Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/512

Rh 1308-47. Frederick I l I. and Louis IV. >".viss League. li~.-la- tions of Louis to the papacy. 494 §Illpt13I‘lL;l CI'U'Il11S. Ilis purpose of crossing the Alps at the ieat 0 a mig ty force was hailed with delivht in Ital * b ' the Ghibelline faction, whose aspirations foniid noble u)tteii- ance in Dante's prose; but the emperor lived too short a time to fulfil the hopes of his friends. The effect of the connexion of Germany with the empire was in his time, as in former ages, altogether mischievous; for before starting for Rome he tried to coiiciliate the princes by adding to their already’ enormous privileges and by repressing the energies of the cities. The electors, with their usual dread of the crown becon1- ing hereditary, would not appoint Heiiry’s son, John, the young king of Bohemia. But they were unable to agree on any one else, and the result of their disputes was a double election—one party choosing Frederick the Fair, duke of Austria, son of Albert 1. ; another, Louis, duke of Bavaria. War at once broke out and lasted for about nine years. In 1322 the rival claims were set at rest by the battle of Miihlberg, in which F rederiek’s army was deci- sively routed. Louis had no personal ill-will to his op- ponent, who was the friend of his youth; and in 1325 he agreed that they should rule in common. Frederick III. , however, being without strength of character, sank into insigniﬁcanee, and in 1330 he died. I 'I;1he S1l;lCCeSS of Louis IV. (1314-47) in the war with i‘ re eric ' was to a large extent due to the im ierial cities. which clung to him fronI the ﬁrst. They not Olllly willingly paid high taxes, but made splendid voluntary contributions; and they often stimulated anew the king of their choice, when he himself would have preferred to give up a struggle in which the sympathies of most of the princes and nobles were with his enemy. He was even more indebted to the memorable conﬂict between the house of Hapsburg and the League composed of Schwyz, Uri, and Unterwalden. The inhabitants of these districts claimed to have never owed allegiance to any sovereign save the emperor. Although this claim had been conﬁrmed by King Adolf and Henrv VII., the dukes of Austria would not recognize it; and when F rederick was chosen king by his party among the electors, he sent bailiffs into the country to bring it under the rule of his family. Probably the tyranny of these officers, although it occurred at a later time than that to which the Tell legend refers, afterwards gave rise to the romantic tales which gathered around the name of the mythical champion of Swiss independence. At any rate it brought on a conﬂict between Austria and the confed- erates, which strained the resources of Frederick at the very time when he needed them in defence of his royal claims. It was not only Louis who proﬁted by this struggle, for the splendid battle of Morgarten Pass laid the foundation of :g1C1Si£llCt.uI‘E13) which we now see in free Switzerland. at ouis een a wise prince it would have been eas for him to rise to a great position after the battle of Miihl: berg; but he was Wayward, treacherous, and selﬁsh. He mortally otfended King John of Bohemia, who had been of great service to him, but who now became his bitter and unrelenting enemy. Pope John XXII., stirred up by Charles IV. of France, who had some hope of obtaininrr the empire for himself, took advantage of the strife of thc: two princes, and arrogantly claimed that the German crown could not be worn but with papal sanction. When Louis gave the answer that was to be expected the pope responded by excommunicating him and by placinri under the iiiterdict all places by which he should be shpported. Thus it seemcdthat the anciciitstruggle between the papacy and the empire was to be revived ; but the pope and his French master had altogether misread the signs of the times. The princes had no longer, as in former ages, reason to dread an ambitious ruler ; the kingdom was their own, and there- fore they could not tolerate that its destinies should be G E It. M A N Y [u1sTor.Y. decided by a foreign power. Even the spiritual princes for the most part took this view. The electors had of course the strongest of all motives for resisting the papal claim, since, had it been conceded, they would have been deprived of their importance. As for the cities, they had stood beside the empire in the most difficult crises of its contest with Rome, and they were not likely to desert it now. Encouraged, or rather driven forward, by the national sentiment, Louis continued to maintain the independence of his crown, and even made a descent upon Italy, where he was crowned emperor by his own aiiti-pope. This enterprise ended disastrously, but it made no difference in the conditions of the controversy. Louis was personally very much frightened by the possible consequences of ex- coinmunication, and intrigued incessantly with Pope John and his successor Benedict XII. to be taken back into the church. In order to win papal favour he basely betrayed Edward III. of England, with whom he had formed an alliance against the French king, Philip VI. The nation, however, stood fast, and in 1338 the electors, with the exception of King John of Bohemia, met at Reuse, near Coblentz, and formally declared that the -German king and emperor, if appointed by a majority of the electors, received his authority from God alone, and needed not papal sanction in the exercise of his rights. This declara- tion was accepted as the fundamcntal law of the empire by a diet which Louis summoned in Frankfort, and which was largely attended by princes, nobles, and citizens. Louis did not maintain the popularity forced upon him by this conﬂict. His greed of territory for his family made him so unscrupulous, and excited so many jealousies, that the Bohemian king succeeded in forming a party against him; and in 1346 a number of the electors voted his de- position, and appointed in his place Charles, inargravc of Moravia, King Jolm’s son. The cities persisted in their loyalty, and few of the princes were willing to involve themselves in another great war; so that for a time the sentence of deposition had no effect. But after King John had met his death, ﬁghting heroically despite his blindness as the French king’s ally, on the ﬁeld of Crécy, Charles, who succeeded him on the Bohemian throne, began to make vigorous preparations; and probably the sudden death of Louis prevented Germany from being once more rent by civil strife. Notwithstanding the defects of Loi1is’s personal character his reign was one of the most important in German history. The claim of the papacy to political supremacy received in his time its deathblow, and the popes themselves sowed the seeds of the spiritual alienation from Rome which was effected at the Iteforniation. In regard to the public peace, Louis persistently followed the lines laid down by Albert 1. lIe encouraged the princes to form alliances for its mainten- ance, and at the time of his death such alliances existed in all parts of the country. To the cities he usually showed himself a faithful friend. I11 many of them there had been for more than a century astruggle between the old patrician families and the guilds composed of workmen and trades- people. Louis could not always follow his own impulses; but whenever he could, he associated himself with the latter party. Thus in his day the government of the imperial cities became more democratic, and industry and trade ﬂourished as they had never before done. The steady dis- like of the princes was the best proof of the importance of the cities. They contained elements capable of enormous development; and had a great king arisen he might even yet, by their means, have secured for Germany a truly national life. The friends of Louis elected Giinthcr, count of Schwarz- biirg, but Charles IV. (1347-78), by a liberal use of bribes, bought over his enemies; and Ciinther himself resigned ['11 p lax-it; oui IV. Lou and Clll( Lu‘ lioi d y: 1