The dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. Part I.

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Austria, Brandenburg-Prussia, French Revolution, Holy Roman Emperor Franz II, House of Habsburg-Lorraine, Hungary and Croatia, King of Bohemia, Napoleonic Wars, Peace of Westphalia, Prussia

The dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire occurred de facto on August 6, 1806, when the last Holy Roman Emperor, Franz II of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, abdicated his title and released all imperial states and officials from their oaths and obligations to the empire.

Since the Middle Ages, the Holy Roman Empire had been recognized by Western Europeans as the legitimate continuation of the ancient Roman Empire due to its emperors having been proclaimed as Roman emperors by the papacy. Through this Roman legacy, the Holy Roman Emperors claimed to be universal monarchs whose jurisdiction extended beyond their empire’s formal borders to all of Christian Europe and beyond.

The decline of the Holy Roman Empire was a long and drawn-out process lasting centuries. The formation of the first modern sovereign territorial states in the 16th and 17th centuries, which brought with it the idea that jurisdiction corresponded to actual territory governed, threatened the universal nature of the Holy Roman Empire.

The Holy Roman Empire by the time of the 18th century was widely regarded by contemporaries, both inside and outside the empire, as a highly “irregular” monarchy and “sick”, having an “unusual” form of government. The empire lacked both a central standing army and a central treasury and its monarchs, formally elective rather than hereditary, could not exercise effective central control.

Franz II, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia

Even then, most contemporaries believed that the empire could be revived and modernized. The Holy Roman Empire finally began its true terminal decline after the Peace of Westphalia and the rise of Brandenburg-Prussia which saw a rivalry between Austria and Prussia that lasted more than a century.

What is interesting to note is that begining with the rivalry between Austria and Prussia one doesn’t read much in the history books about the Holy Roman Empire itself and the focus is on Austria and Prussia as individual states.

The Empire’s decline was sped up during and after its involvement in the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. Again one is more likely to read about Austria’s involvement in the French Revolution and the subsequent Napoleonic Wars further demonstrating how fragmented the Empire was at this time.

Although the empire defended itself quite well initially, war with France and Napoleon proved catastrophic. In 1804, Napoleon proclaimed himself as the Emperor of the French, which Franz II responded to by proclaiming himself the Emperor of Austria, in addition to already being the Holy Roman Emperor, an attempt at maintaining parity between France and Austria while also illustrating that the Holy Roman title outranked them both.

Austria’s defeat at the Battle of Austerlitz in December 1805 and the secession of a large number of Franz II’s German vassals in July 1806 to form the Confederation of the Rhine, a French satellite state, effectively meant the end of the Holy Roman Empire.

The abdication in August 1806, combined with a dissolution of the entire imperial hierarchy and its institutions, was seen as necessary to prevent the possibility of Napoleon proclaiming himself as Holy Roman Emperor, something which would have reduced Franz II to being Napoleon’s vassal.

The Holy Roman Empire

Reactions to the empire’s dissolution ranged from indifference to despair. The populace of Vienna, capital of the Habsburg monarchy, were horrified at the loss of the empire. Many of Franz II’s former subjects questioned the legality of his actions; though his abdication was agreed to be perfectly legal, the dissolution of the empire and the release of all its vassals were seen as beyond the emperor’s authority.

As such, many of the empire’s princes and subjects refused to accept that the empire was gone, with some commoners going so far as to believe that news of its dissolution was a plot by their local authorities. In Germany, the dissolution was widely compared to the ancient and semi-legendary Fall of Troy and some associated the end of what they perceived to be the Roman Empire with the end times and the apocalypse.

May 7, 1553: Birth of Prince Albrecht-Friedrich, Duke of Prussia

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Albert Frederick of Prussia, Brandenburg-Prussia, Duchy of Prussia, Elector of Brandenburg, Georg-Friedrich of Brandenburg-Kulmbach, House of Hohenzollern, Joachim-Friedrich, King Sigismund III Vasa of Poland, Kingdom of Poland, Maria Eleanor of Cleves

Albrecht-Friedrich (May 7, 1553 – August 28, 1618) was the Duke of Prussia, from 1568 until his death. He was a son of Duke Albrecht of Prussia, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, and Anna Marie of Brunswick-Lüneburg, the daughter of Duke Eric I of Brunswick-Calenberg (1470–1540) and Elizabeth of Brandenburg (1510–1558). He was the second and last Prussian duke of the Ansbach branch of the Hohenzollern family.

Albrecht-Friedrich, Duke of Prussia

Duke of Prussia

Albrecht-Friedrich became Duke of Prussia after paying feudal homage to his cousin, the King Sigismund II Augustus of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania, on July 19, 1569 in Lublin. The homage was described by the Polish chronicler Jan Kochanowski in his work Proporzec (“Standard”). During the 1573 Polish election, Albrecht-Friedrich attempted to gain acceptance to the Polish senate but was opposed by the powerful Jan Zamoyski (later Grand Hetman of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland) who feared the influence of Protestants in the Polish legislative body.

Albrecht-Friedrich initially refused to recognize the election of Stefan Bathory and supported the candidacy of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II of Austria to the Polish throne. However, at the Toruń sejm of October 1576 he gave his support to the new monarch.

As the great grandson of the Polish king, Casimir IV Jagiellon, and as a Duke in Prussia who was fluent in Polish, Albrecht-Friedrich was himself seriously considered for a time as a possible candidate for the Polish throne. He particularly enjoyed the support of Polish Lutherans.

Marriage

Albert-Friedrich was married in 1573 to Marie Eleonore of Cleves, a daughter of Wilhelm, Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg and Archduchess Maria of Austria (1531–1581). Archduchess Maria was a daughter of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary. Marie Eleonore of Cleves was also the niece of Anne of Cleves, fourth wife of King Henry VIII of England and Ireland.

Marie Eleonore of Cleves

While Marie Eleonore’s her father was a Reform Catholic, she was of a strong willed character and displayed firm Lutheran sympathies early on. Her father was afraid that she would influence her younger sisters with her religious views, and therefore wished to have her married to someone of her own religious convictions as soon as possible in order to remove her from his domains, and thus considered grooms for his daughter that he would not otherwise have considered. Albrecht-Friedrich, Duke of Prussia, was thus accepted as a suitor, despite showing mental disorders.

In 1572 he began to exhibit signs of mental disorder. In early 1578, the regency was taken over by his cousin, Georg-Friedrich of Brandenburg-Kulmbach (1539–1603). After Georg-Friedrich death in 1603, the Polish King Sigismund III Vasa appointed Joachim-Friedrich as regent in 1605, and permitted his son, Johann-Sigismund, to succeed him in 1611. The latter became Duke of Prussia after Albrecht-Friedrich’s death in 1618.

With Georg-Friedrich of Brandenburg-Kulmbach taking over the regency of the Duchy of Prussia, this made the position of Marie Eleonore more difficult at the Ducal court of Köningsberg. In 1591, she returned with her daughters to Jülich, where she remained until 1592. She arranged the marriage of her daughters to German princes to avoid them being married by the regency council to Polish suitors, and by the marriage alliances she arranged, she ensured that the Duchy of Julich would come to the Brandenburg after the death of her brother.

Georg-Friedrich of Brandenburg-Kulmbach

Here is a list of the children of Albrecht-Friedrich of Prussia and Marie Eleonore of Cleves and their spouses:

1. Anna of Prussia (1576 – 1625). Married Johann-Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg.
2. Marie of Prussia (1579 – 1649). Married Christian, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth.
3. Albrecht-Friedrich of Prussia (1 June 1580 – 8 October 1580).
4. Sophie of Prussia (1582 – 1610). Married Wilhelm Kettler of Courland.
5. Eleanor of Prussia (1583 – 1607). Married Joachim-Friedrich, Elector of Brandenburg.
6. Wilhelm-Friedrich of Prussia (1585 – 1586).
7. Magdalene Sibylle of Prussia (1586 – 1659). Married John George I, Elector of Saxony.

Since neither of Albrecht-Friedrich’s two sons survived until adulthood, at his death on August 28, 1618, the Duchy of Prussia passed to his son-in-law Johann-Sigismund, Elector and Margrave of Brandenburg, combining the two territories under a single dynasty and forming Brandenburg-Prussia. This new State of Brandenburg-Prussia would be the foundation upon on which both the Kingdom of Prussia and the German Empire were built.