About the year 1300 the King of
Prussia and his courtiers, when out hunting, were wont to rest at a tiny hamlet
beside a small lake.
As they all mounted their
horses to resume the hunt, there would be a certain amount of jostling as everyone
strove to get a place near to the king.
My ancestor usually won the
most coveted position and, as a result, received quite a lot of jealous teasing
and some uncourtly behaviour.
One day, just as they were all
setting off after their break, another courtier pushed his horse forward beside the king,
forcing my ancestor’s horse to swerve aside into the lake where it stumbled on
a submerged log, tipping it’s rider into the pool.
Everyone laughed to see the
king’s favourite so humbled: except the king himself. He dismounted and held
out his hand to help the soaked courtier back onto dry land.
Then, drawing his sword, he
said, ‘Kneel.’
My ancestor knelt before the
king who touched him lightly on the shoulder with his sword, saying, ‘Henceforth
your name shall be “Bred” (which means log of wood) and it is here that you
shall build a castle.’
This was the start of the
family Von Bredow. The little hamlet grew around the new castle to become a
town, Bredow, sitting beside the Lower Oder in Pomerania, near Stettin. And the
family crest has a circle, pierced by a log of wood, over the motto Nunquam
Retrorsum ( Never Again Retreat).
My great uncle had an ancient
ring with this crest, which he always wore. It must now be somewhere in
Argentina where his daughter lives.
