By far the unluckiest of these Electors, whether the most unworthy of
them or not, was George Wilhelm, Tenth Elector, who now succeeded Johann
Sigismund his Father. The Father's eyes had closed when this great flame
was breaking out; and the Son's days were all spent amid the hot ashes
and fierce blazings of it.
The position of Brandenburg during this sad Thirty-Years War was passive
rather than active; distinguished only in the former way, and as far
as possible from being glorious or victorious. Never since the
Hohenzollerns came to that Country had Brandenburg such a time.
Difficult to have mended it; impossible to have quite avoided it;--and
Kurfurst George Wilhelm was not a man so superior to all his neighbors,
that he could clearly see his way in such an element. The perfect or
ideal course was clear: To have frankly drawn sword for his Religion and
his Rights, so soon as the battle fairly opened; and to have fought for
these same, till he got either them or died. Alas, that is easily said
and written; but it is, for a George Wilhelm especially, difficult to
do! His capability in all kinds was limited; his connections, with this
side and that, were very intricate. Gustavus and the Winter-King were
his Brothers-in-law; Gustavus wedded to his Sister, he to Winter-King's.
His relations to Poland, feudal superior of Preussen, were delicate; and
Gustavus was in deadly quarrel with Poland. And then Gustavus's sudden
laying-hold of Pommern, which had just escaped from Wallenstein and
the Kaiser? It must be granted, poor George Wilhelm's case demanded
circumspectness.
One can forgive him for declining the Bohemian-King speculation, though
his Uncle of Jagerndorf and his Cousins of Liegnitz were so hearty
and forward in it. Pardonable in him to decline the Bohemian
speculation;--though surely it is very sad that he found himself so
short of "butter and firewood" when the poor Ex-King, and his young
Wife, then in a specially interesting state, came to take shelter with
him! [Solltl _(Geschichte des Dreissigjahrigen Krieges,_--a trivial
modern Book) gives a notable memorial from the Brandenburg RATHS,
concerning these their difficulties of housekeeping. Their real object,
we perceive, was to get rid of a Guest so dangerous as the Ex-King,
under Ban of the Empire, had now become.] But when Gustavus landed, and
flung out upon the winds such a banner as that of his,--truly it was
required of a Protestant Governor of men to be able to read said
banner in a certain degree. A Governor, not too IMperfect, would have
recognized this Gustavus, what his purposes and likelihoods were; the
feeling would have been, checked by due circumspectness: "Up, my men,
let us follow this man; let us live and die in the Cause this man goes
for! Live otherwise with honor, or die otherwise with honor, we
cannot, in the pass things have come to!"--And thus, at the very worst,
Brandenburg would have had only one class of enemies to ravage it; and
might have escaped with, arithmetically speaking, HALF the harrying it
got in that long Business.
But Protestant Germany--sad shame to it, which proved lasting sorrow
as well--was all alike torpid; Brandenburg not an exceptional case.
No Prince stood up as beseemed: or only one, and he not a great one;
Landgraf Wilhelm of Hessen, who, and his brave Widow after him, seemed
always to know what hour it was. Wilhelm of Hessen all along;--and a few
wild hands, Christian of Brunswick, Christian of Anhalt, Johann George
of Jagerndorf, who stormed out tumultuously at first, but were
soon blown away by the Tilly-Wallenstein TRADE-WINDS and regulated
armaments:--the rest sat still, and tried all they could to keep out of
harm's way. The "Evangelical Union" did a great deal of manifestoing,
pathetic, indignant and other; held solemn Meetings at Heilbronn, old
Sir Henry Wotton going as Ambassador to them; but never got any redress.
Had the Evangelical Union shut up its inkhorns sooner; girt on its
fighting-tools when the time came, and done some little execution with
them then, instead of none at all,--we may fancy the Evangelical Union
would have better discharged its function. It might have saved immense
wretchedness to Germany. But its course went not that way.
In fact, had there been no better Protestantism than that of Germany,
all was over with Protestantism; and Max of Bavaria, with fanatical
Ferdinand II. as Kaiser over him, and Father Lammerlein at his right
hand and Father Hyacinth at his left, had got their own sweet way in
this world. But Protestant Germany was not Protestant Europe, after
all. Over seas there dwelt and reigned a certain King in Sweden; there
farmed, and walked musing by the shores of the Ouse in Huntingdonshire,
a certain man;--there was a Gustav Adolf over seas, an Oliver Cromwell
over seas; and "a company of poor men" were found capable of taking
Lucifer by the beard,--who accordingly, with his Lammerleins, Hyacinths,
Habernfeldts and others, was forced to withdraw, after a tough
struggle!--