MEMOIRS 
 
 O F T H E 
 
 Houfe of Brandenburg. 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 Earlieft Accounts, to the Death of 
 FREDERICK I. King of Pruffia.
 
 MEMOIRS 
 
 O F T H E 
 
 Houfe of Brandenburg. 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 Earlieft Accounts, to the Death of 
 FREDERICK. I. King of Pruflia. 
 
 By the HAND of a MASTER. 
 
 To which are added, by the fame Author, 
 
 TWO DISSERTATIONS. 
 
 The Firft on MANNERS, CUSTOMS, INDUSTRY, 
 and the Progrefs of the HUMAN UNDER- 
 KTANDINQ in the Arts and Sciences. The 
 Second on SUPERSTITION and RELIGION. 
 
 Tranflated from the BERLIN Copy. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 Printed for J. NOURSE, at the Lamb oppo/ite 
 
 Katherine-Street, in the Strand. 
 
 MDCCLI.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 NOthing ought to give us fo great a dif- 
 te.Jls for writing, as the multitude of 
 books with which Europe is overwhelmed. 1'he 
 abufe of the ingenious invention of printing 
 eternizes our Jolly ^ and will jurnijh pofterity 
 with the means of forming a fevere judgment 
 on our trifling performances t It feems, in- 
 (htd, as if we had exhaufted every fubjeH, from 
 -the cedar to the hyfop. Perhaps three hun- 
 dred, perhaps even a thoufand authors, have 
 wrcte memoirs and fragments of the hiftory cf 
 France. There is not a republic^ lei it be ever 
 fo fmall, of -which a large hiftory has not been 
 compofed. We have even done honour to in- 
 fefts, and have confecrated to them eight huge 
 volumes in quarto^ wbofe bindings at leaft 
 willferve to adorn the libraries of the curious: 
 
 2
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 roach, from the politejl thai can 
 be uttered^ up to thegrojfejl invetfives, of which 
 moft ample collections have not been formed. 
 What literary quarrels has envy excited amongft 
 the learned ! It muft be acknowledged that cur 
 age is highly commendable in being fo labo- 
 rioujly employed for the injlruction of the hu- 
 man race. Can it be imagined that a man 
 who makes fetch refections would ever write ? 
 However , this phrenzy, this epidemical mala- 
 dy has made me publiflo a book. Let us diftruft 
 curf elves > we are made foph/fts by our paJJionS" 
 An evil genius^ or foms daemon, has put me in 
 mind> that the hiftory of Brandenburg has m- 
 ver yet appeared in print. This is tbt enthU' 
 ftafm which has poffejjed my imagination. 1 
 afked and obtained the ptrmiffio* of inftructing 
 tnyfelf in the royal archives , my inquiries have 
 furnijhsd me with other helps ; and here I am 
 become an author in fpite of tnyfelf. The en- 
 tertainment 1 found in my clofet rendering me 
 fedentary, one of my friends demanded the rea- 
 fonofthis retreat, and prejjed me fo ftrongly, 
 that I was obliged to confefs it. He read this
 
 P R .E F A C E. 
 
 r/Jiv, and conftrained me to offer it to tie Royal 
 Academy of fciences. 
 
 I can warrant the authenticity of the fatts 
 mentioned in this little work. The archives, 
 the chronicles, and fame authors who havg 
 wrote on thefe fubjects, are the four ces from 
 whence I have drawn them. An Architect of 
 greater abilities than my f elf ought to have had 
 the management of thefe materials \ and the 
 work itjelf foculd have been fubmitled to the 
 judgment of a perfon lefs inclined to encourage 
 thofe who labour for the fciences than Mr. 
 
 M. It is the reader who muft judge 
 
 of my work ; my fdf-love has not fo far blind- 
 ed me y as to perfuade ms, that 1 make him a 
 valuable prefent. 
 
 ME-
 
 MEMOIRS 
 
 O F T H E 
 
 Houfe of Brandenburg. 
 
 THE Houfe of Brandenburg, or ra- 
 ther that of Hohenzollern, is fo an- 
 cient, that its original is loft in the 
 darknefs of antiquity. I might, indeed, re- 
 late the fables or the conjectures that have 
 been formed on its extra&ion : but fables 
 ought not to be prefented to the public in 
 this judicious and learned age. It is of little 
 importance that genealogifts make it defcend 
 from the houfe of Colonna, and that, by a 
 grofs miftake, they confound the fcptre in 
 the arms of the family of Brandenburg with 
 the column which that Italian houfe bears in 
 i's efcutcheons : in fliort, of little importance 
 i> it, that the counts of Hohenzollern are 
 made to defcend from Wiukind, from the 
 A Guelphsj
 
 ( 2 ) 
 
 Guelphs, or from any other houfe ; mankind, 
 I think, are all of a race equally ancient. Af- 
 ter all, the refearches of a genealogift, or the 
 labours of the learned, who invert igate the ety- 
 mology of words, are things of fo fmall and 
 trifling a nature, as to be beneath the notice of 
 men of fenfe. We ought to have remark- 
 able fa&s, and objecls, capable of fixing the 
 attention of reafonable beings. 
 
 I mail not then lofe my time in puzzling my 
 brain with refearches, as frivolous asunufeful. 
 
 TASsiLLO,who lived about the year 800, is 
 the firft count of Hohenzollern known in hif- 
 tory. His defcendants wereDanco, Rodolph I. 
 Otho, Wolffgang, Frederick I. Frederick II. 
 Frederick III. Burchard, Frederick IV. Rodolph 
 JI. concerning whom little more than their bare 
 names has been tranfmitted to pofterity. Con- 
 rad, who lived towards the year 1 2 oo, is the firft 
 burgraveofNurenberg,mentionedin hiftory. His 
 fucceflbrs were Frederick I. in 1216, Conrad II. 
 in 1260, Frederick II. in 1270. We find that 
 Frederick III. inherited from his brother in law, 
 the duke of Meran, the lordfhips of Bareith 
 and Cadelfburg. He was fucceeded by John I. 
 in 1298, and the latter by Frederick IV. in 
 
 THI
 
 (3) 
 
 THIS burgrave did very great fervices to th6 
 emperors Albert, Henry VII. and Lewis of 
 Bavaria, in the wars between them and Frede- 
 rick of Auftria. The burgrave beat the arch- 
 duke, took him prifoner, and delivered him up 
 to the emperor ; and this prince, in return, 
 made the burgrave a prefentof all theprifoners 
 he had taken from the Auftrians. Frederick 
 I V. fet them at liberty, on condition that they 
 fhould pay him homage for their lands : and 
 this is the origin of the right of vaflalage, which 
 the margraves of Franconia preferve ftill in 
 Auftria. 
 
 THE fucceflbrs of Frederick IV. were Con- 
 rad IV. in 1334, John II. in 1357, Albert 
 VI. furnamed the Handfome^ in 1361, and Al- 
 bert's nephew, Frederick V. whom the empe- 
 ror Charles IV. declared prince of the empire 
 in 1363, at the diet of Nurenberg, and like- 
 wife appointed his commiflary. 
 
 FREDERICK V. clivijed the lands of his bur- 
 graviate, in the year 1420, between his two 
 fons, John III. and Frederick VI. but John III. 
 dying without iiiue, the whole paternal fuccel- 
 fion fell to Frederick VI. 
 
 I:\ the year 1408, this prince marched his 
 
 army into the territories of the city of Roth- 
 
 A 2 well,
 
 (4) 
 
 weil, which had been put under the ban of the 
 empire, where he demoliflied feveral caftles. 
 In 1410, he took pofleflion of the government 
 of the Marck, which had been conferred upon 
 him by the emperor Sigifmund. 
 
 As the late electors of Brandenburg had not 
 refided in the Marck, the nobility embraced 
 this opportunity to revolt, and become inde- 
 pendent. The new governor joined his forces 
 with the dukes of Pomerania, and fought a 
 moft bloody battle againft the rebels near Zof- 
 fen. He gained a complete victory, and de- 
 molimed fome of the forts, which ferved them 
 for places of retreat ; but he could not entire- 
 ly fubdue the family of Kuitzow, till he had 
 taken from them twenty- four caftles, which 
 were all in a ftate of defence. 
 
 WE are now come to a memorable aera of 
 the hiftory of the houfe of Hohenzollern ; but 
 as we find it tranfplanted, as it were, into a new 
 country, it will be proper to give fome account 
 of the origin and government of Brandenburg. 
 
 THE provinces which then compofed the 
 electorate of Brandenburg,were the old Marck, 
 the middle Marck, the new Marck, the Uck- 
 raine Marck, Pregnitz, the county of Ruppin, 
 Croflen, Cotbus, Beflekaw, and Storkaw. The 
 
 word
 
 (5 ) 
 
 word aargraviate originally fignifies the go- 
 vernment of frontiers. 
 
 THE Romans were the firft who eftabliflied 
 governors in that country, which they had con 
 quered from the Suevi. Yet 'tis obferved, that 
 they never pa/Ted the Elbe. It feems, accord- 
 ing to Tacitus, that the brave and warlike fpi- 
 rit of thofe people preferved them from being 
 enflaved. The Suevi, as well as the Romans, 
 were afterwards driven out by the Vandals, the 
 Henctti, the Saxons and the Franks, and Char- 
 lemain found it very difficult to fubdue therrv 
 in 780. Margraves, however, were not efla- 
 bltfhed in this country till the year 927, when 
 Henry the Fowler appointed governors of that 
 name, to bridle thofe people who were inclined 
 to revolt, and to overawe the inhabitants of the 
 neighbouring provinces, who exercifed their 
 roving valour in continual inroads and depreda- 
 tions. Sifroi, brother in law to the emperor 
 Henry the Fowler ^vrzs, according toEnzelt, the 
 firft margrave of Brandenburg, in the year 927. 
 Under his adminiftration it was, that the bi- 
 Ihcpricks of Brandenburg, Mifnia, Camin, and 
 Havelberg, were founded ; but that of Magde* 
 burg was founded by the emperor Otho. 
 
 HISTORIANS generally reckon fix different 
 
 lines of the margraves of Brandenburg from Si- 
 
 A 3 froi
 
 ( 6) 
 
 froi down to our tirhe ; namely, that of the 
 Saxons, of the counts of Stade, of the houfe of 
 Anhalt, of Bavaria, of Luxemburg, and, in 
 fine that of Hohenzollern, which ftill fubfifts. 
 UNDER the adminifiration of the ancient 
 margraves, a king of the Vandals, by name 
 Miftevojus, laid the Marcks entirely wafte, 
 and drove away the governors. The country 
 was recovered again by the emperor Henry II. 
 the barbarians were overthrown, and Mifte- 
 vojus, with fix thoufand men, was flain. Not- 
 withftanding this fuccefs, the margraves en- 
 joyed no reft ; for they were continually at 
 war with the Vandals and other barbarous na- 
 tions, with various fuccefs ; nor was their 
 power quite fettled till under Albert the Bear, 
 the firft of the Anhalt line, which was the 
 third of the margraves. The emperor Con- 
 rad III. raifed him to the margraviate, and the 
 emperor Frederick Barbarofia to the electoral 
 dignity, towards the year noo. Pi'imiflaus, 
 prince of the Vandals, who had no iffue of his 
 own, conceived fo great a liking to Albert the 
 Bear, as to leave him by his will the middle 
 Marck, in the year 1142. This elector 
 was, at that time, mafter of the old and 
 middle Marck, of upper SaXony, the country
 
 (7 ) 
 
 of Anhalt, and part of Lufatia. With regard 
 to the princes of the Anhalt line, neither hif- 
 tory, nor records, afford us the leaft light con- 
 cerning their tranfa&ions. It is known, that 
 this line became extinct in 1332, by the death 
 of Woldemar II. The then reigning empe- 
 ror Lewis of Bavaria, looking upon the Marck 
 as a fief devolved to the empire, gave it to his 
 fon Lewis, who was the firft of the fourth line. 
 This elector had three different wars to main- 
 tain ; one with the dukes of Pomerania, who 
 had invaded the Uckraine Marck ; the fecond 
 with the Poles, who ravaged the county of 
 Sternberg ; and the third againft an impoftor, 
 who, by perfonating Woldemar, brother to the 
 laft elector of the houfe of Anhalt, had formed 
 a party, and madehimfelf mafterof foire towns, 
 but was at length defeated. This pretender 
 was the fon of a miller at Belitz. 
 
 LEWIS the Rsjnan * fucceeded his brother; 
 and'dying, like him, without iffue,was fucceeded 
 by his third brother, Otho. This prince was 
 fo mean-fpirited, that, after the death of the 
 emperor his father, he fold the electorate, in 
 1370, for two hundred thoufand florins, to the 
 emperor Charles IV. of the houfe of Luxem- 
 * So called, becaufe he was born at Rome, 
 
 A 4 burg,
 
 (8 ) 
 
 burg, who did not event pay him that fmal! 
 fum. Charles IV. gave the Marck to his fon 
 Wenceflaus, who wanted to incorporate it with 
 his kingdom of Bohemia. 
 
 SIGISMUND, the third elector of the houfe of 
 .Luxemburg, being in want of money, fold the 
 new Marck to the Teutonick Order, in 1402. 
 That Order had been pofTefled of this province 
 once before, after conquering it from the elector 
 John ; it had been redeemed by Otho the 
 Long j and now it was alienated again by Si- 
 gifmund of Luxemburg. The elector Jodo- 
 cus, of the fame family, poifoned his brother 
 Procopius. This prince reigned twenty-four 
 years ; but afpiring after the imperial crown, 
 he fold the whole electorate to William duke 
 of Mifnia fpr four hundred thoufand florins. 
 This duke had not been in pofleffion of the 
 Marck above a year, when it was redeemed by 
 thecmp.ror Sigifmund. 
 
 THIS extraordinary cuftom, which fo great- 
 ly prevailed in that age, of buying and felling 
 different territories, is an evident proof of the 
 barbaroufnefs of thofe days, and of the mife- 
 rable fituanon thefe provinces were in, which 
 were fold fo very cheap. The emperor Si- 
 gifmund made Frederick VI. who was bur- 
 grave of Nurenberg, governour or margrave 
 
 of
 
 ( 9 ) 
 
 of Brandenburg ; and 'tis with this prinee we 
 propofe to commence our hiftory. 
 
 FREDERICK I. 
 
 IT was in the year 1415, that the emperor 
 conferred the electoral dignity, and the office 
 of great chamberlain of the empire on Fre<- 
 derick I. and at the fame time made him a 
 prefent of the country of Brandenburg. This 
 prince received the inveftiture from the hands 
 of his benefactor, at the diet of Conftance, in 
 1417. He was in pofleffion then of the old 
 and middle Marck ; but the Uckraine Marck 
 having been ufurped by the dukes of Pomera- 
 nia, the elector declared war againft them, de- 
 feated them at Angermund, and recovered a 
 province, which, from time immemorial, had 
 been incorporated with the Marck. 
 
 THE new Marck was ftill mortgaged, as we 
 have already obferved, to the Teutonic Or- 
 der ; but the elector, defirous of enlarging his 
 territories, took pofTeffion of Saxony ; which 
 electorate was then vacant by the death of the 
 laft elector of the Anhalt line. This acqutfi- 
 tion did not meet with the emperor's approba- 
 tion, who guve the inveftiture of it to the duke 
 A of
 
 of Mifnia ; upon which Frederick I. volunta- 
 rily defifted from his pretenfions. 
 
 THE elector made a teftamentary divifion of 
 his territories among his children. His eldeft fon, 
 furnamed the d/chytnift, loft the electorate for 
 having too clofely applied himfelf to the fearch 
 ofthephilofopher'sftone; fohe gave himVoigt- 
 land ; to his fecond fon Frederick he bequeathed 
 the electorate ; the dutchies of Franconia to Al- 
 bert, furnamed the Achilles ; and the old Marck 
 to his fon Frederick, furnamed the Fat ; but, by 
 the death of the latter, this province was reunit- 
 ed to the electorate of Brandenburg. In thofe 
 remote times they ftill adhered to that principle 
 of natural equity, which feems to require, that 
 a father mould make an equal partition of his 
 fortune among his children. But it was after- 
 wards found, that the ruin of the great families 
 was owing to this cuftom of eftablifhing a fet- 
 tlement for the younger brothers. We {hall, 
 however, in the courfe of this hiftory, meet 
 with fome other inftances of the like divilions, 
 Frederick died in 1 440. 
 
 FREDERICKll. furnamed IRON- 
 TOOTH. 
 
 Frederick II. was furnamed Iron-tooth, be 
 caufe of his ftrength. He fhould have been 
 
 called
 
 ( II ) 
 
 called the Magnanimous, for having refufed two 
 crowns ; that of Bohemia, which was offered 
 him by the pope, who wanted to get George 
 Podiebrad depofed ; and that to which he had 
 been invited by the Poles, which he declared he 
 would not accept, unlefs Cafimir, brother to 
 the late king Ladiflaus, refufed it. The mag- 
 nanimity of this elector gained him the confi- 
 dence of nations ; infomuch that the ftates of 
 Lower Lufatia made a voluntary furrender of 
 their country to him. Lufatia was a fief of 
 Bohemia. George Podiebrad, unmindful of 
 the obligations he owed to Frederick II. at- 
 tacked Lufatia, and the Marck. But a treaty- 
 was agreed upon between thefe two princes ?,t 
 Guben, in 1462, by which the perpetual fovtf- 
 reignty ofCotbu?, Peitz, Sommerfeld, Boberf- 
 berg, Storkaw, and Beflekaw, was yielded to 
 the elector by the crown of Bohemia. The 
 eletar, who had no inclination to make un- 
 juft acquifitions, took care, however, to affert 
 his lawful rights. Thus he redeemed * th 
 new Marck of the Teutonic Order, to whom* 
 as I have already obferved, it had been mort- 
 gaged. Upon the deceafe of Otho III. the 
 laft duke of Stettin, which happened in 1464, 
 * In 1445, for joojooo florins, 
 
 A 6 the
 
 ( 12 ) 
 
 the elector declared war againft the duke of 
 Wolgaft. His reafon was, becaufe Lewis of 
 Bavaria, elector of Brandenburg, had made a 
 treaty, in 1338, with the dukes of Pomerania; 
 whereby it was agreed, that if their Hne mould 
 come to be extinct, Pomerania mould revert 
 to the electorate. This treaty had been rati- 
 fied by the emperor. The difpute, however, 
 was determined by an agreement made in 
 1464* by which the duk&cf Wolgaft remain- 
 ed indeed in pofleUion of the dutchy of Stettin, 
 but became feudatory to the elector, and Po- 
 merania yielded him eventual homage. In the 
 year 1469, Frederick II. reunited the county 
 of Wernigerode to the Marck, as a vacant fief, 
 taking the titles of duke of Pomerania, Meck- 
 lenburg, Vandalia, Schwerin,. and Roftock, 
 of which he had the expectancy. 
 
 THE fame difmterefted fpirit,. which made 
 him refufe two crowns,, induced him to abdi- 
 cate the electorate in 1469, in favour of his 
 brother furnamed Albert the Achilles j for he had 
 no children. This prince,, who had always pro- 
 fsfied the principks of 'moderation, did not de- 
 viate from them on this occafion; for he re- 
 Nerved to himfelf only a fmall penfion of fixj 
 thoufand florins, with which he fpent the re- 
 mainder
 
 ( 13) 
 
 mainder of his days in philofophical retirement, 
 and died in the year 1471, opprefled with in- 
 firmities. 
 
 AL B E R T,furnamed THE ACHILLES. 
 
 ALBERT, furnamed the Achilles and Ulyjfis, 
 from his valour, was 57 years old at his bro- 
 ther's abdication. This prince had performed 
 his chief exploits, while he was only burgrave 
 of Nurenberg. As margrave of Bareith and 
 Anfpach, he declared war againft Lewis the 
 Bearded, duke of Bavaria, and took him pri- 
 foner. He gained eight battles againft the 
 Nurenbergers, who had rebelled, and contefted 
 his rights of the burgraviate. He ventured 
 bravely his life in takings ftandard from a gui- 
 don of this city, and fighting fingly againft fix- 
 teen men, till his people came up to his affif- 
 tance. He made himfelf mafter of the town 
 of Greiffenberg, in the fame manner as Alex- 
 ander of the capital of the Oxydracae, by leap- 
 ing from the top of the walls into- the town, 
 where he defended himfelf fingly againft the 
 inhabitants, till his troops forced the gates, and 
 rcfcued him from danger. The confidence 
 which the emperor Frederick III. had in him, 
 V gained
 
 ( 14) 
 
 gained him the direction of almoft the whole 
 empire. He commanded the imperial armies 
 againft Lewis the Rich, duke of Bavaria, and 
 againft Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy, 
 who h&d laid fiege to Nuis *, but concluded a 
 peace by the interpofition of Albert. He gain- 
 ed the prize at feventeen tournaments, and 
 was never difmounted. 
 
 THESE combats feem to be of French ori- 
 ginal. Very likely they were introduced into 
 that country by the Moors, who over- run 
 Spain, together with their romantic gallantry. 
 We find in the hiftory of France, that they 
 were revived by one Godfrey de PreuiJly, 
 who lived in the year 1060. And yet Charles 
 the Bald, who lived in 844, gave thefe enter- 
 tainments at Strafburg, upon receiving a vifit 
 from his brother Lewis of Germany. This 
 cuftom was received in England as early as the 
 year 1114, and eftablifhed, in 1194, by king 
 Richard I. We are informed by John Can-r 
 tacuzenus, that thefe combats, which came 
 from Gaul, were celebrated, in 1226, at the 
 marriage of Anne of Savoy with the Greek em- 
 peror Andronicus Paleologus. Numbers of 
 people loft their lives in thefe combats, when 
 they were carried to extremity. We rea4 
 
 * The town of Nuis is fituated in the decorate of Cologn. 
 
 3 in
 
 C 15 j 
 
 in Henry Cnigfton, that there was a'tournament 
 at Chalons in 1274, occafioned by an interview 
 between Edward king of England and the 
 duke of Chalons, when feveral Burgundian and 
 Englifh gentlemen were killed upon the fpot. 
 Tournaments made their way into Germany 
 as early as the year 1136. It was ufual to fend 
 letters of defiance, in order to bring together 
 the champions of thofe combats. Thefe were 
 nearly the contents, That fuch a prince being 
 weary of an effeminate idlenefs, defired the 
 combat, in order to exercife his valour, and to 
 fignalize his fkill in arms. They mentioned 
 likewife the time, the number of combatants, 
 the kind of arms, and the place where the tour- 
 nament was to be held ; and enjoined the van- 
 quimed knights to give a golden bracelet to the 
 victors, and a filver cne to their fhield-bearers. 
 Thefe fatal entertainments met with oppofition 
 from the popes; for Innocent II. in 1140, 
 and, after him, Eugene III. in the council of 
 Lateran, in 1313, thundered out their anathe- 
 mas, excommunicating thofe who fliould be 
 prefent at thofe combats. But, notwithftaittiing 
 the fuperftition of thofe days, the popes were 
 unable to fupprefs this fatal cuftom ; a cuftom 
 encouraged by a miftaken point of honour, and 
 
 which
 
 which the prevailing brutality of manners made 
 ufe of as a (hew and amufement agreeable to 
 the barbarity of the age that gave it birth. For, 
 fince thofe excommunications, hiftory makes 
 mention of the tournament of Charles VI. king 
 of France, at Cambray, in 1385 ; of that of 
 Francis I. between Ardres and Guines, in 
 1520; and that, iafine y at Paris, in 1559, 
 where Henry II. received a wound in the eye 
 from a fplinter of count Montgomery's lance } 
 of which he died in eleven days. 
 
 WE find therefore, that Albert the Jcbilles's 
 great merit at that time, was his having ob- 
 tained the prize at feventeen tournaments j and 
 that, in thofe ignorant days, they fet as great a 
 value upon bodily ftrength, as in Homer's time. 
 The fuperior knowledge of our age efteems on- 
 ly the accomplimments of the mind, and thofe 
 virtues by which man raifes himfelf almoft a- 
 bove his frail condition, fubdues his paffions, 
 and becomes humane, generous, and benevo- 
 lent. 
 
 ALBERT the Achilles reunited then his terri- 
 tories in Franconia to the electorate, by the ab- 
 dication of his brother in 1470. After he had 
 taken the reins of government, he made a trea- 
 ty of confraternity, in 1473, with the houfes 
 
 of
 
 ( 17 ) 
 
 of Saxony and Hefle, by which the fucceflion 
 of their dominions was regulated, in cafe any 
 one of their lines fhould come to be extint. 
 In 1473, he fettled the fucceflion of his own 
 territories among his children, leaving the elec* 
 torate to John called the Cicero ; Bajeith to his 
 fecond fon ; and, to the youngeft, Anfpach. 
 Albert at length refigned the electorate, in 
 1 476, in favour of John the Cicero. His daugh- 
 ter Barbara, who was married to Henry duke 
 of Glogaw and Croflen, transferred the latter 
 dutchy to the houfe of Brandenburg. By her 
 marriage-contract it was flipulated, that, in 
 cafe duke Henry happened to die without iflue, 
 the elector fliould have a right of raifing annu- 
 ally fifty thoufand ducats on the dutchy of 
 Croflen. The cafe happened -, and John the 
 Cicero took pofleflion of the town of Crof- 
 fen, and kept this acqu/fition. The third fon 
 of Albert Achilles, Frederick the Fat^ margrave 
 of Anfpach, was grandfather to that Albert- 
 Frederick, who received the dutchy of Jagern- 
 dorfY of the king of Bohemia. It will not be 
 amifs to obferve, upon this occafion, that this 
 duke George of Anfpach and Jagerndorffmade 
 an agreement with the dukes of Oppelen and 
 Ratibor, by which the furvivors were to be 
 
 heirs
 
 heirs to thofe who died without iffue. Thefe 
 two clukes had no children, and George inhe- 
 rited the fucceffion of thefe dutchies. After- 
 wards, Ferdinand, brother to Charles V. and 
 heir to the kingdom of Bohemia, ftripped the' 
 margrave George of Oppelen and Ratibor, 
 promifing him the fum of one hundred and 
 thirty thoufand florins as an indemnity, which 
 was never-paid. 
 
 J HN the CICERO. 
 
 THE natural eloquence of this prince gained 
 him the furname 0'~ Cicero. He reconciled 
 three kings, who laid claim to Silefia ; namely, 
 Ladiflaus of Bohemia, Cafimir of Poland, and 
 Matthias of Hungary. John Cicero, and the 
 elector of Saxony, entered Silefia at the head of 
 fix tboufand horfe, declaring they would oppofe 
 any of thofe kings that would refufe to liften to 
 their terms cf accommodation. It is recorded, 
 that, by the force of his eloquence, he medi- 
 ated an agreement between thofe princes, by 
 which Silefia and Lufatia were divided between 
 the kings of Bohemia and Hungary. I fhould 
 be glad to meet with other inftances of this 
 prince's eloquence ; for, in this cafe, the fix 
 
 thoufand
 
 ( '9 ) 
 
 thoufand horfc appear to have been the flrong- 
 eft argument. A prince, who is able to deter- 
 mine difputes by force of arms, is certainly a 
 great logician ; he is a Hercules, whofe per- 
 fuafive force lies in his club. 
 
 JOHN Cicero went to war with the duke of 
 Sagan, who had formed pretenfions upon the 
 dutchy of CrofTen ; the elector defeated him 
 near this city, and took him prifoner. We may 
 form a judgment of the manners of thofe days 
 from this John duke of Sagan, who had the 
 cruelty to let a brother of his, with whom he 
 had quarrelled, perifh with hunger. John 
 Cicero died in 1499, and left behind him two 
 fons ; the eldeft was Joachim, who fucceeded 
 him in the electorate ; the fecond Albert, who 
 was afterwards chofen elector of Mentz, and 
 archbifhop of Magdeburg. 
 
 JO AC HI Ml. furnamed NESTOR. 
 
 THIS prince had the furname of Nejlor gi- 
 ven him, in the fame manner as Lewis XIII. 
 that of the Jit/l ; that is, without any reafon 
 we know of. He was only fixteen years old, 
 when he came to the electorate. The county 
 pf Ruppin becoming vacant by the death of 
 
 Wich-
 
 ( *>) 
 
 Wichman count of Lindaw, the ele&or re- 
 united this fief to theMarck. He died in 1532* 
 leaving two fons behind him, namely, Joa- 
 chim his fucceflbr, and the margrave John, to 
 whom he bequeathed the new Marck, CrofTen, 
 Sternbergi and Storkaw. 
 
 JOACHIM II. 
 
 IT feems it was in Joachim II.'s time, that 
 the ridiculous cuftom was laid afide of giving 
 furnames to princes. That which was bellowed 
 upon his father had fucceeded fo ill, that it be- 
 came rather a nickname than an appellation of 
 renown. The flattery of courtiers, after ex- 
 haufling the cbmparifons of antiquity, turned 
 itfelf undoubtedly another way ; and it is to 
 be believed, that the vanity of princes loft no- 
 thing by the change. 
 
 JOACHIM, as we have juft now obferved, 
 fucceeded his father in the electorate, and em- 
 braced the doctrine of Luther in 1539. The 
 circumftances which gave rife to this revolu- 
 tion are not known j this however is certain, 
 that his courtiers, and the bifhop of Brandjen- 
 burg followed his example.
 
 A new religion which ftarted up of a fud- 
 den, a religion which has divided Europe, 
 changed the nature of pofleflions, and pro- 
 duced even new fyftems of politics, deferves our 
 attention for a few moments, to confider the 
 progrefs it made, and by what fprings it pro- 
 duced fuch fudden revolutions in the greateft 
 ftates. 
 
 As early as the year 1 400, John Hufs be- 
 gan to preach his new doctrine in Bohemia ; 
 which, ftridtly fpeaking, was that of the Vau- 
 doisj and of Wickliff, whofe opinions he had 
 embraced. Hufs was burnt at the council of 
 Conftance*. His pretended martyrdom in- 
 flamed the zeal of his difciples ; the Bohemi- 
 ans, who were too dull a people to enter into 
 the fophiflical difputes of the Theologians, em- 
 braced this new feel merely from a fpirit of in- 
 dependence and mutiny, which is properly the 
 characleriftic of this nation. Thefe new con- 
 verts fhook off the papal yoke, and made ufe 
 of the liberty of their confciences as a cloak to 
 cover the crime of their revolt. Their party 
 was formidable as long as one Ziflca was at 
 their head. This man obtained fome victories 
 over the troops of Wenceflaus and Ottacarus, 
 
 * Jo the yw 1415, under Pope John XXIII.
 
 (22) 
 
 kings of Bohemia ; but, after his death, moil 
 of the Huflites were driven out of the king- 
 dom j and we do not find that Hufs's dodrine 
 made any progrefs out of Bohemia. 
 
 IGNORANCE was at its higheft pitch in the 
 fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The clergy 
 had not even fo much as the fuperficial learning 
 of pedants ; the diflblute and licentious life of the 
 monks made all Europe call out for a reformation 
 of fo many abufes. The popes abufed their au- 
 thority to a degree that was paft all bearing:. Leo 
 X. made a trade of indulgences thro' all chrif- 
 tendom, to collect the fums which he wanted 
 for the building of St. Peter's church at Rome. 
 Some pretend, that this pope made a prefent to 
 his fifter Cibo, of the produce of thofe which 
 were to be fold in Saxony. This cafual revenue 
 was leafed out, and thofe ftrange farmers, thro* 
 avidity of gain, pitched upon friars, and fuch 
 like mendicants, to collect very large fums j 
 partof which was fquandered away by the com- 
 miffioners of the indulgences, in fcandalous ex- 
 cefles. An inquifitor, whofe name was Tet- 
 zel, together with fome Dominicans, who had 
 acquitted themfelves very ill of this commiflion, 
 gave rife to the reformation. For Staupitz, 
 the vicar-general of the Auftin friar?, whofe 
 
 order
 
 ( 23 ) 
 
 order had been formerly in pofleflion of this 
 trade, gave directions to one of his friars, whofe 
 name was Luther, to preach againft the indul- 
 gences. Luther had already, in the year 1516, 
 attacked the fchoolmen ; but now he ventured 
 to declaim more loudly againft thefe abufes. In 
 the heat of the difpute, he advanced fome other 
 doubtful propofitions,which he after wards main- 
 tained, and fupported with new arguments. The 
 pope at length excommunicated him in 1520. 
 He had tafted the pleafure of fpeaking his fenti- 
 ments freely j he gave himfelf up to it after- 
 wards without referve, flung off his habit, and 
 married Catharine Bore in 1525, after having 
 brought over a great many princes to his par- 
 ty, to whom the fpoils of the church lands were 
 a tempting bait. The ele&or of Saxony was 
 the firft who embraced this new feet, which was 
 afterwards adopted by the Palatinate, the coun- 
 tries of Hefle, Hanover, Brandenburg, Suabia, 
 part of Auftria, Bohemia, and Hungary, all 
 Silefia, and the North. Its tenets are fo weJl 
 known, that it is needlefs here to relate them. 
 SOON after, viz. in 1533, Calvin appeared 
 in France. This man's newfcheme of religion 
 was owing to the impreffions he had received 
 -from one Wolmar, a German Lutheran, with 
 
 whom
 
 C 24 ) 
 
 whom he had got acquainted at Bourges. 
 Notwithftandingtheprote&ion granted by Mar- 
 garet queen of Navarre to this new do&rine, 
 Calvin was feveral times obliged to quit France. 
 He had made the greateft number of profelytes 
 at Poitiers. This reformer, who was thorough- 
 ly acquainted with the genius of his country- 
 men, knew that they were eafier perfuaded by 
 fongs than arguments j for which reafon he 
 compofed a ballad, the burthen of which was, 
 O monks ! O monks ! you mujl all be married * ; 
 and it met with furprifmg fuccefs. Calvin 
 retired to Bafil, where he printed his Inftitutes ; 
 after which he made a convert of the dutchefs 
 of Ferrara, daughter to Lewis XII. In 1532, 
 he brought the city of Geneva intirely over ta 
 his opinions, and there he burnt Michael Ser- 
 vetus,who had declared againft him. Tho* the 
 reformed religion was never entirely tolerated 
 in France, yet the civil wars it occafioned, 
 had like to have ruined that kingdom. Henry 
 VIII. eftablifhed this newworfhip in England. 
 He had received of Leo X. the title of Defen- 
 der of the faith for writing againft Luther j but 
 falling in love with Anne Bullen, he wanted tor 
 
 * moina ! moinn ! ilfaut veus marier. 
 
 See Moreri's Diftionary, under the article Cahlv.' 
 have
 
 have his marriage with Catharine of Arragon 
 diflblved ; and after folliciting Rome in vain, 
 he diflblved it at length by his own authority. 
 Clement VII. who fucceeded Leo X. was fo 
 imprudent as to excommunicate him for mar- 
 rying Anne Bullen ; for which reafon Henry 
 fhook off the papal yoke in 1533. and de- 
 clared himfelf head of the church of England, 
 If we are therefore willing to reduce the caufes 
 of the reformation to fimple principles, we 
 (hall find that in Germany it was owing to the 
 love of gain, in England to that of a woman, 
 in France to that of novelty, or perhaps of a 
 fong. We are not to imagine that either John 
 Hufs, Luther, or Calvin, were men of fupeiior 
 genius. It is with the chiefs of feels, as with 
 ambaiTadors : men of ordinary abilities fucceed 
 often better in their negotiations, provided 
 they have advantageous conditions to offer. 
 The reign of fanatics and reformers was in the 
 ages of ignorance. But the human mind feerns 
 to be cloyed at length with difputes and contro- 
 verfies. The theologians and metaphysicians 
 are now left to difpute by themfelves in the 
 fchools ; and fmce in proteftant countries the 
 clergy have no more to lofe, the broachers of 
 B new
 
 ( 26 ) 
 
 new feds meet with a very indifferent recep- 
 tion. 
 
 THE elector Joachim II. gained then, by 
 the communion in both kinds, the bimoprics 
 of Brandenburg, Havelberg, and Lebufs, which 
 he incorporated with the Marck. 
 
 HE did. not enter into the confederacy which 
 the proteftant princes made at Smalkald, in 
 1535. but hepreferved tranquillity in his domi- 
 nions, while Saxony, and the neighbouring 
 provinces were laid wafte by the fword. The 
 religious war commenced in 1546, and ended 
 by the treaties of Paflaw and Augfburg. 
 THE emperor Charles V. had put himfelf 
 at the head of the catholic party. The illu- 
 flrious, but unfortunate John Frederick, e- 
 lector of Saxony, and Philip the Magnanimous^ 
 landgrave of HefTe, were the chiefs of the pro- 
 teftanti ; and thefe were defeated by the empe- 
 ror near Muhlburg in Saxony. This prince, 
 and cardinal Oranville, made ufe of a bafe ar- 
 tifice to deceive the landgrave of Hefle. Charles 
 V. thought himfelf authorized by the equivo- 
 cal phrafe of a fafe conduct, to throw the 
 landgrave into prifon, where he pafled a great 
 part of his life. The elector Joachim, who 
 had guaranteed that fafe conduct, was fo greatly 
 
 provoked
 
 ( 27 ) 
 
 provoked at this breach of faith, as to draw 
 his fvvord in a paffion againft the duke of 
 Alva * ; but they were parted by the company. 
 The elector of Saxony was depofed, and the 
 electorate conferred by the emperor upon 
 prince Maurice, who was of the Albertine 
 line. However, Joachim did not comply 
 with the emperor's famous edict, which was 
 called the interim. 
 
 THE emperor had given directions to the 
 electors of Saxony and Brandenburg to lay 
 fiege to Magdeburg. This city furrendered after 
 a fiege of fourteen months ; but the capitula- 
 tion was fo favourable to the inhabitants, that 
 the emperor with great reluctancy confirmed 
 it. The bifhop of Magdeburg being dead, the 
 canons chofe in his room Frederick, bifhop of 
 Havelberg, fecond fon to the elector Joa- 
 chim ; and, after his deceafe, the elector had 
 credit enough to make them chufe his third 
 fon Sigifmund, who was a proteftant. It was 
 this elector that built the fortrefs of Spandaw in 
 1555. Th ingineer's name was Giromela. 
 They muft indeed have been flrangers in this 
 country to all manner of arts, to have recourfe 
 to Italy for the fmalleft trifles. Margrave 
 
 * The emperor's ambaflador at Berlin. 
 
 B 2 John,
 
 C ** ) 
 
 John, the elector's brother, had Cuftrin forti- 
 fied at the fame time. Very likely it was a 
 fafhion then to fortify towns j if they had a 
 right notion of the ufe that may be made of 
 them, there would have been no want of ingi- 
 neers. 
 
 JOACHIM II. obtained in, 1569. of his 
 brother-in-law Sigifmund Auguftus, king of 
 Poland, the right of fucceeding to Albert Fre- 
 derick of Brandenburg, duke of Pruffia, in 
 cafe the" latter died without iflue ; and bound 
 himfelf by treaty to affift Poland with a certain 
 number of troops, whenever it fliould be at- 
 tacked. This prince's reign was mild and 
 peaceable ; he was accufed of being liberal to 
 a degree of excefs j he died in 1571. 
 
 JOHN GEORGE. 
 
 JOHN GEORGE inherited the fame year 
 the electorate from his father Joachim II. and 
 the New Marck from his uncle the margrave 
 John. As His reign was pacific, it comes in 
 here only to connect the thread of the hiftory. 
 It is to be obferved, that one of his wives was 
 a princefs of Lignitz, named Sophia. The 
 branch of the margraves of Bareith and An- 
 fpach happening to be extinct, he divided that 
 
 fucceflion
 
 fuccefiion between his two younger fons, Chri- 
 ftian and Erneft, from the former of whom 
 fprings the new ftem of Bareith, from the lat- 
 ter that of Anfpach. This elector died in 
 1598. 
 
 JOACHIM FREDERICK. 
 
 JOACHIM FREDERICK was fifty-two years 
 of age, when he came to thech&orate. During 
 his father's life, he had enjoyed the biihopricks 
 of Magdeburg, Havelberg, and Lebufs; but 
 upon his fucceeding to John George, he re- 
 iigned the archbifhoprick of Magdeburg in fa- 
 vour of one of his fons, named Chriftian Wil- 
 liam. He had the adminiftration of Pruffia 
 during the madnefs of duke Albert Frederick ; 
 and inherited the dutchy of Jagerndorff, which 
 he gave to one of his fons, named George, to 
 indemnify him for the bifhoprick of Strafburg, 
 which he had been forced to refign. Succef- 
 fions in thofe days were often re- united, and 
 as often divided j the bad policy of thofe 
 princes fruftrating every exertion of fortune in 
 their favour. 
 
 JOACHIM FREDERICK was the firft prince 
 
 of the family that eftablifhed a council of ftate. 
 
 B 3 I
 
 ( 3 ) 
 
 I leave the reader to judge what kind of an ad- 
 rniniftration, what juftice, what management 
 of the finances they inuft have had in thofe 
 rude and unpolifhed days, when there were 
 not even perfons appointed to difcharge thofe 
 functions. 
 
 THE elector undoubtedly perceived the ne- 
 ccflaty there was of providing for the education 
 of youth ; for it was with this view he founded 
 the college of Joachim Stahl, which was de- 
 figned to maintain and inflruct a hundred and 
 twenty perfons. This college was removed af- 
 terwards by the great elector to Berlin. The 
 poverty of the country, and the fmall circula- 
 tion of fpecie, occafioned the fumptuary Jaws 
 publifhed by this elector. He died in 1608, 
 a^ed 63. 
 
 JOHN SJG IS MUND. 
 
 JOHN SJGISMUND had been married at Ko- 
 nigfberg 101594, to Anne, only daughter of 
 Albert, duke of Pruffia, who was heirefs of 
 that dukedom, and of the fucceflicn of Cleve-s. 
 This fuccelfion confifted of the countries 
 of Juliers, Berg, Cleves, Marck, Raven- 
 fburg, and Ravenftein ; too delicious a morfel 
 
 not
 
 not to tempt the avidity of thofe, who had the 
 expectation of any fhare of it. 
 
 BEFORE I fpeak of the rights of the ele&ors 
 of Brandenburg, and of the dukes of New- 
 burg, it will be proper to explain the preten- 
 fions of Saxony, that I may not entangle the 
 
 THE emperor Maximilian had given the 
 expectancy of this fucceflion to the princes of 
 the two lines of Saxony ; namely, the Er- 
 neftine and the Albertine, in default of iflue 
 male and female of the dukes of Cleves. For 
 the letters patent which George William, duke 
 of Cleves, obtained of the emperor, plainly 
 fhew, that this fief dcfcended to females. John 
 Frederick, the laft tk&or of Saxony of the 
 Erneftine branch, married Sibylla, daughter 
 of John III. duke of Juiiers. 
 
 DUKE William of Cleves, fon to John of 
 Juiiers, married Ferdinand's daughter, niece 
 to the emperor Charles V. Th;s marriage, 
 joined to the difpleafure which the emperor had 
 conceived aoainft Frederick of Saxony, for 
 Tiding with the confederacy of SmalkalJ, in- 
 duced him to confirm to duke John- William the 
 right, which he had of difpofing of his fucccflion 
 in favour of his daughters, in default of male 
 B 4 iilue.
 
 ( 32 ) 
 
 iflue. This duke's fon, who was named after 
 him John- William, died without ilTuc in 1 609 ; 
 fo the fucceffion fell to his fifters. 
 
 THE eldeft was Mary-Elecnora, married to 
 Albert -Frederick, duke of Pruffia. 
 
 THE fecond Agnes, was married to the 
 Prince Palatine of Neuburg. 
 
 THE third, Magdalen, was wife to the 
 count Palatine of Deux-ponts. 
 
 THE fourth, Sibylla, was married to the 
 count cf Burgau, a prince of Auftria. 
 
 Thefe four princefies, and their children, 
 laid claim to this fucceffion. 
 
 THE houfe of Saxony, befides its rights 
 of expectancy, pleaded the marriage of the 
 'e<5tor Frederick with the princefs Sibylla, aunt 
 to the deceafed. 
 
 MARY ELEONORA, wife of Albert duke of 
 Pruffia, grounded her rights on the marriage 
 contract in 1572, in which it was exprelsly 
 ftipulated, that in cafe her brother died with- 
 out iflue, file and her pofterity fhould inherit 
 the fix duchies, in virtue of the fundamental 
 pacls made in 1418 and 1496. by which the 
 right of fucceffion was granted to the eldeft 
 daughters. The duke of Pruffia engaged to pay 
 
 200,000
 
 ( 33 ) 
 
 200,ooo florins to his wife's fitters, as an e- 
 quivalent for all their pretenfions. Had Mary- 
 Eleonora been living at the time of her bro- 
 ther's deceafe, it is very probable there would 
 have been no difpute about the matter; but, 
 being dead, her daughter Anne, wife to the 
 elector John Sigifmund, fucceetied to her 
 mother's rights. This inheritance ought there- 
 fore to have fallen to her, fince (he reprefented 
 Mary-Eleonora, and this was the great point 
 concerted. 
 
 THE pretenfions of Anne, duchefs of 
 Neuburg, were founded on this, that as her 
 fitter Mary-Eleonora was dead, {he fucceeded 
 to her rights, and of courfe was become the 
 eldeft fitter, being a nearer relation than Anne 
 of Brandenburg, who was only niece to the 
 deceafed. There was nothing but family com- 
 pacts, and the marriage contract of Mary- 
 Eleonora againft thefe reafons. 
 
 THE two younger fitters of duke John- 
 Williarn did not demand the entire fuccefiionj 
 they pn pofed only a partition. 
 
 BUT what abfolutely annulled the right of 
 
 thofe three younger fitters, was their having 
 
 renounced all their rights in their marriage 
 
 B 5 contract,
 
 ( 34) 
 
 contract, as long as there fhould be any children 
 living by their eldeft fifter. 
 
 THE elector John-Sigifmund, and WoIiF- 
 gang-William, duke of Neuburg, agreed to 
 put themfelves in pofleffion of the contefted 
 fucceffion, with a refervation however of their 
 refpetive rights. This convention was for- 
 'warded by the conduct of the emperor Rodelph, 
 who wanted to fequefler the duchies belonging 
 'to this fucceffion. In fa&, the archduke Leo- 
 pold was going to feize them, but was pre- 
 vented by the proteftant princes, who formed 
 the famous alliance, known by the name of the 
 Union, into which John-Sigifmund was one of 
 the firft that entered. In order to counteract 
 this union, the catholic princes concluded a 
 treaty of the like nature at Wurtzburg, which 
 was calkd the league. The elector had the 
 Dutch on his fide, who were afraid of the im- 
 perial fequeftration j and the duke of Neuburg 
 was favoured by Henry IV. king of France ; 
 but at the very time this prince was preparing 
 to aflift him, he- was affaffinated by Ravillac*. 
 
 THE elector had tried to come to an agreement 
 with the duke of Neuburg : they had an inter- 
 view for this purpofe ; but in the heat of dif- 
 
 * See Sully's memoirs. 
 
 pute
 
 (35 ) 
 
 pute John-Sigifmund happening to give this 
 prince a box on the ear, the conferences were 
 broke off. By this fpecimen we may form a 
 judgment of the politenefs and manners of that 
 time. In 1611 another accommodation was 
 attempted at JuterfacJk with the elector of 
 Saxony, concerning this fame fucceflion ; but 
 the princes were not to be there themfelves, for 
 interviews were become dangerous. The duke 
 of Neuburg protefted ag^inft that treaty, and it 
 was never put in execution. 
 
 JOHN SIGISMUND had the adminiftration 
 of Pruflia, during the madnefs of his father-in- 
 law duke Albert, in the fame manner as Joa- 
 chim-Frederick. He received alfo of Sig.T- 
 mund III. king of Poland, the inveftiture of 
 Pruffia, for himfelf and his defendants, which 
 was the third inveftiture that had been granted 
 to the electoral family. 
 
 A o Pruifia was reunited by this prince to 
 the houfe of Brandenburg, it will not be amifs 
 to give here a concife account of the original 
 ftate and government of this country, and in 
 what manner it fell to duke Albert, the 
 elector's father in law. 
 
 TH E word Pruffia fignifies near the Ruffe ; 
 
 the Rufie is a branch of the river Niemen, 
 
 B 6 which
 
 which is now called Memel. Pruflla was ori- 
 ginally inhabited by Bohemians, Sarmatians, 
 Ruffians, and Venedi. All thefe people were 
 ftupid idolaters, worfhipping the gods of the 
 forefts, lakes, rivers, and even ferpents and 
 elks. Their rude and favage religion rendered 
 them ftrangers to the elegance and magnifi- 
 cence of temples. Theeftablimed worfhip of 
 their principal idols Pctrimpos^ Percunos^ and 
 PicoIoS) was under oak trees, where they were 
 fet up at Ramowa and at Heiligenbeil. Thefe 
 people facrificed even the prifoners taken 
 from their enemies to their falfe gods. S. Adel- 
 bert was the firft who preached chriftianity to 
 the Pruflians towards the year 1000, and re- 
 ceived the crown ofmartvrdom. Crifpus re- 
 lates that three kings of Poland, who were all 
 named Boleflaus, went to war with the Pruf- 
 ilans, in order to convert them : but thefe 
 people, grown fkilful in war, ravaged Mazo- 
 via and Cujavia. Conrad, duke of Cujavia, 
 called in the knights of the Teutonic order from 
 Germany to his fuccour, whofe grand matter 
 at that time, (in 1239) was Herman of Salt- 
 za. He entered Pruflia, and by the aflittance 
 of the Livonian knights, who were a kind of 
 templars, he founded the four bifhopricks of 
 
 Culm,
 
 ( 37 ) 
 
 Culm, Pomefan, Ermeland, and Samlaruh 
 The war between the Teutonic order and the 
 Pruflians lafted 53 years. Thofe knights were 
 obliged afterwards to engage in other wars, in 
 order to defend themfelves either againft Po- 
 land, or againft the dukes of Pomerania, who 
 were jealous of their eftablifhment. Then it 
 was that the families of the feveral knights be- 
 gan to fettle in Pruflia, from whom, in great 
 part, the prefent nobility are defcended. 
 
 UNDER the grand-mafter Conradof Erlich- 
 haufen,ahd in the year 1458. the cities of Dant- 
 zick, Thorn and Elbing declared to him, that 
 as they were tired of his adminiftation, they had 
 transferred their allegiance to Cafimir, fon of 
 Jagellon king of Poland. The war which 
 then broke out between the knights and the 
 Poles, concerning Pruffia, lafted thirteen 
 years; in which the Poles were victorious, 
 and prefcribed the law. Prufiia on the hither 
 frJe of the Viftula was annexed to that king- 
 dom, and called Royal PruCla ; the order 
 kept the further Pruffia, but was obliged to 
 pay homage for it to the conquerors. 
 
 IN 1510, Albert of Brandenburg was chofen 
 
 grand mafter of the order. This was the great 
 
 grandfon of Albert the Achilles, as we have 
 
 2 already
 
 ( 3* ) 
 
 already obferved. The new grand matter, 
 defirous of vindicating the honour of the order, 
 undertook a new war againft the Poles, in 
 which he was very fuccefsful j for he was cre- 
 ated duke of Pruflla by Sigifmund I. king of 
 Poland, who rendered that dignity hereditary 
 to this prince, and to his defcendants. Al- 
 bert in return was only obliged to do homage 
 to Poland. 
 
 ALBERT, now mafter of the further Pruflla, 
 flung off the habit, the crofs, and arms of the 
 Teutonic order. The knights behaved on this 
 occafion as the weaken: commonly do, pro- 
 tefting againft what was not in their power to 
 hinder. The new duke had a war to main- 
 tain in 1563 againft Eric duke of Brunfwick, 
 and commander of Memel. Eric entered 
 Prufiia at the head of twelve thoufand men ; 
 but was ftopt by Albert on the banks of the 
 Viftula. As nothing remarkable happened .in 
 this expedition, and beth fides of the river 
 were covered with foldiers, who employed 
 their time in gathering nuts ; it was called the 
 war of the nuts, Albert turned proteftant in 
 1519, and Pruffia followed his example. His 
 fon Frederick- Albert fucceeded him in 1568. 
 This prince received the inveftiture from king 
 
 Sigifmund
 
 ( 39 ) 
 
 Sigifmund-Auguftus, to which the envoy of 
 the elector Joachim II. greatly contributed. It 
 was this Albert- Frederick that married Mary- 
 Eleonora, daughter of John-William, and 
 filler of the laft duke of Cleves. John-Sigif- 
 mund was fon-in-law, and guardian to this 
 duke of Pruffia, by whofe death, in 1618, 
 he entered into the intire pofleffion of this 
 duchy. This elector had embraced the feel: of 
 Calvin in the year 1614, to pleafe the inhabi- 
 tants of the country of Cleves, who were to 
 become his fubjects. The emperor Rodolph 
 II. died during the adminiftration of this e- 
 ledtor ; and the electoral college chofe Mat- 
 thias, brother of the deceafed, in his ftead. 
 The elector rinding himfelf broken with old 
 age and infirmities, refigned the government 
 to his fon George-William, and died not long 
 after. 
 
 G E O RG E-W 1LLI AM. 
 
 GEORGE- WILLIAM came to the electorate 
 in 1619, and had a moft unfortunate reign. 
 The dominions of this weak prince were ra- 
 vaged during the whole courfe of the thirty- 
 years war, the traces of which are to this very 
 
 day
 
 ( 40 ) 
 
 day difcernible in Germany. All the miferies 
 that can afflict a country, fell upon the electo- 
 rate of Brandenburg. A fovereign inca- 
 pable of governing ; a minifter, who was 
 a traitor to his country * ; a war, or rather a 
 general ranfacking and plundering ; an inunda- 
 tion of armies, fome friends, fome foes, but 
 all equally barbarous, deftru&ive, and cruel ; 
 armies, that toiling to and fro like the waves of 
 the fea, exhaufled thefe provinces by their flux 
 and reflux, never withdrawing till they had 
 laid every thing wafte, and compleated the de- 
 folation of the country. 
 
 THIS fatality, which feemed to perfecute 
 the elector., extended to all his relations. George- 
 William was married to the daughter of the 
 elector Palatine Frederick IV. and fifter to 
 the unfortunate Fredeiick V. king of Bohemia, 
 who was cie'eated at Weiflenberg, ftripped of 
 the Palatinate, and put under the ban of the 
 empire. The emperor Ferdinand II. confif- 
 cated the dutchy of Jagerndorffj becauie the 
 duke, who was uncle to George- William, 
 had efpoufed the caufe of Frederick V. This 
 tlutchy the emperor gave to the princes of 
 Lichtenftein, who are itill in pofieffion of it. 
 
 The count of Schwartzenberg, ftadtholder of the Marclr. 
 
 The
 
 (41 ) 
 
 The ele&or protefted as much as he pleafed, 
 but no notice was taken of him. His uncle, 
 the adminiftrator of Magdeburg, was difpofTefT- 
 cd, and put under the ban of the empire, 
 for entering into the league of Lauenburg, 
 and concluding an alliance with the king of 
 Denmark. At that time the emperor was al- 
 moft defpotic. 
 
 TH E truce, which had been concluded between 
 Spain and Holland in 1621 for twelve years, was 
 now expired. The feat of war was removed to the 
 provinces of the difputed fuccefiion of Clevcs. 
 The Spaniards made themfelves mafters of Ju- 
 1 ers, which the Dutch held for the elector; 
 and Clevesand Lipftadt furrendered to Spino- 
 la, The Dutch, indeed, fome years after- 
 wards, m 1629, drove the Spaniards out of 
 the country of Cleves, and retook fome towns 
 for the elector. At length George-William 
 and the duke of Neuburg prevailed on the Spa- 
 niards in 1630 to evacuate in fome meafure 
 the provinces of the fucceffion ; the Dutch gar- 
 rifoned the towns belonging to the elector, and 
 the Spaniards thofe belonging to the duke. 
 But this convention did not laft long ; for the 
 war broke out again in thofe provinces in 
 1635, with greater fury than ever. Ifhall 
 
 only
 
 only obferve, that during the whole admini- 
 ftration of this elector, the country of Cleves 
 was a prey to the Spaniards and the Dutch, who 
 made themfelves matters of different pods, took 
 towns by furprize, and gained and loft feveral 
 advantages over each other ; but came to no 
 tecifive engagement. The contributions raifed 
 by the generals, and the pillaging of the fol- 
 diers, conftituted at that time the principal 
 part of the military art. 
 
 THO* the emperor pretended to affume an 
 abfolute fovereignty over the empire, ftill 
 the feveral princes were ftrenuous in oppofing 
 hits encroachments, with a refolution that fome- 
 'times put a flop to them ; and they entered into 
 confederacies that alarmed the court of Vienna. 
 Trie electors of Brandenburg and Saxony in- 
 terceded with the emperor for their collegue, 
 the elector Palatine ; and refufed to acknow- 
 ledge the elector Maximilian of Bavaria, whom 
 Ferdinand II. had raifed to this dignity, in 
 prejudice to the Palatine family, and contrary 
 to the laws of the empire. For, according to 
 the Golden Bull, which is confidered as a funda- 
 mental law, no elector can be put under the- 
 ban of the empire, nor flript of his dignity, 
 without the unanimous content of the diet in 
 
 bed/
 
 ( 43 ) 
 
 body aflembled. However, the good offices 
 of thefe electors had no effect. 
 
 AT length the progrefs of the reformation, 
 which dividing Germany, had given birth to 
 two powerful parties, occafioned a war. The 
 proteftant princes entered into a confederacy 
 at Lauenburg, to maintain the free exercife of 
 their religion. Chriftian IV. king of Den- 
 mark, the dukes of Brunfwick Luneburg, 
 Hulftein, Mecklenburg, and Chriftian-Wil- 
 liam, ad:7iiniftrator of Magdeburg, all joined 
 in this alliance. The emperor took umbrage 
 at this, and fent general Tilly in 1 625 into the 
 circle of Lower Saxony, at the head of 1 2,000 
 men. Tilly fat down before Hall, and tho' 
 the town furrendered without any rcfiftance, 
 he gave it up to the foldiers to pillage. At 
 th: fame time Wallenftein, with another army 
 of 1 2,000 men, marched into the provinces 
 of Halberftadt and Magdeburg. The ftates ef 
 Lower Saxony defired to be reconciled to 
 the emperor ; but their propofals did nor 
 hinder Wallenfttin and Tilly from invading 
 the abovimentioned provinces. Chriftian- 
 Willlam, adminiftrator of Magdeburg, was 
 depofed*j the chapter chofe another in 
 
 * Tfce emperor had defigned this benefice for his fon. 
 
 his
 
 (44 ) 
 
 his ftead, and nominated Auguftus, the elebr 
 of Saxony's fon, coadjutor. In the mean, 
 while, the adminiftrator joined his troops with 
 thofe which the king of Denmark had in Low- 
 er Saxony. Chriftian-William and Mansfeld, 
 who commanded this army, attacked WaKtein 
 at the bridge of Deflaw, and were entirely 
 routed ; after their defeat, they efcaped into 
 the marquifiite of Brandenburg, which they 
 plundered. Tilly routed another body of 
 Danifh troops at Lutter in Lower Saxony. 
 The neighbourhood and fuccefles of the Im- 
 perialifts, obliged George-William to comply 
 with the emperor's defire, and to acknowledge 
 the ele&or Maximilian of Bavaria. 
 
 THE king of Denmark, who had now re- 
 paired his lofles, took the field the year follow- 
 ing, in 1626, with two armies, one com- 
 .jnanded by himfelf in perfon, and the other 
 by the adminiftrator. But he durft not pre- 
 f>nt himfelf before Tilly, who had garrifoned 
 Brandenburg, Ratenow, Havelberg, and Per- 
 leberg. 
 
 MANSFELD afiembled the fhattered remains 
 of his army, and ventured to march into the 
 country of Brandenburg againft the confent 
 of the elector. The Imperialifts fent a de- 
 tachment
 
 ( 45 ) 
 
 tachment of 7000 men againfthim, who were 
 afterwards joined by 800 of George- William's 
 forces, under the orders of colonel Craght ; 
 thefe pafled the Werthe, and foon difperfed 
 Mansfield's fugitive troops. By thefe feeble 
 fuccours, we find that the elector had hardly 
 any army on foot. 
 
 THE Imperials, making a proper ufe of 
 their advantages, garrifoned all Pomerania, 
 under pretext of fecuring Germany againft 
 any attempt from the Swedes ; but the real 
 motive, perhaps, was becaufe Bogiflaus, the laft 
 duke of Fomerania, had left the fucceflion of 
 his dominions after his death to the elector of 
 Brandenburg, who had already die expectancy 
 of them. Walftein laid fiege to the town of 
 Stralfund, but was obliged to raife it, with the 
 lofs of iioeo men. Stralfund entered into an 
 alliance with the king of Sweden, and admitted 
 a garrifon of 9000 Swedes. 
 
 ABOUT this very time, the emperor pub- 
 liihed his famous edict of reftitution, in which 
 he enjoined the proteftant princes to reftore to 
 the church the lands they had feized fince the 
 treaty of PafTaw. This would have been a 
 terrible blow to the proteftant princes. The 
 houfe of Brandenburg in particular would have 
 
 loft
 
 ( 46 ) 
 
 loft by it the bifliopricks of Brandenburg, Ha- 
 velberg and Lebufs. This was the fignal which 
 once more fet the proteftants and catholics 
 together by the ears. Ferdinand II. wanted to 
 fifh in troubled waters, and to appropriate to 
 himfelf the archbiflioprick of Magdeburg ; but 
 Walftein was obliged to rife from before that 
 town after a liege of 28 weeks. 
 
 THE eled~lor went in perfon to Warfaw, in 
 the year 1626, to receive the inveftiture of 
 Pruffia. A new war broke out at that time in 
 thofe quarters. Sigifmund III. king of Po- 
 land, formed pretenfions againft the kingdom 
 of Sweden, at that time governed by Gufta- 
 vus Adolphus. Guftavus, in order to be be- 
 forehand with his enemy, marched into Pruf- 
 fia, took fort Pillaw in 1628, and made a con- 
 fiderable progrefs in Livonia and Polifh Pruflia. 
 This prince made a truce for fix years with 
 the Poles, which was figned at Dantzick in 
 1629, where he was himfelf in perfon j in 
 this the elector was comprehended, and after- 
 wards they extended it to 26 years. 
 
 THE king of Sweden had formed a defign of 
 entering Germany, in order to reap fomc ad- 
 vantage from the troubles of that country, 
 which had been fo greatly increafed by the em- 
 peror's
 
 (47) 
 
 peror's edi of reftitution. Guftavus pub-> 
 lifheJ a kind of a manifefto, fetting forth the 
 grievances he had received from the emperor. 
 His fubjecls of complaint were thefe : That 
 t'.ie emperor had aflifted the king of Poland 
 with io,cco men ; that he had dep- fed his 
 ally, the duke of Mecklenburg ; and that 
 he had ufed the town of Stralfund very 
 ill> with which he was in alliance. Imme- 
 diately upon this declaration, all the ports 
 of Pomerania were blocked up by the Swedifh 
 fleet. Whofoever confiders thefe reafons, 
 will not find them more folid than thofe which 
 Charles II. king of England, made ufe of in 
 his declaration of waragainft the Dutch. One 
 of the principal grievances of the Englifh was, 
 that MefT. de Witt had a fcandalous p:ture in 
 their houfes. Muft fuch frivolous reafons as 
 thefe be given for the devaflaticn of provinces ; 
 and human blood be thus wantonly fpilt, to 
 fatisfy the fancy and capricious whims of a 
 fingle man ? 
 
 It was in the year 1630 that all the cala- 
 mities, which had hitherto menaced ihe elec- 
 
 * This is faid to have bcn the picture of a fca-fight, ia 
 which the Dutch had been victorious over the Engliih. 
 
 torate
 
 ( 48 ) 
 
 torate of Brandenburg, broke out and the 
 ftorms that roared in the neighbourhood, all 
 joined to deftroy this miferable country. 
 Walftein, who had taken up his quarters in 
 the elector's territories, raifed moft exorbitant 
 contributions on them : Surprifing ! that the 
 Imperial armies ftiould thus feverely treat a 
 country, whofe prince was clofely united to 
 the emperor. It is eafy to judge of the fitua- 
 tion of the elector George-William at that 
 time, by his anfwer to Ferdinand II. who in- 
 vited him to the diet of Ratifbon. He fays : 
 The March is fo greatly exbaujled^ as to be in- 
 capable of fupplying my ordinary expences^ much 
 lefs thofe of a journey of that kind. The regi- 
 ments of Pappenheim and St. Julian were quar- 
 tered in the middle Marck, which they drain- 
 ed of 300,000 crowns in fixteen months. The 
 filver mark at that time was nine crowns ; at 
 prefent it is twelve ; fo that this fum would 
 now amount to 400,000 crowns. It is faid 
 that Walftein drew from the whole electorate 
 the fum of 20000000 of florins, which in our 
 prefent fpecie would make 1,777,777 crowns. 
 This account appears to me exaggerated, and 
 I believe it would be no miftake to abate 
 two thirds of the fum. 
 
 IN
 
 (49 ) 
 
 IN the mean while Guftavus Adolphus en- 
 tered Germany, and made a defcent upon the 
 ifle of Rugen, from whence he diflodged the 
 Imperialifts by the help of the ftrong garrifon 
 which he had at Stralfund. At the ap- 
 proach of the Swedifh army, the emperor gave 
 notice to the electors of Saxony and Branden- 
 burg, to furnifli provifions and ammunition 
 to his troops, promifmg in return to mode- 
 rate the edict of reftitution in their favour, 
 While the diet was aflembled at Ratifbon, 
 Guftavus made himfelf mafter of Pomera- 
 nia, threw a Swedifa garrifon into Stettin, 
 and chafed Torquato Conti, who commanded 
 the imperial troops, from this dutchy. 
 
 THIS king concluded a treaty with the duke 
 of Pomerania, by which it was ftipulated, 
 that if, after his deceafe, the fucceflion of 
 that country fhould bedifputed with the elector 
 of Brandenburg, or if Sweden was not intirely 
 indemnified for the expences of the war, this 
 province fhould be fequeftered into the king's 
 hands. The Imperialifts, driven from Pome- 
 rania by the Swedes, retired into the New 
 Marck, and drew up in a body towards Frank- 
 fort on the OJer. 
 
 C UPON
 
 (s*) 
 
 AT the approach of the Swedifh army, 
 the elector raifed fome intrench ments in a 
 hurry before the gates of Berlin, where he 
 planted a few cannon, and obliged the burghers 
 to mount guard ; an evident fign that he had 
 no regular troops in the town. 
 
 THE city of Magdeburg joined with the 
 Swedes, and promifed them the paffage over 
 their bridge on the Elbe. The troops of this 
 city drove the Imperialifts out of their country ; 
 but Tilly returned with his army, fubdued 
 the whole country, and blockaded the city. 
 
 THE protettants held an aflembly at Leip- 
 fick in 1631, where they entered into debates 
 concerning their refpective interefts. The 
 electors of Brandenburg and Saxony came to a 
 refolution to ftand by the emperor, and to 
 fummon their arrier-ban, in order to oppofe 
 the Swedes. 
 
 IN the mean while Guftavus traverfed the 
 Marck, to aflift the duke of Mecklen- 
 burg. This prince, who was both the po- 
 litician and the foldier, made his troops ob- 
 ferve an exaft difcipline during their march ; 
 and he endeavoured to bring the prote- 
 ftants over to his interefts, by declaring fo- 
 lemnly wherever he came, that he had entered 
 
 Germany
 
 (SO 
 
 Germany with no other view than to refcue 
 the princes from the yoke which the em- 
 peror wanted to impofe upon them, and to 
 defend their religious liberties. He entered 
 into an alliance at the fame time with Lewis 
 XIII. king of France, who had the fame in- 
 tcreft as himfelf to reduce the power of the 
 emperor. This treaty was concluded at Ber- 
 wald. 
 
 Ti LLY left a body of troops to continue the 
 blockade of Magdeburg, and joining the Im- 
 perialifts at Frankfort on the Oder, he tra- 
 verfed the Marck to attack the Swedes, who 
 had over-run the dutchy of Mecklenburg; 
 but the fortune of Guftavus prevailed over 
 that of the imperial general. The king of 
 Sweden marched from the dutchy of Meck- 
 lenburg to Schwet, where he pafTcd the Oder, 
 and laid fiege to Frankfort, in which there 
 was an imperial garrifon of 7000 men. He 
 carried the town by ftorm, where he found a 
 numerous train of artillery j and having after- 
 wards made himfelf matter of Landfberg and 
 Croflen, he turned ftiort all of a fudden, 
 and marched his army towards Berlin, in or- 
 der to relieve Magdeburg, which was befieged 
 by Tilly inperfon. 
 
 C 2 A*
 
 (5* ) 
 
 As foon as Guftavus arrived at Copenick, 
 he fent a meflage to the ele&or, defiring 
 hi/i) to put the fortrefles of Spandaw and 
 Cuftrin into his hands, in order to fecure a 
 retreat, in cafe of any misfortune. The 
 cleftor, furprized at fo extraordinary a de- 
 mand, was incapable of coming to any re- 
 folution, A propofal was therefore made of 
 an interview between thofe two princes. Ac- 
 cordingly they met in a little wood, about a 
 quarter of a mile from Berlin ; where the 
 elector found Guftavus-Adolphus guarded by a 
 thoufand foot, and four pieces of cannon. 
 Here the king renewed the fame propofals to 
 the elector, who not being able to come to an 
 immediate determination in this difficult di- 
 lemma, defired half an hour to confult with 
 his minifters, which was agreed to. In the 
 mean while the Swedifh monarch entertained 
 himfelf with the princefles and the ladies of 
 the court : but as the elector, after all thefe 
 deliberations, could come to no conclufion, he 
 invited the king to go with him to Berlin. 
 Guftavus confented, and entered the city with 
 his thoufand Swedes, two hundred of whom 
 mounted guard at the caftle of Berlin. The 
 j-eft of the foldiers were quartered upon the 
 
 burghers.
 
 ( 53 ) 
 
 burghers. The day following, the whole 
 Swedifh army came and encamped in the neigh- 
 bourhood of this capital ; and the elector, per- 
 ceiving himfelf no longer matter of his own 
 residence, acquiefced to whatever Guftavus 
 defired. The Swedifh garrifons of the for- 
 treffes of Spandaw and Cuftrin took the oath of 
 fidelity to the elector j and the king gave his 
 word, that he would give up thofe fortrefies 
 again to the troops of Brandenburg, as 
 foon as he fhould have no further occafion 
 for them. Things being thus fettled, Guita- 
 vus advanced beyond Potzdam ; upon whofe 
 approach the Imperialifts, who were in poflef- 
 fion of Brandenburg and Ratenow, retired, 
 and joined the army that formed the fiege of 
 Magdebourg. The king fent to the elector of 
 Saxony, to defire a paflage over the Elbe, at 
 the bridge of Wittenberg, but it was refufed 
 him, which hindered him from relieving Mag- 
 deburg. 
 
 THIS city, which Tilly and Papenheim had 
 not been able to take by force, was furprized 
 at length by ftratagem. The Imperialifts en- 
 tered into a negociation with the city of Mag- 
 deburg, by the interpofition of the Hans- 
 towns, and propofed fome advantageous con- 
 C 3 ditioas.
 
 (54) 
 
 ditions. During the conferences, they af- 
 fefled to leave off firing on the town ; this de- 
 ceived the Magdeburghers, whofe vigilance 
 Was relaxed by this falfe fecurity. For 
 jnoft of the burghers, who had been on guard 
 all night upon the ramparts, went off towards 
 morning. Papenheim, who had carried his 
 approaches as far as the counterfcarp of the 
 ditch, took notice of this neglect, and made 
 a proper ufe of it } he ordered the town to 
 be availed in four places at once, ?nd made 
 himfelf mafter of the ramparts, wiihout any 
 great refiftance. The Croats marched along 
 the Elbe, which at that time was very low, 
 and pafling the river, attacked the works on 
 the other fide. Upon this alarm, the garrifon 
 and burghers drew up in a hurry in the public 
 fquares; but Tilly, having made himfelf mafter' 
 of the cannon of the ramparts, ordered them to 
 be pointed dire&ly againft the ftreets ; and the 
 imperial troops pouring in at the fame time in 
 great numbers, it was in .vain for the inhabi- 
 tants to make any further refiftance. Thus this 
 city, which had been one of the moft flourifli- 
 ing in Germany, was unfortunately given up 
 to the fury of the foldiers, who ranfacked and 
 plundered it during the fpace of three days. 
 
 ALL
 
 C 55 ) 
 
 ALL that the moft unbridled licentioufnefs 
 and villainy can invent, when men abandon 
 themfelves to their fury, was committed by 
 thafe foldiers, who had been let loofe to glut 
 their barbarous cruelty. Thefe inhuman plun- 
 derers put almoft all the inhabitants to the 
 fword; only fourteen hundred, who had re- 
 tired into the cathedral, and to whom Tilly 
 gave quarters, were faved. After the pillage 
 and maflacre were over, they fet the town on 
 fire, and in a few hours the private houfes and 
 public edi-fices were reduced to a heap of afhes 
 and ruins, like thofe of Troy. In the whole 
 town fcarce 140 houfes were preferved. It 
 is faid on this occasion, that no lefs than 
 twelve hundred maidens drowned themfelves 
 in the Elbe, to prefcive their chaftity from 
 the dangers to which the violence of the fol- 
 diers might have expofed ft. Thefe exam- 
 ples are fine, but uncommon ; and if to 
 us they appear fabulous, it is owing either to 
 the corruption of our morals, or to the want 
 of fufficient authority to afcertain the fact. 
 
 AFTER the taking of Magdeburg, Gufta- 
 
 vus came and encamped a fecond time in the 
 
 neighbourhood of Berlin. He was provoked 
 
 at having mifcarried in his defign, and laid the 
 
 C 4 blame
 
 (56 ) 
 
 blame upon the electors of Brandenburg and 
 Saxony. The king ordered his artillery to be 
 planted againft the town, and at the fame 
 time demanded a paflage for his army. George- 
 William font the eledtrefs, and all the prin- 
 cefles of his court to the Swediih camp, to try 
 to pacify this monarch, and came himfelf foon 
 after: he granted, as it may well be ima- 
 gined, every article the king demanded. Upon 
 the elector's return, the king ordered him to 
 be faluted by a difcharge of his artillery. But 
 as they forgot to turn them towards the fields, 
 a great nuaiber of houfes and roofs were da- 
 maged by the cannon balls : this indeed was a 
 civility a little of the Gothic and Herulian 
 order. The day following the army defiled 
 through the town, and pafled the Spree. 
 
 THE elerbr excufed his conduct to the em- 
 peror, by alledging his incapacity of refifting 
 the violence offered him by a foreign prince. 
 Ferdinand anfwered him drily, that the Swe- 
 difh troops would not fpare the Marcks more 
 than the imperialifts had done. The elector 
 of Saxony, perceiving the fuccefs of the Swe- 
 ilifh arms, embraced the fide which fortune 
 favoured, and fet an example to all the pro- 
 teftant princes. The Swedes reftcred Span- 
 daw
 
 (57) 
 
 daw and Cuftrin to the ele&or, and over-run 
 all Lower Saxony. They entered the Old 
 Marck, where the king poilefled himfelf of 
 the camp of Werben, which was vaftly ftrong, 
 by its fituation at the conflux of the Havel and 
 the Elbe. Tilly, being uneafy about Papen- 
 heim, who had been obliged to (hut himfelf up 
 in Magdeburg, quitted Thuringia to march 
 to his relief, and advanced towards the Swedifli 
 camp. The good genius of this prince, which 
 favoured all his undertakings, fuggefted to him 
 a fcheme for furprizing a van- guard of three 
 regiments, which the Auftrian -general had 
 detached too far from the main body of the 
 army. Accordingly he furprized them, cut 
 them in pieces, and returned to his camp 
 at Werben. Tilly, in hopes to wipe off this 
 difgrace, wanted to attack the Swedes in their 
 camp ; but the fituation appeared to him fo 
 ftrong, and the difpofitions of the enemy to re- 
 ceive him fo good, that he durft not venture it. 
 Being obliged to retire for want of provifions, 
 he marched to Hall, with an intention of 
 taking Leipfick, and of obliging the elector of 
 Saxony to renounce his engagements with the 
 Swedes. Guftavus, aware of his defign, quit- 
 ted his ftrong camp at Werben, palled the 
 C 5 Elbe
 
 C 5 ) 
 
 Elbe at Wittenberg, joined the Saxons at 
 Duben, and fell upon the Irr^perialifts, whom 
 he totally defeated -in the neighbourhood of 
 Leipfick. Among the numerous artillery 
 which the king took in that battle, there were 
 feveral pieces marked with the arms of Bran- 
 denburg, Saxony, and Brunfwick, which the 
 Imperialists had appropriated to themfelves by 
 the right of conveniency. Tilly, after the lofs- 
 of fix thoufand men upon the fpot, was 
 obliged to fly, and collected the remains of his 
 Shattered army in Thuringia. We mall not 
 follow the Swedes in the courfe of their victo- 
 ries j it is fufficient to mention, that Guftavus 
 was become the arbiter of Germany, by pe- 
 netrating as far as the Danube j while Bannier,, 
 with another body of troops, made himfelf 
 matter of the open country round Magdeburg, 
 where the Imperialifls had {till a ftrong garri- 
 fon. The Swedes, who were now matters, 
 eftablimed a regency in the provinces of Mag- 
 deburg and Halberftad. 
 
 AT the beginning of the year 1632 died Si- 
 gifmund king of Poland y and Uladiflaus was 
 chofen to fill the vacant throne. The Sweden 
 did not fleep over their laurels, but came to 
 Jay fiege to Magdeburg. Papenheim, who 
 
 was
 
 C 59 ) 
 
 was in the dutchy of Brunfwick, flew to the 
 afiiftance of the Imperialifts ; and Bannier 
 raifed the fiege upon his approach. But the 
 duke of Lunenburg having entered into the 
 alliance of Leipfick, came with a fine army 
 to join the Swedes. Papenheim finding him- 
 felf then too weak to refill thofe united forces, 
 evacuated the city of Magdeburg, abandoned 
 the open country, and retired into Weftphalia 
 and Franconia, whither the enemy followed 
 him. The Swedes took pofleflion of Magde- 
 burg ; and the few that remained of the an- 
 cient inhabitants, began to repair the ruins of 
 their country, and to rebuild their habitations. 
 THE emperor being grown more gentle by 
 the ill fuccefs of his arms, began to tamper 
 with the electors of Saxony and Brandenburg, 
 in order to draw them ofF from their Swedifh 
 alliance ; but his endeavours proved unfuc- 
 cefsful. George- William went even fo far as 
 to fend fome fmall fuccours to the Saxons, 
 who were in purfuit of a body of imperial 
 troops in Silefia, commanded by Balthafar de 
 Maradas. The emperor, provoked at this ir- 
 ruption into S.lefia, and- delirous to fhew his 
 lefentment for the denial which had been given 
 him by thofe two electors, Tent an army, under 
 C 6 the
 
 the command of Walftein, to feize on their 
 ele&orates. Papenheim left Weftphalia to jin 
 Walftein, and thefe generals taking advan- 
 tage of the abfence of the king of Sweden, 
 who was then in Bavaria, made themfelves 
 matters of Leipfick, Naumburg, Merfburg, 
 Hall, and Gibichinftein. Lower Saxony 
 would have been ravaged anew, if the king 
 of Sweden had not flown to its affiftance. 
 He came, he died, and dying won the famous 
 battle of Latzen. The Swedes, tho' conque- 
 rors, looked upon themfelves as beaten, hav- 
 ing their heroe no longer at their head ; and 
 the Imperialifts, tho' beaten, thought them- 
 felves vi&orious, having no longer Guftavus 
 Adolphus to dread. After the death of Tu- 
 renne, the French army retreated and repaf- 
 fed the Rhine ; after the death of Guftavus 
 Adolphus, the Swedes drove the Imperialifts 
 out of lower Saxony; and all the towns 
 which had been taken by Walftein, were re- 
 taken by the elector of Saxony in 1633. Ox- 
 enftiern had after this the direction of affairs 
 in Germany ; and^he Swedes concluded an 
 alliance at Heiibrun, with the circles of Fran- 
 conia, Suabia, the upper and lower Rhine. 
 
 THO'
 
 (61 ) 
 
 THO' the ele&or did not join in the alliance 
 of Heilbrun, yet he made fome efforts in favour 
 of the common caufe, by fending a few fuc- 
 cours to Arnheim, who commanded the Saxon 
 troops in Silefia. The elector's whole forces 
 at that time confifted of no more than 3000 
 horfe and 5000 foot. At the approach of 
 Walftein and Galas, he called a kind of arrier- 
 ban, or rather a general rifing of all his fub- 
 
 Walftein entered Silefia at the head of an 
 army of 45000 men, and amufed Arnheim 
 with feigned propofals of accommodation. He 
 feemed to threaten Saxony : Arnheim was 
 deceived by this ftratagem ; for while he co- 
 vered that electorate, the imperial general turn- 
 ed unexpectedly towards the bridge of Steinaw, 
 where he defeated 800 Swedes; after which 
 he retook Franckforr, and fent out parties 
 that ravaged Pomerania and the Marck. He 
 fummoned Berlin to bring him the keys j but 
 hearing at the fame time that Bernard of Wei- 
 mar had taken Ratifbon, and that nine thou- 
 fand Saxons and Brandenburghers, were ad- 
 vancing towards him, he abandoned all his pro- 
 jes. Berlin was covered by Arnheim and 
 .Cannier ; and Walftein retired into Silefia, 
 4 leaving
 
 ( 62 ) 
 
 leaving a ftrong garrifon in Frankfort and fomc 
 other towns. 
 
 Oxenftiern having found his advantage in 
 the alliance which he had concluded at Heil- 
 brun in 1634. with the four circles, propofed 
 another of the fame nature to the circles 
 of upper and lower Saxony. It was conclud- 
 ed at Halberftadt ; and the principal contract- 
 ing parties, were the electors of Brandenburg 
 and Saxony. This Swedifh minifter pulled 
 off the mafk at the aflembly of Frankfort on 
 the Main, where he propofed to the ftates, 
 without any kind of difguife, to yield Pome- 
 rania to Sweden after the death of the laft 
 duke, as an indemnity for the expences which 
 that crown had been at, to fupport the pro- 
 teffant intereft in Germany. The elector of 
 Brandenburg was highly irritated at this pro- 
 pofal. It was indeed too precipitate; nor 
 fhould Oxenftiern have made it, till conjunc- 
 tures had been fo favourable as to permit him 
 to oppofe openly the pretenfions of George- 
 William, without endangering the interefts of 
 Sweden. In the mean while the elector, with 
 the afiiftance of the Swedifh trocps, found him- 
 felf at the head of 20000 men, fcarce the fixtb 
 part of whom belonged to him. The names 
 
 of
 
 of the regiments of Brandenburg that were in 
 that army, are thefe j Borsdorff, Wolckmann, 
 Francis Lauenburg, Conrad Borsdorff, and 
 Ehrenreich Borgsdorff. He took Frankfort on 
 the Oder, where the garrifon confifting of 1000 
 men, were allowed to march ou t by capitulation ; 
 and the imperial garrifon of Croflen marched 
 out with white flicks in their hands. But 
 thefe fmall fuccefles were fufficiently counter- 
 balanced by the news he received, that the 
 archduke Ferdinand and the Cardinal infant 
 had gained a complete victory over the Swedes 
 at Nordlingen. The Elector of Saxony could 
 not bear that Oxenftiern fliourd have the di- 
 rection of the affairs of Germany preferable to 
 himfelf ; and George William was greatly in- 
 cenfed at the propofal made by Oxenftiern at 
 the aflembly of Francfort. 
 
 THESE pacific difpofvtions produced a very 
 fpeedy effect. The emperor, defirous of dividing 
 Germany that had been leagued againft him, 
 laid hold of the opportunity vvi.th eagernefs, 
 and a peace was concluded at Prague the 2oth 
 of March in the year 1635. The conditions 
 were, that the elector of Saxony's fecond fon 
 fhould continue adminiftrator of Magdeburg, 
 and that the four bailiwicks difmembred from, 
 
 that
 
 that archbifhoprick * (hould be left to Saxony. 
 The elector of Brandenburg had aflurances 
 given him, that his rights to Pomerania fhould 
 be maintained ; and the emperor engaged not 
 to reclaim the church lands poflefled by the 
 proteftantSj and to confirm the pafts of con- 
 fraternity between the houfes of Brandenburg, 
 Saxony and Hefle. 
 
 AFTER the conclufion of this peace, the 
 Saxon and Imperial troops cleared the coun- 
 try of Halberftad and Magdeburg of the Swedes 
 by whom it was ftill infefted ; but the capital 
 held out for the Swedes. The dutchy of Mec- 
 lenburg, the Old Marck, and Pomerania, were 
 expofed anew to the calamities of war j the 
 Swedes made incurfions as far as Oranien- 
 burg, and the Saxons and Imperialifts extended 
 themfelves along the banks of the Elbe and 
 the Havel. 
 
 BANNIER, whofe attention was fixt upon 
 preferving Pomerania for the crown of Sweden, 
 aflembled his troops at Ratcnaw, and marched 
 by Wittenberg to Hall, in order to keep off 
 the war from the frontiers of Pomerania, and 
 at the fame time to relieve the Swedifh gar- 
 * QHerfurt, Joterbock, Bock, and Damme, 
 
 rifon
 
 rifon that was ftraightened at Magdeburg. 
 The elector of Saxony marched with all ex- 
 pedition into Mifnia, where he joined the Im- 
 perial troops commanded by Morofmi. The feat 
 of war was confined for a while to the banks 
 of the Sale; but at length the Saxons obliged 
 Bannier to retire, and the Imperialifb became 
 matters once more of Magdeburg. Bannier 
 retreated into the country of Lunenburg, and 
 from thence into the Marck. Here he was 
 joined by Wrangel, with a reinforcement of 
 8000 men ; upon which they furprized Bran- 
 denburg, and carried Ratenau by florm, where 
 there was an imperial garrifon. Thus this poor 
 electorate was a prey to the firft comer, ran- 
 facked, pillaged, and laid wafte alike by foe 
 and friend. All the towns along the Havel 
 were pillaged twice by the Swedes, and once 
 by the Imperialifts, in lefs than fix weeks. 
 This devaluation, was univerfal j the country, 
 properly fpeaking, was not ranfacked, but ut- 
 terly deftroyed. 
 
 SUCH was the unhappy fate of the Marck 
 that fortune feemed determined to perpetuate 
 the war, by never declaring herfelf entirely 
 in favour of one fide. The Swedes unexpect- 
 edly refumed their fuperiority. Bannier gain- 
 ed
 
 C 66) 
 
 ed a viaory at Witttock over the Imperials 
 and Saxons ; the vanquifhed troops never halt- 
 ed till they got to Leipfick ; the Swedes im- 
 proved their advantages, and again over-run 
 the Marck. Wrangel came before Berlin, 
 where he put a garrifon of five companies, and 
 infifted again upon the eleclor's delivering up 
 his fortrefles. George-William, who was at 
 Peitz, made anfwer that he was entirely at 
 the difcretion of the Swedes ; but as his for- 
 trefles were garrifoned by Imperial troops, it 
 was not in his power to do as he pleafed. 
 Wrangle then quartered his army in the New 
 Marck. 
 
 THE Emperor Ferdinand II. the tyrant and 
 eppreflbr of Germany, died at length in 
 1637, and his fon Ferdinand III. who was 
 already king of the Romans, fucceeded him, 
 as if this throne had been hereditary. Dur- 
 ing thefe troubles died Bogiflaus, Duke of Po- 
 merania, whofe family had been poflefled of 
 this Dutchy 700 years, and in him that fa- 
 mily became extinft. As the Swedes were 
 matters of Pomerania, and even of the electo- 
 rate it felf, the ele&or was unable to affert 
 his rights ; he was fatisfied with fending a trum- 
 pet to the dates of Pomerania, ordering them 
 
 to
 
 to fall upon the Swedes. Th'rs extraordinary 
 embafly had no effect; and. I believe it is the 
 only inftance in hiftory of a trumpet's having 
 been charged with the like commiffion. 
 
 IN the mean while the Imperialifts, under 
 the command of Hatzfeld and Morofmi, drove 
 Bannier out of Saxony, purfued him beyond 
 Schwet, and retook Landfberg. At the fame 
 time Klitzing, the Saxon general, cleared the 
 Marck and the banks of the Havel, by driving 
 away the Swedes. The war, which continu- 
 ally fhifted from one province to another, was 
 removed again to Pomerania ; and the Imperia- 
 lifts received a reinforcement of three thoufand 
 Hungarians. Thefe I believe, were the firft of 
 that nation, that were ever employed by the 
 Imperialifts out of their own country. Pome- 
 rania underwent the fame fate as the Marck ; 
 and being expofed to the fame incurfions, 
 was taken, retaken, burnt, and deftroyed. 
 
 IN 1638 the Swedes received a reinforce- 
 ment, which feemed to come only to perpe- 
 tuate the war, with all the horrors that attend 
 it. They drove the Imperialifts and Saxons 
 out of Pomerania, broke into the Marck, burnt 
 Bernaw, defeated 7000 Saxons commanded 
 by Morufini, and obliged Galas the Imperial 
 
 general,
 
 ( es) 
 
 general, to fly before them as far as Bohe- 
 mia. Notwithftanding this reverfe of fortune, 
 the electors of Brandenburg and Saxony con- 
 tinued firmly united to the emperor. 
 
 THUS the Swedes appeared in 1639, for 
 the fourth time before the gates of Berlin. 
 The Brandenburghers however made an un- 
 expe&ed diverfion upon them, by falling 
 upon Livonia with 4000 men from Pruffia ; 
 but as they negleded to make themfelves 
 matters of fome of the ftrong holds, they 
 were obliged to relinquim their conquefts, 
 and the expedition came to nothing. The 
 Swedes revenged themfelves upon the Marck 
 for their lofles in Livonia ; for when they 
 drew near to Berlin, the garrifon, which con- 
 futed only of 400 men, retired ; and the town 
 immediately furrendered ; they Jikewife fur- 
 prized 1500 Brandenburghers at Bernaw, who 
 were under the command of Borsdorff. De- 
 vitz directed his march towards Silefia, and 
 Bannier fell to plundering again the ele&o- 
 rate of Saxony and the country of Halber- 
 ftad. 
 
 AXE LILLE, who commanded at Berlin in 
 164.0, kept Spandaw clofely blocked up, but 
 was lefs ftrift in the blockade of Cuftrin, 
 
 where
 
 where the ele&or had retired for flicker; 
 the ravages and extortions of the Swedes 
 were almoft incredible. The ftates of Pome- 
 rania held their aflembly, to which the e- 
 leftor fent his deputies. The refolutions 
 of thefe ftates were not favourable to the 
 Swedes ; and the elector's commiflaries 
 took place as reprefentatives of the duke 
 of Wolgaft and Stettin, at the diet of 
 Ratifbon. The fame year George- William 
 took a journey into Pruflia, in order to con- 
 vene the ftates at Koningfberg, and to de- 
 mand of them the arrears of fome fubfidies 
 due to him j but he died there the third of 
 December, leaving to his fon Frederick 
 William a defolate country, void of all re- 
 fource either in troops or money. 
 
 WE cannot, without offending the laws 
 of equity, charge George- William with all the 
 misfortunes that happened to him. He was 
 guilty however of two very capital miftakes. 
 One was his not raifing an army of 20000 
 men, which he was able to maintain, and which 
 would have enabled him to fupport his rights 
 to the fucceffion of Cleves, and might have 
 been flill more ufefully employed in the de- 
 fence of his country : The othgr was his plac- 
 ing
 
 ( 70 ) 
 
 ing fo unlimited a confidence in his minifter 
 the count of Sch war tzen berg, who had fold 
 himfelf to the Imperial court, and whofe am- 
 bitious views tended even to render himfelf 
 matter of the Marck. The complication of 
 odd conjunctures this prince was in, left him 
 only the liberty of chufing the leaft of two 
 evils. He was under a neceffity of chufing 
 between the Imperialifts and the Swedes, 
 which he would prefer as friends or maf- 
 ters. The edict of reftitution, the defigns of 
 the Imperial court upon Magdeburg, and li- 
 berty of confcience, ought naturally to have 
 infpired George William with an averfion to 
 Ferdinand II. but by joining with the king 
 of Sweden, whofe intention was to acquire 
 Pomerania, he became fubfervient to his ene- 
 my in depriving himfelf of his juft inheritance. 
 On the one hand he was greatly difpleafed 
 with the Emperor's feverity, which induced 
 him to liften to the infmuating artifices of 
 the Swedes ; and on the other, he was pro- 
 voked at the Swedifti ufurpations, which 
 made him apply to the cout of Vienna for 
 fuccour. This ticklim fituation was the caufe 
 of his changing fides continually, and join- 
 ing with the tfryngefti and the inconftancy 
 
 of
 
 ( 71 ) 
 
 of fortune, which alternately favoured the 
 Swedes and Imperialifts, did not give his allies 
 even time to protect him. 
 
 FREDERICK- WILLIAM, 
 furnamed THE GREAT. 
 
 FREDERICR-WILLIAM was born at Berlin 
 the 6th of February, 1620. He was fur- 
 named the Great, and was really fo. He was 
 a prince that may be faid to have been formed 
 by heaven, to redrefs by his vigilance and acti- 
 vity the diforder and confufion, into which his 
 territories had been thrown by the indolence 
 of the preceding reign; to be thereftorer and 
 defender of his country ; and the glory and 
 honour of his family. Nature feemed by mi- 
 ftake to have united in his perfon the foul of a 
 great king, with the moderate fortune of an 
 elector : and indeed his fpirit was much fupe- 
 rior to his ftation. Europe in him beheld a 
 prince, whofe adlions difplayed the noble foul, 
 and the fuperior genius ; one while tempered 
 by prudence, another time bearing that cha- 
 racter of enthufiafm, which forces our admi- 
 ration ; a prince, who conftantly repaired his 
 lofies, without foreign fuccours j who formed 
 
 all
 
 (72) 
 
 all his proje&s himfelf, and put them in exe- 
 cution } who by his wifdom retrieved a defo- 
 lated country ; by his policy and prudence 
 acquired new territories ; by his valour af- 
 fifted his allies, and defended his people } a 
 prince, in fine, who was equally great in all his 
 undertakings, 
 
 FREDERICK-WILLIAM was twenty years 
 of age, when he came to the adminiftration. 
 His education was like that of Philocletes j he 
 underftood how to conquer, at an age when the 
 generality of mankind feek only for amufements. 
 He had learnt the military art under Frede- 
 rick-Henry, prince of Orange ; and was pre- 
 fent at the fieges of fort Schenck and Breda. 
 Count Swartzenberg, minifter to George- 
 William, who was uneafy to fee in the cha- 
 racter of this young prince, the early fparkles of 
 that fire, which afterwards made fo bright a 
 flame, kept him at as much diftance as he 
 could from the court, being convinced that 
 his condudl: would not bear the examination of 
 fo vigilant an infpector. The young prince 
 neverthelefs returned to his father, in fpite of 
 the minifter, and went with him to Pruffia, 
 where by the deceafe of George- William he 
 took pofleffion of his hereditary dominions. 
 
 BUT
 
 ( 73) 
 
 BUT this fucceffion was in great part in the 
 hands of the Swedes, who had reduced the 
 electorate of Brandenburg to a frightful defart, 
 where towns were traced only by rubbifh and 
 ruins, and villages by heaps of afhes, which 
 hindered the grafs from growing. 
 
 NOR were the dutchies of Cleves,- and of the 
 Marck, more happy; the produce of thefe 
 provinces was divided between the Spaniards 
 and the Dutch, who plundered them alter- 
 nately, by raifing exorbitant contributions, 
 under a pretence of defending them. 
 
 PRUSSIA, which had been feized by Gufla- 
 vus- Adolphus, was ftiil bleeding of the wounds 
 it had received from the war. Under thefe def- 
 pcratecircumftances Frederick-William began 
 his reign : Though he was a prince without 
 territories, an elector without power, a fuc- 
 ceilbr without inheritance, and juft in the 
 flower of his youth ; an age, which expofed 
 to the vivacity of paffions, renders mankind 
 almoft incapable of direction ; yet he gave 
 marks of the moft confummate wifdom, and of 
 every virtue that could render him worthy of 
 command. 
 
 HE regulated his finances, proportioned his 
 
 expences to his revenues, and got rid of thofe 
 
 D ignorant,
 
 (74) 
 
 ignorant, or corrupt minifters, who had con- 
 tributed to the mifery of his people. The 
 count of Schwartzenberg was the firft whom 
 he difmifled : this count was great commander 
 of Malta, governor of the Marck, prefident 
 of the council, and great chamberlain. And 
 if there had been any other more important 
 employments, he would have had them all ; 
 for both the council and court of George- 
 William were concentered in one perfon. This 
 count, who had fold himfelf to the houfe of 
 Auftria, returned to Vienna, where he died 
 the fame year. 
 
 AFTER the death of Schwartzenberg, the 
 elector fent baron Borgfdorff to Spandaw and 
 Cuftrin, to fet his feal to the effecls of the de- 
 ceafed. The governors of thofe two fortrefles 
 refufed to obey- him, under a pretence that 
 they durft not do it without exprefs orders 
 from the emperor, to whom they had taken 
 the oaths of fidelity. Borgfdorff diflembling 
 the infolence of this behaviour, lay in wait for 
 Rochow, governor of Spandaw, and fecured 
 him, as he imprudently came out of the fortrefs. 
 The eledtor ordered this rebel to be beheaded ; 
 ppon which the governors of his other fortref- 
 fes returned to their duty. 
 
 FREDERICK.-
 
 ( 75 ) 
 
 FREDERICK-WILLIAM received in perfon 
 the inveftiture of Pruffia in 164.1, from the 
 hands of Ladiflaus, king of Poland. The 
 eledtor engaged to pay an annual tribute of 
 i 20,000 florins to that crown, and to make 
 neither peace nor truce with her enemies. 
 
 BARON de Leben received, in his name, 
 in 1642, the inveftiture of the electorate, of 
 the emperor Ferdinand III. but he could not 
 obtain that of the dutchy of Cieves, becaufe 
 this fucceflion was ftill in litigation. 
 
 AFTER having difcharged this kind of 
 duties, he turned his thoughts towards eafmg 
 his people, being defirous of delivering his 
 territories from that miferable fituation, into 
 which they had been plunged. By his ne- 
 gotiations he entered into the pofleffion of his 
 dominions that were witheld from him ; and 
 he concluded a truce for twenty years with the 
 Swedes *, who evacuated the greateft part of 
 the Marcks of Brandenburg. He paid the Swe- 
 difli garrifons, who were ftill in pofleflion of 
 fome towns, 140,000 crowns, which amounts 
 to near 200,000 of our prefent money, and a 
 thoufand bulhels of corn a year. He con- 
 cluded a treaty in 1644 with the Heffiar.s, who 
 
 * At Stockholm, Gotze and Leuchtmer were his cnvoyi. 
 
 D 2 reftored
 
 ( 76 ) 
 
 reftored to him part of the dutchy of Cleves, . 
 which had been in their pofleflion ; and he 
 prevailed upon the Dutch to evacuate fome 
 other towns. 
 
 THE powers of Europe, who now began to 
 feel the weight of a long and ruinous war, 
 gave ear at length to propofals of peace. The 
 cities of Munfter and Ofnabrug were' pitched 
 upon as proper places for opening the confe- 
 rences ; and theeledtor fent his minifters thither. 
 
 THE great variety of fubjedts that 'were to 
 be debated, the complication of caufes, the 
 multitude of fovereigns who were to be pleafed, 
 the different pretenfions upon the fame pro- 
 vinces, religion, pre-eminences, the fettling 
 the proper bounds of the imperial authority, 
 and of the Germanic liberty ; all this perplexed 
 chaos kept the minifters employed till the year 
 1647, when they agreed upon the principal ar- 
 ticles. , 
 
 IT is not at all neceflary to copy here the 
 treaty of Weftphalia, on which a laborious 
 author has wrote a leacned and ufeful treatife ; 
 I mall be fatisfied with giving fuch heads of it; 
 35 any way relate to the hiftory of Branden- 
 burg. 
 
 FRANCE
 
 ( 77 ) 
 
 FRANCE having efpoufed the interests of 
 Sweden, infifted upon Pomerania as an indem- 
 nity for the expences .which Gufhvus-Adol- 
 phus and his fucceflbrs had been at to maintain 
 the war 3 but the elector and the empire re- 
 fufed to give their confent. Frederick-Wil- 
 liam at length agreed to yield to the Swedes 
 the Hither Pomerania, the ifles of Rugen and 
 Wollin, the cities of Stettin, Gartz, and 
 Golnow, and the three mouths of the Oder ; 
 adding, that if the male defcendants of the 
 electoral line mould come to be extinft, Pome- 
 rania and the New Marck fhouW devolve to 
 Sweden j and that, in the mean time, both 
 houfes mould bear the arms of thofe provinces. 
 In return, as an equivalent for the ceffiona 
 made by the elector, the biflioprics of Halber- 
 ftad, Minden, and Camin, were fecularized ; 
 and he was immediately put into the poflefiion 
 of them, as alfo of the counties o Hohenftcin 
 and Richenftein. He had likewife the expec- 
 tancy given him of the archbiihopric of Mag- 
 deburg, of which Auguftus of Saxony was 
 then adminiftrator. 
 
 THIS peace, which is confidered as the bads 
 
 of all the pofleffions and rights of the feveral 
 
 princes of Germany, and of which Lewis 
 
 D 3 XIV.
 
 became guarantee, was publifhed in the 
 year 1648. 
 
 THO' the elector's interefts had been thus 
 fettled, he was yet obliged to make a new 
 treaty with the Swedes in 1649, for the regu- 
 lation of difputed limits, and for the difcharg- 
 ing of fome debts, of which Sweden paid only 
 a fourth part. But the electorate, Pomera- 
 nia, and the dutchy of Cleves, were not en- 
 tirely evacuated by the Dutch and the Swedes, 
 uho wereftill in pofTeflion of fome places, till 
 the year 1650. 
 
 THE duke of Neuburg had like to have 
 thrown things into the fame confufion, from 
 which they had been fo lately, and with fo 
 much difficulty difembarrafied, by perfecting 
 the proteftants of Juliers. Frederick- William 
 took them under his protection, and fent ge- 
 neral Spaar with a body of troops into that 
 duke's territories ; at the fame time making 
 propofals of accommodation to him, by the 
 mediation of the Dutch. 
 
 DURING thefe tranfa&ions, Charles IV. duke 
 of Lorrain, a wandering prince, who was ex- 
 pelled his dominions by the power of France^ 
 and led rather the life of a Tartar than 
 of a fovereign, came to the afiiftance of 
 
 the
 
 (79 ) 
 
 the duke of Neuburg. Upon his arrival, 
 the pacific difpofitions of both parties were 
 very near vanifhing ; but at length they came 
 to an agreement. With regard to the order of 
 their pofleffions, they {tuck to the treaty of 
 Weftphalia * j and as to the article of liberty 
 of confcience, it was agreed to abide by thofe 
 treaties, which had been made in favour of the 
 proteftants, from the year 1612 to 1647. 
 
 THERE happened an event at that time in 
 Sweden, in 1654, which, from its extraordi- 
 nary nature, engrofled the attention of all 
 Europe. 
 
 QUEEN Chriftina abdicated the throne in 
 favour of her coufm Charles-Guftavus, princa 
 of Deuxponts. This action was cenfured by 
 the politicians, efpecially by thofe who judge of 
 human conduct only by principles of intereft 
 and ambition. Thofe who pretended to 
 the greateft penetration, would have it, 
 that the young queen refigned the regal 
 dignity, merely becaufe of the averfion fhe 
 had conceived to Charles-Guftavus, whom 
 {he was follicited to marry. The learned were 
 too profufe in their panegyrics upon this 
 
 * The dutchy of Cleves, the Marck, and Raven/burg, 
 fell to the ckftor's fliaie j Juliers, Bergues, and Ravenflein to 
 the duke. 
 
 D 4 princefs>
 
 (So) 
 
 princefs, for having facrificed, at fo tender an 
 age, the glittering charms of grandeur to the 
 more folid pleafures of philofophy. But if fhe 
 had been really a philofopber, her glory would 
 never have been fullied by the murder of Mo- 
 naldefchi ; nor by the continual uneafmefs and 
 regret, which- (he fhewed at Rome after her 
 abdication. In the opinion of the moft judi- 
 cious, the conduct of this princefs could not 
 but appear extraordinary. She merited neither 
 praife nor blame for having abdicated the 
 throne. An action of that nature cannot be 
 called great, but from the importance of the mo-* 
 tives that determine it, from the circumftances 
 that attend it, and from the magnanimity with 
 which it is afterwards fupported. 
 
 SCARCE had Charles-Guftavusafcended the 
 throne, when he fhewed his ambition of diftin- 
 guifiiing himfelf in the military art. The truce 
 which Guftavus-Adolphus had concluded with 
 Poland, was within fix years of its expiration. 
 His defign* was to oblige John Cafimir, who 
 * in 1648 fucceeded Ladiflaus, to renounce all 
 the pretenfions which the crown of Poland 
 formed on Sweden, and to yield Livonia to 
 him. Frederick- William, who miftrufted 
 the Swedes, faw into their defigns j but, in 
 
 order
 
 order to amufe Sweden, he mediated a re- 
 Conciliation between the Swedifh regency of 
 Stade, and the city of Bremen, whofe difputes 
 related to the liberties of this Hans-town. 
 
 CHARLES-GUSTAVUS pretended, that his 
 military preparations were defigned againft 
 Ruffia, and fent a meflage to the elector, de- 
 firing him to put into his hands the ports of 
 Pillaw and Memel, in the fame manner as 
 Guftavus-Adolphus infifted upon George-Wil- 
 liam's delivering up the fortrefles of Spandaw 
 and Cuftrin. But the fcene was changed ; 
 Frederick-William had too brave and generous 
 a foul to ftoop to fuch a condefcenfion. He 
 boldly rejected fo infolent a propofal ; and 
 made anfwer, that if the king of Sweden 
 really intended to attack the Ruffians, he 
 would engage to affift him with a body 
 of Sooo'men; pretending, that the pro- 
 grefs of the Ruffian arms in Poland rendered 
 him apprehenfive, left they fhould draw near 
 to his own frontiers. This artful and polite 
 evafion gave the Swedes to underftand, that 
 the elector wanted neither courage nor fenfc. 
 THE republic of Poland having been ap- 
 prized by the elector of the danger that threat- 
 ened her, entreated him to affift her with his 
 D 5 artillery,
 
 ( 82 ) 
 
 artillery, troops, and good counfels. This 
 entreaty was followed with an embafly, de- 
 firing him to mediate a reconciliation between 
 her and Sweden ; and to this foon fucceeded 
 another, preffing him to furnifh the fubfidies 
 neceflary for the expence of the war. 
 
 THE elector, who was well acquainted 
 with the nature of the tumultuous deliberations 
 of this republic, always ready to declare war, 
 without ever preparing the means to fupport 
 it, exhaufted by the rapine of the great, un- 
 certain in her refolutions, ill obeyed by her 
 troops, and inconftant in her engagements, 
 made anfwer, that he would neither take the 
 misfortunes, which they apprehended,upon him- 
 felf, nor facrifice his own interefts for an un- 
 grateful nation. In order, therefore, to pro- 
 vide for the fecurity of his dominions, he en- 
 tered into a defenfive alliance with the Dutch 
 for eight years ; and he courted the friendship 
 of Cromwell, that fortunate ufurper, who 
 had gained in his life-time the title of 
 protector of his country, which pofte- 
 rity changed into that of a tyrant. He 
 tried to make an alliance with Lewis XIV. 
 who, after the treaty of Weftphalia, was be- 
 come the arbiter of Europe. He flattered the 
 imperious humour of Ferdinand III. in order 
 
 to
 
 ( 8 3 ) 
 
 to engage him in his interefts j but he received 
 no other anfwer from thofe princes, but com- 
 pliments and empty fpeeches. 
 IT was not long before Charles-Guftavus 
 confirmed the ele&or's fufpicions. General 
 Wirtemberg traverfed the new Marck with a 
 body of Swedifh troops, without permiffion ob- 
 tained, and drew near the frontiers of Poland. 
 No fooner had Steinbeck attacked that king- 
 dom, than two palatinates of the Upper Po- 
 land fubmitted to the Swedes. 
 
 FREDRICK-WILLIAM, perceiving that the 
 whole ftrefs of the war would be towards the 
 frontiers of Pruffia, marched his army thither 
 in perfon, in order to be ready to concert pro- 
 per meafures, and to put them immediately in> 
 execution. At Marienburg he concluded a 
 defenftve alliance with the ftates of Polifh Pruf- 
 fia. The chief articles were the agreement of 
 a mutual fuccour of 4000 men, promifed by 
 the contracting parties, and the maintenance 
 of the Brandenburg garrifons at Marienburg, 
 Grodentz, and other towns. 
 
 THE Swedes were not at that time the only 
 enemies of the Poles. The Czar of Mufcovy 
 had penetrated the year before into Lithuania 
 with a numerous army. The pretext of this 
 irruption was a frivolous omiflion of fome ti- 
 D 6 tics,
 
 ties, which the Polifli chancery had forgot to 
 give to the Czar. Strange, that a nation, 
 which did not perhaps know even fo much as 
 how to read, fhould go to war with her 
 neighbours for fuch a grammatical trifle as the 
 fubfcriptionofaletter ! 
 
 CHARLES-GUSTAVUS, taking an advan- 
 tage of the perplexity of his enemies, made in 
 a very fhort time a confiderable progrefs. He 
 marched his army into Pruflia, notwithstanding 
 the remonftrances of the elector ; his troops 
 took up their quarters in Ducal Pruffia, and ad- 
 vanced into the neighbourhood of Konigfberg. 
 THE elector, to whom the Swedes had 
 more than once offered advantageous condi- 
 tions, was come now to the critical moment, 
 in which he could not continue his neutrality, 
 without expofing Pruffia to inevitable ruin. 
 He followed therefore the road, which the fuc- 
 cefs of the Swedifh arms pointed out to him, 
 and concluded a treaty with that crown at Ko- 
 nigfberg in 1656, by which he acknowledged 
 himfelf a vaflal of Sweden, and promifed to 
 yield homage for Ducal Pruffia* on condition 
 that the bifhopric of Warmia fhould be fecula- 
 rized in his favour. In order to ftrengthea 
 this new alliance, he concluded another with 
 
 Lewis-
 
 C 85 ) 
 
 Lewis XIV. who guarantied to him his pof 
 feffions in Weftphalia, and upon the Rhine. 
 Not long after * he changed his treaty with 
 the Swedes into an offenfive alliance. The 
 king and the elector had an interview in Po- 
 land, where they fettled the operations of the 
 campaign, and particularly agreed to retake 
 Warfaw from the Poles, who had driven the 
 Swedes from that city. 
 
 THE elector marched his troops afterwards- 
 through Maflbvia, and joined the Swedilh 
 army at the confluence of the Viftulaand the 
 Bock. The allies pafled the Bock, and at the 
 fame time the Polifli army pafled the Viftula at 
 Warfaw ; -fo that there was no further obftacle 
 to hinder them from coming to action. 
 
 THE French minifters, d'Avaujour and de 
 Lombres, flattered themfelves with the hopes 
 of reconciling the contending parties, by their 
 negotiations. With this intent they went from 
 one camp to the other ; but the Poles, con- 
 fiding in their fuperior numbers, being 40,000 
 ilrong, defpifed the others, whofe forces fcarce 
 amounted to i6,ocomen, and in folently re- 
 jected every propofal made to them. 
 
 * At Marienburg, 
 
 4
 
 (-86 ) 
 
 THE Poles were ftrongly intrenched in their 
 camp, their right extending towards a morafs, 
 and the Viftula covering their rear towards the 
 left, in a tranfverfe line ; in which fituatton 
 Charles - Guftavus and Frederick - William 
 marched up to them. 
 
 THE king pafled through a fmall wood, 
 with his right to the Viftula j but the ground 
 was fo narrow, that when his troops were 
 drawn out, he could prefent only a fingle front 
 of twelve fquadrons, and three battalions, to 
 the enemy. He was obliged therefore to form 
 his men in columns, and the day was fpent in 
 fkirmimes and cannonading. The infantry did 
 not come up till late ; the elector, who had 
 the command of the left, covered it as well as 
 he could with the wood, which had been juft 
 patted by the right wing; and the army conti- 
 nued thus under arms all night. 
 
 THE day following, which was the 29 th of 
 July, the elector took pofieffion of a rifing 
 ground, fituated towards his left ; from whence 
 he difcovered a fmooth open plain, proper for 
 extending the troops beyond this little wood. 
 He ordered his column to file off to the left, 
 ftretching along the plain, and flanked it with 
 fix. ftjuadrons. The Tartars perceiving this 
 
 motion*
 
 motion, attacked the ele&or on all fides, but 
 were repulfed ; and his whole left wing formed 
 themfelves on the plain. The Tartars made 
 a new attack, which fucceeded as ill as the 
 firft; upon which they retired in confufion. 
 
 THE king, finding it impoflible to attack 
 the enemy's intrenchments on the fide of the 
 Viftula, made a difpofition for a new attack. 
 A motion of the Polifh infantry, which feemed 
 to indicate their intent of marching out of their 
 intrenchments, retarded him for fome time ; 
 but a few S wed ifli cannon, which were levelled 
 againft the Polifh intrenchments, did fuch ex- 
 ecution, as often as the Poles attempted to 
 march out, that they were obliged to return to 
 their intrenchments in confufion. Charles- 
 Guftavus wanted only this opportunity to 
 change his order of battle. The Swedes, who 
 were in the right wing, traverfed the wood, 
 and came and formed themfelves on the plain, 
 to the left of the Brandenburgers, who were 
 already drawn up there. 
 
 AT the fame time the Polifh army marched 
 out of their intrenchments by their right, and 
 formed a front fuperior to that of the allies. 
 Their whole cavalry was to the right, covered 
 by a village lined with infantry, and by a bat- 
 tery
 
 (88 ) 
 
 tcry placed on an eminence. The king of 
 Sweden advanced beyond them, and took 
 them in flank. Upon which the Poles fet fire 
 to the village, and abandoned it, rallying be- 
 hind another village, which was covered by a 
 morafs. The king purfued them, and took 
 them once more in flank, which obliged the 
 Poles to fet fire alfo to this village, and to re- 
 tire as before. In this critical fituation, the 
 Polifh cavalry made a general effort, and at- 
 tacked the allies at the fame time in the rear, 
 in flank, and in front ; but as this was fore- 
 feen, and there were troops prepared to re- 
 ceive them, the referve difengaged the rear, 
 and the Poles were repulfed on all fides with 
 confiderable lofs. The night coming on de- 
 prived the Swedes this time of a compleat 
 victory; and they waited for the return of 
 day-light on the field of battle, all under arms. 
 AT day-break, which was the 3oth of 
 July, the king thought fit to make fome new 
 difpofitions. He formed his two lines of in- 
 fantry, the cavalry was placed in a third, as a 
 referve to the right, where the elector was 
 himfelf in perf^n with the cuiraffiers and dra- 
 goons of Brandenburg. . . 
 
 As
 
 As the enemy were ftill in pofleflion of a 
 wood over- againft the left, a brigade of artil- 
 lery was detached thither, fupported by 500 
 horfe. After a fhort cannonading, the ca- 
 valry drove the enemy from the wood, which 
 was immediately occupied by 200 foot. 
 The elector then attacked the Polifh cavalry, 
 who were drawn up on an eminence, drove 
 them into the morafles, and intirely difperfed 
 them. The Polifh infantry finding themfelves 
 abandoned, and having loft their cannon, gave 
 way immediately, without waiting for the 
 enemy, and fled in, the utmoft confufion. The 
 vanquifhed army repafled the Viftula, and 
 abandoned Warfaw, which furrendered the 
 next day to the conquerors. 
 
 THE Polifh army loft 6000 men in the dif- 
 ferent engagements of thofe three days ; and 
 the allies being harraffed with fafting all that 
 time, were not able to purfue them. 
 
 JOHN-CASIMIR had been prefent himfelf at 
 the defeat of his troops ; the queen likewife, 
 and fome of the principal ladies of the king- 
 dom* beheld it from the bridge of the Viftula ; 
 but they contributed only to increafe the fhame 
 and confufion of a total defeat. 
 
 AFTEH
 
 ( 90 ) 
 
 AFTER the victorious army had refteJ 
 fome time, they made a march of fix German 
 miles in purfuit of the enemy. But the elector 
 having received advice, that a body of Tarta- 
 rian irregulars had made incurfions into Pruf- 
 fia, he left a detachment of his troops with the 
 king of Sweden, and returned with the main 
 body of his army to cover his own frontiers* 
 He acquainted the emperor with the news of 
 this victory j and this prince, who in his heart 
 was far from being pleafed with the elector's 
 extraordinary fuccefs, gave him no other an- 
 fwer, than " that he pitied the Poles for hav- 
 ing two fuch brave princes to deal with." 
 
 FREDERICK-WILLIAM, obferving the 
 great need which Charles-Guftavus had of his 
 affiftance, made fo good a ufe it, as to obtain 
 the intire fovereignty of Pruflla by the treaty 
 of Libauj and Sweden referved to herfelf 
 only the eventual fucceflion. 
 
 THE emperor, who at that time, in 1657, 
 enjoyed a profound peace, feemed defirous of 
 concerning himfelf in the troubles of Poland, 
 either with a view of defending that nation, or 
 of promoting his own private advantage. Ac- 
 cordingly he fent Hatzfeldt with 16,000 men 
 to the affiftance of this republic: and Den- 
 mark
 
 ( 9' ) 
 
 mark at the fame time efpoufed her quarrel out 
 of hatred to Sweden. Ferdinand III. not fa- 
 tisfied with a/lifting the Poles with his troops, 
 endeavoured alfo by his perfuafions to rid them, 
 of a formidable enemy, folliciting Frederick- 
 William in the ftrongeft terms to break with 
 the Swedes. This powerful alliance was to 
 Guftavus a certain omen of the inconftancy of 
 fortune* 
 
 THE elector, thus prefled on all fides, re- 
 fulved to prevent the laws of neceflity; and 
 with a good grace he confented to what he 
 could not avoid granting to the fuperior force of 
 a diverfion, which the emperor and the king 
 of Denmark were capable of making in his 
 territories. He figned a peace with the Poles 
 at Velaw ; by which this crown acknowledged 
 his fovereignty of Pruflia, and yielded to him 
 the bailiwicks of Lawenburg and Butaw, as 
 an indemnification for the bifhopric of 
 Warmia. The city of Elbing was likewife 
 mortgaged to him for a fum of money ; and 
 the fucceffion of Pruflia was extended to his 
 coufins the margraves of Franconia. Poland 
 and Brandenburg promifed to aflift each other 
 with zooo men ; the elector evacuated all the 
 towns of Poland, that had been garrifoned by 
 
 Mi
 
 ( 9O 
 
 his troops ; and this important treaty was ra- 
 tified at Braunfberg. 
 
 THE ele&or, by abandoning the Swedes, 
 broke in forne meafure alfo with France ; he 
 thought it therefore necefTary to fupply his old 
 alliances with new ones > and concluded a 
 treaty with the emperor and the king of Den- 
 mark. Ferdinand III. engaged to furnifh a 
 body of 6000 men, and Frederick-William a 
 contingent of 3500, in cafe either of the con- 
 tracting parties fhould want the other's af- 
 fiftance. 
 
 AT that time the imperial -throne, which 
 was become vacant by the death of Ferdinand 
 III. was filled by the archduke Leopold, whom 
 his father had caufed to be created king of the 
 Romans as early as 1653, in fpiteof the golden 
 bull, and contrary to the opinion of the princes 
 of the empire. 
 
 CHARLES-GUSTAVUS being highly pro- 
 voked againft the emperor and the king of 
 Denmark, for defeating the vaft proje&s which 
 he had formed againft Sweden, in their very 
 infancy, revenged himfelf upon Zealand, 
 where he made an irruption, and obliged Fre- 
 derick III. king of Denmark, to clap up a 
 peace, which was figned at Rodfchidt. Scarce 
 
 had
 
 (93 ) 
 
 had this peace been concluded, when it was 
 broke through again by the king of Denmark, 
 who, as foon as he was at liberty, annulled a 
 treaty which he had figned thro' conftraint. 
 Frederick III. tho' the aggreflbr, follicited 
 the elector to aflift him againft Sweden, and 
 his requeft was granted. 
 
 FREDERICK-WILLIAM made the prince 
 of Anhault governor of his dominions during 
 his abfence, and fet out from Berlin at the 
 head of his cavalry, and three thoufand Impe- 
 rial cuirafliers. He obliged the Swedes, who 
 were quartered in the dutchy of Flolftein, to 
 retire beyond the Eider, and threw a garrifon 
 of Imperialifts and Brandenburgers into Got- 
 torp ; and, after having driven the Swedes 
 from the ifle of Aland, he put his army into 
 winter quarters in Jutland. 
 
 THE year following, in 1659. he opened the 
 campa'n with the taking of Friderichfoude, and 
 of the ifle of Fionica ; but he failed in his at- 
 tempt upon the ifle of Fuhnen, by the dif- 
 appointment which he met with in difembark- 
 inghis troops, the tranfport veflcls having been 
 difperfed by eight Swedish men of war. 
 
 IN order to divide the Swedifli forces, De 
 Souches marched into the Hither Pomerania, 
 
 with
 
 (945 
 
 with a body of Imperialifts *, and two thoti* 
 fand Brandenburgers. This general, and 
 Staremberg, having made themfelves mafters 
 of fome fmall towns, and of the ifle of Wolin, 
 laid fiege to Stettin. Wurtz, who was the 
 governor, made a very brave defence. The 
 news of this expedition was foon brought to 
 Denmark. As foon as Wrangel heard it, he 
 flew to the defence of Pomerania, and landing 
 his troops at Stralfund, he furprized 1200 
 Brandenburghers in the ifle of Ufedom,.and 
 threw a reinforcement of 1600 men into Stet- 
 tin. 
 
 WURST did not let his troops lie idle, but 
 made a furious fally, drove the Imperialifts 
 from their approaches, nailed up their can- 
 non, flung their camp into a general confterna- 
 tion, and compelled them to raife the fiege, 
 which had lafted forty-fix days. 
 
 THE elector, finding the war was drawing 
 towards his own frontiers, drew his troops out 
 of Jutland, and followed Wrangel into Pome- 
 rania. He took Warnemunde and Tripfce, 
 defeated in perfon a detachment of 300 horfe 
 in the neighbourhood of Stralfund, and finiQied 
 the campaign with the taking of Demin. 
 * Commanded by general de Dohna. 
 
 WHILE
 
 (95 ) 
 
 WHILE the war was thus carried on in 
 Holftein and Pomerania, the Swedes had driven 
 the Poles and Brandenburgers, in 1658, from 
 the great and little Werder, and from the town 
 of Marienburg in Pruffia. But they were ex- 
 pelled from thence in 1659, by the Imperialifts 
 and the Poles j and Polentz, with the troops of 
 Brandenburg, made an irruption into Cour- 
 Jand, where he took fome towns. 
 
 I MUST obferve here, for a greater illuftra- 
 tion of thefe military details, that molt of the 
 towns which were befieged at that time, were 
 incapable of making a defence of 24 hours, 
 after the manner of befieging in our times, 
 unlefs there was an army at hand to relieve 
 them. 
 
 THE cuftom of abdicating was become epi- 
 demical in Europe. Queen Chriftina had fet 
 the example, which was followed by John 
 Cafnnir, and Michael Coribut was chofen in 
 his place. 
 
 AMIDST thefe troubles and confufions, in 
 which the North had been involved, Charles- 
 Guftavus died in the flower of life, in 1660. 
 The minority of his fon Charles XI. allayed the 
 warlike Jire of the Swedes, giving their paflion 
 
 leifurc
 
 (96) 
 
 leifure to cool, and affording them time to em- 
 brace more pacific fentiments. 
 
 THE belligerant powers now longed for 
 peace, and feemed defirous only of the means 
 of fecuring it ; their animofity, together with 
 the caufe of it, was intirely extindl. The fe- 
 veral pi inces agreed to open the conferences in 
 the all- y of Oliva, in the neighbourhood of 
 Dantzig. As ambition was banifhed from 
 thefe negotiations, they foon came to a happy 
 conclufion. The treaty of Braunfberg was 
 guarantied in favour of the elector, and the fo* 
 vereignty of Pruffia was acknowledged. The 
 other powers agreed among themfelves to 
 re-eftablifh the order of their feveral pofleffionsj 
 juft as they had been before the war. 
 
 PRUSSIA neverthelefs fubmitted with diffi- 
 culty to the treaty of Braunfberg ; the ftates of 
 this dutchy pretending that Poland had no right 
 to difpofe of them. Upon this occafion, a 
 gentleman, named Rhode, and who was one 
 of the moft turbulent of the malecontents, was 
 put under arreft. Thefe firft motions of revolt 
 were eafily fupprefled by the elector, who was 
 accuftomed to furmount the greateft difficul- 
 ties ; and foon after he received in perfon the 
 homage of the Pruffians at Konigfbcrg. 
 
 FREDERICK*
 
 (97 ) 
 
 FREDERICK-WILLIAM, who was the de- 
 fender of his fubjecls in time of war, had a no- 
 ble ambition of mewing himfelf their father in 
 time of peace. He relieved thofe families which 
 had been ruined by the enemy, and built new 
 walls for towns, whofe old ones had been de- 
 molimed. Forefts, and favage beafts, their 
 wonted inhabitants, difappeared, to make room 
 for colonies of hufbandmen, and for the nume- 
 rous herds, which now grazed in places, that 
 that had been laid wafte by the fury of the 
 fword. Induftry, and rural oeconomy, things 
 fo ufeful, and yet fo defpifed, were encou- 
 raged. New villages were daily feen to rife ; 
 new canals were cut out for theconveniency of 
 the inhabitants ; and even a bed was opened 
 for an artificial river, which, joining the Spree 
 to the Oder, facilitated the commerce of the 
 different provinces, by enabling them to com- 
 municate their feveral commodities. Thefc 
 wife arrangements were owing, as well to 
 Frederick-William's continued application to 
 ftate affairs, as to the goodnefs and humanity 
 of his character. This prince was perhaps ftill 
 greater in this refpecl, than by his heroic va- 
 lour and political abilities, which enabled him 
 E to
 
 ( 98 ) 
 
 to take a proper manner and time for the exe- 
 cution of all his projects. 
 
 In 1665, the Turks attacked the emperor 
 in Hungary, and he fent him a reinforcement 
 of 2000 men, under the command of the duke 
 of Holftein. 
 
 THE Poles had a war of the fame nature to 
 maintain againft the infidels, upon which oc- 
 cafion he aflifted Michael Coribut with a body 
 of men. 
 
 HE received the eventual homage of the city 
 of Magdeburg, and garrifoned it with his own 
 troops. He acquired the lordfhip of Regen- 
 ftein, which was a fief of the dutchyofHal- 
 berftadt, and maintained his rights, in oppofi- 
 tion to the duke of Brunfwick's pretenfions. 
 He reconciled in 1665 the duke of Lunen- 
 burg's fons, who were tearing one another to 
 pieces for their paternal inheritance ; he termi- 
 nated by a treaty the differences which Hill 
 fubfiiled between him and the dukes of Neu- 
 burg, relating to the fucceffion of Cleves ; he 
 entered into a defenfive alliance with Sweden, 
 and concluded a quadruple alliance at the 
 Hague with the king of Denmark, the republic 
 of Holland, and the duke of Brunfwick, to 
 which the emperor acceded. 
 
 THE
 
 (99 ) 
 
 THE intent of thefe alliances was to fecure 
 the tranquillity of Germany. And yet the 
 great precaution taken to render them fo nu- 
 merous, feemed to diminifh their value. 
 
 NOTWITHSTANDING all thefe endeavours, 
 Lewis XIV. difturbed the peace of Europe in 
 1667, by invading the Spanifh Netherlands. 
 The reafon given by him for this war, was 
 his demand of Maria Terefa's fortune, which 
 had not been paid. Tho' this pretext did 
 not feem to bear the fame weight at Madrid 
 as at Verfailles, yet Lewis XIV. thought 
 he proceeded according to rule, in invading 
 the Spanifh Netherlands, whofe towns at that 
 time were but poorly garrifoned. 
 
 FRANCE being attentive to prevent any al- 
 liances, that might be formed for the fupport 
 of the Spanifh intereft, thought proper, in 
 this conjuncture, to court the elector's friend- 
 fhip ; and this prince engaged not to concern 
 himfelf in the war, which in fact was quite fo- 
 reign to him. 
 
 As early as the year 1670, the defigns which 
 Lewis XIV. had formed againft the united 
 provinces, were not fo fecret, but fome poli- 
 ticians faw into them. Thofe who are leaft 
 interefted in affairs, are oftentimes the moft 
 E 2 clear-
 
 clear -fighted. Frederick- William guefled at 
 the French king's intentions, and endeavoured 
 to divert the ftorm which threatened the 
 Dutch. Lewis XIV. inftead of coming into 
 the elector's pacific views, tried to make him 
 a party in the war. For this purpofe he fent 
 the prince of Furftemberg to Berlin, who 
 was aftonimed to behold a fovereign, that pre- 
 ferred the fentiments of friendfhip and grati- 
 tude to the bait of interclr, and the feducing 
 charms of ambition. 
 
 FREDERICK-WILLIAM concluded a treaty 
 at Billefeldt with the elector of Cologne, the 
 bifhop of Munfter, and the duke ofNeuburg, 
 for the defence of the united provinces. Scarce 
 had this engagement been entered upon, when 
 the duke of Neuburg, and the elector of Co- % 
 logne, deferted to the opponte party. 
 
 SUCH was the fituation of Holland, attacked 
 by -France, and harrafled by the elector of Co- 
 logne, and the bifhop of Munfter, that fhe 
 was almoft deftitute of hopes of affiftance from 
 the generofity of her allies. The unfortunate 
 have an opportunity of making an infallible ex- 
 periment of the human heart ; for the decline 
 of fortune is generally attended with that of 
 friendfhip. What expectation then could Hol- 
 land
 
 land have, to find a prince of fo magnanimous a 
 foul, as to attempt to flop Lewis XIV. in the 
 triumphant courfe of his profperity, and to 
 expofe himfelf at the fame time to the calamities, 
 which the republic had reafon to apprehend 
 both for herfelf and her deliverers. And yet 
 fuch a deliverer was found in Frederick-Wil- 
 liam, who entered into an alliance with this 
 republic, at the very time that Europe expedkd 
 to fee her overwhelmed by thofe waters, 
 over which (he had fo abfolutely reigned. 
 
 THE elector engaged to furnifii her with 
 20,000 men, half of whom were to be main- 
 tained at the expence of the republic ; and 
 both parties agreed not to make a feparatc 
 peace. The emperor Leopold followed the 
 elector's example, by acceding to this al- 
 liance. 
 
 THE invafion of Lewis XIV. hi:d changed 
 the face of government in Holland. The peo- 
 ple, grown defperate by the public calamities, 
 laid the blame on the penfioner, and revenged 
 thcmfelves of the mifeiies that threatened 
 Holland, on the brothers de Witt. William, 
 prince of Orange, was unanimoufly clewed 
 itadtholder. This prince, who was only nine- 
 teen years. of. age, became the moll implacable 
 E 3 enemy,
 
 ( '02 ) 
 
 enemy, that the ambition of Lewis XIV. had 
 to contend with. 
 
 SCARCE had the elector afiembled his army, 
 when he marched towards Halberftadt, where 
 he expected to be joined by Montecuculli with 
 ten thoufand Imperialifts. He continued his 
 march towards Weflphalia ; butTurenne quitted 
 Holland, took fome towns in the county of 
 Cieves, and came to meet him at the head of 
 30,000 French. In the mean time Groningen 
 was evacuated by the biihop of Munfter, and 
 the fiege of Maeftricht was raifed by the 
 French; which were the firfl fruits of thii di- 
 verfion. 
 
 MONTECUCULLI had received private or- 
 ders from the emperor, not to aft offenfwely. 
 The elector's intention was to fight Turenne a 
 r<nd to march directly to the afllftance of the 
 Dutch. But as Montecuculli would not con- 
 Tent to this, and the Brandenburgers were not 
 ftrong enough to attack Turenne, Frederick- 
 William was obliged to conform to the empe- 
 ror's intention, and he direded his march tc- 
 wards Frankfort on the Main, acquainting the 
 prince of Orange at the fame time with the 
 motives of his condudt. This march nevertheKfs 
 
 obliged Turenne to repafs the Rhine a: 
 
 Au-
 
 AuJcrnach, and rid Holland of 20,ooo of her 
 enemies. 
 
 THE eleclor wanted to follow Turenne, 
 and had made all the neceflary preparations for 
 pafling the Rhine at Nirftein ; but Montecu- 
 culli ftill oppofed it, declaring, that the Impe- 
 rialifts fhould not pafs that river. Thus the 
 campaign was fruitlefsly fpent, and the elector 
 took up his winter quarters in Weftphalia. 
 
 TURENNE made a proper ufe of this in- 
 aHon ; he parted the Rhine at Wefel, and made 
 himfelf mafter of the dutchy of Cleves, and of 
 the county of Marck, from whence he advanced 
 into Weftphalia. At the fame time the bifhop 
 of Munfter ventured to befiege Billefeldt, but 
 was difappointed in the attempt. 
 
 THE prince of Anhalt advifed the elector 
 to attack Turenne, but the fame reafons for 
 avoiding an engagement flill fubfilled. As 
 the emperor had not declared war againft 
 France, he did not care that his troops fhould 
 a offenfively, and the Brandenburgers were 
 not (Irong enough of themfelves to venture an 
 engagement with fuch an enemy. 
 
 THE Dutch were ftill behind-hand in the 
 
 fubftdies which they had engaged to pay to the 
 
 ckdtor ; befides, as neither Spain nor the em- 
 
 E 4 peros
 
 peror had declared zgainft France, all the 
 territories of Wefiphalia, were in danger of 
 being loft. Under thcfe conjunctures Frede- 
 rick-William was difpofed to come to an a- 
 greement with Lewis XIV. A peace was 
 accordingly concluded at Vefl'en, and the 
 French king ratified it in his camp before Ma- 
 eftricht. The eleclor was reinftated in his 
 f ofleflions, excepting the cities of Rttz and 
 Wefel, which the French kept till the conclu- 
 fion of a peace with Holland. He engaged 
 Hkewife not to aflift the Dutch any more ; but 
 referved to himfelfthe liberty of defending the 
 empire, in cafe it was attacked. The other 
 articles of this treaty relate to the indemnity 
 icr the ravages committed by the French 
 troops, which Lewis XIV. promifed to pay 
 to the elector. 
 
 NOTWITHSTANDING the endeavours that 
 were ufed, the French could never be pre- 
 vailed upon to comprize Holland in this 
 treaty. Frederick- William had facrifked 
 himfelf for this republic, and if his generous 
 example had been followed, at leaft in part, 
 by the other princes, his expedition would 
 have been decifive, and he would not have 
 
 been
 
 been obliged to fubmit to the fuperior power 
 of Lewis XIV. 
 
 EVEN the very enemies of Frederick- Wil- 
 liam felt the effects of his magnanimity. 
 
 A Frenchman, by name Villeneuve, who 
 was in Turenne's camp, made offers to the 
 elector of murdering the French general. Fre- 
 derick-William muddered at fo horrid a propo- 
 fal, and gave notice to Turenne to beware of 
 the traytor, who was in his own army j add- 
 ing, that he embraced this opportunity with 
 pleafure, of teftifying, that the efteem he had 
 for his merit, was no way altered by the mif- 
 chief, which the French had done to his ter" 
 ritories in Weftphalia. 
 
 THE ambition of Lewis XIV. was en- 
 creafed by his profperity. He had over-run 
 Holland in 167 3 and 1674, and obliged her 
 allies to abandon her, while the terror of his 
 arms kept the two branches of the houfe of 
 Auftria in a ftate of inaction. At the fame 
 time his troops committed moft horrid excefTes 
 in the Paktinate, by levying contributions 
 with the utmoft rigour, and oppreffing the 
 people. The elector Palatine complained to 
 the diet ; and the emperor, who had been a 
 quiet foeclator of the conqucft of Holland, 
 E 5 waked
 
 ( ro6 J 
 
 waked out of his lethargy, as foon as the fecu* 
 rity of the empire itfelf was in danger. He 
 declared war againft France, the only war 
 perhaps that the houfe of Auftria ever under- 
 took for the fecurity and defence of Germany. 
 
 LEOPOLD joined with Spain- and Holland ; 
 and 'Frederick- William engaged to lead an army 
 of 1 6000 men to the afliftance of the empire, 
 which he was permitted to do by the treaty of 
 Voflen. Spain and Holland promifed to pay 
 for the maintenance of his troops. 
 
 THE beginning of this campaign proved 
 unfuccefsful to the allies. The Dutch were 
 defeated at Senef by prince Conde, the duke 
 of Lorrain was beaten at Sintzheim, and M. 
 de Bournonville at Hohzheim in Alface, both 
 by marfhai Turenne. 
 
 THE elector pafled the Rhine atStrafburg; 
 and juined the Imperialtfts a few days after 
 their defeat. Here he found the different ge- 
 nerals of the army greaUy divided, and more 
 bent upon hurting one another than the ene- 
 my. 
 
 BY the junction of- the Brandenburgers this 
 army was 50,000 ftrong. The elector, who 
 was defirous of g'ory, and wanted to fight, 
 could never perftade Bournonville to Imani
 
 
 an engagement; fo that the campaign was- 
 fpent in obferving Turenne. The army 
 marched to Kokerfburg, and the Branden- 
 burgers made themfelves matters of the fmall 
 caftle of Wofelftieim ; while Turenne, who 
 armed at fomething more important, repafled 
 the Sarre, and retired into Lorrain. 
 
 THE elector extended his quarters from 
 Calmar to Mafmunfter, and the Imperialifts 
 blocked up Brifac. 
 
 TURENNE had confiderably the advantage 
 over an army torn by divifion and jealoufy, ef- 
 pecially after having received a reinforcement 
 ef 10,000 men from the army in Flanders. He 
 had retreated like Fabius, but now he advanced 
 like Hannibal. 
 
 THE elector forefaw what happened. He 
 advifed Bournonville to collect his fcattercd 
 forces ; but this general, thinking himfelf fe- 
 cure, rejected his advice. In the mean time 
 Turenne pafTed by Tan and Bcdfort, 
 broke into the Imperial quarters, writ-re he 
 furprized a detached party, defeated Bournon- 
 ville in the Sundgow near Mulhauien, and 
 pnrfued this general, who made all poffible 
 expedition to join the eleclor in the neighbouj- 
 hood of Colmar. Turenne came round this 
 E 6 camp
 
 ( 108 ) 
 
 camp with his fecond line j upon which the 
 ele<ftor finding himfelf {heightened for ground, 
 flanked by Turenne, and contradi&ed by 
 Bournonville, decamped in the night, and re- 
 paid the Rhine at Strafburg. 
 
 THE Imperialifts raifed the fiege of Brifac, 
 and the French became once more matters of 
 Alface. 
 
 FREDERICK-WILLIAM put the troops of 
 
 Brandenburg into winter quarters in Franconia. 
 
 THIS ill fuccefs ought not to furprize thofe 
 
 who are acquainted with the principles and 
 
 conduct of the Imperial court. 
 
 THE council of Vienna was widely different 
 from that of Verfaiiles, and Bournonville was 
 no way a match for Turenne. 
 
 AT Vienna, the minifters, who were mere 
 politicians, and unpractifed in the art of war, 
 iettled the operations of the campaign in their 
 clofets, and the generals were only intrufted 
 with the execution of them : they were led, 
 as it were, by leading-firings, in an employ- 
 ment that requires the greateli freedom and 
 activity. 
 
 AT Verfaiiles, the generals were made ac- 
 quainted with the intentions of the court, and 
 the Conde's and Turenne's were thought 
 
 men
 
 men of fufficient capacity to be depended upon 
 for the manner of putting them in execution. 
 
 THE abbe Fouquct, cardinal Mazarine's 
 favourite, took one day the liberty to point 
 out, with his finger on a map, the place where 
 marshal Turenne fhould pafs that river. Tu- 
 renne replied coolly, Sir, your finger is not 
 a bridge* 
 
 THE French generals were like fovereigns 
 in their armies. As their abilities were known, 
 they were laid under no conllraint, but in 
 every thing were left to follow the free impulfe 
 of their genius ; thus they made a right ufe of 
 thofe moments, which the enemies loft in the 
 difpatching of couriers, to afk leave to execute 
 fuch things, as were no longer practicable at 
 their return. Hence it was that Frederick- 
 William never made fo great a figure at the 
 head of the Imperialifts, as when he com- 
 manded only his own troops. 
 
 THE emperor, who had given him little 
 more than a nominal command, placed his 
 whole confidence in his own generals. Thus 
 Montecuculli defeated every fcheme formed 
 by the elector in the campaign of 1672 j be- 
 caufe, as the Imperialifts had not declared war 
 againfl France, they avoided afling offenfively, 
 
 and
 
 ( no ) 
 
 and were fatisfied with the ceremony of making 
 their appearance in the armies. 
 
 BOUKNONVILLK, who had been beaten at 
 Hohzheim in the above-mentioned campaign, 
 received orders not to hazard another engage- 
 ment. Very likely he oppofed the elector's 
 fchemes thro' perfonal jealoufy, and to pre- 
 vent its being faid, that this prince's fuperior 
 fkill in the military art, had retrieved the lofies, 
 which had been fuftained thro' the other's inca^ 
 pachy.. 
 
 THE French, not fatisfied with recovering 
 Alface, wanted to weaken the Imperial army, 
 which might have been able to deprive them 
 in the fpring, of the advantages they had ob- 
 tained during the winter. For this purpofe 
 they created new enemies to the elector, who r 
 by the diverfion they made, obliged him to re- 
 turn to his own dominions. 
 
 NOT WITH STANDING the defenfivealliance,- 
 which the ele&or had concluded with the 
 crown of Sweden, and the duke ofNeuburg, 
 in i 673,. Wrangel marched into the Marck in 
 1-675, at the head of a Swedifh army. 
 
 THE prince of Anhalt, who at that time 
 was governor of the Marck, complained bit- 
 terly of this Swediih irruption. Wrangel aa- 
 
 fw eredj
 
 '( rn ) 
 
 fwered, that the Swedes fhould withdraw, as 
 foon as the ele&or concluded a peace with 
 France. 
 
 THIS prince acquainted the elector with ths 
 devaftation of his territories, and the enormous 
 excefTes committed by the Swedes. But as he 
 had not a fufficient number of troops at Berlin 
 to prefent himfelf before an army,- the elector 
 thought proper that he (hould not engage tha 
 Swedes, but wait his an ival. 
 
 WHILE the elector's- troops refrefhed thenv 
 felves after their fatigues, in their winter 
 quarters in Franconia, the peafants of Branden- 
 burg, impatient of a foreign yoke, and driven 
 to defpair by the extortions of the Swedes, af- 
 fembled in bodies, and gained fome advan- 
 tages over their oppreflbrs. They formed 
 rhemfelves into feveral companies, and the 
 elector's name was in their colours, with this 
 inscription. 
 
 for our Prince and' Country we facrifice our 
 Lives, 
 
 In the mean time while Wrangel fell ill, which 
 increafed the licentioufnefs of the foldiers; they 
 did not even fpare the cliurches, but carried 
 
 their
 
 their rapacious cruelty to the higheft degree of 
 violence. 
 
 WHILE the Marcks fighed after a deliverer, 
 Fredeirck-William was making preparations 
 to confound the infolence of his enemies. He 
 fet out from Franconia, and arrived the i ith 
 - of June at Magdeburg. Immediately he or- 
 dered the gates of the town to be Chut, and 
 ufed every precaution to conceal the news 
 of his approach frx>m the enemy. Towards 
 the evening his army patted the Elbe, and di- 
 recting their march thro' by-ways, reached 
 the night following the gates of Rathenaw. 
 The elector gave notice to the baron de Drift, 
 who was there t that time, of the arrival of 
 his troops, and concerted with him proper 
 meafures to furprize the Swedes. 
 
 THE regiment of Wangelin was in garrifon 
 in the town. Brift invited the officers of this 
 regiment to fup with him. During the enter- 
 tainment they were overpowered with liquor ; 
 and while they flept themfelves fober, the 
 elector ordered feveral detachments of his troops 
 to pafs the Havel in boats, and to attack the 
 town on all fides. 
 
 GENERAL Dorffling, pretending to be a 
 Swedifli party, purfued by the troops of Bran- 
 denburg,
 
 ( H3 ) 
 
 denburg, was the firft who entered Rathenaw, 
 and cut the guards in pieces. At the fame 
 time the gates were forced open, and the ca- 
 valry cleared the fleets ; the Svvedifli officers 
 could fcarce believe, when they awaked, that 
 they were the prifonersof a prince, whom they 
 imagined to be in Franconia at the head ef his 
 troops. .The adventure was fo extraordinary, 
 as to appear like a dream. 
 
 THE elector, who well knew the vaft con- 
 fequence of embracing the critical moment, 
 would not wait for the arrival of his infantry. 
 In this delicate conjuncture he marched to 
 Nauen, in order to cut off two principal bo- 
 dies of the Swedifh troops, one of which was 
 in the neighbourhood of Brandenburg, and 
 the other near Havelberg. That of Branden- 
 burg had pafTed the Nauen, an hour before 
 the elector's arrival. He purfued them clofcly, 
 but not being able to come up with them, lie 
 was informed by prifoners and defcrters, that 
 they were marching to Fehrbellin, where they 
 had fixed the rendezvous with thofe of Havel- 
 berg. 
 
 THE eledlor's army confided of 5600 horfe ; 
 he had no infantry, and yet he carried with 
 him twelve pieces of cannon. He did not he- 
 
 fitate
 
 ( "4 ) 
 
 fitate a moment to attack the enemy, notwith- 
 ihmding the inequality of numbers, and the 
 difference between the troops that compofed 
 the two armies. He had only a body of horfe, 
 and the Swedes had ten regiments of loot, whh 
 fome dragoons. 
 
 FREDERICK-WILLIAM gave the van- 
 guard on the 1 8th of June to the prince of 
 Homburg, with 1600 horfe, ordering him to 
 reconnoitre the enemy without coming to an 
 engagement. This prince fct out for the ex- 
 pedition, and after paffing thro' a wood, he 
 found the Swedifh troops incamped between 
 the villages of Hackenburg and Tornow, with 
 amorafs in their rear, the brid-ge of Fehrbeliin 
 beyond their right, and a fmooth plain in their 
 front. He drove the advanced guards before 
 him, and came up with them flying to the 
 main body of their army, who marched out of 
 their camp immediately to draw up in order of 
 battle. This prince was carried away by the 
 warmth of his constitution, and let himfelfbe 
 drawn into an engagement, which might have 
 been attended with a fatal confequence, if the 
 elector, apprized of the danger, had not im- 
 mediately flown to his affiftance. 
 
 THE
 
 ( "5 ) 
 
 THE elector, who was a prince of quick 
 and juft penetration, and of furprizing activity, 
 made ule of a bank of fand to eredt a battery ; 
 which diJ great execution. As the Swedifli 
 army was thrown into fome confufion, he fell 
 inftsritly with all his cavalry upon the enemy's 
 right wing, and defeated them intirely j the 
 hody guards, and the regiment of Oftrogothia 
 were cut in pieces, by the cavalry of Bran- 
 denburg. The defeat of the right brought 
 on that of the left j numbers of the Swedes 
 threw themfelves into the morafles, where 
 they perifhed ; the remainder flew with pre- 
 cipitation to Fehrbellin, where they broke 
 down the bridge. 
 
 THE elector being unprovided with infantry 
 could not force the bridge to purfue them ; 
 he was therefore fatisfied with pitching his 
 camp on the field of battle, where he had 
 gained fo much glory. He forgave the prince 
 of Hortiburg for having expofed, by his te- 
 merity, the fortune of a whole nation, tell- 
 ing him, *' Were I to judge you according 
 to the rigour of the military laws, you deferve 
 to lofe your life j but heaven forbid I fhould 
 fiain my lawrels with the blood of a prince-, 
 
 who
 
 who has been one of the principal inftruments 
 of my victory." 
 
 THE Swedes loft eight colours, two ftan- 
 clards, eight cannons, 3000 men, and a great 
 number of officers in this memorable and de- 
 eifive a&ion. 
 
 DORFLINXJ purfued them the day follow- 
 ing, took a confiderable number of them 
 prifoners, together with their baggage, and 
 the greatefr. part of their plunder. The 
 Swediih army, which was now reduced to 
 4000 men, made their efcape by the way of 
 Ruppin and Witftock into the country of 
 Mecklenburg. I think that Caefar's veni 9 
 vidi, vici, may be juftly applied to the 
 elector, upon this glorious expedition. 
 
 IT was owing to the fuccefs of the arms of 
 Brandenburg, that the Swedes were declared 
 enemies of the empire, for attacking one of 
 its members. Had fortune favoured the 
 Swedes, perhaps they would have found allies. 
 -. THE elector, whofe army was now in- 
 creafed with Imperial and Danifh reinforce- 
 ments, refolved to attack the Swedes in his turn 
 in their own country ; he marched therefore 
 into Pomerania, where he made hiinfelf maftcr 
 .of the three principal paflages of the Peene. 
 
 THE
 
 ( "7 ) 
 
 THE BranJenburgers, who looked upon 
 themfclves as invincible under the comm 
 of their prince, took the town of Wolgaft^and 
 the ifle of Wolin. Wifmar did not furrender 
 to the Danes till after the prince of Hamburg 
 had joined them with a reinforcement of Elec- 
 toral troops. 
 
 THE elector, and the king of Denmark, 
 whofe interefts were equally connected in their 
 war againft the Swedes, entered into a clofer 
 engagement in 1676, to act with the greatefl 
 vigour. 
 
 IN the mean while the garrifon of Stralfund 
 attempted during the winter to diflodge the 
 Brandenburgers from the ifle of Wolin. Mar- 
 defelt landed a body of troops, and laid liege to 
 the capital, which was defended by an Electo- 
 ral garrifon. The vigilance of Marfhal Dor- 
 fling made them pay dear for the temerity of 
 their enterprize ; he drew feme of his detach- 
 ments together, palled over into the ifle of Wo- 
 lin, beat Mardefeldt, and would have intirely 
 defeated him, if the Swedes had not got on 
 board in a hurry, and made their efcape to 
 Stralfund. 
 
 AT the beginning of this campaign, the 
 Baltic was covered with two powerful fqua~ 
 
 drons,
 
 ( II* ) 
 
 drons, which locked the Swedes up in their har- 
 bours, and hindred them from fending fuccours 
 toPomerania. The Dutch were commanded by 
 Tromp, the greateft admiral of his age ; and 
 the Danifh fleet was under the command of 
 Juhl, an admiral likewife of eftablifhed re- 
 putation. Even the privateers of Branden- 
 burg took feveral prizes of the Swedes. 
 
 THIS nation forefeeing the difficulty of 
 withftanding fuch a number of enemies, at 
 tempted to make propofalsto the elector, in or- 
 der to draw him off from his allie?, or perhaps 
 to ftt him at varinace with them. Wange- 
 lin, who was made prifoner at Rathenaw, 
 founded the elector's mind, and made over- 
 tures tending to an accommodation, but this 
 prince refufed to enter into any kind of ne- 
 gotiation. 
 
 FREDERICK William put himfelf at the 
 head of his troops, and took Anclam, in fpite 
 of general Konigfmarck, who attempted to re- 
 lieve the town. He turned afterwards his vic- 
 torious arms towards Stettin, which he only 
 blockaded, becaufe the feafon was too far ad- 
 vanced to befiege it in form. 
 
 THE enfuing campaign in 1677, was 
 
 opened 
 2
 
 ( H9 ) 
 
 opened with a fea fight, in which the Danes 
 defeated the Swedifli fleet. 
 
 CHARLES XI. who had hitherto been in a 
 ftate of pupillage, began to appear like a king. 
 I-iis firft efiay was the gaining of the famous 
 battle of Lunden in Scania, where Chriftian V. 
 loft 6000 men. 
 
 FORTUNE, which favoured the Swedes 
 againft the Danes, feemed to defert them 
 when they had to deal with the elector ; for 
 the campaign of Pomerania turned out to 
 their difadvantsge. 
 
 THE elector opened the trenches the 6th 
 of June before Stettin. The Brandenbur- 
 gers attacked the town toward the left bank 
 of the Oder ; their allies the Lunenburgers 
 carried on their approaches on the right 
 bank, and the fiege lafted fix months. 
 
 THE fortifications of Stettin confiftejJ of 
 earthen baftions, furrounded with a ditch, and 
 defended by a wretched counterfcarp. The 
 out- works confifted only of two earthen re- 
 doubts. In our days this paltry town could not 
 have ftood a fiege of above eight days. At 
 that time the elector's troops, accuftomed only 
 to field battles, were quite unpradlifed in fieges, 
 and deftrtute of ingeniers. 
 
 STET-
 
 ( '20 ) 
 
 STETTIN did not capitulate till the i4th of 
 December. The garrifon was reduced to 300 
 men, and the relations of thofe days infom us, 
 that this fiege coft the befiegers 10,000 men. 
 The Lunenburgers returned to their own 
 country. The great advantages which the 
 elector gained over his enemies, did not make 
 fo favourable an impreffion upon the Imperial 
 court as might have been expected. The 
 emperor wanted to have weak vafials and 
 poor fubjects in Germany, but no great lords 
 or powerful princes. As his politics aimed at 
 arbitrary power, he was fenfible of the im- 
 portance of keeping the princes of the em- 
 pire in a ftate of mediocrity and impotence, 
 in order to exert the tyranny, which the houfe 
 of Auftria intended to eflablifli in Germany. 
 The emperor's council, and among the reft 
 one Hocherus, had the infolence to fay, that 
 the court of Vienna was uneafy to fee a new 
 king of the Vandals enlarging his territories 
 on the borders of the Baltic. This prophe- 
 cy was afterward verified. 
 
 WHILE the elector's campaigns were at- 
 tended with a continual feries of triumphs, 
 which were the fruits of his prudence, the 
 Dutch concluded a feparate peace with France. 
 
 FRE-
 
 ( 121 ) 
 
 FREDERICK WILLIAM reproached thefe 
 republicans with their ingratitude. France 
 propofed to this 'prince, that he fhould re- 
 liore his conquefts to the Swedes, and indem- 
 nify them for the expences of the war. Could 
 Lewis XIV. have prefcribed much harder con- 
 ditions to a conquered prince ? The eleclor, 
 indeed, rejected them ; and as he had higher 
 views, he wanted to preferve by treaties, what 
 he had conquered by arms. But he was even 
 happier in his negotiations, than in his victories. 
 
 THE war was therefore continued in Po- 
 merania. 
 
 IN the beginning of the enfuing campaign 
 in 1678, the Swedes furprized in the ifle of 
 Rugen, two detachments of Danes and Bran- 
 denburgers, each of 600 men. The king of 
 Denmark moreover loft Chriftianftadt, and 
 the ifle of Blechingen. 
 
 THE elector's fortune, or rather his pru- 
 dence, not being fubjedl to caprice, was much 
 more conftant. He received a reinforcement 
 of 4000 Lunenburgers, and with theafliftance 
 cf fome Danifh vefieis he made a defcent upon 
 the ifle of Rugen, drove the Swedes from 
 thence, and made himfelf mafter of Fehr- 
 fchantz . He took afterwards pofTeiTion of the 
 F ifle
 
 '( 122 ) 
 
 ifle of Bohrnholm, fat down before Stralfund, 
 and bombarded this town fo brifkly that it fur- 
 rendred in two days. At length he finifhed 
 this glorious campaign with the taking of 
 Grypfwalde. 
 
 FORTUNE feemed to take a pleafure in 
 furnifhing this prince with every occafion to 
 difplay his great abilities. Scarce had this 
 campaign been ended, when he had tidings 
 brought him, that the enemy had attacked 
 him on another fide, and that general Horn 
 was marched from Livonia at the head of fix 
 thoufatid men to enter Pruflia. 
 
 THE elector received this news without 
 being in the leaft furprized, and applied a 
 fpeedy remedy. As his genius was fruit- 
 ful in expedients, it Vurnifhed him at the 
 fame time with proper meafures for putting 
 them in execution ; and indeed, he projected 
 and executed, as it were, at the fame time. 
 He fent general Gortz before him with 3000 
 men, who making a forced march, pafTed the 
 Viftula, and arrived fafely at Konigfberg, 
 where he was joined by Hohendorff, and re- 
 mained there till the elector's arrival. 
 
 DURING 

 
 C 123 ) 
 
 DURING this diverfion, the elector's affairs 
 grew ftill vvorfe by the defertion of the Em- 
 peror and Spain, who after the example of the 
 Dutch concluded a peace with France at Ni- 
 meguen, without taking any notice of the 
 elector's interefts. Thus this prince, and the 
 king of Denmark, were left alone to carry on 
 the war. 
 
 FREDERICK William, in order to ftreng- 
 then his party, concluded a defenfive alliance 
 with thofe very Dutch, who had fo bafely 
 deferred him, He refigned fort Schenck to 
 them, and forgave them the arrears of the 
 fubfidies due to him, for all which he received 
 only empty guaranties in return, which thofe 
 ungrateful republicans refufed even to fulfil. 
 
 IN the mean while, the Swedes made a con- 
 fiderable progrefs in Pruflia. They burnt the 
 fuburb of Memel upon their march, and made 
 themfelves matters of Tilfit and Infterburg ; 
 their troops fpread themfelves around, and 
 their different parties over-run the whole 
 country. 
 
 BUT the eleftor foon retreived thefe lofles 
 
 by his prodigious diligence. He fet out from 
 
 Berlin in 1679, and put himfelf at the head 
 
 of 9000 men, whom he had *fent before him 
 
 F 2 under
 
 C 124 ) 
 
 tinder the command of Dorffling. He pafled 
 the Viftula the i-fth of January, preceded by 
 the terror of his name, which was now be- 
 come formidable to the Swedes. Horn, con- 
 founded at his approach, loft all hopes of with- 
 ftanding the heroe of Fehrbellin ; and as his 
 troops were alfo difheartned, he thought pro- 
 per to retire. Gortz taking an advantage of 
 this confufion, purfued, harrafied, and retard- 
 ed him in his march ; on which occafion the 
 Swedes loft 8000 men. A gre>: number of 
 peafants, having joined the body uf troops 
 commanded by Gortz, took all the ftrjgglers 
 of the enemy's army prifoners. 
 
 THE eltdtor, who did not lofe a moment of 
 time, appeared on the banks of the Fricfh- 
 haff. Having put all his army in fledges, pre- 
 pared on purpofe, he proceeded the fame day 
 with his troops feven German miles from 
 thence, and continued his march in this new 
 and extraordinary manner. It was a furprizing 
 fpe&acle to fee an army march over a 
 frozen gulph, which two months before was 
 covered with (hips. 
 
 THE elector's march with his army had 
 the air of a moft folemn and magnificent pro-
 
 ceilion. The eleclrefs and the "whole court 
 were with him in fledges, and this prince 
 was received wherever he came, as the de- 
 liverer of Pruffia. 
 
 HE difpatched Trefenfeldt from Labiaw 
 with 5000 horfe, to flop the Swedes, till he 
 could come up with them. The fame day 
 he made a very long march on the gulph of 
 Courland, and arrived the igth of January with 
 his little army within three miles of Tilfit, 
 where the Swedes had taken up their quarters. 
 He received tidings the fame day, that Tre- 
 fenfelt had defeated two of the enemy's re- 
 giments in the neighbourhood of Splitter, and 
 that he had taken from them 28 * colours and 
 ftandards, two pair of kettle drums, and feven 
 hundred waggons full of baggage; upon which 
 he ordered him to improve thefe advantages. 
 
 THE Swedes beaten by Trefenfeldt, har- 
 rafied by Gortz, and intimidated by the neigh- 
 bourhood of the elec"tor, abandoned Tilfit, 
 and retreated towards Couiland. Gortz came 
 up with their rear, confiiljng of 1400 men, 
 
 * Either the number of the Swedes muft have been vaflly 
 reduced, or there muft have been feme miftake in the number 
 of colours. I ftiould have ftrupled to relate this fact, had I 
 not found it afceruined by the different relations preferved in 
 the archives. 
 
 F 3 between
 
 ( '26 ) 
 
 Between Schultzen, Crug, and Cuadjuc, and 
 defeated them intirely. Both he and Tre- 
 fenfeldt returned different ways, loaded with 
 trophies, and conducing a great number of 
 prifoners, together with all their plunder. 
 
 THE retreat of the Swedes was like to a 
 total rout ; not above 3000 men of their whole 
 army -returned into Livonia, the reft were all 
 destroyed. 
 
 THUS ended fhis expedition, the only 
 one in its kind, and in which the elector 
 (hewed the full extent of his genius ; an ex- 
 pedition in which neither the rigour of the Tea- 
 Ton in that extreme cold climate, nor the 
 length of the march for an army to the fron- 
 tiers of Livonia, nor nothing, in fine, could 
 ftcp him. 
 
 THIS campaign, which was planned with 
 fo much prudence and judgment, and executed 
 with fo much refolution and fuccefs, gained 
 the elector nothing more than empty fame. 
 This is the reward of heroes, but princes are 
 not always fatisfied with fuch payment. 
 
 His enemies had brought him from the 
 Rhine into the Marck, and from Pomer-ania 
 into Pruflia. Scarce had he driven away the 
 Swedes, when the cries of his fubjecls gave 
 
 him
 
 ( '27 ) 
 
 him to under ftand that the French had enter- 
 ed the dutchy of Cleves with 30,000 men. 
 
 LEWIS XIV. infifted upon the intire re- 
 inftateme'nt of the Swedes ; and was inflexible 
 upon this article. Every propofuion that the 
 elector's minifters made to Colbert, was re- 
 jeded. 
 
 IT was an unequal match ; for the elector 
 of Brandenburg and the king of Den- 
 mark could not pretend to cope with 
 Lewis XIV. and Charles XI. Valour fub- 
 initted to numbers ; and notwithftanding the 
 repugnance which the elector had to give up 
 his conquefts, he made a truce of fifteen days 
 with the French, that they might agree upon 
 the articles of peace ; and he put them in pof- 
 feflion of the towns of Weiel and Lipftat, 
 till it was intirely concluded. 
 
 UPON the expiration of th's term, Crequi 
 entered the principality of Minden with 10,000 
 men. Here he was j -ined by the Lunen- 
 burgers, and thefe troops fhut up between) 
 them and the Wefer a body of Brandenbur- 
 gers, commanded by general Spaan. 
 
 FREDERICK-WILLIAM, who received no- 
 thing but excufcs and refufals from the Dutch,, 
 with regard to their not executing the guaran- 
 F 4. t;e,
 
 ( '28 ) 
 
 tee, refolved to come to an accommodation. He 
 fent the baron de Meynder to St. Germains, 
 where they agreed upon the following condi- 
 tions; viz. that the treaty of Weftphalia 
 ihould be the bails of this peace ; that the 
 elector fhould have the property of the cuftoms 
 in further Pomerania ; and that the towns of 
 Camin, Gartz, Greiffenberg and Wilden- 
 bruch, fliould be yielded to him. In return, 
 lie agreed to reftore to the Swedes all he had 
 conquered from them, and not to aflift the 
 king of Denmark. Upon which France with- 
 drew her troops from his territories, and paid 
 him 30,000 ducats, as an indemnity for the 
 mifchief which Crequi had done to his fubje<b. 
 
 THE peace being thus concluded, was rati- 
 fied and put in execution, without any diffi- 
 culty intervening on either fide, to prevent an 
 intire evacuation. 
 
 The king of Denmark, who was now the 
 cnly champion left in the lifts, foon followed 
 the elector's example, and concluded a peace 
 at Fontainbleau with France and Sweden. 
 With this difference, that the elector at leaft 
 gained fomething by it, whereas the king of 
 Denmark, by holding out too long, got no- 
 thin gat all. 
 
 THJJ
 
 THE peace of St. Germains put an end to 
 Frederic- William's military exploits. His lail 
 years were more pacific, and lefs glorious. 
 And yet he ftill fhevved himfelf the great and 
 benevolent man, even in the moft private paf- 
 fages of his life. 
 
 THE wifdom, conftancy, penetration, and 
 every other virtue of this prince, were regu- 
 lated according to his different circumftances ; 
 appearing one while more fublime, and an- 
 other time more tender and obliging ; but al- 
 ways directed by the principles ofjuflice, and 
 tending only to the glory of his reign, and the 
 welfare of his fubjedls. 
 
 IT is owing to a general prejudice, that 
 the greateft part of mankind idolize the fuc- 
 cefsful temerity of the ambitious. The glory 
 of military exploits renders them blind, even 
 to civil virtues ; in their way of thinking, the 
 Eroftrati are preferable to the modern Am 
 phions. 
 
 FREDERICK-WILLIAM was equally ad- 
 mirable at the head of his armies, where he 
 appeared as the deliverer of his fubjeds ; and 
 at the head of his council, where he admini- 
 ftred juftice to his people, and to his neigh- 
 bours } and raifed his country from a (late of 
 F 5 annihi-
 
 ( 13) 
 
 annihilation, into which it had been plunged 
 by the war. 
 
 THE ele&or's virtues were of too extenfive 
 a nature, not to be known ; his excellent en- 
 dowments gained him the confidence of his 
 neighbours. His impartial juftice rendered him 
 a kind of fupreme arbiter, whofe jurifdi&ion 
 extended beyond his own frontiers, by which 
 he judged and reconciled kings and fovereign 
 princes. He was chofen for a mediator be- 
 tween the king of Denmark, and the city of 
 Hamburg. Chriftian V. received twenty- 
 five thoufand crowns of this town, which ferved 
 as a fponge to the Danes in their prefent ne- 
 ceflity. This city was hard prefled, at that 
 time, and would have been entirely ruined,, 
 had it not been for the affiftance and protection 
 of Frederick-William. 
 
 THE Eaft paid homage to the reputation of 
 this prince, which had reached as far as Afia. 
 And iMuiad.Geray, Gam of tbeTartars, courted 
 his friendftiip. 
 
 THE barbarian ambafTador appeared in tat- 
 tered cloaths, which fcarce covered his naked- 
 nefs. They were obliged to give him other 
 apparel, befure he could be admitted to court. 
 The Boudziake's interpreter had a wooden 
 
 nofe,.
 
 f '3* ) 
 
 nofe, and no ears. This was carrying {impli- 
 city, and the contempt of pomp, to the high- 
 eft excefs ; however, Europe was far from 
 growing jealous at this hungry cmbaffy.. 
 
 WHILE the elector was courted by the 
 Tartars, hecaufedhimfelftobe refpecled by the 
 Spaniards. This court owed him fome ar- 
 rears of fubfidies, which they declined paying 
 him. He fent therefore to the coaft of Guinea 
 nine fmall veflels, which he had made ufe 
 cf in the Baltic ; and this little would-be fqua- 
 dron took a large Spanifh man cf war, and 
 carried it into Konigfberg. 
 
 THIS prince made two confidence acqui- 
 fitions in 1680. Upon the deceafe of the ad- 
 minirtrator of Magdeburg, this duchy was in- 
 corporated for ever with the electorate or; 
 Magdeburg. As diredlor of the circle of Weft- 
 phalta, he had the Imperial commifiion to 
 protect the ftates of Eaft Friefland againft their 
 piince, who had invaded their privileges; and 
 having the eventual fucceflion of that principa- 
 lity, he availed himfelf of the occafion to put 
 a Brandenburg garrifon into Gritzil, and to 
 eftablifh a company of merchants at Enibiien y 
 who traded to Guinea, and built Great Frt- 
 derickfburg. 
 
 F 6 BUT
 
 BUT thefe fmall advantages were nothing*, 
 in comparifon to thofe of Lewis XIV. This 
 prince made as many conquefts in time of 
 peace as of war. He purfued a new method, 
 in eftablifhing the chambers of re-union, which 
 by examining the ancient charters and old pre- 
 cepts, adjudged feveral towns and lordfhips to 
 him, which he had taken pofleffion of, as be- 
 ing originally fiefs or dependances on the pre- 
 fecture of Strafburg and Alface. The empire 
 being exhaufted with a long war, was fatisfied 
 with complaining to Lewis XIV. in writing. 
 But as the elector had not been included in the 
 treaty of Nimeguen, he refufed to fign this 
 letter, and he concluded in 1681, a treaty of 
 alliance with the elector of Saxony, and the 
 duke of Hanover, for the maintenance of the 
 peace of Weftphalia and St. Germains. 
 
 LEW is XIV. being unwilling to be di- 
 flurbed by the emperor, or by the empire, in 
 his* pacific conquefts, fet his engines to work 
 in the Eaft in 1682, which foon flung Leopold 
 into the utmoft confufion. 
 
 THERE wereftill two years to ccme of the 
 truce, which the infidels had concluded with 
 the chriftians after the battle of S. Ciodart. 
 And yet the Turks fent fuccours to the Hun- 
 garians,
 
 ( 133 ) 
 
 garians, who had revolted againft the houfe of 
 Auftria, and they marched with a formidable 
 army up to the gates of Vienna. 
 
 LEOPOLD, who, like the reft of his fa- 
 mily, was no foldier, fled to Lintz in 1683, 
 with all his haughtinefs ; he would neither 
 make conceffions to the French, who had taken 
 Luxemburg from him ; nor to the Turks, 
 who befieged his capital. And yet the em- 
 pire was incapable to withftand fo many ene- 
 mies. At length, the prefiing follicitations of 
 the pope, of Frederick- William, the eleclor 
 of Bavaria, and of the chief princes in Ger- 
 many, prevailed upon him to agree to a truce, 
 which was concluded with France the ijth of 
 Auguft 1684. 
 
 THE fame year the elector concluded an al- 
 liance with the circles of Lower Saxony and 
 Weftphalia, fur their common defence. In this 
 treaty it was exprefsly agreed, that the princes 
 who aflembled the confederate troops, fhould 
 draw contributions from the neighbouring fhtes. 
 The manners of that time are too much cha- 
 racYifed by fuch paflages as thefe, to be 
 omitted in our hiftory. 
 
 FREDERICK-WILLIAM had prctenfions to 
 the dutchies of JagerndorfF, Ratibor, Oppe- 
 
 len,
 
 ( 134 ) 
 
 len, Brieg, Wolau, and Lignitz. Thefe 
 dutchies belonged to him in drift jufticc 
 by the treaties of confraternity, which had 
 been concluded with the princes who for- 
 merly poflefled them, and ratified by the kings 
 of Bohemia. He looked upon this as a favou- 
 rable conjuncture to defire the emperor tofatisfy 
 his juft pretenfions, and to grant him at the 
 fame time the invefliture of Magdeburg. Leo- 
 pold, who knew no rights but his own, no 
 pretenfions but thofe of the houfe of Auflria, 
 and no juftice but his own haughtinefs, granted 
 what he could not refufe - r namely, the in- 
 veiftiture of the dutehy of Magdeburg. And 
 yet he wanted a contingent of Brandenburg 
 troops, but they were refufed him. The eledlor 
 however fent fuccours to John Sobiefki, wha 
 was alfo attacked by the Turks in 1 685 ; thefe 
 fuccours confifted of 2oco men. 
 
 EVERY circumftance of that time feemed 
 to contribute to aggrandize the elector. France 
 was difturbed by the revocation of the famous 
 edidl: of Nantes ; and fuch a migration en- 
 fued, as can hardly be paralleled in hiftory. A 
 whole nation, as it were, departed the king- 
 dom, thro' the fpirit of party, and out of ha* 
 tred to the pope, in order to receive the com- 
 munion
 
 ( 135 ) 
 
 munion in both kinds in another climate, and 
 to chant Clement Marot's old pfulms in other 
 temples. For fuch powerful motives as thefe, 
 two hundred thoufand inhabitants went into- 
 voluntary banifhment, and abandoned their 
 pofleffions, carrying with them their indu- 
 ftry, and manufactures, to thofe places of 
 refuge, which they exchanged for their own 
 country. Twenty thoufand French came and 
 fettled in the territories of the elector, who 
 by their numbers repaired in fome meafure the 
 depopulation which had been caufed by the 
 wars. Frederick-William received them with 
 that pity, which raifery excites ; and with, 
 the generofity of a fovereign, who rewards 
 thofe artifts, whofe induftry is fo ufefui to his 
 people. This induftrious colony multiplied, 
 and made ample returns to their benefactor for 
 his hofpitality and protection. The Marck of 
 Brandenburg became foon capable of drawing 
 from her own ftock thofe commodities, which 
 fhe had been obliged to import from foreign 
 countries. 
 
 LEWIS XIV. was offended at the reception 
 which the elector gave to the refugees. Frede- 
 rick-William, being apprehenfive that his 
 piety would imbroii him with France, entered 
 
 into
 
 into a more intimate connexion with the em- 
 peror, and fent him, in the year 1686, eight 
 thoufand auxiliary troops againft the Turks, 
 under the command of Schoning. Thefe 
 troops had a great fhare in the taking of Buda, 
 and diftinguifhed themfelves greatly at the ge- 
 neral aflault of that town, where they were 
 the firft that entered. Notwithftanding thefe 
 fervices, they were denied winter quarters in 
 Silefia, and were obliged to come back and 
 winter in the Marck. The emperor, how- , 
 ever, granted the circle of Swibus to the 
 ele&or, as an indemnity 
 
 THE reception of the French at Berlin, 
 and the fuccours granted to the emperor, at 
 length exafperated France ; fhe broke in fome 
 meafure with the elector, by refufing to conti- 
 jme the payment of the annual fubfidy, which 
 had been granted him by the peace of St. Ger- 
 mains. Lewis XIV. could not avoid break- 
 ing the truce concluded with the emperor ; by 
 maintaining the pretenfions of Charlotte, prin- 
 cefs Palatine, wife to the duke of Orleans, to 
 fome bailiwicks of the Palatinate, which that 
 princefs laid claim to j and by repairing the 
 fortifications of Hunningen, tho' this was con- 
 trary to the treaty of Nimeguen. So enter- 
 
 prifing
 
 ( 137 ) 
 
 prifing a neighbour alarmed all Germany ; the 
 circles of Suabia, Franconia, and the Lower 
 Rhine, concluded an alliance at Augfburg, to 
 guard againft the continual enterprizes, which 
 were formed by the ambition of Lewis XIV. 
 
 NOTWITHSTANDING fo many fubjects of 
 complaint, which the empire had againft 
 France; yet the emperor confirmed the truce 
 in 1687, which he had concluded with that 
 crown ; for the apprehenfion of the Turks 
 rendered him prudent and circumfpect. And 
 yet we {hall fee in the courfe of this hiftory, how 
 the election made by the chapter of Cologne, 
 in favour of the prince of Furftenberg, at that time 
 bifhop of Strafburg, and protected by France, 
 obliged the elector at length to break with a 
 neighbour, whofe ambition kept no meafures, 
 and who knew no limits to his' power. 
 
 THE elector had no (hare in this war, but 
 died before it broke out. He granted his pro- 
 tection for the fecond time to the city of Ham- 
 burg, which was befieged by the king of Den- 
 mark in perfon with 17000 men. Paul Fuchs 
 and Schmettau, both envoys from the elector, 
 perfuaded Frederick V. to raife the fiege, and 
 to re-eftablifh matters upon the fame footing 
 as they flood before that expedition. At the 
 
 lame
 
 C 138 ) 
 
 fame time,' the difference was compromifed, 
 relating to the four bailiwicks of the dutchy of 
 Magdeburg, which were in the poffeflion of 
 the duke of Weiflenfels. The cleftcr pur- 
 chafed the bailiwick of Bourg for 34,000 
 crowns, and relinquifhed his pretenfions to 
 thofe of Querfurt, Yuterbock, and Damme. 
 
 THE North was in danger of being 
 oifturbed again by the differences which 
 arofe in 1688, between the king of Den- 
 mark and the duke of Gottorp, concerning 
 the peace of Rodfchilt, by which Cbaries 
 Guftavus h?.d procured for the duke the in- 
 tire fovereignty of his territories. The Danes, 
 offended at this fovereignty, drove this prince 
 from Schlefwick, and declared that they in- 
 tended to keep poffeflion of this dutchy, as 
 veil as of Denmark:. The emperor Leopold 
 wanted to intermeddle in the quarrel ; but the 
 king of Denmark refufed to truft his affairs into 
 any other hands than thofe of the elector. Con- 
 ferences were accordinnlv htld at Hamburg 
 and Altena. Frederick V. offered to yield 
 fome counties to the duke of Gottorp, the in- 
 come of which would be equal to the revenues 
 of Schlefwick, excepting the fovereignty. The 
 duke refufed thole offers, and -Frederick-Wil- 
 liam
 
 ( '39 ) 
 
 liam did not live to fee a conclufion of the 
 affair j for death put an end to his glorious reign. 
 FREDERICK-WILLIAM had been a long time 
 troubled with the gout. This diftemper turned 
 into adropfy ;^ and as his complaint grew worfe 
 every day, he met death with the greateft un- 
 dauntednefs and refolution. Two days before 
 he died, he convened his council, and after 
 having afiifted at the debates, and decided 
 affairs with a found judgment, and a perfect 
 freedom of mind, he addreflcd his difcourfe to 
 his miniflers, thanking them for the fidelity they 
 had ftiewa him, and exhorting them to dif- 
 charge their duty in the like manner to his 
 fon. He turned then to the electoral prince, 
 and laid before him the feveral duties of a 
 fovereign j he gave him a fhort analyfis of the 
 ftate in which he left his affairs, exhorted him 
 to aflift the prince of Orange in the expedition, 
 which he was then meditating againft Eng- 
 land ; and, above all, recommended to him 
 the love and prefervation of his people, as a 
 good father would have recommended his 
 children. After which he performed fonie acls 
 of devotion, and waited calmly for death. 
 He expired the 29th of April, i68S, with the 
 fume tranquillity of mind, and heroic indiffe- 
 rence,
 
 ( '40 ) 
 
 rencc, which he had conftaiitly difplayed in a!! 
 his victories. 
 
 HE was twice married, the firft time to 
 Henrietta of Orange, mother of Frederick III. 
 who fucceeded him ; the fecond time to Do- 
 rothy of Holftein, who was mother to the 
 margraves Philip-Albert, and Lewis, and to 
 the princefles Elizabeth Sophia, and Mary- 
 Amelia. 
 
 FREDERICK-WILLIAM was endowed with 
 all the qualifications requifite to form a great 
 man, and providence furniftied him with the 
 proper occafions of difplaying them. He gave 
 inftances of his prudence, at an age in which 
 unruly and fiery youth give generally only 
 marks of licentioufnefs. He never exerted his 
 heroic valour in the purfuit of any bafe defign ; 
 but employed it conftantly in defence of his ter- 
 ritories, or in the affiftance of his allies. He 
 was warm and prudent, qualifications that ren- 
 dered him a great politician j he was indu- 
 firious and humane, virtues, which rendered 
 him a great prince. He was infenfible to the 
 dangerous charms of lawlefs love, and hid no 
 other weaknefs, but for his wife and wine. 
 His fiery temperament rendered him fubjecl to 
 tranfports of choler j but if he gave way to the 
 
 firft
 
 ( Hi ) 
 
 fuft motion, he always checked the fecond ; 
 and his generous heart abundantly repaired the 
 mifhkes, which his natural impetuofity made 
 him commit. This prince was kind, magna- 
 nimous, charitable, humane, and naturally in- 
 clined to virtue ; he was the reftorer and de- 
 fender of his country, the founder of its power, 
 the arbiter of the feveral princes his equals, 
 and the honour of his nation. A plain nar- 
 rative of his life is his greateft panegyric ; 
 whoever would attempt to embellifh the ftory, 
 would only diminish its beauty. To touch his 
 lawrels would make them wither. 
 
 EUROPE h;d granted the furname of Great 
 to three ibvereigns, who reigned almoft at the 
 fame time, namely, Cromwell, Lewis XIV. 
 and Frederick William. To Cromwell, for 
 having facrificed every civil duty to the defire 
 of reigning j for having proftituted his talents, 
 which inftead of being ufeful to his country, 
 were fubfervient only to his ambition ; for 
 having concealed his impoftures under the 
 mafk of fanaticifm ; for having enflaved his 
 country under a pretence of fighting for her 
 liberties ; for becoming the executioner of 
 his king, whom he facrificed to his fury : 
 to Cromwell, a bold, cunning, and am- 
 bitious
 
 ( '42 ) 
 
 bitious man, but unjuft, violent, and void 
 of virtue ; a man, in fine, who had great qua- 
 lities, but never a good one. Cromwell 
 therefore did not deferve the furname of great, 
 which is due only to virtue ; and it would be 
 degrading Lewis XIV. and Frederick Wil- 
 liam, to compare them to fuch a rival. 
 
 THESE two princes were confidered, each 
 in his fphere, as the greateft men of their age. 
 Sometimes the events of their life referable 
 each other, and at other timts fome importsnt 
 circumftances deftroy the refemblance. To 
 compare thofe princes with refpecl: to their 
 power, would be comparing Jupiter to Philoc- 
 tetes, or the thunderbolts of Olympus to this 
 heroe's arrows., But if, abftra&ing from 
 their dignities, we confider them only in re- 
 gard to their perfonal qualifications, I am 
 fatisfied, that whofoever will give his judg- 
 ment impartially, will not find the foul and 
 actions of the elector, inferior to thofe of the 
 monarch. 
 
 THEY had both an engaging and agreeable 
 phyfiognomy, ftrong features, a Roman nofe, 
 eyes that (hewed the real fentiments of their 
 hearts, an eafy accefs, a noble air, and ma- 
 jeftic gait. Lewis XIV. was fomewhat taller, 
 2 more
 
 more gentle in his carriage, and more laconic 
 in h : sciiicourfe, than Frederick William, who 
 had contracted a fHft" carriage in Holland, and 
 a more diffulive way of fpeaking in the univer- 
 licics. Their birth was equally illuftrious. 
 The Bourbons, indeed, reckoned a greater 
 number of fovercigns among their anceftors 
 than the Kohcnzollerns ; they were alfo kings 
 of a large monarchy, and the others only 
 electors of a country of a fmall extent, and 
 partly depending on the emperors. 
 
 THESE princes in their younger days had 
 almoft the fame fate. The young king, 
 rtfiding in his own kingdom with his mother 
 Anne of Auftria, and his minifter cardinal 
 Mazarin, purfued by the {lingers and the princes 
 of the blood, beheld from a diftant eminence, 
 the battle which hi* rebellious fubje&s fought 
 againft his troops in the fuburbs of S; Antony. 
 The young prince, whofe father had been 
 ftript of his territories by the Swedes, was a 
 kind of :giiive in Holland, where he fervcd 
 his military prenticefhip under Frederick Henry 
 prince of Orange, and finalized himfelf at the 
 lk-j;e of fort Schenk and Breda. Lewis XIV. 
 upon coming to the regency, reduced his 
 kingdom to obedience by the weight of his 
 
 royal
 
 ( 144 ) 
 
 royal authority. Frederick William fucceed- 
 ed his father in a country poflefled by the 
 enemy, but recovered his inheritance by po- 
 licy, negotiations, and treaties. 
 
 RICHLIEU, minifter to Lewis XIII. was 
 a genius of the firft clafs j whofe abilities laid 
 the foundations of that grandeur, on which 
 Lewis XIV. had only to raife the fuperftruc- 
 ture. Schwartzenberg minifter to George 
 William was a traytor, whofe mal-adminiftra- 
 tion flung the territories of Brandenburg into 
 that deplorable fituation, in which Frederick 
 William found them when he came to the 
 regency. The French monarch is therefore 
 juftly deferring of praife, for having purfued 
 the road to glory, which had been pointed out 
 to him by Richlieu ; but the Gerrran heroe 
 appears fomething more than human, by 
 creating his territories, as it were, anew, 
 and by owing his grandeur entirely to the ac- 
 tivity of his genius. 
 
 BOTH thefe princes commanded their armies 
 in perfon. Lewis XIV. had under him the 
 mod celebrated generals in Europe, the Tu- 
 renne's, the Conde's, and the Luxemburg's ; 
 encouraging abilities of every kind, exciting 
 merit by the emulation of pleafing him, look-
 
 ( HS ) 
 
 ing on the direction of armies during the whole 
 war as beneath him, but not difdaining to make 
 a campaign ; befieging towns, but avoiding 
 battles. He was prefent in perfon at that ra- 
 pid expedition, in which prince Conde fubdued 
 Franche Comte in three weeks. He encou- 
 raged his troops by his prefence, when they 
 palTed the Rhine at the famous ford of Tol- 
 huys, and drove away the Dutch, who were 
 drawn up on the oppofite bank ; an exploit 
 which the idolatry of his courtiers and the flat- 
 tery of his poets extolled as miraculous. Fre- 
 derick William, without any able general to 
 advife him, fupplied every deficiency himfelf; 
 he formed his own projects, and put them per- 
 fonally in execution ; and tho' he thought like 
 a general, yet he knew how to fight like a 
 foldier. As a contraft to the paflage of the 
 Rhine, I (hall mention the battle of Warfaw> 
 which lafted three days, and in which the 
 great elector was one of the principal inftru- 
 ments of the victory ; againft the conqueft of 
 Franche Corote, I {hall fet the taking of Ra- 
 thenaw, and the battle of Fehrbellin, where o-;r 
 heroe at the head of 5000 horfe charged and 
 defeated the Swedim army ; and if this is not 
 enough, I {hall throw into the account the. 
 G expe-
 
 ( '46 ) 
 
 expedition of Pruffia, where his army flew on 
 frozen feas, advanced forty German miles in 
 eight days, and where the name alone of this 
 great prince drove the Swedes, in fome mea- 
 Cure, without fighting, intirely out of Pruflla. 
 
 THE actions of Frederick William render 
 him fo much the "more worthy of admira- 
 tion, as they were intirely owing to the 
 genius and courage of a prince, who with 
 few helps undertook the boldeft projects, and 
 executed the moft difficult enterprizes j his 
 genius appeared to be fruitful of expedients, in 
 proportion to the increafe of the obftacles he 
 met with. 
 
 THE actions of the French monarch dazzle 
 us, by the magnificence with which they are' 
 difplayed, by the importance ofthe objects 
 interesting to all Europe, and by the multitude 
 of troops that contributed to his glory. Thofe 
 of the German heroe furprize us by their 
 boldnefs, and rapidity; they force our admi- 
 ration by the character of enthufiafm with which 
 they are {tamped. 
 
 LEWIS XIV. continued fuccefsful only dur- 
 ing the lives of the Colbert's, the Louvois's, 
 and fome great generals to whom France gave 
 birth. The fortune of Frederick William was 
 
 a'mcft
 
 ( '47 ) 
 
 almoft generally conftant and uniform. It 
 feems therefore, that the grandeur of the one 
 was owing to his ministers and generals, 
 and that the heroifm of the other was inherent 
 in his perfon. 
 
 THE king, by his conquefts, added Flan* 
 ders, Tranche Comte, Alface, and in fome 
 meafure, Spain to his monarchy, which ex- 
 pofcd him to the jealoufy of all Europe. The 
 elector acquired Pomerania, Magdeburg, Hal- 
 berftat, and Mmden by treaties, making fo 
 dexterous ufe of the envy which then reigned 
 among his neighbours, as to render them fub- 
 fervient to the augmentation of his grandeur. 
 
 LEWIS XIV. was become the arbiter of 
 Europe by his power, to which even the 
 greateft princes fubmitted. Frederick William 
 became the oracle of his neighbours by his 
 virtue, which gained him the efteem and con- 
 fidence of princes. While fome bore with 
 impatience the defpotic yoke, which the for- 
 mer impofed upon them ; others chufed to 
 fubmit their differences to the jutt and im- 
 partial judgments of the latter. 
 
 IN vain did Francis I. endeavoured to draw 
 
 the polite arts into France ; this great work 
 
 was afeived for Lewis XIV, He took them 
 
 G 2 under
 
 { '483 
 
 jjnder his protection, and immediately the 
 .Attic tafte, and Roman urbanity were revived 
 .at Paris. Urania had a golden compafs in her 
 pane's. The bays of Calliope were befprinkled 
 with the waters of Pactolus, and fumptuous 
 temples .were appointed for an azylum to the 
 JMufes. George William made feveral ufe- 
 lefs efforts to preferve the tafte of agriculture 
 jn his country ; but the thirty years war, like 
 a furious torrent, laid all the north of Ger- 
 many wafte. Frederick William repeopled it, 
 find changed the morafles into meadows, the 
 deferts into villages, the rqins intocities, and the 
 wild beafts of the woods into numerous flocks, 
 whofe .milk and fleeces enriched the inhabitants. 
 The ufeful arts are the eldeft fillers of the 
 polite ones, and of courfe muft precede them. 
 LEWIS XIV. deferves immortal fame even 
 for this paflage of his life; the memory of the 
 elector will be dear even to his lateft pofterity, 
 for not having defpaired of his country. The 
 Sciences ought to erect altars to one, whofe 
 liberal protection contributed to enlighten the 
 world ; mankind mould raife altars to the other, 
 whofe humanity repeopled the earth. One thro* 
 the inferiority of his flatten reaped only corn ; 
 
 the
 
 f ''49 ) 
 
 flie other's opulence fet him upon gathering; 
 flowers. 
 
 BUT the king drove the proteftants out of 
 France, and the elector received them into 
 his dominions. In this refpeft the fuperfti- 
 tious king is far inferior to the humane and 
 tolerating prince. Policy and humanity both 
 combine to give the elector the intire prefe- 
 rence in this article. 
 
 WITH regard to gallantry, politertefs, ge- 
 nerofity, vaft defigns, and magnificence, the 
 French fumptuoufnefs compared to the Ger- 
 man frugality, carries it greatly. Lewis had as 
 much the advantage over Frederick William,-, 
 as Lucullus over Achilles. 
 
 ONE granted fubfidies by oppreffing his 
 people, the other received them to eafe his* 
 Thus France was exhaufted to fuch a degree, 
 that Samuel Bernard, to fave the honour of 
 the crown, turned bankrupt for her; but no 
 bankruptcy of that kind ever ftained the ho- 
 nour of the government of Brandenburg. The . 
 bank of his dominions maintained its ground, 
 and kept paying notwithftanding the irruption 
 of the Swedes, the plundering of the Auftri- 
 ans, and the misfortune of the peflilence. 
 
 THEY both concluded treaties, and both 
 G 3 broke
 
 ( '50 ) 
 
 broke them } one thro' infatiable ambition, 
 and the other thro' abfolute neceffity. The 
 ftrongeft rid themfelves of the obligation of 
 their promife, by their own free will; the 
 weakeft fail in their engagements, thro' com- 
 pulfion and force. 
 
 THE monarch was governed towards the 
 end of his reign by his miftrefs, the heroe by 
 his wife. The pride of mankind would be 
 tyo much humbled, if the frailty of thofe 
 demi-gods did not convince us, that they arc 
 under the fame condition of mortality as our- 
 felves. 
 
 THE? both ended, as they had lived, like 
 great men, meeting death with unfhaken re- 
 folution, quitting pleafures, fortune, glory, and 
 life with a ftoical indifference, holding the 
 helm of government with a fteady hand to the 
 kift moment, recommending at their death, 
 their people with a paternal tendernefs to their 
 fucceffors, and juftifying by a life full glory, 
 virtues, and wonders, the furname of Great 
 given them by their cotemporaries, and which 
 has been confirmed to them with one com- 
 mon voice by pofterity. 
 
 M E-
 
 FREDERICK III, 
 
 THE 
 
 FIRST KING of PR US SI A, 
 
 FREDERICK III. was born aJ 
 Konigfberg in PrufTia, the 22d of July, 
 1657, of Louifa-Hcnrietta of Orange,, 
 firft wife to the great tlcctur. His mothet 
 died, and the ele&reTs Dorotliea made his life 
 very uneafy in his younger da; s. She contrived 
 to prejudice Fiederick-Wiiliam againft this 
 fon of the firft venter, who was fickly, and de- 
 formed, and whofe education had been greatly 
 neglecled. The father's prepofleflion againft 
 him went fo far, that he would have been 
 pleafed to fee the fucceffion devolve to prince 
 Philip his fecond fon. 
 
 THE ele&refs was fufpe&ed in thofe days' 
 
 of having attempted to poifon her ftep-fon ^ 
 
 G 4. but
 
 but as there is no undoubted proof of this faft, 
 and as it is only glanced at by fome writers, it 
 ought not to have a place in hiftory, which 
 being the depofitary of truth, (hould never 
 fuNy the memory of the great wkh the imputa- 
 tion of heinous crimes, without having fuch 
 proofs as amount to full conviftion. 
 
 THE fadls themfelves fufficiently clear the 
 eledtrefs ; fmce it is certain that Frederick III. 
 lived, and married in 1679, for his firft wife, 
 Elizabeth-Henrietta, daughter of William VI. 
 landgrave of HefTe j and that, after her de- 
 ceafe, in 1684, he was married again to So- 
 phia-Charlotte, daughter of Erneft-Auguftus, 
 duke of Hanover, and fitter of George, who 
 was afterwards king of England. 
 
 THE ele&refs Dorothea feemed to aim ra- 
 ther at the property, than the life of this 
 prince. For it is pofitively affirmed, that the 
 great ele&or was determined at her follicitations 
 to make a will, by which he divided all the 
 acquifitions which he had made during his 
 reign, among his children by the fecond ven- 
 ter. The Auftrian party made a proper ufc of 
 this will to prejudice the ele&or againft France, 
 The emperor engaged to annul this fettlemenr,
 
 ( '53) 
 
 on condition that Frederick III. reftored to 
 him the circle of Swibus; we (hall fee in the 
 fequel of this hiftory, in what manner this 
 convention was executed. 
 
 THE acceflion of Frederick III. to the re- 
 gency in 1688, is remarkable for the break- 
 ing out of anew war. Lewis XIV. was the 
 caufe of it, who infifted upon fome bailiwicks 1 
 of the Palatinate, as belonging to the dutchefs 
 of Orleans. He complained alfo of the affront 
 done him by the German princes, who had' 
 entered into a league againft him at Augfburg ; 
 and he declared, that he was obliged in honour 
 to maintain the election made by the canons of 
 Cologne, in favour of the prince of Furftem- 
 berg, which was oppofed by the emperor. 
 
 THIS declaration of war was backed by ar- 
 mies. The marmals de Duras and Montglas 
 took Worms, Philipfburg, and Mentz. The 
 Dauphin befieged Manheim and Franckendahl 
 in perfon ; and almoft the whole courfe of the 
 Rhine fell, in lefs than one campaign, under 
 the French dominion. 
 
 THE elector, who imputed all the vexation 
 which hisftep-mother had given him, to France, 
 becaufe fhe had her particular reafons for cn- 
 G 5 gaging.
 
 gaging Frederick- William in the intereft of 
 Lewis XIV. had an utter averfion for every 
 thing that was French. This averfion was 
 diligently fomented by the Auftrian party, as 
 it could not but turn out to their advantage ; 
 they encouraged it alfo by creating that phan- 
 tom of the univerfal monarchy of Lewis XIV. 
 with which they bewitched one half of Europe.- 
 Germany was often alarmed by this childifh 
 bug-bear, and plunged into wars, in which 
 flie had no manner of concern : but as the 
 edge of the very beft weapons grows blunt in 
 time, thefe arguments infenfibly loft their il- 
 lufory force ; and the German princes at 
 length perceived, that if they had any arbi- 
 trary power to dread, it was not that of Lewis 
 XIV. 
 
 AT that time the fpell was in its full force, 
 and operated efficacioufly on a mind difpofed by 
 prejudices to give it a favourable reception. 
 Frederick III. thought himfelf therefore obliged 
 to affift the emperor ; and fent general Scho- 
 ning with a confiderable body of troops to the 
 Upper Rhine. The Brandenburgers having 
 made themfelves matters of Rhinbergue ; the 
 ele&or took the command of the army in per- 
 fon, and laid fiege to Bonn. Mentz furren- 
 
 dered
 
 ( >S5 
 
 dcred to the allies ; the troops which had taken 
 this town joined the elector, and hindred 
 Boufflers from relieving Bonn ; fo that Af- 
 feldt, who was governor of this place, furren- 
 dered it by capitulation the i2th of October. 
 
 TH E elector made the enfuing campaign in> 
 1690, and continued to furnifh confiderable 
 fuccours to the powers allied againft France. 
 
 WILLIAM, prince of Orange, had under- 
 taken the conqueft of England, foon after the 
 death of the great elector. A Jew of Amfter- 
 dam, by name Schwartzau, lent him two 
 millions for this expedition ; telling him, if 
 you fucceed, I know you will pay it me again j 
 if you mifcarry, I am willing to lofe it. With 
 this fum William landed in England, where 
 he dethroned James, his father-in-law, fub- 
 dued the oppofite party, and became, in fome 
 meafure, the lawful fovereign of thofe three 
 kingdoms, by the confent of the people, who 
 feemed to juftify his ufurpation. James, who 
 was incapable of conciliating the public efteem 
 on the throne, or of rtigrang over a nation, 
 whofe privileges he fhould have regarded, let 
 the fcepter flip th.\,' his- hands ; and b'jins; pur- 
 fued by his own children, who had Gripped. 
 him of the crown, he retired into France, 
 G 6 whera
 
 ( 156) 
 
 where neither his dignity, nor misfortunes^ 
 could procure him any efteem. 
 
 THE new king of England took the com- 
 mand of the allied army in 1691. He go- 
 verned Europe by his intrigues, exciting the 
 jealoufy of every prince againft the power of 
 Lewis XIV. whom he mortally hated. The 
 world was all up in arms, to keep him in 
 pofleifion of that defpotic power, with which 
 he governed the United Provinces, and which 
 he would have loft in time of peace. He was 
 called the king of Holland, and ftadtholder of 
 England. Tho' he was unfuccefsful in war* 
 where he was generally beaten ; yet he was 
 fertileand vigilant in repairing hislofles, which 
 rendered him the hydra of the fable j fo that 
 he was as much dreaded by his enemies after 
 his defeats, as Lewis XIV. after his victories. 
 He had an interview with the elector concern- 
 ing the political interefts of thofe times. 
 
 THERE was too wide a difference in the 
 character of thefe two princes, to expect any 
 thing of importance from their deliberations. 
 William was grave, plain, and rull of folidity : 
 Frederick III. was reftlefs, impatient, pre- 
 pofiefled with the idea of his grandeur and 
 regulating the moft trifling ae-
 
 c is/ ) 
 
 dons, with the exadt compafs of a ceremo- 
 nial. The pun&ilio of a great chair had like 
 to have embroiled thofe princes for ever. And 
 yet the elector fent 15000 Brandenburgers to 
 join the army in Flanders commanded by king 
 William, and another confiderable body of 
 troops to affift the emperor againft the infidels. 
 Thefe troops diftinguiftied themfelves at the 
 battle of Salanquemen, which prince Eugene 
 gained againft the Turks. 
 
 KING William, who waslefs fortunate, or 
 lefs flcilful, loft in Flanders the battles of Leuf- 
 den and Landen in 1692. 
 
 ERNEST-AUGUSTUS, duke of Hanover, 
 father-in-law of Frederick III. fupplied 
 the emperor with a body of 6000 men, in 
 1693, and in return for this afliftance he re- 
 ceived the electoral dignity. The creation of 
 this ninth electorate met with great oppofition 
 in the empire. None but the electors of 
 Brandenburg and Saxony confented to it ; but 
 as the emperor wanted real fuccours, he did 
 not think that he purchafed them too dear 
 with frivolous titles. 
 
 THIS feemed to be the feafon, in which the 
 
 ambition of princes was to bud and difclofe it- 
 
 ftlf. The time for aggrandizing themfelves 
 
 4 proved
 
 proved fo favourable, that William prince of 
 Orange was become king of England, and 
 Erneft duke of Hanover was made elector. 
 Auguflus of Saxony was upon the point of 
 being chofenking of Poland, and Frederick III. 
 began now to meditate the fcheme of his roy- 
 alty. 
 
 As this is one of the principal articles of this 
 prince's life, and an event of great importance 
 to the houfe of Brandenburg ; and as the pro- 
 ject of royalty is a chain, on which every ac- 
 tion of Frederick III. depends, it is necefTary 
 that I fliould explain here the motives that gave 
 life to it, the means by which it was executed, 
 and fome circumftances that influenced the po- 
 litical meafures of thofe times. 
 
 THE ambition of Frederick III. was con- 
 fined, as v/ell by his ftation, as by his domi- 
 nions. He was too weak to raife himfelf above 
 the heads of his neighbours,, who were as ftrong 
 and as powerful as himfelf j therefore he had 
 no other expedient left but the pomp. of titles, 
 to fupply the intrinfic defect of power. Hence 
 all his thoughts and defires were turned to- 
 wards the regal dignity. 
 
 WE find in our archives a very fenfible me- 
 morial, which is attributed to father Vota, a 
 
 jefuit.
 
 ( 159 ) 
 
 jefuit. It runs chiefly upon the choice of one 
 thefe titles, either that of the king of the 
 Vandals, or of the king of Pruflla ; and on the 
 advantages arifing from the regal dignity. It 
 feems wrong to attribute this work to that je- 
 fuit, efpeciallyas hisfociety could have no in- 
 tereft in aggrandizing a proteftact prince. Be- 
 fides, it is natural to fuppofe, that the eleva- 
 tion of the prince of Orange, and the expecta- 
 tion of Auguftus of Saxony, rendered Frede- 
 rick III. jealous, and raifed an emulation in 
 him, to place himfelf like them on a throne. 
 We are generally miftaken, when we feek for 
 the principles of human actions, any where but 
 in the paflions and affections of mankind. 
 
 So difficult was th's project: to execute, 
 that it appeared chimerical to the elector's 
 council. His minifters, Danckelman and Fuchs, 
 objected againft the frivoloufnefs of it, the in- 
 fuperable obftacles by which they forefaw it 
 would be obftrudted, the little benefit to be 
 reaped from it, and the great trouble and ex- 
 pence that muft neceflarily be incurred to main- 
 tain the fplendor of a dignity, from which no- 
 thing could be expected but empty honours. 
 But all thefe arguments had no manner of 
 weight with a prince, prepoffefled wiih his 
 
 OWIl.
 
 ( 'i 60 ) 
 
 own ideas, jealous of his neighbours, and> 
 greedy of grandeur and magnificence. 
 
 FROM this day, Danckelman dated his 
 difgrace. He was fent afterwards to Spandaw, 
 for tellinghis fentiments too freely,for difclofing 
 the truth without artifice or difguife, to a court 
 corrupted by flattery ; and for contradic"lrn& a 
 prince, who was full of his vain projects of 
 grandeur. 
 
 THERE is a medium between the poifonof 
 flattery, and the wholefome feverity of truth, 
 which is confident with the character of a 
 man of honour. The lectures of a Mifan- 
 thrope exafperate the mind j but thofe fage 
 counfels, which foften the feverity of truth, 
 are like the honey, which is put round the 
 brim ofaveflel full of wormwood. It is a 
 vehicle that conceals the bitternefs of it. Happy 
 thofe princes, whofe ears are not fo delicate, 
 but they can have a relifti for truth, even 
 when conveyed by indifcreet fpeeches ; but 
 this is an effort of virtue, which few men ar- 
 rive at. 
 
 DANCKELMAN was fucceeded in the 
 prince's favour by a young courtier, very little 
 known for genius or abilities ; this was baron 
 de Colbe, afterwards count de Wartemberg. 
 
 He
 
 He was not indeed poflefled of thofe fhining 
 virtues, which command the admiration of the 
 public j but he was matter of the art profefled 
 at court, which is that of attendance and flat- 
 tery, or rather of fervile mcannefs. Thus he 
 entered blindly into his mailer's views, from a 
 conviction, that to render himfelf fubfervient 
 to the gratifying of his prince's pafiion, was 
 the way to make his own fortune. 
 
 COL BE was not fo ignorant, as not to fee 
 lhat he wanted an able perfon to aifift him 
 in his new employment. D'llgen, who was 
 clerk in the fecretary of State's office for fo- 
 reign affairs, gained his confidence, and di- 
 redted him with fo much prudence, that Colbe 
 was declared prime minifter, and obtained the 
 department of foreign affairs. 
 
 FREDERICK III. was flattered only with 
 the externals of royalty, with the pomp of 
 fcenery, and with a kind of irregular felf-love, 
 which takes a pleafure in making- others fenfi- 
 ble of their inferiority. But that which was 
 the effect of a childifli vanity, turned out af- 
 ter wards a mafter- piece of politics : for the re- 
 gal dignity refcued the houfe of Brandenburg 
 from that ftate of fervitude, in which the houfe 
 of Auflria had hitherto kept the princes of Ger- 
 many*
 
 many. It was a kind of bait, which Frederick 
 flung before all his ppfterity, by which he 
 feemed to fay to them, 
 
 " I have procured you a title, {hew your- 
 felves worthy of it} I have laid the foundation 
 of your grandeur, it is your bufinefs to raife 
 the fuperftruaure." 
 
 FREDERICK III. was obliged to put every 
 fpring of politics in motion, and to exhauft the 
 whole art of intriguing to bring his project to 
 bear. But firft of all, it was neceflary to 
 make fure of the emperor's good difpofitions, 
 as the approbation of that prince was likely to 
 draw after it the fufFrages of the whole Ger- 
 manic body. In order therefore to determine 
 him in his favour, the elector reftored to him 
 the circle of Swibus, and was fatisfied with the 
 expectancy of the principality of Eaft-Frife- 
 Jand, and the barony cf Limburg, to which 
 the electoral family had otherwife uncontefted 
 rights. From the fame principles the troops 
 of Brandenburg ferved in the Imperial armies 
 in Flanders, on the Rhine, and in Hungary; 
 tho* the elector had neither dire&ly nor indi- 
 rectly, any intereft in thofe wars, and it 
 would have been far more advantageous to him 
 to have obfcrved an exact neutrality. 
 
 WHILE
 
 WHILE Europe was thus torn with bloody 
 wars, the elector, after his father's example, 
 reconciled in 1695, the dukes of Mecklen- 
 burg, Schwerin, and de Strelitz, who were 
 quarrelling about the fucceffion. The uni- 
 verfity of Halle was founded in 1696. He 
 built thofe beautiful fluices on the Salle, which 
 facilitate the trade and exportation of fait } 
 and, in 1697, he received that extraordinary 
 embafly, in the retinue of which the Czar 
 Peter Alexiowitz was himfelf in perfon. 
 
 THIS young prince difcovered, merely by 
 the Arength of his own genius, that he him- 
 felf was a barbarian, and his people favages. 
 He had now quitted his dominions for the firft 
 time, excited by the noble ambition of getting 
 inftruclion, and of carrying back to his fub- 
 jecls the light of reafon, and the ufe of in- 
 dultry, which the]/ wanted. Nature had 
 formed him to be a great man, but the want 
 of education had left him a favage. Hence it 
 came, that there was fuch a ftrange mixture 
 in his conduct ; actions really great, with ri- 
 diculous Angularities ; witty repartees, with 
 brutifh manners ; noble and ufeful defigns, with 
 inftances of the moft cruel revenge He com- 
 plained himfelf, that he had contrived to civi- 
 lize
 
 f '64 ) 
 
 Fize his nation, and yet he could not fubdue- 
 his own ferocity. In point of morals, he was 
 an odd phemonenon, that infpired admiration 
 and terror. To his fubjeds he was like a 
 ftorm, whofe fury beats down fleeples- and 
 trees, while it refrefhes the country with fruit- 
 ful rain. From Berlin he fet out for Holland, 
 and from Holland he pafied over to England. 
 
 EUROPE was now difpofcd for a general 
 peace. The allies were difcouraged with the 
 bad fuccefs of their arms ; and Lewis XIV. 
 feeing Charles II. king of Spain, in a declining 
 flate of health, and of a conftitution that could 
 not hold out much Icnger, liitened to propo- 
 fals of accommodation.. Tho' herefloied his 
 conquefls, almoft without any manner of re- 
 ftriction, yet he facrificed only tranfient ad- 
 vantages to more important views. He wanted 
 the conveniency and fweets of peace, to pre- 
 pare himfelf for a new war, which was likely 
 to be of the utmoft confequence to the houfe 
 of Bourbon. The peace was concluded at 
 Ryfwick, and ; the elector, who was concerned 1 
 in this war only out of complaifance, reaped 
 no benefit from it. 
 
 IN the North, Auguflus, elector of Saxony, 
 was eledted king of Poland in 1698, where 
 
 the
 
 <he intrigues of Flemming, his minifter and 
 general, prevailed over the treafures diftributed 
 by prince Conti. The new king of Poland 
 cxhaufted himfelf by his extravagant expences, 
 which obliged him to fell the advowfon of the 
 abby of Quedlinburg, and of Peterfberg at 
 Halle, in 1699, to Frederick III. 
 
 THE elector made a proper ufe of the trou- 
 bles of Poland, and took poflcffion of Elbing, 
 as an indemnity for a fum of money due to 
 him by the Poles. An accommodation was 
 agreed upon, by which the Poles left a crown, 
 and fome Ruffian jewels with him in pledge. 
 Upon which the elector evacuated the town, 
 and kept pofleflion of the territory of Elbing, 
 with the confent of the republic. 
 
 IT was not long before the tranquillity of 
 Europe was difturbed again in the beginning of 
 this century, on account of the fucceffion of 
 Charles II. king of Spain, which upon this 
 prince's deccafe was difputed by the houfes of 
 Bourbon and Auftria. 
 
 ATTEMPTS had been made to prevent the 
 bloody wars, which were likely to be occa- 
 fioned by this fucccflion. Lewis XIV. had 
 agreed with the maritime powers to a treaty 
 of partition. Other meafures were afterwards 
 
 taken,
 
 C 166) 
 
 taken, but fate had decreed, that every en- 
 deavour of that kind fhould prove ineffectual. 
 The young prince of Bavaria, who was de- 
 figned for the throne of Spain, died even be- 
 fore Charles II. 
 
 THE emperor, moreover, protefted againft 
 this partition. This prince maintained the 
 indivifibility of the Spanifh monarchy, pretend- 
 ing, that as they were of the fame houfe, divided 
 into two branches, they had a right to fucceed 
 to each other, that of Spain to that of Auftria, 
 arxl alternately. The emperor Leopold 
 and Lewis XIV. were in the fame degree of 
 kindred, both grandfons of Philip III. and both 
 married to the daughters of Philip IV. But the 
 right of feniority was in the houfe of Bourbon, 
 and Lewis XIV. founded his pretenfions chiefly 
 on that famous will of Charles II. which car- 
 dinal Portocarrero, his confeflbr, made him 
 fign with a trembling hand, as he was ready 
 to expire. This will charged the face of all 
 Europe. 
 
 LEWIS XIV. refigned his rights to his 
 grandfon, Philip of Anjou, expecting to re- 
 move by the nomination of this prince, who 
 was fo diftant from the crown of France, the 
 difficulties and cbftacles which the jea- 
 
 loufy
 
 ( 1 67 ) 
 
 loufy of Europe might raife againft his gran- 
 deur. Philip fet out for Spain, and was ac- 
 knowledged king by all Europe, except the 
 emperor Jofeph. 
 
 AT the commencement of this war, France 
 was at her higheft pitch of grandeur. She 
 had been victorious over all her enemies j and 
 the peace of Ryfwick was a late inftance of 
 her" moderation. Lewis XIV. difplayed his 
 fplendor and magnificence throughout the uni- 
 verfe j he was every where feared and refpected. 
 France was then like a wreftler, prepared for 
 combat, that entered into the lifts where no 
 adverfary appeared. No military preparation 
 was omitted upon this occafion, and the ar- 
 maments by fea and land were equally nume- 
 rous. This monarchy, in her greateft efforts, 
 maintained an army of four hundred thoufand 
 men ; but her great generals were dead, and 
 (before the merit of Villars was known) France 
 was found to have 800,0000 arms without a 
 head. So true it is, that the fate of ftates de- 
 pend very often upon a Jingle man. 
 
 THE houfe of Auftria, almoft exhaufted by 
 continual wars, was far from being in fo ).. p- 
 py a fituation. Her government was in a weak 
 
 and
 
 ( 168 ) 
 
 and languiflaing condition ; and tho' joined t& 
 the Germanic body, yet fhe was incapable of 
 doing any thing without the affiftance of the 
 Dutch and the Englifh. But with lefs fup- 
 plies and troops than France, {he had prince 
 Eugene of Savoy at the head of her armies. 
 
 KING William, who governed England 
 and Holland, was in the utmoft degree of fur- 
 prize upon receiving this news, fo that .he 
 acknowledged the duke of Anjou as king of 
 Spain thro' a kind of precipitation. But when 
 he had time to reflecT: and recover his natural 
 flegm, he declared for the houfe Auftria, be- 
 caufe the Englifh would have ' it fo, and his 
 own intereft feemed to demand it. 
 
 THE north itfelf was plunged at this time 
 fnto a war, which Charles XII. was carrying 
 on in Denmark. Charles's youth had em- 
 boldened his neighbours to attack him, but 
 they found a prince in whom were joined the 
 moft impetuous courage and the moft impla- 
 cable revenge. 
 
 FREDERICK III. who was then at peace, 
 was drawn into the grand alliance againft 
 Lewis XIV. which was animated by king 
 William ; from the expectation of paving the 
 way to the regal dignity by this fervice, ar;l 
 
 with
 
 with a view of maintaining by fubfidies a nu- 
 merous body of troops, and that this foreign 
 money might fupport him with more eafe in his 
 prodigality and magnificence. 
 
 IT is difficult to conceive how great and 
 generous fouls can ftoop fo low as to receive 
 alms from their equals. "Vain were the at- 
 tempts of France to draw the eleclor off from 
 this alliance,; he was inticed to it by fubfidies, 
 by inclination, and by his expectations. 
 
 IT was in this conjuncture, that the treaty 
 of coronation was negotiated at Vienna, by 
 which the emperor engaged to acknowledge 
 Frederick III. king of Prufila, on condition 
 that he fhould furnifh a body of 10,000 men 
 to the allies during the whole courfe of the 
 war, that he mould maintain a company in 
 garifon at Philipfburg, that he fhould join 
 with the emperor in all affairs relating to the 
 empire, that his royal dignity fhould make no 
 alteration with regard to his German territo- 
 ries, that he fhould relinquish the fubfidy due 
 to him by the houfe Auftria, and that he 
 fhould promife to give his vote for the elec- 
 tion of the male children of the emperor Jo- 
 feph, " unlcfs there mould be very weighty 
 H and
 
 ( 170 ) 
 
 and important reafons that would oblige him 
 to chufe an emperor of another family." 
 THIS treaty was figned and ratified. 
 Rome cried out, and Warfaw was filent. 
 The Teutonic order protefted againfl this adr, 
 and even prefumed to reclaim Pruflia ; but 
 the king of England, who wanted only allies 
 to join with him againft France, was ready 
 to purchafe them at any price. As he flood 
 in need of the elector's aflirlance in the grand 
 alliance, he was one of the firft that acknow- 
 ledged his new dignity. King Auguftus, 
 who was bufy in fecuring his own crown, fub- 
 fcribed to it alfo. The king of Denmark, 
 who only dreaded and envied Sweden, made 
 no difficulty to join with the reft. Charles XII 
 being engaged in a difficult war, did not 
 think it worth while to enter into a difpute 
 about a title which might increafe the number 
 of his enemies j and the empire, as it was 
 iorefeen, was drawn in by the emperor. 
 Thus ended this great affair, which had met 
 with fuch oppofition from the elector's council, 
 .from foreign courts, from friends as well as 
 oes j an affair which requiring a complication 
 x>i luch extraordinary circumfiances to make it 
 
 fucceed,
 
 ( '7' ) 
 
 fucceed, had been treated as a chimera, but of 
 which the public now conceived a far different 
 opinion. When prince Eugene heaid the 
 news, he faid that the emperor ought to hang 
 thofe minilters who had given htm fo treache- 
 rous a counfel. 
 
 THE ceremony of the coronation was per- 
 formed the year following, which was 170 r^ 
 The king, whom we fhall henceforward call 
 Frederick I. went to Pruifia, and at the cere- 
 mony of the confecration, it was obferved, 
 that he put the crown himielf on his head. 
 In memory of this event, he created the order 
 of the knights of the black eagle. 
 
 THE public, notwithstanding, could not di- 
 ved themfelvesof the prejudice they had con- 
 ceived againft this royalty. The common fenfe 
 of the vulgar would have been glad to fee an 
 augmentation of power, as well as of dignity, 
 Even thofe who were above the vulgar, 
 thought in the fame manner ; and the eleclrefs 
 was heard to fay to one of her ladies in wait- 
 ing, " that it vexed her to the very heart to 
 go and a<5l in Pruflia the theatrical queen along 
 with her Efop." She wrote alfo to Leibnitz, 
 < { Do not imagine that I prefer this pageantry 
 and pomp of crowns, which are here fo much 
 H 2 efteemed,
 
 ( '72 ) 
 
 fifteemed, to the charms of the philofophical 
 -entertainments we enjoyed at Charlotten- 
 iiurg." 
 
 AT the preffing felicitations of this princefs, 
 a royal academy of fcicnces was creeled at 
 Berlin, of which Leibnitz was the founder 
 .and chief. Frederick I. was perfwaded that 
 it fuited his dignity to maintain an aca- 
 demy, as a young gentleman is made to be- 
 lieve, that it becomes his quality to keep a 
 pack of hounds. We intend to treat more 
 at large of this academy in its proper place. 
 
 AFTER the coronation the king indulged his 
 inclination for ceremony and magnificence, 
 without any manner of bounds. At his re- 
 turn from Pruffia, he made a magnificent 
 entry into Berlin. 
 
 DURING the dtverfion of thefe feafts and 
 folemnities, news came that Charles XII. that 
 Alexander of the north, who in every refpect 
 would have refembled the king of Macedon, 
 if he had been as fuccesful, had gained a 
 aompleat victory over the Saxons in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Riga. The king of Denmark, 
 33 we have already obferved, and the Czar, 
 had attacked this young heroe, one in Nor- 
 way, and die other in Livonia. Charles XII. 
 
 obliged
 
 C 173) 
 
 obliged the Danifli monarch in his own capital 
 to conclude a peace j from thence he pafied 
 with 8,000 Swedes into Livonia, defeated 
 80,000 Ruffians in the neighbourhood of Nar~ 
 va, and beat 30,000 Saxons at the paflage of 
 the Dwina. 
 
 THE Saxons in their flight, drew near the 
 frontiers of Pruffia. Frederick I. was fo much 
 the more uneafy at this, as the greateft part 
 of his troops were in the imperial armies, and 
 the war was (hifting towards his new king- 
 dom. Neverthelefs, Charles XII. out of 
 regard to the interceflions of the emperor, 
 England, and Holland, agreed to a neutrality 
 for Pruffia. 
 
 THIS year 1702 was famous for the 
 triumphs of the king of Sweden ; he difpofed of 
 Poland like a fovereign, his negotiations were 
 rders, and his battles victories ; but as glo- 
 rious as thefe victories were, flill they wailed 
 the conquerors, and obliged the young heroe 
 very often to recruit his armies. A body of 
 Swedifli treops landed in Pomerania, at which 
 Berlin was alarmed ; thefe marched notwith- 
 ftanding through the electorate, and ar- 
 rived in Poland the place of their deftination. 
 
 FREDERICK I. raifed 8000 men new troops. 
 
 Inftead of employing them for the fecurity of 
 
 H 3 hi
 
 ( 174 ) 
 
 his own dominions, he fent them to the 
 allied army in Flanders. He went himfelf 
 to the dutchy of Cleves, to demand the in- 
 heritance of William king of England, who 
 was fucceeded in the throne by Anne, the 
 fecond daughter of king James. 
 
 THE rights of Frederick I. were founded 
 on the will of Frederick Henry prince of 
 Orange, who had fettled his eftate, in failure 
 of male ifiue, on his daughter, who was mar- 
 ried to the great elector. King William made 
 quite another will in favour of the Frifiaa 
 prince of Naffaw, and appointed the States 
 General his executors. This inheritance con- 
 fifted of the principality of Orange, Moeurs, 
 and feveral lordihips and eftates fituated in 
 Holland and Zealand. 
 
 FREDERICK I. threatned to withdraw his 
 troops from Flanders, if he did not receive 
 fatisfadlion. This menace convinced the 
 Dutch of the legality of his rights. They con- 
 trived, neverthelefs, a provifional agreement, 
 which divided the inheritance into two equal 
 (hares. A large diamond was immediately 
 fent to Frederick I. and he confented to let 
 his troops continue in Flanders. Lewis XIV. 
 put the prince of Conti in pofleflion of the 
 
 principa-
 
 ( 175 ) 
 
 principality of Orange, a proceeding whicfr - 
 fo greatly offended the king, that he increafed 
 his army, and even hired fome troops ot 
 Gotha and Wolfenbuttle. He declared foon 
 after war againft France, becaufe Bouffler's 
 army had committed fome excefies in the 
 country of Cleves. Lewis XIV. did not feel 
 in this ftep a new enemy ; while the new king 
 did a great deal for his pafiion, but nothing 
 for his intereft. He fhewed his averfon to 
 France upon all occafions, even fo as to oblige 
 duke Antony Ulrick of Wolfenbuttle to re- 
 nounce the engagements he had contracted with 
 Lewis XIV. after the duke, of Hanover and 
 Zcll had difperfed the troops which he main- 
 tained by the help of French fubfidies. 
 
 AT that time, viz. in 1703. England ex- 
 erted herfelf greatly in favour of the houfe of 
 Auftria. Her fleets convoyed . the arch-duke 
 Charles, who was afterwards emperor, to a 
 kingdom, which an Englifh army was to help 
 him to conquer. The enthufiafm of Europe 
 in favour of the* houfe of Auftria can hardly be 
 defcribed. 
 
 IN this war for the Spanifh fucceffion, the 
 
 Pruflian troops maintained the reputation 
 
 wbjch they had acquired under the great elec- 
 
 H 4 tor.
 
 tor. On the Rhine they took Keyferfwerth 
 hi Germany j and at the action of Hochftet, 
 where Villars furprized and beat Stirheim, the 
 prince of Anhalt made a fine retreat with 8oco 
 Pruffians under his command. I have been 
 told, that as foon as he perceived the confufion 
 and fright of the Auftrians, he formed his 
 troops into a fquare, and traverfed a large plain 
 in very good order till he came to a wood, 
 which he reached towards night j and all this 
 while the French cavalry never durft attack 
 him. 
 
 THE fuccefs cf the Prufllan troops on th 
 Rhine, and their good conducl in Suabia, did 
 not fecure Frederick I. againft the apprehen- 
 fion he was under from the neighbourhood of 
 the Swedes, whom at that time nothing could 
 withftand. The genius of Peter I. and the 
 magnificence of Auguftus, were of no force 
 againft the fortune of Charles XII. This 
 heroe was at the fame time more valiant than 
 the Czar, and more vigilant than the king of 
 Poland. Peter preferred ftratagem to bravery, 
 Auguftus pleafure to toils, and Charles the 
 love of glory to the pofleffion of the uni- 
 verfe. The Saxons were often furprized or 
 beaten, the Ruffians had leanrt the art of re-
 
 C 177) 
 
 treating at their own expence ; for the 
 war at that time was only a continual fe- 
 ries of incurfions, the Swedifh armies being 
 always the aflailants, and always victorious. 
 But Charles XII. whofe inflexible obftinacy 
 never in the leaft gave way, could execute no 
 project, but by main force : he fubdued, as- 
 it were, fortune as well as his enemies. The 
 Czar and the king of Poland, fupplied this en- 
 thufiaftic valour by cabinet intrigues, they 
 awakened the jealoufy of Europe, and ftirred 
 up the envy of every power againft the fuc- 
 cefles of an ambitious young prince, who was- 
 implacable in his hatred, and knew not how 
 to be revenged of the kings his enemies bu8 
 by dethroning them. 
 
 THESE intrigues did not hinder Frederick I. 
 who had no troops then at hand, from con- 
 cluding a defenfive alliance with Charles XII. 
 who had a victorious army in the neighbour- 
 hood. Frederick I. and Staniflaus acknow- 
 ledged each] other's regal dignity ; but th 
 treaty lafted no longer than fortune continued 
 to favour the king of Sweden. 
 
 NOTWITHSTANDING this alliance the king 
 
 provided all the fortified towns in Pruffia with 
 
 fufficient garrifons in 1703, and the year fol- 
 
 " H 5 lowing
 
 lowing he fent frefh fuccours to the allied 
 army in Suabia. The Pruffians had a confi- 
 derable {hare in gaining the famous battle of 
 Hochftedt ; they were in the right wing under 
 the'orders of the prince of Anhalt, and in that 
 body of the army which was commanded by 
 prince Eugene. At the firft onfet the impe- 
 rial horfe and foot gave way to the French 
 and Bavarians, but the Pruffians flood the 
 fhock, and broke thro' the enemy. Prince 
 Eugene being greatly vexed at the bad con- 
 duel of the Auftrians, came and put himfelf 
 at the head of the Pruffian troops, faying that 
 ha wanted to fight with brave fellows, and 
 not with poltroons. Every one knows that 
 my lord Marlborough took a confiderable body 
 of the French army both horfe and foot, pri- 
 foners at the village of Blenheim, and that 
 the lofs of this battle made the French lofe 
 Bavaria and Suabia. 
 
 AFTER terminating this glorious campaign, 
 my lord Marlborough repaired to Berlin, to 
 perfwade Frederick I. to fend a body of troops 
 into Italy. This Engliihman, who had 
 formed a judgment of the projects of 
 Charles XII. by feeing a map laid out oa 
 his table* foon difcovered the chara&er of 
 
 Frederick
 
 C 179 ) 
 
 Frederick I. by cafting an eye on his court. 
 He was full of fubmifllon and cringing 
 before this prince, flattering upon every oc- 
 cafion his vanity, and even prefling to hold 
 the ewer to him, as he rofe from table. Fre- 
 derick could not withftand him, and granted 
 to the artful flattery of the courtier, what he 
 would have refufed, perhaps, to the merit of 
 the great general, and to the capacity of the 
 profound politician. The prince of Anhalt 
 was ordered therefore to march into Italy at 
 the head of 8,000 men. 
 
 THE death of the queen Sophia Charlotte 
 in 1705, put the court into mourning. She 
 was a princefs of fingular merit, in whom 
 were joined all the charms of her fex, with 
 the graces of wit and the folidity of reafon. 
 In her younger days {he had travelled into 
 Italy and France, under the care of her re- 
 lations. She was defigned for the crown of 
 France* Lewis XIV. having been ftruck with 
 her beauty j but political reafons defeated this 
 marriage. This princefs brought along with 
 her the fpirit of fociability, true politenefs, and 
 the love of arts and fciences into Prufiia. She 
 founded, as I have already obferved, the royal 
 academy. She invited Leibnitz, and feveral 
 H 6 ether
 
 other learned men to her court ; her curiofity 
 leading her to difcover the fir ft principles of 
 things. One day, as fhe preffed Leibnitz very 
 hard upon this fubjedr, this philofopher re- 
 plied to her ; <c Madam, there is no poffibility 
 of fatisfying you : you want to know the why 
 and the wherefore." Charlottenburg was the 
 rendezvous of people of tafte ; and the great 
 variety of diverfions and entertainments con- 
 tributed to render this abode delightful, and 
 the court moft fplendid. 
 
 SOPHIA CHARLOTTE had a great and 
 noble foul j her religion was pure, her temper 
 fvveet, and her mind was improved with the 
 reading of good books both in French and 
 Italian. She died at Hanover among her own 
 relations. They wanted to introduce a Cal- 
 vinift minifter into her apartment j but fhe 
 faid to them ; " let me die in peace, without 
 difputing." Upon this occafion one of the ladies 
 of honour, whom fhe was very fond of, was 
 diflblved in tears. " Do not cry for me, fays 
 fhe, for I am going now to fatisfy my curiofity 
 on the principles of things, which Leibnitz 
 could not explain to me, on fpace, infinity, 
 on being, on nothing ; and I am preparing for 
 the king my hulband the fhew of my funeral, 
 
 where
 
 where he will have another opportunity to 
 difplay his magnificence." She recommended, 
 upon her death bed, the learned whom (he 
 had taken under her pn*eclion, and the arts 
 which {he had cultivated, to the elector her 
 brother. Frederick I. comforted himfelf with 
 the ceremony of a funeral pomp, for the lofs 
 of a wife, whofe death could never be too 
 much lamented. 
 
 IN Italy the war was refumed in 1706 with 
 greater fury. The Pruflians, who were fent 
 thither at the inftances of my lord Marl- 
 borough, were beaten at Cafano under prince 
 Eugene ; and at Calcinate where general 
 Rcventlau, who commanded them, was fur- 
 prized by the grand prior. 
 
 PRINCE Eugene was not invincible, 
 but he always (hewed himfelf the great 
 general in retrieving his lofles ; and the 
 difgrace of Cafano was foon wiped off by gain- 
 ing the famous battle of Turin, in which the 
 Prtfiians had the greateft fhare. Tho' the 
 duke of Orleans propofed to the French to 
 march out of their intrenchments, yet his ad- 
 vice was not followed. Feuillade and Mar- 
 fien had exprefs orders from court, as it is 
 pofitively affirmed, not to venture a battle. 
 4 The
 
 The defeat of Hochftet feemed to have ren- 
 dered the council of Lewis XIV. more cau- 
 tious. 
 
 THE French, who would have had double 
 the advantage of the allies, if they had attack- 
 ed them out of their intrenchments, were in- 
 ferior to them every where, becaufe the dif- 
 ferent quarters which they had to defend, 
 were of a great extent, and feparated be- 
 fides from each other. 
 
 THE Pruffians, who were in the left wing 
 of the allied army, attacked the right of the 
 French intrenchment which extended towards 
 the Doria. The prince of Anhalt was now on 
 the border of the ditch, and the refiftance 
 made by the enemy had Slackened the vigour 
 of his attack, when three grenadiers flid along 
 the Doria, and came round the French in- 
 trenchment, at a place where it was not fe- 
 cured by this river. Immediately the alarm 
 flew thro' the French a^my, that they were 
 cut off; upon which they deferied their ports 
 and fled, and at the fame time the prince of 
 Anhalt fcaled the intrenchment, and gained 
 the battle. Prince Eugene complimented the 
 king upon the behaviour of his troop^, a com- 
 siendation that muft have been fo much the 
 
 more
 
 more agreeable to him, as it came from a 
 prince who was fo compleat a judge of mili- 
 tary merit. 
 
 DURING this war, Frederick I. madefome 
 pacific acquifitions. He purchafed the county 
 of Tecklenburg in Weftphalia of the count 
 of Solms Braunsfield ; and upon the deceafe 
 of the dutchefs of Nemours, who was in pof- 
 feflion of the principality of Neufchatel, the 
 council of ftate belonging to that principality 
 took the regency into their own hands, and 
 chofe fome of their members judges, to de- 
 termine the pretenfions formed by the king 
 of Pruffia on the one hand, and by the feveral 
 relations of the houfe of Longueville on the 
 other. Their decifion was in favour of the 
 king, who was faid to have the beft right as 
 heir of the houfe of Orange. Lewis XIV. 
 uppofed this fentence, but he had fuch great 
 interefts of his own to difcufs as would not 
 permit him to attend at that time to thefe tri- 
 fling difputes, and the fovereignty of Neufcha- 
 tel was fecured to the royal family by the 
 treaty of Utrecht. 
 
 CHARLES XII. was now arrived to his 
 higheft pitch of profperity. He had dethroned 
 Augullus king of Poland, and prefcribed mofi 
 
 fevere
 
 fevere conditions of peace to him at Alt-Ran- 
 ftadt in the middle of Saxony. The king 
 wanting this prince to quit Saxony, fent his 
 great marfhaj Printz to defire him not to difturb 
 the tranquillity of Germany by continuing 
 there with his troops. 
 
 CHARLES XII. who was difpofed of his 
 own accord to quit the territories of a prince 
 whom he had reduced to defpair, in order to 
 play the fame game with the Czar at Mofcow, 
 took it amifs that Printz fhould make him 
 fuch a propofal, and fneering, afked him, 
 ** Whether the Pruflian troops were as good 
 as thofe of Brandenburg ?" " Yes, Sire, re- 
 plied the envoy, they are the remains of thofe 
 veterans that were at Fehrbellin." As 
 Charles XII. patted thro* Silefia, he obliged the 
 emperor to reftore 125 churches to the protef- 
 taats of that dutchy* The Pope complained 
 of this conceflion, and diJ not even fpare his 
 cenfures. Jofeph anfwered, that if the king 
 of Sweden had propofed to him to become a 
 Lutheran himfelf, he did not know what might 
 have happened. 
 
 THOSE very Swedes, who at that time, war. 
 in 1708, were the terror of the North, con- 
 curred with the Pruffians and Hanoverians in
 
 re-eftablifhing the tranquillity of the city of 
 Hamburg which had beendifturbed by a po- 
 pular infurre&ion. Frederick I. fent 4000 
 men to fupport the prerogatives of the magt- 
 ftrates. He had fome difference with the city 
 cf" Cologne, becaufe the mob had broke into 
 the houfe of the Pruflian refident, who kept a 
 proteftant chapel. The king ordered the mer- 
 chandizes of Cologne to be flopped, which 
 palled by Wefel, in their way down the Rhine,, 
 and threatened to fupprefi the public worfhip of 
 the Roman Catholic religion in his dominions, 
 in the fame manner as had been pra&ifed, when 
 the Elector Palatine perfecuted the proteftants 
 in the Palatinate. The fear of thefe reprifaU 
 reduced the city of Cologne to their duty, and 
 made them fenfible, that toleration is a virtue, 
 which it is fometimes dangerous to violate. 
 
 THE court of Frederick I. was full of in- 
 trigues. This prince was like a tempeftuous 
 fea, driving different ways according to the 
 different winds ; but in the midft of all thefe 
 ftorms, which were raifed by the paffions of 
 courtiers, D'llgen ftill continued to direct the 
 helm of government with a fure and fteady 
 hand. The king's favourites were men of 
 littfe or no genius j their intrigues and artifices 
 
 were
 
 ( '86 ) 
 
 were of too coarfc a nature to efcape the pub- 
 lic eye j even the prince royal could not dif- 
 femble the difpleafure he conceived at their 
 conduct. Thefe marks of his difafFeciion fet 
 them upon fupporting their credit wi'ha new 
 prop; for which reafon they perfuaded the king 
 to marry, tho' he was very infirm, living 
 only by art, and of fo crazy a confHtution, as 
 to be hardly able to draw the little breath it ill 
 left in his body. .They chofe a princefs of 
 Meclenburg-Schwerin for him, named Sophia- 
 Louifa, whofe age, way of thinking, and in- 
 clinations, did not agree with the king's. In 
 fad!:, he had no fatisfa&ion with her, but in 
 the ceremony of the nuptials ; the remainder 
 of their time was very unfortunate. 
 
 FREDERICK I. fiill continued to receive 
 favourable accounts of his troops ; they figna- 
 lized themfelves as much in Flanders as in 
 Italy, and behaved moft gallantly under the 
 command of the count of Lothum, at the bat- 
 tle of Oudenarde, and at the fiege of Lifle. 
 
 FORTUNE was tired at length with pro- 
 tecting the caprices of Charles XII. He had 
 enjoyed an uninterrupted feries of fuccefs for 
 nine years*, viz. till 1709; but the laft nine 
 years of his life were a continual fcene of ad- 
 
 verfity.
 
 veiT'ty. He was now returned vi&orious to 
 Poland with a numerous army, loaded with 
 the treafures and fpoils of the Saxons. 
 
 LEIPSICK was the Capua of the Swedes: 
 whether it was, that the pleafures of Saxony 
 had foftened the ferocity of thofe conquerors, 
 or profperity had rendered this prince too 
 prcfumptuous, and pufhed him too far ; for- 
 tune intirely forfook him. He wanted to dif- 
 pofe of Ruflia, in the fame manner as of Po- 
 land, and to dethrone the Czar, as he had done 
 Auguftus. With this view he marched to- 
 wards the frontiers of Mufcovy, to which 
 there were two different roads j one through 
 Livonia, where he might have received fuc- 
 cours from Sweden, and by which he might 
 have advanced to the new town, which the 
 czar was building at that time upon the bor- 
 ders of the Baltic, and by that means have utter- 
 ly cut off the connexion then projected between 
 Ruflia and Europe. The other road was thro' 
 the Uckraine, and led to Mofcow by impracti- 
 cable defcrts. Charles determined upon the laft, 
 either becaufe he had heard it faid, that the 
 Romans could never be conquered but at 
 Rome, or the difficulty of the enterprize in- 
 flamed his courage, or that he depended upon 
 
 Mazzeppa,
 
 f *88 ) 
 
 Mazzeppa, prince of the CofTacks, who had 
 promifed to furnifh his army with provifions, 
 and to join him with a confiderable number of 
 bis people. The Czar having received intelli- 
 gence of this CofTack's intrigue?, difperfed the 
 few troops which Mazzeppa had collected, and 
 made himfelf matter of the magazines - Y fo that 
 when the king of Sweden came before the little 
 town of Pultawa, he found nothing but fright- 
 ful defarts inftead of magazines, and a fugi- 
 tive prince, who came to feek for flicker in 
 his camp, inftead of a powerful ally, from 
 whom he expe&ed fuccours. 
 
 CHARLES was no way daunted at this dif- 
 appointment* He laid fiege to Puluwa, as if 
 he wanted nothing ; and he, who till now had 
 been invulnerable, was wounded in the leg, as 
 be was reconnoitring this paltry town too near. 
 General Lewenhaupt, who was marching to 
 him with provifions, ammunition, and a rein- 
 forcement of thirteen thoufand men, was de- 
 feated by the Czar in three different engage- 
 ments ; and being forced in this neceffitous 
 conjuncture to burn the waggons under his 
 care, he arrived in the king's camp with only 
 three thoufand men, who were quite exhaufted 
 with fatigue.
 
 ( '89 ) 
 
 THE Czar foon drew near to Pultawa, and 
 in this plain was fought that famous battle be- 
 tween the two moft extraordinary men of their 
 age. 
 
 CHARLES, who hitherto, like' the arbiter 
 of fate, had met with nothing that could with- 
 ftand his will, did every thing that could be 
 expected from a prince who was wounded, and 
 carried about in a litter. Peter Alexiowitz, 
 who till now had appeared only as a legiflator, 
 gave proofs on that memorable day of his being 
 poflefled of all the qualifications of a great ge- 
 neral j and indeed he out-did himfelf. But 
 every thing proved unlucky to the Swedes ; 
 the wounding of their king, which hindered 
 him in great meafurc from ailing ; the mifery 
 and want of h : s foldiers, which deprived them 
 of ftrength and heart to fight ; the abfence of 
 a large detachment of troops, which loft its 
 way the very day of this decifive engagement ; 
 the numbers of their enemies, and the time 
 they had to erect redoubts, and to difpofe 
 their troops to advantage. In fhort, the 
 Swedes were beaten, and loft, by one decifive and 
 unlucky engagement, the fruits of nine years 
 labour, and of fo many prodigies of valour. 
 
 CHARLES
 
 CHARLES was obliged to fly for (belter 
 among the Turks : his implacable animofity 
 againft his enemies followed him to Bender, 
 where he endeavoured in vain, by his intrigues, 
 to ftir up the Porte againft the Mufcovites. 
 Thus he fell the vi&im of his inflexibility of 
 mind, which would have been called obftinacy, 
 if he had not been an heroe. After this defeat, 
 the Swedifh army laid down their arms to the 
 Czar on the banks of the Boryfthenes, as the 
 Ruflian army had done to Charles XII. on 
 the borders of the Baltic, after the battle of 
 Narva. 
 
 AUGUSTUS finding his antagonift over- 
 thrown, thought himfelf difcharged from the en- 
 gagement, which he had contracted at the treaty 
 of Alt-Ranftadt. He had a conference at Ber- 
 lin with the king of Denmark and Frederick I. 
 after which he entered Poland with an army, 
 and the king of Denmark attacked the Swedes 
 in Scania. Frederick I. whom thofe princes 
 could not draw into the alliance, remained 
 neuter. 
 
 IN Poland the Swedifh party changed fides, 
 and went over to the Saxons. Staniflaus was 
 with the Swedifh army commanded by Craf- 
 faw. This general, finding himfelf inclofed 
 
 bv
 
 "by the Ruffians and Saxons, crofTed the New 
 Marck, and arrived at Stettin, without leave 
 obtained from Frederick I. who was uneafy to 
 fee thofe marches, and fuch numerous armies 
 in his neighbourhood. 
 
 THE king took a journey to Konigfberg, 
 where he perfuaded the Czar, who came to 
 meet him, to reftore the young duke of Cour- 
 land, nephew of Frederick I. to his domi- 
 nions, on condition of his marrying the niece 
 of Peter Alexiowitz. 
 
 IN the South, France made propofals of 
 peace at the Hague ; but the fermentation of 
 minds was ftill too great, and the expectation 
 of both parties too vague and chimerical to 
 come to an agreement. If men were capable 
 of reafon, would they carry on fuch long, fuch 
 obftinate and expeniive wars, to return at laft 
 to conditions of peace, which teemed to them 
 intolerable, only while they were fwayed by 
 their patfions, or favoured with fortune's 
 fmiles. 
 
 THE allies opened the campaign with the 
 fiege of Tournay, and with the battle of Mal- 
 plaquet, where the prince royal was himfelf in 
 pcrfon. The count de Finck had a great 
 fhare in this victory j he was the firft that 
 
 forced
 
 forced the French intrenchments with the 
 Pruflian troops ; he formed his men upon the 
 parapet, and from thence he fupported the Im- 
 perial cavalry, who were repulfed three times 
 by the French, till more troops came 
 up and joined him, which determined the 
 fate of the day. 
 
 IN Pomerania, the Swedes made fome mo- 
 tions in 1710, as if they wanted to march 
 again into Saxony. The king was apprehen- 
 five, left the war fhould reach at tength 
 his own territories j and, to pacify the 
 troubles of the North, he took the right way 
 to encreafe them, by propofing an army of 
 neutrality, which was never aflembled. Craf- 
 faw agreed to a fufpenfion of arms. As foon 
 as Charles XII. heard of it, he protefted 
 from the extremity of Beflarabia againft any 
 neutrality whatfoever. This new treaty was 
 broke, and had the fate of all thofe public 
 a6b, which neceflity and weaknefs oblige 
 princes to agree to at one time ; and power, 
 encouraged by favourable conjunctures, tempts 
 them to break at another. 
 
 FRANCE renewed the negotiations of peace 
 at Gertrudenberg ; and, in the very beginning 
 of the conferences, engaged to acknowledge 
 
 the
 
 ( >93 ) 
 
 the royalty of Pruflia, and the fovereignty of 
 Neufchatel. Neverthelefs the peace once 
 more mifcarried, and the Pruffians were em- 
 ployed this campaign under the prince of An- 
 halt at the fiege of Aire and Doway, which 
 they took. The king declared at that time, 
 that he would not reftore the town of Gueldre, 
 where there was a Pruffian garrifon, till the 
 Spaniards paid him the fubfidies they owed 
 him. In fa<5t, he was left in poflefllonof it at 
 the general peace. 
 
 AT this time died the duke of Courland, the 
 king's nephew. The Ruffians made them- 
 felves mafters once more of Courland, and 
 took Elbing ; but as the king had prctenfions 
 to this town, it was garrifoned by a Pruflian 
 battalion. 
 
 THE paflage and neighbourhood of fo 
 many armies had brought the plague into Pruf- 
 fia ; and the dearth, which now began to be 
 very fenfibly felt, increafcd the fury and viru- 
 lence of that contagious diftemper. The 
 king abandoned thofe people to their unhappy 
 fate ; and, while his revenues and fubfidies 
 were incapable to fupport the magnificence of 
 his expences, he coolly faw above 200,000 
 miferable wretches perifh with hunger, whofe 
 I lives
 
 ( 194 ) 
 
 lives he might have preferred by a moderate li- 
 berality. 
 
 THE prince royal being mocked at this 
 cruelty, and knowing that the counts of Wit- 
 genftein * and Wartemberg were the caufe of 
 it, ufed every poffible endeavour to get them re- 
 moved. The court is fubjecl to florms, 
 and the prince's favour to perils. Witgenftein 
 was fent to Spandaw, and the king wept, 
 when he parted with the great chamberlain, 
 for whom he had a great affection. War- 
 temberg retired into the Palatinate with a pen- 
 fion of 20,000 crowns. 
 
 CHARGES XII. as we have already ob- 
 ferved, had refufed the neutrality. The Czar, 
 and the kings of Poland and Denmark, laid 
 hold of this pretext to attack him in Pomera- 
 nia, in 17 1 1. Frederick I. conftantly refufed 
 to enter into this alliance, being unwilling to 
 expofe his territories to the incurfions, ravages, 
 and hazards of war ; and befides, he hoped 
 his neutrality would enable him to reap fome 
 benefit from the disturbances of his neigh- 
 bours. 
 
 THE beginning of the operations in Pomer 
 rania were not favourable to the allies. The 
 * He was direftor of the finances. 
 
 Danes
 
 ( 195 ) 
 
 Danes raifed the fiege of Wifmar, and Au- 
 guftus thofe of Stralfund and Stettin. 
 
 WHILE Europe thus laboured with con- 
 vulfions, and the feveral contending powers 
 were inflamed with hope and ambition, the 
 emperor Jofeph died. The empire chofe the 
 archduke Charles in his place, who at that 
 time was blocked up in Barcelona, after hav- 
 ing been crowned at Madrid, and driven away 
 from thence by the lofs of the battle of Al- 
 manza. 
 
 THE death of the emperor Jofeph paved 
 the way for a general peace. The Englifh, 
 who were tired of the great expences they had 
 been at, began to reflect on the original intent 
 of the war. In proportion as the clouds of 
 their enthufiafm vaniflied, they perceived that 
 the houfe of Auftria would be powerful enough, 
 by retaining her hereditary dominions, the 
 kingdom of Naples, the Mihmefe, and Flan- 
 ders. They determined therefore to hold 
 conferences at Utrecht, in order to eftablifh a 
 general peace. 
 
 THE king being defirous of terminating 
 
 the differences relating to the fucceflion of 
 
 Orange by a definitive treaty, went in perfon 
 
 to the dutchy of Cleves, in order to regulate 
 
 I 2 this
 
 ( 196 ) 
 
 this affair with the prince of Friefland. But 
 this unhappy prince was drowned in thepafTage 
 of Mordyk, in his way to the Hague. On 
 the other hand, Frederick I. made another 
 acqujfition, by the extinction of the counts of 
 Mansfeldt. This country WES fequeftered be- 
 tween Pruffia and Saxony ; the Pruflian re- 
 gency was eftablifhed at Mansfeldt, and that 
 of Saxony at Eifleben. 
 
 THINGS drew now infenfibly towards a 
 peace. The conferences were held at Utrecht 
 in 1712 ; and ihe counts of Dohnhoff, Me- 
 ternich, and Biberftein repaired thither, as the 
 king's plenipotentiaries. 
 
 DURING the conferences a revolution hap- 
 pened in England, which Europe attributed 
 to marfhalTallard, who was then prifoner in 
 that country. Whether it was the effect of 
 the marfhal's policy, or only the work of ha- 
 zard, my lord Marlborough's party were 
 routed ; and the pacific part of the nation pre- 
 vailed. The duke of Ormond was fent to 
 command the Britifh troops in Flanders, where 
 he feparated from the allies at the beginning of 
 the campaign. Prince Eugene, tho' weakened 
 by the defertion of the Englifh, continued to 
 aft ofFenfively. The Pruflians, under the 
 
 prince
 
 ( 197 ) 
 
 prince of Anhalt, were employed in the fiege 
 of Landrecy. But Villars marched to Denain, 
 where he fell upon my lord Albemarle's camp, 
 and defeated him intirely, before prince Eu- 
 gene could come up to his afliftance. This 
 victory reftored Marchienne,Quefnoy,Doway, 
 and Bouchain, to the French. 
 
 THE allies followed the example of the 
 Englifli, and began to think ferioufly of a 
 peace. The emperor was the only prince that 
 would continue the war; whether the flownefs 
 of his council had not yet had time to come 
 to a determination, or that this prince thought ' 
 himfelf ftrong enough towithftand LewisXIV. 
 by himfelf. But his affairs only grew worfe. 
 
 THE king at that time furprized the Dutch 
 garrifon at Moeurs, and by pofleflion main- 
 tained his rights to that town. 
 
 BUT the pacific difpofitions of the South 
 had no influence on the North. The king of 
 Denmark entered the dutchy of Bremen, and 
 took Stade. The Czar, and the king of Po- 
 land, attempted a defcent upon the ifle of Ru- 
 gen, but weredifappointed by the good difpo- 
 fition made by the Swedes. The allies were 
 not more fuccefsful in the fiege of Stralfund,. 
 which they were obliged to raife ; for Stein- 
 I 3 bock
 
 ( 198 ) 
 
 bock had gained a vi&ory over the Saxons and 
 Danes at Gadebufch in the dutchy of Meck- 
 lenburg j and, upon the arrival of a Swedifti 
 reinforcement of 10,000 men in Pomerania, 
 this whole country was left a prey to the ene- 
 my. The Danes were obliged to abandon 
 Roftock, and to refign this city to the king's 
 troops, as director of the circle of Lower Sax- 
 ony j but the Swedes drove the Pruffians from 
 thence. The king's neutrality was no way 
 infringed, and he continued to negotiate, in 
 order to difpofe the minds of the contending 
 princes to fome reconciliation, and to" divert 
 the florm that threatened his own dominions. 
 
 IN the beginning of the year 1713, Fre- 
 derick I. died of a flow diforder, which had 
 been a long time bringing him to his end. He 
 tiid not live to fee the conclufion of the general 
 peace, nor tranquillity re-eftablimed in his 
 neighbourhood. He was thrice married ; the 
 firft time to a princefs of Hefle, by whom he 
 had a daughter, who was married to the here- 
 ditary prince of Hefle, now king of Sweden. 
 Hisfecond wife was Sophia- Charlotte of Hano- 
 ver, mother of Frederick- William, who fuc- 
 ceeded him j and his third wife, who was a 
 
 princefs
 
 (199) 
 
 princefs of Mecklenburg, he repudiated for 
 her madnefs. 
 
 WE have feen the feveral paflages of the 
 life of Frederick I. We are now only to take 
 a curfory view of his character. His mind 
 was flexible to every kind of impreffion, like a> 
 glafs that faithfully reprefents the different ob- 
 jects fet before it. He was violent by caprice, 
 and mild thro' indolence j confounding trifles 
 with grandeur ; fond of the fuperficial, but neg- 
 lectful of the folid ; and more bufy in the pur- 
 fuit of empty fhew, than of ufeful attainments. 
 He facrificed 30,000 of his fubjects in the em- 
 peror's wars, to attain to the regal dignity ; 
 and he afpired after this dignity only to indulge 
 his pride, and tojuftifyhis fumptuous diffipa- 
 tions under fpecious appearances. 
 
 HE was indeed magnificent and generous ; 
 but how bafe the purchafe, by which he ac- 
 quired the means of indulging his paffions ! He 
 bartered the blood of his people with the Eng- 
 lifh and Dutch for money j like the Tartars, 
 who fell their cattle to the butchers of Podolia 
 for (laughter. He was upon the point of re- 
 calling 15 ooo from Flanders, when the Dutch 
 fent him a large diamond, as part of the fuc- 
 ceflionofthe prince of Orange j upon which 
 I 4 the
 
 ( 200 ) 
 
 the troops of Brandenburg were permitted to 
 continue with the allies. 
 
 IF we afcend to the origin of things, in or- 
 der to have a juft idea of the generofity of a 
 prince, we {hall find, that as he is the firft 
 fervant of the ftate, he is accountable to it 
 lor the ufe to which he applies the public mo- 
 ney j that he ought to appropriate a certain 
 part of it to the fupport of his dignity, and the 
 remainder to reward the fervices and merit of 
 his fubje&s ; to enrich the flare by his libe- 
 rality j to maintain the equality of conditions ; 
 not to opprefs the poor, in order to fatten the 
 rich ; to relieve the public miferies with gene- 
 rofity j to affiil: the unfortunate of every kind 
 and condition ; to {hew magnificence in what- 
 ever relates to the general body of the ftate ; 
 and to direct all his expences to the advantage 
 of his people. 
 
 THE expence which Frederick I. was fo 
 fond of, was far from being of this kind j it 
 was rather the diffipation of a vain and prodigal 
 prince. His court was one of the moft mag- 
 nificent in Europe ; and his embaflies were as 
 fplendid as thofe of the Portuguefe. He granted 
 very large penfions to his favourites. His 
 buildings were magnificent, and his entertain- 
 ments
 
 ( 201 ) 
 
 ments gfand j his ftables wers filled with horfes, 
 his offices with cooks, and his cellars with 
 wine. He gave a fief of forty thoufand crowns 
 to a huntfman, who helped him to kill a large 
 flag. He was very near mortgaging the coun- 
 try of Halberftadt to the Dutch, to purchafe 
 the Pitt, a large diamond, which was fold 
 afterwards to Lewis XV. in the time of the 
 regency. His domeftics were fure of making 
 their fortune, if they could but bear the firft 
 tranfports of his pafiion. But there was no 
 proportion in his expences : the abfurdity of 
 his extravagance will appear more evident, if 
 we examine clofely into the ftate of his reve- 
 nues. There we perceive robuft members of 
 a gigantic "body, clofe to feeble limbs that are 
 perifhing with want. He fold 20,000 men to 
 maintain 30,000. His court was like to thcfe 
 great rivers, which fwallow up the water of 
 the little rivulets. His favourites were loaded 
 with his largefles, while the inhabitants of Li- 
 thuania and Pruffia perifhed with famine and 
 peftiJence ; and this generous prince refufed to 
 relieve them. An avaricious prince, is to his 
 people, like a phyfician, who lets his patient 
 be ftifled in his blood j and an extravagant 
 I 5 prince
 
 ( 202) 
 
 prince is like one that kills him with too much 
 bleeding. 
 
 FREDERICK I, was never conftant in his 
 favours ; whether it was that he repented his 
 bad choice, or whether he had no indulgence 
 for human infirmities. All his favourites, from 
 baron Danckleman down to count Witgen- 
 flein, had an unhappy end. The bad educa- 
 tion, which he had received in his youth, in- 
 fluenced his whole life j his mind was weak 
 and fuperftitious. He was particularly at- 
 tached to Calvinifm, to which -he would wil- 
 lingly have reduced every other religion ; and 
 in all probability he would have been a perfe- 
 cutor, ifpriefts had introduced magnificence 
 and ceremonies into perfecutions. He com- 
 pofed a book of common prayer, which for 
 his credit was never printed. If he is deferv- 
 ingof praife, it is for having preferved peace in 
 his dominions during his whole reign, while the 
 territories of his neighbours were ravaged by 
 war; for being naturally of a benevolent tem- 
 per, and for never having violated his con- 
 jugal vow. In fhort, he was great in triffing 
 things, and a trifler in great things ; and it is 
 a difadvantage to him to be placed in hiftory 
 between a father and fon, whofe fuperior abi- 
 lities eclipfe his merit.
 
 ( 203 ) 
 
 Of MANNERS, CUSTOMS, INDUSTRY, 
 and the Progrefs of the HUMAN UN- 
 DERSTANDING in the ARTS and 
 SCIENCES. 
 
 TO have an adequate knowledge of a 
 ftate, it is not fufficient to be acquaint- 
 ed with its origin, wars, treaties, govern- 
 ment, religion, and revenues. Thefe are in- 
 deed the principal parts on which the hiftorian 
 difplays the elegance of his ftyle. But there 
 are others, which, tho' not fo entertaining as 
 the former, are yet entirely as ufeful. Among 
 thefe I reckon whatever relates to the manners 
 of the inhabitants, as the original of new cu- 
 ftoms, the aboliftiing of old ones, the rife of 
 induftry, the caufes that firft encouraged it, the 
 reafons which accelerated, or retarded the pro- 
 grefs of the human underftanding i and, above 
 all, whatever chiefly characterizes the genius 
 of the nation, whofe hiftory we undertake to 
 write; Thefe fubje&s will always be intereft- 
 ing to politicians and philofophers ; ajid I may 
 I 6 venture
 
 venture to affirm, that this fort of detail & 
 no way unworthy of the majefty of hiftory. 
 
 I SHALL prefent the reackr with a fpecimen 
 of the moft diftinguifhing ftrokes of the genius 
 of the Brandenburgers in every age. But how 
 great a difference between thofe ages ? Na- 
 tions feparated by immenfe feas, and dwelling 
 under oppofite tropics, do not differ more in 
 their cuftoms, than the Brandenburgers from, 
 themfelves, if we compare thofe in the time 
 of Tacitus, to thofe under Henry the Fowler j 
 thofe under Henry the Fowler, to thofe 
 under John the Cicero j and, in fine, the 
 Jatter, to the inhabitants of the electorate un- 
 der Frederick I. king of Pruffia. 
 
 THE generality of mankind, who are a- 
 mufed with an infinite variety of objects, look 
 upon the magic lanthorn of this world without 
 reflection. They take no more notice of the 
 continual changes which happen in regard to 
 cuftoms, than in a great city, of the daily ra- 
 vages committed by death, provided it fpares 
 the fmall circle of their acquaintance. And 
 yet, after a fhort abfence, we find at our re- 
 turn different inhabitants an j different cuftoms. 
 
 How inftru6live and entertaining it is, to 
 
 furvey paft ages } and to fee by what anaiyfls 
 
 4 they
 
 ( 205 ) 
 
 they are connected to our times ! To take a 
 nation in its rudeft ftate of fimplicity, to follow 
 it in its progrefs, and to trace it down to the 
 time in which it was civilized, is the fame as 
 examining the filk-worm in all its metamor- 
 phofes, from its being a chryfalis, till it be- 
 comes a butterfly. 
 
 BUT how mortifying is this ftudy ! It is 
 but too certain, that the immutable law of na- 
 ture obliges mankind to pafs through a great 
 many impertinent trifles, before they can at- 
 tain to any reafonable or folid acquirement. 
 Thus, if we afcend to the origin of nations, 
 we (hall find them all equally barbarous. Some 
 have arrived by flow gradations, and by a great 
 many windings, to a certain degree of per- 
 fection. Others have reached it by rapid 
 flights i but all have taken different ways. And 
 even politenefs, induftry, and the feveral arts, 
 have imbibed a tafte of the foil, in the diffe- 
 rent countries into which they have been 
 uanfplanted, from the indelible character of 
 each nation. This will appear ftill more evi- 
 dent to thofe who will pleafe to read the dif- 
 ferent works written at Padua, London, or 
 Paris ; they may be eafily diftinguifhed, even 
 when the authors of them treat the fame fub- 
 
 jeds;
 
 ( 206 ) 
 
 jecls ; if we except only the abftrufer parts of 
 geometry. 
 
 THE inexhauftible variety, which nature 
 has fown in thofe general and particular cha- 
 racters, is a proof of her fertility, .and at the 
 fame time of her ceconomy. For tho' the in- 
 numerable nations, which cover the face of 
 the earth, have each their different genius ; 
 yet it feems that fome remarkable ftrokes, 
 which diftinguifh them from the reft, are unal- 
 terable. Each nation has its peculiar cha- 
 racter, which may be modified more or lefs 
 by the education they receive, but whofe cflen- 
 tials are never effaced. I might eafily confirm 
 this opinion, by proofs drawn from natural 
 philofophy ; but I {hall not digrefs from my 
 fubjecl:. It follows, therefore, that princes 
 have never intirely changed the manner of 
 thinking peculiar to a nation ; that they have 
 never been able to force nature to produce 
 thofe great men, whofe name alone is capable 
 of rendering ages memorable to pofterity ; 
 and tho' the working of the mine is fubjecl: to 
 their regulations, yet their power does not ex- 
 tend to the fruitful veins j thefe open them- 
 , felves of a fudden, furnifliing treafures in a- 
 
 bundanc;
 
 bundance, and are often loft, when purfued 
 with the greateft avidity. 
 
 WHOSOEVER has read Tacitus and 
 Czefar, will eafily diftinguifh the Germans, 
 French, and Englifh, by the colours in 
 which they are painted j and which have not 
 been effaced in the courfe of eighteen cen- 
 turies. How then is it poflible, that a fingle 
 reign fhould compafs what fo many ages have 
 not been able to attain ? A ftatuary may 
 fhape a piece of (lone into what form he 
 pleafes j he may make an -fltfop, or an Anti- 
 nous of it, but he cannot change the nature of 
 the ftone. Every nation will have fome pre- 
 dominant vices and virtues. If the Romans, 
 therefore, appear more virtuous under the 
 Antoninus's than the Tiberius's, it is becaufe 
 crimes were more feverely punifhed under the 
 former ; vice durft not lift up its unhallowed 
 head, but the vicious were ftill in being. 
 Princes may give a certain varnifh of polite- 
 nefs to their nation ; they may maintain the 
 laws in their full vigour, and the fciences in a 
 middling condition ; but they can never alter 
 the nature of things ; they can add only a 
 tranfient (hadow to the prevailing colour of the 
 pi&ur^. 
 
 Of
 
 OF this we havefeen proofs in our days in 
 Ruflia. , Peter I. ordered the Mufcovites to 
 cut off their beards, and to believe in the pro- 
 cefllon of the Holy Ghoft j he made fome of 
 them drefs in the French tafte, and inftituted 
 fchools for the learning of different languages ; 
 and yet the Ruffians will be ftill perhaps for 
 many ages diftinguiihed from the French, the 
 Italians, and other European nations. 
 
 I REALY believe, that nothing but the intire 
 devaluation of a country, and the repeopling 
 it with foreign colonies, is capable of produc- 
 ing an intire change in a nation. But we 
 muft obferve, that it is then no longer the fame 
 nation ; and it would be ftill a queftion, 
 whether the climate and food would not in 
 time aflimilate the new inhabitants to the old 
 ones. 
 
 I thought it neceffary to feparate this frag- 
 ment, which treats of the Brand en burgers, 
 from the reft of the hiftory, becaufe in the 
 former I was confined to politics and war ; 
 and if the following particulars which re- 
 late to cuftoms, induftry and arts, were inter- 
 fprfed in the body of the work, they might 
 have eafily efcaped the reader, whereas he 
 will find them here colle&ed under one point 
 
 of
 
 nf view, where by themfelves they form a 
 fmall body of hiftory. 
 
 IN the commencement of this work, I have 
 been guided by Latin writers, as there was 
 none of the country during that period. Loc- 
 kelius, whom I fhall often have occafion to 
 quote, has been of fervice to me in the dark 
 regencies of the margraves of the four firft 
 races ; and the archives have furniflied me 
 with materials for the moft remarkable paf- 
 lagcs during the time that the houfe of Ho- 
 henzollcrn has been in pofleflion of this elec- 
 torate, which brings us down to our days. 
 
 The FIRST EPOCHA. 
 
 IN the long enumeration which Tacitus 
 makes of the people of Germany, he is mif- 
 taken in regard to the word Ingevoner, which 
 fignifies inhabitants, and that of Germenier^ 
 which implies warlike people, whom thro* 
 ignorance of the language he took for parti- 
 cular nations. The number of thofe warriors, 
 with which this country was filled, gave it 
 the name of Germany. 
 
 THE firft inhabitants of the Marck were 
 Teutons, and after them the Semnons, who, 
 
 according
 
 according to the relation of Tacitus, were the 
 nobleft among the Suevi. 
 
 IN thofu remote days Germany was quite 
 barbarous ; the natives who were rude and 
 unpolifhed, lived in forefts, where they had 
 little huts for their habitations. They 
 married young, and got children faft, for 
 the women were feldom barren. The na- 
 tion increafed daily, and as the children con- 
 fined themfelves to the culture of their pater- 
 nal eftates, inftead of clearing new lands, it 
 followed of courfe, that fince thefe fmall inheri- 
 tances did not, even in the very beft years, 
 afford a fufficient maintenance for fo numerous 
 a people, they were obliged to quit their 
 country to find elfewhere a fubfiftance. Hence 
 that great inundation of Barbarians, who over- 
 run Gaul, Africa, and even the Roman era-, 
 pire. 
 
 THE Germans were huntfmen thro' ne- 
 ceffity, and warriors by inclination. Their 
 poverty rendered the inteftine wars which 
 they had among themfelves, very fhort j for 
 they were not influenced by intereft. Their 
 generals, who afterwards became princes, were 
 called Fur/fen, which fignifies leaders.' They 
 were famous for die largenefs of their fize, 
 
 the
 
 ( 211 ) 
 
 the robullnefs of their bodies, and for being 
 inured to the moft laborious exercifes. Their 
 principal virtues were their valour, and the 
 fidelity with which they fulfilled their engage- 
 ments. Thefe virtues they celebrated by 
 hymns, which they taught their children, in 
 order to tranfmit them to pofterity. 
 
 EVEN the Latin writers are unexception- 
 able witncffes of the German valour, by ac- 
 quainting us with the defeat of Varus and fome 
 or" the other chiefs of the Roman armies. If 
 we arc apt to commend the courage of a na- 
 tion, which with equal discipline and forces, 
 is victorious over another ; how much more 
 oiuht we to admire the bravery of thofe Ger- 
 mans, who having nothing to rely upon but 
 a confidence in their own valour, and an in- 
 flexible refolution never to yield, triumphed 
 over the Roman difcipline, and over thofe le- 
 gions, who had but juft compleated the con- 
 queft of half the known world ? 
 
 NOTWITHSTANDING what moft hifto- 
 rians fay, it is however true, that the Romans 
 pafled the Elbe in fpite of the Suevi. For we 
 have difcovered in the neighbourhood of Zof- 
 fen, within fix German miles of Berlin, in a 
 fquare camp of four hundred paces, a vaft 
 
 number
 
 ( 212 ) 
 
 number of urns, filled with the medals of the 
 emperor Antoninus, and of the emprefs Fau- 
 ftina, and with doling toys belonging to the 
 Roman ladies. This cannot be a field of bat- 
 tle, for the Suevi would never have buried 
 the fpoils of their enemies under ground, to 
 decorate their funeral. I think we may fafely 
 conjecture, that this place ferved as a camp to 
 fome of the advanced cohorts, which the Ro- 
 mans had fent beyond the Elbe, to apprize 
 them of the motions and approach of the 
 barbarians. 
 
 BRANDENBURG is the moft ancient city 
 of the Marck. The annals of this place, 
 printed in 1595, fix the foundation of it in 
 the year of the world 3588, which is about 
 416 years before the vulgar jera. It is faid to 
 have been built by Brennus, who ran Tacked 
 Rome, and to have taken its name from its 
 founder. Amidft the obfcurity of thefe day?, 
 we have been able to come at the names 
 of fome of the kings of the Vandals, as 
 Hoterus and Wenceflaus, who in all pro- 
 bability were more ambitious and troublefome 
 than the reft. We find moreover in the an- 
 nals of this country, that Witikind king of 
 the Saxons, Hermanfred king of Thuringia, 
 
 and
 
 and Richimir king of the Franks entered Into 
 an alliance, fubdued the Semnons, and were 
 the firft who inclofed the conquered towns 
 with walls, to keep the country in fubjeclion. 
 
 The SECOND EPOCHA. 
 
 CHARLEMAIN, at length, toek Branden- 
 burg in 781 ; and whenjHenry the Fowler had 
 in the year 928, intirely fnbdued the Saxons 
 who inhabited thofe parts, he eftablifhed mar- 
 graves, or governors of the frontiers. 
 
 THE manners of the people were civilized 
 under the margraves, but the country was very 
 poor. It produced only the bare neceflaries 
 of life, but flood in need of the induftry of its 
 neighbours for feverai conveniences ; and as 
 no other country wanted its affiftance, there 
 was a greater exportation than importation of 
 fpecie. This difproportion in the circulation, 
 which continually diminifhed the value of 
 money, lowered the price of all forts of com- 
 modities. Provifions were fo cheap, that 
 under the elector John II. of Afcania, a 
 bufhel of wheat was fold for twenty eight 
 farthings, a bufhel of ric for tweaty eight de- 
 
 Jlit-TS,
 
 niers, and fix hens were bought in the mar- 
 ket for one grofs. 
 
 THE married men of Berlin pafied at that 
 time for honeft but jealous hufoands. The 
 annals of this country * afford an example, 
 which gives us a lively defcription of the man- 
 ners of thofe days. During the regency of 
 the elector Otho of Bavaria, a fecretary of the 
 bifhop of Magdeburg went to bathe at the 
 public bath at Berlin; where happening to meet 
 in theftreet with a young woman, who was a 
 burgher's wife, he propofed to her in joke to go 
 and bathe with him. The woman was af- 
 fronted at this propofal ; upon which a crowd 
 of people got about him ; and the burghers 
 of Berlin, who underftood no raillery, drag- 
 ged the poor fecretary into a public market 
 place, where they beheaded him without any 
 other form of trial. If thefe people are ftill jea- 
 lous, at leaft their revenge is not fo unmerciful. 
 
 THE country was in a moft miferable fitua- 
 tion under the princes of the four firft races ; 
 and indeed it could not be otherwife, as it 
 was continually changing matters. Otho of 
 Bavaria was obliged to fell the electorate in 
 *373 to trj e emperor Charles IV. The lat- 
 
 * Lockelius in 13(4. 
 
 ter
 
 ter refided at Tangermunde, where he kept a 
 fplendid court, and built a large caftle, whofe 
 ruins are to be feen to this day. While Jo- 
 docus had the government of the country of 
 Brandenburg, the Vaudois who were perfe- 
 cuted in France, took (heller in Angermunde, 
 which from thence was called the heretical 
 city. I cannot find the reafon why the Vau- 
 dois (hould fly for an afylum to the country 
 of Brandenburg, which was inhabited by ca- 
 tholics ; nor why they were received, tho* 
 detefted. 
 
 THE princes f the houfe of Luxemburg 
 were the greatett opprefTors of the people : 
 they mortgaged the electorate whenever they 
 wanted money, to thofe who were willing to 
 lend them the greatefl fums. And thofe cre- 
 ditors who looked upon this wretched province 
 as a'mortgage, ufed every art of oppreffion to 
 enrich themfelves, living there at difcretion, 
 as in an enemy's country. The highways 
 were infefted with robbers, all civil polity was 
 baniflied, and the proceedings of the courts of 
 juftice were fuperfeded. The lords of Quit- 
 zau and Neuendorff, enraged at the odious 
 yoke under which their country groaned, de- 
 clared open war ageinft the petty tyrants who 
 
 opprefied
 
 ( "6) 
 
 opprefled it. During this total confufion and 
 flate of anarchy, the people were in the utmoft 
 mifery. The nobility were one while the in- 
 ftruments, another time the avengers of ty- 
 ranny ; and the generality of the nation, whofe 
 fpirits were deprefled by the feverity of flavery, 
 and by the rigour of a barbarous Gothic go- 
 vernment, grew quite infenfible and para- 
 lytic. 
 
 The THIRD EPOCHA. 
 
 THE emperor Sigifmund difimbroiled this 
 chaos in 1414, by conferring the country of 
 Brandenburg and the electoral dignity on 
 Frederick of Hohenzollern, Margrave of Neu- 
 renberg. This prince required his new fubje&s 
 to yield homage to him ; but the people long 
 accuftomed to cruel mafters, with difficulty fub- 
 mitled to this mild and legitimate government. 
 Frederick I. reduced the nobility by the terror of 
 a large cannon, with which he beat down the 
 caftles of the rebels. This cannon was a four 
 and twenty pounder, ,and was all the artillery 
 he had. 
 
 THE fpirit of fedition was not Jo quickly 
 fupprefled. The burghers of Berlin revoked 
 feveral times againft their magiftrates ; and 
 Frederick II. appeafed thefe commotions with 
 
 prudence
 
 prudence and lenity. This prince was obliged, 
 for want of money, to mortgage the tolls of 
 Schiffelbein and Drambourg to Denis lord of 
 Often, for the fum of 1500 florins, to defray 
 lus charges to the diet of Nurenbcrg. 
 
 IN this fituation things continued till the 
 time of John the Cicero. This elector made 
 the firft efforts to refcue his people out of that 
 ftate of rufticity and ignorance ; and indeed 
 to be only fenfible of their ignorance was a 
 great matter in thofe days. Tho' this dawn 
 of knowledge was but a very weak twilight, 
 yet it produced the foundation of the univer- 
 fity of Frankfort on the Oder in 1495. Con- 
 rad Wipina, profeflbr of Leipfick, was the 
 rector of this new univerfity, and compiled 
 the ftatutes. A thoufand ftudents were in- 
 rolled the very firft year in the regifters of the 
 univerfity. 
 
 LUCKY it was for the progrefs of the fciencce, 
 that Joachim Neftor was as much their pro- 
 tector as his father. This prince was the 
 Leo X. of Brandenburg ; he was mafter of 
 the mathematics, aftronomy, and hiftory ; 
 he fpoke French, Italian and Latin with eafe ; 
 he was fond of polite learning, and munificent 
 in encouraging thofe who profefTcd it 
 
 K THE
 
 ( 218 ) 
 
 THE civilizing of a nation that had been 
 ijti a ftate of barbaroufnefs for fo many ages, 
 could not be the work of a day ; it muft be a 
 long time before the foft commerce of fciences 
 can communicate itfelf to a whole nation. 
 The young people indeed applied themfelves 
 to ftudy, but thofe of a more advanced age, 
 preferved ftill an attachment to their ancient 
 cuftoms and to their rufticity. The nobility ftill 
 continued to rob on the highways. There 
 was fuch a general depravation of manners in 
 Germany, that the Diet of the empire afTem- 
 bled at Triers, being willing to put a flop to 
 it, forbad people to blafpheme, and to aban- 
 don themfelves to that excefs of debauchery, 
 which debafes human nature, and renders men 
 inferior to brutes. 
 
 AT that time there were vineyards planted 
 in the electorate j a barrel of wine was fold 
 for thirty grofles, and a bufhel of rie for 
 twenty one farthings. There was a greater 
 circulation of fpecies ; and Joachim Neftor 
 eredled fome new buildings, and among others 
 the caftle of Potfdam. Every body drefled 
 after the German fafhion, which anfwers very 
 near to the old Spanifh drefs, except that the 
 
 men
 
 ( 2I 9 ) 
 
 men wore large ruffs. The princes, * counts 
 and knights wore gold chains about their necks ; 
 and none but gentlemen were permitted to 
 have three gold rings in their cravat. The 
 women's drefs was like that wore at prefent 
 by the fex at Aug(burg, or by the maidens of 
 Strafburg. 
 
 THEY began then to be acquainted with 
 a kind of luxury proportioned to the times ; 
 but as we do not find that there was any im- 
 provement made in the induftry or commerce 
 of the people of Brandenburg, the augmen- 
 tation and caufe of the riches of thofe days 
 are a difficult problem to folve. 
 
 As early as the year 1560, we find a vaft 
 difference in the expences of the electors ; for 
 when Joachim II. went to the diet of Frank- 
 fort, which was fummoned in 1562, by the 
 emperor Ferdinand for the election of a king 
 of the Romans, he had fixty eight gentle- 
 men in his retinue, and an equipage of 45* 
 horfes. Gaming was introduced at that time ; 
 this cuftom fhifted from the court to the 
 town ; but they were obliged to fupprefs it, 
 becaufe fomc burghers had loft above a thou- 
 fand crowns at a fitting. 
 
 * Lcckciiui, 
 
 K 2 WE
 
 ( 220 } 
 
 WE read in our annals, that at the marriage 
 of Joachim II. to Sophia daughter of Sigif- 
 mund king of Poland, the elector lay the firft 
 night of his nuptials armed cap a-pee with 
 his young wife ; as if the foft engagements of 
 love required fuch formidable preparations. 
 There was a mixture of ferocity and magni- 
 ficence in the cuftoms of thofe days. The 
 caufe of this fingularity was the defire the na- 
 tion had to emerge from its barbaroufnefs ; it 
 fought for the right road, but miffed it. They 
 were fo ftupid as to confound ceremonies with 
 politenefs, magnificence with dignity, debau- 
 chery with pleafure, pedantry with learning, 
 and the clowinfh flatnefs of buffoons with the 
 ingenious fallies of wit. 
 
 To this time we muft refer the foundation 
 of the univerfity of Konigfberg by Albert duke 
 of Pruflia. 
 
 THE expences of the electors ftill continued 
 lo Lncreafe. John George made a fupcrb in- 
 interment for his father ; this is the firft fu- 
 neral pomp of any kind of magnificence that 
 we meet with in the hiflory of Brandenburg. 
 The predominant paffion of this prince was 
 his fondnefs of entertainments ; he loved to 
 difplay his grandeur. He celebrated the 
 
 birth
 
 birth * of his eldeft fon with entertainments 
 that 1-afted four Jays. Thefe diverfions con- 
 fitted of tournaments, naval combats, fireworks, 
 and running at the ring. The lords who com- 
 pofed the four troops, were drefTed in velvet rich- 
 ly imbroidered with gold andillvcr ; but ftillthe 
 character of the age was difcernible thro* 
 this magnificence. At the head of each troop 
 there was a buffoon, who founded a horn in 
 a ridiculous manner, and committed a thou- 
 fand extravagances, while the court mounted 
 the turret of the caftle to fee the fireworks go 
 offf. When Chriftian king of Denmark 
 came thro' Berlin, the elector received him 
 in a magnificent manner j he went out to meet 
 him, attended with a great number of prince?, 
 counts, and lords, and with a guard of 300 
 horfe. The king made his entry in a black 
 velvet chariot laced with gold, drawn by eight 
 white courfers, with bits and caparifons all of 
 filver. They quite tired him with entertain- 
 ments, all in this tafte. 
 
 Lockeliui. 
 
 f The annli mention, thit the defter put hit head out 
 ofa dormer-window, and cried out to the ingineer : John, fa 
 frt as fan at J bavt "wbifHtd. 
 
 K 3 L.UXURV
 
 ( 222 ) 
 
 LUXURY, perhaps, was carried to excefs ; 
 for Joachim enacled fumptuary laws. He em- 
 ployed his revenues in ufeful eftablifhments, 
 and founded Joachim's college, which was 
 afterwards removed to Berlin by the elector 
 Frederick William, where ftill continues this 
 fchool, the moft flouriming, without doubt, 
 and the beft regulated in all the territories of 
 Pruffia. 
 
 UNDER the adminiftration of John George, 
 a great many inventions were ftill want- 
 ing, that contribute to the ccnveniency of 
 life. The common cuftom of coaches goes 
 no higher than John Sigifmund ; in whofc 
 leign mention is made of it, en account 
 of the homage which this prince yielded at 
 Warfavv for the dutch y of Pruffia. He had 
 thirty fix coaches, each fix horfes, in his 
 tram, beficies fourfcore led horfes. The em- 
 bafiador, whom he fent to the diet of the em- 
 pire at the election of the emperor Matthias, 
 had three coaches. Thefe were a kind of ugly 
 travelling vehicles, made of four boards, which 
 were put together in a very clumfy manner. 
 Who could have then foretold, that this art 
 would have been carried to fo high a degree of 
 perfection in the eighteenth century, as to make 
 
 coaches
 
 coaches'that come to 20000 crowns, and that 
 they fhould find purchafers ? 
 
 THE efforts made by Brandenburg and Ger- 
 many to civilize themfelves, were not quite 
 ufelefs. The number of univerfities increafed, a- 
 mong which was that of Halie. At the fame time 
 an academy was formed at Dcflaw for the im- 
 provement of the German tongue, under the 
 name of the fruitful fociety. This might havi: 
 been of fome fen ice ; efpeci?.lly as the Ger- 
 man language, branched out into an infinite 
 number of dialels, wants proper rules to fix: 
 its true ftatuiard ; befu'es, we have no cL Hie 
 writers i and if we have ilill fume remains of 
 our ancient republican liberty, 'tis only the 
 barren privilege of mangling a rude and almoft 
 barbarous language according to our pleafure 
 and fancy. 
 
 THESE excellent inftitutions, which perhaps 
 would have greatly contributed to the advance- 
 ment of learning, were hardly fketched, 
 when the thirty years war fupervened, which 
 overturned and deftroyed all Germany. 
 
 THE ftates of Brandenburg had a fhare in 
 
 the government till the reign of George- Wil- 
 
 Jiam, viz. 1621 ; they were confulted on all' 
 
 public affairs, and their advice was followed. 
 
 K 4 When
 
 When the war drew near to the electorate, 
 they began to think of its defence. 'Till that 
 time the elector kept only his own guards, 
 and when he wanted to raife troops, the no- 
 bility were fummoned, who were obliged to 
 appear, and with their paramounts formed the 
 cavalry ; the infantry confifted of their vafl'als. 
 The elector*, and efpecia'ly his minifter count 
 Schwartzenberg, were inclined to maintain a 
 regular militia. The States contented to levy 
 foldiers ; and after the men were picked out, 
 they were ordered to beg about the country 
 for their fubfiftancc, till there fhould be o*.ca- 
 fjon for their fervice. At the fame time an 
 edict was publifhed, ordering the country peo- 
 ple to give a farthing a piece to this militia if 
 they came to beg, and to beat them foundly 
 if they were not fatisfied. Thus this elector, 
 in (lead of having dilciplined troops, had only 
 privileged beggars. 
 
 THE court of Schwartzenberg reduced after- 
 wards the power of thefe States, tho' they 
 had never abufed it. In fhort, in the couiie 
 of ihis bloody war, the year 1 636 was the 
 moft unfortunate for this electorate : the Swedes 
 were at Werbcn, the Imperialifts at Magde- 
 
 * Sobaldus's Chronicle, 
 
 burg
 
 ( s ) 
 
 burg and Rathenaw, Wrangel at Stettin, and 
 Morofini in the New Marck, when thirty fix 
 thoufand Imperialifts marched thro* the 
 country, pillaging and deftroying every place 
 they came to. This was too much : the 
 country of Brandenburg, exhaufted by the num- 
 ber of troops whom it had maintained, and 
 who had ravaged it for fome years, could 
 ftand it no longer. Provifions were be- 
 come extremely dear, an ox was fold for 
 a hundred crowns, a bufhcl of wheat for 
 five, a bufliel of barley for three ; and the 
 fcarcity of fpecie raifed the value of it to 
 fuch a degree, that a ducat was rated at ten 
 crowns. Some gentlemen who had fecured 
 their provifions from the rapacioufnefs of the 
 enemy, wanted to reap an advantage from the 
 circumftances of this dearth ; but the country 
 people, not having wherewithal to purchafe 
 this grain, and grown defperate by the famine, 
 fell upon thofe inhuman matters, and plun- 
 dered their granaries. The famine continued 
 with the fame violence, and was followed by 
 the plague, which completed the mifery of the 
 country. The remainder of the unfortunate 
 inhabitants, whom death and the enemy had 
 fpared, being unable to withftand fuch a fea of 
 K 5 calami-
 
 ( 226 ) 
 
 calamities, abandoned their unhappy country, 
 and fled for refuge to the neigbouring provin- 
 ces. 
 
 THE Marck was then one frightful defart, 
 which exhibited a lamentable fpectable of ruin?, 
 conflagrations, and of every fcene of calamity 
 that attends a long and furious war. Hard!/ 
 was it poffible, amidft fuch a horrid fcene of 
 confufion, and in places iatirely laid wafte, to 
 difcern the traces of the ancient inhabitants. 
 
 THERE would have been an end of Bran- 
 denburg for ever, if Frederick- William, who 
 began to reign in 1640, had not taken fuch 
 immenfe pains to retrieve it. His prudence and 
 refolution, together with time, overcame all 
 thofe obftacles ; he concluded a peace, and im- 
 mediately fet about a new creation. 
 
 BRANDENBURG, in fair, became a new 
 country, formed of a mixture of all nations, 
 who afterwards intermarried with thofe few 
 of the ancient inhabitants, that had efcaped 
 deftru&ion ; whether it was owing to a plen- 
 tiful year, or for want of confumption, the 
 price of provtfions fell fo low, that a bufliel 
 *f wheat was fold for twelve grofles. 
 i 
 
 AMONG
 
 ( 2*7 ) 
 
 AMONG the other mifchiefs occafioned by 
 the thirty years war, we may reckon the ruin 
 of the little trade then carried on in the north 
 of Germany. Formerly we had our fait from 
 Holland and France j but as the flock could 
 not be fupplied during thofe troubles, it was 
 foon exhaufted. The want of fo necefiary a 
 commodity obliged people to have recourfe 
 to induftry ; and they difcovered falt-pits at 
 Halle, which were fufficient to fupply not 
 only the wants of Brandenburg, but likewife 
 of the neighbouring provinces. 
 
 THE firft colony that came to fettle in 
 the electorate, were Dutch. Thefe reviv- 
 ed the feveral handycraft trades, and form- 
 ed a project for felling timber, with which 
 the country abounded ; for the thirty year* 
 had turned almoft all the foil into a foreft 
 The fale of this timber conflituted afterwards 
 one of the principal brandies of our commerce. 
 The elector gave leave to feme Jewifh fami- 
 lies to fettle in his dominions ; the neighbour- 
 hood of Poland rendering them very ufeful 
 for vending in that kingdom the refufe of 
 our fripery. 
 
 NOT long after a favourable event enfued, 
 
 nvhich ceijfidcrably promoted ihe defigns of the 
 
 K 6 great
 
 great elector. Lewis XIV. revoked the edid 
 of Nantes in 1684. upon which occafion at 
 leaft 300,000 French qui-tted the kingdom. 
 Thofe who had moft money retired to Eng- 
 land and Holland ; but the moft induftrious 
 part of them, to the number of twenty thoufand, 
 or thereabouts, took fhelter in the country of 
 Brandenburg. Thefe helped to re people our 
 dcfert villages, and brought all forts of manu- 
 factures amongft us, which we wanted. 
 
 IN order to judge of the advantages which the 
 government received from this colony, it will 
 be neceflary to give fome account of the ftate 
 of our manufactures befere the thirty years 
 war, and of the perfection they arrived to af- 
 ter the revocation of the edict of Nantes. 
 
 OUR commerce confifted formerly in the 
 faleofourcorn, wine, and wool; there were 
 fome woollen manufactures, but they were 
 very inconfiderable. At the time of John Ci- 
 cero there were only 700 manufacturers in the 
 whole country. During the adminiftration of 
 John- Joachim, the duke of Alva exercifed his 
 tyrannical cruelty over the inhabitants of the 
 Low Countries. That wife princefs, Eliza- 
 beth queen of England, made a proper ufe of 
 the folly of her neighbours, by inviting the ma- 
 nufacturers
 
 ( 229 ) 
 
 nufacturcrs of Gantand Bruges into her domi- 
 nions. Thefe people manufactured the Eng- 
 lifti wool, and obtained a law to prohibit the 
 exportation of it. 
 
 OUR manufacturers till that time had made 
 no good cloth, without a mixture of Englifa 
 wool ; and, as foon as this was with-held, the 
 manufacture declined. The electors of Saxony, 
 Auguftus and Chriftian, followed queen Eli- 
 zabeth's example, by inviting the Flemifli ar- 
 tifts to their country, who put their manu- 
 factures in a flourifhing condition. The want 
 of foreign wool, the decline of our manu- 
 factures, and the rife of thofe of our neigh- 
 bours, induced the nobility of Brandenburg to 
 fell their wool to ftrangers ; which was very 
 near being the utter ruin of our manufactures. 
 In order to remedy this evil, John-Sigifmund 
 prohibited the importation of foreign cloths into 
 the country ; but this prohibition was ridicu- 
 lous, becaufe the manufactures of Branden- 
 burg were inefficient to furnifh as much cloth 
 as the country wanted, which obliged them to 
 have recourfe to the induftry of their neigh- 
 bours. Very likely more lucky expedients 
 would have been found out, if the thirty years 
 war had not broke out foon after, which over- 
 turned
 
 turned all projects and manufactures, and even 
 the ftate itfelf. 
 
 AT the acceflion of Frederick-William to 
 the regency, there was no manufacture in this 
 country, either of hats, ftockings, ferges, or 
 any kind of woollen fluffs. We are in- 
 debted to the industry of the French for all 
 thefe manufactures : they creeled fabrics 
 of cloths, ferges, fluffs, druggets, crapes, 
 caps, woven ftockings, all forts of hats, 
 and dying in different colours. Some of 
 thofe refugees turned (hop-keepers, and re- 
 tailed the feveral wares that v/ere fabricated by 
 their countrymen. Berlin now had gold- 
 fmiths, jewellers, watchmakers, and carvers. 
 The French, who fettled in the open country, 
 planted tobacco ; and variety of fruits, and ex- 
 cellent pulfe, were feen to grow in a fandy 
 foil, which by their careful cultivation was be- 
 come an admirable kitchen-garden. To en- 
 courage fo ufeful a colony, the great elector 
 allowed them a yearly penfion of forty thou- 
 fand crowns, which they enjoy to this day. 
 
 THUS the electorate was in a more flou- 
 riAiing condition under the adminiftration of 
 Frederick-William, than it had been under 
 any of his anoeftors. The great improvement 
 
 of
 
 of the manufactures, increafed the different 
 branches of commerce, which was afterwards 
 confined chiefly to our corn, timber, woollen 
 manufactures , and fait. The ufe of poft- 
 houfes, hitherto unknown in Germany, was 
 introduced by the great elector throughout all 
 his dominions, from Emmerick as far as Me- 
 mel. The cities, before that time, payed ar- 
 bitrary taxes, which were fupprefied ; and an 
 excife was fubftituted in their ftead. The 
 towns began to be civilized, the ftreets were 
 paved, and lanthorns were fet up at proper 
 diftances to light the inhabitants. This civil 
 regulation was abfolutely neceflary. For the 
 courtiers were obliged to go in flilts to Potz- 
 dam, when the court happened to refute there ; 
 bccaufe of the dirt that lay in heaps in the 
 ftreets. 
 
 FREDERICK-WILLIAM was the firft ele&or 
 that kept a regular body of difciplined troops 
 in his fervicc. The battalions of foot confifted 
 of four companies, each of 150 men ; the third 
 part of a battalion were armed with pikes, the 
 reft with mufkets. The infantry wore their 
 regimentals, and had cloaks. The horfe pro- 
 vided themfelves with arms and horfes. They 
 wore a half armour, fought in fquadrons, and 
 
 often
 
 often carried a train of artillery along with 
 them. 
 
 THE great elector, tho' generous and mag- 
 nificent in his own perfon, eftabliflied fump- 
 tuary laws. The court was numerous and 
 fplendid. At the entertainment which he 
 gave upon the marriage of his niece, the prin- 
 cefs ofCourland, there were 56 tables, with 
 40 covers at each repaft. The indefatigable 
 activity of this prince procured every ufcful art 
 to his country j but he had not time to intro- 
 duce the polite ones. 
 
 THE continual wars, together with the 
 mixture of new inhabitants, had already made 
 a change in the ancient manners. A great 
 many of the French and Dutch cuftoms were 
 adopted by our people ; but the predominant 
 vices were drunkennefs and avarice. The 
 youth were forbidden all unlawful commerce 
 with the fair fex ; and fome fmarting re- 
 membrances, which are contracted by dying 
 away with pleafure, were unknown at that 
 time. The court was fond of points, double 
 meanings, and buffooneries ; the children o( 
 the nobility applied themfeives again to ftudy, 
 and the education of youth infenfibly fell 
 into the hands of the French. We are 
 
 indebted
 
 ( 233 ) 
 
 indebted alfo to this nation for a certain free- 
 dom in converfation, and for an eafier car- 
 riage than is commonly met with in the Ger- 
 mans. 
 
 THE change, which fupervencd in the flate 
 after the thirty years war, was univerfal : it 
 was felt iq the fpecie, as well as in every thing 
 elfe. Formerly the filver mark was on the 
 footing of nine crowns throughout all the em- 
 pire, till the year 1561, when the calamity of 
 the times obliged the elector 1 1 have recourfe to 
 all manner of expedients to fupply the neceffi- 
 ties of the flate. He publifhcd the fame year 
 an edicl, which regulated the value of the cur- 
 rent fpecie ; and he ordered grofles and fenins 
 to be coined to a confiderable fum, whofe in- 
 trinfic value was very near equivalent to the 
 third part of the real value of this fpecie. As 
 the value of this money was imaginary, it was 
 foon cried down, and fell one half. The old 
 crowns of good allay were worth from 28 to 
 30 grofles, for which reafon we call them bank 
 crowns. In order to remedy thefe abufes, 
 the eleclcrs of Brandenburg had a con- 
 ference at Cinna in 1667, and they agreed 
 to fix the value of fpecie upon a new foot- 
 ing ; by which the fine filver mark, was to 
 
 be
 
 C 234 ) 
 
 be returned to the public in all kinds of money 
 from the crown to the fenin, at ten crowns 
 fixteen grofles. After this, we ftruck florins 
 and half florins, and the value of the filver 
 mark continued fixed to ten crowns. 
 
 IN the year 1690, Frederick I. agreed with 
 the elector of Saxony and the duke of Hano- 
 ver, on proper meafures for keeping up the va- 
 lue of fpecie on the fame footing as was deter- 
 mined at the convention of Cinna ; but find- 
 ing this impracticable, they confented that the 
 current fpecie of florins, and pieces of eight 
 groffes Jfhould beftiuck thro* all their domi- 
 nions at the proportion of twelve crowns j this 
 is what we call the footing of Leipfick, which 
 ft.ll fubfifts. 
 
 THE new colonies eftabliflied by the 
 great elector, did not indeed arrive to their 
 full perfection, till the reign of Frederick I. 
 We had then a manufacture of tapeftry equal 
 to that of BrulTels, our laces were not inferior 
 to thofeof France, our glafles of Neuftadt fur- 
 pafied thofc of Venice in whitenefs, and our 
 army was drefled in cloth of our own manu- 
 factures. In the year 1700 the troops changed 
 their arms ; the ufe of pikes was abolifhed, and 
 the infantry had fufils given them ; the cavalry 
 
 kept
 
 ( 235 ) 
 
 kept no other part of their armour than tl.c 
 cuirafs, and they were obliged to wear regi- 
 jnentals. 
 
 THE court was numerous and fplendid ; and 
 there was a great circulation of fpecie, arifmg 
 from foreign fubfidies. Luxury began no\v 
 to fliew itfelfin liveries, drefs, tables, equi- 
 page, and buildings. The king had two of 
 the mod able architects in Europe in his fer- 
 vicej befidesSchlutcr, who was no way infe- 
 rior to them in merit, and whofe fine carvings 
 heightened the beauty of their architecture. 
 Bott made the fine gate of Wefcl, and gave 
 the defigns of the palace, and of the arfe- 
 nal of Berlin. He built likewife the poft- 
 iioufe, at the corner of the great bridge ; and 
 the beautiful portico of the caftle of Potzdam, 
 whofe merit is well known to the lovers 
 of architecture. Lofander built the new 
 wing of the palace of Konigfberg, and the 
 mint, which was afterwards pulled down. 
 Schluter decorated the arfcnal with tho(e tro- 
 phies, which are fo greatly admired by 
 connoificurs ; and it was he that caft the 
 equeflrian ftatue of the great elector, which 
 pafies for a mafter-piece. The king embellifh- 
 ed the city of Berlin with the church of the 
 
 clojfter,
 
 cloyfter, with arches, and fome other edifices. 
 He adorned alfo the pleafure-houfes of Orange- 
 bourg, Potzdam, and Charlottenburg, with 
 all manner of improvements and decorations. 
 
 THE polite arts, which are generally the 
 fruits of abundance, began now to flourifh. 
 The academy of paintirg was founded, of 
 which Pefne, Mayer, Wjddeman, and Leige- 
 btr were the firft profeflbrs ; however we have 
 not had one painter of reputation from their 
 fchool. But the molt remarkable event, and that 
 which more nearly relates to the progrefs of the 
 human underftanding, was the foundation of the 
 royal academy of fciences in 1700. The 
 queen Sophia Charlotte contributed chiefly to 
 this eftabliflimcnt. This princefs had a great 
 genius, with a large (hare of learning : (he did 
 not think it beneath the dignity of a queen, 
 toihew her regard for a philofopher. It is plain, 
 that the philofopher I am fpeaking of, was 
 Leibnitz; and as thofe whom heaven has fa- 
 voured with a particular dignity of mind, are 
 capable of raifing themfelves upon a level with 
 Sovereigns, fhe entered into an intimate ac- 
 quaintance with Leibnitz ; and propofed him 
 as the only perfon capable of laying the foun- 
 dation of this new academy. Leibnitz, who,
 
 if I may be allowed the expreffion, had more 
 than one foul, was worthy of prefiding in an 
 academy, which, in cafe of need, he alone might 
 have reprefented. He eftablifhed four clafies, 
 one for natural philofophy and phyfic, the 
 fecond for the mathematics, the third for the 
 language and antiquities of Germany, and 
 the laft for the oriental languages and antiqui- 
 ties. The moft celebrated members of our 
 academy, were Meffrs. Bafnage, Bernottilli, 
 La Croze, Guillelmini, Hartzoker, Herman, 
 Kirch, Romer, Sturmer, Varignon, desVig- 
 noles, Werenfels, and Wolff. After them 
 appeared Meffrs. de Beaufobre, and Lenfant, 
 whofe pens would have done honour to the 
 ages of Auguftus and Lewis XIV. 
 
 OTHO of Guericke flourifhed alfo at Mag- 
 deburg : it is to him we are indebted for the 
 invention of the air-pump, and luckily he has 
 rendered his philofophical and fruitful genius 
 hereditary to his defendants. 
 
 THE univerfities were in a flourishing con- 
 dition at the fame time : Halle and Franckfort 
 were provided with learned profeflbrs. Tho- 
 mafius, Gundling, Ludewig, Wolff, and 
 Strick were in the firft rank of fame, and had 
 a vaft number of pupils. Wolff wrote a 
 
 comment
 
 comment on Leibnitz's ingenious fyftem oi 
 the Monads, and drowned a few problems 
 which Leibnitz had thrown out as a bait to 
 the metaphyficians, in a deluge of words, ar- 
 guments, corollaries, and citations. The 
 profeflbr of Halle took an immenfe deal of 
 pains to write a large number of volumes, 
 which inftead of being adopted to the in- 
 ftruclion of adult people, ferved only as a 
 dialectic catechifm for children. The 
 Monades fet the metaphyficians and geo- 
 metricians of Germany at variance, and they 
 ftill go on difputing on the divifibility of 
 matter. 
 
 THE king founded at the fame time an 
 academy at Berlin, for young men of family, on 
 the fame plan as that of Luneville ; but unhap- 
 pily for our country it did not laft long. 
 
 THIS century produced not one good hifto- 
 rian. Teiffier was employed to write the 
 hiftory of Brandenburg, and inftead of a hif- 
 tory, he wrote a panegyric. Puffendorff wrote 
 the life of Frederick-William j and being deter- 
 mined to omit no circumftance at all, he forgot 
 neither his clerks of the chancery, nor his va- 
 lets de chambre. But our authors, I think, 
 are" generally found fault with for making no 
 
 di-
 
 ( 239 ) 
 
 diftin&ion between things that are efTential, 
 and fuch as are only circumftantial ; for 
 leaving facts in obfcurity, while they pre- 
 tend to difembroil them ; and for not 
 (hortening their trailing profe, which is ex- 
 ceflively fubject to tranfpofitions and numerous 
 epithets. 
 
 IN this great fcarcity of profe writers, 
 Brandenburg had one good poet. This was 
 Monf. de Canitz, who made an excellent 
 tranflation of fome of Boileau's epiftles, and 
 publifhed verfes in imitation of Horace, with 
 fome original pieces. Canitz is the Pope of 
 Germany, the moft elegant, the moft correct, 
 and the leaft diffufed poet that ever wrote in 
 our language. In Germany even the poets 
 are generally infected with pedantry ; the lan- 
 guage of the gods is proftituted by the 
 mouth of fome regent of a paltry college, or 
 by a debauched ftudent ; and thofe whom we 
 call gentlemen, are either too lazy, or too 
 proud, to touch Horace's lyre, or Virgil's 
 trumpet. M. de Canitz, tho' of a very good 
 family, did not think that wit and poetical 
 merit were any derogation to his birth. He 
 cultivated this talent, as we have already 
 obferved, with great fuccefs i he had an em- 
 ployment
 
 ployment at court j and, from converting 
 with good company, he learnt that politenefs 
 and amenity, which are fo pleafmg in his ftyle. 
 THE German theatre was worth little notice j 
 V'hat they call tragedy, is a monftrous mixture 
 of bombaft and buffoonery. The dramatic wri- 
 ters were unacquainted, even with the com- 
 mon rules of the theatre ; and their comedy was 
 ftill more wretched. It was a kind of low farce, 
 contrary to all tafte, politenefs, and morality. 
 The queen maintained an Italian opera, the 
 compofer of which was the famous Bononcini ; 
 From that timewe have had good muficians.There 
 was a company of French players at court, by 
 whom the admirable compofitions of the Mo- 
 lieres,theCorneilles, and theRacinef, were fre- 
 quently reprefented. The tafte of the French 
 theatre made its way into Germany, together, 
 with the fafhions of that nation. Europe, being 
 flruck with the character of grandeur, which 
 Lewis XIV. difplayed in all his actions, with the 
 poliienef> which reigned in his court, and with 
 the great men, who were an ornament to his 
 reign, wanted to imitate France, as well as to 
 admire her. People from all parts of Germany 
 vifited this country ; and a young gentleman 
 was taken for a fool, if he had not been fome " 
 3 time
 
 ( 241 ) 
 
 time at the court of Verfailles.' The French 
 tails regulated our kitchens, our furniture, 
 our drefs, and every other kind of trifle, which 
 is fubject to the tyrannical fway of fafhion. 
 This paffion, carried to excefs, degenerated 
 into phrenzy j the women, who often run 
 upon extremes, pufhed it to a degree of extra- 
 vagance *. 
 
 THE court did not give into the foreign 
 modes fo much as the town ; their time was 
 taken up with the decorations of magnificence 
 and ceremony, which were carried to the 
 greateft excels. The king inftituted the order 
 
 * THE mother of Canitz the poet, having exhaufted 
 all the new fafhions of France, in order to outdo the la- 
 dies of Berlin, commiflioned a merchant to bring her a 
 hufband from France, who mould be young, handfome, 
 robult, polite, witty, and of a good family, imagining 
 that this kind of merchandize was as common, as wo- 
 men's drefling toys in a (hop. The merchant, who wa* 
 quite unpra&tfed in this kind of trade, executed his com- 
 miflion as well as he could. At length his correfpondents 
 found out a perfon, whom they thought fit for his pur- 
 pofe ; this was a man of fifty years of age, his name 
 was M. de Brinboc, of a weak conftitution, and very 
 fickly. He came to Berlin ; madam de Caniiz faw 
 him, was ftartled, and married him. It was lucky for 
 the Prufiians, that this marriage turned out ro the difla- 
 tisfadUon of the lady, otherwife her example would havg 
 been followed. Our beauties would all have fallen into 
 the hands of Frenchmen, and thofe of our fex at Berlin 
 would Jiave been obliged, like the Romans, to carry ott' 
 the Saline women from the neighbourhood. 
 
 I' Of
 
 of the black eagle, as well to have fuch a thing 
 as an order, like every other king, as to give 
 himfelf upon this occafion the pleafure of a 
 feftival, which greatly refembled a mafque- 
 rade. This prince, who had erected an aca- 
 demy out of complaifance to his wife, main- 
 tained buffoons to pleafe himfelf. The court 
 of the queen Sophia-Charlotte was quite fepa- 
 rate from his. It was a temple, in which the 
 facred fire of the veftals was preferved ; it was 
 the azy lum of learning, and the feat of politencfs. 
 This virtuous princefs was fo much the more 
 regretted, as the * lady who fuccceded her, 
 gave herfelf up intirely to the direction of bi- 
 gots, and fpcnt her days with hypocrites ; a 
 wretched race, who even bring virtue into 
 difrepute, by fanctifying vice under a virtuous 
 appearance. At length the adepts appeared at 
 court j and an Italian, whofe name was Cata- 
 neo, aflured the king, that he had the fecret of 
 making gold. This fellow fpent a great deal of 
 this metal, but made none ; and the king was 
 revenged for his credulity upon the wretch; for 
 he ordered him to be hanged. 
 
 * The prtncefs of Mecklenburg, who afterwards fell 
 wad. 
 
 THE
 
 ( H3 ) 
 
 THE flate underwent almoft an intirt 
 change, as to its outward form, under Fre- 
 derick-William in 1713. Numbers of cour- 
 tiers were difmiflcd, and the great penfions 
 were reduced. Many who had kept their 
 coaches, now walked on foot : which made 
 people fay, that the king had reftored the lame 
 to the ufe of their limbs. Under Frederick I. 
 Berlin was the Athens of the North ; under 
 Frederick- William it was become the Sparta. 
 It was now a military government ; the army 
 was increafed ; and, in the heat of the firft 
 levies, fome artifans were prefied into the fer- 
 vice, which ftruck fuch a terror into a great 
 many others, that they faved themfelves by 
 flight. This unforefeen accident did a vaft 
 deal of harm to our manufactures. 
 
 THE king foon remedied thefe abufes, and 
 applied himfelf with a particular attention to 
 the re-eftablifhment and progrefs of induftry. 
 He publifhed a fevere edict, prohibiting the 
 exportation of our wool ; and he built the La- 
 gerhaus in 1714, which is a kind of ware- 
 houfe, from whence wool is delivered out to 
 poor manufacturers, which they pay for after 
 they have woven it. Our cloths found a fure 
 Lie from the consumption made by the army, 
 L 2 which
 
 f 244 ) 
 
 which was new cloathed every year. This 
 confumption extended afterwards to foreigners ; 
 for a Ruffian company was eftablifhed in 1725, 
 and our merchants furnifhed cloth for the 
 whole RujTian army. But the Englifh fent, 
 their guineas into Mufcovy, which were icon 
 followed by their cloth ; fo that there was an 
 end of that trade. Our manufactures indeed 
 fuffered by this in the beginning, but we foort 
 found other markets. The manufacturers had 
 not wool enough of their own, and the people 
 of Mecklenburg were permitted to fell us theirs. 
 Thus, as early as 1733, our manufactures 
 were in fo flourifhing a condition, that we ex- 
 ported 44,000 pieces of cloth, of 24 yards 
 each. 
 
 BERLIN was like the magazine of Mars. 
 Every artift that can be employed in the fervice 
 of an army, was fure to thrive, and their ware 
 was fought for all over Germany. At Berlin 
 we fet up powder-mills, at Spandaw fword- 
 cutlers, at Potzdam guafmiths ; and at Neu- 
 {ladt tradefmen, who worked in iron and cop- 
 per. 
 
 THE king granted privileges and rewards to 
 thofe who would undertake to build in any 
 part of his dominions. He added the ward of 
 
 Frederick-
 
 ( 245 ) 
 
 Frederick-ftadt to his capital, and filled that 
 part with houfes, which had been covered 
 before with the old ramparts. He founded, as 
 it were, and peopled * the town of Potzdam j 
 *nd all this while he did not erect the leaft 
 building for himfelf, but every thing for his 
 fubjects. The architecture of his reign is ge- 
 nerally infected with the Dutch tafte ; and we 
 could have wifhed, that the great fums which 
 this prince laid out in buildings, had been di- 
 rected by abler architects. He had the fate of 
 aH founders of cities, who are generally taken 
 up with the folidity of their defigns, and neg- 
 lect what, with the fame expence, might add 
 to their imbellifhment. 
 
 AFTER Berlin was inlarged, it was fub- 
 je<5ted to a new civil regulation in 1734, upon 
 the fame footing, very near, as that of Paris. 
 Officers of the police were eftablifhed almoft in 
 every ward of the town ; hackney coaches were 
 fet up at the fame time ; the city was dif- 
 incumbered of thofe lazy wretches, who get 
 their bread by importunity ; and thofe unhap- 
 py obj^fts of our diflike and companion, to 
 
 * At that time there were hardly 400 inhabitants in the 
 town, whereas at prefent there are upwards of 20,000. 
 
 L 3 whom
 
 ( 246 ) 
 
 whom nature has been a kind of a ftep- mother, 
 found an azylum in the public hofpitais. 
 
 WHILE all thefe changes were making-, 
 luxury, magnificence, and pleasures difappear- 
 red ; the fpirit of ceconomy was introduced a-- 
 mong people of all condition;, the rich as well 
 as the poor. Under the preceding reigns, a great 
 many of the nobility fold their lands to buy 
 laced c!oath?, but now this abufe was put an 
 Mid to, In moft of the PruiTian dominions, 
 the gentlemen ought to be very good cecono- 
 miirs, to be able to maintain their families, 
 becaufe there is no fuch thing among them as 
 the right of primogeniture. And as the fathers 
 of families may have many children to fettle in 
 the world, ceconomy alone can enable them to 
 make a decent provifion for thofe, who after 
 their deceafe will divide their family into differ- 
 ent branches. 
 
 THIS diminution of public expence, did not 
 hinder a great many artifans from perfecting 
 themfelves in their feveral trades. Our coach- 
 es gold laces, velvets, and goldfmith's ware, 
 were fpread all over Germany. 
 
 BUT the mifchief was, that while fuch ufe- 
 ful and excellent regulations were making in 
 the manufactures, there was a total decline 
 
 in
 
 ( 247 ) 
 
 in the academy of fciences, the univerfities, 
 the liberal arts, and commerce. 
 
 THE places that became vacant in the aca- 
 demy, were filled without any manner of 
 judgment. And the public, thro* a fingular 
 depravation of tafte, affected a contempt 
 for a fociety of fo illuftrious an original, 
 whofe labours tended as much to the honour 
 of the nation, as to the improvement of the 
 human under (landing. While this whole bo- 
 dy was fallen into a lethargy, medicincand chy- 
 miftry maintained their ground. Pott, Mar- 
 grafF, and Eilcr, compounded and difiblved 
 matter, improving the world with their dif- 
 coveries j and the anatomifts obtained a hall 
 for their public difTtctions, which became 
 an excellent fchool of chirurgery. 
 
 THE profefforfhips in the univerfities were 
 filled by favour and intrigue. The bigots, 
 who put their nofes every where, obtained a 
 fhare in the direction of the univerfities, where 
 they raifed a perfecution againft good fenfe, 
 efpecially in philofophy. Wolfius was banifh- 
 ed for giving an admirable chain of the proofs 
 of the exiftence of a God. The young no- 
 bility, who were defigned for the army, 
 thought it a dcbafement to apply themfelves 
 L 4. to
 
 lo ft tidy j and as the human mind generally 
 runs into extremes, they looked upon igno- 
 rance as a title of merit, and learning as ridi- 
 culous pedantry. 
 
 THE fame caufe made the liberal arts de- 
 cline. The academy of painting was now no 
 more. Pefne, who had been the director of 
 it, left off hiftory-painting to apply himfelf 
 to portraits; joyners turned fculptors, ami mr.- 
 fons architects. A chymift whofe name was 
 Boucher, went from Berlin to Drefden, and 
 gave the king of Poland the fecret for a kind 
 of porcell me, which furpafits that of China, 
 fcoth for the elegance of the figures, and the 
 finenefs of the diapering. 
 
 OUR commerce was not yet fet on foot; 
 the government checked it, by following 
 principles directly opppfite to its progrefs. But 
 we muft not conclude from thence, that the 
 nation wanted a genius for trade. The Ve- 
 netians and the Genoefe were the firft whb 
 applied themfelves to it ; the difcovery of the 
 compafs transferred it to the Portuguefe and 
 Spaniards ; it fhifted afterwards to England 
 and Holland ; the French followed it the laft, 
 but foon recovered by their diligence what 
 they had negleded through ignorance. If the 
 
 inka-
 
 ( 249 ) 
 
 inhabitants of Dantzick, Hamburg, and Lu- 
 beck, aswell as the Danes, and the Swedes, en- 
 rich themfelves every day by navigation, why 
 fhould not the Pruffians do the fame ? All 
 men become quick-fighted, when the road to 
 fortune is opened to them j but they muft be 
 animated by example, excited by emulation, 
 and encouraged by the fovereign. The 
 French have been flow, and we are fo at 
 prefent ; perhaps our hour is not yet come. 
 
 PEOPLE were lefs attentive at that time to 
 the increafe of commerce, than to the re- 
 du&ion of ufelefs expences. Mournings had 
 been formerly deftru&ive to families. They 
 ufcd to give entertainmens at burials ; and 
 even the funeral pomp was expenfwe. All 
 thofe cuftoms were abolimed ; neither houfes 
 nor chariots were hung with black* nor did 
 they even fo much as give black liveries ; fo 
 that ever fince thattime people have died cheap. 
 
 THIS military government influenced the 
 manners of the inhabitants, and even regu- 
 lated their faihions. The public aftedt- 
 ed to aflume a fowr air ; through all the 
 Pruflian territories no one had above three 
 yards of cloth in his coat, or lefs than two 
 yards of a fword hanging by his fide. The 
 L 5 women
 
 women fhunned the company of men, and 
 the msn took their revenge of them by drink- 
 ing, fmoaking and buffoonry. In fhort, our 
 manners had no longer any refemblance cither 
 to thofe of our anceftors, or of our neighbouis ; 
 we were originals, and had the honour of being 
 wretchedly copied by fome of the petty princes 
 of Germany. 
 
 TOWARDS the latter end of this reign, 
 there happened to come to Beilin * a man of 
 an unlucky turn of nimd, of obfcure birth, 
 but extremely canning. He was a kind of aa 
 adept, that made gold, for the fovereign, at the 
 expence of his fubjefts. His artifices fucceed- 
 ed for a while, but as knavery is generally 
 discovered one time or other, his legerdemain 
 was found out, and his wretched fcience re- 
 turned in:o the obfeurity from whence it 
 came. 
 
 SUCH were the manners of Brandenburg 
 rncler all its different government!;. The ge- 
 nius of the ruticr. lay concealed during a hug 
 itries of barbarous ages ; it raifed its head from 
 time to time, but loon funk under the weight 
 of ititxjrance and bad tafte ; and when fume 
 Lcky cincumftances Icerned to favour its pro- 
 
 * Eckerr. 
 
 grefs,
 
 ( 2 S i 5 
 
 grefs, a war broke out, whofe unhappy ccm- 
 fequences deftroyed the ftate. We have feer* 
 this ftate rife out of its afhes ; we have feen 
 by what new efforts the nation was civilized ; 
 and if this great fire has thrown out only a 
 few fparkles, a fmall matter is wanting to 
 make it blaze. As feeds require a particular 
 foil to fpread and unfold themfelves, in like 
 manner nations have need of a concurrence of 
 lucky circumftanccs, to raife them out of their 
 lethargy, and to give them as it were, a new 
 life. 
 
 ALL governments have had a particular feries 
 of events to run through, before they have been 
 able to arrive at their higheft degree of per- 
 fection. Monarchies arrive at it by ilower de- 
 grees than republics, nor do they preferve it fo 
 long ; and if it be true that the moft perfect 
 form of government is that of a kingdom well 
 adminiftercd ; it is no lefs true, that republics 
 attain fooner to the end propofed by their in- 
 ft-itution, and preferve themfelves in it longer, 
 becaufe good kings are fubject to death, but 
 wife laws are immortal. 
 
 SPARTA and Rome, cities defigned for mi- 
 litary achievements, produced, one the in- 
 vincible ph-vhnx, and the oiher thoft legions 
 L 6 which
 
 ( w J 
 
 which fubdued half the known world. Sparta 
 gave birth to the moft famous generals ; and 
 Rome became a nurfery of heroes. Athens 
 having had more pacific laws from Solon, 
 was the femmary of arts. To what a degree of 
 perfection did not her poets, orators, and 
 hiftorians arrive ? This afylum of the fciences 
 was preferved till the intire ruin of Attica. 
 The foundation of the republics of Carthage, 
 Venice, and Holland, w?& connected with 
 commerce ; this they conftantly purfued and 
 maintained, as the principle of their grandeur, 
 and the fupport cf their ftate. . 
 
 LET as continue this inquiry a little longer. 
 To touch the fundamental laws of the repub- 
 lic, is- intirely f-ubverting them, becaufe the 
 wifdom of the legislators has formed a whole, 
 with which the different parts of the govern- 
 ment are eflentially connected. To reject 
 feme, is deftr< ying the reft, by a concatena- 
 tion of eonfequences which unkes them toge- 
 ther, and forms a regular and compJeat fyftem, 
 IN monarchies, the form of government has 
 no other bafis than the abfolute will of a fo- 
 vereign : the laws, the army, trade, induftry, 
 and every other part of the itate, are fubjecfc 
 to the caprice of a Jingle man, whole fuccef-
 
 fors hardly ever referable each other. Hence 
 it generally follows, that at the accefllon of a 
 new prince, the ftate is governed by new prin- 
 ciples ; and this is what hurts this form of 
 government. There is a proportion between 
 the end propofed by republics, and the means 
 they ufc to attain it ; which is the reafon 
 that they hardly ever mifs it. In monarchies 
 a lazy prince fucceeds an ambitious one ; after 
 him conies a bigot ; after him a warrior ; after 
 him a fcholar ; after him an epicure or a de- 
 bauchee j and while this moveable ftage of 
 fortune exhibits inceflantly new fcenes, the 
 genius of the nation diverted by a variety of 
 objefts, has not time to fix itfelf. It is ne- 
 cefiary, therefore, in monarchies, that thofe 
 inftitutions which are to bid defiance to the 
 viciflitude of time, fhould be fo deeply rooted 
 as to be incapable of being deftroyed, with- 
 out fhaking at the fame time the foundation 
 of the throne. 
 
 BUT frailty and instability are infeparably 
 connected with the works of man. The re- 
 volutions of monarchies and republics, have 
 their origin in the immutable laws of nature. 
 It is neceflary that the human paflions fhould 
 ferve as fprings for the continual fhifting of 
 
 new
 
 new decorations, which the audacious fury of 
 fome carries off, and the weaknefs of 
 others is incapable of defending ; that un- 
 bridled ambition fhould fubvert republics, and 
 that artifice 'fhould triumph fometimes over 
 fimplicity. Were it not for thefe great fhocks 
 we are fpeaking of, the univerfe would conti- 
 nue always the fame, and there would be no 
 equality in the fate of nations. Some would 
 he always civilized and happy, and others al- 
 ways barbarous and unfortunate. 
 
 WE have feen monarchies rife and fall, and 
 people once rude and unpolifhed, be- 
 come civilized, snd a model to other nations. 
 May we not conclude, that thefe nations have 
 a revolution fimilar to that of the planets, 
 which in the opinion of fome aftronomers, af- 
 ter having in ten thoufand years run through 
 the whole fpace of the heavens, find them- 
 f elves at length at the very place from whence 
 they fet out ? 
 
 OUR bright days will therefore come, like 
 thofe of other nations ; and our expectations 
 are fo much the better grounded, as we have 
 paid tribute to barbarifm fome ages longer 
 than the people of the fouth.
 
 ( 255 ) 
 
 THESE precious ages are eafily known by 
 the number of great men in every branch, 
 who flourifti all at the fame time. Happy 
 thofe princes who come into the world under 
 fuch favourable conjunctures ! Virtues, abili- 
 ties, and genius impel them, by the fame 
 law of motion, to the nobleft undertakings. 
 
 O F
 
 O F 
 
 SUPERSTITION 
 
 AND 
 
 RELIGION. 
 
 I Divide this piece concerning fuperftition 
 and religion into three parts j and for the 
 fake of perfpicuity and order, I fhall re- 
 prefent religion under paganifm, popery, and 
 the reformation. 
 
 ARTICLE I. 
 
 Of Religion under Paganifm. 
 
 BRANDENBURG followed the worfhip of 
 the different people who inhabited this coun- 
 try. The Teutons, its moft ancient inhabi- 
 tants, adored a God, called Tuifto. Caefar 
 fays, that this is the Dis pater ingendered by 
 the earth, and that he had a fon called 
 man. 
 
 THE
 
 THE worfhip paid by the Germans to their 
 Gods, was proportioned to their favage rude- 
 nefs and fimplicity. They aflembled in the 
 facred woods, fung hymns in honour of their 
 idols, and facrificed even human victims to 
 them. 
 
 Every province had its particular God ; 
 the Vandals had one, called Triglaff. There 
 was one alfo found at Harlungerberg in the 
 neighbourhood of Brandenburg, which had 
 three heads, to fignify * that he reigned in 
 heaven, upon earth, and in hell ; in all proba- 
 bility thie was the Pagan trinity. Tacitus re- 
 lates, that the Germans had a certain number 
 of white horfes, which they believed to be ini- 
 tiated into the myfteries of their Gods ; and that 
 they kept a black horfe for the goddefs Trigla, 
 which pafled for the interpreter of her will. 
 Tbefe people paid worfhip alfo to ferpents, 
 and inflicted capital puni&ments on thofe who 
 killed them f. 
 
 IN the fifth century the Vanda's abandoned 
 their ov?n country, and over-run France, 
 Spain, and even Africa ^. The Saxons who 
 
 * Valentia Eichftadt. 
 
 j- Alaus Arenrtzir, 
 
 J Orofius and Gregory of Tours. 
 
 were
 
 ( 259 ) 
 
 were coming back from England, made a ckf- 
 cent at the mouth of the Elbe, and took pof- 
 ftffion of all that country which lies between 
 the Elbe, the Spree, and the Oder, which the 
 natives had abandoned. Their Gods and their 
 religion became thofe of Brandenburg. The 
 chief of thtir iJols was called Irmanfaul, which 
 ftgnifies the pillar of Irman. The learned 
 etymologifta of Germany, have taken care to 
 derive the word Irman from Hermes, which 
 is the fame as the Mercury of the Greeks. 
 
 THOSE who are verfed in German litera- 
 ture, all know that 'tis a general fancy among 
 the learned of this nation, to find out relations 
 between the deities of Germany, and thofe of 
 the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. It is an 
 unhappy, but certain truth, that error and fu- 
 perftition are the portion of humanity. All 
 nations have had the fame inclination to idola- 
 try, and as they have all been actuated by 
 very near the fame paffions, the effe&s have 
 anfwered accordingly. Fear gave birth to cre- 
 dulity, and felf-love foon made heaven con- 
 cern itfclf in the fate of mankind. Hence arofe 
 all thofe different forms of worfhip, which, 
 properly fpeaking, were no more than fubmif- 
 fiojis modified in a hundred extravagant forms,
 
 to appeafe the wrath of heaven, whofe refent- 
 ment they dreaded. Human reafon, altered 
 and debafed by the apprehenfion of an infinite 
 variety of evils, knew not whom to fly to for 
 fhelter. And, as people who are fick, try 
 every kind of medicine, however filly and ri- 
 diculous, in hopes to find a cure at iaft ; fo 
 mankind, in their blindnefs, fuppofed a divine 
 eflence, and a falutary virtue, in the various 
 objects of nature, from the higheft to the low- 
 eft. Every thing was adored j incenfe was of- 
 fered to mumrooms, altars were creeled to 
 crocodiles; temples were built, and""priefts 
 appointed, for the worfhip of ftatues made in 
 honour of thofe great men, who were the ear- 
 lieft governors of nations ; and whenever a 
 country laboured under any general affliction, 
 the fuperftition was doubled. The learned of 
 Germany have reafon to fay in this fenfe, that 
 fuperftition is the fame in all countries ; tho' it 
 be in general a confequence of credulity, yet 
 it fhews itfelf under different forms, which are 
 infinitely varied, and proportioned to the ge- 
 nius of nations. I can hardly think, that the 
 ingenious fables of the Greeks, that their dei- 
 ties, Minerva, Venus, and Apollo, were 
 known in this country at the time of paganifm. 
 
 But
 
 But our profound etymologifts are not puzzled 
 with fuch a trifle ; they think to ennoble their 
 mythology, by giving Greek or Roman origi- 
 nals to their gods ; as if the name of thofe peo- 
 ple was capable of rendering idolatry more ve- 
 nerable, or the extravagace of the Greeks was 
 preferable to that of the Germans. 
 
 IRMANSAUL was not the only god of the 
 Saxons. The following infcription was found 
 under one of their idols. / was once duke of the 
 Saxony but now I am become a god. Angelus 
 maintains, that they worfhipped the fun, un- 
 der the lorm of a radiant head ; and that this 
 idol gave its name to the town of Sonnenburg, 
 where it was erected. The fame author pre- 
 tends, that they adored Venus, reprefented 
 half naked, w;th the left nipple pierced by an 
 arrow ; and furrounded by three graces, of 
 a fmaller fize than herfelf : Thofe people 
 called her Magda ; that is, maid ; and Ange- 
 lus affirms, that fhe gave her name to Magde- 
 burg, where ihe had her altars. * The ruins 
 of her temple were ft ill to be feen in this city, 
 before it was facked by Tilly. But what ap- 
 pears mod remarkable in the wcrfhip paid by 
 the Saxons to this deity, were the games which 
 * Annals of Magdeburg. 
 
 they
 
 ( 262 ) 
 
 they celebrated in honour of her. Thefe con- 
 fifted of tournaments given by the young peo- 
 ple of neighbouring villages. They depofited 
 a fum of money in the hands of the judges, for 
 a portion to a young woman, who was to be 
 given in marriage to the perfon who had 
 won her at the tilting. The annals of Mag- 
 deburg make mention, that thefe games 
 were ftill fubfifting, as the relics of paganifm, 
 in the years 1279 and 1387. 
 
 LUXURY was introduced into religion, upon 
 the increafe of riches. Formerly the people 
 thought it improper to place their gods in tem- 
 ples built by human hands, for which reafon 
 they worfhipped them in facred groves ; but, 
 in proportion as they grew civilized, their gods 
 came to live in towns *. And yet the ancient 
 cuftom was not intirely abolifhed ; for we 
 find, that Charlemain forbad the Saxons to 
 worfhip oaks, or to water them with the blood 
 of victims. 
 
 THE priefls * of thofe days were more artful 
 and cunning than the common people. Befides 
 their priefthood, they had three other forts of 
 quacks-tricks ; they invented oracles, r.nd 
 they dabbled in aftrology and phyfic. So much 
 
 * Linderbrock. 
 
 f Freinftiemius and Schmidt. 
 
 2 craft
 
 craft was more than fufficient to impofe upon 
 the ignorant vulgar. Hence it was very 
 difficult to extirpate a religion, fupport- 
 ed by fuch a multitude of fupcrftitions. 
 All Germany was {till attached to the wor- 
 fhip of idols, when Charlemain, and after him 
 Henry the Fowler, undertook to convert thefe 
 people. After feveral ufelefs " efforts, they 
 fucceeded only by drowning idolatry in tor- 
 rents of human blood. 
 
 ARTICLE II. 
 
 Converfion of the People to 
 
 and the Slate of the Catholic Religion 
 in Brandenburg. 
 
 IT is a folly common to all nations, to il- 
 luftrate the nobility of their laws, cufloms, 
 and religion, by the antiquity of their origi- 
 nal. The Germans, not content with ftealing 
 their Gods from the Greeks, pretended alfo 
 to have received chrrftianity as early as any 
 other nation in Europe. They have found 
 in S. Jerome fome pr.fljge or another, which 
 lays, as Staphonius and Smitius pretend^ that 
 the apuflle Thomas came to preach the gofpel
 
 in the north of Germany. If he preached 
 any thing, it was incredulity ; for they 
 continued Pagans along time after. 
 
 LET people fay what they will, there is 
 not the leaft veftige of chriftianity to be found 
 in Brandenburg before the time of Charle- 
 main *. This emperor after feveral victories 
 obtained over the Saxons and Brandenburghers, 
 came and pitched his camp at Wormer- 
 ftedt f, in the neighbourhood of Magde- 
 burg, and granted peace to thofe provinces 
 which he had fubdued, upon condition that 
 they would confent to chri-ftianity. 
 
 THE impoflibility of withftanding fo for- 
 midable an enemy, and the fear of menaces, 
 induced thefe people to fubmit to baptifm, 
 which they received in the emperor's camp ; 
 but as foon as the danger was over, and the 
 emperor was removed to fome diftance from 
 the neighbourhood, together with his army, 
 they all returned again to their old ftate of 
 idolatry. 
 
 THE emperor Henry the Fowler triumphed 
 afterwards in 928, like Charlemain, over 
 the inhabitants of the banks of the Elbe, and 
 
 * In the eighth century. 
 f- Henry Meiboimus. 
 
 the
 
 the Oder ; and after a vaft deal of blood-fhed, 
 thofe people were fubdued and converted. 
 The Chriftians out of their great zeal demo- 
 Lfhed the Pagan idols, infomuch, that there 
 are fcarce any remains of them now extant ; 
 the empty niches of thofe idols were filled 
 with faints of every kind, and new errors 
 fucceeded to thofe of antiquity. 
 
 THAT age which Leo X. made for ever 
 memorable in Italy, by reviving the polite 
 arts and fciences, which had been a long time 
 buried in ignorance and depravation of tafte ; 
 that age, I fay, was not fo favourable to the 
 nations on this fide of the Alps. Germany 
 was flill in the darkeft ignorance, and 
 groaned under a barbarous kind of govern- 
 ment. There was neither morality, nor 
 learning ; and human reafon deprived of the 
 light of philofophy was buried in its ftupidity. 
 The converters, and the new profclytes, be- 
 ing in the fame fituation in regard to thofe 
 articles, had no reproach to make to each 
 t'ther. 
 
 * TOWARDS the year 946, the emperor 
 Otho founded the bifhopric of Havclberg, and 
 not Jong after that of t Brandenburg. Ho 
 
 * Anjlus. f 963. 
 
 M thought
 
 thought, very likely, to raife by this means a 
 kind of dike againft the inundation of idola- 
 try, to which thofe people were prone; in the 
 fame manner as princes build citadels in towns 
 newly conquered, to check the infolence and 
 mutinous difpofuion of the inhabitants. 
 
 BRANDENBURG being at length converted 
 to chriftianity, fell into the very excefs of falfe 
 zeal ; it made itfelf tributary at the fame time 
 to the pope, to the emperor, and to the mar- 
 grave its governor. The people foon repent- 
 ed their folly, and regretted thofe idols which 
 were vifible objects of worfhip, and lefs bur- 
 thenfome to them than the yearly tributes 
 which they paid to the pope, whom they ne- 
 ver faw. The love of liberty, the force of 
 inveterate prejudices , and the profpe& 
 of their own intereft, led them back to 
 their falfe gods. Miftevoyus, king of the 
 Vandals, put himfelf at the head of the 
 Pagan party, and reftored the ancient wor- 
 {hip, after driving the Margrave Thierry out 
 of Brandenburg. It was by force of arms, 
 that chriftianity was re-eftablihed for the third 
 time in this country. Then it was, that the 
 catholic religion appeared in full triumph, 
 Without any manner of conftraint, and was 
 
 followed
 
 followed by a long train of fcandalous ex- 
 cefles. The bifhops were ignorant, cruel, 
 and ambitious ; and inftead of preaching peace 
 by their example, they delighted in war, for 
 rhey bore arms in perfon againft the margraves, 
 and their other neighbours, plundering and 
 ravaging the country, committing the greateft 
 of violences, acting even the part of incendi- 
 aries, and arrogating to themfelves (notwtth- 
 ftanding a life thus fullied with crimes) an ab- 
 folute power over the confciences of the people. 
 So common were thofe diforders, that hif- 
 tory abounds with examples of them ; but I 
 fhall relate only two*. In 1278 Gunter 
 archbifhop of Brandenburg; waged war againft 
 the elector Otho, furnamed Sagittarius, took 
 him prifoner, and obliged him to pay the fum of 
 7000 filver marks for his ranfom. In 1391, 
 the archbifhop Albert, who went always arm- 
 ed, feized on the perfon of the lord of Bre- 
 dow, who was governor general of the Marck ; 
 took the town of Rathenaw, and made incur- 
 fions along the Havel, with a firebrand in 
 one hand, and a fword in the other, fpreading 
 terror and defolation wherever he approached. 
 
 * LockeUui, 
 
 M 2 THE
 
 ( 268 ) 
 
 THE grofs ignorance, into which thofe 
 people were funk in the i3th century, was a 
 foil in which fuperftition muft necefiarily 
 thrive. In fact, there was no want of mira- 
 cles, nor of any other kind of tricks, capable 
 of eftablifhing the authority of the priefts. 
 
 LOCKELIUS very gravely relates, that prince 
 Otho having been excommunicated by Luit- 
 pold archbifhop of Brandenburg on fome fri- 
 volous account, he laughed at the ecclefiaftic 
 cenfures j but that he was greatly firrprized, 
 when he found that his dogs, though almoft 
 ftarved with hunger, would eat no victuals 
 that came from his table ; which brought him 
 to his right way of thinking. Thefe dogs 
 were doubtlefs very good catholics, but un- 
 luckily the breed is loft. 
 
 AT that time the miraculous images of the 
 virgin Mary, and of the other faints, as well as 
 their numerous relics, had a very extraordi- 
 nary virtue *. Among the reft the blood of 
 Belitz was vaftly in vogue. The ftory is this. 
 A woman of that town who kept a public 
 houfe, ftole a confecrated hoft, and buried it 
 under a barrel in her cellar, hoping by this 
 means to have better cuftom for her beer. 
 
 * Annali of Brandenburg, 
 
 But
 
 But being touched with remorfe (for publi- 
 cans have a very tender confcience) (he owned 
 her crime in public to the curate, who came 
 in proceflion with all his pontifical tra : u to 
 dig up the hoft. In thrufting the fhovel into 
 the ground, they faw feme blood gufh out, 
 and every body immediately cried out, a mi- 
 racle. The impofture was too palpable - t for 
 it was known, that this was fome of the blood of 
 an ox, which had been fpilt there by the woman 
 of the houfe. Thefe miracles made a great 
 impreffion upon the minds of the people 
 but this would not fdtisfy the clergy *. The 
 court of Rome being ever more attentive to 
 extend her dominion under the colour of reli- 
 gion, neglected no method that could be con- 
 ducive to that end. In the I3th century moft 
 of the religious orders were founded. The 
 pope eftablifhed as many as he could of them 
 in Germany, and particularly in ihe country 
 of Brandenburg, under the pretence of fixing 
 by this means the minds of the people in the 
 profeffion of chriftianity. The hypoeondriac, 
 the lazy, and all thofe who had incurred fiiamc 
 or difgrace in the world, retired into thofe' 
 facred afylums, where they robbed the 
 
 * In 1*70. 
 
 M 3 ftate
 
 flate of its fubjefts, by banifhing them- 
 felves from fociety, and by renouncing the be- 
 nedi&ion which God gave to our firft pa- 
 rents. Thus they became a burthen to the 
 public, living only upon alms, or making un- 
 lawful acquifitions. And though thefe infti- 
 tutions were contrary to the laws of fo- 
 ciety and good policy, yet the pope eftablifh- 
 ed them over all Europe ; and thus without 
 oppofuion he raifed a powerful army of priefts, 
 at the expence of the feveral princes, and kept 
 large garrifons in countries over which he had 
 no fovereignty. But in thofe days the people 
 were brutifh, the princes weak, and the priefts 
 rode in triumph. 
 
 WHENchriftianity was well eftabliflied, it 
 produced fanatics of every kind *. The 
 country of Brandenburg was afflicted with the 
 plague in 1351, and this was fufficient to 
 make fuperftition fly into its higheft extra- 
 vagance. To appeafe the divine wrath, fome 
 Jews were baptized by force, and others 
 were burnt ; public proceflions were ordained ; 
 vows were made to miraculous images j and 
 the imagination grown warm by fo many 
 fcolifti and whimfical inventions, produced 
 
 Cramer, Baronius, JLockelius, 
 
 the
 
 the order of the flagellants. Thefe were 
 melancholy chriftians, who fcourged them- 
 felves with rods of wire in public proceffions. 
 But the pope himfelf was {hocked at thefe 
 horrid macerations, and condemned the order, 
 together with its abufes. 
 
 THE public devotions took afterwards a 
 milder turn. Pope John XXII. eftablifhd 
 offices of indulgences in the country of Bran- 
 denburg ; the Auftin friars traded in this com- 
 modity, and fent the money they raifed by 
 it to Rome. Miracles were at length grown 
 fo common *, that by the teflimony of feme 
 authors, a fhower of red and white crofies is 
 faid to have fallen upon the people that parted 
 along the ftreets, in the year 1500. Some 
 of thofe crofles were found in loaves of bread, 
 which was looked upon as the forerunner of 
 a general calamity. 
 
 AT this very time when the priefts im- 
 pofed fo grofsly on the credulity of mankind ; 
 when they made ufe of religion only as a means 
 to enrich themfelves, when the clergy in ge- 
 neral led the moft fcandalous lives, a fimple 
 friar undertook to reform fo many abufes. By 
 his example, he reftored mankind to the ufe 
 
 Lockelius, annals of Brandenburg, 
 
 M 4 Of
 
 of their reafon, which they had been de- 
 prived of for fo many ages j and the human un- 
 derftanding, encouraged by the recovery of its 
 liberty, fpread its inquiries on every fide. 
 
 ARTICLE III. 
 
 Of Religion under the Reformation. 
 
 I SHALL not confider the reformation as a 
 divine or hiftorian; the tenets of this religion, 
 and the events which it gave rife to, are fo 
 well known, that there is no need to repeat 
 them. So great, and fo extraordinaiy a revo- 
 lution, which changed slmoft the whole fyfteru 
 of Europe, deferves to be examined in a phi- 
 lofophical light. 
 
 THE catholic religion, which had been 
 raifed on the ruins of that of the Jews, and of 
 the Pagans, had now fubfifted during the 
 fpacf of fifteen centuries ; fhe had been humble 
 and mild under perfecutions ; but grown fierce 
 after her eftablifhment, fhe was for perfecuting 
 in her turn. All Chriftendom was fubjecl: to 
 the pope, who was reckoned infallible ; by 
 which means his power was more extended 
 thanthat of the moft abfolute monarch. A 
 
 pitiful
 
 pitiful friar undertook to cppofe a power fb 
 well eftablimed, and of a fudden one half of 
 Europe fhook off the papal yoke. 
 
 As the feveral caufes, which produced this 
 great revolution, had fubfifted long before ic 
 happened, they prepared the minds of the people 
 for fo important an event. The Chriftian reli- 
 gion was degenerated to fuch a degree, that the 
 very characters of its inftitution were no longer 
 difcernible. Nothing could excel the original 
 fanctity of its doctrine j but it was foon per- 
 verted, by the natural bias of mankind to cor- 
 ruption. Thus the pureft fources of good be- 
 came the caufe of all manner of mifchief. This 
 religion, which preached humility, charity, and 
 patience, was eftabliflied by fire and fword. 
 The priefts, who ought to have been exam- 
 ples of poverty and fanclity, led the moftfcan- 
 dalous lives ; they acquired immenfe riches, 
 which puffed them up with pride j and fome 
 of them were become powerful princes. The 
 pope, who originally was fubject to the em- 
 perors, aflumed to himfelf the power of mak- 
 ing and depofmg them ; he thundered out his 
 excommunications, laid whole kingdoms un- 
 der interdicts, and carried things to fo enor- 
 M mous
 
 mous an excefs, that the world was obliged to 
 cry out for a reformation. 
 
 RELIGION changed, together with the 
 manners of the people ; every age it loft fome- 
 thing of its natural funplicity; and, by too 
 much paint, its features were no longer diftin- 
 guifhable. All that was fuperadded to it, was 
 the invention of men ; and, like them, was 
 doomed to perifh. At the council of* Nice, 
 the divinity f of the Son was declared equal to 
 that of the Father ; and, by joining the Holy 
 Ghoft to thofe two peifons, they made the 
 Trinity. Priefts were forbidden to marry, by 
 the canons of the council of Toledo J ; but 
 they 4id not comply with this inftitution, till 
 the 1 3th century. Purgatory was invented in 
 the 6th century, and the council of Trent 
 made it an article of faith. The worlhip of 
 images was eftablifhed by the fecond council of 
 Nice , and tranfubftantiation by the council 
 of Trent **. The fchoolmen maintained the 
 infallibility of the pope, fmce the quarrel be- 
 
 * In the year 321. 
 
 f- Origin and S. Juftin were not of this opinion. The 
 latter fays in his dialogue, p. 316. that the fon is not 
 near fo great as the father. 
 
 J Held in the year 400, 
 
 Held in 78 1 
 
 ** 1645. 
 
 tween
 
 tween the bifliops of Rome and Conftantino- 
 ple. Some melancholy men founded religious 
 orders, and confined to idle fpeculation a life, 
 which fhould be fpent in action for the good 
 .of fociety. Convents were multiplied without 
 number, and a great part of mankind were 
 buried and fequeftered from fociety. In fine, 
 all manner of tricks were invented to impofe 
 upon the credulity of the vulgar ; and forged 
 miracles were become almoft a common thing. 
 
 AND yet religion was not to expect a refor- 
 mation, by changes arifing from fpeculative 
 confiderations. Among thofe who think, the 
 generality turn all their fagacity and penetra- 
 tion on the fide of intereft and ambition : there 
 are very few that combine abftract ideas, and 
 much lefs, who reflect deeply on thofe impor- 
 tant matters ; and the common people, the 
 mod refpeclable, moft numerous, and moft 
 unfortunate part of fociety, follow the im- 
 preflions which they receive from their leaders. 
 
 THIS was not the cafe in refpect to the ty- 
 rannical power, which the clergy exercifed 
 over the confidences of the people ; the priefts 
 {tripped them of their liberty and property. 
 
 THIS flavery, which every day grew hea- 
 vier, had already occafioned great complaints. 
 M 6 The
 
 (2 7 6) 
 
 The moft dull, as well as the moft ingeniou?, 
 if they have but fenfibiiity, feel an injury done 
 them. All aim alike at their own welfare, and 
 if they fuffer for a while, their patience wihl be 
 tired out at laft. Thus the oppreflion, under 
 which fo many nations groaned, would hare 
 inevitably produced a reformation, even if the 
 Roman clergy themfelves, torn by inteftine 
 divifions, had not given the fignal of liberty, 
 by fetting up the ftandard of revolt againft the 
 pope. TheVaudois, the Wiclefites, and the 
 Huflites, had already attempted to ftirj but 
 Luther and Calvin, who had equal boldnefs 
 with the former, and were born under more 
 favourable conjunctures, gave at length the fi- 
 nifhing ftroke to this great work. 
 
 THE Auftin friars were in pofleffion of the 
 trade of indulgences ; but the pope gave the 
 commiffion this time to the Dominicans, which 
 occafioned a furious quarrel between the two 
 orders. The Auflin-friars exclaimed againft 
 the pope j and Luther, who was of their or- 
 der, attacked with great vigour the abufes of 
 the church. He boldly tore off part of the 
 veil of fuperftition, and became the head of a 
 fe&; and, as hisdoclrine llripped the bifhops 
 of their benefkss, and the monafteries of- their 
 
 riches,
 
 ( 277 ) 
 
 riches, princes followed this new reformer in 
 crowds. 
 
 RELIGION then aflumed a new form, and 
 drew near to its antient fimplicity. This is 
 not a place to examine, whether it would not 
 have been better to have left more pomp and 
 external fhew, as it has a greater erTe<t upon 
 the people, who are ftruck only by fenfible ob- 
 jects. It feems that a worfhip, entirely fpi- 
 ritual, and fo naked as that of the proteftants, 
 is not defigned for dull heavy men, who are 
 incapable of rifing by thought to the admira- 
 tion of the fublimeft truths. 
 
 THE reformation was of fervice to the 
 world, and efpecially to the progrefs of the 
 human understanding. The proteftants being 
 obliged to reflect upon matters of faith, di- 
 vefted themfelves fuddenly of the prejudices of 
 education, and found themfelves at liberty to 
 make ufe of their reafon, that guide, which 
 is given to man to conduct h;m, and which he 
 ought to follow, if ever, in -the moft important 
 concerns of life. The catholics finding them- 
 felves vigoroufly attacked, were obliged to 
 defend themfelves. The clergy began to ftudy, 
 and emerged from that lhanieful ignorance, ifl 
 which they had been almoft all buried. 
 
 IJ
 
 IF there was but one religion in the world, 
 it would be proud and and defpotic ; the priefts 
 would be fo many tyrants, who while they ex- 
 ercifed their feverity towards the people, would 
 fhew indulgence only to their own crimes. 
 Faith, ambition and policy would enflave the 
 univerfe. Now, that there are a great many 
 feels, none of them can deviate, without 
 having reafon to repent it, from the rules of 
 moderation. The example of the reformation 
 is a bridle which hinders the pope from giving 
 loofe to his ambition ; and he has reafon to 
 apprehend the defertion of his members, if he 
 abufes his power. Thus he is very fparing of 
 his excommunications, fince by a ftep of that 
 kind he loft Henry VIII. and the kingdom of 
 England. The caiholic and proteftant clergy, 
 who watch one another with an equal inclina- 
 tion to criticize, are both obliged to obferve, 
 at leafr, an external decorum. Thus there is 
 an exact ballance between them. Happy, if the 
 fpirit of party, fanaticifm and folly, never hurry 
 them again into thofe barbarous wars, which 
 ihould be eternally odious to all branches of 
 Chriftianity. Confidering religion merely in 
 a political light, it feems that proteftantifm is 
 better adapted both for republics and monar- 
 chies .
 
 ( 279 ) 
 
 chies. Tt agrees better with that fpirit of 
 liberty, which is efiential to the former. For 
 in a government that ftands in need of mer- 
 chants, labourers, tradefmen, foldiers, and 
 in fhort, of a great multitude of fubjecls for its 
 fupport, it is certain, that people who make a 
 vow againft the propagation of the human 
 fpecies, are pernicious to the ftate. 
 
 IM monarchies, the proteftant religion de- 
 pends on no foreign power, but is intirely fub- 
 je& to the government ; whereas the catholic 
 religion eftablifhes a fpiritual jurifdi&ion, un- 
 limited in its power, and fruitful in plots and 
 artifices, in the prince's temporal dominions. 
 The priefls who have the direction of con- 
 fciences, and have no other fuperior but the 
 pope, have a greater command over the people 
 than the fovereign that governs them ; and by 
 a peculiar artifice of confounding the interefts 
 of religion with human ambition, the popes 
 have often been at variance with princes on 
 fubje^ts that are no way fubject to the jurif- 
 diclion of the church. 
 
 IN the country of Brandenburg, and moft 
 of the provinces of Germany, the people were 
 all impatient under the yoke of the Roman 
 clergy. This was too coftly a religion for fo 
 
 poor
 
 poor a country. Purgatory, mafles for the 
 living and the dead, jubilees, firft fruits, in- 
 dulgences, venial and mortal fins, the chang- 
 ing of penances into pecuniary fines, matri- 
 monial caufes, vows and offerings, were fo 
 many imports which the pope laid on credulity, 
 and brought him in as fure a revenue as Mex- 
 ico does to Spain. Thofe who paid them were 
 exhaufted and diflatisfied. There was no ne- 
 ceffity of ufmg many arguments to difpofe 
 thofe people to receive the reformation : they 
 complained of the tyranny of the clergy ; a 
 man ftarted up who promifed to deliver them 
 from the opprefiion, and they all followed 
 him. 
 
 JOACHIM II. was the firft elector who em- 
 braced the Lutheran religion j which he learnt 
 of his mother who was a princefs of Den- 
 mark. For the new doctrine had made its 
 way into Denmark before it was received in 
 Brandenburg. His fubjecls foon followed his 
 example, and all Brandenburg turned protef- 
 tant. Matthew Jagow bifhop of Brandenburg 
 adminiftred the facrament in both kinds in the 
 convent of black- friers. This convent became 
 afterwards the cathedral of Berlin. Joa- 
 chim II. didinguifhed himfelf among the party, 
 3 not
 
 (281 ) 
 
 not only by the controverfial letters which he 
 wrote to the king of Poland, but moreover 
 by the eloquent fpeeches which he is faid to have 
 * made at the diet of Augfburg in favour of 
 the proteftants. 
 
 THE reformation could not abolifh all 
 the errors of the antient religion : tho' it had 
 opened the eyes of the people with re- 
 gard to an infinite number of fuperftitions, 
 yet it retained a great many others ; fo 
 inconceivable is the propenfuy of the hu- 
 man mind to error. Luther did not believe 
 in purgatory, yet he admitted apparitions and 
 devih into his fyflem : he even maintained 
 that fatan had appeared to him at Wittem- 
 burg, and that he had exorcifed him by flinging 
 an ink horn at his head. There was fcarce any 
 nation at that time, but was full of thofe pre- 
 judices. The court, and much more fo the 
 the people, were prepoflefled with a notion of 
 forcery, conjuring, apparitions and devils. 
 1 '533> two ld worn^n pafled thro* the 
 ordeal of fire, to clear themfelves of the charge 
 of witchcraft. The court had its aflrologer : 
 one of them foretold, at the birth of John 
 Sigifmund, that he would be a fortunate prince* 
 bccaufe at that time a new ftar was difco- 
 
 * Leckeliuj'i annals of Brandenburg. 
 
 vcrcd
 
 vcred in the conftellation of Caffiopeia. But 
 the aftrologer did not foretell, that John 
 Sigifmund would turn Calvinift to pleafe the 
 Dutch, whofe afliftance was of great fervice 
 to him in aflerting his rights to the dutchy of 
 Cleves. 
 
 AFTER Luther's fchifm had divided the 
 church, the popes and emperors ufed every 
 kind of endeavour to bring about a re-union. 
 The divines of both professions held confer- 
 ences, one while at Thorn, another time at 
 Augfburg. Religious fubje&s were debated 
 in all the diets of the empire, and yet every 
 attempt proved fruitlefs. At length a blocdy 
 and cruel war broke out, which was extin- 
 guifhed and renewed at different intervals. 
 It was often kindled by the ambition of the 
 emperors, who wanted to opprefs the liberty 
 of the princes, and the confciences of the peo- 
 ple. But the jealoufy of France, and the 
 ambition of Guftavus Adolphus, king of Swe- 
 den, preferved Germany and religion from 
 the defpotic power of the houfe of Auftria. 
 
 DURING all thofe troubles, the eledors of 
 Brandenburg behaved with the greateft pru- 
 dence. They were dire&ed by the princi- 
 ciples of lenity and moderation. Frederick- 
 William
 
 ( 283 ) 
 
 William having acquired catholic fubje&s by 
 the treaty of Weftphalia, did not perfecute 
 them ; he even gave leave to fome Jewifh fa- 
 milies to fettle in his dominions, and permitted 
 them to build fynagogues. 
 
 FREDERICK I. fometimes {hut the catholic 
 churches, by way of reprifal for the perfe- 
 cutions which the proteftants fuffered under 
 the elector palatine j but the catholics were 
 always re- inflated in the free exercife of their 
 religion. The Calvinifts attempted to perfe- 
 cute the Lutherans in the country of Bran- 
 denburg. The king being inclined to favour 
 the Calvinifts, embraced this opportunity to 
 eftablifh priefts of that feel in villages which 
 had been always directed by Lutherans. This 
 plainly {hews, that religion does not deftroy 
 the paflions of mankind, and that priefts of 
 whatever religion, are always ready to opprefs 
 their adverfaries, when they have power on 
 their fide. 
 
 IT is a fhame to the human underftand- 
 ing, that at the beginning of fo learned an 
 age as the XVIII. all manner of fuperftitions 
 were yet fubfifting. Men of fenfe, as well as 
 the vulgar, believed ftill in apparitions. There 
 was a kind of popular tradition, that a ghoft 
 
 drefled
 
 drefied in white appeared conftamly at Berlin, 
 whenever a prince of the family was near his 
 end. The late king ordered a fellow to be 
 taken up and punifhed, who had pretended to 
 have feen an apparition j the ghofts offended 
 at fo bad a reception, appeared no more, and 
 the public was difabufed. 
 
 IN 1708, a woman who had the misfor- 
 tune of being old, was burnt as a witch. 
 Thefe barbarous confequences of ignorance 
 made a great impreffion upon Thomafius, 
 the learned profefibr of Halle j he expofed the 
 weaknefs and ridicule of the proofs of witch- 
 craft, he maintained public thefes on the na- 
 tural caufes of things, and declaimed fo loudly 
 againft trials of this kind, that the judges were 
 afhamed to continue them any longer; and 
 fmce his time the ftx has been fuftered to 
 grow old and die in peace. 
 
 OF all the learned men that have adorned 
 Germany, Leibnitz, and Thomafius did the 
 greateft fervice to the human understanding, 
 by pointing out the right road which reafon 
 ought to purfue to come at the truth. They 
 oppofed prejudices of every kind, and in all 
 their writings appealed to analogy and expe- 
 rience, the two crutches by the help of which
 
 we drawl on in the road of argumentation ; 
 and they had a great number of difciples. 
 
 THE Calvinifts became more pacific under 
 the reign of Frederick- William, and religious 
 quarrels ceafed. The Lutherans improved 
 this tranquillity to their advantage. Francke, 
 a minuter of their feel, eftablifhed by his own 
 induftry a college at Halle. This was a nur- 
 fery for young divines, from whence a fwarm 
 of priefts iffued forth, who formed a fe of 
 rigid Lutherans, and who wanted nothing but 
 an Abbe Paris's grave, and an Abbe Beche- 
 rand, to play gambols upon. Thefe are pro- 
 teftant Janfenifts, who are diftinguifhed from 
 the reft by their myftical feverities. After 
 them appeared all forts of Quakers, Zinzen- 
 dorfians, Hychilians, and other fe&s, one 
 more ridiculous and extravagant than the 
 other, who by carrying * the principles of the 
 primitive church too far, fell into fome cri- 
 minal abufes. 
 
 ALL thefe fels live here in peace, and con- 
 tribute alike to the profperity of the ftate ; 
 for there is never a religion that differs greatly 
 
 The community of goods, and equality of conditi- 
 ons. It is even faid that this community of goods is ex- 
 tended to women in their aflemblics, 
 
 from
 
 ( 286 ) 
 
 from the reft, in refpect to morality. Hence 
 they may be all alike to the government, 
 which of courfe leaves every man at liberty 
 to go to heaven which way he pleafes. All 
 that is required of them, is to be peaceful and 
 good fubjects. 
 
 FALSE zeal is a tyrant that depopulates 
 provinces ; toleration is a tender mother that 
 makes them flourifli. 
 
 FINIS.
 
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