the death of the duke, she lost still more of her ill-gotten wealth, and the court Jew, Süss, her agent, also privately robbed her.

66

Everard Louis expired A. D. 1733, leaving no issue, and was succeeded by his Catholic cousin, Charles Alexander, who, although a distinguished officer, was totally inept for government. He intrusted the helm of state to his court Jew, Süss Oppenheimer, who shamelessly robbed the country. He established a "gratification court," where all the offices of state were sold to the highest bidder; a court of exchequer," where justice was put up to auction. To those who were unable to pay he lent money at the rate of a gros per florin (the Jews' groschen). He also kept a large shop, from which he furnished the court wardrobes, and established a lottery for his private gain. He, moreover, extended the system of monopoly to leather, groceries, coffee-houses, even to the cleaning of chimneys, as well as the right of pre-emption, as, for instance, in regard to wood; and, lastly, burthened the country, even foreigners during their residence in it, with a heavy protection, income, and family tax, A. D. 1736. He also gave way to the most unbridled licence, and either by fraud or by violence disturbed the peace of families.- -The patient endurance of the people and the example of the Pfalz inspired the Jesuits with the hope of recatholicizing Würtemberg by means of her Catholic duke. The first step was to place the Catholics on an equal footing with the Protestants, and a conspiracy, in which Süss took part, was entered into for that purpose. Troops were expected from the bishop of Würzburg. Orders were prepared for the Würtemberg household troops. The people were to be disarmed under pretext of putting a stop to poaching. The duke, who, it was probably feared, might, if present, oppose severe measures, was to be temporarily removed. The ancient constitution was to be done away with; "The hydra head of the people shall be crushed," wrote General Remchingen, one of the chief conspirators, to Fichtel, the duke's privy-counsellor. But, during the night of the 13th of March, 1737, the duke suddenly expired, a few hours before the time fixed for his departure. He was long supposed to have been assassinated, but, most probably, died of apoplexy. His cousin, Charles Rudolph, undertook the government during the minority of his son, Charles Eugene, who was then in his ninth year. The Ca

tholic conspiracy fell to the ground; Remchingen fled; the Jew, Süss, was exposed on the gallows* in an iron cage.

The first elector of Hanover, Ernest Augustus, who suddenly restored the power of the divided and immoral Guelphic house, was not free from the faults of the age. Although the champion of the honour of Germany, he was a slave to French fashions, unprincipled and licentious, faithless and ungrateful to his noble consort, Sophia, in whose right his son mounted the throne of Great Britain, and built Montbrilland for his mistress, Madame von Kielmansegge, and the Fantaisie for the other, the Countess Platen. His Italian chapel-director, Stephani, controlled the government. His neglected consort, Sophia, a woman of high intelligence, consoled herself by her friendship for Leibnitz, the greatest genius of the day. George, his son and successor, married a near relation, Sophia Dorothea, the daughter of the last duke of Celle, who, becoming enamoured of a Count Konigsmark, attempted to fly with him in the design of turning Catholic. Her plan was discovered and frustrated; the count was beheaded and she was detained a prisoner for life, A. D. 1691. The elector, notwithstanding the severity with which he visited adultery in his wife, was not free from a similar imputation. He kept numerous mistresses, among others, Irmengarde Melusina von Schulenburg, who gained such undisputed sway over him, that he took her to England on his accession to the throne, created her duchess of Kendal, and induced Charles VI. to bestow upon her the title of Eberstein as princess of the empire. He mounted the British throne, A. D. 1714, and, in order to confirm his seat, completely devoted himself to the interests of Great Britain. Hanover was utterly neglected and converted into an English province, a stepping-stone for England into the German empire. The fact that the absence of the prince afforded no alleviation of the popular burthens is characteristic of the times. The electoral household, notwithstanding the unvarying absence of the elector, remained on its former footing for

* These gallows were made of the iron which Honauer had attempted to turn into gold. Honauer first adorned them in 1597, then the Jew Süss, three alchymists, Montani, Muscheler, and Von Mühlenfels, a Stuttgard incendiary, and, lastly, a thief, who had attempted to steal the iron from the same gallows. They were very high and weighed thirtysix hundred weight and twelve pounds.

the purpose of imposing upon the multitude and of assuring lucrative appointments to the nobility. The palace bore no appearance of being deserted; except the elector himself, not a courtier, not a single gold-laced lacquey, was wanting to complete the court; the horses stamped in the stalls, nay, the fiction of the royal presence was carried to such a degree that the Hanoverians were cited for their devotion to royalty and for their rage for titles. The courtiers, resident in Hanover, assembled every Sunday in the electoral palace. In the hall of assembly stood an arm-chair, upon which the monarch's portrait was placed. Each courtier on entering bowed low to this portrait, and the whole assembly, as if awestruck by the presence of Majesty, conversed in low tones for about an hour, when the banquet, a splendid repast prepared at the elector's expense, was announced. The clemency, whereby the fate of the subjects of other states is sometimes alleviated, had, however, disappeared with the monarch, and to this may be attributed the rude arrogance of the nobility and the cruelty of legislature, which, even up to the present time, retained the use of torture. The example offered by the people and parliament of England might have been followed, but the Hanoverian diet had slumbered since 1657 and merely vegetated in the form of an aristocratic committee. The minister, von Münchhausen, was the first who governed, as far as the spirit and circumstances of the times allowed, in a patriotic sense. He gained great distinction by founding the university of Gottingen, which he richly endowed, A. D. 1737. Royal Hanover no longer condescended to send her subjects to the little university of Helmstædt in Wolfenbüttel.

In Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, the aged duke, Antony Ulric, who gave way to unbridled licence in his palace of Salzdahlum, but who promoted science by the extension of the celebrated Wolfenbüttel library,* turned Catholic when nearly eighty, in order to testify his delight at the marriage of his granddaughter with the emperor, Charles VI. His son, Augustus William, imitated his luxury, and, guided by a certain von Dehn, gave himself up to all the fashionable vices of the day and persecuted Münchhausen. He was succeeded by his brother, Louis Rudolph, [A. D. 1731,] by whom order was restored. * Better than by his wearisome romances and his expensive Italian opera.

He left no issue, and was succeeded [A. D. 1735] by Ferdinand Albert von Bevern, (a younger branch, founded by a brother of Antony Ulric,) a learned collector of scientific objects, who was shortly afterwards succeeded by his son, Charles.

In Mecklenburg, the scandalous government of Charles Leopold was succeeded by the milder one of his brother, Christian Louis, A. D. 1719.

Emden

In East Frizeland, George Albert, the son of Christian Everard, continued the contest with the Estates and the city of Emden, and created, in opposition to the ancient Estates or malcontents, fresh and obedient ones. Right was in this instance again unprotected by the emperor and the empire, by whom the ancient Estates were denounced as rebels. resisted, several bloody battles took place, but at length the Danes came to the count's assistance, the ancient Estates were suppressed, and the property of the malcontents was confiscated. Charles Edzard, the count's son, married [A. D. 1727] a princess of Bayreuth, and entered into an agreement by which, on his dying without issue, in 1744, East Frizeland was annexed to Prussia.

In Denmark, Frederick IV. married Anna Sophia, the beautiful daughter of his chancellor, Reventlow. Extravagant devotion was brought into vogue during the reign of his son, Christian VI., by his consort, Sophia Magdalena, a princess of Bayreuth, and by her court chaplain, Blume, A. D. 1746. The celebrated minister, Bernstorf, commenced a beneficial reform in the administration under his son, Frederick V.

Holstein had severely suffered during the war and under the licentious government of Count Görtz, after whose execution the affairs of state were conducted almost equally ill by the family of Bassewitz in the name of the youthful duke. The nobility were extremely cruel and intractable. In 1721, a Ranzau caused his elder brothers to be assassinated ; another, in 1722, starved several of his serfs to death in prison. Both were merely punished by a short imprisonment. A third member of this family had, however, as early as 1688, offered a very contrary example, by being the first to liberate the serfs on his estates. A controversy among the priesthood caused the citizens of Kiel [A. D. 1708] to rise in open insur

rection. The Ditmarsch peasantry revolted [A. D. 1740] on account of the abuses to which the levy of recruits gave rise. Leopold von Dessau was the only one among the fallen princes of the house of Anhalt who earned distinction. He reformed the Prussian army, introduced the use of metal ramrods and a rapid movement of closed columns, and prepared Prussia for the great part she was henceforward to perform on the theatre of war in Europe.* He was extremely rough in his manners, was subject to ungovernable fits of fury, was, moreover, a drunkard, and tyrannized over the people of Dessau. He, nevertheless, lived in great harmony with the beautiful daughter of an apothecary,† who was recognised by the emperor.

A collateral branch of the house of Hohenzollern-Brandenburg, the reigning one of Prussia, continued to reign in the Margraviates of Bayreuth and Ansbach. Christian Ernest of Bayreuth [A. D. 1712] created the alchymist, Krohnemann, prime minister, but sent him, nevertheless, to the gallows for his ill-success in discovering the secret of making gold. His son, George William, founded the far-famed Hermitage, where the hermit passed his days in wanton luxury. His son, Frederick, married the celebrated princess, Frederica Sophia Wilhelmina of Prussia, sister to Frederick the Great, whose Memoirs so graphically depicture the times. She has unhesitatingly and unsparingly described both her father's and husband's court and related all the events of that period: the fact that a princess could thus speak of her own relations is a strong proof, were any wanting, of the prevalence of French frivolity. Her husband had [A. D. 1743] founded the university of Erlangen, but was, notwithstanding, a mere lover of the chace, and was first misled by her to spend sums in the erection of palaces, theatres, etc., ill-suited to the revenue of his petty territory.

Charles William Frederick von Ansbach, who succeeded to the government in 1729, was feared as a madman and a tyrant. He intrusted the administration to the nobility, more par

He was the darling of the soldiery, and the Dessau march, long after his time, led the Prussians to victory.

† Anna Louisa Föhse, the apothecary's daughter, had steadily refused to become his mistress. He remained, on his side, faithful to her during his campaigns and married her on succeeding to the government. She bore him ten children, five of whom were sons. Three fell and the other two were severely wounded during the seven years' war.