Little known fact! He started out with the counterintuitive title King *in* Prussia, not King *of* Prussia. As you probably know, the Holy Roman Empire was this grab-bag of little principalities of varying degrees of size and importance, all technically (some only nominally) under the Holy Roman Emperor. The Hohenzollerns gradually got more and more powerful and the Emperor less and less powerful, until finally Fritz's grandfather got to call himself a king.
But King *in* Prussia, not King *of* Prussia. In part because the region that had been called Prussia from olden times was now divided up, and the Hohenzollerns only ruled part of it. The rest was part of Poland. So it wasn't accurate to say the Hohenzollerns were kings of the whole *of* Prussia, but only kings of some territory *inside* it. (If your eyes are glazing over, just know that this was the most I could simplify it.)
But, as Fritz would later say about being "Duke" of his newly conquered province Silesia, "I don't give a fuck about titles as long as I have the territory." F 1, FW 1, and F 2 were all kings and acted like it.
Enter Old Fritz. He's won the Seven Years' War and is trying not to get involved in another one. He figures out the best way to achieve his current political goals is to get his neighbors Catherine the Great and Maria Theresa involved in grabbing parts of Poland as opposed to fighting each other.
Many Europeans are appalled, because it's cool to divide up the Americas and Africa and places like that, but when you start dividing up countries in *Europe*, omg, who's next? Me???
But when Russia, Austria, and a Prussia that's just elbowed its way in with the big boys all agree on something, what're you going to do? Well, nothing, and certainly not if you're Poland.
So the three rulers sit down, draw up a map, and everybody takes the part of Poland that's of most interest to them that they think they can hold. Fritz gets the smallest part, but it's very strategically chosen. Now he's got all of Prussia! Tada, congratulations, Your Majesty, King OF Prussia.
Maria Theresa was one of the "but this is terrible! What have the poor Poles ever done to us??" Europeans. But when you're a monarch and your principles come up against what you convince yourself is necessary for your country...you find a way.
Inspiring Fritz to this jewel of cynicism:
“Catherine and I are simply brigands; but I wonder how the Queen-Empress managed to square her confessor!...She wept as she took, and the more she wept, the more she took.”
Words of wisdom from the man who shed *no* recorded tears over the discarding of the Anti-Machiavel before the ink was dry.
After Fritz's death, more partitions of Poland continued, because it was, like, sitting RIGHT THERE.
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Date: 2019-08-22 07:35 pm (UTC)Little known fact! He started out with the counterintuitive title King *in* Prussia, not King *of* Prussia. As you probably know, the Holy Roman Empire was this grab-bag of little principalities of varying degrees of size and importance, all technically (some only nominally) under the Holy Roman Emperor. The Hohenzollerns gradually got more and more powerful and the Emperor less and less powerful, until finally Fritz's grandfather got to call himself a king.
But King *in* Prussia, not King *of* Prussia. In part because the region that had been called Prussia from olden times was now divided up, and the Hohenzollerns only ruled part of it. The rest was part of Poland. So it wasn't accurate to say the Hohenzollerns were kings of the whole *of* Prussia, but only kings of some territory *inside* it. (If your eyes are glazing over, just know that this was the most I could simplify it.)
But, as Fritz would later say about being "Duke" of his newly conquered province Silesia, "I don't give a fuck about titles as long as I have the territory." F 1, FW 1, and F 2 were all kings and acted like it.
Enter Old Fritz. He's won the Seven Years' War and is trying not to get involved in another one. He figures out the best way to achieve his current political goals is to get his neighbors Catherine the Great and Maria Theresa involved in grabbing parts of Poland as opposed to fighting each other.
Many Europeans are appalled, because it's cool to divide up the Americas and Africa and places like that, but when you start dividing up countries in *Europe*, omg, who's next? Me???
But when Russia, Austria, and a Prussia that's just elbowed its way in with the big boys all agree on something, what're you going to do? Well, nothing, and certainly not if you're Poland.
So the three rulers sit down, draw up a map, and everybody takes the part of Poland that's of most interest to them that they think they can hold. Fritz gets the smallest part, but it's very strategically chosen. Now he's got all of Prussia! Tada, congratulations, Your Majesty, King OF Prussia.
Maria Theresa was one of the "but this is terrible! What have the poor Poles ever done to us??" Europeans. But when you're a monarch and your principles come up against what you convince yourself is necessary for your country...you find a way.
Inspiring Fritz to this jewel of cynicism:
“Catherine and I are simply brigands; but I wonder how the Queen-Empress managed to square her confessor!...She wept as she took, and the more she wept, the more she took.”
Words of wisdom from the man who shed *no* recorded tears over the discarding of the Anti-Machiavel before the ink was dry.
After Fritz's death, more partitions of Poland continued, because it was, like, sitting RIGHT THERE.