Charles Eugene of Wirtemberg (1737-1793), during his early
years, rivaled Louis XV. in extravagance and immorality, but
in after-days was greatly changed. He founded the Charles
School, at which Schiller was educated. Baden enjoyed a high
degree of prosperity under Charles Frederick (1746-1811). Even
the spiritual lords, on the whole, threw their influence in
favor of enlightenment and progress. ... The prelates of
Cologne, Trèves, Mayence, and Salzburg, strange to say, agreed
at Ems in 1786 to renounce the supremacy of Rome, and to found
an independent German Catholic Church; but the plan was broken
down by the resistance of the inferior clergy and of the
Emperor Joseph II. Some of the German states were slow to take
part in the general progress. Bavaria was constantly retarded
by the influence of the Jesuits. ... The Palatinate, too, was
under luxurious and idle rulers, mostly in the pay of France.
In some territories the boundless extravagance of the princes
was a terrible burden upon their subjects. ... Men who
professed enlightenment and humanity were often shamefully
tyrannical. The courts of Cassel and Wirtemberg sold their
people by regiments to England, to fight against the
independence of the North American Colonies. ...
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1776 (JANUARY-JUNE).
Austria shared in the general intellectual awakening of
Germany. Maria Theresa was a firm, strong character, with a
clear mind and sincere desire for the people's welfare. She
found Austria in decay, and was able to introduce many
reforms. She alleviated the condition of the peasants, who
were still mostly serfs. The nobles had before lived mainly
for show, but she provided institutions for their education.
... It was a condition of the Peace of Hubertsburg that
Frederick II. should give his electoral vote for the eldest
son of Francis I. None of the other electors objected to the
choice, and on March 27, 1764, they performed the ceremony of
choosing Joseph 'King of the Romans,' but without power to
interfere with the government during his father's life.
Francis I. died August 18, 1765, and his son Joseph II.
(1765-1790) was then crowned emperor in the traditional
fashion. He was also associated with his mother in the
government of' Austria; but she retained the royal power
mainly in her own hands, assigning to her son the executive
control of military affairs. Joseph II. was an impetuous and
intellectual character, all aglow with the new ideas of
enlightenment and progress, and was perhaps more deeply
impressed by the example of Frederick II. than any other
prince of the age. ... At the same time, Joseph II. was eager
to aggrandize Austria, and at least to obtain an equivalent
for Silesia.
{1503}
For a long time Austria had been longing to acquire Bavaria,
and there now seemed to be some reason to hope for success,
The ancient line of electors of the house of Wittelsbach died
out in 1777 with Maximilian Joseph (December 30). The next
heir was the Elector Palatine, Charles Theodore, also Duke of
Jülich and Berg, who was not eager to obtain Bavaria, since,
by the Peace of Westphalia, he must then forfeit the
electorate of the Palatinate. ... Under these circumstances
Joseph II. made an unfounded claim to Lower Bavaria, under a
pretended grant of the Emperor Sigismund in 1426. A secret
treaty was made by him with Charles Theodore, by which he was
to pay that prince a large sum of money for Lower Bavaria; and
soon after Maximilian Joseph's death, Joseph II. occupied the
land with troops. Frederick II., who was ever jealous of the
growth of Austria, resolved to prevent this acquisition. ...
See BAVARIA: A. D. 1777-1779.
Thus the war of the Bavarian Succession broke out (1778-79).
... By the death of Maria Theresa, November 29, 1780, her son
Joseph II. became sole monarch of Austria. ... Joseph II. was
a man of large mind and noble aims. Like Frederick, he was
unwearying in labor, accessible to everyone, and eager to
assume his share of work or responsibility. The books and the
people's memory are full of anecdotes of him, though he was
far from popular during his life. But he lacked the strong
practical sense and calculating foresight of the veteran
Prussian king. In his zeal for reforms he hastened to heap one
upon another in confusion. Torture was abolished, and for a
time even the death penalty. Rigid equality before the law was
introduced, and slavery done away.
See SLAVERY, MEDIÆVAL: GERMANY.
His reforms in the Church were still more sweeping. He closed
more than half of the monasteries, and devoted their estates
to public instruction; he introduced German hymns of praise
and the German Bible. By his Edict of Toleration, June 22,
1781, he secured to all Protestants throughout the Austrian
states their civil rights and freedom of worship, 'in houses
of prayer without bells or towers.' ... He zealously followed
up Maria Theresa's policy of consolidating Austria into one
state; and it was this course which made him enemies. He
offended the powerful nobility of Hungary by abolishing
serfdom (November 1, 1781), and the whole people by the
measures he took to promote the use of the German language. In
the Netherlands, he alienated from him the powerful clergy by
his innovations; and they stirred up against him the people,
already aggrieved by the loss of some of their ancient
liberties. A revolution broke out among them in 1788, and was
threatening to extend to Hungary and Bohemia, when the emperor
suddenly died, still in the full vigor of manhood, at the age
of forty-nine, February 20, 1790. ... After his death, the
progress of reform was checked in Austria; but he had awakened
new and strong forces there, and a complete return to the
ancient system was impossible. ... Leopold II. (1790-1792),
who succeeded his brother Joseph II., both in Austria and as
emperor, was a self-indulgent but prudent ruler."
C. T. Lewis,
History of Germany,
book 5, chapter 24, sections 8-18.
GERMANY: A. D. 1772-1773.
The first Partition of Poland.
See POLAND: A. D. 1763-1773.
GERMANY: A. D. 1787.
Prussian intervention in Holland.
Restoration of the expelled stadtholder.
See NETHERLANDS (HOLLAND): A. D. 1746-1787.
GERMANY: A. D. 1791.
The forming of the Coalition against French democracy.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1790-1791;
and 1791 (JULY-SEPTEMBER).
GERMANY: A. D. 1791-1792.
The question of war with France, and the question of the
Partition of Poland.
Motives and action of Prussia and Austria.
"After the acceptance of the Constitution by Louis XVI.
[September--see FRANCE: A. D. 1791 (JULY-SEPTEMBER)], the
Emperor indulged for a time a confident hope, that the French
question was solved, and that he was relieved from all fear of
trouble from that quarter. He had cares enough upon him to
make him heartily congratulate himself on this result. ... In
foreign affairs, the Polish question--the next in importance
to the French--was still unsettled, and daily presented fresh
difficulties. ... The fact that Russia began to show the
greatest favour to the Emigrés, and to preach at Berlin and
Vienna a crusade against the wicked Jacobins, only served to
confirm the Emperor in his peaceful sentiments. He rightly
concluded that Catharine wished to entangle the German Powers
in a struggle with France, that she might have her own way in
Poland; and he was not at all inclined to be the dupe of so
shallow an artifice. ... At the same time he set about
bringing his alliance with Prussia to a definite conclusion,
in order to secure to himself a firm support for every
emergency. On the 17th of November--a week after the
enactment of the first edict against the Emigrés--Prince Reuss
made a communication on this subject to the Prussian Ministry,
and on this occasion declared himself empowered to commence at
any moment the formal draft of an alliance. ... 'We are now
convinced,' wrote the Ministers to their ambassador at Vienna,
'that Austria will undertake nothing against France.' This
persuasion was soon afterwards fully confirmed by Kaunitz, who
descanted in the severest terms on the intrigues of the
Emigrés on the Rhine, which it was not in the interest of any
Power to support. It was ridiculous, he said, in the French
Princes, and in Russia and Spain, to declare the acceptance of
the constitution by the King compulsory, and therefore void;
and still more so to dispute the right of Louis XVI. to alter
the constitution at all. He said that they would vainly
endeavour to goad Austria into a war, which could only have
the very worst consequences for Louis and the present
predominance of the moderate party in France. ... Here, again,
we see that without the machinations of the Girondists, the
revolutionary war would never have been commenced. It is true,
indeed, that at this time a very perceptible change took place
in the opinions of the second German potentate--the King of
Prussia. Immediately after the Congress of Pillnitz, great
numbers of French Emigrés, who had been driven from Vienna by
the coldness of Leopold, had betaken themselves to Berlin. At
the Prussian Court they met with a hospitable reception, and
aroused in the King, by their graphic descriptions, a warm
interest for the victims of the Revolution. ... He loaded the
Emigrés with marks of favour of every kind, and thereby
excited in them the most exaggerated hopes.
{1504}
Yet the King was far from intending to risk any important
interest of the State for the sake of his protégés; he had no
idea of pursuing an aggressive policy towards France; and the
only point in which he differed from Leopold was in the
feeling with which he regarded the development of the warlike
tendencies of the French. His Ministers, moreover, were,
without exception, possessed by the same idea as Prince
Kaunitz; that a French war would be a misfortune to all
Europe." As the year 1791 drew towards its close,
"unfavourable news arrived from Paris. The attempts of the
Feuillants had failed; Lafayette had separated himself from
them and from the Court; and the zeal and confidence of
victory among the Democrats were greater than ever. The
Emigrés in Berlin were jubilant; they had always declared that
no impression was to be made upon the Jacobins except by the
edge of the sword, and that all hopes founded on the stability
of a moderate middle party were futile. The King of Prussia
agreed with them, and determined to begin the unavoidable
struggle as quickly as possible. He told his Ministers that
war was certain, and that Bischoffswerder ought to go once
more to the Emperor. ... Bischoffswerder, having received
instructions from the King himself, left Berlin, and arrived
in Vienna, after a speedy journey, on the 28th of February.
But he was not destined again to discuss the fate of Europe
with his Imperial patron; for on the 29th the smallpox showed
itself, of which Leopold died after three days sickness. The
greatest consternation and confusion reigned in Vienna. ... No
one knew to whom the young King Francis--he was as yet only
king of Hungary and Bohemia--would give his confidence, or
what course he would take; nay, his weakly and nervous
constitution rendered it doubtful whether he could bear--even
for a short period--the burdens of his office. For the present
he confirmed the Ministers in their places, and expressed to them
his wish to adhere to the political system of his father. ...
He ... ordered one of his most experienced Generals, Prince
Hohenlohe-Kirchberg, to be summoned to Vienna, that he might
take council with Bischoffswerder respecting the warlike
measures to be adopted by both Powers, in case of a French
attack. At the same time, however, the Polish question was, if
possible, to be brought to a decision, and Leopold's plan in
all its details was to be categorically recommended for
adoption, both in Berlin and Petersburg. ... The Austrian
Minister, Spielmann, had prepared the memorial on Poland,
which Prince Reuss presented at Berlin, on the 10th of March.
It represented that Austria and Prussia had the same interest
in stopping a source of eternal embarrassment and discussion,
by strengthening the cause of peace and order in Poland. That
herein lay an especially powerful motive to make the crown of
that country hereditary; that for both Powers the Elector of
Saxony would be the most acceptable wearer of that crown. ...
The important point, the memorial went on to say, was this,
that Poland should no longer be dependent on the predominant
influence of any one neighbouring Power. ... When the King had
read this memorial, in which the Saxon-Polish union was
brought forward, not as an idea of the feeble Elector, but as
a proposal of powerful Austria; he cried out, 'We must never
give our consent to this.' He agreed with his Ministers in the
conclusion that nothing would be more dangerous to Prussia,
than the formation of such a Power as would result from the
proposed lasting union of Poland and Saxony--a Power, which,
in alliance with Austria, could immediately overrun Silesia,
and in alliance with Russia, might be fatal to East Prussia.
... In the midst of this angry and anxious excitement, which
for a moment alienated his heart from Austria, the King
received a fresh and no less important despatch from
Petersburg. Count Golz announced the first direct
communication of Russia respecting Poland. 'Should Poland'
[wrote the Russian Vice Chancellor] 'be firmly and lastingly
united to Saxony, a Power of the first rank will arise, and
one which will be able to exercise the most sensible pressure
upon each of its neighbours. We are greatly concerned in this,
in consequence of the extension of our Polish frontier; and
Prussia is no less so, from the inevitable increase which
would ensue of Saxon influence in the German Empire. We
therefore suggest, that Prussia, Austria, and Russia, should
come to an intimate understanding with one another on this
most important subject.' ... This communication sounded
differently in the ears of the King from that which he had
received from Austria. The fears which agitated his own mind
and those of the Russian chancellor were identical. While
Austria called upon him to commit a political suicide, Russia
offered her aid in averting the most harassing danger, and
even opened a prospect of a considerable territorial increase.
The King had no doubt to which of the two Powers he ought to
incline. He would have come to terms with Russia on the spot,
had not an insurmountable obstacle existed in the new path
which was opened to the aggrandizement of Prussia,--viz., the
Polish treaty of 1790; in which Prussia had expressly bound
herself to protect the independence and integrity of Poland.
... He decided that there was no middle course between the
Russian and Austrian plans. On the one side was his Polish
treaty of 1790, the immediate consequence of which would be a
new breach, and perhaps a war, with Russia, and the final
result such a strengthening of Poland, as would throw back the
Prussian State into that subordinate position, both in Germany
and Europe, which it had occupied in the seventeenth century.
On the other side there was, indeed, a manifest breach of
faith, but also the salvation of Prussia from a perilous
dilemma, and perhaps the extension of her boundaries by a
goodly Polish Province. If he wavered at all in this conflict
of feeling, the Parisian complications soon put an end to his
doubts. In quick succession came the announcements that
Delessart's peaceful Ministry had fallen; that King Louis had
suffered the deepest humiliation; and that the helm of the
State had passed into the hands of the Girondist war party. A
declaration of war on the part of France against Francis· II.
might be daily expected, and the Russian-Polish contest would
then only form the less important moiety of the European
catastrophe. Austria would now be occupied for a long time in
the West; there could be no more question of the formation of
a Polish-Saxon State; and Austria could no longer be reckoned
upon to protect the constitution of 1791, or even to repel a
Russian invasion of Poland. Prussia was bound to aid the
Austrians against France, and for many months the King had
cherished no more ardent wish than to fulfil this obligation
with all his power.
{1505}
Simultaneously to oppose the Empress Catharine, was out of the
question. ... The King wrote on the 12th of March to his
Ministers as follows: ... 'Russia is not far removed from
thoughts of a new partition; and this would indeed be the most
effectual means of limiting the power of a Polish King,
whether hereditary or elective. I doubt, however, whether in
this case a suitable compensation could be found for Austria;
and whether, after such a curtailment of the power of Poland,
the Elector of Saxony would accept the crown. Yet if Austria
could be compensated, the Russian plan would be the most
advantageous for Prussia,--always provided that Prussia
received the whole left bank of the Vistula, by the
acquisition of which that distant frontier--so hard to be
defended--would be well rounded off. This is my judgment
respecting Polish affairs.' This was Poland's sentence of
death. It was not, as we have seen, the result of a
long-existing greed, but a suddenly seized expedient, which
seemed to be accompanied with the least evil, in the midst of
an unexampled European crisis. ... On the 20th of April the
French National Assembly proclaimed war against the King of
Hungary and Bohemia. A fortnight later the Prince of
Hohenlohe-Kirchberg appeared in Berlin to settle some common
plan for the campaign; and at the same time Kaunitz directed
Prince Reuss to enter into negociations on the political
question of expenditure and compensation. Count Schulenburg
... immediately sent a reply to the Prince, to the effect that
Prussia--as it had uniformly declared since the previous
summer--could only engage in the war on condition of receiving
an adequate compensation. ... Both statesmen well knew with
what secret mistrust each of these Powers contemplated the
aggrandizement of the other; their deliberations were
therefore conducted with slow and anxious caution, and months
passed by before their respective demands were reduced to any
definite shape."
H. von Sybel,
History of the French Revolution,
book 4, chapter 1 (volume 2).
GERMANY: A. D. 1792.
Accession of the Emperor Francis II.
GERMANY: A. D. 1792-1793.
War with Revolutionary France.
The Coalition.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1791-1792; 1792 (APRIL-.JULY),
and (SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER);
1792-1793 (DECEMBER-FEBRUARY);
1793 (FEBRUARY-APRIL), (MARCH-SEPTEMBER),
and (JULY-DECEMBER).
GERMANY: A. D. 1192-1796.
The second and third Partitions of Poland.
See POLAND: A. D. 1791-1792; and 1793-1796.
GERMANY: A. D. 1794.
Withdrawal of Prussia from the Coalition.
French conquest of the Austrian Netherlands and successes on
the Rhine.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1794 (MARCH-JULY).
GERMANY: A. D. 1795.
Treaty of Basle between Prussia and France.
Crumbling of the Coalition.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1794-1795 (OCTOBER-MAY).
GERMANY: A. D. 1796-1797.
Expulsion of Austria from Italy.
Bonaparte's first campaigns.
Advance of Moreau and Jourdan beyond the Rhine.
Their retreat.
Peace preliminaries of Leoben.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1796 (APRIL-OCTOBER);
and 1796-1797 (OCTOBER-APRIL).
GERMANY: A. D. 1797 (October).
The Treaty of Campo Formio between Austria and France.
Austrian cession of the Netherlands and Lombardy and
acquisition of Venice.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1797 (MAY-OCTOBER).
GERMANY: A. D. 1798.
The second Coalition against Revolutionary France.
Prussia and the Empire withheld from it.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1798-1799 (AUGUST-APRIL).
GERMANY: A. D. 1799.
The Congress at Rastadt.
Murder of French envoys.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1799 (APRIL-SEPTEMBER).
GERMANY: A. D. 1800 (May-December).
The disastrous campaigns of Marengo and Hohenlinden.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1800-1801 (MAY-FEBRUARY).
GERMANY: A. D. 1801-1803.
The Peace of Luneville.
Territorial cessions and changes.
The settlement of indemnities in the Empire.
Confiscation and secularization of the ecclesiastical
principalities.
Absorption of Free Cities.
Re-constitution of the Electoral College.
"By the treaty of Luneville, which the Emperor Francis was
obliged to subscribe, 'not only as Emperor of Austria, but in
the name of the German empire,' Belgium and all the left bank
of the Rhine were again formally ceded to France; Lombardy was
erected into an independent state, and the Adige declared the
boundary betwixt it and the dominions of Austria; Venice, with
all its territorial possessions as far as the Adige, was
guaranteed to Austria; the Duke of Modena received the Brisgau
in exchange for his duchy, which was annexed to the Cisalpine
republic; the Grand Duke of Tuscany, the Emperor's brother,
gave up his dominions to the infant Duke of Parma, a branch of
the Spanish family [who was thereupon raised to royal rank by the
fiat of Bonaparte, who transformed the grand-duchy of Tuscany
into the kingdom of Etruria], on the promise of an indemnity
in Germany; France abandoned Kehl, Cassel, and
Ehrenbreitstein, on condition that these forts should remain
in the situation in which they were when given up; the princes
dispossessed by the cession of the left bank of the Rhine were
promised an indemnity in the bosom of the Empire; the
independence of the Batavian, Helvetic, Cisalpine and Ligurian
republics was guaranteed, and their inhabitants declared 'to
have the power of choosing whatever form of government they
preferred.' These conditions did not differ materially from
those contained in the treaty of Campo Formio, or from those
offered by Napoleon previous to the renewal of the war. ...
The article which compelled the Emperor to subscribe this
treaty as head of the empire, as well as Emperor of Austria,
gave rise in the sequel ... to the most painful internal
divisions in Germany. By a fundamental law of the empire, the
Emperor could not bind the electors and states of which he was
the head, without either their concurrence or express powers
to that effect previously conferred. ... The emperor hesitated
long before he subscribed such a condition, which left the
seeds of interminable discord in the Germanic body; but the
conqueror was inexorable, and no means of evasion could be
found. He vindicated himself to the electors in a dignified
letter, dated 8th February 1801, the day before that when the
treaty was signed. ... The electors and princes of the empire
felt the force of this touching appeal; they commiserated the
situation of the first monarch in Christendom, compelled to
throw himself on his subjects for forgiveness of a step which
he could not avoid; and one of the first steps of the Diet of
the empire, assembled after the treaty of Luneville was
signed, was to give it their solemn ratification, grounded on
the extraordinary situation in which the Emperor was then
placed.
{1506}
But the question of indemnities to the dispossessed princes
was long and warmly agitated. It continued for above two years
to distract the Germanic body; the intervention both of France
and Russia was required to prevent the sword being drawn in
these internal disputes; and by the magnitude of the changes
which were ultimately made, and the habit of looking to
foreign protection which was acquired, the foundation was laid
of that league to support separate interests which afterwards,
under the name of the Confederation of the Rhine, so well
served the purposes of French ambition, and broke up the
venerable fabric of the German empire."
Sir A. Alison,
History of Europe, 1789-1815,
chapter 32 (volume 7).
"Germany: lost by this treaty about 24,000 square miles of its
best territory and 3,500,000 of its people; while the princes
were indemnified by the plunder of their peers. But the
hardest task, the satisfactory distribution of this plunder,
remained. While the Diet at Regensburg, after much complaint
and management, assigned the arrangement of these affairs to a
committee, the princely bargainers were in Paris, employing
the most disgraceful means to obtain the favor of Talleyrand
and other influential diplomatists. On the 25th of February,
1803, the final decision of the delegation or committee of the
empire was adopted by the Diet, and promulgated with the approval
of the emperor, Francis II., and of Prussia and Bavaria. It
confiscated all the spiritual principalities in Germany,
except that the Elector of Mayence, Charles Theodore of
Dalberg, received Regensburg, Aschaffenburg, and Wetzlar, as
an indemnity, and retained a seat and a voice in the imperial
Diet. Of the 48 free cities of the empire, six only
remained--Hamburg, Bremen, Lubeck, Frankfort, Nuremburg, and
Augsburg. Austria obtained the bishoprics of Trent and Brixen;
Prussia, as a compensation for the loss of 1,018 square miles
with 122,000 inhabitants west of the Rhine, received 4,875
square miles, with 580,000 inhabitants, including the
endowments of the religious houses of Hildesheim and
Paderborn, and most of Münster; also Erfurt and Eichsfeld, and
the free cities of Nordhausen, Mülhausen, and Goslar; Hanover
obtained Osnabruck; to Bavaria, in exchange for the
Palatinate, were assigned Würzburg, Bamberg, Freisingen,
Augsburg, and Passau, besides a number of cities of the
empire, in all about 6,150 square miles, to compensate for
4,240, vastly increasing its political importance. Wirtemberg,
too, was richly compensated for the loss of the Mömpelgard by
the confiscation of monastery endowments and free cities in
Suabia. But Baden made the best bargain of all, receiving
about 1,270 square miles of land, formerly belonging to
bishops or to the Palatinate, in exchange for 170. After this
acquisition, Baden extended, though in patches, from the
Neckar to the Swiss border. By building up these three South
German states, Napoleon sought to erect a barrier for himself
against Austria and Prussia. With the same design,
Hesse-Darmstadt and Nassau were much enlarged. There were
multitudes of smaller changes, under the name of
'compensations and indemnities.' Four new lay electorates were
established in the place of the three secularized prelacies,
and were given to Baden, Wirtemberg, Hesse-Cassel, and
Salzburg. But they never had occasion to take part in the
election of an emperor."
C. T. Lewis,
History of Germany,
chapter 25, sections 26-27.
ALSO IN:
A. Thiers,
History of the Consulate and the Empire,
books 7 and 15 (volume 1).
J. R. Seeley,
Life and Times of Stein,
part 1, chapter 4 (volume 1).
GERMANY: A. D. 1803.
Bonaparte's seizure of Hanover in his war with England.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1802-1803.
GERMANY: A. D. 1805 (January-April).
The third Coalition against France.
Prussian Neutrality.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1805 (JANUARY-APRIL).
GERMANY: A. D. 1805 (September-December).
Napoleon's overwhelming campaign.
The catastrophes at Ulm and Austerlitz.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1805 (MARCH-DECEMBER).
GERMANY: A. D. 1805-1806.
The Peace of Presburg.
Territorial losses of Austria.
Aggrandizement of Bavaria and Würtemberg, which become
kingdoms, and Baden a grand duchy.
The Confederation of the Rhine.
End of the Holy Roman Empire.
"On the 6th of December, hostilities ceased, and the Russians
retired by way of Galicia, but in accordance with the terms of
the armistice, the French troops continued to occupy all the
lands they had invaded, Austria, Tyrol, Venetia, Carniola,
Carinthia, and Styria; within Bohemia they were to have the
circle of Tabor, together with Brno and Znoymo in Moravia and
Pozsony (Pressburg) in Hungary. The Morava (March) and the
Hungarian frontier formed the line of demarcation between the
two armies. A definitive peace was signed at Pressburg on the
26th of December, 1805. Austria recognized the conquests of
France in Holland and Switzerland and the annexation of Genoa,
and ceded to the kingdom of Italy Friuli, Istria, Dalmatia with
its islands, and the Bocche di Cattaro. A little later, by the
explanatory Act of Fontainebleau, she lost the last of her
possessions to the west of the Isonzo, when she exchanged
those portions of the counties of Gorico and Gradisca which
are situated on the right bank of that river for the county of
Montefalcone in Istria. The new kingdoms of Bavaria and
Würtemberg [brought into existence by this treaty, through the
recognition of them by the Emperor Francis] were aggrandized
at the expense of Austria. Bavaria obtained Vorarlberg, the
county of Hohenembs, the town of Lindau, and the whole of
Tyrol, with Brixen and Trent. Austrian Suabia was given to
Würtemberg, while Breisgau and the Ortenau were bestowed on
the new grand duke of Baden. One compensation alone, the duchy
of Salzburg, fell to Austria for all her sacrifices, and this
has remained in her possession ever since. The old bishopric
of Würzburg was created an electorate and granted to Ferdinand
III. of Tuscany and Salzburg. Altogether the monarchy lost
about 25,400 square miles and nearly 3,000,000 of inhabitants.
She lost Tyrol with its brave and loyal inhabitants and the
Vörlande which had assured Austrian influence in Germany;
every possession on the Rhine, in the Black Forest, and on the
Lower Danube; she no longer touched either Switzerland or
Italy, and she ceased to be a maritime power. Besides all
this, she had to pay forty millions for the expenses of the
war, while she was exhausted by contributions and
requisitions. Vienna had suffered much, and the French army
had carried off the 2,000 cannons and the 100,000 guns which
had been contained in her arsenals. On the 16th of January,
1806, the emperor Francis returned to his capital.
{1507}
He was enthusiastically received, and the Viennese returned to
the luxurious and easy way of life which has always
characterized them. ... Austria seemed no longer to have any
part to play in German politics. Bavaria, Würtemberg and Baden
had been formed into a separate league--the Confederation of
the Rhine--under French protection. On the 1st of August,
1806, these states announced to the Reichstag at Ratisbon that
they looked upon the empire as at an end, and on the 6th,
Francis II. formally resigned the empire altogether, and
released all the Imperial officials from their engagements to
him. Thus the sceptre of Charlemagne fell from the hands of
the dynasty which had held it without interruption from 1438."
L. Leger,
History of Austro-Hungary,
chapter 25.
"Every bond of union was dissolved with the diet of the empire
and with the imperial chamber. The barons and counts of the
empire and the petty princes were mediatised; the princes of
Hohenlohe, Oettingen, Schwarzenberg, Thurn, and Taxis, the
Truchsess von Waldburg, Fürstenberg, Fugger, Leiningen,
Löwenstein, Solms, Hesse-Homburg, Wied-Runkel, and
Orange-Fulda, became subject to the neighbouring Rhenish
confederated princes. Of the remaining six imperial free
cities, Augsburg and Nuremberg fell to Bavaria; Frankfurt,
under the title of grand-duchy, to the ancient elector of
Mayence, who was again transferred thither from Ratisbon. The
ancient Hanse-towns, Hamburg, Lübeck, and Bremen, alone
retained their freedom."
W. Menzel,
History of Germany,
chapter 253 (volume 3).
"A swift succession of triumphs had left only one thing still
preventing the full recognition of the Corsican warrior as
sovereign of Western Europe, and that one was the existence of
the old Romano-Germanic Empire. Napoleon had not long assumed
his new title when he began to mark a distinction between 'la
France' and 'l'Empire Française.' France had, since A. D.
1792, advanced to the Rhine, and, by the annexation of
Piedmont, had overstepped the Alps; the French Empire
included, besides the kingdom of Italy, a mass of dependent
states, Naples, Holland, Switzerland, and many German
principalities, the allies of France in the same sense in
which the 'socii populi Romani' were allies of Rome. When the
last of Pitt's coalitions had been destroyed at Austerlitz,
and Austria had made her submission by the peace of Presburg,
the conqueror felt that his hour was come. He had now overcome
two Emperors, those of Austria and Russia, claiming to
represent the old and new Rome respectively, and had in
eighteen months created more kings than the occupants of the
Germanic throne in as many centuries. It was time, he thought,
to sweep away obsolete pretensions, and claim the sole
inheritance of that Western Empire, of which the titles and
ceremonies of his court presented a grotesque imitation. The
task was an easy one after what had been already accomplished.
Previous wars and treaties had so redistributed the
territories and changed the constitution of the Germanic
Empire that it could hardly be said to exist in anything but
name. ... The Emperor Francis, partly foreboding the events
that were at hand, partly in order to meet Napoleon's
assumption of the imperial name by depriving that name of its
peculiar meaning, began in A. D. 1805 to style himself
'Hereditary Emperor of Austria,' while retaining at the same
time his former title. The next act of the drama was one in
which we may more readily pardon the ambition of a foreign
conqueror than the traitorous selfishness of the German
princes, who broke every tie of ancient friendship and duty to
grovel at his throne. By the Act of the Confederation of the
Rhine, signed at Paris, July 12th, 1806, Bavaria, Würtemberg,
Baden, and several other states, sixteen in all, withdrew from
the body and repudiated the laws of the Empire, while on
August 1st the French envoy at Regensburg announced to the
Diet that his master, who had consented to become Protector of
the Confederate princes, no longer recognized the existence of
the Empire. Francis II. resolved at once to anticipate this
new Odoacer, and by a declaration, dated August 6th, 1806,
resigned the imperial dignity. His deed states that finding it
impossible, in the altered state of things, to fulfil the
obligations imposed by his capitulation, he considers as
dissolved the bonds which attached him to the Germanic body,
releases from their allegiance the states who formed it, and
retires to the government of his hereditary dominions under
the title of 'Emperor of Austria.' Throughout, the term
'German Empire' (Deutsches Reich) is employed. But it was the
crown of Augustus, of Constantine, of Charles, of Maximilian,
that Francis of Hapsburg laid down, and a new era in the
world's history was marked by the fall of its most venerable
institution. One thousand and six years after Leo the Pope had
crowned the Frankish king, eighteen hundred and fifty-eight
years after Cæsar had conquered at Pharsalia, the Holy Roman
Empire came to its end."
J. Bryce,
The Holy Roman Empire,
chapter 20.
GERMANY: A. D. 1806 (January-August).
The Confederation of the Rhine.
Cession of Hanover to Prussia.
Double dealing and weakness of the latter.
Her submission to Napoleon's insults and wrongs.
Final goading of the nation to war.
"The object at which all French politicians had aimed since
the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, the exclusion of both
Austria and Prussia from influence in Western Germany, was now
completely attained. The triumph of French statesmanship, the
consummation of two centuries of German discord, was seen in
the Act of Federation subscribed by the Western German
Sovereigns in the summer of 1806. By this Act the Kings of
Bavaria and Würtemberg, the Elector of Baden, and 13 minor
princes, united themselves, in the League known as the Rhenish
Confederacy, under the protection of the French Emperor, and
undertook to furnish contingents, amounting to 63,000 men, in
all wars in which the French Empire should engage. Their
connection with the ancient Germanic Body was completely
severed; the very town in which the Diet of the Empire had
held its meetings was annexed by one of the members of the
Confederacy. The Confederacy itself, with a population of
8,000,000, became for all purposes of war and foreign policy a
part of France. Its armies were organised by French officers;
its frontiers were fortified by French engineers; its treaties
were made for it at Paris. In the domestic changes which took
place within these States the work of consolidation begun in
1801 was carried forward with increased vigour. Scores of tiny
principalities which had escaped dissolution in the earlier
movement were now absorbed by their stronger neighbours. ...
{1508}
With the establishment of the Rhenish Confederacy and the
conquest of Naples, Napoleon's empire reached, but did not
overpass, the limits within which the sovereignty of France
might probably have been long maintained. ... If we may judge
from the feeling with which Napoleon was regarded in Germany
down to the middle of the year 1806, and in Italy down to a
much later date, the Empire then founded might have been
permanently upheld, if Napoleon had abstained from attacking
other States." During the winter of 1806, Count Haugwitz, the
Prussian minister, had visited Paris "for the purpose of
obtaining some modification in the treaty which he had signed
[at the palace of Schönbrunn, near Vienna] on behalf of
Prussia after the battle of Austerlitz. The principal feature
in that treaty had been the grant of Hanover to Prussia by the
French Emperor in return for its alliance. This was the point
which above all others excited King Frederick William's fears
and scruples; He desired to acquire Hanover, but he also
desired to derive his title rather from its English owner
[King George III., who was also Elector of Hanover] than from
its French invader. It was the object of Haugwitz' visit to
Paris to obtain an alteration in the terms of the treaty which
should make the Prussian occupation of Hanover appear to be
merely provisional, and reserve to the King of England at
least a nominal voice in its ultimate transfer. In full
confidence that Napoleon would agree to such a change, the
King of Prussia, on taking possession of Hanover in January,
1806, concealed the fact of its cession to himself by
Napoleon, and published an untruthful proclamation. ... The
bitter truth that the treaty between France and Prussia
contained no single word reserving the rights of the Elector,
and that the very idea of qualifying the absolute cession of
Hanover was an afterthought, lay hidden in the conscience of
the Prussian Government. Never had a Government more
completely placed itself at the mercy of a pitiless enemy.
Count Haugwitz, on reaching Paris, was received by Napoleon
with a storm of indignation and contempt. Napoleon declared
that the ill-faith of Prussia had made an end even of that
miserable pact which had been extorted after Austerlitz, and
insisted that Prussia should openly defy Great Britain by
closing the ports of Northern Germany to British vessels, and
by declaring itself endowed by Napoleon with Hanover in virtue
of Napoleon's own right of conquest. Haugwitz signed a second
and more humiliating treaty [February 15] embodying these
conditions; and the Prussian Government, now brought into the
depths of contempt, but unready for immediate war, executed
the orders of its master. ... A decree was published excluding
the ships of England from the ports of Prussia and from those
of Hanover itself (March 28, 1806). It was promptly followed
by the seizure of 400 Prussian vessels in British harbours,
and by the total extinction of Prussian maritime commerce by
British privateers. Scarcely was Prussia committed to this
ruinous conflict with Great Britain when Napoleon opened
negotiations for peace with Mr. Fox's Government. The first
condition required by Great Britain was the restitution of
Hanover to King George III. It was unhesitatingly granted by
Napoleon. Thus was Prussia to be mocked of its prey, after it
had been robbed of all its honour. ... There was scarcely a
courtier in Berlin who did not feel that the yoke of the
French had become past endurance; even Haugwitz himself now
considered war as a question of time. The patriotic party in
the capital and the younger officers of the army bitterly
denounced the dishonoured Government, and urged the King to
strike for the credit of his country. ... Brunswick was
summoned to the King's council to form plans of a campaign;
and appeals for help were sent to Vienna, to St. Petersburg,
and even to the hostile Court of London. The condition of
Prussia at this critical moment was one which filled with the
deepest alarm those few patriotic statesmen who were not
blinded by national vanity or by a slavery to routine. ...
Early in the year 1806 a paper was drawn up by Stein,
exposing, in language seldom used by a statesman, the
character of the men by whom Frederick William was surrounded,
and declaring that nothing but a speedy change of system could
save the Prussian State from utter downfall and ruin. Two
measures of immediate necessity were specified by Stein, the
establishment of a responsible council of Ministers, and the
removal of Haugwitz and all his friends from power. ... The
army of Prussia ... was nothing but the army of Frederick the
Great grown twenty years older. ... All Southern Germany was
still in Napoleon's hands. The appearance of a Russian force
in Dalmatia, after that country had been ceded by Austria to
the French Emperor, had given Napoleon an excuse for
maintaining his troops in their positions beyond the Rhine. As
the probability of a war with Prussia became greater and greater,
Napoleon tightened his grasp upon the Confederate States.
Publications originating among the patriotic circles of
Austria were beginning to appeal to the German people to unite
against a foreign oppressor. An anonymous pamphlet, entitled
'Germany in its Deep Humiliation,' was sold by various
booksellers in Bavaria, among others by Palm, a citizen of
Nuremberg. There is no evidence that Palm was even acquainted
with the contents of the pamphlet; but ... Napoleon ...
required a victim to terrify those who, among the German
people, might be inclined to listen to the call of patriotism.
Palm was not too obscure for the new Charlemagne. The innocent
and unoffending man, innocent even of the honourable crime of
attempting to save his country, was dragged before a tribunal
of French soldiers, and executed within twenty-four hours of
his trial, in pursuance of the imperative orders of Napoleon
(August 26). ... Several years later, ... the story of Palm's
death was one of those that kindled the bitterest sense of
wrong; at the time, it exercised no influence upon the course
of political events. Prussia had already resolved upon war."
C. A. Fyffe,
History of Modern Europe,
volume 1, chapters 6-7.
ALSO IN:
Sir W. Scott,
Life of Napoleon,
chapters 51-52.
J. R. Seeley,
Life and Times of Stein,
part 2, chapters 4-5 (volume 1).
P. Lanfrey,
History of Napoleon,
volume 2, chapter 15.
{1509}
GERMANY: A. D. 1806 (October).
Napoleon's sudden invasion of Prussia.
The decisive battle of Jena.
Prostration of the Prussian Kingdom.
"The Emperor of Russia ... visited Berlin, when the feelings
of Prussia, and indeed of all the neighbouring states, were in
this fever of excitement. He again urged Frederick William to
take up arms in the common cause, and offered to back him with
all the forces of his own great empire. The English
government, taking advantage of the same crisis, sent Lord
Morpeth to Berlin, with offers of pecuniary supplies--about
the acceptance of which, however, the anxiety of Prussia on
the subject of Hanover created some difficulty. Lastly,
Buonaparte, well informed of what was passing in Berlin, and
desirous, since war must be, to hurry Frederick into the field
ere the armies of the Czar could be joined with his, now
poured out in the 'Moniteur' such abuse on the persons and
characters of the Queen, Prince Louis, and every illustrious
patriot throughout Prussia, that the general wrath could no
longer be held in check. War-like preparations of every kind
filled the kingdom during August and September. On the 1st of
October the Prussian minister at Paris presented a note to
Talleyrand, demanding, among other things, that the formation
of a confederacy in the north of Germany should no longer be
thwarted by French interference, and that the French troops
within the territories of the Rhenish League should recross
the Rhine into France, by the 8th of the same month of
October. But Napoleon was already in person on the German side
of the Rhine; and his answer to the Prussian note was a
general order to his own troops, in which he called on them to
observe in what manner a German sovereign still dared to
insult the soldiers of Austerlitz. The conduct of Prussia, in
thus rushing into hostilities without waiting for the advance
of the Russians, was as rash as her holding back from Austria
during the campaign of Austerlitz had been cowardly. As if
determined to profit by no lesson, the Prussian council also
directed their army to advance towards the French, instead of
lying on their own frontier--a repetition of the great leading
blunder of the Austrians in the preceding year. The Prussian
army accordingly invaded the Saxon provinces, and the Elector
... was compelled to accept the alliance which the cabinet of
Berlin urged on him, and to join his troops with those of the
power by which he had been thus insulted and wronged. No
sooner did Napoleon know that the Prussians had advanced into
the heart of Saxony, than he formed the plan of his campaign;
and they, persisting in their advance, and taking up their
position finally on the Saale, afforded him, as if studiously,
the means of repeating, at their expense, the very manœvres which
had ruined the Austrians in the preceding campaign." The flank
of the Prussian position was turned,--the bridge across the
Saale, at Saalfield, having been secured, after a hot
engagement with the corps of Prince Louis of Prussia who fell
in the fight,--"the French army passed entirely round them;
Napoleon seized Naumburg and blew up the magazines
there,--announcing, for the first time, by this explosion, to
the King of Prussia and his generalissimo the Duke of
Brunswick, that he was in their rear. From this moment the
Prussians were isolated, and cut off from all their resources,
as completely as the army of Mack was at Ulm, when the French
had passed the Danube and overrun Suabia. The Duke of
Brunswick hastily endeavoured to concentrate his forces for
the purpose of cutting his way back again to the frontier
which he had so rashly abandoned. Napoleon, meantime, had
posted his divisions so as to watch the chief passages of the
Saale, and expected, in confidence, the assault of his
outwitted opponent. It was now that he found leisure to answer
the manifesto of Frederick William. ... His letter, dated at
Gera, is written in the most elaborate style of insult. ...
The Prussian King understood well, on learning the fall of
Naumburg, the imminent danger of his position; and his army
was forthwith set in motion, in two great masses; the former,
where he was in person present, advancing towards Naumburg;
the latter attempting, in like manner, to force their passage
through the French line in the neighbourhood of Jena. The
King's march was arrested at Auerstadt by Davoust, who, after
a severely contested action, at length repelled the assailant.
Napoleon himself, meanwhile, was engaged with the other great
body of the Prussians. Arriving on the evening of the 13th
October at Jena, he perceived that the enemy were ready to
attempt the advance next morning, while his own heavy train
was still six-and-thirty hours' march in his rear. Not
discouraged with this adverse circumstance, the Emperor
laboured all night in directing and encouraging his soldiery
to cut a road through the rocks, and draw up by that means
such light guns as he had at command to a position on a lofty
plateau in front of Jena, where no man could have expected
beforehand that any artillery whatever should be planted. ...
Lannes commanded the centre, Augereau the right, Soult the
left, and Murat the reserve and cavalry. Soult had to sustain
the first assault of the Prussians, which was violent--and
sudden; for the mist lay so thick on the field that the armies
were within half-gunshot of each other ere the sun and wind
rose and discovered them, and on that instant Mollendorf
charged. The battle was contested well for some time on this
point; but at length Ney appeared in the rear of the Emperor
with a fresh division; and then the French centre advanced to
a general charge, before which the Prussians were forced to
retire. They moved for some space in good order; but Murat now
poured his masses of cavalry on them, storm after storm, with
such rapidity and vehemence that their rout became inevitable.
It ended in the complete breaking up of the army--horse and
foot all flying together, in the confusion of panic, upon the
road to Weimar. At that point the fugitives met and mingled
with their brethren flying, as confusedly as themselves, from
Auerstadt. In the course of this disastrous day 20,000
Prussians were killed or taken, 300 guns, 20 generals, and 60
standards. The Commander-in-Chief, the Duke of Brunswick,
being wounded in the face with a grape-shot, was carried early
off the field, never to recover. ... The various routed
divisions roamed about the country, seeking separately the
means of escape: they were in consequence destined to fall an
easy prey. ... The Prince of Hohenlohe at length drew together
not less than 50,000 of these wandering soldiers," and retreated
towards the Oder; but was forced, in the end, to lay down his
arms at Prentzlow. "His rear, consisting of about 10,000,
under the command of the celebrated General Blucher, was so
far behind as to render it possible for them to attempt
escape. Their heroic leader traversed the country with them
for some time unbroken, and sustained a variety of assaults,
from far superior numbers, with the most obstinate resolution.
{1510}
By degrees, however, the French, under Soult, hemmed him in on
one side, Murat on the other, and Bernadotte appeared close
behind him. He was thus forced to throw himself into Lubeck,
where a severe action was fought in the streets of the town,
on the 6th of November. The Prussian, in this battle, lost
4,000 prisoners, besides the slain and wounded: he retreated
to Schwerta, and there, it being impossible for him to go
farther without violating the neutrality of Denmark, on the
morning of the 7th, Blucher at length laid down his arms. ...
The strong fortresses of the Prussian monarchy made as
ineffectual resistance as the armies in the field. ...
Buonaparte, in person, entered Berlin on the 25th of October;
and before the end of November, except Konigsberg--where the
King himself had found refuge, and gathered round, him a few
thousand troops ... --and a few less important fortresses, the
whole of the German possessions of the house of Brandenburg
were in the hands of the conqueror. Louis Buonaparte, King of
Holland, meanwhile had advanced into Westphalia and occupied
that territory also, with great part of Hanover, East
Friesland, Embden, and the dominions of Hesse-Cassel."
J. G. Lockhart,
Life of Napoleon,
chapter 20.
ALSO IN:
C. Adams,
Great Campaigns in Europe from 1796 to 1870,
chapter. 4.
Baron Jomini,
Life of Napoleon,
chapter 9 (volume 2),
Memoirs of Napoleon dictated at St. Helena,
volume 6, pages 60-72.
Sir A. Alison,
History of Europe, 1789-1815,
chapter 43 (volume 10).
Duke of Rovigo,
Memoirs,
volume 1, part 2, chapters 21-23.
GERMANY: A. D. 1806 (October-December).
Napoleon's ungenerous use of his victory.
His insults to the Queen of Prussia.
The kingdom governed as conquered territory.
The French advance into Poland, to meet the Russians.
Saxony made a kingdom.
"Napoleon made a severe and ungenerous use of his victory. The
old Duke of Brunswick, respectable from his age, his
achievements under the Great Frederick, and the honourable
wounds he had recently received on the field of battle, and
who had written a letter to Napoleon, after the battle of
Jena, recommending his subjects to his generosity, was in an
especial manner the object of invective. His states were
overrun, and the official bulletins disgraced by a puerile
tirade against a general who had done nothing but discharge
his duty to his sovereign. For this he was punished by the
total confiscation of his dominions. So virulent was the
language employed, and such the apprehensions in consequence
inspired, that the wounded general was compelled, with great
personal suffering, to take refuge in Altona, where he soon
after died. The Queen, whose spirit in prosperous and
constancy in adverse fortune had justly endeared her to her
subjects, and rendered her the admiration of all Europe, was
pursued in successive bulletins with unmanly sarcasms; and a
heroic princess, whose only fault, if fault it was, had been
an excess of patriotic ardour, was compared to Helen, whose
faithless vices had involved her country in the calamities
consequent on the siege of Troy. The whole dominions of the
Elector of Hesse Cassel were next seized; and that prince, who
had not even combated at Jena, but merely permitted, when he
could not prevent, the entry of the Prussians into his
dominions, was dethroned and deprived of all his possessions.
... The Prince of Orange, brother-in-law to the King of
Prussia, ... shared the same fate: while to the nobles of
Berlin he used publicly the cruel expression, more withering
to his own reputation than theirs,--'I will render that
noblesse so poor that they shall be obliged to beg their