* This was "about the year
327 before Christ," while Alexander of Macedon was
busy conquering India.
327 before Christ," while Alexander of Macedon was
busy conquering India.
Thomas Carlyle
org/access_use#pd-google
? CHaP. v. J
69
KING FRIEDRICH I.
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 re-
plete with troubles rather; and unhappily not so much
with great troubles, which could call forth antagonistic
greatness of mind or of result, as with 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 "rempli d'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 gradually 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 Brandenburg a crown? Which question, after
? FSr<<ter, I- 74 (qnoting Memoires du Comle de Dolma); 4c. Ac.
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? 70
[book L
BtHTH AND PARENTAGE.
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 Hohenzollern
working through weak nerves and a crooked back, --
had early set him a-thinking of the Kingship; and no
doubt, the exaltation of rival Saxony, which had at-
tained that envied dignity (in a very unenviable man-
ner, in the person of Elector August made Bang of
Poland) in 1697, operated as a new spur on his acti-
vities. Then also Duke Ernst of Hanover, his father-
in-law, was struggling to become Elector Ernst; Hano-
ver to be the Ninth Electorate, which it actually at-
tained in 1698; not to speak of England, and quite
endless prospects there for Ernst and Hanover. These
my lucky neighbours are all rising; all this the
Kaiser has granted to my lucky neighbours: why
is there no promotion he should grant me, among
them! --
Elector Friedrich had 30,000 excellent troops; Kai-
ser Leopold, 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-Succession War coming du-
biously on, which may prove greater than all the rest
together. Elector Friedrich, sometimes in his own high
person (a courageous and high though thin-skinned
man), otherwise by skilful deputy, had done the Kaiser
service, often signal service, in all these Wars; and
was never wanting in the time of need, in the post of
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? CHAP. V. ]
71
KING FMEDRICH I.
difficulty, with those famed Prussian Troops of his. A loyal gallant Elector this, it must be owned; capable
withal of doing signal damage if we irritated him too
far! Why not give him this promotion, since it costs
us absolutely nothing real, not even the price of a
yard of ribbon with metal cross at the end of it?
Kaiser Leopold himself, it is said, had no particu-
lar 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 Frederick. Even Dutch
William, anxious for it, in sight of the future, had not
yet prevailed.
The negotiation had lasted some seven years, with-
out 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; incorrect in some
unessential particulars, but in the main and singular
part of it well-founded. Elector Friedrich, according
to Pollnitz 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 op-
posing Hofrath at Vienna. The money was offered,
accordingly; and was refused by the opposing Hofrath:
upon which the Brandenburg Ambassador wrote that
it was all labour lost; and even hurried off homewards
in despair, leaving a Secretary in his place. The
Brandenburg Court, nothing despairing, orders in the
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? 72
[book I.
BIRTH AND PARENTAGE.
mean while, Try another with it, -- some other Hof-
rath, whose name they wrote in cipher, which the
blundering Secretary took to mean no Hofrath, but the
Kaiser's Confessor and Chief Jesuit, Pater Wolf. To
him accordingly he hastened with the cash, to him
with the respectful Electoral request; who received
both, it is said, especially the 15,0001. , with a Gloria
in excelsis; 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 accordingly, and are answered with readiness and
animation. 2? . Pater Wolf was not Official Confessor,
but was a Jesuit in extreme favour with the Kaiser,
and by birth a nobleman, sensible to human decora-
tions. 3". He accepted no bribe, nor was any sent;
his bribe was the pleasure of obliging a high gentle-
man who condescended to ask, and possibly the hope
of smoothing roads for St. Ignatius and the Black
Militia, in time coming. And thus at last, and not
otherwise than thus, say exact Doctors, did Pater Wolf
do the thing. ** Or might not the actual death of poor
King Carlos H. at Madrid, 1st November 1700, for
* PBllnitz: Memoiren, 1. 810.
** G. A. H. Stenzel: Geschichte des Preustischen Stuats (Hamburg,
1841), ill. 104. Nicolai [Berliner Monatschrift, year 1799); &c.
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? CHAP. V. ]
73
KING FRIEDRICH I.
whose heritages all the world stood watching with
swords half drawn, considerably assist Pater Wolf?
Done sure enough the thing was; and before November
ended, Friedrich's messenger returned with 'Yes' for
answer, and a Treaty signed on the 16th of that
month. *
To the huge joy of Elector Friedrich and his
Court, almost the very Nation thinking itself glad.
Which joyful Potentate decided to set out straightway
and have the coronation done; though it was midwinter;
and Konigsberg (for Prussia is to be our title, "King
in Prussia," and Konigsberg is Capital City there) lies
450 miles off, through tangled shaggy forests, boggy
wildernesses, and in many parts only corduroy-roads.
We order "30,000 posthorses," besides all our own
large stud, to be got ready at the various stations: our
boy 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, Sophie
Charlotte our august Electress-Queen that is to be:
and we set out, on the 17th of December 1700, last
year of the Century; "in 1800 carriages:" such a
cavalcade as never crossed those wintry wildernesses
before. Friedrich Wilhelm went in the third division
of carriages (for 1800 of them could not go quite to-
gether); our noble Sophie Charlotte in the second; a
Margraf of Brandenburg-Schwedt, chief Margraf,'our
eldest Half-Brother, Dorothee's eldest Son, sitting on
* PSllnitz (I. 318) gives the Treaty (date corrected by bis Editor,
ti. 589).
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? 74
[book I.
BIRTH AND PARENTAGE.
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 Friedrich's
part; and six or seven hundred years, unconsciously,
on that of his ancestors.
The magnificence of Friedrich's processionings into
Konigsberg, 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 are not yet all
pasted in band-boxes, or slit into spills. * "The dia-
mond-buttons of his Majesty's coat" (snuff-coloured or
purple, I cannot recollect) "cost 1,5001, 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 oppressed imagination feels
as if there was cloth enough, of scarlet and other bright
colours, 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
the Anglican model, -- which was always a favourite
with him, and a pious wish of his: -- but they re-
mained 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 head:
? British Museum, short of very many necessary Books on this subject,
offers the due Coronation Folio, with its prints, uphol&tery catalogues, and
official harangues upon nothing, to ingenuous human curiosity.
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? CHAP. Y. ]
75
KING FRIEDRICII L
'King here in my own right, after all! ' -- And looked
his royallest, we may fancy; the kind eyes of him
almost partly fierce for moments, and "the cheerfulness
of pride" well blending with something of awful.
In all which sublimities, the one thing that remains
for human memory is not in these Folios at all, but is
considered to be a fact not the less: Electress Char-
lotte'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 genuflexions, risings, sittings, shiftings, grima-
cings on all parts, and the endless droning eloquence
of Bishops invoking Heaven, her ennui, not illhu-
moured or offensively ostensible, was heartfelt and
transcendent. At one turn of the proceedings, Bishop
This and Chancellor That droning their empty gran-
diloquences 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, tabac
rape, called by mortals rape or rapee: there is no
doubt about it; and the new King himself noticed her,
and hurled back a look of due fulminancy, which could
not help the matter, and was only lost in air. A me-
morable little action, and almost symbolic in the first
Prussian Coronation. "Yes, we are Kings, and are got
so near the stars, not nearer; and you invoke the gods,
in that tremendously longwinded manner; and I --
Heavens, I have my snuff-hox by me, at last! " Thou
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? 76
[book I.
BIRTH AND PARENTAGE.
wearied patient Heroine; cognisant of the infinitely
little! -- 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, quiet protest against cant, done with such
simplicity: Sophie Charlotte's symbolic pinch of snuff.
She was always considered something of a Republican
Queen.
Thus Brandenburg Electorate has become Kingdom
of Prussia; and the Hohenzollerns have put a crown
upon their head. Of Brandenburg, what it was, and
what Prussia was; and of the Hohenzollerns and what
they were, and how they rose thither, a few details, to
such as are dark about these matters, cannot well be
dispensed with here.
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? BOOK II.
OF BRANDENBURG AND THE HOHENZOLLERNS.
928-1417.
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? B. o. 327.
CHAPTEE L
bbannibor: henry the fowler.
The Brandenburg Countries, till they become re-
lated to the Hohenzollern Family which now rules
there, have no History that has proved memorable to
mankind. There has indeed been a good deal written
under that title; but there is by no means much known,
and of that again there is alarmingly little that is
worth knowing or remembering.
Pytheas, the Marseilles Travelling Commissioner,
looking out for new channels of trade, 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 insignificant fractions.
* This was "about the year
327 before Christ," while Alexander of Macedon was
busy conquering India. Beyond question, Pytheas, the
first writing or civilised creature 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
.
? Memoires de I'Academie dee Inscriptions, t. xix. 46, xxsvil. 489, *o.
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? 80 OF BRANDENBURG AND THE HOHENZOLLERNS. [BOOK n.
A. . S. 600.
Which brings home to us the fact that it existed, but almost nothing more: A Country of lakes and woods,
of marshy jungles, sandy wildernesses; inhabited by
bears, otters, bisons, wolves, wild swine, and certain
shaggy Germans of the Suevic type, as good as inarti-
culate to Pytheas. After which all direct notice of it
ceases for above three-hundred years. We can hope
only that the jungles were getting cleared a little, and
the wild creatures hunted down; that the Germans were
increasing in number, and becoming a thought less
shaggy. These latter, tall Suevi Semnones, men of
blond stern aspect (oculi truces ccerulei) and great
strength of bone, were known to possess a formidable
talent for fighting:* Drusus Germanicus, it has been
guessed, did not like to appear personally among them:
some "gigantic woman prophesying to him across the
Elbe" that it might be dangerous, Drusus contented
himself with erecting some triumphal pillar on his
own safe side of the Elbe, to say that they were con-
quered.
In the Fourth Century of our era, when the Ger-
man populations, on impulse of certain "Huns expelled
from the Chinese frontier," or for other reasons valid
to themselves, began flowing universally southward, to
take possession of the rich Roman world, and so con-
tinued flowing for two centuries more; the old German
frontiers generally, and especially those Northern Baltic
countries, were left comparatively vacant: so that new
immigrating populations from the East, all of Sclavic
* Tacitus: Dn Muribus Germanorum, c. 45.
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? CHAP. I. ] HENRY THE FOWLEU. 81
600.
origin, easily obtained footing and supremacy there.
In the Northern parts, these immigrating Sclaves were
of the kind called Vandals, or Wends: they 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, Bohemia Czechs,
Huns, Bulgars, and the other dim nomenclatures, on
the Eastern frontier. Five-hundred years of violent
unrecorded fighting, abstruse quarrel with their new
neighbours in settling the marches. Many names of
towns in Germany ending in itz (Meuselwitz, Mollwitz),
or bearing the express epithet Windish (Wendish), still
give indication of those old sad circumstances; as does
the word Slave, in all our Western languages, meaning
captured Sclavonian. What long-drawn echo of bitter
rage and hate lies in that small etymology!
These things were; but they have no History: why
should they have any? Enough that in those Baltic
regions, there are for the time (Year 600, and till long
after Charlemagne is out) Sclaves in place of Suevi or
of Holstein Saxons and Angli; that it is now shaggy
Wends who have the task of taming the jungles, and
keeping down the otters and wolves. Wends latterly
Carlyle, Frederic the Great. I. 6
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? 82 OF BRANDENBURG AND THE HOHENZOLLERNS. [book n.
in a waning condition, much beaten upon by Charle-
magne and others; but never yet beaten out. And so
it has to last, century after century; Wends, wolves,
wild swine, all alike dumb to us. Dumb, or sounding
only one huge unutterable message (seemingly of tragic
import), like the voice of their old Forests, of their old
Baltic Seas: -- perhaps 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 Brannibor, a chief fortress of the
"Wends;"* -- first mention in human speech of the
place now called Brandenburg: 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; cer-
tainly "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"
(IJeinrich der Vogler), because he was in his Vogelheerde
(Falconry or 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 assembled at Fritzlar, had made
? KShler: Reichs-Historic (Frankfurth und Leipzig, 1737), p. 63.
Mlchaells i C/tur- unil Fursllichen Hiuser in Dmlschland (Lemgo, 1759, '60,
'85), i. 25S,
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? CHAP. I. J
83
HENRY THE FOWLER.
S28.
him King; and that he would have dreadful work
henceforth. Which he undertook; and also did,-- this
of Brannibor 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 German Kings; the first, or essentially
the first, sovereign of united Germany, -- Charle-
magne's posterity to the last bastard 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 Modern 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 dis-
"obedience. He managed to get back Lorraine; made truce
"with the Hungarians, who were excessively invasive at that
"time. Truce with the Hungarians; and then, having
"gathered strength, made dreadful 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 Selavic Meisseners (Misnians); Bohemian Czechs,
"and took Prag; Wends again, with huge slaughter; then
"Danes, and made 'King Worm tributary' (King Gorm the
"Hard, our Knut's, or Canute's great-grandfather, Year 931);
"--last of all, those invasive Hungarians as above. Had sent
ft
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? 84 OF BRANDENBURG AND THE HOHENZOLLERNS. [BOOK n.
928.
"the Hungarians, when they demanded tribute or black-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. Michael painted on his
"standard;' contrary to wont. He makes, or re-makes,
"Markgrafs (Wardens of the Marches), to be under his Dukes,
"--and not too hereditary. Who his Markgraves were? Dim
"History counts them to the number of six;* which take in
"their order:
"1? . Sleswig, looking over into the Scandinavian coun-
"tries, and the Norse Sea-kings. This Markgraviate did not
"last long under that title. I guess, it became Slade-and-
"Ditmarsch afterwards.
"2? . Soltwedel, -- which grows to be Markgraviate of
"Brandenburg by and by. Soltwedel, now called Salzwedel,
"an old Town still extant, sixty miles to west and north of
'' Brandenburg, short way south of the Elbe, was as yet head-
quarters of this second Markgraf; and any Warden we
"have at Brandenburg 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
"English 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,
? KiShler: Reichs-Historie, p. 66. This is by no means Kb'hlcr's chief
Book; but this too is good, and docs, in a solid effective way, what it
attempts. 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
Literary 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.
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? CHAP. I. ]
85
HEKRY THE FOWLER.
938.
"Bohemia, Austria, and had many tos and fros. Is now (since
"the Thirty-Years War time) mostly Saxon again.
"5? . Austria (Oesterreich, Eastern-Kingdom, Easternrey
"as we might say); to look after the Hungarians, and their
"valuable claims to black-mail.
"6? . Antwerp ('Hand-Wharf,' so to speak), against the
"French; which function soon fell obsolete.
"These were Henry's six Markgraviates (as my best au-
"thority enumerates them); and in this way he had militia
"captains ranked all round his borders, against the intrusive
"Sclavic element.
"He fortified Towns; all Towns are to be walled and
"warded,--to be Burgs in fact; and the inhabitants . Burghers,
"or men capable of defending Burgs. Everywhere the ninth
"man is to serve as soldier in his Town; other eight in the
"country are to feed and support him: Heergerathe (War-
"tackle, what is called Heriot in our old Books) descends to
"the eldest son of a fighting man who had served, as with us.
"'All robbers are made soldiers' (unless they prefer hanging);
"and weaponshows and drill are kept up. This is a man who
"will make some impression upon Anarchy, and its Wends
"and Huns. His standard was St. Michael, as we have seen,
"--whose sword is derived from a very high quarter 1 A pious
"man; -- founded Quedlinburg Abbey, and much else in that
"kind; having apious Wife withal, Mechtildis, who took the
"main hand in that of Quedlinburg; whose Life is inLeibnitz,*
'' not the legiblest of Books. -- On the whole, a right gallant
"King and 'Fowler. ' Died, A. d. 936 (at Memmleben, a
"Monastery on the Unstrut, not far from Schulpforte), age
"sixty; had reigned only seventeen years, and done so much.
"Lies buried in Quedlinburg Abbey: -- any Tomb? I know
* Leibnitz: Seriptores Rerum Brunswicensium, Ac. (Hanover, 1707),
i. 196.
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? 86 OP BRANDENBURG AND THE HOHENZOLLERNS. [B00K n-
"no Life of him but Gundling's, which is an extremely inex-
"tricable Piece, and requires mainly 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,
"beneficently sent us; as a man who did in grim earnest
"'serve God' in his day, and whose works accordingly bear
"fruit to our day, and to all days 1" --
So far my rough Note-books; which require again
to be shut for the present, not to abuse the reader's
patience, or lead him from his road.
This of Markgrafs (Grafs of the Marches, marked
Places, or Boundaries) was a natural invention in that
state of circumstances. It did not quite originate with
Henry; but was much perfected by him, he first recog-
nising how essential it was. On all frontiers he had
his Graf (Count, Reeve, G'reeve, whom some think to
be only Grau, Gray, or Senior, the hardiest, wisest
steel-gray man he could discover) stationed on the
Marck, strenuously doing watch and ward there: the
post of difficulty, of peril, and naturally of honour too,
nothing of a sinecure by any means. Which post,
like every other, always had a tendency to become
hereditary, if the kindred did not fail in fit men. And
hence have come the innumerable Margraves, Marquises,
and such like, of modern times: titles now become
chimerical, and more or less mendacious, as most of
our titles are, -- like so many Burgs changed into
"Boroughs," and even into "Rotten Boroughs," with
Defensive . Burghers of the known sort: very mournful
to discover. Once Norroy was not all pasteboard! At
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? chAP. i. J
87
HENRY THE FOWLER.
sas.
the heart of that huge whirlwind of his, with its dusty
heraldries, and fantasmal nomenclatures now become
mendacious, there lay, at first, always an earnest
human fact . Henry the Fowler was so happy as to
have the fact without any mixture of mendacity: we
are in the sad reverse case; reverse case not yet al-
together 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 there continued to be ever after, --
Six in Henry's time: -- but as to the number, place,
arrangement of them, all this varied according to cir-
cumstances outward and inward, chiefly according to
the regress or the reintrusion of the circumambient
hostile populations; and underwent many changes.
? CHaP. v. J
69
KING FRIEDRICH I.
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 re-
plete with troubles rather; and unhappily not so much
with great troubles, which could call forth antagonistic
greatness of mind or of result, as with 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 "rempli d'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 gradually 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 Brandenburg a crown? Which question, after
? FSr<<ter, I- 74 (qnoting Memoires du Comle de Dolma); 4c. Ac.
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? 70
[book L
BtHTH AND PARENTAGE.
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 Hohenzollern
working through weak nerves and a crooked back, --
had early set him a-thinking of the Kingship; and no
doubt, the exaltation of rival Saxony, which had at-
tained that envied dignity (in a very unenviable man-
ner, in the person of Elector August made Bang of
Poland) in 1697, operated as a new spur on his acti-
vities. Then also Duke Ernst of Hanover, his father-
in-law, was struggling to become Elector Ernst; Hano-
ver to be the Ninth Electorate, which it actually at-
tained in 1698; not to speak of England, and quite
endless prospects there for Ernst and Hanover. These
my lucky neighbours are all rising; all this the
Kaiser has granted to my lucky neighbours: why
is there no promotion he should grant me, among
them! --
Elector Friedrich had 30,000 excellent troops; Kai-
ser Leopold, 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-Succession War coming du-
biously on, which may prove greater than all the rest
together. Elector Friedrich, sometimes in his own high
person (a courageous and high though thin-skinned
man), otherwise by skilful deputy, had done the Kaiser
service, often signal service, in all these Wars; and
was never wanting in the time of need, in the post of
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? CHAP. V. ]
71
KING FMEDRICH I.
difficulty, with those famed Prussian Troops of his. A loyal gallant Elector this, it must be owned; capable
withal of doing signal damage if we irritated him too
far! Why not give him this promotion, since it costs
us absolutely nothing real, not even the price of a
yard of ribbon with metal cross at the end of it?
Kaiser Leopold himself, it is said, had no particu-
lar 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 Frederick. Even Dutch
William, anxious for it, in sight of the future, had not
yet prevailed.
The negotiation had lasted some seven years, with-
out 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; incorrect in some
unessential particulars, but in the main and singular
part of it well-founded. Elector Friedrich, according
to Pollnitz 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 op-
posing Hofrath at Vienna. The money was offered,
accordingly; and was refused by the opposing Hofrath:
upon which the Brandenburg Ambassador wrote that
it was all labour lost; and even hurried off homewards
in despair, leaving a Secretary in his place. The
Brandenburg Court, nothing despairing, orders in the
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? 72
[book I.
BIRTH AND PARENTAGE.
mean while, Try another with it, -- some other Hof-
rath, whose name they wrote in cipher, which the
blundering Secretary took to mean no Hofrath, but the
Kaiser's Confessor and Chief Jesuit, Pater Wolf. To
him accordingly he hastened with the cash, to him
with the respectful Electoral request; who received
both, it is said, especially the 15,0001. , with a Gloria
in excelsis; 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 accordingly, and are answered with readiness and
animation. 2? . Pater Wolf was not Official Confessor,
but was a Jesuit in extreme favour with the Kaiser,
and by birth a nobleman, sensible to human decora-
tions. 3". He accepted no bribe, nor was any sent;
his bribe was the pleasure of obliging a high gentle-
man who condescended to ask, and possibly the hope
of smoothing roads for St. Ignatius and the Black
Militia, in time coming. And thus at last, and not
otherwise than thus, say exact Doctors, did Pater Wolf
do the thing. ** Or might not the actual death of poor
King Carlos H. at Madrid, 1st November 1700, for
* PBllnitz: Memoiren, 1. 810.
** G. A. H. Stenzel: Geschichte des Preustischen Stuats (Hamburg,
1841), ill. 104. Nicolai [Berliner Monatschrift, year 1799); &c.
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? CHAP. V. ]
73
KING FRIEDRICH I.
whose heritages all the world stood watching with
swords half drawn, considerably assist Pater Wolf?
Done sure enough the thing was; and before November
ended, Friedrich's messenger returned with 'Yes' for
answer, and a Treaty signed on the 16th of that
month. *
To the huge joy of Elector Friedrich and his
Court, almost the very Nation thinking itself glad.
Which joyful Potentate decided to set out straightway
and have the coronation done; though it was midwinter;
and Konigsberg (for Prussia is to be our title, "King
in Prussia," and Konigsberg is Capital City there) lies
450 miles off, through tangled shaggy forests, boggy
wildernesses, and in many parts only corduroy-roads.
We order "30,000 posthorses," besides all our own
large stud, to be got ready at the various stations: our
boy 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, Sophie
Charlotte our august Electress-Queen that is to be:
and we set out, on the 17th of December 1700, last
year of the Century; "in 1800 carriages:" such a
cavalcade as never crossed those wintry wildernesses
before. Friedrich Wilhelm went in the third division
of carriages (for 1800 of them could not go quite to-
gether); our noble Sophie Charlotte in the second; a
Margraf of Brandenburg-Schwedt, chief Margraf,'our
eldest Half-Brother, Dorothee's eldest Son, sitting on
* PSllnitz (I. 318) gives the Treaty (date corrected by bis Editor,
ti. 589).
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? 74
[book I.
BIRTH AND PARENTAGE.
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 Friedrich's
part; and six or seven hundred years, unconsciously,
on that of his ancestors.
The magnificence of Friedrich's processionings into
Konigsberg, 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 are not yet all
pasted in band-boxes, or slit into spills. * "The dia-
mond-buttons of his Majesty's coat" (snuff-coloured or
purple, I cannot recollect) "cost 1,5001, 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 oppressed imagination feels
as if there was cloth enough, of scarlet and other bright
colours, 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
the Anglican model, -- which was always a favourite
with him, and a pious wish of his: -- but they re-
mained 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 head:
? British Museum, short of very many necessary Books on this subject,
offers the due Coronation Folio, with its prints, uphol&tery catalogues, and
official harangues upon nothing, to ingenuous human curiosity.
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? CHAP. Y. ]
75
KING FRIEDRICII L
'King here in my own right, after all! ' -- And looked
his royallest, we may fancy; the kind eyes of him
almost partly fierce for moments, and "the cheerfulness
of pride" well blending with something of awful.
In all which sublimities, the one thing that remains
for human memory is not in these Folios at all, but is
considered to be a fact not the less: Electress Char-
lotte'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 genuflexions, risings, sittings, shiftings, grima-
cings on all parts, and the endless droning eloquence
of Bishops invoking Heaven, her ennui, not illhu-
moured or offensively ostensible, was heartfelt and
transcendent. At one turn of the proceedings, Bishop
This and Chancellor That droning their empty gran-
diloquences 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, tabac
rape, called by mortals rape or rapee: there is no
doubt about it; and the new King himself noticed her,
and hurled back a look of due fulminancy, which could
not help the matter, and was only lost in air. A me-
morable little action, and almost symbolic in the first
Prussian Coronation. "Yes, we are Kings, and are got
so near the stars, not nearer; and you invoke the gods,
in that tremendously longwinded manner; and I --
Heavens, I have my snuff-hox by me, at last! " Thou
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? 76
[book I.
BIRTH AND PARENTAGE.
wearied patient Heroine; cognisant of the infinitely
little! -- 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, quiet protest against cant, done with such
simplicity: Sophie Charlotte's symbolic pinch of snuff.
She was always considered something of a Republican
Queen.
Thus Brandenburg Electorate has become Kingdom
of Prussia; and the Hohenzollerns have put a crown
upon their head. Of Brandenburg, what it was, and
what Prussia was; and of the Hohenzollerns and what
they were, and how they rose thither, a few details, to
such as are dark about these matters, cannot well be
dispensed with here.
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? BOOK II.
OF BRANDENBURG AND THE HOHENZOLLERNS.
928-1417.
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? B. o. 327.
CHAPTEE L
bbannibor: henry the fowler.
The Brandenburg Countries, till they become re-
lated to the Hohenzollern Family which now rules
there, have no History that has proved memorable to
mankind. There has indeed been a good deal written
under that title; but there is by no means much known,
and of that again there is alarmingly little that is
worth knowing or remembering.
Pytheas, the Marseilles Travelling Commissioner,
looking out for new channels of trade, 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 insignificant fractions.
* This was "about the year
327 before Christ," while Alexander of Macedon was
busy conquering India. Beyond question, Pytheas, the
first writing or civilised creature 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
.
? Memoires de I'Academie dee Inscriptions, t. xix. 46, xxsvil. 489, *o.
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? 80 OF BRANDENBURG AND THE HOHENZOLLERNS. [BOOK n.
A. . S. 600.
Which brings home to us the fact that it existed, but almost nothing more: A Country of lakes and woods,
of marshy jungles, sandy wildernesses; inhabited by
bears, otters, bisons, wolves, wild swine, and certain
shaggy Germans of the Suevic type, as good as inarti-
culate to Pytheas. After which all direct notice of it
ceases for above three-hundred years. We can hope
only that the jungles were getting cleared a little, and
the wild creatures hunted down; that the Germans were
increasing in number, and becoming a thought less
shaggy. These latter, tall Suevi Semnones, men of
blond stern aspect (oculi truces ccerulei) and great
strength of bone, were known to possess a formidable
talent for fighting:* Drusus Germanicus, it has been
guessed, did not like to appear personally among them:
some "gigantic woman prophesying to him across the
Elbe" that it might be dangerous, Drusus contented
himself with erecting some triumphal pillar on his
own safe side of the Elbe, to say that they were con-
quered.
In the Fourth Century of our era, when the Ger-
man populations, on impulse of certain "Huns expelled
from the Chinese frontier," or for other reasons valid
to themselves, began flowing universally southward, to
take possession of the rich Roman world, and so con-
tinued flowing for two centuries more; the old German
frontiers generally, and especially those Northern Baltic
countries, were left comparatively vacant: so that new
immigrating populations from the East, all of Sclavic
* Tacitus: Dn Muribus Germanorum, c. 45.
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? CHAP. I. ] HENRY THE FOWLEU. 81
600.
origin, easily obtained footing and supremacy there.
In the Northern parts, these immigrating Sclaves were
of the kind called Vandals, or Wends: they 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, Bohemia Czechs,
Huns, Bulgars, and the other dim nomenclatures, on
the Eastern frontier. Five-hundred years of violent
unrecorded fighting, abstruse quarrel with their new
neighbours in settling the marches. Many names of
towns in Germany ending in itz (Meuselwitz, Mollwitz),
or bearing the express epithet Windish (Wendish), still
give indication of those old sad circumstances; as does
the word Slave, in all our Western languages, meaning
captured Sclavonian. What long-drawn echo of bitter
rage and hate lies in that small etymology!
These things were; but they have no History: why
should they have any? Enough that in those Baltic
regions, there are for the time (Year 600, and till long
after Charlemagne is out) Sclaves in place of Suevi or
of Holstein Saxons and Angli; that it is now shaggy
Wends who have the task of taming the jungles, and
keeping down the otters and wolves. Wends latterly
Carlyle, Frederic the Great. I. 6
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? 82 OF BRANDENBURG AND THE HOHENZOLLERNS. [book n.
in a waning condition, much beaten upon by Charle-
magne and others; but never yet beaten out. And so
it has to last, century after century; Wends, wolves,
wild swine, all alike dumb to us. Dumb, or sounding
only one huge unutterable message (seemingly of tragic
import), like the voice of their old Forests, of their old
Baltic Seas: -- perhaps 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 Brannibor, a chief fortress of the
"Wends;"* -- first mention in human speech of the
place now called Brandenburg: 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; cer-
tainly "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"
(IJeinrich der Vogler), because he was in his Vogelheerde
(Falconry or 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 assembled at Fritzlar, had made
? KShler: Reichs-Historic (Frankfurth und Leipzig, 1737), p. 63.
Mlchaells i C/tur- unil Fursllichen Hiuser in Dmlschland (Lemgo, 1759, '60,
'85), i. 25S,
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? CHAP. I. J
83
HENRY THE FOWLER.
S28.
him King; and that he would have dreadful work
henceforth. Which he undertook; and also did,-- this
of Brannibor 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 German Kings; the first, or essentially
the first, sovereign of united Germany, -- Charle-
magne's posterity to the last bastard 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 Modern 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 dis-
"obedience. He managed to get back Lorraine; made truce
"with the Hungarians, who were excessively invasive at that
"time. Truce with the Hungarians; and then, having
"gathered strength, made dreadful 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 Selavic Meisseners (Misnians); Bohemian Czechs,
"and took Prag; Wends again, with huge slaughter; then
"Danes, and made 'King Worm tributary' (King Gorm the
"Hard, our Knut's, or Canute's great-grandfather, Year 931);
"--last of all, those invasive Hungarians as above. Had sent
ft
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? 84 OF BRANDENBURG AND THE HOHENZOLLERNS. [BOOK n.
928.
"the Hungarians, when they demanded tribute or black-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. Michael painted on his
"standard;' contrary to wont. He makes, or re-makes,
"Markgrafs (Wardens of the Marches), to be under his Dukes,
"--and not too hereditary. Who his Markgraves were? Dim
"History counts them to the number of six;* which take in
"their order:
"1? . Sleswig, looking over into the Scandinavian coun-
"tries, and the Norse Sea-kings. This Markgraviate did not
"last long under that title. I guess, it became Slade-and-
"Ditmarsch afterwards.
"2? . Soltwedel, -- which grows to be Markgraviate of
"Brandenburg by and by. Soltwedel, now called Salzwedel,
"an old Town still extant, sixty miles to west and north of
'' Brandenburg, short way south of the Elbe, was as yet head-
quarters of this second Markgraf; and any Warden we
"have at Brandenburg 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
"English 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,
? KiShler: Reichs-Historie, p. 66. This is by no means Kb'hlcr's chief
Book; but this too is good, and docs, in a solid effective way, what it
attempts. 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
Literary 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.
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? CHAP. I. ]
85
HEKRY THE FOWLER.
938.
"Bohemia, Austria, and had many tos and fros. Is now (since
"the Thirty-Years War time) mostly Saxon again.
"5? . Austria (Oesterreich, Eastern-Kingdom, Easternrey
"as we might say); to look after the Hungarians, and their
"valuable claims to black-mail.
"6? . Antwerp ('Hand-Wharf,' so to speak), against the
"French; which function soon fell obsolete.
"These were Henry's six Markgraviates (as my best au-
"thority enumerates them); and in this way he had militia
"captains ranked all round his borders, against the intrusive
"Sclavic element.
"He fortified Towns; all Towns are to be walled and
"warded,--to be Burgs in fact; and the inhabitants . Burghers,
"or men capable of defending Burgs. Everywhere the ninth
"man is to serve as soldier in his Town; other eight in the
"country are to feed and support him: Heergerathe (War-
"tackle, what is called Heriot in our old Books) descends to
"the eldest son of a fighting man who had served, as with us.
"'All robbers are made soldiers' (unless they prefer hanging);
"and weaponshows and drill are kept up. This is a man who
"will make some impression upon Anarchy, and its Wends
"and Huns. His standard was St. Michael, as we have seen,
"--whose sword is derived from a very high quarter 1 A pious
"man; -- founded Quedlinburg Abbey, and much else in that
"kind; having apious Wife withal, Mechtildis, who took the
"main hand in that of Quedlinburg; whose Life is inLeibnitz,*
'' not the legiblest of Books. -- On the whole, a right gallant
"King and 'Fowler. ' Died, A. d. 936 (at Memmleben, a
"Monastery on the Unstrut, not far from Schulpforte), age
"sixty; had reigned only seventeen years, and done so much.
"Lies buried in Quedlinburg Abbey: -- any Tomb? I know
* Leibnitz: Seriptores Rerum Brunswicensium, Ac. (Hanover, 1707),
i. 196.
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? 86 OP BRANDENBURG AND THE HOHENZOLLERNS. [B00K n-
"no Life of him but Gundling's, which is an extremely inex-
"tricable Piece, and requires mainly 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,
"beneficently sent us; as a man who did in grim earnest
"'serve God' in his day, and whose works accordingly bear
"fruit to our day, and to all days 1" --
So far my rough Note-books; which require again
to be shut for the present, not to abuse the reader's
patience, or lead him from his road.
This of Markgrafs (Grafs of the Marches, marked
Places, or Boundaries) was a natural invention in that
state of circumstances. It did not quite originate with
Henry; but was much perfected by him, he first recog-
nising how essential it was. On all frontiers he had
his Graf (Count, Reeve, G'reeve, whom some think to
be only Grau, Gray, or Senior, the hardiest, wisest
steel-gray man he could discover) stationed on the
Marck, strenuously doing watch and ward there: the
post of difficulty, of peril, and naturally of honour too,
nothing of a sinecure by any means. Which post,
like every other, always had a tendency to become
hereditary, if the kindred did not fail in fit men. And
hence have come the innumerable Margraves, Marquises,
and such like, of modern times: titles now become
chimerical, and more or less mendacious, as most of
our titles are, -- like so many Burgs changed into
"Boroughs," and even into "Rotten Boroughs," with
Defensive . Burghers of the known sort: very mournful
to discover. Once Norroy was not all pasteboard! At
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? chAP. i. J
87
HENRY THE FOWLER.
sas.
the heart of that huge whirlwind of his, with its dusty
heraldries, and fantasmal nomenclatures now become
mendacious, there lay, at first, always an earnest
human fact . Henry the Fowler was so happy as to
have the fact without any mixture of mendacity: we
are in the sad reverse case; reverse case not yet al-
together 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 there continued to be ever after, --
Six in Henry's time: -- but as to the number, place,
arrangement of them, all this varied according to cir-
cumstances outward and inward, chiefly according to
the regress or the reintrusion of the circumambient
hostile populations; and underwent many changes.
