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GERMANY IN THE LATER
MIDDLE AGES

SEE!

DATE.

BY THE SAME AUTHOR

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GERMANY IN THE LATER
MIDDLE AGES, 1200-1500

BY WILLIAM STUBBS, D.D., FORMERLY
BISHOP OF OXFORD, AND REGIUS
PROFESSOR OF MODERN HISTORY
IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

EDITED BY

ARTHUR HASSALL, M.A.

STUDENT, TUTOR, AND SOMETIME CENSOR OF CHRIST
CHURCH, OXFORD

LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.

39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON

NEW YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA

1908

9-1

PREFATORY NOTE

This volume completes the series of Lectures given by
Bishop Stubbs on Germany in the Middle Ages. A
previous volume dealt with the history of Germany
from 476 A.D. to the middle of the thirteenth century ;
the present volume carries on that history to the close
of the fifteenth century.

While the earlier volume was concerned especially
with the characters and careers of the Emperors in the
Dark Ages, the present volume follows the history of
Germany in a more detailed fashion, and may be de-
scribed as a storehouse of facts and generalisations.

No such history of Germany in the English language
exists, and it may confidently be assumed that the ap-
pearance of this volume will be received with immense
pleasure by all students of the History of Europe in the
Middle Ages.

The thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries
present to the student of European history difficulties
of no ordinary kind. The period which marks the tran-
sition from the Middle Ages to modern times, and which
saw the rapid break-up of a Christendom which had
for its centre the Holy Roman Empire, and in its place
the gradual formation of the modern European States-
system, requires for its elucidation a close acquaintance
with the history of Medieval Europe.

No English historian has yet appeared who was so
eminently qualified to undertake the task of describing

vi PREFATORY NOTE

the history of Germany and indeed of Europe during
this period of transition as was Bishop Stubbs. In the
present as in the previous volume the character-sketches
are the work of a master hand, while the account of the
institutions and constitution of Germany will enable
the historical student to follow and to comprehend the
peculiar and exceptional developments which took place
in the Holy Roman Empire.

ARTHUR HASSALL.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

PAGE

Summary of results arrived at — Germany in the twelfth century — The
chief points in its history between 1200 and 1600 — The Empire
and the Papacy — The death of Frederick Barbarossa an epoch in
German history ,1

CHAPTER II

Frederick II. — His supremacy in Italy — Its fatal effects — The nine
years of peace — The great Diet at Mainz — Election of Innocent IV.,
1243— Its importance — Deposition of Frederick, 1245 — His death,
1250 — Conradin's fate 21

CHAPTER III

Events in Germany and Italy after Frederick's death — William, Count
of Holland— Conrad's death, 1254— Death of William of Holland,
1256 — Election of Richard of Cornwall and of Alfonso X. of Castile
as rival emperors, 1257 — Richard's fortunes in Germany — Battle of
Benevento, 1265 — Battle of Tagliacozzo, 1268 — Death of Con-
radin — Death of Richard of Cornwall, 1272 . . ... 41

CHAPTER IV *

The year 1272 — Political situation in Germany — The rise of new families

in Germany — The Princes — The Diet — Imperial elections — The

electors — Rudolf of Hapsburg — His election as emperor — His

reign — His relations with Burgundy and England . . . .60

vii

viii CONTENTS

CHAPTER V

PAGE

Rudolfs immediate successors— Adolf— His relations with England —
Loss of Burgundy — Albert of Hapsburg — His relations with
Bohemia, Hungary, and Switzerland — His character — Accession of
Henry VII. — Attitude towards the Papacy— The Templars— His
expedition to Italy — His death, 1 3 13 80

CHAPTER VI

Disputed succession in the Empire — Frederick of Austria — Lewis of
Bavaria — John XXII. 's intervention — Success of Lewis — Expedition
to Italy — Death of John XXII., 1334 — Germany and the Hundred
Years' War — Crecy — Condition of Germany — The growing inde-
pendence of Switzerland — Death of Lewis, 1347 .... 100

CHAPTER VII

Charles IV. — Giinther of Schwartzburg — The Golden Bull — Its pro-
visions— Its significance — The Tyrol — His rule in Germany —
Crowned King of Aries, 1365 — Relations with England and France
— His character . . .121

CHAPTER VIII

Political condition of Europe at the close of the fourteenth century —
Richard II. — Wenzel — Charles VI. — The great schism — City
leagues in Germany — Switzerland — Deposition of Wenzel — Com-
parison with deposition of Richard II. — Accession of Rupert of the
Palatinate — His Italian expedition — The Wetterau league — Death
of Rupert, 1410 142

CHAPTER IX

The disputed succession — Election of Sigismund — His previous history —
The great schism — The Council of Constance — John Huss — Sigis-
mund in Fiance and England — Election of Martin V. — The
Bohemian War — The Council of Basel — Sigismund's death, 1437 —
The situation in Germany — Accession of Albert of Austria — His
acts — His death, 1439 . .162

CONTENTS ix

CHAPTER X

PACK

The reign of Frederick III.— An epoch in the history of Germany and
of the Hapsburgs — The discovery of printing — Frederick's char-
acter— Close of the Council of Basel — Wars in Germany, 1440-1452
— Bohemia and Hungary— Matthias Corvinus— The Turkish in-
vasions— Death of Filippo Maria Visconti, 1447— John Hunyadi
—Death of Albert of Austria, 1463 — Results of Frederick's reign —
His son Maximilian 184

CHAPTER XI

Accession of Maximilian I. — The Burgundian inheritance — Maximilian's
position in Europe — His marriages — The Diet of Worms, 1495—
Its importance — The imperial chamber — The circles— The towns
— The Aulic Council — War with the Swiss League, 1499 — New
problems for France and Germany ....... 205

CHAPTER XII

The Princes in Germany— The Empire in abeyance — The real unity of
Germany — The growth of the religious question — The character-
istics of North and South Germany — The importance of the acquisi-
tion of the Netherlands to the Hapsburgs — The Empire and France
face to face . . . . . . . . . . .221:

MAPS

Medieval Europe: Thirteenth Century . . Frontispiece

Europe during the Fifteenth Century . . . To face page 184

SOME AUTHORITIES

JOINVILLE : Vie de Saint Louis.
Philippe de Commines : Memoires.

Lavisse ET Rambaud : Histoire Gene"rale.

Milman : Latin Christianity.

Gibbon : The Decline and Fall (Bury's Edition).

Coxe : House of Austria.

Cambridge Modern History, Vol. I.

Lavisse : Histoire de France.

KlTCHlN : History of France, Vols. I. and II.

Rambaud : Histoire de la Civilisation en France.

Creighton : History of the Papacy.

Armstrong : Lorenzo de' Medici.

Blok : History of the People of the Netherlands (Translated).

Hallam : Middle Ages.

TOUT : The Empire and the Papacy.

Lodge : The Close of the Middle Ages.

Historical Maps, ed. Poole (Clarendon Press).
Chronology : Hassall, " A Handbook of European History Chrono-
logically Arranged."

GERMANY IN THE LATER
MIDDLE AGES

1200-1500
CHAPTER I

The Object of this Book. — My intention in this work is
not to treat the history of Germany so much in its
imperial as in its national aspect, and that intention
will be carried out as rigorously as possible by the
exclusion of all imperial questions which do not
touch German life and nationality, such as all minute
investigations into the imperial policy in Italy, and
the antagonism outside of Germany between the
imperial and papal ideas. This plan I have attempted
hitherto to pursue, even at periods at which the personal
history of the popes and emperors was most closely
interwoven ; and it ought not to be less easy to do so
in periods like that to which we are coming, in which
the Italian campaigns of the emperors became few and
far between, and their influence upon the papacy was
being quickly reduced to a shadow of what it had been.

But, in general, I am not one of those who think
that all the interest of a national history necessarily

2 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

centres about the personal adventures of its rulers. To
a certain extent it is so, but simply because the ancient
writers to whom we are indebted for nearly all the
details of the events of these ages have so treated
history, possessing, indeed, by force of circumstances,
so limited a field of view that they were obliged, if
they would record anything at all, to record the actions
mainly of kings and princes. But, true as this is, it is
a truth which it is easy to exaggerate ; for even the most
courtly of historians, the most devoted of biographers
preserves some particulars showing the real under-
current of national history, and besides the biographers
we have large quantities of legal and other documents
which are of far wider than mere antiquarian interest.

From a comparison of such remains it is possible to
get a notion of national life and development, separated
from the mere adventures of kings, and from the
noise and tumult of wars, and the minute investiga-
tions of births, deaths, and marriages. Well, in pur-
suance of some such idea, we have, in the preceding
volume,1 read the history of Germany down to the
reign of Frederick II., and the following are some of
the results that we have reached, such as it is necessary
to recapitulate for our guidance, and for the connec-
tion of the history of the period to which we are now
come.

Recapitulation. — We began by tracing very briefly the
movements of the different nations of Germany to the
period at which modern history may be said to begin,
at the commencement of which the movements ceased
and the lines of demarcation between the several tribal
families which constitute the Germany of the Middle
Ages permanently fix themselves. We traced and

1 " Germany in the Early Middle Ages."

RECAPITULATION 3

accounted for the limits and the divisions between the
five nations — the Franks, the Alemanni, the Saxons,
the Bavarians, and the Lotharingians. Of these we
saw that the Bavarians were the only nation that
could, strictly speaking, be called a distinct nation ;
the Saxons, Franks, and Alemanni being rather asso-
ciations of separate tribes, and the Lotharingians
the inhabitants of a district variously tenanted and
arbitrarily named.

Having denned their origin, so far as we were able to
do in the great obscurity of tradition and in the absence
of contemporary evidence, we traced the variety of the
discipline to which the several nations had been exposed
between the dates of Clovis and Charles the Great. We
saw Bavaria the creation of the Ostrogothic power, the
close ally of Lombardy, the unwilling subject ally of
the Austrasian kings, proud and uneasy under the yoke
because it possessed a national character, a national
history, and a national Christianity, which it did not
owe to the Merovingian conquerors. Alemannia we saw
lying quietly under the sway of the Frank kings, not
possessing any territorial or dynastic unity, and, after
the overthrow of the Burgundian kingdom, peacefully
assimilating itself with the rest of the Frank empire.

Franconia and what was afterwards Lotharingia we
regarded as integral and substantive portions of the
demesne of the house of Clovis. Saxony continued
heathen and hostile, and, forced by the constant
pressure of the Wends on one side and the Franks
on the other, into a national unity and consolidation,
so marked and so lasting as to be one of the great
features of German history, but of which we are unable
to say how far it was created from a mass of tribal
individualities by this pressure, or how far it retained

4 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

the original unity of nationality which had subsisted
from earlier times, and which, from the peculiarly free
and popular character of the Saxon institutions, rendered
it less likely to be broken up by the greed and ambition
of individual leaders. Out of these distinct elements
Charles the Great formed the medieval Germany;
moving from the basis of Austrasia he reduced Bavaria,
bereft of her mainstay on the Italian side in the Lombard
kingdom, and he conquered the Saxons. He did more ;
by carrying his conquests beyond Bavaria and beyond
Saxony he united the interests of the Saxons and
Bavarians with those of his own house, with his own
empire, and the interests of his own church. Charles
the Great made Germany first by reducing it, and,
secondly, by administering it.

The conversion of Saxony to Christianity supplied
what was for a long time — that is, until the conversion
of the Wends and Slavs — a more binding link between
his German subjects than their own common origin and
their own common tongue. But a stronger and a longer
and a more equable pressure than any that Charles could
bring to bear on the nations was necessary to keep
Germany in the unity which he had for the moment
produced. The divisions of the kingdoms under his
sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons — divisions some-
times vertical and sometimes horizontal, but determined
in detail rather by the ancient nationalities than by their
more modern substitutes — tended rather perhaps to a
laxity of friction than to any permanent disruption, but
preserved and intensified the old lines of disunion. We
do not indeed read again of the old Frank divisions of
Neustria and Austrasia, nor even, in the same sense, of
Aquitaine and Burgundy ; but we have kings of Saxony,
Franconia, Alemannia, and Bavaria, and the new name

GROWTH OF NATIONALITY 5

of Lotharingia, with its many differences of meaning
and modifications of application.

Growth of Nationality. — And now we begin to trace
in the nations distinct marks of policy and sentiment
that long outlived the sentiment of nationality. We
see in Franconia, the most anciently consolidated and
completely feudalised of the nations, an exemplification
of the identical causes which were producing disruption
in Western France. Full of an ancient nobility rivals
and enemies to one another ; smaller in territorial extent,
and fuller of imperial cities than the other divisions,
Franconia as a nation never exercises that influence on
the German kingdom that Saxony and Bavaria do, and
it is the first to disappear from the list of the great
duchies of the imperial administration. Alemannia
retains its character as an artificial construction such
as it was when it originated in the congeries of broken
Suevian tribes. Its territory, broken and rugged, divided,
moreover, into ' two plain countries, Alsace and Swabia,
separated by the forests, lakes, and mountains, rendered
it especially liable to internal weakness : it is only after
Swabia has permanently disengaged itself from Alsace
and the intervening lands that it has such a unity as
makes it under the Hohenstaufen and Welfs a real
influence in Germany. Lotharingia, again, lies too much
on one side of the kingdom to have a fair chance of
deciding any contest, nor does Lotharingia once give a
king to Germany so long as the strength of the German
kingdom lasts. When the true life and spirit is departed
we shall find her borrowing her rulers from Lotharingia
in the house of Luxemburg whose reigns cover 150
of her weakest and most futile years. Saxony and
Bavaria remain as the two great influences of German
life in these ages. Saxony has been described as

6 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

the most thorough and longest lived nationality, the
last conquered and the least feudalised ; possessing
a greater number of ancient allodial Saxon nobles
strong in the clannish affection of their followers ;
and in its comparatively free institutions a more per-
manent security for union than the casualties of con-
quest or the artificial uniting force of administration;
and as it possessed the strongest national unity, we
see it representing more strongly than the other nations
the sentiment of German nationality.

Saxony. — Saxony is not only more thoroughly Saxon
than Bavaria is Bavarian, but it is more thoroughly
German than any of the other nations. This may be
in a measure accounted for by the fact that Saxony
was the first of the nations that acquired a hold on the
royal dignity after the extinction of the Karlings, and
that under Henry the Fowler and the three Ottos,
Saxon princes, Germany awoke to the possibility of a
working unity and to the possession of the empire.
But it must have originated in something earlier and
deeper, and that earlier and deeper sentiment can be
attributed to nothing more certainly than to the com-
parative freedom of Saxony from Roman influence,
her long and continued liberty, and the bracing
character of her national institutions. And that it
was not easily satisfied appears by the uneasiness of
the nation even under Otto the Great after his imperial
prospects in Italy had distracted and diverted his
energies from their proper German work.

To go over this again would, however, be to run too
much into detail, but I must add that the Saxon or
German policy of the Saxons, which was to keep a
Saxon on the throne, and, having him there, to keep
him in Germany if not in Saxony itself — a strong

BAVARIA 7

Saxon feeling that is tempered by the pride of having
been the first of the nations to give a dynasty to
Germany — is a clue to the position taken up by the
Saxons generally with regard to the papacy. They
were, it is true, probably better Christianised than the
South Germans, though their Christianity was of later
date and partook more strongly, as did that of Boniface
their apostle, of devotion to the apostolic see. Their
natural foes were the great prelates on the Rhine, whose
constantly increasing power and ambition were met by
a close alliance between the Saxons and Rome, whose
rivals these prelates were. But there was still, I think,
the powerful national instinct working with and giving
energy to these accidental sentiments, that the German
king was for Germany and not for Italy. The imperial
idea met with very little support in this the least
imperialised part of Germany.

Bavaria. — Contrasted with this is the position of South
Germany, represented earlier by Bavaria and later by
the Swabian princes. Bavaria, accustomed from, the
beginning to look towards Italy as in later times she has
always looked towards France ; * retaining throughout
a pride of nationality, but not so much desiring, like
Saxony, to give rulers to Germany, as to preserve her
own identity as a national kingdom. Disabled by the
extinction of her old royal house from creating a
dynastic opposition to the imperial governors, but
curiously assimilating those imperial governors to her-
self and making them, in spite of their own antecedents,
the exponents of her national ambition, Bavaria, the
representative nation of South Germany, clings most
closely and faithfully to the shadow of the imperial
dignity. We have seen exemplified under the Ottos

1 i.e. till 1870.

8 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

this disintegrating tendency of Bavaria. A Saxon
prince is made Duke of Bavaria ; the Saxon becomes
a Bavarian, and heads the opposition to his brother,
nephew, and cousin. The Saxon dynasty ends, and a
Bavarian duke ascends the throne, and resumes his
Saxon character : but immediately Bavaria is in arms
against him as king whom she has obeyed implicitly as
duke ; and so on, until the Welfic times into which new
influences are imported and in which new features appear.
All this has been traced in its causes, and in some
degree in its consequences, through the reigns of
the Ottos and Henry II. Its consequences not less
important but more remotely ran on even to 1870,
the principle of national union being sought in North
Germany the ancient Saxony, and that of disintegration
being exemplified in Bavaria and in the foreign longings
of Austria.

Growth of Feudalism. — But there are other influences
besides nationality and the differences of national dis-
cipline which help to make up the history of the Middle
Ages. There is the diffusion of feudalism, and there is
the evoking and results of the counter influences of the
empire and the papacy. The progress of feudalism, its
gradual development, and the main distinctions between
its effects in Germany and its effects in France, England,
and Italy have already been exemplified. Nor is it
indeed necessary to recapitulate them, for the distinctions
originate chiefly on the growth of the institution and
on the extent of the ground it gradually covers ; once
full grown and spread generally over a surface, its effects
are much the same in all countries.

Feudal government, as distinguished from mere
feudal tenure, grew up more slowly in Germany than
in France, and was less universally diffused ; but when

FRENCH AND GERMAN HISTORY 9

it had come to its growth, and reached the extent of its
diffusion, its tendency and effect was the same, to dis-
ruption, and the permanent division of the kingdom
amongst a number of little potentates under nominal
obedience to a suzerain. That nominal obedience in
France had reality enough to be made under a series
of strong and unscrupulous princes a basis of union.

French and German History compared. — From the
twelfth century to the sixteenth the struggle between
the princes and the crown continued, and at last France
became one, at the price of becoming a kingdom ab-
solutely governed. For in France the King of France
was nothing but King of France ; he had no other right
to the obedience of his vassals, and only with the strong
hand could he be content to govern them, or they to be
governed. In Germany it was otherwise. Not only was
the feudal principle less generally diffused and later in
growth — that is, there were other tendencies towards dis-
ruption, as I have just shown, besides feudalism — but
owing to circumstances even that modicum of uniting ,
and centralising force which generally existed in feu-
dalism at certain periods of its development was want-
ing in Germany; the principle of imperialism being
substituted for it. The princes might be feudally sub-:
ject to the emperor, or allodially free as the birds of the
air, so far as their tenure was concerned, but as emperor
they were all his subjects ; and the force of the obliga-
tion to obedience being in the imperial dignity, not in
the feudal relation only or primarily, the strength of the
union varied directly with the reality or the unsubstanti-
ally of the imperial power. And when the imperial
power was distracted and diverted to Italy, as it was
from the tenth century to the thirteenth, Germany lost
the one force of cohesion she possessed ; for feudalism

io GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

could not support the strain for which in Germany it
was not constituted, imperialism having taken its place.

And this accounts for the later differences between
French and German history. The shadow, the dry
bones of feudalism in France are revived and made the
basis of a union under an absolute prince. Feudalism
has no such uniting power in Germany. The imperial
power becomes a nonentity, the imperial rights are
bartered away for money, Germany ceases to have even
a possibility of union. And happily, as she loses the
possibility of union, she is saved from the payment of
the price that France has paid. She remains disunited,
but she continues free ; her institutions are deeply
rooted in freedom : her little tyrants, where she has them,
live on the affectionate sentiment that has survived the
princes who deserved it, but at her worst estate she
is not enslaved. France has become united, but as one
nation of serfs.

Christianity in Germany. — It is necessary to mention
the inferences to which our tracing of the early char-
acteristics of feudal government have been leading us.
One subject remains to be noticed before we bring
down the result of our speculation to the point of
actual history at which we are to begin. I mean the
relations of Germany with the papacy, either through
or independently of the imperial connection with it and
Italy. First, then, of the condition of Christianity in
Germany irrespective of the imperial complications.

Indirectly I have said a good deal about this in the
former volume. We saw that the several nations had
a distinct religious history as well as a distinct secular
one. We accounted for the fact in the first place that
Germany was untinged with Arianism, by showing that
the Goths, who under Ulfilas had received the faith

CHRISTIANITY IN GERMANY n

under that corrupt and heretical form with the other
German tribes who were leavened from them, the Suevi
and the Vandals, passed out of Germany long before the
whole hive had heard the Gospel, and passed away south-
wards, to Italy, South France, Spain, and Africa, leaving
not a single really German tribe in Germany affected by
their heresy. That accounted for, we traced the Chris-
tianity of the Rhinelands to the Gallo-Roman times, and
marked how largely they shared the secular features of
Gallo-Roman Christianity in the unspiritual character
of the clergy and the constant accumulation on the
churches of secular privileges.

With the exception of the Rhinelands, all Germany
owes its conversion to the awakened missionary energy
of the sixth and seventh centuries. Bavaria, perhaps,
first heard of Christianity from the Romans, but the
religious work was completed by Celtic missionaries.
Swabia, in like manner, received its apostles from the
Scottish Churches. Franconia, partly from the Chris-
tianised energies of Clovisandthe Gallo-Roman Church,
partly from St. Kilian and other British or Scottish
preachers sent out from the schools of Columbanus and
Columba. Friesland — that is, the modern Holland and
the country lying between it and Lower Saxony — was
converted by Englishmen from Northumbria; Saxony,
by Englishmen from Wessex. Of the several nations,
Saxony only became a part of the Frank empire before
it was Christianised ; and not only did Saxony receive
Christianity from the successors of Boniface in the
field of missions, under the influence of Charles the
Great, but the whole German Church was subjected
to a like impulse under the same auspices, and raised
from the low and secularised state into which religion
under the Merovingian princes had fallen. This refor-

12 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

mation and consolidation of the German Church under
the influence, living and posthumous, of St. Boniface,
had great effects. For the attitude of revived religion
towards the papal see was different from that of
the Franco-Gallican Church. Every reformation in
learning, manners, morals, and discipline drew the
Churches nearer to the centre of Apostolic teaching,
and kindled the zeal of the defenders of Christianity
in favour of the pope. The revival and spread of
Christianity in France and Germany led almost directly
to the formation of close relations between Pepin and
Charles the Great on the one side, and Popes Zacharias,
Stephen, Adrian, and Leo on the other. Charles Martel
had died in deadly feud with the pope ; Pepin laid the
foundation of the temporal power ; Charles destroyed
the Lombards, and founded the Holy Empire. Still
more was the German kingdom drawn to the papacy
when the extension of the Gospel and the organisation
of the Church in Saxony and beyond the true German
lands among the Sclavonic tribes of the eastern marks
had spread the influence of both pope and Caesar.

During the century of the Karlings we lose sight in
great measure of any peculiar characteristics of Teutonic
Christianity ; only we know that out of the obscurity
emerge the False Decretals and the theories that have
given shape to the modern domination of the Church
of Rome. These were doubtless German in origin, for
neither in the Gallican Church proper, nor in Italy,
nor, least of all, in Rome itself, was there any disposi-
tion to recognise the supremacy in ecclesiastical dis-
cipline of the chair of St. Peter.

Relations with the Papacy. — We have come down to
the time when it is impossible almost to distinguish
between the German and the imperial relations with the

RELATIONS WITH THE PAPACY 13

papacy. And this was the second point. Henceforth in
our study of German history we have to keep our eyes
open, not only to the internal affairs of the kingdom, but
to the perpetual seesaw between the Church and the
empire. Pepin and Charles restore the strength of the
papacy, or, perhaps, we might say, create it ; in return the
popes create Pepin king of the Franks, Charles emperor
of the Romans. The Karling century sees the popes
gradually sinking in moral status, and German influence
being paralysed by the contentions of the family, under
Italian influence of the worst and pettiest kind, Italianising
and demoralising the Church. Out of this moral abyss
the papacy was rescued by Otto, as it had been out of
the political one by Pepin and Charles, and again the
reward was the imperial crown. The regenerating in-
fluence of Germany on Rome lasted for nearly a century
of action and reaction. The idea of righteousness cul-
minated in Otto III. ; the practical summit was attained
by Henry III. : — from the death of Henry the two in-
fluences change places : that of the papacy becomes
righteous, pure, and ideal, that of the empire becomes
despotic, immoral, material. Unhappily the revived
consciousness of the papacy sees its only policy in the
humiliation of the empire, and, by good and evil, by
doing much and suffering more, it did succeed ; and
in the humiliation of Henry IV. it found a set-off to
the many energetic castigations that it had received
from German hands. But as the revived spirituality of
Rome, represented by such men as Gregory VII., Urban
II., and Paschal II., Anselm of Canterbury, and Bernard
of Clairvaux, did gradually evaporate during the twelfth
century, it left the struggle devoid of its old moral and
religious interest, and substantially political, political
only. The ideal sought is not now righteousness or

14 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

reformation, but simply power. It is not the vindication
or reduction of ecclesiastical freedom, but merely the
attaining of an independent influence in the balance
of the European powers. The popes wish to expel
the empire from Italy ; the emperor wishes to retain
his hold upon it, and that by his hold on the pope.

We no longer have contrasts between a virtuous em-
peror and an immoral pope, or between an ascetic pope
and a profligate emperor : the popes are neither above
nor below the ecclesiastical morality of the age reformed
by St. Bernard ; the emperors, although, as usual, in-
tellectually and morally superior to the common run
of princes, do not find that either knowledge or virtue
gives them any advantage in the political strife.

Imperial Policy. — But putting aside ideas for facts, we
have traced the alteration of relations between Henry
IV. and Gregory VII. for a century after the death of
both. We have marked how the lines of party in
Germany, the Welfs and Waibelings, or Guelfs and
Ghibellines, are drawn upon ancient divisions, although
the parties themselves are inspired with new senti-
ments in addition to their old rivalries. Of course,
North Germany, intensely German and religious,
anti -imperial, and by consequence papal, governed
by rulers who owe the affections of their subjects
rather to their ancient national importance than to
the loyalty felt towards imperial functionaries, is
matched against South Germany, the home of the
Hohenstaufens, the constant treasurer of imperial
traditions. Saxony, the constant ally under all her
different dynasties of the papal see, is exposed more
especially also to the aggressions of those spiritual
princes of the Rhine whose policy has been imperial as
opposed to papal, because imperialism meant to them

IMPERIAL POLICY 15

secular independence, and papalism meant practical
insignificance. These princes, constantly buying, bor-
rowing, or stealing secular privileges from the empire,
and again purchasing confirmations and immunities
from Rome, win a large stake at each turn of the
dame. They find it a source of strength to be without
that which is the source of strength to the temporal
princes, hereditary succession. The emperor whose
influence is generally enough to secure the election of
his nominee is not afraid that he will create a new
competitor for empire or found a rival dynasty. Dukes
and counts, margraves and landgraves have done so ;
it is only on rare chances of escheat that the appoint-
ment to these functions falls into the emperor's hands,
and when it does he is restricted by the force of
political opinion from making a selfish use of his
chances, whilst the appointments, once made, proceed
on the principle of hereditary succession, with which
he can interfere only at deadly peril to himself and
his family. There is no fear of this in the clerical
principalities. He can make an old tutor, or a bastard
brother, an archbishop, and as archbishop load him
with secular power, without fear of finding him a traitor
or the founder of a new rival race. So the old duchies,
and especially Saxony, have their jurisdictions limited
and their very territories dismembered in favour of a
hierarchy which may be trusted to be faithfully imperial.
Hence the spiritual princes have the enormous influence
in North Germany which colours the whole later medi-
eval history; hence their great weight in the election of
the emperor ; hence their opposition to the national
instinct of North Germany, their share in the revulsion
of feeling in those lands with regard to the papacy
which facilitated the reformation in the sixteenth century.

1 6 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

But in this part of the imperial policy there was one
weak point, and that the popes knew how to take ad-
vantage of. The spiritual princes, much as they loved
the empire and the emperor, loved themselves more, and
could not shut their eyes to the fact that they were
spiritual princes over a people amenable in an especial
degree to spiritual menaces. Hence the wonderful power
of excommunication in the hands of the popes against
the emperors ; hence the moral necessity in the emperors'
eyes for an antipope ; and from that necessity the equally
pressing one of retaining some hold on the right of
influencing papal elections. Independently of a mere
Italian policy, the emperor must be able to protect his
spiritual princes against the consequences of papal ex-
communication : that he can do only by the creation of
a rival pope ; but the world will not recognise his rights
to nominate an antipope unless he is able to prove and
also to vindicate his right to appoint the regular pope in
a vacancy.

The difference between the effects of interdicts and
excommunication in Germany, and its effects in France
and England, are very marked. In England it was
indeed only tried in the reign of John, and then only a
few of the bishops recognised it, whilst it had no in-
fluence for the time on the politics of the kingdom. In
France, king after king defied the weapon without the
loss apparently of political strength. But in Germany,
nominally and deeply divided, only needing a shock to
produce disruption, leavened so largely and widely with
politico-spiritual influences, the bolt was fatal at once.
It not only released the unfaithful from the necessity of
feigning obedience, but it disarmed and paralysed those
who would have been most faithful. Witness the history
of Henry IV., Henry V., Otto IV., and Frederick II,

FREDERICK BARBAROSSA 17

Frederick Barbarossa. — Frederick Barbarossa, alone at
the head of a singularly united Germany, and acting
in co-operation with antipopes above the usual type,
is able to maintain an equal fight with the pope even
in exile. And the humiliation of Frederick Barbarossa
after the battle of Legnano, and in the peace of
Venice, although it is less picturesque, and indeed
less morally touching than that of his predecessors
and successors, is not less a political defeat of enormous
importance ; important both because of the majesty
and nobility of the hero who maintains his character
and loses not an iota of respect where he is obliged
to yield the fruits of a life's struggle ; and also because
of the singular weakness and disjointedness of the league
before which he succumbs, between an exile of popes,
an upstart Norman king, and a few outlawed and often
plundered Italian towns. Germany was indeed united
under him, but the pope made for him a foe in his own
household. Henry the Lion, the Welf, the Saxon hero,
the friend of Becket, the conqueror and Christianiser of
the Slavs, would no longer fight against the pope, when
he saw his cousin's chief minister, Philip of Heinsberg,
Archbishop of Cologne, the foe to the pope, but much
more the foe to himself, a rival aiming at and content
with nothing less than the dismemberment of Saxony.

Germany in the Thirteenth Century. — So all these

forces play into one another's directions, and the

resultant is what we are now come to. The reign

of Frederick II. broke up the empire, and broke up

what was not at all in the nature of things bound

up with the empire, the unity of Germany. I need

not recapitulate a recapitulation. It was the fatal

union with Italy that precipitated the result : the fatal

union with Rome first, and the finally fatal union with
,«. B

18 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

Sicily. Italy itself was enough to paralyse any ordinary
prince's energy ; but Italy with Sicily and Jerusalem was
too much for the grand genius, power, intellect, and
protracted reign of Frederick II. Where the imperial
energies were spent outside of Germany, no wonder that
Germany went its own way. But this had been so
before, under both weak kings and strong, and yet the
mass had been brought again together. Under the most
brilliant of the Caesars the ruin came, and without remedy.
Much, of course, was owing to the very brilliancy and
eccentric power of Frederick, to the hatreds he inspired,
and the recklessness with which he inspired men with
them. Something in Italy was due no doubt to the
ability and persistent policy of his enemies the popes.
But in Germany nothing or very little can be attributed
to these things.

In Germany the catastrophe depended far more on
political than on personal causes. It is curious how
little of his reign was spent in Germany itself : he must
have been known far more by report than in person ; and
perhaps it may have been that his fall was occasioned
rather by his absence from the country than by his un-
popularity in it. But after all, although the occasion
was this, the causes were far older and more effective.
Germany began the reign of Frederick apparently the
Germany of old ; she came out of it a body with new
names, and new powers, and functions. This is seen
in the gradual break-up of the old duchies. The early
division of Franconia and extinction of the Franconian
line in the person of Henry V. ; the dismemberment of
Saxony and Bavaria under the forfeiture of Henry the
Lion, and the creation of new and insignificant duke-
doms out of his magnificent inheritances ; the virtual
dismemberment of Swabia by the extravagance and

GERMANY IN THIRTEENTH CENTURY 19

short-sighted policy of Philip, King of Germany, who
raised funds for his resistance to Otto IV., by the sale of
the imperial rights over towns and vassals ; the making
of all these small powers which arose from the dis-
memberment of the greater ones, immediately subject
to the empire, so that by sale or gift they were able
constantly to wring from the emperor privileges which
made them really sovereign each in his own little
territory ; the impoverishment of the imperial domain
going on coincidently with the loss of feudal rights and
revenues from the lands not in demesne — all this was
reducing the emperor to the condition of an honorary
or titular prince, who but for the prestige of his title,
and the hereditary dominions which as count or duke
he might have had before he attained the imperial title,
had little more real power in his dominions than the
titular kings of Achaia and Jerusalem, or the later Roman
emperors.

So much then, for the present, of the principles, the
broad lines of politics, the elements of political life, the
causes and consequences which we have seen hitherto at
work in German history. We have henceforth to con-
template it under new conditions springing directly out
of the old, but differing in form and favour. I shall
begin with a short view of the actual events of German
history under Frederick II., Conrad, and Conradin ; but
the most important portion of this volume will begin
with the interregnum, and be devoted to the far more
prosaic and humdrum course of events, politics, and
development of institutions which we shall have to trace
under the princes of Hapsburg, Bavaria, and Luxem-
burg. We pass from the golden at once to the copper,
and brass, and iron age : we lose our last glimpse of
the heroes with Frederick Barbarossa, the old knight-

20 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

errant, riding away into the land of paynim giants and
monsters, or appearing, to their mutual wonder, to. the
lost shepherd among the caves of the Harz and Salzburg
mountains, never, alas ! to return.

IMPORTANT DATES

Death of Frederick Barbarossa, 1 190.
Reign of Henry VI., 1190-1197.
Philip, 1198-120S.
Otto IV., 1198-1215.
Frederick II., 1212-1250.

CHAPTER II

Frederick II.— His supremacy in Italy — Its fatal effects — The nine
years of peace — The great Diet at Mainz — Election of Innocent
IV., 1243 — Its importance — Deposition of Frederick, 1245 — His
death, 1250 — Conradin's fate.

The Reign of Frederick II. — It may be regarded as
one of the commonplaces of history, to represent the
reign of Frederick II. as a very epitome and con-
centration of all that has gone before that is interest-
ing and significant in the life of the empire. Not
only does the character of the emperor seem to
embrace all the salient characteristics of his pre-
decessors, but the very events are a reiteration, and
the very combinations a repetition of the mixture of
ingredients of former periods of development. In
Frederick we see not only the brilliant ability and
high ideal of Otto III., but the strength in action of
Henry III., and the spirit, brave, adventurous, and im-
petuous, of Frederick Barbarossa ; but also we see, not
less clearly, all the profligacy of Henry IV., and the
unprincipled cruelty of Otto II. and Henry VI. As the
chosen defender of the papacy, he recalls to our minds
the original conditions of the empire, the delivering
hand of Pepin and Charles and Otto, armed with the
same strength, and purchasing advancement by the
same gifts of lands and power bestowed in fact or in
promise on the papacy. In his later assumption of
independence as against papal interference and supre-
macy, we see the same revulsion of feeling that we saw

22 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

in Henry V., who having as defender of the Church
dethroned his father, as his father's successor bent all
his energies to the humiliation of the Church. In his
antagonism with the popes, the struggle with his own
son, whom the Italian alliance had set against him, in
his humiliation and final fall, we read again, although
with many differences of circumstances, the story of
Henry IV.

But no accumulation of such details should divert us
from seeing, that in reality all that is touching and
dramatic in the biography of Frederick belongs to Italy
and not to Germany. The origin of all his greatness,
his brilliant successes, and his great humiliations, was
not in Germany. His birth and education, his temper,
his faults and his merits, were Italian. Henry VI. had
laid the foundation of his miseries in the Sicilian mar-
riage, and in the means he took to secure to his son the
inheritance of the whole of his own and his wife's
dominions. The Sicilian kingdom, the guerdon as the
popes chose to regard it, or wages of the servants and
defenders of Rome, was to be, according to Henry VI.'s
plan, united for ever to the imperial dignity, and that
dignity to become hereditary. This the popes might
well object to ; they lost the cherished obedience of the
Sicilian kings, and saw their pet fief go to strengthen
the hands of their would-be masters. The childhood of
Frederick was the great opportunity for the popes. A
Welf emperor was elected under papal influence to break
at once the continuity of Henry VI.'s policy : when that
Welf emperor found to his cost that the attitude of
rivalry with the pope was inseparable from the status of
emperor, whether Welf or Waibeling, danger from the
young heir of Hohenstaufen seemed to the pope to be
so remote that he himself brought him forward as the

FREDERICK'S LOVE OF ITALY 23

rival of the unfortunate Otto. Nor was it until Frederick
had, by eight years1 spent in Germany, and by the death
of Otto and collapse of the Welfic interest in North Ger-
many, consolidated his power in a way that recalled the
popes to their old policy that the struggle again broke
out. The struggle beginning with the point at which it
had been left by Henry VI., the union of the crowns of
the empire and of Sicily on one head. This was the fons
et origo mali ; other grudges and hatreds entered largely
into the struggle, until it became one of personal perse-
cution and extermination. But the scene of the wars,
the interest of the adventures lies in Italy, Sicily, and
Palestine, and the indirect effects of these upon Germany
it is not difficult to sum up ; they have, in fact, been
summed up briefly in the previous volume.1

His Love of Italy. — The reign of Frederick extends
from 1 21 2 to 1250; from his first attempt to assert
a right to the empire, an attempt wonderfully suc-
cessful and brilliant, to his death. In 1218 he was
relieved from the rivalry, long ago practically extinct,
of Otto, and two years after he obtained the imperial
crown : that imperial crown he wore, if we accept
his deposition by Innocent IV., until 1245, or twenty-
five years ; if we ignore that, for thirty years, ending
with his death in 1250. Of the thirty-eight years
which include his whole connection with Germany he
spent not more than twelve on this side of the Alps :
from 1 21 2 to 1220 he was in Germany ; only two years,
July 1235 to August 1237, °f nis imperial reign were
spent there. He was, notwithstanding, regarded with
honour and affection, won probably by his early graces,
and by the inherited title to reverence earned by the
house of Hohenstaufen. We have had occasion to

1 " Germany in the Early Middle Ages."

24 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

remark before how strong the hereditary instinct was in
Germany, although it was not legally the theory of the
kingdom or empire. The third generation of a dynasty
had outlived all competition, in the cases of Otto III.,
Henry V., and Henry VI. No duke or prince was a
likely rival to the heir of Hohenstaufen when he was
once come to man's estate. With the assumption of the
imperial crown, Frederick's close intercourse with Ger-
many ended. Again the fatal gift of Italian supremacy
destroys the health of Germany. Frederick, in 1220, left
his kingdom north of the Alps, and only once returned
to it, after a lapse of fifteen years. For these fifteen
years his eldest son Henry, eight years old at the time of
his election as King of the Romans, acted as his father's
representative. He was elected at Frankfort in 1220,
without the consent of the pope, and in defiance of the
papal policy ; but the pope, who was ready for the time
to sacrifice everything for the prospect of the Crusade,
accepted Frederick's assertion that he did not intend to
unite permanently Naples and Sicily with the empire,
but only wished to provide for the proper government
of his states whilst he was absent on the Crusade, and
crowned him emperor in the winter of the same year.

The eight years from 121 2 to 1220 were, after the
struggle with Otto IV. had subsided, years of compara-
tive security. Frederick was very popular ; he found
means of attaching the princes to himself ; the extinction
of the dukes of Zahringen, and the humiliation of the
Welfs, gave him the means of rewarding faithful service,
and the support of the prelates he purchased with the
grant of very extensive privileges. Amongst others, he
surrendered the right of seizing on the personal effects
of prelates at their death, and the right of coining money
and exacting toll within their territories ; he protected

HIS SON HENRY 25

their churches against the oppressions of their official
advocates or defenders, and he enforced the authority
of sentences of the Church by placing contemners
under the bann of the empire.1 It was by these that
he won the consent of the clerical members of the diet
to the election of his son as King of the Romans.

His son Henry. — Well, Frederick being out of sight,
gone to Italy for fifteen years, the young Henry becomes
the centre of German interest. For five years, 1220 to
1225, he was under the tutelage of Archbishop Engelbert
of Cologne, to whom is commonly ascribed the intro-
duction of the Vehmgericht in Westphalia, and who, by
his inflexible administration, at once ensured the security
of the kingdom and brought about his own death ; for in
1225 he was assassinated by the Count of Isenberg, whom
he had offended by his rigour. Henry was crowned, by
Engelbert, king as Henry VII., at Aix-la-Chapelle in
1222. In 1223 he compelled the King of Denmark to
receive his crown as a vassal. On Engelbert's death the
emperor appointed as guardian of his son, and vicar of
the empire, Lewis, Duke of Bavaria and Count Palatine
of the Rhine — a Wittelsbach by race and a representative
of the new order of things resulting from the breaking
up of the old duchies. He was the son of that Otto who
had succeeded to Bavaria on the forfeiture of Henry
the Lion in 1180, and he had himself succeeded to the
County Palatine partly as son-in-law and partly as
substitute for Henry of Saxony the son of Henry the
Lion. He represented, then, in a way, both Welf and
Waibeling interests, and was destined to lead his ward
into difficulties that ended in his destruction. The house
which he founded in Bavaria and in the Palatinate was
the one which more than any other throughout the

1 Milman, " History of Latin Christianity," vol. v. p. 62.

26 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

later Middle Ages keeps up the idea of the old position
of the duchies : in it Bavaria made several bold and
partly successful bids for empire, and it is the only one
of the German houses which now exist, except the
Welfs themselves, that has maintained itself in the
male line to the present day. Lewis of Wittelsbach
occupied the important place in which Frederick's con-
fidence had put him for six years, when in 1231 he also
was assassinated.

The Relations of Frederick with Henry. — It may be
that subsequent events have cast a false reflection
over the acts of Frederick at this period. But, true or
false, it was believed that the emperor suspected Lewis
of an attempt to withdraw Henry from allegiance to
his father, and that the assassin, an unknown person,
was an Egyptian sent from Syria for the purpose, by
the Old Man of the Mountain, with whom Frederick in
his crusade had entered into an alliance. Frederick at
this time had just made his peace with the pope, and
was looking about him no doubt with a view to making
security doubly secure. But the motive, and indeed the
deed itself, is a mystery.

The next nine years were peaceful years for Italy.
Frederick continued on good terms, or on quiet terms at
least, until 1239, and betook himself to legislation and the
cultivation of arts, science, and wickedness in his favourite
kingdom. His great trouble during these years was
from Germany ; and even this storm blew from the
Italian side of the Alps. Henry, in 1227, had married
Margaret, daughter of the Duke of Austria, and after
the murder of Lewis of Wittelsbach seems to have got
on tolerably well for two or three years without a
guardian ; he was, indeed/now twenty years old. There
can be little doubt that the contemporary writers

RELATIONS OF FREDERICK WITH HENRY 27

were justified in their suspicions that Henry had been
tampered with by the pope during his father's extra-
ordinary crusade — that in which, you will remember, the
emperor, whilst under the sentence of excommunication,
recovered the Holy City. Either Henry was at that
time alienated from his father by the same unholy policy
that had set Conrad in opposition to Henry IV., or
suspicions were insinuated into the mind of Frederick
that it was so, which suspicions worked out their own
confirmation. I do not know that it implies a more
than usual baseness in Henry that he formed designs
against the father whom he had seen but once (at
Aquileia in 1232) since he was eight years old, and
of whom all he heard was his impiety and his lavish
affection for his other children.

Conrad, the son of Yolanda of Jerusalem, and the
unhappy successor of both father and brother, seems
to have been placed before young Henry as his especial
rival, and he was told that he was to supplant him
in the succession. Neither in Germany nor in Italy
were wanting influences available in favour of the papal
and opposed to the imperial plan, and as early as 1231
he had endeavoured, by an enactment in favour of the
princes, placing the local jurisdiction in their hands
instead of those of the imperial officers, to make himself
a party against Frederick ; but Frederick disarmed the
conspirators by confirming the edict, and pardoned his
penitent son at Aquileia. With these Henry was per-
suaded to take counsel. But in 1234 the Milanese, by
ambassadors, opened negotiations with him, and in a
meeting of the princes, a conspiracy was formed to
help him in the ambition of becoming independent of
his father. It does not appear that the conspiracy
was a very strong one, or that it proceeded to much

28 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

overt action. Frederick was too prompt for it, and he
wisely trusted to his own popularity. He hastened into
Germany in the spring of 1235, and early in July, at
Worms, received his son into his favour.

Hermann of Salza, the Grand Master of the Teutonic
Knights, and Frederick's wisest and most faithful coun-
sellor, acted as mediator. Henry pretended to submit,
but almost immediately after the reconciliation pro-
voked his father again by refusing to surrender the
castle of Trifels and to perform other conditions. He
was accordingly arrested within a few days of the
pardon, and committed to the charge of Otto, the
Count Palatine, at Heidelberg ; thence he was removed
to Alzen, and thence to Sicily, where he lingered in
chains until February 1242, when he died at Martorano
in Apulia and was buried at Cosenza.
" Frederick's Wives. — The conduct of both father and
son is matter of considerable obscurity. We are at a
loss to estimate the character of the provocation which
met with so severe a punishment : so savage a one
indeed, if we may believe the enemies of Frederick in
their assertion that he starved his son to death. The
history of Henry is, on the other hand, misrepresented
by the advocates of Frederick in a way that is out-
rageously unhistorical.1 Facts speak for themselves,
and I cannot think that the right was altogether on the
side of the father who, notwithstanding the passionate
lamentation over his son which he penned on the
occasion, within a fortnight of the condemnation of his
son to perpetual imprisonment, celebrated his third
marriage with great pomp and luxury in the very town,
Worms, where the unhappy Henry was a captive.
Frederick's third wife was Isabella of England, daughter

1 Menzel is especially inaccurate.

THE DIET AT MAINZ 29

of John, sister of Henry III. and of Richard of Cornwall,
afterwards King of the Romans ; his second was Queen
Yolanda of Jerusalem ; his first had been Constance
of Castile, also a granddaughter of our King Henry II.

The Diet at Mainz. — A week after the wedding
Frederick held a great diet at Mainz, at which the
deposition of Henry was formally transacted, and an
ordinance put out by the emperor, in the German
language, relating to the general condition and con-
stitution of the kingdom. It seems to have been
intended as a remedial act, to protect the imperial
power from the losses which had been inflicted by the
rash measures of Henry, and which Frederick, in self-
defence or policy, had for the moment confirmed.
But the time was past when it was possible to reduce
Germany under a regular imperial organisation ; and
Frederick probably saw that this was the case. Another
and a better policy was to endeavour to strengthen the
influence of law and of the imperial authority, by con-
firming and increasing the privileges of the imperial
cities. No doubt he had found by experience of Italy
the strength and permanence of the civic institution,
and was willing to take pains to secure on his own side
in Germany an element of society so stable and whose
interests were bound up so closely with the maintenance
of law, and resistance of feudal oppression at the hand
of their common foes. I dare not say that this actually
was so : I am not sure that Frederick really cared about
Germany any further than touched his own interest:
he could not have loved it and be content to see so
little of it ; and it may have been that, like our own
kings, he sold privileges and charters merely to raise
money.

Another act of some historical significance that marks

30 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

this diet, is the erection of Li'ineburg and Brunswick
into a duchy in favour of Otto the Child, son of William
of Winchester and grandson of Henry the Lion. It
marks the extinction of the part of the Welfic house of
their old claims to a rivalry with the imperial house ; the
family that had once ruled from the Baltic to the Tiber
is now content with a newly created and comparatively
small duchy. But they had undergone great humilia-
tions since the time of Otto IV. ; still retaining these
ancient allods of their Saxon forefathers, although the
tenure was changed into that of a fief by surrender and
reinvestiture, they possessed a basis on which future
power could be and actually was raised.

Frederick in Germany. — Frederick's visit to Germany
lasted two years : during this time, after the immediate
pressure of public business was over, he travelled
through the country endeavouring to inspire regard
by his popular manners, and awe by the oriental
magnificence of his court : everywhere granting and
confirming liberties, and, notwithstanding his Edict of
Mainz, recognising the prescriptive infringements by
the princes of the few remaining imperial prerogatives.
Amongst other acts of the kind was his declaration of
all his hereditary estates in Germany to be the pro-
perty of the crown, and his raising his personal vassals
to the station of tenants in chief of the empire ; thus
completing that break-up of the old subordination of
the feudal empire which had been going on since
the partition of the Welfic dominions. He had been
recalled into Lombardy in the winter of 1236 by the
war with the republics, but even this he was obliged
to leave unfinished and to turn back into Austria for the
humiliation of Frederick, the warlike Duke of Austria,
whose turbulence and love of war kept the whole rela-

FREDERICK AND GREGORY IX. 31

tions of Bohemia and the eastern parts of Germany in a
turmoil. Frederick was condemned to forfeiture in a
diet at Augsburg in 1236, after which he was obliged to
be quiet for some years. The emperor himself spent
some months at Vienna after this, and having traversed
central Germany in 1237, returned to Italy in September.

The visits may be regarded as one, broken by the
short Italian campaign. It was at Vienna that he made
arrangements for the government of Germany in his
absence. He had not learned wisdom from the re-
bellion of Henry, or else his affection for his second son
overcame his prudence. Conrad, the son of Yolanda of
Brienne, only eleven years old, was to be his substitute ;
the election was made at Vienna by the Archbishops of
Mainz and Treves, the Duke of Bavaria, who was also
Count Palatine, and the King of Bohemia. It was con-
firmed at Spires by the assembled diet in July, and
Frederick finally shook himself free of his German sub-
jects. Briefly to sum up : the share taken by the Lom-
bard cities in the perversion and rebellion of Henry
provoked Frederick to determine on their destruction.
All the rest of his history follows logically upon this
quarrel.

Frederick and Gregory IX. — On his return from
Germany he devoted himself entirely to this purpose,
and for a time seemed likely to succeed. In November
1237 he won, at Corte Nuova, a complete and apparently
decisive victory ; and at last it seemed probable that
the imperial dream would be fulfilled. But when
matters appeared worst for Italy and the papacy,
suddenly the tide turned, and the abuse of victory
roused a resistance that was destined after many
vicissitudes to be victorious. Gregory IX. determined
to throw the whole power of the Church into the scale

32 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

against Frederick ; and Frederick's sins and errors,
real or imputed, had been accumulating during many
years, only a few of which misdoings would have been
enough for a damnatory charge against him. His suc-
cesses in 1238 were less decisive than they had been in
the former year ; he was forced to retire from Brescia.
Then the pope concluded a league against him with
Venice and the remaining supports of Italian liberty.
Having prepared his material weapons, he opened the
war with a spiritual denunciation ; in March 1239 he
excommunicated Frederick.

The time was hardly come for excommunication to
take immediate effect : a curious paper war followed ;
both pope and emperor addressing long letters of ap-
peal and defence to the princes of Europe. Frederick
had still a strong hold on the affections of Germany,
and there the effect of the papal fulmination, sure but
slow, was impeded by the attempt of the pope to urge
the election of an anti-Caesar in the person of Robert of
France, the brother of St. Louis. St. Louis, on the
occasion, behaved in a way worthy of his great name ;
he not only in the most dignified manner rebuked the
pope for his presumption and the unspiritual char-
acter of his policy, but communicated to Frederick the
machinations which were being laid against him. In
Germany itself the proposal strengthened for the
moment the hands of the emperor, and the arrogance
and misconduct of the papal legate, provoked to the
last degree the ecclesiastical princes whose faith was
most likely to be affected by the excommunication.
So long as Gregory lived Frederick pushed his successes
in Italy with hardly a drawback.

Frederick's Death, 1250. — The pope died in 1241, and
the election of a successor was delayed for two years.

THE IMPORTANCE OF HIS REIGN 33

At last Innocent IV., a personal adherent of Frederick,
was elected, and after some troublesome negotiations
peace was made between pope and emperor in March
1244. But within three months of the treaty Innocent
fled secretly from Rome to France, and began the
series of aggressions which ended in the fall of
Frederick. In the Council of Lyons he not only re-
newed the excommunication, but declared the emperor
deposed, and preached a crusade against him. From
this moment every nerve that could be strained on
the part of the papacy was strained, and although
for two or three years Frederick's genius warded
off the fatal end, his signal discomfiture before Parma
in August 1247, which Milman calls the turning-point
of his fortunes, seems to have broken his spirit or dis-
turbed the balance of his mind. He struggled on for
a couple of years more with energies paralysed and a
heart broken by the misfortunes of his children and the
reputed treachery of his friends. The captivity of his
son Enzio, and the treason of Peter de Vinea, his prime
minister, were too much for him. He became almost
frantic, and yet irresolute and practically inactive. This
period of his life closed only with it ; he died at Fioren-
tino in December 1250, leaving to his children a small
share of his genius, and the full inheritance of his sins
and misfortunes.

The Importance of his Reign. — In this chapter, which
is only intended as an introduction to the state of
things which follow the death of Frederick, it is not
necessary to go into minute particulars of dates,
names, and places. But the historians of the time
are themselves far from being liberal of such indica-
tions. In truth, Frederick's personal history occupies

not indeed a greater share of the historian's attention

34 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

than it deserves, but more than is proportional to it in
relation with the general history of the times. He had
reigned so long, and his abilities, his power, and his
adventures had made him so famous that the writers of
the time looked on his history as the general history of
the world. And their example has been followed by
later historians with more excuse. The result of this is
that there is much obscurity in every department that
lies outside the sphere of his personal action. We are
left in ignorance even as to who were the guardians and
chief ministers of the little King Conrad during the
earlier years of his lieutenancy in Germany. Dietrich,
Archbishop of Treves, was guardian in 1242. It is only
discoverable by inference that Duke Otto of Bavaria
discharged towards him the duties that his father Lewis
had done for King Henry. Otto maintained the Hohen-
staufen interest in Germany as long as it could be main-
tained ; he refused to act upon the excommunication
of 1239, and even when, two years later, the ecclesiastical
princes changed sides, remained faithful to Frederick.
The Duke of Austria, also Frederick the Warlike, returned
to his allegiance after four years of forfeiture, and was
restored by the emperor with increased and accumulated
honours. Swabia was under the personal rule of the
young Conrad, and there was thus no danger of the
imperial cause being lost in South Germany.

The Tartars. — During these few years, during which
the papal policy was working secretly rather than overtly
in Germany, the great event to be noticed is the threat
of a barbarian invasion on the side of Hungary. Genghis
Khan had founded a great Tartar empire earlier in the
century. Batou Khan, his grandson, as lieutenant of the
great Mongol Emperor Octai, directed his conquering
energies westward. Ravaging Russia and Poland, he

GERMANY, 1239-1254 35

reached the borders of Germany. In 1241 he entered
Silesia. Slavs and Germans alike fled before him or
perished in unavailing resistance : turned aside by the
obstinacy of Breslau, and deterred by a storm which
excited his superstitious fears, he moved southward
towards Hungary. All Germany was summoned to the
rescue. Enzio was sent from Italy by the emperor to
assist Conrad, and under the command of Conrad the
army of Batou was met near the Danube and defeated.
Batou retired, but Hungary had almost perished under
the infliction. Bela, the king, having been driven into
Dalmatia, purchased the aid of Frederick for his restora-
tion and for securing his dominions, it is said, by sur-
rendering the feudal domination of Hungary to the
empire. This, like every question on the relations of
Hungary to Germany, is obscure. And it is not less an
illustration of the obscurity of the details of the time
that the place at which this decisive battle was fought,
one which, humanly speaking, saved Europe from being
conquered and reduced to barbarism, is unknown.
Milman calls the stream on which it was fought
Delphos ; but although Moravia and Austria itself
abounds with relics and traditions of the invasion, we
only know that the battle took place near the Danube
and sometime in the year 1241.

Germany, 1 239-1 254. — It has been said that the effects
of the papal excommunication of 1239 were slow but
sure. It is in 1241 that we first trace their operation
in Germany. At this time the ecclesiastical princes
were still faithful ; and the papal diplomatists rested
their hopes rather on Bavaria and Austria than on
the bishops. A conference was held at Budweis in
September 1241 on the expediency of a new election.
But singularly the two great powers, the temporal

36 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

and spiritual, either changed sides or were obliged
to renounce their temporising policy and show their
true colours. Bavaria, Bohemia, and Austria, on whom
the papal party had relied, adhered to Frederick ;
but the machinations of the legate produced a counter
move among the bishops. Frederick, learning that their
allegiance was questionable, widened the breach by his
violent and insulting language ; and a league was formed
against him. The crown was offered by this party first
to Otto of Bavaria, and by him rejected with scorn.

The deposition of Frederick .in 1245 strengthened the
party greatly ; but no one would yet consent to be
anti-Caesar. The King of Bohemia, the Dukes of Austria,
Brabant, and Saxony, and the Margraves of Meissen
and Brandenburg, refused it. At length an election was
made at Hochheim, near Wurzburg, on Ascension Day,
1246. The great majority of princes present were
ecclesiastical ; the four archbishops, Mainz, Treves,
Cologne, and Bremen, the Bishops of Metz, Spires, and
Strassburg ; a very few insignificant lay princes joined in
the act. By the influence of the Archbishop of Cologne,
who throughout was a strong papal partisan, Henry,
surnamed Raspo, Landgrave of Thuringia, was elected.
He was crowned and placed at the head of a crusading
army mustered by the Archbishop of Mainz. War
began immediately. Henry, the priests' king {Pfaffen-
konig), defeated King Conrad near Frankfort on August 5.
Conrad's Swabian soldiers deserted him, and Henry
seemed in a likely way to supplant his rival altogether ;
but his success was not lasting ; he was prevented by
the severity of the winter from carrying out the com-
plete subjugation of Swabia, and having retired into his
hereditary states, died a natural death in February 1247.
In the autumn of the same year a new king of the

THE END OF THE HOHENSTAUFENS 37

Romans was chosen, William, Count of Holland. Before
his rising star the fortunes of Conrad waned rapidly. In
1248 he was compelled to fly into Italy, where he shared
his father's few remaining misfortunes. We lose sight of
him in Germany for two years. He seems, however, to
have returned before his father's death, and to have
maintained some show of authority in Swabia and
Bavaria. But gradually he was left friendless in Ger-
many, and retreated into the safe kingdom of Apulia.
There, however, the unrelenting hostility of Innocent IV.
pursued him with excommunication. His fortunes
seemed to be rising when he died in 1254, under strong
suspicion of being poisoned.

The End of the Holmistaufens. — The romantic history
of Conradin does not belong to Germany. The internal
events of these years will be described in the next
chapter in connection with William of Holland, Richard
of Cornwall, and the great Interregnum. We will now
very briefly comment on the end of the old imperial
regime under the last of the Hohenstaufen. It seems
curious, but I conceive it to be the truth, that the
possession of Italy was the fatal, vulnerable, incurable
point in the lot of Frederick II. It was not so much
his absence from Germany, because that we saw after
many years had not impaired his popularity, and there
were many reasons why the absence of a supreme
check on ambitious princes should make the absentee
emperor more acceptable than a present one would
be. There was absolutely no family left in Germany,
north or south, which could enter into a moment's
competition with him. The faithfulness of Germany
was proved, moreover, by the length of time that
it survived the trying ordeal of the papal excom-
munication of the emperor. During his earlier diffi-

38 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

culty with Gregory IX. about the Crusade, Germany
never wavered : after the second excommunication it
was two years before the election of a successor was
mooted ; and then the attempt was a failure. It was
not until 1246 — that is, seven years after the second
excommunication — and not until six or seven of the lay
princes had refused the empire, that Henry of Thuringia,
under strict papal orders, as strict as those by which
he appointed to a bishopric, ventured to accept the
proffered honour. It is true that, once done, Frederick's
fortunes went downhill very rapidly, but that they did
in Italy, where his own presence failed to restore them,
as well as in Germany. If Frederick would yet have
shown himself north of the Alps, he might have still
retrieved his fortunes. Italy and Sicily, as subsequent
events showed, might have been confidently entrusted to
his sons. For Italy he lost his last hold on Germany ;
he .had willingly deserted her ; he had alienated his
natural friends, the prelates ; he had neglected those
who beyond all hopes had shown themselves his
friends, the princes. He had parted with the legal
rights of the crown, divested himself personally of his
own hereditary states in Germany — and all for Italy.

Germany under Frederick II. — All the glory and
brilliancy of Frederick is, to my mind, extinguished
in the dereliction of his duty as a German sovereign.
All his love was spent on the kingdoms of his
mother, and the attempt to effect what Frederick
Barbarossa had failed to effect — what the policy of the
papal see, which in the long run was backed up by
Christendom, would not endure to see — the absolute
conquest of North Italy and the isolation of the Patri-
mony of St. Peter. The worshippers of the imperial
ideal see nothing in Frederick that is not admirable : the

GERMANY UNDER FREDERICK II. 39

admirers of the papal ideal, on the contrary, regard him
as little else than Antichrist. But why the Germans
should regard him as a sovereign to be admired or loved,
I see no reason, except in the inherited reverence of his
family, and perhaps a sort of pride that a German prince
should make such a figure in the world. It is to Frede-
rick II. and his father and uncle, Henry VI. and Philip
of Swabia, that Germany owes the fate that fell on her
in the thirteenth century, of being, in spite of her extent,
the wealth and intelligence of her people, the multitudes
of her noble warriors, and the eminence of individuals
amongst her sons in every description of human excel-
lence, as a whole, as a nation, a kingdom, an empire,
practically impotent in Europe for two centuries and
more ; and, further, that when the time came for a
sufficiently large portion of her territory to be united
under two or three great families, so much of her energy
was employed upon internal struggles.

In the twelfth century there was still a chance that
the several nations who combined into the German
kingdom might combine into a German nation. Great
as were the hindrances in variety of language, of tradi-
tion, of tribal institutions and character under Frederick
Barbarossa, they were less than they had ever been
before ; the great duchies were being gradually broken
up into small jurisdictions, none of which might be
strong enough to defy the supreme power or enter
into rivalry with it. The fragments were broken small,
to be, if the hand had been there to do it, forced into a
compact and equable mass. But when the amalgamating
force was needed, Germany was left alone ; Italy wasted
all the energies of the German king. The aggregate of
fragments was never brought together ; the condition
of the whole was only prevented from being anarchy

40 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

because there was an absence of any common principle
of rebellion. Every prince did that which was right in
his own eyes, and the emperor looked on and bore it.

IMPORTANT DATES

Frederick II. secures Imperial Crown, 1220.

Frederick goes on a Crusade, 1228.

Diet of Worms, 1231.

Frederick returns to Germany, 1235.

Mongol Invasion, 1241-1242.

Innocent IV. excommunicates Frederick, 1245.

William of Holland elected King of Germany, 1247.

Death of Frederick II., 1250.

CHAPTER III

Events in Germany and Italy after Frederick's death— William,
Count of Holland — Conrad's death, 1254 — Death of William of
Holland, 1256 — Election of Richard of Cornwall and of Alfonso
X. of Castile as rival emperors, 1257 — Richard's fortunes in
Germany — Battle of Benevento, 1265 — Battle of Tagliacozzo,
1268 — Death of Conradin — Death of Richard of Cornwall, 1272.

Resume of German History. — We have now to turn back
for the few years which in the last chapter we gave
to the view of the last struggles of Frederick and
Conrad, to the year 1247, when, after the death of
Henry Raspo of Thuringia, the anti-Caesar, the princes,
opposed to the Hohenstaufen or weary of the struggle
with the papacy, proceeded to a new election. For
from this year, I think, properly dates that long
period of German history known as the Interregnum,
which is really one of the most important pieces of
debatable ground in modern history for its results if
not for the signal character of the events that marked
it. During this period there was no crowned emperor,
nor indeed any one who possessed a full title to the
homage of the German kingdom. The two princes who
held what there was to hold of power in succession were
William, Count of Holland, and Richard, Earl of Corn-
wall, successively kings of the Romans, but owing to the
limited amount of recognition obtained by these princes
in the German states, neither of them is regarded as full
sovereign or numbered among the emperors. To the
imperial title, it is true, they had no title as having never

been crowned, but so neither had Rudolf of Hapsburg,

42 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

who succeeded them ; nor was the papal recognition
awarded to Rudolf in a more signal, although it might
be in a more effective way, than to them.

The Interregnum. — Henry Raspo died in February
1247, having defeated and humiliated Conrad without
having been able to secure a hold on South Germany.
His unexpected death threw the pope and the ecclesias-
tical party into some perplexity. In the interval between
February and September the crown of Germany was
offered to and refused by several princes of very sub-
ordinate importance, both within and without the
empire ; at last a young aspirant was found bold
enough to accept : William, Count of Holland, the
descendant of a line of counts which had since the
ninth century ruled the northern portion of Lower
Lorraine in hereditary succession from father to son.
He was twenty years old, and was put forward
chiefly by his uncle, Duke Henry of Brabant, and
the Archbishop of Cologne. The election was trans-
acted as closely under papal directions as that of
Henry Raspo had been, at Neuss, near Cologne, on
October 3. The election is said to have been made by
those princes to whom the right of election belonged,
a subject to which I propose to return by-and-by ; but
the actual electors on the occasion were the ecclesiastical
princes. The King of Bohemia and the Margrave of
Brandenburg were present, but their consent cannot
have been given to the election, and the Dukes of
Saxony and Bavaria being in close league with Frede-
rick, were undoubtedly hostile.

In the conflict of authorities it is safest to follow the
probabilities of the case, and to regard the election as
actually carried out by the bishops and princes of Lor-
raine, the other important personages present contenting

THE INTERREGNUM 43

themselves with a passive resistance, which in time to
come, if William were successful, might be interpreted
as a passive acquiescence. William was knighted
preparatory to his coronation, which could not be
performed as Aix-la-Chapelle was in possession of the
enemy. The first enterprise he undertook was the
siege of the imperial city ; it was not taken until
October 31 in the following year, and on November 1
he was crowned King of the Romans. The year seems
to have been productive of success, for the coronation
was attended by a much larger concourse of princes
than had been present at the election. The fortunes
of Conrad and his father were rapidly declining, and
Ottocar, King of Bohemia, having his eye fixed on the
Austrian possessions bordering on his own dominions,
was ready to do his part in expelling the adherents of
Hohenstaufen from the south. Still the whole action of
William of Holland was confined to the north ; nor does
he appear more than once south of the line of the Main.
He endeavoured by the action of imperial legates to
exercise some authority in the districts which he was
unable to penetrate in person or with an army, and
in the ecclesiastical principalities throughout Germany
was to a certain extent recognised. But he was very
poor ; and his unwise surrender of his own hereditary
dominions to his brother left him dependent on the
impoverished imperial domains, the revenues of which
he had to struggle for with the remains of the Hohen-
staufen party. Hence, notwithstanding the destruction
or humiliation of that family, William was unable to
make himself respected in Germany, and, notwithstand-
ing his own personal claims to valour and judgment, he
was treated by the princes, not actually opposed to him,
with neglect. Not before Easter 1251, three months

44 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

after the death of Frederick, was his election confirmed
by the pope ; and this was probably the consequence of
a victory which he obtained over Conrad a few weeks
before at Oppenheim.

Anarchy in Germany. — After this battle, Conrad,
although he remained half a year longer in Germany,
failed to make head against his rival. Germany pre-
sented a curious spectacle of two kings, one recognised
in the north and the other in the south, each strong
enough to prevent his enemy from entering the country
that recognised him, but neither strong enough to make
good his own position on his own ground. In 1252 he
married a daughter of Duke Otto of Brunswick, thus con-
fining his hold on Lower Saxony, and in a way recalling
the old organisation of the Welfic party; the same object
he attempted to attain by extending the privileges of the
house of Brandenburg. But although by these measures
he gained perhaps a little wider and more ready recog-
nition, although his abilities as a warrior and a states-
man were far from contemptible, he was prevented by
his poverty from making even a stroke for the reality
of the empire. He was obliged to live very much
amongst his relations, and on the scanty revenues which
he could obtain by following the pattern of his pre-
decessors in the sale of privileges. His reign is marked
by scarcely a single measure of importance, if we except
the confederation of the Rhine entered into by the cities
and princes for the security of traffic on the river, by the
destruction of the castles of the robber or pirate nobles,
and the abolition of unjust tolls. This league, which
was not able to enforce its objects without recourse to
arms, marks the growing importance of the mercantile
spirit in the towns on the Rhine, a point to be noted
and compared with the advancing power of the Han-

DEATHS OF CONRAD AND WILLIAM 45

seatic league in the north, which had been formed round
the merchant city of Lubeck during the early part of
the century. The necessities of the emperors had had
this good effect ; the privileges they were ready to sell
came into the hands of the men who were best able to
make the most of them ; and their policy in promoting
the interest of the towns had a result far more lasting
and far more beneficial than any they had contemplated
when they created it as a counterpoise to the power of
the princes and as a check on their spreading, all-en-
grossing jurisdictions. The league of the Rhine, and
peace between the bishops and the cities, was finally
completed and sanctioned by William at Oppenheim
in 1255.

Deaths of Conrad and William of Holland. — William's
boldest stroke for empire, however, was earlier than
this, and followed his marriage in 1252. After re-
ceiving the submission of Saxony and Brandenburg,
he held a diet at Frankfort in June, in which he
declared that Conrad had forfeited the duchy of Swabia,
and passed the same sentence prospectively on all the
vassals of the empire who should not within a year
and a day do homage. But either this was more than
he had power to do, or he wasted his power on other
designs : nearly the whole of the two following years were
spent in war with Flanders, an object certainly not of
imperial policy ; that having always been to detach that
county, if possible, from the interests of France. In
1254, after Conrad's death, he revisited Germany, and
then got possession of the strong castle of Trifels and
the insignia of the empire. The cities of the Rhine
again received him with joy, but in the rest of Germany
he had neither authority nor even a show of respect ;
he was obliged even to ransom his wife, who had fallen

46 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

into the hands of a robber knight of the Palatinate.
The state of Germany was anarchy rather than civil
war. The reign lasted two years longer. In 1256
William lost his life in an expedition against West
Friesland. He is the first of the kings of Germany
who comes out of the Lorraine country ; and the charac-
teristics of his reign are in some degree common to
all that follow him. He wanted money and he wanted
connection. No one was closely allied with him except
the pope and the prelates. He would be regarded by
the Germans of Upper Germany as hardly a German
prince at all ; none of his ancestors had taken part in
the struggles or successes of Germany : they were
brave men, crusaders, faithful for the most part to the
imperial throne which protected them but gave them
very little trouble in the way of interference ; but their
states were comparatively insignificant, and lay far too
much on one side of Germany. William, I think, has
been hardly treated in general by German writers as
a mere papal pretender : he was certainly a brave man
and had some talent for government, but he was poor
and ill supported, and not a likely man to undo the
mischief of the last fifty years. He was only twenty-
nine when he died. His children were too young to
assert a claim even if their friends had been foolish
enough to advocate their inheritance of trouble and
labour.

The death of William left Germany without even a
nominal head. Conrad had died two years before,
leaving the Hohenstaufen influence in Germany at
zero. Conradin was two years old when his father
died, but Swabia was already lost and rapidly being
broken up among the petty lords, whom the removal
of their duke rendered independent. The forfeiture

ELECTION OF RICHARD AND ALFONSO 47

decreed by William strengthened the hands of these,
although it was powerless so far as it might have tended
to the consolidation of his own power. Why could
not Germany, now having got rid of the rival kings,
and being pledged in common to no particular policy,
have done as was done sixteen years after, and joined
to elect a ruler who would be at the least a rallying-
point for the friends of order ? Whatever may have
been the cause, and there were many no doubt at
work among the different interests of the kingdom, no
such attempt, bond fide, was made. No doubt the papal
party had much to do with this : it was necessary to
prevent even the possibility of a reaction in favour of
the Hohenstaufens, or the election of an emperor who
was even remotely implicated in their policy. But
none of the princes was ambitious of a crown so im-
poverished, or liable to such inveterate evils as those
which had embittered the existence of the last wearers
of it.

Election of Richard of Cornwall and of Alfonso, 1257. —
But whatever were the thoughts and intentions of
the influential men, the business of the nation must
proceed : matters, bad as they were, were not ripe for
the abolition of the central authority and the absolute
division of Germany amongst a crowd of independent
princes. As there was now no emperor, nor king of
the Romans, nor even a pretender to the title, nor
even a person designated to the succession — a thing
which had not occurred more than once or twice since
the extinction of the Karolings — the assembly of the
princes must be held in due course to elect some one ;
and such was the reluctance of all to undertake the
task that not even parties were formed for the election
of particular persons until the electors met on the

48 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

Epiphany of 1257 to make their election. Therein
and about Frankfort assembled the Archbishop of
Cologne, the Count Palatine, and Duke of Bavaria
with his brother Henry, outside the city, and the Arch-
bishop of Treves and the Duke of Saxony in the city.
The Archbishop of Main/, the only person wanting
to make up the tale of the clerical electors, was in
prison at Brunswick, but he sent his proxy to the
Archbishop of Cologne ; the King of Bohemia and
the Margrave of Brandenburg communicated their
intention by letters. But all hopes of a peaceful
election were defeated by the conduct of the Arch-
bishop of Treves, who, in concert with the Duke of
Saxony, refused to allow the other two present electors
to enter the city. On the Octaves of the Epiphany,
the Archbishop of Cologne and the Count Palatine
elected Richard of Cornwall, brother of Henry III. of
England ; but to this the Archbishop of Treves and the
Duke of Saxony refused their consent: they fortified
themselves by delay, and with the letters of the absent
electors, and on Palm Sunday announced that their
choice had fallen on Alfonso X., King of Castile.

It would be vain to speculate on the causes of this
extraordinary election in any idea of attaining even a
probable solution. Even Milman is obliged to put
down the choice of Richard of Cornwall to the ambi-
tion of the Archbishop of Cologne, who, he thinks, was
desirous of ruling the empire as the agent and with the
wealth of Richard. But if this explains one side, what
can explain the other? The electors of Alfonso were
struck, we are told, with his reputation for wisdom.
Possibly so ; but all that he did to justify that reputation
in German matters was that he had the wisdom to keep
out of the way.

RICHARD OF CORNWALL'S CHARACTER 49
Richard was not so wise; he hastened to the scene

of action, and was crowned with his wife at Aixda-
Chapelle on Ascension Day. Alfonso, to whom the

imperial insignia had been sent by Frederick, Duke of

Lorraine, promised to conic as B00I1 as he could, bill
never fulfilled the promise. The question of the disputed
election was carried to Rome; there Pope Alexandei

IV., regarding the conduct Of the Archbishop of Treves

as illegal, and as voiding the election in which he look-
part, gave sentence in 1250. He is said to have inclined
to Richard's side, and even to have recognised his elec-
tion as valid. But it would appear that there is a doubt
of the genuineness of the letters in which this recogni-
tion was accorded. Richard is known more familiarly
in English than in German history as King of the
Romans and Richard of Alrnain. Observe for a moment
Richard's connection with Germany : in the first place
he was brother-in-law of Frederick 1 L, who had married
his sister, the Empress Isabella; he was also own con in
to the Emperor Otto IV., the son of Henry the Lion ;
if the name of Welf and Waibcling still bore any sig-
nification in Germany, Richard may have had friends
on both sides ; but on the other hand he was brother
of King Henry, who had just accepted for his son,
Edmund of Lancaster, the kingdom of Sicily, the in-
heritance of Conradin ; and he was also brother-in-law
of Charles of Anjou, the destined exterminator of the
Hohenstaufen rule in Naples.

Richard of Cornwall's Character. — It is a common
mistake in historians, both English and German, to
regard Richard as a vain, foolish person, very rich, and
easily prevailed on to waste his money for the mere
purposes of personal vanity. It was very far other-
wise in his own time. In England he was regarded as

50 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

more politic than honest : as a tricky, deceptive man ; but
not as a fool by any means. I think, however, that this is
too low an estimate of him : judged by the line he took
in both French and English matters, he seems to have
been decidedly an able politician. He was an advocate
of peace when his foolish brother would fain have
carried on a fruitless war ; he more than once inter-
fered to prevent quarrels that must have embittered
the already exasperated condition of parties ; until he
was provoked by the opposition of Simon de Montfort
he was always on the side of a conciliatory policy
towards the barons, and although very unpopular from
his wealth and foreign connections, was by no means
opposed to proper concessions to the popular demands.
He refused to lend his brother money; but that, to my
mind, remembering what sort of a man in money
matters Henry III. was, is a strong proof of wisdom.
It is to be noted that both Richard and Alfonso
were directly descended from Henry II. of England,
who had been accused of aspiring to the empire for
himself, and closely related, therefore, with Otto IV.,
his grandson. Although Richard's election was far
from unanimous and his recognition far from uni-
versal, he had no difficulty in obtaining and retaining
the measure of recognition which he did obtain. No
obstacle was offered to his coronation or to his authority
where it was at all admitted, nor did any one appeal to
arms against him. The absence of the rival king, the
strong pressure put by the popes on their supporters
to take part in no measure that could result in the
revival of the Hohenstaufen interest, and the fact that
practical independence was secured to the princes by
the merely nominal rule of such a sovereign ; the dis-
like of French influence, which had been employed, it

THE EXTENT OF HIS INFLUENCE 51

was said, on behalf of Alfonso, although at an earlier
period Louis IX. had refused to join the pope against
Frederick and Conrad — all these things conspired to
give Richard an easy, if an expensive time of it.

Gradually the princes who had supported Alfonso,
notably the King of Bohemia, who indeed was ready to
support any one who would support him in his claims
to Austria, came in and acknowledged Richard, making
use of his necessities to obtain from him the recogni-
tion or extension of their privileges. From the pope
he never obtained a formal act of recognition or
sentence in his favour against Alfonso. Alexander IV.
left the matter undecided ; Urban IV. summoned the
competitors to Rome, but as neither of them attended,
the suit still hung in suspense ; Clement IV., with-
out acknowledging Richard, refused to acknowledge
Alfonso ; and before Gregory X. had made up his mind,
Richard died.

The Extent of his Influence. — The immediate influence
of Richard in Germany, like that of his predecessor, was
confined to the Rhine valley, the Palatinate, and the
bishoprics of Cologne and Mainz. He was less supported
than William had been on the Netherland and French
side, for there lay the strength of William's family con-
nections, and the influence of France had not yet been
given to a rival candidate. But one of the few royal or im-
perial acts performed by Alfonso was to invest Frederick
of Lorraine, who had brought him the news of the election,
with that duchy ; and it marks the weakness of Richard
or the strength of the Archbishop of Treves, that he
was able to maintain his hold upon a principality so
near the seat of government. Nor did Richard possess,
as William had done, the interest of the Church party
in South Germany, which acted in strict obedience to

52 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

the papal movements, and as the popes did, abstained
from taking a side in the struggle, if struggle it can be
called. But, on the other hand, Richard in the long
run obtained a far more extensive recognition, and
executed more important acts of sovereignty than either
William or Conrad, and he possessed a source of
strength which they were without, namely, money. I
do not wish to exaggerate the importance of Richard's
reign ; but owing to his close connection with England
we may be allowed to bestow rather more than a mere
passing attention upon it. I have mentioned some of
the events of the English part of his life which lead
to the conclusion that his ability has been underrated
by historians generally. This is easily accounted for.
In England Richard was unpopular writh both parties ;
he refused to minister, without security, to the extrava-
gance of Henry III., and he opposed, both on political,
and more still on personal grounds, the policy of
Simon de Montfort. By the royalists he was regarded
as spending his wealth in pursuit of a shadow of
foreign dominion ; by the popular party as a trickster
and as a sharer in the oppressions and exactions of the
government. The French historians hate him as they do
everything English ; and the Germans, always prone to
the same feeling, were only too glad to be able to justify
their contempt of him, by the mean opinion of his own
countrymen. The facts, although they are far from
making Richard a great man or a great king, give a
different impression from any of these opinions. In
the absence of any strong opposition Richard must have
had some stronger recommendation than his money, or
money must have been more powerful in Germany than
is compatible with the honour and greatness of the
nation.

HIS TITLE JUSTIFIED 53

His Title of King of Germany justified. — We will
now look at the extent of the dominion which re-
cognised him. In the first place, of course, the terri-
tories of Mainz and Cologne do so ; in the second,
Bavaria and the Palatinate. These were the estates
which joined in the election. But the condition of
things was different. Mainz and Cologne might, as
Milman says, expect to reign through Richard ; but
Lewis, Duke of Bavaria and Count Palatine, was the
brother of Elizabeth, the widow of King Conrad, and
in Bavaria, at Landshut, under her brother's protection,
the little Conradin was being educated by his mother
for his brilliant but short career. The sentence of
William of Holland had indeed dismembered the duchy
of Swabia, but had not been able to secure the alienation
of the hereditary estates of Conradin, and from them,
under the protection of his uncle, funds were drawn
for him which were enough to maintain a child of seven
or eight years old in all necessary splendour. The
hostility of the popes was unrelaxing, and it is perhaps
owing to this apparent toleration of Conradin, whose
election to the kingdom they were most anxious to
prevent, that we are to ascribe their reluctance to re-
cognise Richard. In the north of Germany Richard
probably had sufficient family interest to keep his hold
on his cousins of Brunswick ; the Margrave of Branden-
burg, who had voted for Alfonso, was shortly bought
over. The Archbishop of Treves, by the mediation of
France, made peace with Richard ; and Austria, being
torn in pieces by her neighbours of Bavaria and
Bohemia, had no representative but the boy Frederick,
the sharer of the exploits and of the fate of Conradin.

Richard's authority, although superficial, was very
widely recognised, so widely, in fact, as to vindicate his

54 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

title as King of Germany completely. The number of
diplomatic acts of his which are preserved show that every
important prince in Germany paid him the compliment
of getting some privilege or other from him : his grants
to the free towns, who, of course, had themselves to give
effect to his grants, for it was little but parchment and
paper that they could expect of him, show a decided
advancement in German life of the important elements
of municipal and mercantile independence and the
measures taken for the promotion of the interests of
the Hanseatic league, especially in relation to England,
prove that Richard either by his own mother- wit or
under the advice of sound German counsellors, was
ready to work his influence with his brother Henry
for the common benefit of their respective subjects.
It was in 1260 that Henry III., under the pressure of
his brother, granted to all the merchants of Germany
in connection with the Hanseatic league the same
mercantile privileges in England which had been
bestowed on the burghers of Cologne by Henry II.
On the connection of the Hanse towns with England,
it would be as well to read the clever little essay of
Dr. Pauli in his " Pictures of Old England."

Summary of Richard's Position. — To sum up, then.
Richard was not a party king in Germany : he was
recognised all through the country and by every
element of society, although that recognition in-
volved no authority or jurisdiction : he was in league
with both Guelf and Ghibelline ; the pope refused
the recognition that the Church, the princes, and
the towns accorded ; his acts, so far as they can be
interpreted as showing his intentional policy, were
of a wise and provident character : he made few
enemies, and he had no battles to fight. His position

SUMMARY OF RICHARD'S POSITION 55

was a difficult one in many ways : it was from his
English estates that he drew the money, which was,
of course, the foundation and strength of his influence
in Germany. To neglect England would be to sacrifice
both the substance and the shadow of power. It is
absurd to talk of him, as the German writers do, as
preferring inglorious ease in England to vindicating
his rights by arms in Germany. His position in England
was anything but easy, inglorious as it may have been.
His position in Germany was easy, whether or no it
could be called glorious. But if he had neglected
England, he would have lost all.

It does not belong to German history to apologise
for the part that he took in the great constitu-
tional struggle : perhaps a fairer idea of his position
in Germany may give to us a clearer notion of the
reasons why he took the side he did in English
politics, but I cannot do more than indicate it
here. No effort that he could have made in Germany
without the revenues of his English estates could
have maintained or improved his position, for he had
not an inch of hereditary property in the empire,
and so far was in a worse position than William of
Holland.

Fighting in England for his county of Cornwall,
he fought really for his German kingdom. It may
have been unwise in him to court or to accept the
election, but that once done, I do not see that he is to
blame for taking the best means he could take to main-
tain it. He made, during the fifteen years which his
nominal reign contained, four visits to Germany. The
first immediately after his election extends from April
1257 to January 1259, and includes nearly two years.
During those years he was crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle,

56 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

and very considerably strengthened the position of the
free cities, Cologne, Frankfort, Nuremberg, and others ;
he repealed the act of forfeiture passed by William of
Holland against Margaret of Flanders, and made him-
self new friends in South Germany. In January 1259
he revisited England, where, we must remember, he was
obliged to swear to observe the Provisions of Oxford at
his landing : he remained here, however, only until
June. From June to October he spent in Germany,
principally in the Palatinate ; his principal acts show
him busy in acquiring the friendship of the Swabian
nobles and the princes of the Upper Rhine. From
October 1259 to June 1262 he was again in England,
supporting Henry III. against Simon de Montfort in
that sudden and partly successful attempt made, with-
out the co-operation of Prince Edward, and in contempt
of the oath taken by the king, to upset the Provisions of
Oxford.

Henry left England for France at the same time
as Richard's third departure for Germany. This third
visit lasted from July 1262 to February 1263. The
most important act of it was the admission of Ottocar
of Bohemia to the duchy of Austria and Styria, for
which he had been struggling for many years, and
which he was to forfeit under the next reign. He also
declared Zurich a free city of the empire during this
visit, an act which, as opposed to the policy of the
dukes of Swabia, may be held to mark a step in advance
to Swiss independence. In this visit we find amongst
his allies the new Archbishop of Treves. On the 10th of
February 1263 he returned to England, where he shared
with Henry in the great events of the Barons' War ;
fought and was taken prisoner at Lewes in 1264, and
was released in September 1265 after the battle of

HISTORY AND DEATH OF CONRADIN 57

Evesham. This time he remained five years away from
Germany, and indeed only revisited it in 1268. It is to
this long interval that the short career of Conradin
belongs. In other respects Germany seems to have
done fairly well without her king.

History and Deatli of Conradin. — Conradin had been
living in Bavaria whilst Manfred was fighting the battle of
the family in Italy. Manfred's policy was to disconnect
the Sicilian heritage of Frederick from the odium and
danger of the German connection ; and with this view
he had allowed himself to be elected King of the
Sicilies, in the full intention, we may believe, of making
his nephew Conradin his heir. But the popes were
determined to destroy the Hohenstaufen in every shape
and form, and would no more tolerate Manfred as
elective King of the Sicilies, which they claimed as a
fief of the Holy See, than they would tolerate the child
Conradin as a possible candidate for the kingdom of
Germany or for the empire. The hostility which had
begun in the politics of Innocent III. and Honorius III.
had developed, in Innocent IV. and Alexander IV., into
the bitterest personal hatred ; and in Italy generally the
quarrels of Guelf and Ghibelline seemed to advance
in venomous and personal hatred as the origins of the
names and of the quarrels became matters of antiquarian
research.

In February 1265, at the battle of Benevento, Manfred
fell before the cruel and vindictive Charles of Anjou,
the papal hostility following the brilliant son of
Frederick even into his grave. Conradin, the last hope
of the Ghibelline party, was now only thirteen years old.
Charles had an interval of two years allowed him, during
which he showed all the cruelty and oppressiveness of
his disposition, and proved himself the worthy pro-

58 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

genitor of a line of kings whose name is synonymous
with oppression and bloodshed. In 1267 Conradin
was summoned from Bavaria. He had, by the assist-
ance of his maternal kinsmen, and by the sale of his last
allods to Lewis of Bavaria and Meinhard of Tyrol, his
stepfather, and his friend Frederick of Baden, the last
claimant of the honours of the Babenberg dukes of
Austria whom Ottocar had ousted, collected a force
of about 4000 Germans. With these he crossed the
Alps, and was everywhere welcomed as a deliverer.

The pope was frantic ; he summoned Conradin before
him at Viterbo ; he ordered Ottocar to seize the
relics of Conradin's Swabian possessions, the remnant
of the Welfic allods bequeathed by Duke Welf to
Frederick Barbarossa ; he raised Charles of Anjou to
the title of Peacemaker throughout Tuscany and all the
provinces of the Roman empire. From Verona, early
in 1268, Conradin, at the head of a Ghibelline army,
advanced towards Rome, and passed, within sight of the
pope, the walls of Viterbo. At Rome senate and people
welcomed him ; but the military skill and discipline of
the French were too much for him. At the battle of
Tagliacozzo both Conradin and Frederick of Austria
were taken, and after a mock trial, in contravention of
all national law and morality, were beheaded at Naples.
So perished together the last heirs of the great Swabian
dynasty, for it was through Agnes of Swabia, the daughter
of Henry IV., that the ancestors of both Conrad and
Frederick inherited the ancient blood of the imperial
line. With them the older medieval empire seems to
lose its last breath of vitality. In Germany it may be
regarded as extinct after the death of Frederick.

Death of Richard of Cornwall, 1272. — The position of
Richard, however, was little affected by the tragic

DEATH OF RICHARD OF CORNWALL 59

events taking place in Italy. He was growing old,
in fact, although not so much in years as in
habits ; he had led an active and adventurous life,
and was amusing himself at Berkhamstead as well
as he could, nobody much missing him in Germany.
Three years after his release from imprisonment he
reappeared in his kingdom, September 1268, and this
time he stayed long enough to transact another (the
third) courtship and marriage. The lady was the very
beautiful Beatrice of Falkenstein, the daughter of Philip,
the chamberlain of the emperor and guardian of the
castle of Trifels, which held the imperial ornaments.
As soon as his marriage was over, and the marriage
seems to have been nearly all that he did effect on the
visit, he returned to England, where he lived nearly
three years longer, chiefly at Berkhamstead. He died
about six months before his brother, Henry III., on
April 2, 1272, before he had had time to try whether
the newly elected pope would acquiesce in the abeyance
of the imperial authority, but not before he had heard
of the cruel murder of his son, Henry of Almain, by the
two sons of Simon de Montfort, which was perpetrated
at Viterbo on the occasion of the election of Pope
Gregory X.

IMPORTANT DATES

Death of Conrad IV., 1254.

Death of William of Holland, 1256.

Richard of Cornwall and Alfonso of Castile

elected emperors, 1256.
The Interregnum, 1256-1273.
Death of Conradin, 1268.
Death of Richard of Cornwall, 1272.

CHAPTER IV

The year 1272 — Political situation in Germany — The rise of new
families in Germany — The Princes — The Diet — Imperial elections
— The electors — Rudolf of Hapsburg — His election as emperor —
His reign — His relations with Burgundy and England.

The Importance of 1272. — The year 1272 forms the era
of an entirely new epoch of German history. We
may say that, during the twenty-two years which had
now passed since the death of Frederick II., the air
had been clearing ; the forces of the old system, as
it had existed from the days of Otto the First to
the fall of the Hohenstaufen, its families and parties,
had waned and died away ; the accession of a pope,
Gregory X., in September 1271, who was determined
to set things on a better footing, coincided with the
removal of that ostensible head of the kingdom whose
title had held good in default of any other being put
forward that was not manifestly absurd. The passing
away of the shadow of empire in the person of Richard
of Cornwall (April 1272), left the empire in a condition
in which it had not been since the time of Charles the
Great. Strictly elective as was the crown of the German
kingdom, and stricter still as was the electoral theory,
after the time that the imperial crown became per-
manently connected with it, we cannot fail to observe
that the claims of descent, and relationship to some one
of the imperial families, had been in nearly every case
regarded as a qualification second only to personal

fitness.

THE QUESTION OF THE SUCCESSION 61

The Question of the Succession. — Actually, though not
in theory perhaps, the plan of choosing the selection
of the late king who was fittest for the position,
whenever a direct heir was wanting, the custom
that was recognised in England under the Anglo-
Saxon kings, and which is traceable even on the
accession of John, had been acted upon. Conrad of
Franconia and Otto of Saxony, who competed for the
crown after the death of Lewis the Child, were both
connected, or had the reputation of being connected,
with the Karolings. The Saxon dynasty lasted for four
generations, the form of election being gone through
although son succeeded father. Henry II. succeeded
his cousin Otto as elect sovereign, and Conrad the Salic
succeeded Henry II. ; in both cases the title rested on
relationship as well as on the choice of the people.
From Conrad the Salic the crown descends down to
Henry V., hereditarily, and after the one break in the
person of Lothair II., it again reverts to the descendants
of Henry IV., in whom the representation continues
until the extinction of the Hohenstaufen.

With Conradin, in 1268, died also Frederick of Austria,
who was descended in the same way from Henry IV.,
and in whom ended likewise that great line of the
Babenberg dukes and margraves, whose feud with the
Franconian dukes is the first clear fact of post-Karo-
lingian history. The whole representation of the royal
house was extinct, and there remained not one person
in Germany itself who possessed anything like a here-
ditary recommendation. But not only so. There
remained not one great house of the rank which had
formerly furnished candidates for the kingdom. The
families of the great duchies of old were extinct or
dwindled down to insignificance. The great Welfic

62 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

house, which had once reigned from the Eyder to the
Po and the Tiber, were contented with the little princi-
pality that Frederick II. had created for it out of the
remains of its allodial property in Lower Saxony. The
Wittelsbachs in Bavaria dated but from the forfeiture
of Henry the Lion in 1180, the power of the house of
Brandenburg, and the ducal house of Saxony, dated from
the same. Swabia and Franconia, long in a state of
subdivision and confusion, lost even their titular head in
Conradin, and Austria was approaching the condition of
dismemberment among rival claimants. No German
prince aspired to the crown, or was even willing to take
it, when William of Holland, still less when Richard of
England, was elected. The old things had quite passed
away. Germany was no longer the aggregate of the five
nations, who had elected Henry the Fowler and the
Ottos ; and the central diet, with its rough division of
estates, and its mass of conflicting dignities, was a very
different, less imposing, but more practically intractable
body than the ancient councils of the nations.
•^ The Origin of the Nobility in Germany.— There was a
new system of nobility immensely more numerous than
the old, and it is necessary to get an idea how these new
families and new interests originated.

It is scarcely necessary to premise that they emerged
to power by the extinction and dismemberment of the
great duchies ; the question is, how came they to be
in such a position as to take advantage of those extinc-
tions ? There were three possible origins of nobility —
ancient allodial inheritance, the position of imperial
functionaries, and the erection of feudal territorial
jurisdictions. These three often, as in Saxony, com-
bined in one family or person; but, in all cases where
that was not so, there were always two classes of com-

ORIGIN OF THE NOBILITY IN GERMANY 63

petitors for any vacancy produced by the extinction of
the third. The five nations were originally governed by
dukes ; and under these dukes the whole country was
divided into gaus or shires, as we would call them, each
of which had its count. The office of duke was in theory
a military one ; that of count, or graf, a judicial one;
but not only did they very naturally become confounded,
but the offices, of course, fell so naturally to the most
powerful allodial owner in each division, that they
quickly became hereditary and feudal. They might
be feudally subject to the duke, or feudally dependent
on the King of Germany directly, or they might hold
lands and dignities, as was the case in England, by a
multitude of titles and tenures of different sorts. When,
then, a great duchy became extinct, there were always a
large number of counts ready to assert their independ-
ence, or to compete for the vacancy. When Swabia
and Franconia were extinguished, every little landowner,
who had held of the dukes before, became immediate,
and had all the privileges of a tenant in chief. But,
besides the great duchies, there were on the outskirts of
the kingdom a number of marks, or margraviates, only
inferior in size and dignity to duchies, and, in the
interstices between the duchies, the debatable ground
once occupied by little tribes not absorbed into the
duchies, were one or two landgraviates or provincial
countships, which in their turn rose with the fall of the
duchies. And in the third place, there was a sort of official
nobility, whose original business was to look after the
imperial interests in the duchies, and who bore the title
of Count Palatine. These Counts Palatine were often
established by the emperors, as a counterbalance to
the power of the hereditary dukes, and very naturally
stepped into the places left vacant by the extinction of

64 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

the ducal houses. Thus, in Bavaria, was the Count of
Scheyren, the lord of Wittelsbach and Palatine, who,
after the forfeiture of Henry the Lion, became Duke of
Bavaria. The Count Palatine of Saxony was the Land-
grave of Thuringia, then the Margrave of Meissen,
ultimately the dignity became attached to the dukedom
and electorate of Saxony in the house of Wettin.
So, on the extinction or absorption of Franconia, the
Count Palatine of Franconia succeeded to the place and
influence of the old duke ; and this was the only County
Palatine which, not sinking its honours in a superior
title, descended to the present century in that form, and
gave name to two extensive territories, the Upper and
Lower Palatinates.

The German Diet. — Out of these materials the German
diets of the new period were composed ; the bond of
union being a common interest rather than any cohesion
of organisation, and the old causes of division existing
still in their fullest extent. Swabian counts, for instance,
might be constantly warring against one another, but
they were not brought a whit nearer in feeling or interest
to Saxon or Bavarian counts, merely because the repre-
sentative integrity of the old nation was lost sight of.

Besides the princes, the diets contained the prelates
and the towns, the latter of which were by their repre-
sentatives just now acquiring the position, a sufficiently
humble one, with which they had to be content. The great
privilege, the highest dignity, both lay and ecclesiastical,
consisted of the right of voting for a king of Germany ;
a point which brings us up to the moment which we
are discussing.

The Imperial Elections. — The early kings were elected
by the assemblies of the nations, either conjointly or
separately, Bavaria, Saxony, Swabia, Franconia, and

THE IMPERIAL ELECTIONS 65

Lorraine. But where the hereditary principle had
been so largely admitted, and the sovereign was
allowed to nominate his successor before his death,
there was obviously a probability that the right of
voting would become vested in the persons of the
chiefs of the nations ; would become an honorary
privilege seldom used, and, when used under such
limitations, likely to be used without any very precise
or uniform show of legality. In the election that
followed the death of Henry V., the votes seem to
have been given by the dukes rather than by the
nations, and by the dukes, archbishops, and princes
without any very distinct idea as to the foundation of
the right of voting. They chose ten persons out of their
number, who, as in ecclesiastical elections, by compro-
mise, prastaxed or chose a king, whose election was
afterwards formally accepted. I suppose it will never
now be exactly determined how the number of electors
became restricted to seven, three spiritual and four
temporal, but the fact that it did, when so limited, vest
itself in the particular seven may have been owing to
their filling the several honorary offices of the imperial
household. The three archbishops were the arch-chan-
cellors, and the four lay electors were cupbearer, steward,
marshal, and chamberlain. These offices had been
attached to Bohemia, the County Palatine, Saxony, and
Brandenburg for a long period, although perhaps not
permanently so until the reign of Frederick Barbarossa,
A.D. 1 184. The lay electorates represent, we see, the
imperial jurisdiction in the Count Palatine, the feudal in
the King of Bohemia, the national in the Duke of Saxony,
and the margraviate element in Brandenburg. We miss
the ancient nations, Bavaria, Swabia, and Franconia, but

we must remember that the Palatine of the Rhine now

66 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

represented Franconia, and that, when the system re-
ceived its final form, Bavaria was held by the same
person, Lewis of Wittelsbach. These persons conducted
the election of Henry Raspe, William of Holland, and
Richard of Cornwall ; and although the first mention of
them as the seven electors is found in the documents
relating to the controversy between Richard and Alfonso,
the existence of a set of electors, who most probably
were these seven, is proved by the mention of the dignity
in the diploma by which Frederick Barbarossa founded
the duchy of Austria.

The Election of Rudolf of Hapsburg, 1273. — The

machinery, then, for an election fortunately existed,

having been tried in the three last nominations ; and

the extinction of the old houses, the duchies, and the

nations did not leave the kingdom at the mercy of the

popes. The throne was vacant for more than a year

before the new election. Richard died in April 1272,

and it was not until Michaelmas 1273 that the electors

met at Frankfort with the rest of the princes, at the

urgent pressure of Gregory X. The electors were

Werner, Archbishop of Mainz, Engelbert of Falkenburg,

Archbishop of Cologne, Henry of Winstingen, Archbishop

of Treves, Lewis of Wittelsbach, the Count Palatine,

Albert of Ballenstadt, Duke of Saxony, the Margrave of

Brandenburg, and Henry of Wittelsbach, brother of the

Count Palatine, and Duke of Bavaria, who voted instead

of Ottocar, King of Bohemia. There were no candidates

for the crown, unless we call Ottocar of Bohemia one ;

but, as no one voted for him, he may be left out. Count

Meinhard of Tyrol declared that the crown must fall on

either Bernhard of Carinthia, Albert of Goritz, his own

brother, or Rudolf of Hapsburg. No great prince was

willing to accept, as before. At length it was determined

THE FIRST HAPSBURG EMPEROR 67

that Lewis of Wittelsbach, the Count Palatine, should
make the election. He accepted the task, and on the
following day announced that his choice was Rudolf,
Count of Hapsburg. The King of Bohemia was of course
much disgusted ; the Archbishop of Mainz, Rudolf's
patron, proportionately delighted. Fortunately the elec-
toral number could be made up without King Ottocar,
and the election was formally transacted. On the 24th
of the same October he was crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle
King of the Romans.

The First Hapsburg Emperor. — There suddenly comes
on the stage — so suddenly that but for their subsequent
history, none would have cared perhaps to investigate
their former lot — that famous family which ever since
has occupied the first rank in Germany, and in Europe
generally, which has governed as wide a European
empire as Charles the Great, besides the new world of
America, and has gone nearer than any other in Christen-
dom to realise the idea of universal empire.

Rudolf was a noble adventurer, who, in a subordinate
capacity, had taken part in all the wars of Germany since
Frederick's time. He was heir of the county of Haps-
burg in the Aargau ; the ruins of his paternal castle lie
on the right as you go from Olten to Zurich, about half-
way. By his marriage with Gertrude of Hohenberg, he
obtained a great estate in addition to his hereditary
claims, in Alsace, and partly by war, partly by inheritance,
increased his paternal domain.

In the war that followed the death of Frederick, Rudolf
had ranged himself on the side of Conrad, and in that
connection had risen to the office of Marshal of the
Court to Ottocar, King of Bohemia. From Bohemia he
had come back to Alsace, and had been elected general
of the Strassburgers in their war against their bishops

68 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

from 1261-1269. He afterwards filled the same office in
connection with the town of Zurich, at the head of whose
citizens he humbled and defeated the proud Count of
Regensberg. Later we find him leading one of the
factions of the city of Basel against the bishop of that
place, and it was whilst besieging Basel, then in the
hands of the bishop's party, that he was elected King of
the Romans. Curiously enough, the person who brought
him the diploma of election was Frederick of Zollern,
burgrave of Nuremberg, the first famous ancestor of the
kings of Prussia ; thus at the same moment spring into
light the two great families whose parties, religious
principles, and alliances were so many ages after, and
for so many ages, to divide Germany, and indeed
Europe between them. Rudolf's acquaintance with
Archbishop Werner of Mainz is said to have begun
when the latter was once travelling through Switzerland
to Rome, and was entertained on the way and guided
through the horrors of the mountains by Rudolf. The
jest, which is said to have passed at the election, that
Rudolf had six daughters to give away in marriage
among those princes who wanted to rise to fortune, is
curious, compared with what was the actual so well
known fortune of his house. The Hapsburgs, in every
case, gained by marriage, instead of laying the founda-
tion of new families by bestowing their daughters. The
first example was the acquisition of the Alsatian estates
of Hohenburg, the marriage of Rudolf himself. But of
this hereafter.

Rudolfs Character. — Rudolf was not of the highest
type of a deliverer, but he was a good king, and a man
could be in those days hardly a good king who did
not manage to keep on fair terms with the pope.
He was also a prudent man, bent on exacting and

AN EPOCH IN GERMAN HISTORY 69

increasing the influence of the family which he was
founding, and this is a policy which constitutes the
entire religion, principle, and political programme during
the whole period of its growth. Rudolf did consent to
make concessions to the pope in Italy, which strengthened
his own position in Germany. The antecedents of
Rudolf were not such as make a man a hero, who has
not been born one : the empire which he governed he
found at the very depth of dismemberment and dis-
organisation. The empire he founded was not one of
the highest order of empires, but it was a fairly safe one,
and had the merit of living much longer than any that
had preceded it. The principle that he represented, the
cordial union of the imperial and papal interests, was
one which had not been successfully tried before. It had
been attempted by the Saxon emperors, who had both to
reform and to protect the papacy, and the Saxon interest
— that is, the North German — had been ever since dis-
tinctly papal. But the South German dynasties, the Fran-
conian and the Swabian, whose personal interests brought
them nearer Italy and Rome, had never been able to
keep on even peaceful terms with the popes, the North
German alliance of the latter acting rather as a dividing
than as a consolidating force. But the house of Austria
ruling, either by possession or by influence, the whole
of South Germany, has almost always — always in fact,
until the accession of Charles V. brought up again the
old Neapolitan difficulty that had been fatal to the
Hohenstaufens — continued to be hand and glove with
Rome.

His Accession an Epoch in German History. — More
important, perhaps — at all events in view of the life
of the German people — is the fact that from this
time we seem to start a principle the reverse of that

70 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

which has hitherto guided us. Up to this time we have
to keep our attention fixed on the disintegration of
Germany — both the internal causes of disruption and
the external forces of divulsion. Henceforth we have to
watch the process of aggregation, the uniting of estates
and consolidation by external agencies : a process ex-
emplified on the largest scale by Austria and Prussia,
but not the less going on in most of the other princi-
palities, and destined to marshal a consolidated North
and South against one another.

One of Rudolf's first acts after his coronation was to
bestow three of his six daughters on the three lay
electors who had supported him, Lewis the Count
Palatine, Albert of Saxony, and Otto of Brandenburg.
The other three .afterwards married to the consolida-
tion of the family interest. The next step was to obtain
papal recognition. Gregory X. held in 1274 the Council
of Lyons. To this Alfonso of Castile and Ottocar of
Bohemia both sent ambassadors to ask for the empire.
The pope, who had perhaps some occult share in the
election of Rudolf, only held back until he had made
his terms. Rudolf surrendered to him the Romagna,
the exarchate, the inheritance of the Countess Matilda,
and much else, all in fact that the pope required, to
be held in full sovereignty, together with the suzerainty
of Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica. The voice of history
calls this inglorious and mercenary ; I think that Rudolf
was, as a German prince, wise to keep clear of Italy at
any cost. The bargain being concluded, Gregory came
as far as Lausanne to meet the king, and there bestowed
his benediction on the 18th of October 1275. Rudolf
then undertook to go to Rome to be crowned emperor,
after which he was to conduct a crusade to Palestine.
Neither of these promises were ever fulfilled ; and

RUDOLF AND OTTOCAR OF BOHEMIA 71

Gregory X., who was a sincere sort of pope, having
complained to Rudolf of his broken faith, proceeded
so far as to excommunicate him ; and left him, it is
said, excommunicated at his own death in 1276.

Rudolf and Ottocar of Bohemia. — Rudolf preferred,
however, negotiating to fighting or visiting Italy, and
in 1278 he obtained absolution from Nicolas III. by the
gift of the city of Bologna and its appurtenances. The
negotiations on this point are tedious, and concern
Germany but little. The greatest war which Rudolf
engaged in, after his succession, was that with his
old enemy, Ottocar of Bohemia, which ended in his
acquiring for his family the whole of the duchy
of Austria. Austria had lost its last duke in the direct
line of the Babenberg house in 1246, Frederick the
Warlike, the old enemy and afterwards the last
left friend of Frederick II. His inheritance, or the
claim to it, devolved on his niece Gertrude. Her hus-
band Uladislas, Margrave of Moravia, succeeded, in
despite of the emperor and several rival claimants, in
getting possession of the duchy, but died without issue
the next year ; and Gertrude conveyed her claims to
her second husband, Hermann of Baden, by whom she
was the mother of Duke Frederick, who perished with
Conradin at Naples in 1268. Hermann received the
investiture of the duchy from William of Holland, and
maintained himself in possession for three years, when
Gertrude was left again a widow.

Her third husband, a Russian prince named Romanus,
failed to make good his claims, and from that time
the duchy fell a prey to rival competitors, the most
formidable of whom were Ottocar, Margrave of Mor-
avia, son of Wenzel, King of Bohemia, and the Duke
of Bavaria. Ottocar strengthened the claim which he

72 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

had originally by the offer of the estates of Austria
themselves, by marrying a sister of Frederick the War-
like, Margaret, widow of Henry, the unfortunate King
of the Romans, son of Frederick II. He divorced her
in 1261. He got possession of the duchy of Austria
about 1252, Styria falling to the Duke of Bavaria. To
Moravia and Austria, Ottocar added in 1253 by inherit-
ance the kingdom of Bohemia, and in 1269 Carinthia,
by a treaty of succession with Ulric, the last duke,
excluding his brother Philip. This made him the most
powerful prince in Germany, and, in conjunction with
his overbearing and quarrelsome disposition, prevented
him from obtaining the great object of his ambition,
the imperial crown. He was no mean antagonist for
King Rudolf, who as yet had little more to depend on
than his own estates in Switzerland and Alsace. Ottocar
refused to recognise Rudolf as king, and Rudolf deter-
mined to listen to the complaints which poured into
his court from the Austrians against their duke, and
against the Duke Henry of Bavaria, who had now taken
part with his aggressive neighbour.

After long negotiations, persuasions, and threats,
Rudolf succeeded in detaching Duke Henry from the
alliance, though not before both he and Ottocar had
been declared enemies of the empire in a diet at
Augsburg. Rudolf's task was not an easy one ; he had,
before he could undertake a war of any importance, to
put down the robber counts of Swabia, with whom he
had formerly mixed on terms of equality. This occupied
him all 1275 ; he then reconciled the Duke of Bavaria
by a marriage of his son with another daughter of his
own, and at last, in 1276, invaded Austria, and besieged
Vienna. The armies met with purpose of battle, but,
before a blow was struck, Ottocar, sensible that his

THE DUCHY OF ALEMANNIA 73

conduct had surrounded him with treason, submitted
to Rudolf, and surrendered to him Austria, Styria,
Carniola, and Carinthia, consenting to hold Bohemia
and Moravia as fiefs of the empire (November 1276).
The arrangement was to be strengthened by a double
marriage ; but Ottocar did not keep faith. Rudolf con-
tinued in Austria, strengthening his personal interest
there, and galling the pride of Ottocar.

In 1278 Ottocar renewed the war, and in a battle,
fought on the Marchfeld before Vienna on August 26,
Rudolf was completely victorious. Ottocar perished in
the fight, leaving as his representative a child of twelve
years old, named Wenzel. The great enemy was thus got
rid of, and peace so far as he was concerned was secured ;
but there remained the distribution of the spoils, and the
fulfilment of Rudolf's most necessary policy, the en-
grossing of the largest portion of them in his own family.

The Duchy of Alemannia. — Before proceeding to say
how this was determined, it is necessary to look back
on the former history of the states which come into
great prominence for the first time in German history
in connection with the house of Hapsburg. The two
southern nations of Germany were the Alemanni and
the Bavarians — the Alemanni reaching from the Rhine
and Burgundy to the river Lech, and the Bavarians
from the Lech to Hungary.

The duchy of Alemannia, sometimes a kingdom, and
sometimes divided into two large portions, had less
coherence than any of the German duchies, and was
subject after the Karoling times to more changes of
dynasty. The mountains and lakes of Switzerland
were an obstacle to its being ever well compacted, and
much more so was the independent spirit of the inhabi-
tants. Nor were the limits between Alemannia and the

74 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

Burgundian kingdom, that fell into the empire under
Conrad the Salic, very well denned. The difficulties of
government ended, however, as far as eastern Alemannia
was concerned, by the erection of Swabia into a distinct
duchy. This was created by Henry IV. in favour of his
son-in-law, Frederick I. of Hohenstaufen, father of the
Emperor Conrad. This line of dukes of Swabia ended in
Conradin. About the same time the rest of Alemannia,
including Switzerland, was placed under Berthold of
Zahringen, whose family, called dukes of Zahringen,
became extinct in 1218, having acquired large portion
of Burgundy and neighbouring lands. Another part
or subdivision was the landgraviate of Alsace, which
devolved on Rudolf of Hapsburg in his early days.
The margraves of Baden succeeded to a good deal
of the possessions of Zahringen, but Frederick II.
added more of them to the imperial domain, and they
shared the dismemberment of Swabia, whilst some of
them fell to the Hapsburgs.

Bavaria. — Bavaria remained in its integrity from the
beginning of the empire to the middle of the twelfth
century, when the eastern portion of it was attached to
the old margraviate of Austria, and a new duchy created
for Henry Jochsamergott, uterine brother of Conrad of
Franconia, in 1142. It was his line that came to an end
in Frederick of Baden. But a further dismemberment
took place in 1180, when, in the general subdivision of
the estates of Henry the Lion, the county of Tyrol was
cut off, and with divers other scattered estates erected
into a duchy for the Count of Andsechs, another
Berthold, now called Duke of Merania, and best known,
probably, as the father of the unfortunate Agnes of
Meran, the wife of Philip Augustus. The line of the
dukes of Merania became extinct in 1248. Thus,

DIET AT AUGSBURG, 1282 75

together with the extinction of the house of Hohen-
staufen, coincided the escheating of two very consider-
able duchies. But farther east, and never completely
united with either Bavaria or Austria, was Carinthia,
also a duchy, for sometime governed by the descendants
of the ancient kings of Bavaria. The dukes of Carinthia,
who were also margraves of Verona and Istria, sprang
from the counts of Eppenstein, established there by
Conrad II. in 1027, and these also ended shortly before
the election of Rudolf ; Ottocar of Moravia and Bohemia
securing to himself the inheritance.

The forfeiture of Ottocar left then these estates open
to subdivision, and a large portion of the inheritance of
Zahringen and Merania, whose present possessors had
but little right to the tenure, might be reapportioned at
the same time. Rudolf was in no hurry to do this ;
indeed, it was not completed until five years after the
death of Ottocar; two of which years were spent by
the king in travelling up and down Germany making
peace, putting down the robber counts and knights, and
earning the title under which he was hailed by the
Germans with the truly royal title of Lex Animata.

Diet at Augsburg, 1282. — At Christmas 1282, at a diet at
Augsburg, he proceeded to divide the escheats. This he
did with the consent, very grudgingly granted, of the
electors who had served him well against Ottocar. To
Albert and Rudolf, his two remaining sons, he gave
Austria, Styria, and Carniola ; to Meinhard, Count of
Goritz, who had Tyrol, he gave Carinthia, giving the
palatinate of Carinthia to his brother Albert. Rudolf he
also made Landgrave of Alsace, and, according to some
writers, the duchy of Swabia. He also confirmed the
landgraviate of Thuringia to the Margrave of Meissen,
and bestowed many smaller fiefs on those whom, having

76 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

unauthorised possession, he wished to attach to himself
by the confirmation of their tenure. This settlement of
Germany is well worth observation, as the greatest
readjustment which had taken place for a century.
Amongst other acts he separated the palatinate of
Saxony from the landgraviate of Thuringia, when he
gave the latter to the Margrave of Meissen, bestowing
it on his son-in-law, Duke Albert of Saxony, who thus
reunited the imperial and feudal titles to jurisdiction in
Saxony, which had been divided since 1180.

Rudolf's Relations with England. — The quarrel with
Gregory X., the war with Ottocar, and the redivision
of South Germany are the three most important and
interesting events of the reign of Rudolf. One other
point which is of some interest is — his relations with
England. Edward I. of England, nephew to Richard,
King of the Romans, and brother-in-law to Alfonso
the Wise, his competitor, who also bore the title, was
one of those princes who looked rather shyly at
the adventurer Rudolf, who had undertaken the
task of reconstructing the empire. He calls him in
his early years by no more dignified title than that
of a certain Count of Alemannia. But, before he
had been long on the throne, he thought better of
it, and, even before the final peace of Rudolf with the
pope, negotiations were begun for the marriage of one
of Edward's daughters with Hartmann, Rudolf's son,
who, according to the agreement made, was to inherit
Alsace and the Swiss possessions of his family, and to
have the kingdom of Burgundy revived in his person.
The kingdom of Burgundy, to which Provence and
Aries still nominally belonged, was being rapidly
alienated from the empire by the constant aggressions
of France. Edward had a fellow-feeling that Aquitaine,

THE CLOSE OF RUDOLF'S REIGN 77

which in former years had extended so nearly to the
Burgundian frontier, was rapidly going the same way,
and both monarchs probably considered that the erec-
tion of a compact little kingdom would be a greater
contribution to the peace of Europe than the constant
maintenance of a weak hold on the extreme border
provinces of either house. The negotiations hung fire ;
Hartmann was to become king of the Romans as soon
as his father became emperor ; but constant delays
were interposed, and the whole thing came to an end
by the death of Hartmann, who was drowned in the
Rhine in 1281 ; but very close relations subsisted
between the two kings, who, as judges and peace-
makers, as well as aggressors, had a good deal in
common, down to the death of Rudolf.

The Close of Rudolfs Reign. — The reign of Rudolf
after the year 1282 contains little besides the pacification
of feuds which had long prevailed, and indeed prevailed
long after his hand was withdrawn. In North Germany
his influence was very slightly felt, notwithstanding his
sincere and laborious efforts to do his duty. Amongst
matters of local importance we can detect one or two
of constitutional significance.

In 1286 he brought the wild Count Eberhard of
Wiirtemburg to submission, and attempted to secure
order in Swabia by fortifying and confirming the privi-
leges of the imperial cities. In 1287 he issued a docu-
ment in German, called a recess, published in a diet
at Wurzburg, and proclaiming peace for three years.
This is one of the earliest existing public acts in the
German language, and on it probably is founded the
tradition that Rudolf introduced the vernacular language
as the legal language of Germany. The tradition seems
untrue, but it affords another point in which German

78 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

and English growth may be compared. In 1290 Rudolf
determined the quarrel between the King of Bohemia
and the two branches of the Bavarian Government as
to the electoral vote. He decided that the dukes of
Bavaria and the County Palatine had but one vote
between them, and that the seventh vote in the electoral
college belonged to Bohemia.

Another set of incidents relates to the old kingdom
of Burgundy, which he was anxious to recover for the
empire if not for his own family. In this attempt he
had little more than legal success. The hand of France
was too tight on Provence and Dauphine ; and even
the free county of Burgundy, which had been held
by Frederick Barbarossa, and since his time by the
descendants of his grand-daughter Beatrice, daughter
of Otto of Hohenstaufen, was gradually becoming
French. In order to augment his influence in that
quarter Rudolf married, in his old age, a Burgundian
princess of fourteen. But neither fighting nor marrying
effected more than the retaining the nominal allegiance
of the county during his life. And the same was allowed
both in Provence and Dauphine, whose rulers received
investiture at his hands. His own family interest lay
in that direction, and neither Philip III. nor Philip IV.
was anxious to break with him. Putting aside, then,
the Italian transactions, in which Rudolf very wisely
intermeddled but slightly, leaving the popes to exe-
cute their own policy, the reign of Rudolf contains
little that is obscure, although what it does contain
cannot be said to be of the highest interest. To the
Austrian partisan Rudolf is a hero, almost a demigod.
To the Prussian, or extreme Protestant, he is a wretched
tool of the papacy, a mere avaricious, unscrupulous
adventurer, above all, the founder of the house of Haps-

THE CLOSE OF RUDOLF'S REIGN 79

burg. In reality he seems a fairly good king, anxious
for the safety and wealth of his house as kings are for
the most part, a just man and a peacemaker, and an
especially good manager to maintain friendly relations
with both pope and Germany ; but he could not undo
the result of half a century of anarchy. He was dis-
appointed in 1290, in the Frankfort diet, in getting his
son Albert1 elected as his successor, and died soon
after, July 15, 1291, at Germersheim. He is buried at
Spires with the Franconian kings.

1 They said the land was too poor to maintain two kings.

IMPORTANT DATES

Rudolf of Hapsburg, 1273-1291.

Wars against Ottocar of Bohemia, 1277-1278.

Diet of Augsburg, 1282.

War with Burgundy, 1288-1289.

League of the Swiss Cantons, 1291.

CHAPTER V

Rudolf's immediate successors — Adolf — His relations with England —
Loss of Burgundy — Albert of Hapsburg — His relations with
Bohemia, Hungary, and Switzerland — His character — Accession
of Henry VII. — Attitude towards the Papacy — The Templars —
His expedition to Italy — His death, 131 3.

The Succession. — Three short reigns, but not unimportant,
follow the epoch-making one of Rudolf of Hapsburg.
In discussing them we can take up by the way one or
two important questions which they introduce us to ;
they are those of Adolf of Nassau, Albert of Austria,
and Henry of Luxemburg. Rudolf, notwithstanding the
strength of the position that he had created for himself
and for his family in South Germany, notwithstanding
the prudent marriages of his daughters and his own wise
and prudent management of the ecclesiastical interest,
had failed to induce the electors to choose his son
Albert as partner or successor to himself in the German
kingdom. In this he paid the penalty of his own caution
in respect to the imperial crown ; for, had he ever been
crowned, and a real vacancy occurred in the place of
the King of the Romans, the reluctance of the electors
to appoint one would have been overcome, and then
Rudolf might have been strong enough to secure Albert's
election. But as it was, the ready excuse was that there
was no real vacancy, and the character of Albert for
cruelty and unscrupulousness was so well known that
the princes were glad of any pretext for refusing him.

Rudolf's death left the throne without even an inchoate

ACCESSION OF ADOLF, 1292 81

claim upon the succession (July 15, 1291). Albert was,

of course, the most prominent candidate, but anything

like a unanimous election was not to be hoped for.

Wenzel IV., King of Bohemia, son of Ottocar (reigns

1278 to 1305), was his rival, and, being himself an elector,

had, of course, an initial advantage. If either Albert or

Wenzel were chosen the result would have been a war

of extermination between Austria and Bohemia, and this

the other electors probably felt. After nine months of

intrigue, during which Albert was fully persuaded that

he should be the winner, the electors met at Frankfort ;

and, to the astonishment of the world, their choice fell

on Adolf, Count of Nassau, a member, as Rudolf had

been, of a house which had not yet attained princely

rank, but, what was more efficacious, a near relation of

Gerard of Eppstein, Archbishop of Mainz, the most able

and crafty of the ecclesiastical electors. As the election

in this case is said to have been unanimous, it is obvious

that it must have been a compromise ; according to one

account there were four votes against two, and as we

know, from documentary evidence, that the Elector of

Saxony had promised his vote to Wenzel, it is probable

that Adolf was brought forward, on the withdrawal of

Albert and Wenzel, in despair of a unanimous election.

He was elected May 1, 1292, at Frankfort; and crowned

on June 24 at Aix-la-Chapelle.

Accession of Adolf, 1292. — Adolf was a young and

gallant prince, but very poor, and hampered, from the

very beginning of his reign, with the obligations he

had incurred in securing his position. Before he was

crowned he had to pledge his castle of Cobern for 2000

marks to pay the expenses of his election, and to pledge

a portion of the imperial domain to Wenzel as a security

for the marriage-settlement of his daughter, Guta, who

82 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

was to marry Rupert, Wenzel's son, and to cement a
family alliance against the Hapsburgs. The choice of
so insignificant a person is a proof of the strong feeling
of the princes against an hereditary dynasty, that curi-
ous feeling which we have seen so often unreasonably
displayed at an earlier period, however seldom it suc-
ceeded in preventing the odious measure from being
taken ; but against which Frederick Barbarossa and
Henry IV. seemed to strive in vain, and for which the
best vindication was the misery that had befallen Ger-
many from the hereditary policy of the Hohenstaufen.
Notwithstanding this, the terms on which Adolf secured
his election were sufficiently stringent, and seem little
else than an actual purchase of the sovereign title ; a
purchase more absurd than that of Richard of Cornwall,
who, at least, had the money to pay, and was not forced
to submit to any degrading conditions. Of Adolf it
may \be said that his ambition was from the beginning
certain ruin to him ; the obligations he entered into with
the ecclesiastical princes, especially the Archbishop of
Mainz, were sufficient to make him their slave ; want of
money compelled him to serve as a mercenary in the
wars of Edward of England ; want of money compelled
him to acquiesce in the sale of large portion of imperial
Burgundy to France, and want of money placed him
in the position of complete subserviency to the pope.
Much of this was foreseen as early as his coronation,
which took place at Aix-la-Chapelle on Midsummer Day
1292. He lived six years after, and his career was
one distinctly of labour and sorrow. He was, as the
creature of the ecclesiastical electors, immediately
dubbed the Pfaffenkanig ; and, by way of confirmation
of the popular opinion, may be adduced the fact that,
by his initial bargain with the Archbishop of Mainz, he

RELATIONS WITH ENGLAND AND FRANCE 83

gave up or renounced the power of intermeddling with
ecclesiastical suits, and confirmed to the archbishop and
clergy all their immunities, secular and spiritual; and he
further bound himself as surety for Archbishop Gerard
to the pope in a sum which he failed to pay, and which
rendered him liable at every moment to the papal
dictation.

Adolf's Relations with England and France. — Adolf
makes hardly any figure in the politics of Europe :
such mention of him as there is, is chiefly in connec-
tion with the wars of Philip the Fair and Edward I.
It would have been his interest to have made an
alliance with his nearest neighbour ; but as he was
without money and without prudence he chose to
make France his enemy. Having made a treaty with
Edward in 1294 by which he received 30,000 marks for
the maintenance of his forces, he was emboldened to
throw himself into a French war. Albert of Austria then
immediately declared for the French. But, as the war
was carried on very slowly both by Edward and Adolf,
the year 1297 was reached without much bloodshed.

Adolf spent his money in the purchase of Thuringia,
on the possession of which he intended to found a family.
As it happened, peace was made between England and
France in 1298, before Adolf had had time to strike
a blow for his wages, and his fall followed too quickly
after this to allow Edward to call him to account. The
fact of his having served as a mercenary under Edward
of England was made a source of complaint against him
by the German princes. In the circumstances in which
they were this goes for little, as they were anxious to use
any pretext to get rid of him ; but it is worth noticing as
an instance of the animus of the ancient German people
with respect to England, which is throughout much of

84 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

their history more easily traced than accounted for ;
and which both then and later, down to a comparatively
modern period, was returned with interest from our side.
This feeling of dislike, and even contempt, is traceable
in the German accounts of Richard I., John and Henry
III., and we now see it exemplified in the case of
Edward I. It was very different from the earlier feeling
that subsisted between North Germany and England,
and had shown itself in mutual good offices and many
close alliances. I have sometimes thought that it might
be traced to the connection of the Welfs in Germany
with Henry II. and his sons, and that we had shared the
odium into which, after the triumph of Frederick II.
over Otto, the Welfic party had fallen, the feeling long
surviving the occasion that had called it forth. But I
am not very sure of this, and it would not account for
the corresponding feeling in England. English influ-
ence was, however, generally rated at a money value ;
and the money of our kings had been poured lavishly
into Germany. With the money paid for the ransom of
Richard I., Henry VI. furnished his Italian expeditions,
and Leopold of Austria built the walls of Vienna ; Eng-
lish money had maintained Richard of Cornwall and
his court and laid the foundations of the fortunes of
many a noble house : now English money purchased
Thuringia for Adolf of Nassau, and at the same time
accelerated his disgrace.

Another point, and it is also the practical result of
Adolf's attitude towards France and England, was the
loss of the imperial hold on the old kingdom of Aries,
Burgundy, or Provence, which I mentioned before.
After leading an army as far as Besancon to reclaim
the kingdom, and with it the crown of thorns, the heir-
loom of the royalty of Burgundy, preparatory to taking

ELECTION OF ALBERT OF AUSTRIA, 1297 85

any action, Adolf sent a letter of defiance or challenge
to Philip the Fair, as Frederick Barbarossa had done to
Saladin. Philip, however, was more than a match for
poor Adolf, and, although no great battle was fought in
the war, the Germans had the worst of it ; and the next
year Count Otto made over the county of Burgundy, in
fact and right, to King Philip for the sum of 100,000
livres, for the marriage of his daughter Jeanne with
Philip the Long, son of Philip IV., afterwards Philip V.
The Burgundians strongly objected to being sold as
sheep, but in vain. Adolf could not help them, and
Albert, his successor, could not. The county was
separated from the imperial jurisdiction from this time
to the reign of Lewis XL, when it became a bone of
contention again among the estates of Charles the Bold.

The Purchase of Thuringia. — The only remaining
act of importance in Adolf's reign is the purchase
of Thuringia, which he bought of Albert the land-
grave, who had disinherited his sons out of hatred
for their mother. Adolf, attempting to take possession
of his ill-gotten bargain, involved himself in a war
of four years' duration, in which he obtained no
lasting advantage, and gained a sad name as a cruel
devastator of the country that he was sworn to protect.
In all these transactions he showed no good quality
except personal bravery, and this amounted to rashness.
The contempt into which he had fallen would, however,
have scarcely been enough to secure his deposition had
he not been watched by a most able and crafty enemy,
Albert of Austria. And thus the end came about.

Election of Albert of Austria, 1297. — At Whitsuntide
1297 Gerard of Mainz, Albert of Austria, and the
electors of Saxony and Brandenburg met at Prague
at the coronation of King Wenzel, and arranged a

86 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

conspiracy against the King of the Romans. The
execution of this was impeded by the rapid action of
Adolf, whose army besieged the archbishop, and pre-
vented him from executing the plan at the moment.
Emissaries were sent to Pope Boniface VIII. to persuade
him to assent to the deposition of Adolf, and when this
failed, for Boniface was faithful to the Pfaffenkonig, a
second convention was held at Vienna early in 1298.
In conformity with an arrangement then made, the
princes summoned a diet at Frankfort for May 1, to
which both Adolf and Albert, to whom they had
already offered the crown, were summoned. This was
followed by a court at Mainz on June 23, in which
Adolf was deposed and Albert elected. The charges
against him were general incapacity and uselessness,
the destruction of churches, the corruption of virgins,
the serving the King of England for pay, and the cruelties
exercised in Thuringia and Meissen. The accusation was
made and the sentence pronounced by the electors of
Mainz, Saxony, and Brandenburg, both parties claiming,
it would seem, the protection and authority of the pope
and the consent of the other electors. At the same time
they promulgated the election of Albert.

Adolf was not, however, left without promises of sup-
port ; the Count Palatine and the Archbishop of Treves
were faithful, and the Bavarian dukes, with the imperial
cities, united by fear of Albert's aggressions, were at
least not hostile to him. But Adolf was in too great
a hurry to fight ; ten days after the deposition (July 2,
1298) he met his enemy in force at Gellenheim, near
Worms, received his first wound, it was said, from
Albert himself, and afterwards perished in the melee.
He was ultimately buried at Speyer. I can mention
no important constitutional act of his except the con-

ALBERT'S RE-ELECTION, 1298 87

firmation of Rudolf's decision as to the seventh
electorate. He was, perhaps, the least regarded and
the least important, although not the most insignifi-
cant personally, of the whole long line of German
kings.

Albert's Re-election, 1298. — Albert of Hapsburg now
saw himself at the summit of ambition, for which both
he and his father had struggled. There was now no
competitor ; the influences that had been adverse to him
six years before, Gerard (1288 to 1306), the Archbishop
of Mainz, and King Wenzel, were partners in his con-
spiracy and success. No time was lost. The electors
met at Frankfort on July 27, 1298, less than a month after
the death of Adolf ; and Albert, having then renounced
the election which had been made at Mainz in June,
was re-elected unanimously, and a month after crowned
by the Archbishop of Cologne at Aix-la-Chapelle. But
the papal recognition was not granted. Boniface VIII.
was not likely to confirm the election of one who, in his
eyes, was a rebel, a conspirator, and a murderer, and
who, moreover, had married a wife connected even
remotely with the Hohenstaufen, and half-sister, by the
mother, to Conradin. But he went further than refus-
ing confirmation. He excommunicated the king elect ;
took to himself the title of vicar-general of the empire,
and received the ambassadors of Albert, girt with a
sword, and crowned with the crown of Constantine.
" I am the Emperor " was the answer he returned to
them ; and he did not cease to urge the electors to
proceed to a purer and more regular election, until
the year 1303, when, having quarrelled with Philip the
Fair, and found himself in need of a powerful friend,
he turned round, recognised, absolved, and confirmed
his former enemy.

88 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

The history of Albert's transactions with Philip and
the pope constitutes his contribution to the general
politics of Europe ; his acts in Austria proper, Hun-
gary, and Bohemia are those which have decided his
place in German history ; but the fact is that it was
his mismanagement of his family and imperial interest
among the mountains and lakes of Alemannia, which
was the occasion of Swiss independence, and of so
much, both in politics and religion, that has resulted
from the attitude then taken up by the Forest Cantons,
that gives him his place, a very unenviable one, in the
history of the world.

These branches of Albert's personal history succeed
one another in point of time, and in this way we will
look at them.

Albert and Philip the Fair. — I. Albert, as Duke of
Austria, had declared himself on the side of France,
when King Adolf was serving, or placing himself
in condition to serve, as a mercenary of Edward
of England. Now Philip the Fair was beginning
his political struggle with Boniface VIII., and the
opposition, shown and proved by that pope to Albert,
had the effect of drawing together these two worthies,
the two most unscrupulous persons who ever, I
imagine, reigned contemporaneously in Europe. The
rapproche?nent, as usual, took the form of a matrimonial
alliance ; Blanche, the daughter of Philip the Fair, was
betrothed to Rudolf, the son of Albert. The fathers met
and arranged the match at Vaucouleurs in Lorraine,
and, at the same time, determined the limit of their
respective countries on the Meuse. The same year
Albert quarrelled with the ecclesiastical electors, and
withdrew from them their mercantile dues on the
Rhine, cutting off thereby a considerable part of their

ALBERT AND BOHEMIA 89

revenues. Rudolf the Count Palatine, as imperial judge,
took part with them, and thus reconstituted the old
party that had adhered to Adolf ; but Albert, adopting
the traditional policy of the emperors, marshalled the
free towns against them, and compelled submission. He
exercised, in fact, the imperial rights more fully than his
father had done throughout North Germany, although
he was foiled in an attempt to get possession of the
county of Holland as an imperial escheat. This year,
1300, witnessed the widening of the quarrel between
Philip and Boniface, and, although Albert and the pope
were not yet drawn together, Albert and Philip were
somewhat drawn asunder. For a part of the new
policy of the pope in Italy was the bestowal of Naples
on Charles of Valois, brother of Philip, and he did not
limit his promises to this ; if Charles were able to expel
the hated house of Aragon he might look for the
imperial crown, now refused to the excommunicated
Albert, possibly that of Constantinople also, or at least
the titular one, to which his wife, a Courtenay, had
some sort of claim. The introduction of Charles into
Italy only served, however, to make the pope still more
unpopular than before, and it is needless to say that it
had no result in Germany. When Philip and Boniface
sank all their small quarrels in the great one of 1303,
Boniface soon reconciled himself with Albert, and
thenceforth they were friends during the few months
the pope lived.

Albert a?zd Bohemia. — II. It was in 1302 that the
quarrel with Bohemia began in earnest ; Albert had
of course never forgiven King Wenzel for the share
he had taken against him in the election of 1292,
or given up the hope of adding both Bohemia and
Hungary to his Austrian estates. The line of St.

90 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

Stephen of Hungary expired in 1302, in Albert's
son-in-law Andrew ; and, much as he would have
liked to keep Hungary for himself, rather than see
it added to Bohemia, as it was likely to be, Albert
agreed with the pope to force the Neapolitan Carobert
on the people who had offered the crown to King
Wenzel and his son of the same name. The league
between pope and kaiser was successful ; the Wenzels
were driven out of Hungary ; the father died in 1305
and the son in 1306. Albert attempted to place his
eldest son Rudolf on the throne, but he died without
issue in 1307 ; and the rival competitor, Henry of
Carinthia, was allowed to succeed to Bohemia on
condition of settling the succession on the house of
Austria, Hungary being given up to Carobert. The
bearing of the episode on Albert's proceedings is
chiefly the increase of infamy which he acquired by
his cruelty in both Bohemia and Hungary, an infamy
which his administration in Austria, from the early
days when he acted as his father's heir-tenant, had
earned for him, probably with justice. His war with
Bohemia was succeeded by one in Thuringia, where
he took up the cause of the cities against the land-
grave, Frederick with the Bitten Cheek. Happily in
this he was beaten, and before he was able to execute
his ordinary savage vengeance there he died.

Albert and Switzerland. — III. The war for the emanci-
pation of Switzerland began in 1307. I have mentioned
several times already the relations of this territory with
the house of Hapsburg : lying between Burgundy and
Swabia, the mountain country had, until the extinction of
the house of Zahringen, rejoiced in a succession of wise
princes who have sought to perpetuate order and to in-
crease civilisation by the foundation of city communities.

ALBERT AND SWITZERLAND 91

On the extinction of the house of Zahringen, and the
subsequent break up of Swabian unity, the mountain
country, like the plain country, broke into divers
communities ; the little counts became almost indepen-
dent rulers ; the bishops the same ; the imperial cities
cultivated the spirit of independence ; and the country
districts, where there were few counts and no cities,
retained the organisation, almost republican and very
free, which they had inherited from the early Teutonic
institutions, and had enjoyed to the full under the
dukes of Zahringen. Rudolf of Hapsburg had made
it one step towards the attainment of his exalted
position, to fight the battles of the imperial towns
against their oppressors ; and the country districts
also had hailed him as their advocatus or landvogt, a
powerful protector against the aggressions of the neigh-
bouring counts. He himself was Landgrave of Alsace
and Count of Hapsburg ; and his grandfather had held
the office of Landvogt of Uri, Schweitz, and Unterwalden.
About 1240 these cantons had shaken off the authority
of the landvogt ; but about 1257, in order to secure the
protection of Rudolf, they had voluntarily placed them-
selves under him. The office of landvogt involved the
fulfilment of the duty of jurisdiction and protection, but
not more : he was an imperial officer answering in some
measure to an English high sheriff, with a tendency, of
course, to become hereditary, and to extend his lawful
powers to unlawful practices. After Rudolf became
King of the Romans, his relations with the cantons
became much less friendly than they had been : his
interests were now imperial rather than local, and the
Swiss began to find that their chosen protector was the
person against whom they most needed protection.
Still Rudolf was generally just, and his administration

92 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

popular. Switzerland was to have formed part of Hart-
mann's kingdom of Burgundy ; after Hartmann's death
the younger Rudolf, as Duke or Landgrave of Alsace,
governed until 1290, when he died, the year before his
father, leaving a son John, possessed of a good deal of
local influence, whom his uncle Albert at once cheated
out of his rights, taking the whole inheritance of King
Rudolf to himself.

During the reign of Adolf, Albert, being employed in
other schemes, the cantons seem to have been left alone,
but only to feel more severely the change when Albert,
with the compound claims of his family and royal posi-
tion, became their sole ruler. He seems to have formed
a plan of creating, out of the mountain lands, a new
dukedom of Helvetia, to be added to those already held
by his house, and proposed to the cantons that they
should exchange their immediate relation to the empire
— a relation not altered by the mission of the landvogts
— for the feudal subjection to a branch of his own
family. This they refused ; they demanded the renewal
of the landvogtship, and Albert granted their request.
He sent two landvogts, Herman Gessler and Besenger
of Landenberg : these men, by wanton tyranny, pro-
voked the conspiracy of the Forest Cantons in 1307,
headed by Walter Fiirst, Werner Stauffacher, and Arnold
of Melchthal (November 11, 1307).

Albert's Death and Character, 1308. — On the last
day of the year the confederates seized the Castle of
Rotzberg in Unterwalden. This provoked Albert, as
well it might. He himself came into the mountain
land to enforce obedience ; and there, within sight
of his father's castle of Hapsburg, on the plain of
Konigfelden, as he crossed the river Reuss, his nephew
John, whom he had deprived of his inheritance, fell on

ALBERT'S DEATH AND CHARACTER, 1308 93

him and slew him. It was on May 1, 1308 ; and the
act ranks among the most signal crimes of European
history, rather perhaps from its circumstances, the
relation of the murderer to his victim, the mature age
of Albert, who was about sixty, contrasted with the youth-
ful violence of his nephew, and the fact that the scene
lay within sight of the cradle of his family, the house
in which probably he was born and bred.

Albert's character requires no summing up ; he was
wise, i.e. politic and brave ; but very ambitious, unjust,
and cruel. The strength of his character was spent on
the aggrandisement of his house rather than on realising
the influence or doing the duties of his position as the
chosen leader of the German people and the elect head
of the empire. He is the seventh king of Germany,
elected since Frederick II., who has made no real claim
to the imperial crown ; and the sixth who had not set
foot in Italy as kings or emperors. He scarcely even
made a pretence to Italian interest. He left several
sons, whose history belongs to the next and following
reigns ; and five daughters, the best known of whom is
Agnes, widow of Andrew of Hungary, who avenged her
father's death in a spirit akin to his own.

The vigour of Albert had a bracing effect on the
German kingdom. Selfish as his own policy was, the
people felt that they had a man, and not a mere shadow,
at their head ; and, although he led them to no great
enterprise, he in a way prepared them for the dawn of
a better day, short though the better day was. Such
was the next reign, that of Henry of Luxemburg, in
whom the German kingdom again asserts its right to
the imperial dignity.

The election of a successor to Albert promised to be
a stormy one. The King of France, in whose hands

94 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

the pope, Clement V., now resident at Avignon, was
naturally supposed to be, was known to covet the im-
perial crown for himself, and if that were not feasible,
for his brother Charles of Valois ; and the young dukes
of Austria were also anxious to put forth their claims,
expecting no doubt a refusal, but thinking that by
claiming the greater dignity they might secure the
smaller one, and, if they missed the empire, might be
safe to get investiture of their father's estates.

Election of Henry VII., 1308. — But happily the election
was decided neither by the bullying of Philip the Fair
nor by appeal ad misericordiam of the desolate young
Hapsburgs. It was decided by the genius of Peter, Arch-
bishop of Mainz, who had looked round him for a man
of honesty, valour, and discretion, and had found him in
Henry, Count of Luxemburg, a small potentate on the
borders of Lorraine, but a brave and good prince. It is
too long to tell how it all came about, but it was in a few
words thus : — the majority of the lay electors, Saxony,
Brandenburg, and the Palatine, held a caucus before
the election, and determined to vote for the one of six
on whom the clerical electors should decide ; the six
were the two Margraves of Brandenburg, the two
Counts Palatine, Albert of Hanau, and Frederick of
Austria. Peter of Mainz, on the other hand, had pro-
posed, to Baldwin of Treves, the choice of Henry of
Luxemburg, who was Baldwin's brother, and then per-
suaded the lay electors to extend their agreement, and
choose the ecclesiastical candidate : this was done.
Henry of Luxemburg was chosen on November 27,
1308, and crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle on January 6,
1309.

Henry was the representative of the same class of
nobles from which William of Holland had sprung ;

HENRY'S FIRST ACTS 95

was descended in the female line from that Sigefred
of Luxemburg, whose daughter, Cunigunda, was wife
of Henry II., the Saint; and had, in his early years,
fought against Edward I. of England in the army of
Philip the Fair. He was one of the princes present at
the coronation in 1308 of Queen Isabella and Edward
II. He was the most accomplished knight of his time,
and his career proved him to be worthier of the title
that he had won than any claimant since Frederick II.
His incipient difficulties were easily arranged : Clement
V., who had been acting quietly and surely in contra-
vention of the design of his master, King Philip, hardly
pretended reluctance when asked to confirm the elec-
tion. The allegiance of the Austrian dukes was secured
by the grant of investiture which Henry promised even
before his coronation ; and from the princes who had
chosen him, and who apparently thought they had little
to fear from so poor and small a prince, he in turn had
nothing to apprehend.

His First Acts. — His first act, however, showed his
spirit ; he sent forthwith to the pope to demand the
imperial crown, and, like a brisk suitor, insisted on
his naming the day. Clement was chafing under the
yoke of Philip, and threw himself cordially, although
quietly, into the German alliance : he fixed the day,
February 2, two years. One of Henry's next acts
was to nominate a landvogt for the Forest Cantons,
and to confirm other privileges. From the begin-
ning of his reign it was clear that his face was set
towards Italy. He was not, as we shall see, careless
about the interests of his family, or of the great duty
exemplified by Rudolf of Hapsburg, of increasing his
hereditary influence, but he was throughout an emperor
on the model of the Ottos, of Henry III., and Frederick

96 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

Barbarossa, although with the pope instead of against
him ; he was the ideal monarch of Dante's Monarchia,
under whom righteousness and peace were to be re-
stored to Italy. In August 1309, at Spires, where he was
holding a diet, for the purpose, among others, of bury-
ing his two predecessors in the imperial chapel, he
announced his intention of marching into Italy. In the
same diet, as if preparatory, he reinvested the Austrian
dukes ; resigned his hereditary estates to his son John,
and raised the county of Luxemburg to a duchy ; and
received the runaway heiress of Bohemia, the daughter
of the elder Wenzel, who came to offer her hand in
marriage to his son John, the new-made duke. Henry,
after some hesitation, it is said, accepted the proposal.
John became thereupon King of Bohemia, and territori-
ally laid the foundation of the imperial house of Luxem-
burg, which, after nearly a century and a half of empire,
blended with Austria, in the marriage of Albert II.
with Elizabeth, the daughter of Sigismund. Henry of
Carinthia, the intrusive King of Bohemia, was over-
thrown, and the triumphant Archbishop Peter —
triumphant, I mean, in his grand scheme founded on
the election of Henry — crowned John of Luxemburg
king. This is that John of Bohemia who, blind and
poor, having seen his son Charles elected emperor,
fell at the battle of Crecy, and whose cognisance is
borne still by the Prince of Wales. A year intervened
between the diet of Spires and the beginning of the
Italian expedition, a year spent in reconciling quarrels
and providing for the defence of the kingdom during his
absence.

The Templars. — It was during this year that the perse-
cution of the Templars was being carried on in France
and Italy. In Germany, however, that unfortunate body

EXPEDITION TO ITALY, AND DEATH 97

of men, whose condemnation by pope and king is one
of the greatest crimes and abominations of the Middle
Ages, was comparatively free from harm. The lying
accusations were brought against them there as else-
where ; but, bad as the times were, the honest and true
German spirit was too strong to yield to Philip the Fair.
The Templars were acquitted. The order, however, was
dissolved by a papal decree, and its estates divided. The
Teutonic order in Germany, as the Hospitallers, both
there and in other countries, came in probably for what
little, after royal and papal charges, was left — the im-
poverished estates and ruined preceptories.

Expedition to Italy, and Death, 1313. — In October
13 10, Henry marched from Lausanne into Piedmont.
In close alliance with Clement V. — a Guelf king
and a Ghibelline pope ; the king, a few years before
the mercenary, and the pope still the prisoner, almost,
of the French king against whose kinsman Robert of
Naples, and French influence in Italy, the expedition
was virtually projected. The Guelfs and the Ghibellines
alike were perplexed with the combination ; sometimes
one, sometimes the other yielded ; sometimes one, and
sometimes the other resisted. On the whole, until he
reached Milan, Henry's march was triumphant. On
January 6, 131 1, he received the iron crown of
Lombardy at Milan, and all Lombardy, except Verona,
recognised his title. But then and there the tide began
to turn. Milan, urged to revolt by the Guelfic faction,
broke into insurrection, provoked, it is said, by the
measures taken by Henry to secure the city whilst he
marched southwards. The example was followed by
other towns, especially Brescia. For four months
Henry was kept before Brescia. In this time the
freshness and hopefulness of the expedition faded

away. Still, in November, Henry got on to Genoa,

98 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

where his queen died. He had already lost his brother
Waleram in the siege of Brescia. At Genoa he had
tidings from Naples. King Robert proposed a marriage,
but before any conclusion was come to, Henry heard that
John of Achaia, Prince of the Morea, Robert's brother,
had entered Rome with an armed force in concert with
the Guelfic Orsini. In March he advanced to Pisa, the
Ghibelline city. From Pisa he went on to Rome. But,
although he arrived there with the cardinals commis-
sioned to crown him, the Guelfic party, who had long
sunk political principles in family feuds and personal
hatreds, the Orsini against the Colonnas, backed up by
that baneful French influence from Naples, which had
been the curse of Italy, a much worse curse than German
interference, for fifty years, refused to welcome him, and
held the Church of St. Peter against him. Henry was,
as Otto had been, too weak in forces to occupy by force
the whole of Rome : he was crowned at the Lateran on
the feast of the Apostles, June 29, 13 12. The fatal gift
brought its usual luck to the Germans. The resistance
of the Guelfs at Rome encouraged them to revolt else-
where. Florence started a new league; Pisa was the
headquarters of the emperor. A year of unavailing war
ensued. The best energies of the best German king
were wasted in Tuscany; and in August 1313 he died,
poisoned, as it was believed, by a priest in the very cup
of the Eucharist.

His Character. — To see the result of this terrible end
in Italy, Milman's chapter on the Italian war and on
the Monarchia of Dante should be read. The delays
and disasters in Italy had been too effectual in
Germany. Henry of Carinthia had rebelled and tried
to unseat the young King of Bohemia, and Baldwin of
Treves, the emperor's brother, had found himself pre-
vented by that war from sending a due proportion of

HIS CHARACTER 99

succour to Italy. Perhaps Henry's death saved him
from greater and more cruel disappointment. The pope
even was compelled by Philip to forbid any attack being
made on the Neapolitan kingdom ; and had his life been
prolonged, either it must have been wasted, or a war
with France, for which Germany was by no means pre-
pared, must have followed. As soon as he was removed
his friends laid the blame of all the mischief upon him ;
the pope, his friend Clement, turned round and called
him a perjurer. But the love and regret of the German
people followed him, and the lamentations of all good
and wise men prove, more than any actual record of his
deeds, how much he was valued, and how great and
good a prince his contemporaries thought him. After
him, Germany had many brave and good and wise
princes, but none who bore such a memory for
valour and wisdom and goodness as he did : not
one whose history recalls all that is noble and real in
chivalry ; the glory of the good, rude heroic days of the
early kings. We pass, as it were, out of the light and
truth of the thirteenth century, that wonderful, if
troublous, seedtime of principles and realities, into the
gorgeous, chivalrous, unreal, selfish, oppressive, and un-
principled fourteenth : in Henry of Luxemburg, the list
of the great sovereigns amongst whom were Edward I.
and Lewis IX. ends.

IMPORTANT DATES

Adolf of Nassau, 1292-1298.
Allies with Edward I., 1294.
At war in Flanders against France, 1295.
Albert of Hapsburg, 1 298-1 308.
Reconciliation with Boniface VIII., 1302.
Presses his claims on Switzerland, 1304.
Henry VII., 1308-1313.
Expedition to Italy, 1310.

CHAPTER VI

Disputed succession in the Empire — Frederick of Austria — Lewis
of Bavaria — John XXI I. 's intervention— Success of Lewis —
Expedition to Italy — Death of John XXI I., 1334 — Germany and
the Hundred Years' War — Cre9y — Condition of Germany — The
growing independence of Switzerland — Death of Lewis, 1347.

The three reigns which have been now considered
occupy altogether only twenty-one years ; the reign
that follows, that of Lewis of Bavaria, embraces
thirty-two : it is full of incident, of matter that touches
European history generally, and is of great importance,
both politically and ecclesiastically.

Election of Lewis IV. and Frederick of Austria. —
The death of Henry VII. occurred in August 1313 in
Tuscany. The news took Germany very much by sur-
prise ; there was, before an election could be made,
unfortunately too much time for intrigue. After four-
teen months the electors met at Frankfort. On this occa-
sion there was no question as to the place of the seven
electors, but, unfortunately, two of the electoral seats
were themselves contested. The electorate of Saxony
was in debate between the Dukes of Wittenberg and
Lauenburg;1 and there were two strong princes both
claiming to be kings of Bohemia, John of Luxemburg
and Henry of Carinthia. The two candidates brought

1 Rudolf I. (of the Ballenstadt house, extinct in 1423), son of Albert II.,
died at Wittenberg, and Palatine as well as Elector; succeeds, before 1308,
and continues the electoral line. His competitor was John II. of Saxe-
Lauenburg (1285 to 1315), son of John I., brother of Albeit II. of Saxony and
Wittenberg. Lauenburg line extinct in 16S9, when the Ascanian house
expired.

ELECTION OF LEWIS IV. AND FREDERICK 101

forward were Lewis, Duke of Bavaria, and Frederick,
Duke of Austria, the son of Albert of Hapsburg.
John of Bohemia would gladly have succeeded his
father, but he was still very young ; and he, with his
uncle, Baldwin of Treves, and Peter of Mainz, whose
management had secured the election of Henry VII.,
with the Margrave of Brandenburg, whose representative
voted for Lewis contrary to his master's directions, and
the Duke of Lauenburg, supported Lewis of Bavaria ;
the Archbishop of Cologne, the Elector Palatine, Lewis's
own brother, Rudolf, the Duke of Wittenberg, and Henry
of Carinthia, supported Frederick. There were thus on
one side three, and on the other two good and on each
side two disputed votes. Frederick's electors got the
start of a single day in making election. Each side
ignored the disputed votes of the other. Lewis claimed
a majority of three votes over Frederick ; Frederick
claimed a majority of one over Lewis. Both were
equally obstinate. Both were proclaimed as elect.
Both were crowned on the same day — Lewis at Aix-
la-Chapelle, by the Archbishop of Mainz ; Frederick at
Bonn, by the Archbishop of Cologne : Lewis in the
right place, but by the wrong bishop ; Frederick by
the right bishop, but in the wrong place. Both pre-
pared for war, and each took measures for certifying
his election to the pope who was to be ; for the papacy
itself was vacant by the death of Clement V. in April
1314, nor was John XXII. elected before August 1316.

There was thus no official umpire, had either king
or electors been willing to refer the matter to arbitra-
tion. Both sides prepared for war, and for eight years
a civil war devastated Germany, the pope looking on
and congratulating himself, both as a creature of France
and as Bishop of Rome, that the two parties in Germany

102 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

were perhaps preparing the way by suicidal quarrels for
a French emperor, but certainly were disabling one
another for an attempt to recover the Italian rights of
the empire, to interfere with the Guelfic party in the
north or with the French-Neapolitan interest in South
Italy. The two competitors were old friends, who had
unhappily quarrelled over some disputed rights in
Bavaria and, having been reconciled, had never en-
tirely returned to their old intimacy. But both were
honest and religious men ; both were greatly beloved
by their own subjects, and both had right enough on
their side to make resistance justifiable. Frederick's
noble and disinterested character would, however, have
led him to peace early in the strife, but for the high
spirit and pertinacity of his brother Leopold, who
commanded his armies, and sustained his party by
intrigue as well as by military skill.

The war between these two princes was very much
a war of persons and dynasties, and by no means as
yet a war of principles ; the pope gave open support
to neither of them ; as for France, the kings were
equally likely to favour the Austrian and the Luxem-
burg parties, and the Luxemburg party was now on
the side of Lewis. John XXII. busied himself with
Italy until the Germans should settle their quarrels,
and then, no doubt, his policy would be to crush
the triumphant claimant, or to make such terms with
him as would secure French and Guelfic domination
in Italy.

Lewis Triumphajit, 1322. — This war continued, then,
for eight years (1314 to 1322) ; then Lewis defeated and
took prisoner Frederick at Muhldorf, September 28,
1322, and announced to the pope that he was the sole
claimant of the empire. John replied by recommending

LEWIS TRIUMPHANT, 1322 103

him to treat his prisoner well, and offering to settle the
matter between them. From this moment there was
irreconcilable enmity between the pope and Lewis,
aggravated by the intrigues of the successive kings of
France : — an enmity which ran through three pontifi-
cates, and ended in the death of Lewis under sentence
of excommunication.

In brief, the friendship between pope and kaiser ended
with the death of Henry VII. ; and the intolerant, violent,
and unscrupulous spirit of John XXII., entering with
all the zeal of a Frenchman and a Neapolitan favourite
into the designs of France and Naples, was determined
to be satisfied with nothing less than the destruction
of the imperial power. The relations between him and
Lewis may be compared with those of Hildebrand and
Henry IV., or with those of Innocent IV. and Frederick
II.; but in both the former cases there was some-
thing like a true principle on the pope's side, something,
at least, beyond the blind hatred of a narrow-minded
partisan.

If Lewis of Bavaria is a lower type of character than
Henry or Frederick, his antagonist is in an infinitely lower
relation to Gregory and Innocent ; and the humiliation
of Lewis is infinitely more humiliating in many ways
than that of his predecessors. They were, at the best,
ungodly, irreligious men, trampled on by men whose
pride and arrogance rested on a faith in their spiritual
rights ; but Lewis was obliged to sue in vain for mercy
to a pope who was actuated by nothing better than
French hatred, and the very piety and humility of the
religious king laid him open to more unblushing,
more shameless outrage from the spiritual tyrant. No
language ever applied, even mistakenly applied, to what
is called priestcraft — that is, the use of spiritual influence

104 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

to the attainment of merely secular or immoral ends —
is undeserved when applied to John XXII.; he appears
to be a very incarnation of priestcraft.

Lewis and the Papacy. — The battle of Miihldorf indi-
cated at once to the pope which of the two competitors
he was to crush. The first word comes from the pope :
the first act, however, comes from Lewis. Having settled
Germany, he began to look towards Italy. Within a
few months of the battle of Muhldorf, he was enabled,
by the lapse of the margraviate of Brandenburg, to
strengthen his family interest by bestowing it on his
eldest son Lewis. He had been obliged, some years
before, to expel his brother Rudolf from the palatinate,
which he now ruled by his influence over his nephew.
Saxony was friendly, and the war was only kept up
spasmodically by Leopold of Austria, who saw himself
without allies. Lewis might be excused for attempting
to anticipate any move in Italy in favour either of a
new election or of the imprisoned Frederick, or of the
placing Robert of Naples, as he wished to be placed,
on the Italian throne.

Lewis, then, in June 1323, by his General Berthold
drove the Guelfs and Neapolitans out of Milan, and
this opened the breach. But the pope and King
Charles of France were beforehand with him. A month
before, King John of Bohemia was persuaded to marry
his sister Mary to Charles the Fair, the King of France,
and thus became detached from the Bavarian party to
which he had by his own influence and that of his
family been a tower of strength.

On October 8, 1323, Pope John proceeded to summon
Lewis to Avignon to account for his presumption in
calling himself King of the Romans before he had
received papal confirmation, and as such giving away

STRUGGLE WITH THE PAPACY 105

Brandenburg before the pope had settled the question.
He was to appear in two months under penalty of
excommunication. The two months elapsed. Lewis
protested in vain. After another delay, the pope issued
the sentence of excommunication, March 23, 1324.
Lewis even then would have done everything for a
reconciliation, but no offers would satisfy the pope ;
the sentence was published.

Struggle with the Papacy. — Lewis of Bavaria was no
more to be called King of the Romans. The sentence,
as we have seen on former occasions, although sure
in its final operation, was slow to work at first. It
found, when it reached Germany, the nation boiling
over with indignation at the league between France
and Bohemia. The whole ecclesiastical party was now
ardent in support of the German king. But the French
were very confident. Charles the Fair (1322 to 1328)
was to be elected king, and the pope would be only
too glad to crown him. John of Bohemia would bring
all the Luxemburg and Austrian interest to bear on
the electors ; they would make their election, and
Charles was to meet them to receive the crown at
Bar-sur-Aube on July 27. Charles was there, but the
imperial crown was not ; nor one of the electors to
apologise : only poor Leopold of Austria, ready to
promise heaven and earth to secure the release of his
brother. King John had already flown ; the poor queen,
Mary, whose influence alone held her erratic brother to
his bargain, had died in February (1324), and the sudden
friendship was coming quickly to an end.

King John, who had an irresistible fondness for
attending weddings, attended King Lewis's marriage to
Margaret, daughter of William of Holland and sister of
Queen Philippa of England, the same month, at Cologne.

106 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

The Franciscan party, or the spiritualist faction among
them, who regarded the pope as heretical, threw them-
selves with the most ardent zeal on Lewis's side. The
archbishop-electors would not move in obedience to
the pope's injunctions. Charles and Leopold alone
constituted the papal party; yet again (July n, 1324)
John XXII. summoned Lewis, now the fourth time, to
appear at Avignon, and excommunicated his supporters.
For a moment it seemed that Lewis was to be victorious,
but the French gold and the papal excommunication
were working their way. The good Archbishop of
Mainz was dead, and a papal nominee was in his
place. Baldwin of Treves, true to the interests of his
house, followed the vagaries of John of Bohemia, and
the Archbishop of Cologne had always been hostile.

In January 1325, they were almost ready to elect
King Charles ; but they were checked by a new move
of Lewis : he released (March 13, 1325) his rival, Frederick
of Austria, renewed his old friendship with him, and
received from him a renunciation of his rights as elected
King of the Romans and a recognition of his own.

In this story we get again what is rare in German
history — a dash of romance. John XXII. and Leopold
urged Frederick to break his agreement ; but he held
true. Finding himself unable to observe all the con-
ditions, he returned to captivity and, having with Lewis
set aside the old treaty, made a new secret one by which
they were to be joint kings and emperors (September 5,
1325, at Munich), each taking a part in every act of
sovereignty ; they were to rule on alternate days, or
one in Germany and the other in Italy. But the plan
got wind ; the electors complained that it infringed
their rights ; the Austrian party applied to the pope
to recognise Frederick's claim and to ignore the ex-

TRIUMPH OF LEWIS IN ITALY, 1328 107

communicated Lewis. But John XXII. dared not pro-
pose any emperor but his own King Charles ; and, what
was more conclusive, Duke Leopold of Austria died early
in 1326 (February 28). Frederick refused to be made a
tool of any party, and retired altogether into his own
estates, where he also died four years after. Lewis at
last was without a competitor, and he was ready now
to attack Italy in earnest.

Lewis's Italian expedition, justifiable as it was on
many grounds of right and precedent, and provoked
by the constant unmeaning pertinacious hostility of
John XXII., was not popular in Germany. The ecclesi-
astical princes were ready to plead his excommunication
as an excuse for not obeying any distasteful summons,
and the secular ones, although bound to appear at Rome
at his coronation, were not equally bound to go with
him to assert and vindicate his claim.

The year that followed the pacification of Germany
was spent rather in arranging the affairs at home than
in preparing an army. Lewis would have been unwise
to withdraw his own forces from his hereditary estates,
nor is there much evidence to show that he possessed
such force to any extent. In January 1327 he made his
appearance at Trent with 100 knights and two or three
great scholars, Ockham, Marsilius of Padua, and John
de Janduno. The former were to be the nucleus of
the force that the Ghibel lines were to provide him, and
the latter were to pronounce the pope a pretender and
a heretic, which they did before leaving Trent.

The TriumpJi of Lewis in Italy, 1328. — We cannot
but compare this opening of the struggle with that
in which Frederick II. began his; a war of books
preceded the war of blows, first verba, then verbera.
So he started for Italy ; to use the concise and

108 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

expressive words of Dean Milman, which are indeed
a history in epitome of all the German expeditions
to Italy : — " So set forth another German emperor,
unwarned, apparently ignorant of all former history, to
run the same course as his predecessors, a triumphant
passage through Italy, a jubilant reception in Rome, a
splendid coronation, the creation of an antipope ; then
dissatisfaction, treachery, revolt among his partisans,
soon weary of the exactions wrung from them, but
which were necessary to maintain the idle pageant ; his
German troops wasting away with their own excesses
and the uncongenial climate, and cut off by war and
fever ; an ignominious retreat quickening into flight,
the wonder of mankind sinking at once into con-
tempt, the mockery and scoffing joy of his inexorable
foes."

From Trent Lewis advanced by Bergamo and Como
to Milan. At Como he heard that a revolution in his
favour had broken out at Rome. At Milan at Whitsun-
tide he received the iron crown ; but only excommuni-
cated bishops could be found to crown him. There also
by deposing the tyrant, Galeazzo Visconti, who, although
a Ghibelline, had made himself intolerable to the Ghibel-
lines as well as the Guelfs, he bought a moment's
popularity rather too dearly. At this very juncture
he was for the fifth time excommunicated and deprived
so far as the papal word could do it of his own here-
ditary estates and everything else. Lewis advanced
slowly towards Rome ; the latter half of the year was
spent in Tuscany ; in January he reached the Eternal
City, and was crowned emperor at St. Peter's. This
was on January 17, 1328. On April 18 he deposed
the pope, and on May 13, Ascension Day, created a
new one, Peter of Corvara, a Franciscan of the party

THE GENERAL SITUATION 109

most opposed to John XXII., on the doctrine of poverty,
and an Italian.

This is the zenith of Lewis's fortunes. In September
he returned into Tuscany, the usual difficulties to a further
march being insuperable ; and Robert of Naples having
taken the initiative against the emperor both by land and
sea. A series of Guelf revolutions in Lombardy set in at
the same time, and Lewis saw some of his most valued
allies deposed from their ill won and worse used authority.
The Ghibelline cities would not bear the antipope. Inch
by inch Lewis disputed the ground, not so much against
men as against circumstances ; a year and a half of
little mishaps and unvaried failure wearied him, and
in December 1329 he was again at Trent, determined
to make no more fight for Italy, but, if possible, to recon-
cile himself with the pope and do what he could in
Germany. Lewis quitted Italy in December 1329.
Frederick of Austria died January 13, 1330.

The General Situation. —Frederick of Austria was dead.
The question was, What would the pope do next ? Some
other changes had, in the meantime, taken place in
Europe, which were destined in a few years to withdraw
the interest of history from Italy to another field. Charles
the Fair died in January 1328, and Edward III. of Eng-
land, who had married a sister-in-law of the emperor,
was preparing to claim the succession to the French
throne against Philip of Valois. England, instead of
being a cipher in European politics, as it had been under
Edward II., was about to take a leading part. The league
of pope and French king would be weakened by the loss
of English money ; and the party of Lewis might look
for ready support, at least against France, and probably
against a French pope, from the husband of Philippa
of Hainault. Had not Lewis of Bavaria been reduced

no GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

by his Italian discomfiture to an almost fatal despon-
dency, he might have found comfort in the changed
relations between the pope and the King of France ;
for Philip of Valois was much more inclined to act as the
master of John XXII. than as his servant, and his faith
even in the spiritual authority of the old man was
shaken by the accusations of heresy which were poured
out against him unremittingly, both by the stricter
Franciscans on the subject of poverty, and by the
Dominicans on the subject of the state of the saints
in glory and the beatific vision. But the indomitable
pope was ready to fight with all the world : he would
hear no apology from Lewis ; and, if he could not
manage Philip, he would act irrespective of him. Now
again the irrepressible John of Bohemia comes forward
to complicate matters ; he makes an expedition to Italy
to arbitrate ; his expedition, as was likely, only em-
broils matters the more ; the pope is suspected, by the
French, of conniving at it. Two or three years of wait-
ing and comparative rest followed. Lewis used these
to humiliate himself before the pope more than ever ;
but it was all in vain. He was only prevented from
resigning the crown by the resolute protest of the
electoral body.

The Hundred Years' War ope7is} 1337. — In 1334
John XXII. died, and his successor, Benedict XL,
who would gladly have adopted the policy of Clement
V., found himself tied hand and foot by the French
party, and unable even to relax the sentence of ex-
communication against Lewis. Two or three more
years passed in humiliating, unavailing negotiations.
In 1337 the war between England and France began ;
and with it the hopes of Lewis began again to rise. I
think that, however low the estimate taken by historians

LEWIS AND EDWARD III., 1338 in

of the power and ability of Lewis of Bavaria may be,
we ought to consider in his favour, how firm the hold
seems to have been that he had upon Germany during
the whole of this struggle. It was not, indeed, much
active or energetic support that he got ; but note the
impossibility, after the death of Frederick of Austria,
of setting up an anti-Caesar against him, defeated,
deposed, excommunicated as he was, and robbed by
the excommunication of any chance of stirring up a
zealous support for him among foreign princes.

In Germany, from the beginning of the wars of
Edward III., he might have begun still further to rise
in personal influence if his spirit had been equal to
his opportunity. The constant refusal of the popes,
or rather of the papal court under French influence,
to recognise the title of Lewis, provoked beyond en-
durance what national pride and spirit there was in
the German princes ; and even the bishops who had
been forced by John XXII. on the churches, began
to take part in the national feeling. In 1338 diet after
diet was held : the electors met at Rhense (July 6) and
protested against the pope's position; the pope himself
in secret complained that it was by the threats of Philip
of Valois that he was compelled to act as he did. The
whole German nation repudiated the doctrine that their
king required confirmation from an Italian or French
bishop, even of Rome.

Lewis and Edward III., 1338. — In September of
the same year Lewis and Edward III. concluded their
alliance ; and Edward was made vicar of the empire
in the provinces west of the Rhine ; the league was
strengthened by communion at mass and the most
binding oaths. The connection unfortunately brought
neither strength nor credit to either party. Edward was

ii2 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

yet far from an experienced warrior, and a wise and
faithful man he never became ; the opening of the great
French war is one of the passages of our history least
creditable to our national prudence or common sense.
Lewis was too irresolute, or rather too broken-spirited,
to press a decided policy ; the initial advantages of the
struggle were all on the side of Philip. As Philip allowed
the pope to hold out promises of absolution to Lewis,
he drew off from England. Year after year was wasted
in mere negotiation and humiliating bargaining, and at
last, in 1342, the death of Pope Benedict put an end to all
hope. Clement VI. (1342 to 1352), who succeeded him,
was ready to act in the spirit and power of John XXII.
He found new grounds of accusation against Lewis ;
and unfortunately these grounds were common to him
and King John of Bohemia. For Lewis, on the death (in
1335) of Henry of Carinthia, Count of Tyrol and ex-King
of Bohemia, whose claims on the latter country had
been one cause that attached John to the emperor,
redistributed the estates of the duke, and a few years
later had, by his imperial authority, dissolved the
marriage of the heiress Margaret with the son of John
of Bohemia, and married her to his son Lewis of Branden-
burg. He had previously divided her inheritance, giving
Carinthia to the dukes of Austria, John's hereditary
enemies, and after the marriage adding the Tyrol, that
land most coveted of all and always by Bavaria, to
the power and weight if not to the actual territory of
his own house. By the marriage of the heiress Lewis
incurred the enmity of John, and by the act of annulling
the marriage he infringed the spiritual authority of the
pope.

The Deposition, 1346, and Death of Lewis , 1347. —
In April 1343 Clement VI. excommunicated Lewis

DEPOSITION AND DEATH OF LEWIS 113

again, and ordered the archbishops to elect a new
king. There was no depth of humiliation which Lewis
would not consent to, if he might be absolved. He
undertook to renounce his dignity, his imperial crown,
his friends, his freedom of action as regarded France,
Bohemia, and Italy ; but not even this sufficed. Clement
insisted that he should allow the invalidity of all his acts,
and pray to have them confirmed at Avignon, and that
he should promise to act no more without special per-
mission from the pope. He submitted to all. Then the
Germans took affront, and protested ; the pope regarded
this as an infringement of the conditions, and not only
refused the absolution still, but deposed the Archbishop
of Mainz (April 7, 1346), and issued a new bull of excom-
munication, more terrible, cruel, and blasphemous than
any that had preceded it. This seems to have decided
the struggle. The princes held out no longer against
the order to make a new election. In July 1346 (July
11), at Rhense they met, with the exception of Branden-
burg, and elected Charles of Moravia, the eldest son of
John of Bohemia ; but he could not get access either to
Frankfort, for the formal election, or to Aix-la-Chapelle,
to be crowned.

A rapid succession of events, as rapid as that of the
preceding years had been slow and wearisome, pre-
vented a general war. Edward III. landed in Nor-
mandy; John of Bohemia and Charles the elect of
Rhense hastened to meet him in arms on the French
side (August 26, 1346), and on the field of Crecy John
closed his troubled and most troublesome career.
Charles succeeded his father as King of Bohemia, and
flying from Crecy to secure his rights, was crowned
King of the Romans at Bonn on November 26.

The defeat of Crecy for the moment checked the

ii4 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

policy of Philip and Clement. Germany had time to
breathe, and Germany declined to acquiesce in the
deposition of Lewis. Charles was, as we shall see, great
neither in war nor in policy. Some little advantages he
gained, but the bulk of the kingdom stood aloof. Lewis
was growing old for an emperor ; he was at least sixty
(born in 1286), and had had very little rest and very
great miseries. He was hunting bears near Munich
on October 11, 1347, when he was taken in a fit, and
died as he had lived, unabsolved by any earthly power
beyond his own innocence and penitence, for crimes
that he had not committed.

Character of his Reign. — It has already been re-
marked that, whereas the thirteenth century was for
Germany the age of disruption and dismemberment,
the fourteenth began a period of accretion, which
led to the accumulation of great inheritances and the
foundation of great families. The reign of Lewis of
Bavaria illustrates this. We have seen in Rudolf of
Hapsburg the fortune of a Swiss count waxing to the
dignity of King of the Romans and founder of the house
of Austria; in the case of Henry of Luxemburg, one
stroke of good luck creating, out of a petty county of
Lorraine, the royal house of Bohemia, with Moravia as
a margraviate attached, and large claims on Hungary,
Carinthia, and the Tyrol. Fortune was not less kind to
Lewis of Bavaria, although he was not destined to found
a dynasty.

It will be remembered that in 1322 he was enabled to
bestow on one son, Lewis, his eldest son by his first wife,
the margraviate of Brandenburg, on the death of his
nephew Henry, the last of the Ascanian margraves ; and
how, in 1 341, by an extraordinary exertion of imperial
power, he divorced the heiress of Carinthia and Tyrol

THE GERMAN RULE OF PARTITION 115

from her husband, and bestowed her on another. In
1340 the duchy of Lower Bavaria, held by his cousin
John, representing the line of Henry of Lower Bavaria,
son of Otto, Lewis's grandfather, became extinct, and in
spite of the claims of the Counts Palatine, his nephews,
Lewis was accepted by the states as sole duke ; and in
1345, two years before his death, the death of his
brother-in-law, William, Count of Holland, placed him
in possession of the great counties of Holland and
Hainault, which he bestowed on his wife Margaret,
the sister of the late count, and administered by an-
other son, William, who founded the Bavarian line in
Holland.

The German Rule of Partition. — By the possession of
Holland, Brandenburg, Tyrol, Bavaria, and the Pala-
tinate, the house of Wittelsbach reached the maximum
extent of territory that it has ever possessed. But, un-
fortunately for the purpose of dynastic aggrandisement,
the ancient German rule of partition among the sons of
the house, split up the domain after every accumulation.

To this rule I must now call your attention in other
cases besides Bavaria ; for it supplied a corrective in
some measure of the accumulative process that was
going on. Nothing shows more completely than this
how the tenure of power in Germany had changed,
since the days of the strong emperors and strong dukes.
The idea that an elector, or margrave, or duke owed his
authority to the imperial deputation was only recognised
when he applied for investiture. So long as that was a
reality, it was not the interest either of emperor or vassal
to break up the princely possessions of a father amongst
his sons. The father knew that his strength depended
on keeping together what he had ; and the emperor also
thought it best that his vassals should have, so to speak,

n6 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

all their eggs in one basket, where, if it were necessary,
one blow would dispose of all.

But from the period of the disruption of the empire
the idea of founding great houses seems to have taken
the place of that of retaining personal power; the latter
had given its owner a great advantage whilst the empire
was a reality, whilst the sovereign ruled by his diet, and
the strongest man in the diet was almost a match for the
sovereign. But when this was lost, and every man did
what was right in his own eyes, and looked on his
estates as his own property, not the gift of a superior
or benefice of a vassal, the strength of the house, to
be extended by marriages and purchases, but not neces-
sarily to be wielded by one person, became the leading
idea ; and the old German law, which in England
we know as gavelkind, was, it would seem, not yet
extinct in spirit. So several of the great houses split up
their estates among two or more branches, obtaining
from the emperors, who also saw their advantage, a sort
of new creation, or, as it is called, majoratus, for each
branch. These branches strengthened their original
connection in many cases by an agreement of Erbver-
briiderungtOT} as we say in English law, cross remainders,
by which it was mutually settled that the one should
inherit the estates of the other in case of extinction of
direct posterity.

Its Results. — The emperors were obliged to yield
in many instances to this arrangement, although it
defeated their just claims to escheat, especially
when, as it often was, the arrangement was made
between princes who were not of a common stock.
In this way the Saxon princes entirely broke up the
union of their house and deprived it of any political
weight in Germany. The two branches disputed the

ITS RESULTS 117

electorate between them, and when that question was
settled, the electoral house of Wittenberg dwindled away,
whilst that of Lauenburg, although much longer lived,
lost its right of succession and became quite insignificant.
This rule held in this family long after the Reformation,
and the present duchies of Baxe-Weimar, Saxe-Meiningen,
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and Saxe-Altenburg, with the
kingdom of Saxony founded on the fragment to which
the electorate became attached, survive at the present
day to exemplify it. The same rule held in Brunswick
and Brandenburg, but in neither of those families was it
carried to so great an extent as in Saxony, and other
states were more frequently reunited.

Not to pursue it into the smaller duchies, I may
mention the case of Bavaria and the Palatinate. The
former, after the union of the estates under Lewis, was
not subdivided ; but the Palatinate was, and the divisions
branched out and succeeded one another as each became
extinct, until, at the latter end of the last century, the
Elector Palatine succeeded to Bavaria also, from which
his family had branched off in the thirteenth century.
The Austrian dukes more wisely governed their states in
common, and, by happy marriages, so greatly increased
the bulk of them as to become far the most important
house in Germany. The Luxemburg people also had
the wisdom to keep their estates together.

It should also be mentioned that the house of
Hohenzollern, which had begun with the burggraviate
of Nuremberg, by strict attachment to Lewis of
Bavaria, in whose hereditary estates that imperial city
was situated, made a great step towards the acquisition
of both territory and dignity, although it was nearly a
century still before they were to attain the electorate
of Brandenburg.

n8 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

Switzerland. — Another point to be noticed is the atti-
tude of the Swiss. I have already mentioned the original
league formed against the Hapsburg supremacy, and the
recognition of the freedom of Uri, Schwiz, and Unter-
walden by Henry VII. Fortunately for them the interests
of Lewis led him to repeat the favour to protect the
cantons as imperial dependencies against their common
enemies, the dukes of Austria. Encouraged by his
approval, if not strengthened with his assistance, the
cantons overthrew Duke Leopold at Morgarten in 13 15,
the result of the victory being the change of a temporary
alliance into a perpetual federation. For many years
the Austrian dukes had other work than the subjugation
of the Swiss : a truce for six years was concluded in
1318; when that expired, they fought for Lewis against
Leopold until 1326.

In 1332 the three cantons received Lucerne into the
federation, to the manifest loss of Austria, which had
rights in Lucerne that she had not elsewhere. Later on,
in the reign of Lewis, in 1335 and 1338, quite indepen-
dently of the Forest Cantons, another centre of freedom
was created in two other parts of what now is Switzer-
land. Both in Zurich and in Bern the municipal or
popular families began a struggle against the feudal
nobility, which, within and without the walls, threatened
or oppressed them. The struggle of the imperial cities
was not, like that of the Forest Cantons, against the house
of Austria ; they came into collision almost immediately
with the imperial government. The battle of Laupen in
1339, won by the help of the Forest Cantons against the
imperial and feudal forces, settled the liberty of Bern.
The struggle of Zurich runs on into the next reign : it
was not until 1353 that the league of eight cantons was
established. Uri, Schwiz, and Unterwalden formed the

THE HANSEATIC LEAGUE 119

original confederation of 1308, which was increased by
the adhesion of Lucerne, which was emancipated from
Austria in 1332, of Bern, whose battle they had fought at
Laupen, of Zurich, whose cause they had adopted in
1357, and of Zug and Glarus, which they had conquered
and liberated from Austria in the same year. The final
acquisition of Tyrol by Austria in 1362 gave her another
point of attack upon Switzerland, and the interest of the
struggle after that period becomes more complicated.

The Hanseatic League. — In all this strife of dynasties y
and in all these struggles of new communities for liberty,
we ought not to forget the spreading power of the
Hanseatic league in the north of Germany, nor, too, the
mercantile enterprise and independence of the imperial
towns, such as Augsburg and Nuremberg in the south.
We know that they were at work; that, by the
title of imperial towns, they meant an independence
almost republican ; emancipation from all extraneous
rule of count or bishop ; and dependence only on the
far off, and weak, central power, which was too remote
to meddle with them against their will. Fortunately they
were well able both to pay their way and to fight their
battles. Especially the rich and noble cities of West-
phalia, with their manufactures and commerce, their
strong walls, and their magnificent churches, clung to
the Bavarian king, and, under the shadow of his distant
eagles, vindicated their liberty against alien encroach-
ments. Besides the towns, however, there was another
organisation gathering great strength on the north-eastern
borders of Germany, winning from heathenism and
barbarism a country which was not yet German; namely,
the Teutonic and Livonian orders of knighthood, which
kept up the spirit of the crusades until they had founded
a strong state on the frontier, a state destined to give

120 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

name and power, after a couple of centuries, to the
house of Hohenzollern, and two centuries later to a new
kingdom, that of Prussia. At present their exploits only
indirectly touch Germany.

Lewis IV. and John of Bohemia. — Lewis of Bavaria has
the credit of having devoted his time, when he had any,
to his own people. He found it better and pleasanter,
when he had peace, to live in Bavaria than to go about,
as his predecessors had done, to the various imperial
estates, living on their revenues like the wandering kings
of old. He lived in his hereditary lands ; for their im-
provement he laboured ; and for them he legislated.
His code of Bavarian laws was intended to ameliorate
the difficulties of the old unintelligible system ; for, of
all points of German history, the most inscrutable, to any
but a German lawyer, is the question how the laws of the
kingdom were made, amended, or executed.

In strong contrast with Lewis stands that erratic
genius, that most mischievous wandering star, John of
Bohemia, whose vagaries are hardly worth puzzling
over, but are the key to much of the complication of a
reign, giving to him an importance of which he is any-
thing but deserving. His death at Crecy, to most readers,
covers the multitude of his sins, but not to one who
studies the life and grieves over the misery of Germany.

IMPORTANT DATES

Lewis of Bavaria, 1314-1347.

Battle of Morgarten, 1315.

Battle of Miihldorf, 1322.

Lewis is proclaimed emperor at Milan, 1327.

Lewis is crowned at Rome, 1327.

Lewis joins Edward III., 133S.

Lewis excommunicated by Clement VII., 1346.

CHAPTER VII

Charles IV— Giinther of Schwartzburg— The Golden Bull— Its
provisions — Its significance — The Tyrol — His rule in Germany
—Crowned King of Aries, 1365 — Relations with England and
France — His character.

The Death of Lewis IV. an Epoch. — With Lewis of
Bavaria closes a period, not of great interest for
Germany, especially, but of very much greater than
the one that follows it, and which extends from the
accession of Charles IV. to the reign of Sigismund, if
not longer. During this period we mark the increase
and extension of all the characteristics of weakness, that
have manifested themselves in German life, since the
revival under Rudolf of Hapsburg ; we mark the same
tendency, enormously exaggerated, of entire submission
to the papacy ; we mark the same dereliction of the
duties of the empire in Italy ; duties which, however
foreign to the true character of a German king, were
attached most certainly to his historical position, as
claiming the succession of the Caesars, of Charles the
Great, the Ottos, Henry III., and Frederick I.; and we
mark how the whole energy of the ruler centres upon
the aggrandisement of his house, or the benefit of his
hereditary dominions, to the neglect of the rest of the
kingdom. This was the policy, not of Charles IV. only,
but of the age which he represented.

Lewis of Bavaria had humiliated himself to the pope,
and had devoted himself far more to the cultivation of
his hereditary domains, and the increase of his family

122 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

influence, than to the regulation of Germany. But he
had not neglected Germany, until he found that action
was, for him, hampered everywhere by the papal ex-
communication, almost an impossibility ; and it was
by his resolute attempt to vindicate his imperial rights
in Italy, deserted by the pope, and disorganised to
the last degree by the quarrels of the native nobles
and the threatening and undermining policy of the
French, that he, if he did not incur, at least rendered
inexorable, that pertinacious hostility on the part of the
pope, to which he finally succumbed. But Charles IV.
never risked his friendly relations with the papacy by
showing a spark of independence. As for the empire,
it came, in all matters, second to his own kingdom and
the interests of the house of Luxemburg. Into Italy he
never ventured, but as a private person, except on the
occasion of his coronation, after which he was obliged
to subside again — was not suffered to remain even a
single night in Rome.

The Emperor Charles IV. — Never, perhaps, were
German influences so small in the general politics of
Europe, although, had they been greater than they were,
they might not have been listened to in the great struggle
between France and England, that continued during the
whole of Charles's reign. And yet, with all this, no
prince ever made more of the externals of empire ; no
emperor yet had reigned so long without an anti-Caesar ;
no emperor legislated more definitely for the framework
of the empire, or obtained a wider recognition for the
rights of the central authority, although the recognition,
safe enough, and readily enough vouchsafed, since he
would have been utterly unable to make it a reality, gene-
rally ended in words or in pompous ceremonies. He
proclaimed peace, and made strict regulations for it, but

THE EMPEROR CHARLES IV. 123

he could not execute it ! He was crowned at Rome under
orthodox circumstances, but he had not even the show
of respect paid him there. He was crowned King of
Aries, but all that his royal title gave him was freedom
to confirm all the encroachments that for a hundred
and fifty years the policy of France, the weakness of
the empire, and the practical independence of the native
nobles of that kingdom had created. And yet, with all
this, he managed better than many a better man ; left
the imperial system (or so much of it as subsisted
at all) much sounder than he found it ; for peace, or
rather the absence of any general division — such as had
been going on in former reigns between pope and Caesar,
Caesar and anti-Caesar, or between north and south, or
Bavaria and Austria — gave the whole nation breathing
time, and time of growth to all institutions that had the
elements of growth in them, such as the imperial cities
and the mercantile leagues.

Charles is called by historians " the father of Bohemia,
and the stepfather of Germany"; a name, true per-
haps in the main, because, although Germany did
profit somewhat under his government, it was always
secondary to Bohemia in his thought, and it was his
policy for Bohemia and Luxemburg which inclined him
to the line he took and kept as touching the empire.
The reign, however, cannot be called unimportant,
though it is not interesting.

With Italy we have indeed little to do ; the romantic
episode of Rienzi concerns Charles very little as a man,
very much less as an emperor : whoever wishes to
understand it, and much besides that is interesting in
the condition of Rome, must read it in Gregorovius,
or, more easily, in Milman, who has devoted to it, con
amove, one of the most charming chapters of his book,

124 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

writing from materials undiscovered when Gibbon made
out of the same one of the most charming chapters of
his. Nor does the rest of the foreign policy of Charles
contain much that calls for detailed notice. His con-
nection is with France, as Lewis of Bavaria's had been
with England, but it was a relation not of warlike
alliance, only of friendship and peace. France had
other enemies to fight, and Charles had no strength on
this side of Europe to undertake to be her champion.
On the other side, his relations towards Poland and
Hungary were more significant.

His Character. — Personally, Charles is not a favourite
with historians ; he is said to have resembled in appear-
ance the Slavonic family from which his mother sprang,
and this was not likely to make him attractive to the
Germans ; he was certainly the very antithesis of his
father, the bold, inconstant, presumptuous knight-errant.
If his bad qualities were in the other extreme from those
of his father, so certainly were they non-German : low
cunning, meanness and subterfuge, the suspicion of
darker expedients, when it was necessary to get a
troublesome adversary out of the way, are distinctly
non-German. These, however, are not common charac-
teristics among the Slavonic races.

In the last chapter we left Charles running away from
Crecy, where he had lost his troublesome, unmanageable
father, and succeeded to a kingdom, more solid and
certain than the one which he was claiming against
Lewis. Lewis, we saw, survived about a year, both
the election of the anti-Caesar and the battle of Crecy.
But the death of Lewis did not leave the field entirely
open to Charles ; the feeling in Germany against French
and papal influence was very strong, and the sons and
kinsmen of Lewis in the Palatinate, Holland, Branden-

OPPOSITION TO HIS ELECTION 125

burg, Bavaria, and the Tyrol were not prepared for
unconditional submission. The papal policy, more-
over, in the deposition of the Archbishop of Mainz,
had given a head to the other party and increased
the difficulty of ensuring an undisputed election.

Opposition to his Election.— The, electors who had
chosen Charles in 1346 were his kinsman, Baldwin
of Treves, the Archbishop of Cologne, the intrusive
Archbishop of Mainz, one of the rival dukes of
Saxony, and his own father, King John : five out of
the seven ; but out of the five two with questioned
or questionable rights. Opposed to him were now
the Elector Palatine, the Margrave of Brandenburg,
son of Lewis, Eric of Lauenburg, and Henry of
Luneburg. These were really the weaker party in the
present condition of Germany, and Charles had obtained
recognition among the princes whilst they were de-
liberating. The opposing electors met in person or
by deputy at Lahnstein in January 1348, and agreed to
offer the crown to Edward III. of England, who had
been imperial vicar in the west under Lewis, and who
was now realising the fruits of his victory at Crecy.
Edward had seen too much of Lewis's troubles to
be anxious to take his place. He declined at once.
They then applied to Frederick, Margrave of Meissen,
in June, the town of Nuremberg being very anxious
for his election ; that voice probably representing the
interests of the imperial cities. Frederick, however,
showed his sympathy with the mercantile spirit, by
accepting 10,000 marks from Charles, and keeping
quiet. Lewis of Brandenburg was himself thought of;
but he was not strong enough for the place ; and the
fourth person chosen, Gunther of Schwartzburg, who was
elected on January 30, 1349, accepted, on condition that

126 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

it should be shown that the throne was really vacant.
Having accepted, he proceeded to Frankfort with a large
force, and there, after a siege of six weeks, he was at last
received as king.

Charles Successful. — Charles prepared also for war.
Giinther took up his position at Frankfort ; Charles at
Mainz. But the question was decided without a battle.
Giinther was poisoned by his physician, or some one who
had planned the destruction of both of them, for the
physician himself perished by a dose of the same medi-
cine ; Giinther's life was prolonged by a timely antidote
for a few months, but his health was entirely ruined, and
Charles left no means untried to draw off his friends.
Lewis of Brandenburg was the first to go, the offer of
a plenary restitution and investiture of the possessions
that his father had given him was too much for him.
He was so far honest, however, to Giinther, that he
concluded terms between him and Charles (Trinity
Sunday, June 7). Giinther accepted 20,000 marks, which
Charles raised by pawning imperial domains, and, com-
plaining bitterly of the desertion of the Bavarians, died
a few days after at Frankfort of the effects of the poison
(June 19, 1349). Charles, who was credited with the
guilt of the poisoning, attended his funeral.

Charles was now the sole aspirant ; he had got rid of
his enemies. Henceforth he reigned without a rival.
From this date to 1354 we see him travelling about
Germany, arranging quarrels among the princes and
between the cities and their lords. In Brandenburg, a
false Waldemar appeared, pretending to be the margrave
who died in 1318 ; and the duke, Rudolf of Saxony, the
representative of the old Ballenstadt or Ascanian house
of Brandenburg, made his claim to complicate matters
more. Lewis purchased Charles's help by surrendering

THE GOLDEN BULL, 1356 127

the care of the imperial insignia; but he shortly after
resigned to his younger brother, Lewis the Roman, and
retired into Bavaria. Charles after this published a
general peace at Spires (1354), and shortly after the
rivalry at Mainz was extinguished by the death of Henry
of Luneburg and the peaceful succession of the papal
nominee.

I anticipated in the last chapter the little bit of Swiss
history which fills the interval between the pacification
of 135 1 and the Italian expedition of 1354. Charles en-
tered Italy with a small retinue in September in that year ;
and, carrying peace with him, confirming the privileges
of every one who asked him, and carefully avoiding any-
thing that could make him enemies, reached Milan, and
received the iron crown there on the Epiphany, 1355.
At Rome, on Easter Day, he was crowned by the Bishop
of Ostia, representing Pope Innocent VI. ; and, as it was
only on this condition that he was so honoured, reject-
ing the petitions of the Romans. He had to set out the
same day on his return to Pisa, and thence, after a
narrow escape for his life from fire, to Prague, and so
into Germany.

The Golden Bull, 1356. — Immediately after his coro-
nation, in conformity with a practice that afterwards
became a piece of imperial etiquette, he had summoned
a diet at Nuremberg on the feast of St. Martin, and
then and there (January 10) published the first part of
the Golden Bull, in 23 Articles ; completing it by the
addition of the remaining ones in a similar assembly at
Metz at Christmas 1356.

This Golden Bull, although it contained little that was
new, was a very important act, for it settled the con-
stitution of the electoral body for the remaining years of
the empire, and, in some measure, is entitled to be called

128 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

the Constitution, or the first written exposition of the
Constitution of Germany. In this view it really does
sum up, and make presentable, many of the results of
movements which have been described in previous
chapters.

The Golden Bull begins with a somewhat rhapsodic
effusion in praise of unity, which is not out of place
considering the object of the act. It contains after
this preamble thirty articles, twenty-three of which were
published at Nuremberg, and the rest at Metz.

Art. i provides for the safe conduct of the electors
to Frankfort on the occasion of the election of the
King of the Romans, and enumerates the princes who
are to be answerable for the safe escort of each to the
place of meeting. The Archbishop of Mainz is to issue
letters of summons, within a month of the vacancy,
and the electors are to meet within three months of
the summons. No prince elector is to bring with him
more than two hundred horse, or fifty men-at-arms.

Art. 2 orders the ceremony of election, the oath to be
administered by the Archbishop of Mainz; the electors
are not to quit Frankfort until the election is made,
and, after thirty days, if a decision is not arrived
at, they are to be put on a diet of bread and water.
Further, when the election is made, the person elect is
to confirm all the rights, privileges, and immunities of the
electors before he can do any other act. An absolute
majority of votes is to decide, and, if three electors
present shall elect a fourth who is absent, their votes, the
four altogether, shall be regarded as a clear majority.

Art. 3 orders the position of the ecclesiastical elec-
tors in the diet. The Archbishop of Treves sits opposite
the emperor. Cologne and Mainz, on the left or right,
according to the province or chancery in which the

THE GOLDEN BULL, 1356 129

diet is held. Art. 4 : The prince electors are to sit,
Bohemia next but one to the king on the right, and next
to him the Count Palatine ; Saxony and Brandenburg
in the same way on the left. The Archbishop of Mainz
is to collect the votes ; the Archbishop of Treves is to
give the first, Cologne the second ; then, in order,
Bohemia, the Count Palatine, Saxony, and Brandenburg.
The grand serjeanties of the electors are also specified.
Art. 5 makes the Count Palatine vicar, in a vacancy,
of the Rhine country, Swabia, and Franconia ; the Duke
of Saxony in the districts under Saxon law. The Count
Palatine is judge in all cases in which the King of the
Romans is a defendant. Art. 6 provides for the main-
tenance of the precedence of the electors. Art. 7
confirms the right of primogeniture and of feudal suc-
cession generally and specifically in the electorates.
Arts. 8, 9, 10 concern Bohemia ; the immunities of
the people from foreign jurisdiction ; the right of the
king in mines and dues ; and the right of coinage.
Art. 11 exempts the subjects of the electors from the
jurisdiction of external courts, except in case of denial
of justice where there is an appeal direct to the imperial
court. Art. 12 : The electors are to assemble every
year at Easter for a month : during which no public
entertainments are to be given for fear of wasting time
and money. Art. 13 revokes all imperial acts deroga-
tory to the privileges of the electors. Art. 14 forbids the
illusory renunciation of fiefs, made by vassals defying
their lords. Art. 15 forbids leagues and conspiracies,
especially amongst the cities — a sign of the times ; Art.
16 : the illusory creation of Pfahlburgers, or denizens,
by whose pretended emancipation their lords lose their
feudal rights. Art. 17 restricts and regulates the right

of defiance or challenge which had been allowed by

130 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

Frederick Barbarossa, in order to check the ravages
committed in private wars, and was not finally abolished
until the reign of Maximilian.

Arts. 18, 19 are the forms of summons and proxy for
an election. Art. 20 forbids the division of the territory
to which the electoral vote belongs, and thus precludes
family quarrels about the vote, such as had prevailed
and injured the validity of election in the houses of
Saxony and Bavaria. Arts. 21, 22, 23 order the pre-
cedence of the electors in procession and at Mass.
The remaining articles were published at Metz, Decem-
ber 25, 1356. Art. 24 contains the punishments for
conspiracy against the electors ; they are the punish-
ments of treason. Art. 25 amplifies Art. 20 on the
indivisibility of the electoral domain. Arts. 26, 27, 28, 29
define the ceremonies which are to be performed at
the holding of an imperial court ; the precedence of
the princes, the functions and perquisites of the King
of Bohemia as cup-bearer, Count Palatine as steward,
Saxony as marshal, and Brandenburg as chamberlain ;
the arrangement of the tables at the feast ; the place of
the election, Frankfort ; the coronation, Aix-la-Chapelle ;
the first court, Nuremberg.

The last article, No. 30, directs that the prince electors
shall take pains to have their children instructed from
the age of seven years in the four languages which
are spoken in the empire — Latin, German, Italian, and
Slavonic : a conclusion which is more practical and
probably more useful and important than nine-tenths
of the elaborate programme that preceded it.

Conclusions. — The natural conclusion to draw from this
very curious document is that the empire had become, as
to jurisdiction, a confederation of electoral princes, with
an occasional appeal to the emperor in extreme cases,

CONCLUSIONS 131

The imperial jurisdiction has ceased in the dominions
of the electors, except by way of appeal ; the feudal
system of government in those territories has, except
in that single point, eliminated the very idea of a central
jurisdiction. No directions are given as to the estates
of princes and prelates which do not fall under the
electorates ; but in these cases there was, it seems, very
little more of reality left to the imperial officers ; even
in the imperial cities, these officers had become heredi-
tary nobles, and were ousted from jurisdiction by the
successive charters that confirmed the independent,
internal management of the cities. On the one side
the emperor was bought out by his friends, on the other
he was driven out by his enemies.

What little he had to do in Germany generally seems
to be reduced to the holding of an imperial court, and
perhaps to the ineffectual proclamations of peace. He
was the impersonation of an idea of nationality, which
might be felt or not, but was very rarely acted on, and
which had little other sentiment or policy, or common
object. We might liken him to the honorary president
of a knightly order, but that the grand-masters of
the orders at this period wielded far more power and
patronage than he.

We see from the careful provisions made in the
Golden Bull, for Bohemia, which really occupies a far
more prominent position in it than is required, except
for the fact that it is Charles's own kingdom, that his
hereditary kingdom came first in his thoughts, and that
the maintenance of its rights, precedence, and posses-
sions as an electorate, was quite as important to him
as the protection of the dignity of the King of the
Romans. But no doubt the settling of the territory
and indivisibilty of the electorates, and the extinction

132 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

of the disputes as to votes, was the great benefit involved
in the measure. Henceforth, Brandenburg and Saxony
were obliged to attach the vote to the possession of a
distinct and indivisible domain.1

Bavaria. — The question between Bohemia and Bavaria
was settled, as it had been by Rudolf and Adolf, in favour
of the former. The question between Bavaria and the
Palatinate, which had been determined by Lewis of
Bavaria, in the shape of an alternate vote, was settled
summarily against Bavaria. The Electoral College
required and received no more modification until the
balance of power was readjusted in the sixteenth
century. So much, then, for the Golden Bull, which
brings us down to the Christmas of the year 1356.

The transactions of the few following years are
unimportant ; a little war in Bavaria, in which the
emperor forced the dukes to peace ; a little war in
Swabia, ended by an arbitration at Nuremberg between
the towns of Swabia and the Counts of Wiirtemberg,
by which the former were freed from the advocatia, their
burdensome and expensive relations to the latter ; the
birth and magnificent christening of Wenzel, the future
king — these are nearly all that the historians have to
tell us of the events of German history to 1361. Pro-
bably the ravages of the Black Death, and the paralysis
of anything like political or other combinations under
that terrible scourge, had the effect of producing some-
thing like stagnation.

1 " Charles," writes Professor Lodge in "The Close of the Middle Ages," p.
118, " was profoundly convinced . . . that the medieval empire was at an end,
and that any attempt to revive it would result in the ruin of Germany." He
continues on p. 119 : " His (Charles') intention was to obtain for the house
of Luxemburg such an overwhelming territorial strength that he would secure
to his successors a practically hereditary claim to the imperial office." Charles
hoped " to build up a territorial monarchy like that which existed in England,
and was in process of construction in France."

BRANDENBURG 133

In this year, 1361, we come on the event that deter-
mined the duration of the little attempt made by Bavaria
to acquire a more influential position territorially in
Germany — the collapse of the family policy of Lewis
of Bavaria. In 1361 died Lewis the elder, the son of
Lewis of Bavaria, to whom he had given Brandenburg,
and for whom he had detached Margaret Maultasch
from her Bohemian or Luxemburgish husband (John
Henry of Moravia), bringing down on himself merely
the hostility of both the pope and King John. Lewis
had before this resigned Brandenburg to his younger
brother, and retired into Bavaria, where he lived on his
own portion of the inheritance, and administered the
Tyrol in the name of his wife and infant son. His death
was followed in a very short time by his son Meinhard's ;
his portion of Bavaria reverted to the general stock, but
the Tyrol was ceded by Margaret to the Duke of Austria
in 1363 ; and ever since the donation, except for a short
time during the wars of the Revolution, the Tyrol has
continued to belong to the house of Hapsburg, at once
the most faithful and the most impregnable portion of
their dominions.

Brandenburg. — A few years later Lewis the Roman, to
whom his brother had surrendered Brandenburg, died
(1365), and Otto, another son of the old emperor Lewis,
succeeded. But he felt that the emperor, by his position
as King of Bohemia in Moravia, and by his influence as
emperor with the princes of Meissen, was edging him out
of all authority ; whilst the attacks of Pomerania on the
north, against which Charles should have defended him,
made his life a burden to him, and he accordingly, with the
consent of his family, sold the Electorate to Charles in
1373. There was an Erbverbriidernng between the houses
of Luxemburg and Brandenburg, with reference to this

T34 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

electorate, as we saw at Charles's accession, which Otto,
vexed with Charles's behaviour, attempted to unsettle in
favour of his nephew, Frederick of Bavaria. The em-
peror attempted to oust him, but the matter was, in that
year (1373), settled by a money payment and an abdi-
cation. The emperor immediately appointed his son
Wenzel elector, thus adding a large territory to the
estates of his family, a territory lying extremely con-
venient for the objects of their ambition towards
Poland, and indeed Hungary likewise.

Thus, then, ended the latest of the three attempts,
the first being that of Austria, and the second that of
Luxemburg, to acquire power by amassing without
consolidating large territories in the hands of a single
family.

The Later Years of Charles IV. His Death, 1378. —
In 1365 Charles was crowned King of Aries. He had
already performed some acts of sovereignty — in par-
ticular, he had confirmed the sale of Avignon made
by Joanna of Naples to the pope in 1348,1 and had
appointed his uncle, Baldwin, Archbishop of Treves,
vicar and guardian of the kingdom of Aries. But these
acts, like most of his imperial ones, were very perfunc-
tory, and all that he took by his coronation seems to
have been the right to recognise a state of things which
he could not alter.

In 1367 he joined with a large Bohemian force a papal
expedition against the Visconti (acting in this matter as
a simple ally), but after a few skirmishes allowed himself
to be bought off, and returned to Bohemia. In 1368 he
visited Rome, and had the empress crowned by Pope
Urban V. He then returned through Lombardy, re-
ceiving, it is said, large sums of money from the cities

1 Avignon sold to the pope for 80,000 gold florins in 134S.

LATER YEARS OF CHARLES IV. 135

on various accounts. In all the rest of his dealings with
Italy he seems to have accepted the role of a papal
lieutenant, and to have really done nothing to vindicate
his title as emperor. Matters glided on until 1376 :
private wars continuing, and constant leagues being
formed by the cities, in spite of the Golden Bull, and in
spite, likewise, of constant attempts of the emperor to
mediate. He cannot be accused of neglect of duty in
this respect : he made frequent long journeys, and held
magnificent courts in the cities he visited ; and often
by the prestige of his name and the adroitness of his
management he was able to prevent and make up
quarrels. Now he was getting old, that is, about sixty,
and he wished to see Wenzel elected King of the Romans
before he died. Gregory XL, with some difficulty, he
persuaded to allow this, for this time only. To induce
the electors to consent he had to offer enormous bribes,
and as he could not pay them, he pawned to them the
scanty remains of imperial domain that he still held.

After these preparations the election was held on
June 10, 1376 ; the coronation followed on July 6, and
an embassy was then sent to Pope Gregory for con-
firmation. The pope deferred the confirmation on the
pretence of the youth of Wenzel, who was not yet seven-
teen, and he died, in fact, before confirming him. A
disputed election to the papacy followed, and the great
western schism in consequence. Urban VI., the pope
elected under the pressure of the Roman people, and
in opposition to the policy and influence of France,
hastened to make himself a friend by the confirmation
of Wenzel. This determined the position of Germany
during the schism.

Although Charles was in reality attached to France,
and had never, in the course of a long reign, had more

136 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

than a passing difficulty with the house of Valois, he, at
once propitiated by the action of the pope, threw his
weight into the Italian scale. The patronage by the
French of the antipope at Avignon, threw the English
into the party of Urban ; and this coincidence, for at the
time it was little more, drew the English and Germans
together in a very important way, and produced an
amount of common action between them, and even
personal acquaintance and friendship between their
kings, that had been long unknown.

These matters belong rather to the next three reigns.
For the present, Pope Urban's recognition of Wenzel
was gratefully returned by Charles, who recognised him
as Catholic pope. The rest of Germany followed, but
Savoy, Lorraine, and Bar, and some other border coun-
ties, where imperial influence was weak, and the French
in close neighbourhood, recognised Clement. The Scots
recognised the French pope, and hence the curious
results in English politics, by which the royal and
opposition parties were enabled to get rid of the
bishops opposed to them. But Italy, Hungary, Poland,
and Portugal supported Urban, and it was only by great
art and diplomatic ability that Spain was prevented from
doing the same. Charles IV. died, however, soon after
the beginning of the schism, at Prague, on November
29, 1378.

Character of Charles IV. — If Charles were not guilty
of the poisoning of Giinther of Schwarzburg, we may
study his character without disgust; if he were, then
the character loses any redeeming tinge that integrity,
otherwise exemplified or taken for granted, can give it.
Charles was a tolerably successful man ; but he was of
a low type and stamp, and his success was not such
as gratifies a wise or sound mind. He has had many

CHARACTER OF CHARLES IV. 137

imitators, conscious or unconscious, among more
modern kings ; he was, perhaps, weak-minded, an in-
ferior mentally, but in the same line, and comparatively
innocuous specimen of the order that is represented
by Lewis XL of France. But setting aside his personal
character, his meanness, cunning, and petty ambition,
I should be loth to say that his reign was an unfortunate
one for Germany. Inglorious as were his transactions
with Italy and the papacy, and humiliating as were his
relations to the latter, still the state of peace which they
ensured was for the time more beneficial to Germany
than the more heroic position that he might have
claimed, involving the constant drain of blood and
treasure, or the constant interchange of excommunica-
tions and depositions which were generally the result
of a bolder policy. Nor should we forget the lesson
which all along the reading of German history teaches,
of the baneful result of the connection with Italy. For
the character of emperor and hero it would no doubt
be better that a man should insist on and fight for the
vindication of his claims there ; but for the German
nation it would have been well that Italy should have
sunk under the sea, or been blown up with her own
volcanoes. The slightness of the imperial connection
with Italy was a security to Germany. The lull of
imperial warfare there, implied peace and a breathing
space.

It is impossible to say that all these benefits resulted
from Charles's Italian policy of abstinence ; for the
prevalence of private war in Germany seems to have
been as great as ever ; but there was no disruption, no
great party warfare, nor anything like a general arma-
ment in Germany during the thirty-one years of his
reign. His own energetic attempts at peace, one of

138 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

the strongest proofs of any strength that his character
might possess. One or two of his other administrative
acts may be mentioned. He issued, in 1348, a consti-
tutional edict in Bohemia, allowing the states to elect a
king of Bohemia in case the royal family should become
extinct (an ordinance which, as we saw, formed part of
the Golden Bull) ; he thus exempts his hereditary king-
dom from the usual risks of a feudal dependency, whilst
he as clearly as possible lays the way open for the Thirty
Years' War. In 1349 he raised the Counts of Meck-
lenburg to the rank of dukes. In 1354 he did the same
for the Count of Bar; in 1356 for the Count of Jiilich.
The most important act of the kind in ;its distant results,
which he did, was the elevation of the burgraves of
Nuremberg, the Hohenzollerns, that is, to the rank of
princes of the empire, which was done in 1363.

His Marriages. — Charles was four times married. His
first wife was a sister of Philip of Valois, married in
1333. His second Anna, daughter of Rudolf, the Count
Palatine, 1349; the third also Anna, daughter of Henry,
Duke of Schweidnitz, 1353 to 1364, and the fourth
Elizabeth of Pomerania, in 1365. He had many
daughters, whom he married with a view to the
strengthening of the family. Of his sons, Wenzel, the
son of the third wife, and Sigismund, son of the fourth,
became kings of the Romans ; of the daughters the one
who interests us most was Anna (by the fourth wife),
the first wife of Richard II. of England, whom she
married in 1382, and over whom her influence for good
is said or supposed to have been great. She bore
the title of the Good Queen Anne, and died in 1396 ;
after her death her husband's follies and troubles con-
sequent on them, developed fearfully and fatally ;
and she has by tradition the reputation of having been

THE LUXEMBURG EMPERORS 139

the link somehow between the Lollards and Wycliffites
of England and the anti-papal and anti-German re-
ligionists of Bohemia, of whom we shall hear so much
under Sigismund.

The Luxemburg Emperors. — The study of the character
of the Luxemburg house is interesting. In Henry VII. we
have the thorough old German hero ; as brave as a knight-
errant, and as wise as an old politician. In John
of Bohemia you get the knight-errantry exaggerated,
and the wisdom, if not altogether eliminated, continu-
ing only in the shape of guile. In Charles IV. the
knight-errant is eliminated, and the guile exaggerated
into unscrupulous policy. In Wenzel you get the
erratic characteristics of his grandfather developed into
absolute insanity under the influence of a mind alto-
gether undisciplined and depraved by drunkenness.
Sigismund, on the other hand, seems to reunite all the
characteristics. There is a great dash of the knight-
errant and adventurer : going in for half a dozen king-
doms ; rushing about the world crusading and fighting
the Turks ; or visiting the remotest parts of Europe as his
own ambassador. He is a John of Bohemia over again.
Next we see him holding councils of the Church, with
all the pomp and circumstance of Charles IV. ; laying
down his law as head of the state of Europe and princi-
pal agent of the council that supersedes the pope. The
king of the Romans and emperor, in his own mind,
if in no one else's ; and not only super-grammaticam,
according to the story, but above common sense as
well. But, with all his absurdities, his adventurous-
ness and his policies, there is a touch of honesty and
sincerity occasionally about him which brings him
nearer to Henry VII. than to any of his intermediate
ancestors.

140 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

Charles IV., then, left three sons — Wenzel, already
elected to be King of the Romans, Sigismund, who be-
came, on his father's death, Margrave of Brandenburg,
in 1386 King of Hungary, King of the Romans in 1410,
King of Bohemia in 1419, of Lombardy in 1431, and
emperor in 1433. John of Gorlitz, the third son, was
provided for in Lusatia and the neighbouring Slavonian
regions.

The Slavs. — Charles IV. wrote his own life ; it only
reaches, however, to the year 1346, and cannot be made
to throw much light on German history, although it may
on Bohemia and on the personal relations of Charles in
his younger days. The relations into which the Scla-
vonic connection brings Germany, her share in the
politics of Hungary and Poland, begin with John and
Charles to assume their modern form ; and in it an
influence hardly less marked than that which earlier
has been felt from the Italian connection.

How greatly Austrian and through Austria German
interests have been and are still affected by the Slavonic
neighbourhood, and by the fact that the crowns of
Hungary and Bohemia have for centuries rested on
the head of the elect emperor, can only be realised by
a study of modern history down to the present day. All
that is historical in these relations begins with the Luxem-
burg family, and is transmitted by them to the Austrian.
In these days (1883), when the old Slavonic spirit
is rising, and partly Latin, partly Greek in religion, is
hesitating between Austria and Russia as the protector
of pan-Slavic unity, we may yet live to see some strange
results even from the policy of Charles IV.

IMPORTANT DATES 141

IMPORTANT DATES

Charles IV., 1347-1378.

The Golden Bull, 1356.

Peace with the Swiss, 1358.

Charles visits Rome, 1368.

Wenzel elected King of the Romans, 1376.

CHAPTER VIII

Political condition of Europe at the close of the fourteenth century —
Richard II. — Wenzel — Charles VI. — The great schism — City
leagues' in Germany — Switzerland — Deposition of Wenzel — Com-
parison with deposition of Richard II. — Accession of Rupert of
the Palatinate — His Italian expedition — The Wetterau league —
Death of Rupert, 1410.

The End of the Fourteenth Century. — If ever there was
a period at which it might fairly be said that
monarchy in Europe had worn out its mission, and,
whether the world were ripe for a change or not, it
at least must be put out of the way, it was, I think, the
last quarter of the fourteenth century. In the first place
there were two popes; one, Urban VI. (1378 to 1389),
a monster of cruelty and tyranny, in whom his con-
temporaries saw nothing but the suspicion of madness
to excuse him; the other (Clement VII.), a mere agent
of France and French interests, more respectable, but
as unfit to moderate in the councils of Europe, and in
the countries opposed to him regarded not merely as a
schismatic but as a heretic ; for as such Wycliffe con-
tinually treats him. After Urban came Boniface IX., the
political tool of conflicting alternations of party.

Richard II, Charles VI, and Wenzel. — In England
we have the boy king, Richard II., spoilt by his
guardians, kept back from public business, and driven
in upon private excesses and extravagances until they
have become a second nature to him, to develop, in
spite of natural ability and noble instincts, into what
was, to all intents and purposes, an insane attempt

CONDITION OF EUROPEAN POLITICS 143

at tyranny as the only source of revenge and form
of real power. In France we have the unfortunate
Charles VI., not merely, like Richard, liable to a
suspicion of insanity, but actually stark mad, and his
kingdom for many years ruined by the results of his
malady. In Italy there is the terrible tragedy of Queen
Johanna (murdered in 1382), followed up by a double
succession of claimants, persecuting one another ;
Charles of Durazzo expiating the murder of Johanna
by his equally tragic murder in Hungary ; Elizabeth
of Hungary, his murderess, falling a victim in her
turn. And in Germany, where one might have hoped
at least for something like a centre of gravity and an
escape from the madness and misery that is all around,
what do we find but King Wenzel, if not as mad as his
brother kings, disqualified by mad drunkenness from
ever doing justice to that discreet and penetrating judg-
ment which, according to the German historians, he
possessed but could only show when he was sober.

Condition of European Politics. — I do not mean, of
course, that all these calamities fell on European
society at exactly the same time. Pope Urban VI.
concluded his savage career in 1389, and Charles
of France did not fall a victim to his disease until
1392 ; but the unsettled state of England con-
tinued throughout the period, and Wenzel seems, so
far as we know, to have been drunk all the time !
The result of the reaction following the enormous
exertions made by France and England earlier in the
century was to produce throughout great part of
Europe an uneasy peace. The war between England
and France was carried on indeed, but for years only
nominally, neither people rising to an effort ; France
and Germany were undisturbed in their relations, as

144 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

indeed they generally were under the Luxemburgs;
in Italy there was constant bloodshed ; in Hungary
there was constant bloodshed ; in Germany there
were constant defiances and private wars, but there
was no national war, unless the quarrels of the Italians
among themselves, and the revolutions and party
struggles between Sicily and Naples, or their rulers,
can be taken to wear the dimensions of such a
struggle.

General Characteristics. — There are, however, some few
characteristics which cannot be passed over. There
is, first of all, and throughout all, an amount of cruel
capricious bloodshed, unparalleled at any period of the
history of Christendom. In England there is the vin-
dictive proceeding of the Lords Appellant against the
king's favourites in 1387, and the equally cruel reprisals
of Richard in 1397 ; not to speak of the very suspicious
circumstances of Gloucester's death. In Italy there is
the persecution by Urban VI. of the suspected cardinals,
the torture of the unhappy old men, and their final
disappearance, undoubtedly by secret execution. In
France there come, shortly after the period closes, but
thoroughly of a piece with it, the mortal feuds between
Orleans and Burgundy, and a little later the massacre
of the Armagnacs. At Naples there is the murder of
Queen Johanna, and the long list of reprisals falling,
with an awful poetry of justice, rapidly after one
another. In the dominion of Wenzel, as we shall see,
there was not less innocent, noble, and sacred blood
spilt, than elsewhere.

This is a new characteristic : of wars, rebellions,
tumults, there have been enough in the ruder ages,
but now that civilisation advances, now that the un-
reality of a revived chivalry, which never existed but

WENZEL'S REIGN 145

in theory, forms the outward manners of society, come
these secret murders, poisonings, thirst for political
bloodshed.

Under such a state of governmental morality we can-
not wonder at a second point that is worth noting :
the policy of combination among individuals, and be-
tween communities, by which it was attempted to
supply through a voluntary confederation that security
and guarantee of order which ought to have been
furnished by the Government. In England and France
this had shown itself in the revolt of the Commons and
in the wars of the Jacquerie, and for want of organisa-
tion only had failed to effect a revolution. But in
Germany as in Switzerland, and at an earlier period in
Italy, it took the form of leagues and confederations
between city and city, or cities and nobles, or cities and
princes ; the princes themselves forming themselves into
societies, half like orders of chivalry, half like allied
powers, and sharing in some degree the features of the
old Vehmic Society which itself revived.

A third point I will notice is, the extension of this
principle of superseding ineffective or bad government
by voluntary association, in religious matters ; a develop-
ment from causes which had been long at work, such as
the preaching of the friars, the doctrines of the mystics,
and reaction from the excesses of the strict Franciscans,
but which in the schism of the papacy, the general dis-
organisation of society, and the spread of the idea of
voluntary association, assumed a character, under the
Wyclimtes and the Hussites, which was to help to
determine religious changes in Europe for all time to
come.

Wenzel's Reign. — From this preface you will probably
infer that I shall throw the history of Wenzel into some

146 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

form corresponding with these heads : his cruelties, the
combinations of the cities and princes, and the progress
of revolutionary principles in religious matters. In truth
the personal adventures of Wenzel, grotesque as many
of them are, and still more grotesque as they are repre-
sented by the later historians, whose narratives seem to
be melting away before modern criticism, only indirectly
touch the history of Germany. Germany he left very
much at her own disposal. An occasional diet, or an
occasional confirmation of privileges ; or the occasional
bestowal of imperial sanction on a league ; or a spas-
modic effort now and then to arbitrate between the popes,
nearly complete all that can be said of the German life
of Wenzel. In Bohemia, where he lived, he was always
in difficulties, and there his adventures occur chiefly.

There can be no doubt, all things considered, that
Wenzel was one of the most worthless creatures that
ever were called kings. There have been worse kings,
perhaps, that is, men whose wickedness has done more
harm to their subjects, but scarcely one in whom there
is so little of anything admirable to redeem the blank
stupidity of his vice. The only element of life there is
in his history is the capricious madness of his crimes.
His career in Bohemia is one long quarrel with the
nobles of that country, whom he would have been glad
simply to exterminate.

Having set Prague against him, he fortified him-
self a castle in the neighbourhood, where he took
refuge whenever the popular spirit was too strong for
him, and thence conducted his ravages. Early in his
reign he brought in the Free companies to put down
the national opposition, and thus assisted to devastate
his own kingdom. His acts of cruelty culminated
in 1389 in the attempt to massacre the whole of the

WENZEL'S REIGN 147

Bohemian nobles at Wilimow. Still matters went on
until 1393 without any resolute attempt to depose him.
In that year the citizens of Prague, excited by the order
that he had given for the execution of two of their
number, and two of the nobles, taking advantage of his
visit to a neighbouring monastery with a small retinue,
arrested him, and kept him in a dungeon for fifteen weeks.
At the end of this time, according to one story, he was
allowed, as a special favour, to go and bathe at Old
Prague in the Moldau. By the assistance of the girl
Susanna, who served at the bath, and who rowed him
across the river in a skiff, he escaped, and for some time
employed Susanna as his chief adviser, and her likeness
is conspicuous among the miniatures of a copy of the
Bible which he had illustrated with representations of
his captivity. Another account represents him as re-
leased at the request of his brother and the other princes
of his family. A second captivity, however, awaited him.
This time his brother Sigismund and his cousin Jobst
of Moravia, with the assistance of the Duke of Austria,
seized him, and conveyed him to Vienna. Thence he
escaped by the aid of a fisherman who used to bring the
prisoner an occasional breakfast for charity's sake. He
again, however, shut himself up in his Bohemian castle,
and continued his revels.

In 1392 his wife had been killed by one of the hounds
that he always had with him ; yet, notwithstanding this,
and his general loose character and his cruelty, he was
able to get another wife, a Bavarian princess, whom he
married chiefly to obtain an ally. After this he went on
drinking. Germany bore with him, happily seeing little
of him for twenty-two years. Bohemia, notwithstand-
ing the strong party made against him by Sigismund and
Jobst, had to endure him for nineteen years longer. It

148 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

may, however, be true that his character has suffered
from the patronage, or abstinence from persecution,
which he displayed or has the credit of having displayed
towards the Hussites. Though there is no evidence to
prove that he favoured John Huss, he certainly allowed
his teaching in the University of Prague until stopped
by the pope. It is barely possible that his vices may have
been exaggerated by those who believed him favourable
to heresy, but even if that be the case, there is nothing
good said of him. He may not have been quite so bad,
and yet good for nothing. In Germany his influence
was but slightly felt ; still the imperial power, although
weak, had been so much made of by Charles IV., had
been made so conspicuous as to be almost necessary ;
and the influence of Charles did not pass away all at
once, nor was Wenzel without an occasional hazy idea
of doing an imperial act. He seems to have had an
idea that he ought to interfere in Italy, and sent there
occasionally a threatening letter, or appointed an im-
perial vicar who, like himself, contented himself with
promising to interfere, or he issued a commission to
settle the claims of the rival popes, or he sanctioned a
league, or forbade one, or even himself joined one ; but
no one seems to have regarded his edicts except so far as
they suited his own pleasure, or could be made a pretext
for doing something that he wanted to do.

On the death of Urban VI., he recognised and
supported Boniface IX. ; but, when the Avignon pope,
Clement VII., died, he entered into a negotiation with
France for the deposition of both the rivals, and even
went to Rheims in 1398 to consult on the extirpation of
the schism. On this visit it is said that he got so drunk
as to acknowledge the wrong pope, Benedict, instead of
Boniface, and promised to cede Genoa to the French.

SWITZERLAND 149

If this is true, it is probably one of the causes that led
directly to his deposition. But the most important
business of Germany went on with very little interference
from him.

In 1381 the cities of Swabia and the Rhine formed
themselves into a league against the counts and dukes of
Swabia and Bavaria, with Wenzel's sanction. By this
league a great part of Bavaria was devastated. But a
few years before these same cities had been in strict
league with these same nobles. Although it is important
to keep before us the political energy exhibited in
these alliances, it is almost impossible, however, and
quite unnecessary to unravel their short and variable
complications.

Switzerland. — In Switzerland the atmosphere is a little
clearer. There we find the Austrian dukes, during the
long peace that began in 1356, diligently endeavouring to
secure and increase their remaining rights. In 1376 they
had to encounter Ingelram de Coucy (married Isabella,
daughter of Edward III.), who came with a force of
Englishmen and Frenchmen to demand the payment
of his mother's dowry, Catherine of Austria, which was
settled on some of the Swiss towns. Duke Leopold
applied for help to the confederate cantons, and Bern
and Zurich afforded it. But Coucy's force was very
formidable, and caused an immense deal of suffering
before it was finally disposed of, partly by battle, partly
by starvation.

In 1382 a new quarrel arose. One Count Rudolf
attempted to surprise Soleure ; he failed, and the
Bernese divided his estates with the people of Soleure.
This embittered more than ever the relations between
the nobles and the towns, and also between Austria
and the confederates. This quarrel ended for Leopold

150 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

at least in the battle of Sempach in 1386, where he
was slain in July 1386. His son, Leopold IV., con-
tinued the war for a few months, each city grasping
at any unprotected territory that lay convenient for
it, and the Austrians unable to crush an enemy that
seemed ubiquitous. After a year and a half of what
was called the Bad Peace, because no one kept it, open
war was resumed, but the battle of Naefels, in which a
handful of the men of Glarus destroyed a large Austrian
force, led to another peace. This was more lasting ;
it extended from 1388 to 1394, and was afterwards
renewed for twenty, and later on, in 141 2, for fifty
years. But indeed the emancipation of Switzerland from
the yoke of Austria was now nearly accomplished. The
deliverance of Appenzell from the dominion of the Abbot
of St. Gallen was won against the combined force of
Austria and the abbot, without disturbing the relations
of the confederated cantons ; and the Rhcetian or Grison
confederations were being created for struggles that
were still far in the future.

Deposition of Wenzel. — From this time, then,
Switzerland may be regarded, for our present pur-
pose, as lying outside of Germany. But it is time to
have done with Wenzel. He was deposed, and the
deposition was actually treated as valid, although his
successor was only partially recognised. As this is
certainly a very exceptional case, and as the circum-
stances bring out nearly everything that I have not
mentioned, that is worth remembering as to the Wenzel's
acts, we will run through the particular circumstances of
it. Wenzel had long been a shame and grief to Ger-
many, without any one finding or making it his business
to get rid of him. In a healthy state of the papacy he
must have been excommunicated, and that might have

CRITICISM 151

led to deposition, but in this case there was no pope
strong enough to exercise jurisdiction in Germany,
except the pontiff who owed the maintenance of his
position to the support of Wenzel and his allies. It
was a case clearly in which the empire must act for
itself, and it did so. The three ecclesiastical electors
and the two prince electors who, according to the
Golden Bull, were entitled to be vicars of the empire
during a vacancy, took the initiative. The immediate
provocation was the sale of Milan to the Visconti and
of Genoa to the French. Genoa made itself over
to France in 1396 ; what Wenzel did at Rheims in
1398 is not clear. In September 1399 they met at
Mainz and determined to appoint a single vicar of
the empire. Wenzel refused to recognise or appoint
him, and the next move was to invite him in
person to Frankfort to meet the princes. Wenzel
refused to leave Bohemia, and his ambassadors pro-
tested against the holding of assemblies of the princes
without his sanction. Matters went dragging on for
nearly a year. At last with the advice of Boniface IX.
the electors met at Lahnstein, and, having waited for
ten days for Wenzel to appear, they deposed him on
August 24, 1400.

Criticism. — The act or sentence which was pronounced
by the Archbishop of Mainz as Arch-chancellor of
Germany, declares that Wenzel is the chief author of the
abuses prevailing in the empire, and that he has treated
the remonstrances of the princes with scandalous
contumacy. It then proceeds to state the grounds of
accusation ; he has sold Genoa to France, and Lom-
bardy to Galeazzo Visconti ; he has alienated imperial
domain by sale ; he has sold blank letters patent, to
be filled up by the purchasers at their will ; he has

152 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

granted impunity to thieves and robbers ; he has cruelly
murdered, drowned, and burned prelates, priests, and
nobles ; he has made a league with Poland against the
Teutonic knights ; he has wasted the revenues of the
empire of Bohemia, destroyed the University of Prague ;
given himself up to debauchery and neglected the
affairs of the empire. He is therefore deposed and
deprived.

A good deal might be said both for and against the
exact constitutional character of such an act, but nothing
could be said for Wenzel. On the strict letter of the old
German institutions, as existing both in England and
in Germany, there was in the witenagemot a power of
deposing a bad or worthless prince, but it was long
since such a thing had been done with any regard to
formality. In England, the year before, a precedent
had been given ; and, bad as Richard's case was, that
of Wenzel was worse. For years before it had been
the common talk of Europe that such a measure was
necessary. Richard II. himself had been persuaded
that his good government of England had so impressed
the Germans that they were ready to choose him
instead of his brother-in-law, Wenzel, and that was
regarded as one of the first hallucinations that cul-
minated in his attempt at revolution. But, although
the charges made against Richard were very much
like those against Wenzel, the part taken by Henry
of Lancaster in his deposition takes away from the
similarity in its most important point. The deposi-
tion of Richard was brought about quite as much by
private rivalry as by public indignation ; it was the
adjudication of the crown that he had thrown away
to a claimant who had intrigued to supplant him.
Wenzel's was a solemn act of popular or rather national

ELECTION OF RUPERT OF THE PALE 153

judgment and justice; and it was performed by all the
body of the electors except himself and his cousin,
Jobst of Moravia, to whom Sigismund, when (in 1386)
he became King of Hungary, had mortgaged the
margraviate of Brandenburg. The Duke of Saxony,
however, was not present at the conference. The final
sentence was not issued until all had been prepared for
the election of a new king.

As early as May the electors at Rhense had fixed
on Duke Frederick of Brunswick, and he, in prepara-
tion for the event, had gone into his own dominions
to prepare men and money. But whilst thus employed,
or when on his way to Lahnstein, he was attacked by
the Count of Waldeck and killed in the month of June
at Fritzlar. The Duke of Saxony, who was in his com-
pany, was wounded, and was thus prevented from taking
part in the further proceedings.

Election of Rupert of the Pale. — The place of
Frederick as a candidate was supplied by Rupert,
the Count Palatine of the Rhine. He undertook
to accept the office on the same day that the sen-
tence against Wenzel was promulgated, and also to
recover Milan and to undo the other unlawful acts of
Wenzel. Rupert was the representative of the older
branch of the house of Wittelsbach ; his career did not
make him an exception to the usual luck of that house
when it made a stroke for empire. He is the second
of the list that is made up by the Emperor Lewis of
Bavaria, Frederick, King of Bohemia, the son-in-law
of James I., and the unfortunate Charles VII., who en-
deavoured in the eighteenth century to supplant the
Austrian family and oust the husband of Maria Theresa.

Rupert was a brave and able prince, but the dis-
organised state in which the empire was when he

154 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

undertook it might have proved too much for the
abilities of a much stronger one. The election at
Rhense and Lahnstein was but a short step towards
the acquisition of the empire. Wenzel was by no means
without partisans, and these were unwilling to accept
Rupert until it was clear that Wenzel would do nothing
to help himself. Frankfort declined to admit him, and
he had to spend six weeks in a siege before he could
make himself master of that imperial and capital city.
After Frankfort had submitted, Strassburg also received
him, but Aix-la-Chapelle hesitated ; and ultimately the
coronation was performed at Cologne, contrary to pre-
cedent and contrary to the Golden Bull. He held,
however, his first diet at Nuremberg in proper order
in May, and there, after strengthening his position as
much as he could by the usual plan of confirming the
privileges of all who were willing to adhere to him, he
prepared for that Italian expedition to which he had
bound himself when he accepted his election as King
of the Romans. At the same time he thought it neces-
sary to make some provision in case Wenzel should
resist, as he was strongly urged to do by his brother,
Sigismund, and cousin, Jobst, both of whom had an
idea of their own fitness for the empire.

Resistance, however, was the last thing that Wenzel
thought of. He declined to do more than listen to
the arguments of France, and he would not do so
much as that for Sigismund ; but, whilst he was yet
speaking to him, left the room and went to his bath.
He had the support of Rudolf of Saxony and Ernest
of Bavaria, who was jealous of his cousin's exaltation,
and that was nearly all : Sigismund and Jobst had
rather connived at his deposition, but had no desire
for the dismemberment of the family territory. Wenzel,

RUPERT IN ITALY 155

however, cared little for any of them, or even for the
siege which he endured in Prague from the Bohemian
nobles in league with Rupert's party. Rupert himself
seems to have had no wish to drive matters to extremity
with either Wenzel or his family.

Matters were, therefore, sufficiently advanced in August
1401 for the new expedition. In September, at Augs-
burg, Rupert appointed his son Lewis vicar of the
empire for Alemannia, Gaul, and the kingdom of Aries,
having already made him his representative in Bavaria
and the Palatinate. On September 25 he was at Inns-
bruck, on October 2 at Brixen ; at Trent on the 14th.
There is a good deal of obscurity both as to the move-
ments and companions of Rupert, and this period is
slurred over by historians generally. It seems, however,
certain that he had brought with him only a small force,
expecting probably that, as had been usual on former
expeditions, one section of the Italians would rise in his
favour.

Rupert in Italy. — It appears that he expected also
succours from England, with which country he had
connected himself by a marriage between his son Lewis
and Blanche of Lancaster, daughter of Henry IV. He
was not, therefore, prepared for so speedy resistance as
Gian Galeazzo Visconti had for him. Between October 16
and 21 he advanced into the territory of Brescia, and
there the forces of Milan met him. He had with him
Duke Leopold of Austria, the Archbishop of Cologne,
and a body of Italian cavalry under Jacopo da Carrara.
On the 21st a battle was fought, and the result was
unfavourable to Rupert. According to Sismondi, he
was saved from a downright rout by the Paduan
cavalry ; but the German historians allow that it was
an out and out defeat : he was forced to retire on

156 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

Trent ; the Duke of Austria and Archbishop of Cologne
left him ; the English succours had not yet arrived, and
the Florentine subsidy, on which he had largely relied
for the support of such force as he had, was only partly
paid. He seems to have given up the idea of think-
ing of penetrating to Rome and receiving the imperial
crown. Before Christmas he went from Trent to Padua
and Venice, attempting, by the aid of the Florentines,
and at their request, to draw in the pope and the re-
public of Venice into a league against the Visconti.
But they, seeing him so ill-supported by Germany, drew
back. He stayed at Padua until April 1402, and then
went back to Germany. The success of Gian Galeazzo
seemed secure, and his dream of becoming King of
Italy ready to be fulfilled. This result, terrible and
shameful for the empire, was averted by the plague.
Gian Galeazzo died of it the September after the battle
of Brescia. His estates were left in a very unsettled
condition, and his powerful rule at Milan was succeeded
by anarchy ; but Rupert, although urged by both Ger-
mans and Florentines, refused to make another attempt
on Italy. He showed his wisdom and good faith in
devoting himself to the pacification and regulation of
those parts of Germany that adhered to him. Rupert
was indeed born a brave man and a man of business ;
the register of his extant acts fills almost as large a
volume as that of the acts of Lewis of Bavaria ; and as
that prince did, he spent the remaining years of his
reign in his own territory, chiefly at Heidelberg in the
Palatinate, or on the imperial domain at Oppenheim.
In this employment he had sufficient work for a long
life.

Rupert in Germany. — The first transaction he under-
took, after his return from Italy, was to compel Aix-

RUPERT IN GERMANY 157

la-Chapelle to recognise him. This was not done until
he had put the city under the imperial ban ; nor even
then until the burghers had formally renounced their
allegiance to Wenzel. He next had to put down the
Margrave of Baden, who, supported by the Duke of
Orleans and the French party, and countenanced by
Wenzel, was exercising the unjust customs on the
Rhine. The margrave was obliged or persuaded to
submit. But similar measures of constraint used against
the robber counts of the Wetterau, some of whom were
vassals of the Archbishop of Mainz, had the unfortunate
result of exasperating that influential and unscrupulous
prelate against him.

John of Nassau, the archbishop, had taken a leading
part in the deposition of Wenzel, and was not free from
the suspicion of having connived at the struggle which
caused the death of Frederick of Brunswick. He took,
therefore, to himself the credit of having placed Rupert
on the throne ; and now, finding that Rupert's sense
of justice, stronger than his gratitude, would not allow
him to spare even the vassals of the archbishop, he
placed himself in connection with a league formed
against him. This league was based on the Wetterau
confederation formed under Wenzel, the head of which
was Philip of Nassau, the archbishop's brother : one of
those local confederations possessing some claim to a
real organisation, which, under Maximilian, a century
later, were recognised as, or developed into, the system
of circles.

This Wetterau league, with the archbishop, Count
Eberhard of Wurtemberg, the representative of a long
line of petty tyrants, the Margrave of Baden, and forty-
seven of the cities of Swabia and Strassburg, under the
title of the Confederation of Marbach, wore the unfor-

158 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

tunate King of the Romans to death. Summons after
summons was issued, to bring the confederates, if
possible, before a diet ; but on one pretext or another
they failed to appear, and the Archbishop of Mainz
grew so bold as to send letters of defiance to Rupert.
It is not easy to say whether Rupert was quite in the
right in all his proceedings against the confederates.
The acceptance of Ortenau and Offenbach from the
Bishop of Strassburg, as the price of his assistance
against the citizens of that town, is alleged against him
as degrading the imperial dignity; but that he was a
poor man is certain, and sufficient reason for such
charges being brought against him by unfavourable
historians, just as in his Italian expedition he is treated
by Sismondi as a mercenary of Florence. But both his
acts and his general reputation show him to have tried
how to be a just prince.

The Council of Pisa. — One of Rupert's last public acts
was a preparation for the Council of Pisa. His relation
to the popes who, in succession, opposition, or combina-
tion, were claiming to rule the Church was this : Boniface
IX., in 1403, on finding that Wenzel's cause was hopeless,
had recognised Rupert as King of the Romans. In 1398
Wenzel and Charles VI., a couple of madmen, as we saw,
had agreed to persuade the two popes, Boniface IX.
and Benedict XIII., to close the schism by voluntarily
resigning. Boniface held out a half-promise that he
would do so, but Benedict obstinately declined ; his
refusal made Charles his enemy, and from 1398 to 1403
he was a prisoner at Avignon. He was, in fact, the
victim of the quarrel between Burgundy and Orleans,
who could not agree on a consistent or common policy.
In 1404 Boniface died, and first Innocent VII., and, two
years after, Gregory XII., were elected at Rome ; the

DEATH OF RUPERT, 141 o 159

hitter under promise to resign if the Pope of Avignon
would do so ; Benedict still ruling at Avignon. These
Italian popes were recognised by Rupert, as by Ger-
many and England generally, but the scandal was felt
to be a very wretched one ; and again the scheme of
a double resignation was propounded ; and again it
failed. Each pope summoned a council : Gregory at
Cividale, Benedict at Perpignan.

In 1409 the cardinals summoned the prelates, who
wished for the end of the schism, to meet at Pisa. In
preparation for this assembly, Rupert held a diet at
Nuremberg, and afterwards another at Frankfort. In
these assemblies the majority showed themselves in
favour of the cardinals, but Rupert and a few others
clung to Gregory, who had promised to leave the arbi-
tration to him, and make him " advocate " or " defensor "
of the Roman Church. The council, warned of his
design, refused to receive his representatives, giving
admission instead to those of Wenzel. In April 1409
the Council of Pisa deposed both popes, and elected a
third, Alexander V. ; but, as neither Benedict nor Gregory
accepted their decision, the schism was rather increased
than diminished. Rupert continued faithful to Gregory,
but he did not live to see matters further complicated,
as they were by the death of Alexander (May 8, 1410).

Death of Rupert, 141 o. — German affairs were be-
coming very threatening, and, year after year, he
found it more difficult to keep the kingdom in order.
None of the lucky windfalls came to him that had
helped to found the house of Luxemburg, and even
to give a temporary predominance to that of Bavaria.
Worn out with anxiety and toil, he died at Oppenheim
on May 18, 1410, at. fifty-eight, leaving the reputation
of an able and honest prince, whom not even his

160 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

poverty could prevent from acting in accordance with
his views of right. His last measure, far from securing
the aggrandisement of his family, broke up the unity
of it for a time and deprived it of any chance of
making head against the great territorial princes. This
was to direct the division of his dominions among his
sons. Lewis, the eldest, held the Electorate, with the
territory of Amberg ; John held the Upper Palatinate
with Neuburg, and founded a branch that fell in in 1448.
Stephen had Simmern, and founded a branch which
in 1559 succeeded to the Electorate. Otto, the fourth,
founded the line of Mosbach, which terminated in 1499.

I mention these things to illustrate the effect of the
system of succession which in so many of the great
families counteracted all their efforts for the aggrega-
tion of estates. Saxony, Bavaria in a less degree, and
the Palatinate, by these divisions were absolutely power-
less against the houses of Luxemburg and Austria,
which adopted it with much more restriction. Their
condition led, no doubt, to the consolidation of the
empire as an hereditary institution, in the house of
Hapsburg, a consummation which, however great were
the glories that Charles V. illustrated it with, was quite
out of keeping with the long traditional policy of the
princes. As long as the electorates were great princi-
palities, as long as they represented in any degree the
nations out of which Germany was created, the empire
was really as well as nominally elective.

Germany in the Fifteenth Century. — In tracing the
history of Sigismund in the next chapter, I shall have
to turn back to some of the important events in which he
was concerned, which are less connected with the history
of Germany but cannot be omitted from it, such as the
invasion of Europe by Bajazet, the growth of Hussitism,

GERMANY IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY 161

and the relations of the Sclavonic kingdoms with each
other and with Naples. The reigns of Wenzel and
Rupert form the very dullest portions of proper
German history : absence of important incident, and
even of constitutional developments. There is not,
indeed, so complete disorganisation as in the middle
of the century, but the strength of the organisation
that superficially spread over the kingdom, scarcely
could hide the disruption and dismemberment going on
below the surface, and cannot be regarded as real. It
was a thin web of pomp and circumstance woven by
Charles IV., and not yet torn to pieces by the wind
floating on it by its very lightness. Sigismund was to
make more of it. Frederick Maximilian and Charles
were to make much more still ; but rather by throwing
into the medley of interests their own great territorial
influence and position in Europe, by strengthening
their place in Germany and the imperial name, by their
power as dukes of Austria and Burgundy ; and, further,
by their position as kings of Spain and Naples, Bohemia
and Hungary. The empire itself was attenuated, but the
imperial crown worn by the King of Bohemia and
Hungary, Naples or Spain, the Indies, Sicily, and
Jerusalem was very imposing, and by the right of its
wearer, a very powerful influence throughout the
world.

IMPORTANT DATES

Wenzel, 1378-1400.

League of German Towns, 138 1.

Battle of Sempach, 1386.

Battle of Naefels, 1388.

The Union of Kalmar, 1397.

Deposition of Wenzel, 1399.

Rupert of the Palatinate Emperor, 1400-1410.

Council of Pisa, 1409.

Battle of Tannenberg, 1410.

CHAPTER IX

The disputed succession — Election of Sigismund — His previous
history — The great schism — The Council of Constance — John
Huss — Sigismund in France and England — Election of Martin
V. — The Bohemian War — The Council of Basel — Sigismund's
death, 1437 — The situation in Germany — Accession of Albert of
Austria — His acts — His death, 1439.

Sigismund Emperor. — The death of King Rupert
took place on May 18, 1410. According to the
Golden Bull it was the duty of the Archbishop of
Mainz, within a month of the vacancy, to summon
the electors to Frankfort, and the electors were to
meet within three months, to spend not more than
a month in the business. In strict conformity with
this rule, John of Nassau, the archbishop, who had
made himself so strong an opponent of Rupert, sum-
moned the electors for September 1, and, on that day,
the three archbishops and the Count Palatine, Lewis,
son of the late king, were present. Wenzel, of course,
having never allowed the election of Rupert, did not
recognise the vacancy, although he must have allowed
his ambassador to appear in the diet : Rudolf of Saxony
was employed in a war on the Polish border in de-
fence of the cross-bearing knights of Livonia, and Jobst
of Moravia, the mortgagee, as well as Sigismund of
Hungary, the mortgagor, of the electorate of Branden-
burg, were present by ambassadors. The ambassador
of Sigismund was Frederick, burgrave of Nuremberg,
Prince of Hohenzollern. Sigismund was the most pro-
minent candidate ; indeed, although it was known that

162

SIGISMUND EMPEROR 163

Jobst would like to be elected, and was a man
of mature age and sound habits of business, Sigis-
mund was the only person who showed much anxiety
about it ; he had already obtained the support of Pope
Gregory XII. and of the Elector Palatine. The Arch-
bishop of Mainz begged for delay in order that the Duke
of Saxony, at least, might be present ; but the burgrave,
Frederick, would not consent, and the result was a
double or disputed election ; the Elector Palatine, the
Archbishop of Treves, and Frederick as representing
Sigismund, elected him on September 20 ; the Arch-
bishop of Mainz and Cologne, with the ambassadors
of Jobst, Wenzel, and Saxony, elected Jobst himself on
October 1.

Notwithstanding the disputed right to Brandenburg
and the questionable credentials of Wenzel's representa-
tives, Jobst had a clear majority, and was duly elected
on October 1. But it does not appear that he ever was
crowned, and he died in little more than three months,
on January 8, leaving not only Brandenburg but the
imperial crown free for Sigismund. This time there
was no opposition ; Sigismund was elected, after some
little delay, on July 21, 141 1. Sigismund stands before
the world, for so long a time and in so many capacities,
that he occupies more room in history than the length
or importance of his reign as King of the Romans and
emperor deserves ; but as it is almost impossible to
estimate the latter without some reference to the earlier
adventures of this adventurous prince, we must look
back to the two last reigns and even farther.

Sigismund was the son of Charles IV., and, as Wenzel
had no children, he is throughout his brother's life heir-
presumptive to the kingdom of Bohemia and to the
other possessions of the Luxemburg house. In 1373 his

1 64 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

father had bestowed upon him the march of Branden-
burg, and in his youth he was married to Mary, the
daughter of Lewis the Great, King of Poland and
Hungary, who intended to make him his heir in both
those kingdoms. This king Lewis was a descendant
of the first house of Anjou established in Naples ; his
father was Carobert, King of Hungary, son of Charles
Martel, son of Charles II. of Naples by the heiress of
the Hungarian line.

Sigismund 's Relations with Naples, Hungary, Poland. —
In Naples, as you may remember, Charles Martel,
having died before his father, Robert, the antagonist
of Henry of Luxemburg and patron of John XXII., had
succeeded to the prejudice of Carobert ; and, as in both
Naples and Hungary, there were at the same time
two or three rival kings or claimants, the complication
of the two successions is very puzzling. Lewis of
Hungary had, however, been elected King of Poland
on the death of his maternal uncle in 1370; and,
although he persistently interfered in the affairs of
Naples, is not counted among the kings. On the death
of Lewis, however, in 1382, Sigismund put in his claims
for both crowns of Poland and Hungary.

Lewis had, by great concessions to the Polish nobles,
obtained their promise to elect him to that elective
crown : in Hungary he trusted to his own popularity
and the established doctrine of hereditary succession.
Sigismund found, however, that his claims were con-
troverted in both kingdoms. The Poles, forgetful of
their word, preferred Hedwiga the younger to Mary
the elder daughter of Lewis, refused to have anything
to say to Sigismund, and, after an interregnum of
four years, made up a marriage between Hedwiga and
Jagello, Duke of Lithuania, in consequence of which

RELATIONS WITH NAPLES, ETC. 165

he was to receive Christianity and succeed to the
kingdom.

Poor Hedwiga, who was engaged to William of Austria,
was the victim of policy, and led an unhappy life with a
disagreeable, half-heathen husband ; but so Sigismund
lost Poland. In Hungary he succeeded better, but
not without a struggle. There, as you may remember,
Charles of Durazzo, having murdered the Queen of
Naples and got possession of that throne, arrived in
Hungary in 1385 to take advantage of the female suc-
cession there, and was murdered by order of Elizabeth,
the widow of King Lewis and mother of the young
queen Mary. Elizabeth herself was soon after taken
and drowned by the Ban of Croatia, a partisan of
Charles, and at last Sigismund appeared, rescued his
bride, and completed his marriage in 1386. The heir
of Naples was Ladislaus, son of Charles of Durazzo,
and adversary of Pope John XXIII. Sigismund, when
fairly seated in Hungary, mortgaged his electorate of
Brandenburg to his cousin, Jobst of Moravia, great-
grandson, like himself, of Henry VII. From this time
he reigned in Hungary without dispute until 1392, but
not without difficulty and danger ; for his severity is
said to have provoked the Hungarian nobles against
him ; he was obliged to be constantly on the watch
against the Wallachians, who were being forced on to
Hungary by the advances of the Turks, and he had his
brother Wenzel to keep in view, lest, in some mad freak,
he should make away with the Bohemian inheritance ;
as we saw, he had at one time to be a party to his im-
prisonment, and was a consenting one, although with
some reluctance and perhaps no little feeling of dis-
appointment, to his deposition from the German throne.

In 1392, just as Sigismund had won some successes

166 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

in Bulgaria over the Turks-and Wallachians, he heard
of his wife's death and had to return to Hungary to
counteract the machinations of Jagello, now called
Ladislas or Uladislas, who was claiming the crown as
the husband of Hedwiga. Setting himself in earnest to
secure his hold on the kingdom, he seemed likely to
succeed, but the constant attacks of the Wallachians
gave him little breathing time. In this difficulty he
summoned crusaders from all the west of Europe to his
aid. They came, and perished mostly in the great battle
of Nicopolis, September 28, 1396, which made Sigis-
mund a fugitive and wanderer for a year and a half.
When he appeared again in Hungary he was seized by
the discontented nobles and imprisoned. The crown
was offered by the same party to the other Ladislaus, the
one of Naples, and accepted by him. He was crowned
in 1403 ; but, a few days after the coronation, Sigismund
escaped from prison, hastened to Bohemia, and there
collected force enough from Wenzel's subjects to drive
Ladislaus back to Naples. The nobleman by whose
assistance this was done, the Count of Cilly, lent him
his aid on condition that he married his daughter
Barbara. This Sigismund did, and they led a very
unhappy life together for more than thirty years. It
is just, however, to poor Barbara to say that, although
the Catholic writers give her a bad character, the
Hussites showed some regard and respect for her, and
it is possible that the charges of atheism and the likeness
to Messalina, alleged against her, are exaggerations.

The Schism. — From the time of his escape and
recovery of Hungary Sigismund seems to have reigned
in peace until the death of Rupert, when his ambi-
tion for the imperial crown was raised, and after
the death of Jobst gratified. From the time of his

THE COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE, 1414 167

election, 141 2, to his death, 1437, he was the most
prominent man in Europe. The first and greatest
of his undertakings was the peace of the Church, the
putting an end to the schism. In this he clearly acted
both with sincerity and with a real sense of his respon-
sibility as King of the Romans. In 1410, just before the
death of King Rupert, John XXIII. (Balthazar Cossa)
had been chosen by the cardinals at Bologna to succeed
their pope, Alexander V.; Benedict XIII. and Gregory
XII. still, although deposed by the Council of Pisa,
claiming and exerting the rights of supreme pontiffs.

One of the first acts of John was to summon (August
15, 141 1) and excommunicate King Ladislaus of Naples
(1386 to 1414); a measure which, coupled with his sum-
mary defeat by Ladislaus, had the effect of throwing the
pope into close alliance with Sigismund, and as a general
council was Sigismund's remedy for the schism, the pope
had to consent. In the year 1413 it was summoned
to meet at Constance. One of the great subjects of
deliberation in this council was the suppression of
the Hussite movement, a measure most important to
Sigismund, if the Bohemian crown, so long endangered
by the behaviour of Wenzel, were to continue in his
family.

The Council of Constance, 1414^ — The council opened
on October 1, 1414. Sigismund, before he presented
himself in person at Constance, was crowned at Aix-la-
Chapelle, November 8, 1414, and appeared in the council
on Christmas Day (December 25), when he officiated as
deacon at the morning Mass.

With the business of the council we cannot deal,
except so far as its results touch German history and
illustrate the character and position of Sigismund.
The surrender of John Huss (arrested November 28,

168 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

before Sigismund arrived), who had come to the council
on the strength of the royal word, is a blot on the
character of Sigismund, notwithstanding the equitable
considerations that may be alleged in excuse, and will in
all probability never be effaced. Sigismund had given
the safe-conduct ; the pope and cardinals insisted on
the imprisonment of the accused. For three months
Sigismund resisted, but at last allowed himself to be
overborne.

To us neither the loose morality of the age nor the
convenient prevalence of the doctrine that no faith is to
be kept with heretics, can be allowed to justify even if it
be suffered to extenuate the guilt of the act. It cannot
be denied that the moral sense, even of that age, was
offended, and the verdict of all posterity condemns the
betrayal. But we must consider what Sigismund had at
stake; how great was the object for which he thought
the sin to be necessary. He was determined to put down
the schism in the papacy ; and this was the price that he
had to pay to win the support of the council. By dint of
great pressure John XXIII. was made, in March 1415, to
consent to abdicate ; but the consent was evaded as soon
as it was made ; and on March 25 he escaped in disguise
from the council under the protection of Duke Frederick
of Austria, a great enemy of Sigismund, who had com-
pelled him to do homage for his fiefs, and with the
connivance of the intriguing Archbishop of Mainz, John
of Nassau.

Journey of Sigismund, 1415-1417. — The council, in
conjunction with Sigismund, executed summary venge-
ance on the duke ; he was put to the ban of the
empire, excommunicated, all his vassals were released
from their fealty, and within a month he was com-
pelled to put himself at the king's mercy. The pope,

JOURNEY OF SIGISMUND, 1415-1417 169

having ruined his protector, was obliged, a month
later, to surrender. He was arrested by Frederick of
Hohenzollern, burgrave of Nuremberg, and imprisoned.
On May 29 he was deposed from the papacy. Gregory
XII. abdicated early in July. The same month (July 6,
1415) John Huss was burned. Only one pope now
remained in the field, Benedict XIII., and him the
council in vain attempted to circumvent. On July 21
Sigismund left the council, under the protection of
the Count Palatine ; and, as in former days popes
preached crusades, he undertook a long journey in
person to bring the kings of Europe to a proper sense of
the need of peace in the Church. Partly by way of raising
funds for his journey he sold the electorate of Branden-
burg to Frederick of Hohenzollern, and invested him
with it in the council (he had investiture April 18, 1417) ;
thus giving to the indefatigable house, from which the
kings of Prussia spring, their second or rather third step
on the ladder of empire. Sigismund proceeded first
to Basel and thence to Narbonne and Perpignan. His
efforts in this direction were successful ; he obtained the
adhesion of Aragon, Castille, and Navarre to the council,
although he could not get Pope Benedict to resign.

From Catalonia he went to Lyons, where the French
government entreated him to mediate for Charles VI. with
Henry V. of England, who had just won the battle of Agin-
court. Coming to Paris on March 1, 1416, he was received
with some share of the respect due of old to the imperial
dignity. There, one day, as he was attending the court
of law, he managed, by conferring knighthood on one of
the petitioners to the parliament of Paris, in order to
put him on a level with his adversary, to offend the
dignity of the great nation ; and use was made of this
piece of carelessness, by the party indisposed to peace,

170 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

to reject his overtures. He therefore went on to
England, whither Henry V. had invited him to de-
liberate on measures calculated to put down the heresy
that was springing up in their respective dominions.
He was not, however, allowed to land at Dover without
giving a promise that he would attempt no act of
imperial dignity in this island, as he had just done
at Paris. Sigismund made no objection, landed on
April 30, 1416, and at Southwark was met by the
king himself. His visit was one long scene of festivity
and triumph ; but his mediation for peace failed here
as well as at Paris, and an alliance, offensive and
defensive, with Henry, which produced no practical
result, was all that came of the visit.

After spending nearly four months in England, on
August 24 he sailed away, having spent most of his
money and with difficulty got ships to take him up
the Rhine ; he reached Aix-la-Chapelle at last, and went
on thence to Constance, where he found the council
waiting for him, in January 1417. His exertions on
behalf of the council had been more favoured than
his attempts to mediate between England and France.
The adhesion of Spain had added a fifth nation to
the other four — Italy, Germany, France, and England.
Immediately Benedict XIII. was summoned ; not
appearing, he was declared contumacious, and on
July 20 deposed as a schismatic. On November 8
Otto Colonna was elected as Pope Martin V.

Election of Martin V., 1417. — The Council of Con-
stance is prominent in ecclesiastical history for something
more than the burning of John Huss and conclusion of
the great schism ; I mean, of course, its attempt, re-
newed at the Council of Basel some years later, to set
its authority as a general council above the authority of

THE HUSSITE WAR 171

the pope. All the good men of Europe were anxious
for a reformation of Church discipline, and for the
abolition of existing scandals such as those by which
the court of Rome was immemorially supported. The
appointment of a pope was necessary for such a reforma-
tion, but experience had shown that no pope hitherto
had had both will and power to effect it.

Before proceeding to the election of Martin, the
council had bound itself not to separate until the
new pope had granted, or taken the initiative in, this
most necessary process. From the first act of Martin
V. it was seen that he intended no pressure of the
council to affect him; he confirmed all the abuses
which had been legalised by John XXIII. He wore
out the patience of the members of the council by
arguing every point that was submitted to him for
change. He broke up the concentrated action of the
five nations by entering into negotiations with each for
a separate measure ; and, in the end, got rid of his
troublesome advisers without a scandal. The Council
broke up on April 22, 1418. Martin V. was more than
a match for his electors ; he had a policy of his own,
to turn the Church into an absolute despotism, which
was to reside in the pope. It was contradictory to the
very principle that lies at the foundation of the conciliar
constitution ; he pressed it with the power and prestige
of an honest and virtuous pope, and his success ended
in the Reformation of the sixteenth century, which
might never have been needed if the Council of Con-
stance had had strength enough to carry out its own
determination.

The Hussite War. — The Hussite business concerns
Germany only indirectly. The heretical party was
national, Bohemian, Czech, in contradistinction to the

172 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

oppressive German orthodoxy. Nor, although for more
than a century movements had been going in Germany
in the direction of a doctrinal change, was it, for a
century to come, time for a really German reformation.

The year after the Council of Constance broke up
Sigismund succeeded to the crown of Bohemia. Wenzel
died of apoplexy, and left his brother to reap his wild
oats. The judicial murder of John Huss and Jerome
of Prague had excited the national feeling beyond en-
durance. John Ziska, a one-eyed Hussite nobleman,
undertook the leadership. The Hussite war occupied
Sigismund for the next fourteen years. Great cruelties
were committed, no doubt, on both sides. Ziska died
in 1424, and after his death the party seems to have been
less united. But it was always strong enough to tax
the whole power of Sigismund, who even ran the risk
of losing Hungary from the same cause. In vain a
crusade was published against the heretics; they de-
feated the foreign crusaders as well as the Germans.
Cardinal Beaufort, the great -uncle of Henry VI. of
England, spent his treasure in the equipment of an
army which he was scarcely able to rescue from
ignominious defeat. At last, in 143 1, the rebellious
Bohemians invaded Germany, laid waste their Austrian,
Bavarian, and Saxon neighbours ; and then a fifth
crusade, under Cardinal Julian Cesarini, was completely
defeated by them at Taas in August. This hurried
sketch brings this section of the story up to the
meeting of the Council of Basel.

In this long struggle with his people Sigismund was
not heartily supported by Germany, never very plentiful
of money or disposed to war except within her own
borders. After the publication of the Crusade, which
made it a religious war, he was better helped, and still

THE HUSSITE WAR 173

more so when the Hussites began to act on the offen-
sive and attacked Germany. But it may be questioned
whether, in the long run, Bohemia would not have
rejected both the yoke of Rome and the rule of the
Luxemburg family, had not the national party itself
been divided, and the Hussites, as the weaker, gone
to the wall. During the interval between the councils
of Constance and Basel we hear little of Sigismund, or
of Germany either, except in connection with Bohemia.
But some few changes of importance were taking place.
In 1423 the Ballenstadt line, which had ended in Bran-
denburg exactly 100 years before, came to an end in
electoral Saxony. It continued, indeed, to exist in the
lines of Lauenburg, and still continues in Anhalt, but
these were not strong enough to press their claims against
the king, anxious to lay hold on Saxony as an imperial
fief ; and the strong neighbour, already Margrave of
Meissen and Landgrave of Thuringia, who was eager
to purchase it. Frederick the Warlike of Meissen, the
descendant of the family which had inherited Thuringia
from Henry Raspo, outbid the other candidates, and partly
in consideration of his money, partly in reward of his
support against the Hussites, Sigismund invested him
with the electorate in 1425. From him the present royal
and ducal houses of Saxony spring.

In 1422 Sigismund married his only daughter Elizabeth
to Albert, Duke of Austria, thus for the time consolidat-
ing the interest of the two houses, which had hitherto
been either enemies or rivals to one another. Of the
many promotions of counts into dukes, and the honorary
imperial dignities, bestowed in the Netherlands, in Lom-
bardy, and in Germany, by Sigismund on the plan of his
father, there is hardly one which affects the balance of
power in Germany or the distinct interests which we

174 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

have traced hitherto, or which have as yet foreshadowed
their later greatness.

Council of Basel, 14$^.— In 1431, on February 20, died
Pope Martin V. The cardinals, whom he had kept under
his control, breathed again and revived the project of re-
formation which he had nipped in the bud. One direction
of the Council of Constance was that a council should
be held every five years ; in 1423 one had met at Pavia,
and was transferred to Sienna, but it was very scantily
attended, and was prorogued by Martin for seven years,
at the expiration of which it was to meet at Basel.
It met at Basel, and was opened on July 1, 1431.

Eugenius IV., who had been elected to succeed
Martin, had to fight for his Roman territories, and
chose to treat the Council of Basel at first with con-
tempt and afterwards with hostility. He would not
go to Basel over the Alps ; he would not sanction any
terms, such as the council was likely to make with
the Hussites or with the Greek Church ; he would have
a separate council of his own, and he summoned it
to meet at Bologna. The Council of Basel met for
deliberation in December 143 1, under that cardinal,
Julian Cesarini, who had been so sorely beaten by the
Hussites at Taas. He was most urgent for reformation.
All Germany was crying aloud for it. There was war
between bishops and people in the episcopal dominions,
and in the imperial cities. Sigismund was fully alive to
the critical nature of the situation ; for Bohemia must
be saved, whatever else was lost. This was a time for
every nerve to be strained, every advantage to be seized.
He determined to demand the imperial crown. First,
however, he was crowned at Milan with the iron crown
of Lombardy ; in July he moved on to Sienna, and there
stayed, negotiating with the pope for eight months.

LAST YEARS OF SIGISMUND'S REIGN 175

The Council of Basel was legislating in spite of the
pope ; the pope endeavouring to compel Sigismund to
break up the council before he would crown him ;
Sigismund exhausting the patience and the funds of his
few Italian friends.

Last Years of Sigismund 's Reign. — At last, May 30,
1433, the emperor was crowned, and enabled to return
to Basel as C?esar and Augustus. The pope was
obliged to yield so far as to recognise the council
as ecumenical. Sigismund stayed, and took part in
its proceedings until April 1434. In the autumn of
1433 the legates of the council had made peace in
Bohemia by allowing the use of the cup in the Eucharist
to the laity. The measure broke up the union between
the stricter Hussites and the Calixtines or more moderate
party. The three remaining years of Sigismund's life
were spent in running up and down Germany and
Bohemia, in hopes of peace. The two Bohemian parties,
after a bloody struggle, agreed in 1435 that Sigismund
should still be king, but should be compelled to have
Hussite priests at court, and to treat the new religion
on the same footing as the old. But the old emperor,
having once got possession of Prague, showed no
respect to the compact. His restrictive measures pro-
duced another rising, which was effectively crushed.
But the nobles were desirous of a stronger govern-
ment. The wicked Empress Barbara conspired with
them and with the Hussites to procure the succession
of the King of Poland, to the exclusion of the emperor's
son-in-law. Sigismund pacified the nobles by conces-
sions, but he felt that his end was approaching, and
finally left Bohemia for Moravia, to take leave of his
daughter at Znaim ; there, on December 9, 1437, he
died at the age of seventy, having nominated his

176 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

successor, His wife, Barbara, remained in prison until
her death.

It appears that she intended to marry the King of
Poland, who, as the wicked old woman had been Sigis-
mund's wife for nearly thirty years, may be thought to
have had a lucky escape. There was a suspicion of
poison, but there was also, as it would appear, a good
deal of natural disease, which would account for Sigis-
mund's death. He had been a very busy man all his
life, had undergone great hardships, and indulged in
many excesses ; he was wrell-nigh broken with the humi-
liation and disappointment of the last few years, and,
considering that his years at the time of his death were
greater in number than those of any king who had
reigned since Rudolf of Hapsburg, it may be accounted
for without poison. We may say of him, I think, that
he lived more laboriously than gloriously, and, notwith-
standing his great position and wide influence, laboured
in the main with little success. His character was not
that of a great king, nor was he morally a good man,
but his instincts as a ruler were not wholly selfish,
nor is he to be judged by a standard higher than that
of the age in which he lived.

As to his struggle with the Hussites and other religious
parties in Bohemia, it is not difficult to view them
dispassionately ; for, on the one hand, we have
no sympathy with religious persecution, nor do we
think that cold-blooded murder is justified by the
faith of the murderer, be he Catholic or Protestant.
In these disputes we see the same cruelty on both
sides, and on neither any show of ordinary good faith ;
nor were these wars merely religious. I doubt if there
ever were a really religious war fought by sincere men
only. It was a war between Czech and Teuton, be-

SIGISMUND AND JOHN HUSS 177

tween Bohemian and German, and between nobles and
people.

Sigismund and John Htiss. — The bad faith of Sigis-
mund to John Huss I do not think can be excused
by any special pleading, nor probably would he
himself have excused it. It was a breach of German
honour as well as of Christian faith. Only remember
the great temptation, the certainty that, unless the
snake were scotched, Bohemia and probably Hungary,
was lost to him ; the certainty that, unless he could
make terms with the council, it would be impossible
to settle the schism, which was gradually destroying
both the influence of the Church, the Christian faith,
and the possibility of a general peace in Europe; the
certainty that he would lose both the practical benefit
of a peace, and, what was almost equally dear to him,
the glory of having been the man to make it. He was
in a great strait, and he chose the greater evil rather
than the less. But, as so often happens when men, either
kings or subjects, do this, he lost both the good things
that he was trying for. He lived to see the Church
embroiled again in a dispute, which only failed to
become a schism because the principle that he had
set himself to support utterly broke down ; he died in
the midst of the confusion of the later proceedings
at Basel. He lost the affections of the Bohemians
and Hungarians, and won no glory as emperor. He
lived and died a disappointed man, but he had not
depth of character to be greatly impressed by dis-
appointment; his buoyancy itself saved him from being
utterly unsuccessful. He retained all the dominions
that he had accumulated, as long as he lived, and
conveyed them on to his son-in-law, a great thing to be

said for a German prince in those days.

178 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

The Empire at Sigismund' s Death. — At his death he
possessed, besides the remains of imperial territory
scattered about Germany and Italy, and the con-
tingent right to the fiefs as they fell in, the kingdoms
of Bohemia, which he inherited from his brother,
and Hungary, the portion of his first wife, Moravia,
which came to him from his cousin Jobst, and
Lausitz or Lusatia, which he had from his younger
brother John. Luxemburg had been alienated, and, by
a marriage of the sister of Jobst with Antony of Bur-
gundy, Duke of Brabant, had fallen to another family,
from which the reclamations of Albert, Sigismund's suc-
cessor, failed to recover it, and from which it ultimately
came to the dukes of Burgundy, and through them to
the imperial house once more. Sigismund, having but
one daughter, and her well provided for, and being him-
self always poor, made no attempt to add either of the
two electorates which escheated during his reign to his
hereditary or acquired dominions.

Thus two of the present governing powers of Germany
look to him as the author of their independence, Saxony
and Prussia, in neither of which has the male line failed
since he gave them their electoral crowns. The house
of Hohenzollern we have carefully kept in view from
its first rise under Frederick Barbarossa, as counts of
Zollern, as burgraves of Nuremberg, as princes of the
empire, now as electors of Brandenburg. The house of
Saxony we have also traced as first counts Palatine of
Saxony, counts of Wettin, then landgraves of Thuringia,
and margraves of Meissen, at last dukes and electors.

With these exceptions the face of Germany had not
changed much under Sigismund's government. Austria,
Bavaria, and the counts and cities of Swabia divided the
south. The Count Palatine and the electoral territories

THE EMPEROR ALBERT, 1438-1439 179

of Mainz and Cologne ruled along the Rhine and in
Westphalia. In the country which was formerly Lower
Saxony were the houses of Brunswick, Saxony, and
Brandenburg, the two former and sometimes the latter
wasting their influence by constant subdivision of terri-
tories; beyond were the free cities of the Hanse league,
to the north and to the east the dukes of Mecklenburg
and Pomerania, and then the territories of the Teutonic
knights.

The Hapsburgs. — The house of Austria was the largest
territorial holder in Germany itself; for of the Luxemburg
heritage, a great part lay outside Germany proper, and
was inhabited by Slavonians. And the Austrian dukes
had managed their property well, keeping it together,
under the joint administration of brothers, so as to avoid
dismemberment ; only in 141 1, a family quarrel ended in
the separation of the duchy of Austria from those of the
Tyrol and Carinthia. Austria fell to Albert, the son-in-
law, at a later date, of Sigismund ; Carinthia, Styria, and
Carniola to Ernest, his cousin, father of Frederick III.,
who afterwards became emperor ; Tyrol, with the re-
mainder of the Hapsburg inheritance in Alsace, to that
Frederick whom we saw put to the ban of the empire
at the Council of Constance. Thus at the time of the
death of Sigismund there were three dukes of Austria ;
and, all through the early part of the century, when the
empire went begging, there was no Austrian duke strong
enough to enter into competition for it ; they went on,
however, accumulating territory by happy marriages
and biding their time. The whole dominion, with all
its additions, ultimately centred in Maximilian, and not
before.

The Emperor Albert, 143 8- 1439. — The death of Sigis-
mund was the event that lodged the empire for the

180 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

remaining centuries of its existence (with the exception
of the years 1742-1744) in the hands of the Hapsburgs.
He had nominated his son-in-law, Duke Albert of
Lower Austria, to be King of Bohemia and Hungary
after his death — a man of forty-four, of sturdy, rather
rigid German character, a patron of learning, and,
like most of the princes of his house, a religious and
moral man. He had married Elizabeth of Luxemburg
in 1422, receiving with her the march of Moravia,
and had signalised himself during his father-in-law's
reign by his successes against the Hussites. He
obtained speedy recognition in both the kingdoms, was
crowned King of Hungary on New Year's Day 1438,
and elected King of Bohemia on May 6 ; after some
initial difficulties he was crowned at Prague in July.
His election as King of the Romans (March 20, 1438)
was managed without any obstacle except from himself.
He had promised the Hungarian nobles not to accept
the empire without their consent. Hungary, as they
thought, had been neglected by Sigismund for his im-
perial possessions and claims, and had suffered thereby
from the Wallachians and Turks. The request was
made, on behalf of Albert, by his cousin Frederick of
Styria, and, after a good deal of discussion, leave was
granted him to become King of the Romans. He then
allowed himself to accept the election, and was crowned
at Aix-la-Chapelle on May 30.

He held, on July 25, his first diet at Nuremberg. In
this assembly he enacted some very important laws,
which were the basis of the polity subsequently de-
veloped by Maximilian. The first and most important
of them was the putting an end to all the feuds that at
present existed in Germany in consequence of the jus
Jijjldationis, or right of private war. For the decision

THE EMPEROR ALBERT, 1438-1439 181

of such quarrels he appointed a tribunal of Austregas
or arbitrators, similar to that which Frederick II. had
attempted to establish in his Mainzerrecht or law of Mainz
in 1235. On the plan of this tribunal of appeal Maxi-
milian afterwards erected the Imperial Chamber. The
second measure of Albert was to divide Germany, with
the exception of Bohemia and Austria, into four circles,
those of (1) Bavaria and Franconia ; (2) the Rhine and
Alsace ; (3) Westphalia and the Belgian Provinces ; and
(4) Saxony. These circles, the internal administration
of which was directed to the maintenance of peace, were
based possibly on those alliances or confederations for
the same purpose which have been mentioned as one of
the characteristic features of the later years of the four-
teenth century. This plan also was enlarged and adopted
throughout the whole empire by Maximilian. Executors
of peace were appointed for each circle. In a second
diet at Nuremberg Albert increased the number to six,
as was the arrangement by Maximilian.

The reign of Albert was marked in Italy by a suc-
cession of important councils, in which his constant
employment in Germany, and the alarms of a Turkish
war, did not suffer him to take much part, and the
results of which we shall have to examine, rather than
their details, in the ensuing reign. After a doubtful
campaign in Hungary, where a doubt of success was
equivalent to a defeat, he died on October 27, 1439, at a
village called Langendorf, between Vienna and Gran.
He was unquestionably a prince of very superior abilities,
and might have raised the empire far higher than it had
been raised since the days of Henry of Luxemburg, but
he was able to show little more than promise. He
did not even live to see out the Council of Basel. He
died childless, but his wife three months after his death

182 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

presented Hungary and Bohemia with an hereditary
and legitimate sovereign. Germany had to provide one
for herself.

IMPORTANT DATES

Sigismund, 1411-1437.

The Council of Constance, 1414-1417.

John Huss is burnt, 1 41 5.

Martin V. Pope, 1417.

Hussite War, 1419-1436.

Council of Basel, 1431.

Albert of Austria Emperor, 1438-1439.

THE HOUSE OF ANJOU

183

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CHAPTER X

The reign of Frederick III. — An epoch in the history of Germany
and of the Hapsburgs — The discovery of printing — Frederick's
character — Close of the Council of Basel — Wars in Germany,
1440-1452 — Bohemia and Hungary — Matthias Corvinus — The
Turkish invasions — Death of Filippo Maria Visconti, 1447 —
John Hunyadi — Death of Albert of Austria, 1463 — Results of
Frederick's reign — His son Maximilian.

The Reign of Frederick III. — The reign of Frederick III.
is the longest and the dullest of all German history. No
doubt the fifty-three years of it contained their proper
number of facts and events, and some progress of society
was made during it ; but the general features are slightly
marked, and the philosophy of history has very little to
say about it ; even that little is inconsistent with itself ;
like the dark ages to the philosophic mind it is obscure,
as much because of the obscurity of the philosophic
mind as because of its own. Yet the unphilosophic
mind cannot descry anything of lasting interest, and the
most careful inspection can reveal only a few things
that are worth remembering.

As an epoch, however, there can be no doubt that the
reign has an importance of its own. In the first place it
marks the permanent acquisition, by the house of Haps-
bu'rg, of the name and remains of empire. Albert II.
left only a posthumous child, who himself had no issue ;
from Frederick III. proceeded the whole of the remain-
ing Hapsburg emperors ; and the house, so long as it
subsisted in the male line, retained the empire with but
a rare and weak attempt on the part of any rival family

trrmi A !■■ London, DewYork, Bombay &CaLaiMiL.

THE REIGN OF FREDERICK III 185

at interruption. Again Frederick III. was the last
emperor of the Romans who received the imperial
crown in the imperial city. All the succeeding emperors
were not, strictly speaking, more than emperors elect,
except Charles V., who was crowned, however, not at
Rome, but at Bologna. Again by a singular coincidence
the last crowned emperor was the first of the German
line who possessed the imperial title without a counter-
part or equal ; for during Frederick's reign, as you will
remember, the Byzantine succession ceased both at
Constantinople and at Trebizond, both cities being taken
by the Turks, and the houses of Palasologus and Com-
nenus alike ceasing to claim even the heritage of the
Caesarship. The fall of the Byzantine empire, and the
permanent settlement of the Turks in Europe, is enough
to mark, as an epoch, the reign of the principal sovereign
of Europe under whom it occurred. It placed in per-
manent and irreconcilable opposition the house of
Austria and the Turkish empire, whose struggles for the
sovereignty of Eastern Europe, after lasting spasmodi-
cally for three centuries, may possibly be determined
in the fourth ; at all events from this dates the assump-
tion by the Austrian house of the defence of European
Christendom on the eastern frontier, a defence character-
ised by many hard-fought battles, and brilliant victories,
and narrow escapes.

Another great event is that of the discovery of print-
ing, all the probable dates of which fall within the half
century of Frederick's reign. Outside the empire, or on
the borders of it, there are abundant interesting and
important phenomena ; the growth of the house of
Burgundy, the corresponding growth of the real power
of the French Monarchy under Lewis XI. — in England
both the Wars of the Roses, and the pacification and

1 86 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

development that followed from it. In Spain the union
of Aragon and Castille, and the conquest of the~Moori~;
the consolidation of the several powers, whose struggles
and the balance of whose power makes up modern
history. In many countries the step from medieval to
modern is itself taken, whilst Frederick III. is sole and
last crowned Caesar. The great struggle between the
papal and conciliar systems T>f Church government is
settled at least for the Roman portion of the Church
during the same period.

Yet Germany has little or no history. Is it difficult to
say why ? There were wars enough. All South Germany
seems to have been in a chronic state of private war ;
there were wars with the Turks on the frontier ; and in
Hungary and Bohemia wars of nationality and religion ;
on the western boundary there were wars of conquest
and wars of liberation ; and something of the same sort
on the north in the Netherland cities, and the struggles
of Burgundy for supremacy there. There were wars in
Prussia, internal and external; wars in Switzerland and
Italy ; but there was no imperial war. Frederick was
able, for the most part, to live at Vienna or Neustadt,
gardening by day and star-gazing by night, whilst the
old things, all round him, were rapidly passing away, and
the old order giving place to the new. He himself, in
dignity and in some sort in worth also, the first of the
players, has the least share and the least interest in the
game. It may be that he has also the least stake in it ;
yet he plays, as it were, with a view to the future of his
house. His magnificent dreams and imperial devices
suit well enough with the fortunes of his posterity. His
device of A.E.I.O.U., Austria est imperare orbi universo,
would read but as the veriest dotage of effete imperialism,
were it not that we see it so nearly fulfilled in the grand,

THE REIGN OF FREDERICK III 187

almost unbounded empire of his great-grandson, Charles
V., that one might almost think that his astrology had
taught him truer lessons than are divined by the political
foresight of most men. Small indeed were the attempts
he made to increase either the power or the territory of
his own house. And this is his strong point. He was
very honest, and, if ambitious at all, only so within the
limits of just dealing. His imperial authority was little
more than a shadow ; "but thaTTTffleTbf it, which was
substantial, was used righteously. He had little territory,
but that little he did his best to keep in peace.

It is absurd, with some modern historians, to blame
him for having lowered the status of the empire. He
may be blamable for accepting the dignity, but, having
accepted it, he could but use it according to the power that
he had before. Albert, Sigismund, Wenzel, Charles IV.,
had had what share of power they had had in Europe
and in Germany, under the title indeed of empire, but
by virtue of their hereditary estates, inside and outside
of Germany; the Luxemburgs, by their Bohemian and
Hungarian possessions, and Albert in the right of his
Luxemburg wife.

Frederick is accused of having lost hold of the Luxem-
burg heritages ; but in truth he never had hold of them,
nor could have seized them, except by a breach of trust
that would have been revolting to him, or by an act of
tyranny for which he had perhaps no will, and certainly
no power. Since Lewis of Bavaria and Rupert there
had been no emperor with so little hereditary power, and
Lewis had put an end to what little remained of imperial
power in the body of Germany. Frederick had the
opportunity of increasing his family strength by the
marriage of his children, and Maximilian, by his marriage,
did lay the foundation of the strength, as a European
1

1 88 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

power, of the house of Hapsburg. He built on the
heritage of his Burgundian wife, as John of Bohemia
had on the inheritance of his Bohemian wife ; and as
Albert of Austria had on Elizabeth of Luxemburg. But
Frederick surely cannot be charged with losing what he
never had. The kingdoms of Albert descended to his
posthumous son Ladislas. Frederick refused them, when
they were offered to him, because he would not infringe
the rights of his ward ; and when Ladislas died in 1457,
Frederick was not strong enough to claim them, either
as heir or as emperor, or by virtue of family compacts,
as an inheritance, or an escheat. His weakness is thus
accounted for, and accounts for much more. He was
very far from being a great prince, but not so far from
being a good one ; and might no doubt have been much
greater if he had been less good. But in the Middle Ages
good princes are too scarce to be worthy of ridicule
and contempt ; and honesty and integrity are not the
less virtues when they are possessed by a man too weak
to struggle, but not too weak to lie and cheat, if he
had chosen. The reign has no plot or dramatic unity
like some of the shorter ones. Frederick's character
and proceedings do not make him the nucleus of any
great set of incidents. The world went on around him
very much as if he were not there.

Albert II. left his wife, the last representative of
the house of Luxemburg, near her confinement.
Frederick, Duke of Styria, the nearest of his agnates,
was in a family council nominated, if Elizabeth should
bear a son, as guardian to the child, if a daughter,
as heir to his cousin's possessions. He thus, in name
and claim, represented the Luxemburg line, although,
strictly speaking, only very remotely connected with it ;
but as so representing it, he was the most obvious

THE HAPSBURG LANDS 189

candidate for the imperial succession, and, although he
did not put himself forward for it, his friends did. After
an offer of the crown to Lewis III. the Pacific, Landgrave
of Hesse, which was wisely refused, the whole of the/
electors voted for the election of Frederick.

It is said that he took three months for consideration
before he vouchsafed to accept it, but of this it is
impossible to be sure. If he did, it is characteristic
enough; and perhaps he waited to see whether
Elizabeth's child would be a boy or a girl. The election
was made on February 2, 1440 ; on the 22nd the
little Ladislas was born to his two crowns, and yet
not until Whitsuntide did the slow Frederick appear at
Frankfort to complete the formalities of the succession.
He was not crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle until June 17,
1442^ He was at the time of his election twenty-five
years old, and had made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
He was the son of Ernest of Hapsburg by Cymburga,
daughter of the Duke of Masovia, the lady who brought
into the imperial family the characteristic Austrian life,
and whose strength is said to have been so great that
she could twist a horseshoe in her fingers. But from
this distinguished pair Frederick inherited very little
except his personal advantages.

The Hapsburg Lands. — The Hapsburg possessions
were at this time split up more widely than they had
ever been ; for, under the earlier posterity of Rudolf and
Albert, they had been held by the princes of the house in
a sort of joint tenancy, which secured, as long as it lasted,
the unity of the widespread heritage, including Alsace,
and the Breisgau, the Swiss possessions of the Hapsburg
county, Tyrol, Carinthia, andCarniola, as well as Austria
itself. But in the year 141 1 the domains had been
divided, and the Tyrol, Carinthia, and Austria proper

190 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

formed three several duchies. The duchy of Austria
fell to Albert, afterwards emperor ; Ernest and
Frederick, his cousins, divided the rest. The portion
of Ernest was Carinthia and Styria, and these countries
at his death devolved on Frederick III. and his brother
Albert. Frederick thus obtained the crown of Germany
with only his half of Carinthia and Styria, and with the
wardship of the little Ladislas, to live upon. Ladislas,
of course, inherited Austria proper, as well as his
mother's kingdoms ; the Tyrol was still a separate
county, and Albert of Carinthia retained claims over
the portion of Ernest, not less strong than those of
Frederick. Nor did Frederick ever obtain the whole
command of the Austrian inheritance.

In 1457 Ladislas died, but his portion was divided
between the emperor and the other two dukes. In
1463 Duke Albert of Carinthia died, and Frederick
came in for his share individually, but it was not until
1492 that the Tyrolese branch became extinct, and then
its possessions were handed over, not to Frederick, but
to his son Maximilian. Frederick did not marry for
territory. He waited for twelve years, after he became
king, before he married, and then (in 1452) took a Portu-
guese princess, who was the mother of Maximilian.

The Councils. — The first point to be mentioned and
dismissed is the conclusion of the struggle between
the Council of Basel and the papacy. That council
had been struggling, as you will remember, against
the policy of Eugenius IV. from the moment that it
had been, against his wishes, got together. The
Councils of Florence and Ferrara, held by Eugenius
during this period, although extremely interesting in
themselves, do not concern Germany, and we cannot
afford to do more than mention them. The Council

THE COUNCILS 191

of Basel sat in opposition all the time they were
sitting ; and, when Eugenius announced that he had
united the Eastern and Western Churches at Florence,
the Council of Basel determined to depose him. This
was clone in May 1439, before the death of Albert II.,
who, however, was too busily employed to interfere, had
he wished ; but the deposition was approved by his
ambassadors as well as by those of France. Amadeus,
Duke of Savoy, was elected some months after as
Felix V. (October 28, 1439) ; and, almost coincidently
with this election, Albert II. died (October 27).

Much as the supporters of the Council of Basel longed
for reformation and detested Eugenius IV., they were
not disposed to run any risks for Felix V. Germany
especially was desirous not to burn her fingers with
a schism. And the Diet of Mainz, before the election of
Frederick III., had declared itself neutral; it would
support the Church, but would take no part between
Felix and Eugenius. Neither pope was strong enough
to injure his rival temporally ; the great powers of
Europe took little interest in either. In three diets at
Mainz, Nuremberg, and Frankfort, both parties were
heard through their envoys, but no other decision was
arrived at. And matters drifted on until the year
1445, when Eugenius, strengthened by the adhesion of
Aragon and the pacification of some of his Italian
enemies, ventured to depose the Archbishops of Cologne
and Treves as adherents of Felix. This measure com-
pelled Frederick and the empire to take some action
at last ; that action was managed by JEnea.s Sylvius
Piccolomini, afterwards Pope Pius II., one of the
greatest men of the century, the subject of one of
Milman's most entertaining chapters, and the hero
of Creighton's two volumes. JEnea.s Sylvius had been

192 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

secretary to the Council of Basel, afterwards to the anti-
pope, and thirdly to Frederick III., who had crowned
him, as his poet-laureate, with his own hands.

The Papacy. — A man of great power and consum-
mate versatility, he had contented himself, since he had
attached himself to Frederick, with letting things take
their course. In 1445 he went as imperial ambassador
to Rome, and began to draw the rival powers together ;
after his return, upon the violent proceedings of
Eugenius against the archbishops, he joined the envoys
of the electors in their negotiations, very secretly
cognisant of the counsels of both parties, and bent all
his energies towards a reconciliation, which he saw could
be won only by the humiliation of the Council of Basel
and its antipope. He was received by Eugenius IV., who
listened to his proposals, and, on his departure from
Germany, named him his secretary, so that he now stood
in the same relation to both pope and emperor.

It is impossible to follow the slow progress of negotia-
\ tions. By bribery and forgery, as Milman states it,
by double-dealing and exceeding cleverness, accord-
ing to Creighton, -^neas obtained the submission of
Germany and the renunciation of the council. By
bribery he divided the electoral body, and by a
forgery he persuaded them that the pope had can-
celled the deposition of the archbishops. His policy
succeeded better than it deserved. Just as he brought
the news to Rome, Eugenius died ; his successor,
Nicolas V. (Thomas Parentucelli of Sarzana), was
sincerely desirous of peace, and, two years after his
accession, in 1449, the Council of Basel broke up.
Felix V. abdicated, and the struggles of the Church of
Rome for unquestioned supremacy as against emperor
and council were at an end.

GERMANY, HUNGARY, BOHEMIA 193

Three years after the breaking up of the council
Frederick went into Italy with his bride, Eleanor of
Portugal, and at Rome, March 18, 1452, he was married
and crowned by Nicolas V. On this occasion was
ratified the concordat, agreed on before the death of
Eugenius IV., by which the ecclesiastical affairs of
Germany were regulated down to the eighteeenth
century. The chief points of it are five: (1) the
restoration of canonical election of the bishops by
the chapters ; (2) the abolition of provisions and
expectatives ; (3) the right of the pope to fill up
benefices vacant by translation or by sentence of the
holy see ; (4) the pope to fill up vacant canonries one
half of the year, the chapters the other half; (5) the
commutation of Annates for a fixed payment by way
of first-fruits.

Germany, Hungary, Bohemia. — During the whole of
these years, 1440 to 1452, Germany and the neigh-
bouring lands were full of war. In Switzerland the
confederate cantons made war on Zurich, which
had concluded an alliance, offensive and defensive,
with Austria against them, and attempted to found
a new league ; and the war that followed lasted
until 1447. In 1450 the alliance was dissolved, and
peace restored by the mediation of the neutral princes
of Germany. Hungary and Bohemia, during these
years, had no sound peace. The Hungarians, in con-
tempt of the rights of the unborn Ladislas, offered
their crown to Ladislas III., King of Poland; and, even
after the birth and coronation of the child, received
Ladislas as king.

In the war between the partisans of the two Ladislases,
Amurath II., Sultan of the Turks, invaded the kingdom.
He was defeated by John Corvinus Hunyadi, and peace

^-*-— ' ■■-■— — minimi nwm in !■_ XT

194 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

was concluded ; but it was immediately broken by
Ladislas, who was defeated and killed in the fatal
.battle of Varna in 1444. His death left the throne
open for Ladislas Posthumous ; but Frederick had not
the means of enforcing his rights, and would not give
up either him or his crown to the Hungarians. John
Hunyadi was declared regent, and he for eight years
carried on an adventurous war against the Turks.

In 1453 Ladislas was sent to rule in Hungary, which
he misgoverned for five years, Hunyadi's influence
being despised by him, although his kingdom owed
its very existence to his prowess. On the death of
Ladislas in 1457, Matthias Corvinus, son of Hunyadi,
was chosen king. Frederick, claiming Hungary as an
escheat, declared war against him ; but, as he had no
means of carrying it on, Matthias invaded Austria, and
occupied the whole country except Vienna itself. The
emperor was forced to sue for peace. This uncomfort-
able relation between Austria and Hungary continued
to subsist during the remainder of the reign. Frederick
was too proud to concede all that Matthias wanted, and
too poor to resist him. The result was that Austria was,
as often as not, in the hands of the Hungarians, and the
emperor an exile in the midst of his empire. Matthias
died four years before Frederick, who even then failed
to obtain the election of Hungary for Maximilian ; and
it was not until 1527 that the house of Austria, in
the person of Ferdinand I., obtained the apostolic
crown.

In Bohemia the emperor was no stronger than in
Hungary, although there the struggle was complicated
by religious and national influences. There the crown
was early offered, as I have said, to Frederick, who
refused it in order to maintain the rights of the little

GERMANY, HUNGARY, BOHEMIA 195

king, and Ladislas obtained and retained the title without
a rival ; but the whole power of Bohemia was engrossed
by George Podiebrad, who played the same part there
which John Hunyadi did in Hungary, and, on the death
of Ladislas, was elected as his successor.

George Podiebrad was not so successful as Matthias
Corvinus, except against the poor Frederick, who
suffered from both of them. George was, moreover,
a heretic, and the pope incited Matthias against him
with the promise of the crown. But on his death
in 1471, Ladislas, son of Casimir, King of Poland, by
Elizabeth, daughter of Albert II., succeeded by the will
of George. Both candidates compelled Frederick to
give them the investiture of Bohemia ; and war between
them lasted until 1478, when they agreed that peace
should be made, and the provinces of Lausitz, Moravia,
and Silesia should belong to Matthias for life ; and in
1490 Ladislas was elected to the Hungarian throne as
well. His daughter married Ferdinand I., and brought
the two crowns to the imperial house.

It is impossible to exaggerate the innocent insig-
nificance of Frederick during these wars. It was
not that George Podiebrad and Matthias did not
care about him : if they would have let him alone,
no doubt he would have been too thankful ; but
they tried to use him, to defend him, or to em-
barrass him just as if he were the king in the game
of chess, with very little power, but a great deal of
consequence. The position would have been igno-
minious if it had been of Frederick's own choosing ;
but he had no power, or the means of getting it.
He was alternately petted and bullied by his com-
petitors ; alternately an exile and an emperor, but
throughout devoid of anything like the substance of

196 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

authority. If he had possessed an army he might have
found an opportunity in Italy.

Italy. — At Milan, in 1447, Filippo Maria Visconti died,
and with him the family which he represented. Divers
claimants presented themselves; but Frederick, although
the Milanese would gladly have received him, was un-
able, alone of the competitors, to make a stroke for
the ducal crown ; after waiting for two months for his
assistance, they were obliged to give themselves up to
Francisco Sforza, who had married a bastard daughter
of Filippo Maria ; and thus, from the weakness of the
emperor, arose that long struggle about the Milanese
which enters into almost every continental war down
to the end of 1866, constituting so large a part of the
history of Lewis XII., Charles V., Philip II., the war of
the succession of Spain in the eighteenth century, and
even of the Italian campaigns within our own memory.

The Year 1453, and after. — The year 1453, which
followed that of Frederick's coronation, saw the
end of the Byzantine empire, and should have armed
Europe for a crusade for the deliverance of Con-
stantinople, if not for the frustration of all further
attempts on the part of the Turks to push their way
into Europe. Some show of zeal in this direc-
tion was exhibited by both emperor and pope.
During the three following years several diets were held
for the purpose, but no definite action was agreed on,
and no one approved himself as fitted for command.
Pope Nicolas V. died in 1455, and his successor, Calix-
tus III., in 1458. The next pope was ^Eneas Sylvius as
Pius II. The crusade was the darling object of the
whole of his policy as pope ; and, before he reached
the pontifical throne, it was the great end of the papal
administration which he guided.

JOHN HUNYADI 197

John Hunyadi. — The emperor, still under the influence
of ^Eneas, now threw himself zealously into the plan,
but he was too weak to do anything just without Ger-
many, and the German churchmen were too jealous of
an agreement between pope and Caesar to lend their
aid. The death of Ladislas Posthumous, in 1457, left
Frederick more helpless than ever ; he lost the influ-
ence which his position as the guardian of the King
of Bohemia and Hungary might have gained for him,
and he had no chance of the succession to which the
family compact of 1440 would have entitled, if he could
have constrained the two nations, which Ladislas had
nominally ruled, to accept him. Fortunately the de-
fence of Christendom for the time had fallen into hands
better able than Frederick's to conduct it : first into
those of John Hunyadi, who commanded the Hun-
garian nobles, in spite of the dislike of the boy Ladislas
and his minister, the Count Ulric of Cilli ; and after
his death, which happened in the year before that of
Ladislas, into the hands of Matthias Corvinus.

To John Hunyadi belongs the glory of having suc-
cessfully stemmed ,the barbarian invasion. The papal
legate, John Capistran, was the preacher of the crusade;
John Hunyadi was the general ; the deliverance of Bel-
grade in 1456 from the besieging army of Amurath was
the great exploit. It cost the Turks 40,000 men ; and,
in memory of it, the feast of the Transfiguration was
raised in rank and solemnity by the pope, Calixtus III.
A month after the battle Hunyadi died. Matthias Cor-
vinus was hardly less heroic in this respect than his
father. In 1463 he even made reprisals on the Turks,
invaded Bosnia, and inflicted a very severe defeat upon
them. In the following year he was less successful,
and, for several years after, his energies were diverted

198 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

from the great task by his quarrels with George Podie-
brad and with the emperor himself. In 1479 he found
himself sustaining the struggle single-handed with the
infidel : neither the pope, for the spirit of Pius II. had
vanished with him in 1464, nor the Venetians would
help him. Frederick was also employed in his own
estates, and rather inclined to hinder than to help him.
Matthias, however, was equal to the task ; from 1479
to 1485 he, by a series of successful campaigns, wearied
out the invading armies, and, as soon as he had obtained
a lull, set himself to punish the unkindness and passive
hostility of the emperor.

The part taken by Germany and the empire in the
defence of Christendom is now apparent. The struggle
lasts from 1455 to 1485 — thirty years — during which the
emperor's part was confined to an authorisation of the
Crusade, the battles of which were fought by Matthias
and his generals.

Frederick's Difficulties. — In all these events Frede-
rick is simply conspicuous by his absence ; nor,
except remotely, do these events affect the inner life
of Germany. It is needless to repeat that the country,
while kept externally at peace by the inactivity
of the emperor or his helplessness, was internally
harassed with constant bloodshed, and quarrels in-
numerable as they are unrememberable. Those which
concern the Austrian heritage are the ones in which we
should expect to see Frederick most active. The death
of Ladislas left the possession of Austria proper to be
contested by the agnates ; the emperor himself, his
brother Albert, and Count Sigismund of Tyrol. Frede-
rick, as emperor, was inclined to claim the whole ;
Albert and Sigismund insisted on their shares ; the
nobles of the country were willing to obey none of

FREDERICK'S DIFFICULTIES 199

the three. Albert took up arms against his brother,
and for six years, 1457 to 1463, the archdukes, for this
title had been bestowed on the whole family by Frederick
in 1453, set to the empire the good example of intestine
feuds. In these, as in everything else, Frederick was
unsuccessful ; in all skirmishes victory declared for
Albert, and, but for the assistance of George Podiebrad,
Frederick would have lost Vienna, the last possession
that he retained.

In the year 1463 Albert died childless, and Frederick
gained his share by inheritance. Carinthia fell in the
reapportionment that followed the death of Ladislas to
the Archduke Sigismund, who retained it until in 1492
he resigned all to Maximilian, and was joined to the
Tyrol. From 1463 to 1477 Frederick retained his
Austrian possessions, in constant fear and dread of the
attacks of his neighbours. In the latter year he was
attacked by Matthias Corvinus, and only preserved his
territory by a humiliating peace, one of the terms of
which is said to have been the renunciation by the
emperor of his claims on Hungary ; for six years this
peace and the occupation of Matthias in the Turkish
war gave him an uneasy security, although Matthias,
in constant raids, kept him on the qui vive ; but in 1485
the evil day came. Matthias took Vienna and per-
manently occupied the greater part of Austria ; even
Neustadt, the imperial residence, fell before him in i486.
Frederick, with a retinue of 800 knights, went into exile
in the empire, canvassing the provinces, who cared
little for him, and summoning diets that cared scarcely
more. In 1487 he obtained succours from a diet
at Nuremberg. But Albert of Saxony, who was
placed in command of his force, preferred negotiation
to war with so powerful a prince as Matthias, and con-

200 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

eluded a truce with him, by which Austria was left in
his hands until he should have recovered from the
unhappy province all the expenses of the war. Such
a truce meant nothing, except that there was to be no
defence of Austria by Germany. The Hungarians
remained in possession.

In 1489 the emperor again sued for peace. The
negotiations hung fire until the next year, when
Matthias died, still in possession of Vienna. Then the
tide turned. Maximilian recovered his father's estates,
and was able even to attack Hungary ; but the disgrace
remained ; the Holy Roman emperor was not only
unable to execute judgment and justice in the empire,
was not only unable to conduct the defence of Christen-
dom on the frontier, but was not even able to retain
possession of the hereditary dominions of his house, or
to rally the vassals to the defence of the integrity of the
Fatherland.

It seems that Frederick's favourite maxim was
Rerum irrecuperabilium summa felicitas oblivio ; a pro-
verb which might be Englished as " It is no use
crying over spilled milk," and interpreted as recom-
mending the virtue of resignation ; but, literally
translated, it can have no other meaning, than that the
highest happiness is the forgetfulness of what is irre-
coverable ; a summum bonum cultivated, apparently, by
him with as much zeal as he was capable of feeling for
anything ; and which the greatness of his losses as well
as his talent for oblivion must have given him the
greatest facilities for securing.

Maximilian. — In all this humiliation the only ray of
cheerful light is to be found in the rising abilities of
Maximilian, for whom, after considerable difficulties, his
father succeeded in obtaining the crown of King of the

MAXIMILIAN 201

Romans in i486. For him Frederick seems to have read
the stars not altogether in vain. He is said to have
invented the name for him, even the Christian name ; a
name compounded of those of his two favourite heroes,
Quintus Fabius Maximus and Paulus ^Emylius ; but
there is some doubt as to the truth of the story, and
there is an inconvenient Maximilian somewhat earlier.
As he became free to take part in German politics
his father's fortunes began to rise. Hitherto he had
been an adventurer, so to speak. He had won, and
lost by death before he was thirty, the heiress of Charles
the Bold of Burgundy ; and his work from that time had
lain on the western side of German)'', in the defence of
his children's inheritance. The growth of the Bur-
gundian estates, and the greatest extent of the family
power, the whole career of Charles the Bold, and his
whole life except his seven years of childhood, fall
within the limits of the reign of Frederick III. The
aggrandisement of Burgundy at the expense of the
Netherland cities, bishops, and nobles ; the annexation
on every side of the possessions of the empire to the
dominion of one who, by birth, was a prince, and by
tenure a vassal of the house of Valois, involved at every
turn the dismemberment of what once was the German
kingdom. And the same along the whole line of the
frontier. Yet, grudgingly as the emperor must have
viewed the aggrandisement of Burgundy, Charles was
too much for him, just as Matthias Corvinus was.

In 1473, five years after Charles succeeded his father,
he did homage to Frederick at Treves for his Dutch
dominions. But he demanded at the same time the
title of king and vicar of the empire. Frederick was
nowise loath, provided Charles would give his daughter
to Maximilian : neither party trusted the other, and

202 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

the project came to an end for Charles's life ; but,
shortly after his death, Maximilian married the heiress,
and, after twelve years spent in securing her rights,
was able to do something for his poor father. A little
strength of any sort must have been a great change
for Frederick, and he only survived the shock for three
years !

Death of Frederick III., 1493. — Fifty years of absolute
impotence and three of returning fortune make up the
annals of his reign. He died on August 19, 1493, at the
age of seventy-eight.

It is unfair to be critical about him ; he never
pretended to be a hero. We naturally compare him
with Charles IV., but the comparison is favourable to
Frederick. Both princes were great sticklers for
imperial dignity, and neither had much of the sub-
stance of imperial power ; but Frederick was a
gentleman by nature, although an idle one ; Charles
was pretentious and eminently fussy. Neither Frede-
rick nor Charles did anything great, or indeed did
anything that was not extremely small ; and yet
both left the dominions and consequence of his house
greatly increased. But Frederick never had the chance
of doing anything great, and scrupulously avoided
everything that was mean. Charles IV., on the other
hand, stuck at no petty baseness, and was uninfiuential
because he chose to use his power, which as King
of Bohemia was considerable, for the mere advance-
ment of his family. Frederick's one scheme for the
advancement of Maximilian did ultimately answer, but
its success was due to the knight-errantry of the son
rather than to the policy or the prowess of his father.
The result is that Frederick had not the chances of
Charles, or Charles the good qualities of Frederick ; but

DEATH OF FREDERICK III., 1493 203

then we have no guarantee for supposing that Frederick,
with Charles's power, would have done more than he
did, or that Charles, with Frederick's honesty, would
have founded a greater dynasty, although he might
have enjoyed a less disastrous reign. For the effect of
it on Germany we must look forwards.

THE HOUSE OF HAPSBURG.

Albert I.,
1282-1308.

Elizabeth
of Tvrol.

Rudolf,

K. of
Bohemia,
d. 1307.

Frederick I.
1308-1330,
K. of the
Romans.

Leopold,
d. 1326.

I
Albert,

i33°-i358.
m. Johanna
of Ferrette.

Otto,
d. 1339-

Rudolf, Albert III., Leopold,
1358-1365. 1365-1395- i365-i386-

Leopold,

d. 1344.

Henry,
d. 1327.

Frederick,
d. 1344.

Albert IV.,
i395-!402.

Albert V.

1402-1439,

K. of the

Romans.

William, Leopold III.
m. Johanna II. d.s.p.

of Naples, 141 1.

d. 1406.

I
Ernest,

1395-1424,

D. of
Carinthia,
1411-1424.

Frederick,

I39S.
C. cf

Tyrol ,
I4II-I439-

Frederick III., Albert,
1424-1495, 1424-1463.
Emperor.

Sigismund,

C. of

Tyrol,

1439-1492.

I
Ladislas,

d- 1457-

I
Elizabeth. =

Casimir, son

of Jagellon,

by a later wife

than Hedwig.

Maximilian.

Ladislas,
K. of Bohemia
and Hungary.

Kings of
Poland.

j
Lewis II.,
1 506- 1 5 26.

Mary,

wife of

Ferdinand I.

204 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

IMPORTANT DATES

Frederick III., 1440-1493.

Crowned Emperor at Rome, 1452.

Capture of Constantinople by the Turks, 1453.

Troubled Relations of Frederick with Bohemia

and Hungary, 1457-147 1.
Frederick meets Charles the Bold, 1473.
Marriage of Maximilian with Mary of Burgundy,

1477.

Treaty of Olmutz between Hungary and Bohemia,

1479.
Treaty of Presburg, 1491.

CHAPTER XI

Accession of Maximilian I. — The Burgundian inheritance — Maxi-
milian's position in Europe — His marriages — The Diet of
Worms, 1495 — Its importance — The imperial chamber — The
circles— The towns — The Aulic Council — War with the Swiss
League, 1499 — New problems for France and Germany.

Maximilian I. — Maximilian, the only son of Frederick
III., had borne the title of King of the Romans for
seven years before his father's death, and succeeded
to the full status of his father, saving the imperial
crown, immediately upon it ; he was already crowned
king, April 9, 1468, at Aix-la-Chapelle, and no further
proceeding seems to have been taken to confirm the
title. Maximilian was now thirty-four, and the most
accomplished prince of his time, fond of warlike exer-
cises, books, and music, but especially devoted to
hunting.

As Frederick III. reminds us of Charles IV., so in
Maximilian there is a trace of the character of Sigis-
mund ; again it is a higher type of character ; but again
the impoverishment of the imperial position renders the
greater abilities in a great measure inoperative. There
is very much of the adventurer, the knight-errant, even
the troubadour, in Maximilian, but it is not let down,
as in Sigismund, by pettiness and selfish policy. Maxi-
milian is also, like his father, a somewhat, nay an
extremely thriftless person, and therefore entitled to
the sympathy and consideration of the thriftless gene-
rally. He was a greater European power than his

205

206 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

father, and he had a more consolidated domain in
Germany itself.

The acquisition of the Burgundian inheritance, even
before he succeeded his father, placed him in the first
rank of European princes ; the death of his cousin,
Sigismund of Tyrol, and his father's death three years
later, placed him in possession of the whole property
of the Hapsburgs ; and in 1496, by the marriage of his
son Philip, the heir of Burgundy, with the heiress of
Spain — a marriage which placed him in the closest
alliance with the strongest kings of Christendom, Spain
and England — he found himself in a political position
inferior to none of his predecessors.

It is unquestionable that his thriftless and adventurous
character disabled him from making so much of his
position as might have been made of it. But it is not
to be forgotten that a political position, to be realised at
all, must be based not only on titles and alliances, but
on substantial wealth and power. The acquisition of
the Netherlands did not supply wealth and power to
Maximilian in any proportion to the political status
that it seemed to give him. The death of his wife, in
the early days of their married life, robbed him of the
power that he would have had as her husband, and left
him merely the guardian of his own son, a guardianship
the exercise of which was limited on every side by the
jealousy of the estates, and the profits of which were
more strictly limited by reason and justice.

Rich as were the Flemish cities, they were not liberal
to Maximilian, whom they regarded as a penniless
adventurer ; they required either pressure, which he
was not strong enough to furnish, or that mutual good-
will which was felt by and for Charles V7., to draw the
money from their purses. Maximilian fought their

THE IMPERIAL POSITION 207

battles, but could not win their love. His real strength
then lay in his hereditary dominions, the long and
varying strip of territory that extends from Alsace to
the Hungarian frontier ; which contains the whole of
the Austrian estates accumulated by Rudolf of Haps-
burg, with the addition of Carinthia and the Tyrol.
This mountain territory, save that portion which was
rapidly becoming Swiss, was thoroughly in hand under
Maximilian, who indeed maintained his hold on Austria
proper in perfect security ; and the people of the states
were enthusiastically attached to him ; but they were
the poorest parts of Europe, so far as money was con-
cerned, and Maximilian had neither power nor will to
act tyrannically.

In this respect, then, only, was he pecuniarily better
off than his father ; and, considering the actual work that
he did, I think it may be allowed that he made more of
it than might have been expected from his father's son.

The Imperial Position. — In considering the imperial
position hitherto, we have traced it through three
phases : in one the imperial demesne and status of
emperor were regarded as self-supporting ; such was
the theory of the earlier emperors, much modified in
practice, but still regarded as feasible, when taken in
conjunction with the custom of hereditary succession.

But the squandering of the imperial demesnes by
Philip of Swabia and Frederick II., and the advantage
taken by the nobles and cities of the weakness of the
kings who ruled or seemed to rule during the nominal
interregnum, and whose authority was only recognised
when it was used to impoverish the empire in favour
of the vassal, had altogether changed the position of
the emperor. Instead of the demesne supporting him,
it was necessary that he should be a prince with heredi-

208 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

tary, organised dominions large enough to support
imperial state and enforce imperial authority. For
the credit of Germany he must be a German prince ;
although on several occasions English and French
princes were put forward for the post, only on the
double election of Richard and Alfonso were foreigners
really chosen. Richard had wealth and territory out-
side the empire, nothing in it. Alfonso made no serious
attempt to assert his claims except by words.

Under this second phase it was difficult to find a
prince unwise enough or unselfish enough to waste
his hereditary estates on the empire. It was simply
this, as Lewis of Bavaria found it. To hold the empire
at all it was necessary to drain his hereditary dominions,
and, when they were drained, the result was beggary
for himself and anarchy for Germany. The certainty
of this it was that threw the empire for so long a period
into the hands of the house of Luxemburg, and that
went far to perpetuate it afterwards in the house of
Austria.

As no adequately powerful German prince would ruin
himself on the show of Caesarship, it was allowed, and
this is what I called the third phase, to fall into the hands
of two successive houses which, although German, had
besides their German territory very large non-German
or semi-German possessions, by which the expense of
the imperial dignity could be economised.

The king of half a dozen kingdoms need maintain but
one court and household ; the expenses of the court and
household were, as is seen from English history, the
most aggravating and oppressive drain on the subjects,
who had very little money and knew no political
economy; and, accordingly, if the empire were governed
by a king who was also King of Hungary or Bohemia,

CAREER OF MAXIMILIAN BEFORE 1493 209

or Spain or Burgundy, the dignity could be kept up at
little expense to the empire itself. It found the majesty
and dignity ; the foreign kingdom bore a large share
of the expense. Of course the result of this was, from
the fourteenth century downwards, to direct the ener-
gies of the emperors, first as we have seen, to the
extension of their hereditary estates, and, secondly, to
the administration of them, to the neglect of the
interests and of the administration of the empire at
large ; and hence arose anarchy at home and the
paralysis of German influence abroad : anarchy finding
its expression in private war, and developing its own
corrective in volunteer combinations for the obtaining
of justice; and a foreign policy which made the emperor
occasionally the tool and hireling of contending powers,
but never gave him room to be actually, as he claimed
to be, an arbiter of quarrels.

In both respects Germany, under Frederick III., had
reached the lowest rung of the ladder ; and in both
respects it is Maximilian's glory, whatever his faults may
have been, and however far he fell short of his own or
our ideal, to have taken steps that made a recurrence
of such a state of things for the future impossible.
It is true that the Germany of modern history is a
different thing from the Germany of early medieval
history, but there is at least more cohesion in it, from
the reign of Maximilian downwards ; I do not mean
a more coherent organisation so much as a greater
national feeling of unity, and that in spite of the intro-
duction of entirely new elements of division by the
Lutheran reformation.

Career of Maximilian before 1493. — The career of

Maximilian, before his father's death, is soon told :

he was born in 1453; well educated and trained by

210 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

Frederick, who was himself an accomplished man, and
from whom Maximilian derived the great advantages of
personal dignity and strength which fitted him for his
role as knight-errant.

In 1477, at the age of twenty-four, he won his wife,
Mary of Burgundy, and in 1482 he lost her ; he learned
the practice of war in defence of her possessions against
Lewis XI. So early left a widower, he lost no time in
looking out for another wife, and betrothed himself
to the Duchess Anne of Brittany ; and in faith of this
alliance declined the offer of the queen dowager of
Hungary, Beatrice of Naples, widow of Matthias
Corvinus ; a thriftless and characteristic proceeding,
which the house of Luxemburg would not have been
guilty of.

In his position as guardian of his son, the Archduke
Philip, heir of Burgundy, he learned the temper of
the Flemish citizens, and in 1488, being King of
the Romans, was made acquainted with the details
of prison life for several months at the hand of the
men of Ghent. He was rescued by his father, who for
once summoned energy, and prevailed on the Germans
to make an effort for his son's deliverance. The next
year he returned to Austria ; in 1490 he recovered the
possession of it on the death of Matthias Corvinus ; in
1492 he obtained the succession to the Tyrol by the
cession of Sigismund, who died in 1496 ; in 1493 he
reconciled himself with Charles VIII., who had deprived
him of his intended wife, Anne of Brittany, and with
whom he had gone to war in consequence.

Emperor. — In that year he became sole King of the
Romans and emperor elect. From the first he devoted
himself to the correction of the state of anarchy and
political impotency into which Germany had fallen.

THE DIET OF WORMS, 1495 211

But his first step was an unlucky one. He allied him-
self with Ludovico Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan, and
married his niece, receiving with her 500,000 ducats, and
in return investing Ludovico with the duchy, to the
prejudice of the heir. This marriage, writh a lady of so
doubtful nobility and so unpopular character, was a
disappointment to the German princes, and might have
been a fatal one, dragging the empire once more into
the vortex of Italian intrigues. It was, however, so far
advantageous that it disabled Maximilian from taking
part as a claimant in the quarrel for Milan, and his
course with regard to it was, if not dignified, safe and
comparatively honest.

The Diet of Worms, 1495. — It is, however, with the
great diet of Worms in 1495, and in consequence of
the need of supplies to counteract the successes of
Charles VIII. in Italy, that the real interest of his
reign begins, and from it flow the great measures
of organisation, which constitute his title, the historical
claim of Maximilian, to the gratitude of Germany.
The great measures of the diet were (1) the establish-
ment of public peace, and (2) the establishment of an
imperial tribunal ; — the imperial chamber at Frankfort
afterwards removed to Speyer, and later to Wetzlar,
wThere it subsisted until 1806. These were supplemented
later by two measures, which we will consider in con-
junction with them, the establishment of the adminis-
tration of circles in 1500, and that of the Aulic Council
in 1 501.

Two of these measures, the establishment of public
peace and the administration of circles, had been
attempted before ; the first several times, and both
with some momentary success during the short reign
of Albert II.

212 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

About each of these I shall say a few words at the risk
of having to repeat what I have said before.

Proclamation of Public Peace. — I. The proclamation of
the public peace was directed to the abolition of the
practice of private war. Private war was one of the great
curses not only of the feudal system but of the Teutonic
system generally, and perhaps we may go deeper still,
ascribing it to the necessary conditions of imperfect
civilisation, corresponding in origin with the blood feud
and vendetta. It was not peculiar to the feudal system ;
indeed, one of the best features of feudalism in its best
estate was the check it put upon the practice, by furnishing
in an appeal to the high justice of the Lord, a resource
by which the use of arms might be dispensed with.

But in the decay of feudalism, when every vassal tried
to be independent of his town and tyrant over his
dependants, when the central power had by lavish
privileges, or by its own inherent weakness, divested
itself of any practical influence in the decision of the
quarrels of the nobles ; when, as in Germany, the
emperor had ceased to be the feudal judge of his
dependants, and the sentences of the diets were inopera-
tive unless they found a champion to carry them out
for private ends ; the barbarous state of public peace
returned, and every man, or at least every noble, claimed
a right to redress his own wrongs in arms. In England
we only had experience of this state of things under
Stephen ; it was remedied by Henry II. by the destruc-
tion of the castles of the barons, and by the diffusion
of justice in central and provincial judicature ; but in
France it subsisted long and widely ; and in Germany,
notwithstanding the strong prohibitions of Henry III.,
even as early as the twelfth century it had become the
normal state of things.

PROCLAMATION OF PUBLIC PEACE 213

It was to limit the universal practice that Frederick
Barbarossa granted to his princes the jus diffidationis,
forbidding by law that any hostile measures should
be begun, without a solemn declaration of war and
three days' notice ; all transgressors were to be regarded
as mere robbers.

As so often happens, the attempt to limit an evil
results in the licencing or legitimising of it up to the
point at which it is limited ; and increases the audacity
of those who are beyond the limit. The law of ihe jus
diffidationis was construed to have this effect ; every one
who was strong enough to wage war openly availed
himself of it on every opportunity ; and those who
possessed fastnesses for refuge turned them into dens
of robbers. The wars of the former were justified by
the challenge ; the exactions of the latter were made in
spite of a law which it was not the province of any one
to enforce.

This state of things it was which moved Frederick II.
on the occasion of his second visit to Germany to pro-
claim the great peace and to attempt the foundation or
restoration of an imperial court of justice. But neither
he, Rudolf of Hapsburg, nor Charles IV., nor his suc-
cessors were strong enough to enforce it, and the court
itself scarcely continued to exist at all ; nor was
Frederick's attempted restriction of the jus diffidationis
to cases where justice could not be obtained any more
successful ; no such enactment in the nature of things
could be of use which left the determination whether or
no justice had failed to the parties in the quarrel.

As the process of disruption went on, and the little
remaining central authority became effete, the anarchy
became chronic ; the country was impoverished by the
oppression of the nobles, and weakened by the sacrifice

214 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

of blood and money on these quarrels, to an extent that,
taken in conjunction with the want of political com-
bination among the states, accounts for the insignificance
of Germany in European politics, and for the fact of her
kings and princes appearing in European wars only in
the character of mercenaries. But as the disruptive pro-
cess began, as it did in the fourteenth century, to give
way to the accumulative, the need of a central jurisdic-
tion impressed itself more on men's minds than before :
and even the judicial journeys of Charles IV. were not
without their good effect. As the greater princes, the
electors especially, both secular and ecclesiastical,
gained and consolidated larger territories, they were
better able to secure peace and keep their vassals in
order.

Those districts in which the process of consolidation
was not going on, such as Swabia, the Rhine countries,
and Westphalia, had recourse to voluntary associations;
those leagues, confederations, and societies, partly of an
aristocratic character, like the military orders, and partly
of a republican character, like the Swiss confederacies,
with occasional Vehmic tribunals, of which I spoke in dis-
cussing Lewis of Bavaria and Charles IV. These leagues,
sometimes of cities against nobles, sometimes of nobles
against nobles ; sometimes of cities and nobles of one
district against cities and nobles of another, became
gradually known and welcome to the legal machinery of
the empire ; and capable of definition and authorisation
by imperial law. Albert II. has the credit of having first
recognised them and legalised them as circles. In the
diet of Nuremberg in 1438 he abolished all the existing
feuds, and appointed a body of Austregas to decide
quarrels of the sort that had issued in these challenges,
in imitation, perhaps, of Frederick II.'s abortive design.

THE IMPERIAL CHAMBER 215

But Albert's early death left his design also abortive :
during Frederick III.'s reign it was often debated, but
never actually revived until i486, when a ten years'
peace was proclaimed ; and at last, in 1495, Maximilian
was strong enough, and the desire of Germany earnest
enough — for I believe the execution of the reform was
forced on him by the diet — to put an end for ever to
the evil. Peace was proclaimed, the law of defiance
abolished, and the imperial chamber instituted.

The Imperial Chamber. — This imperial chamber con-
sisted of a supreme judge with sixteen assessors, named
by the emperor with the approval of the diet. I ts functions
were, first to entertain appeals in private causes, all such
causes being, by the primitive law of Germany, common
to all the nations, begun in the national or provincial
courts, tried by the national law, and only referred to
the king in the last appeal ; and secondly, to determine
disputes between the different states. But even this
latter was appellate jurisdiction only, the disputes being
carried in the first instance before a body of arbitrators
or Austregas, such as were nominated by Albert II. ;
and coming before the imperial chamber only in the
shape of appeals. By this organisation of the imperial
chamber all causes such as had led to private war were
capable of determination, if the country possessed the
means of enforcing it. That means was found in the
legal organisation of the circles.

The Circles. — This, as I have said, was done by Albert II.
and, like the other, had to wait for its full development
until the diet of Worms in 1495. The first division into
circles in 1438 left out the domains of the emperor, and
comprised only four : (1) Bavaria and Franconia ; (2) the
Rhine country and Alemannia ; (3) Westphalia, and (4)
Saxony ; subsequently Albert added two more by sepa-

216 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

rating Franconia from Bavaria, and Swabia from the
Rhine lands. This arrangement was revived by Maxi-
milian in 1501; and in 1512 he added four more; divided
the Rhine into Upper and Lower; Saxony into Upper
and Lower ; and incorporating the imperial states,
Austria as the circle of Austria, and the Netherlands as
the circle of Burgundy. Prussia and Bohemia also
were proposed to make up the dozen, but their repre-
sentatives protested against it in fear of increased
taxation.

The administration of the system of circles is a further
point : — briefly, it contained an organisation for both
war and peace. At the head of each circle stood two
functionaries ; a director and a military commander :
the director assembled the states and regulated the
business ; the general administered the forces and
commanded in war. One circle of Austria was
administered by the emperor ; Bavaria by the Duke
and the Archbishop of Salzburg ; Swabia by the
Duke of Wurtemberg, who, by-the-bye, reached the
status of a duke in this great diet of Worms, and the
Bishop of Constance ; Franconia by the Burgrave of
Nuremberg, of Bayreuth, or Culmbach, by the Bishop of
Bamberg ; Upper Saxony by the Elector of Saxony ;
Lower Saxony by the Duke of Brunswick and the
Elector of Brandenburg alternately with the Archbishop
of Bremen ; Westphalia by the Bishop of Munster and
the Elector of Brandenburg ; the Lower Rhine by the
Elector Palatine and Archbishop of Mainz ; the Upper
Rhine by the same Elector and the Bishop of Worms.
Burgundy, so long as it continued to be a circle, was
administered by the duke, who was also King of Spain.
^"The circles were separately assessed by a tax or subsidy
entitled the Roman months, being originally intended to

THE DIET— JUSTICE 217

furnish the emperor with a force of 20,000 foot and 4000
horse, to carry him to Rome for the imperial crown.
The circle of Burgundy, originally assessed at the tax
due from two electorates, was early excused, and the
sum furnished from the circles proportionately reduced ;
it amounted in this shape to 75,840 florins in the
eighteenth century.

The Diet. — Whilst speaking of these assemblies, it may
be remarked that the constitution of the diet itself, which
was not finally settled until 1580, contained three Colleges
of States. The first was that of the seven electors ; the
second the princes of the empire, secular and ecclesias-
tical ; and the third the imperial towns in two benches,
Swabia and the Rhine.

It is not known when this arrangement became the
rule, or how the nobles below the rank of prince were
excluded, but it appears in full force early in the four-
teenth century, and regularly downwards. The counts,
who were not as princes members of the diet, but were
immediately subject to the empire, were divided into
four benches or classes, those of Wetterau, Swabia,
Franconia, and Westphalia, and there was another class
which claimed entire allodial independence, as far as
tenure is concerned, the free counts and free barons of
Swabia, Franconia, and the Rhine.

Justice. — It will be remembered that, so far as con-
cerns the administration of justice, not by appellate
jurisdiction, and after the extinction of the imperial
jurisdiction exercised through Comites Palatini or
Pfalzgrafs, every prince had the power and right of it
in his own dominions. This was acquired at various
times by separate grant or by general privilege from the
emperor, and was not uniform throughout Germany :
some princes having a higher and wider jurisdiction

218 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

than others ; but in general it covered everything except
the right of appeal, and that could be exercised only in
peaceful times and at great expense.

The Imperial Towns. — In all matters of the kind
the imperial towns stood on the same footing as the
princes. Such an organisation as the diet, from which
the lower nobility, the most dangerous element, was
excluded, might have formed the basis of a national
parliament, and created or carried out a national
policy ; but the points on which, during the humilia-
tion of the imperial character, Germany could be
called on to act as one nation were so few, and the
powers of the diet to interfere were so limited by the
privileges of the several states, that little real business
was carried out in the assemblies. They served, how-
ever, to keep alive the idea of national unity, and came
into play as powerful machinery in the following cen-
turies, when the awakening of thought and the love of
abstract argument in a measure superseded the appeal
to brute force.

^ The Aulic Council. — The other reformative measure of
Maximilian is one that does not call for much discussion,
the institution of the Aulic Council. This was done
partly in 1501 and partly in 1512, in a diet at Treves.
It owed its origin to Maximilian's wish to preserve the
right of the emperor to hear appeals and to exercise
supreme jurisdiction, a right which the constitution of
the imperial chamber, the nomination of whose mem-
bers required the confirmation of the diet, might be
thought to infringe ; and its functions were co-ordinate
with those of the imperial chamber, being appellate
only, besides possessing authority in feudal and some
other causes, also by way of appeal.

The Aulic Council was supposed to follow the person

MAXIMILIAN'S WORK 219

of the emperor like the original courts of law in Eng-
land, but seldom did so ; it consisted, in the first
instance, of eight members nominated by the emperor,
but was afterwards increased, and, after the division of
the empire between the Catholic and Protestant powers,
was composed of a president, a Catholic, a vice-chan-
cellor appointed by the elector of Mainz, and nine
counsellors of each religion. Its relation as an appel-
late court to the imperial chamber maj be compared
with the relation of the judicial committee of Privy
Council in England, to the House of Lords in its
character of a tribunal of appeal.

The idea of two supreme tribunals of appeal is puzzling
to the lay mind, but lawyers manage to reconcile greater
inconsistencies than these, and generally have at least
two strings to their bow. Matters of appeal, however,
arising within the imperial domain, would naturally be
referred to the Aulic Council rather than to the imperial
chamber ; its authority extended, moreover, into Italy,
whilst that of the imperial chamber was confined to
Germany.

Maximilian s Work. — In all these measures Maxi-
milian is entitled to a great deal of credit. It is not
so much that he showed any originality in devising
them, for not one of them was new in principle
even in Germany, and all had been tried in the
other Teutonic or feudalised kingdoms in one shape
or other. At the best, his plan was but the expansion
and diffusion of the plan of Albert II., but he has the
credit of having got it to work, of having abolished
the evils which Albert's short reign was not able even
to face, and which had been rampant for the fifty-three
years that intervened between them. He availed himself
in the working of all the existing material, and framed it

220 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

into a practical machine. From henceforth, if the in
ternal peace of Germany was disturbed by private wars,
they were not waged because there was no other resource
than force.

It is true, as every student of later history must know,
that the web thus woven was of a slight texture indeed,
strong enough to constrain the small states, but power-
less against the strong ones ; and that, even when the
imperial rule was by no means merely nominal, the
electors and greater princes were accustomed to wage
war against one another, and even against the emperor
himself. But, on the other hand, there are many ques-
tions arising between both states and families, in which
the interests are so far from general, and the principles
at stake so little important, that the majority of the
counsellors of both the adversaries would content them-
selves with arbitration rather than risk the expense and
fortune of war.

Such causes, such quarrels, and, when the advantage
of such a system is once seen, most petty quarrels will
be seen to fall into the same category, were in an increas-
ing degree settled by the new tribunals, and, if not
general peace, yet much greater social security ensued.
The robber castles, which for centuries had defied the
emperor and the princes, simply because in a state of
anarchy no robber knight was too insignificant to be
worth the patronage of a powerful neighbour, were now
an impossibility ; the free nobles submitted to the
emperor, and became his liegemen ; the empire resumed,
what it had not for a long time even pretended to, the
forms and fashions of a united body. Much of this, I
think, is owing to the adroitness, the versatility, and
the general disinterestedness of Maximilian's own
character.

SWITZERLAND 221

Szvitzerla?td. — One curious result I may mention here
from the establishment of the imperial chamber, and of
the circular administration, namely, the recognition of
the independence of the Swiss confederation. I have
said little or nothing about this body in the last chapter,
because for the most part its condition shared the general
character of the condition of Germany; anarchy and petty
wars. But, ever since the dissolution of the league be-
tween Zurich and Austria in the early days of Frederick ;
during the growth of the Burgundian power, and the
impotency of the imperial, the confederate cantons had
been drawing closer and closer to France ; and, although
still parts of the German kingdom, meddling little if at
all in the troubles of the state.

The great series of victories won by the Swiss at
Granson, at Morat, and at Nancy, terminate with the
death of Charles the Bold ; a war caused by the posses-
sion of the Austrian rights in Alsace by the Duke of
Burgundy, under an agreement with Count Sigismund,
which Frederick had been too weak to forbid. But the
immediate result of the national deliverance was simply
to renew the internal jealousies and dissensions which
overwhelmed Switzerland as well as Germany ; and the
history for the next five-and-twenty years consists of
battles and intrigues, interesting only to the local
antiquary.

About 1489 the states, princes, and cities of the
Rhenish, Franconian, and Swabian district instituted a
league, called in mockery the petticoat league, from the
kilt worn by the nobles ; but properly the league of
St. George or St. George's Shield : it was one of the
voluntary confederations I have been speaking of which
were superseded by the administration of the circles.
This league the confederate cantons refused to join,

222 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

partly at the instigation, no doubt, of France, partly for
fear of having their own organisation merged in that of
the new association.

Although this spirit affected the cantons, it did not
blind the imperial towns to the advantages of the alliance,
and several of them joined. Bern was the head of the
party faithful to the emperor and order, and opposed to
France. In the diet of Worms, the Swiss were properly
represented, and took part in the proceedings as mem-
bers of the empire ; but the jealousy of independence,
which had been provoked by the Swabian league, was
fanned into flame by French intrigue, and they refused
to be bound by the arrangement of the circles with their
taxation, or by the decisions of the imperial chamber.

It was, unfortunately, a favourite project of the
emperor's most faithful subjects, the Tyrolese, to compel
them to obedience ; and whilst Maximilian was busy in
the Netherlands in 1499, the Tyrolese invaded the Grisons.
This led to a general contest, in which at last all the
cantons were arrayed against Austrian dominion, and
through it against the imperial rule. Battle after battle
was lost. Maximilian himself was only prevented by
the persuasions of his counsellors from rushing upon
the fate of his father-in-law.

The Swabian war, short as it was important, was ended
by a peace in September 1499, by which the emperor
confirmed the confederate cantons in possession of their
ancient rights and conquests, and ceded to them the
administration of the Thurgau.

This was the last attempt of the house of Austria to
recover their supposed or usurped rights in their native
land, and also the last attempt of the empire to enforce
obedience to its decrees. Henceforth Switzerland was
independent, but it did not cease to be nominally a por-

HOSTILITY OF FRANCE AND GERMANY 223

tion of the empire until the peace of Westphalia in
1648.

The external history of the league consists for the
future of accretions on the side of Savoy and Italy, and
consolidation of its relations with the few intervening
districts embraced within its own outer boundary. In the
seventeenth century the Grisons were overrun by Austria
during the religious wars which affected the whole
continent, but this is scarcely an exception to the general
statement that practical independence of the mountain
land was recognised in 1499.

One other subject is connected with this great diet
of Worms of 1495. It was called for the purpose of
creating a force to oppose the French on the one side
and the Turks on the other. The French were just
undertaking the Italian expedition which is understood
to mark the transition from medieval to modern history.

Hostility of France and Germany. — With the close of
the fifteenth century begins the ranking of the French
against the empire, the irreconcilable jealousy between
France and Germany which so colours later history. It
is not an old feature of their relations. Between prac-
tical France and manageable Germany, throughout the
medieval period, lay a broad debatable land, gradually
escaping from German influences, but not yet openly
occupied or usurped by France. It included the old
Burgundian kingdoms, and Lorraine and the Nether-
lands ; all nominally imperial.

It was the gathering up of this borderland under the
French house of Burgundy, and the devolution of them
on the German house of Hapsburg by Maximilian's
marriage which made them no more a debatable land,
but an actual bone of contention and prize of war. The
two rivals are no longer separated by a territory narrow

224 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

enough to shake hands over, but too wide to fight across ;
they meet face to face ; the debatable land having been
Frenchified by Burgundian rule, and become German
by the Burgundian marriage is an anomaly in Europe,
that each side is anxious to do away with for its own
purposes. France herself also is nerved by her struggle
with Burgundy, for a struggle with the inheritors of
Burgundy. Such is the key to the history of Charles V.
The rest of Maximilian's reign belongs to later history.

IMPORTANT DATES

Expedition of Charles VIII. of France to Italy, 1494.
Diet of Worms, 1495.

CHAPTER XII

The Princes in Germany — The empire in abeyance— The real unity
of Germany — The growth of the religious question — The
characteristics of North and South Germany — The importance
of the acquisition of the Netherlands to the Hapsburgs — The
empire and France face to face.

The Princes. — It will not be difficult to arrange under
several heads the various generalisations that we have
arrived at. But before doing so it will, I think, be
advisable to run briefly over the geographical aspect
of Germany as we leave it at the end of the fifteenth
century. We began in Chapter I. with the five dukedoms
representing the ancient five nations still in existence,
Saxony, Franconia, Bavaria, Swabia, and Lorraine ; we
leave them at the close of the fifteenth century so cut
up, mutilated, recombined, that even where the old
name continues we have no certain warrant that the
country known by it contains an inch of the ground to
which it was formerly applied.

Of the families, again, which we leave ruling the
largest territories of Germany, scarcely a single one
can trace its princely character so far back as the
point at which we began, and some of the lay elector-
ates had changed dynasties more than once during the
time. The families, again, which have for two centuries
held the imperial crown, have only rarely and acci-
dentally possessed the electoral vote, the house of
Austria notably, notwithstanding its extent of power
and territory, did not, until the kingdom of Bohemia

225 p

226 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

became permanently a part of its inheritance, acquire
a direct voice in the election of the emperor.

As instance of the disruption of the ancient duchies
we may take Swabia ; this large territory, the duchy
of which became extinct with the Hohenstaufens, had,
under their lax and wasteful rule, become a prey to
private war, robber counts, and a free nobility. Alsace
was the only portion of it which continued to retain
any unity, and that unity was not the result of internal
causes so much as a consequence of the fact that the
hereditary government belonged to a house otherwise
strong. It was Rudolf of Hapsburg that consolidated
the landgraviate or landvogtship of Alsace, and it was
ruled by his descendants until the close of the period.

In Swabia proper the counts of Wiirtemberg rise
early up to the surface as enterprising and unscrupulous
chieftains in private war ; their territorial advantages
are improved between the thirteenth century and the
sixteenth, and at the close of the fifteenth we find them
raised to the rank of princes ; a rank which, after three
centuries more of pushing and struggling, was in the
nineteenth century raised to royalty by Napoleon
Bonaparte. The present kingdom of Wiirtemberg
roughly represents the ancient Swabia. But a better
instance still is Saxony, a name still found on the map
but not containing any portion, I believe, of the ancient
Saxon land.

In the thirteenth century the ancient duchy which
Henry the Lion had held is found divided between
Cologne, Brunswick, and Brandenburg : the creation of
the duchy of Brunswick by Frederick II. separated
into two all that was left of the original Saxony ; the
northern part was reduced to the little duchy of Lauen-
burg, of which we have heard so much in recent times ;

THE GREAT GERMAN FAMILIES 227

the southern was gradually lost in the hotch-potch of
the Thuringian and Misnian inheritances. The mar-
graviate or electorate of Brandenburg conveys its name
to the several possessions of the house of Hohenzollern,
we have a Margrave of Brandenburg Culmbach in the
heart of Bavaria ; Bavaria itself, after diverse sub-
divisions, retains its integrity, but the Palatinate pedi-
gree, the other branch of the house of Wittelsbach,
throws up detached saplings in the remotest parts of
Germany, and defies the memory to retain its in-
volutions.

The Great German Families. — Germany, in a word,
from being an aggregation of distinct nations, has
become an aggregation of the domains of several great
families, or great functionaries lay and ecclesiastical.

As to these families, the Wittelsbachs are the only one
that retain a leading position throughout ; and they,
although at one time they possessed two and claimed
three votes in the electoral college, give only two kings,
one from each branch, Lewis of Bavaria, and Rupert
the Count Palatine, to Germany. The electorate of
Brandenburg, at the opening of the period, held, like
Saxony, by the Ballenstadt house, passes first to the
Bavarian, then to the Luxemburg, then to the Nurem-
berg or Hohenzollern houses. The original Ballenstadt
house which held both Saxony and Brandenburg sinks
into the obscurity from which it scarcely even in
modern times emerges under the name of Anhalt. So
the face of the map varies from reign to reign, and
the dynastic history of Germany fills a book as large
as the " Peerage."

The arrangements of the circles which was explained
in the last chapter is an improvement on the plan of
the electorates, because it covers the whole territory

228 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

and is a return to the state of things out of which the
electorates sprang. The great duchies of the twelfth
century had split into small divisions, the best of these
almost accidentally coinciding with the territories to
which the electoral dignity was secured in the four-
teenth. The electorates themselves then underwent the
process of attenuation, only occasionally counteracted
by the accumulation of new estates ; power passed from
them into houses of less rank but greater territory and
energy, like the Luxemburgs and Hapsburgs ; and under
them the imperial policy was glad to secure order by
substituting for the ancient worn-out instruments of
central jurisdiction an organisation which owed its
existence to the national longing for unity and order.
It is true that the administration of the circles was but
a feeble expedient, as results prove, but it was some-
thing, and took the place of entire and absolute in-
coherence.

Weakening of the Empire. — We look next, still
geographically, at the outlying parts of the empire ;
those which are only partly German or altogether
non-German. We see Italy entirely lost, and, if any
part of it is to be recovered, it must be under a
new title. We have traced, though by no means
elaborately, the advance of the Swiss cantons to a
practical independence which Maximilian was obliged
to recognise, but which had existed for a century
at least before his time. The old kingdom of Aries
comes next, and the last fragment of it that re-
mains, the county of Burgundy, and the towns that
have not yet identified their interests with the Swiss
confederates.

It is true that even under Frederick Barbarossa the
imperial hold on Aries was a slight one ; it was slighter

WEAKENING OF THE EMPIRE 229

still when Henry VI. invested Richard Cceur de Lion
with a kingdom which entirely ignored his sway ; and
the acquisition of Provence by a branch of the royal
family of France made the maintenance of even a
show of supremacy more difficult. It was under Adolf
of Nassau that we saw the Count of Burgundy openly
withdrawing his allegiance from the empire to give it
to France. But France was not yet bold enough to
take all.

Charles IV. was crowned King of Aries, although
all he was suffered to do as king was to confirm
the alienations of the powers which his predecessors
since the days of Conrad the Salic had been unable
to realise. The remains of the Burgundian kingdom
form a part of the new dynasty of Burgundian dukes,
which ends in the wife of Maximilian. And thus by a
curious revolution, and for a short time, they return to
the empire.

In something like the same way it has happened in
the Netherlands, which came round to the empire after
a similar long alienation. It is very long since we saw
the emperor exercising any authority in Holland or
Friesland. The house of Flanders, intensely French
as it has become, was not originally alien to the
empire. But it has grown, and spread French influence
as it grew, until the language of the states is more
French than German : it also is swallowed up in the
Burgundian heritage and comes back to Maximilian.
Last of all is Lorraine, which, the last possession of the
Karolings, the most bloodily contested of the battle-fields
under the Ottos and Henrys, although remaining German
in allegiance, has become French in alliances and con-
nections, so much so that from the reformation down-
wards we count the Duke of Lorraine a Frenchman, and

230 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

forget that little more than a hundred years ago the
county was still German.

On all these sides German influence and imperial
authority have become second, either to French in-
fluence or the desire of independence. The burghers
of Ghent and Antwerp had the same passion for freedom
that inspired the Swiss confederates to their emancipa-
tion ; and both would have gladly maintained the im-
perial authority against their mesne lords and oppressive
neighbours, if they could have found and laid hold of
the imperial authority to maintain it. But the Swiss
relations to the empire were complicated by the claims
of the Hapsburgs on their native territory, and the
Flemish burghers forgot the existence of a central
power which had forgotten them. In these remote
regions the imperial rule had become like the feudal
system in England, a matter interesting only to the
legal antiquary or to the conveyancer proving the title
and tenure of a disputed estate. The empire here was
in abeyance.

To account for this abeyance would be to recount
the whole history of the three centuries we have
travelled over. It was not that the emperors were bad
men or bad rulers : few countries have ever had such
a succession of princes to whom the name of tyrant was
less applicable ; they were almost always wise, and brave,
and kindly men. But they were, as a rule, poor, or if
not poor to begin with, quickly impoverished by the
demands of their position ; and if they took the ready
means to mend it, they lost their title to respect and any
influence they might else have had.

Italy and the Empire. — Two things, however, we
saw accounted for it still more fully. The innate
incapacity for cohesion in the mass of distinct

ITALY AND THE EMPIRE 231

nations, each with its own princes, history, laws,
and wars ; and the action of the papacy : the latter
acting in two ways — first, as it was affected by the
claims of the emperor touching the Church ; second,
as it was affected by his claims, imperial or dynastic,
touching Italian territory. The earlier disputes between
the empire and the papacy arose from imperial ques-
tions ; reformation in the Church, investitures, the exer-
cise of imperial sovereignty. From the marriage of
Henry VI. to the end of his dynasty, and even after
it during the troubles of Lewis of Bavaria, the origin
of the difficulties was the possession or claim to Italian
territory. Even the popes when in exile in their Baby-
lonish captivity at Avignon, far from Rome for half
a century, would not tolerate the possession by German
rulers of Italian soil. Unworthy as was their policy,
actuated more by the promptings of France than by
their love of Italy, it was very fatal to Germany ; for it
so weakened the imperial power as to render it unable
to hold Germany in order much less to hold Italy
in awe.

It was the relation of the papacy to Lewis of Bavaria
that broke the remaining power which had survived
the Hohenstaufen, had been nursed up into action by
Rudolf and was exercised by Henry VII. That relation
was created by the pressure of France exerted to secure
the maintenance of her younger branch on the throne
of Naples.

Well, indeed, may we say that Italy was a fatal gift
to Germany : so fatal that all that Italy was doomed
afterwards to bear from German hands counts but as
an imperfect requital. It destroyed the hope of any-
thing like union in Germany. It kept Germany broken
up into parties until no party was strong enough to

232 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

maintain central government or order, and that being
done every man did what was right in his own eyes, and
still more easily whatever wrong he chose.

Tendencies towards National Union. — With all these
tendencies towards division and causes and occasions
of disruption, there were other more penetrating, subtle,
and lasting tendencies towards national union.

Of these tendencies one is represented by language.
The German language is common to the whole of Ger-
many, and in proportion as the dialects cease to be
commonly, mutually intelligible, the common feeling
decreases in its intensity. Although in North Germany
the Piatt Deutsch was unquestionably more generally
used and over a greater area than at present, and South
German or High German (Hoch Deutsch) has been for
centuries increasing upon it, as the language of courts,
literature, commerce, and the more enterprising and
larger half of the people, we must not conclude that
the distinction between the two forms of the language
points to any deep distinction of race. Just as the low
German has sunk into a dialect and been driven farther
and farther north by the spread of high German educa-
tion, the divergencies between the two forms of the
language have become greater.

Influence of Language. — So far as I am aware the main
features of distinction between them are apparent in
the earliest written remains we have of each of them,
and those features are developed and extended, only, in
the modern forms. But it is to be remembered how
very late are the most ancient specimens of written
German, low or high ; and that we have not a syllable of
either more ancient than the date of that conformation
of Germany under the five nations which I used as a
key to its early history.

INFLUENCE OF LANGUAGE 233

If, then, high and low German have for a thousand
years been diverging, and been driven asunder by
national divisions during that period, and yet can
hardly be said now to be mutually unintelligible, we
are safe in concluding the distinction between them to
be as we know from other reasons they are, tribal rather
than national. And where the language is the same, and
the distinctions tribal or dialectic, rather than national ;
these, whatever may be the differences of government,
and however long it may be since the divergency began,
form a substratum, a basis for the feeling of national
unity.

From the beginning of medieval history, Germany,
divided between the Saxon, the Bavarian, the Swabian,
and the Frank, has had this element of unity more
really than the kingdom of England. Saxon and
Bavarian with a different history, laws, and political
feelings, even with a different religion, are more nearly
one than England and Wales, although the two latter
have everything but language in common. And language,
even in this rough sort of unity which I am supposing
to exist between high and low German, is a subtle as
well as an obvious element of unity. As the common
language of Germany fenced off the outer world which
was not German, it must have also assisted the spread of
thought and ideas in the same dress throughout the
whole territory, whatever were the political or even
the deeper tribal divisions.

To continue, however, all the Teutonic-speaking
lands, except England and Scandinavia, which were
remote and long ago separated, 400 years before we
have the earliest scrap of German writing, all the
German-speaking lands were under one supreme rule,
and that supreme rule was vested in the first of earthly

234 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

rulers, the Roman emperor, elected king of the German
nations, but sovereign of the world by right of the
Caesarship.

This civis Romanus sentiment, little as the imperial
character of Germany might be estimated abroad, was
an object of pride fondly nursed by the Germans
themselves ; and especially where it connected itself
with the imperial cities and the commerce and
civilisation which they represented, — an object of an
honest pride : the feeling of nationality was, of course,
strongest in the imperial cities, which had both
closer relations to the emperor, and mixed more
with the world outside of Germany. It is true, how-
ever, that all Germans in language and in relation to
the empire were brethren at home and abroad : the
traditions of the unity of the empire and manners,
customs, forms of law and ways of thought long
survived the reality of the single rule, but by surviving
they showed that the national instinct was stronger
than the political pressure had been which it survived
or than that which was now insufficient to extinguish it.

Influence of Religion. — To the influence of language
and imperial traditions we must add that of religion
and the Church. Divided into several great nations
and into countless small dynastic estates, each claim-
ing independence of all the rest, Germany still
during the Middle Ages remained ecclesiastically
organised on the outlines of the ancient original
ecclesiastical geography. The ecclesiastical divisions
originally agreed only incidentally with the political
ones, and as changes took place in both they were
carried out irrespectively of one another, and increased
the divergence. Many districts, the civil governments
of which were completely independent of each other,

INFLUENCE OF RELIGION 235

were severally subject to the same ecclesiastical head.
And the German bishoprics were very wide, the pro-
vinces enormous in extent.

Here, then, as in England, we have the pressure of
Church unity in the sense only of Church organisation,
forming an influence towards civil unity. The South of
England was one Church under the Archbishop of
Canterbury long before Wessex, Mercia, Kent, and
East Anglia were one kingdom. So in Germany, the
subjects of all the little potentates on the Rhine, divided
politically by the rule and alliances of their masters,
were one in the obedience of their bishops, as well as
in language and as subjects of the great empire.

In connection with this I should say that the cohesion
implied in this organisation was not merely superficial.
The religious feeling of Germany was, as it is, a very
distinct thing: ecclesiastically the attitude of the Church
towards the papacy is very traceable throughout the
history: it is very jealous, very independent in every
dispute attaching itself to the emperor rather than to
the pope, until, and sometimes even after spiritual
terrors are added to ecclesiastical ones ; and, deeper
still, as no one now can visit at the present day France,
Germany, and Italy consecutively without being struck
by the difference of the forms in which the common
religion expresses itself, a deeper study of the literature
of the churches reveals a deeper distinction between the
ideas of the three, even as touching the same truth. The
tendency to a peculiar sort of mysticism — I mean nothing
in disparagement by the use of the word — is very rarely
characteristic of German thought; distinguishing it
from the logical precision of the French, and from the
penetrating, enthusiastic ardour of the better Italian
mind.

236 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

Growth of National Feeling in Germany. — It is not
within my scope now to point out the way in which
this mysticism helped to lead on towards the re-
formation ; it is enough that I mark it as a distinction
over and above those of mere politics and geography,
tending to isolate the German schools, and throw them
in more closely on one another, in opposition to foreign
ones. The national spirit grew largely after the insti-
tution in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries of the
universities in which all that served towards unity,
national, scholastic, and religious, developed more
largely than elsewhere.

In illustration of the way in which this acted, I may
adduce the often-quoted fact that a German could pass
from the service of one prince to that of another within
Germany itself without any imputation of disloyalty.
He was the subject of each in turn, but not in a way
that affected the questions of patriotism or nationality.
Germany was his country, were he Saxon or Bavarian,
the subject of the Archduke of Austria or the subject of
the Prince of Reuss Ebersdorf.

In the late changes in Germany we saw Baron Beust
pass from the service of the King of Saxony to that of
the Emperor Francis Joseph, and this in both military
and civil offices has always been the case. Moral base-
ness in desertion of a benefactor would be regarded on
moral grounds, but not unless there were such, on the
head of duty to any particular province ; Germany was
ever the Fatherland. But this must not be exaggerated ;
it is more true and applicable to the later Middle Ages
than to the earlier ones, in which there was a great deal
more general interchange of learned and able men than
there was later. The state of things which was common
in the twelfth was becoming peculiar to Germany in the

THE NAME GERMANY 237

fifteenth century : i.e. the nationality made itself felt
in this way when the common practice had become
extinct.

There was nothing strange in England in the eleventh
century in having German bishops, nor in the twelfth in
having French ones: some of Henry II.'s counsellors
were Italians, and several ministers of William the Good,
King of Sicily, were Englishmen. But in the next cen-
tury this ceased to be possible ; each land supplied its
own ministers, lay or ecclesiastical, notwithstanding the
pope's efforts to thrust in Italians everywhere. But the
feeling of nationality, felt in Germany not less than
elsewhere, to the exclusion of aliens, did not affect the
relations of the Saxons and Bavarians, or vice versa.

In no way is the reality, however, of this unity shown
more than in the way in which the Germans are, and
from time immemorial, from the tenth century at least,
been regarded by foreigners. Among themselves they
might be Hessian cat or Swabian hound ; as at home
we have Essex calves and Hampshire hogs ; but to the
world they showed themselves Germans, subjects of
the Semper Augustus, cives Romani, and so on. And the
world believed it.

The Name Germany. — It is difficult to account quite
satisfactorily for the appellations given to the wide
country now known as Germany, but the appellation
given to the inhabitants by each neighbour is one equally
applicable to all. To the Italian they are all Tedeschi ;
to the French Alemannians, to the English Dutchmen
or Germans.

I am not prepared to say exactly at what period these
names became stereotyped ; but probably the use of the
word Tedeschi by the Italians is ancient ; it represents
the generic name of Teutones. In England, down at

238 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

least to the Norman Conquest, the distinction between
Saxon and Lorrainer was known, and the specific names
properly applied. William of Malmesbury seems to dis-
tinguish between the Germans and the Teutones. It is
under Frederick Barbarossa that the use of the French
name Alemanni is given by English writers to the whole
congeries.

The use of the word Alemanni and Alemannia by the
French is easily explained : the Alemanni being the first
non-Frank tribe of Germany with whom the Mero-
vingians came in collision. The Franconians, whom
they first conquered, were Franks like themselves, and
their name supplied no distinctive appellation ; Bavaria
lay beyond, far away: the non- Frank tribes who
struggled just beyond the Rhine were Alemanni, and
Alemanni they continue to be to the present day.

The use of the name German in English is compara-
tively modern. In antiquity, as you perhaps know,
it had two significations, the wide one comprising all
that is now Germany, and a narrow one in which it
belonged to two smaller districts, Germania, Prima and
Secunda, the narrow provinces stretching along the
west or left bank of the Rhine.

I cannot think that the application of the name to
these two districts can have had much effect in deter-
mining the modern use of the word, although it may
explain Malmesbury's distinction ; for the term Germany
was always recognised as the ancient name, and used
on occasion as Gallia is of France and Britain of Eng-
land and Scotland.

Until comparatively modern times, the name by which
Germans were known in England was generally Dutch ;
and the language high or low Dutch. Since the acces-
sion of the Hanoverian dynasty, it has been regarded as

THE NAME GERMANY 239

more dignified to use the word German ; and Dutch is
relegated to what was once Holland and Hollandish or
Flemish. In Germany itself the original term is uni-
versal, Deutschland, and Deutsch ; the title of King of
Germany was invented by Maximilian I., and was per-
haps regarded even then as a bit of pedantry, such as
not uncommonly affects titles of honour.

I do not think these are trifles to a student of history ;
if they are, it is astonishing how much a little attention
paid to them serves to clear up more important matters.
If the titles of Justinian prefixed to the "Institutions"
are a key to the wars of his reign, and remind one of the
order of his triumphs and defeats, why is it not the case
with modern potentates ? Hear the title of Charles V.,
and you may see that on each peg hangs a series of
historical incidents : Charles V., D.G., elect Roman
Kaiser, to all time increaser of the empire (Semper
Augustus), King of Germany, Castille, Aragon, Leon, both
Sicilies, and Jerusalem, Hungary, Bohemia, Dalmatia,
Croatia, Slavonia, Navarre, Granada, Toledo, Valencia,
Galicia, Majorca, Seville, Sardinia, Cordova, Corsica,
Murcia, Leon, Algarve, Algeciras, Gibraltar, the Canary
and Indian Isles, Terra Firma and the Ocean Sea.

I need not run through all the minor titles which
begin with Archduke of Austria, Burgundy, and Brabant,
and come down to Count of Mechlin; but I may remark
that they do not omit the original title, humble as it was,
of Count of Hapsburg and Kyburg, Landgrave of Alsace
and Margrave of the Burgau. And in the same way the
King of Prussia's style was an epitome of his history :
Burgrave of Nuremberg, Count of Hohenzollern, Mar-
grave and Elector of Brandenburg, last of all King of
Prussia. It is generally explained, of course, as a piece
of foolish pomposity, but if he that hears will hear, it

240 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

contains an easily remembered abstract of the whole
history of the great house.

The Germans One People. — The conclusion to which
we were coming was, that from the time of Frederick
Barbarossa the Germans ceased to be distinguished
by foreign nations, on ordinary occasions, into Saxons,
Bavarians, Swabians, and the like, and became in common
Alemannians, Dutchmen, Germans, and Tedeschi. And
thus external treatment, as well as the instincts of a
common origin, taught them to regard themselves as
intrinsically one people, notwithstanding the enmities
and different origins of their rulers.

We have now brought down our study of German
history to the eve of that great event which for good
or for evil, or for an altered mixture of good and evil,
changed the complexion of Christendom, and the atti-
tude of all the states of Europe one towards another.
In none of these was the work of the reformation more
marked than in Germany. In none was it more called
for by ancient abuses, and in none was it carried to
greater extremes.

The great restorative effort made by the Roman
Church after the Council of Trent recovered much of
the ground that had seemed to be lost, and the result in
the seventeenth century was very much marked on the
old lines of the nations. Lutheranism won the North,
the ancient Saxony ; the Roman Church retained a firm
hold on Austria and Bavaria ; Calvinism, the French
form of the reformation, affected the Palatinate and the
Rhineland. Switzerland furnished her own reformation
in Zwingli ; but the various divisions of Switzerland
marked their nationality still by adhesion or opposition
to the other forms of belief now marshalled against one
another. Geneva, looking towards France, was the head

THE GERMANS ONE PEOPLE 241

of Calvinism ; Basel and Bern, German towns, more
especially were Lutheran ; Zurich was Zwinglian ; half
the whole confederation, the half originally most bound
up with Austria, retained the forms of the ancient faith.
But not to insist on the minutiae of this division, one
cannot fail to be struck with the fact that North Ger-
many, which had in all the contests between pope and
emperor ranged itself on the side of the pope, now
in this new division threw itself heart and soul into
Protestantism.

The South of Germany, which had maintained the
Hohenstaufen and their principles so long against the
popes, is now found faithful. Of course, a multitude of
other causes contributed to the result besides the reli-
gious ones, besides the political ones, and besides the
tribal or even national antipathies of North and South.
Of course, in a great measure the people were led by
their rulers ; the ecclesiastical provinces, with some
great exceptions, remaining Catholic ; the Saxons and
the Palatinate following their electors.

But considering all these things, there is a residue that
cannot be accounted for otherwise than as a result of
the political training of ages. North Germany was more
energetic and more in earnest than South. It was more
religious, and had been from the very days of the Saxon
conversion. It was less amenable to imperial influences,
as we have seen in the last reigns that we have been
considering. Yet we may conclude not unnaturally that
if Charles V. had embraced the reformation, all Germany
would have been to this day Protestant, or the North
would have continued Catholic. The latter might have
been the case, but considering the Saxon origin of
Lutheranism, the former is the more probable.

In conclusion, then, let us sum up the moral of the

242 GERMANY IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

history that we have traversed. We have seen in the
three centuries between Frederick II. and Maximilian, a
complete revolution in the relations of the empire with
the papacy, and of North Germany to South. We have
traced the imperial power in its variations from the
perilous exaltation of Frederick, through his unparalleled
humiliation, through the contemptible position of William
of Holland and Richard of England, to the moment when
Rudolf of Hapsburg restored it on quite another prin-
ciple to something like majesty and power.

In the fifteenth century we have traced over again a
similar revolution ; from the actual zenith of power, as
it was exercised by Henry VII., through the humiliation
of Lewis of Bavaria, to the restoration of order and peace
under Charles IV. But the revolutions of the fourteenth
pale beside those of the thirteenth. Henry VI I. 's power
looks small beside that of Frederick II., and the fall of
Frederick is not so abject as that of Lewis of Bavaria.
The reinvigoration by Charles IV. is but an artificial
affair compared with the resurrection under Rudolf of
Hapsburg.

In all the events of the fourteenth century to the time
of the great schism, we see the papal power, even in its
greatest temporal weakness, gaining great ecclesiastical
advantages. The schism paralysed it ; but there was
no king in Europe strong enough at the time to take
advantage of the opportunity to set things right. Nor
was there any state in Europe — I cannot except even
the empire under Sigismund — strong enough in itself to
take the lead in a determined reformation such as might
have prevented or modified the evils which on any show-
ing resulted from and thoroughly pervaded the refor-
mation of the sixteenth century. The increase of the
power of France in the fifteenth century went a long

THE ADVANCE OF THE HAPSBURGS 243

way to make a general reformation of the Church
impossible.

The Advance of the Hapsburgs. — But, after all, and
all things considered, it was the acquisition by the
Hapsburgs of the Netherlands and Spain that changed
the old form of things, and altered the whole face
of European policy. France no longer looked at
Germany over the Rhine and its broad borderlands,
but wherever she looked, across the Pyrenees, across
the Alps, across the Rhine, across the Meuse, in
Spain, in Italy, in Germany, in the Netherlands, there
she saw the same everlasting Hapsburg eagles. England,
in spite of the reformation, maintained her alliance with
the Hapsburgs ; her instincts were German, and her
antipathies were anti-French. As the Hapsburgs divided
and grew weak, England sought new allies among the
younger powers ; but in all the great struggles of Europe
she has had Germany, whether Austrian or Prussian, on
her side. These things lie far before us. It is enough
to say now that there is no country in Europe in which
the medieval and the modern are more distinctly sun-
dered from one another than they are in Germany.

INDEX

Adolf (of Nassau), Emperor, his
election, 81 ; his poverty, 81-2;
his treaty with Edward I. of Eng-
land, 83 ; his purchase of Thur-
ingia, 83, 84, 85 ; conspiracy
against, 85-6; his deposition and
death, 86

Agincourt, battle of, 169

Agnes, widow of Andrew of Hun-
gary, 93

Aix-la-Chapelle, besieged by William
of Holland, 43

Albert, Elector of Saxony, his mar-
riage, 70

Albert I., Emperor, his character, 80,
90, 93 ; his coronation, 87 ; ex-
communicated, 87 ; his relations
with Philip IV., 88-9; and with
Boniface VIII., 89 ; his wars with
Bohemia, 89 ; and with Thuringia,
90 ; his relations with Switzerland,
92 ; and death, 93

Albert II., Emperor, his marriage to
Elizabeth of Luxemburg, 173, 180;
his possessions previous to elec-
tion, 179, 190; his character, and
dealings with Hungary, 180; his
legislation, 180-1 ; his death, 181 ;
his institution of circles, 181, 214

Albert, Duke of Carinthia (brother of
Frederick III.), 190, 199

Albert, Duke of Saxony, his truce
with Matthias Corvinus, 199-200

Alemannia, characteristics of, 3, 5 ;
boundaries and divisions of, 73-4

Alfonso X., of Castile, a rival to
Richard of Cornwall, 48 ; dis-
regards his election, 49

Almain, Henry of, murdered, 59

Alsace, separated from Swabia, 5;
landgraviate of, consolidated by
Rudolf of Hapsburg, 226

Amurath II., Sultan of Turkey, in-
vades Europe, 193, 197

Anjou, House of, genealogical table
of, in Hungary and Naples, 183

Anne, Duchess of Brittany, 210

Anne, Queen of England (the Good),
138-9

Antipopes, the imperial need of, 16,

17
Appenzell, delivered from Austria,

150
Arianism, gains no hold in Germany,

IO-II

Aries, kingdom of, merged in Bur-
gundy, 228, 229

Augsburg, diets held at, 31, 75

Austria, a prey to rival competitors
71-3; the wars with Switzerland
118-119; rival dukes of, at Sigis
mund's death, 179; relations of
with Hungary, 194 ; ducal succes
sion to, contested, 198-9

Avignon, sale of, by Joanna of Naples,
134 and note

Babenisekg, House of, 61, 71

Bad Peace, the, 150

Baldwin, Archbishop of Treves

(brother of Henry VII., Emperor),

94, 98 ; votes for Lewis IV., 101 ;

sides with John ot Bohemia, 106
Ballenstadt, House of, sinks into

obscurity, 227
Bar, the Count of, created Duke, 1 ~8

245

246

INDEX

Barbara, Empress (wife of Sigis-
mund), conspires with the Huss-
ites, 175 ; and dies, 176

Baton Khan, invades Hungary, 34-5

Bavaria, characteristics of, 3, 5, 7-8 ;
dismemberment of, 18, 74-5 ; re-
sults of partition in, and the
Palatinate, 117; possession of the
Electoral vote,. disputed in, 132;
collapse of the family policy of
Lewis of Bavaria in, 133

Beatrice of Naples, Queen-dowager
of Hungary, 210

Beaufort, Cardinal, his crusade against
the Hussites, 172

Bela, King of Hungary, invokes the
aid of Frederick II. against the
Mongols, 35

Belgrade, delivered from the Turks,
197

Beust, Baron, 236

Black Death, the, in Germany, 132

Blanche of Lancaster, married to
Lewis, son of Emperor Rupert,

155

Bohemia, settled on House of Austria,
90 ; rival kings of, 100 ; provisions
for, in Golden Bull, 131 ; Huss-
ites in, 172-3; wars of succession
in, 194-5

Brandenburg, the Electorate of, sold to
Charles IV., 133 ; his son, Wenzel,
appointed Elector, 134; the Elec-
torate of, mortgaged to Jobst of
Moravia, 162, 163, 165; sold to
Frederick of Hohenzollem, 169 ;
connection with the Hohenzollem
family of, 227

Brescia, siege of, by Henry VII., 97-
8 ; battle of, 155, 156

Brunswick, the House of, 179;
Uuchy of, created by Frederick II.,
226

Budweis, Conference at, 35-6

Burgundy, difficult position of, 76-7 ;
French influence in, 7S ; sold to
Philip the Fair, 84-5 ; growth of
the House of, 185 ; aggrandise-

ment of, under Charles the Bold,
201 ; a bone of contention, 223 ;
alienation of, to France, and sub-
sequent return to the empire,
229
Byzantine empire, fall of the, 185,
196

C^sarship, power of the, in Ger-
many as regards the national senti-
ment, 234

Calixtines, the, 175

Calvinism, in the Palatinate and in
Geneva, 240-1

Capistan, John, preaches the crusade
against the Turks, 197

Carinthia, disposal of, by Emperor
Rudolf, 75

Carobert of Naples, acquires Hun-
gary, 90, 164

Cesarini, Cardinal Julian, his crusade
against the Hussites, 172 ; urgent
for reformation, 174

Charles of Anjou, defeats King Man-
fred, 57 ; entitled Peacemaker, 58

Charles the Bold, growth of his
power, 201

Charles IV., Emperor, elected, 113;
crowned King of the Romans, 113;
policy of his reign, 122-3 ; his care
for Bohemia, 123, 131 ; his rela-
tions with France, 124, 136; his
character, 124, 136-7 ; the opposi-
tion to his election, 125 ; he gets
rid of his enemies, 126 ; publishes
a general peace, 127 ; crowned
at Rome, 127; seeks territorial
strength, 132, note ; his expedition
against the Visconti, 134 ; his ad-
ministration, 135, 137-8; his rela-
tions with Urban VI., 136; his
death, 136; his marriages and
children, 138

Charles VI., Emperor, his titles
enumerated, 239

Charles of Durazzo, murdered by
Elizabeth of Hungary, 143, 165

Charles the Great, medieval Germany .

INDEX

247

formed by, 4 ; Christianity under,

III 13

Charles IV. (the Fair), King of France,
marries John of Bohemia's sister,
104 ; his pretensions to the im-
perial crown, 105 ; his death, 109

Charles VI., King of France, his
madness, 143

Charles Mart el, 12, 164

Charles of Valois, in Italy, 89

Cilli, Count Ulric of, 197

Clovis, Emperor, 3

Confederation of Marbach, the
struggles of King Rupert with,

„ J57-8

Conrad IV., Emperor, governs Ger-
many in his father's absence, 31 >
his guardians, 34 ; he defeats Batou
Khan in Hungary, 35 ; is defeated
by Henry Raspo, 36 ; his death,
37, 46 ; his relations with William
of Holland, 44, 45

Conradin, King, his childhood, 53 ;
hostility of Clement IV. to, 57 ;
executed at Naples, 58, 61, 62

Constantinople, taken by the Turks,
196

Corte Nuova, battle of, 3 1

Corvinus, Matthias, rules Hungary,
IQ4> x95 5 repels the Turks, 197-8 ;
holds Austria against Frederick III.,
199-200

Coucy, Ingelram de, 149

Council of Basel, the, opening of,
172 ; defied by Eugenius IV., 174 ;
its legislation, 175 ; its struggles
with the papacy, 190-1 ; close of,

193
Council of Constance, the, opening

of, 167 ; adhesion of Spain to, 170;

its authority subverted, 171
Council of Pisa, the, 158-9
Counts Palatine, the, 63-4
Crecy, battle of, 113, 120, 124
Creighton, Bishop, cited on Pius II.,

191, 192
Cymburga of Masovia, mother of

Frederick III., 189

Dates, important, 20, 40, 59, 79,
99, 120, 141, 161, 204, 224

Dietrich, Abp. of Treves, appointed
guardian to King Conrad, 34

Diets, the, composition of, 64

Eberhard, Count of Wiirtemberg,
•j J ; and the Wetterau league,

157

Ecclesiastical Princes, the, their
powers and policy, 14-16, 35,36,
42 ; at the election of Henry
Raspo, 36 ; and of Adolf of
Nassau, 82 ; refusal of, to support
Lewis IV. in Italy, 107

Edward I., King of England, his
relations with Rudolf of Hapsburg,
76-7 ; and with Adolf of Nassau,
82,83

Edward III., King of England, his
French pretensions, 109; his alli-
ance with Lewis IV., 111-112; in
Normandy, 113; declines offer of
the imperial crown, 125

Electoral theory and practice, the,
60-61

Elizabeth of Hungary, kills Charles
of Durazzo and is herself killed,
143- 165

Elizabeth of Luxemburg, wife of
Albert II., Emperor, 180

Elizabeth of Pomerania, 4th wife of
Charles IV., Emperor, 138

Engelbert, Abp. of Cologne, his
inflexible administration, 25

England, relations of, with Germany,
83-84, 136; the war of, with
France, 110, 112 ; no unity of lan-
guage in, as contrasted with th
German empire, 233 ; alliance of
with the Hapsburgs maintained,

243
Enzio, son of Frederick II., Em-
peror, 33. 35

] Ernest of Hapsburg, Duke of Austria,
and father of Frederick III., 179,
189

1 Europe, political condition of, at close

248

INDEX

of fourteenth century, 142-5 ; re-
ligious changes in, 145

Europe iti the Ea?-ly Middle Ages,
referred to, 23 note

Evesham, battle of, 57

Excommunication, effects of, in differ-
ent countries, 16

Falkenstein, Beatrice of, marries
Richard of Cornwall, 59

False Decretals, the, 12

Feudalism, growth of, 8 ; effect in
France and Germany contrasted,
8-10

Flanders, alienation of, to France,
and subsequent return to the em-
pire, 229 ; independence of the
burghers in, 232

France, character of feudalism in, 9,
10 ; relations of, with the papacy,
88, 89, 93-4, 99, 101, 103, no,
in, 112, 136, 142, 148; interest
of, in Naples, 97, 9S, 102, 103 ;
feuds between Orleans and Bur-
gundy, in, 144 ; hostility between,
and Germany, 223-4

Franciscans, characteristics of the,
106

Franconia, characteristics of, 3, 5 ;
dismemberment of, 18

Frankfort, its connection with the
imperial elections, 48 ; 100, 128 ;
besieged by Rupert of the Palati-
nate, 154

Frederick of Austria, his association
with Conradin, 53; executed at
Naples, 58, 61

Frederick Barbarossa, overthrown by
the papacy, 17; his death, 19-20;
his peace legislation, 213

Frederick, Duke of Austria, pro-
tects John XXIII., 168; to his
own ruin, 169 ; his lands, 178

Frederick, Duke of Brunswick, 153,

157
Frederick II., Emperor, loss of Ger-
man unity under, 17-18 ; his charac-
ter and policy, 21-2 ; his Italian

tendencies, 22, 23 ; purchases the
support of the prelates, 24-5 ; his
relations with his son, Henry, 25-9;
his extraordinary crusade, 27 ; his
wives, 28-9 ; his two years in Ger-
many, 30-31 ; his excommunica-
tion by Gregory IX., 32 ; his death,
33 ; importance of his reign, 33-4 ;
his influence upon Germany, 38-40

Frederick III., Emperor, characteris-
tics of his reign, 184-6; the last
crowned Cresar, 185, 186 ; his im-
perial device, 186-7 5 his character,
186-7, 188-9; his connection with
Ladislas Posthumous, 188-9 ; his
parents, 189 ; his marriage, 190 ;
his position regarding Hungary and
Bohemia, 195-6 ; his attitude to-
wards the Turkish invasion, 197,
198 ; his troubles with Matthias
Corvinus, 199-200 ; his death,
202 ; comparison of, with Charles
IV., 202-3

Frederick of Hapsburg, Duke of
Austria, elected in opposition to
Lewis IV., 101 ; his character,
102 ; defeated at Miihldorf, 102 ;
makes treaty with Lewis IV., 106 ;
retires and dies, 107

Frederick of Hohenzollern, acquires
Brandenburg, 169

Frederick the Warlike, Duke of
Austria, condemned to forfeiture,
31 ; returns to his allegiance, 34;
referred to, 71

Frederick the Warlike, Margrave of
Meissen, declines election, 125 ;
purchases the Electorate of Saxony,

173
Frederick of Zollern, 68
Ftirst, Walter, 92

Genghis Khan, 34

Genoa, alienated to France, 151

Gerard, Archbishop of Mainz, his

relations with Adolf of Nassau, 81,

82-3, 85-6
Germany, Christianity in, 10— 12 ;

INDEX

249

relations of, with the papacy, 10,
12-14, 15, 16, 22, in, 121, 231-2,
242 ; impotence of, under the
Ilohenstaufens, 37-40; result in,
of the connection with Italy, 39,
137, 231 ; lack of imperial claimants
in, 61-2 ; origin of the nobility in,
62-4; the Diets in, 64 ; consolida-
tion of, under the Hapsburgs,
69-70 ; readjustment of, by Em-
peror Rudolf, 75-6 ; relations of,
with England, .83-4, 136; civil
war in, 101 ; fourteenth century a
period of accretion in, 1 14 ; rule of
partition in, 115-6 ; results of par-
tition in, 1 16-7; state of, under
Charles IV., 122-3 ; condition of,
in fifteenth century, 160-1 ; unrest
of, under Frederick III., 186 ;
ecclesiastical affairs of, regulated,
193; condition of, under Maxi-
milian, 209 ; hostility of, to France,
223 ; growth of national union in,
232, 236-7, 240 ; unity of language
in, 232-3 ; influence of religion in,
234 ; characteristics of German
religious feeling, 235-6 ; various
appellations of, 237-9 ; effects
of the Reformation in, 240-1 ;
Germany in the Early Middle Ages,
referred to, 2 note

Gertrude, niece of Frederick the
Warlike, inherits the Duchy of
Austria, 71

Gessler, Hermann, 92

Gibbon, Edward, cited, 124

Golden Bull, the, published by
Charles IV., 127; provisions of,
128-130; criticised, 130-1

Gregorovius, Ferdinand, cited, 123

Guelfs and Ghibellines, relations of,
with Henry of Luxemburg, 97

Guntber of Schwartzburg, rival to
Charles IV., 125 ; poisoned, 126

Hanseatic League, growth of the,
44-5, 119; its privileges in Eng-
land, 54; free cities of the, 179

Ilapsburg, the House of, rise of, 67,
68; acquires the Tyrol, 133; con-
solidation of the empire in, 160,
180, 184; its possessions, 179;
division of lands in, 189-90 ; genea-
logical tree, 203 ; growth of its
influence in Europe, 243

Hartmann of Hapsburg, 76-7, 92

Hedwiga of Poland, 164-5

Henry of Carinthia, succeeds to
Bohemia, 90 ; is overthrown, 96 ;
rebels, 98 ; supports the claims
of Frederick of Austria against
Lewis IV., 101

Henry, Duke of Bavaria, relations of,
with Emperor Rudolf, 72

Henry IV., Emperor, his relations
with the papacy, 13, 14, 16, 22

Henry V., Emperor, and the papacy,
22

Henry VI., Emperor, and the Sicilian
marriage, 22

Henry VII., Emperor, election of,
94 ; and the Forest Cantons, 95 ;
his character, 95-6, 99; his Italian
expedition, 97 ; crowned at the
Lateran, 98; his death, 98

Henry the Fowler, Saxony under, 6

Henry III., King of England, and
the Barons' War, 56

Henry V., King of England, his alli-
ance with Emperor Sigismund, 170

Henry VII., King of the Romans
(son of Frederick II.), represents
his father in Germany, 24, 25 ; his
marriage, 26 ; conspires against his
father, 27-8 ; dies, 28

Henry the Lion, and the dismember-
ment of Saxony, 17, 18

Hohenstaufen, the House of, referred
to, 14, 22, 23 ; becomes extinct,
37 ; papal hostility to, 57, 58 ; and
the Duchy of Swabia, 226

Hohenzollern, the House of, rise
of, 68, 117; connection of, with
Prussia, 120; rise of, in rank, 138;
progress of the, 178 ; and Branden-
burg, 227

25°

INDEX

Hospitallers, the, 97

Hundred Years' War, opening of the,
no

Hungary, the Mongol invasion of, 35 ;
given to Carobert of Naples, 90;
attitude of, towards the empire,
180; the Turkish invasion of, 193 ;
wars of the two Ladislases in,
J93~4 ; and regency of Hunyadi
in, 194

Hunyadi, John Corvinus, defends
Hungary from the Turks, 193-4,
197

Huss, John, at Prague, 148 ; im-
prisoned, 167-8; his death, 169,
170, 172; his relations with Em-
peror Sigismund, 177

Hussite Movement, the, growth of,
160, 167, 172-3

Hussite War, the, 17 1-3

Imperial Cities, growth of the,

1 18-19, 123
Imperial elections, manner of the,

64-5 ; the seven Electors, 65,

66 "
Imperial position, the three phases of,

207-9
Interregnum, the, 41, 42
Isabella of England (sister of Richard

of Cornwall), marries Emperor

Frederick II., 28-9
Italy, relations of, with Germany, 17-

18, 24, 37, 38, 98

Jacquerie, wars of the, 145
Jagello, Duke of Lithuania, his
marriage, 1 64-5 ; lays claim to
Hungary, 166
Janduno, John de, 107
Jerome of Prague, his death, 172
Jerusalem, Imperial relations with, 18
Jobst of Moravia, relations of, with
King Wenzel, 147, 154; and the
Electorate of Brandenburg, 153,
165 ; his election and death, 163
Jochsamergott, Henry, 74
Johanna, Queen of Naples, and the

sale of Avignon, 134 and note;
tragedy of, 143

John, Ban of Croatia, 165, 183

John, King of Bohemia, acquires
Bohemia on his marriage, 96 ;
votes for Lewis IV., 10 1 ; his re-
lations with Charles the Fair, 104,
105; his Italian expedition, no;
alienation of, from Lewis IV., 112 ;
killed at Crecy, 113; his char-
acter contrasted with Lewis IV.,
120

John of Gorlitz, third son of
Charles IV., 140

John of Hapsburg, murders his uncle,
Albert I., 92-3

John, King of England, effect of
excommunication on. 16

John of Nassau, Archbishop of Mainz,
rebels against Emperor Rupert,
157-8; summons the Electors,
162-3 ; connives at the escape of
John XXIII. , 168

Jiilich, the Count of, created Duke,
138

Karlings, the, 6, 12, 13, 73, 229

Ladislas (or Uladislas), King of
Poland, offered the Hungarian
crown, 193 ; his death, 194

Ladislas, son of King Casimir of
Poland, succeeds to Bohemia and
Hungary, 195

Ladislas Posthumous, King of Hun-
gary and Bohemia, birth of, 181-2,
189; his death referred to, 184,
190, 194, 197; his inheritance,
188-9 5 division of his lands, 190 ;
his misrule in Hungary, 194

Ladislaus, King of Naples (son of
Charles of Durazzo), his quarrels
with John XXIII. , 165, 167 ; he
accepts the crown of Hungary, 166

Landenberg, Besenger of, 92

Lauenburg, Dukes of, 100 and note,
117 ; Duchy of, 226

Laupen, battle of, 118

INDEX

251

Leagues and confederations, rise of

the, 214
Legnano, battle of, 17
Leopold III., Duke of Austria, and

the Swiss wars, 149- 150
Leopold IV., Duke of Austria, 150
Leopold, Duke of Austria (son of
Emperor Albert I.), takes the part
of his brother, Frederick, 102, 104.
105 ; urges Frederick to break his
agreement with Lewis IV., 106;
dies, 107
Lewis IV., Emperor, his election
disputed, 101 ; imprisons Frederick
of Austria, 102 ; his relations
with John XXII., 103-5; bestows
Brandenburg on his son Lewis,
104 ; his marriage, 105 ; he re-
leases Frederick of Austria, 106 ;
unpopularity of his Italian expedi-
tion, 107 ; his progress in Italy,
108; creates an antipope, 108-9;
desires reconciliation with the
papacy, 109 ; John XXII. im-
placable, no; hold of, upon
Germany, 1 1 1 ; alliance of, with
Edward III. of England, 111-112;
relations of, with Clement VI.,
112; deposition of, 113; death of,
114; character of his reign, 114;
dominions acquired by his House,
1 14-5; his Bavarian legislation,
120
Lewis the Great, King of Poland and

Hungary, descent of, 164
Lewis III. (the Pacific), Landgrave

of Hesse, 189
Lewis, Margrave of Brandenburg
(son of Lewis IV.), his marriage to
Margaret of Bohemia, 112, 133;
relations with Glinther of Schwartz-
burg, 126; surrenders care of the
imperial insignia, 126-7; resigna-
tion and death of, 127-133 ; re-
ferred to, 125
Lewis of Wittelsbach, Count Palatine
(1273), elects Rudolf of Hapsburg,
67 ; marries Rudolfs daughter, 70

Lewis of Wittelsbach (1225), Duke
of Bavaria and Count Palatine of
the Rhine, appointed guardian of
Henry VII., 25 ; assassinated, 26

Lodge, Professor, quoted, 132 nole

Lollards, the, 139

Lords Appellant, proceedings of, 144

Lorraine, becomes French, 229

Lotharingia, 3 ; and House of Luxem-
burg, 5

Louis IX. (St. Louis), King of France,
rebukes Gregory IX., 32

Louis XL, King of France, growth
of monarchical power under, 185

Lubeck, and the Hanseatic League,

Lucerne, joins the Forest Cantons,
1 18-9

Lutheranism, 240-1

Luxemburg, the House of, in Lothar-
ingia, 5 ; foundation of, 96 ; char-
acter of, 139 ; system of succession
in, 160

Mainz, Diet at, 29

Manfred, King of Sicily, defeated at
Benevento, 57

Margaret of Hainault, wife of
Emperor Lewis IV., 105, 115

Margaret Maultasch, married to
Lewis of Brandenburg, 112, 133

Marsilius of Padua, 107

Mary of Burgundy, marries Emperor
Maximilian, 202, 210; dies, 206

Mary, daughter of Lewis the Great
of Poland, marries Emperor
Sigismund, 164

Maximilian, Emperor, referred to,
179, 180, 181, 187; his mother,
190; crowned King of the Romans,
200-201 ; history of, prior to his
accession, 201, 209-210; his mar-
riage to Mary of Burgundy, 202,
210; resemblance of his character
to Sigismund's, 205 ; his political
position, 206-7; his marriage to
Bianca Maria Sforza, 211 ; his
work in Germany, 2 19-2 jo

252

INDEX

Mecklenburg, the Counts of, raised

to Dukes, 138
Melchthal, Arnold of, 92
Merania, Berthold, Duke of, 74
Metz, part of Golden Bull pub-
lished at, 127, 128
Milan, sale of, 151 ; ducal crown of,

disputed, 196
Milman, Dean, his " History of Latin
Christianity," 25 n. ; cited, 33, 35,

48, S3. 98, 123, 191, 192 ; quoted
on German Emperors in Italy, 10S

Monarchia, the, of Dante, cited, 96,

98
Montfort, Simon de, and Richard of

Cornwall, 50, 52, 56
Morgarten, battle of, 118
Miihldorf, battle of, 102, 104

Naefels, battle of, 150

Naples, relations of, with France,

49, 97, 98, 102, 103 ; with Hun-
gary, 166; Conradin beheaded at,
58 ; murder of Queen Johanna in,
144

Napoleon Bonaparte, 226

Nicopolis, battle of, 166

Nuremberg, connection of, with
House of Hohenzollern, 117; part
of Golden Bull published at, 127,
128; diets held at, 127, 154, 180,
199

Ockham, William of, 107

Otto the Child, receives the Duchy

of Brunswick, 30
Otto, Duke of Bavaria, and King

Conrad, 34
Otto IV., Emperor, and the Papacy,

16, 22-3
Otto the Great, Saxony under, 6
Ottocar, King of Bohemia, annexes

Austria and Styria, 43, 56, 71-2 ;

a candidate for the imperial crown,

66-7 ; his relations with Rudolf of

Hapsburg, 71-3 ; his death, 73

Palatinates, the, 64

Papacy, the relations of, with Ger-

many, 10, 12-4, 15, 16, 22, III,

121, 231-2, 242
Pauli, Dr., his " Pictures of Old

England," 54
Pepin (le Bref), and the papacy, 12,

13
Peter, Archbishop of Mainz, elects

Henry of Luxemburg, 94 ; his

schemes successful, 96 ; he votes

for Lewis IV., 101 ; dies, 106
Philip, Archduke of Burgundy, and

the Spanish marriage, 206, 210
Philip IV. (the Fair), King of France,

his war with England, 83 ; he

acquires Burgundy, 85 ; his struggle

with Boniface VIII., 88-9; he

covets the imperial crown, 93-4 ;

influence of, over Clement V., 99
Philip VI. of France, and John XXII.,

no, III
Philip, King of Germany (1197), and

sale of imperial rights, 18-19
Philip the Long (of France), marries

Jeanne of Burgundy, 85
Philippa, Queen of England, 105,

109
Piccolomini, /Eneas Sylvius (after-
wards Pius II.), and the Great

Schism, 191-2 ; his papal policy,

196
Pisa, Council of, 15S-9
Podiebrad, George, in Bohemia, 195,

198, 199
Popes :

Alexander IV., and Richard of
Cornwall, 49

Benedict IX., French influence
over, no, in, 112

Benedict XIII., a prisoner at
Avignon, 1 58-9 ; and Council
of Constance, 169, 170

Boniface VIII., his relations with
Albert of Hapsburg, 87, 89 ; and
Philip IV., 8S-9

Boniface IX., 158

Calixtus III., celebrates the de-
liverance of Belgrade, 197

Clement IV., and Conradin, 58

INDEX

253

Popes — continued —

Clement V., under French influ-
ence, 93-4, 99 ; relations of, with
Henry VII., 95, 97 ; death of, 101

Clement VI., and Lewis IV., 112,

Clement VII. (Antipope), 136, 142

Eugenius IV., and Council of Basel,
174, 175, 1 90- 1 ; deposes the
Archbishops, 191 ; his death, 192

Felix V. (Antipope), 191

Gregory VII., and Henry IV..
Emperor, 14

Gregory IX., opposes Emperor
Frederick II., 31-2

Gregory X., relations of, with
Emperor Rudolf, 60, 66, 69,
70-1

Gregory XL, disputed election at
his death, 135

Innocent IV., and Emperor Fred-
erick II., 23, 33

John XXII., attitude of, towards
Germany, 102 ; offers to arbi-
trate, 103 ; his character and
policy, 103-4 ; relations of, with
Lewis IV., 105, 106, 107, no

John XXIII., and Ladislaus of
Naples, 167 ; consents to ab-
dicate, 168 ; is deposed, 169

Martin V., elected, 170; character
and policy of, 171

Urban VI., and King Wenzel, 135 ;
and Charles IV., 136; his
character, 142 ; his persecution
of the cardinals, 144
Printing, invented, 185
Prussia, 120, 178

Raspo, Henry, Landgrave of
Thuringia, elected Emperor, 36,
38 ; his death, 42

Reformation, the, in Germany, 240-1

Rhine, League of the, 44-5

Richard of Cornwall, elected Emperor,

48 ; connection of, with Germany,

49 ; character of, 49-50 ; his title
not confirmed, 51 ; extent, and

reasons of his influence in Germany,
51-2 ; his kingly title justified, 53 ;
his administration, 54 ; his connec-
tion with England, 55-7 ; his
death, 58-9

Richard II., King of England, char-
acter of, 142-3 ; comparison of
with King Wenzel, 152

Rienzi, Cola di, 123

Robert, King of Naples, 97, 98, 104,
109

Rudolf of Hapsburg, Emperor, and
the papacy, 41-2, 70-1 ; elected,
66-7 ; his marriage and previous
career, 67-8 ; his character and
policy, 68-9 ; marriage of his
daughters, 70 ; his wars with King
Ottocar, 71-3; his legislation,
75-9 ; his relations with England,
76-7 ; and with Burgundy, 78 ; his
death, 79

Rupert of the Palatinate, Emperor,
his election, 153 ; coronation, 154 ;
appoints his son Lewis imperial
vicar, 155 ; defeated in Italy, 155—
6; returns to Germany, 156; his
struggles with the Confederation
of Marbach, 157-8; his attitude
towards the papal schism, 15S-9;
his death and character, 159-160;
division of his dominions, 160

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, his
reforms, 13, 14

Saint Boniface, his influence on
German Christianity, 7, II, 12

Saint George, League of, 221

Saint Stephen of Hungary, 89-90

Salza, Hermann of, 28

Saxony, characteristics of, 3, 5-7 ;
conversion of, to Christianity, 4 ;
the spiritual princes in, 14, 15; dis-
memberment of, 18 ; the Electorate
of, disputed, 100 ; rule of partition
in, 1 1 6-7; owes its independence
to Sigismund, 178; the House of,
traced, 178; geographical changes
in, 226-7

254

INDEX

Schism, the Great Papal, 135, 136,
158-9, 168, 169, 170

Sempach, battle of, 150

Sforza, Bianca Maria, married to
Emperor Maximilian, 211

Sforza, Francisco, Duke of Milan,
196, 211

Sicily, imperial relations with, 17-18,
22, 23, 24, 57

Sigismund, Count of Tyrol, 198-9

Sigismund, Emperor, has the Luxem-
burg characteristics, 139 ; his titles,
140; relations of, with KingWenzel,
147, 154; elected, 163; his here-
ditary possessions, 163-4 ; his
Polish claims, 164 ; loses Poland
but gains Hungary, 165 ; his wars
with the Wallachians, 165-6; his
marriage to Barbara of Cilly, 166 ;
summons the Council of Constance,
167 ; his dealings with John Huss,
167-8, 177; with John XXIII.,
168-9; and with Benedict XIII.,
169 ; he visits Paris, 169 ; and
England, 170; succeeds to Bohemia,
172 ; the Hussite war, 172-3 ; his
dealings with Eugenius IV., 175 ;
his death, 175 ; and character,
176-7 ; political condition of the
empire at time of his death,

178-9

Sismondi, cited, 155, 158

Slavonia, connection of, with the
Luxemburg family, 140

Spain, conquest of the Moors in, 186

Spires, Diet at, 96

Spiritual Princes. See " Ecclesiastical
Princes."

Stauffacher, Werner, 92

Swabia, separated from Alsace, 5 ; dis-
memberment of, 18-19, 74 ; under
King Conrad, 45, 46 ; war in,
between cities and nobles, 132,
149 ; geographical changes in, 226

Switzerland, war of emancipation in,
90; Rudolf of Hapsburg in, 91 ;
revolt of the Forest Cantons in,
92 ; relations of, with Austria,

1 18-9, 149-150, 222-3 ; Zurich
and Austria, 193, 221; internal
dissensions in, 221 ; independence
of Swiss Confederation recognised,
221, 222; relations of, to the
empire, 230

Tagliacozzo, battle of, 58
Templars, persecution of the, 96-7
Teutonic and Livonian Orders, rise of

the, 1 19-120
Thuringia, purchased by Adolf of

Nassau, 83, 84, 85
Turks, the, in Europe, 185, 194, 196,

197
Tyrol, 119, 133, 222

Varna, battle of, 194
Vehmgericht, the, introduction of,
into Westphalia, 25 ; revival of,

M5
Vienna, 72, 73, 194, 199, 200
Vinea, Peter de, 33
Visconti, Filippo Maria, death of,

196

Galeazzo, deposed, 108

Gian Galeazzo, defeats Emperor

Rupert at Brescia, 155 ; dies, 156

Wars of the Roses, 185

Welfs and Waibelings, the, 14

Welfic party, the fortunes of, 23, 24,
25, 26, 36, 61-2, 84, 98

Werner, Archbishop of Mainz, and
Emperor Rudolf, 66, 67, 68

Westphalia, Peace of, 223

Wetterau League, the, 157

Wenzel, Emperor (son of Charles
IV.), Elector of Brandenburg, 133-
4; King of the Romans, 135; his
character, 139, 143, 146; his im-
prisonments and marriages, 147 ;
his administration, 148-9 ; his de-
position, 1 50- 1 ; reasons for the
act, 15 1-3; he declines to resist,
154-5 5 his death, 172

Wenzel IV., King of Bohemia, 73 ;
candidate for imperial crown, 81 ;

indp:x

255

his coronation, 85 ; relations with
Albert of Hapsburg, 87, 89, 90 ;
marriage of his daughter to John of
Luxemburg, 96

William of Holland, King of the
Romans, 36-7, 43 ; his election,
42 ; poverty of, 43, 44, 46 ;
marriage of, 44 ; his war with
Flanders, 45 ; his character and
policy, 45-6 ; his death, 46

Wittelsbach, the House of, 25-6, 115,
153, 227

Wittenberg, Dukes of, 100 ; House
of, 117

Worms, the Diet of :

Its measures concerning —
Public peace, 212-5 5
The Imperial Chamber, 215 ;

The system of circles, 215-7;
The constitution of the Diets,

217 ;

The administration of justice,

217-8;
The Imperial Towns, 218 ;
The Aulic Council, 218-9
Wiirtemberg, the Counts of, 226

Zahringen, Berthold of, 74 ; Dukes

of, 74, 90-1
Ziska, John, and the Hussite war,

172
Zurich, freedom of, 56, 118-9;

alliance of, with Austria, 193, 221 ;

Zwinglianism in, 241
Zwinglianism, in Switzerland, 240,

241

THE END

Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson fir5 Co.
Edinburgh cV London

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