Royal canton
The royal canton was a special district of the Prussian canton system .
After the conquest of Silesia , the greater part of the country was integrated into the existing canton system, which meant that it was divided into cantons, each assigned to a regiment of the Prussian army , so that it could supplement the number of soldiers there.
Two exceptions were made to the integration of Silesia into the cantonal system: On the one hand, the city of Wroclaw remained canton-free because of its economic importance. On the other hand, the six so-called mountain districts Bolkenhain , Glatz , Hirschberg , Jauer , Schweidnitz and Löwenberg received a special status. These six districts were centers of linen weaving , the products of which were of great importance to Prussia both as export goods and to meet domestic requirements. The absence of conscripts from these areas would have significantly reduced production.
To avoid this effect, the six districts were combined to form the royal canton ; they were only required to provide 60 recruits each year: 30 for the Prince Heinrich fusilier regiment , 30 for the king's guard regiment , if these units needed recruits. In addition, the weavers in these areas were exempt from advertising. Both regiments did not have their own parent cantons, but complemented each other primarily by recruiting volunteers and, in the case of the guard, by delivering particularly suitable soldiers from other regiments.
From 1795, Prince Heinrich's regiment received new recruiting districts in West Prussia , so that the royal canton only provided recruits to the guard. This remained so until the end of the old Prussian army organization with its canton system in 1806/1807.
literature
- Klaus-Peter Merta: The army in Brandenburg and Prussia from 1640 to 1806 - the uniform . Brandenburg publishing house, 1994
- Hans Bleckwenn : Under the Prussian eagle. The Brandenburg-Prussian Army 1640-1807 . Bertelsmann, 1978; ISBN 3-570-00522-4 .