History of Friedrich II of Prussia - Frederick the Great Chapter XV. - Tenth Kurfurst, George Wilhelm.
by Thomas Carlyle
By far the unluckiest of these Electors, whether the most unworthy
of them or not, was George Wilhelm, Tenth Elector, who now
succeeded Johann Sigismund his Father. The Father's eyes had
closed when this great flame was breaking out; and the Son's days
were all spent amid the hot ashes and fierce blazings of it.
The position of Brandenburg during this sad Thirty-Years War was
passive rather than active; distinguished only in the former way,
and as far as possible from being glorious or victorious.
Never since the Hohenzollerns came to that Country had Brandenburg
such a time. Difficult to have mended it; impossible to have quite
avoided it;--and Kurfurst George Wilhelm was not a man so superior
to all his neighbors, that he could clearly see his way in such an
element. The perfect or ideal course was clear: To have frankly
drawn sword for his Religion and his Rights, so soon as the battle
fairly opened; and to have fought for these same, till he got
either them or died. Alas, that is easily said and written; but it
is, for a George Wilhelm especially, difficult to do! His
capability in all kinds was limited; his connections, with
this side and that, were very intricate. Gustavus and the
Winter-King were his Brothers-in-law; Gustavus wedded to his
Sister, he to Winter-King's. His relations to Poland, feudal
superior of Preussen, were delicate; and Gustavus was in deadly
quarrel with Poland. And then Gustavus's sudden laying-hold of
Pommern, which had just escaped from Wallenstein and the Kaiser?
It must be granted, poor George Wilhelm's case demanded
circumspectness.
One can forgive him for declining the Bohemian-King speculation,
though his Uncle of Jagerndorf and his Cousins of Liegnitz were so
hearty and forward in it. Pardonable in him to decline the
Bohemian speculation;--though surely it is very sad that he found
himself so short of "butter and firewood" when the poor Ex-King,
and his young Wife, then in a specially interesting state, came to
take shelter with him! [Solltl (Geschichte des
Dreissigjahrigen Krieges, --a trivial modern Book)
gives a notable memorial from the Brandenburg RATHS, concerning
these their difficulties of housekeeping. Their real object, we
perceive, was to get rid of a Guest so dangerous as the Ex-King,
under Ban of the Empire, had now become.] But when Gustavus
landed, and flung out upon the winds such a banner as that of
his,--truly it was required of a Protestant Governor of men to be
able to read said banner in a certain degree. A Governor, not too
IMperfect, would have recognized this Gustavus, what his purposes
and likelihoods were; the feeling would have been, checked by due
circumspectness: "Up, my men, let us follow this man; let us live
and die in the Cause this man goes for! Live otherwise with honor,
or die otherwise with honor, we cannot, in the pass things have
come to!"--And thus, at the very worst, Brandenburg would have had
only one class of enemies to ravage it; and might have escaped
with, arithmetically speaking, HALF the harrying it got in that
long Business.
But Protestant Germany--sad shame to it, which proved lasting
sorrow as well--was all alike torpid; Brandenburg not an
exceptional case. No Prince stood up as beseemed: or only one, and
he not a great one; Landgraf Wilhelm of Hessen, who, and his brave
Widow after him, seemed always to know what hour it was.
Wilhelm of Hessen all along;--and a few wild hands, Christian of
Brunswick, Christian of Anhalt, Johann George of Jagerndorf, who
stormed out tumultuously at first, but were soon blown away by the
Tilly-Wallenstein TRADE-WINDS and regulated armaments:--the rest
sat still, and tried all they could to keep out of harm's way.
The "Evangelical Union" did a great deal of manifestoing,
pathetic, indignant and other; held solemn Meetings at Heilbronn,
old Sir Henry Wotton going as Ambassador to them; but never got
any redress. Had the Evangelical Union shut up its inkhorns
sooner; girt on its fighting-tools when the time came, and done
some little execution with them then, instead of none at all,--
we may fancy the Evangelical Union would have better discharged
its function. It might have saved immense wretchedness to Germany.
But its course went not that way.
In fact, had there been no better Protestantism than that of
Germany, all was over with Protestantism; and Max of Bavaria, with
fanatical Ferdinand II. as Kaiser over him, and Father Lammerlein
at his right hand and Father Hyacinth at his left, had got their
own sweet way in this world. But Protestant Germany was not
Protestant Europe, after all. Over seas there dwelt and reigned a
certain King in Sweden; there farmed, and walked musing by the
shores of the Ouse in Huntingdonshire, a certain man;--there was a
Gustav Adolf over seas, an Oliver Cromwell over seas;
and "a company of poor men" were found capable of taking Lucifer
by the beard,--who accordingly, with his Lammerleins, Hyacinths,
Habernfeldts and others, was forced to withdraw, after a
tough struggle!--
