The Present State of Germany. Samuel Pufendorf
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arrived to the Power they now possess; for without this it will not be possible to see what was the true cause that this State [the Empire] took such an irregular form.1 Now these States are Secular Princes, Earls, Bishops, and Cities, of the Rise of each of which we will discourse briefly.
The Secular Princes are Dukes or Earls [Counts, Grafen], who have to these Titles some other added {in the German Tongue}, viz. PFALTZGRAVE, LANDTGRAVE, MARGGRAVE, and BURGGRAVE; for to the best of my remembrance, none of the ancient Princes, except he of Anhalt, has the simple Stile of a Prince [princeps, Fürst], without one of these Additions; yet some of them use the Title of Prince amongst their other Titles. Thus they of Austria are stiled Princes of Schwaben; the Dukes of Pomerania (now under the King of Sweden) the Princes of Rugen [Rügen]; <the Marggraves of Brandenburg Princes of Halberstadt, Minden, and Cammin;> the Landtgrave of Hussia [Hessia] and Hersfield, &c. <51>
The old German Dukes military Officers, as
Their Grevens or Earls were Judges in times of Peace.
The Dukes and Earls made Officers for their Lives, and at last became hereditary Proprietors.
2. Amongst the ancient Germans,2 before they were subdued by the Franks, a Duke [dux] was a meer Military Officer; as appeareth plainly by the German word HEERZOG, who for the most part were chosen on the account of their Valour, when a War was coming upon them: In Times of Peace, those that governed them, and exercised Jurisdiction, and governed their Cities, Districts, and Villages, were for the most part chosen out of the Nobility, and were called GREVEN, or GRAVEN, which is as much as President [praeses], though the Latin word Comes is more often used for it; because from the time of Constantine the Great downward <paying no attention to the designation of previous times>, those who were employed in the Ministry or Service of the Court, in the command of the Forces dispersed in the several Provinces of the Empire, or in administring Justice and the execution of the Laws, were all stiled Comites. After this, when the Franks had subdued Germany [Alemannia], and were become Masters of all its Provinces, they, after the manner of the Romans, sent Dukes to govern the Provinces in it, that is, Presidents to govern them in Peace, and command their Forces in time of War: And to these they sometimes added Comites, for administring Justice; and some Provinces were put under Comites only, and had no Dukes; but then all these that were thus employed by them, were meer Magistrates; but in length of time, it came to pass, that some persons were made Dukes for their <52> Lives, and the Son for the most part succeeded the Father: So that having so fair an opportunity in their hands, of establishing themselves, they began [gradually to have less respect for the authority of kings and] to look on their Provinces [entrusted to them] as their Patrimony and Inheritance.a
Nor can a Monarch commit a greater Error than the suffering these kinds of Administrations to become hereditary, especially where the Military Command is united to the Civil: And therefore I can scarce forbear laughing when I read this Custom, in some German Writers,3 defended, as commendable and prudent; for it is the Honour of a Prince to reward those who have deserved well of him: But then, if a Master should manumise all his Servants at once, I suppose he might, for the future, make clean his Shooes himself: A Father may be the fonder of a thing, because he knows he can leave it to his Son after him; but then the more passionately he loves his Son, the greater care he ought to [will] take, that a Stranger may claim as little Right as is possible to it. Thus we usually take more care of what is our own, than of what belongs to another:
But then a good Father [paterfamilias] will not give his Estatea to his Tenant, that he may use it so much the better. There is a cheaper way of preventing the Rebellions of Presidents, than that of granting Provinces to them, to be administred as an Inheritance. And’ tis a very silly thing to measure the Majesty of a Prince [ruler], by the number of those in his Dominions, who can with safety despise him and his Soveraignty.<53>
|[To say more were to no purpose; for to expose the Stupidity of these men, it will be sufficient for us to consider, that they are not ashamed to compare the German Lawyers with the Italian, French, and Spanish Writers; and yet the [abortive]Writings of the greatest part of them [the former] shew, they never understood the first Principles of civil Prudence.]| a
Charles the Great endeavoured to redress this error.
3. Charles the Great observing the Error committed by his Ancestors, took away the greatest part of the Dukedoms, which were of too great extent; and dividing the larger Provinces into smaller parts, committed them to the care of Counts, Comites, or Earls, some of which retained the simple Name of Counts, and others were call’d PFALTZGRAVES, or PFALTZGRAVEN, Comites Palatini, Count Palatins, or Prefects of the Court-Royal,4 and in that capacity administred Justice within the [Verge of the]b Court. Others were call’d LANDTGRAVES, that is, Presidents set over a whole Province. Others were call’d MARGGRAVES, Presidents of the Marches or Borders, for repelling the Incursions of Enemies, and administring Justice to the Inhabitants. Others were called BURGGRAVES, that is, Prefects or Governours of some of the Royal Castles or Forts.
And these Offices and Dignities were not granted by Charles the Great, in Perpetuity or Inheritance, but with a Power reserved to himself, to renew his Grants to the same person, or bestow them on another, as he thought fit.
But his Posterity returned to the former ill management.
Otho Duke of Saxony, a King in Fact, though not in Title.
But after <54> the Death of Charles the Great, his Posterity returned to the Errors of the former Reigns, and not only the Sons were suffered to succeed their Fathers in these Magistracies [or Governments]+, but by a conjunction or union of many Counties or Earldoms, or by the Will of some of his Successors, some Dukedoms were again formed, which contained great Extents of Lands. The Presidents employed by them in the Government of these Provinces, thought it a piece of Cowardice and Sloth in themselves not to take hold of these occasions and opportunities of establishing themselves and their Posterities, (as the nature of Mankind is prone to Ambition) especially when the Authority of the French Emperors declined, and became every day more contemptible [diminished], [and their power fragmented] by reason of their intestine Dissentions and destructive Wars with one another. And in the first place, Otho Duke of Saxony, the Father of Henry the Falconer, having under him a large and a warlike Nation, so established himself, that he wanted nothing but the Title to make him a King: And when Conrad I. Emperor of Germany, undertook to subdue and bring under Henry his [Otho’s] Son, he miscarried in the Attempt, and at his Death he advised the Nobility [proceres] to bestow the Imperial Dignity on this his prosperous Rival, thinking it the wisest course to give him what he could have taken by force, for fear he should canton himself, and disjoin his Dominions from the rest of Germany.
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