then and afterwards. He had his share of brabbling with intricate
litigant neighbors; quarrels now and then not to be settled
without strokes. His worst war was with Pommern,--just claims
disputed there, and much confused bickering, sieging and harassing
in consequence: of which quarrel we must speak anon. It was he who
first built the conspicuous Schloss or Palace at Berlin, having
got the ground for it (same ground still covered by the actual
fine Edifice, which is a second edition of Friedrich's) from the
repentant Burghers; and took up his chief residence there.
[1442-1431 (Nicolari, i. 81).]

But his principal achievement in Brandenburg History is his
recovery of the Province called the Neumark to that Electorate.
In the thriftless Sigismund times, the Neumark had been pledged,
had been sold; Teutsch Ritterdom, to whose dominions it lay
contiguous, had purchased it with money down. The Teutsch Ritters
were fallen moneyless enough since then; they offered to pledge
the Neumark to Friedrich, who accepted, and advanced the sum:
after a while the Teutsch Ritters, for a small farther sum, agreed
to sell Neumark. [Michaelis, i. 301.] Into which Transaction, with
its dates and circumstances, let us cast one glance, for our
behoof afterwards. The Teutsch Ritters were an opulent domineering
Body in Sigismund's early time; but they are now come well down in
Friedrich II.'s! And are coming ever lower. Sinking steadily, or
with desperate attempts to rise, which only increase the speed
downwards, ever since that fatal Tannenberg Business, 15th July,
1410. Here is the sad progress of their descent to the bottom;
divided into three stages or periods:--

"PERIOD FIRST is of Thirty years: 1410-1440. A peace with Poland