READING XVIII.

FREDERICK, ELECTOR OF SAXONY, TAKEN PRISONER BY CHARLES V.

1547.

THE Emperor Charles V. no less than the Pope had learned to make religion subservient to his ambition and policy; he was resolved to employ the imputation of heresy as a pretence for subduing the protestant princes, and oppressing the liberties of Germany; and having by his political arts separated the Palatine (German potentate) and the Elector of Brandenburgh from the protestant confederacy, he took up arms against the Elector of Saxony and the Landgrave (German prince) of Hesse.

At the head of sixteen thousand veterans, the emperor advanced into Saxony. The elector's forces were more numerous, but they were divided. Charles did not allow them time to assemble; he attacked the main body at Mulhausen, defeated it after an obstinate dispute, and took the elector prisoner. The captive prince was immediately conducted to the emperor, whom he found standing on the field of battle, in the full exultation of victory. The elector's behaviour, even in his present unfortunate and humbling condition, was decent and even magnanimous. It was worthy of his gallant resistance. He alike avoided a sullen pride and a mean submission: "The fortune of war," said he, “most gracious emperor, has made me your prisoner, and I hope to be treated"here Charles rudely interrupted him:-" And am I then, at last, acknowledged to be emperor? Charles of Ghent was the only title you lately allowed me. You shall be treated as you deserve!" turning from him with a haughty air. To this cruel repulse the King of the Romans, (the other title of Charles), added reproaches in his own name, using expressions still more harsh and insulting. The elector made no reply; but, with an unaltered countenance, accompanied the Spanish soldiers, appointed to guard him.

The emperor speedily marched towards Wittenberg, (the capital, in that age, of the electoral branch of the Saxon family), hoping that, while the consternation oc

casioned by his victory was still recent, the inhabitants would submit as soon as he appeared before their walls. But Sibylla of Cleves, the elector's wife, a woman equally distinguished by her virtue and abilities, instead of obeying the imperial summons, or abandoning herself to tears and lamentations, on account of her husband's misfortunes, animated the citizens by her example as well as exhortation, to a vigorous defence: and Charles, finding that he could not suddenly reduce the place by force, had recourse to means both ungenerous and unwarlike, but more expeditious and certain. He summoned Sibylla a second time to open the gates, informing her, that, in case of refusal, the elector should answer with his head for her obstinacy. And to convince her that he was in earnest, he brought his prisoner to an immediate trial, subjecting one of the greatest princes in the empire to the jurisdiction of a court-martial composed of Spanish and Italian officers; who, founding their charge against him upon the imperial ban, a sentence pronounced by the sole authority of Charles, and destitute of every legal formality which could render it valid, presumed the elector convicted of treason and rebellion, and condemned him to suffer death by being beheaded.

Frederick was amusing himself at chess with his fellowprisoner, Ernest of Brunswick, when this decree was intimated to him. He paused for a moment, though without any symptom of surprise or terror; and, after taking notice of the irregularity as well as injustice of the proceedings against him, "It is easy," said he, "to comprehend the emperor's scheme; I must die because Wittenberg refuses to surrender; and I will lay down my life with pleasure, if by that I can preserve the dignity of my house, and transmit to my posterity the inheritance which I received from my ancestors. Heaven grant, continued he, "that this sentence may affect my wife and children no more than it does me! that they may not, for the sake of adding a few years to a life already too long, renounce honours and territories which they were born to possess!" He then turned to his antagonist, challenged him to continue the game, and played with his usual attention and ingenuity.

It happened as the elector had feared, the account of his condemnation was not received with the same indiffer

ence at Wittenberg; Sibylla, who had supported with such undaunted fortitude her husband's misfortunes, while she imagined his person was free from danger, felt all her resolution fail the moment his life was threatened. Anxious for his safety, she despised every other consideration, and was willing to make any sacrifice in order to appease the rage of an incensed conqueror. Meantime, Charles, perceiving that the expedient he had tried began to produce the intended effect, fell by degrees from his former firmness, and allowed himself to soften into promises of clemency and forgiveness, if the elector would show himself worthy of favour by submitting to certain conditions. Frederick, on whom the consideration of what he himself might suffer, had made no impression, was melted by the tears of a wife whom he loved. He could not resist the entreaties of his family; in compliance with their repeated solicitations, he agreed to articles of accommodation which he would otherwise have rejected with disdain-to resign the electoral dignity, to put the imperial troops immediately in possession of his capital, and to remain the emperor's prisoner. In return for these important concessions, Charles promised not only to spare his life, but to settle upon him and his posterity the city of Gotha and its territory, with a revenue of fifty thousand florins.

READING XIX.

ACCESSION OF MARY.-SOLYMAN THE MAGNIFICENT.

1553.

EDWARD died of consumption in 1553, in the sixteenth year of his age; and from his zeal for religion, excluded by will his sister Mary from the succession, which he transferred to Lady Jane Grey, grand-daughter to a sister of Henry VIII. The tragical end of this amiable and accomplished lady is well known. Her death left Mary without a competitor (rival). Upon her accession she immediately lighted up the flames of religious persecution to which she consigned (delivered up) the most illustrious

reformers. Her husband, Philip II. of Spain, was as remorseless a bigot as herself, and it is singular that the same horrible crime, the murder of his own son, of which he was accused, should have also been perpetrated a few years before by the commander of the faithful, Solyman the Magnificent. The account of this fatal deed cannot fail to excite a most powerful interest in the reader, and awaken all his sympathies.

Solyman, though distinguished by many accomplishments from the other Ottoman princes, had all the passions peculiar to that violent and haughty race. He was jealous of his authority, sudden as well as furious in his anger, and susceptible of all that rage of love which reigns in the East, and often produces the wildest and most tragical effects: his favourite mistress was a Circassian slave of exquisite beauty, who bore him a son called Mustapha, whom, both on account of his birthright and merit, he destined to be the heir of his crown. Roxalana, a Russian captive, soon supplanted (displaced) the Circassian, and gained the sultan's heart. Having the address to retain the conquest which she had made, she kept possession of his love, without any rival, for many years; during which she brought him several sons and one daughter. All the happiness, however, which she derived from the unbounded sway that she had acquired over a monarch whom one half of the world revered or dreaded, was embittered by perpetual reflections on Mustapha's accession to the throne, and the certain death of her sons, who, she foresaw, would be immediately sacrificed by the barbarous jealousy of Turkish policy, to the safety of the new emperor. By dwelling continually on this melancholy idea, she came gradually to view Mustapha as the enemy of her children, and to hate him with more than a step-mother's ill-will. This prompted her to wish his destruction, in order to secure for one of her own sons the throne, which was destined for him. Nor did she want either ambition to attempt such a high enterprise, or the arts requisité for carrying it into execution. Having prevailed on the sultan to give her only daughter in marriage to Rustan, the grand visier, she disclosed her scheme to that crafty minister, who perceiving that it was to his own interest to co-operate with her, readily promised his assistance towards aggran

dizing that branch of the royal line, to which he was so nearly allied.

As soon as Roxalana had concerted (planned) measures with this able confidant, she began to affect (pretend) a wonderful zeal for the Mahometan religion, to which Solyman was superstitiously attached, and proposed to found and endow a royal mosque (a Mahometan church), a work of great expense, but deemed by the Turks meritorious in the highest degree. The mufti (Mahometan high priest) whom she consulted, approved much of her pious intention; but, having been gained and instructed by Rustan, told her that she being a slave could derive no benefit herself from that holy deed, for all the merit of it would accrue to Solyman, the master whose property she was. Upon this she seemed to be overwhelmed with sorrow, and to sink into the deepest melancholy, as if she had been disgusted with life and all its enjoyments. Solyman, who was absent with the army, being informed of this dejection of mind, and the cause which had produced it, discovered all the solicitude of a lover to remove it, and by a writing under his hand, declared her a free woman. Roxalana, having gained this point, proceeded to build the mosque, and resumed her usual gaiety of spirit; but when Solyman, on his return to Constantinople, wished to renew his former intercourse, she refused unless she was made his wife. The amorous monarch was not long before he solemnly married her, according to the form of the Mahometan ritual (a book of religious rites), though by so doing he disregarded a maxim of policy which the pride of the Ottoman blood has taught all the sultans since Bajazet I. to consider as inviolable. From this time, none of the Turkish monarchs had married, because, when he was vanquished and taken prisoner by Tamerlane, his wife had been abused with barbarous insolence by the Tartars. That no similar calamity might subject the Ottoman family to the like disgrace, the above resolution was adopted.

But the more uncommon the step was, the more it convinced Roxalana of the unbounded influence which she had acquired over the sultan's heart; and emboldened her to prosecute, with greater hope of success, the scheme that she had formed in order to destroy Mustapha. This young prince, having been entrusted by his father, accord