A.D. 1515. attacked by Henry: Hanover, also a member of the league, and BOOK VIII. whose magistrates had followed the example of Brunswick. Henry endeavoured to steal a The city of Hanover march upon this city; and approached it under the cloud of night. He had planned, that his soldiers should rush into the town when the gates were first opened in the morning, but a peasant having discovered his concealed force, found means to apprize the garrison of their danger, and when the day dawned, they were found at their posts, and so well prepared to resist his assault, that he judged it prudent to retire. He engaged afterwards in a war in Friesland, and was killed by a random shot, while employed in investing the castle or fortress of Lecropt, 1514. But saved. This prince is the only member of his house, to whom the epithet of bad has been applied by contemporary historians. He married in 1486, Henry's family. Catherine, the daughter of Erick II., Duke of Pomerania, and by her had six sons, and two daughters. Christopher, his eldest son, was made Archbishop of Bremen, in 1502, and was the prince for whom Philip took up arms against the Wursati. In 1511, he was made Administrator of Verden, and died in 1558, without BOOK VIII. A.D. 1515. History of Erick: issue. Henry, the second son, succeeded his father; Erick, the third son, was commander of the Teutonick order at Coblentz, and was killed in a war with the peasants in 1525; he left no issue; Francis, the fourth son, was elected Bishop of Minden in 1505, and died without issue in 1529; he was succeeded by his brother George, the fifth son of Henry, who also died childless in 1566. William, Henry's youngest son, was a commander of the Teutonick knights at Mirow in Mecklenburg, where he died in 1558. Elizabeth, the eldest daughter, became abbess of Stederburg, and Catherine, his second daughter, married Magnus the Second, Duke of Saxe-Lawenburg. Erick, the third prince in the list, received as his patrimony the states of Calemberg, and at his father's death the principality of Gottingen. When only eighteen years of age, he set out on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and after viewing the wonders of the Holy Land, proceeded to Rome, where, it was said, he became so disgusted with the profligacy of the papal court, that he returned to his native land, with his mind prejudiced against the ministers of the catholic church. Attached by private friendship to Maximilian, the eldest son of the emperor, he BOOK VIII. A.D. 1515. imilian: joined the standard of that prince, and The friend of Maxserved his first campaign against the Hun garians in Austria. He was the first to plant the Austrian standard on the walls of the castle of Vienna; and though recalled from this expedition in 1491, to take possession of Calemberg, we find him next year in the suite of Maximilian, arranging the disputed succession Dispute regarding of the Palatine family to the states of Bavaria, after the death of Duke George, surnamed the Rich. Rupert, or Robert, the son-in-law of George, who was sovereign of the County Palatine, claimed Bavaria as his wife's portion, but his title was disputed by Albert IV., who was the nearest male heir. Maximilian, as the brother-in-law of Albert, favoured his pretensions, while Louis XII. of France, and Ladislaus, King of Bohemia, supported Rupert. This consequently brought on a civil war, in which the other powers soon took a part. Rupert however died before the commencement of hostilities, but Philip, who succeeded him in the palatinate the Palatine succes sion: BOOK VIII. Supported the claims of his children to the sovereignty of Bavaria. A.D. 1515. Maximilian in this dispute: France failed in her promises to Albert, but as the Bohemians continued faithful, he was able to bring a considerable army into the field. Erick engaged with Erick, Duke of Calemberg, was detached by Maximilian, to engage the Bohemian forces before they could join Albert's head-quarters, and he not only succeeded in intercepting their advance, but after a hard-fought action, in which two thousand were slain, forced them to return back upon their own country. The emperor joined him during the action, and exposed himself so much, that he received a blow with an iron flail, (a weapon much used by the warlike Bohemians,) that made him fall from his horse, and he would have been taken by the enemy, had not Erick hastened to his assistance, and Saves the emperor. after much personal risk, brought him off in safety. Maximilian was so pleased with his valour and presence of mind on this occasion, that he gave him the endearing title of brother, and added to his coat of arms a bright star, saying, "that as the morning star outshone all others in brightness, so the valour of Erick of BOOK VIII. Brunswick was superior to that of any other prince of the empire." After that victory, A.D. 1515. Erick laid siege to Küfstein, a fortress in the Attacks Küfstein. Tyrol, and a place of such strength, and so well garrisoned, that it was considered imprégnable; the walls were fourteen feet thick, and the garrison were so convinced of their security, that whenever a cannon-ball hit their defences, they had the place swept clean by way of derision. The emperor, irritated at the obstinacy of their defence and this insolence, took an oath, that neither man nor woman should escape; and when the place was captured, he would certainly have kept his oath, but for the magnanimity of the Duke of Brunswick, who could admire bravery even in an enemy, and through whose interference, a great proportion of the gallant defenders of Küfstein were saved. From Bohemia, the services of Erick were Erick accompanies the emperor into transferred into Italy, and in the emperor's Italy: war against the republic of Venice, he became as distinguished as he had been in Germany. He continued to be the trusted friend of the emperor, during the whole of his reign, though he retired from his command in the imperial |