Fürstenbund

In 1785 Prussia joined with Hanover and Saxony together for three- Elector covenant which rapidly by the accession of 14 additional, but less powerful princes of the empire prospered for league of princes. Among the members were soon Hesse -Kassel and Zweibrücken, Braunschweig -Wolfenbüttel, Saxe-Gotha and Saxe-Weimar, Mecklenburg, Baden and Brandenburg- Ansbach.

Essential to the concept of this covenant was that the estates not only to reform the kingdom system, but here - in the face of the Prussian-Austrian rivalry in the kingdom - especially to its defense got together, as a third element to forming a triad.

Except Protestant princes of the empire was joined by the Catholic Reichserzkanzler, the Elector - Archbishop of Mainz ( Friedrich Karl Freiherr von Erthal ), and in 1787 his coadjutor Karl Theodor Freiherr von Dalberg. Although the prince of Nations was created to safeguard the Constitution and the existing ownership, Friedrich orchestrated the Great ( after the Seven Years War enjoyed the Prussian king in the kingdom of high reputation ) the league of princes as anti Habsburg counterweight among the estates of the empire.

The occasion was the imperial politics Emperor Joseph II to achieve territorial gains in southern Germany, as the Bavarian Elector Karl Theodor was willing to replace the whole of Bavaria against the Austrian Netherlands.

As this swap deal did not materialize, the resistance of the League of Princes mainly from the Prussian point of view had served its purpose. The Electoral Mainz policy was thwarted by Prussia, in 1788 retired from the federal government. With the 1790 completed rapprochement of the two German great powers, Austria and Prussia, which in 1791 agreed on concerted action against the French Revolution erupted, the League of Princes came to the sidelines and collapsed.