If this blazon be correct, the shield no longer displays the ancient device of the Bismarcks—the double trefoil. Either there has been some error in the raising of the armorial bearings, or the original symbol has been advisedly adopted.
The arms of the Prussian Counts von Bismarck-Schönhausen (the Minister-President and his heirs) are thus blazoned:—The shield, bordered or, displays on a field azure a trefoil or, surrounded with oak leaves argent; on the coronetted helm two buffalo horns of azure and argent crosswise, with a coronet argent between them. The simple family arms of the Bismarcks have thus been retained on his elevation to the rank of Count, the shield under the crest having been surmounted by the Count’s coronet. The arms are improved by two eagles as supporters, the one sable and crowned being the Prussian royal eagle, the left gules, with the electoral cap, the eagle of Brandenburg.
Another addition is that of the motto, “In Trinitate Robur”—“My strength in the Trinity.” This is a motto devised upon correct rules, as it should always bear a double meaning—one referring to the double trinity of the trefoils, the other allied to the higher signification of the Trinity of God.
CHAPTER VI.
THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF BISMARCK’S BIRTHPLACE.
Genthin.—The Plotho Family.—Jerichow.—Fischbeck.—The Kaiserburg.—The Emperor Charles IV.—The Elector Joachim Nestor.—Frederick I.—General Fransecky “to the Front.”—Tangermünde.—Town-hall.—Count Bismarck.—His Uniform, and the South German Deputy.—Departure for Schönhausen.
[The translator has abridged the following chapters and transferred them to a place apparently better fitted for them than that they occupy in the German edition, but nothing of importance is omitted.]
Genthin is an ancient place, owing its foundation during the twelfth century to the noble Lords of Plotho, whose ancestral mansion, Alten-Plotho, lies close to the town. At the present time the head of this family, who is invested with the dignity of Hereditary Chamberlain of the Duchy of Magdeburg, resides at the Castle of Parey, on the Elbe. The noble family of Plotho shares with that of the Gänse of Putlitz the distinction of being the only race still flourishing, the origin of which can be traced to the Wendic princes and family chieftains. It is probable that they were early converted to Christianity, and thence were enabled to retain some attributes of their Wendic nobility, and assert some few privileges in the presence of the Teutonic knightly aristocracy, gradually thronging forward into the Marks with their feudal retainers. The Plothos and the Putlitzs hence are called noblemen (Edle Herrn, nobiles viri), at a time when the designation was usually only applied to dynasties. In early records they are always named in precedence of the members of the ancient chivalric races. They had vassals of noble blood, and, up to the most recent period, held their own court at the Manor of Parey. The features of that Freiherr von Plotho who so energetically repelled the Imperial Ban, in his capacity as Electoral Brandenburg Ambassador, at the Imperial Diet in Ratisbon, which the Imperial notary, Doctor April, endeavored to force upon him against Frederick the Great, are well known and popular. The best portrait of this remarkable personage has been drawn by Goethe, in his “Fiction and Truth.”[21] It is not so generally known that a branch of this Wendic family has also established itself in Belgium. The enormous possessions of the Barony of Engelsmünster, in Flanders, were first alienated from that family amidst the storms of the French Revolution.