THE HOHENZOLLERNS Such was the condition and extent of Brandenburg in 1411 when Frederick of Hohenzollern became margrave. Entering the electorate with a strong force in June 1412, it was not until 1417 that his authority over it was undisputed. His claim to suzerainty over Pomerania provoked an invasion of the mark by an army of Pomeranians with their allies in 1420, when Frederick inflicted a severe defeat upon them at Angermunde ; but in 1424 a temporary coolness between the elector and the emperor Sigismund led to a renewal of the attack which Frederick was unable to repulse. This reverse, together with the pressure of other business, induced him to leave Brandenburg in Jan. 1426, after handing over its government to his eldest son, John, whose weak rule induced a renewed state of anarchy.
On Frederick's death in Sept. 1440 he was succeeded in the electorate by his eldest son Frederick II., surnamed "Iron" from the rigour of his government. Suppressing the rebellious nobles with ease, he found it less easy to deal with the towns. Three strong leagues had been formed among them about 1431, and the spirit of municipal independence was most prominently repre sented by the neighbouring and allied towns of Berlin and Coln. In his conflict with the towns, the elector's task was lightened by a quarrel between the magistrates and the burghers of Berlin, which he was called in to decide in 1442. He deposed the govern ing oligarchy, changed the constitution of the town, forbade all alliances and laid the foundations of a castle. The inhabitants soon chafed under these restrictions. A revolt broke out in but the power of the elector overawed the people, who sub mitted their case to the estates, with the result that the arrange ment of 1442 was re-established. In 1447 Frederick was com pelled to cede the old mark and Priegnitz to his younger brother, Frederick, under whose feeble rule they quickly fell into dis order. In 1463, however, when the younger Frederick died childless, the elector united them again with his own possessions and took measures to suppress the prevailing anarchy. In his dealings with neighbouring rulers Frederick pursued a peaceful and conciliatory policy. In 1442 he obtained some small addi tions to his territory, and the right of succession to the duchy of Mecklenburg in case the ducal family should die out. In an old feud with the archbishop of Magdeburg was settled, and in 1457 a treaty of mutual succession was made with the houses of Saxony and Hesse. Cottbus and Peitz in Lusatia were acquired, and retained after a quarrel with George Podiebrad, king of Bohemia, and the new mark of Brandenburg was pur chased from the Teutonic order in 1454. An attempt, however, to secure the duchy of Pomerania-Stettin failed, and the con cluding years of his reign were troubled by warfare with the Pomeranians. Frederick's interest in ecclesiastical questions was mainly directed towards quickening the religious life of his people. He obtained important concessions from Pope Nicholas V. on the appointment of bishops and other ecclesiastical matters in and in general maintained cordial relations with the papacy. About 1467 his only son, John, died, and increasing infirmity led him to contemplate abdication. An arrangement was made with his brother, Albert Achilles, to whom early in 1470 the mark was handed over, and Frederick retired to Plassenburg where he died on Feb. I o, 1471.
Dispositio Achillea.—Albert took up the struggle with the Pomeranians, which he soon brought to a satisfactory conclusion; for in May 1472 he not only obtained the cession of several districts, but was recognized as the suzerain of Pomerania and as its future ruler. The expenses of this war led to a quarrel with the estates. A subsidy was granted which the elector did not regard as adequate, and by a dexterous use of his power he established his right to take an excise on beer. Albert's most important contribution to the history of Brandenburg was the issue on Feb. 24, 1473, of the Dispositio Achillea. By this in strument the elector decreed that the electoral mark should pass in its entirety to his eldest son, an establishment of primogeniture which had considerable influence on the future development of the country. He then entrusted the government to his eldest son, John, and left Brandenburg. Handicapped by poverty, John had to face attacks from two quarters. The Pomeranians, in spired by the declaration of the emperor Frederick III. that their land was a direct fief of the Empire, and aided by Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary, took up arms; and a quarrel broke out with John, duke of Sagan, over the possessions of John's brother-in-law, Henry XI., duke of Glogau. To deal with these difficulties Albert returned to Brandenburg in 1478, and during his stay drove back the Pomeranians, and added Crossen and other parts of duke Henry's possessions to the electorate. Again left in charge of the country, John beat back a fresh 'attack made by John of Sagan in 1482 ; and he became elector on his father's death in March 1486. He added the county of Zossen to his possessions in 1490, and in 1493 made a fresh treaty with the duke of Pomerania. Although he brought a certain degree of order into the finances, his poverty and the constant inroads of external enemies prevented him from seriously improving the condition of the country. John welcomed Italian scholars to the electorate, and strove to improve the education of his people. He died at Arneburg on Jan. 9, 1499, and was succeeded by his son Joachim I.
When Joachim undertook the government of Brandenburg he found highway robbery general, the lives and property of traders in continual jeopardy, and the machinery for the enforcement of the laws almost at a standstill ; but in a few years the execu tion of many lawbreakers and other stern measures restored some degree of order. Joachim proved himself a sincere friend to the towns by issuing sumptuary laws and encouraging manu factures; while to suppress the rivalry among the towns he established an order of precedence for them. He founded the university at Frankfort-on-Oder in 1506, and he gave a new organization to the highest court of justice, the Kamrnergericht, secured for himself an important voice in the choice of its members, and ordered that the local law should be supplemented by the law of Rome. He did not largely increase the area of Brandenburg, but in 1524 he acquired the county of Ruppin, and in 1529 made a treaty at Grimnitz with George and Barnim XI., dukes of Pomerania, by which he surrendered the vexatious claim to suzerainty in return for a fresh promise of the succession in case the ducal family should become extinct. Joachim's atti tude towards the teaching of Martin Luther, which had already won many adherents in the electorate, was one of unrelenting hostility. The Jews also felt the weight of his displeasure, and were banished in The Reformation.--Ignoring the Dispositio Achillea, the elector bequeathed Brandenburg to his two sons. When he died in July 1535 the elder, Joachim II., became elector, and obtained the old and middle marks, while the younger, John, received the new mark. John went definitely over to the side of the Lutherans in 1538, while Joachim allowed the reformed doctrines free entrance into his dominions in 1539. The elector, however, unlike his brother, did not break with the forms of the Church of Rome, but established an ecclesiastical organization inde pendent of the pope, and took up a position similar to that of King Henry VIII. in England. Many of the monasteries were suppressed, and a consistory set up to take over the functions of the bishops and to act as the highest ecclesiastical court of the country. In 1541 the new ecclesiastical system was confirmed by the emperor Charles V. Doubtless the elector was influenced religiously by considerations of greed. The bishoprics of Branden burg, Havelberg and Lebus were secularized; their administration was entrusted to members of the elector's family ; and their revenues formed a welcome addition to his impoverished ex chequer. Nor did Joachim neglect other opportunities for adding to his wealth and possessions. In 1537 he had concluded a treaty with Frederick III., duke of Liegnitz, which guaranteed to the Hohenzollerns the succession to the Silesian duchies of Liegnitz, Brieg and Wohlau in the event of the ducal family becoming extinct ; this arrangement is important as the basis of the claim made by Frederick the Great on Silesia in 1740. The treaty was declared invalid by the German king, Ferdinand I. ; but the elector insisted on its legality, and in 1545 strengthened his position by arranging a double marriage between members of his own family and that of Duke Frederick. Of more immediate consequence was an arrangement made in 1569 with the represen tatives of Joachim's kinsman, Albert Frederick, duke of Prussia, after which the elector obtained the joint investiture of the duchy of Prussia from Sigismund II., king of Poland, and was assured of the succession if the duke's family became extinct. Joachim's extravagance compelled him in 1540 to appeal for help to the estates. The estates voted him a sum of money as the price of valuable concessions, the most important of which was that the elector should make no alliance without their consent. Fresh liabilities were soon incurred, and in spite of frequent contribu tions from the estates Joachim left at his death in Jan. 1571 a heavy burden of debt to his son and successor, John George.
The elector's death was followed ten days later by that of his brother, John, and as John left no sons the whole of Branden burg, together with the districts of Beeskow and Storkow which had been added by purchase to the new mark, were united under the rule of his nephew, John George. The rule of John George was popular with the nobles, and to some extent with the towns. His financial reforms and wise government greatly benefited Brandenburg. Although by faith a Lutheran he did not allow his religious tenets to involve his state in military adventures in defence of the Protestant cause. He died on Jan. 8, 1598.
Ignoring the Depositio Aclzillea, he left his dominions to a younger son, Joachim Frederick, born on Jan. 27, 1546, who now became elector. Since 1553 he had held the bishopric of Havel berg, since 1555 that of Lebus; he had been administrator of Magdeburg since 1566, and of Brandenburg since 1571. Re signing these dignities in 1598, he contested his father's will, and was successful in preventing a division of the electorate. An agreement with George Frederick, the childless margrave of Ansbach and Bayreuth, paved the way for an arrangement with the elector's younger brothers, who after the margrave's death in April 1603, shared his lands in Franconia, and were com pensated in other ways for surrendering all claims on Branden burg. This agreement, known as the Gera Bond, ratified the Dispositio Achillea. By George Frederick's death, Joachim be came administrator of the duchy of Prussia, ruled nominally by the weak-minded Albert Frederick, but he had some difficulty in asserting his position. In Brandenburg he made concessions to the nobles at the expense of the peasantry, and admitted the right of the estates to control taxation. In religious matters he was convinced of the necessity of a union between Lutherans and Calvinists, and took steps to bring this about. Public opinion, however, in Brandenburg was too strong for him, and he was compelled to fall back upon the Lutheran Formula and the religious policy of his father. Joachim seems to have been a wise ruler, who improved in various ways the condition of the mark. He married Catherine, daughter of John, margrave of Branden burg-Custrin, and when he died, on July 18, 1608, was succeeded by his eldest son John Sigismund.
The new elector, born on Nov. 8, 1572, had married in Anna, daughter of Albert Frederick of Prussia, a union which not only strengthened the pretensions of the electors of Branden burg to the succession in that duchy, but gave to John Sigismund a claim on the duchies of Cleves, Julich and Berg, and other Rhenish lands should the ruling family become extinct. In March 1609 the death of Duke John William left these duchies without a ruler, and by arrangement they were occupied jointly by the elector and by his principal rival, Wolfgang, son of Philip Louis, count palatine of Neuburg. This proceeding aroused some op position, and, complicated by religious considerations and by the excited state of European politics, almost precipitated a general war. However, in Nov. 1614 the dispute was temporarily settled by the treaty of Xanten. Brandenburg obtained the duchy of Cleves with the counties of Mark and Ravensberg, but as the Dutch and Spanish garrisons were not withdrawn, these lands were only nominally under the elector's rule. In 1609, John Sigismund had joined the Evangelical Union, probably to win support in the Rhineland, and the same consideration was doubt less one reason why in 1613, he forsook the Lutheran doctrines of his family, and became an adherent of the reformed, or Calvinist faith. This step aroused grave discontent in the electo rate, and, quickly abandoning his attempts to proselytize, the elector practically conceded religious liberty to his subjects. Over the Cleves-Jiilich succession, John Sigismund had incurred heavy expenses, and the public debt had again mounted up. He was thus obliged to seek aid from the estates, and in return for grants to make concessions to the nobles. The elector spent much of his time in Prussia striving to assert his authority in that duchy, and in Aug. 1618, according to the arrangement of 1569, became duke by the death of Albert Frederick. He only enjoyed this dignity for a short time, as he died on Dec. 23, 1619. He was succeeded by his eldest son, George William, brother-in-law of Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden.