 After his accession as Elector, he reduced the size of the royal household and began with the establishment of a small standing army of 12,000 men, after the model of the Margraviate of Brandenburg and managed to extract from the states of the realm a commitment to contribute funds.The Privy War Chancellery ("geheime Kriegskanzlei") was set up as the highest military authority.Extreme pressure was used to obtain recruits for the new army.