Germany and the Holy Roman Empire, Volume 2: The Peace of Westphalia to the Dissolution of the Reich, 1648-1806
Joachim Whaley
Language: English
Pages: 772
ISBN: 2:00142124
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Germany and the Holy Roman Empire offers a new interpretation of the development of German-speaking central Europe and the Holy Roman Empire or German Reich, from the great reforms of 1495-1500 to its dissolution in 1806 after the turmoil of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Going against the notion that this was a long period of decline, Joachim Whaley shows how imperial institutions developed in response to the crises of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, notably the Reformation and Thirty Years War, and assesses the impact of international developments on the Reich. Central themes are the tension between Habsburg aspirations to create a German monarchy and the desire of the German princes and cities to maintain their traditional rights, and how the Reich developed the functions of a state during this period.
The first single-author account of German history from the Reformation to the early nineteenth century since Hajo Holborn's study written in the 1950s, it also illuminates the development of the German territories subordinate to the Reich. Whaley explores the implications of the Reformation and subsequent religious reform movements, both Protestant and Catholic, and the Enlightenment for the government of both secular and ecclesiastical principalities, the minor territories of counts and knights and the cities. The Reich and the territories formed a coherent and workable system and, as a polity, the Reich developed its own distinctive political culture and traditions of German patriotism over the early modern period.
Whaley explains the development of the Holy Roman Empire as an early modern polity and illuminates the evolution of the several hundred German territories within it. He gives a rich account of topics such as the Reformation, the Thirty Years War, Pietism and baroque Catholicism, the Aufklarung or German Enlightenment and the impact on the Empire and its territories of the French Revolution and Napoleon. It includes consideration of language, cultural aspects and religious and intellectual movements. Germany and the Holy Roman Empire engages with all the major debates among both German and English-speaking historians about early modern German history over the last sixty years and offers a striking new interpretation of this important period.
Volume II starts with the end of the Thirty Years War and extends to the dissolution of the Reich
her allies from rendering assistance to the enemies of the emperor and his German dynasty, of the Reich or of any Imperial Estate. This was essentially a meaningless gesture, for the King of France could scarcely be bound by the electoral capitulation of the German emperor. Other clauses made the determination of the Electors quite clear: the Reichshofrat was deprived of the right to hear appeals from subjects arising from taxation for military purposes; membership of both the Reichshofrat and
something abnormal about a meeting that went on for so long.9 At first, the Reichstag continued because it failed to reach a conclusion on the electoral capitulation and on defence. Its 5 Wilson, German armies, 31. Erdmannsdörffer, Geschichte, i, 428–30. It was typical that Cologne, Bavaria, Brandenburg, PfalzNeuburg, and Mecklenburg-Schwerin promptly formed a ‘perpetual defensive alliance’ dedicated to subverting the emperor’s decree, promising to support each other in the event that their
foundations of a commonly agreed corpus of Christian belief. While Calixt strove for reconciliation and toleration generally, the initiatives of the period after 1648 aimed more specifically at reunification within a single Church in the Reich. The constitutional basis for such ideas was provided by the clause in the Treaty of Osnabrück (IPO Art 5}1) that the stipulations concerning the ‘normal year’ would remain valid ‘until such time as by God’s grace one will have reached agreement in religion’.
Schönborn, the twenty-one-year-old nephew of the Elector of Mainz (Lothar Franz von Schönborn), who nominated him for the post in January 1705.12 First, Leopold refused to confirm his appointment; then, Joseph confirmed him but progressively excluded him from all decisions except those that specifically concerned Germany. However, Schönborn’s bitterness over the apparent diminution of his office should not disguise the influence that he continued to wield in German politics. In the longer term, it is
in the Reich that would create a chain of fortresses stretching from Vienna to the Austrian Netherlands and that would form the foundation for the restoration of imperial power in the Reich.5 The Reichsvizekanzler’s frequent and prolonged absences from Vienna were exploited by his enemies, who also undermined his attempt to secure election to the Archbishopric of Mainz in 1732 after the three-year tenure of Franz Ludwig of PfalzNeuburg. Finally, in 1734, the emperor pressured him into resigning.