So, last week we talked about what Malplaquet meant for Louis XIV and the course of the War of the Spanish Succession. Now let's talk about it and the Hohenzollerns, Frederick's royal line.

Frederick's grandfather, Frederick I, was a gilded palace-horse on a level that his grandson could only dream of. Modeling himself on Louis XIV, he nevertheless threw the might of Prussia against the monarch in the War of Spanish Succession in exchange for the Holy Roman Emperor's allowing him to call himself King IN Prussia.

The reason for this weird-ass title was that the Hohenzollern territories encompassed lands formally in the Holy Roman Empire and others (mainland Prussia) not. Since the nature of the HRE didn't allow for sub-kingdoms (except Bohemia), Frederick I couldn't be considered a king of the lands he had in the HRE, but he COULD be considered king of the non-HRE Prussian lands. So, he was dubbed a King, but only in Prussia. Thus King IN Prussia.

Frederick the Great was the first one to become King OF Prussia after stompin' the Habsurgs.

So, indeed, if the Allies had totally lost the War of the Spanish Succession, the Hohenzollerns might well have lost their kingship, such as it was.

Another odd bit of Hohenzollern history: Frederick William, Frederick the Great's father, WAS at the battle, where he unveiled the new drill he had been training his regiment with, the Prussian Drill which, when combined with the slow march of his friend Leopold of Anhalt-Dessau, became the goose step.

And there you have it!

- Count Dolby von Luckner