<P> The landowning nobility successfully managed to oppose similar changes . The government had to confront aristocratic resistance even to the pre-1806 reforms, which became considerable . The Gesindeordnung of 1810 was certainly notable progress for servants compared to that proposed in the Allgemeines Landrecht, but still remained conservative and favourable to the nobility . The nobility's opposition to this also led to several privileges being saved from abolition . The rights of the police and the courts were controlled more strongly by the state, but not totally abolished like religious and scholarly patrongage, hunting rights and fiscal privileges . Unlike the reforms in the Kingdom of Bavaria, the nobles were not asked to justify their rank . The reformers made compromises, but the nobility were unable to block the major changes brought by the reforms' central points . </P> <P> The freeing of the peasants marked the start of the Prussian reforms . The kingdom's modernisation began by modernising its base, that is, its peasants and its agriculture . At the start of the 19th century, 80% of the German population lived in the countryside . The edict of 9 October 1807, one of the central reforms, liberated the peasants and was signed only five days after Stein's appointment on von Schön's suggestion . The October edict began the process of abolishing serfdom and its hereditary character . The first peasants to be freed were those working on the domains in the Reichsritter and on 11 November 1810 at the latest, all the Prussian serfs were declared free: </P> <Table> <Tr> <Td> "</Td> <Td> On St Martin's Day 1810 all servitude ended throughout our states . After St Martin's Day 1810, there would be nothing but free people as was already the case over our domains in our provinces (...). </Td> <Td>" </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> "</Td> <Td> On St Martin's Day 1810 all servitude ended throughout our states . After St Martin's Day 1810, there would be nothing but free people as was already the case over our domains in our provinces (...). </Td> <Td>" </Td> </Tr>

Following the napoleonic wars how did prussia reform the state