Automatic air-brake.
In the Westinghouse "ordinary" automatic air-brake a main air
reservoir on the engine is kept charged with compressed air at 80 lb.
per sq. in. by means of the steam-pump, which may be controlled by an
automatic governor. On electric railways a pump, driven by an electric
motor, is generally employed; but occasionally, on trains which run
short distances, no pump is carried, the main reservoir being charged
at the terminal points with sufficient compressed air for the journey.
Conveniently placed to the driver's hand is the driver's valve, by
means of which he controls the flow of air from the main reservoir to
the train-pipe, or from the train-pipe to the atmosphere. A
reducing-valve is attached to the driver's valve, and in the normal or
running position of the latter reduces the pressure of the air flowing
from the main reservoir to the train-pipe by 10 or 15 lb. per sq. in.
From the engine a train-pipe runs the whole length of the train, being
rendered continuous between each vehicle and between the engine and
the rest of the train by flexible hose couplings. Each vehicle is
provided with a brake-cylinder H (fig. 1), containing a piston, the
movement of which applies the brake blocks to the wheels, an
"auxiliary air-reservoir" G, and an automatic "triple-valve" F. The
auxiliary reservoir receives compressed air from the train-pipe and
stores it for use in the brake-cylinder of its own vehicle, and both
the auxiliary reservoir and the triple-valve are connected directly or
indirectly with the train-pipe through the pipe E. The automatic
action of the brake is due to the construction of the triple-valve,
the principal parts of which are a piston and slide-valve, so arranged
that the air in the auxiliary reservoir acts at all times on the side
of the piston to which the slide-valve is attached, while the air in
the train-pipe exerts its pressure on the opposite side. So long as
the brakes are not in operation, the pressures in the train-pipe,
triple-valve and auxiliary reservoir are all equal, and there is no
compressed air in the brake-cylinder. But when, in order to apply the
brake, the driver discharges air from the train-pipe, this
equilibrium is destroyed, and the greater pressure in the auxiliary
reservoir forces the triple-valve to a position which allows air from
the auxiliary reservoir to pass directly into the brake-cylinder. This
air forces out the piston of the brake-cylinder and applies the
brakes, connexion being made with the brake-rigging at R. The purpose
of the small groove n which establishes communication between the two
sides of the piston when the brakes are off, is to prevent their
unintended application through slight leakage from the train-pipe. To
release the brakes, the driver, by moving the handle of his valve to
the release position, admits air from the main reservoir to the
train-pipe, the pressure in which thus becomes greater than that in
the auxiliary reservoir; the piston and slide-valve of the
triple-valve are thereby forced back to their normal position, the
compressed air in the brake-cylinder is discharged, and the piston is
brought back by the coiled spring, thus releasing the brakes. At the
same time the auxiliary reservoir is recharged.
Quick-acting air-brake.
With this "ordinary" brake, since an appreciable time is required for
the reduction of pressure to travel along the train-pipe from the
engine, the brakes are applied sensibly sooner at the front than at
the end of the train, and with long trains this difference in the time
of application becomes a matter of importance. The "quick-acting"
brake was introduced to remedy this defect. For it the triple valve is
provided with a supplementary mechanism, which, when the air pressure
in the train-pipe is suddenly or violently reduced, opens a passage
whereby air from the train-pipe is permitted to enter the
brake-cylinder directly. The result is twofold: not only is the
pressure from the auxiliary reservoir acting in the brake-cylinder
reinforced by the pressure in the train-pipe, but the pressure in the
train-pipe is reduced locally in every vehicle in extremely rapid
succession instead of at the engine only, and in consequence all the
brakes are applied almost simultaneously throughout the train. The
same effect is produced should the train break in two, or a hose or
any part of the train-pipe burst; but during ordinary or "service"
stops the triple-valve acts exactly as in the ordinary brake, the
quick-acting portion, that is, the vertical piston and valve seen in
fig. 1, not coming into operation. When the handle Z is turned to the
position X the quick-acting mechanism is rendered inoperative, and
when it is at Y the brake on the vehicle concerned is wholly cut out
of action.
A further improvement introduced in the Westinghouse brake in 1906 was
designed to give quick action for service as well as emergency stops.
In this the triple-valve is substantially the same as in the ordinary
brake. The additional mechanism of the quick-acting portion is
dispensed with, but instead, a small chamber, normally containing air
at atmospheric pressure, is provided on each vehicle, and is so
arranged that it is put into communication with the train-pipe by the
first movement of the triple-valve. As soon, therefore, as the driver,
by lowering the pressure in the train-pipe, causes the triple-valve in
the foremost vehicle of the train to operate, a certain quantity of
air rushes out of the train-pipe into the small chamber; a further
local reduction in the pressure of the train-pipe in that vehicle is
thereby effected, and this almost instantaneously actuates the
triple-valve of the succeeding vehicle, and so on throughout the
train. In this way, on a train 1800 ft. long, consisting of sixty
30-ft. vehicles, the brake-blocks may be applied, with equal force, on
the last vehicle about 2-1/2 seconds later than on the first.
High-speed air-brake.
Brake-blocks can be applied, without skidding the wheels, with greater
pressure at high speeds than at low. Advantage is taken of this fact
in the design of the Westinghouse "high-speed" brake, invented in
1894, which consists of attachments enabling the pressure in the
train-pipe and reservoirs to be increased at the will of the driver.
The increased pressure acting in the brake-cylinder increases in the
same proportion the pressure of the brake-shoes against the wheels.
Attached to the brake cylinder is a valve for automatically reducing
the pressure therein proportionately to the reduction in speed, until
the maximum pressure under which the brakes are operated in making
ordinary stops is reached, when this valve closes and the maximum safe
pressure for operating the brakes at ordinary speeds is retained until
a stop is made.
[Illustration: Fig. 2--Automatic Vacuum-Brake, showing its general
arrangement.]
Automatic Vacuum-Brake.
In the automatic vacuum-brake, the exhausting apparatus generally
consists of a combined large and small ejector (a form of jet-pump)
worked by steam and under the control of the driver, though sometimes
a mechanical air-pump, driven from the crosshead of the locomotive, is
substituted for the small ejector. These ejectors, of which the small
one is at work continuously while the large one is only employed when
it is necessary to create vacuum quickly, e.g. to take off the brakes
after a short stop, produce in the train-pipe a vacuum equal to about
20 in. of mercury, or in other words reduce the pressure within it to
about one-third of an atmosphere. The train-pipe extends the whole
length of the train and communicates under each vehicle with a
cylinder, to the piston of which, by suitable rods and levers, the
brake-shoes are connected. The communication between the train-pipe
and the cylinder is controlled by a ball-valve, one form of which is
shown in fig. 2. The release-valve is for the purpose of withdrawing
the ball from its seat when it is necessary to take off the brakes by
hand; it is made air-tight by a small diaphragm, the pressure of
which, when there is vacuum in the pipe, pulls in the spindle and
allows the ball to fall freely into its seat. When air is exhausted
through the train-pipe it travels out from below the piston direct,
and from above it past the ball, which is thus forced off its seat, to
roll back again when the exhaustion is complete. In this state of
affairs the piston is held in equilibrium and the brake-blocks are
free of the wheels. To apply them, air is admitted to the train-pipe,
either purposely by the guard or driver, or accidentally by the
rupture of the train-pipe or coupling-hose between the vehicles. The
air passes to the lower side of the piston, but is prevented from
gaining access to the upper side by the ball-valve which blocks the
passage; hence the pressure becomes different on the two sides of the
piston, which in consequence is forced upwards and thus applies the
brakes. They are released by the re-establishment of equilibrium (by
the use of the large ejector if necessary); when this is done the
piston falls and the brakes drop off. The general arrangement of the
apparatus is shown in fig. 2. To render the application of the brakes
nearly simultaneous throughout a long train, the valve in the guard's
van is arranged to open automatically when the driver suddenly lets in
air to the train-pipe. This valve has a small hole through its stem,
and is secured at the top by a diaphragm to a small dome-like chamber,
which is exhausted when a vacuum is created in the train-pipe. A
gradual application destroys the vacuum in the chamber as quickly as
in the pipe and the diaphragm remains unmoved; but with a sudden one
the vacuum below the valve is destroyed more quickly, and with the
difference of pressure the diaphragm lifts the valve and admits air. A
rapid-acting valve (fig. 3) is sometimes interposed between the
train-pipe and the cylinder on each vehicle. In the normal or running
position, a vacuum is maintained below the valve A and above the
diaphragm B, while the chamber below B and above A is at atmospheric
pressure. For an emergency application of the brake, air is suddenly
admitted to the train-pipe and thus to the lower side of A, and the
pressure acting on the under side of B is sufficient to cause it to
lift the valve A, and to admit air from the atmosphere, both to the
brake-cylinder and the train-pipe, through the clappet-valve D, which
also rises because of the difference of pressure on its two sides. In
a graduated application, neither D nor A rises from its seat, but air
from the train-pipe finds access to the brake-cylinder by passing
around the peg C, which is so proportioned as to allow the necessary
amount of air to enter the brake-cylinder, and so obtain simultaneous
action of the brake throughout the train. When the handle E is turned
so as to prevent the clappet D from rising, the rapid action is cut
out and the brake acts as an ordinary vacuum automatic brake. A
modification of the device for obtaining accelerated action, described
above in connexion with the Westinghouse brake, is also applicable.
Accelerating chambers, again containing air at atmospheric pressure,
are provided on each vehicle and are connected with the train-pipe by
valves which open as the vacuum in the latter begins to decrease with
the operation of the driver's valve. The air thus admitted into the
train-pipe effects a still further local reduction of the vacuum,
which is sufficient to actuate the accelerating valve of each next
succeeding vehicle and is thus rapidly propagated throughout the
train.
Brake trials.
Famous tests of railway brakes were those made by Sir Douglas Galton
and Mr George Westinghouse on the London, Brighton and South Coast
railway, in England, in 1878, and by a committee of the Master Car
Builders' Association, near Burlington, Iowa, in 1886 and 1887. The
object of the former series (for accounts of which see _Proc. Inst.
Mech. Eng._, 1878, 1879) was to determine the co-efficient of friction
between the brake-shoe and the wheel, and between the wheel and rail
at different velocities when the wheels were revolving and when
skidded, i.e. stopped in their rotation and caused to slide. These
experiments were the first of their kind ever undertaken, and for many
years their results furnished most of the trustworthy data obtainable
on the friction of motion. It was found that the co-efficient of
friction between cast-iron shoes and steel-tired wheels increased as
the speed of the train decreased, varying from 0.111 at 55 m. an hour
to 0.33 when the train was just moving. It also decreased with the
time during which the brakes were applied; thus at 20 m. an hour the
co-efficient was at the beginning 0.182, after ten seconds 0.133,
after twenty seconds 0.099. Generally speaking, especially at moderate
speeds, the decrease in the co-efficient of friction due to time is
less than the increase due to decrease of speed, although when the
time is long the reverse may be true. When the wheels are skidded the
retardation of the train is always reduced; therefore, for the
greatest braking effect, the pressures on the brake-shoes should never
be sufficient to cause the wheels to slide on the rails. The
Burlington brake tests were undertaken to determine the practicability
of using power brakes on long and heavy freight trains. In the 1886
tests there were five competitors--three buffer-brakes, one
compressed-air brake, and one vacuum-brake. The tests comprised stops
with trains of twenty-five and fifty vehicles, at 20 and 40 m. an
hour, on the level and on gradients of 1 in 100. They demonstrated
that the buffer-brakes were inadequate for long trains, and that
considerable improvements in the continuous brakes, both
compressed-air and vacuum, would be needed to make them act quickly
enough to avoid excessive shocks in the rear vehicles. In 1887 the
trials of the year before were repeated by the same committee, and at
the same place. Trains of fifty vehicles, about 2000 ft. long and
fitted with each brake, were again provided, and there were again five
competitors, but they all entered continuous brakes--three
compressed-air brakes, one vacuum and one electric. The results of the
first day's test of the train equipped with Westinghouse brakes are
shown in Table I., the distances in which are the feet run by the
train after the brakes were set, and the times the seconds that
elapsed from the application of the brakes to full stop.
[Illustration: FIG. 3--Rapid-acting Vacuum-Brake Valve.]
TABLE I.--_Stops of a Train of Fifty Empty Cars, 1887--Automatic
Air-Brakes._
+-----------+----------+----------+---------------------+
| Speed in | Distance | Time in | Equivalent Distance |
| Miles per | in Feet. | Seconds. | at 20 m. and 40 m. |
| Hour. | | | |
+-----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+
| 19-1/2 | 186 | 9-3/4 | 196 | . . |
| 19-1/4 | 215 | 11 | 233 | . . |
| 36-1/2 | 588 | 17 | . . | 693 |
+-----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+
The remarkable shortness of these stops is the more evident when they
are compared with the best results obtained in 1886, as shown in Table
II.
TABLE II.--_Stops of a Train of Fifty Empty Cars, 1886--Automatic
Air-Brakes._
+-----------+----------+----------+---------------------+
| Speed in | Distance | Time in | Equivalent Distance |
| Miles. | in Feet. | Seconds. | at 20 m. and 40 m. |
+-----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+
| 23.5 | 424 | 17-1/2 | 307 | . . |
| 20.3 | 354 | 16 | 340 | . . |
| 40 | 922 | 22-1/2 | . . | 922 |
| 40 | 927 | 22-3/4 | . . | 927 |
+-----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+
The time that elapsed between the application of the brakes on the
engine and on the fiftieth vehicle was almost twice as great in 1886
as in 1887, being in the latter tests only five to six seconds, and in
1887 the stops were made in less than two-thirds the distance required
in 1886. Still, violent shocks were caused by the rear vehicles
running against those in front, before the brakes on the former were
applied with sufficient force to hold them, and these shocks were so
severe as to make the use of the brakes in practice impossible on long
trains. When the triple-valves were actuated electrically, however,
the stops were still further improved, as shown in Table III.
Table III.--_Stops of a Train of Fifty Empty Cars--Electric
Application of Air-Brakes._
+-----------+----------+----------+---------------------+
| Speed in | Distance | Time in | Equivalent Distance |
| Miles. | in Feet. | Seconds. | at 20 m. and 40 m. |
+-----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+
| 21-1/2 | 160 | 7 | 139 | . . |
| 23 | 183 | 8 | 138 | . . |
| 38 | 475 | 14-1/2 | . . | 519 |
| 36-1/2 | 460 | 14 | . . | 545 |
+-----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+
Although the same levers, shoes, rods and other connexions were used,
there were no shocks in the fiftieth car of the train on any stop,
whether on the level or on a gradient. The committee in charge
reported that the best type of brake for long freight trains was one
operated by air, in which the valves were actuated by electricity, but
they expressed doubt of the practicability of using electricity on
freight trains. The Westinghouse Company then proceeded to quicken the
action of the triple-valve, operated by air only, so that stops with
fifty-car trains could be made without shock, and without electrically
operated valves; and they were so successful in this respect that,
towards the end of the same year, 1887, with a train of fifty
vehicles, stops were made without shock, fully equalling in quickness
and shortness of distance run any that had been made at the trials by
the electrically operated brakes.
In 1889 some further tests were made by Sir Douglas Galton with the
automatic vacuum-brake, on a practically level portion of the
Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire railway (now the Great Central).
The train was composed of an engine, tender and forty carriages, the
total length over buffers being 1464 ft., and the total weight 574
tons, of which 423 tons were braked. At a speed of about 32 m. an hour
this train was brought to a standstill in twelve seconds after the
application of the brakes, in a distance of 342 ft.
BRAKELOND, JOCELYN DE (fl. 1200), English monk, and author of a
chronicle narrating the fortunes of the monastery of Bury St Edmunds
between 1173 and 1202. He is only known to us through his own work. He
was a native of Bury St Edmunds; he served his novitiate under Samson of
Tottington, who was at that time master of the novices, but afterwards
sub-sacrist, and, from 1182, abbot of the house. Jocelyn took the habit
of religion in 1173, during the time of Abbot Hugo (1157-1180), through
whose improvidence and laxity the abbey had become impoverished and the
inmates dead to all respect for discipline. The fortunes of the abbey
changed for the better with the election of Samson as Hugo's successor.
Jocelyn, who became abbot's chaplain within four months of the election,
describes the administration of Samson at considerable length. He tells
us that he was with Samson night and day for six years; the picture
which he gives of his master, although coloured by enthusiastic
admiration, is singularly frank and intimate. It is all the more
convincing since Jocelyn is no stylist. His Latin is familiar and easy,
but the reverse of classical. He thinks and writes as one whose
interests are wrapped up in his house; and the unique interest of his
work lies in the minuteness with which it describes the policy of a
monastic administrator who was in his own day considered as a model.
Jocelyn has also been credited with an extant but unprinted tract on the
election of Abbot Hugo (Harleian MS. 1005, fo. 165); from internal
evidence this appears to be an error. He mentions a (non-extant) work
which he wrote, before the _Cronica_, on the miracles of St Robert, a
boy whom the Jews of Bury St Edmunds were alleged to have murdered
(1181).
See the editions of the _Cronica Jocelini de Brakelonda_ by T. Arnold
(in _Memorials of St Edmund's Abbey_, vol. i. Rolls series, 1890), and
by J.G. Rokewood (Camden Society, 1840); also Carlyle's _Past and
Present_, book ii. A translation and notes are given in T.E. Tomlin's
_Monastic and Social Life in the Twelfth Century in the Chronicle of
Jocelyn de Brakelond_ (1844). There is also a translation of Jocelyn
by Sir E. Clarke (1907).
BRAMAH, JOSEPH (1748-1814), English engineer and inventor, was the son
of a farmer, and was born at Stainborough, Yorkshire, on the 13th of
April 1748. Incapacitated for agricultural labour by an accident to his
ankle, on the expiry of his indentures he worked as a cabinet-maker in
London, where he subsequently started business on his own account. His
first patent for some improvements in the mechanism of water-closets was
taken out in 1778. In 1784 he patented the lock known by his name, and
in 1795 he invented the hydraulic press. For an important part of this,
the collar which secured water-tightness between the plunger and the
cylinder in which it worked, he was indebted to Henry Maudslay, one of
his workmen, who also helped him in designing machines for the
manufacture of his locks. In 1806 he devised for the Bank of England a
numerical printing machine, specially adapted for bank-notes. Other
inventions of his included the beer-engine for drawing beer, machinery
for making aerated waters, planing machines, and improvements in
steam-engines and boilers and in paper-making machinery. In 1785 he
suggested the possibility of screw propulsion for ships, and in 1802 the
hydraulic transmission of power; and he constructed waterworks at
Norwich in 1790 and 1793. He died in London on the 9th of December 1814.
BRAMANTE, or BRAMANTE LAZZARI (c. 1444-1514), Italian architect and
painter, whose real name was Donate d'Augnolo, was born at
Monte-Asdrualdo in Urbino, in July 1444. He showed a great taste for
drawing, and was at an early age placed under Fra Bartolommeo, called
Fra Carnavale. But though he afterwards gained some fame as a painter,
his attention was soon absorbed by architecture. He appears to have
studied under Scirro Scirri, an architect in his native place, and
perhaps under other masters. He then set out from Urbino, and proceeded
through several of the towns of Lombardy, executing works of various
magnitudes, and examining patiently all remains of ancient art. At last,
attracted by the fame of the great Duomo, he reached Milan, where he
remained from 1476 to 1499. He seems to have left Milan for Rome about
1500. He painted some frescoes at Rome, and devoted himself to the study
of the ancient buildings, both in the city and as far south as Naples.
About this time the Cardinal Caraffa commissioned him to rebuild the
cloister of the Convent della Pace. Owing to the celerity and skill with
which Bramante did this, the cardinal introduced him to Pope Alexander
VI. He began to be consulted on nearly all the great architectural
operations in Rome, and executed for the pope the palace of the
Cancelleria or chancery. Under Julius II., Alexander's successor,
Bramante's talents began to obtain adequate sphere of exercise. His
first large work was to unite the straggling buildings of the palace and
the Belvedere. This he accomplished by means of two long galleries or
corridors enclosing a court. The design was only in part completed
before the death of Julius and of the architect. So impatient was the
pope and so eager was Bramante, that the foundations were not
sufficiently well attended to; great part of it had, therefore, soon to
be rebuilt, and the whole is now so much altered that it is hardly
possible to decipher the original design.
Besides executing numerous smaller works at Rome and Bologna, among
which is specially mentioned by older writers a round temple in the
cloister of San Pietro-a-Montorio, Bramante was called upon by Pope
Julius to take the first part in one of the greatest architectural
enterprises ever attempted--the rebuilding of St Peter's. Bramante's
designs were complete, and he pushed on the work so fast that before his
death he had erected the four great piers and their arches, and
completed the cornice and the vaulting in of this portion. He also
vaulted in the principal chapel. After his death on the 11th of March
1514, his design was much altered, in particular by Michelangelo.
See Pungileoni, _Memoire intorno alla vita ed alle opere di Bramante_
(Rome, 1836); H. Semper, _Donato Bramante_ (Leipzig, 1879).
BRAMPTON, HENRY HAWKINS, BARON (1817-1907), English judge, was born at
Hitchin, on the 14th of September 1817. He received his education at
Bedford school. The son of a solicitor, he was early familiarized with
legal principles. Called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1843, he at
once joined the old home circuit, and after enjoying a lucrative
practice as a junior, took silk in 1859. His name is identified with
many of the famous trials of the reign of Queen Victoria. He was engaged
in the Simon Bernard case (of the Orsini plot celebrity), in that of
_Roupell_ v. _Waite_, and in the Overend-Gurney prosecutions. The two
_causes celebres_, however, in which Hawkins attained his highest legal
distinction were the Tichborne trials and the great will case of
_Sugden_ v. _Lord St Leonards_. In both of these he was victorious. In
the first his masterly cross-examination of the witness Baigent was one
of the great features of the trial. He did a lucrative business in
references and arbitrations, and acted for the royal commissioners in
the purchase of the site for the new law courts. Election petitions also
formed another branch of his extensive practice. Hawkins was raised to
the bench in 1876, and was assigned to the then exchequer division of
the High Court, not as baron (an appellation which was being abolished
by the Judicature Act), but with the title of Sir Henry Hawkins. He was
a great advocate rather than a great lawyer. His searching voice, his
manner, and the variety of his facial expression, gave him an enormous
influence with juries, and as a cross-examiner he was seldom, if ever,
surpassed. He was an excellent judge in chambers, where he displayed a
clear and vigorous grasp of details and questions of fact. His knowledge
of the criminal law was extensive and intimate, the reputation he gained
as a "hanging" judge making him a terror to evil-doers; and the court
for crown cases reserved was never considered complete without his
assistance. In 1898 he retired from the bench, and was raised to the
peerage under the title of Baron Brampton. He frequently took part in
determining House of Lords appeals, and his judgments were distinguished
by their lucidity and grasp. He held for many years the office of
counsel to the Jockey Club, and as an active member of that body found
relaxation from his legal and judicial duties at the leading race
meetings, and was considered a capable judge of horses. In 1898 he was
received into the Roman Catholic Church, and in 1903 he presented, in
conjunction with Lady Brampton (his second wife), the chapel of SS.
Augustine and Gregory to the Roman Catholic cathedral of Westminster,
which was consecrated in that year. In 1904 he published his
_Reminiscences_. He died in London on the 6th of October 1907, and Lady
Brampton in the following year.
BRAMPTON, a market town in the Eskdale parliamentary division of
Cumberland, England, 9 m. E.N.E. of Carlisle, on a branch of the North
Eastern railway. Pop. (1901) 2494. It is picturesquely situated in a
narrow valley opening upon that of the Irthing. The town has an
agricultural trade, breweries, and manufactures of cotton and tweeds.
The neighbourhood is rich in historical associations. Two miles N.E. of
Brampton is the castle of Naworth, a fine example of a Border fortress.
It was built in the reign of Edward III., by a member of the family of
Dacre, who for many generations had had their stronghold here.
Overlooking a deep wooded ravine, with streams to the east and west, the
great quadrangular castle was naturally defended except on the south,
where it was rendered secure by a double moat and drawbridge. By
marriage in 1577 with Lady Elizabeth Dacre it passed into the hands of
William Howard, afterwards lord warden of the Marches, the "Belted Will"
of Sir Walter Scott and the Border ballads, who acquired great fame by
his victories over the Scottish moss-troopers. The castle, the walls of
which have many secret passages and hiding-places, is inhabited, and in
its hall are numerous fine pictures, including a portrait of Charles I.
by Van Dyck. Not far distant is Lanercost Priory, where in 1169 an
Augustinian monastery was established. In 1311 Robert Bruce and his army
were quartered here, and the priory was pillaged in 1346 by David, king
of Scotland. From this time its prosperity declined, and at its
dissolution under Henry VIII. it consisted only of a prior and seven
canons. The Early English church has a restored nave, but retains much
fine carving. The chancel is ruined, but the interesting crypt is
preserved.
BRAMWELL, GEORGE WILLIAM WILSHERE BRAMWELL, BARON (1808-1892), English
judge, was born in London on the 12th of June 1808, being the eldest son
of George Bramwell, of the banking firm of Dorrien, Magens, Dorrien &
Mello. He was educated privately, and at the age of sixteen he entered
Dorriens' bank. In 1830 he gave up this business for the law, being
admitted as a student at Lincoln's Inn in 1830, and at the Inner Temple
in 1836. At first he practised as a special pleader, but was eventually
called to the bar at both Inns in 1838. He soon worked his way into a
good practice both in London and the home circuit, his knowledge of law
and procedure being so well recognized that in 1850 he was appointed a
member of the Common Law Procedure Commission, which resulted in the
Common Law Procedure Act of 1852. This act he drafted jointly with his
friend Mr (afterwards Mr Justice) Willes, and thus began the abolition
of the system of special pleading. In 1851 Lord Cranworth made Bramwell
a queen's counsel, and the Inner Temple elected him a bencher--he had
ceased to be a member of Lincoln's Inn in 1841. In 1853 he served on the
royal commission to inquire into the assimilation of the mercantile laws
of Scotland and England and the law of partnership, which had as its
result the Companies Act of 1862. It was he who, during the sitting of
this commission, suggested the addition of the word "limited" to the
title of companies that sought to limit their liability, in order to
prevent the obvious danger to persons trading with them in ignorance of
their limitation of liability. As a queen's counsel Bramwell enjoyed a
large and steadily increasing practice, and in 1856 he was raised to the
bench as a baron of the court of exchequer. In 1867, with Mr Justice
Blackburn and Sir John Coleridge, he was made a member of the judicature
commission. In 1871 he was one of the three judges who refused the seat
on the judicial committee of the privy council to which Sir Robert
Collier, in evasion of the spirit of the act creating the appointment,
was appointed; and in 1876 he was raised to the court of appeal, where
he sat till the autumn of 1881. As a puisne judge he had been
conspicuous as a sound lawyer, with a strong logical mind unfettered by
technicalities, but endowed with considerable respect for the common
law. His rulings were always clear and decisive, while the same quality
marked his dealings with fact, and, coupled with a straightforward,
unpretentious manner, gave him great influence with juries. In the court
of appeal he was perhaps not so entirely in his element as at _nisi
prius_, but the same combination of sound law, strong common sense and
clear expression characterized his judgments. His decisions during the
three stages of his practical career are too numerous to be referred to
particularly, although _Ryder_ v. _Wombwell_ (L.R. 3 Ex. 95); _R._ v.
_Bradshaw_ (14 Cox C.C. 84); _Household Fire Insurance Company_ v.
_Grant_ (4 Ex. Div. 216); _Stonor_ v. _Fowle_ (13 App. Cas. 20), _The
Bank of England_ v. _Vagliano Brothers_ (App. Cas. 1891) are good
examples. Upon his retirement, announced in the long vacation of 1881,
twenty-six judges and a huge gathering of the bar entertained him at a
banquet in the Inner Temple hall. In December of the same year he was
raised to the peerage, taking the title Baron Bramwell of Hever, from
his home in Kent. In private life Bramwell had simple tastes and enjoyed
simple pleasures. He was musical and fond of sports. He was twice
married: in 1830 to Jane (d. 1836), daughter of Bruno Silva, by whom he
had one daughter, and in 1861 to Martha Sinden. He died on the 9th of
May 1892.
His younger brother, Sir Frederick Bramwell (1818-1903), was a
well-known consulting engineer and "expert witness."
At all times Lord Bramwell had been fond of controversy and
controversial writing, and he wrote constant letters to _The Times_
over the signature B. (he also signed himself at different times
Bramwell, G.B. and L.L.). He joined in 1882 the Liberty and Property
Defence League, and some of his writings after that date took the form
of pamphlets published by that society.
BRAN, in Celtic legend, the name of (1) the hero of the Welsh _Mabinogi
of Branwen_, who dies in the attempt to avenge his sister's wrongs; he
is the son of Llyr (= the Irish sea-god Ler), identified with the Irish
Bran mac Allait, Allait being a synonym of Ler; (2) the son of Febal,
known only through the 8th-century Irish epic, _The Voyage of Bran_ (to
the world below); (3) the dog of Ossian's Fingal. Bran also appears as a
historical name, Latinized as _Brennus_. See Kuno Meyer and D. Nutt,
_The Voyage of Bran_ (London, 1895).
BRAN, the ground husk of wheat, oats, barley or other cereals, used for
feeding cattle, packing and other purposes (see FLOUR). The word occurs
in French _bren_ or _bran_, in the dialects of other Romanic languages,
and also in Celtic, cf. Breton _brenn_, Gaelic _bran_. The _New English
Dictionary_ considers these Celtic forms to be borrowed from French or
English. In modern French _bren_ means filth, refuse, and this points to
some connexion with Celtic words, e.g. Irish _brean_, manure. If so, the
original meaning would be refuse. "Bran-new," i.e. quite new, is now
the common form of "brand-new," that which is fresh from the "brand,"
the branding-iron used for marking objects, &c.
BRANCH (from the Fr. _branche_, late Lat. _branca_, an animal's paw), a
limb of a tree; hence any offshoot, e.g. of a river, railway, &c., of a
deer's antlers, of a family or genealogical tree, and generally a
subdivision or department, as in "a branch of learning." The phrase, to
destroy "root and branch," meaning to destroy utterly, taken originally
from Malachi iv. 1, was made famous in 1641 by the so-called "Root and
Branch" Bill and Petition for the abolition of episcopal government, in
which petition occurred the sentence, "That the said government, with
all its dependencies, roots and branches, be destroyed." Among technical
senses of the word "branch" are: the certificate of proficiency given to
pilots by Trinity House; and in siege-craft a length of trench forming
part of a zigzag approach.
BRANCO, or PARIMA, a river of northern Brazil and tributary of the Rio
Negro, formed by the confluence of the Takutu, or "Upper Rio Branco,"
and Uraricoera, about 3 deg. N. lat. and 60 deg. 28' W. long., and
flowing south by west to a junction with the Negro. It has rapids in its
upper course, but the greater part of its length of 348 m. is navigable
for steamers of light draught. The Takutu rises in the Roraima and
Coirrit ranges on the Guiana frontier, while the Uraricoera rises in the
Serra de Parima, on the Venezuelan frontier, and has a length of 360 m.
before reaching the Branco. These are white water rivers, from which the
Branco (white) derives its name, and at its junction with the Negro the
two differently-coloured streams flow side by side for some distance
before mingling.
BRANCOVAN, or BRANCOVEANU, the name of a family which has played an
important part in the history of Rumania. It was of Servian origin and
was connected with the family of Branko or Brankovich. Constantine
Brancovan, the most eminent member of the family, was born in 1654, and
became prince of Walachia in 1689. In consequence of his anti-Turkish
policy of forming an alliance first with Austria and then with Russia,
he was denounced to the Porte, deposed from his throne, brought under
arrest to Constantinople and imprisoned (1710) in the fortress of Yedi
Kuleh (Seven Towers). Here he was tortured by the Turks, who hoped thus
to discover the fortune of L3,000,000, which Constantine was alleged to
have amassed. He was beheaded with his four sons on the 26th of August
1714. His faithful friend Enake Vacarescu shared his fate. Constantine
Brancovan became, through his tragic death, the hero of Rumanian popular
ballads. His family founded and endowed the largest hospital in
Walachia, the so-called Spital Brancovanescu.
See O.G. Lecca, _Familiile Boeresti Romane_ (Bucharest, 1899), p. 90,
sqq. (M. G.)
BRAND, JOHN (1744-1806), English antiquary, was born on the 19th of
August 1744 at Washington, Durham, where his father was parish clerk.
His early years were spent at Newcastle-on-Tyne with his uncle, a
cordwainer, to whom he was apprentice in his fourteenth year. Showing
promise, however, at Newcastle grammar school, friends interested
themselves in him and assisted him to go to Oxford. It was not, however,
until his twenty-eighth year that he matriculated at Lincoln College,
but before this he had been ordained, holding in succession the curacies
of Bolam, Northumberland, of St Andrew's, Newcastle, and of Cramlington,
8 m. from the county town. He graduated in 1775 and two years later was
elected fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. Having for a short time
been under-usher at the Newcastle grammar school, the duke of
Northumberland, a former patron, gave him in 1784 the rectory of the
combined parishes of St Mary-at-Hill and St Mary Hubbard, London.
Appointed secretary to the Society of Antiquaries in the same year, he
was annually re-elected until his death in 1806. He was buried in the
chancel of his church. His most important work is _Observations on
Popular Antiquities: including the whole of Mr Bourne's "Antiquitates
Vulgares," with addenda to every chapter of that work_. This was
published in London in 1777, and after Brand's death, a new edition
embodying the MSS. left by him, was published by Sir Henry Ellis in
1813. Brand also published a poem entitled: _On Illicit Love, written
among the ruins of Godstow Nunnery, near Oxford_ (1775, Newcastle); _The
History and Antiquities of Newcastle-upon-Tyne_ (2 vols., London, 1789),
and many papers in the _Archaeologia_.
BRAND, SIR JOHN HENRY (1823-1888), president of the Orange Free State,
was the son of Sir Christoffel Brand, speaker of the House of Assembly
of the Cape Colony. He was born at Cape Town on the 6th of December
1823, and was educated at the South African College in that city.
Continuing his studies at Leiden, he took the degree of D.C.L. in 1845.
He was called to the English bar from the Inner Temple in 1849, and
practised as an advocate in the supreme court of the Cape of Good Hope
from that year until 1863. In 1858 he was appointed professor of law in
the South African College. He was elected president of the Orange Free
State in 1863, and subsequently re-elected for five years in 1869, 1874,
1879 and 1884. In 1864 he resisted the pressure of the Basuto on the
Free State boundary, and after vainly endeavouring to induce Moshesh,
the Basuto chief, to keep his people within bounds, he took up arms
against them in 1865. This first war ended in the treaty of Thaba
Bosigo, signed on the 3rd of April 1866; and a second war, caused by the
treachery of the Basuto, ended in the treaty of Aliwal North, concluded
on the 12th of February 1869. In 1871 Brand was solicited by a large
party to become president of the Transvaal, and thus unite the two Dutch
republics of South Africa; but as the project was hostile to Great
Britain he declined to do so, and maintained his constant policy of
friendship towards England, where his merits were recognized in 1882 by
the honour of the G.C.M.G. He died on the 14th of July 1888. (See ORANGE
FREE STATE: _History_.)
BRANDE, WILLIAM THOMAS (1788-1866), English chemist, was born in London
on the 11th of January 1788. After leaving Westminster school, he was
apprenticed, in 1802, to his brother, an apothecary, with the view of
adopting the profession of medicine, but his bent was towards chemistry,
a sound knowledge of which he acquired in his spare time. In 1812 he was
appointed professor of chemistry to the Apothecaries' Society, and
delivered a course of lectures before the Board of Agriculture in place
of Sir Humphry Davy, whom in the following year he succeeded in the
chair of chemistry at the Royal Institution, London. His _Manual of
Chemistry_, first published in 1819, enjoyed wide popularity, and among
other works he brought out a _Dictionary of Science, Literature and Art_
in 1842, on a new edition of which he was engaged when he died at
Tunbridge Wells on the 11th of February 1866.
BRANDENBURG, the name of a margraviate and electorate which played an
important part in German history, and afterwards grew into the kingdom
of Prussia. During the early years of the Christian era, the district
was inhabited by the Semnones, and afterwards by various Slavonic
tribes, who were partially subdued by Charlemagne, but soon regained
their independence. The history of Brandenburg begins when the German
king, Henry the Fowler, defeated the Havelli, or Hevelli, and took their
capital, Brennibor, from which the name Brandenburg is derived. It soon
came under the rule of Gero, margrave of the Saxon east mark, who
pressed the campaign against the Slavs with vigour, while Otto the Great
founded bishoprics at Havelberg and Brandenburg. When Gero died in 965,
his mark was divided into two parts, the northern portion, lying along
both banks of the middle Elbe, being called the north or old mark, and
forming the nucleus of the later margraviate of Brandenburg. After Otto
the Great died, the Slavs regained much of their territory, Brandenburg
fell again into their hands, and a succession of feeble margraves ruled
only the district west of the Elbe, together with a small district east
of that river.
Albert the Bear.
A new era began in 1106 when Lothair, count of Supplinburg, became duke
of Saxony. Aided by Albert the Bear, count of Ballenstadt, he renewed
the attack on the Slavs, and in 1134 appointed Albert margrave of the
north mark. The new margrave continued the work of Lothair, and about
1140 made a treaty with Pribislaus, the childless duke of Brandenburg,
by which he was recognized as the duke's heir. He took at once the
title margrave of Brandenburg, but when Pribislaus died in 1150, a
stubborn contest followed with Jazko, a relation of the late duke, which
was terminated in 1157 in Albert's favour. Albert was the real founder
of Brandenburg. Under his rule Christianity and civilization were
extended, bishoprics were restored and monasteries founded. The country
was colonized with settlers from the lower Rhineland, land was brought
under cultivation, forts were built, German laws and customs introduced,
and gradually the woods and marshes were converted into lands of
comparative fertility.
Otto III.
When Albert died in 1170, Brandenburg fell to his eldest son, Otto I.
(c. 1130-1184), who compelled the duke of Pomerania to own his
supremacy, and slightly increased by conquest the area of the mark.
Otto's son, Otto II., was the succeeding margrave, and having quarrelled
with his powerful neighbour, Ludolf, archbishop of Magdeburg, was forced
to own the archbishop's supremacy over his allodial lands. He died in
1205, and was followed by his step-brother, Albert II. (c. 1174-1220),
who assisted the emperor Otto IV. in various campaigns, but later
transferred his allegiance to Otto's rival, Frederick of Hohenstaufen,
afterwards the emperor Frederick II. His sons, John I. and Otto III.,
ruled Brandenburg in common until the death of John in 1266, and their
reign was a period of growth and prosperity. Districts were conquered or
purchased from the surrounding dukes; the marriage of Otto with
Beatrice, daughter of Wenceslaus, king of Bohemia, in 1253, added upper
Lusatia to Brandenburg; and the authority of the margraves was extended
beyond the Oder. Many monasteries and towns were founded, among them
Berlin; the work of Albert the Bear was continued, and the prosperity of
Brandenburg formed a marked contrast to the disorder which prevailed
elsewhere in Germany. Brandenburg appears about this time to have fallen
into three divisions--the old mark lying west of the Elbe, the middle
mark between the Elbe and the Oder, and the new mark, as the newly
conquered lands beyond the Oder began to be called. When Otto died in
1267, the area of the mark had been almost doubled, and the margraves
had attained to an influential position in the Empire. The
_Sachsenspiegel_, written before 1235, mentions the margrave as one of
the electors, by virtue of the office of chamberlain, which had probably
been conferred on Albert the Bear by the German king Conrad III.
Otto IV.
In 1258 John and Otto had agreed upon a division of their lands, but the
arrangement only took effect on Otto's death in 1267, when John's son,
John II., received the electoral dignity, together with the southern
part of the margraviate, which centred around Stendal, and Otto's son,
John III., the northern or Saltzwedel portion. John II.'s brother, Otto
IV., who became elector in 1281, had passed his early years in struggles
with the archbishop of Magdeburg, whose lands stretched like a wedge
into the heart of Brandenburg. In 1280 he was wounded in the head with a
dart, and as he retained there a part of the weapon for a year, he was
called "Otto with the dart." He secured the appointment of his brother
Eric as archbishop of Magdeburg in 1283, and was afterwards engaged in
various feuds. Songs attributed to him are found in F.H. von der Hagen's
_Minnesinger_. Otto was succeeded in 1309 by his nephew, Valdemar, who,
assisted by other members of his family, conquered Pomerellen, which he
shared with the Teutonic order in 1310, and held his own in a struggle
with the kings of Poland, Sweden and Denmark and others, over the
possession of Stralsund.
In order to pay for these wars, and to meet the expenses of a splendid
court, the later margraves had sold various rights to the towns and
provinces of Brandenburg, and so aided the development of local
government. John III. of Saltzwedel had shared his possessions with his
brothers, but in 1303 they were reunited by his nephew Hermann, who
purchased lower Lusatia in the same year. Hermann's daughter Agnes
married the elector Valdemar, and on the death of her only brother, John
VI., in 1317, the possessions of the Saltzwedel branch of the family
passed to Valdemar, together with Landsberg and the Saxon Palatinate,
which had been purchased from Albert the Degenerate, landgrave of
Thuringia. Valdemar thus gathered the whole of the mark under his rule,
together with upper and lower Lusatia, and various outlying districts.
He died childless in 1319, and was succeeded by his nephew Henry II.,
who died in 1320, when the Ascanian family, as the descendants of Albert
the Bear were called, from the Latinized form of the name of their
ancestral castle of Aschersleben, became extinct.
Wittelsbach dynasty.
Brandenburg now fell into a deplorable condition, portions were seized
by neighbouring princes, and the mark itself was disputed for by various
claimants. In 1323 King Louis IV. took advantage of this condition to
bestow the mark upon his young son, Louis, and thus Brandenburg was
added to the possessions of the Wittelsbach family, although Louis did
not receive the extensive lands of the Ascanian margraves. Upper and
lower Lusatia, Landsberg, and the Saxon Palatinate had been inherited by
female members of the family, and passed into the hands of other
princes, the old mark was retained by Agnes, the widow of Valdemar, who
was married again to Otto II., duke of Brunswick, and the king was
forced to acknowledge these claims, and to cede districts to Mecklenburg
and Bohemia. During the early years of the reign of Louis, who was
called the margrave Louis IV. or V., Brandenburg was administered by
Bertold, count of Henneberg, who established the authority of the
Wittelsbachs in the middle mark, which, centring round Berlin, was the
most important part of the margraviate. The quarrel between King Louis
and Pope John XXII. was inimical to the interests of Brandenburg, which
was ravaged by the Poles, torn by the strife of contending clerical
factions, and alternately neglected and oppressed by the margrave. Trade
and commerce were at a standstill, agriculture was neglected, the
privileges and estates of the margrave passed into private hands, the
nobles were virtually independent, and the towns sought to defend
themselves by means of alliances. During the struggle between the
families of Wittelsbach and Luxemburg, which began in 1342, there
appeared in Brandenburg an old man who claimed to be the margrave
Valdemar. He was gladly received by the king of Poland, and other
neighbouring princes, welcomed by a large number of the people, and in
1348 invested with the margraviate by King Charles IV., who eagerly
seized this opportunity to deal a blow at his enemy. This step compelled
Louis to make peace with Charles, who abandoned the false Valdemar,
invested Louis and his step-brothers with Brandenburg, and in return was
recognized as king. Louis recovered the old mark in 1348, drove his
opponent from the land, and in 1350 made a treaty with his
step-brothers, Louis the younger and Otto, at Frankfort-on-Oder, by
which Brandenburg was handed over to Louis the younger and Otto. Louis,
who then undertook the government, made peace with his neighbours,
finally defeated the false Valdemar, and was recognized by the Golden
Bull of 1356 as one of the seven electors. The emperor Charles IV. took
advantage of a family quarrel over the possessions of Louis the elder,
who died in 1361, to obtain a promise from Louis the younger and Otto,
that the margraviate should come to his own son, Wenceslaus, in case the
electors died childless. Louis the younger died in 1365, and when his
brother Otto, who had married a daughter of Charles IV., wished to leave
Brandenburg to his own family Charles began hostilities; but in 1373 an
arrangement was made, and Otto, by the treaty of Furstenwalde, abandoned
the margraviate for a sum of 500,000 gold gulden.
Imperial control.
Under the Wittelsbach rule, the estates of the various provinces of
Brandenburg had obtained the right to coin money, to build fortresses,
to execute justice, and to form alliances with foreign states. Charles
invested Wenceslaus with the margraviate in 1373, but undertook its
administration himself, and passed much of his time at a castle which he
built at Tangermunde. He diminished the burden of taxation, suppressed
the violence of the nobles, improved navigation on the Elbe and Oder,
and encouraged commerce by alliances with the Hanse towns, and in other
ways. He caused a _Landbook_ to be drawn up in 1375, in which are
recorded all the castles, towns and villages of the land with their
estates and incomes. When Charles died in 1378, and Wenceslaus became
German and Bohemian king, Brandenburg passed to the new king's
half-brother Sigismund, then a minor, and a period of disorder ensued.
Soon after Sigismund came of age, he pledged a part of Brandenburg to
his cousin Jobst, margrave of Moravia, to whom in 1388 he handed over
the remainder of the electorate in return for a large sum of money, and
as the money was not repaid, Jobst obtained the investiture in 1397 from
King Wenceslaus. Sigismund had also obtained the new mark on the death
of his brother John in 1396, but sold this in 1402 to the Teutonic
order. Jobst paid very little attention to Brandenburg, and the period
was used by many of the noble families to enrich themselves at the
expense of the poorer and weaker towns, to plunder traders, and to carry
on feuds with neighbouring princes. When in 1410 Sigismund and Jobst
were rivals for the German throne, Sigismund, anxious to obtain another
vote in the electoral college, declared the bargain with Jobst void, and
empowered Frederick VI. of Hohenzollern, burgrave of Nuremberg, to
exercise the Brandenburg vote at the election. (See FREDERICK I.,
ELECTOR OF BRANDENBURG.) In 1411 Jobst died and Brandenburg reverted to
Sigismund, who appointed Frederick as his representative to govern the
margraviate, and a further step was taken when, on the 30th of April
1415, the king invested Frederick of Hohenzollern and his heirs with
Brandenburg, together with the electoral privilege and the office of
chamberlain, in return for a payment of 400,000 gold gulden, but the
formal ceremony of investiture was delayed until the 18th of April 1417,
when it took place at Constance.
Condition before the Hohenzollern rule.
During the century which preceded the advent of the Hohenzollerns in
Brandenburg its internal condition had become gradually worse and worse,
and had been accompanied by a considerable loss of territory. The
central power had become weakened and the central organization relaxed,
while the electorate had lost most of the advantages which formerly
distinguished it from other German fiefs. Under the rule of the earliest
margraves, it was the official side of their position that was
prominent, and it was not forgotten that they were technically only the
representatives of the emperor. But in the 13th century this feeling
began to disappear, and Brandenburg enjoyed an independence and carried
out an independent policy in a way that was not paralleled by any other
German state. The emperor was still suzerain indeed, but his relations
with the mark were so insignificant that they exercised practically no
influence on its development; and so the power of the Ascanian margraves
was virtually unlimited. This independence was enhanced by the fact that
few great nobles had followed Albert the Bear in his work of conquest,
and that consequently there were few large lordships with their crowd of
dependents. The towns, the village communities and the knights held
their lands and derived their rights directly from the margraves. The
towns and villages had generally been laid out by contractors or
_locatores_, men not necessarily of noble birth, who were installed as
hereditary chief magistrates of the communities, and received numerous
encouragements to reclaim waste lands. This mode of colonization was
especially favourable to the peasantry, who seem in Brandenburg to have
retained the disposal of their persons and property at a time when
villenage or serfdom was the ordinary _status_ of their class elsewhere.
The dues paid by these contractors in return for the concessions formed
the main source of the revenue of the margraves. Gradually, however, the
expenses of warfare, liberal donations to the clergy, and the
maintenance of numerous and expensive households, compelled them to
pledge these dues for sums of ready money. This proceeding gave the
barons and knights an opportunity to buy out the village magistrates and
to replace them with nominees of their own. Thus the condition of the
peasants grew worse, and their freedom was practically destroyed when
the emperor Louis IV. recognized the jurisdiction of the nobles over
their estates. Henceforth the power of the nobles steadily increased at
the expense of the peasants, who soon sank into servitude. Instead of
communicating directly with the margrave through his burgraves and
bailiffs, or _vogts_, the village communities came to be represented by
the nobles who had obtained possession of their lands. Many of the towns
were forced into the same position. Others were able to maintain their
independence, and to make use of the pecuniary needs of the margraves to
become practically municipal republics. Their strength, however, was
perhaps more usefully shown in their ability to resist the nobles, a
proceeding which saved industry and commerce from extinction at a time
of unbridled lawlessness. In the pecuniary embarrassments of the
margraves also originated the power of the _Stande_, or estates,
consisting of the nobles, the clergy and the towns. The first recorded
instance of the _Stande_ co-operating with the rulers occurred in 1170;
but it was not till 1280 that the margrave solemnly bound himself not to
raise a _bede_ or special voluntary contribution without the consent of
the estates. In 1355 the _Stande_ secured the appointment of a permanent
councillor, without whose concurrence the decrees of the margraves were
invalid. In the century which followed the extinction of the Ascanian
house, liberty degenerated into licence, and the country was given over
to anarchy. Only the most powerful towns were able to maintain their
independence; others, together with the clergy, regularly paid blackmail
to the neighbouring nobles. Under these conditions it is no wonder that
the electorate not only completely lost its political importance, but
also suffered a considerable diminution of territory. Upper and lower
Lusatia, the new mark of Brandenburg, and other outlying districts had
been shorn away, and the electorate now consisted of the old mark, the
middle mark with Priegnitz, Uckermark and Sternberg, a total area of not
more than 10,000 sq.m.
Frederick of Hohenzollern, 1412.
Such was the condition and extent of Brandenburg in 1411 when Frederick
of Hohenzollern became the representative of King Sigismund therein.
Entering the electorate with a strong force in June 1412, his authority
was quickly recognized in the middle mark, but the nobles of the old
mark and of Priegnitz refused to follow this example. The two succeeding
years were skilfully used by Frederick to make peace with the
neighbouring princes, and having thus isolated his domestic enemies, he
turned his arms against them early in 1414. Their strongholds were
stormed, and in a few weeks their leaders were either prisoners or
fugitives. A general peace was then declared at Tangermunde which
enabled Frederick to leave the mark to the rule of his wife, Elizabeth,
and to turn his attention elsewhere. Returning to Brandenburg as elector
in 1416, the last flickers of the insurrection were extinguished; and
when Frederick was invested at Constance in April 1417 his authority
over the mark was undisputed. His next difficulty was with Pomerania,
which had been nominally under the suzerainty of Brandenburg since 1181.
The revival of this claim by the elector provoked an invasion of the
mark by an army of Pomeranians with their allies in 1420, when Frederick
inflicted a severe defeat upon them at Angermunde; but in 1424 a
temporary coolness between the elector and the emperor Sigismund led to
a renewal of the attack which Frederick was unable to repulse. This
reverse, together with the pressure of other business, induced him to
leave Brandenburg in January 1426, after handing over its government to
his eldest son, John. John, called the "Alchemist," who was born in
1403, had been disappointed in his hope of obtaining the vacant
electoral duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg in 1423. Lacking the diplomatic and
military qualities of his father, his difficulties were augmented by the
poverty of the country, and the evils which Frederick had suppressed
quickly returned. The feeling of security vanished, the towns banded
themselves together for defensive purposes, the rights of the margrave
were again pledged to provide money, and in 1432 the land was ravaged by
the Hussites. John never attained to the electoral dignity; for, in
1437, his father in arranging a division of his territories decided that
Brandenburg should pass to his second and fourth sons, both of whom were
named Frederick. The elder of the two took up the government at once,
whereupon John left the mark for South Germany, where he remained until
his death in 1464.
Frederick II.
Frederick II., who became elector on his father's death in September
1440, was born on the 19th of November 1413, and earned the surname of
"Iron" through his sternness to his country's enemies. He had little
difficulty in repressing the turbulence of the nobles which had been
quickened into life during the regency of his brother, but found it less
easy to deal with the towns. Three strong leagues had been formed among
them about 1431, and the spirit of municipal independence was most
prominently represented by the neighbouring and allied towns of Berlin
and Coln. In his conflict with the towns over his refusal to ratify all
their privileges the elector's task was lightened by a quarrel between
the magistrates and the burghers of Berlin, which he was called in to
decide in 1442. He deposed the governing oligarchy, changed the
constitution of the town, forbade all alliances and laid the foundations
of a castle. The inhabitants soon chafed under these restrictions. A
revolt broke out in 1447, but the power of the elector overawed the
people, who submitted their case to the estates, with the result that
the arrangement of 1442 was re-established. In 1447 Frederick was
compelled to cede the old mark and Priegnitz to his younger brother,
Frederick, under whose feeble rule they quickly fell into disorder. In
1463, however, when the younger Frederick died childless, the elector
united them again with his own possessions and took measures to suppress
the prevailing anarchy. In his dealings with neighbouring rulers
Frederick pursued a peaceful and conciliatory policy. In 1442 he
obtained some small additions to his territory, and the right of
succession to the duchy of Mecklenburg in case the ducal family should
die out. In 1445 an old feud with the archbishop of Magdeburg was
settled, and in 1457 a treaty of mutual succession was made with the
houses of Saxony and Hesse. Cottbus and Peitz in Lusatia were acquired,
and retained after a quarrel with George Podiebrad, king of Bohemia, and
the new mark of Brandenburg was purchased from the Teutonic order in
1454. An attempt, however, to secure the duchy of Pomerania-Stettin
failed, and the concluding years of this reign were troubled by warfare
with the Pomeranians.
The general success of Frederick's rule was secured by the sedulous care
with which he confined himself to the work of government. He is said to
have refused the thrones of Poland and Bohemia; and although he made
pilgrimages to the Holy Land and to Rome, his interest in ecclesiastical
questions was mainly directed towards quickening the religious life of
his people. He obtained important concessions from Pope Nicholas V. with
regard to the appointment of bishops and other ecclesiastical matters in
1447, and in general maintained cordial relations with the papacy. About
1467 his only son, John, died, and increasing infirmity led him to
contemplate abdication. An arrangement was made with his brother, Albert
Achilles, to whom early in 1470 the mark was handed over, and Frederick
retired to Plassenburg where he died on the 10th of February 1471.
Albert Achilles.
Albert appeared in Brandenburg early in the same year, and after
receiving the homage of his people took up the struggle with the
Pomeranians, which he soon brought to a satisfactory conclusion; for in
May 1472 he not only obtained the cession of several districts, but was
recognized as the suzerain of Pomerania and as its future ruler. The
expenses of this war led to a quarrel with the estates. A subsidy was
granted which the elector did not regard as adequate, and by a dexterous
use of his power he established his right to take an excise on beer.
Albert's most important contribution to the history of Brandenburg was
the issue on the 24th of February 1473 of the _Dispositio Achillea_. By
this instrument the elector decreed that the electoral mark should pass
in its entirety to his eldest son, an establishment of primogeniture
which had considerable influence on the future development of the
country. He then entrusted the government to his eldest son, John, and
left Brandenburg. Handicapped by poverty, John had to face attacks from
two quarters. The Pomeranians, inspired by the declaration of the
emperor Frederick III. that their land was a direct fief of the Empire,
and aided by Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary, took up arms; and a
quarrel broke out with John, duke of Sagan, over the possessions of
John's brother-in-law, Henry XI., duke of Glogau. To deal with these
difficulties Albert returned to Brandenburg in 1478, and during his stay
drove back the Pomeranians, and added Crossen and other parts of duke
Henry's possessions to the electorate. Again left in charge of the
country, John beat back a fresh attack made by John of Sagan in 1482;
and he became elector on his father's death in March 1486. He added the
county of Zossen to his possessions in 1490, and in 1493 made a fresh
treaty with the duke of Pomerania. Although he brought a certain degree
of order into the finances, his poverty and the constant inroads of
external enemies prevented him from seriously improving the condition of
the country. John, who was called "Cicero," either on account of his
eloquence, or of his knowledge of Latin, was interested in learning,
welcomed Italian scholars to the electorate, and strove to improve the
education of his people. He died at Arneburg on the 9th of January 1499,
and was succeeded by his son Joachim I.
Joachim.
When Joachim undertook the government of Brandenburg he had to deal with
an amount of disorder almost as great as that which had taxed the
energies of Frederick I. a century before. Highway robbery was general,
the lives and property of traders were in continual jeopardy, and the
machinery for the enforcement of the laws was almost at a standstill.
About 1504 an attack of unusual ferocity on some Frankfort traders
aroused the elector's wrath, and during the next few years the execution
of many lawbreakers and other stern measures restored some degree of
order. In this and in other ways Joachim proved himself a sincere friend
to the towns and a protector of industry. Following the economic
tendencies of the time he issued sumptuary laws and encouraged
manufactures; while to suppress the rivalry among the towns he
established an order of precedence for them. Equally important was his
work in improving the administration of justice, and in this direction
he was aided by scholars from the university which he had founded at
Frankfort-on-Oder in 1506. He gave a new organization to the highest
court of justice, the _Kammergericht_, secured for himself an important
voice in the choice of its members, and ordered that the local law
should be supplemented by the law of Rome. He did not largely increase
the area of Brandenburg, but in 1524 he acquired the county of Ruppin,
and in 1529 he made a treaty at Grimnitz with George and Barnim XI.,
dukes of Pomerania, by which he surrendered the vexatious claim to
suzerainty in return for a fresh promise of the succession in case the
ducal family should become extinct. Joachim's attitude towards the
teaching of Martin Luther which had already won many adherents in the
electorate, was one of unrelenting hostility. The Jews also felt the
weight of his displeasure, and were banished in 1510.
Joachim II.
Ignoring the _Dispositio Achillea_, the elector bequeathed Brandenburg
to his two sons. When he died in July 1535 the elder, Joachim II.,
became elector, and obtained the old and middle marks, while the
younger, John, received the new mark. John went definitely over to the
side of the Lutherans in 1538, while Joachim allowed the reformed
doctrines free entrance into his dominions in 1539. The elector,
however, unlike his brother, did not break with the forms of the Church
of Rome, but established an ecclesiastical organization independent of
the pope, and took up a position similar to that of King Henry VIII. in
England. Many of the monasteries were suppressed, a consistory was set
up to take over the functions of the bishops and to act as the highest
ecclesiastical court of the country. In 1541 the new ecclesiastical
system was confirmed by the emperor Charles V. With regard to this
policy the elector was probably influenced by considerations of greed.
The bishoprics of Brandenburg, Havelberg and Lebus were secularized;
their administration was entrusted to members of the elector's family;
and their revenues formed a welcome addition to his impoverished
exchequer. Nor did Joachim neglect other opportunities for adding to his
wealth and possessions. In 1537 he had concluded a treaty with Frederick
III., duke of Liegnitz, which guaranteed to the Hohenzollerns the
succession to the Silesian duchies of Liegnitz, Brieg and Wohlau in the
event of the ducal family becoming extinct; this arrangement is
important as the basis of the claim made by Frederick the Great on
Silesia in 1740. The treaty was declared invalid by the German king,
Ferdinand I.; but the elector insisted on its legality, and in 1545
strengthened his position by arranging a double marriage between members
of his own family and that of Duke Frederick. Of more immediate
consequence was an arrangement made in 1569 with the representatives of
Joachim's kinsman, Albert Frederick, duke of Prussia, after which the
elector obtained the joint investiture of the duchy of Prussia from
Sigismund II., king of Poland, and was assured of the succession if the
duke's family became extinct. Joachim's luxurious habits, his partiality
for adventurers, and his delight in building, led him to incur such a
heavy expenditure that after pledging many of his lands and rights he
was compelled in 1540 to appeal for help to the estates. Taking
advantage of his difficulties, the estates voted him a sum of money as
the price of valuable concessions, the most important of which was that
the elector should make no alliance without their consent. Fresh
liabilities were soon incurred, and in spite of frequent contributions
from the estates Joachim left at his death in January 1571 a heavy
burden of debt to his son and successor, John George.
John George.
The elector's death was followed ten days later by that of his brother,
John, and as John left no sons the whole of Brandenburg, together with
the districts of Beeskow and Storkow which had been added by purchase to
the new mark, were united under the rule of his nephew, John George.
Born on the 11th of September 1525 this prince had served in the field
under Charles V., and, disliking his father's policy and associates, had
absented himself from Berlin, and mainly confined his attention to
administering the secularized bishopric of Brandenburg which he had
obtained in 1560. When he became elector he hastened to put his ideas
into practice. His father's favourites were exiled; foreigners were
ousted from public positions and their places taken by natives; and
important economies were effected, which earned for John George the
surname of _Oekonom_, or steward. To lighten the heavy burden of debt
left by Joachim the elector proposed a tax on wheat and other cereals.
Some opposition was shown, but eventually the estates of both divisions
of the mark assented; only, however at the price of concessions to the
nobles, predominant in the diet, which thrust the peasantry into
servitude. Thus the rule of John George was popular with the nobles, and
to some extent with the towns. Protestant refugees from France and the
Netherlands were encouraged to settle in Brandenburg, and a period of
peace was beneficial to a land, the condition of which was still much
inferior to that of other parts of Germany. In religion the elector was
a follower of Luther, whose doctrines were prevalent among his people.
He had accepted the _Formula Concordiae_, a Lutheran document
promulgated in June 1580, and sought to prevent any departure from its
tenets. His dislike of Calvinism, or his antipathy to external
complications, however, prevented him from taking any serious steps to
defend Protestantism from the attacks of the counter-reformation. He did
indeed join the league of Torgau, which voted assistance to Henry IV. of
France in 1591; but he refused to aid the United Provinces, or even to
give assistance to his eldest son, Joachim Frederick, administrator of
the archbishopric of Magdeburg, whose claim to sit and vote in the
imperial diet was contested, or to his grandson, John George, whose
election to the bishopric of Strassburg was opposed by a Roman Catholic
minority in the chapter. This indifference to the welfare of the
Protestants added to the estrangement between the elector and his eldest
son, which was further accentuated when John George, ignoring the
_Dispositio Achillea_, bequeathed the new mark to one of his younger
sons. He died on the 8th of January 1598.
Joachim Frederick.
Joachim Frederick, who now became elector, was born on the 27th of
January 1546. Since 1553 he had held the bishopric of Havelberg, since
1555 that of Lebus; he had been administrator of Magdeburg since 1566,
and of Brandenburg since 1571. Resigning these dignities in 1598, he
contested his father's will, and was successful in preventing a
division of the electorate. An agreement with George Frederick, the
childless margrave of Ansbach and Bayreuth, paved the way for an
arrangement with the elector's younger brothers, who after the
margrave's death in April 1603, shared his lands in Franconia, and were
compensated in other ways for surrendering all claims on Brandenburg.
This agreement, known as the Gera Bond, ratified the _Dispositio
Achillea_. By George Frederick's death, Joachim became administrator of
the duchy of Prussia, ruled nominally by the weak-minded Albert
Frederick, but he had some difficulty in asserting his position. In
Brandenburg he made concessions to the nobles at the expense of the
peasantry, and admitted the right of the estates to control taxation. In
religious matters he was convinced of the necessity of a union between
Lutherans and Calvinists, and took steps to bring this about. Public
opinion, however, in Brandenburg was too strong for him, and he was
compelled to fall back upon the Lutheran _Formula_ and the religious
policy of his father. Joachim seems to have been a wise ruler, who
improved in various ways the condition of the mark. He married
Catherine, daughter of John, margrave of Brandenburg-Custrin, and when
he died, on the 18th of July 1608, was succeeded by his eldest son John
Sigismund.
John Sigismund.
The new elector, born on the 8th of November 1572, had married in 1594
Anna, daughter of Albert Frederick of Prussia, a union which not only
strengthened the pretensions of the electors of Brandenburg to the
succession in that duchy, but gave to John Sigismund a claim on the
duchies of Cleves, Julich and Berg, and other Rhenish lands should the
ruling family become extinct. In March 1609 the death of Duke John
William left these duchies without a ruler, and by arrangement they were
occupied jointly by the elector and by his principal rival, Wolfgang,
son of Philip Louis, count palatine of Neuburg. This proceeding aroused
some opposition, and, complicated by religious considerations and by the
excited state of European politics, almost precipitated a general war.
However, in November 1614 the dispute was temporarily settled by the
treaty of Xanten. Brandenburg obtained the duchy of Cleves with the
counties of Mark and Ravensberg, but as the Dutch and Spanish garrisons
were not withdrawn, these lands were only nominally under the elector's
rule. In 1609, John Sigismund had joined the Evangelical Union, probably
to win support in the Rhineland, and the same consideration was
doubtless one reason why, in 1613, he forsook the Lutheran doctrines of
his family, and became an adherent of the reformed, or Calvinist, faith.
This step aroused grave discontent in the electorate, and, quickly
abandoning his attempts to proselytize, the elector practically conceded
religious liberty to his subjects. Over the Cleves-Julich succession,
John Sigismund had incurred heavy expenses, and the public debt had
again mounted up. He was thus obliged to seek aid from the estates, and
in return for grants to make concessions to the nobles. The elector
spent much of his time in Prussia striving to assert his authority in
that duchy, and in August 1618, according to the arrangement of 1569,
became duke by the death of Albert Frederick. He only enjoyed this
dignity for a short time, as he died on the 23rd of December 1619. He
was succeeded by his eldest son, George William.
George William.
The new elector, born on the 3rd of November 1597, proved a weak and
incapable ruler. He had married Elizabeth, daughter of Frederick IV.,
elector palatine of the Rhine, and sister of the elector Frederick V.,
afterwards king of Bohemia, and before his accession had acted as his
father's representative in Cleves. Although a Protestant he was under
the influence of Adam, count of Schwarzenberg, who was a Roman Catholic
of imperialist sympathies. As a result the elector remained neutral
during the early years of the Thirty Years' War in spite of his
relationship with Frederick of the Palatinate, and the obvious danger to
his Rhenish lands. This attitude was not successful. Brandenburg was
ravaged impartially by both parties, and in 1627 George William attacked
his brother-in-law, Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, who was using Prussia
as a base of operations for his war against Poland. This campaign was
short and inglorious for Brandenburg, and the elector was soon compelled
to make peace. Although alarmed by the edict of restitution of 1629,
George William took no steps to help the Protestants. In 1631, however,
Gustavus Adolphus marched on Berlin, compelled the elector to cede the
fortress of Spandau, and to aid him with men and money. The Brandenburg
troops then assisted the Swedes until after the death of Gustavus in
1632, and the Swedish defeat at Nordlingen in 1634, when the elector
assented to the treaty of Prague, which was made in May 1635 between the
emperor Ferdinand II. and John George I., elector of Saxony. The
imperialists did nothing, however, to drive the Swedes from Brandenburg,
and the unfortunate land was entirely at the mercy of the enemy. This
was the principal reason why the elector was unable to annex Pomerania
when its last duke, Bogislaus XIV., died in 1637. In 1638 George William
transferred his residence to Konigsberg, leaving Schwarzenberg to
administer the electorate. Although his harsh measures aroused some
irritation, the count did something to rid the land of the Swedes and to
mitigate its many evils; but its condition was still very deplorable
when George William died at Konigsberg on the 1st of December 1640,
leaving an only son, Frederick William. The most important facts in the
internal history of Brandenburg during the 16th century were the
increase in the power of the estates, owing chiefly to the continuous
pecuniary needs of the electors; the gradual decline in the political
importance of the towns, due mainly to intestine feuds; and the lapse of
the peasantry into servitude. These events gave a preponderance of power
to the nobles, but concurrently a number of circumstances were silently
preparing the way for a great increase of authority on the part of the
ruler. The substitution of the elector for the pope as head of the
church; the introduction of Roman law with its emphasis on a central
authority and a central administration; the determined and successful
efforts to avoid any partition of the electorate; and the increasing
tendency of the separate sections of the diet to act independently; all
tended in this direction. This new order was heralded in 1604 by the
establishment of a council of state, devoted to the interests of the
elector, which strengthened his authority, and paved the way for a
bureaucratic government.