This unfortunate George Wilhelm failed in getting Pommern when due;
Pommern, firmly held by the Swedes, was far from him. But that was not
the only loss of territory he had. Jagerndorf,--we have heard of Johann
George of Jagerndorf, Uncle of this George Wilhelm, how old Joachim
Friedrich put him into Jagerndorf, long since, when it fell home to
the Electoral House. Jagerndorf is now lost; Johann George is under
REICHS-ACHT (Ban of Empire), ever since the Winter-King's explosion, and
the thunder-bolts that followed; and wanders landless;--nay he is long
since dead, and has six feet of earth for a territory, far away in
Transylvania, or the RIESEN-GEBIRGE (Giant Mountains) somewhere.
Concerning whom a word now.
DUKE OF JAGERNDORF, ELECTOR'S UNCLE, IS PUT UNDER BAN.
Johann George, a frank-hearted valiant man, concerning whom only good
actions, and no bad one, are on record, had notable troubles in the
world; bad troubles to begin with, and worse to end in. He was second
Son of Kurfurst Joachim Friedrich, who had meant him for the Church.
[1577-1624: Rentsch, p. 486.] The young fellow was Coadjutor of
Strasburg, almost from the time of getting into short-clothes. He
was then, still very young, elected Bishop there (1592); Bishop of
Strasburg,--but only by the Protestant part of the Canons; the Catholic
part, unable to submit longer, and thinking it a good time for revolt
against a Protestant population and obstinately heterodox majority,
elected another Bishop,--one "Karl of the House of Lorraine;" and there
came to be dispute, and came even to be fighting needed. Fighting;
which prudent Papa would not enter into, except faintly at second-hand,
through the Anspach Cousins, or others that were in the humor.
Troublesome times for the young man; which lasted a dozen years or
more. At last a Bargain was made (1604); Protestant and Catholic Canons
splitting the difference in some way; and the House of Lorraine
paying Johann George a great deal of money to go home again.
[_OEuvres completes de Voltaire,_ 97 vols. (Paris, 1825-1832),
xxxiii. 284.--Kohler (_Reichs-Historie,_ p. 487) gives the authentic
particulars.] Poor Johann George came out of it in that way; not
second-best, think several.
He was then (1606) put into Jagerndorf, which had just fallen vacant;
our excellent fat friend, George Friedrich of Anspach, Administrator
of Preussen, having lately died, and left it vacant, as we saw. George
Friedrich's death yielded fine apanages, three of them in all: FIRST
Anspach, SECOND, Baireuth, and this THIRD of Jagerndorf for a still
younger Brother. There was still a fourth younger Brother, Uncle of
George Wilhelm; Archbishop of Magdeburg this one; who also, as we have
seen, got into REICHS-ACHT, into deep trouble in the Thirty-Years War.
He was in Tilly's thrice-murderous Storm of Magdeburg (10th May, 1631);
was captured, tumbled about by the wild soldiery, and nearly killed
there. Poor man, with his mitre and rochets left in such a state! In
the end he even became CATHOLIC,--from conviction, as was evident, and
bewilderment of mind;--and lived in Austria on a pension; occasionally
publishing polemical pamphlets. [1587; 1628; 1665 (Rentsch, pp.
905-910).]--
As to Johann George, he much repaired and beautified the Castle of
Jagerndorf, says Rentsch: but he unfortunately went ahead into the
Winter-King's adventure; which, in that sad battle of the Weissenberg,
made total shipwreck of itself, drawing Johann George and much else
along with it. Johann George was straightway tyrannously put to the
Ban, forfeited of life and lands: [22d January, 1621 (Kohler,
_Reichs-Historie,_ p. 518: and rectify Hubner, t. 178).] Johann George
disowned the said Ban; stood out fiercely for self and Winter-King; and
did good fighting in the Silesian strongholds and mountain-passes: but
was forced to seek temporary shelter in SIEBENBURGEN (Transylvania); and
died far away, in a year or two (1624), while returning to try it
again. Sleeps, I think, in the "Jablunka Pass;" the dumb Giant-Mountains
(RIESEN-GEBIRGE) shrouding up his sad shipwreck and him.
Jagerndorf was thus seized by Ferdinand II. of the House of Hapsburg;
and though it was contrary to all law that the Kaiser should keep
it,--poor Johann George having left Sons very innocent of treason, and
Brothers, and an Electoral. Nephew, very innocent,--to whom, by old
compacts and new, the Heritage in defect of him was to fall,--neither
Kaiser Ferdinand II. nor Kaiser Ferdinand III. nor any Kaiser would let
go the hold; but kept Jagerndorf fast clenched, deaf to all pleadings,
and monitions of gods or men. Till at length, in the fourth generation
afterwards, one "Friedrich the Second," not unknown to us,--a sharp
little man, little in stature, but large in faculty and renown, who is
now called "Frederick the Great,"--clutched hold of the Imperial fist
(so to speak), seizing his opportunity in 1740; and so wrenched and
twisted said close fist, that not only Jagerndorf dropped out of it,
but the whole of Silesia along with Jagerndorf, there being other claims
withal. And the account was at last settled, with compound interest,--as
in fact such accounts are sure to be, one way or other. And so we leave
Johann George among the dumb Giant-Mountains again.