Black Sea for fear of the guard which is always kept by the Turks in the ancient ruines which they call Aslan-Korodick Tawan is the greatest and easiest passage of the Tartars the river not being above five hundred paces broad being all in one channel The last pass and at the mouth of the Nieper is Oczacow where the river is three miles broad yet both the Tartars and others pass it frequently in this manner they furnish themselves with flat-bottom'd boats at the stern whereof they fasten across poles of a good length upon which they tye the heads of their horses as many on the one side as the other to balance them they put their baggage in the boat and row it over and with it the horses The Turks pass'd over in this manner forty thousand horse when the Grand Seignior sent to besiege Azak or Azow at the mouth of Don in the year 1643 which the Donski Cosacks had taken from him the year before Oucze Sauram or Nowe Koniecpolsky is the lowest habitation the Polacks have towards Oczacow which was begun to be built in the year 1634. Oczacow call'd by the Turks Dziancrimenda is the place where the Turkish galleys lye to keep the entrance into the Black Sea there is no port but good anchorage the Castle is well fortified the Town not so well there are in it about two thousand inhabitants Below that is a platform with good ordnance to guard the mouth of the river About three miles below Oczacow is an haven called Berezan upon a river called Anczakrick it is sufficiently deep for galleys Southward of that are two Lakes Jesero Teligol and Kuialik both of them so abundant in fish that the water having no exit stinks of them yet they come above an hundred and fifty miles to fish there Bielogrod is about three miles from the Sea upon the river Niester anciently called Tyras by the Turks Kierman This Town is under the Turk as is also Killa well fortified with a counterscarp the Castle is above the Town upon the Danow opposite to it on the other bank of the Danow is Kiha where are seen divers ancient ruines Betwixt Bielogrod and Killa are the plains of Budziack where the rebel or banditi Tartars refuge themselves who acknowledg no superior either Turk or Cham they are always watching upon the confines of Poland to catch what Christians they can and sell them to the Turks of these we have spoken before There are also many Turkish villages along the south-bank of the Niester but all the country betwixt that and the Danow as also betwixt that and the Nieper are desarts and are inhabitated by those Tartars who there pasture their flocks of whom we have spoken already Such also was the Vkrain till of late that the industry of the late Kings of Poland and the valour of the Cosacks has render'd it as fruitful as it was before desart We may judg of it by what Monsieur Beauplan saith that in seventeen years that he lived in that country himself laid the foundations of above fifty colonies which in a few year sprouted into above a thousand villages But being so lately planted the Reader cannot expect we should have much to inform him Yet it is not amiss to give some account of animals which are almost proper to this country They have a beast which they call Bobac Anim. not much unlike a Guiny-pig they make holes in the earth whereinto they enter in October and come not abroad till April within they have many little apartments disposing severally their provision their dead their lodging c. eight or nine families live together as in a City each having his particular habitation They are easily tamed and are very gamesome in an house When they go to make their provision they set a sentinel who as soon as he spies any one gives a signal by making a noise and they all haste to their caves many more things are spoken of these little creatures as that they have slaves and punishments c. Sounaky a kind of goat is desired for his beautiful sattin-like fur and white shining smooth delicate horns He hath no bone in his nose and cannot feed except he go backward Thy have many wild horses but of no value only for their flesh which they sell in the markets and think it better then Beef or Veal When these horses come to be old their hoofs so straiten their feet being never pared that they can hardly go as if that beast was so made for mans use that without his care he was unprofitable NOVISSIMA POLONIAE REGNI Descriptio Nobiliss tam dignitate â—…ueris quan Meritis ac Patriam Honoratiis Viro D. no NICOLAO PAHL in celeberrimo Maris Balthici emporio Vrbe GEDANENSI Praeconsuli vicepraesidi bonarum artium Patrono ac fautori observantiae ergò D. D. D. IOANNES IANSSONIVS POLAND POLONIA or Poland call'd by the Natives Polska takes its name as some conjecture from Pole which in the Slavonian language here commonly spoken signifies a plain and champain Country such as this Kingdom for the most part consists of Others suppose that the inhabitants from their first Captain Lechus or Lachus being called Po-lachi that is the posterity of Lachus and by corruption Polani and Poloni imparted their name to their country And in favour of this opinion it may be urged that they call themselves Polacci the Italians Polacchi the Russians Greeks and Tartars call them Lachi and Lechitae the Hungarians Lengel probably for Lechel the same with Po-lachi But Hartknoch finding the Bulanes placed by Ptolomy among the ancient inhabitants of Sarmatia and observing the Poloni to be call'd Bolani and Bolanii by the German writers thinks he hath made the fairest discovery of the original of the word Nevertheless Cromerus affirms that the present name either of the country or people hath not been in use above nine hundred years Certainly in the time of Alfred King of England about the year 880 this Country was called Weonodland and before that by the Romans generally Sarmatia as being the best known part of that great Country Only that branch of Poland which lies on the west-side of the Weissel belonged to old Germany and as Ptolomy acquaints us was inhabited by the Aelvaeones the Luti Omanni Longi Diduni and Luti Buri with other German Colonies By some writers the same is assigned to Vandalia and the Vistula called Vandalus having been for a time in the possession of the Vandals The people of Poland are the undoubted off-spring of the Slavi Slavini or Slavonians seated in Justinians time as Jornandes relates on the north-side of the Carpathian mountains from the fountain of the Weisel to the Niester and thence extending themselves westward to the Danube and eastward to the Euxin Sea from which parts they then made innundations into the Roman Empire In their first expeditions they were joined with the Antae and Vinidae or Venedi or rather in
coming of the Asians into these parts says Odin or Woden the great Captain of the Asae spread his language over Saxony as well as Denmark Sweden and Norway Adding further That within awhile the Asian tongue was generally spoken in all the neighbouring Countries The strongest argument to prove a difference between this tongue and the old Teutonic may be had from a diligent enquiry into the various phrases and proprieties of speech used in both of them But when we consider how much the idioms of the High and Low Dutch differ and how vastly the Syntax of our English Language is alter'd from the Danish and German we shall have reason to confess before we pronounce these last two distinct primitive languages that time is able strangely to alter the physiognomy of tongues as well as men However the dispute is like shortly to have an end and the Danes will in a little while if they do not already speak good Dutch For the German tongue is now ordinarily spoken in Copenhagen and most of the chief trading Cities in Denmark To let pass the stories of King Dan Government whom some Historians make to reign in this Kingdom three hundred years before the birth of our Saviour it is manifest from the unquestionable testimonies of the best Roman writers that Denmark was a Monarchy in the Consulship of Catulus and Marius near an hundred years before Christ Afterwards we have a certain account of Gothric King of the Danes in the days of the Emperor Charles the Great from whom the present Kings of Denmark are descended in a lineal succession except what Pontanus seems not to allow of the line of the ancient Kings failed upon the death of King Christopher III. A. D. 1448 The power of the Danish Nobility in Council is exceeding great but not so large as to make the supreme Government Aristocratical Some would argue That the Nobles are above the King since 't is well known they denied to Crown Frederic II. in the year 1559 till he had sworn never to pretend to be able by his own authority to put any Nobleman to death From this and some other like instances Bodinus endeavours to prove the Kings of Denmark petty Princes rather then absolute Monarchs not remembring that even in France it self as well as all other Kingdoms of Europe it has always been thought requisite for the satisfaction of the people that every King at his Coronation should make some solemn Vow to maintain the ancient Laws and Priviledges of his Country and Subjects And if in the case mentioned the Nobility of Denmark required their King to lay a stricter obligation on himself then was usual the performance was arbitrary and not constrain'd The Subjects might possibly upon the Kings refusal to gratifie them have rebell'd against their lawful Sovereign but could not justly have compell'd him to a compliance Before the year 1660 King the Kingdom of Denmark was not as Norway Hereditary but Elective yet so that the Senators usually chose the eldest son of their King who thenceforward was styled the Prince The rest of the Kings sons had the Titles of Dukes and Heirs of Norway The Election in ancient times was commonly had in this solemn manner As many of the Nobles as were Senators and had power to give their voices agreed upon some convenient place in the fields where seating themselves in a circle upon so many great stones they gave their votes This done they placed their new elected Monarch in the middle upon a stone higher then the rest and saluted him King In Seland to this day there is such a company of stones which bear the name of Kongstolen or the Kings seat And Olaus Magnus tells us the same story of a great stone call'd by the Vicenage Morastaen near Vpsal in Sweden Near St. Buriens in Cornwall in a place which the Cornish-men call Biscow-Woune are to be seen nineteen stones set in a round circle distant every one about twelve foot from the other and in the very center one pitched far higher and greater then the rest This Cambden fancies to have been some Trophee erected by the Romans under the later Emperors or else by Athelstane the Saxon when he had subdued Cornwal and brought it under his dominion But Wormius more probably guesses that in this place some Danish or Saxon King was elected by his followers And I conceive the same may be said of Long Meg and her daughters near little Salkeld in Cumberland But to return to Denmark of later years the Danes in their elections have follow'd the customs of other Countries till Frederic III. in the year 1660 who was the first that ventur'd to exercise the authority of an absolute Prince and to shake off the dependance his Ancestors were wont to have upon the good will of their Subjects procuring with fair words and threats a Law to be established That for the future the Kingdom of Denmark should immediately upon the Kings death descend upon his lawful Heir Whereupon the present King Christian V. was the same night his Father dyed without any previous election or consent asked of the Nobility proclaimed King The Rites of Coronation are usually perform'd at Copenhagen where the King is anointed by the Bishop of Roschild The Chronicles of the Kings of Denmark which have hitherto been publish'd Catalogue of their Kings are so imperfect and contradictory one to another that 't is utterly impossible to give an exact Catalogue of their Kings Saxo Grammaticus who liv'd saith Stephanus in the twelfth Century has made a shift to collect a great many stories out of the scatter'd fragments of old Runic Inscriptions and ancient Ballads and to relate them in a better method and stile then could be well expected from the age he liv'd in But when we consider that the best he met with could not possibly be of more authority then such venerable scraps of Chronicles as are published by Wormius at the end of his Monumenta Danica and see how these two run counter it is hard to rest satisfied with the relation he gives us and yet as difficult to provide our selves of a better The first rational account given us of any of the Danish Kings which we may safely rely upon for truth is in our English Chronicles which as the Learned Sir Henry Spelman in an Epistle to Ol. Rosecrantz formerly Danish Ambassador in England treat more fully and clearly of the affairs of Denmark then any of the Danish Historians Wherefore omitting the relations given of Dan Humblus and the rest of their Heathen Kings as either false or frivolous we shall content our selves with a short Register of the Kings of Denmark since the first planting of Christianity in that Kingdom And 1. Harald being beaten out of his Kingdom by his brother Reinferd's accomplices fled to the Emperor Ludowic for help who assisted him in regaining of his Crown upon condition he would forsake his Idolatry and turn
for many of them to be dubb'd Knights upon any considerable piece of service done their King or Country The Danes call their Knights Ridders i. e. Equites Riders and all their offspring have the title of Riddersmens men The most noble Order of Knighthood in Denmark Knights of the Elephant is that Of the Elephant Of which we cannot have a better account then is given us by the Learned Elias Ashmole Esquire Windsor Herald at Arms in his famous work of The Institution Laws and Ceremonies of the most Noble Order of the Garter p. 120. Observing saith he some difference among writers touching the Institution Collar and Ensign of this Order I was in doubt what to say till at length I haply met with better satisfaction from a Letter wrote in the year 1537 by Avo Bilde Bishop of Arhusen sometime Chancellor to John King of Denmark and Norway unto John Fris Chancellor to King Christian the third a copy whereof was communicated to me by Monsieur Cristoftle Lindenow Envoy from Christian the fifth now King of Denmark to his sacred Majesty the present Soveraign of the most Noble Order of the Garter This Letter informs him of the Institution and some other particulars relating to the Order to wit That King Christian the first being at Rome whither he had travel'd upon a religious account Pope Sixtus the fourth among other honours invested him with this Order in memory of the Passion of our Lord and Saviour and withall ordain'd that the dignity of Chief and Supreme should be continued as a successive right to the succeeding Kings of Denmark This King founded the magnificent Chappel of the three Kings in the Cathedral Church at Roschild four leagues from Copenhagen where the Knights were obliged to assemble upon the death of any of their fraternity He also admitted thereinto divers Kings Princes and Noblemen The chief Ensign of this Order was the figure of an Elephant on whose side within a rundle was represented a Crown of Thorns with three Nails all bloody in honour and memory of the Passion of our blessed Saviour The Knights were obliged to the performance of acts of Piety Alms-deeds and certain Ceremonies especially upon those days on which they wore the Ensigns of the Order But King John set so high a value upon it that he wore them on every solemn Festival He also advanc'd the honour of this Order to so great esteem that it became accepted by both our King Henry the eighth and James the fifth of Scotland his sisters son with whom the Ensigns thereof remain'd as a pledg and assurance of constant and perpetual friendship with these he likewise invested divers Ambassadors Senators and Noble Danes There is one Ivarus Nicholai Hertholm a learned Dane as I am inform'd who hath written a particular Treatise of the Elephantine Order but not yet printed The scope whereof is to shew that the before mentioned Epistle of the Bishop of Arhusen does not sufficiently make it appear that it received its first Institution when Christian the first had those many honours confer'd on him by Pope Sixtus the fourth And that the Badge was an Ensign meerly Military anciently given as a memorial and incitement to the Danish Princes who took upon them the defence of Christianity against the Moors and Africans 'T is greatly presumed that this Book which we hope may shortly be published will furnish the world with many choice things relating to the antiquity and honour of the Institution Ensigns and Ceremonies of the Royal Order Heretofore the Knights wore a Collar of Gold compos'd of Elephants and Crosses fashioned something like Crosses ancrees Mennenius calls them Spurs at which hung the picture of the Virgin Mary to the middle holding Christ in her arms and surrounded with a Glory of Sun-beams But they have long since laid this Collar aside and now wear only a blew Ribbon at which hangs an Elephant enamel'd white adorn'd with five large Diamonds set in the middle Those Elephants worn by the Knights in the days of Christian the fourth had in the same place within a circle the Letter C and in the heart thereof the figure of 4 made to signifie Christianus quartus This honour hath most commonly been conferr'd by the Kings of Denmark on the day of their Coronation both upon the Nobles and Senators of the Kingdom It seems Frederic the third brought into use in imitation of the most Noble Order of the Garter an embroider'd Glory of Silver Purl wrought upon the left side of their Cloak or Vest on which was embroider'd two Crowns within a Rundle bearing this Motto Deus Providebit for such an one did Count Guldenlow Ambassador hither from that King wear at his residing here in England in the year 1669. But we are to note that the Motto hath changed with the King for that of the present King is Pietate Justitia and this the Knights of his election now wear in the middle of the circle Nevertheless all the Knights created by his father are obliged still to continue the former Motto In remembrance of the Danebroge or holy Danish Cross which was thought miraculously to have preserved King Waldemar the Second's Army from the fury of the Lieflanders as we shall have occasion hereafter to shew when we come to speak of the Arms of this Kingdom that King instituted the Order of Knights of the holy Cross Knights of Danebroge Which continued till the relique it self was lost in Ditmarss but then was for many years quite lay'd aside Of late the present King Christian the fifth revived this antiquated Order in the year 1672. Ordaining That Knights of this Order of which he himself is one should wear a white enamell'd Cross edged round with red hung in a string of the same colours reaching from the right shoulder to the left side Thomas Bartholinus P. has given us a large account of the first Original Progress Restauration c. of this Order To whom we refer the Reader Out of these Knights Senators and the rest of the Nobility were chosen formerly the Senators who seldom exceeded the number of eight but are now a far greater number As long as they continued in their places they were maintain'd as our Parliament may be if they please during their sitting by the Country The King allow'd them Castles to live in They pay'd no Taxes but were obliged to keep a certain number of Light-horse ready for service upon all occasions They were bound to attend the King at his call upon their own charges provided he stir'd not out of his own dominions But if he sent them on an Ambassy into other Princes Courts they had an allowance out of the Treasury Besides these there are others that live as Pensioners Pensioners to whom the King in requital of some good services done him assigns certain Livings for life or a set number of years forlaeninger out of which they are to provide so many
claim'd by vertue of the Treatyes of Roschild Copenhagen and Westphalia which by this Treaty were confirm'd The Duke expected besides being restored to his Countries some recompence for the damages he had sustained during the war and at least to have had back the Canon being an hundred excellent Brass pieces which were taken out of Tunningen when it was seized and dismantled by Denmark But his expectation in this point were not answered One of the Articles of the same Treaty was That the Country of Rixingen belonging to Count Alefelt Chancellor of Denmark made Governour of Holstein in the year 1663 upon the death of Christian Earl of Rantzaw chief Minister of State to the late King Frideric III. confiscated during the war should be restored to him DITMARS THE inhabitants of this Province are a remnant of the ancient Saxons and retain much of the prowess and heroic spirits of their ancestors Some will have the word writ Deutsch or Teutschmarsh i. e. the German or Dutch Marsh because the people are reliques of the German-Saxons and the Country plain and fenny The Ditmarssians were never like the Wagrians and Stormarians brought under subjection to the Earls of Holstein till that whole Earldom was annexed to the Crown of Denmark And tho they were given by the Emperor Frideric III. to Christian Earl of Oldenburgh the first Danish King of that House yet soon after they threw off this yoke and refused to acknowledg themselves subject to him or his successors till by the valour and good fortune of King Frideric II. they were vanquished and forced to submit in the year 1559. In this expedition the King of Denmark was assisted by John and Adolph Dukes of Holstein his Cousin-Germans Whereupon they sharing the conquest with him Ditmars was divided into two parts whereof the Southern fell to the King of Denmark and the Northern to the Dukes of Holstein The only places of note in Ditmars are 1. Meldorp the chief Town in the Province seated on the German Ocean and a place of good trade 2. Heyde which is a large but poor City on the borders of the great barren Sands of the same name which overspread the middle of the Country 3. Lunden opposite to Tonningen near the mouth of the Eyder STORMAR STormar Stormars or Stormarsh signifies no more then the Marshy ground lying along the banks of the river Stoer For 't is observable that the inhabitants of the Great Dukedom of Holstein are distinguished by names taken from the nature of the soil in that part of the Country they inhabit And the ancient Marsi were nothing else then a people that liv'd in these bogs and fens and thence took their name Hamburgh of which City we shall have occasion to give a large description elsewhere stands in Stormar Hamburgh and upon that score the Earls and Dukes of Holstein have always pretended a right to this City and demanded homage of the Citizens These pretensions were judged legal and the right and title of the said Dukes ratified by the Emperor Charles IV. in the year 1374. Whereupon the Hamburghers swore allegiance to Christian I. King of Denmark acknowledging him and his successors their lawful Lords But not long after they endeavoured to throw off that yoke presuming much upon their own strength and the assistance they promise themselves upon all occasions from the rest of the Hans Towns This last year 1679 the present King of Denmark renewed his claim and came before this City with an Army of sixteen or seventeen thousand men to demand homage entring the Elb with fourteen men of war and seizing several Merchant-ships English and others at Gluckstadt On the ninth of November an agreement was signed between the King and this City the Articles of which were I. That his Majesty and this City shall remain unprejudiced in their several rights and pretentions and that the point of homage shall be amicably determined by Treaty or by an ordinary process before the Chamber of Spire and that in the mean time this City shall enjoy a Neutrality and free commerce as formerly II. That this City with a thankful acknowledgment of his Majesties good will towards them shall remain in an humble devotion towards him and shall to the utmost of their power further his good and prevent any evil they know likely to happen to him III. That for the greater manifestation of this their devotion this City shall send a formal Deputation to his Majesty IV. That this City in consideration of his Majesties being graciously pleased to receive them again into his favour shall pay him 220000 Crowns at four Terms the first payment to be made immediately after the ratifying the Recess the second within six months after and the third and last at the end of other six months V. That his Majesty shall quit all his pretentions to any Lands which this City at present holds either in particular or in common with the City of Lubeck shall release the Ships stopt DITHMARSIA RENDESBURGUM KIEL et BORDESHOLM in Occidentali pâ—rte HOLSATIAE Tabula Geographica novissima DUCATUS STORMARIAE in Meriodionali parte HOLSATIAE Apud Janssonio-Waesbergios et Mosem Pitt WAGRIA quae est PARS ORIENTALID HOLSATIAE Ex Officina Janssonio-Waesbergios et Moses Pitt at Gluckstadt and shall ratifie this Recess within eight days Five days after the signing of this Interim Recess so called because it leaves both parties in the same rights they had before the Deputies of Hamburgh according to the tenure of the third Article waited on the King of Denmark at his Quarters at Pinneberg and being admitted to Audience spoke to him in the following words Most Serene and most Potent King most Gracious Lord Whereas your Royal Majesty is by the mercy of God happily arrived in this your Dukedom and consequently in the neighbourhood of this City of Hamburgh and hath caused proposals consisting in three points to be made to the said City and hath desired their resolution thereupon And whereas the first point through the shortness of time and for other reasons could not be determined at present and that your Majesty hath therefore been graciously pleased to refer the same to an amicable agreement or to a legal determination and in the mean time to remove the displeasure you had taken against the said City and by an Interims Recess graciously to agree That as well the rights and pretentions of your Majesty as of the said City shall remain unprejudiced The Burgermasters and Raedts Deputies do in the name of themselves and of all the Burghers appear before your Majesty and do promise faithfully to observe the said Interims Recess in all its points and clauses and particularly to bear your Majesty most humble and becoming devotion That to the utmost of their power they will further your Majesties good and hinder all ill and detriment from happening to your Majesty Provided this City be left in a quiet and undisturbed enjoyment of their
made use of at such a solemnity was a wreath of white Scarffs wherewith they bound the heads of their Kings The Elector of Colen for a long time perform'd the Ceremony of Coronation but because the Archbishops of that See have not been Priests for many years the Archbishop of Mentz has executed the office for this last Century At the Coronation of the Emperor Ferdinand III. there arose a grand dispute betwixt the Elector of Colen who at that time was a Priest and the Archbishop of Mentz the former demanding a restitution of the Honour which did formerly belong to his See and the later asserting his right from the example of his Predecessors who had long enjoy'd it However the Archbishop of Colen was overthrown and the Archbishop of Mentz perform'd the office and in so doing some say only preserv'd a right which many ages before had belong'd to his predecessors At the Coronation the King of Bohemia carries the Crown the Elector of Bavaria bears the Globe the Duke of Saxony the Sword and the Marquess of Brandenburgh the Scepter Of the King of the ROMANS THat there may be a King of the Romans chosen while the Emperor is living is a matter of fact which none can be ignorant of who are conversant in the writings of the modern German Historians Thus Charles IV. Wenceslaus Maximilian I. II. Rodolph II. Ferdinand III. IV. were all elected in the life-time of their Predecessors However many of their Civilians question the lawfulness of the Election fancying that by this means the Electors may disturb the peace of the Empire by setting up two Princes at once who by Election have a just Title to the Imperial Crown The consequence indeed may be dangerous but there is no disputing the Authority of those who doubtless have as great power in appointing the Emperor a Successor when they please as they have in deposing him 'T is ordinary in some of the High Dutch writers to mean the Emperor when they speak of the King of the Romans and till of late years there was no difference between them But now there are many marks of distinction As 1. The King of the Romans bears for his Arms the Eagle with one head the Emperor with two 2. The former is only stiled Augustus but the later Semper Augustus 3. The Emperor in his Letters Patents directed to the King of the Romans begins his Compellation with Vnsern Liebten i. e. To our Beloved c. but the King in his Answers complements the Emperor with the Title of Ihre Majestaet i. e. Tour Majesty Lastly the King of the Romans always acknowledges the Emperor his Superior and has no authority of his own during the Emperors life When the Emperor is absent or employed in other affairs he usually takes upon him the administration of the Empire and after the Emperors death succeeds without any further Election The first occasion of Electing a King of the Romans proceeded from a politic contrivance of the Emperors who by this means got the Imperial Crown secured to their own Family For making use of their power and authority while themselves sat in the Throne they could easily obtain the favour of the Electors to chuse a Son Nephew or other Relation to be King of the Romans which at last being grown customary prov'd almost as considerable kindness to the House of Austria as if they had entail'd the Empire upon that Family For das Heilige Romische Reich or the Holy Roman Kingdom signifies the same thing in the German Tongue as the Sacred Empire and 't is all one to chuse any Prince King of the Romans as to Elect him Emperor Of Dukes Counts and other Orders of Nobility in the GERMAN Empire THo the ancient Germans had litle or no Magistracy amongst them in time of peace Dukes yet both Julius Cesar and Tacitus agree in this that whenever they were engag'd in war they had one supreme Governor who ruled the Armies and gave laws to the multitude This superintendant of their forces they call'd Heertog or Heerzog a name which their Dukes to this day retain which signifies as much as the Latin word Dux or our Duke i. e. A Leader or Commander of an Army He was usually chosen in a general Assembly of the whole Country by a majority of voices and as soon as he was elected they set him upon a Banner and bore him upon their shoulders Which ceremony as Cluverius proves was afterwards observ'd by later Germans in the Election of their Kings and by the Roman Soldiers at the Coronation of their Emperors Julius Cesar tells us that these Dukes had power of life and death but Tacitus who was better acquainted with the state of Germany assures us they had no such authority They could indeed give counsel and orders to the Soldiers but had no power to punish offenders or correct the obstinate For in all probability there was not any manner of Judges in the Land that had the power of sentencing any offender to death When any controversie arose amongst the Commonalty Counts or Graven they were wont to chuse a Judg out of the Nobility of the Village where the quarrel begun These kind of Judges they call'd Grafen or Graven and their office was to determine all trifling disputes in their neighbourhood Meibomius in his learned Tract of Irmensul tells us that all Germany was anciently divided into Villages call'd by the inhabitants Gouwen and that each of these had their peculiar Judges thence nam'd Gowgraven Ein Graff says the Author of the Glossary upon the Saxon Spiegel bedeut nach altem Sachsischen Deutschen ein Richter i. e. Graf signifies a Judg in the old Saxon language Die Graven signifies properly the grey headed or elders of the people whence our King Edward the Confessor in the thirty-fifth Chapter of his Laws afterwards confirm'd by William the Conqueror tells us that the Low Dutch Greve is in effect the same with the English Eoldenmen now Aldermen This was the ancient state of the Dukes and Earls in Germany before the Romans overran some parts of that Land but whatever came into their hands was immediately divided into Provinces and govern'd as they themselves pleased Whence Duces and Comites were created by them in several places but such as had another kind of power committed to them then the aforesaid Hertzogen and Graven could pretend to In Roman Historians we meet with a great many of this sort such as Dux Germaniae primae Dux Moguntiacensis Dux Sequanicae Dux Rhetiae primae secundae Dux Belgicae secundae c. And Ammianus Marcellinus speaks of one Carietto whom he calls Comes per utramque Germaniam These had authority to raise Taxes and were invested with many other priviledges in the administration of justice which the others wanted But the Romans having never got any considerable footing on the East-side of the Rhine could not fix any of their fashions of Government in the Northern
unanimous are sufficient to defend the whole Island against a potent enemy The Language anciently spoken in Rugen was a Dialect of the Slavonian or Wendish tongue Language But after the Dukes of Pomeren assisted by the Citizens of Stralsund as shall be shew'n hereafter had possession of the Island the Wendish manners and language were utterly abolished insomuch that 't is recorded in the Annals of Rugen as a memorable thing that in the year 1404 there was one old woman left in the Isle that understood perfectly and could speak the Slavonian tongue At this day the greatest part of the inhabitants speak the language of the Lower Saxons and some few especially where the King of Sweden's Officers keep their residence speak Swedish The ancient inhabitants of this Isle were the last of all the Northern Nations that were converted from their Idolatry and Paganism Religion and embrac'd the Christian Religion Helmondus seems to point more especially at the Rugians when he says Inter omnes autem Borealium populos sola Slavorum Provincia remansit caeteris durior atque ad credendum tardior However about the year 813 a company of hardy Monks ventur'd to preach up Christianity to these stubborn people and succeeded so well in the undertaking as in a very short time to bring over a great many of them to the true faith But they as quickly abandon'd Christianity and relaps'd into their former Idolatry For as upon the first preaching of the Gospel in Lycaonia the inhabitants of that Country were ready to do sacrifice to St. Barnabas and St. Paul under the names of Jupiter and Mercury so these poor people mistaking God's Ministers for God himself idoliz'd St. Vite a poor Monk that had undertaken their conversion by the name of Swant which name was afterwards given to a monstrous four headed Image which they worshipp'd in a sumptuous Temple To this Idol all the Rugians repair'd as to an Oracle for advice and the foreign Merchants that had made a safe Voyage were obliged to offer up some of their best Merchandises as a tribute of thanksgiving to this grand tutelary God of the Island Three hundred Horses were kept constantly for the service of Swant one whereof was white and never rid but by the chief Priest This Horse was now and then shew'n to the people in a morning all over besmear'd with dirt and sweat the Priest in the mean time protesting to the multitude that Swant himself had brought the beast into that pickle by engaging with and pursuing the Enemies of Rugen the night before The manner of worshipping this Idol which stood in Arcona the famous City in old Rugen before mention'd was thus The chief Priest looking into a Horn which the Image held in its right hand and which had been fill'd the year before with a precious liquor prognosticated from the good quantity or scarcity of the liquor therein contain'd the plenty or dearth of the year following That done with his lips shut for fear of harming the Idol with his breath he very solemnly poured out the remaining liquor at the feet of the Image and having replenish'd it afresh plac'd it again with a great deal of reverence in the God's right hand whence he had taken it down These Ceremonies being ended the rest of that day was spent in anniversary feasting and jollity In this miserable condition the Rugians continued for some ages until by a continual conversation with their neighbours the Pomeranians they were almost insensibly turn'd Christians and about five hundred years ago at last wholly quitted their Idolatrous practices and at this day the inhabitants of Rugen are as zealous assertors and maintainers of the Augsburg Confession as any Germans whatever The Isle was anciently govern'd by Princes of its own Gâ—â—â—mers whose Dominions reach'd beyond the narrow boundaries the Sea had set them a great way into Pomeren taking in all the Territories near Stralsund Gripswald and other places now subject to the King of Sweden Antiquity will afford us a Register of Eleven Princes of Rugen and those in the following order 1. Wislaus who is said to have been Prince of Rugen in the days of the Emperor Otho I. about the year of Christ 938. 2. Grimus Remarkable for nothing but his filling up a space in the Catalogue of these Princes 3. Cruco or Crito At the same time Prince of Rugen and petty King of the Obatriti in the year 1100 who after he had for some years exercis'd Idolatry and Tyranny in his Dominions was deposed and slain by Henry Son of Gothscalc another inconsiderable King of the said Obitriti at the entreaty of his wife Schlavine Daughter to Swantibor I. Prince of Pomeren 4. Raze A great Warriour who besieged Lubec and took it He died in the year 1141. 5. Teslaus A Prince who had continual wars with the Kings of Denmark two whereof Eric VI. and Sueno III. he as often overcame as he was beaten by them but at last was utterly vanquish'd and made tributary by King Waldemar 6. Jarimar Teslaus's Brother The first Prince of Rugen that embraced Christianity 7. Barmita arimar's Son He died in the year 1241. 8. Witzlaus II. Barmita's Brother and Founder of the Monastery at Campen He died in the year 1247. 9. Jarimar II. Witzlaus the second 's Son who immediately after his admittance to the Government rebell'd against the King of Denmark and at last after many Engagements got himself and his successors eas'd from that yoke in the year 1259. 10. Witzlaus III. Jarimar the second 's Son A great promoter of the Christian Religion in Liefland where himself sometimes took upon him the office of a Priest preaching Christianity to the poor Infidels of those parts 11. Witzlaus IV. The last Prince of Rugen of this Family Upon the unruly growth of the great City of Stralsund the Merchants and Burgers finding themselves able enough to grapple with this Prince were resolv'd to be no longer subject to him or any of his Successors if by violence or otherwise they could procure their liberty whereupon they openly proclaim'd themselves a free City declaring that neither the Princes of Rugen nor any of their neighbours could lawfully pretend to exact any Tribute or Homage from the Citizens of Stralsund Upon the noise of this revolt Prince Witzlaus assisted by some of the neighbouring Kings and Princes besieged Stralsund demanding submission together with an humble acknowledgment of their unpardonable crime in daring to make so traiterous a revolt but in vain For the Stralsunders not only persisted in the resolution of asserting their Liberty to the last but bravely withstood the assaults of Witzlaus and his Associates and after many hot disputes slew this Prince in a sally thereby putting an end to the controversie and whole Lineage of the Princes of Rugen in the year 1325. After this the Island of Rugen with other parts of that Principality upon the Continent came into the hands of the Dukes of
East of the Dukedom dividing it from the Kingdoms of Hungary and Poland mention'd usually in Latin writers by the name of Montes Carpatii or Hungarici but by the Natives of this Country call'd commonly Jablunka Amongst these Hills the Silesians find the chief treasure of their Great Dukedom having here a great many Mines of Silver and Lead The Miners that inhabit these parts are call'd by their neighbours Die Walachen and are a sort of people much more rough and rustical then the rest of the Silesians A vast company of these Bores in the year 1643 revolted from the Imperialists and fled to the Swedish Army but were not long after reclaim'd The other row of mountains are on the South and divide the Dukedom of Teschen from the Marquisate of Moravia These Hills the Natives call Gesencke but Latin Authors make them a part of the Sudetes and name them Montes Moravici These latter do not afford that plenty of Ore which is found in the former but are tolerably well stock'd with Minerals and some Metals and supply what they fall short of the other in this kind with huge flocks of Sheep which are here pastur'd Other Towns of note in the Dukedom of Teschen are Bielitz Freystattlein Friedick Jablunke which has its name from the Eastern row of mountains abovemention'd Nistkow Strummen Skotschau and Schwartzwasser Some add Lassla with whom agrees J. Scultetus's Map of Silesia but this Town ought rather to be referr'd to the Dukedom of Troppau X. The County and City of GLATZ AMongst the Montes Sudetes lies the County of Glatz County being bounded on the South with Moravia on the West with Bohemia and on the East and North with the Great Dukedom of Silesia For which reason modern Geographers have been at a stand to determine which of the three Nations they should refer it to some of them making it a part of the Kingdom of Bohehemia others esteeming it a petty Province of the Marquisate of Moravia and a third sort who seem to have most probability on their side call it a Silesian County It s ancient inhabitants are thought to have been the Marsigni in whose days the City of Glatz was call'd Luca. After them the Hungarians got possession of this and the neighbouring Provinces and kept it till the Emperor Henry I. routed them and hang'd up their chief Commander in one of the Forests of this County From this great Hungarian Warriour whose name is said to have been Glozar the City of Glatz or Glotz was first named tho other Etymologists think its ancient name to be Klotz which signifies properly the root and trunk of a Tree but is sometimes taken for a large Forest or Copse of Shrubs such as they tell us once grew in the place where Glatz now stands The Nobility of this County have a tradition amongst them that before their Land was conquer'd by Henry the First and made Christian this County was immediately subject to the Emperors of Germany by whom 't was afterwards bestow'd on the Kings of Bohemia M. George Aelurius in his Chronicle of the City and County of Glatz printed in the year 1625 says that 't was as his Countrymen affirm subject at first to the Emperors but afterwards won and enjoy'd for some time by the Princes of Poland from whom the Bohemians took it and as appears from the Records of that Kingdom were Masters of it in the years 1074 and 1114. After this the Dukes of Silesia made themselves Lords of the County of Glatz which within a while return'd to the Kings of Bohemia and then back again to the foresaid Dukes In this state it continued till the days of the Emperor Charles the Fourth in whose reign it was once more subjected to the King of Bohemia And thus it continued till King George about the year 1460 bestow'd the Cities of Glatz Munsterberg and Franckenstein upon his own Sons who thereupon had the Titles of Dukes of Munsterberg and Earls of Glatz conferr'd on them by the Emperor Frideric IV. In the year 1500 the Dukes of Munsterberg sold this Country to Vlric Earl of Hardegg whose successors within less then forty years after sold it again to the Emperor Ferdinand I. who bestow'd it on the Lords of Bernstein From them it descended A. D. 1549 upon Ernest Duke of Bavaria after whose death it return'd again to the Kings of Bohemia in whose possession it continues to this day The Commodities of this Country are Iron Coal Silver-Ore Timber all sorts of Venison and tame Cattel Butter Cheese c. How rich the Country is may hence easily be gather'd that not many years ago the King of Bohemia's Stewards and Rent-gatherers have been known to bring into their Master's Coffers near forty thousand Ricxdollars yearly out of this one County The City of Glatz is a neat and compact Town 〈◊〉 seated in a pleasant plain on the banks of the Neisse but fortified with a strong Castle on the top of a neighbouring Hill which overlooks and commands the Town The great Church is said to have been formerly the Temple of an Idol worshipp'd by the ancient inhabitants of these parts in which as Aelurius tells us the young maids of the Country used to nail up their hair against the walls as was the custom amongst the ancient Romans and that not many years ago several of these kind of Tabulae Votivae were still to be seen The Charter of their City permits their Magistrates to coin money in their own names but they seldom make use of the priviledg any further then to give abroad a kind of small coin little better then the farthings and half-pence lately currant by the authority of no better man then an ordinary Grocer or Chandler in most of our Market-Towns in England Besides Glatz there are the following nine great Towns in this County Havelswerd Neurode Winschelburg Mitselwald Reinertz Lewin Landeck Beurath and Wilhelmsthal or Neustatl besides an hundred fair Villages and upwards MARCHIONATVS MORAVIAE Auct I. Comenio Excudebat Janssonio-Waesbergä Moses Pitt et Stephanus Swart Notularum explicatio Vrbs muris cincla Oppidum Pagus turritus Arx Zamek Castellum â—â—â—z Pagi innominati Monasterium Vinetorum colles Thermae seu aquae medicale Officinae â—â—â—â—aria Auri et Argenti fodinae Ferri fodinae THE MARQUISATE OF MORAVIA MORAVIA is commonly in the Bohemian writers preferr'd before Silesia altho this later be a Dukedom and the other no more then a Marquisate The reason of which preeminence must be ascrib'd either to this Marquisate's having been anciently a Kingdom or else to its being made subject to the Kings of Bohemia before ever the Silesians embraced their yoke The Germans call this Country Mahren and some of their writers would have it nam'd Mehrhenland or Equarum Regio imagining the true Etymology of the word to come from the multitude of Horses or Mares bred in this Marquisate But certainly the word Moravia which is undoubtedly of the same offspring with the
of Lechus the first Others think it the same with Ptolomey's Carodunum corrupted into Cracow This City as 't is the largest so it is the best built of any one in Poland Cromer sets it in competition with the best built Cities of Germany or Italy but we must allow him to stretch a little more then ordinary in commendation of his own Country The houses are for the most part of free-stone and four or five stories high but covered with boards instead of slat There are in it a considerable company of Italian and German Merchants who bring in such foreign wares as the Country stands in need of It consists like London and Paris of three parts 1. Cracow properly so called or the antient City 2. Cazimiria joyned to the rest by a wooden bridge cross the Vistula 3. Stradomia which lyes between Cracow and the bridge The King's Palace is seated on the top of an high hill whence it overlooks both City and Country 'T was rebuilt in the magnificent posture it now stands by Sigismund the Elder who added the gallery on the north side from whence you have one of the best prospects in Europe The University of Cracow was first begun by Casimir the Great finished by Vladislaus Jagello in performance of the last will and testament of his Queen Hedwig and had its priviledges confirmed to it by Pope Vrban In the year 1549 the scholars of Cracow by a general consent left the University upon an affront put on them by the Magistrates of the City who refused to execute justice upon the servants of Andrew Czarnkowski when in a quarrel they had slain a great number of students and dispersed themselves into several parts of Germany whence returning Lutherans they spread the reform'd opinions all Poland over and got great numbers of proselytes Upon the first planting of Christianity in this Kingdom Miecislaus the first who begun his reign in the year 964 Cracow was made an Archbishoprick But within a hundred years after Lampert Zula refusing to receive his Pall from the Pope of Rome as his predecessors had done before him it degenerated into a Bishoprick Afterwards in the reign of Boleslaus the chast which begun A.D. 1226 a contest arising between Jvo Bishop of this Diocess and the Bishop of Vratislaw about precedency the Bishop of Cracow upon his submissive appeal to the See of Rome was again restored to the dignity of an Archbishop which only lasted during his life At this day the Bishops of Cracow wear an Archbishop's Pall set richly with jewels which is the only relique they have of their antient honour The next Palatinate of the Lesser Poland Sendomir is that of Sendomir The City is seated on the bank of the Vistula and fortifyed with walls and a Castle both built by Casimir the Great who afterwards dyed of a surfet by eating too freely of the fruits of this Country which are reckoned the fairest and best in Poland Here is nothing else worth the taking notice of save the Monastery of Dominican Friars founded by Jvo Archbishop of Cracow The Palatinate of Lublin was taken out of that of Sendomir as being too big for the jurisdiction of one Palatine by Casimir Jagellonides Lublin The City is not very large but well built and much frequented especially in the Fairs kept three times a year by Christian Jewish and Turkish Merchants 'T is much better fortifved by the marshes which environ it then its walls and more beholden to nature for its defence then either Casimir the Great who walled it round or the Russians who built the adjoyning Castle The great Church in it was built by Lescus the black upon a great conquest obtain'd against the Lithvanians near this City and dedicated to St. Michael who in a vision the night before the battel had promised him good success St. Bridgets Monastery among many other magnificent ones was founded by Vladislaus Jagello One of the two chief Courts of Judicature from which no appeal lies save to the Parliament of Poland is kept at Lublin Hither for judgment in controversies of any great moment repair the Palatinates of Cracow Sendomir Russia Podolia Lublin Belze Podlassia Volhinia Braclaw Kiow and Czernichow or at least so many of them as are still subject to the Crown of Poland Of other Countries and Provinces to which the Kings of Poland have formerly pretended a title by conquest contract or otherwise BEsides the places mentioned and at present subject to the Crown of Poland the Kings of that Nation have from time to time lay'd claim to many and large Territories now in the hands of other Princes Omitting Bohemia Moravia Wagria Misnia and the Dukedomes of Rugen Mecklenburg and Lunenburg which whatever some of the Polish writers assert and endeavour to make good were very little or not at all subject to Boleslaus Chrobri who was the only King that ever could plausibly pretend a title to any part of them we shall confine our discourse to those Countries to which the Polonian Princes may seem to have had a more just and legal title That all or most of Silesia was part of the Dukedome of Poland Silesia in the days of Lechus the first and several of his successours is highly probable from the writings of Adam Bremensis and Helmoldus who both of them make the river Oder the bounds of Poland Besides the German Chronologers tell us that Charles the Great Ludovicus Pius and other Emperors conquer'd the Silesians and made them tributary to the Empire But the Polish Historians upon what grounds I know not are generally positive in asserting That Silesia was always without any such intermission or conquest as the Germans strive to make out a part of the Polish dominions Only Vincentius Kadlubko agrees with the Germans affirming That Boleslaus Chrobri amongst his many other conquests regain'd Selucia as he calls it and left it annexed to the Crown of Poland After his time we find that Casimir the first translated the Bishoprick of Bicine to Vratislaw whence 't is manifest that in his days Silesia was part of the Realm of Poland Not long after Henry the IV Emperour of Germany in the Diet at Munster A.D. 1086 made over Silesia Lusatia and indeed all Poland to Vratislaus King of Bohemia though as Cromer says he had no right to a foot of land in any of them Whereupon ensued a bloody war betwixt the Bohemians and Poles wherein it is to be conjectured the latter had the better since all Historians agree that Silesia was under the King of Polands goverment during the whole reign of Boleslaus the third His son Vladislaus the second being deposed by his brethren who were left Co-heirs with him in the Kingdom fled first to the Emperor Frederick the first who brought Boleslaus Crispus Duke of Poland and brother to Vladislaus to such straits that he was forced to resign all Silesia into the hands of his brother's children but upon condition they should
still pay homage to the Princes of Poland From that time the Polanders begun to sleight and hate the Silesians seldom calling any of the Silesian Nobility to Councils of Parliament and balking the right succession if any of this Province had a just title to the Crown These jealousies and quarrels were fomented and increased by John King of Bohemia son to the Emperor Henry the seventh who by this means whedled the Dukes of Silesia into his yoke and afterwards forced Casimir the Great to resign the supreme government of that Province into his hands After this the Poles though they had frequent skirmishes with the Bohemians yet never regain'd any considerable footing in Silesia For excepting the small territory of Wschovia retaken by Casimir the Great A.D. 1343 and some other parcels of ground annexed to the estates of several Bishopricks and Abbeys in Poland Silesia is at present wholly subject to the King of Bohemia Lusatia was once conquer'd by Boleslaus Chrobri but soon after lost again Lusâ—â—â—â— For though when John King of Bohemia subdued Silesia Lusatia was reckoned a part of that Country and has ever since so continued yet the Polanders claim'd no more of it as Lords of Silesia then a few frontier Towns the rest was under the Marquesses of Misnia and Lusatia Princes of the Empire as Goldastus proves 'T is without all authority of Annals what some of the Polish writers have endeavoured to make out by Etymologies Neâ— Maâ—â—â— that the greatest part of the Marquisate of Brandenburgh was formerly subject to the Princes of Poland That New Marck indeed or at least a good share of it was theirs is beyond all controversy since as the best Historians witness Miecislaus or Miscio the first Christian Duke of Poland towards the latter end of the tenth Century first founded the Bishoprick of Lubuss This City was taken from the Polanders by the Emperour Henry the second but recovered by Boleslaus the first King of Poland His successours kept it till the year 1109 when it was again taken by the Emperour Henry V who gave it to Adelgot Archbishop of Magdeburg But soon after it return'd into the hands of the Poles When Silesia was as we have said divided among the sons of Vladislaus the second the territories of Lubuss devolved into the hands of the Silesian Dukes whence it happened within a short while after to be made a part of the Marquisate of Brandenburgh Cromer says 't was mortgaged by Boleslaus the bald and never redeemed But Dlugossus ad ann 1198. tells us 't was sold by Boleslaus son to Henry Duke of Vratislavia From that time the Kings of Poland have had very little to do in New Marck and at present have not one foot of land in it Vladislaus Jagello brought it wholly under his power but his son found it too hot service for him to keep it and was therefore fain to resign it up to the Marquess John Casimir their late King parted with the last stake by delivering up the Town and Castle of Drahim to the present Elector of Brandenburgh in the treaty at Bydgost in the year 1657. That the Slavonians were antient inhabitants of Pomeren is undeniably true Pom … Pomorska in the Slavonian language signifies near the sea whence Vincentius Kadlubko an antient and judicious Polish writer uses frequently the word Maritima for Pomeren and speaking of this Country these phrases are ordinary with him Maritimae Praeses Maritimae Dux Ingressus est Maritimam c. But whether or no the Polanders were masters of Pomeren immediately upon the entrance of the Slavoniaus is a grand question which the Poles affirm but the Pomeranians deny and 't is hard to decide the controversy between them Helmoldus agreeing as it should seem with the latter places Pomeren amongst the free Slavonian Provinces lying without the bounds of the Polish dominions And before his days Adam Bremensis gives us the same account Micraelius an Historian of good credit lib. 2. Chron. Pomer num 46. p. 191. is of opinion that the first entrance which the Polanders made upon Pomeren was in the tenth Century when the Emperor Otto III. authorized Boleslaus Chrobri King of Poland to make war upon and bring into his subjection the Prussians Pomeranians Wendi and Russians Which done the Emperor at a visit given King Boleslaus made the Bishop of Colberg a Suffragan to the Archbishop of Gnesna In the beginning of the eleventh Century Miecislaus II. spread his dominions all over Casubia and the Eastern Pomeren putting Garrisons into all the Forts and Castles between the Persandt and the Vistula and committed the government of them to Bela the King of Hungary's brother But upon Bela's return into Hungary Pomeren shook off the Polish yoke and only was subject to Dukes of its own till Svantibor surrendred it again to Boleslaus III. Duke of Poland upon condition he would free him from prison to which his own subjects had committed him After Svantibors death the Dukedom of Pomeren was divided amongst his four sons whereof two who were Dukes of the Western Pomeren from Colberg as far as the Marck and the Dukedom of Mecklenburgh were admitted Princes of the Empire by Frederick Barbarossa the other two were forced to yeild themselves subjects to the Crown of Poland But the Pomeranians soon weary of bondage revolted once more from the King of Poland and perhaps had for ever rejected his government had not Mestwin their Duke wanting issue endeavour'd to subject them to the Dukes of West Pomeren For looking upon the people of that Country as meer strangers being indeed three parts of them Germans they chose rather to give themselves up into the hands of their acquaintance then to be slaves to an upstart and foreign Nation Whereupon they unanimously swore fealty to Praemislaus II. King of Poland who took upon him the title of Duke of Pomeren and quarter'd his Coat with the Arms of Pomeren the Gryphins By this means the Kings of Poland became sole Lords of the Eastern Pomeren In the year 1460 Casimir Jagellonides straitned in the wars he was engaged in against the Teutonick Order in Prussia committed the Cities and Castles of Lavenburgh and Bouta to the trust of Eric II. Duke of West Pomeren whose successor George son of Bugislaus X. and Nephew to Sigismund I. King of Poland had these Cities confirmed to him and his posterity upon condition of paying some sleight acknowledgment to the Crown of Poland Upon these terms the present Elector of Brandenburgh renewed his title to these places after the usual fashion by his Ambassador in the year 1670. What right the Polanders have at this day in Prussia we have shew'd before but formerly their pretensions were much greater then now Sometimes the Duke of Masovia Lorded it over the Prussians and made the Master of the Teutonick Order his Vicegerent But in the treaty made between Sigismund I. King of Poland and Albert Marquess of Brandenburgh whom the
Knights of the Teutonick Order had made their Master in the year 1525 it was agreed upon That the Teutonick Order should be wholly extirpated and that part of Prussia which to this day is called Ducal Prussia should be govern'd by the said Marquess with the title of Duke of Prussia and the rest or Regal Prussia remain still subject to the King of Poland But with this proviso That the Duke should always pay homage to the Crown of Poland and as a member of that Kingdom be President of the Kings Council Lastly John Casimir the late King of Poland granted first in the year 1657 and again 1663 full and absolute power and dominion over Ducal Prussia to the present Elector of Brandenburgh on this condition That the Dukedome upon defect of male issue should return to the Kings of Poland as supreme Landlords and be conferred on the Dukes of Onoldsbach and Culmbach as Feudataries Muscovy How affairs stand at present between the Great Duke of Muscovy and the King of Poland may appear by the Treaty of Peace signed by both parties A.D. 1667 spoken of before But formerly the Kings of Poland have laid claim and made good their title either by justice or the sword to several large Territories now in the hands of the Great Duke For first Jorislaus Duke of Russia was forced to pay tribute to Boleslaus Chrobri A.D. 1018. Afterwards A.D. 1069 Boleslaus II. possessed himself of Kiow and indeed the whole Dukedom of Russia over which he set Jesaslaus a tributary Duke After his death continual wars were between the two Nations till Casimir the Great in the year 1340 reduced the Southern Russia into the form of a Province But how little of that remains at this day in the hands of the present King of Poland we have shew'd before Several of the Kings of Poland have stiled themselves Kings of Sweden Sweden upon no other pretence then having made themselves masters of a great part of Liefland But this title ceased upon the death of John Casimir their late King as hath already been observed in the description of Liefland Of the Pretensions of Foreign Princes to the Kingdom of Poland WE have seen to what Kingdoms and Countries the Kings of Poland have in former ages claimed a right and title and we may perhaps find as many Kings and Princes of other Nations who have challenged the Crown of Poland upon as good grounds But to omit the many conquests obtain'd by the Russians Bohemians Hungarians and others over the Poles enough to entitle any potent Prince to their Kingdom the strongest pretensions to this Crown are those of the Emperor For the most of the Polish Historians tell us That Boleslaus I. was created King of Poland by the Emperor Otto III. before which time the Princes of that Nation were only Dukes This story is confirmed by besides the testimony of the most considerable writers of Poland an ancient Epitaph found in the Cathedral at Posen in which among other commendations of Boleslaus I. are the following rithmes Tu possedisti velut Athleta Christi Regnum Slavorum Gothorum seu Polonorum Caesar praecellens a te Ducalia pellens And again Ob famam bonam tibi contulit Otto Coronam Propter luctamen sit tibi salus Amen However tho the Historians of Poland grant that Boleslaus received the title of King at the hands of the Emperor yet they deny stubbornly that this Kingdom was ever subject or tributary to the Roman Empire But Conringius an ingenious and learned German Physitian in his book entituled De finibus Germanici Imperii c. 18. has demonstrated the contrary For not to take notice of Charles the Great who 't is more than probable conquer'd Poland as well as Silesia 't is certain that Miecislaus the first Christian Prince of Poland paid tribute to the Imperial Crown And the Polish writers are forced to confess That Otto III. remitted all homage due otherwise to Boleslaus Chrobri when he created him King After Boleslaus's death Miecislaus II. his successor was compelled to pay the usual tribute to the Emperor Conrad II. After this several of the Kings of Poland very willingly submitted themselves to the Emperors and others were forced out of their obstinate refusal At last in the long vacancy of the Imperial Throne soon after the middle of the thirteenth Century during which Richard Earl of Cornwal was one of the four elected Emperors whilst the Empire of Germany was in a confused distraction the Polanders took occasion to shake off the German yoke to which they could never since be reduced This is part of the relation which Conringius gives us of the ancient state of Poland in reference to the German Empire founded chiefly upon the testimonies of Dithmarus Mersburgensis and Helmoldus men of unquestionable veracity in their Histories Hartknoch endeavours to evade the force of his argument by saying That tho it be true that the Polanders have formerly paid some certain sum of money to the Emperors by whom it was demanded under the notion of a tribute yet this does not necessarily suppose any dependance of the Crown of Poland upon the Empire of Germany For 't is ordinary even with the Emperors themselves to buy peace with money And thus the English bought their peace of the Danes and made Lewis XI King of France pay for his But let him consider First whether the words of Helmoldus Chron. Slav. lib. 1. c. 1. num 9. can be properly understood of any such sum of money as is usually paid by any Nation upon the ratification of a Treaty of Peace when he says servit ipsa speaking of Poland sicut Bohemia sub tributo Imperatoriae Majestati Here the Historian tells us plainly the Kingdom of Poland was in his time as much tributary to the Emperor as Bohemia and how truly that was under his subjection every Historian will shew Again 't was not very considerately done to instance in the tribute paid by the English to the Danes or by Lewis XI to the King of England For both these were doubtless acknowledgements of subjection and homage The Danes all know were absolute Lords of our Land for 26 and made almost continual incursions into it for the space of 250 years Dane-gelt which perhaps Hartknoch as some of our own Historians have done mistakes for a tribute or composition-money paid the Danes upon any invasion was at first only a Subsidy gather'd for the maintenance of a standing army to oppose the Danish fury Afterwards indeed the word was used to denote a tribute sometimes amounting to 72000 pounds levyed yearly in England and paid to the King of Denmark upon the refusal of which payment the English were sure to feel the weight of that Kings displeasure This tribute was certainly a sign of a true and real subjection to the Crown of Denmark which might have lasted longer had not the Saxon and Danish lines been peaceably united in the pious King
the Swedish Nation had made a law amongst his subjects that if any of them kill'd or injur'd a Swede he should pay only half the mulct which was to be pay'd if he had done the like to any other person whatsoever 33. Atislus a warlike and magnificent King 34. Hotherus who waged war with the Danes and Russes and died of a wound he received in battel 35. Rodericus King of Denmark and Swedland at the same time but either leaving or loosing the former he retir'd into the latter and there ended his days 36. Attilus who kill'd Wermundus King of Denmark in single Duel and was himself afterwards slain by Wermundus's two sons After this Kings time the succession for about 600 years was much interrupted who enjoy'd the Kingdom is uncertain Botvildus Charles II Ericus II and six more are mention'd but little more known of them then their names He whom Historians first pitch upon to have certainly succeeded was 46. Alricus who challenging Gestiblindus King of the Goths to Duel thereby lost both his life and Kingdom 47. Ericus III surnamed the Wise and by some the Eloquent a happy and peaceable Prince He reign'd according to Johannes Magnus's computation about four and thirty years before our Saviours Birth A Catalogue of the Gothish Kings who reigned shortly after their Transmigration out of Scandia while they dwelt about the Palus Maeotis near the time of the Trojan War collected out of Wolf Lazius upon whose credit you are to take them 1. Telephus well known for his exploits in the Trojan War 2. Bericus or Beger 3. Filimar 4. Frogradus 5. Aringis 6. Eurypilus 7. Tamyris 8. Antriregus After this succession of Kings in Scythia Europea the Goths either weary of that Country or driven out of it by some of their potent Neighbours are said by the same Author though I find not his opinion seconded by any Swedish writer to have returned into Gothia and particularly to have pitch'd upon the Isle Gotland as the fittest seat for their Kings a long series of whom might seem not very necessary to be set down being for the most part the same with the Swedish Kings before mention'd 48. Haldanus in whose reign the Hunns overrun Gothia and the greatest part of the Kings dominions built Hunnaberg an ancient City in Ostro-Gothia and after some continuance in the Country were by this King at last utterly expell'd 49. Sivardus or Sigvardus in whose time commotions arising in the Kingdom the Goths elected a separate King of their own nam'd Carolus whom some make to be 50. Charles III. 51. Ericus IV. slain by Haldanus King of Denmark 52. Haldanus who got the Kingdom by his valour Of this King are reported several prodigious Stories as of his Gigantick stature his pulling up Trees by the roots and such like not inferiour to those which Poets relate of Hercules and the Giants 53. Vngvinus who to his own Kingdom united Gothia for a long time govern'd by distinct Kings 54. Ragvaldus or Regnaldus 55. Amundus 56. Haquinus in whose reign the Goths elected one Sivardo King of Gothia 57. Ostenus I. who entertain'd an implacable hatred against the Norwegians sent a great Army against them subdued their Country made the Inhabitants Tributary to the Swedish Crown and as an opprobrium to the Nation set a Dog to be chief Governour over them to which they were to pay all subjection and swear allegiance under the penalty of losing one hand and one foot this is mention'd both in the Swedish and Norwegian Chronicles 58. Alverus or Alaricus elected says Krantzius out of the Nobles and in the midst of his happy Reign stabb'd by his Brother Ericus who was impatient to obtain the Crown which he thought he might procure after his death but vainly for the Government was conferr'd on 59. Ingo I. eldest son to Alverus He was the first that order'd the election of Kings to be held at Moresten near Vpsal of the manner of which see what was said in Suecia About this time the Kingdom was governed by Judges the next King is 60. Ingellus I. kill'd by his Brother 61. Germunder in a war against Denmark taken Prisoner and hung up upon a Gibbet 62. Haquinus 63. Egellus after whose time succeeded several Kings Johannes Magnus reckons twenty concerning whom nothing very remarkable is set down by Historians The next great Epocha is counted from the reign of 84. Bero or Biorno III. the first Christian King in Sweden converted to Christianity by one Herebretus at his request sent to him by Charles the Great Emperor of Germany 85. Brautamundus or Amundus in some civil commotions in his Kingdom kill'd by his brother and Successor 86. Sivardus II. who in his expeditions against Norway was with the greatest part of his Army overcome in battel the enemies Forces mostly consisting of Women 87. Herotus or Haraldus 'twixt whom and the King of Denmark a war broke out concerning the Province of Schonen which this King at last freely granted to the King of Denmark as a reward of his signal prudence and valour 89. Charles VI. 90. Biorno IV. 91. Ingellus II. in whose time Helsingia and several other Provinces in Suecia had their distinct Governours these he under colour of friendship invited to a Banquet and when he had made them drunk with strong Liquors he caus'd a fire to be set on the place where they were and so destroy'd them all and seiz'd on their possessions To revenge this cruelty Gramus Duke of Sudermannia and Hauno Duke of Ostro-Gothia rais'd Forces and came against him but with no good success at last for under pretence of a Parley they were taken Prisoners and at Ingellus's command burnt to death 92. Olaus from his commanding many thick woods to be cut down surnam'd Tratelia or Tree-Feller He is said by some to have embrac'd Christianity at the perswasion of Ansgarius a Learned Bishop sent into Sweden by Lewis II. Emperor of Germany But though he himself perhaps did favour Christian Religion it got small footing amongst his Subjects for Paganism is said for a long time to have prevail'd in the Reigns of the succeeding Princes 93. Ingo II. 94. Ericus VI. surnam'd Windy-Cap who is said to have had a Cap by holding up of which he could cause the wind to blow from what Point he pleas'd for which and such like magical exploits he by the consent of the people was elected King 95. Ericus VII surnam'd Victorious 96. Ericus VIII surnam'd Aarsel i.e. Rich in Corn. He is said to have countenanc'd Christianity which had been from the time of Bero 'till his reign very much suppress'd and endeavouring by Law to establish it in his Kingdom to have been by the fury of his Subjects torn in pieces and martyr'd for his good intentions toward them 97. Olaus surnam'd Scotkonung i.e. Infant-King because advanc'd to the Crown when young He embrac'd Christianity and sent to Ethelred King of England to furnish him with able Ministers
the Center of these four Cantons and the middle of the great Cross hangs a Scutcheon bearing Azure a Horseman in compleat armour Argent holding a Sword in his right hand of the same with the hilt Or his Horse covered with a Cloth of the second which are the Arms of Dithmarse The lower part of the Arms contains four more Coats Whereof the first is Gules three Pinks some call them nails of our Saviour's passion and three leaves of Nettles which are intermixed and meet in Angles at the heart of the Coat which is charged with a small Scutcheon Argent for Holstein The second which is the Coat of Stormaria is Azure a Swan Argent with a Coronet round her neck Or. The third belonging to the Earldom of Delmenhorst is Or two Barres Gules The fourth and last Coat which belongs to Jutland is Azure a Cross Patty at the bottom fetchet Or. Below the Arms is usually hung in a chain Or the Scutcheon of the Order of the Elephant The Helmet Or embroidered and damasked the sights covered and wanting barrs above which a Crown Or encircled with four Circles and adorned with precious Stones on the top of this a Globe Or and above all a Cross patty Argent The Crest is a Leopard passant over the Crown Or eight Streamers Azure a plain Cross Argent four spears bending to the Dexter side and as many to the Sinister Or. Supported by two Savages crowned and girt with Ivy proper armed with two pointed Clubs The Mantle Or sown with hearts Gules and Lions Azure doubled Ermine JUTLAND THO many of our modern Authors make a scoff at the relations the Danish Historians give of the Gyants anciently bred under the Northern Climates Cimbrians whence so called yet 't is certain both from the testimony of the most credible Roman writers and the inscriptions of ancient Graves and other monuments that there were formerly in these parts some people of larger sizes then are anywhere to be met with at this day either in this or any other Nation And what else can be meant of that Law of King Frotho mention'd by Saxo Grammaticus wherein 't was order'd that no ordinary Rustic should be bound to have any quarrel with one of these over-grown Kempers determined by Duel which was then the usual way of deciding all manner of controversies except the Warriour had fewer and lighter weapons then the Plebeian Those that endeavour to prove the ancient Danes men of greater dimensions then the modern from the bulk of their Grave-stones and Tombs do not consider that it was the custom of the Danish Pagans to burn the dead bodies of their deceased friends and bury only the ashes and that the ancients used to worship at the monuments of their Princes and great men which for this reason were usually considerable heaps of stones and earth cast up by the high-way side However to omit these kind of idle conjectures the Northern people had doubtless in their Armies good store of Kempers men of vast bodies and strength upon whose broad shoulders lay the heavyest and hottest service in every engagement From these Kempers the whole Nation were by the Romans called Cimbri by the Greeks Cimmerii and their Country Chersonesus Cimbrica which name was given to the whole tract of land beyond the Elb tho later Historians confine it to that part only which now goes under the name of Jutland Whence the Juti and Jutia which without all doubt is the same with the more modern word Jutlandia should come Jutland whence so called is harder to determine then to trace the original of Cimbria Venerable Bede speaking of those Nations who came to aid the Britains against the oppression of the Romans mentions the Vites as well as the Angles and Saxons Cambden and some others would have us read Jutes instead of Vites as saith that famous Antiquary one Manuscript Copy hath the word But the Learned Sir Henry Spelman observing in most Copies Vitae more then once and never Jutae will not admit of this alteration Ethelwerd who writ about the year 950 calls Bede's Vitas Giotos telling us that the Angles were a people that dwelt inter Saxones Giotos Tacitus places the Huithones so Pontanus reads the word and not as 't is usually printed Nuithones next to the Angli In other Authors we meet with the Vitungi Juthungi Guthungi Guthas Juthones c. which without question are all of one and the same original only variously corrupted either by the inadvertency of transcribers or unskilfulness of foreign writers in the idiom of the tongue of that Country which they described Arngrim Jonas an Islandian Author well skill'd in the Antiquities and Language of his own Country says Jaet in the Islandian and Norwegian dialect signifies a Giant Adding further that there is still a place in Norway call'd Risalandt i. e. the Land of Giants near which is Jaetumhaimar or The Giants dwelling Lastly he tells us Jutland is nothing but a corruption of Jaetumland So that Jutia has the same signification with Cimbria and the Guti Gothi Gotti Getae call'd in the English-Saxon monuments Geatun Vitae Jutae c. are the same men with the Cimbrians Jutland reaches no further then Sleswic 〈…〉 So that Holstein and the rest of the Provinces which lay between the Eidor and the Elb tho formerly a part of the Cimbrian Chersonese are not now reckon'd as any portion of this Country Northern Jutland THE Northern Jutland is much larger and better peopled then the Southern It is divided into nine some reckon fifteen great Lordships which says Lyscander being severed one from another by so many arms of the Sinus Limmericus Lymfiord gave occasion to that part of the King of Denmark's Arms which bears a Lion and nine Hearts in a field Or. There are in it four Bishopricks Ripen Arhusen Alburg and Wiburg In the further corner of the North Jutland lyes Wensyssel which has the names of Venulia 〈◊〉 and Vandalia in Latin Authors and is thought by some to have been the seat of the ancient Vandals Its inhabitants are the lustiest and hardiest of any of the King of Denmark's subjects The chief Town in this Tract is Wensyssel so call'd from the Province Schaghen seated on the Promontory between the Norwegian and Baltic Seas is much more frequented by Merchants from all parts of Europe then any other Town in Jutland and would have a far greater trade then now it has were it not for the dangerous coast it stands on Totius IVTIAE GENERALIS Accurata delineatio Apud Janssonis-Waesbergios et Mosem Pitt JUTIA SEPTENTRIONALIS in qua Dioeceses ALBURGENSIS et VIBURGENSIS JUTIA AUSTRALIS in qua Dioeceses RIPENSIS et ARHUSIENSIS DUCATUS SLESWICENSIS Nova Descriptio DUCATUS SLESVICENSIS Pars SEPTENTRIONALIS DUCATUS SLESVICENSIS AUSTRALIS PARS The Diocess of Wiburg lies in the very middle of North Jutland Lyscander calls Wiberg the Metropolis of Jutland It is indeed a place
of the greatest concourse of people who flock hither for justice in all causes Civil and Criminal It was formerly called Cimmersbeg as being the chief City of the ancient Cimbrians Tacitus calls it Civitatem parvam but withall that it had been a glorious and strong hold and the Metropolis of a terrible and warlike Nation Whence and when it got the name Wiberg is not easily determined Some tell us that after the many petty Principalities of the Cimbrians were united into one Monarchy by Wiglet this City lost its ancient name and was called after the Prince Wigburg corrupted by degrees into Wiberg Elnot in the life of St. Canutus says it had its new name from Wig an Idol worshipp'd in this place I rather think it the seat of the Danish Pyrats called formerly Wigs or Wikenger For it was the custom in the Northern Countries where the inhabitants were more then the fruits of the Land could sustain for young Noblemen to live of what they could catch abroad As the Lacedemonians thought Robbery so these fancied Pyracy lawful and glorious Whence Princes of the blood would often turn Pyrats and take upon them the title of Kings tho they had not the least dominion at land as the Norwegian History reports of St. Olaus The most notorious Pyrats mention'd by the Northern Historians are the Jomswikinger who dwelt in the City Wollin called anciently Jomsberg where they had established certain Laws and were subject to Magistrates and Governors chosen out of the Royal Family Cambden tells us that the Danes are usually understood by the name Viccingi in the Latin writers of our English History because says he they were professed Pyrats In our Learned King Aelfred's translation of Bede's Ecclesiastical History Pyrats are called Wicengas and Wicings and Mr. Cambden guesses probably that the inhabitants of Glocestershire Worcestershire c. were formerly called Wiccii from the Sea-robberies committed daily by them upon the mouth of the Severn The English-Saxons named a stout warriour Wiga skill in war Wig-chaept a fort Wighus c. In the old Francic History of the life of St. Anno Arch-Bishop of Cologne we read Ninus hiz der eristi mann De dir ie volc Wigis began i. e. Ninus is the first that ever made war And in Willeramus's Paraphrase upon the Canticles Wighuis is a Castle Wiigfimme the art of Combat c. Nial's Runic History says Gunnar var alra manna best Viigur deira sem de voru a Islande i.e. Gunnar was the best Champion that lived in Island in his days From what has been said it seems very probable that Wiberg signifies no more then Wigton the name of several great Towns in England and Scotland and the Scots still retain so much of the old Saxon word Wig as to call souldiers and pillagers of the Country Wigs or Wiganeers There has been for some years a quarrel between the Bishops of Alburg and Wiburg about precedency each pretending his Bishopric the more ancient 'T is very hard if not impossible to decide the controversie except we date the first institution of the Bishoprick of Alburg from the removal of the Bishops Palace to that City For the Bishopricks of Wiburg and Borlum were both founded in one year by Sueno Esthrith who made Heribert Bishop of Wiburg the same time that he gave Borlum to Magnus Witfield gives Wiburg the precedency but Alburg is reckon'd the better and more honourable preferment by other Danish writers From the high Court of Judicature holden at Wiburg the Jutlanders can make no appeal save to the King himself The most memorable Bays in this Diocess are Sallingsundt Virckesundt Hualpsundt Sebersundt and Othesundt The last of which had its name from the Emperor Otho the first who making an incursion into Jutland about the year 948 came as far as this Bay into which he is said to have cast his Spear and given it the name it retains to this day The most considerable and fruitful part of this Diocess is Salling a Peninsula in the Limfiord whence are brought the best Horses that are to be met with in the King of Denmark's Dominions The name of this Province seems to point out the seat of the old Sabalingi whom Ptolomey makes a people inhabiting some part of the Cimbrian Chersonese but more Southerly then Salling The chief River in the Bishoprick of Wiburg is Gudius Gutalus or Guddenus called by the Natives Gudden Aa and stored with plenty of Fish Arhuse is a neat and pleasant Sea-port Town on the coast of the Baltic Sea Arhusen whence Etymologists derive its name from Aar-hus i. e. the house of Oars Which is a much more probable conjecture then is brought by Pontanus who fetches the word Arhusen from Ptolomy's Harudes The greatest part of the Danish Historians are of opinion that it was first made a Bishops See about the year 1014. Tho if it be true that Poppo was made Bishop of this Diocess its original must be fetcht as high as the year 992. The Cathedral at Arhuse is a neat piece of Architecture adorned with several rich monuments of Bishops Noblemen c. The Bishops Palace has lain many years in its ruins which still retain marks of its antient splendour and grandeur It is seated in the heart of Jutland and furnished with all manner of necessaries that the Country affords at a very reasonable rate and what forreign Commodities either the need or luxury of its Citizens call for are brought daily in by the Mariners In this Diocess there are thirty one Judicatures Seven Cities three hundred and four Parishes and five Forts the strongest of which is Schanderborch or Schonderborch i.e. the neat Castle seated on the Gudden The rest of the Cities of note in the Bishopprick of Arhusen are 1. Horsen on the South of Arhusen 2. Randruse a place famous for the best Salmon in Jutland 3. Ebeltod on the Baltic Coast a Town of considerable trade The Bishoprick of Ripen Ripen bordering on the Southern Jutland contains in it seven Cities two hundred eighty two Parishes ten Castles and an hundred Noblemens houses It is seated upon the clear and sweet river Nipsaa which parting it self into three streams divides the Town into as many parts and gave occasion to the City's Arms which are three Lions Here abouts Ptolomy seems to place his Cimbros phundusios That this City should have its name from the Latin word Ripa upon its being situate on the banks of the river is no great wonder if we consider that whilst the Natives of these parts busied themselves chiefly in fortifying and peopling their great Ciities 't was ordinary for the Germans Romans and other Foreigners to give names to small Villages upon the Sea-Coasts which after a revolution of some years by the advantage of a brisk Sea-Trade grew bulky and were often advanced into large Corporations The Cathedral is a stately Fabrick of hewen stone beautified with a Tower of an incredible height which
endeavours to prove that Xen. Lampsacenus mentions the Baltic Sea and thence concludes that this name is much more ancient then most of the modern Geographers fancy who make Adam Bremensis and Helmoldus the first Authors that call this Bay Mare Balthicum But he that shall take the pains to examine Pliny's words upon this occasion will find that no mention is there made of the Baltic Sea but of an Island only in these parts called Baltia which is now named Schonen but is not as the Ancients imagined an Isle From this Baltia some think this Sea was called Baltic as the Adriatic Sea had its name from the Island Adria Others more happily derive the word from the Danish and English word Belt because Seeland and the greatest part of the King of Denmark's dominions are girt round with this Bay And to this day the inhabitants of Seeland and Funen call that small arm of the Sea which part these two Islands die Belt Pomponius Mela who is followed by many late writers of good note calls the Baltic Sea Sinus Codanus which signifies no more then the Danish Bay For Codanus Godanus or Gedanus is the same with Danus and Gedanum and Dantiscum signifie the same thing And indeed when we consider what a large portion of the Danish Kingdom is encircled with the Sea we shall find reason enough notwithstanding the late surrender of several Islands to the Swedes to let it still retain this its ancient name The most considerable Islands in the Baltic which at this day are subject to the Crown of Denmark are these that follow FIONIA FIonia or Funen is parted from Jutland by a streight of the Baltic called by the inhabitants Medelfarsund about one German mile in breadth and separated from Seeland by the Beltis-sund or Baltic Bay The length of it from East to West is about ten German miles and the breadth eight Saxo Grammaticus Lyscander and most of the Danish writers make this the pleasantest piece of ground in the King of Denmark's dominions Whence they have fancied the Island had its name from fine which has the same signification in Funen as in England Tho Adam Bremensis may seem to favour this conceit in calling the inhabitants of this Island Finni and their Country Finningia and Pontanus allows the etymology yet methinks Stephanius guesses better at the derivation of the word when he fetches it from Fion which in the old Runic monuments signifies a neck of land rent from the continent and such any man will suppose Funen to be who shall have the opportunity of viewing that slender Frith which at this day separates that Island from Jutland The Island abounds with all manner of Corn especially Wheat and Rye which is hence yearly transported in great quantities into other Nations Besides the Natives have generally great Herds of Cattle and very good Breeds of Horses The Woods which overspread almost the whole Island are exceedingly well stored with Deer Hares and Foxes The chief City in this Island is Ottensee which some will have to take its name from Woden the great God of the ancient Danes whom some of their Historians call Othin or Odin Others more probably say 't was built by the Emperor Otho the first who overrun a great part of the Danish Kingdom and left his name in more places then one This opinion seems to be confirmed by a Letter written by the Emperor Otho the third about the year 987 in which this City is named Vrbs Othonesvigensis Pontanus thinks 't was first built by King Harald who to testifie his gratitude to the forementioned Emperor Otho the first by whose procurement he was converted to Christianity called it Ottonia or Ottensche and his son Suenotto This City is seated in the very center of the Island and therefore in a fit place for the Sessions of the Nobility and Magistracy which are yearly held in this place As were likewise the General Assemblies of the Kingdom of Denmark before the year 1660. The buildings in this Town are generally well built and the streets uniform Besides other public buildings there are in it two fair Churches whereof one is dedicate to St. Cnute the other to St. Francis Not far from the former of these stands a stately Town-Hall upon a very spacious Market-place where King Frideric II. renew'd the ancient League between the Crown of Denmark and the Dukes of Holstein and Sleswic in the year 1575. When the Quire of St. Cnute's Church was repair'd in the year 1582 the workmen found in a Vault a Copper Coffin gilded and adorn'd with precious stones upon which was writ the following inscription in old Latin-Gothic characters Jam coelo tutus summo cum rege Canutus Martyr in aurata rex atque reconditur arca Et pro Justitiae factis Occisus inque Vt Christum vita sic morte fatetur in ipsa Traditur a proprio sicut Deus ipse ministro A.D. MLXXXVI Other Towns of note in Funen are 1. Bowens a Port-Town of good trade seated on the West-side of the Island at the North-end of Medelfarsund 2. Middlefar seated on the common passage from this Island to Kolding in Jutland On the thirtieth of January in the year 1658. Carolus Gustavus King of Sweden led his Army over the ice to this place and having routed the Danish Forces that opposed him made himself absolute master of the whole Isle of Funen 3. Ascens not far from the mountains of Ossenburgh where John de Hoy Nicholas Fechlenburgh and Gustavus Troll Bishop of Vpsal were slain and their Army commanded by Christopher Earl of Oldenburgh totally routed by John Rantzaw King Christian the third's General who level'd this City to the ground 4. Foborg upon the Southern coast of the Island It was once burnt by the unruly soldiers of Christian the third whilst Odensee adhering to the captive Prince Christian the second who at that time was kept close prisoner at Sunderburg redeem'd it self from the like fate by a large sum of money 5. Swynborg over against the Island of Langland From this place Carolus Gustavus King of Sweden led his Army over the ice into Seeland in the year 1658. 6. Nyborg the usual passage from Funen into Seeland This City was first fortified with a Moat and Bulwarks by King Christian the third It is very memorable for the battel fought by the Confederates of the Empire Brandenburgh Poland and the Low Countries in the year 1659 against the Swedes who in that engagement were overthrown and utterly routed out of Funen Besides the great Towns mentioned there are in Funen a great number of fair Villages among which they reckon up no less then 264 Parish Churches SEELAND SEeland the largest fairest and most fruitful Island in the Baltic Sea lies to the East of Funen from which 't is separated as we have said before by the Belt On the other side it is parted from Schonen by a small Frith call'd by the inhabitants Oresundt thro which
seems plain from the arguments and authorities of learned men before alledged 't will be no difficult matter to evince the truth of this assertion That the Getes and Goths together with all the inhabitants of the Danish Isles in the Baltic Sea are originally one and the same Nation 'T is true in some small Islands in and near the Finnic Gulph the people use a language altogether unintelligible to a true Dane or Swede but further westward the languages spoken in all the Baltic Islands are so many dialects of the Gothic tongue And the old Runic monuments daily found in most Provinces of the Danish and Swedish dominions prove manifestly the same words and characters to have been used in Schonen Jutland and the intermediate Islands From the difference of manners customs habits c. in these Isles no more can be conclucluded then that some wanting the convenience of traffick and correspondence with other Nations are forced to content themselves with the rude and ungentile ways of living taught them by their homebred Ancestors whilst others who lay more in the road of Merchant-ships must needs insensibly admit of a daily alteration both in manners and language NORWAY WHat the Edda Name and other Mythological writers tell us of Nor son of their God Thor Grandchild to Woden the first grand Captain of the Norwegians from whom that people and their Country fetch say these men their names merits just as much credit as the Danish stories of their King Dan. The truth is Norway or Norweg as the Germans write it whence the Latin word Norwegia is only via seu tractus septentrionalis i. e. a country situated towards the North. Hence in the Danish Swedish Norvegian tongues 't is to this day called Norrike or the Northern Kingdom Pliny's Nerigon is only a corruption of this word and we find that anciently all the Cimbrian Kingdoms were named Regna Norica By Helmoldus the Norwegians are called Nordliudi which word is not as Dr. Heylin guesses derived from the Dutch word Nordt and the French lieu for Nordliod or Nordtleut in the Northern languages is no more then the people of the North. In the Preface to our King Aelfred's Anglo-Saxonic Version of Orosius this Kingdom is stiled Norðh manna land the Country of the Normans Adam Bremensis calls it Normannia And we know Rollo brought his Normans out of these parts This Kingdom is bounded on the South with the Baltic Straits Bounds which separate it from Jutland on the North and West with the Northern Ocean on the East with Sweden and Lapland The whole length of it from the Baltic Sea as far as Finmark is reckoned to be about 210 German miles The Eastern part of Norway is very thin peopled Soil being a Country of nothing but inaccessible and craggy mountains Towards the South there is greater store of inhabitants who dwell in pleasant valleys encircled with barren and rocky hills The rest of the Country is overspread with woods which furnish the greatest part of Europe with Deal-boards and Masts for Ships The long ridge of high mountains which divide this Kingdom from Sweden where Pliny places his Sevo are continually covered with snow whence intolerable sharp winds are sent down into the valleys beneath which by this means become desolate and unfruitful But more Southerly and all along the Western coasts the air is much more temperate and would be healthful enough if not corrupted by the putrefaction and stench of a certain kind of Rats called by the inhabitants Lemmer which infect the whole Country with the Epidemical disease of the Jaundice and a giddiness in the head which is most especially apt to seize on strangers unacquainted with the danger and unarm'd against the distemper In the valleys there are good breeds of Cattel Commodities insomuch that the inhabitants export yearly great quantities of Butter Tallow Hides and Cheese Their chief Grain is Barley The woods afford Timber Pitch Tar rich Furs and great store of Filberds Besides these commodities they have a good trade from their Stock-fish and Train-Oyl which is vended all Europe over Christian IV. King of Denmark employ'd several Artists in the search of some Silver and Gold Mines in the year 1623. And 't is said some lumps of the Oar of both those mettals were here found and presented to the King But this discovery never turned to any considerable account For the Natives were utterly ignorant of the art of refining any kind of Minerals themselves and altogether unwilling to admit into their Country any foreigners skill'd in that way The inhabitants are much of the same complexion and humour with the Danes 〈…〉 They are generally effeminate and lazy not so much thro any fault of nature as the want of employment For the King of Denmark seldom or never makes use of this Nation in his wars as being loth to trust them with arms The ancient Norwegians as well as their neighbours are every where reported to have been notorious Pyrats but at this day the Seas are scarce in any place in Europe so secure from robbery as on the coasts of Norway The cause of this alteration can scarce be attributed to the modern honesty of this Kingdom so far excelling that of former days but rather to the general poverty and mean spiritedness of the inhabitants into which the Danish rigor has forc'd them For they have little or no Shipping allow'd them and are too low kept to pretend to hector and domineer Their diet is what they furnish other Countries with Stockfish 〈◊〉 and a coarse kind of Butter and Cheese Their usual drink Rostock Ale In this they commonly drink three draughts one in remembrance of God the second to the Kings health and the third to the Queens As Norway is still reckon'd a distinct Kingdom from Denmark 〈◊〉 so it had formerly its own independent Kings who sometimes Lorded it over the Monarchs of Sweden and Denmark Nevertheless the account we have of these Princes from the Chronica Norvagica published by Johannes Slangerupensis in the year 1594 and Olaus Wormius in the year 1633 and the relations of other Historians is so imperfect and incredible that 't would but waste paper to give the Reader a catalogue of them The last King that sway'd the Scepter in Norway was Haquin who in the year 1363 married Margaret eldest daughter of Waldemar III. King of Denmark thereupon uniting the two Kingdoms Now tho King Haquin had only one son by Queen Margaret Olaus for some while King of Denmark who dyed without issue yet the Danes having once got footing in this Kingdom were resolved to keep their station and therefore to secure themselves from all future insurrection and rebellion they immediately put strong Garrisons into all the Cities and Forts of consequence in the Nation Since it is manifest from the language manners c. of the inhabitants that the Norwegians and Islanders are both one
people what the Reader misses in the general description of Norway may possibly be met with in the following one of Island The Prefecture of Masterland THis Prefecture takes its name from the chief City in it seated on a rocky Peninsula and famous for its great trade in Herrings and other Sea-fish This City with two more of less note Congel and Oddawald and the adjoining Country are commanded by the strong Castle of Bahus now in the hands of the King of Sweden It was first built by Haquin IV. King of Norway about the year 1309 upon a steep rock on the bank of the river Trollet and was then look'd upon as the best Fort that King had in his dominions and a sufficient Bulwark against the daily assaults and incursions of the Swedes and Westro-Goths The Bishopricks of Anslo and Staffenger with the Province of Aggerhuse ANslo called by the inhabitants Opslo and by some Latin writers Asloa was first built by King Harold cotemporary with Sueno Esthritius King of Denmark who frequently kept his residence in this City Here is held the chief Court of Judicature for all Norway wherein all causes and suits at Law are heard and determined before the Governor who acts as Vice-Roy of the Kingdom The Cathedral is dedicated to St. Alward who took great pains in preaching the Gospel to the Norwegian Heathens In this Church is to be shew'n the Sword of Haquin one of their ancientest Kings a signal testimony if the stories they tell of it be true of the strength and admirable art of some Norwegians of former ages The hilt of it is made of Crystal curiously wrought and polished whence Olaus Magnus will needs conclude that the use of Crystal was anciently much more ordinary in Norway then it is at this day in any part of Europe Not far from Opslo on the other side of the Bay stands the Castle of Aggerhusen memorable for the brave resistance it made the Swedish Army in the year 1567 which besieg'd it hotly eighteen weeks together but was at last beat off and forced shamefully to retire About twenty German miles Northward of Opslo lies the City Hammar formerly a Bishops See but at present under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Opslo Near this Town is the Island Moos where if we believe Olaus Magnus a huge and monstrous Serpent appears constantly before any grand alteration in the State or Government of the Kingdom of Norway In this Province besides the places already mentioned stand the Cities of Tonsberg Fridericstadt Saltsburgh and Scheen which have all a considerable trade from the Copper and Iron Mines which hereabouts are in greater numbers then in any other part of the Kingdom 'T was in this Province that the Silver Mines mention'd before were first discover'd at the expence of Christian IV. King of Denmark and some of the adjoining hills are by the neighbourhood to this day called Silver-bergen or the mountains of Silver To these Mines and the lofty woods of Pines and Fir-trees with which this part of the Country is overspread the Kingdom of Norway owes the greatest part of if not all its trade The City of Staffenger lies in 59 degrees some reckon 60 and a great many odd minutes of Latitude It is seated in a Peninsuia upon a great Bay of the Northern Ocean full of small Islands and guarded by the strong Castle of Doeswick which lies about two English miles from the Town In Civil affairs this City is under the jurisdiction of the Governor of Bergenhusen tho it has its own peculiar Bishop constantly residing in the Town The whole Bishopric is divided into the several Districts of Stavangersteen Dalarne Jaren Listerleen Mandalsleen Nedenesleen and Abygdelag Thomas Conrad Hvegner Bishop of this Diocess in the year 1641 took the pains to collect a great number of Runic inscriptions which lay scatter'd up and down his Diocess some of which are published by Wormius who further informs us that this Conrad's predecessor whose name he omits writ a Topographical description of this City and Bishoprick Beyond the Bay appears the Island Schutenes three German miles in length but scarce half an one in breadth Between this Island which has in it several considerable Villages and the Continent runs up a narrow Frith to Bergen which is called by the Dutch Merchants T' Liedt van Berghen To the Bishopric of Staffenger belongs the Province of Tillemarch or Thylemarch which gave Procopius the first grounds for that assertion of his which he defends with so great vehemency viz. that Scandinavia taken in its largest extent of which Thylemarch is a very inconsiderable part is the ancient Thule The Parish of Hollen in this Province is very remarkable for a Church-yard or burying place on the top of a Church dedicated to St. Michael which is cut out of a great high rock call'd by the Vicenage Vear upon the Lake Nordsee half a mile distant from Scheen Wormius thinks 't was formerly an Heathenish Temple but converted to Christian uses upon the first planting of the Gospel in this Kingdom The Prefecture and Bishoprick of Berghen THis Bishoprick the most fruitful and pleasantest part of all Norway lies to the North of Aggerhusen in the middle or heart of the Kingdom It derives its name from the fair and noble Emporium or Mart-Town of Berghen or else from the strong Castle of Berghenhusen the usual seat of the Vice-Roy of Norway at a small distance from Berghen Northward Berghen an ancient and famous Sea-Port Town mentioned by Pomponius Mela and Pliny is the Granary and Magazine of the whole Kingdom of Norway It lies distant from Bahusen about an hundred German miles by Sea and sixty by land from Truntheim as many from Schagen the outmost Promontory of Jutland almost eighty Some have fetcht its name from the Norwegian verb Bergen which signifies to hide or conceal because the Haven being surrounded with hills seems to be a kind of sculking-place for Ships where Vesfels of two hundred Tun and upwards ride in a spatious and most secure Harbour free from all danger of wind and weather But we need not trouble our selves any further for the derivation of the name then to consider that Berghen in the Norwegian language signifies mountains and Berghen-husen a company of houses among the hills The buildings in this City till within these few years were exceeding mean and contemptible most of them of wood cover'd with green turf and therefore frequently burnt down But of late the Hamburghers Lubeckers Hollanders and others that trade this way have beautified the Town with an Exchange and a great many private houses of credit The most peculiar trade of this City lies in a kind of Stock-fish catcht upon these coasts and thence called usually by the Norway Merchants Berghenvisch This the Fishermen take in winter commonly in January for the conveniency of drying it in the cold and sharp air Besides hither Furs of all sorts and vast quantities of dry'd
Fish Butter Tallow Hides c. are brought from all parts of Norway to be shipt off into other Countries The Townsmen not many years ago observing the daily encrease of their trade and the great concourse of strangers which it drew from all parts and fearing they themselves might at last be prejudiced by an unlimited and general admission of foreign Tradesmen and Merchants into their City made an order that whoever would after such a time be admitted a freeman of the Town should either be whipt at a Game instituted upon this occasion and call'd by them Gantenspill or rowl'd in mud and dirt or lastly hung in a basket over some intolerable and filthy smoak This hard usage quickly diminished the number of foreigners who fancied it scarce worth their while to purchase their freedom at so dear and scandalous a rate But of late the industry and skill as well as number of the inhabitants encreasing these barbarous customs are laid aside and the Citizens themselves are now able to export what was formerly fetcht away from them The Bishop of this Diocess was heretofore under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Truntheim To the Governor of Berghen are subject the Prefectures of Sudhornleen Nordhornleen Soghne Sudfiord Norfiord and Sundmerleen The Prefecture and Bishoprick of Nidrosia or Truntheim THE fourth Castle and Government in Norway is that of the City Nidrosia as it was anciently called from the river Nider on which 't is seated or Truntheim formerly the Metropolis of the Kingdom and the seat of the King and Archbishop of Norway Pontanus somewhere calls this City the Cabinet of all the Norwegian monuments but Wormius found no great reason to confer so honourable a title upon it when after a diligent search into the Antiquities old monuments and reliques of the primitive inhabitants of this Kingdom he met with no more then three Runic inscriptions in this whole Diocess The conveniency of the Haven makes this place resorted to by some Mariners and Merchants to this day but the ruines are so great that it looks more like a Village then City not having had any opportunity of recovering its former splendor since it was burnt down in the year 1522. Its houses are a company of old fashion'd and rotten buildings and the Kings Palace is decay'd below the meanness of an English Cottage However something of its ancient grandeur still appears in the Cathedral dedicated to St. Olaus which tho almost consumed by fire yet by the ruines shews it self to have been one of the most magnificent and largest structures in the world In this Church the Huntsmen were wont to make a yearly offering of the skins of the largest and stoutest white Bears which they kill'd for the Priest to tread upon at Divine Service Groneland and Iseland were formerly parts of the Diocess of Truntheim but now this Bishoprick is not of so large an extent In the Castle resides the Governor of the whole Prefecture of Truntheim who has under him several other Governors of lesser Provinces In the Country a little beyond this City there grows no wood at all But instead thereof the inhabitants make use of fish-bones as well to build their houses and for several implements of housholdstuff as fuel and with the fat of the same fish they feed their Lamps in winter The Prefecture of Truntheim in the year 1658 was by the Danes surrendred up to the Swedes by a publick Treaty of Peace The next year they wrested it again out of the hands of the Swedish King but resign'd it back at the Treaty of Roschild Halgoland the Country of Ohther King Aelfred's Geographer is a part of this Prefecture Of which that Author gave this account to the King his Master ê§ nan man ne bude be Nor ðh an him i. e. That no inhabited Country lay further North then this But the great fishing trade upon these Coasts have made the English better acquainted with these parts then this Gentleman was with his own Country The Prefecture of Wardhus THE Castle of Wardhus the seat of the fifth and last great Governor in the Kingdom of Norway has its name from the Island Warda in which it stands This Isle lyes about two German miles from the main land of Finmark being near twelve English miles in compass The inhabitants of this and the two adjoining Isles which in Finmark go all under the general name of Trunsolem live only upon Stockfish which they dry in the frost They have no manner of Bread nor drink but what is brought them from other places Some small stock of Cattel they have but only such as can make a shift to live of their masters diet dryed fish Finmark or Norwegian Lapland ON the North of Norway lies Finmark or as the Natives use to call it Taakemark which perhaps was the ancient habitation of the Finni mentioned by Tacitus For the character which that Historian gives us of those people is very applicable to the modern Finmarkers The Finni says he are a people extraordinary savage and miserably poor They have neither Horses Arms House nor Home but feed upon roots and such provision as their Bows and Arrows can procure and are clothed with the skins of wild beasts To this day Finmark is not divided as all other Countries generally are into distinct Lordships and Inheritances but as in Mr. Hobbes's state of nature every private man pretends a right and title to every part of the Land and the strength of the Arm is the only Judge of controversies When fishing season comes in they throng to the Sea-coasts and when that is over retire again into the uplands Only the Islanders in Heymeland keep their stations and have their Churches in Trom Suro Maggero and other places The language manners and habits of the people are the same as in the Swedish Lapland of which an account has been already given Of the ancient Commerce between the old Britains English and Norwegians THo the relations which our English writers give us of the prowess and brave exploits of the valiant British King Arthur savour too much of Romance yet in the main our best Historians agree unanimously in this that no Prince ever conquer'd more of the Northern Kingdoms then this King W. Lambert in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 assures us that all the Islands Nations and Kingdoms in the North and East Seas as far as Russia were tributary to him And Geoffry of Monmouth says King Arthur at one time summon'd no less then six Kings to appear before him at his Court in Britain viz. 1. Guillaumur King of Ireland 2. Malvase King of Iseland 3. Doldaff King of Gothland 4. Gunnase King of Orkney 5. Lot King of Norway And 6. Aschile King of Denmark Upon these conquests the Kingdom of Norway was annexed to the Crown of England and the Norwegians incorporated into one Nation with the Britains But this amity was of no long continuance for Norway was at too great a distance
eating too much of a Melon tho he was never tax'd for being guilty of any manner of intemperance in meat or drink but always esteem'd a severe punisher of drunkenness and gluttony 1493. Maximilian succeeded his Father Frideric having been before his Fathers death Crown'd King of the Romans in the year 1486. From his birth till he was almost nine years old he is said to have been utterly speechless but afterwards he gain'd the use of his tongue and prov'd one of the most eloquent and learned Emperors that Germany ever bred He married Mary the only Daughter and Heiress of Charles Duke of Burgundy upon which marriage all the Dukedoms Marquisats Earldoms and other Dominions of which the said Charles had been Lord were for ever annex'd to the Territories of the House of Austria The wars he was engag'd in against his neighbours on all hands especially the Venetians were almost innumerable tho for the most part he was forc'd to take up Arms in his own defence 'T is reported of him that he would never pass by a Gallows or Gibbet without a reverent salute in these words Salve sancta Justitia For five years before his death which happen'd in the twenty-fifth year of his reign he had his Coffin always by him and carried after him in every expedition he undertook which gave some of his retinue occasion to conjecture that he had some great treasure in it and that the pretence of its putting him in mind of mortality was only a false veil to blind the vulgar 1519. Charles V. Son to Philip King of Spain was elected Emperor and Crown'd with the greatest pomp imaginable at Aix la Chappel A puissant and brave Prince who well deserv'd the surname of Great conferr'd on him by Pope Paul III. The whole History of his Life seems to be nothing else but a Catalogue of his Conquests The writers of those times mention forty great victories obtain'd by him and seventy battels from which he came off the field a Conqueror The Pope of Rome and the French King were at the same time his prisoners He quash'd the League made by the Protestants at Schmalcade and took the Elector of Saxony and Landtgrave of Hassia prisoners He forced the Great Turk to relinquish Vienna and afterwards won the Kingdom of Tunis At last having reign'd thirty-eight years loaded with victories and honour he resign'd the Empire and betook himself to a Monastery where he was used to say That he had more pleasure and satisfaction in the retired and solitary enjoyment of one day in a Monk's Cell then ever he could perceive in all the fortunate Triumphs that attended the rest of his life 1558. Ferdinand I. upon the voluntary resignation of his Brother Charles V. was by an unanimous consent of the Electors declared Emperor tho Pope Pius IV. refused to pronounce the Election valid because Ferdinand had granted the Lutherans a toleration But some say the same Pope was afterwards so far reconciled to him as to grant him the priviledg of receiving the Sacrament of the Lords Supper in both kinds He was a mild peaceful and temperate Prince a hard student and perfect Master of the Latin tongue He was exceeding courteous to all even the meanest of his Subjects and had a certain hour in every day in which he attended the suits and complaints of poor men When some of his Courtiers objected to him the inconveniences that would follow upon the permission of so easie an access to all manner of supplicants he answer'd That himself could expect but harsh usage at Gods Throne if beggars were hinder'd from approaching his He dyed of a Catarrh in the sixty-first year of his age after he had reign'd six years 1564. Maximilian II. Ferdinand's Son and King of Bohemia was elected into his Fathers room being first proclaim'd King of the Romans at Francfurt and afterwards Crown'd King of Hungary This Emperor prov'd as great a favourer of the Protestants as his Father insomuch that some Roman Catholics have not stuck to call him the Lutheran Emperor He renewed the Articles of Peace agreed upon between the Protestant and Popish parties at Passaw and granted some of his Nobility and branches of the Austrian Family a free exercise of the Lutheran Religion Qui in conscientiis Imperium sibi sumunt conantur coeli arcem invadere is a saying which Historians know not whether to attribute to this Emperor or Maximilian I. but 't is most probable it was the former's since he is known to have been the greatest favourer of the Protestant perswasion that ever rul'd the German Empire He dyed at Ratisbon in the year 1576 having reign'd twelve years 1576. Rudolph Maximilian's Son was elected Emperor immediately upon his Father's death Some curious Chronologers have fancied his coming to the Imperial Crown in this year something ominous since the Numeral letters in RVdoLphVs IMperator AVgVstVs make up the number 1576. He was a Prince exceedingly addicted to the studies of all manner of Arts and Sciences especially the Mathematics and Mechanics In both which he receiv'd great assistance from the famous Astronomer Tycho Brahe who dyed in his Court where he had spent the greatest part of his banishment Several Cities and Provinces in Germany at his request began to make use of the Gregorian account tho many Ambassadors sent from the Electors to Rotenburg to treat of this particular rejected it The greatest war he engaged himself in was against the Turks with whom at last he concluded a Peace in the year 1600. But the truth is he minded his book more then Arts of Chivalry and was a greater Scholar then Soldier Which gave his Brother Matthias opportunity of undermining and cheating him of the Kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia and forcing him to content himself with the Arch-Dukedom of Austria and the Empire 1612. Matthias upon his Brother's death was Elected and Crown'd Emperor at Francfurt The Protestant Religion was as much persecuted by this Emperor as it was encouraged by his predecessor Which harshness and severity gave occasion to that bloody Civil-war which broke out first in Bohemia and had afterwards like to have set the whole Empire in a flame When the oppression which the Protestants lay under had occasioned some dangerous seditions in a great many considerable Cities and Market-Towns in the Kingdom of Bohemia the Emperor order'd a Synod to be call'd at Prague designing to allow the dissenting party as they term'd the Lutherans some small priviledges but such as should be far short of the large Charter given and confirm'd to them by his Brother Rudolph At this meeting the Emperors Ambassadors William Slabate and Jurislaw Bazius where thrown out of the window for their domineering carriage and so perished This mightily incensed the Emperor who endeavouring to be reveng'd had like to have ruin'd himself and his Empire He dyed without issue having reign'd seven years 1619. Ferdinand of Gratz Arch-Duke of Austria and Grandson to Ferdinand I. by
or since their time The first occasion I suppose of the general mistake came from the Saxon Army's bearing a young black Horse which was afterwards upon the conversion of Witikind to the Christian Faith changed into a white one the Crest of the House of Brunswic's Arms to this day in their Flags Now Hengist or Hengst in the old Saxon dialect signifies a Stallion and that Horsa is a word of the same signification I need not tell the English Reader So that the Captains of the ancient Saxon Troops seem to have had the names of Hengist and Horsa given them for the same reason that some writers have enigmatically called the Emperor the Eagle the King of France the Lilly c. i.e. from the Arms they bear The excellency of the Municipal Laws observed in Saxony Laws even in the times of Heathenism appears from Charles the Great 's confirming a great part of them and that at the same time when he alter'd the Laws as well as Government of most other Provinces in Germany His example has been follow'd by the succeeding Emperor's down to our days Insomuch that the Saxons are still govern'd by the Laws of their Ancestors whereof a great part are comprehended in those two famous Digests of their Laws entituled Der Sachsen-Spiegel and Das Sachsische Weichbild Of which more hereafter For an account of the Ordeal their famous way of determining controversies soon after their being converted to the Christian faith we refer the Reader to what we have already said on that subject in the general Description of Denmark Tho I am apt to believe that this piece of Judicature was never practis'd by any other Saxons then the English and 't is certain they were not acquainted with it till some time after they had setled themselves in this Island SAXONIA INFERIOR Apud Janssonio-Waesbergios Mosem Pitt et Stephanum Swart A DESCRIPTION Of some of the most Considerable PROVINCES IN THE Lower Saxony THE general name of the Lower Saxony by some late Geographers has been made to comprehend the Archbishoprics of Magdeburg and Bremen the Bishoprics of Halberstadt Hildesheim Lubeck Swerin and Ratzeburg the Territories of the Dukes of Brunswic and Lunenburg Holstein Mecklenburg and Saxon-Lawenburg Amongst these an account of the Dukedom of Holstein has been already given in the Description of Denmark and nothing within the precincts of his Dominions excepting Hamburg in Stormaria and Lubeck in Wagerland is at present reckon'd a part of the German Empire Of the commodities present state c. of the rest we shall endeavour to give the Reader an account in the following sheets Beginning with a Description Of the famous City of HAMBURG and the Country adjacent WHence this great City should have its name Name is not easily agreed on by the German Historians Some derive the word from the Hams of Bacon brought hither from all parts of Saxony and here sold to foreign Mariners Others again fetch it from Jupiter Ammon whose Image they tell us was worshipp'd in these parts until Charles the Great had extirpated Idolatry and planted Christianity in this and the neighbouring Provinces Crantzius says 't was first call'd Hamburg from one Hama a stout Saxon Champion who was here slain by Starcater a Danish Giant Dresserus brings it from Hain which signifies a pleasant Grove The most probable opinion is that this City first had its name from the Forest Hamme which formerly lay between the Rivers Bille and Alster and gave the Title to the ancient Lords of Ham who about the time of Charles the Great 's leading his Army into these parts built themselves here a Castle which from their own names they call'd Hamburg This conjecture is embraced by Sylvius Hamburgensis Andreas Angelus P. Bertius Isac Pontanus and most other Authors of repute who have given us any historical account of this City Pontanus tells us that Ham in the old Saxon Dialect signifies a Forest or Chase and proves it from Suderham and Norderham two large Forests in Dithmars But Authors are as hardly reconcil'd about the situation as name of the place Situation The greatest part of Writers tell us the City stands in Stormaria a Province in the Duke of Holstein's Dominions But some German Historians are very zealous in asserting that it is a true Saxon City and the outmost bounds of Saxony and Stormaria adding further that to a diligent observer it will evidently appear that the greatest share of the Town even at this day is separated from the Continent of Stormaria by some small arms of the River Elb. Some Antiquaries have endeavour'd to shew Antiquity that this noble Hans-Town was in the days of Albion the grand Captain of the Albingi who was afterwards Christen'd at Minden with Witekind a considerable Village After the death of this Albion about the year 785 Charles the Great gave this part of the Country to Vtho one of his Noblemen and Attendants who to secure himself from the frequent incursions of the Vandals and others his Heathenish neighbours began first to fortifie the place in the year 787 or as some say 789 But these first foundations were quickly shaken and Vtho's rude draught of a strong City was utterly defac'd For the Vandals pouring in upon him and his small retinue sack'd the Town and laid it wast in the year 810. This says Conringius is that which the Author of an ancient Chronicle means when he tells us Anno 810 Castellum nomine Hochbuci Albi flumini contiguum in quo Odo Legatus Imperatoris Orientalium Saxonum erat Praesidium a Wilsis captum From hence we must conclude that the Saxons had no place that deserv'd the name of a City before Charles the Great 's time and that Hamburg was one of the first tho in great danger of perishing in its infancy The year following the Emperor regain'd this Country from the insulting and barbarous Vandals and rebuilt the Town which was afterwards by his Son Ludovicus Pius advanced into a considerable City The same Emperor made it an Archbishop's See about the year 833 An Archbishoprick bestowing it upon Ansgar the great Saint of the City of Hamburg call'd by some of their Writers Anscharius by others Ansagrius or Ansearius who first converted the inhabitants to Christianity Within a while after the whole Province round about embrac'd the Christian Faith and several Evangelical Preachers subjected themselves to the Archbishop of Hamburg Afterwards the Archbishopric was translated from this City to Bremen as we shall have occasion to shew hereafter and for several Ages last past there has been neither Archbishop nor Bishop of Hamburg After the Hamburgers were established in the Christian Religion To whom subject and began to trade they had daily large and ample priviledges conferr'd on them by most succeeding Emperors to whom they paid homage But we must needs conclude that they were sometimes obliged to change their Masters according as contrary interests of their
them in the year 1648 which have not since been rebuilt However the place is still beautified with a fair Church College and Town-Hall and the Streets especially the Market-place which is in an exact square are generally neat and uniform Oelsse had anciently its own Duke who kept his residence in that City but upon the death of Duke Conrad the Eighth in the year 1492. the Dukedom was given to the Dukes of Munsterberg who have ever since been Lords of it In this Principality are reckon'd the small Cities of Bernstatt Festenberg Kunstatt Stroppen Mosebahr Hundsfeld and Trebnitz VI. The City and Dukedom of BRESLAW BRESLAW or Wratislavia the Metropolis of Silesia has its name from Wratislaus a Bohemian Prince its first Founder whence the Citizens bear a great W in their Coat of Arms to this day 'T is seated at the confluence of the two Rivers Oder and Ohla in a rich and pleasant Country Towards the North indeed there are some Marshes and moist fields whence are now and then some unwholesome gales sent into the Town and the whole City is reported to have been built in the place of a great Pond dried up The Citizens who are exceedingly numerous by reason of their great Traffick with the Hungarians Bohemians Polanders and other foreign Merchants who resort hither are said to be as neat and gentile in their Clothes and Cookery as any other of the Emperor's Subjects whatever Breslawers love to be esteem'd immediate members of the German Empire and cannot endure to be reckon'd a part of the Kingdom of Bohemia Hence 't is that they have obtain'd leave of the Emperors to bear the spred Eagle in their Escutcheon and that they petitioned Charles V. to confirm their priviledges For this reason M. Boregius a Breslawer who wrote a Chronicle of the Kings of Bohemia ranks Breslaw among the Imperial Cities but ne're mention it with the King of Bohemia's Towns altho it be certain that 't was formerly subject to that Prince This Goldastus in his learned Treatise of the Kingdom of Bchemia evidently proves notwithstanding what is usually alledg'd as an argument to the contrary by some ignorant and silly Historians that it was once one of the Hans-Towns The generality of the buildings in this City are fair and stately only on the banks of the Oder stand four old fashion'd Fabricks with Turrets on the top which the Antiquaries of this place fancy to have been the ancient Palaces of so many Schwabish Princes who in former days were Lords of this City Besides the vast traffick of the Citizens the Town is famous for a Bishop's See and an University wherein have been bred many learn'd men and some great Writers The Bishops of this Diocese who had anciently the Epiphet or Title of Golden given them from their vast revenues are put in by the King of Bohemia whom they acknowledg their supreme Head at least in Temporals 'T is a receiv'd Tradition in these parts that the Kings of Bohemia have no power to promote a stranger to any Bishopric in Silesia so that a Bohemian is no more capable of being advanced to one of their Dioceses then a Silesian is of being preferr'd to the Archbishopric of Prague But how false this report is Historians will sufficiently inform us Boleslaus Dukedom surnam'd the Long a Polish Prince was created the first Duke of Breslaw and Lignitz by the Emperor Frideric in the year 1163. But these kind of petty Princes not being able to secure their Territories and especially this large and rich City which was a bait sufficient to tempt the most potent Prince of the neighbourhood from the incursions of the Tartars Polanders and other foreign Enemies the Citizens of Breslaw were forced to put themselves under the protection of the Kings of Bohemia or as they will have it Emperors of Germany to whom they are now immediately subject VII The Town and Dukedom of LIGNITZ LIGNITZ a fair City on the banks of a small Rivulet call'd Katsbach is thought to have its name from the Lygii City a German people the ancient inhabitants of this part of Silesia About the year of Christ 1170 this Town was much enlarg'd beautified and fortified by Boleslaus the Long the first Duke of Lignitz After him Duke Frideric the second so far improv'd his predecessor Boleslaus's undertakings that in the year 1532 it became one of the best fortified Cities next to Breslaw in all Silesia Things best worth seeing in the Town are the Hospital the Town-Hall and Castle The Dukedom of Lignitz is reckon'd one of the best Corn-Countries in Silesia Dukedom and affords near as great plenty of the Terra Sigillata as the Dukedom of Schweidnitz especially the white sort which is here more plentiful then in any other Province The whole is commonly subdivided into seven Circles whereof four have names from the four Cities of Luben Parchwitz Hayn and Goldberg and the other three are the division of the barren or desert part of the Dukedom VIII The Ducal Cities of JAWER SCHWEIDNITZ BRIEG MONSTERBERG and OPPELEN THE City of Jawer is seated in a pleasant Valley Jawer tho not far distant from the rugged Crags and Mountains which separate Silesia from the Kingdom of Bohemia It has not the advantage of any River near it so that all the fortifications it has are high Rampires and deep Ditches There is little of note in the Town but the Church burnt down in the late Civil Wars A. D. 1648. but rebuilt more stately then before and the Castle wherein resides the Lieutenant of the two Dukedoms of Jawer and Schweidnitz The Emperor Charles IV. King of Bohemia married Ann Daughter of Henry II. Duke of Javer who with his Brother Bolco Duke of Schweidnitz died without issue whereupon these two Dukedoms were more immediately subjected to the Kings of Bohemia in whose hands they still remain To the Dukedom of Javer belong the Towns of Buntzlau Lemberg Schonau Greiffenberg Lahn Fridberg Lubenthal Schmideberg Naumburg upon the Queiss Kupfferberg and Hirschberg 2. SCHWEIDNITZ or Schweinnitz Schweidnitz has its name from the great Herds of wild Swine which were harbour'd in this place before the Forest was cut down in the year 1070. Whence the Arms of the Town are a wild Boar. It was afterwards much enlarged by Boleslaus I. who fortified it with Walls and Rampires and beautified it with several fair buildings so that 't is now one of the finest Cities in Silesia The most remarkable sight in the Town next to the Churches and other publick buildings is the great Gun in the Armory which carries a Bullet of three hundred and twenty pound weight This is by Schickfusius in his Preface to Curaeus's Chronicle of Silesia very improperly reckon'd amongst the great and extraordinary blessings which the Almighty has been pleased to bestow on some of the Cities in Silesia In the Dukedom of Schweidnitz are the Towns of Strigau memorable as we have already acquainted