, when
consulted
about him.
Thomas Carlyle
net/2027/hvd.
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org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP. VIII. ] ASCANIER MARKGRAVES. 159
1278.
peat-mire, blending itself with waste sand, became
available for Christian mankind, -- intrusive Chaos,
and especially divine Triglaph and his ferocities being
well held aloof: -- this, after all, is the real History
of our Markgraves; and of this, by the nature of the
case, Dryasdust can say nothing. "New Mark," which
once meant Brandenburg at large, is getting subdivided
into Mid-Mark, into Uckeitnaxk (closest to the Wends);
and in Old Mark and New, much is spreading, much
getting planted and founded. In the course of centu-
ries there will grow gradually to be "seven cities; and
"as many towns," says one old jubilant Topographer,
"as there are days in the year," -- struggling to count
up 365 of them.
Of Berlin City.
In the year (guessed to be) 1240, one Ascauier
> Markgraf "fortifies Berlin;" that is, first makes Berlin
a German Burg and inhabited outpost in those parts:
-- the very name, some think, means "LittleBampart"
(WehAva), built there, on the banks of the Spree,
against the Wends, and peopled with Dutch; of which
latter fact, it seems, the old dialect of the place yields
traces. * How it rose afterwards to be chosen for
* Nicolai: Beschreibung der KSniglichen Residenztlddle Berlin und
Potsdam (Berlin, 1786), i. pp. 16,17 of "Einleitung. " Nicolai rejects the
Wehrlin etymology; admits that the name was evidently appellative, not
proper, "The Berlin," "To the Berlin;" finds in the world two objects,
one of them at Halle, still called "The Berlin;" and thinks it must have
meant (in some language of extinct mortals) "Wild Pasture-ground," --
"The Scrubs," as we should call it. -- Possible; perhaps likely.
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? 1G0 OF BRANDENBURG AND THE HOHENZOLLfiRNS. [book II.
1278.
Metropolis, one cannot say, except that it had a central
situation for the now widened principalities of Branden-
burg: the place otherwise is sandy by nature, sand and
swamp the constituents of it; and stands on a sluggish
river the colour of oil. Wendish fishermen had founded
some first nucleus of it long before; and called their
fishing-hamlet Coin, which is said to be the general
Wendish title for places founded on piles, a needful
method where your basis is swamp. At all events,
"Coin" still designates the oldest quarter of Berlin;
and "Coin on the Spree" (Cologne, or Coin on the
Rhine, being very different) continued, almost to modern
times, to be the Official name of the Capital.
How the Dutch and Wends agreed together, within
their rampart inclusive of both, is not said. The river
lay between; they had two languages; peace was ne-
cessary: it is probable they were long rather on a taci-
turn footing! But in the oily river you do catch
various fish; Coin, amid its quagmires and straggling
sluggish waters, can be rendered very strong. Some
husbandry, wet or dry, is possible to diligent Dutch-
men. There is room for trade also; Spree Havel Elbe,
is a direct water-road to Hamburg and the Ocean; by
the Oder, which is not very far, you communicate with
the Baltic on this hand, and with Poland and the
uttermost parts of Silesia on that. Enough, Berlin
grows; becomes, in about 300 years, for one reason
and another, Capital City of the country, of these many
countries. The Markgraves or Electors, after quitting
Brandenburg, did not come immediately to Berlin; their
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? CHaP, vm. ] OTTO WITH THE ARROW. 161
1278.
next Eesidence was Tangermiinde (Mouth of the Tanger,
where little Tanger issues into Elbe); a much grassier
place than Berlin, and which stands on a Hill, clay-
and-sand Hill, likewise advantageous for strength. That
Berlin should have grown, after it once became Capital,
is not a mystery. It has quadrupled itself, and more,
within the last hundred years, and I think doubled it-
self within the last thirty.
Markgraf Otto IV. , or Otto with the Arrow.
One Ascanier Markgraf, and one only, Otto IV. by
title, was a Poet withal; had an actual habit of doing
verse. There are certain so-called Poems of his, still
extant, read by Dryasdust, with such enthusiasm as he
can get up, in the old Collection of Minnesingers, made
by Manesse the Zurich Burgermeister, while the matter
was much fresher than it now is. * Madrigals all;
Minne-Songs, describing the passion of love; how Otto
felt under it, -- well and also ill; with little peculia-
rity of symptom, as appears. One of his lines is,
"Ich wunsch ich acre tot, I wish that I were dead:"
-- the others shall remain safe in Manesse's Collection. This same Markgraf Otto IT. , Year 1278, had a
dreadful quarrel with the See of Magdeburg, about elect-
ing a Brother of his. The Chapter had chosen another
? Kiidiger von Manesse, who fought the Austrians, too, made his
Sammlung (Collection) in the latter half of the fourteenth century; it was
printed, after many narrow risks of destruction in the interim, in 1758, --
Bodmer and Breitinger editing; -- atZiirich, 2 vols. 4to.
Carlyle, Frederic the Great, I. 11
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? 162 OF BRANDENBUKG AND THE HOHENZOLLERNS. [BOOKII.
1278.
than Otto's Brother; Otto makes war upon the Chapter.
Comes storming along; "will stable my horses in your
Cathedral," on such and such a day! But the Arch-
bishop chosen, who had been a fighter formerly, stirs
up the Magdeburgers, by preaching ("Horses to be
stabled here, my Christian brethren"), by relics and
quasi-miracles, to a furious condition; leads them out
against Otto, beats Otto utterly; brings him in captive,
amid hooting jubilations of the conceivable kind:
"Stable ready; but where are the horses, -- Serene
child of Satanas! " Archbishop makes a Wooden Cage
for Otto (big beams, spars stout enough, mere straw to
lie on), and locks him up there. In a public situation
in the City of Magdeburg; -- visible to mankind so,
during certain months of that year 1278. It was in the
very time while Ottocar was getting finished in the
Marchfeld; much mutiny still abroad, and the new
Kaiser Rudolf very busy.
Otto's Wife, all streaming in tears, and flaming in
zeal, what shall she do? "Sell your jewels," so ad-
vises a certain old Johann von Buch, discarded Ex-
official: "Sell your jewels, Madam; bribe the Canons
of Magdeburg with extreme secrecy, none knowing of
his neighbour; they will consent to ransom on terms
possible. " Poor Wife bribed as was bidden; Canons
voted as they undertook; unanimous for ransom, --
high, but humanly possible. Markgraf Otto gets out
on parole. But now, How raise such a ransom, our
very jewels being sold? Old Johann von Buch again
indicates ways and means, -- miraculous old gentle-
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? CHAP, vin. 1
163
OTTO WITH THE ARROW.
1278.
man: -- Graf Otto returns, money in hand; pays, and
is solemnly discharged. The title of the sum I could
give exact; but as none will in the least tell me what
the value is, I humbly forbear.
"We are clear, then, at this date? " said Markgraf
Otto from his horse, just taking leave of the Magdeburg
Canonry. "Yes," answered they. -- "Pshaw, you don't
know the value of a Markgraf! " said Otto. -- "What
is it, then? " -- "Rain gold ducats on his war-horse
and him," said Otto, looking up with a satirical grin,
"till horse and Markgraf are buried in them, and you
cannot see the point of his spear atop! " -- That would
be a cone of gold coins equal to the article, thinks our
Markgraf; and rides grinning away. * -- The poor
Archbishop, a valiant pious man, finding out that late
strangely unanimous vote of his Chapter for ransoming
the Markgraf, took it so ill, that he soon died of a
broken heart, say the old Books. Die he did, before
long; -- and still Otto's Brother was refused as suc-
cessor. Brother, however, again survived; behaved
always wisely; and Otto at last had his way. "Makes
an excellent Archbishop, after all! " said the Magde-
burgers. Those were rare times, Mr. Rigmarole.
The same Otto, besieging some stronghold of his
Magdeburg or other enemies, got an arrow shot into
the scull of him; into, not through; which no surgery
could extract, not for a year to come. Otto went about,
sieging much the same, with the iron in his head; and
? Michaelia, i. 271; Pudi, i. 816; Klon; Ac.
11*
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? 164 OP BRANDENBURG AND THE HOHENZOLLERNS. [book n.
1278.
is called Otto mit dem Pfeile, Otto Sagittarius, or Otto
with the Arrow, in consequence. A Markgraf who
writes Madrigals; who does sieges with an arrow in his
head; who lies in a wooden cage, jeered by theMagde-
burgers, and proposes such a cone of ducats: I thought
him the memorablest of those forgotten Markgraves;
and that his jolting Life-pilgrimage might stand as the
general sample. Multiply a year of Otto by 200, you
have, on easy conditions, some imagination of a History
of the Ascanier Markgraves. Forgettable otherwise: or
it can be read in the gross, darkened with endless de-
tails, and thrice-dreary half-intelligible traditions, in
Pauli's fatal Quartos and elsewhere, if any one needs.
-- The year of that Magdeburg speech about the cone
of ducats is 1278: King Edward the First, in this
country, was walking about, a prosperous man of forty,
with very Long Shanks, and also with a head of good
length.
Otto, as had been the case in the former Line, was
a frequent name among those Markgraves: "Otto the
Pious" (whom we saw crusading once inPreussen, with
KingOttocar his Brother-in-law), "Otto the Tall," "Otto
the Short (Parvus);" I know not how many Ottos be-
sides him "with the Arrow. " Half a century after this
one of the Arrow (under his Grand-Nephew it was), the
Ascanier Markgraves ended, their Line also dying out.
Not the successfullest of Markgraves, especially in
later times. Brandenburg was indeed steadily an Elec-
torate, its Markgraf a Kurf&rst, or Elector of the
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? CHaP, m] OTTO WITH THE ARROW. 165
1278.
Empire; and always rather on the increase than
otherwise. But the Territories were apt to be much
split-up to younger sons; two or more Markgraves at
once, the eldest for Elector, with other arrangements;
which seldom answer. They had also fallen into the
habit of borrowing money; pawning, redeeming, a good
deal, with Teutsch Bitters and others. Then they
puddled considerably, -- and to their loss, seldom
choosing the side that proved winner, -- in general
broils of the Reich, which at that time, as we have
seen, was unusually anarchic. None of the success-
fullest of Markgraves latterly. But they were regretted
beyond measure in comparison with the next set that
came; as we shall see.
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? 166 OF BBANDENBDSa AND THE HOHENZOLLEENS. [bOOKH.
CHAPTER IX.
BURGGEAF FR1EDRICH IV.
Beandenbueg and the Hohenzollern Family of
Nflrnberg have hitherto no mutual acquaintanceship
whatever: they go, each its own course, wide enough
apart in the world; -- little dreaming that they are to
meet by and by, and coalesce, wed for better and
worse, and become one flesh. As is the way in all ro-
mance. "Marriages," among men, and other entities
of importance, "are, evidently, made in Heaven. "
Friedrich IV. ofNiirnberg, Son of that Friedrich HL,
Raiser Rudolfs successful friend, was again a notable
increaser of his House; which, finally, under his Great-
grandson, named Friedrich VI. , attained the Electoral
height. Of which there was already some hint. Well;
under the first of these two Friedrichs, some slight ap-
proximation, and under his Son a transient express in-
troduction (so to speak) of Brandenburg to Hohenzollern, took place, without immediate result of con-
sequence; but under the second of them occurred the
wedding, as we may call it, or union "for better or
worse, till death do us part. " -- How it came about?
Easy to ask, How! The reader will have to cast some
glances into the confusedBeichs-Uistory of the time; --
timid glances, for the element is of dangerous, exten-
sive sort, mostly jungle and shaking-bog; -- and we
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? CHAP. II. ] CONTESTED ELECTIONS. 167
1298.
must travel through this corner of it, as on shoes of
swiftness, treading lightly.
Contested Elections in the Reich: Kaiser Albert I. ; after
whom Six Non-Hapsburg Kaisers.
The Line of Rudolf of Hapsburg did not at once
succeed continuously to the Empire, as the wont had
been in such cases, where the sons were willing and of
good likelihood. After such a spell of anarchy, parties
still ran higher than usual in the Holy Roman Empire;
and wide-yawning splits would not yet coalesce to the
old pitch. It appears too the posterity of Rudolf, stiff,
inarticulate, proud men, and of a turn for engrossing
and amassing, were not always lovely to the public.
Albert, Rudolfs eldest son, for instance, Kaiser Al-
bert I. , -- who did succeed, though not at once, or till
after killing Rudolf's immediate Successor,* -- Albert
was by no means a prepossessing man, though a tough
and hungry one. It must be owned, he had a harsh
ugly character; and face to match: big-nosed, loose-
lipped, blind of an eye: not kaiser-like at all to an
Electoral Body. ','Est homo monoculus, et vultu rustico;
non potest esse Imperator (A one-eyed fellow, and looks
like a clown; he cannot be Emperor)! " said Pope
Boniface VIII.
, when consulted about him. **
Enough, from the death of Rudolph, A. d. 1281,
? Adolf of Nassau; slain by Albert's own hand; "Battle" of Hasenbiihel
"near Worms, 2d July 1298" (Kbhler, p. 265).
** Kbhler, pp. 267-78; and Mntibeltutigungen, xix. 156-60.
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? 168 OF BRANDENBURG AND THE HOHENZOLLERNS. [BOOK n.
1298.
there intervened a hundred-and-fifty years, and eight
successive Kaisers singly or in line, only one of whom
(this same Albert of the unlovely countenance) was a
Hapsburger, -- before the Family, often trying it all
along, could get a third time into the Imperial saddle.
Where, after that, it did sit steady. Once in for the
third time, the Hapsburgers got themselves "elected"
(as they still called it) time after time: always elected,
-- with but one poor exception, which will much con-
cern my readers by and by, -- to the very end of the
matter. And saw the Holy Roman Empire itself
expire, and as it were both saddle and horse vanish
out of Nature, before they would dismount. Nay
they still ride there on the shadow of a saddle, so
to speak; and are "Kaisers of Austria" at this hour.
Steady enough of seat at last, after many vain trials!
For during those Hundred-and-fifty years, -- among
those six intercalary Kaisers, too, who followed Albert,
-- they were always trying; always thinking they had
a kind of quasi-right to it; whereby the Empire often
fell into trouble at Election-time. For they were proud
stout men, our Hapsburgers, though of taciturn uncon-
ciliatory ways; and Rudolf had so fitted them out with
fruitful Austrian Dukedoms, which they much increased
by marriages and otherwise, -- Styria, Carinthia, the
Tyrol, by degrees, not to speak of their native Haps-
burg much enlarged, and claims on Switzerland all
round it, -- they had excellent means of battling for
their pretensions and disputable elections. None of
them succeeded, however, for a Hundred-and-fifty years,
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? CHaP. IX. CONTESTED ELECTIONS. 169
1306.
except that same one-eyed, loose-lipped unbeautiful Al-
bert I. ; a Kaiser dreadfully fond of earthly goods, too.
Who indeed grasped all round him, at property half
his, or wholly not his: Rhine-tolls, Crown of Bohemia,
Landgraviate of Thiiringen, Swiss Forest Cantons, Crown
of Hungary, Crown of France even: -- getting endless
quarrels on his hands, and much defeat mixed with
any victory there was. Poor soul, he had one-and-
twenty children by one wife; and felt that there was
need of apanages! He is understood (guessed, not
proved) to have instigated two assassinations in pursuit
of these objects; and he very clearly underwent one in
his own person. Assassination first, was of Dietzmann
the Thiiringian Landgraf, and Anti-Albert champion,
who refused to be robbed by Albert, -- for whom the
great Dante is (with almost palpable absurdity) fabled
to have written an Epitaph still legible in the Church
at Leipzig. * Assassination second was of Wentzel,
the poor young Bohemian King, Ottocar's Grandson
and last heir. Sure enough, this important young gen-
tleman "was murdered by some one at Olmiitz next
year" (1306, a promising event for Albert then), "but
none yet knows who it was. "**
Neither of which suspicious transactions came to
any result for Albert; as indeed most of his unjust
graspings proved failures. He at one time had thoughts
of the Crown of France: "Yours, / solemnly declare! "
said the Pope. But that came to nothing; -- only to
? Monckenii Scriptores, i. ? Fredericus Admorsus (by Tentxel).
? ? KBhler, p. 270.
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? 170 OF BBANDENBUBG AND THE HOHENZOLLERNS. [BOOK n.
1308.
France's shifting of the Popes to Avignon, more under
the thumb of France. What his ultimate success with
Tell and the Forest Cantons was, we all know! A
most clutching, strong-fisted, dreadfully hungry, tough
and unbeautiful man. Whom his own Nephew, at last,
had to assassinate, at the Ford of the Reuss (near
Windisch Village, meeting of the Reuss and Aar; 1st
May 1308): "Scandalous Jew pawnbroker of an Uncle,
wilt thou flatly keep from me my Father's heritage,
then, entrusted to thee in his hour of death? Regardless
of God and man, and of the last look of a dying
Brother? Uncle worse than pawnbroker: for it is a
heritage with no pawn on it, with much the reverse! "
thought the Nephew, -- and stabbed said Uncle down
dead; having gone across with him in the boat; at-
tendants looking on in distraction from the other side
of the river. Was called Johannes Parricida in con-
sequence; fled out of human sight that day, he and
his henchmen, never to turn up again till Doomsday.
For the pursuit was transcendent, regardless of expense;
the cry for legal vengeance very great (on the part of
Albert's daughters chiefly), though in vain, or nearly
so, in this world. *
Of Kaiser Henry VII. and the Luxemburg Kaisers.
Of the other six Kaisers not Hapsburgers we are
bound to mention one, and dwell a little on his for-
? KShler, p. 272. Hormayr: (Eslerreichischer Plutarch, Oder Leben
vnd Bildnisse &c. (12 Btndehen; Wien, 1807, -- a superior Book), i. (5.
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? CHAP. no]
171
KAISER HENRY VII.
1308.
tunes and those of the Family he founded, both Bran-
denburg and our Hohenzollerns coming to be much
connected therewith, as time went on. This is Albert's
next successor, Henry Count of Luxemburg; called
among Kaisers Henry VH. He is founder, he alone
among these Non-Hapsburgers, of a small intercalary
line of Kaisers, "the Luxemburg Line;" who amount
indeed only to Four, himself included; and are not
otherwise of much memorability, if we except himself;
though straggling about, like well-rooted briers, in that
favourable ground, they have accidentally hooked them-
selves upon World-History in one or two points. By
accident a somewhat note-worthy line, those Luxemburg
Kaisers: --a celebrated place, too, or name of a place,
that "Luxembourg" of theirs, with its French Marshals,
grand Parisian Edifices, lending it new lustre: what,
thinks the reader, is the meaning of Liizzenburg, Luxem-
burg, Luxembourg? Merely Lutzelbvrg, wrong pro-
nounced; and that again is nothing but Littleboiough:
such is the luck of names! --
Heinrich Graf von Luxemburg was, after some
pause on the parricide of Albert, chosen Kaiser, "on
account of his renowned valour," say the old Books,
-- and also, add the shrewder of them, because his
Brother, Archbishop of Trier, was one of the Electors,
and the Pope did not like either the Austrian or the
French candidate then in the field. Chosen, at all
events, he was, 27th November 1308;* clearly, and
* KBhler, p. 274.
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? 172 OF BRANDENBURG AND THE HOHENZOLLERNS. [book
1313.
by much, the best Kaiser that could be had. A puis-
sant soul; who might have done great things, had
he lived. He settled feuds; cut off oppressions from
the Reichsstddte (Free-Towns); had a will of just sort,
and found or made a way for it. Bohemia lapsed to
him, the old race of Kings having perished out, --
the last of them far too suddenly "at Olmiitz," as we
saw lately! Some opposition there was, but much
more favour especially by the Bohemian People; and
the point, after some small "Siege of Prag" and the
like, was definitely carried by the Kaiser. The now
Burggraf of Nurnberg, Frederick rV. , son of Rudolfs friend, was present at this Siege of Prag:* a Burggraf
much attached to Kaiser Henry, as all good Germans
were. But the Kaiser did not live.
He went to Italy, our Burggraf of Nurnberg and
many more along with him, to pull the crooked Guelf-
Ghibelline Facts and Avignon Pope a little straight,
if possible; and was vigorously doing it, when he died
on a sudden: "poisened in sacramental wine," say the
Germans! One of the crowning summits of human
scoundrelism, which painfully stick in the mind. It is
certain he arrived well at Buonconvento near Sienna,
on the 24th September 1313, in full march towards
the rebellious King of Naples, whom the Pope much
countenanced. At Buonconvento, Kaiser Henry wished
to enjoy the communion; and a Dominican monk, whose
dark rat-eyed look men afterwards bethought them of,
administered it to him in both species (Council of Trent
? 1810 (RentBOh, p. 811;.
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? CHaP. EX. ] KAISER HENBT VII. 173
1313.
not yet prohibiting the liquid species): that is certain,
and also that on the morrow Henry was dead. The
Dominicans endeavoured afterward to deny; which, for
the credit of human nature, one wishes they had done
with effect. * But there was never any trial had; the
denial was considered lame; and German History con-
tinues to shudder, in that passage, and assert . Poisoned
in the wine of his sacrament: the Florentines, it is
said, were at the bottom of it, and had hired the rat-
eyed Dominican; -- "0 Italia, 0 Firenze! " That is
not the way to achieve Italian Liberty, or Obedience
to God; that is the way to confirm, as by frightful
stygian oath, Italian Slavery, or continual Obedience,
under varying forms, to the Other Party! The voice
of Dante, then alive among men, proclaims, sad and
loving as a mother's voice, and implacable as a voice
of Doom, that you are wandering, and have wandered,
in a terrible manner! --
Peter the then Archbishop of Maintz says, there
had not for hundreds of years such a death befallen
the German Empire; to which Kohler, one of the
wisest moderns, gives his assent: "It could not enough
"be lamented," says he, "that so vigilant a Kaiser, in
"the flower of his years, should have been torn from
"the world in so devilish a manner; who, if he had
"lived longer, might have done Teutschland unspeak-
able benefit. "**
? Kohler. p. 281 (Ptolomey of Lucca, himself a Dominican, is one of
the accusing spirits: Maratorl, 1. xi. ? Ptolommts Lucensis, a. d. 1313),
? >> Ibid. p. 282-5.
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? 174 OF BRANDENBURU AND THE HOHENZOLLEBNS. [BOOK IT.
1313.
Henry's Son Johann is King of Bohemia; and Ludwig the
Bavarian, with a Contested Election, is Kaiser.
Henry VII. having thus perished suddenly, his Son
Johann, scarcely yet come of age, could not follow him
as Kaiser, according to the Father's thought; though in
due time he prosecuted his advancement otherwise to
good purpose, and proved a very stirring man in the
world. By his Father's appointment, to whom as Kai-
ser the chance had fallen, he was already King of Bo-
hemia, strong in his right and in the favour of the na-
tives; though a titular Competitor, Henry of the Tyrol,
beaten off by the late Kaiser, was still extant: whom,
however, and all other perils, Johann contrived to
weather; growing up to be a farsighted, stout-hearted
man, and potent Bohemian King, widely renowned in
his day. He had a Son, and then two Grandsons, who
were successively Kaisers, after a sort; making up the
"Luxemburg Four" we spoke of. He did Crusades,
one or more, for the Teutsch Ritters, in a shining
manner; -- unhappily with loss of an eye; nay ulti-
mately, by the aid of quack oculists, with loss of both
eyes. An ambitious man, not to be quelled by blind-
ness; man with much negotiation in him; with a heavy
stroke of fight too, and temper nothing loth at it; of
which we shall see some glimpse by and by.
The pity was, for the Reich if not for him, he could
not himself become Kaiser. Perhaps we had not then
seen Henry VII. 's fine enterprises, like a fleet of half-
built ships, go mostly to planks again, on the waste
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? CHaP, n. ] JOHANN KING OF BOHEMIA. 175
1322.
sea, had his Son followed him. But there was, on the
contrary, a contested election; Austria in again, as
usual, and again unsuccessful. The late Kaiser's Aus-
trian competitor, "Friedrich the Fair, Duke of Austria,"
the parricided Albert's Son, was again one of the par-
ties. Against whom, with real but not quite indis-
putable majority, stood Ludwig Duke of Bavaria:
"Ludwig rV. ," "Ludwig der Baier (the Bavarian)" as
they call, him among Kaisers. Contest attended with
the usual election expenses; war-wrestle, namely, be-
tween the parties till one threw the other. There was
much confused wrestling and throttling for seven years
or more (1315-1322). Our Nurnberg Burggraf, Fried-
rich TV. , held with Ludwig, as did the real majority,
though in a languid manner, and was busy he as few
were; the Austrian Hapsburgs also doing their best,
now under now above.
? CHAP. VIII. ] ASCANIER MARKGRAVES. 159
1278.
peat-mire, blending itself with waste sand, became
available for Christian mankind, -- intrusive Chaos,
and especially divine Triglaph and his ferocities being
well held aloof: -- this, after all, is the real History
of our Markgraves; and of this, by the nature of the
case, Dryasdust can say nothing. "New Mark," which
once meant Brandenburg at large, is getting subdivided
into Mid-Mark, into Uckeitnaxk (closest to the Wends);
and in Old Mark and New, much is spreading, much
getting planted and founded. In the course of centu-
ries there will grow gradually to be "seven cities; and
"as many towns," says one old jubilant Topographer,
"as there are days in the year," -- struggling to count
up 365 of them.
Of Berlin City.
In the year (guessed to be) 1240, one Ascauier
> Markgraf "fortifies Berlin;" that is, first makes Berlin
a German Burg and inhabited outpost in those parts:
-- the very name, some think, means "LittleBampart"
(WehAva), built there, on the banks of the Spree,
against the Wends, and peopled with Dutch; of which
latter fact, it seems, the old dialect of the place yields
traces. * How it rose afterwards to be chosen for
* Nicolai: Beschreibung der KSniglichen Residenztlddle Berlin und
Potsdam (Berlin, 1786), i. pp. 16,17 of "Einleitung. " Nicolai rejects the
Wehrlin etymology; admits that the name was evidently appellative, not
proper, "The Berlin," "To the Berlin;" finds in the world two objects,
one of them at Halle, still called "The Berlin;" and thinks it must have
meant (in some language of extinct mortals) "Wild Pasture-ground," --
"The Scrubs," as we should call it. -- Possible; perhaps likely.
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? 1G0 OF BRANDENBURG AND THE HOHENZOLLfiRNS. [book II.
1278.
Metropolis, one cannot say, except that it had a central
situation for the now widened principalities of Branden-
burg: the place otherwise is sandy by nature, sand and
swamp the constituents of it; and stands on a sluggish
river the colour of oil. Wendish fishermen had founded
some first nucleus of it long before; and called their
fishing-hamlet Coin, which is said to be the general
Wendish title for places founded on piles, a needful
method where your basis is swamp. At all events,
"Coin" still designates the oldest quarter of Berlin;
and "Coin on the Spree" (Cologne, or Coin on the
Rhine, being very different) continued, almost to modern
times, to be the Official name of the Capital.
How the Dutch and Wends agreed together, within
their rampart inclusive of both, is not said. The river
lay between; they had two languages; peace was ne-
cessary: it is probable they were long rather on a taci-
turn footing! But in the oily river you do catch
various fish; Coin, amid its quagmires and straggling
sluggish waters, can be rendered very strong. Some
husbandry, wet or dry, is possible to diligent Dutch-
men. There is room for trade also; Spree Havel Elbe,
is a direct water-road to Hamburg and the Ocean; by
the Oder, which is not very far, you communicate with
the Baltic on this hand, and with Poland and the
uttermost parts of Silesia on that. Enough, Berlin
grows; becomes, in about 300 years, for one reason
and another, Capital City of the country, of these many
countries. The Markgraves or Electors, after quitting
Brandenburg, did not come immediately to Berlin; their
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? CHaP, vm. ] OTTO WITH THE ARROW. 161
1278.
next Eesidence was Tangermiinde (Mouth of the Tanger,
where little Tanger issues into Elbe); a much grassier
place than Berlin, and which stands on a Hill, clay-
and-sand Hill, likewise advantageous for strength. That
Berlin should have grown, after it once became Capital,
is not a mystery. It has quadrupled itself, and more,
within the last hundred years, and I think doubled it-
self within the last thirty.
Markgraf Otto IV. , or Otto with the Arrow.
One Ascanier Markgraf, and one only, Otto IV. by
title, was a Poet withal; had an actual habit of doing
verse. There are certain so-called Poems of his, still
extant, read by Dryasdust, with such enthusiasm as he
can get up, in the old Collection of Minnesingers, made
by Manesse the Zurich Burgermeister, while the matter
was much fresher than it now is. * Madrigals all;
Minne-Songs, describing the passion of love; how Otto
felt under it, -- well and also ill; with little peculia-
rity of symptom, as appears. One of his lines is,
"Ich wunsch ich acre tot, I wish that I were dead:"
-- the others shall remain safe in Manesse's Collection. This same Markgraf Otto IT. , Year 1278, had a
dreadful quarrel with the See of Magdeburg, about elect-
ing a Brother of his. The Chapter had chosen another
? Kiidiger von Manesse, who fought the Austrians, too, made his
Sammlung (Collection) in the latter half of the fourteenth century; it was
printed, after many narrow risks of destruction in the interim, in 1758, --
Bodmer and Breitinger editing; -- atZiirich, 2 vols. 4to.
Carlyle, Frederic the Great, I. 11
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? 162 OF BRANDENBUKG AND THE HOHENZOLLERNS. [BOOKII.
1278.
than Otto's Brother; Otto makes war upon the Chapter.
Comes storming along; "will stable my horses in your
Cathedral," on such and such a day! But the Arch-
bishop chosen, who had been a fighter formerly, stirs
up the Magdeburgers, by preaching ("Horses to be
stabled here, my Christian brethren"), by relics and
quasi-miracles, to a furious condition; leads them out
against Otto, beats Otto utterly; brings him in captive,
amid hooting jubilations of the conceivable kind:
"Stable ready; but where are the horses, -- Serene
child of Satanas! " Archbishop makes a Wooden Cage
for Otto (big beams, spars stout enough, mere straw to
lie on), and locks him up there. In a public situation
in the City of Magdeburg; -- visible to mankind so,
during certain months of that year 1278. It was in the
very time while Ottocar was getting finished in the
Marchfeld; much mutiny still abroad, and the new
Kaiser Rudolf very busy.
Otto's Wife, all streaming in tears, and flaming in
zeal, what shall she do? "Sell your jewels," so ad-
vises a certain old Johann von Buch, discarded Ex-
official: "Sell your jewels, Madam; bribe the Canons
of Magdeburg with extreme secrecy, none knowing of
his neighbour; they will consent to ransom on terms
possible. " Poor Wife bribed as was bidden; Canons
voted as they undertook; unanimous for ransom, --
high, but humanly possible. Markgraf Otto gets out
on parole. But now, How raise such a ransom, our
very jewels being sold? Old Johann von Buch again
indicates ways and means, -- miraculous old gentle-
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? CHAP, vin. 1
163
OTTO WITH THE ARROW.
1278.
man: -- Graf Otto returns, money in hand; pays, and
is solemnly discharged. The title of the sum I could
give exact; but as none will in the least tell me what
the value is, I humbly forbear.
"We are clear, then, at this date? " said Markgraf
Otto from his horse, just taking leave of the Magdeburg
Canonry. "Yes," answered they. -- "Pshaw, you don't
know the value of a Markgraf! " said Otto. -- "What
is it, then? " -- "Rain gold ducats on his war-horse
and him," said Otto, looking up with a satirical grin,
"till horse and Markgraf are buried in them, and you
cannot see the point of his spear atop! " -- That would
be a cone of gold coins equal to the article, thinks our
Markgraf; and rides grinning away. * -- The poor
Archbishop, a valiant pious man, finding out that late
strangely unanimous vote of his Chapter for ransoming
the Markgraf, took it so ill, that he soon died of a
broken heart, say the old Books. Die he did, before
long; -- and still Otto's Brother was refused as suc-
cessor. Brother, however, again survived; behaved
always wisely; and Otto at last had his way. "Makes
an excellent Archbishop, after all! " said the Magde-
burgers. Those were rare times, Mr. Rigmarole.
The same Otto, besieging some stronghold of his
Magdeburg or other enemies, got an arrow shot into
the scull of him; into, not through; which no surgery
could extract, not for a year to come. Otto went about,
sieging much the same, with the iron in his head; and
? Michaelia, i. 271; Pudi, i. 816; Klon; Ac.
11*
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? 164 OP BRANDENBURG AND THE HOHENZOLLERNS. [book n.
1278.
is called Otto mit dem Pfeile, Otto Sagittarius, or Otto
with the Arrow, in consequence. A Markgraf who
writes Madrigals; who does sieges with an arrow in his
head; who lies in a wooden cage, jeered by theMagde-
burgers, and proposes such a cone of ducats: I thought
him the memorablest of those forgotten Markgraves;
and that his jolting Life-pilgrimage might stand as the
general sample. Multiply a year of Otto by 200, you
have, on easy conditions, some imagination of a History
of the Ascanier Markgraves. Forgettable otherwise: or
it can be read in the gross, darkened with endless de-
tails, and thrice-dreary half-intelligible traditions, in
Pauli's fatal Quartos and elsewhere, if any one needs.
-- The year of that Magdeburg speech about the cone
of ducats is 1278: King Edward the First, in this
country, was walking about, a prosperous man of forty,
with very Long Shanks, and also with a head of good
length.
Otto, as had been the case in the former Line, was
a frequent name among those Markgraves: "Otto the
Pious" (whom we saw crusading once inPreussen, with
KingOttocar his Brother-in-law), "Otto the Tall," "Otto
the Short (Parvus);" I know not how many Ottos be-
sides him "with the Arrow. " Half a century after this
one of the Arrow (under his Grand-Nephew it was), the
Ascanier Markgraves ended, their Line also dying out.
Not the successfullest of Markgraves, especially in
later times. Brandenburg was indeed steadily an Elec-
torate, its Markgraf a Kurf&rst, or Elector of the
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? CHaP, m] OTTO WITH THE ARROW. 165
1278.
Empire; and always rather on the increase than
otherwise. But the Territories were apt to be much
split-up to younger sons; two or more Markgraves at
once, the eldest for Elector, with other arrangements;
which seldom answer. They had also fallen into the
habit of borrowing money; pawning, redeeming, a good
deal, with Teutsch Bitters and others. Then they
puddled considerably, -- and to their loss, seldom
choosing the side that proved winner, -- in general
broils of the Reich, which at that time, as we have
seen, was unusually anarchic. None of the success-
fullest of Markgraves latterly. But they were regretted
beyond measure in comparison with the next set that
came; as we shall see.
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? 166 OF BBANDENBDSa AND THE HOHENZOLLEENS. [bOOKH.
CHAPTER IX.
BURGGEAF FR1EDRICH IV.
Beandenbueg and the Hohenzollern Family of
Nflrnberg have hitherto no mutual acquaintanceship
whatever: they go, each its own course, wide enough
apart in the world; -- little dreaming that they are to
meet by and by, and coalesce, wed for better and
worse, and become one flesh. As is the way in all ro-
mance. "Marriages," among men, and other entities
of importance, "are, evidently, made in Heaven. "
Friedrich IV. ofNiirnberg, Son of that Friedrich HL,
Raiser Rudolfs successful friend, was again a notable
increaser of his House; which, finally, under his Great-
grandson, named Friedrich VI. , attained the Electoral
height. Of which there was already some hint. Well;
under the first of these two Friedrichs, some slight ap-
proximation, and under his Son a transient express in-
troduction (so to speak) of Brandenburg to Hohenzollern, took place, without immediate result of con-
sequence; but under the second of them occurred the
wedding, as we may call it, or union "for better or
worse, till death do us part. " -- How it came about?
Easy to ask, How! The reader will have to cast some
glances into the confusedBeichs-Uistory of the time; --
timid glances, for the element is of dangerous, exten-
sive sort, mostly jungle and shaking-bog; -- and we
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? CHAP. II. ] CONTESTED ELECTIONS. 167
1298.
must travel through this corner of it, as on shoes of
swiftness, treading lightly.
Contested Elections in the Reich: Kaiser Albert I. ; after
whom Six Non-Hapsburg Kaisers.
The Line of Rudolf of Hapsburg did not at once
succeed continuously to the Empire, as the wont had
been in such cases, where the sons were willing and of
good likelihood. After such a spell of anarchy, parties
still ran higher than usual in the Holy Roman Empire;
and wide-yawning splits would not yet coalesce to the
old pitch. It appears too the posterity of Rudolf, stiff,
inarticulate, proud men, and of a turn for engrossing
and amassing, were not always lovely to the public.
Albert, Rudolfs eldest son, for instance, Kaiser Al-
bert I. , -- who did succeed, though not at once, or till
after killing Rudolf's immediate Successor,* -- Albert
was by no means a prepossessing man, though a tough
and hungry one. It must be owned, he had a harsh
ugly character; and face to match: big-nosed, loose-
lipped, blind of an eye: not kaiser-like at all to an
Electoral Body. ','Est homo monoculus, et vultu rustico;
non potest esse Imperator (A one-eyed fellow, and looks
like a clown; he cannot be Emperor)! " said Pope
Boniface VIII.
, when consulted about him. **
Enough, from the death of Rudolph, A. d. 1281,
? Adolf of Nassau; slain by Albert's own hand; "Battle" of Hasenbiihel
"near Worms, 2d July 1298" (Kbhler, p. 265).
** Kbhler, pp. 267-78; and Mntibeltutigungen, xix. 156-60.
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? 168 OF BRANDENBURG AND THE HOHENZOLLERNS. [BOOK n.
1298.
there intervened a hundred-and-fifty years, and eight
successive Kaisers singly or in line, only one of whom
(this same Albert of the unlovely countenance) was a
Hapsburger, -- before the Family, often trying it all
along, could get a third time into the Imperial saddle.
Where, after that, it did sit steady. Once in for the
third time, the Hapsburgers got themselves "elected"
(as they still called it) time after time: always elected,
-- with but one poor exception, which will much con-
cern my readers by and by, -- to the very end of the
matter. And saw the Holy Roman Empire itself
expire, and as it were both saddle and horse vanish
out of Nature, before they would dismount. Nay
they still ride there on the shadow of a saddle, so
to speak; and are "Kaisers of Austria" at this hour.
Steady enough of seat at last, after many vain trials!
For during those Hundred-and-fifty years, -- among
those six intercalary Kaisers, too, who followed Albert,
-- they were always trying; always thinking they had
a kind of quasi-right to it; whereby the Empire often
fell into trouble at Election-time. For they were proud
stout men, our Hapsburgers, though of taciturn uncon-
ciliatory ways; and Rudolf had so fitted them out with
fruitful Austrian Dukedoms, which they much increased
by marriages and otherwise, -- Styria, Carinthia, the
Tyrol, by degrees, not to speak of their native Haps-
burg much enlarged, and claims on Switzerland all
round it, -- they had excellent means of battling for
their pretensions and disputable elections. None of
them succeeded, however, for a Hundred-and-fifty years,
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? CHaP. IX. CONTESTED ELECTIONS. 169
1306.
except that same one-eyed, loose-lipped unbeautiful Al-
bert I. ; a Kaiser dreadfully fond of earthly goods, too.
Who indeed grasped all round him, at property half
his, or wholly not his: Rhine-tolls, Crown of Bohemia,
Landgraviate of Thiiringen, Swiss Forest Cantons, Crown
of Hungary, Crown of France even: -- getting endless
quarrels on his hands, and much defeat mixed with
any victory there was. Poor soul, he had one-and-
twenty children by one wife; and felt that there was
need of apanages! He is understood (guessed, not
proved) to have instigated two assassinations in pursuit
of these objects; and he very clearly underwent one in
his own person. Assassination first, was of Dietzmann
the Thiiringian Landgraf, and Anti-Albert champion,
who refused to be robbed by Albert, -- for whom the
great Dante is (with almost palpable absurdity) fabled
to have written an Epitaph still legible in the Church
at Leipzig. * Assassination second was of Wentzel,
the poor young Bohemian King, Ottocar's Grandson
and last heir. Sure enough, this important young gen-
tleman "was murdered by some one at Olmiitz next
year" (1306, a promising event for Albert then), "but
none yet knows who it was. "**
Neither of which suspicious transactions came to
any result for Albert; as indeed most of his unjust
graspings proved failures. He at one time had thoughts
of the Crown of France: "Yours, / solemnly declare! "
said the Pope. But that came to nothing; -- only to
? Monckenii Scriptores, i. ? Fredericus Admorsus (by Tentxel).
? ? KBhler, p. 270.
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? 170 OF BBANDENBUBG AND THE HOHENZOLLERNS. [BOOK n.
1308.
France's shifting of the Popes to Avignon, more under
the thumb of France. What his ultimate success with
Tell and the Forest Cantons was, we all know! A
most clutching, strong-fisted, dreadfully hungry, tough
and unbeautiful man. Whom his own Nephew, at last,
had to assassinate, at the Ford of the Reuss (near
Windisch Village, meeting of the Reuss and Aar; 1st
May 1308): "Scandalous Jew pawnbroker of an Uncle,
wilt thou flatly keep from me my Father's heritage,
then, entrusted to thee in his hour of death? Regardless
of God and man, and of the last look of a dying
Brother? Uncle worse than pawnbroker: for it is a
heritage with no pawn on it, with much the reverse! "
thought the Nephew, -- and stabbed said Uncle down
dead; having gone across with him in the boat; at-
tendants looking on in distraction from the other side
of the river. Was called Johannes Parricida in con-
sequence; fled out of human sight that day, he and
his henchmen, never to turn up again till Doomsday.
For the pursuit was transcendent, regardless of expense;
the cry for legal vengeance very great (on the part of
Albert's daughters chiefly), though in vain, or nearly
so, in this world. *
Of Kaiser Henry VII. and the Luxemburg Kaisers.
Of the other six Kaisers not Hapsburgers we are
bound to mention one, and dwell a little on his for-
? KShler, p. 272. Hormayr: (Eslerreichischer Plutarch, Oder Leben
vnd Bildnisse &c. (12 Btndehen; Wien, 1807, -- a superior Book), i. (5.
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? CHAP. no]
171
KAISER HENRY VII.
1308.
tunes and those of the Family he founded, both Bran-
denburg and our Hohenzollerns coming to be much
connected therewith, as time went on. This is Albert's
next successor, Henry Count of Luxemburg; called
among Kaisers Henry VH. He is founder, he alone
among these Non-Hapsburgers, of a small intercalary
line of Kaisers, "the Luxemburg Line;" who amount
indeed only to Four, himself included; and are not
otherwise of much memorability, if we except himself;
though straggling about, like well-rooted briers, in that
favourable ground, they have accidentally hooked them-
selves upon World-History in one or two points. By
accident a somewhat note-worthy line, those Luxemburg
Kaisers: --a celebrated place, too, or name of a place,
that "Luxembourg" of theirs, with its French Marshals,
grand Parisian Edifices, lending it new lustre: what,
thinks the reader, is the meaning of Liizzenburg, Luxem-
burg, Luxembourg? Merely Lutzelbvrg, wrong pro-
nounced; and that again is nothing but Littleboiough:
such is the luck of names! --
Heinrich Graf von Luxemburg was, after some
pause on the parricide of Albert, chosen Kaiser, "on
account of his renowned valour," say the old Books,
-- and also, add the shrewder of them, because his
Brother, Archbishop of Trier, was one of the Electors,
and the Pope did not like either the Austrian or the
French candidate then in the field. Chosen, at all
events, he was, 27th November 1308;* clearly, and
* KBhler, p. 274.
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? 172 OF BRANDENBURG AND THE HOHENZOLLERNS. [book
1313.
by much, the best Kaiser that could be had. A puis-
sant soul; who might have done great things, had
he lived. He settled feuds; cut off oppressions from
the Reichsstddte (Free-Towns); had a will of just sort,
and found or made a way for it. Bohemia lapsed to
him, the old race of Kings having perished out, --
the last of them far too suddenly "at Olmiitz," as we
saw lately! Some opposition there was, but much
more favour especially by the Bohemian People; and
the point, after some small "Siege of Prag" and the
like, was definitely carried by the Kaiser. The now
Burggraf of Nurnberg, Frederick rV. , son of Rudolfs friend, was present at this Siege of Prag:* a Burggraf
much attached to Kaiser Henry, as all good Germans
were. But the Kaiser did not live.
He went to Italy, our Burggraf of Nurnberg and
many more along with him, to pull the crooked Guelf-
Ghibelline Facts and Avignon Pope a little straight,
if possible; and was vigorously doing it, when he died
on a sudden: "poisened in sacramental wine," say the
Germans! One of the crowning summits of human
scoundrelism, which painfully stick in the mind. It is
certain he arrived well at Buonconvento near Sienna,
on the 24th September 1313, in full march towards
the rebellious King of Naples, whom the Pope much
countenanced. At Buonconvento, Kaiser Henry wished
to enjoy the communion; and a Dominican monk, whose
dark rat-eyed look men afterwards bethought them of,
administered it to him in both species (Council of Trent
? 1810 (RentBOh, p. 811;.
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? CHaP. EX. ] KAISER HENBT VII. 173
1313.
not yet prohibiting the liquid species): that is certain,
and also that on the morrow Henry was dead. The
Dominicans endeavoured afterward to deny; which, for
the credit of human nature, one wishes they had done
with effect. * But there was never any trial had; the
denial was considered lame; and German History con-
tinues to shudder, in that passage, and assert . Poisoned
in the wine of his sacrament: the Florentines, it is
said, were at the bottom of it, and had hired the rat-
eyed Dominican; -- "0 Italia, 0 Firenze! " That is
not the way to achieve Italian Liberty, or Obedience
to God; that is the way to confirm, as by frightful
stygian oath, Italian Slavery, or continual Obedience,
under varying forms, to the Other Party! The voice
of Dante, then alive among men, proclaims, sad and
loving as a mother's voice, and implacable as a voice
of Doom, that you are wandering, and have wandered,
in a terrible manner! --
Peter the then Archbishop of Maintz says, there
had not for hundreds of years such a death befallen
the German Empire; to which Kohler, one of the
wisest moderns, gives his assent: "It could not enough
"be lamented," says he, "that so vigilant a Kaiser, in
"the flower of his years, should have been torn from
"the world in so devilish a manner; who, if he had
"lived longer, might have done Teutschland unspeak-
able benefit. "**
? Kohler. p. 281 (Ptolomey of Lucca, himself a Dominican, is one of
the accusing spirits: Maratorl, 1. xi. ? Ptolommts Lucensis, a. d. 1313),
? >> Ibid. p. 282-5.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:12 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7y Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 174 OF BRANDENBURU AND THE HOHENZOLLEBNS. [BOOK IT.
1313.
Henry's Son Johann is King of Bohemia; and Ludwig the
Bavarian, with a Contested Election, is Kaiser.
Henry VII. having thus perished suddenly, his Son
Johann, scarcely yet come of age, could not follow him
as Kaiser, according to the Father's thought; though in
due time he prosecuted his advancement otherwise to
good purpose, and proved a very stirring man in the
world. By his Father's appointment, to whom as Kai-
ser the chance had fallen, he was already King of Bo-
hemia, strong in his right and in the favour of the na-
tives; though a titular Competitor, Henry of the Tyrol,
beaten off by the late Kaiser, was still extant: whom,
however, and all other perils, Johann contrived to
weather; growing up to be a farsighted, stout-hearted
man, and potent Bohemian King, widely renowned in
his day. He had a Son, and then two Grandsons, who
were successively Kaisers, after a sort; making up the
"Luxemburg Four" we spoke of. He did Crusades,
one or more, for the Teutsch Ritters, in a shining
manner; -- unhappily with loss of an eye; nay ulti-
mately, by the aid of quack oculists, with loss of both
eyes. An ambitious man, not to be quelled by blind-
ness; man with much negotiation in him; with a heavy
stroke of fight too, and temper nothing loth at it; of
which we shall see some glimpse by and by.
The pity was, for the Reich if not for him, he could
not himself become Kaiser. Perhaps we had not then
seen Henry VII. 's fine enterprises, like a fleet of half-
built ships, go mostly to planks again, on the waste
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:12 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hn6m7y Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHaP, n. ] JOHANN KING OF BOHEMIA. 175
1322.
sea, had his Son followed him. But there was, on the
contrary, a contested election; Austria in again, as
usual, and again unsuccessful. The late Kaiser's Aus-
trian competitor, "Friedrich the Fair, Duke of Austria,"
the parricided Albert's Son, was again one of the par-
ties. Against whom, with real but not quite indis-
putable majority, stood Ludwig Duke of Bavaria:
"Ludwig rV. ," "Ludwig der Baier (the Bavarian)" as
they call, him among Kaisers. Contest attended with
the usual election expenses; war-wrestle, namely, be-
tween the parties till one threw the other. There was
much confused wrestling and throttling for seven years
or more (1315-1322). Our Nurnberg Burggraf, Fried-
rich TV. , held with Ludwig, as did the real majority,
though in a languid manner, and was busy he as few
were; the Austrian Hapsburgs also doing their best,
now under now above.
