Albert Achilles the Third Elector had, before his accession, been
Margraf of Anspach, and since his Brother the Alchemist's death, Margraf
of Baireuth too, or of the whole Principality,--"Margraf of Culmbach" we
will call it, for brevity's sake, though the bewildering old Books
have not steadily any name for it. [A certain subaltern of this express
title, "Margraf of Culmbach" (a Cadet, with some temporary appanage
there, who was once in the service of him they call the Winter-King,
and may again be transiently heard of by us here), is the altogether
Mysterious Personage who prints himself "MARQUIS DE LULENBACH" in
Bromley's _Collection of Royal Letters_ (London, 1787), pp. 52,
&c.:--one of the most curious Books on the Thirty-Years War; "edited"
with a composed stupidity, and cheerful infinitude of ignorance, which
still farther distinguish it. The BROMLEY Originals well worth a real
editing, turn out, on inquiry, to have been "sold as Autographs, and
dispersed beyond recovery, about fifty years ago."] After his accession,
Albert Achilles naturally held both Electorate and Principality during
the rest of his life. Which was an extremely rare predicament for the
two Countries, the big and the little.
No other Elector held them both, for nearly a hundred years; nor then,
except as it were for a moment. The two countries, Electorate and
Principality, Hohenzollern both, and constituting what the Hohenzollerns
had in this world, continued intimately connected; with affinity and
clientship carefully kept, up, and the lesser standing always under the
express protection and as it were COUSINSHIP of the greater. But they
had their separate Princes, Lines of Princes; and they only twice, in
the time of these Twelve Electors, came even temporarily under the
same head. And as to ultimate union, Brandenburg-Baireuth and
Brandenburg-Anspach were not incorporated with Brandenburg-Proper, and
its new fortunes, till almost our own day, namely in 1791; nor then
either to continue; having fallen to Bavaria, in the grand Congress
of Vienna, within the next five-and-twenty years. All which, with the
complexities and perplexities resulting from it here, we must, in some
brief way, endeavor to elucidate for the reader.
TWO LINES IN CULMBACH OR BAIREUTH-ANSPACH: THE GERA BOND OF 1598.
Culmbach the Elector left, at his death, to his Second Son,--properly
to two sons, but one of them soon died, and the other became sole
possessor;--Friedrich by name; who, as founder of the Elder Line of
Brandenburg-Culmbach Princes, must not be forgotten by us. Founder of
the First or Elder Line, for there are two Lines; this of Friedrich's
having gone out in about a hundred years; and the Anspach-Baireuth
territories having fallen home again to Brandenburg;--where, however,
they continued only during the then Kurfurst's life. Johann George
(1525-1598), Seventh Kurfurst, was he to whom Brandenburg-Culmbach fell
home,--nay, strictly speaking, it was but the sure prospect of it that
fell home, the thing itself did not quite fall in his time, though the
disposal of it did, ["Disposal," 1598; thing itself, 1603, in his Son's
time.]--to be conjoined again with Brandenburg-Proper. Conjoined for the
short potential remainder of his own life; and then to be disposed of
as an apanage again;--which latter operation, as Johann George had
three-and-twenty children, could be no difficult one.
Johann George, accordingly (Year 1598), split the Territory in two;
Brandenburg-Baireuth was for his second son, Brandenburg-Anspach for
his third: hereby again were two new progenitors of Culmbach Princes
introduced, and a New Line, Second or "Younger Line" they call it (Line
mostly split in two, as heretofore); which--after complex adventures
in its split condition, Baireuth under one head, Anspach under
another--continues active down to our little Fritz's time and farther.
As will become but too apparent to us in the course of this History!--
From of old these Territories had been frequently divided: each has
its own little capital, Town of Anspach, Town of Baireuth, [Populations
about the same; 16,000 to 17,000 in our time.] suitable for such
arrangement. Frequently divided; though always under the closest
cousinship, and ready for reuniting, if possible. Generally under the
Elder Line too, under Friedrich's posterity, which was rather numerous
and often in need of apanages, they had been in separate hands. But
the understood practice was not to divide farther; Baireuth by itself,
Anspach by itself (or still luckier if one hand could get hold of
both),--and especially Brandenburg by itself, uncut by any apanage:
this, I observe, was the received practice. But Johann George, wise
Kurfurst as he was, wished now to make it surer; and did so by a famed
Deed, called the Gera Bond (GERAISCHE VERTRAG), dated 1598, [Michaelis,
i. 345.] the last year of Johann George's life.
Hereby, in a Family Conclave held at that Gera, a little town in
Thuringen, it was settled and indissolubly fixed, That their Electorate,
unlike all others in Germany, shall continue indivisible; Law of
Primogeniture, here if nowhere else, is to be in full force; and only
the Culmbach Territory (if otherwise unoccupied) can be split off for
younger sons. Culmbach can be split off; and this again withal can be
split, if need be, into two (Baireuth and Anspach); but not in any case
farther. Which Household-Law was strictly obeyed henceforth. Date of it
1598; principal author, Johann George, Seventh Elector. This "Gera Bond"
the reader can note for himself as an excellent piece of Hohenzollern
thrift, and important in the Brandenburg annals. On the whole,
Brandenburg keeps continually growing under these Twelve Hohenzollerns,
we perceive; slower or faster, just as the Burggrafdom had done, and by
similar methods. A lucky outlay of money (as in the case of Friedrich
Ironteeth in the Neumark) brings them one Province, lucky inheritance
another:--good management is always there, which is the mother of good
luck.
And so there goes on again, from Johann George downwards, a new stream
of Culmbach Princes, called the Younger or New Line,--properly two
contemporary Lines, of Baireuthers and Anspachers;--always in close
affinity to Brandenburg, and with ultimate reversion to Brandenburg,
should both Lines fail; but with mutual inheritance if only one. They
had intricate fortunes, service in foreign armies, much wandering about,
sometimes considerable scarcity of cash: but, for a hundred and fifty
years to come, neither Line by any means failed,--rather the contrary,
in fact.
Of this latter or New Culmbach Line, or split Line, especially of the
Baireuth part of it, our little Wilhelmina, little Fritz's Sister,
who became Margravine there, has given all the world notice. From the
Anspach part of it (at that time in sore scarcity of cash) came Queen
Caroline, famed in our George the Second's time. [See a Synoptic Diagram
of these Genealogies, infra, p. 388a.] From it too came an unmomentous
Margraf, who married a little Sister of Wilhelmina's and Fritz's; of
whom we shall hear. There is lastly a still more unmomentous Margraf,
only son of said Unmomentous and his said Spouse; who again combined
the two Territories, Baireuth having failed of heirs; and who, himself
without heirs, and with a frail Lady Craven as Margravine,--died at
Hammersmith, close by us, in 1806; and so ended the troublesome affair.
He had already, in 1791, sold off to Prussia all temporary claims of
his; and let Prussia have the Heritage at once without waiting farther.
Prussia, as we noticed, did not keep it long; and it is now part of the
Bavarian Dominion;--for the sake of editors and readers, long may it so
continue!
Of this Younger Line, intrinsically rather insignificant to mankind, we
shall have enough to write in time and place; we must at present direct
our attention to the Elder Line.
THE ELDER LINE OF CULMBACH: FRIEDRICH AND HIS THREE NOTABLE SONS THERE.
Kurfurst Albert Achilles's second son, Friedrich (1460-1536), [Rentsch,
pp. 593-602.] the founder of the Elder Culmbach Line, ruled his country
well for certain years, and was "a man famed for strength of body and
mind;" but claims little notice from us, except for the sons he had.
A quiet, commendable, honorable man,--with a certain pathetic dignity,
visible even in the eclipsed state he sank into. Poor old gentleman,
after grand enough feats in war and peace, he fell melancholy, fell
imbecile, blind, soon after middle life; and continued so for twenty
years, till he died. During which dark state, say the old Books, it
was a pleasure to see with what attention his Sons treated him, and how
reverently the eldest always led him out to dinner. [Ib. p. 612.] They
live and dine at that high Castle of Plassenburg, where old Friedrich
can behold the Red or White Mayn no more. Alas, alas, Plassenburg is now
a Correction-House, where male and female scoundrels do beating of
hemp; and pious Friedrich, like eloquent Johann, has become a
forgotten object. He was of the German Reichs-Array, who marched to the
Netherlands to deliver Max from durance; Max, the King of the Romans,
whom, for all his luck, the mutinous Flemings had put under lock-and-key
at one time. [1482 (Pauli, ii. 389): his beautiful young Wife, "thrown
from her horse," had perished in a thrice-tragic way, short while
before; and the Seventeen Provinces were unruly under the guardianship
of Max.] That is his one feat memorable to me at present.
He was Johann Cicero's HALF-brother, child by a second wife. Like his
Uncle Kurfurst Friedrich II., he had married a Polish Princess; the
sharp Achilles having perhaps an eye to crowns in that direction, during
that Hungarian-Bohemian-Polish Donnybrook. But if so, there again came
nothing of a crown with it; though it was not without its good results
for Friedrich's children by and by.
He had eight Sons that reached manhood; five or six of whom came to
something considerable in the world, and Three are memorable down to
this day. One of his daughters he married to the Duke of Liegnitz in
Silesia; which is among the first links I notice of a connection that
grew strong with that sovereign Duchy, and is worth remarking by my
readers here. Of the Three notable Sons it is necessary that we say
something. Casimir, George, Albert are the names of these Three.
Casimir, the eldest, [1481-1527.] whose share of heritage is Baireuth,
was originally intended for the Church; but inclining rather to secular
and military things, or his prospects of promotion altering, he early
quitted that; and took vigorously to the career of arms and business.
A truculent-looking Herr, with thoughtful eyes, and hanging
under-lip:--HAT of enviable softness; loose disk of felt flung
carelessly on, almost like a nightcap artificially extended, so
admirably soft;--and the look of the man Casimir, between his cataract
of black beard and this semi-nightcap, is carelessly truculent. He had
much fighting with the Nurnbergers and others; laid it right terribly
on, in the way of strokes, when needful. He was especially truculent
upon the Revolt of Peasants in their BAUERNKRIEG (1525). Them in their
wildest rage he fronted; he, that others might rally to him: "Unhappy
mortals, will you shake the world to pieces, then, because you have much
to complain of?" and hanged the ringleaders of them literally by the
dozen, when quelled and captured. A severe, rather truculent Herr. His
brother George, who had Anspach for heritage, and a right to half
those prisoners, admonished and forgave his half; and pleaded hard with
Casimir for mercy to the others, in a fine Letter still extant; [In
Rentsch, p. 627.] which produced no effect on Casimir. For the dog's
sake, and for all sakes, "let not the dog learn to eat LEATHER;" (of
which his indispensable leashes and muzzles are made)! That was a
proverb often heard on the occasion, in Luther's mouth among the rest.
Casimir died in 1527, age then towards fifty. For the last dozen
years or so, when the Father's malady became hopeless, he had governed
Culmbach, both parts of it; the Anspach part, which belonged to his
next brother George, going naturally, in almost all things, along with
Baireuth; and George, who was commonly absent, not interfering, except
on important occasions. Casimir left one little Boy, age then only six,
name Albert; to whom George, henceforth practical sovereign of Culmbach,
as his Brother had been, was appointed Guardian. This youth, very full
of fire, wildfire too much of it, exploded dreadfully on Germany by and
by (Albert ALCIBIADES the name they gave him); nay, towards the end of
his nonage, he had been rather sputtery upon his Uncle, the excellent
Guardian who had charge of him.
FRIEDRICH'S SECOND SON, MARGRAF GEORGE OF ANSPACH.
Uncle George of Anspach, Casimir's next Brother, had always been of a
peaceabler disposition than Casimir; not indeed without heat of temper,
and sufficient vivacity of every kind. As a youth, he had aided Kaiser
Max in two of his petty wars; but was always rather given "to reading
Latin," to Learning, and ingenious pursuits. His Polish Mother, who, we
perceive, had given "Casimir" his name, proved much more important to
George. At an early age he went to his Uncle Vladislaus, King of Hungary
and Bohemia: for--Alas, after all, we shall have to cast a glance into
that unbeautiful Hungarian-Bohemian scramble, comparable to an "Irish
Donnybrook," where Albert Achilles long walked as Chief-Constable. It
behooves us, after all, to point out some of the tallest heads in
it; and whitherward, bludgeon in hand, they seem to be swaying and
struggling.--Courage, patient reader!
George, then, at an early age went to his Uncle Vladislaus, King of
Hungary and Bohemia: for George's Mother, as we know, was of royal kin;
daughter of the Polish King, Casimir IV. (late mauler of the Teutsch
Ritters); which circumstance had results for George and us. Daughter
of Casimir IV. the Lady was; and therefore of the Jagellon blood by her
father, which amounts to little; but by her mother she was Granddaughter
of that Kaiser Albert II. who "got Three Crowns in one year, and died
the next;" whose posterity have ever since,--up to the lips in trouble
with their confused competitive accompaniments, Hunniades, Corvinus,
George Podiebrad and others, not to speak of dragon Turks coiling ever
closer round you on the frontier,--been Kings of Hungary and Bohemia;
TWO of the crowns (the HERITABLE two) which were got by Kaiser Albert in
that memorable year. He got them, as the reader may remember, by having
the daughter of Kaiser Sigismund to wife,--Sigismund SUPER-GRAMMATICAM,
whom we left standing, red as a flamingo, in the market-place of
Constance a hundred years ago. Thus Time rolls on in its many-colored
manner, edacious and feracious.
It is in this way that George's Uncle, Vladislaus, Albert's daughter's
son, is now King of Hungary and Bohemia: the last King Vladislaus they
had; and the last King but one, of any kind, as we shall see anon.
Vladislaus was heir of Poland too, could he have managed to get it;
but he gave up that to his brother, to various younger brothers in
succession; having his hands full with the Hungarian and Bohemian
difficulty. He was very fond of Nephew George; well recognizing the
ingenuous, wise and loyal nature of the young man. He appointed George
tutor of his poor son Ludwig; whom he left at the early age of ten, in
an evil world, and evil position there. "Born without Skin," they say,
that is, born in the seventh month;--called Ludwig OHNE HAUT (Ludwig
NO-Skin), on that account. Born certainly, I can perceive, rather thin
of skin; and he would have needed one of a rhinoceros thickness!
George did his function honestly, and with success: Ludwig grew up
a gallant, airy, brisk young King, in spite of difficulties,
constitutional and other; got a Sister of the great Kaiser Karl V.
to wife;--determined (A.D. 1526) to have a stroke at the Turk dragon;
which, was coiling round his frontier, and spitting fire at an
intolerable rate. Ludwig, a fine young man of twenty, marched away
with much Hungarian chivalry, right for the Turk (Summer 1526); George
meanwhile going busily to Bohemia, and there with all his strength
levying troops for reinforcement. Ludwig fought and fenced, for some
time, with the Turk outskirts; came at last to a furious general battle
with the Turk (29th August, 1526), at a place called Mohacz, far east in
the flats of the Lower Donau; and was there tragically beaten and ended.
Seeing the Battle gone, and his chivalry all in flight, Ludwig too had
to fly; galloping for life, he came upon bog which proved bottomless,
as good as bottomless; and Ludwig, horse and man, vanished in it
straightway from this world. Hapless young man, like a flash of
lightning suddenly going down there--and the Hungarian Sovereignty
along with him. For Hungary is part of Austria ever since; having,
with Bohemia, fallen to Karl V.'s Brother Ferdinand, as now the nearest
convenient heir of Albert with his Three Crowns. Up to the lips in
difficulties to this day!--
George meanwhile, with finely appointed reinforcements, was in full
march to join Ludwig; but the sad news of Mohacz met him: he withdrew,
as soon as might be, to his own territory, and quitted Hungarian
politics. This, I think, was George's third and last trial of war. He
by no means delighted in that art, or had cultivated it like Casimir and
some of his brothers.--
George by this time had considerable property; part of it important to
the readers of this History. Anspach we already know; but the Duchy of
Jagerndorf,--that and its pleasant valleys, fine hunting-grounds and
larch-clad heights, among the Giant Mountains of Silesia,--that is to us
the memorable territory. George got it in this manner:--
Some ten or fifteen years ago, the late King Vladislaus, our Uncle of
blessed memory, loving George, and not having royal moneys at command,
permitted him to redeem with his own cash certain Hungarian Domains,
pledged at a ruinously cheap rate, but unredeemable by Vladislaus.
George did so; years ago, guess ten or fifteen. George did not like the
Hungarian Domains, with their Turk and other inconveniences; he proposed
to exchange them with King Vladislaus for the Bohemian-Silesian Duchy
of Jagerndorf; which had just then, by failure of heirs, lapsed to the
King. This also Vladislaus, the beneficent cashless Uncle, liking George
more and more, permitted to be done. And done it was; I see not in what
year; only that the ultimate investiture (done, this part of the affair,
by Ludwig OHNE HAUT, and duly sanctioned by the Kaiser) dates 1524, two
years before the fatal Mohacz business.
From the time of this purchase, and especially till Brother Casimir's
death, which happened in 1527, George resided oftener at Jagerndorf than
at Anspach. Anspach, by the side of Baireuth, needed no management; and
in Jagerndorf much probably required the hand of a good Governor to put
it straight again. The Castle of Jagerndorf, which towers up there in
a rather grand manner to this day, George built: "the old Castle of the
Schellenbergs" (extinct predecessor Line) now gone to ruins, "stands
on a Hill with larches on it, some miles off." Margraf George was much
esteemed as Duke of Jagerndorf. What his actions in that region were, I
know not; but it seems he was so well thought of in Silesia, two smaller
neighboring Potentates, the Duke of Oppeln and the Duke of Ratibor, who
had no heirs of their body, bequeathed, with the Kaiser's assent, these
towns and territories to George: [Rentsch, pp. 623, 127-131. Kaiser is
Ferdinand, Karl V.'s Brother,--as yet only KING of Bohemia and Hungary,
but supreme in regard to such points. His assent is dated "17th June,
1531" in Rentsch.]--in mere love to their subjects (Rentsch intimates),
that poor men might be governed by a wise good Duke, in the time coming.
The Kaiser would have got the Duchies otherwise.
Nay the Kaiser, in spite of his preliminary assent, proved extortionate
to George in this matter; and exacted heavy sums for the actual
possession of Oppeln and Ratibor. George, going so zealously ahead in
Protestant affairs, grew less and less a favorite with Kaisers. But
so, at any rate, on peaceable unquestionable grounds, grounds valid as
Imperial Law and ready money, George is at last Lord of these two little
Countries, in the plain of South-Silesia, as of Jagerndorf among the
Mountains hard by. George has and holds the Duchy of Jagerndorf, with
these appendages (Jagerndorf since 1524, Ratibor and Oppeln since some
years later); and lives constantly, or at the due intervals, in his own
strong Mountain-Castle of Jagerndorf there,--we have no doubt, to the
marked benefit of good men in those parts. Hereby has Jagerndorf joined
itself to the Brandenburg Territories: and the reader can note the
circumstance, for it will prove memorable one day.
In the business of the Reformation, Margraf George was very noble.
A simple-hearted, truth-loving, modestly valiant man; rising
unconsciously, in that great element, into the heroic figure. "George
the Pious (DER FROMME)," "George the Confessor (BEKENNER)," were
the names he got from his countrymen. Once this business had become
practical, George interfered a little more in the Culmbach Government;
his brother Casimir, who likewise had Reformation tendencies, rather
hanging back in comparison to George.
In 1525 the Town-populations, in the Culmbach region, big Nurnberg in
the van, had gone quite ahead in the new Doctrine; and were becoming
irrepressibly impatient to clear out the old mendacities, and have the
Gospel preached freely to them. This was a questionable step; feasible
perhaps for a great Elector of Saxony;--but for a Margraf of Anspach?
George had come home from Jagerndorf, some three hundred miles away, to
look into it for himself; found it, what with darkness all round, what
with precipices menacing on both hands, and zealous, inconsiderate
Town-populations threatening to take the bit between their teeth, a
frightfully intricate thing. George mounted his horse, one day this
year, day not dated farther, and "with only six attendants" privately
rode off, another two hundred miles, a good three days' ride, to
Wittenberg; and alighted at Dr. Martinus Lutherus's door. [Rentsch,
p. 625.] A notable passage; worth thinking of. But such visits of high
Princes, to that poor house of the Doctor's, were not then uncommon.
Luther cleared the doubts of George; George returned with a resolution
taken; "Ahead then, ye poor Voigtland Gospel populations! I must lead
you, we must on!"--And perils enough there proved to be, and precipices
on each hand: BAUERNKRIEG, that is to say Peasants'-War, Anabaptistry
and Red-Republic, on the one hand; REICHS-ACHT, Ban of Empire, on the
other. But George, eagerly, solemnly attentive, with ever new light
rising on him, dealt with the perils as they came; and went steadily on,
in a simple, highly manful and courageous manner.
He did not live to see the actual Wars that followed on Luther's
preaching:--he was of the same age with Luther, born few months later,
and died two years before Luther; [4th March, 1484,--27th Dec., 1543,
George; 10th November, 1483--18th February, 1546, Luther.]--but in all
the intermediate principal transactions George is conspicuously present;
"George of Brandenburg," as the Books call him, or simply "Margraf
George."
At the Diet of Augsburg (1530), and the signing of the Augsburg
Confession there, he was sure to be. He rode thither with his Anspach
Knightage about him, "four hundred cavaliers,"--Seckendorfs, Huttens,
Flanses and other known kindreds, recognizable among the lists;
[Rentsch, p. 633.]--and spoke there, notbursts of parliamentary
eloquence, but things that had meaning in them. One speech of his, not
in the Diet, but in the Kaiser's Lodging (15th June, 1530; no doubt, in
Anton Fugger's house, where the Kaiser "lodged for year and day" this
time but WITHOUT the "fires of cinnamon" they talk of on other occasions
[See Carlyle's _Miscellanies_ (iii. 259 n.). The House is at present an
Inn, _"Gasthaus zu den drei Mohren;"_where tourists lodge, and are still
shown the room which the Kaiser occupied on such visits.]), is still
very celebrated. It was the evening of the Kaiser Karl Fifth's arrival
at the Diet; which was then already, some time since, assembled there.
And great had been the Kaiser's reception that morning; the flower of
Germany, all the Princes of the Empire, Protestant and Papal alike,
riding out to meet him, in the open country, at the Bridge of the Lech.
With high-flown speeches and benignities, on both sides;--only that the
Kaiser willed all men, Protestant and other, should in the mean while
do the Popish litanyings, waxlight processionings and idolatrous
stage-performances with him on the morrow, which was CORPUS-CHRISTI
Day; and the Protestants could not nor would. Imperial hints there had
already been, from Innspruck; benign hopes, of the nature of commands,
That loyal Protestant Princes would in the interim avoid open
discrepancies,--perhaps be so loyal as keep their chaplains, peculiar
divine-services, private in the interim? These were hints;--and now this
of the CORPUS-CHRISTI, a still more pregnant hint! Loyal Protestants
refused it, therefore; flatly declined, though bidden and again bidden.
They attended in a body, old Johann of Saxony, young Philip of Hessen,
and the rest; Margraf George, as spokesman, with eloquent simplicity
stating their reasons,--to somewhat this effect:--
Invinciblest all-gracious Kaiser, loyal are we to your high Majesty,
ready to do your bidding by night and by day. But it is your bidding
under God, not against God. Ask us not, O gracious Kaiser! I cannot, and
we cannot; and we must not, and dare not. And "before I would deny my
God and his Evangel," these are George's own words, "I would
rather kneel down here before your Majesty, and have my head struck
off,"--hitting his hind-head, or neck, with the edge of his hand, by
way of accompaniment; a strange radiance in the eyes of him, voice
risen into musical alt: _"Ehe Ich wolte meinen Gott und sein Evangelium
verlaugnen, ehe wolte Ich hier vor Eurer Majestat niderknien, und mir
den Kopf abhauen lassen."--"Nit Kop ab, lover Forst, nit Kop ab!"_
answered Charles in his Flemish-German; "Not head off, dear Furst, not
head off!" said the Kaiser, a faint smile enlightening those weighty
gray eyes of his, and imperceptibly animating the thick Austrian
under-lip. [Rentsch, p. 637. Marheineke, _Geschichte der Teutschen
Reformation _ (Berlin, 1831), ii. 487.]
Speaker and company attended again on the morrow; Margraf George still
more eloquent. Whose Speech flew over Germany, like fire over dry
flax; and still exists,--both Speeches now oftenest rolled into one by
inaccurate editors. [As by Rentsch, ubi supra.] And the CORPUS-CHRISTI
idolatries were forborne the Margraf and his company this time;--the
Kaiser himself, however, walking, nearly roasted in the sun, in heavy
purple-velvet cloak, with a big wax-candle, very superfluous, guttering
and blubbering in the right hand of him, along the streets of Augsburg.
Kur-Brandenburg, Kur-Mainz, high cousins of George, were at this Diet of
Augsburg; Kur-Brandenburg (Elector Joachim I., Cicero's son, of whom
we have spoken, and shall speak again) being often very loud on the
conservative side; and eloquent Kur-Mainz going on the conciliatory
tack. Kur-Brandenburg, in his zeal, had ridden on to Innspruck, to meet
the Kaiser there, and have a preliminary word with him. Both these high
Cousins spoke, and bestirred themselves, a good deal, at this Diet.
They had met the Kaiser on the plains of the Lech, this morning; and, no
doubt, gloomed unutterable things on George and his Speech. George could
not help it.
Till his death in 1543, George is to be found always in the front line
of this high Movement, in the line where Kur-Sachsen, John the Steadfast
(DER BESTANDIGE), and young Philip the Magnanimous of Hessen were,
and where danger and difficulty were. Readers of this enlightened
gold-nugget generation can form to themselves no conception of the
spirit that then possessed the nobler kingly mind. "The command of God
endures through Eternity, _ Verbum Dei Manet In AEternum,"_ was the
Epigraph and Life-motto which John the Steadfast had adopted for
himself; "V. D. M. I. AE.," these initials he had engraved on all the
furnitures of his existence, on his standards, pictures, plate, on the
very sleeves of his lackeys,--and I can perceive, on his own deep heart
first of all. V. D. M. I. E.:--or might it not be read withal, as Philip
of Hessen sometimes said (Philip, still a young fellow, capable of sport
in his magnanimous scorn), _"Verbum Diaboli Manet In Episcopis,_ The
Devil's Word sticks fast in the Bishops"?
We must now take leave of Margraf George and his fine procedures in that
crisis of World-History. He had got Jugerndorf, which became important
for his Family and others: but what was that to the Promethean conquests
(such we may call them) which he had the honor to assist in making for
his Family, and for his Country, and for all men;--very unconscious he
of "bringing fire from Heaven," good modest simple man! So far as I can
gather, there lived, in that day, few truer specimens of the Honest Man.
A rugged, rough-hewn, rather blunt-nosed physiognomy: cheek-bones high,
cheeks somewhat bagged and wrinkly; eyes with a due shade of anxiety and
sadness in them; affectionate simplicity, faithfulness, intelligence,
veracity looking out of every feature of him. Wears plentiful white
beard short-cut, plentiful gold-chains, ruffs, ermines;--a hat not to
be approved of, in comparison with brother Casimir's; miserable
inverted-colander of a hat; hanging at an angle of forty-five degrees;
with band of pearls round the top not the bottom of it; insecure upon
the fine head of George, and by no means to its embellishment.
One of his Daughters he married to the Duke of Liegnitz, a new link
in that connection. He left one Boy, George Friedrich; who came under
ALCIBIADES, his Cousin of Baireuth's tutelage; and suffered much by that
connection, or indeed chiefly by his own conspicuously Protestant turn,
to punish which, the Alcibiades connection was taken as a pretext. In
riper years, George Friedrich got his calamities brought well under; and
lived to do good work, Protestant and other, in the world. To which we
may perhaps allude again. The Line of Margraf George the Pious ends in
this George Friedrich, who had no children; the Line of Margraf George,
and the Elder Culmbach Line altogether (1603), Albert Alcibiades,
Casimir's one son, having likewise died without posterity.
"Of the younger Brothers," says my Authority, "some four were in the
Church; two of whom rose to be Prelates;--here are the four:--
"1. One, Wilhelm by name, was Bishop of Riga, in the remote Prussian
outskirts, and became Protestant;--among the first great Prelates who
took that heretical course; being favored by circumstances to cast out
the 'V. D. _(Verbum Diaboli),'_ as Philip read it. He is a wise-looking
man, with magnificent beard, with something of contemptuous patience
in the meditative eyes of him. He had great troubles with his Riga
people,--as indeed was a perennial case between their Bishop and them,
of whatever creed he might be.
"2. The other Prelate held fast by the Papal Orthodoxy: he had got upon
the ladder of promotion towards Magdeburg; hoping to follow his Cousin
KUR-MAINZ, the eloquent conciliatory Cardinal, in that part of his
pluralities. As he did,--little to his comfort, poor man; having
suffered a good deal in the sieges and religious troubles of his
Magdeburgers; who ended by ordering him away, having openly declared
themselves Protestant, at length. He had to go; and occupy himself
complaining, soliciting Aulic-Councils and the like, for therest of his
life.
"3. The PROBST of Wurzburg (PROVOST, kind of Head-Canon there); orthodox
Papal he too; and often gave his Brother George trouble.
"4. A still more orthodox specimen, the youngest member of the family,
who is likewise in orders: Gumbrecht ('Gumbertus, a Canonicus of'
Something or other, say the Books); who went early to Rome, and became
one of his Holiness Leo Tenth's Chamberlains;--stood the 'Sack of Rome'
(Constable de Bourbon's), and was captured there and ransomed;--but died
still young (1528). These three were Catholics, he of Wurzburg a rather
virulent one."
Catholic also was JOHANNES, a fifth Brother, who followed the soldiering
and diplomatic professions, oftenest in Spain; did Government-messages
to Diets, and the like, for Karl V.; a high man and well seen of his
Kaiser;--he had wedded the young Widow of old King Ferdinand in Spain;
which proved, seemingly, a troublous scene for poor Johannes. What we
know is, he was appointed Commandant of Valencia; and died there, still
little turned of thirty,--by poison it is supposed,--and left his young
Widow to marry a third time.
These are the Five minor Brothers, four of them Catholic, sons of
old blind Friedrich of Plassenburg; who are not, for their own sake,
memorable, but are mentionable for the sake of the three major Brothers.
So many orthodox Catholics, while Brother George and others went into
the heresies at such a rate! A family much split by religion:--and blind
old Friedrich, dim of intellect, knew nothing of it; and the excellent
Polish Mother said and thought, we know not what. A divided Time!--
Johannes of Valencia, and these Chief Priests, were all men of mark;
conspicuous to the able editors of their day: but the only Brother
now generally known to mankind is Albert, Hochmeister of the Teutsch
Ritterdom; by whom Preussen came into the Family. Of him we must now
speak a little.