The Treaty of Königsberg was concluded on 7 January ( O.S.) / 17 January ( N.S.) 1656 during the

Second Northern War The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of ...

.Frost (2000), p. 171 Frederick William I, the "Great Elector" of Brandenburg and

duke of Prussia The monarchs of Prussia were members of the House of Hohenzollern who were the hereditary rulers of the former German state of Prussia from its founding in 1525 as the Duchy of Prussia. The Duchy had evolved out of the Teutonic Order, a Roman C ...

, was forced to join the Swedish camp and became a Swedish vassal for the

Duchy of Prussia The Duchy of Prussia (, , ) or Ducal Prussia (; ) was a duchy in the region of Prussia established as a result of secularization of the Monastic Prussia, the territory that remained under the control of the State of the Teutonic Order until t ...

and Ermland (Ermeland, Warmia).Press (1991), p. 402 In a second treaty, negotiated on 24 February 1656 in Königsberg (Królewiec), Frederick William I concluded a defensive alliance with France.von Moerner (1965), p. 201

Background

In 1655, the rapid progress of the Swedish campaign in Poland–Lithuania made Brandenburgian elector Frederick William I worried about his

,Press (1991), p. 401 which he held as a Polish fief. Frederick William I, who maintained an army of 14,000 men in Brandenburg, marched his army to Prussia and in the Treaty of Rinsk of 12 November concluded a defensive alliance with the Royal Prussian nobility, who maintained an army consisting of 600 troops raised by the

Prussian estates The Prussian estates (, ) were representative bodies of Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), P ...

and a levy of 3,000 to 4,000 men. In addition, 3,600 troops of the regular army and mercenaries were stationed in Royal Prussia.

Charles X Gustav Charles X Gustav, also Carl X Gustav (; 8 November 1622 – 13 February 1660), was King of Sweden from 1654 until his death. He was the son of John Casimir, Count Palatine of Kleeburg, John Casimir, Count Palatine of Palatinate-Kleeburg, Zweib ...

had meanwhile conquered nearly all of Poland and exiled the Polish king John II Casimir Vasa. From occupied

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

, he turned northwards in OctoberFrost (2000), p. 172 to subdue Royal Prussia, where he intended to establish a Swedish province. By December, all of Royal Prussia was occupied by Sweden except for Danzig (Gdańsk), which resisted throughout the war, and Marienburg (Malbork), which only fell in March 1656. Thorn (Toruń) and Elbing (Elbląg) had not participated in the alliance of Rinsk and surrendered to Sweden already in November. Now Charles X Gustav turned eastwards and marched his troops into Ducal Prussia, following the withdrawing army of Frederick William I. While

field marshal Field marshal (or field-marshal, abbreviated as FM) is the most senior military rank, senior to the general officer ranks. Usually, it is the highest rank in an army (in countries without the rank of Generalissimo), and as such, few persons a ...

Count Georg Friedrich von Waldeck urged the "Great Elector" to confront the Swedish forces, the latter chose not to fight and accept the Swedish terms in January.Press (1991), pp. 401-402

Treaty between Brandenburg-Prussia and Sweden

Frederick William I took the

as a fief from

, and had to provide him with troops. Without Swedish permission, the

Electorate of Brandenburg Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the fifth-largest German state b ...

would not maintain a navy in the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

. In return, Frederick William I received Ermland. In article XVII, the

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

Swedish king further obliged the

Calvinist Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Protestantism, Continenta ...

elector to grant

religious freedom Freedom of religion or religious liberty, also known as freedom of religion or belief (FoRB), is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice ...

to the Lutherans in Prussia.Evans (1997), p. 54

Treaty between Brandenburg-Prussia and France

The Franco-Prussian treaty included a defensive alliance between the parties. Drafted on 24 February, it was ratified on 12 April by Louis in Paris and on 24 October by Frederick William in Königsberg.

Consequences

The treaty of Königsberg was followed by the Treaty of Marienburg on 25 June, when the tide of the war had turned against Sweden and Brandenburg-Prussia advanced to the position of a Swedish ally. Still a vassal of Charles X Gustav for Prussia, Frederick William I entered the war and the combined Swedish-Brandenburgian forces defeated the Polish army in the Battle of Warsaw in July. This made the Polish king John II Casimir Vasa, from whom Frederick William I had to take Prussia as a fief prior to Königsberg, say that once the

Tartars Tartary (Latin: ''Tartaria''; ; ; ) or Tatary () was a blanket term used in Western European literature and cartography for a vast part of Asia bounded by the Caspian Sea, the Ural Mountains, the Pacific Ocean, and the northern borders of China ...

had the Swedes for breakfast, he would arrest the elector "where neither sun nor moon will shine". In August, John II Casimir had Wincenty Korwin Gosiewski invade Prussia to "punish Frederick William for his treachery". Thirteen towns and 250 villages were burned until Gosiewski was expelled in October, and the campaign was terrifying enough to persist in local folklore until the 20th century.Frost (2000), p. 178 Hard-pressed himself by several countries entering the war against him, Charles X Gustav in January 1656 agreed with Frederick William I on the Treaty of Labiau, which altered the terms of Königsberg in a way that the

Hohenzollern The House of Hohenzollern (, ; , ; ) is a formerly royal (and from 1871 to 1918, imperial) German dynasty whose members were variously princes, electors, kings and emperors of Hohenzollern, Brandenburg, Prussia, the German Empire, and Romania. ...

electors were freed of Swedish vassalage for the Prussian duchy at the cost of Ermland and a more active participation in the war. In the subsequent treaties of Wehlau and

Bromberg Bydgoszcz is a city in northern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Kuyavia. Straddling the confluence of the Vistula River and its left-bank tributary, the Brda, the strategic location of Bydgoszcz has made it an inland ...

, John II Casimir confirmed Frederick William I's sovereignty in Prussia after the latter abandoned Sweden in the war.Press (1991), p. 403

Sources

References

Bibliography

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External links

Scan of the treaty of Königsberg (Brandenburg-Prussia and Sweden) at ieg-mainz.de (Institut für Europäische Geschichte Mainz), 32 pagesScan of the treaty of Königsberg (Brandenburg-Prussia and France) at diplomatie.gouv.fr (French Ministry for Foreign Affairs), 31 pages, pdf
{{DEFAULTSORT:Koenigsberg Northern War of 1655–1660 Königsberg 1656 treaties Konigsberg Konigsberg 1656 in Europe 1656 in Sweden