Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/744

Rh 702 R_ History. The earliest known inhabitants of the country now called Wur- ternber^ seem to have been Suevi. The Romans, who appeared first about 15 B.C., added the south part of the land to the province of Gaul in 84 A.D., aud defended their positions there by a wall or rampart. About the beginning of the 3d century the Alemanni drove the Romans beyond the Rhine and the Danube ; but they in their turn were conquered by the Franks under Clovis (496), and the land was divided between Rhenish Frauconia and the duchy of Alemaunia. The latter, however, disappears about 760, and its territories were administered for the Frankish monarchs by &quot; grafs &quot; or counts, until they were finally absorbed in the duchy of Swabia. The last duke of Swabia died in 1268, and a large share of his power and possessions fell into the hands of the &quot;grafs&quot; of Wiir- temberg, whose ancestral castle crowned a hill between Esslingen and Caunstatt. Tradition mentions a Conradus de Wirtemberc in 1090, but the earliest authentic count seems to have been Ulrich (1241-1265), who had large possessions in the valleys of the Neckar and the Rems. The power of this family grew steadily under _ suc cessive counts ; and in 1482 their possessions were declared indi visible. This early adoption of the principle of primogeniture saved Wiirtemberg from the wasting effects of those family feuds and jealousies which interfered so seriously with the development of some of the other German states. Eberhard V., surnamed &quot; im Bart&quot; (1482-1496), was one of the most energetic and illustrious rulers that Wurternberg ever had, and in 1495 his possessions were raised by the emperor to the dignity of an immediate imperial duchy. The reign of Ulrich I. (1498-1550), who succeeded to the duchy while still a child, was a most eventful period for the country, and many stories and traditions cluster round the name of this gifted and vigorous but unscrupulous and ambitious man. The extortions by which he sought to raise money for his extrava gant pleasures excited a rising known as the &quot; arme Konrad&quot; (poor Conrad) not unlike! the rising of Wat Tyler in England; and by the treaty of Tiibingen in 1514 his people undertook to pay lus debts in exchange for various political privileges, which in effect laid the foundation of the constitutional liberties of the country. A few years later, however, Ulrich quarrelled with the Swabiau league of imperial towns, and their army headed by the duke of Bavaria, who was incensed by Ulrich s ill-treatment of his wife, a Bavarian princess, invaded Wiirtemberg, expelled the duke, and in 1520 sold the duchy to Austria for 220,000 florins. Ulrich, however, found his opportunity in the discontent caused in Wiir temberg by the military and religious oppression of Austria, and in the disturbed state of the empire during the Peasants War, aud the commotions excited by the Reformation. Aided by Philip of Hesse and other Protestant princes, he fought a victorious battle at Lauffen in 1534 ; aud by the treaty of Kadan he was recognized once more as duke, though forced to acknowledge his duchy a fief of Austria. One of his first acts was to introduce the Reformation, and to endow Protestant churches and schools throughout his land. His connexion with the Selmialkaldian League once more cost him a temporary expulsion from his throne, but Charles V. reinstated him in 1547, though under severe conditions. Ulrich s son Christopher (1550-1568) introduced systems of law and church government (Grosse Kirchenordnung) which have endured in part to the present day. The establishment In this reign of a kind of stand ing committee to superintend the finances was the beginning of popular representation in the government, though its members belonged exclusively, of course, to the higher ranks. Frederick I. (1593-1608), an energetic and ambitious prince, induced the em peror Rudolph II. in 1599 to raise the duchy once more to the dignity of an immediate fief of the empire. In the reign of his successor, John Frederick (1608-1628), Wiirtemberg suffered severely from the Thirty Years War, though the duke took no active share in that struggle. His son and successor, however, Eberhard III. (1628-1674), eagerly joined in it, but with disastrous effects. Wiirtemberg was occupied by imperial troops, the duke was driven into exile, and when the peace of Westphalia once more reinstated him he found but 50,000 subjects where he had left 400,000. In the reign of Eberhard IV. (1677-1733), who was but one year old when his father William died, Wiirtemberg made acquaintance with another destructive enemy. In 1688, 1692, 1703, and 1707 the French entered the country with fire and sword, annihilating whole villages in their ruthless brutality, and leaving deserts in their track. The depopulated country eagerly afforded a welcome and a home to the Waldensians, who had been driven from their valleys by the duke of Savoy in 1699. Charles The duke, instigated by his minister, was believed to aim at the suppression of the diet, and at the introduction of the Romish The prince was gifted but vicious, and he soon fell into 3 the hands of unworthy favourites. His whole reign was disturbed by dis sensions betwixt the ruler and the ruled, in which the intervention of foreign powers (Prussia and England) was invoked, though in vain, by the unhappy people. Alarmed by the gathering discontent, Charles made a few concessions in his old age. Frederick Eugene (1795-1797), a brother of Charles Eugene, had been brought up at the court of Frederick the Great, whose niece he married. His children were, through this influence, educated as Protestants, and the royal family of Wiirtemberg have been Protestants since his death. Frederick II. (1797-1816) resembled the first of his name in becoming embroiled with the diet. He declared war against France in defiance of the wishes of his people, and when the French in vaded the country he retired to Erlangen, till after the peace of Luueville (1801). By a private treaty at the same date, he ex changed Montbeliard (which had belonged to Wiirtemberg since 1418) and his Alsatian possessions for nine imperial towns and other territories, amounting in all to 850 square miles, with 124,000 inhabitants. He accepted also the title of elector from Napoleon. The newly acquired districts were not incorporated with his former possessions, but remained separate under the name &quot;New Wiirtem berg.&quot; The new district had no diet. This was the first of a series of transactions with the national enemy, which swelled Frederick s territory, though they added but little to his credit. In 1805 Wiirtemberg took up arms on the side of France, and the elector was rewarded at the peace of Pressburg by various Austrian possessions in Swabia, and the title of king. On January 1, 1806, Frederick assumed the royal style, abrogated the constitution, and united old and new Wiirtemberg. He subsequently united church and state, and proclaimed religious equality. In 1806 King Frederick I. joined the Confederation of the Rhine, and received fresh territories, with 160,000 inhabitants ; and the peace of Vienna brought 110,000 new subjects under his sceptre. But he had to perform his part of the bargain by joining Napoleon in his cam paigns against Prussia, Austria, and Russia. Of 16,000 AVurtem- bergers who marched to Moscow, only a few hundred returned. When fortune turned, Frederick with ready adroitness changed sides, and managed to preserve his royal title and most of his new- won lands by joining the allies immediately after the battle of Leipsic. Wiirtemberg had been promised a constitution by Frederick before he died in 1816, but a good deal of discussion took place before it was granted in 1819 by William I. (1816-1864). A period of quiet now set in, and the educational condition of the kingdom, its agriculture, aud its trade and manufactures began to receive earnest attention. The desire for political freedom had by no means been satisfied by the constitution of 1819, and a &quot;liberal opposition&quot; began to make itself felt about 1830. The agitation of 1848 did not leave Wiirtemberg undisturbed, though 110 scenes of actual violence took place in the kingdom. The conservative ministry granted freedom of the press and other privileges, too late, however, to avert their fall. The king was compelled to call the liberals to power in March 1848, and a new liberal constitution was granted. But as soon as the stress was over the &quot;March ministry &quot; was dismissed, and the reactionary party were again in the ascendant. By a high-handed interference with recently granted popular rights on the part of the king and his ministers a servile diet was assembled in 1851, which yielded up without hesitation all that had been gained since 1848. The constitution of 1819 was reinstituted, and it has remained, with only a few modifications, ever since. In 1864 Charles ascended the throne. In the duel between Prussia and Austria for supremacy in Germany, the sympathies of the rulers of Wiirtemberg were always 011 the side of the latter, although the country entered the Customs Union under Prussia s protection in 1864. In 1866 Wiirtemberg took up arms on behalf of Austria ; but the Wiirtemberg troops were defeated at Tauberbischofsheim, three weeks after Sadowa, and its ministers sued for peace. Prussia exacted an indemnity of 8 million florins, and Wiirtemberg struck a secret offensive and defensive treaty with its conqueror. In 1870 this kingdom shared in the national enthusiasm which swept over Germany when France declared war ; and its troops had a creditable share in the memorable campaign of 1870-71. Since the foundation of the present German empire, the separate history of Wiirtemberg has been of almost exclusively local interest. The tendency of legislation has been, on the whole, liberal. A very full and minuie description of Wiirtcmberg, together with copious lists of authorities on all subjects connected with it, will be found in Das Kiinty- reic/t Wurttembery, Stuttgart, 1882 *? , officially published by the Konigliches Statistisch-Topogiaphisches Bureau. C* 1. MU.) WURTZ, CHARLES ADOLPHE (1817-1884), chemist, was born at Strasburg on November 26, 1817. His father, Jean Jacques Wurtz, was then Lutheran pastor at the small village of Woliisheim near Strasburg. His mother, Sophie Kreiss, was the sister of Theodore Kreiss, professor of Greek at the Protestant gymnasium of Strasburg, and of Adolphe Kreiss, a Lutheran pastor. When Wurtz was