Duke Albert died in 1568, laden with years, and in his latter time
greatly broken down by other troubles. His Prussian RATHS (Councillors)
were disobedient, his Osianders and Lutheran-Calvinist Theologians were
all in fire and flame against each other: the poor old man, with the
best dispositions, but without power to realize them, had much to do and
to suffer. Pious, just and honorable, intending the best; but losing his
memory, and incapable of business, as he now complained. In his sixtieth
year he had married a second time, a young Brunswick Princess, with
whose foolish Brother, Eric, he had much trouble; and who at last
herself took so ill with the insolence and violence of these intrusive
Councillors and Theologians, that the household-life she led beside
her old Husband and them became intolerable to her; and she withdrew
to another residence,--a little Hunting-seat at Neuhausen, half a dozen
miles from Konigsberg;--and there, or at Labiau still farther off, lived
mostly, in a separate condition, for the rest of her life. Separate for
life:--nevertheless they happened to die on the same day; 20th March,
1568, they were simultaneously delivered from their troubles in this
world. [Hubner, t. 181; Stenzel, i. 342.]
Albert left one Son; the second child of this last Wife: his one child
by the former Wife, a daughter now of good years, was married to the
Duke of Mecklenburg. Son's name was Albert Friedrich; age, at his
Father's death, fifteen. A promising young Prince, but of sensitive
abstruse temper;--held under heavy tutelage by his Raths and
Theologians; and spurting up against them, in explosive rebellion, from
time to time. He now (1568) was to be sovereign Duke of Preussen, and
the one representative of the Culmbach Line in that fine Territory;
Margraf George Friedrich of Anspach, the only other Culmbacher, being
childless, though wedded.
We need not doubt, the Brandenburg House--old Kurfurst Joachim II. still
alive, and thrifty Johann George the Heir-Apparent--kept a watchful eye
on those emergencies. But it was difficult to interfere directly;
the native Prussian Raths were very jealous, and Poland itself was a
ticklish Sovereignty to deal with. Albert Friedrich being still a Minor,
the Polish King, Sigismund, proposed to undertake the guardianship of
him, as became a superior lord to a subject vassal on such an occasion.
But the Prussian Raths assured his Majesty, "Their young Prince was of
such a lively intellect, he was perfectly fit to conduct the affairs of
the Government," especially with such a Body of expert Councillors to
help him, "and might be at once declared of age." Which was accordingly
the course followed; Poland caring little for it; Brandenburg digesting
the arrangement as it could. And thus it continued for some years, even
under new difficulties that arose; the official Clique of Raths being
the real Government of the Country; and poor young Albert Friedrich
bursting out occasionally into tears against them, occasionally into
futile humors of a fiery nature. Osiander-Theology, and the battle of
the 'DOXIES, ran very high; nor was Prussian Officiality a beautiful
thing.
These Prussian Raths, and the Prussian RITTERSCHAFT generally
(Knightage, Land-Aristocracy), which had its STANDE (States: or meetings
of Parliament after a sort), were all along of a mutinous, contumacious
humor. The idea had got into their minds, That they were by birth what
the ancient Ritters by election had been; entitled, fit or not fit, to
share the Government promotions among them: "The Duke is hereditary in
his office; why not we? All Offices, are they not, by nature, ours to
share among us?" The Duke's notion, again, was to have the work of his
Offices effectually done; small matter by whom: the Ritters looked
less to that side of the question;--regarded any "Foreigner"
(German-Anspacher, or other Non-Prussian), whatever his merit, as
an intruder, usurper, or kind of thief, when seen in office. Their
contentions, contumacies and pretensions were accordingly manifold. They
had dreams of an "Aristocratic Republic, with the Sovereign reduced
to zero," like what their Polish neighbors grew to. They had various
dreams; and individuals among them broke out, from time to time, into
high acts of insolence and mutiny. It took a hundred and fifty years
of Brandenburg horse-breaking, sometimes with sharp manipulation and
a potent curb-bit, to dispossess them of that notion, and make them go
steadily in harness. Which also, however, was at last got done by the
Hohenzollerns.
OF DUKE ALBERT FRIEDRICH'S MARRIAGE: WHO HIS WIFE WAS, AND WHAT HER
POSSIBLE DOWRY.
In a year or two, there came to be question of the marrying of young
Duke Albert Friedrich. After due consultation, the Princess fixed upon
was Maria Eleonora, eldest Daughter of the then Duke of Cleve: to him
a proper Embassy was sent with that object; and came back with Yes for
answer. Duke of Cleve, at that time, was Wilhelm, called "the Rich"
in History-Books; a Sovereign of some extent in those lower Rhine
countries. Whom I can connect with the English reader's memory in no
readier way than by the fact, That he was younger brother, one year
younger, of a certain "Anne of Cleves;"--a large fat Lady, who was
rather scurvily used in this country; being called, by Henry VIII. and
us, a "great Flanders mare," unsuitable for espousal with a King of
delicate feelings! This Anne of Cleves, who took matters quietly and
lived on her pension, when rejected by King Henry, was Aunt of the young
Lady now in question for Preussen. She was still alive here in England,
pleasantly quiet, "at Burley on the Hill," till Maria Eleonora was seven
years old;--who possibly enough still reads in her memory some fading
vestige of new black frocks or trimmings, and brief court-mourning, on
the death of poor Aunt Anne over seas.--Another Aunt is more honorably
distinguished; Sibylla, Wife of our noble Saxon Elector, Johann
Friedrich the Magnanimous, who lost his Electorate and almost his
Life for religion's sake, as we have seen; by whom, in his perils and
distresses, Sibylla stood always, like a very true and noble Wife.
Duke Wilhelm himself was a man of considerable mark in his day. His
Duchy of Cleve included not only Cleve-Proper, but Julich (JULIERS),
Berg, which latter pair of Duchies were a better thing than
Cleve-Proper:--Julich, Berg and various other small Principalities,
which, gradually agglomerating by marriage, heritage and the chance of
events in successive centuries, had at length come all into Wilhelm's
hands; so that he got the name of Wilhelm the Rich among his
contemporaries. He seems to have been of a headlong, blustery, uncertain
disposition; much tossed about in the controversies of his day. At one
time he was a Protestant declared; not without reasons of various kinds.
The Duchy of Geldern (what we call GUELDERS) had fallen to him, by
express bequest of the last Owner, whose Line was out; and Wilhelm
took possession. But the Kaiser Karl V. quite refused to let him keep
possession. Whereupon Wilhelm had joined with the French (it was in
the Moritz-Alcibiades time); had declared war, and taken other high
measures: but it came to nothing, or to less. The end was, Wilhelm had
to "come upon his knees" before the Kaiser, and beg forgiveness; quite
renouncing Geldern, which accordingly has gone its own different road
ever since. Wilhelm was zealously Protestant in those days; as his
people are, and as he still is, at the period we treat of. But he
went into Papistry, not long after; and made other sudden turns and
misventures: to all appearance, rather an abrupt, blustery, uncertain
Herr. It is to him that Albert Friedrich, the young Duke of Preussen,
guided by his Council, now (Year 1572) sends an Embassy, demanding his
eldest Daughter, Maria Eleonora, to wife.
Duke Wilhelm answered Yea; "sent a Counter-Embassy," with whatever else
was necessary; and in due time the young Bride, with her Father, set
out towards Preussen, such being the arrangement, there to complete the
matter. They had got as far as Berlin, warmly welcomed by the Kurfurst
Johann George; when, from Konigsberg, a sad message reached them:
namely, that the young Duke had suddenly been seized with an invincible
depression and overclouding of mind, not quite to be characterized
by the name of madness, but still less by that of perfect sanity. His
eagerness to see his Bride was the same as formerly; but his spiritual
health was in the questionable state described. The young Lady paused
for a little, in such mood as we may fancy. She had already lost two
offers, Bridegrooms snatched away by death, says Pauli; [Pauli, iv.
512.] and thought it might be ominous to refuse the third. So she
decided to go on; dashed aside her father's doubts; sent her unhealthy
Bridegroom "a flower-garland as love-token," who duly responded;
and Father Wilhelm and she proceeded, as if nothing were wrong. The
spiritual state of the Prince, she found, had not been exaggerated to
her. His humors and ways were strange, questionable; other than one
could have wished. Such as he was, however, she wedded him on the
appointed terms;--hoping probably for a recovery, which never came.
The case of Albert's malady is to this day dim; and strange tales are
current as to the origin of it, which the curious in Physiology may
consult; they are not fit for reporting here. [Ib. iv. 476.] It seems to
have consisted in an overclouding, rather than a total ruin of the mind.
Incurable depression there was; gloomy torpor alternating with fits
of vehement activity or suffering; great discontinuity at all
times:--evident unfitness for business. It was long hoped he might
recover. And Doctors in Divinity and in Medicine undertook him:
Theologians, Exorcists, Physicians, Quacks; but no cure came of it,
nothing but mutual condemnations, violences and even execrations,
from the said Doctors and their respective Official patrons, lay and
clerical. Must have been such a scene for a young Wife as has seldom
occurred, in romance or reality! Children continued to be born; daughter
after daughter; but no son that lived.
MARGRAF GEORGE FRIEDRICH COMES TO PREUSSEN TO ADMINISTER.
After five years' space, in 1578, [Pauli, iv. 476, 481, 482.] cure being
now hopeless, and the very Council admitting that the Duke was incapable
of business,--George Friedrich of Anspach-Baireuth came into the country
to take charge of him; having already, he and the other Brandenburgers,
negotiated the matter with the King of Poland, in whose power it mostly
lay.
George Friedrich was by no means welcome to the Prussian Council, nor
to the Wife, nor to the Landed Aristocracy;--other than welcome,
for reasons we can guess. But he proved, in the judgment of all fair
witnesses, an excellent Governor; and, for six-and-twenty years,
administered the country with great and lasting advantage to it. His
Portraits represent to us a large ponderous figure of a man, very fat
in his latter years; with an air of honest sense, dignity, composed
solidity;--very fit for the task now on hand.
He resolutely, though in mild form, smoothed down the flaming fires
of his Clergy; commanding now this controversy and then that other
controversy _("de concreto et de inconcreto,"_ or whatever they were) to
fall strictly silent; to carry themselves on by thought and meditation
merely, and without words. He tamed the mutinous Aristocracy, the
mutinous Burgermeisters, Town-Council of Konigsberg, whatever mutiny
there was. He drained bogs, says old Rentsch; he felled woods, made
roads, established inns. Prussia was well governed till George's death;
which happened in the year 1603. [Rentsch, pp. 666-688.] Anspach, in the
mean while, Anspach, Baireuth and Jagerndorf, which were latterly
all his, he had governed by deputy; no need of visiting those quiet
countries, except for purposes of kindly recreation, or for a swift
general supervision, now and then. By all accounts, an excellent,
steadfast, wise and just man, this fat George Friedrich; worthy of the
Father that produced him _("Nit Kop ab, lover Forst, nit Kop ab!"),---_
and that is saying much.
By his death without children much territory fell home to the Elder
House; to be disposed of as was settled in the GERA BOND five years
before. Anspach and Baireuth went to two Brothers of the now Elector,
Kurfurst Joachim Friedrich, sons of Johann George of blessed memory:
founders, they, of the "New Line," of whom we know. Jagerndorf the
Elector himself got; and he, not long after, settled it on one of
his own sons, a new Johann George, who at that time was fallen rather
landless and out of a career: "Johann George of Jagerndorf," so called
thenceforth: whose history will concern us by and by. Preussen was to be
incorporated with the Electorate,--were possession of it once had. But
that is a ticklish point; still ticklish in spite of rights, and liable
to perverse accidents that may arise.
Joachim Friedrich, as we intimated once, was not wanting to himself
on this occasion. But the affair was full of intricacies; a very
wasps'-nest of angry humors; and required to be handled with delicacy,
though with force and decision. Joachim Friedrich's eldest Son, Johann
Sigismund, Electoral Prince of Brandenburg, had already, in 1594,
married one of Albert Friedrich the hypochondriac Duke of Preussen's
daughters; and there was a promising family of children; no lack of
children. Nevertheless prudent Joachim Friedrich himself, now a widower,
age towards sixty, did farther, in the present emergency, marry another
of these Princesses, a younger Sister of his Son's Wife,--seven months
after George Friedrich's death,--to make assurance doubly sure, A
man not to be balked, if he can help it. By virtue of excellent
management,--Duchess, Prussian STANDE (States), and Polish Crown,
needing all to be contented,--Joachim Friedrich, with gentle strong
pressure, did furthermore squeeze his way into the actual Guardianship
of Preussen and the imbecile Duke, which was his by right. This latter
feat he achieved in the course of another year (11th March, 1605);
[Stenzel, i. 358.] and thereby fairly got hold of Preussen; which he
grasped, "knuckles-white," as we may say; and which his descendants have
never quitted since.
Good management was very necessary. The thing was difficult;--and also
was of more importance than we yet altogether see. Not Preussen only,
but a still better country, the Duchy of Cleve, Cleve-Julich, Duke
Wilhelm's Heritage down in the Rhineland,--Heritage turning out now to
be of right his eldest Daughter's here, and likely now to drop soon,--is
involved in the thing. This first crisis, of getting into the Prussian
Administratorship, fallen vacant, our vigilant Kurfurst Joachim
Friedrich has successfully managed; and he holds his grip,
knuckles-white. Before long, a second crisis comes; where also he will
have to grasp decisively in,--he, or those that stand for him, and whose
knuckles can still hold, But that may go to a new Chapter.