Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/511

Rh : )f .- zies. nlfl. RISE OF HOUSE OF IIAPSBURGJ that of Wittenbcrg and that of Lauenburg, the former to the south, the latter to the north, of the great march of Branden- burg. About the same time there were like divisions in Nassau, Brunswick, Meissen, and Holstein. It v.'as thus practicallysettled that the offices and territories, as well as the private ﬁcfs, of the princes were hereditary, to be disposed of by them at their pleasure. This being thoroughly esta- blished, it would have been hard, perhaps impossible, even for a sovereign of the highest genius, to reasscrt in anything like its full extent the royal authority. The process of division and subdivision which steadily went on broke up Gernuny into a bewildering multitude of principalities ; but as a rule the members of each princely house held together against common enemies. Ultimately they learned to ar- range by private treaties that no territory should pass from the family while a single representative of it survived. This consolidation of the power of the princes was con- temporary with the rise of the cities into new importance. The destruction of imperial authority compelled them to organize their resources, so as to be at all times prepared against ambitiousneighbours. They began to form leagues which the greatest princes, and combinations of princes, could not afford to despise. Of these leagues the chief at this time was the Rhenish Confederation, which was founded by Mainz and Worms, and which, within a year of its formation—so pressing was the need of union—included about 70 cities,—among them Cologne, Strasburg, Basel, and towns far to the east and north, such as Nuremberg, E1-furt, and Bremen. Great importance was also acquired by the Hanseatic League, wl1icl1 had originated seine time before the interrcgnum in a treaty of alliance between Liibeck and Hamburg. It ultimately included more than 80 cities, and became one of the greatest commercial powers in Europe. A political system which allowed the princes to do as they pleased was exactly to their liking ; and had they been able to follow their own impulses, it is improbable that they would have placed over the country even a nominal king. But the papacy intervened. It found from its troubles at home aml from its diminished northern revenues that it would still be convenient to have in Germany a sovereign who would, like his predecessors, be the protector of the church. Pope Gregory X. therefore, after the death of Richard, let the electors know that if they did not choose a king he himself would appoint one. This threat was effective. The electors met, and raised to the throne Rudolf, count of Hapsburg, a petty Swabian noble who was supposed to be too unimportant to do much harm. Rudolf (1273-91), however, proved himself to have much more energy than the electors supposed. For a long time the most powerful prince in Germany had been Ottocar, king of Bohemia. He had by marriage and conquest obtained a great territory beyond his native state, including the Austrian possessions of the house of Babenberg, of which the male line had died out. As he had himself expected to receive the German crown, he refused to do homage to the new sovereign, who could not for a time compel his allegiance. At last, in a great battle at the Marchfeld, Ottocar was defeated and slain. ludolf has often been called the restorer of the German kingdom, but he has no real claim to this honourable title. In the later years of his life he made some attempts to maintain the public peace, and he distinguished himself by the vigour with which he punished robber barons; he also won back some of the crown lands and dues which had been stolen during the iuterrcgnum. But he made no essential change in the con- dition of Germany. There was b11t one way in which a lung could hope still to overcome the arrogance of the princes, and that was to encourage the cities and to form with them a close and enduring alliance. This was the GERMANY policy pursued by the French kings, and it was pursued with 1254- But Rudolf invariably favoured the princes 1303- 493 splendid effect. rather than the cities. The latter had a peculiar class of citizens called “pfahlbiirger,” who dwelt in the open country beyond the city palisades, and could claim the protection of the city authorities. As freemen were able, by becom- ing pfahlbiirgcr, to escape from the tyranny of local despots, the princes vehemently opposed the right of the towns to receive them. Rudolf not only took the side of despotism in this important struggle, b11t harassed and weakened the cities by subjecting them to severe imposts. He had all the sympathies and prejudices of a noble; and the supreme object of his life was not to increase the authority of the state, but to add to the greatness of his own family. In this he was brilliantly successful. Some years after the fall of Ottocar he obtained the assent of the princes, notwithstanding their dislike of the scheme, to the granting of Austria, Styria, and Carniola in ﬁef to his son Albert. Carinthia was given to Mein- hard, count of Tyrol, on condition that on the dying out of his male line it should fall to Rudolf’s descendants. Thus Rudolf made himself memorable as the founder of the house of Hapsburg, which from his time formed one of the most inﬂuential forces in the national life of Germany. In vain Rudolf sought to obtain the crown for his son ; the electors would not take a step that might endanger their special rights. Guided mainly by the archbishop of Cologne, they chose Adolf, count of Nassau (1291-98), a Adolf of He Nassau. noble of even less importance than Rudolf had been. had, however, a considerable reputation for valour and ability. Edward I. of England persuaded him to form an alliance against France. Instead of applying the large sum sent. from England to promote the objects of the alliance, Adolf was uuprincipled enough to expend it in the purchase of Tlmringia from the worthless landgrave, Albert the Degenerate. As the transfer was resisted by Albert’s sons, it led to a war in which Adolf was opposed by several princes. In his general policy he was much more enlight- ened than in these wretched proceedings, for he detected what had escaped his predecessor, the value of the cities as the true support of the monarchy. He relieved them of some of their burdens, and upheld them in the controversy respecting the pfahlbiirger. Taking alarm, the electors met, and by an irregular vote proclaimed him dethroned. Adolf resisted, but lost his life in a battle near Worms. N ow that there could be no pretext for asserting that the Albert I. crown had been obtained by inheritance, Duke Albert of Austria, Rudolf's son, was chosen to be Adolf’s successor. Albert I. (1298-1308), like his father, made it his principal object to extend the power _of his house, and he came very near to securing Bohemia and Thuringia; b11t his schemes were cut short by a violent death. Although a hard, stern man, he had a keen sense of justice when his selﬁsh interests were not involved, and few of the German kings possessed so strongly practical an intelligence. He encouraged the cities even more effectually than his predecessor, and was not content with issuing proclamations against private war, but formed alliances with the princes in order to enforce his decrees. The serfs, whose wrongs seldom attracted notice in an age indifferent to human dignity, found a friend in this severe monarch, and he protected even the despised and persecuted J cws. Albert’s successor was Henry, count of Luxembourg. I]vm')’ Henry VII. (1308-13) was fortunate enough to obtain for “I- his son John the crown of Bohemia, but the aggrandisemcnt of his family was not the main object of this remarkable sovereign, the last of the German kings of the old, grandly ambitious type. It was the memory of the empire which stirred his blood; and from the beginning of his reign he looked forward to the assumption of the Lombal‘d and