the army starts showing economic benefits: somebody’s gotta make all the stuff they need. By the end, the GKK (and the other one? Not sure?) ends up running the entire country’s economy. So that’s one check on the Big List. The bureaucracy is staffed mostly with Junkers; unlike Louis XIV, Frederick William trusts his nobility. In 1645, Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes (issued at the end of the French Wars of Religion, letting the French Hugonauts (read: Protestants) have certain rights), claiming there was no need for it because there were no Protestants in France. Following that, 100k of those non-existent French Protestants emigrated from France. And 40k of those went to Brandenburg-Prussia. And they were skilled laborers! This tweaked a bunch of European rulers. Including the Pope! He saw this as the sort of provocations that started all those religious wars back in the day. So, yeah, we’re in Competent Pope Land, rather than Renaissance Pope Land, or Popes What That Try To Have Elizabeth Assassinated Land. So Frederick William benefits nicely from Louis XIV’s latest blunder. Another cool thing he did: build the Frederick William Canal through Berlin, to link the Oder and Elbe rivers, bringing trade to Berlin. Specifically trade with Silesia and Poland. So between the canal and centralzing his govn’t in Berlin, FW transformed it from a mudhole into Berlin. So, where’s the brilliance? Well, that’s why his peers don’t see him as brilliant: he’s doing the gruntwork laying the foundations for the unification of Germany: His heirs inherit an absolute monarchy, giving them absolute control of His Stuff plus anything they can marry into or conquer. Which will be plenty. Right up to Kaiser Wilhelm I, they’re always looking to unify Germany under Prussian rule (rather than Austrian). They do not like that map, what with the non-contiguous borders. As time goes on, they pick up more and more territory. Also, he sets up much higher military standards than the rest of Europe: nobody wants to pick a fight with Prussia (except the French, who will fight anybody; and they lose to Prussia frequently).
And they’ve got good finances: unlike the French, Prussia never goes bankrupt. So FW has put EVERYTHING in place for Prussia to become a powerhouse. By the time of Frederick William’s grandson, Frederick the Great (a genius field commander, who, in the 7 Years War, fights seven other countries at once and wins) And he’s made the army a VERY attractive destination for Second sons (like in France), rather than the Church. Hence all the Officer Von Somethings. Plus his legacy benefits from his heirs being highly aggressive, educated, and intelligent rather than increasingly moronic.
