a few weeks their leaders were either prisoners or
fugitives. A general peace was then declared at Tangermunde which
enabled Frederick to leave the mark to the rule of his wife, Elizabeth,
and to turn his attention elsewhere. Returning to Brandenburg as elector
in 1416, the last flickers of the insurrection were extinguished; and
when Frederick was invested at Constance in April 1417 his authority
over the mark was undisputed. His next difficulty was with Pomerania,
which had been nominally under the suzerainty of Brandenburg since 1181.
The revival of this claim by the elector provoked an invasion of the
mark by an army of Pomeranians with their allies in 1420, when Frederick
inflicted a severe defeat upon them at Angermunde; but in 1424 a
temporary coolness between the elector and the emperor Sigismund led to
a renewal of the attack which Frederick was unable to repulse. This
reverse, together with the pressure of other business, induced him to
leave Brandenburg in January 1426, after handing over its government to
his eldest son, John. John, called the "Alchemist," who was born in
1403, had been disappointed in his hope of obtaining the vacant
electoral duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg in 1423. Lacking the diplomatic and
military qualities of his father, his difficulties were augmented by the
poverty of the country, and the evils which Frederick had suppressed
quickly returned. The feeling of security vanished, the towns banded
themselves together for defensive purposes, the rights of the margrave
were again pledged to provide money, and in 1432 the land was ravaged by
the Hussites. John never attained to the electoral dignity; for, in
1437, his father in arranging a division of his territories decided that
Brandenburg should pass to his second and fourth sons, both of whom were
named Frederick. The elder of the two took up the government at once,
whereupon John left the mark for South Germany, where he remained until
his death in 1464.

Frederick II.

Frederick II., who became elector on his father's death in September
1440, was born on the 19th of November 1413, and earned the surname of
"Iron" through his sternness to his country's enemies. He had little
difficulty in repressing the turbulence of the nobles which had been
quickened into life during the regency of his brother, but found it less
easy to deal with the towns. Three strong leagues had been formed among
them about 1431, and the spirit of municipal independ