We said the Great Elector never could work his Silesian Duchies out of
Kaiser Leopold's grip: to all his urgencies the little Kaiser in red
stockings answered only in evasions, refusals; and would quit nothing.
We noticed also what quarrels the young Electoral Prince, Friedrich,
afterwards King, had got into with his Stepmother; suddenly feeling
poisoned after dinner, running to his Aunt at Cassel, coming back on
treaty, and the like. These are two facts which the reader knows: and
out of these two grew a third, which it is fit he should know.
In his last years, the Great Elector, worn out with labor, and harassed
with such domestic troubles over and above, had evidently fallen much
under his Wife's management; cutting out large apanages (clear against
the GERA BOND) for her children;--longing probably for quiet in his
family at any price. As to the poor young Prince, negotiated back from
Cassel, he lived remote, and had fallen into open disfavor,--with a very
ill effect upon his funds, for one thing. His father kept him somewhat
tight on the money-side, it is alleged; and he had rather a turn for
spending money handsomely. He was also in some alarm about the proposed
apanages to his Half-brothers, the Margraves above mentioned, of which
there were rumors going.
HOW AUSTRIA SETTLED THE SILESIAN CLAIMS.
Now in these circumstances the Austrian Court, who at this time (1685)
greatly needed the Elector's help against Turks and others, and found
him very urgent about these Silesian Duchies of his, fell upon what I
must call a very extraordinary shift for getting rid of the Silesian
question. "Serene Highness," said they, by their Ambassador at Berlin,
"to end these troublesome talks, and to liquidate all claims, admissible
and inadmissible, about Silesia, the Imperial Majesty will give you an
actual bit of Territory, valuable, though not so large as you expected!"
The Elector listens with both ears: What Territory, then? The "Circle of
Schwiebus," hanging on the northwestern edge of Silesia, contiguous to
the Elector's own Dominions in these Frankfurt-on-Oder regions: this the
generous Imperial Majesty proposes to give in fee-simple to Friedrich
Wilhelm, and so to end the matter. Truly a most small patch of Territory
in comparison; not bigger than an English Rutlandshire, to say nothing
of soil and climate! But then again it was an actual patch of territory;
not a mere parchment shadow of one: this last was a tempting point to
the old harassed Elector. Such friendly offer they made him, I think, in
1685, at the time they were getting 8,000 of his troops to march against
the Turks for them; a very needful service at the moment. "By the bye,
do not march through Silesia, you!--Or march faster!" said the cautious
Austrians on this occasion: "Other roads will answer better than
Silesia!" said they. [Pauli, v. 327, 332.] Baron Freytag, their
Ambassador at Berlin, had negotiated the affair so far: "Circle of
Schwiebus," said Freytag, "and let us have done with these thorny
talks!"
But Baron Freytag had been busy, in the mean while, with the young
Prince; secretly offering Sympathy, counsel, help; of all which the poor
Prince stood in need enough. "We will help you in that dangerous matter
of the Apanages," said Freytag; "Help you in all things,"--I suppose he
would say,--"necessary pocket-money is not a thing your Highness need
want!" And thus Baron Freytag, what is very curious, had managed to
bargain beforehand with the young Prince, That directly on coming to
power, he would give up Schwiebus again, SHOULD the offer of Schwiebus
be accepted by Papa. To which effect Baron Freytag held a signed Bond,
duly executed by the young man, before Papa had concluded at all. Which
is very curious indeed!--
Poor old Papa, worn out with troubles, accepted Schwiebus in liquidation
of all claims (8th April, 1686), and a few days after set his men on
march against the Turks:--and, exactly two months beforehand, on the
8th of February last, the Prince had signed HIS secret engagement, That
Schwiebus should be a mere phantasm to Papa; that he, the Prince, would
restore it on his accession. Both these singular Parchments, signed,
sealed and done in the due legal form, lay simultaneously in Freytag's
hand; and probably enough they exist yet, in some dusty corner, among
the solemn sheepskins of the world. This is literally the plan hit upon
by an Imperial Court, to assist a young Prince in his pecuniary and
other difficulties, and get rid of Silesian claims. Plan actually
not unlike that of swindling money-lenders to a young gentleman in
difficulties, and of manageable turn, who has got into their hands.
The Great Elector died two years after; Schwiebus then in his hand. The
new Elector, once instructed as to the nature of the affair, refused to
give up Schwiebus; [19th September, 1689 Pauli, vii. 74.] declared
the transaction a swindle:--and in fact, for seven years more, retained
possession of Schwiebus. But the Austrian Court insisted, with emphasis,
at length with threats (no insuperable pressure from Louis, or the
Turks, at this time); the poor cheated Elector had, at last, to give up
Schwiebus, in terms of his promise. [31st December, 1694.] He took act
that it had been a surreptitious transaction, palmed upon him while
ignorant, and while without the least authority or power to make such a
promise; that he was not bound by it, nor would be, except on compulsion
thus far: and as to binding Brandenburg by it, how could he, at that
period of his history, bind Brandenburg? Brandenburg was not then his to
bind, any more than China was.
His Raths had advised Friedrich against giving up Schwiebus in that
manner. But his answer is on record: "I must, I will and shall keep my
own word. But my rights on Silesia, which I could not, and do not in
these unjust circumstances, compromise, I leave intact for my posterity
to prosecute. If God and the course of events order it no otherwise than
now, we must be content. But if God shall one day send the opportunity,
those that come after me will know what they have to do in such case."
[Pauli, vii. 150.] And so Schwiebus was given up, the Austrians paying
back what Brandenburg had laid out in improving it, "250,000 GULDEN
(25,000 pounds);"--and the Hand of Power had in this way, finally as it
hoped, settled an old troublesome account of Brandenburg's. Settled
the Silesian-Duchies Claim, by the temporary Phantasm of a Gift of
Schwiebus. That is literally the Liegnitz-Jagerndorf case; and the
reader is to note it and remember it. For it will turn up again in
History. The Hand of Power is very strong: but a stronger may perhaps
get hold of its knuckles one day, at an advantageous time, and do a feat
upon it.
The "eventual succession to East Friesland," which had been promised by
the Reich, some ten years ago, to the Great Elector, "for what he had
done against the Turks, and what he had suffered from those Swedish
Invasions, in the Common Cause:" this shadow of Succession, the Kaiser
now said, should not be haggled with any more; but be actually realized,
and the Imperial sanction to it now given,--effect to follow IF the
Friesland Line died out. Let this be some consolation for the loss of
Schwiebus and your Silesian Duchies. Here in Friesland is the ghost of
a coming possession; there in Schwiebus was the ghost of a going one:
phantasms you shall not want for; but the Hand of Power parts not with
its realities, however come by.
HIS REAL CHARACTER.
Poor Friedrich led a conspicuous life as Elector and King; but no
public feat he did now concerns us like this private one of Schwiebus.
Historically important, this, and requiring to be remembered, while
so much else demands mere oblivion from us. He was a spirited man;
did soldierings, fine Siege of Bonn (July-October, 1689), sieges
and campaignings, in person,--valiant in action, royal especially
in patience there,--during that Third War of Louis-Fourteenth's,
the Treaty-of-Ryswick one. All through the Fourth, or Spanish
Succession-War, his Prussian Ten-Thousand, led by fit generals, showed
eminently what stuff they were made of. Witness Leopold of Anhalt-Dessau
(still a YOUNG Dessauer) on the field of Blenheim;--Leopold had the
right wing there, and saved Prince Eugene who was otherwise blown to
pieces, while Marlborough stormed and conquered on the left. Witness the
same Dessauer on the field of Hochstadt the year before, [Varnhagen von
Ense, _Biographische Denkmale_ (Berlin, 1845), ii, 155.] how he managed
the retreat there. Or see him at the Bridge of Cassano (1705); in
the Lines of Turin (1706); [_ Des weltheruhnden Furstens Leopoldi
von Anhult-Dessau Leben und Thaten_ (Leipzig, 1742, anonymous, by one
MICHAEL RANFFT), pp. 53, 61.] wherever hot service was on hand. At
Malplaquet, in those murderous inexpugnable French Lines, bloodiest of
obstinate Fights (upwards of thirty thousand left on the ground), the
Prussians brag that it was they who picked their way through a certain
peat-bog, reckoned impassable; and got fairly in upon the French
wing,--to the huge comfort of Marlborough, and little Eugene his brisk
comrade on that occasion. Marlborough knew well the worth of these
Prussian troops, and also how to stroke his Majesty into continuing them
in the field.
He was an expensive King, surrounded by cabals, by Wartenbergs male and
female, by whirlpools of intrigues, which, now that the game is over,
become very forgettable. But one finds he was a strictly honorable man;
with a certain height and generosity of mind, capable of other nobleness
than the upholstery kind. He had what we may call a hard life of it;
did and suffered a good deal in his day and generation, not at all in
a dishonest or unmanful manner. In fact, he is quite recognizably a
Hohenzollern,--with his back half broken. Readers recollect that sad
accident: how the Nurse, in one of those headlong journeys which his
Father and Mother were always making, let the poor child fall or jerk
backward; and spoiled him much, and indeed was thought to have killed
him, by that piece of inattention. He was not yet Hereditary Prince, he
was only second son: but the elder died; and he became Elector, King;
and had to go with his spine distorted,--distortion not glaringly
conspicuous, though undeniable;--and to act the Hohenzollern SO. Nay
who knows but it was this very jerk, and the half-ruin of his nervous
system,--this doubled wish to be beautiful, and this crooked back
capable of being hid or decorated into straightness,--that first set
the poor man on thinking of expensive ornamentalities, and Kingships in
particular? History will forgive the Nurse in that case.
Perhaps History has dwelt too much on the blind side of this expensive
King. Toland, on entering his country, was struck rather with the
signs of good administration everywhere. No sooner have you crossed the
Prussian Border, out of Westphalia, says Toland, than smooth highways,
well-tilled fields, and a general air of industry and regularity, are
evident: solid milestones, brass-bound, and with brass inscription, tell
the traveller where he is; who finds due guidance of finger-posts, too,
and the blessing of habitable inns. The people seem all to be busy,
diligently occupied; villages reasonably swept and whitewashed;--never
was a better set of Parish Churches; whether new-built or old, they are
all in brand-new repair. The contrast with Westphalia is immediate
and great; but indeed that was a sad country, to anybody but a patient
Toland, who knows the causes of phenomena. No inns there, except of the
naturally savage sort. "A man is very happy if he finds clean straw
to sleep on, without expecting sheets or coverings; let him readily
dispense with plates, forks and napkins, if he can get anything to
eat.... He must be content to have the cows, swine and poultry for his
fellow-lodgers, and to go in at the same passage that the smoke comes
out at, for there's no other vent for it but the door; which makes
foreigners commonly say that the people of Westphalia enter their houses
by the chimney." And observe withal: "This is the reason why their beef
and hams are so finely prepared and ripened; for the fireplace being
backwards, the smoke must spread over all the house before it gets to
the door; which makes everything within of a russet or sable color, not
excepting the hands and faces of the meaner sort." [_An Account of the
Courts of Prussia and Hanover,_ by Mr. Toland (cited already), p. 4.]
If Prussia yield to Westphalia in ham, in all else she is strikingly
superior.
He founded Universities, this poor King; University of Halle; Royal
Academy of Berlin, Leibnitz presiding: he fought for Protestantism;--did
what he could for the cause of Cosmos VERSUS Chaos, after his fashion.
The magnificences of his Charlottenburgs, Oranienburgs and numerous
Country-houses make Toland almost poetic. An affable kindly man withal,
though quick of temper; his word sacred to him. A man of many troubles,
and acquainted with "the infinitely little (L'INFINIMENT PETIT)," as his
Queen termed it.