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HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH II OF PRUSSIA V 1

THOMAS CARLYLE

Prepared by D.R. Thompson < This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it >

Carlyle's "History of Friedrich II of Prussia"

BOOK III.

THE HOHENZOLLERNS IN BRANDENBURG.
1412-1718

CHAPTER I.

Burggraf Friedrich on his first coming to Brandenburg found but
a cool reception as Statthalter. [ "Johannistage" italic> (24 June) "1412" he first set foot in Brandenburg with
due escort in due state; only Statthalter (Viceregent) as yet:
Pauli i. 594 ii. 58; Stenzel Geschichte des
Preussischen Staats (Hamburg 1830 1851)
i. 167-169.] He came as the representative of law and rule;
and there had been many helping themselves by a ruleless life of
late. Industry was at a low ebb violence was rife; plunder
disorder everywhere; too much the habit for baronial gentlemen to
"live by the saddle" as they termed it that is by highway
robbery in modern phrase.

The Towns harried and plundered to skin and bone were glad to
see a Statthalter and did homage to him with all their heart.
But the Baronage or Squirearchy of the country were of another
mind. These in the late anarchies had set up for a kind of kings
in their own right: they had their feuds; made war made peace
levied tolls transit-dues; lived much at their own discretion in
these solitary countries;--rushing out from their stone towers
("walls fourteen feet thick") to seize any herd of "six hundred
swine" any convoy of Lubeck or Hamburg merchant-goods that had
not contented them in passing. What were pedlers and mechanic
fellows made for if not to be plundered when needful? Arbitrary
rule on the part of these Noble Robber-Lords! And then much of
the Crown-Domains had gone to the chief of them--pawned (and the
pawn-ticket lost so to speak) or sold for what trifle of ready
money was to be had in Jobst and Company's time. To these
gentlemen a Statthalter coming to inquire into matters was no
welcome phenomenon. Your EDLE HERR (Noble Lord) of Putlitz Noble
Lords of Quitzow Rochow Maltitz and others supreme in their
grassy solitudes this long while and accustomed to nothing
greater than themselves in Brandenburg how should they obey
a Statthalter?

Such was more or less the universal humor in the Squirearchy of
Brandenburg; not of good omen to Burggraf Friedrich. But the chief
seat of contumacy seemed to be among the Quitzows Putlitzes
above spoken of; big Squires in the district they call the
Priegnitz in the Country of the sluggish Havel River northwest
from Berlin a fifty or forty miles. These refused homage very
many of them; said they were "incorporated with Bohmen;" said this
and that;--much disinclined to homage; and would not do it.
Stiff surly fellows much deficient in discernment of what is
above them and what is not:--a thick-skinned set; bodies clad in
buff leather; minds also cased in ill habits of long continuance.

Friedrich was very patient with them; hoped to prevail by gentle
methods. He "invited them to dinner;" "had them often at dinner
for a year or more:" but could make no progress in that way.
"Who is this we have got for a Governor?" said the noble lords
privately to each other: "A NURNBERGER TAND (Nurnberg Plaything--
wooden image such as they make at Nurnberg)" said they
grinning in a thick-skinned way: "If it rained Burggraves all the
year round none of them would come to luck in this Country;"--and
continued their feuds toll-levyings plunderings and other
contumacies. Seeing matters come to this pass after waiting above
a year Burggraf Friedrich gathered his Frankish men-at-arms;
quietly made league with the neighboring Potentates Thuringen and
others; got some munitions some artillery together--especially
one huge gun the biggest ever seen "a twenty-four pounder" no
less; to which the peasants dragging her with difficulty through
the clayey roads gave the name of FAULE GRETE (Lazy or Heavy
Peg); a remarkable piece of ordnance. Lazy Peg he had got from the
Landgraf of Thuringen on loan merely; but he turned her to
excellent account of his own. I have often inquired after Lazy
Peg's fate in subsequent times; but could never learn anything
distinct:--the German Dryasdust is a dull dog and seldom carries
anything human in those big wallets of his!--

Equipped in this way Burggraf Friedrich (he was not yet Kurfurst
only coming to be) marches for the Havel Country (early days of
1414); [Michaelis i. 287; Stenzel i. 168 (where contrary to
wont is an insignificant error or two). Pauli (ii. 58) is as
usual lost in water.] makes his appearance before Quitzow's
strong-house of Friesack walls fourteen feet thick: "You Dietrich
von Quitzow are you prepared to live as a peaceable subject
henceforth: to do homage to the Laws and me?"--"Never!" answered
Quitzow and pulled up his drawbridge. Whereupon Heavy Peg opened
upon him Heavy Peg and other guns; and in some eight-and-forty
hours shook Quitzow's impregnable Friesack about his ears.
This was in the month of February 1414 day not given: Friesack
was the name of the impregnable Castle (still discoverable in our
time); and it ought to be memorable and venerable to every
Prussian man. Burggraf Friedrich VI. not yet quite become
Kurfurst Friedrich I. but in a year's space to become so he in
person was the beneficent operator; Heavy Peg and steady Human
Insight these were clearly the chief implements.

Quitzow being settled--for the country is in military occupation
of Friedrich and his allies and except in some stone castle a man
has no chance--straightway Putlitz or another mutineer with his
drawbridge up was battered to pieces and his drawbridge brought
slamming down. After this manner in an incredibly short period
mutiny was quenched; and it became apparent to Noble Lords and to
all men that here at length was a man come who would have the
Laws obeyed again and could and would keep mutiny down.

Friedrich showed no cruelty; far the contrary. Your mutiny once
ended and a little repented of he is ready to be your gracious
Prince again: Fair-play and the social wine-cup or inexorable war
and Lazy Peg it is at your discretion which. Brandenburg
submitted; hardly ever rebelled more. Brandenburg under the wise
Kurfurst it has got begins in a small degree to be cosmic again
or of the domain of the gods; ceases to be chaotic and a mere
cockpit of the devils. There is no doubt but this Friedrich also
like his ancestor Friedrich III. the First Hereditary Burggraf
was an excellent citizen of his country: a man conspicuously
important in all German business in his time. A man setting up for
no particular magnanimity ability or heroism but unconsciously
exhibiting a good deal; which by degrees gained universal
recognition. He did not shine much as Reichs-Generalissimo under
Kaiser Sigismund in his expeditions against Zisca; on the
contrary he presided over huge defeat and rout once and again
in that capacity; and indeed had represented in vain that with
such a species of militia victory was impossible. He represented
and again represented to no purpose; whereupon he declined the
office farther; in which others fared no better. [Hormayr
OEsterreichischer Plutarch vii. 109-158
? Zisca.]

The offer to be Kaiser was made him in his old days; but he wisely
declined that too. It was in Brandenburg by what he silently
founded there that he did his chief benefit to Germany and
mankind. He understood the noble art of governing men; had in him
the justice clearness valor and patience needed for that.
A man of sterling probity for one thing. Which indeed is the
first requisite in said art:--if you will have your laws obeyed
without mutiny see well that they be pieces of God Almighty's
Law: otherwise all the artillery in the world will not keep
down mutiny.

Friedrich "travelled much over Brandenburg;" looking into
everything with his own eyes;--making I can well fancy
innumerable crooked things straight. Reducing more and more that
famishing dog-kennel of a Brandenburg into a fruitful arable
field. His portraits represent a square headed mild-looking solid
gentleman with a certain twinkle of mirth in the serious eyes of
him. Except in those Hussite wars for Kaiser Sigismund and the
Reich in which no man could prosper he may be defined as
constantly prosperous. To Brandenburg he was very literally the
blessing of blessings; redemption out of death into life. In the
ruins of that old Friesack Castle battered down by Heavy Peg
Antiquarian Science (if it had any eyes) might look for the
tap-root of the Prussian Nation and the beginning of all that
Brandenburg has since grown to under the sun.

Friedrich in one capacity or another presided over Brandenburg
near thirty years. He came thither first of all in 1412; was not
completely Kurfurst in his own right till 1415; nor publicly
installed "with 100000 looking on from the roofs and windows"
in Constance yonder till 1417--age then some forty-five.
His Brandenburg residence when he happened to have time for
residing or sitting still was Tangermunde the Castle built by
Kaiser Karl IV. He died there 21st September 1440; laden
tolerably with years and still better with memories of hard work
done. Rentsch guesses by good inference he was born about 1372.
As I count he is seventh in descent from that Conrad Burggraf
Conrad I. Cadet of Hohenzollern who came down from the Rauhe
Alp seeking service with Kaiser Redbeard above two centuries
ago: Conrad's generation and six others had vanished successively
from the world-theatre in that ever-mysterious manner and left
the stage clear when Burggraf Friedrich the Sixth came to be
First Elector. Let three centuries let twelve generations farther
come and pass and there will be another still more notable
Friedrich--our little Fritz destined to be Third King of
Prussia officially named Friedrich II. and popularly Frederick
the Great. This First Elector is his lineal ancestor twelve times
removed. [Rentsch pp. 349-372; Hubner t. 176.]

Chapter II.

Eleven successive Kurfursts followed Friedrich in Brandenburg.
Of whom and their births deaths wars marriages negotiations
and continual multitudinous stream of smaller or greater
adventures much has been written of a dreary confused nature;
next to nothing of which ought to be repeated here. Some list of
their Names with what rememberable human feature or event (if
any) still speaks to us in them we must try to give. Their Names
well dated with any actions incidents or phases of life which
may in this way get to adhere to them in the reader's memory the
reader can insert each at its right place in the grand Tide of
European Events or in such Picture as the reader may have of
that. Thereby with diligence he may produce for himself some faint
twilight notion of the Flight of Time in remote Brandenburg--
convince himself that remote Brandenburg was present all along
alive after its sort and assisting dumbly or otherwise in the
great World-Drama as that went on.

We have to say in general the history of Brandenburg under the
Hohenzollerns has very little in it to excite a vulgar curiosity
...

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