Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Western SEV Episode four hundred and
Speaker 1: seventy seven. Prussia. So many of us know Prussia from
Speaker 1: the Franco Prussian War, from the Unification of Germany, from
Speaker 1: all the machinations that the little kingdom that punches way
Speaker 1: above its weight class is going to play during the
Speaker 1: French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. But the story of
Speaker 1: Prussia begins not in the great capitals of Europe, but
Speaker 1: in the frozen marshlands around Brandenburg and the distant duchy
Speaker 1: of At the time it was called East Prussia, which
Speaker 1: was nothing more than a scattered realm of modest cities,
Speaker 1: sandy fields, dense forests full of charring old legionary bones
Speaker 1: that no one in the seventeenth century mistook for a
Speaker 1: great power. But within a single lifetime, one family, the Hausenhollerans,
Speaker 1: would transform the territory into a kingdom, and its ruler,
Speaker 1: Frederick the First, would wear a crown forged not through
Speaker 1: war and conquest, but through calculation, diplomacy, and ambition. To
Speaker 1: understand how Frederick became the first King of Prussia, we
Speaker 1: have to start a generation earlier with his fader, Frederick William,
Speaker 1: known to history as the Great Elector. When the Thirty
Speaker 1: Years War ended in sixteen forty eight, Brandenburg Prussia was
Speaker 1: a broken shell of a state. Its cities had been burnt,
Speaker 1: its population absolutely decimated, its economy stood in ruins. But
Speaker 1: Frederick William, a Calvinist prince of Iron Resolve, spent decades
Speaker 1: rebuilding his state, sometimes almost literally brick by brick. He
Speaker 1: centralized the administration, crushed the rebellious estates, and created this
Speaker 1: is the important part, the most efficient militarized bureaucracy in Europe.
Speaker 1: He forged an army not just to fight the wars,
Speaker 1: but as the glue that would actually hold his state together.
Speaker 1: He wrote once, where the sword is not drawn, the
Speaker 1: pen may be ignored. Frederick William had no intention of
Speaker 1: having his pen ignored. By the time of his death
Speaker 1: in sixteen eighty eight, the Hosenhaller in territories, though still
Speaker 1: scattered across the Holy Roman Empire and some outside it,
Speaker 1: had become a force to be reckoned with his son.
Speaker 1: At the time, Frederick the Third inherited an empire that
Speaker 1: had a huge amount of potential, not much else. He
Speaker 1: was cultured, vain and exsessed with prestige. If his father
Speaker 1: had been a hammer, Frederick would be a gilded frame.
Speaker 1: But he had a vision that his father did not.
Speaker 1: He wanted to turn the Electorate of Brandenburg into its
Speaker 1: own kingdom. But here lay the problem. Brandedberg was a
Speaker 1: part of the Holy Roman Empire, where the Emperor, by
Speaker 1: ancient custom and papal sanction, was the only one allowed
Speaker 1: to grant royal dignity to vassals. No one within the
Speaker 1: Empire could declare themselves king without permission, and both Habsburg
Speaker 1: emperors were loath to allow new crowns to bloom. But
Speaker 1: Frederick he knew of a legal loophole, and he was
Speaker 1: determined to use it. While Brandenburg within the Empire, the
Speaker 1: Duchy of Prussia, which had once been a fief of Poland,
Speaker 1: was not. Since the Treaty of Weilau in sixteen fifty seven,
Speaker 1: the Duchy had been a fully sovereign territory, owing no
Speaker 1: allegiance whatsoever to the Holy Roman Emperor. And so Frederick figured,
Speaker 1: if he could not be crowned King of Brandenburg, he
Speaker 1: could still become King of Prussia, a carefully worded title
Speaker 1: that avoided any direct offense to imperial dignity. Still, such
Speaker 1: a transformation would require imperial blessing that meant to diplomacy, flattery, and,
Speaker 1: of course, because it's the Holy Roman Empire more than
Speaker 1: anything else, a big, heaping cash pile. And in the
Speaker 1: winter of seventeen hundred, as Europe teetered on the edge
Speaker 1: of the War of Spanish Succession, Frederick made his move.
Speaker 1: The Holy Roman Emperor Leopold the first desperately needed allies.
Speaker 1: France under Louis the fourteenth threatened to expand its once again,
Speaker 1: and the balance of Europe hong. Frederick offered troops eight
Speaker 1: thousand disciplined brandenburg soldiers for the coming war, and in return,
Speaker 1: he demanded the Emperor's approval for his royal coronation. After
Speaker 1: months of negotiation, Leopold relented in a secret treaty signed
Speaker 1: in November seventeen hundred. The Emperor agreed that Frederick could
Speaker 1: assume the title of King of Prussia, provided he did
Speaker 1: so only in the lands outside the Empire. It was
Speaker 1: a weird and awkward compromise, but Frederick accepted it. He
Speaker 1: knew his foot was in the door and now would
Speaker 1: be impossible to close it. He had paid for his
Speaker 1: crown not in blood, but in soldiers, coin and diplomacy.
Speaker 1: On January eighteenth, seventeen oh one, in the icy chapel
Speaker 1: of Kannisburg Castle, Frederick crowned himself King of Prussia. The
Speaker 1: scene was a spectacle of gold and velvet, with foreign diplomats,
Speaker 1: Lavish banquets, and sarah ammonial finery imported all the way
Speaker 1: from Versailles and some from Vienna. Frederic's wife, Sophia Charlotte
Speaker 1: of Hanover, knelt beside him, radiant and jewels. As he
Speaker 1: placed the crown on her head. The new king declared
Speaker 1: that God himself had raised him from elector to sovereign.
Speaker 1: He had no intention of ruling as a provincial monarch. However,
Speaker 1: his new court in Berlin, styled after Louis the fourteenth Versailles,
Speaker 1: was filled with opera, architecture, and philosophy. He founded the
Speaker 1: Berlin Academy of Sciences, employed foreign artists and scholars, and
Speaker 1: transformed Charlottenburg Palace into a symbol of royal culture. But
Speaker 1: even as he reveled in ceremony, Frederick never forgot the
Speaker 1: reality of his kingdom's birth. He ruled in king in Prussia.
Speaker 1: Lest he insult the Empire. He refrained from using King
Speaker 1: of Prussia as much as humanly possible, and he continued,
Speaker 1: of course, to of the Holy Roman Emperor loyally in
Speaker 1: all his wars. The title may have been awkward, but
Speaker 1: it held power in foreign courts. Frederick was now treated
Speaker 1: as an equal, at least of the kings of Denmark, Sweden,
Speaker 1: and England. The Hosenhollerins had stepped out of the shadow
Speaker 1: of the Habsburgs, and the long path towards Prussia and
Speaker 1: then ultimately Germany becoming a European power had begun. Frederick
Speaker 1: died in seventeen thirteen. He had ruled as king for
Speaker 1: just over a decade, and though he left behind debts
Speaker 1: in an ornate court, he also left a title, one
Speaker 1: that would be inherited by his son, Frederick William the First,
Speaker 1: the Soldier King, and eventually by his grandson Frederic the
Speaker 1: second Frederick the Great, and he would forge that title
Speaker 1: into empire. Prussia was no longer a duchy or some
Speaker 1: bizarre electoral creerosity in the Holy Roman Empire. It was
Speaker 1: a kingdom, a peculiar one, but it was still a kingdom,
Speaker 1: and its foundations were not laid by conquest honestly, but
Speaker 1: by illegal fiction, some imperial politics, and the unrelenting ambition
Speaker 1: of a man who desperately wanted a crown. Voltaire, writing
Speaker 1: later of the Hosenhollerance, observed quote, they stole their kingdom
Speaker 1: with a quill and kept it with a sword. We'll
Speaker 1: see just how right that is. And so it was.
Speaker 1: The Kingdom of Prussia had been born not in battle,
Speaker 1: but in back rooms, embassies and snowy chapels. Its age
Speaker 1: of kings had begun. But while in Prussia Frederick might
Speaker 1: bask in the glow of his new beautiful palace, the
Speaker 1: realities were very different for a lot of Europe, because
Speaker 1: in the opening days of January seventeen oh nine, a
Speaker 1: strange and sudden stillness swept the continent. Across the plains
Speaker 1: of northern France, in the valleys of the Rhineland, along
Speaker 1: the rivers of Bohemia and Poland, the air suddenly turned sharp,
Speaker 1: and bitter winds stilled, clouds vanished, the stars burned in
Speaker 1: a sky that were so clear, according to some it
Speaker 1: seemed painted by ice itself. And then the cold descended,
Speaker 1: not in days, but in hours. This, ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 1: was no ordinary winter. By dawn of January sixth, seventeen
Speaker 1: oh nine, temperatures had plummeted across the continent. Church bells
Speaker 1: cracked in their towers, wine froze, and bottles. Trees burst
Speaker 1: apart from the cold with a sound that reminded some
Speaker 1: of musket fire. Birds dropped mid flight. In Paris, it
Speaker 1: was so so cold that wolves crept into the suburbs,
Speaker 1: drawn by the scent of rotting meat. It was, as
Speaker 1: one French observer wrote, a cold so harsh the earth
Speaker 1: itself seemed dead. This was the Great Frost of seventeen
Speaker 1: o nine, the harshest winter in Europe in over five
Speaker 1: hundred years, and its effects would haunt the continent for
Speaker 1: years to come. The cold was immediate and unrelenting. In Paris,
Speaker 1: the thermometer dropped to as low as minus fifteen degrees
Speaker 1: celsiuss five degrees fahrenheit, a low that was basically unheard of.
Speaker 1: The Sen River froze solid, halting trade and stranding barges
Speaker 1: in massive sheets of ice. In Geneva, the snow stood
Speaker 1: chest high by the end of January. In Italy, citrus
Speaker 1: groves dyed in moss, their roots split from the freeze,
Speaker 1: even the warm waters of the Venetian Lagoon. For those
Speaker 1: who have been to Venice, this is almost unbelievable. But
Speaker 1: they turned to ice. The German writer Zecharias Conrad von
Speaker 1: Offenbach recorded quote, we are in the grip of a
Speaker 1: monstrous winter. No man remembers the like The elb is
Speaker 1: frozen so hard that wagons cross it. The poor die
Speaker 1: in the streets like flies. Peasants were the first to suffer.
Speaker 1: Whole villages perished. Europe hadn't seen death like this since
Speaker 1: the Bubonic plague three hundred and some years earlier. In
Speaker 1: the countryside, grain stores were frozen or spoiled. Firewood ran out,
Speaker 1: Farmers slotted live stock rather than watch them die in
Speaker 1: the fields. In the city is the price of bread sword,
Speaker 1: and those without means starved to death. Even the well
Speaker 1: off struggled. These cracked from the cold, stoves burst, and
Speaker 1: food supplies dwindled. But the worst thing of all was
Speaker 1: that this wasn't a short frost, not at all. The
Speaker 1: brutal temperatures continued throughout January and February. Even in March
Speaker 1: and April. The thaw was sluggish and cruel. When the
Speaker 1: snows finally melted, they revealed the devastation flooded fields, dead crops,
Speaker 1: drowned animals, and the stinking of corpses of thousands who
Speaker 1: had simply died where they lay. Now, the spring of
Speaker 1: seventeen oh nine should have been a season of hope.
Speaker 1: But I'm sure you realize this now. The land was
Speaker 1: simply too devastated to give. Crop failures were everywhere France,
Speaker 1: the Holy Roman Empire, the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth. The harvest
Speaker 1: of seventeen oh nine was disastrously bad, and what little
Speaker 1: food remained was often moldy, frostbitten or rotting from the fields.
Speaker 1: Prices doubled, then they tripled. In some towns, a loaf
Speaker 1: of bread cost a full day's wages. In the French countryside,
Speaker 1: where years of war and taxation under Louis the fourteenth
Speaker 1: had already brought the people to the very edge, the
Speaker 1: frost tipped them into catastrophe. One report from Burgundy stated
Speaker 1: the people eat the bark from the trees. Mothers abandoned
Speaker 1: their infants on the road. The dead are buried in
Speaker 1: shallow pits, if at all. Now, the death toll is
Speaker 1: difficult to estimate but historians now believe over six hundred
Speaker 1: thousand people died just in France that was from starvation, exposure,
Speaker 1: or disease related to frost and famine. In Sweden, where
Speaker 1: winter coincided with the catastrophic defeat of Charles the Twelfth
Speaker 1: Army in that Great Northern War I mentioned before, thousands
Speaker 1: of soldiers froze to death in the March. The cold
Speaker 1: ravage not only homes and harvests, but full nations. Russia
Speaker 1: too felt the bait of the frost. Peter the Greats
Speaker 1: and Armies campaigning in Poland lost untold thousands of men
Speaker 1: to the cold. Even his newly built city of Saint Petersburg,
Speaker 1: still struggling to survive in its swampy cradle, saw entire
Speaker 1: work gangs perish in the frozen mud. One French envoy
Speaker 1: in Moscow wrote, and just total disbelief. The cold is
Speaker 1: so severe that even the beards of men freeze. It
Speaker 1: must be broken off with their hands. I've seen dead
Speaker 1: men standing upright in the snow. Malnutrition and poor sanitation
Speaker 1: sparked typhus outbreaks from Ireland to Transylvania. Entire towns withered away,
Speaker 1: the peasantry of Central and Eastern Europe, already burdened by serfdom, taxation,
Speaker 1: and war, sank into a state of almost medieval suffering.
Speaker 1: And the Great Frost of seventeen o nine didn't just
Speaker 1: kill it actually changed the course of European history. In France,
Speaker 1: disaster accelerated the decline of Louis the fourteenth reign. Already
Speaker 1: bankrupt from decades of war, the French state could barely
Speaker 1: respond to the emergency. Royal grain depots were quickly exhausted.
Speaker 1: The king's reputation, once shining from Versailles, was now dimmed
Speaker 1: by hunger and death. In the words of a Norman
Speaker 1: priest quote, the sun no longer warms his people end quote.
Speaker 1: In Sweden, the frost compounded the disaster from the Battle
Speaker 1: of Patava. That same year, Charles the Twelfth's once fearsome
Speaker 1: empire quickly began to crumble. The winter had weakened his
Speaker 1: army before the Russian Spring campaign began, and it would
Speaker 1: never fully recover. In the longer term. The frost helped
Speaker 1: triggered a wave of migration and agricultural reform. Peasants abandoned
Speaker 1: marginal lands, some fled west to the Americas, others turned
Speaker 1: to new Cropsticularly, potatoes, once viewed with suspicion, were now
Speaker 1: prized for their hardiness. Scientific agriculture for the first time
Speaker 1: began to gain ground, especially in England and the Netherlands.
Speaker 1: But the frost also left a spiritual scar. In sermons
Speaker 1: and pamphlets across the continent, preachers declared that God was
Speaker 1: punishing Europe for its sins. In Catholic France and Orthodox Russia.
Speaker 1: In Protestant Prussia and Calvinist Geneva, the faithful sought divine
Speaker 1: meaning in a winter that seemed to defy understanding. Now
Speaker 1: modern cleomenttologists have always debated the cause of the Great Frost.
Speaker 1: Some link it to a volcanic eruption, possibly Helka in
Speaker 1: Iceland in seventeen oh seven, or an unrecorded eruption elsewhere.
Speaker 1: Others point to the monitor Minimum, a period of low
Speaker 1: solar activity from roughly sixteen forty five to seventeen fifteen,
Speaker 1: part of the socol called Little Ice Age that gripped
Speaker 1: Europe with cooler, wetter seasons. Whatever the cause, the impact
Speaker 1: of the frost was undeniable. It was a turning point,
Speaker 1: a reminder that even in the age of the Enlightenment,
Speaker 1: reason and empire could be humbled by the sky itself.
Speaker 1: For decades afterward, the year seventeen o nine was remembered
Speaker 1: with dread in villages chronicles. It was written as the
Speaker 1: Linney terry Bell. The Terrible Period survivors told tales of
Speaker 1: birds that froze mid air, a bread that would crack
Speaker 1: like glass, of funeral bells silenced by frost. In the
Speaker 1: words of one French peasant recorded in seventeen twenty, we
Speaker 1: lived through a winter not made for men, but for
Speaker 1: beasts of ice, and we prayed not for warmth, but
Speaker 1: for mercy. A great frost was not merely a weather event.
Speaker 1: It was a catastrophe a biblical scale. It was the
Speaker 1: winter when Europe shivered all the way to its knees. Now,
Speaker 1: if you've enjoyed this episode and you'd like additional content,
Speaker 1: this is just one of my few reminders at this
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