Page "Ewald Friedrich von Hertzberg" Paragraph 13

As regards Polish policy, too, their ideas came into conflict, Hertzberg having always been openly opposed to the total annihilation of the Polish kingdom.

The same is true of the attitude of king and minister towards Great Britain.

At the conferences at Reichenbach in the summer of 1790, this opposition became more and more acute, and Hertzberg was only with difficulty persuaded to come to an agreement merely on the basis of the status quo, as demanded by Pitt.

The king's renunciation of any extension of territory was in Hertzberg's eyes impolitic, and this view of his was later endorsed by Bismarck.

A letter which came to the eyes of the king, in which Hertzberg severely criticized the king's foreign policy, and especially his plans for attacking Russia, led to his dismissal on July 5, 1791.

He afterwards made several attempts to exert an influence over foreign affairs, but in vain.

The king showed himself more and more personally hostile to the ex-minister, and in later years pursued Hertzberg, now quite embittered, with every kind of petty persecution, even ordering his letters to be opened.