The Life of Bismarck, Private and Political. George Hesekiel
retirement, on the best terms, at Burgstall, with their cousins of the younger Henning-branch of the family.
Henning II. and his wife Sabine von Alvensleben had as sons, Busso, Claus, Dietrich, and Ludolf. Dietrich and Busso dying in early youth, Claus became in 1512 the Electoral Ranger of the great estate of Gardelegen (the forests of Jävenitz and Letzling). The rangers were in those days high officials (chief foresters); the title, however, they did not obtain until the time of King Frederick William I., with considerable privileges. The foresters were then literally called heath-runners (Haide-läufer)—rangers, in fact.
Ludolf von Bismarck in 1513 became Electoral Sheriff of Boetzow, the present Oranienburg. His activity appears to have been applied to the protection of the Electoral game preserves. Ludolf was reckoned one of the best horsemen and warriors of his era, although we do not learn any thing respecting his prowess. He seems to have been very active in the establishment of the militia of the Alt Mark, and died in 1534. His wife, Hedwig von Doeberitz, long survived him. In the year 1543, the Elector Joachim owed her a thousand thalers, and she was still alive in 1562. Ludolf’s sons were Jobst, Joachim, and George.
Joachim was killed at the siege of Magdeburg, at which he was present with his brothers. Jobst married Emerentia Schenk von Lützendorf. George married Armengard von Alvensleben.
We thus see the castle of Burgstall in the middle of the sixteenth century inhabited by two pairs of brothers, with four households; Henry and Frederick representing the elder or Ludolf branch of the Bismarcks, and Jobst and George the younger one through Henning. Ludolf’s widow also resided at Burgstall.
CHAPTER III.
THE PERMUTATION.
[1550–1563.]
Changes.—The Electoral Prince John George and Burgstall.—Forest-rights.—The Exchange of Burgstall for Crevese.—Schönhausen and Fischbeck.—The Permutation completed, 1563.
Doomed to a sorrowful termination was the peaceful life of the family of the Bismarcks at Burgstall. All the Bismarcks were eager sportsmen, and there was no spot in the whole of the Brandenburg country better adapted for sport than their castle, situated in the midst of the great preserve of Gardelegen, the woods of the Tanger, and of the Ohre.
These preserves were not only the most considerable, but also the most well-stocked in the Marks; and although only a small portion belonged to the Bismarcks, they enjoyed forest privileges conjointly with their neighbors to the fullest extent. It was not remarkable, therefore, to find the Castellans of Burgstall “mighty hunters;” but a still mightier hunter was destined to overwhelm them, and compel them to give up their privileges in forest and moor.
Every one of the descendants of the great Frankish prince, the Burgrave Frederick von Nürnberg—all the powerful Electors and noble Margraves of Brandenburg—were considerable sportsmen. They had early perceived that no place was more convenient than Burgstall Castle, when they desired to hunt near the Tanger, through the forest of Gardelegen, the Drömling, and other preserves of the Ohre. They often visited their trusty vassals at Burgstall, and for weeks together were welcome guests of the Bismarcks, whose wealth could well maintain the expensive hospitality of princely guests. The Electors John Cicero and Joachim Nestor were frequently at Burgstall. We know that the Bismarcks were one of the first families of the country, allied to the new Frank rulers; even at a later time the Bismarcks were proud of their loyalty to their liege lords; but the intimate personal relations which the Bismarcks maintained with the Electors John Cicero, Joachim Nestor, Joachim Hector, and the Electoral Prince and Margrave John George, engendered feelings of personal affection and respect, far surpassing the ordinary loyalty of vassals.
This has to be remembered when it is sought to understand the events which took place in 1562 among the Bismarcks in their right light.
When the hunt-loving Electoral Prince, the Margrave John George, became administrator in the year 1553 for his youthful son, the postulated Bishop of the See of Havelberg, he followed the chase more enthusiastically than ever, and founded the hunting-box in Netzlingen, purchased from the Alvenslebens in 1555, known as Letzlingen. In order to establish wider preserves for the new edifice, he everywhere attacked the privileges of the Bismarcks; and his object was to abridge or to abrogate their forest rights in all directions. The Bismarcks, known to us as zealous sportsmen, did not wish to dispose of their forest rights; their position at Burgstall did not admit of pecuniary compensation; but they, nevertheless, from a feeling of respect for the Electoral Prince, consented to a treaty which considerably circumscribed their privileges, much to their disadvantage. This treaty was signed at Zechlin, on the 1st July, 1555, in person, the Prince residing at that place. They asked for no compensation from the Prince, but allowed him to fix it as he pleased, accepting without a murmur a deed acknowledging a debt of three thousand gulden, a sum by no means representing the amount of their loss. By this sacrifice they purchased peace, however, for but a very short time; for while the differences continued between the Margrave’s huntsmen and those of Bismarck, the Electoral Prince could not but perceive that the Castellanship of Burgstall stuck like a wedge in the centre of his preserves. He desired to have the entire control from Letzlingen, where John George habitually held his court, to the castle of Tangermünde; hence it was necessary to dispossess the Bismarcks of Burgstall.
This honorable and faithful family suffered deeply, when, in the beginning of the year 1562, the Electoral Prince proposed to them to exchange Burgstall for other lands. He first offered them the convent of Arendsee; but the Bismarcks, who could not, at first, contemplate the resignation of their ancient family-seat, declined to this procedure. The affair was of such an unusual character that it created the greatest excitement. Even the Chapter at Magdeburg, to whom the Bismarcks were lieges for several possessions at Burgstall, was set in commotion. They dreaded an enlargement of the boundary of Brandenburg, beyond this purchase of Burgstall, to the detriment of the archiepiscopate. The Archbishop of Magdeburg, the Margrave Sigismund, and brother of the Electoral Prince, also wrote, apparently at the instance of his Chapter, to him, “that he hoped he would desist from his intention, and leave the Bismarcks in peaceful possession of their lands, and allow other folks to have a hare, a buck, or a stag.”
John George, however, was not the man to be so easily dissuaded from his purpose. He continued to ply the Bismarcks with propositions of exchange, which they as steadily rejected, being unwilling to resign Burgstall. But their rejection was of no advantage to them, for their loyal principles were outraged at this difference with their liege lord; and, besides, it became very evident to them that the Electoral Prince had no intention of abandoning his plans. If the brothers and cousins Von Bismarck had possessed a spark of speculation, they might, under the circumstances, have obtained compensation of such magnitude as to have formed an enormous revenue for their house; but such thoughts were remote from these loyal and simple-minded country Junkers.
The Electoral Prince, who knew his men, employed measures which he saw must lead to his object without fail. On the 12th of October, 1562, he wrote, from Letzlingen, a letter in very ungracious terms, in which he gave up his project of exchange in the greatest anger, but allowed a whole series of minor difficulties to become apparent for the future.
The Bismarcks replied in a highly respectful manner, and reminded the Electoral Prince, in almost touching accents, “that their ancestors and themselves had for a long time sat worthily under the Electoral Princes, had served them with blood and substance willingly, and testified themselves to be honest, upright, and true subjects, and would willingly have met the estimable Elector and Prince, the Margrave of Brandenburg, in these very matters; although they might be forgiven for hesitating at an exchange which would transport their ancient race to other places, and they would prefer to remain in their ancestral seat,