A History of Germany from the Earliest Times to the Present Day

by Bayard Taylor

The beginning of the new century brought with it new troubles for all Europe, and Germany—since it was settled that her Emperors must be Hapsburgs—was compelled to share in them. In the North, Charles XII. of Sweden and Peter the Great of Russia were fighting for "the balance of power"; in Spain king Charles II. was responsible for a new cause of war, simply because he was the last of the Hapsburgs in a direct line, and had no children! Louis XIV. had married his elder sister and Leopold I. his younger sister; and both claimed the right to succeed him. The former, it is true, had renounced all claim to the throne of Spain when he married, but he put forth his grandson, Duke Philip of Anjou, as the candidate. There were two parties at the Court of Madrid,—the French, at the head of which was Louis XIV.'s ambassador, and the Austrian, directed by Charles II.'s mother and wife. The other nations of Europe were opposed to any division of Spain between the rival claimants, since the possession of even half her territory (which still included Naples, Sicily, Milan and Flanders, besides her enormous colonies in America) would have made either France or Austria too powerful. Charles II., however, was persuaded to make a will appointing Philip of Anjou his successor, and when he died, in 1700, Louis XIV. immediately sent his grandson over the Pyrenees and had him proclaimed as king Philip V. of Spain.

1701.

Leopold I. thereupon declared war against France, in the hope of gaining the crown of Spain for his son, the Archduke Karl. England and Holland made alliances with him, and he was supported by most of the German States. The Elector, Frederick III. of Brandenburg (son of "the Great Elector"), who was a very proud and ostentatious prince, furnished his assistance on condition that he should be authorized by the Emperor to assume the title of King. Since the traditional customs of the German Empire did not permit another king than that of Bohemia among the Electors, Frederick was obliged to take the name of his detached Duchy of Prussia, instead of Brandenburg. On the 18th of January, 1701, he crowned himself and his wife at Königsberg, and was thenceforth called king Frederick I. of Prussia. But his capital was still Berlin, and thus the names of "Prussia" and "the Prussians"—which came from a small tribe of mixed Slavonic blood—were gradually transferred to all his other lands and their population, German, and especially Saxon, in character. Prince Eugene of Savoy saw the future with a prophetic glance when he declared: "the Emperor, in his own interest, ought to have hanged the Ministers who counselled him to make this concession to the Elector of Brandenburg!"

The Elector Max Emanuel of Bavaria and his brother, the Archbishop of Cologne, openly espoused the cause of France. Several smaller princes were also bribed by Louis XIV., but one of them, the Duke of Brunswick, after raising 12,000 men for France, was compelled by the Elector of Hannover to add them to the German army. With such miserable disunion at home, Germany would have gone to pieces and ceased to exist, but for the powerful participation of England and Holland in the war. The English Parliament, it is true, only granted 10,000 men at first, but as soon as Louis XIV. recognized the exiled Stuart, Prince James, as rightful heir to the throne of England, the grant was enlarged to 40,000 soldiers and an equal number of sailors. The value of this aid was greatly increased by the military genius of the English commander, the famous Duke of Marlborough.

1703. FIGHTING ALONG THE RHINE.

The war was commenced by Louis XIV. who suddenly took possession of a number of fortified places in Flanders, which Max Emanuel of Bavaria, then governor of the province, had purposely left unguarded. While the recovery of this territory was left to England and Holland, Prince Eugene undertook to drive the French out of Northern Italy. He made a march across the Alps as daring as that of Napoleon, transporting cannon and supplies by paths only known to the chamois-hunters. For nearly a year he was entirely successful; then, having been recalled to Vienna, the French were reinforced and recovered their lost ground. An important result of the campaign, however, was that Victor Amadeus, Duke of Savoy (ancestor of the present king of Italy), quarrelled with the French, with whom he had been allied, and joined the German side.

The struggle now became more and more confused, and we cannot undertake to follow all its entangled episodes. France encouraged a rebellion in Hungary; the Archbishop of Cologne laid waste the Lower Rhine; Max Emanuel seized Ulm and held it for France; Marshal Villars, in 1703, pressed back Ludwig of Baden (who had up to that time been successful in the Palatinate and Alsatia), marched through the Black Forest and effected a junction with the Bavarian army. His plan was to cross the Alps and descend into Italy in the rear of the German forces which Prince Eugene had left there; but the Tyrolese rose against him and fought with such desperation that he was obliged to fall back on Bavaria.

Marshal Villars and Max Emanuel now commanded a combined army of 60,000 men, in the very heart of Germany. They had defeated the Austrian commander, and Ludwig of Baden's army was too small to take the field against them. But the Duke of Marlborough had been brilliantly victorious in Belgium and on the Lower Rhine, and he was thus able to march on towards the Danube. Prince Eugene hastened from Hungary with such troops as he could collect, and the two, with Ludwig of Baden, were strong enough to engage the French and Bavarians. They met on the 13th of August, 1704, on the plain of the Danube, near the little village of Blenheim. After a long and furious battle, the French left 14,000 men upon the field, lost 13,000 prisoners, and fled towards the Rhine in such haste that scarcely one-third of their army reached the river. Marlborough and Eugene were made Princes of the German Empire, and all Europe rang with songs celebrating the victory, in which Marlborough's name appeared as "Malbrook." His proposal to follow up the victory with an invasion of France was rejected by the Emperor, and the war, which might then have been pressed to a termination, continued for ten years longer.

1705.

In 1705 Leopold I. relieved Germany, by his death, of the dead weight of his incapacity. He was succeeded by his son, Joseph I., who possessed, at least, a little ordinary common sense. He manifested it at once by making Prince Eugene his counsellor, instead of surrounding him with spies, as his jealous and spiteful father had done. Both sides were preparing for new movements, and the principal event for the year took place in Spain, where the Archduke, who had been conveyed to Barcelona by an English fleet, obtained possession of Catalonia and Aragon, and threatened Philip V. with the loss of his crown. The previous year, 1704, the English had taken Gibraltar.