Among other matters, the Landgrave inquired about the state of affairs in Denmark, and Tycho gave him the required information in detail, telling him that the young king-elect was being carefully educated, and that there was every prospect of his walking in his father's footsteps; that among the four protectors, the one of greatest influence was the Chancellor Kaas, a man conspicuous not only by his illustrious descent, but also by his experience, judgment, and prudence, while he was also a very well-read man, particularly in historical and political matters. If anything of special importance occurred, it was referred to the annual assembly of nobles. The form of government was thus an aristocratic one (which was not a bad one), until the king-elect should attain his majority.[1] In return, the Landgrave sent Tycho some abstracts from newspapers about the state of France, and gave it as his opinion (in the curious mixture of German and Latin in which he always wrote), "dass es misserimus status totius Europæ ist."[2]
As Rothmann did not return to Cassel, and the Landgrave, therefore, did not see the drawings and descriptions of the instruments at Hveen which he had collected during his stay there, Tycho caused his German amanuensis to prepare a description of all the instruments, twenty-eight in number, which was sent to the Landgrave, and afterwards was inserted in the printed volume of letters, together with a Latin translation, which is somewhat longer, and furnished with woodcuts of the buildings and a map of the island, as well as with copies of the versified inscriptions on various portraits in Tycho's collection. Tycho was still anxious to have good mechanics in his service, and wrote to the Landgrave in February 1592 that his goldsmith, Hans Crol, was dead,[3] who had had charge of his instruments for many
