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
A second Uncle of George Wilhelm's, that unlucky Archbishop of Magdeburg
above mentioned, the Kaiser, once more by his own arbitrary will, put
under Ban of the Empire, in this Second Act: "Traitor, how durst you
join with the Danes?" The result of which was Tilly's Sack of Magdeburg
(10-12th May, 1631), a transaction never forgettable by mankind.--As
for Pommern, Gustav Adolf, on his intervening in these matters, landed
there: Pommern was now seized by Gustav Adolf, as a landing-place and
place-of-arms, indispensable for Sweden in the present emergency; and
was so held thenceforth. Pommern will not fall to George Wilhelm at this
time.
THIRD ACT, AND WHAT THE KURFURST SUFFERED IN IT.
And now we are at Act THIRD:--Landing of Gustav Adolf "in the Isle of
Usedom, 24th June, 1630," and onward for Eighteen Years till the Peace
of Westphalia, in 1648;--on which, as probably better known to the
reader, we will not here go into details. In this Third Act too, George
Wilhelm followed his old scheme, peace at any price;--as shy of Gustav
as he had been of other Champions of the Cause; and except complaining,
petitioning and manifestoing, studiously did nothing.
Poor man, it was his fate to stand in the range of these huge
collisions,--Bridge of Dessau, Siege of Stralsund, Sack of Magdeburg,
Battle of Leipzig,--where the Titans were bowling rocks at one another;
and he hoped, by dexterous skipping, to escape share of the game.
To keep well with his Kaiser,--and such a Kaiser to Germany and to
him,--this, for George Wilhelm, was always the first commandment. If the
Kaiser confiscate your Uncles, against law; seize your Pommern; rob you
on the public highways,--George Wilhelm, even in such case, is full of
dubitations. Nay his Prime-Minister, one Schwartzenberg, a Catholic,
an Austrian Official at one time,--Progenitor of the Austrian
Schwartzenbergs that now are,--was secretly in the Kaiser's interest,
and is even thought to have been in the Kaiser's pay, all along.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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