VI: Religion
VI: Religion
Your human practice of religion is a curious thing to us. We understand perfectly your faith in God, since we ourselves are inclined to believe in the existence of a Supreme Being. (We do, of course, admit that there is no scientific evidence supporting this belief; we simply do not accept this as proof of nonexistence, since there was no scientific evidence of our own existence until 1973. Until further evidence becomes available, we choose to regard the matter as unsettled.) What we do not understand is why you construct so many elaborate and mutually hostile religious sects based upon belief in a supposedly universal God. You will even go to war over the most minor and obscure points of doctrine, convinced that you have found the one and only path to true salvation, and that everyone else has gotten it wrong.
We mention this because it was religious matters that were to dominate the reign of
Kürfurst Joachim I, who was called Nestor by his fellow princes. Midway through his reign, a religious conflict of immense proportions would convulse Brandenburg and its neighbors, utterly transforming the practice of religion, the map of Europe, and not coincidentally our own consciousness.
Kurfürst Joachim I Nestor of Brandenburg
The early part of Joachim's reign was peaceful enough, apart from scattered revolts and a war declared by Austria against Helvetia in July 1499; the war came to an end three years later without a single battle having been fought. Joachim used this time to expand Brandenburg's trade, undertake domestic improvements, and equip the army with Europe's first modern field artillery units. On the diplomatic front, Joachim persuaded Würzburg to accept vassalization in 1507.
Joachim's first real battlefield test came late in 1508, when, on November 8, Austria again declared war on Helvetia. Brandenburg's armies were not yet fully mobilized when, on November 25, Meißen and its allies Bavaria, Friesland, Kleves and Wirtemberg declared war on Saxony. Joachim immediately ordered his armies to march on Meißen, where they defeated the Meißen army on February 12, 1509. Meißen fell to an assault by Brandenburg on August 26, and they escaped annexation by bribing the Saxons for peace the next day.
Joachim had to settle a revolt in Holstein before he could take action against Helvetia, but in the spring of 1511, the armies of Brandenburg marched on Helvetian territory in Hessen. This sent the Helvetians to the negotiating table with Austria; Maximillian signed a treaty in February 1512 after the Helvetians offered him a substantial sum in gold.
Joachim's annexation of Saxony in early 1513 prompted Denmark, Sweden and Gelre to go to war against Brandenburg in March of that year. This war initially went badly for Brandenburg, with Gelre sending its entire army into Hannover and wiping out the garrison there. The Danes were less of a problem, and the main army of Brandenburg laid siege to Jylland in mid-May. Jylland fell to an assault in August, and Joachim's troops now marched into Sjaeland and laid siege to Copenhagen itself. Meanwhile, a second Brandenburger army dislodged Gelre from Hannover. This prompted King Christian II of Denmark to offer the entire contents of his treasury to Brandenburg in exchange for peace in March 1514, which Joachim accepted.
The series of wars that Brandenburg found itself involved in during the first fifteen years of the century were part of a series of wars that swept across Northern Europe during this period. Every state in Germany was at war at least once during this turbulent time, and most were at war more than they were at peace. At the same time, religious tensions were building, as the abuses of the Catholic Church were becoming more overt. So history tells us, but it is not until recently that historians have known the reason for all of this sudden turmoil.
That reason, we now freely admit, was our own first attempts at influencing human affairs. Our consciousness by this time included the entirety of Brandenburg's territory, extended into Würtemburg to a lesser degree, and functioned in isolated pockets throughout the remainder of Germany and Scandinavia. We were making a concerted effort to exert our will over our hosts, attempting to guide their thoughts towards the territorial expansion of Brandenburg, which would thereby allow us to grow. However, we were inexperienced, and rather clumsy about it. As a result, all we succeeded in doing was irritating our hosts' minds, causing them to become more aggressive and dogmatic. Had we been more skilled in the art of influencing your minds, as we later became, it is possible that the ideas of a disgruntled German monk would not have found such fertile ground, and his actions would not have led to a religious revolution.
Martin Luther
But as it happened, after Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenburg cathedral on April 9, 1516, his ideas spread like wildfire throughout Northern Europe. We are partly responsible for that; it is a curious fact, still not fully explained, that Protestantism is more likely to be accepted by minds that are within our sphere of consciousness. Conversely, we find it easier to spread to minds that have already accepted the Protestant faith. Thus, Lutheranism rapidly became the dominant religion throughout our territory, and became nearly the universal practice among the peasantry.
Joachim, however, did not immediately convert along with his people. While he was personally attracted to the new faith, and understood the need for reformation, political necessity prevented him from following his conscience. Any break with Rome on his part would have made him an outlaw in the eyes of Catholic nations, and would have exposed Brandenburg to attacks from all sides. Therefore he waited, and remained publicly Catholic, though he made no efforts to persecute the practitioners of the new faith in his lands.
Joachim's biggest political problem was a resurgent Austria. Austria purchased the Duchy of Wirtemberg in January 1519, which marked the beginning of the Austrian recovery. Then, in 1521, Karl I of Austria withdrew from his alliance with Brandenburg, forming a strong pro-Catholic alliance with Spain and France.
Meanwhile, the spread of Protestantism led the knights of the Livonian Order to convert and make Lutheranism their official religion in June 1520, becoming the first Protestant state in Europe. But of more interest to Joachim was the fact that King Henry VIII of England broke with Rome in January 1521. The expected reprisals from Catholic nations did not follow, and Joachim began toying with the idea of breaking with Rome himself. Finally, in January 1522, he publicly converted, confiscated all of the Church's lands within his territory, and made Lutheranism the state religion of Brandenburg.
Other states soon followed the examples of Brandenburg and England: Denmark, Meißen, the Teutonic Order, and Bohemia were all Protestant by the end of 1524. Brandenburg made a new military alliance with the Teutonic Order and Bohemia. The Teutonic Order formally disbanded in January 1525, with its former territories becoming the Duchy of Prussia under the former Grand Master, Albrecht von Hohenzollern, the grandson of Albrecht Achilles.
Duke Albrecht of Prussia
Then, unexpectedly, the nobles of Austria declared Lutheranism to be the Austrian state religion in February 1525. Since their archduke, Karl I, was staunchly Catholic, and was also the king of Spain, the most powerful Catholic state in Europe, this put them in a state of rebellion against their feudal overlord. Hence, they accepted an offer of alliance with Brandenburg when Joachim offered it. And when Albrecht of Prussia declared war on Lithuania a week later, Austria, Bohemia, and Brandenburg all honored the alliance.
But the political confusion was not yet total. Poland had a long-standing claim on the territory of Prussia; in fact, the territory around Danzig was technically part of Prussian territory, and was called "Royal Prussia" to distinguish it from "Ducal Prussia", the territory under Albrecht's sovereignty. When Poland threatened to assert its sovereign rights over the Duchy of Prussia, Albrecht felt compelled to abandon his alliance with Brandenburg and submit to vassalization to the King of Poland. Joachim invited the Livonian Order to take Prussia's place in the alliance in May 1526.
August 1526 saw further political upheaval following the death of Vladislav Jagiello, which left the thrones of both Bohemia and Hungary vacant. János Zápolya of Transylvania rose to the Hungarian throne, while the Bohemians elected Karl of Austria to their throne. Karl immediately transferred Silesia and Moravia to Austrian control, and then, asserting a claim to have inherited the throne of Hungary, declared war on the Hungarians. Adding to the turmoil, the Ottoman Sultan declared war on Austria days later. Joachim had no interest in any of these various wars, and signed status quo treaties with both Hungary and Lithuania. Lithuania ultimately surrendered Welikia and Belarus to the Livonians, while Austria took back the provinces of Austria, Ostmarch, Odenburg and Krain from Hungary.
However, Joachim shared our interest in territorial expansion, and so in July 1531 he declared war on Würzburg and Russia. He found himself in a second war the following month, when Baden declared war on Austria. Würzburg fell to Joachim's troops in November, and he promptly annexed it. Joachim then marched on Baden, which immediately negotiated a truce with Austria. Russia and Brandenburg agreed to peace in February 1532.
By June 1532, Karl had managed to reassert his control over Austria, and he restored Catholicism as the state religion and canceled the alliance with Brandenburg. In October, Albrecht of Prussia canceled his vassalization to Poland and rejoined the alliance with his cousin Joachim. Joachim also brought Meißen back into the alliance in May 1533. And so matters stood in July 1535, when, after a long and extraordinarily turbulent reign, Joachim I passed from our awareness and was succeeded by his son Joachim II, who would be called Hektor.
Brandenburg in 1535
