Modern History.

1492. John Albert He was entirely routed by the Turks. 1501. Alexander. Nothing remarkable happened in his reign. 1506. Sigismund I. One of the most illustrious princes of his time: contemporary with Charles V., of Ger

many. Successful wars with Russia and the Teutonic knights, &c.

1548. Sigismund Augustus.-Poland now became the most powerful state in the north.-The state wanted a firm hand to keep all together.-From this time it became an elective monarchy, till 1791.-In 1572 ended the male race of Jagellon.

1572. Henry de Valois, duke of Anjou; of France. 1575. Stephen Battori, prince of Transylvania.-He may be justly called a truly great king.-He increased his cavalry; defended the frontiers; civilized the Cossacks between the Dniester and the Dneiper, and filled a desert country with towns and people; he made various conquests.

1586. Sigismund III., son of John king of Sweden, succeeded. His elevation was prejudicial to Poland; it gave rise

to bloody wars.

1632. Uladislaus, his son, succeeded. He defeated the Russians; repulsed the Turks.

1637. War between the Poles and Cossacks: it brought great misfortunes on Poland.

1648. John Casimir (brother of Uladislaus) succeeded.

Dreadful wars with the Cossacks and the Swedes.Casimir told by whom Poland would one day be partitioned. He resigned his crown 1668, and retired to the abbey of St. Germains in France.

1654. The Cossacks put themselves under Russian protection. 1667. Smolensk, Kiev, the Dnieper, and part of the Ukraine

T

beyond it, were ceded to Russia. In 1686 Sobieski ratified these cessions.

1668. Michael Coribut succeeded, (of the race of Jagellon,) a

reign full of troubles and misfortunes.

1672. The Turks take Kaminieck; a key to Poland; on the Dniester: the Poles pay tribute to the Sultan.

1673. John Sobieski (a general of the Poles) succeeded: a sovereign of great accomplishment: compelled the Turks to remit the tribute.

1683. His victory over the Turks at Vienna.-Several campaigns in Podolia and Moldavia.

1697. Augustus II. elector of Saxony, crowned.

1700-1704. War with Sweden: Charles XII.-Russia now became the first power in the north. The Polish throne was declared vacant.

1704-1733. 1704. Stanislaus Leczinski chosen, and crowned: Augustus retired to Saxony. 1709, 10. He regained

the Polish throne, and held it to his death, 1733. Stanislaus retired with the Swedish general.

1733. Stanislaus was re-elected: the election was annulled by Russian and German influence.

Augustus II. (son of the late king) succeeded: a tranquil reign of thirty years.

1764. Stanislaus Augustus (count Poniatowski) succeeded, through the intervention of Russia. He (the last king of Poland) died in 1798: a man more fit to shine in private life than to fill a throne.-Corruption and luxury annihilated the strength of the nation.His reign is marked by civil war; by war with Russia; and by the repeated partition of the kingdom.

1794. The heroic Kosciusko made a noble but fruitless effort to maintain the independence of his country.-He died 1817.

1807, &c. The plans and promises of Buonaparte effected

nothing for Poland.

1830. The insurrection of the Poles only served to strengthen for the present the chain of Russian power with which they are bound.

13. Prussia.

Middle Ages.

Prussia lies on the east of ancient Germany.—It is divided into two parts; one part was called Royal Prussia, being formerly annexed to the crown of Poland; the other, Ducal Prussia, being formerly possessed by the Duke of Brandenburg. We must remember, that the order of Teutonic knights was founded 1190, by Frederic, duke of Suabia, in the Holy Land at the time of the seige of Acre. The object was to defend the Christian religion against the Mohammedans, and to take care of the sick in the Holy Land.-About A.D. 1226. The Teutonic knights received a strip of land on the Vistula from Conrad of Massovia, in order that they might protect Poland from the heathen inhabitants of Prussia; (the Pruzzi, a Slavonic nation at the mouth of the Vistula).-The first grand Master was a German; hence they were called the Teutonic Order.

1230-1283. They carried on a war of extermination, with

eleven Prussian tribes; who at last became Christians, and adopted the German customs. 1283-1404. The power of these knights increased rapidly: they conquered the territory on the shore of the Baltic from the Oder to the gulf of Finland.—Thus Poland lost its northern line of defence, and its maritime commerce.-The knights became tyrants; the nobility and the cities had no means of escaping their oppression, but by submitting to Poland.

1373. The emperor Charles IV., assigned Brandenburg to his second son Sigismund.

1415. Sigismund, now emperor of Germany, sold his margraviate and electorate to Frederic burgrave of Nurem

berg; this prince was the ancestor of the present reigning family.

1454-1466. War: the country was filled with bloodshed and devastation.

Modern History.

1497. The knights resolve to choose their grand masters out of powerful families.-Frederic duke of Saxony was

appointed.

1511. The knights elected Albert of Brandenburg to be grand

master.

1525. The Order was abolished in Prussia: its territory was made a hereditary duchy under Albert and his male descendants, as a fief of Poland.

1539. Joachim II., elector of Brandenburg, embraced Lutheranism.

1544. A university was formed in Konigsburg: all the professors to be Lutherans.

1568. Albert Frederic: his intellect was impaired: his paternal uncle, George Frederic, managed affairs.

1618. John Sigismund succeeded to the electorate of Brandenburg; duke of Prussia.

1619. George William succeeded him.—In his time was published the edict for restoring to the Catholics all that had been taken from them since the treaty of Passau, 1552. This edict George opposed, and joined Gustavus Adolphus, and had a share in the victory at Leipsic.

1640. Frederic William, generally called the Great Elector, (of Brandenburg.)

1655. He joined the Swedes against John II., king of Poland; but he made a separate peace with John: one article

was, that Frederic and his descendants should enjoy Prussia independently of Poland.

1674. He joined with Spain and Holland against Louis XIV. 1675. He conquered the Swedes. He then applied to commerce and improvement of his kingdom.

1688. Frederic I., his son succeeded him.—The emperor Leopold conferred upon him the title of king.-The monarchy increased in territory.-He founded the university of Halle; the royal academy of Berlin, &c. 1713. Frederic William I., king of Prussia.-By the end of 1719 fifty new towns and four hundred villages were built. He invited foreigners to settle in Prussia.— He regarded science and ornamental literature with contempt. Poetry and philosophy were his aversion. 1721, Potsdam founded.

1740. Frederic II. (his son), the Great.-Three Silesian wars. 1741. 1st. Battle of Molwitz; it completed the conquest of

Silesia.

1744. 2nd. War renewed: seige and capture of Prague: 1745, peace restored.

Eleven years of peace, spent by Frederic in activity; improving the administration and the army, and in attending to literature and the Muses.

1755. 3rd. The seven years war.—It was ended in 1763, on on the principle, that the contracting parties should remain "in statu quo."

1772. The first partition of Poland.

1778, 79. War of the Bavarian succession: terminatied without a battle. His last years were devoted to commerce, arts, and various improvements.

1786. Frederic William II.-Mild and beneficent: not able to