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 2o6 THE LATER MIDDLE AGES came through Armenia, and were welcomed by the Seljuks as a reinforcement. But in fact they organised a new power, before which the Seljuks disappeared. At last they broke into Europe, surging into the feebly held dominions of what was still the Greek Empire, which was left by the west to its fate; and finally, they stormed and captured the capital after a heroic defence. The crescent, on the verge of being ejected from Western Europe, established itself in the east, and made Europe itself the battle-ground between Christianity and aggressive Mohammedanism. At the time of the death of Louis ix., the Royal house of France was the greatest dynastic power in Europe. France herself was strong and Louis left the Crown in France particularly strong. His brother Charles was Count not only of Anjou, but also of Provence, which was an independent state, and was now king of the two Sicilies. It was perhaps a fear that the house of Capet might seek for its own further aggrandisement in the 2. The Em- divisions of Germany which impelled Gregory x. pire: Rudolf, to urge upon the German electors the duty of choosing a German king. The electors chose Rudolf of Hapsburg, partly from fear of the aggressive designs of Ottokar of Bohemia, the strongest of the princes whose domains were included in the area of the empire, though his subjects were chiefly Slavonic, not German. Rudolf found reason for forcing war upon Ottokar, whom he succeeded in crushing, and whose territories of Austria and Carinthia he proceeded to appropriate. After a brief interval Rudolf's son Albert was elected. But after Albert, though there were Hapsburg claimants to the Imperial dignity, none reigned undisputed till more than a hundred years later. On Albert's death, Charles of Valois, brother of the French King Philip the Fair, became a candidate for the empire. The choice, however, fell upon Henry of Luxemburg. In Italy the strife of the parties who called themselves Guelfs Henry VII., an d Ghibellines encouraged Henry to revive the 1307. ideal of the empire. He entered Italy intending to adopt the role not of a partisan but of the authoritative mediator between parties. But his success would have been