A History of Germany Part 19

[Sidenote: 1285. RUDOLF'S SUCCESSES.]

After spending five years in Austria, and securing the results of his victory, Rudolf returned to the interior of Germany. A Diet held at Augsburg in 1282 confirmed his sons in their new sovereignties, and his authority as German Emperor was thenceforth never seriously opposed. He exerted all his influence over the princes in endeavoring to settle the numberless disputes which arose out of the law by which the territory and rule of the father were divided among many sons,--or, in case there were no direct heirs, which gave more than one relative an equal claim.

He proclaimed a National Peace, or cessation of quarrels between the States, and thereby accomplished some good, although the order was only partially obeyed. At a Diet which he held in Erfurt, he urged the strongest measures for the suppression of knightly robbery. Sixty castles of the n.o.ble highwaymen were razed to the ground, and more than thirty of the t.i.tled vagabonds expiated their crimes on the scaffold. In all the measures which he undertook for the general welfare of the country he succeeded as far as was possible at such a time.

In his schemes of personal ambition, however, the Emperor was not so successful. His attempt to make his eldest son Duke of Suabia failed completely. Then in order to establish a right to Burgundy, he married, at the age of sixty-six, the sister of Count Robert, a girl of only fourteen. Although he gained some few advantages in Western Switzerland, he was resisted by the city of Berne, and all he accomplished in the end was the stirring up of a new hostility to Germany and a new friendship for France throughout the whole of Burgundy. On the eastern frontier, however, the Empire was enlarged by the voluntary annexation of Silesia to Bohemia, in exchange for protection against the claims of Poland.

In 1290 Rudolf's eldest son, of the same name, died, and at a Diet held in Frankfort the following year he endeavored to procure the election of his son Albert, as his successor. A majority of the bishops and princes decided to postpone the question, and Rudolf left the city, deeply mortified. He soon afterwards fell ill, and, being warned by the physician that his case was serious, he exclaimed: "Well, then, now for Speyer!"--the old burial-place of the German Emperors. But before reaching there he died, in July, 1291, aged seventy-three years.

[Sidenote: 1291.]

Rudolf of Hapsburg was very popular among the common people, on account of his frank, straightforward manner, and the simplicity of his habits.

He was a complete master of his own pa.s.sions, and in this respect contrasted remarkably with the rash and impetuous Hohenstaufens. He never showed impatience or irritation, but was always good-humored, full of jests and shrewd sayings, and accessible to all cla.s.ses. When supplies were short, he would pull up a turnip, peel and eat it in the presence of his soldiers, to show that he fared no better than they, he would refuse a drink of water unless there was enough for all; and it is related that once, on a cold day, he went into the shop of a baker in Mayence to warm himself, and was greatly amused when the good housewife insisted on turning him out as a suspicious character. Nevertheless, he could not overcome the fascination which the Hohenstaufen name still exercised over the people. The idea of Barbarossa's return had already taken root among them, and more than one impostor, who claimed to be the dead Emperor, found enough of followers to disturb Rudolf's reign.

An Imperial authority like that of Otto the Great or Barbarossa had not been restored; yet Rudolf's death left the Empire in a more orderly condition, and the many small rulers were more willing to continue the forms of Government. But the Archbishop Gerard of Mayence, who had bargained secretly with Count Adolf of Na.s.sau, easily persuaded the Electors that it was impolitic to preserve the power in one family, and he thus secured their votes for Adolf, who was crowned shortly afterwards. The latter was even poorer than Rudolf of Hapsburg had been, but without either his wisdom or honesty. He was forced to part with so many Imperial privileges to secure his election, that his first policy seems to have been to secure money and estates for himself. He sold to Visconti of Milan the Viceroyalty over Lombardy, which he claimed as still being a German right, and received from Edward I. of England 100,000 sterling as the price of his alliance in a war against Philip IV. of France. Instead, however, of keeping his part of the bargain, he used some of the money to purchase Thuringia of the Landgrave Albert, who was carrying on an unnatural quarrel with his two sons, Frederick and Dietzmann, and thus disposed of their inheritance. Albert (surnamed the Degenerate) also disposed of the Countship of Meissen in the same way, and when the people resisted the transfer, their lands were terribly devastated by Adolf of Na.s.sau. This course was a direct interference with the rights of reigning families, a violation of the law of inheritance, and it excited great hostility to Adolf's rule among the other princes.

[Sidenote: 1298. ALBERT OF HABSBURG.]

The rapacity of the new Emperor, in fact, was the cause of his speedy downfall. In order to secure the support of the Bishops, he had promised them the tolls on vessels sailing up and down the Rhine, while the abolition of the same tolls was promised to the free cities on that river. The Archbishop of Mayence sent word to him that he had other Emperors in his pocket, but Adolf paid little heed to his remonstrances.

Albert of Hapsburg, son of Rudolf, turned the general dissatisfaction to his own advantage. He won his brother-in-law, Wenzel II. of Bohemia, to his side, and purchased the alliance of Philip the Fair of France by yielding to him the possession of portions of Burgundy and Flanders.

After private negotiations with the German princes, both spiritual and temporal, the Archbishop of Mayence called a Diet together in that city, in June, 1298. Adolf was declared to have forfeited the crown, and Albert was elected in his stead by all the Electors except those of Treves and Bavaria.

Within ten days after the election the rivals met in battle: both had foreseen the struggle, and had made hasty preparations to meet it. Adolf fought with desperation, even after being wounded, and finally came face to face with Albert, on the field. "Here you must yield the Empire to me!" he cried, drawing his sword. "That rests with G.o.d," was Albert's answer, and he struck Adolf dead. After this victory, the German princes nevertheless required that Albert should be again elected before being crowned, since they feared that this precedent of choosing a rival monarch might lead to trouble in the future.

Albert of Hapsburg was a hard, cold man, with all of his father's will and energy, yet without his moderation and shrewdness. He was haughty and repellent in his manner, and from first to last made no friends. He was one-eyed, on account of a singular cure which had been practised upon him. Having become very ill, his physicians suspected that he was poisoned: they thereupon hung him up by the heels, and took one eye out of its socket, so that the poison might thus escape from his head! The single aim of his life was to increase the Imperial power and secure it to his own family. Whether his measures conduced to the welfare of Germany, or not, was a question which he did not consider, and therefore whatever good he accomplished was simply accidental.

[Sidenote: 1307.]

Although Albert had agreed to yield many privileges to the Church, the Pope, Bonifacius VIII., refused to acknowledge him as king of Germany, declaring that the election was null and void. But the same Pope, by his haughty a.s.sumptions of authority over all monarchs, had drawn upon himself the enmity of Philip the Fair, of France, and Albert made a new alliance with the latter. He also obtained the support of the cities, on promising to abolish the Rhine-dues, and with their help completely subdued the Archbishops, who claimed the dues and refused to give them up. This was a great advantage, not only for the Rhine-cities, but for all Germany: it tended to strengthen the power of the increasing middle-cla.s.s.

The Pope, finding his plans thwarted and his authority defied, now began to make friendly overtures to Albert. He had already excommunicated Philip the Fair, and claimed the right to dispose of the crown of France, which he offered to Albert in return for the latter's subjection to him and armed a.s.sistance. There was danger to Germany in this tempting bait; but in 1303, Bonifacius, having been taken prisoner near Rome by his Italian enemies, became insane from rage, and soon died.

Albert's stubborn and selfish attempts to increase the power of his house all failed: their only result was a wider and keener spirit of hostility to his rule. He claimed Thuringia and Meissen, alleging that Adolf of Na.s.sau had purchased those lands, not for himself but for the Empire; he endeavored to get possession of Holland, whose line of ruling Counts had become extinct; and after the death of Wenzel II. of Bohemia, in 1307, he married his son, Rudolf, to the latter's widow. But Counts Frederick and Dietzmann of Thuringia defeated his army: the people of Holland elected a descendant of their Counts on the female side, and the Emperor's son, Rudolf, died in Bohemia, apparently poisoned, before two years were out. Then the Swiss cantons of Schwyz, Uri and Unterwalden, which had been governed by civil officers appointed by the Emperors, rose in revolt against him, and drove his governors from their Alpine valleys. In November, 1307, that famous league was formed, by which the three cantons maintained their independence, and laid the first corner-stone of the Republic of Switzerland.

[Sidenote: 1308. MURDER OF ALBRECHT OF HABSBURG.]

The following May, 1308, Albert was in Baden, raising troops for a new campaign in Thuringia. His nephew, John, a youth of nineteen, who had vainly endeavored to have his right to a part of the Hapsburg territory in Switzerland confirmed by the Emperor, was with him, accompanied by four knights, with whom he had conspired. While crossing a river, they managed to get into the same boat with the Emperor, leaving the rest of his retinue upon the other bank; then, when they had landed, they fell upon him, murdered him, and fled. A peasant woman, who was near, lifted Albert upon her lap and he died in her arms. His widow, the Empress Elizabeth, took a horrible revenge upon the families of the conspirators, whose relatives and even their servants, to the number of one thousand, were executed. One of the knights, who was captured, was broken upon the wheel. John, called in history _John Parricida_, was never heard of afterwards, although one tradition affirms that he fled to Rome, confessed his deed to the Pope, and pa.s.sed the rest of his life, under another name, in a monastery.

Thus, within five years, the despotic plans of both Pope Bonifacius VIII. and Albert of Hapsburg came to a tragic end. The overwhelming power of the Papacy, after a triumph of two hundred years, was broken.

The second Pope after Bonifacius, Clement V., made Avignon, in Southern France, his capital instead of Rome, and the former city continued to be the residence of the Popes, from 1308, the year of Albert's murder, until 1377.

The German Electors were in no hurry to choose a new Emperor. They were only agreed as to who should not be elected,--that is, no member of a powerful family; but it was not so easy to pick out an acceptable candidate from among the many inferior princes. The Church, as usual, decided the question. Peter, of Mayence (who had been a physician and was made Archbishop for curing the Pope), intrigued with Baldwin, Archbishop of Treves, in favor of the latter's brother, Count Henry of Luxemburg. A Diet was held at the "King's Seat," on the hill of Rense, near Coblentz, where the blast of a hunting-horn could be heard in four Electorates at the same time, and Henry was chosen King. He was crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle on the 6th of January, 1309, as Henry VII.

[Sidenote: 1310.]

His first aim was to restore peace and order to Germany. He was obliged to reestablish the Rhine-dues, in the interest of the Archbishops who had supported him, but he endeavored to recompense the cities by granting them other privileges. At a Diet held in Speyer, he released the three Swiss cantons from their allegiance to the house of Hapsburg, gave Austria to the sons of the murdered Albert, and had the bodies of the latter and his rival, Adolf of Na.s.sau, buried in the Cathedral, side by side. Soon afterwards the Bohemians, dissatisfied with Henry of Carinthia (who had become their king after the death of Albert's son, Rudolf), offered the hand of Wenzel II.'s youngest daughter, Elizabeth, to Henry's son, John. Although the latter was only fourteen, and his bride twenty-two years of age, Henry gave his consent to the marriage, and John became king of Bohemia.

In 1310 the new Emperor called a Diet at Frankfort, in order to enforce a universal truce among the German States. He outlawed Count Eberhard of Wurtemberg, and took away his power to create disturbance; and then, Germany being quiet, he turned his attention to Italy, which was in a deplorable state of confusion, from the continual wars of the Guelphs and the Ghibellines. In Lombardy, n.o.ble families had usurped the control of the former republican cities, and governed with greater tyranny than even the Hohenstaufens. Henry's object was to put an end to their civil wars, inst.i.tute a new order, and--be crowned Roman Emperor. The Pope, Clement V., who was tired of Avignon and suspicious of France, was secretly in favor of the plan, and the German princes openly supported it.

Towards the close of 1310, Henry VII. crossed Mont Cenis with an army of several thousand men, and was welcomed with great pomp in Milan, where he was crowned with the iron crown of Lombardy. The poet Dante hailed him as a saviour of Italy, and all parties formed the most extravagant expectations of the advantage they would derive from his coming. The Emperor seems to have tried to act with entire impartiality, and consequently both parties were disappointed. The Guelphs first rose against him, and instead of peace a new war ensued. He was not able to march to Rome until 1312, and by that time the city was again divided into two hostile parties. With the help of the Colonnas, he gained possession of the southern bank of the Tiber, and was crowned Emperor in the Lateran Church by a Cardinal, since there was no Pope in Rome: the Orsini family, who were hostile to him, held possession of the other part of the city, including St. Peter's and the Vatican.

[Sidenote: 1314. LUDWIG THE BAVARIAN ELECTED.]

There were now indications that all Italy would be convulsed with a repet.i.tion of the old struggle. The Guelphs rallied around king Robert of Naples as their head, while king Frederick of Sicily and the Republic of Pisa declared for the Emperor. France and the Pope were about to add new elements to the quarrel, when in August, 1313, Henry VII. died of poison, administered to him by a monk in the sacramental wine,--one of the most atrocious forms of crime which can be imagined. He was a man of many n.o.ble personal qualities, and from whom much was hoped, both in Germany and Italy; but his reign was too short for the attainment of any lasting results.

When the Electors came together at Frankfort, in 1314, it was found that their votes were divided between two candidates. Henry VII.'s son, king John of Bohemia, was only seventeen years old, and the friends of his house, not believing that he could be elected, united on Duke Ludwig of Bavaria, a descendant of Otto of Wittelsbach. On the other hand, the friends of the house of Hapsburg, with the combined influence of France and the Pope on their side, proposed Frederick of Austria, the son of the Emperor Albert. There was a division of the Diet, and both candidates were elected; but Ludwig had four of the seven Electors on his side, he reached Aix-la-Chapelle first and was there crowned, and thus he was considered to have the best right to the Imperial dignity.

Ludwig of Bavaria and Frederick of Austria had been bosom-friends until a short time previous; but they were now rivals and deadly enemies. For eight long years a civil war devastated Germany. On Frederick's side were Austria, Hungary, the Palatinate of the Rhine, and the Archbishop of Cologne, with the German n.o.bles, as a cla.s.s: on Ludwig's side were Bavaria, Bohemia, Thuringia, the cities and the middle cla.s.s.

Frederick's brother, Leopold, in attempting to subjugate the Swiss cantons, the freedom of which had been confirmed by Ludwig, suffered a crushing defeat in the famous battle of Morgarten, fought in 1315. The Austrian force in this battle was 9,000, the Swiss 1,300: the latter lost 15 men, the former 1,500 soldiers and 640 knights. From that day the freedom of the Swiss was secured.

[Sidenote: 1322.]

The Pope, John XXII., declared that he only had the right of deciding between the two rival sovereigns, and used all the means in his power to a.s.sist Frederick. The war was prolonged until 1322, when, in a battle fought at Muhldorf, near Salzburg, the struggle was decided. After a combat of ten hours, the Bavarians gave way, and Ludwig narrowly escaped capture; then the Austrians, mistaking a part of the latter's army for the troops of Leopold, which were expected on the field, were themselves surrounded, and Frederick with 1,400 knights taken prisoner. The battle was, in fact, an earlier Waterloo in its character. Ludwig saluted Frederick with the words: "We are glad to see you, Cousin!" and then imprisoned him in a strong castle.

There was now a truce in Germany, but no real peace. Ludwig felt himself strong enough to send some troops to the relief of Duke Visconti of Milan, who was hard pressed by a Neapolitan army in the interest of the Pope. For this act, John XXII. not only excommunicated and cursed him officially, but extended the Papal "Interdict" over Germany. The latter measure was one which formerly occasioned the greatest dismay among the people, but it had now lost much of its power. The "Interdict"

prohibited all priestly offices in the lands to which it was applied.

The churches were closed, the bells were silent, no honors were paid to the dead, and it was even ordered that the marriage ceremony should be performed in the churchyards. But the German people refused to submit to such an outrage; the few priests who attempted to obey the Pope, were either driven away or compelled to perform their religious duties as usual.

The next event in the struggle was a conspiracy of Leopold of Austria with Charles IV. of France, favored by the Pope, to overthrow Ludwig.

But the other German princes who were concerned in it quietly withdrew when the time came for action, and the plot failed. Then Ludwig, tired of his trials, sent his prisoner Frederick to Leopold as a mediator, the former promising to return and give himself up, if he should not succeed. Leopold was implacable, and Frederick kept his word, although the Pope offered to relieve him of his promise, and threatened him with excommunication for not breaking it. Ludwig was generous enough to receive him as a friend, to give him his full liberty and dignity, and even to divide his royal rule privately with him. The latter arrangement was so unpractical that it was not openly proclaimed, but the good understanding between the two contributed to the peace of Germany. Leopold died in 1326, and Ludwig enjoyed an undisputed authority.

[Sidenote: 1327. QUARREL WITH THE POPE.]

In 1327, the Emperor felt himself strong enough to undertake an expedition to Italy, his object being to relieve Lombardy from the aggressions of Naples, and to be crowned Emperor in Rome in spite of the Pope. In this, he was tolerably successful. He defeated the Guelphs and was crowned in Milan the same year, then marched to Rome, and was crowned Emperor early in 1328, under the auspices of the Colonna family, by two excommunicated Bishops. He presided at an a.s.sembly of the Roman people, at which John XXII. was declared a heretic and renegade, and a Franciscan monk elected Pope under the name of Nikolaus V. Ludwig, however, soon became as unpopular as any of his predecessors, and from the same cause--the imposition of heavy taxes upon the people, in order to keep up his imperial state. He remained two years longer in Italy, encountering as much hate as friendship, and was then recalled to Germany by the death of Frederick of Austria.

The Papal excommunication, which the Hohenstaufen Emperors had borne so easily, seems to have weighed sorely upon Ludwig's mind. His nature was weak and vacillating, capable of only a limited amount of endurance. He began to fear that his soul was in peril, and made the most desperate efforts to be reconciled with the Pope. The latter, however, demanded his immediate abdication as a preliminary to any further negotiation, and was supported in this demand by the king of France, who was very ambitious of obtaining the crown of Germany, with the help of the Church. King John of Bohemia acted as a go-between, but he was also secretly pledged to France, and an agreement was nearly concluded, of a character so cowardly and disgraceful to Ludwig that when some hint of it became known, there arose such an angry excitement in Germany that the Emperor did not dare to move further in the matter.

[Sidenote: 1338.]

John XXII. died about this time (1334) and was succeeded by Benedict XII., a man of a milder and more conciliatory nature, with whom Ludwig immediately commenced fresh negotiations. He offered to abdicate, to swear allegiance to the Pope, to undergo any humiliation which the latter might impose upon him. Benedict was quite willing to be reconciled to him on these conditions, but the arrangement was prevented by Philip VI. of France, who hoped, like his father, to acquire the crown of Germany. As soon as this became evident, Ludwig adopted a totally different course. In the summer of 1338 he called a Diet at Frankfort (which was afterwards adjourned to Rense, near Coblentz), and laid the matter before the Bishops, princes and free cities, which were now represented.

The Diet unanimously declared that the Emperor had exhausted all proper means of reconciliation, and the Pope alone was responsible for the continuance of the struggle. The excommunication and interdict were p.r.o.nounced null and void, and severe punishments were decreed for the priests who should heed them in any way. As it was evident that France had created the difficulty, an alliance was concluded with England, whose king, Edward III., appeared before the Diet at Coblentz, and procured the acknowledgment of his claim to the crown of France. Ludwig, as Emperor, sat upon the Royal Seat at Rense, and all the German princes--with the exception of king John of Bohemia, who had gone over to France--made the solemn declaration that the King and Emperor whom they had elected, or should henceforth elect, derived his dignity and power from G.o.d, and did not require the sanction of the Pope. They also bound themselves to defend the rights and liberties of the Empire against any a.s.sailant whatever. These were brave words: but we shall presently see how much they were worth.

The alliance with England was made for seven years. Ludwig was to furnish German troops for Edward III.'s army, in return for English gold. For a year he was faithful to the contract, then the old superst.i.tious fear came over him, and he listened to the secret counsels of Philip VI. of France, who offered to mediate with the Pope in his behalf. But, after Ludwig had been induced to break his word with England, Philip, having gained what he wanted, prevented his reconciliation with the Pope. This miserable weakness on the Emperor's part destroyed his authority in Germany. At the same time he was imitating every one of his Imperial predecessors, in trying to strengthen the power of his family. He gave Brandenburg to his eldest son, Ludwig, married his second son, Henry, to Margaret of Tyrol, whom he arbitrarily divorced from her first husband, a son of John of Bohemia, and claimed the sovereignty of Holland as his wife's inheritance.

[Sidenote: 1347. DEATH OF LUDWIG THE BAVARIAN.]

Ludwig had now become so unpopular, that when another Pope, Clement VI., in April, 1346, hurled against him a new excommunication, expressed in the most horrible terms, the Archbishops made it a pretext for openly opposing the Emperor's rule. They united with the Pope in selecting Karl, the son of John of Bohemia (who fell by the sword of the Black Prince the same summer, at the famous battle of Crecy), and proclaiming him Emperor in Ludwig's stead. All the cities, and the temporal princes, except those of Bohemia and Saxony, stood faithfully by Ludwig, and Karl could gain no advantage over him. He went to France, then to Italy, and finally betook himself to Bohemia, where he was a rival monarch only in name.

In October, 1347, Ludwig, who was then residing in Munich, his favorite capital, was stricken with apoplexy while hunting, and fell dead from his horse. He was sixty-three years old, and had reigned thirty-three years. In German history, he is always called "Ludwig the Bavarian."

During the last ten years of his reign many parts of Germany suffered severely from famine, and a pestilence called "the black death" carried off thousands of persons in every city. These misfortunes probably confirmed him in his superst.i.tion, and partly account for his shameful and degrading policy. The only service which his long rule rendered to Germany sprang from the circ.u.mstance, that, having been supported by the free cities in his war with Frederick of Austria, he was compelled to protect them against the aggressions of the princes afterwards, and in various ways to increase their rights and privileges. There were now 150 such cities, and from this time forward they const.i.tuted a separate power in the Empire. They encouraged learning and literature, favored peace and security of travel for the sake of their commerce, organized and protected the mechanic arts, and thus, during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, contributed more to the progress of Germany than all her spiritual and temporal rulers.

CHAPTER XXI.

THE LUXEMBURG EMPERORS, KARL IV. AND WENZEL.

(1347--1410.)