Stay ConnectedWDF examines how wars broke out, how they were concluded, and their consequences. Expect juicy diplomacy, sneaky intrigue, fascinating characters, and incredible drama. By Dr Zack Twamley, qualified history nerd.
Current Series: The July Crisis
Patreon Series: The Age of Bismarck
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Episode 5 – Power at Last: 1861-62.
Years of struggle and disappointment had finally led to this moment. On 22 September 1862, a fatalistic and hesitant King Wilhelm finally did it, he finally agreed to appoint Otto von Bismarck as Prussian Minister President, or Prime Minister. It was a decision which Wilhelm felt forced to take in the heat of the moment, what with those darned liberals still refusing to relent and give Prussia the military reforms she needed. Yet it was a decision which was to have profound consequences for Prussians, Germans, and the world. Bismarck’s career was made that day, but as we’ll see in this episode, it took some time for the nightmare to be over, and for confirmation of this appointment to filter into Bismarck’s anxious mind.
As he waited for news, throughout late 1861 and much of 1862, Bismarck sought to make himself both scarce and somehow useful. He went on holiday to London, then to a seaside resort in Biarritz. Yet he kept his toe in the water, insisting on retaining the position of ambassador to France, a post which would have suited him very well, we imagine. But Bismarck felt deep down that this French posting wasn’t long for this world. So long as the crisis in Berlin continued to escalate, and so long as Bismarck’s superiors couldn’t make up their mind as to what they all wanted, Bismarck was left adrift. Very well, he said, in effect, if I am not needed, I will retire from public until I am. Over the course of the fateful six-week holiday which Bismarck enjoyed in the summer of 1862, he fell in love, met with future Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, and felt his former optimism return. A rejuvenated Bismarck then began to respond to his mail, and before long, found that he was to go to Berlin after all.
What happened next soon entered into legend. The King couldn’t stand his subject, but also couldn’t afford to ignore him. He didn’t trust him, but he distrusted the liberals all the more. One choice was abdication, the other was Bismarck, and with Roon there to push him onward, King Wilhelm went with Bismarck. The decision may have been regretted by Wilhelm years later, when he realised what kind of monster he had just employed. Yet Wilhelm must also have realised something else – that Bismarck was utterly unlike any Minister President which any Prussian king had ever had. Now that he had been given power, Prussia was never to be the same again…
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What could be better than our sponsor? How about a new series I made all by myself! Matchlock is a historical fiction series set during the Thirty Years' War, beginning in 1622, when Matthew Lock lands in Europe to investigate the brutal murder of his parents.
Order your copy of Matchlock and the Embassy by clicking here.
Take a break from the Bismarck party, because Episode 13 of the Thirty Years War, the Pax Hispania, is out NOW!
In this instalment of our series, we look at how the moment of peace moved the Spanish to act in concert with their Austrian Habsburg cousins. More specifically, we assess the relationship of the Emperor and the King of Spain and, it may surprise you to learn that it wasn’t especially good! In fact, mutual slights and unpaid bills had soured relations between the…relations, over the previous years, to the extent that a Treaty repairing the damage was necessary. The Onate Treaty was born, the product of Count Onate, a Spanish official and later ambassador in Vienna. Onate conceived of the Treaty not merely as a way to better the Habsburg dynastic relationship, but also to settle once and for all on the question of the succession. After many years, you see, the Austrian Habsburg line which was descended from Charles V’s brother Ferdinand I, was dying out.
All that remained were those childless Emperors Rudolf and Matthias. When they died, only Ferdinand of Styria would be left. Would Vienna push him forward, despite his shortcomings, or would they side with Philip III, and grant the King of Spain an even greater inheritance, the likes of which had not been since the days of his grandfather? Fortunately for the Habsburgs succession, but unfortunately for the peace of Europe, and of Spain, Vienna elected to go for Ferdinand of Styria. Per the terms of the Onate Treaty, Ferdinand of Styria would become Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor, and he would enjoy the full support of Madrid. All he had to do in return, was promise Spain a short list of concessions…
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The Bismarck Party rolls on...
As he soon discovered upon returning to Berlin in early 1859, he was not bound for a ministerial post, but a new role as the Prussian ambassador to Russia. It was still a great promotion for a man who had only a slim record of diplomatic training – now he was to be head of the Prussian embassy! But Bismarck was less than thrilled. He was not only disappointed in not grabbing the brass ring of a ministerial post, he was also irritated that he would have to leave Frankfurt in less capable hands. This surely made no sense, and what was he to do in St Petersburg that someone else could not do instead? Was this simply an effort by the new King Wilhelm to be rid of him? It was hard to argue against that theory, but in the spring of 1859, Bismarck simply had to accept his new post and move on, into the next eventful chapter of his life. Leaving Frankfurt behind him forever, Bismarck trudged through the snow and ice to reach his new post in the Russian capital.
It was just as he left that a new war erupted between Austria and France. As Bismarck choked with rage that he should miss such an opportunity, he was given additional reasons to despair when he learned how timid the Prussian policy had been in that war, even mobilising six army corps to aid the Austrians. Prussia could never be empowered with a policy like this! But what could Bismarck do so far from the action? He would at least be able to assess Russian attitudes – it cheered him up that the Russians, of all ranks, seemed to hate the Austrians with a burning passion. The potential for a Russo-Prussian understanding seemed guaranteed, and Bismarck got along famously with the Russian Imperial family, who seemed to regard this Junker as a rising star. Perhaps they were believing Bismarck’s own hype about himself?
Yet another development began to build in the background during the period, which would soon explode in Bismarck’s favour. Prussia, through its attempt to mobilise its army, had aimed to get on Austria’s good side, but the disorganised and ragtag Prussian units brought shame, rather than pride. Cue the arrival of a man determined to fix the army and prepare it for the future. Albrecht von Roon became minister of war in late 1859, and from that point onward, became consumed by the sole mission of getting a military reform bill passed the Landtag. The problem was, those liberal deputies would never consent to the bill, because they feared the King might use this army against them, and also because it cost a bomb. This disagreement, inconsequential though it seemed, would build in the background for the next few years, until it reached such a fever pitch by autumn 1862, that Bismarck seemed the only man capable of solving it. That was all to come, but first Bismarck had to make his name on the world stage, starting with Russia.
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Unsure of what's going on? Read this blog post for more information on BismarckRise.
Episode 3 – The Ultimate Opportunist: 1853-59.
The Crimean War changed everything in Europe. It left Austria alienated, her Russian ally bitter and the Tsar vengeful, after Austria’s display of perfidy. ‘Austrian ingratitude’, claimed the new Tsar Alexander II, ‘killed my father.’ Under these circumstances, it was possible that Prussia could take advantage. Could an agreement with Russia be created, to be directed against Austria? But then there was the issue of France, and what Napoleon III intended to do with this new power balance. In Bismarck’s view, France presented an opportunity. We ought to negotiate with France, or at least give the impression that we were negotiating to spook our enemies, Bismarck opined. But this was too much for his superiors, even with the change that came in the aftermath of the Crimean War. Austria was still the traditional friend of Prussia; France was still the traditional bogeyman of all true Junkers.
To change this, Bismarck would have to get into power, and change the system from the inside. Until this happened, he would march on in Frankfurt, crafting a niche for himself among his fellow deputies, in the hope that some day soon, he would be noticed, and called upon for bigger and better things. In a long and detailed correspondence with his friend and mentor Leopold von Gerlach, Bismarck would explain his views and plans for Prussia’s future, but these letters, written in 1857, were not the product of a man in control of his own destiny. Bismarck had to go where the pace of events took him, and by the end of 1858, with King Frederick William incapacitated by a stroke, the moment seemed ripe to hope that now, under a new sovereign perhaps, Prussia would call upon this mad Junker at long last. It was a hope he would nourish right up to the point of his actual appointment in September 1862. Before he got there though, Bismarck would have to endure a great deal of disappointment and stress first. As was to be expected, he didn’t suffer these trials in silence…
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Bismarck? Not here - what you want is something Bismarck himself would have longed to read! Matchlock is a historical fiction series set during the Thirty Years' War, beginning in 1622, when Matthew Lock lands in Europe to investigate the brutal murder of his parents.
Order your copy of Matchlock and the Embassy by clicking here.
Put that Bismarck party on hold, and check out the latest episode of the 30 Years War!
Here we look at a rarely mentioned aspect of Spain – the fact that it was still teeming with citizens of a different culture and religious persuasion than those of the Catholic, Castilian majority. These were the Moriscos, first or second generation Muslims who had converted to Catholicism rather than leave the country, but in many cases, this official conversion was in name only. Moriscos varied from province to province in Spain, but generally, they tended to still practice their religion in private, and retained many of their old Arab customs and traditions. The Spanish government, largely, failed to stop these practices, mostly because they lacked the resources, but also because many provincial governors lacked the will to care what a minority of their residents were quietly doing in private. If that sounds somewhat unlike the suffocating levels of control over Spanish citizens which we are often provided with, then you’re right – it was quite unlike it!
Fears about what would happen if the Moriscos left Spain, and took their wealth with them also aggravated the problem, but with the arrival of peace between Spain and the Dutch in 1609, some in Madrid attempted to conceive of a solution. The solution was familiar to that posed by Philip II many generations before – convert genuinely, or leave completely. What followed was an additional exodus of citizens, but Spain’s Arab neighbours were not willing to stand by and do nothing. The coastal provinces were surprisingly poorly defended, and while Madrid feared what might happen if Arab pirates landed and tried to rouse the population to revolt, few measures were ever implemented to guard against this – as a result, several close calls were to follow. The story of Spain and the Moriscos is a vital element of the religious and political patchwork which made up early 17th century Europe, so I hope you’ll join me in unravelling it!
**DON'T FORGET TO FOLLOW THESE LINKS!**
1) To support the podcast financially in return for some extra audio content, check out Patreon!
2) To find a community of history friends, look at our Facebook page and group!
3) To keep up to date with us, follow us on Twitter!
4) For everything else, visit our website, where you'll find the shop, archive, and much more!
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Unsure of what's going on? Read this blog post for more information on BismarckRise.
When we last left Bismarck, he had established himself in Frankfurt, and prepared to meet the challenges which Prussia faced, following several years of bungled, humiliating foreign policy. The constraints upon Bismarck seemed obvious, the greatest restriction by far being the Austrian domination of the German Confederation. This domination, an established fact since 1815, was to Bismarck the greatest flaw in Prussian diplomacy – made worse by the fact that few in Berlin, if any, seemed willing to contest this domination. Should we just let Austria have all the benefits of this Confederation, even if it was to Prussia’s detriment? Yet how could Austria even be combated? Bismarck had an idea, spending the next few years making his name as Vienna’s primary opponent in Frankfurt. ‘When Austria hitches a horse in front’, Bismarck proclaimed, ‘we hitch one behind!’ It was as plain a manifesto as the mad Junker could give us, but beneath this declaration was a man undergoing a remarkable transformation. Bismarck had gone to Frankfurt an untested commodity, and he would leave it a force to be reckoned with. But first he would have to reckon with the status quo, and this status quo, Bismarck insisted, meant that Prussia would never reach the heights of its power.
Very well then, it was plain that nothing, not the ideal of German unity, not the tradition of Austrian power, not the fact of Prussian isolation should stand in the way. It was all to play for, and Prussia should look wherever it could to find potential friends, even in revolutionary France. These ideas stunned and horrified his traditionalist superiors, but they also gave us a hint of the kind of principles which Bismarck possessed. He was unrestricted by old assumptions, no matter how ingrained, and he was adamant that unless Prussia thought outside the box (or outside of Germany) she would never be supreme. A supreme Prussia was the only thing Bismarck could accept. Impossible, said his superiors, Austria is Berlin’s friend and ally, and besides, Vienna has the power of Russia behind her – we cannot contest those two powers together! No matter, said Bismarck in effect, we should wait and see whether circumstances might change. And change they soon did. Bismarck would be rewarded for his patience, because with the eruption of the Crimean War, everything was about to change.
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Unsure of what's going on? Read this blog post for more information on BismarckRise.
In this episode, the first of eight, we explore the life of a young Otto von Bismarck, and assess the different events, influences and individuals who moved through his life. It’s a personal story, but it’s also a story about the unassuming, you could even say unremarkable, beginnings, of a man who would one day dominate Europe. At this stage in his life, only those three qualities – intelligence, ambition and energy – were palpable, but there was also something raw within the young Otto that suggested a great potential, if only it could be harnessed…
We also see Bismarck living through some incredibly significant events. Born in the final moments of the Napoleonic Wars, Bismarck seemed to come of age during the 1848 revolutions, which to his contemporaries appeared like the beginning of the end of Old Prussia, to be replaced by a new radical liberal iteration, beholden to the mob. This did not pan out, but we still see young Otto here present himself to the authorities in Berlin, and try to make himself useful. His suggestions to the royal family on how to deal with the crisis would make him a firm enemy in Augusta, wife of Prince Wilhelm, for life. By this stage though, Bismarck’s introduction to politics had already been complete – he had acquired a seat in the United Diet in 1847, so this experience of revolution was like the cherry on top of a political education without parallel in Prussian history.
In spite of his late blooming, only discovering what he really wanted to do at age 32, Bismarck quickly made up for lost time. This confrontational, coarse, but unmistakably vibrant and dynamic individual managed to charm his peers, with the result that he gained a seat in the Landtag at Berlin in 1849. Plying his trade for the next few years, Bismarck established a reputation for himself as a reactionary, a conservative Junker of the old school, when in reality, he was most interested in furthering his own career, and laying his hands on some real power. Power, for Bismarck, as he quickly discovered, was more intoxicating than anything else he had ever known, and he needed to have more. To the surprise of nobody but Bismarck, the King did not grant him a ministerial post, but he did not pass him over either. Amidst troubling diplomatic crises, the relationship between Prussia, Austria and Russia seemed destined to change. Bismarck, noted the King, could be immensely useful under these circumstances, and the King very much intended to use him.
In spring 1851, Bismarck learned that his first posting of serious significance would be in Frankfurt, the capital of German cooperation and political intrigue, where representatives from the German princes gathered. It was here that Bismarck would land first. His superiors intended for Frankfurt to be his political education – here was a chance as well to put their enthusiastic, energetic subject to good use. A friendship with Austria, so it appeared, could be best achieved with this mad Junker, who had voiced his support of the Austrian partnership in the past. And so off Bismarck went to Frankfurt, but before long, his personal role began to change. Far from willing to kowtow to Vienna, Bismarck quickly discovered just how restrictive the Austrian domination of Germany had become for Prussia. And then the idea began to germinate within him – an idea which would distinguish him from his peers, launch his political career, and redefine the Prussian Kingdom. So long as Austria reigned supreme, Bismarck believed, Prussia could never achieve its full...
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The only tremors around here are those I'm making in the historical fiction genre! Matchlock is a historical fiction series set during the Thirty Years' War, beginning in 1622, when Matthew Lock lands in Europe to investigate the brutal murder of his parents.
Order your copy of Matchlock and the Embassy by clicking here.
In this episode we radically change our focus, away from the Empire and towards a brand new theatre of Europe – Scandinavia. It was there, in the sphere of the Baltic, Eastern Europe and the wild North, that an incredible drama was playing itself out, as the House of Vasa divided over matters or religion and leadership, with profound results for Poland, Sweden, Russia and pretty much everyone else in the region. The House of Vasa’s predominant King, Sigismund III, rowed away from Sweden in the late 1590s, never to return again. His uncle, Charles IX, had effectively deposed him in the name of Lutheran leadership and more rights for the nobility. It was a watershed moment for both Poland and Sweden, and shaped relations between the two of them for more than a century.
Here we examine the shots which were fired before the ascension of a new King, Charles IX’s son, Gustav Adolph, better known to posterity and history nerds the world over as Gustavus Adolphus. But the latter did not rule a majestically powerful kingdom when he assumed the throne in 1611. Sweden was exhausted and divided, surround by enemies in Denmark and Russia as well as Poland, and there was no guaranteed way to keep his Polish Catholic cousin away from his new throne. The conflict between the two cousins was destined to be bloody and all-consuming, and this story forms a vital part of the wider narrative of the Thirty Years War, so I hope you’ll join me for it!
**DON'T FORGET TO FOLLOW THESE LINKS!**
1) To support the podcast financially in return for some extra audio content, check out Patreon!
2) To find a community of history friends, look at our Facebook page and group!
3) To keep up to date with us, follow us on Twitter!
4) For everything else, visit our website, where you'll find the shop, archive, and much more!
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SURPRISE!
At long last, I can finally share the secret which has been at the front of my mind for months! Bismarck, and as you've never seen him before. That's right, on Thursday 30 April, we're starting a new series called Bismarck: Rise, which will look at the Iron Chancellor's life and times in some serious detail, in the period 1815-1864. This is the legend of Bismarck, now watch him rise!
Seriously though, I am super excited about this, and when you listen in I'm sure you'll be too!
Or, have a read of this informative blog post if you're not up listening: http://www.wdfpodcast.com/thevassalstate/bismarck-rise
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If you thought Ferdinand had a tough time of it, you should see how Matthew Lock struggled in 1622! Matchlock is a historical fiction series set during the Thirty Years' War, beginning in 1622, when Matthew Lock lands in Europe to investigate the brutal murder of his parents.
Order your copy of Matchlock and the Embassy by clicking here.
It's time to meet Ferdinand of Styria and the rest of his lovely Habsburg family! Taken together, these were the kind of people who would fight doggedly for their rights and their faith. They also seemed to have a real hard time leaving Prague alone (foreshadowing!)
The counterpoint to Frederick V, Ferdinand of Styria was the heir designate to the Imperial throne, but he brought to the table a legacy which many would have found unsettling. A history of oppression and repression in his native Styria, in Inner Austria, had not merely forced many Protestants there to convert or flee, it had also demonstrated Ferdinand’s single-minded pursuit of a goal, regardless of the consequences.
And these consequences were indeed dire. A rising in Prague in 1611 provided a grave example of what could happen when the Emperor did not listen to the fears and concerns of his subjects, but was Ferdinand paying attention to this display? It seemed that, unfortunately, he was, but to the wrong parts of the story. Within a few years, the citizens of Prague would launch another uprising, and this time they would play for keeps, formally deposing their new Bohemian King Ferdinand, and pushing the Empire over the chasm into the volcano of war. The preceding years were a chance for Ferdinand to learn from the mistakes of his predecessors, but these lessons were not learned, and because of this, Europe could not be spared what happened next...
**DON'T FORGET TO FOLLOW THESE LINKS!**
1) To support the podcast financially in return for some extra audio content, check out Patreon!
2) To find a community of history friends, look at our Facebook page and group!
3) To keep up to date with us, follow us on Twitter!
4) For everything else, visit our website, where you'll find the shop, archive, and much more!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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