The Brandenburg Countries, till they become related to the Hohenzollern
Family which now rules there, have no History that has proved memorable
to mankind. There has indeed been a good deal written under that
title; but there is by no means much known, and of that again there is
alarmingly little that is worth knowing or remembering.
Pytheas, the Marseilles Travelling Commissioner, looking out for new
channels of trade, somewhat above 2,000 years ago, saw the country
actually lying there; sailed past it, occasionally landing; and
made report to such Marseillese "Chamber of Commerce" as there then
was:--report now lost, all to a few indistinct and insignificant
fractions. [_Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions,_ t. xix. 46,
xxxvii. 439, &c.] This was "about the year 327 before Christ," while
Alexander of Macedon was busy conquering India. Beyond question,
Pytheas, the first WRITING or civilized creature that ever saw Germany,
gazed with his Greek eyes, and occasionally landed, striving to speak
and inquire, upon those old Baltic Coasts, north border of the now
Prussian Kingdom; and reported of it to mankind we know not what. Which
brings home to us the fact that it existed, but almost nothing more:
A Country of lakes and woods, of marshy jungles, sandy wildernesses;
inhabited by bears, otters, bisons, wolves, wild swine, and certain
shaggy Germans of the Suevic type, as good as inarticulate to Pytheas.
After which all direct notice of it ceases for above three hundred
years. We can hope only that the jungles were getting cleared a little,
and the wild creatures hunted down; that the Germans were increasing
in number, and becoming a thought less shaggy. These latter, tall Suevi
Semnones, men of blond stern aspect _(oculi truces coerulei)_ and
great strength of bone, were known to possess a formidable talent for
fighting: [Tacitus, _De Moribus Germanorum,_ c. 45.] Drusus Germanicus,
it has been guessed, did not like to appear personally among them: some
"gigantic woman prophesying to him across the Elbe" that it might be
dangerous, Drusus contented himself with erecting some triumphal pillar
on his own safe side of the Elbe, to say that they were conquered.
In the Fourth Century of our era, when the German populations, on
impulse of certain "Huns expelled from the Chinese frontier," or for
other reasons valid to themselves, began flowing universally southward,
to take possession of the rich Roman world, and so continued flowing for
two centuries more; the old German frontiers generally, and especially
those Northern Baltic countries, were left comparatively vacant; so that
new immigrating populations from the East, all of Sclavic origin, easily
obtained footing and supremacy there. In the Northern parts, these
immigrating Sclaves were of the kind called Vandals, or Wends: they
spread themselves as far west as Hamburg and the Ocean, south also
far over the Elbe in some quarters; while other kinds of Sclaves
were equally busy elsewhere. With what difficulty in settling the new
boundaries, and what inexhaustible funds of quarrel thereon, is still
visible to every one, though no Historian was there to say the least
word of it. "All of Sclavic origin;" but who knows of how many kinds:
Wends here in the North, through the Lausitz (Lusatia) and as far as
Thuringen; not to speak of Polacks, Bohemian Czechs, Huns, Bulgars, and
the other dim nomenclatures, on the Eastern frontier. Five hundred
years of violent unrecorded fighting, abstruse quarrel with their new
neighbors in settling the marches. Many names of towns in Germany ending
in ITZ (Meuselwitz, Mollwitz), or bearing the express epithet _Windisch_
(Wendish), still give indication of those old sad circumstances; as
does the word SLAVE, in all our Western languages, meaning captured
SCLAVONIAN. What long-drawn echo of bitter rage and hate lies in that
small etymology!
These things were; but they have no History: why should they have any?
Enough that in those Baltic regions, there are for the time (Year 600,
and till long after Charlemagne is out) Sclaves in place of Suevi or of
Holstein Saxons and Angli; that it is now shaggy Wends who have the task
of taming the jungles, and keeping down the otters and wolves. Wends
latterly in a waning condition, much beaten upon by Charlemagne and
others; but never yet beaten out. And so it has to last, century after
century; Wends, wolves, wild swine, all alike dumb to us. Dumb, or
sounding only one huge unutterable message (seemingly of tragic import),
like the voice of their old Forests, of their old Baltic Seas:--perhaps
more edifying to us SO. Here at last is a definite date and event:--
"A.D. 928, Henry the Fowler, marching across the frozen bogs, took
BRANNIBOR, a chief fortress of the Wends;" [Kohler, _Reichs-Historie_
(Frankfurth und Leipzig, 1737), p. 63. Michaelis, _Chur-und Furstlichen
Hauser in Deutschland_ (Lemgo, 1759, 1760, 1785), i. 255.]--first
mention in human speech of the place now called Brandenburg: Bor or
"Burg of the Brenns" (if there ever was any TRIBE of Brenns,--BRENNUS,
there as elsewhere, being name for KING or Leader); "Burg of the Woods,"
say others,--who as little know. Probably, at that time, a town of clay
huts, with dit&h and palisaded sod-wall round it; certainly "a chief
fortress of the Wends,"--who must have been a good deal surprised at
sight of Henry on the rimy winter morning near a thousand years ago.
This is the grand old Henry, called, "the Fowler" _(Heinrich
der Vogler),_ because he was in his _Vogelheerde_ (Falconry or
Hawk-establishment, seeing his Hawks fly) in the upland Hartz Country,
when messengers came to tell him that the German Nation, through its
Princes and Authorities assembled at Fritzlar, had made him King; and
that he would have dreadful work henceforth. Which he undertook; and
also did,--this of Brannibor only one small item of it,--warring right
manfully all his days against Chaos in that country, no rest for him
thenceforth till he died. The beginning of German Kings; the first,
or essentially the first sovereign of united Germany,--Charlemagne's
posterity to the last bastard having died out, and only Anarchy, Italian
and other, being now the alternative.
"A very high King," says one whose Note-books I have got, "an
authentically noble human figure, visible still in clear outline in the
gray dawn of Modern History. The Father of whatever good has since been
in Germany. He subdued his DUKES, Schwaben, Baiern (Swabia, Bavaria) and
others, who were getting too HEREDITARY, and inclined to disobedience.
He managed to get back Lorraine; made TRUCE with the Hungarians, who
were excessively invasive at that time. Truce with the Hungarians;
and then, having gathered strength, made dreadful beating of them; two
beatings,--one to each half, for the invasive Savagery had split itself,
for better chance of plunder; first beating was at Sondershausen, second
was at Merseburg, Year 933;--which settled them considerably. Another
beating from Henry's son, and they never came back. Beat Wends, before
this,--'Brannibor through frozen bogs' five years ago. Beat, Sclavic
Meisseners (Misnians); Bohehemian Czechs, and took Prag; Wends again,
with huge slaughter; then Danes, and made 'King Worm tributary' (King
_Gorm the Hard,_ our KNUT'S or Canute's great-grand-father, Year
931);--last of all, those invasive Hungarians as above. Had sent
the Hungarians, when they demanded tribute or BLACK-MAIL of him
as heretofore, Truce being now out,--a mangy hound: There is your
black-mail, Sirs; make much of that!
"He had 'the image of St. Michael painted on his standard;' contrary to
wont. He makes, or RE-makes, Markgrafs (Wardens of the Marches), to be
under his Dukes,--and not too HEREDITARY. Who his Markgraves were? Dim
History counts them to the number of six; [Kohler, _Reich-Historie,_ p.
66. This is by no means Kohler's chief Book; but this too is good, and
does, in a solid effective way, what it attempts. He seems to me by far
the best Historical Genius the Germans have yet, produced, though I do
not find much mention of him in their Literary Histories and Catalogues.
A man of ample learning, and also of strong cheerful human sense and
human honesty; whom it is thrice-pleasant, to meet with in those ghastly
solitudes, populous chiefly with doleful creatures.] which take in their
order:--
"1. SLESWIG, looking over into the Scandinavian countries, and the
Norse Sea-kings. This Markgraviate did not last long under that title. I
guess, it, became _Stade-and-Ditmarsch_ afterwards.
"2. SOLTWEDEL,--which grows to be Markgraviate of BRANDENBURG by and by.
Soltwedel, now called Salzwedel, an old Town still extant, sixty miles
to west and north of Brandenburg, short way south of the Elbe, was as
yet headquarters of this second Markgraf; and any Warden we have at
Brandenburg is only a deputy of him or some other.
"3. MEISSEN (which we call Misnia), a country at that time still full of
Wends.
"4. LAUSITZ, also a very Wendish country (called in English maps
LUSATIA,--which is its name in Monk-Latin, not now a spoken language).
Did not long continue a Markgraviate; fell to Meissen (Saxony), fell to
Brandenburg, Bohemia, Austria, and had many tos and fros. Is now (since
the Thirty-Years-War time) mostly Saxon again.
"5. AUSTRIA (OEsterreich, Eastern-Kingdom, EASTERNREY as we might say);
to look after the Hungarians, and their valuable claims to black-mail.
"6. ANTWERP ('At-the-Wharf,' 'On-t'-Wharf,' so to speak), against the
French; which function soon fell obsolete.
"These were Henry's six Markgraviates (as my best authority enumerates
them); and in this way he had militia captains ranked all round his
borders, against the intrusive Sclavic element. He fortified
Towns; all Towns are to be walled and warded,--to be BURGS in fact; and
the inhabitants BURGhers, or men capable of defending Burgs. Everywhere
the ninth man is to serve as soldier in his Town; other eight in the
country are to feed and support him: _Heergeruthe_ (War-tackle, what is
called HERIOT in our old Books) descends to the eldest son of a fighting
man who had served, as with us. 'All robbers are made soldiers' (unless
they prefer hanging); and WEAPON-SHOWS and drill are kept up. This is a
man who will make some impression upon Anarchy, and its Wends and Huns.
His standard was St. Michael, as we have seen,--WHOSE sword is derived
from a very high quarter! A pious man;--founded Quedlinburg Abbey, and
much else in that kind, having a pious Wife withal, Mechtildis, who
took the main hand in that of Quedlinburg; whose LIFE is in Leibnitz,
[Leibnitz, _Scriptores Rerum Brunswicensium,_ &c. (Hanover, 1707), i.
196.] not the legiblest of Books.--On the whole, a right gallant King
and 'Fowler.' Died, A.D. 936 (at Memmleben, a Monastery on the Unstrut,
not far from Schulpforte), age sixty; had reigned only seventeen years,
and done so much. Lies buried in Quedlinburg Abbey:--any Tomb? I know
no LIFE of him but GUNDLING'S, which is an extremely inextricable Piece,
and requires mainly to be forgotten.--Hail, brave Henry: across the Nine
dim Centuries, we salute thee, still visible as a valiant Son of Cosmos
and Son of Heaven, beneficently sent us; as a man who did in grim
earnest 'serve God' in his day, and whose works accordingly bear fruit
to our day, and to all days!"--
So far my rough Note-books; which require again to be shut for the
present, not to abuse the reader's patience, or lead him from his road.
This of Markgrafs (GRAFS of the Marches, MARKED Places, or Boundaries)
was a natural invention in that state of circumstances. It did not
quite originate with Henry; but was much perfected by him, he first
recognizing how essential it was. On all frontiers he had his GRAF
(Count, REEVE, G'REEVE, whom some think to be only GRAU, Gray, or
SENIOR, the hardiest, wisest steel-GRAY man he could discover) stationed
on the MARCK, strenuously doing watch and ward there: the post of
difficulty, of peril, and naturally of honor too, nothing of a sinecure
by any means. Which post, like every other, always had a tendency to
become hereditary, if the kindred did not fail in fit men. And hence
have come the innumerable Markgraves, Marquises, and such like, of
modern times: titles now become chimerical, and more or less mendacious,
as most of our titles are,--like so many BURGS changed into "Boroughs,"
and even into "Rotten Boroughs," with Defensive BURGhers of the known
sort: very mournful to discover. Once Norroy was not all pasteboard! At
the heart of that huge whirlwind of his, with its dusty heraldries, and
phantasmal nomenclatures now become mendacious, there lay, at first,
always an earnest human fact. Henry the Fowler was so happy as to have
the fact without any mixture of mendacity: we are in the sad reverse
case; reverse case not yet altogether COMPLETE, but daily becoming
so,--one of the saddest and strangest ever heard of, if we thought of
it!--But to go on with business.
Markgraviates there continued to be ever after,--Six in Henry's
time:--but as to the number, place, arrangement of them, all this varied
according to circumstances outward and inward, chiefly according to the
regress or the reintrusion of the circumambient hostile populations; and
underwent many changes. The sea-wall you build, and what main floodgates
you establish in it, will depend on the state of the outer sea. Markgraf
of SLESWIG grows into Markgraf of DITMARSCH and STADE; retiring over the
Elbe, if Norse Piracy get very triumphant. ANTWERP falls obsolete; so
does MEISSEN by and by. LAUSITZ and SALZWEDEL, in the third century
hence, shrink both into BRANDENBURG; which was long only a subaltern
station, managed by deputy from one or other of these. A Markgraf that
prospered in repelling of his Wends and Huns had evidently room to
spread himself, and could become very great, and produce change in
boundaries: observe what OESTERREICH (Austria) grew to, and what
BRANDENBURG; MEISSEN too, which became modern Saxony, a state once
greater than it now is.
In old Books are Lists of the primitive Markgraves of Brandenburg, from
Henry's time downward; two sets, "Markgraves of the Witekind race," and
of another: [Hubner, _Genealogische Tabellen_ (Leipzig, 1725-1728),
i. 172, 173. A Book of rare excellence in its kind.] but they are
altogether uncertain, a shadowy intermittent set of Markgraves, both the
Witekind set and the Non-Witekind; and truly, for a couple of centuries,
seem none of them to have been other than subaltern Deputies, belonging
mostly to LAUSITZ or SALZWEDEL; of whom therefore we can say nothing
here, but must leave the first two hundred years in their natural gray
state,--perhaps sufficiently conceivable by the reader.
But thus, at any rate, was Brandenburg (BOT or Burg of the BRENNS,
whatever these are) first discovered to Christendom, and added to the
firm land of articulate History: a feat worth putting on record. Done by
Henry the Fowler, in the Year of Grace 928,--while (among other things
noticeable in this world) our Knut's great-grandfather, GORMO DURUS,
"Henry's Tributary," was still King of Denmark; when Harald BLUETOOTH
(Blaatand) was still a young fellow, with his teeth of the natural
color; and Swen with the Forked Beard (TVAESKAEG, Double-beard,
"TWA-SHAG") was not born; and the Monks of Ely had not yet (by about a
hundred years) begun that singing, (Without note or comment, in the old,
BOOK OF ELY date before the Conquest) is preserved this stave;--giving
picture, if we consider it, of the Fen Country all a lake (as it was for
half the year, till drained, six centuries after), with Ely Monastery
rising like an island in the distance; and the music of its nones or
vespers sounding soft and far over the solitude, eight hundred years ago
and more.
Merie sungen the Muneches binnen Ely
Tha Cnut ching rew therby:
Roweth enites near the lant,
And here we thes Muneches saeng.
_Merry_ (genially) _sang the Monks in Ely
As Knut King rowed_ (rew) _there-by:
Row, fellows_ (knights), _near the land,
And hear we these Monks's song._
See Bentham's _History of Ely_ (Cambridge, 1771), p, 94.] nor the tide
that refusal to retire, on behalf of this Knut, in our English part of
his dominions.
That Henry appointed due Wardenship in Brannibor was in the common
course. Sure enough, some Markgraf must take charge of Brannibor,--he
of the Lausitz eastward, for example, or he of Salzwedel westward:--that
Brannibor, in time, will itself be found the fit place, and have its
own Markgraf of Brandenburg; this, and what in the next nine centuries
Brandenburg will grow to, Henry is far from surmising. Brandenburg
is fairly captured across the frozen bogs, and has got a warden and
ninth-man garrison settled in it: Brandenburg, like other things, will
grow to what it can.
Henry's son and successor, if not himself, is reckoned to have founded
the Cathedral and Bishopric of Brandenburg,--his Clergy and he always
longing much for the conversion of these Wends and Huns; which indeed
was, as the like still is, the one thing needful to rugged heathens of
that kind.