Page:Haiti- Her History and Her Detractors.djvu/345

Rh these calamities, trying as they were, did not prevent Germany from continuing her march toward progress, they did not keep her from becoming one of the most powerful nations of the world. However, she had to fight desperately in order to secure even her political stability. To go back no farther than the twelfth century we find that her history is a series of oppressions, of rivalries and murders for the possession of power. The dispute between the Guelfs and the Ghibellines alone stained the country with blood for many centuries. At the death of Henry VII, Guelfs and Ghibellines had each a king; there ensued a civil war which ended when Otto IV was crowned in 1208. Otto was dethroned by Frederick I. Henry, the son of Frederick, made an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow his father; he was defeated and put in prison, where he died. Some time after the death of Frederick II many pretenders fought for the possession of the crown. This period is known as the Interregnum. There was no security throughout the land; the barons fought continually among themselves, plundering peasants and travelers and committing all sorts of crimes, there being no law to check them. In Westphalia there were the "Wehmgerichte," secret tribunals which indicated to men, hired for the purpose, those whom they had decided were to be killed. For three hundred years these tribunals held sway. Rodolph of Austria succeeded in destroying the castles of the barons. His son Albert was murdered by his nephew after his struggle with Adolph of Nassau, who was striving to get possession of the throne. Henry of Luxemburg, who became Emperor under the title of Henry VII, died from poisoning (1313). Two pretenders then laid claim to the crown: Frederick and Louis of Bavaria. Frederick was defeated and imprisoned; but later on, the victor, Louis, was divested of his office and replaced by Charles IV, a son of the King of Bohemia. The barons became once more very powerful and again began their depredations. Wenceslas, the next Emperor, committed such atrocious cruelties that his sanity was questioned and