With a deep sigh he resumed: “Ah! what a mournful picture my rule from the first to the last year calls up! Death will soon lay his hand upon my heart, and already my grave opens to receive me. And what do I see all about me? The country wasted by the hand of enemy and friend as no other country in Europe has been! A churchyard of mouldering corpses! Oh, horrible sight! And this is the legacy which I must make to my brave and pious son! My God!” He hid his face.
* * * * * * * *
Shortly after this scene the Elector, whose gentle heart was not made for such times of iron and who surely would have been blest by his people in peaceful times, passed away.
In his twentieth year the Electoral Prince Frederick William took the reins of power. His provinces were partly in the hands of the Swedes, who had changed them into a wilderness, in which villages were traced only by their ashes, and cities by rubbish and ruins. The dukedoms of Cleves had been robbed by Spaniards and Dutch, who levied unheard-of tribute and plundered them while pretending to protect them. Prussia, which had previously been invaded by Gustavus Adolphus, still suffered from the wounds which had been inflicted during this war. In such desperate circumstances—his inheritance invaded by many princes; Ruler, without possession of his own provinces; Elector, without the authority of one; Ally, without friends,—Frederick William began his reign; and in his early youth, at the age when errors are most likely to be made, and when men find it difficult to rule even themselves, he furnished an example of extraordinary wisdom and of all those virtues which fit one to rule mankind.
Footnotes
[1]The wife of Frederick the Fifth was the daughter of King James of England.
[2]Berlin and Cöln, on either side of the River Spree, were subsequently united into one city.
Appendix
The following is a chronological statement of the principal events in Germany and elsewhere during the youth of the Great Elector:
| 1619 | George William becomes Elector of Brandenburg. |
| 1619 | Frederick the Fifth elected Emperor of Bohemia. |
| 1620 | Birth of Frederick William, the Great Elector. |
| 1620 | Frederick the Fifth defeated at White Mountain and deposed. |
| 1622 | Tilly victorious at Wimpfen. |
| 1623 | Maximilian of Bavaria made Elector. |
| 1625 | Christian the Fourth of Denmark becomes Protestant leader. |
| 1626 | Tilly defeats Christian the Fourth at Lutter. |
| 1626 | Wallenstein defeats Count von Mansfeld. |
| 1628 | Siege of Stralsund. |
| 1629 | Frederick issues Restitutions Edict. |
| 1630 | Wallenstein dismissed. |
| 1630 | Gustavus Adolphus becomes Protestant leader. |
| 1631 | Tilly storms Magdeburg. |
| 1631 | Victory of Gustavus Adolphus at Breitenfeld. |
| 1632 | Death of Gustavus Adolphus at Lützen. |
| 1634 | Murder of Wallenstein. |
| 1635 | Treaty between Saxony and Frederick. |
| 1637 | Death of Ferdinand the Second. |
| 1640 | Death of George William and accession of the Great Elector. |