It was by them that his monarchical feeling was strengthened.

It is not at first apparent what necessary connection there is between monarchical government and Christian faith.
For Bismarck they were ever inseparably bound together; nothing but religious belief would have reconciled him to a form of government so repugnant to natural human reason.

"If I were not a Christian, I would be a Republican," he said many years later; in Christianity he found the only support against revolution and socialism.

He was not the man to be beguiled by romantic sentiment; he was not a courtier to be blinded by the pomp and ceremony of royalty; he was too stubborn and independent to acquiesce in the arbitrary rule of a single man.

He could only obey the king if the king himself held his authority as the representative of a higher power.