FROM SQUIRE TO PRINCE.*
Ma. DODGE'S From Squire to Prince is best described in R. L. Stevenson's terms,—a footnote to history. But footnotes may be as interesting as the larger text, and assuredly the house of Cirksena did not lack romance. It was a family of squires, and of great antiquity. One of its members fought in the Crusades under Louis IX., who bestowed upon it the right of quartering lilies upon its coat of arms. But it was not until the afteenth century that the squires grew into Princes. Indeed, the real founder of the sovereignty was Ulrich I., who was acknowledged the ruler of East Friesland in 1430, and from whom sprang eight Counts and five Princes of the Holy Roman Empire. But great as was their dignity, their reigns were not seldom troublous, and the most of them knew such adventures as rarely fall to the lot of greater Princes.
It was to Ulrich I., then, that East Frisia was granted as a fief by the Emperor, and he governed his little kingdom with justice and with force. At the request of his subjects he married as his second wife Theda, the heiress of the family of Ukena, and by this alliance put an end to a family feud of long standing. A staunch patriot, he spent his wealth in the embellishment of his kingdom. He built palaces, he fortified his borders, and his people flourished under his beneficent rule. "He has transformed the sword into the ploughshare," says a contemporary record, " and by his wisdom he has laid the foundation of a well-governed State. He has worked for his House, but his work and that of his House tend to peace, order, public welfare, and education." That is a strange epitaph for a Sovereign of the fifteenth century. Yet doubtless it was well deserved. At his death his widow became Regent, and she most energetically carried on her husband's policy. But Enno, her son, who succeeded to the throne, had but little chance of distinction. In 1489 he set out to visit the Holy Sepulchre, and in his absence that happened which brought his rule and his life to an untimely end. His youngest sister Almuth fell in love with the warden of the Castle, one Engelman of Friedeburg, and the Countess Theda, opposed the match after the manner of the time. She besieged the Castle of Friedeburg with all her forces, and all might have been .well had not Enno suddenly returned. He challenged Engelman to combat, and the fight took place on the frozen moat before the Castle of Friedeburg. The result was disastrous; Enno was in armour, Engelman Was not, and the ice breaking Enno was drowned. So the
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133. P• Frain Squire to Prince : being a History of the Rise of the House of Cirksena. Dodge. London : T. Fisher UUW/U. [10s. Bd.] Countess Theda, having lost a son, lost a daughter too. For Almuth followed Engelman into West Frisia, and there married him.
Of such romances is the history of East Frisia composed. But under Edzard I., who came next, East Frisia reached its zenith. For Edzard is said to have been the strongest man who ever sat upon the Frisian throne. His portrait, still to be seen in the Town Hall of Aurich, and here reproduced, shows a man of stern courage and unchangeable tenacity. He even dared to oppose the Emperor himself when the Emperor proposed to curtail his privileges, and he did not hesitate to oppose the Imperial edict and aims ; and he opposed them to such purpose that the sentence of outlawry passed by the Emperor was withdrawn, and Frisia remained stronger than ever. It was in the reign of Edzard, too, that the Frisians drove out the monks, and accepted the teaching of the Reformation. Indeed, nothing is more interesting in the history of small States than to note that they also suffered the shocks and changes which overtook the great nations of Europe. The preaching of Johann Wessel inflamed the people of Frisia, and the nobles were not slow to follow the people. Edzard himself seems to have been converted by the arguments of Ulrich von Dornum, and his ready accept- ance of the new tenets helped to pacify his State. Mr. Dodge sketches his character in the highest terms of praise. "He loved his people," thus he writes, "and was beloved by them; economical and temperate, both in public and private life, he had before the Saxon War taken no taxes, and did so only after the campaign, when he saw there was no other way to meet the necessary expenses of his government. His people called him their father; he listened to the needy and helpless, and a love of justice was his chief characteristic. Evenness of mind in joy and sorrow was his distinguishing quality. He was very fond of his country, and bated foreigners or foreign servants. Ubbo Emmius writes of him : Amabatur plus paene quam par erat.' " But the Counts of Frisia had the talent of attaching the affections of their people, and they seem to have won a loyal support both in peace and war.
But with modern policy the position of small States became impossible. The Counts of Frisia began• their ruin by attempting to remain neutral in the Thirty Years' War, an enterprise which the position of their country and the weak- ness of their arms rendered hopeless. Yet they maintained a sort of independence until the eighteenth century, when Count Edzard II. died without an heir. Its act um est,—such is the pathetic legend upon his tomb, and Frederick the Great took possession of his country. And since Frederick the fate of Frisia has been chequered indeed. When Napoleon reshuffled Europe, he gave Frisia to Holland. That was in 1808 ; two years later it was a province of France. Prussia recovered it in 1813, and after Waterloo it was annexed to Hanover. So under two English Kings it belonged to the dominion of Hanover, and now again Prussia is its overlord. And these changes prove that in the future we shall know no small States. The competi- tion for empire is so severe that no loopholes of insecurity may be left. An independent province, across which hostile armies may march, is too great a danger to be lightly en, countered. No doubt the inevitable amalgamation makes for peace and solidarity. But it is the death of individual variety. Whether it be Prussia or France, Russia or Eng- land, the overlord imposes with prosperity a uniform habit and custom. So large tracts of country lose their history, or rather, merge it in the general history of the world. The general gain is the gain of civilisation. Peace is secured by the im- possibility of little wars, and he who once was a Frisian, loyal and distinct, now loses his distinction in a wider loyalty given to Prussia. No Count Enno will ever challenge a private enemy to fight him on a frozen moat. But thousands of Frisians will go peacefully about their business, the happier, if the less romantic, for the protecting arm of William II. The East of Europe still teaches the old lesson. There is always a chance of "trouble in the Balkans," and universal peace will only come when the world is parcelled out among a set of Great Powers whom fear and interest keep in equilibrium. Brit the lover of romance will still regret the older fashion, and may justly acknowledge a debt of gratitude to Mr. Dodge for reminding him of the fortunes of a State now long extinct.
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