Reliquiae
Woltonianae (London, 1672), p.
Thomas Carlyle
Duke Maximilian, "Donauwdrth Max," finding
the Evangelical Union go so very high, and his own
Kaiser like to be good for little in such business (poor
hypochondriac Kaiser Rodolf II. , more taken-up with
turning-looms and blow-pipes than with matters politi-
cal, who accordingly is swept-out of Jiilich in such
summary way), -- Donauworth Max has seen this a
necessary institution in the present aspect. But "Union"
and "League" rapidly waxed 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 parch-
ments and infeftments of due extent; but never any
Territory in^those parts. He never offered fight for his
pretensions; and Brandenburg and Neuburg, Neuburg
especially, always answered him, "No! " with sword
half-drawn. So Kur-Sachsen faded-out again, and took
only parchments by the adventure. Practically there
was no private Competitor of moment to Brandenburg,
except this Wolfgang Wilhelm of Pfalz-Neuburg; he
alone having clutched hold. -- But we hasten to Symptom
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? 28 THE HOHENZOLLERNS IN BRANDENBURG. [bOOKIH.
161^
Third, which particularly concerns us, and will be in-
telligible now at last
.
Symptom Third; a Dinner-Scene at D&sseldorf, 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withdrawn.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 St&nde
of the Country;" old methods and old official men:
each of the two had his own Vice-Regent (Statthalter)
present on the ground, who jointly presided as they
could. Jarrings were unavoidable; but how mend it?
Settle the litigated Territory itself, and end their big
lawsuit, they could not; often as they tried it, with the
whole world encouraging and urging them. * The meet-
ings they had, and the treaties and temporary bargains
they made, and kept, and could not keep, in these
and in the following years and generations, pass our
power of recording.
In 1613 the Brandenburg Statthalter was Ernst, the
? Old Sir Henry Wotton, Provost of Eton in bis old days, remembers
how he went ambassador on this errand, -- as on many others equally
bootless; -- and writes himself "Legatus," not only "thrice to Venice,
twice to1* Ac. Ac, but also "once to Holland in the Jullers matter (scmel
in Juliacensi nejolio):" see ReliqtUw Wottmianm (London, 1672), Preface.
It was "in 1614," say the Biographies vaguely. His Despatches, are
they in the Paper-Office still? His good old Book deserves new editing,
his good old genially pious life a proper elucidation, by some faithful
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? CHAP. nv. ] A GHBAT WAR COMING. 29
1618.
Elector's younger Brother; Wolfgang Wilhelm in per-
son, for his Father, or rather for himself as heir of his
Mother, represented Pfalz-Neuburg. Ernst of Branden-
burg had adopted Calvinism as his creed; a thing hate-
ful and horrible to the Lutheran mind (of which sort
was Wolfgang Wilhelm), to a degree now altogether
inconceivable. Discord arose, in consequence, between
the Statthalters, as to official appointments, sacred and
secular: "You are for promoting Calvinists! " -- "And
you, I see, are for promoting Lutherans! " -- Johann
Sigismund himself had to intervene: Wolfgang Wilhelm
and he had their meetings, friendly colloquies; the final
colloquy of which is still memorable; and issues in
Symptom Third.
We said, a strong flame of choler burnt in all these
Hohenzollerns, though they held it well down. Johann
Sigismund, an excellent man of business, knew how
essential a mild tone is: nevertheless he found, as this
colloquy went on, that human patience might at length
get too much. The scene, after some examination, is
conceivable in this wise: Place Ditsseldorf, 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 Sigis-
mund, a middle-aged, big-headed, stern-faced, honest-
looking man; hair cropped, I observe; and eyelids
slightly contracted, as if for sharper vision into matters:
Wolfgang Wilhelm, of features fallen dim to me; an
airy gentleman, well out of his teens, but, I doubt,
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? 30 THE HOHENZOLLEKNS IN BRANDENBURG. [bOOK m.
not of wisdom sufficient; evidently very high and stiff
in his ways.
His proposal, by way of final settlement, and end
to all these brabbles, was this, and he insisted on it:
"Give me your eldest Princess to wife; let her dowry
be your whole claim on Cleve-Jiilich; I will marry her
on that condition, and we shall be friends! " Here
evidently is a gentleman that does not want for con-
ceit in himself: -- consider too, in Johann Sigis-
mund's opinion, he had no right to a square inch of
these Territories, though for peace's 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 endeavoured to say
nothing of it. The young jackanapes went on, insisting. Nature at last prevailed; Johann Sigismund
lifted his hand (princely etiquettes melting all into
smoke on the sudden), and gave the young jack-
anapes 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 re-
markable slap; well testified to, -- though the old
Histories, struck blank with terror, reverence and as-
tonishment, can for most part only symbol it in dumb-
show;* -- a slap that had important consequences in
this world.
? Fufendorf (Her. Brandenb. , lib. iv. 5 IS, p. 213), and many other*
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? CHAP. XIv. ]
31
A GREAT WAR COMING.
1613.
For now Wolfgang Wilhelm, flaming-off in never-
imagined vengeance, posted straight to Munchen, to
Max of Bavaria there; declared himself convinced, or
nearly so, of the Roman-Catholic Religion; wooed, and
in a few weeks (10th November 1613), wedded Max's
younger Sister; and soon after, at Diisseldorf, pom-
pously professed such his blessed change of Belief, --
with immense flourish of trumpeting, and jubilant pam-
phleteering, from Holy Church. * His poor old Father,
the devoutest of Protestants, wailed aloud his "Ichabod!
the glory is departed! " -- holding "weekly fast and
humiliation" ever after, -- and died in few months of
a broken heart. The Catholic League has now a new
Member on those terms.
And on the other hand, Johann Sigismund, nearly
with the like haste (25th December 1613), declared
himself convinced of Calvinism, his younger Brother's
creed;** -- which continues ever since the Branden-
aro in thia caae. Tobiaa Pfanner (Historia Pads Westphalicm, lib. i. ? 9,
p. 2? ) ia explicit: "Neque, ul infidti regnandi societas est, Brandenbwgio el
"Neoburyio diu conveniebal; eommqne jurgia, cum matrimonii fadere
"pacari posse propinqui ipsorum crediiissent, acrius exarsere; inter epulas,
"qnibut futurum generum Seplemvir (the "Scvensman," or Elector, "One
"of the Seven") excipiebat, hujiis enim fUia Wolfgango sperabalur, oh
"neseio quos sermones ei inter utrumque altercations provecta, ut Elector
"irae impotentior, nulla dignitatis, hospitii, cognationit, affinitalime vere-
"cundid cohibitus, inlenderit Neoburgio manus, et conlri tendentis os
"verberaverit. Ita, quae apud Concordes vinculo caritatis, incitamenla
"irarum apud infensos erant. " (Cited in KShler, Munzbelustignngen, xzi.
$41; who refera alao to Levaaaor, Histoire de Louis XIII). -- Panli (iii. 642)
becomee quite vaporona.
? KShler, ubi supra.
? ? Pauli, iU. Ms,
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? 32 THE HOHENZOLLERNS IN BRANDENBURG. ["OOK III.
1614.
burg Court-creed, that of the People being mostly
Lutheran. Men said, it was to please the Dutch, to
please the Julichers, most of whom are Calvinist.
Apologetic Pauli is elaborate, but inconclusive. It
was very ill taken at Berlin, where even popular riot
arose on the matter. In Prussia too it had its drawbacks. *
And now all being full of mutation, rearrangement
and infinite rumour, there marched next year (1614),
on slight pretext, resting on great suspicions, Spanish
troops into the Jiilich-Cleve country, and, countenanced
by Neuburg, began seizing garrisons there. Where-
upon Dutch troops likewise marched, countenanced by
Brandenburg, and occupied other fortresses and garri-
sons: and so, in every strong-place, 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
thunderstorm, and succession of thunderstorms, of Thirty-
Years continuance, broke out. Of which these huge
rumours and mutations, and menacings of war, spring-
ing out of that final colloquy and slap in the face, are
to be taken as the Third premonitory Symptom. Spa-
niards and Dutch stand electrically fronting one an-
other 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.
? Panll, ill. (44; HlcbMlli, 1. 348.
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? CHAP. xiv. ]
33
A GREAT WAR COMING.
1618.
Symptom Fourth, and Catastrophe upon the heels of it.
Five years more (1618), and there will have come
a Fourth Symptom, biggest of all, rapidly consumma-
ting the process; -- Symptom still famed, of the fol-
lowing external figure: Three Oflicial Gentlemen de-
scending from a window in the Castle of Prag; hurled
out by impatient Bohemian Protestantism, a depth of
seventy feet, -- happily only into dung, and without
loss of life. From which follows a "King of Bohemia"
elected there, King not unknown to us; -- "thunder-
clouds" all in one huge clash, and the "continent of
sour smoke" blazing all into a continent of thunderous
fire: Thirty-Years War, as they now call it! Such
a conflagration as poor Germany never saw before or
since.
These were the Four preliminary Symptoms of that
dismal business. "As to the primary causes of it," says
one of my Authorities, "these lie deep, deep almost as
"those of Original Sin. But the proximate causes seem
"to me to have been these two: First, That the Jesuit-
"Priests and Principalities had vowed and resolved to
"have, by God's help and by the Devil's (this was the
"peculiarity of it), Europe made Orthodox again: and
"then Secondly, The fact that a Max of Bavaria existed
"at that time, whose fiery character, cunning but rash
"head, and fanatically Papist heart disposed him to at-
"tempt that enterprise, him with such resources and
"capacities, under their bad guidance. "
farlyle, Frederic the Great, II, 3
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? 34 THE HOHENZOLLERNS IN BRANDENBURG. [bOOKIH.
1620.
Johann Sigismund did many swift decisive strokes
of business in his time, businesses of extensive and im-
portant 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 Bohe-
mia," but already Kur-Pfalz (Cousin of this Neuburg,
and head man of the Protestants), was over here in
England, on a fine errand; -- namely, had married the
fair Elizabeth (14th February 1613), James the First's
Princess; "Goody Palsgrave," as her Mother floutingly
called her, not liking the connexion. What kind of a
"King of Bohemia" this Friedrich made, five or six
years after, and what sea of troubles he and his entered
into, we know: the "Winter-Kdnig" (Winter-King, fallen
in times of frost, or built of mere frost, a snow-king
altogether soluble again) is the name he gets in Ger-
man Histories. But here is another hook to hang Chro-
nology upon.
This brief Bohemian Kingship had not yet exploded
on the Weissenberg of Prag,* when old Sir Henry
Wotton, being sent as Ambassador "to lie abroad" (as
he wittily called it, to his cost) in that Business, saw,
in the City of Lintz, in the picturesque green country
by the shores of the Donau there, an ingenious person,
who is now recognisable as one of the remarkablest of
mankind, -- Mr. John Kepler, namely: Keplar as
Wotton writes him; addressing the great Lord Bacon
? Battle there, Sunday 8th November 1620.
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? CHAP. xIv. ]
35
A GREAT WAR COMING.
1620.
(unhappily 'without strict date of any kind) on that
among other subjects. Mr. John's now ever-memorable
watching of those Motions of the Star Mars,* with "cal-
culations repeated seventy times," and also with Dis-
covery of the Planetary Laws of this Universe, some
ten years ago, appears to be unknown to Wotton and
Bacon; but there is something else of Mr. John's de-
vising** which deserves attention from an Instaurator of
Philosophy:
"He hath a little black Tent (of what stuff is not much im-
porting)," says theAmbassador, "which he can suddenlyset-
"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 along
"perspective Trunk, with the convex glass fitted to the said
"hole, and the concave taken out at the other end, which ex-
"tendeth to about the middle of this erected Tent: through
"which the visible radiations of all the Objects without are
"intromitted, falling upon aPaper, which is accommodated to
"receive them; and so he traceth them with his pen in their
"natural appearance; turning his little Tent round by de-
"grees,till he hath designed the whole Aspect of theField. "***
-- In fact he hath a Camera Obscura, and is exhibiting the
same for the delectation of Imperial gentlemen lounging that
way. Mr. John invents such toys, writes almanacks, practises
? DeMotibus Stella Mortis; Prag, 1609.
? ? It seems. Baptista Porta (of Naples, dead some years before) must
have given him the essential hint, -- of whom, or whose hint, Mr. John
does not happen to inform his Excellency at present.
? ? ?
Reliquiae Woltonianae (London, 1672), p. 300.
3*
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? 36 THE HOHENZOLLERNS IN BRANDENBURG. [bOOKIH.
1620.
medicine, for good reasons; his encouragement from the Holy
Roman Empire and mankind being only a pension of 181. a-
year, and that hardly ever paid. An ingenious person, truly,
if there ever was one among Adam's Posterity. Just turned
of fifty, and ill-off for cash. This glimpse of him, in his little
black tent with perspective glasses, while the Thirty-Years
War blazes out, is welcome as a date.
What became of the Cleve-Julich Heritage, and of the
Preussen one.
In the Cleve-Duchies, joint government had now
become more difficult than ever: but it had to be per-
sisted in, -- under mutual offences, suspicions and out-
breaks hardly repressed; -- no final Bargain of Settle-
ment proving by any method possible. Treaties enough,
and conferences and pleadings, manifestoings: -- Could
not some painful German collector of Statistics try to
give us the approximate quantity of impracticable trea-
ties, futile conferences, manifestoes, correspondences;
in brief, some authentical cipher (say, in round mil-
lions) of idle Words spoken by official human creatures,
and approximately (in square miles) the extent of Law-
Stationery and other Paper written, first and last,
about this Controversy of the Cleve-Duchies? In that
form it might have a momentary interest.
When the Winter-King's explosion took place,*
and his own unfortunate Pfalz (Palatinate) became the
theatre of war (Tilly, Spinola, versus Pfalzers, English,
? Crowned at Prag, 4th November n. a. 1619; beaten to ruin there, and
obliged to gallop (almost before dinner done), Sunday, 8th November 1630,
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? CHAP. xIv. ] A GKEAT WAR COMING. 37
1620.
Dutch), involving all the neighbouring regions, Cleve-
Jiilich did not escape its fate. The Spaniards and the
Dutch, who had long sat in gloomy armed-truce, occu-
pying with obstinate precaution the main Fortresses of
these Jiilich-Cleve countries, did now straightway,
their Twelve-Years truce being out (1621),* fall to
fighting and besieging one another there; the huge
War, which proved of Thirty Years, being now all a-
blaze. What the country suffered in the interim may
be imagined.
In 1624, in pity to all parties, some attempt at
practical Division of the Territory was again made;
Neuburg to have Berg and Jiilich, Brandenburg to
have Cleve, Mark, Ravensberg and the minor appurten-
ances: and Treaty to that effect was got signed (11th
May 1624). But it was not well kept, nor could be;
and the statistic cipher of new treaties, manifestoes,
conferences, and approximate written area of Law-
Paper, goes on increasing.
It was not till forty-two years after, in 1666, as
will be more minutely noticeable by and by, that an
effective partition could be practically brought about.
Nor in this state was the Lawsuit by any means ended,
. -- as we shall wearisomely see, in times long follow-
ing 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;
? Pauli, vi. 578-580,
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? 38 THE HOHENZOLLERNS IN BRANDENBUBG. [book m.
1620.
and the thing Johann Sigismund had claimed legally
in 1609 was actually handed-over to Johann Sigis- mund's Descendant in the seventh generation, after
two-hundred and six years. Handed-over to him then,
-- and a liberal rate of interest allowed. These liti-
gated Duchies are now the Prussian Province Jiilich-
Berg-Cleve, and the nucleus of Prussia's possessions in
the Rhine country.
A year before Johann Sigismund's death, Albert
Friedrich, the poor eclipsed Duke of Prussia, died
(8th August 1618): upon which our swift Kurfurst, not
without need of his dexterities there too, got peaceable
possession of Prussia; -- nor has his Family lost hold
of that, up to the present time. Next year (23d De-
cember 1619), he himself closed a swift busy life
(labour 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.
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? CHAP. xv. J TENTH KUKFtoST GEOBGE WILHELM,
39
1620.
CHAPTER XV.
TENTH KURFURST GEORGE WILHELM.
By far the unluckiest of these Electors, whether the
most unworthy of them or not, was George Wilhelm,
Tenth Elector, who now succeeded Johann Sigismund
his Father. The Father's eyes had closed when this
great flame was breaking out; and the Son's days were
all spent amid the hot ashes and fierce blazings of it.
The position of Brandenburg during this sad Thirty-
Years War was passive rather than active; distinguished
only in the former way, and as far as possible from
being glorious or victorious. Never since the Hohen-
zollerns came to that Country, had Brandenburg such
a time. Difficult to have mended it; impossible to have
quite avoided it; -- and Kurfurst George Wilhelm was
not a man so superior to all his neighbours, that he
could clearly see his way in such an element . The
perfect or ideal course was clear: To have frankly
drawn sword for his Religion and his Rights, so soon
as the battle fairly opened; and to have fought for
these same, till he either got them or died. Alas, that
is easily said and written; but it is, for a George Wil-
helm especially, difficult to do! His capability in all
kinds was limited; his connexions, with this side and
that, were very intricate. Gustavus and the Winter-
King were his Brothers-in-law; Gustavus wedded to
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? 40 THE HOHENZOLLERNS IN BRANDENBURG, [book HI.
1620-1640.
his Sister, he to Winter-King's. His relations to Po-
land, feudal superior of Preussen, were delicate; and
Gustavus was in deadly quarrel with Poland. And
then Gustavus's sudden laying-hold of Pommern, which
had just espaced from Wallenstein and the Kaiser? It
must be granted, poor George Wilhelm's case demanded
circumspectness.
One can forgive him for declining the Bohemian-
King speculation, though his Uncle of Jagerndorf, and
his Cousins of Liegnitz were so hearty and forward in
it. Pardonable in him to decline the Bohemian specu-
lation; -- though surely it is very sad that he found
himself so short of "butter and wood" when the poor
ex-King, and his young Wife, then in a specially-
interesting 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
imperfect, would have recognised this Gustavus, what
his purposes and likelihoods were; the feeling would
have been, checked by due circumspectness: "Up, my
men, let us follow this man; let us live and die in the
Cause this man goes for! Live otherwise with honour,
or die otherwise with honour, we cannot, in the pass
things have come to! " -- And thus, at the very worst,
? S51H1 (Geschichte des Dreissigjdhrigen J&iegeSt -- a trivial modern
Book) gives a notable Memorial from the Brandenburg Raths, concerning
these their difficulties of housekeeping. Their real object, we perceive,
was to get rid of a Guest so dangerous as the Ex-King, under Ban of the
Empire, had now become,
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? CHAP. xv. ] TENTH KURFOkST GEORGE WILHELM. 41
1620-1640.
Brandenburg would have had only one class of enemies
to ravage it; and might have escaped with, arith-
metically speaking, half the harrying it got in that
long Business.
But Protestant Germany, -- sad shame to it, which
proved lasting sorrow as well, -- was all alike torpid;
Brandenburg not an exceptional case. No Prince stood
up as beseemed: or only one, and he not a great one;
Landgraf Wilhelm of Hessen, who, and his brave
Widow after him, seemed always to know what hour
it was. Wilhelm of Hessen all along; -- and a few
wild hands, Christian of Brunswick, Christian of Anhalt,
Johann George of Jagerndorf, who stormed-out tumul-
tuously at first, but were soon blown away by the
Tilly-Wallenstein trade-winds and regulated armaments:
--- the rest sat still, and tried all they could to keep
out of harm's way. The "Evangelical Union" did a
great deal of manifestoing, pathetic, indignant and
other; held solemn Meetings at Heilbronn, old Sir
Henry Wotton going as Ambassador to them; but never
got any redress. Had the Evangelical Union shut-up
its inkhorns sooner; girt-on its fighting-tools when the
time came, and done some little execution with them
then, instead of none at all, -- we may fancy the
Evangelical Union would have better discharged its
function. It might have saved immense wretchedness
to Germany. But its course went not that way.
In fact, had there been no better Protestantism than
that of Germany, all was over with Protestantism; and
Max of Bavaria, with fanatical Ferdinand H. as Kaiser
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? 42 THE HOHENZOLLERNS IN BRANDENBUKG, [book in.
1620-1640.
over him, and Father Lammerlein at his right hand
and Father Hyacinth at his left, had got their own
sweet way in this world. But Protestant Germany was
not Protestant Europe, after all. Over seas, there dwelt
and reigned a certain King in Sweden; there farmed,
and walked musing by the shores of the Ouse in Hunt-
ingdonshire, a certain man: -- there was a Gustav
Adolf over seas, an Oliver Cromwell over seas; and
"a company of poor men" were found capable of
taking Lucifer by the beard, -- who accordingly, with
his Lammerleins, Hyacinths, Habernfeldts and others,
was forced to withdraw, after a tough struggle! --
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? CHAP. xvI. ]
43
THIRTY-YEARS WAR
1620-1640.
CHAPTER XVI.
THIRTY-YEARS WAR.
The enormous Thirty-Years War, most intricate of
modern Occurrences in the domain of Dryasdust, divides
itself, after some unravelling, into Three principal Acts
or Epochs, in all of which, one after the other, our
Kurfiirst had an interest mounting progressively, but
continuing to be a passive interest.
Act First goes from 1620 to 1624; and might be
entitled "The Bohemian King Made and Demolished. "
Personally the Bohemian King was soon demolished.
His Kingship may be said to have gone-off by explo-
sion; by one Fight, namely, done on the Weissenberg
near Prag (Sunday, 8th November 1620), while he
sat at dinner in the City, the boom of the cannon
coming-in with interest upon high guests and him. He
had to run, in hot haste, that night, leaving many of
his important papers, -- and becomes a Winter-King.
Winter-King's account was soon settled. But the extir-
pating of his Adherents, and capturing of his Heredi-
tary Lands, Palatinate and Upper-Palatinate, took three
years more. Hard fighting for the Palatinate; Tilly
and Company against the "Evangelical-Union Troops,
"and the English under Sir Horace Vere. " Evangelical-
Onion Troops, though marching about there, under an
Uncle of our Kurfurst (Margraf Joachim Ernst, that
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? 44 THE HOHENZOLLERNS IN BRANDENBURG. [BOOKni.
1620-1640.
lucky Anspach Uncle, founder of "the Line"), who
professed some skill in soldiering, were a mere Picture
of an Army; would only "observe," and would not
fight at all. So that the whole fighting fell to Sir
Horace and his poor handful of English; of whose grim
posture "in Frankendale" * and other Strongholds, for
months long, there is talk enough in the old English
History-Books.
Then there were certain stern War-Captains, who
rallied from the Weissenberg Defeat: -- Christian of
Brunswick, the chief of them, titular Bishop of Halber-
stadt, a high-flown, fiery young fellow, of terrible
fighting gifts; he flamed-up considerably, with "the
Queen of Bohemia's glove stuck in his Hat:" "Bright
Lady, it shall stick there, till I get you your own
again, or die! "** Christian of Brunswick, George of
Jagerndorf (our Kurfurst's Uncle), Count Mansfeldt and
others, made stormy fight once and again, hanging
upon this central "Frankendale" Business, till they
and it became hopeless. For the Kaiser and his Jesuits
were not in doubt; a Kaiser very proud, unscrupulous;
now clearly superior in force, -- and all along of great
superiority in fraud.
Christian of Brunswick, Johann George and Mans-
? Frankenthal, a little Town In the Palatinate, N. W. from Mannheim
a short way.
? ? 1621-1623, age not yet twenty-five; died (by poison), 1626, having
again become supremely important just then. "Coltet Fretmd, der Pfaffen
Feind (God's Friend, Priests' Foe);" "Alles fir Ruhm und Ihr (All for
Glory and Her," -- the bright Elizabeth, become Ex-Queen), were mottoes
pf hit. -- Ruddaus in voce (i. 649); Mlchaells, I. 110,
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? CHAP. xv1. 1
45
THIRTY-YEARS WAR.
1624.
feldt were got rid of: Christian by poison; Johann
George and Mansfeldt by other methods, -- chiefly by
playing-upon poor King James of England, and leading
him by the long nose he was found to have. The
Palatinate became the Kaiser's for the time being;
Upper Palatinate (Ober Pfalz) Duke Max of Bavaria,
lying contiguous to it, had easily taken.
the Evangelical Union go so very high, and his own
Kaiser like to be good for little in such business (poor
hypochondriac Kaiser Rodolf II. , more taken-up with
turning-looms and blow-pipes than with matters politi-
cal, who accordingly is swept-out of Jiilich in such
summary way), -- Donauworth Max has seen this a
necessary institution in the present aspect. But "Union"
and "League" rapidly waxed 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 parch-
ments and infeftments of due extent; but never any
Territory in^those parts. He never offered fight for his
pretensions; and Brandenburg and Neuburg, Neuburg
especially, always answered him, "No! " with sword
half-drawn. So Kur-Sachsen faded-out again, and took
only parchments by the adventure. Practically there
was no private Competitor of moment to Brandenburg,
except this Wolfgang Wilhelm of Pfalz-Neuburg; he
alone having clutched hold. -- But we hasten to Symptom
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? 28 THE HOHENZOLLERNS IN BRANDENBURG. [bOOKIH.
161^
Third, which particularly concerns us, and will be in-
telligible now at last
.
Symptom Third; a Dinner-Scene at D&sseldorf, 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 St&nde
of the Country;" old methods and old official men:
each of the two had his own Vice-Regent (Statthalter)
present on the ground, who jointly presided as they
could. Jarrings were unavoidable; but how mend it?
Settle the litigated Territory itself, and end their big
lawsuit, they could not; often as they tried it, with the
whole world encouraging and urging them. * The meet-
ings they had, and the treaties and temporary bargains
they made, and kept, and could not keep, in these
and in the following years and generations, pass our
power of recording.
In 1613 the Brandenburg Statthalter was Ernst, the
? Old Sir Henry Wotton, Provost of Eton in bis old days, remembers
how he went ambassador on this errand, -- as on many others equally
bootless; -- and writes himself "Legatus," not only "thrice to Venice,
twice to1* Ac. Ac, but also "once to Holland in the Jullers matter (scmel
in Juliacensi nejolio):" see ReliqtUw Wottmianm (London, 1672), Preface.
It was "in 1614," say the Biographies vaguely. His Despatches, are
they in the Paper-Office still? His good old Book deserves new editing,
his good old genially pious life a proper elucidation, by some faithful
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? CHAP. nv. ] A GHBAT WAR COMING. 29
1618.
Elector's younger Brother; Wolfgang Wilhelm in per-
son, for his Father, or rather for himself as heir of his
Mother, represented Pfalz-Neuburg. Ernst of Branden-
burg had adopted Calvinism as his creed; a thing hate-
ful and horrible to the Lutheran mind (of which sort
was Wolfgang Wilhelm), to a degree now altogether
inconceivable. Discord arose, in consequence, between
the Statthalters, as to official appointments, sacred and
secular: "You are for promoting Calvinists! " -- "And
you, I see, are for promoting Lutherans! " -- Johann
Sigismund himself had to intervene: Wolfgang Wilhelm
and he had their meetings, friendly colloquies; the final
colloquy of which is still memorable; and issues in
Symptom Third.
We said, a strong flame of choler burnt in all these
Hohenzollerns, though they held it well down. Johann
Sigismund, an excellent man of business, knew how
essential a mild tone is: nevertheless he found, as this
colloquy went on, that human patience might at length
get too much. The scene, after some examination, is
conceivable in this wise: Place Ditsseldorf, 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 Sigis-
mund, a middle-aged, big-headed, stern-faced, honest-
looking man; hair cropped, I observe; and eyelids
slightly contracted, as if for sharper vision into matters:
Wolfgang Wilhelm, of features fallen dim to me; an
airy gentleman, well out of his teens, but, I doubt,
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? 30 THE HOHENZOLLEKNS IN BRANDENBURG. [bOOK m.
not of wisdom sufficient; evidently very high and stiff
in his ways.
His proposal, by way of final settlement, and end
to all these brabbles, was this, and he insisted on it:
"Give me your eldest Princess to wife; let her dowry
be your whole claim on Cleve-Jiilich; I will marry her
on that condition, and we shall be friends! " Here
evidently is a gentleman that does not want for con-
ceit in himself: -- consider too, in Johann Sigis-
mund's opinion, he had no right to a square inch of
these Territories, though for peace's 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 endeavoured to say
nothing of it. The young jackanapes went on, insisting. Nature at last prevailed; Johann Sigismund
lifted his hand (princely etiquettes melting all into
smoke on the sudden), and gave the young jack-
anapes 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 re-
markable slap; well testified to, -- though the old
Histories, struck blank with terror, reverence and as-
tonishment, can for most part only symbol it in dumb-
show;* -- a slap that had important consequences in
this world.
? Fufendorf (Her. Brandenb. , lib. iv. 5 IS, p. 213), and many other*
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? CHAP. XIv. ]
31
A GREAT WAR COMING.
1613.
For now Wolfgang Wilhelm, flaming-off in never-
imagined vengeance, posted straight to Munchen, to
Max of Bavaria there; declared himself convinced, or
nearly so, of the Roman-Catholic Religion; wooed, and
in a few weeks (10th November 1613), wedded Max's
younger Sister; and soon after, at Diisseldorf, pom-
pously professed such his blessed change of Belief, --
with immense flourish of trumpeting, and jubilant pam-
phleteering, from Holy Church. * His poor old Father,
the devoutest of Protestants, wailed aloud his "Ichabod!
the glory is departed! " -- holding "weekly fast and
humiliation" ever after, -- and died in few months of
a broken heart. The Catholic League has now a new
Member on those terms.
And on the other hand, Johann Sigismund, nearly
with the like haste (25th December 1613), declared
himself convinced of Calvinism, his younger Brother's
creed;** -- which continues ever since the Branden-
aro in thia caae. Tobiaa Pfanner (Historia Pads Westphalicm, lib. i. ? 9,
p. 2? ) ia explicit: "Neque, ul infidti regnandi societas est, Brandenbwgio el
"Neoburyio diu conveniebal; eommqne jurgia, cum matrimonii fadere
"pacari posse propinqui ipsorum crediiissent, acrius exarsere; inter epulas,
"qnibut futurum generum Seplemvir (the "Scvensman," or Elector, "One
"of the Seven") excipiebat, hujiis enim fUia Wolfgango sperabalur, oh
"neseio quos sermones ei inter utrumque altercations provecta, ut Elector
"irae impotentior, nulla dignitatis, hospitii, cognationit, affinitalime vere-
"cundid cohibitus, inlenderit Neoburgio manus, et conlri tendentis os
"verberaverit. Ita, quae apud Concordes vinculo caritatis, incitamenla
"irarum apud infensos erant. " (Cited in KShler, Munzbelustignngen, xzi.
$41; who refera alao to Levaaaor, Histoire de Louis XIII). -- Panli (iii. 642)
becomee quite vaporona.
? KShler, ubi supra.
? ? Pauli, iU. Ms,
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? 32 THE HOHENZOLLERNS IN BRANDENBURG. ["OOK III.
1614.
burg Court-creed, that of the People being mostly
Lutheran. Men said, it was to please the Dutch, to
please the Julichers, most of whom are Calvinist.
Apologetic Pauli is elaborate, but inconclusive. It
was very ill taken at Berlin, where even popular riot
arose on the matter. In Prussia too it had its drawbacks. *
And now all being full of mutation, rearrangement
and infinite rumour, there marched next year (1614),
on slight pretext, resting on great suspicions, Spanish
troops into the Jiilich-Cleve country, and, countenanced
by Neuburg, began seizing garrisons there. Where-
upon Dutch troops likewise marched, countenanced by
Brandenburg, and occupied other fortresses and garri-
sons: and so, in every strong-place, 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
thunderstorm, and succession of thunderstorms, of Thirty-
Years continuance, broke out. Of which these huge
rumours and mutations, and menacings of war, spring-
ing out of that final colloquy and slap in the face, are
to be taken as the Third premonitory Symptom. Spa-
niards and Dutch stand electrically fronting one an-
other 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.
? Panll, ill. (44; HlcbMlli, 1. 348.
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? CHAP. xiv. ]
33
A GREAT WAR COMING.
1618.
Symptom Fourth, and Catastrophe upon the heels of it.
Five years more (1618), and there will have come
a Fourth Symptom, biggest of all, rapidly consumma-
ting the process; -- Symptom still famed, of the fol-
lowing external figure: Three Oflicial Gentlemen de-
scending from a window in the Castle of Prag; hurled
out by impatient Bohemian Protestantism, a depth of
seventy feet, -- happily only into dung, and without
loss of life. From which follows a "King of Bohemia"
elected there, King not unknown to us; -- "thunder-
clouds" all in one huge clash, and the "continent of
sour smoke" blazing all into a continent of thunderous
fire: Thirty-Years War, as they now call it! Such
a conflagration as poor Germany never saw before or
since.
These were the Four preliminary Symptoms of that
dismal business. "As to the primary causes of it," says
one of my Authorities, "these lie deep, deep almost as
"those of Original Sin. But the proximate causes seem
"to me to have been these two: First, That the Jesuit-
"Priests and Principalities had vowed and resolved to
"have, by God's help and by the Devil's (this was the
"peculiarity of it), Europe made Orthodox again: and
"then Secondly, The fact that a Max of Bavaria existed
"at that time, whose fiery character, cunning but rash
"head, and fanatically Papist heart disposed him to at-
"tempt that enterprise, him with such resources and
"capacities, under their bad guidance. "
farlyle, Frederic the Great, II, 3
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? 34 THE HOHENZOLLERNS IN BRANDENBURG. [bOOKIH.
1620.
Johann Sigismund did many swift decisive strokes
of business in his time, businesses of extensive and im-
portant 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 Bohe-
mia," but already Kur-Pfalz (Cousin of this Neuburg,
and head man of the Protestants), was over here in
England, on a fine errand; -- namely, had married the
fair Elizabeth (14th February 1613), James the First's
Princess; "Goody Palsgrave," as her Mother floutingly
called her, not liking the connexion. What kind of a
"King of Bohemia" this Friedrich made, five or six
years after, and what sea of troubles he and his entered
into, we know: the "Winter-Kdnig" (Winter-King, fallen
in times of frost, or built of mere frost, a snow-king
altogether soluble again) is the name he gets in Ger-
man Histories. But here is another hook to hang Chro-
nology upon.
This brief Bohemian Kingship had not yet exploded
on the Weissenberg of Prag,* when old Sir Henry
Wotton, being sent as Ambassador "to lie abroad" (as
he wittily called it, to his cost) in that Business, saw,
in the City of Lintz, in the picturesque green country
by the shores of the Donau there, an ingenious person,
who is now recognisable as one of the remarkablest of
mankind, -- Mr. John Kepler, namely: Keplar as
Wotton writes him; addressing the great Lord Bacon
? Battle there, Sunday 8th November 1620.
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? CHAP. xIv. ]
35
A GREAT WAR COMING.
1620.
(unhappily 'without strict date of any kind) on that
among other subjects. Mr. John's now ever-memorable
watching of those Motions of the Star Mars,* with "cal-
culations repeated seventy times," and also with Dis-
covery of the Planetary Laws of this Universe, some
ten years ago, appears to be unknown to Wotton and
Bacon; but there is something else of Mr. John's de-
vising** which deserves attention from an Instaurator of
Philosophy:
"He hath a little black Tent (of what stuff is not much im-
porting)," says theAmbassador, "which he can suddenlyset-
"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 along
"perspective Trunk, with the convex glass fitted to the said
"hole, and the concave taken out at the other end, which ex-
"tendeth to about the middle of this erected Tent: through
"which the visible radiations of all the Objects without are
"intromitted, falling upon aPaper, which is accommodated to
"receive them; and so he traceth them with his pen in their
"natural appearance; turning his little Tent round by de-
"grees,till he hath designed the whole Aspect of theField. "***
-- In fact he hath a Camera Obscura, and is exhibiting the
same for the delectation of Imperial gentlemen lounging that
way. Mr. John invents such toys, writes almanacks, practises
? DeMotibus Stella Mortis; Prag, 1609.
? ? It seems. Baptista Porta (of Naples, dead some years before) must
have given him the essential hint, -- of whom, or whose hint, Mr. John
does not happen to inform his Excellency at present.
? ? ?
Reliquiae Woltonianae (London, 1672), p. 300.
3*
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? 36 THE HOHENZOLLERNS IN BRANDENBURG. [bOOKIH.
1620.
medicine, for good reasons; his encouragement from the Holy
Roman Empire and mankind being only a pension of 181. a-
year, and that hardly ever paid. An ingenious person, truly,
if there ever was one among Adam's Posterity. Just turned
of fifty, and ill-off for cash. This glimpse of him, in his little
black tent with perspective glasses, while the Thirty-Years
War blazes out, is welcome as a date.
What became of the Cleve-Julich Heritage, and of the
Preussen one.
In the Cleve-Duchies, joint government had now
become more difficult than ever: but it had to be per-
sisted in, -- under mutual offences, suspicions and out-
breaks hardly repressed; -- no final Bargain of Settle-
ment proving by any method possible. Treaties enough,
and conferences and pleadings, manifestoings: -- Could
not some painful German collector of Statistics try to
give us the approximate quantity of impracticable trea-
ties, futile conferences, manifestoes, correspondences;
in brief, some authentical cipher (say, in round mil-
lions) of idle Words spoken by official human creatures,
and approximately (in square miles) the extent of Law-
Stationery and other Paper written, first and last,
about this Controversy of the Cleve-Duchies? In that
form it might have a momentary interest.
When the Winter-King's explosion took place,*
and his own unfortunate Pfalz (Palatinate) became the
theatre of war (Tilly, Spinola, versus Pfalzers, English,
? Crowned at Prag, 4th November n. a. 1619; beaten to ruin there, and
obliged to gallop (almost before dinner done), Sunday, 8th November 1630,
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? CHAP. xIv. ] A GKEAT WAR COMING. 37
1620.
Dutch), involving all the neighbouring regions, Cleve-
Jiilich did not escape its fate. The Spaniards and the
Dutch, who had long sat in gloomy armed-truce, occu-
pying with obstinate precaution the main Fortresses of
these Jiilich-Cleve countries, did now straightway,
their Twelve-Years truce being out (1621),* fall to
fighting and besieging one another there; the huge
War, which proved of Thirty Years, being now all a-
blaze. What the country suffered in the interim may
be imagined.
In 1624, in pity to all parties, some attempt at
practical Division of the Territory was again made;
Neuburg to have Berg and Jiilich, Brandenburg to
have Cleve, Mark, Ravensberg and the minor appurten-
ances: and Treaty to that effect was got signed (11th
May 1624). But it was not well kept, nor could be;
and the statistic cipher of new treaties, manifestoes,
conferences, and approximate written area of Law-
Paper, goes on increasing.
It was not till forty-two years after, in 1666, as
will be more minutely noticeable by and by, that an
effective partition could be practically brought about.
Nor in this state was the Lawsuit by any means ended,
. -- as we shall wearisomely see, in times long follow-
ing 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;
? Pauli, vi. 578-580,
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? 38 THE HOHENZOLLERNS IN BRANDENBUBG. [book m.
1620.
and the thing Johann Sigismund had claimed legally
in 1609 was actually handed-over to Johann Sigis- mund's Descendant in the seventh generation, after
two-hundred and six years. Handed-over to him then,
-- and a liberal rate of interest allowed. These liti-
gated Duchies are now the Prussian Province Jiilich-
Berg-Cleve, and the nucleus of Prussia's possessions in
the Rhine country.
A year before Johann Sigismund's death, Albert
Friedrich, the poor eclipsed Duke of Prussia, died
(8th August 1618): upon which our swift Kurfurst, not
without need of his dexterities there too, got peaceable
possession of Prussia; -- nor has his Family lost hold
of that, up to the present time. Next year (23d De-
cember 1619), he himself closed a swift busy life
(labour 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.
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? CHAP. xv. J TENTH KUKFtoST GEOBGE WILHELM,
39
1620.
CHAPTER XV.
TENTH KURFURST GEORGE WILHELM.
By far the unluckiest of these Electors, whether the
most unworthy of them or not, was George Wilhelm,
Tenth Elector, who now succeeded Johann Sigismund
his Father. The Father's eyes had closed when this
great flame was breaking out; and the Son's days were
all spent amid the hot ashes and fierce blazings of it.
The position of Brandenburg during this sad Thirty-
Years War was passive rather than active; distinguished
only in the former way, and as far as possible from
being glorious or victorious. Never since the Hohen-
zollerns came to that Country, had Brandenburg such
a time. Difficult to have mended it; impossible to have
quite avoided it; -- and Kurfurst George Wilhelm was
not a man so superior to all his neighbours, that he
could clearly see his way in such an element . The
perfect or ideal course was clear: To have frankly
drawn sword for his Religion and his Rights, so soon
as the battle fairly opened; and to have fought for
these same, till he either got them or died. Alas, that
is easily said and written; but it is, for a George Wil-
helm especially, difficult to do! His capability in all
kinds was limited; his connexions, with this side and
that, were very intricate. Gustavus and the Winter-
King were his Brothers-in-law; Gustavus wedded to
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? 40 THE HOHENZOLLERNS IN BRANDENBURG, [book HI.
1620-1640.
his Sister, he to Winter-King's. His relations to Po-
land, feudal superior of Preussen, were delicate; and
Gustavus was in deadly quarrel with Poland. And
then Gustavus's sudden laying-hold of Pommern, which
had just espaced from Wallenstein and the Kaiser? It
must be granted, poor George Wilhelm's case demanded
circumspectness.
One can forgive him for declining the Bohemian-
King speculation, though his Uncle of Jagerndorf, and
his Cousins of Liegnitz were so hearty and forward in
it. Pardonable in him to decline the Bohemian specu-
lation; -- though surely it is very sad that he found
himself so short of "butter and wood" when the poor
ex-King, and his young Wife, then in a specially-
interesting 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
imperfect, would have recognised this Gustavus, what
his purposes and likelihoods were; the feeling would
have been, checked by due circumspectness: "Up, my
men, let us follow this man; let us live and die in the
Cause this man goes for! Live otherwise with honour,
or die otherwise with honour, we cannot, in the pass
things have come to! " -- And thus, at the very worst,
? S51H1 (Geschichte des Dreissigjdhrigen J&iegeSt -- a trivial modern
Book) gives a notable Memorial from the Brandenburg Raths, concerning
these their difficulties of housekeeping. Their real object, we perceive,
was to get rid of a Guest so dangerous as the Ex-King, under Ban of the
Empire, had now become,
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? CHAP. xv. ] TENTH KURFOkST GEORGE WILHELM. 41
1620-1640.
Brandenburg would have had only one class of enemies
to ravage it; and might have escaped with, arith-
metically speaking, half the harrying it got in that
long Business.
But Protestant Germany, -- sad shame to it, which
proved lasting sorrow as well, -- was all alike torpid;
Brandenburg not an exceptional case. No Prince stood
up as beseemed: or only one, and he not a great one;
Landgraf Wilhelm of Hessen, who, and his brave
Widow after him, seemed always to know what hour
it was. Wilhelm of Hessen all along; -- and a few
wild hands, Christian of Brunswick, Christian of Anhalt,
Johann George of Jagerndorf, who stormed-out tumul-
tuously at first, but were soon blown away by the
Tilly-Wallenstein trade-winds and regulated armaments:
--- the rest sat still, and tried all they could to keep
out of harm's way. The "Evangelical Union" did a
great deal of manifestoing, pathetic, indignant and
other; held solemn Meetings at Heilbronn, old Sir
Henry Wotton going as Ambassador to them; but never
got any redress. Had the Evangelical Union shut-up
its inkhorns sooner; girt-on its fighting-tools when the
time came, and done some little execution with them
then, instead of none at all, -- we may fancy the
Evangelical Union would have better discharged its
function. It might have saved immense wretchedness
to Germany. But its course went not that way.
In fact, had there been no better Protestantism than
that of Germany, all was over with Protestantism; and
Max of Bavaria, with fanatical Ferdinand H. as Kaiser
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? 42 THE HOHENZOLLERNS IN BRANDENBUKG, [book in.
1620-1640.
over him, and Father Lammerlein at his right hand
and Father Hyacinth at his left, had got their own
sweet way in this world. But Protestant Germany was
not Protestant Europe, after all. Over seas, there dwelt
and reigned a certain King in Sweden; there farmed,
and walked musing by the shores of the Ouse in Hunt-
ingdonshire, a certain man: -- there was a Gustav
Adolf over seas, an Oliver Cromwell over seas; and
"a company of poor men" were found capable of
taking Lucifer by the beard, -- who accordingly, with
his Lammerleins, Hyacinths, Habernfeldts and others,
was forced to withdraw, after a tough struggle! --
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:12 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7g Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP. xvI. ]
43
THIRTY-YEARS WAR
1620-1640.
CHAPTER XVI.
THIRTY-YEARS WAR.
The enormous Thirty-Years War, most intricate of
modern Occurrences in the domain of Dryasdust, divides
itself, after some unravelling, into Three principal Acts
or Epochs, in all of which, one after the other, our
Kurfiirst had an interest mounting progressively, but
continuing to be a passive interest.
Act First goes from 1620 to 1624; and might be
entitled "The Bohemian King Made and Demolished. "
Personally the Bohemian King was soon demolished.
His Kingship may be said to have gone-off by explo-
sion; by one Fight, namely, done on the Weissenberg
near Prag (Sunday, 8th November 1620), while he
sat at dinner in the City, the boom of the cannon
coming-in with interest upon high guests and him. He
had to run, in hot haste, that night, leaving many of
his important papers, -- and becomes a Winter-King.
Winter-King's account was soon settled. But the extir-
pating of his Adherents, and capturing of his Heredi-
tary Lands, Palatinate and Upper-Palatinate, took three
years more. Hard fighting for the Palatinate; Tilly
and Company against the "Evangelical-Union Troops,
"and the English under Sir Horace Vere. " Evangelical-
Onion Troops, though marching about there, under an
Uncle of our Kurfurst (Margraf Joachim Ernst, that
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? 44 THE HOHENZOLLERNS IN BRANDENBURG. [BOOKni.
1620-1640.
lucky Anspach Uncle, founder of "the Line"), who
professed some skill in soldiering, were a mere Picture
of an Army; would only "observe," and would not
fight at all. So that the whole fighting fell to Sir
Horace and his poor handful of English; of whose grim
posture "in Frankendale" * and other Strongholds, for
months long, there is talk enough in the old English
History-Books.
Then there were certain stern War-Captains, who
rallied from the Weissenberg Defeat: -- Christian of
Brunswick, the chief of them, titular Bishop of Halber-
stadt, a high-flown, fiery young fellow, of terrible
fighting gifts; he flamed-up considerably, with "the
Queen of Bohemia's glove stuck in his Hat:" "Bright
Lady, it shall stick there, till I get you your own
again, or die! "** Christian of Brunswick, George of
Jagerndorf (our Kurfurst's Uncle), Count Mansfeldt and
others, made stormy fight once and again, hanging
upon this central "Frankendale" Business, till they
and it became hopeless. For the Kaiser and his Jesuits
were not in doubt; a Kaiser very proud, unscrupulous;
now clearly superior in force, -- and all along of great
superiority in fraud.
Christian of Brunswick, Johann George and Mans-
? Frankenthal, a little Town In the Palatinate, N. W. from Mannheim
a short way.
? ? 1621-1623, age not yet twenty-five; died (by poison), 1626, having
again become supremely important just then. "Coltet Fretmd, der Pfaffen
Feind (God's Friend, Priests' Foe);" "Alles fir Ruhm und Ihr (All for
Glory and Her," -- the bright Elizabeth, become Ex-Queen), were mottoes
pf hit. -- Ruddaus in voce (i. 649); Mlchaells, I. 110,
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? CHAP. xv1. 1
45
THIRTY-YEARS WAR.
1624.
feldt were got rid of: Christian by poison; Johann
George and Mansfeldt by other methods, -- chiefly by
playing-upon poor King James of England, and leading
him by the long nose he was found to have. The
Palatinate became the Kaiser's for the time being;
Upper Palatinate (Ober Pfalz) Duke Max of Bavaria,
lying contiguous to it, had easily taken.
