purchases and the descendants of Frederick I, succeeding to
his burggravate, in the course of time acquired great
estates in Franconia, Moravia, and Burgundy. Through their
increasing wealth--whereby in the fifteenth century they had
gained a position similar to that of the present
Rothschilds--and by use of their political abilities, they
attained commanding influence in the councils of the German
princes.
Such was the eminence of this powerful family at the time
when they acquired the electorate of Brandenburg, the
nucleus of the present kingdom of Prussia. Brandenburg was a
district formerly inhabited by the Wends, a Slavic people,
from whom it was taken in 926 by Henry the Fowler, King of
Germany, of which kingdom it afterward became a margravate.
Its first margrave was Albert the Bear, under whom, about
1150, it was made an electorate; from Albert's line it
passed to Louis the Bavarian, in 1319; and in 1371 it was
transferred to Charles (Karl) IV. On the death of Charles,
his son and successor Wenzel (Wenceslaus) relinquished
Brandenburg to his brothers, as told by Carlyle, who in his
own pictorial manner describes the subsequent complications
which finally resulted in giving that possession to the
ancestors of the present ruling house of Germany.
Karl[74] left three young sons, Wenzel, Sigismund, Johann; and also a
certain nephew much older; all of whom now more or less concern us in
this unfortunate history.
Wenzel, the eldest son, heritable Kurfuerst of Brandenburg as well as
King of Bohemia, was as yet only seventeen, who nevertheless got to be
kaiser--and went widely astray, poor soul. The nephew was no other than
Margrave Jobst of Moravia, now in the vigor of his years and a stirring
man: to him, for a time, the chief management in Brandenburg fell, in
these circumstances. Wenzel, still a minor, and already Kaiser and King
of Bohemia, gave up Brandenburg to his two younger brothers, most of it
to Sigismund, with a cutting for Johann, to help their appanages; and
applied his own powers to govern the Holy Roman Empire, at that early
stage of life.
To govern the Holy Roman Empire, poor soul--or rather "to drink beer and
dance with the girls"; in which, if defective in other things, Wenzel
had an eminent talent. He was one of the worst kaisers and the least
victorious on record. He would attend to nothing in the Reich; "the Prag
white beer, and girls" of various complexion, being much preferable, as
he was heard to say. He had to fling his poor Queen's Confessor into the
river Moldau--Johann of Nepomuk, Saint so called, if he is not a fable
altogether; whose Statue stands on Bridges ever since, in those parts.
Wenzel's Bohemians revolted against him; put him in jail; and he broke
prison, a boatman's daughter helping him out, with adventures. His
Germans were disgusted with him; deposed him from the kaisership; chose
Rupert of the Pfalz; and then, after Rupert's death, chose Wenzel's own
brother Sigismund in his stead--left Wenzel to jumble about in his
native Bohemian element, as king there, for nineteen years longer, still
breaking pots to a ruinous extent.
He ended by apoplexy, or sudden spasm of the heart; terrible Ziska,[75]
as it were, killing him at second hand. For Ziska, stout and furious,
blind of one eye and at last of both, a kind of human rhinoceros driven
mad, had risen out of the ashes of murdered Huss, and other bad papistic
doings, in the interim; and was tearing up the world at a huge rate.
Rhinoceros Ziska was on the Weissenberg, or a still nearer hill of Prag
since called Ziska-berg (Ziska Hill); and none durst whisper of it to
the King. A servant waiting at dinner inadvertently let slip the word:
"Ziska there? Deny it, slave!" cried Wenzel, frantic. Slave durst not
deny. Wenzel drew his sword to run at him, but fell down dead: that was
the last pot broken by Wenzel. The hapless royal ex-imperial phantasm
self-broken in this manner. Poor soul, he came to the kaisership too
early; was a thin violent creature, sensible to the charms and horrors
of created objects; and had terrible rhinoceros ziskas and unruly horned
cattle to drive. He was one of the worst kaisers ever known--could have
done Opera Singing much better--and a sad sight to Bohemia. Let us leave
him there: he was never actual Elector of Brandenburg, having given it
up in time; never did any ill to that poor country.
The real Kurfürst of Brandenburg all this while was Sigismund, Wenzel's
next brother, under tutelage of cousin Jobst or otherwise--a real and
yet imaginary, for he never himself governed, but always had Jobst of
Mähren or some other in his place there. Sigismund was to have married a
daughter of Burggraf Friedrich V;[76] and he was himself, as was the
young lady, well inclined to this arrangement. But the old people being
dead, and some offer of a king's daughter turning up for Sigismund,
Sigismund broke off; and took the king's daughter, King of
Hungary's--not without regret then and afterward, as is believed. At any
rate, the Hungarian charmer proved a wife of small merit, and a
Hungarian successor she had was a wife of light conduct even; Hungarian
charmers, and Hungarian affairs, were much other than a comfort to
Sigismund.
As for the disappointed princess, Burggraf Friedrich's daughter, she
said nothing that we hear; silently became a Nun, an Abbess: and through
a long life looked out, with her thoughts to herself, upon the loud
whirlwind of things, where Sigismund (oftenest an imponderous rag of
conspicuous color) was riding and tossing. Her two brothers also, joint
Burggraves after their father's death, seemed to have reconciled
themselves without difficulty. The elder of them was already Sigismund's
brother-in-law; married to Sigismund's and Wenzel's sister--by such
predestination as we saw. Burggraf Johann III was the name of this one;
a stout fighter and manager for many years; much liked, and looked to,
by Sigismund, as indeed were both the brothers, for that matter; always,
together or in succession, a kind of right hand to Sigismund. Frederick
(Friedrich), the younger Burggraf, and ultimately the survivor and
inheritor (Johann having left no sons), is the famed Burggraf Friedrich
VI the last and notablest of all the Burggraves--a man of distinguished
importance, extrinsic and intrinsic; chief or among the very chief of
German public men in his time; and memorable to Posterity, and to this
history, on still other grounds! But let us not anticipate.
Sigismund, if appanaged with Brandenburg alone, and wedded to his first
love, not a king's daughter, might have done tolerably well there;
better than Wenzel, with the empire and Bohemia, did. But delusive
Fortune threw her golden apple at Sigismund too; and he, in the wide
high world, had to play strange pranks. His father-in-law died in
Hungary, Sigismund's first wife his only child. Father-in-law bequeathed
Hungary to Sigismund, who plunged into a strange sea thereby; got
troubles without number, beatings not a few, and had even to take boat,
and sail for his life down to Constantinople, at one time. In which sad
adventure Burggraf Johann escorted him, and as it were tore him out by
the hair of the head. These troubles and adventures lasted many years;
in the course of which, Sigismund, trying all manner of friends and
expedients, found in the Burggraves of Nuremberg, Johann and Friedrich,
with their talents, possessions, and resources, the main or almost only
sure support he got.
No end of troubles to Sigismund, and to Brandenburg through him, from
this sublime Hungarian legacy. Like a remote fabulous golden fleece,
which you have to go and conquer first, and which is worth little when
conquered. Before ever setting out (1387), Sigismund saw too clearly
that he would have cash to raise: an operation he had never done with,
all his life afterward. He pawned Brandenburg to cousin Jobst of Mähren;
got "twenty thousand Bohemian gulden"--I guess, a most slender sum, if
Dryasdust would but interpret it. This was the beginning of pawnings to
Brandenburg; of which when will the end be? Jobst thereby came into
Brandenburg on his own right for the time, not as tutor or guardian,
which he had hitherto been. Into Brandenburg; and there was no chance of
repayment to get him out again.
Jobst tried at first to do some governing; but finding all very
anarchic, grew unhopeful; took to making matters easy for himself. Took,
in fact, to turning a penny on his pawn-ticket; alienating crown
domains, winking hard at robber barons, and the like--and after a few
years, went home to Moravia, leaving Brandenburg to shift for itself,
under a Statthalter (Viceregent, more like a hungry land-steward), whom
nobody took the trouble of respecting. Robber castles flourished; all
else decayed. No highway not unsafe; many a Turpin with sixteen
quarters, and styling himself Edle Herr (noble gentleman), took to
"living from the saddle": what are Hamburg pedlers made for but to be
robbed?
The towns suffered much; any trade they might have had, going to wreck
in this manner. Not to speak of private feuds, which abounded _ad
libitum_. Neighboring potentates, Archbishop of Magdeburg and others,
struck in also at discretion, as they had gradually got accustomed to
do, and snapped away some convenient bit of territory, or, more
legitimately, they came across to coerce, at their own hand, this or the
other Edle Herr of the Turpin sort, whom there was no other way of
getting at, when he carried matters quite too high. "Droves of six
hundred swine"--I have seen (by reading in those old books) certain
noble gentlemen, "of Putlitz," I think, driving them openly, captured by
the stronger hand; and have heard the short querulous squeak of the
bristly creatures: "What is the use of being a pig at all, if I am to be
stolen in this way, and surreptitiously made into ham?" Pigs do continue
to be bred in Brandenburg: but it is under such discouragements.
Agriculture, trade, well-being and well-doing of any kind, it is not
encouragement they are meeting here. Probably few countries, not even
Ireland, have a worse outlook, unless help come.
Jobst came back in 1398, after eight years' absence; but no help came
with Jobst. The Neumark of Brandenburg, which was brother Johann's
portion, had fallen home to Sigismund, brother Johann having died; but
Sigismund, far from redeeming old pawn-tickets with the Neumark, pawned
the Neumark too--the second pawnage of Brandenburg. Pawned the Neumark
to the Teutsch Ritters "for sixty-three thousand Hungarian gulden" (I
think, about thirty thousand pounds), and gave no part of it to Jobst;
had not nearly enough for himself and his Hungarian occasions.
Seeing which, and hearing such squeak of pigs surreptitiously driven,
with little but discordant sights and sounds everywhere, Jobst became
disgusted with the matter; and resolved to wash his hands of it, at
least to have his money out of it again. Having sold what of the domains
he could to persons of quality, at an uncommonly easy rate, and so
pocketed what ready cash there was among them, he made over his
pawn-ticket, or properly he himself repawned Brandenburg to the Saxon
potentate, a speculative moneyed man, Markgraf of Meissen, "Wilhelm the
Rich," so called. Pawned it to Wilhelm the Rich--sum not named; and went
home to Moravia, there to wait events. This is the third Brandenburg
pawning: let us hope there may be a fourth and last.
And so we have now reached that point in Brandenburg history when, if
some help does not come, Brandenburg will not long be a country, but
will either get dissipated in pieces and stuck to the edge of others
where some government is, or else go waste again and fall to the bisons
and wild bears.
Who now is Kurfürst of Brandenburg, might be a question. "I
unquestionably!" Sigismund would answer, with astonishment. "Soft, your
Hungarian Majesty," thinks Jobst: "till my cash is paid may it not
probably be another?" This question has its interest: the Electors just
now (1400) are about deposing Wenzel; must choose some better Kaiser. If
they wanted another scion of the house of Luxemburg--a mature old
gentleman of sixty; full of plans, plausibilities, pretensions--Jobst is
their man. Jobst and Sigismund were of one mind as to Wenzel's going; at
least Sigismund voted clearly so, and Jobst said nothing counter: but
the Kurfürsts did not think of Jobst for successor. After some
stumbling, they fixed upon Rupert Kur-Pfalz (Elector Palatine, Ruprecht
von der Pfalz) as Kaiser.
Rupert of the Pfalz proved a highly respectable Kaiser; lasted for ten
years (1400-10), with honor to himself and the Reich. A strong heart,
strong head, but short of means. He chastised petty mutiny with vigor,
could not bring down the Milanese Visconti, who had perched themselves
so high on money paid to Wenzel; could not heal the schism of the
Church (double or triple Pope, Rome-Avignon affair), or awaken the
Reich to a sense of its old dignity and present loose condition. In the
late loose times, as antiquaries remark, most members of the Empire,
petty princes even and imperial towns, had been struggling to set up for
themselves; and were now concerned chiefly to become sovereign in their
own territories. And Schilter informs us it was about this period that
most of them attained such rather unblessed consummation; Rupert of
himself not able to help it, with all his willingness. The people called
him "Rupert Klemm (Rupert Smith's-vise)," from his resolute ways; which
nickname--given him not in hatred, but partly in satirical good-will--is
itself a kind of history. From historians of the Reich he deserves
honorable regretful mention.
He had for Empress a sister of Burggraf Friedrich's; which high lady,
unknown to us otherwise, except by her tomb at Heidelberg, we remember
for her brother's sake. Kaiser Rupert--great-grandson of that Kur-Pfalz
who was Kaiser Ludwig's elder brother--is the culminating point of the
Electors Palatine; the highest that Heidelberg produced. Ancestor of
those famed Protestant "Palatines"; of all the Palatines or Pfalzes that
reign in these late centuries. Ancestor of the present Bavarian Majesty;
Kaiser Ludwig's race having died out. Ancestor of the unfortunate
Winterkönig, Friedrich, King of Bohemia, who is too well known in
English history--ancestor also of Charles XII of Sweden, a highly
creditable fact of the kind to him. Fact indisputable: a cadet of
Pfalz-Zweibrück (Deux-Ponts), direct from Rupert, went to serve in
Sweden in his soldier business; distinguished himself in soldiering; had
a sister of the great Gustaf Adolf to wife; and from her a renowned son,
Karl Gustaf (Christiana's cousin), who succeeded as King; who again had
a grandson made in his own likeness, only still more of iron in his
composition. Enough now of Rupert Smith's-vise; who died in 1410, and
left the Reich again vacant.
Rupert's funeral is hardly done, when, over in Preussen, far off in the
Memel region, place called Tannenberg, where there is still "a
church-yard to be seen," if little more, the Teutsch Ritters had,
unexpectedly, a terrible defeat; consummation of their Polish
miscellaneous quarrels of long standing; and the end of their high
courses in this world. A ruined Teutsch Ritterdom, as good as ruined,
ever henceforth. Kaiser Rupert died May 18th; and on July 15th, within
two months, was fought that dreadful "Battle of Tannenburg," Poland and
Polish King, with miscellany of savage Tartars and revolted Prussians,
versus Teutsch Ritterdom; all in a very high mood of mutual rage; the
very elements, "wild thunder, tempest and rain deluges," playing chorus
to them on the occasion. Ritterdom fought lion-like, but with
insufficient strategic and other wisdom, and was driven nearly
distracted to see its pride tripped into the ditch by such a set. Vacant
Reich could not in the least attend to it; nor can we further at
present.
Jobst and Sigismund were competitors for the Kaisership; Wenzel, too,
striking in with claims for reinstatement: the house of Luxemburg
divided against itself. Wenzel, finding reinstatement not to be thought
of, threw his weight, such as it was, into the scale of cousin Jobst.
The contest was vehement, and like to be lengthy. Jobst, though he had
made over his pawn-ticket, claimed to be Elector of Brandenburg; and
voted for himself. The like, with still more emphasis, did Sigismund, or
Burggraf Friedrich acting for him: "Sigismund, sure, is Kur-Brandenburg,
though under pawn!" argued Friedrich--and, I almost guess, though that
is not said, produced from his own purse, at some stage of the business,
the actual money for Jobst, to close his Brandenburg pretension.
Both were elected (majority contested in this manner); and old Jobst,
then above seventy, was like to have given much trouble; but happily in
three months he died; and Sigismund became indisputable. In his day
Jobst made much noise in the world, but did little or no good in it. He
was thought "a great man," says one satirical old Chronicler; and there
"was nothing great about him but the beard."
"The cause of Sigismund's success with the Electors," says Kohler, "or
of his having any party among them, was the faithful and unwearied
diligence which had been used for him by the above-named Burggraf
Friedrich VI of Nuremberg, who took extreme pains to forward Sigismund
to the Empire; pleading that Sigismund and Wenzel would be sure to agree
well henceforth, and that Sigismund, having already such extensive
territories (Hungary, Brandenburg, and so forth) by inheritance, would
not be so exact about the Reichs-tolls and other imperial incomes. This
same Friedrich also, when the election fell out doubtful, was
Sigismund's best support in Germany, nay almost his right hand, through
whom he did whatever was done."
Sigismund is Kaiser, then, in spite of Wenzel. King of Hungary, after
unheard-of troubles and adventures, ending some years ago in a kind of
peace and conquest, he has long been. King of Bohemia, too, he at last
became; having survived Wenzel, who was childless. Kaiser of the Holy
Roman Empire, and so much else: is not Sigismund now a great man? Truly
the loom he weaves upon, in this world, is very large. But the weaver
was of headlong, high-pacing, flimsy nature; and both warp and woof were
gone dreadfully entangled!
This is the Kaiser Sigismund who held the Council of Constance; and
"blushed visibly," when Huss, about to die, alluded to the letter of
safe-conduct granted him, which was issuing in such fashion. Sigismund
blushed; but could not conveniently mend the matter--so many matters
pressing on him just now. As they perpetually did, and had done. An
always-hoping, never-resting, unsuccessful, vain and empty Kaiser.
Specious, speculative; given to eloquence, diplomacy, and the windy
instead of the solid arts; always short of money for one thing. He
roamed about, and talked eloquently; aiming high, and generally missing.
Hungary and even the Reich have at length become his, but have brought
small triumph in any kind; and instead of ready money, debt on debt. His
Majesty has no money, and his Majesty's occasions need it more and more.
He is now (1414) holding this Council of Constance, by way of healing
the Church, which is sick of three simultaneous popes and of much else.
He finds the problem difficult; finds he will have to run into Spain, to
persuade a refractory pope there, if eloquence can (as it cannot): all
which requires money, money. At opening of the council, he "officiated
as deacon"; actually did some kind of litanying "with a surplice over
him," though Kaiser and King of the Romans. But this passage of his
opening speech is what I recollect best of him there: "Right reverend
Fathers, _date operam ut illa nefanda schisma eradicetur_," exclaims
Sigismund, intent on having the Bohemian schism well dealt with--which
he reckons to be of the feminine gender. To which a cardinal mildly
remarking, "_Domine, schisma est generis neutrius_ (schisma is neuter,
your Majesty)," Sigismund loftily replies: "_Ego sum Rex Romanus et
super grammaticam_ (I am King of the Romans, and above Grammar)!" For
which reason I call him in my note-books Sigismund Super Grammaticam, to
distinguish him in the imbroglio of kaisers.
How Jobst's pawn-ticket was settled I never clearly heard; but can guess
it was by Burggraf Friedrich's advancing the money, in the pinch above
indicated, or paying it afterward to Jobst's heirs whoever they were.
Thus much is certain: Burggraf Friedrich, these three years and more
(ever since July 8, 1411) holds Sigismund's deed of acknowledgment "for
one hundred thousand gulden lent at various times"; and has likewise got
the Electorate of Brandenburg in pledge for that sum; and does himself
administer the said Electorate till he be paid. This is the important
news; but this is not all.
The new journey into Spain requires new money; this council itself, with
such a pomp as suited Sigismund, has cost him endless money.
Brandenburg, torn to ruins in the way we saw, is a sorrowful matter;
and, except the title of it, as a feather in one's cap, is worth nothing
to Sigismund. And he is still short of money; and will forever be. Why
could not he give up Brandenburg altogether; since, instead of paying,
he is still making new loans from Burggraf Friedrich; and the hope of
ever paying were mere lunacy! Sigismund revolves these sad thoughts too,
amid his world-wide diplomacies, and efforts to heal the Church.
"Pledged for one hundred thousand gulden," sadly ruminates Sigismund;
"and fifty thousand more borrowed since, by little and little; and more
ever needed, especially for this grand Spanish journey!" these were his
sad thoughts. "Advance me, in a round sum, two hundred and fifty
thousand more," said he to Burggraf Friedrich, "two hundred and fifty
thousand more, for my manifold occasions in this time--that will be four
hundred thousand in whole--and take the Electorate of Brandenburg to
yourself, Land, Titles, Sovereign, Electorship and all, and make me rid
of it!" That was the settlement adopted, in Sigismund's apartment at
Constance, on April 30, 1415; signed, sealed, and ratified--and the
money paid. A very notable event in World-History; virtually completed
on the day we mention.
The ceremony of investiture did not take place till two years afterward,
when the Spanish journey had proved fruitless, when much else of
fruitless had come and gone and Kaiser and council were probably more at
leisure for such a thing. Done at length it was by Kaiser Sigismund in
almost gala, with the Grandees of the Empire assisting, and august
members of the council and world in general looking on; in the big
square or market-place of Constance, April 17, 1417; is to be found
described in Rentsch, from Nauclerus and the old news-mongers of the
times. Very grand indeed: much processioning on horseback, under
powerful trumpet-peals and flourishes; much stately kneeling, stately
rising, stepping backward (done well, _zierlich_, on the Kurfürst's
part); liberal expenditure of cloth and pomp; in short, "above one
hundred thousand people looking on from roofs and windows," and Kaiser
Sigismund in all his glory. He was on a high platform in the
market-place, with stairs to it; the illustrious Kaiser--red as a
flamingo, "with scarlet mantle and crown of gold,"--a treat to the eyes
of simple mankind.