The County Of Lippe

This county was a small state in Westphalia, on its border with Lower Saxony, In 1792, the county of Lippe was ruled by Prince Friedrich Wilhelm Leopold. However, the prince was suffering from a mental disorder, and his uncle, Count Ludwig Heinrich Adolf had been appointed Regent.

The Prince and the Count were assisted by a five-man Governing Council, under the Presidency of the able Ferdinand von Hoffmann. The representative assembly, the 'Landstände, was particularly strong in the county, controlling the financial purse-strings.

The County of Lippe was a member of the Westphalian Circle of the Empire, which controlled military organisation The Prince was entitled to be represented in the Imperial Diet at Regensburg. He sat with the Counts of the Westphalian Counts' College, who were collectively entitled to one vote. The representative of the Westphalian Counts at Regensburg was an influential diplomat, Christian von Fischer.

The Imperial Contingent

As a member of the Westphalian Circle, the Prince of the Lippe had to contribute a 'simplum' of 39 1/3 infantry and 17 1/3 cavalry to the Imperial Army. In wartime, this was usually raised to a 'triplum'. In practice, Lippe usually raised infantry instead of the cavalry, three times as many, so that the Lippe Simplum was reckoned at 91 1/3 and the Triplum at 274 men

The Lippe contingent formed part of the Westphalian Circle Infantry Regiment Paderborn. In peacetime, the Lippe Circle Company was used to guard the Castle, the Treasury and the Prison, in Detmold, the capital of the county. The uniform of the contingent was:

A blue coat, with red standing collar, cuffs, lapels and turnbacks,

A cocked hat, with narrow braid edging, and a cockade;

A white waistcoat, and white breeches, or long linen overalls, Black cloth gaiters.

Preparations For War

On 20th April 1792, following disagreements over Alsace and Lorraine, and the position of French emigrants in Germany, the King of France declared war on the Emperor, in his capacity of King of Bohemia and Hungary. It seemed as if an Imperial War would soon follow.

At Regensburg, the Austrian and Prussian representatives assured the Imperial Diet that their masters would protect the Empire against French incursions. On 19th August, the Duke of Brunswick invaded France with an Austrian and Prussian army. On 10th September, the Emperor asked the Imperial Diet to consider whether an imperial War should be declared Fischer wrote to the Count Regent to ask for his instructions on this vote.

On 20th September, the Duke of Brunswick's offensive was brought to a halt at Valmy. He ordered a retreat. General Custine invaded the Rhineland, capturing Mainz on 21st October, and Frankfurt on the 22nd. This frightened the Imperial Diet badly. On 23rd November, they voted to advise the Emperor to order a Triplum, and to gather the imperial Army together, but not to declare an imperial War. The Count Regent had instructed Fischer to abstain from voting on his behalf

Nevertheless, the Count Regent decided not to wait for the imperial decree on the Triplum, but to call a meeting of the county assembly, to raise money for the contingent. He wrote to Fischer to assure him how keen he was to do his duty by the Empire.

Money Instead Of Men

The county assembly met on 18th December 1792. They discussed the best way to meet their obligations. In the past the County of Lippe had always provided its own contingent but this time the Governing Council and the assembly decided that it would be cheaper to pay one of the larger states to provide the contingent for them. This was legal, providing that the Circle Diet approved The Count Regent and his government thought that Prussia should be approached. The assembly recommended Hanover. Hoffman wrote to both Prussia and Hanover to ask for terms.

In the meantime the Emperor ordered the Westphalian Circle to assemble its troops at Cassel, by 1st March 1793.

The county assembly met again on 26th February 1793, to learn that the Emperor had decided that all states whose contingent was less than 1000 men would be excused their duty for a year, on the payment of a suitable sum of money, with which their places in the Circle regiments could be filled up. This promised to be even cheaper.

Fauth, the Count Regent's representative at the Circle Diet in Cologne, made an agreement with the Count of Westphalia, to pay the Emperor 27,400 guilders, excusing his master from military duty, until 1st March 1794.

On 22nd March 1793, the imperial Diet voted to advise the Emperor to declare an imperial War against the French Republic. The County of Lippe was now liable for an imperial war tax of 30 'Römermonate', which amounted to 3600 guilders.

The Imperial War

As the Empire joined the war against France, the French were still holding Mainz. However, in the Austrian Netherlands, things were going well for the Coalition. The prince of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld beat Dumouriez at Neerwinden on 18th March 1793. The allied armies invaded northern France. They captured the fortress of Condé on 10th July, and Valenciennes on the 29th. In the Rhineland, the Duke of Brunswick laid siege to Mainz, and captured it on 23rd July. The Imperial Army gathered at Kehl over the river from Strassburg, under the command of General Count von Würmser. On 24th August he invaded Alsace. On 13th October, he took the fortress of Weissenburg.

At the end of 1793, and the beginning of 1794, fortune started to favour the French again. they beat the Duke of York at Hondschoote on 6th September, and Prince Coburg at Wattignies on 16th October. On the Rhine, Hoche beat the Prussian General von Hotze at Fröschwiller on 22nd December; ,and Würmser at Geisberg on the 26th. The Imperial troops evacuated Alsace, and re-crossed the Rhine.

Fighting then died down, and the opposing armies went into winter quarters, until the opening of the 1794 campaigning season, in April.

Lippe Raises Its Own Contingent

As the 1794 campaigning season approached, the Emperor and his war council found themselves greatly outnumbered by the French forces. The French were operating a levée en masse'. Also, it seemed that the King of Prussia was losing interest in the war. The Imperial government decided that it was essential to increase the size of the Imperial Army, so, on 18th March, an Imperial decree was read out in the Diet that this year an states must raise their own contingents.

There then followed months of correspondence between the Count Regent Herr Fauth, other princes and counts and their representatives, the Count of Westphalia, and the Emperor, to try to persuade the Emperor to change his mind. Not until 1 9th July did the Count Regent finally write to the Count of Westphalia to tell him that the Emperor's command would be obeyed.

Meanwhile the military situation was deteriorating fast. Prince Coburg was beaten at Tourcoing on 18th May, and at Fleurus on 26th June, and had to retreat from the Austrian Netherlands On the Rhine, the Coalition troops held their positions with difficulty In Lippe, the county assembly met on 13th August to vote funds for the raising of the contingent. Recruitment started the next day. On 6th October, the Imperial Diet voted to advise the Emperor to order a Quintuplum, i.e. to expand the Imperial Army to five times its peacetime size. The Count Regent of Lippe had instructed Fischer to cast his vote for this. As a result, the Count Regent now had to find 4565 men. Not until 24th March 1795 did he write to the Duke of Saxe-Teschen, the commander of the Imperial Army, that his contingent was at last ready to march out.

Prince Leopold Takes Over

Prince Leopold of the Lippe had been improving in his mental health. On 28th March, Count Ludwig stood down as regent allowing Prince Leopold to take over as ruler. On 18th April, he also wrote to the Duke of Saxe-Teschen, asking for orders for his Imperial contingent The reply came back that the Lippe contingent should march to join its regiment at Limburg, near Coblenz. This reply arrived in Detmold on 9th May.

Prussia Makes Peace

Shortly afterwards, on 14th May 1795, Prussia made peace with the French Republic, by the Treaty of Basel, even though to make a separate peace during an imperial War was against imperial law. The French offered to extend this peace to any states north of the Kuhr, providing that they would recall their imperial contingents. This altered the political situation completely.

On 27th May, the county assembly recommended to the Prince and his government, that the contingent should provisionally remain in Detmold, and that some of the men should be given leave. Although the Prince was personally a loyalist, he took his assembly's advice.

Lippe Is Drawn Into Neutrality

On 25th September 1795, Christian von Dohm, the Prussian director of the Westphalian Circle, wrote to Prince Leopold, asking him to make an official declaration of his accession to the Treaty of Basel, and to take no further part in the imperial War. Prince Leopold did not know what to do for the best. He decided to keep his contingent at home, but ready to march, and to wait and see what the other Westphalian states would do.

On 1st January 1796, Count Clerfayt, the new commander of the imperial Army wrote a letter to the Prince, demanding that his contingent be sent immediately. Prince Leopold summoned the county assembly again. on 8th January. They could give him no advice except to wait and see.

On 18th June, representatives of North German states met at Hildesheim, to discuss the maintenance of an 'army of observation' to protect the neutral territory. Prince Leopold sent a representative to this meeting.

The Archduke Charles was by now commander of the imperial Army, On 5th July, he wrote another sharp letter to the Prince. This time, Prince Leopold felt that he must at last commit himself. On 2nd August 1796, he wrote to the Archduke Charles, that he really wished to carry out his responsibilities towards the Emperor and the Empire, but, because no Imperial troops were in a position to protect his County, he had no alternative but to keep his contingent at home, for the foreseeable future.

The End

So, after months and years of time wasted in the summoning and raising of Lippe's contingent, and negotiations and exchanges of letters between the Prince, the Count Regent, the Governing Council, the Estates, the Circle authorities, the imperial Diet, the commander of the Imperial Army and the Emperor - nothing. The imperial contingent of Lippe never did march out to play its small part in defending the Empire.

Exemplified here are the disadvantages for national defence, of federalism, reliance on representative institutions, and government by committee.

Sources

'Die auswärtige Politik der Grafschaff Lippe vom Ausbruch der französischen Revolution bis zum Tilsiter Frieden,' by Hens Kiewning, (Verlag von Hens Hinrichs, Detmold, 1903)
'Mitteilungen zur Geschichte der militärischen Tracht,' Band XVII, edited by Richard Knötel
'Die Reichs-Matrikel aller Kreise,' by Heinrich Sigmund Gumpeizhairner, (Ulm, 1796)
'Heiliges römisches Reich 1776 bis 1806,' by Karl Otmar Freiherr von Aretin, (Wiesbaden, 1967)