>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.

 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 This book Is^UILqjj the last date stamped below 
 
 I 
 
 Form 1 " ' ■•■■' ^'^i
 
 ){l 
 
 
 - J 
 
 n-CM^V L/V/ liv-» 1 r*L.mw»b- 
 
 T) ' 
 
 
 ^ 1 
 
 THIS BOOK card:,;; 
 
 tj 
 
 
 ' 1 
 
 - 1 mil 
 
 r' 
 
 
 1 
 
 i: 
 
 
 f^ 6 
 
 
 ^ ^ 
 
 «-tj T 1 -— ' 
 
 
 
 u 
 
 — 1 1 i-n 
 
 
 
 2 = 
 
 "a 
 
 a 
 
 i^'lKi 1 
 
 
 
 X 
 
 o V *^ V V s 
 
 
 
 m 
 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 
 s 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 SI 
 
 University Research Library ^ 
 
 a 
 
 ' ■= 
 
 L 
 
 X 
 
 < 
 
 
 t» 
 
 e 
 
 i 
 
 
 r 
 
 Jl 
 
 
 -^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 S 
 
 3 
 
 
 '' 
 
 D 
 
 
 i - 
 
 
 S 
 
 , 
 
 
 » 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 tc 
 
 . 
 
 
 K 
 
 
 
 1 e 
 
 
 
 
 s 
 
 
 » 
 
 
 fi 
 
 
 C 
 
 
 fi 
 
 
 -1 
 X 
 
 
 t 
 
 
 O 
 
 
 S 
 
 
 S 
 
 
 £ 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 1 ■*■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I
 
 
 .^■■■■■: 
 
 f 4 
 
 
 
 
 ■.<'■■. ■ '.' f. ■■•: 
 
 '.;' ,1. '^-^ • ■■ 
 
 •)"■*■' ^'■■'!.- 
 
 ';:<"■_; -'■'■■?'■'■:. ■, 
 
 
 
 ■■"I'.'.' V-. , 
 
 .-. rv j