Kingdom of Westphalia
Encyclopedia
The Kingdom of Westphalia was a new country of 2.6 million Germans that existed from 1807-1813. It included 1100 square miles (2,849 km²) of territory in Hesse and other parts of present-day Germany
History of Germany
The concept of Germany as a distinct region in central Europe can be traced to Roman commander Julius Caesar, who referred to the unconquered area east of the Rhine as Germania, thus distinguishing it from Gaul , which he had conquered. The victory of the Germanic tribes in the Battle of the...

. While formally independent, it was a vassal state of the First French Empire
First French Empire
The First French Empire , also known as the Greater French Empire or Napoleonic Empire, was the empire of Napoleon I of France...

, ruled by Napoleon
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...

's brother Jérôme Bonaparte
Jérôme Bonaparte
Jérôme-Napoléon Bonaparte, French Prince, King of Westphalia, 1st Prince of Montfort was the youngest brother of Napoleon, who made him king of Westphalia...

. It was named after Westphalia
Westphalia
Westphalia is a region in Germany, centred on the cities of Arnsberg, Bielefeld, Dortmund, Minden and Münster.Westphalia is roughly the region between the rivers Rhine and Weser, located north and south of the Ruhr River. No exact definition of borders can be given, because the name "Westphalia"...

, but it is a misnomer since the kingdom had little territory in common with that area. Napoleon imposed the first written constitution in Germany, a French-style central administration, and agricultural reform. The Kingdom liberated the serfs and gave everyone equal rights and the right to a jury trial. In 1808 the Kingdom passed Germany's first laws granting Jews equal rights, thereby providing a model for reform in the other German states. Westphalia was progressive in immediately enacting and enforcing the new reforms, thereby playing a leading role in the evolution of German democracy. The country was relatively poor but Napoleon demanded very heavy new taxes and payments, and conscripted soldiers. Few of the men who marched into Russia with Napoleon in 1812 ever returned. The Kingdom was bankrupt by 1812. When Napoleon was retreating in the face of Allied advances in 1813, the Kingdom was overrun by the Allies and (in 1815) turned over to Prussian rule. Most of the reforms, however, remained in place.

History

The Kingdom of Westphalia was created in 1807 by merging territories ceded by the Kingdom of Prussia
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...

 in the Peace of Tilsit, among them the Duchy of Magdeburg
Duchy of Magdeburg
The Duchy of Magdeburg was a province of Brandenburg-Prussia from 1680 to 1701 and a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1701 to 1807. It replaced the Archbishopric of Magdeburg after its secularization by Brandenburg. The duchy's capitals were Magdeburg and Halle, while Burg was another...

, the Brunswick-Luneburg
Brunswick-Lüneburg
The Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg , or more properly Duchy of Brunswick and Lüneburg, was an historical ducal state from the late Middle Ages until the late Early Modern era within the North-Western domains of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, in what is now northern Germany...

ian territories of Hanover
Electorate of Hanover
The Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg was the ninth Electorate of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation...

 and Wolfenbüttel, and the Electorate of Hesse. The latter's capital Kassel
Kassel
Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...

 then fulfilled the same function for Westphalia, and the king kept court at the palace of Wilhelmshöhe
Wilhelmshöhe
Schloss Wilhelmshöhe is a palace located in the Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe in Kassel, Germany. As King of Westphalia, Jérôme Bonaparte renamed it Napoleonshöhe and appointed his Head Chamberlain Heinrich von Blumenthal as its governor, with instructions to supervise extensive renovations.After the...

, re-named Napoleonshöhe. The state was a member of the Confederation of the Rhine
Confederation of the Rhine
The Confederation of the Rhine was a confederation of client states of the First French Empire. It was formed initially from 16 German states by Napoleon after he defeated Austria's Francis II and Russia's Alexander I in the Battle of Austerlitz. The Treaty of Pressburg, in effect, led to the...

.

Intended as a Napoleonic "model state", a constitution was written and enacted by King Jérôme on 7 December 1807, the day after he had arrived in Kassel, making Westphalia the first monarchy in Germany with a modern-style constitution. The constitution made all male residents citizens of equal rights. Thus serfs were liberated and Jews emancipated
Jewish Emancipation
Jewish emancipation was the external and internal process of freeing the Jewish people of Europe, including recognition of their rights as equal citizens, and the formal granting of citizenship as individuals; it occurred gradually between the late 18th century and the early 20th century...

, soccage was abolished. The Napoleonic code
Napoleonic code
The Napoleonic Code — or Code Napoléon — is the French civil code, established under Napoléon I in 1804. The code forbade privileges based on birth, allowed freedom of religion, and specified that government jobs go to the most qualified...

 was enacted, doing away with guild
Guild
A guild is an association of craftsmen in a particular trade. The earliest types of guild were formed as confraternities of workers. They were organized in a manner something between a trade union, a cartel, and a secret society...

s and providing for the right of free enterprise
Free enterprise
-Transport:* Free Enterprise I, a ferry in service with European Ferries between 1962 and 1980.* Free Enterprise II, a ferry in service with European Ferries between 1965 and 1982....

. A metric system
Metric system
The metric system is an international decimalised system of measurement. France was first to adopt a metric system, in 1799, and a metric system is now the official system of measurement, used in almost every country in the world...

 of weights and measures was introduced. Just as before the conquest, freedom of expression remained curtailed and censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...

 was instituted. In 1810 the coastal and northern départements North (capital: Stade
Stade
Stade is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany and part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region . It is the seat of the district named after it...

) and Lower Elbe (capital: Lunenburg
Lüneburg
Lüneburg is a town in the German state of Lower Saxony. It is located about southeast of fellow Hanseatic city Hamburg. It is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region, and one of Hamburg's inner suburbs...

) had to be ceded to the French Empire.

Following the French example, Jewish congregations were reorganised and a Consistory
Consistory (Judaism)
In Jewish usage, a consistory is a body governing the Jewish congregations of a province or of a country; also the district administered by the consistory...

 supervising them was established. The former Brunswick-Wolfenbüttelian merchant and man of letters, Israel Jacobson
Israel Jacobson
Israel Jacobson was a German philanthropist and, according to Borowitz and Patz in Explaining Reform Judaism , is considered the "father" of the Reform movement in Judaism.-Origins:...

, became its consistorial president, assisted by a board of officers. Jacobson did his best to exercise a reforming influence upon the various congregations of the country. He opened a house of prayer in Kassel, with a ritual similar to that introduced in Seesen
Seesen
Seesen is a town and municipality in the district of Goslar, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the northwestern edge of the Harz mountain range, approx...

. Napoléon's inglorious so-called décret infâme, restricting again the rights of many French Jews, did not apply in Westphalia.

A significant burden on the kingdom was the requirement to supply troops and financial support for the Napoleonic wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...

. Large numbers of Westphalian troops fought in the Russian campaign of 1812; the Westphalian Guards heroically but unsuccessfully charged the Raevski Redoubt during the Battle of Borodino
Battle of Borodino
The Battle of Borodino , fought on September 7, 1812, was the largest and bloodiest single-day action of the French invasion of Russia and all Napoleonic Wars, involving more than 250,000 troops and resulting in at least 70,000 casualties...

.

In September 1813, Russian troops surrounded Kassel, defeated the French completely and retook the city. By October 1 they had conquered the whole Kingdom, but three days later Jérôme returned with French soldiers and managed to recapture Kassel. The Elector
Prince-elector
The Prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire were the members of the electoral college of the Holy Roman Empire, having the function of electing the Roman king or, from the middle of the 16th century onwards, directly the Holy Roman Emperor.The heir-apparent to a prince-elector was known as an...

 of Hesse-Kassel
Hesse-Kassel
The Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel or Hesse-Cassel was a state in the Holy Roman Empire under Imperial immediacy that came into existence when the Landgraviate of Hesse was divided in 1567 upon the death of Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse. His eldest son William IV inherited the northern half and the...

 arrived soon after and the Russians besieged the city again. After France lost the Battle of the Nations
Battle of Leipzig
The Battle of Leipzig or Battle of the Nations, on 16–19 October 1813, was fought by the coalition armies of Russia, Prussia, Austria and Sweden against the French army of Napoleon. Napoleon's army also contained Polish and Italian troops as well as Germans from the Confederation of the Rhine...

 on 19 October 1813, the Russians dissolved the Kingdom and restored the status quo of 1806 except for Kaunitz-Rietberg and Stolberg-Wernigerode
Stolberg-Wernigerode
The Principality of Stolberg-Wernigerode was a county of the Holy Roman Empire located in the Harz region around Wernigerode, now part of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.-History:...

, with Prussia regaining control.

Coat of arms

The arms reflect the incorporated territories. The first quarter shows the silver horse of Westphalia, the second the lion of Hesse over the counties of Diez, Nidda and Katzenelnbogen
County of Katzenelnbogen
The County of Katzenelnbogen was an immediate state of the Holy Roman Empire. It existed between 1095 and 1479, when it was inherited by the Landgraves of Hesse.The estate comprised two separate territories...

, the third was newly designed for non specified territories around Magdeburg
Magdeburg
Magdeburg , is the largest city and the capital city of the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Magdeburg is situated on the Elbe River and was one of the most important medieval cities of Europe....

 and the fourth combined Brunswick, Diepholz, Lüneburg and Lauterburg. Around the shield are the Order of the Crown of Westphalia
Order of the Crown of Westphalia
The Order of the Crown of Westphalia was instituted in Paris on the 25th of December, 1809 by King Hieronymus I of Westphalen, better known as Napoleon's brother Jérôme Bonaparte....

and the French ‘Grand Aigle’. Above is Napoleon's star. Typical for Napoleonic heraldry are the crossed sceptres.

External links

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