Old King Friedrich I. had not much more to do in the world, after
witnessing the christening of his Grandson of like name. His leading
forth or sending forth of troops, his multiplex negotiations, solemn
ceremonials, sad changes of ministry, sometimes transacted "with tears,"
are mostly ended; the ever-whirling dust-vortex of intrigues, of which
he has been the centre for a five-and-twenty years, is settling down
finally towards everlasting rest. No more will Marlborough come and
dexterously talk him over,--proud to "serve as cupbearer," on occasion,
to so high a King--for new bodies of men to help in the next
campaign: we have ceased to be a King worthy of such a cupbearer, and
Marlborough's campaigns too are all ended.
Much is ended. They are doing the sorrowful Treaty of Utrecht; Louis
XIV. himself is ending; mournfully shrunk into the corner, with his
Missal and his Maintenon; looking back with just horror on Europe four
times set ablaze for the sake of one poor mortal in big periwig, to
no purpose. Lucky if perhaps Missal-work, orthodox litanies, and even
Protestant Dragonnades, can have virtue to wipe out such a score against
a man! Unhappy Louis: the sun-bright gold has become dim as copper; we
rose in storms, and we are setting in watery clouds. The Kaiser himself
(Karl VI., Leopold's Son, Joseph I.'s younger Brother) will have to
conform to this Treaty of Utrecht: what other possibility for him?
The English, always a wonderful Nation, fought and subsidied from side
to side of Europe for this Spanish-Succession business; fought ten
years, such fighting as they never did before or since, under "John Duke
of Marlborough," who, as is well known, "beat the French thorough and
thorough." French entirely beaten at last, not without heroic difficulty
and as noble talent as was ever shown in diplomacy and war, are ready
to do your will in all things; in this of giving up Spain, among
others:--whereupon the English turn round, with a sudden new thought,
"No, we will not have our WILL done; it shall be the other way, the way
it WAS,--now that we bethink ourselves, after all this fighting for our
will!" And make Peace on those terms, as if no war had been; and accuse
the great Marlborough of many things, of theft for one. A wonderful
People; and in their Continental Politics (which indeed consist chiefly
of Subsidies) thrice wonderful. So the Treaty of Utrecht is transacting
itself; which that of Rastadt, on the part of Kaiser and Empire,
unable to get on without Subsidies, will have to follow: and after
such quantities of powder burnt, and courageous lives wasted, general
AS-YOU-WERE is the result arrived at.
Old Friedrich's Ambassadors are present at Utrecht, jangling and
pleading among the rest; at Berlin too the despatch of business goes
lumbering on; but what thing, in the shape of business, at Utrecht or at
Berlin, is of much importance to the old man? Seems as if Europe itself
were waxing dim, and sinking to stupid sleep,--as we, in our poor royal
person, full surely are. A Crown has been achieved, and diamond buttons
worth 1,500 pounds apiece; but what is a Crown, and what are buttons,
after all?--I suppose the tattle and SINGERIES of little Wilhelmina,
whom he would spend whole days with; this and occasional visits to a
young Fritzchen's cradle, who is thriving moderately, and will speak
and do aperies one day,--are his main solacements in the days that are
passing. Much of this Friedrich's life has gone off like the smoke of
fire-works, has faded sorrowfully, and proved phantasmal. Here is an old
Autograph Note, written by him at the side of that Cradle, and
touching on a slight event there; which, as it connects two venerable
Correspondents and their Seventeenth Century with a grand Phenomenon of
the Eighteenth, we will insert here. The old King addresses his older
Mother-in-law, famed Electress Sophie of Hanover, in these terms
(spelling corrected):--
"CHARLOTTENBURG, den 30 August, 1712.
"Ew. Churf. Durchlaucht werden sich zweifelsohne mit uns
erfreuen, dass der kleine Printz (PRINZ) Fritz nuhnmero (NUNMEHR) 6
Zehne (ZAHNE) hat und ohne die geringste incommoditet (-TAT). Daraus
kann man auch die PREDESTINATION sehen, dass alle seine Bruder haben
daran sterben mussen, dieser aber bekommt sie ohne Muhe wie seine
Schwester. Gott erhalte ihn uns noch lange zum trohst (TROST), in dessen
Schutz ich dieselbe ergebe und lebenslang verbleibe,
"Ew. Churf. Durchl. gehorsamster Diener und treuer Sohn,
"FRIEDRICH R."
[Preuss, _Friedrich der Grosse (Historische Skizze,_ Berlin, 1838), p.
380.]
Of which this is the literal English:--"Your Electoral Serenity will
doubtless rejoice with us that the little Prince Fritz has now got his
sixth tooth without the least INCOMMODITE. And therein we may trace
a pre-destination, inasmuch as his Brothers died of teething [_Not of
cannon-sound and weight of head-gear, then, your Majesty thinks? That
were a painful thought?_]; and this one, as his Sister [WILHELMINA]
did, gets them [THE TEETH] without trouble. God preserve him long for a
comfort to us:--to whose protection I commit DIESELBE [_Your Electoral
Highness, in the third person_], and remain lifelong,
"Your Electoral Highness's most obedient Servant and true Son,
"FRIEDRICH REX."
One of Friedrich Rex's worst adventures was his latest; commenced some
five or six years ago (1708), and now not far from terminating. He was a
Widower, of weakly constitution, towards fifty: his beautiful ingenious
"Serena," with all her Theologies, pinch-of-snuff Coronations and other
earthly troubles, was dead; and the task of continuing the Hohenzollern
progeny, given over to Friedrich Wilhelm the Prince Royal, was thought
to be in good hands. Majesty Friedrich with the weak back had retired,
in 1708, to Karlsbad, to rest from his cares; to take the salutary
waters, and recruit his weak nerves a little. Here, in the course of
confidential promenadings, it was hinted, it was represented to him
by some pickthank of a courtier, That the task of continuing the
Hohenzollern progeny did not seem to prosper in the present good hands;
that Sophie Dorothee, Princess Royal, had already borne two royal
infants which had speedily died: that in fact it was to be gathered
from the medical men, if not from their words, then from their looks and
cautious innuendoes, that Sophie Dorothee, Princess Royal, would
never produce a Prince or even Princess that would live; which task,
therefore, did now again seem to devolve upon his Majesty, if his
Majesty had not insuperable objections? Majesty had no insuperable
objections; old Majesty listened to the flattering tale; and, sure
enough, he smarted for it in a signal manner.
By due industry, a Princess was fixed upon for Bride, Princess Sophie
Louisa of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, age now twenty-four: she was got as
Wife, and came home to Berlin in all pomp;--but good came not with her
to anybody there. Not only did she bring the poor old man no children,
which was a fault to be overlooked, considering Sophie Dorothee's
success; but she brought a querulous, weak and self-sufficient female
humor; found his religion heterodox,--he being Calvinist, and perhaps
even lax-Calvinist, she Lutheran as the Prussian Nation is, and strict
to the bone:--heterodox wholly, to the length of no salvation possible;
and times rose on the Berlin Court such as had never been seen
before! "No salvation possible, says my Dearest? Hah! And an innocent
Court-Mask or Dancing Soiree is criminal in the sight of God and of the
Queen? And we are children of wrath wholly, and a frivolous generation;
and the Queen will see us all--!"
The end was, his Majesty, through sad solitary days and nights, repented
bitterly that he had wedded such a She-Dominic; grew quite estranged
from her; the poor She-Dominic giving him due return in her
way,--namely, living altogether in her own apartments, upon orthodoxy,
jealousy and other bad nourishment. Till at length she went quite mad;
and, except the due medical and other attendants, nobody saw her, or
spoke of her, at Berlin. Was this a cheering issue of such an adventure
to the poor old expensive Gentleman? He endeavored to digest in silence
the bitter morsel he had cooked for himself; but reflected often, as an
old King might, What dirt have I eaten!
In this way stands that matter in the Schloss of Berlin, when little
Friedrich, who will one day be called the Great, is born. Habits of the
expensive King, hours of rising, modes of dressing, and so forth, are
to be found in Pollnitz; [Pollnitz, _Memoiren zur Lebens-und
Regierungs-Geschichte der Vier letzten Regenten des Preussischen
Staats_ (Berlin, 1791). A vague, inexact, but not quite uninstructive or
uninteresting Book: Printed also in FRENCH, which was the Original,
same place and time.] but we charitably omit them all. Even from foolish
Pollnitz a good eye will gather, what was above intimated, that this
feeble-backed, heavy-laden old King was of humane and just disposition;
had dignity in his demeanor; had reticence, patience; and, though
hot-tempered like all the Hohenzollerns, that he bore himself like
a perfect gentleman for one thing; and tottered along his high-lying
lonesome road not in an unmanful manner at all. Had not his nerves
been damaged by that fall in infancy, who knows but we might have had
something else to read of him than that he was regardless of expense in
this world!
His last scene, of date February, 1713, is the tragical ultimatum of
that fine Karlsbad adventure of the Second marriage,--Third marriage,
in fact, though the First, anterior to "Serena," is apt to be forgotten,
having lasted short while, and produced only a Daughter, not memorable
except by accident. This Third marriage, which had brought so many
sorrows to him, proved at length the death of the old man. For he
sat one morning, in the chill February days of the Year 1713, in his
Apartment, as usual; weak of nerves, but thinking no special evil; when,
suddenly with huge jingle, the glass door of his room went to sherds;
and there rushed in--bleeding and dishevelled, the fatal "White Lady"
(WEISSE FRAU), who is understood to walk that Schloss at Berlin, and
announce Death to the Royal inhabitants. Majesty had fainted, or was
fainting. "Weisse Frau? Oh no, your Majesty!"--not that; but indeed
something almost worse.--Mad Queen, in her Apartments, had been seized,
that day, when half or quarter dressed; with unusual orthodoxy or
unusual jealousy. Watching her opportunity, she had whisked into the
corridor, in extreme deshabille; and gone, like the wild roe, towards
Majesty's Suite of Rooms; through Majesty's glass door, like a catapult;
and emerged as we saw,--in petticoat and shift, with hair streaming,
eyes glittering, arms cut, and the other sad trimmings. O Heaven, who
could laugh? There are tears due to Kings and to all men. It was deep
misery; deep enough "SIN and misery," as Calvin well says, on the one
side and the other! The poor old King was carried to bed; and never rose
again, but died in a few days. The date of the WEISSE FRAU'S death, one
might have hoped, was not distant either; but she lasted, in her sad
state, for above twenty years coming.
Old King Friedrich's death-day was 25th February, 1713; the unconscious
little Grandson being then in his Fourteenth month. To whom, after this
long, voyage round the world, we now gladly return.
By way of reinforcement to any recollection the reader may have of these
Twelve Hohenzollern Kurfursts, I will append a continuous list of them,
with here and there an indication.
THE TWELVE HOHENZOLLERN ELECTORS.
1. FRIEDRICH I. (as Burggraf, was Friedrich VI.): born, it is inferred,
1372 (Rentsch, p. 350); accession, 18th April, 1417; died 21st
September, 1440. Had come to Brandenburg, 1412, as Statthalter. The
Quitzows and HEAVY PEG.
2. FRIEDRICH II.: 19th November, 1413; 21st September, 1440; 10th
February, 1472. Friedrich IRONTEETH; tames the Berlin Burghers. Spoke
Polish, was to have been Polish King. Cannon-shot upon his dinner-table
shatters his nerves so, that he abdicates, and soon dies. JOHANNES
ALCHYMISTA his elder Brother; ALBERT ACHILLES his younger.
3. ALBERT (Achilles): 24th November, 1414; 10th February, 1471; 11th
March, 1486. Third son of Friedrich I.; is lineal Progenitor of all the
rest. Eldest Son, JOHANN CICERO, follows as Kurfurst; a Younger Son,
FRIEDRICH (by a different Mother), got Culmbach, and produced the Elder
Line there. (See Genealogical Diagram.)
4. JOHANN (Cicero): 2d August, 1455; 11th March, 1486; 9th January,
1499. Big John. Friedrich of Culmbach's elder (Half-) Brother.
5. JOACHIM I.: 21st February, 1484; 9th January, 1499; 11th July, 1535.
Loud in the Reformation times; finally declares peremptorily for the
Conservative side. Wife (Sister of Christian II. of Denmark) runs away.
Younger Brother Albert Kur-Mainz, whom Hutten celebrated; born 1490;
Archbishop of Magdeburg and Halberstadt 1513, of Maim 1514; died 1545:
set Tetzel, and the Indulgence, on foot.
6. JOACHIM II. (Hector): 9th January, 1505; 11th July, 1535; 3d January,
1571. Sword drawn on Alba once. ERBVERBRUDERUNG with Liegnitz. Staircase
at Grimnitz. A weighty industrious Kurfurst.
Declared himself Protestant, 1539. First Wife (mother of his Successor)
was Daughter to Duke George of Saxony, Luther's "If it rained Duke
Georges."--Johann of Custrin was a younger Brother of his: died ten days
after Joachim; left no Son.
7. JOHANN GEORGE: 11th September, 1525; 3d January, 1571; 8th January,
1598. Cannon-shot, at Siege of Wittenberg, upon Kaiser Karl and him.
Gera Bond.
Married a Silesian Duke of Liegnitz's Daughter (result of the
ERBVERBRUDERUNG there,--Antea, p. 231). Had twenty-three children. It
was to him that Baireuth and Anspach fell home: he settled them on his
second and his third sons, Christian and Joachim Ernst; founders of the
New Line of Baireuth and Anspach. (See Genealogical Diagram.)
8. JOACHIM FRIEDRICH: 27th January, 1546; 8th January, 1598; 18th July,
1608. Archbishop of Magdeburg first of all,--to keep the place filled.
Joachimsthal School at old Castle of Grimnitz. Very vigilant for
Preussen; which was near falling due.
Two of his Younger Sons, Johann George (1577-1624) to whom he gave
JAGERNDORF, and that Archbishop of Magdeburg, who was present in Tilly's
storm, got both wrecked in the Thirty-Years War;--not without results,
in the Jagerndorf case.
9. JOHANN SIGISMUND: 8th November, 1572; 18th July, 1608; 23d December,
1619. Preussen: Cleve; Slap on the face to Neuburg.
10. GEORGE WILHELM: 3d November, 1595; 22d November, 1619; 21st
November, 1640. The unfortunate of the Thirty-Years War. _"Que faire;
ils ont des canons!"_
11. FRIEDRICH WILHELM: 6th February, 1620; 21st November, 1640; 29th
April, 1688. The Great Elector.
12. FRIEDRICH III.: 1st July, 1657; 29th April, 1688; 25th February,
1713. First King (18th January, 1701).
GENEALOGICAL DIAGRAM: THE TWO CULMBACH LINES.
3d KURFURST (1471-1486) ALBERT ACHILLES. ELDER CULMBACH LINE.
FRIEDRICH, second son of Kurfurst Albert Achilles, younger Brother of
Johannes Cicero, got CULMBACH: Anspach first, then Baireuth on the
death of a younger Brother. Born 1460; got Anspach 1486; Baireuth 1495;
followed Max in his VENETIAN CAMPAIGN, 1508; fell IMBECILE 1515; died
1536. Had a Polish Wife; from whom came interests in Hungary as well as
Poland to his children. Friedrich had Three notable Sons,
1. CASIMIR, who got BAIREUTH (1515): born 1481; died 1527. Very
truculent in the Peasants' War. ALBERT ALEIBIADES: a man of great mark
in his day (1522-1557); never married. Two Sisters, with one of whom he
took shelter at last; no Brother.
2. GEORGE THE PIOUS, who got ANSPACH (1515): born 1484; died 1543; got
Jagerndorf, by purchase, from his Mother's Hungarian connection, 1524.
Protestant declared, 1528; and makes honorable figure in the Histories
thenceforth. The George of Kaiser Karl's _"Nit-Kop-ab."_ One Son,
GEORGE FRIEDRICH; born 1539; went to administer Preussen when Cousin
became incompetent; died 1603. Heir to his Father in ANSPACH and
JAGERNDORF; also to his Cousin Alcibiades in BAIREUTH. Had been left a
minor (boy of 4, as the reader sees); Alcibiades his Guardian for a
little while: from which came great difficulties, and unjust ruin would
have come, had not Kurfurst Joachim I. been helpful and vigorous in his
behalf. George Friedrich got at length most of his Territories into
hand: Anspach and Baireuth unimpaired, Jagerndorf too, except that
Ratibor and Oppeln were much eaten into by the Imperial chicaneries in
that quarter. Died 1603, without children;--upon which his Territories
all reverted to the main Brandenburg line, namely, to Johann George
Seventh Kurfurst, or his representatives, according to the GERA BOND;
and the "Elder Culmbach Line" had ended in this manner.
3. ALBERT; born 1490; Hochmeister of the Teutsch Ritters, 1511; declares
himself Protestant, and Duke of Prussia, 1525; died 1568. One Son, ALB
declared MELANCHOLIC 1573; died 1618. His Cousin George Friedrich
administered for him till 1603; after which Joachim Friedrich; and then,
lastly, Joachim Friedrich's Son, Johann Sigismund the Ninth Kurfurst.
Had married the Heiress of Cleve (whence came a celebrated Cleve
Controversy in after-times). No son; a good many daughters; eldest
of whom was married to Kurfurst Johann Sigismund; from her came the
controverted Cleve Property.
7th KURFURST (1571-1598), JOHANN GEORGE. YOUNGER CULMBACH LINE.
Kurfurst Johann George settled Baireuth and Anspach on Two of his
Younger Sons, who are Founders of the "Younger Culmbach Line" (SPLIT
Line or Pair of LINES). Jagerndorf the new Kurfurst, Joachim Friedrich,
kept; settled it on one of his younger sons. Here are the two new
Founders in Baireuth and Anspach, and some indication of their "Lines,"
so far as important to us at present:
BAIREUTH.
(1.) CHRISTIAN, second son of Kurfurst Johann George: born 1581; got
Baireuth 1603; died 1655. A distinguished Governor in his sphere. Had
two sons; the elder died before him, but left a son, Christian Ernst;
who (2.) succeeded, and (3.) whose son, George Wilhelm: 1644, 1655,
1712; 1678, 1712, 1726 (are BIRTH, ACCESSION, END of these two); the
latter of whom had no son that lived. Upon which the posterity of
Christian's second son succeeded. Second son of Christian notable to us
in two little ways: FIRST, That HE, George Albert, Margraf of CULMbach,
is the inscrutable "Marquis de LULENbach" of _Bromley's Letters_ (antea
p. 184, let the Commentators take comfort!); SECOND and better, That
from him came our little Wilhelmina's Husband,--as will be afterwards
explained. It was his grandson (4.) that succeeded in Baireuth, George
Friedrich Karl (1688, 1726, 1735); Father of Wilhelmina's Husband. After
whom (5.) his Son Friedrich (1711, 1735, 1763), Wilhelmina's Husband;
who leaving (1763) nothing hut a daughter, Baireuth fell to Anspach,
1769, after an old Uncle (6.), childless, had also died. SIX Baireuth
Margraves of this Line; FIVE generations; and then to Anspach, in 1769.
ANSPACH.
(1.) JOACHIM ERNST, third son of Kurfurst Johann George: born 1583; got
Anspach 1603; died 1625. Had military tendencies, experiences; did not
thrive as Captain of the EVANGELICAL UNION (1619-1620) when WINTER-KING
came up and THIRTY-YEARS WAR along with him. Left two sons; elder of
whom, (2.) Friedrich, nominally Sovereign, age still only eighteen,
fell in the Battle of Nordlingen (worst battle of the Thirty-Years War,
1634); and the younger of whom, (3.) Albert, succeeded (1620, 1634,
1667), and his son, (4.) Johann Friedrich (1654, 1667, 1686); and (5,
6, 7.) no fewer than three grandsons,--children mostly, though entitled
"sovereign"--in a PARALLEL way (Christian Albert, 1675, 1686, 1692;
George Friedrich, 1678, 1692, 1703; Wilhelm Friedrich, 1685, 1703,
1723). Two little points notable here also, and no third:
FIRST, That one of the grand-DAUGHTERS, full-sister of the last of
these three parallel figures, half-sister of the two former, was--Queen
Caroline, George II.'s wife, who has still some fame with us.
SECOND, That the youngest of said three grandsons, Queen Caroline's
full-brother, left a son then minor, who became major, (8.) and wedded
a Sister of our dear little Wilhelmina's, of whom we shall hear (Karl
Wilhelm Friedrich, 1712, 1723, 1757); unmomentous Margraf otherwise. His
and her one son it was, (9.) Christian Friedrich Karl Alexander (1736,
1757, 1806), who inherited Baireuth, inherited Actress Clairon, Lady
Craven, and at Hammersmith (House once Bubb Doddington's, if that has
any charm) ended the affair.
NINE Anspach Margraves; in FIVE generations: end, 1806.
END OF BOOK III