Chapter IV: , VII (90)

ALSO IN:
_T. Carlyle,
History of Friedrich II.;
book 19, chapters 4-7._

_Frederick II.,
History of the Seven Years War
(Posthumous Works, volume 3), chapter 10._

GERMANY: A. D. 1760.
The Seven Years War:
Saxony reconquered by Frederick.
Dresden bombarded.
Battles of Liegnitz, Torgau and Warburg.

"The campaign of 1759 had extended far into the winter, and
Frederick conceived the bold idea of renewing it while the
vigilance of his enemies was relaxed in winter quarters, and
of making another effort to drive the Austrians from Saxony.
His head-quarters were at Freyberg. Having received
reinforcements from Prince Ferdinand, and been joined by
12,000 men under the hereditary prince, he left the latter to
keep guard behind the Mulde, and in January 1760, at a time
when the snow lay deep upon the ground, he made a fierce
spring upon the Austrians, who were posted at Dippoldiswalde;
but General Maguire, who commanded there, baffled him by the
vigilance and skill with which he guarded every pass, and
compelled him to retrace his steps to Freyberg. When the
winter had passed and the regular campaign had opened, Laudohn
[Loudon], one of the most active of the Austrian generals—the
same who had borne a great part in the victories of
Hochkirchen and Kunersdorf—entered Silesia, surprised with a
greatly superior force the Prussian General Fouqué, compelled
him, with some thousands of soldiers, to surrender [at
Landshut, June 22], and a few days later reduced the important
fortress of Glatz [July 26]. Frederick, at the first news of
the danger of Fouqué, marched rapidly towards Silesia, Daun
slowly following, while an Austrian corps, under General Lacy,
impeded his march by incessant skirmishes. On learning the
surrender of Fouqué, Frederick at once turned and hastened
towards Dresden. It was July, and the heat was so intense that
on a single day more than a hundred of his soldiers dropped dead
upon the march. He hoped to gain some days upon Daun, who was
still pursuing, and to become master of Dresden before
succours arrived. As he expected, he soon outstripped the
Austrian general, and the materials for the siege were
collected with astonishing rapidity, but General Maguire, who
commanded at Dresden, defended it with complete success till
the approach of the Austrian army obliged Frederick to retire.
{1501}
Baffled in his design, he took a characteristic vengeance by
bombarding that beautiful city with red-hot balls,
slaughtering multitudes of its peaceable inhabitants, and
reducing whole quarters to ashes; and he then darted again
upon Silesia, still followed by the Austrian general. Laudohn
had just met with his first reverse, having failed in the
siege of Breslau [an attempted surprise and a brief
bombardment]; on August 15, when Daun was still far off,
Frederick fell upon him and beat him in the battle of
Liegnitz. [The statement that 'Daun was still far off' appears
to be erroneous. Loudon and Daun had formed a junction four
days before, and had planned a concerted attack on Frederick's
camp; Loudon was struck and defeated while making the movement
agreed upon, and Daun was only a few miles away at the time.]
Soon after, however, this success was counterbalanced by Lacy
and Totleben, who; at the head of some Austrians and Russians,
had marched upon Berlin, which, after a brave resistance, was
once more captured and ruthlessly plundered; but on the
approach of Frederick the enemy speedily retreated. Frederick
then turned again towards Saxony, which was again occupied by
Daun, and on November 3 he attacked his old enemy in his
strong entrenchments at Torgau. Daun, in addition to the
advantage of position, had the advantage of great numerical
superiority, for his army was reckoned at 65,000, while that
of Frederick was not more than 44,000. But the generalship of
Frederick gained the victory. General Ziethen succeeded in
attacking the Austrians in the rear, gaining the height, and
throwing them into confusion. Daun was wounded and disabled,
and General O'Donnell, who was next in command, was unable to
restore the Austrian line. The day was conspicuous for its
carnage, even among the bloody battles of the Seven Years'
War: 20,000 Austrians were killed, wounded, or prisoners,
while 14,000 Prussians were left on the field. The battle
closed the campaign for the year, leaving all Saxony in the
possession of the Prussians, with the exception of Dresden,
which was still held by Maguire. The English and German army,
under Prince Ferdinand, succeeded in the meantime in keeping
at bay a very superior French army, under Marshal Broglio; and
several slight skirmishes took place, with various results.
The battle of Warburg, which was the most important, was won
chiefly by the British cavalry, but Prince Ferdinand failed in
his attempts to take Wesel and Gottingen; and at the close of
the year the French took up their quarters at Cassel."

_W. E. H. Lecky,
History of England, 18th Century,
chapter 8 (volume 2)._

ALSO IN:
_W. Coxe,
History of the House of Austria,
chapter 115 (volume 3)._

_G. B. Malleson,
Military Life of Loudon,
chapter 10._

_T. Carlyle,
History of Friedrich II.,
book 20, chapters 1-6._

GERMANY: A. D. 1761-1762.
The Seven Years War:
The closing campaigns.

"All Frederick's exertions produced him only 96,000 men for
defence of Silesia and Saxony this year [1761]. Prince Henry
had to face Daun in Saxony; the king himself stood in Silesia
against Loudon and the Russians under Butterlin. Loudon opened
the campaign by advancing against Goltz, near Schweidnitz, in
April. Goltz had only 12,000 to his adversary's 30,000, but
posted himself so well that Loudon could not attack him.
Reinforcements came gradually to Loudon, raising his army to
72,000, but orders from Vienna obliged him to remain inactive
till he could be joined near Neisse by the Russians with
60,000. Goltz, manœuvring against the Russians, was taken
prisoner. The king himself delayed the junction of his enemies
for some time, but could not now offer battle. The junction
took place the 18th of August. He then struck at Loudon's
communications, but the thrust was well parried, and on the
20th of August, Frederick, for the first time, was reduced to
an attitude of pure defence. He formed an intrenched camp at
Bunzelwitz, and lay there, blocking the way to Schweidnitz.
Loudon's intreaties could not persuade the Russians to join
him in full force to attack the position, and on the 9th of
September Butterlin's army fell back across the Oder, leaving
20,000 of his men to act under Loudon. Frederick remained a
fortnight longer in the camp of Bunzelwitz, but was then
forced to go, as his army was eating up the magazines of
Schweidnitz. Again he moved against Loudon's magazines, but
the Austrian general boldly marched for Schweidnitz, and
captured the place by assault on the night of the 30th
September—1st October. No fight took place between London and
the king. They both went into winter quarters in
December—Prussians at Strehlen, Austrians at Kunzendorf, and
Russians about Glatz. … In the western theatre Ferdinand
defeated Broglio and Soubise at Vellinghausen [or
Wellinghausen, or Kirch-Denkern, as the battle, fought July
15, is differently called], the English contingent again
behaving gloriously. … Prince Henry and Daun manœuvred
skilfully throughout the campaign, but never came to serious
blows. Frederick is described as being very gloomy in mind
this winter. The end of the year left him with but 60,000 men
in Saxony, Silesia, and the north. Eugene of Wurtemburg had
5,000 to hold back the Swedes, Prince Henry 25,000 in Saxony,
the king himself 30,000. But the agony of France was
increasing; Maria Theresa had to discharge 20,000 men from
want of money, and Frederick's bitter enemy, 'cette infame
Catin du Nord' [the czarina Elizabeth], was failing fast in
health. A worse blow to the king than the loss of a battle had
been the fall of Pitt, in October, and with him all hope of
English subsidies. Still, the enemies of Prussia were almost
exhausted. One more year of brave and stubborn resistance, and
Prussia must be left in peace. By extraordinary exertions, and
a power of administrative organisation which was one of his
greatest qualities, Frederick not only kept up his 60, 000,
but doubled their number. In the spring he had 70,000 for his
Silesian army, 40,000 for Prince Henry in Saxony, and 10,000
for the Swedes or other purposes. Best news of all, the
czarina died on the 5th of January, 1762, and Peter, who
succeeded her—only for a short time, poor boy—was an ardent
admirer of the great king. Frederick at once released and sent
home his Russian prisoners, an act which brought back his
Prussians from Russia. On the 23rd February Peter declared his
intention to be at peace and amity with Frederick, concluded
peace on the 5th of May, and a treaty of alliance a month
later. The Swedes, following suit, declared peace on the 22nd
of May, and Frederick could now give his sole attention to the
Austrians." For a few weeks, only, the Prussian king had a
Russian contingent of 20,000 in alliance with him, but could
make no use of it.
{1502}
It was recalled in July, by the revolution at St. Petersburg,
which deposed the young czar, Peter, in favour of his
ambitious consort, Catherine. Frederick succeeded in
concealing the fact long enough to frighten Daun by a show of
preparations for attacking him, with the Russian troops
included in his army, and the Austrian general retired to
Glatz and Bohemia. Frederick then took Schweidnitz, and
marched on Dresden. "Daun followed heavily. Like a
prize-fighter knocked out of time, he had no more fight in
him. Prince Henry had two affairs with the Reich's army and
its Austrian contingent. Forced to retire from Freyburg on the
15th, he afterwards attacked them on the 29th of October and
defeated them by a turning movement. They had 40,000, he 30,
000. The Austrian contingent suffered most. In the western
theatre Ferdinand held his own and had his usual successes.
His part in the war was to defend only, and he never failed to
show high qualities as a general. Thus, nowhere had
Frederick's enemies succeeded in crushing his defences. For
seven years the little kingdom of Prussia had held her ground
against the three great military powers, France, Austria, and
Russia. All were now equally exhausted. The constancy,
courage, and ability of Frederick were rewarded at last; on
the 15th of February, 1763, the treaty of Hubertsburg was
signed, by which Austria once more agreed to the cession of
Silesia. Prussia was now a Great Power like the rest, her
greatness resting on no shams, as she had proved."

_Colonel C. B. Brackenbury,
Frederick the Great,
chapter 18._

ALSO IN:
_Sir E. Cust,
Annals of the Wars of the 18th Century,
volume 3, pages 57-87._

_Frederick II.,
History of the Seven Years War
(Posthumous Works, volume 3), chapters 14-16._

GERMANY: A. D. 1763.
The end, results and costs of the Seven Years War.
The Peace of Hubertsburg and Peace of Paris.

See SEVEN YEARS WAR.

GERMANY: A. D. 1763-1790.
A period of peace and progress.
Intellectual cultivation.
Accession of the Emperor Joseph II.
His character and his reforms.
Accession of Leopold II.

"The peace of nearly thirty years which followed the
Seven-Years' War in Germany was a time of rich mental activity
and growth. Court life itself, if its vanities were not
abolished, still acquired a more enlightened and humane tone.
The fierce passions of the princes no longer exclusively
controlled it: there was something of regard for education,
for art and science, and for the public welfare. This is
particularly true of courts which were intimately connected
with Prussia; as that of Brunswick, where Duke Charles,
Frederick II.'s brother-in-law, though personally an
extravagant prince, founded an institution of learning which
brought together many of the best intellects of Germany (1740
to 1760), or that of Anhalt-Dessau, where the famous
'Philanthropinum' was established. Several princes imitated
Frederick's military administration, and that sometimes on a
scale so small as to be ludicrous. Prince William of
Lippe-Schaumburg founded in his little territory a fortress
and a school of war. But this school educated Scharnhorst, and
the prince himself won fame in distant lands. He invited
Herder to his little court at Bückeburg. Weimar, too, imitated
Frederick's example, where the Duchess Amalie, daughter of
Charles of Brunswick, and her intellectual son, Charles
Augustus, made their little cities Weimar and Jena places of
gathering for the greatest men of genius of the time. Among
the petty Thuringian princes of this period, there were others
of noble character. In 1764 the Saxon throne was ascended by
Frederick Augustus, grandson of Augustus III., but, being a
minor, he could not be elected king of Poland. This put an end
to the union of the two titles, which had been the cause of
immeasurable evil to Saxony and to Germany. When the young
elector attained his majority, the government of Saxony was
greatly improved, and a period of prosperity followed. Duke
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.