Danubia: A Personal History of Habsburg Europe

by Simon Winder

Leopold was effective at using his Imperial position to horse-trade and took two decisions crucial to the future of Europe. The first was to allow Friedrich Wilhelm I, the Elector of Brandenburg, in return for support in fighting Louis, to become a king. This was a startling change – the only people called king in the Empire were all Habsburgs (two of the Emperor’s titles: King of Bohemia and German King; the other owned by his heir: King of the Romans), otherwise it was all a rubble of princes, knights, burgraves and what not. Friedrich Wilhelm may have been called by the strange title of ‘King in Prussia’ (it was changed to of after the whole of Polish Prussia fell into his hands), but it still provided a unique status and glamour for the family who would become the Habsburgs’ nemesis. Almost as significantly Leopold agreed to make the north-west German ruler Ernst August, who fought in the Turkish wars, an Elector. This was a momentous change and one much resented by other rulers in the Empire, who only agreed to verify it after Ernst August’s death.