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Thompson <drthom@ihug.co.nz> + + + + + +Carlyle's "History of Friedrich II of Prussia" + + + + +BOOK III. + +THE HOHENZOLLERNS IN BRANDENBURG. +1412-1718 + +CHAPTER I. + +KURFURST FRIEDRICH I. + +Burggraf Friedrich, on his first coming to Brandenburg, found but +a cool reception as Statthalter. [<italic> "Johannistage" <end +italic> (24 June) "1412," he first set foot in Brandenburg, with +due escort, in due state; only Statthalter (Viceregent) as yet: +Pauli, i. 594, ii. 58; Stenzel, <italic> Geschichte des +Preussischen Staats <end italic> (Hamburg, 1830, 1851), +i. 167-169.] He came as the representative of law and rule; +and there had been many helping themselves by a ruleless life, of +late. Industry was at a low ebb, violence was rife; plunder, +disorder everywhere; too much the habit for baronial gentlemen to +"live by the saddle," as they termed it, that is by highway +robbery in modern phrase. + +The Towns, harried and plundered to skin and bone, were glad to +see a Statthalter, and did homage to him with all their heart. +But the Baronage or Squirearchy of the country were of another +mind. These, in the late anarchies, had set up for a kind of kings +in their own right: they had their feuds; made war, made peace, +levied tolls, transit-dues; lived much at their own discretion in +these solitary countries;--rushing out from their stone towers +("walls fourteen feet thick"), to seize any herd of "six hundred +swine," any convoy of Lubeck or Hamburg merchant-goods, that had +not contented them in passing. What were pedlers and mechanic +fellows made for, if not to be plundered when needful? Arbitrary +rule, on the part of these Noble Robber-Lords! And then much of +the Crown-Domains had gone to the chief of them,--pawned (and the +pawn-ticket lost, so to speak), or sold for what trifle of ready +money was to be had, in Jobst and Company's time. To these +gentlemen, a Statthalter coming to inquire into matters was no +welcome phenomenon. Your EDLE HERR (Noble Lord) of Putlitz, Noble +Lords of Quitzow, Rochow, Maltitz and others, supreme in their +grassy solitudes this long while, and accustomed to nothing +greater than themselves in Brandenburg, how should they obey +a Statthalter? + +Such was more or less the universal humor in the Squirearchy of +Brandenburg; not of good omen to Burggraf Friedrich. But the chief +seat of contumacy seemed to be among the Quitzows, Putlitzes, +above spoken of; big Squires in the district they call the +Priegnitz, in the Country of the sluggish Havel River, northwest +from Berlin a fifty or forty miles. These refused homage, very +many of them; said they were "incorporated with Bohmen;" said this +and that;--much disinclined to homage; and would not do it. +Stiff surly fellows, much deficient in discernment of what is +above them and what is not:--a thick-skinned set; bodies clad in +buff leather; minds also cased in ill habits of long continuance. + +Friedrich was very patient with them; hoped to prevail by gentle +methods. He "invited them to dinner;" "had them often at dinner +for a year or more:" but could make no progress in that way. +"Who is this we have got for a Governor?" said the noble lords +privately to each other: "A NURNBERGER TAND (Nurnberg Plaything,-- +wooden image, such as they make at Nurnberg)," said they, +grinning, in a thick-skinned way: "If it rained Burggraves all the +year round, none of them would come to luck in this Country;"--and +continued their feuds, toll-levyings, plunderings and other +contumacies. Seeing matters come to this pass after waiting above +a year, Burggraf Friedrich gathered his Frankish men-at-arms; +quietly made league with the neighboring Potentates, Thuringen and +others; got some munitions, some artillery together--especially +one huge gun, the biggest ever seen, "a twenty-four pounder" no +less; to which the peasants, dragging her with difficulty through +the clayey roads, gave the name of FAULE GRETE (Lazy, or Heavy +Peg); a remarkable piece of ordnance. Lazy Peg he had got from the +Landgraf of Thuringen, on loan merely; but he turned her to +excellent account of his own. I have often inquired after Lazy +Peg's fate in subsequent times; but could never learn anything +distinct:--the German Dryasdust is a dull dog, and seldom carries +anything human in those big wallets of his!-- + +Equipped in this way, Burggraf Friedrich (he was not yet Kurfurst, +only coming to be) marches for the Havel Country (early days of +1414); [Michaelis, i. 287; Stenzel, i. 168 (where, contrary to +wont, is an insignificant error or two). Pauli (ii. 58) is, as +usual, lost in water.] makes his appearance before Quitzow's +strong-house of Friesack, walls fourteen feet thick: "You Dietrich +von Quitzow, are you prepared to live as a peaceable subject +henceforth: to do homage to the Laws and me?"--"Never!" answered +Quitzow, and pulled up his drawbridge. Whereupon Heavy Peg opened +upon him, Heavy Peg and other guns; and, in some eight-and-forty +hours, shook Quitzow's impregnable Friesack about his ears. +This was in the month of February, 1414, day not given: Friesack +was the name of the impregnable Castle (still discoverable in our +time); and it ought to be memorable and venerable to every +Prussian man. Burggraf Friedrich VI., not yet quite become +Kurfurst Friedrich I., but in a year's space to become so, he in +person was the beneficent operator; Heavy Peg, and steady Human +Insight, these were clearly the chief implements. + +Quitzow being settled,--for the country is in military occupation +of Friedrich and his allies, and except in some stone castle a man +has no chance,--straightway Putlitz or another mutineer, with his +drawbridge up, was battered to pieces, and his drawbridge brought +slamming down. After this manner, in an incredibly short period, +mutiny was quenched; and it became apparent to Noble Lords, and to +all men, that here at length was a man come who would have the +Laws obeyed again, and could and would keep mutiny down. + +Friedrich showed no cruelty; far the contrary. Your mutiny once +ended, and a little repented of, he is ready to be your gracious +Prince again: Fair-play and the social wine-cup, or inexorable war +and Lazy Peg, it is at your discretion which. Brandenburg +submitted; hardly ever rebelled more. Brandenburg, under the wise +Kurfurst it has got, begins in a small degree to be cosmic again, +or of the domain of the gods; ceases to be chaotic and a mere +cockpit of the devils. There is no doubt but this Friedrich also, +like his ancestor Friedrich III., the First Hereditary Burggraf, +was an excellent citizen of his country: a man conspicuously +important in all German business in his time. A man setting up for +no particular magnanimity, ability or heroism, but unconsciously +exhibiting a good deal; which by degrees gained universal +recognition. He did not shine much as Reichs-Generalissimo, under +Kaiser Sigismund, in his expeditions against Zisca; on the +contrary, he presided over huge defeat and rout, once and again, +in that capacity; and indeed had represented in vain that, with +such a species of militia, victory was impossible. He represented +and again represented, to no purpose; whereupon he declined the +office farther; in which others fared no better. [Hormayr, +<italic> OEsterreichischer Plutarch <end italic> vii. 109-158, +? Zisca.] + +The offer to be Kaiser was made him in his old days; but he wisely +declined that too. It was in Brandenburg, by what he silently +founded there, that he did his chief benefit to Germany and +mankind. He understood the noble art of governing men; had in him +the justice, clearness, valor and patience needed for that. +A man of sterling probity, for one thing. Which indeed is the +first requisite in said art:--if you will have your laws obeyed +without mutiny, see well that they be pieces of God Almighty's +Law: otherwise all the artillery in the world will not keep +down mutiny. + +Friedrich "travelled much over Brandenburg;" looking into +everything with his own eyes;--making, I can well fancy, +innumerable crooked things straight. Reducing more and more that +famishing dog-kennel of a Brandenburg into a fruitful arable +field. His portraits represent a square headed, mild-looking solid +gentleman, with a certain twinkle of mirth in the serious eyes of +him. Except in those Hussite wars for Kaiser Sigismund and the +Reich, in which no man could prosper, he may be defined as +constantly prosperous. To Brandenburg he was, very literally, the +blessing of blessings; redemption out of death into life. In the +ruins of that old Friesack Castle, battered down by Heavy Peg, +Antiquarian Science (if it had any eyes) might look for the +tap-root of the Prussian Nation, and the beginning of all that +Brandenburg has since grown to under the sun. + +Friedrich, in one capacity or another, presided over Brandenburg +near thirty years. He came thither first of all in 1412; was not +completely Kurfurst in his own right till 1415; nor publicly +installed, "with 100,000 looking on from the roofs and windows," +in Constance yonder, till 1417,--age then some forty-five. +His Brandenburg residence, when he happened to have time for +residing or sitting still, was Tangermunde, the Castle built by +Kaiser Karl IV. He died there, 21st September, 1440; laden +tolerably with years, and still better with memories of hard work +done. Rentsch guesses by good inference he was born about 1372. +As I count, he is seventh in descent from that Conrad, Burggraf +Conrad I., Cadet of Hohenzollern, who came down from the Rauhe +Alp, seeking service with Kaiser Redbeard, above two centuries +ago: Conrad's generation and six others had vanished successively +from the world-theatre in that ever-mysterious manner, and left +the stage clear, when Burggraf Friedrich the Sixth came to be +First Elector. Let three centuries, let twelve generations farther +come and pass, and there will be another still more notable +Friedrich,--our little Fritz, destined to be Third King of +Prussia, officially named Friedrich II., and popularly Frederick +the Great. This First Elector is his lineal ancestor, twelve times +removed. [Rentsch, pp. 349-372; Hubner, t. 176.] + + + +Chapter II. + +MATINEES DU ROI DE PRUSSE. + +Eleven successive Kurfursts followed Friedrich in Brandenburg. +Of whom and their births, deaths, wars, marriages, negotiations +and continual multitudinous stream of smaller or greater +adventures, much has been written, of a dreary confused nature; +next to nothing of which ought to be repeated here. Some list of +their Names, with what rememberable human feature or event (if +any) still speaks to us in them, we must try to give. Their Names, +well dated, with any actions, incidents, or phases of life, which +may in this way get to adhere to them in the reader's memory, the +reader can insert, each at its right place, in the grand Tide of +European Events, or in such Picture as the reader may have of +that. Thereby with diligence he may produce for himself some faint +twilight notion of the Flight of Time in remote Brandenburg,-- +convince himself that remote Brandenburg was present all along, +alive after its sort, and assisting, dumbly or otherwise, in the +great World-Drama as that went on. + +We have to say in general, the history of Brandenburg under the +Hohenzollerns has very little in it to excite a vulgar curiosity, +though perhaps a great deal to interest an intelligent one. +Had it found treatment duly intelligent;--which, however, how +could it, lucky beyond its neighbors, hope to do! Commonplace +Dryasdust, and voluminous Stupidity, not worse here than +elsewhere, play their Part. + +It is the history of a State, or Social Vitality, growing from +small to great; steadily growing henceforth under guidance: +and the contrast between guidance and no-guidance, or mis- +guidance, in such matters, is again impressively illustrated +there. This we see well to be the fact; and the details of this +would be of moment, were they given us: but they are not;--how +could voluminous Dryasdust give them? Then, on the other hand, the +Phenomenon is, for a long while, on so small a scale, wholly +without importance in European politics and affairs, the +commonplace Historian, writing of it on a large scale, becomes +unreadable and intolerable. Witness grandiloquent Pauli our fatal +friend, with his Eight watery Quartos; which gods and men, unless +driven by necessity, have learned to avoid! [Dr. Carl Friedrich +Pauli, <italic> Allgemeine Preussische Staats-Geschichte, often +enough cited here.] The Phenomenon of Brandenburg is small, +remote; and the essential particulars, too delicate for the eye of +Dryasdust, are mostly wanting, drowned deep in details of the +unessential. So that we are well content, my readers and I, to +keep remote from it on this occasion. + +On one other point I must give the reader warning. A rock of +offence on which if he heedlessly strike, I reckon he will split; +at least no help of mine can benefit him till he be got off again. +Alas, offences must come; and must stand, like rocks of offence, +to the shipwreck of many! Modern Dryasdust, interpreting the +mysterious ways of Divine Providence in this Universe, or what he +calls writing History, has done uncountable havoc upon the best +interests of mankind. Hapless godless dullard that he is; +driven and driving on courses that lead only downward, for him as +for us! But one could forgive him all things, compared with this +doctrine of devils which he has contrived to get established, +pretty generally, among his unfortunate fellow-creatures for the +time!--I must insert the following quotation, readers guess from +what author:-- + +"In an impudent Pamphlet, forged by I know not whom, and published +in 1766, under the title of <italic> Matinees du Roi de Prusse, +<end italic> purporting to be 'Morning Conversations' of Frederick +the Great with his Nephew the Heir-Apparent, every line of which +betrays itself as false and spurious to a reader who has made any +direct or effectual study of Frederick or his manners or affairs, +--it is set forth, in the way of exordium to these pretended royal +confessions, that <italic> 'notre maison,' <end italic> our Family +of Hohenzollern, ever since the first origin of it among the +Swabian mountains, or its first descent therefrom into the Castle +and Imperial Wardenship of Nurnberg, some six hundred years ago or +more, has consistently travelled one road, and this a very notable +one. 'We, as I myself the royal Frederick still do, have all along +proceeded,' namely, 'in the way of adroit Machiavelism, as skilful +gamblers in this world's business, ardent gatherers of this +world's goods; and in brief as devout worshippers of Beelzebub, +the grand regulator and rewarder of mortals here below. +Which creed we, the Hohenzollerns, have found, and I still find, +to be the true one; learn it you, my prudent Nephew, and let all +men learn it. By holding steadily to that, and working late and +early in such spirit, we are come to what you now see;--and shall +advance still farther, if it please Beelzebub, who is generally +kind to those that serve him well.' Such is the doctrine of this +impudent Pamphlet; 'original Manuscripts' of which are still +purchased by simple persons,--who have then nobly offered them to +me, thrice over, gratis or nearly so, as a priceless curiosity. +A new printed edition of which, probably the fifth, has appeared +within few years. Simple persons, consider it a curious and +interesting Document; rather ambiguous in origin perhaps, but +probably authentic in substance, and throwing unexpected light on +the character of Frederick whom men call the Great. In which new +light they are willing a meritorious Editor should share. + +"Who wrote that Pamphlet I know not, and am in no condition to +guess. A certain snappish vivacity (very unlike the style of +Frederick whom it personates); a wearisome grimacing, +gesticulating malice and smartness, approaching or reaching the +sad dignity of what is called 'wit' in modern times; in general +the rottenness of matter, and the epigrammatic unquiet graciosity +of manner in this thing, and its elaborately INhuman turn both of +expression and of thought, are visible characteristics of it. +Thought, we said,--if thought it can be called: thought all +hamstrung, shrivelled by inveterate rheumatism, on the part of the +poor ill-thriven thinker; nay tied (so to speak, for he is of +epigrammatic turn withal), as by cross ropes, right shoulder to +left foot; and forced to advance, hobbling and jerking along, in +that sad guise: not in the way of walk, but of saltation and +dance; and this towards a false not a true aim, rather no-whither +than some-whither:--Here were features leading one to think of an +illustrious Prince de Ligne as perhaps concerned in the affair. +The Bibliographical Dictionaries, producing no evidence, name +quite another person, or series of persons, [A certain "N. de +Bonneville" (afterwards a Revolutionary spiritual-mountebank, for +some time) is now the favorite Name;--proves, on investigation, to +be an impossible one. Barbier <italic> (Dictionnaire des +Anonymes), <end italic> in a helpless doubting manner, gives still +others.] highly unmemorable otherwise. Whereupon you proceed to +said other person's acknowledged WORKS (as they are called); +and find there a style bearing no resemblance whatever; and are +left in a dubious state, if it were of any moment. In the absence +of proof, I am unwilling to charge his Highness de Ligne with such +an action; and indeed am little careful to be acquainted with the +individual who did it, who could and would do it. A Prince of +Coxcombs I can discern him to have been; capable of shining in the +eyes of insincere foolish persons, and of doing detriment to them, +not benefit; a man without reverence for truth or human +excellence; not knowing in fact what is true from what is false, +what is excellent from what is sham-excellent and at the top of +the mode; an apparently polite and knowing man, but intrinsically +an impudent, dark and merely modish-insolent man;--who, if he fell +in with Rhadamanthus on his travels, would not escape a horse- +whipping, Him we will willingly leave to that beneficial chance, +which indeed seems a certain one sooner or later; and address +ourselves to consider the theory itself, and the facts it pretends +to be grounded on. + +"As to the theory, I must needs say, nothing can be falser, more +heretical or more damnable. My own poor opinion, and deep +conviction on that subject is well known, this long while. And, in +fact, the summary of all I have believed, and have been trying as +I could to teach mankind to believe again, is even that same +opinion and conviction, applied to all provinces of things. +Alas, in this his sad theory about the world, our poor impudent +Pamphleteer is by no means singular at present; nay rather he has +in a manner the whole practical part of mankind on his side just +now; the more is the pity for us all!-- + +"It is very certain, if Beelzebub made this world, our +Pamphleteer, and the huge portion of mankind that follow him, are +right. But if God made the world; and only leads Beelzebub, as +some ugly muzzled bear is led, a longer or shorter temporary DANCE +in this divine world, and always draws him home again, and peels +the unjust gains off him, and ducks him in a certain hot Lake, +with sure intent to lodge him there to all eternity at last,--then +our Pamphleteer, and the huge portion of mankind that follow him, +are wrong. + +"More I will not say; being indeed quite tired of SPEAKING on that +subject. Not a subject which it concerns me to speak of; much as +it concerns me, and all men, to know the truth of it, and silently +in every hour and moment to do said truth. As indeed the sacred +voice of their own soul, if they listen, will conclusively +admonish all men; and truly if IT do not, there will be little use +in my logic to them. For my own share, I want no trade with men +who need to be convinced of that fact. If I am in their premises, +and discover such a thing of them, I will quit their premises; +if they are in mine, I will, as old Samuel advised, count my +spoons. Ingenious gentlemen who believe that Beelzebub made this +world, are not a class of gentlemen I can get profit from. +Let them keep at a distance, lest mischief fall out between us. +They are of the set deserving to be called--and this not in the +way of profane swearing, but of solemn wrath and pity, I say of +virtuous anger and inexorable reprobation--the damned set. For, in +very deed, they are doomed and damned, by Nature's oldest Act of +Parliament, they, and whatsoever thing they do or say or think; +unless they can escape from that devil-element. Which I still hope +they may!-- + +"But with regard to the facts themselves, 'DE NOTRE MAISON,' +I take leave to say, they too are without basis of truth. They are +not so false as the theory, because nothing can in falsity quite +equal that. 'NOTRE MAISON,' this Pamphleteer may learn, if he +please to make study and inquiry before speaking, did not rise by +worship of Beelzebub at all in this world; but by a quite opposite +line of conduct. It rose, in fact, by the course which all, except +fools, stockjobber stags, cheating gamblers, forging Pamphleteers +and other temporary creatures of the damned sort, have found from +of old to be the one way of permanently rising: by steady service, +namely, of the Opposite of Beelzebub. By conforming to the Laws of +this Universe; instead of trying by pettifogging to evade and +profitably contradict them. The Hohenzollerns too have a History +still articulate to the human mind, if you search sufficiently; +and this is what, even with some emphasis, it will teach us +concerning their adventures, and achievements of success in the +field of life. Resist the Devil, good reader, and he will flee +from you!"--So ends our indignant friend. + +How the Hohenzollerns got their big Territories, and came to what +they are in the world, will be seen. Probably they were not, any +of them, paragons of virtue. They did not walk in altogether +speckless Sunday pumps, or much clear-starched into consciousness +of the moral sublime; but in rugged practical boots, and by such +roads as there were. Concerning their moralities, and conformities +to the Laws of the Road and of the Universe, there will much +remain to be argued by pamphleteers and others. Men will have +their opinion, Men of more wisdom and of less; Apes by the +Dead-Sea also will have theirs. But what man that believed in such +a Universe as that of this Dead-Sea Pamphleteer could consent to +live in it at all? Who that believed in such a Universe, and did +not design to live like a Papin's-Digester, or PORCUS EPICURI, in +an extremely ugly manner in it, could avoid one of two things: +Going rapidly into Bedlam, or else blowing his brains out? +"It will not do for me at any rate, this infinite Dog-house; +not for me, ye Dryasdusts, and omnipotent Dog-monsters and +Mud-gods, whoever you are. One honorable thing I can do: +take leave of you and your Dog-establishment. Enough!"-- + + + +Chapter III. + +KURFURST FRIEDRICH II. + +The First Friedrich's successor was a younger son, Friedrich II.; +who lasted till 1471, above thirty years; and proved likewise a +notable manager and governor. Very capable to assert himself, and +his just rights, in this world. He was but Twenty-seven at his +accession; but the Berlin Burghers, attempting to take some +liberties with him, found he was old enough. He got the name +IRONTEETH. Friedrich FERRATIS DENTIBUS, from his decisive ways +then and afterwards. He had his share of brabbling with intricate +litigant neighbors; quarrels now and then not to be settled +without strokes. His worst war was with Pommern,--just claims +disputed there, and much confused bickering, sieging and harassing +in consequence: of which quarrel we must speak anon. It was he who +first built the conspicuous Schloss or Palace at Berlin, having +got the ground for it (same ground still covered by the actual +fine Edifice, which is a second edition of Friedrich's) from the +repentant Burghers; and took up his chief residence there. +[1442-1431 (Nicolari, i. 81).] + +But his principal achievement in Brandenburg History is his +recovery of the Province called the Neumark to that Electorate. +In the thriftless Sigismund times, the Neumark had been pledged, +had been sold; Teutsch Ritterdom, to whose dominions it lay +contiguous, had purchased it with money down. The Teutsch Ritters +were fallen moneyless enough since then; they offered to pledge +the Neumark to Friedrich, who accepted, and advanced the sum: +after a while the Teutsch Ritters, for a small farther sum, agreed +to sell Neumark. [Michaelis, i. 301.] Into which Transaction, with +its dates and circumstances, let us cast one glance, for our +behoof afterwards. The Teutsch Ritters were an opulent domineering +Body in Sigismund's early time; but they are now come well down in +Friedrich II.'s! And are coming ever lower. Sinking steadily, or +with desperate attempts to rise, which only increase the speed +downwards, ever since that fatal Tannenberg Business, 15th July, +1410. Here is the sad progress of their descent to the bottom; +divided into three stages or periods:-- + +"PERIOD FIRST is of Thirty years: 1410-1440. A peace with Poland +soon followed that Defeat of Tannenberg; humiliating peace, with +mulct in money, and slightly in territory, attached to it. +Which again was soon followed by war, and ever again; each new +peace more humiliating than its foregoer. Teutsch Order is +steadily sinking,--into debt, among other things; driven to severe +finance-measures (ultimately even to 'debase its coin'), which +produce irritation enough. Poland is gradually edging itself into +the territories and the interior troubles of Preussen; prefatory +to greater operations that lie ahead there. + +"SECOND PERIOD, of Fourteen years. So it had gone on, from bad to +worse, till 1440; when the general population, through its Heads, +the Landed Gentry and the Towns, wearied out with fiscal and other +oppressions from its domineering Ritterdom brought now to such a +pinch, began everywhere to stir themselves into vocal complaint. +Complaint emphatic enough: 'Where will you find a man that has not +suffered injury in his rights, perhaps in his person? Our friends +they have invited as guests, and under show of hospitality have +murdered them. Men, for the sake of their beautiful wives, have +been thrown into the river like dogs,'--and enough of the like +sort. [Voigt, vii. 747; quoting evidently, not an express +manifesto, but one manufactured by the old Chroniclers.] No want +of complaint, nor of complainants: Town of Thorn, Town of Dantzig, +Kulm, all manner of Towns and Baronages, proceeded now to form a +BUND, or general Covenant for complaining; to repugn, in hotter +and hotter form, against a domineering Ritterdom with back so +broken; in fine, to colleague with Poland,--what was most ominous +of all. Baronage, Burgherage, they were German mostly by blood, +and by culture were wholly German; but preferred Poland to a +Teutsch Ritterdom of that nature. Nothing but brabblings, +scufflings, objurgations; a great outbreak ripening itself. +Teutsch Ritterdom has to hire soldiers; no money to pay them. +It was in these sad years that the Teutsch Ritterdom, fallen +moneyless, offered to pledge the Neumark to our Kurfurst; 1444, +that operation was consummated. [Pauli, ii. 187,--does not name +the sum.] All this goes on, in hotter and hotter form, for ten +years longer. + +"PERIOD THIRD begins, early in 1454, with an important special +catastrophe; and ends, in the Thirteenth year after, with a still +more important universal one of the same nature. Prussian BUND, or +Anti-Oppression Covenant of the Towns and Landed Gentry, rising in +temperature for fourteen years at this rate, reached at last the +igniting point, and burst into fire. February 4th, 1454, the Town +of Thorn, darling first-child of Teutsch Ritterdom,--child 223 +years old at this time, ["Founded 1231, as a wooden Burg, just +across the river, on the Heathen side, mainly round the stem of an +immense old Oak that grew handy there,--Seven Barges always on the +river (Weichsel), to fly to our own side if quite overwhelmed" +<italic> Oak and Seven Barges <end italic> is still the Town's- +Arms of Thorn. See Kohler, <italic> Munzbelustigungen, <end +italic> xxii. 107; quoting Dusburg (a Priest of the Order) and his +old <italic> Chronica Terrae Prusciae, <end italic> written in +1326.] and grown very big, and now very angry,--suddenly took its +old parent by the throat, so to speak, and hurled him out to the +dogs; to the extraneous Polacks first of all. Town of Thorn, +namely, sent that day its 'Letter of Renunciation' to the +Hochmeister over at Marienburg; seized in a day or two more the +Hochmeister's Official Envoys, Dignitaries of the Order; led them +through the streets, amid universal storm of execrations, hootings +and unclean projectiles, straight, to jail; and besieged the +Hochmeister's Burg (BASTILLE of Thorn, with a few Ritters in it), +all the artillery and all the throats and hearts of the place +raging deliriously upon it. So that the poor Bitters, who had no +chance in resisting, were in few days obliged to surrender; [8th +February, 1454, says Voigt (viii. 361); 16th, says Kohler <italic> +(Munzbelustigungen, <end italic> xxii. 110).] had to come out in +bare jerkin; and Thorn ignominiously dismissed them into space +forevermore,--with actual 'kicks,' I have read in some Books, +though others veil that sad feature. Thorn threw out its old +parent in this manner; swore fealty to the King of Poland; +and invited other Towns and Knightages to follow the example. +To which all were willing, wherever able. + +"War hereupon, which blazed up over Preussen at large,--Prussian +Covenant and King of Poland VERSUS Teutsch Ritterdom,--and lasted +into the thirteenth year, before it could go out again; out by +lack of fuel mainly. One of the fellest wars on record, especially +for burning and ruining; above '300,000 fighting-men' are +calculated to have perished in it; and of towns, villages, +farmsteads, a cipher which makes the fancy, as it were, black and +ashy altogether. Ritterdom showed no lack of fighting energy; +but that could not save it, in the pass things were got to. +Enormous lack of wisdom, of reality and human veracity, there had +long been; and the hour was now come. Finance went out, to the +last coin. Large mercenary armies all along; and in the end not +the color of money to pay them with; mercenaries became desperate; +'besieged the Hochmeister and his Ritters in Marienburg;'--finally +sold the Country they held; formally made it over to the King of +Poland, to get their pay out of it. Hochmeister had to see such +things, and say little. Peace, or extinction for want of fuel, +came in the year 1466. Poland got to itself the whole of that fine +German Country, henceforth called 'WEST Preussen' to distinguish +it, which goes from the left bank of the Weichsel to the borders +of Brandenburg and Neumark;--would have got Neumark too, had not +Kurfurst Friedrich been there to save it. The Teutsch Order had to +go across the Weichsel, ignominiously driven; to content itself +with 'EAST Preussen,' the Konigsberg-Memel country, and even to do +homage to Poland for that. Which latter was the bitterest clause +of all: but it could not be helped, more than the others. In this +manner did its revolted children fling out Teutsch Ritterdom +ignominiously to the dogs, to the Polacks, first of all,--Thorn, +the eldest child, leading off or setting the example." + +And so the Teutsch Ritters are sunk beyond retrieval; and West +Preussen, called subsequently "Royal Preussen," NOT having homage +to pay as the "Ducal" or East Preussen had, is German no longer, +but Polish, Sclavic; not prospering by the change. [What Thorn had +sunk to, out of its palmy state, see in Nanke's <italic> +Wanderungen durch Preussen <end italic> (Hamburg & Altona, 1800), +ii. 177-200:--a pleasant little Rook, treating mainly of Natural +History; but drawing you, by its innocent simplicity and +geniality, to read with thanks whatever is in it.] And all that +fine German country, reduced to rebel against its unwise parent, +was cut away by the Polish sword, and remained with Poland, which +did not prove very wise either; till--till, in the Year 1773, it +was cut back by the German sword! All readers have heard of the +Partition of Poland: but of the Partition of Preussen, 307 years +before, all have not heard. + +It was in the second year of that final tribulation, marked above +as Period Third, that the Teutsch Ritters, famishing for money, +completed the Neumark transaction with Kurfurst Friedrich; +Neumark, already pawned to him ten years before, they in 1455, for +a small farther sum, agreed to sell; and he, long carefully +steering towards such an issue, and dexterously keeping out of the +main broil, failed not to buy. Friedrich could thenceforth, on his +own score, protect the Neumark; keep up an invisible but +impenetrable wall between it and the neighboring anarchic +conflagrations of thirteen years; and the Neumark has ever since +remained with Brandenburg, its original owner. + +As to Friedrich's Pomeranian quarrel, this is the figure of it. +Here is a scene from Rentsch, which falls out in Friedrich's time; +and which brought much battling and broiling to him and his. +Symbolical withal of much that befell in Brandenburg, from first +to last. Under the Hohenzollerns as before, Brandenburg grew by +aggregation, by assimilation; and we see here how difficult the +process often was. + +Pommern (POMERANIA), long Wendish, but peaceably so since the time +of Albert the Bear, and growing ever more German, had, in good +part, according to Friedrich's notion, if there were force in +human Treaties and Imperial Laws, fallen fairly to Brandenburg,-- +that is to say, the half of it, Stettin-Pommern had fairly +fallen,--in the year 1464, when Duke Otto of Stettin, the last +Wendish Duke, died without heirs. In that case by many bargains, +some with bloody crowns, it had been settled, If the Wendish Dukes +died out, the country was to fall to Brandenburg;--and here they +were dead. "At Duke Otto's burial, accordingly, in the High Church +of Stettin, when the coffin was lowered into its place, the +Stettin Burgermeister, Albrecht Glinde, took sword and helmet, and +threw the same into the grave, in token that the Line was extinct. +But Franz von Eichsted," apparently another Burgher instructed for +the nonce, "jumped into the grave, and picked them out again; +alleging, No, the Dukes of WOLGAST-Pommern were of kin; these +tokens we must send to his Grace at Wolgast, with offer of our +homage, said Franz von Eichsted." [Rentsch, p. 110 (whose printer +has put his date awry); Stenzel (i. 233) calls the man "LORENZ +Eikstetten, a resolute Gentleman."]--And sent they were, and +accepted by his Grace. And perhaps half-a-score of bargains, with +bloody crowns to some of them; and yet other chances, and +centuries, with the extinction of new Lines,--had to supervene, +before even Stettin-Pommern, and that in no complete state, could +be got. [1648, by Treaty of Westphalia.] As to Pommern at large, +Pommern not denied to be due, after such extinction and +re-extinction of native Ducal Lines, did not fall home for +centuries more; and what struggles and inextricable armed- +litigations there were for it, readers of Brandenburg-History too +wearisomely know. The process of assimilation not the least of an +easy one!-- + +This Friedrich was second son: his Father's outlook for him had, +at first, been towards a Polish Princess and the crown of Poland, +which was not then so elective as afterwards: and with such view +his early breeding had been chiefly in Poland; Johann, the eldest +son and heir-apparent, helping his Father at home in the mean +while. But these Polish outlooks went to nothing, the young +Princess having died; so that Friedrich came home; possessed +merely of the Polish language, and of what talents the gods had +given him, which were considerable. And now, in the mean while, +Johann, who at one time promised well in practical life, had taken +to Alchemy; and was busy with crucibles and speculations, to a +degree that seemed questionable. Father Friedrich, therefore, had +to interfere, and deal with this "Johann the Alchemist" (JOHANNES +ALCHEMISTA, so the Books still name him); who loyally renounced +the Electorship, at his Father's bidding, in favor of Friedrich; +accepted Baireuth (better half of the Culmbach Territory) for +apanage; and there peacefully distilled and sublimated at +discretion; the government there being an easier task, and fitter +for a soft speculative Herr. A third Brother, Albert by name, got +Anspach, on the Father's decease; very capable to do any fighting +there might be occasion for, in Culmbach. + +As to the Burggrafship, it was now done, all but the Title. +The First Friedrich, once he was got to be Elector, wisely parted +with it. The First Friedrich found his Electorship had dreadfully +real duties for him, and that this of the Burggrafship had fallen +mostly obsolete; so he sold it to the Nurnbergers for a round sum: +only the Principalities and Territories are retained in that +quarter. About which too, and their feudal duties, boundaries and +tolls, with a jealous litigious Nurnberg for neighbor, there at +length came quarrelling enough. But Albert the third Brother, over +at Anspach, took charge of all that; and nothing of it fell in +Johann's way. + +The good Alchemist died,--performed his last sublimation, poor +man,--six or seven years before his Brother Friedrich; age then +sixty-three. [14th November, 1464.] Friedrich, with his Iron Teeth +and faculties, only held out till fifty-eight,--10th February, +1471. The manner of his end was peculiar. In that War with +Pommern, he sat besieging a Pomeranian town, Uckermunde the name +of it: when at dinner one day, a cannon-ball plunged down upon the +table, [Michaelis, i. 303.] with such a crash as we can fancy;-- +which greatly confused the nerves of Friedrich; much injured his +hearing, and even his memory thenceforth. In a few months +afterwards he resigned, in favor of his Successor; retired to +Plassenburg, and there died in about a year more. + + + +Chapter IV. + +KURFURST ALBERT ACHILLES, AND HIS SUCCESSOR. + +Neither Friedrich nor Johann left other than daughters: so that +the united Heritage, Brandenburg and Culmbach both, came now to +the third Brother, Albert; who has been in Culmbath these many +years already. A tall, fiery, tough old gentleman, of formidable +talent for fighting, who was called the "ACHILLES OF GERMANY" in +his day; being then a very blazing far-seen character, dim as he +has now grown. [Born 1414; Kurfurst, 1471-1486.] This Albert +Achilles was the Third Elector; Ancestor he of all the Brandenburg +and Culmbach Hohenzollern Princes that have since figured in the +world. After him there is no break or shift in the succession, +down to the little Friedrich now born;--Friedrich the old +Grandfather, First KING, was the Twelfth KURFURST. + +We have to say, they followed generally in their Ancestors' steps, +and had success of the like kind, more or less; Hohenzollerns all +of them, by character and behavior as well as by descent. No lack +of quiet energy, of thrift, sound sense. There was likewise solid +fair-play in general, no founding of yourself on ground that will +not carry;--and there was instant, gentle but inexorable, crushing +of mutiny, if it showed itself; which, after the Second Elector, +or at most the Third, it had altogether ceased to do. Young +Friedrich II., upon whom those Berlin Burghers had tried to close +their gates, till he should sign some "Capitulation" to their +mind, got from them, and not quite in ill-humor, that name +IRONTEETH:--"Not the least a Nose-of-wax, this one! No use trying +here, then!"--which, with the humor attached to it, is itself +symbolical of Friedrich and these Hohenzollern Sovereigns. Albert, +his Brother, had plenty of fighting in his time: but it was in the +Nurnberg and other distant regions; no fighting, or hardly any, +needed in Brandenburg henceforth. + +With Nurnberg, and the Ex-Burggrafship there, now when a new +generation began to tug at the loose clauses of that Bargain with +Friedrich I., and all Free-Towns were going high upon their +privileges, Albert had at one time much trouble, and at length +actual furious War;--other Free-Towns countenancing and assisting +Nurnberg in the affair; numerous petty Princes, feudal Lords of +the vicinity, doing the like by Albert. Twenty years ago, all +this; and it did not last, so furious was it. "Eight victories," +they count on Albert's part,--furious successful skirmishes, call +them;--in one of which, I remember, Albert plunged in alone, his +Ritters being rather shy; and laid about him hugely, hanging by a +standard he had taken, till his life was nearly beaten out. [1449 +(Rentsch, p. 399).] Eight victories; and also one defeat, wherein +Albert got captured, and had to ransom himself. The captor was one +Kunz of Kauffungen, the Nurnberg hired General at the time: a man +known to some readers for his Stealing of the Saxon Princes +(PRINZENRAUB, they call it); a feat which cost Kunz his head. +[Carlyle's <italic> Miscellanies <end italic> (London, 1869), vi. +? PRINZENRAUB.] Albert, however, prevailed in the end, as he was +apt to do; and got his Nurnbergers fixed to clauses satisfactory +to him. + +In his early days he had fought against Poles, Bohemians and +others, as Imperial general. He was much concerned, all along, in +those abstruse armed-litigations of the Austrian House with its +dependencies; and diligently helped the Kaiser,--Friedrich III., +rather a weakish, but an eager and greedy Kaiser,--through most of +them. That inextricable Hungarian-Bohemian-Polish DONNYBROOK (so +we may call it) which Austria had on hand, one of Sigismund's +bequests to Austria; distressingly tumultuous Donnybrook, which +goes from 1440 to 1471, fighting in a fierce confused manner;-- +the Anti-Turk Hunniades, the Anti-Austrian Corvinus, the royal +Majesties George Podiebrad, Ladislaus POSTHUMUS, Ludwig OHNE HAUT +(Ludwig NO-SKIN), and other Ludwigs, Ladislauses and Vladislauses, +striking and getting struck at such a rate:--Albert was generally +what we may call chief-constable in all that; giving a knock here +and then one there, in the Kaiser's name. [Hormayr, ii. 138, 140 +(? HUNYADY CORVIN); Rentsch, pp. 389-422; Michaelis, i. 304-313.] +Almost from boyhood, he had learned soldiering, which he had never +afterwards leisure to forget. Great store of fighting he had,--say +half a century of it, off and on, during the seventy and odd years +he lasted in this world. With the Donnybrook we spoke of; with the +Nurnbergers; with the Dukes of Bavaria (endless bickerings with +these Dukes, Ludwig BEARDY, Ludwig SUPERBUS, Ludwig GIBBOSUS or +Hunchback, against them and about them, on his own and the +Kaiser's score); also with the French, already clutching at +Lorraine; also with Charles the Rash of Burgundy;--lastly with the +Bishop of Bamberg, who got him excommunicated and would not bury +the dead. + +Kurfurst Albert's Letter on this last emergency, to his Viceregent +in Culmbach, is a famed Piece still extant (date 1481); [Rentsch, +p. 409.] and his plan in such emergency, is a simple and likely +one: "Carry the dead bodies to the Parson's house; let him see +whether he will not bury them by and by!--One must fence off the +Devil by the Holy Cross," says Albert,--appeal to Heaven with what +honest mother-wit Heaven has vouchsafed one, means Albert. "These +fellows" (the Priests), continues he, "would fain have the +temporal sword as well as the spiritual. Had God wished there +should be only one sword, he could have contrived that as well as +the two. He surely did not want for intellect <italic>(Er war gar +ein weiser Mann)," <end italic>--want of intellect it clearly was +not!--In short, they had to bury the dead, and do reason; and +Albert hustled himself well clear of this broil, as he had done +of many. + +Battle enough, poor man, with steel and other weapons:--and we see +he did it with sharp insight, good forecast; now and then in a +wildly leonine or AQUILINE manner. A tall hook-nosed man, of lean, +sharp, rather taciturn aspect; nose and look are very aquiline; +and there is a cloudy sorrow in those old eyes, which seems +capable of sudden effulgence to a dangerous extent. He was a +considerable, diplomatist too: very great with the Kaiser, Old +Friedrich III. (Max's father, Charles V.'s Great-Grandfather); +[How admirahle Albert is, not to say "almost divine," to the +Kaiser's then Secretary, oily-mouthed AEneas Sylvius, afterwards +Pope, Rentsch can testify (pp. 401, 586); quoting AEneas's +eulogies and gossipries (<italic> Historia Rerum Frederici +Imperatoris, <end italic> I conclude, though no book is named). +Oily diligent AEneas, in his own young years and in Albert's +prime, had of course seen much of this "miracle" of Arms and Art, +--"miracle" and "almost divine," so to speak.] and managed many +things for him. Managed to get the thrice-lovely Heiress of the +Netherlands and Burgundy, Daughter of that Charles the Rash, with +her Seventeen Provinces, for Max, [1477]--who was thought +thereupon by everybody to be the luckiest man alive; though the +issue contradicted it before long. + +Kurfurst Albert died in 1486, March 11, aged seventy-two. It was +some months after Bosworth Fight, where our Crooked Richard got +his quietus here in England and brought the Wars of the Roses to +their finale:--a little chubby Boy, the son of poor parents at +Eisleben in Saxony, Martin Luther the name of him, was looking +into this abtruse Universe, with those strange eyes of his, in +what rough woollen or linsey-woolsey short-clothes we do not know. +[Born 10th November, 1483] + +Albert's funeral was very grand; the Kaiser himself, and all the +Magnates of the Diet and Reich attending him from Frankfurt to his +last resting-place, many miles of road. For he died at the Diet, +in Frankfurt-on-Mayn; having fallen ill there while busy,--perhaps +too busy for that age, in the harsh spring weather,--electing +Prince Maximilian ("lucky Max," who will be Kaiser too before +long, and is already deep in ILL-luck, tragical and other to be +King of the Romans. The old Kaiser had "looked in on him at +Onolzbach" (Anspach), and brought him along; such a man could not +be wanting on such an occasion. A man who "perhaps did more for +the German Empire than for the Electorate of Brandenburg," +hint some. The Kaiser himself, Friedrich III., was now getting +old; anxious to see Max secure, and to set his house in order. +A somewhat anxious, creaky, close-fisted, ineffectual old Kaiser; +[See Kohler (<italic> Munzbelustigungen, <end italic> vi. 393-401; +ii. 89-96, &c.) for a vivid account of him.] distinguished by his +luck in getting Max so provided for, and bringing the Seventeen +Provinces of the Netherlands to his House. He is the first of the +Hapsburg Kaisers who had what has since been called the "Austrian +lip"--protrusive under-jaw, with heavy lip disinclined to shut. +He got it from his Mother, and bequeathed it in a marked manner; +his posterity to this day bearing traces of it. Mother's name was +Cimburgis, a Polish Princess, "Duke of Masovia's daughter;" +a lady who had something of the MAULTASCHE in her, in character +as well as mouth.--In old Albert, the poor old Kaiser has lost +his right hand; and no doubt muses sadly as he rides in the +funeral procession. + +Albert is buried at Heilsbronn in Frankenland, among his +Ancestors,--burial in Brandenburg not yet common for these new +Kurfursts:--his skull, in an after-time, used to be shown there, +laid on the lid of the tomb; skull marvellous for strength, and +for "having no visible sutures," says Rentsch. Pious Brandenburg +Officiality at length put an end to that profanation, and restored +the skull to its place,--marvellous enough, with what had once +dwelt in it, whether it had sutures or not. + + +JOHANN THE CICERO IS FOURTH KURFURST, AND LEAVES TWO NOTABLE SONS. + +Albert's eldest Son, the Fourth Kurfurst, was Johannes Cicero +(1486-1499): Johannes was his natural name, to which the epithet +"Cicero of Germany (CICERO GERMANIAE)" was added by an admiring +public. He had commonly administered the Electorate during his +Father's absences; and done it with credit to himself. He was an +active man, nowise deficient as a Governor; creditably severe on +highway robbers, for one thing,--destroys you "fifteen baronial +robber-towers" at a stroke; was also concerned in the Hungarian- +Bohemian DONNYBROOK, and did that also well. But nothing struck a +discerning public like the talent he had for speaking. Spoke "four +hours at a stretch in Kaiser Max's Diets, in elegantly flowing +Latin;" with a fair share of meaning, too;--and had bursts of +parliamentary eloquence in him that were astonishing to hear. +A tall, square-headed man, of erect, cheerfully composed aspect, +head flung rather back if anything: his bursts of parliamentary +eloquence, once glorious as the day, procured him the name +"Johannes CICERO;" and that is what remains of them: for they are +sunk now, irretrievable he and they, into the belly of eternal +Night; the final resting-place, I do perceive, of much Ciceronian +ware in this world. Apparently he had, like some of his +Descendants, what would now be called "distinguished literary +talents,"--insignificant to mankind and us. I find he was likewise +called DER GROSSE, "John the GREAT;" but on investigation it +proves to be mere "John the BIG," a name coming from his tall +stature and ultimate fatness of body. + +For the rest, he left his family well off, connected with high +Potentates all around; and had increased his store, to a fair +degree, in his time. Besides his eldest Son who followed as +Elector, by name Joachim I., a burly gentleman of whom much is +written in Books, he left a second Son, Archbishop of Magdeburg, +who in time became Archbishop of Mainz and Cardinal of Holy +Church, [Ulrich van Hutten's grand "Panegyric" upon this Albert on +his first Entrance into Mainz (9th October, 1514),--"entrance with +a retinue of 2,000 horse, mainly furnished by the Brandenburg and +Culmbach kindred," say the old Books,--is in <italic> Ulrichi ab +Hutten Equitis Germani Opera <end italic> (Munch's edition; +Berlin, 1821), i. 276-310.]--and by accident got to be forever +memorable in Church-History, as we shall see anon. Archbishop of +Mainz means withal KUR-MAINZ, Elector of Mainz; who is Chief of +the Seven Electors, and as it were their President or "Speaker." +Albert was the name of this one; his elder Brother, the then +Kur-Brandenburg, was called Joachim. Cardinal Albert Kur-Mainz, +like his brother Joachim Kur-Brandenburg, figures much, and blazes +widely abroad, in the busy reign of Karl V., and the inextricable +Lutheran-Papal, Turk-Christian business it had. + +But the notable point in this Albert of Mainz was that of Leo X. +and the Indulgences. [Pauli, v. 496-499; Rentsch, p. 869.] Pope +Leo had permitted Albert to retain his Archbishopric of Magdeburg +and other dignities along with that of Mainz; which was an unusual +favor. But the Pope expected to be paid for it,--to have 30,000 +ducats (15,000 pounds), almost a King's ransom at that time, for +the "Pallium" to Mainz; PALLIUM, or little Bit of woollen Cloth, +on sale by the Pope, without which Mainz could not he held. +Albert, with all his dignities, was dreadfully short of money at +the time. Chapter of Mainz could or would do little or nothing, +having been drained lately; Magdeburg, Halberstadt, the like. +Albert tried various shifts; tried a little stroke of trade in +relics,--gathered in the Mainz district "some hundreds of +fractional sacred bones, and three whole bodies," which he sent to +Halle for pious purchase;--but nothing came of this branch. +The 15,000 pounds remained unpaid; and Pope Leo, building +St. Peter's, "furnishing a sister's toilet," and doing worse +things, was in extreme need of it. What is to be done? "I could +borrow the money from the Fuggers of Augsburg," said the +Archbishop hesitatingly; "but then--?"--"I could help you to repay +it." said his Holiness: "Could repay the half of it,--if only we +had (but they always make such clamor about these things) an +Indulgence published in Germany!"--"Well; it must be!" answered +Albert at last, agreeing to take the clamor on himself, and to do +the feat; being at his wits'-end for money. He draws out his Full- +Power, which, as first Spiritual Kurfurst, he has the privilege to +do; nominates (1516) one Tetzel for Chief Salesman, a Priest whose +hardness of face, and shiftiness of head and hand, were known to +him; and--here is one Hohenzollern that has a place in History! +Poor man, it was by accident, and from extreme tightness for +money. He was by no means a violent Churchman; he had himself +inclinations towards Luther, even of a practical sort, as the +thing went on. But there was no help for it. + +Cardinal Albert, Kur-Mainz, shows himself a copious dexterous +public speaker at the Diets and elsewhere in those times; a man +intent on avoiding violent methods;--uncomfortably fat in his +later years, to judge by the Portraits. Kur-Brandenburg, Kur-Mainz +(the younger now officially even greater than the elder), these +names are perpetually turning up in the German Histories of that +Reformation-Period; absent on no great occasion; and they at +length, from amid the meaningless bead-roll of Names, wearisomely +met with in such Books, emerge into Persons for us as above. + + + +Chapter V. + +OF THE BAIREUTH-ANSPACH BRANCH. + +Albert Achilles the Third Elector had, before his accession, been +Margraf of Anspach, and since his Brother the Alchemist's death, +Margraf of Baireuth too, or of the whole Principality,--"Margraf +of Culmbach" we will call it, for brevity's sake, though the +bewildering old Books have not steadily any name for it. +[A certain subaltern of this express title, "Margraf of Culmbach" +(a Cadet, with some temporary appanage there, who was once in the +service of him they call the Winter-King, and may again be +transiently heard of by us here), is the altogether Mysterious +Personage who prints himself "MARQUIS DE LULENBACH" in Bromley's +<italic> Collection of Royal Letters <end italic> (London, 1787), +pp. 52, &c.:--one of the most curious Books on the Thirty-Years +War; "edited" with a composed stupidity, and cheerful infinitude +of ignorance, which still farther distinguish it. The BROMLEY +Originals well worth a real editing, turn out, on inquiry, to have +been "sold as Autographs, and dispersed beyond recovery, about +fifty years ago."] After his accession, Albert Achilles naturally +held both Electorate and Principality during the rest of his life. +Which was an extremely rare predicament for the two Countries, the +big and the little. + +No other Elector held them both, for nearly a hundred years; nor +then, except as it were for a moment. The two countries, +Electorate and Principality, Hohenzollern both, and constituting +what the Hohenzollerns had in this world, continued intimately +connected; with affinity and clientship carefully kept, up, and +the lesser standing always under the express protection and as it +were COUSINSHIP of the greater. But they had their separate +Princes, Lines of Princes; and they only twice, in the time of +these Twelve Electors, came even temporarily under the same head. +And as to ultimate union, Brandenburg-Baireuth and Brandenburg- +Anspach were not incorporated with Brandenburg-Proper, and its new +fortunes, till almost our own day, namely in 1791; nor then either +to continue; having fallen to Bavaria, in the grand Congress of +Vienna, within the next five-and-twenty years. All which, with the +complexities and perplexities resulting from it here, we must, in +some brief way, endeavor to elucidate for the reader. + + +TWO LINES IN CULMBACH OR BAIREUTH-ANSPACH: THE GERA BOND OF 1598. + +Culmbach the Elector left, at his death, to his Second Son,-- +properly to two sons, but one of them soon died, and the other +became sole possessor;--Friedrich by name; who, as founder of the +Elder Line of Brandenburg-Culmbach Princes, must not be forgotten +by us. Founder of the First or Elder Line, for there are two +Lines; this of Friedrich's having gone out in about a hundred +years; and the Anspach-Baireuth territories having fallen home +again to Brandenburg;--where, however, they continued only during +the then Kurfurst's life.;ohann George (1525-1598), Seventh +Kurfurst, was he to whom Brandenburg-Culmbach fell home,--nay, +strictly speaking, it was but the sure prospect of it that fell +home, the thing itself did not quite fall in his time, though the +disposal of it did, ["Disposal," 1598; thing itself, 1603, in his +Son's time.]--to be conjoined again with Brandenburg-Proper. +Conjoined for the short potential remainder of his own life; +and then to be disposed of as an apanage again;--which latter +operation, as Johann George had three-and-twenty children, could +be no difficult one. + +Johann George, accordingly (Year 1598), split the Territory in +two; Brandenburg-Baireuth was for his second son, Brandenburg- +Anspach for his third: hereby again were two new progenitors of +Culmbach Princes introduced, and a New Line, Second or "Younger +Line" they call it (Line mostly split in two, as heretofore); +which--after complex adventures in its split condition, Baireuth +under one head, Anspach under another--continues active down to +our little Fritz's time and farther. As will become but too +apparent to us in the course of this History!-- + +From of old these Territories had been frequently divided: +each has its own little capital, Town of Anspach, Town of +Baireuth, [Populations about the same; 16,000 to 17,000 in our +time.] suitable for such arrangement. Frequently divided; +though always under the closest cousinship, and ready for +reuniting, if possible. Generally under the Elder Line too, under +Friedrich's posterity, which was rather numerous and often in need +of apanages, they had been in separate hands. But the understood +practice was not to divide farther; Baireuth by itself, Anspach by +itself (or still luckier if one hand could get hold of both),--and +especially Brandenburg by itself, uncut by any apanage: this, +I observe, was the received practice. But Johann George, wise +Kurfurst as he was, wished now to make it surer; and did so by a +famed Deed, called the Gera Bond (GERAISCHE VERTRAG), dated 1598, +[Michaelis, i. 345.] the last year of Johann George's life. + +Hereby, in a Family Conclave held at that Gera, a little town in +Thuringen, it was settled and indissolubly fixed, That their +Electorate, unlike all others in Germany, shall continue +indivisible; Law of Primogeniture, here if nowhere else, is to be +in full force; and only the Culmbach Territory (if otherwise +unoccupied) can be split off for younger sons. Culmbach can be +split off; and this again withal can be split, if need be, into +two (Baireuth and Anspach); but not in any case farther. +Which Household-Law was strictly obeyed henceforth. Date of it +1598; principal author, Johann George, Seventh Elector. This "Gera +Bond" the reader can note for himself as an excellent piece of +Hohenzollern thrift, and important in the Brandenburg annals. +On the whole, Brandenburg keeps continually growing under these +Twelve Hohenzollerns, we perceive; slower or faster, just as the +Burggrafdom had done, and by similar methods. A lucky outlay of +money (as in the case of Friedrich Ironteeth in the Neumark) +brings them one Province, lucky inheritance another:--good +management is always there, which is the mother of good luck. + +And so there goes on again, from Johann George downwards, a new +stream of Culmbach Princes, called the Younger or New Line,-- +properly two contemporary Lines, of Baireuthers and Anspachers;-- +always in close affinity to Brandenburg, and with ultimate +reversion to Brandenburg, should both Lines fail; but with mutual +inheritance if only one. They had intricate fortunes, service in +foreign armies, much wandering about, sometimes considerable +scarcity of cash: but, for a hundred and fifty years to come, +neither Line by any means failed,--rather the contrary, in fact. + +Of this latter or New Culmbach Line, or split Line, especially of +the Baireuth part of it, our little Wilhelmina, little Fritz's +Sister, who became Margravine there, has given all the world +notice. From the Anspach part of it (at that time in sore scarcity +of cash) came Queen Caroline, famed in our George the Second's +time. [See a Synoptic Diagram of these Genealogies, infra, +p. 388a.] From it too came an unmomentous Margraf, who married a +little Sister of Wilhelmina's and Fritz's; of whom we shall hear. +There is lastly a still more unmomentous Margraf, only son of said +Unmomentous and his said Spouse; who again combined the two +Territories, Baireuth having failed of heirs; and who, himself +without heirs, and with a frail Lady Craven as Margravine,--died +at Hammersmith, close by us, in 1806; and so ended the troublesome +affair. He had already, in 1791, sold off to Prussia all temporary +claims of his; and let Prussia have the Heritage at once without +waiting farther. Prussia, as we noticed, did not keep it long; +and it is now part of the Bavarian Dominion;--for the sake of +editors and readers, long may it so continue! + +Of this Younger Line, intrinsically rather insignificant to +mankind, we shall have enough to write in time and place; we must +at present direct our attention to the Elder Line. + + +THE ELDER LINE OF CULMBACH: FRIEDRICH AND HIS THREE NOTABLE SONS THERE. + +Kurfurst Albert Achilles's second son, Friedrich (1460-1536), +[Rentsch, pp. 593-602.] the founder of the Elder Culmbach Line, +ruled his country well for certain years, and was "a man famed for +strength of body and mind;" but claims little notice from us, +except for the sons he had. A quiet, commendable, honorable man,-- +with a certain pathetic dignity, visible even in the eclipsed +state he sank into. Poor old gentleman, after grand enough feats +in war and peace, he fell melancholy, fell imbecile, blind, soon +after middle life; and continued so for twenty years, till he +died. During which dark state, say the old Books, it was a +pleasure to see with what attention his Sons treated him, and how +reverently the eldest always led him out to dinner. [Ib. p. 612.] +They live and dine at that high Castle of Plassenburg, where old +Friedrich can behold the Red or White Mayn no more. Alas, alas, +Plassenburg is now a Correction-House, where male and female +scoundrels do beating of hemp; and pious Friedrich, like eloquent +Johann, has become a forgotten object. He was of the German +Reichs-Array, who marched to the Netherlands to deliver Max from +durance; Max, the King of the Romans, whom, for all his luck, the +mutinous Flemings had put under lock-and-key at one time. [1482 +(Pauli, ii. 389): his beautiful young Wife, "thrown from her +horse," had perished in a thrice-tragic way, short while before; +and the Seventeen Provinces were unruly under the guardianship of +Max.] That is his one feat memorable to me at present. + +He was Johann Cicero's HALF-brother, child by a second wife. +Like his Uncle Kurfurst Friedrich II., he had married a Polish +Princess; the sharp Achilles having perhaps an eye to crowns in +that direction, during that Hungarian-Bohemian-Polish Donnybrook. +But if so, there again came nothing of a crown with it; though it +was not without its good results for Friedrich's children by +and by. + +He had eight Sons that reached manhood; five or six of whom came +to something considerable in the world, and Three are memorable +down to this day. One of his daughters he married to the Duke of +Liegnitz in Silesia; which is among the first links I notice of a +connection that grew strong with that sovereign Duchy, and is +worth remarking by my readers here. Of the Three notable Sons it +is necessary that we say something. Casimir, George, Albert are +the names of these Three. + +Casimir, the eldest, [1481-1527.] whose share of heritage is +Baireuth, was originally intended for the Church; but inclining +rather to secular and military things, or his prospects of +promotion altering, he early quitted that; and took vigorously to +the career of arms and business. A truculent-looking Herr, with +thoughtful eyes, and hanging under-lip:--HAT of enviable softness; +loose disk of felt flung carelessly on, almost like a nightcap +artificially extended, so admirably soft;--and the look of the man +Casimir, between his cataract of black beard and this semi- +nightcap, is carelessly truculent. He had much fighting with the +Nurnbergers and others; laid it right terribly on, in the way of +strokes, when needful. He was especially truculent upon the +Revolt of Peasants in their BAUERNKRIEG (1525). Them in their +wildest rage he fronted; he, that others might rally to him: +"Unhappy mortals, will you shake the world to pieces, then, +because you have much to complain of?" and hanged the ringleaders +of them literally by the dozen, when quelled and captured. +A severe, rather truculent Herr. His brother George, who had +Anspach for heritage, and a right to half those prisoners, +admonished and forgave his half; and pleaded hard with Casimir for +mercy to the others, in a fine Letter still extant; [In Rentsch, +p. 627.] which produced no effect on Casimir. For the dog's sake, +and for all sakes, "let not the dog learn to eat LEATHER;" (of +which his indispensable leashes and muzzles are made)! That was +a proverb often heard on the occasion, in Luther's mouth among +the rest. + +Casimir died in 1527, age then towards fifty. For the last dozen +years or so, when the Father's malady became hopeless, he had +governed Culmbach, both parts of it; the Anspach part, which +belonged to his next brother George, going naturally, in almost +all things, along with Baireuth; and George, who was commonly +absent, not interfering, except on important occasions. +Casimir left one little Boy, age then only six, name Albert; +to whom George, henceforth practical sovereign of Culmbach, as his +Brother had been, was appointed Guardian. This youth, very full of +fire, wildfire too much of it, exploded dreadfully on Germany by +and by (Albert ALCIBIADES the name they gave him); nay, towards +the end of his nonage, he had been rather sputtery upon his Uncle, +the excellent Guardian who had charge of him. + + +FRIEDRICH'S SECOND SON, MARGRAF GEORGE OF ANSPACH. + +Uncle George of Anspach, Casimir's next Brother, had always been +of a peaceabler disposition than Casimir; not indeed without heat +of temper, and sufficient vivacity of every kind. As a youth, he +had aided Kaiser Max in two of his petty wars; but was always +rather given "to reading Latin," to Learning, and ingenious +pursuits. His Polish Mother, who, we perceive, had given "Casimir" +his name, proved much more important to George. At an early age he +went to his Uncle Vladislaus, King of Hungary and Bohemia: for-- +Alas, after all, we shall have to cast a glance into that +unbeautiful Hungarian-Bohemian scramble, comparable to an "Irish +Donnybrook," where Albert Achilles long walked as Chief-Constable. +It behooves us, after all, to point out some of the tallest heads +in it; and whitherward, bludgeon in hand, they seem to be swaying +and struggling.--Courage, patient reader! + +George, then, at an early age went to his Uncle Vladislaus, King +of Hungary and Bohemia: for George's Mother, as we know, was of +royal kin; daughter of the Polish King, Casimir IV. (late mauler +of the Teutsch Ritters); which circumstance had results for George +and us. Daughter of Casimir IV. the Lady was; and therefore of the +Jagellon blood by her father, which amounts to little; but by her +mother she was Granddaughter of that Kaiser Albert II. who "got +Three Crowns in one year, and died the next;" whose posterity have +ever since,--up to the lips in trouble with their confused +competitive accompaniments, Hunniades, Corvinus, George Podiebrad +and others, not to speak of dragon Turks coiling ever closer round +you on the frontier,--been Kings of Hungary and Bohemia; TWO of +the crowns (the HERITABLE two) which were got by Kaiser Albert in +that memorable year. He got them, as the reader may remember, by +having the daughter of Kaiser Sigismund to wife,--Sigismund SUPER- +GRAMMATICAM, whom we left standing, red as a flamingo, in the +market-place of Constance a hundred years ago. Thus Time rolls on +in its many-colored manner, edacious and feracious. + +It is in this way that George's Uncle, Vladislaus, Albert's +daughter's son, is now King of Hungary and Bohemia: the last King +Vladislaus they had; and the last King but one, of any kind, as we +shall see anon. Vladislaus was heir of Poland too, could he have +managed to get it; but he gave up that to his brother, to various +younger brothers in succession; having his hands full with the +Hungarian and Bohemian difficulty. He was very fond of Nephew +George; well recognizing the ingenuous, wise and loyal nature of +the young man. He appointed George tutor of his poor son Ludwig; +whom he left at the early age of ten, in an evil world, and evil +position there. "Born without Skin," they say, that is, born in +the seventh month;--called Ludwig OHNE HAUT (Ludwig NO-Skin), on +that account. Born certainly, I can perceive, rather thin of skin; +and he would have needed one of a rhinoceros thickness! + +George did his function honestly, and with success: Ludwig grew up +a gallant, airy, brisk young King, in spite of difficulties, +constitutional and other; got a Sister of the great Kaiser +Karl V. to wife;--determined (A.D. 1526) to have a stroke at the +Turk dragon; which, was coiling round his frontier, and spitting +fire at an intolerable rate. Ludwig, a fine young man of twenty, +marched away with much Hungarian chivalry, right for the Turk +(Summer 1526); George meanwhile going busily to Bohemia, and there +with all his strength levying troops for reinforcement. Ludwig +fought and fenced, for some time, with the Turk outskirts; came at +last to a furious general battle with the Turk (29th August, +1526), at a place called Mohacz, far east in the flats of the +Lower Donau; and was there tragically beaten and ended. Seeing the +Battle gone, and his chivalry all in flight, Ludwig too had to +fly; galloping for life, he came upon bog which proved bottomless, +as good as bottomless; and Ludwig, horse and man, vanished in it +straightway from this world. Hapless young man, like a flash of +lightning suddenly going down there--and the Hungarian Sovereignty +along with him. For Hungary is part of Austria ever since; +having, with Bohemia, fallen to Karl V.'s Brother Ferdinand, as +now the nearest convenient heir of Albert with his Three Crowns. +Up to the lips in difficulties to this day!-- + +George meanwhile, with finely appointed reinforcements, was in +full march to join Ludwig; but the sad news of Mohacz met him: +he withdrew, as soon as might be, to his own territory, and +quitted Hungarian politics. This, I think, was George's third and +last trial of war. He by no means delighted in that art, or had +cultivated it like Casimir and some of his brothers.-- + +George by this time had considerable property; part of it +important to the readers of this History. Anspach we already know; +but the Duchy of Jagerndorf,--that and its pleasant valleys, fine +hunting-grounds and larch-clad heights, among the Giant Mountains +of Silesia,--that is to us the memorable territory. George got it +in this manner:-- + +Some ten or fifteen years ago, the late King Vladislaus, our Uncle +of blessed memory, loving George, and not having royal moneys at +command, permitted him to redeem with his own cash certain +Hungarian Domains, pledged at a ruinously cheap rate, but +unredeemable by Vladislaus. George did so; years ago, guess ten or +fifteen. George did not like the Hungarian Domains, with their +Turk and other inconveniences; he proposed to exchange them with +King Vladislaus for the Bohemian-Silesian Duchy of Jagerndorf; +which had just then, by failure of heirs, lapsed to the King. +This also Vladislaus, the beneficent cashless Uncle, liking George +more and more, permitted to be done. And done it was; I see not in +what year; only that the ultimate investiture (done, this part of +the affair, by Ludwig OHNE HAUT, and duly sanctioned by the +Kaiser) dates 1524, two years before the fatal Mohacz business. + +From the time of this purchase, and especially till Brother +Casimir's death, which happened in 1527, George resided oftener at +Jagerndorf than at Anspach. Anspach, by the side of Baireuth, +needed no management; and in Jagerndorf much probably required the +hand of a good Governor to put it straight again. The Castle of +Jagerndorf, which towers up there in a rather grand manner to this +day, George built: "the old Castle of the Schellenbergs" (extinct +predecessor Line) now gone to ruins, "stands on a Hill with +larches on it, some miles off." Margraf George was much esteemed +as Duke of Jagerndorf. What his actions in that region were, +I know not; but it seems he was so well thought of in Silesia, two +smaller neighboring Potentates, the Duke of Oppeln and the Duke of +Ratibor, who had no heirs of their body, bequeathed, with the +Kaiser's assent, these towns and territories to George: [Rentsch, +pp. 623, 127-131. Kaiser is Ferdinand, Karl V.'s Brother,--as yet +only KING of Bohemia and Hungary, but supreme in regard to such +points. His assent is dated "17th June, 1531" in Rentsch.]--in +mere love to their subjects (Rentsch intimates), that poor men +might be governed by a wise good Duke, in the time coming. +The Kaiser would have got the Duchies otherwise. + +Nay the Kaiser, in spite of his preliminary assent, proved +extortionate to George in this matter; and exacted heavy sums for +the actual possession of Oppeln and Ratibor. George, going so +zealously ahead in Protestant affairs, grew less and less a +favorite with Kaisers. But so, at any rate, on peaceable +unquestionable grounds, grounds valid as Imperial Law and ready +money, George is at last Lord of these two little Countries, in +the plain of South-Silesia, as of Jagerndorf among the Mountains +hard by. George has and holds the Duchy of Jagerndorf, with these +appendages (Jagerndorf since 1524, Ratibor and Oppeln since some +years later); and lives constantly, or at the due intervals, in +his own strong Mountain-Castle of Jagerndorf there,--we have no +doubt, to the marked benefit of good men in those parts. +Hereby has Jagerndorf joined itself to the Brandenburg +Territories: and the reader can note the circumstance, for it will +prove memorable one day. + +In the business of the Reformation, Margraf George was very noble. +A simple-hearted, truth-loving, modestly valiant man; rising +unconsciously, in that great element, into the heroic figure. +"George the Pious (DER FROMME)," "George the Confessor +(BEKENNER)," were the names he got from his countrymen. +Once this business had become practical, George interfered a +little more in the Culmbach Government; his brother Casimir, who +likewise had Reformation tendencies, rather hanging back in +comparison to George. + +In 1525 the Town-populations, in the Culmbach region, big Nurnberg +in the van, had gone quite ahead in the new Doctrine; and were +becoming irrepressibly impatient to clear out the old mendacities, +and have the Gospel preached freely to them. This was a +questionable step; feasible perhaps for a great Elector of +Saxony;--but for a Margraf of Anspach? George had come home from +Jagerndorf, some three hundred miles away, to look into it for +himself; found it, what with darkness all round, what with +precipices menacing on both hands, and zealous, inconsiderate +Town-populations threatening to take the bit between their teeth, +a frightfully intricate thing. George mounted his horse, one day +this year, day not dated farther, and "with only six attendants" +privately rode off, another two hundred miles, a good three days' +ride, to Wittenberg; and alighted at Dr. Martinus Lutherus's door. +[Rentsch, p. 625.] A notable passage; worth thinking of. But such +visits of high Princes, to that poor house of the Doctor's, were +not then uncommon. Luther cleared the doubts of George; George +returned with a resolution taken; "Ahead then, ye poor Voigtland +Gospel populations! I must lead you, we must on!"--And perils +enough there proved to be, and precipices on each hand: +BAUERNKRIEG, that is to say Peasants'-War, Anabaptistry and Red- +Republic, on the one hand; REICHS-ACHT, Ban of Empire, on the +other. But George, eagerly, solemnly attentive, with ever new +light rising on him, dealt with the perils as they came; and went +steadily on, in a simple, highly manful and courageous manner. + +He did not live to see the actual Wars that followed on Luther's +preaching:--he was of the same age with Luther, born few months +later, and died two years before Luther; [4th March, 1484,-- +27th Dec., 1543, George; 10th November, 1483--18th February, +1546, Luther.]--but in all the intermediate principal transactions +George is conspicuously present; "George of Brandenburg," as the +Books call him, or simply "Margraf George." + +At the Diet of Augsburg (1530), and the signing of the Augsburg +Confession there, he was sure to be. He rode thither with his +Anspach Knightage about him, "four hundred cavaliers,"-- +Seckendorfs, Huttens, Flanses and other known kindreds, +recognizable among the lists; [Rentsch, p. 633.]--and spoke there, +notbursts of parliamentary eloquence, but things that had meaning +in them. One speech of his, not in the Diet, but in the Kaiser's +Lodging (15th June, 1530; no doubt, in Anton Fugger's house, where +the Kaiser "lodged for year and day" this time but WITHOUT the +"fires of cinnamon" they talk of on other occasions [See Carlyle's +<italic> Miscellanies <end italic> (iii. 259 n.). The House is at +present an Inn, <italic> "Gasthaus zu den drei Mohren;" <end +italic> where tourists lodge, and are still shown the room which +the Kaiser occupied on such visits.]), is still very celebrated. +It was the evening of the Kaiser Karl Fifth's arrival at the Diet; +which was then already, some time since, assembled there. +And great had been the Kaiser's reception that morning; the flower +of Germany, all the Princes of the Empire, Protestant and Papal +alike, riding out to meet him, in the open country, at the Bridge +of the Lech. With high-flown speeches and benignities, on both +sides;--only that the Kaiser willed all men, Protestant and other, +should in the mean while do the Popish litanyings, waxlight +processionings and idolatrous stage-performances with him on the +morrow, which was CORPUS-CHRISTI Day; and the Protestants could +not nor would. Imperial hints there had already been, from +Innspruck; benign hopes, of the nature of commands, That loyal +Protestant Princes would in the interim avoid open discrepancies, +--perhaps be so loyal as keep their chaplains, peculiar divine- +services, private in the interim? These were hints;--and now this +of the CORPUS-CHRISTI, a still more pregnant hint! Loyal +Protestants refused it, therefore; flatly declined, though bidden +and again bidden. They attended in a body, old Johann of Saxony, +young Philip of Hessen, and the rest; Margraf George, as +spokesman, with eloquent simplicity stating their reasons,--to +somewhat this effect:-- + +Invinciblest all-gracious Kaiser, loyal are we to your high +Majesty, ready to do your bidding by night and by day. +But it is your bidding under God, not against God. Ask us not, +0 gracious Kaiser! I cannot, and we cannot; and we must not, and +dare not. And "before I would deny my God and his Evangel," these +are George's own words, "I would rather kneel down here before +your Majesty, and have my head struck off,"--hitting his +hind-head, or neck, with the edge of his hand, by way of +accompaniment; a strange radiance in the eyes of him, voice risen +into musical alt: <italic> "Ehe Ich wolte meinen Gott und sein +Evangelium verlaugnen, ehe wolte Ich hier vor Eurer Majestat +niderknien, und mir den Kopf abhauen lassen."--"Nit Kop ab, lover +Forst, nit Kop ab!" <end italic> answered Charles in his Flemish- +German; "Not head off, dear Furst, not head off!" said the Kaiser, +a faint smile enlightening those weighty gray eyes of his, and +imperceptibly animating the thick Austrian under-lip. [Rentsch, +p. 637. Marheineke, <italic> Geschichte der Teutschen Reformation +<end italic> (Berlin, 1831), ii. 487.] + +Speaker and company attended again on the morrow; Margraf George +still more eloquent. Whose Speech flew over Germany, like fire +over dry flax; and still exists,--both Speeches now oftenest +rolled into one by inaccurate editors. [As by Rentsch, ubi supra.] +And the CORPUS-CHRISTI idolatries were forborne the Margraf and +his company this time;--the Kaiser himself, however, walking, +nearly roasted in the sun, in heavy purple-velvet cloak, with a +big wax-candle, very superfluous, guttering and blubbering in the +right hand of him, along the streets of Augsburg. Kur-Brandenburg, +Kur-Mainz, high cousins of George, were at this Diet of Augsburg; +Kur-Brandenburg (Elector Joachim I., Cicero's son, of whom we have +spoken, and shall speak again) being often very loud on the +conservative side; and eloquent Kur-Mainz going on the +conciliatory tack. Kur-Brandenburg, in his zeal, had ridden on to +Innspruck, to meet the Kaiser there, and have a preliminary word +with him. Both these high Cousins spoke, and bestirred themselves, +a good deal, at this Diet. They had met the Kaiser on the plains +of the Lech, this morning; and, no doubt, gloomed unutterable +things on George and his Speech. George could not help it. + +Till his death in 1543, George is to be found always in the front +line of this high Movement, in the line where Kur-Sachsen, John +the Steadfast (DER BESTANDIGE), and young Philip the Magnanimous +of Hessen were, and where danger and difficulty were. Readers of +this enlightened gold-nugget generation can form to themselves no +conception of the spirit that then possessed the nobler kingly +mind. "The command of God endures through Eternity, <italic> +Verbum Dei Manet In AEternum," <end italic> was the Epigraph and +Life-motto which John the Steadfast had adopted for himself; +"V. D. M. I. AE.," these initials he had engraved on all the +furnitures of his existence, on his standards, pictures, plate, on +the very sleeves of his lackeys,--and I can perceive, on his own +deep heart first of all. V. D. M. I. E.:--or might it not be read +withal, as Philip of Hessen sometimes said (Philip, still a young +fellow, capable of sport in his magnanimous scorn), <italic> +"Verbum Diaboli Manet In Episcopis, <end italic> The Devil's Word +sticks fast in the Bishops"? + +We must now take leave of Margraf George and his fine procedures +in that crisis of World-History. He had got Jugerndorf, which +became important for his Family and others: but what was that to +the Promethean conquests (such we may call them) which he had the +honor to assist in making for his Family, and for his Country, and +for all men;--very unconscious he of "bringing fire from Heaven," +good modest simple man! So far as I can gather, there lived, in +that day, few truer specimens of the Honest Man. A rugged, +rough-hewn, rather blunt-nosed physiognomy: cheek-bones high, +cheeks somewhat bagged and wrinkly; eyes with a due shade of +anxiety and sadness in them; affectionate simplicity, +faithfulness, intelligence, veracity looking out of every feature +of him. Wears plentiful white beard short-cut, plentiful +gold-chains, ruffs, ermines;--a hat not to be approved of, in +comparison with brother Casimir's; miserable inverted-colander of +a hat; hanging at an angle of forty-five degrees; with band of +pearls round the top not the bottom of it; insecure upon the fine +head of George, and by no means to its embellishment. + +One of his Daughters he married to the Duke of Liegnitz, a new +link in that connection. He left one Boy, George Friedrich; +who came under ALCIBIADES, his Cousin of Baireuth's tutelage; +and suffered much by that connection, or indeed chiefly by his own +conspicuously Protestant turn, to punish which, the Alcibiades +connection was taken as a pretext. In riper years, George +Friedrich got his calamities brought well under; and lived to +do good work, Protestant and other, in the world. To which we +may perhaps allude again. The Line of Margraf George the Pious +ends in this George Friedrich, who had no children; the Line of +Margraf George, and the Elder Culmbach Line altogether (1603), +Albert Alcibiades, Casimir's one son, having likewise died +without posterity. + +"Of the younger Brothers," says my Authority, "some four were in +the Church; two of whom rose to be Prelates;--here are the four:-- + +"1. One, Wilhelm by name, was Bishop of Riga, in the remote +Prussian outskirts, and became Protestant;--among the first great +Prelates who took that heretical course; being favored by +circumstances to cast out the 'V. D. <italic> (Verbum Diaboli),' +<end italic> as Philip read it. He is a wise-looking man, with +magnificent beard, with something of contemptuous patience in the +meditative eyes of him. He had great troubles with his Riga +people,--as indeed was a perennial case between their Bishop and +them, of whatever creed he might be. + +"2. The other Prelate held fast by the Papal Orthodoxy: he had got +upon the ladder of promotion towards Magdeburg; hoping to follow +his Cousin KUR-MAINZ, the eloquent conciliatory Cardinal, in that +part of his pluralities. As he did,--little to his comfort, poor +man; having suffered a good deal in the sieges and religious +troubles of his Magdeburgers; who ended by ordering him away, +having openly declared themselves Protestant, at length. He had to +go; and occupy himself complaining, soliciting Aulic-Councils and +the like, for therest of his life. + +"3. The PROBST of Wurzburg (PROVOST, kind of Head-Canon there); +orthodox Papal he too; and often gave his Brother George trouble. + +"4. A still more orthodox specimen, the youngest member of the +family, who is likewise in orders: Gumbrecht ('Gumbertus, a +Canonicus of' Something or other, say the Books); who went early +to Rome, and became one of his Holiness Leo Tenth's Chamberlains; +--stood the 'Sack of Rome' (Constable de Bourbon's), and was +captured there and ransomed;--but died still young (1528). +These three were Catholics, he of Wurzburg a rather virulent one." + +Catholic also was JOHANNES, a fifth Brother, who followed the +soldiering and diplomatic professions, oftenest in Spain; +did Government-messages to Diets, and the like, for Karl V.; +a high man and well seen of his Kaiser;--he had wedded the young +Widow of old King Ferdinand in Spain; which proved, seemingly, a +troublous scene for poor Johannes. What we know is, he was +appointed Commandant of Valencia; and died there, still little +turned of thirty,--by poison it is supposed,--and left his young +Widow to marry a third time. + +These are the Five minor Brothers, four of them Catholic, sons of +old blind Friedrich of Plassenburg; who are not, for their own +sake, memorable, but are mentionable for the sake of the three +major Brothers. So many orthodox Catholics, while Brother George +and others went into the heresies at such a rate! A family much +split by religion:--and blind old Friedrich, dim of intellect, +knew nothing of it; and the excellent Polish Mother said and +thought, we know not what. A divided Time!-- + +Johannes of Valencia, and these Chief Priests, were all men of +mark; conspicuous to the able editors of their day: but the only +Brother now generally known to mankind is Albert, Hochmeister of +the Teutsch Ritterdom; by whom Preussen came into the Family. +Of him we must now speak a little. + + + +Chapter VI. + +HOCHMEISTER ALBERT, THIRD NOTABLE SON OF FRIEDRICH. + +Albert was born in 1490; George's junior by six years, Casimir's +by nine. He too had been meant for the Church; but soon quitted +that, other prospects and tendencies opening. He had always loved +the ingenuous arts; but the activities too had charms for him. +He early shone in his exercises spiritual and bodily; grew tall +above his fellows, expert in arts, especially in arms;--rode with +his Father to Kaiser Max's Court; was presented by him, as the +light of his eyes, to Kaiser Max; who thought him a very likely +young fellow; and bore him in mind, when the Mastership of the +Teutsch Ritterdom fell vacant. [Rentsch, pp. 840-863.] + +The Teutsch Ritterdom, ever since it got its back broken in that +Battle of Tannenberg in 1410, and was driven out of West-Preussen +with such ignominious kicks, has been lying bedrid, eating its +remaining revenues, or sprawling about in helpless efforts to rise +again, which require no notice from us. Hopeless of ever +recovering West-Preussen, it had quietly paid its homage to Poland +for the Eastern part of that Country; quietly for some couple of +generations. But, in the third or fourth generation after +Tannenberg, there began to rise murmurs,--in the Holy Roman Empire +first of all. "Preussen is a piece of the Reich," said hot, +inconsiderate people; "Preussen could not be alienated without +consent of the Reich!" To which discourses the afflicted Ritters +listened only too gladly; their dull eyes kindling into new false +hopes at sound of them. The point was, To choose as Hochmeister +some man of German influence, of power and connection in the +Country, who might help them to their so-called right. With this +view, they chose one and then another of such sort;--and did not +find it very hopeful, as we shall see. + +Albert was chosen Grand-Master of Preussen, in February, 1511; +age then twenty-one. Made his entry into Konigsberg, November next +year; in grand cavalcade, "dreadful storm of rain and wind at the +time,"--poor Albert all in black, and full of sorrow, for the loss +of his Mother, the good Polish Princess, who had died since he +left home. Twenty months of preparation he had held since his +Election, before doing anything: for indeed the case was +intricate. He, like his predecessor in office, had undertaken to +refuse that Homage to Poland; the Reich generally, and Kaiser Max +himself, in a loose way of talk, encouraging him: "A piece of the +Reich," said they all; "Teutsch Ritters had no power to give it +away in that manner." Which is a thing more easily said, than +made good in the way of doing. + +Albert's predecessor, chosen on this principle, was a Saxon +Prince, Friedrich of Meissen; cadet of Saxony; potently enough +connected, he too; who, in like manner, had undertaken to refuse +the Homage. And zealously did refuse it, though to his cost, poor +man. From the Reich, for all its big talking, he got no manner of +assistance; had to stave off a Polish War as he could, by fair- +speaking, by diplomacies and contrivances; and died at middle age, +worn down by the sorrows of that sad position. + +An idea prevails, in ill-informed circles, that our new Grand- +Master Albert was no better than a kind of cheat; that he took +this Grand-Mastership of Preussen; and then, in gayety of heart, +surreptitiously pocketed Preussen for his own behoof. Which is an +idle idea; inconsistent with the least inquiry, or real knowledge +how the matter stood. [Voigt, ix. 740-749; Pauli, iv. 404-407.] +By no means in gayety of heart, did Albert pocket Preussen; +nor till after as tough a struggle to do other with it as could +have been expected of any man. + +One thing not suspected by the Teutsch Ritters, and least of all +by their young Hochmeister, was, That the Teutsch Ritters had well +deserved that terrible down-come at Tannenberg, that ignominious +dismissal out of West-Preussen with kicks. Their insolence, +luxury, degeneracy had gone to great lengths. Nor did that +humiliation mend them at all; the reverse rather. It was deeply +hidden from the young Hochmeister as from them, That probably they +were now at length got to the end of their capability: and ready +to be withdrawn from the scene, as soon as any good way offered!-- +Of course, they Were reluctant enough to fulfil their bargain to +Poland; very loath they to do Homage now for Preussen, and own +themselves sunk to the second degree. For the Ritters had still +their old haughtiness of humor, their deepseated pride of place, +gone now into the unhappy CONSCIOUS state. That is usually the +last thing that deserts a sinking House: pride of place, gone to +the conscious state;--as if, in a reverse manner, the House felt +that it deserved to sink. + +For the rest, Albert's position among them was what Friedrich of +Sachsen's had been; worse, not better; and the main ultimate +difference was, he did not die of it, like Friedrich of Sachsen; +but found an outlet, not open in Friedrich's time, and lived. +To the Ritters, and vague Public which called itself the Reich, +Albert had promised he would refuse the Homage to Poland; on which +Ritters and Reich had clapt their hands: and that was pretty much +all the assistance he got of them. The Reich, as a formal body, +had never asserted its right to Preussen, nor indeed spoken +definitely on the subject: it was only the vague Public that had +spoken, in the name of the Reich. From the Reich, or from any +individual of it, Kaiser or Prince, when actually applied to, +Albert could get simply nothing. From what, Ritters were in +Preussen, he might perhaps expect promptitude to fight, if it came +to that; which was not much as things stood. But, from the great +body of the Ritters, scattered over Germany, with their rich +territories (BALLEYS, bailliwicks), safe resources, and +comfortable "Teutschmeister" over them, he got flat refusal: [The +titles HOCHMEISTER and TEUTSCHMEISTER are defined, in many Books +and in all manner of Dictionaries, as meaning the same thing. +But that is not quite the case. They were at first synonymous, so +far as I can see; and after Albert's time, they again became so; +but at the date where we now are, and for a long while back, they +represent different entities, and indeed oftenest, since the +Prussian DECLINE began, antagonistic ones. Teutschmeister, Sub- +president over the GERMAN affairs and possessions of the Order, +resides at Mergentheim in that Country: Hochmeister is Chief +President of the whole, but resident at Marienburg in Preussen, +and feels there acutely where the shoe pinches,--much too acutely, +thinks the Teutschmeister in his soft list-slippers, at +Mergentheim in the safe Wurzburg region.] "We will not be +concerned in the adventure at all; we wish you well through it!" +Never was a spirited young fellow placed in more impossible +position. His Brother Casimir (George was then in Hungary), his +Cousin Joachim Kur-Brandenburg, Friedrich Duke of Liegnitz, a +Silesian connection of the Family, ["Duke Friedrich II.:" comes by +mothers from Kurfurst Friedrich I.; marries Margraf George's +Daughter even now, 1519 (Hubner, tt. 179, 100, 101).] consulted, +advised, negotiated to all lengths, Albert's own effort was +incessant. "Agree with King Sigismund," said they; "Uncle +Sigismund, your good Mother's Brother; a King softly inclined to +us all!"--"How agree?" answered Albert: "He insists on the Homage, +which I have promised not to give!" Casimir went and came, to +Konigsberg, to Berlin; went once himself to Cracow, to the King, +on this errand: but it was a case of "Yes AND No;" not to be +solved by Casimir. + +As to King Sigismund, he was patient with it to a degree; made the +friendliest paternal professions;--testifying withal, That the +claim was undeniable; and could by him, Sigismund, never be +foregone with the least shadow of honor, and of course never +would: "My dear Nephew can consider whether his dissolute, +vain-minded, half-heretical Ritterdom, nay whether this Prussian +fraction of it, is in a condition to take Poland by the beard in +an unjust quarrel; or can hope to do Tannenberg over again in the +reverse way, by Beelzehub's help?"-- + +For seven years, Albert held out in this intermediate state, +neither peace nor war; moving Heaven and Earth to raise supplies, +that he might be able to defy Poland, and begin war. The Reich +answers, "We have really nothing for you." Teutschmeister answers +again and again, "I tell you we have nothing!" In the end, +Sigismund grew impatient; made (December, 1519) some movements of +a hostile nature. Albert did not yield; eager only to +procrastinate till he were ready. By superhuman efforts, of +borrowing, bargaining, soliciting, and galloping to and fro, +Albert did, about the end of next year, get up some appearance of +an Army: "14,000 German mercenaries horse and foot," so many in +theory; who, to the extent of 8,000 in actual result, came +marching towards him (October, 1520); to serve "for eight months." +With these he will besiege Dantzig, besiege Thorn; will plunge, +suddenly, like a fiery javelin, into the heart of Poland, and make +Poland surrender its claim. Whereupon King Sigismund bestirred +himself in earnest; came out with vast clouds of Polish chivalry; +overset Albert's 8,000;--who took to eating the country, instead +of fighting for it; being indeed in want of all things. One of the +gladdest days Albert had yet seen, was when he got the 8,000 sent +home again. + +What then is to be done? "Armistice for four years," Sigismund was +still kind enough to consent to that: "Truce for four years: try +everywhere, my poor Nephew; after that, your mind will perhaps +become pliant." Albert tried the Reich again: "Four years, +0 Princes, and then I must do it, or be eaten!" Reich, busy with +Lutheran-Papal, Turk-Christian quarrels, merely shrugged its +shoulders upon Albert. Teutschmeister did the like; everybody the +like. In Heaven or Earth, then, is there no hope for me? thought +Albert. And his stock of ready money--we will not speak of that! + +Meanwhile Dr. Osiander of Anspach had come to him; and the pious +young man was getting utterly shaken in his religion. Monkish +vows, Pope, Holy Church itself, what is one to think, Herr Doctor? +Albert, religious to an eminent degree, was getting deep into +Protestantism. In his many journeyings, to Nurnberg, to +Brandenburg, and up and down, he had been at Wittenberg too: +he saw Luther in person more than once there; corresponded with +Luther; in fine believed in the truth of Luther. The Culmbach +Brothers were both, at least George ardently was, inclined to +Protestantism, as we have seen; but Albert was foremost of the +three in this course. Osiander and flights of zealous Culmbach +Preachers made many converts in Preussen. In these circumstances +the Four Years came to a close. + +Albert, we may believe, is greatly at a loss; and deep +deliberations, Culmbach, Berlin, Liegnitz, Poland all called in, +are held:--a case beyond measure intricate. You have given your +word; word must be kept,--and cannot, without plain hurt, or ruin +even, to those that took it of you. Withdraw, therefore; fling it +up!--Fling it up? A valuable article to fling up; fling it up is +the last resource. Nay, in fact, to whom will you fling it up? +The Prussian Ritters themselves are getting greatly divided on the +point; and at last on all manner of points, Protestantism ever +more spreading among them. As for the German Brethren, they and +their comfortable Teutschmeister, who refused to partake in the +dangerous adventure at all; are they entitled to have much to say +in the settlement of it now?-- + +Among others, or as chief oracle of all, Luther was consulted. +"What would you have me do towards reforming the Teutsch Order?" +inquired Albert of his oracle. Luther's answer was, as may be +guessed, emphatic. "Luther," says one reporter, "has in his +Writings declared the Order to be 'a thing serviceable neither to +God nor man,' and the constitution of it 'a monstrous, frightful, +hermaphroditish, neither secular nor spiritual constitution.'" +[C. J. Weber, <italic> Daa Ritterwessen (Stuttgard, 1837), iii. +208.] We do not know what Luther's answer to Albert was;--but can +infer the purport of it: That such a Teutsch Ritterdom was not, at +any rate, a thing long for this world; that white cloaks with +black crosses on them would not, of themselves, profit any +Ritterdom; that solemn vows and high supramundane professions, +followed by such practice as was notorious, are an afflicting, +not to say a damnable, spectacle on God's Earth;--that a young +Herr had better marry; better have done with the wretched +Babylonian Nightmare of Papistry altogether; better shake oneself +awake, in God's name, and see if there are not still monitions in +the eternal sky as to what it is wise to do, and wise not to do!-- +This I imagine to have been, in modern language, the purport of +Dr. Luther's advice to Hochmeister Albrecht on the present +interesting occasion. + +It is certain, Albert, before long, took this course; Uncle +Sigismund and the resident Officials of the Ritterdom having made +agreement to it as the one practicable course. The manner as +follows: 1. Instead of Elected Hochmeister, let us be Hereditary +Duke of Preussen, and pay homage for it to Uncle Sigismund in that +character. 2. Such of the resident Officials of the Ritterdom as +are prepared to go along with us, we will in like manner +constitute permanent Feudal Proprietors of what they now possess +as Life-rent, and they shall be Sub-vassals under us as Hereditary +Duke. 3. In all which Uncle Sigismund and the Republic of Poland +engage to maintain us against the world. + +That is, in sum, the Transaction entered into, by King Sigismund +I. of Poland, on the one part, and Hochmeister Albert and his +Ritter Officials, such as went along with him, (which of course +none could do that were not Protestant), on the other part: +done at Cracow, 8th April, 1525. [Rentsch, p. 850.--Here, +certified by Rentsch, Voigt and others, is a worn-out patch of +Paper, which is perhaps worth printing:-- +1490, May 17, Albert is born. +1511, February 14, Hochmeister. +1519, December, King Sigismund's first hostile movements. +1520, October, German Mercenaries arrive. +1520, November, try Siege of Dantzig. +1520, November 17, give it up. +1521, April 10, Truce for Four Years. +1523, June, Albert consults Luther. +1524, November, sees Luther. +1525, April 8, Peace of Cracow, and Albert to be Duke of +Prussia.] Whereby Teutsch Ritterdom, the Prussian part of it, +vanished from the world; dissolving itself, and its "hermaphrodite +constitution," like a kind of Male Nunnery, as so many female ones +had done in those years. A Transaction giving rise to endless +criticism, then and afterwards. Transaction plainly not +reconcilable with the letter of the law; and liable to have logic +chopped upon it to any amount, and to all lengths of time. +The Teutschmeister and his German Brethren shrieked murder; +the whole world, then, and for long afterwards, had much to say +and argue. + +To us, now that the logic-chaff is all laid long since, the +question is substantial, not formal. If the Teutsch Ritterdom +was actually at this time DEAD, actually stumbling about as a mere +galvanized Lie beginning to be putrid,--then, sure enough, it +behooved that somebody should bury it, to avoid pestilential +effects in the neighborhood. Somebody or other;--first flaying the +skin off, as was natural, and taking that for his trouble. +All turns, in substance, on this latter question! If, again, the +Ritterdom was not dead--? + +And truly it struggled as hard as Partridge the Almanac- +maker to rebut that fatal accusation; complained (Teutschmeister +and German-Papist part of it) loudly at the Diets; got Albert and +his consorts put to the Ban (GEACHTET), fiercely menaced by the +Kaiser Karl V. But nothing came of all that; nothing but noise. +Albert maintained his point; Kaiser Karl always found his hands +full otherwise, and had nothing but stamped parchments and menaces +to fire off at Albert. Teutsch Ritterdom, the Popish part of it, +did enjoy its valuable bailliwicks, and very considerable rents in +various quarters of Germany and Europe, having lost only Preussen; +and walked about, for three centuries more, with money in its +pocket, and a solemn white gown with black cross on its back,--the +most opulent Social Club in existence, and an excellent place for +bestowing younger sons of sixteen quarters. But it was, and +continued through so many centuries, in every essential respect, +a solemn Hypocrisy; a functionless merely eating Phantasm, of the +nature of goblin, hungry ghost or ghoul (of which kind there are +many);--till Napoleon finally ordered it to vanish; its time, even +as Phantasm, being come. + +Albert, I can conjecture, had his own difficulties as Regent in +Preussen. [1525-1568.] Protestant Theology, to make matters worse +for him, had split itself furiously into 'DOXIES; and there was +an OSIANDERISM (Osiander being the Duke's chaplain), much flamed +upon by the more orthodox ISM. "Foreigners," too, German-Anspach +and other, were ill seen by the native gentlemen; yet sometimes +got encouragement. One Funccius, a shining Nurnberg immigrant +there, son-in-law of Osiander, who from Theology got into +Politics, had at last (1564) to be beheaded,--old Duke Albert +himself "bitterly weeping" about him; for it was none of Albert's +doing. Probably his new allodial Ritter gentlemen were not the +most submiss, when made hereditary? We can only hope the Duke was +a Hohenzollern, and not quite unequal to his task in this respect. +A man with high bald brow; magnificent spade-beard; air much- +pondering, almost gaunt,--gaunt kind of eyes especially, and a +slight cast in them, which adds to his severity of aspect. He kept +his possession well, every inch of it; and left all safe at his +decease in 1568. His age was then near eighty. It was the tenth +year of our Elizabeth as Queen; invincible Armada not yet built; +but Alba very busy, cutting off high heads in Brabant; +and stirring up the Dutch to such fury as was needful for +exploding Spain and him. + +This Duke Albert was a profoundly religious man, as all thoughtful +men then were. Much given to Theology, to Doctors of Divinity; +being eager to know God's Laws in this Universe, and wholesomely +certain of damnation if he should not follow them. Fond of the +profane Sciences too, especially of Astronomy: Erasmus Reinhold +and his <italic> Tabulae Prutenicae <end italic> were once very +celebrated; Erasmus Reinhold proclaims gratefully how these his +elaborate Tables (done according to the latest discoveries, 1551 +and onwards) were executed upon Duke Albert's high bounty; +for which reason they are dedicated to Duke Albert, and called +"PRUTENICAE," meaning PRUSSIAN. [Rentsch, p. 855.] The University +of Konigsberg was already founded several years before, in 1544. + +Albert had not failed to marry, as Luther counselled: by his first +Wife he had only daughters; by his second, one son, Albert +Friedrich, who, without opposition or difficulty, succeeded his +Father. Thus was Preussen acquired to the Hohenzollern Family; +for, before long, the Electoral branch managed to get MITBELEHNUNG +(Co-infeftment), that is to say, Eventual Succession; and Preussen +became a Family Heritage, as Anspach and Baireuth were. + + + +Chapter VII. + +ALBERT ALCIBIADES. + +One word must be spent on poor Albert, Casimir's son, [1522-1557] +already mentioned. This poor Albert, whom they call ALCIBIADES, +made a great noise in that epoch; being what some define as the +"Failure of a Fritz;" who has really features of him we are to +call "Friedrich the Great," but who burnt away his splendid +qualities as a mere temporary shine for the able editors, and +never came to anything. + +A high and gallant young fellow, left fatherless in childhood; +perhaps he came too early into power:--he came, at any rate, in +very volcanic times, when Germany was all in convulsion; the Old +Religion and the New having at length broken out into open battle, +with huge results to be hoped and feared; and the largest game +going on, in sight of an adventurous youth. How Albert staked in +it; how he played to immense heights of sudden gain, and finally +to utter bankruptcy, I cannot explain here: some German delineator +of human destinies, "Artist" worth the name, if there were any, +might find in him a fine subject. + +He was ward of his Uncle George; and the probable fact is, no +guardian could have been more faithful. Nevertheless, on +approaching the years of majority, of majority but not discretion, +he saw good to quarrel with his Uncle; claimed this and that, +which was not granted: quarrel lasting for years. Nay matters ran +so high at last, it was like to come to war between them, had not +George been wiser. The young fellow actually sent a cartel to his +Uncle; challenged him to mortal combat,--at which George only +wagged his old beard, we suppose, and said nothing. Neighbors +interposed, the Diet itself interposed; and the matter was got +quenched again. Leaving Albert, let us hope, a repentant young +man. We said he was full of fire, too much of it wildfire. + +His profession was Arms; he shone much in war; went slashing and +fighting through those Schmalkaldic broils, and others of his +time; a distinguished captain; cutting his way towards something +high, he saw not well what. He had great comradeship with Moritz +of Saxony in the wars: two sworn brothers they, and comrades in +arms:--it is the same dexterous Moritz, who, himself a Protestant, +managed to get his too Protestant Cousin's Electorate of Saxony +into his hand, by luck of the game; the Moritz, too, from whom +Albert by and by got his last defeat, giving Moritz his death in +return. That was the finale of their comradeship. All things end, +and nothing ceases changing till it end. + +He was by position originally on the Kaiser's side; had attained +great eminence, and done high feats of arms and generalship in his +service. But being a Protestant by creed, he changed after that +Schmalkaldic downfall (rout of Muhlberg, 24th April, 1547), which +brought Moritz an Electorate, and nearly cost Moritz's too +Protestant Cousin his life as well as lands. [Account of it in De +Wette, <italic> Lebensgeschichte der Herzoge zu Sachsen <end +italic> (Weimar, 1770), pp. 32-35.] The victorious Kaiser growing +now very high in his ways, there arose complaints against him from +all sides, very loud from the Protestant side; and Moritz and +Albert took to arms, with loud manifestos and the other phenomena. + +This was early in 1552, five years after Muhlberg Rout or Battle. +The there victorious Kaiser was now suddenly almost ruined; chased +like a partridge into the Innspruck Mountains,--could have been +caught, only Moritz would not; "had no cage to hold so big a +bird," he said. So the Treaty of Passau was made, and the Kaiser +came much down from his lofty ways. Famed TREATY OF PASSAU (22d +August, 1552), which was the finale of these broils, and hushed +them up for a Fourscore years to come. That was a memorable year +in German Reformation History. + +Albert, meanwhile, had been busy in the interior of the country; +blazing aloft in Frankenland, his native quarter, with a success +that astonished all men. For seven months he was virtually King of +Germany; ransomed Bamberg, ransomed Wurzburg, Nurnberg (places he +had a grudge at); ransomed all manner of towns and places,-- +especially rich Bishops and their towns, with VERBUM DIABOLI +sticking in them,--at enormous sums. King of the world for a brief +season;--must have had some strange thoughts to himself, had they +been recorded for us. A pious man, too; not in the least like +"Alcibiades," except in the sudden changes of fortune he +underwent. His Motto, or old rhymed Prayer, which he would repeat +on getting into the saddle for military work,--a rough rhyme of +his own composing,--is still preserved. Let us give it, with an +English fac-simile, or roughest mechanical pencil-tracing,--by way +of glimpse into the heart of a vanished Time and its Man-at-arms: +[Rentsch, p. 644.] +<italic> +Das Walt der Herr Jesus Christ, +Mit dem Vater, der uber uns ist: +Wer starker ist als dieser Mann, +Der komm und thu' ein Leid mir an. +<end italic> +Guide it the Lord Jesus Christ, [Read "Chris" or "Chriz," for the + rhyme's sake.] +And the Father, who over us is: +He that is stronger than that Man, [Sic.] +Let him do me a hurt when he can. + +He was at the Siege of Metz (end of that same 1552), and a +principal figure there. Readers have heard of the Siege of Metz: +How Henry II. of France fished up those "Three Bishoprics" (Metz, +Toul, Verdun, constituent part of Lorraine, a covetable fraction +of Teutschland) from the troubled sea of German things, by aid of +Moritz now KUR-SACHSEN, and of Albert; and would not throw them in +again, according to bargain, when Peace, the PEACE OF PASSAU came. +How Kaiser Karl determined to have them back before the year +ended, cost what it might; and Henry II. to keep them, cost what +it might. How Guise defended, with all the Chivalry of France; +and Kaiser Karl besieged, [19th October, 1552, and onwards.] with +an Army of 100,000 men, under Duke Alba for chief captain. +Siege protracted into midwinter; and the "sound of his cannon +heard at Strasburg," which is eighty miles off, "in the winter +nights." [Kohler, <italic> Reichs-Historie, <end italic> p. 453;-- +and more especially <italic> Munzbelustigungen <end italic> +(Nurnberg, 1729-1750), ix. 121-129. The Year of this Volume, and +of the Number in question, is 1737; the MUNZE or Medal "recreated +upon" in of Henri II.] + +It had depended upon Albert, who hung in the distance with an army +of his own, whether the Siege could even begin; but he joined the +Kaiser, being reconciled again; and the trenches opened. By the +valor of Guise and his Chivalry,--still more perhaps by the iron +frosts and by the sleety rains of Winter, and the hungers and the +hardships of a hundred thousand men, digging vainly at the +ice-bound earth, or trampling it when sleety into seas of mud, and +themselves sinking in it, of dysentery, famine, toil and despair, +as they cannonaded day and night,--Metz could not be taken. +"Impossible!" said the Generals with one voice, after trying it +for a couple of months. "Try it one other ten days," said the +Kaiser with a gloomy fixity; "let us all die, or else do it!" +They tried, with double desperation, another ten days; cannon +booming through the winter midnight far and wide, four score miles +round: "Cannot be done, your Majesty! Cannot,--the winter and the +mud, and Guise and the walls; man's strength cannot do it in this +season. We must march away!" Karl listened in silence; but the +tears were seen to run down his proud face, now not so young as it +once was: "Let us march, then!" he said, in a low voice, after +some pause. + +Alcibiades covered the retreat to Diedenhof (THIONVILLE) they now +call it): outmanoeuvred the French, retreated with success; he had +already captured a grand Due d'Aumale, a Prince of the Guises,-- +valuable ransom to be looked for there. It was thought he should +have made his bargain better with the Kaiser, before starting; +but he had neglected that. Albert's course was downward +thenceforth; Kaiser Karl's too. The French keep these "Three +Bishoprics (TROIS EVECHES)," and Teutschland laments the loss of +them, to this hour. Kaiser Karl, as some write, never smiled +again;--abdicated, not long after; retired into the Monastery of +St. Just, and there soon died. That is the siege of Metz, where +Alcibiades was helpful. His own bargain with the Kaiser should +have been better made beforehand. + +Dissatisfied with any bargain he could now get; dissatisfied with +the Treaty of Passau, with such a finale and hushing-up of the +Religious Controversy, and in general with himself and with the +world, Albert again drew sword; went loose at a high rate upon his +Bamberg-Wurzburg enemies, and, having raised supplies there, upon +Moritz and those Passau-Treatiers. He was beaten at last by +Moritz, "Sunday, 9th July, 1553," at a place called Sievershausen +in the Hanover Country, where Moritz himself perished in the +action.--Albert fled thereupon to France. No hope in France. +No luck in other small and desperate stakings of his: the game is +done. Albert returns to a Sister he had, to her Husband's Court in +Baden; a broken, bare and bankrupt man;--soon dies there, +childless, leaving the shadow of a name. [Here, chiefly from +Kohler <italic> (Munzbelustigungen, <end italic> iii. 414-416), is +the chronology of Albert's operations:-- +Seizure of Nurnberg &c., 11th May to 22d June, 1552; Innspruck +(with Treaty of Passau) follows. Then Siege of Metz, October to +December, 1552; Bamberg, Wurzburg and Nurnberg ransomed again, +April, 1553; Battle of Sievershausen, 9th July, 1553. Wurzburg &c. +explode against him; Ban of the Empire, 4th May, 1554. To France +thereupon; returns, hoping to negotiate, end of 1556; dies at +Pforzheim, at his Sister's, 8th January, 1557.--See Pauli, iii. +120-138. See also Dr. Kapp, <italic> Erinnerungen an diejenigen +Markgrafen &c. <end italic> (a reprint from the <italic> Archiv +fur Geschichte und Alterthumskunde in Ober-Franken, <end italic> +Year 1841).] + +His death brought huge troubles upon Baireuth and the Family +Possessions. So many neighbors, Bamberg, Wurzburg and the rest, +were eager for retaliation; a new Kaiser greedy for confiscating. +Plassenburg Castle was besieged, bombarded, taken by famine and +burnt; much was burnt and torn to waste. Nay, had it not been for +help from Berlin,the Family had gone to utter ruin in those parts. +For this Alcibiades had, in his turn, been Guardian to Uncle +George's Son, the George Friedrich we once spoke of, still a +minor, but well known afterwards; and it was attempted, by an +eager Kaiser Ferdinand, to involve this poor youth in his Cousin's +illegalities, as if Ward and Guardian had been one person. +Baireuth which had been Alcibiades's, Anspach which was the young +man's own, nay Jagerndorf with its Appendages, were at one time +all in the clutches of the hawk,--had not help from Berlin been +there. But in the end, the Law had to be allowed its course; +George Friedrich got his own Territories back (all but some +surreptitious nibblings in the Jagerndorf quarter, to be noticed +elsewhere), and also got Baireuth, his poor Cousin's Inheritance; +--sole heir, he now, in Culmbath, the Line of Casimir being out. + +One owns to a kind of love for poor Albert Alcibiades. In certain +sordid times, even a "Failure of a Fritz" is better than some +Successes that are going. A man of some real nobleness, this +Albert; though not with wisdom enough, not with good fortune +enough. Could he have continued to "rule the situation" (as our +French friends phrase it); to march the fanatical Papistries, and +Kaiser Karl, clear out of it, home to Spain and San Justo a little +earlier; to wave the coming Jesuitries away, as with a flaming +sword; to forbid beforehand the doleful Thirty-Years War, and the +still dolefuler spiritual atrophy (the flaccid Pedantry, ever +rummaging and rearranging among learned marine-stores, which +thinks itself Wisdom and Insight; the vague maunderings, flutings; +indolent, impotent daydreaming and tobacco-smoking, of poor Modern +Germany) which has followed therefrom,--ACH GOTT, he might have +been a "SUCCESS of a Fritz" three times over! He might have been a +German Cromwell; beckoning his People to fly, eagle-like, straight +towards the Sun; instead of screwing about it in that sad, +uncertain, and far too spiral manner!--But it lay not in him; +not in his capabilities or opportunities, after all: and we but +waste time in such speculations. + + + +Chapter VIII. + +HISTORICAL MEANING OF THE REFORMATION. + +The Culmbach Brothers, we observe, play a more important part in +that era than their seniors and chiefs of Brandenburg. These +Culmbachers, Margraf George aud Albert of Preussen at the head of +them, march valiantly forward in the Reformation business; +while KUR-BRANDENBURG, Joachim I., their senior Cousin, is talking +loud at Diets, galloping to Innspruck and the like, zealous on +the Conservative side; and Cardinal Albert, KUR-MAINZ, his +eloquent brother, is eager to make matters smooth and avoid +violent methods. + +The Reformation was the great Event of that Sixteenth Century; +according as a man did something in that, or did nothing and +obstructed doing, has he much claim to memory, or no claim, in +this age of ours. The more it becomes apparent that the +Reformation was the Event then transacting itself, was the thing +that Germany and Europe either did or refused to do, the more does +the historical significance of men attach itself to the phases of +that transaction. Accordingly we notice henceforth that the +memorable points of Brandenburg History, what of it sticks +naturally to the memory of a reader or student, connect themselves +of their own accord, almost all, with the History of the +Reformation. That has proved to be the Law of Nature in regard +to them, softly establishing itself; and it is ours to follow +that law. + +Brandenburg, not at first unanimously, by no means too +inconsiderately, but with overwhelming unanimity when the matter +became clear, was lucky enough to adopt the Reformation;--and +stands by it ever since in its ever-widening scope, amid such +difficulties as there might be. Brandenburg had felt somehow, that +it could do no other. And ever onwards through the times even of +our little Fritz and farther, if we will understand the word +"Reformation," Brandenburg so feels; being, at this day, to an +honorable degree, incapable of believing incredibilities, of +adopting solemn shams, or pretending to live on spiritual +moonshine. Which has been of uncountable advantage to Brandenburg: +--how could it fail? This was what we must call obeying the +audible voice of Heaven. To which same "voice," at that time, all +that did not give ear,--what has become of them since; have they +not signally had the penalties to pay! + +"Penalties:" quarrel not with the old phraseology, good reader; +attend rather to the thing it means. The word was heard of old, +with a right solemn meaning attached to it, from theological +pulpits and such places; and may still be heard there with a half- +meaning, or with no meaning, though it has rather become obsolete +to modern ears. But the THING should not have fallen obsolete; +the thing is a grand and solemn truth, expressive of a silent Law +of Heaven, which continues forever valid. The most untheological +of men may still assert the thing; and invite all men to notice +it, as a silent monition and prophecy in this Universe; to take +it, with more of awe than they are wont, as a correct reading of +the Will of the Eternal in respect of such matters; and, in their +modern sphere, to bear the same well in mind. For it is perfectly +certain, and may be seen with eyes in any quarter of Europe at +this day. + +Protestant or not Protestant? The question meant everywhere: +"Is there anything of nobleness in you, O Nation, or is there +nothing? Are there, in this Nation, enough of heroic men to +venture forward, and to battle for God's Truth VERSUS the Devil's +Falsehood, at the peril of life and more? Men who prefer death, +and all else, to living under Falsehood,--who, once for all, will +not live under Falsehood; but having drawn the sword against it +(the time being come for that rare and important step), throw +away the scabbard, and can say, in pious clearness, with their +whole soul: 'Come on, then! Life under Falsehood is not good for +me; and we will try it out now. Let it be to the death between +us, then!'" + +Once risen into this divine white-heat of temper, were it only for +a season and not again, the Nation is thenceforth considerable +through all its remaining history. What immensities of DROSS and +crypto-poisonous matter will it not burn out of itself in that +high temperature, in the course of a few years! Witness Cromwell +and his Puritans,--making England habitable even under the +Charles-Second terms for a couple of centuries more. Nations are +benefited, I believe, for ages, by being thrown once into divine +white-heat in this manner. And no Nation that has not had such +divine paroxysms at any time is apt to come to much. + +That was now, in this epoch, the English of "adopting +Protestantism;" and we need not wonder at the results which it has +had, and which the want of it has had. For the want of it is +literally the want of loyalty to the Maker of this Universe. +He who wants that, what else has he, or can he have? If you do +not, you Man or you Nation, love the Truth enough, but try to make +a Chapman-bargain with Truth, instead of giving yourself wholly +soul and body and life to her, Truth will not live with you, Truth +will depart from you; and only Logic, "Wit" (for example, "London +Wit"), Sophistry, Virtu, the AEsthetic Arts, and perhaps (for a +short while) Bookkeeping by Double Entry, will abide with you. +You will follow falsity, and think it truth, you unfortunate man +or nation. You will right surely, you for one, stumble to the +Devil; and are every day and hour, little as you imagine it, +making progress thither. + +Austria, Spain, Italy, France, Poland,--the offer of the +Reformation was made everywhere; and it is curious to see what has +become of the nations that would not hear it. In all countries +were some that accepted; but in many there were not enough, and +the rest, slowly or swiftly, with fatal difficult industry, +contrived to burn them out. Austria was once full of Protestants; +but the hide-bound Flemish-Spanish Kaiser-element presiding over +it, obstinately, for two centuries, kept saying, "No; we, with our +dull obstinate Cimburgis under-lip and lazy eyes, with our +ponderous Austrian depth of Habituality and indolence of +Intellect, we prefer steady Darkness to uncertain new Light!"--and +all men may see where Austria now is. Spain still more; +poor Spain, going about, at this time, making its +"PRONUNCIAMIENTOS;" all the factious attorneys in its little towns +assembling to PRONOUNCE virtually this, "The Old IS a lie, then;-- +good Heavens, after we so long tried hard, harder than any nation, +to think it a truth!--and if it be not Rights of Man, Red Republic +and Progress of the Species, we know not what now to believe or to +do; and are as a people stumbling on steep places, in the darkness +of midnight!"--They refused Truth when she came; and now Truth +knows nothing of them. All stars, and heavenly lights, have become +veiled to such men; they must now follow terrestrial IGNES FATUI, +and think them stars. That is the doom passed upon them. + +Italy too had its Protestants; but Italy killed them; managed to +extinguish Protestantism. Italy put up silently with Practical +Lies of all kinds; and, shrugging its shoulders, preferred going +into Dilettantism and the Fine Arts. The Italians, instead of the +sacred service of Fact and Performance, did Music, Painting, and +the like:--till even that has become impossible for them; and no +noble Nation, sunk from virtue to VIRTU, ever offered such a +spectacle before. He that will prefer Dilettantism in this world +for his outfit, shall have it; but all the gods will depart from +him; and manful veracity, earnestness of purpose, devout depth of +soul, shall no more be his. He can if he like make himself a +soprano, and sing for hire;--and probably that is the real goal +for him. + +But the sharpest-cut example is France;, to which we constantly +return for illustration. France, with its keen intellect, saw the +truth and saw the falsity, in those Protestant times; and, with +its ardor of generous impulse, was prone enough to adopt the +former. France was within a hair's-breadth of becoming actually +Protestant. But France saw good to massacre Protestantism, and end +it in the night of St. Bartholomew, 1572. The celestial Apparitor +of Heaven's Chancery, so we may speak, the Genius of Fact and +Veracity, had left his Writ of Summons; Writ was read;--and +replied to in this manner. The Genius of Fact and Veracity +accordingly withdrew;--was staved off, got kept away, for two +hundred years. But the writ of Summons had been served; +Heaven's Messenger could not stay away forever. No; he returned +duly; with accounts run up, on compound interest, to the actual +hour, in 1792;--and then, at last, there had to be a +"Protestantism;" and we know of what kind that was!-- + +Nations did not so understand it, nor did Brandenburg more than +the others; but the question of questions for them at that time, +decisive of their history for half a thousand years to come, was, +Will you obey the heavenly voice, or will you not? + + + +Chapter IX. + +KURFURST JOACHIM I. + +Brandenburg, in the matter of the Reformation, was at first--with +Albert of Mainz, Tetzel's friend, on the one side, and Pious +George of Anspach, "NIT KOP AB," on the other--certainly a divided +house. But, after the first act, it conspicuously ceased to be +divided; nay Kur-Brandenburg and Kur-Mainz themselves had known +tendencies to the Reformation, and were well aware that the Church +could not stand as it was. Nor did the cause want partisans in +Berlin, in Brandenburg,--hardly to be repressed from breaking into +flame, while Kurfurst Joachim was so prudent and conservative. +Of this loud Kurfurst Joachim I., here and there mentioned +already, let us now say a more express word. [1484, 1499, 1535: +birth, accession, death of Joachim.] + +Joachim I., Big John's son, hesitated hither and thither for some +time, trying if it would not do to follow the Kaiser Karl V.'s +lead; and at length, crossed in his temper perhaps by the speed +his friends were going at, declared formally against any farther +Reformation; and in his own family and country was strict upon the +point. He is a man, as I judge, by no means without a temper of +his own; very loud occasionally in the Diets and elsewhere;-- +reminds me a little of a certain King Friedrich Wilhelm, whom my +readers shall know by and by. A big, surly, rather bottle-nosed +man, with thick lips, abstruse wearied eyes, and no eyebrows to +speak of: not a beautiful man, when you cross him overmuch. + + +OF JOACHIM'S WIFE AND BROTHER-IN-LAW. + +His wife was a Danish Princess, Sister of poor Christian II., King +of that Country: dissolute Christian, who took up with a huckster- +woman's daughter,--"mother sold gingerbread," it would appear, +"at Bergen in Norway," where Christian was Viceroy; Christian made +acceptable love to the daughter, "DIVIKE (Dovekin, COLUMBINA)," +as he called her. Nay he made the gingerbread mother a kind of +prime-minister, said the angry public, justly scandalized at this +of the "Dovekin." He was married, meanwhile, to Karl V.'s own +Sister; but continued that other connection. [Here are the dates +of this poor Christian, in a lump. Born, 1481; King, 1513 (Dovekin +before); married, 1515; turned off, 1523; invades, taken prisoner, +1532; dies, 1559. Cousin, and then Cousin's Son, succeeded.] +He had rash notions, now for the Reformation, now against it, when +he got to be King; a very rash, unwise, explosive man. He made a +"Stockholm BLUTBAD" still famed in History (kind of open, ordered +or permitted, Massacre of eighty or a hundred of his chief enemies +there), "Bloodbath," so they name it; in Stockholm, where indeed +he was lawful King, and not without unlawful enemies, had a +bloodbath been the way to deal with them. Gustavus Vasa was a +young fellow there, who dexterously escaped this Bloodbath, and +afterwards came to something. + +In Denmark and Sweden, rash Christian made ever more enemies; +at length he was forced to run, and they chose another King or +successive pair of Kings. Christian fled to Kaiser Karl at +Brussels; complained to Kaiser Karl, his Brother-in-law,--whose +Sister he had not used well. Kaiser Karl listened to his +complaints, with hanging under-lip, with heavy, deep, +undecipherable eyes; evidently no help from Karl. + +Christian, after that, wandered about with inexecutable +speculations, and projects to recover his crown or crowns; +sheltering often with Kurfurst Joachim, who took a great deal of +trouble about him, first and last; or with the Elector of Saxony, +Friedrich the Wise, or after him, with Johann the Steadfast +("V. D. M. I. AE." whom we saw at Augsburg), who were his Mother's +Brothers, and beneficent men. He was in Saxony, on such terms, +coming and going, when a certain other Flight thither took place, +soon to be spoken of, which is the cause of our mentioning him +here.--In the end (A.D. 1532) he did get some force together, and +made sail to Norway; but could do no execution whatever there;--on +the contrary, was frozen in on the coast during winter; seized, +carried to Copenhagen, and packed into the "Castle of Sonderburg," +a grim sea-lodging on the shore of Schleswig,--prisoner for the +rest of his life, which lasted long enough. Six-and-twenty years +of prison; the first seventeen years of it strict and hard, almost +of the dungeon sort; the remainder, on his fairly abdicating, was +in another Castle, that of Callundborg in the Island of Zealand, +"with fine apartments and conveniences," and even "a good bouse of +liquor now and then," at discretion of the old soul. That was the +end of headlong Christian II.; he lasted in this manner to the age +of seventy-eight. [Kohler, <italic> Munzbelustigungen, <end +italic> xi. 47, 48; Holberg, <italic> Danemarckische Staats-und +Reichs-Historie <end italic> (Copenhagen, 1731, NOT the hig Book +by Holberg), p. 241; Buddaus, <italic> Allgemeines Historisches +Lexicon <end italic> (Leipzig, 1709),? Christianus II.] + +His Sister Elizabeth at Brandenburg is perhaps, in regard to +natural character, recognizably of the same kin as Christian; +but her behavior is far different from his. She too is zealous for +the Reformation; but she has a right to be so, and her notions +that way are steady; and she has hitherto, though in a difficult +position, done honor to her creed. Surly Joachim is difficult to +deal with; is very positive now that he has declared himself: +"In my house at least shall be nothing farther of that unblessed +stuff." Poor Lady, I see domestic difficulties very thick upon +her; nothing but division, the very children ranging themselves in +parties. She can pray to Heaven; she must do her wisest. + +She partook once, by some secret opportunity, of the "communion +under both kinds;" one of her Daughters noticed and knew; +told Father of it. Father knits up his thick lips; rolls his +abstruse dissatisfied eyes, in an ominous manner: the poor Lady, +probably possessed of an excitable imagination too, trembles for +herself. "It is thought, His DURCHLAUCHT will wall you up for +life, my Serene Lady; dark prison for life, which probably may not +be long!" These surmises were of no credibility: but there and +then the poor Lady, in a shiver of terror, decides that she must +run; goes off actually, one night ("Monday after the LAETARE," +which we find is 24th March) in the year 1528, [Pauli (ii. 584); +who cites Seckendorf, and this fraction of a Letter of Luther's, +to one "LINCKUS" or Lincke, written on the Friday following (28th +March, 1528):-- +"The Electress [MARGRAVINE he calls her] has fled from Berlin, by +help of her Brother the King of Denmark [poor Christian II.] to +our Prince [Johann the Steadfast], because her Elector had +determined to wall her up, as is reported, on account of the +Eucharist under both species. Pray for our Prince; <italic> the +pious man and affectionate soul gets a great deal of trouble with +his kindred." <end italic> Or thus in the Original:-- +<italic> "Marchionissa aufugit a Berlin, auxilio fratris, Regis +Daniae, ad nostrum Principem, quod Marchio statuerat eam immurare +(ut dicitur) propter Eucharistiam utriusque speciei. Ora pro +nostro Principe; <end italic> der fromme Mann und herzliche Mensch +ist doch ja wohl geplaget" (Seckendorf, <italic> Historia +Lutheranismi, <end italic> ii.? 62, No. 8, p. 122).] in a mean +vehicle under cloud of darkness, with only one maid and groom,-- +driving for life. That is very certain: she too is on flight +towards Saxony, to shelter with her uncle Kurfurst Johann,--unless +for reasons of state he scruple? On the dark road her vehicle +broke down; a spoke given way,--"Not a bit of rope to splice it," +said the improvident groom. "Take my lace-veil here," said the +poor Princess; and in this guise she got to Torgau (I could guess, +her poor Brother's lodging),--and thence, in short time, to the +fine Schloss of Lichtenberg hard by; Uncle Johann, to whom she had +zealously left an option of refusal, having as zealously permitted +and invited her to continue there. Which she did for many years. + +Nor did she get the least molestation from Husband Joachim;--who I +conjecture had intended, though a man of a certain temper, and +strict in his own house, something short of walling up for life:-- +poor Joachim withal! "However, since you are gone, Madam, go!" +Nor did he concern himself with Christian II. farther, but let him +lie in prison at his leisure. As for the Lady, he even let his +children visit her at Lichtenberg; Crypto-Protestants all; and, +among them, the repentant Daughter who had peached upon her. + +Poor Joachim, he makes a pious speech on his death-bed, solemnly +warning his Son against these new-fangled heresies; the Son being +already possessed of them in his heart. [Speech given in Rentsch, +pp. 484-439.] What could Father do more? Both Father and Son, +I suppose, were weeping. This was in 1535, this last scene; +things looking now more ominous than ever. Of Kurfurst Joachim +I will remember nothing farther, except that once, twenty-three +years before, he "held a Tourney in Neu-Ruppin," year 1612; +Tourney on the most magnificent scale, and in New-Ruppin, [Pauli, +ii. 466.] a place we shall know by and by. + +As to the Lady, she lived eighteen years in that fine Schloss of +Lichtenberg; saw her children as we said; and, silently or +otherwise, rejoiced in the creed they were getting. She saw +Luther's self sometimes; "had him several times to dinner;" +he would call at her Mansion, when his journeys lay that way. +She corresponded with him diligently; nay once, for a three +months, she herself went across and lodged with Dr. Luther and his +Kate; as a royal Lady might with a heroic Sage,--though the Sage's +income was only Twenty-four pounds sterling annually. There is no +doubt about that visit of three months; one thinks of it, as of +something human, something homely, ingenuous and pretty. +Nothing in surly Joachim's history is half so memorable to me, or +indeed memorable at all in the stage we are now come to. + +The Lady survived Joachim twenty years; of these she spent eleven +still at Lichtenberg, in no over-haste to return. However, her +Son, the new Elector, declaring for Protestantism, she at length +yielded to his invitations: came back (1546), and ended her days +at Berlin in a peaceable and venerable manner. Luckless Brother +Christian is lying under lock-and-key all this while; smuggling +out messages, and so on; like a voice from the land of Dreams or +of Nightmares, painful, impracticable, coming now and then. + + + +Chapter X. + +KURFURST JOACHIM II. + +Joachim II., Sixth Elector, no doubt after painful study, and +intricate silent consideration ever since his twelfth year when +Luther was first heard of over the world, came gradually, and +before his Father's death had already come, to the conclusion of +adopting the Confession of Augsburg, as the true Interpretation of +this Universe, so far as we had yet got; and did so, publicly, in +the year 1539. [Rentsch, p. 452.] To the great joy of Berlin and +the Brandenburg populations generally, who had been of a +Protestaut humor, hardly restrainable by Law, for some years past. +By this decision Joachim held fast, with a stout, weighty grasp; +nothing spasmodic in his way of handling the matter, and yet a +heartiness which is agreeable to see. He could not join in the +Schmalkaldic War; seeing, it is probable, small chance for such a +War, of many chiefs and little counsel; nor was he willing yet to +part from the Kaiser Karl V., who was otherwise very good to him. + +He had fought personally for this Kaiser, twice over, against the +Turks; first as Brandenburg Captain, learning his art; and +afterwards as Kaiser's Generalissimo, in 1542. He did no good upon +the Turks, on that latter occasion; as indeed what good was to be +done, in such a quagmire of futilities as Joachim's element there +was? "Too sumptuous in his dinners, too much wine withal!" hint +some calumniously. [Paulus Jovius, &c. See Pauli, iii. 70-73.] +"Hector of Germany!" say others. He tried some small prefatory +Siege or scalade of Pesth; could not do it; and came his ways home +again, as the best course. Pedant Chroniclers give him the name +HECTOR, "Joachim Hector,"--to match that of CICERO and that of +ACHILLES. A man of solid structure, this our Hector, in body and +mind: extensive cheeks, very large heavy-laden face; capable of +terrible bursts of anger, as his kind generally were. + +The Schmalkaldic War went to water, as the Germans phrase it: +Kur-Sachsen,--that is, Johann Friedrich the Magnanimous, Son of +Johann "V. D. M. I. AE.," and Nephew of Friedrich the Wise,--had +his sorrowfully valid reasons for the War; large force too, plenty +of zealous copartners, Philip of Hessen and others; but no +generalship, or not enough, for such a business. Big Army, as is +apt enough to happen, fell short of food; Kaiser Karl hung on the +outskirts, waiting confidently till it came to famine. Johann +Friedrich would attempt nothing decisive while provender lasted;-- +and having in the end, strangely enough, and somewhat deaf to +advice, divided his big Army into three separate parts;--Johann +Friedrich was himself, with one of those parts, surprised at +Muhlberg, on a Sunday when at church (24th April, 1547); and was +there beaten to sudden ruin, and even taken captive, like to have +his head cut off, by the triumphant angry Kaiser. Philip of +Hessen, somewhat wiser, was home to Marburg, safe with HIS part, +in the interim.--Elector Joachim II. of Brandenburg had good +reason to rejoice in his own cautious reluctances on this +occasion. However, he did now come valiantly up, hearing what +severities were in the wind. + +He pleaded earnestly, passionately, he and Cousin or already +"Elector" Moritz, [Pauli, iii. 102.]--who was just getting Johann +Friedrich's Electorship fished away from him out of these +troubles, [Kurfurst, 4th June, 1547.]--for Johann Friedrich of +Saxony's life, first of all. For Johann's life FIRST; this is a +thing not to be dispensed with, your Majesty, on any terms +whatever; a <italic> sine qua non, [end italic] this life to +Protestant Germany at large. To which the Kaiser indicated, +"He would see; not immediate death at any rate; we will see." +A life that could not and must not be taken in this manner: +this was the FIRST point. Then, SECONDLY, that Philip of Hessen, +now home again at Marburg,--not a bad or disloyal man, though +headlong, and with two wives,--might not be forfeited; but that +peace and pardon might be granted him, on his entire submission. +To which second point the Kaiser answered, "Yes, then, on his +submission." These were the two points. These pleadings went on at +Halle, where the Kaiser now lies, in triumphantly victorious +humor, in the early days of June, Year 1547. Johann Friedrich of +Saxony had been, by some Imperial Court-Council or other,-- +Spanish merely, I suppose,--doomed to die. Sentence was signified +to him while he sat at chess: "Can wait till we end the game," +thought Johann;--"PERGAMUS," said he to his comrade, "Let us go +on, then!" Sentence not to be executed till one see. + +With Philip of Hessen things had a more conclusive aspect. +Philip had accepted the terms procured for him; which had been +laboriously negotiated, brought to paper, and now wanted only the +sign-manual to them: <italic> "Ohne einigen Gefangniss <end +italic> (without any imprisonment)," one of the chief clauses. +And so Philip now came over to Halle; was met and welcomed by his +two friends, Joachim and Moritz, at Naumburg, a stage before +Halle;--clear now to make his submission, and beg pardon of the +Kaiser, according to bargain. On the morrow, 19th June, 1547, the +Papers were got signed. And next day, 20th June, Philip did, +according to bargain, openly beg pardon of the Kaiser, in his +Majesty's Hall of Audience (Town House of Halle, I suppose); +"knelt at the Kaiser's feet publicly on both knees, while his +Kanzler read the submission and entreaty, as agreed upon;" and, +alas, then the Kaiser said nothing at all to him.! Kaiser looked +haughtily, with impenetrable eyes and shelf-lip, over the head of +him; gave him no hand to kiss; and left poor Philip kneeling +there. An awkward position indeed;--which any German Painter that +there were, might make a Picture of, I have sometimes thought. +Picture of some real meaning, more or less,--if for symbolic. +Towers of Babel, medieval mythologies, and extensive smearings of +that kind, he could find leisure!--Philip having knelt a +reasonable time, and finding there was no help for it, rose in the +dread silence (some say, with too sturdy an expression of +countenance); and retired from the affair, having at least done +his part of it. + +The next practical thing was now supper, or as we of this age +should call it, dinner. Uncommonly select and high supper: +host the Duke of Alba; where Joachim, Elector Moritz, and another +high Official, the Bishop of Arras, were to welcome poor Philip +after his troubles. How the grand supper went, I do not hear: +possibly a little constrained; the Kaiser's strange silence +sitting on all men's thoughts; not to be spoken of in the present +company. At length the guests rose to go away. Philip's lodging is +with Moritz (who is his son-in-law, as learned readers know): +"You Philip, your lodging is mine; my lodging is yours,--I should +say! Cannot we ride together?"--"Philip is not permitted to go," +said Imperial Officiality; "Philip is to continue here, and we +fear go to prison."--"Prison?" cried they all: "OHNE EINIGEN +GEFANGNISS (without ANY imprisonment)!"--"As we read the words, +it is 'OHNE EWIGEN GEFANGNISS (without ETERNAL imprisonment),'" +answer the others. And so, according to popular tradition, which +has little or no credibility, though printed in many Books, their +false Secretary had actually modified it. + +"No intention of imprisoning his DURCHLAUCHT of Hessen FOREVER; +not forever!" answered they. And Kurfurst Joachim, in astonished +indignation, after some remonstrating and arguing, louder and +louder, which profited nothing, blazed out into a very whirlwind +of rage; drew his sword, it is whispered with a shudder,--drew his +sword, or was for drawing it, upon the Duke of Alba; and would +have done, God knows what, had not friends flung themselves +between, and got the Duke away, or him away. {Pauli, iii. 103.] +Other accounts bear, that it was upon the Bishop of Arras he drew +his sword; which is a somewhat different matter. Perhaps he drew +it on both; or on men and things in general;--for his indignation +knew no bounds. The heavy solid man; yet with a human heart in him +after all, and a Hohenzollern abhorrence of chicanery, capable of +rising to the transcendent pitch! His wars against the Turks, and +his other Hectorships, I will forget; but this, of a face so +extensive kindled all into divine fire for poor Philip's sake, +shall be memorable to me. + +Philip got out by and by, though with difficulty; the Kaiser +proving very stiff in the matter; and only yielding to obstinate +pressures, and the force of time and events. Philip got away; +and then how Johann Friedrich of Sachsen, after being led about +for five years, in the Kaiser's train, a condemned man, liable to +be executed any day, did likewise at last get away, with his head +safe and Electorate gone: these are known Historical events, which +we glanced at already, on another score. + +For, by and by, the Kaiser found tougher solicitation than this of +Joachim's. The Kaiser, by his high carriage in this and other such +matters, had at length kindled a new War round him; and he then +soon found himself reduced to extremities again; chased to the +Tyrol Mountains, and obliged to comply with many things. New War, +of quite other emphasis and management than the Schmalkaldic one; +managed by Elector Moritz and our poor friend Albert Alcibiades as +principals. A Kaiser chased into the mountains, capable of being +seized by a little spurring;--"Capture him?" said Albert. "I have +no cage big enough for such a bird!" answered Moritz; and the +Kaiser was let run. How he ran then towards Treaty of Passau +(1552), towards Siege of Metz and other sad conclusions, +"Abdication" the finale of them: these also are known phases in +the Reformation History, as hinted at above. + +Here at Halle, in the year 1547, the great Kaiser, with +Protestantism manacled at his feet, and many things going +prosperous, was at his culminating point. He published his +INTERIM (1548, What you troublesome Protestants are to do, in the +mean time, while the Council of Trent is sitting, and till it and +I decide for you); and in short, drove and reined-in the Reich +with a high hand and a sharp whip, for the time being. Troublesome +Protestants mostly rejected the Interim; Moritz and Alcibiades, +with France in the rear of them, took to arms in that way; took to +ransoming fat Bishoprics <italic> ("Verbum Diaboli Manet," we know +where!);--took to chasing Kaisers into the mountains;--and times +came soon round again. In all these latter broils Kurfurst Joachim +II., deeply interested, as we may fancy, strove to keep quiet; and +to prevail, by weight of influence and wise counsel, rather than +by fighting with his Kaiser. + +One sad little anecdote I recollect of Joachim: an Accident, which +happened in those Passau-Interim days, a year or two after that +drawing of the sword on Alba. Kurfurst Joachim unfortunately once +fell through a staircase, in that time; being, as I guess, a heavy +man. It was in the Castle of Grimnitz, one of his many Castles, +a spacious enough old Hunting-seat, the repairs of which had not +been well attended to. The good Herr, weighty of foot, was leading +down his Electress to dinner one day in this Schloss of Grimnitz; +broad stair climbs round a grand Hall, hung with stag-trophies, +groups of weapons, and the like hall-furniture. An unlucky timber +yielded; yawning chasm in the staircase; Joachim and his good +Princess sank by gravitation; Joachim to the floor with little +hurt; his poor Princess (horrible to think of), being next the +wall, came upon the stag-horns and boar-spears down below! [Pauli, +iii. 112.] The poor Lady's hurt was indescribable: she walked lame +all the rest of her clays; and Joachim, I hope (hope, but not with +confidence), [Ib. iii. 194.] loved her all the better for it. +This unfortunate old Schloss of Grimnitz, some thirty miles +northward of Berlin, was--by the Eighth Kurfurst, Joachim +Friedrich, Grandson of this one, with great renown to himself and +to it--converted into an Endowed High School: the famed <italic> +Joachimsthal Gymnasium, <end italic> still famed, though now under +some change of circumstances, and removed to Berlin itself. +[Nicolai, p. 725.] + +Joachim's first Wife, from whom descend the following Kurfursts, +was a daughter of that Duke George of Saxony, Luther's celebrated +friend, "If it rained Duke-Georges nine days running." + + +JOACHIM GETS CO-INFEFTMENT IN PREUSSEN. + +This second Wife, she of the accident at Grimnitz, was Hedwig, +King Sigismund of Poland's daughter; which connection, it is +thought, helped Joachim well in getting what they call the +MITBELEHNUNG of Preussen (for it was he that achieved this +point) from King Sigismund. + +MITBELEHNUNG (Co-infeftment) in Preussen;--whereby is solemnly +acknowledged the right of Joachim and his Posterity to the +reversion of Preussen, should the Culmbach Line of Duke Albert +happen to fail. It was a thing Joachim long strove for; till at +length his Father-in-law did, some twenty years hence, concede it +him. [Date, Lublin, 19th July, 1568: Pauli, iii. 177-179, 193; +Rentsch, p. 457; Stenzel, i. 341, 342.] Should Albert's Line fail, +then, the other Culmbachers get Preussen; should the Culmbachers +all fail, the Berlin Brandenburgers get it. The Culmbachers are at +this time rather scarce of heirs: poor Alcibiades died childless, +as we know, and Casimir's Line is extinct; Duke Albert himself has +left only one Son, who now succeeds in Preussen; still young, and +not of the best omens. Margraf George the Pious, he left only +George Friedrich; an excellent man, who is now prosperous in the +world, and wedded long since, but has no children. So that, +between Joachim's Line and Preussen there are only two +intermediate heirs;--and it was a thing eminently worth looking +after. Nor has it wanted that. And so Kurfurst Joachim, almost at +the end of his course, has now made sure of it. + + +JOACHIM MAKES "HERITAGE-BROTHERHOOD" WITH THE DUKE OF LIEGNITZ. + +Another feat of like nature Joachim II. had long ago achieved; +which likewise in the long-run proved important in his Family, and +in the History of the world: an "ERBVERBRUDERUNG," so they term +it, with the Duke of Liegnitz,--date 1537. ERBVERBRUDERUNG +("Heritage-brotherhood," meaning Covenant to succeed reciprocally +on Failure of Heirs to either) had in all times been a common +paction among German Princes well affected to each other. +Friedrich II., the then Duke of Liegnitz, we have transiently +seen, was related to the Family; he had been extremely helpful in +bringing his young friend Albert of Preussen's affairs to a good +issue,--whose Niece, withal, he had wedded:--in fact, he was a +close friend of this our Joachim's; and there had long been a +growing connection between the two Houses, by intermarriages and +good offices. + +The Dukes of Liegnitz were Sovereign-Princes, come of the old +Piasts of Poland; and had perfect right to enter into this +transaction of an ERBVERBRUDERUNG with whom they liked. +True, they had, above two hundred years before, in the days of +King Johann ICH-DIEN (A.D. 1329), voluntarily constituted +themselves Vassals of the Crown of Bohemia: [Pauli, iii. 22.] but +the right to dispose of their Lands as they pleased had, all +along, been carefully acknowledged, and saved entire. And, so late +as 1521, just sixteen years ago, the Bohemian King Vladislaus +the Last, our good Margraf George's friend, had expressly, in a +Deed still extant, confirmed to them, with all the emphasis and +amplitude that Law-Phraseology could bring to bear upon it, the +right to dispose of said Lands in any manner of way: "by written +testament, or by verbal on their death-bed, they can, as they see +wisest, give away, sell, pawn, dispose of, and exchange <italic> +(vergeben, verkaufen, versetzen, verschaffen, verwechseln) <end +italic> these said lands," to all lengths, and with all manner of +freedom. Which privilege had likewise been confirmed, twice over +(1522, 1524), by Ludwig the next King, Ludwig OHNE-HAUT, who +perished in the bogs of Mohacz, and ended the native Line of +Bohemian-Hungarian Kings. Nay, Ferdinand, King of the Romans, Karl +V.'s Brother, afterwards Kaiser, who absorbed that Bohemian Crown +among the others, had himself, by implication, sanctioned or +admitted the privilege, in 1529, only eight years ago. [Stenzel, +i. 323.] The right to make the ERBVERBRUDERUNG could not seem +doubtful to anybody. + +And made accordingly it was: signed, sealed, drawn out on the +proper parchments, 18th October, 1537; to the following clear +effect: "That if Duke Friedrich's Line should die out, all his +Liegnitz countries, Liegnitz, Brieg, Wohlau, should fall to the +Hohenzollern Brandenburgers: and that, if the Line of Hohenzollern +Brandenburg should first fail, then all and singular the Bohemian +Fiefs of Brandenburg (as Crossen, Zullichau and seven others there +enumerated) should fall to the House of Liegnitz." [Stenzel, i. +320.] It seemed a clear Paction, questionable by no mortal. +Double-marriage between the two Houses (eldest Son, on each side, +to suitable Princess on the other) was to follow: and did follow, +after some delays, 17th February, 1545. So that the matter seemed +now complete: secure on all points, and a matter of quiet +satisfaction to both the Houses and to their friends. + +But Ferdinand, King of the Romans, King of Bohemia and Hungary, +and coming to be Emperor one day, was not of that sentiment. +Ferdinand had once implicitly recognized the privilege, but +Ferdinand, now when he saw the privilege turned to use, and such a +territory as Liegnitz exposed to the possibility of falling into +inconvenient hands, explicitly took other thoughts: and gradually +determined to prohibit this ERBVERBRUDERUNG. The States of +Bohemia, accordingly, in 1544 (it is not doubtful, by Ferdinand's +suggestion), were moved to make inquiries as to this Heritage- +Fraternity of Liegnitz. [Ib. i. 322.] On which hint King Ferdinand +straightway informed the Duke of Liegnitz that the act was not +justifiable, and must be revoked. The Duke of Liegnitz, grieved to +the heart, had no means of resisting. Ferdinand, King of the +Romans, backed by Kaiser Karl, with the States of Bohemia barking +at his wink, were too strong for poor Duke Friedrich of Liegnitz. +Great corresponding between Berlin, Liegnitz, Prag ensued on this +matter: but the end was a summons to Duke Friedrich,--summons from +King Ferdinand in March, 1546, "To appear in the Imperial Hall +(KAISERHOF) at Breslau," and to submit that Deed of +EBVERBRUDERUNG to the examination of the States there. The States, +already up to the affair, soon finished their examination of it +(8th May, 1546). The deed was annihilated: and Friedrich was +ordered, furthermore, to produce proofs within six months that his +subjects too were absolved of all oaths or the like regarding it, +and that in fact the Transaction was entirely abolished and +reduced to zero. Friedrich complied, had to comply: very much +chagrined, he returned home: and died next year,--it is supposed, +of heartbreak from this business. He had yielded outwardly: but to +force only. In a Codicil appended to his last Will, some months +afterwards (which Will, written years ago, had treated the +ERBVERBRUDERUNG as a Fact settled), he indicates, as with his last +breath, that he considered the thing still valid, though overruled +by the hand of power. Let the reader mark this matter; for it will +assuredly become memorable, one day. + +The hand of power, namely, Ferdinand, King of the Romans, had +applied in like manner to Joachim of Brandenburg to surrender his +portion of the Deed, and annihilate on his side too this +ERBVERBRUDERUNG. But Joachim refused steadily, and all his +successors steadily, to give up this Bit of Written Parchment: +kept the same, among their precious documents, against some day +that might come (and I suppose it lies in the Archives of Berlin +even now): silently, or in words, asserting that the Deed of +Heritage-Brothership was good, and that though some hands might +have the power, no hand could have the right to abolish it on +those terms. + +How King Ferdinand permitted himself such a procedure? Ferdinand, +says one of his latest apologists in this matter, "considered the +privileges granted by his Predecessors, in respect to rights of +Sovereignty, as fallen extinct on their death." [Stenzel, i. 323.] +Which--if Reality and Fact would but likewise be so kind as +"consider" it so--was no doubt convenient for Ferdinand! + +Joachim was not so great with Ferdinand as he had been with +Charles the Imperial Brother. Joachim and Ferdinand had many +debates of this kind, some of them rather stiff. Jagerndorf, for +instance, and the Baireuth-Anspach confiscations, in George +Friedrich's minority. Ferdinand, now Kaiser, had snatched +Jagerndorf from poor young George Friedrich, son of excellent +Margraf George whom we knew: "Part of the spoils of Albert +Alcibiades," thought Ferdinand, "and a good windfall,"--though +young George Friedrich had merely been the Ward of Cousin +Alcibiades, and totally without concern in those political +explosions. "Excellent windfall," thought Ferdinand: and held his +grip. But Joachim, in his weighty steady way, intervened: +Joachim, emphatic in the Diets and elsewhere, made Ferdinand quit +grip, and produce Jagerndorf again. Jagerndorf and the rest had +all to be restored: and, except some filchings in the Jagerndorf +Appendages (Ratibor and Oppeln, "restored" only in semblance, and +at length juggled away altogether), [Rentsch, pp. 129, 130.] +everything came to its right owner again. Nor would Joachim rest +till Alcibiades's Territories too were all punctually given back, +to this same George Friedrich: to whom, by law and justice, they +belonged, In these points Joachim prevailed against a strong- +handed Kaiser, apt to "consider one's rights fallen extinct" now +and then. In this of Liegnitz all he could do was to keep the +Deed, in steady protest silent or vocal. + +But enough now of Joachim Hector, Sixth Kurfurst, and of his +workings and his strugglings. He walked through this world, +treading as softly as might be, yet with a strong weighty step: +rending the jungle steadily asunder; well seeing whither he was +bound. Rather an expensive Herr: built a good deal, completion of +the Schloss at Berlin one example: [Nicolai, p. 82.] and was not +otherwise afraid of outlay, in the Reich's Politics, or in what +seemed needful: If there is a harvest ahead, even a distant one, +it is poor thrift to be stingy of your seed-corn! + +Joachim was always a conspicuous Public Man, a busy Politician in +the Reich: stanch to his kindred, and by no means blind to himself +or his own interests. Stanch also, we must grant, and ever active, +though generally in a cautious, weighty, never in a rash swift +way, to the great Cause of Protestantism, and to all good causes. +He was himself a solemnly devout man; deep awe-stricken reverence +dwelling in his view of this Universe. Most serious, though with a +jocose dialect commonly, having a cheerful wit in speaking to men. +Luther's Books he called his SEELENSCHATZ (Soul's-treasure): +Luther and the Bible were his chief reading. Fond of profane +learning too, and of the useful or ornamental Arts; given to +music, and "would himself sing aloud" when he had a melodious +leisure-hour. Excellent old gentleman: he died, rather suddenly, +but with much nobleness, 3d January, 1571; age sixty-six. +Old Rentsch's account of this event is still worth reading: +[Rentsch, p. 458.] Joachim's death-scene has a mild pious beauty +which does not depend on creed. + +He had a Brother too, not a little occupied with Politics, and +always on the good side: a wise pious man, whose fame was in all +the churches: "Johann of Custrin," called also "Johann THE WISE," +who busied himself zealously in Protestant matters, second only in +piety and zeal to his Cousin, Margraf George the Pious; and was +not so held back by official considerations as his Brother the +Elector now and then. Johann of Custrin is a very famous man in +the old Books: Johann was the first that fortified Custrin: built +himself an illustrious Schloss, and "roofed it with copper," in +Custrin (which is a place we shall be well acquainted with by and +by); and lived there, with the Neumark for apanage, a true man's +life;--mostly with a good deal of business, warlike and other, on +his hands; with good Books, good Deeds, and occasionally good Men, +coming to enliven it,--according to the terms then given. + + + +Chapter XI. + +SEVENTH KURFURST, JOHANN GEORGE. + +Kaiser Karl, we said, was very good to Joachim; who always strove, +sometimes with a stretch upon his very conscience, to keep well +with the Kaiser. The Kaiser took Joachim's young Prince along with +him to those Schmalkaldic Wars (not the comfortable side for +Joachim's conscience, but the safe side for an anxious Father); +Kaiser made a Knight of this young Prince, on one occasion of +distinction; he wrote often to Papa about him, what a promising +young hero he was,--seems really to have liked the young man. +It was Johann George, Elector afterwards, Seventh Elector.--This +little incident is known to me on evidence. [Rentsch, p. 465.] +A small thing that certainly befell, at the siege of Wittenberg +(A.D. 1547), during those Philip-of-Hessen Negotiations, three +hundred and odd years ago. + +The Schmalkaldic War having come all to nothing, the Saxon Elector +sitting captive with sword overhead in the way we saw, Saxon +Wittenberg was besieged, and the Kaiser was in great hurry to get +it. Kaiser in person, and young Johann George for sole attendant, +rode round the place one day, to take a view of the works, and +judge how soon, or whether ever, it could be compelled to give in. +Gunners noticed them from the battlements; gunners Saxon- +Protestant most likely, and in just gloom at the perils and +indignities now lying on their pious Kurfurst Johann Friedrich the +Magnanimous. "Lo, you! Kaiser's self riding yonder, and one of his +silk JUNKERS. Suppose we gave the Kaiser's self a shot, then?" +said the gunner, or thought: "It might help a better man from his +life-perils, if such shot did--!" In fact the gun flashed off, +with due outburst, and almost with due effect. The ball struck the +ground among the very horses' feet of the two riders; so that they +were thrown, or nearly so, and covered from sight with a cloud of +earth and sand;--and the gunners thought, for some instants, an +unjust, obstinate Kaiser's life was gone; and a pious Elector's +saved. But it proved not so. Kaiser Karl and Johann George both +emerged, in a minute or two, little the worse;--Kaiser Karl +perhaps blushing somewhat, and flurried this time, I think, in the +impenetrable eyes; and his Cimburgis lip closed for the moment;-- +and galloped out of shot-range. "I never forget this little +incident," exclaims Smelfungus: "It is one of the few times I can +get, after all my reading about that surprising Karl V., I do not +say the least understanding or practical conception of him and his +character and his affairs, but the least ocular view or +imagination of him, as a fact among facts!" Which is unlucky for +Smelfungus.--Johann George, still more emphatically, never to the +end of HIS life forgot this incident. And indeed it must be owned, +had the shot taken effect as intended, the whole course of human +things would have been surprisingly altered;--and for one thing, +neither FREDERICH THE GREAT, nor the present HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH, +had ever risen above ground, or troubled an enlightened public +or me! + +Of Johann George, this Seventh Elector, [1525; 1571-1598.] who +proved a good Governor, and carried on the Family Affairs in the +old style of slow steady success, I will remember nothing more, +except that he had the surprising number of Three-and-Twenty +children; one of them posthumous, though he died at the age of +seventy-three.-- + +He is Founder of the New Culmbach line: two sons of these twenty- +three children he settled, one in Baireuth, the other in Anspach; +from whom come all the subsequent Heads of that Principality, till +the last of them died in Hammersmith in 1806, as above said. +[Rentsch, p. 475 (CHRISTIAN to Baireuth; JOACHIM ERNST to +Anspach);--8ee Genealogical Diagram, inra, p. 309a.] He was a +prudent, thrifty Herr; no mistresses, no luxuries allowed; at the +sight of a new-fashioned coat, he would fly out on an unhappy +youth, and pack him from his presence. Very strict in point of +justice: a peasant once appealing to him, in one of his +inspection-journeys through the country, "Grant me justice, +DURCHLAUCHT, against So-and-so; I am your highness's born +subject!"--"Thou shouldst have it, man, wert thou a born Turk!" +answered Johann George.--There is something anxious, grave and, as +it were, surprised in the look of this good Herr. He made the GERA +BOND above spoken of;--founded the Younger Culmbach Line, with +that important Law of Primogeniture strictly superadded. +A conspicuous thrift, veracity, modest solidity, looks through the +conduct of this Herr;--a determined Protestant he too, as indeed +all the following were and are. [Rentsch, pp. 470, 471.] + +Of Joachim Friedrich, his eldest Son, who at one time was +Archbishop of Magdeburg,--called home from the wars to fill that +valuable Heirloom, which had suddenly fallen vacant by an Uncle's +death, and keep it warm;--and who afterwards, in due course, +carried on a LOBLICHE REGIERUNG of the old style and physiognomy, +as Eighth Kurfurst, from his fiftieth to his sixtieth year +(1598-1608): [Born, 1547; Magdehurg, 1566-1598 (when his Third Son +got it,--very unlucky in the Thirty-Years War afterwards).] of him +we already noticed the fine "JOACHIMS-thal Gymnasium," or +Foundation for learned purposes, in the old Schloss of Grimnitz, +where his serene Grandmother got lamed; and will notice nothing +farther, in this place, except his very great anxiety to profit by +the Prussian MITBELEHNUNG,--that Co-infeftment in Preussen, +achieved by his Grandfather Joachim II., which was now about +coming to its full maturity. Joachim Friedrich had already married +his eldest Prince to the daughter of Albert Friedrich, Second +Duke of Preussen, who it was by this time evident would be the +last Duke there of his Line. Joachim Friedrich, having himself +fallen a widower, did next year, though now counting fifty-six-- +But it will be better if we explain first, a little, how matters +now stood with Preussen. + + + +Chapter XII. + +OF ALBERT FRIEDRICH, THE SECOND DUKE OF PREUSSEN. + +Duke Albert died in 1568, laden with years, and in his latter time +greatly broken down by other troubles. His Prussian RATHS +(Councillors) were disobedient, his Osianders and Lutheran- +Calvinist Theologians were all in fire and flame against each +other: the poor old man, with the best dispositions, but without +power to realize them, had much to do and to suffer. Pious, just +and honorable, intending the best; but losing his memory, and +incapable of business, as he now complained. In his sixtieth year +he had married a second time, a young Brunswick Princess, with +whose foolish Brother, Eric, he had much trouble; and who at last +herself took so ill with the insolence and violence of these +intrusive Councillors and Theologians, that the household-life she +led beside her old Husband and them became intolerable to her; +and she withdrew to another residence,--a little Hunting-seat at +Neuhausen, half a dozen miles from Konigsberg;--and there, or at +Labiau still farther off, lived mostly, in a separate condition, +for the rest of her life. Separate for life:--nevertheless they +happened to die on the same day; 20th March, 1568, they were +simultaneously delivered from their troubles in this world. +[Hubner, t. 181; Stenzel, i. 342.] + +Albert left one Son; the second child of this last Wife: his one +child by the former Wife, a daughter now of good years, was +married to the Duke of Mecklenburg. Son's name was Albert +Friedrich; age, at his Father's death, fifteen. A promising young +Prince, but of sensitive abstruse temper;--held under heavy +tutelage by his Raths and Theologians; and spurting up against +them, in explosive rebellion, from time to time. He now (1568) +was to be sovereign Duke of Preussen, and the one representative +of the Culmbach Line in that fine Territory; Margraf George +Friedrich of Anspach, the only other Culmbacher, being childless, +though wedded. + +We need not doubt, the Brandenburg House--old Kurfurst Joachim II. +still alive, and thrifty Johann George the Heir-Apparent--kept a +watchful eye on those emergencies. But it was difficult to +interfere directly; the native Prussian Raths were very jealous, +and Poland itself was a ticklish Sovereignty to deal with. +Albert Friedrich being still a Minor, the Polish King, Sigismund, +proposed to undertake the guardianship of him, as became a +superior lord to a subject vassal on such an occasion. But the +Prussian Raths assured his Majesty, "Their young Prince was of +such a lively intellect, he was perfectly fit to conduct the +affairs of the Government," especially with such a Body of expert +Councillors to help him, "and might be at once declared of age." +Which was accordingly the course followed; Poland caring little +for it; Brandenburg digesting the arrangement as it could. +And thus it continued for some years, even under new difficulties +that arose; the official Clique of Raths being the real Government +of the Country; and poor young Albert Friedrich bursting out +occasionally into tears against them, occasionally into futile +humors of a fiery nature. Osiander-Theology, and the battle of +the 'DOXIES, ran very high; nor was Prussian Officiality a +beautiful thing. + +These Prussian Raths, and the Prussian RITTERSCHAFT generally +(Knightage, Land-Aristocracy), which had its STANDE (States: +or meetings of Parliament after a sort), were all along of a +mutinous, contumacious humor. The idea had got into their minds, +That they were by birth what the ancient Ritters by election had +been; entitled, fit or not fit, to share the Government promotions +among them: "The Duke is hereditary in his office; why not we? +All Offices, are they not, by nature, ours to share among us?" +The Duke's notion, again, was to have the work of his Offices +effectually done; small matter by whom: the Ritters looked less to +that side of the question;--regarded any "Foreigner" (German- +Anspacher, or other Non-Prussian), whatever his merit, as an +intruder, usurper, or kind of thief, when seen in office. +Their contentions, contumacies and pretensions were accordingly +manifold. They had dreams of an "Aristocratic Republic, with the +Sovereign reduced to zero," like what their Polish neighbors grew +to. They had various dreams; and individuals among them broke out, +from time to time, into high acts of insolence and mutiny. It took +a hundred and fifty years of Brandenbufg horse-breaking, sometimes +with sharp manipulation and a potent curb-bit, to dispossess them +of that notion, and make them go steadily in harness. Which also, +however, was at last got done by the Hohenzollerns. + + +OF DUKE ALBERT FRIEDRICH'S MARRIAGE: WHO HIS WIFE WAS, +AND WHAT HER POSSIBLE DOWRY. + +In a year or two, there came to be question of the marrying of +young Duke Albert Friedrich. After due consultation, the Princess +fixed upon was Maria Eleonora, eldest Daughter of the then Duke of +Cleve: to him a proper Embassy was sent with that object; and came +back with Yes for answer. Duke of Cleve, at that time, was +Wilhelm, called "the Rich" in History-Books; a Sovereign of some +extent in those lower Rhine countries. Whom I can connect with the +English reader's memory in no readier way than by the fact, That +he was younger brother, one year younger, of a certain "Anne of +Cleves;"--a large fat Lady, who was rather scurvily used in this +country; being called, by Henry VIII. and us, a "great Flanders +mare," unsuitable for espousal with a King of delicate feelings! +This Anne of Cleves, who took matters quietly and lived on her +pension, when rejected by King Henry, was Aunt of the young Lady +now in question for Preussen. She was still alive here in England, +pleasantly quiet, "at Burley on the Hill," till Maria Eleonora was +seven years old;--who possibly enough still reads in her memory +some fading vestige of new black frocks or trimmings, and brief +court-mourning, on the death of poor Aunt Anne over seas.-- +Another Aunt is more honorably distinguished; Sibylla, Wife of our +noble Saxon Elector, Johann Friedrich the Magnanimous, who lost +his Electorate and almost his Life for religion's sake, as we have +seen; by whom, in his perils and distresses, Sibylla stood always, +like a very true and noble Wife. + +Duke Wilhelm himself was a man of considerable mark in his day. +His Duchy of Cleve included not only Cleve-Proper, but Julich +(JULIERS), Berg, which latter pair of Duchies were a better thing +than Cleve-Proper:--Julich, Berg and various other small +Principalities, which, gradually agglomerating by marriage, +heritage and the chance of events in successive centuries, had at +length come all into Wilhelm's hands; so that he got the name of +Wilhelm the Rich among his contemporaries. He seems to have been +of a headlong, blustery, uncertain disposition; much tossed about +in the controversies of his day. At one time he was a Protestant +declared; not without reasons of various kinds. The Duchy of +Geldern (what we call GUELDERS) had fallen to him, by express +bequest of the last Owner, whose Line was out; and Wilhelm took +possession. But the Kaiser Karl V. quite refused to let him keep +possession. Whereupon Wilhelm had joined with the French (it was +in the Moritz-Alcibiades time); had declared war, and taken other +high measures: but it came to nothing, or to less. The end was, +Wilhelm had to "come upon his knees" before the Kaiser, and beg +forgiveness; quite renouncing Geldern, which accordingly has gone +its own different road ever since. Wilhelm was zealously +Protestant in those days; as his people are, and as he still is, +at the period we treat of. But he went into Papistry, not long +after; and made other sudden turns and misventures: to all +appearance, rather an abrupt, blustery, uncertain Herr. It is to +him that Albert Friedrich, the young Duke of Preussen, guided by +his Council, now (Year 1572) sends an Embassy, demanding his +eldest Daughter, Maria Eleonora, to wife. + +Duke Wilhelm answered Yea; "sent a Counter-Embassy," with whatever +else was necessary; and in due time the young Bride, with her +Father, set out towards Preussen, such being the arrangement, +there to complete the matter. They had got as far as "Berlin, +warmly welcomed by the Kurfurst Johann George; when, from +Konigsberg, a sad message reached them: namely, that the young +Duke had suddenly been seized with an invincible depression and +overclouding of mind, not quite to be characterized by the name of +madness, but still less by that of perfect sanity. His eagerness +to see his Bride was the same as formerly; but his spiritual +health was in the questionable state described. The young Lady +paused for a little, in such mood as we may fancy. She had already +lost two offers, Bridegrooms snatched away by death, says Pauli; +[Pauli, iv. 512.] and thought it might be ominous to refuse the +third. So she decided to go on; dashed aside her father's doubts; +sent her unhealthy Bridegroom "a flower-garland as love-token," +who duly responded; and Father Wilhelm and she proceeded, as if +nothing were wrong. The spiritual state of the Prince, she found, +had not been exaggerated to her. His humors and ways were strange, +questionable; other than one could have wished. Such as he was, +however, she wedded him on the appointed terms;--hoping probably +for a recovery, which never came. + +The case of Albert's malady is to this day dim; and strange tales +are current as to the origin of it, which the curious in +Physiology may consult; they are not fit for reporting here. +[Ib. iv. 476.] It seems to have consisted in an overclouding, +rather than a total ruin of the mind. Incurable depression there +was; gloomy torpor alternating with fits of vehement activity or +suffering; great discontinuity at all times:--evident unfitness +for business. It was long hoped he might recover. And Doctors in +Divinity and in Medicine undertook him: Theologians, Exorcists, +Physicians, Quacks; but no cure came of it, nothing but mutual +condemnations, violences and even execrations, from the said +Doctors and their respective Official patrons, lay and clerical. +Must have been such a sceue for a young Wife as has seldom +occurred, in romance or reality! Children continued to be born; +daughter after daughter; but no son that lived. + + + MARGRAF GEORGE FRIEDRICH COMES TO PREUSSEN TO ADMINISTER. + +After five years' space, in 1578, [Pauli, iv. 476, 481, 482.] cure +being now hopeless, and the very Council admitting that the Duke +was incapable of business,--George Friedrich of Anspach-Baireuth +came into the country to take charge of him; having already, he +and the other Brandenburgers, negotiated the matter with the King +of Poland, in whose power it mostly lay. + +George Friedrich was by no means welcome to the Prussian Council, +nor to the Wife, nor to the Landed Aristocracy;--other than +welcome, for reasons we can guess. But he proved, in the judgment +of all fair witnesses, an excellent Governor; and, for six-and- +twenty years, administered the country with great and lasting +advantage to it. His Portraits represent to us a large ponderous +figure of a man, very fat in his latter years; with an air of +honest sense, dignity, composed solidity;--very fit for the task +now on hand. + +He resolutely, though in mild form, smoothed down the flaming +fires of his Clergy; commanding now this controversy and then that +other controversy <italic> ("de concreto et de inconcreto," <end +italic> or whatever they were) to fall strictly silent; to carry +themselves on by thought and meditation merely, and without words. +He tamed the mutinous Aristocracy, the mutinous Burgermeisters, +Town-Council of Konigsberg, whatever mutiny there was. He drained +bogs, says old Rentsch; he felled woods, made roads, established +inns. Prussia was well governed till George's death; which +happened in the year 1603. [Rentsch, pp. 666-688.] Anspach, in the +mean while, Anspach, Baireuth and Jagerndorf, which were latterly +all his, he had governed by deputy; no need of visiting those +quiet countries, except for purposes of kindly recreation, or for +a swift general supervision, now and then. By all accounts, an +excellent, steadfast, wise and just man, this fat George +Friedrich; worthy of the Father that produced him <italic> ("Nit +Kop ab, lover Forst, nit Kop ab!"),---<end italic> and that is +saying much. + +By his death without children much territory fell home to the +Elder House; to be disposed of as was settled in the GERA BOND +five years before. Anspach and Baireuth went to two Brothers of +the now Elector, Kurfurst Joachim Friedrich, sons of Johann George +of blessed memory: founders, they, of the "New Line," of whom we +know. Jagerndorf the Elector himself got; and he, not long after, +settled it on one of his own sons, a new Johann George, who at +that time was fallen rather landless and out of a career: "Johann +George of Jagerndorf," so called thenceforth: whose history will +concern us by and by. Preussen was to be incorporated with the +Electorate,--were possession of it once had. But that is a +ticklish point; still ticklish in spite of rights, and liable to +perverse accidents that may arise. + +Joachim Friedrich, as we intimated once, was not wanting to +himself on this occasion. But the affair was full of intricacies; +a very wasps'-nest of angry humors; and required to be handled +with delicacy, though with force and decision. Joachim Friedrich's +eldest Son, Johann Sigismund, Electoral Prince of Brandenburg, had +already, in 1594, married one of Albert Friedrich the +hypochondriac Duke of Preussen's daughters; and there was a +promising family of children; no lack of children. Nevertheless +prudent Joachim Friedrich himself, now a widower, age towards +sixty, did farther, in the present emergency, marry another of +these Princesses, a younger Sister of his Son's Wife,--seven +months after George Friedrich's death,--to make assurance doubly +sure, A man not to be balked, if he can help it. By virtue of +excellent management,--Duchess, Prussian STANDE (States), and +Polish Crown, needing all to be oontented,--Joachim Friedrich, +with gentle strong pressure, did furthermore squeeze his way into +the actual Guardianship of Preussen and the imbecile Duke, which +was his by right. This latter feat he achieved in the course of +another year (11th March, 1605); [Stenzel, i. 358.] and thereby +fairly got hold of Preussen; which he grasped, "knuckles-white," +as we may say; and which his descendants have never quitted since. + +Good management was very necessary. The thing was difficult;--and +also was of more importance than we yet altogether see. +Not Preussen only, but a still better country, the Duchy of Cleve, +Cleve-Julich, Duke Wilhelm's Heritage down in the Rhineland,-- +Heritage turning out now to be of right his eldest Daughter's +here, and likely now to drop soon,--is involved in the thing. +This first crisis, of getting into the Prussian Administratorship, +fallen vacant, our vigilant Kurfurst Joachim Friedrich has +successfully managed; and he holds his grip, knuckles-white. +Before long, a second crisis comes; where also he will have to +grasp decisively in,--he, or those that stand for him, and whose +knuckles can still hold, But that may go to a new Chapter. + + + +Chapter XIII. + +NINTH KURFURST, JOHANN SIGISMUND. + +In the summer of 1608 (23d May, 1608) Johann Sigismund's (and his +Father's) Mother-in-law, the poor Wife of the poor imbecile Duke +of Preussen, died. [Maria Eleonora, Duke Wilhelm of Cleve's eldest +Daughter: 1550, 1573, 1608 (Hubner, t. 286).] Upon which Johann +Sigismund, Heir-Apparent of Brandenburg and its expectancies, was +instantly despatched from Berlin, to gather up the threads cut +loose by that event, and see that the matter took no damage. +On the road thither news reached him that his own Father, old +Joachim Friedrich, was dead (18th July, 1608); that he himself was +now Kurfurst; [1572, 1608-1619.] and that numerous threads were +loose at both ends of his affairs. + +The "young man"--not now so young, being full thirty-five and of +fair experience--was in difficulty, under these overwhelming +tidings; and puzzled, for a little, whether to advance or to +return. He decided to advance, and settle Prussian matters, +where the peril and the risk were; Brandenburg business he could +do by rescripts. + +His difficulties in Preussen, and at the Polish Court, were in +fact immense. But after a space of eight or nine months, he did, +by excellent management, not sparing money judiciously laid out on +individuals, arrive at some adjustment, better or worse, and got +Preussen in hand; [29th April, 1609. Stenzel, i. 370.] legal +Administrator of the imbecile Duke, as his Father had been. +After which he had to run for Brandenburg, without loss of time: +great matters being there in the wind. Nothing wrong in +Brandenburg, indeed; but the great Cleve Heritage is dropping, has +dropped; over in Cleve, an immense expectancy is now come to the +point of deciding itself. + + + + +TAKE IN MAPS-------------------------------------------- + + + + + +HOW THE CLEVE HERITAGE DROPPED, AND MANY SPRANG TO PICK IT UP. + +Wilhelm of Cleve, the explosive Duke, whom we saw at Berlin and +Konigsberg at the wedding of this poor Lady now deceased, had in +the marriage-contract, as he did in all subsequent contracts and +deeds of like nature, announced a Settlement of his Estates, which +was now become of the highest moment for Johann Sigismund. +The Country at that time called Duchy of Cleve, consisted, as we +said above, not only of Cleve-Proper, but of two other still +better Duchies, Julich and Berg; then of the GRAFSCHAFT (County) +of Ravensburg, County of Mark, Lordship of---In fact it was a +multifarious agglomerate of many little countries, gathered by +marriage, heritage and luck, in the course of centuries, and now +united in the hand of this Duke Wilhelm. It amounted perhaps to +two Yorkshires in extent. [See Busching, <italic> Erdbeschreibung, +<end italic> v. 642-734.] A naturally opulent Country, of fertile +meadows, shipping capabilities, metalliferous hills; and, at this +time, in consequence of the Dutch-Spanish War, and the multitude +of Protestant refugees, it was getting filled with ingenious +industries; and rising to be, what it still is, the busiest +quarter of Germany. A Country lowing with kine; the hum of the +flax-spindle heard in its cottages, in those old days,--"much of +the linen called Hollands is made in Julich, and only bleached, +stamped and sold, by the Dutch," says Busching. A Country, in our +days, which is shrouded at short intervals with the due canopy of +coal-smoke, and loud with sounds of the anvil and the loom. + +This Duchy of Cleve, all this fine agglomerate of Duchies, Duke +Wilhelm settled, were to be inherited in a piece, by his eldest +(or indeed, as it soon proved, his only) Son and the heirs of that +Son, if there were any. Failing heirs of that only Son, then the +entire Duchy of Cleve was to go to Maria Eleonora as eldest +Daughter, now marrying to Friedrich Albert, Duke of Prussia, and +to their heirs lawfully begotten: heirs female, if there happened +to be no male. The other Sisters, of whom there were three, were +none of them to have the least pretence to inherit Cleve or any +part of it. On the contrary, they were, in such event, of the +eldest Daughter or her heirs coming to inherit Cleve, to have each +of them a sum of ready money paid ["200,000 GOLDGULDEN," about +100,000 pounds; Pauli, vi. 542; iii. 504.] by the said inheritrix +of Cleve or her heirs; and on receiving that, were to consider +their claims entirely fulfilled, and to cease thinking of Cleve +for the future. + +This Settlement, by express privilege of Kaiser Karl V., nay of +Kaiser Maximilian before him, and the Laws of the Reich, Duke +Wilhelm doubted not he was entitled to make; and this Settlement +he made; his Lawyers writing down the terms, in their wearisome +way, perhaps six times over; and struggling by all methods to +guard against the least misunderstanding. Cleve with all its +appurtenances, Julich, Berg and the rest, goes to the eldest +Sister and her heirs, male or female: If she have no heirs, male +or female, then, but not till then, the next Sister steps into her +shoes in that matter: but if she have, then, we repeat for the +sixth and last time, no Sister or Sister's Representative has the +least word to say to it, but takes her 100,000 pounds, and ceases +thinking of Cleve. + +The other three Sisters were all gradually married;--one of them +to Pfalz-Neuburg, an eminent Prince, in the Bavarian region called +the OBER-PFALZ (Upper Palatinate), who, or at least whose eldest +Son, is much worth mentioning and remembering by us here;--and, in +all these marriage-contracts, Wilhelm and his Lawyers expressed +themselves to the like effect, and in the like elaborate sixfold +manner: so that Wilhelm and they thought there could nowhere in +the world be any doubt about it. + +Shortly after signing the last of these marriage-contracts, or +perhaps it was in the course of signing them, Duke Wilhelm had a +stroke of palsy. He had, before that, gone into Papistry again, +poor man. The truth is, he had repeated strokes; and being an +abrupt, explosive Herr, he at last quite yielded to palsy; +and sank slowly out of the world, in a cloud of semi-insanity, +which lasted almost twenty years. [Died 25th January, 1592, age +76.] Duke Wilhelm did leave a Son, Johann Wilhelm, who succeeded +him as Duke. But this Son also proved explosive; went half and at +length wholly insane. Jesuit Priests, and their intrigues to bring +back a Protestant country to the bosom of the Church, wrapped the +poor man, all his days, as in a burning Nessus'-Shirt; and he did +little but mischief in the world. He married, had no children; +he accused his innocent Wife, the Jesuits and he, of infidelity. +Got her judged, not properly sentenced; and then strangled her, he +and they, in her bed:--"Jacobea of Baden (1597);" a thrice-tragic +history. Then he married again; Jesuits being extremely anxious +for an Orthodox heir: but again there came no heir; there came +only new blazings of the Nessus'-Shirt. In fine, the poor man died +(Spring, 1609), and made the world rid of him. Died 25th March, +1609; that is the precise date;--about a month before our new +Elector, Johann Sigismund, got his affairs winded up at the Polish +Court, and came galloping home in such haste. There was pressing +need of him in the Cleve regions. + +For the painful exactitude of Duke Wilhelm and his Lawyers has +profited little; and there are claimants on claimants rising for +that valuable Cleve Country. As indeed Johann Sigismund had +anticipated, and been warned from all quarters, to expect. +For months past, he has had his faculties bent, with lynx-eyed +attention, on that scene of things; doubly and trebly impatient to +get Preussen soldered up, ever since this other matter came to the +bursting-point. What could be done by the utmost vigilance of his +Deputies, he had done. It was the 25th of March when the mad Duke +died: on the 4th of April, Johann Sigismund's Deputy, attended by +a Notary to record the act, "fixed up the Brandenburg Arms on the +Government-House of Cleve;" [Pauli, vi. 566.] on the 5th, they did +the same at Dusseldorf; on the following days, at Julich and the +other Towns. But already on the 5th, they had hardly got done at +Dusseldorf, when there appeared--young Wolfgang Wilhelm, Heir- +Apparent of that eminent Pfalz-Neuburg, he in person, to put up +the Pfalz-Neuburg Arms! Pfalz-Neuburg, who married the Second +Daughter, he is actually claiming, then;--the whole, or part? +Both are sensible that possession is nine points in law. + +Pfalz-Neuburg's claim was for the whole Duchy. "All my serene +Mother's!" cried the young Heir of Pfalz-Neuburg: "Properly all +mine!" cried he. "Is not she NEAREST of kin? Second Daughter, +true; but the Daughter; not Daughter OF a Daughter, as you are (as +your Serene Electress is), O DURCHLAUCHT of Brandenburg:-- +consider, besides, you are female, I am male!" That was Pfalz- +Neuburg's logic: none of the best, I think, in forensic genealogy. +His tenth point was perhaps rather weak; but he had possession, +co-possession, and the nine points good. The other Two Sisters, by +their Sons or Husbands, claimed likewise; but not the whole: +"Divide it," said they: "that surely is the real meaning of +Karl V.'s Deed of Privilege to make such a Testament. Divide it +among the Four Daughters or their representatives, and let us all +have shares!" + +Nor were these four claimants by any means all. The Saxon Princes +next claimed; two sets of Saxon Princes. First the minor set, +Gotha-Weimar and the rest, the Ernestine Line so called; +representatives of Johann Friedrich the Magnanimous, who lost the +Electorate for religion's sake at Muhlberg in the past century, +and from MAJOR became MINOR in Saxon Genealogy. "Magnanimous +Johann Friedrich," said they, "had to wife an Aunt of the now +deceased Duke of Cleve; Wife Sibylla (sister of the Flanders +Mare), of famous memory, our lineal Ancestress. In favor of whom +HER Father, the then reigning Duke of Cleve, made a marriage- +contract of precisely similar import to this your Prussian one: +he, and barred all his descendants, if contracts are to be valid." +This is the claim of the Ernestine Line of Saxon Princes; not like +to go for much, in their present disintegrated condition. + +But the Albertine Line, the present Elector of Saxony, also +claims: "Here is a Deed," said he, "executed by Kaiser Friedrich +III. in the year 1483, [Pauli, ubi supra; Hubner, t. 286.] +generations before your Kaiser Karl; Deed solemnly granting to +Albert, junior of Sachsen, and to his heirs, the reversion of +those same Duchies, should the Male Line happen to fail, as it was +then likely to do. How could Kaiser Max revoke his Father's deed, +or Kaiser Karl his Great-grandfather's? Little Albert, the Albert +of the PRINZENRAUB, he who grew big, and fought lion-like for his +Kaiser in the Netherlands and Western Countries; he and his have +clearly the heirship of Cleve by right; and we, now grown +Electors, and Seniors of Saxony, demand it of a grateful House +of Hapsburg,--and will study to make ourselves convenient +in return."-- + +"Nay, if that is your rule, that old Laws and Deeds are to come in +bar of new, we," cry a multitude of persons,--French Dukes of +Nevers, and all manner of remote, exotic figures among them,-- +"we are the real heirs! Ravensburg, Mark, Berg, Ravenstein, this +patch and the other of that large Duchy of yours, were they not +from primeval time expressly limited to heirs-male? Heirs-male; +and we now are the nearest heirs-male of said patches and +portions; and will prove it!"--In short, there never was such +a Lawsuit,--so fat an affair for the attorney species, if that +had been the way of managing it,--as this of Cleve was likely +to prove. + + +THE KAISER'S THOUGHTS ABOUT IT, AND THE WORLD'S. + +What greatly complicated the affair, too, was the interest the +Kaiser took in it. The Kaiser could not well brook a powerful +Protestant in that country; still less could his Cousin the +Spaniard. Spaniards, worn to the ground, coercing that world- +famous Dutch Revolt, and astonished to find that they could not +coerce it at all, had resolved at this time to take breath before +trying farther. Spaniards and Dutch, after Fifty years of such +fighting as we know, have made a Twelve-years' Truce (1609): but +the battled Spaniard, panting, pale in his futile rage and sweat, +has not given up the matter; he is only taking breath, and will +try it again. Now Cleve is his road into Holland, in such +adventure; no success possible if Cleve be not in good hands. +Brandenburg is Protestant, powerful; Brandenburg will not do for +a neighbor there. + +Nor will Pfalz-Neuburg. A Protestant of Protestants, this Palatine +Neuburg too,--junior branch, possible heir in time coming, of +KUR-PFALZ (Elector Palatine) himself, in the Rhine Countries; +of Kur-Pfalz, who is acknowledged Chief Protestant: official +"President" of the "Evangelical Union" they have lately made among +them in these menacing times;--Pfalz-Neuburg too, this young +Wolfgang Wilhelm, if he do not break off kind, might be very +awkward to the Kaiser in Cleve-Julich. Nay Saxony itself; for they +are all Protestants:--unless perhaps Saxony might become pliant, +and try to make itself useful to a munificent Imperial House? + +Evidently what would best suit the Kaiser and Spaniards, were +this, That no strong Power whatever got footing in Cleve, to grow +stronger by the possession of such a country:--BETTER than best it +would suit, if he, the Kaiser, could himself get it smuggled into +his hands, and there hold it fast! Which privately was the course +resolved upon at headquarters.--In this way the "Succession +Controversy of the Cleve Duchies" is coming to be a very high +matter; mixing itself, up with the grand Protestant-Papal +Controversy, the general armed-lawsuit of mankind in that +generation. Kaiser, Spaniard, Dutch, English, French Henri IV. and +all mortals, are getting concerned in the decision of it. + + + +Chapter XIV. + +SYMPTOMS OF A GREAT WAR COMING. + +Meanwhile Brandenburg and Neuburg both hold grip of Cleve in that +manner, with a mutually menacing inquiring expression of +countenance; each grasps it (so to speak) convulsively with the +one hand, and has with the other hand his sword by the hilt, ready +to fly out. But to understand this Brandenburg-Neuburg phenomenon +and the then significance of the Cleve-Julich Controversy, we must +take the following bits of Chronology along with us. For the +German Empire, with Protestant complaints, and Papist usurpations +and severities, was at this time all a continent of sour thick +smoke,already breaking out into dull-red flashes here and there,-- +symptoms of the universal conflagration of a Thirty-Years War, +which followed. SYMPTON FIRST is that of Donauworth, and dates +above a year back. + + +FIRST SYMPTOM; DONAUWORTH, 1608. + +Donauworth, a Protestant Imperial Free-town, in the Bavarian +regions, had been, for some fault on the part of the populace +against a flaring Mass-procession which had no business to be +there, put under Ban of the Empire; had been seized accordingly +(December, 1607), and much cuffed, and shaken about, by Duke +Maximilian of Bavaria, as executor of the said Ban; [Michaeelis, +ii. 216; Buddaei LEXICON, i. 853.]--who, what was still worse, +would by no means give up the Town when he had done with it; +Town being handy to him, and the man being stout and violently +Papist. Hence the "Evangelical Union" which we saw,--which has +not taken Donauworth yet. Nor ever will! Donauworth never was +retaken; but is Bavarian at this hour, A Town namable in History +ever since. Not to say withal, that it is where Marlborough, did +"the Lines of Schellenberg" long after: Schellenberg ("Jingle- +Hill," so to render it) looks down across the Danube or Donau +River, upon Donauworth,--its "Lines," and other histories, now +much abolished, and quiet under grass. + +But now all Protestantism sounding everywhere, in angry mournful +tone, "Donauwarth! Give up Donauworth!"--and an "Evangelical +Union," with moneys, with theoretic contingents of force, being on +foot for that and the like objects;--we can fancy what a scramble +this of Cleve-Julich was like to be; and especially what effect +this duelling attitude of Brandenburg and Neuburg had on the +Protestant mind. Protestant neighbors, Landgraf Moritz of +Hessen-Cassel at their head, intervene in tremulous haste, in the +Cleve-Julich affair: "Peace, O friends! Some bargain; peaceable +joint-possession; any temporary bargain, till we see! Can two +Protestants fall to slashing one another, in such an aspect of the +Reich and its Jesuitries?"--And they did agree (Dortmund, 10th +May, 1609) the first of their innumerable "agreements," to some +temporary joint-possession;--the thrice-thankful Country doing +homage to both, "with oath to the one that SHALL be found +genuine." And they did endeavor to govern jointly, and to keep the +peace on those terms, though it was not easy. + +For the Kaiser had already said (or his Aulic Council and Spanish +Cousin, poor Kaiser Rodolf caring too little about these things, +[Rodolf II. (Kepler's too insolvent "Patron"), 1576-1612; then +Matthias, Rodolf's Brother, 1612-1619, rather tolerant to +Protestants;--then Ferdinand II. his Uncle's Son, 1619-1637, much +the reverse of tolerant, by whom mainly came the Thirty-Years +War,--were the Kaisers of this Period. + Ferdinand III., Son of II: (1637-1657), who finished out the +Thirty-Years War, partly by fighting of his own in young days +(Battle of Nordlingen his grandest feat), was Father of + Kaiser Leopold (1658-1705),--whose Two Sons were + Kaiser Joseph (1705-1711) and Kaiser Karl VI. (1711-1740), Maria +Theresa's Father.] had already said), Cleve must absolutely not go +into wrong hands. For which what safe method is there, but that +the Kaiser himself become proprietor? A Letter is yet extant, from +the Aulic Council to their Vice-Chancellor, who had been sent to +negotiate this matter with the parties; Letter to the effect, That +such result was the only good one; that it must be achieved; +"that he must devise all manner of quirks <italic> (alle +Spitzfindigkeiten auffordern sollte)," <end italic> and achieve +it. [Pauli, iii. 5055.] This curious Letter of a sublime Aulic +Council, or Imperial HOF-RATH, to its VICE-KANZLER, still exists. + +And accordingly quirks did not prove undevisable on behalf of the +Kaiser. "Since you cannot agree," said the Kaiser, "and there are +so many of you who claim (we having privately stirred up several +of you to the feat), there will be nothing for it, but the Kaiser +must put the Country under sequestration, and take possession of +it with his own troops, till a decision be arrived at,--which +probably will not be soon!" + + +SECOND SYMPTOM; SEIZURE OF JULICH BY THE KAISER, AND SIEGE +AND RECAPTURE OF IT BY THE PROTESTANT PARTIES, 1610. WHEREUPON +WHEREUPON "CATHOLIC LEAGUE," TO BALANCEE "EVANGELICAL UNION." + +And the Kaiser forthwith did as he had said; sent Archduke Leopold +with troops, who forcibly took the Castle of Julich; commanding +all other castles and places to surrender and sequestrate +themselves, in like fashion; threatening Brandenburg and Neuburg, +in a dreadful manner, with REICHS-ACHT (Ban of the Empire), if +they presumed to show contumacy. Upon which Brandenburg and +Neuburg, ranking themselves together, showed decided contumacy; +"tore down the Kaiser's Proclamation," [Ib. iii. 524. Emperor's +Proclamation, in Dusseldorf, 23d July, 1609,--taken down solemnly, +1st August, 1609,] having good help at their back. + +And accordingly, "on the 4th of September, 1610," after a +two-months' siege, they, or the Dutch, French, and Evangelical +Union Troops bombarding along with them, and "many English +volunteers" to help, retook Julich, and packed Leopold away again. +[Ib. iii. 527.] The Dutch and the French were especially anxious +about this Cleve business,--poor Henri IV. was just putting those +French troops in motion towards Julich, when Ravaillac, the +distracted Devil's-Jesuit, did his stroke upon him; so that +another than Henri had to lead in that expedition. The actual +Captain at the Siege was Prince Christian of Anhalt, by repute the +first soldier of Germany at that period: he had a horse shot under +him, the business being very hot and furious;--he had still worse +fortune in the course of years. There were "many English +volunteers" at this Siege; English nation hugely interested in it, +though their King would not act except diplomatically. It was the +talk of all the then world,--the evening song and the morning +prayer of Protestants especially,--till it was got ended in this +manner. It deserves to rank as SYMPTON SECOND in this business; +far bigger flare of dull red in the universal smoke-continent, +than that of Donauworth had been. Are there no memorials left of +those "English volunteers," then? [In Carlyle's <italic> +Miscellanies <end italic> (vi. ? "Two Hundred and Fifty Years ago: +a Fragment about Duels") is one small scene belonging to them.] +Alas, they might get edited as Bromley's <italic> Royal Letters +<end italic> are;--and had better lie quiet! + +"Evangelical Union," formed some two years before, with what cause +we saw, has Kur-Pfalz [Winter-King's Father; died 9th September, +1610, few days after this recapture of Julich.] at the head of it: +but its troops or operations were never of a very forcible +character. Kur-Brandenburg now joined it formally, as did many +more; Kur-Sachsen, anxious to make himself convenient in other +quarters, never would. Add to these phenomena, the now decisive +appearance of a "Catholic LIGA" (League of Catholic Princes), +which, by way of counterpoise to the "Union," had been got up by +Duke Maximilian of Bavaria several months ago; and which now, +under the same guidance, in these bad circumstances, took a great +expansion of figure. Duke Maximilian, "DONAUWORTH Max," finding +the Evangelical Union go so very high, and his own Kaiser like to +be good for little in such business (poor hypochondriac Kaiser +Rodolf II., more taken up with turning-looms and blow-pipes +than with matters political, who accordingly is swept out of +Julich in such summary way),--Donauworth Max has seen this a +necessary institution in the present aspect.--Both "Union" and +"League" rapidly waxed under the sound of the Julich cannon, as +was natural. + +Kur-Sachsen, for standing so well aloof from the Union, got from +the thankful Kaiser written Titles for these Duchies of Cleve and +Julich; Imperial parchments and infeftments of due extent; +but never any Territory in those parts. He never offered fight for +his pretensions; and Brandenburg and Neuburg--Neuburg especially-- +always answered him, "No!" with sword half-drawn. So Kur-Sachsen +faded out again, and took only parchments by the adventure. +Practically there was no private Competitor of moment to +Brandenburg, except this Wolfgang Wilhelm of Pfalz-Neuburg; +he alone having clutched hold.--But we hasten to SYMPTOM THIRD, +which particularly concerns us, and will be intelligible now +at last. + + +SYMPTOM THIRD: A DINNER-SCENE AT DUSSELDORF, 1613: +SPANIARDS AND DUTCH SHOULDER ARMS IN CLEVE. + +Brandenburg and Neuburg stood together against third parties; +but their joint-government was apt to fall in two, when left to +itself, and the pressure of danger withdrawn. "They governed by +the RATHS and STANDE of the Country;" old methods and old official +men: each of the two had his own Vice-Regent (STATTHALTER) present +on the ground, who jointly presided as they could. Jarrings were +unavoidable; but how mend it? Settle the litigated Territory +itself, and end their big lawsuit, they could not; often as they +tried it, with the whole world encouraging and urging them. +[Old Sir Henry Wotton, Provost of Eton in his old days, remembers +how he went Ambassador on this errand,--as on many others equally +bootless;--and writes himself "Legatus," not only "thrice to +Venice, twice to" &c. &c., but also "once to Holland in the +Juliers matter <italic> (semel in Juliacensi negotio):" <end +italic> see <italic> Reliquiae Wottonianae <end italic> (London, +1672), Preface. It was "in 1614," say the Biographies vaguely. +His Despatches, are they in the Paper-Office still? His good old +Book deserves new editing, his good old genially pious life a +proper elucidation, by some faithful man.] The meetings they had, +and the treaties and temporary bargains they made, and kept, and +could not keep, in these and in the following years and +generations, pass our power of recording. + +In 1613 the Brandenburg STATTHALTER was Ernst, the Elector's +younger Brother, Wolfgang Wilhelm in person, for his Father, or +rather for himself as heir of his Mother, represented Pfalz- +Neuburg. Ernst of Brandenburg had adopted Calvinism as his creed; +a thing hateful and horrible to the Lutheran mind (of which sort +was Wolfgang Wilhelm), to a degree now altogether inconceivable. +Discord arose in consequence between the STATTHALTERS, as to +official appointments, sacred and secular: "You are for promoting +Calvinists!"--"And you, I see, are for promoting Lutherans!"-- +Johann Sigismund himself had to intervene: Wolfgang Wilhelm and he +had their meetings, friendly colloquies:--the final celloquy of +which is still memorable; and issues in SYMPTOM THIRD. + +We said, a strong flame of choler burnt in all these +Hohenzollerns, though they held it well down. Johann Sigismund, an +excellent man of business, knew how essential a mild tone is: +nevertheless he found, as this colloquy went on, that human +patience might at length get too much. The scene, after some +examination, is conceivable in this wise: Place Dusseldorf, +Elector's apartment in the Schloss there; time late in the Year +1613, Day not discoverable by me. The two sat at dinner, after +much colloquy all morning: Johann Sigismund, a middle-aged, +big-headed, stern-faced, honest-looking man; hair cropped, +I observe; and eyelids slightly contracted, as if for sharper +vision into matters: Wolfgang Wilhelm, of features fallen dim to +me; an airy gentleman, well out of his teens, but, I doubt, not of +wisdom sufficient; evidently very high and stiff in his ways. + +His proposal, by way of final settlement, and end to all these +brabbles, was this, and he insisted on it: "Give me your eldest +Princess to wife; let her dowry be your whole claim on Cleve- +Julich; I will marry her on that condition, and we shall be +friends!" Here evidently is a gentleman that does not want for +conceit in himself:--consider too, in Johann Sigismund's opinion, +he had no right to a square inch of these Territories, though for +peace' sake a joint share had been allowed him for the time! +"On that condition, jackanapes?' thought Johann Sigismund: +"My girl is not a monster; nor at a loss for husbands fully better +than you, I should hope!" This he thought, and could not help +thinking; but endeavored to say nothing of it. The young +jackanapes went on, insisting. Nature at last prevailed; Johann +Sigismund lifted his hand (princely etiquettes melting all into +smoke on the sudden), and gave the young jackanapes a slap over +the face. Veritable slap; which opened in a dreadful manner the +eyes of young Pfalz-Neuburg to his real situation; and sent him +off high-flaming, vowing never-imagined vengeance. A remarkable +slap; well testified to,--though the old Histories, struck blank +with terror, reverence and astonishment, can for most part only +symbol it in dumb-show; [Pufendorf <italic> (Rer. Brandenb. <end +italic> lib. iv. ? 16, p. 213), and many others, are in this case. +Tobias Pfanner <italic> (Historia Pacis Westphalicae, <end italic> +lib. i. ? 9, p. 26) is explicit: <italic> "Neque, ut infida +regnandi societas est, Brandenburgio et Neoburgio diu conveniebat; +eorumque jurgia, cum matrimonii faedere pacari posse propinqui +ipsorum credidissent, acrius ezarsere; inter epulas, quibus +futurum generum Septemvir <end italic> (the "Sevensman," or +Elector, "One of The Seven") <italic> excipiebat, hujus enim filia +Wolfgango sperabatur, ob nescio quos sermones eo inter utrumque +altercalione provecta, ut Elector irae impotestior, nulla +dignitatis, hospitii, cognationis, affinitatisve verecundia +cohibitus, intenderit Neoburgio manus, et contra tendentis os +verberaverit. Ita, quae apud concordes vincula caritatis, +incitamenta irarum apud infensos erant." <end italic> (Cited in +Kohler, <italic> Munzbelustiqungen, <end italic> xxi. 341; +who refers also to Levassor, <italic> Histoire de Louis XII.)<end +italic>--Pauli (iii. 542) bedomes qnite vaporous.] a slap that had +important consequences in this world. + +For now Wolfgang Wilhelm, flaming off in never-imagined vengeance, +posted straight to Munchen, to Max of Bavaria there; declared +himself convinced, or nearly so, of the Roman-Catholic Religion; +wooed, and in a few weeks (10th November, 1613) wedded Max's +younger Sister; and soon after, at Dusseldorf, pompously professed +such his blessed change of Belief,--with immense flourish of +trumpeting, and jubilant pamphleteering, from Holy Church. +[Kohler, ubi supra.] His poor old Father, the devoutest of +Protestants, wailed aloud his "Ichabod! the glory is departed!"-- +holding "weekly fast and humiliation" ever after,--and died in few +months of a broken heart. The Catholic League has now a new Member +on those terms. + +And on the other hand, Johann Sigismund, nearly with the like +haste (25th December, 1613), declared himself convinced of +Calvinism, his younger Brother's creed; [Pauli, iii. 546.]--which +continues ever since the Brandenburg Court-creed, that of the +People being mostly Lutheran. Men said, it was to please the +Dutch, to please the Julichers, most of whom are Calvinist. +Apologetic Pauli is elaborate, but inconclusive. It was very ill +taken at Berlin, where even popular riot arose on the matter. +In Prussia too it had its drawbacks. [Ib. iii. 544; Michaelis, +i. 349.] + +And now, all being full of mutation, rearrangement and infinite +rumor, there marched next year (1614), on slight pretext, resting +on great suspicions, Spanish troops into the Julich-Cleve country, +and, countenanced by Neuburg, began seizing garrisons there. +Whereupon Dutch troops likewise marched, countenanced by +Brandenburg, and occupied other fortresses and garrisons: and so, +in every strong-place, these were either Papist-Spaniards or +Calvinist-Dutch; who stood there, fronting one another, and could +not by treatying be got out again;--like clouds positively +electric VERSUS clouds negatively. As indeed was getting to be the +case of Germany in general; case fatally visible in every +Province, Principality and Parish there: till a thunder-storm, and +succession of thunder-storms, of Thirty Years' continuance, broke +out. Of which these huge rumors and mutations, and menacings of +war, springing out of that final colloquy and slap in the face, +are to be taken as the THIRD premonitory Symptom. Spaniards and +Dutch stand electrically fronting one another in Cleve for seven +years, till their Truce is out, before they clash together; +Germany does not wait so long by a couple of years. + + + SYMPTOM FOURTH, AND CATASTROPHE UPON THE HEELS OF IT. + +Five years more (1618), and there will have come a FOURTH Symptom, +biggest of all, rapidly consummating the process;--Symptom still +famed, of the following external figure: Three Official Gentlemen +descending from a window in the Castle of Prag: hurled out by +impatient Bohemian Protestantism, a depth of seventy feet,-- +happily only into dung, and without loss of life. From which +follows a "King of Bohemia" elected there, King not unknown to +us;--"thunder-clouds" all in one huge clash, and the "continent of +sour smoke" blazing all into a continent of thunderous fire: +THIRTY-YEARS WAR, as they now call it! Such a conflagration as +poor Germany never saw before or since. + +These were the FOUR preliminary SYMPTOMS of that dismal business. +"As to the primary CAUSES of it," says one of my Authorities, +"these lie deep, deep almost as those of Original Sin. But the +proximate causes seem to me to have been these two: FIRST, That +the Jesuit-Priests and Principalities had vowed and resolved to +have, by God's help and by the Devil's (this was the peculiarity +of it), Europe made Orthodox again: and then SECONDLY, The fact +that a Max of Bavaria existed at that time, whose fiery character, +cunning but rash head, and fanatically Papist heart disposed him +to attempt that enterprise, him with such resources and +capacities, under their bad guidance." + +Johann Sigismund did many swift decisive strokes of business in +his time, businesses of extensive and important nature; but this +of the slap to Neuburg has stuck best in the idle memory of +mankind. Dusseldorf, Year 1613: it was precisely in the time when +that same Friedrioh, not yet by any means "King of Bohemia," but +already Kur-Pfalz (Cousin of this Neuburg, and head man of the +Protestants), was over here in England, on a fine errand;--namely, +had married the fair Elizabeth (14th February, 1613), James the +First's Princess; "Goody Palsgrave," as her Mother floutingly +called her, not liking the connection. What kind of a "King of +Bohemia" this Friedrich made, five or six years after, and +what sea of troubles he and his entered into, we know; +the "WINTER-KONIG" (Winter-King, fallen in times of FROST, or +built of mere frost, a SNOW-king altogether soluble again) is the +name he gets in German Histories. But here is another hook to hang +Chronology upon. + +This brief Bohemian Kingship had not yet exploded on the +Weissenberg of Prag, [Battle there, Sunday 8th November, 1620.] +when old Sir Henry Wotton being sent as Ambassador "to LIE abroad" +(as he wittily called it, to his cost) in that Business, saw, in +the City of Lintz in the picturesque green country by the shores +of the Donau there, an ingenious person, who is now recognizable +as one of the remarkablest of mankind, Mr. John Kepler, namely: +Keplar as Wotton writes him; addressing the great Lord Bacon +(unhappily without strict date of any kind) on that among other +subjects. Mr. John's now ever-memorable watching of those <italic> +Motions of the Star Mars, <end italic> [<italic> De Motibus Stellae Martis; <end italic> Prag, 1609.] with "calculations +repeated seventy times," and also with Discovery of the Planetary +Laws of this Universe, some, ten years ago, appears to be unknown +to Wotton and Bacon; but there is something else of Mr. John's +devising [It seems, Baptista Porta (of Naples, dead some years +before) must have given him the essential hint,--of whom, or +whose hint, Mr. John does not happen to inform his Excellency +at present.] which deserves attention from an Instaurator +of Philosophy:-- + +"He hath a little black Tent (of what stuff is not much +importing)," says the Ambassador, "which he can suddenly set +up where he will in a Field; and it is convertible (like a +windmill) to all quarters at pleasure; capable of not much more +than one man, as I conceive, and perhaps at no great ease; exactly +close and dark,--save at one hole, about an inch and a half in the +diameter, to which he applies a long perspective Trunk, with the +convex glass fitted to the said hole, and the concave taken out at +the other end, which extendeth to about the middle of this erected +Tent: through which the visible radiations of all the Objects +without are intromitted, falling upon a Paper, which is +accommodated to receive them; and so he traceth them with his pen +in their natural appearance; turning his little Tent round by +degrees, till he hath designed the whole Aspect of the Field." +[<italic> Reliqui Wottonianae, <end italic> (london 1672), +p. 300.]--In fact he hath a CAMERA OBSCURA, and is exhibiting the +same for the delectation of Imperial gentlemen lounging that way. +Mr. John invents such toys, writes almanacs, practises medicine, +for good reasons; his encouragement from the Holy Roman Empire and +mankind being only a pension of 18 pounds a year, and that hardly +ever paid. An ingenious person, truly, if there ever was one among +Adam's Posterity. Just turned of fifty and ill off for cash. This +glimpse of him, in his little black tent with perspective glasses, +while the Thirty-Years War blazes out, is welcome as a date. + + +WHAT BECAME OF THE CLEVE-JULICH HERITAGE, AND OF THE PREUSSEN ONE. + +In the Cleve Duchies joint government had now become more +difficult than ever: but it had to be persisted in,--under mutual +offences, suspicions and outbreaks hardly repressed;--no final +Bargain of Settlement proving by any method possible. Treaties +enough, and conferences and pleadings, manifestoings:--Could not +some painful German collector of Statistics try to give us the +approximate quantity of impracticable treaties, futile +conferences, manifestoes correspondences; in brief, some +authentical cipher (say in round millions) of idle Words spoken by +official human creatures and approximately (in square miles) the +extent of Law Stationery and other Paper written, first and last, +about this Controversy of the Cleve Duchies? In that form it might +have a momentary interest. + +When the Winter-King's explosion took place, [Crowned at Prag, +4th November N.S. 1619; beaten to ruin there, and obliged to +gallop (almost before dinner done), Sunday, 8th November, 1620.] +and his own unfortunate Pfalz (Palatinate) became the theatre of +war (Tilly, Spinola, VERSUS Pfalzers, English, Dutch), involving +all the neighboring regions, Cleve-Julich did not escape its fate. +The Spaniards and the Dutch, who had long sat in gloomy armed- +truce, occupying with obstinate precaution the main Fortresses of +these Julich-Cleve countries, did now straightway, their Twelve- +Years' truce being out (1621), [Pauli, vi. 578-580.] fall to +fighting and besieging one another there; the huge War, which +proved of Thirty Years, being now all ablaze. What the country +suffered in the interim may be imagined. + +In 1624, in pity to all parties, some attempt at practical +Division of the Territory was again made: Neuburg to have Berg and +Julich, Brandenburg to have Cleve, Mark, Ravensburg and the minor +appurtenances: and Treaty to that effect was got signed (11th May, +1624). But it was not well kept, nor could be; and the statistic +cipher of new treaties, manifestoes, conferences, and approximate +written area of Law-Paper goes on increasing. + +It was not till forty-two years after, in 1666, as will be more +minutely noticeable by and by, that an effective partition could +be practically brought about. Nor in this state was the Lawsuit by +any means ended,--as we shall wearisomely see, in times long +following that. In fact there never was, in the German Chanceries +or out of them, such a Lawsuit, Armed or Wigged, as this of the +Cleve Duchies first and last. And the sentence was not practically +given, till the Congress of Vienna (1815) in our own day gave it; +and the thing Johann Sigismund had claimed legally in 1609 was +actually handed over to Johann Sigismund's Descendant in the +seventh generation, after two hundred and six years. Handed over +to him then,--and a liberal rate of interest allowed. These +litigated Duchies are now the Prussian Province Julich-Berg-Cleve, +and the nucleus of Prussia's possessions in the Rhine country. + +A year before Johann Sigismund's death, Albert Friedrich, the poor +eclipsed Duke of Prussia, died (8th August, 1618): upon which our +swift Kurfurst, not without need of his dexterities there too, got +peaceable possession of Prussia;--nor has his Family lost hold of +that, up to the present time. Next year (23d December, 1619), he +himself closed a swift busy life (labor enough in it for him +perhaps, though only an age of forty-nine); and sank to his long +rest, his works following him,--unalterable thenceforth, not +unfruitful some of them. + + + +Chapter XV. + +TENTH KURFURST, GEORGE WILHELM. + +By far the unluckiest of these Electors, whether the most unworthy +of them or not, was George Wilhelm, Tenth Elector, who now +succeeded Johann Sigismund his Father. The Father's eyes had +closed when this great flame was breaking out; and the Son's days +were all spent amid the hot ashes and fierce blazings of it. + +The position of Brandenburg during this sad Thirty-Years War was +passive rather than active; distinguished only in the former way, +and as far as possible from being glorious or victorious. +Never since the Hohenzollerns came to that Country had Brandenburg +such a time. Difficult to have mended it; impossible to have quite +avoided it;--and Kurfurst George Wilhelm was not a man so superior +to all his neighbors, that he could clearly see his way in such an +element. The perfect or ideal course was clear: To have frankly +drawn sword for his Religion and his Rights, so soon as the battle +fairly opened; and to have fought for these same, till he got +either them or died. Alas, that is easily said and written; but it +is, for a George Wilhelm especially, difficult to do! His +capability in all kinds was limited; his connections, with +this side and that, were very intricate. Gustavus and the +Winter-King were his Brothers-in-law; Gustavus wedded to his +Sister, he to Winter-King's. His relations to Poland, feudal +superior of Preussen, were delicate; and Gustavus was in deadly +quarrel with Poland. And then Gustavus's sudden laying-hold of +Pommern, which had just escaped from Wallenstein and the Kaiser? +It must be granted, poor George Wilhelm's case demanded +circumspectness. + +One can forgive him for declining the Bohemian-King speculation, +though his Uncle of Jagerndorf and his Cousins of Liegnitz were so +hearty and forward in it. Pardonable in him to decline the +Bohemian speculation;--though surely it is very sad that he found +himself so short of "butter and firewood" when the poor Ex-King, +and his young Wife, then in a specially interesting state, came to +take shelter with him! [Solltl <italic> (Geschichte des +Dreissigjahrigen Krieges, <end italic>--a trivial modern Book) +gives a notable memorial from the Brandenburg RATHS, concerning +these their difficulties of housekeeping. Their real object, we +perceive, was to get rid of a Guest so dangerous as the Ex-King, +under Ban of the Empire, had now become.] But when Gustavus +landed, and flung out upon the winds such a banner as that of +his,--truly it was required of a Protestant Governor of men to be +able to read said banner in a certain degree. A Governor, not too +IMperfect, would have recognized this Gustavus, what his purposes +and likelihoods were; the feeling would have been, checked by due +circumspectness: "Up, my men, let us follow this man; let us live +and die in the Cause this man goes for! Live otherwise with honor, +or die otherwise with honor, we cannot, in the pass things have +come to!"--And thus, at the very worst, Brandenburg would have had +only one class of enemies to ravage it; and might have escaped +with, arithmetically speaking, HALF the harrying it got in that +long Business. + +But Protestant Germany--sad shame to it, which proved lasting +sorrow as well--was all alike torpid; Brandenburg not an +exceptional case. No Prince stood up as beseemed: or only one, and +he not a great one; Landgraf Wilhelm of Hessen, who, and his brave +Widow after him, seemed always to know what hour it was. +Wilhelm of Hessen all along;--and a few wild hands, Christian of +Brunswick, Christian of Anhalt, Johann George of Jagerndorf, who +stormed out tumultuously at first, but were soon blown away by the +Tilly-Wallenstein TRADE-WINDS and regulated armaments:--the rest +sat still, and tried all they could to keep out of harm's way. +The "Evangelical Union" did a great deal of manifestoing, +pathetic, indignant and other; held solemn Meetings at Heilbronn, +old Sir Henry Wotton going as Ambassador to them; but never got +any redress. Had the Evangelical Union shut up its inkhorns +sooner; girt on its fighting-tools when the time came, and done +some little execution with them then, instead of none at all,-- +we may fancy the Evangelical Union would have better discharged +its function. It might have saved immense wretchedness to Germany. +But its course went not that way. + +In fact, had there been no better Protestantism than that of +Germany, all was over with Protestantism; and Max of Bavaria, with +fanatical Ferdinand II. as Kaiser over him, and Father Lammerlein +at his right hand and Father Hyacinth at his left, had got their +own sweet way in this world. But Protestant Germany was not +Protestant Europe, after all. Over seas there dwelt and reigned a +certain King in Sweden; there farmed, and walked musing by the +shores of the Ouse in Huntingdonshire, a certain man;--there was a +Gustav Adolf over seas, an Oliver Cromwell over seas; +and "a company of poor men" were found capable of taking Lucifer +by the beard,--who accordingly, with his Lammerleins, Hyacinths, +Habernfeldts and others, was forced to withdraw, after a +tough struggle!-- + + + +Chapter XVI. + +THIRTY-YEARS WAR. + +The enormous Thirty-Years War, most intricate of modern +Occurrences in the domain of Dryasdust, divides itself, after some +unravelling, into Three principal Acts or Epochs; in all of which, +one after the other, our Kurfurst had an interest mounting +progressively, but continuing to be a passive interest. + +Act FIRST goes from 1620 to 1624; and might be entitled "The +Bohemian King Made and Demolished." Personally the Bohemian King +was soon demolished. His Kingship may be said to have gone off by +explosion; by one Fight, namely, done on the Weissenberg near Prag +(Sunday, 8th November, 1620), while he sat at dinner in the City, +the boom of the cannon coming in with interest upon his high +guests and him. He had to run, in hot haste, that night, leaving +many of his important papers,--and becomes a Winter-King. Winter- +King's account was soon settled. But the extirpating of his +Adherents, and capturing of his Hereditary Lands, Palatinate and +Upper-Palatinate, took three years more. Hard fighting for the +Palatinate; Tilly and Company against the "Evangelical-Union +Troops, and the English under Sir Horace Vere." Evangelical-Union +Troops, though marching about there, under an Uncle of our +Kurfurst (Margraf Joachim Ernst, that lucky Anspach Uncle, founder +of "the Line"), who professed some skill in soldiering, were a +mere Picture of an Army; would only "observe," and would not fight +at all. So that the whole fighting fell to Sir Horace and his poor +handful of English; of whose grim posture "in Frankendale" +[Frankenthal, a little Town in the Palatinate, N.W. from Mannheim +a short way.] and other Strongholds, for months long, there is +talk enough in the old English History-Books. + +Then there were certain stern War-Captains, who rallied from the +Weissenberg Defeat:--Christian of Brunswick, the chief of them, +titular Bishop of Halberstadt, a high-flown, fiery young fellow, +of terrible fighting gifts; he flamed up considerably, with "the +Queen of Bohemia's glove stuck in his Hat:" "Bright Lady, it shall +stick there, till I get you your own again, or die!" [1621-1623, +age not yet twenty-five; died (by poison), 1626, having again +become supremely important just then. <italic> "Gottes Freund, der +Pfaffen Feind <end italic> (God's Friend, Priests' Foe);" <italic> +"Alles fur Ruhm und Ihr (All for Glory and Her," <end italic> +--the bright Elizabeth, become Ex-Queen), were mottoes of his.-- +Buddaus IN VOCE (i. 649); Michaelis, i. 110.] Christian of +Brunswick, George of Jagerndorf (our Kurfurst's Uncle), Count +Mansfeldt and others, made stormy fight once and again, hanging +upon this central "Frankendale" Business, till they and it became +hopeless. For the Kaiser and his Jesuits were not in doubt; +a Kaiser very proud, unscrupulous; now clearly superior in force, +--and all along of great superiority in fraud. + +Christian of Brunswick, Johann George and Mansfeldt were got rid +of: Christian by poison; Johann George and Mansfeldt by other +methods,--chiefly by playing upon poor King James of England, and +leading him by the long nose he was found to have. The Palatinate +became the Kaiser's for the time being; Upper Palatinate (OBER- +PFALZ) Duke Max of Bavaria, lying contiguous to it, had easily +taken. "Incorporate the Ober-Pfalz with your Bavaria," said the +Kaiser, "you, illustrious, thrice-serviceable Max! And let +Lammerlein and Hyacinth, with their Gospel of Ignatius, loose upon +it. Nay, as a still richer reward, be yours the forfeited KUR +(Electorship) of this mad Kur-Pfalz, or Winter-King. I will hold +his Rhine-Lands, his UNTER-PFALZ: his Electorship and OBER-PFALZ, +I say, are yours, Duke, henceforth KURFURST Maximilian!" [Kohler, +<italic> Reichs-Historie, <end italic> p. 520.] Which was a hard +saying in the ears of Brandenburg, Saxony and the other Five, and +of the Reich in general; but they had all to comply, after +wincing. For the Kaiser proceeded with a high hand. He had put the +Ex-King under Ban of the Empire (never asking "the Empire" about +it); put his Three principal Adherents, Johann George of +Jagerndorf one of them, Prince Christian of Anhalt (once captain +at the Siege of Juliers) another, likewise under Ban of the +Empire; [22d Jan. 1621 (ibid. p. 518).] and in short had flung +about, and was flinging, his thunder-bolts in a very Olympian +manner. Under all which, what could Brandenburg and the others do; +but whimper some trembling protest, "Clear against Law!"--and sit +obedient? The Evangelical Union did not now any more than formerly +draw out its fighting-tools. In fact, the Evangelical Union now +fairly dissolved itself; melted into a deliquium of terror under +these thunder-bolts that were flying, and was no more heard of in +the world.-- + + +SECOND ACT, OR EPOCH, 1624-1629. A SECOND UNCLE PUT TO +THE BAN, AND POMMERN SNATCHED AWAY. + +Except in the "NETHER-SAXON CIRCLE" (distant Northwest region, +with its Hanover, Mecklenburg, with its rich Hamburgs, Lubecks, +Magdeburgs, all Protestant, and abutting on the Protestant North), +trembling Germany lay ridden over as the Kaiser willed. Foreign +League got up by France, King James, Christian IV. of Denmark +(James's Brother-in-law, with whom he had such "drinking" in +Somerset House, long ago, on Christian's visit hither [Old +Histories of James I. (Wilson, &c.)]), went to water, or worse. +Only the "Nether-Saxon Circle" showed some life; was levying an +army; and had appointed Christian of Brunswick its Captain, till +he was got poisoned;--upon which the drinking King of Denmark took +the command. + +Act SECOND goes from 1624 to 1627 or even 1629; and contains +drunken Christian's Exploits. Which were unfortunate, almost to +the ruin of Denmark itself, as well as of the Nether-Saxon +Circle;--till in the latter of these years he slightly rallied, +and got a supportable Peace granted him (Peace of Lubeck, 1629); +after which he sits quiet, contemplative, with an evil eye upon +Sweden now and then. The beatings he got, in quite regular +succession, from Tilly and Consorts, are not worth mentioning: +the only thing one now remembers of him is his alarming accident +on the ramparts of Hameln, just at the opening of these Campaigns. +At Hameln, which was to be a strong post, drunken Christian rode +out once, on a summer afternoon (1624), to see that the ramparts +were all right, or getting all right;--and tumbled, horse and self +(self in liquor, it is thought), in an ominous alarming manner. +Taken up for dead;--nay some of the vague Histories seem to think +he was really dead:--but he lived to be often beaten after that, +and had many moist years more. + +Our Kurfurst had another Uncle put to the Ban in this Second Act, +--Christian Wilhelm Archbishop of Magdeburg, "for assisting the +Danish King;" nor was Ban all the ruin that fell on this poor +Archbishop. What could an unfortunate Kurfurst do, but tremble and +obey? There was still a worse smart got by our poor Kurfurst out +of Act Second; the glaring injustice done him in Pommern. + +Does the reader remember that scene in the High Church of Stettin +a hundred and fifty years ago? How the Burgermeister threw sword +and helmet into the grave of the last Duke of Pommern-Stettin +there; and a forward Citizen picked them out again in favor of a +Collateral Branch? Never since, any more than then, could +Brandenburg get Pommern according to claim. Collateral Branch, in +spite of Friedrich Ironteeth, in spite even of Albert Achilles and +some fighting of his; contrived, by pleading at the Diets and +stirring up noise, to maintain its pretensions: and Treaties +without end ensued, as usual; Treaties refreshed and new-signed by +every Successor of Albert, to a wearisome degree. The sum of which +always was: "Pommern does actual homage to Brandenburg; vassal +of Brandenburg;--and falls home to it, if the now Extant Line go +extinct." Nay there is an ERBVERBRUDERUNG (Heritage-Fraternity) +over and above, established this long time, and wearisomely +renewed at every new Accession. Hundreds of Treaties, oppressive +to think of:--and now the last Duke, old Bogislaus, is here, +without hope of children; and the fruit of all that haggling, +actual Pommern to wit, will at last fall home? Alas, no; +far otherwise. + +For the Kaiser having so triumphantly swept off the Winter-King, +and Christian IV. in the rear of him, and got Germany ready for +converting to Orthodoxy,--wished now to have some hold of the +Seaboard, thereby to punish Denmark; nay thereby, as is hoped, to +extend the blessings of Orthodoxy into England, Sweden, Holland, +and the other Heretic States, in due time. For our plans go far! +This is the Kaiser's fixed wish, rising to the rank of hope now +and then: all Europe shall become Papist again by the help of God +and the Devil. So the Kaiser, on hardly any pretext, seized +Mecklenburg from the Proprietors,--"Traitors, how durst you join +Danish Christian?"--and made Wallenstein Duke of it. Duke of +Mecklenburg, "Admiral of the EAST SEA (Baltic);" and set to +"building ships of war in Rostock,"--his plans going far. [Kohler, +<italic> Reichs-Historie, <end italic> pp, 524, 525.] This done, +he seized Pommern, which also is a fine Sea-country,--stirring up +Max of Bavaria to make some idle pretence to Pommern, that so the +Kaiser might seize it "in sequestration till decided on." +Under which hard treatment, George Wilhelm had to sit sad and +silent,--though the Stralsunders would not. Hence the world-famous +Siege of Stralsund (1628); fierce Wallenstein declaring, "I will +have the Town, if it hung by a chain from Heaven;" but finding he +could not get it; owing to the Swedish succor, to the stubborn +temper prevalent among the Townsfolk, and also greatly to the +rains and peat-bogs. + +A second Uncle of George Wilhelm's, that unlucky Archbishop of +Magdeburg above mentioned, the Kaiser, once more by his own +arbitrary will, put under Ban of the Empire, in this Second Act: +"Traitor, how durst you join with the Danes?" The result of which +was Tilly's Sack of Magdeburg (10-12th May, 1631), a transaction +never forgettable by mankind.--As for Pommern, Gustav Adolf, on +his intervening in these matters, landed there: Pommern was now +seized by Gustav Adolf, as a landing-place and place-of-arms, +indispensable for Sweden in the present emergency; and was so held +thenceforth. Pommern will not fall to George Wilhelm at this time. + + +THIRD ACT, AND WHAT THE KURFURST SUFFERED IN IT. + +And now we are at Act THIRD:--Landing of Gustav Adolf "in the Isle +of Usedom, 24th June, 1630," and onward for Eighteen Years till +the Peace of Westphalia, in 1648;--on which, as probably better +known to the reader, we will not here go into details. In this +Third Act too, George Wilhelm followed his old scheme, peace at +any price;--as shy of Gustav as he had been of other Champions of +the Cause; and except complaining, petitioning and manifestoing, +studiously did nothing. + +Poor man, it was his fate to stand in the range of these huge +collisions,--Bridge of Dessau, Siege of Stralsund, Sack of +Magdeburg, Battle of Leipzig,--where the Titans were bowling rocks +at one another; and he hoped, by dexterous skipping, to escape +share of the game. To keep well with his Kaiser,--and such a +Kaiser to Germany and to him,--this, for George Wilhelm, was +always the first commandment. If the Kaiser confiscate your +Uncles, against law; seize your Pommern; rob you on the public +highways,--George Wilhelm, even in such case, is full of +dubitations. Nay his Prime-Minister, one Schwartzenberg, a +Catholic, an Austrian Official at one time,--Progenitor of the +Austrian Schwartzenbergs that now are,--was secretly in the +Kaiser's interest, and is even thought to have been in the +Kaiser's pay, all along. + +Gustav, at his first landing, had seized Pommern, and swept it +clear of Austrians, for himself and for his own wants; not too +regardful of George Wilhelm's claims on it. He cleared out +Frankfurt-on-Oder, Custrin and other Brandenburg Towns, in a +similar manner,--by cannon and storm, when needful;--drove the +Imperialists and Tilly forth of these countries. Advancing, next +year, to save Magdeburg, now shrieking under Tilly's bombardment, +Gustav insisted on having, if not some bond of union from his +Brother-in-law of Brandenburg, at least the temporary cession of +two Places of War for himself, Spandau and Custrin, indispensable +in any farther operation. Which cession Kurfurst George Wilhelm, +though giving all his prayers to the Good Cause, could by no means +grant. Gustav had to insist, with more and more emphasis; +advancing at last, with military menace, upon Berlin itself. +He was met by George Wilhelm and his Council, "in the woods of +Copenick," short way to the east of that City: there George +Wilhelm and his Council wandered about, sending messages, +hopelessly consulting; saying among each other, <italic> "Que +faire; ils ont des canons, <end italic> what can one do; they have +got cannon?" [<italic> OEvres de Frederic le Grand <end italic> +(Berlin, 1846-1856 et seqq.: <italic> Memoires de Brandebourg <end +italic>), i. 38. For the rest, Friedrich's Account of the +Transaction is very loose and scanty: see Pauli (iv. 568) and his +minute details.] For many hours so; round the inflexible Gustav,-- +who was there like a fixed milestone, and to all questions and +comers had only one answer!--<italic> "Que faire; ils ont des +canons?" <end italic> This was the 3d May, 1631. This probably +is about the nadir-point of the Brandenburg-Hohenzollern History. +The little Friedrich, who became Frederick the Great, in writing +of it, has a certain grim banter in his tone; and looks rather +with mockery on the perplexities of his poor Ancestor, so fatally +ignorant of the time of day it had now become. + +On the whole, George Wilhelm did what is to be called nothing, in +the Thirty-Years War; his function was only that of suffering. +He followed always the bad lead of Johann George, Elector of +Saxony; a man of no strength, devoutness or adequate human worth; +who proved, on these negative grounds, and without flagrancy of +positive badness, an unspeakable curse to Germany. Not till the +Kaiser fulminated forth his Restitution-Edict, and showed he was +in earnest about it (1629-1631), "Restore to our Holy Church what +you have taken from her since the Peace of Passau!"--could this +Johann George prevail upon himself to join Sweden, or even to do +other than hate it for reasons he saw. Seized by the throat in +this manner, and ordered to DELIVER, Kur-Sachsen did, and +Brandenburg along with him, make Treaty with the Swede. [8th +February, 1631 (Kohler, <italic> Reichs-Historie, <end italic> +pp. 526-531.] in consequence of which they two, some months after, +by way of co-operating with Gustav on his great march Vienna-ward, +sent an invading force into Bohemia, Brandenburg contributing some +poor 3,000 to it; who took Prag, and some other open Towns; +but "did almost nothing there," say the Histories, "except dine +and drink." It is clear enough they were instantly scattered home +[October, 1633 (Stenzel, i. 503).] at the first glimpse of +Wallenstein dawning on the horizon again in those parts. + +Gustav having vanished (Field of Lutzen, 6th November, 1632 +[Pauli, iv. 576.]), Oxenstiern, with his high attitude, and +"Presidency" of the "Union of Heilbronn," was rather an offence to +Kur-Sachsen, who used to be foremost man on such occasions. +Kur-Sachsen broke away again; made his Peace of Prag, [1635, 20th +May (Stenzel, i. 513).] whom Brandenburg again followed; +Brandenburg and gradually all the others, except the noble Wilhelm +of Hessen-Cassel alone. Miserable Peace; bit of Chaos clouted up, +and done over with Official varnish;--which proved to be the +signal for continuing the War beyond visible limits, and rendering +peace impossible. + +After this, George Wilhelm retires from the scene; lives in +Custrin mainly; mere miserable days, which shall be invisible to +us. He died in 1640; and, except producing an active brave Son +very unlike himself, did nothing considerable in the world. +<italic> "Que faire; ils ont des canons!" <end italic> + +Among the innumerable sanguinary tusslings of this War are counted +Three great Battles, Leipzig, Lutzen, Nordlingen. Under one great +Captain, Swedish Gustav, and the two or three other considerable +Captains, who appeared in it, high passages of furious valor, of +fine strategy and tactic, are on record. But on the whole, the +grand weapon in it, and towards the latter times the exclusive +one, was Hunger. The opposing Armies tried to starve one another; +at lowest, tried each not to starve. Each trying to eat the +country, or at any rate to leave nothing eatable in it: what that +will mean for the country, we may consider. As the Armies too +frequently, and the Kaiser's Armies habitually, lived without +commissariat, often enough without pay, all horrors of war and of +being a seat of war, that have been since heard of, are poor to +those then practised. The detail of which is still horrible to +read. Germany, in all eatable quarters of it, had to undergo the +process;--tortured, torn to pieces, wrecked, and brayed as in a +mortar under the iron mace of war. [Curious incidental details of +the state it was reduced to, in the Rhine and Danube Countries, +turn up in the Earl of Arundel and Surrey's TRAVELS ("Arundel of +the Marbles") as <italic> Ambassador Extraordinary to the Emperor +Ferdinando II. in 1636 <end italic> (a small Volume, or Pamphlet, +London, 1637).] Brandenburg saw its towns sieged and sacked, its +country populations driven to despair, by the one party and the +other. Three times,--first in the. Wallenstein Mecklenburg period, +while fire and sword were the weapons, and again, twice over, in +the ultimate stages of the struggle, when starvation had become +the method--Brandenburg fell to be the principal theatre of +conflict, where all forms of the dismal were at their height. +In 1638, three years after that precious "Peace of Prag," the +Swedes (Banier VERSUS Gallas) starving out the Imperialists in +those Northwestern parts, the ravages of the starving Gallas and +his Imperialists excelled all precedent; and the "famine about +Tangermunde had risen so high that men ate human flesh, nay human +creatures ate their own children." [1638: Pauli, iv. 604.] +<italic> "Que faire; ils ont des canons!" + + + +Chapter XVII. + +DUCHY OF JAGERNDORF. + +This unfortunate George Wilhelm failed in getting Pommern when +due; Pommern, firmly held by the Swedes, was far from him. +But that was not the only loss of territory he had. Jagerndorf,-- +we have heard of Johann George of Jagerndorf, Uncle of this George +Wilhelm, how old Joachim Friedrich put him into Jagerndorf, long +since, when it fell home to the Electoral House. Jagerndorf is now +lost; Johann George is under REICHS-ACHT (Ban of Empire), ever +since the Winter-King's explosion, and the thunder-bolts that +followed; and wanders landless;--nay he is long since dead, and + +has six feet of earth for a territory, far away in Transylvania, +or the RIESEN-GEBIRGE (Giant Mountains) somewhere. Concerning whom +a word now. + + +DUKE OF JAGERNDORF, ELECTOR'S UNCLE, IS PUT UNDER BAN. + +Johann George, a frank-hearted valiant man, concerning whom only +good actions, and no bad one, are on record, had notable troubles +in the world; bad troubles to begin with, and worse to end in. +He was second Son of Kurfurst Joachim Friedrich, who had meant him +for the Church. [1577-1624: Rentsch, p. 486.] The young fellow was +Coadjutor of Strasburg, almost from the time of getting into +short-clothes. He was then, still very young, elected Bishop there +(1592); Bishop of Strasburg,--but only by the Protestant part of +the Canons; the Catholic part, unable to submit longer, and +thinking it a good time for revolt against a Protestant population +and obstinately heterodox majority, elected another Bishop,--one +"Karl of the House of Lorraine;" and there came to be dispute, and +came even to be fighting needed. Fighting; which prudent Papa +would not enter into, except faintly at second-hand, through the +Anspach Cousins, or others that were in the humor. Troublesome +times for the young man; which lasted a dozen years or more. +At last a Bargain was made (1604); Protestant and Catholic Canons +splitting the difference in some way; and the House of Lorraine +paying Johann George a great deal of money to go home again. +[<italic> OEuvres completes de Voltaire, <end italic> 97 vols. +(Paris, 1825-1832), xxxiii. 284.--Kohler (<italic> Reichs- +Historie, <end italic> p. 487) gives the authentic particulars.] +Poor Johann George came out of it in that way; not second-best, +think several. + +He was then (1606) put into Jagerndorf, which had just fallen +vacant; our excellent fat friend, George Friedrich of Anspach, +Administrator of Preussen, having lately died, and left it vacant, +as we saw. George Friedrich's death yielded fine apanages, three +of them in all: FIRST Anspach, SECOND, Baireuth, and this THIRD of +Jagerndorf for a still younger Brother. There was still a fourth +younger Brother, Uncle of George Wilhelm; Archbishop of Magdeburg +this one; who also, as we have seen, got into REICHS-ACHT, into +deep trouble in the Thirty-Years War. He was in Tilly's thrice- +murderous Storm of Magdeburg (10th May, 1631); was captured, +tumbled about by the wild soldiery, and nearly killed there. +Poor man, with his mitre and rochets left in such a state! In the +end he even became CATHOLIC,--from conviction, as was evident, and +bewilderment of mind;--and lived in Austria on a pension; +occasionally publishing polemical pamphlets. [1587; 1628; 1665 +(Rentsch, pp. 905-910).]-- + +As to Johann George, he much repaired and beautified the Castle of +Jagerndorf, says Rentsch: but he unfortunately went ahead into the +Winter-King's adventure; which, in that sad battle of the +Weissenberg, made total shipwreck of itself, drawing Johann George +and much else along with it. Johann George was straightway +tyrannously put to the Ban, forfeited of life and lands: [22d +January, 1621 (Kohler, <italic> Reichs-Historie, <end italic> +p. 518: and rectify Hubner, t. 178).] Johann George disowned the +said Ban; stood out fiercely for self and Winter-King; and did +good fighting in the Silesian strongholds and mountain-passes: +but was forced to seek temporary shelter in SIEBENBURGEN +(Transylvania); and died far away, in a year or two (1624), while +returning to try it again. Sleeps, I think, in the "Jablunka +Pass;" the dumb Giant-Mountains (RIESEN-GEBIRGE) shrouding up his +sad shipwreck and him. + +Jagerndorf was thus seized by Ferdinand II. of the House of +Hapsburg; and though it was contrary to all law that the Kaiser +should keep it,--poor Johann George having left Sons very innocent +of treason, and Brothers, and an Electoral. Nephew, very +innocent,--to whom, by old compacts and new, the Heritage in +defect of him was to fall,--neither Kaiser Ferdinand II. nor +Kaiser Ferdinand III. nor any Kaiser would let go the hold; +but kept Jagerndorf fast clenched, deaf to all pleadings, and +monitions of gods or men. Till at length, in the fourth generation +afterwards, one "Friedrich the Second," not unknown to us,-- +a sharp little man, little in stature, but large in faculty and +renown, who is now called "Frederick the Great,"--clutched hold of +the Imperial fist (so to speak), seizing his opportunity in 1740; +and so wrenched and twisted said close fist, that not only +Jagerndorf dropped out of it, but the whole of Silesia along with +Jagerndorf, there being other claims withal. And the account was +at last settled, with compound interest,--as in fact such accounts +are sure to be, one way or other. And so we leave Johann George +among the dumb Giant-Mountains again. + + + +Chapter XVIII. + + FRIEDRICH WILHELM, THE GREAT KURFURST, ELEVENTH OF THE SERIES. + +Brandenburg had again sunk very low under the Tenth Elector, in +the unutterable troubles of the times. But it was gloriously +raised up again by his Son Friedrich Wilhelm, who succeeded in +1640. This is he whom they call the "Great Elector (GROSSE +KURFURST);" of whom there is much writing and celebrating in +Prussian Books. As for the epithet, it is not uncommon among petty +German populations, and many times does not mean too much: +thus Max of Bavaria, with his Jesuit Lambkins and Hyacinths, is, +by Bavarians, called "Maximilian the Great." Friedrich Wilhelm, +both by his intrinsic qualities and the success he met with, +deserves it better than most. His success, if we look where he +started and where he ended, was beyond that of any other man in +his day. He found Brandenburg annihilated, and he left Brandenburg +sound and flourishing; a great country, or already on the way +towards greatness. Undoubtedly a most rapid, clear-eyed, active +man. There was a stroke in him swift as lightning, well-aimed +mostly, and of a respectable weight, withal; which shattered +asunder a whole world of impediments for him, by assiduous +repetition of it for fifty years. [1620; 1640; 1688.] + +There hardly ever came to sovereign power a young man of twenty +under more distressing, hopeless-looking circumstances. Political +significance Brandenburg had none; a mere Protestant appendage +dragged about by a Papist Kaiser. His Father's Prime-Minister, as +we have seen, was in the interest of his enemies; not +Brandenburg's servant, but Austria's. The very Commandants of his +Fortresses, Commandant of Spandau more especially, refused to obey +Friedrich Wilhelm, on his accession; "were bound to obey the +Kaiser in the first place." He had to proceed softly as well +as swiftly; with the most delicate hand to get him of Spandau +by the collar, and put him under lock-and-key, him as a warning +to others. + +For twenty years past, Brandenburg had been scoured by hostile +armies, which, especially the Kaiser's part of which, committed +outrages new in human history. In a year or two hence, Brandenburg +became again the theatre of business; Austrian Gallas advancing +thither again (1644), with intent "to shut up Torstenson and his +Swedes in Jutland," where they had been chastising old Christian +IV., now meddlesome again, for the last time, and never a good +neighbor to Sweden. Gallas could by no means do what he intended: +on the contrary, he had to run from Torstenson, what feet could +do; was hunted, he and his MERODE-BRUDER (beautiful inventors of +the "Marauding" Art), "till they pretty much all died +(CREPERTIN)," says Koh1er. [<italic> Reichs-Historie, <end +italic> p. 556; Pauli, v. 24.] No great loss to society, the +death of these Artists: but we can fancy what their life, and +especially what the process of their dying, may have cost poor +Brandenburg again!-- + +Friedrich Wilhelm's aim, in this as in other emergencies, was +sun-clear to himself, but for most part dim to everybody else. +He had to walk very warily, Sweden on one hand of him, suspicious +Kaiser on the other; he had to wear semblances, to be ready with +evasive words; and advance noiselessly by many circuits. +More delicate operation could not be imagined. But advance he did: +advance and arrive. With extraordinary talent, diligence and +felicity the young man wound himself out of this first fatal +position: got those foreign Armies pushed out of his Country, and +kept them out. His first concern had been to find some vestige of +revenue, to put that upon a clear footing; and by loans or +otherwise to scrape a little ready money together. On the strength +of which a small body of soldiers could be collected about him, +and drilled into real ability to fight and obey. This as a basis: +on this followed all manner of things: freedom from Swedish- +Austrian invasions, as the first thing. + +He was himself, as appeared by and by, a fighter of the first +quality, when it came to that: but never was willing to fight if +he could help it. Preferred rather to shift, manoeuvre and +negotiate; which he did in a most vigilant, adroit and masterly +manner. But by degrees he had grown to have, and could maintain +it, an Army of 24,000 men: among the best troops then in being. +With or without his will, he was in all the great Wars of his +time,--the time of Louis XIV., who kindled Europe four times over, +thrice in our Kurfurst's day. The Kurfurst's Dominions, a long +straggling country, reaching from Memel to Wesel, could hardly +keep out of the way of any war that might rise. He made himself +available, never against the good cause of Protestantism and +German Freedom, yet always in the place and way where his own best +advantage was to be had. Louis XIV. had often much need of him: +still oftener, and more pressingly, had Kaiser Leopold, the little +Gentleman "in scarlet stockings, with a red feather in his hat," +whom Mr. Savage used to see majestically walking about, with +Austrian lip that said nothing at all. [<italic> A Compleat +History of Germany, <end italic> by Mr. Savage (8vo, London, +1702), p. 553. Who this Mr. Savage was, we have no trace. +Prefixed to the volume is the Portrait of a solid Gentleman of +forty: gloomily polite, with ample wig and cravat,--in all +likelihood some studious subaltern Diplomatist in the Succession +War. His little Book is very lean and barren: but faithfully +compiled,--and might have some illumination in it, where utter +darkness is so prevalent. Most likely, Addison picked his story of +the <italic> Siege of Weinsberg <end italic> ("Women carrying out +their Husbands on their back,"--one of his best SPECTATORS) out of +this poor Book.] His 24,000 excellent fighting-men, thrown in at +the right time, were often a thing that could turn the balance +in great questions. They required to be allowed for at a high +rate,--which he well knew how to adjust himself for exacting and +securing always. + + +WHAT BECAME OF POMMERN AT THE PEACE; FINAL GLANCE INTO CLEVE-JULICH. + +When the Peace of Westphalia (1648) concluded that Thirty-Years +Conflagration, and swept the ashes of it into order again, +Friedrich Wilhelm's right to Pommern was admitted by everybody: +and well insisted on by himself: but right had to yield to reason +of state, and he could not get it. The Swedes insisted on their +expenses: the Swedes held Pommern, had all along held it,--in +pawn, they said, for their expenses. Nothing for it but to give +the Swedes the better half of Pommern. FORE-Pommern (so they call +it, "Swedish Pomerania" thenceforth), which lies next the Sea: +this, with some Towns and cuttings over and above, was Sweden's +share: Friedrich Wilhelm had to put up with HINDER-Pommern, docked +furthermore of the Town of Stettin, and of other valuable +cuttings, in favor of Sweden. Much to Friedrich Wilhelm's grief +and just anger, could he have helped it. + +They gave him Three secularized Bishoprics, Magdeburg, +Halberstadt, Minden, with other small remnants, for compensation; +and he had to be content with these for the present. But he never +gave up the idea of Pommern: much of the effort of his life was +spent upon recovering Fore-Pommern: thrice-eager upon that, +whenever lawful opportunity offered. To no purpose then: he never +could recover Swedish Pommern; only his late descendants, and that +by slowish degrees, could recover it all. Readers remember that +Burgermeister of Stettin, with the helmet and sword flung into the +grave and picked out again:--and can judge whether Brandenburg got +its good luck quite by lying in bed!-- + +Once, and once only, he had a voluntary purpose towards War, and +it remained a purpose only. Soon after the Peace of Westphalia, +old Pfalz-Neuburg, the same who got the slap on the face, went +into tyrannous proceedings against the Protestant part of his +subjects in Julich-Cleve: who called to Friedrich Wilhelm for +help. Friedrich Wilhelm, a zealous Protestant, made remonstrances, +retaliations: ere long the thought struck him, "Suppose, backed by +the Dutch, we threw out this fantastic old gentleman, his +Papistries, and pretended claims and self, clear out of it?" +This was Friedrich Wilhelm's thought; and he suddenly marched +troops into the Territory, with that view. But Europe was in +alarm, the Dutch grew faint: Friedrich Wilhelm saw it would not +do. He had a conference with old Pfalz-Neuburg: "Young gentleman, +we remember how your Grandfather made free with us and our august +countenance! Nevertheless we--" In fine, the "statistic of +Treaties" was increased by One: and there the matter rested till +calmer times. + +In 1666, as already said, an effective Partition of these +litigated Territories was accomplished: Prussia to have the Duchy +of Cleve-Proper, the Counties of Mark and Ravensburg, with other +Patches and Pertinents: Neuburg, what was the better share, to +have Julich Duchy and Berg Duchy. Furthermore, if either of the +Lines failed, in no sort was a collateral to be admitted: +but Brandenburg was to inherit Neuburg, or Neuburg Brandenburg, as +the case might be. [Pauli, v. 120-129.] A clear Bargain this at +last: and in the times that had come, it proved executable so far. +But if the reader fancies the Lawsuit was at last out in this way, +he will be a simple reader! In the days of our little Fritz, the +Line of Pfalz-Neuburg was evidently ending: but that Brandenburg +and not a collateral should succeed it, there lay the quarrel,-- +open still, as if it had never been shut: and we shall hear enough +about it!-- + + +THE GREAT KURFURST'S WARS: WHAT HE ACHIEVED IN WAR AND PEACE. + +Friedrich Wilhelm's first actual appearance in War, Polish- +Swedish War (1655-1660), was involuntary in the highest degree: +forced upon him for the sake of his Preussen, which bade fair to +be lost or ruined, without blame of his or its. Nevertheless, here +too he made his benefit of the affair. The big King of Sweden had +a standing quarrel with his big Cousin of Poland, which broke out +into hot War; little Preussen lay between them, and was like to be +crushed in the collision. Swedish King was Karl Gustav, +Christina's Cousin, Charles Twelfth's Grandfather; a great and +mighty man, lion of the North in his time: Polish King was one +John Casimir; chivalrous enough, and with clouds of forward Polish +chivalry about him, glittering with barbaric gold. Frederick III., +Danish King for the time being, he also was much involved in the +thing. Fain would Friedrich Wilhelm have kept out of it, but he +could not. Karl Gustav as good as forced him to join: he joined; +fought along with Karl Gustav an illustrious Battle; "Battle of +Warsaw," three days long (28-30th July, l656), on the skirts of +Warsaw,--crowds "looking from the upper windows" there; Polish +chivalry, broken at last, going like chaff upon the winds, and +John Casimir nearly ruined. + +Shortly after which, Friedrich Wilhelm, who had shone much in the +Battle, changed sides. An inconsistent, treacherous man? +Perhaps not, O reader; perhaps a man advancing "in circuits," the +only way he has; spirally, face now to east, now to west, with his +own reasonable private aim sun-clear to him all the while? + +John Casimir agreed to give up the "Homage of Preussen" for this +service; a grand prize for Friedrich Wilhelm. [Treaty of Labiau, +10th November, 1656 (Pauli, v. 73-75); 20th November (Stenzel, iv. +128,--who always uses NEW STYLE).] What the Teutsch Ritters strove +for in vain, and lost their existence in striving for, the shifty +Kurfurst has now got: Ducal Prussia, which is also called East +Prussia, is now a free sovereignty,--and will become as "Royal" as +the other Polish part. Or perhaps even more so, in the course of +time!--Karl Gustav, in a high frame of mind, informs the Kurfurst, +that he has him on his books, and will pay the debt one day! + +A dangerous debtor in such matters, this Karl Gustav. In these +same months, busy with the Danish part of the Controversy, he was +doing a feat of war, which set all Europe in astonishment. +In January, 1658, Karl Gustav marches his Army, horse, foot and +artillery, to the extent of twenty thousand, across the Baltic +ice, and takes an Island without shipping,--Island of Funen, +across the Little Belt; three miles of ice; and a part of the sea +open, which has to be crossed on planks. Nay, forward from Funen, +when once there, he achieves ten whole miles more of ice; +and takes Zealand itself, [Holberg's <italic> Danemarkische +Reichs-Historie, <end italic> pp. 406-409.]--to the wonder of all +mankind. An imperious, stern-browed, swift-striking man; who had +dreamed of a new Goth Empire: The mean Hypocrites and Fribbles of +the South to be coerced again by noble Norse valor, and taught a +new lesson. Has been known to lay his hand on his sword while +apprising an Ambassador (Dutch High-Mightiness) what his royal +intentions were: "Not the sale or purchase of groceries, observe +you, Sir! My aims go higher!"--Charles Twelfth's Grandfather, +and somewhat the same type of man. + +But Karl Gustav died, short while after; [13th February, 1660, age +38.] left his big wide-raging Northern Controversy to collapse in +what way it could. Sweden and the fighting-parties made their +"Peace of Oliva" (Abbey of Oliva, near Dantzig, 1st May, 1660); +and this of Preussen was ratified, in all form, among the other +points. No homage more; nothing now above Ducal Prussia but the +Heavens; and great times coming for it. This was one of the +successfulest strokes of business ever done by Friedrich Wilhelm; +who had been forced, by sheer compulsion, to embark in that big +game.--"Royal Prussia," the Western or POLISH Prussia: this too, +as all Newspapers know, has, in our times, gone the same road as +the other. Which probably, after all, it may have had, in Nature, +some tendency to do? Cut away, for reasons, by the Polish sword, +in that Battle of Tannenberg, long since; and then, also for +reasons, cut back again! That is the fact;--not unexampled in +human History. + +Old Johann Casimir, not long after that Peace of Oliva, getting +tired of his unruly Polish chivalry and their ways, abdicated;-- +retired to Paris; and "lived much with Ninon de 1'Enclos and her +circle," for the rest of his life. He used to complain of his +Polish chivalry, that there was no solidity in them; nothing but +outside glitter, with tumult and anarchic noise; fatal want of one +essential talent, the talent of Obeying; and has been heard to +prophesy that a glorious Republic, persisting in such courses, +would arrive at results which would surprise it. + +Onward from this time, Friedrich Wilhelm figures in the world; +public men watching his procedure; Kings anxious to secure him,-- +Dutch printsellers sticking up his Portraits for a hero- +worshipping Public. Fighting hero, had the Public known it, was +not his essential character, though he had to fight a great deal. +He was essentially an Industrial man; great in organizing, +regulating, in constraining chaotic heaps to become cosmic for +him. He drains bogs, settles colonies in the waste-places of his +Dominions, cuts canals; unweariedly encourages trade and work. +The FRIEDRICH-WILHELM'S CANAL, which still carries tonnage from +the Oder to the Spree, [Executed, 1662-1668; fifteen English miles +long (Busching, ERDBESCHREIBUNG, vi, 2193).] is a monument of his +zeal in this way; creditable, with the means he had. To the poor +French Protestants, in the Edict-of-Nantes Affair, he was like an +express Benefit of Heaven: one Helper appointed, to whom the help +itself was profitable. He munificently welcomed them to +Brandenburg; showed really a noble piety and human pity, as well +as judgment; nor did Brandenburg and he want their reward. +Some 20,000 nimble French souls, evidently of the best French +quality, found a home there;--made "waste sands about Berlin into +potherb gardens;" and in the spiritual Brandenburg, too, did +something of horticulture, which is still noticeable. [Erman (weak +Biographer of Queen Sophie-Charlotte, already cited), <italic> +Memoires pour sevir a l'Histoire den Refugies Francais dans +les Etats du Roi de Prusse <end italic> (Berlin, 1782-1794), +8 tt. 8vo.] + +Certainly this Elector was one of the shiftiest of men. Not an +unjust man either. A pious, God-fearing man rather, stanch to his +Protestantism and his Bible; not unjust by any means,--nor, on the +other hand, by any means thick-skinned in his interpretings of +justice: Fair-play to myself always; or occasionally even the +Height of Fair-play! On the whole, by constant energy, vigilance, +adroit activity, by an ever-ready insight and audacity to seize +the passing fact by its right handle, he fought his way well in +the world; left Brandenburg a flourishing and greatly increased +Country, and his own name famous enough. + +A thick-set stalwart figure; with brisk eyes, and high strong +irregularly Roman nose. Good bronze Statue of him, by Schluter, +once a famed man, still rides on the LANGE-BRUCKE (Long-Bridge) at +Berlin; and his Portrait, in huge frizzled Louis-Quatorze wig, is +frequently met with in German Galleries. Collectors of Dutch +Prints, too, know him: here a gallant, eagle-featured little +gentleman, brisk in the smiles of youth, with plumes, with +truncheon, caprioling on his war-charger, view of tents in the +distance;--there a sedate, ponderous, wrinkly old man, eyes +slightly puckered (eyes BUSIER than mouth); a face well-ploughed +by Time, and not found unfruitful; one of the largest, most +laborious, potent faces (in an ocean of circumambient periwig) to +be met with in that Century. [Both Prints are Dutch; the Younger, +my copy of the Younger, has lost the Engraver's Name (Kurfurst's +age is twenty-seven); the Elder is by MASSON, 1633, when Friedrich +Wilhelm was sixty-three.] There are many Histories about him, too; +but they are not comfortable to read. [G. D. Geyler, <italic> +Leben und Thaten Friedrich Wihelms des Grossen <end italic> +(Frankfort and Leipzig, 1703), folio. Franz Horn, <italic> Das +Leben Friedrich Wilhelms des Grossen <end italic> (Berlin, 1814). +Pauli, <italic> Staats-Geschichte, <end italic> Band v. (Halle, +1764). Pufendorf, <italic> De rebus gestis Friderici Wilhelmi +Magni Electoris Brandenburgensis Commentaria <end italic> (Lips. +et Berol. 1733, fol.)] He also has wanted a sacred Poet; and found +only a bewildering Dryasdust. + +His Two grand Feats that dwell in the Prussian memory are perhaps +none of his greatest, but were of a kind to strike the +imagination. They both relate to what was the central problem of +his life,--the recovery of Pommern from the Swedes. Exploit First +is the famed "Battle of FEHRBELLIN (Ferry of BellEEN)," fought on +the 18th June, 1675. Fehrbellin is an inconsiderable Town still +standing in those peaty regions, some five-and-thirty miles +northwest of Berlin; and had for ages plied its poor Ferry over +the oily-looking, brown, sluggish stream called Rhin, or Rhein in +those parts, without the least notice from mankind, till this fell +out. It is a place of pilgrimage to patriotic Prussians, ever +since Friedrich Wilhelm's exploit there. The matter went thus:-- + +Friedrich Wilhelm was fighting, far south in Alsace, on Kaiser +Leopold's side, in the Louis-Fourteenth War; that second one, +which ended in the treaty of Nimwegen. Doing his best there,--when +the Swedes, egged on by Louis XIV., made war upon him; crossed the +Pomeranian marches, troop after troop, and invaded his Brandenburg +Territory with a force which at length amounted to some 16,000 +men. No help for the moment: Friedrich Wilhelm could not be spared +from his post. The Swedes, who had at first professed well, +gradually went into plunder, roving, harrying, at their own will; +and a melancholy time they made of it for Friedrich Wilhelm and +his People. Lucky if temporary harm were all the ill they were +likely to do; lucky if--! He stood steady, however; in his solid +manner, finishing the thing in hand first, since that was +feasible. He then even retired into winter-quarters, to rest his +men; and seemed to have left the Swedish 16,000 autocrats of the +situation; who accordingly went storming about at a great rate. + +Not so, however; very far indeed from so. Having rested his men +for certain months, Friedrich Wilhelm silently in the first days +of June (1675) gets them under march again; marches, his Cavalry +and he as first instalment, with best speed from Schweinfurt, +[Stenzel, ii. 347.] which is on the river Main, to Magdeburg; +a distance of two hundred miles. At Magdeburg, where he rests +three days, waiting for the first handful of foot and a field- +piece or two, he learns that the Swedes are in three parties wide +asunder; the middle party of them within forty miles of him. +Probably stronger, even this middle one, than his small body (of +"six thousand Horse, twelve hundred Foot and three guns");-- +stronger, but capable perhaps of being surprised, of being cut in +pieces, before the others can come up? Rathenau is the nearest +skirt of this middle party: thither goes the Kurfurst, softly, +swiftly, in the June night (16-17th June, 1675); gets into +Rathenau, by brisk stratagem; tumbles out the Swedish Horse- +regiment there, drives it back towards Fehrbellin. + +He himself follows hard;--swift riding enough, in the summer +night, through those damp Havel lands, in the old Hohenzollern +fashion: and indeed old Freisack Castle, as it chances,--Freisack, +scene of Dietrich von Quitzow and LAZY PEG long since,--is close +by! Follows hard, we say: strikes in upon this midmost party +(nearly twice his number, but Infantry for the most part); +and after fierce fight, done with good talent on both sides, cuts +it into utter ruin, as proposed. Thereby he has left the Swedish +Army as a mere head and tail WITHOUT body; has entirely demolished +the Swedish Army. [Stenzel, ii. 350-357.] Same feat intrinsically +as that done by Cromwell, on Hamilton and the Scots, in 1648. +It was, so to speak, the last visit Sweden paid to Brandenburg, or +the last of any consequence; and ended the domination of the +Swedes in those quarters. A thing justly to be forever remembered +by Brandenburg;--on a smallish modern scale, the Bannockburn, +Sempach, Marathon, of Brandenburg. [See Pauli, v. 161-169; +Stenzel, ii. 335, 340-347, 354; Kausler, <italic> Atlas des +plus memorables Batailles, Combats et Sieges, <end italic> or +<italic> Atlas der merkwurdigsten Schlachten, Treffen und +Belagerungen <end italic> (German and French, Carlsruhe and +Freiburg, 1831), p. 417, Blatt 62.] + +Exploit Second was four years later; in some sort a corollary to +this; and a winding-up of the Swedish business. The Swedes, in +farther prosecution of their Louis-Fourteenth speculation, had +invaded Preussen this time, and were doing sad havoc there. It was +in the dead of winter, Christmas, 1678, more than four hundred +miles off; and the Swedes, to say nothing of their other havoc, +were in a case to take Konigsberg, and ruin Prussia altogether, if +not prevented. Friedrich Wilhelm starts from Berlin, with the +opening Year, on his long march; the Horse-troops first, Foot to +follow at their swiftest; he himself (his Wife, his ever-true +"Louisa," accompanying, as her wont was) travels, towards the end, +at the rate of "sixty miles a day." He gets in still in time, +finds Konigsberg unscathed. Nay it is even said, the Swedes are +extensively falling sick; having, after a long famine, found +infinite "pigs, near Insterburg," in those remote regions, and +indulged in the fresh pork overmuch. + +I will not describe the subsequent manoeuvres, which would +interest nobody: enough if I say that on the 16th of January, +1679, it had become of the highest moment for Friedrich Wilhelm to +get from Carwe (Village near Elbing) on the shore of the FRISCHE +HAF, where he was, through Konigsberg, to Gilge on the CURISCHE +HAF, where the Swedes are,--in a minimum of time. Distance, as the +crow flies, is about a hundred miles; road, which skirts the two +HAFS [Pauli, v. 215-222; Stenzel, ii. 392-397.] (wide shallow +WASHES, as we should name them), is of rough quality, and +naturally circuitous. It is ringing frost to-day, and for days +back:--Friedrich Wilhelm hastily gathers all the sledges, all the +horses of the district; mounts some four thousand men in sledges; +starts, with the speed of light, in that fashion. Scours along all +day, and after the intervening bit of land, again along; awakening +the ice-bound silences. Gloomy Frische Haf, wrapt in its Winter +cloud-coverlids, with its wastes of tumbled sand, its poor frost- +bound fishing-hamlets, pine-hillocks,--desolate-looking, stern as +Greenland or more so, says Busching, who travelled there in +winter-time, [Busching's <italic> Beitrage <end italic> (Halle, +1789), vi. 160.]--hears unexpected human noises, and huge grinding +and trampling; the four thousand, in long fleet of sledges, +scouring across it, in that manner. All day they rush along,--out +of the rimy hazes of morning into the olive-colored clouds of +evening again,--with huge loud-grinding rumble;--and do arrive in +time at Gilge. A notable streak of things, shooting across those +frozen solitudes, in the New-Year, 1679;--little short of Karl +Gustav's feat, which we heard of, in the other or Danish end of +the Baltic, twenty years ago, when he took Islands without ships. + +This Second Exploit--suggested or not by that prior one of Karl +Gustav on the ice--is still a thing to be remembered by +Hohenzollerns and Prussians. The Swedes were beaten here, on +Friedrich Wilhelm's rapid arrival; were driven into disastrous +rapid retreat Northward; which they executed, in hunger and cold; +fighting continually, like Northern bears, under the grim sky; +Friedrich Wilhelm sticking to their skirts,--holding by their +tail, like an angry bear-ward with steel whip in his hand. A thing +which, on the small scale, reminds one of Napoleon's experiences. +Not till Napoleon's huge fighting-flight, a hundred and thirty- +four years after, did I read of such a transaction in those parts. +The Swedish invasion of Preussen has gone utterly to ruin. + +And this, then, is the end of Sweden, and its bad neighborhood on +these shores, where it has tyrannously sat on our skirts so long? +Swedish Pommern the Elector already had: last year, coming towards +it ever since the Exploit of Fehrbellin, he had invaded Swedish +Pommern; had besieged and taken Stettin, nay Stralsund too, where +Wallenstein had failed;--cleared Pommern altogether of its Swedish +guests. Who had tried next in Preussen, with what luck we see. +Of Swedish Pommern the Elector might now say: "Surely it is mine; +again mine, as it long was; well won a second time, since the +first would not do!" But no:--Louis XIV. proved a gentleman to his +Swedes. Louis, now that the Peace of Nimwegen had come, and only +the Elector of Brandenburg was still in harness, said steadily, +though anxious enough to keep well with the Elector: "They are my +allies, these Swedes; it was on my bidding they invaded you: can I +leave them in such a pass? It must not be!" So Pommern had to be +given back. A miss which was infinitely grievous to Friedrich +Wilhelm. The most victorious Elector cannot hit always, were his +right never so good. + +Another miss which he had to put up with, in spite of his rights, +and his good services, was that of the Silesian Duchies. +The Heritage-Fraternity with Liegnitz had at length, in 1675, come +to fruit. The last Duke of Liegnitz was dead: Duchies of Liegnitz, +of Brieg, Wohlau, are Brandenburg's, if there were right done! +But Kaiser Leopold in the scarlet stockings will not hear of +Heritage-Fraternity. "Nonsense!" answers Kaiser Leopold: "A thing +suppressed at once, ages ago; by Imperial power: flat ZERO of a +thing at this time;--and you, I again bid you, return me your +Papers upon it!" This latter act of duty Friedrich Wilhelm would +not do; but continued insisting. [Pauli, v. 321.] "Jagerndorf at +least, O Kaiser of the world," said he; "Jagerndorf, there is no +color for your keeping that!" To which the Kaiser again answers, +"Nonsense!"--and even falls upon astonishing schemes about it, as +we shall see;--but gives nothing. Ducal Preussen is sovereign, +Cleve is at Peace, Hinter-Pommern ours;--this Elector has +conquered much: but the Silesian Heritages and Vor-Pommern, and +some other things, he will have to do without. Louis XIV., it is +thought, once offered to get him made King; [Ib. vii. 215.] but +that he declined for the present. + +His married and domestic life is very fine and human; especially +with that Oranien-Nassau Princess, who was his first Wife +(1646-1667); Princess Louisa of Nassau-Orange; Aunt to our own +Dutch William, King William III., in time coming. An excellent +wise Princess; from whom came the Orange Heritages, which +afterwards proved difficult to settle:--Orange was at last +exchanged for the small Principality of Neufchatel in Switzerland, +which is Prussia's ever since. "Oranienburg (ORANGE-BURG)," a +Royal Country-house, still standing, some twenty miles northwards +from Berlin, was this Louisa's place: she had trimmed it up into a +little jewel, of the Dutch type,--potherb gardens, training- +schools for young girls, and the like;--a favorite abode of hers, +when she was at liberty for recreation. But her life was busy and +earnest: she was helpmate, not in name only, to an ever-busy man. +They were married young; a marriage of love withal. +Young Friedrich Wilhelm's courtship, wedding in Holland; +the honest trustful walk and conversation of the two Sovereign +Spouses, their journeyings together, their mutual hopes, fears and +manifold vicissitudes; till Death, with stern beauty, shut it in: +--all is human, true and wholesome in it; interesting to look +upon, and rare among sovereign persons. + +Not but that he had his troubles with his womankind. Even with +this his first Wife, whom he loved truly, and who truly loved him, +there were scenes; the Lady having a judgment of her own about +everything that passed, and the Man being choleric withal. +Sometimes, I have heard, "he would dash his hat at her feet," +saying symbolically, "Govern you, then, Madam! Not the +Kurfurst-Hat; a Coif is my wear, it seems!" [Forster, <italic> +Friedrich Wilhelm I. Konig von Preussen <end italic> (Potsdam, +1834), i. 177.] Yet her judgment was good; and he liked to have it +on the weightiest things, though her powers of silence might halt +now and then. He has been known, on occasion, to run from his +Privy-Council to her apartment, while a complex matter was +debating, to ask her opinion, hers too, before it was decided. +Excellent Louisa; Princess full of beautiful piety, good-sense and +affection; a touch of the Nassau-Heroic in her. At the moment of +her death, it is said, when speech had fled, he felt, from her +hand which lay in his, three slight, slight pressures: "Farewell!" +thrice mutely spoken in that manner,--not easy to forget in this +world. [Wegfuhrer, <italic> Leben der Kurfurstin Luise <end +italic> (Leipzig, 1838), p. 175.] + +His second Wife, Dorothea,--who planted the Lindens in Berlin, and +did other husbandries, of whom we have heard, fell far short of +Louisa in many things; but not in tendency to advise, to +remonstrate, and plaintively reflect on the finished and +unalterable. Dreadfully thrifty lady, moreover; did much in dairy +produce, farming of town-rates, provision-taxes: not to speak +again of that Tavern she was thought to have in Berlin, and to +draw custom to in an oblique manner! What scenes she had with +Friedrich her stepson, we have seen. "Ah, I have not my Louisa +now; to whom now shall I run for advice or help!" would the poor +Kurfurst at times exclaim. + +He had some trouble, considerable trouble now and then, with +mutinous spirits in Preussen; men standing on antique Prussian +franchises and parchments; refusing to see that the same were now +antiquated, incompatible, not to say impossible, as the new +Sovereign alleged; and carrying themselves very stiffly at times. +But the Hohenzollerns had been used to such things; a Hohenzollern +like this one would evidently take his measures, soft but strong, +and ever stronger to the needful pitch, with mutinous spirits. +One Burgermeister of Konigsberg, after much stroking on the back, +was at length seized in open Hall, by Electoral writ,--soldiers +having first gently barricaded the principal streets, and brought +cannon to bear upon them. This Burgermeister, seized in such brief +way, lay prisoner for life; refusing to ask his liberty, though it +was thought he might have had it on asking. [Horn, <italic> Das +Leben Friedrich Wilhelms des Grossen <end italic> (Berlin, 1814), +p. 68.] + +Another gentleman, a Baron von Kalkstein, of old Teutsch-Bitter +kin, of very high ways, in the Provincial Estates (STANDE) and +elsewhere, got into lofty almost solitary opposition, and at +length into mutiny proper, against the new "Non-Polish SOVEREIGN," +and flatly refused to do homage at his accession in that new +capacity. [Supra, pp. 383, et seqq.] Refused, Kalkstein did, for +his share; fled to Warsaw; and very fiercely, in a loud manner, +carried on his mutinies in the Diets and Court-Conclaves there; +his plea being, or plea for the time, "Poland is our liege lord +[which it was not always], and we cannot be transferred to you, +except by our consent asked and given," which too had been a +little neglected on the former occasion of transfer. So that the +Great Elector knew not what to do with Kalkstein; and at length +(as the case was pressing) had him kidnapped by his Ambassador at +Warsaw; had him "rolled into a carpet" there, and carried swiftly +in the Ambassador's coach, in the form of luggage, over the +frontier, into his native Province, there to be judged, and, in +the end (since nothing else would serve him), to have the sentence +executed, and his head cut off. For the case was pressing! [Horn, +pp. 80-82.]--These things, especially this of Kalkstein, with a +boisterous Polish Diet and parliamentary eloquence in the rear of +him, gave rise to criticism; and required management on the part +of the Great Elector. + +Of all his Ancestors, our little Fritz, when he grew big, admired +this oue. A man made like himself in many points. He seems really +to have loved and honored this one. In the year 1750 there had +been a new Cathedral got finished at Berlin; the ancestral bones +had to be shifted over from the vaults of the old one,--the +burying-place ever since Joachim II., that Joachim who drew his +sword on Alba. "King Friedrich, with some attendants, witnessed +the operation, January, 1750. When the Great Kurfurst's coffin +came, he made them open it; gazed in silence on the features for +some time, which were perfectly recognizable; laid his hand on the +hand long dead, and said, <italic> 'Messieurs, celui-ci a fait de +grandes choses <end italic> (This one did a great work)!'" [See +Preuss, i. 270.] + +He died 29th April, 1688;--looking with intense interest upon +Dutch William's preparations to produce a Glorious Revolution in +this Island; being always of an ardent Protestant feeling, and a +sincerely religious man. Friedrich, Crown-Prince, age then +thirty-one, and already married a second time, was of course left +Chief Heir;--who, as we see, has not declined the Kingship, when a +chance for it offered. There were four Half-brothers of Friedrich, +too, who got apanages, appointments. They had at one time +confidently looked for much more, their Mother being busy; +but were obliged to be content, and conform to the GERA BOND and +fundamental Laws of the Country. They are entitled Margraves; +two of whom left children, Margraves of Brandenburg-Schwedt, +HEERMEISTERS (Head of the Malta-Knighthood) at Sonnenburg, +Statthalters in Magdeburg, or I know not what; whose names turn up +confusedly in the Prussian Books; and, except as temporary +genealogical puzzles, are not of much moment to the Foreign +reader. Happily there is nothing else in the way of Princes of the +Blood, in our little Friedrich's time; and happily what concern he +had with these, or how he was related to them, will not be +abstruse to us, if occasion rise. + + + +Chapter XIX. + +KING FRIEDRICH I. AGAIN. + +We said the Great Elector never could work his Silesian Duchies +out of Kaiser Leopold's grip: to all his urgencies the little +Kaiser in red stockings answered only in evasions, refusals; +and would quit nothing. We noticed also what quarrels the young +Electoral Prince, Friedrich, afterwards King, had got into with +his Stepmother; suddenly feeling poisoned after dinner, running to +his Aunt at Cassel, coming back on treaty, and the like. These are +two facts which the reader knows: and out of these two grew a +third, which it is fit he should know. + +In his last years, the Great Elector, worn out with labor, and +harassed with such domestic troubles over and above, had evidently +fallen much under his Wife's management; cutting out large +apanages (clear against the GERA BOND) for her children;--longing +probably for quiet in his family at any price. As to the poor +young Prince, negotiated back from Cassel, he lived remote, and +had fallen into open disfavor,--with a very ill effect upon his +funds, for one thing. His father kept him somewhat tight on the +money-side, it is alleged; and he had rather a turn for spending +money handsomely. He was also in some alarm about the proposed +apanages to his Half-brothers, the Margraves above mentioned, of +which there were rumors going. + + +HOW AUSTRIA SETTLED THE SILESIAN CLAIMS. + +Now in these circumstances the Austrian Court, who at this time +(1685) greatly needed the Elector's help against Turks and others, +and found him very urgent about these Silesian Duchies of his, +fell upon what I must call a very extraordinary shift for getting +rid of the Silesian question. "Serene Highness," said they, by +their Ambassador at Berlin, "to end these troublesome talks, and +to liquidate all claims, admissible and inadmissible, about +Silesia, the Imperial Majesty will give you an actual bit of +Territory, valuable, though not so large as you expected!" +The Elector listens with both ears: What Territory, then? +The "Circle of Schwiebus," hanging on the northwestern edge of +Silesia, contiguous to the Elector's own Dominions in these +Frankfurt-on-Oder regions: this the generous Imperial Majesty +proposes to give in fee-simple to Friedrich Wilhelm, and so to end +the matter. Truly a most small patch of Territory in comparison; +not bigger than an English Rutlandshire, to say nothing of soil +and climate! But then again it was an actual patch of territory; +not a mere parchment shadow of one: this last was a tempting point +to the old harassed Elector. Such friendly offer they made him, +I think, in 1685, at the time they were getting 8,000 of his +troops to march against the Turks for them; a very needful service +at the moment. "By the bye, do not march through Silesia, you!-- +Or march faster!" said the cautious Austrians on this occasion: +"Other roads will answer better than Silesia!" said they. [Pauli, +v. 327, 332.] Baron Freytag, their Ambassador at Berlin, had +negotiated the affair so far: "Circle of Schwiebus," said Freytag, +"and let us have done with these thorny talks!" + +But Baron Freytag had been busy, in the mean while, with the young +Prince; secretly offering Sympathy, counsel, help; of all which +the poor Prince stood in need enough. "We will help you in that +dangerous matter of the Apanages," said Freytag; "Help you in all +things,"--I suppose he would say,--"necessary pocket-money is not +a thing your Highness need want!" And thus Baron Freytag, what is +very curious, had managed to bargain beforehand with the young +Prince, That directly on coming to power, he would give up +Schwiebus again, SHOULD the offer of Schwiebus be accepted by +Papa. To which effect Baron Freytag held a signed Bond, duly +executed by the young man, before Papa had concluded at all. +Which is very curious indeed!-- + +Poor old Papa, worn out with troubles, accepted Schwiebus in +liquidation of all claims (8th April, 1686), and a few days after +set his men on march against the Turks:--and, exactly two months +beforehand, on the 8th of February last, the Prince had signed HIS +secret engagement, That Schwiebus should be a mere phantasm to +Papa; that he, the Prince, would restore it on his accession. +Both these singular Parcbments, signed, sealed and done in the due +legal form, lay simultaneously in Freytag's hand; and probably +enough they exist yet, in some dusty corner, among the solemn +sheepskins of the world. This is literally the plan hit upon +by an Imperial Court, to assist a young Prince in his pecuniary +and other difllculties, and get rid of Silesian claims. +Plan actually not unlike that of swindling money-lenders to a +young gentleman in difficulties, and of manageable turn, who has +got into their hands. + +The Great Elector died two years after; Schwiebus then in his +hand. The new Elector, once instructed as to the nature of the +affair, refused to give up Schwiebus; [19th September, 1689 +Pauli, vii. 74).] declared the transaction a swindle:--and in +fact, for seven years more, retained possession of Schwiebus. +But the Austrian Court insisted, with emphasis, at length with +threats (no insuperable pressure from Louis, or the Turks, at this +time); the poor cheated Elector had, at last, to give up +Schwiebus, in terms of his promise. [31st December, 1694.] He took +act that it had been a surreptitious transaction, palmed upon him +while ignorant, and while without the least authority or power to +make such a promise; that he was not bound by it, nor would be, +except on compulsion thus far: and as to binding Brandenburg by +it, how could he, at that period of his history, bind Brandenburg? +Brandenburg was not then his to bind, any more than China was. + +His Raths had advised Friedrich against giving up Schwiebus in +that manner. But his answer is on record: "I must, I will and +shall keep my own word. But my rights on Silesia, which I could +not, and do not in these unjust circumstances, compromise, I leave +intact for my posterity to prosecute. If God and the course of +events order it no otherwise than now, we must be content. But if +God shall one day send the opportunity, those that come after me +will know what they have to do in such case." [Pauli, vii. 150.] +And so Schwiebus was given up, the Austrians paying back what +Brandenburg had laid out in improving it, "250,000 GULDEN (25,000 +pounds);"--and the Hand of Power had in this way, finally as it +hoped, settled an old troublesome account of Brandenburg's. +Settled the Silesian-Duchies Claim, by the temporary Phantasm of a +Gift of Schwiebus. That is literally the Liegnitz-Jagerndorf case; +and the reader is to note it and remember it. For it will turn up +again in History. The Hand of Power is very strong: but a stronger +may perhaps get hold of its knuckles one day, at an advantageous +time, and do a feat upon it. + +The "eventual succession to East Friesland," which had been +promised by the Reich, some ten years ago, to the Great Elector, +"for what he had done against the Turks, and what he had suffered +from those Swedish Invasions, in the Common Cause:" this shadow of +Succession, the Kaiser now said, should not be haggled with any +more; but be actually realized, and the Imperial sanction to it +now given,--effect to follow IF the Friesland Line died out. +Let this be some consolation for the loss of Schwiebus and your +Silesian Duchies. Here in Friesland is the ghost of a coming +possession; there in Schwiebus was the ghost of a going one: +phantasms you shall not want for; but the Hand of Power parts not +with its realities, however come by. + + +HIS REAL CHARACTER. + +Poor Friedrich led a conspicuous life as Elector and King; but no +public feat he did now concerns us like this private one of +Schwiebus. Historically important, this, and requiring to be +remembered, while so much else demands mere oblivion from us. +He was a spirited man; did soldierings, fine Siege of Bonn +(July-October, 1689), sieges and campaignings, in person,--valiant +in action, royal especially in patience there,--during that Third +War of Louis-Fourteenth's, the Treaty-of-Ryswick one. All through +the Fourth, or Spanish Succession-War, his Prussian Ten-Thousand, +led by fit generals, showed eminently what stuff they were made +of. Witness Leopold of Anhalt-Dessau (still a YOUNG Dessauer) on +the field of Blenheim;--Leopold had the right wing there, and +saved Prince Eugene who was otherwise blown to pieces, while +Marlborough stormed and conquered on the left. Witness the same +Dessauer on the field of Hochstadt the year before, [Varnhagen von +Ense, <italic> Biographische Denkmale <end italic> (Berlin, 1845), +ii, 155.] how he managed the retreat there. Or see him at the +Bridge of Cassano (1705); in the Lines of Turin (1706); [<italic> +Des weltberuhnden Furstens Leopoldi von Anhult-Dessau Leben und +Thaten <end italic> (Leipzig, 1742, anonymous, by one MICHAEL +RANFFT), pp. 53, 61.] wherever hot service was on hand. +At Malplaquet, in those murderous inexpugnable French Lines, +bloodiest of obstinate Fights (upwards of thirty thousand left on +the ground), the Prussians brag that it was they who picked their +way through a certain peat-bog, reckoned impassable; and got +fairly in upon the French wing,--to the huge comfort of +Marlborough, and little Eugene his brisk comrade on that occasion. +Marlborough knew well the worth of these Prussian troops, and also +how to stroke his Majesty into continuing them in the field. + +He was an expensive King, surrounded by cabals, by Wartenbergs +male and female, by whirlpools of intrigues, which, now that the +game is over, become very forgettable. But one finds he was a +strictly honorable man; with a certain height and generosity of +mind, capable of other nobleness than the upholstery kind. He had +what we may call a hard life of it; did and suffered a good deal +in his day and generation, not at all in a dishonest or unmanful +manner. In fact, he is quite recognizably a Hohenzollern,--with +his back half broken. Readers recollect that sad accident: how the +Nurse, in one of those headlong journeys which his Father and +Mother were always making, let the poor child fall or jerk +backward; and spoiled him much, and indeed was thought to have +killed him, by that piece of inattention. He was not yet +Hereditary Prince, he was only second son: but the elder died; +and he became Elector, King; and had to go with his spine +distorted,--distortion not glaringly conspicuous, though +undeniable;--and to act the Hohenzollern SO. Nay who knows but it +was this very jerk, and the half-ruin of his nervous system,--this +doubled wish to be beautiful, and this crooked back capable of +being hid or decorated into straightness,--that first set the poor +man on thinking of expensive ornamentalities, and Kingships in +particular? History will forgive the Nurse in that case. + +Perhaps History has dwelt too much on the blind side of this +expensive King. Toland, on entering his country, was struck rather +with the signs of good administration everywhere. No sooner have +you crossed the Prussian Border, out of Westphalia, says Toland, +than smooth highways, well-tilled fields, and a general air of +industry and regularity, are evident: solid milestones, +brass-bound, and with brass inscription, tell the traveller where +he is; who finds due guidance of finger-posts, too, and the +blessing of habitable inns. The people seem all to be busy, +diligently occupied; villages reasonably swept and whitewashed;-- +never was a better set of Parish Churches; whether new-built or +old, they are all in brand-new repair. The contrast with +Westphalia is immediate and great; but indeed that was a sad +country, to anybody but a patient Toland, who knows the causes of +phenomena. No inns there, except of the naturally savage sort. +"A man is very happy if he finds clean straw to sleep on, without +expecting sheets or coverings; let him readily dispense with +plates, forks and napkins, if he can get anything to eat. . . . +He must be content to have the cows, swine and poultry for his +fellow-lodgers, and to go in at the same passage that the smoke +comes out at, for there's no other vent for it but the door; +which makes foreigners commonly say that the people of Westphalia +enter their houses by the chimney." And observe withal: "This is +the reason why their beef and hams are so finely prepared and +ripened; for the fireplace being backwards, the smoke must spread +over all the house before it gets to the door; which makes +everything within of a russet or sable color, not excepting the +hands and faces of the meaner sort." [<italic> An Account of the +Courts of Prussia and Hanover, <end italic> by Mr. Toland (cited +already), p. 4.] If Prussia yield to Westphalia in ham, in all +else she is strikingly superior. + +He founded Universities, this poor King; University of Halle; +Royal Academy of Berlin, Leibnitz presiding: he fought for +Protestantism;--did what he could for the cause of Cosmos VERSUS +Chaos, after his fashion. The magnificences of his +Charlottenburgs, Oranienburgs and numerous Country-houses make +Toland almost poetic. An affable kindly man withal, though quick +of temper; his word sacred to him. A man of many troubles, and +acquainted with "the infinitely little (L'INFINIMENT PETIT)," +as his Queen termed it. + + + +Chapter XX. + +DEATH OF KING FRIEDRICH I. + +Old King Friedrich I. had not much more to do in the world, after +witnessing the christening of his Grandson of like name. +His leading forth or sending forth of troops, his multiplex +negotiations, solemn ceremonials, sad changes of ministry, +sometimes transacted "with tears," are mostly ended; +the ever-whirling dust-vortex of intrigues, of which he has been +the centre for a five-and-twenty years, is settling down finally +towards everlasting rest. No more will Marlborough come and +dexterously talk him over,--proud to "serve as cupbearer," on +occasion, to so high a King--for new bodies of men to help in the +next campaign: we have ceased to be a King worthy of such a +cupbearer, and Marlborough's campaigns too are all ended. + +Much is ended. They are doing the sorrowful Treaty of Utrecht; +Louis XIV. himself is ending; mournfully shrunk into the corner, +with his Missal and his Maintenon; looking back with just horror +on Europe four times set ablaze for the sake of one poor mortal in +big periwig, to no purpose. Lucky if perhaps Missal-work, orthodox +litanies, and even Protestant Dragonnades, can have virtue to wipe +out such a score against a man! Unhappy Louis: the sun-bright gold +has become dim as copper; we rose in storms, and we are setting +in watery clouds. The Kaiser himself (Karl VI., Leopold's Son, +Joseph I.'s younger Brother) will have to conform to this Treaty +of Utrecht: what other possibility for him? + +The English, always a wonderful Nation, fought and subsidied from +side to side of Europe for this Spanish-Suceession business; +fought ten years, such fighting as they never did before or since, +under "John Duke of Marlborough," who, as is well known, "beat the +French thorough and thorough." French entirely beaten at last, not +without heroic difficulty and as noble talent as was ever shown in +diplomacy and war, are ready to do your will in all things; +in this of giving up Spain, among others:--whereupon the English +turn round, with a sudden new thought, "No, we will not have our +WILL done; it shall be the other way, the way it WAS,--now that +we bethink ourselves, after all this fighting for our will!" +And make Peace on those terms, as if no war had been; and accuse +the great Marlborough of many things, of theft for one. +A wonderful People; and in their Continental Politics (which +indeed consist chiefly of Subsidies) thrice wonderful. So the +Treaty of Utrecht is transacting itself; which that of Rastadt, +on the part of Kaiser and Empire, unable to get on without +Subsidies, will have to follow: and after such quantities of +powder burnt, and courageous lives wasted, general AS-YOU-WERE is +the result arrived at. + +Old Friedrich's Ambassadors are present at Utrecht, jangling and +pleading among the rest; at Berlin too the despatch of business +goes lumbering on; but what thing, in the shape of business, at +Utrecht or at Berlin, is of much importance to the old man? +Seems as if Enrope itself were waxing dim, and sinking to stupid +sleep,--as we, in our poor royal person, full surely are. A Crown +has been achieved, and diamond buttons worth 1,500 pounds apiece; +but what is a Crown, and what are buttons, after all?--I suppose +the tattle and SINGERIES of little Wilhelmina, whom he would spend +whole days with; this and occasional visits to a young Fritzchen's +cradle, who is thriving moderately, and will speak and do aperies +one day,--are his main solacements in the days that are passing. +Much of this Friedrich's life has gone off like the smoke of +fire-works, has faded sorrowfully, and proved phantasmal. Here is +an old Autograph Note, written by him at the side of that Cradle, +and touching on a slight event there; which, as it connects two +venerable Correspondents and their Seventeenth Century with a +grand Phenomenon of the Eighteenth, we will insert here. The old +King addresses his older Mother-in-law, famed Electress Sophie of +Hanover, in these terms (spelling corrected):-- + +"CHARLOTTENBURG, den 30 August, 1712. + + "Ew. Churf. Durchlaucht werden sich zweifelsohne mit uns +erfreuen, dass der kleine Printz (PRINZ) Fritz nuhnmero (NUNMEHR) +6 Zehne (ZAHNE) hat und ohne die geringste incommoditet (-TAT). +Daraus kann man auch die PREDESTINATION sehen, dass alle seine +Bruder haben daran sterben mussen, dieser aber bekommt sie ohne +Muhe wie seine Schwester. Gott erhalte ihn uns noch lange zum +trohst (TROST), in dessen Schutz ich dieselbe ergebe und +lebenslang verbleibe, + + "Ew. Churf. Durchl. gehorsamster Diener und treuer Sohn, + +"FRIEDRICH R." + +[Preuss, <italic> Friedrich der Grosse (Historische Skizze, <end +italic> Berlin, 1838), p. 380. + +Of which this is the literal English:-- + "Your Electoral Serenity will doubtless rejoice with us that the +little Prince Fritz has now got his sixth tooth without the least +INCOMMODITE. And therein we may trace a pre-destination, inasmuch +as his Brothers died of teething [<italic> Not of cannon-sound and +weight of head-gear, then, your Majesty thinks? That were a +painful thought? <end italic>]; and this one, as his Sister +[WILHELMINA] did, gets them [THE TEETH] without trouble. +God preserve him long for a comfort to us:--to whose protection +I commit DIESELBE [<italic> Your Electoral Highness, in the third +person <end italic>], and remain lifelong, + + "Your Electoral Highness's most obedient Servant and true Son, + +"FRIEDRICH REX." + +One of Friedrich Rex's worst adventures was his latest; commenced +some five or six years ago (1708), and now not far from +terminating. He was a Widower, of weakly constitution, towards +fifty: his beautiful ingenious "Serena," with all her Theologies, +pinch-of-snuff Coronations and other earthly troubles, was dead; +and the task of continuing the Hohenzollern progeny, given over to +Friedrich Wilhelm the Prince Royal, was thought to be in good +hands. Majesty Friedrich with the weak back had retired, in 1708, +to Karlsbad, to rest from his cares; to take the salutary waters, +and recruit his weak nerves a little. Here, in the course of +confidential promenadings, it was hinted, it was represented to +him by some pickthank of a courtier, That the task of continuing +the Hohenzollern progeny did not seem to prosper in the present +good hands; that Sophie Dorothee, Princess Royal, had already +borne two royal infants which had speedily died: that in fact it +was to be gathered from the medical men, if not from their words, +then from their looks and cautious innuendoes, that Sophie +Dorothee, Princess Royal, would never produce a Prince or even +Princess that would live; which task, therefore, did now again +seem to devolve upon his Majesty, if his Majesty had not +insuperable objections? Majesty had no insuperable objections; +old Majesty listened to the flattering tale; and, sure enough, he +smarted for it in a signal manner. + +By due industry, a Princess was fixed upon for Bride, Princess +Sophie Louisa of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, age now twenty-four: +she was got as Wife, and came home to Berlin in all pomp;--but +good came not with her to anybody there. Not only did she bring +the poor old man no children, which was a fault to be overlooked, +considering Sophie Dorothee's success; but she brought a +querulous, weak and self-sufficient female humor; found his +religion heterodox,--he being Calvinist, and perhaps even +lax-Calvinist, she Lutheran as the Prussian Nation is, and strict +to the bone:--heterodox wholly, to the length of no salvation +possible; and times rose on the Berlin Court such as had never +been seen before! "No salvation possible, says my Dearest? Hah! +And an innocent Court-Mask or Dancing Soiree is criminal in the +sight of God and of the Queen? And we are children of wrath +wholly, and a frivolous generation; and the Queen will see +us all--!" + +The end was, his Majesty, through sad solitary days and nights, +repented bitterly that he had wedded such a She-Dominic; +grew quite estranged from her; the poor She-Dominic giving him due +return in her way,--namely, living altogether in her own +apartments, upon orthodoxy, jealousy and other bad nourishment. +Till at length she went quite mad; and, except the due medical and +other attendants, nobody saw her, or spoke of her, at Berlin. +Was this a cheering issue of such an adventure to the poor old +expensive Gentleman? He endeavored to digest in silence the bitter +morsel he had cooked for himself; but reflected often, as an old +King might, What dirt have I eaten! + +In this way stands that matter in the Schloss of Berlin, when +little Friedrich, who will one day be called the Great, is born. +Habits of the expensive King, hours of rising, modes of dressing, +and so forth, are to be found in Pollnitz; [Pollnitz, <italic> +Memoiren zur Lebens- und Regierungs-Geschichte der Vier letzten +Regenten des Preussischen Staats <end italic> (Berlin, 1791). +A vague, inexact, but not quite uninstructive or uninteresting +Book: Printed also in FRENCH, which was the Original, same place +and time.] but we charitably omit them all. Even from foolish +Pollnitz a good eye will gather, what was above intimated, that +this feeble-backed, heavy-laden old King was of humane and just +disposition; had dignity in his demeanor; had reticence, patience; +and, though hot-tempered like all the Hohenzollerns, that he bore +himself like a perfect gentleman for one thing; and tottered along +his high-lying lonesome road not in an unmanful manner at all. +Had not his nerves been damaged by that fall in infancy, who knows +but we might have had something else to read of him than that he +was regardless of expense in this world! + +His last scene, of date February, 1713, is the tragical ultimatum +of that fine Karlsbad adventure of the Second marriage,--Third +marriage, in fact, though the First, anterior to "Serena," is apt +to be forgotten, having lasted short while, and produced only a +Daughter, not memorable except by accident. This Third marriage, +which had brought so many sorrows to him, proved at length the +death of the old man. For he sat one morning, in the chill +February days of the Year 1713, in his Apartment, as usual; +weak of nerves, but thinking no special evil; when, suddenly with +huge jingle, the glass door of his room went to sherds; and there +rushed in--bleeding and dishevelled, the fatal "White Lady" +(WEISSE FRAU), who is understood to walk that Schloss at Berlin, +and announce Death to the Boyal inhabitants. Majesty had fainted, +or was fainting. "Weisse Frau? Oh no, your Majesty!"--not that; +but indeed something almost worse.--Mad Queen, in her Apartments, +had been seized, that day, when half or quarter dressed; +with unusual orthodoxy or unusual jealousy. Watching her +opportunity, she had whisked into the corridor, in extreme +deshabille; and gone, like the wild roe, towards Majesty's Suite +of Rooms; through Majesty's glass door, like a catapult; +and emerged as we saw,--in petticoat and shift, with hair +streaming, eyes glittering, arms cut, and the other sad trimmings. +O Heaven, who could laugh? There are tears due to Kings and to all +men. It was deep misery; deep enough "SIN and misery," as Calvin +well says, on the one side and the other! The poor old King was +carried to bed; and never rose again, but died in a few days. +The date of the WEISSE FRAU'S death, one might have hoped, was not +distant either; but she lasted, in her sad state, for above twenty +years coming. + +Old King Friedrich's death-day was 25th February, 1713; +the unconscious little Grandson being then in his Fourteenth +month. To whom, after this long, voyage round the world, we now +gladly return. + +* By way of reinforcement to any recollection the reader may have +of these Twelve Hohenzollern Kurfursts, I will append a continuous +list of them, with here and there an indication. + + +THE TWELVE HOHENZOLLERN ELECTORS. + +1. FRIEDRICH I. (as Burggraf, was Friedrich VI.): born, it is +inferred, 1372 (Rentsch, p. 350); accession, 18th April, 1417; +died 21st September, 1440. Had come to Brandenburg, 1412, as +Statthalter. The Quitzows and HEAVY PEG. +2. FRIEDRICH II.: 19th November, 1413; 21st September, 1440; +10th February, 1472. Friedrich IRONTEETH; tames the Berlin +Burghers. Spoke Polish, was to have been Polish King. Cannon-shot +upon his dinner-table shatters his nerves so, that he abdicates, +and soon dies. JOHANNES ALCHYMISTA his elder Brother; ALBERT +ACHILLES his younger. +3. ALBERT (Achilles): 24th November, 1414; 10th February, 1471; +11th March, 1486. Third son of Friedrich I.; is lineal Progenitor +of all the rest. + Eldest Son, JOHANN CICERO, follows as Kurfurst; a Younger Son, +FRIEDRICH (by a different Mother), got Culmbach, and produced the +Elder Line there. (See Genealogical Diagram.) +4. JOHANN (Cicero): 2d August, 1455; 11th March, 1486; 9th +January, 1499. Big John. Friedrich of Culmbach's elder (Half-) +Brother. +5. JOACHIM I.: 21st February, 1484; 9th January, 1499; 11th July, +1535. Loud in the Reformation times; finally declares peremptorily +for the Conservative side. Wife (Sister of Christian II. of +Denmark) runs away. + Younger Brother Albert Kur-Mainz, whom Hutten celebrated; born +1490; Archbishop of Magdeburg and Halberstadt 1513, of Maim 1514; +died 1545: set Tetzel, and the Indulgence, on foot. +6. JOACHIM II. (Hector): 9th January, 1505; 11th July, 1535; +3d January, 1571. Sword drawn on Alba once. ERBVERBRUDERUNG with +Liegnitz. Staircase at Grimnitz. A weighty industrious Kurfurst. + Declared himself Protestant, 1539. First Wife (mother of his +Successor) was Daughter to Duke George of Saxony, Luther's "If it +rained Duke Georges."--Johann of Custrin was a younger Brother of +his: died ten days after Joachim; left no Son. +7. JOHANN GEORGE: 11th September, 1525; 3d January, 1571; +8th January, 1598. Cannon-shot, at Siege of Wittenberg, upon +Kaiser Karl and him. Gera Bond. + Married a Silesian Duke of Liegnitz's Daughter (result of the +ERBVERBRUDERUNG there,--Antea, p. 231). Had twenty-three children. +It was to him that Baireuth and Anspach fell home: he settled them +on his second and his third sons, Christian and Joachim Ernst; +founders of the New Line of Baireuth and Anspach. (See +Genealogical Diagram.) +8. JOACHIM FRIEDRICH: 27th January, 1546; 8th January, 1598; +18th July, 1608. Archbishop of Magdeburg first of all,--to keep +the place filled. Joachimsthal School at old Castle of Grimnitz. +Very vigilant for Preussen; which was near falling due. + Two of his Younger Sons, Johann George (1577-1624) to whom he +gave JAGERNDORF, and that Archbishop of Magdeburg, who was present +in Tilly's storm, got both wrecked in the Thirty-Years War;--not +without results, in the Jagerndorf case. +9. JOHANN SIGISMUND: 8th November, 1572; 18th July, 1608; +23d December, 1619. Preussen: Cleve; Slap on the face to Neuburg. +10. GEORGE WILHELM: 3d November, 1595; 22d November, 1619; +21st November, 1640. The unfortunate of the Thirty-Years War. +<italic> "Que faire; ils ont des canons!" <end italic> +11. FRIEDRICH WILHELM: 6th February, 1620; 21st November, 1640; +29th April, 1688. The Great Elector. +12. FRIEDRICH III.: 1st July, 1657; 29th April, 1688; +25th February, 1713. First King (18th January, 1701). + + + +GENEALOGICAL DIAGRAM: THE TWO CULMBACH LINES. + +3d KURFURST (1471-1486) +ALBERT ACHILLES. + ELDER CULMBACH LINE. + +FRIEDRICH, second son of Kurfurst Albert Achilles, younger Brother +of Johannes Cicero, got CULMBACH: Anspach first, then Baireuth on +the death of a younger Brother. Born 1460; got Anspach 1486; +Baireuth 1495; followed Max in his VENETIAN CAMPAIGN, 1508; +fell IMBECILE 1515; died 1536. Had a Polish Wife; from whom came +interests in Hungary as well as Poland to his children. Friedrich +had Three notable Sons, + +1. CASIMIR, who got BAIREUTH (1515): born 1481; died 1527. +Very truculent in the Peasants' War. + ALBERT ALEIBIADES: a man of great mark in his day (1522-1557); +never married. Two Sisters, with one of whom he took shelter at +last; no Brother. + +2. GEORGE THE PIOUS, who got ANSPACH (1515): born 1484; died 1543; +got Jagerndorf, by purchase, from his Mother's Hungarian +connection, 1524. Protestant declared, 1528; and makes honorable +figure in the Histories thenceforth. The George of Kaiser Karl's +<italic> "Nit-Kop-ab." <end italic> One Son, + GEORGE FRIEDRICH; born 1539; went to administer Preussen when +Cousin became incompetent; died 1603. Heir to his Father in +ANSPACH and JAGERNDORF; also to his Cousin Alcibiades in BAIREUTH. +Had been left a minor (boy of 4, as the reader sees); +Alcibiades his Guardian for a little while: from which came great +difficulties, and unjust ruin would have come, had not Kurfurst +Joachim I. been helpful and vigorous in his behalf. +George Friedrich got at length most of his Territories into hand: +Anspach and Baireuth unimpaired, Jagerndorf too, except that +Ratibor and Oppeln were much eaten into by the Imperial +chicaneries in that quarter. Died 1603, without children;--upon +which his Territories all reverted to the main Brandenburg line, +namely, to Johann George Seventh Kurfurst, or his representatives, +according to the GERA BOND; and the "Elder Culmbach Line" had +ended in this manner. + +3. ALBERT; born 1490; Hochmeister of the Teutsch Ritters, 1511; +declares himself Protestant, and Duke of Prussia, 1525; died 1568. + One Son, ALBERT FRIEDRICH: born 1553; follows as Duke 1568, +declared MELANCHOLIC 1573; died 1618. His Cousin George Friedrich +administered for him till 1603; after which Joachim Friedrich; +and then, lastly, Joachim Friedrich's Son, Johann Sigismund the +Ninth Kurfurst. Had married the Heiress of Cleve (whence came a +celebrated Cleve Controversy in after-times). No son; a good many +daughters; eldest of whom was married to Kurfurst Johann +Sigismund; from her came the controverted Cleve Property. + + +7th KURFURST (1571-1598), +JOHANN GEORGE. + YOUNGER CULMBACH LINE. + +Kurfurst Johann George settled Baireuth and Anspach on Two of his +Younger Sons, who are Founders of the "Younger Culmbach Line" +(SPLIT Line or Pair of LINES). Jagerndorf the new Kurfurst, +Joachim Friedrich, kept; settled it on one of his younger sons. +Here are the two new Founders in Baireuth and Anspach, and some +indication of their "Lines," so far as important to us at present: + + + BAIREUTH. + +(1.) CHRISTIAN, second son of Kurfurst Johann George: born 1581; +got Baireuth 1603; died 1655. A distinguished Governor in his +sphere. Had two sons; the elder died before him, but left a son, +Christian Ernst; who (2.) succeeded, and (3.) whose son, George +Wilhelm: 1644, 1655, 1712; 1678, 1712, 1726 (are BIRTH, ACCESSION, +END of these two); the latter of whom had no son that lived. + Upon which the posterity of Christian's second son succeeded. +Second son of Christian notable to us in two little ways: +FIRST, That HE, George Albert, Margraf of CULMbach, is the +inscrutable "Marquis de LULENbach" of <italic> Bromley's Letters +<end italic> (antea p. 184, let the Commentators take comfort!); +SECOND and better, That from him came our little Wilhelmina's +Husband,--as will be afterwards explained. It was his grandson +(4.) that succeeded in Baireuth, George Friedrich Karl (1688, +1726, 1735); Father of Wilhelmina's Husband. After whom (5.) his +Son Friedrich (1711, 1735, 1763), Wilhelmina's Husband; +who leaving (1763) nothing hut a daughter, Baireuth fell to +Anspach, 1769, after an old Uncle (6.), childless, had also died. +SIX Baireuth Margraves of this Line; FIVE generations; and then to Anspach, in 1769. + + + ANSPACH. + +(1.) JOACHIM ERNST, third son of Kurfurst Johann George: born +1583; got Anspach 1603; died 1625. Had military tendencies, +experiences; did not thrive as Captain of the EVANGELICAL UNION +(1619-1620) when WINTER-KING came up and THIRTY-YEARS WAR along +with him. Left two sons; elder of whom, (2.) Friedrich, nominally +Sovereign, age still only eighteen, fell in the Battle of +Nordlingen (worst battle of the Thirty-Years War, 1634); and the +younger of whom, (3.) Albert, succeeded (1620, 1634, 1667), and +his son, (4.) Johann Friedrich (1654, 1667, 1686); and (5, 6, 7.) +no fewer than three grandsons,--children mostly, though entitled +"sovereign"--in a PARALLEL way (Christian Albert, 1675, 1686, +1692; George Friedrich, 1678, 1692, 1703; Wilhelm Friedrich, 1685, +1703, 1723). Two little points notable here also, and no third: + FIRST, That one of the grand-DAUGHTERS, full-sister of the last +of these three parallel figures, half-sister of the two former, +was--Queen Caroline, George II.'s wife, who has still some fame +with us. + SECOND, That the youngest of said three grandsons, Queen +Caroline's full-brother, left a son then minor, who became major, +(8.) and wedded a Sister of our dear little Wilhelmina's, of whom +we shall hear (Karl Wilhelm Friedrich, 1712, 1723, 1757); +unmomentous Margraf otherwise. His and her one son it was, +(9.) Christian Friedrich Karl Alexander (1736, 1757, 1806), who +inherited Baireuth, inherited Actress Clairon, Lady Craven, and at +Hammersmith (House once Bubb Doddington's, if that has any charm) +ended the affair. + NINE Anspach Margraves; in FIVE generations: end, 1806. + + +END OF BOOK III + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Etext History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 3 + |