Brandenburg, in the matter of the Reformation, was at first--with Albert
of Mainz, Tetzel's friend, on the one side, and Pious George of Anspach,
"NIT KOP AB," on the other--certainly a divided house. But, after the
first act, it conspicuously ceased to be divided; nay Kur-Brandenburg
and Kur-Mainz themselves had known tendencies to the Reformation, and
were well aware that the Church could not stand as it was. Nor did the
cause want partisans in Berlin, in Brandenburg,--hardly to be repressed
from breaking into flame, while Kurfurst Joachim was so prudent and
conservative. Of this loud Kurfurst Joachim I., here and there mentioned
already, let us now say a more express word. [1484, 1499, 1535: birth,
accession, death of Joachim.]
Joachim I., Big John's son, hesitated hither and thither for some time,
trying if it would not do to follow the Kaiser Karl V.'s lead; and at
length, crossed in his temper perhaps by the speed his friends were
going at, declared formally against any farther Reformation; and in
his own family and country was strict upon the point. He is a man, as I
judge, by no means without a temper of his own; very loud occasionally
in the Diets and elsewhere;--reminds me a little of a certain King
Friedrich Wilhelm, whom my readers shall know by and by. A big, surly,
rather bottle-nosed man, with thick lips, abstruse wearied eyes, and no
eyebrows to speak of: not a beautiful man, when you cross him overmuch.
OF JOACHIM'S WIFE AND BROTHER-IN-LAW.
His wife was a Danish Princess, Sister of poor Christian II., King of
that Country: dissolute Christian, who took up with a huckster-woman's
daughter,--"mother sold gingerbread," it would appear, "at Bergen in
Norway," where Christian was Viceroy; Christian made acceptable love to
the daughter, "DIVIKE (Dovekin, COLUMBINA)," as he called her. Nay he
made the gingerbread mother a kind of prime-minister, said the angry
public, justly scandalized at this of the "Dovekin." He was married,
meanwhile, to Karl V.'s own Sister; but continued that other connection.
[Here are the dates of this poor Christian, in a lump. Born, 1481; King,
1513 (Dovekin before); married, 1515; turned off, 1523; invades, taken
prisoner, 1532; dies, 1559. Cousin, and then Cousin's Son, succeeded.]
He had rash notions, now for the Reformation, now against it, when he
got to be King; a very rash, unwise, explosive man. He made a "Stockholm
BLUTBAD" still famed in History (kind of open, ordered or permitted,
Massacre of eighty or a hundred of his chief enemies there),
"Bloodbath," so they name it; in Stockholm, where indeed he was lawful
King, and not without unlawful enemies, had a bloodbath been the way to
deal with them. Gustavus Vasa was a young fellow there, who dexterously
escaped this Bloodbath, and afterwards came to something.
In Denmark and Sweden, rash Christian made ever more enemies; at length
he was forced to run, and they chose another King or successive pair of
Kings. Christian fled to Kaiser Karl at Brussels; complained to Kaiser
Karl, his Brother-in-law,--whose Sister he had not used well. Kaiser
Karl listened to his complaints, with hanging under-lip, with heavy,
deep, undecipherable eyes; evidently no help from Karl.
Christian, after that, wandered about with inexecutable speculations,
and projects to recover his crown or crowns; sheltering often with
Kurfurst Joachim, who took a great deal of trouble about him, first and
last; or with the Elector of Saxony, Friedrich the Wise, or after him,
with Johann the Steadfast ("V. D. M. I. AE." whom we saw at Augsburg),
who were his Mother's Brothers, and beneficent men. He was in Saxony, on
such terms, coming and going, when a certain other Flight thither took
place, soon to be spoken of, which is the cause of our mentioning him
here.--In the end (A.D. 1532) he did get some force together, and
made sail to Norway; but could do no execution whatever there;--on the
contrary, was frozen in on the coast during winter; seized, carried
to Copenhagen, and packed into the "Castle of Sonderburg," a grim
sea-lodging on the shore of Schleswig,--prisoner for the rest of his
life, which lasted long enough. Six-and-twenty years of prison; the
first seventeen years of it strict and hard, almost of the dungeon sort;
the remainder, on his fairly abdicating, was in another Castle, that
of Callundborg in the Island of Zealand, "with fine apartments and
conveniences," and even "a good house of liquor now and then," at
discretion of the old soul. That was the end of headlong Christian
II.; he lasted in this manner to the age of seventy-eight. [Kohler,
_Munzbelustigungen,_xi. 47, 48; Holberg, _Danemarckische Staats-und
Reichs-Historie_ (Copenhagen, 1731, NOT the big Book by Holberg), p.
241; Buddaus, _Allgemeines Historisches Lexicon_ (Leipzig, 1709),?
Christianus II.]
His Sister Elizabeth at Brandenburg is perhaps, in regard to natural
character, recognizably of the same kin as Christian; but her behavior
is far different from his. She too is zealous for the Reformation; but
she has a right to be so, and her notions that way are steady; and she
has hitherto, though in a difficult position, done honor to her creed.
Surly Joachim is difficult to deal with; is very positive now that he
has declared himself: "In my house at least shall be nothing farther of
that unblessed stuff." Poor Lady, I see domestic difficulties very thick
upon her; nothing but division, the very children ranging themselves in
parties. She can pray to Heaven; she must do her wisest.
She partook once, by some secret opportunity, of the "communion under
both kinds;" one of her Daughters noticed and knew; told Father of it.
Father knits up his thick lips; rolls his abstruse dissatisfied eyes,
in an ominous manner: the poor Lady, probably possessed of an excitable
imagination too, trembles for herself. "It is thought, His DURCHLAUCHT
will wall you up for life, my Serene Lady; dark prison for life, which
probably may not be long!" These surmises were of no credibility: but
there and then the poor Lady, in a shiver of terror, decides that she
must run; goes off actually, one night ("Monday after the LAETARE,"
which we find is 24th March) in the year 1528, (Pauli (ii. 584); who
cites Seckendorf, and this fraction of a Letter of Luther's, to one
"LINCKUS" or Lincke, written on the Friday following (28th March,
1528):--
"The Electress [MARGRAVINE he calls her] has fled from Berlin, by help
of her Brother the King of Denmark [poor Christian II.] to our Prince
[Johann the Steadfast], because her Elector had determined to wall her
up, as is reported, on account of the Eucharist under both species. Pray
for our Prince; _the pious man and affectionate soul gets a great deal
of trouble with his kindred."_ Or thus in the Original:--
_"Marchionissa aufugit a Berlin, auxilio fratris, Regis Daniae, ad
nostrum Principem, quod Marchio statuerat eam immurare (ut dicitur)
propter Eucharistiam utriusque speciei. Ora pro nostro Principe;_ der
fromme Mann und herzliche Mensch ist doch ja wohl geplaget" (Seckendorf,
_Historia Lutheranismi,_ ii.? 62, No. 8, p. 122).) in a mean vehicle
under cloud of darkness, with only one maid and groom,--driving for
life. That is very certain: she too is on flight towards Saxony, to
shelter with her uncle Kurfurst Johann,--unless for reasons of state
he scruple? On the dark road her vehicle broke down; a spoke given
way,--"Not a bit of rope to splice it," said the improvident groom.
"Take my lace-veil here," said the poor Princess; and in this guise she
got to Torgau (I could guess, her poor Brother's lodging),--and thence,
in short time, to the fine Schloss of Lichtenberg hard by; Uncle Johann,
to whom she had zealously left an option of refusal, having as zealously
permitted and invited her to continue there. Which she did for many
years.
Nor did she get the least molestation from Husband Joachim;--who I
conjecture had intended, though a man of a certain temper, and strict
in his own house, something short of walling up for life:--poor Joachim
withal! "However, since you are gone, Madam, go!" Nor did he concern
himself with Christian II. farther, but let him lie in prison at
his leisure. As for the Lady, he even let his children visit her at
Lichtenberg; Crypto-Protestants all; and, among them, the repentant
Daughter who had peached upon her.
Poor Joachim, he makes a pious speech on his death-bed, solemnly warning
his Son against these new-fangled heresies; the Son being already
possessed of them in his heart. [Speech given in Rentsch, pp. 484-439.]
What could Father do more? Both Father and Son, I suppose, were weeping.
This was in 1535, this last scene; things looking now more ominous than
ever. Of Kurfurst Joachim I will remember nothing farther, except that
once, twenty-three years before, he "held a Tourney in Neu-Ruppin," year
1612; Tourney on the most magnificent scale, and in New-Ruppin, [Pauli,
ii. 466.] a place we shall know by and by.
As to the Lady, she lived eighteen years in that fine Schloss of
Lichtenberg; saw her children as we said; and, silently or otherwise,
rejoiced in the creed they were getting. She saw Luther's self
sometimes; "had him several times to dinner;" he would call at her
Mansion, when his journeys lay that way. She corresponded with him
diligently; nay once, for a three months, she herself went across and
lodged with Dr. Luther and his Kate; as a royal Lady might with a heroic
Sage,--though the Sage's income was only Twenty-four pounds sterling
annually. There is no doubt about that visit of three months; one thinks
of it, as of something human, something homely, ingenuous and pretty.
Nothing in surly Joachim's history is half so memorable to me, or indeed
memorable at all in the stage we are now come to.
The Lady survived Joachim twenty years; of these she spent eleven still
at Lichtenberg, in no over-haste to return. However, her Son, the new
Elector, declaring for Protestantism, she at length yielded to his
invitations: came back (1546), and ended her days at Berlin in a
peaceable and venerable manner. Luckless Brother Christian is lying
under lock-and-key all this while; smuggling out messages, and so
on; like a voice from the land of Dreams or of Nightmares, painful,
impracticable, coming now and then.