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The Rothschild Bloodline

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The Landgrave William of Hesse-Cassel held an important position in the second Tugendbund. Buderus was also involved. It appears the Rothschilds were members and they were "go-betweens for the [Landgrave’s] correspondence on this matter, and made payments in favor of the Tugendbund." This put Mayer Rothschild at the head of the propaganda system against Napoleon. Napoleon tried to suppress Tugundbund but it went underground, concealing itself under the protection of the English Masonic Lodge at Hanover. It assisted many anti-Napoleon causes physically and financially. Tugendbund was eventually dissolved, but many of its members moved on to other Masonic societies such as the "Black Knights," "The Knights of the Queen of Prussia," and "The Concordists."

In 1818 the second Tugundbund was revived as the Burschenschaft (Association of Boys or Fellows). The Burschenschaft was a revolutionary group of students who introduced martial exercises into the universities. The Burschenschaft eventually fell apart. After a few years the exiled Landgrave came to totally trust the Rothschilds.

This princely steppingstone was working out perfectly. It was paving the way towards Rothschild financial freedom. Mayer wanted to become a creditor, and his goal was soon achieved. In 1810 the Rothschild’s firm became "Mayer Amschel Rothschild and Sons" (Nathan was not a public partner of this firm). That same year Mayer loaned his own money to Denmark and when Dalberg took out a big loan to go to the baptism of Napoleon’s son, the financial security of the Frankfort bank was set in stone.

The House of Rothschild needed a new steppingstone. The old one, the Landgrave, would not be discarded, but they needed a younger, more political man who could be their key to controlling Europe. That man was Prince Clemens Metternich who in 1809 became the Austrian Minister for Foreign Affairs. He became the leading opposer of Napoleon, and the Landgrave moved in his exile to Austria, hoping the powerful up-start would get Hesse back. So the Rothschild network increased its operations in Austria - the land of the Hapsburgs.

Around this time Mayer Amschel Bauer-Rothschild got sick. Before his death he wrote a Will that would dictate the structure of the Rothschilds. Although the exact content’s of Mayer’s Will have been kept secret, one edict is clear. It completely excluded the daughters and their husbands and heirs from the business, and all knowledge of it. The Will totally exalted the importance of the family circle. On September 19, 1812 Mayer died. A bogus legend about his death maintains that his five sons gathered around his deathbed and he split Europe between them. Only Amschel and Carl were in Frankfort when he died. Nathan was in England, and Salomon and James were on the road (the brothers were constantly traveling).

The "Five Wizards"

When Mayer died, headship over the family fell on Nathan Rothschild of England. Even though Nathan was not the oldest, the 5 brothers had voted unanimously that he was the most capable to lead them. Nathan was an intelligent, uneducated, self-absorbed jerk. Though he was an impolite, foul-mouthed man (‘...he could swear like a trooper.’) his money got him into the high society of England. His cold view on life and power is seen in his response to an English Major who was being sentimental about the horrible deaths of the large number of soldiers that had died in the war. "Well," said Rothschild. "If they had not all died, Major, you presumably would still be a drummer." There is a story that says one of Nathan’s sons asked him how many nations there were in the world and Nathan replied: "There are only two you need to bother about. There is the mishpoche [Yiddish for family] and there are the others." This story may be false, but the attitude is real.

Nathan first settled in Manchester, England, the center of cloth manufacturing. In 1804 he moved to London. As his wealth and his reputation began to grow he was able to marry Hannah Cohen. The Cohens were a wealthy Jewish family from Amsterdam, and Hannah’s father, Salomon Cohen was a respected merchant in London. Nathan served with him as Warden of the Great Synagogue (the Rothschilds relationship to the Jews will be discussed later on in this article). Hannah’s sister, Judith, married the powerful Jewish Freemason Moses Montefiore (the Montefiore’s were of "ancient" and extremely ‘aristocratic Jewish stock’, probably another Cabalistic family), who was friends with Nathan (Nathan’s sister Henrietta married a Montefiore, so did his second son, Anthony, and his brother, Salomon’s great grandson, Aiphonse married a Sebag-Montefiore in 1911).

Nathan’s social life revolved around the Cohens. Nathan was a Freemason. He was a member of London’s Lodge of Emulation. Nathan’s accumulation of wealth was incredible. His money-making exploits were unbelievable. He was smuggling English goods past the French blockade during the Napoleonic conflict, and making great profits. This smuggling required an agent in Paris, so Mayer, through his Dalberg connections, got his son James a passport and James went to live in Paris. A large amount of the Landgrave’s money was sent to Nathan in England, on the advice of Buderus, for the purpose of buying stock. But Nathan, as he and Buderus had planned, used the money as capitol for other ventures. When the exiled Landgrave began asking for a proof-of-purchase, Buderus and the Rothschild brothers had to come up with all sorts of excuses to protect Nathan’s thievery.

Eventually the Landgrave demanded to see receipts, so Nathan quIckly bought some stock (the Landgrave had told him to buy the stocks at 72, but their price when be ended up buying them was 62, Nathan pocketed the savings) and they snuck the receipts through the French blockade to the exiled Prince. The Landgrave was satisfied, he had no idea what had really been done with his money. Nathan began making connections in the British government. Probably his greatest early connection was to the Treasury official John Herries. Herries aided Nathan’s rise to power in every way possible. He became an intimate friend or Nathan’s and eventually a proxy for Rothschild in the British government. Their dealings were kept secret and the public had no idea as to the enormity of Nathan’s power. The most incredible example of Nathan’s devious schemes is a job he would later describe as the best business he had ever done.

Through Nathan’s connections in the treasury he learned of the plight of the English army in Spain. The Duke of Wellington (soon to become Nathan’s friend) had British troops in Spain ready to attack France, only they lacked one thing - hard cash (the army’s financiers would not take paper money), but the government was very short on gold at the time. Nathan knew how to profit from this situation. The East India Company was trying to sell gold that, of course, the government wanted to buy, but the price was so high that officials decided to wait until it dropped.

Nathan stepped in and bought up the gold (using some of the Landgraves money as well as his own). He then proceed to raise the price. When the officials realized the price wouldn’t drop they bought the gold and Nathan made a great profit. But the deal didn’t stop there. Nathan offered to deliver the gold to Wellington (this was a heavy responsibility because of the French blockade). Hemes went to bat and got Rothschild the job. Nathan’s plan was incredible, one biographer said his scheme was ‘comparable to burglary in broad daylight.’ Nathan’s brother, James went to Napoleon’s government and told them that Nathan would be importing gold into France and that the British government was upset at the move because it would financially hurt England. Napoleon’s government believed his lie and any French police who might have uncovered the plot were bribed. So Nathan was able to ship the gold to Paris with the approval of both the English and French governments.

In Paris the gold was exchanged in French banking firms for cash Wellington could use, and then the Rothschild network carried the money into Spain as France allowed Nathan to fund the war against itself. Eventually some French officials grew suspicious, but Napoleon ignored their reports (why?). The plan went smoothly even though the same officials secretly watched James Rothschild and his brother Carl (who was in on the plot). Wellington eventually defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. The Wellington smuggle was one of the greatest scams in history!