In early January 1809, just a short while after completing work on Die Herrmannsschlacht, Kleist borrowed from the Dresdner Königsbibliothek Karl Heinrich Krause's Mein Vaterland unter den hohenzollerischen Regenten. This was to provide the historical basis for a second patriotic-political drama dealing—as the title suggests—with the legend of Prinz Friedrich von Hessen-Homburg, who, while serving as a cavalry leader during the Battle of Fehrbellin in 1675, evoked the ire of the “Great Elector” Friedrich Wilhelm by charging without waiting for the order to do so, but was later granted clemency in view of his decisive contribution to victory. Given the close proximity to Die Herrmannsschlacht, the choice of material and setting is no accident: the historical battle saw the invading Swedish army under Count Waldemar von Wrangel repelled by the modest Brandenburg forces, and there can be little doubt of Kleist's intent to once more use the constellation of foreign aggression and patriotic defense to voice a political rallying call. That being said, the layers of meaning are evidently far deeper here than in the previous text, and with the reworking of Homburg's act of disobedience into a clear instance of insubordination—for which he is first court-martialed, then sentenced to death—comes a shift in focus toward the internal structures of the state that allows for a highly complex and subtle treatment of the tensions between inclination and duty, freedom and order, self and society.