represented the town in a conflict with the neighbouring Dukes of Brunswick.  It was his son Nicolas, or Claus as he is generally called, who founded the fortunes of the family; he attached himself closely to the cause of the Margrave, whom he supported in his troubles with the Duke of Brunswick, and whose interests he represented in the Town Council.  He was amply rewarded for his fidelity.  After a quarrel between the city and the Prince, Bismarck left his native home and permanently entered the service of the Margrave.  Though probably hitherto only a simple citizen, he was enfiefed with the castle of Burgstall, an important post, for it was situated on the borders of the Mark and the bishopric of Magdeburg; he was thereby admitted into the privileged class of the Schlossgesessenen, under the Margrave, the highest order in the feudal hierarchy.  From that day the Bismarcks have held their own among the nobility of Brandenburg.  Claus eventually became Hofmeister of Brandenburg, the chief officer at the Court; he had his quarrels with the Church, or rather with the spiritual lords, the bishops of Havelburg and Magdeburg, and was once excommunicated, as his father had been before him, and as two of his sons were after him.

Claus died about the year 1385.  For two hundred years the Bismarcks continued to live at Burgstall, to which they added many other estates.  When Conrad of Hohenzollern was appointed Margrave and Elector, he found sturdy supporters in the lords of Burgstall; he and his successors often came there to hunt the deer and wild boars, perhaps also the wolves and bears, with which the forests around the castle abounded; for the Hohenzollerns were keen sportsmen then as now, as their vassals found to their cost.  In 1555, Hans George, son of the reigning Elector, Albert Achilles, bought the neighbouring estate of Letzlingen from the Alvenslebens; there he built a house which is still the chief hunting-lodge of the Kings of Prussia.  Soon he cast envious eyes on the great woods and preserves which belong to Burgstall, and intimated that he wished to possess them.  The Bismarcks resisted long.  First they were compelled to surrender their hunting rights; this was not sufficient; the appetite of the Prince grew; in his own words he wished “to be rid of the Bismarcks from the moor and the Tanger altogether.”  He offered in exchange some of the monasteries which had lately been suppressed; the Bismarcks (the family was represented by two pairs of brothers, who all lived together in the great castle) long refused; they represented that their ancestors had been faithful vassals; they had served the Electors with blood and treasure; they wished “to remain in the pleasant place to which they had been assigned by God Almighty.”  It was all of no use; the Prince insisted, and his wrath was dangerous.  The Bismarcks gave in; they surrendered Burgstall and received in exchange Schoenhausen and Crevisse, a confiscated nunnery, on condition that as long as the ejected nuns lived the new lords should support them; for which purpose the Bismarcks had annually to supply a certain quantity of food and eighteen barrels of beer.