Pictures of German Life in the XVth XVIth and XVIIth Centuries Volume Ii Part 10

"Now when these three months are over, the betrothal is celebrated, and the marriage invitations are written. Then the bridegroom makes three presents. First a silver casket, wherein are some pairs of silk stockings, some pieces of silk stuffs, some pairs of gloves, handkerchiefs, twelve fans, ribands, and laces. The second present consists of silver ornaments; the third of jewels, bracelets, earrings, and pendants of precious stones, or pearls for the neck. He also presents a dress to his mistress's maid. Some send every day a new present. Then he gives his servant again a new livery, engages more servants for himself, and at least one page and two lackeys for his future wife. Court ladies of high distinction, who drive with six horses, do not bestow presents on their bridegroom, unless it be from overflowing liberality; but others present a night-dress to their beloved, their portrait in a small casket, and on the marriage day linen; six shirts, six collars, six pocket handkerchiefs, six pairs of ruffles, and to every servant a shirt. The bride pays the expenses of the eating and drinking at the marriage, and the bridegroom the cost of the music.

"On the wedding-day the bridegroom drives, towards evening, in his own carriage, or that of an intimate friend, dressed entirely in silver brocade, just as the bride is dressed; he wears a wreath of diamonds which are put together from the jewels of friends, and afterwards returned. Behind him drive all the male wedding guests. He waits in the church till the bride comes. Her bridal train is three ells long, borne either by a boy of n.o.ble birth, or a young lady. The bridegroom goes to meet her, helps her out of the carriage and leads her in, and thus they are united together in matrimony. The wedding ring is generally of gold and silver mixed, and plaited in the form of a laurel wreath; it has a precious stone in it, in order to signify that their truth and love shall be endless. Then they betake themselves to the marriage house, where the feast is to be celebrated. After the meal the men take forthwith their swords and mantles, and room is made for the dance, and then come the two bridesmen. Each has a burning torch in his hand; they make a bow to the bridegroom and the bride, and ask them to dance. Then they both dance alone. The nearest relations are next asked, and so on all the rest in succession. These dances of honour are performed to the sound of trumpets and kettledrums. The cavaliers then lay aside their swords and mantles, and all dance together. After the dance the relations accompany the bride and bridegroom to their bedroom, there the mother commends the bride to her husband with impressive words.

Then all go out."

Thus did the wealthy n.o.ble woo and wed at Vienna, which after the war rapidly filled with landed proprietors who thoroughly enjoyed life. New families were in possession of the confiscated properties, the Imperial generals and faithful councillors had abundantly taken care of themselves. A residence in the desolated country was wearisome, and many great proprietors had no old family interest in their property.

Besides the Imperial n.o.bles, sons of German princes and many of the old n.o.bility of the Empire thronged to the Imperial city, to seek diversion, acquaintances, and fortune at court or in the army.

But in proportion as the devotion of the n.o.ble servant to his mistress was great, the hope of a happy conjugal union was insecure. And the prospect was not more favourable in the families of the great princes of the Empire.

The rulers of Germany attained to a comfortable condition, after the peace, sooner than others. Whatever could be done by the people, seemed to be for their advantage. To the old taste for drinking, hunting, and not always very seemly intercourse with women, was now added the pleasure of having a body guard who were drawn up in uniform before their castles, and rode by their carriages along the roads. After the war every great prince maintained a standing army; the old feudal lords of the country had become Generals. It was in this century that the great princely families of Germany, the Wettiners, the Hohenzollerns, the Brunswickers, and the Wittelsbachers, gained their influential position in European politics. Three of them obtained royal thrones, those of Poland, Prussia, and England, and the head of the Wittelsbachers for many years wore the diadem of the Roman Empire. Each of these houses represents a great European dynasty. But however different their fortunes may have been, they have also met with a retributive fate. At the time of the Reformation, the Imperial throne with supreme dominion over Germany was offered to the house of Wettiner; the family, divided into two lines, did not listen to the high call. At the battle of Linien, in 1547, it lost the leadership. A hundred years later, the possibility of founding a powerful house was offered to the Wittelsbacher, by the union of the Palatinate with the old Bavarian province and Bohemia, which even the Hapsburgers have never attained to. But one son of the house killed the other at the Weissen Berge. Only the Hapsburgers and the Hohenzollerns have understood how to keep together.

The general misfortune of the German Princes was, that they found little in their oppressed subjects to excite awe or regard. For the soul of man is most easily fortified against encroaching pa.s.sions when his worldly position makes a strong resistance possible for those who surround him. A firm feeling of duty is only formed under the pressure of strong law. Whoever overrides it will find it easier to do great things, but incomparably more difficult to do permanently what is right.

At an earlier period the life at courts was rough, often wild, now it had become frivolous and dissolute. The combination of refined luxury with coa.r.s.e manners, and of strict etiquette with arbitrary will, makes many of the characters of that time especially hateful.

The sons of Princes were now better educated. Latin was still the language of diplomacy, to that was added Italian and French; and besides all knightly arts--in so far as they still existed--military drills, and above all, _politesse_, the new art which rendered men and women more agreeable and obliging in society. Some knowledge of state affairs was not rare, for there were still quarrels with neighbours to be brought before the supreme court of judicature and the Imperial Aulic Council, and solicitations to his Imperial Majesty, and complaints to the Diet, without end or measure. But the person who exercised most quiet power in the country was the lawyer, who was generally at the head of the administration; and occasionally a power-loving court preacher.

The ladies also of the princely houses had the advantage of some degree of instruction; many of them understood Latin, or at least were acquainted with Virgil (from a bad translation into German Alexandrines), and Boccaccio in the original. Quarrels about rank, ceremonials, dress, the love affairs of their husbands, and perhaps their own, formed the daily interest of their lives, together with trivial intrigues and gossiping: the stronger minded conversed with the clergy on cases of conscience, and sought for consolation in their hymn book, and occasionally also in their cookery book. But German literature was little adapted to enn.o.ble the feelings of women, and such as those times did produce, seldom reached them in their elevated position; a tasteless court poem, an Italian strophe, and sometimes a thick historical or theological quarto sent by a submissive author in hopes of receiving a present of money. The marriage of a princess was concluded upon reasons of state, and it frequently happened that she was burdened from the very first day with a dissolute husband.

Undoubtedly not a few of them were consigned to their royal vaults with most choice and solemn pomp, on whom the sunshine of a deep heartfelt affection had never shone during life: the care of their own household, and even that sweetest of all cares, the education of their children, was taken from them by the new court arrangements. Undoubtedly in many marriages, a good heart made up for the deficiency of the education of that time; but scandalous occurrences were frequent in the highest families at that period.

The domestic relations of these distinguished families belong also to history, and much is very generally known of them. A picture of one of these will here be made use of, in order to show that our generation have no occasion to lose heart in contemplating it.

When the Imperial party, after the year 1620, persecuted the daughter of the King of England, Elizabeth, wife of the Palatine, with satirical pictures, they painted the proud princess, as going along the high road with three children hanging on by her ap.r.o.n, or, as on the bare ground eating pap from an earthenware platter. The second of these children obtained, through the Westphalian peace, the eighth Electorate of the German Empire. After many vicissitudes of fortune, after drinking the bitter cup of banishment, and seeking in vain to recover his territory, the new Elector, Karl Ludwig, looked down from the royal castle at Heidelberg on the beautiful country, of which only a portion returned into the possession of his line. His was not a nature which bore in itself the guarantee of peace and happiness: it is true that in his family he was considered jovial and good-humoured, but he was also irritable, hasty, and pa.s.sionate, covetous and full of pretension, easily influenced, and without energy, inclined to venture rashly on deeds of violence, and yet not firm enough to effect anything great. It appears that he had derived from the blood of the Stuarts, besides a high feeling of his own rank, much of the obstinacy of his ill-fated uncle Charles. In the year 1650, he had married Charlotte, Princess of Hesse, the daughter of that strong-minded woman, who, as Regent of her country, had shown more energy than most men, and whose powerful matronly countenance we still contemplate with pleasure, in the portrait by Engelhard Schaffler. The mother described her own daughter to the Elector as difficult to rule; the Electress was indeed pa.s.sionate and without moderation, and must often have disturbed domestic peace by her frowardness and jealousy. A young lady of her court, Marie Susanne Loysa von Degenfeld, daughter of one of the partisans of the Thirty years' war, a person according to all accounts of great loveliness and much gentleness, mixed with firmness, excited a pa.s.sion in the Elector which made him regardless of all considerations.

After many angry quarrels he divorced his wife and at once married his love, on whom the t.i.tle of "Raugrafin" was bestowed by the Imperial Court. The castoff Electress turned in vain to the Emperor Leopold, to effect a reconciliation with her husband. This pet.i.tion is here given according to Lunig, from the rolls of the German Empire, 1714.[43]

"We, by the grace of G.o.d, Charlotte, Electress, Countess Palatine of the Rhine, born Landgravine of Hesse, offer to the most august Prince and Sovereign of Sovereigns, Leopold, by the grace of G.o.d, father of the fatherland, our most dutiful, obedient, and submissive greeting and service.

"Although the manifold and weighty business of the Empire with which your Imperial Majesty is troubled at this time, might well frighten us from disquieting you with our private affairs, yet we presume with profound humility to set before your Imperial Majesty our most pressing distress, and the mighty injuries inflicted upon us at this time without any fault on our part, because it is well known to us that your Imperial Majesty is at all times a.s.siduous in helping most graciously the injured to their rights.

"It is not, I hope, unknown to your Imperial Majesty that we have, for nearly eleven years, been united in matrimony with his Most Serene Highness Prince Karl Ludwig, Count Palatine of the Rhine, Elector of the Holy Empire. At that time his Princely Highness, in frequent discourse, both before and after marriage, promised us by the highest oaths, an ever-enduring faith and conjugal love; and we on our part did the like. Being then animated by such reciprocal love, we have served his Highness in all conjugal obedience to the best of our power, so far as our womanly weakness permitted. We have also, by the grace of G.o.d, reared two young princes and a daughter in all love, so that his Princely Highness ought in justice to have abstained from divorcing himself from us.

"We submissively beg your Imperial Majesty to understand that, after three very severe confinements, we clearly traced by many tokens, no slight alienation in the feelings of our lord and husband, which would justly have given rise to suspicion in our minds, if our confiding spirit had not attributed what was good and laudable to his Princely Highness. For when we once, according to princely custom, presented his Princely Highness with a beautiful Neapolitan dapple-gray colt with all its appurtenances, he said to us: 'My treasure, we henceforth desire no such presents, which diminish our treasury;' and the very same day he presented the horse to one of the lowest of his n.o.bles. This insult did so grieve us that, with weeping eyes, we lamented it to our gentlewoman, Maria Susanna von Degenfeld, of whose secret doings we had not at that time the slightest idea. She thereupon made answer, 'That if at any time she should meet with the like behaviour from her future consort, she would refuse all cohabitation with him.' By these words she intended nothing else than to incense us against our lord and master. Not long after, a ring was purloined from us by the said von Degenfeld out of our drawers. This must without doubt have been a concerted plan, for our lord and husband had required this ring of us, and when we could not find it, his Princely Highness was greatly irritated against us, and thus broke out: 'You make me think strange things of you as concerns this ring; I had thought you would have taken better care of it.' Whereupon we answered, 'Ah! my treasure, foster no evil suspicions against me; it has been purloined by some faithless person.' But his Princely Highness continued: 'Who may this faithless person be? Perhaps some young cavalier, on whose finger you may yourself have placed it.' This caused us so much pain, that we were led to speak somewhat severely to his Princely Highness, and said, 'No honest Prince would thus calumniate me.' Whereupon he replied, 'Who gave you the right to upbraid me as a dishonest Prince? If I hear aught further of this kind from you, you shall be rewarded with a box on the ear!' Thereupon we did not answer a word, but wept bitterly. But this von Degenfeld comforted us deceitfully, and spoke thus: 'Make yourself happy, Electoral Highness, and be not so much afflicted, it will soon be found again.' By these words she then tranquillized us. But not long afterwards a very noteworthy Latin epistle was put into our hand by a trusty servant, which he had found accidentally in the chamber of our lord and husband, the contents of which I cannot forbear enclosing. It is to this effect--

"'To the Most Serene Highness the Elector Palatine Karl Ludwig, Duke of Bavaria, _dilecto meo_.

"'I can no longer oppose your Electoral Highness, nor any longer deceive you as to my inclinations. _Vicisti jamque tua sum_, I unhappy one,

"'Maria Susanna, Baronissa a Degenfeld.'

"When, by G.o.d's Providence, we got this letter, we forthwith perused the same with great consternation; but as we are not much versed in the Latin tongue, we despatched the aforesaid trusty servant to the Most n.o.ble Lord, Johann Jacob Graf von Eberstein, our dear lord and cousin, who was accidentally stopping at Heidelberg, bidding him come to us, and beseeching him as a friend and cousin to lend us his aid in the interpretation of the said note. This he honestly rendered us. It cannot be told what great sorrow took possession of our hearts, when it became evident in how unjustifiable and unprincely a way we had been dealt with. So distracted, therefore, were we in mind, that we ventured so far as to break open the coffer of the afore-mentioned Degenfeld, who was not then present, and after earnest search found three abominable letters of his Electoral Highness, likewise written in Latin, in which he equally a.s.sures the Degenfeld of his love.

"Then we could sufficiently see that our lord and husband was minded to renounce all truth and love towards us. This we wished at a fitting opportunity to forestal, and give his Princely Highness to understand it in a covert way.

"It then came to pa.s.s accidentally, that a week after, his Serene Highness Friedrich, Lord Margrave of Baden, our dearly loved brother-in-law and brother, together with his loving lady and wife, our especially beloved cousin and sister, came from Durlach to Heidelberg to visit us. Now once when we were sitting at table, his Princely Highness the Lord Margrave, thus spoke to us: 'Wherefore, my lady sister, wherefore so sorrowful?' To which we answered thus: 'My dear lord and brother, perhaps there is truly reason for our sorrow.'

Whereupon our lord and husband turning quite red said, 'There is nothing new in my lady and wife being angry without any cause.' We could not then, for our honour's sake, leave such a speech unanswered, but replied, 'It is those that prefer waiting women to wives who make me angry,' &c. Thereupon our lord and husband was quite taken aback, turned pale with anger, and gave us, in the presence of the said princely personages, such a severe box on the ear, that on account of the vexatious nose-bleeding, brought on by this, we were obliged to leave the table. But his Princely Highness the Lord Margrave was mightily indignant thereat, and said to our lord and master: '_Signore Electore, troppo e questo!_' Whereto our lord and husband answered: '_Mio fratello, Signore Marchese, ma cosi ha voluto._' But his Princely Highness the Lord Margrave spoke strongly to our lord and husband, and said that if he could have supposed his inconsiderate speech would have occasioned such discord, he would a thousand times rather have been silent; and if our lord and husband did not become reconciled to us before sunset, his Princely Highness was firmly determined to leave Heidelberg at an early hour on the morrow, without bidding him farewell. This worked so with my lord and husband that he promised his Princely Highness to pay us a visit, in company with him and his wife.

This took place after the lapse of two hours, when our husband thus addressed us in our chamber: 'Is my treasure still angry with me?' We answered: 'I a.s.sure you, my treasure, that what happened at table gave me sufficient reason to be angry; but on account of the presence of my beloved lord and brother, and my lady and sister, to whom our discord is displeasing, I will forgive it with all my heart.' Thereupon our lord and master gave us his hand, and said, with a loving kiss, 'This shall wipe out my past delinquency,' after which they departed from our chamber. That night, however, we did not appear at supper, but sent our bedchamber woman and lord steward to make our excuses, as by reason of the necessary preparation of certain writings we could not appear. But as our husband feared we might disclose to our lord and brother what had before pa.s.sed betwixt us, he came at ten o'clock in the evening, accompanied by two pages, to my chamber, and did there knock at the door. Now when we came to the door and found his Princely Highness, we were not a little amazed at this unhoped-for visit, and said: 'Why does my treasure visit us so late?' Thereupon his Princely Highness answered kindly, and sent back both the pages. But as at that moment those unseemly letters recurred to our memory, and as the consideration that we were of such high princely parentage, made it impossible to bear silently with such impropriety, we said: 'My lord and husband, I am quite resolved to abide alone till your Princely Highness resolves to deliver up a certain person into my hands, with full powers to punish the same for her past wickedness.' Our lord and husband answered: 'I should be glad at last to know who this person is; but I imagine the offence is not so great as your Princely Highness interprets it.' But we answered further: 'The offence is so great that the person can only atone for it with their blood.' 'Nay, my treasure,' said our husband, 'that verdict is too severe.' But we were minded to reveal fully to his Princely Highness the cause of our long affliction; we therefore took out of our pocket the letter which our servant had brought, and began to read it in an audible voice. Hereupon our lord and husband laughed and said: 'All a mere jest; my treasure knows right well that the Fraulein von Degenfeld has from her youth been a.s.siduous in studying the Latin tongue, therefore I wished to try whether she was sufficiently versed in it, to answer in the aforesaid language a note prepared by me for the purpose. This she executed in the like jesting way; and we are determined to support her on account of her innocence.'

We did not choose to wrangle with his Princely Highness, but said: 'We have long known how to distinguish between jest and earnest. If it please my treasure to furnish me with full proof that it was a jest I will gladly be content.' Hereupon our lord and husband answered: 'Why is so much proof required? Your Princely Highness is a woman, and has better means of examining the innocence of Degenfeld than I, in whom it would not be quite seemly. But I see well that innocent lady has lost all grace and favour with you. As, however, it is already very late, I wish my treasure to inform me whether it please her to be reconciled with me here?' We answered to this: 'I feel myself bound by virtue of my once given troth not to gainsay you in this.' But our lord and husband, with a hearty embrace, protested by all that was n.o.ble and holy, that, with the exception of this note, he had not trespa.s.sed against us, and promised yet once more, never henceforth to misbehave towards us, if we, on the other hand, would again render due obedience to his Princely Highness. All this we promised, hoping henceforth to live in peaceful wedlock, which perhaps might have come to pa.s.s if the devil had not sown his tares.

"For, three days after, when his Serene Highness the Lord Margrave of Baden had departed, a patent came to Heidelberg from your Imperial Majesty's ill.u.s.trious Lord Father, Ferdinand of ever-blessed memory, whereby our lord and husband was summoned to the Imperial Diet at Ratisbon, whereto we with our lord and husband betook ourselves at the appointed time.

"We deem it unnecessary to relate what great contumely we there suffered from our lord and husband, as your Imperial Majesty beheld it for the most part with your own eyes. This caused us to tarry yet a long time at Ratisbon after the departure of his Princely Highness. But when, after the lapse of a few weeks, we returned again to Heidelberg, we signified in a friendly way through one of the n.o.bles to our lord and husband, that we were minded to greet his Princely Highness. But our lord and husband said with great displeasure to the said n.o.bleman: 'Tell the bold Landgravine,' thus it pleased his Princely Highness to call us, 'I will have nothing to do with any one so pernicious to the country.'

"Now when this was notified to us we did not venture to accost his Princely Highness, but straightway went through the adjoining saloon to our chamber. But scarcely had we entered therein, when forty of the Swiss guard had already established themselves in our antechamber, who were commanded to keep guard over us, and not let us go out till they received farther orders from his Princely Highness.

"Then did we learn with great anguish of heart that we, a freeborn princess, had been made a prisoner. We knew not what to do, for we could not write to our lord brother the Landgrave of Hesse Ca.s.sel, because we had no confidential person left to us whom we could despatch. We had thus no opportunity of effecting anything, for whenever our servants came to or went from us, they were always searched by the guard. On this account we resolved to write ourselves to our lord and husband, and to entreat his Princely Highness to release us from this most intolerable durance. We drew up therefore the following pet.i.tion to his Princely Highness, and sent the same by a n.o.ble youth to his Princely Highness while at table.

"'Most Serene Highness, and dear Lord.

"'How great annoyance I have suffered during the time which it has pleased your Princely Highness to place a prodigious garrison before my chamber, is not to be described. It moves me to remind your Princely Highness, that if you so behave to me, a poor princess, you will have to answer for it before G.o.d and the whole world. It would be well moreover to bethink you, whether it is praiseworthy to keep guard over one single weak woman, with forty well-armed halberdiers, which might be sufficiently accomplished by two or three. I cannot imagine what offence I have committed to deserve such harsh procedure. I therefore entreat your Princely Highness, for G.o.d's sake to set me at liberty.

For during this time I have not been able to sleep three hours by reason of the noisy bl.u.s.tering and clatter of these indiscreet Swiss.

"'Your Princely Highness's faithful unto death,

"'Charlotta Palatine of the Rhine.'

"After our husband had read this writing, he commanded that all the Swiss saving four should be withdrawn, which was done forthwith, to our great content. But his Princely Highness sent us a letter, to the following tenour.

"'To Charlotta, born Landgravine of Hesse.

"'It surprises me much that you should venture to ask why I have put you under surveillance. You cannot deny that on my return from Ratisbon to Heidelberg, I urgently commanded you to follow me without fail the next day. But you did not do so till some weeks later, and during this period you spent so much money, that our subjects, who were sufficiently ruined without this, will for a long time have much, to endure. You also know well how you disgraced me at Ratisbon by your hunting parties, and how--because I in my just indignation, on account of your past frivolity of conduct and wanton indecorum of dress in the presence of the a.s.sembled Diet, have put you only under slight restraint--you have for the past half-year refused to live with me as a wife. This culpable conduct has entirely released me from all bonds of wedlock; and I am fully resolved to separate myself completely from you by a public act. This, my purpose, has moved me to a.s.sure myself of your person, that you may not as a fugitive, by exasperating your brother and other friends, bring evil on my country. Finally, if you will keep quiet and retired, and will consent to the divorce, I promise you on my Electoral faith, that I will not only entirely free you from restraint, but will a.s.sign you an income which will enable you to maintain yourself right royally. Thus saying, and expecting a decisive declaration from you,

"'I remain your loving cousin,

"'The Elector.'

"When this writing was put into our hands, we were in such great affliction we did not know how to decide. At last we sent a n.o.ble bedchamber woman to our lord and husband, commanding her to signify to his Princely Highness that we were disposed to consent willingly to all his desires, except as concerning the divorce. For this, being an affair of conscience, must be well considered. I begged him therefore for a little time for deliberation. Undoubtedly if his Princely Highness should please to accomplish a divorce by his own power, we were much too weak to hinder him. But we thought we had never given his Princely Highness any sufficient reason for repudiating us.

"The bedchamber woman delivered this in the best way she could. But our lord and husband thus answered: 'Fair lady, tell your mistress we are now minded to give her henceforth more freedom, and to withdraw the four Swiss entirely from her apartment. It shall also be permitted to her to walk below in the garden if agreeable to her; and she may rest a.s.sured that I will find means to content her, but she must not think of writing to her lord brother concerning our purposes. She must also agree to the divorce, for I am minded to marry another.'

"The n.o.ble maiden had scarcely given us this answer, when the four Swiss were with all speed withdrawn from our apartment, and we went the same evening to breathe the fresh air in the garden. The day following our lord and husband journeyed to the castle at Ladenburg. In the evening, about five o'clock, the n.o.ble Count von Eberstein, our loving lord and cousin, came to us. He told us that the von Degenfeld had been sojourning already three months at the Castle of Ladenburg, and that our lord and husband had betaken himself thither every week during our absence; nay he had caused a special road to be made that he might the sooner reach it. Then we first discovered what had been the aim of our lord and husband, and we lamented our misfortune with many tears.

"A week after, our lord and husband sent us a note, the contents of which ran literally thus:--

"'Most Serene Highness,

"'I wish to inform your Highness in a few words, that in consequence of our afore-mentioned divorce, I have again engaged myself in marriage with the n.o.ble Lady, Marie Susanna von Degenfeld. I therefore hope that your Highness will be therewith content, as it cannot now be altered.

For I have already sent for our dear and trusty Samuel Heyland, preacher of the Lutheran community of our city of Heidelberg, to unite us in Christian wedlock. But as I know well that your Highness has begotten me three royal children, it becomes me to furnish your Highness with a princely allowance for the rest of your life. Therefore we grant unto your Highness the power to make use at your good pleasure of the half of the castle of Heidelberg, and you may receive from our lord treasurer sufficient money for your maintenance; only you must reconcile yourself to my present wife, and inflict no injury upon her, that I may not have occasion to withdraw my favour from your Highness.

"'I remain your Highness's graciously until death,

"'Your Highness's Elector.

"'Ladenburg, April 15, 1652.'