King Frederick III. of Brandenburg
The coronation of Frederick III. from Brandenburg to King Friedrich I in Prussia took place on January 18, 1701 in the form of a self-coronation . It was possible for the elector as a sovereign duke in Prussia . The place was Königsberg , the capital of the duchy, which became the Kingdom of Prussia .
By the rise in rank succeeded the Elector of Brandenburg, which he in personal union ruled, far-flung territories of the resulting Brandenburg-Prussian state with greater authority to represent the outside and one inside. The royal title was related to the Duchy of Prussia, which lay outside the Holy Roman Empire ; within the borders of the empire, the title of king was reserved for the Rex Romanorum , i.e. the emperor. It had more difficult diplomatic efforts of Frederick III. towards Emperor Leopold I , in order to achieve contractual recognition of the royal dignity of the Brandenburg Hohenzollern in the empire and internationally.
The decision in favor of Friedrich was made against the background of an impending Europe-wide war as a result of the upcoming question of Spanish succession.
Since Prussia was divided in 1466 into the Polish Prussian Royal Share and the later Duchy, the title could only change from Duke in Prussia to King in Prussia . The increase in status did not affect either the provisions in the Treaty of Bromberg or the legal position of the King of Poland in the Prussian royal share.
Immediate ranks of princes in the Holy Roman Empire
Frederick III The pursuit of a royal crown was not an exception at the end of the 17th century. There were three immediate cases of ranks raised in Europe: The Elector Friedrich August I of Saxony obtained the dignity of King as August II in Poland in 1697 after converting to the Catholic faith. The House of Hanover received the ninth electoral dignity in 1692 and, in his close relationship with the House of Stuart , the Elector of Hanover, Ernst August , secured the right to the English throne, which was to be fulfilled by his successor in 1714. The takeover of the English royal crown by the House of Orange on February 13, 1689 was an example of an increase in rank outside the borders of the empire . What all ranks had in common was that no ruler had to renounce his ancestral possessions and professional rights in the empire.
The Palatinate electors and the Bavarian dukes from the Wittelsbach dynasty also strove to expand their influence by raising them to the royal rank. In doing so, these sovereigns tried to enforce their interests by invoking possessions outside of the imperial territory. Elector Max Emanuel of Bavaria tried to enforce his son Joseph Ferdinand's inheritance claims to the Spanish royal throne in the War of the Spanish Succession - but without success.
prehistory
Motivation and Causes
About the motives of Friedrich III. posterity, especially his grandson Friedrich II , suspected many things. The reduction to pure ostentation falls short. As Elector Friedrich III. His successor succeeded his father in 1688, the Hohenzollern lands were threatened by division and fragmentation through inheritance as a result of his father's will . In violation of the Hohenzollern house law, the Dispositio Achillea , which had been in force since 1473 , Brandenburg-Prussia was to be divided between the five sons of Friedrich Wilhelm (Friedrich himself and his four half-brothers). After lengthy negotiations and legal opinions, the heir to the throne succeeded in asserting himself against his siblings by 1692 and preserving the unity of the country. Friedrich recognized that a nationwide bracket was necessary for his torn state in order to prevent threatening divisions in the future and to unify the individual parts of the country.
Another impetus was the desire for royal dignity, which Friedrich promised to give further weight to foreign policy. The long-lasting and consolidated dominance of the Habsburg dynasty in the empire encouraged the elector to avoid the threat of a loss of rank and power by increasing the rank of an area that did not belong to the empire. As king of an imperial territory, Friedrich would have had the Roman-German emperor as overlord, while as king of an area outside the empire he was "his own master". In doing so, the elector also waived any rights in the event of a new emperor election.
A third important motif was the ceremonial system, which indicated the rank of prince and therefore had direct political significance.
"In our Teutschland, from the time the Peace of Minster and Osnabrück was concluded [1648], people began to take more care of the ceremonial essence ... The science of state ceremonies regulates the actions of the great gentlemen ..."
Immediate occasion
Efforts to acquire a Hohenzollern royal crown already existed under the Great Elector , who had Leibniz draw up a legal opinion on the question in 1676 . However, the efforts were largely unsuccessful. It was not until the 1680s that the French King Louis XIV wrote to him with the title mon frère (my brother), who was otherwise only intended for crowned heads.
A trigger for his aspirations for the royal crown was a Rangeklat at a meeting with William of Orange in The Hague in 1691, when Henry Bentinck, 1st Duke of Portland , in the run-up to the meeting with Frederick III. pointed out that King Wilhelm would first sit on an armchair at the table, while the Elector second would have to sit on a simple chair. After Friedrich's protest, the meeting finally took place standing.
Another important moment was the peace negotiations in Rijswijk in 1697, which ended the war of Palatine Succession that broke out in 1688 to the detriment of the Holy Roman Empire. In the negotiations, the imperial dominance over the imperial princes, especially Brandenburg, exceeded the limits of humiliation. The politics of the Habsburgs was still marked by the denominational differences between Catholics and Protestants. From the perspective of the Habsburgs, it was important to prevent a strong Protestant power from establishing itself in the north of the empire.
Although Friedrich III. had participated in the defense of the empire from the beginning and had supported the emperor with troops in the defense against the Turks , any serious participation in the conclusion of peace was denied due to a lack of rights. For example, the emperor only allowed one representative each to be sent to the negotiations for the electors on the grounds that the two representatives granted had been acts of grace in previous peace negotiations that should not become the norm. Furthermore, the Brandenburg demand for a power of attorney from the French to conclude peace with Brandenburg was not met by the Habsburg representatives despite Brandenburg's declaration of war. It was not even possible to collect the outstanding subsidies . The major European powers ignored the elector and his wishes - a humiliating experience for Friedrich III.
Friedrich III. wrote to his authorized representative Wolfgang von Schmettau in a letter:
"Nothing can be so sensitive to us as that we are insulted in front of the eyes of the whole of Europe, as the imperialists are planning to do."
As a result, Rijswijk showed Friedrich that he was dependent on the House of Habsburg . His long-considered idea of the coronation of the king in sovereign Prussia finally solidified as the only way to overcome this dependency, which was fruitless for Brandenburg-Prussia.
“In finem that I would otherwise than by assuming the royal should be able to receive the Honores Regios from me and my ministros, for which I see bad apparentz. Then as long as I am nothing more than an elector, you oppose Mihr allesahl. "
The territory of Elector Friedrich III.
The territory of Frederick III. divided into different areas that stretched from the Rhine to the Memel . Two parts of the country stood out due to their size: the Margraviate of Brandenburg and the Duchy of Prussia, which was historically independent from the Empire .
Mark Brandenburg
The Mark Brandenburg had been in the possession of the Hohenzollern since 1415. An elevation of this most important part of the country to a kingdom could only be done by the emperor, since the mark was part of the empire. However, the emperor's approval of this question was absurd, as this would have fueled the suspicion of other electors and further diminished the stability of the empire. Furthermore, from the point of view of that time, a kingdom had to be completely independent.
Duchy of Prussia
The Duchy of Prussia, which had been in the possession of Hohenzollern since 1618 and was formerly part of the Teutonic Order , which based on medieval legal interpretations such as the Golden Bull of Rimini (1226) and the Papal Bull of Rieti (1231), was not part of the Holy Roman Empire of Germans , offered a diplomatic solution Nation belonged. The feudal dependency of the Kingdom of Poland , of the 1525 secularized religious country since the Second Peace of Thorn was defeated in 1466, had Elector Friedrich Wilhelm in 1657 in the Treaty of Wehlau with the Polish king Johann II. Kasimir and in 1660 imperial law ratified Treaty of Oliva for himself and all his Successor eliminated. Therefore, Friedrich III. as a duke in Prussia a European sovereign and could have risen to the rank of king even without imperial recognition.
negotiations
After the Rangeklat 1691 commissioned Friedrich III. his privy councilors to prepare an opinion on the possibilities of a higher rank. Eberhard von Danckelman feared an irresponsible increase in representation expenses and the impending danger of political isolation if the ranking were not recognized internationally. The verdict of the Privy Councilors was unanimously negative, but the postponement of the question of the king was only supposed to be provisional until a better political situation emerged. Friedrich's first attempt at this matter in 1694 was rejected by the Vienna State Conference . Frederick's advance increased distrust of the elector at the Viennese court. By 1697, the relationship cooled to freezing due to further disputes.
On June 27, 1696, Augustus the Strong made a binding commitment for Electoral Saxony to recognize a Prussian royal crown if necessary. At the end of 1696, Friedrich signed a secret contract with the Bavarian elector, in which both sides assured each other of support in obtaining the crown. However, this contract had no consequences.
Serious efforts on the king question only resumed after Danckelman, a staunch opponent of the project, was overthrown in November 1697. Friedrich III. In November 1698 asked his privy councilors for the second time to give an expert opinion on the question of the king. They assessed the matter more positively due to favorable foreign policy developments. So the question of the Spanish succession emerged, for which Habsburg needed allies. The possible influence on Leopold I seemed to be correspondingly high according to the Brandenburg Secret Councils. Negotiations with leading representatives of the Habsburg cabinet began in December, albeit initially on an informal level. At the beginning of March 1699 the negotiations were conducted by imperial commission at ministerial level.
On March 3, 1700, the Emperor gave a first audience to an ambassador from Brandenburg on the question of the crown. The further negotiations between Berlin and Vienna are long and tough. From the Brandenburg point of view, it was important that the title of king should not be awarded (creirted) by the Catholic head of the empire, but only recognized (agnosed), i.e. that it came only from God and not from the emperor. In the meantime, the Brandenburg diplomats determined the attitude of the other European powers. They made it clear that Friedrich could never count on recognition by the European powers without the consent of the emperor. Negotiations accelerated when it became known that the end of the Spanish king was near. On July 27, 1700, the Permanent State Conference in Vienna approved the recognition of a crown of Frederick III.
In crucial section 7 of the contract, the emperor declared in the event of the coronation that he himself ...
- Ratificatio des Haubt Tractats , Cölln an der Spree, November 27, 1700
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The Habsburgs' conditions for the Prussian royal crown were:
- Confirmation of the 8,000 men of Brandenburg auxiliary troops promised since the treaty from 1686 to 1706, but which were now also allowed to be deployed outside the Reich
- Generalization of the subsidies to 100,000 thalers annually
- Waiver of all backward subsidies from the Treaty of 1686
- A general and non-binding declaration on behavior by Brandenburg-Prussia in accordance with imperial policy
The Spanish King Charles II died on November 1, 1700, which meant that a serious military conflict between France and the House of Habsburg was imminent due to the disputed question of succession. Shortly after the news of his death was received in Vienna around November 15, the renewed treaty of the Alliance was signed, which sealed the rise to the rank of kingdom. On November 24th, the courier arrived in Berlin with the crown contract , which Friedrich III. Ratified on November 27th. Also on November 27th, instructions were given to the Brandenburg envoys in Paris, London, The Hague and Warsaw to obtain the consent of the individual powers. On December 4th, the emperor ratified the treaty.
Coronation ceremony
contemporary painting by Johann Georg Wolfgang (1662–1744)
After hectic preparations, the ruling couple and a large retinue left Berlin on December 17, 1700 with the goal of Königsberg , the capital of the Duchy of Prussia. The train consisted of four compartments, which together made up 300 coaches and baggage cars and included a court of 200 people. A total of 30,000 leader horses were ready on the route. We traveled in the morning and celebrated in the afternoon. After twelve days, on December 29th, the train reached Koenigsberg. The coronation act took place on January 18, 1701 in Königsberg Castle . The day before, Friedrich III. founded the Black Eagle Order , whose members were sworn in on Frederick's motto suum cuique (each his own). Frederick knighted the members of his order before his coronation, which broke with all traditions valid in Europe, since accolades only took place after a coronation.
After Friedrich had reached the audience hall (which was probably a hall of the Unfriedtbau ), he received the crown presented on his knees by Chamberlain Johann Kasimir Kolbe von Wartenberg and crowned himself with his own hand. This was followed by the homage of the princes of the royal house. This self- coronation ceremony became the coronation of Charles XII. borrowed from Sweden. The court then went to the queen's rooms, where Frederick personally crowned her queen. The tribute by the representatives of the estates followed. With purple, crown and scepter, the king, accompanied by Queen Sophie Charlotte , moved into the castle church . He was followed by the Prussian Upper councils which the 1700-built by an unknown Berlin goldsmith Coronation insignia contributed. The service began with hymns and the sermon. The anointing was then performed by the court preachers Bernhard von Sanden and Benjamin Ursinus , who had previously been appointed bishops on a questionable legal basis. Von Sanden belonged to the Lutheran , Ursinus to the Calvinist denomination . Due to the presence of both bishops, the denomination of the Calvinist royal house and the Lutheran majority were taken into account and the royal dignity should be presented as given by God. This was followed by the anointing of the queen. The clergy present then passed the throne and paid homage to the royal couple. After more songs and prayers, a court official announced a general amnesty . Blasphemers, murderers, debtors and treasoners were excluded. Elector Friedrich III. now called himself Friedrich I - King in Prussia. The day ended with a coronation meal in the Muscovite Hall .
The day after the coronation began the audiences of the estates, who offered their congratulations to the royal couple. At her request, the crown insignia and jewels as well as the entire royal regalia were displayed to the public in the audience chamber under the watchful eye of the Swiss Guard. The smaller ones were also allowed into the castle, and there was an unheard of crowd in these rooms for the next three days.
The coronation ceremonies were accompanied by costly celebrations. On the day of the coronation, coins to the value of 6,000 thalers were distributed among the people (1 thaler is roughly equivalent to the value of € 100 in 2008), on the Schlossplatz there were roasted oxen and 4,000 liters of sparkling wine from two fountains. A magnificent fireworks display ended the day. Further celebrations dragged on until spring. The total cost of the coronation was later estimated at six million, with an annual state budget of four million talers. Christopher Clark estimates that the coronation was the most expensive single event in the entire Brandenburg-Prussian history.
The ceremony itself was largely designed by Friedrich himself. He himself determined many details such as the coronation insignia, the rituals and the liturgy . The royal crown was intended to symbolize the king's all-encompassing both secular and spiritual authority. Friedrich was supported by numerous experts on international ceremonies. The most important was Johann von Besser as master of ceremonies . Self-coronation and subsequent anointing stood for the claim to extensive violence only subjected to God.
Consequences of the royal coronation
The increase in rank is considered the “proudest hour” in the life of Frederick I and an almost inevitable and urgently needed step. Contemporary comments testify to the far-reaching significance of the new crown. Leibniz wrote:
“The establishment of the New Prussian Kingdom / is one of the greatest events of this time / not like this / as others / extends its effect for a few years / but has brought about something no less permanent than excellent. It is an ornament of the new Seculi, so started with this elevation of the House of Brandenburg "
External relations
The formal recognition of the crown was carried out, as agreed, first by August II, only in his capacity as King of Poland, then the Roman-German Emperor, followed by Denmark, England, the Russian Tsar, the Netherlands, Switzerland and some electors. However, there was not only approval internationally. The opponents, such as the French King Louis XIV and the Pope, refused recognition. It was the same with Spain and Sweden. Only gradually did these powers follow suit. Especially the German Order , which historically considered itself the owner of Prussia, Pope Innocent XII. and the Polish estates protested vigorously. The Sejm declared that as a result of the Second Peace of Thorn , 1466, manifested as a Polish fiefdom, contrary to the Wehlau treaty, as a Polish sphere of influence. The recognition of the Prussian royal title and the elevation of the Protestant Duchy of Prussia to the Kingdom of Prussia by the Polish-Lithuanian Sejm only followed under Russian pressure in 1764, that of the Papal States in 1787. Up to now the Pope had only had the title of " heretical " Prussian king "Margraves of Brandenburg" granted.
In the long term, the new kingship ensured the Hohenzollerns equal status with the other European powers. In the empire they acquired the supremacy among the Protestant powers that the Elector of Saxony had held until the change of denomination in 1697 .
Due to the provisions of the treaty, Prussia was drawn into the War of the Spanish Succession, in which a contingent of troops from the Prussian army fought on the Habsburg side and, according to Frederick II, 30,000 Prussians were killed.
Domestic politics
Domestically, the coronation promoted the state unity of the geographically far apart and economically very different Hohenzollern territories. In state institutions, authorities and the army, the predicate "royal Prussian" replaced the previous "Kurbrandenburgisch". The name "Prussia" and "Prussian" carried over to all areas of Brandenburg-Prussia in the course of the 18th century.
With the rise in rank, the internal and external demands and expectations of royal representation and court keeping increased enormously. In an effort to appear on a par with his European peers, Frederick I developed an effort and pomp in the Baroque style that was adapted to his kingship . A well-known example of this was the meeting of the Epiphany with the Polish and Danish rulers in 1709. The state's own funds and the often slow and incomplete receipt of subsidies were insufficient for the elaborate staging of courtly splendor in Berlin and Potsdam , especially for the new construction of the Berlin City Palace . Until 1713, the state treasury had to be heavily burdened by debts and replenished by rigorous tax measures, with the so-called three counts cabinet playing a key role.
Prussian-Habsburg opposition
The Habsburg, which was isolated at that time, secured an ally and thus valuable military support by recognizing the rise in rank for the upcoming War of the Spanish Succession , but in the long term the Hohenzollern rise in rank was a disadvantage for the Habsburgs. As feared, the state developed into a strong Protestant principality, which first shook the hegemony of the Habsburgs in Germany and was finally to break in the 19th century. There were also a few critical voices on the Habsburg side. So will Prince Eugene said: "You would do well to hang the proponents of this crown."
Remembrance and remembrance
The crown was set with 153 diamonds, 2 thick stones and 8 pear pearls.
In contrast to the celebrations of Frederick I, the following Prussian kings took office with a simple enthronement and the obtaining of homage in the states of the King of Prussia instead of an expensive ceremonial coronation . As an enlightened monarch, Frederick II saw the royal crown as a superfluous project that only arose from his grandfather's need for representation. In his story of my time , published in 1750, he wrote :
“He was more concerned with the dazzling shine than with the useful, which is simply dignified. He sacrificed 30,000 subjects in the various wars of the emperor and the allies in order to obtain the royal crown. And he only wanted her so ardently because he wanted to satisfy his penchant for ceremonies and to justify his lavish pomp by sham reasons. He showed rulership and generosity. But at what price did he buy the pleasure of satisfying his secret desires? "
Posterity adopted this picture largely and without reflection, but for the Prussian court the festival of the order remained on the 17th and 18th. January is the highest public holiday. The date of the proclamation of the Empire in the form of the proclamation of the King of Prussia as German Emperor on January 18, 1871 made symbolic reference to the royal coronation of 1701 and was soon considered to be a further increase in rank.
The state of Brandenburg and Berlin took the 300th anniversary of the coronation as an opportunity to proclaim the Prussian year 2001 . The focus of the cultural year was the preoccupation with Prussia in over 4,600 events, in which more than 400,000 visitors took an insight into the past in numerous exhibitions and events.
The crown insignia from 1701 have stood the test of time, apart from the jewels and pearls on the crowns, and have been on display in the Crown Cabinet of Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin since January 18, 1995 : the two crown frames, the scepter, the imperial orb, the imperial seal and the imperial sword.
literature
- Heide Barmeyer (ed.): The Prussian rise in rank and coronation in 1701 in a German and European perspective . Frankfurt a. M. 2002, ISBN 978-3-631-38845-7 .
- Christopher Clark : Prussia. Rise and fall 1600–1947. Federal Agency for Civic Education , Bonn 2007, ISBN 978-3-89331-786-8
- Heinz Duchhardt : January 18, 1701 and the European monarchy . In: Majestas 10 , 2002, Böhlau, Weimar / Wien 2002, ISBN 3-8258-6301-8 , pp. 151–166.
- Frank Göse : Friedrich I. (1657-1713). A king in Prussia. Pustet, Regensburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-7917-2455-3 .
- Iselin Gundermann : Via Regia. Prussia's way to the crown. Exhibition of the Secret State Archives of Prussian Cultural Heritage 1998 . Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-428-09454-9 .
- Johannes Kunisch (ed.): Three hundred years of Prussian royal coronation. A conference documentation (= research on Brandenburg and Prussian history, supplement; NF, 6). Duncker and Humblot, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-428-10796-9 .
- Werner Schmidt: Friedrich I. Elector of Brandenburg, King in Prussia . Diederichs, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-424-01319-6 .
- Wolfgang Stribrny : The Königsberg coronation 1701. Christianity and Enlightenment . In: Patrick Bahners , Gerd Roellecke (Hrsg.): Prussian styles. A state as a feat , Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-608-94290-4 , pp. 90-100.
- German Historical Museum , Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation (ed.): Prussia 1701. A European history . Volume 2: Franziska Windt (Ed.): Essays . Henschel, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89487-382-5 .
- Heinrich Lange: Crown, scepter, imperial orb ... On the fate of the crown insignia of 1701 . In: Berlin monthly magazine ( Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein ) . Issue 1, 2001, ISSN 0944-5560 , p. 4–12 ( luise-berlin.de ).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Christopher Clark : Prussia , p. 100.
- ↑ Werner Schmidt, p. 85.
- ↑ Werner Schmidt, p. 99.
- ^ Peter-Michael Hahn quotes Julius Bernhard von Rohr . In: Prussia 1701 - a European history. Essays. Henschel, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89487-388-4 , p. 57
- ↑ Günter Barudio, S. 209th
- ↑ a b Werner Schmidt, p. 103.
- ↑ Werner Schmidt, p. 105.
- ↑ preussenchronik.de
- ^ Karl Friedrich Pauli, p. 217.
- ↑ Werner Schmidt, p. 113.
- ↑ Werner Schmidt, p. 117.
- ↑ Werner Schmidt, p. 136.
- ↑ Wording in Gundermann, 1998 (Lit.), pp. 22–24.
- ↑ Günter Barudio, p. 211.
- ↑ Christopher Clark : Prussia , p. 93.
- ↑ Christopher Clark : Prussia , pp. 93-94.
- ^ Wulf D. Wagner: The Königsberg castle . Regensburg 2008, p. 285
- ↑ Prussian Chronicle
- ↑ Christopher Clark : Prussia , p. 94.
- ↑ Christopher Clark : Prussia , pp. 94-95.
- ↑ Heinz Duchhardt . In: Prussia 1701 - a European history , Volume 2: Essays . Deutsches Historisches Museum , Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89487-388-4 , p. 52
- ↑ Wolfgang Neugebauer : The Hohenzollern. Volume 1. Beginnings, state state and monarchical autocracy until 1740 . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-17-012096-4 , p. 190.
- ↑ Digitization of the Göttingen Digitization Center from: Monthly excerpt from all kinds of newly published useful and good books . Forster, Hanover 1701
- ^ The I. Rzeczpospolita , represented by the estates in the Polish-Lithuanian Reichstag, refused recognition.
- ↑ Prussia Year Book - An Almanach . MD Berlin, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-930929-12-0 , p. 26.
- ^ Matthias Weber: Preussen in Ostmitteleuropa , Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2006, pp. 14-15
- ↑ Bernd Sösemann: Communication and Media in Prussia from 16th to 19th , Franz Steiner Verlag, 2002, p. 119.
- ↑ Günter Barudio, S. 210th
- ↑ Like the scepter, the crown was made of pure gold, but not, as usual, with leaves; but of all diamonds closely attached to one another: which on the closed stirrups and the entire circumference seemed to be cast together as if from one piece and then seemed not otherwise divided by the difference in size; because some of the eighty, ninety and one hundred grains, yes, some of the diamonds even one hundred and thirty, held their weight and subsequently fell into the face with different degrees of fire. - Description of the crown after Johann von Besser , 1712. Heinrich Lange: crown, scepter, imperial orb ... On the fate of the crown insignia from 1701 . In: Berlin monthly magazine ( Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein ) . Issue 1, 2001, ISSN 0944-5560 , p. 4–12 ( luise-berlin.de ).
- ↑ Hans Bentzien, p. 108.
