was governed by a
Protestant ruler, the people regarded the Roman Faith as the religion of
Antichrist, but the nobles were nearly all Catholics; and as long as
Wirtemberg remained Protestant, they, naturally, played but small roles
in the government. The peasants of Wirtemberg had more freedom than any
other people of the Empire. A heavy, stubborn race, these Wirtembergers,
hating their French-speaking rulers and jealously safeguarding those
ancient rights and liberties accorded to them by the testament of
Eberhard der Greiner in 1514. This Magna Charta of Swabia granted the
people a degree of freedom which was exceedingly irksome to the Dukes of
Wirtemberg. The nobles of the land who regarded themselves as too mighty
to attend the petty court of Stuttgart, for the most part sulked in their
castles, or repaired to the imperial court in Vienna. The Dukes of
Wirtemberg had perforce accepted this with as good grace as possible, but
when Eberhard Ludwig attained his majority he welcomed foreigners from
every part of Germany, forming from this band of usually noble, but
invariably penniless, adventurers a court of a certain magnificence and
brilliance. 'Here it is possible to enrich oneself; whereas in all other
courts it is impossible not to be ruined,' Monsieur de Poellnitz tells us
of the Wirtemberg of Eberhard Ludwig's day.

It was in this wise that Stafforth, a man of little birth from Hanover,
had succeeded in becoming an important person, and even pushed and
intrigued himself into the high position of Oberhofmarshall.

Herr Friedrich Wilhelm von Graevenitz, another courtier and newcomer, was
a gentleman of Mecklemburg. He had served in one of the Mecklemburg
regiments attached to Marlborough's troops when that great general, with
the Imperial Army, defended the banks of the Rhine from the invasion of
Louis XIV.

Duke Eberhard Ludwig espoused the cause of his suzerain, the Austrian
Emperor, and at the head of such troops as he could muster out of
Wirtemberg joined the Allied Army serving under the Duke of Marlborough.
On his return from the campaign he brought with him, on a visit to
Stuttgart, several gentlemen, his comrades in arms, among whom was
Graevenitz. This young soldier having little to gain by returning to
Mecklemburg, and finding Stuttgart a pleasant abode, remained at Eberhard
Ludwig's court; married a Fraeulein von Stuben of Rottenburg on the
Neckar, hard by Tuebingen; was created Kammerjunker to the D