898.

Bismarck was made a count in 1865; in 1871 he received the rank of Furst
(prince). On his retirement the emperor created him duke of Lauenburg,
but he never used the title, which was not inherited by his son. In 1866
he received L60,000 as his share of the donation voted by the Reichstag
for the victorious generals. With this he purchased the estate of Varzin
in Pomerania, which henceforth he used as a country residence in
preference to Schonhausen. In 1871 the emperor presented him with a
large part of the domains of the duchy of Lauenburg. On his seventieth
birthday a large sum of money (L270,000) was raised by public
subscription, of which half was devoted to repurchasing the estate of
Schonhausen for him, and the rest was used by him to establish a fund
for the assistance of schoolmasters. As a young man he was an officer in
the Landwehr and militia, and in addition to his civil honours he was
eventually raised to the rank of general. Among the numerous orders he
received we may mention that he was the first Protestant on whom the
pope bestowed the order of Christ; this was done after the cessation of
the Kulturkampf and the reference of the dispute with Spain concerning
the Caroline Islands to the arbitration of the pope.

Bismarck's wife died in 1894. He left one daughter and two sons. Herbert
(1840-1904), the elder, was wounded at Mars-le-Tour, afterwards entered
the foreign office, and acted as private secretary to his father
(1871-1881). In 1882 he became councillor to the embassy at London, in
1884 was transferred to St Petersburg, and in 1885 became
under-secretary of state for foreign affairs. In 1884 he had been
elected to the Reichstag, but had to resign his seat when, in 1886, he
was made secretary of state for foreign affairs and Prussian minister.
He conducted many of the negotiations with Great Britain on colonial
affairs. He retired in 1890 at the same time as his father, and in 1893
was again elected to the Reichstag. He married Countess Margarete Hoyos
in 1892, and died on the 18th of September 1904. He left two daughters
and three sons, of whom the eldest, Otto Christian Archibald (b. 1897),
succeeded to the princely title. The second son, Wilhelm, who was
president of the province of Prussia, died in 1901. By his wife, Sybilla
von Arnim-Krochlendorff, he left three daughters and a son, Count
Nikolaus (b. 1896).

AUTHORITIES.--The literature on Bismarck's life is very extensive, and
it