A History of Germany Part 22

THE FOUNDATION OF THE HAPSBURG DYNASTY.

(1438--1493.)

Albert of Austria Chosen Emperor. --His Short Reign. --Frederick III.

succeeds. --His Character. --The Council of Basel. --The French Mercenaries and the Swiss. --The Suabian Cities. --George Podiebrad in Bohemia and John Hunyadi in Hungary. --Condition of the German Empire. --Losses of the German Order. --Rise of Burgundy. --Charles the Bold and his Plans. --The Battles of Grandson and Morat.

--Death of Charles the Bold. --Marriage of Maximilian of Hapsburg and Mary of Burgundy. --Frederick III.'s Troubles. --Aid of the Suabian Cities. --Maximilian's Humiliation. --Frederick's Death.

--The Fall of the Eastern Empire. --Gutenberg's Invention of Printing.

[Sidenote: 1438. ALBERT OF HAPSBURG EMPEROR.]

The German Electors seemed to be acting contrary to their usual policy, when, on the 18th of March, 1438, they unanimously voted for Albert of Austria, who became Emperor as Albert II. With him commences the Hapsburg dynasty, which kept sole possession of the Imperial office until Francis II. gave up the t.i.tle of Emperor of Germany, in 1806.

Albert II. was Duke of Austria, and, as the heir of Sigismund, he was also king of Hungary and Bohemia; consequently the power of his house was much greater than that of any other German prince; but the Electors were influenced by the consideration that his territories lay mostly outside of Germany proper, that they were in a condition which would demand all his time and energy, and therefore the other States and princ.i.p.alities would probably be left to themselves, as they had been under Sigismund. Nothing is more evident in the history of Germany, from first to last, than the opposition of the ruling princes to any close political union of a _national_ character, but it was seldom so selfishly and shamelessly manifested as in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

[Sidenote: 1440.]

The events of Albert II.'s short reign are not important. He appears to have been a man of strong character, honest and well-meaning, but a new war with the Turks called him to Hungary soon after his accession to the throne, and he was obliged to leave the interests of the Empire in the hands of his Chancellor, Schlick, a man who shared his views but could not exercise the same authority over the princes. Before anything could be accomplished, Albert died in Hungary, in October, 1439, in the forty-second year of his age. He left one son, Ladislas, an infant, born a few days after his death.

The Electors again met, and in February, 1440, unanimously chose Albert's cousin, Frederick of Styria and Carinthia, who, after waiting three months before he could make up his mind, finally accepted, and was crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle as Frederick III. His indolence, eccentricity and pedantic stiffness seemed to promise just such a wooden figure-head as the princes required: it is difficult to imagine any other reason for the selection. He was more than a servant, he was almost an abject slave of the Papal power, and his secretary, aeneas Sylvius (who afterwards became Pope as Pius II.), ruled him wholly in the interest of the Church of Rome, at a time when a majority of the German princes, and even many of the Bishops, were endeavoring to effect a reformation.

The Council at Basel had not adjourned after concluding the Compact of Prague with the Hussites. The desire for a correction of the abuses which had so weakened the spiritual authority of the Church was strong enough to compel the members to discuss plans of reform. Their course was so distasteful to the Pope, Eugene IV., that he threatened to excommunicate the Council, which, in return, deposed him and elected Amadeus, Duke of Savoy, who took the name of Pope Felix V. The prospect of a new schism disturbed the Christian world; many of the reigning princes refused to support Eugene unless he would grant entire freedom to the Church in Germany, and he would have probably been obliged to yield, but for the help extended to him by Frederick III., under the influence of aeneas Sylvius. The latter, who was no less unscrupulous than cunning, succeeded in destroying the work of reform in its very beginning. By the Concordat of Vienna, in 1448, Frederick neutralized the action of the Council and restored the Papal authority in its most despotic form. Felix V. was forced to abdicate, and the Council of Basel--which had meanwhile adjourned to Lausanne--was finally dissolved, after a session of seventeen years.

[Sidenote: 1444. ATTEMPT TO CONQUER THE SWISS.]

In his political course, during this time, Frederick III. was equally infamous, but less successful. After making a temporary arrangement with Hungary and Bohemia, he determined to reconquer the former Hapsburg possessions from the Swiss. A quarrel between Zurich and the other Cantons seemed to favor his plan; but, not being able to obtain any troops in Germany, he applied to Charles VII. of France for 5,000 of the latter's mercenaries. As Charles, with the help of Joan D'Arc, the Maid of Orleans, had just victoriously concluded his war with England, he had plenty of men to spare; so, instead of 5,000, he sent 30,000, under the command of the Dauphin. This force marched into Switzerland, and was met, on the 26th of August, 1444, at St. Jacob, near Basel, by an army of 1600 devoted Swiss, every man of whom fell, after a battle which lasted ten hours. The French were so crippled and discouraged that they turned back and for months afterwards laid waste Baden and Alsatia; so that only German territory suffered by this transaction.

The Suabian cities, inspired by the heroic att.i.tude of the Swiss, now made another attempt to protect themselves against the encroachment of the reigning princes upon their ancient rights. For two years a fierce war was waged between them and the latter, who were headed by the Hohenzollern Count, Albert Achilles of Brandenburg. The struggle came to an end in 1450, and so greatly to the disadvantage of the cities that the people of Schaffhausen annexed themselves and their territory to Switzerland. The following year, as there was a temporary peace, Frederick III. undertook a journey to Italy, with an escort of 3,000 men. His object was to be crowned Emperor at Rome, and the Pope could not refuse the request of such an obedient servant, especially after the latter had kissed his foot and appeared publicly as his groom. He was the last German Emperor who amused the Roman people by playing such a part. During the year he spent in Italy he avoided Milan, and made no attempt to claim, or even to sell, any of the former Imperial rights.

[Sidenote: 1457.]

Disturbances in Hungary and Bohemia hastened his return to Germany. Both countries demanded that he should give up the boy Ladislas, son of Albert II., whom he still kept with him. In Bohemia George Podiebrad, a Hussite n.o.bleman, was at the head of the government; in Hungary the ruler was John Hunyadi (often called _Hunniades_ by English historians), one of the most heroic and ill.u.s.trious characters in Hungarian annals.

The Emperor was compelled to give up Austria at once to Ladislas, who, at the age of sixteen, was also chosen king of Hungary and Bohemia. But he died soon afterwards, in 1457, and then Matthias Corvinus, the son of Hunyadi, was elected king by the Hungarians, and George Podiebrad by the Bohemians. Even Austria, which Frederick attempted to retain, pa.s.sed partly into the hands of his brother Albert. The German princes looked on well-pleased, and saw the power of the Hapsburg house diminished; only its old ally, the house of Hohenzollern, still exhibited an active friendship for Frederick III.

The condition of the Empire, at this time, was most deplorable. While France, England and Spain were increasing their power by better political organization, Germany was weakened by an almost unbroken series of internal wars. The 340 independent Dukes, Bishops, Counts, Abbots, Barons and Cities, fought or made peace, leagued themselves together or separated, just as they pleased. So wanton became the spirit of destruction that Albert Achilles of Brandenburg openly declared: "Conflagration is the ornament of war,"--and the people described one of his campaigns by saying: "They can read at night, in Franconia."

Frederick III. called a number of National Diets, but as he never attended any, the smaller rulers soon followed his example. Although the Turks began to ravage the borders of Styria and Carinthia, and carried away thousands of the inhabitants as slaves, he spent his time in Austria, quarrelling with his brother Albert, and intriguing alternately with the Hungarians and the Bohemians, in the attempt to secure for himself the crowns worn by Matthias Corvinus and George Podiebrad.

Along the Baltic sh.o.r.e the growth of the German element was checked, and almost destroyed. After its crushing defeat at Tannenberg, the German Order not only lost its power, but its liberal and intelligent character. It began to impose heavy taxes on the cities, and to rule with greater harshness the population under its sway. The result was a combined revolt of the cities and the country n.o.bility, who compelled the Order to grant them a const.i.tution, guaranteeing the rights for which they contended. They purchased Frederick III.'s consent to this measure for 54,000 gold florins. Soon afterwards, however, the Order paid the Emperor 80,000 gold florins to withdraw his consent. Then the cities and n.o.bles, exasperated at this treachery, rose again, and called the Poles to their help. The Order appealed to the Empire, but received no a.s.sistance: it was defeated and its territory overrun; West-Prussia was annexed to Poland, which held it for three centuries afterwards, and East-Prussia, detached completely from the Empire, was left as a little German island, surrounded by Slavonic races. The responsibility for this serious loss to Germany, as well as for the internal anarchy and barbarity which prevailed, rests directly upon the Electors, who selected Frederick III. precisely because they knew his character, and who never attempted to depose him during his long and miserable reign of fifty-three years.

[Sidenote: 1467. THE GROWTH OF BURGUNDY.]

Germany was also seriously threatened on the west, not by France, but by the sudden growth of a new power which was equally dangerous to France.

This was the Duchy of Burgundy, which in the course of a hundred years had grown to the dimensions of a kingdom, and was now strong enough to throw off the dependency of the territories it embraced, to France on the one side, and to the German Empire on the other. The foundation of its growth was laid in 1363, when king John of France made his fourth son, called Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, and the latter, by marrying the Countess Margaret of Flanders, extended his territory to the mouth of the Rhine. He died in 1404, and was succeeded by his grandson, Philip the Good, who extended the sway of Burgundy, by purchase, inheritance, or force of arms, over all Belgium and Holland, so that it then reached from the Rhine to the North Sea. His court was one of the most splendid in Europe, and during his reign of sixty-three years Flanders became the rival of Italy in wealth, architecture and the fine arts.

Philip the Good died in 1467, and was succeeded by his son, Charles the Bold, a man whose boldness was his only virtue. He was rash, vindictive, and almost insanely ambitious; and the only purpose of his life seems to have been to extend his territory to the Alps and the Mediterranean, to gain possession of Lorraine and Alsatia, and thus to found a kingdom of Burgundy, almost corresponding to that given to Lothar by the Treaty of Verdun, in 843. (See Chapter XII.) He first acquired additional territory in Belgium, then took a mortgage on all the possessions of the Hapsburgs in Alsatia and Baden by making a loan to Sigismund of Tyrol.

Frederick III. not only permitted these transactions, but met Charles at Treves in 1473 to arrange a marriage between the latter's only daughter, Mary of Burgundy, and his own son, Maximilian. During the visit, which lasted two months, Charles the Bold displayed so much pomp and splendor that the Emperor, unable to make an equal show, finally left without saying good-bye. The interests of Germany did not move him, but when his personal vanity was touched, he was capable of action.

[Sidenote: 1473.]

For a short time, Frederick exhibited a little energy and intelligence.

In order to secure the alliance of the Swiss, who were equally threatened by the designs of Charles the Bold, he concluded a Perpetual Peace with them, relinquishing forever the claims of the house of Hapsburg to authority over any part of their territory. The cities of Alsatia and Baden advanced money to Sigismund of Tyrol to pay his debt, and when Charles the Bold nevertheless refused to give up Alsatia and part of Lorraine, which he had seized in the meantime, war was declared against him. Louis XI. of France, equally jealous of Burgundy, favored the movement, but took no active part in it. Although Charles was driven out of Alsatia, and failed to take the city of Neuss after a siege of ten months, he succeeded in negotiating a peace, by offering a truce of nine years to Louis XI. and promising his daughter's hand to Frederick's son, Maximilian. In this treaty the Emperor, who had persuaded Switzerland and Lorraine to become his allies, infamously gave them up to Charles the Bold's revenge.

The latter instantly seized the whole of Lorraine, transferred his capital from Brussels to Nancy, and, considering his future kingdom secured, prepared first to punish the Swiss. He collected a magnificent army of 50,000 men, crossed the Jura, and appeared before the town of Grandson, on the Lake of Neufchatel. The place surrendered, on condition that the citizens should be allowed to leave unharmed; but Charles seized them, hanged a number and threw the rest into the lake. By this time the Swiss army, numbering 18,000, appeared before Grandson. Before beginning the battle, they fell upon their knees and prayed fervently; whereupon Charles cried out: "See, they are begging for mercy, but not one of them shall escape!" For several hours the fight raged fiercely; then the horns of the mountaineers--the "bulls of Uri and the cows of Unterwalden," as the Swiss called them--were heard in the distance, as they hastened to join their brethren. A panic seized the Burgundians, and after a short and desperate struggle they fled, leaving all their camp equipage, 420 cannon, and such enormous treasures in the hands of the Swiss that the soldiers divided the money by hatfuls.

[Sidenote: 1476. BATTLES OF GRANDSON AND MORAT.]

This grand victory occurred on the 3d of May, 1476. Charles made every effort to retrieve his fortunes: he called fresh troops into the field, reorganized his army, and on the 22d of June again met the Swiss near the little town and lake of Morat. The battle fought there resulted in a more crushing defeat than that of Grandson: 15,000 Burgundians were left dead upon the field. The aid which the Swiss had begged the German Empire to give them had not been granted, but it was not needed. Charles the Bold seems to have become partially insane after this overthrow of his ambitious plans. He refused the proffered mediation of Frederick III. and the Pope, and endeavored to resume the war. In the meantime Duke Rene of Lorraine had recovered his land, and when Charles marched to retake Nancy, the Swiss allied themselves with the former. A final battle was fought before the walls of Nancy, in January, 1477. After the defeat and flight of the Burgundians, the body of Charles was found on the field, so covered with blood and mud as scarcely to be recognized.

Up to this time, the German Empire had always claimed that its jurisdiction extended over Switzerland, but henceforth no effort was ever made to enforce it. The little communities of free people, who had defied and humiliated Austria, and now, within a few months, crushed the splendid and haughty house of Burgundy, were left alone, an eye-sore to the neighboring princes, but a hope to their people. The Hapsburg dynasty, nevertheless, profited by the fall of Charles the Bold. Mary of Burgundy gave her hand to Maximilian, in 1477, and he established his court in Flanders. He was both handsome and intellectually endowed, and was reputed to be the most accomplished knight of his day. Louis XI. of France attempted to gain possession of those provinces of Burgundy which had French population, but was signally defeated by Maximilian in 1479. Three years afterwards, however, when Mary of Burgundy was killed by a fall from her horse, the cities of Bruges and Ghent, instigated by France, claimed the guardianship of her two children, Philip and Margaret, the latter of whom was sent to Paris to be educated as the bride of the Dauphin. A war ensued which lasted until 1485, when Maximilian was reluctantly accepted as Regent of Flanders.

[Sidenote: 1485.]

While these events were taking place, Frederick III. was involved in a quarrel with Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary, who easily succeeded in driving him from Vienna, and then from Austria. Still the German princes looked carelessly on, and the weak old Emperor wandered from one to the other, everywhere received as an unwelcome guest. In 1486 he called a Diet at Frankfort, and endeavored, but in vain, to procure a union of the forces of the Empire against Hungary. All that was accomplished was Maximilian's election as King of Germany. Immediately after being crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle, he made a formal demand on Matthias Corvinus for the surrender of Austria. Before any further steps could be taken, he was recalled to Flanders by a new rebellion, which lasted for three years.

Frederick III., deserted on all sides, and seeing the Hapsburg possessions along the frontiers of Austria and Tyrol threatened by Bavaria, finally appealed to the Suabian cities for help. He succeeded in establishing a new Suabian League, which was composed of twenty-two free cities, the Count of Wurtemberg and a number of independent n.o.bles.

A force was raised, with which he first marched to the relief of Maximilian, who had been taken and imprisoned at Bruges and was threatened with death. The undertaking was successful: Maximilian was released, and in 1489 his authority was established over all the Netherlands.

The next step was to rescue Austria from the Hungarians. An interview between Frederick III. and Matthias Corvinus was arranged, but before it could take place the latter died, in April, 1490. Maximilian, with the troops of the Suabian League, retook Vienna, and even advanced into Hungary, the crown of which country he claimed for himself, but was forced to conclude peace at Presburg, the following year, without obtaining it. Austria, however, was completely restored to the house of Hapsburg.

[Sidenote: 1493. DEATH OF FREDERICK III.]

Before the year 1491 came to an end, Maximilian suffered a new humiliation. The last Duke of Brittany (in Western France) had died, leaving, like Charles the Bold of Burgundy, a single daughter, Anna, as his only heir. Maximilian, who had been a widower since 1482, applied for her hand, which she promised to him: the marriage ceremony was even performed by proxy. But Charles VIII. of France, although betrothed to Maximilian's young daughter, Margaret, now fourteen years old, saw in this new alliance a great danger for his kingdom; so he prevented Anna from leaving Brittany, married her himself, and sent Margaret home to Austria. Maximilian entered into an alliance with Henry VII. of England, secured the support of the Suabian League, and made war upon France. The Netherlands, nevertheless, refused to aid him; whereupon Henry VII.

withdrew from the alliance, and the matter was settled by a treaty of peace in 1493, which left the duchy of Burgundy in the hands of France.

Frederick III. had already given up the government of Germany (that is, what little he exercised) to his son. He settled at Linz and devoted his days to religion and alchemy. He had a habit of thrusting back his right foot and closing the doors behind him with it; but one day, kicking out too violently, he so injured his leg that the physicians were obliged to amputate it. This accident hastened his death, which took place in August, 1493. He was seventy-eight years old, and had reigned fifty-three years, wretchedly enough--but of this fact he was not aware.

He evidently considered himself a great and successful monarch. All his books were stamped with the vowels, A. E. I. O. U.--which was a mystery to every one, until the meaning was discovered after his death. The letters are the initials of the words, _Alles Erdreich Ist Oesterreich Unterthan_, "All Earth is subject to Austria"!

Two events occurred during Frederick's reign, one of which ill.u.s.trated the declining power of the Roman Church, while the other, unnoticed in the confusion of civil war, was destined to be the chief weapon for the overthrow of the priestly power. The first of these was the fall of the Eastern Empire, when Sultan Mohammed II. conquered Constantinople in 1453. Although this catastrophe had been long foreseen, the news of it nevertheless created a powerful excitement throughout Europe. One-fourth of the zeal expended on any one of the Crusades would have saved Turkey to Christendom: the German Empire, alone, could have easily repelled the Ottoman invasion; but each petty ruler thought only of himself, and the Popes were solely interested in preventing the Reformation of the Church. The latter, now--especially Pius II. (aeneas Sylvius)--were very eager for a new Crusade for the recovery of Constantinople: there was much talk, but no action, and finally even the talk ceased.

[Sidenote: 1440.]

The other event was a simple invention, which is chiefly remarkable for not having been made long before. The great use of cards for gambling first led to the employment of wooden blocks, upon which the figures were cut and then printed in colors. Wood-engraving, of a rude kind, gradually came into use, and as early as the year 1420 Lawrence Coster, of Harlem, in Holland, produced entire books, each page of which was engraved upon a single block. But John Gutenberg, of Mayence, about the year 1436, originated the plan of casting movable types and setting them together to form words. His chief difficulty was in discovering a proper metal of which to cast them, and a kind of ink which would give a clear impression. Paper made of linen had already been in use, in Germany, for about a hundred and thirty years.

Gutenberg was poor, and therefore took a man named Fust, who had considerable means, as his partner. They completed the first printing-press in 1440, but several more years elapsed before the invention achieved any result. There was a quarrel between the two; Gutenberg withdrew, and Fust took his own a.s.sistant, Peter Schoeffer, as partner in the former's place. Schoeffer discovered the right combination of metal for the types, as well as an excellent ink. In 1457 appeared the first printed book, a Latin psalter; in 1461 the Latin Bible, and two years afterwards a German Bible. These Bibles are masterpieces of the printer's art: they were sold at from thirty to sixty gold florins a copy, which was just one-tenth the cost of a written Bible at that time. The art was at first kept a profound secret, and the people supposed that the books were produced by magic, as they were multiplied so rapidly and sold so cheaply; but when Mayence was taken by Adolf of Na.s.sau, in 1462, during one of the civil wars, the invention became known to the world, and printing-presses were soon established in Holland, Italy and England.

[Sidenote: 1462. THE INVENTION OF PRINTING.]

The clergy, and especially the monks, would have suppressed the art, if they had been able. It took away from the latter the profitable business of copying ma.n.u.script works, and it placed within the reach of the people the knowledge, of which the former had preserved the monopoly. By the simple invention of movable types, the darkness of centuries began to recede from the world: the life of the Middle Ages grew faint and feeble, and a mighty, irresistible change swept over the minds and habits of men. But the rulers of that day, great or little, were the last persons to suspect that any such change was at hand.

CHAPTER XXIV.

GERMANY, DURING THE REIGN OF MAXIMILIAN I.

(1493--1519.)

Maximilian I. as Man and Emperor. --The Diet of 1495, at Worms. --The Perpetual Peace declared. --The Imperial Court. --Marriage of Philip of Hapsburg to Joanna of Spain. --War with Switzerland.

--March to Italy. --League against Venice. --The "Holy League"