"The opening of the seventeenth century found the Habsburg dominions
in central Europe in a state of considerable, and unaccustomed,
uncertainty....This family disunity was superimposed on a great ideological
division that had come ro run through all their dominions, in
consequence of rhe Reformation....
"It was in almost every respect an unhappy age both for the dynasty
and its peoples. The political tension between Catholic rulers and
largely Protestant Estates found a counterpart...in severe social distress.
...Catholics and Protestants throughout central Europe girded themselves
for a conflict, which the Protestants of Bohemia precipitated by
throwing two of [the Emperor] Matthias’s Catholic advisers out of a
window of the Royal Palace in Prague....
"He would have been a bold man who had prophesied in 1600 that
less than two hundred years later the Hohenzollerns would be challenging
the Habsburgs for the leadership of central Europe....Historians
usually date the upturn of the family fortunes from the accession of
the Elector Frederick William, who ruled from 1640 to 1688 [and
made his realm]...a force to be reckoned with internationally, while
at home he had laid the foundations on which his successors were to
construct the efficient edifice of the Prussian military-bureaucratic
state....
"The selection of documents [here]...is of necessity highly eclectic.
It does not pretend to constitute a compendium of the most important
pieces of the period—who shall say exactly which these arc?—but to
illustrate the trends with examples from each."— C. A . M a c a r t n e y
Author(s): C. A. Macartney (editor)
Series: Documentary History of Western Civilization
Publisher: Harper & Row
Year: 1970
Language: English
City: New York
Acknowledgments jx
Part I: The Habsburg Dynasty j
Introduction: The Expansion of the Habsburg Power in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries 1
1 The Counter-Reformation in German Austria 13
2 Rudolf Il’s Imperial Patent (Majestatsbrief) of July 9,1609 22
3 The Defenestration of Prague 33
4 The Revised Constitution of the Kingdom of Bohemia (Vernewerte Landesordnung des Konigreichs Bohaimb) of 1627 37
5 The Sufferings of Hungarian Protestants Under the Counter-Reformation 45
6 The Sultan’s Declaration of War on the Emperor, 1683 57
7 The Raising of the Siege of Vienna, 1683 59
8 The King of Poland (John III Sobieski) on the Raising of the Siege of Vienna 66
9 "Austria Over All, If She Only Wills It" 70
10 The "Serb Privilege" of 1691 78
11 The Habsburg Succession, 1687-1722/23 82
A. Extracts from the Laws of the Hungarian Diet of 1687 85
B. The "Pactum Mutuae Successions" (September 12, 1703) 87
C. The Pragmatic Sanction 88
D. Extract from the Hungarian Laws of 1712-15 91
E. The Hungarian Implementing Legislation, 1721-22 91
12 Maria Theresa’s Political Testament 94
13 The Habsburgs and Hungary, 1741-91 132
A. The Hungarian Diet of 1741 132
B. Joseph II's Recantation 137
C. Leopold II's Settlement with Hungary, 1790-91 140
14 The Habsburgs and the Churches, 1740-92 145
A. Maria Theresa in a Nutshell 148
B. Maria Theresa and Joseph II on Toleration 148
C. The Placetuni Regium 15 3
D. The Toleration Patent 154
E. The Monasteries Patent 157
F. The Seminaries Patent 160
G. The "Livings Patent" 162
H. The Jewish Patents 164
15 The Habsburgs and the Peasant Question, 1740-90 169
A. Maria Theresa and the Nexus Subditelae 171
B. Peasant Patents Issued by Joseph II 174
16 "Manners Makyth Man" 184
17 Maria Theresa on Proposals to Partition Poland and Turkey in Europe 187
A. Memorandum by Maria Theresa, January 22, 1772 188
B. Second Memorandum, February, 1772 189
C. Maria Theresa to Count Mercy, July 31, 1777 191
18 Joseph II and the "Greek Project" 192
19 Problems for Joseph II 194
20 Leopold II’s "Political Credo" 204
Part 2: The Hohenzollern Dynasty
Introduction: The Rise of the Hohenzollerns, 1600-1790 207
1 The First Brandenburg Privy Council 217
2 The Religious Issue Between the Elector John Sigismund and His Subjects 222
A. John Sigismund Deprecates Fanaticism from the Pulpit 223
B. Extracts from John Sigismund’s Reverse in the Mark, 1615 227
3 The Brandenburg Recess of 1653 228
4 The Treaty of Wehlau, 1657 242
5 Introduction of the Excise Tax in Brandenburg, 1667 253
6 The Readmission of Jews into Brandenburg 258
7 The Great Elector’s Venture into Overseas Commerce 262
8 Protection of the Brandenburg Woolens Industry 265
9 The French Huguenots Made Welcome in Brandenburg 269
10 The First King in Prussia 275
11 Frederick William I on Colonization in Lithuania 292
12 Frederick William I Wants Untinted Spectacles 298
13 Frederick William’s "Directorate General" 299
14 Frederick William’s "Political Testament" 309
15 Frederick William and His Son 322
16 Frederick the Great Plans His Coup 326
17 Frederick the Great as Others Saw Him (1751) 328
18 Frederick the Great’s Political Testament (1752) 331
19 Frederick the Great on Industrialization 346
20 Abuses in the Kurmark 348
21 Frederick the Great Before Leuthen 350
22 Land Settlement and Amelioration in the Neumark 353
23 Frederick II and the Partition of Poland 354
Bibliography 361
Chronology 365
Index 375
