nce of the modern Prussian State, was an
outlying offshoot of the mediaeval Holy Roman Empire of the German
nation, surrounded by barbaric tribes, Slav and Teuton. The chief Slav
people were the Borussians, from which the name "Prussian" was a
corruption. The first outstanding historic fact concerning these
Baltic lands is that a certain Adalbert, Bishop of Prague, at the end
of the tenth century went north on a mission of enterprise for
converting the Prussian heathen. The neighbouring Christian prince,
the Duke of Poland, who had presumably suffered much from incursions
of these pagan Slavs, offered him every encouragement. The adventure
ended, however, before long in the death of Adalbert at the hands of
these same pagan Slavs.

The first indication of the existence of a Mark of Brandenburg with
its Markgraves is in the eleventh century. There is, however, little
definite historical information concerning them. The first of these
Markgraves to attract attention was Albrecht the Bear, one of the
so-called Ascanian line, the family hailing from the Harz Mountains.
Albrecht was a remarkable man for his time in every way. Under him the
Markgravate of Brandenburg was raised to be an electorate of the
empire. The Markgrave thus became a prince of the empire. It was
Albrecht the Bear who first introduced a limited measure of peace and
order into the hitherto anarchic condition of the Mark and its
adjacent territories. The Ascanian line continued till 1319, and was
followed by a period of political anarchy and disturbance, until
finally Friedrich, Count of Hohenzollern, acquired the electorate, and
became known as the Elector Friedrich I. Meanwhile the Order of the
Teutonic Knights, who earlier began their famous crusade against the
Borussian heathens, had established themselves on the territories now
known as East and West Prussia. In spite of this fact and of the for
long time dominant power of their Polish neighbours, the Hohenzollern
rulers continued to acquire increased power and fresh territories.

At the Reformation Albrecht, a scion of the Hohenzollern family, who
had been elected Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, adopted
Protestantism and assumed the title of Duke of Prussia. Finally, in
1609, the then Elector of Brandenburg, John Sigismund, through his
marriage with Ann, daughter and heiress of Albrecht Friedrich, Duke of
Prussia, came into possession of the whole of Prussia proper, together
with other adjacent