Chapter I: Front Matter

_Life Stories for Young People_

THE YOUTH OF THE
GREAT ELECTOR

_Translated from the German of
Ferdinand Schmidt_

BY
GEORGE P. UPTON
_Translator of "Memories," "Immensee," etc._

WITH THREE ILLUSTRATIONS

CHICAGO
A. C. McCLURG & CO.
1909

Copyright
A. C. McClurg & Co.
1909
Published August 21, 1909

THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.

Translator's Preface

The story of Frederick William, "The Great Elector," as he is known in history, begins with his birth and closes with his accession to power upon the death of his father. It is the story of his youth only, but in the youth we find all the attributes which made him so great as an Elector and as a man. Its scenes are laid in the period of the terrible and devastating Thirty Years' War, which had not yet come to a close when Frederick William became Elector of Brandenburg. Its characters, Ferdinand the Second, Frederick the Fifth, Christian of Denmark, Gustavus Adolphus, Wallenstein, Tilly, Maximilian of Bavaria, the Swedish Chancellor Oxenstjern, Count von Mansfeld, the Empress Elizabeth, the Elector of Brandenburg, his high-minded wife, and his great son, are world-famous. Its progress throws a strong light upon that memorable war of faiths, which lasted more than a generation, and which was characterized by bitter enmity and cruel atrocities on both sides, as has usually been the case in every religious struggle. It is a terrible picture of those days when Catholics and Protestants were struggling for the supremacy, but its dark and repellent details are rendered more endurable by the knowledge in this twentieth century that such wars and such cruelties in the name of religion are not likely to occur again. The world has advanced; freedom of thought and of conscience is everywhere recognized and conceded. Sects may still disagree in doctrine, but the old deadly hatreds are extinguished. The central figure in this stirring drama is Frederick William, who, as the curtain falls, enters upon his career as the Great Elector.

G. P. U.

Chicago, July 1, 1909.

Contents

Chapter Page
I In the Elector's Castle 11
II An Unquiet Night 20
III In November of the Same Year 29
IV Two Princesses 31
V The Battle 38
VI Baron and Chancellor 44
VII The Departure 51
VIII The Sixteenth of February 55
IX The Runaway 58
X The Hunting-Castle 63
XI The Stag Hunt 67
XII A Retrospect 75
XIII The Imperial Soldiers 84
XIV The Restitutions Edict 87
XV Colonel von Burgsdorf 91
XVI Gustavus Adolphus 98
XVII In a Garden House at Berlin 102
XVIII At Walgast 108
XIX In Holland 111
XX In the Park 116
XXI Sweden's Revenge 124
XXII The Prince's Flight 126
XXIII The Message 131
XXIV Mother and Son 135
XXV The Great Elector 137
Appendix 144

Illustrations

Page
The Great Elector in his tenth year _Frontispiece_
In the dark days 78
Soldiers at the time of the Thirty Years' War 84

The Youth of the Great Elector