1740-1815







Kleve-Mark, 1666-1740



The TREATY OF KLEVE 1666 finally split the inheritance of Jülich, Berg, Kleve, Mark and Ravensberg among the lines of Pfalz-Neuburg, who inherited JÜLICH-BERG, and BRANDENBURG, the elector of which inherited Kleve-Mark and Ravensberg (which was administrated together with the secularized bishopric Minden as MINDEN-RAVENSBERG.
Kleve-Mark consisted of two separate territories, the DUCHY OF KLEVE on the lower Rhine, and the COUNTY MARK in Westphalia. Here the territorial ESTATES preserve a strong position. The RECESS OF CÖLLN (on the Spree River, that is, 1672) established the confessions of 1609 as valid; Mark, for the most part was Lutheran, with tolerated reformed (Calvinist) and Catholic communities.
During the war between France and the Dutch Republic (1672-1678), the bishop of Münster, Cologne etc. being a French ally, French troops under TURENNE came through Werden and the Mark in 1672, causing some damage. Brandenburg did not attempt to defend her remote, isolated possessions. A Brandenburg force pressed on the bishop of Münster from the east (garrison at Minden); he signed a peace based on the status quo ante in 1674; Westphalia was war theatre no more.
Forced recruitment for the Prussian army in 1720 caused popular unrest in the southern districts of the Mark.

The Brandenburg Electors, since 1701 Kings in Prussia, resided in Berlin resp. Potsdam. They were accustomed to ruling absolute over their lands east of the Elbe river; their possessions in Westphalia and on the lower Rhine were not only remote, but also renitent (the estates blocking many royal policies). Therefore the electors/kings spent limited attention on these territories.
Prussia in 1702 acquired the COUNTY MOERS and in 1713 UPPER GELDERLAND, both adjacent to the Duchy of Kleve.The tiny abbey-statelets of ESSEN and WERDEN, both adjacent to the county of Mark, were Prussian protectorates.



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EXTERNAL
FILES 		Wanderung durch die Geschichte Kettwigs 1634-1757 (chronology of Kettwig, a suburb of Essen, historically part of abbey of Werden's territory), from Kettwig Online
DOCUMENTS List of Dukes/Counts, posted by Thomas Hoeckmann
Essen Landmatrikel 1668, posted by DoRo, in German, list of taxpayers (landowners) in the territory of the imperial abbey of Essen
Article Cleve, Marck, from Zedlers Universallexikon, (1730es), posted by Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, in German, 18th century font
REFERENCE Territorien-Ploetz : Geschichte der Deutschen Länder, Vol.1, Würzburg 1964, pp.171, 401
Coins of Kleve 1601-1700, in Krause, Mishler, Standard Catalog of World Coins : Seventeenth Century 1601-1700, 2nd ed., 2000, pp.426-427; of Mark p.598; on p.524 of Soest, on p.543 of the abbey of Werden, on p.541 of the abbey of Essen
Coins of Kleve, 1701-1800, in : Krause, Mishler, Standard Catalog of World Coins : Eighteenth Century 1701-1800, 2nd ed., 1997, pp.326-327; pp.882-883 on coins on Prussian Gelderland; p.773 on coins issued by the abbey of Werden, on pp.454-455 of the abbey of Essen



This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted on January 3rd 2002, last revised on January 15th 2007

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