History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 12

T >> Thomas Carlyle >> History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 12

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Prepared by D.R. Thompson

Carlyle's "History of Friedrich II of Prussia"
Book XII
Processed by D.R. Thompson
drthom@ihug.co.nz

BOOK XII.

FIRST SILESIAN WAR, AWAKENING A GENERAL
EUROPEAN ONE, BEGINS.

December, 1740-May, 1741.

Chapter I.

OF SCHLESIEN, OR SILESIA.

Schlesien, what we call Silesia, lies in elliptic shape, spread on
the top of Europe, partly girt with mountains, like the crown or
crest to that part of the Earth;--highest table-land of Germany or
of the Cisalpine Countries; and sending rivers into all the seas.
The summit or highest level of it is in the southwest; longest
diameter is from northwest to southeast. From Crossen, whither
Friedrich is now driving, to the Jablunka Pass, which issues upon
Hungary, is above 250 miles; the AXIS, therefore, or longest
diameter, of our Ellipse we may call 230 English miles;--its
shortest or conjugate diameter, from Friedland in Bohemia
(Wallenstein's old Friedland), by Breslau across the Oder to the
Polish Frontier, is about 100. The total area of Schlesien is
counted to be some 20,000 square miles, nearly the third of
England Proper.

Schlesien--will the reader learn to call it by that name, on
occasion? for in these sad Manuscripts of ours the names alternate
--is a fine, fertile, useful and beautiful Country. It leans
sloping, as we hinted, to the East and to the North; a long curved
buttress of Mountains ("RIESENGEBIRGE, Giant Mountains," is their
best-known name in foreign countries) holding it up on the South
and West sides. This Giant-Mountain Range,--which is a kind of
continuation of the Saxon-Bohemian "Metal Mountains (ERZGEBIRGE)"
and of the straggling Lausitz Mountains, to westward of these,
--shapes itself like a bill-hook (or elliptically, as was said):
handle and hook together may be some 200 miles in length.
The precipitous side of this is, in general, turned outwards,
towards Bohmen, Mahren, Ungarn (Bohemia, Moravia, Hungary, in our
dialects); and Schlesien lies inside, irregularly sloping down,
towards the Baltic and towards the utmost East, From the Bohemian
side of these Mountains there rise two Rivers: Elbe, tending for
the West; Morawa for the South;--Morawa, crossing Moravia, gets
into the Donau, and thence into the Black-Sea; while Elbe, after
intricate adventures among the mountains, and then prosperously
across the plains, is out, with its many ships, into the Atlantic.
Two rivers, we say, from the Bohemian or steep side: and again,
from the Silesian side, there rise other two, the Oder and the
Weichsel (VISTULA); which start pretty near one another in the
Southeast, and, after wide windings, get both into the Baltic, at a
good distance apart.

For the first thirty, or in parts, fifty miles from the Mountains,
Silesia slopes somewhat rapidly; and is still to be called a
Hill-country, rugged extensive elevations diversifying it: but
after that, the slope is gentle, and at length insensible, or
noticeable only by the way the waters run. From the central part of
it, Schlesien pictures itself to you as a plain; growing ever
flatter, ever sandier, as it abuts on the monotonous endless
sand-flats of Poland, and the Brandenburg territories; nothing but
Boundary Stones with their brass inscriptions marking where the
transition is; and only some Fortified Town, not far off, keeping
the door of the Country secure in that quarter.

On the other hand, the Mountain part of Schlesien is very
picturesque; not of Alpine height anywhere (the Schnee-Koppe itself
is under 5,000 feet), so that verdure and forest wood fail almost
nowhere among the Mountains; and multiplex industry, besung by
rushing torrents and the swift young rivers, nestles itself high
up; and from wheat husbandry, madder and maize husbandry, to
damask-weaving, metallurgy, charcoal-burning, tar-distillery,
Schlesien has many trades, and has long been expert and busy at
them to a high degree. A very pretty Ellipsis, or irregular Oval,
on the summit of the European Continent;--"like the palm of a left
hand well stretched out, with the Riesengebirge for thumb!" said a
certain Herr to me, stretching out his arm in that fashion towards
the northwest. Palm, well stretched out, measuring 250 miles; and
the crossway 100. There are still beavers in Schlesien; the
Katzbach River has gold grains in it, a kind of Pactolus not now
worth working; and in the scraggy lonesome pine-woods, grimy
individuals, with kindled mounds of pine-branches and smoke
carefully kept down by sods, are sweating out a substance which
they inform you is to be tar.

HISTORICAL EPOCHS OF SCHLESIEN;--AFTER THE QUADS AND MARCHMEN.

Who first lived in Schlesien, or lived long since in it, there is
no use in asking, nor in telling if one knew. "The QUADI and the
Lygii," says Dryasdust, in a groping manner: Quadi and consorts, in
the fifth or sixth Century, continues he with more confidence,
shifted Rome-ward, following the general track of contemporaneous
mankind; weak remnant of Quadi was thereupon overpowered by Slavic
populations, and their Country became Polish, which the eastern rim
of it still essentially is. That was the end of the Quadi in those
parts, says History. But they cannot speak nor appeal for
themselves; History has them much at discretion. Rude burial urns,
with a handful of ashes in them, have been dug up in different
places; these are all the Archives and Histories the Quadi now
have. It appears their name signifies WICKED. They are those poor
Quadi (WICKED PEOPLE) who always go along with the Marcomanni
(MARCHMEN), in the bead-roll Histories one reads; and I almost
guess they must have been of the same stock: "Wickeds and
Borderers;" considered, on both sides of the Border, to belong to
the Dangerous Classes in those times. Two things are certain:
First, QUAD and its derivatives have, to this day, in the speech of
rustic Germans, something of that meaning,--"nefarious," at least
"injurious," "hateful, and to be avoided:" for example, QUADdel, "a
nettle-burn;" QUETSchen, "to smash" (say, your thumb while
hammering); &c. &c. And then a second thing: The Polish equivalent
word is ZLE (Busching says ZLEXI); hence ZLEzien, SCHLEsien,
meaning merely BADland, QUADland, what we might called DAMAGitia,
or Country where you get into Trouble. That is the etymology, or
what passes for such. As to the History of Schlesien, hitherwards
of these burial urns dug up in different places, I notice, as not
yet entirely buriable, Three Epochs.

FIRST EPOCH; CHRISTIANITY: A.D. 966. Introduction of Christianity;
to the length of founding a Bishopric that year, so hopeful were
the aspects; "Bishopric of Schmoger" (SchMAGram, dim little Village
still discoverable on the Polish frontier, not far from the Town of
Namslau); Bishopric which, after one removal farther inward, got
across the Oder, to "WRUTISLAV," which me now call Breslau; and
sticks there, as Bishopric of Breslau, to this day. Year 966: it
was in Adalbert, our Prussian Saint and Missionary's younger time.
Preaching, by zealous Polacks, must have been going on, while
Adalbert, Bright in Nobleness, was studying at Magdeburg, and
ripening for high things in the general estimation. This was a new
gift from the Polacks, this of Christianity; an infinitely more
important one than that nickname of "ZLEZIEN," or "DAMAGitia,"
stuck upon the poor Country, had been.

SECOND EPOCH; GET GRADUALLY CUT LOOSE FROM POLAND: A.D. 1139-1159.
Twenty years of great trouble in Poland, which were of lasting
benefit to Schlesien. In 1139 the Polack King, a very potent
Majesty whom we could name but do not, died; and left his Dominions
shared by punctual bequest among his five sons. Punctual bequest
did avail: but the eldest Son (who was King, and had Schlesien with
much else to his share) began to encroach, to grasp; upon which the
others rose upon him, flung him out into exile; redivided;
and hoped now they might have quiet. Hoped, but were disappointed;
and could come to no sure bargain for the next twenty years,--not
till "the eldest brother," first author of these strifes, "died an
exile in Holstein," or was just about dying, and had agreed to take
Schlesien for all claims, and be quiet thenceforth.

His, this eldest's, three Sons did accordingly, in 1159, get
Schlesien instead of him; their uncles proving honorable. Schlesien
thereby was happy enough to get cut loose from Poland, and to
continue loose; steering a course of its own;--parting farther and
farther from Poland and its habits and fortunes. These three Sons,
of the late Polish Majesty who died in exile in Holstein, are the
"Piast Dukes," much talked of in Silesian Histories: of whose
merits I specify this only, That they so soon as possible strove to
be German. They were Progenitors of all the "Piast Dukes,"
Proprietors of Schlesien thenceforth, till the last of them died
out in 1675,--and a certain ERBVERBRUDERUNG they had entered into
could not take effect at that time. Their merits as Sovereign Dukes
seem to have been considerable; a certain piety, wisdom and
nobleness of mind not rare among them; and no doubt it was partly
their merit, if partly also their good luck, that they took to
Germany, and leant thitherward; steering looser and looser from
Poland, in their new circumstances. They themselves by degrees
became altogether German; their Countries, by silent immigration,
introduction of the arts, the composures and sobrieties, became
essentially so. On the eastern rim there is still a Polack remnant,
its territories very sandy, its condition very bad; remnant which
surely ought to cease its Polack jargon, and learn some dialect of
intelligible Teutsch, as the first condition of improvement. In all
other parts Teutsch reigns; and Schlesien is a green abundant
Country; full of metallurgy, damask-weaving, grain-husbandry.--
instead of gasconade, gilt anarchy, rags, dirt, and NIE POZWALAM.

A.D. 1327; GET COMPLETELY CUT LOOSE. The Piast Dukes, who soon
ceased to be Polish, and hung rather upon Bohemia, and thereby upon
Germany, made a great step in that direction, when King Johann, old
ICH-DIEN whom we ought to recollect, persuaded most of them, all of
them but two, "PRETIO AC PRECE," to become Feudatories (Quasi-
Feudatories, but of a sovereign sort) to his Crown of Bohemia.
The two who stood out, resisting prayer and price, were the Duke of
Jauer and the Duke of Schweidnitz,--lofty-minded gentlemen, perhaps
a thought too lofty. But these also Johann's son, little Kaiser
Karl IV., "marrying their heiress," contrived to bring in;--one
fruitful adventure of little Karl's, among the many wasteful he
made, in the German Reich. Schlesien is henceforth a bit of the
Kingdom of Bohemia; indissolubly hooked to Germany; and its
progress in the arts and composures, under wise Piasts with
immigrating Germans, we guess to have become doubly rapid.
[Busching, Erdbeschreibung, viii. 725;
Hubner, t. 94.]

THIRD EPOCH; ADOPT THE REFORMATION: A.D. 1414-1517. Schlesien,
hanging to Bohemia in this manner, extensively adopted Huss's
doctrines; still more extensively Luther's; and that was a
difficult element in its lot, though, I believe, an unspeakably
precious one. It cost above a Century of sad tumults, Zisca Wars;
nay above two Centuries, including the sad Thirty-Years War;--which
miseries, in Bohemia Proper, were sometimes very sad and even
horrible. But Schlesien, the outlying Country, did, in all this,
suffer less than Bohemia Proper; and did NOT lose its Evangelical
Doctrine in result, as unfortunate Bohemia did, and sink into
sluttish "fanatical torpor, and big Crucifixes of japanned Tin by
the wayside," though in the course of subsequent years, named of
Peace, it was near doing so. Here are the steps, or unavailing
counter-steps, in that latter direction:--

A.D. 1537. Occurred, as we know, the ERBVERBRUDERUNG; Duke of
Liegnitz, and of other extensive heritages, making Deed of
Brotherhood with Kur-Brandenburg;--Deed forbidden, and so far as
might be, rubbed out and annihilated by the then King of Bohemia,
subsequently Kaiser Ferdinand I., Karl V.'s Brother. Duke of
Liegnitz had to give up his parchments, and become zero in that
matter: Kur-Brandenburg entirely refused to do so; kept his
parchments, to see if they would not turn to something.

A.D. 1624. Schlesien, especially the then Duke of Liegnitz
(great-grandson of the ERBVERBRUDERUNG one), and poor Johann
George, Duke of Jagerndorf, cadet of the then Kur-Brandenburg, went
warmly ahead into the Winter-King project, first fire of the
Thirty-Years War; sufferings from Papal encroachment, in high
quarters, being really extreme. Warmly ahead; and had to smart
sharply for it;--poor Johann George with forfeiture of Jagerndorf,
with REICHES-ACHT (Ban of the Empire), and total ruin; fighting
against which he soon died. Act of Ban and Forfeiture was done
tyrannously, said most men; and it was persisted in equally so,
till men ceased speaking of it;--Jagerndorf Duchy, fruit of the
Act, was held by Austria, ever after, in defiance of the Laws of
the Reich. Religious Oppression lay heavy on Protestant Schlesien
thenceforth; and many lukewarm individualities were brought back to
Orthodoxy by that method, successful in the diligent skilled hands
of Jesuit Reverend Fathers, with fiscals and soldiers in the rear
of them.

A.D. 1648. Treaty of Westphalia mended much of this, and set fair
limits to Papist encroachment;--had said Treaty been kept: but how
could it? By Orthodox Authority, auxious to recover lost souls, or
at least to have loyal subjects, it was publicly kept in name; and
tacitly, in substance, it was violated more and more. Of the
"Blossoming of Silesian Literature," spoken of in Books; of the
Poet Opitz, Poets Logan, Hoffmannswaldau, who burst into a kind of
Song better or worse at this Period, we will remember nothing; but
request the reader to remember it, if he is tunefully given, or
thinks it a good symptom of Schlesien.

A.D. 1707. Treaty of Altranstadt: between Kaiser Joseph I. and Karl
XII. Swedish Karl, marching through those parts,--out of Poland, in
chase of August the Physically Strong, towards Saxony, there to
beat him soft,--was waited upon by Silesian Deputations of a
lamentable nature; was entreated, for the love of Christ and His
Evangel, to "Protect us poor Protestants, and get the Treaty of
Westphalia observed on our behalf, and fair-play shown!" Which Karl
did; Kaiser Joseph, with such weight of French War lying on him,
being much struck with the tone of that dangerous Swede. The Pope
rebuked Kaiser Joseph for such compliance in the Silesian matter:
"Holy Father," answered this Kaiser (not of distinguished orthodoxy
in the House), "I am too glad he did not ask me to become Lutheran;
I know not how I should have helped myself!" [Pauli,
Allgemeine Preussische Staats-Geschichte (viii.
298-592); Busching, Erdbeschreibung (viii.
700-739); &c.--Heinrich Wuttke, Friedrichs des Grossen
Besitzergreifung von Schlesien (Seizure of Silesia by
Friedrich, 2 vols. Leipzig, 1843), I mention only lest ingenuous
readers should be tempted by the Title to buy it. Wuttke begins at
the Creation of the World; and having, in two heavy volumes, at
last struggled down close TO the BESITZERGREIFUNG or Seizure in
question, calls halt; and stands (at ease, we will hope) immovably
there for the seventeen years since.]

These are the Three Epochs;--most things, in respect of this Third
or Reformation Epoch, stepping steadily downward hitherto. As to
the Fourth Epoch, dating "13th Dec. 1740," which continues, up to
our day and farther, and is the final and crowning Epoch of
Silesian History,--read in the following Chapters.

Chapter II.

FRIEDRICH MARCHES ON GLOGAU.

At what hour Friedrich ceased dancing on that famous Ball-night of
Bielfeld's, and how long he slept after, or whether at all, no
Bielfeld even mythically says: but next morning, as is patent to
all the world, Tuesday, 13th December, 1740, at the stroke of nine,
he steps into his carriage; and with small escort rolls away
towards Frankfurt-on-Oder; [ Helden-Geschichte, italic> i. 452; Preuss, Thronbesteigung,
p. 456.] out upon an Enterprise which will have results for himself
and others.

Two youngish military men, Adjutant-Generals both, were with him,
Wartensleben, Borck; both once fellow Captains in the Potsdam
Giants, and much in his intimacy ever since. Wartensleben we once
saw at Brunswick, on a Masonic occasion; Borck, whom we here see
for the first time, is not the Colonel Borck (properly
Major-General) who did the Herstal Operation lately; still less is
he the venerable old Minister, Marlborough Veteran, and now
Field-Marshal Borck, whom Hotham treated with, on a certain
occasion. There are numerous Borcks always in the King's service;
nor are these three, except by loose cousinry, related to one
another. The Borcks all come from Stettin quarter; a brave kindred,
and old enough,--"Old as the Devil, DAS IST SO OLD ALS DE BORCKEN
UND DE DUWEL," says the Pomeranian Proverb;-- the Adjutant-General,
a junior member of the clan, chances to be the notablest of them at
this moment. Wartensleben, Borck, and a certain Colonel von der
Golz, whom also the King much esteems, these are his company on
this drive. For escort, or guard of honor out of Berlin to the next
stages, there is a small body of Hussars, Life-guard and other
Cavalry, "perhaps 500 horse in all."

They drive rapidly, through the gray winter; reach Frankfurt-on-
Oder, sixty miles or more; where no doubt there is military
business waiting. They are forward, on the morrow, for dinner,
forty miles farther, at a small Town called Crossen, which looks
over into Silesia; and is, for the present, headquarters to a
Prussian Army, standing ready there and in the environs.
Standing ready, or hourly marching in, and rendezvousing; now about
28,000 strong, horse and foot. A Rearguard of Ten or Twelve
Thousand will march from Berlin in two days, pause hereabouts, and
follow according to circumstances: Prussian Army will then be some
40,000 in all. Schwerin has been Commander, manager and mainspring
of the business hitherto: henceforth it is to be the King;
but Schwerin under him will still have a Division of his own.

Among the Regiments, we notice "Schulenburg Horse-Grenadiers,"
--come along from Landsberg hither, these Horse-Grenadiers, with
little Schulenburg at the head of them;--"Dragoon Regiment
Bayreuth," "Lifeguard Carbineers," "Derschau of Foot;" and other
Regiments and figures slightly known to us, or that will be better
known. [List in Helden-Geschichte, i. 453.]
Rearguard, just getting under way at Berlin, has for leaders the
Prince of Holstein-Beck ("Holstein-VAISSELLE," say wags, since the
Principality went all to SILVER-PLATE) and the Hereditary Prince of
Anhalt-Dessau, whom we called the Young Dessauer, on the Strasburg
Journey lately: Rearguard, we say, is of 12,000; main Army is
28,000; Horse and Foot are in the proportion of about 1 to 3.
Artillery "consists of 20 three-pounders; 4 twelve-pounders;
4 howitzers (HAUBITZEN); 4 big mortars, calibre fifty pounds;
and of Artillerymen 166 in all."

With this Force the young King has, on his own basis (pretty much
in spite of all the world, as we find now and afterwards),
determined to invade Silesia, and lay hold of the Property he has
long had there;--not computing, for none can compute, the sleeping
whirlwinds he may chance to awaken thereby. Thus lightly does a man
enter upon Enterprises which prove unexpectedly momentous, and
shape the whole remainder of his days for him; crossing the Rubicon
as it were in his sleep. In Life, as on Railways at certain points,
--whether you know it or not, there is but an inch, this way or
that, into what tram you are shunted; but try to get out of it
again! "The man is mad, CET HOMME-LA EST FOL!" said Louis XV. when
he heard it. [Raumer, Beitrage (English
Translation, called Frederick II. and his Times; from
British Museum and State-Paper 0ffice: --a very
indistinct poor Book, in comparison with whet it might have been),
p. 73 (24th Dec. 1740).]

FRIEDRICH AT CROSSEN, AND STILL IN HIS OWN TERRITORY,
14th-16th DECEMBER;--STEPS INTO SCHLESIEN.

At all events, the man means to try;--and is here dining at
Crossen, noon of Wednesday, the 14th; certain important persons,
--especially two Silesian Gentlemen, deputed from Grunberg,
the nearest Silesian Town, who have come across the border on
business,--having the honor to dine with him. To whom his manner is
lively and affable; lively in mood, as if there lay no load upon
his spirits. The business of these two Silesian Gentlemen, a Baron
von Hocke one of them, a Baron von Kestlitz the other, was To
present, on the part of the Town and Amt of Grunberg, a solemn
Protest against this meditated entrance on the Territory of
Schlesien; Government itself, from Breslau, ordering them to do so.
Protest was duly presented; Friedrich, as his manner is, and
continues to be on his march, glances politely into or at the
Protest; hands it, in silence, to some page or secretary to deposit
in the due pigeon-hole or waste-basket; and invites the two
Silesian Gentlemen to dine with him; as, we see, they have the
honor to do. "He (ER) lives near Grunberg, then, Mein Herr von
Hocke?" "Close to it, IHRO MAJESTAT. My poor mansion, Schloss of
Deutsch-Kessel, is some fifteen miles hence; how infinitely at your
Majesty's service, should the march prove inevitable, and go that
way!"--"Well, perhaps!" I find Friedrich did dine, the second day
hence, with one of these Gentlemen; and lodged with the other.
Government at Breslau has ordered such Protest, on the part of the
Frontier populations and Official persons: and this is all that
comes of it.

During these hours, it chanced that the big Bell of Crossen dropped
from its steeple,--fulness of time, or entire rottenness of
axle-tree, being at last completed, at this fateful moment. Perhaps
an ominous thing? Friedrich, as Caesar and others have done,
cheerfully interprets the omen to his own advantage: "Sign that the
High is to be brought low!" says Friedrich. Were the march-routes,
wagon-trains, and multifarious adjustments perfect to the last item
here at Crossen, he will with much cheerfulness step into Silesia,
independent of all Grunberg Protests and fallen Bells.

On the second day he does actually cross; "the regiments marching
in, at different points; some reaching as far as 25 miles in."
It is Friday, 16th December, 1740; there has a game begun which
will last long! They went through the Village of Lasgen; that was
the first point of Silesian ground ("Circle of Schwiebus," our old
friend, is on the left near by); and "Schwerin's Regiment was the
foremost." Others cross more to the left or right; "marching
through the Village of Lessen," and other dim Villages and little
Towns, round and beyond Grunberg; all regiments and divisions
bearing upon Grunberg and the Great Road; but artistically
portioned out,--several miles in breadth (for the sake of
quarters), and, as is generally the rule, about a day's march in
length. This evening nearly the whole Army was on Silesian ground.

Printed "Patent" or Proclamation, briefly assuring all Silesians,
of whatever rank, condition or religion, "That we have come as
friends to them, and will protect all persons in their privileges,
and molest no peaceable mortal," is posted on Church-doors, and
extensively distributed by hand. Soldiers are forbidden, "under
penalty of the rods," Officers under that of "cassation with
infamy," to take anything, without first bargaining and paying
ready money for it. On these terms the Silesian villages cheerfully
enough accept their new guests, interesting to the rural mind; and
though the billeting was rather heavy, "as many as 24 soldiers to a
common Farmer (GARTNER)," no complaints were made. In one Schloss,
where the owners had fled, and no human response was to be had by
the wayworn-soldiery, there did occur some breakages and impatient
kickings about; which it grieved his Majesty to hear of, next
morning;--in one, not in more.

Official persons, we perceive, study to be absolutely passive.
This was the Burgermeister's course at Grunberg to-night; Grunberg,
first Town on the Frontier, sets an example of passivity which
cannot be surpassed. Prussian troops being at the Gate of Grunberg,
Burgermeister and adjuncts sitting in a tacit expectant condition
in their Town-hall, there arrives a Prussian Lieutenant requiring
of the Burgermeister the Key of said Gate. "To deliver such Key?
Would to God I durst, Mein Herr Lieutenant; but how dare I!
There is the Key lying: but to GIVE it--You are not the Queen of
Hungary's Officer, I doubt?"--The Prussian Lieutenant has to put
out hand, and take the Key; which he readily does. And on the
morrow, in returning it, when the march recommences, there are the
same phenomena: Burgermeister or assistants dare not for the life
of them touch that Key: It lay on the table; and may again, in the
course of Providence, come to lie!--The Prussian Lieutenant lays it
down accordingly, and hurries out, with a grin on his face.
There was much small laughter over this transaction; Majesty
himself laughing well at it. Higher perfection of passivity no
Burgermeister could show.

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