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In this article Janusz Małłek has analysed the complex maneuverings that took place in Ducal Prussia between the time it was refounded as a secularised duchy in 1525, with the status of a feudal dependency of the Polish-Lithuanian crown, down to the absolutist coup of duke Frederick William, the Great Elector in 1663. This followed quickly on the surrender of Polish suzerainty by the treaties of Oliwa of 1660. It shows a consistent pattern, familiar in early-modern politics, in which the three parties to the relationship, the Hohenzollern dukes, the kings of Poland and the ducal Estates manoeuvered for short-term advantage, without regard for any principle except preventing any of the participants achieving hegemony. The game broke down after 1660 when the participants were reduced to two. The manoeuverings were mirrored within the ducal Estates, as the duke, his nobility and the city of Königsberg played out a similar game of shifting combinations.
