IV.

"Most n.o.ble, honourable, amiable, and dearly beloved Junker, may my kindly greeting and good wishes attend you.

"I have received your letter, and learned with heartfelt joy, of the well-being of you and yours; as regards us, we are, thanks and praise be to G.o.d, still well. May G.o.d Almighty so keep us all for ever, according to his will and pleasure. Amen.

"Concerning your letter, wherein you write that you wish to try my love and obedience, I did not long deliberate, because the time is now short, and I have taken a good deal out of the purse for myself and sisters, yet not with the intention that it should always go on so; and thus, dearly beloved Junker, your commands and my obedience are fully carried out, and I and my sisters do greatly and kindly thank you, and we hope, G.o.d willing, to thank you soon by word of mouth. I have also seen, after what you wrote, that the horses should be ready.

"I hope that I shall have executed your orders so that you may be brought safely through your dangerous journey, for it would a.s.suredly be very painful to me, if on my account you were to be exposed to great danger.

"Dearly beloved Junker, we have heard with pleasure that you will come to us at the last inn, for in truth it will be necessary to instruct us as to all the arrangements.[61] May G.o.d Almighty give you health and happiness, and bring us together in joy. The last inn for sleeping will be Stockstadt; my honoured father will also write to you his instructions, and by them you will be guided.

"No more at present, than that you, dearly beloved Junker, your son and daughter, are heartily greeted by me and mine, and commended to the care and protection of G.o.d Almighty.

"In great haste.

"Your true and loving brunette, as long as I live

"Yours in [Ill.u.s.tration: A Heart]

"Ursula Freherin."

CHAPTER XI.

GERMAN n.o.bILITY IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

In the beginning of the sixteenth century we find the names of the German n.o.bles, Fronsperg, Hutten, and Sickingen, conspicuous in the three different ways in which the n.o.bles then employed themselves,--the Army, the Church, and State, and the representation and maintenance of the rights and interests of the landed proprietors. But it appears strange that even up to the middle of the seventeenth century, men like these should have had so few of their own cla.s.s following in their footsteps. From the time of Fronsperg to that of the Bohemian Junker Albrecht of Waldstein, and the wild cavalry leader Pappenheim, the whole of Germany produced no General of more than average skill from among the n.o.bility. There were a few Landsknechte leaders of citizen extraction like Schartlin, and some German princes, all however with more pretension than capacity, and it was princ.i.p.ally to Spaniards and Italians that the family of the Emperor Charles V. and their opponents owed their most important victories. As to the intellectual life of Germany, there was still less of that amongst the n.o.bility after the time of Hutten. How few n.o.ble names do we find in the long list of reformers, scholars, poets, architects, and artists! The first occur in the seventeenth century, when we find those of the members of the _Palmenordens_, the author of the 'Simplicissimus,' and of some n.o.ble rhymers belonging to the Silesian school of poetry or to the Saxon court. One may well ask how it happened that an order so numerous, holding such an advantageous position with respect to the people, should have accomplished so little in this great field of action, which up to the time of the Hohenstaufen was especially in the possession of the n.o.bility. And even with the most favourably disposed judgment, it would be difficult to ascribe to the landed n.o.bility of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and the first half of the seventeenth centuries, any beneficial influences on any one of the great currents of life in Germany.

In fact the lower n.o.bility--considered as an order--had been, since the time of the Hohenstaufen, a misfortune to Germany. It was after the beginning of the thirteenth century, when the difference betwixt the n.o.blemen and freeholders had been established by the laws, by the interests and inclinations of the Emperor, and by the limited ideal, which was formed by the aristocratic body, that the n.o.bility gradually decayed. In the cities, undoubtedly, the old dominion of the privileged freeman was broken in the last period of the middle ages; there, in spite of all hindrances, a quicker circulation of popular strength had established itself. The labourer could become a citizen, the experienced citizen could rise to be the ruler of his city, or of a confederation of cities, and be the leader of great interests. But the landed n.o.bleman after the beginning of the thirteenth century sank gradually into a state of isolation; labour was a disgrace to him, his acres were cultivated by dependent va.s.sals, and he naturally endeavoured as much as possible to separate himself from them. Ever heavier became the oppression by which he kept them down; ever higher rose the pretensions which he, as lord of the land and soil, raised against his own people.

But the oppression of the agriculturist was not the worst consequence of the privileged position of the n.o.ble. If he found it to his advantage to treat his beast of burden, the peasant, with moderation, he was so much the more eager to make use of his landed rights in other directions. The highroads, the river that ran by his castle, afforded him the opportunity of laying hold of the goods of strangers; he levied imposts upon goods and travellers; he obtruded his protecting escort upon them, and robbed such as considered this escort unnecessary; he built a bridge where there was no river, in order to raise a toll; he designedly kept the roads in bad condition, because he chose to consider that the goods of travelling merchants, though under the Emperor's protection, so long as they were in waggons or in vessels afloat; if the waggons were upset or vessels ran aground, belonged, according to manorial right, to the possessor of the land. Finally he became himself a robber, and with his comrades seized whatever he could lay hands on; he took the goods to his house, plundered the travellers, and kept them prisoners till they could free themselves by ransom.

Nevertheless there were certain regulated observances accompanying these robberies, according to which the conscientious Junker distinguished between honourable and dishonourable plunder. But this moral code had very little to justify it. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries there were very few n.o.blemen's houses which did not deserve the name of robber-holds, and still fewer out of which plundering attacks were not made.

But this life was most of all detrimental to the n.o.bles themselves; their love of plunder, and their pugnacity, made them turn as much against their fellow-n.o.bles as against the cities, and through the whole of the middle ages led to innumerable feuds. When the feud was notified by letter, some days previous to the beginning of hostilities, it was considered honourable. Any trifle was sufficient to occasion a feud: never-ending boundary disputes, encroachments on the chase, or the flogging of a servant, caused discord, even between old comrades and friendly neighbours. Then both parties strengthened themselves by the a.s.sistance of relations and dependents; they enlisted troopers, and endeavoured to learn through the medium of spies how they could gain an advantage over the property, house, or person of their adversary. The opulence of the cities, and the rancour entertained by the n.o.bles against the rising independence of the citizens, gave an agreeable excitement to their feuds with the latter. Whoever was unable to establish a profitable feud of his own, united himself as an a.s.sistant to another, and thus old comrades were often by the chapter of accidents opposed, and then, in the full consciousness of doing their duty, would beat and even stab each other.

This marauding life on the highways, in the woods and caverns, and with drunken companions, was neither favourable to their family life nor to their higher interests, nor was it even fitted to develop warlike capacity except among the subordinates. At the best, it only formed leaders of small bodies of mounted troopers for foraging expeditions and surprises. Sickingen himself, the most skilful specimen of a Junker of the sixteenth century, showed in his great and decisive feud, only very moderate talents as a general; and the capacities of Gotz, in a military point of view, do not stand higher than those of an experienced serjeant of hussars. Thus wild, vicious, and detrimental to the community, was the conduct of even the quietest of the lower n.o.bility. Their being a privileged order whose members considered themselves superior to citizen of peasant, who kept themselves apart from others, in marriage, business, law, manners, and ceremonials, made them for centuries weak, and their existence a misfortune to the people; but at the same time it saved them from the ruin consequent upon their disorderly life. On retrospect of the act itself, there is little difference to be seen between the robber who now waylays the wanderer on the lonely heath, and the country n.o.bleman who about the year 1500 dragged the Nuremberger merchant from his horse and kept him in a dark prison upon bread and water, whilst the n.o.ble's wife made coats and mantles out of the stolen cloth. But three hundred and fifty years ago, the n.o.ble robber practised his evil deeds with the feeling, that though his actions were perhaps contrary to the decrees of an Imperial Diet, yet they were looked upon by the whole n.o.bility of his province, indeed by the highest sovereigns of the country, as pleasant or at the worst as daring tricks. Certainly if he was caught by the city whose citizens he had injured, he might possibly lose his life, as does now a murderer on the high-road, but the law of the city was not his law, and if he died, his death would probably be revenged by other active comrades. However unreasonable were the laws of honour according to which he lived, he felt that these same laws were honoured by thousands whom he esteemed as the best upon earth. Thus it was possible, that amidst the greatest immorality and perversity, many manly virtues might be exhibited by individuals; fidelity to their word, devotion to their friends, and kind-hearted friendliness even to those whom they had robbed and imprisoned.

It was at this period, under the new Emperor Maximilian, that the memorable attempt was begun, to give a new const.i.tution to the shattered body of the Empire, and with it the possibility of a new life. More than a century elapsed and three generations pa.s.sed away before the lesser n.o.bility could accustom themselves to the restraint of the new laws; but the princes and cities, however much they might quarrel together, had the greatest interest in enforcing obedience to these laws. It is however worthy of note, that while losing a portion of their wild straightforward resoluteness, they adopted the faults more especially belonging to the new epoch. How the change gradually took place, we will demonstrate here by a few examples.

A happy accident has preserved to us three autobiographies of well-known German n.o.bles of different periods of the 16th century, those of Berlichingen, of Schartlin, and of Schweinichen; one of them, so long as the German language lasts, will be intimately a.s.sociated with the name of the greatest German poet. These three men, who flourished in the beginning, the middle, and the end of this celebrated century, were widely different in character and destiny, but all three were landed proprietors, and each of them has recorded the events of his life, so as to give an instructive insight into the social condition of his circle. The best known is Gotz von Berlichingen; his memoirs were first published in 1731. The halo, with which three hundred years after his death, Goethe's charming poem has invested him, will make it difficult for the reader of his biography to separate the ideal delineation of the poet from the figure of the historical Gotz.

And yet this is necessary. For however modestly and lovingly Goethe has portrayed his character, he appears quite different in history. When as an old man, in a time to which he was a stranger, he wrote his life, he loved to dwell on the knightly exploits of his wild youth. It was not his line to enter into political questions; if he found himself in a crisis he acted according to the advice of his patrons,--the great sovereigns, who employed his strong arm and steadfast will for their own objects. When the peasant army broke into his territories, he and his kinsmen were utterly at a loss what to do, and wrote for advice.

The answer was suppressed by his mother-in-law and wife, and he was left to his own judgment, and had not sufficient adroitness to withdraw himself from the thronging insurgents. Had he been like many of his cotemporaries, such as Max Stumpf, he would have abandoned the peasants in spite of all his vows. But although not really faithful to them, true to the letter of his word, he adhered to them till the four weeks were pa.s.sed, for which he had bound himself though he was not in fact their leader but their prisoner. After that he lived some years in close imprisonment, then for a long time in strict confinement at his castle. He was surrounded by a new generation, engaged in vehement strife, and he himself was grieving the while that he had acted in the peasant struggle as an honourable knight, and that still true to his word, he had even now to count the steps which he was allowed to take beyond the gates of his castle. After sixteen years of solitary seclusion he was in his old age twice called to take part in the warfare of a younger race, which neither brought him adventures nor any opportunity to acquire fame or booty. When at last he died in peace at his Castle of Hornburg, at the age of eighty-two, Luther had been dead sixteen years, and the Emperor Charles V. had been interred in a cloister four years before; but the long period from the year 1525 occupies few pages in his autobiography, although it was written in the last year of his life. There will be given here fragments from his account of the Nuremberg feud.

Gotz von Berlichingen.

"1512. Now I will not conceal from any one that I was desirous of coming to blows with the Nurembergers; I revolved the thing in my mind, and thought that I must pick a quarrel with the priest, the Bishop of Bamberg, that I might bring the Nurembergers into play. I waylaid ninety-five merchants who were under the safe conduct of the Bishop; I was so kind that I did not seize any of their goods, except those belonging to the Nurembergers; of these there were about thirty. I attacked them on the Monday after Our Lord's Ascension-day, about eight or nine in the morning, and rode along with them all Tuesday, that night, and Wednesday: I had my good friend Hans von Selbitz with me, and altogether our party amounted to thirty. But the other travellers were numerous; these I drove away in small bodies to whatever places they appeared to belong. My comrade, Hans von Selbitz, also an enemy of the Bishop of Bamberg, about a fortnight afterwards burnt his castle and a city, called, if I remember it rightly, Vilseck, so that this affair bore double fruit.

"In order that every one may know why and wherefore I quarrelled with and attacked the men of Nuremberg, I will state the causes. Fritz von Littwach, a Margrave's page, with whom I had been brought up as a boy, who had been my companion-in-arms, and who was very good to me, once disappeared mysteriously in the neighbourhood of Onolzbach, being made prisoner and carried off, so that for a long time no one knew where he was or who had carried him away. Long afterwards, the Margrave caught a man, who gave him and the knights accompanying him many true tidings.

Then it became known where Fritz von Littwach had been taken to; so I begged and prayed of my patron and relation Herr Hans von Seckendorf, who was the Margrave's majordomo, that he would procure me the confession of the traitor. Thereby it was discovered that those in the service of the Nurembergers had done the deed, and it might be a.s.sumed that he had been taken to one of their houses or a public gaol. This was one of my grounds of complaint against the Nurembergers.

"Further, I had hired a servant called Georg von Gaislingen, who had promised to enter my service, but who had been, when with his Junker Eustach von Lichtenstein, stabbed and severely wounded by the men of Nuremberg; his Junker had been so likewise, but survived. Although many others besides the Nurembergers were hostile to Fritz von Littwach, yet I never perceived any one who had 'belled the cat,' as they say, or had taken up the matter, except poor truehearted Gotz von Berlichingen: these are the grounds of offence that I have everywhere and in every way notified and proved against the Nurembergers, every day in which I have negotiated with them before the commissaries of his Imperial Majesty, and also before the ecclesiastical and temporal princes.[62]

"I will now show further what happened to me and my relations in the Nuremberg feud. The States of the Empire ordered out four hundred hors.e.m.e.n against me, amongst whom were counts and lords, knights and va.s.sals; their challenges are still in existence. I and my brother were put repeatedly under the ban of the Empire, and in certain cities the priests and monks fulminated fire and flame at me from the pulpit, and gave me up to be eaten by the birds of the air, and everything that we had was taken from us, so that we could not possess a foot's breadth of anything. There was no time for festivities; we were obliged to conceal ourselves, and yet I was able to do my enemies some injury, both to their possessions and otherwise, so that his Imperial Majesty several times interposed and directed his commissaries to negotiate between us, to regulate all things and bring about a reconciliation; thereby his Imperial Majesty hindered many of my projects, and occasioned me more than two hundred thousand gulden' worth of loss, for I intended to have carried off both gold and money from the Nurembergers. It was my project then, by G.o.d's help, to overthrow, beat, and imprison all the Nuremberg soldiers, and even the burgomaster himself, who wore a large gold chain about his neck, and held a mace in his hand, and also all their hors.e.m.e.n and their standard bearer, when they were on their way to Hohenkrahen; I was already prepared for it with horse and foot, so that it was quite certain I should have got them into my hands. But there were some good lords and friends of whom I took counsel, whether I should on the appointed day appear before his Imperial Majesty, or put my project in execution. Their true and faithful counsel was, that I should honour his Imperial Majesty with a visit that day, which counsel I followed to my great and evident loss.

"I knew when the Frankfort fair was to take place, when the Nurembergers were to go on foot from Wurzburg to Frankfort by the Spessart. I made a reconnaissance and fell upon five or six; amongst them there was a merchant whom I attacked for the third time, having in half a year, twice made him prisoner and once deprived him of property; the others were mere bale packers of Nuremberg: I made semblance as if I would cut off their heads and hands, though I was not in earnest; but they were obliged to kneel down and lay their heads upon a block; I then gave one of them a kick behind, and a box on the ear to the others: this was the way I punished them, and then let them go their way. The merchant whom I had so frequently waylaid crossed himself and said: 'I should sooner have thought that the heavens would fall in than that you should have waylaid me to-day, for only some days ago, about a hundred of our merchants were standing in the market-place of Nuremberg, the talk turned upon you, and I heard that you were then in the forests at Hagenschiess waylaying and seizing property.' I myself wondered that in so short a time the rumour of my riding hither and thither should have reached Nuremberg. Soon after, his Imperial Majesty took the matter in hand, and arranged it at Wurzburg."--Thus far Gotz.

Schartlin von Burtenbach.

Sebastian Schartlin does not exactly belong to the same cla.s.s. He was not of n.o.ble origin, and had to thank his military talents for his knighthood. He was born in the year 1498, and studied arms under Fronsperg. From 1518 to 1557 he was actively employed in almost all the military affairs of Germany, in the service of the Emperor, and in that of the city of Augsburg. For a time also he served in the French army, as on account of his partic.i.p.ation in the Smalkaldic war he had been obliged to leave Germany. He had more than once commanded large armies, and was in great repute as a bold and experienced general; he is an interesting contrast to Gotz. The one the n.o.ble cavalier, the other the citizen Landsknechte leader; Gotz the jovial companion-at-arms, Schartlin the practical man of business. The lives of both were full of adventures and not free from inexcusable deeds: both died at a great age; but Gotz dissipated his time and property in plundering expeditions and knightly deeds, while Schartlin helped to decide the fate of Germany. Gotz understood so little his own times and his interest, that he, the aristocrat, allowed himself to be made use of by the democratic peasants as a man of straw; Schartlin understood his own time so well, that after the unfortunate Smalkaldic war he withdrew into Switzerland a rich man, and a few years afterwards was reinstated triumphantly in all his honours. Gotz had all his life a strong hankering after the merchant's gold, yet after all his daring plundering expeditions had but little in his coffers; Schartlin made money in all his campaigns, bought one property after another, and knew how to command the highest price for his services. Both gave proof of character and of party fidelity; both were honourable soldiers, and the knightly consciences of both were according to our judgment too lax.

Gotz, at whose want of prudence we sometimes smile, though fond of booty, was yet in his way painfully conscientious; Schartlin was the cautious but agreeable egotist. All the good qualities of decaying knighthood were united in the simple soul of the possessor of Hornburg, whilst the Herr von Burtenbach was, on the contrary, thoroughly a son of the new time; soldier, negotiator, and diplomat. Both were with the Imperial army which invaded France in 1544; Schartlin, in the prime of life as a general, Gotz as an old gray-headed knight with a small troop of va.s.sals: the same year Schartlin was created Imperial Lord High Steward and Captain General, and acquired seven thousand gulden. Gotz rode, ill and lonely, in the rear of the returning army back to his castle. Both have written their lives in a firm soldier's hand; that of Gotz is less skilful and well arranged, but his biography will be read with greater sympathy than that of Schartlin: Gotz takes pleasure in relating his knightly adventures, as good comrades recall their recollections of old times over a gla.s.s of good wine; Schartlin gives a perspicuous statement in chronological order, and favours the reader with many dry but instructive details of great political transactions; but respecting himself, he prefers giving an account of his gains and his vexatious quarrels with his landed neighbours.

These quarrels, nevertheless, however uniform their course, claim the greatest interest here; for it is precisely by them that we discover how much the proceedings of the landed n.o.bility had changed since the beginning of the century. There is the same love of feuds, as in the youthful days of the Berlichingen; deeds of violence still continue to abound, and numerous duodecimo wars are planned; but the old feeling of self-dependence is broken, the spirit of public tranquillity and of courts of justice hovers over the disputants, neighbours and kind friends interpose, and the lawless seldom defy the Imperial mandate or the will of the reigning princes without punishment. Sudden surprises and insidious devices take the place of open feuds; instead of the cross-bow and sword, adversaries make use of not less destructive weapons--calumny, bribery, and intrigues. Satirical songs had for a century been paid for and listened to with pleasure, and the travelling singers made themselves feared, as they ridiculed a n.i.g.g.ardly host in their songs at a hundred firesides.

Schartlin relates as follows:--

"Anno 1557. In this year I, Sebastian Schartlin, bought the territorial domain of Hohenburg, together with Bissingen[63] and Hohenstein, from a Bohemian Lord, Woldemar von Lobkowitz, and from Hans Stein, for fifty-two thousand gulden, and took possession thereof in the presence of my son and son-in-law, and many other n.o.bles, on St. Matthew's day, and received the homage of the va.s.sals in the marketplace. The same summer I restored the castle of Hohenstein, and so repaired it as to enable one to reside there. Now about Michaelmas day my son went with his wife and children, and took up his residence there; and prepared rough and hewn stones, lime, and wood, for repairing the castle of Bissingen; and in the winter he caused the well to be put in order; for that purpose the neighbouring prelates gave me beautiful oak, and with their horses and those of the city of Donauworth, and by all the neighbouring peasants the carting was done.

"The 18th September, 1560, Count Ludwig von Oettingen caused one of my husbandmen of Reutmannshof to be carried prisoner to his office at Harburg, where he was kept without bite or sup, because he and his sons in defending themselves had had a quarrel with certain peasants of Oettingen, who had opened his gate and forcibly driven over his land; nevertheless no one had been hurt. On the Monday following, the Count, with five hundred peasants and fifty horses, fell with a strong hand upon my wood, where he had no territorial rights, caused my acorns to be shaken down, and without notice or warning carried off by violence women, children, and waggons belonging to me. When I arrived the same day at Bissingen, and learned all this, I and my two sons, together with our cousin Ludwig Schartlin and Hans Rumpolt von Elrichshausen, and a force of two-and-thirty horses, entered his domain, and close to his castle of Harburg seized a peasant and two of his va.s.sals, and carried them prisoners to Bissingen. As his hors.e.m.e.n and archers had at their pleasure pa.s.sed close to Bissingen under my very nose, with great parade and firing off of guns, so did I the like at Harburg with the above-mentioned hors.e.m.e.n, in order to excite my adversary to a skirmish, but no one would come out against us. Yet at last they shot at us with blunderbusses. On the Thursday after, the Count rode to Stuttgard for a shooting match, and as he knew well that I would not give way to him, he spoke evil of me to their princely highnesses the Elector and Count Palatine, and other counts and n.o.bles, screening himself so as to get me into disgrace and disfavour. Duke Christoph of Wurtemberg especially, who had previously been favourably disposed towards me, recalled this year the pension of a hundred gulden which he had given me. The Count had besides so excited his brother, Count Friedrich, against me, that he also attacked me with violence.

Afterwards both Counts strengthened themselves with horse and foot, against whom we brought into the castle of Bissingen a hundred good experienced archers, and the concourse of troops on both sides was great. The Counts had brought me and mine into ridicule with the people, by songs and other poems, proverbs, and writings, and also with His Imperial Majesty, the Electors and other princes, counts, and lords. They accused me of being an exciter of tumults, and a quarrelsome breaker of the public peace, and gave out everywhere that I was their tenant, va.s.sal, and dependent, who was doubly bound to them, and had forgotten my feudal duty, and such-like lies, in the hope of injuring me and mine by their falsehoods. Now whilst I was preparing for being attacked, the Count Palatine, Duke Wolfgang, and Duke Albrecht of Bavaria, being the nearest princes, interposed; they wrote to both parties to keep the peace, and offered with Duke Christoph to bring about an amicable negotiation, so that the prisoners on both sides should be freed, and all the hired troops dismissed. This I was willing to do; but as Count Ludwig von Oettingen--nicknamed Igel--the Hedgehog--had begun all the mischief, I demanded that he should do it first. But the Count would not give freedom to the people, but placed Ratzebauer, who was my va.s.sal alone, and owed neither fealty nor allegiance to Oettingen, before the criminal court. To all eternity it will not be shown that I and mine, by this purchase, became lawfully va.s.sals, for we bought Hohenburg and Bissingen, together with all that appertains to them, as freehold properties, and as territorial domains which are independent and have criminal jurisdiction. Yet the princes would not leave the settlement to us, but gave us manifold admonitions to be peaceable; so I dismissed my hired troops, and in this transaction I well perceived that Duke Wolfgang, who before was my gracious protector, had also fallen away, and had become inimical to me. But in spite of all the princely mediations, Count Ludwig one evening advanced with many hors.e.m.e.n and some hundred peasants against the castle of Bissingen, and began a skirmish, with our hors.e.m.e.n of whom some were in the field and others issued forth, in which none received injury. As the enemy could do nothing, they returned again, a laughing-stock to all.

"I brought all this business before the Supreme Court of Judicature, and made complaint against Count Ludwig for his delinquencies against me, hoping, as also happened, that I might bring this matter to a just conclusion, though the princes showed such a party feeling.[64]

Meanwhile, Count Igel meanly cast odium upon my name everywhere by printed writings and calumnious songs; and in the presence of the Count von Mansfeld, erased from the armorial shield of my son Hans Bastian, which was upon the Inn, the prefix 'Herr von Bissingen,' which nevertheless had not been placed there by my son himself, but by the landlord; and Count Friedrich caused his bailiff publicly to proclaim, at the consecration of the church at Buchenhofen, that if one of the Schartlingers should go thither, every one should beat him.

"In the year 1561, Count Lothair von Oettingen came during Lent to Augsburg; he sent many friendly words to me, as that he and his other brothers were quite sorry that his brother Count Ludwig had treated me in so unseemly a manner. Besides which, he complained to me of his brother, that he would not give him his marriage settlement or any residence; it therefore became necessary for him to behave hostilely towards him, and he begged of me to yield him knightly service.

Thereupon I thanked him for his sympathy, and regretted that with him also things did not go satisfactorily; but I let him know that there was a truce between me and his brother, and that I was engaged with him before the Supreme Court, that I did not willingly put my foot between the hammer and the anvil, but that if otherwise he wanted any knightly service, and would inform me of it, I would be his servant, and would not refuse to furnish horse and armour.

"It was the custom annually at Bissingen to go on Holy Ascension Day to a fair and dance that was held behind the castle, and there was also shooting, whereat, this year, my son Hans Bastian gave his company.

Then Counts Ludwig and Friedrich sent the bailiff of Unter Bissingen, together with other hors.e.m.e.n, to the fair, armed with five blunderbusses. They placed themselves there, and wished to hold their ground; my sons accosted them, asking why they placed themselves thus armed. To whom the bailiff answered that his lords had sent him to guard this place, and that the supremacy belonged to the Counts of Oettingen; which my son gainsaid, as the parents of the Counts had sold it, and it belonged to me, and he bid them take themselves off. Upon this the bailiff rode away with these words, that he would soon return after another fashion; and presently, from the footpath hors.e.m.e.n and infantry were to be seen coming; whereupon my son sent certain servants and va.s.sals to the castle and the church tower, to await the enemy.

Suddenly the Count's people, numbering about forty hors.e.m.e.n and three hundred foot, came riding and running at full speed, attacked my son, and cousin Ludwig, and their sharpshooters and va.s.sals with spears and firearms, pressed quite up to the barrier of the fair, and closed the gates by overpowering force. On the other hand my son and his followers placed themselves on the defensive, fought them at close quarters, and firing at them from the castle and towers, shot two of the Count's horses and two of his men, one in the body and the other in the leg; thus they kept them at bay, and at last put them to flight, but, thank G.o.d! no misfortune happened to him or his. Afterwards, however, when my son had entered the castle with his people, and was eating his supper and taking no further heed, Count Lothar, that honourable man, who had before said so many friendly things to me, returned about six o'clock, and fired thirty shots at the castle with four powerful guns upon wheels, and blew away full twelve bricks. About nine o'clock they returned to Unter-Bissingen: both Counts strengthened themselves in the night, and came again in the morning with many people. As my son and my cousin Ludwig had no expectation of another attack, they came over to me early in the morning; then the burgomaster and certain councillors went out to the enemy and inquired what their intentions were, as there was no one in the castle but women and children, they also said that the domain was under process and Imperial neutrality. Thereupon the bailiff from Harburg made reply that they had come yesterday and again to-day with good and friendly intentions, to claim their lord's rights of supremacy, but they had been fired at, whereby great damage had been done to them. They desired to occupy the _Platz_ to-day, but if they were fired at, it would be seen what they should do in return. Upon this the people of Bissingen answered that they were poor people, and whatever might be done would have to be answered for. Afterwards the Count's people again advanced to the _Platz_, two hundred men strong with four guns and a drum, and after performing certain dances, and drinking, each one plucked a leaf from the linden trees; after this defiance, and firing, they withdrew, leaving behind them an ambuscade of two thousand men. All this I notified and complained of to his Imperial Majesty and the Supreme Court; thereupon a mandate was sent to both parties, that we should under pain of disgrace and outlawry not molest each other any further, and together with this a summons to appear before the court on the 20th of August, which were both delivered to the Counts, who answered in a most unseemly way that it was all a falsehood. I besides this protested against the injuries done to me.

"On the aforesaid grounds, and because there was no end to their hostile behaviour, and also as neither law nor right were of any avail, I was compelled for the sake of mine honour and for protection against the molestation of the two above-mentioned Counts, to send a statement to His Imperial Majesty of the Roman Empire, to the Electors and Princes, Counts and States of the Empire, and also to the five divisions of n.o.bility and the knighthood generally; I also made a like statement by word of mouth to the estates of the country communes, and fully apprised them and their governor, my worthy lord of Bavaria, of whom I was appointed representative, and further the city of Augsburg, whose va.s.sal I am, of the whole transaction, and besought of them all, counsel, help, or support. These addressed a threatening doc.u.ment to the Counts, admonishing them to leave to me and mine, our rights, in peace; adding that if they did not, they would not abandon me. At the same time they recommended me to employ nothing but law. Now as so many calumnious songs and sayings had been circulated concerning me, one to whom I had perhaps done some good composed an admirable pasquinade and song upon the Count _Igel_ von Harburg, and cut him up well.

"On the third of October, _Igel_, with fifteen hundred men, horse and foot, amongst them certain Landsknechte, together with five pieces of heavy artillery, advanced against my cousin Ludwig at Oberringingen, having sent before him certain n.o.bles to demand of him to give up his house. But Ludwig Schartlin had by my commands, two days before, supplied himself with three Landsknechte, certain blunderbusses and hand-guns of my son's at Bissingen, and with powder and shot. So he awaited the storm, as he hoped for a father's reward from me for his knightly truth and faith. He himself went out to these n.o.bles, and answered them with threatening words; if Count _Igel_ would come in a neighbourly and friendly manner, like his brothers, he should partake with him of his sour wine; but coming in such a fashion, he could not open his house; he had a house for himself, and not for the Count of Oettingen, and the Count would find he had to deal with a soldier. Each party withdrew behind his defences, but the Count entrenched himself in the outer court, and by the fire of his artillery destroyed the battlements of the towers, all the windows, roofs, and chimneys, and two persons. On the other hand, Ludwig Schartlin defended himself valiantly, shot the master-gunner of the Count's artillery and another person, and wounded besides many of the soldiers, of whom some afterwards died. Thus they fought from seven o'clock in the morning till six in the evening. In the night Ludwig caused the Count great alarm and disquiet; meanwhile he fortified himself, and again on the morrow defended himself valiantly. But when I, Sebastian Schartlin, Knight, learned these things, I hastily sent on to Bissingen, according to the advice of Count Albrecht of Bavaria, four hundred soldiers, amongst them good marksmen from Augsburg, with powder and shot, iron cramps, and good material of war. Then I sc.r.a.ped together six-and-twenty thousand gulden, and provided helmets, powder and shot, also certain waggons and guns from the city of Memmingen; a great troop of Landsknechte and hors.e.m.e.n all appointed to be at Burtenbach on the fourth, and I myself came there in the evening, after I had put everything in motion. That same night, Count Wolf and Count Lothar came to me at Burtenbach in a friendly way, and complained to me that their brother, Count Ludwig, had also deprived them of their parental inheritance, and they entreated me to unite myself with them. So we made a written and sealed compact, that both the Counts and their brother Friedrich, with his marksmen, and all their power of horse and foot, should unite themselves with us, and I was to provide five thousand va.s.sals, or other hors.e.m.e.n, and bear the expense of the war.

But if I should restore the young Counts to their parental inheritance, they should pay two thirds, and I one, of the war expenses. We hoped Count _Igel_ would tarry before Oberringingen, and in case he conquered it, would proceed to Bissingen to besiege my son. But the Count on the fourth of October raised the siege, and withdrew himself disgracefully, after he had laid waste and plundered my cousin's fore-court and whole village, and carried off all the women and children: yet my cousin was very near getting hold of one of his guns. When Count _Igel_ perceived that we had come to an accommodation with his own brothers--Count Friedrich excepted, who would not act either with or against him--he fled the country, and went first to the Count Palatine, Duke Wolfgang, and afterwards to Duke Christoph von Wurtemberg, to whom he lied, and told many monstrous stories; such as, that I, with the a.s.sistance of His Imperial Majesty, the Kings of Bavaria, and city of Augsburg, and the league of Landsberg, had endeavoured to drive him from his people and country.

"Meanwhile I strengthened myself, and at the end of two days I determined to make an expedition, and cross the Danube with a force of seven thousand men, horse and foot. But as it had been perceived by the two Princes, the Palatine, and Wurtemberg, that the Count would be driven away, and become a guest in their country, they both of them advanced, the Duke of Wurtemberg in person, with his hors.e.m.e.n and some guns, with the intention of not allowing me to cross the Danube, or to give me battle. The Palatine had before urged me extremely not to have recourse to arms, as his Princely Grace could not consent to this expedition of mine. His Imperial Majesty, and the Colonel of the Suabian troops, had also enjoined me to keep the peace, whereto also the Bavarian King and the city of Augsburg had repeatedly admonished me, and had offered to accommodate these affairs by negotiation. So with the loss of four thousand gulden, and in spite of my having been plundered, and my cousin endangered, I consented to sheath my sword and keep the peace, to come to an amicable agreement, and to fix a meeting at Donauworth. Negotiations were carried on there for a fortnight, and brought to a conclusion by the arbitrators of Bavaria and the Palatinate, to the effect that we should on both sides maintain peace, and as there was no other hope of peace between us, and no better way of settling matters, I should sell the property to the Count. This I would not do, as I wished to have no transactions with the Count. Yet at last I gave in so far, to the purport of the settled agreement, that I would submit myself respectfully to both Princes, and give up the supremacy of Hohenburg and Bissingen, on payment of sixty-two thousand gulden; but not withdraw from it till I was paid the last penny in peace and security."

Thus far Schartlin. In spite of his complaints of loss, it may be a.s.sumed that the sale, at least in a pecuniary point of view, was advantageous to him, but certain it is, that it did not put an end to his quarrels with the Count. For years they both continued to make complaints before the Supreme Court of Justice and the Emperor; and to make violent and mutual attacks on each other. At last the adversaries were obliged to shake hands in presence of the Emperor.

Hans Von Schweinichen.

About the end of the sixteenth century the deeds of violence of the n.o.ble landed proprietors were less barefaced and less frequent. Most of them became peaceful Landjunkers, the ablest and poorest sought shelter at the numerous courts. When Gotz was young every Landjunker was a soldier, for he was a knight, and the traditions of knighthood had influence even in great wars. But it was just then that the great change was preparing which made the infantry the nucleus of the new army; from that time an experienced Landsknecht who had influence over his comrades, or a burgher master-gunner, who understood how to direct a carronade, was of more value to a general than a dozen undisciplined Junkers with their retainers. The power of the princes had for the most part, through the new art of war, mastered that of the lower n.o.bility, and had made the descendants of the free knights of the Empire, chamberlains and attendants of the great dynasties. The new roads to fortune were flattery and cringing. The old martial spirit was lost, but the craving for excitement remained. The Germans had always been hard drinkers; now drunkenness became the most prominent vice in those provinces where the vine was not cultivated. Ruined property, prodigious debts, and insupportable lawsuits disturbed the few sober hours of the day. The sons of the country n.o.bility attended Latin schools and the University, but the number of those who pursued a regular course of study was small, for even throughout the whole of the next century the higher offices of the state which required knowledge and skill in business, as well as the most important posts as amba.s.sadors, were generally filled by burghers, and whilst the n.o.bility seemed only capable of holding the higher court appointments, it was generally found necessary to send the son of a shoemaker, or of a village pastor, to a foreign court as the representative of sovereign dignity, and to make the n.o.ble courtier his subordinate travelling chamberlain. Thus the country n.o.bility continued to vegetate--sometimes struggling against the new times, at others serving obsequiously, till, in the Thirty years' war, those of superior character were drawn into the violent struggle, and the weaker sank still lower.