Frederick William's In The Polish-Swedish War

The Prussians were the most difficult of all to control, but as with the other two territories, Frederick William was able to use the necessity of wartime to gather funds. The Duke of Prussia was historically a dependent of the nobility and of the Polish king, and the nobles of Prussia were Lutheran and anti-Reformed Church, the Elector’s own religion, which contributed to the Prussians refusal to cooperate with him. The Wibranzen was a defensive militia that Prussian nobles were sworn to support, but that over the years had become a defunct institution, but in 1644, Frederick William decided to start it up again. However, it was a purely defensive force, and other than an additional small force paid for by the Elector’s own income, this was
Charles Gustavus was crowned Charles X of Sweden in 1654, and war between him and Poland seemed imminent. A Swedish diplomat arrived in Berlin telling the Elector to fight for Sweden and to cede to the Swedes two Prussian port cities, humiliating terms which he rejected. He continued negotiations with Sweden but they saw his demands, including sovereignty in Prussia and a share of conquered Polish lands, as too high, and did not take him seriously enough to form an alliance. When the war broke out in 1655 and Charles invaded Poland, Frederick William brought his troops to protect Prussia. After enormous victories in Poland, the Swedish returned to capture Prussia. Wanting to devote resources elsewhere, the Swedish wanted to come to some agreement with the Elector, and so they signed an agreement where Sweden allowed Frederick William to stay neutral. Months later after a change in tide in favor of the Polish, both Charles and John Casimir of Poland approached him and asked for an alliance, realizing he was they key to defeating the other side. He chose to ally with the Swedish, and they signed the Treaty of Labiau, where he would fight for the Swedish in exchange for sovereignty in Prussia. The Polish-Austrian alliance realized it could not defeat Sweden if it did not
Much of this reform happened during the Polish-Swedish War and in the years following. For example, in 1651, Frederick William set up an organization known as the General War Commissariat, which was responsible for managing funds for the army and for general organization and administration. Alongside this institution was the War Chest, which was responsible for the collection of the contribution tax, and of which each of the Elector’s territories had its own. (In 1674, all of the War Chests were unified into the General War Chest, in another of the Elector’s steps to unify and centralize the military). These both showed their uses in the Polish-Swedish War, where the troops were well-fed and well-supplied. Frederick William also set up food and supply storages throughout his territories for passing allied troops, to prevent them from living off of the land and pillaging as had happened in the Thirty Years War, gaining respect for his organization and refusal to be trampled over. However, until later in his reign there remained problems with the way his military functioned. The traditional mercenary system was still being used, where colonels were given money to go and recruit troops, and would select their own officers. This led to the soldiers’ loyalty being to their own colonel and not to the ruler. Additionally a large amount of the troops came from outside of the Elector’s lands.