SERIES.
Brandenburg had again sunk very low under the Tenth Elector, in the
unutterable troubles of the times. But it was gloriously raised up again
by his Son Friedrich Wilhelm, who succeeded in 1640. This is he whom
they call the "Great Elector (GROSSE KURFURST);" of whom there is much
writing and celebrating in Prussian Books. As for the epithet, it is not
uncommon among petty German populations, and many times does not mean
too much: thus Max of Bavaria, with his Jesuit Lambkins and Hyacinths,
is, by Bavarians, called "Maximilian the Great." Friedrich Wilhelm,
both by his intrinsic qualities and the success he met with, deserves it
better than most. His success, if we look where he started and where he
ended, was beyond that of any other man in his day. He found Brandenburg
annihilated, and he left Brandenburg sound and flourishing; a great
country, or already on the way towards greatness. Undoubtedly a most
rapid, clear-eyed, active man. There was a stroke in him swift as
lightning, well-aimed mostly, and of a respectable weight, withal; which
shattered asunder a whole world of impediments for him, by assiduous
repetition of it for fifty years. [1620; 1640; 1688.]
There hardly ever came to sovereign power a young man of twenty under
more distressing, hopeless-looking circumstances. Political significance
Brandenburg had none; a mere Protestant appendage dragged about by a
Papist Kaiser. His Father's Prime-Minister, as we have seen, was in the
interest of his enemies; not Brandenburg's servant, but Austria's.
The very Commandants of his Fortresses, Commandant of Spandau more
especially, refused to obey Friedrich Wilhelm, on his accession; "were
bound to obey the Kaiser in the first place." He had to proceed softly
as well as swiftly; with the most delicate hand to get him of Spandau by
the collar, and put him under lock-and-key, him as a warning to others.
For twenty years past, Brandenburg had been scoured by hostile armies,
which, especially the Kaiser's part of which, committed outrages new
in human history. In a year or two hence, Brandenburg became again the
theatre of business; Austrian Gallas advancing thither again (1644),
with intent "to shut up Torstenson and his Swedes in Jutland," where
they had been chastising old Christian IV., now meddlesome again, for
the last time, and never a good neighbor to Sweden. Gallas could by
no means do what he intended: on the contrary, he had to run from
Torstenson, what feet could do; was hunted, he and his MERODE-BRUDER
(beautiful inventors of the "Marauding" Art), "till they pretty much all
died (CREPERTIN)," says Kohler. [_Reichs-Historie,_ p. 556; Pauli, v.
24.] No great loss to society, the death of these Artists: but we can
fancy what their life, and especially what the process of their dying,
may have cost poor Brandenburg again!--
Friedrich Wilhelm's aim, in this as in other emergencies, was sun-clear
to himself, but for most part dim to everybody else. He had to walk very
warily, Sweden on one hand of him, suspicious Kaiser on the other; he
had to wear semblances, to be ready with evasive words; and advance
noiselessly by many circuits. More delicate operation could not be
imagined. But advance he did: advance and arrive. With extraordinary
talent, diligence and felicity the young man wound himself out of
this first fatal position: got those foreign Armies pushed out of his
Country, and kept them out. His first concern had been to find some
vestige of revenue, to put that upon a clear footing; and by loans or
otherwise to scrape a little ready money together. On the strength of
which a small body of soldiers could be collected about him, and drilled
into real ability to fight and obey. This as a basis: on this followed
all manner of things: freedom from Swedish-Austrian invasions, as the
first thing.
He was himself, as appeared by and by, a fighter of the first quality,
when it came to that: but never was willing to fight if he could help
it. Preferred rather to shift, manoeuvre and negotiate; which he did in
a most vigilant, adroit and masterly manner. But by degrees he had grown
to have, and could maintain it, an Army of 24,000 men: among the best
troops then in being. With or without his will, he was in all the great
Wars of his time,--the time of Louis XIV., who kindled Europe four times
over, thrice in our Kurfurst's day. The Kurfurst's Dominions, a long
straggling country, reaching from Memel to Wesel, could hardly keep out
of the way of any war that might rise. He made himself available, never
against the good cause of Protestantism and German Freedom, yet always
in the place and way where his own best advantage was to be had. Louis
XIV. had often much need of him: still oftener, and more pressingly, had
Kaiser Leopold, the little Gentleman "in scarlet stockings, with a red
feather in his hat," whom Mr. Savage used to see majestically walking
about, with Austrian lip that said nothing at all. [_A Compleat History
of Germany,_ by Mr. Savage (8vo, London, 1702), p. 553. Who this Mr.
Savage was, we have no trace. Prefixed to the volume is the Portrait
of a solid Gentleman of forty: gloomily polite, with ample wig and
cravat,--in all likelihood some studious subaltern Diplomatist in the
Succession War. His little Book is very lean and barren: but faithfully
compiled,--and might have some illumination in it, where utter darkness
is so prevalent. Most likely, Addison picked his story of the _Siege of
Weinsberg_ ("Women carrying out their Husbands on their back,"--one
of his best SPECTATORS) out of this poor Book.] His 24,000 excellent
fighting-men, thrown in at the right time, were often a thing that could
turn the balance in great questions. They required to be allowed for at
a high rate,--which he well knew how to adjust himself for exacting and
securing always.
WHAT BECAME OF POMMERN AT THE PEACE; FINAL GLANCE INTO CLEVE-JULICH.
When the Peace of Westphalia (1648) concluded that Thirty-Years
Conflagration, and swept the ashes of it into order again, Friedrich
Wilhelm's right to Pommern was admitted by everybody: and well insisted
on by himself: but right had to yield to reason of state, and he could
not get it. The Swedes insisted on their expenses: the Swedes held
Pommern, had all along held it,--in pawn, they said, for their expenses.
Nothing for it but to give the Swedes the better half of Pommern.
FORE-Pommern (so they call it, "Swedish Pomerania" thenceforth), which
lies next the Sea: this, with some Towns and cuttings over and above,
was Sweden's share: Friedrich Wilhelm had to put up with HINDER-Pommern,
docked furthermore of the Town of Stettin, and of other valuable
cuttings, in favor of Sweden. Much to Friedrich Wilhelm's grief and just
anger, could he have helped it.
They gave him Three secularized Bishoprics, Magdeburg, Halberstadt,
Minden, with other small remnants, for compensation; and he had to be
content with these for the present. But he never gave up the idea
of Pommern: much of the effort of his life was spent upon recovering
Fore-Pommern: thrice-eager upon that, whenever lawful opportunity
offered. To no purpose then: he never could recover Swedish Pommern;
only his late descendants, and that by slowish degrees, could recover it
all. Readers remember that Burgermeister of Stettin, with the helmet and
sword flung into the grave and picked out again:--and can judge whether
Brandenburg got its good luck quite by lying in bed!--
Once, and once only, he had a voluntary purpose towards War, and
it remained a purpose only. Soon after the Peace of Westphalia,
old Pfalz-Neuburg, the same who got the slap on the face, went into
tyrannous proceedings against the Protestant part of his subjects
in Julich-Cleve: who called to Friedrich Wilhelm for help. Friedrich
Wilhelm, a zealous Protestant, made remonstrances, retaliations: ere
long the thought struck him, "Suppose, backed by the Dutch, we threw out
this fantastic old gentleman, his Papistries, and pretended claims and
self, clear out of it?" This was Friedrich Wilhelm's thought; and he
suddenly marched troops into the Territory, with that view. But Europe
was in alarm, the Dutch grew faint: Friedrich Wilhelm saw it would not
do. He had a conference with old Pfalz-Neuburg: "Young gentleman,
we remember how your Grandfather made free with us and our august
countenance! Nevertheless we--" In fine, the "statistic of Treaties" was
increased by One: and there the matter rested till calmer times.
In 1666, as already said, an effective Partition of these litigated
Territories was accomplished: Prussia to have the Duchy of Cleve-Proper,
the Counties of Mark and Ravensburg, with other Patches and Pertinents:
Neuburg, what was the better share, to have Julich Duchy and Berg Duchy.
Furthermore, if either of the Lines failed, in no sort was a collateral
to be admitted: but Brandenburg was to inherit Neuburg, or Neuburg
Brandenburg, as the case might be. [Pauli, v. 120-129.] A clear Bargain
this at last: and in the times that had come, it proved executable so
far. But if the reader fancies the Lawsuit was at last out in this way,
he will be a simple reader! In the days of our little Fritz, the Line
of Pfalz-Neuburg was evidently ending: but that Brandenburg and not a
collateral should succeed it, there lay the quarrel,--open still, as if
it had never been shut: and we shall hear enough about it!--
THE GREAT KURFURST'S WARS: WHAT HE ACHIEVED IN WAR AND PEACE.
Friedrich Wilhelm's first actual appearance in War, Polish-Swedish War
(1655-1660), was involuntary in the highest degree: forced upon him for
the sake of his Preussen, which bade fair to be lost or ruined, without
blame of his or its. Nevertheless, here too he made his benefit of
the affair. The big King of Sweden had a standing quarrel with his big
Cousin of Poland, which broke out into hot War; little Preussen lay
between them, and was like to be crushed in the collision. Swedish King
was Karl Gustav, Christina's Cousin, Charles Twelfth's Grandfather; a
great and mighty man, lion of the North in his time: Polish King was
one John Casimir; chivalrous enough, and with clouds of forward Polish
chivalry about him, glittering with barbaric gold. Frederick III.,
Danish King for the time being, he also was much involved in the thing.
Fain would Friedrich Wilhelm have kept out of it, but he could not. Karl
Gustav as good as forced him to join: he joined; fought along with
Karl Gustav an illustrious Battle; "Battle of Warsaw," three days long
(28-30th July, 1656), on the skirts of Warsaw,--crowds "looking from the
upper windows" there; Polish chivalry, broken at last, going like chaff
upon the winds, and John Casimir nearly ruined.
Shortly after which, Friedrich Wilhelm, who had shone much in the
Battle, changed sides. An inconsistent, treacherous man? Perhaps not,
O reader; perhaps a man advancing "in circuits," the only way he has;
spirally, face now to east, now to west, with his own reasonable private
aim sun-clear to him all the while?
John Casimir agreed to give up the "Homage of Preussen" for this
service; a grand prize for Friedrich Wilhelm. [Treaty of Labiau, 10th
November, 1656 (Pauli, v. 73-75); 20th November (Stenzel, iv. 128,--who
always uses NEW STYLE).] What the Teutsch Ritters strove for in vain,
and lost their existence in striving for, the shifty Kurfurst has now
got: Ducal Prussia, which is also called East Prussia, is now a free
sovereignty,--and will become as "Royal" as the other Polish part. Or
perhaps even more so, in the course of time!--Karl Gustav, in a high
frame of mind, informs the Kurfurst, that he has him on his books, and
will pay the debt one day!
A dangerous debtor in such matters, this Karl Gustav. In these same
months, busy with the Danish part of the Controversy, he was doing a
feat of war, which set all Europe in astonishment. In January, 1658,
Karl Gustav marches his Army, horse, foot and artillery, to the extent
of twenty thousand, across the Baltic ice, and takes an Island without
shipping,--Island of Funen, across the Little Belt; three miles of ice;
and a part of the sea open, which has to be crossed on planks. Nay,
forward from Funen, when once there, he achieves ten whole miles more
of ice; and takes Zealand itself, [Holberg's _Danemarkische
Reichs-Historie,_ pp. 406-409.]--to the wonder of all mankind. An
imperious, stern-browed, swift-striking man; who had dreamed of a new
Goth Empire: The mean Hypocrites and Fribbles of the South to be coerced
again by noble Norse valor, and taught a new lesson. Has been known
to lay his hand on his sword while apprising an Ambassador (Dutch
High-Mightiness) what his royal intentions were: "Not the sale or
purchase of groceries, observe you, Sir! My aims go higher!"--Charles
Twelfth's Grandfather, and somewhat the same type of man.
But Karl Gustav died, short while after; [13th February, 1660, age 38.]
left his big wide-raging Northern Controversy to collapse in what way
it could. Sweden and the fighting-parties made their "Peace of Oliva"
(Abbey of Oliva, near Dantzig, 1st May, 1660); and this of Preussen was
ratified, in all form, among the other points. No homage more; nothing
now above Ducal Prussia but the Heavens; and great times coming for
it. This was one of the successfulest strokes of business ever done by
Friedrich Wilhelm; who had been forced, by sheer compulsion, to embark
in that big game.--"Royal Prussia," the Western or POLISH Prussia: this
too, as all Newspapers know, has, in our times, gone the same road as
the other. Which probably, after all, it may have had, in Nature, some
tendency to do? Cut away, for reasons, by the Polish sword, in that
Battle of Tannenberg, long since; and then, also for reasons, cut back
again! That is the fact;--not unexampled in human History.
Old Johann Casimir, not long after that Peace of Oliva, getting tired of
his unruly Polish chivalry and their ways, abdicated;--retired to Paris;
and "lived much with Ninon de l'Enclos and her circle," for the rest of
his life. He used to complain of his Polish chivalry, that there was no
solidity in them; nothing but outside glitter, with tumult and anarchic
noise; fatal want of one essential talent, the talent of Obeying; and
has been heard to prophesy that a glorious Republic, persisting in such
courses, would arrive at results which would surprise it.
Onward from this time, Friedrich Wilhelm figures in the world; public
men watching his procedure; Kings anxious to secure him,--Dutch
printsellers sticking up his Portraits for a hero-worshipping Public.
Fighting hero, had the Public known it, was not his essential character,
though he had to fight a great deal. He was essentially an Industrial
man; great in organizing, regulating, in constraining chaotic heaps
to become cosmic for him. He drains bogs, settles colonies in the
waste-places of his Dominions, cuts canals; unweariedly encourages trade
and work. The FRIEDRICH-WILHELM'S CANAL, which still carries tonnage
from the Oder to the Spree, [Executed, 1662-1668; fifteen English miles
long (Busching, ERDBESCHREIBUNG, vi, 2193).] is a monument of his zeal
in this way; creditable, with the means he had. To the poor French
Protestants, in the Edict-of-Nantes Affair, he was like an express
Benefit of Heaven: one Helper appointed, to whom the help itself was
profitable. He munificently welcomed them to Brandenburg; showed really
a noble piety and human pity, as well as judgment; nor did Brandenburg
and he want their reward. Some 20,000 nimble French souls, evidently of
the best French quality, found a home there;--made "waste sands about
Berlin into potherb gardens;" and in the spiritual Brandenburg, too,
did something of horticulture, which is still noticeable. [Erman (weak
Biographer of Queen Sophie-Charlotte, already cited), _Memoires pour
sevir a l'Histoire den Refugies Francais dans les Etats du Roi de
Prusse_ (Berlin, 1782-1794), 8 tt. 8vo.]
Certainly this Elector was one of the shiftiest of men. Not an unjust
man either. A pious, God-fearing man rather, stanch to his Protestantism
and his Bible; not unjust by any means,--nor, on the other hand, by any
means thick-skinned in his interpretings of justice: Fair-play to myself
always; or occasionally even the Height of Fair-play! On the whole, by
constant energy, vigilance, adroit activity, by an ever-ready insight
and audacity to seize the passing fact by its right handle, he fought
his way well in the world; left Brandenburg a flourishing and greatly
increased Country, and his own name famous enough.
A thick-set stalwart figure; with brisk eyes, and high strong
irregularly Roman nose. Good bronze Statue of him, by Schluter, once a
famed man, still rides on the LANGE-BRUCKE (Long-Bridge) at Berlin; and
his Portrait, in huge frizzled Louis-Quatorze wig, is frequently met
with in German Galleries. Collectors of Dutch Prints, too, know him:
here a gallant, eagle-featured little gentleman, brisk in the smiles of
youth, with plumes, with truncheon, caprioling on his war-charger, view
of tents in the distance;--there a sedate, ponderous, wrinkly old man,
eyes slightly puckered (eyes BUSIER than mouth); a face well-ploughed
by Time, and not found unfruitful; one of the largest, most laborious,
potent faces (in an ocean of circumambient periwig) to be met with
in that Century. [Both Prints are Dutch; the Younger, my copy of the
Younger, has lost the Engraver's Name (Kurfurst's age is twenty-seven);
the Elder is by MASSON, 1633, when Friedrich Wilhelm was sixty-three.]
There are many Histories about him, too; but they are not comfortable to
read. [G. D. Geyler, _Leben und Thaten Friedrich Wihelms des Grossen_
(Frankfort and Leipzig, 1703), folio. Franz Horn, _Das Leben Friedrich
Wilhelms des Grossen_ (Berlin, 1814). Pauli, _Staats-Geschichte,_ Band
v. (Halle, 1764). Pufendorf, _De rebus gestis Friderici Wilhelmi Magni
Electoris Brandenburgensis Commentaria_ (Lips. et Berol. 1733, fol.)] He
also has wanted a sacred Poet; and found only a bewildering Dryasdust.
His Two grand Feats that dwell in the Prussian memory are perhaps none
of his greatest, but were of a kind to strike the imagination. They both
relate to what was the central problem of his life,--the recovery
of Pommern from the Swedes. Exploit First is the famed "Battle
of FEHRBELLIN (Ferry of BellEEN)," fought on the 18th June, 1675.
Fehrbellin is an inconsiderable Town still standing in those peaty
regions, some five-and-thirty miles northwest of Berlin; and had for
ages plied its poor Ferry over the oily-looking, brown, sluggish stream
called Rhin, or Rhein in those parts, without the least notice from
mankind, till this fell out. It is a place of pilgrimage to patriotic
Prussians, ever since Friedrich Wilhelm's exploit there. The matter went
thus:--
Friedrich Wilhelm was fighting, far south in Alsace, on Kaiser Leopold's
side, in the Louis-Fourteenth War; that second one, which ended in the
treaty of Nimwegen. Doing his best there,--when the Swedes, egged on
by Louis XIV., made war upon him; crossed the Pomeranian marches, troop
after troop, and invaded his Brandenburg Territory with a force which
at length amounted to some 16,000 men. No help for the moment: Friedrich
Wilhelm could not be spared from his post. The Swedes, who had at first
professed well, gradually went into plunder, roving, harrying, at their
own will; and a melancholy time they made of it for Friedrich Wilhelm
and his People. Lucky if temporary harm were all the ill they were
likely to do; lucky if--! He stood steady, however; in his solid manner,
finishing the thing in hand first, since that was feasible. He then even
retired into winter-quarters, to rest his men; and seemed to have left
the Swedish 16,000 autocrats of the situation; who accordingly went
storming about at a great rate.
Not so, however; very far indeed from so. Having rested his men for
certain months, Friedrich Wilhelm silently in the first days of June
(1675) gets them under march again; marches, his Cavalry and he as first
instalment, with best speed from Schweinfurt, [Stenzel, ii. 347.] which
is on the river Main, to Magdeburg; a distance of two hundred miles. At
Magdeburg, where he rests three days, waiting for the first handful of
foot and a field-piece or two, he learns that the Swedes are in three
parties wide asunder; the middle party of them within forty miles of
him. Probably stronger, even this middle one, than his small body (of
"six thousand Horse, twelve hundred Foot and three guns");--stronger,
but capable perhaps of being surprised, of being cut in pieces, before
the others can come up? Rathenau is the nearest skirt of this middle
party: thither goes the Kurfurst, softly, swiftly, in the June night
(16-17th June, 1675); gets into Rathenau, by brisk stratagem; tumbles
out the Swedish Horse-regiment there, drives it back towards Fehrbellin.
He himself follows hard;--swift riding enough, in the summer night,
through those damp Havel lands, in the old Hohenzollern fashion: and
indeed old Freisack Castle, as it chances,--Freisack, scene of Dietrich
von Quitzow and LAZY PEG long since,--is close by! Follows hard, we
say: strikes in upon this midmost party (nearly twice his number, but
Infantry for the most part); and after fierce fight, done with good
talent on both sides, cuts it into utter ruin, as proposed. Thereby
he has left the Swedish Army as a mere head and tail WITHOUT body; has
entirely demolished the Swedish Army. [Stenzel, ii. 350-357.] Same feat
intrinsically as that done by Cromwell, on Hamilton and the Scots, in
1648. It was, so to speak, the last visit Sweden paid to Brandenburg, or
the last of any consequence; and ended the domination of the Swedes
in those quarters. A thing justly to be forever remembered by
Brandenburg;--on a smallish modern scale, the Bannockburn, Sempach,
Marathon, of Brandenburg. [See Pauli, v. 161-169; Stenzel, ii. 335,
340-347, 354; Kausler, _Atlas des plus memorables Batailles, Combats
et Sieges,_ or _Atlas der merkwurdigsten Schlachten, Treffen und
Belagerungen_ (German and French, Carlsruhe and Freiburg, 1831), p. 417,
Blatt 62.]
Exploit Second was four years later; in some sort a corollary to
this; and a winding-up of the Swedish business. The Swedes, in farther
prosecution of their Louis-Fourteenth speculation, had invaded Preussen
this time, and were doing sad havoc there. It was in the dead of winter,
Christmas, 1678, more than four hundred miles off; and the Swedes, to
say nothing of their other havoc, were in a case to take Konigsberg, and
ruin Prussia altogether, if not prevented. Friedrich Wilhelm starts
from Berlin, with the opening Year, on his long march; the Horse-troops
first, Foot to follow at their swiftest; he himself (his Wife, his
ever-true "Louisa," accompanying, as her wont was) travels, towards the
end, at the rate of "sixty miles a day." He gets in still in time, finds
Konigsberg unscathed. Nay it is even said, the Swedes are extensively
falling sick; having, after a long famine, found infinite "pigs, near
Insterburg," in those remote regions, and indulged in the fresh pork
overmuch.
I will not describe the subsequent manoeuvres, which would interest
nobody: enough if I say that on the 16th of January, 1679, it had become
of the highest moment for Friedrich Wilhelm to get from Carwe (Village
near Elbing) on the shore of the FRISCHE HAF, where he was, through
Konigsberg, to Gilge on the CURISCHE HAF, where the Swedes are,--in a
minimum of time. Distance, as the crow flies, is about a hundred
miles; road, which skirts the two HAFS [Pauli, v. 215-222; Stenzel, ii.
392-397.] (wide shallow WASHES, as we should name them), is of rough
quality, and naturally circuitous. It is ringing frost to-day, and for
days back:--Friedrich Wilhelm hastily gathers all the sledges, all
the horses of the district; mounts some four thousand men in sledges;
starts, with the speed of light, in that fashion. Scours along all
day, and after the intervening bit of land, again along; awakening
the ice-bound silences. Gloomy Frische Haf, wrapt in its Winter
cloud-coverlids, with its wastes of tumbled sand, its poor frost-bound
fishing-hamlets, pine-hillocks,--desolate-looking, stern as Greenland or
more so, says Busching, who travelled there in winter-time, [Busching's
_Beitrage_ (Halle, 1789), vi. 160.]--hears unexpected human noises,
and huge grinding and trampling; the four thousand, in long fleet
of sledges, scouring across it, in that manner. All day they rush
along,--out of the rimy hazes of morning into the olive-colored clouds
of evening again,--with huge loud-grinding rumble;--and do arrive in
time at Gilge. A notable streak of things, shooting across those frozen
solitudes, in the New-Year, 1679;--little short of Karl Gustav's feat,
which we heard of, in the other or Danish end of the Baltic, twenty
years ago, when he took Islands without ships.
This Second Exploit--suggested or not by that prior one of Karl Gustav
on the ice--is still a thing to be remembered by Hohenzollerns and
Prussians. The Swedes were beaten here, on Friedrich Wilhelm's rapid
arrival; were driven into disastrous rapid retreat Northward; which they
executed, in hunger and cold; fighting continually, like Northern bears,
under the grim sky; Friedrich Wilhelm sticking to their skirts,--holding
by their tail, like an angry bear-ward with steel whip in his hand. A
thing which, on the small scale, reminds one of Napoleon's experiences.
Not till Napoleon's huge fighting-flight, a hundred and thirty-four
years after, did I read of such a transaction in those parts. The
Swedish invasion of Preussen has gone utterly to ruin.
And this, then, is the end of Sweden, and its bad neighborhood on these
shores, where it has tyrannously sat on our skirts so long? Swedish
Pommern the Elector already had: last year, coming towards it ever since
the Exploit of Fehrbellin, he had invaded Swedish Pommern; had
besieged and taken Stettin, nay Stralsund too, where Wallenstein had
failed;--cleared Pommern altogether of its Swedish guests. Who had tried
next in Preussen, with what luck we see. Of Swedish Pommern the Elector
might now say: "Surely it is mine; again mine, as it long was; well won
a second time, since the first would not do!" But no:--Louis XIV. proved
a gentleman to his Swedes. Louis, now that the Peace of Nimwegen had
come, and only the Elector of Brandenburg was still in harness, said
steadily, though anxious enough to keep well with the Elector: "They are
my allies, these Swedes; it was on my bidding they invaded you: can I
leave them in such a pass? It must not be!" So Pommern had to be given
back. A miss which was infinitely grievous to Friedrich Wilhelm. The
most victorious Elector cannot hit always, were his right never so good.
Another miss which he had to put up with, in spite of his rights,
and his good services, was that of the Silesian Duchies. The
Heritage-Fraternity with Liegnitz had at length, in 1675, come to fruit.
The last Duke of Liegnitz was dead: Duchies of Liegnitz, of Brieg,
Wohlau, are Brandenburg's, if there were right done! But Kaiser
Leopold in the scarlet stockings will not hear of Heritage-Fraternity.
"Nonsense!" answers Kaiser Leopold: "A thing suppressed at once, ages
ago; by Imperial power: flat ZERO of a thing at this time;--and you, I
again bid you, return me your Papers upon it!" This latter act of duty
Friedrich Wilhelm would not do; but continued insisting. [Pauli,
v. 321.] "Jagerndorf at least, O Kaiser of the world," said he;
"Jagerndorf, there is no color for your keeping that!" To which the
Kaiser again answers, "Nonsense!"--and even falls upon astonishing
schemes about it, as we shall see;--but gives nothing. Ducal Preussen
is sovereign, Cleve is at Peace, Hinter-Pommern ours;--this Elector has
conquered much: but the Silesian Heritages and Vor-Pommern, and some
other things, he will have to do without. Louis XIV., it is thought,
once offered to get him made King; [Ib. vii. 215.] but that he declined
for the present.
His married and domestic life is very fine and human; especially with
that Oranien-Nassau Princess, who was his first Wife (1646-1667);
Princess Louisa of Nassau-Orange; Aunt to our own Dutch William, King
William III., in time coming. An excellent wise Princess; from whom
came the Orange Heritages, which afterwards proved difficult to
settle:--Orange was at last exchanged for the small Principality of
Neufchatel in Switzerland, which is Prussia's ever since. "Oranienburg
(ORANGE-BURG)," a Royal Country-house, still standing, some twenty miles
northwards from Berlin, was this Louisa's place: she had trimmed it
up into a little jewel, of the Dutch type,--potherb gardens,
training-schools for young girls, and the like;--a favorite abode of
hers, when she was at liberty for recreation. But her life was busy and
earnest: she was helpmate, not in name only, to an ever-busy man. They
were married young; a marriage of love withal. Young Friedrich Wilhelm's
courtship, wedding in Holland; the honest trustful walk and conversation
of the two Sovereign Spouses, their journeyings together, their mutual
hopes, fears and manifold vicissitudes; till Death, with stern beauty,
shut it in:--all is human, true and wholesome in it; interesting to look
upon, and rare among sovereign persons.
Not but that he had his troubles with his womankind. Even with this his
first Wife, whom he loved truly, and who truly loved him, there were
scenes; the Lady having a judgment of her own about everything that
passed, and the Man being choleric withal. Sometimes, I have heard, "he
would dash his hat at her feet," saying symbolically, "Govern you, then,
Madam! Not the Kurfurst-Hat; a Coif is my wear, it seems!" [Forster,
_Friedrich Wilhelm I. Konig von Preussen_ (Potsdam, 1834), i. 177.] Yet
her judgment was good; and he liked to have it on the weightiest things,
though her powers of silence might halt now and then. He has been known,
on occasion, to run from his Privy-Council to her apartment, while a
complex matter was debating, to ask her opinion, hers too, before it was
decided. Excellent Louisa; Princess full of beautiful piety, good-sense
and affection; a touch of the Nassau-Heroic in her. At the moment of her
death, it is said, when speech had fled, he felt, from her hand which
lay in his, three slight, slight pressures: "Farewell!" thrice mutely
spoken in that manner,--not easy to forget in this world. [Wegfuhrer,
_Leben der Kurfurstin Luise_ (Leipzig, 1838), p. 175.]
His second Wife, Dorothea,--who planted the Lindens in Berlin, and did
other husbandries, of whom we have heard, fell far short of Louisa
in many things; but not in tendency to advise, to remonstrate, and
plaintively reflect on the finished and unalterable. Dreadfully thrifty
lady, moreover; did much in dairy produce, farming of town-rates,
provision-taxes: not to speak again of that Tavern she was thought to
have in Berlin, and to draw custom to in an oblique manner! What scenes
she had with Friedrich her stepson, we have seen. "Ah, I have not my
Louisa now; to whom now shall I run for advice or help!" would the poor
Kurfurst at times exclaim.
He had some trouble, considerable trouble now and then, with mutinous
spirits in Preussen; men standing on antique Prussian franchises
and parchments; refusing to see that the same were now antiquated,
incompatible, not to say impossible, as the new Sovereign alleged; and
carrying themselves very stiffly at times. But the Hohenzollerns had
been used to such things; a Hohenzollern like this one would evidently
take his measures, soft but strong, and ever stronger to the needful
pitch, with mutinous spirits. One Burgermeister of Konigsberg, after
much stroking on the back, was at length seized in open Hall, by
Electoral writ,--soldiers having first gently barricaded the principal
streets, and brought cannon to bear upon them. This Burgermeister,
seized in such brief way, lay prisoner for life; refusing to ask his
liberty, though it was thought he might have had it on asking. [Horn,
_Das Leben Friedrich Wilhelms des Grossen_ (Berlin, 1814), p. 68.]
Another gentleman, a Baron von Kalkstein, of old Teutsch-Bitter kin, of
very high ways, in the Provincial Estates (STANDE) and elsewhere, got
into lofty almost solitary opposition, and at length into mutiny proper,
against the new "Non-Polish SOVEREIGN," and flatly refused to do homage
at his accession in that new capacity. [Supra, pp. 383, et seqq.]
Refused, Kalkstein did, for his share; fled to Warsaw; and very
fiercely, in a loud manner, carried on his mutinies in the Diets and
Court-Conclaves there; his plea being, or plea for the time, "Poland is
our liege lord [which it was not always], and we cannot be transferred
to you, except by our consent asked and given," which too had been a
little neglected on the former occasion of transfer. So that the Great
Elector knew not what to do with Kalkstein; and at length (as the case
was pressing) had him kidnapped by his Ambassador at Warsaw; had him
"rolled into a carpet" there, and carried swiftly in the Ambassador's
coach, in the form of luggage, over the frontier, into his native
Province, there to be judged, and, in the end (since nothing else would
serve him), to have the sentence executed, and his head cut off. For the
case was pressing! [Horn, pp. 80-82.]--These things, especially this of
Kalkstein, with a boisterous Polish Diet and parliamentary eloquence in
the rear of him, gave rise to criticism; and required management on the
part of the Great Elector.
Of all his Ancestors, our little Fritz, when he grew big, admired this
one. A man made like himself in many points. He seems really to have
loved and honored this one. In the year 1750 there had been a new
Cathedral got finished at Berlin; the ancestral bones had to be shifted
over from the vaults of the old one,--the burying-place ever since
Joachim II., that Joachim who drew his sword on Alba. "King Friedrich,
with some attendants, witnessed the operation, January, 1750. When the
Great Kurfurst's coffin came, he made them open it; gazed in silence on
the features for some time, which were perfectly recognizable; laid his
hand on the hand long dead, and said, _'Messieurs, celui-ci a fait de
grandes choses_ (This one did a great work)!'" [See Preuss, i. 270.]
He died 29th April, 1688;--looking with intense interest upon Dutch
William's preparations to produce a Glorious Revolution in this Island;
being always of an ardent Protestant feeling, and a sincerely religious
man. Friedrich, Crown-Prince, age then thirty-one, and already married
a second time, was of course left Chief Heir;--who, as we see, has not
declined the Kingship, when a chance for it offered. There were four
Half-brothers of Friedrich, too, who got apanages, appointments. They
had at one time confidently looked for much more, their Mother being
busy; but were obliged to be content, and conform to the GERA BOND and
fundamental Laws of the Country. They are entitled Margraves; two of
whom left children, Margraves of Brandenburg-Schwedt, HEERMEISTERS (Head
of the Malta-Knighthood) at Sonnenburg, Statthalters in Magdeburg, or
I know not what; whose names turn up confusedly in the Prussian Books;
and, except as temporary genealogical puzzles, are not of much moment to
the Foreign reader. Happily there is nothing else in the way of Princes
of the Blood, in our little Friedrich's time; and happily what concern
he had with these, or how he was related to them, will not be abstruse
to us, if occasion rise.