The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1859-11-03
Royal House of BraMdcnbur:

Prussia, like Austria, has grown from an
humble beginning and the history ofherroyal
family is as striking as that of the House Of
Hapsburg. 1t is briefly, this. In the early
middle ages there was gradually formed, in
the north Of Germany, State called the
Margraviate of Brandenburg, of which the
old city of that name on the Hawai-, was the
principal place. The reighing family of this
petty State having become extinct in the first
of the 10Th century, the then Emperor of
Germ,ny, (Charles ~ J gave it to his son
Sigismund, who succeeded him on the throne
of Germany. Sigismund, shortly after CON-
ing to the throne, resolved to have a council
of the Church convened, which took place at
Constance, city Of the Empire, and lasted
from 1415 to 14T9. Being much in want of
money for the holding of this council, he
sold the 'Margraviate of fBrandenburg to Fred
erick, burgrave of Nuremburg and Count
of Hohenzollern, petty principality which
lies almost in the centre of the modern King
dom Of Wurtemburg, in the southern part of
Germany. This Frederick took possession
Of his new possessions in the North, and be-
came the founder of the present royal family
of Prussia, which is often called the House
Of Hohenzollern. ....
Little by little the Margures, as they
were called, of Brandenburg, increased in
various ways their dominions, until they be
came quite respectable in dimensions and
population. Inprocess oftime, Brandenburg
became an electorate (the seventh in rank
of the Empire, and its prince as an elector
took his place in the Diet by the side of the
other eight Princes of that rank In the
meanwhile the conquest of Prussia "a coun-
try lying north of Poland and along the south
shore of the Baltic and belonging to the
Tetonic Knights was effected by the Mar
graves or Electors of Brandenburg, and soon
after that time their enlarged possessions
began to take the name of Prussia. This
was emphatically the case when, in 1902, the
Elector Frederic assumed the title of King,
which in fact belonged as well to his grand
father (the great Elector, as he is called in
history for he was the real founder of the
Kingdom of Prussia, having in 1856 COM
PEELED the King of Poland to declare the
Duchy of Prussia independent
The Kingdom of Prussia has, therefore,
been in existence, under that title, one hun
dred and fifty seven years. Ithashad six mon
archs. including him whose life is coming to
close, like lamp whose lingering light is
just Pickering in the socket The second
and last three have borne the name of Fred
erick William-aftcr the 'great clector" of
whom we have just spoken. The third, as
is well known, was Frederick III, better
known as "Frederick the great" by far the
most distinguished monarch ofthe eighteenth
century. When he asccndcd the throne Gin
1T40) the population of the Kingdom was
less than two millions and quarter; when
he died Gn 1867 1T was six millions. The
treasury, which he found full, he left full,
Notwithstanding the four wars which he
! carried on with the Emperors of Germany,
chiefly on account of SileSia. One of these
was, that whichis called the ".Seren Yerrs'
Udr"-from 1856 to '63-was one of the
most remarkable which the world has seen
in modern times.
But it is not necessary that we should 80
into much more detail After Frederick the
Great came the reign of Frederick William
III. and the French Revolutions dsasterous
in many respects to Germany These were
succeeded by the reigh Of Frederick William
iii. and the Empire of Napoleon l., during
which Prussia was trampled under foot by
Fren.h legions But the day of retribution
came; Bonaparte lost 10000 men in the
dreadful battle Of Leipsic (Oct. 1879 and
Prussia was again free from the yoke of the
Conqueror
In 1910, the present King (Frederick Will
liam IV) succeeded his father, who was
man greatly endeared to the people, both
because of his good character and the over
whelming adversities which he bad been
called to endure
| Steadily the kingdom of Prussia has ad-
vanced in population and in all the elements
of civilization, until it is now 1900, 900 in
habtants six excellent universities, each
having corps of able Professors an admi-
rable school system, which overspreads the
whole kingdom, sustained by first rate mar
NAL schools for the preparation of teachers;
a system of railways that covers the country
Ikea network agriculture so greatly i'm
proved that poor, sandy country has been
made almost everywhere to assume the ap-
pearance of a garden; and manufactures,
trade, and commerce vastly augmented.
Although Prussia is far from having such
a Constitution as she ought to have, and will
before long possess, she is one Of the best
governed countries in Europe. Even before
she had Constitution at all, she was incom-
parably better governed than any other un-
limited monarchy on the continent In no
country that we have ever seen, have we
found so large a number of well educated
and competent men filling the public offices,
from the lowest to the highest.
| The preSent monarch thonoh FOO ;,,,,ot,,