Rhenish Confederation

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The First Rhine Alliance , also known as the Rhenish Alliance , was a denominational defensive alliance of religious and secular imperial princes of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation concluded on August 14, 1658 with a thrust against the Roman-German Emperor . Its foundation was largely the result of the Elector of Mainz and Imperial Arch Chancellor Johann Philipp von Schönborn . With the accession of France on August 15, 1658, the Rhine Confederation counted both guarantee powers of the Peace of Westphalia among its members, since Sweden belonged to the alliance for its German possession Bremen-Verden , and later also for Swedish-Pomerania . The Rhine Confederation was concluded for a period of three years and extended twice. Despite its official expiry in August 1667, its end is not dated until 1668, as French diplomacy managed to maintain negotiations on a further extension in the supreme body of the alliance, the Rhine Federal Council, until then.

prehistory

The Holy Roman Empire after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648

In the years after the Thirty Years War (1618–1648) two factors in particular determined the politics of the imperial princes. On the one hand, the Peace of Westphalia achieved was perceived as very uncertain. Swedish and Dutch troops were still in the empire and the war between France and Spain took place mainly on the Rhine and in the Spanish Netherlands , i.e. on imperial territory. In addition, there were tensions between the German princes themselves. The Duke of Lorraine was not included in the peace treaty and undertook further campaigns in France and the Rhineland, which thus became a constant trouble spot in the empire. At the same time, the Elector of Brandenburg waged a limited war for possession of the Duchy of Berg in 1651 . The second determining factor was the general fear that the Habsburg empire would be too strong . Through the experience of the war, especially through the Edict of Restitution of 1629, most of the imperial estates had come to the conclusion that the greatest threat to their independence and to peace in the empire came from the Habsburgs. The policy of a large part of the imperial estates therefore endeavored to secure peace and to limit imperial power in the empire.

The imperial estates began to create counterweights to imperial power. “However, since hardly any of them had the means for a completely independent foreign policy, they resorted to the tried and tested means of federative unification. The association thus became the most important instrument of imperial politics under the sign of the new alliance law. ”As early as March 21, 1651, the three clerical electors founded a defensive alliance (often called the Kurrheinisches Bündnis ) in response to the Brandenburg approach , which later became the Kurrheinische and should join the Upper Rhine Reichskreis . However, the expansion never took place. Another important union was the Hildesheim Alliance , founded on February 19, 1652 and shaped by Protestants, consisting of Braunschweig-Lüneburg, Hessen-Kassel, Sweden for Bremen and Verden and later Paderborn. It was initially the center of the imperial class opposition at the Reichstag of 1653/54 and tried in vain to limit the emperor's power by adopting permanent election surrenders. At the same time an alliance began to be formed under the leadership of Brandenburg, which had the aim of bringing together all Protestant imperial estates in the north-west of the empire. In response to this development, a Catholic alliance was founded on December 15, 1654. The Cologne alliance initially included Kurköln, Kurtrier, Münster and Pfalz-Neuburg. In the following year, Kurmainz joined on August 11 on the basis of the Kurrheinische Alliance of 1651. The Cologne Alliance was primarily a defensive alliance to protect the territories from enemy troops. In terms of imperial politics, however, it also served to create a counterweight to the Protestant alliance that was forming. In the perception of contemporaries, as at the beginning of the Thirty Years War, a Catholic and a Protestant bloc opposed each other, but their interests at least coincided with one another in terms of maintaining peace.

The Cologne-based alliance had at its inception in December 1654 solely as a military defensive alliance weight. According to the text of the treaty, the allies were to maintain a joint army of 7859 men on foot and 1970 horsemen. However, with the accession of the Elector of Mainz Johann Philipp von Schönborn (1605–1673) the alliance also gained great political importance. The Elector of Mainz was one of the most influential men in imperial politics. He was chairman of the electoral college and chaired the election of a king and deliberations on his electoral surrender. He was responsible for managing the Reich Chancellery and was the first man in the Reichstag . In addition, he held other positions in the Reichshofrat and Reichskammergericht and was director of the Kurrheinische Reichskreis. Because of this priority, Schönborn soon took over the leadership of the alliance and transformed it into an instrument with which he could pursue an independent imperial policy.

Foundation (1655–1658)

Johann Philipp von Schönborn; Depiction in a coronation diary from 1658

The political circumstances in the empire at that time were conflictual and complicated. On July 9, 1654, Ferdinand IV (1633–1654), the son and elected successor of Emperor Ferdinand III. (1608–1657) died unexpectedly. The emperor's second son, Leopold , was only 14 years old and his choice seemed uncertain. The Reichstag of 1653/54 had come to an end without having solved the most pressing problems, such as the permanent election surrenders or the Reich Constitution for War. The convocation of a new Reichstag had been announced for 1656, but since the emperor would meet there with considerable opposition from the imperial estates, he postponed the convocation. The imperial estates saw the emperor's policy as a threat to the recently concluded Peace of Westphalia. Because Ferdinand III. had sent 12,000 soldiers to northern Italy, which at that time was still the scene of the Franco-Spanish War. While the emperor stated that he was only protecting the imperial fiefs from access by one of the warring parties, France saw this as an active support for Spain and threatened with consequences. Should it come to an open rupture, then imperial troops would also march against France on the Rhine and in the Spanish Netherlands, thus making north-west Germany and the Rhineland a war zone again. At the same time, King Karl X. Gustav of Sweden (1622–1660) attacked the Kingdom of Poland in 1655 , triggering another Northern War (1655–1660). Since the war began to expand with the participation of Brandenburg, Denmark and finally also the Emperor and the United Netherlands , the imperial estates feared becoming involved in the conflict. After the Swedish victory in the Battle of Warsaw in the summer of 1656, these fears grew especially among the Catholic estates.

Jules Mazarin; Portrait of Pierre Mignard (ca.1658)

In view of this threat, Schönborn began to form a non-denominational association of the central states of the empire in the summer of 1656. To do this, it made sense to include the principalities of the Hildesheim Alliance and to gain more influence through alliances with other electors. Schönborn wanted to use such an alliance in two ways: on the one hand, it should protect its members from attacks by third powers, and on the other, it should politically force the emperor to give up his support for Spain and thus avoid the threatening conflict with France. The attempt to win the Electorate of Bavaria for this alliance initially failed; Negotiations with the members of the Hildesheim Alliance also proved difficult. However, the situation changed with the death of Ferdinand III. on April 2, 1657 and a subsequent 15-month interregnum . Cardinal Jules Mazarin (1602–1661), who led French politics, urged in vain to exclude Leopold from the line of succession. In order to meet French interests, Article XIII was added to the election surrender of the emperor-designate, which forbade him to support Spain in any way in the fight against France. Leopold summoned the election surrender on July 15, 1658. This was followed by his election on July 18, and on August 1 he was crowned the new emperor.

Members

the date of entry is given in brackets

reception

The Rhine Confederation mainly served as a military federation in which people provided mutual protection and assured military support in the event of war. France was able to increase its troop strength and had an effective protection against the Austrian Habsburgs. The princes in detail, however, did not pose a risk for France, whereby the federation was of great importance for the French. At the same time, the German princes were also assured by France's allies that there would be no attack against them.

In the Turkish War of 1663/1664 the Rheinbund sent a corps of 6,000 men to support the emperor in Hungary, which also fought in the battle of Mogersdorf .

literature

  • Martin Göhring : Election of the emperor and the Confederation of the Rhine in 1658. A high point in the struggle between Habsburg and Bourbon for control of the empire. In: Martin Göhring, Alexander Scharff (Hrsg.): Historical forces and decisions. Festschrift for the sixty-fifth birthday of Otto Becker. Franz Steiner Verlag, Wiesbaden 1954. pp. 65-83.
  • Margarete Hintereicher: The Rhine Confederation of 1658 and the French imperial politics in an internal representation of the Versailles Foreign Ministry of the 18th century. In: Francia . 13, 1985. ISBN 3-7995-7213-9 . Pp. 247-270.
  • Anton Schindling : The first Rhine Confederation and the Reich. In: Volker Press (ed.), Dieter Stievermann (edited after the death of the ed.): Alternatives to the Imperial Constitution in the Early Modern Age? R. Oldenbourg, Munich 1995. ISBN 3-486-56035-2 (writings of the historical college, colloquia, volume 23). Pp. 123-129.
  • Roman Schnur : The Rhine Confederation of 1658 in German constitutional history. Ludwig Röhrscheid Verlag, Bonn 1955 (Rheinisches Archiv, publications by the Institute for Historical Regional Studies of the Rhineland at the University of Bonn, Volume 47).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Heinz Schilling: Courts and Alliances - Germany 1648–1763. Berlin 1998, pp. 200-205.
  2. ^ Anton Schindling: The first Rhine Confederation and the Empire. P. 124 and 126.
  3. ↑ Max Braubach: From the Peace of Westphalia to the French Revolution. P. 23 f.
  4. ^ Heinz Schilling: Courts and Alliances - Germany 1648–1763. Berlin 1998, p. 200 f.
  5. ^ Karl Otmar von Aretin: Das Alte Reich 1648-1806. Stuttgart 1993, Volume 1, p. 187.
  6. ^ Anton Schindling: The first Rhine Confederation and the Empire. P. 125.
  7. ^ Heinz Schilling: Courts and Alliances - Germany 1648–1763. Berlin 1998, p. 206.
  8. ↑ Unofficially, however, the number was immediately reduced to only 3600 men on foot and 650 riders for cost reasons; see: Karl Otmar von Aretin: Das Alte Reich 1648–1806. Stuttgart 1993, Volume 1, p. 188.
  9. ↑ Description of these political circumstances in: Karl Otmar von Aretin: Das Alte Reich 1648–1806 , Stuttgart 1993, Volume 1, pp. 184 and 188–190.
  10. ^ Karl Otmar von Aretin: Das Alte Reich 1648-1806. Stuttgart 1993, Volume 1, p. 190.
  11. ↑ historicum.net