The Prussian royalty is now in its twelfth year when this little
Friedrich, who is to carry it to such a height, comes into the world.
Old Friedrich the Grandfather achieved this dignity, after long and
intricate negotiations, in the first year of the Century; 16th November,
1700, his ambassador returned triumphant from Vienna; the Kaiser had at
last consented: We are to wear a crown royal on the top of our periwig;
the old Electorate of Brandenburg is to become the Kingdom of Prussia;
and the Family of Hohenzollern, slowly mounting these many centuries,
has reached the uppermost round of the ladder.
Friedrich, the old Gentleman who now looks upon his little Grandson
(destined to be Third King of Prussia) with such interest,--is not a
very memorable man; but he has had his adventures too, his losses and
his gains: and surely among the latter, the gain of a crown royal into
his House gives him, if only as a chronological milestone, some place
in History. He was son of him they call the Great Elector, Friedrich
Wilhelm by name; of whom the Prussians speak much, in an eagerly
celebrating manner, and whose strenuous toilsome work in this world,
celebrated or not, is still deeply legible in the actual life and
affairs of Germany. A man of whom we must yet find some opportunity
to say a word. From him and a beautiful and excellent Princess Luise,
Princess of Orange,--Dutch William, OUR Dutch William's aunt,--this,
crooked royal Friedrich came.
He was not born crooked; straight enough once, and a fine little boy of
six months old or so; there being an elder Prince now in his third year,
also full of hope. But in a rough journey to Konigsberg and back (winter
of 1657, as is guessed), one of the many rough jolting journeys this
faithful Electress made with her Husband, a careless or unlucky
nurse, who had charge of pretty little Fritzchen, was not sufficiently
attentive to her duties on the worst of roads. The ever-jolting carriage
gave some bigger jolt, the child fell backwards in her arms; [Johann
Wegfuhrer, _ Leben der Kurfurstin Luise, gebornen Prinzessin von
Nassau-Oranien, Gemahlin Friedrich Wilhelm des Grossen_ (Leipzig, 1838),
p. 107.] did not quite break his back, but injured it for life:--and
with his back, one may perceive, injured his soul and history to an
almost corresponding degree. For the weak crooked boy, with keen and
fine perceptions, and an inadequate case to put them in, grew up
with too thin a skin:--that may be considered as the summary of his
misfortunes; and, on the whole, there is no other heavy sin to be
charged against him.
He had other loads laid upon him, poor youth: his kind pious Mother
died, his elder Brother died, he at the age of seventeen saw himself
Heir-Apparent;--and had got a Stepmother with new heirs, if he
should disappear. Sorrows enough in that one fact, with the venomous
whisperings, commentaries and suspicions, which a Court population,
female and male, in little Berlin Town, can contrive to tack to it. Does
not the new Sovereign Lady, in her heart, wish YOU were dead, my Prince?
Hope it perhaps? Health, at any rate, weak; and, by the aid of a little
pharmacy--ye Heavens!
Such suspicions are now understood to have had no basis except in the
waste brains of courtier men and women; but their existence there can
become tragical enough. Add to which, the Great Elector, like all the
Hohenzollerns, was a choleric man; capable of blazing into volcanic
explosions, when affronted by idle masses of cobwebs in the midst of his
serious businesses! It is certain, the young Prince Friedrich had at one
time got into quite high, shrill and mutually minatory terms with his
Stepmother; so that once, after some such shrill dialogue between them,
ending with "You shall repent this, Sir!"--he found it good to fly
off in the night, with only his Tutor or Secretary and a valet, to
Hessen-Cassel to an Aunt; who stoutly protected him in this emergency;
and whose Daughter, after the difficult readjustment of matters, became
his Wife, but did not live long. And it is farther certain the same
Prince, during this his first wedded time, dining one day with his
Stepmother, was taken suddenly ill. Felt ill, after his cup of coffee;
retired into another room in violent spasms, evidently in an alarming
state, and secretly in a most alarmed one: his Tutor or Secretary, one
Dankelmann, attended him thither; and as the Doctor took some time to
arrive, and the symptoms were instant and urgent, Secretary Dankelmann
produced "from a pocket-book some drug of his own, or of the
Hessen-Cassel Aunt," emetic I suppose, and gave it to the poor
Prince;--who said often, and felt ever after, with or without notion
of poison, That Dankelmann had saved his life. In consequence of
which adventure he again quitted Court without leave; and begged to
be permitted to remain safe in the country, if Papa would be so good.
[Pollnitz, _ Memoiren, _ i. 191-198.]
Fancy the Great Elector's humor on such an occurrence; and what a
furtherance to him in his heavy continual labors, and strenuous swimming
for life, these beautiful humors and transactions must have been! A
crook-backed boy, dear to the Great Elector, pukes, one afternoon; and
there arises such an opening of the Nether Floodgates of this Universe;
in and round your poor workshop, nothing but sudden darkness, smell of
sulphur; hissing of forked serpents here, and the universal alleleu of
female hysterics there;--to help a man forward with his work! O reader,
we will pity the crowned head, as well as the hatted and even hatless
one. Human creatures will not GO quite accurately together, any more
than clocks will; and when their dissonance once rises fairly high, and
they cannot readily kill one another, any Great Elector who is third
party will have a terrible time of it.
Electress Dorothee, the Stepmother, was herself somewhat of a hard
lady; not easy to live with, though so far above poisoning as to have
"despised even the suspicion of it." She was much given to practical
economics, dairy-farming, market-gardening, and industrial and
commercial operations such as offered; and was thought to be a very
strict reckoner of money. She founded the _ Dorotheenstadt, _ now
oftener called the _ Neustadt, _ chief quarter of Berlin; and planted,
just about the time of this unlucky dinner, "A.D. 1680 or so," [Nicolai,
_ Beschreibung der koniglichen Residenzstadte Berlin und Potsdam _
(Berlin, 1786), i. 172.] the first of the celebrated Lindens, which (or
the successors of which, in a stunted ambition) are still growing there.
_ Unter-den-Linden: _ it is now the gayest quarter of Berlin, full
of really fine edifices: it was then a sandy outskirt of Electress
Dorothee's dairy-farm; good for nothing but building upon, thought
Electress Dorothee. She did much dairy-and-vegetable trade on the great
scale;--was thought even to have, underhand, a commercial interest in
the principal Beer-house of the city? [Horn, _ Leben Friedrich Wilhelms
des Grossen Kurfursten von Brandenburg _ (Berlin, 1814).] People did not
love her: to the Great Elector, who guided with a steady bridle-hand,
she complied not amiss; though in him too there rose sad recollections
and comparisons now and then: but with a Stepson of unsteady nerves it
became evident to him there could never be soft neighborhood. Prince
Friedrich and his Father came gradually to some understanding, tacit or
express, on that sad matter; Prince Friedrich was allowed to live, on
his separate allowance, mainly remote from Court. Which he did, for
perhaps six or eight years, till the Great Elector's death; henceforth
in a peaceful manner, or at least without open explosions.
His young Hessen-Cassel Wife died suddenly in 1683; and again there was
mad rumor of poisoning; which Electress Dorothee disregarded as below
her, and of no consequence to her, and attended to industrial operations
that would pay. That poor young Wife, when dying, exacted a promise from
Prince Friedrich that he would not wed again, but be content with the
Daughter she had left him: which promise, if ever seriously given,
could not be kept, as we have seen. Prince Friedrich brought his Sophie
Charlotte home about fifteen months after. With the Stepmother and with
the Court there was armed neutrality under tolerable forms, and no open
explosion farther.
In a secret way, however, there continued to be difficulties. And such
difficulties had already been, that the poor young man, not yet come
to his Heritages, and having, with probably some turn for expense, a
covetous unamiable Stepmother, had fallen into the usual difficulties;
and taken the methods too usual. Namely, had given ear to the Austrian
Court, which offered him assistance,--somewhat as an aged Jew will to a
young Christian gentleman in quarrel with papa,--upon condition of his
signing a certain bond: bond which much surprised Prince Friedrich when
he came to understand it! Of which we shall hear more, and even much
more, in the course of time!--
Neither after his accession (year 1688; his Cousin Dutch William, of the
glorious and immortal memory, just lifting anchor towards these shores)
was the new Elector's life an easy one. We may say, it was replete with
troubles rather; and unhappily not so much with great troubles, which
could call forth antagonistic greatness of mind or of result, as with
never-ending shoals of small troubles, the antagonism to which is apt to
become itself of smallish character. Do not search into his history;
you will remember almost nothing of it (I hope) after never so many
readings! Garrulous Pollnitz and others have written enough about him;
but it all runs off from you again, as a thing that has no affinity
with the human skin. He had a court _ "rempli d'intrigues, _ full of
never-ending cabals," [Forster, i. 74 (quoting _ Memoires du Comte de
Dohna); _ &c. &c.]--about what?
One question only are we a little interested in: How he came by the
Kingship? How did the like of him contrive to achieve Kingship? We may
answer: It was not he that achieved it; it was those that went before
him, who had gradually got it,--as is very usual in such cases. All that
he did was to knock at the gate (the Kaiser's gate and the world's),
and ask, "IS it achieved, then?" Is Brandenburg grown ripe for having
a crown? Will it be needful for you to grant Brandenburg a crown? Which
question, after knocking as loud as possible, they at last took the
trouble to answer, "Yes, it will be needful."--
Elector Friedrich's turn for ostentation--or as we may interpret it, the
high spirit of a Hohenzollern working through weak nerves and a crooked
back--had early set him a-thinking of the Kingship; and no doubt, the
exaltation of rival Saxony, which had attained that envied dignity (in
a very unenviable manner, in the person of Elector August made King of
Poland) in 1697, operated as a new spur on his activities. Then also
Duke Ernst of Hanover, his father-in-law, was struggling to become
Elector Ernst; Hanover to be the Ninth Electorate, which it actually
attained in 1698; not to speak of England, and quite endless prospects
there for Ernst and Hanover. These my lucky neighbors are all rising;
all this the Kaiser has granted to my lucky neighbors: why is there no
promotion he should grant me, among them!--
Elector Friedrich had 30,000 excellent troops; Kaiser Leopold, the
"little man in red stockings," had no end of Wars. Wars in Turkey, wars
in Italy; all Dutch William's wars and more, on our side of Europe;--and
here is a Spanish-Succession War, coming dubiously on, which may prove
greater than all the rest together. Elector Friedrich sometimes in
his own high person (a courageous and high though thin-skinned man),
otherwise by skilful deputy, had done the Kaiser service, often signal
service, in all these wars; and was never wanting in the time of need,
in the post of difficulty with those famed Prussian Troops of his. A
loyal gallant Elector this, it must be owned; capable withal of doing
signal damage if we irritated him too far! Why not give him this
promotion; since it costs us absolutely nothing real, not even the price
of a yard of ribbon with metal cross at the end of it? Kaiser Leopold
himself, it is said, had no particular objection; but certain of his
ministers had; and the little man in red stockings--much occupied in
hunting, for one thing--let them have their way, at the risk of angering
Elector Friedrich. Even Dutch William, anxious for it, in sight of the
future, had not yet prevailed.
The negotiation had lasted some seven years, without result. There is no
doubt but the Succession War, and Marlborough, would have brought it to
a happy issue: in the mean while, it is said to have succeeded at last,
somewhat on the sudden, by a kind of accident. This is the curious
mythical account; incorrect in some unessential particulars, but in the
main and singular part of it well-founded. Elector Friedrich, according
to Pollnitz and others, after failing in many methods, had sent 100,000
_ thalers _ (say 15,000 pounds) to give, by way of--bribe we must call
it,--to the chief opposing Hofrath at Vienna. The money was offered,
accordingly; and was refused by the opposing Hofrath: upon which the
Brandenburg Ambassador wrote that it was all labor lost; and even
hurried off homewards in despair, leaving a Secretary in his place. The
Brandenburg Court, nothing despairing, orders in the mean while, Try
another with it,--some other Hofrath, whose name they wrote in cipher,
which the blundering Secretary took to mean no Hofrath, but the Kaiser's
Confessor and Chief Jesuit, Pater Wolf. To him accordingly he hastened
with the cash, to him with the respectful Electoral request; who
received both, it is said, especially the 15,000 pounds, with a _ Gloria
in excelsis; _ and went forthwith and persuaded the Kaiser. [Pollnitz,
_ Memoiren, _ i. 310.]--Now here is the inexactitude, say Modern Doctors
of History; an error no less than threefold. 1. Elector Friedrich was
indeed advised, in cipher, by his agent at Vienna, to write in person
to--"Who is that cipher, then?" asks Elector Friedrich, rather puzzled.
At Vienna that cipher was meant for the Kaiser; but at Berlin they
take it for Pater Wolf; and write accordingly, and are answered with
readiness and animation. 2. Pater Wolf was not official Confessor, but
was a Jesuit in extreme favor with the Kaiser, and by birth a nobleman,
sensible to human decorations. 3. He accepted no bribe, nor was any
sent; his bribe was the pleasure of obliging a high gentleman who
condescended to ask, and possibly the hope of smoothing roads for St.
Ignatius and the Black Militia, in time coming. And THUS at last, and
not otherwise than thus, say exact Doctors, did Pater Wolf do the thing.
[G. A. H. Stenzel, _ Geschichte des Preussischen Staats _ (Hamburg,
1841), iii. 104 _ (Berliner Monatschrift, _ year 1799); &c.] Or might
not the actual death of poor King Carlos II. at Madrid, 1st November,
1700, for whose heritages all the world stood watching with swords half
drawn, considerably assist Pater Wolf? Done sure enough the thing was;
and before November ended, Friedrich's messenger returned with "Yes"
for answer, and a Treaty signed on the 16th of that month. [Pollnitz (i.
318) gives the Treaty (date corrected by his Editor, ii.589).]
To the huge joy of Elector Friedrich and his Court, almost the very
nation thinking itself glad. Which joyful Potentate decided to set out
straightway and have the coronation done; though it was midwinter;
and Konigsberg (for Prussia is to be our title, "King in Prussia," and
Konigsberg is Capital City there) lies 450 miles off, through tangled
shaggy forests, boggy wildernesses, and in many parts only corduroy
roads. We order "30,000 post-horses," besides all our own large stud, to
be got ready at the various stations: our boy Friedrich Wilhelm, rugged
boy of twelve, rough and brisk, yet much "given to blush" withal (which
is a feature of him), shall go with us; much more, Sophie Charlotte our
august Electress-Queen that is to be: and we set out, on the 17th of
December, 1700, last year of the Century; "in 1800 carriages:" such a
cavalcade as never crossed those wintry wildernesses before. Friedrich
Wilhelm went in the third division of carriages (for 1800 of them could
not go quite together); our noble Sophie Charlotte in the second; a
Margraf of Brandenburg-Schwedt, chief Margraf, our eldest Half-Brother,
Dorothee's eldest Son, sitting on the coach-box, in correct insignia,
as similitude of Driver. So strict are we in etiquette; etiquette indeed
being now upon its apotheosis, and after such efforts. Six or seven
years of efforts on Elector Friedrich's part; and six or seven hundred
years, unconsciously, on that of his ancestors.
The magnificence of Friedrich's processionings into Konigsberg, and
through it or in it, to be crowned, and of his coronation ceremonials
there: what pen can describe it, what pen need! Folio volumes with
copper-plates have been written on it; and are not yet all pasted in
bandboxes, or slit into spills. [British Museum, short of very many
necessary Books on this subject, offers the due Coronation Folio, with
its prints, upholstery catalogues, and official harangues upon nothing,
to ingenuous human curiosity.] "The diamond buttons of his Majesty's
coat [snuff-colored or purple, I cannot recollect] cost 1,500 pounds
apiece;" by this one feature judge what an expensive Herr. Streets were
hung with cloth, carpeted with cloth, no end of draperies and cloth;
your oppressed imagination feels as if there was cloth enough, of
scarlet and other bright colors, to thatch the Arctic Zone. With
illuminations, cannon-salvos, fountains running wine. Friedrich had made
two Bishops for the nonce. Two of his natural Church-Superintendents
made into Quasi-Bishops, on the Anglican model,--which was always a
favorite with him, and a pious wish of his;--but they remained mere cut
branches, these two, and did not, after their haranguing and anointing
functions, take root in the country. He himself put the crown on his
head: "King here in my own right, after all!"--and looked his royalest,
we may fancy; the kind eyes of him almost partly fierce for moments, and
"the cheerfulness of pride" well blending with something of awful.
In all which sublimities, the one thing that remains for human memory is
not in these Folios at all, but is considered to be a fact not the less:
Electress Charlotte's, now Queen Charlotte's, very strange conduct
on the occasion. For she cared not much about crowns, or upholstery
magnificences of any kind; but had meditated from of old on the
infinitely little; and under these genuflections, risings, sittings,
shiftings, grimacings on all parts, and the endless droning eloquence
of Bishops invoking Heaven, her ennui, not ill-humored or offensively
ostensible, was heartfelt and transcendent. At one turn of the
proceedings, Bishop This and Chancellor That droning their empty
grandiloquences at discretion, Sophie Charlotte was distinctly seen to
smuggle out her snuff-box, being addicted to that rakish practice, and
fairly solace herself with a delicate little pinch of snuff. Rasped
tobacco, _ tabac rape, _ called by mortals _ rape _ or rappee: there is
no doubt about it; and the new King himself noticed her, and hurled back
a look of due fulminancy, which could not help the matter, and was only
lost in air. A memorable little action, and almost symbolic in the first
Prussian Coronation. "Yes, we are Kings, and are got SO near the stars,
not nearer; and you invoke the gods, in that tremendously long-winded
manner; and I--Heavens, I have my snuff-box by me, at least!" Thou
wearied patient Heroine; cognizant of the infinitely little!--This
symbolic pinch of snuff is fragrant all along in Prussian History.
A fragrancy of humble verity in the middle of all royal or other
ostentations; inexorable, quiet protest against cant, done with such
simplicity: Sophie Charlotte's symbolic pinch of snuff. She was always
considered something of a Republican Queen.
Thus Brandenburg Electorate has become Kingdom of Prussia; and the
Hohenzollerns have put a crown upon their head. Of Brandenburg, what it
was, and what Prussia was; and of the Hohenzollerns and what they were,
and how they rose thither, a few details, to such as are dark about
these matters, cannot well be dispensed with here.
END OF BOOK I