Research Catalog

Title

The great elector / Derek McKay.

Author

McKay, Derek

Publication

Harlow, Essex ; New York : Longman, 2001.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xiii, 286 p. : ill.; 21 cm.

Summary

• "Frederick William, the 'Great Elector' of Brandenburg (1640-88) was the founder of Prussia, itself the forerunner of the united Germany of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries." "In 1640 the Great Elector inherited a minor territory devastated by the Thirty Years War. He restored its fortunes, won its independence and built a powerful, extended state, centred on Berlin. By the 1670s and 1680s he was successful enough to become a major player in the wars of Louis XIV. At his death in 1688, Frederick William was virtually an absolute monarch, and his Brandenburg and other possessions - shortly to be reinvented as the kingdom of Prussia - were second only to Austria in the German lands."
• "This biography, the first in English for fifty years, avoids the limitation of seeing Frederick William primarily as the precursor of the 'enlightened' Frederick the Great. Instead, it roots him firmly in his own time - a dynastic, protestant prince like other German and European rulers, but one tough and opportunistic enough to overcome the opposition of his subjects and neighbouring powers."--Jacket.

Series Statement

Profiles in power

Uniform Title

Profiles in power (London, England)

Subject

• Friedrich Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg, 1620-1688
• 1640-1688
• Prussia (Germany) > History > Frederick William, the Great Elector, 1640-1688

Genre/Form

• History
• Biographies

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 275-277) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

The inheritance of the Great Elector -- Germany in the early seventeenth century -- Brandenburg before the accession of Frederick William in 1640 -- Frederick William's childhood -- The beggarly elector, 1640-1648 -- Frederick William assumes power -- Frederick William and Prussia -- Return to Brandenburg -- The Swedish match -- Frederick William and Cleves-Mark -- The Dutch marriage -- The first Berg War -- Brandenburg and the Peace of Westphalia -- Frederick William's attempt to establish his authority -- Condition of Brandenburg at the end of the Thirty Years War -- Conflict with the Cleves-Mark Estates -- Relations with the Brandenburg Estates before the War of the North -- Change of ministers and first attempts at governmental and financial reform -- The creation of a court -- A European prince, 1648-1660 -- A Protestant prince in the Empire, 1648-55 -- The War of the North, 1655-60 -- Brandenburg-Prussian society under the Great Elector -- The Junkers -- The peasantry -- The towns -- The mature ruler, 1660-1679 -- Dealing with the Estates -- A 'champion of religious freedom and tolerance' -- Fiscal and military power -- Finances and the tax system -- The General War Commissariat -- The army -- The development of industry and trade -- Immigration -- Overseas expansion -- 'The shrewdest fox in the Empire', 1660-1679 -- Balancing between the powers -- Louis XIV's Dutch War and Brandenburg's victory over Sweden -- The final years, 1679-1688 -- Friction within the Elector's family -- The French yoke -- The Great Elector.

ISBN

0582494826

OCLC

• 59544360
• SCSB-10503473

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library