134 



Hints on Landscape Gardening 



The Hungarians, after their great battle, were for 

 the first time entirely dispersed on their retreat in this 

 valley, which was then all forest, by the brave hero, 

 Graf Siegfried von Ringelhain, with the help of Graf 

 Bruno von Askanien,' 



Markgraf Johann, son of Siegfried, built with his 

 portion of the booty the strong and well-protected 

 castle at Muskau as a land or frontier fortress, which 

 even the Emperors Henry III and IV, in 1109, be- 

 sieged in vain ; afterwards the Markgraves had ceded 

 it to Herzog Vladislaus of Poland, from whom it was 

 acquired bv Herzog Boleslaus of Bohemia. It was here 

 that Vladislaus lived three years of love and bliss with 

 the Herzog of Bohemia's daughter Michildam, after 

 having eloped with the beautiful maid from the Hrad- 

 schin, for whom her father had other intentions and 

 indeed had refused to give her to him as his bride. 

 There Boleslaus laid siege, beleaguered and stormed 

 the castle of Muskau, and took it. But the father's 

 anger had to yield to pity and mercy when he saw at 

 his feet his daughter a prisoner with her lovely little 

 boy. He forthwith forgave her, and Vladislaus, this 

 young prince, was afterward Herzog in Bohemia, and 

 showed, as Abraham Horsmann tells in his chronicle, 

 much affection for his birthplace of Muskau. The 

 town, which since that time had much grown, was laid 

 waste by the Tartars in the fearful battle of 1241, so 

 important in its results. At that time also the old castle 

 was destroyed, of whose mighty towers no trace is left, 

 and of their site very little. The town was rebuilt on 

 its old site, but the new castle was now placed close up 

 to it. Knightly jousts and so-called "Torniamina" of 

 nobles and other gatherings of important people often- 



• The great Burgundy Chronicle, Dr. Hegemullcr's hook of heraldry, 

 printed in Munich, and Dr. Sekden's coat of arms, give certain things 

 of this matter, in folio 133. An official letter for Muskau from the Em- 

 peror Henry I. 



