



Produced by D.R. Thompson





HISTORY OF FRIEDRICH II. OF PRUSSIA

FREDERICK THE GREAT

By Thomas Carlyle




BOOK III. -- THE HOHENZOLLERNS IN BRANDENBURG. - 1412-1718




Chapter I. -- KURFURST FRIEDRICH I.

Burggraf Friedrich, on his first coming to Brandenburg, found but a cool
reception as Statthalter. [_"Johannistage"_ (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