>r:>;i-^ i ipiii'? ''^Sis booW is P' ' iJ^^'yv-^/A SOUTHERN BRANCH, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LIBRARY, ' n^- A C/,LJF. QARLYLR'S COMPLETE WORKS THE STERLING EDITION HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH II. OF PRUSSIA CALLED FREDERICK THE GREAT BY THOMAS CARLYLE Vol. I. - 1 \ BOSTON ESTES AND LAURIAT, PUBLISHERS 499^)5 ?InibErsitn ^rtss : John Wilson and Sox, C'amiu.idoe. ccccC^f '' < cc ecc* ,cc» , cc cc ccc : « c.c ' ' I ' c' C'C J CjC,C c rCC,, C CCCCCC CONTENTS. Book I. BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. 1712. CUAPTKR Page I. Proem : Priedrich's History from the Distance we ARE AT 3 1. Friedrich then, and Friedrich now, p. 6. 2. Eighteenth Centuiy, 9. 3. English Prepossessions, 12. 4. Encouragements, Discounigements, 17- 11. Priedrich's Birth 21 • III. Fatuer and Mother : the Hanoverian Connection . . 24 IV. Father's Mother 35 'V. King Friedrich 1 45 Book II. OF BRANDENBURG AND THE HOHENZOLLFRNS. 928-1417. T. Brannibor : Henry the Fowler 55 II. Preussen : Saint Adalbert 63 TIL Markgraves of Brandenburg 69 End of the First Shadowy Line, p. 69. Second Shadowy Line, 70. Substantial Markgraves : Glimpse of the Contemporary Kai- sers, 72. IV. Albert the Bear 74 V. Conrad of Hohenzollern ; and Kaiser Barbarossa . 80 Conrad has become Burggraf of Niirnberg (a.d. 1170), p. 84. Of the Hohenzollern Burggraves generally, 87. iv CONTENTS. Chapter Page VI. The Teutsch Ritters, or Teutonic Order .... 89 Head of Teutsch Order moves to Venice, p. yi. Teutsch Order itself goes to Preussen, 93. The stuff Teutsch Kilters were made of. Conrad of TLiirin- gcn : Saiut Elizabeth; Town of Marburg, 98. VII. Margraviate of Culmbacu : Baireutu, Anspacd . . . 102 Burggraf Friedrich III. ; and the Anarchy of Niueteen Years, p. 104. Kaiser Rudolf and Burggraf Friedrich III., 108. VIII. AscANiER Markgraves IN Branuenburg 110 Of Berlin City, p. 111. Markgraf Otto IV., or Otto with the Arrow, 113. IX. BuRGGRAE Friedrich IV 110 Contested Elections in the Reich : Kaiser Albert I. ; after whom Six Non-llapsburg Kaisers, p. 116. Of Kaiser llcury Vll. and the Lu.xembarg Kaisers, 119. Henry's Son Johann is King of Bohemia; and Ludwig the Ba- varian, with a Contested Election, is Kaiser, 121. X. Brandenburg lapses to the Kaiser 120 XI. Bavarian Kurfursts in Brandenburg 130 A Resuscitated Ascanier ; the False Waldemar, p. 130. Margaret with the Pouch-mouth, 133. XII. Brandenburg in Kaiser Karl's Time; End of the Ba- varian Kurfursts 130 End of Resuscitated Waldemar ; Kurfiirst Ludwig sells out, p. 138. Second, and then Third and Last, of the Bavarian Kurfiiists in Brandeubui-g, 1-40. XIII. Luxemburg Kurfursts in Brandenburg 141 XIV. Burggraf Friedrich VI 144 Sigismund is Kurfiirst of Brandenburg, but is King of llun- gaiy also, p. 145. Cousin Jobst has Brandenburg in Pawn, 147. Brandenburg in the hands of the Pawnbrokers ; Rupei-t of the Pfalz is Kaiser, 149. Sigismund, with a struggle, becomes Kaiser, 151. Brandenburg is pawned for the last time, 154. The Seven Intercalary or Non-IIapsburg Kaisers, 157- •- CONT£x\TS. Boolt III. THE IIOIIENZOLLERNS IN BRANDENBURG. 1412-1713. Chapter Page I. KuKFiJRST Pkiedricii 1 159 II. Matkees du Roi de Prusse IGi III. KuRFURST Friedrich II 170 IV. KuRFURST Albert Achilles, and his Successor . . . 177 • Johaun the Cicero is Fourth Kurfiirst, aud leaves Two notable Sons, p. 181. V. Of the Baireutii-Anspacu Branch ....... 184 Two Lilies in Culiubach or Balreuth-Auspach : the Gera Bond ol'15i)8, p. 185. The Elder Line of Ciilinbach: Friedrich and his Three notable Sons there, 188. Friedrich's Second Son, Margraf George of Anspach, 190. VI. HociiMEisTER Albert, Third notable Son of Fried- rich 200 VII. Albert Ai.cibiadls 209 VIII. Historical Meaning of tub Reformation 215 IX. KURFURST JOACIIIil 1 219 Of Joachim's "Wife and Brother-in-law, p. 220. X. KurfGrst JoACuiM. II 224 Toachim gets Co-iufeClinent in Preusscn, p. 230. Joachim makes "IIuritagc-Brotherhood " with the Duke of Liegnitz, 230. XI. Seventh Kurfurst, Jon.vNN George 2.3G XII Of Albert Friedrich, the Second Duke of Preussen 239 Of Duke Albert Friedrich's Marriage : who his Wife was, and what her possible Dowry, p. 241. Margraf Geoi-ge Friedrich comes to Preussen, to administer, 244. XII^. iViNTH KurfCkst, Johaxn Sigismund 246 How the Cleve Heritage dropped, and many sprang to pick it up, p. 247. The Kaiser's Thoughts about it, and the World's, 252. vi CONTENTS. Chapter Paqe XIV. Symptoms of a. Great War coming 233 First Symptom; Donauworth, 1608, p. 253. Second Symptom ; Seizure of Jiilich by the Kaiser, and Siege and Recapture of it by the Protestant parties, 1010. Wberc- upon " Catholic League " to balance " Evangelical Union," 255. Symptom Third ; a Dinner-scene at Diisseldorf, 1613 : Span- iards and Dutch shoulder arms in Cleve, 257- Symptom Fourth, and Catastrophe upon the heels of it, 261. "What became of the Cleve-Julich Heritage, and of the Preusscn one, 203. XV. Tenth Ktjefurst, George Wiluelm 265 XVI. Thirty- Years War 2G7 Second Act, or Epoch, 1024-1629. A second Uncle put to the Ban, and Pommern snatched away, p. 270. Third Act, and what the Kurfiirst suffered in it, 272. XVII. D:-ciiY OF Jagerndorf . 276 Duke of Jiigcrudorf, Elector's Uncle, is put under Ban, p. 276. XVIII. Friedrioh Wilhelm, the Great Kurfurst, Eleventh OF THE Series 27f "What became of Pommern at the Peace ; final Glance into Cleve- Jiilich, p-. 282. The Great Kurfurst's AVars : what he achieved in War and Peace, 283. ■ XIX. King Eriedricii I. again 29G How Austria settled the Silesian Claims, p. 296. His real Character, 299. XX. D£.\.TQ OF King Eriedricu 1 302 The Twelve Hohenzollern Electors, p. 308. Genealogical Diagram ; the Two Culmbach Lines, 309<z. 93ook IV. FRIEDRICH'S APPRENTICESHIP, FIRST STAGE. 1713-1723. I. Childhood; Double Educational Element 310 First Educational Element, the French one, p. 311. 11. The German Element 316 Of the Dessauer, not yet " Old," p. 318. III. Friedrich Wilhelm is King 324 «k »■ CONTENTS. vii CHAriER Page IV. His Majesty's "Wats 337 V. Friedricu Wiliielm's One War 3ii The Devil in harness: Creutz the Fiuauce-Minister, p. 356. VI. TuE Little Drummer 359 VII. Transit op Czar Peter 364 VIII. The Crown-Prince is put to his Schooling .... 371 IX. Wusterhausen 388 X. The Heidelberg Protestants 391 Of Kur-Pi'alz Karl Philip : How he got a Wife long since, and did Feats in tlie ■\Voiia, p. 396. Karl Philip and his Ikidtlberg Protestants, 398. Friedrich Wilhelm's Method; — proves remedial in Heidelberg, 401. Prussian JIajesty has displeased the Kaiser and the King of Poland, 4U3. There is an absurd Flame of War, blown out by Admiral Byng ; and a new Man of Genius announces himself to the dim Popu- lations, 4U0. XI. Of tue Crown-Prince's Progress in his Schooling . 408 The Nolteuius-and-Pauzendorf Drill-exercise, p. 412. XII. Crown-Prince falls into Disfavor with Papa . . . 416 XIII. Results of the Crown-Prince's Schooling .... 419 Book V. DOT'BLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT, AND WHAT ELEMENT IT FELL INTO. 1723-1726. I. Double-Marriage is decided on 425 Queen Sophie-Dorothee has taken Time by the Forelock, p. 426. Princess Amelia comes into the World, 437. Friedrich Wilhelm's Ten Children, 439. II. A Kaiser hunting Shadows 440 Imperial Majesty on the Treaty of Utrecht, p. 441. Imperial ^lajesty has irot happily wedded, 443. Imperial Majesty and the Termagant of Spain, 445. Imperial Majesty's Pragmatic Sanction, 447. Third Shadow: Imperial Majesty's Ostend Company, 451. viii CONTENTS. Chapter Page III. The Seven Crises or EuROPEAif Travail-throes . . . 452 Congress of Cambrai, p. 454. Congress of Cambrai gets tbe Floor puUed from under it, 457. Trance and the Britannic Majesty trim the Ship again : How Friedrich "Wilhelm came into it. Treaty of Hanover, 1725, 459. Travail-Throes of Nature for Baby Carlos's Italian Apanage; Seven in number, 402. IV, Double-Marriage Treaty cannot be signed .... 464 ILLUSTRATIONS. Portrait : the Great Elector. '' • From a Dutch Print. Etched by S. A. Schofp. Frontispiece, HISTORY OF FRIEDIilCH 11. OF PRUSSIA, CALLED FREDERICK THE GREAT. IN TWENTY-ONE BOOKS. VOL. V. FREDERICK THE GREAT. BOOK I. BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. 1712. CHAPTER I. PROEM : FRIEDRICIl's HISTORY FROM THE DISTANCE WE ARE AT. About fourscore years ago, there used to be seen saunter- ing on the terraces of Sans Souci, for a short time in the afternoon, or you might have met him elsewhere at an earlier hour, riding or driving in a rapid business manner on the open roads or through the scraggy woods and avenues of that intricate amphibious Potsdam region, a highly interesting lean little old man, of alert though slightly stooping figure ; whose name among strangers was King Frledrlch the Second, or Frederick the Great of Prussia, and at home among the common people, who much loved and esteemed him, was Voter Fritz, — Father Fred, — a name of familiarity which had not bred contempt in that instance. He is a King every inch of him, though without the trappings of a King. Presents him- self in a Spartan simplicity of vesture : no crown but an old military cocked-hat, — generally old, or trampled and kneaded into absolute softness, if new ; — no sceptre but one like Aga- memnon's, a walking-stick cut from the woods, which serves also as a riding-stick (with which he hits the horse " between the ears," say authors) j — and for royal robes, a mere soldier's 4 BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. Book I. blue coat with red facings, coat likely to be old, and sure to have a good deal of Spanish snuff on the breast of it ; rest of the apparel dim, unobtrusive in color or cut, ending in high over-knee military boots, which may be brushed (and, I hope, kept soft with an underhand suspicion of oil), but are not per- mitted to be blackened or varnished ; Day and Martin with their soot-pots forbidden to approach. The man is not of godlike physiognomy, any more than of imposing stature or costume : close-shut mouth with thin lips, prominent jaws and nose, receding brow, by no means of Olympian height ; head, however, is of long form, and has superlative gray eyes in it. Not what is called a beautiful man ; nor yet, by all appearance, what is called a happy. On the contrary, the face bears evidence of many sorrows, as they are termed, of much hard labor done in this world ; and seems to anticipate nothing but more still coming. Quiet stoicism, capable enough of what joy there were, but not expecting any worth mention ; great unconscious and some conscious pride, well tempered with a cheery mockery of humor, — are written on that old face ; which carries its chin well forward, in spite of the slight stoop about the neck ; snuffy nose rather flung into the air, under its old cocked-hat, — like an old snuffy lion on the watch ; and such a pair of eyes as no man or lion or lynx of that Century bore elsewhere, according to all the testimony we have. "Those eyes," says Mirabeau, "which, at the bidding of his great soul, fascinated you with seduction or with terror (jyortaient, au gre de son dme hero'iqiie, la seduc- tion ou la teTreur)r ^ Most excellent potent brilliant eyes, swift-darting as the stars, steadfast as the sun ; gray, we said, of the azure-gray color ; large enough, not of glaring size ; the habitual expression of them vigilance and penetrating sense, rapidity resting on depth. Which is an excellent combina- tion ; and gives us the notion of a lambent outer radiance springing from some great inner sea of light and fire in the man. The voice, if he speak to you, is of similar physiog- nomy : clear, melodious and sonorous ; all tones are in it, ^ Mirabeau, Histoire Secrete de la Cour de Berlin, Lettre 28"* (24 Septem- bre, 1786), p. 128 (iu edition of Paris, 1821). Chap. I. PROEM : FROM THIS DISTANCE. «. from that of ingenuous inquiry, graceful sociality, light- flowing banter (rather prickly for most part), up to definite word of command, up to desolating word of rebuke and reprobation ; a voice " the clearest and most agreeable in conversation I ever heard," says witty Dr. Moore. ^ " He speaks a great deal," continues the doctor; "yet those who bear him, regret that he does not speak a good deal more. His observations are always lively, very often just ; and few men possess the talent of repartee in greater perfection." Just about threescore and ten years ago,^ his speakings and his workings came to finis in this World of Time ; and he vanished from all eyes into other worlds, leaving much inquiry about him in the minds of men ; — which, as my readers and I may feel too well, is yet by no means satisfied. As to his speech, indeed, though it had the worth just ascribed to it and more, and though masses of it were deliberately put on paper by himself, in prose and verse, and continue to be printed and kept legible, what he spoke has pretty much van- ished into the inane ; and except as record or document of what he did, hardly now concerns mankind. But the things he did were extremely remarkable ; and cannot be forgotten by mankind. Indeed, they bear such fruit to the present hour as all the Newspapers are obliged to be taking note of, sometimes to an unpleasant degree. Editors vaguely account this man the " Creator of the Prussian Monarchy ; " which has since grown so large in the world, and troublesome to the Editorial mind in this and other countries. He was indeed the first who, in a highly public manner, notified its creation ; announced to all men that it was, in very deed, created ; stand- ing on its feet there, and wou.ld go a great way, on the impulse it had got from him and others. As it has accordingly done ; and may still keep doing to lengths little dreamt of by the British Editor in our time ; whose prophesyings upon Prussia, and insights into Prussia, in its past, or present or future, are truly as yet inconsiderable, in proportion to the noise he 1 Moore, View of Society and Manners in France, Switzerland and Germany (London, 1779), ii. 246. 2 A.D. 1856, — 17th August, 1786. 6 BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. Book I. makes with them ! The more is the pity for him, — and for myself too in the Enterprise now on hand. It is of this Figure, whom we see by the mind's eye in those Potsdam regions, visible for the last time seventy years ago, that we are now to treat, in the way of solacing ingenu- ous human curiosity. We are to try for some Historical Conception of this Man and King ; some answer to the questions, " What was he, then ? Whence, how ? And what did he achieve and suffer in the world ? " — such answer as may prove admissible to ingenuous mankind, especially such as may correspond to the Fact (which stands there, abstruse indeed, but actual and unalterable), and so be sure of admis- sibility one day. An Enterprise which turns out to be, the longer one looks at it, the more of a formidable, not to say unmanageable nature ! Concerning Avhich, on one or two points, it were good, if conveniently possible, to come to some preliminary understanding with the reader. Here, flying on loose leaves, are certain incidental utterances, of various date : these, as the topic is difficult, I will merely label and insert, instead of a formal Discourse, which were too apt to slide into some- thing of a Lamentation, or otherwise take an unpleasant turn. 1. Friedrich then, and Friedrich now. This was a man of infinite mark to his contemporaries ; who had witnessed surprising feats from him in the world; very questionable notions and ways, which he had contrived to maintain against the world and its criticisms. As an original man has always to do ; much more an original ruler of men. The world, in fact, had tried hard to put him down, as it does, unconsciously or consciously, with all such; and after the most conscious exertions, and at one time a dead- lift spasm of all its energies for Seven Years, had not been able. Principalities and powers. Imperial, Eoyal, Czarish, Papal, enemies innumerable as the sea-sand, had risen against him, only one helper left among the world's Potentates (and Chap. I. *' PEOEM : NOW AND THEN. 7 that one only wliile there should be helji rendered in return) ; and he led them all such a dance as had astonished mankind and them. No wonder they thought him worthy of notice. Every original man of any magnitude is ; — nay, in the long-run, who or what else is ? But how much more if your original man Avas a king over men ; whose movements were polar, and carried from day to day those of the world along with them. The Samson Agonistes, — were his life passed like that of Samuel Johnson in dirty garrets, and the produce of it oiily some bits of written paper, — the Agonistes, and how he will comport himself in the Philistine mill ; this is alwaj'S a spectacle of truly epic and tragic nature. The rather, if your Samson, royal or other, is not yet blinded or subdued to the wheel ; much more if he vanquish his enemies, not by suicidal methods, but march out at last flourishing his miracu- lous fighting implement, and leaving their mill and them in quite ruinous circumstances. As this King Friedrich fairly managed to do. "Fox he left the world all bankrupt, we may say ; fallen into bottomless abysses of destruction ; he still in a paying condi- tion, and with footing capable to carry his affairs and him. When he died, in 1786, the enormous Phenomenon since called Fkexch EEVOLXJTiojf was already growling audibly in the depths of the world ; meteoric-electric coruscations heralding it, all round the horizon. Strange enough to note, one of Fried- rich's last visitors was Gabriel Ilonore Eiquetti, Comte de Mirabeau. These two saw one another; twice, for half an hour each time. The last of the old Gods and the first of the modern Titans ; — before Pelion leapt on Ossa ; and the foul Earth taking fire at last, its vile mephitic elements went up in volcanic thunder. This also is one of the peculiarities of Fried- rich, that he is hitherto the last of the Kings ; that he ushers in the French Revolution, and closes an Epoch of World-His- tory. Finishing off forever the trade of King, think many ; who have grown profoundly dark as to Kingship and him. The French Eevolution may be said to have, for about half a century, quite submerged Friedrich, abolished him from the 8 BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. Book I. memories of men ; and now on coming to light again, lie is fonnd defaced under strange mud-incrustations, and the eyes of mankind look at him from a singularly changed, what we must call oblique and perverse point of vision. This is one of the difficulties in dealing w4th his History; — especially if you happen to believe both in the French Revolution and in him ; that is to say, both that Eeal Kingship is eternally indis- pensable, and also that the destruction of Sham Kingship (a frightful process) is occasionally so. On the breaking-out of that formidable Explosion, and Suicide of his Century, Friedrich sank into comparative ob- scurity ; eclipsed amid the ruins of that universal earth- quake, the very dust of which darkened all the air, and made of day a disastrous midnight. Black midnight, broken only by the blaze of conflagrations; — wherei% to our terri- fied imaginations, were seen, not men, French and other, but ghastly portents, stalking Avrathful, and shapes of avenging gods. It must be owned the figure of Napoleon was titanic ; especially to the generation that looked on him, and that waited shuddering to be devoiired by him. In general, in that French Revolution, all was on a huge scale ; if not greater than anything in human experience, at least more grandiose. All was recorded in bulletins, too, addressed to the shilling-gallery ; and there were fellows on the stage with such a breadth of sabre, extent of whiskerage, strength of windpipe, and command of men and gimpowder, as had never been seen before. How they bellowed, stalked and flourished about ; counterfeiting Jove's thunder to an amazing degree ! Terrific Drawcansir figures, of enormous whisker- age, unlimited command of gunpowder ; not without sufficient ferocity, and even a certain heroism, stage-heroism, in them ; compared with whom, to the shilling-gallery, and frightened excited theatre at large, it seemed as if there had been no generals or sovereigns before ; as if Friedrich, Gustavus, Cromwell, William Conqueror and Alexander the Great were not worth speaking of henceforth. All this, however, in h?Jf a century is considerably altered. The Drawcansir equipments getting gradually torn off, the Chap. I. P£0E:\[ : EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. natural size is seen better ; translated from the bulletin style into tliat of fact and history, miracles, even to the shilling- gallery, are not so miraculous. It begins to be apparent that there lived great men before the era of bulletins and Agamemnon. Austerlitz and Wagram shot away more gun- powder, — gunpowder probably in the proportion of ten to one, or a hundred to one; but neither of them was tenth- part such a beating to your enemy as that of Rossbach, brought about by strategic art, human ingenuity and intre- pidity, and the loss of 165 men. Leuthen, too, the battle of Lelithen (though so few English readers ever heard of it) may very well hold up its head beside any victory gained by Napoleon or another. For the odds were not far from three to one ; the soldiers were of not far from equal quality ; and only the General was consummately supeiior, and the defeat a destruction. Napoleon did indeed, by immense ex- penditure of men and gunpowder, overrun Europe for a time : but Napoleon never, by husbanding and wisely expending his men and gunpowder, defended a little Prussia against all "Europe, year after year for seven years long, till Europe had enough, and gave up the enterprise as one it could not manage. So soon as the Drawcansir equipments are well torn off, and the shilling-gallery got to silence, it will be found that there were great kings before Napoleon, — and likewise an Art of War, grounded on veracity and human courage and insight, not upon Drawcansir rodomontade, grandiose Dick- Turpinism, revolutionary madness, and unlimited expenditure of men and gunpowder. "You may paint with a very big brush, and yet not be a great painter," says a satirical friend of mine ! This is becoming more and more apparent, as the dust-whirlwind, and huge uproar of the last generation, gradually dies away again. 2. Eighteenth Century. One of the grand difficulties in a History of Eriedrich is, all along, this same,'That he lived in a Century which has no History and can have little or none. A Century so opu- 10 BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. Bulk I. lent in accumulated falsities, — sad opulence descending on it by inheritance, always at compound interest, and always largely increased by fresh acqiiirement on such immensity of standing capital ; — opulent in that bad way as never Century before was ! Which had no longer the conscious- ness of being false, so false had it grown ; and was so steeped in falsity, and impregnated with it to the very bone, that — in fact the measure of the thing was full, and a French Revolution had to end it. To maintain much veracity in such an element, especially for a king, was no doubt doubly remarkable. Bnt now, how extricate the man from his Century ? How show the man, who is a Reality worthy of being seen, and yet keep his Century, as a H}'- pocrisy worthy of being hidden and forgotten, in the due abeyance ? To resuscitate the Eighteenth Century, or call into men's view, beyond what is necessary, the poor and sordid per- sonages and transactions of an epoch so related to us, can be no purpose of mine on this occasion. The Eighteenth Century, it is well known, does not figure to me as a lovely one ; needing to be kept in mind, or spoken of unneces sarily. To me the Eighteenth Century has nothing grand in it, except that grand universal Suicide, named French Revolution, by which it terminated its otherwise most worth- less existence with at least one worthy act ; — setting fire to its old home and self ; and going up in flames and volcanic explosions, in a truly memorable and important manner. A very fit termination, as I thankfully feel, for such a Century. Century spendthrift, fraudulent-bankrupt ; gone at length utterly insolvent, without real money of performance in its pocket, and the shops declining to take hypocrisies and spe- ciosities any farther : — what could the poor Century do, but at length admit, "Well, it is so. I am a swindler- century, and have long been ; having learned the trick of it from my father and grandfather ; knowing hardly any trade but that in false bills, which I thought foolishly might last forever, and still bring at least beef and pudding to the favored of mankind. And behold it ends ; and I am a de- Chap. I. ^PKOEM : EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 11 tected swindler, and have nothing even to eat. What re- mains but that I blow my brains out, and do at length one true action ? " Which the poor Century did ; many thanks to it, in the circumstances. For there was need once more of a Divine Eevelation to fhe torpid frivolous children of men, if they were not to sink altogether into the ape condition. And in that whirlwind of the Universe, — lights obliterated, and the torn wrecks of Earth and Hell hurled aloft into the Empyrean ; black whirl- wind, which made even apes serious, and drove most of them mad, — there was, to men, a voice audible; voice from the heart of things once more, as if to say : " Lying is not permitted in this Universe. The wages of lying, you be- hold, are death. Lying means damnation in this Universe ; and Beelzebub, never so elaborately decked in croAvns and mitres, is not God ! " This was a revelation truly to be named of the Eternal, in our poor Eighteenth Century ; and has ■ greatly altered the complexion of said Century to the Histo- rian ever since. ■Whereby, in short, that Century is quite confiscate, fallen bankrupt, given up to the auctioneers ; — Jew-brokers sort- ing out of it at this moment, in a confused distressing man- ner, what is still valuable or salable. And, in fact, it lies massed up in our minds as a disastrous wrecked inanity, not useful to dwell upon ; a kind of dusky chaotic back- ground, on which the figures that had some veracity in them — a small company, and ever growing smaller as our demands rise in strictness — are delineated for us. — " And yet it is the Century of our own Grandfathers ? " cries the reader. Yes, reader ! truly. It is the ground out of which we ourselves have sprung ; whereon now we have our im- mediate footing, and first of all strike down our roots for nourishment ; — and, alas, in large sections of the practical world, it (what we specially mean by it) still continues flourishing all round us ! To forget it quite is not yet pos- sible, nor would be profitable. What to do with it, and its forgotten fooleries and ''Histories," worthy only of forget- ting ? — Well : so much of it as by nature adheres ; what of 12 BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. Book I. it cannot be disengaged from our Hero and his operations : approximately so much, and no more ! Let that be our bar- gain in regard to it. 3. English Prepossessions. With such wagon-loads of Books and Printed Eeeords as exist on the subject of Friedrich, it has always seemed possible, even for a stranger, to acquire some real understanding of him ; — though practically, here and now, I have to own, it proves difficult beyond conception. Alas, the Books are not cosmic, they are chaotic ; and turn out unexpectedly void of instruc- tion to us. Small use in a talent of writing, if there be not first of all the talent of discerning, of loyally recognizing ; of discriminating what is to be written ! Book§ born mostly of Chaos — which want all things, even an Index — are a painful object. In sorrow and disgust, you wander over those multitudinous Books : you dwell in endless regions of the superficial, of the nugatory : to your bewildered sense it is as if no insight into the real heart of Friedrich and his affairs were anywhere to be had. Truth is, the Prussian Dryasdust, otherwise an honest fellow, and not afraid of labor, excels all other Dryasdusts yet known; I have often sorrowfully felt as if there were not in Nature, for darkness, dreariness, im- methodic platitude, anything comparable to him. He writes big Books wanting in almost every quality; and does not even give an Index to them. He has made of Friedrich's His- tory a wide-spread, inorganic, trackless matter ; dismal to your mind, and barren as a continent of Brandenburg sand ! — Enough, he could do no other : I have striven to forgive him. lict the reader now forgive me ; and think sometimes what probably my raw-material was ! — Curious enough, Friedrich lived in the Writing Era, — morn- ing of that strange Era which has grown to such a noon for us ; — and his favorite society, all his reign, was with the lit- erary or writing sort. Nor have they failed to write about him, they among the others, about him and about him ; and it is notable how little real light, on any point of his existence Chap. I. J>ROEM : ENGLISH PREPOSSESSIONS. ' 13 or environment, they have managed to communicate. Dim in- deed, for most part a mere epigrammatic sputter of darkness visible, is the "picture" they have fashioned to themselves of Friedrich and his Country and his Century. Men not " of genius," apparently ? Alas, no ; men fatally destitute of true eyesight, and of loyal heart first of all. So far as I have no- ticed, there was not, with the single exception of Mirabeau for one hour, any man to be called of genius, or with an adequate power of human discernment, that ever personally looked on Friedrich. Had many such men looked successively on his History and him, we had not found it now in such a condition. Still altogether chaotic as a History ; fatally destitute even of the Indexes and mechanical appliances : Friedrich's self, and his Country, and his Century, still undeciphered ; very dark phenomena, all three, to the intelligent part of mankind. In Prussia there has long been a certain stubborn though planless diligence in digging for the outward details of Fried- rich's Life-History ; though as to organizing them, assorting them, or even putting labels on them; much more as to the least interpretation or human delineation of the man and his affairs, — you need not inquire in Prussia. In France, in England, it is still worse. There an immense ignorance pre- vails even as to the outward facts and phenomena of Fried- rich's life ; and instead of the Prussian no-interpretation, you find, in these vacant circumstances, a great promptitude to in- terpret. Whereby judgments and prepossessions exist among us on that subject, especially on Friedrich's character, which are very ignorant indeed. To Englishmen, the sources of knowledge or conviction about Friedi'ich, I have observed, are mainly these two. First, for his Public Character : it was an all-important fact, not to it, but to this country in regard to it, That George II., seeing good to plunge head-foremost into German Politics, and to take Maria Theresa's side in the Austrian-Succession War of 1740-1748, needed to begin by assuring his Parliament and Newspapers, profoundly dark on the matter, that Friedrich was a robber and villain for taking the other side. Which 14 BIETH AND PARENTAGE. Book I. assurance, resting on what basis we shall see by and by, George's Parliament and Newsjiapers cheerfully accepted, nothing doubting. And they have re-echoed and reverberated it, they and the rest of us, ever since, to all lengths, down to the present day ; as a fact quite agreed upon, and the prelimi- nary item in Friedrich's character. Eobber and villain to begin Avith ; that was one settled point. Afterwards when George and Friedrich came to be allies, and the grand lightings of the Seven-Years War took place, George's Parliament and Newspapers settled a second point, in regard to Friedrich : " One of the greatest soldiers ever born." This second item the British Writer fully admits ever lince : but he still adds to it the quality of robber, in a loose way; — and images to himself a royal Dick Turpin, of the kind known in Ee view- Articles, and disquisitions on Progress of the Species, and labels it Frederick ; very anxious to collect new babblement of lying Anecdotes, false Criticisms, hungry French Memoirs, which will confirm him in that impossible idea. Had such proved, on survey, to be the character of Friedrich, there is one British Writer whose curiosity con- cerning him would pretty soon have died away ; nor could any amount of unwise desire to satisfy that feeling in fellow- creatures less seriously disposed have sustained him alive, in those baleful Historic Acherons and Stygian Fens, where he has had to dig and to fish so long, far away from the upper light ! — Let me request all readers to blow that sorry chaff entirely out of their minds ; and to believe notliing on the subject except what they get some evidence for. Second English source relates to the Private Character. Friedrich's Biography or Private Character, the English, like the French, have gathered chiefly from a scandalous libel by Voltaire, which used to be called Vie Privee du Boi de Pmsse (Private Life of the King of Prussia) : ^ libel undoubtedly 1 First printed, from a stolen copy, at Geneva, 1784 ; first proved to be Vol- taire's (which some of his admirers had striven to doubt), Paris, 1788 ; stands avowed ever since, in all the Editions of his Works (ii. 9-113 of the Edition by Baudouin Freres, 97 vols., Paris, 1825-1834), under the title Memoires pour seriirala Vie de M. de Voltaire, — with patches of repetition in the thing called Commentaire Historique, which follows ibid, at great length. Chap. I. PROEM : ENGLISH PREPOSSESSIONS. 15 written by Voltaire, in a kind of fury ; but not intended to be published by liini ; nay burnt and annihilated, as he afterwards imagined. No line of which, that cannot be otherwise proved, has a right to be believed ; and large portions of which can be proved to be wild exaggerations and perversions, or even downright lies, — written in a mood analogous to the Frenzy of John Dennis. This serves for the Biography or Private Character of Friedrich; imputing all crimes to him, natural and unnatural ; — oftering indeed, if combined with facts otherwise known, or even if well considered by itself, a thor- oughty flimsy, incredible and impossible image. Like that of some flaming Devil's Head, done in phosphorus on the walls of the black-hole, by an Artist whom you had locked up there (not quite without reason) overnight. Poor Voltaire wrote that Vie Privee in a state little inferior to the Frenzy of John Dennis, — how brought about we shall see by and by. And this is the Document which English readers are surest to have read, and tried to credit as far as possible. Our counsel is. Out of window with it, he that would know Friedrich of Prussia ! Keep it awhile, he that would know rran9ois Arouet de Voltaire, and a certain numer- ous unfortunate class of mortals, whom Voltaire is sometimes capable of sinking to be spokesman for, in this world ! — Alas, go where you will, especially in these irreverent ages, the noteworthy Dead is sure to be found lying under infinite dung, no end of calumnies and stupidities accumulated upon him. For the class we speak of, class of " flunkies doing saturnalia below stairs," is numerous, is innumerable; and can well re- munerate a " vocal flunky " that will serve their purposes on such an occasion ! — Friedrich is by no means one of the perfect demigods ; and there are various things to be said against him with good ground. To the last, a questionable hero ; with much in him which one could have wished not there, and much wanting which one could have wished. But there is one feature which strikes you at an early period of the inquiry, That in his way he is a Reality ; that he always means what he speaks ; IG BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. Book I. grounds his actions, too, on what he recognizes for the truth ; and, in short, has nothing whatever of the Hypocrite or Phantasm. Which some readers will admit to be an extremely rare phenomenon. We perceive that this man was far indeed from trying to deal swindler-like with the facts around him ; that he honestly recognized said facts wherever they disclosed themselves, and was very anxious also to ascertain their existence where still hidden or dubious. For he knew well, to a quite uncommon degree, and with a merit all the higher as it was an unconscious one, how entirely inexorable is the nature of facts, whether recognized or not, ascertained or not ; how vain all cunning of diplomacy, management and sophistry, to save any mortal who does not stand on the truth of things, from sinking, in the long-run. Sinking to the very mud-gods, with all his diploma- cies, possessions, achievements ; and becoming an unnamable object, hidden deep in the Cesspools of the Universe. This I hope to make manifest ; this which I long ago discerned for myself, with pleasure, in the ph3'siognomy of Friedrich and his life. Which indeed was the first real sanction, and has al) along been my inducement and encouragement, to study his life and him. How this man, officially a King withal, com- ported himself in the Eighteenth Century, and managed not to be a Liar and Charlatan as his Century was, deserves to be seen a little by men and kings, and may silently have didactic meanings in it. He that was honest with his existence has always meaning for us, be he king or peasant. He that merely shammed and grimaced with it, however much, and with whatever noise and trumpet-blowing, he may have cooked and eaten in this world, cannot long have any. Some men do cook enormously (let us call it cooking, what a man does in obedience to his hunger merely, to his desires and passions merely), — roasting whole continents and populations, in the flames of war or other dis- cord ; — witness the Napoleon above spoken of. For the appe- tite of man in that respect is unlimited ; in truth, infinite ; and the smallest of us could eat the entire Solar System, had we the chance given, and then cry, like Alexander of Macedou, Chap. I. PROEM : ENX'OURAGEMENTS, ETC. 17 because we had no more Solar Systems to cook and eat. It is not the extent of the man's cookery that can much attach me to him ; but only tlie man himself, and what of strength he had to wrestle with the mud-elements, and what of victory he got for his own benefit and mine. 4. Encouragements, Discouragements. French E evolution having spent itself, or sunk in France and elsewhere to what we see, a certain curiosity reawakens as to what of great or manful we can discover on the other side of that still troubled atmosphere of the Present and immediate Past. Curiosity quickened, or which should be quickened, by the great and all-absorbing question, How is that same ex- ploded Past ever to settle down again ? Not lost forever, it would appear : the New Era has not annihilated the old eras : New Era could by no means manage that ; — never meant that, had it known its own mind (which it did not) : its meaning was. and is, to get its own avcII out of them ; to readapt, in a purified shape, the old eras, and appropriate whatever was true ami not combustible in them : that was the poor New Era's meaning, in the frightful explosion it made of itself and its possessions, to begin with ! And the question of questions now is : What part of that exploded Past, the ruins and dust of which still darken all the air, will continually gravitate back to us ; be reshaped, trans- formed, readai)ted, that so, in new figures, under new con- ditions, it may enrich and nourish us again ? What part of it, not being incombustible, has actually gone to flame and gas in the huge world-conflagration, and is now gaseous, mounting aloft ; and will know no beneficence of gravitation, but mount, and roam upon the waste winds forever, — Nature so ordering it, in spite of any industry of Art ? This is the universal question of afflicted mankind at present ; and sure enough it will be long to settle. On one point we can answer : Only what of the Past was tme will come back to us. That is the one asbestos which sur- vives all fire, and comes out purified ; that is still ours, blessed A-r>T, V. - 2 18 BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. Book I. be Heaven, and only that. By the law of Nature nothing more than that ; and also, by the same law, nothing less than that. Let Art struggle how it may, for or against, — as foolish Art is seen extensively doing in our time, — there is where the limits of it will be. In which point of view, may not Fried- rich, if he was a true man and King, justly excite some curi- osity again; nay some quite peculiar curiosity, as the lost Crowned Reality there was antecedent to that general outbreak and abolition ? To many it appears certain there are to be no Kings of any sort, no Government more ; less and less need of them henceforth. New Era having come. Which is a very wonderful notion ; important if true ; perhaps still more im- portant, just at present, if untrue ! My hopes of presenting, in this Last of the Kings, an exemplar to niy contemporaries, I confess, are not high. On the whole, it is evident the difficulties to a History of Friedrich are great and many : and the sad certainty is at last forced upon me that no good Book can, at this time, especially in this country, be written on the subject. Wlierefore let the reader put up with an indifferent or bad one ; he little knows how much worse it could easily have been ! — Alas, the Ideal of History, as my friend Sauerteig knows, is verj'- high ; and it is not one serious man, but many successions of such, and whole serious generations of such, that can ever again build up History towards its old dignity. We must renounce ideals. We must sadly take up with the mournfulest barren realities ; — dismal continents of Brandenburg sand, as in this instance ; mere tumbled mountains of marine-stores, without so much as an Index to them ! Has the reader heard of Sauerteig's last batch of Spring- wurzeln, a rather curious valedictory Piece ? " All History is an imprisoned Epic, nay an imprisoned Psalm and Prophecy," says Sauerteig there. I wish, from my soul, he had disim- prisoned it in this instance ! But he only says, in magnilo- quent language, how grand it would be if disimprisoned ; — and hurls out, accidentally striking on this subject, the follow- ing rough sentences, suggestive though unpractical, with which I shall conclude : — Chap. I. PROEM : ENCOURAGEMENTS, ETC. 19 " Schiller, it api^ears, at one time thought of writing an Epic Poem upon Friedrlch the Great, 'upon some action of Fried- rich's,' Schiller says. Happily Schiller did not do it. By oversetting fact, disregarding reality, and tumbling time and space topsy-turvy, Schiller with his fine gifts might no doubt have written a temporary ' epic poem,' of the kind read and admired by many simple persons. But that would have helped little, and could not have lasted long. It is not the untrue imaginary Picture of a man and his life that I want from my Schiller, but the actual natural Likeness, true as the face itself, nay truer, in a sense. Which the Artist, if there is one, might help to give, and the Botcher {Pfuscher) never can! Alas, and the Artist does not even try it ; leaves it altogether to the Botcher, being busy otherwise ! — "Men surely will at length discover again, emerging from these dismal bewilderments in which the modern Ages reel and stagger this long while, that to them also, as to the most ancient men, all Pictures that cannot be credited are — Pic- tures of an idle nature ; to be mostly swept out of doors. Such veritably, were it never so forgotten, is the law ! Mistakes enough, lies enough will insinuate themselves into our most earnest portrayings of the True : but that we should, deliber- ately and of forethought, rake together what we know to be not true, and introduce that in the hope of doing good with it ? I tell you, such practice was unknown in the ancient earnest times; and ought again to become unknown except to the more foolish classes ! " That is Sauerteig's strange notion, not now of yesterday, as readers know : — and he goes then into " Homer's Hiad," the " Hebrew Bible," " terrible Hebrew veracity of every line of it ; " discovers an alarming " kinship of Fiction to lying ; " and asks, If anybody can com- pute " the damage we poor moderns have got from our prac- tices of fiction in Literature itself, not to speak of awfully higher provinces ? Men will either see into all this by and by," continues he ; " or plunge head foremost, in neglect of all this, whither they little dream as yet ! — "But I think all real Poets, to this hour, are Psalmists and Iliadists after their sort ; and have in them a divine 20 BIRTH AND PAEENTAGE Book I. impatience of lies, a divine incapacity of living among lies. Likewise, which is a corollary, that the highest Shakspeare producible is properly the fittest Historian producible ; — and that it is frightful to see the GelehHe Dummkopf [wliat we here may translate, Dryasdtist] doing the function of History, and the Shakspeare and the Goethe neglecting it. ' Interpreting events ; ' interpreting the universally visi- ble, entirely indubitable Revelation of the Author of this Universe : how can Dryasdust interpret such things, the dark chaotic dullard, who knows the meaning of nothing cosmic or noble, nor ever will know ? Poor wretch, one sees what kind of meaning he educes from Man's History, this long while past, and has got all the world to believe of it along with him. Unhappy Dryasdust, thrice-unhappy world that takes Dryasdust's reading of the ways of God ! But what else was possible ? They that could have taught better were engaged in fiddling ; for which there are good wages going. And our damage therefrom, our damage, — yes, if thou be still human and not cormorant, — perhaps it will transcend all Californias, English National Debts, and show itself incomputable in con- tinents of Bullion ! — " Believing that mankind are not doomed wholly to dog- like annihilation, I believe that much of this will mend. I believe that the world will not always waste its inspired men in mere fiddling to it. That the man of rhythmic nature will feel more and more his vocation towards the Interpreta- tion of Fact ; since only in the vital centre of that, eoi^d we once get thither, lies all real melody ; and that he will become, he, once again the Historian of Events, — bewildered Dryas- dust having at last the happiness to be his servant, and to have some guidance from him. Which will be blessed indeed. For the present, Dryasdust strikes me like a hapless Xigger gone masterless : Nigger totally unfit for self-guidance ; yet without master good or bad ; and whose feats in that capacity no god or man can rejoice in. "History, with faithful Genius at the top and faithful Industry at the bottom, will then be capable of being written. History will then actually be written, — the inspired gift of CiiAP. II. r FRIEDRICH'S BIRTH. 21 God employing itself to illuminate the dark ways of God. A thing thrice-pressingly needful to be done ! Whereby the modern Nations may again become a little less godless, and again have their ' epics ' (of a different from the Schiller sort), and again have several things they are still more fatally in want of at present ! " — So that, it would seem, there will gradually among man- kind, if Friedrich last some centuries, be a real Epic made of his History ? That is to say (presumably), it will become a perfected Melodious Truth, and duly significant and duly beautiful bit of Belief, to mankind ; the essence of it fairly evolved from all the chaff, the portrait of it actually given, and its real harmonies with the laws of this Universe brought out, in bright and dark, according to the God's Fact as it was ; which poor Dryasdust and the Newspapers never could get sight of, but were always far from ! — Well, if so, — and even if not quite so, — it is a comfort to reflect that every true worker (who has blown away chaff &c.), were his contribution no bigger than my own, may have brought the good result nearer by a hand-breadth or two. And so we will end these preludings, and proceed upon our Prob- lem, coui-teous reader. CHAPTER 11. friedkich's bikth. Friedrich of Braxdenburg-Hohenzollern, who came by course of natural succession to be Friedrich II. of Prussia, and is known in these ages as Frederick the Great, was born in the palace of Berlin, about noon, on the 24th of January, 1712. A small infant, but of great promise or possibility ; and thrice and four times welcome to all sovereign and other persons in the Prussian Court, and Prussian realms, in those cold winter days. His Father, they say, was like to have stifled him with his caresses, so overjoyed was the man ; or 22 BIETH AND PARENTAGE. Book L at least to have scorched him in the blaze of the fire ; when happily some much suitable! female nurse snatched this little creature from the rough paternal paws, — and saved it for the benefit of Prussia and mankind. If Heaven will but please to grant it length of life ! For there have already been two little Princekins, who are both dead ; this Friedrich is the fourth child ; and only one little girl, wise Wilhelmina, of almost too sharp wits, and not too vivacious aspect, is other- wise yet here of royal i)rogeny. It is feared the Hohenzollern lineage, which has flourished here with such beneficent effect for three centuries now, and been in truth the very making of the Prussian Nation, may be about to fail, or pass into some side branch. Which change, or any change in that re- spect, is questionable, and a thing desired by nobody. Five years ago, on the deatli of the first little Prince, thero had surmises risen, obscure rumors and hints, that the ]*rincess Koyal, mother of the lost baby, never would have healthy chil- dren, or even never have a child more : upon Avhich, as there was but one other resource, — a widowed Grandfather, namely, and except the Prince Royal no son to liim, — said Grand- father, still only about fifty, did take the necessary steps : but they have been entirely unsuccessful ; no new son or child, only new affliction, new disaster has resulted from that third marriage of his. And though the Princess Royal has had an- other little Prince, that too lias died within the year; — killed, some say on the other hand, by the noise of the cannon firing for joy over it ! ^ Yes ; and the first baby Prince, these same parties farther say, was crushed to death by the weighty dress you put upon it at christening time, especially by the little crown it wore, which had left a visible black mark upon the poor soft infant's brow ! In short, it is a questionable case ; undoubtedly a questionable outlook for Prussian mankind ; and the appearance of this little Prince, a third trump-card in the Hohenzollern game, is an unusually interesting event. 1 Forster, Fnedrich WiJhelml., Konig von Preussen (Potsdam, 1834), i. 126 (who quotes 'Morgenstcrn, a contemporary reporter). But see also Preuss, Friedrich der Grosse mit seinen Verwandlen und Frtunden (Berlin, 1838), pp. 379-380. ». Chap. II. ' FRIEDRICH'S BIRTH. 23 The joy over him, not in Berlin Palace only, but in Berlin City, and over the Prussian Nation, was very great and uni- versal ; — still testified in manifold dull, unreadable old pam- l)hlets, records official and volunteer, — which were then all ablaze like the bonfires, and are now fallen dark enough, and hardly credible even to the fancy of this new Time. The poor old Grandfather, Priedrich I. (the first King of Prussia), — for, as we intimate, he was still alive, and not very old, thougli now infirm enough, and laden beyond his strength witli sad reminiscences, disappointments and cha- grins, — had taken much to Wilhelmina, as she tells us ; ^ and would amuse himself whole days with the pranks and prattle of the little child. Good old num : he, we need not doubt, brightened up into unusual vitality at sight of this invaluable little Brother of hers ; through whom he can look once more into the waste dim future with a flicker of new hope. Poor old man : he got his own back half-broken by a careless nurse letting him fall ; and has slightly stooped ever since, some fifty and odd years now : much against his will ; for he would fain have been beautiful ; and has struggled all his days, very hard if not very wisely, to make his existence beautiful, — to make it magnificent at least, and regardless of expense ; — and it threatens to come to little. Courage, poor Grandfather : here is a new second edition of a Priedrich, the first having gone off with so little effect : this one's back is still unbroken, his life's seedfield not yet filled with tares and thorns : who knows but Heaven will be kinder to this one ? Heaven was much kinder to this one. Him Heaven had kneaded of more potent stuff : a mighty fellow this one, and a strange ; related not only to the Upholsteries and Heralds' Colleges, but to the Sphere-harmonies and the divine and demonic powers ; of a swift far-darting nature this one, like an Apollo clad in sun- beams and in lightnings (after his sort) ; and with a back which all the world could not succeed in breaking ! — Yes, if, by most rare chance, this were indeed a new man of genius, born into the purblind rotting Centur}^, in the acknowledged ^ M€inoires de Fr€d&ii]ue Sophie Wilhdmine de Prusse, Margrave de Bareith, Saur de Fre'd€ric-le- Grand (London, 1812), i. 5. 24 BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. Book I. rank of a king there, — man of genius, that is to say, man of originality and veracity ; capable of seeing with his eyes, and incapable of not believing what he sees ; — then truly ! — But as yet none knows ; the poor old Grandfather never knew. Meanwhile they christened the little fellow, with immense magnificence and pomp of apparatus ; Kaiser Karl, and the very Swiss Kepublic being there (by proxy), among the gos- sips ; and spared no cannon-volleyiugs, kettle-drummings, metal crown, heavy cloth-of-silver, for the poor soft creature's sake ; all of which, however, he survived. The name given him was Karl Friedrich (Charles Frederick) ; Karl perhaps, and perhaps also not, in delicate compliment to the chief gos- sip, the above-mentioned Kaiser, Karl or Charles VI. ? At any rate, the Karl, gradually or from the first, dropped alto- gether out of practice, and went as nothing : he himself, or those about him, never used it ; nor, except in some dim Eng- lish pamphlet here and there, have I met with any trace of it. Friedrich (Rich-in-Peace, a name of old prevalence in the Ho- henzollern kindred), which he himself wrote Frederic in his French way, and at last even Federic (with a very singular sense of euphony), is throughout, and was, his sole designation. Sunday 31st January, 1712, age then precisely one week : then, and in this manner, was he ushered on the scene, and labelled among his fellow-creatures. We must now look round a little ; and see, if possible by any method or exertion, what kind of scene it was. CHAPTER III. FATHER AND MOTHER : THE HANOVERIAN CONNECTION. Friedrich Wilhelm, Crown-Prince of Prussia, son of Friedrich I. and Father of this little infant who will one day be Friedrich II., did himself make some noise in the world as second King of Prussia ; notable not as Friedrich's father alone ; and will much concern us during the rest of his CII.U-. III. * FATHER AND MOTHER. 25 < ■ life. He is, at this date, in his twenty-fourtli year : a thick- set, sturdy, florid, brisk young fellow ; with a jovial laugh in him, yet of solid grave ways, occasionally somewhat volcanic ; much given to soldiering, and out-of-door exercises, having lit- tle else to do at present. He has been manager, or, as it were, Vice-King, on an occasional absence of his Father ; he knows practically what the state of business is ; and greatly disap- proves of it, as is thought. But being bound to silence on that head, he keeps silence, and meddles with nothing politi- cal. He addicts himself chiefly to mustering, drilling and pra(jtical military duties, while here at Berlin ; runs out, often enough, wife and perhaps a comrade or two along with him, to hunt, and take his ease, at Wusterhausen (some fifteen or twenty miles ^ southeast of Berlin), where he has a residence amid the woody moorlands. But soldiering is his grand concern. Six years ago, sum- mer 1706,"^ at a very early age, he went to the wars, — grand Spanish-Succession War, which was then becoming very fierce in the Netherlands ; Prussian troops always active on the JV^arlborough-Eugene side. He had just been betrothed, was not yet wedded ; thought good to turn the interim to advan- tage in that way. Then again, spring 1709, after his marriage and after his Father's marriage, " the Court being full of in- trigues," and nothing but silence recommendable there, a cer- tain renowned friend of his, Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, of whom we shall yet hear a great deal, — who, still only about thirty, had already covered himself with laurels in those wars (Blenheim, Bridge of Casano, Lines of Turin, and other glo- ries), but had now got into intricacies with the weaker sort, and was out of command, — agreed with Friedrich Wilhelm that it would be well to go and serve there as volunteers, since not otherwise.^ A Crown-Prince of Prussia, ought he not to learn soldiering, of all things ; by every opportunity ? 1 English miles, — as always unless the contrary be stated. The German Meile is about five miles English ; German Stunde about three. 2 Forster, i. 116. 8 Varnha2:en von Ense, Fibst Leopold von AnJialt-Dessan (in Biograjihisrhe Denkniale, 2d edition, Berlin, 1845), p. 185. Thaten und Leben des weltberuhm- ten Fiirstens Le.opoldi von Anhak- Dessau (Leipzig, 1742), p. 73. Forster, i. 129. 26 BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. Book t. Which Friediich Wilhelm did, with industry ; serving zealous apprenticeship under ^Marlborough and Eugene, in this man- ner ; plucking knowledge, as the bubble reputation, and all else in that field has to be plucked, from the cannon's mouth. Friedrich Wilhelm kept by Marllx)rough, now as formerly ; friend Leopold being commonly in Eugene's quarter, who well knew the worth of him, ever since Blenheim and earlier. Friedrich Wilhelm saw hot service, that campaign of 1709; siege of Tournay, and far more ; — stood, among other things, the fiery Battle of Malphupict, one of the tcrribk'st and dead- liest feats of war ever done. No want of intrepidity and rugged soldier-virtue in the Prussian troops or their Crown- Prince; least of all on that terrible day, 11th September, 1709 ; — of which he keeps the anniversary ever since, and will do all his life, the doomsday of Malplaquet always a memorable day to him.* He is more and more intimate with Leoi)old, and loves good soldiering beyond all things. Here at Berlin he has already got a regiment of his own, t;illish line meu ; and strives to make it in all points a very pattern of a regiment. For the rest, much here is out of joint, and far from satis- factory to him. Seven years ago ^ he lost his t)wn brave Mother and her love ; of which we must speak farther by and by. In her stead he has got a fanfcistic, melancholic, ill- natured St('i»mother, with whom there was never any good to be done ; who in fact is now fairly mad, and kept to her own apartments. He has to see here, and say little, a chagrined heart-worn Father flickering painfully amid a scene much filled with expensive futile persons, and their extremely piti- ful cabals and mutual rages ; scene chiefly of pompous inanity, and *".he art of solemnly and with great labor doing nothing. Such waste of labor and of means : what can one do but be silent ? The other year, Preussen {Prussia Proper, province lying far eastward, out of sight) was sinking under pestilence and black ruin and despair : the Crown-Prince, contrary to wont, broke silence, and begged some dole or subvention for these poor people ; but there was nothing to be had. Nothing 1 Fiirster, i. 138. 2 igt February, 1705. i Cii.vi-. III. ;■ FATHER AND MOTHER. 27 in the treasury, your Eoyal Highness : — Preussen will sliift for itself ; sublime dramaturgy, which we call his Majesty's Government, costs so much ! And Treussen, mown away by death, lies much of it vacant ever since ; which has completed the Crown-Prince's disgust ; and, I believe, did produce some change of ministry, or other ineffectual expedient, on the old Father's part. Upon which the Crown-Prince locks up his thoughts again. He has confused whirlpools, of Court in- trigues, ceremonials, and troublesome fantasticalities, to steer amongst ; which he much dislikes, no man more ; having an eyu and heart set on the practical only, and being in mind as in body something of the genus rubustum, of the genus ferox withal. He has been wedded six years ; lost two childieu, as we saw ; and now again he has two living. His wife, Sophie Dorothee of Hanover, is his cousin as well. She is brother's-<laughter of his Mother, Sophie Chai-lotte : let the reader learn to discriminate these two names. Sophio Charlotte, late Queen of Prussia, was also of Hanover : she pri)l)al)ly had sometimes, in her <piiet motherly thought, an- ticipated this connection for him, while she yet lived. It is certain Friedrich AVilhelm was carried to Hanover in early childhood: his Mother, — tliat Sophie Charlotte, a famed Queen and lady in her day, Daughter of Electress Sophie, and Sister of the George who became George I. of England by and by, — took him thither ; some time about the beginning of 1G03, his age then five ; and left him there on trial ; alleging, and expecting, he might have a better breeding there. And this, in a Court where Electress Sophie was chief lady, and Elector Ernst, fit to be called Gentleman Ernst,^ the politest of men, was chief lord, — and where Leibnitz, to say nothing ^ " Her Highness [the Electress Sophie] has the character of the merry debonnairo Princess of Germany ; a lady of extraordinary virtues and accom- plishments ; mistress of the Italian, French, High and Low Dutch, and Eng- lish languages, which she speaks to perfection. Her husband [Elector Ernst] has the title of the Gentleman of Germany ; a graceful and," &c. &c. W. Carr, Remarks of the Governments of the severall Parts of Germanie, Denmark, Sweed- Jiind (Amsterdam, 1688), p. 147. See also Ker of Kersland (still more em phatic on this point, soepius). 28 r.IKTlI AND TAKENTAGE. Book I. of lighter notabilities, was flourishing, — seemed a reasonahle expectation. Nevertheless, it came to nothing, this articulate purpose of the visit ; though })erhaps the deeper silent purposes of it might not be quite unfultilled. Gentleman Ernst had lately been made "Elector" (Kur- fiirst, instead of llerzog), — his Hanover no longer a mere Sovereign Duchy, but an Electorate henceforth, new " Ninth Electorate," by Ernst's life-long exertion and good luck ; — which has spread a tine radiance, for the time, over court and people in those parts ; and made Ernst a happier man than ever, in his old age. Gentleman Ernst and Electress Sophie, wc need not doubt, were glad to see their burly Prussian grandson, — a robust, rather mischievous boy of five years old ; — and anything that brought her Daughter oftener aVK)ut her (an only Daughter too, and one so gifted) was sure to be welcome to the cheery old Electress, and her Leibnitz and her circle. For .Sophie Charlotte was a bright presence, and a favorite with sage and gay. Uncle George again, ^^ Kurprinz Georg Ludwig" (Electoral Prince and Ileir-Ajjparent), who became George I. of England; he, always a taciturn, saturnine, somewhat grim-visaged n»an, not without thoughts of his own but mostly inarticulate thoughts, was, just at this tinu', in a deej) donu'stic intricacy. Uncle (reorge the Kurj)rinz was jminfully detecting, in these very months, that his august Spouse and cousin, a brilliant not uninjured lady, had becume an indignant injuring one ; that she had gone, and was going, far astray in her walk of life ! Thus all is not railiance at Hanover either, Ninth Elector though we are ; but, in the soft sunlight, there quivers a streak of the blackness of very Erebus withal. Kurprinz George, I think, though he too is said to have been good to the boy, coidd not take much interest in this burly Nephew of his just now ! Sure enough, it was in this year 1693, that the famed Konigsmark tragedy came ripening fast towards a crisis in Hanover ; and next year the catastrophe arrived. A most tragic business ; of which the little Boy, now here, will know more one day. Perhaps it was on this very visit, on one visit CHA1-. ill. T FATHER AND MOTHER. 29 it credibly was, that Sophie Charlotte witnessed a sad scene in the Schloss of Hanover: high words rising, where low cooings had been more appropriate ; harsh words, mutually recriminative, rising ever higher ; ending, it is thought, in things, or menaces and motions towards things (actual box on 'the ear, some call it), — never to be forgotten or forgiven ! And on Sunday 1st of July, 1094, Colonel Count Philip Kiinigsmark, Colonel in the Hanover Dragoons, was seen for the last time in this world. From that date, he has vanished suddenly underground, in an inscrutable manner : never more sludl the light of the sun, or any human eye behold that hand- some blackguard man. Not for a hundred and hfty years shall human creatures know, or guess with the smallest certainty, wliat has become of him. And shortly after Konigsraark's disappearance, there is this sad phenomenon visible : A once very radiant Princess (witty, haughty-mkuled, beautiful, not wise or fortunate) now gone all al)l;izo into angry tragic conflagration ; getting locked into the old Castle of Ahlden, in the muory sulitudes of Liineburg Heath: to stay there till she die, — thirty years as it proved, — and go into ashes and angry darkness as she may. Old peasants, late in the next century, will remember that they used to see her sometimes driving on the Heath, — beautiful lady, long black hair, and the glitter of diamonds in it ; sometimes the reins in her own hand, but always Avith a party of cavalry round her, and their swords drawn.^ " Duchess of Ahlden," that was her title in the eclipsed state. Born Princess of Zelle ; b}' marriage. Princess of Hanover {Kitrprinr.essin) ; would have been Queen of England, too, had matters gone otherwise than they did. — Her name, like that of a little Daughter she had, is Sophie Dorothee : she is Cousin and Divorced Wife of Kurprinz George ; divorced, and as it were abolished alive, in this manner. She is little Friedrich Wil- helm's Aunt-in-law ; and her little Daughter comes to be his Wife in process of time. Of him, or of those belonging to him, she took small notice, I suppose, in her then mood, the 1 Die Ilerzotjin von Ahlden (Leipzig, 1852), p. 22. Divorce was, 28th Decem- ber. 1694; death, 13th November, 1726, — a^je then 60. 30 BIRTH AND P.UJENTAGE. Book I. crisis coming on so fast. In her happier innocent days she had two cliildren, a King that is to be, and a Queen ; George 11. of England, Sophie Dorothee of Prussia; but must not now call them hers, or ever see them again. This was the Kimigsmark tragedy at Hanover ; fast ripen- ing towards its catastrophe while little Friedrich Wilhelm was there. It has been, ever since, a rumor and dubious frightful mystery to mankind : but within these few years, by curious acf'id(^nts (thefts, discoveries of written documents, in various countries, and diligent stmdy of them), it has at length become a certainty and clear fact, to those who are curious about it. Fact surely of a rather horrible sort ; — yet better, I must say, than was suspected: not quite so ba<l in the state of fact as in that of rumor. Crime enough is in it, sin and folly on both sides ; tliere is killing too, but not assassination (as it turns out); on the wliole there is notliing of atrocity,' or nothing that was not accidental, unavoidable ; — and there is a certain greatness of deronun on the part of those Hanover I'rinces and official gentlemen, a depth of silence, of polite stoicism, which deserves more praise than it will get in our times. Enough now of the Kiinigsmark tragedy;^ contemporaneous * A considerable dreary mas-s of books, pamplilets, lucubrations, false all and of no worth or of less, have accumulated on this dark subject, during tlio last linndrocl and fifty years; nor h:v< the proros.>< yet stoj)ped, — as it now well might. For there liave now two tilings <x(nrred in regard to it First: In the year 1847, a Swedish Professor, named Palmblad, groping about for other objects in the College Library of Lund (which is in the country of the Kiinigsmark connections), came ujwn a Box of Old Letters, — Letters undated, signed only with initials, and very enigmatic till well searched into, — which have turned out to be the very Autographs of the Princess and her Kiinigsmark ; throwing of course a henceforth indL»putable light on their relation. Second thing: A cautious exact old gentleman, of diplomatic habits (understood to be " Count Von Schulenburg-Klosterrode of Dresden "), has, since that event, unwearicdly gone into the whole matter ; and has brayed it everjTvhere, and ponndeil it small; sifting, with suldime patience, not only tho.«!e Swedish Autographs, but tlie whole mass of lying books, pamphlets, hints and no- tices, old and recent ; and bringing out (truly in an intricate and thrice-weari- some, but for the first time in an authentic way) what real e%'idence there is. In whidi evidence the facts, or essential fact, lie at last indisputable enough. Ilis Book, thick Pamphlet rather, is that .same Herzoiin ron Ahkhn (Leipzig, 1852) cited above. The dreary wheelbarrowfol of others I had rather not Chap. III. v FATHER AND MOTHER. 31 with Friedrich "Wilhelm's stay at Hanover, but not otherwise much related to him or his doings there. He got no improvement in breeding, as we intimated ; none at all ; fought, on the contrary, with his young Cousin (after- wards our George II.), a boy twice his age, though of weaker .bone ; and gave him a bloody nose. To the scandal and coiv sternation of the French Protestant gentlewomen and court- danies in their stiff silks : " Ahee, your Electoral Highness I " This had been a rough unruly boy from the first discovery of him. At a very early stage, he, one morning while the nurses were dressing him, took to investigating one of his shoe- buckles ; would, in spite of remonstrances, slobber it about in his mouth ; and at length swallowed it down, — beyond mis- take ; and the whole world cannot get it up ! Whereupon, wild wail of nurses; and his "Mother came screaming," poor mother: — it is the same small shoe-buckle which is still shown, with a ticket and date to it, "31 December, 1G92," in the Berlin Kunsthammer ; for it turned out harmless, after all the screaming ; and a few grains of rhubarb restored it safely to the light of day ; henceforth a thrice-memorable shoe- buckle.^ Another time, it is recorded, though with less precision of detail, his Governess the Dame ^lontbail having ordered him to do something which Avas intolerable to the princely mind, the princely mind resisted in a very strange way : the princely body, namely, flung itself suddenly out of a third-story win- dow, nothing but the hands left within; and hanging on there by the sill, and fixedly resolute to obey gravitation rather than Montbail, soon brought the poor lady to terms. Upon which, indeed, he had been taken from her, and from the women altogether, as evidently now needing rougher government. Always an unruly fellow, and dangerous to trust among crock- ery. At Hanover he could do no good in the way of breeding : sage Leibnitz himself, with his big black periwig and large mention again ; bnt leave Count von Schulenbnrg to mention and describe them, — which he does abundantly, so many as had accumulated up to that date of 1852, to the affliction more or less of sane mankind, * Forster, i. 74. Ernian, M€moirssde Sophie Charlotte (Berlin, 1801), p, 130. 82 BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. Book I. patient nose, could have put no metaphysics into such a boy. Sublime Theodicee (Leibuitzian " justification of the ways of God ") was not an article this individual had the least need of, nor at any time the least value for. " Justify ? What doomed dog questions it, then ? Are you for Bedlam, then ? " — and in maturer years his rattan might have been dangerous ! For this was a singular individual of his day ; human soul still in robust health, and not given to spin its bowels into cobwebs. He is known only to have quarrelled much with Cousin George, during the year or so he sj^ent in those parts. But there was another Cousin at Hanover, just one other, little Sophie Dorothee (called after her mother), a few months older than himself ; by all accounts, a really pretty little child, whom he liked a great deal better. She, I imagine, was his main resource, while on this Hanover visit ; with her were laid the foundations of an intimacy which ripenecl well after- wards. Some say it was already settled by the parents that there was to be a marriage in due time. Settled it could hardly be ; for Wilhelmina tells us,^ her Father had a " choice of three " allowed him, on coming to wed ; and it is otherwise discernible there had been eclipses and uncertainties, in the interim, on his part. Settled, no ; but hoped and vaguely pre- figured, we may well suppose. And at all events, it has actu- ally come to pass ; " Father being ardently in love with the Hanover Princess," says our Margravine, "and much prefer- ring her to the other two," or to any and all others. Wedded, with great pomp, 28th November, 1706; ^ — and Sophie Doro- thee, the same that was his pretty little Cousin at Hanover twenty years ago, she is mother of the little Boy now born and christened, whom men are to call Frederick the Great in coming generations. Sophie Dorothee is described to us by courtier contempora- ries as "one of the most beautiful princesses of her day:" Wilhelmina, on the other hand, testifies that she was never strictly to be called beautiful, but had a pleasant attractive 1 M^moires de la Margrave de Bareith, i. 1. 2 Forster, i. 117. Chap. III. *' FATHER AND MOTHER. 33 physiognomy; which may be considered better than strict beauty. Uncommon grace of figure and look, testifies Wil- helmina ; much dignity and soft dexterity, on social occasions ; perfect in all the arts of deportment ; and left an impression on you at once kindly and royal. Portraits of her, as Queen at a later age, are frequent in the Prussian Galleries ; she is painted sitting, where I best remember her. A serious, comely, rather plump, maternal-looking Lady ; something thoughtful in those gray still eyes of hers, in the turn of her face and car- riage of her head, as she sits there, considerately gazing out upon a world which would never conform to her will. De- cidedly a handsome, wholesome and affectionate aspect of face. Hanoverian in type, that is to say, blond, florid, slightly ^;?'o- fuse ; — yet the better kind of Hanoverian, little or nothing of the worse or at least the worst kind. The eyes, as I say, are gray, and quiet, almost sad ; expressive of reticence and reflec- tion, of slow constancy rather than of speed in any kind. One expects, could the picture speak, the querulous sound of ma- ternal and other solicitude ; of a temper tending towards the obstinate, the quietly unchangeable ; — loyal patience not wanting, yet in still larger measure royal impatience well con- cealed, and long and carefully cherished. This is what I read in Sophie Dorothee's Portraits, — probably remembering what I had otherwise read, and come to know of her. She too will not a little concern us in the first part of this History. I find, for one thing, she had given much of her physiognomy to the Priedrich now born. In his Portraits as Prince-Pvoyal, he strongly resembles her ; it is his mother's face informed with youth and new fire, and translated into the masculine gen- der : in his later Portraits, one less and less recognizes the mother. Friedrich Wilhelm, now in the sixth year of wedlock, is still very fond of his Sophie Dorothee, — " Fiechen " {Feekin diminutive of Sophie), as he calls her ; she also having, and continuing to have, the due wife's regard for her solid, honest, if somewhat explosive bear. He troubles her a little now and then, it is said, with whiffs of jealousy ; but they are whiffs only, the product of accidental moodinesses in him, or of tran- VOL. V. 3 34 BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. Book I. sient aspects, misinterpreted, in the court-life of a yonng and pretty woman. As the general rule, he is beautifully good- humored, kind even, for a bear ; and, on the whole, they have begun their partnership under good omens. And indeed we may say, in spite of sad tempests that arose, they continued it under such. She brought him gradually no fewer than four- teen children, of whom ten survived him and came to mar turity : and it is to be admitted their conjugal relation, though a royal, was always a human one; the main elements of it strictly observed on both sides ; all quarrels in it capable of being healed again, and the feeling on both sides true, however troublous. A rare fact among royal wedlocks, and perhaps a uuique one in that epoch. The young couple, as is natural in their present position, have many eyes upon them, and not quite a paved path in this confused court of Friedrich I, But they are true to one another ; they seem indeed to have held well aloof from all public business or private cabal ; and go along silently ex- pecting, and perhaps silently resolving this and that in the future tense ; but with moderate immunity from paternal or other criticisms, for the present. The Crown-Prince drills or hunts, with his Grumkows, Anhalt-Dessaus : these are harm- less employments ; — and a man may have within his own head what thoughts he pleases, without offence so long as he keeps them there. Friedrich the old Grandfather lived only thirteen months after the birth of his grandson: Friedrich Wilhelm was then King ; thoughts then, to any length, could become actions on the part of Friedrich Wilhelm. Chap. IV. FATHER'S MOTHER. 35 CHAPTER IV. father's mothee. FjiiEDRicn Wilhelm's Mother, as we hinted, did not live to see this marriage which she had forecast in her maternal heart. She died, rather suddenly, in 1705,^ at Hanover, whither she had gone on a visit ; shortly after parting with this her one boy and child, Friedrich Wilhelm, who is then about seventeen ; whom she had with effort forced herself to send abroad, that he might see the world a little, for the first •time. Her sorrow on this occasion has in it something beauti- ful, in so bright and gay a woman : shows us the mother strong in, her, to a touching degree. The rough cub, in whom she noticed rugged perverse elements, "tendencies to avarice," and a want of princely graces, and the more brilliant qualities in mind and manner, had given her many thoughts and some \uieasy ones. But he was evidently all she had to love in the world ; a rugged creature inexpressibly precious to her. For days after his departure, she had kept solitary ; busied with little; indulging in her own sad reflections without stint. Among the papers she had been scribbling, there was found one slip with a heart sketched on it, and round the heart " Parti " (Gone) : My heart is gone ! — poor lady, and after what a jewel! But Nature is very kind to all children and to all mothers that are true to her. Sophie Charlotte's deep sorrow and dejection on this part- ing was the secret herald of fate to herself. It had meant ill health withal, and the gloom of broken nerves. All autumn and into winter she had felt herself indefinitely unwell ; she determined, however, on seeing Hanover and her good old 1 1st February (Erman, p. 241; Forster, i. 114) : bom, 20th October, 16C8; wedded, 28th September, 16S4; died, 1st February, 1705. 36 BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. Book I Mother at the usual time. The gloomy sorrow over Friedrich Wilhelm had been the premonition of a sudden illness which seized her on the road to Hanover, some five months after- wards, and which ended fatally in that city. Her death was not in the light style Friedrich her grandson ascribes to it ; ^ she died without epigram, and though in perfect simple cour- age, with the reverse of levity. Here, at first hand, is the specific account of that event ; which, as it is brief and indisputable, we may as Avell fish from the imbroglios, and render legible, to counteract such notions, and illuminate for moments an old scene of things. The writing, apparently a quite private piece, is by " M. de la Bergerie, Pastor of the French Church at Hanover," respecta- ble Edict-of-Nantes gentleman, who had been called in on the occasion ; — gives an authentic momentary picture, though a feeble and vacant one, of a locality at tliat time very interest- ing to Englishmen. M. de la Bergerie privately records : — '' The night between the last of January and the first of Feb- ruary, 1705, between one and two o'clock in the morning, I Avas called to the Queen of Prussia, who was then dangerously ill. ''Entering the room, I threw myself at the foot of her bed, testifying to her in words my profound grief to see her in this state. After which I took occasion to say, 'She might know now that Kings and Queens are mortal equally with all other men ; and that they are obliged to appear before the throne of the majesty of God, to give an account of their deeds done, no less than the meanest of their subjects.' To which her Majesty replied, ' I know it well (Je le sais hien).^ — I went on to say to her, ' Madam, your Majesty must also recognize in this hour the vanity and nothingness of the things here below, for which, it may be, you have had too much interest ; and the importance of the things of Heaven, which perhaps you have neglected and contemned.' There- upon the Queen answered, 'True (^Cela est vrai) !'' 'Neverthe- less, Madam,' said I, ' does not your Majesty place really your trust in God ? Do you not very earnestly {hien serieuse- 1 Memoires de Brandehourg (Preuss's Edition of (Eitvres, Berlin, 1847 et seqq.), i. 112. Chap. IV. ' FATHER'S MOTHER. 37 onent) crave pardon of Him for all the sins you have com- mitted ? Do not you fly (n^a-t-elle pas recours) to the blood and merits of Jesus Christ, without which it is impossible for us to stand before God ? ' The Queen answered, ' Oui (Yes).' — While this was going on, her Brother, Duke Ernst August, came into the Queen's room," — perhaps with his eye upon me and my motions ? " As they wished to speak together, I withdrew by order." This Duke Ernst August, age now 31, is the youngest Brother of the family; there never was any Sister but this dying one, who is four years older. Ernst August has some tincture of soldiership at this time (Marlborough Wars, and the like), as all his kindred had ; but ultimately he got the Bishopric of Osnabriick, that singular spiritual heirloom, or 7«.a^/-heirloom of the family ; and there lived or vegetated without noise. Poor soul, he is the same Bishop of Osna- briick, to whose house, twenty -two years hence, George I., struck by apoplexy, was breathlessly galloping in the summer midnight, one wish now left in him, to be with his brother ; — and arrived dead, or in the article of death. That was another scene Ernst August had to witness in liis life. I suspect him at present of a thought that M. de la Bergerie, with his pious commonplaces, is likely to do no good. Other trait of Ernst August's life ; or of the Schloss of Hanover that night, — or where the sorrowing old Mother sat, invincible though weep- ing, in some neighboring room, — I cannot give. M. de la Bergerie continues his narrative : — "Some time after, I again presented myself before the Queen's bed, to see if I could have occasion to speak to her on the matter of her salvation. But Mouseigneur the Duke Ernst August then said to me. That it was not necessary ; that the Queen was at peace with her God (eta it bien avec son J)ieu)P — Which will mean also that M. de la Bergerie may go home ? However, he still writes : — " Next day the Prince told me. That observing I was come near the Queen's bed, he had asked her if she wished I should still speak to her ; but she had replied, that it was not neces- sary in any way (nullement), that she already knew all that 1 (\ M i\ •'- 38 BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. Book I. could be said to lier on such an occasion ; that she had said it to herself, that she was still saying it, and that she hoped to be well with her God. '' lu the end a faint coming upon the Queen, which was what terminated her life, I threw myself on my knees at the other side of her bed, the curtains of which were open ; and I called to God with a loud voice, ' That He would rank his angels round this great Princess, to guard her from the insults of Satan ; that He would have pity on her soul ; that He would wash her with the blood of Jesus Christ her heavenly Spouse ; that, having forgiven her all her sins. He would receive her to his glory.' And in that moment she expired."^ — Age thirty-six and some months. Only Daughter of Electress Sophie ; and Father's Mother of Frederick the Great. She was, in her time, a highly distinguished woman ; and has left, one may say, something of her likeness still trace- able in the Prussian Nation, and its form of culture, to this day. Charlottenburg (Charlotte's-town, so called by the sorrowing Widower), where she lived, shone with a much- admired French light under her presidency, — French essen- tially, Versaillese, Sceptico-Calvinistic, reflex and direct, — illuminating the dark North ; and indeed has never been so bright since. The light was not what we can call inspired ; lunar rather, not of the genial or solar kind : but, in good truth, it was the best then going ; and Sophie Charlotte, who was her Mother's daughter in this as in other respects, had made it her own. They were deep in literature, these two Eoyal Ladies ; especially deep in French theological polemics, with a strong leaning to the rationalist side. They had stopped in Rotterdam once, on a certain journey homewards from Flanders and the Baths of Aix-la-Chapelle, to see that admirable sage, the doubter Bayle. Their sublime messenger roused the poor man, in his garret there, in the Bompies, — after dark : but he had a headache that night ; was in bed, and could not come. He followed them next day ; leaving his paper imbroglios, his historical, philosophical, anti- theological marine-stores ; and suspended his never-ending 1 Erman, p 242. Chap. IV. FATHER'S MOTHER. 39 scribble, on their belialf ; — but would not accept a pension, and give it up.^ They were shrewd, noticing, intelligent and lively women ; persuaded that there was some nobleness for man beyond what the tailor imparts to him ; and even very eager to discover it, had they known how. In these very days, while our little Friedrich at Berlin lies in his cradle, sleeping most of his time, sage Leibnitz, a rather weak but hugely ingenious old gentleman, with bright eyes and long nose, with vast black perul>:e and bandy legs, is seen daily in the Linden Avenue at Hanover (famed Linden Alley, leading from Town Palace to Country one, a couple of miles long, rather disappointing when one sees it), daily driving or walking towards Herren- hausen, where the Court, where the old Electress is, who will have a touch of dialogue with him to diversify her day. Not very edifying dialogue, we may fear ; yet once more, the best tliat can be had in present circumstances. Here is some lunar reflex of Versailles, which is a polite court ; direct rays there are. from the oldest written Gospels and the newest ; from the great unwritten Gospel of the Universe itself ; and from one's own real effort, more or less devout, to read all these aright. Let us not condemn that poor French element of Eclecticism, Scepticism, Tolerance, Theodicea, and Bayle of the Bompies versus the College of Saumur. Let us admit that it was prof- itable, at least that it was inevitable ; let us pity it, and be thankful for it, and rejoice that we are well out of it. Scepti- cism, which is there beginning at the very top of the world- tree, and has to descend through all the boughs with terrible results to mankind, is as yet pleasant, tinting the leaves with fine autumnal red. Sophie Charlotte partook of her Mother's tendencies ; and carried them with her to Berlin, there to be expanded in many ways into ampler fulfilment. She too had the sage Leibnitz often with her, at Berlin; no end to her questionings of him ; eagerly desirous to draw water from that deep well, — a wet rope, with cobwebs sticking to it, too often all she gotj end- less rope, and the bucket never coming to view. Which, how- 1 Erman, pp. Ill, 112. Date is 1700 (late in the autumn probably). 40 JilllTH AND PARENTAGE. Book I. ever, she took patiently, as a thing according to Nature. She had her learned Beavxsobres and other Eeverend Edict-of- Nantes gentlemen, famed Berlin divines ; whom, if any Pa- pist notability, Jesuit ambassador or the like, happened to be there, she would set disputing with him, in the Soiree at Char- lottenburg. She could right well preside over such a battle of the Cloud-Titans, and conduct the lightnings softly, without explosions. There is a pretty and very characteristic Letter of hers, still pleasant to read, though turning on theologies now fallen dim enough ; addressed to Father Vota, the famous Jesuit, King's-confessor, and diplomatist, from AVarsaw, who had been doing his best in one such rencontre before her Maj- esty (date March, 1703), — seemingly on a series of evenings, in the interval* of his diplomatic business ; the Beausobre champions being introduced to him successively, one each evening, by Queen Sophie Charlotte. To all appearance the fencing had been keen ; the lightnings in need of some dex- terous conductor. Vota, on his way homeward, had written to apologize for the spntterings of fire struck out of him in cer- tain i)inches of the combat ; says. It was the rough handling the Primitive Fathers got from these Beausobre gentlemen, who indeed to me, Vota in person, under your Majesty's fine presidency, were politeness itself, though they treated the Fa- thers so ill. Her Majesty, with beautiful art, in this Letter, smooths the raven plumage of Vota ; — and, at the same time, throws into him, as with invisible needle-points, an excellent dose of acupuncturatiou, on the subject of the Primitive Fa- thers and the Ecumenic Councils, on her own score. Let us .^ive some Excerpt, in condensed state : — " How can St. Jerome, for example, be a key to Scripture ? " she insinuates ; citing from Jerome this remarkable avowal of his method of composing books; "especially of his method in that Book, Commentarjf on the Galatians, where he accuses both Peter and Paul of simulation and even of hypocrisy. The great St. Augustine has been charging him wuth this sad fact," says her Majesty, who gives chapter and verse ; ^ " and Jerome answers : ' I followed the Commentaries of Origen, 1 " Epist. 28% edit. Paris." And Jerome's answer, " Ibid. Epist. 76*." Chap. IV. *. FATHER'S MOTHER. 41 «• of " — five or six different persons, who turned out mostly to be heretics before Jerome had quite done with them in coming years ! — " ' And to confess the honest truth to you/ continues Jerome, ' I read all that ; and after having crammed my head with a great many things, I sent for my amanuensis, and dictated to him now my own thoughts, now those of others, without much recollecting the order, nor sometimes the words, nor even the sense.' In another place (in the Book itself farther ou^), he says: 'I do not myself write; I have an amanuensis, and I dictate to him what comes into my moutlj. If I wish to reflect a little, to say the thing better or a better thing, he knits his brows, and the whole look of him tells me sufficiently that he cannot endure to wait.' " — Here is a sacred old gentleman, whom it is not safe to^ depend on for interpreting the Scriptures, thinks her Majesty ; but does not say so, leaving Father Vota to his reflections. Then again, coming to Councils, she quotes St. Gregory Kazianzen upon him ; who is truly dreadful in rega.rd to Ecumenic Councils of the Church, — and indeed may awaken thoughts of Deliberative Assemblies generally, in the modern constitutional mind. " He says,^ Xo Council ever was success- ful ; so many mean human passions getting into conflagration there ; with noise, with violence and uproar, ' more like those of a tavern or still worse place,' — these are his words. He, for his own share,. had resolved to avoid all such 'rendezvous- ing of the Geese and Cranes, flocking together to throttle and tatter one another in that sad manner.' Nor had St. Theodo- ret much opinion of the Council of Nice, except as a kind of miracle. ' Nothing good to be expected from Councils,' says he, ' except when God is pleased to interpose, and destroy the machinery of the Devil.' " — With more of the like sort ; all delicate, as invisible needle-points, in her Majesty's hand.^ What is Father Vota 1 " Commentary on the Galatians, chap, iii." 2 " Greg. Nazian. de Vita sita." 3 Letter undated (datable "Liitzelburg, March, 1703,") is to be found entire, with all its adjuncts, in Erman, pp. 246-255. It was subsequently- translated by Toland, and published here, as an excellent Polemical Piece, — 42 BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. Book I to say ? — The modern reader looks through these chinks into a strange old scene, the stuif of it fallen obsolete, the spirit of it not, nor worthy to fall. These were Sophie Charlotte's reunions ; very charming in their time. At which how joyful for Irish Toland to be pres- ent, as was several times his luck. Toland, a mere broken heretic in his own country, who went thither once as Secretary to some Embassy (Embassy of Macclesfield's, 1701, announcing that the English Crown had fallen Hanover- wards), and was no doubt glad, poor headlong soul, to find himself a gentle- man and Christian again, for the time being, — admires Hano- ver and Berlin very much ; and looks upon Sophie Charlotte in particular as the pink of women. Something between an earthly Queen and a divine Egeria ; " Serena " he calls her ; and, in his high-flown fashion, is very laudatory. " The most beautiful Princess of her time," says he, — meaning one of the most beautiful : her features are extremely regular, and full of vivacity ; copious dark hair, blue eyes, complexion excellently fair ; — " not very tall, and somewhat too plump," he admits elsewliere. And then her mind, — for gifts, for graces, culture, where will you find such a mind ? " Her reading is infinite, and she is conversant in all manner of subjects ; " "knows the abstrusest problems of Philosophy ; " says admiring Toland : much knowledge everywhere exact, and handled as by an artist and queen ; for " her wit is inimitable," " her justness of thought, her delicacy of expression," her felicity of utterance and management, are great. Foreign courtiers call her "the Republican Queen." She detects you a sophistry at one glance ; pierces down direct upon the weak point of an opinion : never in my whole life did I, Toland, come upon a swifter or sharper intellect. And then she is so good withal, so bright and cheer- ful ; and " has the art of uniting what to the rest of the world are antagonisms, mirth and learning," — say even, mirth and entirely forgotten in our time {A Letter nr/ainst Popery/ by Sophia Cfinrlottr, the lale Queen of Prusfsia : Beincj, &c. &c. London, 1712). But the finest Duel of all was probably that between Beaiisobre and Toland himself (reported by Beausobre, in something of a crowing manner, in Erman, pp. 203-241, " Octo- ber, 1701 "), of whicli T()lar.;l nialies no mention anywhere Chap. IV. FATHER'S MOTHER. 43 good sense. Is deep in music, too ; plays daily on her harpsi- cliord, and fantasies, and even composes, in an eminent man- ner.^ Toland's admiration, deducting tlie liigh-flown temper and manner of the man, is sincere and great. -Beyond doubt a bright airy lady, shining in mild radiance in those Northern parts ; very graceful, very witty and ingenious ; skilled to speak, skilled to hold her tongue, — which latter art also was frequently in requisition with her. She did not much venerate her Husband, nor the Court population, male or female, whom he chose to have about him : his and their ways were by no means hers, if she had cared to publish her thoughts. Friedrich I., it is admitted on all hands, was " an expensive Herr ; " much given to magnificent ceremonies, etiquettes and solemnities ; making no great way any-whither, and that always with noise enough, and with a dust vortex of courtier intrigues and cabals encircling him, — from which it is better to stand quite to windward. Moreover, he was slightly crooked; most sensitive, thin of skin and liable to sudden flaws of temper, though at heart very kind and good. Sophie Charlotte is she who wrote once, " Leibnitz talked to me .of the infinitely little (de llinfinhnent petit) : vion Dieu, as if I did not know enough of that ! " Besides, it is whis- pered she was once near marrying to Louis XIV.'s Dauphin ; her Mother Sophie, and her Cousin the Dowager Duchess of Orleans, cunning women both, had brought her to Paris in her girlhood, with that secret object ; and had very nearly managed it. Queen of France that might have been ; and now it is but Brandenburg, and the dice have fallen somewhat wrong for us ! She had Friedrich Wilhelm, the rough boy ; and perhaps noth- ing more of very precious property. Her first child, likewise a boy, had soon died, and there came no third : tedious cere- monials, and the infinitely little, were mainly her lot in this world. 1 An Account of the Courts of Prussia and Hanover, sent to a Minister of State in Holland, by Mr. Tolaud (London, 1705), p. 322. Toland's other Book, which has reference to her, is of didactic nature (" immortality of the soul," "origin of idolatry," &c.), but with much fine panegyric direct and oblique: Letters to Serena (" Serena' being Quern), a thin 8vo, London, 1704. 44 BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. Book I. All which, however, she had the art to take up not in the tragic way, but in the mildly comic, — often not to take up at all, but leave lying there ; — and thus to manage in a handsome and softly victorious manner. With delicate female tact, with fine female stoicism too ; keeping all things within limits. She was much respected by her Husband, much loved indeed ; and greatly mourned for by the j)Oor man : the village Liitzelburg (Little-town), close by Berlin, where she had built a mansion for herself, he fondly named Charlottenlnu'g (Charlotte's-town), after her death, which name both House and Village still bear. Leibnitz found her of an almost troublesome sharpness of intel- lect; "wants to know the why even of the why," says Leibnitz. That is the way of female intellects when they are good ; noth- ing equals their acuteness, and their rapidity is almost exces- sive. Samuel Johnson, too, had a young-hitly friend once "with the acutest intellect I have ever known." On the whole, we may pronounce her clearly a superior woman, this Sophie Charlotte ; notable not for her Grandson alone, though now pretty much forgotten by the world, — as indeed all things and persons have, one day or other, to be ! A Life of her, in feeble watexy style, and distracted arrange- ment, by one Erman,^ a Berlin Frenchman, is in existence, and will repay a cursory perusal ; curious traits of her, in still looser form, are also to be found in Pollnitz : * but for our pur- poses here is enough, and more than enough. ^ Monsieur Erman, Ilistoriographe de Brandchourg, M^moires pour serinr a I'llistoire de Sofihie Charlotte, Heine de Preusse, lus dans les Stances, ^c. (1 vol. 8vo, Berlin, 1801.) 2 Carl Ludwig Freiherr von Pollnitz, Memoiren zur Lebens- und Regierungs- Geschichte der vier letzten Regenten des Preussischen Staats (was published in French also), 2 vols. 12mo, Berlin, 1791. Chap. V. *: KING FRIEDRICH I. 45 CHAPTEE, V. KING FRIEDKICH I. The Prussian royalty is now in its twelfth year when this littJe Friedi-ich, Avho is to carry it to such a height, conies into the world. Old Friedrich the Grandfather achieved this dig- nity, after long and intricate negotiations, in the first year of the Century ; 16th November, 1700, his ambassador returned triumphant from Vienna ; the Kaiser had at last consented : We are to wear a crown royal on the top of our periAvig ; the old Electorate of Brandenburg is to become the Kingdom of Prussia; and the Family of Hohenzollern, slowly mounting tliesc many centuries, has reached the uppermost round of the ladder. Friedrich, the old Gentleman who now looks upon his little Grandson (destined to be Third King of Prussia) with such interest, — is not a very memorable man; but he has had his adventures too, his losses and his gains : and surely among the latter, the gain of a crown royal into his House gives him, if only as a chronological milestone, some place in History. He was son of him they call the Great Elector, Friedrich Wilhelm by name ; of whom the Prussians speak much, in an eagerly celebrating manner, and whose strenuous toilsome work in this world, celebrated or not, is still deeply legible in the actual life and affairs of Germany. A man of whom we must yet find some opportunity to say a word. From him and a beautiful and excellent Princess Luise, Princess of Orange, — Dutch "William, our Dutch William's aunt, — this crooked royal Friedrich came. He was not born crooked ; straight enough once, and a fine little boy of six months old or so ; there being an elder Prince now in his third year, also full of hope. But in a rough jour- 46 BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. Book I. ney to Konigsberg and back (winter of 1G57, as is guessed), one of the many rough jolting journeys this faithful Electress made with her Husband, a careless or unlucky nurse, who had charge of pretty little Fritzchen, was not sufficiently attentive to her duties on the Avorst of roads. The ever-jolting carriage gave some bigger jolt, the child fell backwards in her arms ; ^ — did not quite break his back, but injured it for life: -.-and with his back, one may perceive, injured his soul and history to an almost corrosi)onding degree. For the weak crooked boy, with keen and line perceptions, and an inadequate case to put them in, grew up with too thin a skin : — that may be considered as the summary of his misfortunes ; and, on the whole, there is no other heavy sin to be charged against him. He had other loads laid ujjon him, poor youth : his kind pious Mother died, his elder Brother died, he >at the age of seventeen saw himself Heir-Apparent; — and had got a Step- mother with new heirs, if he should disappear. Sorrows enough in that one fact, with the venomous whisperings, commentaries and suspicions, which a Court population, fe- male and male, in little Berlin Town, can contrive to tack to it. Does not the new Sovereign Lady, in her heart, wish you were dead, my Prince ? Hope it perhaps ? Health, at any rate, weak; and, by the aid of a little pharmacy — ye Heavens ! Such suspicions are now understood to have had no basis except in the waste brains of courtier men and women ; but their existence there can become tragical enough. Add to which, the Great Elector, like all the Hohenzollerns, was a choleric man ; capable of blazing into volcanic explosions, when affronted by idle masses of cobwebs in the midst of his serious businesses ! It is certain, the young Prince Fried- rich had at one time got into quite high, shrill and mutually minatory terms with his Stepmother ; so that once, after some such shrill dialogue between them, ending with " You shall repent this. Sir ! " — he found it good to fly off in the night, with only his Tutor or Secretary and a valet, to Hessen-Cassel 1 Johann Wegfuhrer, Leben der Kur/urslin Luise, gebornen Prinzessin von Nassau-Oranien, GemcJiUn Friedrich Wilhelm des Grossen (Leipzig, 1838), p. 107. CiiAP. V. * KING FRIEDRICII I. 47 to an Aunt ; who stoutly protected him in this emergency ; and whose Daughter, after the difficult readjustment of matters, became liis Wife, but did not live long. And it is farther certain the same Prince, during this his first wedded time, dining one day with his Stepmother, was taken suddenly ill. Felt ill, after his cup of coffee ; retired into another room in violent spasms, evidently in an alarming state, and secretly in a most alarmed one : his Tutor or Secretary, one Dankel- mann, attended him thither; and as the Doctor took some time ^ to arrive, and the symptoms were instant and lu-gent. Secretary Dankelmann produced " from a pocket-book some drug of his own, or of the Hessen-Cassel Aunt," emetic I suppose, and gave it to the poor Prince ; — who said often, and felt '^"sr after, with or without notion of poison. That Dankelmann had saved his life. In consequence of which adventure he again quitted Court Avithout leave ; and begged to be permitted to remain safe in the country, if Papa would be so good.^ yancy the Great Elector's humor on such an occurrence; and what a furtherance to him in his heavy continual labors, and strenuous swimming for life, these beautiful humors and transactions must have been ! A crook-backed boy, dear to the Great Elector, pukes, one afternoon ; and there arises such an opening of the Xether Floodgates of this Universe ; in and round your poor workshop, nothing but sudden darkness, smell of sulphur ; hissing of forked serpents here, and the universal alleleu of female hysterics there ; — to help a man forward with his work ! reader, we will pity the crowned head, as well as the hatted and even hatless one. Human creatures will not 170 quite accurately together, any more than clocks will ; and when their dissonance once rises fairly high, and they cannot readily kill one another, any Great Elector who is third party will have a terrible time of it. Electress Dorothee, the Stepmother, was herself somewhat of a hard lady; not easy to live with, though so far above poisoning as to have " despised even the suspicion of it." She was much given to practical economics, dairy-farming, 1 Pollnitz, Memoiren, i. 191-198. 48 BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. Book I. market-gardening, and industrial and commercial operations such as ottered ; and was thought to be a very strict reckoner of money. She founded the Dorotheenstadt, now oftener called the NeustoAlt, chief quarter of Berlin ; and planted, just about the time of this unlucky dinner, " a.d. 1G80 or so," ^ the tirst of the celebrated Lindens, which (or the successors of which, in a stunted oondition) are still growing there. Unter-den- Linden : it is now the gayest quarter of Berlin, full of really fine edifices : it was then a sandy outskirt of Electress Doro- thee's dairy-farm ; good for nothing but building upon, thought Eloctress Dorothee. She did much dairy-and-vegetable trade on tlie great scale ; — was thought even to have, underhand, a commercial interest in the principal Beer-house of the city? * People did not love her : to the Great Elector, who guided with a steady bridle-hand, she complied not amiss ; though in him too there rose sad recollections and comparisons now and then : but with a Stepson of unsteady nerves it became evident to him there could never be soft neighborhood. Prince Fried- rich and his Father came gradually to some understanding, tacit or express, on that sad matter ; Prince Friedrich was allowed to live, on his separate allowance, mainly remote from Court, ^^^iich he did, for perhaps six or eight years, till the Great Elector's death ; henceforth in a peacefiQ manner, or at least without open explosions. His young Hessen-Cassel Wife died suddenly in 1683 ; and again there was mad rumor of poisoning ; which Electress Dorothee disregarded as below her, and of no consequence to her, and attended to industrial operations that would pay. That poor young "Wife, when dying, exacted a promise from Prince Friedrich that he would not wed again, but be content with the Daughter she had left him : which promise, if ever seriously given, could not be kept, as we have seen. Prince Friedrich brought his Sophie Charlotte home about fifteen months after. With the Stepmother and with the Court there 1 Nicolai, Beschreihung der liiniglichen Residenzstddte Berlin und Potsdam (Berlin, 17S6), i. 172. - Horn, Leben Friedrich Wilhdms des Grossen Kurfiirsten von Brandenburg (Berlin, 1814). Chap. V. * KING FRIEDRICH I. 49 was armed neutrality under tolerable forms, and no open exjilosion farther. lu a secret way, however, there continued to be difficulties. And such difficulties had already been, that the poor young man, not yet come to his Heritages, and having, with probably some turn for expense, a covetous unamiable Stepmother, had fallen into the usual difficulties ; and taken the methods too usual. Namely, had given ear to the Austrian Court, which offered him assistance, — somewhat as an aged Jew will to a young Christian gentleman in quarrel with papa, — upon con- dition of his signing a certain bond: bond which much sur- prised Prince Friedrich when he came to understand it ! Of which we shall hear more, and even much more, in the course of time ! — Neither after his accession (year 1688 ; his Cousin Dutch William, of the glorious and immortal memory, just lifting anchor towards these shores) was the new Elector's life an easy one. We may say, it was replete with troubles rather ; and unhappily not so much with great troubles, Avhich could call forth antagonistic greatness of mind or of result, as "witli never-ending shoals of small troubles, the antagonism to which is apt to become itself of smallish character. Do not search into his history ; you will remember almost nothing of it (I hope) after never so many readings ! Garrulous Pollnitz and others have written enough about him ; but it all runs off from you again, as a thing that has no affinity with the human skin. He had a court " rem^jll cV intrigues, full of never-ending cabals,"^ — about what? One question only are we a little interested in : How he came by the Kingship ? How did the like of him contrive to achieve Kingship ? We may answer : It was not he that achieved it ; it was those that went before him, who had grad- ually got it, — as is very usual in such cases. All that he did was to knock at the gate (the Kaiser's gate and the world's), and ask, " Is it achieved, then ? " Is Brandenburg grown ripe for having a crown ? Will it be needful for you to grant ^ Forster, i. 74 (quoting M^molrcx rlti Comte de Dohna) ; &c. &c. VOL. V. 4 60 BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. Book I. Brandenburg a crown ? "Which question, after knocking as loud as possible, they at last took the trouble to answer, " Yes, it will be needful." — Elector Friedrich's turn for ostentation — or as we may interpret it, the high spirit of a Ilohenzollern working through weak nerves and a crooked back — had early set him a-think- ing of the Kingship; and no doubt, the exaltation of rival Saxony, which had attained that envied dignity (in a very un- enviable manner, in the person of Elector August made King of I'oland) in 1007, operated as a new spur on his activities. Then also Duke Ernst of Hanover, his father-in-law, was struggling to become Elector Ernst ; Hanover to be the Ninth Electorate, which it actually attained in 1G'J8 ; not to speak of England, and quite endless prospects there for Ernst and Hanover. These my lucky neighbors are all rising; all this the Kaiser has granted to my lucky neighl>ors: why is there no i)romotiou he should grant me, among them ! — Elector Frietbich had 30,000 excellent troops ; Kaiser Leo- pold, the " little man in red stockings," had no end of Wars. Wars in Turkey, wars in Italy ; all Dutch William's wars and more, on our side of Europe ; — and here is a Spanish-Suc- cession War, coming dubiously on, which may prove greater than all the rest together. Elector Frit'drich sometimes in his own high })erson (a courageous and high though thin-skinned man), otherwise by skilful di'jmty, had done the Kaiser ser- vice, often signal service, in all these Wars ; and was never wanting in the time of need, in the post of difficulty with those famed Prussian Troops of his. A \oyQl gallant Elector this, it must be owned ; capable withal of doing signal damage if we irritated him too far ! Why not give him this pro- motion, since it costs us absolutely nothing real, not even the price of a yard of riV)bon with metal cross at the end of it ? Kaiser Leopold himself, it is said, had no particular objection ; but certain of his ministers had ; and the little man in red stockings — much occupied in hunting, for one thing — let them have their way, at the risk of angering Elector Fried- rich. Even Dutch William, anxious for it, in sight of the future, had not yet prevailed. CuAv. V. ,* KING FlilEDRlCH I. 51 The negotiation had lasted some seven years, without result. There is no doubt but the Succession War, and Marlborough, would have brought it to a happy issue : in the mean while, it is said to have succeeded at last, somewhat on the sudden, by a kind of accident. This is the curious mythical account ; in- correct in some unessential piu-ticulars, but in the main and singular part of it well-founded. Elector Friedrich, according to rcilluitz and others, after failing in many methods, had sent 100,000 thalers (say £15,000) to give, by way of — bribe we must call it, — to the chief opi)Osing Hofrath at Vienna. The money was offered, accordingly ; and was refused by the op- posing Ilofrath : upon which the Brandenbui-g Ambassador Avrote that it was all labor lost ; and even hurried off home- wards in despair, leaving a Secretary in his place. The Bran- denburg Court, nothing despairing, orders in the mean while, Try another with it, — some other Hofrath, whose name they wrote in cipher, which the blundering Secretary took to mean no Hofratli, but the Kaiser's Confessor and Chief Jesuit, I'ater Wolf. To him accordingly he hastened with the cash, to him with the respectful Electoral request ; who received both, it is said, especially the £1,"),000, with a Gloria in excels is ; and went forthwith and persuaded the Kaiser.^ — Now here is the inexactitude, say Modern Doctors of History ; an error no less than threefold. 1°. Elector Friedrich was indeed advised, in cipher, by his agent at Vienna, to write in person to — *' Who is that cipher, then ? " asks Elector Friedrich, rather puzzled. At Vienna that cipher was meant for the Kaiser ; but at Berlin they take it for Pater Wolf ; and write ac- cordingly, and are answered with readiness and animation. 2°. Pater W^olf was not official Confessor, but was a Jesuit in extreme favor with the Kaiser, and by birth a noble- man, sensible to human decorations. 3°. He accepted no bribe, nor was any sent ; his bribe was the pleasure of oblig- ing a high gentleman who condescended to ask, and possi- bly the hope of smoothing roads for St. Ignatius and the Black ]Militia, in time coming. And thtis at last, and not otherwise than thus, say exact Doctors, did Pater Wolf do 1 Pollnitz, Memoiren, i. 310. 52 BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. Book I. the tiling.^ Or might not the actual death of poor King Car- los II. at Madrid, Ist November, 1700, for whose heritages all the world stood watcliing with swords half drawn, considera^ bly assist Pater "Wolf V Done sure enough the thing was ; and before November ended, Friedricli's messenger returned with " Yes " for answer, and a Treaty signed on the IGth of that month." To till' huge joy of Elector Friedrich and liis Court, almost the very nation thinking itself glad. Which joyful I'otentate decided to set out straightway and have the coronation done ; though it was midwinter ; and Kiinigsberg (for I'russia is to be our title, " King in Prussia," and Kiinigsberg is Capital City there) lies 400 miles ofT, through tangled shaggy forests, boggy wildernesses, and in many j)arts only corduroy roads. We order " .30.(»0( ) j)ost-horses," besides all our own large stud, to be got ready at the various stations : our Injy Friedrich Wilhelm, rugged boy of twelve, rough and brisk, yet much " given to blush " withal (which is a feature of him), shall go with us ; much more, Soi)hie Charlotte our aug\ist Electress-Quecn that is to be: and we set out, on the 17th of December, 1700, last year of the Century ; *' in 1800 carriages : " such a cavalcaile as never crossed those wintry wildernesses before. Friedrich Wilhelm went in the third division of carriages (for 18(K) of them could not go quite together) ; our noble Sophie Charlotte in the second; a Margraf of Prandenburg-Schwedt, chief Mar- graf, our eldest Ilalf-Brother, Dorothee's eldest Son, sitting on the coach-box, in correct insignia, as similitude of Driver. So strict are we in etiquette ; etiquette indeed being now upon its apotheosis, and after such efforts. Six or seven years of efforts on Elector Friedricli's part ; and six or seven hundred years, unconsciously, on that of his ancestors. The magnificence of Friedricli's processionings into Konigs- berg, and through it or in it, to be crowned, and of his coronation ceremonials there : what pen can describe it, what pen need ! Folio volumes with copper-plates have been written on it ; and ' 0. A. II. Stonzol. Grsrhir/il,' dfs Pmifsischen Stoats (Haniburg, 1841), iii. 104. Niii>lai {Birlinrr ^fonatschrlfi. year 1799) ; &c. 2 Pollnitz (i. 318) gives the Treaty (date corrected by his Editor, ii. 589) Chap. V. * KING FRIEDRICH I. 53 are not yet all pasted in bandboxes, or slit into spills.^ " The diamond buttons of his jMajesty's coat [suuli-colored or purple, I cannot recollect] cost db'l,5U0 apiece;" by this one feature judge what an expensive Herr. Streets were hung with cloth, carpeted with cloth, no end of draperies and cloth ; your op- pressed imagination feels as if there was cloth enough, of scarlet and other bright colors, to thatch the Arctic Zone. "With illuminations, cannon-salvos, fountains running wine. Friedrich had made two Bishops for the nonce. Two of his natural Church-Superintendents made into Quasi-Bishops, on tln"Anglican nuxlel, — wliieh was always a favorite with him, and a pious wish of his ; — but they remained mere cut branches, these two, and did not, after their haranguing and anointing functions, take root in the country. He himself put the crown on his heatl : *' King here in my own right, after all ! '' — and looked his royalest, we may fancy ; the kind eyes of him almost partly tierce for moments, and " the cheerfulness of pride '' well blending with something of awful. In all which sublimities, the one thing that remains for hnman memory is not in these Folios at all, but is considered to be a fact not the less : Electress Charlotte's, now Queen Charlotte's, very strange conduct on the occasion. For she cared not much about crowns, or upholstery magnificences of any kind ; but had meditated from of old on the infinitely little ; and under these genuflections, risings, sittings, shift- ings, grimacings on all parts, and the endless droning eloquence of Bishops invoking Heaven, her ennui, not ill-humored or offensively ostensible, was heartfelt and transcendent. At one turn of the proceedings, Bishop This and Chancellor That droning their empty grandiloquences at discretion, Sophie Charlotte was distinctly seen to smuggle out her snuff-box, being addicted to that rakish practice, and fairly solace herself with a delicate little pinch of snuff. Rasped tobacco, tab(w rape, called by mortals riijie or rappee : there is no doubt about it ; and the new King himself noticed her, and hurled back a ' British Museum, short of very many necessary Books on this subject, offers tlie due Coroiiatiou Folio, with its prints, upliolstery catalogues, and official harangues upon notliing, to ingenuous human curiositj. 54 ininii and pakentage. book i. look of due fulininancy, which could not help the matter, and was only lost in air. A memorable little action, and almost symlx)lie in the tirst rrussian Coronation. " Yes, we are Kings, and are got so near the stars, not nearer; and you invoke the gods, in that tremendously long-winded manner ; and I — Heavens, 1 have my snufif-box by me, at least ! " Thou wearied jiaticnt Heroine ; cognizant of the inlinitely little I — This symbolic pinch of snuff is fragrant all along in Prussian History. A fragrancy of humble verity in the middle of all royal or other^'ostentations ; inexorable, (juiet protest against cant, ilone with such simplicity : Sophie Charlotte's svmbolic j)inch of snuff. She was always considered somethiiig (jf a liepublicau Queen. Thus I>randi'nburg Electorate has become. Kingdom of Prussia ; and the Holienzollerns have put a crown ui»ou their heatl. Of IJrandcnburg, what it was, and what Prussia- was; and of the Hohenzollerns and what they were, and hov they rose thither, a few deUiils, to such as are dark about tliese matters, cannot well be disjKJiised with here. BOOK II. OF BRANDENBURG AND THE IIOIIENZOLLERNS. 928-1417. CIIArTKK T. bkakxibok: hkxuy the fowlkr. TiiK Bnuulenlturj,' Countries, till they l^econie related to the H<»heuzollern Family which now rules there, have no History that has i)rove(l nu-nutrable to niankiml. There has indeed been a good deal written under th;it title; but there is by no means much known, and of that aj^ain there is alarmingly little that is worth knowing or remembering. Fytheas, the Marseilles Travelling Commissioner, looking out for new channels of tratle, somewhat above 2,000 years ago, saw the country actually lying there ; sailed past it, occasionally landing ; and made report to such Marseillese ** Chamber of Commerce '' as there then was: — report now lost, all to a few indistinct and iusigniticant fractions.^ This was " about the year 327 before Christ," while Alexander of ^lacedon was busy conquering India. Beyond question, Tytheas, the first ici'lthig or civilized creatui-e that ever saw Germany, gazed with his Greek eyes, and occasionally landed, striving to speak and inquire, upon those old Baltic Coasts, north border of the now Prussian Kingdom ; and reported of it to mankind we know not what. TMiich brings home to us the fa<^'t that it existed, but almost nothing more : A Country ^ M^moires de rAcad€mie des Inscriptions, t. xix. 46, xxxvii. 439, &c. 56 lUiANDKNllUim AND IlUlIKNZi »LLERNS. Book II. A.i). 000. of lakps and woods, of marshy jungles, sandy wildernesses ; inhabited by bears, otters, bisons, wolves, wild swine, and cer- tain shaggy Germans of the Suevic tyi)e, as good as inarticu- late to Tytheas. After which all direct notice of it ceases for above three hundred years. We can lioj)e only that the jun- gles were getting cleared a little, and the wild creatures hunted down ; that tlie Germans were increasing in nund)er, and be- coming a thought less shaggy. These latter, tall Suevi Sem- nones, men of blond stern asj^ect (oculi tnucs cierulei) and great strength of lM)ne, were known to j)Ossess a formidable talent for lighting:* Dnisus Germanii-us, it has l)een guessed, did not like to appear personally among them: some "gigantic woman prophesying to him across the Elbe " that it might be dangerous, Ihusus contented himself with erecting some tri- umphal i)illar on his own safe side of the Kibe, to say that they were conquered. In the Fourth Century of our era, when the German jiojmla- tions, on impulse of certain *' Iluns exju'lled from the Chinese frontier," or for other reasons valid to themselves, l)egan flow- ing universally southward, to t;ike ])os.session of the rich Koman world, and so continued flowing for two centuries more ; the old (ierman frontiers generally, and especially those Northern Baltic countries, were left comparatively va- cant ; so that new immigrating jKjpulations from the East, all of Sclavic origin, easily obtained footing and supremar-y there. In the Northern parts, these immigrating Sdaves were of the kind called Vandals, or Wends : thev spread themselves as far west as Hamburg and the Ocean, south also far over the Elbe in some quarters ; while other kinds of Sclaves were equally busy elsewhere. With what difficulty in settling the new boundaries, and what inexhaustible funds of quarrel thereon, is still visible to every one, though no Historian was there to say the least word of it. " All of Sclavic origin ; " but who knows of how many kinds : Wends here in the North, through the Lausitz (Lusatia) and as far as Thiiringen ; not to speak of Polacks. r.ohomian Czechs, Hnns, Bulgars, and the other dim nomenclatures, on the Eastern frontier. Five hundred * Tacitus, De Moribus Germnnonim, c. 45. Chap. I. HENRY THE FOWLER. 57 'J'28. years of violent unrecorded fightihg, abstruse quarrel with their new neighbors in settling the marches. Many names of towns in Germany ending in itz (Meuselwitz, Mollwitz), or bearing the express epithet Windisch (Wendish), still give indication of those old sad circumstances ; as does the word Slave, in all our Western languages, meaning caj)tured Scln- ^umimi. AVhat long-tlrawn echo of bitter rage and hate lies in that small etymology ! These things were ; but they have no History : why should the^i have any ? Enough that in those Baltic regions, there are for the time (Year GOO, and till long after Charlemagne is out) Sclaves in place of Suevi or of Ilolstein Saxons and Angli ; that it is now shaggy "Wends who have the task of taming thi^ jungles, and keeping down the otters and wolves. Wends latterly in a waning condition, mueli beaten upon by Cliurlemagne and others ; but never yet beaten out. And so it has to hist, century after century ; Wends, wolves, wild swine, all alike dumb to us. Dumb, or sounding only one liuge unutterable message (seemingly of tragic import), like the voice of their old Forests, of their old Baltic Seas : — i)er- haps more edifying to us so. Here at last is a definite date and event : — "a.d. 928, Henry the Fowler, marching across the frozen bogs, took Bkaxxhjor, a chief fortress of the Wends;'" — first mention in human speech of the place now called Bran- denburg : Bor or " Burg of the Brenns " (if there ever was any Tribe of Brenns, — Brennus, there as elsewhere, being name for King or Leader) ; *' Burg of the Woods," say others, — who as little know. Probably, at that time, a town of clay huts, with ditch and palisaded sod-wall round it; certainly "a chief fortress of the Wends," — who must have been a good deal surprised at sight of Henry on the rimy winter morning near a thousand years ago. This is the grand old Henry, called " the Fowler " {Heinrich der Vogler), because he was in his Vogelheerde (Falconry or 1 Kijhler, Reichs-Historie (Frankfurth und Leipzig, 1737), p. 63. Michaelis, Chur-und Furstliclten Hdusrr in Deiitsrhland (Lemgo, 1759, 1760, 1785), i. 255. 68 BRANDENBURG AND HOIIENZOLLERNS. Book il. 928. Hawk-establishment, seeing his Hawks fly) in the upland Hartz Country, when messengers came to tell him that the German Nation, through its Princes and Authorities assem- bled at Fritzlar, had made him King ; and that he would have dreadful work henceforth. Which he undertook ; and also did, — this of Urannibor only one small item of it, — warring right manfully all his days against Chaos in that country, no rest for him thenceforth till he died. The beginning of Ger- man Kings ; the lir.st, or essentially the first sovereign of united Germany, — Charlemagne's posterity to the last bas- tard having died out, and only Anarchy, Italian and other, being now the alternative. " A very high King," says one whose Note-books I have got, " an authentically noble human figure, visible still in clear outline in the gray dawn of JModcrn History. ' The Father of whatever good has since been in Germany. He subdued his Dukes, Schwaben, Baiern (Swabia, Bavaria) and others, who were getting too hereditary, and inclined to disobedience. He managed to get back Lorraine; made truce with the Hunga- rians, who were excessively invasive at that time. Truce with the Hungarians ; and then, having gathered strength, made di'eadful beating of them; two beatings, — one to each half, for the invasive Savagery had split itself, for better chance of plunder ; first beating was at Sondershausen, second was at Merseburg, Year 933 ; — which settled them considerably. Another beating from Henry's son, and they never came back. Beat Wends, before this, — ' Brannibor through frozen bogs ' five years ago. Beat Sclavic Meisseners (Misnians) ; Bohe- hemian Czechs, and took Prag ; Wends again, with huge slaughter ; then Danes, and made ' King Worm tributary ' (King Gorm the Hard, our Ktmfs or Canute's great-grand- father. Year 931); — last of all, those invasive Hungarians as above. Had sent the Hungarians, when they demanded tribute or Mack-mail of him as heretofore. Truce being now out, — a mangy hound : There is your black-mail, Sirs ; make much of that ! " He had ' the image of St. jMichael painted on his stand- ard ; ' contrary to wont. He makes, or re-makes, Markgrafs Ttiap. I. • HENRY THE FOWLER. 59 i)-28. (^Vardens of the Marches), to be under his Dukes, — and not too hereditary. Who his Markgraves were ? Dim History counts tliom to the niunber of six ; ^ which take in their order : — " 1°. Sleswig, looking over into the Scandinavian countries, and the Norse Sea-kings. This ISIarkgraviate did not last long under that title. I guess, it became Stade-and-Ditmarsch afterwards. " 2°. Soltwedel, — which grows to be Markgraviate of Bran- denhirg by and by. Soltwedel, now called Salzwedel, an old Town still extant, sixty miles to west and north of Branden- burg, short way south of the Elbe, was as yet headquarters of this second Markgraf ; ami any Warden we have at Branden- burg is only a deputy of him or some other. "3°. Meissen (which we call Misnia), a country at that time still full of Wends. "4°. Lausitz, also a very Wendish country (called in Eng- lish maps Lusatia, — which is its name in Monk-Latin, not now a spoken language). Did not long continue a Mark- graviate ; fell to Meissen (Saxony), fell to Brandenburg, Bohe- mia, Austria, and had many tos and fros. Is now (since the Thirty-Years-War time) mostly Saxon again. "5°. Austria (Giisterreich, Eastern-Kingdom, Easteimrey as we might say ) ; to look after the Hungarians, and their valuable claims to black-mail. " 6°. Antiverp (' At-the- Wharf,' ' On-t'-^ATiarf,' so to speak), against the French ; which function soon fell obsolete. " These were Henry's six Markgraviates (as my best author- ity enumerates them) ; and in this way he had militia cap- tains ranked all round his borders, against the intrusive Sclavic element. 1 Kohler, Rtichs-IIistorie, p. 66. This is by no means Kohler's chief Book ; but this too is good, and does, in a solid effective way, what it at- tempts. He seems to me by far the best Historical Genius the Germans have yet produced, though I do not find much mention of him in their I-iterary Histories and Catalogues. A man of ample learning, and also of strong cheerful human sense and human honesty ; whom it is thrice-pleasant to meet with in those ghastly solitudes, populous chiefly with doleful creatures. 00 lUiANDENliUKG AND llUllE.NZuLLEKNS. Book II. "He fortitied Towns; all Towns are to be walled and warded, — to be Jiurys in fiict; and the inhabitants Jiurf/hvvs, or men capable of didendiug Jiurgs. Everywhere the ninth man is to serve as soldier in his Town; ollur eight in the country are to feed and support him : Ihinjtfiuthe (War- tackle, what is called Jhrint in our old IJooks^ descends to the eldest son of a lighting man who had served, as with us. ' All robbers arc miuie soldiers ' (unless they prefer hanging) ; and weapon-shows and drill are kept up. This is a man who will make some impression uj)on Anarchy, and its Wends and Huns. His st;indard was St. Michael, iis we have seen, — j/'Afw*' sworil is ilcrivt-d from a very high quarter! A pious man; — foundeil Quedlinlmrg Ablx-y, antl much else in that kind, having a pious Wife withal, Mechtildis, wlio took tiie main hanil in that of Quedlinburg; whose Life is in L«'ibnit/,' not the Icgiblest of Hooks. — On the whole, a right gallant King and 'Fowler.' Died, .\.n. O.'JG (at Mcmndcben, u Monastery on the Unstnit, not far from Scliulpforte), age sixty; had reigned only .s«'ventcen jears, and done so much. Lies buried in tj>ucdliMl)urg Abln'v : — any Tond)? I know no Life of liim but (iumUiiifs, which is an extremely inex- tricable Piece, and requires maiidy to be forgotten. — Hail, brave Henry: across the Nine dim Centuries, we salute thee, still visible as a valiant Son of Cosmos and Son of Heaven, iKMielicently sent us; as a man who did in grim earnest 'serve CJod ' in his day, and whose works accordingly Ijear fruit to our day, and to all days I " — So far my rough Note-books ; whii-h require again to l)e shut for the present, not to abuse the reader's i)atience, or lead him from his road. This of Markgrafs (Gmfs of the ^larches, marked Places, or lioundaries) was a nitural invention in that state of cir- cumstances. It did not quite originate with Henry ; but was much perfected by him, he first recognizing how essen- tial it was. On all frontiers he had his Graf (Count, JReeve, G' reeve, whom some think to be only Grau, Gray, or Senior, the hardiest, wisest steel-gray man he could discover) sta- * Lcibuitz, Saiiiloies lierum Di-vnswicensiiim, Sue. (Hanover, 1707), i. 196. CiiAi-. I. • iIENKV THE FU WLKK. Gl tioued on the Marvk, strenuously doiug wateli aud ward there : the post of ditiiculty, of peril, ami naturally of honor too, nothing of a sinecure by any means. Which jwst, like every other, always had a tendency to become hereilitary, if the kindred did not fail in tit men. And hence have come the innumerable Markgraves, Marquises, and such like, of modern times : titles now become chimerical, and more or less men- dacious, as most of our titles are, — like so many Burys changed into " Boroughs," aud even into '' Kotten Boroughs," with Defensive Bury\\GYS of the known sort: very mournful to discover. Once Norroy was not all i)asteboard ! At the heart of that huge whirlwind of his, with its dusty heraldries, and phantasmal nonu'nclatures now become mendacious, there lay, at lirst, always an earnest human fact. Henry the Fowler was so happy as to have the fact without any mix- ture of mendacity : we are in tlie sad reverse case ; reverse case not yet altogether complete, but daily becoming so, — one of the saddest and strangest ever heard of, if we thought of it ! — But to go on with business. Markgraviates thej-e continued to be ever after, — Six in Henry's time: — but as to the nund>er, place, arrangement of them, all this varied according to circumstances outward and inward, chiefly according to the regress or the reintrusion of the circumambient hostile populations; and underwent many ihanges. The sea-wall you build, and what nmin floodgates you establish in it, will depend on the state of the outer sea. JNIarkgraf of Slesicig grows into ^larkgraf of Dltmarsch and Stade ; retiring over the Elbe, if Norse Piracy get very triuni- l)hant. Antu-erji falls obsolete; so does Meissen by and by. Liiusitz and Sulzicedel, in the third century hence, shrink both into Brandenbury ; which was long only a subaltern station, managed by deputy from one or other of these. A Markgraf that prospered in repelling of his Wends and Huns had evi- dently room to spread himself, and could become very great, and produce change in boundaries : observe what (Esterreich (Austria) grew to, and what Brandenbury ; Meissen too, which became modern Saxony, a state once greater than it now is. In old Books are Lists of the primitive Markgraves of 62 15ILVNDENBURG AND IIOHENZOLLERNS. Book II. 928. Brandenburg, from Henry's time downward ; two sets, " Mark- graves of the Witekind race," and of another : ^ but they are altogether uncertain, a shadowy intermittent set of Mark- graves, both the AVitekind set and the Non-Witekind ; and truly, for a couple of centuries, seem none of them to have been other than subaltern Deputies, belonging mostly to Laicsitz or Salzwedel ; of whom therefore we can say nothing here, but must leave the first two hundred yeai-s in their natural gray state, — perhaps sufficiently conceivable by the reader, lUit thus, at any rate, was Branilenl)urg (Jlor or lUirg of the Hrcnns, whatever these are) first discovered to Christendom, and added to the firm land of articulate History : a feat worth jmtting on record. Done by Henry the Fowler, in the Year of Grace 92S, — while (among other things noticeable in this world) our K nut's great-grandfather, Gormo Ihirus, "Henry's Trilmta'-y," was still King of Denmark ; when Harald Blue- tooth (IV'uatand) was still a young fellow, with his teeth of the natural ''olor; and Swen with the Forked Beard (Traeskacfj, Double-K'ard, ^^ Twa-shog^') was not born; and the Monks of Ely had not yet (by about a hundred years) begun that sing- ing,^ nor the tide that refusal to retire, on behalf of this Knut, in our English part of his dominions. That Henry appointed due Wardenship in Brannibor was in ^ lliitmer, Genealogische Tahellen (Leij)zig, 1725-1728), i. 172, 173. A Book of rare excellence iu its kind. 2 Without note or comment, in the old Book of Ely (date before the Con- quest) i? preserved this stave ; — giving picture, if wo consider it, of the Fen Country all a lake {\\s it was for half the year, till drained, six centuries after), with Ely Monastery rising like an island in the distance ; and the music of its nones or vespers sounding soft and far over the solitude, eight hundred yeara ago and more. Merie sungen the Miuioches binnen Merry (genially) sang the 3fo»hs in Ely Ely Tha Cunt ching rew thcrby : As Knut Kinrj rowed (rew) there-by : Koweth cnites near the laut. Row, fellows (kniglits), nfar the land, And here we thes Muneches saeng. And hear we these Monks' s song. See Beutham's History of Ely (Cambridge, 1771), p. 94. CiiAi-. II. PREUSSEN : SAINT ADALBERT. 63 997. the common eourse. Sure enough, some ^larkgraf must take charge of Brannibor, — he of the Lausitz eastward, for example, or he of Salzwedel westward: — that Brannibor, in time, will itself be found the tit place, and have its own Markgraf of Brandenburg ; this, and what in the next nine centuries Bran- denburg will grow to, Henry is far from surmising. Branden- burg is fairly captured across the frozen bogs, and has got a warden and ninth-man garrison settled in it : Brandenburg, like other things, will grow to what it can. Henry's son and successor, if not himself, is reckoned to have founded the Cathedral and Bishopric of Brandenburg, — his Clergy and he always longing much for the conversion of these "Wends and Huns ; which indeed was, as the like still is, the one thing needful to rugged heathens of that kind. CHArTER II. PREUSSEN : SAINT ADALBERT. Five hundred miles, and more, to the east of Brandenburg, lies a Country then as now called Preiissen (Prussia Proper), inhabited by Heathens, where also endeavors at conversion are going on, though without success hitherto. Upon which we are now called to cast a glance. It is a nioory flat country, full of lakes and woods, like Brandenburg ; spreading out into grassy expanses, and bosky wildernesses humming with* bees; plenty of bog in it, but plenty also of alluvial mud ; sand too, but by no means so high a ratio of it as in Brandenburg ; tracts of Preussen are luxuriantly grassy, frugiferous, apt for the plough; and the soil generally is reckoned fertile, though lying so far north- ward. Part of the great plain or flat which stretches, sloping insensibly, continuously, m vast expanse, from the Silesian Mountains to the amber-regions of the Baltic ; Preussen is the seaward, more alluvial part of this, — extending west and east, on both sides of the Weichsel ( Vistula), from the regions of 64 BRANDENBURG AND IIOHENZOLLERNS. B'^'k If. yb7. the Oder river to the main stream of the Memel. Bordering- on-Russia its name signifies : Bor-Russia, B'lussia, Prussia ; or — some say it was only on a certain inconsiderable river in those parts, river Reussen, that it '* bordered," and not on the great Country, or any part of it, which now in our days is conspicuously its next neighbor. "Who knows ? — In Ik-nry the Fowler's time, and long afterwards, Preussen was a vehemently Heathen country ; the natives a Miscellany of rough Serbie Wends, Letts, Swedish Goths, or Dryasdust knows not what; — very probably a sprinkling of Swedish Goths, from okl time, chiefly along the coasts. Dryasdust knows only that these Prcussen were a strong-boned, iracund herdsman-and-tisher jjeople ; highly averse to be interfered with, in their religion especially. Famous otherwise, through all the centuries, for the amber they had been ilsed to tish, and sell in foreign parts. Amber, science declares, is a kind of petrified resin, distilled by pines that were dead before the days of Adam ; wlxich is now throwji up, in stormy weather, on that remote coast, and is there fished out by the amiihibious people, — who can like- wise get it by running mine-shafts into the sandhills on their coast ; — by wliom it is sold into the uttermost parts of the Earth, Arabia and beyond, from a very early period of time. No doubt Fytheas had his eye upon this valuable product, wlien he ventured into survey of those regions, — which are still the great mother of amber in our world. By their amber- fishery, with the aid of dairy-produce and plenty of beef and leather, these Heathen Preussen, of uncertain miscellaneous breed, contrived to support existence in a substantial manner ; they figure to us as an inarticulate, heavy-footed, rather ira- cund people. Their knowledge of Christianity was trifling, their aversion to knowing anything of it was great. As Poland, and the neighbors to the south, were already Christian, and even the Bohemian Czechs were mostly con- verted, pious wishes as to Preussen, we may fancy, were a constant feeling : but no effort hitherto, if efforts were made, had come to anything. Let some daring missionary go to preach in that country, his reception is of the worst, or per- CiiAi. II. PREUSSEN: SAIXT ADALBERT. 65 997. haps he is met on the frontier with menaces, and forbidden to preach at all; except sorrow and lost labor, nothing has yet proved attainable. It was very dangerous to go ; — and with what likelihood of speeding ? Efforts, we may suppose, aro rare ; but the pious wish being continual and universal, efforts can never altogether cease. From Henry the Fowler's capture of Brannibor, count seventy years, we find Henry's great- grandson reigning as Elective Kaiser, — Otto HI., last of the direct " Saxon Kaisers," Otto AYonder of the World ; — and alongside of Otto's great transactions, which were once called MlrabUia Mundl and are now fallen so extinct, there is the following small transaction, a new attempt to preach in Preussen, going on, which, contrariwise, is still worth taking notice of. About the year 997 or 990, Adalbert, Bishop of Prag, a very zealous, most devout man, but evidently of hot temper, and liable to get into quarrels, had determined, after many painfid experiences of the perverse ungovernable nature of corrupt mankind, to give up his nominally Christian flock altogether ; to shake the dust off his feet against Prag, and devote himself to converting those Prussian Heathen, who, across the fron- tiers, were living in such savagery, and express bondage to the Devil, worshipping mere stocks and stones. In this enterprise he was encouraged by the Christian potentates who lay con- tiguous ; especially by the Duke of Poland, to whom such next-neighbors, for all reasons, were an eye-sorrow. Adalbert went, accordingly, with staff and scrip, two monks attending him, into that dangerous country : not in fear, he ; a devout high-tempered man, verging now on fifty, his hair getting gray, and face marred with innumerable troubles and provocations of past time. He preached zealously, almost fiercely, — though chiefly with his eyes and gestures, I should think, having no command of the language. At Dantzig, among the Swedish-Goth kind of Heathen, he had some success, or affluence of attendance ; not elsewhere that we hear of. In the Pillau region, for example, where he next landed, an amphibious Heathen lout hit him heavily across the VOL. T. * 5 66 BKANDENBUKCi AND HOHP:XZ()LLERXS. B,><.k II. 9i<7. shoulders with the flat of his oar ; sent the poor Preacher to the ground, face foremost, and suddenly ended his salutary discourse for that time. However, he pressed forward, regardless of results, preaching the Evangel to all creatures \vho were willing or unwilling; — and pressed at last into the nacred Circuit, the liomnva, or Phice of Oak-trees, and of Wooden or Stone Idols (Bangputtis, Patkullos, and I know not what diabolic dumb Blocks), wliich it was death to enter. The Heathen Priests, as we may conceive it, rushed out; beckoned liim, with loud unintelligible bullyings and fierce gestures, to begone ; hustled, shook him, shoved him, as he did not go; then took to confused striking, struck finally a death-stroke on the head of poor Adalbert : so that '' he stretched out both his arms (' Jesus, receive me thou ! ') and fell with his face to the ground, and lay dead there, -?- in the form of a crucifix," say his Biographers : only the attendant monks escajjing to tell. Attendant monks, or Adallx'rt, had known nothing of their being on forbidden ground. Their accounts of the phenome- non accordingly leave it oidy lialf explained : How he was surprised by armed Heathen Devil's-st-rvants in his sleep; was violently set upon, and his "beautiful Iwwels (j)uirhra visrrra) were run through with seven spears : " but this of the Bnniova, or Sacred Bangjiuttis Church of Oak-trees, perhaps chief Rnmora of the Country, rashly intruded into, with consequent strokes, and fall in the form of a crucifix, appears now to be the intelligible account.* We will take it for the real manner of Adalbert's exit; — no doubt of the essential transaction, or that it was a ver\' flaming one on both sides. The date given is 23d April, 997 ; date famous in the Romish Calendar since. He was a Czech by birth, son of a Heathen Bohemian man of rank: his name (Adalbert, A'lbert, Briglit-m-Xobleness) he got " at Magdeburg, whither he had gone to study " and seek baptism ; where, as generally elsewhere, his fervent devout 1 Baillet, Vies des Saints (Paris, 1739), iii. 722. BoUandas, Acta Sanc- torum. .\prili.-» torn, iii (die 2.3": in Edition Venetiis, 17.38), pp. 174-205. Voigt, Geschicke Preussens (Kouigsberg, 1827-1839), i. 266-270. Cnxv. II. PKEUSSEN : SAINT ADALliERT. 67 yy7. ways were adiuii-able to liis fellow-creatures. A " man of geuius," we may well say : one of Heaven's ljrit,'ht souls, boru into the muddy darkness of this world ; — laid hold of by a transcendent Message, in the due transcendent degree. He entered Prag, as Bishop, not in a carriage and six, but " walking barefoot ; " his contempt for earthly shadows being always extreme. Accordingly, his quarrels with the sceculmn were constant and endless ; his wanderings up and down, and vehement arguings, in this world, to little visible effegt, lasted all his days. We can perceive he was short- tempered, thin of skin : a violently sensitive man. For example, once in the Bohemian solitudes, on a summer after- noon, in one of his thousand-fold pilgrimings and wayfarings, he had lain down to rest, his one or two monks and he, in some still glade, " with a stone for his pillow "' (as was always his (uistom even in Brag), and had fallen sound asleep. A Jiolu'inian shepherd chanced to pass that way, warbling some- thing on his pipe, as he wended towards looking after liis Hock. Seeing the sleepers on their stone pillows, the thought- less Czech nuschievously blew louder, — started Adalbert broad awake upon him ; who, in the fury of the first moment, shrieked : '' Deafness on thee ! Man cruel to the human sense of hearing ! " or words to that effect. AVhich curse, like the most of Adalbert's, was punctually fulfilled : the amazed Czech stood deaf as a post, and went about so all his days after ; nay, for long centuries (perhaps down to the present time, in remote parts), no Czech blows into his pipe in the woodlands, without certain precautions, and preliminary fuglings of a devotional nature.^ — From which miracle, as indeed from many other indications, I infer an irritable nervous-system in poor Adal- bert ; and find this death in the Romova was probably a furious mixture of Earth and Fleaven. At all events, he lies there, beautiful though bloody, "in the form of a crucifix ; " zealous Adalbert, the hot spirit of him now at last cold ; — and has clapt his mark upon the Heathen country, protesting to the last. This was in the year i>97, think the best Antiquaries. It happened at a place 1 Bollandus, ubi supra 68 BRANDENBURG AND HOHENZOLLERNS. Bc.ok II. 997. called Fischhansen, near I'illau, say they; on that narrow strip of country which lies between the Baltic and the Frische Haf (immense Lake, Wa^h as we should say, or leakage of shallow water, one of two such, which the Baltic has spilt out of it in that quarter), — near the Fort and Haven of Pillau ; where there has been much stir since ; where Napoleon, for one thing, had some tough fighting, prior to the Treaty of Tilsit, fifty years ago. The place — or if not this place, then Gnesen in Poland, the final burial-place of Adalbert, which is better known — luis ever since had a kind of sacredness ; better or worse expressed by mankind : in the form of canoni- zation, endless pilgrimages, rumored mii-acles, and such like. For shortly afterwards, the neighboring Potentate, Boleslaus Duke of Poland, heart-struck at the event, drew sword on these Heathens, and having (if I remember) gained some victory, bargained to have the Body of Adalbert delivered to him at its weight in gold. Body, all cut in pieces, and nailed to poles, had long ignominiously withered in the wind ; perhaps it was now only buried overnight for the nonce ? Being dug up, or being cut down, and put into the balance, it weighed — less than was expected. It was as light as gos- samer, said pious rumor. Had such an excellent odor too ; — and came for a mere nothing of gold ! This was Adalbert's first miracle after death ; in life he had done many hundreds of them, and has done millions since, — chiefly upon paralytic nervous-systems, and the element of pious rumor ; — which any Devil's-Advocate then extant may explain if he can ! Kaiser Otto, Wonder of the World, who had known St. Adal- bert in life, and much honored him, " made a pilgrimage to his tomb at Gnesen in the year 1000 ; " — and knelt there, we may believe, with thoughts wondrous enough, great and sad enough. There is no hope of converting Preussen, then? It will never leave off its dire worship of Satan, then ? Say not, Never ; that is a weak word. St. Adalbert has stamped his life upon it, in the form of a crucifix, in lasting protest against that. Chap. III. *MARKGRAVES OF BRANDENBURG. 69 CHAPTER III. MARKGRAVES OF BRAXDENBURG. Meanwhile our first enigmatic set of Markgraves, or Dej^uty-Markgraves, at Brandenburg, are likewise faring ill. Whoever these valiant steel-gray gentlemen might be (which Dryasdust does not the least .know, and only makes you more uncertain the more he pretends to tell), one thing is very evident, they had no peaceable possession of the place, nor for above a hundred years, a constant one on any terms. The Wends were highly disinclined to conversion and obe- dienoe : once and again, and still again, they burst up ; got temporary hold of Brandenburg, hoping to keep it ; and did frightful heterodoxies there. So that to our distressed imagi- nation those poor "Markgraves of Witekind descent," our first set in Brandenburg, become altogether shadowy, inter- mittent, enigmatic, painfully actual as they once were. Take one instance, omitting others; which happily proves to be the finish of that first shadowy line, and introduces us to a new set very slightly more substantial. JJnd of the First Shadowy Line. In the year 1023, near a century after Henry the Fowler's feat, the Wends bursting up in never-imagined fury, get hold of Brandenburg again, — for the third and, one would fain hope, the last time. The reason was, words spoken by the then IMarkgraf of Brandenburg, Dietrich or Theodoric, last of the Witekind Markgraves ; who hearing that a Cou- sin of his (Markgraf or Deputy-Markgraf like himself) was about wedding his daughter to " Mistevoi King of the Wends," said too earnestly : " Don't ! Will you give youi 70 BRANDENBURG AND HOHENZOLLERNS. B^.k ii ii;)0. daughter to a dog ? " Word " dog " was used, says my au- tlioiity.^ Which threw Kiug Mistt'voi into a paroxysm, and raised the AVends. Their butchery of the German popuhx- tion in poor Brandenburg, especially of the Priests ; their burning of the Cathedral, and of Cliuix-h and State generally, may be conceived. The Ilarlutigsberg, — in our time Jlaricn- herg, pleasant Hill near Brandenburg, with its gardens, vines, and whitened cottages : — t»n the top of this Harlungsberg the Wends "set up their god Triglaph;" a three-heatled Monster of which 1 have seen prints, beyond measure ugly. Bomething like three whale's-cubs comluned by boiling, or a triple porpoise deatl-tlruuk (for the dull eyes are inexj)res- pible, ;us well as the amorphous shape) : ugliest and stupidest of all false gods. This these victorious Wends set uj) on the Harlungsberg, Year 1023; and worshipped after their £ort, benighted mortals, — with joy, for a time. The Cathe- ilral was in ashes. Priests all slain or fled, shadowy Mark- graves the like ; Church and St;ite lay in ashes ; and Triglai)h, iike a Triple Porjjoise under the influence of laudanum, stood (I know not whether on his head or on liis tail) aloft on the Harlungsberg, as the Supreme of this Universe, for the time being. Second Shadoicy Line. Whereupon the Ditmarsrh-Stade Markgrafs (as some des- ignate them) had to interfere, these shadowy Deputies of ihe Witekind breed having vanished in that manner. The Ditmarschers recovered the place ; and with some fighting, did in the main at least keep Triglaph and the Wends out of it in time coming. The Wends were fiercely troublesome, and fought much; but I think they never actuallj got hold 1 See Michaelis Chtrund Furstlichen Uauser, i. 257-259: Pauli, Alhjcmeine Preussische Stauts-Geschichte (Halle, 1760-1769), i. 1-182 (the "standard work" on Prussian Ilistorv ; in eight watery quartos, intolerable to human nature) : Ivloss, Vaterldndische GemaUeiBerhn, 1833), i. 59-108 (a Bookseller's compila- tion, with some curious Excerpts): — under which lie modem Sagittarius, ancient Adam of Bremen, Ditmarus ^fers€burfJensis, Witicltindus Corbeiensis, Arnoldus Lubecensis, &c. &c. to all lengths and breadths. Chai-. III. MARKGRAVES OF BRANDENBURG. 71 li:jU. of Brandenburg again. They were beginning to get notions of conversion : well preached to and well beaten upon, j'ou cannot hold out forever. Even Mistevoi at one time pro- fessed tendencies to Christianity ; perhaps partly for his Bride's sake, — the dog, we may call him, in a milder sense ! But he relapsed dreadfully, after that insult ; and his son worse. On the other hand, Mistevoi's grandson was so zeal- ous he went about with the Missionary Preachers, and inter- preted their German into Wendish : " Oh, my poor Wends, will ^ou hear, then, will you understand ? This solid Earth is but a shadow : Heaven forever or else Hell forever, that is the reality ! " Such " difference between right and wrong" no Wend had heard of before : quite tremendously " impor- tant if true ! " — And doubtless it impressed many. There are heavy Ditmarsch strokes for the unimpressible. By de- grees all got converted, though many were killed first; and, one way or other, the Wends are preparing to efface them- selves as a distinct people. This Stade-and-Dltmursch family (of Anglish or Saxon breed, if that is an advantage) seem generally to have fur- nished the Sahwedel Ottice as well, of which Brandenburg was an offshoot, done by deputy, usually also of their kin. They lasted in Brandenburg rather more than a hundred years ; — with little or no Book-History that is good to read ; tlieir History inarticulate rather, and stamped beneficently on the face of things. Otto is a common name among them. One of their sisters, too, Adelheid (Adelaide, Nobleness) had a strange adventure with " Ludwig the Springer : " romantic mythic man, famous in the German world, over whom my readers and I must not pause at this time. In Salzwedel, in Ditmarsch, or wherever stationed, they had a toilsome fighting life : sore difficulties with their Dlt- marschers too, with the plundering Danish populations ; Mark- graf after Markgraf getting killed in the business. " Erschlagen, slain fighting with the Heathen," say the old Books, and pass on to another. Of all which there is now silence for- ever. So many years men fought and planned and struggled there, all forgotten now except by the gods ; and silently 72 BRANDENBURG AND HOHENZOLLERNS. Book II. 1130. gave away their life, before those countries could become fencible and habitable ! Nay, my friend, it is our lot too : and if we would win honor in this Universe, the rumor of Histories and Morning Newspapers, — which have to become wholly zero, one day, and fall dumb as stones, and which were not perhaps very wise even while speaking, — will help us little ! — Substantial Markgraves : Glimpse of the Contemporary Kaisers. The Ditmarsch-Stade kindred, much slain in battle with the Heathen, and otherwise beaten upon, died out, about the year 1130 (earlier perhaps, perhaps later, for all is shadowy still) ; and were succeeded in the Salzwedql part of their function by a kindred called " of Ascanieu and Ballenstadt ; " the Ascanier or Anhalt ]\[arkgraves ; whose History, and that of Brandenburg, becomes henceforth articulate to us ; a His- tory not doubtful or shadowy any longer ; but ascertainable, if reckoned worth ascertaining. Who succeeded in Dit- marsch, let us by no means inquire. The Empire itself was in some disorder at this time, more abstruse of aspect than usual ; and these Northern Markgrafs, already become im- portant people, and deep in general politics, had their own share in the confusion that was going. It was about this same time that a second line of Kaisers had died out : the Frankish or Salic line, who had succeeded to the Saxon, of Henry the Fowler's blood. For the Em- pire too, though elective, had always a tendency to become hereditary, and go in lines : if the last Kaiser left a son not unfit, who so likely as the son ? But he needed to be fit, otherwise it would not answer, — otherwise it might be worse for him ! There were great labors in the Empire too, as well as on the Sclavic frontier of it : brave men fighting against anarchy (actually set in pitched fight against it, and not always strong enough), — toiling sore, according to their faculty, to pull the innumerable crooked things straight. Some agreed well with the Pope, — as Henry II., who founded CuAP. 111. MARKGRAVES OF BRANDENBURG. 78 1130. * Bamberg Bishopric, and much else of the like ; ^ " a sore saint for the crown," as was said of David I., his Scotch congener, by a descendant. Others disagreed very much indeed ; — Henry IV.'s scene at (^anossa, with Pope Hildebrand and the pious Countess (year 1077, Kaiser of the Holy Roman Em- pire waiting, three days, in the snow, to kiss the foot of excommunicative Hildebrand), has impressed itself on all memories ! Poor Henry rallied out of that abasement, and dealt a stroke or two on Hildebrand ; but fell still lower be- fore long, his very Son going against him ; and came almost to actual want of bread, had not the Bishop of Liege been good to him. Nay, after death, he lay four years waiting vainly even for burial, — but indeed cared little about that. Certainly this Son of his, Kaiser Henry V., does not shine in filial piety : but probably the poor lad himself was hard bested. He also came to die, a.d. 1125, still little over forty, and was the last of the Prankish Kaisers. He "left the Reichs-Insignien [Crown, Sceptre and Coronation gear] to his Widow and young Friedrich of Hohenstauffen," a sister's son of his, — hoping the said Friedrich might, partly by that help, follow as Kaiser. Which Friedrich could not do ; being wheedled, both the Widow and he, out of their insignia, under false pretences, and otherwise left in the lurch. Not Friedrich, but one Lothar, a stirring man who had grown potent in the Saxon countries, was elected Kaiser. In the end, after waiting till Lothar was done, Friedrich's race did succeed, and with brilliancy, — Kaiser Barbarossa being that same Friedrich's son. In regard to which dim complicacies, take this Excerpt from the imbroglio of Manuscripts, before they go into the fire : — "By no means to be forgotten that the Widow we here speak of, Kaiser Henry V.'s Widow, who brought no heir to Henry V., was our English Henry Beauclerc's daughter, — granddaughter therefore of William Conqueror, — the same who, having (in 1127, the second year of her widowhood) mar- 1 Kohler, pp. 102-104. See, for instance, Description de la Table d'Autel en or fin, donn€e a la Cathe'drale de Bale, par I'Emjjereur Henri II. en 1019 (Poren- truy, 1838). 74 BRANDENBURG AND HOHENZOLLERNS. Book II. 1 142. ried Godefroi Count of Anjou, produced our Henry II. and our Plantagenets ; and thereby, through her victorious Controver- sies with King Stephen (that noble peer whose breeches stood him so cheap), became very celebrated as ' the Empress Maud,' in our old History -Books. ^Mathildis, Dowager of Kaiser Henry V., to whom he gave his Keichs-Insignia at dying: she is the 'Empress Maud' of English Books; and relates herself in this manner to the Hohenstauffen Dynasty, and intricate German vicissitudes. Be thankful for any hook whatever on which to hang half an acre of thrums in fixed position, out of your way ; the smallest tiint-spark, in a world all black and unrememberable, will be welcome." — And so we return to Brandenburg and the '' Ascunicn and JjuUoistudt " series of Markgraves. CHAPTER IV. ALIJEKT THE BP:AR. This Ascanien, happily, has nothing to do with Brute of Troy or the pious iEueas's son ; it is simply the name of a most ancient Castle (etymology unknown to me, ruins still dimly traceable) on the north slope of the Hartz ^Alountains ; short way from Aschersleben, — the Castle and Town of Aschersleben are, so to speak, a second edition of Ascanien. BallenstJidt is still older ; Ballenstadt Avas of age in Charle- magne's time ; and is still a respectable little Town in that upland range of country. The kindred, called Grafs and ultimately llerzogs (Dukes) of " Ascanien and Ballenstadt," are very famous in old German History, especially down from this date. Some reckon that they had intermittently been Markgrafs, in their region, long before this ; which is conceivable enough : at all events it is very plain they did now attain the Office in Salzwedel (straightway shifting it to Brandenburg) ; and held it continuously, it and much else CHA1-. IV. T ALBERT THE BEAR. 75 1142. that lay adjacent, for centuries, in a liiglily conspicuous manner. In Brandenburg they lasted for about two hundred years ; in their Saxon dignities, the younger branch of them did not die out (and give place to the Wettins that now are) for five hundred. Nay they have still their representatives on the Earth : Leopold of Anhalt-Dessau, celebrated " Old Dessauer," come of the junior branches, is lineal head of the kin in Friedrich Wilhelm's time (while our little Fritzchen lies asleep in his cradle at Berlin) ; and a certain Prince of Auhillt-Zevbst, Colonel in the Prussian Army, authentic Prince, but with purse much shorter than pedigree, will have a Daughter by and by, who will go to Russia, and become almost too conspicuous, as Catharine II., there ! — '* Brandenburg now as afterwards," says one of my old Papers, " was oflicially reckoned Saxon ; part of the big Duchy of Saxony ; where certain famed Billungs, lineage of an old 'Count Bilking' (connected or not with HUlhif/s-gate in our country, I do not know) had long borne sway. Of which big old Billungs I will say nothing at all ; — this only, that they died out ; and a certain Albert, ' Count of Ascanien and Ballenstiidt' (say, of Anhalt, in modern terms), whose mother was one of their daughters, came in for the nor\jii^..i part of their inheritance. He made a clutch at the Southern too, but did not long retain that. Being a man very swift and very sharp, at once nimble and strong, in the huge scram- ble that there then was, — Uncle Billung dead without heirs, a Salic line of emjDerors going or gone out, and a HoJienstaiiffen not yet come in, — he made a rich game of it for himself ; the rather as Lothar, the intermediate Kaiser, was his cousin, and there were other good cards which he played well. " This is he they call ' Albert the Bear {Albrecht der Bar) ; ' first of the Ascanien Markgraves of Brandenburg ; — first wholly definite Markgraf of Brandenburg that there is ; once a very shining figure in the world, though now fallen dim enough again. It is evident he had a quick eye, as well as a strong hand ; and could pick what way was straightest among crooked things. He got the Northern part of what 7t> lULVXDENBUKG AND llUllENZuLLEli.NS. Book II 1U2. is still called Saxony, and kept it in liis family; got the Brandenburg Countries withal, got the Lausitz ; was the sliining figure and great man of the North in his day. The i\Iarkgrafdoin of Salzicedel (which soon became of Brandeii- banj) he very naturally acquired (a.d. 1142 or earlier); very naturally, considering what Saxon and other honors and pos- sessions he had already got hold of." — We can only say, it was the luckiest of events for Bran- denburg, and the beginning of all the better destinies it has had. A conspicuous Country ever since in the world, and wliich grows ever more so in our late times. lie had many wars ; inextricable coil of claimings, quar- rellings and agreeings : fought nuich, — fought in Italy,, too, " against the l*agans '' (Saracens, that is). Cousin to one Kai- ser, the Lothar above named ; then a chief stay of the Hohen- stauffen, of the two Hohenstauffens who followed : a restless, much-managing, wide-warring man. He stood true by the great Barbarossa, second of the Ilohenstauffen, greatest of all the Kaisers ; which was a luck for him, and perhaps a merit. He kept well with three Kaisers in his time. Had great quarrels with ''Henry the Lion" about that "Billung" Saxon Heritage; Henry cai-ryiug off the better part of it from Albert. Except that same Henry, head of the Guelphs or Welfs, who had not Albert's talent, though wider lands than Albert, there was no German prince so important in that time. He transferred the Markgrafdora to Brandenburg, probably as more central in his wide lands ; Salzwedel is henceforth the led Markgrafdom or March, and soon falls out of notice in the world. Salzwedel is called henceforth ever since the " Old ^larck {Alte March, Altmarch) ; '' ohe Brandenburg coun- tries getting the name of " New Marck." Modern Neumarh, modern " Middle-Marck " (in which stands Brandenburg itself in our time), " CrArer-Marck " {Outside Marck, — word Ucher is still seen in Uhraine, for instance) : these are posterior Divi- sions, fallen upon as Brandenburg (under Albert chiefly) enlarged itself, and needed new Official parcellings into de- partments. Chap. IV. * ALBERT THE BEAK. T7 1152. Under Albert the IVFarkgraftlom had risen to be an Elec- torate withal. The Markgraf of Brandenburg was now fur- thermore the Kurflirst of Brandenburg ; officially " Arch-trea- surer of the Holy Roman Emi)ire ; " and one of the Seven who have a right (which became about this time an exclusive one for those Seven) to choose, to kiereii the Komish Kaiser ; and who are therefore called Kur Princes, Kurfurste or Elec- tors, as the highest dignity except the Kaiser's own. In reference to which abstruse matter, likely to concern us somewhat, will the uninstructed English reader consent to the following Excerpt, slightly elucidatory of Kurfiirsts and their function ? " Fiirsf (Prince) I suppose is equivalent originally to our noun of number, First. The old verb klereii (participle erko- ren still in use, not to mention ' Val-A-yr ' and other instances) is essentially the same word as our choose, being written kiesen as well as kieren. Nay, say the etymologists, it is also written kiisseii (to kiss, — to cAoose with such emphasis !), and is not likely to fall obsolete in that form. — The other Six Electoral Dignitaries who grew to Eight by degrees, and may be worth noting once by the readers of this Book, are : — "1°. Three Ecclesiastical, Mainz, Coin, Trier (Mentz, Co- logne, Treves), Archbishops all, with sovereignty and territory more or less considerable ; — who used to be elected as Popes are, theoretically by their respective Chapters and the Heav- enly Inspirations, but practically by the intrigues and pres- sures of the neighboring Potentates, especially Prance and Austria. " 2°. Three Secular, Sachsen, Pfalz, Bvhmen (Saxony, Palati- nate, Bohemia) ; of which the last, BUhinen, since it fell from being a Kingdom in itself, to being a Province of Austria, is not very vocal in the Diets. These Six, with Brandenburg, are the Seven Kurfiirsts in old time ; Septemvirs of the Coun- try, so to speak. "But now Pfalz, in the Thirty- Years War (under our Prince Rupert's Father, whom the Germans call the ' Winter- King '), got abrogated, put to the ban, so far as an indignant Kaiser could ; and the vote and Kiir of Pfalz ^v^ given to 78 BRANDENBURG AND IIOIIENZOLLERNS. B.«.k II. 1170. his Cousin of Baieni (Bavaria), — so far as an indignant Kai- ser could. However, at the Peace of Westplialia (U)48) it was found inccnupeteut to any Kaiser to abrogate I'falz or the like of Pfalz, a Kurfiirst of the Empire, So, after jargon inconceivable, it was settled, That J'fniz must be reinstated, though with territories much clipped, and at the bottom of the list, not the top as formerly ; and that Jin'wni, who coulil not stand to be balked after twenty years' possession, must be made E'njhth Elector. The Nbitk, we saw (Year 1G1)2), was Gentleman Ernst of ILinoner. There never was any Tenth ; and the Holy Rljmisrhe lirirh, which was a grand ob- ject once, but hatl gone about in a superannuated and plainly crazy state for some centuries back, was at last ]tut out of pain, by Nai)oleon, MJth August, ISOG,' and allowed to cease frum tills world.'' ' None of Albert's wars are so comfortable to reflect on as those he had with the anarchic Wends; whom he now fairly beat to i»owder, and either swejtt away, or else damped down into Christianity and keeping of the i>ea<^'e. Swept them away otherwise ; " peopling their lands extensively with Colonists from Holland, whom an inniad of the sea had rendered home- less then'.'' Wliiih surely was a useful exchange. Nothing better is known to me of Albert the Bear tiian this his intro- ducing large numbers of Dutch Xetherlanders into those coun- tries ; men thrown out of work, who already knew how to deal with bog and sand, by mixing and delving, and who first taught Brandenburg what greenness and cow-pasture was. The Wends, in presence of such things, could not but consent more and more to efface themselves, — cither to become Ger- man, and grow milk and cheese in the Dutch manner, or to disappear from the world- The Wendish Princes had a taste for German wives ; in which just taste the Albert genealogy was extremely willing to indulge them. Affinities produce inheritances ; by proper marriage-contracts you can settle on wliat side the most con- tingent inheritance shall at length falL Dim but pretty cer- tain lies a time coming when the Wendish Princes also shall 1 Mb. penes me. Ci.Ai-. IV. * ALBERT THE BEAK. 79 il70. Lave effaced themselves; and all shall be German-Branden- burgish, not Weudish any more. — The actual Inhabitants of Brandenburg, therefore, are either come of Dutch Bog-farm- ers, or are simple Lower Saxons ("Anglo-Saxon," if you like tliat l)etter), Flatt-Teutsch of the common tj'pe ; an unexcep- tionable breed of people. Streaks of Wendish population, extruded gradually into the remoter quagmires, and more inaccessible, less valuable sedgy moors and sea-strands, are scattered about ; Mecklenburg, which still subsists separately after a sort, is reckoned i)eculiarly Wendish. In Mecklenburg, rommern, rommereUeu (Little Pomerania), are still to be seen physiognomies of a Wendish or Vandalic type (more of cheek tluin there ought to be, and less of brow ; otherwise good enough physiognomies of their kind) : but the general mass, tempered with such admixtures, is of the I'kitt-Deutsch, Saxon or even Anglish eharacter we are familiar with here at home. A patient stout people ; meaning considerable things, and very incapable of speaking what it means. Albert was a fine tall figure himself ; der Schune, " Albert the Handsome," was his name as often as "Albert the Bear." That latter epithet he got, not from his looks or qualities, but merely from his heraldic cognizance : a Bear on his shield. As was then the mode of names ; surnames being scant, and not yet fixedly in existence. Thus too his contemporaries, Henry the Lion of Saxony and Welfdom, William the Lion of Scotland, were not, either of them, specially leonine men : nor had the Plantagenets, or Geoffrey of Anjou, any connection with the Plant of Broom, except wearing a twig of it in their caps on occasion. Men are glad to get some designation for a grand Albert they are often speaking of, Avhich shall distin- guish him from the many small ones. Albert "the Bear, der Bar,'' will do as well as another. It was this one first that made Brandenburg peaceable and notable. We might call him the second founder of Branden- burg ; he, in the middle of the Twelfth Century, completed for it what Henry the Fowler had begun early in the Tenth. After two hundred and fifty years of barking and worrying, the Wends are now finally reduced to silence ; their anarchy 80 IJKANDENBUIKJ AND IIUIIENZULLEKN.S. 15'»<.k II. mo. well buried, and wholesome Dutch cabbage planted over it : Albert did several great things in the world ; but this, for posterity, remains his memorable feat. Not done quite easily ; but done : big destinies of Nations or of Persons are not founded gratis in this world. He had a sore toilsome time of it, coercing, warring, managing among his fellow-creatures, while his day's-work lasted, — tiity years or so, for it began early. He died in his Castle of liallenstiidt, i)eaceably among the Hartz Mountains at last, in the year 1170, age about sixty- live. It w:is in the time while Thum;is a Becket was roving about the world, coming home excommunicative, and finally getting killed in Cant»'rbury Catheilral; — while Abbot Samson, still a poor little brown lioy, came over from Norfolk, holding by his mother's hand, to St. Edmundsbury ; having seen " Su- tanas with outspread wings " fearfully busy In tliis world. CHAITEU V. CONRAD OF IIOIIENZOLLKU.V; AND KAISER DARBAUOSSA. It w;is in those same years that a stout 3'oung fellow, Con- rad by name, far off in the southern parts of Germany, set out from the old Castle of HohenzoUern, where he was but junior, and had small outlooks, upon a very great errand in the world. From HohenzoUern ; bound now towar>ls Gelnliausen, Kaisers- lautern, or whatever temjwrary lodging the great Kaiser 13ar- barossa might be known to have, who was a wandering man, his business lying everywhere over half the world, and need- ing the master's eye. Conrad's purpose is to find Barbarossa, and seek fortune under him. This is a very indisputable event of those same years. The exact date, the figure, circumstances of it were, most likely, never written anywhere but on Conrad's own brain, and are now rubbed out forevermore ; but the event itself is certain ; and of the highest concernment to this Narrative. Somewhere b *. CiiAi-. V. CONRAD UK HUHENZULLEKN. 81 1170. about the year 1170, likeliest a few yeai's before tliat,^ this Conrad, riding down from Hohenzolleru, probably with no great stock of luggage about him, — little dreams of being connected with Brandenburg on the other side of the world ; but ii- unconsciously more so than any other of the then sons of Adam. He is the lineal ancestor, twentieth in direct as- cent, of the little Boy now sleeping in his cradle at Berlin ; let him wait till nineteen generations, valiantly like Conrad, have done their part, and gone out, Conrad will find he is come to this U A man's destiny is strange always ; and never wants for miracles, or will waiit, though it sometimes may for eyes to discern them. Hohenzolleru lies far south in Schwaben (Suabia), on the sunward slope of the Rauhe-Alp Country ; no great way north from Constance and its Lake ; but well aloft, near the springs of the l)anul)e; its back leaning on the BUu-k Forest; it is per- haps detinable as the southern summit of that same huge old Hevcynian ^Vood, which is still called the Schwarzwald (Black Forest), though now comparatively bare of trees.'^ Fanciful Dryasdust, doing a little etymology, will tell you the name Zollern is equivalent to ToUery or Place of Tolls. Whereby lliihenzoUcrn comes to mean the H'njh or Upper ToUery ; — and gives one the notion of anticjue pedlers climbing pain- fully, out of Italy and the Swiss valleys, thus far ; unstrai> l)ing their pack-horses here, and chaffering in unknown dialect about toll. Poor souls ; — it may be so, but we do not know, nor shall it concern us. This only is known : That a human kindred, probably of some talent for coercing anarchy and 1 Reutseh, Brandeixhunjischer Ceder-Ifein (Baircuth, 1682), pp. 273-276. — See also Johaun Ulrith Pregitzcrn, Teutschn- Iie;jierungs- und Ehren-Sjnegd, vorbildend ^-c. des Haitses Hohenzdlern (Berlin, 1703), pp. 90-93. A learned and painful Book : by a Tiibingen Professor, who is deeply read in the old Histories, and gives Portraits aiid other Engravings of some value. - " There are still considerable spottings of wood (pine mainly, and ' black ' enough); Holz-handd (timber-trade) still a considerable branch of business there; — and on the streams of the country are cunning contrivances notice- able, for floating do\vu the article into the Xeckar river, and thence into the Rliine and to Holland." ( Tourist's Note.) VOL. V. ' 82 BRANDENBURG AND IIOIIENZOLLERNS. 13»uk il. 1170. guiding maiikind, had, centuries ago, built its Burg there, and done tliat iuuction in a small but creditable way ever since ; kindred possibly enough derivable from '' Thassilo," (Jharle- magne, King Dagobert, and other Kings, but ceitainly from Adam and the Almighty Maker, who had given it those quali- ties ; — and that Conrad, a junior member of the same, now goes forth from it in the way we see. " Why should a young fellow that has capabilities," thought Conrad, " stay at home in hungry idleness, with no estate but his javelin and buff jerkin, and no employment but his hawks, when there is a wide opulent world waiting only to be conquered ? " This was Conrad's thought ; and it proved to be a very just one. It was now the flower-time of the llomish Kaisership of Germauy ; about the middle or noon of IJarbarossa himself, second of the Hohenstauifens, and greatest of all the Kaisers of that or any other house. Kaiser fallen unintelligible to most modern readers, and wholly unknown, which is a pity. No King so furnished out with ai)])aratus and arena, with personal faculty to rule and scene to do it in, has a])peared elsewhere. A magnificent magnanimous man ; holding the reins of the world, not quite in the imaginary sense ; scourg- ing anarchy down, and urging noble effort up, really on a grand scak^ A terror to evil-doers and a praise to well-doers in this world, j)robably beyond what was ever seen since. "Whom also we salute across the centuries, as a choice Benefi- cence of Heaven. "Encamped on the Plain of Koncaglia [when he entered Italy, as he too often had occasion to do], his shield was hung out on a high mast over his tent ; " and it meant in those old days, '' Ho, every one that has suffered wrong ; here is a Kaiser come to judge you, as he shall answer it to his Master." And men gathered round him; and actually found some justice, — if they could discern it when found. Which they could not always do ; neither was the justice capable of being perfect always. A fearfully difficult func- tion, that of Friedrich Eedbeard. But an inexorably indis- pensable one in this world ; — though sometimes dispensed with (to the huge joy of Anarchy, which sings Hallelujah through all its Newspapers) for a season! riiAP. V. CONRAD OF IIOIIEXZOLLERN. 83 1170. Kaiser Friedricli had immense difficulties with his Popes, with his Mikmese, and the like ; — besieged Milan six times over, among other anarchies; — had indeed a heavy-laden hard time of it, his task being great and the greatest. He made Gebhardus, the anarchic Governor of Milan, " lie chained un- der his table, like a dog, for three days." For the man was in earnest, in that earnest time: — and let us say, they are but paltry sham-men who are not so, in any time ; paltry, and far worse than paltry, however high their plumes may be. Of whom' the sick world (Anarchy, both vocal and silent, having now swoln rather high) is everywhere getting weary. — Geb- hardus, the anarchic Governor, lay tliree days under the Kai- ser's table ; as it would be well if every anarchic Governor, of the soft type and of the hard, were made to do on occasion ; asking himself, in terrible earnest, " Am I a dog, then ; alas, am not I a dog ? " Those were serious old times. On the other hand, Kaiser Friedricli had his Tourne3'S, his gleams of briglit joyances now and then ; one great gathering of all the chivalries at Mainz, which lasted for three weeks long, the grandest Tom'ney ever seen in this world. Geln- hausen, in the Wetterau (ruin still worth seeing, on its Island in the Kinzig river), is understood to have been one of his Houses ; Kaiserslautern (Kaiser's Limpid, from its clear spring- * water) in the Pfalz (what we call Palatinate), another. He. went on the Crusade in his seventieth year ; ^ thinking to him- self, " Let us end with one clear act of piety : " — he cut his way through the dangerous Greek attorneyisms, through the hungry mountain passes, furious Turk fanaticisms, like a gray old hero : '' Woe is me, my son has perished, then ? " said he once, tears wetting the beard now white enough ; " My son is slain ! — But Christ still lives ; let us on, my men ! " And gained great victories, and even found his son ; but never re- turned home ; — died, some unknown sudden death, " in the river Cydnus," say the most.^ Nay German Tradition thinks ^ 1189, A.D. ; Saladin having, to the universal sorrow, taken .Jerusalem. 2 Kohler (p. 188), and the Authorities cited by him. Biinau's Deutsche Kaiser- ttnd Reichs-IIistorie (Leipzig, 1728-174.3), i., is the express Book of Barbarossa : an elaborate, instructive Volume. 84 BRANDENBURG AND IIOHENZOLLERNS. B"ok II. 1170. he is not yet dead ; but only sleejjing, till the bad world reach its worst, when he will reappear. He sits within the Hill near Salzburg yonder, — says German Tradition, its fancy kindled by the strange noises in that Hill (limestone Hill) from hid- den waters, and by the grand rocky look of the place : — A peasant once, stumbling into the interior, saw the Kaiser in his stone cavern ; Kaiser sat at a marble table, leaning on his elbow ; winking, only half asleep ; beard had grown through the table, and streamed out on the floor ; he looked at the peasant one moment ; asked him something about tlie time it was ; then dropped his eyelids again : Not yet time, but will be soon I ^ He is winking as if to awake. To awake, and set his shield aloft by the lloncalic Fields again, with : Ho, every one that is suffering wrong ; — or that has strayed guideless, devil- ward, and done wrong, which is far fataler ! Conrad has become Bun/'/raf of Nurnherg (a.d. 1170). This was the Kaiser to whom Conrad addressed himself ; and he did it with success ; which may be taken as a kind of testimonial to the worth of the young man. Details we have absolutely none : but there is no doubt that Conrad recom- mended himself to Kaiser Redbeard, nor any that the Kaiser was a judge of men. Very earnest to discern men's worth and capabilities; having unspeakable need of worth, instead of unworth, in those under him ! We may conclude he ha/l found capabilities in Conrad ; found that the young fellow did effective services as the occasion rose, and knew how to work, in a swift, resolute, judicious and exact manner. Promotion was not likely on other terms ; still less, high promotion. One thing farther is known, significant for his successes : Conrad found favor with " the Heiress of the Vohburg Fam- ily," desirable young heiress, and got her to wife. The Voh- burg Family, now much forgotten everywhere, and never heard of in England before, had long been of supreme importance, of immense possessions, and opulent in territories, and we 1 Riesebeck's Travels (English Translation, London, 1787), i. 140. Biisch- ing, Volks-Sagen, &c. (Leipzig, 1820), i. 333, &c. &c. f^HAi-. V. KAISER BARBAROSSA. 85 1170. need not add, in honors and offices, in those Franconian Niirn- berg regions ; and was now gone to this one girl. I know not that she had much inheritance after all ; the vast Vohburg properties lapsing all to the Kaiser, when the male heirs wero out. But she had pretensions, tacit claims ; in particular, the Vohburgs had long been habitual or in effect hereditary Burg- grafs of Nurnberg ; and if Conrad had the talent for that office, he now, in preference to others, might have a chance for it. Sure enough, he got it ; took root in it, he and his ; and, in the 'course of centuries, branched up from it, high and wide, over the adjoining countries ; waxing towards still higher destinies. That is the epitome of Conrad's history ; history now become very great, but then no bigger than its neighbors, and very meagrely recorded ; of which the reflective reader is to make what he can. There is nothing clearly known of Conrad more than these three facts : That he was a cadet of llohenzollern (whose father's name, and some forefathers' names are definitely known in the family archives, but do not concern us) ; that he married the Heiress of the Vohburgs, whose history is on record in like manner; and that he was appointed Burg- graf of Nurnberg, yea.T not precisely known, — but before 1170, as would seem. ••' In a Reichstag (Diet of the Empire) held at Regeusburg in or about 1170," he formally complains, he and certain others, all stanch Kaiser's friends (for in fact it was with the Kaiser's knowledge, or at his instigation), of Henry the Lion's high procedures and malpractices ; of Henry's League with the Pope, League with the King of Denmark, and so forth ; the said Henry having indeed fallen into opposition, to a dangerous degree ; — and signs himself Burggraf of Xiirnherg, say the old Chronicles.^ The old Docu- ment itself has long since perished, I conclude : but the Chron- icles may be accepted as reporters of so conspicuous a thing ; which was the beginning of long strife in Germany, and proved the ruin of Henry the Lion, supreme Welf grown over-big, — and cost our English Henry II., whose daugh- ter he had married, a world of trouble and expense, we may ^ Rentsch, p. 276 (who cites Aventinus, Trittheim, &c.). 86 r.RAXDENDURG AND IIOIIENZOLLERXS. Book II. 1170. remark withal. Conrad therefore is already JJurggraf of N urn- berg, and a man of mark, in 1170 : and his marriage, still more his first sally from the paternal Castle to seek his fortune, must all be dated earlier. More is not known of Conrad : except indeed that he did not perish in Barbarossa's grand final Crusade. For the an- tiquaries have again found him signed to some contract, or otherwise insignificant document, a.d. 1200. Which is proof )»ositive that he did not die in the Crusade ; and proof j)roba- ble that he was not of it, — few, hardly any, of those stalwart 150,000 champions of the Cross having ever got home again. Conrad, by this time, might have sons come to age ; fitter for ai'ms and fatigues than he : and indeed at Niirnberg, in Deutschland generally, as Official I'rince of the Empire, and man of weight and judgment, Conrad's services might be still more useful, and the Kaiser's interests might require him rather to stay at home in that juncture, liurggraf of Xiirnberg ho continued to be ; he and his descendants, first in a selective, then at length in a directly hereditary way, century after cen- tury ; and so long as that office lasted in Niirnberg (which it did there much longer than in other Imperial Free-Cities), a Comes de Zolre of Conrad's producing was always the man thenceforth. Their acts, in that station and capacity, as Burggraves and Princes of the Emi»ire, were once conspicuous enough in Ger- man History ; and indeed are only so dim now, because the History itself is, and was always, dim to us on this side of the sea. They did strenuous work in their day ; and occasionally towered up (though little driven by the poor wish of " tower- ing," or " shining " without need) into the high places of Public History. They rest now from their labors, Conrad and his successors, in long series, in the old Monastery of Heilsbronn (between Xiirnberg and Anspach), with Tombs to many of them, which were very legible for slight Biographic purposes in my poor friend Kentsch's time, a hundred and fifty years ago ; and may perhaps still have some quasi-use, as "sepulchral brasses," to another class of persons. One or two of those old buried Figures, more peculiarly important Chap. V. KAISER BARBAROSSA. 87 1170. for our little Friend now sleeping in his cradle yonder, we must endeavor, as the Narrative proceeds, to resuscitate a little and render visible for moments. Of the Hohenzollern Burggraves generally. As to the Office, it was more important than perhaps the reader imagines. We already saw Conrad first Burggraf, among the magnates of the country, denouncing Henry the Lion. Every Burggraf of Niirnberg is, in virtue of liis oifice, "Prince of the Empire :" if a man happened to have talent of his own, and solid resources of his own (which are always on the growing hand with tliis family), here is a basis from which he may go far enough. Burggraf of Niirnljerg : that means again Graf (judge, defender, manager, (f reeve) of the Kaiser's />m/7 or Castle, — in a word Kaiser's Representative and Alter Efjo, — in the old Imperial Free-Town of Nurnberg; with much adjacent very complex territory, also, to administer for the Kaiser. A flourishing extensive City, this old Niirn- berg, witli valuable adjacent territory, civic and imperial, intri- cately intermixed ; full of commercial industries, opulences, not without democratic tendencies. Nay it is almost, in some senses, the London and Middlesex of the Germany that then was, if we will consider it ! This is a place to give a man chances, and try what stuff is in him. The office involves a talent for governing, as well as for judging ; talent for fighting also, in cases of extremity, and what is still better, a talent for avoiding to fight. None but a man of competent superior parts can do that function ; I suppose, no imbecile could have existed many months in it, in the old earnest times. Conrad and his succeeding Hohen- zollerns proved very capable to do it, as would seem ; and grew and spread in it, waxing bigger and bigger, from their first planting there by Kaiser Barbarossa, a successful judge of men. And ever since that time, from " about the year 1170," down to the year 1815, — when so much was changed, owing to another (temporary) " Kaiser " of new type, Napo- leon his name, — the Hohenzollerns have had a footing in 88 BRANDENBURG AND IIOIIENZOLLERNS. B^-ok II. 1170. Frankenland ; and done sovereignty in and round Xuruberf^, witli an enlarging Territory in that region. Territory at last of large compass ; which, under the names Margrnfdom of Anspach, and of Baireutk, or in general Mnrgrofdom of Culm- bach, which includes both, has become familiar in History. Yov tlie House went on steadily increasing, as it Avere, from the tirst day ; the Hohenzollerns being always of a growing, gaining nature ; — as men are that live conformably to the laws of this Universe, and of their phice therein ; which, as will appear from good study of their old records, though idle rumor, gi-ounded on no study, sometimes says the contrary, these Hohenzollerns eminently were. A thrifty, steadfast, diligent, clear-sighted, stout-hearted line of men ; of loyal nature withal, and even to be called just and pious, sometimes to a notalile degree. Men not given to fighting, where it could be avoided; yet with a good swift stroke in them, where it could not: princely people after their sort, with a high, not an ostentatious turn of mind. They, for most part, go upon solid prudence ; if possible, are anxious to reach the goal with- out treading on any one ; are peaceable, as I often say, and by no means quarrelsome, in aspect and demeanor ; yet there is generally in the Hohenzollerns a very fierce flash of anger, capable of blazing out in cases of urgency : this latter also is one of the most constant features I have noted in the long series of them. That they grew in Frankenland, year after year, and century after century, while it was their fortune to last, alive and active there, is no miracle, on such terms. Their old big Castle of Plassenburg (now a Penitentiary, with treadmill and the other furnishings) still stands on its Height, near Culmbach, looking down over the pleasant meet- ing of the Red and White Mayn River-? and of their fruitful valleys ; awakening many thoughts in the traveller. Anspach Schloss, and still more Baireuth Schloss (Mansion, one day, of our little Wilhelmina of Berlin, Fritzkin's sister, now prattling there in so old a way ; where notabilities have been, one and another ; which Jean Paul, too, saw daily in his walks, while alive and looking skyward) : these, and many other castles CiiAr. VI. THE TEUTONIC ORDER. 89 ll'JO. and things, belonging now -wholly to Bavaria, will continue memorable for Hohenzollern history. The Family did its due share, sometimes an excessive one, in religious beneficences and foundations ; which was not quite left off in recent times, though nmch altering its figure. Erlangen University, for example, was of Wilhelmina's doing. Erlangen University; — and also an Opera-House of excessive size in Baireuth. Such was poor Wilhelmina's sad figure of " religion." In the old days, their largest bequest that I recol- lect was to the TeutscJie Bitter, Order of Teutonic Knights, very celebrated in those days. Junior branches from Hohen- zollern, as from other families, sought a career in that chival- rous devout Brotherhood now and then ; one pious Burggraf had three sons at once in it ; he, a very bequeathing Herr otherwise, settled one of his mansions, Virnsperg, with rents and incomings, on the Order. "Which accordingly had thence- forth a Comthurei (Commandery) in that country ; Comthurei of Virnsperg the name of it : the date of donation is a.d. 1294 ; and two of the old Horr's three Ritter sons, we can remark, were successively Comthurs (Commanders, steward-prefects) of Virnsperg, the first two it had.^ This was in 1294; the palmy period, or culmination time of the Teutsches Ritterthuni. Concerning Avhich, on wider ac- counts, Ave must now say a word. CHAPTER VI. THE TEUTSCH RITTERS OR TEUTONIC ORDER. Barbarossa's Army of Crusaders did not come home again, any more than Barbarossa. They were stronger than Turk or Saracen, but not than Hunger and Disease ; Leaders did not know then, as our little Friend at Berlin came to know, that "an Army, like a serpent, goes upon its belly." After fine fighting and considerable victories, the end of this Crusade ' Rentsch, p. 288. 90 BRANDENBURG AND IIOIIENZOLLERNS. Book ir. 1 1'JO. was, it took to " besieging Acre," and in reality lay perishing as of murrain on the beach at Acre, without shelter, without medicine, without food. Not even Richard Coeur-de-Lion, and his best prowess and help, could avert such issue from it. Richard's Crusade fell in with the fag-end of Barbarossa's ; and it was Richard chiefly that managed to take Acre; — at least so Richard flattered himself, when he pulled poor Leopold of Austria's standard from the towers, and trailed it through the gutters : " Your standard ? You have taken Acre ':' " "Which turned out ill for Richard afterwards. And Duke Leopold has a bad name among us in consequence ; much worse than he deserves. Leopold had stuif in him too. He died, for example, in this manner: falling with his horse, I think in some siege or other, he had got his leg- hurt ; which hin- dered him in fighting. Leg could not be cured : *' Cut it off, then ! " said Leopold. Tliis also the leech could not do ; durst not, and would not ; so that Leopold was come quite to a lialt. Leopold ordered out two squires ; put his thigh upon a block, the sharp edge of an axe at the right point across his thigh : " Squire first, hold you that axe ; steady ! Squire second, smite you on it with forge-hammer, with all your strength, heavy enough ! " Squire second struck, heavy enough, and the leg flew off ; but Leopold took inflammation, died in a day or two, as the leech had predicted. That is a fact to be found in current authors (quite exact or not quite), that surgical operation : ^ such a man cannot have his flag trailed through the gutters by any Coeur<le-Lion, — But we return to the beach at Acre, and the poor Crusaders, dying as of murrain there. It is the year 1190, Acre not yet taken, nor these quarrels got to a height. "The very Templars, Hospitallers, neglect us," murmured the dying Germans ; " they have perhaps enough to do, and more than enough, with their own countrymen, whose speech is intelligible to them ? For us, it would appear, there is no help ! " Not altogether none. A company of pious souls — compassionate Lubeck ship-captains diligently forwarding it, and one Walpot von Bassenheim, a citizen of Bremen, taking 1 Mentzel, Geschichte der Deutschen (Stuttgard and Tiibingen, 1837), p. 309. CHA1-. VI. THE TEUTONIC ORDER. 91 1210-39. the lead — formed themselves into a union for succor of the sick and dying ; " set up canvas tents," medicinal assuage- ments, from the Liibeck ship-stores ; and did what utmost was in them, silently in the name of Mercy and Heaven. " This Walpot was not by birth a nobleman," says one of the old Chroniclers, "but his deeds were noble." This pious little union proved unconsciously the beginning of a great thing. Finding its work prosper here, and gain favor, the little union took yows on itself, strict chivalry forms, and decided to become permanent. " Knights Hospitallers of our dear Lady of INIount Zion," that or something equivalent was their first title, under Walpot their first Grand-Master ; which soon grew to be "German Order of St. Mary" {Teutsche Ritter of the Marle-Ordrn), or for shortness Teutsches Ritterthum ; under which name it played a great part in the world for above three centuries to come, and eclipsed in importance both the Tem- plars and Hos})itallers of St. John. This was the era of Chiralry Orders, and Geliihde ; time for Bodies of Men uniting themselves by a Sacred Vow, " Ge- liihde;^^ — which word and thing have passed over to us in a singularly dwindled condition : " Club " we now call it ; and the vow, if sacred, does not aim very high! Templars and Hospitallers were already famous bodies ; the latter now almost a century old. Wal pot's new Geliihde was of similar intent, only German in kind, — the protection, defence and solacement of Pilgrims, with whatever that might involve. Head of Teutsch Order moves to Venice. The Teutsch Eitters earned character in Palestine, and began to get bequests and recognition; but did not long continue there, like their two rival Orders. It was not in Palestine, whether the Orders might be aware of it or not, that their work could now lie. Pious Pilgrims certainly there still are in great numbers ; to these you shall do the sacred rites : but these, under a Saladin bound by his word, need little protec- tion by the sword. And as for Crusading in the armed fash- ion, that has fallen visibly into the decline. After Barbarossa, 92 BRANDENBURG AND HOHENZOLLERNS. Book 11. J2J(l-3J. Coeur-de-Lion and Philippe Auguste have tried it with such failure, what wise man will be in haste to try it again ? Zeal- ous Popes continue to stir up Crusades ; but the Secular Powers are not in earnest as formerly ; Secular Powers, when they do go, "take Constantinople," "conquer Sicily," never take or conquer anything in Palestine. The Teutsch Order helps valiantly in Palestine, or would help ; but what is the use of helping? The Teutsch Order has already possessions in Europe, by pious bequest and othenvise ; all its main interests lie there ; in fine, after less than thirty years, Hermann von der Salza, a new sagacious Teutschmelster or Hochmeister (so they call the head of the Order), fourth in the series, a far- seeing, negotiating man, finds that Venice will be a fitter place of lodging for him than Acre : and accordingly ,during his long Mastership (a.d. 1210-1239), he is mostly to be found there, and not at Acre or Jerusalem. He is very great with the busy Kaiser, Friedrich II., Barba^ rossa's grandson ; who has the usual quarrels with the Pope, and is glad of such a negotiator, statesman as Avell as armed monk. The usual quarrels this great Kaiser had, all along, and some unusual. Normans ousted from Sicily, who used to be so Papal : a Kaiser not gone on the Crusade, as he had vowed ; Kaiser at last suspected of freethinking even : — in which matters Hermann much serves the Kaiser. Sometimes he is appointed arbiter between the Pope and Kaiser ; — does not give it in the Kaiser's favor, but against him, where he thinks the Kaiser is wrong. He is reckoned the first great Hochmeister, this Hermann von der Salza, a Thuringer hj birth, who is fourth in the series of Masters : perhaps the greatest to be found there at all, though many were consider- able. It is evident that no man of his time was busier in important public affairs, or with better acceptance, than Her- mann. His Order, both Pope and Emperor so favoring the Master of it, was in a vigorous state of growth all this while ; Hermann well proving that he could help it better at Venice than at Acre. But if the Crusades are ended, — as indeed it turned out, only one other worth speaking of, St. Louis's, having in earnest CHAP. VI. THE TEUTONIC OKDER. 93 12-2(J. come to effect, or rather to miserable non-effect, and that not yet for fifty years ; — if the Crusades are ended, and the Teutsch Order increases always in possessions, and finds less and less work, what probably will become of the Teutsch Order ? Grow fat, become luxurious, incredulous, dissolute, insolent; and need to be burnt out of the way? That Avas the course of the Templars, and their sad end. They began poorest of the poor, " two Knights to one Horse," as their !Seal bore ; and they at last took fire on very opposite accounts. " To <?arouse like a Templar : " tliat had become a proverb among men ; that was the way to produce combustion, '' spon- taneous " or other ! Whereas their fellow Hospitallers of St. John, chancing upon new work (Anti-Turk garrison-duty, so we may call it, successively in Cyprus, Rhodes, Malta, for a series of ages), and doing it well, managed to escape the like. As did the Teutsch Order in a still more conspicuous manner. f ^ Teutsch Order itself goes to Preussen. Ever since St. Adalbert fell massacred in Prussia, stamping himself as a Crucifix on that Heathen soil, there have been attempts at conversion going on by the Christian neighbors, Dukes of Poland and others : intermittent fits of fighting and • preaching for the last two hundred years, with extremely small result. Body of St. Adalbert was got at light weight, and the poor man canonized ; there is even a Titular Bishop of Prussia ; and pilgrimages wander to the Shriae of Adalbert in Poland, reminding you of Prussia in a tragic manner ; but what avails it ? Missionaries, when they set foot in the country, are killed or flung out again. The Bishop of Prussia is titular merely ; lives in Liefland (Livonia) properly Bishop of Riga, among the Bremen trading-settlers and converted Lieflanders there, which is the only safe place, — if even that were safe without aid of armed men, such as he has there even now. He keeps his Schtvertbmder (Brothers of the Sword), a small Order of Knights, recently got up by him, for express behoof of Liefland itself; and these, fighting their best, are sometimes trouble- some to the Bishop, and do not much prosper upon Heathen- 94 BRANDENBURG AND HOHENZOLLERNS. Book H. dom, or gain popularity and resources in the Christian world. No hope in the Schwet-tbriider for Prussia ; — and in massacred Missionaries what hope ? The Prussian population continues Heathen, untamable to Gospel and Law ; and after two centu- ries of eifort, little or no real progress has been made. But now, in these circumstances, in the yeai* 122G, the Titu- lar Bishop of Prussia, having well considered the matter and arnuiged it with the Polish Authorities, ojjens a communica- tion with Hermann von der Salza, at Venice, on the subject ; "Crusading is over in the East, illustrious Hochmeister; no duty for a Toutsch Order there at present : what is the use of crusc.ll2g far off in the East, Avhen Heathenism and the King- dom of Satan hangs on our own lx)rders, close at hand, in the North ? Let the Teutsch Order come to Prtussen ; head a Crusade there. The land is fruitful ; flows really with milk and honey, not. to sjicak of amber, and was once called the Terrestrial Paradise" — by I forget whom.^ In fact, it is cleai', the land should iK'long to Christ ; and if the Christian Teutsch liitterdom could conquer it from Sat;inas for them- selves, it would be W(dl for all parties. Hernuinn, a man of sa- gacious clear head, listens attentively. The notion is perhaps not quite new to him : at all events, he takes up the notion ; ne- gotiates upon it, with Titular Bishop, with l*oi>e. Kaiser, Duke of Poland, Teutsch Order ; and in brief, about two years after- wards (a.d. 1228), having done the negotiatings to the last item, he produces his actual Teutsch Eitters, ready, on Prus- sian ground. Year 1228, thinks Dryasdust, after a struggle. Place where, proves also at length discoverable in Dr^'asdust, — not too far across the north Polish frontier, always with " Masovia " (the now Warsaw region) to fall back upon. But in what number ; how; nay almost when, to a year, — do not ask poor Dryas- dust, who overwhelms himself with idle details, and by reason of the trees is unable to see the wood.^ — The Teutsch Hitters straightway build a Burr/ for headquarters, spread themselves on this hand and that ; and begin their great task. Li the 1 Voigt (if he had an Index!) knows. * Voijrt U. 177 134^ 192. i'"AP. VI. THE TEUTONIC OKDER. 95 1228. name of Heaven, we may still say in a true sense ; as they, every Ritter of them to the heart, felt it to be in all manner of senses. The Prussians were a fierce fighting people, fanatically Anti- Christian : the Teutsch Ritters had a perilous never-resting time of it, especially for the first fifty years. They built and burnt innumerable stockades for and against ; built wooden Forts which are now stone Towns. They fought much and preva- lently" ; galloped desperately to and fro, ever on the alert. In peaceabler ulterior times, the}' fenced in the Nogat and the "Weichsel with dams, whereby unlimited quagmire might become grassy meadow, — as it continues to this day. IMarienburg (Murt/'s Burg), still a town of importance in that same grassy region, with its grand stone Scliloss still visible and even habi- table ; this was at length their Headquarter. But how many Burgs of wood and stone they built, in different parts ; what revolts, surprisals, furious tights in woody boggy places, they had, no man has counted. Their life, read in Dryasdust's newest chaotic Books (which are of endless length, among other ill qualities), is like a dim nightmare of unintelligible marching and fighting : one feels as if the mere amount of galloping they had would have carried the Order several times round the Globe. What multiple of the Equator was it, then, Dryasdust ? The Herr Professor, little studious of abridg- ment, does not say. But always some preaching, by zealous monks, accompanied the chivalrous fighting. And colonists came in from Germany ; trickling in, or at times streaming. Victorious Ritterdom offers terms to the beaten Heathen ; terms not of tolerant nature, but which will be punctually kept by Ritterdom. When the flame of revolt or general conspiracy burnt up again too extensively, there was a new Crusade proclaimed in Ger- many and Christendom ; and the Hochmeister, at Marburg or elsewhere, and all his marshals and ministers were busy, — generally with effect. High personages came on crusade to them. Ottocar King of Bohemia, Duke of Austria and much else, the great man of his day, came once (a.d. 1255) ; Johann King of Bohemia, in the next century, once and again. The 96 BKANDENBURG AND HOUENZOLLERNS. Book II. mighty Ottocar/ with his extensive far-shining chivalry, '•'con- quered Sanikmd in a month ; " tore vip the Eomova where Adalbert had been massacred, and burnt it from the face of the Earth. A certain Fortress was founded at that tinu;, in Ottocar's presence ; and in honor of him they named it Kinr/'s Fortress, " Kcinigsberg : " it is now grown a big-domed metro- politan City, — where we of this Narrative lately saw a Coro- nation going on, and Sophie Charlotte furtively taking a pinch of snuff. Among King Ottocar's esquires or subaltern junior officials on this occasion, is one Rudolf, heir of a poor Swiss Lordship and gray Hill-Castle, called Hapshnrg, rather in reduced circumstances, whom Ottocar likes for his prudent hardy ways ; a stout, modest, wise young man, — who may chance to redeem Hapsburg a little, if he live ? How the shuttles fly, and the life-threads, always, in this " loud-roaring Loom of Time ! " — Along with Ottocar too, as an ally in the Crusade, was Otto HI. Ascanier ^Markgraf and Elector of Brandenburg, great-grandson of Albert the Bear ; — name Otto the Pious in consequence. He too founded a Town in Prussia, on this occa- sion, and called it Brandcnhur(j ; wliich is still extant there, a small Brandenburg the Second ; for these procedures he is called Otto the, Pious in History. His Wife, withal, was a sister of Ottocar's ; '^ — which, except in the way of domestic felicity, did not in the end amount to much for him ; this Ottocar having flown too high, and melted his wings at the sun, in a sad way, as we shall see elsewhere. None of the Orders rose so high as the Teutonic in favor with mankind. It had by degrees landed possessions far and wide over Germany and beyond : I know not how many dozens of Baileys (rich Bailliwicks, each again with its dozens of Comthureis, Commanderies, or subordinate groups of estates), and Baillies and Commanders to match ; — and was thought to deserve favor from above. Valiant servants, these ; to whom Heaven had vouchsafed great labors and unspeakable bless- ings. In some fifty or fifty-three years they had got Prussian 1 Voigt, iii. 80-87. ^ Michaelis, i. 270; Hiibner, t. 174. Chap. VI. THE TEUTONIC ORDER. 97 1228. Heathenism brought to the ground ; and they endeavored to tie it Avell down there by bargain and arrangement. 15ut it would not yet lie quiet, nor for a century to come ; being stiil secretly Heathen ; revolting, conspiring ever again, ever on weaker terms, till the Satanic element had burnt itself out, and conversion and composura could ensue. Conversion and complete conquest once come, there was a happy time for Prussia : ploughshare instead of sword ; busy sea-havens, German towns, getting built; churches everywhere rising ; grass growing, and peaceable cows, where formerly had been quagmire and snakes. And for the Order a happy time ? A rich, not a happy. The Order was victorious ; Livonian " Sword-Brothers," " Knights of Dobryn," minor Orders and Authorities all round, were long since subordinated to it or incorporated with it ; Livonia, Courland, Lithuania, are all got tamed under its influence, or tied down and evidently tamable. But it was in these times that the Order got into its wider troubles outward and inward ; quarrels, jealousies, with Chris- tian neighbors, Poland, Pommern, who did not love it and for cause ; — wider troubles, and by no means so evidently useful to mankind. The Order's wages, in this world, flowed higher than ever, only perhaps its work was beginning to run low ! But we will not anticipate. On the whole, this Teutsch Eitterdom, for the first century and more, was a grand phenomenon ; and flamed like a bright blessed beacon through the night of things, in those Xorthern Countries. For above a century, we perceive, it was the rally- ing place of all brave men who had a career to seek on terms other than vulgar. The noble soul, aiming beyond money, and sensible to more than hungei: in this world, had a beacon burn- ing (as we say), if the night chanced to overtake it, and the earth to grow too intricate, as is not uncommon. Better than the career of stump-oratory, I should fancy, and its Hesperides Apples, golden and of gilt horse-dung. Better than puddling away one's poor spiritual gift of God {loan, not gift), such as it may be, in building the lofty rhyme, the lofty Eeview- Article, for a discerning public that has sixpence to spare ! Times alter greatly. — Will the reader take a glimpse of Con- VOL. V. 7 98 BRANDENBURG AND HOHENZOLLERNS. Book U. 1232. rad von Tliiiringen's biography, as a sample of the old ways of proceeding ? Conrad succeeded Hermann von der Salza as Grand-Master, and his history is memorable as a Teutonic Knight. The stuff Teutsch Hitters were made of. Conrad of Thii- ringen : Saint Elizabeth; Town of Marburg. Conrad, younger brother of the Landgraf of Thiiringen, — which Prince lived chiefly in the Wartburg, romantic old Hill- Castle, now a Weimar-Eisenach property and show-place, then an abode of very earnest people, — was probably a child-in- arms, in that same Wartburg, while Richard Coeur-de-Lion was getting home from Palestine and into troubles by the road : this will date Conrad for us. His worthy elder brother was Husband of the lady since called Saint Elizabeth, a very pious but also very fanciful young woman ; — and I always guess his going on the Crusade, where he died straightway, was partly the fruit of the life she led him ; lodging beggars, sometimes in his very bed, continually breaking his night's rest for prayer, and devotional exercise of undue length ; " weeping one mo- ment, then smiling in joy the next ; " meandering about, capri- cious, melodious, Aveak, at the will of devout whim mainly ! However, that does not concern us.^ Sure enough her poor Landgraf went crusading. Year 1227 (Kaiser Friedrich II.'s Crusade, who could not put it off longer) ; poor Landgraf fell ill by the road, at Brindisi, and died, — not to be driven farther by any cause. Conrad, left guardian to his deceased P>rother's children, had at first much quarrel with Saint Elizabeth, though he after- wards took far other thoughts. Meanwhile he had his own apanage, " Landgraf " by rank he too ; and had troubles enough with that of itself. For instance : once the Archbishop of ^ Many Lives of the Saint. See, in particular, Lihellus de Dictis Quatuor AncUlarum, &c. — (that is, Report of the evidence got from Elizabeth's Four Maids, by an Official Person, Devil's- Advocate or whatever he was, missioned by the Pope to question them, when her Canonization came to be talked of. A curious piece): — in Menckenii Scriplores Rerum Gerinanicarum (Lipsiae, 1728-1730), ii. dd. ; where also are other details. Chap. VI. CONRAD OF THURINGEN. 99 U62. Maiuz, being in debt, laid a heavy tax on all Abbeys under him ; on Reichartsbronn, an Abbey of Conrad's, among others. " Don't pay it ! " said Conrad to the Abbot. Abbot refused accordingly ; but was put under ban by the Pope ; — obliged to comply, and even to be " whipt thrice " before the money could be accepted. Two whippings at Erfiirt, from the Archbishop, there had been ; and a third was just going on there, one morn- ing, when Conrad, travelling that way, accidentally stept in to matins. Conrad flames into a blazing whirlwind at the pheno- menon disclosed. " Whip my Abbot ? And he is to pay, then, — Archbishop of Beelzebub ? " — and took the poor Archbishop by the rochets, and spun him hither and thither ; nay was for cutting him in two, had not friends hysterically busied them- selves, and got the sword detained in its scabbard and the Archbishop away. Here is a tine coil like to be, for Conrad. Another soon follows ; from a quarrel he had with Fritzlar, an Imperial Free-Town in those parts, perhaps a little stiff upon its privileges, and liigh towards a Landgraf. Conrad marches, one morning (Year 1232), upon insolent Fritzlar ; burns the environs ; but on looking practically at the ramparts of the place, thinks they are too high, and turns to go home again. Whereupon the idle women of Fritzlar, who are upon the ramparts gazing in fear and hope, burst into shrill universal jubilation of voice, — and even into gestures, and liberties with their dress, which are not describable in History ! Conrad, suddenly once more all flame, whirls round ; storms the ram- parts, slays what he meets, plunders Fritzlar with a will, and leaves it blazing in a general fire, which had broken out in the business. Here is a pair of coils for Conrad ; the like of which can issue only in Papal ban or worse. Conrad is grim and obstinate under these aspects ; but secretly feels himself very wicked ; knows not well what will come of it. Sauntering one day in his outer courts, he notices a certain female beggar ; necessitous female of loose life, who tremulously solicits charity of him. Necessitous female gets some fraction of coin, but along with it bullying rebuke in very liberal measure ; and goes away weeping bitterly, and murmuring about "want that drove me to those courses." 100 iniANDENliURG AND IIOIIEXZOLLEHNS. Bo,.k ir. Conrad retires into himself: "What is her veal sin, perhuits, to mine ? " Conrad " lies awake «all that night ; " mopes abnit, ill intricate darkness, days and nights; rises one morning an altered man. He makes " pilgrimage to Gladhaeh," barefoot ; kneels down at the chureh-tloor of Fritzlar with bare back, and a bundle of rods beside him. " Whi}) me, good injured Chris- tians, for the love of Jesus I " — in brief, reconciles himself to Christian mankind, the Pope included ; takes the Teutsch- Ritter vows upon him ; ' and hastens off to Preussen, there to spend himself, life and life's resources thenceforth, faithfully, till he die. The one course left for Conrad. Which he follows ■with a great strong step, — with a thought still audible to me. It was of such stuff that Teutsch Kitters were then made ; Kitters evidently capable of something. Saint Elizabeth, who went to live at Marburg, in Hessen- Cassel, after her Husband's death, and soon died there, in a most melodiously pious sort,* made the Teutsch Order guar- dian of her Son. It was from her and the Grand-Mastership of Conratl that Marburg became such a metropolis of the Order ; the Grand-Masters often residing there, many of them co\eting burial there, and much business bearing date of the place. A place still notable to the ingenuous Tourist, who knows his whereabout. I'hilip the Magnanimous, Lu- ther's friend, memorable to some as Philip with the Two W^ives, lived there, in that old Castle, — which is now a kind of Correction-House and Garrison, idle blue uniforms stroll- ing about, and unlovely physiognomies with a jingle of iron at their ankles, — where Luther has debated with the Zwin- glian Sacramenters and others, and much has happened in its time. Saint Elizabeth and her miracles (considerable, surely, of their kind) were the first origin of Marburg as a Town : a mere Castle, with adjoining Hamlet, before that. Strange gray old silent Town, rich in so many memories ; it stands there, straggling up its rocky hill-edge, towards its old Castles and edifices on the top, in a not unpicturesque manner; flanked by the river Lahn and its fertile plains : 1 A.D. 1234 ( Voigt, ii. 375-423). 2 a.d. 1231 ; age 24. Chap. VI. CONliAD OF TllUKINGEN. 101 1234. very silent, exeei)t for the delirious screech, at rare intervals, of a railway train passing that way from Frankfurt-on-.Mayu to Cassel. "Church of St. Elizabeth," — high, grand Church, -built by Conrad our Hochmeister, in reverence of his once terrestrial Sister-in-law, — stands conspicuous in the plain be- low, where the Town is just ending. St. Elizabeth's Shrine was once there, and pilgrims wending to it from all lands. Conrad himself is buried there, as are many Hochmeisters ; th(iir names, and shields of arms, Hermann's foremost, though Hermann's dust is not there, are carved, carefully kept legible, on the shafts of the Gothic arches, — from floor to groin, long rows of them ; — and i)roduce, with the other tombs, tomb-paintings by Diirer and the like, thoughts im- pressive almost to pain. St. Elizabeth's loculus was put into its shrine here, by Kaiser Friedrich II. and ali manner of princes and grandees of the Empire, " one million two hundred thousand people looking on," say the old records, perhaps not quite exact in their arithmetic. I'hilip the Magnanimous, wishing to stop " pilgrimages no-whither," buried the loculus away, it was never known where ; under the floor of that Church somewhere, as is likeliest. Enough now of Marburg, and of its Teutsch Ritters too. They had one or two memorable Hochmeisters and Teutschmeisters ; whom we have not named here, nor shall.* There is one Hochmeister, somewhere about the fiftieth on the list, and i)roperly the last real Hochmeister, Albert of Hohenzollern-Culmbach by name, who will be very u\emora- ble to us by and by. Or will the reader care to know how Culmbach came into the jiossession of the HohenzoUerns, Burggraves of Nurnberg ? The story may be illustrative, and will not occujjy us long. ^ In our excellent Kohler's Miintzbelustignngpn (Nurnberg, 1729 et seqq. ii. 382 ; v 102 ; Wii. 380; &c.) are valuable glimpses into the Teutonic Order, — as into hundreds of other things. The special Book upon it is Voigt's, often cited here : Nine heavy Volumes ; grounded on faithful reading, but with a fatal defect of almost every other quality. 102 BKANDENBUltG AND HUllENZULLERNS. B^k II. 12-i8. CHAPTER Yll. MARGRAVIATE OF CULMBACH : BAIREUTH, ANSPACH. In the Year 1248, in Lis Castle of I'lassenLurg, — -which is now a Correction-House, looking clown upon the junction of the Ked and White Mayn, — Otto Duke of Meran, a very great potentate, more like a King than a Duke, was suddenly clutched hold of by a certain wedded gentleman, name not given, "one of his domestics or dependents," Whom he had enraged beyond forgiveness (signally violating the Seventh Commandment at his expense) ; and was by the said wedded gentleman there and then cut down, and done to death. " Lamentably killed, jiimmerlirh erstocfien,'' says old Rentsch.^ Others give a diiferent color to the homicide, and even a dif- ferent place ; a controversy not interesting to us. Slain at any rate he is ; still a young man ; the last male of his line. Whereb}'^ the renowned Dukes of Meran fall extinct, and im- mense properties come to be divided among connections and claimants. IMeran, we remark, is still a Town, old Castle now abol- ished, in the Tyrol, towards the sources of the Etsch (called Adige by Italian neighbors). The Merans had been lords not only of most of the Tyrol ; but Dukes of " the Voigt- land ; " — Voigtland, that is Baillie-land, wide country between Niirnberg and the Fichtelwald ; why specially so called, Dry- asdust dimly explains, deducing it from certain Counts von Reuss, those strange Reusses who always call themselves Jlennj, and now amount to Henry the Eightieth and Odd, with side-branches likewise called Henry; whose nomenclature is the despair of mankind, and worse than that of the Naples Lazzaroni who candidly have no names ! — Dukes of Voigt- 1 P. 293. Kohler, Reicks-Historie, p. 245. Holle, Alte Gesc/iichte dor Stadt Baireuth <Biureuth, 1833), pp. 34-37. C..A1'. VII. BAIKEUTH, ANSPACH. 103 land, I say ; likewise of Dalmatia ; then also Markgraves of Austria ; also Counts of Andechs, in which latter fine country (north of Miinchen a day's ride), and not at Plassenburg, some say, the man was slain. These immense possessions, which now (a.d. 1248) all fall asunder by the stroke of that sword, come to be divided among the slain man's connections, or to be snatched up by active neighbors, and otherwise dis- posed of. Active Wurzburg, active Bamberg, without much connection, snatched up a good deal : Count of Orlamiinde, married to the eldest Sister of the slain Duke, got Plassenburg and most of the Voigtland : a Tyrolese magnate, whose Wife was an Aunt of the Duke's, laid hold of the Tyrol, and transmitted it to daughters and their spouses, — the linish of which line we shall see by and by : — in short, there was much pro})erty in a dis- posable condition. The Hohenzollern Burggraf of Niirnberg, who had married a younger Sister of the Duke's two years before this accident, managed to get at least Balreuth and some adjacencies ; big Orlamiinde, who had not much better right, taking the lion's share. This of Baireuth proved a notable possession to the Hohenzollern family : it was Conrad the first Burggraf's great-grandson, Friedrich, counted " Fried- rich III," among the Burggraves, Avho made the acquisition in this manner, a.d. 1248. Onolzbach (Oirz-Oach or "-brook," now called Anspach) they got, some fourscore years after, by purchase and hard money down (" 24,000 pounds of farthings," whatever that may be),^ Avhich proved a notable twin possession of the family. And then, in some seven years more (a.d. 1338), the big Orlamunde people, having at length, as was too usual, fallen considerably insolvent, sold Plassenburg Castle itself, the Plassenburg with its Town of Culmbach and dependencies, to the Hohenzollern Burggraves,^ who had always ready money about them. Who in this way got most of the Voigtland, with a fine Fortress, into hand ; and had, independently of Xiirnberg and its Im- perial properties, an important Princely Territory of their own. i A.D. 13.31 : Stadt Anspach, by J. B. Fischer (Anspach, 1786), p. 196. 2 Rentsch, p. 157. ' 104 BRANDENBURG AND HOHENZOLLERNS. Bo..k II. 1204 -7a. Margraviate or Principality of Culnibach (Plassenburg being only the Castle) was the general title ; but more frequently in later times, being oftenest sjjlit in two between brothers un- acquainted with primogeniture, there were two Margraviates made of it : one of Baireuth, called also " Margraviate On the Hill ; " and one of Anspach, '• Margraviate Under the Hill : " of which, in their modern designations, we shall by and by hear more than enough. Thus are the Hohenzollern growing, and never declining: by these few instances judge of many. Of their hard labors, and the storms they had to keep under control, we could also say something : How tlie two young Sons of the Burggraf once riding out with their Tutor, a big hound of theii;s in one of the streets of Nurnberg accidentall} tore a child ; and there arose wild mother's-wail ; and "all the Scythe-smiths turned out," fire-breathing, deaf to a poor Tutor's pleadings and explain- ings ; and how the Tutor, who had ridden forth in calm hunior with two Princes, came galloping home with only one, — the Smiths having driven another into boggy ground, and there cauglit and killed him ; ^ with the Burggraf's commentary on tliat sad proceeding (the same Friedrieh HI. who had married Meran's Sister) ; and the amends exacted by him, strict and severe, not passionate or inhuman. Or again how the Niirn- bergers once, in the Burggraf's absence, built a ring-wall round his Castle ; entrance and exit now to depend on the Niirn- bergers withal ! And how the Burggraf did not fly out into battle in consequence, but remedied it by imperturbable coun- tenance and power of driving. With enough of the like sort ; which readers can conceive. Burggraf Friedrieh HI. ; and the Anarchy of Nineteen Years. This same Friedrieh III., Great-grandson of Conrad the first Burggraf, was he that got the Burggraviate made hereditary in his family (a.d. 1273) ; which thereby rose to the fixed 1 Kentsch, p. 306 (Date not given; guess, about 1270). Ci.Ai. VII. BURGGllAF FKIEDRICH III. 105 1271. rank of Princes, among other advantages it was gaining. Nor did this accjuisition come gratis at all, but as the fruit of good service adroitly done ; service of endless importance as it jjroved. Friedrich's life had fallen in times of huge anarchy ; the Hohenstauffen line gone miserably out, — Boy Oonradin, its last representative, perishing on the scaffold even (by a desperate Pope and a desperate Duke of Anjou) ; ^ Germans, Sicilian Normans, Po])e and Reich, all at daggers-drawn with one another; no Kaiser, nay as many as Three at once ! Which lasted from 1254 onwards ; and is called " the Inter- regnum," or Anarchy "of Nineteen Years," in German His- tory. Let us at least name the Three Kaisers, or Triple-elixir of No-Kaiser ; though, except as chronological landmarks, we have not much to do with them. First Kaiser is William Count of Holland, a rough fellow. Pope's protege, Poi)e even raising cash for him ; till William perished in the Dutch peat- bogs (horse and man, furiously pursuing, in some fight there, and getting swallowed up in that manner) ; which happily reduces our false Kaisers to two : Second and Third, who are both foreign to Germany. Second Kaiser is Alphonso King of Castille, Alphonso the Wise, whose saying about Ptolemy's Astronomy, "That it seemed a crank machine ; that it was pity the Creator had not taken advice ! " is still remembered by mankind ; — this and no other of his many sayings and doings. He was wise enough to stay at home ; and except wearing the title, which cost nothing, to concern himself very little about the Holy Roman Empire, — some clerk or two dating " Toleti (at Toledo)," did languidly a bit of official writing now and then, and that was all. Confused crank machine this of the German Empire too, your jVI^jesty ? Better stay at home, and date " Toleti." The Third false Kaiser — futile call him rather, wanting clear majority — was the English Richard of Cornwall ; younger Son of John Lackland; and little wiser than his Father, to judge by those symptoms. He had plenty of money, and was liberal with it ; — no other call to Germany, you 1 At Naples, 25th October, 1268. 1C6 BRANDENBURG AND HOIIENZOLLERNS. Book H. 1271. would say, except to get rid of his money ; in which he suc- ceeded. He lived actually in Germany, twice over for a year or two : — Al})honso and he were alike shy of the Pope, as Umpire; and Kichard, so far as his money went, found some gleams of authority and comfortable flattery in the Rhenish provinces : at length, in 12(»3, money and patience being both probably out, he quitted (rermany for the second and last time ; came home to Berkliamstead in Hertfordshire here,^ more fool than he went. Till his death (a.d. 1271), he con- tinued to call himself, and was by many persons called. Kaiser of the Holy Roman Empire ; — needed a German clerk or two at licrkhamstead, we can su])pose : but never went back ; pre- ferring pleasant Berkhamsteiul, with troubles of Simon de jNIuntfort or whatever troubles there miglit be,^ to anything Germany had to otfer him. These were the Three futile Kaisers : and the late Kaiser Conrad's young Boy, who one day might have swept the ground clear of them, perished, — bright young Conradin, bright and brave, but only sixteen, and Pope's captive by ill luck, — per- ished on the scaffold ; " throwing out his glove " (in symbolical l)rotest) amid the dark mute Neapolitan multitudes, that win- try morning. It was Octoljer LMth, 1208, — Dante Alighieri then a little boy at Florence, not three years old ; gazing with strange eyes as the elders talked of such a performance by Christ's Vicar on Earth. A very tragic performance indeed, which brought on the Sicilian Vespers by and by ; for the Heavens never fail to pay debts, your Holiness ! — Germany was rocking down towards one saw not what, — an Anarchic Republic of Princes, perhaps, and of Free Barons fast verging towards robbery ? Sovereignty of multiplex Princes, with a Peerage of intermediate Robber Barons ? Things are verging that way. Such Princes, big arid little, each wrenching off for himself what lay loosest and handiest to him, found it a stirring game, and not so much amiss. On the other hand, some voice of the People, in feeble whimper- ings of a strange intensity, to the opposite effect, are audible to this day. Here are Three old Minstrels (Minnesdnger) picked 1 Goufih's Camden, i. 339. Chap. VII. BUKGGRAF FKIEDKICII III. 107 127a. from Manesse's Collection by an obliging hand, who are of this date, and shall speak each a word : — No. 1 loquitur (in cramp doggerel, done into speech) : " To thee, Lord, we poor folk make moan ; the Devil has sown his seeds in this land ! Law thy hand created for protection of thy children : but where now is Law ? Widows and orphans weep that the Princes do not unite to have a Kaiser." No. 2 : " The Princes grind in the Kaiser's mill : to the l\f ich they fling the siftings ; and keep to themselves the meal. Nof much in haste, they, to give us a Kaiser." No. 3 : " Like the Plague of Frogs, there they are come out; defiling the Reich's honor. Stork, when wilt thou ap- pear, then," and with thy stiff mandibles act upon them a little ? 1 It was in such circumstances, that Friedrich III., Burggraf of Niirnberg, who had long moaned and striven ovrr tlicse woes of his country, came to pay that visit, late in the night (1st or 2d of October, 1273), to his Cousin Rudolf Lord of Hai)S- biirg, under the walls of Basel ; a notable scene in History. Rudolf was besieging Basel, being in some feud with the Bishop there, of which Friedrich and another had been proposed as umpires ; and Friedrich now waited on his Cousin, in this hasty manner, — not about the Basel feud, but on a far higher quite unexpected errand, — to say, That he Rudolf was elected Kaiser, and that better times for the Holy Roman Empire were now probable, with Heaven's help.^ We call him Cousin ; though what the kindred actually was, a kindred by mothers, remains, except the general fact of it, disputable by Dryasdust. The actual visit, under the walls of Basel, is by some con- sidered romantic. But that Rudolf, tough steel-gray man, besieging Basel on his own quarrel, on the terms just stated, was altogether unexpectedly apprised of this great news, and that Cousin Friedrich of Niirnberg had mainly contributed to such issue, is beyond question.* The event was salutary, like life instead of death, to anarchic Germany ; and did eminent honor to Friedrich's judgment in men. ^ Mentzel, Geschichte der Dentschen, p. 345. 2 Rentsch pp. 299,285, 298. ^ Kohler, pp. 249, 251. 108 nUANDKNnrUG and IIOIIENZOLLKRNS. Book ir. 1278. Richard of Cornwall having at last died, and his futile Ger- man clerks having quitted Herkhaiustead forever, — Alphonso of Castillc, not now urged by rivalry, and seeing long since what a crank machine tlie thing was, liad no objection to give it up; said so to the Pope, — who was hin)self anxious for a| settled Kaiser, the supplies of I'apal (ierman c:ush having run almost dry during these troubles. Wliereupon ensued earnest consultations among leiuling Gernum nu'U ; Diet of the Empire, sternly practical (we may well in^rceive), and with a minimum of talk, the Tope too being held rather well at a distance : the result of which was what we see.' Mainly due to Friedrich of NUrnlx3rg, say all Historians ; conjoining with him the then ^ Archbishop of Mainz, who is otlicially Tresident Elector (liter- ally Convener of Electors) : they two did it. Archbishop of Mainz had himself a ple;isant accidental acquaintance with Kudolf, — a night's lodging once at llapsburg, with escort over the Hills, in dangerous circumstances; — and might the more readily l)e ma<le to understand wliat qualities the man now had ; and how, in justness of insight, toughness of char- acter, and general strength of bridle-hand, this actually might be the atlecjuate man. Kaist-r liudolf ami Burn'jraf Fridrirh TIL Last time we saw Rudolf, near thirty years ago, he was some equerry or subaltern dignitary among the Ritters of King Ottocar, doing a Crusade against the Prussian Heathen, and seeing his master found Konigslx»rg in that country. Changed j times now ! Ottocar King of Bohemia, who (liy the strong hand mainly, and money to Richard of Cornwall, in the lato troubles) has become Duke of Austria and much else, had himself expected the Kaisership ; and of all astonished men, King Ottocar was probably the most astonished at the choice made. A dread sovereign, fierce, and terribly opulent, and every way resplendent to such degree ; and this threadbare Swiss gentleman-at-arms, once " my domestic " (as Ottocar loved to term it), preferred to me ! Flat insanity. King Ottocar \ » 29th September, 1273. A %. ''••A1 VII. HUKGGKAF P^KIEUURII III. 109 u:6, thought; refused to acknowledge such a Kaiser; would not in the least give up his unjust properties, or even do homage for them or the others. -Hut there also liudolf contrived to be reatly for him. Kudolf invaded his rich Austrian territories ; smote down Vienna, and all resistance that there was ; ^ forced Ottocar to beg pardon and peace. " No jjardon, nor any speech of peace, till you first do homage for all tliose lauds of yours, whatever we may find tlu'ui .to be ! " Ottocar was very loath ; but could not help himself. (,)ttocar quitted I'rag with a resplendent retinue, to come into the Danube country, and do liomage to " my do- mestic " that once was. Ill' l»arg;iined that the sail ceremony should lx» at least private ; on an Island in the DanulK?, between the two retinues or armies ; and in a tent, so that only oflicial select jK'rsons might see it. The Island is called Camberg (near Vienna, I conclude), in the middle of the Donau River : there ( )ttocar iu-eordingly knelt; he in great pomp of tiiilorage, Kudolf in mere buif jerkin, i)ractical leather and iron; — hide it, charitable canvas, from all but a few ! Alas, precisely at this moment, the treacherous canvas rushes down, — hung so on j)uri)ose, thinks Ottocur ; and it is a tent indeed, but a tent without walls ; and all the world sees me in this scandalous plight ! Ottocar rode home in deep gloom ; his poor Wife, too, u]i- braided him: he straightway rallied into War again; Kudolf again very ready to meet him. Kudolf met him, Friedrich of Nitrnberg there among the rest under the Keichs-Banner ; on the Marchfeld by the Donau (modern Wagram near by) ; and entirely beat and even slew and ruined Ottocar.* Whereby Austria fell now to Rudolf, who made his sons Dukes of it ; which, or even Archdukes, they are to this day. Bohemia, Mora\ia, of these also Rudolf would have been glad ; but of these there is an heir of Ottocar's left; these will require time and hick. Prosperous though toilsome days for Rudolf ; who proved an excellent bit of stuff for a Kaiser ; and found no rest, l)roving what stuff he was. In which prosperities, as indeed 1 1276 (Kohler, p. 253). 2 26th August, 1278 (Kohler, p. 253). 110 iJHANDKxnrnf; ani> TionKNznij.r.nxi^J. K""k ir. lie continued to do in the \ieT\ir and cils, Burggraf Fried- rich III. of Niirnberg naturally j^artook ; hence, and not gratia at all, the lU'reditary Uurggrafdoni, and many other favors and accessions he got. For he continued Rudolf's steady helper, frioml and hi-st-nian in all things, to the very end. Evidently one of the most imiiorUmt men in Germany, and candor will lead us t<.) guess one of the worthiest, during those bad years of Interregnum, and the better ones of Kaisership. After Connul his great-grandfather he is the second notable architect of the Fanuly House; — founded by Con rati ; con- dpicuously built up by this Friedrich III., and the tirst story of it finished, so to s|)eak. Then come two Friedrichs as liurg- grafs, his son and his grand.son's grandson, "Friedrich IV'.'' and "Friedrich VI.,'' I)y whom it was niised,to tin* .se<'ond story anil the tluiil. — thciiccftirth (me of the liii,'h Imuscs of the world. That is the glimj>se we can give of Friedrich first Hereditary lUirggraf, ami of his Cousin Kudolf first Hapsburg Kaiser. The latest Austrian Kaisers, the latest Kings of Prussia, they are sons of these two men. ('HArTF.H VIII. ASCAN'IER MAKKf;R.\VES IX BK ANPEVBrRO. Wk have said nothing of the Ascanier Markgraves, Electors of Brandenburg, all this while ; nor, in these limits, can we now or henceforth say almost anything. A proud enough, valiant and diligent line of Markgraves ; who had much fight- ing and other struggle in the world, — steadily enlarging their border upon the Wends to the north ; and adjusting it, with mixed success, against the Wettin gentlemen, who are Mark- graves farther east (in the Lnusitz now), who bound us to the south too (Meissen, Misnia), and who in fact came in for the whole of modern Saxony in the end. Much fighting, too, there was with the Archbishops of Magdeburg, now that the Wends CIIAI-. vm. ASLAMKK MAHKlJKAVES. Ill 1278. ai'e down : standing quarrel there, on the small scale, like that of Kaiser and I'ope on the great; sueli quai-rel as is to be seen in all places, and on all manner of scales, in that era of the Christian World. -None of our Markgraves rose to the height of their I'ro- genitor, Albert the Bear ; nor indeed, except massed up, as " Albert's Line," and with a History ever more condensing itself almost to the form of label, can tht"y pretend to memonv- bility with us. What can Dryasdust himself do with them ?' That, wholesome Dutch cabbages continued to be more and more planted, and peat-mire, blending itself with wiiste sand, became available for Christian mankind, — intrusive Chaos, antl espeeially Divine Tn'ijl<ij>h ami his feroeities being well held aloof: — this, after Jill, is the real History of our Mark- graves ; and of this, by the nature of the case, Dryasdust can say nothing. "New Maik," which once meant Hramlenburg at hirge, is getting subdivided into Mid-Mark, into Cckerniiivk (closest to the Weuds) ; and in Old Mark and New much is spre«iding, much getting planti'd and founded. In the course of centuries there will grow gradually to be " seven cities ; and ;is many towns," says one old jubilant Topographer, " as there are days in the year," — struggling to count up 3G5 of them. Of Berlin City. In the year (guessed to be) 1240, one Aseanier Markgraf " fortities Berlin ; " that is, first makes Berlin a German Burg and inhabited out{x>st in those pai-ts : — the very name, some think, means '• Little Rampart '" {WehrWn), built there, on the banks of the Si>ree, against the Wends, and peopled with Dutch ; of which latter fact, it seems, the old dialect of the place yields traces.* How it rose afterwards to be chosen for * Nicolai, Beschreihung der Kdniqltchen Residenzsladte Berlin and Potsdam (Berlin. 1786), i. pp. 16, 17 of " P^inleitang." Nicolai rejects the Wehrlin ety- mology ; admits that the name vras evidently appellative, not proper, " The Berlin," " To the Berlin ; " finds in the world two objects, one of them at Halle, still called " The Berlin ; " and thinks it must have meant (in some langnage of extinct mortals) " Wild Pasture-groimd," — " The Scrubs," as we should call it. — Possible ; perhaps likelj . 112 BRANDENBURG AND HOHENZOLLERNS. Book II. 1278= Metropolis, one cannot say, except that it had a central situa- tion for the now widened principalities of Brandenburg : the place otherwise is sandy by nature, sand and swamp the con- stituents of it ; and stands on a sluggish river the color of oil. Wendish fishermen had founded some first nucleus of it long before ; and called their fishing-hamlet Coin, which is said to be the general Wendish title for places founded on piles, a needful method where your basis is swamp. At all events, " Coin " still designates the oldest quarter in Berlin ; and " Coin on the Spree " (Cologne, or Coin on the Ehine, being very different) continued, almost to modern times, to be the Official name of the Capital. How the Dutch and Wends agreed together, within their rampart, inclusive of both, is not said. The river lay be- tween; they had two languages; peace was necessary: it is probable they were long rather on a taciturn footing ! But in the oily river you do catch various fish; Coin, amid its quagmires and straggling sluggish waters, can be rendered very strong. Some husbandry, wet or dry, is possible to dili- gent Dutchmen, There is room for trade also ; Spree Havel Elbe is a direct water-road to Hamburg and the Ocean; by the Oder, which is not very far, you communicate with the Baltic on this hand, and with Poland and the uttermost parts of Silesia on that. Enough, Berlin grows ; becomes, in about 300 years, for one reason and anotlier, Capital City of the country, of these many countries. The Markgraves or Elec- tors, after quitting Brandenburg, did not come immediately to Berlin ; their next Residence was Tangermiinde {Mouth of the Tanger, where little Tanger issues into Elbe) ; a much grassier place than Berlin, and which stands on a Hill, clay- and-sand Hill, likewise advantageous for strength. That Berlin should have grown, after it once became Capital, is not a mystery. It has quadrupled itself, and more, within the last hundred years, and I think doubled itself within the last thirty. Chap. VIII. OTTO WITH THE ARKOW. 113 1278. MarJcgraf Otto IK, or Otto with the Arrow. One Ascanier Markgraf, and one only, Otto IV. by title, was a Poet withal ; had an actual habit of doing verse. There are certain so-called Poems of his, still extant, read by Dryasdust, with such enthusiasm as he can get up, in the old Collection of Minnesingers, made by Manesse the ZiiricJi Burgermeister, while the matter was much fresher than it now is.^ Madrigals all ; J/i/me-Songs, describing the pas- sion of love ; how Otto felt under it, — well and also ill ; with little peculiarity of symptom, as appears. One of his lines is, " Ich wiinsch ich were tot, I wish that I were dead : " — the others shall remain safe in Manesse's Collection. This srane Markgraf Otto IV., Year 1278, had a dreadful quarrel with the See of Magdeburg, about electing a Brother of his. The Chapter had chosen another than Otto's Brother ; Otto makes war upon the Chapter. Comes storming along; "will stable my horses in your Cathedral," on such and such a day ! But the Archbishop chosen, who had been a fighter formerly, stirs up the Magdeburgers, by preaching ("Horses to be stabled here, my Christian brethren"), by relics, and quasi-miracles, to a furious condition ; leads them out against Otto, beats Otto utterly ; brings him in captive, amid hooting jubilations of the conceivable kind: "Stable ready; but where are the horses, — Serene child of Satanas ! " Archbishop makes a Wooden Cage for Otto (big beams, spars stout enough, mere straw to lie on), and locks him up there. In a public situation in the City of Magdeburg ; — visible to mankind so, during certain months of that year 1278. It Avas in the very time while Ottocar was getting finished in the Marchfeld ; much mutiny still abroad, and the new Kaiser Kudolf very busy. Otto's Wife, all streaming in tears, and flaming in zeal, 1 Kiidiger von Manesse, who fought the Austrians, too, made his Sammlung (Collection) in the latter half of the fourteenth century; it was printed, after many narrow risks of destruction in the interim, in 1758, — Bodmer and Breitinger editing ;-»-at Ziirich, 2 vols. 4to. VOL. V. " HI BKANDENBUUG AND llUllENZULLEliXS. Book II. 1-278. what shall she do ? " Sell your jewels," so advises a certain old Johann von Buch, discarded Ex-official: ''Sell your jewels, Madam ; bribe the (,'anons of JNIagdeburj,' with extreme secrecy, none knowing of his neighbor; they will consent to ransom on terms }»ossible. Poor Wife bribed as was bidden; Canons voted as they undertook; unanimous for ransom, — high, but Immanly j^ossible. Markgraf Otto gets out on parole. But now, Ib»\v raise such a ransom, our very jewels being sold? Old Johann von Buch again indicates ways and means, — miraculous old gentleman : — Markgraf Otto returns, money in hand; pays, and is solemnly discharged. The title of the sum I could give exact ; but as none will in the least tell me what the value is, I humbly forbear. " We are clear, then, at this date ? " said ^larkgraf Otto from his horse, just taking leave of the Magdeburg Canonry. " Yes," answered they. — " Pshaw, you don't know the value of a Markgraf ! " said Otto. " What is it, then ? " — " Rain gold ducats on his war-horse and him," said Otto, looking up with a satirical grin, " till horse and Markgraf are buried in them, and you cannot see the point of his spear atop I " — That would be a cone of gold coins equal to the article, thinks our Markgraf; and rides grinning away.^ — The poor Arch- bishop, a v'aliant pious man, finding out that late strangely unanimous vote of his Chapter for ransoming the Markgraf, took it so ill, that he soon died of a broken heart, say the old Books. Die he did, before long; — and still Otto's Brother was refused as successor. Brother, however, again survived; behaved always wisely ; and Otto at last had his way. " Makes an excellent Archbishop, after all I " said the ^lagde burgers. Those were rare times, Mr. Rigmarole. The same Otto, besieging some stronghold of his Magde- burg or other enemies, got an arrow shot into the skull of him ; into, not through ; which no surgery could extract, not for a year to come. Otto went about, sieging much the same, "with the iron in his head ; and is called Otto niit dem Pfeile, Otto Sciff iff alius, or Otto with the Arrow, in consequence. A Markgraf who writes jMadrigals ; who does sieges with an 1 Michaelis, i. 271 ; Pauli, i. 316 ; Kloss; &c. Chap. VIII. QTTO WITH THE ARROW. 115 1278. arrow in his head ; who lies in a wooden cage, jeered by the Magdebui-gers, and proposes such a cone of ducats : I thought him the memorablest of those forgotten Markgraves ; and .that his jolting Life-pilgrimage might stand as the general sample. Multiply a year of Otto by 200, you have, on easy conditions, some imagination of a History of the Ascanier ^Markgraves. Forgettable otherwise ; or it can be read in the gross, darkened with endless details, and thrice-dreary, half- intelligible traditions, in I'auli's fatal Quartos, and elsewhere, if any one needs. — The year of that Magdeburg speech about the cone of ducats is 1278: King Edward the First, in this country, was walking about, a prosperous man of forty, with very Long IShanlcs, and also with a head of good length. Otto, as liad been the case in the former Line, was a fre- (pient name among those Markgraves : " Otto the l*ious " (whom we saw crusading once in Preussen, with King Otto- car his r>rother-in-law), "Otto the Tall," "Otto the Short {Fannis) ; " I know not how many Ottos besides him " with the Arrow." Half a century after this one of the Arrow (under his Grand-Nephew it was), the Ascanier Markgraves ended, their Line also dying out. Not the successfulest of Markgraves, especially in later times. Brandenburg was indeed steadily an Electorate, its 3larkgraf a Kurfiirst, or Elector of the Empire ; and alwaj'S rather on the increase than otherwise. But the Territories were apt to be much split up to younger sons ; two or more Markgraves at once, the eldest for Elector, with other arrange- ments ; which seldom answer. They had also fallen into the habit of borrowing money : pawning, redeeming, a good deal, with Teutsch Eitters and others. Then they puddled consid- erably, — and to their loss, seldom choosing the side that proved winner, — in the general broils of the Keich, which at that time, as we have seen, was unusually anarchic. None of the successfulest of Markgraves latterly. But they were regretted beyond measure in comparison with the next set that came ; as we shall see. 116 BRANDENBURG AND IIOIIENZOLLERNS. Book ii. 12118. CHAPTEH IX. BURGGRAF FRIEDRICn TV. Brandenburg and the Hohenzollern Family of iN^Urnborg have hitherto no mutual acquaintanceship whatever : they go, each its own course, wide enough apart in the world ; — little dreaming that they are to meet by and by, and coalesce, wed for better and worse, and become one flesh. As is the way in all romance. "Marriages," among men, and otlier entities of importance, "are, evidently, made in Heaven." Friedrich IV. of Niirnberg, Son of that Friedrich III., Kaiser Rudolf's successful friend, was again a notable in- creaser of his House ; wliicli finally, under his Great-grand- son, named Friedrich VI., attained the Electoral height. Of which there was already some hint. Well ; under the first of these two Friedrichs, some .slight approximation, and under his Son, a transient express introduction (so to speak) of Brandenburg to Hohenzollern took place, withoiit imme- diate result of consequence ; but under the second of them occurred the wedding, as we may call it, or union " for better or worse, till death do us part." — How it came about ? Easy to ask. How ! The reader will have to cast some glances into the confused Beichs-HistoTy of the time; — timid glances, for the element is of dangerous, extensive sort, mostly jungle and shaking bog ; — and we must travel through this corner of it, as on shoes of swiftness, treading lightly. Contested Elections in the Meieh : Kaiser Albert I. ; after luhom Six Non-Hapshurg Kaisers. The Line of Eudolf of Hapsburg did not at once succeed continuously to the Empire, as the wont had been in such cases, where the sons were willing and of good likelihood. rn.w. rx. CONTESTED ELECTIONS. 117 1-2M. Mter such a spell of anarchy, parties still ran higher than usual in the Holy Roman Empire ; and "wide-yawning splits would not yet coalesce to the old pitch. It appears too the jjosterity of Rudolf, stiff, inarticulate, proud men, and of a turn for engrossing and amassing, were not always lovely to the jiublic. Albert, Rudolf's eldest son, for instance, Kaiser Al- bert I., — who did succeed, though not at once, or till after killing Rudolf's immediate successor/ — Albert was by no means a prepossessing man, though a tough and hungry one. It must be owned, he had a harsh ugly character ; and face to match : big-nosed, loose-lipped, blind of an eye : not Kaiser- like at all to an Electoral Body. '^£st homo monocuhis, et vultu inistiro ; nan potest ease Imjicrutor (A one-eyed fellow, and looks like a clown ; he cannot be Emperor) ! " said Pope Roniface VI II., when consulted about him.^ Enough, from the death of Rudolf, a.d. 1201, there inter- vened a hundred and fifty years, and eight successive Kaisers singly or in line, only one of whom (this same Albert of the unlovely countenance) was a Ilapsburger, — before the Fam- ily, often trying it all along, couhl get a thu-d time into the Imperial saddle. Where, after that, it did sit steady. Once in for the third time, the Hapsburgers got themselves "elected" (as they still called it) time after time ; always elected, — with but one poor exception, which will much concern my readers by and by, — to the very end of the matter. And saw the Holy Roman Empire itself expire, and as it were both saddle and horse vanish out of Nature, before they would dismount. Nay they still ride there on the shadow of a sad- dle, so to speak ; and are " Kaisers of Aicsfria" at this hour. Steady enough of seat at last, after many vain trials ! For during those hundred and fifty years, — among those six intercalary Kaisers, too, who followed Albert, — they were always trying ; always thinking they had a kind of quasi right to it; whereby the Empire often fell into trouble at Election-time. For they were proud stout men, our Haps- 1 Adolf of Nassau ; slain by Albert's own liand ; " Battle " of Hasenbiibel " near Worms, 2d July, 1298 " (Kohler, p. 265). * Kohler, pp. 267-^73; and Muutzbelustigungen, xix. 156-160. 118 BRANDENBURG AND IIOHENZOLLERNS. Book II. 1298. burgers, tlioiigli of taciturn unconciliatory ways ; and Rudolf had so fitted them out with fruitful Austrian Dukedoms, which they much increased by marriages and otherwise. — Styria, Cavintliia, the Tyrol, by degrees, not to speak of their native Hapshirg much enlarged, and claims on Switzerland all round it, — they had excellent means of battling for their pretensions and disputable elections. None of them succeeded, however, for a hundred and fifty years, except that same oue- eyed, loose-lijjpcd unbeautiful Albert I. ; a Kaiser dreadfully fond of earthly goods, too. "Who indeed grasped all round him, at property half his, or wholly not his : Ehine-tolls, Crown of Buliemia, Landgraviate of Thiiringen, Swiss Forest Cantons, Ci'own of Hungary, Crown of France even : — getting endless quarrels on his hands, and much defeat mixed with any victory there was. Poor soul, he had six-and-twenty fhildren by one wife ; and felt that there was need of ai)a- nages ! He is understood (guessed, not proved) to have insti- gated two assassinations in pursuit of these objects ; and he very clearly underwent one in his own person. Assassination first was of Dietznian the Tliiiringian Landgraf, an Anti- Albert champion, who rei'used to be robbed by Albert, — for whom the great Dante is (with almost palpable absurdity) fabled to have written an Epitaph still legible in the Church at Leipzig.^ Assassination second was of Wenzel, the poor young Bohemian King, Ottocar's Grandson and last heir. Sure enough, this important young gentleman "was murdered by some one at Olmiitz next year " (1306, a promising event for Albert then), " but none yet knows who it was." ^ Neither of which suspicious transactions came to any result for Albert; as indeed most of his unjust graspings proved failures. He at one time had thoughts of the Crown of France ; " Yours I solemnly declare ! " said the Pope. But that came to nothing; — only to France's shifting of the Popes to Avignon, more under the thumb of France. What his ultimate success with Tell and the Forest Cantons was, we all know ! A most clutching, strong-fisted, dreadfully hungry, 1 Jlenckenii Srn'ptores, i. § Fredericus Admorsus (by Tentzel). a Kohler, p. 270. Chap. IX. KAISER HENEY VII. 119 iao8. tough and unbeautiful man. Whom his own Nephew, at last, had to assassinate, at the Ford of the Eeus (near Windisch Village, meeting of the Reus and Aav ; 1st May, 1308) : " Scan- dalous Jew pawnbroker of an Uncle, wilt thou flatly keep from me my Father's heritage, then, intrusted to thee in his hour of death ? Regardless of God and man, and of the last look of a dying Brother ? Uncle worse than pawnbroker ; for it is a heritage with no pawn on it, with much the reverse ! " thought the Nephew, — and stabbed said Uncle down dead ; hajving gone across with him in the boat ; attendants looking on in distraction from the other side of the river. Was called Johannes Parrickla in consequence ; fled out of human sight that day, he and his henchmen, never to turn up again till Doomsday. For the pursuit was transcendent, regardless of expense ; the cry for legal vengeance very great (on the part of Albert's daughters chiefly), though in vain, or nearly so, in this world.^ Of Kaiser Henry VU. and the Luxemburg Kaisers. Of the other six Kaisers not Hapsburgers we are bound to mention one, and dwell a little on his fortunes and those of the family he founded ; both Brandenburg and our Hohenzol- lerns coming to be much connected therewith, as time went on. This is Albert's next successor, Henry Count of Luxemburg ; called among Kaisers Henry VII. He is founder,, he alone among these Non-Hapsburgers, of a small intercalary line of Kaisers, "the Luxemburg Line;" who amount indeed only to Four, himself included; and are not otherwise of much memorability, if we except himself; though straggling about like well-rooted briers, in that favorable ground, they have accidentally hooked themselves upon World-History in one or two points. By accident a somewhat noteworthy line, those Luxemburg Kaisers : — a celebrated place, too, or name of a place, that " Luxembourg " of theirs, with its French Mar- shals, grand Parisian Edifices, lending it new lustre : what, 1 Kohler, p. 272. Horma}T, (Esterreichischer Plutarch, oder Leben und Bild nisse, S^-c. (12 Bandchen ; Wieu, 1807, — a superior Book), i. 65. 120 BRANDENBURG AND HOIIENZOLLERNS. Book II. 1313. thinks tlie reader, is the meaning of Liizzenburg, Luxemburg, Luxembourg ? ^lerely Liifzelhnrg, wrong pronounced ; and that again is nothing but LUtlehorongh : such is the luck of names I — Heinrich Graf von Luxemburg was, after some pause on the parricide of Albert, chosen Kaiser, " on account of his renowned valor," say the old Books, — and also, add the slirewder of them, because his Brother, Archbishop of Trier, was one of the Electors, and the Pope did not like eitlier the Austrian or the French candidate then in the held. Chosen, at all events, he was, 27th November, 1308 ; * clearly, and by much, the best Kaiser that could be had. A puissant soul, who might have done great things, had he lived. He settled feuds ; cut off oppressions from the Re'uh^tadte (Free Towns) ; had a will of just sort, and found or made a way for it. Bohe- mia la])sed to him, the ohl race of Kings having perished out, — the last of them far too suddenly " at Ulmiitz," as we saw lately ! Some opi>osition there was, but much more favor espe- cially by the Bohemian People; and the point, after some small " Siege of Prag " and the like, was definitely carried by the Kaiser. The now Burggraf of Niirnl)erg, Friedrieh IV., son of Eudolf's friend, was present at this Siege of Prag;'^ a Burg- graf much attached to Kaiser Henry, as all good Germans were. But the Kaiser did not live. He went to Italy, our Burggraf of Xiirnberg and many more along with him, to pull the crooked Guelf-Ghibelline Facts and Avignon Pope a little straiglit, if possible ; and was vigor- ously doing it, when he died on a sudden ; " poisoned in sacra- mental wine," say the Germans ! One of the crowning summits of human scoundrelism, which painfully stick in the mind. It is certain he arrived well at Buonconvento near Sienna, on the 24th September, 1313, in full march towards the rebellious King of Naples, whom the Pope much countenanced. At Buonconvento, Kaiser Henry wished to enjoy the communion ; and a Dominican monk, whose dark rat-eyed look men after- •*ards bethought them of, administered it to him in both ^ecies (Council of Trent not yet quite prohibiting the liquid 1 Kohler, p. 274. 2 1310 (Rentsch, p. .311). Chap. IX. JOHANN KING OF BOHEMIA. 121 XiSlO, species, least of all to Kaisers, who are by theory a kind of " Deaeous to the Pope," or something else ^) ; — administered it in both species : that is certain, and also that on the morrow Henry was dead. The Dominicans endeavored afterwards to deny ; which, for the credit of human nature, one wishes they had done with effect.^ But there was never any trial had ; the denial was considered lame; and German History con- tinues to shudder, in that passage, and assert. Poisoned in the wine of his sacrament : the Florentines, it is said, were at the bottom of it, and had hired the rat-eyed Dominican ; — " Ifalid. O FircHze ! " That is not the way to ac-hieve Italian Liberty, or Obedience to God ; that is the way to confirm, as by frightful stygian oath, Italian Slavery, or continual Obedi- ence, under varying forms, to the Other Party ! The voice of Dante, then alive among men, proclaims, sad and loving as a mother's voice, and implacable as a voice of Doom, that you are wandering, and have wandered, in a terrible manner ! — Pett'r, the then Ai'chbishop of Mainz, says there had not for f hundreds of years such a death befallen the German Empire ; to which Kijhler, one of the wisest moderns, gives his assent : " It could not enough be lamented," says he, "that so vigilant a Kaiser, in the flower of his years, should have been torn from the world in so devilish a manner : who, if he had lived % longer, might have done Teutscliland unspeakable benefit." ' Scnry^s Son Johann is King of Bohemia ; and Ludivig the Bavarian, with a Contested Election, is Kaiser. Henry YII. having thus perished suddenly, his Son Johann, scarcely yet come of age, could not follow him as Kaiser, ac- cording to the Father's thought ; though in due time he prose- cuted his advancement otherwise to good purpose, and proved a very stirring man in the world. By his Father's appoint- ment, to whom as Kaiser the chance had fallen, he was already ^ Voltaire, Essai sur les Morurs, c. 67, § Henri VH. ((Euvres, xxi. 184). - Kohler, p. 281 (Ptolemy of Lucca, himseK a Dominican, is one of the accuslnq spirits: Mnratori, 1. xi. § Ptolomceus Lucensis, a.d. 1313). 3 Kohler, pp. 28;i-:i85. 122 BRANDENBURG AND HOHENZOLLERNS. Book 1 1. King of Bohemia, strong in his right and in the favor of the natives ; though a titular Competitor, Henry of the Tyrol, beaten off by the late Kaiser, was still extant : whom, how- ever, and all other perils Johann contrived to weather ; grow- ing up to be a far-sighted stout-hearted man, and potent Bohemian King, widely renowned in his day. He had a Sou, and then two Grandsons, who were successively Kaisers, after a sort ; making up the " Luxemburg Four " we spoke of. Ho did Crusades, one or more, for the Teutseh Ritters, in a si lin- ing manner; — unhappily with loss of an eye; nay ultimately, by tlie aid of quack oculists, with loss of both eyes. An am- bitious man, not to be quelled by blindness ; man with much negotiati<m in him ; with a heavy stroke of iight too, and tem- per nothing loath at itj of which we shall sec some glimpse by and liy. The pity was, for the Reich if not for him, he could not himself become Kaiser. Perhaps we had not then seen Henry Vn.'s tine enterprises, like a fleet of half-built ships, go mostly to planks again, on the waste sea, had his Son followed him. But there was, on the contrary, a contested election ; Austria in again, as usual, and again unsuccessful. The late Kaiser's Austrian competitor, " Friedrich the Fair, Duke of Austria," the parricided Albert's Son, was again one of the parties. Against whom, with real but not quite indisputable majority, stood Ludwig Duke of Bavaria : " Ludwig IV.," " Ludwig der Baler (the Bavarian) " as they call him among Kaisers. Con- test attended with the usual election expenses ; war-wrestle, namely, between the parties till one threw the other. There was much confused wrestling and throttling for seven years or more (1315-1322). Our Nurnberg Burggraf, Friedrich IV., held with Ludwig, as did the real majority, though in a lan- guid manner, and was busy he as few were; the Austrian Hapsburgs also doing their best, now under, now above. Johann King of Bohemia was on Ludwig's side as yet. Lud- wig's own Brother, Kur-Pfalz (ancestor of all the Electors, and their numerous Branches, since known there), an e/der Brother, was, " out of spite " as men thought, decidedly against Ludwig. Cha,-. IX. JOHANX KING OF BOHEMIA. 123 In the eighth year came a Fight that proved decisive. Fight at Miihldorf on the Inn, 28th September, 1322, — far down in those Danube Countries, beyond where Marlborough ever was, where there has been much fighting first and last ; Burggraf Friedrich was conspicuously there. A very great Battle, say the old Books, — says Hormayr, in a new readable Book,^ giving niimite account of it. Ludwig rather held aloof rear- ward ; committed his business to the Hohenzollern Burggraf and to one Schweppermann, aided by a noble lord called liindsmaul (" Coivviouth,-^ no less), and by others experienced in such work. Friedrich the Hapsbui-ger der Schiine, Duke of Austria, and self-styled Kaiser, a gallant handsome man, breathed mere martial fury, they say : he knew that his Brother Leopold was on march with a reinforcement to him from the Strasburg quarter, and might arrive any moment ; but he could not wait, — perhaps afraid Ludwig might run ; — he rashly determined to beat Ludwig without reinforcement. Our rugged fervid Hormayr (though imitating Tacitus and Johannes von Miiller overmuch) will instruct fully any mod- ern that is curious about this big Battle : what furious charg- ing, worrying ; how it " lasted ten hours," how the blazing Handsome Friedrich stormed about, and " slew above fifty with his own hand." To us this is the interesting point : At one turn of the Battle, tenth hour of it now ending, and the tug of war still desperate, there arose a cry of joy over all the Austrian ranks, " Help coming ! Help ! " — and Friedrich noticed a body of Horse, " in Austrian cognizance " (such the cimning of a certain man), coming in upon his rear. Austrians and Friedrich never doubted but it was Brother Leopold just getting on the ground ; and rushed forward doubly fierce. Doubly fierce; and were doubly astonished when it plunged in upon them, sharp-edged, as Burggraf Friedrich of Xiirn- berg, — and quite ruined Austrian Friedrich. Austrian Fried- rich fought personally like a lion at bay ; but it availed nothing. Eindsmaul (not lovely of lip, Cowmouth, so-called) disarmed him : " I will not surrender except to a Prince ! " — so Burggraf Friedrich was got to take surrender of him ; and 1 Hormayr, CEsterreichischer Plutarch, ii. 31-37. 124 BRANDENBURG AND HOHENZOLLERNS. Book ii. 1322. the right, and whole Controversy with it, was completely won.^ Poor Leopold, the Austrian Brother, did not arrive till the morrow ; and saw a sad sight, before tiying off again. Fried- rich the Fair sat prisoner in the old Castle of Traussnitz {Oher Pfalz, Upper Palatinate, or Nurnberg country) for three years ; whittling sticks : — Tourists, if curious, can still procure speci- mens of them at the place, for a consideration. There sat Friedrich, Brother Leopold moving Heaven and Earth, — and in fact they said, the very Devil by art magic,'' — to no ] lur- pose, to deliver him. And his poor Spanish AVife cried her eyes, too literally, out, — sight gone in sad fact. Ludwig the Bavarian reigned thenceforth, — though never on easy terms. How grateful to Friedrich of Nurnberg we need not say. For one thing, he gave him all the Austrian Prisoners ; whom Friedrich, judiciously generous, dismissed without ransom excejit that they should be feudally subject to him henceforth. This is the third Hohenzollern whom we mark as a conspicuous acquirer in the Hohenzollern family, this Friedrich IV., builder of the second story of the House. If Conrad, original Burggraf, founded the House, then (Hgura- tively speaking) the able Friedrich IIL, who was Rudolf of Hapsburg's friend, built it one story liigh ; and here is a new Friedrich, his Son, who has added a second story. It is as- tonishing, says Dryasdust, how many feudal superiorities the Anspac-h and Baireuth people still have in Austria; —they maintain their own Lehnprobsf, or Official INfanager for fief- casualties, in that country : — all which proceed from this Battle of Muhldorf.' Battle fought on the 28th of Septem- ber, 1322 : — eight years after Bannocl<hum ; while our poor Edward II. and England with him were in such a welter with 'C3^ * Jedem Mann ein Ey (One egg to even' man), Dem frommcn Schweppermann zwey (Two to the excellent Schwepper- mann) : Tradition still repeats this old rhyme, as the Kaiser's Address to his Army, or his Head Captains, at supper, after such a day's work, — in a country already eaten to the bone. 2 Kohler, p. 288. » Rentsch, p. .31.3 ; Pauli ; &c. Chap. IX. KAISER LUDWIG DER BAIER. 125 i;j22. their Spencers and their Gavestons : eight years after Ban- nookburn, and four-and-twenty before Creey. That will date it for English readers. 'Kaiser Ludwig reigned some twenty-five years more, in a busy and even strenuous, but not a successful way. lie had good windfalls, too ; for example, Brandenburg, as we shall see. He made friends ; reconciled himself to his Brother Kur-Pfalz and junior Cousinry there, settling handsomely, and with finality, the debatable points between them. Ene- mies, too, he made ; especially Johann the Luxemburger, King of Bohemia, on what ground will be seen shortly, who became at last inveterate to a high degree. But there was one su- premely sore element in his lot : a Pope at Avignon to whom he could by no method make himself agreeable. Pope who put him under ban, not long after that Miihldorf victory ; and kept him so ; inexorable, let poor Ludwig turn as he might. Ludwig's German Princes stood true to him ; declared, in '' solemn Diet, the Pope's ban to be mere spent shot, of no avail in Imperial Politics. Ludwig went vigorously to Italy ; tried setting up a Pope of his own ; but that did not answer, nor of course tend to mollify the Holiness at Avignon. In fine, Ludwig had to carry this cross on his back, in a . sorrowful manner, all his days. The Pope at last, finding Johann of Bohemia in a duly irritated state, persuaded him into setting up an Anti-Kaiser, — Johann's second Son as Anti-Kaiser, — who, though of little account, and called Pfaffen-KaUer (I'arsons' Kaiser) by the public, might have brought new troubles, had that lasted. We shall see some ultiiuate glimpses of it farther on. 126 BRANDENBURG AND IIOIIENZOLLERNS. Book II. CIIAI'I'KK X. BRANDENBURG LAPSES To THE KAISER. Two years before the victory at ^Miihldorf, a bad chance befell in Brandon biiij^ : the Ascanicr Liuo of Markj^aves or Electors ended. Maj^niloquent Otto with the Arrow, Otto the Short, Hermann the Tall, all the Ottos, llfrnianns and others, died by course of nature; nephew ^ValdL'ma^ him- self, a stirring man, died prematurely (a.d. J3iy), and left only a young cousin for successor, who died few months after : ^ the Line of AU^ert the liear went out in Brandenburg. They had lasted there about two hundred years. They had not been, in late times, the suecessfulest Markgraves : terri- tories much split up among younger sons, joint Markgraves reigning, which seldom answers ; yet to the last they always made stout fight for themselves ; walked the stage in a high manner ; anil surely might be said to quit it creditably, leaving such a Brandenburg Ix^hind them, chiefly of their making, during the Two Centuries that had been given them before the night came. Tliore were plenty of Ascanier Crtusins still extant in those parts, Saxon dignitaries, Anhalt dignitaries, lineal descend- ants of Albert the Bear ; to some of whom, in usual times, Albert's inheritance would natiirally have been granted. But the times were of battle, uncertainty, contested election : and the Ascaniers, I perceive, had rather taken Friedrich of Aus- tria's side, which proved the losing one. Kaiser Lndwig der Baier would ajipoint none of these; Anti-Kaiser Friedrich's appointments, if he made any, could be only nominal, in those distant Northern parts. Ludwig, after his victory of MUhl- dorf, preferred to consider the Electorate of Brandenburg as 1 September, 1320 (Paiili, i 301). ^Tichaelis, i. 200-277 CiiAP. X. IJRAXDENnURG LAPSES TO THE KAISER. 12r lapsed, lying vacant, nngoverned these three years ; and now become the Kaiser's again. Kaiser, in consequence, gave it to his Son ; whose name also is Liulwig : the date of the Jnvestiture is 1323 (year after that victory of Miihldorf) ; a date unfortunate to Brandenburg. We come now into a Line of Bavarian Markgraves, and then of Luxemburg ones ; both of which are of fatal significance to Brandenburg. The Ascanier Cousins, liigh Saxon dignitaries some of them, glopmcd mere disappointment, and protested hard ; but could not mend the matter, now or afterwards. Their Line went out in Saxony too, in course of time ; gave place to the Wet- tin f^, who are still there. The Ascanier had to be content with the more pristine state of acquisitions, — high pedigrees, old castles of Ascanien and Ballenstiidt, territories of Anhalt or what else they had ; — and never rose again to the lost height, though the race still lires, and has qualities besides its pedigree. We said the '' Old Dessauer," Leopold I'rinco of Anhalt-Dessau, was the head of it in Friedrich AVilhelm's time; and to this day he has descendants. Catharine II. of iJussia was of Anhalt-Zerbst, a junior branch. Albert the Bear, if that is of any use to him, has still occasionally no- table representatives. Ludwig junior, Kaiser Ludwig the Bavarian's eldest son, was still under age when appointed Kurfiirst of Brandenburg v.x 1323 : of course he had a " Stateholder" (Viceregent, Statt- halfer) ; then, and afterwards in occasional absences of his, a series of such. Kaiser's Councillors, Burggraf Friedrich IV. among them, had to take some thought of Brandenburg in its new posture. Who these Brandenburg Statthalters were, is heartily indifferent even to Dryasdust, — except that one of them for some time was a Hohenzolleru : which circumstance Dryasdust marks with the due note of admiration. " What he did there," Dryasdust admits, " is not written anywhere ; " — good, we will hope, and not evil; — but only the Diploma nominating him (of date 1346, not in Ludwig's minority, but many years after that ended ^) now exists by way of record, 1 Rentsch, p. 323. 128 BliAXDEXBURG AND IIOTIENZin.LERNS. IVx.k II. A difficult problem ho, like the other regents and viceregents, must have had; little dreaming that it was intrinsically ft»r a grandson of his own, and long line of grandsons. The name of this temporary Statthalter, the first IlohenzoUcrn Avho had ever the least concern with lirandenlnirg, is liurg- graf Johann II., eldest Son of our distinguished Miihldorf friend Friedrich IV. ; and Grandfather (through another Friedrieh) of Burggraf Friedrich VI., — which hust gentle- man, as will be seen, did doubtless reap the sowings, good and bad, of all manner of men in Brandenburg. The same Johann II. it was who purchased I'lassenburg Castle and Territory (cheaj), for money down), where the Family after- wards had its chief residence, llof, Town and Territory, had fallen to his Father in those j)arts ; a gift of gratitude from Kaiser Ludwig: — most of the Voigtland is now llohen- zollern. Kaiser Luihvig the Bavarian left his sons Electors of Brandenburg; — "Electors, Kiirflirsfs:^ now becomes the com- moner term f(»r so iniporUmt a Country; — Electors not in easy circumstances. ISut no son of his succeeded Ludwig as Kaiser, — successor in the Reich was that Pfaff en-Kaiser, Johann of Bohemia's son, a Lu-xemburger once more. No son of Ludwig's ; nor did any descendant, — except, after four hundred years, that unfortunate Kaiser Karl VII., in Maria Theresa's time, lie was a descendant. Of whoni we shall hear more than enough. The unluckiest of all Kaisers, that Karl VII. ; less a Sovereign Kaiser than a bone thrown into the ring for certain royal dogs, Louis XV., George II. and others, to worry about ; — watch-dogs of the gods ; apt some- times to run into hunting instead of warding. — We will say nothing more of Ludwig the Baier, or his posterity, at present: we will glance across to Preussen, and see, for one moment, what the Teutsch Eitters are doing in their new Century. It is the year 13.30 ; Johann II. at Niirnberg, as yet only coming to be Burggraf, by no means yet adminis- tering in Brandenburg ; and Ludwig junior seven years old in his new dignity there. Chap. X. BRANDEXDURG LAPSES TO THE KAISER. 1-0 ia;jo. The Teutsch Ritters, after infinite travail, have subdued heathen Preussen ; colonized the country with industrious Ger- man immigrants ; banked the Weichsel and the Nogat, subdu- iiig their quagmires into meadows, and their waste streams into deep ship-courses. Towns are built, Konigsberg {King Ottocar's town), Thoren (Thorn, City of the Gates), with many others : so that the wild population and the tame now liveil tolerably together, under Gospel and Lubeck Law ; and all was ploughing and trading, and a rich country ; which had made the Teutsch Hitters rieh, and victoriously at their ease in comparison. But along with riches and the ease of victory, the common bad consequences had ensued. Ritters given up to luxuries, to secular ambitions ; ritters no longer chid in austere mail and prayer ; ritters given up to wantonness of iiiin<l and conduct ; solemnly vowing, and quietly not doing ; without remorse or consciousness of wrong, daily eating for- bidden fruit; ritters swelling more and more into the f;itted-ox condition, for whom there is but one doom. How far they hiul carried it, here is one symptom that may teach us. In the year 1330, one Werner von Orseln was Grand-master of these Ritters. The Grand-master, who is still usually the best man they can get, and who by theory is sacred to them as a Grand-Lama or Pope among Cardinal-Lamas, or as an Abbot to his Monks, — Grand-master Werner, we say, had lain down in Marienburg one afternoon of this year 1330, to take his siesta, and was dreaming peaceably after a moderate repast, when a certain devil-ridden mortal, Johann von Endorf, one of his Ritters, long grumbling about severity, want of promotion and the like, rushed in upon the good old man ; ran him through, dead for a ducat ;^ — and consummated a parricide at which the very cross on one's white cloak shud- ders ! Parricide worse, a great deal, than that at the Ford of Reuss upon one-eyed Albert. We leave the shuddering Ritters to settle it, sternly vengeful ; whom, for a moment, it has struck broad-awake to some sense of the very questionable condition they are getting into. 1 Voigt, iv. 474, 482. VOL. v. ft 130 BRANDENBURG AND IIOIIENZOLLERNS. B-«'k II. 1345. CHAPTER XL BAVARIAN KIKkUk.ST8 IN BHANDENBURO. YouNQ Ludwig Kurfurst of Brandenhurg, Kaiser Liidwig's eldfst son, having come of years, the Tutors or Stattluilters wont homo, — not wanted except in cases of occasional alj- scnce henceforth ; — and the young man endeavored to manage on his own strength. His success was but indif- ferent ; he held on, however, for a space of twenty years, better or worse. "He help«*»l King Edward lit. at the Siege of Cambriy (a.d. l.'J.}*.)) ; '" whose French i>olitics were often connected with the Kaiser's: it is certain, Kurfiirst Ludwig "served personally with ^\0^^ liorse [on good payment, I conclude] at tliat Siege of Cambray ; '' — and probably saw the actual Bhuk Trince, and sometimes dined with liim, as English rtadrrs can imagine. In Brandenburg he ha^l many checks and difficult ])assages, biit was never quite beaten out, which it was easy to have l»een. A man of some ability, as we can gather, though not of enough : he j)layed his game with resolution, not without skill ; but from the first the cards were against him. His Father's affairs going mostly ill were no help to his, which of themselves went not -well. The Brandenliurgers, mindful of their old Ascanier sovereigns, were ill affected to Ludwig and the new Bavarian sort. The Anhalt Cousinry gloomed irreconcilable ; were never idle, digging pitfalls, raising trou- bles. From them and others Kurfiirst Ludwig had troubles enough ; which were fronted by him really not amiss ; which we wholly, or all but wholly, omit in this place. A Besuscitated Ascanier ; the False Waldemar. The wickedest and worst trouble of their raising was that of the resuscitated "Waldemar (a.d. 1.34.")) : "False Waldemar," » Michaclis, i. 279. ri.AP. XI. BAVARIAN KUKFURSTS IN BRANDENBURG. 131 as he is now called in Brandenburg Books. Waldeniar was tlie last, or as good as the last, of the Aseanier Markgraves ; and lie, two years before Ludwig ever saw those countries, dii'd in his l)ed, twenty -tive good years ago; and was buried, and seemingly ended. But no ; after twenty -tive years, Wal- deniar reappears: "Not buried or dead, only sham-buried, shani-ch'ad ; have been in the Holy Land all this while, doing pilgrimage and penance ; and am come to claim my own again^ — wliich strangers are much misusing ! " ^ Perkin Warbeck, Post-mortem Richard 11., Dimitri of Rus- sia, Martin Guerre of the Cannes Celebres : it is a common story in the world, and needs no commentary now. Fost- vutrti'iit Wahlemar, it is said, was a Miller's Man, " of the name of Jakob Kehbaek ; " who used to be al)Out the real Waldemar in a menial capacity, and luwl some reseml)lanee to him. He slu)wed sigiifts, recounted experiences, which luul Ixdonged to the real Waldemar. Many believed in his pretension, and ^ took arms to assert it ; tlie Keich being in much internal battle at the time ; poor Kaiser Ludwig, with his Avignon Bopes and angry Kings Johaini, wa<.Ung in dt-t-p waters. Especially the disaffected Cousinry, or Princes of Anhalt, believed and battled for Post-vwrtem Waldemar ; who were thought to have got him up from the first. Kurfiirst Ludwig had four or five most sa<l years with him ; — all the worse when the PfiiJ^'tn- Kaiser (King Johann's son) came on the stage, in the course of them (a.d. 134G), and Kaiser Ludwig, yielding not indeed to him, b\it to Death, vanished from it two years after ; •' leaving Kurfiirst Ludwig to his own shifts with the Bfaffen-Kaiser. Whom he could not now hinder from suc- ceeding to the Keich. He tried hard ; set up, he and others, an Anti-Kaiser (Guufher of Schivartzburg, temporary Anti- Kaiser, whom English readers can forget again) : he bustled, battled, negotiated, up and down ; and ran across, at one time, to Breussen to the Teutscli Ritters, — presumably to borrow money : — but it all would not do. The Pfaffen-Kaiser carried it, in the Diet and out of the Diet: Karl IV. by ' Michaelis. i. 279. * Elected, 1314 ; Miihldorf, and Election complete, 1322 ; died, 1347, age 6a 132 j;KANI)i:M;ri:(; and llUliKNZnLLKKNS. IJ-H.ii 11. title ; a sorry t'liouj^h Kaiser, ami by nature an enemy of Liulwi^'s. It w;us in this whirl of intricair nu.sveumns that KurfUrst Lu(hvi^' h:ul to deal with his False Walilenuir, conjured fmni the deeps ui>on him, like u new goblin, where alrea<ly tliero were plenty, in the danee round \)oot Lmlwig. Of which nearly inextricable goblinnlanoo ; threatening lirand«*nburg, for one thing, with annihilation, and yet leading lirandenburg abstrusely towards new birth and higher destinies, — how will it be ))ossiblu (without niising new ghosts, in a sense) to give rea«lers any intelligible notion ? — Here, flickering on the edge of conllagration aft^'r duty ilone, is a jKKir Note which ]M>rhaps the reailer had Ix-tter, at tli" r\^k "f -ni- rlluity, still in part take along with him : — "Kaiser Ib-nry VII., who died of sarnin)ent;il wine. First of the Luxemburg Kaisers, left Johann still a lx>y of tift<en, who could not become the second of them, but did in time pro- duce the Second, who agxiin producetl tlu* Third and Fimrth. • loluuin wjis already King of lioh- the im|Mirtant ^uuug gentleman, Ottix-ar's grandson, wudu we saw * mur- <lered at Olnuitz none yet knows by whom,' had left that thron. v.i. iiif Hill it la|>sed to the Kaiser; who, the Nation also ; y put in his son Johann. There was a conj- iK'titor, 'nuke of the Tyrol,' who claime<l on loose grounds; 'My wife w;i.s Aunt of the young munlered King,' said he; • wherefore ' — I Kaiser, and •lohaun after him, rebutted this comjietitor ; but he long gave some trouble, having great wealth and He proiluced a Daughter, Marg:iret Heiress of the i>i"i, — with a terrible mouth to her face, and none of the gentlest hearts in her l>ody : — that was j)erhaps his prin- cilKil feat in the world. He died l.'i'il ; hail styled himself 'King of Bohemia' for twenty years, — ever since 1308; — but in the last two years of his life be gave it up, and ceased from troubling, having come to a beautiful agreement with Johann. "Johann, namely, wedded his eldest Son to this comjjetitor's fine Daughter with the mouth (Year 1320) : * In this manner do not Bohemia and the Tyrol come together in my blood and r-im-. \I. nWAKIAN KIKmjSTS 1\ lIKAM )i:NnrKG. 133 l.UJ. iu yours, an«i both of us are uuule nuMi?* said the two con- tnu'ting paili«'s. — Ala.s, no: the <'oin|M'titi>r Duke, father of tlu' iWide, died some two years after, probably with diminished hitpes of it; and Kini^ Johann lived to see the hope expire dismally altogrthfr. There came no children, there came no — In fact Mar^^'arit, after a dozen years of wi-dloek, in unpleasant circumstances, broke it off jis if by explosion; took herself and her Tyrol irreV(H'ably over to Kaiser Ludwig, quite away from Kin^; .lohann. — who, his hojH'S of the Tyrol expiring; in such disirtal manner, w:uj thenceforth the bitter enemy of Ludwig aitd what held of him." Tyrol explosion was in 1^12. And now, keeping' these preliminary dates and outlines in mind, we shall understiinil the bij,'-mnuth«'d IjJidy bc-tter. and the consequences of her in the wtiild. Murjart't with tJw Puurlt-mouth, What i»rinciiKilly raised this dance of the devils round |)oor LUihviij, 1 i>erceive, was a marriage he had nuule, three years iK'fore Wahh'mar emerged ; of which, were it only for the sake of the liride's name, some mention is jH*rmissible. Margaret of the Tyrol, commtuily called, by contemjioraries and pos- terity, Moultas'lw (Mouthpoke, rtx.'ket-mouth), she was the bride: — marriage done at Innspruck, 1341*, under furtherance of father Ludwig the Kaiser: — such a mouth as we can fancy, antl a cluinicter corresjKtnding to it. This, which seemed to the two Ludwigs a very conquest of the golden-fleece under conditions, proved the beginning of their worst days to both of them. Not a lovely bride at all, this Maultasche ; who is verging now towards midille life withal, and has had enough to cross her in the world. W:is already married thirteen years ago ; not wisely nor by any means too well. A terrible dragon of a woman. Hiis been in nameless domestic quarrels ; in wars and sieges with rebellious vassals ; claps you an iron cap on her head, and takes the field when need is : furious she-bear of the Tyrol. But she has immense possessions, if wanting in female charms. She came by mothers from that Duke of l;U r.KANDllNI'.rKC AND llnllKNZnLLKKNS. It-.-K II. Meran wlK)m we saw get his death (for cause), in the Plassen- hiirg a huiulred years ago.' liur ancestor waa Hushaiul to iiu Aunt of that homicideil Duke : frtiUi him, iirineipally from him, she inherits tlie 'I'yrol, C;uinthi;i, Styria; is herself an only eliiltl, the huit of a line: hugest Heirt-ss now going. So that, in t»pite of the mouth ami humor, she has not wanted for wooers, — esiK'cially i»rudent Fathers wooing her for their sons. In her Father's lifetime, J«)liann King of liohemia, always awake to such symptoms of things, and having very j)eculiar interests in this ca.se, courted and got her for his C'rown- Prince (;us we just saw), a youth of great outlook.s. outlooks towards Kaisership itself j»erhai>s ; to whom she was weddvd, thirteen years ago, and duly brought the Tyrol for IleriUigi*: but with the worst results. Heritage, namely, could not be had without strife with Austria, which likewise had claims. Far worse, the marriage itself went awry: Johann's Crown- rrinee was "a softnatured llerr," say the liixjks : why bring your big she-bear into a jwor deer's den? Enough, the mar- ri.iiri- came to nothing, except to huge brawlings far enoui^h away from us : and Marg-.iret Pouch-mouth has now divorced her Uolu-mian Crown-l'rince as a Nullity; and again wed.s, on similar terms, Kaiser Ludwig's son, our iJrantlcnburg Kur- fiirst, — who hojies jxjssibly that A« now may succeed as Kaiser, on the strength of his Father and of the Tyrol. Which turned out far otlurwise. The marriage was done in the Church of Innsjiruck, loth February, Ki42 (for we love to be particular), '* Kaiser Lud- wig," hapi>y man, "and many Princes of the Empire, looking on ; " little thinking what a coil it would prove. *' At the high altar she strijit off her veil,'' s3iubol of wifehood or widow- hood," and i)ut on a jungfernkram (maiden's-garland)," sym- bolically testifying how hapi)y Ludwig junior still was. They had a son by and by ; but their course otherwise, and indeed this-wise too, was much checkered. King Johann, seeing the Tyrol gone in this manner, gloomed terribly upon his Crown-Prince ; flung him aside as a Nullity, i Antea, p. 102. Chap. XI. BAVARIAN KTRFURSTS IX RRAXDEXDrRG. 135 *' Go to Moravia, out of siglit, on an apanage, you ; l^e Crown- Prince no longer!" — And took to fighting Kaiser Ludwig ; colleagued diligently with the hostile Pope, with the King .of Fnuiee; intrigued and colleagued far and wide; swearing by every method everlasting enmity to Kaiser Ludwig; and set up his son Karl as Ptalfen-Kaiser. Nay, i)erhai)S he was at the bottom of J'osf-f>fflt Waldemar too. In brief, he raised, he mainly, this devils'-thmee, in whieli, Kaiser Ludwig having died, j)Oor Kurfiirst Ludwig, with Maultjusche hanging on him, is sometimes near his wits' end. .lohann's poor L'rown-Prinee, finding matters take this turn, retired into Md/iren (Moravia) Jis bidden ; '• Margrave of Miili- ren;" and pea<'eably luijusted himself to his character of Nul- lity and to the loss of Maultasche; — chose, for the rest, a new I'rincess in wedlock, with more moderate dimensions of mouth ; and did pnuluee sons and daughters on a fresh score. Pro- duced, among others, one Jobst, his successor in the apanage or Margrafdom ; who, as Jobst, or Jodocus. o/* Miihren, nuido some noise for himself in the next generation, and will turn up agiiin in reference to Pramlenburg in this History. As for Margaret Pouch-mouth, she, with her new Husband as with lier old, continued to have troubles, pretty much as the sparks fiy upwards. She had fierce siegings after this, and exjjlosive procedures, — little short of Mo!ik Schwartz, who was just inventing gunpowder at the time. We cannot hope she lived in Elysian harmony with Kurfiirst Ludwig; — the reverse, in fact ; and oftenest with the whole breadth of Ger- many between them, he in Brandenburg, she in the Tyrol. Nor did Ludwig junior ever come to be Kaiser, as his Father and she had hoped ; on the contrary. King Johann of Bohe- mia's people, — it was they that next got the Kaisership and kept it ; a new provocation to Maultasche. Ludwig and she had a son, as we said ; Prince of the Tyrol and appendages, titular ^largraf of Miihren and much else, by nature : but alas, he died about ten; a precocious boy, — fancy the wild weeping of a maternal She-bear ! And the Father had already died ;^ a malicious world whispering that perhaps she 1 In 1361, died Kurfiirst Ludwig; 1-363, the Boy ; 1366, Maultasche herself. 130 RRANnKNHrnr; and iioiiknzollkrns. bo.>k n. 1.J47. poisoned tliem both. The j^roud woman, now old too, pursed her big coarse lips together at such rumor, :md her big coarst^ soul, — in a gloomy scorn appealing Ix'yond the world; in a sorrow tliat the world knew not of. She solemnly settled lu'r Tyriil and ai)p<Mida]L,'cs uj)on the Austrian Anhilukcs, who were childrrn of her Motlu-r's Sister; whom she even inst-alled into the actual governnu'nt, to make matt^'rs surer. This done, she retired to Vienna, on a pension from them, then> to meditate and pray a little, l)efore Death came; a« it did now in a short year or two. Tyrol ;uid the apjM'ndages continue with Austria from that hour to this, Margtiret's little lM)y having died. Marg-aret of the roueh-mouth, rugged dragoon-major of a woman, with (X'casional steel c^ij) on her hea<l, and capable of swearing terribly in Flanders or elsewhere, remains in some mexsure memoralile to me. Contpared with r(imj)adour. Duch- ess of Cleveland, of Kendal and other high-rouged unlortunate females, whom it is not jirojH'r to sj)eak of without necessity, though it is often done. — Maultiische rises to the rank of His- torical. She brought the Tyrol and ai»jM'ndages permanently to Austria; was near h*a«ling Hrandeuburg to annihihition, raising such a gcblin-ilance nnuul Ludwig and it, yet did abstrusely lead Hnmdenbtirg t*>wards a far other goal, which likewise ha* jiruved permanent for it. CHAl'TKK \1I. BRANDENBURG IN KAISER KARL's TIMP:; END OF THE BAVARIA.N KURFURSTS. Kaiser Li-dwig died in l.'UT, while the False Waldemar was still busy. We saw Karl IV., Johann of Bohemia's second son, come to the Kaisership thereupon, Johann's eldest Nul- lity being omitted. This Fourth Karl, — other three Karls are of the Charlemagne set, Karl the Bald, the Fat, and such like, and lie under our horizon, while Chorh's Fifth is of a still other set, and known to everylx)dy, — this Karl IV. is Cum- XII HUAXDENIUTiG IN KAISER KARL'S TIME. 137 1J47 the Kaiser who discovered the Well of Karldiml (Bath of Kai-1), known to Tourists of this day ; and made the Golden Hull, which I forbid all Englishmen to take for an agricul- tural Prize Animal, the thing being far other, as is known to several. Tliore is little farther to Ik* said of Karl in llcii-hs-llistory. An unt'SttHMned creature ; who strove to make his time peace- abhv in this world, by giving from the Holy Roman Empire with both hands to every bull-b-ggar, or reiuly-payer who aj)- plied. Sad sign what the Roman Empire had come and was coming to. The Kai.ser*8 shichl, set up aloft in the Roncalic riain in Rarbarossa's time, intimated, ami in earnest too, '* Mo, every one that has suffered wrong!" — intimates now, "Ho, every one that can bully me, or ha.s money in his jujcket ! " Unadmiring jtosterity has confirmed the nickname of this Karl IV.; and calls him J'fttjf'rn-Ktrisi'r. He kept uuiinly at I'rag, ready for recei}it of cash, and holding well out of harm's way. In younger years he hatl been much about the French Court ; in Italy he had suffered troubles, almost assassinations; much blown to and fro, poor light wretch, on the chaotic winds of his Time, — steering towards no star. Johann, King of Bohemia, did not live to see Karl an ac- knowledged Kaiser. Old Johann, blind for some time back, had perished two years l)efore that event; — bequeathing a Heraldic Symbol to the World's History and to England's, if nothing more. Poor man, he had crusaded in Preussen in a brilliant manner, being fond of fighting. He wrung Silesia, gradually by purchase and entreaty {pretio ac prec^), from the Polish King ; ' joined it firmly to Bohemia and Germany, — unconsciously waiting for what higher destinies Silesia might have. For Maultasche and the Tyrol he brought sad woes on Brandenburg ; and yet was unconsciously leading Branden- burg, by abstruse courses, whither it had to go. A restless, ostentatious, far-grasping, strong-handed man ; who kept the world in a stir wherever he was. All which has proved voice- less in the World's memory ; while the casual Shadow of a » 1327-1341 (K.Jhler, p. 302). 138 BRANDENBURG AND IIOHENZOLLERNS. Book II. ia4"j. Feather he once wore has proved vocal there. World's niera- ory is very whim.sical now and then. ]'>eing niucli implicated with the King of Franco, who with the Pope was his chief st;iy in tliese final Anli-Ludwig opera- tions, Jdhann — in l.'^(), Pfaffcn-Kaiser Karl just set on foot — had h'd his cliivalry into France, to help agiiinst the En;,'lish Edwards, who were then very intrusive tlu-re. Johann was blind, but he ha<l good ideiis in war. At the Battle of Crecy, lilth August, I'Md, he atlvised wo know not what ; but he ac- tually fought, though stone-blind. '"Tied his briille to that of the Knight next him; and charged in," — like an old blind war-horse kindling ma<lly at the sound of the trumptt; — and was there, by some English lance or yew, hiid kiw. They found him on that tirld of carnage (fiehl of honor, too, in a sort); his old blind face looking, very blindly, to the stars: on his shield was blazoned a riunie of three ostrich-feathers with " /r/i (lien (I serve)" written under: — with which em- bU-m every English reader is fauiiliar ever since ! This Editor himself, in very tender years, noticed it on the Britannic Maj- esty's war-<lrums ; and had to inquire of children of a larger growth what the meaning might Ik?. That is all T had to say of King Johann and his ^^ Lh do'ii.^^ Of the Luxemburg Kaisers (four in number, two sons of Karl still to come) ; who, except him of the sacramental wine, with ** Irh (lien^* for son, are good for little ; and deserve no memory from mankind except as they may stick, not easily extricable, to the history of nobler men: — of them also I could wish to be silent, but must not. Must at least explain how they came in, as ** Luxemburg Kurfiirsts " in Branden- burg ; and how they went out, leaving Brandenburg not anni- hilated, but very near it. IJnd of Jiesuscitah'd Waldemar ; K\trfii.rst Lmhcifj sclh out. Imaginary Waldemar being still busy in Brandenburg, it was natural for Kaiser Karl to find him genuine, and keep up that goblin-tlance round poor Kurfiirst Ludwig, the late Kaiser's son, by no means a lover of Karl's. Considerable C.iAi. Xli. EM) OF TllH HAVAKIAN KL'KFiJKSTS. 139 ia4<j. support was managed to be raised for Waldeiuar. Kaiser Karl regularly iufeort'ed liiiu as real Kurfiirst, so far as jjarcli- ment could do it ; and in case of his decease, says Karl's diploma farther, the Princes of Anhalt shall succeed, — l.ud- wig in any case is to be zero hencefurtli. War followed, or what they called war : much confused invading, bickering and throttling, for two years to come. "]\Iostof the Towns de- clared for Waldemar, and their old Anhalt line of Margraves : " Lu^lwig and tlie r»avarian sort are clearly not popular here. Ludwig held out strenuously, however; would not be beaten. He had the King of Denmark for Urother-in-law ; had connec- tions in the Keich : perhaps still better he had the Re'ulis- Ins'tijnia, lately his Father's, still in haml. He stood obstinate siege from the Kaiser's jMiopIe and the Anhalters ; shouted-in Denmark to lielp ; started an Anti-Kaiser, as we said, — tem- ])orary Anti-Kaiser Giinther of Scliwartzburg, whom the reader can forget a second time: — in brief, Ludwig contrived to bring Kaiser Karl, and Imaginary Waldemar with his An- halters, to a (piietus and negotiation, and to get iJramlenburg cleared of them. Year l^Ui), they went their ways ; and that devils'-diuice, which liad raged five years and more round Lud- wig, was fairly got laid or lulled again. Imaginary Waldemar, after some farther ineffectual wrig- glings, retired altogether into private life, at the Court of Dessau ; and happily died before long. Died at the Court of Dessau; the Anhalt Cousins treating him to the last as Head liepresentative of Albert the Bear, and real Prince Waldemar ; for which they had their reasons. Portraits of this False AValdemar still turn up in the German Print-shops ; ^ and repre- sent a very absurd fellow, much muffled in drapery, mouth jiar- tially open, eyes wholly and widely so, — never yet recovered from his astonishment at himself and things in general ! How it fared with poor Brandenburg, in these chaotic throttlings and vicissitudes, under the Bavarian Kurfursts, we can too well imagine ; and that is little to what lies ahead for it. However, in that same year, 1349, temporary quietus having 1 In Kloss ( Vnterldndischp Gemaldp, ii. 29). a sorry Compilation, above re- ferred to, without ^■^ue except fur the old Excerpts, &c., there is a Copy of it 140 IJKANDENIM'IM AND IIOIIEXZULLKHNS. H v U. 1,01. come, Kurfiirst Ludwig, weury of the matter, g:ive it over to liis lirothtT : "Have not 1 an upuk'nt MaulUusche, CJorgon- "Wife, susceptible to kindness, in the Tyrol; have not I in the Keich elsewhere resources, appliances?" thought Kurfiirst Ludwig. And g-ave the thing over to his next Ihother. Brother whose name also is Lmltrly {i\& their Fathers alst) hud been, three Ludwigs at once, fur our dear Germans shine in luunenclature) : "Ludwig (he liuman'^ this new one; — the elder l!rother, our a«(piaintance, being Ludwig simi»ly, distin- guishable too as Kurftii'st Ludwig, or even as Ludwig Senior at this stage of the affair. Kurfiirst Ludwig, therefore, Vtar VM\^, WiUihes his hands of lirandenburg while the cpiietus hiiits ; retaining only the Kleetorship ami Title ; and goes his ways, resolving to tiike his e;ise in Havaria and the Tyrol tliinceforth. How it fared with him there, with his lt)ving CJorgon and him, we will not ask farther. They ha<l always separate houses to tly to, in e;uJe of extremity ! They htdd out, better or worse, twelve ye:us more; and Ludwig left his little iJoy still surviving him, in liiJil. Sicundy and then Third <ind hi»t^ of the Bavarian Kurfiintts til lirandrnftun/. In lirandenburg, the new M;irkgiaf Ludwig, who we say is called " the. Iiuittun " {Ludwiyder liiiiner, having Ix^en in Home) to distinguish him, continued warring with the Anarehies, fifteen years in a rather tough manner, without much victory on either side ; — made his jKiace with Kaiser Karl however, delivering up the Ueichs-Insitjnia ; and tried to put down the domestic llobbers, who had got on foot, " many of them per- sons of quidity ; ''* till he also died, ehildless, a.d. 13Go ; hav- ing been Kurfiirst too, since his Brother's death, for some four years. Whereupon Brandenburg, Electorship and all Titles with it, came to Otto, third son of Kaiser Ludwig, who is happily the last of these Bavarian Electors. They were an unlucky set of Sovereigns, not hitherto without desert ; and the unlucky 1 Miiiiaelis, i. 282. CiiAi-. XII!. KUUFCKSTS in lUiANDENBUKG. 141 1373. Country suffered iiiucli under them. By fur the unluckicst, and by I'lir the worst, wiis this Utto ; a dissolute, drinking, ♦•ntirely worthless Herr ; under whom, lor eight years, con- iusion went worse coniounded; as ii" plain Chaos were coming ; and Brandenburg and Utto grew tired of each other to the last degree. In which state of matters, a.d. 1373, Kaiser Karl offered Otto a trilie of reaily money to take himself away. Utto ac- ee^|ted griicdily ; sold his Electorate and big ^Luk of Branden- ourg to Kaiser JCarl for an old song, — lll>0,0(X) thalers (alnjut ij30,(XK), aJid only half of it ever paidj ; * — withdrew to his SSchloss of Wolfstein in Bavaria; and there, on the strength of that or other sums, '• rolled deep a:i possible iu every sort of debaueht-ry." And so iu few years puddled himself to <leath ; luully ending the l>avarian set of Kurfiirsts. They had lasted lifty years; with endless trouble to the Country and to themselves; and with such mutual prolit us we have seen. CHAPTER XIII. LUXEMBURG KUUFURSTS IN BR^VNDENBURG. Ik Brandenburg suffered much under the Bavarian Kur- fiirsts for Fifty years, it was worse, and approaehed to the state of worst, under the Luxemburgers, who lasted for some Forty more. Ninety years of anarchy in all ; which at length brt>ught it to great need of help from the Fates ! — Karl IV. made his eldest Boy Wenzel, still only about twelve, Elector of Brandenburg ; '^ Wenzel shall be Kaiser and King of Bohemiiu one day, thinks Karl; — which actu- ally came to pass, and little to Wenzel's profit, by and by. In the mean while Karl accompanied him to Brandenburg ; which country Karl liked much at the money, and indeed ever after, in his old days, he seemed rather to busy himself with it. He assembled some kind of Stdnde (States) twice over ; • Mkliaelis, i. 2S3. 2 1373 (bom 1361). 142 imANDKNBUUG AND IlOlIEXZULLEIlNS. B^'uk II. got the Country "incorporated Avitli l'n)hemia " by them, and made tight and handy so far. Brandenburg shall rest from its woes, and be a silent portion of liohemia hence- forth, thinks Karl, — if the Heavens so please. Karl, a futile Kaiser, woidil fain have done something to " encourage trade " iu llrandcnburg; though one si'cs not what it was he did, if anything. He built the Schlo.ss of Tangermiiude, and ofteu- est lived tljen; in time coming; a quieter pluie than even Prag for him. In short, he appears to have fancied his cheap Purchase, and to liave cheered his jMSor old futile life with it, ;vs with one thing that had Ix'en successful. Poor old creature: he had Ix'en a Kaiser on false terms, " llo cvi ly one that dare bully me, or that h;\s money in his pocket ; " — a Kaiser that could not but be futile ! In five years' time he died ; * and iloubtless was regrctt4'd in Krandi'uburg and even in the Kiich, in comparison with what c;inie next. In lirandcidnirg he left, instead of one indifferent or even bad governor steadily tied to the place and in earnest to nuike the best of it, a fluctuating series of governors holding loose, and not in earnest ; wiiich w;us infinitely worse. These did not try to govern it; sent it to the l*awnbroker, to a fluc- tuating series of I'awnbrokers ; under whom, for the next fivi-and-thirty years, Brandenburg Utsted all the fruits of Non-government, that is to say, Anarchy or Government by the Pawnbroker; and sank f;uitcr and f;uiter, towiirds anni- hilation as it seemed. That was its fate under the Luxem- burg Kurfiirsts, who made even the Bavarian and all others be regretted. o One thing Kaiser Karl did, which ultimately proved the saving of Brandenburg : made friendship with the Huhenzol- lern lUirggravcs. These, Johann II., temporary " Stutthnlter'^ dohann, and his Brother, who were Co-regents in the Family Domain, when Karl first made appearance, — had stood true to Kaiser Ludwig and his Son, so long as that play lasted at all ; nay one of these Burggraves was talked of as Kaiser ^ King of Buhemia, 1346, ou his Father's death ; Kaiser (acknowledged on Ludwig the Baier's death), 1347 ; died, 1378, age G2. Chap. XIII. KUKFUKSTS IN BRANDENBURG. 143 after Luclwig's death, but had the wisdom not to try. Kaiser Ludwig being dead, they still would not recognize the Ffaffen- Kaiser Karl, but held gloomily out. So that Karl had to march in force into the Xiiruberg country, and by great promises, by considerable gifts, and the '' example of the other Princes of the Empire," ^ brought them over to do homage. Alter which, their progress, and that of their successor (Jyhanu's son, Friedrich V.), in the grace of Karl, was some- thing extraordinary. Karl gave his Daughter to this Fried- rioh V.'s eldest Son ; ap})ointed a Daughter of Friedrich's for his own Second Prince, the famed Sigismund, famed that is to be, — whicli latter match did not take effect, owing to changed outlooks after Karl's death. Nay there is a Deed still extant about marrying children not yet born : Karl to jiro- duce a Princess within live years, and lUirggraf Friedrich V. a Prince, for that purpose ! ^ But the Burggraf never had another Prince ; though Karl produced the due Princess, and was ready, for his share. Unless indeed this strange eager- looking Document, not dated in the old Books, may itself re- late to the above wedding which did come to pass? — Years beiore that, Karl had made his much-esteemed Burggraf Friedrich V. *' Captain-General of the Reich ; " " Imperial Vicar " {Substitute, if need were), and much besides ; nay had given him the Landgraviate of Elsass (Alsace), — so far as lay with him to give, — of which valuable country this Fried- rich had actual ix)Ssession so long as the Kaiser lived. " Best of men," thought the poor light Kaiser ; " never saw such a man ! " Which proved a salutary thought, after all. The man had a little Boy Fritz (not the betrothed to Karl's Princess), still chasing butterflies at Culmbach, when Karl died. In this Boy lie new destinies for Brandenburg : towards him, and not towrj-ds annihilation, are Karl and the Luxemburg Kurfiirsts and Pawnbrokers unconsciously guiding it. 1 " Hallow-eve, 1347, on the Field of Niimberg," Agreement was come to (Rentsch, p. 326). 2 Rentsch, p. 336. 144 lUiAXDENBURG AND IIOIIENZOLLEKNS. Bo..k ri. 1J78. CllAl'TEll XIV. BUBGGKAF KKIEDRICII VI. Karl left tliree young Sons, "Wenzel, Sigisniund, Johann ; and also a certain Nephew much older ; all of \vhoiu now more or less concern us in this unfortunate History. Wenzel the eldest Son, heritable Kurfurst of Jirandenhurg as well as King of Bohemia, wjis a,s yet only saiveuteen, who nevertheless got to l)0 Kaiser,* — and went witUl}- ;ustray, i>oor soul. The Nephew was no other than Margrave Jobst of Moravia (son of Maultasche's late Nullity there), now in the vigor of his years and a stirring man : to him, for a time, the chief management in Brandenburg fell, in these circumstances. AV'enzel, still a minor, and already Kaiser and King of Bohe- mia, gave up Brandenburg to his two young»'r lirotlu-rs, most of it to Sigismund, with a cutting for Johann, to help their apanages; and a})plied his own powers to govern the Holy Roman Empire, at that early stage of life. To govern the Holy Koman Empire, jioor soul ; — or rather "to drink beer, and dance with the girls ; " in which, if defec- tive in other things, Wenzel had an eminent talent. He was one of the worst Kaisers, and the least victorious on record. He would attend to nothing in the Reich ; " the Prag white beer, and girls '' of various complexion, l)eing much preferable, as he was heard to say. He had to tiing his poor Queen's Confessor into the River Moldau, — Johann of Nepomuk, Saint so called, if he is not a fable altogether ; whose Statue stands on Bridges ever since, in those parts. Wenzel's Bohe- mians revolted against him ; put him in jail ; and he broke prison, a boatman's daughter helping him out, with adven- tures. His Germans were disgusted with him ; deposed him ' 1378, on his Father's death. « niAi. XIV. SIGISMUND AND Till: UURGGRAVES. 14.') IMH. from the Kaisersliip ; ' chose Rupert of the Pfalz ; and then after Rupert's death,* chose Weiizel's own Brother Sigisnunid, iu his stead, — left Weuzel to jumble about in liis native l>o- ln'iiiian element, as King there, for nineteen years longer, still breaking jjots to a ruinous extent. lie ended, by apo]jlexy, or sudden spasm of the heart ; terri- ble Zisca, as it were, killing him at second-hand. For Zisea, stout and furious, blind of one eye and at last of both, a kind of hunuin rhinoceros driven mad, had risen out of the ashes of nulrdered Huss, and other bad l*apistic doings, in the interim ; and was tearing up the world at a huge rate. Rhinoceros Zisca was on the Weissenlx-rg, or a still nearer Hill of Prag since called ZUni-Bcnj (Zisea Hill) : and none durst whisjM^r of it to the King. A servant waiting at ilinner inadvertently let sli[) the word : — " Zisca there ? Deny it, slave I " cried Wen- zel frantic. Slave durst not deny. Wenzel drew his sword to run at him, but fell down dead : that was the last pot broken by Wenzel. The hapless royal ex-imperial Phantasm self-broken in this manner.^ Poor soul, he came to the Kaiser- ship too early ; was a thin violent creature, sensible to the charms and horrors of created objects ; and had terrible rhi- noceros Ziscas and unruly horned-eattle to drive, lie was one of the worst Kaisei-s ever known, — could have done Opera- singing much better ; — and a sad sight to Bohemia. Let us leave him there : he was never actual Elector of Brandenburg, having given it up in time ; never did any ill to that poor Country. Sigismund is Kurfiirst of Brandenburg^ hut is King of Hungary also. The real Kurfiirst of Branxlenburg all this while was Sigis- mund Wenzel's next Brother, under tutelage of Cousin Jobst or otherwise ; — real and yet imaginary, for he never himself governed, but always had Jobst of Miihren or some other iu his place there. Sigismund, as above said, was to have mar- 1 25th May, 1400 (Kohler, p. 331). ^ 1410 (ib. p. 336). 8 30th July, 1419 (Ilorraayr, vii. 119). • VOL. V. 10 146 BRANDENBURG AND IIUlIENZuLLERNS. li<'"K I!. i;j78. ried a Daughter of lUirggraf Friedrich V. ; and he was him- self, as was the young lady, well inclined to this arrangement. But the old people being deiul, and some offer of a King's Daughter turning up for Sigismund, Sigismuml broke oft' ; and took the King's Daughter, King of Hungary's, — not without regret then and afterwards, as is believed. At any rate, the Hungarian charmer proved a wife of small merit, and a Hun- garian successor she had was a wife of light conduct even; Hungarian charmers, and Hungarian affairs, were much other tlian a comfort to Sigismund. As for the disajtpointed Princess, Burggraf Friedrich's Daughter, she said notliing that we hear ; silently became a Kun, an Abbess : and tlirough a long life looked out, with her thoughts to herself, upon the loud whirlwind of t]ungs, where Sigismund (oftenest like an imponderous rag of conspicuous color) was riding and tossing. Her two Brothers also, joint Burggraves after their Father's death, seemed to have recon- ciled themselves without difticulty. The elder of them was already Sigismund's Brother-in-law ; married to Sigismund's and Wenzel's sister, — by such predestination as we saw. B>urggraf Johann 111. was the name of this one: a stout lighter and manager for many years; much liked, and looked to, by Sigismund. As indeed were both the Brothers, for that matter ; always, together or in succession, a kind of right- hand to Sigismund. Friedrich the younger Burggraf, and ulti- mately the survivor and inheritor (Johann having left no sons), is the famed Burggraf Friedrich VI., the last and notablest of all the Burggraves. A man of distinguished importance, extrinsic and intrinsic ; chief or among the very chief of Ger- man public men in his time; — and memorable to Posterity, and to this History, on still other grounds ! But let us not anticipate. Sigismund, if apanaged with Brandenburg alone, and wedded to his first love, not a King's Daughter, might have done tolerably well there ; — better than Wenzel, with the Empire and Bohemia, did. But delusive Fortune threw her golden apple at Sigismund too ; and he, in the wide high world, had to play strange pranks. His Father-in law died in CiiAi-. XIV. BKANDENBUKG IN PAWN. 147 1;J87. Hungary, Sigismund's first wile his only child. Father-in- law bequeathed Hungary to Sigismund : ^ who plunged into a strange sea thereby; got troubles without number, beatings not a few, — and had even to take boat, and sail for his life down to Constantinople, at one time. In which sad adventure Burggraf Johann escorted him, and as it were tore him out by the hair of the head. These troubles and adventures lasted many years ; in the course of which, Sigismund, trying all manner of friends and expedients, found in the Burggraves of Nurnberg, Johann and Friedrich, with their talents, pos- sessions and resources, the main or almost only sure support he got. No end of troubles to Sigismund, and to Brandenburg through him, from this sublime Hungarian legacy ! Like a remote fabulous golden-fleece, which you have to go and con- quer first, and which is worth little when contpiered. Before ever setting out (a.d. 1387), Sigismund saw too clearly he would have cash to raise : an operation he had never done with, all his life afterwards. He pawned Brandenburg to Cousin Jobst of Miihren ; got " 20,000 Bohemian gulden," — I guess, a most slender sum, if Dryasdust would but interpret it. This was the beginning of Pawnings to Brandenburg ; of which when will the end be ? Jobst thereby came into Braudenbui-g on his own right for the time, not as Tutor or Guardian, which he had hitherto been. Into Brandenburg ; and there was no chance of repayment to get him out again. Cousin Jobst has Brandenburg in Pawn. Jobst tried at first to do some governing; but finding all very anarchic, grew unhopeful ; took to making matters easy for himself. Took, in fact, to turning a penny on his pawn- ticket; alienating crown domains, winking hard at robber- barons, and the like ; — and after a few years, went home to Moravia, leaving Brandenburg to shift for itself, under a Statthalter {Viceregent, more like a hungry land-steward), whom nobody took the trouble of respecting. Eobber-castles 1 1387 (Sigismund's age then twenty). 148 IJKANDENBUKG ANIJ lloIIENZuLLEKNS. U^h.k li. HuurisluHl ; all else decayed. No highway not uiisale ; many a Tuiijiu with sixteen quarters, and styling liimself /:,'(//(• Ilcrr (noble Cientlenian), took to " living lioni the saddle : " — what are Hamburg i>etllevs lujuJe for but to be robbed ? The Towns suh'ered much ; any trade they might have had, going to wreck in this manner. Not to speak of private feuds, which abounded ad libitum. Neighlx^ring potentates, Archbishop of Magdeburg ami others, struck in also at di.sere- tion, as they had gradually got accustomed to do, and snajiped away (nhzwuvkttn) some convenient bit of territory, or, more legitimately, they came across to coerce, at their own hand, this or the other Edle Ilerr of tlie Turpi n sort, whom there was uo other way of getting at, when lie carried matters quite too high. '' Droves of six hundred swine," — I have seen (by reading in those old liooks) certain noble Gentlemen, " of Putlitz," I think, driving them openly, cajjtured by the stronger hand ; and have heard the short querulous squeak of the bristly creatures : " What is the use of Iwing a })ig at all, if 1 am to be stolen in this way, and surreptitiously maxle into ham ? " Pigs do continue to be bred in Brandenburg : but it is under such discouragements. Agriculture, trade, well-being and well-doing of any kind, it is not encourage- ment they are meeting here. Probably few countries, not even Ireland, have a worse outlook, unless help come.* Jobst came Uiek in loi)S, after eight years' absence ; but ntj help came with Jobst. The Seumurk part of Brandenburg, which was Brother Johann's portion, had fallen home to Sigismund, Brother Johann having died : but Sigismund, far fi'om redeeming old pawn-tickets with the Newmark, pawned the Newmark too, — the second Pawnage of Brandenburg. Pawned the Newmark to the Teutsch Ritters "for C3,<)U() Hungarian gold gulden '* (I think, al)Out £30,000) : and gave no part of it to Jobst ; had not nearly enough for himself and his Hungarian occasions. Seeing which, and hearing such squeak of pigs surrep- titiously driven, with little but discordant sights and sounds everywhere, Jobst became disgusted with the matter ; aud 1 Pauli, i. 541-612. Michaeli.% i 2S3-285. Chap. XIV. KAISER liUPEKT AND OUU BUKGGHAF. 149 1400. resolved to wash his hands of it, at least to have his money out of it again. Having sold what of the Domains he eouhl to persons of quality, at an uncommonly easy rate, and so pocketed what ready cash there was among them, he made over his pawn-ticket, or pro})erly he himself repawned Bran- denburg to the Saxon l*otentate, a speculative moneyed man, Markgraf of Meissen, '' Wilhelm the Rich " so called. Pawned it to Wilhelm the Kich, — sum nut named ; and went home to Moravia, there to wait events. This is the thfrd Brandenburg pawning : let us hope there may be a fourth and last. Brandenhurj in the hands of the Pawnbrokers; Rupert of the Pfalz its Kaiser. And so we have now reached that point in lirandenburg History when, if some help do not come, Brandenburg will not long be a country, but will either get dissipated in pieces and stuck to the edge of others where some government is, or else go waste again and fall to the bisons and wild bears. Who now is Kurfiirst of Brandenburg, might be a question. " I ?iHquestionably ! '' Sigismund would answer, with astonish- ment. *• Soft, your Hungarian Majesty," thinks Jobst : '' till my cash is paid, may it not probably be another ? " This question has its interest: the Electors just now (a.d. 1400) are about deposing Wenzel ; must choose some better Kaiser. If they wanted another scion of the House of Luxemburg ; a mature old gentleman of sixty ; full of plans, plausibilities, pretensions, — Jobst is their man. Jobst and Sigismund were of one mind as to Wenzel's going ; at least Sigismund voted clearly so, and Jobst said nothing counter : but the Kurfiirsts did not think of Jobst for successor. After some stumbling, they fixed upon Rupert Kur-Pfalz (Elector Palatine, Ruprecht von der Pfalz) as Kaiser. Rupert of the Pfalz proved a highly respectable Kaiser ; lasted for ten years (1400-1410), with honor to himself and the Reich. A strong heart, strong head, but short of means. He chastised petty mutiny with vigor ; could not bring down the Milanese Visconti, who had perched themselves so high on loO lUiANDENlJLKG AND IlUllENZuLLLUNS. Cuuk II. 1410. money paid to "Weuzel ; could not hoal the schism of the Church (Double or Triple Pope, Kome-Avignon affair), or awaken the Keich to a sense of its old dignity and present loose condition. In the late loose times, ivs Antiquaries re- mark,* most Members of the Empire, Petty Princes even and Imperial Towns, hatl been struggling to set up for themselves ; and were now concerned chiefly to become Sovereign in tliiir own Territories. And Schilter informs us, it was about this period that most of them attained such rather unblessed con- summation ; Ku])ert of himself not able to help it, with all his willingness. The l*eoi>le called him *' Rupert Klemm (Rupert Smith' s-vire)^^ from his resolute ways; which nickname — given him not in hatred, but partly in satirical good-will — is itself a kind of history. From Historians of tlie lieich he deserves honorable regictful mention. He had for Empress a Sister of liurggraf Friedrich's; which high lady, unknown to us otherwise, except by her Tomb at Heidelberg, we rememl)er for her Brother's sake. Kaiser Rupert — great-grandson of that Kur-Pfalz who was Kaiser Ludwig's elder brother — is the culminating ])oint of the Electors I'alatine ; the Highest that Heidelberg producecL Ancestor of those famed Protestant '' Palatines ; " of all the Palatines or Pfahes that reign in these late centuries. Ances- tor of the present Pavarian Majesty ; Kaiser Ludwig's race having died out. Ancestor of the unfortunate If'interkotilf/, Friedrich King of Bohemia, who is too well known in English History; — ancestor also of Charles XII. of Sweden, a highly creditable fact of the kiml to him. Fact indisputable : A cadet of Pfalz-Zweibriick {Deux-Ponts, as the French call it), direct from Rupert, went to serve in Sweden in his soldier business; distinguished himself in soldiering; — had a Sister of the great Gustav Adolf to wife ; and from her a renowned Son, Karl Gustav (Christina's Cousin), who succeeded as King ; who again had a Grandson made in his own likeness, only still more of iron in his composition. — Eiiough now of Rupert Smitli's-vice ; who died in 1410, and left the Reich again vacant. 1 Kuhlcr, p. 334 ; who quotes Schilter. (HAi. XIV. KAISEU SllilSMUND AND OCU In KGGKAF. 151 1411. Rupert's funeral is hardly done, when, over in Preussen, far off in the Memel region, place called Tannenberg, -where there is still " a churchyard to be seen," if little more, the Teutsch Jlitters had, unexpectedly, a terrible Defeat : consummation of their Polish Miscellaneous quarrels of long standing ; and the end of their high courses in this world. A ruined Teutsch Kitterdom, as good as ruined, ever henceforth. Kaiser Eupert died 18th May ; and on the 15th July, within two months, was foii^ht that dreadful '' Battle of Tannenberg," — Poland and I'olish King, with miscellany of savage Tartars and revolted I'russians, versus Teutsch Kitterdom ; all in a very high mood of mutual rage ; the very elements, " wild thunder, tempest and rainnleluges," ])laving chorus to them on the occasion.^ Kitterdom fought lion-like, but with insullicient strategic and other wisilom ; and w;is driven nearly distracted to see its pride trijjped into the ditch by such a set. Vacant Keich could not in the least attend to it ; uor can we farther at present. Si(/ismund, with a struijylc, becomes Kaiser. Jobst and Sigismund were competitors for the Kaisership ; Wenzel, too, striking in with claims for reinstatement : the House of Luxemburg divided against itself. "Wenzel, finding reinstatement not to be thought of, threw his weight, such as it was, into the scale of Cousin Jobst ; remembering angrily how Brother Sigismund voted in the Deposition case, ten years ago. The contest was vehement, and like to be lengthy. Jobst, though he had made over his pawn-ticket, claimed to be Elector of Brandenburg ; and voted for Himself. The like, with still more emphasis, did Sigismund, or Burggraf Fried- rich acting for him : " Sigismund, sm-e, is Kur-Brandenburg though under pawn !" argued Friedrich, — and, I almost guess, though that is not said, produced from his own purse, at some stage of the business, the actual money for Jobst, to close his Brandenburg pretension. Both were elected (majority contested in this manner) ; and old Jobst, then above seventy, was like to have given much 1 Voigt, vii. 82. Buschinjs:, Erdbeschreibung (Hambur^r, 1770)^ ii. 1038. 1;V2 lUiANDENBUKi; AND ilolIKNZULLEKNS. IJ.».k II. 1411. trouble : but ha])i)ily in tlirec months he died ; ^ and Sigis- mund became indisi)utable. Jobst was the son of Maultasche's Nullity ; him too, in an involuntary sort, she was the cause of. In his day Jobst made much noise in the worhl, but did little or no good in it. " He was thought a great man," says one satirical old Chronicler; "and there was nothing great about him but the beard." " The cause of Sigismund's success with the Electors," says Kohlcr, " or of his having any party among them, was the faithful and unwearied diligence which liad been used for him by the above-named Burggraf Fricdrich VI. of Kiirnberg. who took extreme ])ains to forward tSigismuiul to the Empire ; pleading .that Sigismund and Wenzel would be sure to agree well henceforth, and that Sigismund, having already such extensive territories (Hungary, llrandcnbuig and 80 forth) by inheritance, would not be so exact al)out the Heirhs-ToWs and other Imi)orial Incomes. This same Fricd- rich also, when the Election fell out doubtful, was Sigismund's best sui)port in Germany, nay almost his right-hand, through whom lie did whatever was done." * Sigismund is Kaiser, then, in spite of Wenzel. King of Hungary, after unheard-of troubles and adventures, ending some years ago in a kind of i)eace and conquest, he has long been. King of Bohemia, too, he at last became ; having survived Wenzel, who was childless. Kaiser of the Holy Koman Empire, and so much else : is not Sigismund now a great man ? Truly the loom he weaves upon, in this world, is very large. But the weaver was of headlong, high-pacing, flimsy nature; and botli warp and woof were gone dreadfully entangled ! — This is the Kaiser Sigismund who held the Council of Constance ; and '' blushed visibly," when Huss, about to die, alluded to the Letter of Safe-conduct granted him, which was issuing in such fashion.' Sigismund blushed ; but could not conveniently mend the matter, — so many matters press- ing on him just now. As they perpetually did, and had done. 1 " Jodocus Darbatus," 21st July, Ull. a Kobler, p. 337. » 15th June, 1415. (11 vr. X!V. KAISER SIGISMUXD AND OUR RURGGRAF. 153 14U. An always-hoping, never-resting, unsuccessful, vain and empty Kaiser. Specious, speculative ; given to eloquence, diplomacy, and the windy instead of the solid arts; — alwaj's sliort of money for one thing. He roamed about, and talked elo- quently ; — aiming high, and generally missing: — how he went to conquer Hungary, and had to float down the Donau instead, with an attendant or two, in a most private manner, and take refuge with the Grand Turk : this we have seen, an^ this is a general emblem of him. Hungary and even the Reich have at length become his; but have brought small triumph in any kind ; and instead of ready money, debt on debt. His Majesty has no money, and his Majesty's occasions need it more and more. He is now (a.d. 1411) holding this Council of Constance, by way of healing the Church, wliich is sick of Tliree simul- taneous I'opes and of much else. He tinds the problem diffi- cult; finds he will have to run into Spain, to persuade a refractory I'ope there, if eloquence can (as it cannot) : all which requires money, money. At opening of the Council, he " officiated as deacon ; " actually did some kind of litany- ing "with a surplice over him,'' ^ though Kaiser and King of the Ivomans. But this passage of his opening speech is what I recollect best of him there : " Eight Reverend Fathers, date operam ut ilia nefamla schisma eradicetur," ex- claims Sigismund, intent on having the Bohemian Schism well dealt with, — which he reckons to be of the feminine gender. To which a Cardinal mildly remarking, " Dombie, schisma est generis neutrius (Schisma is neuter, your Majesty)," — Sigismund loftily replies, *' Ugo sum Bex Romamis et super grammaticam (I am King of the Romans, and above Gram- mar) ! " - For which reason I call him in my Note-books Sigismund sniper Crrammaticam, to distinguish him in the im- broglio of Kaisers. 'O* 1 25th December, 1414 (Kohler, p. 340). 2 Wolfgang Mentzel, Geschichte der Deutschen, i. 477. 154 BRANDENBURG AND IIOIIENZOLLERNS. h-m.k li. 8th July, 1411. Brandenhurg is pawned for the last time. How Jobst's j)a\vn-ticket was settled I never clearly heard ; but can guess it was by Burggraf Friedrich's advancing the money, in the pinch above indicated, or paying it after- wards to Jobst's heirs whoever they were. Thus much is certain : Burggraf Friedrich, these three years and more (ever since 8th July, 1411) holds Sigismund's Deed of ac- knowledgment " for 100,000 gulden lent at various times : " and has likewise got the Electorate of Brandenburg in pledge for that sum ; and does himself administer the said Elec- torate till he be paid. This is the important news ; but this is not all. The new journey into Spain requires new moneys ; this Council itself, with such a pomp as suited Sigismund, has cost him endless moneys. Brandenburg, torn to ruins in the way we saw, is a sorrowful matter ; and, except the title of it, as a feather in one's cap, is worth nothing to Sigismund. And he is still short of money ; and will forever be. Why could not he give up Brandenburg altogether ; since, instead of paying, he is still making new loans from Burggraf Fried- rich ; and the hope of ever paying were mere lunacy ! Sigis- mund revolves these sad thoughts too, amid his world-wide diplomacies, and efforts to heal the Church. '' I'ledged for 100,000 gulden," sadly ruminates Sigismund ; " and 50,000 more borrowed since, by little and little ; and more ever needed, especially for this grand Spanish journey ! " these were Sigismund's sad thoughts: — "Advance me, in a round sum, 2r)0,000 gulden more," said he to Burggraf Friedrich, " 1'50,000 more, for my manifold occasions in this time ; — that will be 400,000 in whole ; * — and take the Electorate of Brandenburg to yourself. Land, Titles, Sovereign Electorship and all, and make me rid of it ! " That was the settlement adopted, in Sigismund's apartment at Constance, on the 30th of April, 1415 ; signed, sealed and ratified, — and the money paid. A very notable event in World-History ; virtually com- pleted on the day we mention. 1 Rentsch, pp. 75, 357. Chap. XIV. BRANDENBURG PAWNED. 155 17th April, 1417. The ceremony of Investiture did not take place till two years afterwards, when the Si^anish journey had proved fruitless, when much else of fruitless had come and gone, .and Kaiser and Council were probably more at leisure for such a thing. Done at length it was by Kaiser Sigismund in utmost gala, with the Grandees of the Empire assisting, and august members of the Council and world in general looking on ; in the big Square or ^Market-place of Constance, 17th April, 1417; — is to be found described in Rentsch, from Nauclerus and the old Newsmongers of the time. Very grand indeed : much processioning on horseback, under powerful trumpet-peals and flourishes ; much stately kneeling, stately rising, stepping backwards (done well, zlcrlich, on the Kur- fiirst's part); liberal expenditure of cloth and pomp; in short, " above 100,000 people looking on from roofs and windows," ^ and Kaiser Sigismund in all his glory. Sigismund was on a high Platform in the ^rarket-i)lace, with stairs to it and from it ; the illustrious Kaiser, — rcil as a flamingo, " with scarlet mantle and crown of gold," — a treat to the eyes of simple mankind. What sum of modern money, in real purchasing power, this " 400,000 Hungarian Gold Gulden " is, I have inquired in the likely quarters without result ; and it is probable no man ex- actly knows. The latest existing representative of the ancient Gold Gulden is the Ducat, worth generally about a Half-sover- eign in English. Taking the sum at that latest rate, it amounts to £200,000 ; and the reader can use that as a note of memory for the sale-price of Brandenburg with all its lands and hon- ors, — multiplying it perhaps by four or six to bring out its effective amount in current coin. Dog-cheap, it must be owned, for size and capability ; but in the most waste condition, full of mutiny, injustice, anarchy and highway robbery ; a purchase that might have proved dear enough to another man than Burggraf Friedrich. 'oo' But so, at any rate, moribund Brandenburg has got its Ho- henzollern Kurfiirst ; and started on a new career it little ^ Pauli, Allgeineine Preussische Staats-Gesckichle, ii. 74. Rentsch, pp. 76-78. 15G BRANDENBURG AND IIOIIENZOLLERNS. Book IL 1417. dreamt of; — and we can now, right willingly, quit Sigismund and the Keichs-IIistory ; leave Kaiser Sigismund to sink or swim at his own will henceforth. His grand feat in life, the wonder of his generation, was this same Council of Constance ; which proved entirely a failure ; one of the largest wind-eggs ever dropped with noise and travail in this world. Two hundred thousand human creatures, reckoned and reckoning themselves the eli.xir of the Intellect and Dignity of Europe ; two hundred thousand, nay some, counting the lower menials and numerous unfortunate females, say four lunulred thou- sand, — were got congregated into that little Swiss Town ; and there as an Ecumenic Council, or solemnly distilled elixir of what pious Intellect and Valor could be scraped together in the world, they labored with all their select might for four years' space. That was the Council of Constance. And except this transfer of Brandenburg to Friedi-ich of Ilohenzollern, resulting from said Coimcil in the quite reverse and involun- tary way, one sees not what good result it had. They did indeed burn IIuss ; but that could not be called a beneficial incident ; that seemed to Sigismund and the Council a most small and insignificant one. And it kindled Bohemia, and kindled rhinoceros Zisca, into never-imagined flame of vengeance ; brought mere disa,ster, disgrace, and defeat on de- feat to Sigismund, and kept his hands full for the rest of his life, however small he had thought it. As for the sublime four years' deliberations and debates of this Sanhedrim of the Universe, — eloquent debates, conducted, we may say, under such extent of wig as was never seen before or since, — they have fallen wholly to the domain of Dryasdust ; and amount, for mankind at this time, to zero 2>^"'5 the Burning of Huss. On the whole, Burggraf Friedrich's Electorship, and the first Hohenzollern to Brandenburg, is the one good result. Adieu, then, to Sigismund. Let us leave him at this his culminating point, in the JMarket-place of Constance ; red as a flamingo ; doing one act of importance, though unconsciously and against his will. — I subjoin here, for refreshment of the reader's memory, a Synopsis, or bare arithmetical List, of those Intercalary Non-Hapsburg Kaisers, which, now that CiiAr. XIV. NON-HAPSBURG KAISEKS. 157 its original small duty is done, may as well be j)rinted as burnt : — The Seven Intercalary or Non-Hapshurg Kaisers. Rudulf of Hiipsburg died A.i». \'Z\)\, after a reigu of eighteen vigorous years, very useful to the Euiitiro after its Anarchic Literregnum. IIo was succeeded, not by any of liis own sons or kindred, hut hy 1°. Adolf of Nassau, 12!)l-12i)8. A stalwart but necessitous Herr; mueh^ concerned in the French projects of our Edward Longshanlvs : miles stipetuliarius Ediiardi, as the Opposition party scornfully termed him. Slain in battle by tlif Anti-Kaiser, Albrecht or Albert eldest son of Rudolf, who thereujiou bicame Kaiser. Albert I. (of Hapsburg, he), 1298-1308. Parricided, in that latter year, at the Ford of the Reuss. 2° (rt). Henry VII. of Luxemburg, 1308-1313; poisoned (1313) in sacramental wine. The first of the Luxembiirgi-rs; who are marked here, in their order, by the addition of an aliduibetic letter. 3°. Lndwig der Baier, 1314-1347 (Duke of Oher-Baiern, Upper Bavaria ; progenitor of the subsequent Kurfiirsts of Baiern, who are Coushis of the Pfalz Family). 4° {li). Karl IV., 1:347-1378, Son of Johann of Bohemia (Johann Ich-dioi), and Grands.)n of Henry VII. Nicknameil the I'faffen- Kaiser (Parsons'-Kaiser). Karlsbad; the G<dden Bull; Castle of Tangermiinde. 5° (c). Wenzel (or Wenceslaus), 1378-1400, Karl's eldest Son. Elected 1378, still very young ; deposed in 1400, Kaiser Rupert suc- ceeding. Continued King of Bohemia till his death (by Zisca at second- hand) nineteen years after. Had been Kaiser for twenty-two years. 6°. Rupert of the Pfalz, 1400-1410; called Rupert Klemm (Pincers, Smith's-vice) ; Brother-in-law to Burggraf Friedrich VI. (afterwards Kurfurst Friedrich I.), who marched with hhn to Italy and often else- whither, Burggraf Johann the elder Brother-in-law being then ofteuest in Hungary with Sigismnnd, Karl IV. 's second Son. 7° (rZ). Sigismund, 1410-1437, Wenzel's younger Brother; the fourth and last of the Lnxemburgere, seventh and hist of the Intercalary Kai- sers. Sold Brandenburg, after thrice or oftener pawning it. Sigismund super Grammaticam. Super-Grammaticam died 9th December, 1437; left only a Daugh- ter, wedded to the then Albert Duke of Austria ; which Albert, on the strength of this, came to the Kingship of Bohemia and of Hungary, as his Wife's inheritance, and to the Empire by election. Died thereupon 158 BKAXDENBURG AND HOIIEXZOLLERXS. B""k II. in few months : *' three crowns, Bohctnia, Hungary, the Reich, in that one year, 1138," say the old Historians; "and then next year he quitted theui all, for a fourth and more lasting cn)wni, as is hoped." Kaiser Albert II., 14;jd-14^fi: Aftrr whom all are Hapsburgers, — excepting, if that is un exception, the unlucky Karl VII, alone (1742- 174.")), who descends from Ludwig the Baier. BOOK III. THE IIOIIEXZOLLEKXS IX BKAXDEXBURG. 1412-1713. CIIArTER I. KURFl'RST FUIEDRICII I. BuRGGRAF Fkiedrich, On his first coming to Brandenburg, found but a cool reception as Statthalter.* He came as the representative of law and rule ; and there had been many hf Ijv ing themselves by a ruleless life, of late. Industry was at a low ebb, violence was rife ; plunder, disorder everywhere ; too much the habit for baronial gentlemen to " live by the saddle," as they termed it, that is by highway robbery in modern phrase. The Towns, harried and plundered to skin and bone, were glad to see a Statthalter, and did homage to him with all their heart. But the Baronage or Squirearchy of the country were of another mind. These, in the late anarchies, had set up for a kind of kings in their own right : they had their feuds ; made war, made peace, levied tolls, transit-dues ; lived much at their own discretion in these solitary countries ; — rushing out from their stone towers ('* walls fourteen feet thick ''), to seize any herd of " six hundred swine," an}' convoy of Liibeck or Ham- burg merchant-goods, that had not contented them in passing. "What were pedlers and mechanic fellows made for, if not to 1 " Johanntstage" (24 June) " 1412," he first set foot in Brandenburg, with due escort, in due state ; only Statthalter (Viceregent) as yet: Pauli, i. 594, ii. 58; Steazel, Geschichte des Preussischen Slaats (Hamburg, 1830, 1851), i. 167-169. IGO THE IIOIIKNZOLLEKNS IN nUANDENBUKG. B'-ok HI. 1414. be plundered when needful ? Arbitrary rule, on tlie part of these !N'oble Koljber-Lords I And then nuieh of the Crown- l^oniains had g(jne to the chief of them, — pawned (and the pawn-ticket lost, so to speak), or sold for what trifle of ready money was to be had, in .lobst and Company's time. To those gentlemen, a Statthalter coming to impiire into matters was no welcome phenomenon. Your Eille Ihrr (Noble Lord) of I'utlitz, Noble Lords of Quitzow, Kochow, Maltitz and others, sujtreme iji their grassy solitudes this long while, and accus- tomed to nothing greater than themselves in I5randeuburg, how should they obey a Statthalter ? Such was more or less the universal humor in the Squire- archy of Brandenburg ; not of good omen to Burggraf Fried- rich. But the chief seat of contumacy seemed to be among the Quitzows, Tutlitzes, above spoken of; big Sipiires in the district they call the Briegnitz, in the Country of the sluggish Havel Kiver, northwest from Berlin a fifty or forty miles. These refused homage, very many of them ; said they were " incorixjrated with Biihmen;" said this and that; — much disinclined to homage ; and wouhl not do it. Stiff surly fel- lows, much deficient in discernment of what is above them and what is not : — a thick-skinned set ; bodies clad in buff leather ; minds also cased in ill habits of long continuance. Friedrich was very patient with them ; hoped to prevail by gentle methods. He " invited them to dinner ; " " had them often at dinner for a year or morc^ : " but could make no prog- ress in that way. '• Who is this we have got for a Governor V " said the noble lords privately to each other: " A. Niirnberf/er Tand (Nuruberg Plaything, — wooden image, such as they make at Nurnberg)," said they, grinning, in a thick-skinned way: ''If it rained Burggraves all the year round, none of them would come to luck in this Country ; " — and continued their feuds, toll-levj'ings, plunderings and other contumacies. Seeing matters come to this pass after waiting above a year, B>urggraf Friedrich gathered his Frankish men-at-arms ; quietly made league with the neighboring Potentates, Thii- ringen and others ; got some munitions, some artillery together — especially one huge gun, the biggest ever seen, "a twenty- Cum. I. KUKFtJliST FKIEDlilLli 1. IGl 1414. lour pounder " uo less ; to which the peasants, dragging her with ilitticulty through the clayey roads, gave the name of Faille Grete (Lazy, or Heavy Peg) ; a remarkable piece of ordnance. Lazy l*eg he had got from the Landgraf of Tliii- ringen, on loan merely ; but lie turned her to excellent account of his own. 1 have often inquired after Lazy I'eg's fate in subsequent times ; but could never learn anything distinct : — the German Dryasdust is a dull dog, and seldom carries any- thing human in those big wallets of his ! — Kfjuipped in this way, liurggraf Friedrioh (lie Avas not yet Kurfiirst, only coming to be) marches for the Havel Country (early days of 1414) ; * makes his appearance before Quitzow's strong-house of Friesack, walls fourteen feet thick : " You Dietrich von (Juitzow, are you i)repared to live as a peaceable subject henceforth : to do homage to the Laws and me ? " — " Never ! " answered Quitzow, and pulled up his drawbridge. "Whereupon Heavy Peg opened upon him, Hea\'y Peg and other guns ; and, in some eight-and-forty hours, shook C^)uit- zow's impregnable Frii'sack about his ears. This was in the month of FeV»ruary, 1414, day not given: Friesack was the name of the impregnable Castle (still discoverable in our time) ; and it ought to be memorable and venerable to every Prussian man. Purggraf Friedrich VL, not yet quite be- come Kurfiirst Friedrich I., but iu a year's space to become so, he in person was the beneticent operator ; Heavy Peg, and steady Human Insight, these were clearly the chief imple- ments. Quitzow being settled, — for the country is in military occu- pation of Friedrich and his allies, and except in some stone castle a man has no chance, — straightway Putlitz or another iSutineer, with his drawbridge up, was battered to pieces, and his drawbridge brought slamming down. After this manner, in an incredibly short period, mutiny was quenched ; and it became apparent to Xoble Lords, and to all men, that here at length was a man come who would have the Laws obeyed again, and could and would keep mutiny down. 1 Michaelis, i. 287 ; Stenzel, i. 16S (where, contrary to wont, is an insignifi- cant error or two). Panli (ii. 58) is, as usual, lost in water. VOL. V. 11 162 THE IIOIIENZOLLKKNS IN HKANDENBUKG. B'Juk in. 14-20. Friedrich showed no cruelty ; far the contrary. Your mu- tiny once ended, and a little repented of, he is ready to be your graciou.s Prince again : Fair-play and the social wine-cup, or inexorable war and Lazy Peg, it is at your discretion which. Brandenburg submitted ; hardly ever rebelled more. Branden- burg, under the wise Kurfurst it has got. begins in a small degree to \)e cosmic again, or of the domain of the gods ; ceases to be chaotic and a mere cockpit of the devils. There is no doubt but this Friedrich also, like his ancestor Friedrich III., the First Hereditary Burggraf, was an excel- lent citizen of his country : a man conspicuously important in all (Jerman business in his time. A man setting up foi no particular magnanimity, ability or heroism, but uncon- sciously exhibiting a good deal ; which by degrees gained universal recognition. He did not shine much as Keichs-Gen- eralissimo, under Kaiser Sigismund, in his expeditions against Zisca ; on the contrary, he ])resided over huge defeat and rout, once and again, in that capiuity ; and indeed hatl represented in vain that, with such a species of militia, victory was impos- sible. He represented and again rejjrcsented, to no jturpose ; whereupon he declined the otiicc farther ; in which others fared no better.* The offer to be Kaiser was made liim in his old days ; but he wisely declined that too. It was in Brandenburg, by what he silently founded there, that he did his chief benefit to Germany and mankind. He understood the noble art of gov- erning men ; had in him the justice, clearness, valor and patience needed for that. A man of sterling probity, for one thing. Which indeed is the first requisite in said art : — if you will have your laws obeyed without mutiny, see well that they be pieces of God Almighty's Law : otherwise all th5 artillei-y in the world will not keep down mutiny. Friedrich " travelled much over Brandenburg ; " looking into everything with his own eyes ; — making, I can well fancy, innumerable crooked things straight. Reducing more and more that famishing dog-kennel of a Brandenburg into a fruitful arable field. His portraits represent a square- ^ Horraayr, (Esleneichischer Plutarch ^-ii. 109-158, § Zisca. Chap. I. KUKFURST FRIEDllICII I. 163 144U. headed, mild-looking solid gentleman, with a certain twinkle of mirth in the serious eyes of him. Except in those Hussite wars for Kaiser Sigismund and the Eeich, in Avhich no man could prosper, he may be defined as constantly prosperous. To Brandenluirg he was, very literally, the blessing of bless- ings ; redemption out of death into life. In the ruins of that old Friesaek Castle, battered down by Heavy Peg, xVntiqua- rian Science (if it had any eyes) might look for the tap-root of the Prussian Nation, and the beginning of all that Branden- burg has since gro\vn to under the sun. Friedrich, in one capacity or another, presided over Bran- denbiu-g near thirty years. He came thither first of all in 141L' ; was not comi)letely Kurf iirst in his own right till 1415 ; nor publicly installed, "with 10(),(M)() looking on from the roofs and windows," in Constance 3'onder, till l-ll", — age then some forty-five. His Brandenburg residence, when he happened to have time for residing or sitting still, was Tangermunde, the Castle built by Kaiser Karl IV. He died there, 21st Septem- ber, 1440 ; laden tolerably with years, and still better with memories of hard work done. Rentsch guesses by good infer- ence he was born about 1372. As I count, he is seventh in descent from that Conrad, Burggraf Conrad I., Cadet of Hohenzollern, who came down from the llauhe Alp, seek- ing service with Kaiser Eedbeard, above two centuries ago : Conrad's generation and six others had vanished successively from the world-theatre in that ever-mysterious manner, and left the stage clear, when Burggraf Friedrich the Sixth came to be First Elector. Let three centuries, let twelve genera- tions farther come and pass, and there will be another still more notable Friedrich, — our little Fritz, destined to be Third King of Prussia, officially named Friedrich II., and popularly Frederick the Great. This First Elector is his lineal ancestor, twelve times removed.-^ 1 Rentsch, pp. 349-372 ; Hubner, t. 176. 164 THE HOHENZOLLERNS IN BRANDENBURG. Book HI. 144U. CHAPTER II. MATIXEES DU ROI DE PRUSSE. Eleven successive Kurfursts followed Friedrich in Bran- denburg. Of whom and their births, deaths, wars, marriages, negotiations and continual multitudinous stream of smaller or greater adventures, much has been written, of a dreary con- fused nature ; next to nothing of which ought to be repeated here. Some list of their Names, with what rememberable human feature or event (if any) still speaks to us in them, we must try to give. Their Names, well dated, with any actions, incidents, or phases of life, which may in this way get to adhere to them in the reader's memory, the reader can insert, each at its right place, in the grand Tide of European Events, or in such Picture as the reader may have of that. Thereby ■with diligence he may produce for himself some faint twilight notion of the Flight of Time in remote Brandenburg, — con- vince himself that remote Brandenburg was present all along, alive after its sort, and assisting, dumbly or otherwise, in the great World-Drama as that went on. We have to say in general, the history of Brandenburg under the Hohenzollerns has very little in it to excite a vulgar curiosity, though perhaps a great deal to interest an intelligent one. Had it found treatment duly intelligent; — which, however, how could it, lucky beyond its neigh- bors, hope to do ! Commonplace Dryasdust, and volumi- nous Stupidity, not worse here than elsewhere, play their part. It is the history of a State, or Social Vitality, growing from small to great ; steadily growing henceforth under guidance : and the contrast between guidance and no-guidance, or mis- guidance, in such matters, is again impressively illustrated there. This Ave see well to be the fact ; and the details of CiiAr. If, MATINEES DU ROI DE PRUSSE. 165 1440. this would be of moment, were they given us : but they are not ; — how could voluminous Dryasdust give them ? Then, on the other hand, the Phenomenon is, for a long while, on so small a scale, wholly without importance in European poli- tics and affairs, the commonplace Historian, writing of it on a large scale, becomes unreadable and intolerable. Witness grandiloquent Pauli our fatal friend, with his Eight watery Quartos; which gods and men, unless driven by necessity, hq,ve learned to avoid ! ^ The Phenomenon of Brandenburg is small, remote ; and the essential particulars, too delicate for the eye of Dryasdust, are mostly wanting, drowned deep in details of the unessential. So that we are well content, my readers and I, to keep remote from it on this occasion. On one other point I must give the reader warning. A rock of offence on which if he heedlessly strike, I reckon he will split ; at least no help of mine can benefit him till he be got off again. Alas, offences must come ; and must stand, like rocks of offence, to the shipwreck of many ! Mod- ern Dryasdust, interpreting the mysterious ways of Divine Providence in this Universe, or what he calls writing His- tory, has done uncountable havoc upon the best interests of mankind. Hapless godless dullard that he is ; driven and driving on courses that lead only downward, for him as for us ! But one could forgive him all things, compared with this doctrine of devils which he has contrived to get established, pretty generally, among his unfortunate fellow-creatures for the time ! — I must insert the following quotation, readers guess from what author : — "In an impudent Pamphlet, forged by I know not whom, and published in 1766, under the title of Matinees du Roi de Prusse, purporting to be ' Morning Conversations ' of Fred- erick the Great with his Nephew the Heir-Apparent, every line of which betrays itself as false and spurious to a reader who has made any direct or effectual study of Frederick or his manners or affairs, — it is set forth, in the way of exordium ^ Dr. Carl Friedrich Pauli, Allfjemeine Preussische Staats-Geschickte, often enough cited here. 1G6 THE IIOIIENZOLLERXS IN BRANDENBURG. Book III. 1440. to these pretended royal confessions, that ^ not re muismi,'' our Family of llohenzoUeru, ever siuw the first origin of it among the Swabian mountains, or. its tirst descent therefrom into the Castle and Jjujierial Wardenship of Niiruberg, some six hun- dred years ago or more, has consistently travelled one road, and this a very notable one. ' We, as I myself the royal Fred- erick still do, have all along proceeded,' namely, * in the way of adroit Machiavdism, as skilful g-.imblers in this world's business, aiuh'nt gatherers of this world's goods; and in brief as devout worsliippers of lieelzebub, the grand regulator and rewimler of mortals here below. Which creed we, tliC Ilohen- zoUerns, liave found, and I still find, to be the true one ; learn it you, my prudent Nephew, and let all men learn it. By liohliug steadily to that, and working late and early in such spirit, we are come to what you now see; — and sliall advance still farther, if it please Beelzebub, who is generally kind to those that serve him well.' Such is the doctrine of tiiis im- j)udent I'amphlct; 'original Manuscripts' of which are still purchased by simple persons, — who have then nobly offered them to me, thrice over, gratis or nearly so, as a i)ricelcss curi- osity. A new jirinted edition of which, probably the fifth, has appeared within few years. Simple persons consider it a curious and interesting Document ; rather ambiguous in origin perhaps, but probably authentic in substiince, and throwing uncxi>ected light on the character of Frederick whom men call the (Ireat. In which new light they arc willing a meritorious Editor should share. " Who wrote that Pamphlet I know not, and am in no con- dition to guess. A certain snappish vivacity (very unlike the style of Frederick whom it personates) ; a wearisome grima- cing, gesticulating malice and smartness, approaching or reach- ing the sad dignity of what is called * wit ' in modern times ; in general the rottenness of matter, and the epigrammatic iniquiet graciosity of manner in this thing, and its elaborately ///human turn both of expression and of thought, are visible characteristics of it. Thought, we said, — if thought it can be called : thought all hamstrung, shrivelled by inveterate rheu- matism, on the part of the poor ill-thriven thinker ; nay tied CiiAr. ir. MATINEES DU ROI DE PRUSSE. 1G7 1440. (so to speak, for he is of epigrammatic turn withal), as by cross ropes, right shoulder to left foot ; and forced to advance, hobliling and jerking along, in that sad guise : not in the way of walk, but of saltation and dance ; and this towards a false not a true aim, rather no-whither than some-whither : — Here were features leading one to think of an illustrious I'rince de Ligne as perhaps concerned in the affair. The Bibliographi- cal Dictionaries, producing no evidence, name quite another person, or series of persons,^ highly unmemorable otherwise. Whereupon you proceed to said other person's acknowledged Works (as they are called) ; and tind there a style bearing no resemblance whatever; and are left in a dubious state, if it were of any moment. In the absence of proof, I am unwilling to charge his Iligliness de Ligne with such an action ; and indeed am little careful to be acquainted with the individual who did it, who could and would do it. A Prince of Coxcombs I can discern him to have been ; capable of shining in the eyes of insincere foolish persons, and of doing detriment to them, not benefit ; a man without reverence for truth or human ex- cellence ; not knowing in fact what is true from what is false, what is excellent from wlvit is sham-excellent and at the top of the mode ; an apparently polite and knowing man, but intrinsically an impudent, dark and merely modish-insolent man; — who, if he fell in with Rhadamanthus on his travels, would not escape a horse-whipping. Him we will willingly leave to that beneficial chance, which indeed seems a certain one sooner or later; and address ourselves to consider the theory itself, and the facts it pretends to be grounded on. " As to the theory, I must needs say, nothing can be falser, more heretical or more damnable. My own poor opinion, and deep conviction on that subject is well known, this long while. And, in fact, the summary of all I have believed, and have been trying as I could to teach mankind to believe again, is even that same opinion and conviction, applied to all provinces 1 A certain "N. de Bonneville" (afterwards a Revolutionary spiritiml- mountebank, for some time) is now the favorite Name; — proves, on inves- tigation, to be an impossible one. Barbier (Dklionnaire des Anonymes), in a helpless doubting manner, gives still others. 168 THE IIOIIENZOLLERNS IX BRANDENBURG. Book III. 1440. of things. Alas, in this his sad theory about the workl, our poor impudent ranii)ldoteer is by no means singular at present; nay rather he has in a manner the whule practical pai't of man- kind on his side just now ; the more is the pity for us all I — " It is very certain, if Beelzebub made this world, our Pamphleteer, and the huge portion of mankind that follow him, are right. But if God made the world ; and only leads Beelzebub, as some ugly muzzled bear is led, a longer or shorter temporary dance in this divine world, and always draws him home again, and i>eels the unjust gtiins off him, and dueks him in a certain hot Lake, with sure intent to lodge him there to all eternity at last, — then our I'amphleteer, and the huge portion of mankind that follow him, are wrong. " More 1 will not say ; being indeed quite tired of sjiealing on that subject. Not a subject which it concerns me to speak of ; much as it concerns me, and all men, to know the truth of it, and silently in every hour and moment to do said truth. As indeed the sacred voice of their own soul, if they listen, will conclusively a^lmonish all men ; and truly if it do not, there will be little use in my logic to them. For my own share, I want no trade with men who need to be convinced of that fact. If I am in their i)remises, and discover such a thing of them, I will quit their premises ; if they are in mine, I will, as old Samuel advised, count my spoons. Ingenious gen- tlemen who believe that Beelzebub made this world, are not a class of gentlemen I can get profit from. Let them keep at a distance, lest mischief fall out between us. They are of the set deserving to be called — and this not in the way of profane swearing, but of solemn wrath and pity, I say of virtuous anger and inexorable reprobation — the damned set. For, in very deed, they are doomed and damned, by Nature's oldest Act of Parliament, they, and whatsoever thing they do or say or think ; unless they can escape from that devil-element. "Which I still hope they may ! — '' But with regard to the facts themselves, 'de notre maisoi},^ I take leave to say, they too are without basis of truth. They are not so false as the theory, because nothing can in falsity quite equal that. ^ Notre maison,' this Pamphleteer may learn, Ci.Ar. II. MATINEES DU ROI DE PRUSSE. 169 1440. if lie please to make study and inquiry before speaking, did not rise by worship of Beelzebub at all in this world ; but by a quite opposite line of conduct. It rose, in fact, by the course which all, except fools, stockjobber stags, cheating gamblers, forging Pamphleteers and other temporary creatures of the damned sort, have found from of old to be the one way of per- manently rising : by steady service, namely, of the Opposite of Beelzebub. r»y conforming to the Laws of this Universe ; instead of trying by pettifogging to evade and profitably con- tratfict thom. Tlic Hohenzollerns too have a History still ar- ticulate to the human mind, if you search sufficiently ; and this is what, even with some emphasis, it will teach us concerning their adventures, and achievements of success in the field of life. Resist the Devil, good reader, and he will flee from you ! " — JSo ends oui* indignant friend. How the Hohenzollerns got their big Territories, and came to what they are in the world, will be seen. Probably they were not, any of them, paragons of virtue. They did not walk in altogether speckless Sunday pumps, or much clear-starched into consciousness of the moral sublime ; but in rugged prac- tical boots, and by such roads as there were. Concerning their moralities, and conformities to the Laws of the Eoad and of the Universe, there will much remain to be argued by pamphlet- eers and others. Men will have their opinion. Men of more wisdom and of less ; Apes by the Dead-Sea also will have theirs. But what man that believed in such a Universe as that of tiiis Dead-Sea Pamphleteer could consent to live in it at all ? "Wlio that believed in such a Universe, and did not design to live like a Papin's-Digester, or Porcus Ejiicuri, in an extremely ugly manner in it, could avoid one of two things : Going rapidly into Bedlam, or else blowing his brains out ? " It will not do for me at any rate, this infinite Dog-house ; not for me, ye Dryasdusts, and omnipotent Dog-monsters and Mud-gods, whoever you are. One honorable thing I can do : take leave of you and your Dog-establishment. Enough ! " — 170 THE IIUIIENZOLLEIINS IN BlUNDEXBURG. Bo«»k III. IU2. CIlArTEK iJI. KUUFCKST FlilEDRUII II. The First Friodrioirs successor was a younger son, Fricdrich II.; who lasted till 1471, above thirty years; and proved like- wisi^ a notable manager and governor. Very eapalile to assert himself, and his just rights, in this world. He w;us but Twenty- seven at his accession ; l>ut the Berlin Iiurghei*s, attt'injiting to take some liberties with him, found he was old enough. He got the name Irontceth, Friedrieh Fcrrtit'tn Dentlhtts, from his decisive ways then ami afterwards. He IkuI his shai'C of brab- bling with intricate litigant neighlwrs ; (juarrcls now and then not to be settled without strokes. His worst war was with I'ommern, — just claims disputed there, and much confu.sed bickering, sieging and harassing in consequence : of which quarrel we must speak anon. It Wius he who first built the cons[>icuous Schloss or Palace at Berlin, having got the ground for it (same ground still covered bj' the actual line Edifice, which is a secoml edition of Friedrich's) from the repentant Burghers ; and took up his chief residence there.* But his i)rineipal achievement in Brandenburg History is his recovery of the Province called the Xeumark to that Elector- ate. In the thriftless Sigismund times, the Nemnark hatl been pledged, had been sold; Teutsch Ritterdom, to whose domin- ions it lay contiguous, luid jmrchiised it with money down. The Teutsch Ritters were fallen moneyless enough since then ; they offered to pledge the Xeumark to Friedrieh, who accepted, and advanced the sum : after a while the Teutsch Ritters, for a small farther sura, agreed to sell Xeumark.^' Into which Trans- action, with its dates and circumstances, let us cast one glance, for our behoof afterwards. The Teutsch Ritters were an opu- lent domineering Body in Sigisraund's eai-ly -time ; but they are 1 1442-1451 (Xioului, i. 81) 2 Michatlis, i. 301 . •■"AP. III. KUKFUKST FlilEDiacil II. 171 1-142. now come well down iu Friedi'ieh II.'s ! And are coming ever lower. Sinking steadily, or with desperate attempts to rise, uliieli only increase the speed downwards, ever since that fatal Tannenberg IJusiness, loth July, 1410. Here is the sad prog- ress of theii' descent to the bottom j divided into three stages or periods : — ^^ Period First is of Thirty years : 1410-1440. A peace with Poland soon followed that Defeat of Tannenberg j humiliating peace, with nnilct in money, and slightly in territory, attached to It. Which again was soon followed by war, and ever again ; each new i)cace more humiliating tlian its foregocr. Tcutsch Order is steadily sinking, — into debt, among otlu-r things; driven to severe tinauce-nieasures (ultimiitely even to ' debase its coin '), which produce irritation enough. I'oland is gradu- ally edging itself into the territories luid the interior troubles of Preussen; prefatory to greater operations that lie alicatl there. " Second Period, of Fourteen years. So it had gone on, from bad to worse, till 1440 ; when the general i>o[)ulation, through its Heads, the Landed Gentry and the Towns, wearied out with iiscal and other oppressions from its domineering Ilitter- dom brought now to such a pinch, began everywhere to stir themselves into vocal complaint. Complaint emphatic enough : ' AVhere will you find a man that has not suffered injury in his rights, perhaps in his person ? Our friends they have in- vited as guests, and under show of hospitality have murdered them. Men, for the sake of their beautiful wives, have been thrown into the river like dogs,' — and enough of the like sort.* Xo want of complaint, nor of complainants : Town of Thorn, Town of Dantzig, Kulm, all manner of Towns and Baronages, proceeded now to form a Bund, or general Covenant for com- plaining ; to repugn, in hotter and hotter form, against a domineering Kitterdom with back so broken; in fine, to col- league with Poland, — what was most ominous of all. Baron- age, BuTgherage, they were Grerman mostly by blood, and by culture were wholly German ; but preferred Poland to a ^ Voigt, vii. "47 ; quoting evidently, not an express manifesto, but one manufiiotiired hv the old Chroniclers. 172 THE IIOIIENZOLLKKNS IN HUAXDENHURG. IkH.K III. 1444. Teutsch Ritterdora ui inai uuLure. >iutliing but brabblings, Bcuttiings, ubjurgiitious ; a great outbreak ripening itself. Teutsch Ivitterdum hiis to hire soldiers ; no money to pay them. It was in these sad years that the Teutsch Kitterdom, fallen moneyless, offered to pledge the Xeumark to our Kur- fiirst; 1444, that ojieration was consummated.' All this goes on, in hotter and hotter form, for ten years longer. *• reriod Third begins, early in 14r>4, with an im])ortant special catastn)phe ; and ends, in the Thirteenth year after, with a still more imj)«»rtant universal one of the same nature. l'russi;LU lUmdy or Anti-Oppression Covenant of the Towns and Landed Gentry, rising in temperature for fourteen years at this rate, reached at last the igniting i>oint, and burst into tire. February 4th, 14.>l, the Town of Thorn, darling Jirst-child of Teutsch Kitterdom, — child 223 years old at this time,' and grown very big, and now very angry, — suddenly took its old parent by the throat, so to sjieak, and hurled him out to the dogs ; to the extraneous Polacks first of all. Town of Thorn, namely, sent that day its ' Letter of Renunciation ' to the llochmeister over at Marienburg ; seized in a day or two more the Ilochmeister's Utlicial Envoys, Dignitaries of the Order; led tliem through the streets, amid universal storm of execra- tions, hootings and unclean projectiles, straight to jail; and besieged the Ilochmeister's Burg {liaatillc of Thorn, with a few Ritters in it), all the artillery and all the throats and hearts of the place raging deliriously upon it. So that the poor Ritters, who had no chance in resisting, were in few days obliged to surrender ; • ha«l to come out in bare jerkin ; and Thorn ignominiously dismissed them into space forevermore, — with at^tual 'kicks,' I have read in some Books, though * Paoli. ii. 187. — does not name the snni. - " Fonnde*! 1231, as a woollen Burg, just acros.«! the river, on the Heathen side, mainly round the stem of an immense old Oak that grevr handy there, — Seven Barires always on the river (Weiclisel), to fly to our own side if ijuite ovcrAvhelmcd." Ottk and Seven Barges is still the Town's-Arms of Thorn. See Kiihler, MunzMustiyunpen, xxii. 107 ; quoting Dushnrg (a Priest of the Order) and his old Chronica Terra Prusria, written in 1326. ' Sth February, 1434, says Voigt (viii. 361) ; 16th, says Kohler {Miimbelusti- gungen, xxii. 110). <'nAi-. III. KriJFl'RRT FRIEDincll II. 173 1405. othtTs veil that sad featuro. Thorn threw out its old parent in this manner ; swore I'ealty to the King of Poland ; and in- vited otlier Towns and Knightages to follow the example. T(j whieh all were willing, wherever able. " War hereui)on, whieh blazed up over Preussen at large, — I'russian Covenant and King of Poland cersus Teutsch Kitter- dom, — and lasted into the thirteenth year, before it could go out again; out by lack of fuel mainly. One of the fellest wai;s on record, especially for burning and ruining; above '.■>(>(),(»(»() fighting-men ' are calculated to have perished in it; and of towns, villages, farmsteatls, a cipher whieh makes the fancy, as it were, bUuk ami ashy altogether. Kitterdom showed no lack of lighting energy ; but that could not save it, in the pass things were got to. Enormous lack of wisdom, of reality and human venicity, there had long been ; and the hour was now come. Finance went out, to the last coin. Large mercenary armies all along ; and in the end not the color of money to pay them with ; mercenaries became desi)erate ; ' be- sieged the Ilochmeister and his Kittcrs in Marienburg;' — finally sold tiie Country they held; formally made it over to the King of Poland, to get their pay out of it. Ilochmeister had to see such things, and say little. Peace, or extinction for want of fuel, came in the year 1400. Poland got to itself the whole of that fine German Country, henceforth called ' il'cst Preussen' to distinguish it, which goes from the left bank of the Weichsel to the borders of r>randenburg and Neu- mark ; — would have got Neumark too, had not Kurfurst Friedrich been there to save it. The Teutsch Order had to go across the Weichsel, ignominiously driven ; to content itself with 'East Preussen,' the KOuigsberg-Memel country, and even to do homage to Poland for that. Which latter was the bitterest clause of all : but it could not be helped, more than the others. In this manner did its revolted children fling out Teutsch Eitterdom ignominiously to the dogs, to the Polacks, first of all, — Thorn, the eldest child, leading off or setting the example." And so the Teutsch Ritters are sunk beyond retrieval ; and West Preussen, called subsequently ''Royal Preussen," not 174 THE JIUIIKNZULLEKNS IN JiKANDE.NUUliG. Book HI. 1466. having homage to pay as the *' Ducal '' or East Preussen had, is German no longer, but I'olish, Sclavie; not prospering by the change.' And all that tine German country, reduced to rebel against its unwise parent, was cut away by the Polish sword, and remained with Poland, which did not prove very wise either ; till — till, in the Year 1773, it was cut back by the German sword ! All readers have heard of the Partition of I'oland : but of the I'artition of Preussen, 3U7 years before, all have not heard. It was in the second year of that final tribulation, marked above as Period Third, that the Teutsch liitters, famishing for money, completed the Neumark transaction witli Kurfiiist Friedrith ; Neumark, already pawned to him ten years before, they in 1 1 ">/>, for a small farther sum, agreed to^ sell ; and he, long carefully steering towards such an issue, and dexterously keeping out of the main broil, failed not to buy. Friedrich could thencefortli, on his own score, protect the Neumark ; keep uj) an invisible but impenetrable wall between it and the neighboring anarchic conflagrations of thirteen j'cars; and the Neumark luis ever since remained with Brandenburg, its origi- nal owner. As to Friedrich's Pomeranian quarrel, this is the figure of it. n<^re is a scene from Rentsch, which falls out in Fried- rich's time ; and which brought much battling and broiling to him and liis. Symbolical withal of much that befell in Bran- denburg, from first to last. Under the Hohenzollerns as before, Brandenburg grew by aggregation, by assimilation ; and we see here how difficult the process often was. Pommern (Pomerania), long AVendish, but peaceably so since the time of Albert the Bear, and growing ever more German, had, in good part, according to Friedrich's notion, if there were force in human Treaties and Imperial Laws, fallen fairly to Brandenburg, — that is to say, the half of it, Stettin-Pommern 1 What Thorn had sunk to, out of its palmy state, see in Xanke's Wan- derungen durch Preussen (Ilaniburjx & Altona, 1800), ii. 177-200 : — a pleasant little Book, treating mainly of Natur.il History; but drawine^ you, by its inno cent simplii ify atul L'<"iii:i!iry, to n ad with thanks whatever is in it. Chap. III. KL IIFURST FRIEDKICII II. 175 14U4. had fairly fallen, — in the year 1404, when Duke Otto of Stettin, the last Wendish Duke, died without heirs. lu that ease by many bargains, some with bloody crowns, it had been settled, If the Wendish Dukes died out, the country was to fall to lirandenburg ; — and here they were dead. " At Duke Otto's burial, accordingly, in the High Church of Stettin, when the cofiin was lowered into its place, the Stettin lUirgcnueister, Albreeht Glinde, took sword and helmet, and threw the .same into»the grave, in token that the Line was extinct. But Franz von Eichsted,'' apjiarently another iSurght-r instructed for the nonce, "jumped into the grave, and picked them out again ; alleging, No, the Dukes of jro///f/.sM'ommern were of kin ; these tokens we must send to his Grace at Wolgast, with offer of our homage, said Franz von Eichsted." * — And sent they were, and accepted by his GriK-e. And |KM-haps half-a- score of bargains, with bloody crowns to some of them ; and yet other chances, and centuries, with the extinction of new Liiies, — had to supervene, before even Stettin-Pommern, and that in no complete state, could be got.* As to rommern at large, Pommern not denied to be due, after such extinction and re-extinction of native Ducal Lines, did not fall home for centuries more ; and what struggles and inextricable armed- litigations there were for it, readers of Brandenburg-History too wearisomely know. The process of assimilation not the least of an easy one ! — This Friedrich was second son : his Father's outlook for him had, at first, been towards a Polish Princess and the crown of Poland, which was not then so elective as after- wards : and with such view his early breeding had been chiefly in ]'oland ; Johann, the eldest son and heir-apparent, helping his Father at home in the mean while. But these Polish outlooks went to nothing, the young Princess having died ; so that Friedrich came home ; possessed merely of the Polish language, and of what talents the gods had given him, ^ Rentsch, p. 110 (whose printer has put his date awry); Stenzel (i. 233) calls the man " Lorenz Eikstetten, a resolute Gentleman." 2 1648, by Treaty of Westphalia. 170 Tin: TIOnFA'ZOLLERXS IX r.KANnENDUKG. Book III. 1471. ^vhich were consitk*rable. And now, in the mean while, Johunu, who at one time promised well in pra^itical life, had taken to Alchemy ; and was busy with crucibles and speculations, to a degree that seemed questionable. Father Frieilrich, therefore, had to interfere, and deal with this " Johann the Alchemist " (Jfthannes Alrhemista, so the liooks still name him); who loy- ally renounced the Electorship, at his Father's bidding, in favor of Friedrich ; accepted liaireuth (better half of the Culmbach Territory) for apanage ; and there peacefully dis- tilled and sublimated at discretion ; the government there being an easier task, and iitter for a soft speculative Jlerr. A third Brother, Allx'rt by name, got Anspach, on the Father's decease ; verv capable to do any tigliting there might l)e occa- sion for, in Culmbach. As to the liurggrafship, it was now done, all but the Title. The First Friedrich, once he was got to be Elector, wisely j>arted with it. Tlie First Friedrich found his Electorship liad dreadfully real duties for him, and that this of the liurg- grafship had fallen mostly obsolete; so he sold it to the Niirn- Ix'rgers for a round sum : only the Principalities and Territories are retained in tliat quarter. About which too, and their feu- dal duties, boundaries and tolls, with a jt.'alous litigious Niirn- l>erg for neighlwyr, tliere at length came quarrelling enough. But Allxrt the third Brother, over at Anspach, took charge of all that ; and nothing of it fell in Joliann's way. The good Alchemist died, — performed his last sublimation, poor man, — six or seven years before his Brother Friedrich ; age then sixty-three.' Friedrich, with his Iron Teeth and faculties, only held out till fifty -eight, — 10th February, 1471. The manner of his end was peculiar. In that War with rommern, he sat besieging a Pomeranian town, Uckermiinde the name of it : when at dinner one day, a cannon-ball iilunged down upon the table,'^ with such a crash as we can fancy ; — which greatly confused the nerves of Friedrich ; much injured his hearing, and even his memory thenceforth. In a few months afterwards he resigned, in favor of his Successor ; re- tired to Plassenburg, and there died in about a year more. 1 14th November, 14G4. 2 Michaelis, i. 303. « Chap. IV. KURFURST ALBERT ACHILLES. 177 1471.. CHAPTER IV. KUKri-KST ALBKKT ACHILLES, ASD HIS SUCCESSOR. IJeitheu Frietlrich nor Joliaiin left other thau daughters : so that the uuited Heritage, Ihandeuburg and Cuhubach both, came now to the third Brother, Albert; wlio has been in Culm- bach these many years already. A tall, tiery, tough old gen- tleman, of formidable talent for figliting, who was called the ^'Achilles of (Icrnutni/ " in his day ; being then a very blazing far-seen character, dim as he has now grown.* Tliis Albert Achilles was the Third Elector; Ancestor he of all the Brau- dciduirg and Cuhubach Hohenzollern I'rinces that have since figured in the world. After him there is no break or shift in the succession, down to the little Friedrich now^ born ; — Friedrich the old Grandfather, First King, was the Twelfth IvurtTirst. "We have to say, they followed generally in their Ancestors' steps, andJiad success of the like kind, more or less; Hohen- zollerns all of them, by character and beliavior as well as by descent. No lack of quiet energy, of thrift, sound sense. There was likewise solid fair-play in general, no founding of yourself on ground that will not carry; — and there was in- stant, gentle but inexorable, crushing of mutiny, if it showed itself ; which, after the Second Elector, or at most the Third, it had altogether ceased to do. Young Friedrich II., upon whom those Berlin Burghers had tried to close their gates, till he should sign some "Capitulation" to their mind, got from them, and not quite in ill-humor, that name Ironteeth : — " Xot the least a Xose-of-wax, this one ! No use trying here, then ! " — which, with the humor attached to it, is itself symbol- ical of Friedrich and these Hohenzollern Sovereigns. Albert, his Brother, had plenty of figliting in his time : but it was in » Born 1414 ; KnifUr?t, 1471-1486. vol.. V. 178 Tin: iiohenzollerns in bkaxdexburg. book m. 1471. the Niiinberg and other distant regions ; no fighting, or hardly any, needed in Brandenburg hencetorth. \\ith iS'urnberg, and the Ex-Burggralship there, now when a new generation began to tug at the loose clauses of that Bar- gain, with Friedrieh I., and all Free-Towns were going high upon tluir privileges, Albert had at one time much trouble, and at length actual iurii)us War; — other Free-Towns counte- nancing and assisting Niiridjerg in the affair ; numerous petty I'rinces, feudal Lords of the vicinity, doing the like by Albert. Twenty years ago, all this ; and it did not last, so furious was it. '• Eight victories," they count on Albert's part, — furious successful skirmishes, call them; — in one of which, I remember, Albert plunged in alone, his Kitters being rather shy ; and laid about him hugely, hanging by a standard he had taken, till his life was nearl}- beaten out.* Eight victories ; and ahso one defeat, wherein All>ert got captured, and had to ransom himself. The captor was one Kunz of Kauffungcn, the KUrnberg hired (Jeneral at the time: a man known to some readers for his Stealing of the Saxon Princes {Prinzcn- muh, they call it) ; a feat which cost Kunz liis head.^ Alljert, liowever, prevailed in the end, as he was ajit to do ; and got jiis Niirnbergers fixed to clauses satisfactory to him. In his early days he had fought against Polos, Bohemians and others, as Imjicrial general. He wa.s much concerned, all along, in those abstruse armed-litigations of the Austrian House with its dependencies; and diligently helped the Kaiser, — Friedrich III., rather a weakish, but an eager and greedy Kaiser, — through most of them. That inextricable Hungarian-Bohemian-Polish Donnyhrook (so we may call it) which Austria had on hand, one of Sigismund's bequests to Austria ; distressingly tumultuous Donnybrook, which goes from 1440 to 1471, fighting in a fierce contused manner; — the Anti-Turk Hunniades, the Anti-Austrian Corvinus, the royal Majesties George Podiebrad, Ladislaus Posthumus, Lud- wig Ohne Hant (Ludwig No-Skin), and other Ludwigs, Ladis- lauses and ^Hadislauses, striking and getting struck at such a 1 1449 (Reutsih, v- 399). - Carlyle's Miscellanies (Xondon, 1869), vi. § Primcnranb. *. « OiAi-. IV. KlUl-CliST ALBERT ACHILLES. 179 1481. rate : — Albert was generally what we may call chief-constable in all that ; giving a knock here and then one there, in the Kaiser's name.^ Almost from boyhood, he had learned soldier- ing, which he had never afterwards leisure to forget. Great store of fighting he had, — say half a century of it, off and on, during the seventy and odd years he lasted in this world. AN'ith the Donnybrook we si)oke of; with the Niirnbergers; with the Dukes of iJavaria (endless bickerings with these Pukes, Ludwig Beardij, Ludwig Sujjerhus, Ludwig Gibhosus or Hunchback, against them and about them, on his own and the Kaiser's score) ; also with the French, already clutching at Lorraine; also with Charles the Rash of P>urgundy ; — lastly with the liisliop of I>andx'rg, who got him excommunicated anrl would not bury the dead. Kurfiirst Albert's Letter on this last emergency, to his Vice- gerent in Culiiibach, is a famed IMece still extant (date 1481) ■,'^ and his plan in sueh emergency, is a simi)le and likely one . *' Carry the dead bodies to the Parson's house ; let him see whether he will not bury them by and by ! — One must fence off the Devil by the Holy Cross," says Albert, — appeal to Heaven with what honest mother-wit Heaven has vouchsafed one, means Albert. '• These fellows " (the Priests), continues he, " would fain have the temporal sword as well as the spiritual. Had God wished there should be only one sword, he could have contrived that as well as the two. He surely did not want for intellect (Er war gar ein weiser Mann),'''' — want of intellect it clearly was not ! — In short, they had to bury the dead, and do reason ; and Albert hustled himself well clear of this broil, as he had done of many. Battle enough, poor man, with steel and other weapons : — and we see he did it with sharp insight, good forecast ; now and then in a wildly leonine or aquiline manner. A tall hook- nosed man, of lean, sharp, rather taciturn aspect ; nose and look are very aquiline ; and there is a cloudy sorrow in those old eyes, which seems capable of sudden effulgence to a 1 HormajT, ii. 138, 140 (§ Hunyady Corvin) ; Rentsch, pp. 389-422; Mf chaelis, i. 304-313. a Reutsch, p. 409. 180 THE Ji()iii:NZ(»LLr:i:N.s in ukanulmukg. bouk m. dangerous extiMit. He was a considerable diphtmutist too: very great with tlie Kaiser, Old Friedrieh J 1 1. (Max's father, Charh's V.'s (.ireat-Grandfathcr) ; * and managed many things ior him. Managed to get the thrice-lovely Heiress of the Netherlands and Uurgundy, i)aughter of that Charles the Jia-sh, with lier Seventeen I'rovinces, for Max,' — who was thought thereuiKMi by everybody to be the luckiest mau alive ; though the issue contradicted it l)efore long. Kurfiirst All)ert died in 14.sr», March 11, aged seventy-two. It was some mouths aiter liosworth Fight, where our Crooked IJieiiard got his (|uietus here iu England and brought the Wars ot the liuses to their Hnale : — a little chubby llov, the son of jjoor j>arents at Eisleben in S;ixony, Martin Luther the name of him, w;is looking into this abtruse I'niveriie, with those strange eyes of his, in what rough woollen or linsey-woolsey 8lu)rt-clothes we do not know.* Albert's funeral was very grand ; the Kaiser himself, and all the Magnates of the Diet and Keich attending him from Frankfurt to his last restin ' . many miles of road. For he diecl at the i)iet, in FrauiM mi-on-Mayn ; having fallen ill there while busy, — jH-'rhaps too busy for that age, in the harsh spring weather, — electing I'rince Maximilian ("lucky Max,*' who will \m} Kaiser too liefore long, aiul is alrejuly deep in ///- luck, tragical and other to lie King of the Romans. The old Kaiser hatl "looked in on him at Unolzbaeh " (Anspach), and brought him along; such a man could not be wanting on such an occasion. A man who " jierhaps di«l more for the (ierman Empire than for thn Electorate of lirandenburg," hint some. The Kaiser himself, Friedrich III., was now get- ting old ; anxious to see ^lax secure, ami to set his house in order. A somewhat anxious, croaky, close-tisted, ineffectual old ' How arlmirahle AllxTt is, not to say "alnio>t divine," to the Kaisor'g then Socretarv, oily-monthed ^l^ncas Sylvius, aften^ards Pope, Rentsch can testify (pp. 401, 586); quoting ^T-^neas's eulogies and gossipries [Historia nrritm Frfilirici Im/f rnloris, I conclude, though no lKK)k is named). Oily diligent ^T^neas, in his own young years and in AUiert's prime, liad of course seen much of this " miracle " of Arms and Art, — "miracle" and "almost divine," so to speak. - n77 ' Rom lOtli XovemlK^r. 148-3. {•MAI-. IV. KIRFURST AIJU:iiT ACIIILLKS. Ibl IVM. KaisiT ; * (Ustinguishod by liis Im-k in gi'tting Max so provided fur, and bringing the Seventeen Provinces of the NetherUmds to his House, lie is the iirst of the Hapsburg Kaisers who liad wliat has sim-e been railed the ** Austrian lip " — ])r()trusive undcr-jaw, with heavy lip disinclined to shut, lli; gi»t it IrDUi his Mother, and becpieathed it in a marked manner; his jjo-s- terity to this day bearing traces of it. Mother's name was Cindjurgis, a Tulish Princess, " Duke of Masovia's daughter ; " a lady who had something of the Maultuscht; in her, in char- iicter as well ;is mouth. — In old Allx*rt, the i)Oor old Kaiser has lost his right hand ; and no doubt muses sadly as he rides in the funeral procession. Albert is buried at lleilsbronn in Frankenland, among his Ancestors, — burial in l>rand<'id)urg not yet common fur these new Kurfiirsts : — his skull, in an after-time, used to bo shown there, laid on the lid of the tomb ; skull marvellous fur strength, and ft)r '* having no visible sutures," says lientsch. I'iuus Brandenbui'g Otticiality at length put an end to that ]irofanation, and restored the skull to its place, — marvellous enough, with what hatl once dwtdt in it, whether it had sutures or uot. Johann the Cicero is Fourth Kurfiirst, and leaves Two notable tSons. Albert's eldest Son, the Fourth Kurfiirst, was Johannes Cicero (148(.>-1499) : Johannes was his natural name, to which the epithet '' Cicero of Germany (Cicero Germanite)" was added by an admiring public. He had commonly adminis- tered the Electorate during his Father's absences ; and dune it with credit to himself. He was an active man, nowise deficient as a Governor ; creditably severe on highway rob- bers, for one thing, — destroys you " fifteen bai-onial robber- towers " at a stroke ; was also concerned in the Hungarian- Bohemian Domiijhrook, and did that also well. But nothing struck a discerning public like the talent he had for speak- 1 See Kohler (Miinzhelustigmgen, vi. 393-401 ; ii. 89-96, &c.) for a vivii account of him. iSil Tin: lIoIIKNZtil.IJ'.lINS IN I'.KAN l)i:\IUK( ;. 1!<>..K iir. ing. Spoke " four hours at a stretdi in Kaiser Max's Diets, in elegantly flowing Latin;" with a fair share of meaning, too ; — and hail bursts of itarlianiontary eloquence in him that were astonishing to liear. A Uill, stiuare-hi-aded man, of erect, «]ieerfully coujiM)Sed aspect, head flung rather back if anything: his bursts of parliamenUiry eloquence, once glorious an tiie day, procured him the name ''Johannes Cicero;" and that is what remains of them : for they are sunk now, irre- trievable he and they, into the belly of eternal Night ; the linal resting-place, I do j»ereeive, of much Ciceronian ware in tliis world. Apparently he had, like some of his Descendants, what would now be called ''distinguished literary talents,*' — insigniticant to mankind and us. I And he was likewise called tier Grosse, "John the Gnat /" but on investigation it proves to be mere "John the liiy" a name coming from his tall stature and ultimate fatness of body. For the rest, he left his family well off, connecteit with high Potentates all around ; and had incrcjuied his store, to a fair degree, in his time. Besides his eldest Son who followed as Klector, by name Joachim I., a burly gentleman of whom much is written in Uooks, he left a secoml Son, Archbishop of Magdeburg, who in time became Archbishop of Mainz and Cardinal of Holy Church,' — and by accident got to be for- ever memorable in Church-History, as we shall see anon. Archbishop of Mainz means withal Kur-M>iinz, Ele<'tor of Mainz ; who is Chief of the Seven Electors, and as it were their I*resident or " Spt^aker." Albert was the name of this one ; his elder Brother, the then Kur-Brandenburg, was called Joachim. Cardinal Albert Kur-Mainz, like his brother Joor chim Kur-BrandtMiburg, figures mucli, and blazes widely abroad, in the busy reign of Karl V., and the inextricable Lutheran-Papal, Turk-Christian business it had. * Ulriih von lliitten's grand "Paneg\Tic" nfKjn tliis Albert on his first Entrance into Mainz (t>th October, 1514), — "entrance with a retinue of 2,000 horse, mainly furnished by the Brandenburg and Culmbach kindred." say the old Rooks, — is in Ulrichi ab UuiUn Equitis Gtrmani Opera (Miinch'i edition ; Berlin, 1S21), i. 27G-310. *. CiiAP. IV. KURFURST ALBERT ACHILLES. 183 lOl'i. But tlie notable point in this Albert of Mainz wa,s that of Leo X. and the Indulgences.' I'ope Leo had permitted Albert to retain his Archbishoi)ric of ^Magdeburg and other dignities along with that of Mainz ; which was an unusual favor. lUit the I'ojR) expected to be paid for it, — to have 3(M)00 dueats (ciJ 15,000), almost a King's ransom at that time, for the '■ I'al- lium" to Mainz; FaUluni, or little Lit of woollen Cl«»th, on sale by the Pope, without which IVlainz could not ho held. Albert, witli^all his dignities, was dreadfully .short of money at the time. ChaptvT of Mainz could or would do little or nothing, having been drained lately; Magdeburg, llalberstadt, the like. Albert tried various shilts; tried a little stroke of trade in relies, — gathered in the Mainz district "some hundreds of fractional sacred l)ones, and three whole bodies," which he sent to llalle for pious purchase ; — but nothing c;iiue of this branch. The db;ir),00() rciuained unpaid ; and I'oijo Leo, buihling St. I'eter's, '•furnishing a sister's toilet," and doing worse things, was in extreme need of it. What is to be done '! " I could borrow the money from the Fuggers of Augsburg," said the Arch- bishop hesitatingly ; " but then — '.' " — "I could help you to repay it I" said his Holiness: "Could repay the half of it, — if only we had (\mt they always make such clamor about tliese things) an Indulgence published in Germany ! " — "Well; it must be!" answered All)ert at last, agreeing to take the clamor on himself, and to do the feat; being at his wits'-end for money. He draws out his Full-Power, which, as first Spiritual KurfUrst, he has the privilege to do ; nominates (1516) one Tetzel for Chief Salesman, a Priest whose hardness of face, and shiftiness of head and hand, were known to him ; and — here is one Hohenzollern that has a place in History! Poor man, it was by accident, and from extreme tightness for money. He was by no means a violent Churchman ; he had himself inclinations towards Luther, even of a practical sort, as the thing went on. But there was no help for it. Cardinal Albert, Ivur-Mainz, shows himself a copious dex- terous public speaker at the Diets and elsewhere in those times ; a man intent on avoiding violent methods ; — uncom » Pauli, V. 496-499; Rentsch, p. 869. 184 THE IIOIIENZOLLERNS IN HRANDENBURG. R<'"k HI. i&iti-ii).y2. fortably fat in his later years, to jvulge by the Portraits. Kur- Brandeuburg, Kur-Mainz (the younger now officially even greater than the elder), these names are perpetually turning up in the German Histories of that Reformation-Period ; absent on no great occasion ; and they at length, from amid th<' meaningless l)ead-roll of Names, wearisomely met with in su' 1 Books, emerge into I'ersons for us as above. CHAPTER V. OF THE BAIREUTII-ANSPACH BKAXCH. Albert Aciiii.lks the Thinl Elector had, before his acces- sion, been Margraf of Aiispach, and since his Brother tho Alchemist's death, Margraf of Baireuth too, or of the wholo Principality, — -Margraf of Culmbach " we will call it, for brevity's sake, though the bewildering old Books have no*; steadily any name for it.' After his accession, Albert Achil- les naturally held both Electorate and Principality durin;» the rest of his life. Which w;us an extremely rare jjrediciv- ment for the two Countries, the big and the little. No other Elector held them both, for nearly a hundrcil years; nor then, except as it were for a moment. The two countries, Electorate and Principality, Hohenzollern both, and constituting what the Hohenzollerns had in this world, con- tinued intimately connected ; with affinity and clientship care- fully kept up, and the lesser standing always under the express J A certain subaltern of this express title, " Mar^rraf of Culmbach " (a Cadet, with some tcmporarv apanage there, who was once in the service of him they ca,ll the Winter-King, and may again be transiently heard of by us here), is the altogether Mysterious Personage who prints himself " Marquis de Lulenbach" in Bromlej-'s Collection of Roi/nl LrtWrs (London, 1787), pp. 52, Sac: — one of the most curious Books on the Thirty- Years War ; "edited" ^\-ith a composed stupidity, and cheerful infinitude of ignorance, which still farther distinguish it. The Bromlrt/ Originals, well worth a real editing, turn out, on inquiry, to have been "sold as Autographs, and dispersed be- yond recovery, about fifty years ago." Chap. V. OF THE BAIREUTH-ANSPACH BRANCH. 185 ljlG-15J2. protection and as it were cousinsk'p of the greater. But they had their separate Princes, Lines of Princes ; and they oidy twice, in the time of these Twelve Electors, came even tem- porarily under the same head. And as to ultimate union, Brandenburg-Baireuth and Brandenburg-Anspach were not incorporated with Brandenburg-Proper, and its new fortunes, till almost our own day, namely in 1791 ; nor then cither to continue ; having fallen to Bavaria, in the grand Congress of Vienna, within the next five-and-twenty years. All which, with the complexities and perplexities resulting from it here, we must, in some brief way, endeavor to elucidate for the reader. Two Lities in Culmbach or Baireuth-Anspach : The Gera Bond of 1598. Culmbach the Elector left, at his death, to his Second Son, — properly to two sons, but one of them soon died^ and the other became sole possessor ; — Friedrich by name ; who, as founder of the Elder Line of Braudenburg-Culmbach Princes, must not be forgotten by us. Founder of the First or Elder Line, for there are two Lines ; this of Friedrich's having gone out in about a hundred years ; and the Anspach-Baireutli ter- ritories having fallen home again to Brandenburg ; — whert^, however, they continued only during the then Kurfurst's life, Johanu George (1525-1598), Seventh KurfUrst, was he to whom Brandenburg-Culmbach fell home, — nay, strictly speak- ing, it was but the sure prospect of it that fell home, the thing itself did not quite fall in his time, though the disposal of it did,^ — to be conjoined again with Brandenburg-Proper. Con- joined for the short potential remainder of his own life ; and then to be disposed of as ah apanage again ; — which latter operation, as Johann George had three-and-twenty children, coidd be no difficult one. Johann George, accordingly (Year 1598), split the Terri- tory in two ; Brandenburg-Baireuth was for his second son, Brandenburg-Anspach for his third : hereby again were two new progenitors of Culmbach Princes introduced, and a New 1 "Disposal," 1598; thing itself, 1603, in his Son's time. 186 THE HOHENZOLLERNS IN BRANDENBURG. Book in. 151(i-l.ji)2. Line, Second or " Younger Line " they call it (Line mostly split in two, as heretofore); which — after complex adven- tures in its split condition, Baireuth under one head, Anspach under another — continues active down to our little Fritz's time and farther. As will become but too aj)pareut to us in the course of this History ! — From of old these Territories had been frequently divided : each lias its own little capital, Town of Anspach, Town of Baireuth,' suitable for such arrangement. Frequently di- vided ; though always under the closest cousinship, and ready for reuniting, if possible. Generally under the Elder Line too, under Friedrich's posterity, which was rather numerous and often in need of apanages, they had been in separate hands. But the understood practice was not to (Hvide farther; Baireuth by itself, Anspach by itself (or still luckier if one hand could get hold of both), — and especially Brandenburg by itself, uncut by any apanage : this, I observe, was the re- ceived practice. But Johann Crcorgc, wise Kurfiirst as he was, wished now to make it surer ; and did so by a famed Deed, called the Gera Bond {Gcraischc VertrarJ), dated 1.508,^ the last year of Johann George's life. Hereby, in a Family Conclave held at tliat Gora, a little town in Thiiringen, it was settled and indissolubly fixed, That their Electorate, unlike all others in Germany, shall continue indivisible ; Law of Primogeniture, here if nowhere else, is to be in full force ; and only the Culmbach Territory (if other- wise unoccupied) can be split off for younger sons. Culmbach can be split off; and this again withal can be split, if need be, into two (Baireuth and Anspach) ; but not in any case farther. "Which Household-Law was strictly obeyed hence- forth. Date of it 1598 ; principal author, Johann George, Seventh Elector. This " Gera Bond " the reader can note for himself as an excellent piece of Hohenzollern thrift, and important in the Brandenburg .annals. On the whole, Bran- denburg keeps continually growing under these Twelve Hohenzollerns, we perceive ; slower or faster, just as the 1 Populations about the same ; 16,000 to 17,000 in our time. ' Michaelis, i. 345. Chaf. V OF THE HAIREUTll-AX.-l'AClI JUiANCH. 1«7 Burggi-afdoiu had doue, and by similar methods. A hicky outkiy of money (as in the case of Friedrich Ironteeth in the Neumai-k) brings them one Province, lucky inheritance an- other : good management is always there, which is the mother of good luck. And so there goes on again, from Johann George down- wards, a new stream of Culmbach Princes, called the Younger or New Line, — properly two contemporary Lines, of Bai- reuthers and Anspadiers ; — always in close affinity to Bran- denburg, and with ultimate reversion to Brandenburg, should both Lines fail; but with mutual inheritance if only one. They had intricate fortunes, service in foreign armies, much wandering about, sometimes considerable scarcity of cash: but, for a hundred and fifty years to come, neither Line by any means failed, — rather the contrary, in fact. Of this latter or New Culmbach Line, or split Line, espe- cially of the Baireuth part of it, our little Wilhelmina, little Fritz's Sister, who became Margravine there, has given all the world notice. From the Ansi)ach part of it (at that time in sore scarcity of cash) came Queen Caroline, famed in our George the Second's time.^ From it too came an unmomentous Margraf, who married a little Sister of ^^'il- helmina's and Fritz's ; of whom we shall hear. There is lastly a still more unmomentous Margraf, only son of said Unmomentous and his said Spouse ; who again combined the two Territories, Baireuth having failed of heirs ; and who, himself without heirs, and with a frail Lady Craven as Mar- gravine, — died at Hammersmith, close by us, in ISOG ; and so ended the troublesome atfair. He had already, in 1791, sold off to Prussia all temporary claims of his ; and let Prussia have the Heritage at once without waiting farther. Prussia, as we noticed, did not keep it long ; and it is now part of the Bavarian Dominion ; — for the sake of editors and readers, long may it so continue ! Of this Younger Line, intrinsically rather insignificant to mankind, we shall have enough to write in time and place ; we must at present direct our attention to the Elder Line. * See a Sjiioptic Diagram of these Genealogies, infra, p. 388a. 188 THE IIOHENZULLEKNS IN BKANDENBURG. B.k.k HI. 1010-1001 The Elder Line of Culmhach : Friedrich and his Three notable Sons thrc. Kurfiirst Albert Aeliilles's second son, Friodrich (1400- l.");iG),' the founder of the Ekler Culnibaxh Line, ruled liis country well for cert;iin years, and Avas " a man famed for strength of lx)dy and mind ; '' but (daiius little notice from us, except for the sons he had. A quiet, commendable, honorable man, — with a certain jtathetic dii^nity, visible even in the eclipsed state he sank into. Poor old gentleman, after grand enough feats in war and peace, he fell melancholy, fell imbe- cile, blind, soon after middle life; and continued so for twenty years, till he dieil. During which dark state, say the old Books, it was a pleasure to see with what attention his Sons treated him, and how reverently the eldest always led him out to dinner.^ They live and dine at that high Castle of I'lassen- burg, where old Friedrieh can In-hold the Red or Wliite Mayn no more. Alas, alas, Phissenburg is n(»w a Correction-House, where male and female scoundrels do beating of hemp ; and })i()us Friedrieh, like eloquent Johann, has become a forgotten object. He was of the German Reichs-Array, who marched to t'.K! Netherlands to deliver Max from durance ; Max, the King of the Romans, whom, for all his luck, the mutinous Flemings had put under lock-and-key at one time.^ That is his one feat memorable to me at j)resi'nt. He was Johann Cicero's //'^//'-brother, child by a second wife. Like his Uncle Kurfiirst Friedrieh II., he had married a Polish Princess; the sharp Achilles having perhaps an eye to crowns in that direction, during that Hungarian-Bohemian- l*olish Donny brook. r>ut if so, there again came nothing of a crown with it ; though it was not without its good results for Friedrieh's children by and by. He had eight Sons that reached manhood ; five or six of whom came to something considerable in the world, and Three 1 Rentsch, pp. 59.3-602. 2 jh. p. 612. * 1482 (Pauli. ii. 3S9) : his beautifu] youug Wife, " thrown from her horse," Had perished in a thrice-tragie w.iy, short while before ; and the Seventeen Provinces were unruly under the guardianship of Max. Thai-. V. (jK TllK HAlKEUTll ANSPACll BRANCH. 1^^ ure memorable down to this day. One of liis daughters lie married to the Duke of Liegnitz in .Silesia; whieh is among the first links I notiee of a connection that grew strong with tliat sovereign Duchy, and is worth remarking by my readers here. Of the Three notable Sons it is necessary that we say something. Casimir, George, Albert are the names of these Three. Casimir, the eldest,^ whose share of heritage is Baircuth, was originally intended for the Church ; but inclining ratlier to sei'ular and military things, or his j)rosi>ects of promotion altering, he early quitted that ; and took vigorously to the career of arms and business. A truculent-looking lierr, with thoughtful eyes, and hanging under-lij) : — ///// of enviable softness; loose disk of felt flung carelessly on, almost like a nightcap artilicially extended, so admirably soft; — and the look of the man Ciisimir, between his cataract of black beard and this semi-iiightca]i, is carelessly truculent. He had much lighting with the Niirnbergers and others ; laid it right terribly on, in the way of strokes, when needful. He was es])ecially truculent upon the Revolt of Peasants in their liiiuernkrieg (1525). Them in their wildest rage he fronted ; he, that others might rally to him : " Unhappy mortals, will you shake the workl to pieces, then, because you have much to complain of ? " and hanged the ringleaders of them literally by the dozen, when quelled and captured. A severe, rather truculent Herr. His brother George, who had Anspach for heritage, and a right to half those prisoners, admonished and forgave his half; and pleaded hard with Casimir for mercy to the others, in a fine Letter still extant ; - which produced no effect on Casimir. For the dog's sake, and for all sakes, " let not the dog learn to eat leather " (of which his indispensable leashes and muzzles are made) I That was a proverb often heard on the occasion, in Luther's mouth among the rest. Casimir died in 1527, age then towards fifty. For the last dozen years or so, when the Father's malady became hopeless, he had governed Culmbach, both parts of it ; the Anspach 1 1481-1527. 2 In Rentsch, p. 627. l&O THE HOIIENZULLEUNS IN BRANDENBURG. Coi>k m. 1524. part, which belouged to his next brother George, going natu- rally, in almost all things, along with liaiveuth ; and George, who was commonly absent, not interfering, except on impor- tant occasions. Casimir left one little Boy, age then only six, name Albert ; to whom George, henceforth practical sovereign of Culmbach, as Ids Brother luid been, was appointed Guardian. This youth, very full of ih-e, wildlirc too mucli of it, exploded di-eadfully on GeruKUiy by and by (Albert Akihiadcs the name they gave him) ; n;iy, towards the end of liis nonage, he had been rather sputtery upon Ids Uncle, tlie excellent Guai'dian who had clxai-ge of him. FriedricKi Second Son, Marfjraf George of Anspach. Uncle George of Anspaeh, Casimir's next Brother, had always been of a peaceabler disposition than Casimir ; not indeed without lu-at of temper, and suiiiciciit vivacity of every kind. As a youth, he had aidtd Kaiser ^lax in two of his petty wars ; but was always rather given " to reading Latin," to Learning, and ingenious pursiuts. His Polish ^Mother, who, we perceive, had given "Casimir" his name, proved much more imix)rt;int to George. At an early age he went to his Uncle Vladislaus, King of Hungary and Bohemia : for — Alas, after all, we shall have to cast a glance into that un- beautiful Hungarian-Bohemian scramble, comparable to an " Irish Donnybrook," where Albert Achilles long walked as Chief-Constable. It behooves us, after all, to point out some of the tallest heads in it ; and whitherward, bludgeon in hand, they seem to be swaying and struggling. — Courage, patient reader ! George, then, at an early age went to his Uncle Vladislaus, King of Hungary and Bohemia : for George's ^lotlier, as we know, was of royal kin ; daughter of the Polish King, Casi- mir IV. (late mauler of the Teutseh Bitters) j which circum- stance had results for George and us. Daughter of Casimir IV. the Lady was ; and therefore of the Jagellon blood by her father, which amounts to little ; but by her mother she was Grand-daughter of that Kaiser Albert II. who "got Three Crowns in one year, and died the next ; " whose posterity have riiAP. V. OF THE BAIREUTII-ANSPACli BRANCH. 191 151U-1552. ever since, — up to the lips in trouble with their cmifused competitive accompaniments, Hunuiades, Corvinus, George Podiebrad and others, not to speak of dragon Turks coiling ever closer round you on the frontier, — been Kings of Hun- gary and Bohemia ; two of the crowns (the heritable two) which were got by Kaiser Albert in that memorable year. He got' them, as the reader may remember, by having the daughter of Kaiser Sigismund to wife, — Sigismund Siq^er-Grammaticam, whom we left standing, red as a flamingo, in the market-place of Constance a hundred years ago. Thus Time rolls on in its many-colored manner, edacious and feracious. It is in this way that George's Uncle, Vladislaus, Albert's daughter's son, is now King of Hungary and Bohemia : the last King Vladislaus they had; and the last King but one, of any kind, as we shall see anon. Vladislaus was heir of Poland too, could he have managed to get it ; but he gave up that to his brother, to various younger brothers in succession ; having his hands full with the Hungarian and Bohemian diificulty. He was very fond of Nephew George ; well recog- nizing the ingenuous, wdse and loyal nature of the young man. He appointed George tutor of his poor son Ludwig ; whom ne left at the early age of ten, in an evil world, and evil position there. "Born without Skin," they say, that is, born in the seventh month; — called Ludwig Ohne Haut (Ludwig iVb-Skin), on that account. Born certainly, I can perceive, rather thin of skin ; and he \vould have needed one of a rhinoceros thickness ! George did his function honestly, and with success : Ludwig grew up a gallant, airy, brisk young King, in spite of difficul- ties, constitutional and other ; got a Sister of the great Kaiser Karl V. to wife ; — determined (a.d. 1526) to have a stroke at the Turk dragon ; which was coiling round his frontier, and spitting fire at an intolerable rate. Ludwig, a fine young man of twenty, marched away with much Hungarian chivalry, right for the Turk (Summer 1526) ; George meanwhile going busily to Bohemia, and there with all his strength levying troops for reinforcement. Ludwig fought and fenced, for some time, with the Turk ovitskirts ; came at last to a fiu'ious 192 THE HOIIENZOLLERNS IN IHIANDENIU'RG. H.m.k 111. 1510-1652. general buttle with the Turk (29th August, 1520), at a place called Mohacz, fai- east in the flats of the Lower Donau ; and was there tragically beaten and ended. Seeing the Battle gone, and his chivalry all in flight, Ludwig too had to fly ; gallo|)ing for life, he ciuue upon bog which proved bottom- less, as good as bottomless; and Ludwig, horse and man, vanished in it straightway from this world. liai»less young man, like a flash of lightning suddenly going down there — and the Hungarian Sovereignty along with him. For Hun- gary is part of Austria ever since; having, with Bohemia, fallen to Kail V.'s Brother Ferdinand, as now the nearest con- venient heir of Albert with his Three Crowns. Up to tiie lips in (lirtioulties to this day ! — George meanwhile, with finely appointed reinforcements, was in full march to join Luilwig ; but the sad news of Mohacz met him : he withdrew, as soon as might be, to his own territory, and (juitted Hungarian politics. This, I think, Avas George's third and last trial of war. He by no means delighted in that art, or had cultivated it like Casimir and some of his brothers. — George by this time had considerable property ; part of it imjwrtant to the readers of this History. Anspach we abeady know ; but the Duchy of Jiigerndorf, — that and its pleasant valleys, fine hunting-grounds and larch-clad heights, among the Giant Mountains of Silesia, — that is to us the memora- ble territory. George got it in this manner : — Some ten or fifteen years ago, the late King "V^adislaus, our Uncle of blessed memory, loving George, and not having royal moneys at command, permitted him to redeem with his own cash certain Hungarian Domains, pledged at a ruinously cheap rate, but unredeemable by Vladislaus. George did so ; years ago, guess ten or fifteen. George did not like the Hun- garian Domains, with their Turk and other inconveniences ; he proposed to exchange them with King Vladislaus for the Bohemian-Silesian Duchy of Jagerndorf ; which had just then, by failure of heirs, lapsed to the King. This also Vladislaus, the beneficent cashless Uncle, liking George more and more, C'HAi-. V. OF THE BAIKEUTH-ANSPACH BKANCII. 19o 1510-1502. permitted to be done. And done it was; I see not in what year ; only tluit the ultimate investiture (done, this part of the affair, by Ludwig Ohne JIaui, and duly sanctioned by the Kaiser) dates 1524, two yeai-s before the fatal Mohacz busi- ness. From the time of this inirchase, and esjjecially till Brother Ciisimir's death, which happened in 1527, George resided oftener at JUgerndorf tiian at Anspach, Anspach, by the side of Baifeuth, needed no management ; and in Jjigerndorf much probably required the hand of a good Governor to put it straight again. The Castle of Jiigerndorf, which towers up there in a rather grand manner to tliis day, George built : *' the old Castle of the Schellenbergs " (extinct predecessor Line) now gone to ruins, "stands on a Hill with larches on it, some miles off." Margi-af George was much esteemed as Duke of Jugerndorf. AVhat his actions in that region were, 1 know not ; but it seems he was so well thouglit of in Sile- sia, two smaller neighboring Potentates, the Duke of Oppeln and the Duke of Katibor, who had no heirs of their body, bequeathed, with the Kaiser's assent, these towns and territo- ries to George:' — in mere love to their subjects (Rentsch intimates), that poor men might be governed by a wise good ])uke, in the time coming. The Kaiser would have got the Duchies otherwise. Nay the Kaiser, in spite oi' his preliminary assent, proved extortionate to George in this matter ; and exacted heavy sums for the actual possession of Oppeln and Ratlbor. George, going so zealously ahead in Protestant affairs, grew less and less a favorite with Kaisers. But so, at any rate, on peace- able unquestionable grounds, grounds valid as Imperial Law and ready money, George is at last Lord of these two little Countries, in the plain of South-Silesia, as of Jiigerndorf among the Mountains hard by. George has and holds the Duchy of Jagerndorf, with these appendages (Jagerndorf since 1524, Eatibor and Oppeln since some years later) ; and lives con- 1 Rentsch, pp. 623, 127-131. Kaiser is Ferdinand, Karl V.'s Brother, — as yet only King of Bohemia and Hungary, but supreme in regard to such points. His assent is dated " 17th June, 1531 " in Rentsch. VOL. Y. 13 194 THE IIOIIENZOLLEnXS IN BRANDENBURG. B«""t Ml. 1510-1062. stantly, or at the due intervals, in his own strong Mountain- Castle of Jiigerndorf there, — we have no doubt, to the marked benctit of good men in those parts. Hereby has Jiigerndorf jcMued itself to the Brandenburg Territories : and tlie reader can note the cireumstiiuce, for it will prove memo- rable one diiy. In the business of the Refonnation, ^largraf George was very noble. A simple-heaited, truth-loving, modestly valiant man ; rising unconsciously, in that great element, into the heroic figure. " George the Pious {der Fromine),^^ '* George the Confessor (Bekenner)," were the names he got from his country- men. Oncx! this business hail become practical, Georij;e inter- fered a little more in the Culmbach Government ; his brother Casiniir, who likewise hail lieformatiun tendencies, rather hanging back in comparison to George. In l.")25 the Town-populations, in the Culmbach region, big KUrnberg in the van, \\iu\ gone quite ahead in the new Doe- trine ; and were becomiiig irrepressibly impatient to clear out the old mendacities, anil have the Gosi)el preached freely to them. This was a questionable stepj feasible perhajjs for a great Elector of Saxony ; — but for a Margraf of Anspai-h ? George had come home from Jiigerndorf, some three hundred miles away, to look into it for himself ; found it, what with darkness all round, what with precipices menacing on both hands, and zealous, inconsiderate Town-populations threaten- ing to take the bit between their teeth, a frightfully intri- cate thing. George mounted his horse, one day this year, day not dated farther, and " with only six '■attendants " privately rode off, another two hundred miles, a good three days' ride, to Wittenberg; and alighted at Dr. Martinus Lutherus's door.* A notable passage ; worth thinking of. But such visits of high Princes, to that poor house of the Doctor's, were not then uncommon. Luther cleared the doubts of George ; George re- turned with a resolution taken ; *' Aliead then, ye poor Voigt- land Gospel populations ! I must lead you, we must on ! " — And perils enough there proved to be, and precipices on each 1 Rentsch, p. C25. V.»Ai: V. OF THE BAIKEU'ni-ANSPACH IJKAN'CII. 195 loih June, 1530. haud : JJaucrnhr'uy, that is to say Peasants'- War, Auabaijtistiy and Red-Republic, on the one hand ; Iteuhs-Avht, Pan of Em- pire, on the other. But George, eagerly, solemnly attentive, " with ever new light rising on him, dealt with the perils as they came ; and went steadily on, in a simple, highly manful and courageous manner. He did not live to see the actual Wars that followed on Luther's preaching : — he was of the same age with Luther, botn few months later, autl died two years before Luther ; ' — but in all the intermetliate principal transactions George is conspicuously present ; " George of Brandenburg," as the Books call him, or simply " Margraf George." At the Diet of Augsburg (1530), and the signing of the Augsburg Confession there, he was sure to be. He rode thither with his Anspach Knightage about him, <' four hundred cava- liers," — Seckendorfs, Huttens, Flanses and other known kin- dreds, recognizable among the lists;- — and spoke there, not bursts of parliamentary elotiuence, but things that had mean- ing in them. One speech of his, not in the Diet, but in the Kaiser's Lodging (loth June, 1530; no doubt, in Anton Fug- ger's house, where the Kaiser " lodged for year and day " this time but loithout the '• fires of cinnamon " they talk of on other occasions^), is still very celebrated. It was the evening of the Kaiser Karl Fifth's arrival at the Diet ; which was then already, some time since, assembled there. And great had been the Kaiser's reception that morning; the flower of Ger- many, all the Princes of the Empire, Protestant and Papal alike, riding out to meet him, in the open country, at the Bridge of the Lech. With high-flown speeches and benignities, on both sides ; — only that the Kaiser willed all men, Protes- tant and other, should in the mean while do the Popish litany- ings, waxlight processionings and idolatrous stage-performances lOth November, 1483— 18th February, 1546, Luther. 1 4th March, 14S4, — 27th Dec, 1543, George ; - "Rentsch, p. 633. ^ See Carlyle's Miscellanies (iii. 259 n.). The House is at present an Inn, " Gasih(tus zu den diet Mohren : " where tourists lodge, and are still shown the room which the Kaiser occupied on such visits. lOG llOlIKNZULLEliNS IN liliANDENBUUG. B-'^k "I- 15th June, 15.10. with him on the morrow, which was Corpiis-Christi Day ; aud the Protestants couhl not nor would. Imperial hints there had already been, from lunspruck ; benign hopes, of the nature of commands, That loyal Protestant Princes would in the in- terim avoid open discrei)ancies, — perhajjs be so loyal as keep their eliaplains, peculiar divine-services, i)rivate in the interim ? These were hints; — and now this of the Corpus-Christl, a still more pregnant hint ! Loyal Protestants refused it, therefore ; ilatly declined, though bidden and again bidden. Tliey at- tended in a body, old Johann of Saxony, young I'hilip of llessen, and the rest ; Margraf George, as spokesman, with eloquent simplicity stating their reasons, — to somewhat this effect : — Invinciblest all-gracious Kaiser, loyal are we to your high Majesty, ready to do your bidding by night and by day. Put it is your bidding under God, not against God. Ask us not, O gracious Kaiser! I cannot, and we cannot; and we must not, and dare not. And •• before I would deny my God and his Evangel,'' these are George's own words, " 1 would rather kneel down here before your ^lajesty, and have my head struck off," — hitting his hind-head, or neck, with the edge of his hand, by way of accompaniment; a strange radiance in the eyes of him, voice risen into musical alt : '* Ehe Ich u-olte meintn Gott und sein Evangelium verlciugnen, ehe wolte Ich hier vor Exirer Majestdt nklerknien, unci mir den Kopf ahhauen lassenr — '' Kit Kop ab, lover Forst, nit Kop ah!'' answered Charles in his Flemish-German; "Not head off, dear Furst, not head off ! " said the Kaiser, a faint smOe enlightening those weighty gray eyes of his, and imperceptibly animating the thick Austrian under-lip.* Speaker and company attended again on the morrow ; Mar- graf George still more eloquent. Whose Speech flew over Ger- many, like fire over dry flax ; and still exists, — both Speeches now oftenest rolled into one by inaccurate editors.^ And the Corpus-Christi idolatries were forborne the^Margraf and his 1 Rentsch, p. 637. Marheineke, GeschicJUe der Teutschen Reformation (Ber lin, 1831), ii. 487. - As by Rentsch, ubi suprk. CuAP.V. OF THE BAIKEUTH-ANSPACH BRANCH. 197 1516-1552. company this time; — the Kaiser liimself, however, walking, nearly roasted in the sun, in heavy purple-velvet cloak, with a big wax-candle, very superiluous, guttering and blubbering in the right hand of him, along the streets of Augsburg. Kur- Brandenburg, Kur-Mainz, high cousins of George, were at this Diet of Augsburg ; Kur-Brandenburg (Elector Joachim I., Cicero's son, of whom we have si)oken, and shall si)eak again) being often very loud on the conservative side ; and eloquent Kur-Mainz going on the conciliatory tack. Kur-Brandenburg, in his zeal, had ridden on to Innspruck, to meet the Kaiser there, and have a preliminary word with him. Both these high Cousins spoke, and bestirred themselves, a good deal, at this Diet. They had met the Kaiser on the plains of the Lech, this morning ; and, no doubt, gloomed unutterable things on George and his Speech. George could not help it. Till his death in 1543, George is to be found always in the front line of this high Movement, in the line where Kur-Sachsen, John the Steadfast (der Bestiindlge), and y( uug Philip the Magnanimous of Hessen were, and where danger and difficulty were. Eeaders of this enlightened gold-nugget generation can form to themselves no conception of the spirit that then pos- sessed the nobler kingly mind. "The command of God en- dures through Eternity, Verhiim Dei Manet In Sternum" was the Epigraph and Life-motto which John the Steadfast had adopted for himself ; *' V. D. M. I. ^.," these initials he had engraved on all the furnitures of his existence, on his stand- ards, pictures, plate, on the very sleeves of his lackeys, — and I can perceive, on his own deep heart first of all. V. D. M. I. E. : — or might it not be read withal, as Philip of Hessen some- times said (Philip, still a young fellow, capable of sport in his magnanimous scorn), " Verbum Diaboli Manet In Episcopis, The Devil's Word sticks fast in the Bishops " ? We must now take leave of Margraf George and his fine procedures in that crisis of World-History. He had got Ja- gerndorf, which became important for his Family and others : but what was that to the Promethean conquests (such we may call them) which he had the honor to assist in making for his V.)8 THE HOIIENZOLLERNS IN HHANDEXBUKG. H.'-k III. Family, and for liis Country, and for all men; — vi^ry uncon- scious he of "bringing fire from Heaven," good modest simjile man ! So far as I can gather, there lived, in that day, few truer specimens of the Honest Man. A rugged, rough-hewn, rather blunt-nosed physiognomy : cheek-bones high, cheeks somewhat bagged and wrinkly ; eyes with a due shade of anx- iety and sadness in them ; aifectionate simplicity, faithfulness, intelligence, veracity looking out of every feature of him. Wears jdentiful white beard short-cut, plentiful gold-chains, ruffs, ermines ; — a hat not to be approved of, in compari- son witli brother Casimir's ; miserable inverted-colander of a hat; hanging at an angle of forty-live degrees; with band of pearls nnind ilw top not the bottom of it ; insecure upon the line head of George, and by no means ^to its embellish- ment. One of his Daughters he married to the Duke of Liegnitz , a new link in that connection. He left one Uoy, George Friedrich ; who came under Alrihindcs, his Cousin of Baireuth's tutelage; and sulTered mucii by that connection, or indeed chiefly by his own conspicuously Protestant turn, to i)unish which, the Alcibiades connection was taken as a ])retext. In riper years, (Jeorge Friedrich got his calamities brought well under ; and lived to do good work, Protestant and other, in the world. To wliich we may perhaps allude again. The Line of Margraf George the Pious ends in this George Friedrich, who IukI no children; the Line of Margraf George, and the Elder Culmbach Line altogether (l()()o), Albert Alcibiades, Casimir's one son, having likewise died without posterity. "Of the younger Brothers,'' says my Authority, "some four were in the Church ; two of whom rose to be Prelates ; — here ai-e the four : — " 1°. One, Wilhelm by name, was Bishop of Riga, in the remote Prussian outskirts, and became Protestant ; — among the first great Prelates who took that heretical course ; being favored by circumstances to cast out the ' V. D. ( Verhum Dia- boli),' as l^hilip read it. He is a wise-looking man, witli mag- nificent beard, with something of contemptuous patience in the meditative eyes of him. He had great troubles with his Riga CHAi-. V. OF Till-: IJAIREUTII-ANSPACH BRANCH. 199 1510-1502. people, — as indeed was a perennial case between their Bishop and them, of whatever creed he might be. ' <' 2°. The other Prelate held fast by the Papal Orthodoxy : he had got upon the ladder of promotion towards Magdeburg; hoping to follow his Cousin Kur-Mainz, the eloquent concilia- tory Cardinal, in that part of his pluralities. As he did, — little to his comfort, poor man ; having suffered a good deal in the sieges and religious troubles of his ^Magdeburgers ; who ended ,by ordering him away, having openly declared them- selves Protestant, at length. He had to go ; and occupy him- self complaining, soliciting Aulic-Councils and the like, for the rest of his life. *'3°. The Probst of "Wiirzburg {Provost, kind of Head-Canon there) ; orthodox I'apal he too ; and often gave his Brother George trouble. *'4°. A still more orthodox specimen, the youngest member of the family, Avho is likewise in orders : Gumbrecht (• Gumber- tus, a Canonicus of ' Something or other, say the Books) ; who went early to Borne, and became one of his Holiness Leo Tenth's Chamberlains ; — stood the ' Sack of Rome ' (Consta- ble de Bourbon's), and was captured there and ransomed ; — but died still young (1528). These three were Catholics, lie of "Wiirzburg a rather virulent one." Catholic also was Joliannes, a fifth Brother, who followed the soldiering and diplomatic professions, oft?nest in Spain; did Government-messages to Diets, and the like, for Karl V. ; a high man and well seen of his Kaiser ; — he had wedded the young Widow of old King Ferdinand in Spain ; which proved, seemingly, a troublous scene for poor Johannes. What we know is, he was appointed Commandant of Valencia ; and died there, still little turned of thirty, — by poison it is supposed, — and left his young Widow to marry a third time. These are the Five minor Brothers, four of them Catliolic, sons of old blind Friedrich of Plassenburg ; who are not, for their own sake, memorable, but are mentionable for the sake of the three major Brothers. So many orthodox Catholics, while Brother George and others went into the heresies at such a rate ! A family much split by religion : — and blind 200 THE HOHENZOLLKKXS IN BKANDEMilliG. li<«'K Ml. 1525. old Fiiedrich, dim of intellect, knew notljing of it ; and the excellent Polish Mother said and thought, we know not what. A divided Time! — •Johannes of Valencia, and these Chief l^iiests, were all men of mark; conspicuous to the able editors of their day : but the only Brother now generally known to mankind is Albert, lloch- meister of the Teutsch Kitterdom; by whom Preussen came into the Family. Uf him we must now speak a little. CTTAPTEK VI. IIOCHMEISTEU ALIJKKT, THIKO NoTAULE SON OF FlUKDRICn. Albkkt was born in IP.K); (Jeorge's junior by six year? Casimir's by nine. He too had been meant for the Church \ but soon quitted that, other prospects and tendencies open- ing. He hiul always loved the ingenuous arts ; but the activities too had cliarms for him. He early shone in his exercises spiritual and bodily ; grew tall above his fellows, expert in arts, especially in arms; — rode with his Father to Kaiser Max's Court ; was presented by him, as the light of his eyes, to Kaiser Max ; who thought him a very likely young fellow ; and lx)re him in mind, when the Mastership of the Teutsch Ritterdom fell vacant.^ The Teutsch Ritterdom, ever since it got its back broken in that Battle of Tannenberg in 1410, and was driven out of West-Preussen with such ignominious kicks, has been lying bedrid, eating its remaining revenues, or sprawling about in helpless efforts to rise again, which require no notice from us. Hopeless of ever recovering West-Preussen, it had quietly paid its homage to Poland for the Eastern part of that Country ; quietly for some couple of genera- tions. But, in the third or fourth generation after Tannen- 1 Kentsch, pp. 840-863. %. ^■"Ai- VI. HOCIIMEISTER ALBERT. 201 1025. berg, there began to rise murmurs, — iu the Holy Roman Empire first of all, '' Preussen is a piece of the Reich," said hot, inconsiderate people ; " Preussen could not be alienated without consent of the Reich ! " To which discourses the altlicted Ritters listened only too gladly ; their dull eyes kindling into new false hopes at sound of them. The point was, To choose as Hoehmeister some man of German in- fluence, of power and connection in the Country, who might lulp thrtu to their so-called right. With this view, they chose one and then another of such sort ; — and did not find it very hopeful, as we shall see. Albert was chosen Grand-Master of Preussen, in February, lilll ; age then twenty-one. Made his entry into Kiinigsberg, November next year ; in grand cavalcade, " dreadful storm of rain and wind at the time," — poor Albert all in black, and full of sorrow, for the loss of his jNIother, the good Polish Prin- cess, who had died since he left home. Twenty months of preparation he had held since his Election, before doing any- thing : for indeed the case was intricate. He, like his prede- cessor in oftice, had undertaken to refuse that Homage to I'oland; the Reich generally, and Kaiser Max himself, in a loose way of talk, encouraging him : " A piece of the Reich," said they all ; *' Teutseh Ritters had no power to give it away in that manner." Which is a thing more easily said, than made good in the way of doing. Albert's predecessor, chosen on this principle, was a Saxon Prince, Friedrich of Meissen ; cadet of Saxony ; potently enough connected, he too ; who, in like manner, had under- taken to refuse the Homage. And zealously did refuse it, though to his cost, poor man. From the Reich, for all its big talking, he got no manner of assistance ; had to stave off a Polish War as he could, by fair-speaking, by diplomacies and contrivances ; and died at middle age, worn down by the sorrows of that sad position. An idea prevails, in ill-informed circles, that our new Grand- Master Albert was no better than a kind of cheat ; that he took this Grand-Mastership of Preussen ; and then, in gayety of heart, surreptitiously pocketed Preussen for his own be- 202 THE IIOIIENZOLLERXS IN BHANDENBUIUi. Bo<,k III. 1510-1552. hoof. Which is an idle idea ; inconsistent with the least inquiry, or real knowledge how the matter stood.^ By no means in gayety of heart did Albert pocket Preussen; nor till alter as tough a struggle to do other with it as could have been expected of any man. One thing not suspected by the Teutsch Ritters, and least of all by their young Hochmeister, was, That the Teutsch Eitters had well deserved that terrible down-come at Tannenberg, that ignominious dismissal out of West- I'reussen with kicks. Their insolence, luxury, degeneracy had gone to great lengths. Nor did that humiliation mend them at all ; the reverse rather. It was deeply hidden from the young Hochmeister as from them, That probably they were now at length got to the end of thfeir caj)ability : and ready to be withdrawn from the scene, as soon as any good way offered ! — Uf course, they were reluctant enough to fuliil their bargain to Poland; very loath they to do Homage now for Preussen, and own themselves sunk to the second degree. For the Kitters had still their old haughtiness of humor, their deei>-seated pride of place, gone now into the unhai)py conjicioics state. That is usually the last thing that deserts a sinking House : pride of place, gone to the conscious state ; — as if, in a reverse manner, the House felt that it deserved to sink. For the rest, Albert's position among them was what Friedrich of Sachsen's had been ; worse, not better ; and the main ultimate difference was, he did not die of it, like Friedrich of Sachsen; but found an outlet, not open in Friedrich's time, and lived. To the Ritters, and vague Public which called itself the Reich, Albert had promised he would refuse the Homage to Poland ; on which Ritters and Reich had clapt their hands : and that was pretty much all the as- sistance he got of them. The Reich, as a formal body, had never asserted its right to Preussen, nor indeed spoken definitely on the subject : it was only the vague Public that had spoken, in the name of the Reich. From the Reich, or from any individual of it. Kaiser or Prince, when actuiJly 1 Voigt, ix. 740-749 ; Pauli, iv. 404-407. CiiAP. vr. HOCHMEISTER ALBERT. 203 15JG-15.J2. applied to, Albert could get simply nothing. From what Eitters were in Preussen, he might perhaps expect prompti- tude to fight, if it came to that ; which was not much as things stood. But from the great body of the Ritters, scat- tered over Germany, with their rich territories {hallcijs, bailliwicks), safe resources, and comfortable " Teutschmeis- ter " over them, he got flat refusal : ' '• We will not be con- cerned in the adventure at all ; we wish you well through it ! '' Never was a spirited young fellow placed in more im- possible position. His Brother Casimir (George was then in Hungary), his Cousin Joachim Kur-Brandenburg, Friedrich Duke of Lieg- nitz, a Sik'sian connection of the Family,^ consulted, advised, negotiated to all lengths ; Albert's own effort was incessant. " Agree with King Sigismund," said they ; " Uncle Sigismund, your good Mother's Brother; a King softly inclined to us all!" — "How agree?" answered Albert: ''He insists on the 1 [omage, which I have promised not to give ! " Casimir went and came, to Konigsberg, to Berlin; went once himself to Cracow, to the King, on this errand : but it was a case of " Yes and No ; " not to be solved by Casimir. As to King Sigismund, he was patient with it to a de- gree ; made the friendliest paternal professions ; — testifying withal, That the claim was undeniable ; and could by him, Sig- ismund, never be foregone with the least shadow of honor, and of course never would: "My^ear Nephew can consider * The titles Hochmelster and Teutschmeister are defined, in many Books and in all manner of Dictionaries, as meaning the same thing. But that is not qnite tlie case. They wore at first synonj-mous, so far as I can sec ; and after Albert's time, tliey again became so ; but at the date where we now are, and for a long while back, they represent different entities, and indeed oftenest, since the Prussian Decline began, antagonistic ones. Teutschmeister, Sub- president over the German affairs and possessions of the Order, resides at Mergentheim in that Countr.' : Ilochmeister is Chief President of the whole, but resident at Marieuburg in Preussen ; and feels there acutely where the shoe pinches, — much too acutely, thinks the Teutschmeister in his soft list- slippers, at Mergentheim in the safe Wiirzburg region. 2 " Duke Friedrich II. : " comes by mothers from Kurfiirst Friedrich I. ; marries Margraf George's Daughter even now, 1519 (Hiibner, tt. 179, 100, 101). 204 THE IIOIIENZOLLEKNS IN BRANDENBURG. Book III. 1525. whether his dissolute, vain-minded, half-heretieal Kitterdom, nay whether this Prussian fraction of it, is in a condition to take Poland by the beard in an unjust quarrel ; or can hope to do Tannenberg over again in the reverse way, by Beelze- bub's help ? " — For seven years, Albert held out in this intermediate state, neither peace nor war ; moving Heaven and Earth to raise supplies, that he might be able to defy Poland, and begin war. The Reich answers, " We have really nothing for you." Teutschmeister answers again and again, " I tell you we have nothing ! " In the end, Sigismund grew impatient ; made (December, 1519) some movements of a hostile nature. Albert did not yield ; eager only to procrastinate till he were ready. By superhuman efforts, of borrowing, bargaining, soliciting, and galloping to and fro, Albert did, about the end of next year, get up some appearance of an Army : " 14,000 German mercenaries horse and foot," so many in theory ; who, to the extent of 8,000 in actual result, came marching towards him (October, 1520) ; to serve "for eight months." With these he will besiege Dantzig, besiege Thorn ; will plunge, suddenly, like a fiery javelin, into the heart of Poland, and make I'o- land surrender its claim. Whereupon King Sigismund be- stirred himself in earnest ; came out with vast clouds of Polish chivalry ; overset Albert's 8,000 ; — who took to eat- ing the country, instead of fighting for it ; being indeed in want of all things. One of the gladdest days Albert had yet seen, was when he got the 8,000 sent home again. What then is to be done ? " Armistice for four years," Sigismund was still kind enough to consent to that : " Truce for four years : try everywhere, my poor Nephew ; after that, your mind will perhaps become pliant." Albert tried the Reich again : " Four years, Princes, and then I must do it, or be eaten ! " Reich, busy with Lutheran-Papal, Turk-Christian quarrels, merely shrugged its shoulders upon Albert. Teutsch- meister did the like ; everybody the like. In Heaven or Earth, then, is there no hope for me? thought Albert. Ajid his stock of ready money — we will not speak of that! Meanwhile Dr. Osiander of Anspach had come to him ; and Chap. VI. * HOCHMEISTER ALBERT. 205 15i5. the pious young man was getting utterly shaken in his re- ligion. Monkish vows, Pope, Holy Church itself, what is one to think, Herr Doctor ? Albert, religious to an eminent degree, was getting deep into Protestantism. In his many jouxneyings, to Niirnberg, to Brandenburg, and up and down, he had been at Wittenberg too : he saw Luther in person more than once there ; corresponded with Luther ; in fine believed in the truth of Luther. The Culmbach Brothers were both, at least George ardently was, inclined to Protest- antism, as we have seen ; but Albert was foremost of the three in this course. Osiander and flights of zealous Culmbacli Preachers made many converts in Preussen. In these civ- cumstances the Four Years came to a close. Albert, we may believe, is greatly at a loss ; and deep de- liberations, Culmbach, Berlin, Liegnitz, Poland all called in, are held : — a case beyond measure intricate. You have given your word; word must be kept, — and cannot, without plain hurt, or ruin even, to those that took it of you. Withdraw, therefore ; fling it up ! — Fling it up ? A valuable article to fling up ; fling it up is the last resource. Nay, in fact, to whom will you fling it up ? The Prussian Bitters them- selves are getting greatly divided on the point; and at last on all manner of points. Protestantism ever more spreading among them. As for the German Brethi-en, they and their comfortable Teutschmeister, who refused to partake in the dangerous adventure at all; are they entitled to have much to say in the settlement of it now ? — Among others, or as chief oracle of all, Luther was con- sulted. "What would you have me do towards reforming the Teutsch Order ? " inquired Albert of his oracle. Luther's answer was, as may be guessed, emphatic. "Luther," says one reporter, "has in his Writings declared the Order to be ' a thing serviceable neither to God nor man,' and the consti- tution of it ^ a monstrous, frightful, hermaphroditish, neither secular nor spiritual constitution.' " ^ We do not know what Luther's answer to Albert was ; — but can infer the purport of it : That such a Teutsch Ritterdom was not, at any rate, 1 C. J. Weber, Das Rttterwesen (Stuttgard, 1837), iii. 208. - 203 IIOIIENZOLLERXS IN BRANDENBUKG. B..ok III. 8tli April, 1j25. a tiling long for this world ; that white cloaks with black crosses on them would not, of themselves, profit any Ritter- dom ; that solemn vows and high supramuiidaue professions, followed by such practice as was notorious, are an altiicting, not to say a damnable, spectacle on God's Earth ; — that a young Ilerr had better nuuTy ; better have done with the wretched Babylonian Nightmare of Papistry altogether ; bet- ter shake oneself awake, in God's name, and see if there are not still monitions in the eternal sky as to what it is wise to do, and wise not to do! — This I imagine to have been, in modern language, the purport of Dr. Luther's advice to lloch- meister Albrecht on the jjresent interesting occasion. It is certain, Albert, before long, took this course ; Uncle Sigismund and the resident Officials of the Rittcrdom having made agreement to it as the one practicable course. Tlu; man- ner as follows : 1°. Instead of Elected Hochmeister, let us be Hereditary Duke of Preussen, and i)ay homage for it to Uncle Sigismund in that character. 2°. Such of the resident Officials of the Kitterdom as are prepared to go along with us, we will in like manner constitute permanent Feudal Proprietors of what they now possess as Life-rent, and they shall be Sub- vassals under us as Hereditary Duke. 3°. In all which Uncle Sigismund and the Republic of Poland engage to maintain us against the world. That is, in sum, the Transaction entered into, by King Sigismund I. of Poland, on the one part, and Hochmeister Albert and his Ritter Officials, such as went along with him, (which of course none could do that were not Protestant), on the other part : done at Cracow, 8th April, 1525.^ AVhereby Teutsch Ritterdom, the Prussian part of it, vanished from 1 Rentsch, p. 8,50. — Here, certified by Rentsch, Voigt and others, is a worn-out patch of Paper, which is perhaps worth printing : — 1490, ^Nlaj 17, Albert is born. 1520, November 17, give it up. 1511, February 14, Hochmeister. 1521, April 10, Truce for Four Yeirs. 1519, December, King Sigismund's 1523, June, Albert consults Luther, first hostile movements. 1524, November, sees Luther. 1520, October, German Mercenaries 1525, April 8, Peace of Cracow, and arrive. Albert to be Duke of Prussia. 1520, November, try Siege of Dantzig. Chap. VI. HOCHMETSTER ALBERT. 207 151G-1552. the world ; dissolving itself, and its " liermaphrodite constitu- tion," like a kind of Male Nunnery, as so many female ones had done in those years. A Transaction giving rise to end- less criticism, then and afterwards. Transaction plainly not reconcilable with the letter of the law ; and liable to have logic chopped upon it to any amount, and to all lengths of time. The Teutschmeister and his German Brethren bl.rieked murder ; the whole world, then, and for long afterwards, had much to say and argue. To, us, now that the logic-chaff is all laid long since, the question is substantial, not formal. If the Teutsch Kitterdom was actually at this time dead, actually stumbling about as a mere galvanized Lie beginning to be putrid, — then, sure enough, it behooved that somebody should bury it, to avoid pestilential effects in the neighborhood. Somebody or other ; — first Haying the skin off, as was natural, and taking that for his trouble. All turns, in substance, on this latter question ! If, again, the Ritterdom was not dead — ? And truly it struggled as hard as Partridge the Almanac^ maker to rebut that fatal accusation; complained (Teutsch- meister and German-Papist part of it) loudly at the Diets ; got Albert and his consorts put to the Ban (fjedcldet), fiercely menaced by the Kaiser Karl V. But nothing came of all that ; nothing but noise. Albert maintained his point ; Kaiser Karl always found his hands full otherwise, and had nothing but stamped parchments and menaces to fire off at Albert. Teutsch Eitterdom, the Popish part of it, did enjoy its valuable bailli- wicks, and very considerable rents in various quarters of Ger- many and Europe, having lost only Preussen; and walked about, for three centuries more, with money in its pocket, and a solemn white gown with black cross on its back, — the most opulent Social Club in existence, and an excellent place for bestoAving younger sons of sixteen quarters. But it was, and continued through so many centuries, in every essential re- spect, a solemn Hypocrisy ; a functionless merely eating Phan- tasm, of the nature of goblin, hungry ghost or ghoul (of which kind there are many) ; — till Napoleon finally ordered it to vanish ; its time, even as Phantasm, being come. 208 THE HUilENZOLLERNS IN BKAXDENBUKG. B'-k III. lulO 1052. Albert, I can conjecture, had his own difficulties as Kegent in Preussen.^ Protestant Theology, to make matters worse for hira, had split itself furiously into 'doxies ; and there was an Uslanderlsm (Osiander being the Duke's ehajdain), much llamod upon by the more orthodox ism. " Foreigners," too, Gorman-Auspach and other, were ill seen by the native gentle- men ; yet sometiuu-s gut encouragement. One Funceius, a shining Nurnberg immigrant there, son-in-law of Osiander, who from Theology got into I'olities, had at last (1564) to be beheaded, — old Duke Albert himself "bitterly weeping" about him ; for it was none of Albert's doing. Probably his new allodial Kitter gentlemen were not the most submiss, when made hereditary ? We can only hope the Duke was a Hohenzollern, aiul not quite unequal to his task in tliis respect. A man with high bald brow ; magnificent S])ade- beard ; air much-pondering, almost gaunt, — gaunt kind of eyes especially, and a slight cast in them, which adds to his severity of aspect, lie kept his possession well, every inch of it ; and left all safe at his decease in 15GS. His age was then near eighty. It was the tenth year of our Elizabeth as Queen ; invincible A.ruiada not yet built ; but Alba very busy, cutting off high heads in Brabant; and stirring up the Dutcli to such fury as was needful fur exploding Spain and him. This Duke Albert was a profoundly religious man, as all thoughtful men then were. Much given to Theology, to Doc- tors of Divinity; being eager to know God's Laws in this Universe, and wholesomely certain of damnation if he shuuM not follow them. Fond of the profane Sciences too, especially of Astronomy : Erasmus Reinhold and his TabuUv Pruteni^xn wore once very celebrated ; Erasmus Eeinhold proclaims grate- luUy how these his elaborate Tables (done according to the latest discoveries, 1551 and onwards) were executed upon Duke Albert's high bounty ; for which reason they are dedi^ cated to Duke Albert, and called " Prutenicce" meaning Prus- sian.'^ The University of Konigsberg was already founded several years before, in 1544. Albert had not failed to marry, as Luther counselled : by 1 1525-1568. 2 Rentsch, p. 855. CiiAP. VII. ALBERT ALCIBIADES 209 1510-1552. his first Wife he had only daughters ; by his second, one son, Albeit Friedric'h, who, withtmt opposition or dirtieulty, suc- ceeded his Father. Thus was Preussen acquired to the llohen- zoHern Family ; for, before long, the Electoral branch managed to get MUbelehnung (Co-infeftmeut), that is to say, Event- ual Succession ; and Preussen became a Family Heritage, as Anspach and Baireuth were. CHAPTER vir. ALBERT ALCIBIADES. OxE word must be spent on poor Albert, 'Casimir's son,^ al- ready mentioned. This i)Oor Albert, whom they call Alcibiades, miule a groat noise in that epoch ; being what some define as the '* Failure of a Fritz ; " who has really features of him we are to call " Friedrieh the Great," but who burnt away his splendid qualities as a mere temporary shine for the able editors, and never came to anything. A high and gallant young fellow, left fatherless in child- hodd ; perhaps he came too early into power: — he came, at any rate, in very volcanic times, when Germany was all in convulsion ; the Old Keligion and the New having at length broken out into open battle, with huge results to be hoped and feared ; and the largest game going on, in sight of an adventurous youth. How Albert staked in it ; how he played to immense heights of sudden gain, and finally to utter bank- ruptcy, I cannot explain here : some German delineator of human destinies, " Artist " worth the name, if there were any, might find in him a fine subject. He was ward of his Uncle George ; and the probable fact is, no guardian could have been more faithful. Nevertheless, on approaching the years of majority, of majority but not discre- tion, he saw good to quarrel with his Uncle ; claimed this and that, which was not granted : quarrel lasting for years. Nay 1 152''-^ 557. VOL. V. 210 THE IIUIIENZOLLEKXS IN BRANDENHUIK;. li^>^^ I"- 1502. matters run so hij^^h at last, it was like to come to war between them, liad nut (Jeorge been wiser. The young leiiow actually sent a cartel to his Uncle ; challenged him to mortal combat, — at which George only wagged his old beard, we suppose, and said nothing. Neighbors interposed, the Diet itself in- terposed ; anil the matter was got quenched again. Leaving Albert, let us hoi)e, a repentant young man. We said he was lull of tire, too much of it wildlire. His profession was Arms; he shone much in war; went slashing and lighting through those 8chmalkaldic broils, and others of his time; a distinguished captain; cutting his way towards something high, he saw not well what. He hatl great comnuleship with Moritz of Saxony in the wars : two sworn brothers they, and comrades in arms,: — it is the same dexterous Moritz, who, himself a I'rotestiiut, managed to get his too Protestant Cousin's Electorate of Saxony into his hand, by luik of the game ; the Moritz, too, from whom Albert l)y and by got his bust defeat, giving Moritz his death in return. That was the tinale of their comradeship. All things end, and nothing ceases changing till it end. He was by position originally on the Kaiser's side ; had attained great eminence, and done high feats of arms an<l generalship in his service. But being a Protestant by creed, he changed after that Schmalkaldic downfall (rout of Miihl- berg, 24th April, 1547), which brought Moritz an Electorate, and nearly cost ^loritz's too Protestant Cousin his life as well as lands.* The victorious Kaiser growing now very high in his ways, there arose complaints against him from all sides, very loud from the Protestant side ; and JNIoritz and Albert took to arms, with loud manifestos and the other phenomena. This was early in 1552, five years after Muhlberg Rout or Battle. The there victorious Kaiser was now suddenly almost ruined; chased like a partridge into the Inuspruck ^Mountains, — could have been caught, only Moritz would not; ''had no cage to hold so big a bird," he said. So the Treaty 1 Account of it in De Wette, Lebensgeschichle der Ilerzogezu Sachsen (Wei- mar, 1770), pp. 32-35. « Chap. VII. ALBERT ALCIBIADES. 211 1552. of Passau was made, and the Kaiser came much down from his lofty ways. Famed Treaty of Passau (22d August, 1552), Avhich was the finale of these broils, and hushed them uj) for a Fourscore years to come. That was a memorable year in German Rc^formation History. Albert, meanwhile, had been busy in the interior of the country; blazing aloft in Frankenland, his native quarter, with a success that astonished all men. For seven months he was virtually King of Germany ; ransomed Bamberg, ransoirtfed A\'urzburg, Nurnberg (places he had a grudge at) ; ransomed all manner of towns and places, — especially rich Bi.shops and their towns, with Verbiim Dhiholi sticking in them, — at enormous sums. King of the world for a brief season ; — must have had some strange thoughts to himself, had they been recorded for us. A pious man, too ; not in the least like '' Alcibiades," except in the sudden changes of fortune he underwent. His Motto, or old rhymed Prayer, which he would repeat on getting into the saddle for mili- tary ^vork, — a rough rhyme of his own composing, — is still preserved. Let us give it, with an English fac-simile, or roughest mechanical pencil-tracing, — by way of glimpse into the heart of a vanished Time and its Man-at-arms : ^ Ikis wait dcr Uerr Jesus Christ, Guide it the Lord Jesus Christ,^ Mil dcm Vater, der iilirr tins ist : And the Father, who over us is : Wir starker ist ills dieser Mann, He that is stronger tlian tliat Man,* Der kornm wid ihu' ein Lei'd mir an. Let him do me a hurt when he can. He was at the Siege of Metz (end of that same 1552), and a principal figure there. Readers have heard of the Siege of Metz : How Henry II. of France fished up those " Three Bishoprics " (^letz, Toul, Verdun, constituent part of Lorraine, a covetable fraction of Teutschland) from the troubled sea of German things, by aid of Moritz now Kur-Sachsen, and of Albert ; and would not throw them in again, according to bargain, when Peace, the Peace of Passau came. How Kaiser Karl determined to have them back before the year ended, 1 Rentscl), p. 644. 2 Eead " Chris " or " Chriz," for the rhj-me's sake. 8 Sic. 212 THE IIOHEXZOLLERNS IN BRANDENBURG. B^kik m. cost what it might; and Henry II. to keep them, cost what it might. How Guise defemled, with all the Chivalry of France ; and Kaiser Karl besieged,* with an Army of 10(»,00() men, under Duke Alba for chief captain. Siege protracted into midwinter ; and the " sound of his cannon heard at Stras- burg," which is eighty miles off. " in tlie winter nights.'' " It had depended upon Al])ert, who hung in the distance with an army of his own, whether the Siege could even begin ; but he joined the Kaiser, l)eing reconciled again ; and the trenches opened. By the valor of Guise and his Chivalry, — still more perhaps by the iron frosts and l)y the sleety rains of Winter, and the hungers and the hardships of a limidrrd thousand mt-n, digging vainly at the ice-bound earth, or trampling it when sleety into s^as of mud, and themselves sinking in it, of dysentery, famine, toil and de- spair, as they cannonadeil day and night, — Mctz could not be taken. " Impossible ! " saiil the Generals with one voice, after trying it for a couple of months. "Try it one other ten days," said the Kaiser with a gloomy fixity; "let us all die, or else do it ! " They tried, with double desperation, another ten days ; cannon booming through the winter mid- night far and wide, four score miles round : " Cannot be done, your Majesty! Cannot, — the winter and the mud, and Guise and the walls ; man's strength cannot do it in this season. "We must march away ! '' Karl listened in silence ; but the tears were seen to run down his proud face, now not so young as it once was : " Let us march, then ! " he said, in a low voice, after some pause. Alcibiades covered the retreat to Diedenhof {Thlonville they now call it) : outmanoeuvred the French, retreated with success ; he had already captured a grand Due d'Aumale, a Prince of the Guises, — valuable ransom to be looked for there. It was thought he should have made his bargain * 19th October, 1552, and onwards. • Koliler, lii I'r/is-Ifistorie. p. 45."3 : — and more especially ^funzl^eIuxtitJunfJen (Nuruberg, 172y-i:r)0), ix. I21-129. The Year of this Volume, and of the Number in question, is 1737; the Mtinze or Medal "recreated upon" is of Henri II. Chap. VII. ALBERT ALCIBIADES. 213 1502. better with the Kaiser, before starting ; but he had neglected that. Albert's course was downward thenceforth ; Kaiser Karl's too. The French keep these ''Three Bishoprics (Trois A'vecheii)," and Teutschland laments tlie loss of thein, to this liour. Kaiser Karl, as some write, never smiled again ; — abdicated, not long after; retired into the ^Monastery of St. Just, and there soon died. That is the siege of Metz, where Alcibiades was helpful. His own bargain with the Kaise»* should have been better made beforehand. Dissatisfied with any bargain he could now get ; dissatisfied with the Treaty of Passau, with such a tinale and hushing-up of the Iveligious Controversy, and in general with himself and with the world, Albert again drew sword; went loose at a high rate u])on his liand)erg-Wurzburg enemies, and, having raised su])plies there, upon Moritz and those Passau-Treatiers. lie was beaten at last by Moritz, "Sunday, 9th July, 1553," at a place called Sievershausen in the Hanover Country, where ^loritz himself perished in the action. — Albert fled thereupon to 'France. No hope in France. No luck in other small and desperate stakings of his : the game is done. Albert returns to a Sister he had, to her Husband's Court in Baden ; a l)roken, bare and bankrupt man ; — soon dies there, childless, leaving the shadow of a name.^ His death brought huge troubles upon Baireuth and the Family Possessions. So many neighbors, Bamberg, Wiirz- burg and the rest, were eager for retaliation ; a new Kaiser greedy for confiscating. Plassenburg Castle was besieged, bombarded, taken by famine and burnt ; much was burnt and ^ Hero, diiefly from Kuhlcr {Mibizhelustigungen, iii. 414—416), is the chro- nology of Albert's operations : — Seizure of Niiruberg &c., 11th May to 22tl June, 1552; Innspruck (with Treaty of Passau) follows. Thcu Siege of Metz, October to December, 1552; Eamberg, Wiirzburg and Xiirnberg ransomed again, April, 1553; Battle of Sievershausen, 9th July, 1553. Wiirzburg &c. explode against him; Ban of the Em])ire, 4th May, 1554; To France thereupon; returns, hoping to negotiate, end of 155G; dies at Pforzheim, at his Sister's, 8th January, 1557. — See Pauli, iii. 120-138. See also Dr. Kapp, Erinnerungfn an diejenigen Marlcqrafen ^'c. (a reprint from the Ardiivfur Geschic/de und Alterthumskunde in Oher-Franken, Year 1841). 2U THE IIOIIENZOLLERNS IN BRANDENBUKG. B<>ok m. 1552, torn to waste. Xay, had it not been for help from Berlin, the Family had gone to utter ruin in those parts. For this Alcibiades had, in his turn, been Guardian to Uncle George's Son, the George Friedrich we once spoke of, still a minor, but well known afterwards ; and it was attempted, by an eager Kaiser Ferdinand, to involve this poor youth in his Cousin's illegalities, as if Ward and Guardian had been one person. Baireuth which hatl been Aleibiiules's, Anspach which w;xs the young man's own, nay Jiigerndorf with its Appendages, Avere at one time all in the clutches of the hawk, — had not help from Berlin been there. But in tlie end, the Law had to be allowed its course ; CJeorge Fried ridi got his own Terri- tories back (all but some surreptitious nibblings in the Jiigern- dorf quarter, to be noticed elsewhere), and also got Baireuth, his poor Cousin's Inheritance; — sole heir, he' now, in Culm- bach, the Line of Casimir being out. One owns to a kind of love for poor Albert Alcibiades. In certain sordid times, even a " Failure of a Fritz " is better than some Successes that are going. A man of some real nobleness, this AUx^rt; though not with wisdom enough, not with good fortune enough. Could he luive continued to " rule the situation " (as our French friends phnise it) ; to march the fanatical Papistries, and Kaiser Karl, clear out of it, home to Spain and San Justo a little earlier ; to wave the coming Jesuitries away, as with a flaming sword; to forbid before- hand the doleful Thirty-Years War, and the still dolefuler spiritual atrophy (the flaccid Pedantry, ever rummaging and rearranging among learned marine-stores, which thinks itself "Wisdom and Insight ; the vague maunderings, flutings ; indo- lent, impotent day-tlreaming and tobacco-smoking, of poor Modern Germany) which has followed therefrom, — Ach Gott, he might have been a " Success of a Fritz " three times over ! He might have been a German Cromwell ; beckoning his Peo- ple to fly, eagle-like, straight towards the Sun ; instead of screw- ing about it in that sad, uncertain, and far too spiral manner ! — But it lay not in him; not in his capabilities or opportuni- ties, after all : and v/e but waste time in such speculations. ruAi: VIII. MEANING OF THE REFORMATION. 215 CHAPTER YIIL HISTORICAL MEANING OF THE REFORMATION. The Culmbacli Brothers, we observe, play a more important part in that era than their seniors and chiefs of Brandenburg, These Culml)achers, Margraf George and Albert of Preussen at the head of them, march valiantly forward in the Reforma- tion business ; while Kur-Ilranileiihurg, Joachim I., their senior Cousin, is talking loud at Diets, galloping to Innspruck and the like, zealous on the Conservative side ; and Cardinal All)ert, Kur-Mainz, his eloquent brother, is eager to make matters smooth and avoid violent methods. The Reformation was the great Event of that Sixteentn Century ; according as a man did something in that, or did nothing and obstructed doing, has he mucli claim to memory, or no claim, in this age of ours. The more it becomes ai> parent that the Reformation was the Event then transacting itself, was the thing that Germany and Europe either did or refused to do, the more does the historical significance of men attach itself to the phases of that transaction. Accordingly we notice henceforth that the memorable points of Branden- burg History, what of it sticks naturally to the memory of a reader or student, connect themselves of their own accord, almost all, with the History of the Reformation. That has proved to be the Law of Nature in regard to them, softly establishing itself ; and it is ours to follow that law. Brandenburg, not at first unanimously, by no means too inconsiderately, but with overwhelming unanimity when the matter became clear, was lucky enough to adopt the Reforma- tion ; — and stands by it ever since in its ever-widening scope, amid such difficulties as there might be. Brandenburg had felt somehow, that it could do no other. And ever onwards 216 THE IIOHENZOLLERXS IN BRANDENBURG. B«ok HI- through the times even of our little Fritz and farther, if we will understand the word " lleformation," Brandenburg so feels ; being, at this day, to an honorable degree, incapable of believing incredibilities, of adopting solemn shams, or pre- tending to live on spiritual moonshine. Which has been of uncountable advantage to Brandenburg: — how could it fail? This was what we must call obeying the audible voice of Heaven. To which same " voice," at that time, all that did not give ear, — what has become of them since ; have they not signally had the penalties to i)ay ! " Penalties : " (puirrel not with the old phraseology, good reader; attend rather to the thing it means. The word was heard of old, with a right solemn meaning attached to it, from theological i)ulpits and such places ; and may still be heard there with a half-meaning, or with no meaning, though it has rather become obsolete to modern ears. But the thin^ should not have fallen obsolete ; the thing is a grand and solemn truth, expressive of a silent Law of Heaven, which continues forever valid. The most nntheological of men may still assert the thing; and invite all men to notice it, as a silent monition and proi)hecy in this Universe ; to take it, with more of awe than they are wont, as a correct reading of the Will of the Eternal in respect of such matters ; and, in their modern sphere, to bear the same well in mind. For it is perfectly certain, and may be seen with eyes in any quarter of Europe at this day. Protestant or not Protestant ? The question meant every- where : " Is there anything of nobleness in you, O Nation, or is there nothing ? Are there, in this Nation, enough of heroic men to venture forward, and to battle for God's Truth versus the Devil's Falsehood, at the peril of life and more ? Men who prefer death, and all else, to living under Falsehood, — who, once for all, will not live under Falsehood ; but having drawn the sword against it (the time being come for that rare and important step), throw away the scabbard, and can say, in pious clearness, with their whole soul : ' Come on, then ! Life under Falsehood is not good for me ; and we will try it out now. Let it be to the death between us, then ! ' " Chap. VIII. MEANING OF THE EEFORMATION. 217 1510-1552. Once risen into this divine white-heat of temper, were it only ft)r a seasou and not again, the Nation is thenceforth considerable through all its remaining histoiy. What im- mensities of dross and crypto-poisonous matter will it not bufn out of itself in that high temperature, in the course of a few years ! Witness Cromwell and his Puritans, — making England habitable even under the Charles-Second terms for a couple of centuries more. Nations are beneiited, I believe, for ages, by being thrown once into divine white-heat in this mannor. And no Nation that has not had such divine par- oxysms at any time is apt to come to much. That was now, in this epoch, the English of ''adopting Protestantism ; " and we need not wonder at the results which it has had, and which the want of it has had. For the want of it is literally the want of lo3'alty to the Maker of this Universe. He who wants that, what else has he, or can he have ? If you do not, you Man or you Nation, love the Truth enough, but try to make a chapman-bargain with Truth, instead of giving yourself wholly soul and body and life to her. Truth will not live with you. Truth will dei)art from you ; and only Logic, "Wit" (for example, ''London Wit"), Sophistry, Virtu, the .Esthetic Arts, and perhaps (for a short while) Book- keeping by Double Entry, will abide with you. You will foL low falsity, and think it truth, you unfortunate man or nation. You will right surely, you for one, stumble to the Devil ; and are every day and hour, little as you imagine it, making prog, ress thither. Austria, Spain, Italy, France, Poland, — the offer of the Reformation was made everywhere ; and it is curious to see what has become of the nations that would not hear it. In all countries were some that accepted ; but in many there were not enough, and the rest, slowly or swiftly, with fatal difficult industry, contrived to burn them out. Austria was once full of Protestants ; but the hide-bound Flemish-Spanish Kaiser-element presiding over it, obstinately, for two cen- turies, kept saying, " No ; we, with our dull obstinate Cim- burgis under-lip and lazy eyes, with our ponderous Austrian 218 THE HOHEXZOLLERNS IN BRANDENBURG. Book ill. 151G-1552. depth of Habituality and indolence of Intellect, we prefer steady Darkness to uncertain new Light I " — and all men may see where Austria now is. Spain still more ; pour Spain, going about, at this time, making its "jiroiiunciaini- entos;" all the factious attorneys in its little towns assem- bling to pronounce virtually this, " The Old is a lie, then ; — good Heavens, after we so long tried hard, harder than any nation, to think it a truth! — and if it be not Eights of Man, Red l\e])ublic and I'rogress of the Species, we know not what now to believe or to do ; and are as a people stum- bling on steep places, in the darkness of midnight ! " — They refused Trutli when she came ; and now Truth knows noth- ing of them. All stars, and heavenly lights, have become veiled to such men ; they must now follow terrestrial ignes fattii, and thiidc them stars. That is the dodm passed upon them. Italy too had its Protestants ; but Italy killed them ; man- aged to extinguish I'rotestantism. Italy put up silently with Practical Lies of all kinds ; and, shrugging its shoulders, preferred going into Dilettantism and the Fine Arts. The Italians, instead of the sacred service of Fact and Perform- ance, did Music, Painting, and the like: — till even that has become impossible for them ; and no noble Nation, sunk from virtue to virfit, ever offered such a spectacle before. He that will prefer Dilettantism in this world for his outfit, shall have it ; but all the gods will depart from him ; and manful ve- racity, earnestness of purpose, devout depth of soul, shall no more be his. He can if he like make himself a soprano, and sing for hire ; — and probably that is the real goal for him. But the sharpest-cut example is France ; to which we con- stantly return for illustration. France, with its keen intel- lect, saw the truth and saw the falsity, in those Protestant times ; and, with its ardor of generous impulse, was prone enough to adopt the former. France was within a hair's- breadth of becoming actually Protestant. But France saw good to massacre Protestantism, and end it in the night ot St. Bartholomew, 1572. The celestial Apparitor of Heaven's Chancery, so we may speak, the Genius of Fact and Veracity, CiiAr. IX. • KUIIFUIIST JOACHIM I. 219 1010-1552. had left his Writ of Summons ; Writ was read ; — and replied to ill this manner. The Genius of Fact and Veracity accord- ingly withdrew ; — was staved oif, got kept away, for two hundred years. But the writ of Summons had been served ; Heaven's Messenger could not stay away forever. No ; he returned duly ; with accounts run up, on compound interest, to the actual hour, in 1792; — and then, at last, there had to be a " Protestantism ; " and we know of what kind that was ! — Nations did not so understand it, nor did Brandenburg more than the others ; but the question of questions for them at that time, decisive of their history for half a thou- sand years to come, was, Will you obey the heavenly voice, or will you not ? CHAl'TER IX. KURFURST JOACHIM I. Brandenburg, in the matter of the Keformation, was at first — with Albert of Mainz, Tetzel's friend, on the one side, and Pious George of Anspach, " Nit Kop ab,^^ on the other — certainly a divided house. But, after the first act, it conspicu- ously ceased to be divided; nay Kur-Brandenburg and Kur- Mainz themselves had known tendencies to the Reformation, and were well aware that the Church could not stand as it was. Nor did the cause want partisans in Berlin, in Brandenburg, — hardly to be repressed from breaking into flame, while Kurf Urst Joachim was so prudent and conservative. Of this loud Kur- fiirst Joachim I., here and there mentioned already, let us now say a more express word.^ Joachim I., Big John's son, hesitated hither and thither for some time, trying if it would not do to follow the Kaiser Karl V.'3 lead ; and at length, crossed in his temper perhaps by the 1 1484, 1499, 1535 : birth, accession, death of Joachim. 220 THE IIOHENZOLLERNS IN BRANDENBURG. Book III. 151G-1552. speed his friends were going at, declared formally against any farther Reformation ; and in his own family and comitry was strict upon the point, lie is a man, as 1 judge, by no means without a temper of his own ; very loud occasionally in the Diets and elsewhere ; — reminds me a little of a certain King Friedrich Wilhelm, whom my readers shall know by and by. A big, surly, rather bottle-nosed man, with thick lips, abstruse wearied eyes, and no eyebrows to speak of: not a beautiful man, when you cross him overmuch. Of Joachim'' s Wife and Brother-in-law. His wife was a Danish Princess, Sister of poor Christian II., King of that Country : dissolute Christian, who took up with a huckster-woman's daughter, — '' mother sold gipgerbread," it would aj^pear, "at Bergen in Norway," where Christian was Viceroy ; Christian made acceptable love to the daughter, " Divike (Dovekin, Columbina)," as he called her. Nay he made the gingerbread mother a kind of prime-minister, said the angry public, justly scandalized at this of the "Dovekin." He was married, meanwhile, to Karl V.'s own Sister; but con- tinued that other connection.^ He had rash notions, now for the Reformation, now against it, when he got to be King; a very rash, unwise, explosive man. He made a " Stockholm Bluthad " still famed in History (kind of open, ordered or per- mitted. Massacre of eighty or a hundred of his chief enemies there), "Bloodbath," so they name it; in Stockholm, where indeed he was lawful King, and not without unlawful enemies, had a bloodbath been the way to deal with them. Gustavus Vasa was a young fellow there, who dexterously escaped this Bloodbath, and afterwards came to something. In Denmark and Sweden, rash Christian made ever more enemies ; at length he was forced to run, and they chose another King or successive pair of Kings. Christian fled to Kaiser Karl at Brussels ; complained to Kaiser Karl, his 1 Hero arc the dates of this poor Christian, in a lump. Born, 1481 ; King, 1513 (Dovekin hefore) ; married, 1515 ; turned off, 1523; invades, taken pria- oner, 1532 ; dies, 1559. Cousin, and then Cousin's Son, succeeded. Chap. IX. * KURFUEST JOACHIM I. 221 1510-1552. Brotlier-in-law, — whose Sister he had not used well. Kaiser Karl listened to his complaints, with hanging under-lip, with heavy, deep, undecipherable eyes ; evidently no help from Karl. -Christian, after that, wandered about with inexecutable speculations, and projects to recover his crown or crowns ; sheltering often with Kurfurst Joachim, who took a great deal of trouble about him, first and last; or with the Elector of Saxony, Friedrich the Wise, or after him, with Johann the Steadfast (" V. D. M. I. JE." whom we saw at Augsburg), who were his Mother's Brothers, and beneficent men. He was in Saxony, on such terms, coming and going, when a certain other Flight thither took place, soon to bo spoken of, which is the cause of our mentioning him here. — In the end (a.d. 1532) he did get some force together, and made sail to Norway ; but could do no execution whatever there ; — on the contrary, was frozen in on the coast during winter ; seized, carried to Copen- hagen, and packed into the "Castle of Sonderburg," a grim sea-lodging on the shore of Schleswig, — prisoner for the rest of his life, which lasted long enough. Six-and-twenty years of prison ; the first seventeen years of it strict and hard, almost of the dungeon sort ; the remainder, on his fairly abdi- cating, was in another Castle, that of Callundborg in the Island of Zealand, " with fine apartments and conveniences," and even " a good bouse of liquor now and then," at discretion of the old soul. That Avas the end of headlong Christian II. ; he lasted in this manner to the age of seventy-eight.^ His Sister Elizabeth at Brandenburg is perhaps, in regard to natural character, recognizably of the same kin as Chris- tian ; but her behavior is far different from his. She too is zealous for the Reformation ; but she has a right to be so, and her notions that way are steady ; and she has hitherto, though in a difficult position, done honor to her creed. Surly Joachim is difficult to deal with ; is very positive now that he has de- clared himself : " In my house at least shall be nothing farther 1 Kohler, j^IunzhehietHjimgen, xi. 47, 48 ; Holberg, Diinemarclcische Staats-und Retchs-Historie (Copenhagen, 1731, not the big Book by Holberg), p. 241 j Buddaus. Allgemeines Historisches Lexicon (Leipzig, 1709), § Christianas II. 222 THE IIOIIENZOLLEIiNS IN BRANDENBUKG. Bo<'k III. 15-28. of that unblessed stuff." Poor Lady, I see domestic difficulties \ery thick upon her; nothing but division, the very children ranging tliemselves in parties. She can pray to Heaven ; she must do her wisest. She partook once, by some secret opportunity, of the "com- munion under both kinds ; " one of her Daugliters noticed a)id knew ; told Father of it. Father knits up his thick lips ; rolls his abstruse dissatistied eyes, in an ominous manner: the poor Lady, probably possessed of an excitable imagination too, trendiles for herself. "It is thought. His I>u/r/tlaurhi will Avail you up for life, my Serene Lady; dark prison for life, which probably may not be long ! " These surmises were of no credibility : but there and then the poor Lady, in a shiver of terror, decides that she must run ; goes off actually, one night (" Monday after the Lcctare," which w^ lind is 24th March) in the j'^ear 1528,* in a mean vehicle under cloud of darkness, with only one maid and groom, — driving for life. That is very certain : she too is on flight towards Saxony, to shelter with her uncle Kurfiirst Johann, — unless for reasons of state he scruple ? On the dark road her vehicle broke down ; a spoke given way, — " Not a bit of rope to splice it," said the improvident groom. " Take my lace-veil here," said the poor Princess ; and in this guise she got to Torgau (I could guess, her poor Brother's lodging), — and thence, in short time, to the tine Schloss of Lichtcnberg hard bj' ; Uncle Johann, to 1 P.inli (ii. 584); who cites Scokcmlorf, and this fraction of a Letter of Luther's, to one " Linckus " or Lincke, wTitten on the Friday following (28th March, 1528): — " The Electress [Margravine he calls her] has fled from Berlin, by help of her Brother tlic King of Denmark [poor Christian II.] to our Prince [Johann the Steatlfast], because her Elector liad determined to wall her up, as is reported, on account of the Eucharist under both species. Pray for our Prince ; the pious man and affectionate soul gets a great deal of trouble with hia kindred." Or thus in the Original : — " Marchionissa aufugit a Berlin, auxilio fratris, Regis Danice, ad nostrum Principem, quod Mar chio statuerai earn immurare (ut dicitur) propter Ewharistiam utriuiqne specici. Ora pro nostra Principe ; der fronime Mann nnd herzliche !Menscli ist doch ja wohl geplaget " (Seckendorf, Historia Luther anismi, ii. § 62, No. 8, p. 122). Ctiap. IX. KURFURST JOACHIM T. 223 1510-1552. whom she had zealously left an option of refusal, having as zealously permitted and invited her to continue there. Which she did for many years. Nor did she get the least molestation from Husband Joachim ; Avho I conjecture had intended, though a man of a certain temper, and strict in his own house, something short of Availing up for life : — poor Joachim withal ! "How- ever, since you are gone, ^Madam, go ! " Nor did he concern himself with Christian II. farther, but let him lie in prison at his.leisure. As for the Lady, he even let his children visit her at Lichtenberg ; Crypto-Protestants all ; and, among them, the repentant Daughter who had peached upon her. I'oor Joachim, he makes a pious speech on his death-bed, solemnly w;u-ning his 8on against these new-fangled heresies ; the Son being already possessed of them in his heart.^ What could Father do more ? Both Father and Son, I suppose, were weeping. This was in 1535, this last scene ; things looking now more ominous than ever. Of Kurfiirst Joacliim I w-ill remember nothing farther, except that once, twenty- three years before, he " held a Tourney in Neu-Ruppin," year 1512 ; Tourney on the most maguiticent scale, and in New- Rupi)in,-^ a place we shall know by and by. As to the Lady, she lived eighteen years in that fine Schloss of Lichtenberg ; saw her children as we said ; and, silently or otherwise, rejoiced in the creed they were getting. She saw Luther's self sometimes ; " had him several times to dinner ; " he would call at her Mansion, when his journeys lay that way. She corresponded with him diligently ; nay once, for a three months, she herself went across and lodged with Dr. Luther and his Kate ; as a royal Lady might with a heroic Sage, — though the Sage's income was only Twenty -four pounds ster- linsr annuallv. There is no doubt about that visit of three months ; one thinks of it, as of something human, something homely, ingenuous and pretty. Nothing in surly Joachim's history is half so memorable to me, or indeed memorable at all in the stage we are now come to. The Lad}- sur^nved Joachim twenty years ; of these she 1 Speech given in Rentsch, pp. 434-439. ^ Pauli, ii. 466. 224 THE nOIIENZOLLERXS IX BRANDENBURG. Book III. l.jJ(J-15,V2. spent eleven still at Lichtenberg, in no ovor-haste to return. However, her Son, the new Elector, declaring for Protestant- ism, she at length yielded to his invitations : came back (lo4G), and ended her days at Berlin in a peaceable and venerable manner. Luckless Brother Christian is lying under lock-and-key all this while ; smuggling out messages, and so on; like a voice from the land of Dreams or of ^Nightmares, painful, impracticable, coming uow aud then. CIIArXER X. KURFURST JOACHIM II. JoAcniM IT.. Sixth Elector, no doubt after painful study, and intricate silent consideration ever since his twelfth year when Lutlier was first heard of over the world, came grad- ually, and before his Father's death had alrcaily come, to the conclusion of adopting the Confession of Augsburg, as the true Interpretation of this Universe, so far as we had yet got ; aud did so, publicly, in the year 1539.* To the great joy of Ber- lin and the Brandenburg populations generally, who had been of a Protestant humor, hardly restrainable by Law, for some years past. By this decision Joachim held fast, with a stout, weighty grasp ; nothing spasmodic in his way of handling the matter, and yet a heartiness which is agreeable to see. He could not join in the Schmalkaldic War ; seeing, it is prob- able, small chance for such a War, of many chiefs and little counsel; nor was he willing yet to part from the Kaisev Karl v., who was otherwise very good to him. He had fought personally for this Kaiser, twice over, against the Turks ; first as Brandenburg Captain, learning his art; and afterwards as Kaiser's Generalissimo, in 1542. He did no good upon the Turks, on that latter occasion ; as indeed what good was to be done, in such a quagmire of futili- ' Eentsch, p. 452. Chai-. X. KURFURST JOACHIM II. 225 151G-1552. ties as Joachim's element there was? "Too sumptuous in his dinners, too much wine withal ! " hint some calumni- ously.^ "Hector of Germany!" say others. He tried some small prefatory Siege or scalade of Pesth ; could not do it ; arid came his ways home again, as the best course. Pedant Chroniclers give him the name Hector, " Joachim Hector," — to match that of Cicero and tliat of Achilles. A man of solid structure, this our Hector, in body and mind : extensive cheeks, very large heavy-laden face ; capable of terrible bursts of anger, as his kind generally were. The Schmalkaldic War went to water, as the Germans phrase it : Kur-Sachsen, — that is, Johann Friedrich the Mag- nanimous, Son of Johann " V. D. M. I. iE.," and Nephew of Friedrich tlie Wise, — had his sorrowfully valid reasons for the War ; large force too, plenty of zealous copartners, Philip of Hessen and others ; but no generalship, or not enougli, for such a business. Big Army, as is apt enough to happen, fell short of food; Kaiser Karl hung on the outskirts, waiting con-fidently till it came to famine. Johann Friedrich would attempt nothing decisive while provender lasted ; — and hav- ing in the end, strangely enough, and somewhat deaf to advice, divided his big Army into three separate parts, — Johann Friedrich was himself, with one of those parts, surprised at ^liihlberg, on a Sunday when at church (24th Ajiril, 1547) ; and was there beaten to sudden ruin, and even taken captive, like to have his head cut off, by the trium- phant angry Kaiser. Philip of Hessen, somewhat wiser, was home to Marburg, safe with his part, in the interim. — Elec- tor Joachim II. of Brandenburg had good reason to rejoice in his own cautious reluctances on this occasion. However, he did now come valiantly up, hearing what severities were in the wind. He pleaded earnestly, passionately, he and Cousin or al- ready '• Elector " Moritz,^ — who was just getting Johann Friedrich's Electorship fished away from him out of these troubles,^ — for Johann Friedrich of Saxony's life, first of aU. 1 Paulus Jovius, &c. See Pauli, iii. 70-73. * Pauli, iii. 102. 8 Kurfiirst, 4th June, 1547. VOL. V. 15 226 IIOIIEXZOLLERXS IN BRANDENBURG. ^'^ok III. 20th June, 1547. For Johann's life first ; this is a thing not to be dispensed with, your Majesty, on any terms whatever ; a sine qua non, this life to Trotestant Germany at large. To whir-h the Kaiser indicated, ** lie would see ; not immediate death at any rate ; we will see." A life that could not and must not be taken in this manner: this was the ^"/v/ point. Then, seeou<lli/, that Philip of Ilessen, now home again at Marburg, — not a bad or disloyal man, thougli headlong, and with two wives, — might not be forfeited ; but that peace and pardon might be granted him, on his entire submission. To which second point the Kaiser answered, " Yes, then, on liis submission." These were the two points. These pleadings went on at llalle, where the Kaiser now lies, in triumphantl}' victorious humor, in tlie early days of June, Year 1547. Johanq Friedrich of Saxony li 1 1 been, by some Imperial Court-Couneil or other, — Spanish merely, I suppose, — doomed to die. Sentence was signified to him while he sat at chess: "Can wait till we end the game," thought Johann ; — ^' Pcrfjnmiis,'^ said he to his comrade, " Let us go on, then ! " Sentence not to be executed till one see. With Philip of Hessen things had a more conclusive aspect. Pliilip had aeeei)ted the terms i)roeured for him ; which hatl been laboriously negotiated, brought to paper, and now wanted only the sign-manual to them .• " Ohne einlgen Gefdnrjiiiss (with- out any imprisonment)," one of the chief clauses. And so I'hilip now came over to Halle; was met and welcomed by hi.s two friends, Joachim and ^loritz, at Naumburg, a stage before Ilalle ; — clear now to make his submission, and beg pardon of the Kaiser, according to bargain. On the morrow, 19th June, ir)47, the Papers were got signed. And next day, 20th June, Philip did, according to bargain, openly beg pardon of the Kaiser, in his Majesty's Hall of Audience (Town House of Halle, I suppose) ; " knelt at the Kaiser's feet publicly on both knees, while his Kanzler read the submission and en- treaty, as agreed upon ; " and, alas, then the Kaiser said nothing at all to liim ! Kaiser looked haughtily, with im- penetrable eyes and shelf-lip, over the head of him ; gave him no hand to kiss ; and kft poor Pliilip kneeling there. An Omai- X. KURFtJKST JOACHIM II. 227 151tJ-1552. awkward position indeed ; — which any German I^ainter that there were, niiyht make a I'icture of, I have sometimes tliought. I'icture of som^ real meaning, more or less, — if for symbolic Towers of Babel, mediaeval mythologies, and exten- sive smearings of that kind, he could find leisure ! — Philip having knelt a reasonable time, and finding there was no help for it, rose in the dread silence (some say, with too sturd}' an expression of countenance) ; and retired from the affair, hav- ing at least done his part of it. The next practical thing was now supper, or as we of this age should call it, dinner. Uucommouly select and high sup- ])t'r : host the Duke of Alba ; where Joachim, Elector Moritz, and another high Official, the Bishop of Arras, were to wel- come poor Fhili}) after his troubles. How the grand sui»i)er went, I do not hear : possibly a little constrained ; the Kaiser's strange silence sitting on all men's thoughts ; not to be spoken of in the present company. At lengtli the guests rose to go away. Fhilii)'s lodging is with Moritz (who is his son-in-law, as learned readers know) : *< You Philip, your lodging is mine ; my lodging is yours, — I should say ! Cannot we ride to- gether ? '' — '• JMiilip is not permitted to go," said Imperial Officiality; ''Philip is to continue here, and we fear go to jirison." — " Prison ? '' cried they all : •" Ohne einigen Gefdnrj- nlss (without a??// imprisonment) ! '' — "As we read the words, it is ' Ohne ewigen Gcfiingniss (without eteraal imprison- ment),'" answer the others. And so, according to popular tradition, which has little or no credibility, though printed in many Books, their false Secretai'y had actually modified it. " Xo intention of imprisoning his Durchlaucht of Hessen forever ; not forever ! "' answered they. And Kurf iirst Joa- chim, in astonished indignation, after some remonstrating and arguing, louder and louder, which profited nothing, blazed out into a very whirlwind of rage ; di-ew his sword, it is whispered with a shudder, — drew his sword, or was for drawing it, upon the D\ike of Alba; and would have done, God knows what, had not friends flung themselves between, and got the Duke away, or him away.^ Other accounts bear, that it was upon 1 Pauli, iii. 103. 228 THE IIOIIENZOLLEKNS IN BRANDENBUKG. Book III. 1548. the Bishop of Arras he drew his sword ; which is a somewhat different matter. Perhaps he drew it ou both ; or on men and things in general ; — for his indignation knew no bounds. The heavy solid man ; yet with a human heart in him after all, and a Hohenzollern abhorrence of chicanery, capable of rising to the transcendent pitch ! His wars against the Turks, and liis other Hcctorships, 1 will forget ; but this, of a face so extensive kindled all into divine tii-e for poor Philip's sake, shall be memorable to me. I'hilip got out by and by, though with difficulty ; the Kaiser proving very stiff in the matter ; and only yielding to obsti- nate pressures, and the force of time and events. Philip got away ; and th«n how Johann Friedrich of Sachsen, after being led about for five years, in the Kaiser's train, a condemned man, liable to be executed any day, did likewise at last get away, with his head safe and Electorate gone : these are known Historical events, which we glanced at already, on another score. For, by and by, the Kaiser found tougher solicitation than tliis of Joachim's. The Kaiser, by his high carriage in this and other such matters, had at length kindled a new War round him ; and lie then soon found himself reduced to ex- tremities again ; chased to the Tyrol Mountains, and obliged to com])ly with many things. New War, of quite other em- phasis and management than the Schmalkaldic one ; managed by Elector !Moritz and our poor friend Albert Alcibiades as l)rincipals. A Kaiser chased into the mountains, capable of being seized by a little spurring; — "Capture him?" said Albert. " I have no cage big enough for such a bird ! " an- swered ^loritz ; and the Kaiser was let run. How he ran then towards Treaty of Passau (1552), towards Siege of Metz and other sad conclusioas, " Abdication " the finale of them : these also are known phases in the Reformation History, as hinted at above. Here at Halle, in the year 1547, the great Kaiser, with Protestantism manacled at his feet, and many things going prosperous, was at his culminating point. He published his Interim (1548, V>'hat you troublesome Protestants are to do. C.uAv. X. KURFURST JOxVCHIM II. 229 1548. in the mean time, while the Council of Trent is sitting, and till it and I decide for you) ; and in short, drove and reined-in the Reich with a high hand and a sharp whip, for the time being. Troublesome Protestants mostly rejected the Interim ; Moritz and Alcibiades, with France in the rear of them, took to arms in that way ; took to ransoming fat Bishoprics (" Ver- hu)ti Diaholi Manet,'' we know where!); — took to chasing Kaisers into the mountains ; — and times came soon round again. In all these latter broils Kurf iirst Joachim II., deeply interested, as we may fancy, strove to keep quiet ; and to pre- vail, by weight of influence and wise counsel, rather than by lighting with his Kaiser. One sad little anecdote I recollect of Joachim : an Accident, which happened in those Passau-Interim days, a year or two after that drawing of the sword on Alba. Kurfiirst Joachim unfortunately once fell through a staircase, in that time ; being, as I guess, a heavy man. It was in the Castle of Grimnitz, one of his many Castles, a spacious enough old Hunting-seat, the repairs of which had not been well attended to. The good Ilerr, weighty of foot, was leading down his Electress to din- ner one day in this Schloss of Grimnitz ; broad stair climbs round a grand Hall, hung with stag-trophies, groups of weap- ons, and the like hall-furniture. An unlucky timber yielded ; yawning chasm in the staircase ; Joachim and his good Prin- cess sank by gravitation ; Joachim to the floor with little hurt ; his poor Princess (horrible to think of), being next the wall, came upon the stag-horns and boar-spears down below ! ^ The poor Lady's hurt was indescribable : she walked lame all the rest of her days ; and Joachim, I hope (hope, but not with confidence),'^ loved her all the better for it. This unfortunate old Schloss of Grimnitz, some thirty miles northward of Ber- lin, was — by the Eighth Kurfiirst, Joachim Friedrich, Grand- sou of this one, with great renown to himself and to it — (converted into an Endowed High Scliool : the famed Joachims- thal Gymnasium, still famed, though now under some change of circumstances, and removed to Berlin itself.^ Joachim's first Wife, from whom descend the following 1 Tauli, iii. 112. 2 ib. iii. 194. 3 Kicolai, p. 725. 2C0 THE IIOIIENZOLLERNS IN BIJANDEXBURG. li^<J'^ Ul. lOlG-1552. Kurfiirsts, was a daughter of that Duke George of Saxony, Luther's celebrated friend, " If it rained Duke-Georges nine days running." Joachim gets Co-infeftment in Preussen. This second Wife, she of the accident at Grimnitz, was Hed- wig, King Sigismund of Pohind's daughter ; which connection, it is thought, helped Joachim well in getting what they call the Mithelehming of Preussen (for it was he that achieved this point) from King Sigismund. Mithelehnung (Co-infeftment) in Preussen ; — whereby is sol- emnly acknowledged the right of Joachim and his ]*osterity to the reversion of Preussen, should the Culmbach Line of Duke Albert happen to fail. It was a thing Joachim long strove for ; till at length his Father-in-law did, some twenty years hence, concede it him.* Should Albert's Line fail, then, the other Culmbachers get Preussen ; should the Culmbachers all fail, the P>erlin Prandenburgers get it. The Culmbachers are at this time rather scarce of heirs : poor Alcibiades died child- less, as we know, and Casimir's Line is extinct ; Duke Albert himself has left only one Son, who now succeeds in Preussen ; still young, and not of the best omens. IMargraf George the Pious, he left only George Friedi-ich ; an excellent man, who is now prosperous in the world, and wedded long since, but has no children. So that, between Joachim's Line and Preussen there are only two intermediate heirs ; — and it was a thing eminently worth looking after. Nor has it wanted that. And so Kurfurst Joachim, almost at the end of his course, has now made sure of it. Joachim makes ^'' Heritaje-Brotherhood^'' with the Diike of Liegnitz. Another feat of like nature Joachim II. had lonsr a^o achieved ; which likewise in the long-run proved important in his Family, and in the History of the world : an ^^ Erbver- 1 Date, Lublin, 19th July, 1568: Pauli, iii. 177-179, 193; Rentsch, p. 457 ; Stenzel. i. 341. 342. Chap. X. KURFURST JOACHIM 11. 231 1510-1552. hi-uderung,^^ so they term it, with the Duke of Liegnitz, — (late 1537. Erhverhmderung (" Heritage-brotherhood," meaning Covenant to succeed reciprocally on Failure of Heirs to either) -liad in all times been a common paction among German Princes well affected to each other. Friedrich II., the then Duke of Liegnitz, we have transiently seen, was related to the Family ; he had been extremely helpful in bringing his young friend, Albert of Preussen's affairs to a good issue, — whose Niece,' witjial, he had wedded : — in fact, he was a close friend of this our Joachim's ; and there had long been a growing connection between the two Houses, by intermarriages and good offices. The Dukes of Liegnitz were Sovereign-Princes, come of the old Piasts of Poland ; and had perfect right to enter into this transaction of an Erbverhruderiuuj with whom they liked. True, they had, above two hundred years before, in the days of King Johann Ich-dien (a.d. 1329), voluntarily constituted them- selves Vassals of the Crown of Bohemia : ^ but the right to djsjjose of their Lands as they pleased had, all along, been carefully u"knowledged, and saved entire. And, so late as 1521, just sixteen years ago, the Bohemian King Vladislaus the Last, our good Margraf George's friend, had expressly, in a Deed still extant, confirmed to them, with all the emphasis and amplitude that Law-Phraseology could bring to bear upon it, the right to dispose of said Lands in any manner of way : "by written testament, or by verbal on their death-bed, they can, as they see wisest, give away, sell, pawn, dispose of, and exchange {_verge.hen, verkauferij versetzen, verschaffe7i, verv;ech- seln) these said lands," to all lengths, and with all manner of freedom. Which privilege had likewise been confirmed, twice over (1522, 1524), by Ludwig the next King, Ludwig Ohne- Haut, who perished in the bogs of Mohacz, and ended the native Line of Bohemian -Hungarian Kings. Nay, Ferdinand, King of the Eonians, Karl V.'s Brother, afterwards Kaiser, who absorbed that Bohemian Crown among the others, had himself, by implication, sanctioned or admitted the privilege, in 1529, only eight years ago,^ The right to make the Erhverbruderu7ig could not seem doubtful to anybody. 1 Fanli, ii:. 22. 2 Stenzel, i. 323. 232 IIOIIENZOLLEKNS IN JJKANDENBURG. I»<'<>k HI. 18th Oct. 1537 And made accordingly it was ; signed, sealed, drawn out on the proper jtarchnients, ISth October, ITlST ; to the following clear eiTect : " That if Duke Friedrich's Line should die out, all his Liegnitz countries, Liegnitz, Brieg, AVolilau, should fall to the IlohenzoUern Brandenburgers ; and that, if the Line of HohenzoUern Brandenburg should first fail, then all and singu- lar the Bohemian Fiefs of Brandenburg (as Crossen, Zulliphau and seven others there enumerated) should fall to the House of Liegnitz." ' It seemed a clear Paction, questionable by no mortal. Double-marriage between the two Houses (eldest »Son, on each side, to suitable Princess on the other) was to follow ; and did follow, after some delays, 17th February, 1545. So that the matter seemed now complete ; secure on all points, and a matter of quiet satisfaction to both the 'Houses aud to their friends. But Ferdinand, King of the Romans, King of Bohemia and Hungary, and coming to be Emperor one day, was not of that sentiment. F'erdinand had once im])licitly recognized the privilege, but Ferdinand, now when he saw the privilege turned to use, and such a territory as Liegnitz exposed to the possibility of falling into inconvenient hands, explicitly took other thoughts ; and gradually determined to prohiliit this ErbverbrudcTntitg. The States of Bohemia, accordingly, in 1544 (it is not doubtful, by Ferdinand's suggestion), were moved to make inquiries as to this Heritage-Fraternity of Liegnitz.^ On whieh hint King Ferdinand straightway in- formed the Duke of Liegnitz that the act was not justifiable, and must be revoked. The Duke of Liegnitz, grieved to the heart, had no means of resisting. Ferdinand, King of the Romans, backed by Kaiser Karl, with the States of Bohemia barking at his wink, were too strong for poor Duke Friedrich of Liegnitz. Great corresponding between Berlin, Liegnitz, Prag ensued on this matter: but the end was a summons to Duke Friedrich, — summons from King Ferdinand in March, 1546, "To appear in the Imperial Hall {Kaiserhof) at Bres- lau," and to submit that Deed of Erhverlnhlcriing to the ex- amination of the States there. The States, already up to the 1 Stenzel, i. 320. - lb. i. 322- CuAr. X. KURFtJRST JOACHIM II. 23o 8th May, 1546. aifair, soon finished their examination of it (8th May, 1546), The deed was annihilated ; and Friedrich was ordered, further- more, to produce proofs within six months that his subjects too were absolved of all oaths or the like regarding it, anil that in fact the Transaction was entirely abolished and reduced to zero. Friedrich complied, had to comply; very much cha- grined, he returned home ; and died next year, — it is sup- posed, of heartbreak from this business. He had yielded out warily ; but to force only. In a Codicil appended to his last Will, some months afterwards (which Will, written years ago, had treated the ErhrerlrriiilfniiKj as a Fact settled), he indi- cates, as with his last breath, that he considered the thing still valid, though overruled by the hand of power. Let the reader mark this matter ; for it will assuredly become memorable, one day. The hand of power, namely, Ferdinand, King of the Romans, had applied in like manner to Joachim of Brandenburg to sur- render his portion of the Deed, and annihilate on his side too this Erhrerliruderunff. But Joachim refused steadily, and all his successors steadily, to give up this Bit of Written Parch- ment ; kept the same, among their precious documents, against some day that might come (and I suppose it lies in the Ar- chives of Berlin even now) ; silently, or in words, asserting that the Deed of Heritage-Brothership was good, and that though some hands might have the power, no hand could have the right to abolish it on those terms. How King Ferdinand permitted himself such a procedure ? Ferdinand, says one of his latest apologists in this matter, " considered the privileges granted by his Predecessors, in respect to rights of Sovereignty, as fallen extinct on their death." ^ Which — if Eeality and Fact would but likewise be so kind as '* consider • ' it so — was do doubt convenient for Ferdinand ! Joachim was not so great with Ferdinand as he had been with Charles the Imperial Brother. Joachim and Ferdinand had many debates of this kind, some of them rather stiff. Jagerndorf, for instance, and the Baireuth-Anspach confisca- 1 Stenzel, i. 323. 2o4 THE HolIKNZOLLEIiNS IN BILVNDENHURG. Bfi.K III. 151G-15o2. tions, ill George Friedrich's minority. Ferdinand, now Kaiser, had snatched JiigerncUjif from poor young George Friedrieh, son of exct'lh'nt Margraf George whom we knew ; '* I'art of the spoils of Albert Alcibiades," thought Ferdinand, "and a good windfall," — though young George Friedrieh h;ul merely been the Ward of Cousin Aleibiades, and totally without con- cern in those jjolitical explosions. ''Excellent windfall,"' thought Ferdinand ; and held his grip. But Joachim, in his Avciglity steady way, intervened; Joachim, emphatic in the Diets and elsewhere, made Ferdinand cpiit grip, and produce Jiigerndorf again. Jiigcrndorf and the rest had all to be restored ; and, except some tilchings in the Jiigerndorf Appen- dages (Katilx)r and Oppeln, " restored " only in semblance, and at length juggled away altogether),' everythirtg came to its right owner again. Nor would Joachim rest till Alcibiatles's Territories too were all punctually given biu-k, to this same George Friedrieh ; to whom, by law and justice, they belonged. In these iK)ints Joachim prevailed ag:iinst a strong-handed Kaiser, apt to *' consider one's rights fallen extinct " now and then. In this of Liegnitz all he could do was to keep the Deed, in steatly protest silent or vocal. But enough now f)f Joachim Hector, Sixth Kurfiirst, and of his workings and his strugglings. He walked through this world, treading as softly as might be, yet with a strong weighty step ; renrling the jungle steadily asunder ; well see- ing whither he was bound. Rather an expensive Ilerr ; built a good deal, completion of the Schloss at Berlin one exam- ple ; ^ and was not otherwise afraid of outlay, in the Reich's Politics, or in what seemed needful : If there is a harvest ahead, even a distant one, it is poor thrift to be stingy of your seed-corn ! Joachim was always a conspicuous Public !Man, a busy Poli- tician in the Reich ; stanch to his kindred, and by no means blind to himself or his own interests. Stanch also, we must grant, and ever active, though generally in a cautious, weighty, never in a rash swift way, to the great Cause of Protestantism, 1 Rentsch, pp. 129, 130. 2 Nicolai, p. 82. Chap. X. KUKKL'UST JOACHIM II. 235 151G-1552. ami to all good causes. He was himself a solemnly devout man; deep awe-stricken reverence dwelling in bis view of this Universe. Most serious, though with a jocose dialect com- . monly, having a cheerful wit in speaking to men. Lutlier's iJooks he called his Seelenschatz (Soul's-treasure) ; Luther and the r.ible were his chief reading. Fond of profane learning too, and of the useful or ornamental Arts ; given to music, and "would himself sing aloud" when he had a melodious Ifi^jure-hour. Excellent old gentleman : he died, rather sud- denly, but with nmeh nobleness, 3d January, 1571 ; age sixty- .six. Old Kentsch's account of this event is still worth reading : * Joachim's death-scene has a mild pious beauty which does not depend on creed. He had a Brother too, not a little occupied with Politics, and alwa^'s on the good side ; a wise pious man, whose fame w;i.s in all the churches: "Johann of Custrin," called also '•Johann tlu- Jf'ise," who busied himself zealously in Protes- tant matters, second only in jiiety and zeal to his Cousin, Margraf George the Pious ; and was not so held back by olUeial considerations as his Brother thr Elector now and then. Johann of CUstrin is a very famous man in the old Books ; .fohann was the fii'st that fortified Custrin; built him- self an illustrious Schloss, and "roofed it with copper," in Ciistrin (which is a place we shall be well acquainted with by and by) ; and lived there, with the Neumark for apanage, a true man's life ; — mostly with a good deal of business, wai'- like and other, on his hands ; with good Books, good Deeds, and occasionally good Men, coming to enliven it, — according t<.> the terms then given. i Reutsch, p. 458. 2'o6 THE ilOlIENZOLLEUNS IN BKANDENHUKU. U^ck III. 1047. ClIAriKK XI. SEVENTH KURFIK.ST, JOHAXN OEORr.E. IvAisr.i: Kakl, we s;iitl, w;ls very jjoo»l U) .Joachim; wlio ulwiiys strove, soiiietiines witli a. str<'U'h ujmiu his very con- science, to keep well with the Kaiser. The Kaiser took Joachim's young I'rince along with him to those Schmalkal- ilic Wars (not the comfortable side for Joa<;him's conscience, but the safe side for an anxious Father) ; Kaiser made a Knight of this young Prince, on one occasion of distimtion ; he wrote often to Papa alx)ut him, what a promising young hero he w:i.s, — seems really to have liked the young man. It was .lohann George, Elector afterwards. Seventh Elector. — This little incident is known to me on evidence.' A small thing that certainly befell, at the siege of Wittenberg (a.u. 1547), during those PhiliiK)f-Hesseu Negotiations, three hundred and oild years ago. The Sehmalkaldic War having come all to nothing, the Saxon Elector sitting captive with sword overhead in the way we saw, Saxon Wittenberg was besieged, and the Kaiser was in great hurry to get it. Kaiser in person, and young Johaun George for sole attendant, rode round the i)lace one day, to take a view of the works, and judge how soon, or whether ever, it could be comiielled to give in. Gunners noticed tliem from the battlements ; gunners Saxon-Protes- tant most likely, and in just gloom at the i>erils and indigni- ties now lying on their pious Kurfiirst Johann Friedrich the Magnanimous. " Lo, you ! Kaiser's self riding yonder, and one of his silk Junkers. Suppose we g-ave the Kaiser's self a shot, then?*' said the gunner, or thought: "It might help a better man from his life-perils, if such shot did — I" In fact the gun flashed off, with due outburst, and almost with due effect. The ball struck the gi-ound among the very horses' - Reutsch, p. 465. CiiAi'. XI. SKNKMII KIlMlKsr, JoIlANN CKoKCH. ^'M IJO-S-IOUJ. feet ol" the two riders ; so that they were thrown, or nearly so, and covered from sight witli a cloud of earth and sand ; — and the gunners thought, for some instants, an unjust, obstinate Ivaiser's life was gone ; and a i)ious Elector's savecL But it proved not so. Kaiser Karl and Johann George both emergeil, in a minute or two, little the worse; — Kaiser Karl perhaps blushing somewhat, an 1 flurried this tiiue, I think, in the impenetrable eyes; an I his Cimburgis lip closed for the uuy mcMt ; — and galloi>ed out of shot-range. "I never forget this'little incident,'' exclaima Sinelfungus: "It is one of the f<'W times I t;;in get, after all my reading about that surprising Karl v., 1 do not say the h-ast undt-rstandi ng or practical con- ception of him and his eharaeU-r and his alTairs, but the least oeular view or imagination of him, as a f;u;t among facts ! " Which is unlucky for Smelfungus. — Johanu (ieorge, still more t-miihatically, never tt) the end of his life forgot this iii.iilcnt. And indeed it must be owned, liad the shot taken elTect ;is intended, the whole course of human things would have been surprisingly altered; — and for one thing, neither FriedrUh the Great, nor the present IILsturi/ of Frledruh, had ever risen above grouml^ or troubled an enlightened jmblic or me ! Of Johann George, tliis Seventh Elector,' who proved a good Governor, and carried on the Family Affairs in the old style of slow steady success, I will remember nothing more, excx?pt that he had the sxirprising number of Three-and-Twenty chil- dren ; one of them posthumous, though he died at the age of seventy -three. — He is Founder of the Xew Culmbach line : two sons of these twenty-three children he settled, one in Baireuth, the other in Auspach ; from whom come all the subsequent Heads of that Principality, till the last of them died in Hammer- smith in 1806, as above said.* He was a prudent, thrifty Herr ; no mistresses, no luxuries allowed ; at the sight of a ' 1523; 1571-1598. * Rentsch, p. 475 {Chrisiiaii to Bairenth ; Joachim Ernst to An.spach) ; — see Genealogicd Diagnira, iufra, [> 309a. 238 THE IIOHENZULLEUNS IN HRANDENBrUG. Ii»"k MI. iJ«8-iuo;i. iR'W-fusliioncd cout, he ■would Hy out on ati unhai>i>y yoiitli, and pack him from his presence. Very rtrict in point of jus- tice : a peasant once appealing to him, in one of his inspec- tion-journeys through the country, "Grant me justice, Dunh- laucht, agaiust So-and-so ; I am your highness's born subject ! " — '• Thou shouUlst have it, man, wert thou a born Turk ! " an- swered Johann George. — There is something anxious, grave and, as it were, surprised in the look of this good Herr. He m;ulo the Gcru Bond above spoken of; — founded the Younger Culmbaeh Line, with that importiint Law of Primogeniture strictly superadded. A conspicuous thrift, veracity, modest solidity, looks through the conduct of this Herr; — a deter- mined I'rotestant he too, iis indeed all the following were and are.^ Of Joachim Friedrich, his eldest Son, who at one time was Archbishop of Magdeburg, — called home from the wars to till that valuable Ileirloouj, which had sudilenly fallen vai-aut by an Uncle's death, and keep it warm ; — and who afterwards, in due course, carried on a /uhNc/w lifijlrrunij of the old style and physiognomy, as Eighth Kurfiirst, from his fiftieth to his sixtietli year (1508-1 G(>8): "^of him we already noticed the fine " t/oa<?Ai /H,s-thal Gymnasium," or Foundation for learned pur- poses, in the old Schloss of Grimnitz, where his serene Grand- mother got lamed ; and will notice nothing farther, in this place, except his very great anxiety to profit by the Prussian MMdehnumj, — that Co-infeftment in I'reussen, achieved by his Grandfather Joachim II., which was now about coming to its full maturity. Joachim Friedrich had already married his eldest Prince to the daughter of Albert Friedrich, Second Duke of Preussen, who it was by this time evident would be the last Duke there of his Line. Joachim Friedrich, having himself fallen a widower, did next year, though now counting fifty-six — But it will be better if we explain fijcst, a little, how matters now stood with Preussen. 1 Rentsch, pp. 470, 471. - Born, 1547; Magdeburg, 1566-1598 (when his Third Son got it, — very unlucky in the Thirty- Years War aftersvards). Chai-. XII. ALBERT FKIEDRICH. 239 15ii8. CHAPTEK XII. OF ALBERT FRIEDRICII, THE SECOND DUKE OF PREUSSEN. • DuKE Albeut died ia 15G8, laden with years, and in his latter time tfreatly broken down by other troubles. His Prussian Eath^ (Councillors) were disobedient, his Osiauders and Lutheran-Calvinist Theologians were all in lire and flame at^ainst eaeh other: the poor old man, with the best dispositions, but without power to realize them, had much to do and to suffer. Pious, just and honorable, intending the best ; but losing his nuunory, and inoai)able of business, as he now eoniLilained. In his sixtieth year he had married a second tinu', a young Drunswiek Princess, with whose foolish Brother, Erie, he had much trouble ; and who at last herself took so ill with the insolence and violence of these intrusive Councillors and Theologians, that the household- life alie led beside her old Husband and them became intoler- able to her ; and she withdrew to another residence, — a little Hunting-seat at Neuhausen, half a dozen miles from Konigsberg ; — and there, or at Labiau still farther off, lived mostly, in a separate condition, for the rest of her life. Sepa^ rate for life: — nevertheless they happened to die on the same day ; 20th ^March, 15G8, they were simultaneously de livered from their troubles in this world.^ Albert left one Son ; the second child of this last Wife : his one child by the former "Wife, a daughter now of good years, was married to the Duke of Mecklenburg. Son's name ■was Albert Friedrich ; age, at his Father's death, fifteen. A promising young Prince, but of sensitive abstruse temper ; — held under heavy tutelage by his Paths and Theologians; and spurting up against them, in explosive rebellion, from time to time. He now (1568) was to be sovereign Duke of 1 Iliibiier. t. 181; Stenzel. i. 342. '2-iO TilL HUlIENZULLEKNS IN lULVNDENlil'KG. B«'«'k III. I'rc'ussen, and the one representative of the Culmbach Line in that tine Territory ; Margraf George Friedrich of Anspach, the only otlier Cuhnbacher, boing childless, though wedded. We need not doubt, the Brandenburg House — old Kur- furst Joachim 11. still alive, and thrifty Johanu George the licir-Apiiarent — kej»t a watchful eye on those emergencies. I'.uL it was ililUcult to interfere directly; the native Prussian lialhs were very jealous, and Tolant^ itsolf was a ticklish Sovereignty to deal with. Albert Friedrich being still a Elinor, the I'olish King, Sigisnuind, proposed to undertake the guardianship of him, as became a superior lord to a subject vassal on such an occasion. But the Prussian Kaths assured his Majesty, '' Their young Prince was of such a lively intellect, he was j^erfectly tit to condnct the affairs of the Government," especially with such a Body of expert Councillors to lielp him, ''and might be at once declared of age." \\'hich was accordingly the course followed ; I'oland c;iring little for it; Brandenburg digesting the arrangement as it could. And thus it continued for some years, even under new ditlieulties that arose ; the oliieial Clique of Kaths being the real Government of the Country ; and iKX)r young AllK'rt Friedrich bursting out occasionally into tears against them, occiisionally into futile humors of a fiery nature. C)siander-Theolog}% and the battle of the 'doxies, ran very high ; nor was Prussian Otlieiality a Wautiful thing. These Prussian Raths, and the I'russian Jiifttrscha/t gen- erally (Knightage, Land-Aristocracy), which had its Stande (States, or meetings of Parliament after a sort), were all along of a mutinous, contumacious humor. The idea had got into their minds. That they were by birth what the ancient Bitters by election had been; entitled, fit or not fit, to share the Government ])romotions among them : '' The Duke is hereditary in his office ; why not we ? All Offices, are they not, by nature, ours to share among us?" The Duke's notion, again, was to have the work of his Offices effectually done ; small matter by whom : the Bitters looked less to that side of the question ; — regarded any " Foreigner " (German-Anspacher, or other Non-Prussian), whatever his t»A.-. \li. ALIJKKT l"ini:i)Kl('lI. 241 merit, as an intruder, usurper, or kind of tliiel', wlu ii seen in office. Their contentions, contumacies and pretensions ■were uceortlingly manifold. They had dreams of an " Aris tocratie licpublic, with the Sovereign reduced to z<^ro," like what their Polish neiglibors grew to. They had various dreams j and individuals among them broke out, from time to time, into high acts of insolence and mutiny. It took a hundred and lifty yeai's of Brandenburg horse-breaking, some- times with sharp manii)ulation and a j)<)tent curb-bit, to dispossess them of that notion, and make them go steadily in liarness. Which also, however, was at last got done by the lloheuzoUcrns. Of Duke Albert FrwdrichK }[arr'ta<ie : who hix Wife tvaSy and tchiU her possible Dowry. In a year or two, there came to be question of the marrying of young Didie Albert rriedrieh. After due consultation, the Princess H.\ed uirju was Maria Eleonora, eldest Daughter of the then Duke of Cleve : to him a proper Embassy was sent with that object; and came back with Yes for answer. Duke of Cleve, at that time, w;is Wilhelm, called " the Kich " in History-Books; a Sovereign of some extent in those lower Khine countries. Whom I can connect with the English reader's memory in no readier way than by the fact, That he was younger brother, one year younger, of a certain " Anne of Cleves ; " — a large fat Lady, who was rather scurvily used in this country ; being called, by Henry VIII. and us, a "great Flanders mare," unsuitable for esj>ousal with a King of deli- cate feelings! This Anne of Cleves, who took matters quietly and lived on her pension, when rejected by King Henry, was Aunt of the young Lady now in question for I*reussen. She was still alive here in England, pleasantly quiet, " at Burley on the Hill," till Maria Eleonora was seven years old ; — who possibly enough still reads in her memory some fading vestige of new black frocks or trimmings, and brief court- mourning, on the death of poor Aunt Anne over seas. — Anotlier Aunt is more honorably distinguished ; Sibylla, Wife VOL. V. 16 242 THE IIOHENZOLLERNS IN BKANDENBUKG. B«>-'k ill. iM6-mji. of our noble Saxon Eleotor, Joliann Fiiodnch the Magnani- mous, who lost his Electorate and almost his Life for religion's sake, as we have seen ; by whom, in his perils and distresses, Sibylla stood always, like a very true and noble Wife. Duke Wilhclm himself was a man of considerable mark in his day. His Duchy of Cleve included not only Cleve- Proper, but Jiilich (Julier.i), Berg, which latter pair of Duchies were a better thing than Cleve-Proper : — Jiilich, Berg and various other small Principalities, which, gradually agglomer- ating by marriage, heritage and the chance of events in succes- sive centuries, had at length come all into Wilhelm's hands ; so that he got the name of Wilhchn the Rich among his con- temporaries. He seems to have been of a headlong, blustery, uncertain disposition ; nmch tossed about in the controversies of his day. At one time he was a Protestant declared; not witliout reasons of various kinds. The Duchy of Geldern (what we call Guclders) hatl fallen to him, by express be- quest of the last Owner, whose Line was out; and Wilholm took possession. But the Kaiser Karl V. quite refused to let him keep possession. Whercujion Wilhclm had joined with the French (it was in the Moritz-Alcibiades time) ; h;id de- clared war, and taken otiier high measures : but it came to nothing, or to less. Tlie end was, Wilhelm had to " come upon his knees " before the Kaiser, and beg forgiveness ; quite renouncing Geldern, which accordingly has gone its own dif- ferent road ever since. Wilhelm was zealously Protestant in those days ; as his people are, and as he still is, at the period we treat of. But he went into Papistry, not long after ; an<l made other sudden turns and misventures : to all appearance, rather an abrupt, blustery, uncertain Herr. It is to him that Albert Friedrich, the young Duke of Preussen, guided by his Council, now (Year 1572) sends an Embassy, demanding his eldest Daughter, ^Maria Eleonora, to wife. D\ike Wilhelm answered Yea ; " sent a Counter-Embassy," with whatever else was necessary ; and in due time the young Bride, with her Fatlier, set out towards Preussen, such being the arrangement, there to complete the matter. They had CiiAi- XII. ALEEKT FlUEDRICH. 243 15o8-10Ua. got as far as Berlin, warmly welcomed by the Kurfiirst Jo- liann George ; when, from Konigsberg, a sad message reached them : namely, that the young Duke had suddenly been seized with an invincible depression and overclouding of mind, not quite to be characterized by the name of madness, but still less by that of perfect sanity. His eagerness to see his Bride was the same as formerly ; but his spiritual health was in the questionable state described. The young Lady paused for a little, in such mood as we may fancy. 8he had already lost two offers. Bridegrooms snatched away by death, says Pauli ; ^ and thought it might be ominous to refuse the third. So she decided to go on ; dashed aside her father's doubts ; sent her unhealthy Bridegroom " a flower-garland as love-token," who duly responded ; and Father Wilhelm and she proceeded, as if nothing were wrong. The sjjiritual state of the Prince, she found, had not been exaggerated to her. His humors and ways were strange, questionable ; other than one could have wished. Such as he was, however, she wedded him on the appointed terms ; — hoping probably for a recovery, which never came. The case of Albert's mala ly is to this day dim ; and strange tales are current as to the origin of it, which the curious in Physiology may consult ; they are not fit for re- porting here.-* It seems to have consisted in an overclouding, rather than a total ruin of the mind. Incurable depression there was ; gloomy torpor alternating with fits of vehement activity or suffering ; great discontinuity at all times : — evi- dent unfitness for business. It was long hoped he might recover. And Doctors in Divinity and in Medicine undertook him : Theologians, Exorcists, Physicians, Quacks ; but no cure came of it, nothing but mutual condemnations, violences and even execrations, from the said Doctors and their re- spective Official patrons, lay and clerical. Must have been such a scene for a young Wife as has seldom occurred, in ro- mance or reality ! Children, continued to be born ; daughter after daughter ; but no son that lived. 1 Pauli, iv. 512. 2 n,. iy. 476. i^44 Tin: llOilKNZuLLEKN.S IN DKANDEMJLUG. li"*>K 111. 16'ja. Martjraf Geortjti Friedrich comes to Preusacn to administer. After live years' space, in 1.j7S,' cure being now hopeli'ss, and the very Council udniittiui,' that the Duke was incapable <>t business, — George Friedrich of Anspach-lJaireuth came into the country to take cluirge of him ; having already, he and the other Branilenburgers, negotiated the matter v.ith the King of I'oland, in whose power it mostly lay. George Friedrich was by no means welcome to the l*russian .Council, nor to the Wife, nor to the Landed Aristocracy ; — other than welcome, for reasons we can guess, liut he proved, in the judgment of all fair witnesses, an excellent Governor; and, for six-and-tweuty years, atlministered the pountry with gi'eat and lasting julvant;ige to it. His Portraits represent to us a large jMjnderous ligure of a man, very fat in his latter yeais ; with an air of honest sense, dignity, composed solid- ity ; — very lit for the task now on hand. He resolutely, though in mild form, smoothed down the flaming tires of his Clergy ; commanding now this controversy and then that other controversy (" de concnto et dc iitroncreto,'* or whatever they were) to fall strictly silent ; to carry them- selves on by thought and meditation merely, aiid without words. Ilf tamed the mutinous Aristocracy, the mutinous Burgermeisters, Town-Council of Konigsberg, whatever mu- tiny there Avas. lie ilrained bogs, says old Rentsch ; he felled woods, made roads, established inn.s. Prussia was well gov- erned till George's death, which happened in the year 1G03.- Anspach, in the mean while, Anspach, Baireuth and Jiigern- dorf, which were latterly all his, he had governed by deputy ; no need of visiting those quiet countries, except for purix)ses of kindly recreation, or for a swift general sui)ervision, now and then. By all accounts, an excellent, steadfast, wise and just man, this fat George Friedrich ; worthy of the Father that produced him (''A7< Kop ab, lover Forst, nit Koj) abf'^), — and tliat is saying much. By his death without children much territory fell home to 1 Tauli, iv. 476, 481, 482. 2 Rentsch, pp. 6CC-688. Chai-. Xll. ALBEKT FKIEDKRII. 245 mob. the Elder House ; to be disposed of as was settled in the Gem Bund live years before. Auspach aud Buirtulh went to two Brothers of the now Elector, Kurfurst Joachim Friedrich, sons of Johaun George of blessed memory : founders, they, of the "New Line," of whom we know. Jiigerndorf the Elector liimself got ; and he, not long after, settled it on one of his own sons, a new Johann George, who at that time was fallen ratlier landless and out of a career: "Johann George of Jiigerndorf," so called thenceforth : whose history will con- cern us by aud by. Preusseu was to be incorporated with the Electorate, — were possession of it once had. But that is a ticklish jtoint ; still ticklish in spite of rights, and liable to perverse accidents that may arise. Joachim Friedrich, as we intimated once, was not wanting to himself on this occasion. But the affair was full of intrica- cies ; a very wasps'-nest of angry humors ; and re<iuired to be handled with delicacy, though with force and decision. Joa- I'him Friedrich's eldest Son, Johaun Sigismund, Electoral Trince of Brandenburg, had already, in 1504, married one of Albert Friedrich the hypochondriac Duke of Preussen's daugh- ters ; and there was a promising family of children ; no lack of children. Nevertheless pruilent Joachim Friedrich him- self, now a widower, age towards sixty, did farther, in the present emergency, marry another of these Princesses, a younger Sister of his Son's Wife, — seven months after George Friedrich's death, — to make assurance doubly sure, A man not to be balked, if he can help it. By virtue of ex- cellent management, — Duchess, Prussian Staude (States), and Polish Crown, needing all to be contented, — Joachim Fried- rich, with gentle strong pressure, did furthermore squeeze his way into the actual Guardianship of Preussen and the imbecile Duke, which was his by right. This latter feat he ax:*hieved in the course of another year (11th ^March, 1G05) ; ^ and thereby faii'ly got hold of Preussen ; which he grasped, " knuckles- white," as we may say ; and Avhich his descendants have never quitted since. i Stenzel. i. 358. 246 THE IIOIIENZOLLEHNS IN BRANDENBUKO. Bock III. looa. Good mauageineiit was vt-ry necessary. The ihing was diificult; — and also was of more importance than we yet altogether see. Not Preussen only, but a still better country, the Duchy of Cleve, Cleve-Julich, Duke Wilhelm's Heritage down in the Khineland, — Heritage turning out now to be of right his eldest Daughter's here, and likely now to drop soon, — is involved in the thing. This first crisis, of getting into the Prussian Administratorship, fallen Viicant, our vigilant KurfUrst Joachim Friedrich has successfully managed ; and he holds his grip, knuckles-white, liefore long, a second crisis comes ; where also he will have to grasp decisively in, — he, or those that stand for him, and whose knuckles can still hold. Uut that may go to a new Chapter. CHAPTER XIII. KINTH KUKFiJRST, JOHANN SIGISMUND. Ix the summer of lOOS (2'M\. ^fay, 1608) Johann Sigismund's (and his Father's) Mother-in-law, the poor Wife of the poor imbecile Duke of Preussen, died.^ Upon which .Johann Sigis- mund, Heir-Apparent of Brandenburg and its expectancies, was instantly despatched from Berlin, to gather up the threads cut loose by that event, and see that the matter took no damage. On the road thither news reached him that his own Father, old Joachim Friedrich, was dead (18th July, 1608) ; that he himself was now Kurfurst ; ^ and that numerous threads were loose at both ends of his affairs. The "young man" — not now so young, being full thirty- five and of fair experience — was in difficulty, under these overwhelming tidings ; and puzzled, for a little, whether to advance or to return. He decided to advance, and settle Prus- ' M.'iria Eleonora, Duke Wilhelm of Cleve's eldest Daughter: 1550, 157.3, 1608 (Hiibner, t. 286). 2 1572, 1C0&-1619. (MAI-. X 11. NIMH Kl'RFUKST, JulIANN SIGISMUND. 247 sian inattors, where the peril and the risk were ; Braudenburg business he could do by rescripts. His ditiiculties in Preussen, and at the Polish Court, were in- fact immense. But after a space of eight or nine months, he did, by excellent management, not sparing money judi- ciously laid out on individuals, arrive at some adjustment, better or worse, and got Preussen in hand ; ^ legal Administra- tor of the imbecile Duke, as his Father had been. After which he hatl to run for Brandenburg, witliout loss of time : great matters being there in the wind. Nothing wa-oug in Branden- burg, indeed ; but the great Cleve Heritage is droi)i)ing, has dropped; over in Cleve, an immense expectancy is now come to the point of deciding itself. JIow the Cleve Heritage dropped, and many sprang to pick it up. Wilhclm of Cleve, the exjdosive Duke, whom we saw at Berlin and Kiinigsberg at the wedding of this poor Lady now deceased, had in the marriage-contract, as he did in all subse- quent contracts and deeds of like nature, announced a Settle- ment of his Estates, which was now become of the highest mo- ment for Johanu Sigismund. The Country at that time called Duchy of Cleve, consisted, as we said above, not only of Cleve- Proper, but of two other still better Duchies, Jiilich and Berg ; then of the Grafschaft (County) of Ravensburg, County of Mark, Lordship of — In fact it was a multifarious agglom- erate of many little countries, gathered by marriage, heritage and luck, in the course of centuries, and now united in the liand of this Duke Wilhelm. It amounted perhaps to two Yorkshires in extent.- A naturally opulent Country, of fertile meadows, shipping capabilities, metalliferous hills ; and, at this time, in consequence of the Dutch-Spanish War, and the mul- titude of Protestant refugees, it was getting filled with in- genious industries ; and rising to be, what it still is, the busiest quarter of Germany. A Country lowing with kine; the hum 1 29th April, 1609. Stenzel, i. 370. 2 See Biischiug, Erdbeschrdbuny, v. 642-734. 248 THE HUlIENZULLERXS IN BHANDENBl'ia;. U—k IM. of the flax-spindle heai-d in its cottages, in those old days, — "much of the linen called Hollands is made in Jiilich, and only l)lea<-hed, stamped and sold, by the Dutch," says Kiischiug. A Country, in our days, which is slirouded at short intervals with the due canopy of coal-smoke, and loud with sounds of the anvil and the loom. This Duchy of Cleve, all this fine agglomerate of Duchies, Duke Wilhelm settled, were to be inherited in a piece, by his eldest (or indeed, as it soon jjroved, his only) Son and the lieirs of that Son, if there were any. Failing heirs of that only Son, then the entire Duchy of Cleve was to go to Maria Eleonora as eldest Daughter, now marrying to Friedrich Al- bert, Duke of Prussia, and to their heirs lawfully begotten : heirs female, if there hajjpened to be no male. The other Sisters, of whom there were three, were none of them to have the least pretence to inherit Cleve or any part of it. On the contrary, tliey were, in such event, of the eldest Daughter or her heirs coming to inherit Cleve, to have each of them a sura of ready money paid * by the said inheritrix of Cleve or her heirs ; and on receiving that, were to consider their claims entirely fulfilled, and to cease thinking of Cleve for the future. This Settlement, by express privilege of Kaiser Karl V., nay of Kaiser Maximilian before him, and the Laws of the Reich, Duke Wilhelm doubted not he was entitled to make ; and this Settlement he made ; his Lawyers writing down the terms, in their wearisome way, perhaps six times over ; and struggling by all methods to guard against the least misunder- standing. Cleve with all its appurtenances, Jiilich, Berg and the rest, goes to the eldest Sister and her heirs, male or female : If she have no heirs, male or female, then, but not till then, the next Sister steps into her shoes in that matter : but if she have, then, we repeat for the sixth and last time, no Sister or Sister's Eepresentative has the least word to say to it, but takes her £100,000, and ceases thinking of Cleve. The other three Sisters were all gradually married ; — one 1 ' 200,000 ^o/fA/u/(/en," abont £100,000: Pauli, vi. 542; iii. 504- L'HAi-. Xlll. NINTH KUKFUKST, JOHANN SIGISMUND. 249 1609. of them to Pfalz-Neuburg, an emiueut Priuce, in the Bavarian region called the Oher-Ffalz (Upper Palatinate), who, or at least whose eldest Son, is much worth mentioning and remem- bering by us here ; — and, in all these marriage-contracts, Wilhelm and his Lawyers expressed themselves to the like effect, and in the like elaborate sixfold manner : so that Wilhelm and they thought there could nowhere in the world be any doubt about it. Shortly after signing the last of these marriage-contracts, or perhaps it was in the course of signing them, Duke \Vilhelm had a stroke of palsy. lie had, before that, gone into Papistry again, poor man. The truth is, he had repeated strokes ; and being an abrupt, explosive Herr, he at last quite yielded to palsy ; and sank slowly out of the world, in a cloud of semi- insanity, wdiich lasted almost twenty years.^ Duke Wilhelm did leave a Son, Johann Wilhelm, who succeeded him as Duke. But this Son also proved explosive ; went half and at length wholly insane. Jesuit Priests, and their intrigues to bring back a Protestant country to the bosom of the Church, wrapped the poor man, all his days, as in a burning Nessus'-Shirt ; and he did little but mischief in the world. He married, had no chil- dren ; he accused his innocent Wife, the Jesuits and he, of intidelity. Got her judged, not properly sentenced; and then strangled her, he and they, in her bed : — " Jacobea of Baden (1597) ; " a thrice-tragic history. Then he married again ; Jesuits being extremely anxious for an Orthodox heir : but again there came no heii" ; there came only new blazings of the Nessus'-Shirt. In fine, the poor man died (Spring, 1609), and made the world rid of him. Died 25th March, 1609 ; that is the precise date ; — about a month before our new Elector, Johann Sigismund, got his affairs winded uj) at the Polish Court, and came galloping home in such haste. There was pressing need of him in the Cleve regions. For the painful exactitude of Duke Wilhelm and his Law- yers has profited little ; and there are claimants on claimants rising for that valuable Cleve Country. As indeed Johann 1 Died 25th January, 1592, age 76. 250 THE IIUIIENZULLEKNS IN BRANDENBURrr. K<>ok III. 1G()9. Sigismund had anticipated, and been warned from all quarters to expect. For months past, he has had his faculties bent, with lynx-eyed attention, on that scene of things ; doubly and trebly iini)atient to get Preussen soldered up, ever since this other matter came to the bursting-point. What could be done by the utmost vigilance of his Deputies, he had done. It was the liilth of March when the mad Duke died : on the 4th of April, Johaun Sigismund's Deputy, attended by a Notary to record the act, '• iixed up the Brandenburg Arms on the Goverument-House of Cleve ; " ^ on tlu' r>th, they did the same at Diisseldorf ; on the following days, at Jiilich and the other Towns. 15ut already on the oth, they had hardly got done at Diisseldorf, when there appeared — young Wolfgang Wilhelm, Heir-Apparent of that eminent IM'alz-Neuburg, he in person, to put up the rfalz-Neuburg Arms ! I'falz-Neuburg, who mai-ried the Second Daughter, he is actually claiming, then; — the whole, or part '.' Both aie sensible that jjossession is nine points in law. rfalz-Neuburg's claim was for the whole Dudiy. " All my serene Mother's!" cried the young Heir of I'falz-Neuburg: *' Properly all mine ! " cried he. " Is not she nearest of kin ? Second Daughter, true ; but the Daughter ; not Daughter of a Daughter, as you are (as your Serene Electress is), O Durch- laucht of Brandenburg : — consider, besides, you are female, I am male ! " That was Pfalz-Xeuburg's logic : none of the best, I think, in forensic genealog}% His tenth point was per haps rather weak ; but he had possession, co-possession, and the nine points good. The other Two Sisters, by their Sons or Husbands, claimed likewise ; but not the whole : " Divide it," said they : " that surely is the real meaning of Karl V.'s Deed of Privilege to make such a Testament. Divide it among the Four Daughters or their representatives, and let us all have shares ! " Nor were these four claimants by any means all. The Saxon Princes next claimed ; two sets of Saxon Princes. First the minor set, Gotha- Weimar and the rest, the Ernestine Line so called ; representatives of Johann Friedrich the Mag- 1 rauli, vi. 506. Cnxv. XIII. NINTH KURFCRST, JOIIANN SIGISMUND. 251 lUUO. naniinous, who lost the Electorate for religion's sake at Miihl- berg in tlie past century, and from viajor became minor in Saxon Genealogy. " Magnanimous Joluuin Friedrich," said tlxey, " had to wife an Aunt of the now deceased Duke of Cleve ; Wife Sibylla (sister of the Flanders Mare), of famous memory, our lineal Ancestress. In favor of whom her Father, the then reigning Duke of Cleve, made a marriage-contract of precisely similar import to this your Prussian one : ho, and barred all his descendants, if contracts are to be valid." This is the claim of the Ernestine Line of Saxon Princes ; not like to go for much, in tht-ir jiresent disintegrated con- dition. But the Albertine Line, the present Elector of Saxony, also claims : " Here is a Deed," said he, '' executed by Kaiser Fried- rich II L in the year 14S3,* generations before your Ka-iser Karl ; Deed solemnly granting to Albert, junior of Sachst ii, and to his heirs, the reversion of those same Duchies, sliould i- the ,]\Iale Line happen to fail, as it was then likely to do. How could Kaiser Max revoke his Father's deed, or Kaiser Karl his Great-grandfather's ? Little Albert, the Albert of the Frin- zenrauh, he who grew big, and fought lion-like for his Kaiser in the Netherlands and Western Countries ; he and his have clearly the heirship of Cleve by right ; and we, now grown Electors, and Seniors of Saxony, demand it of a grateful House of Hapsburg, — and will study to make om-selves convenient in return " — " Nay, if that is your rule, that old Laws and Deeds are to come in bar of new, we," cry a multitude of persons, — French Dukes of Nevers, and all manner of remote, exotic figures among them, — " we are the real heirs ! Eavensburg, Mark, Berg, Ivavenstein, this patch and the other of that large Duchy of yours, were they not from primeval time expressly limited to heirs-male ? Heirs-male ; and we now are the nearest heirs- male of said patches and portions ; and will prove it ! " — In short, there never was such a Lawsuit, — so fat aa affair for the attorney species, if that had been the way of managing it, — as this of Cleve was likely to prove. 1 Pauli, ubi supra ; Iliibner, t. 286. 252 THE IIOIIEXZOLLEKNS IN BRANDENBURG. Book HT. 161W. The Kaiser's Tliou<jhts about it, and the WorhFs. What greatly complicated the afTair, too, was the interest the Kaiser took in it. The Kaiser could not well brook a jwwcrful Protestant in that country ; still less could his Cousin the Spaniard. Spaniards, worn to the ground, coercing that world-famous Dutch Revolt, and astonished to find that they could not coerce it at all, had resolved at this time to take breath before trying fartiier. Spaniards and Dutch, after Fifty years of such lighting as we know, have made a Twelve- years' Truce (1600) : but the baffled Spaniard, panting, pale in his futile rage and sweat, has not given up the matter ; he is only taking breath, and will try it again. Now Cleve is his road into Holland, in such adventure ; no sutcess possible if Cleve be not in good hands. Brandenburg is Protestant, pow- erful ; P>randenburg will not do for a neighbor there. Nor will Pfalz-Neuburg. A Protestant of Protestants, this Palatine Neuburg too, — junior branch, possible heir in time coming, of Kur-Pfnh (Elector Palatine) himself, in the Rhine Countries ; of Kur-1'falz, who is acknowledged Chief Protes- tant : official " President" of the " Evangelical Union" they have lately made among them in these menacing times ; — Pfalz-Neuburg too, this yoimg "Wolfgang Wilhelm, if he do not break off kind, might be very awkward to the Kaiser in Cleve-Jiilich. Nay Saxony itself; for they are all Protes- tants : — unless perhaps Saxony might become pliant, and try to make itself useful to a munificent Imperial House ? Evidently what woidd best suit the Kaiser and Spaniards, were this. That no strong Power whatever got footing in Cleve, to grow :;tronger by the possession of such a country: — better than best it would suit, if he, the Kaiser, could him- self get it smuggled into his hands, and there hold it fast 1 Which privately was the course resolved upon at headquar- ters. — In this way the " Succession Controversy of the Cleve Duchies '' is coming to be a very high matter ; mixing itself ■iip with the grand Protestant-Papal Controversy, the general armed-lawsuit of mankind in that generation. Kaiser, Span- iajd, Dutch, English, French Henri IV. and all mortals, are getting concerned in the decision of it. 4 Chap. XIV. A GREAT WAE COMING. 253 16Ui). .CHAPTER XIV. SYMPTOMS OF A GREAT WAR COMING. Meanwhile Brandenburg and Neuburg both hold grip of Cleve in that manner, with a mutually menacing inquiring expression of countenance ; each grasps it (so to speak) con- vulsively with the one hand, and has with the other hand his sword by the hilt, ready to fly out. But to understand this Brandon burg-Neuburg phenomenon and the then significance of the Cleve-Jiilich Controversy, we must take the followin^g bits of Chronology along with us. For the German Empire, with Protestant complaints, and Papist usurpations and se- verities, was at this time all a continent of sour thick smoke, already breaking out into dull-red flashes here and there, — symptoms of the universal conflagration of a Thirty-Years War, which followed. Symjitom First is that of Douauwcirth, and dates above a year back. First Symptom ; Donauivorth, 1608. Donau worth, a Protestant Imperial Free-town, in the Bava- rian regions, had been, for some fault on the part of the popu- lace against a flaring Mass-procession which had no business to be there, put under Ban of the Empire ; had been seized accordingly (December, 1607), and much cuffed, and shaken about, by Duke Maximilian of Bavaria, as executor of the said Ban ; ^ — who, what was still worse, would by no means give up the Town when he hail done with it ; Town being handy to him, and the man being stout and violently Papist. Hence the " Evangelical Union " which we saw, — which has not taken Donauworth yet. Nor ever will ! Donauworth never was retaken ; but is Bavarian at this hour. A Town namable in History ever since. Not to say withal, that it 1 Xlichaelis, ii. 216 ; Buddaei Lexicon, i. 853. 254 THE IIOIIEXZOLLERXS IN BRANDEXRURO. Book TTT. 10(t9. is where Marlborough did " the Lines of Schellenberg " long after: Schellenberg (" Jingle-llill," so to render it) looks down across the Danube or Donau River, upon Donauwiirth, — its "Lines," and other histories, now much abolished, and quiet under grass. But now all Protestantism sounding ovorywhore, in angry mournful tone, " Douauwortii ! Give up Donauwiirth I " — and an "Evangelical Union," with moneys, with theoretic contin gents of force, being on foot for that and the like objects ; — we can fancy what a scramble this of Cleve-.Juli(h was like to be ; and especially what effect this duelling attitude of Brandenburg and Ncuburg had on the Protestant mind. Prot- estant neighbors, Landgraf Moritz of Ilessen-Casscl at their head, intfrvrno in treiuuUms haste, in the Cleve-,Jidi(;h affair: "Peace, U friends I Some bargain; peaceable joint-posses- sion ; any temponiry bargain, till we see ! Can two Protes- tants fall to slashing one anotlier, in such an aspect of the Reich and its Jesuitries ? " — And they did agree (Dortmund. 10th May, 1()00\ the first of their innumerable "agreements," to some temporary joint-possession ; — the thrice-thankful Country doing homage to both, " with oath to the one that shall be found genuine." And they did endeavor to govern jointly, and to keep the peace on those terms, though it was not easy. For the Kaiser had already said (or his Aulic Council and Spanish Cousin, poor Kaiser Rodolf caring too little about these things,* had already said), Cleve must absolutely not go into wrong hands. For which what safe method is there, 1 Rodolf II. (Kepler's too insolvent "Patron"), 1576-1612; then Mat- thias, Rodolf's Brother, 1612-1619, rather tolerant to Protestants;— then Ferdinand II. his Uncle's Son, 1619-1637, much the reverse of tolerant, liy whom mainly came the Thirty- Years War, — were the Kaisers of ibis Period. Ferdinand III., Son of II. (1637-1657), who finished out the Thirty- Years "War, partlv by fighting of his own in young days (Battle of Nordlingen his grandest feat), was Father of Kaiser I^opold (165S-1705), — whose Two Sons were Kaiser Joseph (1705-1711) and Kaiser Karl VI. (1711-1740), Maria Theresa's Father. Chap. XIV. A GREAT WAR COMING. 255 1610. but that the Kaiser himself become proprietor ? A Letter is yet extant, from the Aulic Council to their Vice-Chaucellor, who had been sent to negotiate this matter with the parties ; Letter to the effect, That such result was the only good one ; that it must be achieved ; " that he must devise all manner of quirks {(die Sjy'itzfindlgkeiteyi auffordern sollte),^' and achieve it.^ This curious Letter of a sublime Aulic Council, or Im- perial Jlof-Iiath, to its Vice-Kaiirder, still exists. And accordingly quirks did not prove undevisable on behalf of tlie Kaiser. " Since you cannot agree," said the Kaiser, " and there are so many of you who claim (we having privately stirred up several of you to the feat), there will be nothing for it, but the Kaiser must put the Country under sequestra- tion, and take possession of it with his own troops, till a de- cision be arrived at, — which probably will not be soon ! " Second Symptom ; Seizure of Jidlch hi/ the Kaiser, and Siet/e and Recapture of it ly the Protestant Parties, 1(11 U. Whereupon " Catholic League^^ to balance " Evantjelieal Union.^^ And the Kaiser forthwith did as he had said ; sent Arch- duke Leopold with troops, who forcibly took the Castle of Jiilich ; commanding all other castles and places to surren- der and sequestrate themselves, in like fashion ; threatening ]5randenburg and Neuburg, in a dreadful manner, with Reit-hs- Ai'lit (Ban of the Empii-e), if they presumed to show con- tumacy. L^pou which Brandenburg and Neuburg, ranking themselves together, showed decided contumacy ; " tore down tlie Kaiser's Proclamation," * having good help at their back. And accordingly, " on the 4th of September, 1610," after a two-months' siege, they, or the Dutch, French, and Evangelical L^nion Troops bombarding along with them, and " many Eng- lish volunteers " to help, retook Jiilich, and packed Leopold away again.* The Dutch and the French were especially 1 Pauli, iii. 505. - lb. iii. 524. Emperor's Proclamation, in Diisseldorf, 23d July, 1609, — taken dowTi solemnly, 1st August, 1609. s lb. iii. 527. 256 THE IIOIIENZOLLERNS IX BRAXDEXBURG. Book HI. IGIO. anxious about this Cleve business, — poor Henri IV. was just putting those French troops in motion towards Jiilich, when Ravaillac, the distracted Devil's-Jesuit, did his stroke upon him; so that another than Henri had to lead in that expedition. The actual Captain at the Siege was Prince Christian of Anhalt, by repute the first soldier of Germany at that perioil : he had a horse shot under him, the business being very hot and furious; — he had still worse fortune in the course of years. There were ** many Englisli vohmteers " at this Siege ; English nation hugely interestt^d in it, though their King wouhl not act except diplomatically. It was the talk of all the then world, — the evening song and the morning prayer of Protestants especially, — till it was got ended in this manner. It deserves to rank as Si/mptom Second in this business ; far bigger flare of dull red in the universal smoke-continent, than that of Donauwiirth had been. Are there no nuMuorials left of those *' English volunteer.s," then ? ^ Alas, they might get edited as Bromley's lioi/al Letters are; — and had better lie quiet ! " Evangelical Union," formed some two years before, with what cause we saw, has Kiu--Pfalz '^ at the head of it : but its troops or operations were never of a very forcible character. Kur-Brandenburg now joined it formally, as did many more ; Kur-Siic'hsen, anxious to make himself convenient in other quarters, never would. Add to these phenomena, the now decisive appearance of a " Catholic Liga " (League of Catholic Princes), which, by way of counterpoise to the " Union," had been got up by Duke Maximilian of Bavaria several months ago; and which now, under the same guidance, in these bad circumstances, took a great expansion of figure. Duke Maxi- milian, '' Donauicoi'th Max," finding the Evangelical Union go so very high, and his own Kaiser like to be good for little in such business (poor hypochondriac Kaiser Eodolf II., more taken up with turning-looms and blow-pipes than with matters ^ In Carlyle's .l//.sc''//'77j/V<; (vi. § " Two Ilumlreil and Fifty Years ago: a Fragment about Duels") is one small scene belonging to them. -Winter-King's Father; died 9th September, 1610, few days after this recapture of Jiilich. Chap. XIV. A GREAT WAR COMING. 2r>7 1613. political, who accordingly is swept out of Jiilicli in such sum- mary way), — Donau worth Max has se^n this a necessary in- stitution in the present aspect. Both " Union" and "League" rapidly Avaxed under the sound of the Jiilich cannon, as was natural. Kur-Sachsen, for standing so well aloof from the Union, got from the thankful Kaiser written Titles for these Duchies of Cleve and Jiilich; Imperial parchments and iufeftments of due extent ; but never any Territory in those parts. He never offered hght for his pretensions ; and Brandenburg and Neuburg — Neuburg especially — always answered him, "No!" with sword half-tlrawn. So Kur-Sachsen faded out again, and took only parchments by the adventure. Prac- tically thei-e was no private Comjjetitor of moment to Bran- denburg, except this Wolfgang Wilhelm of Pfalz-Neuburg ; he alone having clutched hold. — But we hasten to S//mpto))i Third, which particularly concerns us, and will be intelli- gible now at last. Symptom Third; a Dinner-scene at Diisseldorf, 1613: Spaniards and Dutch shoulder arms in Cleve, Brandenburg and Neuburg stood together against third parties ; but their joint-government was apt to fall in two, when left to itself, and the pressure of danger withdrawn. " They governed by the Raths and Stande of the Country ; " old methods and old official men : each of the two had his own Vice-Regent {Stattludtcr) present on the ground, w^ho jointly presided as they could. Jarrings were unavoidable ; but how mend it? Settle the litigated Territory itself, and end their big lawsuit, they could not ; often as they tried it, with the whole world encouraging and urging them.^ 1 Old Sir Henry Wotton, Provost of Eton in his old days, remembers how he went Ambassador ou this errand, — as on many others equally bootless ; — and writes himself " Legatus," not only " thrice to Venice, twice to" &c. &c., but also " once to Holland in the Juliers matter (semel in JvUacensi nefjotio) : " see Reliqniie WottoniarKE (London, 1672), Preface. It was "in 1614," say the Biographies vaguely. His Despatches, are they in the Paper-OfBce still ? His good old Book deserves new editing, his good old genially pious life a proper elucidation, by some faithful man. voT, V. 17 258 THE HOHENZOLLERNS IN BKANDENHUKG. Bmm rii. 1613. The meetings tliey had, and the treaties and temporary bargains they made, and kept, and could not keep, in these and in the following years and generations, pass our power of recording. In 1()13 the Brandenburg Statthalter was Ernst, the Elec- tor's younger Brother ; Wolfgang Wilhelm in person, for his Father, or rather for himself as heir of his jNIother, repre- sented Pfalz-Neuburg. Ernst of Brandenburg had adopted Calvinism as his creed; a thing liateful and horrible to the Lutheran mind (of which sort was Wolfgang Wilhelm), to a degree now altogether inconceivable. Discord arose in consequence between the Statthalters, as to official appoint- ments, sacred and secular : '^ You are for promoting Calvin- ists ! " — " And you, I see, are for promoting Lutherans ! " — Johaun Sigismund himself had to intervene : Wolfgang Wil- lielm and he had their meetings, friendly colloquies : — the linal colloquy of which is still memorable ; and issues in Synqytom Third. We said, a strong flame of oholer burnt in all these HohenzoUerns, though they held it well down. Johann Sigismund, an excellent man of business, knew how essen- tial a mild tone is : nevertheless he found, as this colloquy went on, that human jDatience might at length get too much. The scene, after some examination, is conceivable in this wise : Place Diisseldorf, Elector's apartment in the Schloss there ; time late in the Year 1613, Day not discoverable by me. The two sat at dinner, after much colloquy all morning : Johann Sigismund, a middle-aged, big-headed, stern-faced, honest-looking ma,n ; hair cropped, I observe ; and eyelids slightly contracted, as if for sharper vision into matters : Wolfgang Wilhelm, of features fallen dim to me ; an airy gentleman, well out of his teens, but, I doubt, not of wisdom sufficient ; evidently very high and stiff in his ways. His proposal, b}^ way of final settlement, and end to all these brabbles, was this, and he insisted on it : " Give me your eldest Princess to wife ; let her dowry be your whole claim on Cleve-Julich ; I v.ill marrv her on that condition, Chap. XIV. A GllEAT WAR COMING. 259 1G13. and we shall be friends ! " Here evidently is a gentleman that does not want for conceit in himself : — consider too, in Johann Sigismund's opinion, he had no right to a square inch of these Territories, though for peace' sake a joint share had been allowed him for the time ! " On that con- dition, jackanapes ? " thought Johann Sigismund : " My girl is not a monster; nor at a loss for husbands fully better than you, I should hope ! " This he thought, and could not help thinking; but endeavored to say nothing of it. The young jackanapes went on, insisting. Nature at last pre- vailed; Johann Sigismund lifted his hand (princely eti- quettes melting all into smoke on the sudden), and gave the young jackanapes a slap over the face. Veritable slap ; which opened in a dreadful manner the eyes of young Pfalz- Neuburg to his real situation ; and sent him off high-flaming, vowing never-imagined vengeance. A remarkable slap ; well testified to, — though the old Histories, struck blank with terror, reverence and astonishment, can for most part only symbol it in dumb-show ; ^ a slap that had important conse- quences in this world. For now Wolfgang Wilhelm, flaming off in never-imagined vengeance, posted straight to Munchen, to Max of Bavaria there ; declared himself convinced, or nearly so, of the Roman- Catholic Religion ; wooed, and in a few weeks (10th Novem- ber, 1613) wedded Max's younger Sister; and soon after, at Dusseldorf, pompously professed such his blessed change of 1 Piifendorf {Rer. Brandenb. lib. iv. § 16, p. 213), and many others, are in this case. Tobias Tfanner {Histon'a Pads WestphaUae, lib. i. § 9, p. 26) is explicit : " Neque, ut infida regnandi societas est, Brandenhurgio et Neoburgio diu convempbot ; eonimque jurgia, cum matrimonii foedere pacari posse propinqui ipsorutn credidissent, acrius exarsere ; inter epulas, quibiis futurum generum Sep- temrir (the" Sevensman," or Elector, "One of The Seven") excipiebat, hujiis enim Jilia Wolfgango spembatur, ob nescio quos sermones eh inter utrumque alter- cafione provectd, ut Elector ine impotentior, nulla dignitatis, hospltii, cognationis, affinlUdlsve verecundia cohlbitns, Infenderit Neobnnjlo manus, et contra tendentis OS i^erberaverit. Ita, qua; npud conrordes vinciila carltatis, incitamenta irarum a pud infensos erant." (Cited in Kohler, Miinzhelastigimgen, xxi. 341 ; who refers also to Levassor, Histoire de Louis XIU.) —Fauli (iii. 542) becomes quite vaporous. 200 THE IIOIIENZOLLEUNS IX r.KANDENBURG. »«>"« I". lui-t. Belief, — witli iinmense flourish of trumpeting, and juhihmt Ijuniphletecriug, from Holy Church.* His poor old Father, the devoutest of Protestants, wailed aloud his '• Ichabod I the glory is departed !" — holding " weekly fast ami humiliation " ever after, — and died in fvw months of a broken heart. The Catliolic League luus now a new Member on thus** terms. And on the other hand, .loliann .Sigisnuuul, nearly with the like haste (2i>th December, ItJKij, declared himself etmvineed of Calvinism, his younger Brother's creed ; ^ — which continues ever since the Brandenburg Court-creed, that of the I'eople being mostly Lutheran. Men said, it was to please the Dutch, to plea.se the Jiilichers, most of whom are Calvinist. Apologetic I'auli is ehdntrate, but inconclusive. It was very ill taken at Merlin, where even jtopular riot aKose on the matter. In Prussia tot) it had its drawbatks.' Anil now, all being full of mut;ition, rearrangement and infinite rumor, there marched next year (IGll), on slight pretext, resting on great suspicious, Spanish troops into the Jiilich-Cleve country, and, countenanced by Neuburg, lK?gan seizing garrisons there. \VhereuiK)n Dutch troops likewise marched, countenanced by Brandenburg, and occupied other fortresses and garrisons: and so, in every strong-] »laco, there were either Papist-Spaniards or Calvinist-Dutch ; who stood there, fronting one another, and could not by treatying be got out again; — like clouds positively electric versus clouds negatively. As indeed was getting to be the case of Germany in general ; case fatally visible in every Province, Principality and Parish there : till a tlmnder-storm, and succession of thunder-storms, of Thirty Years' continuance, broke out. Of which these huge rumors and mutations, and menacings of war, springing out of that final colloquy and slap in the face, are to 1x3 taken as the Third premonitory Symptom. Spaniards and Dutch stand electrically fronting one another in Cleve for seven years, till their Truce is out, before they clash together ; Germany does not wait so long by a couple of years. * Kohler, ubi suprk - Pauli, iii. 546. 8 Ih. iii. 544 ; Michaelis, i. 349. CuAi'. XIV. A GKLAT W Ai: CU.MIXG. 261 lUiti. Symj)tom Fourth, and Catastrophe upon the heels of it. Five years more (1G18), and tliere will have come a Fourth Symptom, biggest of all, rapidly consummating the process; — Symptom still famed, of the following external iigure : Three Ollicial Gentlemen descending from a window in the Castle of Trag: hurled out by impatient Bohemian Protestantism, a depth of seventy feet, — happily only into dung, and without loss of life. From which follows a '' King o^ liohemia " elected there, King nut iniknown to us ; — *' thunder-cloutls ■' all in one huge cla.sh, and the "continent of sour smoke " blazing all into a continent of thunderous tire : TiiiuTV-VKAiw Wak, as th*y now call it! Such a coniiagra- tion lus poor Germany never saw before or since. These were the Four preliminary Si/mptoi/us of that dismal business. " As to the primary causes of it," says one of my Authorities, ** these lie deep, deep almost as those of Original Sin. ]Uit the pro.ximate causes seem to me to have been these two : First, That the Jesuit-Priests and Princii)alities had vowed and resolved to have, by God's help and by the Devil's (this was the peculiarity of it), Europe made <.)rthodox again : and then Secomlli/, The fact that a Max of Bavaria existed at that time, whose fiery character, cunning but rash head, and fanatically Pajiist heart disi)Osed him to attempt that enter- prise, him with such resoui'ces and capacities, under their bad guidance." Johann Sigismund did many swift decisive strokes of business in his time, businesses of extensive and important nature ; but this of the slap to Neuburg has stuck best in the idle memory of mankind. Diisseldorf, Year 1613: it- ■was precisely in the time when that same Friedrich, not yet by any means '• King of Bohemia," but already Kur-Pfalz (Cousin of this Xeuburg, and head man of the Protestants), was over here in England, on a fine errand ; — namely, had married the fair Elizabeth (14th February, 1C13), James the First's Princess ; " Goody Palsgrave," as her Mother flout- ingly called her, not liking the connection. What kind of 2G2 THE IIOIIENZULLEKNS IN 1JRANDEN15UKG. Book III. a "King of Bohemia" tliis Friedrich made, live or six years after, and what sea of troubles he and his entered into, we know; the " irinttr-Konif/" (Winter-King, fallen in times of frost, or built of mere frost, a Avjocr-kiug altogether soluble again) is the name he gets in German Histories. But here is another hook to hang Chronology upon. This brief Bohemian Kingship had not yet exploded on the Weisseuberg of Brag,* when old Sir Henry Wotton being sent as Ambassiulor " to Z/e abroad " (as he wittily called it, to his cost) in that Business, saw, in the City of Lintz, in the picturesque green country l)y the shores of the Douau there, an ingenious i)erson, wlio is now recognizable as one of the remarkablest of mankind, Mr. John Kepler, namely : Keplar as Wutton writes him ; addressing the great Lord Bacon (unhap[)ily without strict date of any kind) on that among other subjects. Mr. John's now ever-memorable watch- ing of those Motions of the Star Mars,'^ with "calculations repeated seventy times," and also with Discovery of the I'lane- tary Laws of this Universe, some ten years ago, appears to be unknown to Wutton and Bacon ; but there is something else of Mr. John's devising^ which deserves attention from an Instaurator of Philosophy: — '* He hath a little black Tent (of what stuff is not iiiuih im- porting)," says the Ambassador, " wliich he c;in suddenly set up where he will in a Field ; and it is convertible (like a windmill) to all quarters at pleasure; capable of not much more than one man, as I conceive, and perhaps at no great ease ; exactly close and dark, — save at one hole, about an inch and a half in the diameter, to which he applies a long per- spective Trunk, with the convex glass fitted to the said hole, and the concave taken out at the other end, which extendoth to about the middle of this erected Tent : through which the visible radiations of all the Objects without are intromitted, ^ Battle there, Sunday 8th November, 1620. - De .\fotibus Stel/(^ .Umifs : Prag, 1609. 8 It seems, Baptista Purta (i»f Naples, dead some years before) mo-st have given him the essential hint, — of whom, or whose hint, Mr. John does not happen to inform his Excellency at present. rnvr. XIV. A GREAT WAR COMING. 263 lii2tt. fulling upon a Paper, which is accommodated to receive them ; and so he traceth them with liis pen in their natural appear- ance ; turning his little Tent round by degrees, till he hath designed the whole Aspect of the Field." * — In fact he luith a Camera Ohscura, and is exhibiting the same for the delec- tation of Imperial gentlemen lounging that way. Mr. John invents such toys, writes almanacs, practises medicine, for good reasons ; his encouragement from the Holy Koman Empire and mankind being only a pension of £18 a year, and tiiat hardly ever paid. An ingenious person, truly, if there ever was one among Adam's Posterity. Just turned of fifty, and ill off for cash. This glimpse of him, in his little black tent with }>ersi)ective glasses, while the Thirty-Years War blazes out, is welcome as a date. Wliat became of the Cleve-JUlu-h Heritage, and of the Preussen one. In the Cleve Duchies joint government had now become more difficult than ever : but it had to be persisted in, — under mutual offences, suspicions and outbreaks hardly re- pressed ; — no final Bargain of Settlement proving by any method possible. Treaties enough, and conferences, and ■l)loadings, manifestoings : — Could not some painful German collector of Statistics try to give us the approximate quantity of impracticable treaties, futile conferences, manifestoes, cor- respondences ; in brief, some authentical cipher (say in round millions) of idle Words spoken by official human creatures, and approximately (in square miles) the extent of Law Sta- tionery and other Paper written, first and last, about this Controversy of the Cleve Duchies ? In that form it might have a momentary interest, "When the W^inter-King's explosion took place,^ and his own unfortunate Pfalz (Palatinate) became the theatre of war (Tilly, Spinola, versus Pfalzers, English, Dutch), involving all ' Reliquice WottoniancE, (London 1672), p. 300. 2 Crowned at Prag, 4th November n.s. 1619; beaten to ruin there, and obliged to gallop (almost before dinner done), Sunday, 8th November, 1620. 2G4 THE IIOIIKNZOLLKIINS IN liUANDENBUIiG. Bim.k III. 1020. the neighboring regions, Cleve-Julich did not escape its fate. The Spaniards and the Dutch, who hud long sat in gloomy armed-truce, occupying with obstinate precaution the main Fortresses of these Jiilich-Cleve countries, did now straight- way, their Twelve-Years' truce being out (1G21),* fall to light- ing and besieging one another there ; the huge War, which jtroved of Thirty Years, l>eing now all ablaze. What the eouiitry suffered in the interim may be imagined. In 1024, in pity to all parties, some attempt at i»ractical Division of the Territory was again made : Neuburg to have Berg and Julich, Brandenburg to have Cleve, Mark, Havens- burg and the minor appurtenances : and Treaty to that effect was got signed (11th May, 1C»L'4). But it was not well kept, nor could be ; and the statistic cipher of new treaties, mani- festoes, conferences, and approximate written area of Law- Paper goes on increaiiing. It was not till forty-two years after, in IGGO, as will be more minutely noticeable by and by, that an effective partition could be practically brought about. Xor in this state was the Lawsuit by any means ended, — as we shall wearisomely see, in times long following that. In fact there never was, in the German Chanceries or out of them, such a Lawsuit, Armed or Wigged, as this of the Cleve Duchies first and last. And the sentence was not practically given, till the Congress of Vienna (1815) in our own day gave it ; and the thing Jo- hann Sigismund had claimed legally in 1G09 was actually handed over to Johann Sigismund's Descendant in the sev- enth generation, after two hundred and six years. Handed over to him then, — and a liberal rate of interest allowed. These litigated Duchies are now the Prussian Province Jiilich- Berg-Clove, and the nucleus of Prussia's possessions in the lihine country. A year before Johann Sigismund's death, Albert Friedrich, the poor eclipsed Duke of Prussia, died (8th August, IGIS) : upon which our swift Kurf iirst, not without need of his dexteri- ties there too, got peaceable possession of Prussia ; — nor has 1 Pauli, vi. 578-580. «- CiiAh. XV. 'fENTlI KURFUKST, GEOliiiE WlLllELM. 2Go 1020. ' his Family lost bold of tliat, up to the present time. Next year (-oil December, IGID), he himself closed a swift busy life (labor enough in it for him perhaps, though only an age of forty-nine) ; and sank to his long rest, his works following him, — unalterable thenceforth, not unfruitful some of them. CHArXER XV. TEXTU KURFUKST, GEORGE WILllELM. By far the unluckiest of these Electors, whether the most unworthy of them or not, was George AVilhelm, Tenth Elec- tor, who now succeeded Johann Sigismund his Father. The Father's eyes had closed when this great flame was breaking out ; and the Son's da3's were all spunt amid the hot ashes and tierce blazings of it. The position of Brandenburg during this sad Thirtj^-Years War was passive rather than active ; distinguished only in the former way, and as far as possible from being glorious or vic- torious. Never since the HohenzoUerns came to that Country had l>randenburg such a time. Difficult to have mended it ; impossible to have quite avoided it; — and Kurfiirst George A\'ilhelm was not a man so superior to all his neighbors, that he could clearly see his way in such an element. The perfect or ideal com-se was clear : To have frankly drawn sword for his Religion and his Rights, so soon as the battle fairly opened ; and to have fought for these same, till he got either them or died. Alas, that is easily said and written ; but it is, for a George "Wilhelm especially, difficult to do ! His caj^a- bility in all kinds was limited ; his connections, with this side and that, were very intricate. Gustavus and the Winter- King were his Brothers-in-law ; Gustavus wedded to his Sister, he to Winter-King's. His relations to Poland, feudal superior of Preussen, were delicate ; and Gustavus was in deadly quar- rel with Poland. And then Gustavus's sudden laying-hold of 2G6 THE IIOIIENZOLLERNS IN BRANDENBURG. Book III. 1<J20. Pommern, which had just escaped from Wallenstein and the Kaiser ? It must be granted, poor George Wilhelm's case demanded circumspectness. One can forgive him for declining the Bohemian-King specu- hation, though his Uncle of Jiigorndorf and his Cousins of Liegnitz were so hearty and forward in it. Pardonable in him to decline the Bohemian speculation; — though sui-ely it is very sad that he found himself so short of " butter and fire- wood " when the poor Ex-King, and his young AVife, then in a specially ijiteresting state, came to take shelter with him ! ^ But when Gustavus landed, and flung out upon the winds such a banner as that of his, — truly it was required of a Protestant Governor of men to be able to read said banner in a certain degree. A Governor, not too ///tperfect, would liave recognized this Gustavus, what his jmrposes and likelihodds were; the feeling would have been, checked by due circumspectness: "Up, my men, let us follow this man; let us live and die in the Cause this man goes for ! Live otherwise with honor, or die otherwise with honor, we cannot, in the pass things have come to ! *' — And thus, at the very worst, Brandenburg would liave had only one class of enemies to ravage it ; and might have escaped with, arithmetically speaking, half the harrying it got in that long Business. But Protestant Germany — satl shame to it, which proved lasting sorrow as well — was all alike torpid ; Brandenburg not an exceptional case. No Prince stood up as beseemed: or only one, and he not a great one ; Landgraf Wilhelm of Hessen, who, and his brave Widow after him, seemed always to know what hour it was. Wilhelm of Hessen all along ; — and a few wild hands, Christian of Brunswick, Christian of Anhalt, Johann George of Jiigerndorf, who stormed out tumul- tuously at first, but were soon blown away by the Tilly- Wal- lenstein trade-winds and regulated armaments : — the rest sat 1 Siilltl (Geschkhte dfs Dreissi(]jdhrigen Krieges, — a trivial modem Book) gives a notable memorial from the Brandenburg Ralhs, concerning these their difficulties of housekeeping. Their real object, we perceive, was to pet rid of a Guest so dangerous as the Ex-King, under Ban of the Empire, had now become. CiiAP. XVI. THIRTY-YEAES WAll. 267 1620. still, and tried all they could to keep out of harm's way. The " Evangelical Union " did a great deal of manifestoing, pa- thetic, indignant and other ; held solemn Meetings at Heil- broun, old Sir Henry Wotton going as Ambassador to them ; but never got any redress. Had the Evangelical Union shut up its iukhorns sooner ; girt on its tighting-tools Avhen the time came, and done some little execution with them then, instead of none at all, — we may fancy the Evangelical Union would have better discharged its function. It might have ^ved immense wretchedness to Germany. But its course went not that way. In fact, had there been no better Protestantism than that of Germany, all was over with Protestantism ; and !Max of Bava- ria, with fanatical Ferdinand II. as Kaiser over him, and Father Liimmerlein at his right hand and Father Hyacinth at his left, had got theii* own sweet way in this world. But Protestant Germany was not Protestant Europe, after all. Over seas there dwelt and reigned a certain King in Sweden ; . there farmed, and walked musing by the shores of the Ouse in Huntingdonshire, a certain man ; — there was a Gustav Adolf over seas, an Oliver Cromwell over seas; and "a company of poor men " were found capable of taking Lucifer by the beard, — who accordingly, with his Liimmerleins, Hyacinths, Habern- feldts and others, was forced to withdraw, after a tough struggle ! — CHAPTER XVI. THIKTY-YEARS WAR. The enormous Thirty-Years War, most intricate of modern Occurrences in the domain of Dryasdust, divides itself, after some unravelling, into Three principal Acts or Epochs ; in all of which, one after the other, our Kurfiirst had an inter- est mounting progressively, but continuing to be a passive interest. Act First goes from 1620 to 1624; and might be entitled 2GS THE JlUlIENZULLKKNS IN lUiANDENHUKG. Book III. Iti24. " The Bohemian King Made and Demolished." Personally the Bohemian King was soon demolished. His Kiiigship may be said to have gone off by exj)losion ; by one Fight, namely, done on tlie Weissenberg near Brag (Sunday, 8th Xovendjer, IGL'Oj, while he sat at dinner in the City, the boom of the cannon coming iu with interest upon his liigh guests and him. lie had to run, in hot haste, that night, leaving many of his important j)apers, — and becomes a Winter-King. Winter- King's account was soon settled. But the extirpating of his Adhereuts, and capturing of his Hereditary Lands, I'alatinato and U}iper-Balatinate, took three years more. Hard lighting for the I'alatinate; Tilly and Company against the ''Evangeli- cal-Union Troojjs, and the English under Sir Horac:e Vere." Evangelical-Union Troops, though marching about there, under an Uncle of our Kurfiirst (Margraf Joachim Ernst; that lucky Anspach Uncle, founder of '* the Line "), who i)rofessed some skill in soldiering, were a mere Picture of an Army ; would only *' observe," and would not tight at all. So that the whole fighting fell to Sir Horaee and his poor handful of English ; of whose grim posture *'in Frankendale " * and other Strong- liulds, for months long, there is t;ilk enough in the old English History-Books. Then there were certain stern ^Var-Captains, who rallied from the Weissenberg Defeat : — Christian of Brunswick, the chief of them, titular Bishop of Hallx^rst;ult, a high-flown, tiery young fellow, of terrible fighting gifts ; he flamed up consider- aV»ly, with '' the Queen of Bohemia's glove stuck in his Hat : " 'Bright Lady, it shall stick there, till I get you your own again, or die ! " ' Christian of Brunswick, George of Jiigern- dorf (our Kurfiirst's Uncle), Count Mansfeldt and others, made stormy fight once and acrain. hanging upon this central " Frauk- 1 Fraiikeuthal, a little Town iu the I'.ilatinate, N.W. from Maunheira a ehort way. 2 1621-1623. age not yet twenty-five; died (by poi.<»on), 1626, having agaia become supremely important just then. " Gottes Freund, dpr PfajTen Fcind (GodV Friend. Priests' Foe) ; " " AUes fur Ruhm und Ihr (All for Glory and Her," — the bright Elizabeth, become Ex-Qaeen), were mottoee of his. — Bad- dans in voce (i. 649) ; Michaelis, i. 110. Chai. XVI. • TlllRTV-YEARS WAR. 269 1024. endale " Business, till they and it became hopeless. For the Kaiser and his Jesuits were not in doubt ; a Kaiser very proud, unserupulous ; now clearly superior in force, — and all along of great superiority in fraud. Christian of Brunswick, Johann George and ^Mansfeldt were got rid of : Christian by poison ; Johann George and Mansfeldt by other methods, — chiefly by playing upon poor King James of England, and leading hiui by the long nose he was found to have. The Palatinate became the Kaiser's for the time being ; Uiii)er Palatinate {Obcr-Pfalz) Duke Max of Bavaria, lying contiguous to it, had easily taken. "Incorporate the Uber- I'ial/ with your Bavaria," said the Kaiser, "you, illustrious, thrice-serviccaljle Max ! And let Liimmerlein and Hyacinth, with their Gospel of Ignatius, loose upon it. Nay, as a still richer reward, be yours the forfeited Kur (Electorship) of this mad Kur rfalz, or Winter-King. I will hold his Khine-Lands, his Untcr-l'falz: his Electorship and Ober-rfalz, I say, ai'e yours, Duki', henceforth Kurjurst Maximilian!"' Which was a hard saying in the ears of Brandenburg, .Saxony and the other Five, and of the Reich in general ; but they had all to comply, after wincing. For the Kaiser proceeded with a high haml. He had put the Ex-King under Ban of the Empire (never asking " the Empire " about it) ; put his Three principal Adherents, Johann George of JUgerndorf one of them, Prince Christian of Anhalt (once captain at the Siege of Juliers) another, likewise under Ban of the Empire ; ^ and in short had flung about, and was flinging, his thunder-bolts in a very Olym- pian manner. Under all which, what could Brandenburg and the others do ; but whimper some trembling protest, " Clear against Law ! " — and sit obedient ? The Evangelical Union did not now any more than formerly di-aw out its fighting- tools. In fact, the Evangelical Union now faii-ly dissolved itself; melted into a deliquium of terror under these thun- der-bolts that were flying, and was no more heard of in the world. — 1 Kohler, Reichs-Historie, p. 520. - 22d Jan. 1621 (ibid. p. 518). 270 THE HOIIENZOLLERNS IN lUIAXDENHrRd. H.k.k HI. Second Act, nr Epoch, lt>24-1020. A second Uncle put to the Bun, and Pommern snatched away. Except in the '' Xether-Suj-on Circle " (distant Northwest region, with its Hanover, MeckhMiburg, with its rich Hum- burgs, Liiheeks, MagtU'lmrgs, all Trotestant, and abutting on the Trotestant North), trembling Germany lay ridden over as the Kaiser willed. Foreign League got up by France, King James, Christian IV. of Denmark (James's Brother-in-law, with whom he hatl such "drinking"' in Somerset House, long ago, on Christian's visit hithi-r '), went to water, or worse. Only the "Nether-Saxon Circle " showed some life; was levying an army ; and had appt)inted Christian of Brunswick its Captain, till he was got poisoiu'd; — upon which the drinking King of Denmark took the command. Act Second goes from 1G24 to 1627 or even 1G29 ; and con- tains drunken Christian's Exploits. Which were unfortunate, almost to the ruin of Denmark itself, as well as of the Nether- Saxon Circle ; — till in the latter of these years he slightly rallied, and got a supixjrtable Peace grantetl him (Peace of Liibeok, 1()29) ; after which he sits quiet, contemplative, with an evil eye upon Sweden now and then. The l>eatings he got, in fpiite regular succession, from Tilly and Consorts, are not worth mentioning : the only thing one now rememlx>rs of him is his alarming accident on the ramparts of Hameln, just at the opening of these Campaigns. At Hameln, which was to be a strong post, drunken Christian rode out once, on a summer afternoon (1G24), to see that the ramparts were all right, or getting all right ; — and tumbled, horse and self (self in liquor, it is thought), in an ominous alarming manner. Taken \ip for deiul ; — nay some of the vague Histories seem to think he was realh' deatl : — but he lived to be often beaten after that, and had many moist years more. Our Kurfiirst had another Uncle put to the Ban in this Second Act, — Christian Wilhelm Archbishop of Magdeburg, " for assisting the Danish King ; " nor was Ban all the ruin J 01 J Histories of James I. CWilson, &c.) Chai-. XVI. TIIIirrV-YKAKS WAR. 271 10-24-1020. that fell on this poor Archbishop. What eouKl an unfortunate Kurfurst do, but tremble and obey ? There was still a worse smart got by our poor Kurfurst out of Act Second ; the glar- ing injustice done him in I'ommern. - Does the reader remember that scene in the High Church of Stettin a hundred and fifty years ago ? How the Biirger- meister threw sword and helmet into the grave of the last Duke of rommern-Stettin there ; and a forward Citizen picked them out again in favor of a Collateral Branch ? Never since, any more than then, could Bramlenburg get rommern accord- ing to claim. Collateral Branch, in spite of Friedrich Iron- teeth, in spite even of Albert Aehilles and some fighting of his, contrived, by pleading at the Diets and stirring uj) noise, to maintain its pretensions : and Treaties without end ensued, as usual ; Treaties refreshed and new-signed by every Successor of Albert, to a wearisome degree. The sum of which always was: *' l*ommern does ai^tual homage to Brandenburg; vassal of Brandenburg ; — and falls home to it, if the now Extant Line go extinct." Nay there is an Erhverbri'ubrinKj (Heritage- Fraternity) over anil alnjve, established this long time, and wearisomely renewed at every new Accession. Hundreds of Treaties, oppressive to think of : — and now the last Duke, (•hi Bogislaus, is here, without hope of children ; and the fruit of all that haggling, actual Fommeru to wit, will at last fall home ? Alas, no ; far otherwise. For the Kaiser having so triumphantl}' swejjt off the Winter- King, and Christian IV. in the rear of him, and got Germany ready for converting to Orthodoxy, — wished now to have some hold of the Seaboard, thereby to punish Denmark ; nay thereby, as is hoped, to extend the blessings of Orthodoxy into England, Sweden, Holland, and the other Heretic States, in due time. For our plans go far I This is the Kaiser's fixed wish, rising to the rank of hope now and then : all Europe shall become Papist again by the help of God and the Devil. So the Kaiser, on hardly any pretext, seized Mecklenburg from the Proprietors, — '' Traitors, how durst you join Danish Christian?" — and made Wallenstein Duke of it. Duke of Mecklenburg, " Admii-al of the East Sea (Baltic) j " and set 272 Tin: llollKNZoLLKKNS IN liKANDENlJUHG. U^^'k HI. IHM. to *'buiUliug ships of war in Kostock," — his plans going far.* This done, he seized Ponuut-rn, which also is a tine Sea- country, — stirring up Max of liavaria to make some idle pn'tcMice to I'ommern, that so the Kaiser might seize it " in setpiestration till decided on.'' Under which hard treatment, George Wilhelm had to sit sad and silent, — though the 8tnd- sunders would not. Hence the world-famous Siege of Stral- sund (IGL'H) ; fierce Walleustein declaring,'*! will have the Town, if it hung by a chain from Heaven;" but finding he couhl not get it ; owing to the Swedish succor, to the stubborn temper prevalent among the Townsfolk, and also greatly to the rains and peat-bogs. A second Uncle of George Wilhelm's, that unlucky Arch- bishop of Magdel)urg above mentioned, the Kaiser, once more by his own arbitrary will, put under Han of tke Empire, in this Seconrl Act: ''Traitor, how durst you join with the Danes ?" The result of which was Tilly's Sack of Magdeburg (1(>-I2th May, 1631), a trausat^tion never forgettable by man- kind. — As for rommern, (iustiiv Adolf, on his intervening in these matters, landfd there : I'ommern was now seized by (lustav Adolf, as a landing-place and placc-of-arms, indispen- sable for Sweden in the present emergency ; and was so held thenceforth. Tommeru will not fall to George Wilhelm at this time. Tliird A<-t, (UiiJ irh'it the Kurfiirst suffered in it. And now we are at Act Third : — Landing of Gustav Adolf " in the Isle of Usedom, 24th June, 1G30," and onward for Eighteen Years till the I'eace of Westphalia, in 1(>48 ; — on which, as probably better known to the reader, we will not here go into details. In this Third Act too, George Wilhelm followed his old scheme, peace at any price ; — as shy of Gustav as he had been of other Champions of the Cause ; and except complaining, petitioning and manifestoing, studiously did nothing. Poor man, it was his fate to stand in the range of these huge collisions, — Bridge of Dessau, Siege of Stralsund, Sack of 1 Kuhlcr, fuirha-IIistorir, pp. 524, 525. CuAv. XVI. • THIRTY-YEARS WAR. 273 i«ao. Magdeburg, Battle of Leipzig, — where the Titaus were bowl- ing rocks at one another ; and he hoped, by dexterous skip- ping, to escape shai-e of the game. To keep well with his Kaiser, — and such a Kaiser to Germany and to him, — this, fer George Wilhelm, was always the first commandment. If the Kaiser confiscate your Uncles, against law; seize your rommern; rob you on the public highways, — George Wii- helm, even in such case, is full of dubitations. . Nay his Prime- Minister, one Schwartzenberg, a Catholic, an Austrian Uiticial at oue time, — Progenitor of the Austrian Schwartzenbergs that now are, — was secretly in the Kaiser's interest, and \i even thought to have been in the Kaiser's pay, all along. Gustav, at his first landing, hail seized Pommern, and swept it dear of Austrians, for him.self and for his own wants; not too regiudful of George AVilhelm's claims on it. He cleared out Frankfurt-<jn-( )der, Ciistrin and other Brandenburg Towns, in a similar manner, — by cannon and storm, when needful; — drove the Imperialists and Tilly fortli of these countries. Advancing, next year, to save Magdeburg, now shrieking under Tilly's bombardment, Gustav insisted on having, if not some bond of union from his Brother-in-law of Brandenburg, at least the temporary cession of two Places of War for liimself, Spandau and Ciistrin, indispensable in any farther operation. Which cession KurfUrst George Wilhelm, though giving all his prayers to the Good Cause, could by no means grant. Gustav had to insist, with more and more emphasis ; advancing at last, with military menace, upon Berlin itself. He was met by George Wilhelm and his Council, " in the woods of Ciipenick," short way to the east of that City : there George Wilhelm and his Council wandered about, sending messages, hopelessly consulting; saying among each other, '' Que faire; U^ ont des cations, WTiat can one do; they have got cannon ? " ^ For many hom-s so ; round the inflexible Gustav, — who was there like a fixed milestone, and to all 1 (Euvres de Frederic le Grand (Berlin. 1846-1856 et seqq. : Memoires de Brundebourg), i. 38. For the rest, Friedrich's Account of the Transaction is very loose and scanty : see Fauli (iv. 568) and his minute details. VOL. V. 18 274 THE IIOIIKXZOLLERXS IN nKANDKNUrKG. BonK HI. iG3a. questions and comers had only one answer! — " Que fnire ; Us ont des ranom ? " This was the 3d May, 1G31. This jirobably is about the nadir-point of the Brandenburg-IIcihcnzollern History. Tlie little Friodrich, who became Frmlerick the Great, in writing of it, has a certain grim banter in his tone ; and lo«tks rather with niocki-ry on the perplexities of his poor Ancestor, so fatally ignorr.nt of the time of day it had now become. On the whole, George Wilhelm did what is to be called nothing, in the Thirty- Years War ; his function was only that of suffering. He followed always the bad lead of Johanu George, Elector of Saxony ; a man of no strength, devoutness or adiwpiatc human worth; who proved, on these ni'gative groiuuls, and without flagrancy of jmsitive badness, an un- speakable curse to Germany. Not till the Kaiser fulminated forth his Restitution-Edict, an<l showed he was in earnest alxHit it (H»L".)-1<».'U), "Restore to our Holy Chureh what you have taken from her since the Peace of I'assau ! '' — could this Johann George prevail U|>on himself to join Sweden, or even to do other than liate it for reasons he saw. Seized by the throat in this manner, and ordered to deliver, Kur-Sa«hsen did, and Hrandenburg along with him, make Treaty with the Swede.* In consequence of which they two, some nujuths after, by way of co-oixrating with Gustiiv on his great march Vienna-ward, sent an invading force into Bohemia, Branden- burg contributing some i>oor 3,CK)0 to it ; who took Prag, and some other open Towns ; but " did almost nothing there," say the Histories, "except dine and drink.'' It is clear enough they were instantly scattered home ^ at the first glimpse of Wallenstein dawning on the horizon again in those parts. GusUxv having vanished (Field of LUtzen, Gtli November, 1632 ^), Oxenstiern, with his high attitude, and "Presidency" of the " Union of Heilbronn," was rather an offence to Kur- Sachsen, who used to be foremost man on such occasions. Kur-Sachsen broke away again ; made his Peace of Prag,* 1 8th February, 1631 (Kiihler, Reichs-llistorie, pp. 526-531). > October, 16.33 (Stenzel, i. 503). « Pauli, iv. 576. * 1635, 20th May (Stenzel. i. 513). cn.vr. XVI. THIRTY-YEARS WAR. 275 1U40. whom Braiulenlmrg again followed ; I'raiulenburg ami grad- ually all the others, except the noble Wilhehn of Hesson- Cassel alone. Miserable Peace ; bit of Chaos clouted uj), and done over with Ullicial varnish; — which proved to be the signal for continuing the War beyond visible limits, and ren- dering peace impossible. After this, George Wilhelm retires from the scene ; lives in Ciistrin mainly; mere miserable days, which shall be in- visible to us. He died in IGIO; and, except producing an at^tivo brave Son very unlike himself, did nothing consider- able in the world. ^' Qiir /aire ; i/s viit ih's canons /'^ Among the innumerable sanguinary tusslings of this "War are counted Three great l>attles, Leipzig, LUtzen, Niirdlingen. Under one great Captain, Swedish Gustav, and the two or three other considerable Cajjtains, who api>eared in it, high passages of furious valor, of fine strategy and tactic, are on record. But on the whole, the grand weapon in it, and tow.ards the latter times the exclusive one, was Hunger, The opposing Armies tried to starve one another; at lowest, tried each not to starve. Each trying to eat the country, or at any rate to leave nothing eatable in it: what that will mean for the country, we may consider. As the Armies too frequently, and the Kaiser's Armies habitually, lived without commissariat, often enough without pay, all horrors of war and of being a seat of war, that have been since heard of, are poor to those then practised. The detail of which is still horrible to read. Germany, in all eatable quarters of it, had to undergo the process ; — tortured, torn to pieces, wrecked, and brayed as in a mortar under the iron mace of war.^ Bran- denburg saw its towns sieged and sacked, its country popu- lations driven to despair, by the one party and the other. Three times, — first in the AVallenstein Mecklenburg period, while fire and sword were the weapons, and again, twice over, ^ Curious incidental details of the state it was reduced to, in the Rhine and Danube Countries, turn up in the Earl of Arundel and Surrey's Tracels ( " Arundel of the MarMes " ) as Amhassudor E.rtnwrdinary to the Emperor Fer- dinando II. iu 1636 (a small Volume, or Pamphlet, London, 1C37). 2TG THE IIoIIEXZOLLERXS IX miAXDEXlU'RG. B.«.k III. 1020-1640. in the ultimate stages of the struggle, when starvation had become the method — Brandenburg fell to be the i»rincipal theatre of conflict, where all forms of the dismal were at their height. In H)38, three years after that precious " I'eace of Prag,'' the Swedes (Hanier i-crsus Ciallas) starving out the Imperialists in those Northwestern parts, the ravages of the starving Gallas and his Im])erialists excelled all precedent; and the " famine about Tangfrmiinde had risen so high that men ate human flesh, nay human creatures ate their own chil- dren. " ^ *' Que /aire ; Us out ties canons/" CHAPTER XVII. DLCIIV OF ja(;kkxdouf. This unfortunate George "Wilhelm failed in getting Pom- m<rii wlicn due ; Pommern, flrmly held by the Swedes, was far from him. liut that was not the only loss of territory he had. Jiigerndorf, — we have heard of Johann George of .Tiigcrndorf, Uncle of this (Jeorge Wilhelm, how old Joachim Frirdrich put him into Jiigerndorf, long since, when it fell home to the Electoral House. Jiigerndorf is now lost; Jo- hann George is under Ri^hhs-Arht (lian of Empire), ever since the Winter-Kin(j's explosion, and the thunder-bolts that followed; and wanders hmdless ; — nay he is long since dead, and lias six feet of earth for a territory, far away in Tran- sylvania, or the Riesen-Gehlrge (Giant Mountains) somewhere. Concerning whom a word now. 'o Duke of Jagerndorf, Elector* s Uncle, is put under Ban. Johann C^orge, a frank-hearted valiant man, concerning whom only good actions, and no bad one, are on record, had notable troubles in the world ; bad troubles to begin 1 1638 : r.inli, iv. GOl. CHAI-. XVII. DUCHY OF JAGERNUOHF. 277 lG2(t-IIJlO. with, and worse to end in. He was second Son of Kurfurst Joacliiui Fiiedrich, who had meant liiiii tor the Church.^ The young fellow was Coadjutor of Strasburg, almost from the time of getting into short-clothes. He was then, still very young, elected Bishop there (1592); lUshop of Stras- burg, — but only by the Protestant part of the Canons ; the Catholic part, unable to submit longer, and thinking it a good time for revolt against a Protestant population and obstinately heterodox majority, elected another Bishop, — one'" Karl of the House of Lorraine;" and there came to be dispute, and came even to be fighting needed. Fighting ; which prudent Papa wouUl not enter into, except faintly at second-hand, through the Anspach Cousins, or others that were in the humor. Troublesome times for the young man ; which lasted a dozen years or more. At last a Bargain was made (1G04) ; Protestant and Catholic Canons splitting the (litference in some way; and the House of Lorraine paying .loliann George a great deal of nioney to go home again.* l*6or Johann George came out of it in that way ; 7iot second- best, think several. He was then (IGOG) put into Jagerndorf, which had just fallen vacant ; our excellent fat friend, George Friedrich of Anspach, Administrator of Preussen, having lately died, and left it vacant, as we saw. George Friedrich's death yielded iine apanages, three of them in all : first Anspach, second, liaireuth, and this tliinl of Jagerndorf for a still younger Brother. There was still a fourth younger Brother, Uncle of George Wilhelm ; Aj-chbishop of Magdeburg this one ; who also, as we have seen, got into Rekhs-Acht, into deep trouble in the Thirty- Years War. He was in Tilly's thrice- murderous Storm of ^Magdeburg (10th May, 1G31) ; was cap- tured, tumbled about by the wild soldiery, and nearly killed there. Poor man, with his mitre and rochets left in such a state! In the end he even became Catholic, — from convic- tion, as was evident, and bewilderment of mind ; — and lived 1 1577-1624: Eentsch, p. 486. 2 CEuvres comjdetes de Voltaire, 97 vols. (Paris, 1825-1832), xxxiii. 284. — ■ Kohler (Reichs-Histirip, p. 487) gives the autheutic particulars. '2iS THE IIOHENZOLLEKNS IN BUANDEXBrRG. B«>ok Jil. in Austria on a jKiisiun; occasionally jjublishiug polemical })aniplik*ts.' — As to Johann George, he much repaired and lx\autitied the Castk' of Jiigerndorf, says Rentsch : but he unlortunately went aheiul into tlie Winter-King's advi-nture ; which, in that sad battle of the Wcissenbcrg, made total shipwreck of itself, drawing Johann George and much else along wiili it. Johann (icorge was straightway tyrannously j)Ut to the llan, forfeited of life and lands : ■' Johann George disowned the said lian ; stood out fiercely for self and Winter-King; and did good lighting in the Silesian strongholds and mountain-passes : but was forced to seek tempor.iry shelter in Siebfitbiirtjen (Transylvania) ; and died far away, in a year or two (101'4), wliile returning to try it again. Sleeps, I^ think, in tlie " .lablunka Pass ; " the dumb Giant-MounUiius {lilcsen-Gvbirgt) slirnuding tip his sad shijiwreck and liim. .liigeindorf was thus seized by Ferdinand II. of the House ot Ilapsburg; and though it waa contrary to all law that the Kai.ser shoulil keep it, — |K)or Johann George having left Sons very inntK*ent of treason, and Brothers, and an Electoral Nephew, very innocent ; to whom, by old compacts and new, the Heritage in defect of him w;ia to fall, — neither Kai.ser Fenlinaml II. nor Kaiser Ferdinand III. nor any Kaiser would let go the hold ; but kept Jiigerndorf fast clenclied, deaf to all jileadings, and monitions of gods or men. Till at length, in the fourth generation afterwards, one " Friedrich the Second," not unknown to us, — a sharp little man, little in stature, but large in faculty and renown, wTio is now called •• Frederick the Great," — clutched hold of the Imperial fist (so to speak), seizing his opportunity in 1740 ; and so wrenched and twisted said close fist, that not only Jiigerndorf dropped out of it, but the whole of Silesia along with Jiigerndorf, there being other claims withal. And the account wns at last settled, with compound interest. — as in fact such ac- counts are sure to be, one waj- or other. And so we leave Johann George among the dumb Giant-Mountains again. 1 15S7; 1628; 1665 (Rentsch, pp. 905-910). - 22J January, 1621 (Kiihler, ftcichs-fflstorie, p. 518: and rectify Hiibner, t TS) CnAr. xvm. KURFURST FRIEDRICII WILIIELM. 279 CHAl'TER XVIII. FRIEDRICII WILIIELM, THK (ilCKAT KURFURST, ELEVENTH OF THE SERIES. Brandenburg lia<l u'^am sunk very low muler the Tenth Ek'ctor, ill the unuttenibh- troubles of the times. But it was gU)ri<jusly raised up again by his Son Fricch'ieh Williehn, who sueee»'clcd in 1(340. This is he wlioni they eall the "Great EU'ctor (Crosse Kurfurst) ;'' of whom there is much writing and eeh'brating in I'russiiin iJooks. As for the epithet, it is not uneomiuon among petty Gevmau popuhitions, and many times does not mean too much: thus Max of Bavaria, witli his Je^uit Lambkins and Hyacinths, is, by Bavarians, called "Maximilian the Great." Friedrieh Wilhrlm, Ixith by his intrinsic qualities and the success he met with, deserves it better than most. His success, if we look where he started and where he ended, was beyond that of any other man in his day. He found Brandenburg annihilated, and he left Brandenburg sound and flourishing ; a great country, or already on the way towards greatness. Undoubtedly a most rapid, clear-eyed, active man. There was a stroke in him swift as lightning, well-aimed mostly, and of a respectable weight withal; which shattered asunder a whole world of impedi- ments for him, by assiduous repetition of it for fifty years.^ There hardly ever came to sovereign power a young man of twenty under more distressing, hopeless-looking circumstances. Political significance Brandenburg had none ; a mere Protes- tant appendage dragged about by a Papist Kaiser. His Father's Prime-^Iinister, as we have seen, was in the interest of his enemies; not Brandenburg's servant, but Austria's. The very Commandants of his Fortresses, Commandant of 1 1620: 1640; 1688. 280 THE IIOHEXZOLLKUNS IN BKANDENBrKc;. B<h>k III. lt>4U-l)'.H8. Spaiubiu mon' especially, ri'f\isp«l U> o1k\v Fiu-dric-h Wilht^liii, on his accession ; " were bound to oU'y the Kaiser in tl.e first place." He liad to proceed softly as well as swiftly ; with the most delicate hand to get him of Spandau by the collar, ami put him under lock-iind-key, hinj a.s a warning to others. For twenty years past, Brandenlturg had l)een scoured by hostile armies, which, espe«i;illy tlie Kaiser's part of which, committ«'d outn»i,'fs nt'W in human history. In a year or two hence, l?rand('nb\irg U'camc again the theatre of business; Austrian CJallas advancing thithir again (1(144), with intent "to shut up Tor8t«'nson and his Swedes in Jutland," where they hiul been chastising old Christian I \'., now meddlesome again, for the last time, ami never a good neighbor to Swe<len. Gallas could by no means do what he inteadetl ; on tlie con- trary, he ha/l to run from Torstenson, what feet could do; was hunted, he aucl his Mi'ituh-I'i'iiilrr (U-aiitiful inventors of the "Marauding" Art), "till tljey j»retty much all died (rrrpirten),'^ says Kohler.* No great loss to society, the «leath of these Artists; but we can fancy what their life, and esp'cially what the process of their dying, may have cost jxK)r r.randenburg again ! — Friedrich Wilhelm's aim, in this as in other emergencies, was sun-clear to himself, btit for nmst part dim to everylnxly else. He had to walk very warily, Sweden on one hand of him, suspicious Kaiser on the other; he ha^l to wear sem- blances, to be ready with evasive words ; and a<lvance noi.se- lessly by many circuits. More delicate oj)eration could not be imagined. But mlvance he did; advance and arrive. With extraordinary talent, diligence and felicity the young man wound himself out of this first fatal jKjsition ; got those foreign Armies pushed out of his Country, and kept them out. His first concern had been to find some vestige of revenue, to put that upon a clear footing; and by loans or otherwise to scrape a little ready money together. C>n the strength of which a sukUI Ixnly of soldiers could be collected about him, and drilled into real ability to fight and obey. » litichs-Hislorie, p. 5.'>6 ; Pauli, v. 24. Cmai-. XVIII. KFRFI-R^^T FRTEDRini WTLIIELM. 281 IGU. This lis a basis ; on this followed all manner of tilings ; free- dom from Swedish-Austrian invasions, as the tii-st thing. Ho was himself, as ajjix-ared by and by, a fighter of the first quality, when it came to that ; but iipver was willing to tight if he could help it. Preferred rather to shift, mantpuvre and negotiate ; which he did in a most vigilant, adroit and masterly manner. But by degrees he had grown to have, and could maintain it, an Army of 24,000 men ; among the l>est troops then in Ix'ing. Witli or witliout his will, he was in all tlTe great Wars of his time, — the time of Louis XI\'.. who kindled Europe fcmr times over, thrice in our Kurliirst's day. The Kurfiirst's Dominions, a long straggling country, reach- ing from Mcmel to Wesel, could hardly keep out of the way of any war tliat might risi*. He mad«' himself available, never against the gooil c;iuse of Prc»t»'stantism and (rcrman Freedom, yet always in the place and way where hi.s own best julvantage was to be had. Louis X I V. had often much need of him ; still oftener, and more pressingly, liad Kaiser Leo- pold, the little Gentleimin '• in scarlet stockings, with a red feather in his hat," whom Mr. Savage used to see majestically walking about, with Austrian lip that said nothing at all.^ His L'4,000 excellent tighting-men. thrown in at the right time, were often a thing that couhl turn the balance in great ques- tions. They required to be allowed for at a high rate, — which he well knew how to adjust himself for exacting and securing always. 1 ^4 Coiiiffledt Uistort/ of Germany, by Mr. Savage (8vo, London, 1702), p. 553. Who this Mr. Savage was, we have no trace. Prefixed to tlie vol- ume is the Portrait of a solid Gentleman of fortj ; gloomily polite, with ample wig and cravat, — in all likelihood some .^tadious subaltern I)iplomati.st in the Succession War. His little Book is very lean and barren : but faithfully com- piled, — and might have some illumination in it, where utter darkness is so prevxilent. Most likely, Addison picked his story of the Siege of Weinsberq (" ^Vomen carrying out their Husbands on their back," — one of his best Spectators) out of this poor Book. 2«2 Tin: IIOIIKXZOLLKKNS IN HUANDENRrRG. B<>'>k HI. H;4ii-ir,88. Wh'tt became of Pommcrn at the Peace ; final Glance into Clevi'-'Jullch. "Whon the l*eare of Westphalia (IG4S) concluded that Thirty-Years Conflagration, an<l swept the ashes of it into order ajjjain, Friedrieh Wilhelin's right to Pommern was atlniit- ted by evorylnxly ; and well insisted on by himself: but right ha<l to yi«'ld to reason of state, ami he could not get it. The Swedes insisted on their e.xjx'nses ; the Swedes held l*ommern, had all along held it, — in pawn, they said, for their exjienses. Nothing for it but to give the Swedes the better half of Toni- meni. /''»rf-ronimern (so they call it, ''Swedish I'onierania " thenceforth), which lies next the Sea ; this, with some Towns and cuttings over and alM)ve, was Sweden's share : Friedrieh Wilhtdnj liad to put up witli //i'«</rr-I*ommern. docked further- more of the Town of Sttltin, and of otluT valuable cuttings, in favor of Sweden. Much to Friedridi Wilhilin's grief and just anger, couhl he have heljwd it. They gave him Three secularized Itishoprics, Magdeburg, HallK^rstiult, Minden, with other small remnants, for comjicn- sation ; and he had to l>e cont^^nt with these for the j. resent. But he never g:ive up the itlea of Pommern ; much of the effort of his life was s|>ent ujKin recovering Fore-Pommern ; thrice-«»ager upon that, whenever lawful ojip)rtunity offered. To no puriHJse then ; he never could recover Swedish Pom- mern ; only his late descendants, and that by slowish degrees, could recover it all. Readers rememlx>r that Biirgermeister of Stettin, with the helmet and sword flung into the grave and picked out again ; — and can judge whether Brandenburg got its good luck quite by Ijnng in l)ed I — Once, and once only, he had a voluntary purpose towards War. and it remained a purpose only. Soon after the Peace of Westphalia, old Pfalz-Xeuburg, the same who got the slap on the face, went into tyrannous proceedings against the Protestant part of his subjects in Jiilich-Cleve ; who called to Friedrieh Wilhelm for help. Friedrieh Wilhelm, a zealous Protestant, made remonstrances, retaliations : ere long the thought struck him, " Suppose, backed by the Dutch, we threw (HA.-. XVIII. KlRFCliST FKIEDKICII W ILllKLM. 288 1U05-1GG0. out this fantastic old gentleman, his Papistries, and pretended claims and self, clear out of it ? " This was Friedrich Wil- helm's thouj^dit; ami he suddenly marched troops into the Ter- ritory, with that view. I>ut Europe was in alarm, the Dutch grew faint: Friedrich Wilhelm saw it would not do. He had a conference with old Pfalz-Xeuburg : " Young gentle- man, we remember how your Grandfather made free with us and our august countenance! Nevertheless we — " In fine, the " statistic of Treaties " was increased by One ; and there the matter rested till calmer times. In lOlKJ, iis already said, an effective Partition of these liti- gated Territories was accomplished : Prussia to have the Duchy of Cleve-Proper, the Counties of Mark and Ravens- burg, with other I'atches and Pertinents; Ncuburg, what was the better share, to have .Jiilicii Ducliy and Berg Duchy. Furthermore, if either of the Lines failed, in no sort was a collateral to be atlmitted ; but lirandenburg was to inherit Neuburg, or Neuburg Hranilenburg, as the case might be.* A clear liarg;iin this at List ; and in the times that had come, it ]troved executiible so far. Put if the reader fancies the Law- suit was at last out in tliis way, he will be a simple reader ! In the days of our little Fritz, the Line of Pfalz-Xeuburg was evidently ending ; but that Brandenburg and not a collateral should succeed it, there lay the quarrel, — open still, as if it hatl never been shut ; and we shall hear enough about it I — Th>' Grrat Kurfurst's Wars : what he achieved i/i War and Peace. Friedrich "Wilhelm's first actual appearance in War, Polish- Swedish War (lGo5-lGG0), wiis involuntary in the highest degree ; forced upon him for the sake of his Preussen, which bade fair to be lost or ruined, without blame of his or its. Nevertheless, here too he made his benefit of the affair. The big King of Sweden had a standing quarrel with his big Cousin of Poland, which broke out into hot War ; little Preus- sen lay between them, and was like to be crushed in the col- 1 Pauli, V. 120-129. 284 THE llUilKNZuLLEUN.S IN liliAXDENHrin;. H-.kHI. lision. Swedisli King was Kaal Gustav, Christina's Cou^i^, Cliark'S TwfUtli's (irandfather ; a ^eat and luiijhty man, lion of tlif North in his time: Polish King was one Jolm Casimir; cliivalroiis enough, and with cdoiids ot forward lN)lish chivalry alx)ut him, glittering with kirkirie gold. Frederiek 111., Danish King for the time Ixdng, ho also w;us mueh involved in the thing. Fain would Friedrii-h Wilhelm have kept out of it, but he could not. Karl iJu.stav as goo«l as forced him to join : he joined ; fought along with Karl (iust;iv an illus- trious Battle ; " Battle of Warsaw," three days long (liH-oOth July, IGoO), on the skirts of War.saw, — crowils *• looking from the up|)» r windows " there ; Polish chivalry, broken at last, going like chaff upon the winds, and John Casimir nearly ruinetl. Shortly after which, Friedrich Wilhelm, who had shone much in tlu* Battle, changed sides. An inconsistent, treacher- ous man '.' Perhaps not, O reader ; perhajjs a man advancing "in circuits," the only way he has; spirally, face now to east, now to west, with liis own reasonable j.rivate aim sun-clear to him all the while ".' John Casimir agreed to give up the '* Homage of Preussen " for this service ; a grand prize for Friedrich Wilhelm.* \N'hat the Teutsch Hitters strove for in vain, and lost their existence in striving for, the shifty Kurfiirst has now got: Ducal Pru.ssia, which is also called E;ust Prussi:i, is now a free sovereignty, — and will l)ecome ;is " Koyal " as the other Polish ])art. Or j>cr- haps even more so, in the C(.urse of time! — Kiul Gustav, in a high frame of mind, informs the Kurfiirst, that he has him on his books, and will pay the debt one day ! A dangerous debtor in such matters, this Karl Gustav. lu these same months, busy with the Danish part of the Contro- vei-sy, he w;vs doing a feat of war, which set all Europe in as- tonishment. In January, 1658, Karl Gustav marches his Army, horse, foot and artillery, to the extent of twenty thousand, across the P>;\ltic ice, and takes an Island without shipping, — Island of Fiinen, across the Little Belt ; three miles of ice ; i Treaty of Labi.-iu, lOtli November, 16.50 (Pauli, v. 73-75) ; 20th November (Steuzel, iv. 12S, — wlio always lues Nctc bti^lt). iJiiAi-. -Will. Kl'KrCliST rUlEDKlCll WlLilLLM. 28o 1000. aud a j)ai t ol" the sea oy>f«, wliich lias to be crossed en i>lanks. iNay, toiwai-d iroiii Fiineu, when once there, lie achieves tea whole luiles more of ice; aiul takes Zealand itsell',- — to the Yonder oi all niaukiud. An ini])erious, stern-browed, swiiL- strikiug ni:ui ; who had dreamed ol a new Goth Empire : The mean llvpiKrites and Fribbles of the South to be coereed atrain by noble Morst' valor, and tau;,^]it a new lesson. II;is been known to lay his hand on his sword wliile apprisiiig an Ani- bass;ulor (Dutch lligh-Mightiuess) what his royal intentions were : '* >iot the sale or jturchase of groceries, observe you, Sir I My aims go higher ! '' — Charles Twelfth's Grandfather, and somewhat the same ty|)e of mam liut Karl Gustav died, short while after ; '^ left his big wide- raging Northern Controversy to collapse in what way it couhl. Sweilen antl the lighting-parties made their *• Teaci' of Oliva" (Abbey of Uliva, mar Dantzig, 1st May, IGbU^ ; aud this of J'reussen w;us ratified, in all form, among the other points. No houjage more; nothing now alwve Ducal Prussia but the Heavens; and great times I'omiug for it. This was one of the suceessfidest strokes of business ever done by Friedrich Wil- helm ; who IkuI been forced, by sheer compulsion, to embark in that big game. — " Koyal I'russia," the Western or FotUk Prussia : this too, as all Newsjjapers know, ha.s, in our times, gone tlu' same roau as the other. Which probably, after all, it may have had, in Nature, some tendency' to do '.' Cut away, for re:isons, by the Polish sword, in that Battle of Tanneuberg, long since ; and then, also for reasons, cut back again ! That is the fact; — not unexampled in human History, Old Johann Casimir, not long alter that Peace of Oliva, getting tired of his unruly Polish chivalry ruid their ways, abdicated : — retired to Paris ; and '• lived much with Ninon de TEnclos and her circle," for the rest of his life. He used to complain of his Polish chivalry, that there was no solidity in them ; nothing but outside glitter, with tumult and anarchic noise ; fatal want of one essential talent, the talent of Obey- ing ; and has been heard to prophesy that a glorious Republic, 1 Holberfr's Danemarkhche Reichs-Uistorie, pp. 40G-409. 2 13th Febraarv, 16G0, age 38. 286 THE IIOIIKNZOLLEKNS IN HKANDKNIU'liC;. Ii—k Ml. persisting in sn<li courses, would arrivo at results whieii would surprise it. Onwaid from this tinio, Fricdrich Wilhchn figun's in tlie world; public men waU'hin;^ his procedure; Kings anxious to secure liiin, — Dutch prinlstdlers sticking up his I'ortruits for a hero-worshii>ping I'ublic Fighting hero, had the I'uhlic known it, w;is not his essentiid ehar:u-ter, though he had to light a great deal. Ho w;is essentially an Industrial man; great in orgjuiizing, regulating, in constraining eluu^tii; heaps to become cosmic for him. He drains lH)gs, settles colonies in the waste-places of his Dominions, cuta canals ; unweaiiedly encouri»4Jfe8 trade and work. The Friedrirh-]\'ilhflin» Canal, which still ciu-ries tonnag«* from the CUler to tke Spree,' is a monument of his zeal ii» this way ; crediUiblc, with the means lie had. To the poor Frem-h Trotcstiints, in the Edict-of-Nantcs AlTair, he was like an express iJcnelit of Heaven: «>ne Helper appointed, to whom the hilp itself w;u> protitiible. He muniti- ccntly welcomed tliem to linmdenburg ; showed really a noble piety and human pity, as well as judgment ; nor did lirauden- burg and he want their rewanl. ^k)me 20,(XX) nindde French souls, evidently of the best French <iuality, found a home there ; — matle " waste sands alwut Berlin into ])otherb gar- dens ; " and in the spiritual Hrandenburg, too, did something of horticulture, which is still noticeable.'' CerUiinly this Elector was one of the shiftiest of men. 2sot an unjust man either. A jjious. God-fearing man rather, stanch to his Protestantism and his Bible; not unjust by any means, — nor, on the other hand, by any means thick-skinned in his interpretings of justice: Fair-play to myself always; or occa- sionally even the Height of Fair-play ! On the whole, by con- stant energy, vigilance, adroit activity, by an ever-ready insight and audacity to seize the passing fact by its right handle, he > Execntcd, 1662-1668; fifteen English miles long (Biisching, Erdbeschrei- bung.y'i. 2193). ' Ermau (weak Binomphcr of Qncen Sophie-Charlotte, already cited), M^ moires fwir Sfirir a I'llistoire des Ii^fugi6s Franfait dans les Elals du Roi dt Prusse (Berlin, 1782-1794), 8 tt. 8vo. CiiAP. XVIII. KUKFUKST FHIEDKICll WlLllELM. 287 1075. fought his way well in the world ; left Braudenburg a flourish- ing and greatly increased Country, and his own name famous enough. A thick-set stalwart figure ; with brisk eyes, and high strong irregularly Koman nose. Good bronze Statue of him, by Sehliitor, once a famed man, still rides on the Laiuje-Briuke (Lung-Bridge) at Berlin; and his Tortrait, in huge frizzled Louis-Quatorze wig, is frequently met with in CJerman Cial- le/iis. Collectors of Dutch Prints, too, know him : here a gallant, eagle-featured little gentleman, brisk in the smiles of youth, with jtlumes, with truncheon, caprioling on his war- charger, view of tents in the distance ; — there a sedate, jion- dcrous, wrinkly old man, eyes slightly puckered (eyes busier than mouth); a fa^'C well-i)loughed by Tinje, and not found inifruitful ; one of the largest, most laborious, potvut faces (in an ocean of circumambii'ut periwig) to l»e nu't with in that Centur}'.* Tlu're are many Histories about him, too; but they are not comfortable to read.* He also has wanted a sacred Toct ; and found only a bewildering Dryasdust. His Two grand Feats that dwell in the Prussian memory are perhaps none of his greatest, but were of a kind to strike the imagination. They both relate to what was the central problem of his life, — the recovery of Pommern from the Swedes. Exploit First is the famed " Battle of FehrOtlli/i (Ferry of Bellt^en)," fought on the 18th June, 1675. Fehrbellin is an inconsiderable Town still standing in those peaty regions, some five-and-thirty miles northwest of Berlin ; and had for ages plied its poor Ferry over the oily-looking, brown, sluggish stream called Khin, or Rhein in those paits, without the least ' Both Prints are Dutch ; the Younger, mv copy of the Younjer, has lost the Engraver's Name ( Kurfurst's age is twenty-seven) ; the Elder is by Masson, 1683, when Friedrich Wilhelm was sixty -three. - G. D. Geyler, Leben und ThcUen Friedrich Wilhelms des Grotisen (Frankfort and Leipzig, 1703), folio. Franz Horn, Das Leben Friedrich Wilhdms des Crosxen (Berlin, 1814). Pauli. Stnats-Geschichte. Band v. (Halle, 1764). Pufen- dorf, [Je rebus ge^tis Friderici WUhelmi Magni Electoris Brandenburgeiisis Com- mentaria (Lips, et Berol. 1733, foL). 288 THE IlOlIKXZoLLKILNb IN HKANDKNliriJi;. 1i<»-k 111. 1040-11188. notice from numkiml. till this foil out. It is a j>luco dI' pii- griinage to patriotic I'lussiaus, ever siuce Fricdricli Wilhelm's exploit there. The niatt<'r went thus : — Frieilrich Wilhelin was lighting, far south in Alsaee, on Kaiser LeojMtUrs siile, in the I-iouis-Kourteentli War ; that second one, which onded in the treaty of Nimwegen. Doing his best there, — when the Swedes, egged on by Louis XIV., made war ujMin hiiu ; crossed th«« Poineraniau inarches, troop after trotip, and invatled his lirandenlmr^' 'rerritt)ry with a forct? which at length aniounte«l to soiue 1(I.(MM> men. No help for the nuuuent: Friedrich Wilhelm could not Ih' sparetl from liis post. The Swedes, who had at first professed well, gr;ulu- ally went into plumh'r. roving, harrying, at their own will; and a melancholy time tlu*v ma«le of it for Friedrich Wilhelm and his People. Lmky if temj)orary harm were all the ill they Avere likely to do ; lucky if — I He stood ste:uly, lu)wever ; in Lis solid manner, finishing the thing in hand first, since that wa.s feasible. He then even r«'tired into wintcr-^iuartcrs, to rest his nun; and seemed to have left the Sweilish 1G,<hh) autocrats of the situation ; who accordingly went storming about at a great rate. Not so, however; very far indeed from so. Having rested Ids men for certain months, Friedrich Wilhelm silently in the first ilays of June (1G7."5) gets them under march again; marches, his Cavalry and he as first instalment, with U'st sj)eed from Schweinfurt,' which is on the river Main, to Mag- deburg; a distance of two hundred miles. At Magdeburg, where he rests three days, waiting for the first handful of loot and a field-piece or two, he learns that the Swedes are in three j)arties wide asunder; the middle party of them within forty miles of him. Probably stronger, even this middle one, than his small botiy (of " six thousand Horse, twelve hundred Foot and three guns"); — stronger, but capable jK-rhaps of being surprised, of being cut in pieces, before the others can come up ? Rathenau is the nearest skirt of this middle party : thither goes the Kurfiirst, softly, swiftly, in the June night (.iC-17th June, 1G75; ; gets into Kathenau, by briik stratagem ; ' Steniel, ii. 347. •-I.M- Will Kriuaii.sT FKiLiJKicii \\;ijii:i..M 2b\) luTS. tuiubles out the 8\?eilish Horse-rej^iiueut thoio, iliive:j it back towards I'Vhrbellin. lie liiinself follows hard; — swift riding enough, in tho sumiiu'i- night, through those damp Havel lands, in the old IIolR-nzolleni f;i.shion : and indeed old Fieisaek Castle, as it eliances, — Fieisai;k, scene of Dietrich von Quitzow and Lazj/ J'rij long since, — is close by ! Follows hard, we say : strikes in ui)on this midmost iwrty (nearly twic« his numl)er, but In- fantry for the most i>art) ; and after tierce light, done with gooti tiilent ou both sides, cuts it into utter ruin, as proposed. Thereby he has left the Swedish Army as a mere head and tail irithotU boily ; h;is entirely demcjlished the .Swedish Army.* Same feat intrinsically ;vs that done by Cromw* 11, on Hamilton and the Scots, in ir>4S. It was, so to sp<'ak, the hust visit Sweden jaid to llrandenburg, or the hist of any consequence; and endetl the domination of the Swedes in tho.se (puirters. A thing justly to be forever remembered by lirandenburg ; — on a smallish modern scale, the lianuockburn, Sempach, Marathon, of IJrantlenburg.* I'xploit StH-ond was four years later ; in some sort a corol- lary to this; and a winding-up of the Swedish business. The Swedes, in farther pros(H-ution of their Ijouis-Fourteenth Sjjecu- lation. had invaded i'reussen this tinn*, and were doing sa<l havoc there. It was in the dea<.l of winter, Christmas, 1078, more than four hundred miles off; and the Swedes, to say nothing of their other havoc, were in a ciise to take Kunigsberg, and ruin Prussia altogether, if not prevented. Friedrich Wil- helm starts from IJerliu, with the oiR^ning Year, on his long march; the Horse-troops first, Foot to follow at their swiftest ; he himself (his Wife, his ever-true " Louisa," accompanying, as her wont was) travels, towards the end, at the rate of " sixty miles a day." He gets in still in time, finds KiJnigsberg unscathed- Nay it is even said, the Swedes are extensively » Stenzol, ii. 350-357. 2 Sec Paali. v. 161-169 ; Sten'-.el. ii. 335, 340-<}4:, 354 ; Kausler, Atlas des pltts m^morn'Jts D'ltailUs, CombtUs et Si€<if-s, or AUas der merlcwurdigsten Srhlnrhlcn. Trfjf'm und Beliufeningen (German aud French, Carkruhe and Freit.urs:. 1831), p 417, Blatt 02. VOL. V. 19 -1»0 TJIi: lloHENZoLLLliNS IN HKANDEXHrKG. IW-.k III. falling sii-k ; having, afU-r a long faniint', fouml mtinite "pigs, near Insti-rburg," in those remote regions, and indulged in the fresh ])ork overmuch. I will not descrilnj the subsequent mana'uvres, whirh would interest nolxxly : enough if 1 say that on the IGth of January, 1('>71>. it li:ul l)ecome of the highest moment for Friedrich Wil- Ijclni to get from Carwe (Village near Elbing) on the shon* of thf FrLsrfif J/of, where he was, througli KonigsU'rg, to Gilge on the CurLsr/n' Iln/, where the Swedes are, — in a minimum of time. Distance, as the crow flies, is about a hinidred miles; road, whicli skirts the two J/<i/s ' (wide shallow il'ttjihrg, :is we should name them), is of rough (juality, ami naturally circuitous. It is ringing frost to-day, and for days kick: — Friedrich Wilhelm hastily g-athers all the sledgvs, all the horses of the district; mounts some four tliousand men in sledges; starts, with the s|>eed of light, in that fashion. Scours along all day, and after the intervening bit of land, again along; awakening the iee-l»ound silenei-s. (Jloomy Fri.sche llaf, wraj)t in its Winter cloud-coverlids, with its wastes of tuml)led sand, its |)oor frost-l>ound Jishing-handets, pine-hillo<'ks, — desolate- l(K)king, stern as Greenland or more so, says Hiisehitig, who travelled there in winter-time,* — hears unexi)ected human noises, and huge grinding and trampling; the four thousand, in long fleet of sledges, scouring across it, in that manner. All day tlu'y rush along, — out of the rimy hazes of morning into tilt' olive-colored clouds of evening again, — with huge loud- grinding nimble ; — and do arrive in time at Gilge. A notable streak of things, shooting across tho.se frozen solitudes, in the New-Year, 1G71) ; — little short of Karl Gustav's feat, which we heard of, in the other or Danish end of the Baltic, twenty years ago, when he took Islands without shii)S. This Second Exploit — suggested or not by that prior one of Karl Gustav on the ice — is still a thing to be remembered by lloheuzollerns and Prussians, The Swedes were beaten liere, on Friedrich Wilhelm's rapid arrival ; were driven into disastrous rapid retreat Northward ; which they executed iu 1 I'auli, V. 21.V222; Stenzol. ii. .392-397. ■■^ Bibcliiiigs Utitrdije (Ilalle, 1789), vi. 160. Vn.u: XVIII. KrUKL'KST KKIEDKlCll W II. HELM. -'Jl lOT.'j. liunger and cuUl ; iightiiig continually, like Northern bears, under the grim sky ; Frieckieli Wilhelni sticking to their skirts, — holding by their tail, like an angry bear-ward with .stffl whi}) in his hand. A tiling which, on the small scale, reminds one of Napoleon's experiences. Not till Napoleon's huge lighting-rtight, a hundred and thirty-four years after, did 1 read of such a transaction in those parts. The Swedish inv;ision of Preussen has gone utterly to ruin. And this, then, is the end of Sweden, and its bad ncighbor- hooil on these shores, where it has tyrannously sat on our skirts so long ? Swedish Pommern the Elector already had : hist year, coming towards it ever since the Exjiloit of Fehr- bellin, he had invaded Swedish I'ommcru ; had besieged and taken Stettin, nay Stralsund too, where Wallenstcin luwl failed; — cleared Pommern altogether of its Swedish guests. \\'\n) had tried next in Preussen, with what luck we see. Of Swedish Pommern the Elector might now say : " Surely it is mine ; again mine, as it long was ; well won a second time, since the first would not do ! " Put no : — Louis XIV. proved ;i gentleman to his Swedes. I^uis, now that the Peace of Nimwegen had come, and only the Elector of Brandenburg was still in harness, said steadily, though anxious enough to keep well with the Elector : " They are my allies, these Swedes; it was on my bidding they invaded you : can I leave them in such a })ass ? It must not be ! " So Pommern had to be given back. A miss which was infinitely grievous to Friedrich Wilhelm. The most victorious Elector cannot hit always, were his right never so good. Another miss which he had to put up with, in spite of his rights, and his good services, was that of the Silesian Duchies. The Heritage-Fraternity with Lieguitz had at length, in 1G75, come to fruit. The last Duke of Liegnitz was dead : Duchies of Liegnitz, of Brieg, Wohlau, are Brandenburg's, if there were right done ! But Kaiser Leopold in the scarlet stockings will not hear of Heritage-Fraternity. " Nonsense ! " answers Kai- ser Leopold : " A thing suppressed at once, ages ago ; by Im- perial power : flat zero of a thing at this time ; — and you, I again bid you, return me your Papers upon it ! " This latter 2!»2 Tin: IIUIIKNZULLEUN.S IN IJKANDLN UlKc;. K'-.k III. it;4(>-ias8. art of duty Friedrir-li Wilhehn would not do ; lait ('(niliiiut'd insisting.' " Jag«M-nilorf at least, O Kaiser of the \voild," said lie; " Jiigerndorf, there is no color for 3-our keeping that!" To wliieh the Kaiser again answers, "Nonsense!'' — and even falls ujjon ;iiJtonishing schemes about it, as we shall see; — but gives ntjthing. Ducal Preussen is sovereign, Cleve is at Peace, Hinter-Poniniern ours; — this Elector has con(iuered nnudi : but the Silcsi.m Heritages and Vor-Pomniern, and some other things, he will have U) do without. Louis XIV.. it is thought, once offered to get him uuule King ; ^ but that he declined for the present. His married and domestic life is very fine and human ; espe- cially with that (Jranien-Nassau Princess, who was his first Wife (164r)-l GOT) ; Princess Louisa of Nassau-(>i;ange; Aunt to our own Dut^h William, King William IIL. in time coming. An excellent wise Princess ; from whom came the Orange Heritages, which afterwards jiroved dittieult to settle : — Orange was at last exchanged for the small I'rincipality of Iseufchatel in Switzerland, which is Prussia's ever since. " Oranienburg (Oran/fe-Iittrf/),'^ a Royal Country-house, still standing, some twenty miles northwards from lierliu, was this Louisa's jdace : she had trimmed it uj) into a little jewel, of the Dutch tyix^, — potherb gardens, training-schools for young girls, and the like; — a favorite al)ode of hers, when she was at lilnM-ty for recreation. Hut her life wa.s busy and earnest : she was helj»mate, not in name only, to an ever-busy man. They were married young ; a marriage of love withal. Young Friedrich Wilhelm's courtship, wedding in Holland ; the honest trustful walk and conversation of the two Sover- eign Spouses, their journeyings together, their mutual hopes, fears and manifold vicissitudes ; till Death, with stern beauty, shut it in: — all is human, true and wholesome in it ; inter- esting to look upon, and rare among sovereign persons. Not but that he had his troubles with his womankind. Even ■with this his first Wife, whom he loved truly, and who truly loved him, there were scenes ; the Lady having a judgment of her own about everything that passed, and the Man being 1 I'auli, V. 321. * lb. vii. 215. CHAI-. XVIII. KUKFUIIST FlUEDlUCll WILIIKLM. 293 10(57. choleric withal. Sometimes, I have heard, *' he avouU dash his hat at her feet," saying symbolically, *• Govern you, theu, :Madam ! Not the Kurl'urst-Hat ; a Coii is my wear, it seems ! " * Yet her jiul^aaent was good ; and he liked to have it on the weightiest things, though her powers of silence might halt now and then. He has been known, on occasion, to run from his Privy-Council to her ajjartment, while a complex matter was debating, to ask her opinion, hers too, before it was de- cided. Excellent Louisa ; I'rincess full of beautiful piety, good-sense and aftVction ; a touch of the Nassau-Heroic in licr. At the moment of her death, it is said, when speech liiul fled, he felt, from her hand which lay in his, three slight, slight ])ressures : '* Farewell ! " thrice nuitely sj)oken in that manner, — not easy to forget in this world. - His second Wife, Dorotheii, — wlio planted the Lindens in iJcrlin, and did other husbandries, of whom we have heard, fell far short of Louisa in many things ; but not in tendency to advi.>^e, to remonstrate, and plaintively reflect on the linished and unalterable. Dreatlfully thrifty laily, moreover ; did much in dairy produce, farming of town-rates, provision-taxes : not to sjieak again of that Tavern she was thought to have in lierlin, and to draw custom to in an oblique manner ! ^^'hat scenes she had with FrieiUich her stepson, we have seen. '* Ah, I have not my Louisa now ; to whom now shall I run for advice or help ! '' would the poor Kurfiirst at times exclaim. He had some trouble, considerable trouble now and then, with mutinous spirits in Preussen ; men standing on antique I'russian franchises and parchments ; refusing to see that the same were now antiquated, incompatible, not to say impossi- ble, as the new Sovereign alleged ; and carrying themselves very stiffly at times. But the Hohenzollerns had been used to such things; a Hohenzollern like this one would evidently take his measures, soft but strong, and ever stronger to the needful pitch, with mutinous spirits. One Biirgermeister of Kijnigsberg, after much stroking on the back, was at length ^ Forster, Friedn'ch Wilhelin I. Kdn'uj con Preussen (Potsdam, 1834), i. 177. * Wegfiilirer, Ltbtn dtr Kurfiiistiu Luise (Leipzig, 1838), p. 175. 294 TlIK IIOlIENZoLLKlJN.S IN HHANDENBUKG. li<H.K HI, Iti40-1G8«. seized in open Hull, by Electoral writ, — soldiers havinj.' tirbt gently bunicatled the principal streets, aiul brought ciiiuion to bear upon theuL This IJiirgermeister, seized iu such brief way, lay prisoner for life ; refusing to ask his liberty, though it was thought he might have had it on Jisking.' Another gentleman, a iJaron von Kalkstein, of old Teutseh- Kitter kin, of very high ways, in the Provincial EsUites (S(dndt') and elsewhere, got into lofty almost solitary oppo- sition, and at length into mutiny proper, against tlie new •' Non-rolish Sormit/n," and flatly refused to do homage at Ids accession in that new capacity.^ Hefused, Kalkstein did, for his share ; fled to Warsaw ; and very fiercely, in a loud manner, cairied on his mutinies in the Diets and Court-Con- claves there; his plea IxMug, or plea for the time, " I'oland is our liege lord [which it was not always], ami we c^innot be transferred to you, except by our consent asked antl given," which too liad Ix'en a little neglected on the former occasion of transfer. So that the (Jreat Elector knew not what to do with Kalkstfin; and at lengtli {as the case was ]in .>>sing) had him kidnapiMMl by his Ambassailor at Warsaw; luul him *• rolled into a carpet " there, and carried swiftly in the Andtiissiulor's coach, in the form of luggage, over the frontier, into his native l*n)vince, tlu-re to be judged, and, in the end (since nothing else would serve liim), to have the sentence executed, and his head cut off. For the case was pressing I' — These things, esi)ecially this of Kalkstein, with a boisterous Polish l)i«'t and parliamentary eloquence in the rear of him, gave rise to criticism ; and required manage- ment on the part of the Great Elector. Of all his Ancestors, our little Fritz, when he grew big, admired this one. A man made like himself in many points. He seems really to have loved and honored this one. In the year 17~)0 there hiul l)een a new Cathedral got finished at Ber- lin ; the ancestral bones had to l>e shifted over from the vaults of the old one, — the burying-place ever since Joachim II., that ' Horn, fXis Leban Fn'edridi WiUtelms dtt Grossen (Berlin, l8U),p. 6S. - Snprk, pp. 383 et seqq. ' Horn, pp. S0-S2. riiAP. will. KiiaTiisr i'kikdiju ii wujiklm. 29j 1..88. Joaehiiu who drew his swoicl on Alba. " King Friecliich, with some atteuduuts, witnessed the operation, January, 1750. ^Vllen the Great Kurfiirst's colHn came, he made them open it ; gazed in silence on the features for some time, which were perfectly recognizable ; laid his hand on the hand long dead, and said, ' Jlissieurs, cilui-ci a fait de (/ramies choses (This one did a great work) ! "' ^ He died L"Jth April, lOSS ; — h)oking with intense interest upon Dutch William's )trej)arations to produce a Glorious Ko^-olution ill this Islaml ; In'ing always of an ardent Prot- est;int feeling, and a sincerely religious man. Friedrich, Crown-Prinee, age then thirty-<jne, and already married a second time, was of course left Chief Heir; — who, as we see, has not declined the Kingship, when a chance for it offered. There were four Half-brothers of Friedrich, too, who got apanages, appointments. They ha<.l at one time con- lidently looked for much more, their Mother being busy ; but were obliged to be content, and conform to the Clera Bund inul fundamenttU Laws of the Country. They are entitled Miirgraves ; two of whom left children, Margraves of Bran- denburg-Sdiwedt, Ilti-niniMcrs ^^Heiul of the Malta-Knight- hood) at Sonnenburg, Statthalters in Magdeburg, or I know not what ; whose names turn up confusedly in the Prussian Books; and, except as temporary genealogicid i>uzzles, are not of much moment to the Foreign reader. Happily there is nothing else in the way of Princes of the Blood, in our little Friedrich's time ; and hajtpily what concern he had with these, or how he was related to them, will not be ab- struse to us, if occasion rise. 1 See Preuss, i. 270. :i% THE liOlILNZuLLEUNS IN HKANDENIUIM i. K....K III. lU4o-loa8 CHAPTER XIX. KIXO KUIEUKHH 1. AU.VIN. Wk said tlio CJrrat Elector never coiilil work his Silesian Duchies out ui Kaiser LeoiKjUl's jjrip : to all his urgencies tins little Kaiser in red stockings answered only in evasions, refu- sals ; and would (piit nothing. We noticed also what quarrels the young Electoral Trince, Frie<lrich, alterwards King, h:ul got into with his .Stepmother; siuldenly feeling ^)oisoned after dinner, running to his Aunt at Cissel, coming back on treaty, anil the like. These are two facts which the reader knows : an<l out of these two grew a third, which it is fit he shouhl kuDW. In his last years, the (rreat Elector, worn out with lalMtr, ami harassed with such domestic troubles over and alx)ve, hatl evidently fallen much under his Wife's management; cutting out large ai)anages (clear against the Gera liond) for her children ; — longing probably for ([uiet in his family at any price. As to the poor young I'rince, negotiated back from Cassel, he lived rem(»te, and had fallen into oj^en disfavor, — with a very ill elVect upon his funds, for one thing. His father kept him somewhat tight on the money-side, it is alleged; and he had rather a turn for sjwnding money hand- somely. He was also in some alarm alwut the proposed apa- nages to his Half-brothers, the Margraves above mentioned, of which there were rumors going. Hoto AiiMria settled the Silesian Claims. Now in these circumstances the Austrian Court, who at this time (1685) greatly needed the Elector's help against Turks and others, and found him very urgent about these Silesian Duchies of his, fell upon what 1 must call a very extraordinary Chap. XIX. RING FHIEDKICH I. AGAIN. 297 lU»o. shift for getting rid of the Silesian qiK-^stion. '• Serene High- ness," said they, by their Ambassador at Berlin, " to end these troubk'sonie talks, and to liquidate all ilaiius, admissible and inadmissible, about Silesia, the Imperial Majesty will give you an actual l)it of Territory, valuable, though not so large as you expected ! " Tlu" Eh-etor listens with both ears : What Ter- ritory, then ? The '' Circle of Schwiebus," hanging on the northwestern edge of Silesia, contiguous to the Elector's own ])ominions in these Frank furt-on-Oder regions: this the gener- ous Imperial Majesty proj)oses to give in fee-simple to Fried- rich Willu'lin, an<l so to t-nd the matter. Truly a most small patch of Territory in comparison ; not bigger than an English Kutlandshire, to say nothing of soil and climate! liut then again it was an actual patch of territory ; not a mere piuch- ment shadow of one : tliis last was a tempting j>oint to the old harassed Elector. Such friendly oiler they nuide him, 1 tliink, in IGSo, at the time they were getting 8,000 of his troops to march against the Turks for them ; a very needful service at th6 moment. " I5y the bye, do not miu-ch through Silesia, you ! — Or march faster ! " said the cautious Au.strians on thi.>i occasion : '* Other ro;uls will answer better than Silesia !" said they.* Biu-on Freytiig, their Ambassador at Berlin, had negotiated the affair so far : " Circle of Schwiebus," said Frey- tag, " luid let us have done with these thorny talks ! " But Biuon Freytag had been busy, in the mean while, with the young Prince ; secretly offering sympathj', counsel, help ; of all -which the jioor I'rince stood in need enough. " "We will help you in that dangerous matter of the Apanages," said Freytag; "Help you in all things," — I suppose he would say, — ''necessary pocket-money is not a thing 3'our Highness need want ! " And thus Baron Freytag, what is very curious, had managed to bargain beforehand with the young Prince, That directly on coming to ix)wer, he would give up Schwiebus again, should the offer of Schwiebus be accepted by Papa. To which effect Baron Freytag held a signed Bond, duly executed by the young man, before Papa had concluded at all. Which is very curious indeed I — 1 Pauli, V. 327, 332. 298 THE IIUIIENZOLLKUNS IN HliAXDKNliUlic;. Book III. lG8o-17ia. Poor old Papa, worn out with troubles, accepted ScLwiobus in liquidation of iill claims (8tli April, 1G86), and a few days after set his men on march against the Turks : — and, exactly two mouths beforehand, on the 8th of February last, the Prince had signed his secret engagement, That Schwiebus should be a mere pluuitasm to Paj)a ; that he, the Prince, would restore it on his accession. Both these singular Parch- ments, signed, sealed and ilune in the due legal form, lay simultaneously in Freytag's hand ; and probably enough they exist yet, in some dusty corner, among the solemn sheepskins of the world. This is literally the j)lan liit upon by an Ira- l)erial Court, to assist a young Prince in his pecuniary and other difficulties, and get rid of Silesian claims. I'lan actually not unlike that of swindling money-lenders to a young gentle- man in dilliiulties, and of nnuiageable turn, who has got into their hands. The (heat Elector died two years after; Schwiebus then in his hand. The new Elector, once instructed as to the nature of the affair, refused to give up Schwiebus;* declared the transaction a swindle : — and in fact, for seven years more, retained i)ossession of Schwiebus. But the Austrian Court insisted, with emphasis, at length with threats (no insuperable pressure from Louis, or the Turks, at this time) ; the poor cheated Elector had, at last, to give up Schwiebus, in terms of Ids promise.' He took act that it had been a surreptitious transaction, palmed upon him while ignorant, and while with- out the least authority or power to make such a promise ; that he was not bound by it, nor would be, except on com- ])ulsion thus far : and as to binding Brandenburg by it, how could he, at that i)eriod of his history, bind Branden- burg ? Brandenburg was not then his to bind, any more than China was. His Baths had advised Friedrich against giving up Schwie- bus in that manner. But his answer is on record : '* I must, I will and shall keep my own word. But my rights on Silesia, which I could not, and do not in these unjust circumstances, compromise, I leave intact for my posterity to prosecute. If 1 19th September, 1689 (Pauli, vii. 74). - 31st December, 1694. PiiAP. XIX. KTXa FRIEDRICII I. AGAIN. 209 l.i88-1713. God and the course of events order it no otherwise than now, we must be content. But if God shall one day send the opportunity, those that come after me will know what they have to do in such case." ' And so Schwiebus was given up, the Austrians payintj back what Brandenburg had laid out iu improving it, " I'oO.OOO fjulden (i'U.jjOUU) ; " — and the Hand of l^ower had in this way, tinally as it hoped, settled an ukl troublesome account of Brandenburg's. Settled the Silesian- Duchies Claim, by the temporary Phantasm of a Gift of Schwie- bus. Tliat is literally the Liegnitz-t^Fiigerndorf ca^se ; and the reader is to note it and remember it. For it will turn up again in History. The Hand of Bower is very strong: but a stronger may jierhaps get hold of its knuckles one day, at an iulvau- tiigeous time, and do a feat upon it. The '* eventual succession to East Fricsland," which had been promised by the Keich, some ten years ago, to the Great Elector, *' for what he had done against the Turks, and what he had suffered from those Swedish Invasions, in the Common Cause : " this shadow of Succession, the Kaiser now said, shouhl not be haggled with any more ; but be actually real- ized, and the Imperial sanction to it now given, — effect to follow if the Friesland Line died out. Let this be some con- solation for the loss of Schwiebus and your Silesian Duchies. Here in Friesland is the ghost of a coming possession ; there in Schwiebus was the ghost of a going one : phantasms you shall not want for ; but the Hand of Power pai-ts not with its realities, however come by. His real Character. Poor Friedrich led a conspicuous life as Elector and King ; but no public feat he did now concerns us like this private one of Schwiebus. Historically important, this, and requiring to be remembered, while so much else demands mere oblivion from us. He was a spirited man ; did soldierings, fine Siege of Bonn (July-October, 1689), sieges and campaigning's, in per- son, — valiant in action, royal especially in patience there, — 1 Pauli, vii. 150. 300 HOUHNZOLLEliNS IN l^.KANnKNIU'RG. T»....k III. during tliat Third War of Louis-Fourtoenth's, the Trc:ity-of- Kyswirk one. All through the Fourth, or Spanish Succession- War, his Prussian Ten-Thousand, led by tit generals, showed eminently what stuff they were made of. Witness Leoi)old of Anhalt-Dessau (still a ijoung De.s.sauer) on the tiehl of Hlen- heini ; — Leoi^^ld ha«l tlu- right wing there, and saved Frineo Eugene who was otherwise Mown to pieces, while Marllxirf)ugh stormed and conquereil on the left. Witness the same iH'.s- sauer on the field of Hochstiidt the year l>ef<)iv,* how he managed the retreat there. Or see liim at the Bridge of Cas- .sano (1705); in the Lines of Turin (1706);' wherever lut service was on hand. At Malplaquet, in tho.so murderous inexi»ugnal)le French Lines, bloodiest of obstinate Fights (ui>- wards of thirty thou.sand left on the ground)^ the Prussians brag that it was they who picked their way through a certain ])eat-lx>g, reckoned imp.is.salde ; and got fairly in upon the French wing, — to the huge comfort of Marlborough, and little Eugene his bri.sk comrade on that occasion. M.irllKirough knew well the wortli of these Prussian troops, and also how to stroke his Majesty into continuing them in the field. He was an expensive King, surrounded by Ciibals, by Wartenl^^rgs male and female, by whirlpools of intrigues, which, now that the game is over, become very forgettable, lint one finds he was a strictly honorable man ; with a cer- tain luMght and generosity of mind, capable of other nobleness than the upholstery kind. He had what we may call a hard life of it ; did an<l suffered a good deal in his day and genera- tion, not at all in a dishonest or \inmanful manner. In fact, he is quite recognizably a Hohenzollern, — with his back liall broken. Readers recollect that sad accident : how the Nurse, in one of those heatllong journeys which his Father and Mother were always making, let the poor child fall or jerk backward ; and spoiled him much, and indeed was thought to have killed him, by that piece of inattention. He was not yet Hereditary Prince, he was only second son : but the elder ^ VanihaE:en von Ense, Biofpraphlschf Dfnhnnh (Berlin, 184.5), ii. 1.5.5. 2 Lks iceliberiihmten Furstens Leojwldi von Anhalt-Dessau Leben und T/ioitn (Leipzig, 1742, anonymoas, bv one Michael Ravffi), pp. 53, 61. • •mm-. XIX KING FRIEDKini I. AGAIN. cOl itiHu-i: i.i. died ; and he became Elector, King ; and had to go with his spine distorted, — distortion not glaringly conspicuous, though undeniable; — and to act the HohenzoUern .sv;. Nay who knows but it was this very jerk, and the half-ruin of his ner\'ous system, — tliis doubled wish to be beautifid, and this crooked ])ack capable of being hid or decorated into straight- ness, — that iirst set the poor man on thinking of exi)ensive ornamentalities, and Kingships iu particular? History will forgive tlie Nurse in that case. Pe'rhaps History has dwelt too much on the blind side of this exi)ensive King. Toland, on entering his country, was struck rather with the signs of good administration every- where. No sooner have you crossed the Prussian Horder, out of Westphalia, says Toland, than smooth highways, well- tilled ticUls, and a general air of industry and rcgulirity, are evident: stjlid milestones, brass-bound, and with brass inscri])- tion, tell tiie traveller where he is ; who finds due guidance of finger-posts, too, and the blessing of habitable inns. The people seem all to be busy, diligently occupied ; villages rea- sonably swept and whitew;vshed ; — never was a better set of Parish Churches ; whether new-built or old, they are all in brand-new repair. Tlie conti-ast with Westphalia is immediate and great ; but indeed that was a sad country, to anybody but a patient Toland, who knows the causes of jthenomena. No inns there, except of the naturally savage sort. *'A man is very happy if he finds clean straw to sleep on, without expecting sheets or coverings ; let him readily dispense with plates, forks and napkins, if he can get anything to eat. . . . He must he content to have the cows, swine and poultry for his fellow-lodgers, and to go in at the same passage that the smoke comes out at, for there 's no other vent for it but the door; which makes foreigners commonly say that the people of Westphalia enter their houses by the chimney." And observe withal : " This is the reason why their beef and hams are so finely prepared and ripened; for the fireplac3 being backwards, the smoke must spread over all the house before it gets to the door; which makes everything within of a russet or sable color, not excepting the hands and fa<?es 302 THE IIOIIENZOLLKRNS IN r.RANDKNnUUG. n«>nK III. 1088-1 7 l.J. f)f the meanfr sf)rt.'' * li Trussia yii-ld to Westiihalia in ham, in all else she is strikingly superior. lie founded Universities, this i>oor King; University of Halle; Royal Ae;uiemy of lierlin, Leibnitz presiding: he fought for I'rotestantism ; — did what he could for the cause of Cosmos versiui Chaos, after his fashion. The niagnilieences of his Charlottenhurgs, Uranienhurgs and numerous Coun- try-liouses make Tolaml almost poetic. An affable kindly man withal, though (juick of temper; his word .sacr«'d to him. A man of many tr(>ul)lt's, and aripuiinted with "the ialinitely little (I' i nji n i /fw nt /te/ it)," as his Queen termed it. ciiArrr.i: xx. DEATH OF KI.\<; FKIKI»KirH I. Old King Friedrich I. had not much more to do in the world, after witnessing the cliristening of his Grandson of like name. His h>ading ft)rth or sen«ling forth of troops, his multiplex negotiations, solemn ceremonials, sad change's of ministry, sometimes transai'ted " with tears," are mostly ended; the ever-whirling dust-vortex of intrigues, of which he has b«MMi the centre for a five-and-twenty years, is settling down finally towards everlasting rest. No more will Marl- borough come and dexterously talk him over, — proud to "serve as cupbearer," on occasion, to so high a King — for now bodies of men to help in the next campaign : we have ceased to be a King worthy of such a cupbearer, and Marl- borough's campaigns too are all ended. Much is ended. They are doing the sorrowful Treaty of Utrecht; Louis XIV. himself is ending; mournfully shrunk into the corner, with his Missal and his Maintenon ; looking back with just horror on Europe four times set ablaze for the sake of one poor mortal in big periwig, to no purpose. Lucky ^ An Account of the Courts of Prussia and Uanoi'er, by Mr. Tulaud (cited already), p. 4. Chai-. XX. DEATH nF KIN(; FKIEDKK 11 I. 303 17 IJ. if perliaps Missal-work, ortlioilox litanies, and even Protes- tant 1 )ragonnades, can have virtue to wipe out such a score against a man ! Unhappy Louis : the sun-bright gold has become dim as copper ; we rose in storms, and we are setting in watery clouds. The Kaiser himself (Karl VI., Leopold's Son, Joseph l.'s younger Brother) will have to conform to this Treaty of Utrecht: what other possibility for him? The English, always a wonderful Nation, fought and sub- sidied from side to side of Europe for this Spanish-Succession business ; fought ten years, such fighting as they never did before or since, under ''John Duke of Marlborough," who, as is well known, " beat the French thorough and thorough." French entirely beaten at last, not without heroic difficulty and as noble talent as wiis ever shown in diplomacy and war, are ready to do your will in all things ; in this of giving up Si)ain, among others: — whereupon the English turn round, with a sudden new thought, "No, we will not have our toill done ; it shall be the other way, the way it was, — now that we bethink ourselves, after all this fighting for our will ! " And make Peace on those terms, as if no war had been ; and accuse the great Marlborough of many tlungs, of theft for one. A wonderful Peoi)le ; and in their Continentid Politics (which indeed consist chiefly of Subsidies) thrice wonderful. So the Treaty of Utrecht is transacting itself ; which that of Ilastadt, on the part of Kaiser and Empire, unable to get on without Subsidies, will have to follow : and after such quantities of l)Owder burnt, and courageous lives wasted, general As-you- were is the result arrived at. Old Friedrich's Ambassadors are present at Utrecht, jan- gling and pleading among the rest ; at Berlin too the despatch of business goes lumbering on ; but what thing, in the shape of business, at L'trecht or at Berlin, is of much importance to the old man ? Seems as if Europe itself were waxing dim, and sinking to stupid sleep, — as we, in our poor royal person, full surely are. A Crown has been achieved, and diamond but- tons worth £1,500 apiece; but what is a Crown, and what are buttons, after all ? — I suppose the tattle and singeries of little Wilhelmiua, whom he woidd spend whole days with ; this and oU4 THE IIOIIKNZOLLKHNS IN r.UANDENBUKG. I'-'-k HI. 1088-1713. occasional visits to a young Fritzchen's cradle, wLo is thriving moderately, and will speak and do aperies one day, — are his main solacements in the days that are passing, jMuch of this Frieilrich's life has gone otf like the smoke of lire-works, lias faded sorrowfully, and proved phantasmal. Here is an old Autt)grai»h Note, written l»y him at the side of that Cradle, and touching on a slight event there ; which, as it connects two venerable Correspondents and their Seventeenth Century with a grand riienomenou of tlie Eighteenth, we will insert here. The old King addresses his older Mother-in-law, famed Electress Sophie of Hanover, in these terms (spelling cor- rected) : — "ClIARLOTTENIirKO, dell .'lO Augiwt, 1712. " Ew. Churf. Durchlaucht wenlen sich zweifclsohne mit uns erfreuen, d;iss der kU-ine I'rintz (I'rinz) Fritz nuhnmero {nun- viehr) G Zehne (Za/iiw) hat und ohne die geringste incom- moditet (-tat). Daraus kann man audi die prcdcMinatiun sehen, dass alle seine liriider lialK'u daran sterben miissen, dieser aber l)ekt)mnit sie ohne Muhe wie seine Sch wester. Gott erhalte ihn uns uoch langc zuni trohst ( Trost), in dessen Schutz ich diesellH.^ ergelie und lebenslang verbleil)e, " Ew. Churf. Dunhl. gehorsiuuster Diencr und trcuer Sohn, '•Fkieokuii K."» Of which this is the literal English : — "Your Electoral Serenity will doubtless rejoice with us that the little Trince Fritz has now gf)t his sixth tooth with- out the least Inromniodite. And therein we may trace a pre- destination, inasmuch as his Brothers died of teething [Xot of cannon-smind and iceif/ht of head-ffear, then, your Majesti/ thinks? That were a painful thouf/ht/^; and this one, as liis Sister [ ]Vilhelmina'\ did, gets them [the teeth"] without trouble. God preserve him long for a comfort to us: — to whose protection I commit Dieselhe [Your Electoral Highness, in the third person], and remain lifelong, " Your Electoral Higlmess's most obedient Servant and ' " Friedrich Rhx." • rreuss, Frkdiich der Grosse {BiMoiische Skizze. Berlin, 18.38), p. 380. rii.vi-. XX. DEATH OF KING FKIEDKICII I. 305 i7U«-1713. One of riiediich Kex's worst adventures was his latest; couinienced some five or six years ago (1708), and now not far from terminating, llr was a \Vidowi'r, of weakly con- stitution, towards lif ty : his beautiful ingenious "i^erena," with all her Theologies, pinch-of-snulf Coronations and other «';uthly troubles, was dead; and thir task of continuing the llohcnzollcrn progeny, given over to Friedrich W'ilhelm the I'rince Koyal, was thought to be in good hands, ^lajcsty Friedrich with the weak back had retired, in 17<>S, to Karls- b.id; to rest from his cares ; to take the salutary waters, and recruit his weak nerves a little. Here, in the course of con- Udential promeniylings, it was hinted, it was represented to him by some jtickthank of a courtier, That the task of continu- ing the llohenzulh-rn progeny did not seem to prosper in the present good hands ; that Sophie Dorothee, Princess Koyal, had already borne two royal infants which had speedily died : that in fact it was to be gathered from the medical men, if not from their wonls, then from their looks and cautious innu- endoes, that Sophie Dorothee, Princess Koyal, would never produce a Prince or even Princess that would live ; which task, therefore, did now again seem to devolve upon his Maj- esty, if his ^lajesty had nut insui)erable objections ? ^lajesty had no insui)erable objections ; old Majesty listened to the iiattering tale ; and, sure enough, he smarted for it in a sig- nal manner. P»y due industry, a Princess was fixed upon for Bride, I'rincess Sophie Louisa of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, age now twenty-four : she was got as Wife, and came home to Berlin in all j)omp ; — but good came not with her to anybody there. Not only did she bring the poor old man no children, which was a fault to be overlooked, considering Sophie Dorothee's success ; but she brought a querulous, weak and self-sufficient female humor ; found his religion heterodox, — he being Cal- vinist, and perhaps even lax-Calvinist, she Lutheran as the l*russian Nation is, and strict to the bone : — heterodox wholly, to the length of no salvation possible ; and times rose on the Berlin Court such as had never been seen before ! " No salvation possible, says my Dearest ? Hah ! And an inno- voL. V. 2D oOO THE IIUIIENZULLEKN.S IN lUiANDENlJUKU. n-«"v HI lti««-J7l:i. ceut Coiut-Mask or Daueiiig Soiree is criiuinal iu the si^'ht of God ami ot the Queen ;' And we are chiklren of wratli wholly, and a frivolous generation; and the Queen will see us all — ! " The end was, his Majesty, through sad solitiiry days and nights, rpjuMited bitterly that he hati wedded such a She- ])oiuiniu; grew ignite estrangi'd from her; the j)Oor She- Uoniinic giving huu due return in her way, — namely, living altogether in her own apartments, uj»on orthodoxy, jealousy and other b;ul nourishment. Till at lentfth she went (juite matl ; and, except the due medical and other attemUints, nolx)dy saw her, or six)ke of her, at Berlin. W;uj this a cheering issue of such an adventure to the i>oor old expen- sive Gentleman? lie endeavored to digest Lu silence the bitter morsel he had cooketl for himself; but reflected often, as an old King might. What dirt have 1 eaten I In this way stands that matter in the Schloss of Herlin, when little Friedrich, who will one day be called the Cireat, is born. Habits of the exi»ensive King, hours of rising, modes of dressing, and so forth, are to be f<mnd in I'ollnitz ; ' but we charitiiblv omit them all. Even from foolish I'ollnitz a pood eye will gather, what was alx)ve intimated, that this feeble-backed, hea\'j'-ladcn old King was of humane and just disposition; ha«l dignity in his demeanor; had reticence, ])atience ; and, though hot-temi)ered like all the Hohenzol- lerns, that he bore himself like a perfect gentleman for one thing: and tottered along his high-lying lonesome road not in an un manful manner at all. Had not his nerves been dam- aged by that fall in infancy, who knows but we might hav<- had something else to read of him than that he was regardless of expense in this world ! His last scene, of date Febniary, 171.S, is the tragical ultima- tum of that fine Karlsbad adventure of the Second marriage, — ' Pollnitz, Memoiren zur Fjebens- iind Retjifinings-Geschirhte der Vt'tr letzttn litrft'iiten dfs Prcussischen .'^taals (Berlin, 1791). A vague, inexact, bnt not quite uninstmctive or uninteresting Book : Printed also in French, which was the Original, same place and time. CiiAi;. XX. DEATH OF KING FRIEDRICII I. 307 2j11i lib. ITia. Third marriage, in fact, though the First, anterior to " Serena," is apt to be forgotten, having lasted short while, and i)rodueed only a Daughter, not memorable except by accident. This Third marriage, which had brought so many sorrows to him, l)r()ved at length the death of the old man. For he sat one morning, in the chill February days of the Year 1713, in his Apartment, as usual ; weak of nerves, but thinking no sjiecial evil ; when, suddenly with huge jingle, the glass door of his room went to sherds ; and there rushed in — bleeding and dislievelled, the fatiil "White Lady" (Ifeisse Fran), who is understood to walk that Schloss at iJerlin, and announce Death to the Royal inhabitants, ^[ajesty had fainted, or was faint- ing. " Weisse Frau ? Oh no, your Majesty ! " — not that ; but indeed something almost worse. — Mad (>ueen, in her Ajiart- nicnts, had been seized, that day. when half or quarter dressed, with unusual orthodoxy or unusual ji-aluu.sy. ^Vatehing her opj)ortunity, she liad whisked into the corridor, in extreme deshabille ; and gone, like the wild roe, towards Majesty's Suite of Rooms ; through Majesty's glass door, like a catapult ; and emerged as we saw, — in j)etticoat and shift, with hair streaming, eyes glittering, arms cut, and the other sad trim- mings. O Heaven, who could laugh ? There are tears due to Kings and to all men. It was deep misery ; deej) enough ^^ sni and misery," as Calvin well says, on the one side and tie other ! The poor old King was carried to bed ; and never rose again, but died in a few days. The date of the Weisse Fran's death, one might have hoped, was not distant either ; but she lasted, in her sad state, for above twenty years coming. Old King Friedrich's death-day was 25th February, 1713 ; the unconscious little Grandson being then in his Fourteenth month. To whom, after this long voyage round the world, we now gladly return. 308 THE IIOIIKNZOLLKRNS IN r>KANDEXnUKG. »<"«k III. 1.J72-1071. • ,* By way of reinforcement to any recollection the reader may have of these Twelve Hohcu/.oll<Tn Ivurfiirsts, I will append a coutiuuuud li«t of them, witli lierc and tliere an indioatiou. The Tivvlvp HohenzoUern Electors. 1°. F'uiK.nKiciI I. (as lliirt:irraf, was Frirdrioh \I.) : Ixirn, it is iii- ftrnd, i;{7vi (Iviiifsch, p. liTA)) ; accossion, lr*tii April, 1417; died 'Jlst S«'iitoinl>er, I IKK liaii conic to Braudenbiirg, .1412, us Stutthuller. Tlif Qiiitzows and Heavy Peg. 2°. FuiF.iJRicH II : l!»th N<»vpml>or, 14IM; 21st Soptombor. 1440; 10th Ft'bniary, 147*2. Friedrich Ironteeth : tatnos the Hcrlln HiireluTS. Spoko I'ldish, was to have bit-n I'olish Klni;. Cannon-shot upon his diiHH'r-taldo shattt-rs his nerves so, that lie ahdieatt-s, and siHin <li('S. Johannes Alchymista liis idder Brother; A Hut) I .U7ii7/f.«r his younger. .r. Ar.nKHT (Arhilhs) : 24th Novenih.r. 1414; lOth F.d.niary. 1471 ; 11th March, 14.*^». Third son of Friedrich I. ; is lineal Progenitor of all the rest. Eldest Son. Johnnn Cirero, follows as Knrfiirst ; a Younger Son, Frirdrirh (by a different Mother), got Cnlmhach, ajid produced the Elder Line there. (See Genealogical Diagram, p. .309a.) 4^ JoHANN (Cicero): 2d August, 14."); 11th March, Wm-, 0th January. WW. Big John. Frietlrich of Culmbach's elder (Half-) Brother. 5°. Joachim I : 21st February, 1484; Oth January, 1409; lltli July. 15.'i.'>. Loud in the Uefonnation times ; finally ib'daros perfinjt- torily for the Conservative side. Wife (.Sister of Christian II. of Den- mark) runs away. Younger Bnither All)ert Knr-Mainz, whom Ilntten celebrated ; born 1490; Archbishop of Magdeburg and IIall>erstadt 1513, of Mainz 1514; died 154.'i : set Tetzel, and the Indulgence, on foot. 6". Joachim II. (Hector): 0th January, I.IO.') : 11th July. 1. '»:].') ; 3il January, 1571. Sword drawn on Alba once. Erhverhriiderung with Liegnitz. Staircase at Griinnitz. A weighty industrious Kurfiirst. Deolareil liim.*flf Protestant. 15.39. First Wife (m«ither of liis Successor) was Daughter to Duke George of Saxony, Luther's " If it rained Duke Georges." — Jobann of Custrin was a younger Brother of his : died ten daj-s after Joachim ; left no Son. Genealogical Diagram : 7 M Kurfiirst (1471-1 48fi), Alukut Achilles. Elder Culm Fkieuricii, second son of KuiTiirst Allxrt Achilles, yonngcr lirotlior of a VDUiifjfr BrotliiT. Itoni 1 ttji» ; got Aiispach llStJ ; Biiiifiith 1495 ; follov a I'olish Wiff , from wlmni came interests in Hiuif'aiv a^ well as I'oland to 1. ('AsiMiii, who j^ot li'iinuth (ir,15): bom 14S1; died 1527. Very truculent in the Peasants' War. Ai.iiF.iiT AlclbimUs : a man of preat mark in his day (l.'i22- l.'5a7); never married. Two Sis- ters, with one of whom he took shelter at last; no Brother. 7t/i Kn rjiirst ( 1 ") 7 1 - 1 ') 98 ), 2. Gkougk tiik Tiors, who got An.ti got Jiigerndorf, hy purcha.sc, from his 1.524. Protestant declar.-d, 152S; an Ili^t.iries tlienceforth. The (ieorge > ( hit- Son, / ' — Geohc.k Fkikdkicii : Imu-h lo3l); w. Cousin Wcame incomjietent; died 1601! and ./ ' I'; also to his Cousin Al left a , uy of 4, as the reader 8 a little while: from which ejime great < have come^had not Kurfiirst Joaeliim his l)ehalf. Georgi' Friedrieli got at 1 hand: Anspach and Pmircuth unimpi Katibor and Opi>eln were much eaten in tliat ouarter. Died lt)t»3, without ritories all reverted to the main Brai: George Seventli Kurfurst, or his reprc Bond ; and the " Klder Culmbach Lin^ Younger Cui Kurfurst .Tohann G> lid R.iirenth ami Anspach on Two of his Yo' Pair of Z,(/i'-.«). .higerii new ivurfiirst, Joachim Fritdrich, kept; set and Ansjmch, and some indication of their " Lines," so far as imiwrtant to i Baireuth. (1.) CunisTiAX, second son of Kurfiirst .Tohann George : Iwm 1581 ; gr)t Baireuth 1603 ; died 1655. A <listingnished Governor in his sphere. Had two sons ; the elder died b.fore him, but left a son, ("nristian Enist ; who (2.) succeeded, and (3.) whose son, George Wilhelm : 1644, 1655, 1712; 1678, 1712, 1726 (arc birth, (uxessitni, end of these two) ; the latter of whom had no son that lived. C|>on which the posterity of Christian's second son succeeded. Second son of Christian notable to us in two little ways : First, That he, George An-)ert, Margraf of Ci//7nbach, is the in- scrutable "Manjuis de Liilcnhiich" of Brointey's Ixiters (antea p. 184, let the Commentators take comfort I) : Second and better. That from him came our little Wilhelmina's Husband, — as will be afterwards explained. It was his grandson (4.) that succeeded in Baireuth, George Friedrich Karl (1688, 1726, 1735); Father of Wilhelmina's Husband. After whom (5.) his Son Fimlrich (1711, 1735, 1763), Wilhelmina's Husband ; who leaving (1763) nothing but a daughter, Baireuth fell to Anspach, 1769, after an old Uncle (6.), childless, had also died. Six Baireuth Slargraves of tills Line ; five generations ; and then to Anspach, in 1769. (1 pail tint] Sov. till- Ifin few. jm-T' Wil thir F\ figii has ,V. left Wil unii rieli Clai has A Two Cnlmhath Lines. II T.IXE. amies Cicero, got Culmhach: Anspaoh first, then Bairouth on the death of .Mix in his Vciictinii Compiiifjv, loOS ; ft-ll imbecile ITiIj ; ditd 1536. Had ;hildieu. Friedrich had Three luitablc Sons, (i:.ir»): born 1484; died 154:^; till I's lluiijip.irian coiiueetioii, ;ikis hoiioiabk" iif^iire in the vaisiT KaiT-; " A'/'. A' '/'-"/'." ■i. Ai.UKin-; Iwrn 1490 ; Iloehmeistcrof the Teutseh Hitters, 1511; deehires him- self Protestiuit, and Duke of Prussia, 1525; died 1568. to aihninister I'reussen when birto his Fatlier in Anx]«irlt ub s in Jidinulh. llail Ixcn AKibiades his Guardian for uliies, and unjust ruin wouM bc»n iieliiful and vigorous in ii most of his Territorii'S into , .blgcrndorf too, except tliat ) by the Imperial chicaneries hliiii; — upon which liis Ter- biiif^ line, namely, to .Tnhann alivcs, accdidiii;,' tt> the Gtra ad ended in this manner. One Son, Ai.ni:i:T Fuiedkicii: born 1553; follows a-s Diikf 1508, declared mr.hmchxUc 1573; die<l ItJlS. II is Cousin Cenr^'e Fried- rich administered for him till 1G03; after which .loachim Friedrich; and then, lastly, Joachim Friedrich's Son, Johann Sigis- miiiiil, the Ninth KuiTru-st. Had married the Heiress of Cleve (whence came a cele- brated Clove Controversy in after-times). No son; a good many daughters ; eldest of whom Wius married to Kurfiirst Johann Sig- isniund; from her lame the controverted Cleve I'rtHK-rty. veil Ll.VR. r Sons, who are Founders of the "Younger Culmhach Line " (.S>/i7 Line or it on one of his younger sons. Here are the two new Foundei-s iu liairenth t praBcnt : To.\(MiiM Ern'st, third son of Kurfiirst Johann George : born 1583 ; got Ans- n:5 ; died 1625. Had military tendencies, experiences ; did not thrive as Cap- the Evangelical Union (1619-1620) when U'intcr-King came up and Thirti/- I'iir along with him. Left two sons ; elder of whom, (2. ) Friedrich, nominally ;ii. age still only eighteen, fell in the Battle of Xordlingen (woi-st battle of itv -Years War, 1634); and the younger of whom, (3.) .Vlbert, succeeded (1620, 667), and his son, (4.) Johann Friedrich (1654, 1667, 1686): and (5, 6, 7.) no lan three grandsons, — children mostly, tliough entitled "sovereign" — in a way (Christian ^Vlbert, 1675, 16S6, 1692 ; George Friedrich, 1678, 1692, 1703 ; Q Friedrich, 1685, 1703, 1723). Two little points notable liere also, and no , That one of the gvv^nA.-daught^rs, full-sister of the last of these three parallel half-sister of the two former, was — Queen Caroline, George IL's wife, who 1 some fame with us. d. That the youngest of said three grandsons. Queen Caroline's full-brother, m then miimv, who became major, (8.) and wedded a Sister of our dear little niiia's, of whom we shall hear (Karl Wilhelm Friedrich, 1712, 1723, 1757); entous ^largraf otherwise. His and her one son it was, (9.) Christian Fried- irl Alexander (1736, 1757, 1806), who inherited Batreuth, inherited Actress Lady Craven, and at Hammersmith (House once Bubb Doddington's, if that charm) ended the affair. Anspaoh Margraves ; in five generations : end, 1806. Chap. XX. DEATH OF KING FRIEDRICII I. 309 JL525-171.J. 7°. JoKANN George: lltli September, 1525; 3d January, 1571; 8th January, 1598. Cannon-shot, at Siege of Wittenberg, u[)ou Kaiser Karl and him. Gera Bond. Married a Silesian Duke of Liegnitz's Daughter (result of the ErbverbrudeT' u)u/ there, — Autea, p. 231 ). Had twenty-three children. It was to him that Baireuth and Anspacli fell liome : he settled tlieni on his second and Ins third sons, Christian and Joachim Ernst ; founders of the Kew Line of Baireuth and Anspach. (See Genealogical Diagram, p. 309a.) 8°. Joachim Frieduicii : 27th January, 1.54G; 8th January, 1598; 18th July, 1G08. Archbishop of Magdeburg first of all, — to keep tho place iillod. Joachinistlial Scliool at old Castle of Griumitz. Very vigilant tor Preusseu; which was near falling due. Two of his Younger Sons, Joliann George (1577-1624) to whom ho gave Jdijenidoif, and tliat Arddiishop of Magdeburg, who was present in Tilly's storm, got both wrecked in the Thirty-Years War; — not with- out results, in the Jagerndorf case. 9°. JOHANN Sigismund: Sth November, 1572; 18th July, 1608; 23d December, 1619. Preussen : Cleve ; Slap on tlie face to Neuburg. 10°. George Wiliielm : 3d November, 1595; 22d November, 1619; 21st November, 1640. The unfortunate of the Thirty-Years War. '' Que faire ; iU out des canons ! " 11°. Friedrich Wilhelm : 6th February, 1620; 21st November, 1640 ; 29th April, 1688. The Great Elector. 12°. Friedrich III.: 1st July, 1657; 29th April, 1688; 25th February, l^i;?. Fust King (18th January, 1701). BOOK IV. FKIEDllICirS APPRENTICESHIP, FIRST STAGE. 1713-1723. CHAPTER I. CHILDHOOD : DOUBLE EDUCATIONAL ELEMENT. Of Friedrich's chiltlhood, there is not, after all our reading, mufh tliat it would interest the English public to hear tell of. Perhaps not much of knowable that deserves anywhere to be knoTNTi. Books on it, expressly handling it, and Books on Friedrich Wilhelm's Court and History, of which it is always a main element, are not wanting : but they are mainly of the sad sort which, Avith pain and difficulty, teach us nothing. Books done by pedants and tenebrilic persons, under the name of men ; dwelling not on things, but, at endless length, on the outer husks of things : of unparalleled confusion, too ; — not so much as an Index granted you ; to the poor half -peck of cinders, hidden in these wagon-loads of ashes, no sieve al- lowed ! Books tending really to fill the mind with mere dust- whirlwinds, — if the mind did not straightway blow them out again ; which it does. Of these let us say nothing. Seldom had so curious a Phenomenon worse treatment from the Dry- asdust species. Among these Books, touching on Friedrich's childhood, and treating of his Father's Court, there is hardly above one that we can characterize as fairly human : the Book written by his little Sister Wilhelmiua, when she grew to size and knowledge OiiAP. I. CHILDHOOD : EDUCATIONAL ELEMENT. 311 171S-1723. of good and evil; ^ — and this, of what flighty uncertain na- ture it is, the world partly knows. A human Book, however, not a pedant one : there is a most shrill female soul busy with intense earnestness here ; looking, and teaching us to look. We find it a veracious Book, done with heart, and from eye- sight and insight; of a veracity deeper than the superficial sort. It is full of mistakes, indeed ; and exaggerates dread- fully, in its shrill female way ; but is above intending to de- ceive : deduct the due subtrahend, — say perhaps twenty -five per cent, or in extreme cases as high as seventy-five, — you will get some human image of credible actualities from Wil- helmina. Practically slie is our one resource on this matter. Of the strange King Friedrich Wilhelm and his strange Court, with such an Heir-Apparent growing up in it, there is no real light to be had, except what "Wilhelmina gives, — or kindles dark Books of others into giving. For that, too, on long study, is the result of her, here and there. With so flickery a wax-taper held over Friedrich's childhood, — and the other dirty tallow-dips all going out in intolerable odor, — judge if our success can be very triumphant ! We perceive the little creature has got much from ligature ; not the big arena only, but fine inward gifts, for he is well- born in more senses than one ; — and that in the breeding of him there are two elements noticeable, widely diverse : the French and the German. This is perhaps the chief peculiar- ity ; best worth laying hold of, with the due comprehension, if our means allow. Mrst Educational Element, the French one. His nurses, governesses, simultaneous and successive, mostly of French breed, are duly set down in the Prussian Books, and held in mind as a point of duty by Prussian men; but, in foreign parts, cannot be considered otherwise than as a group, and merely with generic features. He had a Frau von Ka- 1 Me'moires de Fr&lerique Sophie Wilhelmine de Prusse, Margrave de Bareith (Brunswick, Paris et Londres, 1S12), 2 vols. 8vo. 31:2 HIS APPRENTICESHIP, FIRST STAGE. B«h>k IV. inecke for Head Governess, — the lady whom Wilhelmina, in her famed Memoires, always writes Kainken ; and of whoni, except the floating gossip found in that Jiook, there is noth- ing to be remembered. Under her, as practical superintend- ent, Sijus-ijoHvernante and quasi-mother, was the Dame de KoutouHeb, a more important juTson for us here. Dame de KoucouUes, once de Muntbail, tlie same respectable Edict-of- !Nantes French lady who, tive-and-twenty years agi>, had taken similar cliarge of I'riedrich Wilhelm; a laet that speaks well for the character of her jierformance in that oflice. She had done her hrst edition of a Prussian I'rince in a satisfactory manner ; and not without difficult accidents and singuhirities, as we have hoard : the like of whiclj were spared her in this her second edition (so we may call it) ; a second and, in all manner of ways, an im])roved one. The young Fritz swal- lowed no shoe-buckles ; did not leap out of window, hanging on by the hands ; nor achieve anything of turbulent, or otlaTwise memorable, in his infantine history; the course of which was in general smooth, and runs, happily for it, below the ken of rumor. The Boy, it is said, and is easily credible, was of ex- traordinary vivacity ; quirk in ai»prehending all things, and gracefully relating himself to them. One of the prettiest, vividest little Ixiys ; with eyes, with min«l and ways, of un- common brilliancy ; — only he takes less to soldiering than the j)aternal heart could wish ; and appears to find other things in the world fully as notable as loud drums, and stiff men drawn up in rows. Moreover, he is a])t to be a little unhealthy now and then, and requires care from his nurses, over whom the judicious Roucoulles has to be very vigilant. Of this respectable ^Madame de Roucoulles I have read, at least seven times, what the Prussian Books say of her by way of Biography ; but it is always given in their dull tombstone style; it has moreover next to no importance ; and I, — alas, I do not yet too well remember it ! She was from Normandy ; of gentle blood, never very rich ; Protestant, in the Edict-of- Xantes time ; and had to fly her country, a young widow, with daughter and mother-in-law hanging on her ; the whole of Chap. I. CHILDHOOD : EDUCATIONAL ELEMENT. 313 17ia-1723. tlieiii almost penniless. However, she was kindly received at the Court of Berlin, as usual in that sad case ; and got some practical help towards living in her new country. Queen Sophie Charlotte had liked her society ; and finding her of prudent intelligent turn, and with the style of manners suita- ble, had given her Friedrich Wilhelm to take charge of. She was at that time Madame de Montbail ; widow, as we said : she afterwards wedded Roucoulles, a refugee gentleman of her own Nation, who had gone into the Prussian Army, as was conunon for the like of him. She had again become a widow, ^ladame de Koucoulles this time, with her daughter Montbail still about her, when, by the grateful good sense of Friedrich "NVilhelm, she was again intrusted as we see ; — and so had the honor of governessing Frederick the Great for the first seven years of his life. Eespectable lady, she oversaw his nurses, pap-boats, — " beer-soup and bread," he himself tells us once, was his main diet in boyhood, — beer-soui)S, dress-frocks, first attemjits at walking ; and then also his little bits of intellec- tualities, moralities ; his incipiencies of speech, demeanor, and spiritual development ; and did her function very honestly, there is no doubt. Wilhelmina. mentions her, at a subsequent period ; and we have a glimpse of this same Roucoulles, gliding about among the royal young-folk, " with only one tooth left " (figuratively speaking), and somewhat given to tattle, in Princess Wilhel- mina's opinion. Grown very old now, poor lady ; and the dreadfulest bore, when she gets upon Hanover and her experi- ences, and Queen Sophie Charlotte's, in that stupendously magnificent court under Gentleman Ernst. Shun that topic, if you love your peace of mind ! ^ — She did certainly superin- tend the Boy Fritzkin for his first seven years ; that is a glory that cannot be taken from her. And her pupil, too, we agree- ably perceive, was always grateful for her services in that capacity'. Once a week, if he were in Berlin, during his youthful time, he was sure to appear at the Roucoulles Soiree, and say and look various pleasant things to his " cher Maman (dear Mamma)," as he used to call her, and to the respectable 1 Me moires (above cited). 314 HIS APPRENTICESHIP, FIRST STAGE. B....K iv. small party she had. Not to speak of other more substantial services, which also were not wanting. Iloucoulles and the other female souls, mainly French, among whom the incipient Fritz now was, appear to have dcjne their part as well as could be looked for. Kespectal)le Edict-of- Nantes French lailies, with high head-gear, wide hoops ; a clear, correct, but somewhat barren and meagre species, tight- laced and high-frizzlt'd in mind ami body. It is not a very fertile element for a young soul : not very much of silent piety in it ; and perhaps of vocal piety more than enough in propor- tion. An element founding on what they call " enlightened Protestantism," " freedom of thought," and the like, which is apt to become loquacious, and too conscious of itself"; tending, on the whole, rather to contempt of the false, than to deep or very effective recognition of the true. But it is, in some impoi-tant senses, a clear and pure element withal. At lowest, there are no conscious semi-falsities, or volunteer hypocrisies, taught the poor Boy; honor, clearnes.s, truth of word at least ; a decorous dignified bearing ; various thin good things, are honestly inculcated and exemplified ; nor is any bad, ungraceful or suspicious thing permitted tliere, if recognized for such. It might have been a worse element; and we must be thankful for it. Friedrich, through life, carries deep traces of tliis French-Protestant incipiency : a very big wide-branching royal tree, in the end; but as small and flexible a seedling once as any one of us. The good old Dame de Roucoulles just lived to witness his accession ; on which grand juncture and afterwards, as he had done before, he continued to express, in graceful and useful ways, his gratitude and honest affection to her and hers. Tea- services, presents in cut-glass and other kinds, with Letters that were still more precious to the old Lady, had come always at due intervals : and one of his earliest kingly gifts was that of some suitable small pension for ^Nlontbail, the elderly daughter of this poor old Roucoulles,^ who was just ^ Preiiss, Friedn'rh der Grosse, eine Lebensffeschichle (5 vols. Berlin, 18.32- 1834), V. (Urknndenbuch, p. 4). (Em-res de Frederic (same rreii.>is's Kdition, Berlin, 184G-18.jO. &c.). xvi. 184, 191. — The Herr Doctor J. T). E. I'mu^i, h- Chap. I. CflllLDIIOOD: EDUCATIONAL ELEMENT. 315 ]7iiJ-1723. singing her Dlmittus, as it were, still in a blithe and pious uiauuer. For she saw now (in 1740) her little nursling grown to be a brilliant man aucl King ; King gone out to the Wars, too, with all Europe inquiring and wondering what the issue would be. As for her, she closed her poor old eyes, at this stage of the business; piously, in foreign parts, far from lur native Noruiantly ; and did not see farther what the issue was. Good old Dauic, I have, as was observed, read some seven times over what they call biographical accounts of her ; but have seven times (by Heaven's favor, I do i»artly believe) mostly forgotten them again; and would not, without cause, inflict on any reader the like sorrow. To remember one worthy thing, how many thousand unworthy things must a man be able to forget ! From this Edict-of-Xantes environment, which taught our young Fritz his first lessons of human behavior, — a i)olite sharp little Boy, we do hope and understand, — he learned also to clothe his bits of notions, emotions, and garrulous utterabilities, in the French dialect. Learned to speak, and likewise, what is more important, to think, in French ; which was otherwise quite domesticated in the Palace, and became his second mother-tongue. Not a bad dialect ; yet also none of the best. Very lean and shallow, if very clear and con- venient ; leaving much in poor Fritz unuttered, unthought, unpractised, which might otherwise have come into activity in the course of his life. He learned to read very soon, I presume ; but he did not, now or afterwards, ever learn to spell. He spells indeed dreadfully ill, at his first appearance on the writing stage, as we shall see by and by ; and he con- tinued, to the last, one of the bad spellers of his day. A cir- " Historiographer of Brandenburg," devoted wholly to the study of Friedrich for five-aud-tweuty years past, and for above a dozen years busily engaged in editing tlie (Eunesde Frederic, — has, besides that Lehensgeschichfe just cited, tliree or four smaller Books, of indistinctly different titles, on the same subject. A meritoriously exact man ; acquainted with the outer details of Friedrich's Biography (had he any way of arranging, organizing or setting them forth) as few men ever were or will be. We shall mean always this Lehensfjenchic/ile here, when no other title is given ; and CEuvres de Frederic shall signify his Edition, unless the contrary be stated. olG HIS APPREXTICESITTP. FIRST STAGE. «-""< IV. 171;M723. cumstance whicli I never can fully account for, and will leave to the reader's study. From all manner of sources, — from inferior valetaille, Prus- sian Otiicials, Royal Majesty itself when not in t,'ala, — he learned, not less rootedly, the corrupt Prussian dialect of German ; and used the same, all his days, among his soldiers, native otftcials, common subjects and wherever it was most convenient ; speaking it, and writing and misspelling it, with great freedom, though always with a certain aversion and undisguised contempt, which has since brought him blame in some (quarters. It is true, the I'russian form of German is but rude ; and probably Friedrich, except sometimes in Luther's Bible, never read any German Book. What, if we will think of it, could he know of his first mother-tongue ! ' German, to this day, is a frightful dialect for the stupid, the pedant and dullard sort ! Only in the hands of the gifted does it become supremely good. It had not yet been the language of any Goethe, any Lessing ; though it stood on the eve of l)ecoming such. It had already been the language of Luther, of Ulri( li Ilutten, Frit'drich Barbarossa, Charlemagne and others. And several extremely important things had been said in it, and some pleasant ones even sung in it, from an old date, in a very appropriate manner. — had Crown-Prince Friedrich known all that. But he could not reasonably be expected to know : — and the wiser Germans now forgive him for not knowing, and are even thankful that he did not. CHAPTER II. THE GERM.Of ELEMENT. So that, as we said, there are two elements for young Fritz, and highly diverse ones, from both of which he is to draw nourishment, and assimilate what he can. Besides that Edict- of-Nautes French element, and in continual contact and con- ri.Ai-. ri. THE GERMAN ELEMENT. 317 1713-172.J. trast with it, which prevails cliiefly in the Female Quarters of the Palace, — there is the native German element for young Fritz, of which the centre is Papa, now come to be King, and powerfully manifesting himself as such. An abrupt peremp- i;ory young King ; and German to the bone. Along with whom, companions to him in his social hours, and fellow-workers in his business, are a set of very rugged German sons of Nature ; ditTeriiig nuich from the French sons of Art. Baron Grumkow, Leojtold Prince of Anhalt-Dessau (not yet called the " Old Deesauer," being under iorty yet), General Glasenap, Colonel Derschau, General Flans ; these, and the other nameless Gen- erals and Officials, are a curious counterpart to the Caraases, the Ilautcharmoys and Forcades, with their niml>le tongues and rapiers; still more to the Beausobres, Achards, full of ecclesiastical logic, made of Payle and Calvin kneaded to- gether; and to the high-frizzled ladies rustling in stiff silk, with the shadow of Versailles and of the Dragonnades alike present to them. Porn Hyperl)oreans these others; rough as hemp, and stout of fibre as hemp; native products of the rigorous North. Of whom, after all our reading, we know little. — O Heaven, they have had long lines of rugged ancestors, cast in the same rude stalwart mould, and leading their rough life there, of whom we know absoluteh" nothing ! Dumli all those preceding busy generations ; and this of Friedrich Wilhelm is grown almost dumb. Grim semi-articulate Prussian men ; gone all to pipe-clay and mustache for us. Strange blond-complexioned, not unbeau- tiful Prussian honorable women, in hoops, brocades, and unin- telligible head-gear and hair-towers, — a4^h Gott, they too are gone ; and their musical talk, in the French or German language, that also is gone ; and the hollow Eternities have swallowed it, as their wont is, in a very surprising manner I — Grumkow, a cunning, greedy-hearted, long-headed fellow, of the old Pomeranian Nobility by birth, has a kind of superficial polish put upon his Hyperboreanisms ; he has been in foreign countries, doing legations, diplomacies, for which, at least for the vulpine parts of which, he has a turn. He writes and speaks articulate grammatical French; but neither in that, nor 318 HIS APPKF.XTirF.SIIIP, FIKST STATIE. R-ok IV. I7i;}-172;{. in native roramorish I'latt-Deutsch, does he sliow us nuioh, except the depths of his own greed, of his o^\^^ astucities and stealthy audacities. Of which we shall hear more than enough by and l)y. Of the Desmuer^ not yet " Old.^^ As to the Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, rugged man, whose very face is the color of gunpowder, he also knows French, and can even write in it, if he like, — having duly had a Tutor of that nation, and strange adventures with him on the gi'and tour and elsewhere ; — but does not much jiractise writing, when it can be heli)ed. I lis children, I have heard, he expressly did not teach to read or write, seeing no benetit in that effeminate art, but left them to pick it up as they could. His Princess, all rightly ennobled now, — whom he would not but luarry, though sent on the grand tour to avoid it, — was the daughter of one Fos an Apothecary at Dessau ; and is still a iM'autiful and j)ru- dent kind of woman, who seems to suit him well enough, no worse than if she had l)een born a Princess. Much talk has l)een of her, in princely and other circles ; nor is his marriage the only strange thing Leoixtld has done. lie is a man to keep the world's tongue wagging, not too musically always ; though himself of very unvocal nature. Perhaps the biggest mass of inarticidate human vitality, certainly one of the biggest, then going about in the world. A man of vast dumb faculty ; dumb, but fertile, deep ; no end of ingenuities in the rough head of him : — as much mother-wit there, I often guess, as could l^e found in whole talking parliaments, spouting themselves away in vocables and eloquent wind ! A man of dreadful impetuosity withal. Set upon his will as the one law of Nature ; storming forward with incontrollable violence : a very whirlwind of a nian. He was left a minor ; his Mother guardian. Nothing could prevent him from marry- ing this Fos the Apothecary's Daughter ; no tears nor contri- vances of his ^Mother, whom he much loved, and who took skilful measures. Fourteen months of travel in Italy ; grand tour, with eligible French Tutor, — whom he once drew sword upon, getting some rebuke from him one night in Venice, and CnAr. II. THE GERMAN ELEMENT. 319 17ia-l"2:J. would liave killi'fl, had not the man been nimble, at once dex- terous and sublime : — it availed not. The first thing he did, on re-entering Dessau, with his Tutor, was to call at Apothecary Fos's, and see the charming Mamsell ; to go and see his Mother, was the second thing. Not even his grand passion for war could eradicate Fos : he went to Dutch William's wars ; the wise mother still counselling, who was own aunt to Dutch ^\'illiam, and liked the scheme. He besieged Xamur; fought and besieged up and down, — with insatiable apjietite for fii^iting and sieging ; with great honor, too, and ambitions awakening in him; — campaign after campaign: but along with the tiamy-thundery ideal bride, figuratively called Bellona, tljere was always a soft real one, Mamsell Fos of Dessau, to whom he continued constant. The Government of his Domin- ions he left cheerfully to his Mother, even when he came of age : '' I am for learning War, as the one right trade ; do with all things as you please, Mamma, — only not with Mamsell, not with her ! '' — Readers may figure this scene too, and shudder over it. Some rather handsome male Cousin of Mamsell, Medical Grad- uate or whatever he was, had appeared in Dessau : — " Seems to admire ^Mamsell much ; of course, in a Platonic way," said rumor. — '"He ? Admire ? " thinks Leopold ; — thinks a good deal of it, not in the philosophic mood. As he was one day l)assing Fos's, Mamsell and the Medical Graduate are visible, standing together at the window inside. Pleasantly looking out upon Nature, — of course quite casually, say some His- tories with a sneer. In fact, it seems possible this ^ledical Graduate may have been set to act shoeing-horn ; but he had better not. Leopold storms into the House, "Draw, scanda- lous canaille, and defend yourself!" — And in this, or some such way, a confident tradition says, he killed the poor Medi- cal Graduate there and then. One tries always to hoj^e not : but Varnhagen is positive, though the other Histories say nothing of it. God knows. The man was a Prince ; no Keichs- hofrath, Speyer-Wetzlar Kammer, or other Supreme Court, would much trouble itself, except with formal shakings of the wig, about such a peccadillo. In fine, it was better for Leo- 320 ins AlM'lIKXTIcr.SIIII'. first stage. i;.>oKlv. IT i;i-1723. pold to marry the Miss Fos ; which he actually {li<l (lOUS, in liis twenty-second year), '• with the left-hand," — and then with the right and lK)th hands ; havintj pot her inopcrly en- nobleil iM'fore long, hy his splmdid military services. She made, a,s we have hinted, an excellent Wife to him, for the fifty or sixty ensuing years. This is a strange rugged specimen, this inarticulate Leo- pold ; already getting mythic, as we can perceive, to the polished vocal ages ; whiih mix all manner of fuhles with the considerable history he has. Readers will see him turn up again in notable forms. A man hitherto unknown except in his own country ; and yet of very considerable significance tt) all Euroju'an countries whatsDCver ; the fruit of his activi- ties, without his name attached, Ijeing now manifest in all of them. He invented the iron ramrod ; he invented the equal step; in fact, he is the inventor of modern military tactics. Even so, if we knew it: tlie Soldiery of every civilized country still receives from this n>an, on parade-fields and battle-titdds, its word of command ; out of his rough head proceeded the essential of all that the innumerable Drill-sergeants, in various languages, daily rei)eat and enforce. Siuh a man is worth some transient glance from his fellow-<'reatures, — especially with a little Fritz trotting at his foot, and drawing inferences from him. Dessau, we should have .said for the English reader's Ijehoof, was and still is a little independent Trincipality ; alnnit the size of Huntingdonshire, but with woods insteatl of bogs; — reve- nue of it, at this day, is £0(),(KM1, was perhaps not 20, or even 10,000 in Leopold's first time. It lies some fourscore miles southwest of Berlin, attainable by post-horses in a day. Leo- pold, as his Father had done, stood by Prussia as if wholly native to it. Leopold's Mother was Sister of that fine Louisa, the Great Elector's first Wife ; his Sister is wedded to the !Margraf of Schwedt, Friedrich Wilhelm's half-uncle. Lying in such neighlwrhood, and being in such affinity to the Prus- sian House, the Dessauers may be said to have, in late times, their headquarters at Berlin. Leopold and Leopold's sons, as his father before him had done, without neglecting their Chap. 11. THE GERMAN ELEMENT. 321 17ia-1723. Dessau and I'rincipality, hold by the Prussian Army as their main employment. Not neglecting Dessau either ; but going tliither in winter, or on call otherwise ; Leopold least of all neglecting it, who neglects nothing that can be useful to him. He is General Field-Marshal of the Prussian Armies, the foremost man in war-matters with this new King ; and well worthy to be so. He is inventing, or brooding in the way to invent, a variety of things, — " iron ramrods," for one ; a very great improvement on the fragile ineffective wooden iii>l>U'ment, say all the Books, but give no date to it; that is the first thing ; and there will be others, likewise imdated, but posterior, requiring mention by and by. Inventing many things; — and always well jiractising what is already in- vented, and known for certain. Jii a word, he is drilling to perfection, with assiduous rigor, the Prussian Infantry to be the wonder of the world. He has fought with them, too, in a conclusive manner; and is at all times ready for lighting. He was in ^falplaquet with them, if only a-s volunteer on that occasion. He commanded them in Blenheim itself; stood, in the right or Eugene wing of that famed Battle of Blenheim, Hereely at bay, when the Austrian Cavalry had all fled ; — fiercely volleying, charging, dexterously wheeling and manceu\Ting; sticking to his ground with a mastiff-like tenacity, — till ^Sfarl borough, and victory from the left, re- lieved him and others. He was at the Bridge of Cassano; wliere Eugene and Vendome came to hand-grips ; — where Mirabeau's Grandfather, CoUV Argent, got his six-and-thirty wounds, and was " killed " as he used to term it.* " The hottest fire I ever saw," said Eugene, who had not seen Mal- plaquet at that time. AVhile Col-d'Argent sank collapsed ui)on the Bridge, and the horse charged over him, and again cliarged, and beat and were beaten three several times, — Anlialt-Dessau, impatient of such fiddling hitlier and thither, swashed into the stream itself with his Prussian Foot: swashed through it, waist-deep or breast-deep ; and might have settled the matter, had not his cartridges got wetted. Old ^ Carlyle's Miscellanies, v. § ilirabeau. VOL. V. 21 322 HIS AI'I'IIKNTICESIIII'. riKST STAGE. H.">k w. I7i:j-i:-j;(. King Fiiedrieh rebuked him angrily for his impetuosity in this matter, and the sad loss of men. Then again he was at the Storming of the Jjines of Turin, — Eugene's feat of 170(5, and a most volcanic business ; — \v:us the jji-st man that got over the entrenchment there. Foremost man ; face all black with the smoke of gunpowder, only chan- nelled here and there with rivulets of sweat ; — not a lovely phenomenon to the French in the interior ! Who still fought like madmen, but were at length driven into heaps, and obliged to run. A while Ix'fore they ran, Anhalt-Dessau, noticing some Captain posted with his company in a likely situation, stept aside to him for a moment, and asked, " Am I wounded, think you? — No? Then have you anything to drink?" and deliberately " drank a glass of aqua-vita*," the judicious Captain carrying a pocket-pistol of that sort, in case of acci- dent ; and likewise " eat, with great appetite, a bit of brea<l from one of the soldiers' haversacks; saying. He In'lieved the heat of the job was done, and that there was no fear now 1 ' — A man that has lx>en in many wars ; in whose rough head are schemes hatching. Any religion he has is of Protestant nature ; but he has not much, — on the doctrinal side, very little. Luther's Hymn, Eine fcste Burg ist unser Gott, he calls " God Abuighty's grenadier-march." On joining battle, he audibly utters, with bared head, some growl of rugged prayer, far from orthodox at times, but much in earnest : that lifting of his hat for prayer, is his last signal on such occasions. He is very cunning as required, withal ; not disdaining the ser- pentine method when no other will do. With Friedrich Wil- helm, who is his second-cousin (^Mother's grand-nephew, if the reader can count that), he is from of old on the l)est footing, and contrives to be his Mentor in many things besides War. Till his qiuxrrel with Grumkow, of which we shall hear, he took the lead in political advising, too; and^had schemes, or was thought to have, of which Queen Sophie was in much terror. 1 Des weltbfTumhten Lcopoldi, ^. (Anonymous, by liaafft, cited above), pp. 42-45, 52, 65. Thai-. II. ' THE GEKMAX ELEMENT. 323 1713-1723. A tall, strong-boned, hairy man ; Avitli cloudy brows, vigilant swift eyes ; has "a bluish tint of skin," says Wilheiinina, '• as if the gunpowder still stuck to him." He wears long inus- taclu's; triangular hat, plume and other equipments, are of thrifty practical size. Can be polite enough in speech ; but hides much of his meaning, which indeed is mostly inarticu- late, and not always joyful to the by-stander. He plays rougli pranks, too, on occasion; and has a big horse-laugh in him, where there is a fop to be roasted, or tlie like. ^Ve will leave him for the present, in hope of other meetings. Remarkable men, many of those old Trussian soldiers: of whom one wishes, to no purpose, that there had more knowl- edge been attaimible. But the Books are silent ; no painter, no genial seeing-man to paint with his pen, was there. Grim hirsute Hyperborean figures, they pass mostly mute before us : burly, surly ; in mustaches, in dim uncertain garniture, of which the buff-belts and the steel are alone conspicuous. Growling in guttural Teutsch what little articulate meaning they had : spending, of the inarticulate, a proportion in games of chance, probably' too in drinking beer ; yet having an im- mense overplus which they do not so spend, but endeavor to utter in such working as there may be. So have the Hyper- boreans lived from of oltL From the times of Tacitus and ]*ytheas, not to speak of Odin and Japhet, what hosts of them have marched across Existence, in that manner; — and where is the memory that would, even if it could, speak of them all! — We will hope the mind of our little Fritz has powers of assimilation. Bayle-Calvin logics, and shadows of Versailles, on this hand, and gunpowder Leopolds and inarticulate Hyper- boreans on that : here is a wide diversity of nutriment, all rather tough in quality, provided for the young soul. Innumer- able unconscious inferences he must have drawn in his little head I Prince Leopold's face, with the whiskers and blue skin, I find he was wont, at after periods, to do in caricature, under the figure of a Cat's ; — horror and admiration not the sole 324 HIS Al'l'KEN'lKK^Hir, FIKST STACK. U-hmv IV. 171.1-1723. feelings raised in him by the Field-Marshal. — For l>odily nourishment he luul '* beer-soup ; " a decided SjiarUm tone jire- vailing, wherever possible, in the breeding an<l treatment of him. And we need not doubt, by far the most importunt element of his education Wiuj the unconscious Apprentieesliip he con- tinually served to such a Siurtiin as King Friedrich Wilhelm. Of whose works and ways he eouKl not help taking note, angry or other, every day and hour ; nor in the end, if he tcere intel- ligent, help underst;iuding them, and learning from them. A harsh .Miister and almost half-m;ul, as it many times seemed to the jKJor Apprentice; yet a true and solid one, whose real wisdom w;us Worth that of all the others, as he came at length to recognize. CHAPTKi; ITT. FKIKPKHII WILHKLM IS KIN'O. With the death of oUl King Frieilrieh, there occurred at once vast chango.s in the Court of ricrlin ; a total and universal change in the mode of livin'» and doing business there. Fried- rirh Wilhelm, «»ut of fdial ])iety. wore at his father's funeral the graiul French jn-nike and other sublimities of French cos- tume ; but it was for the last time: that sad duty once done, he flung the whole aside, not without impatienc**, an<l on no occasion wore such costume again. He w.as not a friend to French fashions, nor had ever been ; far the contrary. Tn his boyhood, say the Biographers, there was once a grand em- broidered cloth-of-gold, or otherwise snjiremely magnificent, little Dressing-gown givon him : but he would at no rate put it on, or Ik* coneernetl with it; on the contrary', stuffed it imlig- nantly " into the fire ; " and demanded wholesome useful duffel instead. He l>egan his reform literally at the earliest moment. Be- ing summoned into the apartment where his poor Father was » c.iw 111. * FKIKDUR'H WlLllKLM IS KING. 325 171J-17J-5. ill the last struggle, lie could scarcely get across lor Kdmmrr- JunLcr, Kaiiiiiitrhvrrn, Goldstieks, Silversticks, and the other soleuiu histrionic functionaries, all crowding there to do their sati mimicry on the occasion : not a lovely accomj)aninient in Friedrich Wilhelm's eyes. His poor Father's death-struggle once done, and all reduced to everlasting rest there, Friedrich ^\'ilhclnl looked in silence over the Unutterable, for a short sjiace, disregardful of the Goldstieks and their eager new homaging; walked swiftly away from it to his own room, shut thi; door with a slam ; and then-, shaking the tears from his eyes, commenceil by a notable duty, — the duty nearest hand, and therefore lirst to be done, a,s it seemed to him. It was about one in the afternoon, 25th February, 171.*i ; his Father dead half an hour before : " Tears at a Father's death-l>ed, must they be dasheil with rage by such a set of greedy llistrios '.' " thought Friedrich Willulm. He summoned these his Court- jjcople, that is to say, summoned their Ober-JIofmnrschull and representative ; and through him signified to them. That, till the Funeral was over, their service would continue ; and that on the morrow after the Funeral, they were, every soul of them, discharged ; and from the highest Goldstick down to the lowest Fage-in-waiting, the King's House should be swept entirely clean of them ; — said House intending to start afresh upon a quite new footing.* Which spreatl such a consterna- tion among the courtier people, say the Histories, as was never seen before. The tlung wiis done, however ; and nobody durst whisper discontent with it ; this rugged young King, with Ids plangent metallic voice, with his steady-beaming eyes, seeming dread- fully in earnest alwut it, and a person tliat might prove danger- ous if you crossed him. He reduced his Household accord- ingly, at once, to the lowest footing of the indisi»ensable ; and discharged a whole regiment of superfluous official persons, court-flunkies, inferior, sui>erior and supreme, in the most ruthless manner. He does not intend keeping any Ober-Hof- marschall, or the like idle person, henceforth ; thinks a mini mum of the Goldstieks ought to suffice every man. 1 Fiirster, i. 174 ; PiJUnitz, ^felnoiren, ii. 4. 326 HIS Ari'KKNTU'KSHir. FIUST STACK. H'">k IV. Eight Lackeys, in the ante^-liainlH^rs ami elsewhere, these, with each a Juijerbursch (what we shoiihl call an Cmier-kecjM'r) to assist when not hunting, will suffice : La<'keys at " eight thnlers monthly,'' which is six shillings a week. Three active I'ages, sometimes two, in.stt-ail of jK'rhaps three dozen idle that there u.sed to be. In King Friedrich's time, there were wont to be a thousand s:uldle-horses at corn and hay : but how many of them were in actual use ? Very many of them were mere imaginary (juadrupeds ; their i)rice and keep ])Ocketed by some knavish Stall meister, Equerry or llca«l- groora. Friedrich Wilhclm keeps only thirty Horses; but these are very actuj'l, not imaginary at all; their corn not running into any knave's jjocket ; but lying actually in the mangers here ; getting grouml for you into actual four-footed Rpeed, when, on turf or highway, you require'such a thing. Alxtut thirty for the saddle, with a few carriage-teams, are what Friedrich Wilhclm can emi)loy in any reasonable mea- sure : and more he will not have aliout him. In the like ruthless humor he goes over his I'ension-list ; strikes three fourths of that away, reduces the remaining fourth to the very l)one. In like humor, he g(K's over every department of his Administrative, Household and other Expen.ses : shears everything down, here by the hundred thalcrs. there by the ten, willing even to save half a thaler. He goes over all this three several times ; — his Papers, the three successive Lists he used on that occasion, have been printed.* He has satisfied himself, in about two months, what the effective minimum is ; anrl leaves it so. Reduced to below the fifth of what it was; 5o,000 thalers, insteail of By degrees he went over, went into and through, every department of Prussian Business, in that fashion ; steatlily, warily, irresistibly compelling every item of it, large and little, to take that same character of perfect economy and solidity, of utility pure and simple. Needful work is to be ' Rodenl>Ock, Beilrdije zur Bereicherung der Tj/h^ixsheschreihiitgen Friedrich Wilhflms I. und Friedrichs des Grossai (Berlin, 1836). pp. 99-127. 2 Steuzel, iii. 237. CiiA.-. III. FinEDRICII WILIIELM IS KING. 327 171^172J. rigorously well done ; needless work, and ineffectual or imiigi- nury workers, to be rigorously jiitehed out ot doors. \\'liat u blessing on this Eartii j worth purchasing almost at any price ! The money saved is something, nothing if you will ; but the amount of mendacity expunged, has any one computed that ? Mendacity not of tongue ; but the far feller sort, of hand, and of Ill-art, and of head ; short summary of all Devil's- ■worshij) whatsoever. Which spreads silently along, once you let it in, with full purse or with empty ; some fools even pr;iising it: the quiet drif-rut oi >iatious! To expunge sucii is greatly the iluty of every man, esj^ecially of every King. Unconsciously, not thinking of Devil's-worship, or spiritual dry-rot, but of money chieHy, and led by Nature and the ways she has with us, it w;is the task of Friedrich Wilhelm's life to bring about this benelicent result in all departments of Prus- sian Husiness, great and little, public and even private. Year after year, he brings it tu perfection ; jiushcs it unweariedly forward every day and hour. So that he kis Prussia, at last, all a I'russia made after his own image ; the most thrifty, hardy, rigorous and Sjiartan country any modern King ever ruled over; and himself (if he thought of that) a King indeed. He that models Nations according to his own image, he is a King, though his sceptre were a walking-stick ; and, properly no other is. Friedrich Wilhelm was wonderfd at, and laughed at. In- innumerable mortals for his ways of doinsr; which indeed were very strange. Not that he figured much in what is called Public History, or desired to do so ; for. though a vigilant ruler, he did not deal in protocolling and campaign- ing, — he let a minimum of that suffice him. But in court soirees, where elegant emptv talk goes on, and of all matorials for it scandal is found incomparably the most interesting, T suppose there turned up no name oftener than that of his Prussian Maiesty; and durmg these twenty -seven years of his Peign. his wild pranks and explosions gave food for continual talk in such quarter. For he was like no other King that then existed, or hnd ever been discovered. "Wilder Son of Nature seldom came o28 HIS ArrUKNTICKSIIIP, FIKST STAliE. H'-K IV. 17i;i-17:ia. into the artitieial world ; into a royal throne tliere, probably never. A wild man, wholly in earnest, veriUible as the eld rocks, — and with a terrible volcanic tire in him too. He would have been strtuige anywhere ; but among the dajiiur Jioyal gentlemen of the Eighteenth Century, what was to be done with .such an Orson of a King? — Clap him in Bedlam, and bring out the ballot-l)oxes instead ? The moilern genera- tion, too, still takes its impression of him from these rumors, — still more now from Wilhelmina's Book; which paints the outside savagery of the royal man, in a most striking manner; and leaves the inside vacant, undiscovered by Wilhelmina or the rumors. Nevt-rtheh'ss it aj>j)ears there were a few observant eyes even of contcmiM)rarics, who discerned in him a surprising talent for "National Kcunomics " at least. Out' Leipzig I'ro- fessor, Saxon, not Truss ian by nation or interest, recognizes in Friedrich Wilhclm *' den yrossen Wirth (the great Manager, Iluskindry-uuuj, or Landlord) of the eixxdi ; " and lectures on his admirable "works, arrangements and institutions" in that kind.' Nay the dapper Koyal gentlemen saw, with envy, the indubitable growth of this nia<l savage Brother ; and ascril^ed it to "his avarice," to his mean ways, which were in such contrast to their sublime ones. That he under.st(M>d National Economics has now Inx-ome very certain. His grim semi-articulate Paj)ers and Rescripts, on these subjects, are still almost worth reading, by a lover of genuine human talent in the dumb form. For spelling, grammar, penmanship and composition, they resemble nothing else extant ; are as if done by the paw of a bear: indeed the utterance generally sounds more like the growling of a bear than anything that could be handily spelt or parsed. But there is a decisive human sense in the heart of it; and there is such a dire hatred of empty bladders, unrealities and hypocritical forms and pretences, what he calls "wind and humbug {Wind tun I hlnuer Ihinsf),^'' as is very strange indeed. Strange among all mankind ; doubly and trebly strange among the unfortunate 1 T^odenliock's BfitToge (\>. 14), — Year, or Name of Lecturer, not men- CiiAi-. in. * FRIEDUIC'II WILIIEL.M IS KING. 329 171^-1723. si)ecios called Kings in our time. To whom, — for sad reasons that could be given, — '• wind luid blue vapor {Ulauer Dunst),^ artistically managed by the rules ul" Acoustics and Optics, seem to Ije all we have left us I — It must be owned that this man is inflexibly, and with a liiTce slow inexorable determination, set upon having realities round him. There is a divine idea of fact put into him ; the genus shnni was never hatefuler to any man. Let it keep out of his way, well beyond the swing of that rattan of his, or it may get something to remember ! A just man, too ; would not wrong any man, nor play false in word or deed to any man. What is Justice but another form of the reality we love ; a truth acted out? Of all the humbugs or *' painted vapors " known, Injustice is the least capable of proliting men or kings! A just man, I say; and a valiant and veracious : but rugged as a wihl bear ; entirely inarticulate, as if dumb. No bursts of parliamentary eloquence in him, nor the least ten- dency that way. His tident for Stump-Oratory may be reck- oned the minimum conceivable, or practically noted a zero. A man who would not have risen in modern Political Cir- cles ; man unchoosable at hustings or in caucus ; man forever invisible, and very unadmirable if seen, to the Able Edi- tor and those that hang by him. In fact, a kind of savage man, as we say ; but higidy interesting, if you can read dumb human worth ; and of inexpressible profit to the Prussian Nation. For the first ten years of his reign, he had a heav}-, contin- ual struggle, getting his finance and other branches of admin- istration extricated from their strangling imbroglios of coiled nonsense, and put upon a rational footing. His labor in these years, the first of little Fritz's life, must have been great ; the pushing and pulling strong and continual. The good plan itself, this comes not of its own accord; it is the fruit of "genius " (which means transcendent capacity of taking trouble, first of all) : given a huge stack of tumbled thrums, it is not in your sleep that you will find the vital centre of it, or get the first thrum by the end ! And then the execution, the 330 HIS APPKENTICESHIP, FIRST STAGE. B<m,k IV. realizing, amid the eontnuliction, silent or expressed, of men and tilings ■' Exjjlosive violence was by no means Friedrieli \\'ilhelm's method; the amount of slow stubborn broad-shoul- dered sti-ength, in all kinds, exi)ended by the man, strikes us as very great. The amount of jiatience even, though patience is not reckoned his forte. That of the Jiitter-lHunst (Knights'-Service), for example, which is but one sniall item of his business, the commuting of the old fiuilal iluty of his Landholders to do Service in War- time, into a fixed money payment : nothing could be fairer, more clearly atlvantageous to Intth partirs ; and most of his "Knights" gladly accepted the proposal: yet a certain fac- tious set of them, the Magdeburg set, stirred up by some seven or eight of their number, " hardly above seven or eight really against me," saw good to stand out ; remonstrati-d, recalci- trated; complained in the Diet (Kaiser too happy to hear of it, that he might have a ht)ok on Friedrich Wilhelm) ; and for long years that paltry matter was a provocation to him.' lint if your jdan is just, and a bit of Nature's plan, jn^rsist in it like a law of Nature. This secret too was known to Friedrieh "Wilhelm. In the si)ace of ten years, by actual hunum strength loyally spent, he had managed many things ; saw all things in a course towards management. All things, as it were, fairly on the roa»l ; the multiplex t<'am i)ulling one way, in rational human harness, not in imbroglios of coib'd tlinims made by the Nightmares. How he introduced a new mode of farming his Domain Lands, which are a main branch of his revenue, and shall 1x3 farmed on regular lease henceforth, and not wasted in pecula- tion and indolent mismanagement as heretofore ; ' new modes of levying his taxes and revenues of every kind:' How he at last concenti-ated, and harmonized into one easy-going effective Genentf T>lrerfori/.* the multifarious conflicting Boards, that were jolting and jangling in a dark use-and-wont manner, and > 1717-1725. Forstor, ii. 162-165. iv. 31-.34: Stf-nzel. iii. .316-.319: Samuel Buchliolz, A'pmm/s Pfiissisch-Draudeiibttrgische G'schichte (Berlin, 1775), i. 197- a Forster. ii. 206, 216. 3 n,. jj, jgo, 195. * Completed 19th January, 172-3 (lb. ii. 172). Chap. III. FRIEDKICIl WILIIELM IS KING. 331 m.i-nsi. leaving their work half clone, when he first came into power : ^ How he insisted on liaving daylight introduced to the very bottom of every business, fair-and-square observed as the rule of it, and the shortest road adoi)ted for doing it : How he drained bogs, planted colonies, established manufactures, made his own uniforms of Prussian wool, in a Lagerhaiis of his own : How he dealt with the Jew Gompert about farming his To- bacco ; — how, from many a crooked case and character he, by slow or short methods, brought out something straight; would take no denial of what was his, nor make any demand of what was not ; and did jjrove really a terror to evilnloers of various kinds, especially to prevaricators, defalcators, imaginary work- ers, and slipi)ery unjust persons : How he urged diligence on all mortals, would not have the very Apple-women sit ''with- out knitting " at their stalls ; and brandished his stick, or struck it fiercely down, over the incorrigibly idle: — All this, as well as his ludicrous ex]>l<>si(>us and unreasonable violences, is on reeord concerning Friedrieh Wilhclm, though it is to the latter rhicHy that tlu' world has ilirerted its unwise attention, in judging of him. He was a very arbitrary King. Yes, but then a good deal of his arbltrium, or sovereign will, was that of the Eternal Heavens as well; and did exceedingly behoove to be done, if the Earth would prosper. AVhich is an immense consideration in regard to his sovereign will and him ! He was prompt with his rattan, in urgent cases ; had his gallows also, prompt enough, where needfvd. Let him see that no mistakes happen, as certainly he means that none shall ! Yearly he made his country richer ; and this not in money alone (which is of very uncertain value, and sometimes has no value at all, and even less), but in frugality, diligence, punctu- ality, veracity, — the grand fountains from which money, and all real vahies and valors spring for men. To Friedrich Wil- helra, in his rustic simplicity, money had no lack of value ; rather the reverse. To the homespun man it was a success of most excellent quality, and the chief symbol of success in all kinds. Yearl}' he made his own revenues, and his people's 1 Dohm, Denkwiirdirjkeiten meiner Zeit (Lemgo und Hanover, 1814-1819), iv. 88. 332 HIS ArruENTiCESiiir. first stage. t\>».k iv. 171.i-172a. along with them ami as the source of them, larger : and in all states of his revenue, he had contrived to make his expendi- ture less than it ; and yearly saved masses of coin, and *• re- posited them in barrels in the cellars of his Schloss," — wliere they proved very useful, one day. Much in Friedrich Wilhelm proved useful, beyond even his expectations. As a Nation's Ifuslnnitl he seeks his fellow among Kings, ancient ami mod- ern. Hapjty the Nation which gets such a JIusl)and, once in the half-thousand years. The Nation, as foolish wives and Nations do, repines and grudges a good deal, its weak whims and will Iwnng thwarted very often; but it lulvances steadily, with consciousness or not, in the way of welkloing ; and after long times the harvest of this diligent sowing becomes mimifest to the Nation and to all Nations. Strange as it sounds in the Repid)lic of Letters, we are tempted to call Friedrich Wilhelm a man of genius; — genius fated and promoted to work in National Husbandry, not in writing Verses or three-volume Novels. A silent g«'niu3. His meloilious stanza, which he cannot bear to .see halt in any syllable, is a rough fact reduced to ordi-r ; fact made to stand firm on its feet, with the world-rocks under it, and looking free towards all the winds and all the stars. He goes aljout sup- pressing platitudes, ripping off futilities, turning deceptions inside out. The realm of Disorder, which is Unveracity, Un- reality, what we c^ill Chaos, has no fiercer enemy. Honest soul, and he seemed to himself such a stupid fellow often ; no tongue-learning at all ; little capable to give a reason for the faith that was in him. He cannot argue in articulate logic, only in inarticulate bellowings, or worse. He must do a thing, leave it undemonstrated ; once done, it will itself tell what kind of thing it is, by and by. Men of genius have a hard time, I i>erceive, whether born on the throne or off it ; and must expect contradictions next to unendurable, — the jtlurality of blockheads being so extreme ! I find, except Samuel Johnson, no man of equal veracity with Friedrich Wilhelm in that epoch : and Johnson too, with all his tongue-learning, had not logic enough. In fact, it depends on how much conviction you have. Blessed be CiiAi-. III. FlflKDRICII WILIIEL.M IS KING. 333 ITiJ-lTJ.i. Heaven, there is here and there a man born who ioves truth us truth bhoukl be loved, with all his heart and all his soul ; and hates untruth with a corresponding perfect hatred. Such men, in polite circles, which understand that certaiidy truth is better tlian untruth, but that you must be polite to both, are liable to get to the end oi' their logic. Even Johnson had a bellow in him ; though Johnson could at any time withdraw into silence, his kingdom lying all under his own hat. How much more Friedi"ich Wilhelm, who had no logic whatever; and whose kingdom lay without him, far and wide, a thing he could not withdraw from. The rugged Orson, he needed to be right. From utmost Memel down to Wesel again, ranked in a straggling manner round the half-circumference of Europe, all manner of things and persons were depending on him, and on his being right, not wrong, in his notion. A nuin of dear discernment, very good natural eyesight ; and irrefragably contident in what his eyes told him, in what his belief was; — yet of huge simplicity withal. Capable of being coaxed about, and led by the nose, to a strange degree, if there were au artist dexterous enough, daring enough ! His own natural judgment was good, and, though apt to be hasty and headlong, was always likely to come right in the end ; but internally, we may perceive, his modesty, self-distrust, anxiety and other unexjiected qualities, must have been great. And tlitMi his explosiveness, imi)atienee, excitability ; his conscious dund) ignorance of all things beyond his own small horizon of personal survey ! An Orson capable enough of being coaxed and tickled, by some first-rate conjurer ; — first-rate ; a second- rate might have failed, and got torn to pieces for his pains. But Seckendorf and Grumkow, what a dance they led him ou some matters, — as we shall see, and as poor Fritz and others will see ! He was full of sensitiveness, rough as he was and shaggy of skin. His wild imaginations drove him hither and thither at a sad rate. He ought to have the privileges of genius. His tall Potsdam Eegiment, his mad-looking passion for en- listing tall men ; this also seems to me one of the whims of genius, — an exaggerated notion to have his "stanza" polished 3o4 Ills AI'l'liKNTICESHIi*, FIUST STAGE. n<x>K IV. I7ia-i72a. to the last punctilio of perfection ; and might be paralleled in the history of Toets. Stranger '" man of genius," or in more peculiar circumstances, tlie world never saw ! I'ricdrith Wilhelm, in his Cruwn-l'rince days, and now still mure wiien lie was hiiusiU in the sovereign jdace, liad seen all along, with natural arithmetical intellect, That his strength in this world, iis at present situated, would very much depend upon the amount of ixjtential-battle that lay in him, — on the quantity and quality of Soldiers he could maintain, and have rea<^ly for the tield at any time. A most in<lisputahle truth, ami a heartfelt one in the present instance. To augment the quantity, to improve the quality, in this thrice-osscntial ])ar- ticular: here lay the keystone and crowning summit of all Friediich Wilhelm's endeavors ; to which he devoted himself, as only the best Spartiin could have done. O^ which there will be other opportunities to sjieak in detail. For it was a thing world-noUvble ; world-laughable, as was then thought ; the extremely serious fruit of which did at length also become notable enough. In the Malpla<iUtL luue, onct.' on .some occ:ision, it is said, two English OlHcers, not well informed ui>ou the matter, and provoking enough in their contemptuous ignorance, were rea- soning with one another in Friedrich Wilhelm's hearing, ;is to the warlike i)owers of the Prussian Stiite, and Whether the King of Prussia could on his own strength maintain a sUiuding army of l.~),(KK)? Without subsidies, do you think, so many as li),0()0 ? Friedrich Wilhelm, incensed at the thing and at the tone, is re^wrted to have said with heat : " Yes, 3<J,000 ! " * whereat the militixry men slightly waggi-d their heaths, letting the matter drop for the present. Hut he makes it good by degrees; twofold or threefold; — and will have an army of from seventy to a hundred thousand before he dies,^ the best- drilled of fighting men ; and what atlds much to the wonder, a full Treasury withal. This is the Brandenburg Spartan King ; acquainted with National Economics. Alone of exist- '- Forster. i. 138. ■^ " 72,000 field-troops. 30,000 garrUon-troops " (Gtstdndnisse eines (Ester reichischen Veleraiu, Bre^ilau, 1788, i. 64). Chap. HI. FRIEDKICH WILIIELM IS KING. 335 1713-1723, ing Kings he lays by money annually ; and is laying by many other and far more precious things, for Prussia and the little Boy he has here. Friedrioh "Wilhelm's pa.ssion for drilling, recruiting and [lerfecting his array attracted much notice : laughing satirical notice, in the hundred mouths of common rumor, which he regarded little ; and notice iracund and minatory, when it led him into collision with the independent portions of man- kind, now and then. This latter sort was not pleasant, and sometimes looked rather serious ; but this too he contrived always to digest in some tolerable manner. He continued drilling and recruiting, — we may say not his Army only, but his Nation in all departments of it, — as no man before or since ever did : increasing, by every devisable method, the amount of potential-battle that lay in him and it. In a military, and also in a much deeper sense, he may be detincd as the great Drill-sergeant of the Prussian Nation. Indeed this had been the function of the Hohenzollerns all along ; this dilHcult, unpleasant and indispensable one of drilling. From the first appearance of Burggi-af Friedrich, with good words and with Heavy Peg, in the wreck of an- archic P>randenburg, and downwai'ds ever since, this has steadily enough gone on. And not a little good drilling these populations have had, first and last ; just orders given them (wise and just, which to a respectable degree were Heaven's orders as well) : and certainly Heavy Peg, for in- stance, — Heavy Peg, bringing Quitzow's strong House about his ears, — was a respectable drummers cat to enforce the same. This has been going on these three hundred years. But Friedrich Wilhelm completes the process ; finishes it off to the last pitch of perfection. Friedrich Wilhelm carries it through every fibre and cranny of Prussian Business, and so far as possible, of Prussian Life ; so that Prussia is all a drilled phalanx, ready to the word of command ; and what we see in the Army is but the last consummate essence of what exists in the Nation everywhere. That was Friedrich Wilhelm's function, made ready for him, laid to his hand 336 ins APrRENTICESIIir. FIRST STAGE. Hook IV. by his Hohenzollern foregoers ; and indeed it proved a most beneficent function. For I have remarked that, of all things, a Nation needs first to be drilled ; and no Nation that has not first been governed by so-called " Tyrants," and held tight to the curb till it l)eeame perfect in its paces and thoroughly amenable to rule and law, and heartily respectful of the same, and to- tidly abhorrent of the want of the same, ever came to much in this world. Enghiml itself, in foolish quarters of England, still howls and execrates lamentably over its William Con- qurror, anil rigorous line of Normans and IMantiigenets ; but without thorn, if you will consider well, what h;ul it ever been? A gluttonous race of tlutes and Angles, capable of no grand cond)inations ; luml)ering alH)ut in iK)t-belli«'tl equa- nimity ; not dreaming of heroic toil an«l sihnco and endur- ance, such as leads to the high jdiwes of tliis Tnivt-rse, luid the goldi'U mountain-tops where dw»ll the Spirits of the Dawn. Their very ballot-boxes an»l suffrages, what they call their " Lilierty," if these mean " Liberty," and are such a roa<l to Heaven, Anglo-Saxon high-road thither, — could never have been jK^ssible for them on such terms. How <ould the}- ? Nothing but collision, intolerable interpnssure (as of men uot perpendicular), and consequent battle often suj^ervening. couM havi' been appointed those undrille<l Anglo-Saxons ; their pot- bellied equanimity itself continuing liable to j»eriiotual inter- rujttions, as in the Heptiirchy time. An enlightened Tublic does not reflect on these things at present ; but will again, by and by. Looking with human eyes over the England that now is, and over the Ajnerica and the Australia, from pole to pole ; and then listening to the Constitutional lifcinies of Dry- asdust, and his lamentations on the old Norman and Plantage- net Kings, and hit recognition of departed merit and causes of effects, — the miml of man is struck dumb ! c.iAr. IV. HIS MAJESTY'S WAYS. 337 I7ia-i72;j. CHAPTER IV. HIS majesty's ways. Friedricii Wiliielm's History is one of Economics ; which study, so soon as there are Kings ajj^ain in this workl, will be precious to them. In that happy state of matters, Frieilrich ^Vilhelm's History will well reward study; and teach by example, in a very simple and direct manner. In what is called the Political, Diplomatic, " Honor-to-be " department, there is n(»t, nor can ever be, much to be said of him ; this Economist Kinj^ having always kept himself well at home, and looked stea<lily to his own affairs. So that for tlie i)res- ent he has, as a King, next to nothing of what is called His- tory ; and it is only as a fellow-man, of singular faculty, and in a most pecidiar and conspicuous situation, that he can be interesting to mankind. To us he has, as Father and daily teacher and master of young Fritz, a continual interest ; and we must note the master's ways, and the main phenomena of the workshop as they successively turned up, for the sake of the notable Apprentice serving there. He was not tall of stature, this arbitrary King : a florid- complexioned stout-built man ; of serious, sincere, authorita- tive face ; his attitudes and equipments very Spartan in type. Man of short firm stature ; stands (in Pesne's best Portraits of him) at his ease, and yet like a tower. Most solid ; " plumb and rather more ; " eyes steadfastly awake ; cheeks slightly compressed, too, which fling the mouth rather for- ward ; as if asking silently, " Anything astir, then ? All right here ? " Face, figure and bearing, all in him is expres- sive of robust insight, and direct determination; of healthy energy, practicalit}', unquestioned authority, — a certain air of royalty reduced to its simp! "=t form. The face, in I'ic- VOL. T. ;'38 HIS ArrKKNTICESIIIP. FIIIST STACK. I»^h'k IV. I7ia-I7i;j. tiires by Pesne and otliers, is not beautiful or agreeable; healthy, genuine, authoritative, is the best you can say of it. Yet it may have l)een, wliat it is descrilvd a.s l)eing, originally handsome. High enftuj^h arehed ltr(»w. rather cnpious cheeks and jaws ; nose smallish, inclining to be stumpy ; large gray eyes, bright with steady fire and life, often enough gloomy and severe, but capable of jolly laughter too. Eyes '* natu- rally with a kind of laugh in them," says Piillnitz; — which laugh (U'ui bhue out into fearful thumlerous rage, if you give him provocation. Esi>ecially if you lie to him ; for that he hates al)ovo all things. IxH)k him straight in the face : he fancies he can see in ynur eyes, if there is an internal men- dacity in you : wheref(»re you mu-*' 1""V :«t Mm in speaking; such is his stjinding order. His hair is Haxen, falling into the ash-gray T>r darker; fine eo])ious flowing hair, while he wore it natural. lUit it .stHjn got tied into clubs, in the military style; and at length it was altogether cropjK^d away, and replaced by l»rown, and at last by white, round wigs. Which latter ;ilso, though Ixul wigs, Icc.une him not amiss, under his cocked-hat and cmkaile, says rullnitz.' The voice, I guess, even when not loud, was of clangorous :u»d iM'uetrating, quasi-metallicr nature ; ami I learn expressly once, that it bad a nasal quality in it.' His Majesty spoke through the nose; snutHed his sjK'C'ch in an earnest ominously plangent manner. In angry moments, which were frequent, it must have been — unplexsant to listen to. For the rest, a handsome man of his inches ; conspicuously well- built in limbs and IkhU', and delicately finished off to the v«'ry extremities. His feet and legs, .says Pollnitz, were very fine. The hands, if he would have taken care of them, were b<-auti- fully white ; fingers long and thin ; a hand at once nimble to grasp, delicate to feel, and strong to clutch and hold: what may be called a beautiful hand, because it i« the use- fulest. Nothing could exceed his Majesty's simplicity of habitudes. But one loves especially in him his scrupulous attention to 1 Pollnitz, Memoiren (Berlin, 1791), ii. 568. ' Biist^-hiiig, Ikitrage, i. 568. <^"Ai-. IV. HIS MAJESTY'S WAYS. 339 17i;;-172:j. cleanliness of person and of environment. He washed like a very Mussulman, live times a day ; loved cleanliness in all things, to a superstitious extent ; which trait is pleasant iu the rugged man, and indeed of a piece with the rest of his character. He is gradually changing all his silk and other clotli room-furniture ; in his hatred of dust, he will not suffer a tloor-carpot, even a stutt'ed chair ; but insists on having all of wood, where the dust may be prosecuted to destruction.' Wife and womankind, and those that take after them, let such lyive sturting and sofiuj : he, for his pait, sits on mere wooden chairs ; — sits, and also thinks and acts, after the manner of a Hy|)erborean Spartan, which he was. He ate heartily, but as a rough farmer and hunter eats; country messes, good roast and Ixiiled ; dcsi)ising the French Cook, as an entity without meaning fur him. His favorite dish at dinner was bacon and greens, rightly dressed ; what could the French Cook do for such a man ? He ate with rapidity, almost with indiscriminate violence : his object not quality but quantity. He drank too, but did not get drunk : at the Doctor's order he could abstain ; and had in later years abstained. Pollnitz j)raiscs his fineness of complexion, the originally eminent whiteness of his skin, which he hail tanned and bronzed by hard riding and hunting, and otherwise worse discolored by his manner of feeding and digesting : alas, at last his waist- coat came to measure, I am afraid to say how many Prussian ells, — a very considerable diameter indeed ! ^ For some years after his accession he still appeared occa- sionally iu "burgher dress," or unmilitary clothes; ''brown English coat, yellow waistcoat " and the other indispensables. But this fashion became rarer with him every year ; and ceased altogether (say Chronologists) about the year 1719 : after which he appeared always simply as Colonel of the Potsdam Guards (liis own Lifeguard Kegiment) in simple Prussian uniform : close military coat ; blue, with red cuffs and collar, buff waistcoat and breeches ; white linen gaiters to the knee. He girt his sword about the loins, well out of the mud ; walked always with a thick bamboo in his hand. 1 Torster, i. 208. 2 lb. i. 163. 340 HIS APPREXTICE>;iIIP, FIRST STAGE. n<...K IV. 17M-1723. Steady, not slow of step ; with his triangular hat, cream- white round wig (in his older days), and face tending to purj)le, — the eyes looking out mere investigation, sharp swift authority, and dangerous readiness to rebuke and set the cane in motion : — it was so he walked abroad in this earth ; and tlie common run of men rather fled his approach tlian courted it. For, in fact, he was dangerous ; and would ask in an alarm- ing manner, '' Who are you ? '' Any fantastic, much more any suspicious-looking person, might fare the worse. An idle lounger at the streetK^ornor he has been known to hit over the crown; and peremptorily despat<^'h : " Home, Sirrah, and take to some work ! " That the Apple-women be encouraged to knit, while waiting for custom ; — encouraged and quietly constrained, and at length packed away, and their" stalls taken from them, if unconstrainable, — there has, as we observed, an especial rescript been put forth; very curious to read.* Dandiacal figures, nay jjeople looking like Frenchmen, idle flaunting womt'U even, — lx>tter for them to be going. ''Who are you?'' and if you lied or prevaricated {"• Er blirkf muh gt'nule an, Look me in the face, then ! "), or even stumbled, hesitated, and gave suspicion of prevaricating, it might be worse for you. A soft answer is less effectual than a jirompt clear one, to turn away wrath. " A Candidatus Tludlogio', your Majesty," answered a handfast threatll)are youth one day, when questioned in this manner. — '• Where from ? " " Berlin, your Majesty." — *' Ilm, na, the Berliners are a good-for-noth- ing set." " Yes, truly, too many of them ; but there are excep- tions ; I know two." — " Two ? which then ? " '' Your Majesty and myself I " — ^lajesty burst into a laugh : the Candida- tus was got examined by the Consistoriums, and Authorities proper in that matter, and put into a chaplaincy. This King did not love the French, or their fashions, at all. We said he dismissed the big Peruke, — put it on for the last time at his Father s funeral, so far did filial piety go ; and then packed it aside, dismissing it, nay banishing and proscribing ^ In RiJdeubeck, Beilriige, p. 15. CnAP. IV. * HIS MAJESTY'S WAYS. 341 1713-172;J. it, never to appear more. The Peruke, and, as it were, all that the Peruke sjaubolized. For this was a King come into the world with quite other aims than that of wearing big perukes, and, regardless of expense, playing burst-frog to the ox of Versailles, which latter is itself perhaps a rather useless animal. Of Friedrich Wilhelm's taxes upon wigs ; of the old *' Wig-inspectors," and the feats they did, plucking off men's periwigs on the street, to see if the government-stamp were there, and to discourage wiggery, at least all but the simple scFateh or useful Welsh-wig, among mankind : of these, and of other similar things, I could speak ; but do not. This little incident, which occurretl once in the review-ground on the out- skirts of Berlin, will suffice to mark his tcmi)er in that respect. It was in the spring of 1711); our little Fritz then six years old, who of course heard much tcmi^Drary confused commentary, direct and oblique, triumphant male laughter, and perhaps rebellious female sighs, on occasion of such a feat. Count liothenburg, Prussian by birth,^ an accomi)lished and •able person in the diplomatic and other lines of business, but much used to Paris and its ways, had appeared lately in Berlin, as French envoy, — and, not unnaturally, in high French cos- tume ; cocked-hat, peruke, laced coat, and the other trimmings. He, and a group of diishing followers and adherents, were ac- customed to go about in that guise ; very capable of proving infectious to mankind. What is to be done with them ? thinks the anxious Father of his People. They were to appear at the ensuing grand Review, as Friedrich Wilhelm understood. "Wliereupon Friedrich Wilhelm took his measures in private. Dressed up, namely, his Scavenger-Executioner people (what they call Profossen in Prussian regiments) in an enormous exaggeration of that costume ; cocked-hats about an ell in diameter, wigs reaching to the houghs, with other fittings to match : these, when Count Rothenburg and his company ap- peared upon the ground, Friedrich Wilhelm summoned out, with some trumpet-peal or burst of field-music ; and they solemnly crossed Count Eothenburg's field of vision ; the strangest set of Phantasms he had seen lately. Awakening ^ Bnchholz, Neueste Preiissisch-Biandenburrjische Geschichte, i. 28. C42 HIS AI'PKK\TI('K<IIir. riRST STACK. n(H>K IV. 17J.{-1:23. salutary roflections in him.* Fancy that scene in History; Friedrich Willichn for comic-symbolic Dramaturj^ist. Gods and men (or at least Houyhnhnnj horses) might have saluted it with a Homeric laugh, — so huge and vacant is it, with a sus- picion of real humor too: — but the men were not permitted, on parade, more than a silent grin, or general irrepressible rustling murmur ; ami only the gods laughed inextinguishably, if so dispo.se«l. The Scavenger-Executioners went back to their place ; an<l Count Kothenburg took a plain CJermau costume, 80 long as he continued in those parts. F'riedrich Wilhelm has a dumb rough wit and mixkery, of that kind, on many occasions ; not without geniality in its Jtrolxlignag rxaggrration and simplicity. Like a wild Ix-ar of the woods taking his sj>ort ; with some sense of humor in the rough skin of him. Very capable of seeing through sumptuous costumes ; and respectful of realities alone. Not in French sumptuosity, but in native German thrift, does this King see his salvation ; so :is Nature constructed him : and the world which h:vs long lost its Spartms, will see again an original North-Crcrman Spartan ; and shriek a gf>od deal over him ; Nature keeping her own ctmnsel the while, and as it were, laughing in her sleeve at the shrieks of the tluuky world. For Nature, when she makes a Spartiin, means a good deal by it; and does not expect instant applauses, but only gradual and hvsting. " For my own part," exclaims a certain Editor once, " I per- ceive well there was never yet any great Empire founded, Roman, English, down to I'mssian or Dutch, nor in fact any great mass of work got achieved under the Sun, but it was founded even upon this humble-looking quality of Thrift, and became achievable in virtue of the same. Which will seem a strange doctrine, in these days of gold-nuggets, railway- fortunes, and mii-aculous sumptuosities regardless of expense. Earnest readers are invited to consider it, nevertheless. Though new, it is very old ; and a sad meaning lies in it to us of these * Forster, i. 165 ; Fa$$>maun, Ije}>en und Thaten des aUerdurchlduchtifjslen g-c. KSni'gs von Preussen Frederici Wilhdmi (Hamburg und Brcslau, 1735), pp 223, 319. Chap. IV. • HIS MAJESTY'S \VA\S. 343 17i;i-17-23. times ! That you have squandered in iille fooleries, building where there was no basis, your Hundred Thousand Sterling, your Eight Huncb-ed Million Sterling, is to lue a coniparativL'ly small matter. You may still again become rich, if you have at last become wise. But if you have wasted your capacity of strenuous, devoutly valiant labor, of patience, perseverance, self-denial, faith in the causes of effects ; alas, if your once just judgment of what is worth something and what is worth noth- ing, has been wasted, and your silent steadfast reliance on the general veracities, of yourself and of things, is no longer there, — then indeed you have had a loss ! You are, in fact, an entirely bankrupt individual; as you will find by and by. Y'es ; and tliough you hiul California in fee-simple; and could buy all the upholsti'rifs, groceries, funded-properties, tempo- rary (very temp«)rary) landed properties of the world, at one swoop, it woulil avail you nothing. Henceforth for you no harvests in the Seedtield of this Universe, which reserves its salutary bounties, and noble heaven-sent gifts, for quite other than you; and I would not give a pin's value for all you will ever reap there. Mere imaginary harvests, sacks of nuggets and the like; emi>ty as the east-wind; — with all the Demons laughing at you ! Do you consider that Nature too is a swollen tiunky, hungry for veils ; and can be taken in with your sub- lime airs of sumptuosity, and the large balance you actually have in Lombard Street ? Go to the — General Cesspool, with your nuggets and your ducats ! " The tiunky world, much stript of its plusK and fat per- quisites, accuses Friedrich Wilhelm bitterly of avarice and the cognate vices. But it is not so ; intrinsically, in the main, his procedure is to be defined as 4ionorable thrift, — verging to- wards avarice here and there ; as poor human virtues usually lean to one side or the other I He can be magnificent enough too, and grudges no expense, when the occasion seems worthy. If the occasion is inevitable, and yet not quite worthy, I have known him have recourse to strange shifts. The Czar Peter, for example, used to be rather often in the Prussian Dominions, oftenest on business of his own: such a man is to be royally defrayed while with us ; yet one would wish it done cheap. •^44 HIS Ari'Kr.NTiCEsmr. kikst sTAcn:. n..nK iv. i7i.{-i;i>;i. Post-horses, "two hunclrod and cighty-sevon at every station," ho lias from tho Community ; but the rest of his expenses, from ^leniol all the way to AVesel ? Friedrieh Wilhelm's Miarj^'inal ros])oiiso to his Finanz-Dlret'toriuitt, requiring orders om-e on that subject, runs in the following strange tenor : " Yes, all the way (exei'i)t Berlin, which I take upon myself) ; and ol>- serve, you contrive to do it for 6,(XM) thalers (t'iKM))," — which is uncommonly cheap, alx)ut .-t'l j)er mile ; — *' won't allow you one other penny (nit einen J^fennuj gebe mehrdazu)\ but you are (sollen .S?<V)," this is the remarkable point, '* to give out in the world that it costs me from Thirty to Forty Thousand ! " * So that here is the Majesty of Prussia, who beyond all men abhors lies, giving orders to tell one ? Alas, yes ; a kind of lie, or lib (white lib, or even gray), the i)inch of Tinilt com- iM'llingl Hut what a window into the artless inner-man of his Majesty, even that gmy fib ; — not done by oneself, but ordered to Ik? <lone by the servant, as if that were cheaper ! " Verging upon avarice," sure enough : but, unless we are unjust and unkind, he can by no means be descriljed as a Misir King. He collects what is his; gives you accurately Avhat is yours. For wages i)aid he will see work done ; he will ascertain more and more that the work done be work needful ft)r him ; and strike it off, if not. A Spartan man, as we said, — tlumgh probably he knew as little of the Spartans as the Spartixns did of him. Put Nature is still capable of such products : if in Hellas long ages since, why not in Bran- denburg now ? CHAPTER V. FRIEDRICII wilhelm's ONT WAR. OxE of Fritz's earliest strong impressions from the outer world chanced to be of War, — so it chanced, though he had shown too little taste that way, and could not, as • 1717: Forster, i. 213. Cn.vr. V. FUIEDRICII WILIIELM'S ONE WAR. 345 1715. yet, understand such phenomena ; — and there must have been much semi-articuhite questioning and dialoguing with Dame de Roucoulles, on liis part, about the matter now going on. In the year' ITlo, little Fritz's third year, came grand doings, not of drill only, but of actual war and fighting : the '" Stralsund Expi'(lition," Fricdrich Wilhclm's one feat in that kind. Huge rumor of which tills naturally the maternal heart, the Berlin Palace drawing-rooms ; and occupies, with new vivid interests, all imaginations young and old. For the ac- tual battlenlrums are now beating, the big cannon-wains are creaking under way ; and milihiry men take farewell, and march, tramj), tramp ; Majesty in grenadier-guard uniform at their head : horse, foot and artillery ; northward to Stralsund on the Baltic shore, where a tcrrilde human Lion has taken up his lair lately. Charles XII. of Sweden, namely ; he has broken out of Turkish Bender or Demotica, and ended his obstinate torpor, at hxst ; has ridden fourteen or sixteen days, hf and a groom or two, through desolate steppes and moun- tain wildernesses, through crowded dangerous cities; — "came by Vienna and by Cassel, then through Pommern ; " leaving his " royal train of two thousand persons " to follow at its leisure. He, for his part, has ridden without pause, forward, ever forward, in darkest incognito, the indefatigable man; — and tinally, on Old-Hallowmas Eve (22d-llth November, 1714), far in the night, a Horseman, with two others still folloAving him, travel-splashed, and " white with snow," drew bridle at the gate of Stralsund ; and, to the surprise of the Swedish sentinel there, demanded instant admission to the Governor, The Governor, at first a little surly of humor, saw gradually how it was ; sprang out of bed, and embraced the knees of the snowy man ; Stralsund in general sprang out of bed, and illuminated itself, that same Hallow-Eve : — and in brief, Charles XII., after five years of eclipse, has reappeared upon the stage of things ; and menaces the world, in his old fash- ion, from that City. From which it becomes urgent to many parties, and at last to Friedrich Wilhelm himself, that he be dislodged. 346 IITS ArPHKNTirESTirP, FTK^T PTAHE. n..nK IV. 171.}- 1723. The root of tliis Stralsund story belongs to the former roi^m, as (lid the gniiul apparition of Charles XII. on the theatre of European lli.story, and the terror and astonishment he created tliere. He is now thirty-three years old ; and only the wind- ing up, lioth of him and of the Stralsund story, falls within our present field. Fifti'en years ago, it was like the burst ing of a cataract of l)oml)-shells in a dull ball-room, the sudden appearance of this young figliting Swede among the luxurious Kings and Kinglets of the North, all lounging alx)ut and languidly minuetting in that manner, regardless of expense ! Friedrieh TV. of Denmark rejoicing over red wine ; August the Strong gradually producing his " three hundred and fifty- four bastards ; " ' these and other neighlxirs had conlidcntly stept in, on various pretexts ; thinking to help tln-mselves from the 3'oung man's properties, who was still a minor; when the young minor suddenly develo|)ed himself as a major and maximus, and turned out to V)e such a Fire-King among them ! In consequence of which there had l)een no end of Northern troubles ; and all through the Louis-Fotirteenth or MarH)or- ough grand ** Succession War," a sj)ecial " Northern War " had burnt or sm<»uldered on its own score ; Swedes rrrsuji Saxons, Russians and Danes, bickering in weary intricate con- test, and keeping those Northern regions in smoke if not on fire. Charles XII., for the last five years (ever since I'ultawa, and the summer of 1700), had lain obstinately dormant in Turkey ; urging the Turks to destroy Czar I'eter. Wliieh they absolutely could not, though they now and then tried ; and Viziers not a few lost their heads in consequence. Charles lay sullenly dormant ; Danes meanwhile oj)erating upon his » Holstein interests and adjoining territories ; Saxons, Kussians, battering continually at Swedish Pommern, continually march- ing thither, and then marching home again, without success, — always through the Brandenburg Territory, as they needs must. Which latter circumstance Friedrieh Wilhelm, while yet only CroA\ni-Prince, had seen with natural displeasure, could that have helped it. But Charles XII. would not yield • Me'moires de Bareilh (Wilhelmina's B<x>k, Londrcs, 1812), i. 111. CiiAP. V. ^RIEDRieil WILIIELM'S ONE WAR. 347 1715. a wliit ; sent orders peremptorily, from his bed at Bender or Dt'iuotica, that there must be no surrender. Neither couUl the shiggish enemy compel surrender. So that, at length, it had grown a feeble wearisome welter of inextricable strifes, with worn-out combatants, exhausted of all but their animosity; and seemed as if it would never end. Inveterate inetfeetive war ; ruinous to all good interests in those i)arts. What miseries had Holsteiu from it, which last to our own day ! ^lecklenburg also it involved in sore trophies, which lasted long enough, as we shall see. But Bran- denburg, above all, may be impatient ; Brandenburg, which has no business with it except that of unlucky neighborhood. One of Friedrich Wilhelm's very lirst operations, as King, was to end this \igly state of matters, which he had witnessed with impalii'nce, as Prince, for a long while. He had hailed even the Treaty of Utrecht with welcome, in hopes it might at least end these Northern brabbles. This the Treaty of Utrecht tried to do, but could not : however, it gave him back his Prussian Fighting Men ; which he has already increased by six regiments, raised, we may perceive, on the ruins of his late court-flunkies and dismissed gold- sticks ; — with these Friedrich Wilhelm will try to end it himself. These he at once ordered to form a Camp on his frontier, close to that theatre of contest ; and signified now with emphasis, in the beginning of 1713, that he decidedly wished there were peace in those Pommern regions. Nego- tiations in consequence ; * very wide negotiations, Louis XIV. and the Kaiser lending hand, to pacify these fighting North- ern Kings and their Czar: at length the Holstein Government, representing their sworn ally, Charles XII., on the occasion, made an offer which seemed promising. They proposed that Stettin and its dependencies, the strong frontier Town, and, as it were, key of Swedish Pommern, should be evacuated by the Swedes, and be garrisoned by neutral troops, Prussians and Holsteiners in equal number ; which neutral troops shall prohibit any hostile attack of Pommern from without, Sweden engaging not to make any attack through Pommern from 1 lOth June, 1713: Buchholz, i. 21. 348 HIS Al'l'KKNTR'K.>^IIir, FIliST STAGE. H'«'k IV. within. That will be as good as peace iu rommern, till we get a goncral Swedish I'eace. Willi which Fricdrich Wilhelin gladly complies.^ Unhai^pily, however, the Swedish Couimandaiit in Stettin would not give up the place, on any representative or sec- ondary authority ; not without an express order in his King's own hand. W hich, as his King was far away, in abstruse Turkish circumstances imd localities, could not be had at the uionient ; and involved new difficulties and uncertainties, new delay which might itself be fatal. The end was, the Russians and Saxons had to cannonade the man out by regular siege: tln'y then gave up the Town to Prussia and Ilolstein ; but re- •juired tirst to be paid their expenses incurred in sieging it, — 11)0,000 thalers, as they computed and demonstrated, or some- where about dfc;(;o,000 of our money. Friedrich Wilhelm paid the money (Ilolstein not having a groschen) ; took possession of the Town, and dependent towns and forts ; intending well to keep them till repaid. This was in October, 171.»; and ever since, there hiis been actual tran- quillity in those parts : the embers of the Northern War may still burn or smoulder elsewhere, but here they are (piite extinct. At first, it was a joint possession of Stettin, Ibd- steiners and Prussians in ecpial numlter; and if Friedrich Wil- helm had been sure of his money, so it would have continued. Jiut the Ilolsteiners had paiil nothing; Charles Xll.'s sanction never could be expressly got, and the Holsteiner.s were mere dependents of his. Better to increase our Tru-ssian force, by degrees ; and, in some good way, with a minimum of violence, get the Ilolsteiners squeezed out of Stettin : Friedrich Wil- helm has so ordered and contrived. The Prussian force hav- ing now gradually increased to double in this important garrison, the Holsteiners are quietly disarmed, one night, and ordered to depart, under penalties ; — which was done. Hold- ing such a i»awn-ticket as Stettin, buttoned in our own pocket, we count now on being paid our £60,000 before parting with it. Matters turned out as Friedrich Wilhtdm had dreaded they 1 22(1 Juue, 1713 : Bucbliolz, i. 21. CMA1-. V. PKIEDKICil WILIIELM'S ONE WAR. 349 1715. uiight. Here is Charles XII. come back ; iuHexible as cold Swedish iron ; will lujt hear of any Treaty dealing with his proi)erties iu that mauuer : Is he a bankrupt, then, that you will sell his towns by auction ? Charles does not, at heart, believe that Friedric.h Wilhelm ever really paid the £00,000 ; Charles demands, for his own part, to have his own Swedish Town of Stettin restored to him ; and has not the least in- tention, or indeed ability, to pay money. Vain to answer : *' Stettin, for the present, is not a Swedish Town ; it is a Prus- sian Pawn-ticket ! " — Tliere was much negotiation, corre- spondence ; Louis XIV. and the Kaiser stepping in again to l)roduce settlement. To no })urpose. Louis, gallant old Bank- rupt, trieil hard to take Charles's part with etfeet. But he had, himself, no money now ; could only try finessing by am- bassadors, try a little menacing by them ; neither of which profited. Friedi-ich Wilhelm, wanting only peace on liis borders, after fifteen years of extraneous uproar there, has paid £00,000 in hard cash to have it : repay him that sum, with promise of peace on his borders, he will then quit Stettin ; till then not. Big words from a French Ambassador in big wig, will not suffice : " Bullying goes for nothing {Bange ma- vhen gilt nicht),'" — the thing covenanted for will need to be done ! Poor Louis the Great, whom we now call " Bankrupt- Great," died while these affairs were pending; while Charles, his ally, was arguing and battling against all the world, with oidy a grandiloquent Ambassador to help him from Louis. '^J^ai trop aime la guerre'' said Louis at his death, addressing a new small Louis (five years old), his great-grandson and suc- cessor : "I have been too fond of war; do not imitate me in that, nc m'imitez pas en celaJ' ^ Which counsel also, as we shall see, was considerably lost in air. Friedrich Wilhelm had a true personal regard for Charles XII., a man made in many respects after his own heart ; and would fain have persuaded him into softer behavior. But it was to no purpose. Charles would not listen to reasons of policy ; or believe that his estate was bankrupt, or that his 1 1st September, 1715. 350 IirS Al'PIfKNTRKSlIIl', TIKST STACK. H'm'k IV. 17 la- 172b. towns could be jmt in pawn, Danes, Saxons, Russians, pvon Geor},'o I. of Englaml (George having just bought, of the Dan- ish King, who had got hoM of it, a great Hanover bargain, iJreinen :uul VeriU'n, on elieai) terms, from tlie quasi-bankrupt estate of poor Gharles), — have to combine against liim, and see to put him down. Among whom Prussia, at h'ngth actually attacked by Charles in the Stettin regions, haa reluctantly to take the lead in that repressive movement. On the 2Sth of Aj)ril, 1715, Friedrich Wilhelm declares war against Charles; ia already' on march, with a great force, towards Stettin, to coerce and repress said Charles. No help for it, so sore as it goes against us : *' Why will the very King whom I most respect conijiel me to be his enemy ? " said Friedrich \Vilhelm.* One of Friedrich Wilhelm's originalities is his farewell Order and Instruction, to his three chief Ministers, on this occa.sion. llgen, Dohna, l*rinzen, tacit dusky figures, whom we meet in I'russian liooks, and never gain the least idea of, except as of grim, rather cunning, most reserved anti(piariau gi-ntlenun. — a kind of human iron-safes, solemnly tilled (un- der triple and <iuadruple patent-locks) with what, :das, h:ia now all grown waste-j)aper, dust and cobweb, to us : — these three reserved cunning Gentlemen are to keep a thrice-wateh- ful eye on all subordinate boards and persons, and see will that nobody nod or do amiss. Brief weekly rejMjrt to his Majesty will be expected ; staffettes, should cases of hot haste occur : any (juestions of yours are ** to be put on a sheet of paper folded down, to which I can write marginalia : " if noth- ing particular is passing, *' nit sr/ireiben, yon don't write." I'ay out no money, except what falls due by the Books ; none ; — if an extraordinary case for payment arise, consult my Wife, and she must sign her order for it. Generally in mat- ters of any moment, consult my Wife ; but her only, "except her and the Privy Councillors, no mortal is to poke into my affairs : " I say no mortal, " sonst kein Mensrh." " My Wife shall be told of all things," he says elsewhere, '' and counsel asked of her." The rugged Paterfamilias, but the human one! "And a.s I am a man," continues he, "and * (Emres de Frederic (Ilistoire de Drandthonrg), i. 132; Buchholz, L 28. CiiAr. V. •FKIEDRICII WILIIELM'.S ONE WAR. 351 1715. may be shot dead, I command you ami all to take care of Fritz (/«/• Fritz zu snrr/eit), as God shall reward you. And 1 give you all, Wife to begin with, my curse (mcinen. Fhich), that God may punish you in Time and Eternity, if you do not, after my death," — do what, O Heavens '.' — " bury me in the vault of the Schlosskirche," I'alace-Chureh at Berlin! "And you shall make no grand to-do (kein Festin) on the occasion. On your body and life, no festivals and ceremonials, except that the regiments one after the other tire a volley over me." Is rtot this an ursine man-of-gcnius, in some sort, as we once defined him? He adds suddenly, and concludes: "I am as- sured you will manage everything with all the exactness in the world ; for which I shall ever zealously, as long as I live, b? your friend."' ' Russians, Saxons affected to intend joining Fricdrich Wil- hcliu in his Ponnucru Ex]>cdition ; and of the latter there did. uudi'r a so-c^alled Field-Marshal von AVackeri)arth, of high jilumcs and titles, some four thou.sand — of whom only Colonel vOn Seekciidorf, commanding one of the horse-regiments, is remarkalile to us — come and serve. The rest, and all the Ivussians, he wjus as well pleased to have at a distance. Some sixteen thousand Danes joined him, too, with the King of Denmark at their head ; very furious, all, against the Swedish- iron Hero; but they were remarked to do almost no real ser- vice, except at sea a little against the Swedish ships. George I. also had a fleet in the Baltic ; but only " to protect English commerce." On the whole, the Siege of Stralsund, to which the Campaign i)retty soon reduced itself, was done mainl3' by Friedrich Wilhelm. He stayed two months in Stettin, get- ting all his preliminaries completed ; his good Queen, Wife ** Feekin," was with him for some time, I know not whether now or afterwards. In the end of June, he issued from Stet- tin ; tot>k the interjacent outpost places ; and then opened ground before Stralsund, where, in a few days more, the Danes joined him. It was now the middle of July : a com- bined Army of well-nigh forty thousand against Charles ; ' 26th April, 1715: Cosmars und Klaproths Staatsrath, s. 223 (in Stenzel, iii. 269) 352 HIS APPKKNTICKSIIir, FIRST STAGE: Ito-K IV. 171J-17iJ. wlio, to man bis works, musters about tlie fourtb part of tbut Stralsund, with its outor lines and inner, with its marshes, ditches, ramparts and abundant eannon to them, and leanint;, one side of it, on the deep sea, which Swedish ships command as yet, is very strong. WaHenstein, we know, once tried it with furious assault, with bondjardnjent, sn]» and storm ; swore he would have it, " though it hung by :i chain from Heaven;" but could not get it, after all his volcanic raging; and was driven away, partly by the Swedes and armed Towns- folk, chiefly by the marsh-fevers and contiimous rains. Stral- sund has been taken, since that, by Prussian sieging; as old men, from the Great Elector's time, still remend)er.* To Louis Fourteenth's menacing Amba.ssa<lor, Fricjlrich AVilhelm seems to intimate that indeed big bullying wortls will not tiike it, but that Prussian ginis and men, on a just ground, still mav. The details of this Siege of Stralsund are all on record, an<l lja<l once a certain fiune in the world ; but, except sis a dist mt echo, must not concern us here. It kisted till midwint4»r, inuler continual fierce counter-movements and desiH>nite sallies from the Sweilish Lion, standing at bay there against all the world. But Friedrich ^^'ilhelm was vigilance itself ; and he had his Anhalt-Dessiius with him, his liorcks. liuddenbrock.s, Finkenst«'ins, veteran men and <aptiiins, who had learned their art under Marllxirough and Eugene. The Lion King's fierce sallies, and desj)erate valor, could not avail. Point after point was lost for him. Kiippen, a Prussian Lieutenant- Colonel, native to the jdace, who has bathed in those waters in his youth, remembers that, by wading to the chin, you could get round the extremity of Charles's main outer line. Koppen stiites his project, gets it approved of ; — wa«les ac- cordingly, with a select party, under cloud of night (4th of November, eve of Gunpowder-day, a most cold-hot job) ; other ninked Prussian battalions awaiting intently outside, with ' Tanli, viii. 85-101 ; Buihholz, i. 31^39; Forster, ii. 34-39 ; Steuzel, iil 272-278. •^ lOth-lSth Octol)cr, 1678 (P.auli, t. 203, 20.'iJ. .RAP. V. KRlEDrvIfll WILIIELM'S ONE WAR. 353 1715. shouldered firelock, invisible in the dark; what will become of him. Kiippen wades suceesslully ; seizes the first battery of said line, — masters said line with its batteries, the outside battalions and he. Irrepressibly, with horrible uproar from without and from within ; the Hying Swedes scarcely getting up the Town drawbridge, as he chased them. That important line is lost to Charles. Next they took the Isle of Kiigen from him, which shuts up the harbor. Leopold of Anluilt-Dessau, our rugged friend, in Danish boats, wliich were but ill navigated, contrives, about a week after that Koppen feat, to effect a landing on Riigen at niglitfall ; beats off the weak Swedish i>arty ; — en- trenches, ])alisad«'S himself to the teeth, and lies down under arms. That latter was a wise jirecaution. For, about four in the morning, Charles comes in }H'rson, with eight pieces of cannon and four thousand horse and foot : Charles is struck with amazement at the palisade and ditch ('* Meiti Gott, wW) would have expected this ! " he Wiis heard murmuring) ; dashes, like a fire-flotxl, against ilitch and palisade ; tears at the pales himself, which prove impregnable to his cannon and him. He storms and rages forward, again and again, now here, now thert' ; but is met everywhere by steady deadly musketry ; and has to retire, fruitless, about daybreak, him- self wounded, and leaving his eight cannons, and four hundred slain. I'oor Charles, there had been no sleep for him that night, and little for very many nights : " on getting to horse, on the shore at Stralsund, he fainted repeatedly ; fell out of one faint into another ; but such was his rage, he always recovered himself, and got on horseback again." ^ Poor Charles : a bit of right royal Swedish-German stuff, after his kind ; and tragically ill bested now at last ! This is his exit he is now making, — still in a consistent manner. It is fifteen years now since he waded ashore at Copenhagen, and first heard the bullets whistle round him. Since which time, what a course has he run; crashing athwart all manner of ranked armies, diplomatic combinations, right onward, like a cannon-ball ; 1 Bucliliol7.. i. 3G. VOL V. 23 354 HIS APPKENTICESIIIP, FIRST STAGE. B.k.k IT. 171J-1723. tearing off many solemn wigs in those Northern parts, and scattering them upon the winds, — even as he did his own full-bottom wig, impatiently, on that first day at Copenhagen, finding it unturthersome for actual business in battle.^ In about a mouth hence, the last important hornwork is forced; Charles, himself seen fiercely figliting on the place, is swept back from his hist hornwork ; and the general storm, now altogetlicr irresistil»h', is evidently at hand. On entreaty from his folhjwers, entreaty often renewed, with tears even (it is saidj and on bendetl knees, Charles at last consents to go. Jle left no orders for surrender ; would not name the word ; " left only ambiguous vague orders." Jiut on the 19th l)eceml>er, 1715, lie does actually depart; gets on l)oard a little Ixjat, towards a Swedish frigate, which is lying alH)ve a mile out ; the whole roatl to which, Wtweeu Kugen and the main- land, is now solid ice, and has to Ik? cut as he proceeds. This slow operation, which hvsted all day, was visible, and its mean- ing well known, in the Ix'siegers' lines. The King of Den- mark saw it ; and brought a battery to bear ui)on it ; his thought had always l)eeu, that Charles should be cai)tured or killed in Stralsuntl, and not allowed to get away. Friedrich "Wilhelm was of (piite another mind, and had even used secret infiuences to that effect ; eager that Charles should escape. It is said, he remonstrated very jiassionatoly with the Danish King and this battery of his ; nay, some add, since remon- strances did not avail, and the battery still threatened to fire, Friedrich Wilhelm drew up a Prussian regiment or two at the muzzles of it, and said, You shall shoot us first, then.^ Which is a pleasant myth at least ; and S3'mbolical of what the reality was. Charles reached his frigate about nightfall, but made little way from the place, owing to defect of wind. They say, he even heard the chamade beating in Stralsund next day, and that a Danish frigate had nearly taken him ; both which state- ments are perhaps also a little mythical. Certain only that he vanished at this point into Scandinavia; and general Europe 1 Kiihler, Miinzlielustiyungen, xiv. 213. 2 Buchholz. p. 138. Chap. V. FRIEDKlCll W ILllELM'S UNE WAR. 355 1715. uever saw liini more. Vanished into a cloud of imtenablo seliemes, guided by Alberoni, Barou Giiitz and others ; wikl schemes, liuaucial, diplomatic, warlike, nothing not chimerical in them but his own unquenchable real energy ; — and found his death (by assassination, as appears) in the trenches of Frederickshall, among the Norway IJills, one winter niglit, three years hence. Assassination instigated by the Swedish Oilicial Persons, it is thought. The bullet passed through both his temples ; he had clapt his hand upon the hilt of his sword, and* was found leant against the parapet, in that attitude, — gone upon a long march now. 80 vanislied Charles Twelfth ; the distressed OtKcial Persons and Nobility exploding upon him in that rather damnable way, — anxious to slip their muzzles at any cost whatever. A man of antique character ; true as a child, simple, even bashful, and of a strength and valor rarely exampled among men. C)i)en-hearted Antique populations wt)uld have much worshipped such an Appear- ance; — Voltaire, too, for the artiticial Moderns, has made a myth of him, of another type; one of those impossible cast-iron gentlemen, heroically mad, such as they show in the I'lay houses, pleasant but not profitable, to an undisceruing Public' The last of the Swedish Kings died in this way ; anJ the unmuzzled Ofticial Persons have not made much of kinging it in his stead. Charles died ; and, as we may say, took the life of Sweden along with him ; for it has never shone among the Nations since, or been much worth mention- ing, except for its misfortunes, spasmodic impotences and unwisdoms. Stralsund instantly beat the chamade, as we heard ; and all was surrender and subjection in those regions. Surrender; not yet pacification, not while Charles lived ; nor for half a century after his death, could Mecklenburg, Holstein-Gottorp, and other his confederates, escape a sad coil of calamities bequeathed by him to them. Friedrich Wilhelm returned to Berlin, victorious from his first, which was also his last Prus- 1 See Adlerfeld (Military Histortj of Charles XII. London, 1740, 3 vols., "from the Swedish," through the French) and Kohler [Mdnzbelustigungm, ubi BUpi-a), for some authentic traits of his life and him. 356 HIS Al'PKKNTlCESlIiP, FIRST STAGE. li<'<»K IV. I7l;i-I7-2;J. sian War, in January, i'lo ; and was doubtless a happy man, 7iof " to be buried in the Si-hlosskirche (under penalty of God's curse)," but to tiiid his little Fritz and Feekin, and all the world, merry to see liim, and all things put square again, abroad as at liomc He forbade the " triumphal entry" whieh Berlin was preparing for liim ; entered jtrivately ; and ordered a thanksgiving sermon in all the churches next Sunday. The Devil in Harness: Creutz the Finance- Minister. In the King's absence nothing particular had occurred, — except indeed the walking of a dreadful Spectre, three nights over, in the corridors of the Palace at Berlin ; past the doors where our little Prince and Wilhelmina slept :^ bringing with it not airs from Heaven, we may fear, but blasts from the Other place ! The stalwart sentries shook in their paces, and became "half-<lead" from terror. ''A horrible noise, one night," says Wilhi-lmina, " when all were buried in sleep : all the world started up, thinking it was tii*e ; but they were much surprised to tind that it was a S|>ectre." Evident Spectre, seen to pass this way, "and glide along that gallery, as if towards the apartments of the Queen's Ladies." Captain of the Guard could find nothing in that gallery, or anywhere, and withdrew again: — but lo, it returns the way it went! Stalwart sentries were found melted into actual deliquium of swooning, as the I'reternatural swept by this second time. "They said. It was the IXnil in person; raised by Swedish wizards to kill the Prince-Royal.''* Poor Prince-Koyal; sleep- ing sound, we hope; little more than three years old at this time, and knowing nothing of it I — All Berlin talked of the affair. People dreaded it might be a " Spectre " of Swedish tendencies ; aiming to burn the Palace, spirit off the Royal Children, and do one knew not what ? jS^ot that at all, by any means ! The Captain of the Guard, reinforcing himself to defiance even of the Preternatural, does, on the third or fourth apparition, clutch the Spectre ; finds him to be — a prowling Scullion of the Palace, employed here 1 Wilhelmina, Mfimoires de Dtireilh, i. 18. Cum-. V. FKIEDlllCll WILHELM'S ONE WAR. 357 1715. he will not say how ; who is straightway locked in prison, and so exorcised at least. Exorcism is perfect ; but Berlin is left guessing as to the rest, — secret of it discoverable only by the Queen's Majesty and some few most interior parties. To the following effect. Spectre-Scullion, it turns out, had been employed by Grum- kow, as spy uix)u one of the Queen's Maids of Honor, — suspected by him to be a No-maid of Dishonor, and of ill intentions too, — who lodges in that part of the Palace: of whom ilerr Grumkow wishes intensely to know, "Has she an intrigue with Creutz the new Finance-Minister, or has she not?" *' Has, beyond doubt ! " the Spectre-Scullion hopes he has discovered, before exorcism. Uikdu which Grumkow, essentially illuminated as to the required particular, manages to get the Spectre-Scullion loose again, not quite hanged ; gloz- ing the matter off to his Majesty on his return : for the rest, ruins entirely the Creutz speculation ; and has the No-maid called of Honor — with whom Creutz thought to have seduced the young King also, and made the young King amenable — dismissi'd from Court in a peremptory irrefragable manner. This is the secret of the Spectre-Scullion, fully revealed by Wilhelmina many yeare after. This one short glance into the Satan's Invisible-World of the Berlin Palace, we could not but afford the reader, when an actual Goblin of it happened to be walking in our neighbor- hood. Such an Invisible- World of Satan exists in most human Houses, and in ail human Palaces; — with its imps, familiar demons, spies, go-betweens, and industrious bad-angels, con- tinually mounting and descending by their Jacob's-Ladder, or Palace Backstairs : operated upon by Conjurers of the Grum- kow-Creutz or other sorts. Tyrannous ]\[amsell Leti,^ treach- erous Mamsell Ramen, valet-surgeon Eversmann, and plenty more : readers of Wilhelmina's Book are too well acquainted ^ Leti, Governess to "Wilhelmina. bnt soon dismissed for insolent cruelty and other bad conduct, was daughter of that Gregorio Leti (" Protestant Italian Refugee," " Historiographer of Amsterdam," &c. &c.), who once had a pension in this country ; and who wrote History-Books, a Life of Cromtcell one of them, BO regardless of tlie difference between true and false. o58 HIS Al'rKKXTlCESIIIP, FIRST STA(Ji:. >'--K IV. ITl.i i;2J. with them. Nor are exi>ert Conjurors wanting; t'a[)ahle to work strange feats with so phistic an element as Fricdrich ^Vilhelm's mind. Let this one short glimpse of such tSubtor- raneiui \\'orUl be sufficient indication to the reiuler's fiuicy. Crcutz was not di-smisscd, :ls some jH'oplc hail expected ho might Ik'. Creutz et)ntinues Finance-Minister; makes a great figure in the fashionable lierlin world in these coming years, and is much Udked of in the old Books, — though, as he works mostl}' underground, ami merely does budgets and finance- matters with extreme talent and success, we shall hope to heat almost nothing more of him. Majesty, while Crown-l'rince, when he first got his regiment from Tapa, had found thig Creutz ''Auditor" in it; a jKX)r but luuulsoi^e fellow, with l)erhaps seven shillings a week to live ujion ; but with such a Uilcnt for arnuiging, for reckoning ami recording, in brief for controlling linauet', as more and more charmed the royal mind.' One of Majesty's first acts w;is to appoint hini Finance- MinisU-r ; ■■' and there he continued steaxly, not to l)e overset by little thiws of wind like this of the Spectre-Scullion's rais- ing. It is cerUiin he did, him.stdf, become rich; and helped well to make his Majesty so. We are Ui fancy him his Maj- esty's bottle-holder in that Ixittle with the Finance Nightmares and Imbroglios, when so much had to l)e subjugated, and drilled into step, in that department. Evidently a long-headed cunning fellow, much of the Cirumkow type; — standing very low in ^Vilhelmina's judgment ; and ill-seen, when not avoid able altogether, by the Queen's Majesty. " The man was a poor Country Bailiff's {AifUtufinH's, kind of Tax-manager's) son: from Auditor of a regiment," Papa's own regiment, "he had risen to Im? Director of Finance, and a Minister of State. His soul was as low as his birth; it was an assemblage of all ' M.^nvillon ("Elder Mauvillon," Anonymous), IJistoire de Frediric Guil- liiHiiiP /..par M. do M {Aiustcrdam et Lei|)zig, 1741), i. 47. A vague flimsy compilation ; — giv{>s abundant " State-l'aper3 " (to such as want them), and echoes of old Newspaper rumor. Very copious on Creutz. 2 4th May, 1713 : Trcuss, i. 349 n. Chap. VI. THE LITTLE DKUMMEK. 359 1715. the vices," ^ says Wilhcluiina, iu the language of exaggeration. — Let him stand by his budgets j keep well out ot Wilhel- niina's and the Queen's way; — and very especially bewai-e of coining oil Gruiukow's Held again. ClLVrXEU VI. TIIK LITTLE DRUMMEK. TiiLS Siege of Stralsund, tlio last military scene of Charles XIL, and the ///>7 ever practically heard of by our little Fritz, whu is now getting into his fourth year, and must have thought a great deal about it iu his little head, — Papa and even Mamma V)eing absent on it, and such a marching and rumoring going on all round him, — proved to be otherwise of some importance to little Fritz. Most of his Tutors were picked up by the careful Papa in this Stralsinid business. I)uhan de Jandun, a young French gentleman, family-tutor to General Count Dohna (a cousin of our Minister Dohna's), but fonder of fighting than of teaching grammar; whom Friedrich Wilhelm found doing soldier's work in the trenches, and liked the ways of ; he, as the foundation- stone of tutorage, is to be first mentioned. And then Count Fink von Finkenstein, a distinguished veteran, high in com- mand (of whose qualities as Head-Tutor, or occasional travel- ling guardian Friedrich Wilhelm had experience in his own young days ^) ; and Lieutenant-Colonel Kalkstein, a prisoner- of-war from the Swedish side, whom Friedrich Wilhelm, judg- ing well of him, adopts into his owti service with this view : these three come all from Stralsund Siege ; and were of vital moment to our little Fritz in the subsequent time. Colonel 1 Wilhelmina, i. 16. 2 Biographisches Lexikon aller Helden und Militairpersonen, welche sich in Preussischen Diensten beriiniht fjpinacht haben (4 vols. Berlin, 1788), i. 418, § Finkeustein. — A praiseworthy, modest, highly correct Book, of its kind ; which we shall, in future, call MUUair-Lexikon, when referring to it. 300 HIS APPRENTICESHIP, FIRST STAGE. B-.ok IV. Seckendorf, again, who had a funuuaiid in ihc lour thDUsand Saxons hero, and refreshed into intimacy a transient ohl ac- quaintance with Friedrich Wilhelm, — is not he too of terrible importance to Fritz and him ? As we shall see in time ! — For the rest, here is another little incident. We said it had been a disappointment to I'apa that his little Fritz showed almost no ajipi-tite for soldiering, but found other sights more interesting to him than the drill-ground. iSymj)athize, then, with the earnest Papa, as he returns home one afternoon, — date not given, but to all appearance of that year 171."», when there was such war-rumoring, antl marching towards Stral- sund ; — ami found the little Fritz, with Wilhclmina looking over him, strutting about, and assiduously beating a little drum. The paternal lieart ran over with glad fondness, invoking Heaven to coutirm the omen. Mtjtlier was told of it ; the jihenomcnon w;is tiilked of, — U-autifulest, ho^Mdulest of little drummers. Painter I'esne, a French Immigrant, or Importec, of the last reign, a man of great skill with his brush, whom History yet th;uiks on several occasions, was sent for; or he heard of the incident, and volunteered his services. A Portrait of little Fritz drumming, with Wilhelmina looking on ; to which, probably for the sake of color and j»ictorial effect, a Blackamoor, a.side with para.sol in liaml, griiniing approbation, h;is been added, — was skrt«-hed, and dexten^usly worked out in oil, by Painter Pesue. Picture approved by mankind there and then. And it still hangs on the wall, in a ]>erfect state, in Charlottenburg Palace ; where the judicious tourist may see it without difficulty, and institute reflections on it. A really graceful little Picture ; and certainly, to Prussian men, not without weight of meaning. Nor perhaps to Picture- Collectors and Cognoscenti generally, of whatever country, — if they could forget, for a moment, the correggiosity of Corrog- gio, and the learned babble of the Sale-room and varnishing Auctioneer ; and think, " Why it is, probably, that Pictures exist in this world, and to what end the divine art of Painting was bestowed, by the earnest gods, upon poor mankind ? " I CiiAi'. VI. THE LITTLE DRUMMEK. 3G1 1715. could advise it, once, for a little ! Flaying oi" Saint l>artliolo- mew, Rape of Europa, Rape of the Sabines, Piping and Amours of goat-footed l*an, Romulus suckled by the Wolf : all this, and much else of fabulous, distant, unimportant, not to say impossible, ugly and unworthy, shall pass without undue severity of criticism, in a Household of such opulence as ours, where mucli goes to waste, and where things are not on an earnest footing for this long while past ! As Created Objects, or as Phantasms of such, pictorially done, all this shall have much worth, or shall have little. But I say. Here withal is one not phantasmal ; of indisputable certainty, home-grown, just commencing business, who carried it far ! Fritz is still, if not in '< long-clothes," at least in longish and flowing clothes, of the petticoat sort, which look as of dark-blue velvet, very simple, pretty and approj)riate ; in a cap of the same ; has a short raven's featlier in the cap ; and looks uj), with a face and eyes full of beautiful vivacity and child's enthusiasm, one of the beautifulest little figures, while the little drum responds to his bits of drumsticks, lister Wilhelmina, taller by some three years, looks on in pretty inarching attitude, and with a graver smile. Blacka- moor, and accompaniments elegant enough ; and finally the figure of a grenadier, on guard, seen far off through an open- ing, — make up the background. We have engravings of this Picture ; which are of clumsy ]joor quality, and misrepresent it much : an excellent Copy in oil, what might be called almost a fac-simile and the per- fection of a Copy, is now (1854) in Lord Ashburton's Col- lection here in England. In the Berlin Galleries, — which are made up, like other Galleries, of goat-footed Pan, Europa's Bull, Romulus's She- Wolf, and the correggiosity of Correggio ; and contain, for instance, no Portrait of Frederick the Great ; no Likenesses at all, or next to none at all, of the noble scries of Human Realities, or of any part of them, who have sprung not from the idle brains of dreaming Dilettanti, but from the Head of God Almight}-, to make this poor authentic Earth a little memorable for us, and to do a little work that may be eternal there: — in those expensive Halls of 362 HIS APPliENTlCESlII!'. FIlifeT STAGE. B..mk |v. "High Art" at IJciliii, there were, to my experience, few Pictures more agreeable than this of Pesne's. Welcome, like one tiny islet of Reality amid the shoreless sea of I'hantasms, to the reflective mind, seriously loving and seeking what is worthy and memorable, seriously hating and avoiding what is the reverse, and intent not to play the dilettante in tliis world. The same Pesne, an excellent Artist, has painted Fried- rich as Prince-Koyal : a beautiful young man with 7no/,s7-look- ing enthusiastic eyes of extraordinary brilliancy, snuwth oval face ; considerably resembling his Mother, After which period, authentic Pictures of Friedrich ai'C sought for to lit- tie purpt>se. For it seems he never sat to any Painter, in his reigning days ; and the Prussian Chodowiccki,' Saxon Graff, English Cunningham had to pick up his physiognomy from the distance, intermittently, as they could. Nor is Uauch's grand equestrian Sculpture a thing to Ije believed, or perhaps pretending much to be so. The commonly received Portrait of Friedrich, which all German limners can draw at once, — the cocked-hat, big eyes and alert air, reminding you of some uncommonly brisk Invalid Drill-sergeant or Green- wich Pensioner, as much as of a Koyai Hero, — is nothing but a general extract and average of all the faces of Friedrich, such as has been tacitly agreed upon ; and is dehnable as a received pictorial-myth, by no means as a fact, or credible re- semblance of life. But enough now of Pictures. This of the Little Drummer, the painting and the thing painted which remain to us, may be taken as Friedrich's first api)earance on the stage of the world ; and welcomed accordingly. It is one of the very few visualities or definite certainties we can lay hold of, in those young years of his, and bring conclusively home to our imagi- nation, out of the waste Prussian dust-clouds of uninstructive garrulity which pretend to record them for us. Whether it came into existence as a shadowy emanation from the Stral- sund Expedition, can only be matter of conjecture. To judge 1 Pronounce Kodor-tfftsk-i ; — and endeavor to make some acquaintance with this " Prussian Hogarth," who has real worth and originality. Cii.u-. VI. THE LITTLE DRUMMER. 303 ITlo. by size, these figures must have been painted about the year 1715 ; Fritz some three or four years old, his sister Wilhelmina seven. It remains only to be intimated, that Friedrich Wilhelm, for his part, had got all he claimed from this Expedition : namely, Stettin with the dependent Towns, and quietness in I'ommern. Stettin was, from of old, the capital of his own part of Pommeru ; thi-owu in along with the other parts of Pommeru, and given to Sweden (from sheer necessity, it was avowed), at the Peace of Westphalia, sixty years ago or more : — and now, by good chance, it has come back. ^Vait another hundred years, and perliaps Swedish Pommern alto- getlier will come back ! But from all this Friedrich Wilhelm is still far. Stettin and quiet are all he dreams of demanding there. Stralsund he did not reckon his ; left it with the Danes, to hold in pawn till some general Treaty. Nor was there farther outbreak of war in those regions ; though actual Treaty of Peace did not come till 1720, and make matters sure. It was the new Queen of Sweden, Ulrique Eleonora (Charles's younger Sister, wedded to the young Landgraf of Hessen-Cassel), — much aided by an English Envoy, — who made this Peace with Friedrich Wilhelm. A young English Envoy, called Lord Carteret, was very helpful in this matter; one of his first feats in the diplomatic world. For which Peace,^ Friedrich Wilhelm was so thankful, good pacific armed-man, that happening to have a Daughter born to him just about that time, he gave the little creature her Swedish Majesty's name ; a new " Ulrique," who grew to proper stature, and became notable in Sweden, herself, by and by.'* ' Stockholm, 21st Januan,-, 1720: in Mam-iUon (i. 380-417) the Document itself at large. '^ Louisa Ulrique, born 24th July, 1 720 ; Queen of Sweden in time coming. 364 HIS AI'I'UENTICKSIIIP, KIKSr STA(;i:. I5<'-'K IV. CHAl'TKIi \II. TKANSIT OK < ZAK I'ETRIt. Iv the Autumn of 1717. l\tcr the Groat, coinintj home from his cek'briited French journey, paid Friedrich Wilhelm a visit; and passed four days at lierlin. Of wliich let us give one ^'limpse, if we can witli brevity. Friedrich Wilhehn and the Czar, like in .several points, though so dissimilar in others, hiul always a certain regard for one another; and at this time, they had beiMi brought into closer intercourse by tlicir common jwril from Charles X 11., ever since that Stralsund business. The p«'ril was real, esjjecially with a Giirtz and Alljt'roni putting hand to it ; and the alarm, the rumor, and uncertiiinty were great in those years. The wounded Lion driven indignant into his lair, with Plotting Artists now ojHjrating \i\hm the rage of the noble animal : who knows what sjiring he will next take ? George I. had a Ih'et cruising in tlie lialtic Sound.s, and again a licet; — paying, in that obli«pie way, for Bremen and Verden ; which were got, otherwise, such a bargain to his Hanover. Czar Peter hid marched an Army into Denmark ; united Kussians and Danes count fifty thousand there ; for a conjunct invasion, and jtrobalde destruction, of Sweden : but that came to nothing ; Chai'les looking across upon it too dangerously, "visible in clear weather over from the Dani.sh side." ' So Peter's troops have gone home again ; Denmark too glad to get them away. Perhaps they would have stayed in Denmark altogether; much liking the green pastures and convenient situation, — had not Admiral Norris with his can- non been there ! Perhaps ? And the Pretender is coming again, they say ? And who knows what is coming ? — How Giirtz, iu about a year hence was laid hold of, and let go, and * 1716 : Fas^traann, p. 171. OiiAi-. VI i. TKANSIT OF CZAK rETEli. 365 1717. tluMi uUiiuately tiird and beheaded (^uiiee liis lion oSFaster was disposed of) ; * how, Ambassador CeUamare, and the Spanish part of the Plot, having been discovered in Paris, Cardinal Albcroni at Madrid was discovered, and the whole mystery laid bare ; all that mad business, of bringing the Pretender into England, throwing out George I., throwing out the Kegent d'Orleans, and much more, — is now sunk silent enough, not worthy of reawakening ; but it was then a most louil matter ; tilling the European Courts, and especially that of lierlin, with rumors and apprehensions. No wonder Fried- rich Wilhelm was grateful for that Swedish Peace of his, anil named his little daughter *' Ulrique " in lionor of it. Tumultuous cloud-world of Lapland Witchcraft had ceased hereby, and daylight hiul lK>gun : old women (or old Cardinals) riding through the sky, on broomsticks, to meet Satan, where now are tliey ? The fact still dimly perceptible is, Europe, thanks to that pair of Black-Artists, Giirtz and Alberoni, not to mention Law the Finance-Wizard and his French incanta- tions, had been kept generally, for these three or four years past, in the state of a Haunted House; riotous Goblins, of unknown dire intent, walking now in this apartment of it, now in that ; no rest anywhere for the perturbed inhabi- tants. As to Friedrich Wilhelm, his plan in 1717, as all along, in this bewitched state of matters, was : To fortify his Frontier Towns ; ^Memel, "W'esel, to the right and left, especially to fortify Stettin, his new acquisition ; — and to put his Army, and his Treasury (or Avmy-Chest), more and more in order. In that way we shall better meet whatever goblins there may be, thinks Friedrich Wilhelm. Count Lottuui, hero of the Prussians at Malplaquet, is doing his scientilic uttermost in Stettin and those Frontier Towns. For the rest, his ilajesty, invited by the Czar and France, has been found willing to * make paction with them, as he is with all pacific neighbors. In fact, the Czar and he had their private Conference, at Havelberg, last year, — Havelberg, some sixty miles from 1 19th March, 1719: see Kiihler (Mditzhchistignngpn, \\. 233-240, xvii. 297- 304) for many curious details of GiJrtz aud his eud. 3G6 HIS AIM'UKNTICESHII', FIRST STAGE. B«x'k IV. 171.i-172;j. Bt'ilin, on the road towards Deiiuiark, as Peter was jKissiug tliat way ; — ample Couference of five days ; * — privately agreeing there, about many points conducive to tranquillity. And it was on that same errand, though ostensibly to look after Art and the higher forms of Civilization so called, that Tt'ttT luul l>een to France on this celebrated occiision of 1717. We know he saw much Art withal ; saw Marly, Trianon and the grandeurs and polit«*nesses j — saw, among other things, *' a Medal of himself fall accidentally at his feet ; " polite Medal "just getting struck in the Mint, with a rising sun on it, and the motto, vikes acquiiut ki'Ndo."' Ostensibly it wiis to see cette belle France; but privately withal the Czar wished to make his bargain, with the Regent d'( )rleans, as to these goblins walking in the Northern and Southern parts, and what was to be done with them. And Ihe result has been, the Czar, Friedrich Wilhelm and the said Kegent liave just concluded an Agreement ; • undertaking in general, that the goblins shall be well watched ; that they Three will stand by one another in watching them. And now the Czar will visit lierlin in passing homewards again. That is the posi- tion of affairs, when ho pays this visit. Peter had been in Berlin more than once before ; but almost always in a suc- cinct rapid condition; never with his ** Court" about him till now. This is his last, and by far his greatest, appearance iu Berlin. Such a transit, of the Barbaric semi-fabulous Sovereignties, could not but Ix^ wonderful to everybody there. It evidently struck Wilhelmina's fancy, now in her ninth year, very much. What her little Brother did in it, or thought of it, I nowhere find hinted; conclude only that it would remain in his head too. visible occasionally to the end of his life. Wilhelmina's Narrative, very loose, dateless or misdated, plainly wrong in 1 23<l-28th November, 1716 : Fa.'ssmaiin, p. 172. ' Volt.iire, (Eurrfs CojnpJites (Ilixtnire du C:nr Pifrre), xxxi. 3.16. — Koh- ler in ^fwlzbfh^s^igungcn, xvii. 38&-392 (thi3 very M»ial the subject), givet authentic account, day by day, of the Czar's >Tsit there. ' 4th August, 1717 : Bucbholz, i. i3. Chai . VII. TKAN.SIT OF CZAR PETER. 367 1717. v;uious particulars, has still its value for us: iium;in ojes, even a child's, are worth something, in comparison to human want-of-eyes, which is too frequent in History-books and else- where ! — Czar Peter is now forty -five, his Czarina Catherine about thirty-one. It was in 1698 that he first passed this way, going towards Saardam and practical Shii>-building : within which twenty years what a spell of work done ! Vic- tory of Pultawa is eight years behind him ; ^ victories in many kinds are behind him : by this time he is to be reckoned a triuyiphant Czar ; and is certainly the strangest mixture of heroic virtue and brutish Samoeidic savagery the world at any time had. ^ It was Sunday, 19th September, 1717, wlien the Czar arrived in Berlin. Being already sated with scenic parades, he had begged to be spared all ceremony ; begged to be lodged in ^lonbijou, the Queen's little Garden-Palace with river and trees round it, where he hoped to be quietest. Munbijuu hiiH been set apart accordingly ; the Queen, not in the benign- est humor, sweeping all her crystals and brittle things away ; knowing the manners of the Muscovites. Nor in the way of ceremony was there much : King and Queen drove out to meet him ; rampart-guns gave three big salvos, as the Czar- ish Majesty stept forth. *' I aju glad to see you, my Brother Friedrich,*' said Peter, in German, his only intelligible lan- guage ; shaking hands with the Brother Majesty, in a cordial human manner. The Queen he, still more cordially, " would have kissed;" but this she evaded, in some graceful effec- tive way. As to the Czarina, — who, for obstetric and other reasons, of no moment to us, had stayed in Wesel all the time he was in France, — she followed him now at two days' distance; not along with him, as Wilhebnina has it. AVilhelmina says, she kissed the Queen's hand, and again and again kissed it ; begged to present her Ladies, — " about four hundred so-called Ladies, who were of her Suite." — Surely not so many as four hundred, you too witty Prin- cess ? "Mere German serving-maids for the most part," says the witty Princess; -'Ladies when there is occasion, then 1 27th June, 1709. 3G8 HIS ArpKh.MMCKsim', first stack, ij-^-k iv. i:i.,-i72.j. acting as chambermaids, cooks, washerwomt'U, when that is over." Queen Sophie was averse to sahite these creatures ; but the Czarina Catherine m;ikin^' reprisals uyton our Margravines, and the King h)oking painfully earnest in it, she prevailed upon herself. Was there ever seen such a travelling tiigrag- gery of a Sovereign Court before ? " Several of these crea- tures [jjns'pie fniifrs, says the exaggerative rrineess] had, in their arms, a baby in rich dress ; and if you asked, ' Is tluit yours, then?' they answered, making sahuims in Ilussian style, 'The Czar diil me the honor (vCn fnit rhnnneur </« me fa I re cet enfant) ! ' " — Which statement, if we deduet the due 2o per cent, is prolv ably not mythic, after all. A day or two ago, tiie Czar had been at M:igd<'burg, on his way hither, intent upon inspecting matters there; and tin* OtHcial Ci«'ntl«'mfn, — I'resid'-nt Coc- ceji (afterwanls a very celebnite*! man) at the head of tlu'ni, — waited (m tlie Czar, to do what was needful. On entering, with the propt'r Address or complimentary Harangue, they found his Czarish Majesty "standing l)etween two Russian Ladies," clearly Ladies of the al)ove sort; for they stood close by him, one of his arms was round the neck of each, and his hands amused them.selves by taking lil^rties in that posture, all the time Corceji spoke. Nay, even this wius as nothing among the Magdeburg phenomena. Next day, for instance, there appeared in the audience-chamlH-r a certain Serene high-pacing Duke of Micklenburg, with his Duchess ; — thrice-unfortunate Duke, of whom we shall too oftf*n heai again; who, after some adventures, upder Charles XIL first of all, and then under the enemies of Charles, ha<l, about a year ago, after divorcing his first "Wife, married a Niece of Peter's : — Duke and Duchess arrive now, by order or gra- cious invitation of their Sovereign Uncle, to accompany him in those parts ; and are announced to an eager Czar, giving audience to his select ^lagdeburg jmblic. At sight of whieh most desirable Dxichess and Brother's Daughter, how Peter started up, satj'r-like, clasping her in his arms, and snatehing her into an inner room, with the door left ajar, and there — • Chai. Vll. TRANSIT OF CZAR PETER. 369 1717. It is too Samoeidic for human sjieech ! and wouM excel belief, were not the testimony so strong.* A Duke of Mecklenburg, it would appear, who may count himself the No7i-jjI its-ultra of husbands in that epoch ; — as among Sovereign Ilulers, too, in a small or great way, he seeks his fellow for ill-luck ! * Duke and Duchess accompanied the Czar to Berlin, where Wilhelmina mentions them, as presentees ; part of those " four hundred " anomalies. They took the Czar home with them to ]\Iecklenburg : where indeed some Eussian Kegiments of 'his, left here on their return from Denmark, had been very useful in coercing the rebellious Kitterschaft (Kntf/htuf/e, t)r Landed-Crentry) of this Duke, — till at length the general outcry, and voice of the Reich itself, had ordered the said Regiments to get on march again, and take themselves away.^ For all is rebellion, passive rebellion, in Mecklenburg; taxes being so indispensable ; and the Knights so disinclined ; and this Duke a Sovereign, — such as we may construe from his (juarrelling with almost everybody, and his 7iot quarrelling with an Uncle I'eter of that kind.^ His troubles as Sover- eign Duke, his flights to Dantzig, oustings, returns, law- pleadings and foolish confusions, lasted all his life, thirty years to come ; and were bequeathed as a sorrowful legacy to Posterity and ths neighboring Countries. Voltaire says, the Czar wished to buy his Duchy from him.* And truly, for this wretched Duke, it would have been good to sell it at an\- j)rice : but there were other words than his to such a bargain, had it ever been seriously meditated. By this ex- traordiuaiy Duchess he becomes Father (real or putative) of a certain Princess, whom we may hear of ; and through her again is Grandfather of an unfortunate Russian Prince, much bruited about, as " the murdered Iwan," in subsequent times. 1 Pollnitzf.l/ewo/ren, ii. 9^) gives Friedrich Wilhelm as voncher, "who used to relate it as from eye-and-ear witnesses." 2 The Inst of them, " July, 1717 ; " two months ago. (Michaelis, ii. 418.) 8 One poor hint, on hi.^ behalf, let us not omit : " WiYe quitted him in 1719, and lived at Moscow afterwards ! " (General Mannstein, Memoirs of Russia, Loudon, 1770, p. 27 n.) * Ul)i supra, xxxi. 414. VOL. V. S'^O HIS API'KENTICESIIIP, FIRST STAUE. «<>ok IV. 171:i-l723. A\ ith such a Duke and Duchess let our aequaintauce be the mininiuvi of wliat necessity compels. Wilhchnina goes by hearsay hitherto ; and, it is to be hoped, had lu'ard nothing of these Magdeburg-Mecklenburg phenom- ena ; but after the Czarina's arrival, the little creature saw with her own eyes : — "Next day," that is, AVednesday, L'2d, "the Czar and his Hpouse came to return the Queen's visit ; and I saw the Court myself." I'alace Cirand-Ajtartments; Qu»'en advancing a due length, even to the outer guard-room ; giving the Czarina her right hand, and leading her into her audience-chamber in that distinguished manner: King and Czar followed close; — and here it w;us that Wilhelmina's p<'rsonal experiences began. " The Czar at once recognized \\u\ liaving seen >me before, live years ago [.March, 171.'{J. He caught me in his arms; fell to kissing me, like to flay the skin off my f;u'e. I boxed his ears, sprawled, and struggled with all my strength ; saying I would not allow such familiarities, ami that he wa.8 dishonor- ing me. lit' laughed greatly at this idea; made jieace, and talki'd a long time with me. I had got my lesson : I sjnjke of his fli'et and his conquests; — which charmed him so much, that he said more than »»nce to the Czarina, * If he could have a child like me, he wouUl willingly give one of his I'rovinces in exchange.' The Czarina also caressed me a good deal. The Queen [Mamma] and she placed themselves under the dais, each in an arm-chair " of proper dignity ; " I was at the Queen's side, and the Princesses of the Blood," Margra- vines above spoken of, "were opposite to her," — all in a standing ])ostiire, as is proper. " The Czarina was a little stumpy body, very brown, and had neither air nor grace : you needed only look at her, to guess her low extraction." It is no secret, she had been a kitchen-wench in her Lithuanian native country ; afterwards a female of the kind called unfortunate, under several ligures : however, she saved the Czar once, by her ready-wit and cour- age, from a devouring Turkish Difficulty, and he made her fortunate and a Czarina, to sit under the dais as now. " "With ohai-. vh. transit of czar peter. 371 1717. her Imcldlo of clothes, she looked for all the world like a Ger- man Play-aetress ; lier dress, you would have said, had been bou;;ht at a second-hand shop ; all was out of fashion, all was loaded with silver and greasy dirt. The front of her bodice she hatl ornamented with jewels in a very singular pattern : A double-eagle in embroidery, and the plumes of it set with poor little diamonds, of the smallest possible carat, and very ill mounted. All along the facing of her gown were Orders and little things of metal ; a dozen Orders, and as many Tor- traits of saints, of relics and the like ; so that when she walked, it was with a jingling, as if you heard a mule with l>ells to its harness." — Toor little Czarina; shifty nutbrown fellow-creature, strangely chased about from the bottom to the top of this world ; it is evident she does not succeed at Queen Sophie Dorothee's Court! — " The Czar, on the otlier hand, was very tall, and might bo c;illeil handsome," contimies Wilhelmina: '"his count'.'uance was beautiful, but had something of savage in it which put you in fear." Tartly a kind of Milton's-Devil physiognomy? The Portraits give it rather so. Archangel not quite ruined, yet in sadly ruinous condition; its heroism so bemired. — with a turn for strong drink, too, at times ! A physiognomy to make one reflect. " I lis dress was of sailor fashion, coat alto- gether plain." " The Czirina, who spoke German very ill herself, and did not understand well what the Queen said, beckoned to her Fool to come near," — a poor female creatui-e, who had once been a Princess Galitzin, but having got into mischief, had been excused to the Czar by her high relations as mad, and saved from death or Siberia, into her present strange harbor of refuge. "With her the Czarina talked in unknown Paiss, evi- dently " laughing much and loud," till Supper was announced. "At table," continues Wilhelmina, "the Czar placed himself beside the Q\ieen. It is understood this Prince was attempted with poison in his youth, and that something of it had settled on his nerves ever after. One thing is certain, there took him very often a sort of convulsion, like Tic or St.-Vitus, which it was beyond his power to control. That happened at 372 HIS APPKnNTICESHIP, FIRST STAGE. H^k I>. 171.I-172J. table now. He got into contortions, gesticulations ; and as the knife w;us in his hand, and went dancing about within arm's-length of the Queen, it frightened her, and she motioned several times to rise. The Czar bogged Ikt not to mind, for he would do her no ill ; at the same time he took her by the hand, which he gra-spod with such violence that the Qucon was forced to shrink out. This set him heartily laughing; saying she h;ul not lK)ncs of so hard a texture as his Cathe- rine's. SupjH'r done, a grand Hall had l)een got rea<ly ; but the Czar escaped at once, and walked home by himself to Monbijou, leaving the others to dance." Wilhelmina's story of the Cabinet of Antifpies ; of the In- decent little Statue there, and of the orders Catherine got to kiss it, with a " A'«y>/ <ih (Head off, if you won't)!" from the bantering Czar, wliom she had to olx\v, — is not incredible, aftt-r what we have seen. It seems, he begged this bit of Antique Indecency from Friedrich Wilhelm ; who, we may fancy, would give him such an article with especial readiness. That same day, fourth of the Visit, Thursday, 2;3d of the month, the august Party went its ways again; Friedrich Wil- helm convoying "as far as Totsdam;" Czar and Suite taking that route towards Mecklenburg, where he still intends some little pause In'fore prweeding homeward. Friedrich Wilhelm took farewell; and never saw the Czar again. It was on this Journey, lx\st part of which is now done, that the famous Order bore, " Do it for six thou.sand thalers ; won't allow you one other i)enny {nit elnen Pfennig gebe mehr dazu) ; but give out to the world that it costs me thirty or forty thousand I "' Nay, it is on record that the sum proved abundant, and even superabundant, near half of it l>eing left as overplus.* The hospitalities of IJerlin, Friedrich Wilhelm took upon himself, and he has done them as we see. You shall defray his Czarish Majesty, to the last Prussian mile- stone ; punctually, properly, though with thrift ! Peter's viatimm, the Antique Indecency, Friedrich Wil- helm did not grudge to part with ; glad to purchase the Czar's » Forster. i. 215. Thai-. VII. TRANSIT OF CZAR PETER. 373 17i7. good-will by coin of that kind. Last year, at Havelberg, he had given the Czar an entire Cabinet of Amber Articles, belonging to his late Father. Amber Cabinet, in the lumj); and likewise such a Yacht, for shape, splendor and outfit, as probably Holland never launched before; — Yacht also belong- ing to his late Father, and without value to Friedrich Wilholni. The old King had got it built in Holland, regardless of cx- jH'Use, — £l~),()Oi), they say, perhaps as good as foO.OOO now ; — and it lay at Potsdam : good for what ? Friedrich Wilhelni sent it down the Havel, down the Elbe, silk sailors and all, towards Hamburg and Petersburg, with a great deal of plea- sure. For the Czar, and peace and good-will with the Czar, was of essential value to him. Neither, at any rate, is the Czar a man to take gifts without return. Tall fellows for soldiers : that is always one prime object with Friedrich Wilhelm ; for already these Potsdam (Juards of his are getting ever more gigantic. Not less an object, though less an ideal or poetic one (as we once defined), was this other, to find buyers for the Manuftictures, new and old, which he was so bent on encour- aging. "* It is astonishing, what {piantities of cloth, of hard- ware, salt, and all kinds of manufactured articles the Russians buy from us," say the old Books ; — " see how our ' Russian Company ' flourishes ! " In both these objects, not to speak of i>eace and good-will in general, the Czar is our man. Thus, this very Autumn, there arrive, astonished and as- tonishing, no fewer than a hundred and fifty human figures (one half inore than were promised), probably from seven to eight feet high ; the tallest the Czar could riddle out from his Dominions : what a windfall to the Potsdam Guard and its Colonel-King! And all succeeding Autumns the like, so long as Friedrich Wilhelm lived ; every Autumn, out of Russia a hundred of the tallest mortals living. Invaluable, — to a "man of genius" mounted on his hobby! One's ''stanza" can be polished at this rate. In return for these Russian sons of Anak, Friedrich Wil- helm grudged not to send German smiths, millwrights, drill- sergeants, cannoneers, engineers ; having plenty of them. By whom, as Peter well calculated, the inert opaque Russian mass 374 HIS AI'riiKNTirESIIir. FIKST STAr.K. R<>"K_TV. 1 1 1 -J- 172^1. uu'^ht be kiiidlfd into luminosity and vitality ; and drilled to know tho Alt of War, for one thing. Whicli followed accord- ingly. And it is observable, ever since, that the Russian Art of War has a tincture of German in it (solid German, as contradistinguished from unsolid Kevolutionary-French) ; and hints to us of Friedrich Wilhtdm and th.' ( Ud Dessauer, to this hour. — Errant now the Barbaric semi-fabulous Sover- eignties, till want»'d again. en \i'ii:i: \iii. TUK rUOWN'-rKINCR IS PUT TO 1118 SCHOOLIXO. In his scvfiitii year, young Frifdrich was lakfii out of the hands of the womrn ; and lia*! Tutors and Sul>-Tutors of m:useuline gender, who had In-en nominated for him some time ago, ai'tually set to work \\\hm\ their function. These we have already heard of; they came from Stralsund Siege, all the jirincipal hands. Duhan <le .Faiidun, the young Freneh gentleman who had escaiM'd from grammar-le.s.sons to the trenches, he is the prac- tical teacher. Li«'utenant-(ieneral (»raf Fink von Finkenstein and Tiieut«'nant-('(don»d von Kalkstcin, they are Head Tutor {^(H»rhnfm»iiitrr) and Sul)-Tutor ; military men both, who had been in many wars lK>sides Stralsund. By these three he was assiduously educated, subordinate schoolmasters work- ing under them when needful, in such branches as the pater- nal judgment would atlmit ; the paternal object and theirs being to infuse useful knowledge, reject useless, and wind up the whole into a military finish. These appointments, made at different precise dates, took effect, all of them, in the year 171«>. Duhan, independently of his experience in the trenches, ap- pears to have Ix'en an accomplished, ingenious and conscien- tious man ; who did credit to Friedrich Wilhelm's judgment; and to whom Friedrich professed himself much indebted in Chap. VIII. CROWX-PKINCE PUT TO HIS SCHOOLTXG. 375 171'J. after life. Their progress in some of the technical branches, as we shall perceive, was indisputably unsatisfactory. But the niiiul of the Boy seems to have been opened by this Duhan, to a lively^ and in some sort genial, perception of things "round him; — of the strange confusedly opulent Universe he had got into ; and of the noble and supreme function which Intclligi'nce ludds there; supreme in Art as in Nature, beyond all otln'r functions whatsoever. Duhan w;is now turned of thirty: a cheerful amiable Frenchman; poor, though of good birth and acquirements ; originally from Ciiampagne. Fried- rich loved him very much ; always considered him his spiritual father ; and to tin* end of I^uhan's life, twenty years hence, w;i5 eager to do liim any good in liis power. Anxious always to repair, for {Kjor Duhan, the gn-at sorrows he came to on his acc(»unt, as w(? shall see. Of (Jraf Fink von Finkenstein, who lias hail military ex- jxriences of all kinds ami all degrees, from marching as ])risoner into France, "wounded and without his hat," to lighting at Malphiquet, at Blenheim, even at Steenkirk, as well as Stralsund : who is now in his sixtieth year, and seems to have b.-en a gentleman of rather high solemn manners, and indeed of undeniable perfections. — of this suju-eme Count Fink we learn almost nothing farther in the Books, except that his little Pupil did not dislike him either. The little Pupil took not unkindly to Fink; welcoming any benignant human ray. across these lofty gravities of the Olterhofnu'istrr ; went often to his house in Berlin ; and made acquaintance with two young Finks about his own age, whom he found there, and who became important to him, especially the younger of them, in the course of the future.* This Pupil, it may be said, is creditably known for his attachment to his Teachers and others ; an attached and attaching little Boy. Of Kalkstein, a rational, experienced and earnest kind of man, though as yet but* young, it is certain also that the little Fritz loved him; and furthermore that the Great Friedrich was grateful to him, and had a high esteem of his 1 Zeillitz-NeukirL-h, Preuss/scAes J^rfe/s-Z€rife?n(Lpipzig, I83CJ, ii. 168. Milir tair-Lexikon, i. 420. 37G HIS Al'l'KENTICKSIIIP, P^IKST STAGE. n-...K TV. i7ia-i7L*;t. integrity a.iul sense. "My master, Kalkstein," used to be his designation of him, when tlie name chanced to be mentioned in after times. They continued together, with various pas- sages of mutual history, for forty years afterwards, till Kalk- stein's death. Kalkstein is at present twenty-eight, the youngest of the three Tutors ; then, and ever after, an alto- gether downright correct solilier and man. lie is of I'reussen, or Prussia Proper, this Kalkstein; — of the same kindred as that mutinous Kalkstein, whom we once heard of, who was "rolled in a carpet," and kidnapped out of Warsaw, in the Great Elector's time. Not a direct descendant of that be- liea<led Kulkstein's but, as it were, his nrpJuw so many times removed. Preussen is now far enoiigh from mutiny ; suli.lued, with all it^ Kalksteins, intti a respectful silence, not lightly using the right even of petition, or submissive- remonstrance, which it may still have. Nor, except on the score of jJurlitTr mentixry eloquence and newspaper copyright, does it appear that Preussen luus suffered by the change. I low these Fink-Kalkstein functionaries proceeded in the great t;isk they J:ad got, — very great task, had they kncnvn what I'upil luul fallen to them. — is not directly recorded for us, with any sequence t)r distinctness. We infer only that everything went by inflexilile routine ; not asking at all, n7««/ pupil? — nor much. Whether it would suit any pupil ? Indian, with the tendencies we liave seen in him, who is will- ing to soften the inflexible when i>ossible, and to "guide Nature" by a rather loose rein, was probably a genial element in the otherwise strict affair. Fritz had one unspeakable a<lvantage, rare among princes and even among peasants in these ruined ages : that of not being taught, or in general not, by the kind called " Hypocrites, and even Sincere-Hypocrites," — fatalest species of the class Hyporrite. We j)erceive he was lessoned, all along, not by enchanted Phantasms of that dan- gerous sort, breathing mendacity of mind, unconsciously, out of every look ; but by real Men, who believed from the heart outwards, and were daily doing what they taught. To which unspeakable advantage we add a second, likewise considerable : Chap. VIII. CROWNM^RINCE PUT TO HIS SCHOOLING. 377 171'J. Thit h's masters, though rigorous, were not unlovable to him-, — that his affections, at least, were kept alive ; that what- ever of seed (or of chaff and hail, as was likelier) fell on his mind, had sunshine to help in dealing with it. These are two advantages still achievable, though with difficulty, in our epoch, by an earnest father in behalf of his poor little son. And these are, at present, nearly all ; with these well achieved, the earnest father and his son ought to be thankful. Ala.s, in matter of education, there are no high-roads at present ; or there are such only as do not lead to the goal. Fritz, like the rest of us, liad to struggle his way, Nature and Didactic Art differing very much from one another; and to do battle, inces- sant partial battle, with his schoolmasters for any education he had. A very rough Document, giving Friedrich Wilhelm's regu- lations on this subject, from his own hand, has come down to us. Most dull, embroiled, heavy Document ; intricate, gnarled, and, in fine, rough and stiff as natural bull-headed- ness helped by Prussian pipe-clay can make it; — contains some excellent hints, too ; and will show us something of Fritzchen and of Friedrich AVilhelm both at once. That is to say, always, if it can be read ! If by aid of abridging, eluci- dating and arranging, we can get the reader engaged to peruse it patiently ; — which seems doubtful. The points insisted on, in a ponderous but straggling confused manner, by his didactic Majesty, are chiefly these : — 1°. " Must impress my Son with a proper love and fear of God, as the foundation and sole pillar of our temporal and eternal welfare. No false religions, or sects of Atheist, Arian (Arrian), Socinian, or whatever name the poisonous things have, which can so easily corrupt a young mind, are to be even named in his hearing : on the other hand, a proper ab- horrence {Ahscheu) of Papistry, and insight into its baseless- ness and nonsensicality {Ungmnd und Absurdifdt), is to be communicated to him : " — Papistry, which is false enough, like the others, but impossible to be ignored like them ; men- tion that, and give him due abhorrence for it. For we are 378 Ills APPHKNTICESIIIP, FIRST RTAOE. B.xik IV. I7i;j-i72;j. Protestant to the bone in this country ; and cannot stand Absurdltiit, least of all hypocritically religious ditto ! But the grand thin^' will be, "To impress on him the true religion, whicli consists essentially in this, That Christ died for all men," and generally that the Almighty's justice is eternal and omnipresent, — " which ronsideration is the only means of keeping a sovereign jterson [son rent iiie Miw/it), or one freed from human penalties, in the right way." 2°. '•ill' is to learn no Latin;" oljserve that, however it may surprise you. What ha.s a living CJerman man and King, of tlie eighteenth Cliristian S^tru/utn, to do with dead old Heathen Latins, Romans, and the lingo t/iii/ siK)ke their fnuj- tion of sense and non.sense in ? Frightful, how the young years of the European (Jenerations have been wasted, for ten centuries back; ;ind tin* Thinkers of the world have iM-eomc mere walking Sa<ks of Marine-stores, *' (Jciehrtcn, Learned," as they call themselves ; and gone lost to the world, in that manner, as a set of confiscated I'edants ; — babbling about said Heathens, and //</*<> extinct lingo and fraction of sense and nonsense, for the thou.sand years last past! Heathen Latins, Romans ; — who jjerhaps were no great things of Hea- then, after all, if well seen into? I have heard judges say, tliey were /;;ferior, in real worth ami grist, to German home- growths we have liad. if the confiscated Peilants eould have discerned it ! At any rate, they are deatl, buried deep, these two thousand years; well out of our way; — and nonsense enough of our own left, to keep sweeping into corners. Si- lence about their lingo and them, to this new Crown-Prinf^e ! " Let the Prince learn French and German," so sls to write and speak, "with brevity and projjriety," in these two lan- guages, which may W useful to him in life. That will suffice for languages, — jtrovided he have anything effectually rational to say in them. For the rest, 3". "Let him learn Arithmetic, Mathematics, Artillery, — Economy to the very bottom." And, in short, useful knowl- edge generally ; useless ditto not at all. " History in particu- lar ; — Ancient History only slightly (nt/r iif/erhin) ; — but the History of the last hundred and fiftv Years to the exactest Cha.-. Mil. CKOWN-PKINCE PUT TU IILS .SCllOULING. 379 171'J. pitch. The Jiis Naturule and Jus Gentium,'^ by way of haud- lamj) to History, " he must be completely master of ; as also of Geography, whatever is remarkable in each Country. And iu Histories, most especially the History of the house of Brandenburg ; where he will find domestic examples, which are always of more force than foreign. And along with I'russian History, chiefly that of the Countries which have been connected with it, as England, Brunswick, Hessen and the others. And in reading of wise History-books there must be consiilerations made {su//en bet/tn Lesen kluger IllstorUiruirt JJi-tnirhtuiii/rii (ji-inacht wenUn) Upon the causes of the events." — Surely, () King! 4°. " With increasing years, you will more and more, to a most especial degree, go upon Fortification," — mark you ! — " the Fornuition of a Camp, and the other Wai'-Sciences ; that the Prince may, from youth upwards, be trained to act as Othcer and General, and to seek all his glory in the soldier ])rofession." This is whither it must all tend. You, Finken- stein and Kalkstein, *• have both of you, in the highest meor sure, to make it your care to infuse into my Son [elnzupriir/en, stamp into him] a true love for the Soldier business, and to impri'ss on him that, as there is nothing in the world which can bring a I'riuce renown and honor like the sword, so he would be a despised creature before all men, if he did not love it, and seek his sole glory (die einzige Gloria) therein." ^ "Which is an extreme statement of the case ; showing how much we have it at heart. These are the chief Friedrich-Wilhelm traits ; the rest of the document corresponds in general to what the late Majesty had written for Friedrich ^^'ilhelm himself on the like occa- sion.-' Ruthless contempt of Useless Knowledge ; and passion- ate insighf into the distinction between Useful and Useless, especially into the worth of Soldiering as a royal accomplish- ment, are the chief peculiarities here. In which latter point too Friedrich Wilhelm, himself the most pacific of men, unless 1 Preuss, i. 11-14 (of date 13th August, 1718). 2 Stenzel, iii. 572. 380 iii.s APPiiENTicEsiiii', FiKsr .^lAta: it....K iv. J7ia-I723. you pulled the whiskers of him, or broke into his goods uiul chattels, knew very well wh;it he was meaning, — much better than we of the " Teace Society " and '* Philanthropic .Move- ment " could imagine at first sight ! It is a thing he, for his part, is very decided upon. Already, a year before this time,* there luul been instituted, for express behoof of little Fritz, a miniature Soldier Com- pany, above a hundred strong; which grew afterwards to be near three hundred, and indecfd rose to be a i)ermaiu'nt Insti- tution by degrees; called Komjii/f/nie iler Ki'onprinrtUcJwn Ka- dcttim (Company of Crown-l'rince Cadets). A hun(h-ed and ten boys about his own age, sons of noble families, luid been selected from the three Military Schools then extant, as a kind of tiny regiment for him ; where, if he wfts by no means commander all at once, he might learn his exercise in fellow- ship with others. Czar Peter, it is likely, took a glance of this tiny regiment just getting into rank and file there; which would remind the Czar of his own young days. An expe- rienced Lieutenant-Colonel was appointed to command iu chief. A cerUiin handy luul correct young fellow, lleiitsel by name, about seventeen, who already knew his fugling to a hair's-breadth, was Drill-master; antl exercised them all, Fritz especially, with ilue strictness ; till, in the course of timt3 and of attainments, Fritz could himself take the head charge. "Which he did duly, in a year or two : a little soldier thence- forth ; properly strict, though of small dimensions ; in tight blue bit of coat and cocked-hat: — miniature image of Papa (it is fondly hoi)ed aihl expected), re.semhling him as a six- pence does a half-crown. In 1721 the assiduous Papa set up a <' little arsenal " for him, " in the Orange Hall of the Pal- ace : " there let him, with perhaps a chosen comrade or two, mount batteries, fire exceedingly small brass ordnance, — his Engineer-Teacher, one Major von Senning, limping about (on cork leg), and superintending if needful. Rentzel, it is known, proved an excellent Drill-sergeant ; — had good talents every way, and was a man of probity and sense. He played beautifully on the flute too, and had a ^ 1st September, 1717 : I'reuss, i. 13. CiiA.-. VIII. UKOWN-l'KINCE I'UT TU HIS SCHOOLING. 381 17-21. flicerful couversible turn ; which naturally recomuu'nded liiiu still farther to Fritz ; and awoke or encouraged, among other I'at'ulties, tlie musical faculty in tlu; little Boy. Rentzel con- tinued about him, or in sight of him, through life ; advancing gradually, not too fast, according to real merit and service (Colonel in 1759) ; and never did discredit to the choice Fried- rich Wilhelm had mad'j of him. Of Senning, too, Engineer- Major von .Senning, who gave Fritz his lessons in Mathemat- ics, Fortilication and the kindred branches, the like, or bettar, can be said. He was of graver years; had lost a leg in the Marlborough C im])aigus, poor gcMitleman ; but had abundant sense, native worth and cheery rational tallc, in him : so that he too could never be parted with by Friedrich, but was kept on hand to the last, a permanent and variously serviceable acquisition. Thus, at least, is the military education of our Crown- Prince eared for. And we are to fancy the little fellow, from his tenth year or earlier, going alxjut in miniature soldier figure, for most part ; in strict Spartan-Urandenburg costume, of boily as of mind. Costume little flattering to his own pri- vate taste for finery ; yet by no means unwholesome to him, as he came afterwards to know. In October, 1723, it is on record, when George I. came to visit his Son-in-law and Daughter at Berlin, his Britaiinic Majesty, looking out from his new quarters on the morrow, saw Fritzchen " drilling his Cadet Company;" a very pretty little phenomenon. Drilling with clear voice, military sharpness, and the precision of eloek-work on the Esplanade (^Lustgarten) there ; — and doubt- less the Britannic Majesty gave some grunt of acquiescence, perhaps even a smile, rare on that square heavy-laden counte- nance of his. That is the record : * and truly it forms for us by far the liveliest little picture we have got, from those dull old years of European History. Years already sunk, or sink- ing, into lonesome unpeopled Dusk for all men; and fast verging towards vacant Oblivion and eternal Xight ; — which (if some few articles were once saved out of them) is their just and inevitable portion from afflicted human nature. 1 Forster, i. 215. 3»2 HIS AI'PUENTIUE.SIIII', FIRST STA(;K. I'-'K IV. 171u-1723. Of riding-masters, fencing-nuvsters, s\viiuinin--iii i ums ; iiiiich less of d;iuciug-inii.stt'rs, music-iuasteis (cilebrated Cirimn, " ou the organ," with I'salni-tunes), we cannot speak ; but tlie reader may be satislied tliey were all there, good of their kiud, and pushing on at a fair rate. Nor is there huk any- where of paternal sujjervision to our young Apprentice. From an eiu'ly ;ige, I'apa took the Crown- Prince with liiui on his annual Reviews. From utmost Memel on the Kussian border, down to Wesel on the Frent h. all Prussia, in every nook of it, g;irrison, marching-ri'giment, boiird of manngemcnt, is rigor- ously reviewed by Majesty ono' a ycjir. There travels little militiiry Fritz, beside the milit;iry Majesty, amid the generals and otheial persons, in their hardy SparUm manner; and learns to look into everything like a lih;ulaman thine Argus, and how the eye of the miuster, mon> tlian all other aj)i>liances, fattens tlie (rattle. C)n his hunts, too, I'apa ttnik him. For I'apa was a famous hunter, when at WusUrhausen iit the se^usim : — hot lieagle- ch;ise, hot St;ig-hiuit, your chief g;ime doer ; Jiuge '• Force- Hunt " (/*(//yb/i7'-/(/7«/, the woods all iK'at^-n, and your wild beasts driven intcj straits an<l caudine-forks for you); Boar- hunting (Sauftttze, "sow-lxiiting," as the Germans call it), ^artridg^^-shooting, Fox- and Wolf-hunting; — on all grand ex- peditions of such sort, little Fritz shall ride with Papa and party. Rough furious riding; now on swiit steed, now at places on Wui'sticugm, — ]\uistifugen, "Sausage-Car" so called, most Spartan of vehicles, a mere sfu(f'eil pole or "sau- sage " with wheels to it, on which you sit ;ustride, a dozen or so of you, and career ; — regardless of tlie summer heat and sandy dust, of the winter's frost-storms and muddy rain. All this the little Crown-Prince is bound to do ; — but likes it less and less, some of us are sorry to observe ! lu fact he could not take to hunting at all, or find the least of permanent satis- faction in shooting partridges and baiting sows, — " with such an expenditiire of industry and such damage to the seediields," he would sometimes allege in extenuation. In later years he has been known to retire into some glade of the thickets, and hold a little Flute-IIautbois Concert with his musical com- Ohax-. VIII. CKOWN-PKINCE PUT TO HIS iSCTlUULlXG. 383 1721. railes, wliile the sows were getting baited. Or he would con- verse with Mamma and her Ladies, if her Majesty chanced to be there, in a day for open driving. Whieh things by no means increased his favor with Papa, a sworn hater of " effemi- nate practices.'' He was " nourished on beer-soup," as we said before. Frugality, activity, exactitude were lessons daily and hourly brought home to him, in everything lie did and saw. His very slee}) was stingily meted out to him : " Too much sleep st\ii)eiies a fellow ! " Friedrich NV'ilhelm was wont to say ; — 80 that the very doctors had to interfere, in this matter, for little Fritz. Frugal enough, hardy enough ; urged in every way to look with indifference on hardship, and take a Spartan view of life. Money-allowance completely his own, he does not seem to have had till he was seventeen. Exiguous pocket-money, counted in yroschen (English jitnre, or hardly more), only his Kalkstein and Finkenstein could grant as they saw good; — about eighteenpenee in the month, to start with, as would appear. The other small incidental moneys, necessary for his use, were likewise all laid out under sanction of his Tutors, and aiteurately entered in Day-books by them, audited by Friedrich Wilhelm ; of which some si)ecimens remain, and one whole month, September, 1719 (the Boy's eighth year), has been jiublished. Very singular to centemplate, in these days of gold-nuggets and irrational man-mountains fattened by mankind at such a price ! The monthly amount appears to have been some £3 10s. : — and has gone, all but the eigh- teenpenee of sovereign pocket-money, for small furnishings and very minute necessary luxuries ; — as thus : — *' To putting his Highness's shoes on the last ; " for stretch- ing them to the little feet, — and only one " last," as we per- ceive. " To twelve yards of Hairtape," — Haarband, for our little queue, which becomes visible here. ''For drink-money to the Postilions." '•' For the Housemaids at Wusterhausen," Don't I pay them myself ? objects the auditing Papa, at that latter kind of items : Xo more of that. " For mending the flute, four groschen [or pence] ; " " Two Boxes of Colors, six- 384 HIS APPRENTICESIIII', FIRST STAGE. B<h.k IV. teen ditto ; " " For a live snii>e, twopence ; *' " For grinding the hanger [little swordkin] ; " '• To a Boy whom the dog bit ; " and chiefly of all, " To the Kllnf/bcuttl,'' — Collection-plate, or bag, at Church, — which comes upun us once, nay twice, and eveii thrice a week, eighteenpeuce each time, and eats deep into our straitened means.* On such terms can a little Fritz Ix' nourished into a Fried- rich the Great; while irrational man-mountains, of the beav- erish or beaverish-vulpine sort, take such a price to fatten them into monstrosity ! The Art-manufacture of your Fried- ricli can come very dieap, it would appear, if once Nature have done her part in regard to him, and there be mere honest will on the part of the by-stiinders. Thus Samuel Johnson, too, cost next to nothing in the way of board and entertainment in this world. And a Robert Burns, remarkable" modern Thor, a l*easant-god of tliese sunk ages, witli a touch of melodious mines in him (since all else lay under ban for the poor fellow), was raised on frugal oatmeal, at an exi)ense of perhaps half a crown a week. Nuggets and ducats ;ue divine; but they are not the most divine. I often wish the Devil had the lion's share of them, — at once, and not circuitously as now. It would be an unspeakable advantage to the bewildered sons of Adam, in this epoch ! lint with regard to our little Crown-Prince's intellectual culture, there is another Document, specially from Papa's hand, which, if we can redact, a<ljust and abridge it, as in the former case, may be worth the reader's notice, and elu- cidate some things for him. It is of date, AVusterhausen, 3d September, 1721 ; little Fritz now in his tenth year, and out there, with his Duhans and Finkensteins, while Papa is rusticating for a few weeks. The essential title is, or might be : — 1 Preuss, i. 17, CiiAi'. VUl. CKOWN-PKINCE PUT TO HIS SCHOOLING. 385 1. 1 ^1< 7'« Head-Governor von Finkenatehi, Sub-Governor von Kalk- steia, Freceptor Jacques Egkle Duhan de Jandun, and others whom it nuiij concern : lieyulations for schooling, at Wuster- haxisen, '3d September, ITlil ; ' — iu greatly abridged form. Sundai/. '* On Sunday he is to rise at 7 ; and as soon as he has got liis slippers on, shall kneel down at his bedside, and pray to God, so as all in the room may hear it [that there be no decej^tion or short measure palmed upon us], in these words : * Lord Gotl, blessed Father, 1 thank tliec from my heart that thou hast so graciously preserved me through this night. Fit me for what thy holy will is; and grant that I do nothing this day, nor all the days of my life, which can divide me from thee. For the Lord Jesus my lledeemer's sake. Amen.' After which the Lord's Prayer. Then rapidly and vigorously (fjeschwinde und hurtig) wash himself clean, dress and powder and comb himself [we forget to say, that while they are combing and queuing him, he breakfasts, with brevity, on tea] : Prayer, with washing, breakfast and the rest, to be done pointedly \\'ithin lifteeu minutes [that is, at a quarter past 7]. *• This linished, all his Domestics and Duhan shall come in, and do family worship {das grosse Gebet zu haltcn) : Prayer on their knees, Duhan withal to read a Chapter of the Bible, and sing some proper Psalm or Hymn [as practised in well- regulated families]: — It will then be a quarter to 8. All the Domestics then withdraw again ; and Duhan now reads with my Son the Gospel of the Sunday ; expounds it a little, adducing the main points of Christianity ; — questioning from Noltenius's Catechism [which Fritz knoAvs by heart]: — it will then be 9 o'clock. "At 9 he brings my Son down to me; who goes to Church, and dines, along with rae [dinner at the stroke of Xoon] : the rest of the day is then his own [Fritz's and Duhan 's]. At half-past 9 in the evening, he shall come and bid me good- night. Shall then directly go to his room ; very rapidly (sehr 1 Preus.s, i. 19. VOL. V. 25 386 HIS APPKENTICE8H1P, FIRST STAGE. b<>"K iv. 17U-17'2a. gescJnvintl) get ot? his clothes, wiisli his hands [get into some tiny dressing-gown or cussa'juin, no doubt] , and so soon as that is done, Dalian makes a i>rayer on his knees, and sings a hymn; all the Servants being again there. Instantly alter ■which, my Son shall get into bed; shall l>e /// bed at hall-past If) ; ** — and fall asleep how soon, your ^Majesty ? This is very striet work. Monday. *' On Monday, as on all week-days, he is to be called at 6; and so soou as chilled he is to rise; you are to stand to him {(inhalten) that he do not loiter or turn in bed, but briskly and at once get up ; and s;iy his prayers, the same as on Sunday morning This done, he shall as rapidly as possible get on his slux'S an<l spat terdius lies ; also Wiush his fiU't! and hands, but ncit with soap. Farther shall put on his nissii'iHin [short dressing-gown], have hi.s. h.iir combed out and (jueueil, but not j»owdered. While getting combed and queued, he sliall at the .same time take breakfast of tea, • so that both joKs go on at once ; and all this shall In? ended K'fore half-j>:ist (»." Then enter Duhan and the lK)mestic.8, with worshi}*, Hible, Hymn, all aa on Sunday ; this is done by 7, and the Serv.mts go agaiiu "From 7 till '.) Duhan takes him on History; at 1> comes Xoltenius [a sublime Clerical Gentleman from I»»'rhn] with the Christian Religion, till a quarter to 11. Then Fritz rapidly (tjesrhwhul) washes lib face with water, hands with soap-and- water ; clean shirt ; powilers, and i)Uts ou his coat ; — about 11 comes to the King. Stays with the King till 2," — perhaps j)romenailing a little*, dining always at Noon; after which Majesty is apt to be slumberous, and light amusements are over. "Directly at 2, he goes back to his room. Duhan is there, ready ; takes him upon the Maps and Gef)grai)hy, from 2 to 3, — giving account [gradually!] of all the European King- doms ; their strength and weakness ; size, riches and poverty of their towns. From 3 to 4, Duhan treats of Morality (soil (lie Moral tractiren). From 4 to 5, Duhan shall write German Letters with him, and see that he gets a good sti/lutn [which he never iu the least did]. About 5, Fritz shall wash his (HA.-, vitl. CUOWN-IMilNCE PUT TO HIS SCHOOLING. 387 1721. liaiids, and go to the King; — ride out; divert himself, in the air and not in his room ; and do what he likes, if it is not against God." There, then, is a Sunday, and there is one Week-day ; which latter may serve for all the other iive : — tliough tliey are strictly specilicd in the royal monograph, and every hour of them marked out: How, and at what points of time, besides this of Jlistonj, of Monditijf and ]Vritiiif/ in German, of Maps and Geofjnqjhij with the strength and weakness of Kingdoms, you are to take u[» AritJunftic more tlian once; Wrlt'uifj uf French Letters, so as to acquire a good stylum : in what nook you may intercalate " a little getting by heart of something, in order to strengthen the memory;" how instead of Molte- niuK, Tanzendorf (another sublime Keverend Gentleman from lierlin, who comes out expi'css) gives the clerical di-ill on Tuesday morning; — with which two onslaughts, of an hour- aud-half eai-li, the Clerical Geutk>men seem to withdraw for the week, and we hear no more of them till Monday and Tuesday come round again. On Wednesday we are happy to observe a lilx-ral slice of holiday come iu. At half-jiast 9, having done his History, and " got something by heart to strengthen the memory [very little, it is to be feared], Fritz shall rapidly dress himself, and come to the King. And the rest of the day belongs to little Fritz {gehiirt vor Fritzchen)." On Saturday, too, there is some fair chance of half-holiday : — " Saturday, forenoon till half-past 10, come History, Writ- ing and Ciphering; especially repetition of what was done through the week, and in Morality as well [adds the rapid Majesty], to see whether he has profited. And General Graf von Fmkenstein, with Colonel von Kalkstein, shall be present during this. If Fritz has profited, the afternoon shall be his own. If he has not profited, he shall, from 2 to 6, repeat and learn rightly what he has forgotten on the past days." And so the laboring week winds itself up. Here, however, is one general rule which cannot be too much impressed upon you, with which we conclude : — 388 HTs Ari'HENTiri:sim», Fiusr srvGh:. h....k iv. ITlt-lT-i.-J. '•In undressing and dressing, you must arcustom liiin to get out of, and into, his clothes as fast as is humanly possible (hurt if/ so viel uls vieiischenmiiijl ich ist). You will also look that he harn to put on and i)ut off his clothes himself, witli- out help from others; and that he be dean and neat, and not so dirty {nUht so sehinutzi'j)^ "Not so dirty," that is my last word j and here is my sign-manual, "Fkieuuicu Wiluelm." ' CHAITKR IX. WUSTERHAUSKN. WusTERHAusEX, where for the present these operations go on, lies about twenty English miles southea-st of Berlin, as you go towards 8chlesien (Silesia) ; — on the old Silesian road, in a Hat moory country made of peat and sand ; — and is not (listinguislied for its beauty at all among royal Hunting- lodges. The Giihrde at Hanover, for example, what a splen- dor there in comparison I lUit it serves Friedrich Wilhelm's simple purposes: there is game abundant in the scraggy wood- lands, otter-pools, fish-pouls, and miry thickets, of that old " Schenkenland '' (Ixdonged all once to the ** Sihcnken Fam- ily,'' till old King Friedrich bought it for his Prince) ; retinue sulKcicnt tind nooks for lodgment in the poor old Schloss 80 called ; and Noltenius and I'anzendorf drive out each once a week, in some light vehicle, to drill Fritz in his religious exercises. One Zollner, a Tourist to Silesia, confesses himself rather pleased to find even Wusterhausen in such a country of sandy bent-grass, lean cattle, and flat desolate languor. " Getting to the top of the ridge " (most insignificant " ridge," made by hand, Wilhelmina satirically says), Tourist Zollner can discern with pleasure *' a considerable Brook," — visible, not audible, smooth Stream, or chain of meres and lakelets, flowing languidly northward towards Kopenik. 1 Preuss, i. 21. CiiAi'. IX. WUSTElillAUSEN. 389 171.1-1723. Inaudible big Brook ov Stream ; which, we perceive, drains a slightly hollowed Tract ; too shallow to be called valley, — of several miles in width, of several yards in depth ; — Tract with wood here and there on it, and signs of grass and cul- ture, welcome after what you have passed. On the foreground close to you is the Hamlet of Konigs-Wusterhausen, with tol- e'-able Lime-tree Avenue leading to it, and the air of some- thing sylvan from your Hill-top. Konigs-Wusterhausen was once J['t'H<//.sA-Westerhausen, and not far off is Deufsch-Wus- terhansen, famed, I suppose, by faction-tights in the Vandalio times : both of them are now A'/z/y's-Wusterhausen (since the King came thither), to distinguish them from other Wuster- hausens that there are. Descending, advancing through your Lime-tree Avenue, you come upon the backs of oftice-houses, out-houses, stables or the like, — on your left hand I have guessed, — extending along the Highway. And in the middle of these you come at last to a kind of Gate or vaulted passage (Art von Thor, says Ziillner), where, if you have liberty, you face to the left, and enter. Here, once through into the free light again, you are in a Court : four-square space, not without prospect ; right side and left side are lodgings for his Majesty's gentlemen ; behind you, well in their view, are stables and kitchens : in the centre of the place is a Fountain "with hewn steps and iron railings ; " where his simple Majesty has been known to sit and smoke, on summer evenings. The fourth side of your square, again, is a palisade ; beyond which, over bridge and moat and intervening apparatus, you perceive, on its trim ter- races, the respectable oUl Schloss itself. A rectangular mass, not of vast proportions, with tower in the centre of it (tower for screw-stair, the general roadway of the House) ; and look- ing though weather-lieaten yet weather-tight, and as dignified as it can. This is Wusterhausen ; Friedricli "Wilhelm's Hunt- ing-seat from of old. A dreadfully crowded place, says Wilhelmina, where you are stuffed into garrets, and have not room to turn. The ter- races are of some magnitude, trimmed all round with a row of little clipped trees, one big lime-tree at each corner; — under 390 HIS Al'l'UENTICESIIll', VUi^V STAOK. Ii<-K IV. 1713-172^1. one of these big lime-trees, aided by an awning, it is his Maj- esty's delight to spread his frugal but subst;uitial dinner, four- and-twenty covers, at the stroke of IL*, and so dine sub dio. If rain eonie on, says W'ilhelnuuji, you are wet to mid-leg, the ground being hollow in that phvee, — and indt-tjd in all weath- ers your situation every way, to a vehement young Princess's idea, is rather of the horrible sort. After dinner, his Majesty sleejKS, stretched i>erhaj»s on some wooden settle or gardi'ii- chair, for about an hour ; regardless of the tiaming heat, under liis awning or not ; and we poor I'rincesses have to wait, pray- ing all the Saints that they would resuscitate him soon. This is alx>ut 1' r.M. ; iiappier Fritz is gout- to his lessons, in the interim. These four Terrarrs, this rectiingular Schloss with the four big linch'us at tlu* cormTs, are surrounded ty a Moat ; bhuk al)ominable ditch, Willu'lmina calls it ; of the hue of Tarta- rean Styx, and of a far worse smell, in fact enough to choke one, in hot days after dinn»'r, thinks the vehement Princess. Three liridgcs cross this Moat or ditch, from the middle of three several Terraces or sides of the Schloss ; and on the fourth it is impassable, bridge lirst, coming from the jiali- sade and ( Jfticc-house Court, luis not only human sentries walk- ing at it ; but two white Eagles perch near it, and two black ditto, synd)ols of the heraldic Trnssian I'lagle, screeching alxjut in their littery way ; item two black iJears, ugly as Sin, which are vicious wretches with;d, and many times do passengers a mischief. As j)erhai)8 we shall see, on some occasion. This is r.ridge first, leading to the Court and to the outer Highway ; a King's gentleman, going to bed at night, has always to pass these Beai'S. Bridge second leads us southward to a common !Mill which is near by ; its clacking audible upon the common Stream of the region, and not unpleasant to his Majesty, among its meadows fringed with alders, in a country of mere and moor. Bridge third, directly opposite to Bridge first and its Bears, leatls you to the Garden ; whither Mamma, playing tocadille all day with her women, will not, or will not often enough, let us poor girls go.* 1 Ziilluer, Brieje iil^er Scldesien ( Berlin, 1792>, i. 2, 3 ; Wilhelmiiia, i. 364, 365, Chap. IX. WUSTEKHAUSEN. 3Ul mcoss, iSuch is Wusterhausen, as delineated by a vehement Vv some years hence, — who becomes at last intelligible, by study and the aid of our Silesiau Tourist. It is not distin<'uislic(l among Country Palaces : but the figure of Friedrich Wilhclm asleep there alter dinner, regardless of the flaming sun (should he sleep too long and the shadow of his Linden quit him), — this is a sight wliich no other Palace in the world can match ; this will long render Wusterhausen memorable to me. His Majesty, early always as the swallows, hunts, 1 should sup- pose, "in the morning ; dines and sleeps, we may perceive, till towai'ds tliree, or later. His Olticial business he will not neg- lect, nor shirk the hours due to it ; towards sunset there may be a walk or ride with Fritz, or Feekin and the wouuinkind : and always, in the evening, his Majesty hulds Tahufjlc, 2\ihuhs- Culleyium (Smoking College, kind of Tobacco-Parhament, as we might name it), an Institution punctually attended to by his Majt'sty, of which we shall by and by speak more. At Wusterhausen his Majesty hokh> his Smoking Session mostly in the open air, oftenest "on the steps of the Great Fountain " (how arranged, as to seating and canvas-screening, I cannot say); — snutkes there, with his Grumkows, Derschaus, Anhalt- Dessaus, and select Friends, in various slow talk ; till Xight kindle her mild starlights, shake down her dark curtains over all Countries, and admonish weary mortals that it is now bed- time. Not much of the Picturesque in this autumnal life of our little Boy. But he has employments in abundance ; and these make the permitted open air, under any terms, a delight. He can rove about with Duhan among the gorse and heath, and their wild summer tenantry winged and Avingless. In the woodlands are wild swine, in the meres are fishes, otters ; the drowsy Hamlets, scattered round, awaken in an interested manner at the sound of our pony-hoofs and dogs. Mitten- walde, where are shops, is within riding distance ; we could even stretch to Kopenik, and visit in the big Schloss there, if Duhan were willing, and the cattle fresh. From some church-steeple or sand-knoll, it is to be hoped, some blue 392 HIS APPRKNTICESIIII', FIUST STAUK. U'-.k iv. i7i.i-i7i;i. streak of the Lausitz Hills may bo visible : the Sun and the Moon and the Heavenly Hosts, these full eirtaiuly are visible ; and on an Earth whieh everywhere produces mira- cles of all kinds, from the daisy or heather-bell up to the man, one place is nearly equal to another for a brisk little Boy. Fine Palaces, if AVusterhausen be a sorry one, are not wanting' to our youn;^' Friend : whatsoever it is in the power of architecture and upholstery to do for liim, may be con- sidered withal as done. ^Vusterhausen is but a Hunting- lodge for some few Autumn weeks : the Berlin Palace and the I'otsdiun, grand buildings both, few Palaces in the world suri)ass them ; and there, in one or the other of these, is our usual residence. — Little Fritz, besides hi.s young Finken- steins and others of the like, h.is Cousins, children of his (Jrandfather's Half-brothers, who are comrades of his. For the (Jreat Elector, as wr saw, was twice wedded, and had a second set of sons and daughters : two of the sons had children; certain of these are about the Crown-Prince's own age, "Cousins" of his (strictly s^K^akiug, Half-cousins of his F<ithrrs), who are much al>out him in liis young days, — and more or less afterwards, according to the worth they proved to have. Margraves and Margravines of Schwedt, — there are five or six of suclx young Cousins. Not to mention the eldest, Friedrich Wilhelm by name, who is now come to manhood (born 1700); — who wished much in after years to have had AVilhelmiua to wife ; but had to put up with a younger I'rincess of the House, and ought to have been thankful. This one has a younger Brother, Heinrich, slightly Fritz's senior, and much his comrade at one time ; of whom we shall transiently hear again. Of these two the Old Dessauer is Uncle : if both his Majesty and the Crown-Prince should die, one of these would be king. A circumstance which "Wilhel- mina and the Queen have laid well to heart, and build many wild suspicions upon, in these years ! As that the Old Dessauer, with his gunpowder face, has a plot one day to assassinate his ^lajesty, — plot evident as sunlight to Wilhel- mina and Mamma, which providentially came to nothing ; — t HAP. i\. WUSTEKliAUSEX. 393 i.ia-i72a. and other spectral notions of theirs.^ The Father of these two Margraves (elder of the two Hali'-brothers that have children) died in the time of Old King Friedrieh, eight or nine years ago. Their ^Mother, the scheming old Margravine, "\vhom 1 always fancy to dress in high colors, is still living, — as Wilhelmina well knows ! ' Then, by another, the younger of those old Half-brothers, there is a Karl, a second Friedrieh Wilhelm, Cousin Mar- graves : plenty of Cousins ; — and two young Margravines among them,'' the youngest about Fritz's own age.^ No want of Cousins ; the Crown-Prince seeing much of them all ; and learning pleasantly their various qualities, which were good in most, in some not so good, and did not turn out supreme in any case. l>ut, for the rest, Sister Wilhelmina is his grand con- federate and companion ; true in sport and in earnest, in joy and in sorrow. Their truthful love to one another, now and till death, is probably the brightest element their life yielded to either of them. "What might be the date of Fritz's first appearance in the RoucouUes " Soiree held on Weilnesdays," in the Finkenstein or any other Soiree, as an independent figure, I do not know. 1 Wilhelmina, i. 35, 41. 2 Michaelis, i. 425. 8 X'lte of'llic Cousin Mari/rai'm. — Great Elector, bv his Seeoud Wife, liad five Sons, two of whom left Cliililreu ; — as follows (so far as they concera us, — the otliers oinltled) : — l^\ Sou P/iilii>'s CiiMreu (.Mother the Old Dessauer's Sister) are: Fried- rich Willielm (1700), who wished much, hut iu vaiu, to marry Willielmiua. Ileiurich Friedrieh (1709), a comrade of Fritz's iu youth; sometimes gcttiug into scrapes; — misbehaved, some way. at the Battle of Molwiiz (fii-st of Friedrich's Battles), 1741, ami wa.-* inexorably cul by the new King, and coutLimed under a cloud theuceforth. — This Phtli/j (" Pldlijj Wilhelm") died 1711, his forty -third year ; Widow long survived him. 2". Son Albert's Children (Mother a Courland Princess) are: Karl (1705); lived near Ciistrin ; became a famed captain, in the Silesian Wars, under his Cousin. Friedrieh (1701 ) ; fell at Molwitz, 1741. Friedrieh Wilhelm (a Mar- graf Friedrieh Wilhelm " No. 2," — namesake of his now Majesty, it is like) ; boru 1714; killed at Frag, by a cannon-shot (at King Friedrich's hand, reconnoitring the place), 1744. — This Albert ("Albert Friedrieh") died Buddeuly 1731, age fifty-nine. 304 Hl.S APrUEXTICESIlIl', FIRST STACK. lt<><'K IV. I7i;i-i72;j. ]?ut at tlie proper tiiiu*, he does appear tliere, and with distiuctiou not extrinsic alone; — talks delightt'nlly in sucli ])laces ; can discuss, even with French Divines, in a charm- ingly ingenious manner. Another of his elderly consorts I must mention : Colonel Camas, a liighly cultivated Frenchman (French altogether by paivutage ami breeding, though born on I'russian land), who was Tutor, at one time, to some of those young Margraves. He has lost an arm, — left it in those Italian Camjiaigns, under Anhalt-Dessau and Eugene; — but by the aid of a cork substitute, dexterously managed, almost hides the want. A gallant soldier, tit for the diplonuicies too; a man oi tine high ways.' And then his Wife — In fact, the Camas House, we perceive, had from an early time been one of the Crown-Prince's haunts. Madam Camus is a German Lady ; but for genial elegance, for wit and wisdom and good- ness, could not readily be paralleled in Frani'c or elsewhere. Of l)oth these Camases there will Ik' honorable and important mention by and by ; especially of the Lady, whom he con- tinues to call "Mamma" for fifty years to conu', and corre- sponds with in a very beautiful and human fashion. Under these auspices, in such environment, dimly visible to us, at Wusterhausen and elsewhere, is the remarkablest little Crown-l'rince of his century growing up, — prosperously as yet. CHAl'TEK X. TiiK nF.ir>rr,p.r.Ku tkotestaxts. Friedrich Wiluelm holds Tabagie nightly ; but at Wus- terhausen or wherever he may be, there is no lack of intricate Official Labor, which, even in the Tabagie, Friedrich Wilhelm does not forget. At the time he was concocting those In- structions for his little Prince's Schoolmasters, and smoking meditative under the stars, with Magdeburg '^ Eifter-Dienst" and much else of his own to think of, — there is an extraneous 1 MHitair-Lexikou, i. 308. Chap. X. THE HEIDELBERG PROTESTANTS. 305 iriij. I'olitical Intricacy, making noise enough in the world, much iu liis thoughts withal, and no doubt occasionally murmured of amid the tobacco-clouds. The Business of the Heidelberg Protestants; which is just coming to a height in those Autumn months of 1719. Indeed this Year 1719 was a particularly noisy one for him. This is the year of the " nephritic colic," which befell at Brandenburg on some journey of his Majesty's; with alarm of immediate death; Queen Sophie sent for by express ; testa- ment made in her favor; and intrigues, very black ones, Wil- helmina thinks, following thereupon.^ And the "Affair of Clement," on which the old Books are so profuse, falls like- wise, the crisis oi it falls, in 1719. Of Clement the ''Hun- garian Nobleman," wlio was a mere Hungarian Swindler, and Forger of Koyal Letters ; sowing mere discords, black suspi- cions, between Friedricli Willudm and the neighboring Court.:, Im2)erial and Saxon: ''Your .Majesty to be sna[)t up, some day, by hired rulKans, and S})irited away, for behoof of those tri^xclierous Courts : " so that Friedrich Wilhelm fell into a gloom of melancholy, and for long weeks "never slept but with a pair of loaded i)istols under his pillow:" — of this Clement, an adroit Phenomenon of the kind, and intensely agitating to Fi"iedrieh Wilhelm; — whom Friedrich AVilhelm had at last to lay hold of, try, this very year, and ultimately hang,^ amid the rumor and wonder of mankind : — of him, noisy as he was, and still tilling many pages of the old Books, a hint shall suffice, and we will say nothing farther. But this of the Heidelberg Protestants, though also rather an extinct business, has still some claims on us. This, in justice to the " inarticulate man of genius," and for other reasons, we must endeavor to resuscitate a little. 1 M€moires de Bareith, i. 26-29. 2 Had arrivctl in Berlin, " end of 1717 ; " stayed about a year, often privately in the King's company, poisoning the royal mind ; withdrew to the Hague, suBpecting Berlin might soon grow dangerous; — is wiled out of that Terri- tory into the Prussian, and arrested, by one of Friedrich Willielm's Colonels, " end of 1718 ; " lies in Spandau, getting tried, for seventeen months; hanged, with two Accomplices, 18th April, 1720. (See, in succession, Stenzel, iii. 298, 302 ; Fassmanu, p. 321 ; Forster, ii 272, and iii. 320-324.) C06 Iirs APPRENTICE^^IIIP. FIUST STAGK. "..ok TV. i7i;M7-2;j. Of Kur-Pfalz K(irl Philip : How he got a Wife long aince^ and did Peats in the World. There reigns, in these years, at HeidcUxTg, as Elector Pala- tine, a kind-tempered but abrupt and somewhat unreasonable old gentleman, now verging towards sixty, Karl Philip by name; wjjo has eome athwart the Berlin Court and its affairs more than once; and will again do so, in a singularly disturlv ing way. From Ix^fore Friedrieh Wilhelm's birth, all through Friedrich Wilhelm's life an<l farther, this Karl Philip is a stone-of-stumbling there. His first feat in life was that of running off with a Prussian Princess from Berlin ; the rumor of which was still at its height when Friedrich Wilhclm, a fortnight after, came into the world, — the gossips still talking of it, we may fancy, when Frifdridi Wilhelm was first swad- died. An uidieard-of thing ; the manner oi which was this. Readers have perhaps forgotten, that ohl King Friedrich I. once ha<l a Brother; elder Brother, who died, to the Father's great sorrow, and ma<le way for Friedrich as Crown-Prince. This Brother h;ul l)een married a short time ; he left a Widow without children ; a Ix^autiful Lithuanian Princess, born Rad- zivil, and of great jwssessions in her own country : she, in her crapes and close-cap, remain<^d an ornament to the new Berlin Court for some time; — not too long. The mourning-year once out, a new marriage came on foot for the brilliant widow ; the Bridegroom, a James Sobieski, eldest Prince of the famous John, King Sobieski ; Prince with fair outlooks towards Polish Sovereignty, and handy for those Lithuanian Possessions of hers : altogether an eligible match. This marriage was on foot, not quite completed; when Karl Philip, Cadet of the Pfalz, came to Berlin; — a rather idle young man, once in the clerical way ; now gone into the military, with secular outlooks, his elder Brother, Heir-Apparent of the Pfalz, "having no children :" — came to Berlin, in the course of visiting, and roving about. The beautiful Widow-Princess seemed very charming to Karl Philip; he wooed hard; threw the Princess into great perplexity. She had given her Yes Cnxv.X. THE HEIDELBERG PROTESTANTS. 307 17 lit. to James Sobieski ; inevitable wedding-day was coming on with James ; and here was Karl Philip wooing so : — in brief, the result was, she galloped off with Karl Philip, on the eVe of said wedding-tlay ; married Karl Philip (24th July, IGSS) ; and left Prince James standing there, too much like Lot's Wife, in the astonished Court of Berlin.^ Judge if the Berlin public talked, — unintelligible to Friedrich Wilhelm, then safe in swaddling-clothes. King Sobieski, the Father, famed Deliverer of Vienna, was in higlr dudgeon. But Karl I'hilip apologized, to all lengths ; made his peace at last, giving a Sister of his own to be Wife to the injured James. This was Karl I'hilip's first outbreak in life ; and it was not his only one. A man not ill-disposed, all grant ; but evidently of headlong turn, with a tendency to leap fences in this world. He has since been soldiering about, in a loose way, governing Innspruck, fighting the Turks. But, lately, his elder Brother died childless (3'ear 1710) ; and left him Kurfiirst of the Pfalz. His fair Kadzivil is dead long ago ; she, and a successor, or it may be two. Except one Daughter, whom the fair Kadzivil left him, he has no children ; and in these times, I think, lives with a third Wife, of the left-hand kind. His scarcity of progeny is not so indifferent to my readers • as they might suppose. This new Kur-Ffalz (Elector-Palatine) Karl Philii) is by genealogy — who, thinks the reader ? Pfalz- Ncitburg by line ; own Grandson of that Wolfgang Wilhelm, who got the slap on the face long since, on account of the Cleve- Jiilich matter ! So it has come round. The Line of Simmern died out, Winter-King's Grandson the last of that; and then, as right was, the Line of Neuburg took the top place, and became Kur-Pfalz. The first of these was this Karl Philip's Father, son of the Beslapped ; an old man when he succeeded. Karl Philip is the third Kur-Pfalz of the Xeuburg Line ; his childless elder Brother (he who collected the Pictures at Dusseldorf, once notable there) was second of the Neuburgs. They now, we say, are Electors-Palatine, Head of the House ; — and, we need not add, along with their Electorate and 1 Michaelis, ii. 93. 398 HIS APrRENTICESriir, FIRST STAGE. H-'^k IV. 17i.i-l7i;i. Neuburg Country, possess the Cleve Jiilicli Moiety of Heri- tage, about which there was such worrying in time juust. Nay the last Kur-Pfalz resided there, and collected the " Diisseldorl" Gallery," as we have just said ; though Karl I'hilip prefers Heidelberg hitherto. To Friedrich Wilholm the scarcity of ])rogcny is a thrice- interesting fact. For if this actual Neuburg should leave no male heir, as is now humanly probal)le, — the Line of Neuburg too is out; and then great things ought to follow for our Prus- sian House. Then, l)y the bust Bargain, made in l<i<>(», with all solemnity, between the Great Elector, our Grandfather of famous memory, and your serene Father the then I'falz-Neu- burg, subse(iuently Kur-Pfalz, likewise of famous memory, son of the l?eslapj>ed, — tiie whole Heritage falls to Prussia, no other I'falz ]?ranch having thenceforth the le;ust claim to it. liargain was ex])res8; signc<l, sealed, sanctioned, drawn out on the due extent of sheepskin, which c;in still Ix' read. IJarg-.iin clear enough : but will this Karl Philip incline to keep it ? That may one day be the interesting cpiestion. Put that is not the question of controversy at present : not that, but another ; for Karl Philip, it would seem, is to be a frecpient stone-of-stumbling to the Prussian House. The i)resent ques- tion is of a Protestant-Papist matter ; into which Friedrich AViilielm has \)con drawn by his public spirit alone. Kiirl Philip ami h'lx IL Iddhcrg Protrs>tanfs. The Pfalz population was, from of old, Protestant-Calvinist ; the Electors-Palatine used to be distinguished for their for- wardness in that matter. So it still is with the Pfalz popula- tion; but with the Electors, now that the House of Simmern is out, and that of Neuburg in, it is not so. The Neuburgs, ever since that slap on the face, have continued Popish ; a sore fact for this Protestant popidation, when it got them for Sovereigns. Karl Philip's Father, an old soldier at Vienna, and the elder Brother, a collector of Pictures at Diisseldorf, did not outwardly much molest the creed of their subjects. Protestants, and the remnant of Catholics (remnant naturally « CiiAi-. X. THE IIEIDKLIJERG PROTESTANTS. 399 171'J. rather expanding now tluit the Court shone on it), were al- lowed to live in peace, according to tlie Treaty of Westplialia^ or nearly so ; dividing the churches and church-revenues equi tably between them, as directed there. But now that Karl I'hilip is conie in, there is no mistaking his procedures. He has come home to Heidelberg with a retinue of Jesuits about him ; to whom the poor old gentleman, looking before and after on this troublous world, finds it salutary to give ear. His nibblings at Protestant rights, his contrivances to slide Catholic-s into churches which were not theirs, and the like foul-play in that matter, had been sorrowful to see, for some time past. The Elector of Mainz, Chief-Priest of Germany, is busy in the same bad direction ; he and others. Indeed, ever since the Peace of Ryswick, where Louis XIV. surreptitiously introduced a certain " Clause," which could never be got rid of again, ^ nibbling aggressions of this kind have gone on more and more. Always too sluggishly resisted by the Corpus Ecangdicorum, in the Diets or otherwise, the " United Prot- estant Sovereigns " not being an active " Body " there. And now more sluggishly than ever ; — said Corpiis having August Elector of Saxony, Catholic (Sham-Catholic) King of Poland, for its Official Head ; ''August the Physically Strong," a man highl}' unconcerned for matters Evangelical ! So that the nib- blings go on worse and worse. An offence to all Protestant liulers who had any conscience ; at length an unbearable one to Friedricli Wilhelm, who, alone of them all, decided to inter- vene effectually, and say, at whatever risk there might be. We ■will not stand it ! Karl Philip, after some nibblings, took up the Heidelberg * " Chuae of the Fourth Article " is the technical name of it. Fourth Article stipulates that King Tx)uis XIV. shall punctually restore all manner of towns and places, in the Palatinate &c. (much burnt, somewhat be-jcsuited too, in late Wars, by the said King, during his occupancy) : Clause of Fourth Article (added to it, by a quirk, " at midnight," say the Books) contains merely these words, " Religione tamen Catholicd Romani, in locis sic restitutis, in statu quo nunc est remanente : Roman-Catholic religion to continue as it now is [as we have made it to be] in .=uch towns and places." — Which Clause gave rise to very groat but ineffectual lamenting and debating. (SchoU, Tniit^s de Paix (Par. lS17),i. 433-138; Buchholz ; Spittler, Geschichte Wiirtemhergs ; &c). 400 HIS AIM'KENTlCESniP, FIRST STAGE. It<«'K IV. 17i:J-17-2.J. Catechism (which candidly calls the ^lass " idolatrous '"), and ordered said Catechism, an Authorized liook, to cease in his dominions. Hcssen-Cassel, a Protestant neighbor, pleadt'd, renuMistrated, Friedrich Willu'lm glooming in the rear ; but to no purpose, ihxr old gentleujan, his Priests Ix'ing very dili- gent uiMjii him, decided ni'xt to get possession of the HcUtrfe- Geisi Kinhn (Chunh of the Holy Ghost, principal Place of AVorship at Heidelberg), and make it his principal Cathedral Church there, Wy Treaty of Westphalia, or peaceably other- wise, the Catholics are alreatly in possession of the Choir : but the whole Church would Ik? so nnich Ix'tter. " Was it not Catholic once?" thought Karl Philip to himself: " built by our noble Ancestor Kaiser lIuiH'rt of the I'falz, Kupert Khmm [" Pincers," so named for his firmness of mind] : — why should these Heretics have it? I will Iniild them another!" These thoughts, in 17P.), tlu' third year of Karl Philip's rule, had broken out into open action (liOth August, 4th Septendj«'r the consummation of it) ; * and ])recisely in the time when Fried- rich Wilhelm was jKMining that first Didactic Morsel which we read, grave clouds from the Palatinate were beginning to over- sha<low the royal mind more or less. F'or the i>oor HeideU)erg Consistorium, as they could not undertake to give up their Church on request of his Serenity, — ''How dare we, or can we ?" answered they, — had been driven out by compulsion and straUigem. I'artly strategic was the plan adopted, to avoid violence; smith's picklocks being employed, and also mason's crowbars : but the end was, On the 31st of August, 1710, Consistorium and Congregatit)n found themselves fairly in the street, and the IleUiffe-Geist Kirr/ie clean gone from them. Screen of the Choir is torn down ; one big Catholic edifice now ; getting decorated into a Court Church, where Serene Highness may feel his mind comfortable. The poor Heidelbergers, thus thrown into the street, made applications, lamentations ; but with small prospect of help : to whom apjdy with any sure prospect ? Remonstrances from Hessen-Cassel have proved unavailing with his bigoted 1 Mauvillon, i. 340-^45. Chap. X. THE IIKIDELBEKG riiUTESTANTS. 401 171'J. Serene Higlniess. Corj/us Eoangelicorum, so presided, over as at present, what can l)e h;ul of such a C4>ri>us ? Long-winded lucubrations at the utmost ; real action, in such a matter, none. Or will the Kaiser, his Jesuits advising him, interfere to do us justice i* Kur-Mainz and the rest; — it is everywhere •IK' story. Everywhere unhappy Protestantism getting bad usage, and ever worse ; and no Corjnis Ecanydlfonim, or ap- pointed AVatch-dog, doing other than hang its ears, and look sorry for itself and us! — The llcidelbergers, however, had api)lied to Frieilricli W'il- helm among others. Friedrich Wilhelm, who had long looked on these Anti-Protestant ]>henomena with increasing anger, found now that this of the lleidelberg Catechism and IlrilUje- (itii.st Kirche Wiu> enough to make one's patience run over. Www unruly Catholic bull, plunging about, and goring men iji tliat mad absurd manner, it will behoove that somel)ody take liim by the horns, ov by the tail, and teach him manners. 'J'cach him, not by vocal precepts, it is likely, wliich WDuld aVail nothing on such a brute, but l)y practical cudgelling and sc( urging to the due pitcli. Pacific Friedrich Wilhelm per- <'eived that he himstdf would have to do that disagreeable tVat : — the growl of him, on coming to such resolution, must have been consolatory to these poor Heidelbergers, when they :il)plied I — His [ilan is very sjmide, as the plans of genius are; but a plan leading direct t<o the end desired, and probably the only one that would have done so, in the circumstances. Cudgel in hand, he takes the Catholic bull, — shall we say, by the horns ? — more properly perhajjs by the tail ; and teaches him manners. Friedrich WUhchns Method ; — ^noves remedial in Heidelberg. Friedrich Wilhelm's first step, of course, was to remonstrate pacifically with his Serene Highness on the Heidelberg-Church affair : from this he probably expected nothing ; nor did he get anj'thing. Getting nothing from this, and the countenance of external Protestant Powers, especially of George I. and the VOL. V. 2a 402 HIS AI'TKENTRKSIIII*, FIRST STACK. B."'k IV. 17ia-1723. JJutch, being iironiisi'd him in ultt'riur nu-asures, he directed his Adniinistnitive ( >tlifi;il.s in Magih'l)urg, in Mindi-n, in Ilani- crsh'ben, wliere are Catholic Foundations ol iiiiiiorUmce, to assemble the Catholic Canons, Abbots, chief Priests ami all whojn it might concern in these three Places, and to signify to them as follows : — 3 " From us, your Protestiint Sovereign, you yourselves and all men will witness, you have hitherto luul the Ix'st of usage, fair-iday, according to the Laws of the lielrh, imd even more. With the Protestants at HeidellK*rg, on the |»art of the Catholic Powers, it is ditVerent. It must cea.se to Ix; ditVerent ; it must become the same. And to make it do so, you are the imple- ment I have. Sorry for it, but there is no other handy. From this day your Churches also are closed, your i'ublic Worshii) ceases, and furthermore your lievenues cease; and all makes dead halt, and falls torpid in resjH'ct of you. From this day ; and so continues, till the day (may it l>e soon !) when the Heidi'llx'rg Church of the Holy Ghost is opened again, and right done in that question. Be it yours to sj>eed such day : it is you that can and will, you who know those high Catholic regions, inaccessible to your Protestant SovertMgn. Till tiieii you are as dead men ; teni|X)rarily fallen dead for a purpose. And herewith (iod have you in his keeping I " ' 'I'hat was Friedrich Wilhelm's plan ; the sim[)lcst, but pr()l>- ably the one effectual plan. Infallible this plan, if you dare stand u]>on it ; which Frietlrich Wilhelm does. He has a formidable Armv. n^adv for fight; a Treasurv or Armv-chest in good order. George I. seconds, acconling to bargain ; shuts the Catholic Church at Zelle in his Liineburg Countr}', in like fashion ; Dutch, too, and Swiss will endorse the matter, should it grow too serious. All which, involving some dii)lomacy and correspondence, is managed with the due promptitu<le, moreover.'- And so certain doors are locked ; and Friedrich Wilhelm's word, unalterable as gravitation, has gone forth. ' Mauvilloii, i. .147, .349. 2 Cliun-h of Zelle shut up, 4th November; Minden, 28th November; >foD- a.«!tery of Hamer.*le!i«'ii, ."Jd Decern I >er, &o (Piittor, Histon'sche EntwicMitni] det heulijen StaaUireiJassumj dts Tculschen Ileichs, Giittingeu, 1783, ii. 384, 3'JO). 1 Chap. X. THE HEIDELBERG PROTESTANTS. 403 17 JO. Ill this manner is the mad Catholic bull taken by the t-ail: keep fjist hold, and apply your cudgel duly in that attitude, he will not gore you any more ! The Magdeburg-IIamersleben people shrieked piteously ; not to Friedrich Wilhehn, whom they knew to be deaf on that side of his head, but to the Kaiser, to the Pope, to the Serenity of Heidelberg. Serene Highness of Heidelberg was much huifed ; Kaiser dreadfully so, and wrote heavy menacing re- bukes. To which Friedrich Wilhelm listened with a minimum of rf ply ; keeping firm hold of the tail, in such bellowing of tlie animal. The end was. Serene Highness had to comply; witliin three months. Kaiser, Serene Highness and the other parties interested, found that there would be nothing for it but to compose themselves, and do what was just. Ai»ril l(»th, 171*0, the Protestants are reinstated in their IleUhjc-Gcist Klrrhi- ; Hfidflbcrg Cateclusm goes its free course again, May Kith; and one liaron Keck* is appointed Commissioner, from the Corjiiis Evdiif/rh'roruiii, to HcidL'llMn'g; who continues rigor- oi\sly inspecting Church matters there for a considerable time, much to the grief of Highness and Jesuits, till he can report that all is as it should be on that head. Karl Philip felt so disgusted with these results, he removed his Court, that same year, to ^rannheim ; quitted Heidelberg ; to the discourage- ment and visible decay of the place; and, in spite of humble j)etitions and remonstrances, never would return ; neither he nvv those that followed him would shift from Mannheim again, to this day. Prussiini Jlajesti/ has displeased the Kaiser and the King of Poland. Friedrich Wilhelm's praises from the Protestant public were great, on this occasion. Nor can we, who lie much farther from it in every sense, refuse him some gi'in of approval. Act, and manner of doing the act, are creditably of a piece with Friedrich "Wilhelm ; physiognomic of the rugged veracious man. It is one of several such acts done by him : for it was 1 Michaelis, ii. 95 ; Tutter, ii. 384, 390 ; Buchholz, pp. 61-63. 404 HIS APPKENTICESIIIP, FIRST STAGE. B«.ik IV. 17i:J-lT2;J. a duty apt to recur in Germany, in his day. This duty Fried- rich Wilhelm, a solid Protestant after his sort, and convinced of the " nothingness and nonsensicality ( Ungrurul und Ahsur- ditdt) of Papistry," was always honorably prompt to do. There is an honest bacon-and-greens conscience in the man ; almost the one conscience you can find in any royal man of that day. Promi)tly, without tremulous counting of costs, he always starts uj), solid as oak, on the occurrence of sui-h a thing, and says, "Tiiat is unjust; contrary to the Treaty of Wt'stijhalia; you will have to put down that ! " — And if words avail not, his plan is always the same : Claj) a similar thumbscrew, pressure equitably calculated, on the Catholics of Prussia; these can complain to their Popes and Jesuit Dignitaries : these are under thumbscrew till the Protestant pressure be removed. Which always did rectify the matter in a little time. One other of these instances, that of tlu' Salzburg Protestants, the last such instance, as this of Ilfidclborg ivas the first, will by and by claim notice from us. It is very obsi?rvable, how Friedrich Wilhelm, hating quar- rels, Wivs ever ready to turn out for quarrel on such an occa- sion ; though otherwise conspicuously a King who stayed well at home, looking after his own affairs ; meddling with no neigh- bor that would 1x3 at peace with him. This projierly is Fried- rich Wilhelm's "sphere of political activity'' among his contemporaries ; this small qua-sinlomestic s])here, of forbid- ding injury to Protestants. A most small sphere, but then a genuine one : nor did he seek even this, had it not forced itself upon him. And truly we might ask, What has become of the other more considerable " spheres " in that epoch ? The supremest loud-trumpeting " political activities " which then filled the world and its newspapers, what has the upshot of them universally been ? Zero, and oblivion ; no other. While this poor Friedrich-AVilhelm sphere is perhaps still a countable quantity. Wise is he who stays well at home, and does the duty he finds lying there ! — Great favor from the Protestant public : but. on the other hand, his Majesty had given offence in high places, "\^^lat help for it ? The thing was a point of conscience with him ; Chap. X. ' THE lIEIDELliERU rKOTESTANTS. 405 17-20. natural to the surly Eoyal Overseer, going his rounds in the world, stick in hand ! However, the Kaiser was altogether gloomy of brow at such disobedience. A Kaiser uni'riendly to Friedrich Wilhelm : witness that of the Iiitter-Dienst (our unreasonable ^lagdeburg Ritters, countenanced by him, on such terms, in such style too), and other offensive instances tliat could be given. Perhaps the Kaiser will not always con- tinue gloomy of brow ; perhaps the thoughts of the Imperial breast may alter, on our behalf or his own, one day ? — Nor could King August the Physically Strong be glad to see his " Director " function virtually superseded, in this tri- umphaut way. A year or two ago, Friedrich Willielm had, with the due cautions and pulitic reserves, impiired of the Corjms Eoangel'u'orum, *' If they thought the present Director- shi}) (that of August the I'hysically Strong) a good one ? " and " Whether he, Friedrich Wilhelm, ought not perhaps himself to be Director?" — To which, though the answer was clear as noonday, this poor Corpus had only mumbled some '' Quieta non movere,''^ or other wiso-foolish saw ; and helplessly shrugged its shoulders.^ But King August himself, — though a jovial social kind of animal, quite otherwise occupied in the world ; busy producing his three hundred and fifty-four Bastards there, and not careful of Church matters at all, — had expressed his indignant surprise. And now, it would seem nevertheless, though the title remains where it was, the function has fallen to another, who actually does it: a thing to provoke compari- sons in the public. Clement, the Hungarian forger, vender of false state-secrets, is well hanged ; went to the gallows (18th April, 1720) with much circumstance, just two days before that Heidelberg Church was got reopened. But the suspicions sown by Clement cannot quite be abolished by the hanging of him : Forger indisputably ; but who knows whether he had not 1 1717-1719, wlien August's Kurprinz, Heir-Apparent, like\vise declared himself Papist, to the horror and astonishment of poor Saxony, and wedded the late Kaiser Joseph's Daughter: — not to Father August's horror; who was steering towards "popularity in Poland," "hereditary Polish Crown," &c. with the young man. (Buchholz, i. 53-56.) 406 HIS APPRENTICESIIIP, FIRST STAGE. Book IV. 1713-1723. something of fact for basis ? What with Clement, what Avith this Heidelberg business, the Court of Berlin has fallen wrong with Dresden, with Vienna itself, and imi^ortant clouds have risen. There is an absurd Flame of War^ blown out bij Admiral ByiKj; and a*new Man of Genius announces hintself to the dim Populations. The poor Kaiser himself is otherwise in trouble of his own, at this time. The Spaniards and he have fallen out, in spite of Utrecht Treaty and Kastadt ditto ; the Spaniards have taken Sicily from him ; and precisely in those days while Ivarl I'hilip took to shutting up the lleUlgp-Ge'ist Church at Heidel- berg, there was, loud enough in all the Newspapers, silent as it now is, a " Siege of Messina " going on; Imperial and Piedmontese troops doing duty by land. Admiral Byng still more effectively by sea, for the purpose of getting Sicily back. Which was achieved by and by, though at an extremely languid pace.* One of the most tedious Sieges ; one of the paltriest languid Wars (of extreme virulence and extreme feebleness, neither party having any cash left), and for an object which could not be excelled in insignificance. 01)ject highly interesting to Kaiser Karl VI. and Elizabeth Farnese Termagant Queen of Spain. These two were red, or even were pale, with interest in it ; and to the rest of Adam's Posterity it was not intrinsically worth an ounce of gunpowder, many tons of that and of better commodities as they had to spend upon it. True, the Spanish Navy got well lamed in the busi- ness ; Spanish Fleet blown mostly to destruction, — " Roads of jNIessina, 10th August, 1718," by the dexterous Byng (a creditable handy figiu-e both in Peace and War) and his con- ^ Byng's Sea-fight, 10th Augnst, 1718 (Camphell's Lives of the Admirals, iii. 468) ; whcrenpon the Spaniards, who had hardly yet "completed thfiir capture of Messina, are l)esieged In it; — 29th Octol)er, 1719, Messina retaken (this is tlie " Siege of Messina") : February, 1720, Peace is clapt np (the chief article, that Alberoni shall lic jjucked away), and a "Congress of Cambrai " is to meet, and settle everything. Chap. X. " SIEGE OF MESSINA. 407 10th Aug. 1718. siderable Sea-fight there : — if that was an object to Spain or mankind, that was accomplished. But the "War," except that many men Avere killed in it, and much vain babble was uttered upon it, ranks otherwise with that of Don Quixote, for conquest of the enchanted Helmet of Mambrino, which when looked into proved to be a Barber's Basin. Congress of Cambrai, and other high Gatherings and convul- sive Doings, which all proved futile, and look almost like Lap- land witchcraft now to us, will have to follow this futility of a JVar. It is the first of a long series of enchanted adven- tures, on which Kaiser Karl, — duelling with that Spanish Virago, Satan's Invisible World in the rear of her, — has now embarked, to the woe of mankind, for the rest of his life. The first of those terrifico-ludicrous paroxysms of crisis into which he throws the European Universe ; he with his Enchanted Barber's-Basin enterprises ; — as perhaps was fit enough, in an epoch presided over by the Nightmares. Congress of Cambrai is to follow ; and much else equally spectral. About all which there will be enough to say anon ! For it was a fearful opera- tion, though a ludicrous one, this of the poor Kaiser ; and it tormented not the big Xations only, and threw an absurd Europe into paroxysm after paroxysm ; but it whirled up, in its wide-sweeping skirts, our little Fritz and his Sister, and almost dashed the lives out of them, as we shall see ! Which last is perhaps the one claim it now has to a cursory mention from mankind. Byng's Sea-fight, done with due dexterity of manoeuvring, and then with due emphasis of broadsiding, decisive of that absurd War, and almost the one creditable action in it, dates itself 10th August, 1718. And about three months later, on the mimic stage at Paris there came out a piece, (Edlpe the title of it,^ by one Frangois Arouet, a young gentleman about twenty -two ; and had such a run as seldom was ; — apprising the French Populations that, to all appearance, a. new man of genius had appeared among them (not intimating what work he would do) ; and greatly angering old M. Arouet of the Chamber of Accounts ; who thereby found his Son as good as 1 18th November, ITia 408 Ills APPUENTICESIIII'. IIKST STAGE. n..oK iv. 17l;i-17-23. cast into the whirlpools, and a solid Law-career thenceforth im- possible for the young fool. — The name of that "M. Arouet junior" changes itself, some years hence, into M. de Voltaire; under which latter designation he will conspicuously reappear in this Narrative. And now we will go to our little Crown-Prince again ; — ignorant, he, of all this that is mounting up in the distance, and that it will envelop him one day. CHAPTER XI. ON Tire CROWX-PRTXrE's rROGRESS IX HIS SCHOOLING. AVii.iiKLMiNA says,* her Brother was "slow" in h'arning : we may presume, slie means idle, volatile, not always pronij)t in fixing his attention to what did not interest liim. More- over, he was often weakly in health, as she herself adds ; so that exertion was not recommendable for him. llerr von Locn (a witty Prussian Official, and famed man-of-letters once, though forgotten noAv) testifies expressly that the lioy was of bright parts, and that he maile rapid progress. " The Crown- Prince manifests in this tender age [his seventh year] an uncommon capacity ; nay we may say, something quite ex- traordinary (etwas ganz AusserordentlicJies). He is a most alert and vivacious Prince ; he has fine and sprightly man- ners ; and shows a certain kindly sociality, and so affection- ate a disjiosition that all things may be hoped of him. The French Liuly who [under Roucoulles] has had charge of his learning hitherto, cannot speak of him without enthusiasm. * C^eM un esjirit angel Ifiue (a little angel),' she is wont to say. He takes up, and learns, whatever is put before him, with the greatest facility." ^ For the rest, that Friedrich "Wilhelm's intentions and Ehada- 1 M^moires, i. 22. 2 Von Loen, Kleine Schriften, ii. 27 (as cited iu Rodenbeck, No. iv. 479). Chap. XI. HIS TliOGRESS IN SCHOOLING. 409 mantliine regulations, in regard to him, were fulfilled in every point, we will by no means affirm. Kules of such exceeding preciseness, if grounded here and there only on the sic-volo, how could they be always kept, except on the surface and to the eye merely ? The good Duhan, diligent to open his pupil's miud, and give Nature fair-play, had practically found it in- expedient to tie him too rigorously to the arbitrary formal departments where no natural cm-iosity, but only order from without, urges the ingenious pupil. What maximum strict- ness in school-drill there can have been, we may infer from one thing, were there no other: the ingenious Pupil's mode of speU'uKj. Fritz learned to write a fine, free-flowing, rapid and legible business-hand ; " Arithmetic " too, " Geography," and many other Useful Knowledges that had some geniality of character, or attractiveness in practice, were among his acqui- sitions ; much, very much he learned in the course of his life ; but to spell, much more to punctuate, and subdue the higher mysteries of Grammar to himself, was always an unachievable perfection. He did improve somewhat in after life ; but here is the length to which he had carried that necessary art in the course of nine years' exertion, under Duhan and the subsidiary preceptors ; it is in the following words and alphabetic letters that he gratefully bids Duhan farewell, — who surely cannot have been a very strict drill-sergeant in the arbitrary branches of schooling ! '• ]Mon cher Duhan Je Vous promais {promets) que quand j'aurez (faurai) mon propre argent en main, je Vous donnerez (donnerai) enuelement {annuellement) 2400 ecu {ecus) par an, et je vous aimerais (aim^rai) toujour encor (toujours encore) un pen plus q'asteure {qu'a cette heure) s'il me Test {m'est) posible {jjossihle)." '' My dear Duuax, — I promise to you, that when I shall have my money in my own hands, I will give you annually 2400 crowns [say £350] every year ; and that I will love you always even a little more than at present, if that be possible. ''FRtDERic P.K. [Prince-Eoyal]." " Potsdam, le 20 de join, 1727." ^ 1 Preuss, i. 22. 410 HIS ArPUENTICESIIIP, FIRST STAGE. B«>nK IV. 17i;i-1723. The Document has otherwise its beauty; but such is the spelling of it. In fact his Grammar, as ho would himself now anil then regretfully discern, in riper years, with some transient attempt or resolution to remedy or help it, seems to have come mainly by nature; so likewise his '*.s7y/<w'' Ixtth in French and German, — a very fair style, too, in the former dialect : — but as to his spelling, let him try as he liked, he never came within sight of perfection. Tlie things ordered with such rigorous minuteness, if but arbitrary things, were apt to be neglected ; the things for- bidden, especially in the like case, were apt to become doubly temjtting. It ai)pears, the proliibition of Latin gave rise to various attemi)ts, on the j)art of Friedrich, to attain that de- sirable Language. Secret lessons, not from Duhan, but no doubt with Duhan's connivance, were from time -to time under- taken witli this view: once, it is recorded, tlie vigilant Fried- rich Wilhelm, going his rounds, came upon Fritz and one of his Preceptors (not Duhan but a subaltern) actually eng.aged in this illii'it emplo^'ment. Friedrich himself was wont to relate this anecdote in after life.* They had Latin liooks, dictionaries, graujmars on the table, call the contrai)an(l appa- ratus; busy with it there, like a pair of coiners taken in the fact. Among other Books was a copy of the Golden lUill of Kaiser Karl IV., — Aimn Bulla, from the little golden hulh'ts or pellets hung to it, — 1)V which sublime Document, as per- haps we hinted long ago, certain so-called Fundamental Con- stitutions, or at least formalities and solemn practices, method of election, rule of precedence, and the like, of the Holy Koman Empire, had at last been settled on a sure footing, by that bu.sy little Kaiser, some three hundred and fifty years before ; a Document venerable almost next to the Bible in Friedrich Wilhelm's loyal eyes. *' ^Vliat is this ; what are you venturing upon here ? " exclaims Paternal Vigilance, in lui astonished dangerous tone. " Iliro J/aJestdt, ich expllcire ih'iii Pi'inzen Auream BuUam" exclaimed the trembling peda- gogue : " Your Majesty, I am explaining Aurea Bulla [Golden ' Biischiug, Beitrwje zu der Lebenitgeschichte denhwurdiger Personen, v 33. Preuiis, i. 24. Chap. XI. ' HIS PROGRESS IN SCHOOLING. 411 I7i;i-i72;j. Bull] t<i the Prince ! " — « Dog, I will Golden-Bull you ! " said liis Majesty, flourishing his rattan, " Lh will dirh, Schurke, be-aui'ctiiii-bullam ! ^' which sent the terrified wretch olT at the top of his speed, and ended the Latin for that tinie.^ Friedrich's Latin could never come to much, under these impediments. Cut he retained some smatterings of it in mature life ; and was rather fond of producing his classical scraps, — often in an altogether mouldy, and indeed hitherto inexplicable condition. " De guMihus non est disj)utandus,'' " Bi'iift jMssoJpnfcs,^- '' Comjnlle infrare" " Benfws paujyeres spi- ritus ; " the meaning of these can be guessed : but " Tot verbns tot spondera," for example, — what can any commentator make of that? " Fe.stina lente,'^ ^' Domimis vobisrum,^' " Fleefamus genua,'^ '* Quod bene notanduni ; " these phrases too, and some three or four others of the like, have been riddled from his Writings by diligent men:- '' te/npora, mores J You see I don't forget my Latin," writes he once. The worst fruit of these contraband operations was, that they involved the Boy in clandestine practices, secret disobe- diences, ai)t to be found out from time to time, and tended to alienate his Father from him. Of which sad mutual humor we already find traces in that early Wusterhausen Document : " Not to be so dirty," says the reproving Father. And the Boy does not take to hunting at all, likes verses, storj'-books, flute-playing better ; seems to be of effeminate tendencies, an effeminh'ter Kerl: affects French modes, combs out his hair like a cockatoo, the foolish French fop, instead of conforming to the .\rmy-regulation, which prescribes close-cropping and a club ! This latter grievance Friedrich Wilhelm decided, at last, to abate, and have done with ; this, for one. It is an authentic fact, though not dated, — dating perhaps from about Fritz's fifteenth year. '• Fritz is a Querpfeifer und Poet,'' not a Sol- dier ! would his indignant Father growl ; looking at those foreign effeminate ways of his. Querpfeife, that is simply 1 Forster, i. 356. - Preuss (i. 24) furnishes the whole stock of them. 412 HIS APPRENTICESHIP, FIRST STAliE. Hook IV. 1713-1723. " German-flute," " Cross-pipe " (or fife of any kind, fur we Eii,t,'lisli have thriftily made two useful words out of the Dt'utsrh root) ; "Cross-ijipe," being held across the mouth hori- zontally. Worthless employment, if you are not born to be of the regimental band ! thinks Friedrich Wilhelm. Fritz is celebrated, too, for his fine foot ; a dapper little fellow, alto- gether pretty in the eyes of simjde female courtiers, with his blond locks combed out at the temples, with his bright eyes, sharp wit, and sparkling capricious ways. The cockatoo locks, these at least we will aljate ! decides the Paternal mind. And so, unexpectedly, Friedrich Wiliielm has commanded these bright locks, as contrary to military fashion, of which Fritz has now unworthily the honor of being a specimen, to be ruthlessly shorn away. Inexorable : the Ifof-Chirurrfus (Court- Surgeon, of tln' nature of Barber-Surgeon), witli scissors and comb, is here ; ruthless Father standing by. Crop him, my jolly liarlx'r ; close down to the accurate standard ; soaped club, instead of flowing locks; we suffer no exceptions in this military dejiartment: I stand here till it is done. Poor Fritz, they say, h;ul tears in his eyes ; l>ut what help in tears? The judicious Cliirurgus, however, proved nu'reiful. The judicious Chirurgus struck in as if nothing loath, snack, snack; and matle a great show of clipping'. Friedrich Wilhelm took a newspaper till the job were done ; the judicious Barber, still making a great show of work, combed Ixick rather than cut off these Apollo locks ; did Fritz accurately into soaped club, to the cursory eye ; but left him capal)le of shaking out his cheve- lure again on occasion, — to the kisting gratitude of F'ritz.^ The Noltcnius-and-Panzendorf Drill-exercise. On the whole, as we said, a youth needs good assimilating power, if he is to grow in this world ! Noltenius aud Panzen- dorf, for instance, they were busy *' teaching Friedrich relig- ion." Rather a strange operation this too, if we were to look into it. "We will not look too closely. Another j)air of excellent most solemn di'ill-sergeauts, in clerical black serge ; they also are 1 Preus8, i. 16. Chap. XI. ' HIS PROGRESS IN SCHOOLING. 413 ni;j-i723. busy instilling dark doctrines into the bright young Boy, so far as possible ; but do not seem at any time to have made too deep an impression on him. May we not say that, in matter of religion too, Friedrich was but ill-bested ? Enlightened Ediet-of-Xantes I'rotestantism, a cross between Bayle and Calvin : that was but indifferent babe's-milk to the little crea- ture. Nor could Noltenius's Catechism, and ponderous drill- exercise in orthodox theology, much inspire a clear soul with pieties, and tendencies to soar Heavenward. Alas, it is a dreary litter indeed, mere wagon-load on wagon- load of shot-rubl»ish, that is heaped round this new human plant, by Noltmius and Comi)any, among others. A wonder only that they did not extinguish all Sense of the Highest in the poor young soul, and leave only a .Sense of the Dreariest and Stu])idest. But a healthy human soul can stand a great deal. The healthy soul shakes off, in an unexpectedly victo- rious manner, immense masses of di-y rubbish that have been shot ujujii it by its assiduous pedagogues and professors. ^^'hat would become of any of us otherwise ! Duhan, opening the young soul, by such modest gift as Duhan had, to recog- nize black from white a little, in this embroiled high Universe, is probably an exce})tion in some small measure. But, Duhan excepted, it may be said to have been in spite of most of his teachers, and their diligent endeavors, that Friedrich did acquire some human piety ; kept the sense of truth alive in his mind ; knew, in whatever words he phrased it, the divine eternal nature of Duty ; and managed, in the muddiest element and most eclipsed Age ever known, to steer by the heavenly loadst;irs and (so we must candidly term it) to follow God's Law, in some measure, with or without Xoltenius for company. Xoltenius's Catechism, or ghostly • Drill-manual for Fritz, at least the Catechism he had plied Wilhelmina with, which no doubt was the same, is still extant.^ A very abstruse Piece ; orthodox Lutheran-Calvinist, all proved from Scrip- ture ; giving what account it can of this unfathomable Uni- verse, to the young mind. To modern Prussians it by no means shines as the indubitablest Theory of the Universe. 1 Preuss, i. 1 5 ; — specimens of it in Rodenbeck. 414 HIS Ari'RENTICESniP, FlTiST STAGE. Wook IV. I7i;;-i"23. Indignant modern Prussians produce excerpts from it, of au abstruse natiu-e ; and endeavor to deduce therefrom some of FriedricL's aberrations in matters of religion, which became notorious enough by and by, Alas, I fear, it would not have been easy, even for the modern l*russiau, to i)roduce a i)erfect Catechism for the use of Friedi'ich; this Universe still con- tinues a little abstruse ! * And there is another deeper thing to be remarked: the notion of '' teaching " religion, in the way of drill-exercise ; which is a very strange notion, though a common one, and not peculiar to Xoltenius and Friedrich Willulni. Piety to God, the nobleness that inspires a human soul to struggle Ileaven- Avard, cannot be '' taught " by the most ex([uisite catechisms, or the most industrious preachings and drillings. No ; alas, no. Only by far other methods, — chietly by s^ilent continual Example, silently waiting for the favorable mood ami moment, and aided then by a kind of miracle, well enough named " the grace of God," — can that sacred contagion piiss from soul into soul. How much beyond whole Libraries of orthodox Theology is, sometimes, the mute action, the unconscious look of a father, of a mother, who hmi in them " Devoutness, ]»ious Nobleness " ! In whom the young soul, not unobservant, tliough not consciously observing, came at length to rec- ognize it ; to read it, in this irrefragable manner : a seed planted thenceforth in the centre of his holiest affections for- evermore ! Noltenius wore black serge ; kept the corners of his mouth well down ; and had written a Catechism of repute ; but I know not that Noltenius carried much seed of living piety about with him ; much affection from, or for, young Fritz he could not well carrj-. On the whole, it is a bad outlook on tlie religious side ; and except in Apprenticeship to the rugged and as yet repulsive Honesties of Friedrich Wilhelm, I see no good element in it. Bayle-Calvin, with Noltenius and Cate- chisms of repute : there is no '* religion " to be had for a little Fritz out of all that. Endless Doubt will be provided for him out of all that, probably disbelief of all that ; — and, on the whole, if any form at all, a very scraggy form of moral exist- iin-ml' "^^ PKOGRESS IN SCHOOLING. 415 ence ; from wliich the Highest shall be hopelessly absent ; and in which anything High, anything not Low and Lying, will have double merit. It is indeed amazing what quantities and kinds of extinct ideas apply for belief, sometimes in a menacing manner, to the poor mind of man, and poor mind of child, in these days. They come bullying in upon him, in masses, as if they were (piite living ideas ; ideas of a dreadfully indispensable nature, the evident counterpart, and salutary interpretation, of Facts round him, which, it is promised the poor young creature, he shall recognize to correspond with them, one day. At which "correspondence," when the Facts are once well recognized, he lias at last to ask himself with amazement, " Did I ever recognize it, then ? " Whereby come residts incalculable ; not good results any of them ; — some of them unspeakably bad ! The case of Crown-Prince Friedrich in IJerlin is not singular ; all cities and places can still show the like. And when it will end, is not yet clear. ]>ut that it ever should luive begun, will one day be the astonishment. As if the (livinest function of a human being were not even that of Ixdieving ; of discriminating, with his God-given intellect, what is from what is not ; and as if the point were, to render that either an impossible function, or else what we must sor- rowfully call a revolutionary, rebellious and mutinous one. O Noltenius, Panzendorf, do for pity's sake take away your Catechetical ware ; and say either nothing to the poor young Boy, or some small thing he will find to be beyond doubt when he can judge of it ! Fever, pestilence, are bad for the body; but Doubt, impious mutiny, doubly impious hypocrisy, are these nothing for the mind? Who Avould go about inculcating Doubt, unless he were far astray indeed, and much at a loss for emplo}Tnent ! But the sorest fact in Friedrich's schooling, the sorest, for the present, though it ultimately proved perhaps the most beneficent one, being well dealt with by the young soul, and nobly subdued to his higher uses, remains still to be set forth. "NMiich will be a long business, first and last ! 416 HIS ArrKKNTICESlIIP, first stage. H-'k IV. i7ia-i72a. CHArXEU xu. CnOWN-I'RINCE FALLS INTO DISFAVOR WITU PAPA. Those vivacities of young Fritz, his taste for iinisic, finery, those f\n-tive excursions into the doniuin of Latin ami forliid- (len thinirs. were distasteful and inconiprt'hrnsibiu to Fritnlrich "WiHu'hu: Where can such tilings end'/ Thry begin in diso- l)edirn(e and intolerable jicrversity ; they will be the ruin of Prussia and of Fritz ! — Here, in fact, has a great sorrow risen. We perceive the first small cracks of incurable divisions in the royal household; the breaking out of fountains of bitter- ness, which by and by spread wide enough. A young sprightly, capricious and vivacious Boy, inclined to self-will, luul it l>een iK-rmitted; developing himself into foreign tastes, into French airs and ways; very ill seen by the heavy-footed practical Germanic Majesty. The beginnings of this satl discrepancy are traceable from Friedrich's sixth or seventh year : " Not so dirty, Boy ! " And there could be no lack of growth in the mutual ill-humor, while the Boy himself continued gi-owing; enlarging in bulk and in activity of his own. Plenty of new children come, to divide our regard withal, and more are, coming; five new Princesses, wise little Ulrique the youngest of them (named of Sweden and the happy Swedish Treaty), whom we love much for her grave staid ways. Nay, next after Ulrique comes even a new Prince ; August Wilhelm, ten years younger thau Friedrich ; and is growing up much more according to the paternal heart. Pretty children, all of them, more or less ; and towardly, and comfortable to a Father ; — and the worst of them a paragon of beauty, in comparison to per- verse, clandestine, disobedient Fritz, with his French fopperies, flutiugs, and cockatoo fashions of hair ! — CiiAi-. xri. IX DISFAVOR WITH PAPA. 417 I7i;j-i72;j. And so the silent divulsion, silent on Fritz's part, exploding loud enough now and then on his Father's part, goes steadily on, splitting ever wider ; new offences ever superadding them- selves. Till, at last, the rugged Father has grown to hate the son ; and longs, with sorrowful indignation, that it were pos- sible to make August Wilhelm Crown-Prince in his stead. This Fritz ought to fashion himself according to his Father's pattern, a well-meant honest pattern ; and he does not ! Alas, your Majesty, it cannot be. It is the new generation come ; wliicli cannot live quite as the old one did. A perennial con- troversy in human life ; coeval with the genealogies of men. This little Boy should have been the excellent paternal Maj- esty's exact counter{)art ; resembling him at all points, "as a little sixpence does a big half-crown:" but we perceive he cannot. This is a new coin, with a stamp of its own. A sur- prising Fried rU-h d'or this ; and may pruve a good piece yet ; but will never be the half-crown your Majesty requires ! — Conceive a rugged thick-sided Squire Western, of supreme degree, — for this Squire W^estern is a hot Hohenzollern, and wears a crown royal ; — conceive such a burly ne-pliis^ultra of a Squire, with his broad-based rectitudes and surly irrefraga- bilities ; the honest German instincts of the man, convictions certain as the Fates, but capable of no utterance, or next to none, in words ; and that he produces a Son who takes into Voltairism, piping, fiddling and belles-lettres, with apparently a total contempt for Grumkow and the giant-regiment ! Sul- phurous rage, in gusts or in lasting tempests, rising from a fund of just implacability, is inevitable. Such as we shall see. The Mother, as mothers will, secretly favors Fritz ; anxious to screen him in the day of high-wind. Withal she has plans of her own in regard to Fritz, and the others ; being a lady of many plans. That of the " Double-Marriage," for ex- ample ; of marrj'ing her Prince and Princess to a Princess and Prince of the English-Hanoverian House ; it was a pleasant eligible plan, consented to by Papa and the other parties ; but when it came to be perfected by treaty, amid the VOL. V. 27 418 HIS APPREXTirEsirip, first stvge i^"<'k iv 17i;i-1723. rubs of external and internal polities, what new amazing dis- crepancies rose upon her poor cliildren and her ! Fearfully- aggravating the quarrel of Father and Son, almost to the fatal point. Of that " Double-Marriage," whirled up in a universe of intriguing diplomacies, in the "skirts of the Kaiser's liuge Spectre-Hunt," as we have called it, there will be sad things to say by and by. Plans her Majesty has ; and silently a will of her own. She loves all her children, especially Fritz, and would so love that they loved lier. — For the rest, all along, Fritz and AVil- helmina are sure allies. We perceive they have fallen into a kind of cipher-speech ; * they communicate with one another by tflegraphic signs. One of their words, " liiiijotin (Stumpy)," whom does the reader think it designates ? I'apa liimself, the Royal Majesty of Prussia, Friedricli Wilhebn^ 1., he to his rebellious children is tyrant "Stumpy," and no better; being indeed short of stature, and growing ever thicker, and surlier in these provocations ! — Such incurable discrepancies have risen in the Berlin Pal- ace : fountains of bitterness flowing ever wider, till they made life all bitter for Son and for Father ; necessitating the proud Son to liypocrisies towards his terrible I'ather, which were very foreign to the proud youth, had there been any otlier resource. But there was none, now or afterwards. Even when the young man, driven to reflection and insight by intol- erable miseries, had begun to recognize the worth of his surly Rhadamanthine Father, and the intrinsic wisdom of much that he had meant with him, the Father hardly ever could, or could only by tits, completely recognize the Son's worth. Rugged suspicious Papa requires always to be humored, cajoled, even when our feeling towards him is genuine and loj'al. Fried- rich, to the last, we can perceive, has to assume masquerade in addressing him, in writing to him, — and in spite of real love, must have felt it a relief when such a thing was over. That is, all along, a sad element of Friedrich's education ! Out of which there might have come incalculable damage to ' Me'inoires de Bnreith, i. 168. CiiAi-. XIII. RESULTS OF HIS SCHOOLING. 419 1713-1723. the young man, had his natural assimilative powers, to extract benefit from all things, been less considerable. As it was, lie gained self-help from it ; gained reticence, the power to keep Jiis own counsel ; and did not let the hypocrisy take hold of liini, or be other than a hateful compulsory masquerade. At an uncommonly early age, he stands before us accomplished in endurance, for one thing; a very bright young Stoic of his sort ; silently prepared for the injustices of men and things. And as for the masquerade, let us hope it was essentially fcju'ign even to the skin of flie man ! The reader will judge as he goes on. "t/e ii'ai jamais tromjie personne durant ma vie, I have never deceived anybody during my life ; still less will I deceive posterity," * writes Friedrich when his head was now grown very gray. ClLVrTER XTIT. RESULTS OF TIIK CKOWX-PKIXCE's SCHOOLING. Neither as to intellectual culture, in Duhan's special sphere, and with all Duhan's good-will, was the opportunity extremely golden. It cannot be said that Friedrich, who spells in the way we saw, " asteure " for " a cette heure^^ has made shining acquisitions on the literary side. However, in the long-run it becomes clear, his intellect, roving on devious courses, or plodding along the prescribed tram-roads, had been wide awake ; and busy all the while, bringing in abundant pabulum of an irregular nature. He did learn " Arithmetic," " Geography," and the other useful knowledges that were indispensable to him. He knows History extensively ; though rather the Roman, French, and general European as the French have taught it him, than that of " Hessen, Brunswick, England." or even the " Electoral and Royal House of Brandenburg," which Papa had recommended. 1 M^moires depuis la Paix de Hubertsbourg, 1763-1774 (Avant-Propos), CEurres, vii. 8. 420 HIS AI'I'RENTICE.SIIII'. FIUST STAGE. H-'k IV. 171.J-17-2:«. IK- read History, wlu-re he could find it rcjulable, to tlie end of his life; und ha<l early Ix't^m reading it. — immensely eagrr to learn, in his little h^'ad, what strange things had been, auti were, in this strange Planet he was come into. We notice with plejisun- a lively taste for facts in the little iJoy ; which continued to be the taste of the Man, in an emi- nent degree. Fictions he also knows; an eager extensive reader of what is called Poetry, Lit«'rature, and hims»df a jht- formt'r in that province by and by: but it is observable how much of liealism there always is 'in his Literature; how close, here as elsewhere, he always hangs on the practical truth of things ; how Fiction itself is either an exjMtsitory illustrative giirment of Fact, or else is of no value to him. Komantic readers of his Literature are much disa])iM)ijited in conse- quence, and ])ronounce it bad Lit»'rature ; — and sure enougli, in several sensj's, it is not to be called good ! Itad Literature, they say ; shallow, barren, most unsatisfactory to a reader of romantic appetites. Which is a correct verdict, as to the ro- mantic s pp4'tites and it. lint to the man Inmself, this quality of mind is of immense moment and advantage ; and forms truly the b;usis of all he w;is good for in life. Once for all, he has no pleasure in »lreams, in parti-colored clouds and noth- ingnesses. All his curiosities gravitite towards what exists, what has iH'ing and ivality round him. That is the signifi- cant thing to him ; that he would right gladly know. U-ing already related to that, as friend or us enemy; and feeling an unconscious indissoluble kinship, who shall say of what im- iwrtance, towards all that. For lie too is a little Fact, big as can be to himself ; and in the whole Universe there exists nothing as fact but is a fellow-creature of his. That our little Fritz tends that way, ought to give Nol- tenius, Finkensttdn and other interested parties, the very highest satisfaction. It is an excellent symptom of his intel- lect, this of gravitating irresistibly towanls realities. Better symptom of its quality (whatever qunnfifr/ there be of it), human intellect cannot show for itself. However it may go with Literature, and satisfaction to readers of romantic appe- titav, this young soul promises to become a successful Worker I ( ii.vf. XIII. * RESULTS OF HIS SCHOOLING. 421 ni:j-l72;i. one day, and to do something under the Sun. For work is of an extremely untietitious nature ; and no mau can roof his house with clouds and moonshine, so as to turn the rain from him. It is also to be noted that his stj'le of French, though he sjxdt it so ill, and never had the least mjistery of punctua- tion, has real merit. Rapidity, easy vivacity, perfect clear- ness, here and there a certain quaint expressiveness : on the \vh(Ji', he had learned the Art of Si)eech, from those old French Governesses, in those old and new French Books of his. A\'e can als(j say of his Literature, of what he hastily wrote in mature life, that it has much more worth, even as Literature, than the common romantic appetite assigns to it. A vein of distinct sense, and good interior articulation, is never wanting in that thin-Howing utterance. The true is well riddled out from amitl the false ; the important and es- sential are alone given us, the unimportant and superfluous honestly thrown away. A lean wiry veracity (an immense advantage in any Literature, good or l)ad !) is everywhere beneticently observable; the tjuallti/ of the intellect always extremely good, whatever its quantity may be. It is true, his spelling — '• (/,s7('M>-e "' for '• « cette hcure" — is very bad. And as for punctuation, he never could under- stand the mystery of it ; he merely scatters a few commas and dashes, as if they were shaken out of a pepper-box upon his ])age, and so leaves it. These are deficiencies lying very bare to criticism ; and I confess I never could completely under- stand them in such a man. He that would have ordered arrest for the smallest speck of mud on a man's buff-belt, in- dignant that any pipe-clayed portion of a man should not be perfectly pipe-clayed : how could he tolerate false spelling, and commas shaken as out of a pepper-box over his page ? It is probable he cared little about Literature, after all ; cared, at least, only about the essentials of it; had practically no ambition for himself, or none considerable, in that kind; — and so might reckon exact obedience and punctuality, in a soldier, more important than good spelling to an amateur 422 Ills APPKKNTIf'ESIIIP, FIRST STAGE. K<h.k IV. literary man. He never minded snuff upon his own chin, not even upon liis ^vaistcoat and breeches: A merely super- ficial thing, n(jt Avorth bothering about, in the press of real business ! — That Friedrich's Course of Education did on the whole prosper, in spite of every drawback, is known to all men. He came out of it a man of clear and ever-improving intelli- gence; equipped with knowledge, true in essentials, if not punctiliously exaet, upon all manner of practical and specu- lative things, to a degree not only un('xami)led iunong modern Sovereign Princes so called, but such as to distinguish him even among the studious class. Nay many '• MenH)f-Letters" have made a reputation for themselves with but a fraction of tlie real knowledge concerning men and thing??, past and j)res- ent, which Friedrich was possessed of. Already at the time when action came to be demanded of him, he was what we must call a well-informed and cultivated man ; which charac- ter he never ceased to merit more and more ; and as for the action, and the actions, — we shall see whether he was fit for these or not. One point of supreme importance in his education was all along made sure of, by the mere presence and ])residcnce of Friedrich Wilhelm in the business : That there was an inflexi- ble law of discipline everywhere active in it ; that there was a Spartan rigor, frugality, veracity inculcated upon him. " Economy he is to study to the bottom ; " and not only so, but, in another sense of the word, he is to practise economy ; and does, or else suffers for not doing it. Economic of liis time, first of all : generally every other noble economy will follow out of that, if a man once understand and practise that. Here was a truly valuable foundation laid ; and as for the rest, Nature, in spite of shot-rubbish, had to do what she could in the rest. But Nature had been very kind to this new child of hers. And among the confused hurtful elements of his Schooling, there was always, as we say, this eminently salutary and most potent one, of its being, in the gross, ari Apprenticeship to CHA1-. XIII. RESULTS OF HIS SCHOOLING. 423 I7ia-i7'2a. FrU'drich W'dhelm the Rhaclamanthine Spartan King, who hates from his heart all empty Nonsense, and Unveracity most of all. Which one element, well aided by docility, by openness and loyalty of mind, on the Pupil's pai't, proved at length sulticient to conquer the others ; as it were to buin up all the others, and reduce their sour dark smoke, abouniling every- where, into flame and illumination mostly. This radiant swilt-paced 8on owed much to the surly, irascible, sure-looted Father that bred him. Friedrich did at length see into Fried- rich AVilhelm, across the abstruse, thunderous, sulphurous embodiments and accompaniments of the man; — and proved himself, in all manner of important respects, the lilial sequel of Friedrich Wilhelm. These remarks of a certain Editor are l>erhaps worth adding : — " Friedrich Wilhelm, King of Prussia, did not set up for a I*estalozzi ; and the plan of Education for his Son is open to manifold objections. Nevertheless, as Schoolmasters go, I much prefer him to most others we have at present. The wild man had discerned, with his rugged natural intelligence (not wasted away in the idle element of speaking and of being spoken to, but kept wholesomely silent for most part). That human education is not, and cannot be, a thing of vocahles. That it is a thing of earnest facts ; of ca])abilities developed, of habits established, of dispositions well dealt Avith, of ten- dencies confirmed and tendencies repressed : — a laborious sepa- rating of the character into two firtuaments ; sliutting down the subterranean, well down and deep ; an earth and waters, and what lies under them ; then your everlasting azure sky, and immeasurable depths of aether, hanging serene overhead. To make of the human soul a Cosmos, so far as possible, that was Friedrich Wilhelm's dumb notion : not to leave the human, soul a mere Chaos ; — how much less a Singing or eloquently Spouting Chaos, which is ten times worse than a Chaos left muie, confessedly chaotic and not cosmic ! To develop the man into doing something ; and withal into doing it as the Universe and the Eternal Laws require, — which is but an- other name for really doing and not merely seeming to do 424 HIS APPKE.NTlCESHir, FIRST STA(ii:. li'«-'K IV. 17i;J-1723. it : — that was Friediieh Wilhclm's dumb notion : and it was, I can assure you, very far from being a foolish one, though there was no Latin in it, and much of Prussian pipe-clay ! " But the Congress of Cambrai is met, and much else is met and parted : and the Kaiser's Spectre-IIunt, especially his Duel with the She-Dragon of Spain, is in full course ; and it is time we were saying something of the Double-Marriage in a directly narrative way. BOOK V. DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT, AND WHAT ELEMENT IT FELL INTO. 1723-1726. CHAPTER I. DOUBLE-MARRIAGE IS DECIDED ON. "Wr saw George I. at Berlin in October, 1723, looking out upon his little Grandson drilling the Cadets there ; but we did not mention what important errand had brought his Majesty thither. Visits between Hanover and Berlin had been frequent for a long time back ; the young Queen of Pi-ussia, sometimes with her husband, sometimes without, running often over to see her Father ; who, even after his accession to the English crown, was generally for some months every year to be met with in those favorite regions of his. He himself did not much visit, being of taciturn splenetic nature : but this once he had agi-eed to return a visit they had lately made him, — where a certain weighty Business had been agreed upon, withal ; which his Britannic Majesty was to consummate for- mally, by treaty, when the meeting in Berlin took effect. His Britannic Majesty, accordingly, is come ; the business in hand is no other than that thrice-famous " Double-Marriage " of Prussia with England ; which once had such a sound in the ear of Rumor, and still bulks so big in the archives of the Eighteenth Century ; which worked such woe to all parties concerned in it ; and is, in fact, a first-rate nuisance in the 420 DOUBLE-MAliKlAGE riiOJECT STAKTED. Book V. 172.i-17'26. History of tluit poor Century, as written hitherto. Nuisance deiuauding urgently to be abated ; — were that well possible at present. \\'hich, alas, it is not, to any great degree ; there being an iini>ortant young Friedrich inextricably wrapt up in it, to whom it was of such vital or alnjost fatal importance ! Without a Friedrich, the affair could be reduced to something like its real size, and recorded in a few j)ages ; or might even, with advantage, be forgotten altogether, and become zero. More gigantic instance of much ado alxiut nothing has seldom occurred in human annals ; — had not there been a Friedrich in the heart of it. Crown-Prince Friedrich is still very young for nuirriage- speculatious on his score : but Mamma h:is thought good to take matters in time. And so we shall, in the next ensuing parts of this y>oor History, have to hear almost as much about Marriage as in the foolishest Three-volume Novel, and almost to still less purpose. For indeed, in that particular, Friedrich's young Life may Ikj called a Rnmanre jiunrf htwLs-or'er-head ; — Marriage being the one event there, round which all events turn, — but turn in the inverse or reverse way (as if the Devil were in them) ; not only towards no happy goal for him or ^lamma, or us, but at last towards hardly any goal at all for anyl>ody I So mad did the affair grow; — and is so madly recorded in those inextricable, dateless, chaotic Books. We have now come to regions of Narrative, which seem. to consist of murky Nothini^ncss put on boil ; not land, or water, or air, or tire, but a tumultuously whirling commixture of all the lour; — of immense extent too. Whicli must Iw got crossed, in some human manner. Courage, patience, good reader ! Queen Sophie Dorothee has taken Time by the Forelock. Already, for a dozen years, this matter has been treated of. Queen Sophie Dorothee, ever since the birth of her Wilhel- mina, has had the notion of it ; and, on her first visit after- wards to Hanover, proposed it to " Princess Caroline,*' — Queen Caroline of England who was to be, and who in due course was j — an excellent accomplished Brandenburg-Anspach Chap. I. DOUBLE-MARRIAGE IS DECIDED ON. 427 172a-1726. Lady, fumiliiir from of old in the Prussian Court : " You, Caro- line, Cousin dear, have a little Prince, Fritz, or let us call him Fred, since he is to be English ; little Fred, who will one day, if all go right, be King of England. He is two years older than my little AN'ilhelmina : why should not they wed, and the two chief Protestant Houses, and Nations, thereby be united ? " Princess Caroline wa-s very willing ; so was Elec- tress Sophie, the Great-Grandmother of both the parties ; so were the Georges, Father and Grandfather of Fred: little YvvA himself was highly charmed, when told of it ; even little Wilhelmina, with her dolls, looked pleasantly demure on the occasion. So it remained settled in fact, though not in form ; and little Fred (a florid milk-faced foolish kind of Boy, I guess) matle presents to his little Prussian Cousin, wrote bits of love- letters to her ; and all along afterwards fancied himself, and at length ardently enough became, her little lover and in- tended, — always rather a little fellow: — to which sentiments "Willielmiuasignities that she responded with the due maidenly inditference, but not in an offensive manner. After our Prussian Fritz's birth, the matter took a still closer form : '* You, dear Princess Caroline, you have now two little Princesses again, either of whom might suit my little Fritzchen ; let us take Amelia, the second of them, who is nearest his age ? " " Agreed ! " answered Princess Caroline again. " Agreed ! " answered all the parties interested : and so it was settled, that the ;Marriage of Prussia to England should be a Double one, Fred of Hanover and England to "Wilhelmiua, Fritz of Prussia to Amelia ; and children and pai-ents lived thenceforth in the constant understanding that such, in due course of years, was to be the case, though noth- ing yet was formally concluded by treaty upon it.^ Queen Sophie Dorothee of Prussia was always eager enough for treaty, and conclusion to her scheme. True to it, she, as needle to the pole in all weathers ; sometimes in the wildest weather, poor lady. Nor did the Hanover Serene Highnesses, at any time, draw back or falter : but having very soon got wafted across to England, into new more complex conditions, 1 Pollnitz, Memoiren, ii. 193. 428 DOUBLE-MAHRIAOE PROJECT STARTED. Hnnx V. lT:il-172(). and wider anxieties in that new country, they were not so impressively eager as Queen Sophie, on this interesting point. Electress Sophie, judicious Great-Grandmother, was not now there : Electress Sophie had died about a month before Queen Anne ; and never saw the English Canaan, much as she had longed for it. George I., her son, a taciturn, ratlier splenetic oldorly Gentleman, very foreign in England, and oftenest ratlier sulky there and elsewhere, was not in a humor to be forward in that particular business. George I. had got into quarrel with his Prince of Wales, Fred's Father, — him who is one day to be George II., always a rather foolish little Prince, though his Wife Caroline wjia AVisdom's self in a manner : — George I. had otlier much more urgent cares than that of marrying his disobedient foolish little Prince of Wales's offspring ; juid he always jtlejuled difficulties. Acts of Parliament that would be needed, and tho like, whenever Sophie I)i>rotiiee came to visit him at Hanover, and urge this matter. The ta<.'iturn, inarticulately thoughtful, rather sidky old Gentleman, he had weighty burdens lying on him ; felt fretted and giilled, in many ways ; and had found life, Electoral and even Royal, a deceptive sumptuosity, little better than a more or less extensive " feast of shells,^' next to no real meat or drink left in it to tho liungry heart of man. AVife sitting half-frantic in the Ciustle of Ahlden, waxing more and more into a gray-haired Mega3ra (with whom Sophie Doro- thee under seven seals of secrecy corresponds a little, and even the Prince of Wales is suspected of wishing to corre- spond) ; a foolish disobedient Prince of Wales ; Jacobite Pre- tender people with their Mar Rel>ellions, with their Allx^roni combinations ; an English Parliament jangling and debating unnirlodiously, whose very language is a mystery to us, noth- ing but Walpole in dog-latin to help us through it : truly it is not a Heaven-on-Earth altogether, much as ^lother Sophie and her foolish favorite, our disobedient Prince of Wales, might long for it ! And the Hanover Tail, the Robethons, Berns- torfs, Fabrices, even the Blackamoor Porters, — they are not beautiful either, to a taciturn Majesty of some sense, if he cared about their doings or them. Voracious, plunderous, all O.iAr. I. DOUBLE-MARKIAGE IS DECIDED ON. 429 VSi-l~-2r,. of them ; like hounds, long hungry, got into a rich house which has no master, or a mere imaginary one. " Mentiris impu- dentissime," said Walpole in his dog-latin once, in our Koyal presence, to one of these official plunderous gentlemen, " You tell an impudent lie ! " — at which we only laughed.^ His Britannic Majesty by no means wanted sense, had not his situation been incurably absurd. In his young time he had served creditably enough against the Turks ; twice com- manded tlie Iivichs-Xvmy in the ^lurlborough Wars, and did at least testify Ids indignation at the inefficient state of it. His Foreign I'olitics, so called, were not madder than those of others, liremen and Verdeu he had bought a bargain ; and it was natural to protect them by such resources as he had, Eng- lish or other. Then there was the World-Spectre of the Pre- tender, stretching huge over Creation, like the Brocken-Spectre in hazy weather ; — against whom how i)rotect yourself, except by cannonading for the Kaiser at Messina ; by rushing into every brabble that rose, and hiring the parties with money to tight it out well ? It was the established method in that mat- ter ; method not of George's inventing, nor did it cease with George. As to Domestic Politics, except it were to keep quiet, and eat what the gods had provided, one does not find that he liad any. — The sage Leibnitz would very fain have followed him to England ; but, for reasons indifferently good, could never be allowed. If the truth must be told, the sage Leibnitz ha(-l a wisdom which now looks dreadfully like that of a wise- acre ! In ^lathematics even, — he did invent the Differential Calculus, but it is certain also he never could believe in New- ton's System of the Universe, nor would read the Principia at all. For the rest, he was in qiiarrel about Xewton with the Koyal Society here ; ill seen, it is probable, by this sage and the other. To the Hanover Official Gentlemen devouring their English dead-horse, it did not appear that his presence could be useful in these parts.* ^ Horace Walpole, Reminiscences of George I. and George II. (London, 1788.) ^ Guhrauer, Gottfried Freiherr von Leibnitz, eine Biographie (Breslau, 1842) i Ker of Kersland, Memoirs of Secret Transactions (London, 1727). 430 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT STARTED. B<x>k V. 172;;-172G. Nor are the Hanover womankind his Majesty has about him, quasi-wives or not, of a soul-entrancing character ; far indeed from that. Two in chief there are, a fat and a lean : the lean, called " Maypole " by the English populace, is "Duchess of Kendal," with excellent pension, in tiie English I'eerages ; Schulenburg the former German name of her ; decidedly a quasi-wife (intiuential, against her will, in that sad Kiiuigs- niark Tragedy, at Hanover long since), who is fallen thin and old. ** Maypole," — or bare Hojvpole, with the leaves all stript ; lean, long, hard ; — though she once had her summer verdures too ; ami still, juj an old quasi-wife, or were it only as an old article of furniture, has her worth to the royal mind. Schulenburgs, kindred of hers, are high in the military line ; some of whom we nuiy meet. Then besides this lean one, there is a fat ; of wliom Walpole (Horace, who had seen her in boyhood) gives description. Big staring black eyes, with rim of circular eyebrow, like a coach- wheel round its nave, very black the eyebrows also ; vast red face ; cheeks running into neck, neck blending indistinguisha- bly with stomach, — a mere cataract of fluid tallow, skinned over and curiously dizened, according to Walpole's portraiture. This charming creature, Kielmannsegge by German name, was called ''Countess of Darlingtun" in this country — with ex- cellent pension, as was natural. They all had i)ensions : even Queen Sojdiie Dorothee, I have noticed in our State-l'ajx-r Office, has her small pension, "£8(X) a year on the Irish Estalt- lishment : " Irish Establishment will never miss such a i)it- tance for our poor Child, and it may be useful over yonder ! — This Kielmannsegge Countess of Darlington was, and is, believed by the gossiping English to have been a second simul- taneous Mistress of his Majesty's ; but seems, after all, to have been his Half-Sister and nothing more. Half-Sister (due to Gentleman Ernst and a Countess Platen of bad Hanover fame) ; grown dreadfully fat ; but not without shrewdness, perhaps affection; and worth something in this dull foreign country, mere cataract of animal oils as she has become. These Two are the amount of his Britannic Majesty's resources in that matter ; resources surelv not extensive, after all ! — Chai>. 1. DOUBLE-MAIUUAGE IS DECIDED Ox\. 431 1723-1726. His Britannic Majesty's day, in St. James's, is not of an in- teresting sort to liim ; and every evening he comes precisely at a certain hour to drink beer, seasoned with a little tobacco, and the company of these two Avomen. Drinks diligently in a sipping way, says Horace; and smokes, with such dull speech as there may be, — not till he is drunk, but only perceptibly drunkish ; raised into a kind of cloudy narcotic Olympus, anul opaquely superior to the ills of life ; in which state he walks uncomplainingly to bed. Government, when it •can by any art be avoided, he rarely meddles with ; shows a rugged sagacity, where he does and must meddle : consigns it to AValpole iu dog-latin, — laughs at his " mentiris." This is the First George ; first triumph of the Constitutional Princi- ]de, which has since gone to such sublime heights among us, — heights wliich we at last begin to suspect might be depths, leading down, all men now ask : AVhitherwards ? A much- admired invention in its time, that of letting go the rudder, or setting a Avoodeu figure expensively dressed to take charge of it, anil discerning that the ship would sail of itself so much more easily! AVhich it will, if a peculiarly good sea-boat, in certain kinds of sea, — for a time. Till the Sinbad " Mag- netic Mountains" begin to be felt pulling, or the circles of Charybdis get you iu their sweep ; and then what an invention it Avas ! — This, we say, is the ncAV Sovereign Man, whom the English People, being in some perplexity about the Pope and other points, have called in from Hanover, to walk before them in the ways of heroism, and by command and by ex- ample guide Heavenwards their affairs and them. And they hope that he will do it ? Or perhaps that their affairs will go thither of their own accord ? Always a singular People ! — Poor George, careless of these ulterior issues, has always trouble enough Avith the mere daily details, Parliamentary in- solences, Jacobite plottings, South-Sea Bubbles ; and wishes to hunt, when he gets over to Hanover, rather than to make ^larriage-Treaties. Besides, as Wilhelmina tells us, they have filled him with lies, these Hanover Women and their emissa- ries : " Your Princess Wilhclraina is a monster of ill-temper, 482 DOUHLE-MAKKIAGE I'liUJECT STAHTKD. H'-k V. 172.J-1720. crooked in the back ami what not," say tliey. If there is to be a ^Marriage, double or single, these ImprojMir Females must iirst be persuaded to consent.* Ditheulties enough. And there is none to help ; Friedrieh Wilhelm cares little about tiie matter, though he has given his Ves, — Yes, suiee you will. But Sophie Dorothea is diligent and urgent, by all opi)ortu- nities; — and, at length, in 172.'J, the conjuncture is propitious. Domestic Jacobitism, in the shape of liishop Att«'rbury, has got itself well banished; AllK-roni and his big .schemes, years atro thev are blown into outer darkness; Charles XII. is well deail, and of our Bremen and Venlen no question henceforth ; even the Kaiser's Spectre-Hunt, or Spanish Duel, is at rest for the present, and the Congress of Cambrai is sittiiig, or trying all it can to sit : at home or abroad, there is nothing, not even "Wood's Irish Halfpence, as yet making noise. And on the other hand, Cz;ir Peter is runjored (not without foundation) to l)e ctming westward, with some huge armament; which, whether " intended for Sweden " or not, renders a I'russian alliance doubly valuable. And so now at la.st, in this favorable asjx-ct of the stars. King George, over at Herrenhausen, was by much management of his Daughter Sophie's, and after many hitches, brought to the mark. And Friedrieh Wilhelm came over too ; ostensibly to bring home his Queen, but in reality to hear his Father- in-law's compliance to the Double-Marriage, — for which his ]*russian Majesty is willing enough, if otliers are willing. ] 'raised be Heaven, King George ha.s a-^eed to everything; consents, one propitious day (Autumn ITL'.^, day not otherwise dated), — Czar Peter's Armament, and the (piestionable as- pects in France, perha]is quickening his volitions a little. I'pon which Friedrieh Wilhelni and Queen Sophie have re- turned home, content in that matter ; and expect shortly his Britannic ^lajesty's counter-visit, to perfect the details, and make a Treaty of it. His Britannic Majesty, we say, has in substance agreed to everything. And now, in the silence of Nature, the bro^Ti * Mifmoires tie Dartith. CiiAi'. 1. DUL'liLE-MAHUlAGE IS DECIDED UN. 483 1723. leaves of Octubor still hanging to the trees in a pietuiesque manner, anil Wood's Halfpence not yet begun to jingle in the Diapiei's Letters of Dean Swift, — his Britannic Majesty is exijeeted at Berlin. At Berlin; properly at Charlottenburg a pleasant rural or suburban Palace (built by his Britannic Majesty's late noble Sister, Sophie Charlotte, *'the Republi- can Queen," and named after her, as was once mentioned), a mile or two Southwest of that City. There they await King George's counter-visit. Poor Wilhelmina is in much trepidation about it ; and im- parts her poor little feelings, her anticipations and experi- ences, in readable terms : — " There came, in those weeks, one of the Duke of Glouces- ter's gentlemen to Berlin," — Duke of Gloucester is Fred our intended, not yet Prince of Wales, and if the reader should ever hear t)f a Jhihe of Edhihunjli., that too is Fred, — '* Duke of Gloucester's gentlemen to Berlin," says Wilhelmina : *' the Queen liad Soiree (Ajjjj'irtenwtU) ; he was presented to her as well ;is to me. He made me a very obliging compliment on his Master's part; I blushed, and answered only by a courtesy. The Queen, who had her eye on me, was very angry I had answered the Duke's compliments in mere silence ; and rated me sharply (/ru luvn ^« tete d^ importance) for it; and ordered me, under pain of her indignation, to repair that fault to-mor- row. I retired, all in tears, to my room ; exasperated against the Queen and against the Duke ; 1 swore I would never marry him, would throw myself at the feet— " And so on, as young ladies of vivacious temper, in extreme circumstances, are wont : — did speak, however, next day, to my Hanover gentleman about his Duke, a little, though in an embarrassed manner. Alas, I am yet but fourteen, gone the 3d of July last : tremu- lous as aspen-leaves; or say, as sheet-lightning bottled in one of the thinnest human skins ; and have no experience of foolish Dukes and affairs I — "Meanwhile," continues Wilhelmina, "the King of Eng- land's time of arrival was drawing nigh. We repaired, on the Cth of October, to Charlottenburg to receive him. The heart vol.. V. ''= 434 DOUHLE-MAKKIAGE PROJECT STAKTED. It<K.K V. Ucl. 1723. of me ki'pt bratiu;^', iiiid 1 \v;us in iTuel agitivtious. King George [my Gnindfiither, aiul Grand Uncle] airived on the 8th, about seven in the evening;" — dusky sliades already sinking over Nature everywhere, and all paths growing dim. Abundant flunkies, of course, rush out with torches or what is needful. " The King of Prussia, the Queen and all their Suite received him in the Court of the Palac^e, the 'Apart- ments ' being on the ground-floor. So soon ;ui he luul saluted tlie King and Queen, I was presented to him. He embraced me ; and turning to the Queen said to her, * Your tlaughter is very big of her age 1' He gave tlie Queen his hand, and led her into her apartment, whither everybody followed them. As soon :is I came in, he took a light from the tiilde, and surveyed me frtun head to foot. I stootl motionless as a statue, and was much put out of counti'nance. All this went on without his uttering the leivst word. Having thus piussed me in review, he atldressed him.self to my Hrother, whom he ciiressed much, and amused himself with, for a good while." Pretty little Grand- son this, your Majesty; — any future of history in this one, think you? '' 1," says WilhelmiiKV, "took the opiM)rtunity of slipping out;" — hojM'ful to gt^t away; but could not, the Queen having noticed. " The Qaeen made me a sign to follow her ; and passed into a neighl)oring apartment, where she hatl the English and Ger- mans of King George's Suite successively presented to her. After some Uilk with these gentlemen, she withdrew ; leaving me to entertain them, and saying: 'Speak English to my Daughter ; you will find she speaks it very well.' I felt much less embarrassed, once the Queen was gone; and j)icking iqi a little couriige, I entered into conversation with these Eng- lish. As I sjjoke their language like my mother-tongue, I got pretty well out of the affair, and everylx>dy seemed charmed with me. They made my eulogy to the Queen ; told her I had quite the English air, and was made to be their Sovereign one day. It was saying a great deal on their part : for these Eng- lish think themselves so much above all other i>eople, that they imagine they are paying a high compliment when they tell any one he has got English manners. ! Chap. I. DOUBLE-MAKKIAGE IS DECIDED ON. 435 t)ct. 1723. "Their King [my Grand papa] had got Spanish manners, I should say : he was of an extreme gravity, and hardly spoke a word to anybody. He saluted Madam Sonsfeld [my inval- uable tlu-ice-dear Governess] very coldly ; and asked her ' If I was always so serious, and if my humor was of the melan- choly turn ? ' ' Anything but that. Sire,' answered the other : ' but the respect she has for your Majesty prevents her from l)eiug as sprightly as she commonly is.' He wagged his head, and answered nothing. The reception he had given me, and this (question, of which I heard, gave me such a chill, that I never had the courage to speak to him," — was merely looked at with a candle by Grandpapa. '* We were summoned to supper at last, where this grave Sovereign still remained dumb. I'erhaps he was right, perliaps he was wrong ; but 1 think he followed the proverb, which says, lietter hold your tongue than speak badly. At the end of tlie repast he felt indisposed. The Queen would have per- suaded him to quit table ; they bandied compliments a good while on the point; but at last she threw down her napkin, and rose. The King of England naturally rose too ; but began to stagger ; the King of Prussia ran up to help him, all the company ran bustling about him ; but it was to no purpose : lie sank on his knees ; his peruke falling on one side, and his hat [or at least his head. ^ladara !] on the other. They stretched him softly on the floor ; where he remained a good hour without consciousness. The pains they took with him brou^^ht back his senses, by degrees, at last. The Queen and the King [of Prussia] were in despair all this while. Many have thought this attack was a herald of the stroke of apo- plexy which came by and by," — within four years from this date, and carried off his ^Majesty in a very gloomy manner. '' They passionately entreated him to retire now," continues Wilhelmina ; " but he would not by any means. He led out the Queen, and did the other ceremonies, according to rule ; had a very bad night, as we learned underhand ; " but persisted stoi- cally nevertheless, being a crowned Majesty, and bound to it. He stoically underwent four or three other days, of festival, sight-seeing, " pleasure " so called j — among other sights, saw 436 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT STARTED. Book V. Oct. 1723. little Fritz drilling his Cadets at Berlin; — and on the fourth day (12th October, 1723, so thinks Wilhelniina) fairly " signed the Treaty of the Double-Marriage," English Townshend and the Prussian Ministry having settled all things.* " Signed the Treaty," thinks Wilhelniina, " all things being settled." Which is an error on the part of Wilhelniina. Set- tled many or all things were by Townshend and the others : but before signing, there was Parliament to be apprised, there were formalities, expenditure of time ; between the cup and the lip, such things to intervene ; — and the sad fact is, the Double-Marriage Treaty never was signed at all ! — However, all things being now settled ready for signing, his Britannic Majesty, next morning, set off for the Giihrde again, to try if there were any hunting possible. This authentic glimpse, one of the few that are attainable, of their first Constitutional King, let English readers make the most of. The act done proved dreadfully momentous to our little Eriend, his Grandson ; and will much concern us ! Thus, at any rate, was the Treaty of the Double-Marriage settled, to the point of signing, — thought to be as good as signed. It was at the time when Czar Peter was making armaments to burn Sweden; when Wood's Halfpence (on behalf of her Improper Grace of Kendal, the lean Quasi-Wife, " Maypole " or Hop-polo, who had run short of money, as she often did) were about beginning to jingle in Ireland ; "^ when Law's Bubble " System " had fallen, well flaccid, into Chaos again ; when Dubois the unutterable Cardinal had at length died, and d'Orleans the unutterable Regent was unexpectedly about to do so, — in a most surprising Sodom-and-Gomorrah manner.* Not to mention other dull and vile phenomena of 1 "Wilhelmina, M€moires de Bareith, i. 83, 87. — In Coxe {Memoirs of Sir Robert WaJpole, London, 1798), ii. 266, 272, 273, are some faint hints, from Townshend, of this Berlin journey. 2 Coxe (i. 216, 217, and supply the dates); Walpole to Townshend, 13th October, 1723 (ib. ii. 275) : " The Drapier's Letters" are of 1724. 3 2d December, 1723 : Barbier, Journal Historique du Regne de Louis XV. (Paxis, 1847), i. 192, 196; Lacretelle, Hisioirede France, 18"^ siede ; &c. « Chap. I DOUBLE-MAllRIAGE IS DECIDED ON. 437 Oct. 1723. putrid rermentation, which were transpiring, or sluttishly bub- bling up, in poor benighted rotten Europe here or there ; — since these are sufficient to date the Transaction for us ; and what does not stick to our Fritz and his affairs it is more pleasant to us to forget than to remember, of such an epoch. Hereby, for the present, is a great load rolled from Queen Sophie Dorothee's heart. One, and that the highest, of her ab- struse negotiations, cherished, labored in, these fourteen years, she .has brought to a victorious issue, — has she not ? Her poor Mother, once so radiant, now so dim and angry, shut in the Castle of Ahlden, does not approve this Double-Marriage ; not she for her part ; — as indeed evil to all Hanoverian inter- ests is now chiefly her good, poor Lady ; and she is growing more and more of a Megaera every day. With whom Sophie Dorothee has her own difficulties and abstruse practices ; but struggles always to maintain, under seven-fold secrecy, some thread of correspondence and pious filial ministration wherever possible ; that the poor exasperated Mother, wretchedest and angriest of women, be not quite cut off from the kinship of the living, but that some soft breath of pity may cool her burning heart now and then.^ A dark tragedy of Sophie's, this ; the Bluebeard Chamber of her mind, into which no eye but her own must ever look. Princess Amelia comes into the World. In reference to Queen Sophie, and chronologically if not otherwise connected with this Double-Marriage Treaty, I will mention one other thing. Her Majesty had been in fluctuating health, all summer ; unaccountable symptoms turning up in her Majesty's constitution, languors, qualms, especially a ten- dency to swelling or increase of size, which had puzzled and alarmed her Doctors and her. Friedrich Wilhelm, on con- clusion of the jNIarriage-Treaty, had been appointed to join his Father-in-law, Britannic George, at the Gohrde, in some three w^eeks' time, and have a bout of hunting. On the 8tli of ^ In Memoirs of Sophia Dorothea (London, 1845), ii. 385, 393, are certain fractions of this Correspondence, " edited " in an amazing manner. 438 DOUBLE-MAlUilAGE PROJECT STARTED. n«-"K V. November, bedtime being come, he kissed his Wilhelmina and the rest, by way of gootl-by ; intending to start very early on the morrow : — k>ng journey (150 mih'S or so), to be done all in one day. In the dead of the night, Queen Sophie was seized with dreailful colics, — pangs of colic or who knows what; — Fricdrifh Wilhclm is summoned ; rises in the highest alarm ; non«^ but the maids and he at hiuid to lu'lp; anil the colic, or whatever it may be, gets more and more dreatUul. Colic ? O i)Oor Sophie, it is travail, and no colic ; and a clever young Triucess is suddenly the result I None but Fried- rich Wilhelm luid the maid for midwives ; mother and infant, nevertheless, doing perfectly well. Friedrich Wilhelm did not go on the morrow, but next day ; laughed, ever and anon in loud haliiis, at the part he had Xx'vn playing; and w.'us very glad and merry. How th»» exi)erienced Sopliie, whose twelfth child this is, came to commit such an oversight is unaccountar ble; but the fact is certain, and made a merry noise in Coui't circles.' The clever little Princess, now born in this manner, is known by name to idle readers. She was christi-ned Amelia ; and we shall hear of her in time coming. TUit there was, as the Cir- cuhiting Libraries still intimate, a certain loud-spoken braggart of tlie histrionic-heroic sort, called Baron Trenek, windy, rash, and not without mendacity, who has endeavored to associate her with his own transcendent and not undeserved ill-luck ; hinting the j)oor Frincess into a s;ul fame in that way. For which, it would now appear, there was no basis whatever ! Most condemnable Trenek ; — whom, however, Robespierre guillotined finally, and so settled that account and others. Of Sophie Dorothee's twelve children, including this Amelia, there are now eight living, two boys, six girls ; and after Amelia, two others, boys, are successively to come : ten in all, who grew to be men and women. Of whom perhaps I had better subjoin a List ; now that the eldest Boy and Girl are about to get settled in life ; and therewith close this Chapter. 1 Polluitz, ii. 199; WUlielmina, i. 87, 88. C'HAi-. I. DOUBLE-MARRIAGE IS DECIDED ON. 439 1723-1720. Friedrich Wilhelm^s Ten Children. Marriage to Sophie Dorothee, 28th November, 170G. A little Priuce, bom 2^iU November, 1707, died in six months. Then came, 1°. FuEDEUiKA Sophie Wilhelmina, ultimately Margravine of Bai- rcuth, after strange adventures in the marriage-treaty way. Wrote her Mt'moires there, about 1744. Of whom we shall hear much. Left a Daughter, her one child ; Daughter badly married, to " Karl reigning Dul«* of Wiirtemberg " (Poet Schiller's famous Serene Highness there), from whom she had to st'panite, &c., with anger enougli, by and by. After Wilhelmina in the Family series came a second i'nnce, who died in tlic ch-vcnth niontli. 'IMnn, tiltli January, 171x1, 2**. Fkieokich. After whom (I71'J) a little Princess, who died in few months. And then, 8°. Fur.DEUlKA LoiiSA, born 28th September, 1714; a^c now about nine. Margravine of Anspach, 30th May, 17'J"J ; Widow 17r)7. Her one Son, born 173(5, was the Ladij- Craven^ s Anspach. Frederika Lov's^a dii'd 4tli I' hriary. i:-l. 4°. Pmi.ii'i'iNA C'liAKLOTTE, bom 13th of March, 1710; beca.rre Dueliess of Brunswick (Imt Husband was Eldest Brother of the ''Print,. Ferdinand" so famous in England in the Seven-Years War); her So.< was the Duke wlio invaded France in 171)2, and was tragically hurleu/ to min in the Battle of Jena, 18(XJ. The Mother lived till 1801 ; Widow since 1780. After whom, in 1717, ai;ain a little Prince, who died within two years (our Fritz tlien seven, — probably the first time Death ever came before him, practic^iUy into his little thoughts in this world) : then, 5°. Sophie Dorothee Makia, bom2.Jih January, 1719; Margravine of Schwedt, 1734 (eldest Marirraf of Schwedt, mentioned above as a comrade of the Crown-Prince). Her life not very happy; she died 1765. Left no son (Brother-in-hiw succeeded, last of the Schwedt Margraves) : her Daughter, wediled to Prince Friedrich Eugen, a Prussian Officer, Cadet of Wurtemberg and ultimately Heir there, is Ancestress of the Wurtemberg Sovereignties that now are, and also (by one of 'her daughters married to Paul of Russia) of all the Czar kindred of our tune.^ G°. Louisa Ulrique, born 24th July, 1720 ; married Adolf FrieOtTch, Heir- Apparent, subsequently King of Sweden, 17th July, 1744; Qaeei. 1 Preuss, iv. 278 ; Erman, T7« de Sophie Charlotte, p. 272. 440 DOUIJLE-MAKKIAGE PROJECT STARTED. Book V. 172;;-1726. (lio having acceded) Gtli April, 17.")! ; Widow 1771 ; died, at Stockholm, IGth July, 1782. Mother of the suhsequent Kiugs; her Grandsoa tho Deposed.^ 7°. August Wimifxm, lx>ni 9th August, 172'2; Heir- Apparent after Friedrich (so d«'chind hy Friedrich, .'l()th Juue, 17-1-1); Father of the Kings who have since followed. He himself died, in siid circunistauces, as we shall see, 12th Juno, 1758. 8**. Anna Amelia, bom ihh November, 1723, — (.n tho tenns we have seen. D°. FuinDUicH Hkinkicii Lidwk;, l>oru Ic*th January, 1720; — tho famed Prince Henri, of whom we shall hear. 10°. August Ferdinand, bom 23d .May, 17;?<): a brilliant enongh little soldier under his Hrother, full of spirit and talent, but liable to weak health; — was Father of the '' Prince Louis Fenlinand," a tragic Failure of something considerable, who went off in Liberalism, wit, iu high sentiment, expenditure and debauchery, greatly t<>the iuliuiration of some persons ; and at length rushed desperate up(ui the French, and found his «iuietU3 (10th October, IdOti), four days before the Battle of Jena. CHAPTER IL A KAISER IIUXTING SHADOWS. Treaty of Double-Marriagf is reatly for signing, once the needful Parliameut;vry preliulings are gone through; Treaty is signed, thinks "Wilhelmina, — forgetting the distance be- tween cup and lip ! — As to signing, or even to burning, and giving up the thought of signing, alas, how far are we yet from tliat ! Imperial spectre-huntings and the politics of most European Cabinets will connect themselves with that; and send it wandering wide enough, — lost in such a jungle of intrigues, pettifoggings, treacheries, diplomacies domestic and foreign, as the course of true-love never got entangled in before. The whole of which extensive Cabinet operations, covering square miles of paper at this moment, — having nevertheless, 1 CErtel, p. 8.3 ; Hiibner, tt. 91, 227. Chap. II. A KAISER HUNTING SHADOWS. 441 172a-172U. alter ten years of effort, ended in absolute zero, — were of no worth even to the managers of them; and are of less than none to any mortal now or henceforth. So that the method of treating them becomes a problem to History. To pitch them utterly out of window, and out of memory, never to be mentioned in human speech again: this is the manifest prompting of Nature ; — and this, were not our poor Crown- Prince and one or two others involved in them, would be our ready and thrice-joyful course. Surely the so-called " Politics of Europe " in tliat day are a thing this Editor would other- wise, with his whole soul, forget to all eternity ! " Putrid fermentation," ending, after the endurance of much mal-odor, in mere zero to j'ou and to every one, even to the rotting bodies themselves : — is there any wise Editor that would connect liimself with that ? These are the fields of History whicli are to be, so soon as humanly possible, suppressed ; which only iMephistophcles, or the bad Genius of Mankind, can contemplate with pleasure. Let us strive to touch lightly the chief summits, here and there, of that intricate, most empty, mournful Business, — which was really once a Fact in practical Europe, not the mere nightmai-e of an Attorney's Dream; — and indicate, so far as indispensable, how the young Friedrich, Friedrich's Sister, Father, Mother, were tribulated, almost heart-broken and done to death, by means of it Imperial Majesty on the Treaty of Utrecht. Kaiser Karl VI., head of the Holy Eomish Empire at this time, was a handsome man to look upon ; whose life, full of expense, vicissitude, futile labor and adventure, did not prove of much use to the world. Describable as a laborious futility rather. He was second son of that little Leopold, the solemn little Herr in red stockings, who had such troubles, frights, and runnings to and fro with the sieging Turks, liberative Sobieskis, acquisitive Louis Fourteenths ; and who at length ended in a sea of futile labor, which they call the Spanish- Succession War'. ■ 442 DOUBLE-MAKKLVGE riiUJECT STARTED. B.x.k V. 172;;-I72r,. This Karl, second son, had been appointed " King of Spain "' in that futile business ; and with much sublimit}', though internally in an impoverished condition, he proceeded towanls Spain, landing in England to get cash for the outfit ; — arrived in Spain; and roved about there as Titular King for some years, with the fighting IVterboroughs, Gahrays, Stah- rembergs ; but did no good there, neither he nor his Peter- boroughs. At length, liis Brother Joseph, Father Leopold's successor, having died,' Karl came home from Sjtain to Im« Kaiser. At which i»oint, Karl would liuve been wise to give up his Titular Kingship in Spain ; for he never got, nor will get, anything but futile labor from hanging to it. He did liang to it nevertheless ; and still, at this date of George's visit and long afterwards, hangs, — with notable obstinacy. To the woe of men and nations : punishment doubtless of his sins and theirs ! — Kaiser Karl slirieked more amazement and indignation, when the Englisli tired of lighting for him and it. When the English said to their great Marlborough : '• Enough, you sorry Marlborough! You have beaten Louis XIV. to the suppleness of wash-leather, at our bidding ; that is true, and that may have had its tlitticulties : but, after all, we prefer to have the thing preci-sely as it would have been without any fighting. You, therefore, what is the good of you ? You are a — jK^rson whom we fling out like sweepings, now that our eyesight returns, and accuse of common stealing. Go and be—!" Kothing ever had so disgusted and astonished Kaiser Karl as this treatment, — not of ^larlborough, whom he regarded only as he would have done a pair of military boots or a holster-pistol of superior excellence, for the uses that were in him, — but of the Kaiser Karl his oAvn sublime self, the heart and focus of Political Nature ; left in this manner, now when the sordid English and Dutch declined si»onding blood and money for him farther. " Ungrateful, sordid, inconceivable souls," answered Karl, '• was there ever, since the early Christian times, such a martyr as you have now made of me ! " ' i:th Ai-ril, 1711. « Chap. II. A KAlSEli HUNTING SHADOWS. 443 1723-172G. So answered Karl, in diplomatic groaus and shrieks, to all ends of Europe. But the sulkj- English and Allies, thoroughly- tired of paying and bleeding, did not heed him ; made their Peace of Utrecht ^ with Louis XIV., who was now beaten supple ; and Karl, after a year of indignant protests, and futile attempts to fight Louis on his own score, was obliged to do the like. He has lost the Spanish crown ; but still holds by the shadow of it ; will not quit that, if he can hel]) it. He huuts much, digests well ; is a sublime Kaiser, though inter- nally rather poor, carrying his head high ; and seems to him- self, on some sides of his life, a martyred much-enduring man. Imperial Majesty has got happUij tvedded. Kaiser Karl, soon afttn- the time of going to Spain, had decided that a Wife would be necessary. He applied to Caro- line of Anspach, now English Princess of Wales, but at that time an orphaned Brandenburg- Anspach Princess, very beauti- ful, graceful, gifted, and altogether unprovided for ; living at Berlin under the guardianship of Friedrich the first King. Her young Mother had married again, — high enough match (to Kur-Sachsen, ekU-r Brother of August the Strong, August at that time without prospects of the Electorate); — but it lasted short while : Caroline's Mother and Saxon Step-father were both now, long since, dead. So she lived at Berlin, bril- liant though unportioned ; — with the rough cub Friedrich Wilhelm much following her about, and passionately loyal to her, as the Beast was to Beauty ; whom she did not mind, except as a cub loyal to her ; being five years older than he.^ Indigent bright Caroline, a young lady of fine aquiline fea- tures and spirit, was applied for to be Queen of Spain ; wooer a handsome man, who might even be Kaiser by and by. Indi- gent bright Caroline at once answered, Xo. She was never very orthodox in Protestant theology ; but could not think of taking up Papistry for lucre's and ambition's sake : be that always remembered on Caroline's behalf. 1 Peace of Utrecht, 11 th April, 1713 ; Peace of Rastadt (following upon the Preliminaries of Baden), 6th March, 1714. 2 Fiirster. i. 107. 4i-l DoriJLE-MAKRIAGE PItUJECT STAKTED. H.>..k V. 1:2 1- 1 726. Tlie Spanish Majtsty m-xt appliud at Brunswick WoltVu- biittcl; no lack of Princesses there: Princess Elizabeth, for instance ; Protestant she too, but perhaps not so S(iueamish ? Old Anton Ulrich, whom some readers know for the idle Books, long-winded Novels chiefly, which he wrote, was the Grandfather of this favored Princess ; a good-natured old pentlenian, of the idle ornanuntal species, in whose head most things, it is likely, were reduced to vocables, scribble and sen- timentality ; and only a steady internal gravitation towards praise and jiudding was traceable as very real in him. Anton Ulrich, afTmnted more or less by the immense advancement of Gentleman Ernst and the Hanoverian or Younrjer Brunswick Line, was extremely glad of the Imperial offer; and persmwled his timid (irand-<laughter, ambitious too, but Esther conscience- stricken, Tliat the change from I'rotesUmt to Catholic, the es.sentials ln'ing so jK>rfectly identical in both, was a mere trifle ; that he himself, old as he w;is, would readily change along with her, so easy wius it. Whereupon the young L:uly made the big leap; altjured her religion;' — went to Spain as Queen (with sad injury to her complexion, but otherwise successfully more or less) ; — and sits now as Empress beside lier Karl VI. in a grand enough, pi-olxibly rather dull, but not singularly unhappy manner. She, a Brunswick I'rincess, with Nephews and Nieces who may concern us, is Kaiserinn to Kaiser Karl : for aught I know of her, a kindly simple Wife, and unexceptionable Sovereign Majesty, of the sort wanted ; whom let us remem- ber, if we meet her again one day. I add only of this poor Lady, distinguished to me by a Daughter she had, that her mind still had some misgivings about the big leap she had made in the Protestant-Papist way. Finding Anton Ulrich still con- tinue I'rotestant, she wrote to him out of Spain : — " Why, honored Grandpapa, have you not done as you iiromised ? Ah, there must be a taint of mortal sin in it, after all I " Upon which the absurdly situated old Gentleman did change his re- ligion ; and is marked as a Convert in all manner of Genealo- gies and Histories ; — truly an old literary gentleman ducal 1 l6t Mav, 1707, at Bamberg. Chap. II. A KAISER lIUNTlNt; SHADOWS. 445 and serene, restored to the bosom of the Cliurch iu a somewhat peculiarly ridiculous manner.' — But to return. Imperial Majesty and the Termagant of Spain. Ever after the Peace of Utrecht, when England and Holland declined to bleed for him farther, especially ever since his OAvn I'ejice of Kastadt made witli houis the year after, Kaiser Karl had utterly lost hold of the Crown of .Spain; and had not the leasi; cliance to clutch that bright substance again. But he held by the shadow of it, with a deadly Hapsburg tenacity ; refused for twenty years, under all jiressures, to part with the siiadow : " The Spanish Hapsburg liranch is dead ; whereupon do not I, of the Austrian Branch, sole representative of Kaiser Karl the Fifth, claim, by the law of Heaven, whatever he pos- sessed in Spain, by law of ditto? Battles of Blenheim, of Mali)laiiuet, Court-intrigues of Mrs. Masham and the Duchess: lliese may bring Treaties of Utrecht, and what you are pleased to Ciill laws of Earth ; — but a Hapsburg Kaiser knows higher laws, if you would do a thousiind Utrechts; and by these, Spain is his I " Poor Kaiser Karl : he liad a high thought in him really, thougli a most misguided one. Titular King of Men; but much l)Owildt'rctl into mere indolent fatuity, inane solemnity, high snitHng pride grounded on nothing at all ; a Kaiser much sunk in the sediments of his muddy Eixich. Sure enough, he was a proud lofty solemn Kaiser, infinitely the gentleman in air and humor ; Spanish gravities, ceremonials, reticences ; — and could, in a l>etter scene, have distinguished himself, by better than mere statuesque immovability of posture, dignilied endurance of ennui, and Haj)sburg tenacity in holding the grip. It was not till 1735, after tusslings and wrenchings beyond calculation, that he would consent to quit the Shadow of the Crown of Spain ; and let Europe he at peace on that score. The essence of what is called the European History of this Period, such History as a Period sunk dead in spirit, and alive only in stomach, can have, turns all on Kaiser Karl, and these 1 MichaelLs, i. 131. 41G DOUliLH-MAKKIAUK PKoJIXT STARTi:i). Hook V. his clutchiugs at sluulows. Which uuikes a very s;ul, surpris- ing History iiuU'ed ; more worthy to be calk'd I'honoiueua of I'utrid Fcrniontation, than StruggK»s of lluiuan Heroism to vimlioate itst-lf in this I'hmct, which latter alone are worthy of ncording as '• History " by mankind. On the throne of Spain, beside I'hilip V. the mehuidiolie new IJourlxin, Louis XIV.'s (Jrandson, sat Eliz:ib<'th Faruese, a teruKigant t<'na<'ious womaii, whose iuubitious cupidities were not infi-rior in obstinacy to Kaiser Karl's, and proved not (juite so shadowy as his. Kliz;iUth ;Uso wanted several tilings : renunciation of your (Kaiser Karl's) sluulowy chiims ; nay of Kuuilry real usurpations you and your Treaties luive nuule on tlio actual |X)ssessious of Spain, — Kingdom of Sicily, for in- stance ; Netherlanils, for instiince ; Gibraltiir, for instaniie. l?ut tliere is one thing which, wo observe, is indispcnsaldo throughout to Fliz-dn'th Farncst^ : the future settlt'ujtnt of her dear Koy Carlos. Carlos, whom as Sp;uiish I'lulip's second Wife she had given to Spain and the worltl, as Second or sup I>lementary Infant there, — a troublesome gift to Spain and others. "This dear H«n*, surely he must have his Itiilian .\panages, which you have provided for hiui : Duchies of Tarma and I'iacenza, whitli will fall heirless scnin. Security for tliese lUilian Apanages, such as will satisfy a Mother: Ix't us in- troduce Spanish garrisons into I'arma and ria«.'-enz;i at once ! How else can we be certJiin of getting those indisjM'nsable Ap;ui;igcs, win-n they fall vac;int ? '' Un this j»oint Elizivbeth Farnese was |)ositive, maU-rnally vehement ; would take no subterfuge, denial or delay : '' Let me }>erceive that I shall have these Duchies : that, tirst of all ; or els«; not that only, but numerous other things will be demanded of you I " Upon which iK»int the Kaiser too, who loved his Duchies, and hoped yet to keep them by some turn of the game, never could decide to comply. Whereujwn Elizabeth grew more and more termagant ; listened to wild counsels ; took up an Alberoni, a Ripperda, any wandering diplomatic bull-dog that offered; and let them loose upon the Kaiser and her other gainsayers. To tlie terror of mankind, lest universal war CIIAI-. M. A KAISKH HUNTING SHADOWS. 447 I7.i.l-J7_'ii. should supervene. Slu' \u'\d the Kaiser well at bay, mankiud well in panie ; and continually there came on all Europe, for about twenty years, a terror that war was just about to break out, and the whole world to take fire. The History so called oi Europe went canting from side to side ; heeling at a huge rate, according to the passes and lunges these two giant figures, Imperial Majesty and the Termagant of .Spain, made at one anuthir, — for a twenty years or more, till once the duel wa« decided between them. There came next to no war, after all ; sputterings of war twice over, — 1718, Byng at ^lessina, as we saw ; and then, in 1 7-7, a sectnid sputter, as we are to see : — but the neighbors always ran with buckets, and got it quenched. No war to sj)eak of ; but such negotiating, diplomatizing, universal hope, universal fear, and infinite ado about nothing, as were seldom heard of before. For except Friedrich ^\'ilhelm drilling his r»(i.(>00 soldiers (80,CK.K) gradually, and giadually even twice that number), I see uo Crowned lle;ul in Euroi)e that is not, with immeasurable aj^paratus, simply doing zero. Alas, in an age of universal infidelitj' to Heaven, where the Heavenly Sun has suuh, there occur strange Sjiectre-huntings. Which is a fact worth la^'ing to heart. — Duel of Twenty Years with Elizabeth Farnese, about the eventualities of Tarma and Pia- cenza. and the Shadow of the lost Crown of Spain ; this was the first grand Spectrality of Kaiser Karl's existence; but this was not the whole of them. Imperial Mujint^^s Praumatlc Sanction. Kaiser Karl meanwhile was rather short of heirs'; which formed another of his real troubles, and involved him in much shadow-hunting. His Wife, the Serene Brunswick Empress whom we spoke of above, did at length bring him childxen, brought him a boy even ; but the boy died within the year ; and, on the whole, there remained nothing but two Daughters ; Maria Theresa the elder of them, born 1717, — the prettiest little maiden in the world ; — no son to inherit Kaiser Karl. Under which circumstances Kaiser Karl produced now, in the 448 DOUBLE-MAUKIAGE PROJECT STARTED. Book V. 1723-1726. Year 1724, a Document which he had executed privately as long ago as 1713, only his Privy Councillors and other Official witnesses knowing of it then ; ^ and solemnly publishes it to the world, as a thing all men are to take notice of. All men had notice enough of this Imperial bit of Sheepskin, before they got done with it, tive-and-tweuty years hence. '^ A very famous Pragmatic Sanction ; now published for the world's comfort ! By which Document, Kaiser Karl had formally settled, and ^ fixed according to the power he has, in the shape of what they call a I'ragmatic Sanction, or unalterable Ordinance in his Im- perial House, ''That, failing Heirs-male, his Daughters, his Eldest Daughter, should succeed him ; failing Daughters, his Nieces; and in short, that Heirs-female ranking from their kinship to Kaiser Karl, and not to any prior Kaiser, should be as good as Heirs-male of Kiu-l's body would have been." A Pragmatic Sanction is the high name he gives this document, or the Act it represents ; " I'ragmatic Sanction " being, in the Imperial Chancery and some others, the received title for Or- dinances of a very irrevocable nature, which a sovereign makes, in affairs that belong wholly to himself, or what he reckons his own rights.' This I'ragmatic Sanction of Kaiser Karl's, executed I'JLh April, 1713, was promulgated, '• gradually," now here flow there, from 1720 to 171*4,* — in which later year it became universally I)ublie ; and was transmitted to all Courts and Sovereignties, as an unalterable law of Things Imperial. Thereby the good man hopes his beautiful little Theresa, now seven years old, may succeed him, all as a son would have done, in the Aus- trian States and Dignities ; and incalculable damages, wars, 1 19th April, 1713 (Stcnzel,iii. 522). - Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1748. 3 A rare kind of Deed, it would seem; and all the more solemn. In 1438, Charles VI. of Fr.ince, conceding tiie Gallican Church its Liberties, does it by " SaTiction Pragmatiqne ;" Carlos III. of Spain (in 1759, "settling the King- dom of the Two Sicilies on his third son ") does the like, — which is the last instance of " Pracimntic Sanction " in this world. •» Stenzel, pp. 522, 523. ! Chap. II. A KAISER HUNTING SHADOWS. 449 1723-1736. and chances of war, be prevented, for his House and for all the world. The world, incredulous of to-morrow, in its lazy way, was not sufficiently attentive to this new law of things. iSouie who were personally interested, as the Saxon Sovereignty, and the Bavarian, denied that it was just : reminded Kaiser Karl that he was not the Noah or Adam of Kaisers ; and that the case of Heirs-female was not quite a new idea on sheepskin. No ; there are older Pragmatic Sanctions and settlements, by prior Kaisers of blessed memory; under which, if Daughters are to come in, we, descended from Imperial Daughters of older standing, shall have a word to say ! — To this Kaiser Karl answers steadily, with endless argument. That every Kaiser is a Patriarch, and First Man, in such matters ; and that so it has been pragmatically sanctioned by him, and that so it shall and must irrevocably be. To the other Powers, and indolent impartial Sovereigns of the world, he was lavish in embassies, in ardent representations ; and spared no pains in convincing them that to-morrow would surely come, and that then it would be a blessedness to have accepted this Pragmatic Sanction, and see it lying for you as a Law of Nature to go by, and avoid incalculable controversies. Tliis was another vast Shadow, or confused high-piled con- tinent of shadows, to which our poor Kaiser held with his customary tenacity. To procure adherences and assurances to this dear Pragmatic Sanction, was, even more than the shadow of the Spanish Crown, and above all after he had quitted that, the one grand business of his Life henceforth. With which he kept all Europe in perpetual travail and di- plomacy ; raying out ambassadors, and less ostensible agents, with bribes, and with entreaties and proposals, into every high Sovereign Court and every low ; negotiating unweariedly by all methods, with all men. For it was his evening-song and his morning-prayer ; the grand meaning of Life to him, till Life ended. You would have said, the first question he asks of every creature is, "Will you covenant for my Pragmatic Sanction with me ? Oh, agree to it ; accept that new Law of Nature : when the morrow comes, it will be salutary for you ! " VOL. V. 20 450 DOUBLK-.MAKKIAUI-: TKuJECT STAiriKD. Hook V. 17-^a-lT2«. Most of the Foreign Potentates idly accepted the thing, — as things of a distant contingent kind are accepted; — made Treaty on it, since the Kaiser seemed so extremely anxious. Only I5avari;i, having heritable claims, never would. Saxony too (August the Strong), Ix'ing in the like ca.se, or a better, tlatly refused for a long time ; would not, at all, — except fur a consideration, liright little Trince Eugene, who dictated square miles of Letters and Dijdomacies on the subject (Let- ters of a steiuly depth of dulness, which at last grows almost sublime), was wont to tell his Majesty : " Treatying, your Majesty ? A well-trained Army and a full Treasury ; that is the only Treaty that will make this Pragmatic Sanction valid ! " Put his Majesty never would believe. So the bright old Eugene dictated, — or, we hoi)e and guess, he only gave his clerks some key-word, and signed his name (in three languages, *' Eugenio von Savoye ") to these square miles of dull epistolary matter, — prolxibly tiiking Spanish snuff when he had done. For he wears it in both waistcoat- jK)ckets ; — luis (as his I'ortraits still tell us) given up breath- ing by the nose. The bright little soul, with a fla-sh in him as of Heaven's own lightning; but now growing very old and snuffy. Sluidow of Pragmatic Sanction, shallow of the Spanish Crown, — it was such shadow - huntings of the Kaiser in Vienna, it was this of the Pragmatic Sanction most of all, that thwarted our Prussian Double-^Iarriage, which lay so far away from it. This it was that pretty nearly broke the hearts of Friedrich, Wilhelmina, and their Mother and Father. For there never was such negotiating; not for atlniittance to the Kingdom of Heaven, in the pious times. And the open goings- forth of it, still more the secret minings and mole-courses of it, were into all i)laces. Above ground and Ixjlow, no Sover- eign mortal could say he was safe from it, let him agree or not. Friedrich Wilhelm had cheerfully, and with all his heart, agreed to the Pragmatic Sanction ; this above ground, in sight of the sun ; and rashly fancied he had then done with it. Till, to his horror, he found the Imi>erial moles, by way of keeping assurance doubly sure, had been under the fouuda- Chap. II. A KAISER HUNTING SHADOWS. 451 17-2S-172G. tions of Ms very house for long years past, and had all but brought it down about him in the most hideous manner I — Third /Shadow : ImjJerial Majestifs Ostend Comjyany. Another object which Kaiser Karl pursued with some dili- gence in these times, and which likewise proved a shadow, much disturbance as it gave mankind, was his " Ostend East- India Company." The Kaiser had seen impoverished Spain, rich EngUmd, rich Holland ; he had taken up a creditable notion about commerce and its advantages. He said to him- self, Wliy shoulil not my Netherlands trade to the East, as well as these English and Dutch, and grow o})ulent like them ? He instituted (ftrtroi/a) an ''Ostend Ea,st-Iudia Company," uuiler due Patents and Imperial .Sheepskins, of date 17th December, 171*2,* gave it what freedom he could to trade to the East. " Impossible ! " answered the Dutch, with distrac- tion in their aspect ; " Impossible, we say ; contrary to Treaty of Westphalia, to Utrecht, to Barrier Treaty ; and destructive to the best interests of mankind, especially to us and our trade- protits I We shall have to capture your ships, if you ever send any." To which the Kaiser counterpleaxled, earnestly, diligently, for the space of seven years, — to no effect. " We will capture your ships if you ever send any," answered the Dutch and English. What ships ever could have been sent from Ostend to the East, or what ill they could have done there, remains a mystery, owing to the monopolizing Maritime Powers. The Kaiser's laudable zeal for commerce had to expend itself in his Adriatic Territories, — giving privileges to the Ports of Trieste and Fiume ; - making roads through the Dal- matian Hill-Coimtries, which are useful to this day; — but could not operate on the Netherlands in the way proposed. The Kaiser's Imperial Ostend East-India Company, which cou\iilsed the Diplomatic mind for seven years to come, and ^ Buchholz, i. 88 ; Pfeffel, Abr^ij^ Chronolojique de I'llistoire d'Alleniagnt (Paris, 1776), ii. 522. 2 Hormavr, (Esterreichischer Plutarch, x. 101. 452 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT STARTED. Book V. l-Si-ll-ld. made Europe lurch from side to side in a terrific manner, proved a mere paper Company ; never sent any ships, only produced Diplomacies, and " had the honor to be." This was the third grand Shadow which the Kaiser chased, shaking all the world, poor crank world, as lie strode after it ; and this also ended in zero, and several tons of dii)lomatic corrt'Si)ondence, carried once by breathless estaffettes, and now silent, gravitating towards Acheron all of them, and interesting to tlio spiders only. Poor good Kaiser : they say lie was a humane stately gentle- man, stately though shortish ; fond of pardoning criminals where he could ; very polite to Muratori and the Anticpiaries, even to English Kymer, in opening his Archives to them, — and made roads in the Dalmatian llill-Country, which remain to this day. I do not WDiuler he grew more ii\u\ more satur- nine, and addicted to solid taciturn field-sports. His Political " Perforce-Hunt (Parforce Jagd),^^ with so many two-footed terriers, and legationary beagles, distressing all the world by their baying and their burrowing, had proved to be of Shad- ows ; and melted into thin air, to a very singular degree ! CHAPTER III. THE SEVEN CRISES OR EUROPEAN TRAVAIL-THROE.S. In process of this so terrific Duel with Elizaljeth Farnese, and general combat of the Shadows, which then made Europe quake, at every new lunge and pass of it, and which now makes Europe yawn to hear the least mention of it, there came two sputterings of actual War. Byng's sea-victory at Messina, 1718 ; Spanish " Siege of Gibraltar," 1727, are the main phenomena of these two Wars, — England, as its wont is, taking a shot in both, though it has now forgotten both. And, on the whole, there came, so far as I can count, Seven grand diplomatic Spasms or Crises, — desperate general Euro- CMA1.III. THE SEVEN EUROPEAN CRISES. 453 172;J-172tJ. peaii Treatyings hither and then thither, solemn Congresses two of them, with endless supplementary adhesions by the minor powers. Seven grand mother-treaties, not to mention the daughters, or supplementary adhesions they had ; all Eu- .rope rising spasmodically seven times, and doing its very uttermost to quell this terrible incubus ; all Europe changing color seven times, like a lobster boiling, for twenty years. Seven diplomatic Crises, we say, marked changings of color in the long-suffering lobster; and two so-called Wars, — before this enormous zero could be settled. Which high Treaties and Transactions, human nature, after much study of them, grudges to enumerate. A[)anage for Baby Carlos, ghost of a l*ragmatic Sanction ; these were a pair of causes for mankind ! Be no word spoken of them, except with regret and on evi- dent compulsion. For the reader's convenience we must note the salient points ; but grudge to do it. Salient points, now mostly wrapt in Orcus, and terrestrially interesting only to the spiders, — except on an occasion of this kind, when part of them happens to stick to the history of a memorable man. To us they are mere bubblings-up of the general putrid fer- mentation of the then Political World ; and are too unlovely to be dwelt on longer than indispensable. Triple Alliance, Quadruple Alliance, Congress of Cambrai, Congress of Sois- sons ; Conference of Pardo, Treaty of Hanover, Treaty of Wusterhausen, what are they ? Echo answers, What ? Kij> perda and the Queen of Spain, Kaiser Karl and his Pragmatic Sanction, are fallen dim to every mind. Tlie Troubles of Thorn (sad enough Papist-Protestant tragedy in their time), — who now cares to know of them ? It is much if we find a hearing for the poor Salzburg Emigrants when they get into Preussen itself. Afflicted human natiire ought to be, at last, delivered from the palpably superfluous ; and if a few things memorable are to be remembered, millions of things unmem- orable must first be honestly buried and forgotten ! But to our affair, — that of marking the chief bubblings-up in the above-said Universal Putrid Fermentation, so far as they con- cern us. 454 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT STARTED. Book V. 1723-1726. Congress of Cambrai. We already saw Byng sea fighting in the Straits of ]\Ies- sina ; that was part of Crisis Second, — sequel, in powder- and-ball, of Crisis First, which had been in paper till then. The Powers had interfered, by Triple, by Quadruple Alliance, to quench the Spanish-Austrian Duel (about Apanage for Baby Carlos, and a quantity of other Shadows) : " Triple Alliance " * was, we may say, when France, England, Holland laboriously sorted out terms of agreement between Kaiser and Terma- gant : *' Quadruple " ^ was when Kaiser, after much coaxing, acceded, as fourth party ; and said gloomily, '• Yes, then." liyng's Sea-fight was when Termagant said, "No, by — the Plots of Alberoni ! Never will I, for my part, accede to such terms ! " and attacked the poor Kaiser in his Sicilies and else- where. Byng's Sea-fight, in aid of a suffering Kaiser and lus Sicilies, in consequence. Furthermore, the French invaded Spain, till ^lessina were retaken ; nay the English, by land too, made a dash at Spain, *• Descent on Vigo " as they call it, — in reference to which take the following stray Note : — "That same year [1719, year after Byng's Sea-fight, Mes- sina just about recaptured], there took effect, planned by the vigorous Colonel Stanhope, our Minister at ^ladi-id, who took personal share in the thing, a ' Descent on Vigo,' sudden swoop-down upon Town and shipping in those Gallician, north- west regions. Which was perfectly successful, — Lord Col> ham leading ; — and made much noise among mankind. Filled all Gazettes at that time; — but now, again, is all fallen silent for us, — except this one thrice-insignificant point, That there was in it, 'in Haudyside's Regiment,' a Lieutenant of Foot, by name Sterne, who had left, with his poor Wife at Plymouth, a very remarkable Boy called Lorry, or Laivrence ; known since that to all mankind. When Lorry in his Life writes, ' my Father went on the Vigo expedition,' readers may under- stand this was it. Strange enough : that poor Lieutenant of Foot is now pretty much all that is left of this sublime enter- prise upon Vigo, in the memory of mankind ; — hanging there, 1 4th January, 1717. ^ igth July, 1718. «. CiiAr. III. THE SEVEN EUROPEAN CRISES. 455 1723-1726. as if by a single hair, till poor Tristram Shandy be forgotten too." 1 In short, the French and even the English invaded Spain ; English Byng and others sank Spanish ships : Termagant was obliged to pack away her Alberoni, and give in. She had to accede to ''Quadrnple Alliance," after all; making it, so to speak, a Quintuple one ; making Peace, in fact,^ — general Congress to be held at Cambrai and settle the de- tails. 'Congress of Cambrai met accordingly ; in 1722, — " in the course of the year," Delegates slowly raining in, — date not fixable to a day or month. Congress was " sat," as we said, — or, alas, was only still endeavoring to get seated, and wandering about among the chairs, — when George I. came to Charlottenburg that evening, October, 1723, and surveyed Wilhelmina with a candle. More inane Congress never met in this world, nor will meet. Settlement proved so difficult ; all the more, as neither of the quarrelling parties wished it. Kaiser and Termagant, fallen as if exhausted, had not the least disposition to agree; lay diplomatically gnashing their teeth at one another, ready to fight again should strength return. Difficult for third parties to settle on behalf of such a pair. Nay at length the Kaiser's Ostend Company came to light : what will third parties, Dutch and English espe- cially, make of that ? This poor Congress — let the reader fancy it — spent two years in " arguments about precedencies," in mere beatings of the air ; could not get seated at all, but wandered among the chairs, till "February, 1724." Nor did it manage to accom- plish any work whatever, even then ; the most inane of Hu- man Congresses ; and memorable on that account, if on no other. There, in old stagnant Cambrai, through the third year and into the fourth, were Delegates, Spanish, Austrian, English, Dutch, French, of solemn outfit, with a big tail to ' Memoirs of Laurence Sterne, written by himself for his Daughter {tee An nual Register, Year 1775, pp. 50-52). 2 17th February, 1720. 456 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT STARTED. Book V. 172;i-l-26. each, — "Lord "Whitworth " whom I do not know, " Lord Tol- wartli " (Earl of Marclimont that will be, a friend of Pope's), were the English Principals:^ — there, for abont four years, were these poor fellow-creatures busied, baling out water with sieves. Seen through the Horn-Gate of Dreams, the figure of them rises almost grand on the mind. A certain bright young Frenchman, Francjois Arouet, — spoiled for a solid law-career, l)ut whose (Edqie we saw tri- umphing in the Theatres, and who will, under the new name of f'o/foin; become very memorable to us, — happened to be running towards Holland that way, one of his many journeys thitherward; and actually saw this Congress, then in tlie tirst year of its existence. Saw it, probably dined with it. A L«^t- ter of his still extant, not yet fallen to the spiders, as so much else has done, testifies to this fact. Let us rea^Lpart of it, the less despicable part, — as a Piece supremely insignificant, yet now in a manner the one surviving Document of this extraor- dinary Congress ; Congi'css's own works and history having all otherwise fallen to the spiders forever. The Letter is ad- dressed to Cardinal Dubois ; — for Dubois, '' with the face like a goat," ' yet lived (first year of this Congress) ; and Kegent d'Orleans lived, intensely interested here as third party: — and a goat-faced Cardinal, once pimp and lackey, ugliest of created souls, Archbishop of this same Cambrai " by Divine permission " and favor of Beelzebub, Avas capable of promoting a young fellow if he chose : — " To Aw Eminence Cardinal Dubois (from Arouet Junior). "Cambrai, July, 1722. "... "We are just arrived in your City, ^lonseigneur ; where, I think, all the Ambassadors and all the Cooks in Europe have given one another rendezvous. It seems as if all the Ministers of Germany h'ad assembled here for the purpose of getting their Emperor's health drimk. As to Messieurs the Ambassadors of Spain, one of them hears two masses a day, and the other manages the troop of players. The Eng- lish Ministers [a Lord Polwarth and a Lord Whitworth'] send 1 Scholl. ii. 197. ^ Herzogin von Orleans, Briffr. Chap. III. ^ THE SEVEN EUROPEAN CRISES. 457 1723-172G. many couriers to Champagne, and few to London. For the rest, nobody expects your Eminence here ; it is not thought you will quit the Palais-Royal to visit the sheep of your flock in these parts [no ! ], it would be too bad for your Eminence and for us all. . . . Think sometimes, Monscigneur, of a man who [regards your goat-faced Eminence as a beautiful ingenious creature ; and such a hand in conversation as never was]. The one thing I will ask [of your goat-faced Eminence] at Paris will be, to have the goodness to talk to me." ^ Alas, alas ! — The more despicable portions of this Letter we omit, as they are not history of the Congress, but of Arouet Junior on the shady side. So much will testify that this Congress did exist ; that its wiggeries and it were not always, what they now are, part of a nightmare-vision in Human History. — Elizabeth Farnese, seeing at what rate the Congress of Cambrai sped, lost all patience with it ; and getting more and more exasperations there, at length employed one Ripj^erda, a surprising Dutch Black- Artist whom she now had for Minister, to pull the floor from beneath it (so to speak), and .send it home in that manner. Which Ripperda did. An appropriate eno\igh catastrophe, comfortable to the reader; upon wliich perhaps he will not grudge to read still another word ? Congress of Cambrai r/ets the Floor pulled from under it. Termagant Elizabeth had now one Ripperda for ^Minister ; a surprising Dutch adventurer, once secretary of some Dutch embassy at Madrid ; who, discerning how the land lay, had broken loose from that subaltern career, had changed his re- ligion, insinuated himself into Elizabeth's royal favor ; and was now *' Duke de Ripperda,'' and a diplomatic bull-dog of the first quality, full of mighty schemes and hopes ; in brief, a new Alberoni to the Termagant Queen. This Ripperda had persuaded her (the third year of our inane Congress now run- 1 (Euvres de Voltaire, 97 vols. (Paris, 1825-1834), Ixviii. 95, 96- 458 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT STARTED. B-ok V. 17"2'i-172C. ning out, to no pui'iiosp), That he, if he were sent direct to Vienna, could reconcile tlie Kaiser to her Majesty, and bring them to Treaty, independently of Congresses. He was sent accordingly, in all privacy ; had reported himself as laboring there, with the best outlooks, for some while past ; when, still early in 1725, there occurred on the part of France, — where Eegent d'Urleans was now dead, and new politics had come in vogue, — that " sending back " of the poor little Spanish Infanta,* and marrying of young Louis XV. elsewhere, which drove Elizabeth and the Court of Spain, not unnaturally, into a very delirium of indignation. Wliy they sent the poor little Lady home on those shocking terms ? It seems there was no particular reason, except that French Louis was now about hfteen, and little Spanish Theresa was only eight ; and that, under Due tie Bourbon, the new Premier, and none of the wisest, there was, express or implicit, " an ardent wish to see royal progeny secured." For which, of course, a wife of eight j'ears would not answer. So she was returned ; and even in a blundering way, it is said, — the French Ambassador at Madrid having prefaced his com- munication, not with light adroit preludings of speech, but with a tempest of tears and howling lamentations, as if that were the way to conciliate King Philip and his Teruuigant Elizabeth. Transport of indignation was the natural conse- quence on their part ; order to every Frenchman to be across the border within, say eight-and-forty hours ; rejection forever of all French mediation at Cambrai or elsewhere ; question to the English, '' "Will you mediate for us, then ? " To which the answer being merely " Hm ! " with looks of delay, — order by express to Ripperda, to make straightway a bargain with the Kaiser ; almost any bargain, so it were made at once. Ripperda made a bargain : Treaty of Vienna, 30th April, 1725 : * '' Titles and Shadows each of us shall keep for his own lifetime, then they shall drop. As to realities again, to l*arma and Piacenza among the rest, let these be as in the 1 " 5th April, 1725, quitted Paris " (Barbier, Journal du Regne de Louis XV., i. 218). - Schiill, ii. 201 ; Coxc, Wilpde, i. 239-250. Chap. III. THE SEVEN EUROPEAN CRISES. 459 ao Apr. 1725. Treaty of Utrecht ; arrangeable in the himp ; — aud indeed, of Parma and Piacenza perhaps the less we say, the better at present." Tliis was, in substance, Ripperda's Treaty ; the Third great European travail-throe, or change of color in the hmg-sutfering lobster. Whereby, of course, the Congress of Canibrai did straightway disappear, the floor miraculously vanishing under it ; and sinks — far below human eye-reach by this time — towards the Bottomless Pool, ever since. Such was the beginning, such the end of that Congress, which Arouet le Jeune, in 1722, saw as a contemporary Fact, di'ink- ing champagne in Kamillies wigs, and arranging comedies for itself. France and the Britannic ^lajesty trim the Ship again : How Friedrich Wilhelm came into it. Treaty of San- over, 1725. The publication of this Treaty of Vienna (30th April, 1725), — miraculous disappearance of the Congress of Cam- brai by withdrawal of the floor from under it, aud close union of the Courts of Spain and Vieuna as the outcome of its slow labors, — tilled Europe, and chiefly the late mediating Powers, with amazement, anger, terror. Made Europe lurch suddenly to the other side, as we phrased it, — other gunwale now under water. Wherefore, in Heaven's name, trim your ship again, if possible, ye high mediating Powers. This the mediating Powers were laudably alert to do. Due de Bourbon, and his young King about to marry, were of pacific tendencies ; anx- ious for the Balance : still more was Fleury, who succeeded Due de Bourbon. Cardinal Fleury (with his pupil Louis XV. under him, producing royal progeny and nothing worse or better as yet) began, next year, his long supremacy in France ; an aged reverend gentleman, of sly, delicately cunning ways, and disliking war, as George I. did, unless when forced on him : now and henceforth, no mediating power more anxious than France to have the ship in trim. George and Bourbon laid their heads together, deeply pon- dering this little less than awful state of the Terrestrial 460 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT STARTED. Book V. 1725. Balance; ami in about six months tliey, in their quiet Avay, suddenly came out with a Fourth Crisis on the astonished populations, so as to right the ship's trim again, and more. " Treaty of Hanover," this was their unexpected manoeuvre ; done quietly at Ilerrenhausen, when his Majesty next went across for the Hanover hunting-season. Mere hunting : — but the diplomatists, as well as the beagles, were all in reaxlinesa there. Even Friedrich Wilhelm, ostensibly intent on hunting, was come over thither, his abstruse Ilg<Mis, with their inkhorns, escorting him: Friedrieh Wilhelm, hunting in unexpected sort, was persuaded to sign this Treaty ; which makes it unusually interesting to us. An exceptional procedure on the part of Friedrich "Wilhelm, who beyond all Sovereigns stays well at home, careless of affairs that are not his : — procedure betoken- ing cordiality at Hanover; and of good omen for the Double- "Marriage ? Yes, surely ; — and yet something more, on Friedrich Wil- helm's part. His rights on the Cleve-,Jiilich Countries; rever- sion of .liilich and J?erg, once Karl Philip shall decease: — perhaps these high Powers, for a consideration, will guarantee one's undoubted rights there ? It is understood they gave promises of this kind, not too specific. Nay we hear farther a curious thing : " France and England, looking for immediate war with the Kaiser, advised Friedrich Wilhelm to assert his rights on Silesia." Which would have been an important pro- cedure ! Friedrich Wilhelm, it is added, had actual thoughts of it ; the Kaiser, in those matters of the Ritter-Dienst, of the Heulrlhprg Protestants, and wherever a chance was, had been unfriendly, little less than insulting, to Friedrich Wilhelm : " Give me one single Hanoverian brigatle, to show that you go along with me !" said his Prussian Majesty ; — but the Britan- nic never altogether would.* Certain it is, Friedrich Wilhelm signed : a man with such Fighting-Apparatus as to be important in a Hanover Treaty. " Balance of Power, they tell me, is in a dreadful way : cer- tainly if one can help the Balance a little, why not ? But Jiilich and Berg, one's own outlook of reversion there, that is 1 (Euvres de Fr€d€ric, i. 15-3. (^iiAf. III. THE SEVEN EUROPEAN CRISES. 461 1725. the point to be attended to : — Balance, I believe, will some- how shift for itself ! " On these principles, Friedrich Wilhelm signed, while ostensibly hunting.^ Treaty of Hanover, which was to trim the ship again, or even to make it heel the other way, dates itself 3d September, 1725, and is of this purport : " AVe three, France, England, Prussia to stand by each other as one man, in case any of us is attacked, — will invite Hol- land, Denmark, Sweden and every pacihc Sovereignty to join us in such convention," — as they all gradually did, had Fried- ricb Wilhelm but stood firm. For it is a state of the Balances little less than awful. Eumor goes that, by the Kipperda bargain, fatal to mankind, Don Carlos was to get the beautiful young ^Maria Theresa to wife : that would settle the Parma-lMacenza business and some other.s ; that would be a compensation with a witness ! Spain and Austria united, as in Karl V.'s time ; or perhaps some Succession War, or worse, to fight over again ! — Fleurj^ and George, as Due de Bourbon and George had done, though both pacific gentlemen, brandished weapons at the Kaiser ; strongly admonishing him to become less formi- dable, or it would be worse for him. Possible indeed, in such a shadow-hunting, shadow-hunted hour ! Fleury and George stand looking with intense anxiety into a certain spectral something, which they call the Balance of Power ; no end to their exorcisms in that matter. Truly, if each of the Koyal Majesties and Serene Highnesses would attend to his own aifairs, — doing his utmost to better his own land and people, in earthly and in heavenly respects, a little, — he would find it infinitely profitabler for himself and others. And the Bal- ance of Power would settle, in that case, as the laws of gravity ordered : which is its one method of settling, after all diplo- macy ! — Fleury and George, by their manifestoing, still more by their levying of men, George I. shovelling out his English subsidies as usual, created deadly qualms in the Kaiser ; who still found it unpleasant to " admit Spanish Garrisons in Parma ; " but found likewise his Termagant Friend inexorably positive on that score ; and knew not what would become of 1 Fassraann, «. 368 ; Forster, Urkundenhuch, p. 67. 462 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT STARTED. Book v. him, if he had to try fighting, and the Sea-Powers refused him cash to do it. Hereby was the ship trimmed, and more ; ship now lurching to the other side again. George I. goes subsidying Hessians, Danes ; sounding manifestoes, beating drums, in an ahirming manner : and the Kaiser, except it were in Russia, with the new Czarina Catherine I. (that brown little woman, now become Czarina*), finds no ally to speak of. An unlucky, spectre-hunting, spectre-hunted Kaiser ; who, amid so many drums, manifestoes, menaces, is now rolling eyes that witness everywhere considerable dismay. This is the Fourth grand Crisis of Europe ; crisis or travail-tliroe*of Nature, bringing forth, and unaljle to do it, Baby Carlos's Apanage and the Pragmatic Sanction. Fourth conspicuous change of color to the universal lobster, getting itself boiled on those sad terms, for twenty years. For its sins, we need not doubt ; for its own long-continued cowardices, sloths and gi'eedy follies, as well as those of Kaiser Karl ! — At this Fourth change we will gladly leave the matter, for a time ; much wishing it might be forever. Alas, as if that were jwssible to us ! Meanwhile, let afflicted readers, looking before and after, readier to forget than to remember in such a case, accept this Note, or Summary of all the Seven together, by way of help : — Travail-Throes of Xature for Bnhy Carlos' s Italian Apanage ; Seven in Number. r. Triple Alliance, Enghsh, Dutch, French (4th January, 1717), saying, "Peace, then! No Alberoni-plotting ; no Duel-fighting per- mitted ! " Same Powers, next year, proposing Terms of Agreement ; Kaiser gloomily accepting them ; which makes it Quadruple Alliance (18th July, 1718) ; Termagant indignantly refusing, — with attack ou the Kaiser's Sicilies. 2°. First Sputter of War; Byng's Sea-fight, and the other pressures, 1 8th February, 1725. Treatv with Kaiser (6th August, 1726) went t« nothing on her death, 11th May, 1727. CiiAr. III. THE SEVEN EUROPEAN CRISES. 463 1725. compelling Termagant : Peace (26th January, 1720) ; Congress of Cam- brai to settle the Apanage and other points. 3°. Congi'ess of Cambrai, a weariness to gods and men, gets the floor pulled from under it (Ripperda's feat, 30tli April, 172.5) ; so that Kaiser and Termagant stand ranked together. Apanage wrapt in mys- tery, — to the terror of mankind. 4°. Treaty of Hanover (France, England, Prussia, 3d September, 1725) restores tlie Balances, and more. War imminent. Prussia pri- vately falls otl", — as we shall see. [These first Four lie behind us, at this point ; but there are Three others still ahead, which we cannot hope to escajn; altogether; namely :] 5°. Second Sputter of "War : Termagant besieges Gibraltar (4th March, 1727 — f.th March, 1728): Peace at that latter date ; — Con- gress of Soissons to settle the Apanage and other points, as formerly. 6°. Congress of Soissons (14th June, 1728 — 9th November, 1729), as formerly, cannot in the least : Termagant whispers England ; — there is Treaty of Seville (9th November, 1729), France and England undeilaking for the Apanage. C<>ngre.«;s vanishes ; Kaiser is left soli- tary, with the shadow of Pragmatic Sanction, in the night of things. Pause of an awful nature : — but Fleury does not hasten with the Ajm- nage, as promised. Whereupon, at length, 7°. Treaty of Vienna (HJth March, 1731) : Sea-Powers, leading Termagant by the hand, Sea-P«>wors and no France, unite with Kaiser again, acci)rding to the old laws of Nature ; — and Baby Carlos gets his Apanage, in due course ; — but does not rest content with it, Manuna nor lie, very long ! Huge spectres and absitrd bugaboos, stalking through the brain of dull thoughtless pusillanimous mankind, do, to a ter- rible extent, tumble hither and thither, and cause to lurch from side to side, their ship of state, and all that is embarked chere, breakfast-tabU, among other things. Nevertheless, if they were only bugaboos, and mere Shadows caused by Impe- rial hand-lanterns in the general Xight of the world, — ought they to be spoken of in the family, when avoidable ? 464 DOUBLE-MARRIAGE PROJECT STAliTED. B<h>k V. 1723-1720. CHiNJTER IV. DOUBLE-MARRIAGE TREATY CAJfNOT BE SIGNED. Hitherto the world-tides, and ebhs and flows of exteruj I'olities, had, by accident, rather forwarded than hinderei the Doiible-Maniafje. In the rear of sucli a Treaty of Hancs ver, triuniithantly righting the European liahinces by help o\ Friedrich Wilhehn, one might have hoped this little domestit. Treaty would, at last, get itself signed. Que«^n Sophie diC hasten off to Hanover, directly after her husband had left it under those favorable aspects : but Papa again proved un- manageable ; the Treaty could not l)c achieved. Alas, and why not ? Parents and Children, on both sides, being really desirous of it, what rea.son is there but it shouM in due time come to perfection, and, without annihilating Time and Space, make four lovers happy ? No reason ^ubs doubtless had arisen since that Visit of George I., discordant procedures, chiefly about Friedrich Wilhelra's recruiting opera- tions in the Hanover territory, as shall be noted by and by : but these the ever-wakeful entlmsiivsm of Queen Sophie, who had set her whole heart with a female fixity on this Double- ]\rarriage I'roject, hatl smoothed down again : and now, Pa])a and Husband being so blessedly united in their World Poli- tics, why not sign the Marriage-Treaty ? Honored ^fujesty- Papa, why not! — "Tush, child, you do not understand. In these tremendous circumstances, the celestial Sign of the Balance just about canting, and the Obliquity of the Ecliptic like to alter, how can one think of little marriages ? Wait till the Obliquity of the Ecliptic come steadily to its old pitch ! " — Truth is, George was in general of a slow, solemn, Spanish turn of manners ; " intolerably proud, too, since he got that Ctiap. IV. DOUBLE-MARRIAGE TREATY NOT SIGNED. 465 172a-172(J. English dignity," says Wilhelmina : he seemed always tacitly to look down on Friedrich Wilhelm, as if the Prussian Maj- esty were a kind of inferior clownish King in comparison. It is certain he showed no eagerness to get the Treaty per- fected. Again and again, when specially applied to by Queen JSophie, on Friedrich W'iihelm's order, he intimated only : " It Avas a fixed thing, but not to be hurried, — English Parlia- ments were concerned in it, the parties were still young," and so on ; — after which brief answer he would take you to the»window, and ask, " If you did not think the Herrenhauseu Gardens and their Leibnitz waterworks, and clipped-beech walls were rather fine ? " ^ In fact, the English Parliaments, from whom money was so often demanded for our fat Improper Darliugtons, lean Improper Kendals and other royal occasions, would naturally have to make a marriage-revenue for this fine Grandson of ours, — Grandson Fred, who is now a young lout of eighteen ; leading an extremely dissolute life, they say, at Hanover 5 and by no means the most beautiful of mortals, either he or the foolish little Father of him, to our old sad heart. They can wait, they can wait ! said George always. But undoubtedly he did intend that both Marriages should take effect : only he was slow ; and the more you hurried him, perhaps the slower. He would have perfected the Treaty " next year," say the Authorities ; meant to do so, if well let alone : but Townshend whispered withal, "Better not urge him." Surly George was always a man of his word; no treachery intended by him, towards Friedrich Wilhelm or any man. It is very clear, moreover, that Friedrich Wilhelm, in this Autumn 1725, was, and was like to be, of high impor- tance to King George ; a man not to be angered by dishonor- able treatment, had such otherwise been likely on George's part. Nevertheless George did not sign the Treaty " next year " either, — such things having intervened ; — nor the next year after that, for reasons tragically good on the latter occasion ! These delays about the Double-Marriage Treaty are not a 1 riillnitz. Memnirpn, ii. 226, 228, &c. VOL. V. '^^ 460 DUUBLE-MARUIAGE PROJECT STARTED. »"<>« V. 1723-1726. pleasing fciiture of it to Friedrich Wilhelm ; who is very capa- ble of being hurt by slights ; who, at any rate, dislikes to have loose thrums Hying alx)ut, or that the business of to-tlay should be shoved over ujjon to-morrow. And so (.^ueen Sophie has her own sore ditticulties ; driven thus between the Bar- barians (that is, her Husband), and the deep Sea (that is, her Father), to and fro. Nevertheless, since all parties to the matter wished it, Sophie and the younger parties getting even entliusiastic about it; and since tin- matter itself was good, agreeable so far to Prussia and England, to I'rotestant Ger- many and to Heaven and Earth, — might not Sophie confi- dently hofie to van«iuish these and other dillieulties ; and so bring all things to a happy close? Had it not been for the Imi>erial Shadow-huntings, and this rick»ty condition of the celestial Balaiice ! Alas, the outer elements interfered with C^ueen Sophie in a singular manner. Huge foreign world-movements, springing from Vienna and a six'ctrc-haunted Kaiser, and spreading like an avalanche over all the Earth, snatched up this little Double^ Marriage question ; tore it along with them, reeling over preci- pices, one knew not whitherward, at such a rate as was seldom seen before. Scarcely in the Minerva Tress is there record of such surprising, infinite and inextricable obstructions to a wedding or a double-wedding. Time and space, which can- not be annihilated to make two lovers happy, were here turned topsy-turvy, as it were, to make four lovers, — four, or at the very least three, for Wilhelmina will not atlmit she was ever the least in love, not she, poor soul, either with loose Fred or his English outlooks, — four young creatures, and one or more elderly persons, superlatively wretched ; and even, literally enough, to do all but kill some of them. What is noteworthy too, it proved wholly inane, this huge world-ocean of Intrigues and Imperial Necromancy ; ran dry at last into absolute nothing even for the Kaiser, and might as well not have been. And ^Mother and Father, on the Prus- sian side, were driven to despair and pretty nearly to delirium by it ; and our poor young Fritz got tormented, scourged, and throttled in body and in soul by it, till he grew to loathe the* Cmai'. IV. DOUHLE-MAKKIAGE TREATY NOT SIGNED. 467 1721-1726. light of the suu, and in fact looked soon to have quitted said light at one stage of the business. We are now approaching Act Second of the Double-lMar- riago, where Imperial Ordnance-Master Graf von Seckendorf, a lUack-^Vi'tist of supreme quality, despatched from Vienna on secret errand, "crosses the Palace Esplanade at Berlin on a summer evening of the year 1726 ; " and evokes all the demons on our little Crown-Prince and those dear to him. We must first say something of an important step, shortly autpcedeut thereto, which occurred in the Crown-Prince's educational course. 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