History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 03 — John Shaqi
History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 03Carlyle, Thomas
History
History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 03
Carlyle, Thomas
Frederick II, King of Prussia, 1712-1786; Prussia (Germany) -- History -- Frederick II, 1740-1786; Social problems
Till his death in 1543, George is to be found always in the front line
of this high Movement, in the line where Kur-Sachsen, John the Steadfast
(DER BESTANDIGE), and young Philip the Magnanimous of Hessen were,
and where danger and difficulty were. Readers of this enlightened
gold-nugget generation can form to themselves no conception of the
spirit that then possessed the nobler kingly mind. "The command of God
endures through Eternity, _ Verbum Dei Manet In AEternum,"_ was the
Epigraph and Life-motto which John the Steadfast had adopted for
himself; "V. D. M. I. AE.," these initials he had engraved on all the
furnitures of his existence, on his standards, pictures, plate, on the
very sleeves of his lackeys,--and I can perceive, on his own deep heart
first of all. V. D. M. I. E.:--or might it not be read withal, as Philip
of Hessen sometimes said (Philip, still a young fellow, capable of sport
in his magnanimous scorn), _"Verbum Diaboli Manet In Episcopis,_ The
Devil's Word sticks fast in the Bishops"?
We must now take leave of Margraf George and his fine procedures in that
crisis of World-History. He had got Jugerndorf, which became important
for his Family and others: but what was that to the Promethean conquests
(such we may call them) which he had the honor to assist in making for
his Family, and for his Country, and for all men;--very unconscious he
of "bringing fire from Heaven," good modest simple man! So far as I can
gather, there lived, in that day, few truer specimens of the Honest Man.
A rugged, rough-hewn, rather blunt-nosed physiognomy: cheek-bones high,
cheeks somewhat bagged and wrinkly; eyes with a due shade of anxiety and
sadness in them; affectionate simplicity, faithfulness, intelligence,
veracity looking out of every feature of him. Wears plentiful white
beard short-cut, plentiful gold-chains, ruffs, ermines;--a hat not to
be approved of, in comparison with brother Casimir's; miserable
inverted-colander of a hat; hanging at an angle of forty-five degrees;
with band of pearls round the top not the bottom of it; insecure upon
the fine head of George, and by no means to its embellishment.
One of his Daughters he married to the Duke of Liegnitz, a new link
in that connection. He left one Boy, George Friedrich; who came under
ALCIBIADES, his Cousin of Baireuth's tutelage; and suffered much by that
connection, or indeed chiefly by his own conspicuously Protestant turn,
to punish which, the Alcibiades connection was taken as a pretext. In
riper years, George Friedrich got his calamities brought well under; and
lived to do good work, Protestant and other, in the world. To which we
may perhaps allude again. The Line of Margraf George the Pious ends in
this George Friedrich, who had no children; the Line of Margraf George,
and the Elder Culmbach Line altogether (1603), Albert Alcibiades,
Casimir's one son, having likewise died without posterity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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