ITAGE-BROTHERHOOD" WITH THE DUKE OF LIEGNITZ.

Another feat of like nature Joachim II. had long ago achieved; which
likewise in the long-run proved important in his Family, and in the
History of the world: an "ERBVERBRUDERUNG," so they term it, with the
Duke of Liegnitz,--date 1537. ERBVERBRUDERUNG ("Heritage-brotherhood,"
meaning Covenant to succeed reciprocally on Failure of Heirs to either)
had in all times been a common paction among German Princes well
affected to each other. Friedrich II., the then Duke of Liegnitz, we
have transiently seen, was related to the Family; he had been extremely
helpful in bringing his young friend Albert of Preussen's affairs to
a good issue,--whose Niece, withal, he had wedded:--in fact, he was a
close friend of this our Joachim's; and there had long been a growing
connection between the two Houses, by intermarriages and good offices.

The Dukes of Liegnitz were Sovereign-Princes, come of the old Piasts
of Poland; and had perfect right to enter into this transaction of an
ERBVERBRUDERUNG with whom they liked. True, they had, above two
hundred years before, in the days of King Johann ICH-DIEN (A.D. 1329),
voluntarily constituted themselves Vassals of the Crown of Bohemia:
[Pauli, iii. 22.] but the right to dispose of their Lands as they
pleased had, all along, been carefully acknowledged, and saved entire.
And, so late as 1521, just sixteen years ago, the Bohemian King
Vladislaus the Last, our good Margraf George's friend, had expressly,
in a Deed still extant, confirmed to them, with all the emphasis and
amplitude that Law-Phraseology could bring to bear upon it, the right to
dispose of said Lands in any manner of way: "by written testament, or
by verbal on their death-bed, they can, as they see wisest, give away,
sell, pawn, dispose of, and exchange _(vergeben, verkaufen, versetzen,
verschaffen, verwechseln)_ these said lands," to all lengths, and with
all manner of freedom. Which privilege had likewise been confirmed,
twice over (1522, 1524), by Ludwig the next King, Ludwig OHNE-HAUT,
who perished in the bogs of Mohacz, and ended the native Line of
Bohemian-Hungarian Kings. Nay, Ferdinand, King of the Romans, Karl V.'s
Brother, afterwards Kaiser, who absorbed that Bohemian Crown among
the others, had himself, by implication, sanctioned or admitted the
privilege, in 1529, only eight years ago. [Stenzel, i. 323.] The right
to make the ERBVERBRUDERUNG could not seem doubtful to anybody