GERMAN NOBILITY IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
In the beginning of the sixteenth century we find the names of the
German nobles, Fronsperg, Hutten, and Sickingen, conspicuous in the
three different ways in which the nobles then employed themselves,--the
Army, the Church, and State, and the representation and maintenance of
the rights and interests of the landed proprietors. But it appears
strange that even up to the middle of the seventeenth century, men like
these should have had so few of their own class following in their
footsteps. From the time of Fronsperg to that of the Bohemian Junker
Albrecht of Waldstein, and the wild cavalry leader Pappenheim, the
whole of Germany produced no General of more than average skill from
among the nobility. There were a few Landsknechte leaders of citizen
extraction like Schaertlin, and some German princes, all however with
more pretension than capacity, and it was principally to Spaniards and
Italians that the family of the Emperor Charles V. and their opponents
owed their most important victories. As to the intellectual life of
Germany, there was still less of that amongst the nobility after the
time of Hutten. How few noble names do we find in the long list of
reformers, scholars, poets, architects, and artists! The first occur in
the seventeenth century, when we find those of the members of the
_Palmenordens_, the author of the 'Simplicissimus,' and of some noble
rhymers belonging to the Silesian school of poetry or to the Saxon
court. One may well ask how it happened that an order so numerous,
holding such an advantageous position with respect to the people,
should have accomplished so little in this great field of action, which
up to the time of the Hohenstaufen was especially in the possession of
the nobility. And even with the most favourably disposed judgment, it
would be difficult to ascribe to the landed nobility of the fifteenth,
sixteenth, and the first half of the seventeenth centuries, any
beneficial influences on any one of the great currents of life in
Germany.
In fact the lower nobility--considered as an order--had been, since the
time of the Hohenstaufen, a misfortune to Germany. It was after the
beginning of the thirteenth century, when the difference betwixt the
noblemen and freeholders had been established by the laws, by the
interests and inclinations of the Emperor, and by the limited ideal,
which was formed by the aristocratic body, that the nobility gradually
decayed. In the cities, undoubtedly, the old dominion of the privileged
freeman was broken in the last period of the middle ages; there, in
spite of all hindrances, a quicker circulation of popular strength had
established itself. The labourer could become a citizen, the
experienced citizen could rise to be the ruler of his city, or of a
confederation of cities, and be the leader of great interests. But the
landed nobleman after the beginning of the thirteenth century sank
gradually into a state of isolation; labour was a disgrace to him, his
acres were cultivated by dependent vassals, and he naturally
endeavoured as much as possible to separate himself from them. Ever
heavier became the oppression by which he kept them down; ever higher
rose the pretensions which he, as lord of the land and soil, raised
against his own people.
But the oppression of the agriculturist was not the worst consequence
of the privileged position of the noble. If he found it to his
advantage to treat his beast of burden, the peasant, with moderation,
he was so much the more eager to make use of his landed rights in other
directions. The highroads, the river that ran by his castle, afforded
him the opportunity of laying hold of the goods of strangers; he levied
imposts upon goods and travellers; he obtruded his protecting escort
upon them, and robbed such as considered this escort unnecessary; he
built a bridge where there was no river, in order to raise a toll; he
designedly kept the roads in bad condition, because he chose to
consider that the goods of travelling merchants, though under the
Emperor's protection, so long as they were in waggons or in vessels
afloat; if the waggons were upset or vessels ran aground, belonged,
according to manorial right, to the possessor of the land. Finally he
became himself a robber, and with his comrades seized whatever he could
lay hands on; he took the goods to his house, plundered the travellers,
and kept them prisoners till they could free themselves by ransom.
Nevertheless there were certain regulated observances accompanying
these robberies, according to which the conscientious Junker
distinguished between honourable and dishonourable plunder. But this
moral code had very little to justify it. In the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries there were very few noblemen's houses which did not
deserve the name of robber-holds, and still fewer out of which
plundering attacks were not made.
But this life was most of all detrimental to the nobles themselves;
their love of plunder, and their pugnacity, made them turn as much
against their fellow-nobles as against the cities, and through the
whole of the middle ages led to innumerable feuds. When the feud was
notified by letter, some days previous to the beginning of hostilities,
it was considered honourable. Any trifle was sufficient to occasion a
feud: never-ending boundary disputes, encroachments on the chase, or
the flogging of a servant, caused discord, even between old comrades
and friendly neighbours. Then both parties strengthened themselves by
the assistance of relations and dependents; they enlisted troopers, and
endeavoured to learn through the medium of spies how they could gain an
advantage over the property, house, or person of their adversary. The
opulence of the cities, and the rancour entertained by the nobles
against the rising independence of the citizens, gave an agreeable
excitement to their feuds with the latter. Whoever was unable to
establish a profitable feud of his own, united himself as an assistant
to another, and thus old comrades were often by the chapter of
accidents opposed, and then, in the full consciousness of doing their
duty, would beat and even stab each other.
This marauding life on the highways, in the woods and caverns, and with
drunken companions, was neither favourable to their family life nor to
their higher interests, nor was it even fitted to develop warlike
capacity except among the subordinates. At the best, it only formed
leaders of small bodies of mounted troopers for foraging expeditions
and surprises. Sickingen himself, the most skilful specimen of a Junker
of the sixteenth century, showed in his great and decisive feud, only
very moderate talents as a general; and the capacities of Goetz, in a
military point of view, do not stand higher than those of an
experienced serjeant of hussars. Thus wild, vicious, and detrimental to
the community, was the conduct of even the quietest of the lower
nobility. Their being a privileged order whose members considered
themselves superior to citizen of peasant, who kept themselves apart
from others, in marriage, business, law, manners, and ceremonials, made
them for centuries weak, and their existence a misfortune to the
people; but at the same time it saved them from the ruin consequent
upon their disorderly life. On retrospect of the act itself, there is
little difference to be seen between the robber who now waylays the
wanderer on the lonely heath, and the country nobleman who about the
year 1500 dragged the Nuremberger merchant from his horse and kept him
in a dark prison upon bread and water, whilst the noble's wife made
coats and mantles out of the stolen cloth. But three hundred and fifty
years ago, the noble robber practised his evil deeds with the feeling,
that though his actions were perhaps contrary to the decrees of an
Imperial Diet, yet they were looked upon by the whole nobility of his
province, indeed by the highest sovereigns of the country, as pleasant
or at the worst as daring tricks. Certainly if he was caught by the
city whose citizens he had injured, he might possibly lose his life, as
does now a murderer on the high-road, but the law of the city was not
his law, and if he died, his death would probably be revenged by other
active comrades. However unreasonable were the laws of honour according
to which he lived, he felt that these same laws were honoured by
thousands whom he esteemed as the best upon earth. Thus it was
possible, that amidst the greatest immorality and perversity, many
manly virtues might be exhibited by individuals; fidelity to their
word, devotion to their friends, and kind-hearted friendliness even to
those whom they had robbed and imprisoned.
It was at this period, under the new Emperor Maximilian, that the
memorable attempt was begun, to give a new constitution to the
shattered body of the Empire, and with it the possibility of a new
life. More than a century elapsed and three generations passed away
before the lesser nobility could accustom themselves to the restraint
of the new laws; but the princes and cities, however much they might
quarrel together, had the greatest interest in enforcing obedience to
these laws. It is however worthy of note, that while losing a portion
of their wild straightforward resoluteness, they adopted the faults
more especially belonging to the new epoch. How the change gradually
took place, we will demonstrate here by a few examples.
A happy accident has preserved to us three autobiographies of
well-known German nobles of different periods of the 16th century,
those of Berlichingen, of Schaertlin, and of Schweinichen; one of them,
so long as the German language lasts, will be intimately associated
with the name of the greatest German poet. These three men, who
flourished in the beginning, the middle, and the end of this celebrated
century, were widely different in character and destiny, but all three
were landed proprietors, and each of them has recorded the events of
his life, so as to give an instructive insight into the social
condition of his circle. The best known is Goetz von Berlichingen; his
memoirs were first published in 1731. The halo, with which three
hundred years after his death, Goethe's charming poem has invested him,
will make it difficult for the reader of his biography to separate the
ideal delineation of the poet from the figure of the historical Goetz.
And yet this is necessary. For however modestly and lovingly Goethe has
portrayed his character, he appears quite different in history. When as
an old man, in a time to which he was a stranger, he wrote his life, he
loved to dwell on the knightly exploits of his wild youth. It was not
his line to enter into political questions; if he found himself in a
crisis he acted according to the advice of his patrons,--the great
sovereigns, who employed his strong arm and steadfast will for their
own objects. When the peasant army broke into his territories, he and
his kinsmen were utterly at a loss what to do, and wrote for advice.
The answer was suppressed by his mother-in-law and wife, and he was
left to his own judgment, and had not sufficient adroitness to withdraw
himself from the thronging insurgents. Had he been like many of his
cotemporaries, such as Max Stumpf, he would have abandoned the peasants
in spite of all his vows. But although not really faithful to them,
true to the letter of his word, he adhered to them till the four weeks
were passed, for which he had bound himself though he was not in fact
their leader but their prisoner. After that he lived some years in
close imprisonment, then for a long time in strict confinement at his
castle. He was surrounded by a new generation, engaged in vehement
strife, and he himself was grieving the while that he had acted in the
peasant struggle as an honourable knight, and that still true to his
word, he had even now to count the steps which he was allowed to take
beyond the gates of his castle. After sixteen years of solitary
seclusion he was in his old age twice called to take part in the
warfare of a younger race, which neither brought him adventures nor any
opportunity to acquire fame or booty. When at last he died in peace at
his Castle of Hornburg, at the age of eighty-two, Luther had been dead
sixteen years, and the Emperor Charles V. had been interred in a
cloister four years before; but the long period from the year 1525
occupies few pages in his autobiography, although it was written in the
last year of his life. There will be given here fragments from his
account of the Nuremberg feud.
Goetz von Berlichingen.
"1512. Now I will not conceal from any one that I was desirous of
coming to blows with the Nurembergers; I revolved the thing in my mind,
and thought that I must pick a quarrel with the priest, the Bishop of
Bamberg, that I might bring the Nurembergers into play. I waylaid
ninety-five merchants who were under the safe conduct of the Bishop; I
was so kind that I did not seize any of their goods, except those
belonging to the Nurembergers; of these there were about thirty. I
attacked them on the Monday after Our Lord's Ascension-day, about eight
or nine in the morning, and rode along with them all Tuesday, that
night, and Wednesday: I had my good friend Hans von Selbitz with me,
and altogether our party amounted to thirty. But the other travellers
were numerous; these I drove away in small bodies to whatever places
they appeared to belong. My comrade, Hans von Selbitz, also an enemy of
the Bishop of Bamberg, about a fortnight afterwards burnt his castle
and a city, called, if I remember it rightly, Vilseck, so that this
affair bore double fruit.
"In order that every one may know why and wherefore I quarrelled with
and attacked the men of Nuremberg, I will state the causes. Fritz von
Littwach, a Margrave's page, with whom I had been brought up as a boy,
who had been my companion-in-arms, and who was very good to me, once
disappeared mysteriously in the neighbourhood of Onolzbach, being made
prisoner and carried off, so that for a long time no one knew where he
was or who had carried him away. Long afterwards, the Margrave caught a
man, who gave him and the knights accompanying him many true tidings.
Then it became known where Fritz von Littwach had been taken to; so I
begged and prayed of my patron and relation Herr Hans von Seckendorf,
who was the Margrave's majordomo, that he would procure me the
confession of the traitor. Thereby it was discovered that those in the
service of the Nurembergers had done the deed, and it might be assumed
that he had been taken to one of their houses or a public gaol. This
was one of my grounds of complaint against the Nurembergers.
"Further, I had hired a servant called Georg von Gaislingen, who had
promised to enter my service, but who had been, when with his Junker
Eustach von Lichtenstein, stabbed and severely wounded by the men of
Nuremberg; his Junker had been so likewise, but survived. Although many
others besides the Nurembergers were hostile to Fritz von Littwach, yet
I never perceived any one who had 'belled the cat,' as they say, or had
taken up the matter, except poor truehearted Goetz von Berlichingen:
these are the grounds of offence that I have everywhere and in every
way notified and proved against the Nurembergers, every day in which I
have negotiated with them before the commissaries of his Imperial
Majesty, and also before the ecclesiastical and temporal princes.[62]
"I will now show further what happened to me and my relations in the
Nuremberg feud. The States of the Empire ordered out four hundred
horsemen against me, amongst whom were counts and lords, knights and
vassals; their challenges are still in existence. I and my brother were
put repeatedly under the ban of the Empire, and in certain cities the
priests and monks fulminated fire and flame at me from the pulpit, and
gave me up to be eaten by the birds of the air, and everything that we
had was taken from us, so that we could not possess a foot's breadth of
anything. There was no time for festivities; we were obliged to conceal
ourselves, and yet I was able to do my enemies some injury, both to
their possessions and otherwise, so that his Imperial Majesty several
times interposed and directed his commissaries to negotiate between us,
to regulate all things and bring about a reconciliation; thereby his
Imperial Majesty hindered many of my projects, and occasioned me more
than two hundred thousand gulden' worth of loss, for I intended to have
carried off both gold and money from the Nurembergers. It was my
project then, by God's help, to overthrow, beat, and imprison all the
Nuremberg soldiers, and even the burgomaster himself, who wore a large
gold chain about his neck, and held a mace in his hand, and also all
their horsemen and their standard bearer, when they were on their way
to Hohenkraehen; I was already prepared for it with horse and foot, so
that it was quite certain I should have got them into my hands. But
there were some good lords and friends of whom I took counsel, whether
I should on the appointed day appear before his Imperial Majesty, or
put my project in execution. Their true and faithful counsel was, that
I should honour his Imperial Majesty with a visit that day, which
counsel I followed to my great and evident loss.
"I knew when the Frankfort fair was to take place, when the
Nurembergers were to go on foot from Wuerzburg to Frankfort by the
Spessart. I made a reconnaissance and fell upon five or six; amongst
them there was a merchant whom I attacked for the third time, having in
half a year, twice made him prisoner and once deprived him of property;
the others were mere bale packers of Nuremberg: I made semblance as if
I would cut off their heads and hands, though I was not in earnest; but
they were obliged to kneel down and lay their heads upon a block; I
then gave one of them a kick behind, and a box on the ear to the
others: this was the way I punished them, and then let them go their
way. The merchant whom I had so frequently waylaid crossed himself and
said: 'I should sooner have thought that the heavens would fall in than
that you should have waylaid me to-day, for only some days ago, about a
hundred of our merchants were standing in the market-place of
Nuremberg, the talk turned upon you, and I heard that you were then in
the forests at Hagenschiess waylaying and seizing property.' I myself
wondered that in so short a time the rumour of my riding hither and
thither should have reached Nuremberg. Soon after, his Imperial Majesty
took the matter in hand, and arranged it at Wuerzburg."--Thus far Goetz.
Schaertlin von Burtenbach.
Sebastian Schaertlin does not exactly belong to the same class. He was
not of noble origin, and had to thank his military talents for his
knighthood. He was born in the year 1498, and studied arms under
Fronsperg. From 1518 to 1557 he was actively employed in almost all the
military affairs of Germany, in the service of the Emperor, and in that
of the city of Augsburg. For a time also he served in the French army,
as on account of his participation in the Smalkaldic war he had been
obliged to leave Germany. He had more than once commanded large armies,
and was in great repute as a bold and experienced general; he is an
interesting contrast to Goetz. The one the noble cavalier, the other the
citizen Landsknechte leader; Goetz the jovial companion-at-arms,
Schaertlin the practical man of business. The lives of both were full of
adventures and not free from inexcusable deeds: both died at a great
age; but Goetz dissipated his time and property in plundering
expeditions and knightly deeds, while Schaertlin helped to decide the
fate of Germany. Goetz understood so little his own times and his
interest, that he, the aristocrat, allowed himself to be made use of by
the democratic peasants as a man of straw; Schaertlin understood his own
time so well, that after the unfortunate Smalkaldic war he withdrew
into Switzerland a rich man, and a few years afterwards was reinstated
triumphantly in all his honours. Goetz had all his life a strong
hankering after the merchant's gold, yet after all his daring
plundering expeditions had but little in his coffers; Schaertlin made
money in all his campaigns, bought one property after another, and knew
how to command the highest price for his services. Both gave proof of
character and of party fidelity; both were honourable soldiers, and the
knightly consciences of both were according to our judgment too lax.
Goetz, at whose want of prudence we sometimes smile, though fond of
booty, was yet in his way painfully conscientious; Schaertlin was the
cautious but agreeable egotist. All the good qualities of decaying
knighthood were united in the simple soul of the possessor of Hornburg,
whilst the Herr von Burtenbach was, on the contrary, thoroughly a son
of the new time; soldier, negotiator, and diplomat. Both were with the
Imperial army which invaded France in 1544; Schaertlin, in the prime of
life as a general, Goetz as an old gray-headed knight with a small troop
of vassals: the same year Schaertlin was created Imperial Lord High
Steward and Captain General, and acquired seven thousand gulden. Goetz
rode, ill and lonely, in the rear of the returning army back to his
castle. Both have written their lives in a firm soldier's hand; that of
Goetz is less skilful and well arranged, but his biography will be read
with greater sympathy than that of Schaertlin: Goetz takes pleasure in
relating his knightly adventures, as good comrades recall their
recollections of old times over a glass of good wine; Schaertlin gives a
perspicuous statement in chronological order, and favours the reader
with many dry but instructive details of great political transactions;
but respecting himself, he prefers giving an account of his gains and
his vexatious quarrels with his landed neighbours.
These quarrels, nevertheless, however uniform their course, claim the
greatest interest here; for it is precisely by them that we discover
how much the proceedings of the landed nobility had changed since the
beginning of the century. There is the same love of feuds, as in the
youthful days of the Berlichingen; deeds of violence still continue to
abound, and numerous duodecimo wars are planned; but the old feeling of
self-dependence is broken, the spirit of public tranquillity and of
courts of justice hovers over the disputants, neighbours and kind
friends interpose, and the lawless seldom defy the Imperial mandate or
the will of the reigning princes without punishment. Sudden surprises
and insidious devices take the place of open feuds; instead of the
cross-bow and sword, adversaries make use of not less destructive
weapons--calumny, bribery, and intrigues. Satirical songs had for a
century been paid for and listened to with pleasure, and the travelling
singers made themselves feared, as they ridiculed a niggardly host in
their songs at a hundred firesides.
Schaertlin relates as follows:--
"Anno 1557. In this year I, Sebastian Schaertlin, bought the territorial
domain of Hohenburg, together with Bissingen[63] and Hohenstein, from a
Bohemian Lord, Woldemar von Lobkowitz, and from Hans Stein, for
fifty-two thousand gulden, and took possession thereof in the presence
of my son and son-in-law, and many other nobles, on St. Matthew's day,
and received the homage of the vassals in the marketplace. The same
summer I restored the castle of Hohenstein, and so repaired it as to
enable one to reside there. Now about Michaelmas day my son went with
his wife and children, and took up his residence there; and prepared
rough and hewn stones, lime, and wood, for repairing the castle of
Bissingen; and in the winter he caused the well to be put in order; for
that purpose the neighbouring prelates gave me beautiful oak, and with
their horses and those of the city of Donauwoerth, and by all the
neighbouring peasants the carting was done.
"The 18th September, 1560, Count Ludwig von Oettingen caused one of my
husbandmen of Reutmannshof to be carried prisoner to his office at
Harburg, where he was kept without bite or sup, because he and his sons
in defending themselves had had a quarrel with certain peasants of
Oettingen, who had opened his gate and forcibly driven over his land;
nevertheless no one had been hurt. On the Monday following, the Count,
with five hundred peasants and fifty horses, fell with a strong hand
upon my wood, where he had no territorial rights, caused my acorns to
be shaken down, and without notice or warning carried off by violence
women, children, and waggons belonging to me. When I arrived the same
day at Bissingen, and learned all this, I and my two sons, together
with our cousin Ludwig Schaertlin and Hans Rumpolt von Elrichshausen,
and a force of two-and-thirty horses, entered his domain, and close to
his castle of Harburg seized a peasant and two of his vassals, and
carried them prisoners to Bissingen. As his horsemen and archers had at
their pleasure passed close to Bissingen under my very nose, with great
parade and firing off of guns, so did I the like at Harburg with the
above-mentioned horsemen, in order to excite my adversary to a
skirmish, but no one would come out against us. Yet at last they shot
at us with blunderbusses. On the Thursday after, the Count rode to
Stuttgard for a shooting match, and as he knew well that I would not
give way to him, he spoke evil of me to their princely highnesses the
Elector and Count Palatine, and other counts and nobles, screening
himself so as to get me into disgrace and disfavour. Duke Christoph of
Wuertemberg especially, who had previously been favourably disposed
towards me, recalled this year the pension of a hundred gulden which he
had given me. The Count had besides so excited his brother, Count
Friedrich, against me, that he also attacked me with violence.
Afterwards both Counts strengthened themselves with horse and foot,
against whom we brought into the castle of Bissingen a hundred good
experienced archers, and the concourse of troops on both sides was
great. The Counts had brought me and mine into ridicule with the
people, by songs and other poems, proverbs, and writings, and also with
His Imperial Majesty, the Electors and other princes, counts, and
lords. They accused me of being an exciter of tumults, and a
quarrelsome breaker of the public peace, and gave out everywhere that I
was their tenant, vassal, and dependent, who was doubly bound to them,
and had forgotten my feudal duty, and such-like lies, in the hope of
injuring me and mine by their falsehoods. Now whilst I was preparing
for being attacked, the Count Palatine, Duke Wolfgang, and Duke
Albrecht of Bavaria, being the nearest princes, interposed; they wrote
to both parties to keep the peace, and offered with Duke Christoph to
bring about an amicable negotiation, so that the prisoners on both
sides should be freed, and all the hired troops dismissed. This I was
willing to do; but as Count Ludwig von Oettingen--nicknamed Igel--the
Hedgehog--had begun all the mischief, I demanded that he should do it
first. But the Count would not give freedom to the people, but placed
Ratzebauer, who was my vassal alone, and owed neither fealty nor
allegiance to Oettingen, before the criminal court. To all eternity it
will not be shown that I and mine, by this purchase, became lawfully
vassals, for we bought Hohenburg and Bissingen, together with all that
appertains to them, as freehold properties, and as territorial domains
which are independent and have criminal jurisdiction. Yet the princes
would not leave the settlement to us, but gave us manifold admonitions
to be peaceable; so I dismissed my hired troops, and in this
transaction I well perceived that Duke Wolfgang, who before was my
gracious protector, had also fallen away, and had become inimical to
me. But in spite of all the princely mediations, Count Ludwig one
evening advanced with many horsemen and some hundred peasants against
the castle of Bissingen, and began a skirmish, with our horsemen of
whom some were in the field and others issued forth, in which none
received injury. As the enemy could do nothing, they returned again, a
laughing-stock to all.
"I brought all this business before the Supreme Court of Judicature,
and made complaint against Count Ludwig for his delinquencies against
me, hoping, as also happened, that I might bring this matter to a just
conclusion, though the princes showed such a party feeling.[64]
Meanwhile, Count Igel meanly cast odium upon my name everywhere by
printed writings and calumnious songs; and in the presence of the Count
von Mansfeld, erased from the armorial shield of my son Hans Bastian,
which was upon the Inn, the prefix 'Herr von Bissingen,' which
nevertheless had not been placed there by my son himself, but by the
landlord; and Count Friedrich caused his bailiff publicly to proclaim,
at the consecration of the church at Buchenhofen, that if one of the
Schaertlingers should go thither, every one should beat him.
"In the year 1561, Count Lothair von Oettingen came during Lent to
Augsburg; he sent many friendly words to me, as that he and his other
brothers were quite sorry that his brother Count Ludwig had treated me
in so unseemly a manner. Besides which, he complained to me of his
brother, that he would not give him his marriage settlement or any
residence; it therefore became necessary for him to behave hostilely
towards him, and he begged of me to yield him knightly service.
Thereupon I thanked him for his sympathy, and regretted that with him
also things did not go satisfactorily; but I let him know that there
was a truce between me and his brother, and that I was engaged with him
before the Supreme Court, that I did not willingly put my foot between
the hammer and the anvil, but that if otherwise he wanted any knightly
service, and would inform me of it, I would be his servant, and would
not refuse to furnish horse and armour.
"It was the custom annually at Bissingen to go on Holy Ascension Day to
a fair and dance that was held behind the castle, and there was also
shooting, whereat, this year, my son Hans Bastian gave his company.
Then Counts Ludwig and Friedrich sent the bailiff of Unter Bissingen,
together with other horsemen, to the fair, armed with five
blunderbusses. They placed themselves there, and wished to hold their
ground; my sons accosted them, asking why they placed themselves thus
armed. To whom the bailiff answered that his lords had sent him to
guard this place, and that the supremacy belonged to the Counts of
Oettingen; which my son gainsaid, as the parents of the Counts had sold
it, and it belonged to me, and he bid them take themselves off. Upon
this the bailiff rode away with these words, that he would soon return
after another fashion; and presently, from the footpath horsemen and
infantry were to be seen coming; whereupon my son sent certain servants
and vassals to the castle and the church tower, to await the enemy.
Suddenly the Count's people, numbering about forty horsemen and three
hundred foot, came riding and running at full speed, attacked my son,
and cousin Ludwig, and their sharpshooters and vassals with spears and
firearms, pressed quite up to the barrier of the fair, and closed the
gates by overpowering force. On the other hand my son and his followers
placed themselves on the defensive, fought them at close quarters, and
firing at them from the castle and towers, shot two of the Count's
horses and two of his men, one in the body and the other in the leg;
thus they kept them at bay, and at last put them to flight, but, thank
God! no misfortune happened to him or his. Afterwards, however, when my
son had entered the castle with his people, and was eating his supper
and taking no further heed, Count Lothar, that honourable man, who had
before said so many friendly things to me, returned about six o'clock,
and fired thirty shots at the castle with four powerful guns upon
wheels, and blew away full twelve bricks. About nine o'clock they
returned to Unter-Bissingen: both Counts strengthened themselves in the
night, and came again in the morning with many people. As my son and my
cousin Ludwig had no expectation of another attack, they came over to
me early in the morning; then the burgomaster and certain councillors
went out to the enemy and inquired what their intentions were, as there
was no one in the castle but women and children, they also said that
the domain was under process and Imperial neutrality. Thereupon the
bailiff from Harburg made reply that they had come yesterday and again
to-day with good and friendly intentions, to claim their lord's rights
of supremacy, but they had been fired at, whereby great damage had been
done to them. They desired to occupy the _Platz_ to-day, but if they
were fired at, it would be seen what they should do in return. Upon
this the people of Bissingen answered that they were poor people, and
whatever might be done would have to be answered for. Afterwards the
Count's people again advanced to the _Platz_, two hundred men strong
with four guns and a drum, and after performing certain dances, and
drinking, each one plucked a leaf from the linden trees; after this
defiance, and firing, they withdrew, leaving behind them an ambuscade
of two thousand men. All this I notified and complained of to his
Imperial Majesty and the Supreme Court; thereupon a mandate was sent to
both parties, that we should under pain of disgrace and outlawry not
molest each other any further, and together with this a summons to
appear before the court on the 20th of August, which were both
delivered to the Counts, who answered in a most unseemly way that it
was all a falsehood. I besides this protested against the injuries done
to me.
"On the aforesaid grounds, and because there was no end to their
hostile behaviour, and also as neither law nor right were of any avail,
I was compelled for the sake of mine honour and for protection against
the molestation of the two above-mentioned Counts, to send a statement
to His Imperial Majesty of the Roman Empire, to the Electors and
Princes, Counts and States of the Empire, and also to the five
divisions of nobility and the knighthood generally; I also made a like
statement by word of mouth to the estates of the country communes, and
fully apprised them and their governor, my worthy lord of Bavaria, of
whom I was appointed representative, and further the city of Augsburg,
whose vassal I am, of the whole transaction, and besought of them all,
counsel, help, or support. These addressed a threatening document to
the Counts, admonishing them to leave to me and mine, our rights, in
peace; adding that if they did not, they would not abandon me. At the
same time they recommended me to employ nothing but law. Now as so many
calumnious songs and sayings had been circulated concerning me, one to
whom I had perhaps done some good composed an admirable pasquinade and
song upon the Count _Igel_ von Harburg, and cut him up well.
"On the third of October, _Igel_, with fifteen hundred men, horse and
foot, amongst them certain Landsknechte, together with five pieces of
heavy artillery, advanced against my cousin Ludwig at Oberringingen,
having sent before him certain nobles to demand of him to give up his
house. But Ludwig Schaertlin had by my commands, two days before,
supplied himself with three Landsknechte, certain blunderbusses and
hand-guns of my son's at Bissingen, and with powder and shot. So he
awaited the storm, as he hoped for a father's reward from me for his
knightly truth and faith. He himself went out to these nobles, and
answered them with threatening words; if Count _Igel_ would come in a
neighbourly and friendly manner, like his brothers, he should partake
with him of his sour wine; but coming in such a fashion, he could not
open his house; he had a house for himself, and not for the Count of
Oettingen, and the Count would find he had to deal with a soldier. Each
party withdrew behind his defences, but the Count entrenched himself in
the outer court, and by the fire of his artillery destroyed the
battlements of the towers, all the windows, roofs, and chimneys, and
two persons. On the other hand, Ludwig Schaertlin defended himself
valiantly, shot the master-gunner of the Count's artillery and another
person, and wounded besides many of the soldiers, of whom some
afterwards died. Thus they fought from seven o'clock in the morning
till six in the evening. In the night Ludwig caused the Count great
alarm and disquiet; meanwhile he fortified himself, and again on the
morrow defended himself valiantly. But when I, Sebastian Schaertlin,
Knight, learned these things, I hastily sent on to Bissingen,
according to the advice of Count Albrecht of Bavaria, four hundred
soldiers, amongst them good marksmen from Augsburg, with powder and
shot, iron cramps, and good material of war. Then I scraped together
six-and-twenty thousand gulden, and provided helmets, powder and shot,
also certain waggons and guns from the city of Memmingen; a great troop
of Landsknechte and horsemen all appointed to be at Burtenbach on the
fourth, and I myself came there in the evening, after I had put
everything in motion. That same night, Count Wolf and Count Lothar came
to me at Burtenbach in a friendly way, and complained to me that their
brother, Count Ludwig, had also deprived them of their parental
inheritance, and they entreated me to unite myself with them. So we
made a written and sealed compact, that both the Counts and their
brother Friedrich, with his marksmen, and all their power of horse and
foot, should unite themselves with us, and I was to provide five
thousand vassals, or other horsemen, and bear the expense of the war.
But if I should restore the young Counts to their parental inheritance,
they should pay two thirds, and I one, of the war expenses. We hoped
Count _Igel_ would tarry before Oberringingen, and in case he conquered
it, would proceed to Bissingen to besiege my son. But the Count on the
fourth of October raised the siege, and withdrew himself disgracefully,
after he had laid waste and plundered my cousin's fore-court and whole
village, and carried off all the women and children: yet my cousin was
very near getting hold of one of his guns. When Count _Igel_ perceived
that we had come to an accommodation with his own brothers--Count
Friedrich excepted, who would not act either with or against him--he
fled the country, and went first to the Count Palatine, Duke Wolfgang,
and afterwards to Duke Christoph von Wuertemberg, to whom he lied, and
told many monstrous stories; such as, that I, with the assistance of
His Imperial Majesty, the Kings of Bavaria, and city of Augsburg, and
the league of Landsberg, had endeavoured to drive him from his people
and country.
"Meanwhile I strengthened myself, and at the end of two days I
determined to make an expedition, and cross the Danube with a force of
seven thousand men, horse and foot. But as it had been perceived by the
two Princes, the Palatine, and Wuertemberg, that the Count would be
driven away, and become a guest in their country, they both of them
advanced, the Duke of Wuertemberg in person, with his horsemen and some
guns, with the intention of not allowing me to cross the Danube, or to
give me battle. The Palatine had before urged me extremely not to have
recourse to arms, as his Princely Grace could not consent to this
expedition of mine. His Imperial Majesty, and the Colonel of the
Suabian troops, had also enjoined me to keep the peace, whereto also
the Bavarian King and the city of Augsburg had repeatedly admonished
me, and had offered to accommodate these affairs by negotiation. So
with the loss of four thousand gulden, and in spite of my having been
plundered, and my cousin endangered, I consented to sheath my sword and
keep the peace, to come to an amicable agreement, and to fix a meeting
at Donauwoerth. Negotiations were carried on there for a fortnight, and
brought to a conclusion by the arbitrators of Bavaria and the
Palatinate, to the effect that we should on both sides maintain peace,
and as there was no other hope of peace between us, and no better way
of settling matters, I should sell the property to the Count. This I
would not do, as I wished to have no transactions with the Count. Yet
at last I gave in so far, to the purport of the settled agreement, that
I would submit myself respectfully to both Princes, and give up the
supremacy of Hohenburg and Bissingen, on payment of sixty-two thousand
gulden; but not withdraw from it till I was paid the last penny in
peace and security."
Thus far Schaertlin. In spite of his complaints of loss, it may be
assumed that the sale, at least in a pecuniary point of view, was
advantageous to him, but certain it is, that it did not put an end to
his quarrels with the Count. For years they both continued to make
complaints before the Supreme Court of Justice and the Emperor; and to
make violent and mutual attacks on each other. At last the adversaries
were obliged to shake hands in presence of the Emperor.
Hans Von Schweinichen.
About the end of the sixteenth century the deeds of violence of the
noble landed proprietors were less barefaced and less frequent. Most of
them became peaceful Landjunkers, the ablest and poorest sought shelter
at the numerous courts. When Goetz was young every Landjunker was a
soldier, for he was a knight, and the traditions of knighthood had
influence even in great wars. But it was just then that the great
change was preparing which made the infantry the nucleus of the new
army; from that time an experienced Landsknecht who had influence over
his comrades, or a burgher master-gunner, who understood how to direct
a carronade, was of more value to a general than a dozen undisciplined
Junkers with their retainers. The power of the princes had for the most
part, through the new art of war, mastered that of the lower nobility,
and had made the descendants of the free knights of the Empire,
chamberlains and attendants of the great dynasties. The new roads to
fortune were flattery and cringing. The old martial spirit was lost,
but the craving for excitement remained. The Germans had always been
hard drinkers; now drunkenness became the most prominent vice in those
provinces where the vine was not cultivated. Ruined property,
prodigious debts, and insupportable lawsuits disturbed the few sober
hours of the day. The sons of the country nobility attended Latin
schools and the University, but the number of those who pursued a
regular course of study was small, for even throughout the whole of the
next century the higher offices of the state which required knowledge
and skill in business, as well as the most important posts as
ambassadors, were generally filled by burghers, and whilst the nobility
seemed only capable of holding the higher court appointments, it was
generally found necessary to send the son of a shoemaker, or of a
village pastor, to a foreign court as the representative of sovereign
dignity, and to make the noble courtier his subordinate travelling
chamberlain. Thus the country nobility continued to vegetate--sometimes
struggling against the new times, at others serving obsequiously, till,
in the Thirty years' war, those of superior character were drawn into
the violent struggle, and the weaker sank still lower.
Hans von Schweinichen lived during this period of transition, which was
about the end of the sixteenth century; he was a Silesian nobleman of
old family, groom of the bedchamber, chamberlain, and factotum of the
Quixotic Duke Heinrich XI. of Liegnitz. We see the characters of both,
in juxta-position in two biographies written by Schweinichen. One is
the account of his own life, 'Life and Adventures of the Silesian
Knight, Hans von Schweinichen, published by Buesching, three parts,
1820;' the other an extract from it, with some alterations and
additions: 'The Life of Duke Heinrich XI., published in Stenzel;
Script. Rer. Siles. iv.,' both, works of great value as a history of
the manners of the sixteenth century.
The old royal house of Silesian Piastens produced, with a few
exceptions, a set of wild, wrong-headed rulers, with great pretensions
and small powers.
One of the most remarkable among them is Heinrich XI. von Liegnitz, the
dissolute son of a worthless father. When the latter, Duke Friedrich
III. was deposed by the Imperial commissioners in the year 1559, and
put under arrest as a disturber of the community, the government of the
principality devolved upon his son, then twenty years of age. After ten
years of misrule he quarrelled with his brother Friedrich and his
nobility, and in a fit of despotic humour caused the States of the
duchy to be all imprisoned. Whilst the indignant members were appealing
against him to the Emperor, he himself undertook an adventurous
expedition through Germany, making the round of numerous courts and
towns as a beggar, during which, the lack of money plunged him into one
embarrassment after another, and led him into every kind of unworthy
action. Meanwhile he was suspended, and his brother, who was not much
better, was established as administrator. Heinrich complained
querulously, undertook a new begging expedition to the German courts,
and at last made his solicitations to the Emperor at Prague; he was
still under the severe pressure of pecuniary embarrassments, but
finally succeeded in obtaining the restoration of his duchy. Now
followed fresh recklessness and open opposition to the Imperial
commissary, a new deposition and strict imprisonment at Breslau. From
this imprisonment he escaped and wandered about in foreign parts as a
friendless adventurer; he offered his services to Queen Elizabeth of
England in her war with Philip of Spain; and at last went to Poland to
fight against Austria. He died suddenly at Cracow in 1586, probably of
poison.
If in his shatterbrained character there was anything out of the common
way, it was his being entirely devoid of all one is accustomed to
consider as honourable and conscientious. He had not the frivolity of
his courtiers who cast off all reflection, but he entirely lacked all
moral feeling. Being a prince, this recklessness for a long time
answered, for with a pleasing facility he slipped out of all
difficulties, and with a smile or dignified surprise, made his way out
of positions that would have brought burning blushes to the cheeks of
most others. It was indifferent to him how he obtained money; when in
distress he wrote begging letters to all the world, even to the Romish
Legate, though himself a Protestant; from every court and city which he
visited, and where according to the custom of those times he was
entertained, he endeavoured to borrow money. Generally the host, taken
by surprise, came to terms with Schweinichen, and instead of the loan,
a small travelling fee was given, with which the Prince was content. He
had a wife, an insignificant woman, whom he was sometimes compelled to
take with him; she had also to make shift and contract debts like him,
and after having forced herself on the hospitality of the rich Bohemian
nobles, she sought for loans through Schweinichen, and received their
courtly refusals with princely demeanour. All this would be simply
contemptible if there was not something original in it, as Duke
Heinrich, in spite of all, had a strong feeling of the princely dignity
which he so often disgraced, and was as far as outward appearance was
concerned a distinguished man. Not only with his Schweinichen, but also
in the courts of foreign princes, indeed even in social intercourse
with the Emperor, he was according to the ideas of those times an
agreeable companion, well skilled in knightly pursuits, always good
humoured, amused with every joke made by others, quick at repartee, and
in serious things he appeared really eloquent. In some matters also he
showed in his actions traces of a manly understanding. However unseemly
his tyrannical conduct, as Duke, towards his States, however strange
his open resistance to the Imperial power, and however childish his
hope of becoming elective King of Poland, yet the foundation of all
this was the abiding feeling that his noble origin gave him the right
to aspire to the highest position. He was always engrossed with
political interests and plans. Nothing ever prospered to him, for he
was unstable, reckless, and not to be trusted, but his aims were always
great, either a king's throne or a field-marshal's staff. It was this,
and not his drunken follies, that cast him down from his throne, and at
last into the grave. On one other point he was steadfast,--he was a
Protestant; although he did not hesitate a moment to demand loans of
his Catholic opponents in the most shameless way; yet when the Papal
Legate promised him a considerable revenue, and indeed his
reinstatement in his principality if he would become a Roman Catholic,
he rejected this proposal with contempt. If he engaged himself as a
soldier, it was by preference against the Hapsburgers. Such a
personage, with his freedom from all principle, his complete
recklessness, his impracticable and at the same time elastic character,
and his mind filled with the highest projects, appears to us as a
representative of the dark side which is developed in the Sclavonic
nature.
Other princes of his race, above all his brother Friedrich, are
epitomes of the faults of the German character. Mean, egotistic,
narrow-minded, and suspicious, without decision or energy, Duke
Friedrich was his perfect opposite.
Another contrast is to be found in his biographer and companion, the
Junker Hans von Schweinichen. This comical madcap was a thorough German
Silesian. When a boy, as page of the imprisoned Duke Friedrich, and as
whipping-boy of the son, he had early made a thorough acquaintance with
the wild proceedings of the Liegnitzer court, and been initiated into
all its intrigues. His father, a landed proprietor, had fallen into
debt in consequence of having once become security for Duke Heinrich.
Schweinichen was co-heir to a deeply involved property, and up to an
advanced age was engaged in endless quarrels with the creditors, and
also with his relations, who had been surety for him, and for whom he
had been surety. This was indeed, towards the end of the sixteenth
century, the usual lot of landed proprietors. But besides this, he for
many years joined in all the mad pranks of his princely master, which
were for the most part rather of a lax nature, so he came in for no
unimportant share of these frivolous proceedings. The moral cultivation
of those times was undoubtedly on the whole much lower than that of
ours, and he must only be judged by the standard of his own time. He
was no man of the sword, and his valour was tempered by a strong degree
of caution. Always in good humour, and at the same time crafty,
furnished with great powers of persuasion, he contrived to glide like
an eel through the most difficult situations with the open bearing of
an honest man, and the most good humoured countenance in the world.
Even when most dissolute he still clung to the hope of redeeming the
future, and whilst living as a wild courtier, he considered himself as
an honourable country nobleman, who had to preserve the good opinion of
his fellows. He had always a small degree of conscientiousness in
domestic matters; his was not however a burdensome or strict
conscience, and demanded only occasional obedience. He valued himself
not a little, and gradually began to take less pleasure in his master's
vagaries. The endless changes, the quarrels with Jews and Christians,
and the anxieties about the daily wine, made this life at last too
irregular for him; he had always kept a diary of his own life, and
seldom forgot to note down that on the previous evening he had been
tipsy: at the end of each year's diary, which sometimes contained
nothing but a succession of convivial parties and discreditable money
transactions, he would commend his soul to God, and after that, note
the price of corn in the last year. All that he had mortgaged for his
lord we find marked down in his diary with a statement, as precise as
superfluous, of the real worth in silver. After he had thus pretty
nearly mortgaged everything, he experienced the heartfelt grief of
seeing his Duke in the Imperial prison, there he parted with him, not
without grief, as one parts from the friend of one's youth; but his
German understanding told him that this parting was fortunate for
himself. Then followed years in which he drank with his neighbours,
reconciled himself with Duke Friedrich, to whom he even became
chamberlain, married, leased a small property, and half as landlord,
half as courtier, lived respectably like others. Afterwards, when
another prince ruled the country, Schweinichen became a royal
councillor, and an active member of the government; he had the gout,
lost his wife and married another. He still continued to move
restlessly about the country, adjusted the differences of the noblemen
and peasants, occasionally got tipsy with good comrades, discharged
debts, acquired landed property, increased in respectability as in age,
and died highly esteemed. His escutcheon, emblazoned with eight
quarterings, shone conspicuously upon the black mourning horses at his
funeral, as it had done when arranged by himself for his deceased
father; his effigy was cut in stone upon his tomb in the village
church, and his banner hung above it, whilst the coffin of his unhappy
prince was still above ground unconsecrated, walled up in a ruined
chapel by zealous monks, as that of a heretic.
The following episode is taken from the biography of Schweinichen. It
occurred in 1578, the time in which Duke Heinrich was suspended in his
government by Imperial mandate and lived in Hainau on a fixed income
under the sovereignty of his younger brother. Schweinichen was then
six-and-twenty; Schaertlin had died two months before at the advanced
age of eighty-two.
"Duke Heinrich found that it was no longer possible to hold a court in
Hainau, and notified to his Imperial Majesty, that as Duke Friedrich
would no longer give him an allowance, his Princely Grace would take it
himself where he could. To this the Emperor gave no answer, but allowed
things to take their course, as neither party would conform to his
Imperial Majesty's commands, 'as the one prince broke jugs and the
other pitchers.' Now his Princely Grace knew that the States had a
great store of corn at Groeditzberg, so the Duke took counsel with me
how he should capture Groeditzberg, and there keep house till he learned
the Imperial determination. I could by no means approve of this affair
nor give counsel thereto, for many serious reasons which I laid before
his Princely Grace's consideration. For his Imperial Majesty would
interpret it as a breach of the peace, and his Princely Grace would
thereby make matters worse rather than better. Because I thus discussed
it with the Duke, his Princely Grace was ill-content with me, and said
I was good for nothing in such affairs; for he had in his own mind,
determined to march out and try whether he could not take the fortress;
so he commanded me to prepare twelve troopers, and to tell the Junkers
that they were to ride with him, yet not to inform them where his
Princely Grace was going.
"Although I still continued to entreat of his Princely Grace not to do
this, as he would bring the whole country upon him, and I therefore
wished to dissuade him from it, yet I could not prevail with him, but
he went forth, and commanded me meanwhile not to move from the house at
Hainau till he called me away. But if his Princely Grace should capture
the fortress in the night, he would immediately send back a mounted
messenger, and if I heard a shot I should at once admit him, and obey
the commands that he brought. Thus my lord marched from Hainau the 18th
of August, about two o'clock, to Groeditzberg. When his Princely Grace
came into the wood under the hill, he sent up two horsemen as if to
examine the place; these were to bring information who were there, and
if they found that my lord could advance, they were to fire a shot. As
they found only two men there, they fired the shot. His Princely Grace
speedily rode up, took the castle, and about three o'clock in the
night, according to agreement, sent a mounted messenger to me. Now when
I heard the shot before the door at Hainau, I was greatly terrified,
and said to those who were with me in the room: 'This shot will rouse
all the country against my lord.' They did not understand this, but
suspected that my lord had carried off Duke Friedrich. I forthwith
ordered the gates of the castle to be opened. His Princely Grace had
sent me notice through Ulrich Rausch, that he had taken possession of
Groeditzberg and did not think of returning; but to send forthwith up to
that place, his remaining horses, servants, and other things.
"Two days afterwards, two Polish lords, Johann and Georg
Rasserschafsky, announced themselves as visitors to his Princely Grace
at Hainau, of which I speedily informed the Duke, and inquired what I
should do. Thereupon his Princely Grace replied, that I should receive
and entertain them a few days at Hainau; and he sent me six dollars for
the charges. As the Polish lords had sixteen horsemen with them, the
whole six dollars went for wine at the first sitting; so I had to
consider how with care and by borrowing I might provide for those lords
who were to abide there for a fortnight. Thereupon my lord wrote to me
to bring them to Groeditzberg, and to accompany them myself. There the
Duke had already established a guard of twenty men, armed with long
carabines, having become a warrior; and at the reception of the two
lords, caused six trumpets and kettledrums to be sounded. As soon as I
came up to the castle, his Princely Grace charged me with the care of
the household.
"His Princely Grace wished to have the house supplied with provisions,
and commanded me to get in a store of four-and-twenty malters of flour,
which I did; and I also bought at his desire, eight malters of salt.
The enormous piles of preserved mushrooms and bilberries is not to be
told; great vats full, whereby much money was wasted. Twelve pigs also
were fattened at the castle upon corn alone, and the Duke himself was
wont to feed them. Everything was prepared for the siege of the castle.
Now there were carriers at Modelsdorf who had to convey lead from
Breslau to Leipzig; when therefore his Princely Grace learnt this, he
commanded that two carriers should bring this lead up to the castle,
the value of which amounted to more than two hundred and fifty thalers.
It was conveyed into the house and remained lying there. The merchants
hearing this, complained to the Bishop, who called upon my lord to
deliver up the lead forthwith; this, however, his Princely Grace would
not do, but offered some day to pay for the lead from his allowance. In
the end it remained unpaid; and the carriers got into great trouble on
this account. Then Bishop Martin[65] sent commissaries to Groeditzberg;
and his Princely Grace kept them two days with him and gave them good
entertainment, but allowed them to depart again with the affair
unsettled.
"Meanwhile Frau von Herrnsdorf invited me to a wedding; without doubt
to please her daughter, to whom I was not averse, and whom I was
courting. I therefore asked his Princely Grace for leave of absence,
and also to lend me three horses, which he did most willingly; and as
his servants were just then being newly dressed in gray cloth, I
requested that those who were to accompany me might be clothed first. I
then had my sword and dagger sharpened, and adorned myself as I best
could. Thus I rode with three horsemen to Herrnsdorf, where the young
lady received me with great pleasure. I helped to fetch the bride to
Herrnsdorf, making my appearance with my trumpeter. We continued
together after the wedding till the Saturday, full of jollity; and
although I was in the mean time recalled by the Duke, I remained late,
that it might not be perceived that I had the Duke's horsemen. On
Saturday, however, I rode forth again, and when I arrived at
Groeditzberg, I desired the trumpeter to blow; but when I dismounted at
the castle, a good friend of mine came and informed me that his
Princely Grace was very angry with me, and had sworn that he would put
me in arrest in one of the rooms in the courtyard: I did not, however,
trouble myself about it, but entered the castle so that my lord might
see me from the corridor. Now his Princely Grace had some Polish guests
with him; but there was no provision either in kitchen or cellar; so
for more than an hour after the trumpeter had summoned to table, there
was nothing served up. His Princely Grace sent to me to desire that I
would cause dinner to be served up, and would be in attendance. In
answer, I let the Duke know that I had learned his Princely Grace was
angry with me; I had therefore hesitated to appear before him, but when
his Princely Grace should hear the cause of my prolonged absence he
would be well content. But the Duke returned for answer, that I must be
in attendance; that he already knew the cause of my prolonged absence,
that I loved the maiden better than him. When therefore, at table, I
presented the water to his Princely Grace, he looked very sour, but I
pretended not to perceive it. His Princely Grace began a carouse, but
when it was at its highest, the wine failed. Thereupon his Princely
Grace sent to inform me that there was no more wine, and that I had
brought him to shame by not returning at the right time. I returned for
answer to the Duke that it was no fault of mine; and why had not his
Princely Grace sent for wine in proper time? Then his Princely Grace
informed me he had no money, but that I was to send quickly for some
wine.
"I desired then to be informed what I was to do, adding that if he was
angry with me, he should tell me so himself. I had meanwhile a little
cask of wine, containing about six firkins, lying concealed in the
cellar. When a glass of this wine was poured out for the Duke, he cried
out, 'My steward, I drink to you on your return!' called me to him, and
said, 'I have been very angry with you, but it is now past; see to it
that you get me provisions, and above all, wine.' I answered, 'Your
Princely Grace may now be merry; there will be no lack of wine; other
things also shall not be wanting; but your Princely Grace had no cause
to look so askance at me, for I had been with a fair lady whom you
would gladly have seen.' Whereupon the Duke said, 'I like you, and am
well pleased with you; I was sure that you would have something in
store.' So we became again master and servant, and all ungraciousness
was at an end; and thus after my gaieties I was obliged to return to my
cares, and consider how I could provide for the kitchen and cellar,
which, after my pleasuring, was very distasteful to me. I learnt from
various sources that endeavours had been made to blacken my character
with the Duke, by representing me as a traitor, and as having dealings
with Duke Friedrich, with whom I had made so long a stay; which was not
the case, as I was too honourable to do the like. But it is usual to
find many backbiters at princes' courts. I was desirous to learn from
the Duke who my detractor was; but his Princely Grace would not tell
me, and answered that he had not believed it.
"As the supply of corn and other things were nearly at an end, and
there was nothing more in store, I was obliged to seek after
provisions. Now Heinrich Schweinichen von Thomaswaldau had a number of
old sheep which no one else would buy, and I could not buy any other
cattle for want of money, as we had none; so his Grace bade me to
traffic with my cousin for the old sheep, and I made a bargain with him
to pay twenty silver groschen apiece for the sheep, and there were
three hundred and twenty-five of them. But when we had agreed upon the
bargain, he would not deliver them to me without receiving either money
or security, and he would not take me as surety; so I had to return to
my lord to inform him of this, and he was sore displeased that no one
would trust him. He wrote a letter, therefore, with his own hands to
Schweinichen, desiring that he would deliver the sheep according to the
agreement. But it could not be arranged, and Schweinichen excused
himself. This irritated the Duke still more; and as we had nothing but
mushrooms and bilberries to eat, his Princely Grace desired me to think
of some means of giving security. As I had before asked for a loan of
three hundred thalers for his Princely Grace from the council at
Loewenberg, and had received fair promises, I went again to the
councillors, and begged of them to settle the affair; but they refused.
I persevered, and at last they consented to be security for the sheep,
provided I were responsible for any damage or loss. This, however, I
objected to, but begged that they would trust his Princely Grace, for
they should not be the worse for it. So I persuaded the council to
become security with their seal to the old higgler for half a year, and
we obtained provision again from the old sheep. These were frequently
dressed in eight different ways, also the mushrooms in three different
ways, and the bilberries in two ways. With this his Princely Grace and
we all were obliged to be content, and to drink bad Goldberger beer.
Meanwhile autumn drew on, and we were able to obtain birds. But when I
went to set gins in the wood, I had great difficulty with the retinue,
who all wished to scour the wood and get birds for themselves. Although
his Princely Grace himself forbad it, no one would desist therefrom, so
that I was obliged to put the Junkers under arrest in the room in the
courtyard, and the common people in the tower. I became thereby very
unpopular, yet it could not be helped. His Princely Grace went every
morning himself to catch birds, and that was also my pastime. Otherwise
the time passed very tediously; although I had not much rest, as I had
to procure provisions, which was a source of great trouble to me.
"Now his Princely Grace perceiving that it was difficult for him to
maintain himself at the Groeditzberg, and that no allowance could be
obtained from Duke Friedrich, hearing likewise that the Arnsdorf pond
had been fished at an earlier period than heretofore, and that when
drawn, a certain quantity of carp had been caught and placed in
reservoirs, he ordered me to provide some waggons, and rode himself
with fifteen horsemen to Arnsdorf. As it was almost evening, and there
was no one near the reservoir but the pond watchman, his Princely Grace
had a large number of the fish taken out, as many as the five waggons
could carry, and returned therewith to Groeditzberg.
"Whilst the Duke was having the waggons loaded with fish, the alarm was
given at Liegnitz; thereupon the Burgrave Kessel and Hans Tschammer,
the master of the horse, galloped off with five horsemen, to prevent
any fish from being carried away; but they were too late, for the
greater part of the waggons laden with fish were gone, besides which,
they perceived that his Princely Grace was there in person, and
stronger than themselves. His Princely Grace did not give them a kind
greeting, but gave Kessel a blow on the back, saying, that if he
allowed a word to pass his lips that was not seemly, he should be his
prisoner, and would find that the Duke would treat him as a rebel. So
these five were obliged to let the matter pass, and thank God that they
had got so well out of it.
"On the following day the pond was again to be drawn for fish, and Duke
Friedrich expected that Duke Heinrich would return and seize more of
them; so he proceeded thither himself, taking with him five-and-twenty
horsemen, and likewise fifty arquebusiers, who were concealed among the
bushes under the bank. His Princely Grace however remained at home, but
sent me and a foreigner, Hans Fuchs, a captain of Landsknechts,
together with six horsemen to Arnsdorf, with directions to greet Duke
Friedrich kindly, and say that my lord had been compelled by necessity
to carry off the fish on the preceding day, and he begged he would not
take it amiss; that Duke Friedrich was to consider it as the provision
due to him, and his Princely Grace entreated him in a friendly way to
send him yet another supply of fish for provision.
"But Duke Friedrich looked black, knit his brows, and answered thus:
'As for this greeting of his Princely Grace, if he sent it with a true
brother's heart, he thanked him for it; but two days ago the fish had
been carried off from the reservoir, which greatly annoyed him, and if
he had come there in person no good would have arisen from it.' He was
quite unfriendly, and said that no more fish should be sent, and if an
attempt should be made to take them away by force, he would guard them.
Thus I departed from Duke Friedrich, and asked Kessel for a dish of
fish, as we wished to breakfast at Perschdorf, whereupon Duke Friedrich
ordered them to give me what I wanted.
"Now when I came with such an answer to my lord, he was sore
displeased, and made all kinds of projects, and wished to take the fish
by force. Meanwhile there came intelligence that Duke Friedrich was
again going to fish the next day, and would have a guard with him. Then
my lord said to me: 'Hans, we'll have some sport; reckon how many
horsemen we can muster; we will go and frighten Duke Friedrich a little
at the Arnsdorf pond.' But I would not consent to this, and objected to
any such plan, as their hearts would have been much embittered thereby
towards each other. Duke Friedrich had also many Poles, servants of the
nobility, with him, and they were powerful. His Princely Grace however
would not give it up, but promised me he would not speak an angry word
to any one, and I should see how he would drive away Duke Friedrich and
his followers; thereupon I made a reckoning, and found that we could
bring together a force of nineteen horsemen, three trumpeters, six
arquebusiers, and two lackeys, wherewith Duke Heinrich was well
content, and commanded me to take with us one waggon with fish barrels,
as Duke Friedrich would not be so uncourteous as to refuse to present
us with some fish.
"Early in the morning his Princely Grace left his castle for
Perschdorf. There he received information that Duke Friedrich had gone
in a little boat on the pond. On hearing this, his Princely Grace said
to me: 'Hans, now is the time, advance.' Now Duke Friedrich had placed
a sentinel at the end of the dam, who as soon as he observed anything,
was to fire a shot as a signal. As soon therefore as this shot was
fired by the Duke's sentinel, I caused one of the trumpeters to blow,
and then another, and afterwards all three together. Then, as I was
afterwards told, a great tumult arose, and Duke Friedrich and his
attendants called out for their armour, and Duke Friedrich was in so
great terror on the pond, that they could hardly prevent his fainting.
At last he sprang out of the boat and waded in the mud, so that he lost
his breath. When the arquebusiers whom Duke Friedrich had with him,
heard the trumpeters, they ran among the bushes on the meadow; so that
there was no one to be seen when he called for his guard, and some
shots that fell on the lappets of Duke Friedrich's coat, and on his
steed, were the only answer, and he made off to Liegnitz with all
speed. As soon as the others saw that their lord was riding away, they
followed his example, and only nine horsemen remained by the
reservoirs; among them Leuthold von der Saale, Balthasar Rostitz, and
Muschelwitz. So when his Princely Grace approached them, they took off
their hats, and my lord greeted them graciously, and inquired where
their master was; to which they replied that they did not know.
Whereupon my lord replied, that he had not come as an enemy, but as a
brother, and added: 'I have brought with me a fish-barrel, hoping that
my brother would hold friendly intercourse with me, and not be
uncourteous, but make me a present of a dish of fish. And as I am
expecting foreign guests, I will take twenty large pike, sixty of round
pike, and a score of large carp.' Those who were to have fished
withdrew, and von Saale protested that his Princely Grace should not
take away the fish. My lord, however, did not enter into parley about
it, but compelled the peasants who had run away to descend to the
reservoir and catch the fish. And his Princely Grace packed the fish
himself in the barrel, and commanded the Junkers to tell Duke Friedrich
that he should not have fled from him and his troopers, as he had come
with friendly intentions; but it was clear that a bad conscience could
not conceal itself. Also that Duke Friedrich might come the next
morning and help him eat the fish; and he added: 'But if your Lord will
not come, do so yourselves if you are honest men, and be not afraid as
you have been to-day.' After this his Princely Grace said to me: 'Hans,
did I not tell you beforehand that I would drive away my brother? Are
you content? I will in like manner drive him from Liegnitz, you will
see: it will not take long.' Thus we returned to Groeditzberg in good
spirits."
Thus far Schweinichen. The reader will have no difficulty in
discovering that no one thought of attacking the Duke in his castle.
When winter drew on he himself became weary of this caprice, and
determined to make another expedition through Germany, which
Schweinichen very wisely opposed, but for which he afterwards exerted
his wits to procure money.
In the year 1675, a century after Duke Heinrich and his faithful Hans
had undertaken their first wild expedition through Germany, there
appeared in Silesia on the great heath of Kolzenau, which since the war
had lain waste and desolate, a strange and monstrous animal, such as in
the grim time of yore had rent the Silesian thickets with its horns,
when the first Piastens ranged through the woods with the hunting-spear
and arrow. And above in the royal castle at Liegnitz, the last Piasten
Duke, the young Georg Friedrich celebrated his birthday with his
nobles. As the rare venison was placed on his table, the joyful sounds
of the trumpet rang through the city, and the cannons thundered as
often as the health of the new Duke was drunk. But thoughtful people in
the country, trembled on account of the wild monster that had come into
their woods and to their young lord, as an ill omen from the olden
time; and they shook their heads and prophesied misfortune. The last
elk that was slain in Silesia was for the last joyous repast of the
last of the Piasten. A few days after he died; and when his coffin was
borne in the evening through the streets of Liegnitz, pitch wreaths
were burnt at every corner, and hundreds of boys dressed in black,
carried white wax tapers before their deceased lord. The German
Silesians grieved over the fall of the great Sclavonic dynasty, which
had once led their fathers into this land, and had first shown through
them to the world, that the union of men in a free community is more
beneficial to a country, than despotic government over slaves. But this
truth had afforded no safeguard for the lives of the lords of this
country.