The Empire of Austria; Its Rise and Present Power / Abbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot), 1805-1877

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Title: The Empire of Austria; Its Rise and Present Power


Author: John S. C. Abbott



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The Monarchies of Continental Europe

THE EMPIRE OF AUSTRIA; ITS RISE AND PRESENT POWER

by

JOHN S. C. ABBOTT

New York;
Published by Mason Brothers,
Cincinnati: Rickey, Mallory & Co.
Stereotyped by
Thomas B. Smith,
82 & 84 Beekman St.
Printed By
C. A. Alvord.
15 Vandewater St.

1859







PREFACE


The studies of the author of this work, for the last ten years, in
writing the "History of Napoleon Bonaparte," and "The French Revolution
of 1789," have necessarily made him quite familiar with the monarchies
of Europe. He has met with so much that was strange and romantic in
their career, that he has been interested to undertake, as it were, a
_biography_ of the Monarchies of Continental Europe--their birth,
education, exploits, progress and present condition. He has commenced
with Austria.

There are abundant materials for this work. The Life of Austria embraces
all that is wild and wonderful in history; her early struggles for
aggrandizement--the fierce strife with the Turks, as wave after wave of
Moslem invasion rolled up the Danube--the long conflicts and bloody
persecutions of the Reformation--the thirty years' religious war--the
meteoric career of Gustavus Adolphus and Charles XII. shooting athwart
the lurid storms of battle--the intrigues of Popes--the enormous pride,
power and encroachments of Louis XIV.--the warfare of the Spanish
succession and the Polish dismemberment--all these events combine in a
sublime tragedy which fiction may in vain attempt to parallel.

It is affecting to observe in the history of Germany, through what woes
humanity has passed in attaining even its present position of
civilization. It is to be hoped that the human family may never again
suffer what it has already endured. We shall be indeed insane if we do
not gain some wisdom from the struggles and the calamities of those who
have gone before us. The narrative of the career of the Austrian Empire,
must, by contrast, excite emotions of gratitude in every American bosom.
Our lines have fallen to us in pleasant places; we have a goodly
heritage.

It is the author's intention soon to issue, as the second of this
series, the History of the Empire of Russia.

JOHN S. C. ABBOTT.

Brunswick, Maine, 1859.




CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
RHODOLPH  OF  HAPSBURG.
From 1232 to 1291.

Hawk's Castle.--Albert, Count of Hapsburg.--Rhodolph of Hapsburg.--His
Marriage and Estates.--Excommunication and its Results.--His Principles
of Honor.--A Confederacy of Barons.--Their Route.--Rhodolph's Election
as Emperor of Germany.--The Bishop's Warning.--Dissatisfaction at the
Result of the Election.--Advantages accruing from the Possession of an
interesting Family.--Conquest.--Ottocar acknowledges the Emperor; yet
breaks his Oath of Allegiance.--Gathering Clouds.--Wonderful
Escape.--Victory of Rhodolph.--His Reforms. Page 17


CHAPTER II.
REIGNS OF ALBERT I., FREDERIC, ALBERT AND OTHO.
From 1291 to 1347.

Anecdotes of Rhodolph.--His Desire for the Election of his Son.--His
Death.--Albert.--His Unpopularity.--Conspiracy of the Nobles.--Their
Defeat.--Adolphus of Nassau chosen Emperor.--Albert's Conspiracy.--
Deposition of Adolphus and Election of Albert.--Death of Adolphus.--The
Pope Defied.--Annexation of Bohemia.--Assassination of Albert.--Avenging
Fury.--The Hermit's Direction.--Frederic the Handsome.--Election of
Henry, Count of Luxemburg.--His Death.--Election of Louis of
Bavaria.--Capture of Frederic.--Remarkable Confidence toward a
Prisoner.--Death of Frederic.--An early Engagement.--Death of
Louis.--Accession of Albert. Page 34


CHAPTER III.
RHODOLPH II., ALBERT IV. AND ALBERT V.
From 1389 to 1437.

Rhodolph II.--Marriage of John to Margaret.--Intriguing for the
Tyrol.--Death of Rhodolph.--Accession of Power to Austria.--Dividing the
Empire.--Delight of the Emperor Charles.--Leopold.--His Ambition and
successes.--Hedwige, Queen of Poland.--"The Course of true Love never
did run smooth."--Unhappy Marriage of Hedwige.--Heroism of Arnold of
Winkelreid.--Death of Leopold.--Death of Albert IV.--Accession Of Albert
V.--Attempts of Sigismond to bequeath to Albert V. Hungary and Bohemia.
Page 48


CHAPTER IV.
ALBERT, LADISLAUS AND FREDERIC.
From 1440 to 1489.

Increasing Honors of Albert V.--Encroachments of the Turks.--The
Christians Routed.--Terror of the Hungarians.--Death of Albert.--
Magnanimous Conduct of Albert of Bavaria.--Internal Troubles.--Precocity
of Ladislaus.--Fortifications Raised by the Turks.--John Capistrun.--
Rescue of Belgrade.--The Turks Dispersed.--Exultation over the
Victory.--Death of Hunniades.--Jealousy of Ladislaus.--His
Death.--Brotherly Quarrels.--Devastations by the Turks.--Invasion of
Austria.--Repeal of the Compromise.--The Emperor a Fugitive. Page 68


CHAPTER V.
THE EMPERORS FREDERIC II. AND MAXIMILIAN I.
From 1477 to 1500.

Wanderings of the Emperor Frederic.--Proposed Alliance with the Duke of
Burgundy.--Mutual Distrust.--Marriage of Mary.--The Age of
Chivalry.--The Motive inducing the Lord of Praunstein to Declare
War.--Death of Frederic II.--The Emperor's Secret.--Designs of the
Turks.--Death of Mahomet II.--First Establishment of Standing
Armies.--Use of Gunpowder.--Energy of Maximilian.--French
Aggressions.--The League to Expel the French.--Disappointments of
Maximilian.--Bribing the Pope.--Invasion of Italy.--Capture and
Recapture.--The Chevalier de Bayard. Page 77


CHAPTER VI.
MAXIMILIAN I.
From 1500 to 1519.

Base Treachery of the Swiss Soldiers.--Perfidy of Ferdinand of
Arragon.--Appeals by Superstition.--Coalition with Spain.--The League of
Cambray.--Infamy of the Pope.--The King's Apology.--Failure of the
Plot.--Germany Aroused.--Confidence of Maximilian.--Longings for the
Pontifical Chair.--Maximilian Bribed.--Leo X.--Dawning Prosperity.--
Matrimonial Projects.--Commencement of the War of Reformation.--Sickness
of Maximilian.--His Last Directions.--His Death.--The Standard by which
his Character is to be Judged. Page 91


CHAPTER VII.
CHARLES V. AND THE REFORMATION.
From 1519 to 1581.

Charles V. of Spain.--His Election as Emperor of Germany.--His
Coronation.--The First Constitution.--Progress of the Reformation.--The
Pope's Bull against Luther.--His Contempt for his Holiness.--The Diet at
Worms.--Frederic's Objection to the Condemnation of Luther by the
Diet.--He obtains for Luther the Right of Defense.--Luther's triumphal
March to the Tribunal.--Charles urged to Violate his Safe Conduct.--
Luther's Patmos.--Marriage of Sister Catharine Bora to Luther.--Terrible
Insurrection.--The Holy League.--The Protest of Spires.--Confession of
Augsburg.--The Two Confessions.--Compulsory Measures. Page 106


CHAPTER VIII.
CHARLES V. AND THE REFORMATION.
From 1531 to 1552.

Determination to crush Protestantism.--Incursion of the Turks.--Valor of
the Protestants.--Preparations for renewed Hostilities.--Augmentation of
the Protestant Forces.--The Council of Trent.--Mutual Consternation.--
Defeat of the Protestant Army.--Unlooked-for Succor.--Revolt in the
Emperor's Army.--The Fluctuations of Fortune.--Ignoble Revenge.--Capture
of Wittemberg.--Protestantism apparently crushed.--Plot against
Charles.--Maurice of Saxony.--A Change of Scene.--The Biter Bit--The
Emperor humbled.--His Flight.--His determined Will. Page 121


CHAPTER IX.
CHARLES V. AND THE TURKISH WARS.
From 1552 to 1555.

The Treaty of Passau.--The Emperor yields.--His continued Reverses.--The
Toleration Compromise.--Mutual Dissatisfaction.--Remarkable Despondency
of the Emperor Charles.--His Address to the Convention at Brussels.--
The Convent of St. Justus.--Charles returns to Spain.--His Convent
Life.--The Mock Burial.--His Death.--His Traits of Character.--The
King's Compliment to Titian.--The Condition of Austria.--Rapid Advance
of the Turks.--Reasons for the Inaction of the Christians.--The Sultan's
Method of Overcoming Difficulties.--The little Fortress of Guntz.--What
it accomplished. Page 186


CHAPTER X.
FERDINAND I.--HIS WARS AND INTRIGUES.
From 1555 to 1562.

John of Tapoli.--The Instability of Compacts.--The Sultan's Demands.--A
Reign of War.--Powers and Duties of the Monarchs of Bohemia.--The
Diet.--The King's Desire to crush Protestantism.--The Entrance to
Prague.--Terror of the Inhabitants.--The King's Conditions.--The Bloody
Diet.--Disciplinary Measures.--The establishment of the Order of
Jesuits.--Abdication of Charles V. in Favor of Ferdinand.--Power of the
Pope.--Paul IV.--A quiet but powerful Blow.--The Progress of the
Reformers.--Attempts to reconcile the Protestants.--The unsuccessful
Assembly. Page 151


CHAPTER XI.
DEATH OF FERDINAND I.--ACCESSION OF MAXIMILIAN II.
From 1562 to 1576.

The Council of Trent.--Spread of the Reformation.--Ferdinand's Attempt
to influence the Pope.--His Arguments against Celibacy.--Stubbornness of
the Pope.--Maximilian II.--Displeasure of Ferdinand.--Motives for not
abjuring the Catholic Faith.--Religious Strife in Europe.--Maximilian's
Address to Charles IX.--Mutual Toleration.--Romantic Pastime of
War.--Heroism of Nicholas, Count of Zeini.--Accession of Power to
Austria.--Accession of Rhodolph III.--Death of Maximilian. Page 166


CHAPTER XII.
CHARACTER OF MAXIMILIAN.--SUCCESSION OF RHODOLPH III.
From 1576 to 1604.

Character of Maximilian.--His Accomplishments.--His Wife.--Fate of his
Children.--Rhodolph III.--The Liberty of Worship.--Means of
Emancipation.--Rhodolph's Attempts against Protestantism.--Declaration
of a higher Law.--Theological Differences.--The Confederacy at
Heilbrun.--The Gregorian Calendar.--Intolerance in Bohemia.--The Trap of
the Monks.--Invasion of the Turks.--Their Defeat.--Coalition with
Sigismond.--Sale of Transylvania.--Rule of Basta.--The Empire captured
and recaptured.--Devastation of the Country.--Treatment of Stephen
Botskoi. Page 182


CHAPTER XIII.
RHODOLPH III. AND MATTHIAS.
From 1604 to 1609.

Botskoi's Manifesto.--Horrible Suffering in Transylvania.--Character of
Botskoi.--Confidence of the Protestants.--Superstition of Rholdoph.--His
Mystic Studies.--Acquirements of Matthias.--Schemes of Matthias.--His
increasing power.--Treaty with the Turks.--Demands on Rhodolph.--The
Compromise.--Perfidy of Matthias.--The Margravite.--Fillisbustering.--
The People's Diet.--A Hint to Royalty.--The Bloodless Triumph.--Demands
of the Germans.--Address of the Prince of Anhalt to the King. Page 198


CHAPTER XIV.
RHODOLPH III. AND MATTHIAS.
From 1609 to 1612.

Difficulties as to the Succession.--Hostility of Henry IV. to the House
of Austria.--Assassination of Henry IV.--Similarity in Sully's and
Napoleon's Plans.--Exultation of the Catholics.--The Brother's
Compact.--How Rhodolph kept it.--Seizure of Prague.--Rhodolph a
Prisoner.--The King's Abdication.--Conditions Attached to the
Crown.--Rage of Rhodolph.--Matthias Elected King.--The Emperor's
Residence.--Rejoicings of The Protestants.--Reply of the Ambassadors.--
The Nuremberg Diet.--The Unkindest cut of all.--Rhodolph's Humiliation
and Death. Page 213


CHAPTER XV.
MATTHIAS.
From 1612 to 1619.

Matthias Elected Emperor of Germany.--His Despotic Character.--His Plans
Thwarted.--Mulheim.--Gathering Clouds.--Family Intrigue.--Coronation of
Ferdinand.--His Bigotry.--Henry, Count of Thurn.--Convention at
Prague.--The King's Reply.--The Die Cast.--Amusing Defense of an
Outrage.--Ferdinand's Manifesto.--Seizure of Cardinal Klesis.--The
King's Rage.--Retreat of the King's Troops.--Humiliation of
Ferdinand.--The Difficulties Deferred.--Death of Matthias. Page 229


CHAPTER XVI.
FERDINAND II.
From 1619 to 1621.

Possessions of the Emperor.--Power of the Protestants of Bohemia.--
General Spirit of Insurrection.--Anxiety of Ferdinand.--Insurrection led
by Count Thurn.--Unpopularity of the Emperor.--Affecting Declaration of
the Emperor.--Insurrection in Vienna.--The Arrival of Succor.--Ferdinand
Seeks the Imperial Throne.--Repudiated by Bohemia.--The Palatinate.--
Frederic Offered the Crown of Bohemia.--Frederic Crowned.--Revolt in
Hungary.--Desperate Condition of the Emperor.--Catholic League.--The
Calvinists and the Puritans.--Duplicity of the Emperor.--Foreign
Combinations.--Truce between the Catholics and the Protestants.--The
Attack upon Bohemia.--Battle of the White Mountain. Page 245


CHAPTER XVII.
FERDINAND II.
From 1621 to 1629.

Pusillanimity of Frederic.--Intreaties of the Citizens of
Prague.--Shameful Flight of Frederic.--Vengeance Inflicted upon
Bohemia.--Protestantism and Civil Freedom.--Vast Power of the
Emperor.--Alarm of Europe.--James I.--Treaty of Marriage for the Prince
of Wales.--Cardinal Richelieu.--New League of the Protestants.--
Desolating War.--Defeat of the King of Denmark.--Energy of
Wallenstein.--Triumph of Ferdinand.--New Acts of Intolerance.--
Severities in Bohemia.--Desolation of the Kingdom.--Dissatisfaction of
the Duke of Bavaria.--Meeting of the Catholic Princes.--The Emperor
Humbled. Page 261


CHAPTER XVIII.
FERDINAND II. AND GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS.
From 1629 to 1632.

Vexation of Ferdinand.--Gustavus Adolphus.--Address to the Nobles of
Sweden.--March of Gustavus.--Appeal to the Protestants.--Magdeburg joins
Gustavus.--Destruction of the City.--Consternation of the
Protestants.--Exultation of the Catholics.--The Elector of Saxony Driven
from His Domains.--Battle of Leipsic.--The Swedes penetrate
Bohemia.--Freedom of Conscience Established.--Death of Tilly.--The
Retirement of Wallenstein.--The Command Resumed by Wallenstein.--Capture
of Prague.--Encounter between Wallenstein and Gustavus.--Battle of
Lutzen.--Death of Gustavus. Page 279


CHAPTER XIX.
FERDINAND II., FERDINAND III. AND LEOPOLD I.
From 1632 to 1662.

Character of Gustavus Adolphus.--Exultation of the
Imperialists.--Disgrace of Wallenstein.--He offers to Surrender to the
Swedish General.--His Assassination.--Ferdinand's son Elected as his
Successor.--Death of Ferdinand.--Close of the War.--Abdication of
Christina.--Charles Gustavus.--Preparations for War.--Death of Ferdinand
III.--Leopold Elected Emperor.--Hostilities Renewed.--Death of Charles
Gustavus.--Diet Convened.--Invasion of the Turks. Page 295


CHAPTER XX.
LEOPOLD I.
From 1662 to 1697.

Invasion of the Turks.--A Treaty Concluded.--Possessions of
Leopold.--Invasion of the French.--League of Augsburg.--Devastation of
the Palatinate.--Invasion of Hungary.--Emerio Tekeli.--Union of Emerio
Tekeli with the Turks.--Leopold Applies to Sobieski.--He Immediately
Marches to his Aid.--The Turks Conquered.--Sobieski's Triumphal
Receptions.--Meanness of Leopold.--Revenge upon Hungary.--Peace
Concluded.--Contest for Spain. Page 311


CHAPTER XXI.
LEOPOLD I. AND THE SPANISH SUCCESSION
From 1697 to 1710.

The Spanish Succession.--The Impotence of Charles II.--Appeal to the
Pope.--His Decision.--Death of Charles II.--Accession of Philip
V.--Indignation of Austria.--The Outbreak of War.--Charles III.
Crowned.--Insurrection in Hungary.--Defection of Bavaria.--The Battle of
Blenheim.--Death of Leopold I.--Eleonora.--Accession of Joseph
I.--Charles XII. of Sweden.--Charles III. of Spain.--Battle of
Malplaquet.--Charles at Barcelona.--Charles at Madrid. 328


CHAPTER XXII.
JOSEPH I. AND CHARLES VI.
From 1710 to 1717.

Perplexities in Madrid.--Flight of Charles.--Retreat of the Austrian
Army.--Stanhope's Division cut off.--Capture of Stanhope.--Staremberg
assailed.--Retreat to Barcelona.--Attempt to pacify Hungary.--The
Hungarian Diet.--Baronial crowning of Ragotsky.--Renewal of the
Hungarian War.--Enterprise of Herbeville.--The Hungarians
crushed.--Lenity of Joseph.--Death of Joseph.--Accession of Charles
VI.--His career in Spain.--Capture of Barcelona.--The Siege.--The
Rescue.--Character of Charles.--Cloisters of Montserrat.--Increased
Efforts for the Spanish Crown.--Charles Crowned Emperor of Austria and
Hungary.--Bohemia.--Deplorable Condition of Louis XIV. Page 845


CHAPTER XXIII.
CHARLES  VI.
From 1716 to 1727.

Heroic Decision of Eugene.--Battle of Belgrade.--Utter Rout of the
Turks.--Possessions of Charles VI.--The Elector of Hanover succeeds to
the English Throne.--Preparations for War.--State of Italy.--Philip V.
of Spain.--Diplomatic Agitations.--Palace of St. Ildefonso.--Order of
the Golden Fleece.--Rejection of Maria Anne.--Contest for the Rock of
Gibraltar.--Dismissal of Rippeeda.--Treaty of Vienna.--Peace Concluded.
Page 362


CHAPTER XXIV.
CHARLES VI. AND THE POLISH WAR.
From 1727 to 1735.

Cardinal Fleury.--The Emperor of Austria urges the Pragmatic
Sanction.--He promises his two Daughters to the two Sons of the Queen of
Spain.--France, England and Spain unite against Austria.--Charles VI.
issues Orders to Prepare for War.--His Perplexities.--Secret Overtures
to England.--The Crown of Poland.--Meeting of the Polish Congress.--
Stanislaus goes to Poland.--Augustus III. crowned.--War.--Charles sends
an Army to Lombardy.--Difficulties of Prince Eugene.--Charles's
Displeasure with England.--Letter to Count Kinsky.--Hostilities Renewed.
Page 878


CHAPTER XXV.
CHARLES VI. AND THE TURKISH WAR RENEWED.
From 1735 to 1739.

Anxiety of Austrian Office-holders.--Maria Theresa.--The Duke of
Lorraine.--Distraction of the Emperor.--Tuscany assigned to the Duke of
Lorraine.--Death of Eugene.--Rising Greatness of Russia.--New War with
the Turks.--Condition of the Army.--Commencement of Hostilities--Capture
of Nissa.--Inefficient Campaign.--Disgrace of Seckendorf.--The Duke of
Lorraine placed in Command.--Siege of Orsova.--Belgrade besieged by the
Turks.--The third Campaign.--Battle of Crotzka.--Defeat of the
Austrians.--Consternation in Vienna.--Barbarism of the Turks.--The
Surrender of Belgrade.


CHAPTER XXVI.
MARIA THERESA.
From 1739 to 1741.

Anguish of the King.--Letter to the Queen of Russia.--The Imperial
Circular.--Deplorable Condition of Austria.--Death of Charles
VI.--Accession of Maria Theresa.--Vigorous Measures of the Queen.--Claim
of the Duke of Bavaria.--Responses from the Courts.--Coldness of the
French Court.--Frederic of Prussia.--His Invasion of Silesia.--March of
the Austrians.--Battle of Molnitz.--Firmness of Maria Theresa.--Proposed
Division of Plunder.--Villainy of Frederic.--Interview with the
King.--Character of Frederic.--Commencement of the General Invasion.
Page 411


CHAPTER XXVII.
MARIA THERESA.
From 1741 to 1743.

Character of Francis, Duke of Lorraine.--Policy of European
Courts.--Plan of the Allies.--Siege of Prague.--Desperate Condition of
the Queen--Her Coronation in Hungary.--Enthusiasm of the Barons.--Speech
of Maria Theresa.--Peace with Frederic of Prussia.--His
Duplicity.--Military Movement of the Duke of Lorraine.--Battle of
Chazleau.--Second Treaty with Frederic.--Despondency of the Duke of
Bavaria.--March of Mallebois.--Extraordinary Retreat of
Belleisle.--Recovery of Prague by the Queen. Page 427


CHAPTER XXVIII.
MARIA THERESA.
From 1743 to 1748.

Prosperous Aspect of Austrian Affairs.--Capture of Egea.--Vast Extent of
Austria.--Dispute with Sardinia.--Marriage of Charles of Lorraine with
the Queen's Sister.--Invasion of Alsace.--Frederic overruns
Bohemia.--Bohemia recovered by Prince Charles.--Death of the Emperor
Charles VII.--Venality of the old Monarchies.--Battle of
Hohenfriedberg.--Sir Thomas Robinson's Interview with Maria
Theresa.--Hungarian Enthusiasm.--The Duke of Lorraine Elected
Emperor.--Continuation of the War.--Treaty of Peace.--Indignation of
Maria Theresa. Page 444


CHAPTER XXIX.
MARIA THERESA.
From 1748 to 1759.

Treaty of Peace.--Dissatisfaction of Maria Theresa.--Preparation for
War.--Rupture between England and Austria.--Maria Theresa.--Alliance
with France.--Influence of Marchioness of Pompadour.--Bitter Reproaches
between Austria And England.--Commencement of the Seven Years' War.--
Energy of Frederic of Prussia.--Sanguinary Battles.--Vicissitudes of
War.--Desperate Situation of Frederic.--Elation of Maria Theresa.--Her
Ambitious Plans.--Awful Defeat of the Prussians at Berlin. Page 461


CHAPTER XXX.
MARIA THERESA.
From 1759 to 1780.

Desolations of War.--Disasters of Prussia.--Despondency of Frederic.--
Death of the Empress Elizabeth.--Accession of Paul III.--Assassination
of Paul III.--Accession Of Catharine.--Discomfiture of the Austrians.--
Treaty of Peace.--Election of Joseph to the Throne of the Empire.--Death
of Francis.--Character of Francis.--Anecdotes.--Energy of Maria
Theresa.--Poniatowski.--Partition of Poland.--Maria Theresa as a
Mother.--War with Bavaria.--Peace.--Death of Maria Theresa.--Family of
the Empress.--Accession of Joseph II.--His Character. Page 478


CHAPTER XXXI.
JOSEPH II. AND LEOPOLD II.
From 1780 to 1792.

Accession of Joseph II.--His Plans of Reform.--Pius VI.--Emancipation of
the Serfs.--Joseph's Visit to his Sister, Maria Antoinette.--Ambitious
Designs.--The Imperial Sleigh Ride.--Barges on the Dneister.--Excursion
to the Crimea.--War with Turkey.--Defeat of the Austrians.--Great
Successes.--Death of Joseph.--His Character.--Accession of Leopold
II.--His Efforts to confirm Despotism.--The French Revolution.--European
Coalition.--Death of Leopold.--His Profligacy.--Accession of Francis
II.--Present Extent and Power of Austria.--Its Army.--Policy of the
Government. Page 493




CHAPTER I.

RHODOLPH OF HAPSBURG.

From 1232 to 1291.

Hawk's Castle.--Albert, Count of Hapsburg.--Rhodolph of Hapsburg.--His
Marriage and Estates.--Excommunication and its Results.--His Principles
of Honor.--A Confederacy of Barons.--Their Route.--Rhodolph's Election
as Emperor of Germany.--The Bishop's Warning.--Dissatisfaction at the
Result of the Election.--Advantages Accruing from the Possession of an
Interesting Family.--Conquest.--Ottocar Acknowledges the Emperor; yet
breaks his Oath of Allegiance.--Gathering Clouds.--Wonderful
Escape.--Victory of Rhodolph.--His Reforms.


In the small canton of Aargau, in Switzerland, on a rocky bluff of the
Wulpelsberg, there still remains an old baronial castle, called
Hapsburg, or Hawk's Castle. It was reared in the eleventh century, and
was occupied by a succession of warlike barons, who have left nothing to
distinguish themselves from the feudal lords whose castles, at that
period, frowned upon almost every eminence of Europe. In the year 1232
this castle was occupied by Albert, fourth Count of Hapsburg. He had
acquired some little reputation for military prowess, the only
reputation any one could acquire in that dark age, and became ambitious
of winning new laurels in the war with the infidels in the holy land.
Religious fanaticism and military ambition were then the two great
powers which ruled the human soul.

With the usual display of semi-barbaric pomp, Albert made arrangements
to leave his castle to engage in the perilous holy war against the
Saracens, from which few ever returned. A few years were employed in the
necessary preparations. At the sound of the bugle the portcullis was
raised, the drawbridge spanned the moat, and Albert, at the head of
thirty steel-clad warriors, with nodding plumes, and banners unfurled,
emerged from the castle, and proceeded to the neighboring convent of
Mari. His wife, Hedwige, and their three sons, Rhodolph, Albert and
Hartman, accompanied him to the chapel where the ecclesiastics awaited
his arrival. A multitude of vassals crowded around to witness the
imposing ceremonies of the church, as the banners were blessed, and the
knights, after having received the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, were
commended to the protection of God. Albert felt the solemnity of the
hour, and in solemn tones gave his farewell address to his children.

"My sons," said the steel-clad warrior, "cultivate truth and piety; give
no ear to evil counselors, never engage in unnecessary war, but when you
are involved in war be strong and brave. Love peace even better than
your own personal interests. Remember that the counts of Hapsburg did
not attain their heights of reputation and glory by fraud, insolence or
selfishness, but by courage and devotion to the public weal. As long as
you follow their footsteps, you will not only retain, but augment, the
possessions and dignities of your illustrious ancestors."

The tears and sobs of his wife and family interrupted him while he
uttered these parting words. The bugles then sounded. The knights
mounted their horses; the clatter of hoofs was heard, and the glittering
cavalcade soon disappeared in the forest. Albert had left his ancestral
castle, never to return. He had but just arrived in Palestine, when he
was taken sick at Askalon, and died in the year 1240.

Rhodolph, his eldest son, was twenty-two years of age at the time of his
father's death. Frederic II., one of the most renowned monarchs of the
middle ages, was then Emperor of that conglomeration of heterogeneous
States called Germany. Each of these States had its own independent
ruler and laws, but they were all held together by a common bond for
mutual protection, and some one illustrious sovereign was chosen as
Emperor of Germany, to preside over their common affairs. The Emperor of
Germany, having influence over all these States, was consequently, in
position, the great man of the age.

Albert, Count of Hapsburg, had been one of the favorite captains of
Frederic II. in the numerous wars which desolated Europe in that dark
age. He was often at court, and the emperor even condescended to present
his son Rhodolph at the font for baptism. As the child grew, he was
trained to all athletic feats, riding ungovernable horses, throwing the
javelin, wrestling, running, and fencing. He early gave indications of
surprising mental and bodily vigor, and, at an age when most lads are
considered merely children, he accompanied his father to the camp and to
the court. Upon the death of his father, Rhodolph inherited the
ancestral castle, and the moderate possessions of a Swiss baron. He was
surrounded by barons of far greater wealth and power than himself, and
his proud spirit was roused, in disregard of his father's counsels, to
aggrandize his fortunes by force of arms, the only way then by which
wealth and power could be attained. He exhausted his revenues by
maintaining a princely establishment, organized a well-selected band of
his vassals into a military corps, which he drilled to a state of
perfect discipline, and then commenced a series of incursions upon his
neighbors. From some feeble barons he won territory, thus extending his
domains; from others he extorted money, thus enabling him to reward his
troops, and to add to their number by engaging fearless spirits in his
service wherever he could find them.

In the year 1245, Rhodolph strengthened himself still more by an
advantageous marriage with Gertrude, the beautiful daughter of the Count
of Hohenberg. With his bride he received as her dowry the castle of
Oeltingen, and very considerable territorial possessions. Thus in five
years Rhodolph, by that species of robbery which was then called heroic
adventure, and by a fortunate marriage, had more than doubled his
hereditary inheritance. The charms of his bride, and the care of his
estates seem for a few years to have arrested the progress of his
ambition; for we can find no further notice of him among the ancient
chronicles for eight years. But, with almost all men, love is an
ephemeral passion, which is eventually vanquished by other powers of the
soul. Ambition slumbered for a little time, but was soon roused anew,
invigorated by repose.

In 1253 we find Rhodolph heading a foray of steel-clad knights, with
their banded followers, in a midnight attack upon the city of Basle.
They break over all the defenses, sweep all opposition before them, and
in the fury of the fight, either by accident or as a necessity of war,
sacrilegiously set fire to a nunnery. For this crime Rhodolph was
excommunicated by the pope. Excommunication was then no farce. There
were few who dared to serve a prince upon whom the denunciations of the
Church had fallen. It was a stunning blow, from which few men could
recover. Rhodolph, instead of sinking in despair, endeavored, by new
acts of obedience and devotion to the Church, to obtain the revocation
of the sentence.

In the region now called Prussia, there was then a barbaric pagan race,
against whom the pope had published a crusade. Into this war the
excommunicated Rhodolph plunged with all the impetuosity of his nature;
he resolved to work out absolution, by converting, with all the potency
of fire and sword, the barbarians to the Church. His penitence and zeal
seem to have been accepted, for we soon find him on good terms again
with the pope. He now sought to have a hand in every quarrel, far and
near. Wherever the sounds of war are raised, the shout of Rhodolph is
heard urging to the strife. In every hot and fiery foray, the steed of
Rhodolph is rearing and plunging, and his saber strokes fall in ringing
blows upon cuirass and helmet. He efficiently aided the city of
Strasbourg in their war against their bishop, and received from them in
gratitude extensive territories, while at the same time they reared a
monument to his name, portions of which still exist. His younger brother
died, leaving an only daughter, Anne, with a large inheritance.
Rhodolph, as her guardian, came into possession of the counties of
Kyburg, Lentzburg and Baden, and other scattered domains.

This rapidly-increasing wealth and power, did but increase his energy
and his spirit of encroachment. And yet he adopted principles of honor
which were far from common in that age of barbaric violence. He would
never stoop to ordinary robbery, or harass peasants and helpless
travelers, as was constantly done by the turbulent barons around him.
His warfare was against the castle, never against the cottage. He met in
arms the panoplied knight, never the timid and crouching peasant. He
swept the roads of the banditti by which they were infested, and often
espoused the cause of citizens and freemen against the turbulent barons
and haughty prelates. He thus gained a wide-spread reputation for
justice, as well as for prowess, and the name of Rhodolph of Hapsburg
was ascending fast into renown. Every post of authority then required
the agency of a military arm. The feeble cantons would seek the
protection of a powerful chief; the citizens of a wealthy town, ever
liable to be robbed by bishop or baron, looked around for some warrior
who had invincible troops at his command for their protection. Thus
Rhodolph of Hapsburg was chosen chief of the mountaineers of Uri,
Schweitz and Underwalden; and all their trained bands were ready, when
his bugle note echoed through their defiles, to follow him
unquestioning, and to do his bidding. The citizens of Zurich chose
Rhodolph of Hapsburg as their prefect or mayor; and whenever his banner
was unfurled in their streets, all the troops of the city were at his
command.

The neighboring barons, alarmed at this rapid aggrandizement of
Rhodolph, formed an alliance to crush him. The mountaineers heard his
bugle call, and rushed to his aid. Zurich opened her gates, and her
marshaled troops hastened to his banner. From Hapsburg, and Rheinfelden,
and Suabia, and Brisgau, and we know not how many other of the
territorial possessions of the count, the vassals rushed to the aid of
their lord. They met in one of the valleys of Zurich. The battle was
short, and the confederated barons were put to utter flight. Some took
refuge in the strong castle of Balder, upon a rocky cliff washed by the
Albis. Rhodolph selected thirty horsemen and thirty footmen.

"Will you follow me," said he, "in an enterprise where the honor will be
equal to the peril?"

A universal shout of assent was the response. Concealing the footmen in
a thicket, he, at the head of thirty horsemen, rode boldly to the gates
of the castle, bidding defiance, with all the utterances and
gesticulations of contempt, to the whole garrison. Those on the
ramparts, stung by the insult, rushed out to chastise so impudent a
challenge. The footmen rose from their ambush, and assailants and
assailed rushed pell mell in at the open gates of the castle. The
garrison were cut down or taken captive, and the fortress demolished.
Another party had fled to the castle of Uttleberg. By an ingenious
stratagem, this castle was also taken. Success succeeded success with
such rapidity, that the confederate barons, struck with consternation,
exclaimed,

"All opposition is fruitless. Rhodolph of Hapsburg is invincible."

They consequently dissolved the alliance, and sought peace on terms
which vastly augmented the power of the conqueror.

Basle now incurred the displeasure of Rhodolph. He led his armies to the
gates of the city, and extorted satisfaction. The Bishop of Basle, a
haughty prelate of great military power, and who could summon many
barons to his aid, ventured to make arrogant demands of this warrior
flushed with victory. The palace and vast possessions of the bishop were
upon the other side of the unbridged Rhine, and the bishop imagined that
he could easily prevent the passage of the river. But Rhodolph speedily
constructed a bridge of boats, put to flight the troops which opposed
his passage, drove the peasants of the bishop everywhere before him, and
burned their cottages and their fields of grain. The bishop, appalled,
sued for a truce, that they might negotiate terms of peace. Rhodolph
consented, and encamped his followers.

He was asleep in his tent, when a messenger entered at midnight, awoke
him, and informed him that he was elected Emperor of Germany. The
previous emperor, Richard, had died two years before, and after an
interregnum of two years of almost unparalleled anarchy, the electors
had just met, and, almost to their own surprise, through the
fluctuations and combinations of political intrigue, had chosen Rhodolph
of Hapsburg as his successor. Rhodolph himself was so much astonished at
the announcement, that for some time he could not be persuaded that the
intelligence was correct.

To wage war against the Emperor of Germany, who could lead almost
countless thousands into the field, was a very different affair from
measuring strength with the comparatively feeble Count of Hapsburg. The
news of his election flew rapidly. Basle threw open her gates, and the
citizens, with illuminations, shouts, and the ringing of bells, greeted
the new emperor. The bishop was so chagrined at the elevation of his
foe, that he smote his forehead, and, looking to heaven, profanely said,

"Great God, take care of your throne, or Rhodolph of Hapsburg will take
it from you!"

Rhodolph was now fifty-five years of age. Alphonso, King of Castile, and
Ottocar, King of Bohemia, had both been candidates for the imperial
crown. Exasperated by the unexpected election of Rhodolph, they both
refused to acknowledge his election, and sent ambassadors with rich
presents to the pope to win him also to their side. Rhodolph, justly
appreciating the power of the pope, sent him a letter couched in those
terms which would be most palatable to the pontiff.

"Turning all my thoughts to Him," he wrote, "under whose authority we
live, and placing all my expectations on you alone, I fall down before
the feet of your Holiness, beseeching you, with the most earnest
supplication, to favor me with your accustomed kindness in my present
undertaking; and that you will deign, by your mediation with the Most
High, to support my cause. That I may be enabled to perform what is most
acceptable to God and to His holy Church, may it graciously please your
Holiness to crown me with the imperial diadem; for I trust I am both
able and willing to undertake and accomplish whatever you and the holy
Church shall think proper to impose upon me."

Gregory X. was a humane and sagacious man, influenced by a profound zeal
for the peace of Europe and the propagation of the Christian faith.
Gregory received the ambassadors of Rhodolph graciously, extorted from
them whatever concessions he desired on the part of the emperor, and
pledged his support.

Ottocar, King of Bohemia, still remained firm, and even malignant, in
his hostility, utterly refusing to recognize the emperor, or to perform
any of those acts of fealty which were his due. He declared the
electoral diet to have been illegally convened, and the election to have
been the result of fraud, and that a man who had been excommunicated for
burning a convent, was totally unfit to wear the imperial crown. The
diet met at Augsburg, and irritated by the contumacy of Ottocar, sent a
command to him to recognize the authority of the emperor, pronouncing
upon him the ban of the empire should he refuse. Ottocar dismissed the
ambassadors with defiance and contempt from his palace at Prague,
saying,

"Tell Rhodolph that he may rule over the territories of the empire, but
he shall have no dominion over mine. It is a disgrace to Germany, that a
petty count of Hapsburg should have been preferred to so many powerful
sovereigns."

War, and a fearful one, was now inevitable. Ottocar was a veteran
soldier, a man of great intrepidity and energy, and his pride was
thoroughly roused. By a long series of aggressions he had become the
most powerful prince in Europe, and he could lead the most powerful
armies into the field. His dominions extended from the confines of
Bavaria to Raab in Hungary, and from the Adriatic to the shores of the
Baltic. The hereditary domains of the Count of Hapsburg were
comparatively insignificant, and were remotely situated at the foot of
the Alps, spreading through the defiles of Alsace and Suabia. As
emperor, Rhodolph could call the armies of the Germanic princes into the
field; but these princes moved reluctantly, unless roused by some
question of great moment to them all. And when these heterogeneous
troops of the empire were assembled, there was but a slender bond of
union between them.

But Rhodolph possessed mental resources equal to the emergence. As
cautious as he was bold, as sagacious in council as he was impetuous in
action, he calmly, and with great foresight and deliberation, prepared
for the strife. To a monarch in such a time of need, a family of brave
sons and beautiful daughters, is an inestimable blessing. Rhodolph
secured the Duke of Sclavonia by making him the happy husband of one of
his daughters. His son Albert married Elizabeth, daughter of the Count
of Tyrol, and thus that powerful and noble family was secured. Henry of
Bavaria he intimidated, and by force of arms compelled him to lead his
troops to the standard of the emperor; and then, to secure his fidelity,
gave his daughter Hedwige to Henry's son Otho, in marriage, promising to
his daughter as a dowry a portion of Austria, which was then a feeble
duchy upon the Danube, but little larger than the State of
Massachusetts.

Ottocar was but little aware of the tremendous energies of the foe he
had aroused. Regarding Rhodolph almost with contempt, he had by no means
made the arrangements which his peril demanded, and was in consternation
when he heard that Rhodolph, in alliance with Henry of Bavaria, had
already entered Austria, taken possession of several fortresses, and, at
the head of a force of a thousand horsemen, was carrying all before him,
and was triumphantly marching upon Vienna. Rhodolph had so admirably
matured his plans, that his advance seemed rather a festive journey than
a contested conquest. With the utmost haste Ottocar urged his troops
down through the defiles of the Bohemian mountains, hoping to save the
capital. But Rhodolph was at Vienna before him, where he was joined by
others of his allies, who were to meet him at that rendezvous. Vienna,
the capital, was a fortress of great strength. Upon this frontier post
Charlemagne had established a strong body of troops under a commander
who was called a margrave; and for some centuries this city, commanding
the Danube, had been deemed one of the strongest defenses of the empire
against Mohammedan invasion. Vienna, unable to resist, capitulated. The
army of Ottocar had been so driven in their long and difficult march,
that, exhausted and perishing for want of provisions, they began to
mutiny. The pope had excommunicated Ottocar, and the terrors of the
curse of the pope, were driving captains and nobles from his service.
The proud spirit of Ottocar, after a terrible struggle, was utterly
crushed, and he humbly sued for peace. The terms were hard for a haughty
spirit to bear. The conquered king was compelled to renounce all claim
to Austria and several other adjoining provinces, Styria, Carinthia,
Carniola and Windischmark; to take the oath of allegiance to the
emperor, and publicly to do him homage as his vassal lord. To cement
this compulsory friendship, Rhodolph, who was rich in daughters, having
six to proffer as bribes, gave one, with an abundant dowry in silver, to
a son of Ottocar.

The day was appointed for the king, in the presence of the whole army,
to do homage to the emperor as his liege lord. It was the 25th of
November, 1276. With a large escort of Bohemian nobles, Ottocar crossed
the Danube, and was received by the emperor in the presence of many of
the leading princes of the empire. The whole army was drawn up to
witness the spectacle. With a dejected countenance, and with
indications, which he could not conceal, of a crushed and broken spirit,
Ottocar renounced these valuable provinces, and kneeling before the
emperor, performed the humiliating ceremony of feudal homage. The pope
in consequence withdrew his sentence of excommunication, and Ottocar
returned to his mutilated kingdom, a humbler and a wiser man.

Rhodolph now took possession of the adjacent provinces which had been
ceded to him, and, uniting them, placed them under the government of
Louis of Bavaria, son of his firm ally Henry, the King of Bavaria.
Bavaria bounded Austria on the west, and thus the father and the son
would be in easy cooeperation. He then established his three Sons,
Albert, Hartmann, and Rhodolph, in different parts of these provinces,
and, with his queen, fixed his residence at Vienna.

Such was the nucleus of the Austrian empire, and such the commencement
of the powerful monarchy which for so many generations has exerted so
important a control over the affairs of Europe. Ottocar, however, though
he left Rhodolph with the strongest protestations of friendship,
returned to Prague consumed by the most torturing fires of humiliation
and chagrin. His wife, a haughty woman, who was incapable of listening
to the voice of judgment when her passions were inflamed, could not
conceive it possible that a petty count of Hapsburg could vanquish her
renowned husband in the field. And when she heard that Ottocar had
actually done fealty to Rhodolph, and had surrendered to him valuable
provinces of the kingdom, no bridle could be put upon her woman's
tongue. She almost stung her husband to madness with taunts and
reproaches.

Thus influenced by the pride of his queen, Cunegunda, Ottocar violated
his oath, refused to execute the treaty, imprisoned in a convent the
daughter whom Rhodolph had given to his son, and sent a defiant and
insulting letter to the emperor. Rhodolph returned a dignified answer
and prepared for war. Ottocar, now better understanding the power of his
foe, made the most formidable preparations for the strife, and soon took
the field with an army which he supposed would certainly triumph over
any force which Rhodolph could raise. He even succeeded in drawing Henry
of Bavaria into an alliance; and many of the German princes, whom he
could not win to his standard, he bribed to neutrality. Numerous
chieftains, lured to his camp by confidence of victory, crowded around
him with their followers, from Poland, Bulgaria, Pomerania, Magdeburg,
and from the barbaric shores of the Baltic. Many of the fierce nobles of
Hungary had also joined the standard of Ottocar.

Thus suddenly clouds gathered around Rhodolph, and many of his friends
despaired of his cause. He appealed to the princes of the German empire,
and but few responded to his call. His sons-in-law, the Electors of
Palatine and of Saxony, ventured not to aid him in an emergence when
defeat seemed almost certain, and where all who shared in the defeat
would be utterly ruined. In June, 1275, Ottocar marched from Prague, met
his allies at the appointed rendezvous, and threading the defiles of the
Bohemian mountains, approached the frontiers of Austria. Rhodolph was
seriously alarmed, for it was evident that the chances of war were
against him. He could not conceal the restlessness and agitation of his
spirit as he impatiently awaited the arrival of troops whom he summoned,
but who disappointed his hopes.

"I have not one," he sadly exclaimed, "in whom I can confide, or on
whose advice I can depend."

The citizens of Vienna perceiving that Rhodolph was abandoned by his
German allies, and that they could present no effectual resistance to so
powerful an army as was approaching, and terrified in view of a siege,
and the capture of the city by storm, urged a capitulation, and even
begged permission to choose a new sovereign, that they might not be
involved in the ruin impending over Rhodolph. This address roused
Rhodolph from his despondency, and inspired him with the energies of
despair. He had succeeded in obtaining a few troops from his provinces
in Switzerland. The Bishop of Basle, who had now become his confessor,
came to his aid, at the head of a hundred horsemen, and a body of expert
slingers. Rhodolph, though earnestly advised not to undertake a battle
with such desperate odds, marched from Vienna to meet the foe.

Rapidly traversing the southern banks of the Danube to Hamburg, he
crossed the river and advanced to Marcheck, on the banks of the Morava.
He was joined by some troops from Styria and Carinthia, and by a strong
force led by the King of Hungary. Emboldened by these accessions, though
still far inferior in strength to Ottocar, he pressed on till the two
armies faced each other on the plains of Murchfield. It was the 26th of
August, 1278.

At this moment some traitors deserting the camp of Ottocar, repaired to
the camp of Rhodolph and proposed to assassinate the Bohemian king.
Rhodolph spurned the infamous offer, and embraced the opportunity of
seeking terms of reconciliation by apprising Ottocar of his danger. But
the king, confident in his own strength, and despising the weakness of
Rhodolph, deemed the story a fabrication and refused to listen to any
overtures. Without delay he drew up his army in the form of a crescent,
so as almost to envelop the feeble band before him, and made a
simultaneous attack upon the center and upon both flanks. A terrific
battle ensued, in which one party fought, animated by undoubting
confidence, and the other impelled by despair. The strife was long and
bloody. The tide of victory repeatedly ebbed and flowed. Ottocar had
offered a large reward to any of his followers who would bring to him
Rhodolph, dead or alive.

A number of knights of great strength and bravery, confederated to
achieve this feat. It was a point of honor to be effected at every
hazard. Disregarding all the other perils of the battle, they watched
their opportunity, and then in a united swoop, on their steel-clad
chargers, fell upon the emperor. His feeble guard was instantly cut
down. Rhodolph was a man of herculean power, and he fought like a lion
at bay. One after another of his assailants he struck from his horse,
when a Thuringian knight, of almost fabulous stature and strength,
thrust his spear through the horse of the emperor, and both steed and
rider fell to the ground. Rhodolph, encumbered by his heavy coat of
mail, and entangled in the housings of his saddle, was unable to rise.
He crouched upon the ground, holding his helmet over him, while saber
strokes and pike thrusts rang upon cuirass and buckler like blows upon
an anvil. A corps of reserve spurred to his aid, and the emperor was
rescued, and the bold assailants who had penetrated the very center of
his army were slain.

The tide of victory now set strongly in favor of Rhodolph, for "the race
is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong." The troops of
Bohemia were soon everywhere put to rout. The ground was covered with
the dead. Ottocar, astounded at his discomfiture, and perhaps fearing
the tongue of his wife more than the sabers of his foes, turned his back
upon his flying army, and spurred his horse into the thickest of his
pursuers. He was soon dismounted and slain. Fourteen thousand of his
troops perished on that disastrous day. The body of Ottocar, mutilated
with seventeen wounds, was carried to Vienna, and, after being exposed
to the people, was buried with regal honors.

Rhodolph, vastly enriched by the plunder of the camp, and having no
enemy to encounter, took possession of Moravia, and triumphantly marched
into Bohemia. All was consternation there. The queen Cunegunda, who had
brought these disasters upon the kingdom, had no influence. Her only son
was but eight years of age. The turbulent nobles, jealous of each other,
had no recognized leader. The queen, humiliated and despairing, implored
the clemency of the conqueror, and offered to place her infant son and
the kingdom of Bohemia under his protection. Rhodolph was generous in
this hour of victory. As the result of arbitration, it was agreed that
he should hold Moravia for five years, that its revenues might indemnify
him for the expenses of the war. The young prince, Wenceslaus, was
acknowledged king, and during his minority the regency was assigned to
Otho, margrave or military commander of Brundenburg. Then ensued some
politic matrimonial alliances. Wenceslaus, the boy king, was affianced
to Judith, one of the daughters of Rhodolph. The princess Agnes,
daughter of Cunegunda, was to become the bride of Rhodolph's second son.
These matters being all satisfactorily settled, Rhodolph returned in
triumph to Vienna.

The emperor now devoted his energies to the consolidation of these
Austrian provinces. They were four in number, Austria, Styria, Carinthia
and Carniola. All united, they made but a feeble kingdom, for they did
not equal, in extent of territory, several of the States of the American
Union. Each of these provinces had its independent government, and its
local laws and customs. They were held together by the simple bond of an
arbitrary monarch, who claimed, and exercised as he could, supreme
control over them all. Under his wise and energetic administration, the
affairs of the wide-spread empire were prosperous, and his own Austria
advanced rapidly in order, civilization and power. The numerous nobles,
turbulent, unprincipled and essentially robbers, had been in the habit
of issuing from their castles at the head of banditti bands, and
ravaging the country with incessant incursions. It required great
boldness in Rhodolph to brave the wrath of these united nobles. He did
it fearlessly, issuing the decree that there should be no fortresses in
his States which were not necessary for the public defense. The whole
country was spotted with castles, apparently impregnable in all the
strength of stone and iron, the secure refuge of high-born nobles. In
one year seventy of these turreted bulwarks of oppression were torn
down; and twenty-nine of the highest nobles, who had ventured upon
insurrection, were put to death. An earnest petition was presented to
him in behalf of the condemned insurgents.

"Do not," said the king, "interfere in favor of robbers; they are not
nobles, but accursed robbers, who oppress the poor, and break the public
peace. True nobility is faithful and just, offends no one, and commits
no injury."




CHAPTER II.

REIGNS OF ALBERT I, FREDERIC, ALBERT AND OTHO.

From 1291 to 1347.

Anecdotes Of Rhodolph.--His Desire For The Election Of His Son.--His
Death.--Albert.--His Unpopularity.--Conspiracy Of The Nobles.--Their
Defeat.--Adolphus Of Nassau Chosen Emperor.--Albert's Conspiracy.--
Deposition Of Adolphus And Election Of Albert.--Death Of Adolphus.--The
Pope Defied.--Annexation Of Bohemia.--Assassination Of Albert.--Avenging
Fury.--The Hermit's Direction.--Frederic The Handsome.--Election Of
Henry, Count Of Luxemburg.--His Death.--Election Of Louis Of
Bavaria.--Capture Of Frederic.--Remarkable Confidence Toward a
Prisoner.--Death Of Frederic.--An Early Engagement.--Death Of
Louis.--Accession Of Albert.


Rhodolph of Hapsburg was one of the most remarkable men of his own or of
any age, and many anecdotes illustrative of his character, and of the
rude times in which he lived, have been transmitted to us. The
Thuringian knight who speared the emperor's horse in the bloody fight of
Murchfield, was rescued by Rhodolph from those who would cut him down.

"I have witnessed," said the emperor, "his intrepidity, and never could
forgive myself if so courageous a knight should be put to death."

During the war with Ottocar, on one occasion the army were nearly
perishing of thirst. A flagon of water was brought to him. He declined
it, saying,

"I can not drink alone, nor can I divide so small a quantity among all.
I do not thirst for myself, but for the whole army."

By earnest endeavor he obtained the perfect control of his passions,
naturally very violent. "I have often," said he, "repented of being
passionate, but never of being mild and humane."

One of his captains expressed dissatisfaction at a rich gift the emperor
made to a literary man who presented him a manuscript describing the
wars of the Romans.

"My good friend," Rhodolph replied, "be contented that men of learning
praise our actions, and thereby inspire us with additional courage in
war. I wish I could employ more time in reading, and could expend some
of that money on learned men which I must throw away on so many
illiterate knights."

One cold morning at Metz, in the year 1288, he walked out dressed as
usual in the plainest garb. He strolled into a baker's shop, as if to
warm himself. The baker's termagant wife said to him, all unconscious
who he was,

"Soldiers have no business to come into poor women's houses."

"True," the emperor replied, "but do not be angry, my good woman; I am
an old soldier who have spent all my fortune in the service of that
rascal Rhodolph, and he suffers me to want, notwithstanding all his fine
promises."

"Good enough for you," said the woman; "a man who will serve such a
fellow, who is laying waste the whole earth, deserves nothing better."

She then, in her spite, threw a pail of water on the fire, which,
filling the room with smoke and ashes, drove the emperor into the
street.

Rhodolph, having returned to his lodgings, sent a rich present to the
old woman, from the emperor who had warmed himself at her fire that
morning, and at the dinner-table told the story with great glee to his
companions. The woman, terrified, hastened to the emperor to implore
mercy. He ordered her to be admitted to the dining-room, and promised to
forgive her if she would repeat to the company all her abusive epithets,
not omitting one. She did it faithfully, to the infinite merriment of
the festive group.

So far as we can now judge, and making due allowance for the darkness of
the age in which he lived, Rhodolph appears to have been, in the latter
part of his life, a sincere, if not an enlightened Christian. He was
devout in prayer, and punctual in attending the services of the Church.
The humble and faithful ministers of religion he esteemed and protected,
while he was ever ready to chastise the insolence of those haughty
prelates who disgraced their religious professions by arrogance and
splendor.

At last the infirmities of age pressed heavily upon him. When
seventy-three years old, knowing that he could not have much longer to
live, he assembled the congress of electors at Frankfort, and urged them
to choose his then only surviving son Albert as his successor on the
imperial throne. The diet, however, refused to choose a successor until
after the death of the emperor. Rhodolph was bitterly disappointed, for
he understood this postponement as a positive refusal to gratify him in
this respect. Saddened in spirit, and feeble in body, he undertook a
journey, by slow stages, to his hereditary dominions in Switzerland. He
then returned to Austria, where he died on the 15th of July, 1291, in
the seventy-third year of his age.

Albert, who resided at Vienna, succeeded his father in authority over
the Austrian and Swiss provinces. But he was a man stern, unconciliating
and domineering. The nobles hated him, and hoped to drive him back to
the Swiss cantons from which his father had come. One great occasion of
discontent was, that he employed about his person, and in important
posts, Swiss instead of Austrian nobles. They demanded the dismission of
these foreign favorites, which so exasperated Albert that he clung to
them still more tenaciously and exclusively.

The nobles now organized a very formidable conspiracy, and offered to
neighboring powers, as bribes for their aid, portions of Austria.
Austria proper was divided by the river Ens into two parts called Upper
and Lower Austria. Lower Austria was offered to Bohemia; Styria to the
Duke of Bavaria; Upper Austria to the Archbishop of Saltzburg; Carniola
to the Counts of Guntz; and thus all the provinces were portioned out to
the conquerors. At the same time the citizens of Vienna, provoked by the
haughtiness of Albert, rose in insurrection. With the energy which
characterized his father, Albert met these emergencies. Summoning
immediately an army from Switzerland, he shut up all the avenues to the
city, which was not in the slightest degree prepared for a siege, and
speedily starved the inhabitants into submission. Punishing severely the
insurgents, he strengthened his post at Vienna, and confirmed his power.
Then, marching rapidly upon the nobles, before they had time to receive
that foreign aid which had been secretly promised them, and securing all
the important fortresses, which were now not many in number, he so
overawed them, and so vigilantly watched every movement, that there was
no opportunity to rise and combine. The Styrian nobles, being remote,
made an effort at insurrection. Albert, though it was in the depth of
winter, plowed through the snows of the mountains, and plunging
unexpectedly among them, routed them with great slaughter.

While he was thus conquering discontent by the sword, and silencing
murmurs beneath the tramp of iron hoofs, the diet was assembling at
Frankfort to choose a new chief for the Germanic empire. Albert was
confident of being raised to the vacant dignity. The splendor of his
talents all admitted. Four of the electors were closely allied to him by
marriage, and he arrogantly felt that he was almost entitled to the
office as the son of his renowned father. But the electors feared his
ambitious and despotic disposition, and chose Adolphus of Nassau to
succeed to the imperial throne.

Albert was mortified and enraged by this disappointment, and expressed
his determination to oppose the election; but the troubles in his own
domains prevented him from putting this threat into immediate execution.
His better judgment soon taught him the policy of acquiescing in the
election, and he sullenly received the investiture of his fiefs from the
hands of the Emperor Adolphus. Still Albert, struggling against
unpopularity and continued insurrection, kept his eye fixed eagerly upon
the imperial crown. With great tact he conspired to form a confederacy
for the deposition of Adolphus.

Wenceslaus, the young King of Bohemia, was now of age, and preparations
were made for his coronation with great splendor at Prague. Four of the
electors were present on this occasion, which was in June, 1297. Albert
conferred with them respecting his plans, and secured their cooeperation.
The electors more willingly lent their aid since they were exceedingly
displeased with some of the measures of Adolphus for the aggrandizement
of his own family. Albert with secrecy and vigor pushed his plans, and
when the diet met the same year at Metz, a long list of grievances was
drawn up against Adolphus. He was summoned to answer to these charges.
The proud emperor refused to appear before the bar of the diet as a
culprit. The diet then deposed Adolphus and elected Albert II. to the
imperial throne, on the 23d of June, 1298.

The two rival emperors made vigorous preparations to settle the dispute
with the sword, and the German States arrayed themselves, some on one
side and some on the other. The two armies met at Gelheim on the 2d of
July, led by the rival sovereigns. In the thickest of the fight Adolphus
spurred his horse through the opposing ranks, bearing down all
opposition, till he faced Albert, who was issuing orders and animating
his troops by voice and gesture.

"Yield," shouted Adolphus, aiming a saber stroke at the head of his foe,
"your life and your crown."

"Let God decide," Albert replied, as he parried the blow, and thrust his
lance into the unprotected face of Adolphus. At that moment the horse of
Adolphus fell, and he himself was instantly slain. Albert remained the
decisive victor on this bloody field. The diet of electors was again
summoned, and he was now chosen unanimously emperor. He was soon crowned
with great splendor at Aix-la-Chapelle.

Still Albert sat on an uneasy throne. The pope, indignant that the
electors should presume to depose one emperor and choose another without
his consent, refused to confirm the election of Albert, and loudly
inveighed him as the murderer of Adolphus. Albert, with characteristic
impulsiveness, declared that he was emperor by choice of the electors
and not by ratification of the pope, and defiantly spurned the
opposition of the pontiff. Considering himself firmly seated on the
throne, he refused to pay the bribes of tolls, privileges, territories,
etc., which he had so freely offered to the electors. Thus exasperated,
the electors, the pope, and the King of Bohemia, conspired to drive
Albert from the throne. Their secret plans were so well laid, and they
were so secure of success, that the Elector of Mentz tauntingly and
boastingly said to Albert, "I need only sound my hunting-horn and a new
emperor will appear."

Albert, however, succeeded by sagacity and energy, in dispelling this
storm which for a time threatened his entire destruction. By making
concessions to the pope, he finally won him to cordial friendship, and
by the sword vanquishing some and intimidating others, he broke up the
league. His most formidable foe was his brother-in-law, Wenceslaus, King
of Bohemia. Albert's sister, Judith, the wife of Wenceslaus, had for
some years prevented a rupture between them, but she now being dead,
both monarchs decided to refer their difficulties to the arbitration of
the sword. While their armies were marching, Wenceslaus was suddenly
taken sick and died, in June, 1305. His son, but seventeen years of age,
weak in body and in mind, at once yielded to all the demands of his
imperial uncle. Hardly a year, however, had elapsed ere this young
prince, Wenceslaus III., was assassinated, leaving no issue.

Albert immediately resolved to transfer the crown of Bohemia to his own
family, and thus to annex the powerful kingdom of Bohemia to his own
limited Austrian territories. Bohemia added to the Austrian provinces,
would constitute quite a noble kingdom. The crown was considered
elective, though in fact the eldest son was almost always chosen during
the lifetime of his father. The death of Wenceslaus, childless, opened
the throne to other claimants. No one could more imperiously demand the
scepter than Albert. He did demand it for his son Rhodolph in tones
which were heard and obeyed. The States assembled at Prague on the 1st
of April, 1306. Albert, surrounded by a magnificent retinue, conducted
his son to Prague, and to confirm his authority married him to the widow
of Wenceslaus, a second wife. Rhodolph also, about a year before, had
buried Blanche, his first wife. Albert was exceedingly elated, for the
acquisition of Bohemia was an accession to the power of his family which
doubled their territory, and more than doubled their wealth and
resources.

A mild government would have conciliated the Bohemians, but such a
course was not consonant with the character of the imperious and
despotic Albert. He urged his son to measures of arbitrary power which
exasperated the nobles, and led to a speedy revolt against his
authority. Rhodolph and the nobles were soon in the field with their
contending armies, when Rhodolph suddenly died from the fatigues of the
camp, aged but twenty-two years, having held the throne of Bohemia less
than a year.

Albert, grievously disappointed, now demanded that his second son,
Frederic, should receive the crown. As soon as his name was mentioned to
the States, the assembly with great unanimity exclaimed, "We will not
again have an Austrian king." This led to a tumult. Swords were drawn,
and two of the partisans of Albert were slain. Henry, Duke of Carinthia,
was then almost unanimously chosen king. But the haughty Albert was not
to be thus easily thwarted in his plans. He declared that his son
Frederic was King of Bohemia, and raising an army, he exerted all the
influence and military power which his position as emperor gave him, to
enforce his claim.

But affairs in Switzerland for a season arrested the attention of
Albert, and diverted his armies from the invasion of Bohemia.
Switzerland was then divided into small sovereignties, of various names,
there being no less than fifty counts, one hundred and fifty barons, and
one thousand noble families. Both Rhodolph and Albert had greatly
increased, by annexation, the territory and the power of the house of
Hapsburg. By purchase, intimidation, war, and diplomacy, Albert had for
some time been making such rapid encroachments, that a general
insurrection was secretly planned to resist his power. All Switzerland
seemed to unite as with one accord. Albert was rejoiced at this
insurrection, for, confident of superior power, he doubted not his
ability speedily to quell it, and it would afford him the most favorable
pretext for still greater aggrandizement. Albert hastened to his domain
at Hapsburg, where he was assassinated by conspirators led by his own
nephew, whom he was defrauding of his estates.

Frederic and Leopold, the two oldest surviving sons of Albert, avenged
their father's death by pursuing the conspirators until they all
suffered the penalty of their crimes. With ferocity characteristic of
the age, they punished mercilessly the families and adherents of the
assassins. Their castles were demolished, their estates confiscated,
their domestics and men at arms massacred, and their wives and children
driven out into the world to beg or to starve. Sixty-three of the
retainers of Lord Balne, one of the conspirators, though entirely
innocent of the crime, and solemnly protesting their unconsciousness of
any plot, were beheaded in one day. Though but four persons took part in
the assassination, and it was not known that any others were implicated
in the deed, it is estimated that more than a thousand persons suffered
death through the fury of the avengers. Agnes, one of the daughters of
Albert, endeavored with her own hands to strangle the infant child of
the Lord of Eschenback, when the soldiers, moved by its piteous cries,
with difficulty rescued it from her hands.

Elizabeth, the widow of Albert, with her implacable fanatic daughter
Agnes, erected a magnificent convent on the spot at Koenigsburg, where
the emperor was assassinated, and there in cloistered gloom they passed
the remainder of their lives. It was an age of superstition, and yet
there were some who comprehended and appreciated the pure morality of
the gospel of Christ.

"Woman," said an aged hermit to Agnes, "God is not served by shedding
innocent blood, and by rearing convents from the plunder of families. He
is served by compassion only, and by the forgiveness of injuries."

Frederic, Albert's oldest son, now assumed the government of the
Austrian provinces. From his uncommon personal attractions he was called
Frederic the Handsome. His character was in conformity with his person,
for to the most chivalrous bravery he added the most feminine amiability
and mildness. He was a candidate for the imperial throne, and would
probably have been elected but for the unpopularity of his despotic
father. The diet met, and on the 27th of November, 1308, the choice fell
unanimously upon Henry, Count of Luxemburg.

This election deprived Frederic of his hopes of uniting Bohemia to
Austria, for the new emperor placed his son John upon the Bohemian
throne, and was prepared to maintain him there by all the power of the
empire. In accomplishing this, there was a short conflict with Henry of
Carinthia, but he was speedily driven out of the kingdom.

Frederic, however, found a little solace in his disappointment, by
attaching to Austria the dominions he had wrested from the lords he had
beheaded as assassins of his father. In the midst of these scenes of
ambition, intrigue and violence, the Emperor Henry fell sick and died,
in the fifty-second year of his age. This unexpected event opened again
to Frederic the prospect of the imperial crown, and all his friends, in
the now very numerous branches of the family, spared neither money nor
the arts of diplomacy in the endeavor to secure the coveted dignity for
him. A year elapsed after the death of Henry before the diet was
assembled. During that time all the German States were in intense
agitation canvassing the claims of the several candidates. The prize of
an imperial crown was one which many grasped at, and every little court
was agitated by the question. The day of election, October 9th, 1314,
arrived. There were two hostile parties in the field, one in favor of
Frederic of Austria, the other in favor of Louis of Bavaria. The two
parties met in different cities, the Austrians at Saxenhausen, and the
Bavarians at Frankfort. There were, however, but four electors at
Saxenhausen, while there were five at Frankfort, the ancient place of
election. Each party unanimously chose its candidate. Louis, of Bavaria,
receiving five votes, while Frederic received but four, was
unquestionably the legitimate emperor. Most of the imperial cities
acknowledged him. Frankfort sung his triumph, and he was crowned with
all the ancient ceremonials of pomp at Aix-la-Chapelle.

But Frederic and his party were not ready to yield, and all over Germany
there was the mustering of armies. For two years the hostile forces were
marching and countermarching with the usual vicissitudes of war. The
tide of devastation and blood swept now over one State, and now over
another, until at length the two armies met, in all their concentrated
strength, at Muhldorf, near Munich, for a decisive battle. Louis of
Bavaria rode proudly at the head of thirty thousand foot, and fifteen
hundred steel-clad horsemen. Frederic of Austria, the handsomest man of
his age, towering above all his retinue, was ostentatiously arrayed in
the most splendid armor art could furnish, emblazoned with the Austrian
eagle, and his helmet was surmounted by a crown of gold.

As he thus led the ranks of twenty-two thousand footmen, and seven
thousand horse, all eyes followed him, and all hearts throbbed with
confidence of victory. From early dawn, till night darkened the field,
the horrid strife raged. In those days gunpowder was unknown, and the
ringing of battle-axes on helmet and cuirass, the strokes of sabers and
the clash of spears, shouts of onset, and the shrieks of the wounded, as
sixty thousand men fought hand to hand on one small field, rose like the
clamor from battling demons in the infernal world. Hour after hour of
carnage passed, and still no one could tell on whose banners victory
would alight. The gloom of night was darkening over the exhausted
combatants, when the winding of the bugle was heard in the rear of the
Austrians, and a band of four hundred Bavarian horsemen came plunging
down an eminence into the disordered ranks of Frederic. The hour of
dismay, which decides a battle, had come. A scene of awful carnage
ensued as the routed Austrians, fleeing in every direction, were pursued
and massacred. Frederic himself was struck from his horse, and as he
fell, stunned by the blow, he was captured, disarmed and carried to the
presence of his rival Louis.

The spirit of Frederic was crushed by the awful, the irretrievable
defeat, and he appeared before his conqueror speechless in the extremity
of his woe. Louis had the pride of magnanimity and endeavored to console
his captive.

"The battle is not lost by your fault," said he. "The Bavarians have
experienced to their cost that you are a valiant prince; but Providence
has decided the battle. Though I am happy to see you as my guest, I
sympathize with you in your sorrow, and will do what I can to alleviate
it."

For three years the unhappy Frederic remained a prisoner of Louis of
Bavaria, held in close confinement in the castle at Trausnitz. At the
end of that time the emperor, alarmed at the efforts which the friends
of Frederic were making to combine several Powers to take up arms for
his relief, visited his prisoner, and in a personal interview proposed
terms of reconciliation. The terms, under the circumstances, were
considered generous, but a proud spirit needed the discipline of three
years' imprisonment before it could yield to such demands.

It was the 13th of March, 1325, when this singular interview between
Louis the emperor, and Frederic his captive, took place at Trausnitz.
Frederic promised upon oath that in exchange for his freedom he would
renounce all claim to the imperial throne; restore all the districts and
castles he had wrested from the empire; give up all the documents
relative to his election as emperor; join with all his family influence
to support Louis against any and every adversary, and give his daughter
in marriage to Stephen the son of Louis. He also promised that in case
he should fail in the fulfillment of any one of these stipulations, he
would return to his captivity.

Frederic fully intended a faithful compliance with these requisitions.
But no sooner was he liberated than his fiery brother Leopold, who
presided over the Swiss estates, and who was a man of great capacity and
military energy, refused peremptorily to fulfill the articles which
related to him, and made vigorous preparations to urge the war which he
had already, with many allies, commenced against the Emperor Louis. The
pope also, who had become inimical to Louis, declared that Frederic was
absolved from the agreement at Trausnitz, as it was extorted by force,
and, with all the authority of the head of the Church, exhorted Frederic
to reassert his claim to the imperial crown.

Amidst such scenes of fraud and violence, it is refreshing to record an
act of real honor. Frederic, notwithstanding the entreaties of the pope
and the remonstrances of his friends, declared that, be the consequences
what they might, he never would violate his pledge; and finding that he
could not fulfill the articles of the agreement, he returned to Bavaria
and surrendered himself a prisoner to the emperor. It is seldom that
history has the privilege of recording so noble an act. Louis of Bavaria
fortunately had a soul capable of appreciating the magnanimity of his
captive. He received him with courtesy and with almost fraternal
kindness. In the words of a contemporary historian, "They ate at the
same table and slept in the same bed;" and, most extraordinary of all,
when Louis was subsequently called to a distant part of his dominions to
quell an insurrection, he intrusted the government of Bavaria, during
his absence, to Frederic.

Frederic's impetuous and ungovernable brother Leopold, was unwearied in
his endeavors to combine armies against the emperor, and war raged
without cessation. At length Louis, harassed by these endless
insurrections and coalitions against him, and admiring the magnanimity
of Frederic, entered into a new alliance, offering terms exceedingly
honorable on his part. He agreed that he and Frederic should rule
conjointly as emperors of Germany, in perfect equality of power and
dignity, alternately taking the precedence.

With this arrangement Leopold was satisfied, but unfortunately, just at
that time, his impetuous spirit, exhausted by disappointment and
chagrin, yielded to death. He died at Strasbourg on the 28th of
February, 1326. The pope and several of the electors refused to accede
to this arrangement, and thus the hopes of the unhappy Frederic were
again blighted, for Louis, who had consented to this accommodation for
the sake of peace, was not willing to enforce it through the tumult of
war. Frederic was, however, liberated from captivity, and he returned to
Austria a dejected, broken-hearted man. He pined away for a few months
in languor, being rarely known to smile, and died at the castle of
Gullenstein on the 13th of January, 1330. His widow, Isabella, the
daughter of the King of Arragon, became blind from excessive grief, and
soon followed her husband to the tomb.

As Frederic left no son, the Austrian dominions fell to his two
brothers, Albert III. and Otho. Albert, by marriage, added the valuable
county of Ferret in Alsace to the dominions of the house of Austria. The
two brothers reigned with such wonderful harmony, that no indications
can be seen of separate administrations. They renounced all claim to the
imperial throne, notwithstanding the efforts of the pope to the
contrary, and thus secured friendship with the Emperor Louis. There were
now three prominent families dominant in Germany. Around these great
families, who had gradually, by marriage and military encroachments,
attained their supremacy, the others of all degrees rallied as vassals,
seeking protection and contributing strength. The house of Bavaria,
reigning over that powerful kingdom and in possession of the imperial
throne, ranked first. Then came the house of Luxembourg, possessing the
wide-spread and opulent realms of Bohemia. The house of Austria had now
vast possessions, but these were widely scattered; some provinces on the
banks of the Danube and others in Switzerland, spreading through the
defiles of the Alps.

John of Bohemia was an overbearing man, and feeling quite impregnable in
his northern realms beyond the mountains, assumed such a dictatorial air
as to rouse the ire of the princes of Austria and Bavaria. These two
houses consequently entered into an intimate alliance for mutual
security. The Duke of Carinthia, who was uncle to Albert and Otho, died,
leaving only a daughter, Margaret. This dukedom, about the size of the
State of Massachusetts, a wild and mountainous region, was deemed very
important as the key to Italy. John of Bohemia, anxious to obtain it,
had engaged the hand of Margaret for his son, then but eight years of
age. It was a question in dispute whether the dukedom could descend to a
female, and Albert and Otho claimed it as the heirs of their uncle.
Louis, the emperor, supported the claims of Austria, and thus Carinthia
became attached to this growing power.

John, enraged, formed a confederacy with the kings of Hungary and
Poland, and some minor princes, and invaded Austria. For some time they
swept all opposition before them. But the Austrian troops and those of
the empire checked them at Landau. Here they entered into an agreement
without a battle, by which Austria was permitted to retain Carinthia,
she making important concessions to Bohemia. In February, 1339, Otho
died, and Albert was invested with the sole administration of affairs.
The old King of Bohemia possessed vehemence of character which neither
age nor the total blindness with which he had become afflicted could
repress. He traversed the empire, and even went to France, organizing a
powerful confederacy against the emperor. The pope, Clement VI., who had
always been inimical to Louis of Bavaria, influenced by John of Bohemia,
deposed and excommunicated Louis, and ordered a new meeting of the diet
of electors, which chose Charles, eldest son of the Bohemian monarch,
and heir to that crown, emperor.

The deposed Louis fought bravely for the crown thus torn from his brow.
Albert of Austria aided him with all his energies. Their united armies,
threading the defiles of the Bohemian mountains, penetrated the very
heart of the kingdom, when, in the midst of success, the deposed Emperor
Louis fell dead from a stroke of apoplexy, in the year 1347. This event
left Charles of Bohemia in undisputed possession of the imperial crown.
Albert immediately recognized his claim, effected reconciliation, and
becoming the friend and the ally of the emperor, pressed on cautiously
but securely, year after year, in his policy of annexation. But storms
of war incessantly howled around his domains until he died, a crippled
paralytic, on the 16th of August, 1358.




CHAPTER III.

RHODOLPH II., ALBERT IV. AND ALBERT V.

From 1339 to 1437.

Rhodolph II.--Marriage of John to Margaret.--Intriguing for the
Tyrol.--Death of Rhodolph.--Accession of Power to Austria.--Dividing the
Empire.--Delight of the Emperor Charles.--Leopold.--His Ambition and
Successes.--Hedwige, Queen of Poland.--"The Course of true Love never
did run smooth."--Unhappy Marriage of Hedwige.--Heroism of Arnold of
Winkelreid.--Death of Leopold.--Death of Albert IV.--Accession of Albert
V.--Attempts of Sigismond to bequeath to Albert V. Hungary and Bohemia.


Rhodolph II., the eldest son of Albert III., when but nineteen years of
age succeeded his father in the government of the Austrian States. He
had been very thoroughly educated in all the civil and military
knowledge of the times. He was closely allied with the Emperor Charles
IV. of Bohemia, having married his daughter Catherine. His character and
manhood had been very early developed. When he was in his seventeenth
year his father had found it necessary to visit his Swiss estates, then
embroiled in the fiercest war, and had left him in charge of the
Austrian provinces. He soon after was intrusted with the whole care of
the Hapsburg dominions in Switzerland. In this responsible post he
developed wonderful administrative skill, encouraging industry,
repressing disorder, and by constructing roads and bridges, opening
facilities for intercourse and trade.

Upon the death of his father, Rhodolph removed to Vienna, and being now
the monarch of powerful realms on the Danube and among the Alps, he
established a court rivaling the most magnificent establishments of the
age.

Just west of Austria and south of Bavaria was the magnificent dukedom of
Tyrol, containing some sixteen thousand square miles, or about twice the
size of the State of Massachusetts. It was a country almost unrivaled in
the grandeur of its scenery, and contained nearly a million of
inhabitants. This State, lying equally convenient to both Austria and
Bavaria, by both of these kingdoms had for many years been regarded with
a wistful eye. The manner in which Austria secured the prize is a story
well worth telling, as illustrative of the intrigues of those times.

It will be remembered that John, the arrogant King of Bohemia, engaged
for his son the hand of Margaret, the only daughter of the Duke of
Carinthia. Tyrol also was one of the possessions of this powerful duke.
Henry, having no son, had obtained from the emperor a decree that these
possessions should descend, in default of male issue, to his daughter.
But for this decision the sovereignty of these States would descend to
the male heirs, Albert and Otho of Austria, nephews of Henry. They of
course disputed the legality of the decree, and, aided by the Emperor
Louis of Bavaria, obtained Carinthia, relinquishing for a time their
claim to Tyrol. The emperor hoped to secure that golden prize for his
hereditary estates of Bavaria.

When John, the son of the King of Bohemia, was but seventeen years of
age, and a puny, weakly child, he was hurriedly married to Margaret,
then twenty-two. Margaret, a sanguine, energetic woman, despised her
baby husband, and he, very naturally, impotently hated her. She at
length fled from him, and escaping from Bohemia, threw herself under the
protection of Louis. The emperor joyfully welcomed her to his court, and
promised to grant her a divorce, by virtue of his imperial power, if she
would marry his son Louis. The compliant princess readily acceded to
this plan, and the divorce was announced and the nuptials solemnized in
February, 1342.

The King of Bohemia was as much exasperated as the King of Bavaria was
elated by this event, for the one felt that he had lost the Tyrol, and
the other that he had gained it. It was this successful intrigue which
cost Louis of Bavaria his imperial crown; for the blood of the King of
Bohemia was roused. Burning with vengeance, he traversed Europe almost
with the zeal and eloquence of Peter the Hermit, to organize a coalition
against the emperor, and succeeded in inducing the pope, always hostile
to Louis, to depose and excommunicate him. This marriage was also
declared by the pope unlawful, and the son, Meinhard, eventually born to
them, was branded as illegitimate.

While matters were in this state, as years glided on, Rhodolph succeeded
in winning the favor of the pontiff, and induced him to legitimate
Meinhard, that this young heir of Tyrol might marry the Austrian
princess Margaret, sister of Rhodolph. Meinhard and his wife Margaret
ere long died, leaving Margaret of Tyrol, a widow in advancing years,
with no direct heirs. By the marriage contract of her son Meinhard with
Margaret of Austria, she promised that should there be failure of issue,
Tyrol should revert to Austria. On the other hand, Bavaria claimed the
territory in virtue of the marriage of Margaret with Louis of Bavaria.

Rhodolph was so apprehensive that Bavaria might make an immediate move
to obtain the coveted territory by force of arms, that he hastened
across the mountains, though in the depth of winter, obtained from
Margaret an immediate possession of Tyrol, and persuaded her to
accompany him, an honored guest, to his capital, which he had
embellished with unusual splendor for her entertainment.

Rhodolph had married the daughter of Charles, King of Bohemia, the
emperor, but unfortunately at this juncture, Rhodolph, united with the
kings of Hungary and Poland, was at war with the Bavarian king.
Catherine his wife, however, undertook to effect a reconciliation
between her husband and her father. She secured an interview between
them, and the emperor, the hereditary rival of his powerful neighbor the
King of Bavaria, confirmed Margaret's gift, invested Rhodolph with the
Tyrol, and pledged the arm of the empire to maintain this settlement.
Thus Austria gained Tyrol, the country of romance and of song,
interesting, perhaps, above all other portions of Europe in its natural
scenery, and invaluable from its location as the gateway of Italy.
Bavaria made a show of armed opposition to this magnificent accession to
the power of Austria, but soon found it in vain to assail Rhodolph
sustained by Margaret of Tyrol, and by the energies of the empire.

Rhodolph was an antiquarian of eccentric character, ever poring over
musty records and hunting up decayed titles. He was fond of attaching to
his signature the names of all the innumerable offices he held over the
conglomerated States of his realm. He was Rhodolph, Margrave of Baden,
Vicar of Upper Bavaria, Lord of Hapsburg, Arch Huntsman of the Empire,
Archduke Palatine, etc., etc. His ostentation provoked even the jealousy
of his father, the emperor, and he was ordered to lay aside these
numerous titles and the arrogant armorial bearings he was attaching to
his seals. His desire to aggrandize his family burned with a quenchless
flame. Hoping to extend his influence in Italy, he negotiated a
matrimonial alliance for his brother with an Italian princess. As he
crossed the Alps to attend the nuptials, he was seized with an
inflammatory fever, and died the 27th of July, 1365, but twenty-six
years of age, and leaving no issue.

His brother Albert, a young man but seventeen years of age, succeeded
Rhodolph. Just as he assumed the government, Margaret of Tyrol died, and
the King of Bavaria, thinking this a favorable moment to renew his
claims for the Tyrol, vigorously invaded the country with a strong army.
Albert immediately applied to the emperor for assistance. Three years
were employed in fightings and diplomacy, when Bavaria, in consideration
of a large sum of money and sundry other concessions, renounced all
pretensions to Tyrol, and left the rich prize henceforth undisputed in
the hands of Austria. Thus the diminutive margrave of Austria, which was
at first but a mere military post on the Danube, had grown by rapid
accretions in one century to be almost equal in extent of territory to
the kingdoms of Bavaria and of Bohemia. This grandeur, instead of
satisfying the Austrian princes, did but increase their ambition.

The Austrian territories, though widely scattered, were declared, both
by family compact and by imperial decree, to be indivisible. Albert had
a brother, Leopold, two years younger than himself, of exceedingly
restless and ambitious spirit, while Albert was inactive, and a lover of
ease and repose. Leopold was sent to Switzerland, and intrusted with the
administration of those provinces. But his imperious spirit so dominated
over his elder but pliant brother, that he extorted from him a compact,
by which the realm was divided, Albert remaining in possession of the
Austrian provinces of the Danube, and Leopold having exclusive dominion
over those in Switzerland; while the magnificent new acquisition, the
Tyrol, lying between the two countries, bounding Switzerland on the
east, and Austria on the west, was shared between them.

Nothing can more clearly show the moderate qualities of Albert than that
he should have assented to such a plan. He did, however, with easy good
nature, assent to it, and the two brothers applied to the Emperor
Charles to ratify the division by his imperial sanction. Charles, who
for some time had been very jealous of the rapid encroachments of
Austria, rubbed his hands with delight.

"We have long," said he, "labored in vain to humble the house of
Austria, and now the dukes of Austria have humbled themselves."

Leopold the First inherited all the ambition and energy of the house of
Hapsburg, and was ever watching with an eagle eye to extend his
dominions, and to magnify his power. By money, war, and diplomacy, in a
few years he obtained Friburg and the little town of Basle; attached to
his dominions the counties of Feldkirch, Pludenz, Surgans and the
Rienthal, which he wrested from the feeble counts who held them, and
obtained the baillages of Upper and Lower Suabia, and the towns of
Augsburg and Gingen. But a bitter disappointment was now encountered by
this ambitious prince.

Louis, the renowned King of Hungary and Poland, had two daughters, Maria
and Hedwige, but no sons. To Maria he promised the crown of Hungary as
her portion, and among the many claimants for her hand, and the
glittering crown she held in it, Sigismond, son of the Emperor Charles,
King of Bohemia, received the prize. Leopold, whose heart throbbed in
view of so splendid an alliance, was overjoyed when he secured the
pledge of the hand of Hedwige, with the crown of Poland, for William,
his eldest son. Hedwige was one of the most beautiful and accomplished
princesses of the age. William was also a young man of great elegance of
person, and of such rare fascination of character, that he had acquired
the epithet of William the Delightful. His chivalrous bearing had been
trained and polished amidst the splendors of his uncle's court of
Vienna. Hedwige, as the affianced bride of William, was invited from the
more barbaric pomp of the Hungarian court, to improve her education by
the aid of the refinements of Vienna. William and Hedwige no sooner met
than they loved one another, as young hearts, even in the palace, will
sometimes love, as well as in the cottage. In brilliant festivities and
moonlight excursions the young lovers passed a few happy months, when
Hedwige was called home by the final sickness of her father. Louis died,
and Hedwige was immediately crowned Queen of Poland, receiving the most
enthusiastic greetings of her subjects.

Bordering on Poland there was a grand duchy of immense extent,
Lithuania, embracing sixty thousand square miles. The Grand Duke
Jaghellon was a burly Northman, not more than half civilized, whose
character was as jagged as his name. This pagan proposed to the Polish
nobles that he should marry Hedwige, and thus unite the grand duchy of
Lithuania with the kingdom of Poland; promising in that event to
renounce paganism, and embrace Christianity. The beautiful and
accomplished Hedwige was horror-struck at the proposal, and declared
that never would she marry any one but William.

But the Polish nobles, dazzled by the prospect of this magnificent
accession to the kingdom of Poland, and the bishops, even more powerful
than the nobles, elated with the vision of such an acquisition for the
Church, resolved that the young and fatherless maiden, who had no one to
defend her cause, should yield, and that she should become the bride of
Jaghellon. They declared that it was ridiculous to think that the
interests of a mighty kingdom, and the enlargement of the Church, were
to yield to the caprices of a love-sick girl.

In the meantime William, all unconscious of the disappointment which
awaited him, was hastening to Cracow, with a splendid retinue, and the
richest presents Austrian art could fabricate, to receive his bride. The
nobles, however, a semi-barbaric set of men, surrounded him upon his
arrival, refused to allow him any interview with Hedwige, threatened him
with personal violence, and drove him out of the kingdom. Poor Hedwige
was in anguish. She wept, vowed deathless fidelity to William, and
expressed utter detestation of the pagan duke, until, at last, worn out
and broken-hearted, she, in despair, surrendered herself into the arms
of Jaghellon. Jaghellon was baptized by the name of Ladislaus, and
Lithuania was annexed to Poland.

The loss of the crown of Poland was to Leopold a grievous affliction; at
the same time his armies, engaged in sundry measures of aggrandizement,
encountered serious reverses. Leopold, the father of William, by these
events was plunged into the deepest dejection. No effort of his friends
could lift the weight of his gloom. In a retired apartment of one of his
castles he sat silent and woful, apparently incapacitated for any
exertion whatever, either bodily or mental. The affairs of his realm
were neglected, and his bailiffs and feudal chiefs, left with
irresponsible power, were guilty of such acts of extortion and tyranny,
that, in the province of Suabia the barons combined, and a fierce
insurrection broke out. Forty important towns united in the confederacy,
and secured the co-operation of Strasburg, Mentz and other large cities
on the Rhine. Other of the Swiss provinces were on the eve of joining
this alarming confederacy against Leopold, their Austrian ruler. As
Vienna for some generations had been the seat of the Hapsburg family,
from whence governors were sent to these provinces of Helvetia, as
Switzerland was then called, the Swiss began to regard their rulers as
foreigners, and even Leopold found it necessary to strengthen himself
with Austrian troops.

This formidable league roused Leopold from his torpor, and he awoke like
the waking of the lion. He was immediately on the march with four
thousand horsemen, and fourteen hundred foot, while all through the
defiles of the Alps bugle blasts echoed, summoning detachments from
various cantons under their bold barons, to hasten to the aid of the
insurgents. On the evening of the 9th of July, 1396, the glittering host
of Leopold appeared on an eminence overlooking the city of Sempach and
the beautiful lake on whose border it stands. The horses were fatigued
by their long and hurried march, and the crags and ravines, covered with
forest, were impracticable for the evolutions of cavalry. The impetuous
Leopold, impatient of delay, resolved upon an immediate attack,
notwithstanding the exhaustion of his troops, and though a few hours of
delay would bring strong reinforcements to his camp. He dismounted his
horsemen, and formed his whole force in solid phalanx. It was an
imposing spectacle, as six thousand men, covered from head to foot with
blazing armor, presenting a front of shields like a wall of burnished
steel, bristling with innumerable pikes and spears, moved with slow,
majestic tread down upon the city.

The confederate Swiss, conscious that the hour of vengeance had come, in
which they must conquer or be miserably slain, marched forth to meet the
foe, emboldened only by despair. But few of the confederates were in
armor. They were furnished with such weapons as men grasp when despotism
rouses them to insurrection, rusty battle-axes, pikes and halberts, and
two-handed swords, which their ancestors, in descending into the grave,
had left behind them. They drew up in the form of a solid wedge, to
pierce the thick concentric wall of steel, apparently as impenetrable as
the cliffs of the mountains. Thus the two bodies silently and sternly
approached each other. It was a terrific hour; for every man knew that
one or the other of those hosts must perish utterly. For some time the
battle raged, while the confederates could make no impression whatever
upon their steel-clad foes, and sixty of them fell pierced by spears
before one of their assailants had been even wounded.

Despair was fast settling upon their hearts, when Arnold of Winkelreid,
a knight of Underwalden, rushed from the ranks of the confederates,
exclaiming--

"I will open a passage into the line; protect, dear countrymen, my wife
and children."

He threw himself upon the bristling spears. A score pierced his body;
grasping them with the tenacity of death, he bore them to the earth as
he fell. His comrades, emulating his spirit of self-sacrifice, rushed
over his bleeding body, and forced their way through the gate thus
opened into the line. The whole unwieldy mass was thrown into confusion.
The steel-clad warriors, exhausted before the battle commenced, and
encumbered with their heavy armor, could but feebly resist their nimble
assailants, who outnumbering them and over-powering them, cut them down
in fearful havoc. It soon became a general slaughter, and not less than
two thousand of the followers of Leopold were stretched lifeless upon
the ground. Many were taken prisoners, and a few, mounting their horses,
effected an escape among the wild glens of the Alps.

In this awful hour Leopold developed magnanimity and heroism worthy of
his name. Before the battle commenced, his friends urged him to take
care of his own person.

"God forbid," said he, "that I should endeavor to save my own life and
leave you to die! I will share your fate, and, with you, will either
conquer or perish."

When all was in confusion, and his followers were falling like autumn
leaves around him, he was urged to put spurs to his horse, and,
accompanied by his body-guard, to escape.

"I would rather die honorably," said Leopold, "than live with dishonor."

Just at this moment his standard-bearer was struck down by a rush of the
confederates. As he fell he cried out, "Help, Austria, help!" Leopold
frantically sprang to his aid, grasped the banner from his dying hand,
and waving it, plunged into the midst of the foe, with saber strokes
hewing a path before him. He was soon lost in the tumult and the carnage
of the battle. His body was afterward found, covered with wounds, in the
midst of heaps of the dead.

Thus perished the ambitious and turbulent Leopold the 1st, after a
stormy and unhappy life of thirty-six years, and a reign of constant
encroachment and war of twenty years. Life to him was a dark and somber
tempest. Ever dissatisfied with what he had attained, and grasping at
more, he could never enjoy the present, and he finally died that death
of violence to which his ambition had consigned so many thousands.
Leopold, the second son of the duke, who was but fifteen years of age,
succeeded his father, in the dominion of the Swiss estates; and after a
desultory warfare of a few months, was successful in negotiating a
peace, or rather an armed truce, with the successful insurgents.

In the meantime, Albert, at Vienna, apparently happy in being relieved
of all care of the Swiss provinces, was devoting himself to the arts of
peace. He reared new buildings, encouraged learning, repressed all
disorders, and cultivated friendly relations with the neighboring
powers. His life was as a summer's day--serene and bright. He and his
family were happy, and his realms in prosperity. He died at his rural
residence at Laxendorf, two miles out from Vienna, on the 29th of
August, 1395. All Austria mourned his death. Thousands gathered at his
burial, exclaiming, "We have lost our friend, our father!" He was a
studious, peace-loving, warm-hearted man, devoted to his family and his
friends, fond of books and the society of the learned, and enjoying the
cultivation of his garden with his own hands. He left, at his death, an
only son, Albert, sixteen years of age.

William, the eldest son of Leopold, had been brought up in the court of
Vienna. He was a young man of fascinating character and easily won all
hearts. After his bitter disappointment in Poland he returned to Vienna,
and now, upon the death of his uncle Albert, he claimed the reins of
government as the oldest member of the family. His cousin Albert, of
course, resisted this claim, demanding that he himself should enter upon
the post which his father had occupied. A violent dissension ensued
which resulted in an agreement that they should administer the
government of the Austrian States, jointly, during their lives, and that
then the government should be vested in the eldest surviving member of
the family.

Having effected this arrangement, quite to the satisfaction of both
parties, Albert, who inherited much of the studious thoughtful turn of
mind of his father, set out on a pilgrimage to the holy land, leaving
the government during his absence in the hands of William. After
wanderings and adventures so full of romance as to entitle him to the
appellation of the "Wonder of the World," he returned to Vienna. He
married a daughter of the Duke of Holland, and settled down to a monkish
life. He entered a monastery of Carthusian monks, and took an active
part in all their discipline and devotions. No one was more punctual
than he at matins and vespers, or more devout in confessions, prayers,
genuflexions and the divine service in the choir. Regarding himself as
one of the fraternity, he called himself brother Albert, and left
William untrammeled in the cares of state. His life was short, for he
died the 14th of September, 1404, in the twenty-seventh year of his age,
leaving a son Albert, seven years old. William, who married a daughter
of the King of Naples, survived him but two years, when he died
childless.

A boy nine years old now claimed the inheritance of the Austrian
estates; but the haughty dukes of the Swiss branch of the house were not
disposed to yield to his claims. Leopold II., who after the battle of
Sempach succeeded his father in the Swiss estates, assumed the
guardianship of Albert, and the administration of Austria, till the
young duke should be of age. But Leopold had two brothers who also
inherited their father's energy and ambition. Ernest ruled over Styria,
Carinthia and Carniola. Frederic governed the Tyrol.

Leopold II. repaired to Vienna to assume the administration; his two
brothers claimed the right of sharing it with him. Confusion, strife and
anarchy ensued. Ernest, a very determined and violent man, succeeded in
compelling his brother to give him a share of the government, and in the
midst of incessant quarrels, which often led to bloody conflicts, each
of the two brothers strove to wrest as much as possible from Austria
before young Albert should be of age. The nobles availed themselves of
this anarchy to renew their expeditions of plunder. Unhappy Austria for
several years was a scene of devastation and misery. In the year 1411,
Leopold II. died without issue. The young Albert had now attained is
fifteenth year.

The emperor declared Albert of age, and he assumed the government as
Albert V. His subjects, weary of disorder and of the strife of the
nobles, welcomed him with enthusiasm. With sagacity and self-denial
above his years, the young prince devoted himself to business,
relinquishing all pursuits of pleasure. Fortunately, during his minority
he had honorable and able teachers who stored his mind with useful
knowledge, and fortified him with principles of integrity. The change
from the most desolating anarchy to prosperity and peace was almost
instantaneous. Albert had the judgment to surround himself with able
advisers. Salutary laws were enacted; justice impartially administered;
the country was swept of the banditti which infested it, and while all
the States around were involved in the miseries of war, the song of the
contented husbandman, and the music of the artisan's tools were heard
through the fields and in the towns of happy Austria.

Sigismond, second son of the Emperor Charles IV., King of Bohemia, was
now emperor. It will be remembered that by marrying Mary, the eldest
daughter of Louis, King of Hungary and Poland, he received Hungary as
the dower of his bride. By intrigue he also succeeded in deposing his
effeminate and dissolute brother, Wenceslaus, from the throne of
Bohemia, and succeeded, by a new election, in placing the crown upon his
own brow. Thus Sigismond wielded a three-fold scepter. He was Emperor of
Germany, and King of Hungary and of Bohemia.

Albert married the only daughter of Sigismond, and a very strong
affection sprung up between the imperial father and his son-in-law. They
often visited each other, and cooperated very cordially in measures of
state. The wife of Sigismond was a worthless woman, described by an
Austrian historian as "one who believed in neither God, angel nor devil;
neither in heaven nor hell." Sigismond had set his heart upon
bequeathing to Albert the crowns of both Hungary and Bohemia, which
magnificent accessions to the Austrian domains would elevate that power
to be one of the first in Europe. But Barbara, his queen, wished to
convey these crowns to the son of the pagan Jaghellon, who had received
the crown of Poland as the dowry of his reluctant bride, Hedwige.
Sigismond, provoked by her intrigues for the accomplishment of this
object, and detesting her for her licentiousness, put her under arrest.
Sigismond was sixty-three years of age, in very feeble health, and daily
expecting to die.

He summoned a general convention of the nobles of Hungary and Bohemia to
meet him at Znaim in Moravia, near the frontiers of Austria, and sent
for Albert and his daughter to hasten to that place. The infirm emperor,
traveling by slow stages, succeeded in reaching Znaim. He immediately
summoned the nobles to his presence, and introducing to them Albert and
Elizabeth, thus affectingly addressed them:

"Loving friends, you know that since the commencement of my reign I have
employed my utmost exertions to maintain public tranquillity. Now, as I
am about to die, my last act must be consistent with my former actions.
At this moment my only anxiety arises from a desire to prevent
dissension and bloodshed after my decease. It is praiseworthy in a
prince to govern well; but it is not less praiseworthy to provide a
successor who shall govern better than himself. This fame I now seek,
not from ambition, but from love to my subjects. You all know Albert,
Duke of Austria, to whom in preference to all other princes I gave my
daughter in marriage, and whom I adopted as my son. You know that he
possesses experience and every virtue becoming a prince. He found
Austria in a state of disorder, and he has restored it to tranquillity.
He is now of an age in which judgment and experience attain their
perfection, and he is sovereign of Austria, which, lying between Hungary
and Bohemia, forms a connecting link between the two kingdoms.

"I recommend him to you as my successor. I leave you a king, pious,
honorable, wise and brave. I give him my kingdom, or rather I give him
to my kingdoms, to whom I can give or wish nothing better. Truly you
belong to him in consideration of his wife, the hereditary princess of
Hungary and Bohemia. Again I repeat that I do not act thus solely from
love to Albert and my daughter, but from a desire in my last moments to
promote the true welfare of my people. Happy are those who are subject
to Albert. I am confident he is no less beloved by you than by me, and
that even without my exhortations you would unanimously give him your
votes. But I beseech you by these tears, comfort my soul, which is
departing to God, by confirming my choice and fulfilling my will."

The emperor was so overcome with emotion that he could with difficulty
pronounce these last words. All were deeply moved; some wept aloud;
others, seizing the hand of the emperor and bathing it in tears, vowed
allegiance to Albert, and declared that while he lived they would
recognize no other sovereign.

The very next day, November, 1437, Sigismond died. Albert and Elizabeth
accompanied his remains to Hungary. The Hungarian diet of barons
unanimously ratified the wishes of the late king in accepting Albert as
his successor. He then hastened to Bohemia, and, notwithstanding a few
outbursts of disaffection, was received with great demonstrations of joy
by the citizens of Prague, and was crowned in the cathedral.




CHAPTER IV.

ALBERT, LADISLAUS AND FREDERIC.

From 1440 to 1489.

Increasing Honors of Albert V.--Encroachments of the Turks.--The
Christians Routed.--Terror of the Hungarians.--Death of
Albert.--Magnanimous Conduct of Albert of Bavaria.--Internal
Troubles.--Precocity of Ladislaus.--Fortifications raised by the
Turks.--John Capistrun.--Rescue of Belgrade.--The Turks
dispersed.--Exultation over the Victory.--Death of Hunniades.--Jealousy
of Ladislaus.--His Death.--Brotherly Quarrels.--Devastations by the
Turks.--Invasion of Austria.--Repeal of the Compromise.--The Emperor a
Fugitive.


The kingdom of Bohemia thus attached to the duchies of Austria contained
a population of some three millions, and embraced twenty thousand square
miles of territory, being about three times as large as the State of
Massachusetts. Hungary was a still more magnificent realm in extent of
territory, being nearly five times as large as Bohemia, but inhabited by
about the same number of people, widely dispersed. In addition to this
sudden and vast accession of power, Albert was chosen Emperor of
Germany. This distinguished sovereign displayed as much wisdom and
address in administering the affairs of the empire, as in governing his
own kingdoms.

The Turks were at this time becoming the terror of Christendom.
Originating in a small tribe between the Caspian Sea and the Euxine,
they had with bloody cimeters overrun all Asia Minor, and, crossing the
Hellespont, had intrenched themselves firmly on the shores of Europe.
Crowding on in victorious hosts, armed with the most terrible
fanaticism, they had already obtained possession of Bulgaria, Servia,
and Bosnia, eastern dependencies of Hungary, and all Europe was
trembling in view of their prowess, their ferocity and their apparently
exhaustless legions.

Sigismond, beholding the crescent of the Moslem floating over the
castles of eastern Hungary, became alarmed for the kingdom, and sent
ambassadors from court to court to form a crusade against the invaders.
He was eminently successful, and an army of one hundred thousand men was
soon collected, composed of the flower of the European nobility. The
republics of Venice and Genoa united to supply a fleet. With this
powerful armament Sigismond, in person, commenced his march to
Constantinople, which city the Turks were besieging, to meet the fleet
there. The Turkish sultan himself gathered his troops and advanced to
meet Sigismond. The Christian troops were utterly routed, and nearly all
put to the sword. The emperor with difficulty escaped. In the confusion
of the awful scene of carnage he threw himself unperceived into a small
boat, and paddling down the Danube, as its flood swept through an almost
uninhabited wilderness, he reached the Black Sea, where he was so
fortunate as to find a portion of the fleet, and thus, by a long
circuit, he eventually reached his home.

Bajazet, the sultan, returned exultant from this great victory, and
resumed the siege of Constantinople, which ere long fell into the hands
of the Turks. Amurath, who was sultan at the time of the death of
Sigismond, thought the moment propitious for extending his conquests. He
immediately, with his legions, overran Servia, a principality nearly the
size of the State of Virginia, and containing a million of inhabitants.
George, Prince of Servia, retreating before the merciless followers of
the false prophet, threw himself with a strong garrison into the
fortress of Semendria, and sent an imploring message to Albert for
assistance. Servia was separated from Hungary only by the Danube, and it
was a matter of infinite moment to Albert that the Turk should not get
possession of that province, from which he could make constant forays
into Hungary.

Albert hastily collected an army and marched to the banks of the Danube
just in time to witness the capture of Semendria and the massacre of its
garrison. All Hungary was now in terror. The Turks in overwhelming
numbers were firmly intrenched upon the banks of the Danube, and were
preparing to cross the river and to supplant the cross with the crescent
on all the plains of Hungary. The Hungarian nobles, in crowds, flocked
to the standard of Albert, who made herculean exertions to meet and roll
back the threatened tide of invasion. Exhausted by unremitting toil, he
was taken sick and suddenly died, on a small island of the Danube, on
the 17th of October, 1439, in the forty-third year of his age. The death
of such a prince, heroic and magnanimous, loving the arts of peace, and
yet capable of wielding the energies of war, was an apparent calamity to
Europe.

Albert left two daughters, but his queen Elizabeth was expecting, in a
few months, to give birth to another child. Every thing was thus
involved in confusion, and for a time intrigue and violence ran riot.
There were many diverse parties, the rush of armed bands, skirmishes and
battles, and all the great matters of state were involved in an
inextricable labyrinth of confusion. The queen gave birth to a son, who
was baptized by the name of Ladislaus. Elizabeth, anxious to secure the
crown of Hungary for her infant, had him solemnly crowned at Alba Regia,
by the Archbishop of Gran when the child was but four months old.

But a powerful party arose, opposed to the claims of the infant, and
strove by force of arms to place upon the throne Uladislaus, King of
Poland and Lithuania, and son of the pagan Jaghellon and the unhappy
Hedwige. For two years war between the rival parties desolated the
kingdom, when Elizabeth died. Uladislaus now redoubled his endeavors,
and finally succeeded in driving the unconscious infant from his
hereditary domain, and established himself firmly on the throne of
Hungary.

The infant prince was taken to Bohemia. There also he encountered
violent opposition. "A child," said his opponents, "can not govern. It
will be long before Ladislaus will be capable of assuming the reins of
government. Let us choose another sovereign, and when Ladislaus has
attained the age of twenty-four we shall see whether he deserves the
crown."

This very sensible advice was adopted, and thirteen electors were
appointed to choose a sovereign. Their choice fell upon Albert of
Bavaria. But he, with a spirit of magnanimity very rare in that age,
declared that the crown, of right, belonged to Ladislaus, and that he
would not take it from him. They then chose Frederic, Duke of Styria,
who, upon the death of Albert, had been chosen emperor. Frederic,
incited by the example of Albert, also declined, saying, "I will not rob
my relation of his right." But anxious for the peace of the empire, he
recommended that they should choose some illustrious Bohemian, to whom
they should intrust the regency until Ladislaus became of age, offering
himself to assume the guardianship of the young prince.

This judicious advice was accepted, and the Bohemian nobles chose the
infant Ladislaus their king. They, however, appointed two regents
instead of one. The regents quarreled and headed two hostile parties.
Anarchy and civil war desolated the kingdom, with fluctuations of
success and discomfiture attending the movements of either party. Thus
several years of violence and blood passed on. One of the regents,
George Podiebrad, drove his opponent from the realm and assumed regal
authority. To legitimate its usurped power he summoned a diet at
Pilgram, in 1447, and submitted the following question:

"Is it advantageous to the kingdom that Ladislaus should retain the
crown, or would it not be more beneficial to choose a monarch acquainted
with our language and customs, and inspired with love of our country?"

Warm opposition to this measure arose, and the nobles voted themselves
loyal to Ladislaus. While these events were passing in Bohemia, scenes
of similar violence were transpiring in Hungary. After a long series of
convulsions, and Uladislaus, the Polish king, who had attained the crown
of Hungary, having been slain in a battle with the Turks, a diet of
Hungarian nobles was assembled and they also declared the young
Ladislaus to be their king. They consequently wrote to the Emperor
Frederic, Duke of Styria, who had assumed the guardianship of the
prince, requesting that he might be sent to Hungary. Ladislaus
Posthumous, so-called in consequence of his birth after the death of his
father, was then but six years of age.

The Austrian States were also in a condition of similar confusion, rival
aspirants grasping at power, feuds agitating every province, and all
moderate men anxious for that repose which could only be found by
uniting in the claims of Ladislaus for the crown. Thus Austria, Bohemia
and Hungary, so singularly and harmoniously united under Albert V., so
suddenly dissevered and scattered by the death of Albert, were now,
after years of turmoil, all reuniting under the child Ladislaus.

Frederic, however, the faithful guardian of the young prince, was
devoting the utmost care to his education, and refused to accede to the
urgent and reiterated requests to send the young monarch to his realms.
When Ladislaus was about ten years of age the Emperor Frederic visited
the pope at Rome, and took Ladislaus in his glittering suite. The
precocious child here astonished the learned men of the court, by
delivering an oration in Latin before the consistory, and by giving many
other indications of originality and vigor of mind far above his years.
The pope became much attached to the youthful sovereign of three such
important realms, and as Frederic was about to visit Naples, Ladislaus
remained a guest in the imperial palace.

Deputies from the three nations repaired to Rome to urge the pope to
restore to them their young sovereign. Failing in this, they endeavored
to induce Ladislaus to escape with them. This plan also was discovered
and foiled. The nobles were much irritated by these disappointments, and
they resolved to rescue him by force of arms. All over Hungary, Bohemia
and Austria there was a general rising of the nobles, nationalities
being merged in the common cause, and all hearts united and throbbing
with a common desire. An army of sixteen thousand men was raised.
Frederic, alarmed by these formidable preparations for war, surrendered
Ladislaus and he was conveyed in triumph to Vienna. A numerous
assemblage of the nobles of the three nations was convened, and it was
settled that the young king, during his minority, should remain at
Vienna, under the care of his maternal uncle, Count Cilli, who, in the
meantime, was to administer the government of Austria. George Podiebrad
was intrusted with the regency of Bohemia; and John Hunniades was
appointed regent of Hungary.

Ladislaus was now thirteen years of age. The most learned men of the age
were appointed as his teachers, and he pursued his studies with great
vigor. Count Cilli, however, an ambitious and able man, soon gained
almost unlimited control over the mind of his young ward, and became so
arrogant and dictatorial, filling every important office with his own
especial friends, and removing those who displeased him, that general
discontent was excited and conspiracy was formed against him. Cilli was
driven from Vienna with insults and threats, and the conspirators placed
the regency in the hands of a select number of their adherents.

While affairs were in this condition, John Hunniades, as regent, was
administering the government of Hungary with great vigor and sagacity.
He was acquiring so much renown that Count Cilli regarded him with a
very jealous eye, and excited the suspicions of the young king that
Hunniades was seeking for himself the sovereignty of Hungary. Cilli
endeavored to lure Hunniades to Vienna, that he might seize his person,
but the sagacious warrior was too wily to be thus entrapped.

The Turks were now in the full tide of victory. They had conquered
Constantinople, fortified both sides of the Bosporus and the Hellespont,
overrun Greece and planted themselves firmly and impregnably on the
shores of Europe. Mahomet II. was sultan, succeeding his father Amurath.
He raised an army of two hundred thousand men, who were all inspired
with that intense fanatic ferocity with which the Moslem then regarded
the Christian. Marching resistlessly through Bulgaria and Servia, he
contemplated the immediate conquest of Hungary, the bulwark of Europe.
He advanced to the banks of the Danube and laid siege to Belgrade, a
very important and strongly fortified town at the point where the Save
enters the great central river of eastern Europe.

Such an army, flushed with victory and inspired with all the energies of
fanaticism, appalled the European powers. Ladislaus was but a boy,
studious and scholarly in his tastes, having developed but little
physical energy and no executive vigor. He was very handsome, very
refined in his tastes and courteous in his address, and he cultivated
with great care the golden ringlets which clustered around his
shoulders. At the time of this fearful invasion Ladislaus was on a visit
to Buda, one of the capitals of Hungary, on the Danube, but about three
hundred miles above Belgrade. The young monarch, with his favorite,
Cilli, fled ingloriously to Vienna, leaving Hunniades to breast as he
could the Turkish hosts. But Hunniades was, fortunately, equal to the
emergence.

A Franciscan monk, John Capistrun, endowed with the eloquence of Peter
the Hermit, traversed Germany, displaying the cross and rousing
Christians to defend Europe from the infidels. He soon collected a
motley mass of forty thousand men, rustics, priests, students, soldiers,
unarmed, undisciplined, a rabble rout, who followed him to the
rendezvous where Hunniades had succeeded in collecting a large force of
the bold barons and steel-clad warriors of Hungary. The experienced
chief gladly received this heterogeneous mass, and soon armed them,
brought them into the ranks and subjected them to the severe discipline
of military drill.

At the head of this band, which was inspired with zeal equal to that of
the Turk, the brave Hunniades, in a fleet of boats, descended the
Danube. The river in front of Belgrade was covered with the flotilla of
the Turks. The wall in many places was broken down, and at other points
in the wall they had obtained a foothold, and the crescent was proudly
unfurled to the breeze. The feeble garrison, worn out with toil and
perishing with famine, were in the last stages of despair. Hunniades
came down upon the Turkish flotilla like an inundation; both parties
fought with almost unprecedented ferocity, but the Christians drove
every thing before them, sinking, dispersing, and capturing the boats,
which were by no means prepared for so sudden and terrible an assault.
The immense reinforcement, with arms and provisions, thus entered the
city, and securing the navigation of the Danube and the Save, opened the
way for continued supplies. The immense hosts of the Mohammedans now
girdled the city in a sem