The Great Elector in his tenth year

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, “TheGreat Elector,” as he is known in history,begins with his birth and closes with hisaccession to power upon the death of hisfather. It is the story of his youth only, but in theyouth we find all the attributes which made him sogreat as an Elector and as a man. Its scenes arelaid in the period of the terrible and devastatingThirty Years’ War, which had not yet come to aclose when Frederick William became Elector ofBrandenburg. Its characters, Ferdinand the Second,Frederick the Fifth, Christian of Denmark, GustavusAdolphus, Wallenstein, Tilly, Maximilian of Bavaria,the Swedish Chancellor Oxenstjern, Count vonMansfeld, the Empress Elizabeth, the Elector ofBrandenburg, his high-minded wife, and his greatson, are world-famous. Its progress throws a stronglight upon that memorable war of faiths, which lastedmore than a generation, and which was characterizedby bitter enmity and cruel atrocities on both sides,as has usually been the case in every religiousstruggle. It is a terrible picture of those days whenCatholics and Protestants were struggling for thesupremacy, but its dark and repellent details arerendered more endurable by the knowledge in thistwentieth century that such wars and such crueltiesin the name of religion are not likely to occur again.The world has advanced; freedom of thought and ofconscience is everywhere recognized and conceded.Sects may still disagree in doctrine, but the olddeadly hatreds are extinguished. The central figurein this stirring drama is Frederick William, who, asthe curtain falls, enters upon his career as the GreatElector.

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 ...