For, invery deed, they are doomed and damned, by
Carlyle, Frederic the Great.
Carlyle, Frederic the Great.
Thomas Carlyle
287; Stenzel, i.
168 (where, contrary to wont, is an in-
algnlfiMOt error or two). Pauli (11. (8) is, as usual, lost in water,
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? chAP. i. ] kurfOrst friedrich i. 233
1440.
Friedrich showed no cruelty; far the contrary. Your
mutiny once ended, and a little repented of, he is ready
to be your gracious Prince again: Fairplay and the
social wine-cup, or inexorable war and Lazy Peg, it is
at your discretion which. Brandenburg submitted;
hardly ever rebelled more. Brandenburg, under the
wise Kurfurst it has got, begins in a small degree to
be cosmic again, or of the domain of the gods; ceases
to be chaotic and a mere cockpit of the devils.
There is no doubt but this Friedrich also, like his
ancestor Friedrich III. , the First Hereditary Burggraf,
was an excellent citizen of his country; a man con-
spicuously important in all German business in his
time. A man setting-up for no particular magnanimity,
ability or heroism, but unconsciously exhibiting a good
deal; which by degrees gained universal recognition.
He did not shine much as Reichs-Generalissimo, under
Kaiser Sigismund, in his expeditions against Zisca; on
the contrary, he presided over huge defeat and rout,
once and again, in that capacity; and indeed had re-
presented in vain that, with such a species of militia,
victory was impossible. He represented and again re-
presented, to no purpose; whereupon he declined the
office farther; in which others fared no better. *
The offer to be Kaiser was made him in his old days;
but he wisely declined that too. It was in Branden-
burg, by what he silently founded there, that he did
his chief benefit to Germany and mankind. He under-
stood the noble art of governing men; had in him the
* Hormayr: (Esterreichischer Plutarch, vli. 109-158, ? Zisca.
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? 234 THE HOHENZOLLEENS IN BEANDENBURG. [book HI.
1440.
justice, clearness, valour and patience needed for that
.
A man of sterling probity, for one thing. Which in-
deed is the first requisite in said art: -- if you will
have your Laws obeyed without mutiny, see well that
they be pieces of God Almighty's Law: otherwise all
the artillery in the world will not keep down mutiny.
Friedrich "travelled much over Brandenburg;" look-
ing into everything with his own eyes; ? making, I
can well fancy, innummerable crooked things straight- Reducing more and more that famishing dogkennel of
a Brandenburg into a fruitful arable field. His Por-
traits represent a square-headed, mild-looking solid
gentleman, with a certain twinkle of mirth in the
serious eyes of him. Except in those Hussite wars for
Kaiser Sigismund and the Reich, in which no man
could prosper, he may be defined as constantly pro-
sperous. To Brandenburg he was, very literally, the
blessing of blessings; redemption out of death into life.
In the ruins of that old Friesack Castle, battered down
by Heavy Peg, Antiquarian Science (if it had any eyes)
might look for the taproot of the Prussian Nation, and
the beginning of all that Brandenburg has since grown
to under the sun.
Friedrich, in one capacity or another, presided over
Brandenburg near thirty years. He came thither first
of all in 1412; was not completely Kurfiirst in his own
right till 1415; nor publicly installed, "with 100,000
locking-on from the roofs and windows" in Constance
yonder, till 1417, -- age then some forty-five. His
Brandenburg residence, when he happened to have time
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? chaP, i. ] kurfCrst friedrich i. 235
1440.
for residing or sitting still, was Tangermiinde, the
Castle built by Kaiser Karl IV. He died there, 21st
September 1440; laden tolerably with years, and still
better with memories of hard work done. Rentsch
guesses by good inference he was born about 1372.
As I count, he is seventh in descent from that Conrad,
Burggraf Conrad I. , Cadet of Hohenzollern, who came
down from the Rauhe Alp, seeking service with Kaiser
Redbeard, above two centuries ago: Conrad's genera-
tion and six others had vanished successively from the
world-theatre in that ever-mysterious manner, and left
the stage clear, when Burggraf Friedrich the Sixth
came to be First Elector. Let three centuries, let
twelve generations farther come and pass, and there
will be another still more notable Friedrich, -- our
little Fritz, destined to be Third King of Prussia,
officially named Friedrich II. , and popularly Frederick
the Great . This First Elector is his lineal ancestor,
twelve times removed. *
? Rentsch, pp. 349-372; Hflbner, t. 176.
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? 236 THE HOHENZOLLEBNS IN BRANDENBURG. [BOOKm.
1440.
CHAPTER n.
MATINEES DTI ROI DE FRUSSE.
Eleven successive Kurfursts followed Eriedrich in
Brandenburg. Of whom and their births, deaths, wars,
marriages, negotiations and continual multitudinous
stream of smaller or greater adventures, much has been
written, of a dreary confused nature; next to nothing
of which ought to be repeated here. Some list of their
Names, with what rememberable human feature or event
(if any) still speaks to us in them, we must try to give.
Their Names, well dated, with any actions, incidents,
or phases of life, which may in this way get to adhere
to them in the reader's memory, the reader can insert,
each at its right place, in the grand Tide of European
Events, or in such Picture as the reader may have of
that. Thereby with diligence he may produce for him-
self some faint twilight notion of the Flight of Time in
remote Brandenburg, -- convince himself that remote
Brandenburg was present all along, alive after its sort,
and assisting, dumbly or otherwise, in the great World-
Drama as that went on.
We have to say in general, the history of Branden-
burg under the Hohenzollerns has very little in it to
excite a vulgar curiosity, though perhaps a great deal
to interest an intelligent one. Hat it found treatment
duly intelligent; -- which, however, how could it,
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? CHAP. n. J MATURES DU ROI DE PRUSSE. 237
1440.
lucky beyond its neighbours, hope to do! Common-
place Dryasdust, and voluminous Stupidity, not worse
here than elsewhere, play their part.
It is the history of a State, or Social Vitality,
growing from small to great; steadily growing hence-
forth under guidance: and the contrast between guidance
and no-guidance, or mis-guidance, in such matters, is
again impressively illustrated there. This we see well
to be the fact; and the details of this would be of mo-
ment, were they given us: but they are not; -- how
could voluminous Dryasdust give them? Then, on the
other hand, the Phenomenon is, for a long while, on
so small a scale, wholly without importance in European
politics and affairs, the commonplace Historian, writing
of it on a large scale, becomes unreadable and in-
tolerable. Witness grandiloquent Pauli our fatal friend,
with his Eight watery Quartos; which gods and men,
unless driven by necessity, have learned to avoid! *
The Phenomenon of Brandenburg is small, remote; and
the essential particulars, too delicate for the eye of
Dryasdust, are mostly wanting, drowned deep in details
of the unessential. So that we are well content, my
readers and I, to keep remote from it on this occasion.
On one other point I must give the reader warning.
A rock of offence on which if he heedlessly strike, I
reckon he will split; at least no help of mine can be-
nefit him till he be got off again. Alas, offences must
come; and must stand, like rocks of offence, to the
* Dr. Carl Fricdrich Panll, Allgemeine Preussiiche Slaals-Geschichie,
often enough cited here.
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? 238 THE HOHENZOLLERNS IN BRANDENBURG. fBOOKHI.
shipwreck of many! Modern Dryasdust, interpreting
the mysterious ways of Divine Providence in this Uni-
verse, or what he calls writing History, has done un-
countable havoc upon the best interests of mankind.
Hapless godless dullard that he is; driven and driving
on courses that lead only downward, for him as for us!
But one could forgive him all things, compared with
this doctrine of devils which he has contrived to get
established, pretty generally, among his unfortunate
fellow-creatures, for the time! -- I must insert the
following quotation, readers guess from what Author:
"In an impudent Pamphlet, forged by I know not whom,
"and published in 1766, under the title of Matinees du Roi de
"Prime, purporting to be 'MorningConversations' ofFred-
"erick the Great with his Nephew the Heir Apparent, every
"line of which betrays itself as false and spurious to a reader
"who has made any direct or effectual study of Frederick or
"his manners or affairs, --it is set forth, in the way of ex-
ordium to these pretended royal confessions, that 'noire
"tnaison,' our Family of Hohenzollern, ever since the first
"origin of it among the Swabian mountains, or its first descent
"therefrom into the Castle and Imperial Wardenship of Niirn-
"berg, some six-hundred years ago or more, has consistently
"travelled one road, and this a very notable one. 'We, asl
"myself the royal Frederick still do, have all along proceeded,'
"namely, 'in the way of adroit Machiavelism, as skilful
"gamblers in this world's business, ardent gatherers of this
''world's goods; and in brief as devout worshippers of Beelze-
"bub, the grand regulator and rewarder of mortals here
"below. Which creed we, the Hohenzollerns, have found,
"and I still find, to be the true one; learn it you, my prudent
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? CHAP. n. ] MATINEES DU ROI DE PRUSSE. 239
1440.
"Nephew, and let all men learn it . By holding steadily to
"that, and working late and early in such spirit, we are come
"to what you see; -- and shall advance still farther, if it
"please Beelzebub, who is generally kind to those that serve
"him well. ' Such is the doctrine of this impudent Pamphlet;
"'originalManuscripts' of which are still purchased by simple
"persons, and have then been nobly offered me, thrice over,
"gratia or nearly so, as a priceless curiosity. A new printed
"edition of which, probably the fifth, has appeared within
"few years. Simple persons consider it a curious and interest-
"ing Document; rather ambiguous in origin perhaps, but
"probably authentic in substance, and throwing unexpected
"light on the character of Frederick whom men call the Great.
"In which new light they are willing a meritorious Editor
"should share.
"Who wrote that Pamphlet I know not, and am in no con-
"dition to guess. A certain snappish vivacity (very unlike the
"style of Frederick whom it personates); a wearisome
"grimacing, gesticulating malice and smartness, approaching
"or reaching the sad dignity of what is called'wit'in modern
"times; in general the rottenness of matter, and the epigram-
"matic unquiet graciosity of manner in this thing, and its
"elaborately inhuman turn both of expression and of thought,
"are visible characteristics of it. Thought, we said,-- if
"thought it can be called: thought all hamstrung, shrivelled
"by inveterate rheumatism, on the part of the poor ill-thriven
"thinker; nay tied (so to speak, for he is of epigrammatic
"turn withal), as by cross ropes, right shoulder to left foot;
"and forced to advance, hobbling and jerking along, in that
"sad guise: not in the way of walk, but of saltation and
"dance; and this towards a false not a true aim, rather
"nowhither than somewhither: -- Here were features leading
"one to think of an illustrious Prince de Ligne as perhaps
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? 240 THE HOHENZOLLERNS IN BRANDENBURG. [BOOKIir.
1440.
"concerned in the affair? The Bibliographical Dictionaries,
"producing no evidence, name quite another person, or series
"of persons;* highly unmemorable otherwise. Whereupon
"you proceed to said other person's acknowledged Works (as
"they are called); and find there a style bearing no re-
semblance whatever; and are left in a dubious state, if it
"were of any moment. In the absence of proof, I am un-
''willing to charge his Highness deLigne with such an action;
"and indeed am little careful to be acquainted with the in-
"dividual who did it, who could and would do it. A Prince of
"Coxcombs I can discern him to have been; capable of shining
"in the eyes of insincere foolish persons, and of doing detri-
"ment to them, not benefit; a man without reverence for truth
"or human excellence; not knowing in fact what is true from
"what is false, what is excellent from what is sham-excellent
"and at the top of the mode; an apparently polite and know-
"ing man, but intrinsically an impudent, dark, and merely
'' modish-insolent man; -- who, if he fell-in with Rhadaman-
"thus on his travels, would not escape a horse-whipping.
"Him we will willingly leave to that beneficial chance, which
"indeed seems a certain one sooner or later; and address our-
"selves to consider the theory itself, and the facts it pretends
"to be grounded on.
"As to the theory, I must needs say, nothing can be falser,
"more heretical or more damnable. My own poor opinion,
"and deep conviction, on that subject is well known, this long
"while. And, in fact, the summary of all I have believed, and
"have been trying as I could to teach mankind to believe
"again, is even that same opinion and conviction, applied to
? A certain "N. de Bonneville" (afterwards a Revolutionary spiritual-
mountebank, for some time) is now the favourite Name; -- proves, on investigation, to be an impossible one. Barbior (Dictionnaire del Anonymes),
In a helpless doubting manner, gives still others.
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? CHAP. n. ] MATINEES DU ROI DE PKUSSE. 241
1440.
'"all provinces of things. Alas, in this his sad theory about
"the world, our poor imprudent Pamphleteer is by no means
"singular at present; nay rather he has in a manner the whole
"practical part of mankind on his side just now; the more is
"the pity for us all! --
"It is very certain, if Beelzebub made this world, our
"Pamphleteer, and the huge portion of mankind that follow
"him, are right. But if God made the world; and only leads
"Beelzebub, as some ugly muzzled bear is led, a longer or
"shorter temporary dance in this divine world, and always
"draws him home again, and peels the unjust gains off him,
"and ducks him in a certain hot Lake, with sure intent to
"lodge him there to all eternity at last, -- then our Pam-
"phleteer, and the huge portion of mankind that follow him,
"are wrong.
"More I will not say; being indeed quite tired of speaking
"on that subject. Not a subject which it concerns me to speak
"of; much as it concerns me, and all men, to know the truth
"of it, and silently in every hour and moment to do said truth.
"As indeed the sacred voice of their own soul, if they listen,
"will conclusively admonish all men; and truly if it do not,
"there will be little use in my logic to them. For my own
'' share, I want no trade with men who need to be convinced of
"that fact. If I am in their premises, and discover such a
''thing of them, I will quit their premises; if they are in mine,
"I will, as old Samuel advised, count my spoons. Ingenious
"gentlemen who believe that Beelzebub made this world, are
"not a class of gentlemen I can get profit from. Let them
"keep at a distance, lest mischief fall out between us. They
"are of the set deserving to be called, -- and this not in the
"way of profane swearing, but of solemn wrath and pity, I say
"of virtuous anger and inexorable reprobation, -- the damned
"set.
For, invery deed, they are doomed and damned, by
Carlyle, Frederic the Great. I. 16
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? 242 THE HOHENZOLLERNS IN BRANDENBURG. [bOOKIH.
1140.
"Nature's oldest Act of Parliament; they, and whatsoever
"thing they do or say or think; unless they can escape from
"that devil-element. Which I still hope they may! --
"But with regard to the facts themselves, lde noire maison,'
'' I take leave to say, they too are without basis of truth. They
"are not so false as the theory, because nothing can in falsity
"quite equal that. 'Noire maison,' this Pamphleteer may
"learn, if he please to make study and inquiry before speak-
"ing, did not rise by worship of Beelzebub at all in this world;
"but by a quite opposite line of conduct. It rose, in fact, by
"the course which all, except fools, stockjobber stags, cheating
"gamblers, forging Pamphleteers and other temporary crea-
tures of the damned sort, have found from of old to be the
"oneway of permanently rising: by steady service, namely,
"of the Opposite of Beelzebub. By conforming to the Laws
"of this Universe; instead of trying by pettifogging to evade
"and profitably contradict them. TheHohenzollerns too have
"aHistory still articulate to the human mind, if you search
"sufficiently; and this is what, even with some emphasis, it
"will teach us concerning their adventures, and achievements
"of success in the field of life. Resist the Devil, good reader,
"and he will flee from you! " --
So ends our indignant friend.
How the Hohenzollerns got their big Territories,
and came to what they are in the world, will be seen.
Probably they were not, any of them, paragons of
virtue. They did not walk in altogether speckless
Sunday pumps, or much clear-starched into conscious-
ness of the moral sublime; but in rugged practical
boots, and by such roads as there were. Concerning
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? CHaP. II. ]
243
MATINEES DU BOI DB PHUSSE.
1440.
their moralities, and conformities to the Laws of the
Road and of the Universe, there will much remain to
be argued by pamphleteers and others. Men will have
their opinion, Men of more wisdom and of less; Apes
by the Dead-Sea also will have theirs. But what man
that believed in such a Universe as that of this Dead-
Sea Pamphleteer could consent to live in it at all?
Who that believed in such a Universe, and did not
design to live like aPapin's-Digester, or Porous Epicuri,
in an extremely ugly manner in it, could avoid one of
two things: Going rapidly into Bedlam, or else blowing
his brains out? "It will not do for me at any rate, this
infinite Doghouse; not for me, ye Dryasdusts, and om-
nipotent Dog-monsters and Mud-gods, whoever you are.
One honourable thing I can do: take leave of you and
your Dog-establishment. Enough! "
16*
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? 244 THE HOHENZOLLERNS IN BRANDENBURG. [boOK m.
1442.
CHAPTER m.
KURFCRST FRIEDRICH II.
The First Friedrich's successor was a younger son,
Friedrich II. ; who lasted till 1471, above thirty years;
and proved likewise a notable manager and governor.
Very capable to assert himself, and his just rights, in
this world. He was but Twenty-seven at his accession;
but the Berlin Burghers, attempting to take some li-
berties with him, found he was old enough. He got
the name Ironteeth, Friedrich Ferratis Dentibus, from
his decisive ways then and afterwards. He had his
share of brabbling with intricate litigant neighbours;
quarrels now and then not to be settled without strokes.
His worst war was with Pommern, -- just claims dis-
puted there, and much confused bickering, sieging and
harassing in consequence: of which quarrel we must
speak anon. It was he who first built the conspicuous
Schloss or Palace at Berlin, having got the ground for
it (same ground still covered by the actual fine Edifice,
which is a second edition of Friedrich's) from the re-
pentant Burghers; and took up his chief residence
there. *
But his principal achievement in Brandenburg History
is his recovery of the Province called the Neumark to
that Electorate. In the thriftless Sigismund times, the
* 1441-1461 (Ntoolal, i. 81).
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? CHAP. HI. ] KURFttRST FRIEDRICH n. 245
1442.
Neumark had been pledged, had been sold; Teutsch
Ritterdom, to whose dominions it lay contiguous, had
purchased it with money down. The Teutsch Ritters
were fallen moneyless enough since then; they offered
to pledge the Neumark to Friedrich, who accepted, and
advanced the sum: after a while the Teutsch Ritters,
for a small farther sum, agreed to sell Neumark * Into
which Transaction, with its dates and circumstances,
let us cast one glance, for our behoof afterwards. The
Teutsch Ritters were an opulent domineering Body in
Sigismund's early time; but they are now come well
down in Friedrich II. 's! And are coming ever lower.
Sinking steadily, or with desperate attempts to rise,
which only increase the speed downwards, ever since
that fatal Tannenberg Business, 15th July 1410. Here
is the sad progress of their descent to the bottom; di-
vided into three stages or periods:
"Period First is of Thirty years: 1410-1440. A peace with
"Poland soon followed that Defeat of Tannenberg; hu-
"miliating peace, with mulct in money, and slightly in terri-
"tory, attached to it. Which again was soon followed by war,
"and ever again; each new peace more humiliating than its
"foregoer. Teutsch Order is steadily sinking, --into debt,
"among other things; driven to severe finance-measures
"(ultimately even to 'debase its coin') which produce irrita-
"tion enough. Poland is gradually edging itself into the
"territories and the interior troubles of Preussen; prefatory
"to greater operations that lie ahead there.
"Period Second, of Fourteen years. So it had gone on,
> Michaells, i. 301.
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? 246 THE HOHENZOLLERNS IN BRANDENBURG. [BOOK m.
1444.
"from bad to worse, till 1440; when the general population,
"through its Heads, the Landed Gentry and the Towns,
"wearied-out with fiscal and other oppressions from its do-
"mineering Ritterdom brought now to such a pinch, began
"everywhere to stir themselves into vocal complaint.
"Complaint emphatic enough: 'Where will you find a man
"that has not suffered injury, in his rights, perhaps in his per-
"son? Our friends they have invited as guests, and under
'' show of hospitality have murdered them. Men, for the sake
"of their beautiful wives, have been thrown into the river like
'' dogs,'--and enough of the like sort. * No want of complaint,
"nor of complainants: Town of Thorn, Town of Dantzig,
"Kulm, all manner of Towns and Baronages, proceeded now
"to form a Bund, or general Covenant for complaining; to
"repugn, in hotter and hotter form, against a domineering
"Ritterdom with back so broken; in fine to colleague with
"Poland, -- what was most ominous of all. Baronage,
"Burgherage, they were German mostly by blood, and by
"culture were wholly German; but preferred Poland to a
'1Teutsch Ritterdom of that nature. Nothing but brabblings,
"scufflings, objurgations; a great outbreak ripening itself.
"Teutsch Ritterdom has to hire soldiers; no money to pay
"them. It was in these sad years that the Teutsch Ritterdom,
"fallen moneyless, offered to pledge the Neumark to our Kur-
"fiirst; 1444, that operation was consummated. ** All this
"goes on, in hotter and hotter form, for ten years longer.
"Period Third begins, early in 1454, with an important
"special catastrophe; and ends, in the Thirteenth year after,
"with a still more important universal one of the same nature.
"Prussian Bund, or Anti-Oppression Covenant of the Towns
* volgt, vli. 747; quoting, evidently, not an express manifesto, but one
manufactured by the old Chronlclera.
Panll, 11. 187, -- does not name the aum.
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? CHAP. m. l KURFttRST FRIEDRICH H. 247
1455.
"and Landed Gentry, rising in temperature for fourteen years
"at this rate, reached at last the igniting point, and burst into
"fire. February 4th, 1454, the Town of Thorn, darling first-
"child of Teutsch Ritterdom, -- child 223 years old at this
"time,* and grown very big, and now very angry, --sud-
denly took its old parent by the throat, so to speak, and
"hurled him out to the dogs; to the extraneousPolacksfirst
"of all. Town of Thorn, namely, sent, that day, its 'Letter
"of Renunciation' to the Hochmeister over at Marienburg;
"seized in a day or two more the Hochmeister's Official
"Envoys, Dignitaries of the Order; led them through the
"streets, amid universal storm of execrations, hootings and
"unclean projectiles, straight to jail; and besieged the Hoch-
"meister's Burg (Bastille of Thorn, with a fewRitters in it),
"all the artillery and all the throats and hearts of the place
"raging deliriously upon it . So that the poor Ritters, who
"had no chance in resisting, were in few days obliged tosur-
"render;** had to come out in bare jerkin; and Thorn igno-
"miniously dismissed them into space forevermore,-- with
"actual 'kicks,' I have read in some Books, though^thers veil
"that sad feature. Thorn threw out its old parent in this
"manner; swore fealty to the King of Poland; and invited
"other Towns and Knightages to follow the example. To
"which all were willing, wherever able.
"War hereupon, which blazed-up over Preussen at large,
* "Founded, 1231, as a wooden Burg, just across the river, on the
"Heathen side, mainly round the stem of an immense old Oak that grew
"handy there, -- Seven Barges always on the river (Weichsel), to fly to our
"own side if quite overwhelmed. " Oak and Seven Barges is still the
Town's-Arms of Thorn. --See Kb*hler, M&nzbelustigungen, xxii. 107; quoting
Dusburg (a Priest of the Order) and his old Chronica Terrce Pruscim,
written in 1326.
8th February 1454, says Voigt (viii. 861); 16th, says KShler (Miinj-
belmtigungen, xxii. 110).
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? 248 THE HOHENZOLLERNS IN BRANDENBURG. [bOOK in.
1455.
"--Prussian Covenant and King of Poland versus Teutsch
"Ritterdom, -- and lasted into the thirteenth year, before it
"could go out again; out by lack of fuel mainly. One of the
"fellest wars on record, especially for burning and mining;
''above'300,000 fighting-men' are calculated to have perished
"in it; and of towns, villages, farmsteads, a cipher which
"makes the fancy, as it were, black and ashy altogether. Rit-
"terdom showed no lack of fighting energy: but that could
"not save it in the pass things were got to. Enormous lack
"of wisdom, of reality and human veracity, there had long
"been; and the hour was now come. Finance went out, to
"the last coin. Large mercenary armies all along; and in the
"end not the colour of money to pay them with: mercenaries
"became desperate; 'besieged the Hochmeister and his Rit-
"ters in Marienburg;' -- finally sold the Country they held;
"formally made it over to the King of Poland, to get their pay
"out of it. Hochmeister had to see such things, and say little.
"Peace, or extinction for want of fuel, came in the year 1466.
"Poland got to itself the whole of that fine German Country,
"henceforth called ' West Preussen' to distinguish it, which
"goes from the left bank of the Weichsel to the borders of
"Brandenburg and Neumark;--would have got Neumark
"too, had not Kurfurst Friedrich been there to save it. The
"Teutsch Order had to go across the Weichsel, ignominiously
"driven; to content itself with 'East Preussen,' theKonigs-
"berg-Memel country, and even to do homage to Poland for
"that. Which latter was the bitterest clause of all: but it
"could not be helped, more than the others. In this manner
"did its revolted children fling out Teutsch Ritterdom igno-
"miniously to the dogs, to the Polacks first of all, -- Thorn,
"the eldest child, leading-off or setting the example. "
And so the Teutsch Ritters are sunk beyond re-
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? CHaP. HI. ] KUBPthtST FRJEDRICH H. 249
1464.
trieval; and West-Preussen, called subsequently "Royal
Preussen," not having homage to pay as the "Ducal"
or East-Preussen had, is German no longer, but Polish,
Sclavic; not prospering by the change. * And all that
fine German Country, reduced to rebel against its un-
wise parent, was cut away by the Polish sword, and
remained with Poland, which did not prove very wise
either; till -- till, in the Year 1773, it was cut back
by the German sword! All readers have heard of the
Partition of Poland; but of the Partition of Preussen,
307 years before, all have not heard.
It was in the second year of that final tribulation,
marked above as Period Third, that the Teutsch Rit-
ters, famishing for money, completed the Neumark
transaction with Kurffirst Friedrich; Neumark, already
pawned to him ten years before, they in 1455, for a
small farther sum, agreed to sell; and he, long care-
fully steering towards such an issue, and dextrously
keeping out of the main broil, failed not to buy.
Friedrich could thenceforth, on his own score, protect
the Neumark; keep up an invisible but impenetrable
wall between it and the neighbouring anarchic con-
flagrations of thirteen years; and the Neumark has
ever since remained with Brandenburg, its original owner.
As to Friedrich's Pomeranian quarrel, this is the
figure of it . Here is a scene from Rentsch, which falls-
? What Thorn had sunk to, out of its palmy state, see in Nanke's Wan-
derungen durch Preitssen (Hamburg and Altona, 1800), II. 177-200: -- a plea-
sant little Book, treating mainly of Natural History; but drawing you, by
its innocent simplicity and geniality, to read with thanks whatever is in it.
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? 250 THE HOHENZOIXERNS IN BRANDENBUBG. [bOOK m.
1464.
algnlfiMOt error or two). Pauli (11. (8) is, as usual, lost in water,
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? chAP. i. ] kurfOrst friedrich i. 233
1440.
Friedrich showed no cruelty; far the contrary. Your
mutiny once ended, and a little repented of, he is ready
to be your gracious Prince again: Fairplay and the
social wine-cup, or inexorable war and Lazy Peg, it is
at your discretion which. Brandenburg submitted;
hardly ever rebelled more. Brandenburg, under the
wise Kurfurst it has got, begins in a small degree to
be cosmic again, or of the domain of the gods; ceases
to be chaotic and a mere cockpit of the devils.
There is no doubt but this Friedrich also, like his
ancestor Friedrich III. , the First Hereditary Burggraf,
was an excellent citizen of his country; a man con-
spicuously important in all German business in his
time. A man setting-up for no particular magnanimity,
ability or heroism, but unconsciously exhibiting a good
deal; which by degrees gained universal recognition.
He did not shine much as Reichs-Generalissimo, under
Kaiser Sigismund, in his expeditions against Zisca; on
the contrary, he presided over huge defeat and rout,
once and again, in that capacity; and indeed had re-
presented in vain that, with such a species of militia,
victory was impossible. He represented and again re-
presented, to no purpose; whereupon he declined the
office farther; in which others fared no better. *
The offer to be Kaiser was made him in his old days;
but he wisely declined that too. It was in Branden-
burg, by what he silently founded there, that he did
his chief benefit to Germany and mankind. He under-
stood the noble art of governing men; had in him the
* Hormayr: (Esterreichischer Plutarch, vli. 109-158, ? Zisca.
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? 234 THE HOHENZOLLEENS IN BEANDENBURG. [book HI.
1440.
justice, clearness, valour and patience needed for that
.
A man of sterling probity, for one thing. Which in-
deed is the first requisite in said art: -- if you will
have your Laws obeyed without mutiny, see well that
they be pieces of God Almighty's Law: otherwise all
the artillery in the world will not keep down mutiny.
Friedrich "travelled much over Brandenburg;" look-
ing into everything with his own eyes; ? making, I
can well fancy, innummerable crooked things straight- Reducing more and more that famishing dogkennel of
a Brandenburg into a fruitful arable field. His Por-
traits represent a square-headed, mild-looking solid
gentleman, with a certain twinkle of mirth in the
serious eyes of him. Except in those Hussite wars for
Kaiser Sigismund and the Reich, in which no man
could prosper, he may be defined as constantly pro-
sperous. To Brandenburg he was, very literally, the
blessing of blessings; redemption out of death into life.
In the ruins of that old Friesack Castle, battered down
by Heavy Peg, Antiquarian Science (if it had any eyes)
might look for the taproot of the Prussian Nation, and
the beginning of all that Brandenburg has since grown
to under the sun.
Friedrich, in one capacity or another, presided over
Brandenburg near thirty years. He came thither first
of all in 1412; was not completely Kurfiirst in his own
right till 1415; nor publicly installed, "with 100,000
locking-on from the roofs and windows" in Constance
yonder, till 1417, -- age then some forty-five. His
Brandenburg residence, when he happened to have time
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? chaP, i. ] kurfCrst friedrich i. 235
1440.
for residing or sitting still, was Tangermiinde, the
Castle built by Kaiser Karl IV. He died there, 21st
September 1440; laden tolerably with years, and still
better with memories of hard work done. Rentsch
guesses by good inference he was born about 1372.
As I count, he is seventh in descent from that Conrad,
Burggraf Conrad I. , Cadet of Hohenzollern, who came
down from the Rauhe Alp, seeking service with Kaiser
Redbeard, above two centuries ago: Conrad's genera-
tion and six others had vanished successively from the
world-theatre in that ever-mysterious manner, and left
the stage clear, when Burggraf Friedrich the Sixth
came to be First Elector. Let three centuries, let
twelve generations farther come and pass, and there
will be another still more notable Friedrich, -- our
little Fritz, destined to be Third King of Prussia,
officially named Friedrich II. , and popularly Frederick
the Great . This First Elector is his lineal ancestor,
twelve times removed. *
? Rentsch, pp. 349-372; Hflbner, t. 176.
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? 236 THE HOHENZOLLEBNS IN BRANDENBURG. [BOOKm.
1440.
CHAPTER n.
MATINEES DTI ROI DE FRUSSE.
Eleven successive Kurfursts followed Eriedrich in
Brandenburg. Of whom and their births, deaths, wars,
marriages, negotiations and continual multitudinous
stream of smaller or greater adventures, much has been
written, of a dreary confused nature; next to nothing
of which ought to be repeated here. Some list of their
Names, with what rememberable human feature or event
(if any) still speaks to us in them, we must try to give.
Their Names, well dated, with any actions, incidents,
or phases of life, which may in this way get to adhere
to them in the reader's memory, the reader can insert,
each at its right place, in the grand Tide of European
Events, or in such Picture as the reader may have of
that. Thereby with diligence he may produce for him-
self some faint twilight notion of the Flight of Time in
remote Brandenburg, -- convince himself that remote
Brandenburg was present all along, alive after its sort,
and assisting, dumbly or otherwise, in the great World-
Drama as that went on.
We have to say in general, the history of Branden-
burg under the Hohenzollerns has very little in it to
excite a vulgar curiosity, though perhaps a great deal
to interest an intelligent one. Hat it found treatment
duly intelligent; -- which, however, how could it,
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? CHAP. n. J MATURES DU ROI DE PRUSSE. 237
1440.
lucky beyond its neighbours, hope to do! Common-
place Dryasdust, and voluminous Stupidity, not worse
here than elsewhere, play their part.
It is the history of a State, or Social Vitality,
growing from small to great; steadily growing hence-
forth under guidance: and the contrast between guidance
and no-guidance, or mis-guidance, in such matters, is
again impressively illustrated there. This we see well
to be the fact; and the details of this would be of mo-
ment, were they given us: but they are not; -- how
could voluminous Dryasdust give them? Then, on the
other hand, the Phenomenon is, for a long while, on
so small a scale, wholly without importance in European
politics and affairs, the commonplace Historian, writing
of it on a large scale, becomes unreadable and in-
tolerable. Witness grandiloquent Pauli our fatal friend,
with his Eight watery Quartos; which gods and men,
unless driven by necessity, have learned to avoid! *
The Phenomenon of Brandenburg is small, remote; and
the essential particulars, too delicate for the eye of
Dryasdust, are mostly wanting, drowned deep in details
of the unessential. So that we are well content, my
readers and I, to keep remote from it on this occasion.
On one other point I must give the reader warning.
A rock of offence on which if he heedlessly strike, I
reckon he will split; at least no help of mine can be-
nefit him till he be got off again. Alas, offences must
come; and must stand, like rocks of offence, to the
* Dr. Carl Fricdrich Panll, Allgemeine Preussiiche Slaals-Geschichie,
often enough cited here.
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? 238 THE HOHENZOLLERNS IN BRANDENBURG. fBOOKHI.
shipwreck of many! Modern Dryasdust, interpreting
the mysterious ways of Divine Providence in this Uni-
verse, or what he calls writing History, has done un-
countable havoc upon the best interests of mankind.
Hapless godless dullard that he is; driven and driving
on courses that lead only downward, for him as for us!
But one could forgive him all things, compared with
this doctrine of devils which he has contrived to get
established, pretty generally, among his unfortunate
fellow-creatures, for the time! -- I must insert the
following quotation, readers guess from what Author:
"In an impudent Pamphlet, forged by I know not whom,
"and published in 1766, under the title of Matinees du Roi de
"Prime, purporting to be 'MorningConversations' ofFred-
"erick the Great with his Nephew the Heir Apparent, every
"line of which betrays itself as false and spurious to a reader
"who has made any direct or effectual study of Frederick or
"his manners or affairs, --it is set forth, in the way of ex-
ordium to these pretended royal confessions, that 'noire
"tnaison,' our Family of Hohenzollern, ever since the first
"origin of it among the Swabian mountains, or its first descent
"therefrom into the Castle and Imperial Wardenship of Niirn-
"berg, some six-hundred years ago or more, has consistently
"travelled one road, and this a very notable one. 'We, asl
"myself the royal Frederick still do, have all along proceeded,'
"namely, 'in the way of adroit Machiavelism, as skilful
"gamblers in this world's business, ardent gatherers of this
''world's goods; and in brief as devout worshippers of Beelze-
"bub, the grand regulator and rewarder of mortals here
"below. Which creed we, the Hohenzollerns, have found,
"and I still find, to be the true one; learn it you, my prudent
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? CHAP. n. ] MATINEES DU ROI DE PRUSSE. 239
1440.
"Nephew, and let all men learn it . By holding steadily to
"that, and working late and early in such spirit, we are come
"to what you see; -- and shall advance still farther, if it
"please Beelzebub, who is generally kind to those that serve
"him well. ' Such is the doctrine of this impudent Pamphlet;
"'originalManuscripts' of which are still purchased by simple
"persons, and have then been nobly offered me, thrice over,
"gratia or nearly so, as a priceless curiosity. A new printed
"edition of which, probably the fifth, has appeared within
"few years. Simple persons consider it a curious and interest-
"ing Document; rather ambiguous in origin perhaps, but
"probably authentic in substance, and throwing unexpected
"light on the character of Frederick whom men call the Great.
"In which new light they are willing a meritorious Editor
"should share.
"Who wrote that Pamphlet I know not, and am in no con-
"dition to guess. A certain snappish vivacity (very unlike the
"style of Frederick whom it personates); a wearisome
"grimacing, gesticulating malice and smartness, approaching
"or reaching the sad dignity of what is called'wit'in modern
"times; in general the rottenness of matter, and the epigram-
"matic unquiet graciosity of manner in this thing, and its
"elaborately inhuman turn both of expression and of thought,
"are visible characteristics of it. Thought, we said,-- if
"thought it can be called: thought all hamstrung, shrivelled
"by inveterate rheumatism, on the part of the poor ill-thriven
"thinker; nay tied (so to speak, for he is of epigrammatic
"turn withal), as by cross ropes, right shoulder to left foot;
"and forced to advance, hobbling and jerking along, in that
"sad guise: not in the way of walk, but of saltation and
"dance; and this towards a false not a true aim, rather
"nowhither than somewhither: -- Here were features leading
"one to think of an illustrious Prince de Ligne as perhaps
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? 240 THE HOHENZOLLERNS IN BRANDENBURG. [BOOKIir.
1440.
"concerned in the affair? The Bibliographical Dictionaries,
"producing no evidence, name quite another person, or series
"of persons;* highly unmemorable otherwise. Whereupon
"you proceed to said other person's acknowledged Works (as
"they are called); and find there a style bearing no re-
semblance whatever; and are left in a dubious state, if it
"were of any moment. In the absence of proof, I am un-
''willing to charge his Highness deLigne with such an action;
"and indeed am little careful to be acquainted with the in-
"dividual who did it, who could and would do it. A Prince of
"Coxcombs I can discern him to have been; capable of shining
"in the eyes of insincere foolish persons, and of doing detri-
"ment to them, not benefit; a man without reverence for truth
"or human excellence; not knowing in fact what is true from
"what is false, what is excellent from what is sham-excellent
"and at the top of the mode; an apparently polite and know-
"ing man, but intrinsically an impudent, dark, and merely
'' modish-insolent man; -- who, if he fell-in with Rhadaman-
"thus on his travels, would not escape a horse-whipping.
"Him we will willingly leave to that beneficial chance, which
"indeed seems a certain one sooner or later; and address our-
"selves to consider the theory itself, and the facts it pretends
"to be grounded on.
"As to the theory, I must needs say, nothing can be falser,
"more heretical or more damnable. My own poor opinion,
"and deep conviction, on that subject is well known, this long
"while. And, in fact, the summary of all I have believed, and
"have been trying as I could to teach mankind to believe
"again, is even that same opinion and conviction, applied to
? A certain "N. de Bonneville" (afterwards a Revolutionary spiritual-
mountebank, for some time) is now the favourite Name; -- proves, on investigation, to be an impossible one. Barbior (Dictionnaire del Anonymes),
In a helpless doubting manner, gives still others.
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? CHAP. n. ] MATINEES DU ROI DE PKUSSE. 241
1440.
'"all provinces of things. Alas, in this his sad theory about
"the world, our poor imprudent Pamphleteer is by no means
"singular at present; nay rather he has in a manner the whole
"practical part of mankind on his side just now; the more is
"the pity for us all! --
"It is very certain, if Beelzebub made this world, our
"Pamphleteer, and the huge portion of mankind that follow
"him, are right. But if God made the world; and only leads
"Beelzebub, as some ugly muzzled bear is led, a longer or
"shorter temporary dance in this divine world, and always
"draws him home again, and peels the unjust gains off him,
"and ducks him in a certain hot Lake, with sure intent to
"lodge him there to all eternity at last, -- then our Pam-
"phleteer, and the huge portion of mankind that follow him,
"are wrong.
"More I will not say; being indeed quite tired of speaking
"on that subject. Not a subject which it concerns me to speak
"of; much as it concerns me, and all men, to know the truth
"of it, and silently in every hour and moment to do said truth.
"As indeed the sacred voice of their own soul, if they listen,
"will conclusively admonish all men; and truly if it do not,
"there will be little use in my logic to them. For my own
'' share, I want no trade with men who need to be convinced of
"that fact. If I am in their premises, and discover such a
''thing of them, I will quit their premises; if they are in mine,
"I will, as old Samuel advised, count my spoons. Ingenious
"gentlemen who believe that Beelzebub made this world, are
"not a class of gentlemen I can get profit from. Let them
"keep at a distance, lest mischief fall out between us. They
"are of the set deserving to be called, -- and this not in the
"way of profane swearing, but of solemn wrath and pity, I say
"of virtuous anger and inexorable reprobation, -- the damned
"set.
For, invery deed, they are doomed and damned, by
Carlyle, Frederic the Great. I. 16
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? 242 THE HOHENZOLLERNS IN BRANDENBURG. [bOOKIH.
1140.
"Nature's oldest Act of Parliament; they, and whatsoever
"thing they do or say or think; unless they can escape from
"that devil-element. Which I still hope they may! --
"But with regard to the facts themselves, lde noire maison,'
'' I take leave to say, they too are without basis of truth. They
"are not so false as the theory, because nothing can in falsity
"quite equal that. 'Noire maison,' this Pamphleteer may
"learn, if he please to make study and inquiry before speak-
"ing, did not rise by worship of Beelzebub at all in this world;
"but by a quite opposite line of conduct. It rose, in fact, by
"the course which all, except fools, stockjobber stags, cheating
"gamblers, forging Pamphleteers and other temporary crea-
tures of the damned sort, have found from of old to be the
"oneway of permanently rising: by steady service, namely,
"of the Opposite of Beelzebub. By conforming to the Laws
"of this Universe; instead of trying by pettifogging to evade
"and profitably contradict them. TheHohenzollerns too have
"aHistory still articulate to the human mind, if you search
"sufficiently; and this is what, even with some emphasis, it
"will teach us concerning their adventures, and achievements
"of success in the field of life. Resist the Devil, good reader,
"and he will flee from you! " --
So ends our indignant friend.
How the Hohenzollerns got their big Territories,
and came to what they are in the world, will be seen.
Probably they were not, any of them, paragons of
virtue. They did not walk in altogether speckless
Sunday pumps, or much clear-starched into conscious-
ness of the moral sublime; but in rugged practical
boots, and by such roads as there were. Concerning
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? CHaP. II. ]
243
MATINEES DU BOI DB PHUSSE.
1440.
their moralities, and conformities to the Laws of the
Road and of the Universe, there will much remain to
be argued by pamphleteers and others. Men will have
their opinion, Men of more wisdom and of less; Apes
by the Dead-Sea also will have theirs. But what man
that believed in such a Universe as that of this Dead-
Sea Pamphleteer could consent to live in it at all?
Who that believed in such a Universe, and did not
design to live like aPapin's-Digester, or Porous Epicuri,
in an extremely ugly manner in it, could avoid one of
two things: Going rapidly into Bedlam, or else blowing
his brains out? "It will not do for me at any rate, this
infinite Doghouse; not for me, ye Dryasdusts, and om-
nipotent Dog-monsters and Mud-gods, whoever you are.
One honourable thing I can do: take leave of you and
your Dog-establishment. Enough! "
16*
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? 244 THE HOHENZOLLERNS IN BRANDENBURG. [boOK m.
1442.
CHAPTER m.
KURFCRST FRIEDRICH II.
The First Friedrich's successor was a younger son,
Friedrich II. ; who lasted till 1471, above thirty years;
and proved likewise a notable manager and governor.
Very capable to assert himself, and his just rights, in
this world. He was but Twenty-seven at his accession;
but the Berlin Burghers, attempting to take some li-
berties with him, found he was old enough. He got
the name Ironteeth, Friedrich Ferratis Dentibus, from
his decisive ways then and afterwards. He had his
share of brabbling with intricate litigant neighbours;
quarrels now and then not to be settled without strokes.
His worst war was with Pommern, -- just claims dis-
puted there, and much confused bickering, sieging and
harassing in consequence: of which quarrel we must
speak anon. It was he who first built the conspicuous
Schloss or Palace at Berlin, having got the ground for
it (same ground still covered by the actual fine Edifice,
which is a second edition of Friedrich's) from the re-
pentant Burghers; and took up his chief residence
there. *
But his principal achievement in Brandenburg History
is his recovery of the Province called the Neumark to
that Electorate. In the thriftless Sigismund times, the
* 1441-1461 (Ntoolal, i. 81).
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? CHAP. HI. ] KURFttRST FRIEDRICH n. 245
1442.
Neumark had been pledged, had been sold; Teutsch
Ritterdom, to whose dominions it lay contiguous, had
purchased it with money down. The Teutsch Ritters
were fallen moneyless enough since then; they offered
to pledge the Neumark to Friedrich, who accepted, and
advanced the sum: after a while the Teutsch Ritters,
for a small farther sum, agreed to sell Neumark * Into
which Transaction, with its dates and circumstances,
let us cast one glance, for our behoof afterwards. The
Teutsch Ritters were an opulent domineering Body in
Sigismund's early time; but they are now come well
down in Friedrich II. 's! And are coming ever lower.
Sinking steadily, or with desperate attempts to rise,
which only increase the speed downwards, ever since
that fatal Tannenberg Business, 15th July 1410. Here
is the sad progress of their descent to the bottom; di-
vided into three stages or periods:
"Period First is of Thirty years: 1410-1440. A peace with
"Poland soon followed that Defeat of Tannenberg; hu-
"miliating peace, with mulct in money, and slightly in terri-
"tory, attached to it. Which again was soon followed by war,
"and ever again; each new peace more humiliating than its
"foregoer. Teutsch Order is steadily sinking, --into debt,
"among other things; driven to severe finance-measures
"(ultimately even to 'debase its coin') which produce irrita-
"tion enough. Poland is gradually edging itself into the
"territories and the interior troubles of Preussen; prefatory
"to greater operations that lie ahead there.
"Period Second, of Fourteen years. So it had gone on,
> Michaells, i. 301.
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? 246 THE HOHENZOLLERNS IN BRANDENBURG. [BOOK m.
1444.
"from bad to worse, till 1440; when the general population,
"through its Heads, the Landed Gentry and the Towns,
"wearied-out with fiscal and other oppressions from its do-
"mineering Ritterdom brought now to such a pinch, began
"everywhere to stir themselves into vocal complaint.
"Complaint emphatic enough: 'Where will you find a man
"that has not suffered injury, in his rights, perhaps in his per-
"son? Our friends they have invited as guests, and under
'' show of hospitality have murdered them. Men, for the sake
"of their beautiful wives, have been thrown into the river like
'' dogs,'--and enough of the like sort. * No want of complaint,
"nor of complainants: Town of Thorn, Town of Dantzig,
"Kulm, all manner of Towns and Baronages, proceeded now
"to form a Bund, or general Covenant for complaining; to
"repugn, in hotter and hotter form, against a domineering
"Ritterdom with back so broken; in fine to colleague with
"Poland, -- what was most ominous of all. Baronage,
"Burgherage, they were German mostly by blood, and by
"culture were wholly German; but preferred Poland to a
'1Teutsch Ritterdom of that nature. Nothing but brabblings,
"scufflings, objurgations; a great outbreak ripening itself.
"Teutsch Ritterdom has to hire soldiers; no money to pay
"them. It was in these sad years that the Teutsch Ritterdom,
"fallen moneyless, offered to pledge the Neumark to our Kur-
"fiirst; 1444, that operation was consummated. ** All this
"goes on, in hotter and hotter form, for ten years longer.
"Period Third begins, early in 1454, with an important
"special catastrophe; and ends, in the Thirteenth year after,
"with a still more important universal one of the same nature.
"Prussian Bund, or Anti-Oppression Covenant of the Towns
* volgt, vli. 747; quoting, evidently, not an express manifesto, but one
manufactured by the old Chronlclera.
Panll, 11. 187, -- does not name the aum.
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? CHAP. m. l KURFttRST FRIEDRICH H. 247
1455.
"and Landed Gentry, rising in temperature for fourteen years
"at this rate, reached at last the igniting point, and burst into
"fire. February 4th, 1454, the Town of Thorn, darling first-
"child of Teutsch Ritterdom, -- child 223 years old at this
"time,* and grown very big, and now very angry, --sud-
denly took its old parent by the throat, so to speak, and
"hurled him out to the dogs; to the extraneousPolacksfirst
"of all. Town of Thorn, namely, sent, that day, its 'Letter
"of Renunciation' to the Hochmeister over at Marienburg;
"seized in a day or two more the Hochmeister's Official
"Envoys, Dignitaries of the Order; led them through the
"streets, amid universal storm of execrations, hootings and
"unclean projectiles, straight to jail; and besieged the Hoch-
"meister's Burg (Bastille of Thorn, with a fewRitters in it),
"all the artillery and all the throats and hearts of the place
"raging deliriously upon it . So that the poor Ritters, who
"had no chance in resisting, were in few days obliged tosur-
"render;** had to come out in bare jerkin; and Thorn igno-
"miniously dismissed them into space forevermore,-- with
"actual 'kicks,' I have read in some Books, though^thers veil
"that sad feature. Thorn threw out its old parent in this
"manner; swore fealty to the King of Poland; and invited
"other Towns and Knightages to follow the example. To
"which all were willing, wherever able.
"War hereupon, which blazed-up over Preussen at large,
* "Founded, 1231, as a wooden Burg, just across the river, on the
"Heathen side, mainly round the stem of an immense old Oak that grew
"handy there, -- Seven Barges always on the river (Weichsel), to fly to our
"own side if quite overwhelmed. " Oak and Seven Barges is still the
Town's-Arms of Thorn. --See Kb*hler, M&nzbelustigungen, xxii. 107; quoting
Dusburg (a Priest of the Order) and his old Chronica Terrce Pruscim,
written in 1326.
8th February 1454, says Voigt (viii. 861); 16th, says KShler (Miinj-
belmtigungen, xxii. 110).
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? 248 THE HOHENZOLLERNS IN BRANDENBURG. [bOOK in.
1455.
"--Prussian Covenant and King of Poland versus Teutsch
"Ritterdom, -- and lasted into the thirteenth year, before it
"could go out again; out by lack of fuel mainly. One of the
"fellest wars on record, especially for burning and mining;
''above'300,000 fighting-men' are calculated to have perished
"in it; and of towns, villages, farmsteads, a cipher which
"makes the fancy, as it were, black and ashy altogether. Rit-
"terdom showed no lack of fighting energy: but that could
"not save it in the pass things were got to. Enormous lack
"of wisdom, of reality and human veracity, there had long
"been; and the hour was now come. Finance went out, to
"the last coin. Large mercenary armies all along; and in the
"end not the colour of money to pay them with: mercenaries
"became desperate; 'besieged the Hochmeister and his Rit-
"ters in Marienburg;' -- finally sold the Country they held;
"formally made it over to the King of Poland, to get their pay
"out of it. Hochmeister had to see such things, and say little.
"Peace, or extinction for want of fuel, came in the year 1466.
"Poland got to itself the whole of that fine German Country,
"henceforth called ' West Preussen' to distinguish it, which
"goes from the left bank of the Weichsel to the borders of
"Brandenburg and Neumark;--would have got Neumark
"too, had not Kurfurst Friedrich been there to save it. The
"Teutsch Order had to go across the Weichsel, ignominiously
"driven; to content itself with 'East Preussen,' theKonigs-
"berg-Memel country, and even to do homage to Poland for
"that. Which latter was the bitterest clause of all: but it
"could not be helped, more than the others. In this manner
"did its revolted children fling out Teutsch Ritterdom igno-
"miniously to the dogs, to the Polacks first of all, -- Thorn,
"the eldest child, leading-off or setting the example. "
And so the Teutsch Ritters are sunk beyond re-
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? CHaP. HI. ] KUBPthtST FRJEDRICH H. 249
1464.
trieval; and West-Preussen, called subsequently "Royal
Preussen," not having homage to pay as the "Ducal"
or East-Preussen had, is German no longer, but Polish,
Sclavic; not prospering by the change. * And all that
fine German Country, reduced to rebel against its un-
wise parent, was cut away by the Polish sword, and
remained with Poland, which did not prove very wise
either; till -- till, in the Year 1773, it was cut back
by the German sword! All readers have heard of the
Partition of Poland; but of the Partition of Preussen,
307 years before, all have not heard.
It was in the second year of that final tribulation,
marked above as Period Third, that the Teutsch Rit-
ters, famishing for money, completed the Neumark
transaction with Kurffirst Friedrich; Neumark, already
pawned to him ten years before, they in 1455, for a
small farther sum, agreed to sell; and he, long care-
fully steering towards such an issue, and dextrously
keeping out of the main broil, failed not to buy.
Friedrich could thenceforth, on his own score, protect
the Neumark; keep up an invisible but impenetrable
wall between it and the neighbouring anarchic con-
flagrations of thirteen years; and the Neumark has
ever since remained with Brandenburg, its original owner.
As to Friedrich's Pomeranian quarrel, this is the
figure of it . Here is a scene from Rentsch, which falls-
? What Thorn had sunk to, out of its palmy state, see in Nanke's Wan-
derungen durch Preitssen (Hamburg and Altona, 1800), II. 177-200: -- a plea-
sant little Book, treating mainly of Natural History; but drawing you, by
its innocent simplicity and geniality, to read with thanks whatever is in it.
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? 250 THE HOHENZOIXERNS IN BRANDENBUBG. [bOOK m.
1464.
