Prussia’s Sudden Fall Astonishes Europe

Today’s installment concludes Napoleon Crushes Prussia,
our selection from Life of Napoleon Bonaparte by Sir Walter Scott published in 1839.

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Previously in Napoleon Crushes Prussia.

Time: 1806
Place: Jena and Auerstadt

It is believed that, on several of these occasions, the French constructed a golden key to open these iron fortresses, without being themselves at the expense of the precious metal which composed it. Every large garrison has of course a military chest with treasure for the regular payment of the soldiery; and it is said that more than one commandant was unable to resist the proffer that, in case of an immediate surrender, this deposit should not be inquired into by the captors, but left at the disposal of the governor, whose accommodating disposition had saved them the time and trouble of a siege.

While the French army made this uninterrupted progress, the new King of Holland, Louis Bonaparte, with an army partly composed of Dutch and partly of Frenchmen, possessed himself with equal ease of Westphalia, great part of Hanover, Emden, and East Friesland. To complete the picture of general disorder which Prussia now exhibited, it is only necessary to add that the unfortunate King, whose personal qualities deserved a better fate, had been obliged after the battle to fly into East Prussia, where he finally sought refuge in the city of Koenigsberg. L’Estocq, a faithful and able general, was still able to assemble out of the wreck of the Prussian army a few thousand men for the protection of his sovereign. Bonaparte took possession of Berlin on October 25th, eleven days after the Battle of Jena.

The fall of Prussia was so sudden and so total as to excite the general astonishment of Europe. Its Prince was compared to the rash and inexperienced gambler, who risks his whole fortune on one desperate cast, and rises from the table totally ruined.

That power had for three-quarters of a century ranked among the most important of Europe; but never had she exhibited such a formidable position as almost immediately before her disaster, when, holding in her own hand the balance of Europe, she might, before the day of Austerlitz, have inclined the scale to which side she would. And now she lay at the feet of the antagonist whom she had rashly and in ill time defied, not fallen merely but totally prostrate, without the means of making a single effort to arise. It was remembered that Austria, when her armies were defeated and her capital taken, had still found resources in the courage of her subjects; and that the insurrections of Hungary and Bohemia had assumed, even after Bonaparte’s most eminent successes, a character so formidable as to aid in procuring peace for the defeated Emperor on moderate terms. Austria, therefore, was like a fortress repeatedly besieged, and as often breached and damaged, but which continued to be tenable, though diminished in strength and deprived of important out works.

But Prussia seemed like the same fortress swallowed up by an earthquake, which leaves nothing either to inhabit or defend, and where the fearful agency of the destroyer reduces the strongest bastions and bulwarks to crumbled masses of ruins and rubbish. The cause of this great distinction between two countries which have so often contended against each other for political power, and for influence in Germany, may be easily traced.

The Empire of Austria combines in itself several large kingdoms, the undisturbed and undisputed dominions of a common sovereign, to whose sway they have been long accustomed and toward whom they nourish the same sentiments of loyalty which their fathers entertained to the ancient princes of the same house. Austria’s natural authority therefore rested, and now rests, on this broad and solid base, the general and rooted attachment of the people to their prince, and their identification of his interests with their own.

Prussia had also her native provinces, in which her authority was hereditary, and where the affection, loyalty, and patriotism of the inhabitants were natural qualities which fathers transmitted to their sons. But a large part of her dominions consists of late acquisitions obtained at different times by the arms or policy of the Great Frederick; and thus her territories, made up of a number of small and distant states, want geographical breadth, while their disproportioned length stretches, according to Voltaire’s well-known simile, like a pair of garters across the map of Europe. It follows as a natural consequence that a long time must intervene between the formation of such a kingdom and the amalgamation of its component parts, differing in laws, manners, and usages, into one compact and solid monarchy, having respect and affection to their king as the common head, and regard to each other as members of the same community. It will require generations to pass away ere a kingdom, so artificially composed, can be cemented into unity and strength; and the tendency to remain disunited is greatly increased by the disadvantages of its geographical situation.

These considerations alone might explain why, after the fatal Battle of Jena, the inhabitants of the various provinces of Prussia contributed no important personal assistance to repel the invader; and why, although almost all trained to arms, and accustomed to serve a certain time in the line, they did not display any readiness to exert themselves against the common enemy. They felt that they belonged to Prussia only by the right of the strongest, and therefore were indifferent when the same right seemed about to transfer their allegiance elsewhere. They saw the approaching ruin of the Prussian power, not as children view the danger of a father, which they are bound to prevent at the hazard of their lives, but as servants view that of a master, which concerns them no otherwise than as leading to a change of their employers.

This ends our series of passages on Napoleon Crushes Prussia by Sir Walter Scott from his book Life of Napoleon Bonaparte published in 1839. This blog features short and lengthy pieces on all aspects of our shared past. Here are selections from the great historians who may be forgotten (and whose work have fallen into public domain) as well as links to the most up-to-date developments in the field of history and of course, original material from yours truly, Jack Le Moine. – A little bit of everything historical is here.

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