Burggraf Friedrich, on his first coming to Brandenburg, found but a cool
reception as Statthalter. [_"Johannistage"_ (24 June) "1412," he first
set foot in Brandenburg, with due escort, in due state; only Statthalter
(Viceregent) as yet: Pauli, i. 594, ii. 58; Stenzel, _Geschichte des
Preussischen Staats_ (Hamburg, 1830, 1851), i. 167-169.] He came as
the representative of law and rule; and there had been many helping
themselves by a ruleless life, of late. Industry was at a low ebb,
violence was rife; plunder, disorder everywhere; too much the habit for
baronial gentlemen to "live by the saddle," as they termed it, that is
by highway robbery in modern phrase.
The Towns, harried and plundered to skin and bone, were glad to see
a Statthalter, and did homage to him with all their heart. But the
Baronage or Squirearchy of the country were of another mind. These, in
the late anarchies, had set up for a kind of kings in their own right:
they had their feuds; made war, made peace, levied tolls, transit-dues;
lived much at their own discretion in these solitary countries;--rushing
out from their stone towers ("walls fourteen feet thick"), to seize
any herd of "six hundred swine," any convoy of Lubeck or Hamburg
merchant-goods, that had not contented them in passing. What were
pedlers and mechanic fellows made for, if not to be plundered when
needful? Arbitrary rule, on the part of these Noble Robber-Lords! And
then much of the Crown-Domains had gone to the chief of them,--pawned
(and the pawn-ticket lost, so to speak), or sold for what trifle
of ready money was to be had, in Jobst and Company's time. To these
gentlemen, a Statthalter coming to inquire into matters was no welcome
phenomenon. Your EDLE HERR (Noble Lord) of Putlitz, Noble Lords of
Quitzow, Rochow, Maltitz and others, supreme in their grassy solitudes
this long while, and accustomed to nothing greater than themselves in
Brandenburg, how should they obey a Statthalter?
Such was more or less the universal humor in the Squirearchy of
Brandenburg; not of good omen to Burggraf Friedrich. But the chief seat
of contumacy seemed to be among the Quitzows, Putlitzes, above spoken
of; big Squires in the district they call the Priegnitz, in the Country
of the sluggish Havel River, northwest from Berlin a fifty or forty
miles. These refused homage, very many of them; said they were
"incorporated with Bohmen;" said this and that;--much disinclined to
homage; and would not do it. Stiff surly fellows, much deficient in
discernment of what is above them and what is not:--a thick-skinned
set; bodies clad in buff leather; minds also cased in ill habits of long
continuance.
Friedrich was very patient with them; hoped to prevail by gentle
methods. He "invited them to dinner;" "had them often at dinner for a
year or more:" but could make no progress in that way. "Who is this we
have got for a Governor?" said the noble lords privately to each other:
"A NURNBERGER TAND (Nurnberg Plaything,--wooden image, such as they
make at Nurnberg)," said they, grinning, in a thick-skinned way: "If it
rained Burggraves all the year round, none of them would come to luck
in this Country;"--and continued their feuds, toll-levyings, plunderings
and other contumacies. Seeing matters come to this pass after waiting
above a year, Burggraf Friedrich gathered his Frankish men-at-arms;
quietly made league with the neighboring Potentates, Thuringen and
others; got some munitions, some artillery together--especially one huge
gun, the biggest ever seen, "a twenty-four pounder" no less; to which
the peasants, dragging her with difficulty through the clayey roads,
gave the name of FAULE GRETE (Lazy, or Heavy Peg); a remarkable piece
of ordnance. Lazy Peg he had got from the Landgraf of Thuringen, on loan
merely; but he turned her to excellent account of his own. I have often
inquired after Lazy Peg's fate in subsequent times; but could never
learn anything distinct:--the German Dryasdust is a dull dog, and seldom
carries anything human in those big wallets of his!--
Equipped in this way, Burggraf Friedrich (he was not yet Kurfurst,
only coming to be) marches for the Havel Country (early days of 1414);
[Michaelis, i. 287; Stenzel, i. 168 (where, contrary to wont, is an
insignificant error or two). Pauli (ii. 58) is, as usual, lost in
water.] makes his appearance before Quitzow's strong-house of Friesack,
walls fourteen feet thick: "You Dietrich von Quitzow, are you prepared
to live as a peaceable subject henceforth: to do homage to the Laws and
me?"--"Never!" answered Quitzow, and pulled up his drawbridge. Whereupon
Heavy Peg opened upon him, Heavy Peg and other guns; and, in some
eight-and-forty hours, shook Quitzow's impregnable Friesack about his
ears. This was in the month of February, 1414, day not given: Friesack
was the name of the impregnable Castle (still discoverable in our
time); and it ought to be memorable and venerable to every Prussian man.
Burggraf Friedrich VI., not yet quite become Kurfurst Friedrich I.,
but in a year's space to become so, he in person was the beneficent
operator; Heavy Peg, and steady Human Insight, these were clearly the
chief implements.
Quitzow being settled,--for the country is in military occupation of
Friedrich and his allies, and except in some stone castle a man has no
chance,--straightway Putlitz or another mutineer, with his drawbridge
up, was battered to pieces, and his drawbridge brought slamming down.
After this manner, in an incredibly short period, mutiny was quenched;
and it became apparent to Noble Lords, and to all men, that here at
length was a man come who would have the Laws obeyed again, and could
and would keep mutiny down.
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:
Fair-play 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 conspicuously
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 represented
in vain that, with such a species of militia, victory was impossible. He
represented and again represented, to no purpose; whereupon he
declined the office farther; in which others fared no better. [Hormayr,
_OEsterreichischer Plutarch_ vii. 109-158, ? Zisca.]
The offer to be Kaiser was made him in his old days; but he wisely
declined that too. It was in Brandenburg, by what he silently founded
there, that he did his chief benefit to Germany and mankind. He
understood the noble art of governing men; had in him the justice,
clearness, valor and patience needed for that. A man of sterling
probity, for one thing. Which indeed 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;" looking into everything
with his own eyes;--making, I can well fancy, innumerable crooked
things straight. Reducing more and more that famishing dog-kennel of
a Brandenburg into a fruitful arable field. His portraits 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 prosperous. 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 tap-root 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
Kurfurst in his own right till 1415; nor publicly installed, "with
100,000 looking 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 for residing or sitting still, was Tangermunde,
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 generation 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; Hubner, t. 176.]