The German Novelists/Busching/Assassination of the Empress of Tartary at Neumarkt in the Year 1240
BÜSCHING.
ASSASSINATION OF THE EMPRESS OF TARTARY AT NEUMARKT
IN THE YEAR 1240.
(A SILESIAN TRADITION.)
About the above period there reigned a wealthy and powerful Emperor of the Tartars, in the regions of the east. He had a number of tributary kings and princes; and a fair empress whom he had not long before espoused according to the fashion of his country. Now this great princess had often heard from the lips of her lords and ambassadors great praises of the manners and customs of the Christian world—how noble and commendable they were. That such indeed was the magnanimity and devotion both of its princes and its people, that they were not only ready to shed their blood, but even to lay down their lives in defence of their religion and their honor.
Thus repeatedly hearing this high character of the Christian princes and nobility, with the excellent government of their states and cities, she gradually imbibed the strongest desire to visit them, and frequently solicited the Emperor Batus for his permission so to do. But her royal consort invariably refused to comply, apprehensive of the dangers she would have to encounter; though he was unable to induce her to abandon the idea. In fact she repeated her wishes so often, attended by tears and prayers, that the Emperor was at length glad to compromise the affair by fixing a certain period for her journey, should she still continue to entertain the idea.
This being the case, the Emperor resolved that she should be accompanied by an imposing train of his tributary princes and nobility, all richly decorated with gold, silver and precious stones, and bearing numerous passports and credentials in order to facilitate the objects of the princess’s tour, and obtain for her the respect and admiration of the Christian world. These grand preparations being completed, the Empress, attended by a noble escort and supplied with rich gifts, set forth with a feeling of delight upon her tour into distant lands. She was every where received with the utmost courtesy and respect, by the various princes through whose dominions she had to pass; such as the consort of so mighty an Emperor well merited. In this way she at length reached the country of Silesia, near the skirts of the Zobtenberg, shortly before called Fürstenberg, to which it is reported by the old chronicles, that the ancient princes of Silesia and Poland owe their origin. At the same period stood two powerful castles, named Fürstenberg and Leubus, in the vicinity, which are now converted into a monastery for the Cistercian fathers of St. Benedict, while the most distinguished city of the surrounding district, called Neumarkt, had been erected by a prince of the second of the said castles. Among other places, the Empress and her escort approached this city, proposing to examine every thing curious it afforded, and to repose there some little while.
The citizens of the place, beholding their rich and noble equipage, and the treasures of every kind which accompanied it, were seized with envy and astonishment; next conversing respecting it in groups, and then summoning a general council. There they declared that it was a scandal upon their holy religion, and highly unseemly, that a heathen princess should be permitted to insult the Christian world by such a display of pomp and treasure; fine gold, silver, and most precious jewels, of such weight and water as they were. “Of a truth,” continued the more zealous, and mercenary of the flock; “it would be a sight well-pleasing to the Lord, were we to fall, with heavy hand, upon the heathen and her attendants, and putting them to death, to divide their amazing wealth, among the good citizens of this place.”
And too eagerly did the baser lords, and knights, and squires, all avail themselves of this evil counsel. They attacked the defenceless empress and her escort, unsuspicious of any treachery, and put the whole of them to death upon the spot, with the exception of two of the Empress’s ladies who contrived to secrete themselves in a dark cellar and escaped. These unhappy survivors, after many sufferings and perils, begged their way back into their own country, where with great terror and affliction at the recollection, they recounted to the Tartar Emperor the unhappy death of his consort and her attendants, adding, “Oh, most mighty monarch of the East, we have travelled far and wide with the Empress and her escort over strange regions, and manifold states and cities of Christendom. In all were we received with the utmost respect and courtesy, regaled and treated with many presents, except in one fatal city which is called Neumarkt, situated somewhere in Silesia. It was there our dear mistress, the Empress, your royal consort, with all her princes, lords and pages, were treacherously surprized, beaten, and murdered, by the citizens of the same place, we two only escaping after experiencing the most severe privations and pains, to lament their loss.”
When the Emperor had heard these terrific tidings to an end—the death of his beloved young consort, of his lords and princes, the flower of his nobility and his knights—he made a loud exclamation of agony, repeated through his extensive palace and re-echoed by its walls. Then deep rage and indignation took possession of his soul; he made a terrific vow and swore, that his royal head should never again know repose, until he had bitterly revenged upon the Christian world, the base and cruel assassination of his consort and his subjects, by bloodshed, war, and desolation of its dominions. During the next three years, he prepared the whole of the wealth which he possessed, to bear the heavy expences he was about to incur, and at the close of that period he had already an army of five hundred thousand men, all prepared to act against the states of Christendom.
Tradition, however, does not inform us of the result of these grand preparations, to avenge the cruel assassination of his Empress, and his tributary princes and great lords.[1]
- ↑ The historical account of the murder of the Tartar princess at Neumarkt, is to be found in the legend of the holy St. Hedwig. It was first printed in German at Breslau, in the year 1504, in folio. It is historically shewn that the whole was merely a popular story, current for a long period; from which likewise a popular song had been composed, extracted from the same collection, and which has been also attached to the present collection. The subject is treated in Wunderhorn, II. c. 258—60. Büs.