Voldemar II., Marquis and Elector of Brandenburg, actuated by a fit of
devotion, set out from his dominions in 1322 on a pilgrimage to the
Holy Land, leaving his brother John IV. to rule in his absence. He
left no clue as to his intended route; but simply announcing his
purpose of visiting the sacred shrines of Palestine, started on his
journey accompanied by only two esquires. Four-and-twenty days after
his departure his brother John sickened and died--not without
suspicions of foul play--and Louis of Bavaria, then possessing the
empire, presented the electorate to his own eldest son as a vacant
fief of Germany. The change was quietly effected; but in 1345 a man
suddenly appeared as from the dead, proclaiming himself the missing
Voldemar, and demanding the restoration of his rights. He was of about
the same age as the elector would have been, and the story which he
told of captivity among the Saracens was sufficient to account for any
perceptible change in his gait and appearance, and in the colour of
his hair. Those who were interested in opposing his claim stoutly
asserted that he was a miller of Landreslaw, called Rebok, and that he
was a creature of the Duke of Saxony, who coveted the Brandenburgian
possessions, and who, being a relative of the family, had thoroughly
instructed him as to the private life of Voldemar. His plausibility,
and the accuracy of his answers, however, led many persons of
influence to believe that he was no counterfeit. The Emperor Charles
IV. (of Bohemia), the Primate of Germany, the Princes of Anhalt, and
the Dukes of Brunswick, Pomerania, Mecklenburg, and Saxony, all
supported his pretensions; the most of the nobility of the marquisate
acknowledged him to be their prince; and the common people, either
touched with the hardships he was said to have suffered, or wearied of
Bavarian rule, lent him money to acquire his rights and drive out
Louis. All the cities declared for him except Frankfort-on-the-Oder,
Spandau, and Brisac, and war was at once begun. The victory at first
rested with the so-called Voldemar; many of the towns opened their
gates to him; and his rival Louis fled to his estates in the Tyrol,
leaving the electorate to his two brothers--a disposition which was
confirmed by the Emperor Charles IV. in 1350. There are two versions
of the death of Voldemar. Lunclavius asserts that he was finally
captured and burnt alive for his imposture; while De Rocoles maintains
that he died at Dessau in 1354, nine years after his return, and was
buried in the tombs of the Princes of Anhalt. The general impression,
however, is that he was an impostor.