Part 50: Vultures are Gathering (1763-1770)
Who was Martynas Pacas, referred to by Slavs as Martin Pac and by Germans as Martin of Lithuania?
Born on July 24th, 1733 - interestingly, he is the first ruler of Lithuania whose accurate birth and death dates are known - in Grodno, Martynas Pacas hails from the House of Pac. This family of magnates was ethnic Lithuanian in origin, coming from Jieznas, and is recorded in history as owners of many lands in the Grodno (Gardinas) region since the 15th century - however, their ethnicity got murkier and murkier as time went on. Grodno, or Gardinas, was a boiling pot between Ruthenians and Lithuanians, situated right on the "border" between these two cultures, and thus intermarriages between ethnicities were especially common there - not just limited to the peasantry, either. Martynas's father was Jonas Pacas, a Lithuanian noble with a lot of Ruthenian, Russian and even some German ancestry, while his mother was a minor nobless from Bryansk, and whether she was Ruthenian or Russian is hard to define. Because of this mishmash of blood from numerous cultures, Martynas Pacas, his nationality and his accomplishments are often claimed by all three of the nationalities that made up the Empire at the time.
But no matter what, Pacas was the new Grand Hetman of Lithuania, ascending at age 30. He was quite a controversial pick - after all, he was over twice as young as his predecessor when he was appointed - but the protests calmed down as soon as the new dictator settled down in his position in Vilnius. Pacas was noted to be an exemplary military commander, capable of inspiring thousands of soldiers and cracking complex military strategies even at this young age, and his family's status as one of the most prestigious and oldest magnate dynasties in the Empire helped his status and prestige. The new Grand Hetman was a moderate, a negotiator, not especially concerned with protecting ancestral rights if innovation and reform were to be a more viable alternative, and unlike, say, Algimantas Songaila, he held some compassion towards the lowest rate citizens in the nation - Russians, Mordvins, Circassians, Tatars and others. One of the first decrees released by the new Hetman was related to serfdom, the heavily debated practice of keeping peasants locked to their landowners and their will. The
Act of 1764 marked the beginning of a path towards abolition - according to this law, the practice of
lažas (corvee) was banned across the Empire for good, and the obligation of serfs to their masters was to be replaced by
činšas (tithe) and other monetary obligations. Činšas, as a form of obligation, was common since the 17th century, but numerous manors continued the ineffective, uneconomical practice of forcing their peasants to work without any pay - until 1764, of course.
While this move brought Pacas at odds with many people, it also gave him an unlikely ally - Emperor Jonas II himself. Jonas II was far from a moderate - in fact, he was quite a man of the Enlightenment - but he understood that in order to increase the imperial institution's standing within the Hetmanate, he needed allies within the system. And, in addition, the pro-abolition stance of the Grand Hetman was appreciated by the monarch. And for Pacas, the support of the Emperor was necessary to maintain his rule - the monarch's voice resonated heavily among the lower classes, who saw him as the leader of the Church and almost like a "father". The two men entered into an unofficial "political alliance" and began to work together in the following years.
The biggest plan that Martynas Pacas had, however, dealt with the neighbour in the East. Over half a century has passed since the beginning of the Eastern Strategy, and it appeared to be successful - the territory of the Empire was greatly expanded, grain production increased a lot thanks to the incorporation of the Pontic Steppe, and the nation remained very stable. However, Lithuania was starting to get bottled and surrounded, with few places left to expand into - if only the Volgaks were not in the way... That's it! Under the rule of the new Grand Hetman, Lithuania began preparing for what is now known as the
Volga Gambit - striking Volga-Russia and conquering this nation of Russians and Tatars for good to open a window into the rest of Asia. This was not going to be just a simple invasion, like what happened under Albertas Jogaila I, either - the Hetmanate went as far as to build hundreds of miles of road across the steppe and train the army for warfare in the flatlands. A multi-front attack, one from the south and one from the North, was drawn up, and the plan was to attack without officially declaring a war to get the Volgaks surprised, but it never came to be.
Europe was just too distracting for Pacas to ever actually go through with the Volga Gambit, and this plan - a plan that could have changed history forever - was forgotten to time.
Martynas Pacas (Ruth./Russ. Martin Pac) - Grand Hetman of Lithuania since 1763
And a lot was happening in Europe in such a short time.
In late 1762, the Estates-General of the Republic of France elected a new Director -
Francois Doriot, the candidate put forward by the Reds. Doriot was a retired general, one of the leaders of the brief French-Holy Roman War two decades ago, and this background molded him into one of the most anti-German politicians in the nation. Not only was Doriot against the prospect of a united Germany, he even saw the current centralized Holy Roman Empire as too large and dangerous for France. The man saw no compromise. Charles VII, the Emperor of the German Nation at the time, noted in his diary that "Whenever I did anything that resembled independent thought, Doriot would send me a letter, claiming that if I go any further, the French will occupy the left bank of the Rhine and kick me out of Vienna. He wanted us to be his puppet, a vassal". Doriot's Directorate marked a swift increase of tensions across all of Europe, and his reelection in 1766 only heightened them further.
However, Doriot's biggest headache did not come from Germany - but rather it's neighbour. Throughout the 18th century, the situation in
Visegrad had been gradually weakening. A string of weak, ineffective rulers revealed the problems in the Visegradian system - the constant clashes between the King and the nobility, the disenfranchisement of the lower classes and Hungarian domination in the affairs of the country. In addition, the lack of a uniting force in the form of Lithuania, which outright built a wall of fortifications between itself and the rest of Europe, meant that the three nations that composed Visegrad began to think of departing in their own, separate ways. The tension bursted into an outright revolt, when in 1765, the citizens of Prague finally took arms against the government in the name of an independent
Bohemian Republic, aligned with the HRE. These people were mostly farmers and burghers, a disorganized force rallied by bitterness and seek for reform, but it nevertheless terrified not only the King in Visegrad Castle, but also Director Doriot in Paris.
In order to defend the Amsterdam System, the French organized a 50 000 men large expedition to be sent towards Bohemia, but a problem arose - how do you get the men there? The HRE is the best route to Visegrad, but they were opposed to letting even a single French soldier on their soil. Doriot, upon hearing the German refusal, interpreted it very simply - the Germans are collaborating with the Bohemian revolutionaries, they are a threat, and they must be dealt with. 1765-1766 marked the short
French invasion of the Holy Roman Empire. Charles VII chickened out - fearing that opposing a French invasion will end much worse for Germany in the end, he ordered the imperial troops to stand down and surrender, and all the French had to fight in opposition were local militias and armies of a few resisting republics, like Saxony. Even today November 21st, the day of the beginning of the French invasion, is a day of infamy for the German people. French troops surrounded and occupied Vienna, then ousted Charles VII from power and installed his distant cousin, Jean I - a French noble from Brittany. Bohemia soon followed, and after a two-month
Siege of Prague, during which 19 000 Czech civilians and defenders died, the Bohemian Republic was strangled in it's crib.
How did the Germans react to this French intervention? Very, very, very negatively. To many, this seemed like the end of Germania, their country was humiliated and left to be annexed by the French juggernaut. An organized, militant underground opposition movement formed against Emperor Jean I and the French soldiers that enforced his authority, some even went as far as to fight guerilla campaigns against the French in the Alps and Bavarian mountains. The North German Communion stood together with it's South German brothers, and many refugees from the HRE settled down in the North, where they continued supporting the opposition. Even if Director Doriot sent out vague promises of returning the HRE back to German rule once the situation stabilizes, France failed to control the situation. Even some of the Frenchmen themselves did not support this occupation of Germany, especially the Blues, who protested against the war and occupation as a waste of resources.
But that's not where the focus of the Europeans was at the time. After the failed rebellion in Prague, Visegrad continued to be unstable, and a new revolt seemed inevitable. This time, Lithuania had to get involved as well to help stabilize the situation. Historians have recently revealed an interesting fact about the discussions on Visegrad's fate between France and Lithuania - in 1766, Grand Hetman Martynas Pacas half-jokingly proposed that Lithuania, the Ottoman Empire and France-HRE partition Visegrad into three pieces, taking Poland, Hungary and Bohemia respectively, to end the instability in the Danube region for good. It is not known whether this idea was ever actually considered, but many doubt it's historical accuracy - especially considering that France's stance on the Amsterdam System made it uphold static borders in Europe above all, while Lithuania's Eastern Strategy spoke of staying on the defensive in the Western "front".
Whether or not this hypothetical "Partition of Visegrad" ever went beyond Pacas's joke, it never happened, and the two great powers of Europe decided to avoid a direct military intervention in Visegrad for now. The new King of Visegrad, Franciszek I, seemed promising to both France and Lithuania and to the nobility, and the situation in the union was slowly starting to stabilize. Perhaps Visegrad would have returned back to it's former strength, if not for what happened in the West.]
1769 was the beginning of the election season in France. While no laws in France mandated a term limit, it was deemed honorable for a Director to not seek reelection after serving two terms, and Francois Doriot upheld this tradition, officially informing the Estates-General in June of 1769 on his decision to retire after the 1770 election. But he spoke too soon. Doriot soon received very troubling information about the situation in Germany from the military staff - the Germans have went to full rebellion, seizing towns and cities and pushing back the small French garrisons. The cherry on the top of the rebellion cake was the event now known as the
March to Schönbrunn, where over 80 000 armed citizens of Vienna and surrounding towns marched against the French Emperor Jean I, declaring this the beginning of the Republic of Germania...
The
Great German Revolution has begun.
