1686-99]

The quest of royal Crowns.

659

been seen, in 1686 renounced the claims of his House upon the Silesian principalities of Liegnitz, Brieg, and Wohlau, and upon that of Jägerndorf. It was now contended that, with the restoration of Schwiebus, these claims necessarily revived; and they were actually asserted by Frederick III in a clause in the act of retradition. This view, however, was not accepted by the Imperial Government; and, though in 1695 the Schwiebus Circle was actually handed over to Austrian commissioners, the counter-claim was for the present left open, with what momentous consequences will be told at a later stage of this History.

Enough has been said to indicate how Frederick III's earlier policy was affected by the design upon which during these years his attention was concentrated. It can hardly be necessary to enter into an elaborate analysis of the Elector's motives in seeking a royal Crown; but some reference should be made to the high-strung princely ambitions which are generally characteristic of this age. The rapid changes in the territorial system of Europe, and of the Empire in particular, consequent upon the artificial settlements of the Peace of Westphalia and the ensuing series of pacifications, had fired the ambition, personal or dynastic, of many German Princes of the time. The resplendent exemplar of Louis XIV pointed the way to extremely expeditious methods of securing an appropriate extension of territorial power. His Court likewise became the model of lesser Courts-not perhaps so much in actual manners and ways of life (as to which the process of refinement through which Versailles itself passed was gradual) as in the determination of those perennial questions of etiquette, and more especially of precedence, which in the diplomatic negotiations of the age frequently seem to assume a paramount importance. A mere Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, of ancient descent but mediocre power, who had as yet not even completely united in his hands his line's moiety of the dominion of a bipartite House, had after long efforts obtained the Imperial sanction for his assumption of the electoral dignity (1692), and was known to be looking forward to the parliamentary sanction, actually accorded to them nine years later, of the claims of his consort and their descendants to the English throne. On that throne a Count of Nassau had seated himself a few years earlier (1688). Charles XII, when crowned King of Sweden in 1697, was only fifteen years of age; but speculations must have speedily arisen as to the chances of the Swedish throne passing, in the event of the death of this martial youth, to a son of his elder sister (for whose firstborn a very different fate was reserved), or (as actually happened) to a son of his younger sister and her future husband, who could hardly fail to be a German Protestant Prince. The Electoral Prince of Bavaria was, a few months before his premature death (1699), recognised by the King of Spain as the sole heir of his monarchy. Thus it seemed to be time for the Electors of ancient date, whose dynasties had long cherished the conviction that they were raised far above the level

660

Aspirations of Frederick III.

[1688-97

of the Princes of the Empire at large, to see that they did not fall behind in the general competition. The Elector of Saxony (Frederick Augustus II), as has been narrated elsewhere, was in this connexion the earliest to achieve success, and, by renouncing the Lutheran confession, with which the House of Wettin had been identified in both good and evil times, to secure the Polish throne for himself (1697), with the probability of its descent to his successors in the electorate. More fantastic schemes illustrated the spread of these aspirations. It appears that the Elector Palatine (John William of Neuburg) towards the close of the century negotiated with a view to becoming King of a Christian Armenia.

The House of Brandenburg had rather longer to wait than the Albertine branch of the House of Wettin for its elevation to royal rank; though there is evidence to show that the Great Elector himself had at one time thought of assuming the title of King of the Wends, but had abandoned the project at the time of the Peace of St Germain, when it seemed impolitic to offend Poland. The Crown which the Elector of Brandenburg ultimately secured was purchased by no such sacrifice as that by which Frederick Augustus II forfeited the last remnants of Saxony's Protestant hegemony in the Empire, and completed the transfer of that hegemony to Brandenburg. Moreover, the Prussian Crown only symbolised the tenure of a dominion which the House of Brandenburg and its subjects had secured by a consistent policy and were prepared to maintain by the force of arms. The basis of the Elector of Brandenburg's claim to rank among the Kings of Europe was, in other words, the duchy of Prussia, for which he had done homage to no man, and the army which had virtually been created by his predecessor, and which had enabled the Great Elector to assert his State as a factor in great questions of European politics. The display which Frederick III made a point of keeping up at his Court, while it may have well suited both his personality and his times, was deliberately intended to show that the means were at his disposal for maintaining the external grandeur that befits a king.

The European situation at the time of the accession of Frederick III, and the part taken by his father in urging on the great design of which the execution was imminent, were alike propitious to the aspirations of the new Elector. This would of itself suffice to explain why he steadily carried on the policy of his predecessor towards the impending English Revolution of 1688. William of Orange, it is not too much to say, was enabled to invade England by Frederick III, who, in August, 1688, in accordance with a compact concluded at Celle, sent several of his best regiments-5300 foot and 660 horse-into the United Provinces, to protect them against any French inroad. These troops were commanded by Marshal Schomberg, who, after long and distinguished service in France had, by the religious policy of Louis XIV, and by personal experiences in the same direction in Portugal, been driven into

1689-95] Brandenburg troops against France and Turks. 661

the service of the Great Elector and at once appointed by him to the territorial command-in-chief. Notwithstanding the jealousy of the Brandenburg officers, Schomberg had gained the same confidence on the part of the Elector Frederick III as that which had been bestowed on him by the Great Elector. The last two years of the Marshal's career belong to English history; but he represents some of the most characteristic traditions of German military prowess, with their frequent accompaniment of an unswerving loyalty to religious con

victions.

The endeavours of the Emperor Leopold I in the War declared against France by the Empire in 1689 were actively supported by Frederick III, beyond the treaty engagements of his father. In this year 20,000 Brandenburg troops cooperated on the Rhine with Imperial forces of twice that number; and, in October, Frederick III, with the aid of Duke Charles of Lorraine (whom Brandenburg troops had assisted in the capture of Mainz), brought the arduous siege of Bonn to a successful issue. In 1690, after the defeat of Waldeck and the Dutch at Fleurus (July 1), the advent of the Brandenburgers under their Elector, and of other auxiliaries, in a measure restored the balance of forces; but it was not till 1695 that the electoral troops once more took part in an important action of the war-the recapture of Namur, which compensated William III for many failures in the Low Countries. Frederick III was at this time anxious to draw closer the bonds of alliance between himself and his kinsman by securing the hand of the widowed King for his daughter by his first wife, Louisa Dorothea Sophia. Another body of Brandenburg troops was in the same period aiding the Emperor in his perennial struggle against the Turks in Hungary.

But as yet the financial resources of Brandenburg-Prussia were so restricted that these efforts could not be made without the payment of subsidies by England and the United Provinces; and this fact to some extent explains the disappointing experiences of the Elector Frederick III at Ryswyk. Moreover, since the Emperor Leopold was entirely opposed to the conclusion of this Peace, while the paramount desire of Frederick III was to remain on the best possible terms with the Emperor, this could not fail to affect injuriously his relations with the other allied Powers. At one time he could not even obtain the subsidies promised to him, and bitterly complained of his wrongs. But, in the end, prudence gained the day, and, on September 21, his ambassador, Privy Councillor von Schmettau, notwithstanding the warlike language previously held by him, attached his name to the Treaty of Peace with France, signed at Ryswyk by the Dutch, English and Spanish plenipotentiaries. Neither the joint guarantee of the royal Crown on which the ambition of Frederick III was fixed, nor the fulfilment of William III's promise to secure to the Brandenburg dynasty the

662

The fall of Danckelmann.

[1684-97 inheritance of the House of Orange, had been obtained; and for once the Hohenzollern statesmen had ploughed the sands. The failure of the electoral Government to gain any compensation for the sacrifices entailed upon it in the war seemed complete, and has been thought to have helped to bring about the fall of Danckelmann, for nine years the Elector's almost omnipotent Minister, who so late as 1695 had become President-in-chief of all the ministerial colleges or boards now to all intents and purposes dividing among them the business of the State. Ranke has, however, on the evidence chiefly of the despatches of the active diplomatist George Stepney, whom William III had sent on a special mission to Berlin, shown that the cruel treatment meted out to Danckelmann was mainly due to the influence of the Elector's second wife, Sophia Charlotte, the daughter of the Elector Ernest Augustus of Hanover and the Electress Sophia. The influence of Sophia Charlotte upon the intellectual life of her husband's Court and people will be noticed below; her action in the matter of Danckelmann was entirely governed by her anxiety to serve the interests of her father's House. The relations between that House and her consort's were during a long series of years marked by a vigilant jealousy, to which neither the intermarriages between them, and more especially her own (1684), nor the occasional periods of political cooperation between the two future joint directors of the Corpus Evangelicorum (from 1720), were able to put an end. The House of Brunswick-Lüneburg, though until the achievement of the English succession much less powerful than the Hohenzollerns, deemed itself unquestionably their superior in descent and ancestral greatness; and the Emperor had been delighted to accept the services of the Hanoverian Elector, his son, and his brothers, against the French and against the Turks, as balancing the less cordially welcomed aid of Brandenburg. Duke Maximilian William, one of the surviving four sons of the Elector Ernest Augustus, had, after the death of his elder brother Frederick Augustus in the Turkish Wars (1691), followed his example in protesting against the principle of primogeniture which his father had proclaimed in a will confirmed by the Emperor, and, in pushing this protest had, among others, applied with success to Danckelmann. The Brandenburg-Prussian Minister had thus shown himself to be in opposition to the dynastic ambition of the House of Hanover, at the root of which lay the determination to maintain the unity of all its dominions.

It was for this reason that Queen Sophia brought about the overthrow of Danckelmann (1697). His property was confiscated, and he was placed under close arrest at Peitz. The rigour of his confinement was not abated for five years; nor was it till after another five years that a partial amnesty was extended to him. He died in 1722, after receiving many signs of respect and confidence from the new King, Frederick William I. It had been largely his doing that, at the cost of many sacrifices and much disappointment, the Brandenburg-Prussian

1693-8]

Negotiations as to a royal Crown.

663

Government had adhered to the House of Orange and the European alliance against France. There is no ground for the notion that, towards the close of his ministerial career, an inclination towards that Power becomes perceptible; and after his death foreign affairs were for a time at least conducted on the same lines as his own, mainly by Paul von Fuchs, one of the principal promoters of the English alliance.

Within a very few years after Danckelmann's fall, Frederick III was enabled to accomplish the object which to him was of paramount importance. The rapidity with which the transactions concerning the assumption of a royal Crown were at last brought to a successful conclusion, contrasts with their tentative and purely personal beginnings. Before 1693, when the negotiations on the subject between Frederick William and the Emperor began, there is no indication of the Elector having discussed it with his Ministers; and then the scheme found little favour with those whom he consulted-Danckelmann, Fuchs, and Privy Councillor Franz von Meinders-or with the Imperial ambassador Fridag. Too much has probably been made of the characteristic excess of zeal displayed in the matter by certain papal agents. It is certain, however, that at an early date the Curia offered its assistance through the skilful Italian Jesuit and convert-maker, Father Charles Maurice Vota. He was opposed to the French interest, having given up that of the Stewarts as a lost cause, and he commended himself in more ways than one to the Electress Sophia Charlotte, who, having been brought up simultaneously in three "religions," could afford to be impartial. The earliest document in the Prussian archives concerning the quest of a royal Crown is an artistic argument by Vota on the royal dignity and the best means of reaching it-to wit, "reunion," not, of course, conversion. Another Jesuit, also of considerable reputation at the time, Father Wolff (Baron Friedrich von Lüdinghausen), was brought into this more or less ingenious plot; and Bishop Zaluski would have gladly been mixed up in it, with a view perhaps to anointing the King at his coronation. Father Vota afterwards opined that too many negotiators spoiled the design; as a matter of fact, Frederick was as sound a Protestant at heart as his father had been before him.

In 1694 the great project had become known at Vienna, and the Emperor Leopold's first comment upon it was a very plain-spoken non possumus. Though, as has been seen, much trouble had been taken to modify this view, a fresh estrangement between the two Courts occurred in 1697, on the occasion of the death without heirs of Duke Gustavus Adolphus of Mecklenburg-Güstrow and the disputes as to the succession. The Lower Saxon Circle, represented by Brandenburg, Sweden and Brunswick-Lüneburg, offered a determined resistance to the attempt to sequestrate the Duke's inheritance; and the Brandenburg Minister (Nicolas von Danckelmann) was recalled from Vienna. In 1698, however,