History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 02Carlyle, Thomas
History
History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 02
Carlyle, Thomas
Frederick II, King of Prussia, 1712-1786; Prussia (Germany) -- History -- Frederick II, 1740-1786; Social problems
However, in that same year, 1349, temporary quietus having come,
Kurfurst Ludwig, weary of the matter, gave it over to his Brother: "Have
not I an opulent Maultasche, Gorgon-Wife, susceptible to kindness, in
the Tyrol; have not I in the Reich elsewhere resources, appliances?"
thought Kurfurst Ludwig. And gave the thing over to his next Brother.
Brother whose name also is LUDWIG (as their Father's also had been,
three Ludwigs at once, for our dear Germans shine in nomenclature):
"Ludwig THE ROMAN" this new one;--the elder Brother, our acquaintance,
being Ludwig simply, distinguishable too as KURFURST Ludwig, or even as
Ludwig SENIOR at this stage of the affair. Kurfurst Ludwig, therefore,
Year 1349, washes his hands of Brandenburg while the quietus lasts;
retaining only the Electorship and Title; and goes his ways, resolving
to take his ease in Bavaria and the Tyrol thenceforth. How it fared with
him there, with his loving Gorgon and him, we will not ask farther. They
had always separate houses to fly to, in case of extremity! They held
out, better or worse, twelve years more; and Ludwig left his little Boy
still surviving him, in 1361.
SECOND, AND THEN THIRD AND LAST, OF THE BAVARIAN KURFURSTS IN
BRANDENBURG.
In Brandenburg, the new Markgraf Ludwig, who we say is called "THE
ROMAN" (LUDWIG DER ROMER, having been in Rome) to distinguish him,
continued warring with the Anarchies, fifteen years in a rather tough
manner, without much victory on either side;--made his peace with Kaiser
Karl however, delivering up the REICHS-INSIGNIA; and tried to put down
the domestic Robbers, who had got on foot, "many of them persons of
quality;" [Michaelis, i. 282.] till he also died, childless, A.D. 1365;
having been Kurfurst too, since his Brother's death, for some four
years.
Whereupon Brandenburg, Electorship and all Titles with it, came to Otto,
third son of Kaiser Ludwig, who is happily the last of these Bavarian
Electors. They were an unlucky set of Sovereigns, not hitherto without
desert; and the unlucky Country suffered much under them. By far the
unluckiest, and by far the worst, was this Otto; a dissolute, drinking,
entirely worthless Herr; under whom, for eight years, confusion went
worse confounded; as if plain chaos were coming; and Brandenburg and
Otto grew tired of each other to the last degree.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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