GERMAN PRINCES AT THE IMPERIAL DIET.
(1547.)
Luther was dead. Over his grave raged the Smalkaldic war. Charles V.
made a triumphal progress through humiliated Germany.
Only once did these two men confront each other--these great opponents
whose spirits are still struggling in the German nation,--the
Burgundian Hapsburger and the German peasant's son--the Emperor
and the professor;--the one, who spoke German only to his horse; the
other, who translated the Bible and formed the new German language of
literature;--the one, the predecessor of the Jesuit protectors and the
originator of the Hapsburger family politics; the other, the forerunner
of Lessing the great German poet, historian, and philosopher.
It was a moment in German history pregnant with fate, when the young
Emperor, lord of half the world, spoke at Worms the disdainful
words,--"That man shall not make me a heretic." For then began the
struggle between his house and the spirit of the German nation. A
struggle of three centuries; victory and defeat on both sides; its
final issue not to be doubted.
When the German princes and lords of the Empire, with the envoys from
the free cities, rode to the Diet, they assembled to transact business
with the two rulers of Germany. These two rulers were the Pope and the
Emperor.
The Pope ruled in the holy Roman Empire of the German nation, not only
as chief bishop in his spiritual capacity, but equally as a political
power. A third of Germany was under the rule of ecclesiastical princes,
who had at least to be confirmed by the Pope. The greatest part of his
income he drew from the Empire; his legates sat at the Imperial Diet,
among the ecclesiastical and temporal Electors, and could even open it
without the Emperor.
When the Emperor would not confirm the Count Palatine Frederic the
Victorious in the Electoral dignity, this temporal prince accepted the
confirmation of the Pope. The Pope endeavoured to bring every difficult
political negotiation before his court; indeed, he granted rights of
custom, he annulled the Imperial ban, and ventured by his own power to
exact tithes.
The Emperor was still considered the nominal centre of the Empire, and
the source of all power. All hastened, upon his accession, to obtain
from him the confirmation of old freedoms and privileges, and he was
the first judge and first general of the Empire, but could not raise a
single thaler of money or a single soldier without the consent of the
Diet. And what was of still greater importance, he could only obtain
taxes and soldiers from among the vassals, by the consent of their
feudal lords. Hesitatingly and sparingly did the Diet grant subsidies,
and so defective was the payment that the grant became a mere farce.
Within the Empire, Electors, princes, nobles, and Imperial cities ruled
their territories, with many gradations of sovereign rights. The
greater princes were real sovereigns, their power only restricted by
their states. Noble families, holding temporal principalities in
heritable possession, strove incessantly to enlarge their power, to put
down the smaller lords round them, and to limit the sovereign rights of
the Emperor. In the fifteenth century they had reduced the Imperial
power almost to a shadow. It was only by extending the power of his
house that the Emperor Maximilian was able to maintain himself against
them.
We may easily perceive that there were two ways of remodelling this
clumsy state edifice of the middle ages. In one case the power of the
great princes might rise so high, that the temporal influence of the
Pope and the supremacy of the Emperor would be overthrown; then Germany
would be divided into a number of individual states, whose conflicts,
wars, and destinies might for centuries throw the whole of central
Europe into weakness and confusion, and which at last, in another state
of development, might lead to new endeavours to restore unity to the
Empire. It has been the fate of Germany up to the present time to
follow this dangerous path.
In the other case, the Emperor might have succeeded in adding to the
old groundwork of his power, such real strength, that the opposition of
all the ruling princes would be broken, and Germany gradually changed
into a modern state, that would either enclose the individual
governments in perfect unity, or at least concentrate all the highest
powers of government in the hand of one ruler. To form such a state,
the Hapsburgers of the sixteenth century, and with more wilful
obstinacy those of the seventeenth, have striven to the injury of the
German nation and themselves; yet in the year 1519, when Maximilian
died, the prospect opened to an able prince was grand, though the power
of his house was moderate.
The time had arrived when a German Emperor might raise his power above
the heads of all the princes, and with irresistible strength overthrow
every opponent; for just at that time a new power arose in Germany,
imperative in its demands, and capable of the greatest results,--public
opinion. The Reform movement in the Church combined also within it the
germ of great political reforms. Had an Emperor arisen who would have
sympathized with the needs of the German spirit, who would have united
himself with the Reformation, and known how to raise it for his own
aims in an exalted spirit, he would have had it in his power to form
out of the Empire a new state and a united German Church: it was the
highest prize that ever was offered to an ambitious prince; and how
favourable would have been his position! The nation was deeply roused
against the hierarchy and Romish influence, and the Reformation began
with a struggle against the highest of the ecclesiastical electors.
Three Electorates, more than seventy Imperial dignities, comprising the
largest third of the whole country of Germany, were in the hands of
ecclesiastical lords, who would all have fallen had the Reformation
been undertaken by the Emperor and people. The Emperor would have found
in the movement, powers which would have made his Imperial army
irresistible; the evangelical preachers could not in a moment have
transformed awkward peasants into skilled soldiers; but they might have
infused into the armies of the Emperor, much of the enthusiasm and
reckless daring which the best among them made proof of in their own
lives; besides which, comprehensive ideas of political reform sprang up
in the circle of the Huttens and Sickingens; and a German Emperor might
well have found in such ideas the means of reconciling the conflicting
interests of peasants, citizens, and knights, at least sufficiently so
to serve his own purposes. How could the German princes, disunited as
they always were, have withstood an Emperor with such allies,
strengthened by a well-established income, and leader of an army which
for the first time since the Crusades would have been animated by a
great idea? Good grounds would such an emperor have had to have
respected old families: it would not have been necessary for him to
take the Electoral crown from off their heads, but he might have
reduced them to be dignitaries of one great united empire, in which the
highest jurisdiction and the power of the army would have been vested
in him alone: the want of such a man was for centuries the misfortune
of Germany.
It is difficult to do justice to the German princes of the sixteenth
century; their position was unfavourable for the formation of their
character and for the development of elevated political action. They
were too great to be loyal vassals, but not powerful enough, with only
moderate abilities, to conduct the affairs of the nation in a liberal
spirit. They were for the most part pretentious _Junkers_; their
selfishness appeared to foreigners rapacious, their manners rude, their
greed insatiable.
The private life of many of them was stained by the blackest crimes; a
few of them were at heart pious; their religion was, we hope, a
restraint in the hour of temptation, but it did not contribute to
enlarge their political views. There was a patriarchal feeling among
many of them. Such were Frederic the Wise and his next successor; such
also was the Margrave Ernest of Baden, who used to have condemned
criminals brought to him before their execution, that he might give
them comfort from the Gospel, and beg for their forgiveness (as he felt
obliged to fulfil his duty), and who offered them his hand at parting.
Besides men of this kind there were others, overbearing, profligate,
and wicked; such was Duke Ulrich of Wuertemberg, who stabbed Hans Hutten
in the forest because he wished to obtain possession of his wife. But
though at most of the courts consideration for wife and children
compelled a certain degree of moderation, the ecclesiastical princes
were not even under this restraint. They were in the worst repute, and
the more athletic preferred the helmet and the hunting-spear to the
vestments of the Church, which some of them wore very awkwardly. There
were bishops and archbishops who hardly knew the ritual of their
Church. Once when a Latin discourse was to be made, it appeared that
the highest princes of the Church could not speak that language, and
the Margrave of Brandenburg was obliged to do it.
It was through princes like these that Charles, sovereign of Lower
Burgundy and the Netherlands, King of Spain and Naples, Duke of Milan,
and Lord of the new world on the other side of the ocean, became also
Emperor of Germany. It is well known how long and actively the
intrigues both for him and the King of France were pursued. There was
no Electoral house to which money or promises were not proffered by
both parties, and none which did not negotiate for its own advantage.
At last Frederic the Wise decided the election, and dear has his
family paid for this decision. When the young king was crowned at
Aix-la-Chapelle, where, to the great delight of the assembled
multitude, he caused his horse to prance joyously before them, and
when, after the coronation, the heralds proclaimed that the Emperor
would, by permission of his Holiness the Pope, take the title of "Roman
Emperor Elect," there were absent from the festive train the Electors
of Saxony and Brandenburg, the Princes of the two houses which from
henceforth were to lead the German opposition against the house of
Hapsburg.
The fate of Germany was decided by the election of Charles V. He was
not entirely a Burgundian, not always a Spaniard, not an Italian, and
least of all a German. His position was too high, for him to make it
the interest of his life to meet the requirements of any one of the
many nations under his sway. The unfortunate part of his exalted
position was, that he could only carry out a personal policy,
subordinating sometimes one, sometimes another country to the course of
his plans, the ultimate aim of which was the advantage of his own
family. Had Charles been less able and less moderate, what was
insupportable in these incongruities would have been felt as a
grievance by all his states; but seldom has a prince maintained so
long, a position in itself untenable. At last, however, the catastrophe
arrived. After thirty years of fame and success, he broke down, and the
misery of Germany became apparent.
Although he had so little in common with the Germans, still he was not
unpopular in the Empire. The people of Germany looked upon him as
Luther himself did. The confiding attachment with which the Germans
received the grandson of Maximilian was almost touching; his noble,
reserved, and composed bearing had an imposing effect upon all. In the
beginning the best was hoped of him, and later also, even the
Protestants who had experienced his displeasure, rejoiced when he
encountered the Pope or conquered the French King. Long did the German
nation continue to feel itself exalted by the glory and splendour of
his government. Charles did his best; he spared the prejudices of the
Germans, indulged them more than any of his other people, and even when
he sided with a party, he knew how to conciliate his opponents by his
benevolent dignity. At last, however, the time came when his pride and
pretensions rose so high that the intractable independence of the
Protestant party became insupportable to him, and then his long
concealed opposition broke forth into hate. Suddenly, a storm arose
against him among the people. As in the first years of Luther, a sea of
small literature again overflowed the country: they fought against him
in prose and verse, and they depended more on the support of heaven
than was wise. The successor of Duke George of Saxony, that most
zealous opponent of the Reformation, the Protestant Maurice, united
himself with the Emperor against his own family, and the Protestant
party was defeated.
Now the Emperor Charles had attained the height of his power; the
battle of Muehlberg was won; the Smalkaldic league had fallen to pieces
ingloriously. The Protestant princes and cities hastened to make their
peace with that lord of half Europe, to whom in an evil hour they had
been so eager to offer the dominion over them. Carrying away with him
the captive Elector of Saxony and the Landgrave of Hesse, he marched
from the Saale in triumphant procession to Augsburg, accompanied by his
army of Spaniards, and Flemings, and German _Landsknechte_. There all
the most powerful of Germany were gathered together at the Diet to
obtain pardon or reward, to pay court to the most mighty sovereign that
for centuries had ruled over Germany, to decide their own future and
that of their Fatherland, and to seek pleasure and adventures. Amidst
this crowd of sovereigns and dynasties, courtiers, swindlers, soldiers,
and deputations of citizens, was one Bartholomew Sastrow, the son of a
citizen of Greifswald. He was actively employed as agent of the Dukes
of Pomerania, who were strongly compromised by their Protestant
alliances, and preferred not to appear in person before the Emperor. In
his biography (edited 1823) Sastrow has left some, lively descriptions
of what he experienced after the battle of Muehlberg, during the
triumphal march of the Emperor to Augsburg and the Diet. The historical
value of his narrative is not insignificant. He made good observations
in his subordinate position, and had connections enough to be enabled
to form a true conception of the character of the great lords; and
however insignificant some of his anecdotes may be, they help, on the
whole, to show men and great events in a new light. The following is a
faithful quotation from his words, but from the lengthiness of his
narrative parts, only have been given.
"The Pomeranian councillors desired me to remain in the Imperial camp,
and to put myself under the protection of George von Wedell. This
Pomeranian nobleman had stabbed his own cousin, and was in disgrace
with Duke Barnim, but was now serving the Emperor with nine-and-twenty
horse. Under my guidance he made himself so useful to the Pomeranian
dukes, that Duke Barnim, at my earnest petition, restored him to
favour, and reinstated him in his own property. Thus I remained with my
steed at the Imperial court at Augsburg; how it fared with me on this
march, and what I saw and heard, is here correctly recorded.
"It is customary in war for comrades to steal each other's horses, and
they remain unpunished; the process is as follows. If any one likes
another's horse, he pays a cunning stable-boy six or seven thalers to
procure it for him; then it is sent away for five or six weeks that it
may be forgotten; the tail, mane, and other marks are changed, and it
is brought back to the camp. This was done in the Imperial camp at
Halle by a German nobleman, who commissioned a boy to steal a Spanish
steed for him, and having kept him for a few weeks at his home,
thinking the rumour of it had died away, he had him brought back to the
camp. Now it happened that about eight or more squadrons of German
horse, were stationed in a beautiful meadow delightfully situated on
the Saale; but the Spaniards were encamped on the heights round the
castle. The stolen steed towards evening was taken to the river to
drink; a Spanish boy recognizing it said, 'This belongs to my master, I
will be off with it.' The German boy would not let him go; three or
four German horsemen came to his assistance, ten or twelve to the
Spaniard, then twenty or thirty to the German; thus both sides
continued increasing, and at last they began to fire. The Spaniards
being on the heights, had greatly the advantage over the Germans who
were encamped below them; and shooting through their tents, they killed
some of the noblemen who were sitting at table: the Germans on their
side did not spare the Spaniards. The Emperor sent out a Spanish lord
who was riding a splendid charger, and was adorned with glittering
golden chains, to pacify the German knights, and to quiet the uproar;
upon which the Germans screamed out, 'Shoot down the Spanish
miscreant!' When therefore he came on to the bridge to cross the Saale,
his horse was killed under him, and he of the golden chains falling
into the river, was drowned. Then the Emperor sent out to them King
Ferdinand's son, the Archduke Maximilian, afterwards Roman Emperor,
thinking that they would undoubtedly listen to him and be appeased; but
they screamed all the same, 'Beat the Spanish miscreant!' whereupon one
struck him on the right arm, and I saw how for some weeks after he
carried his arm in a black sling. At last, the Emperor himself came
out, and said, 'Dear Germans, I know you are not guilty; be satisfied;
I will repair the damage you have suffered; and by my Imperial honour,
tomorrow at daybreak I will have the Spaniards hung before your eyes.'
Thus the uproar was quieted. The following day the Emperor caused an
examination and valuation to be made of the damage done in both the
German and Spanish camps; and as it appeared that only eighteen German
squires and servants, together with seventeen horses, had been killed,
whilst the Spaniards had lost seventy men, the Emperor sent word to the
German knights that His Majesty would replace the value of their
horses, and would not be disinclined to fulfil his promise of the day
before, of hanging the Spaniards; but the Germans would themselves see
now that the Spaniards had suffered fourfold, and that thus they had
been sufficiently revenged; the Emperor therefore hoped, and had
graciously decided, that the Germans should be satisfied and contented.
"On the evening of the 18th of June, the two Electors, Maurice of
Saxony, and Brandenburg, took the Landgrave Philip of Hesse between
them to Halle. On the following day, about six o'clock in the evening,
he, together with his chancellor who was kneeling beside him,
prostrated himself in the great hall before the Emperor, in the
presence of many lords, electors, princes, foreign potentates,
ambassadors, counts, colonels, generals, and a large number of
spectators, as many as the room could hold, and as many as could see
through the window from without. But when the chancellor most humbly
craved pardon, the Landgrave, who was a satirical gentleman, knelt, but
laughed deridingly. Then the Emperor pointed his finger at him and said
with an angry look, 'Truly I will teach you to laugh;' which indeed was
afterwards done.
"The Emperor proceeded from Halle to Naumburg, and remained there three
days. When the Imperial army was assembled before Naumburg, and his
Imperial Majesty was waiting before the gate, he wore a black velvet
hat and a black mantle bordered with velvet two inches wide, but a
shower of rain coming on, he sent into the city for a gray felt hat and
cloak; meanwhile he turned his cloak, and holding his hat under it,
exposed his bare head to the rain. Poor man! he who had tons of gold to
spend, would rather expose his bare head to the wet than allow his
cloak to be spoilt by the rain. The Spaniards always took the Landgrave
a day's march before the Emperor; they were very disorderly and ill
conducted, for they left their dead lying on the road which the Emperor
had to pass, and behaved shamefully to men, women, and children.
"On the 1st of July he arrived at Bamberg. The Emperor made his
entrance with a great concourse of people about midday; he was mounted
on a little horse. In the suburb there was a street turning off to the
right, and in the corner house was lodged the imprisoned Elector of
Saxony, so that on one side he could look out into the fields, and on
the other into the city. He was standing above at the window, to watch
the Imperial procession; and when the Emperor approached the corner, he
bowed lowly before him: the Emperor kept his eyes fixed on him as long
as he could see him, and laughed deridingly.
"On the 3rd of July the Emperor fixed the 1st of September for the Diet
to be held at Augsburg. The Spaniards carried away from the bishopric
of Bamberg upwards of four hundred women, maidens, and maidservants to
Nuremberg. From thence they sent them home again; the parents,
husbands, and brothers had followed them to Nuremberg; fathers seeking
their daughters, husbands their wives, and brothers their sisters, and
there each one found his own again. Was not that a wicked nation? thus
to act when war was over, in a friend's country, and in the presence of
the Imperial Majesty, who nevertheless keeps very strict rule. Every
evening where his tent was erected, he caused a gallows to be raised,
and had them hung unsparingly; yet even that was of no avail.
"When he left Nuremberg, the Duke of Leignitz, who usually passed his
nights in drunken revelry, for once rose early and rode to the
Emperor's lodging, where he arrived at six o'clock, but found that the
Emperor had already been gone two hours. The duke was too much ashamed
to follow; but sent two of his councillors to Augsburg, and returned to
his own country, where he continued his disorderly life. Once when he
was very tipsy he commanded the councillors, at the peril of their
lives, to put him into a tower and feed him with bread and water; and
if they disobeyed him, he would have their heads off. They took him to
a tower wherein there were already prisoners; he was let down into the
hole where they were, and the keeper received orders not to let him
out, and to feed him with nothing but bread and water. When he had
outslept his drunkenness he roused himself, and began to talk with the
prisoners, and called to the gaoler to set him free. The man told him
it was strictly forbidden; but he made it known to the councillors, who
temporized till the third day. The duke meanwhile did not desist from
ordering the gaoler to beg the councillors to give in and release him.
Then they went to him in the prison, and heard him begging and
entreating; but they told him what he had commanded them, on pain of
having their heads cut off, and they knew that he would not trifle with
them, and therefore dared not let him out. But as he promised by
everything that was high and holy not to injure them, they released
him.
"He continued his mad wild life until he ruined his people and country
and his own health. He died, leaving his wife, who was a Duchess of
Mecklenburg, and their children in the greatest poverty. His widow
complained to the city councils that she was in great need, and knew
not what to do, nor how to bring up her sons according to their
position; and begged that they would assist her. So the council of
Stralsund sent her some thalers by a special messenger.
"At the end of July, his Imperial Majesty arrived with the whole army
at Augsburg; he had left the Landgrave with a troop of Spaniards at
Donauwoerth, but had brought the captive Elector along with him to
Augsburg, and had quartered him in the house of Welser, in the wine
market; it was separated from the Emperor's palace by two houses and a
little street, and was close to our inn. The Emperor had a way made
through the two houses, and a bridge made over the little street, so
that he could pass from his rooms into those of the Elector. The latter
kept house himself, and had his chancellor Minkwitz and his own
attendants with him, so that no Spaniards need enter either his
sitting, or his sleeping rooms. The Duke of Alva and other great lords
of the Imperial court had free access to and held friendly intercourse
with him, and enlivened him by their society. In the courtyard of the
Elector's dwelling, which was built and furnished in princely style,
there was a circus, where they threw the spear; he was also allowed to
ride to any of the places of amusement and ornamental gardens, of which
there were many at Augsburg; and because from his youth he had always
taken delight in fencing, and had been an adept at it when younger and
more active, fencing-schools were erected for his pleasure; but the
Spanish soldiers guarded him. Besides this, he was allowed to read
books and so forth up to the end of the Diet, when he refused to accept
the interim. But with the Landgrave at Donauwoerth it did not fare so
well; the Spaniards were all day long in his rooms. When he was at his
window looking into the square, one or two Spaniards were always beside
him, stretching out their necks as far as his. Armed Spaniards lay all
night in his room, and when the watch was changed, and the new one came
in with drums and fifes, those who had kept guard half the night
uncovered the bed and said, 'See there, we deliver him to you;
henceforth you must guard him.'
"Methinks that this was indeed keeping the promise made at Halle:
'Truly I will teach you to laugh.' His Imperial Majesty as soon as he
arrived at Augsburg, caused a gallows to be erected in the middle of
the city close to the Town Hall, in order to create terror, and near it
also a platform on which the bowstring was administered; and directly
opposite another, about the height of a middle-sized man, whereon
people were broken on the wheel, beheaded, strangled, quartered, and
the like.
"It was truly a warlike Diet, for there were already in the garrison
ten companies of _Landsknechte_, besides the Spanish and German troops
which the Emperor brought with him to Augsburg, who were encamped in
the country round the city. But it was also a notable and stately Diet,
for the Emperor and King were there, all the Electors in person, with
large bodies of followers; the Elector of Brandenburg with his wife,
the Cardinal of Trent, Duke Heinrich of Brunswick with his two sons
Carl Victor and Philip, Margrave Albrecht of Culmbach, Duke Wolfgang,
Palatine of the Rhine, Duke Augustus of Saxony, Duke Albrecht of
Bavaria, &c., Frau Maria, the Emperor's sister, and the daughter of his
sister, the widow of Lorraine; the wives of the Margrave and of the
Bavarian Duke; item; ambassadors of foreign potentates; besides these
many bishops and abbots, numberless counts, barons, citizens of the
Imperial cities, illustrious envoys, and excellent men. I must not
forget Michael the Jew, who considered himself a great man, and rode
through the streets on a well-caparisoned horse, splendidly attired,
his neck covered with gold chains. He was always surrounded by ten or
twelve of his servants, all Jews, accoutred as troopers. He was a
distinguished-looking man, and it is said that his true father was a
Count von Rheinfelden. The hereditary Marshal of Pappenheim, an old
gentleman who could not see very distinctly, not only took off his hat,
but also bent his knee to him, as he would to one greater than himself.
When he found afterwards that it was Michael, he repented that he had
shown such honour to a Jew, and exclaimed, 'May God confound thee, thou
old rogue of a Jew.'
"Splendid banquets were held at the Diet, and there were dances almost
every evening, both foreign and German. King Ferdinand especially was
seldom without guests; they were always treated magnificently, with all
kinds of pastimes and splendid dances. He had exceedingly fine music,
not only instrumental, but also singing. Besides other diversions, he
had always behind him a witty fool, whose powers he knew how to bring
out, and to meet his lively sallies with a retort, his tongue was never
still. I saw one evening at his house a dance, in which a Spanish
gentleman, attired in a long closed robe, reaching to the ground, so
that one could not see his feet, led out a young lady, and danced with
her an _Algarde_ or _Passionesa_ (as they call it, I know nothing about
it); he sprang about so wonderfully, and she likewise, and they went so
well together, that it was a pleasure to see them. His brother, the
Emperor of Rome, on the contrary, gave no banquets, and did not even
entertain his own attendants; when they accompanied him from the church
to the chamber in which he dined, giving each of them his hand, he
dismissed them, and placed himself alone at table. Neither did he talk;
only once when he came out of the church into his chamber, he looked
round, and not seeing Carlowitz,[46] he said to Duke Maurice, '_Ubi est
noster Carlovitius?_' and when the latter answered, 'Most Gracious
Emperor, he is somewhat unwell,' he called out to his doctor in
Flemish, 'Vesali, you must go to Carlowitz; he is said to be somewhat
unwell; see if you cannot restore him.' I have often seen the Emperor
dine during the Diet, but he never invited his brother, King Ferdinand,
to dine with him. The dinner was brought up by the young princes and
counts, and there were always four courses, each consisting of six
dishes, which were placed on the table before him, and the covers
removed one by one; he shook his head at those which he did not desire,
nodded when he wished to partake of one, and drew the dish towards him.
The fine pies, game, and well-dressed dainties were sent away, and he
would keep a roast pig, and calf's head, and suchlike: he did not allow
it to be cut for him, nor did he often himself use the knife, except to
cut many small pieces of bread as large as he could put into his mouth
with each bit of meat. He then loosened with his knife, the corner
which he liked best of the dish he wished to eat; he broke it with his
fingers, held the dish under his chin, and ate in this primitive manner
so neatly and cleanly that it was a pleasure to see him. When he wished
to drink--and he only drank thrice during his meal--he nodded to his
physicians, who were standing before the table; they went forthwith to
the treasury, where were kept two silver bottles and a crystal cup
which held about a pint and a half, and filled the glass out of the two
bottles; this he drank clean off, so that not a drop remained therein,
and he had to take breath two or three times before he withdrew it from
his mouth. He never spoke whilst at table, and though there were fools
standing behind him, who cut all kinds of jokes, he did not heed them;
at the utmost he twisted his mouth into a half-smile if they said
something very amusing. He did not care that many should stand round to
see an Emperor eating. He had a splendid choir, as well as instrumental
music, which performed in the churches but never in his own rooms. The
dinner did not last an hour; then everything was removed, and seats and
tables put away, so that nothing remained but the four walls, hung on
all sides with costly tapestry. When grace had been said before him,
they handed him a little quill for a toothpick; then he washed himself
and placed himself in a corner of the chamber at the window, and any
one might come, and either present a written petition or speak
themselves, and he told them on the spot where they might obtain an
answer.
"There were fine doings also amongst the princes and lords, both
spiritual and temporal. I was once looking on when the Margrave
Albrecht was drinking and playing at the _Peilketafel_,[47] with other
young princes and young bishops who were not born princes; they did not
give each other their titles, but called mockingly, 'Shoot away,
priest; what does it matter? you will never hit the mark;' and the
bishop replied after an equally vulgar fashion. Young princes lay upon
the ground with princesses and countesses, for they did not sit upon
benches or seats, but costly carpets were spread about the rooms,
whereon they could sit and stretch themselves comfortably. They
squandered upon extravagant banqueting, not only what was in their
exchequers and what they had brought to the Diet, which amounted to
many thousand thalers, but they were obliged, with great difficulty and
vexation and irreparable loss, to borrow enough to enable them to leave
Augsburg with becoming style. The subjects of certain princes,
particularly of the Duke of Bavaria, whose wife was daughter of the
King of Rome, collected some thousand gulden only for play, which they
made a present of to their lords, who lost it all.
"I often addressed petitions to the Bishop of Arras, Doctor Marquardt,
and other councillors; but as I did not of my own accord find out what
was usual to be done to gain favour in courts and great cities and with
lords, Doctor John Marquardt cleverly gave me to understand that it
would give him particular pleasure to possess a pretty little horse,
whereon he might ride to the council, as was customary at the Imperial
court; I wrote therefore to Pomerania, and they sent me a fine horse,
with an order to have suitable riding gear made for it, and then to
present it to the doctor, together with three large Portuguese pieces
of gold, which the doctor gladly accepted without any hesitation. A
great treasure of silver, gold, money, and money's worth of costly and
rare goods, was presented to Herr von Granvella, whereby the Electors,
princes, and cities thought to obtain his favour with his Imperial
Majesty. He carried it on large waggons and strong mules along with him
on his return home, and when he was asked what was on the waggons and
mules, he answered, '_Peccata Germaniae_.'
"At the earnest entreaties and supplications of the Electors of Saxony
and Brandenburg, the Emperor fixed a day in December to decide the
matter concerning the Landgrave of Hesse. Now the Elector Duke Maurice
was intriguing with the Duchess of Bavaria, and on the Sunday morning
before the Monday on which the long-desired decision was to be given,
he placed himself in a sledge, for it had frozen hard, and there was
snow on the roads. Carlowitz came running to him from the Chancellery,
and said, 'Whither will your Electoral Grace drive?' The Elector
answered: 'I drive to Munich.' I was standing outside the gate, so that
I and others who were near could hear all that passed. Carlowitz then
said: 'Has your Electoral Grace forgotten that to-morrow his Imperial
Majesty's decision will be given in the business so important to your
Electoral Grace and to the Elector of Brandenburg?' The Elector
replied: 'I will drive to Munich.' Then Carlowitz answered: 'You owe it
to me that you have become an Elector of note, but you have conducted
yourself so frivolously at this Diet, that you have brought on yourself
the contempt of the distinguished persons of all nations, and of their
Imperial and Royal Majesties.' As he was saying this, Duke Maurice
touched his horses with the whip, and drove out of the gate. Carlowitz
called out to him loudly: 'Go your way in the devil's name, and may God
confound you in your driving and all else.' When the Elector returned
from Munich, Carlowitz was on the point of starting for Leipzig, as he
said the new year's fair was at hand, and he must needs be there, or he
would lose some thousand thalers; so the Elector, wishing to retain
him, was obliged to present him with that amount. Neither of the
Electors appeared on the appointed day before his Imperial Majesty, nor
was a decision come to on the matter of the imprisoned Landgrave. For
as the drive to Munich, and the conversation betwixt Duke Maurice and
Carlowitz, which had been held in open day in the streets, and heard by
many, was not concealed from his Imperial Majesty, he considered the
many entreaties of this prince more as mockery than earnest, and no
further day was fixed upon to hear the cause.
"The German Landsknechte of the garrison at Augsburg had not been paid
for some months, and it was reported that the fine upon the Landgrave
and the cities, out of which they were to have been paid, had been
collected, but that the Duke of Alva had lost it at play with the
imprisoned Landgrave, so they were kept long without their pay: then
some of them fell upon the ensigns' quarters, seized flags, and marched
thus with colours flying in battle order to the wine market. When the
standard bearers were marching along in good order, an arrogant
Spaniard, desirous of gaining honour, of deserving the favour of his
Imperial Majesty, and of immortalizing his name, sprang upon the
ensign, and tore the flag out of his hands. The ensign was followed by
three men-at-arms, one of them struck this wretch in two like a carrot,
according to the saying: 'He who seeks danger perishes therein.' When
the Landsknechte reached the wine market there was a great running to
and fro of the Spanish soldiers, who beset all the streets leading to
the wine market, and carried off the imprisoned Elector to the
Emperor's palace, for they feared he might be taken away: all the
inhabitants, especially merchants and tradesmen, who had collected
costly goods, silk stuffs, silver and gold, pearls and precious stones
on the occasion of the Diet, were greatly afraid lest the city should
be plundered, which might well have happened had the Landsknechte
sought to pay themselves. There arose therefore wild cries, uproar, and
running about; every one armed himself in earnest, citizens and
strangers kept to their houses and apartments arquebuse in hand and
their guns ready to fire, and every one did what he could for the
protection of his own, so that the Diet might indeed have become an
armed one.
"But the Emperor sent to the Landsknechte to inquire what they wanted,
and they, holding their guns in the left hand, and in the right,
burning matches close to the touchhole, answered, 'Either money or
blood?' Then the Emperor sent them word that they were to rest
satisfied, as they should certainly be paid the next day. But they
would not withdraw without the assurance that they would not be
punished for having assembled in front of the Emperor's lodging. This
the Emperor promised, so they withdrew, were paid the next day, and
dismissed. But what happened? Some spies were sent out to mingle
unperceived and travel for two or three days with the leaders of the
Landsknechte, to find out whether they spoke ill or mockingly of his
Imperial Majesty; if so, they were to call assistance and bring the men
back prisoners to Augsburg. The second or third evening the
Landsknechte had a jovial bout at an inn, for they had money in their
pockets, and thought themselves as safe as if they were in the land of
Prester John, and had no idea that there were traitors sitting with
them: then they spoke of the Emperor in this fashion: 'Yes indeed! one
ought to allow this Charles of Ghent to take soldiers and not to pay
them! But we would have taught him better, and have paid him for it;
may God confound him.' After these words they were seized, taken back
to Augsburg, and hanged at Berlach on the gallows, and a tiny little
flag stuck on the breast of each."--So far Sastrow.
By his account of the revolt of the German Landsknechte it may be seen
how insecure was then the highest earthly power. A few years later the
new Elector, Maurice of Saxony, was able in a moment by a sudden
expedition to overpower the experienced master of foreign politics.
Neither the Emperor nor any other prince maintained a large standing
army; even the Imperial power stood on a rotten foundation, and the
Emperor Charles was in a difficult position with respect to the German
soldiery. However easy was the conscience of the Landsknechte, and
however ready they were to sell themselves for money, they were yet not
entirely without political tendencies. Most of them were well disposed
towards the Protestants, and even those who had helped to overthrow
their comrades of the Saxon service at the battle of Muehlberg,
discovered with vexation after the combat, that they had given a deadly
blow to the Protestant cause. The memory of Luther was dear to them;
but far deeper lay their hatred for the Spanish soldiers of Charles,
that faithful invincible infantry who had bled for their king on the
battle-fields of half Europe. The Emperor had himself excited the civil
war in Germany; a few years later, the German soldiers marched
defiantly against his anointed head. Most of the German princes, even
the enemies of the Ernestine and Hesse, felt like these soldiers. The
great Emperor had made an irreparable rent in the loose tissue of the
German empire; for this had been no exercise of Imperial power, as once
against the mad Wuertemberger; but it was a civil war in its broadest
acceptation; it was a personal struggle of the Hapsburger against the
German princes. Henceforth the German sovereigns knew what they had to
expect from their Emperor: the last respect for order and duty to the
Empire vanished, and each had cause to look after his own interests.
The only safety against the fearful power of the Hapsburger was to be
found in alliance with foreign sovereigns. More bold became the
intercourse with France, and whoever opposed the Emperor looked there
for help. Maurice of Saxony and Albrecht of Brandenburg rose against
the Emperor in alliance with France. The German general, Schaertlin, who
was in the French pay, assisted in depriving Germany of Metz, Toul, and
Verdun. The younger princes of Germany went to the courts of the
Valois, the Guises, and the Bourbon, to acquire refinement and obtain
money and rank in the army; and this was done not only by the
Protestant princes, but also by the Roman Catholics and even
ecclesiastical Electors. The overpowering influence of France on the
fate of the Fatherland dates not from the time of Richelieu, but from
the wars of Charles V. The real disruption of the German empire dated
from the battle of Muehlberg and the Diet of Augsburg; and however
objectionable the alliance of these German princes with a foreign power
may appear to us, it must not be forgotten, that it was owing to the
un-German policy of the Imperial house. The destroyer of German
self-dependence, the great Emperor, met with his punishment almost
immediately. A very different man from the scrupulous and irresolute
John Frederic, had received the electoral crown from Charles; his own
disciple in self-seeking policy, with an overbearing character, without
consideration, and secret in his resolves, like the Emperor himself. So
Charles reaped what he had sown: the Landsknechte of Maurice drove him
even to the last gorges of the Alps. The naked egotism of the Wettiner
triumphed over the reckless policy of the great Hapsburger. What the
lord of half Europe had striven for all his life, slipped out of his
hands. Germany was not to be governed in his way; he had not been able
to guide the great movement of the German mind, nor yet could he
entirely destroy it. He had not succeeded in making the German princes
serviceable to his house, nor had he been able to destroy their power.
The far-seeing cautious player threw up his game, and quietly, as was
his wont, laid down the cards. He himself, with a heavy heart, broke in
two the power of his house.
This did not render the political position of Germany more hopeful. The
life of Maurice also passed away like a meteor, and his wild associate
Albrecht of Brandenburg died an early and miserable death.
Then followed the feuds of Grumbach and Cologne, the disputes of
Juelich, and the disorders of Bohemia; one quarrel more contemptible
than the other, and the leaders of both parties equally incapable. The
end was the Thirty years' war.