HISTORY of THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA.

Chapter I

RHODOLPH OF HAPSBURGH.

1218-1273.

The House of Austria owes its origin and power to Rhodolph of Hapsburg, son of Albert IV Count of Hapsburg.

The Austrian genealogists, who have taken indefatigable but ineffectual pains to trace his illustrious descent from the Romans, carry it with great probability to Ethico, duke of Alsace, in the seventh century, and unquestionably to Gun tram the Rich, count of Alsace and Brisgau, who flourished in the tenth.

In the confused accounts of the times, and amidst the perpetual changes of property and dignities, it is difficult to trace with accuracy the titles and possessions of the immediate descendants of Guntram. His son Kanzeline seems to have been designated as count of Altenburgh, and to have resided in the midst of his domains, not far from Windisch, the site of the Roman colony Vindonissa. Radebot, a son of Kanzeline, was called count of Cleggow, and married Ida, daughter of Gerard, third count of Alsace, and duke of Loraine. Another son, Werner, became bishop of Strasburg, and on an eminence above Windisch, built the castle of Hapsburg, which became the residence of the future counts, and gave a new title to the descendants of Guntram. Otho, the eldest son of Radebot, dying in 1046 without issue, Werner, the second son, is first distinguished in ancient records as count of Hapsburg.

The successors of Werner increased their family inheritance by marriages, donations from the emperors, and by becoming prefects, advocates, or administrators of the neighboring abbeys, towns, or districts, and his great grandson Albert III was possessor of no inconsiderable territories in Swabia, Alsace, and that part of Switzerland which is now called the Argau, and held the landgraviate of Upper Alsace.

His son, Rhodolph, received from the emperor, in addition to his paternal inheritance, the town and district of Lauffenburgh, an imperial city on the Rhine. He acquired also a considerable accession of territory by obtaining the advocacy of Uri, Schweitz, and Underwalden, whose natives laid the foundation of the Helvetic Confederacy, by their union against the oppressions of feudal tyranny. A dispute arising between the natives of Schweitz and the abbot of Einsidlin, concerning the property of some Alpine forests and pastures, these sturdy mountaineers renewed their confederacy with Uri and Underwalden, resisted the mandates of the Emperor Henry V, who put them under the ban of the empire, and despised the excommunications of the Bishop of Constance. They chose for their prefect Count Ulric of Lentzburgh, who succeeded in reconciling them with the Emperor Frederic I, the founder of a new dynasty in the House of Swabia; and the Swiss warriors, flocking to the Imperial standard, performed essential services in the wars which he and his successors maintained against the popes and the adherents of the Roman See.

After the death of Ulric the three cantons again renewed their confederacy, and the natives of Underwalden chose Rhodolph for their advocate. But the count of Hapsburg, instigated by views of aggrandizement, endeavoured to extend his authority and influence over the two other cantons. His plan was seconded by Otho of Brunswick, raised to the Imperial throne in opposition to the House of Swabia, and who, to secure his assistance, appointed him advocate of the three cantons. But the natives would not accept him in this capacity till he had solemnly engaged to maintain their rights and respect their independence; and when the House of Swabia gained the ascendant, Frederic II, in gratitude for their attachment and fidelity to his family, prevailed on Rhodolph to resign the advocacy in exchange for the county of Rheinfelden.

Rhodolph dying in 1232, his two sons, Albert and Rhodolph, divided their inheritance. Albert obtained the territories in Argau and Alsace, with the castle of Hapsburg, and Rhodolph the county of Cleggow, with the territories in the Brisgau, and the counties of Rheinfelden and Lauffenburgh, and fixing his residence at Lauffenburgh, became the founder of the line of Hapsburg Lauffenburgh. Both brothers, during their lives, bore the title of Landgrave of Alsace; but, on the death of Rhodolph, it was confined to the descendants of Albert.

EARLY ACQUIREMENTS

Albert IV, Count of Hapsburg, espoused Hedwige, daughter of Ulric, Count of Kyburgh, Lentzburgh, and Baden, who was descended from the Dukes of Zaeringen, and allied to the Emperor Frederic II. He was not deficient in military prowess and talents: he first distinguished himself in petty contests with the neighboring barons, and afterwards followed the banners of Frederic II in the wars of Italy. He passed from this theatre of glory to another more distant and dangerous. The spirit of enthusiasm which had roused the powers of France and Italy to undertake a crusade against the Saracens, had spread into Germany; and many princes of the empire flocked at the head of their retainers to wrest the Holy Land from the domination of the infidels. Among these Albert of Hapsburg was not the least distinguished. After having established a peace with the neighboring barons, he summoned his family and followers to the convent of Muri; the former he recommended to persevere in the same sentiments of fidelity and attachment to his sons as they had displayed to him; then turning to his sons, Rhodolph and Albert, he exhorted them to cultivate truth and piety; to give no ear to evil counsellors; never to engage in unnecessary war; once engaged, to act with intrepidity and firmness; but to place their principal resource in celerity, and to prefer a peace to their own private advantages. “Be mindful”, he said, “that the counts of Hapsburg did not attain their height of reputation and glory by fraud, insolence, or selfishness; but by courage and devotion to the public weal. As long as you follow their footsteps you will not only retain, but augment the possessions and dignities of your illustrious ancestors”. Having then declared his brother Rhodolph guardian of his sons during his absence, he took his departure, amidst the tears of his family, and the lamentations of his followers, proceeded at the head of thirty barons to Marseilles, from whence he embarked, and landed at Ptolemais in Syria. But Albert had no opportunity to display in the fields of Palestine that skill and prowess which he had shown in the wars of Italy; for, on his arrival, a truce was concluded with the Saracens, and he soon afterwards fell a sacrifice to the unhealthiness of the climate, and, dying at Askalon, in 1240, was buried in the Holy Land.

By his wife Hedwige he left three sons: Rhodolph the Great Founder of the House of Austria, Albert, a canon of Basle, and Hartman, both of whom died before their brother was called to the Imperial dignity.

Rhodolph was born in 1218, probably at the ancient castle of Limburgh, or Limper in Brisgau, on the confines of Alsace, and was presented at the font by the Emperor Frederic II, to whose House he was distantly allied. Under the auspices of his warlike father he passed his youth in the court and camp of Frederic II, and was initiated at an early age in the use of arms. He was trained to wrestling and running, was skilled in horsemanship, excelled in throwing the javelin, and being endowed with great strength and vigour, gave eminent proofs of superiority over his companions in all military exercises.

On the death of his father, Rhodolph inherited only the landgraviate of Upper Alsace, the burgraviate of Rheinfelden, and in conjunction with his brothers, succeeded to the county of Hapsburg, the inhabitants of which being free, were exempted from arbitrary taxes; to some scattered domains in Swabia and Brisgau; and the advocacies or prefectureships of a few of the neighboring towns and districts. Though in possession of such confined territories Rhodolph followed the example of the German princes who considered peace as inglorious and sought to aggrandize their fortunes by pillage or conquest. He maintained a splendid establishment, formed a chosen band of troops, collected adventurers from all nations, more than his scanty revenues would support; and eager to signalize himself in arms, gave full scope to his enterprising genius. For some time he found no respite from war; he was either engaged in protecting the surrounding states from the incursions of banditti and depredations of the powerful barons, or under various pretences invading the possessions of others, and defending his own property from the encroachments of ambitious neighbors.

The first of his exploits in his native country was in 1242, against Hugh of Tuffenstein, a young baron, who had provoked his resentment by contumelious expressions. Rhodolph invested a fortress of considerable strength belonging to his adversary, and having failed in attempting to take it by storm, obtained entrance by bribing the sentinels, and made himself master of the place, notwithstanding the desperate valour of Hugh, who was killed in the defence.

He next turned his arms against his uncle and guardian Rhodolph of Lauffenburg, whom he accused of embezzling a part of his patrimony. He found, however, an intrepid and enterprising opponent in his cousin Godfrey, the son of Rhodolph: and after carrying havoc into each other’s territories, the two relatives effected a reconciliation, by which Rhodolph obtained some compensation for his demands. This accommodation was succeeded by an intimate friendship between the two youthful heroes, who in this short contest had learned to admire and emulate each other.

We next find Rhodolph engaged in hostilities with his uncle Hartman, count of Kyburgh. The dominions of the House of Kyburgh were at this time jointly possessed by Hartman the elder, second son of Ulric, and his nephew Hartman the younger. In order to find resources for the pay of his retainers, Rhodolph had obtained from his uncle a sum of money as the arrears of his mother’s portion. Encouraged by the facility with which he succeeded in this demand, and pressed by his necessities, he made further exactions, and at length claimed a considerable part of the territories belonging to the two Hartmans. This claim being rejected he instantly invaded, in 1244, the dominions of Hartman the elder, occupied Baden, Winterthur, and Mersburgh, extorted a considerable largess as the price of their restoration, and a promise, that should his uncle and cousin die without issue male, the possessions of the House of Kyburgh should revert to him. By this violence he indeed obtained a sum of money for his immediate necessities; but forfeited the affections of his uncle, and nearly lost the territories which he was entitled to inherit; for Hartman, with the consent of his nephew, transferred to the bishop of Strasburg the counties of Baden, Lentzburgh, and Kyburgh, and received them in return for himself and his nephew as fiefs of the see.

In the following year, 1245, Rhodoph enjoyed a short respite from the dangers of the field, by his marriage with Gertrude Anne, daughter of Bureard, count of Hohenberg and Hagenlock, and obtained as her dowry the castle of Oettingen, the valley of Weile, and some other domains in Alsace.

MARRIAGE.

The contemporary annals are silent in regard to the actions of Rhodolph for several years subsequent to his marriage; but it is not probable that a person of so enterprising a spirit could long remain inactive. The chronicles, however, which detail his minutest actions, scarcely again mention him till the year 1253, when he, engaged with other nobles of the Imperial or Ghibeline party against Bertold, bishop of Basle, penetrated into the suburbs of the city by night, and burnt a nunnery, for which he was excommunicated by Pope Innocent IV. It was probably to obtain the revocation of this sentence, that we find him serving under Ottocar, king of Bohemia, against the Prussians, a people then in a state of paganism, who were defending their liberties, in opposition to the Teutonic knights, and against whom the pope had published a crusade. He afterwards assisted Ottocar in his war with Bela, king of Hungary; might have been present at the battle of Cressenbrun; and perhaps had a share in the complete victory which insured to the king of Bohemia the possession of Austria and Styria, and confined Bela within the limits of Hungary.

On his return to his native country he was involved in a series of wars in Alsace and Switzerland. Finding the bishop and citizens of Strasburg in open hostilities against each other, he assisted the bishop, signalized himself by his valour and activity, and compelled the citizens to conclude a truce. At the same time he effected a reconciliation with his uncle Hartman, who, pleased with his change of conduct, and struck with his rising fame, endeavored to recover from the bishop of Strasburg the deed of donation which he had made of his territories. Rhodolph urged the same request to the bishop during the truce, recapitulated his services, and tendered his future assistance; but meeting with a refusal, he replied, “Since you pay no regard to the greatest services, and seem inclined rather to offend than conciliate your friends, Rhodolph of Hapsburgh, instead of your ally, is become your most inveterate enemy”. Laying his hand on his sword, he added, “While I am master of this weapon, neither you nor any other person shall wrest from me those dominions, which I am to inherit by right of my mother; and since, in contradiction to every principle of justice, you grasp at the possessions of others, know that you shall shortly lose your own”. Nor was this threat uttered in vain; for in 1259 the citizens of Strasburg, availing themselves of the breach, requested Rhodolph to accept the supremacy of their city, and the command of their troops. He joyfully received this well-timed offer, and repairing to take possession of his new charge, the inhabitants went out in crowds to meet their deliverer, hailed him as a person sent by heaven, and considered his presence as a sure omen of victory. Nor did Rhodolph deceive their expectations; he instantly took the field, surprised Colmar, stormed the strong fortress of Mulhausen, occupied Lower Alsace, and defeated the episcopal troops with great slaughter. Chagrin, for these repeated losses and misfortunes, hurried the bishop to the grave; and his successor, Henry of Geroldsec, prudently offered to purchase a peace by renouncing all right to the dominions of Hartman, and paying a large sum for the restitution of the towns belonging to the see. Rhodolph accepted the deed of donation, but generously declined the offer of money, and restored Colmar, Mulhausen, and Lower Alsace. The citizens of Strasburg, in gratitude to their deliverer, and in commemoration of his services, erected a statue to Rhodolph, of which some remains still exist.

Hartman the younger, dying in 1263, left by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Hugh, count of Werdenberg, an only daughter Anne, to whom he bequeathed the counties of Burgdorf and Thun, and the city of Freiburg. In the ensuing year Hartman the elder followed his nephew to the grave; and Rhodolph, partly in his own right, and partly as guardian to Anne, took possession of the counties of Ivyburgh, Lentzburgh, and Baden, and all the other domains of the House of Kyburgh. By this accession of territory he sustained and increased, in Alsace, Switzerland, and the circle of the Lower Rhine, that influence which he had acquired by his civil and military talents, even when he possessed the slender inheritance derived from his father.

As inactivity was neither conformable to the spirit or circumstances of Rhodolph, his new territories furnished sufficient employment both for negotiation and action, and involved him in a series of long and almost uninterrupted hostilities. But although at this period of his life, war seems to have been his favourite and constant occupation, he did not follow the example of the turbulent barons, who harassed the peasants with incessant depredations, and pillaged defenseless travellers. On the contrary he adopted a system of conduct, which distinguished him with honor in those times of misrule and confusion. He delivered the highways from numerous banditti, and protected the citizens and freemen from the tyranny of the nobles; he principally levelled his attacks against the turbulent barons, or the haughty prelates who concealed their ambitious designs under the sacred name of religion. Such was his reputation, and such the general opinion entertained of his justice and prowess, that he gained the confidence of the neighboring republics. Many chose him arbiter of their internal disputes; some confided to him the command of their armies; and others appointed him their prefect and protector.

By espousing the cause of the citizens, Rhodolph acted with equal prudence and judgment. The citizens in those days were mostly soldiers, accustomed to defend their liberties against the vexations of their own nobles, and of the neighboring barons. They were animated with an undaunted spirit; from the nature of their governments, they were more subject to control, and more obedient to military order than the lawless retainers of the nobles: and their industry and commerce supplied the means of supporting the burdens of war. From their instruction in public schools, and from the force of example, their minds were more enlightened, their comprehension keener, and they were more calculated for those ambuscades, feints, and stratagems, of which the art of war at that time principally consisted. Rhodolph, in the character of their captain, general, or advocate, won their confidence and esteem. Assisted by their spirit, and supported by their riches, he was enabled to humble the rivals of his power. The hardy mountaineers of Uri, Schweitz, and Underwalden, who had displayed such repugnance to his ancestor Rhodolph, voluntarily appointed him their chief and protector, and were more than once indebted to him for composing their internal dissensions, checking the depredations of their nobles, and resisting the incursions of the Italian banditti. Him, therefore, to whom they were bound by ties of duty and affection, they served with the most fervent zeal, and were ever ready to descend from their mountains, and follow their gallant leader to certain victory.

Among others the citizens of Zurich, in 1265, chose him as their prefect, and invested him with the command of their troops; and this appointment involved him in a war with the count of Regensberg, and a formidable confederacy of the neighboring barons, which highly contributed to his subsequent greatness.

HEADS THE SWISS.

During the troubles of the interregnum in the German empire, the burghers of Zurich, which was an imperial city, had gradually acquired considerable privileges, and began to assume the administration of their own affairs. In order to strengthen themselves against the power of the nobles, they contracted alliances with the sister republics, and endeavored to secure a protector among their neighboring princes. For this purpose they dispatched an embassy to Lutold, baron of Regensbergh, whose territories almost surrounded Zurich, and extended along the eastern shore of the lake, as for as Rapperschwl. Lutold answered the messengers with scorn: “Tell your citizens that Zurich is surrounded by my subjects as a fish in a net; let the inhabitants surrender themselves to me, and I will govern them with mildness”. In this strait the citizens turned to Rhodolph of Hapsburg, who accepted their offer, repaired to Zurich, and assumed the command. Undaunted by the confederacy which Lutold had formed with the count of Tockenburgh, and other neighboring barons, he placed his hopes of success in celerity and decision. He collected his own troops and those of Zurich; drew assistance from the cities of Alsace, and the circle of the Lower Rhine; summoned to his standard the mountaineers of Uri, Schweitz, and Underwalden, and marched against the enemy.

In this petty warfare he displayed as much prowess and conduct, as he afterwards showed on a more conspicuous theatre. The respective forces met in the vicinity of Zurich. Rhodolph, after drawing up his men, led them himself to the attack with his usual ardour, and broke through the foremost ranks of the adversary, when he was thrown from his horse, and stunned by the violence of the fall. His troops were driven back, and the enemy surrounding him began to strip him of his armour. At this moment of danger, Muller, a citizen of Zurich, a man of great strength, flew to his assistance, protected him with his shield, and raising him from the ground, mounted him on his own horse. Rhodolph, deriving fresh courage from the imminent danger which he had just escaped, rallied his troops, led them again to the charge, and after a great slaughter, gained a complete victory.

The confederates on this defeat changed their plan, and endeavored to protract the war by dispersing their troops in their numerous fortresses, and by harassing the town of Zurich and the territories of Hapsburg with continual depredations. But this plan, however judicious, was baffled by the vigilance and activity of Rhodolph, who showed himself no less skillful in besieging, or adroit in surprising their fortresses, than he had before proved his courage in the field. He captured the castles of Glanzenbergh, Balder, and Utlebergh, which were posts of considerable importance from their commanding situation and vicinity to Zurich. He sent a select body of men down the Limmat, on the bank of which Glanzenbergh was situated, to land secretly near the castle. The boatmen then threw clothes into the river, and raised a loud outcry as if their vessel had been overset; and when the garrison hastened to the spot in hopes of plunder, the men in ambuscade rushed into the castle, and captured it without resistance.

He was not less fortunate in surprising Balder, a castle situated on the Albis. Selecting thirty horsemen and as many foot soldiers, he represented to them the danger and glory of the undertaking, and demanded if they would follow him as their leader. The whole troop unanimously exclaiming that they were ready to conquer or die with him, he mounted the foot soldiers behind the horsemen, and ascended the Albis. Approaching the fortress he concealed the infantry in a thicket, and with the' horse advancing close to the walls, he and his small troop defied the garrison, brandishing their swords, and using the most contumelious expressions and reproachful gestures. Those on the ramparts, seeing only thirty men, were fired at this insult, and rushed out against them with a resolution to chastise their insolence. As they advanced Rhodolph and his party retreated, and were pursued beyond the thickets where the ambuscade was posted. At this instant the horse rallied, and the infantry starting up, the whole body with a loud shout rushed to the charge; the enemy, terrified and thrown into confusion, were totally discomfited, the victorious troops seized the gates, slew or took prisoners the remainder of the garrison, and the fortress was levelled to the ground.

MILITARY STRATAGEMS.

With equal address Rhodolph obtained possession of Utleberg. Learning that a body of men mounted on grey horses, issued daily from the castle, either for hunting or plunder, he mounted the same number of his own troops on similar horses. On the approach of evening, this party affected to fly towards the castle, as if pursued by a corps from Zurich, and the deluded garrison throwing open their gates to receive their supposed friends, the fort was taken and demolished. “Facts like these”, justly observes the historian of Switzerland, “are for better illustrations of a character, than whole pages of descriptive qualities”.

After a series of similar stratagems, sieges, and other engagements, his arms were crowned with repeated successes; and the confederate barons, struck with terror, exclaimed, “All opposition is fruitless! Rhodolph is invincible!” They renounced their league with the count of Regensberg, and obtained peace on easy terms. Lutold, thus deserted, was compelled to supplicate those enemies whom he had despised and insulted, and purchased a cessation of hostilities by ceding to Zurich great part of his remaining territories. He lived to experience that protection which he had refused, was enrolled among the burghers, received an annual pension, and terminated his days as a private citizen in that very republic of which he had refused to become the head.

Before Rhodolph had succeeded in crushing this confederacy, he was threatened with hostilities by Bertold of Falkenstein, abbot of St. Gallen, a powerful and ambitious prelate.

Rhodolph had no sooner taken possession of the inheritance of the House of Ivyburgh, than he was summoned by the abbot to do homage for certain fiefs held under his monastery. On his neglect or refusal to comply with the summons, the indignant prelate, in 1272, led a considerable body of troops to Wyle, on the borders of Tockenburgh, with a view to invade his territories, and compel him to render homage. Rhodolph prepared to repulse this aggression, when he received intelligence from Alsace that the citizens of Basle, instigated by their bishop, had risen at the conclusion of a tournament given by his cousin the count of Lauffenburgh, and massacred several nobles of his family and party. He was roused by this act of treachery, yet being involved in hostilities with two powerful barons, and menaced by the abbot of St. Gallen, he could not fly to Basle to avenge the murder of his relatives and friends. But he had learnt to curb his enterprising spirit, and to bend to circumstances. He summoned his confidential followers, and thus addressed them: “On one side I am drawn by my own interest, and on the other by the earnest solicitations of my friends. I have hitherto withheld my homage for the fiefs which my uncle Hartman possessed, and which form part of my just inheritance; but let every man who has two powerful enemies, reconcile himself to one of them; if, therefore, you deem it more noble, as I do, to avenge injuries offered to our friends, than to pursue our own interests, let us make peace with the abbot”. His followers, approving his design, proposed that a person should be deputed to settle the difference by arbitration. “In truth”, exclaimed Rhodolph, “there is no need of any arbitrator; the business must be settled instantly; and I will be my own mediator”. With the confidence of a great mind, he mounted his horse, and, accompanied by only six attendants, rode across the fields and bye-paths to Wyle, where the abbot was sitting at table with a numerous body of knights and nobles. He presented himself at the door, and requested admittance. When the porter announced Rhodolph Count of Hapsburg, the abbot conceived it to be a mistake, or a frolic of one of the guests; but was soon undeceived and astonished by the appearance of Rhodolph himself, who ventured, unarmed and unattended, amidst a body of men assembled to make war against him. “I am come”, said the gallant warrior, “to terminate our quarrel. You are my liege lord, and I am your vassal; you are not unacquainted with the reasons which have hitherto prevented me from receiving my fiefs at your hands. Enough of contention; I am willing to refer the cause to arbitration, to acknowledge your rights, and now declare that there shall be no war between the Abbot of St. Gallen and Rhodolph of Hapsburg”.

The abbot, affected with this frank and gallant behaviour, received him with open arms, and invited him to table. During the repast, Rhodolph related the unfortunate termination of the tournament at Basle, and described the fury of the people and the arrogance of the bishop in such glowing terms, as excited the resentment of all who were present. Observing the effect of his appeal, he still further roused their feelings by exclaiming, “The duty of knighthood compels me to neglect all other considerations, that I may take vengeance on the people of Basle and their Italian bishop, for the knights and nobles whom they have insulted and massacred”. The company unanimously cried out, “It is the cause of the whole nobility!” and the abbot of Gallen and his followers tendered their assistance.

Rhodolph thus converted an enemy into a friend, and employed against the bishop those very troops which had been assembled against himself. He led these nobles, the soldiers of Zurich, the Swiss mountaineers, and his own faithful warriors to the gates of Basle, and soon forced the citizens to promise satisfaction, and deliver hostages. He next turned his arms against the bishop himself, who, considering the Rhine as an effectual barrier against the incursions of his adversary, derided his efforts. But Rhodolph passing this broad and rapid river by a portable bridge of boats, an invention which he seems to have first revived since the time of the ancients, wrested from him all his territories beyond the walls of Basle, put to flight or exterminated his peasants; burnt his houses and villages, and laid waste his forests and corn fields. In this deplorable situation the bishop sued for and obtained a truce of twenty-four days, during which time the difference was to be settled by arbitration, or the war to be renewed.

Chap. II.

1273 — 1275.

Rhodolph was encamped before the walls of Basle waiting for the expiration of the truce. Having retired to his tent, he was awakened at midnight by his nephew Frederic of Hohenzollern, burgrave of Nuremberg, with the intelligence that he was unanimously chosen king of the Romans by the electors of Germany. In the first moments of surprise, Rhodolph could not give credit to this unexpected intelligence; and even expressed his indignation against the burgrave for attempting to deceive and insult him. Convinced, however, by his solemn protestations, and by letters from the electors, he recovered from his surprise, and joyfully accepted the proffered dignity. The news of his election being quickly disseminated, the citizens of Basle opened their gates, notwithstanding the remonstrances of the bishop. “We have taken arms”, they said, “against Rhodolph Count of Hapsburg, and not against the King of the Romans”. The bishop acceded to terms of peace, the prisoners on both sides were released, and Rhodolph’s followers admitted in triumph. The new sovereign was received amidst general acclamations; the citizens took the oath of fidelity, and presented him with a considerable largess towards defraying the expenses of his coronation. The bishop, chagrined at the success and elevation of his rival, struck his forehead with vexation, and profanely exclaimed, “Sit fast, great God, or Rhodolph will occupy thy throne!”

Before we proceed, we deem it necessary to consider the situation of Germany, and the causes which concurred to raise Rhodolph to the imperial throne by means unknown to himself. While in many other countries of Europe the exorbitant power of the barons had been in some measure restrained, the royal authority enlarged, and internal tranquillity established, Germany was almost a continued scene of discord, rapine, and confusion; the greater princes, unable to curb the increasing power and licentious spirit of the barons, had no influence on the distant provinces, and the whole country, divided into a number of independent sovereignties and parties, no longer formed an empire acting upon one general system. The principal chiefs were powerful and enterprising, incessantly employed in attacking their neighbors or defending their own territories; while the smaller states and lesser barons followed the standards of one or other, as they were swayed by their interests or by the hopes of security.

RICHARD OF CORNWALL

This deplorable state of anarchy was originally owing to the disputes between the Popes and the Emperors of the House of Swabia, and to the gradual decline of the imperial power, which was almost totally annihilated on the death of Conrad IV, and could not be recovered by such phantoms of sovereign authority as William of Holland, and Richard earl of Cornwall (brother of Henry III, king of England). The authority of Richard, who obtained the imperial dignity by corruption, not by personal influence, weak in itself, was still further weakened by the counter election of Alphonso King of Castile, and by his almost continual absence. Although Richard undoubtedly performed many acts of sovereignty, and was acknowledged as supreme head of the empire by the greater part of the princes and states, yet he was more a nominal than an effective chief; and, during his reign, Germany suffered evils scarcely less deplorable than those which were experienced in a vacancy of the imperial throne.

The death of Richard, in 1271, was followed by a real interregnum of two years, a period of almost unparalleled anarchy. Contemporary writers, describing the distress of the times, exclaim, in the language of Scripture, “In those days there was no king in Israel, and every one did that which was right in his own eyes”. The Archbishop of Cologne, in a letter to the Pope, adopted the sublime imagery of Holy Writ, to describe the desolation of Germany, “The earth mourned and languished, Mount Libanon was shaken from its foundations, and the moon was turned into blood”. He compared the state of the country before the election of Rhodolph to a winter night, full of darkness and dangers, and the commencement of his reign to the return of a genial spring.

With a policy far different from that of the former popes, who wished to perpetuate the troubles of Germany, Gregory X refused to acknowledge Alphonso King of Castile, in virtue of his former election, and threatened to nominate a king of the Romans himself, if the electors suffered the interregnum to continue; and to prevent the fatal consequences of a double election, the most powerful of the imperial cities confederated for the security of the public peace, and agreed to acknowledge no king, who was not unanimously chosen. These circumstances, in addition to the divided and jarring interests of the electors, contributed to protract and embarrass the choice of a chief of the empire.

In this unfavorable aspect of affairs, the electors met at Frankfort in September 1273, and two candidates presented themselves, Alphonso King of Castile, and Ottocar King of Bohemia; but, contrary to all expectation, the nomination fell on Rhodolph, Count of Hapsburg.

WERNER PROMOTES RODOLPH’S ELECTION.

Many circumstances contributed to favour his advancement, among which the most effectual were, the views and interests of the seven electors, by whom the right of nomination was at this time assumed; namely, the Archbishops of Metz, Cologne, and Treves, the King of Bohemia, Otho Margrave of Brandenburg, Albert Duke of Saxony, and Louis Duke of Bavaria, and Count Palatine, who seems to have possessed a joint vote with his brother Henry. Of these, the most strenuous in the cause of Rhodolph was Werner of Eppenstein, Elector of Metz. On his nomination to the archiepiscopal see of Metz, Werner had repaired to Rome, in order to receive the confirmation of his office, and the pallium from the hands of the Pope; and as the road was infested with banditti, he was escorted by Rhodolph himself across the Alps, and treated on his return with equal cordiality and magnificence. Werner, captivated by his attentions, character, and talents, expressed a wish that he might live to repay the obligation. Such an opportunity now presented itself, and Werner used all his influence to secure the nomination of Rhodolph. He secretly gained the electors of Cologne and Treves; and found means to influence the secular electors, by the prospect of a matrimonial alliance with their future chief, who had six daughters unmarried. His intrigues and recommendation were strongly supported by Frederic of Hohenzollern, the friend and relation of Rhodolph, who had great influence with the secular electors, contributed to remove all obstacles, and concluded the negotiation in his name.

The peculiar situation of Louis the Severe, Duke of Bavaria, induced him to accept the hand of Matilda, eldest daughter of Rhodolph. He had espoused Mary princess of Brabant, and on a vague suspicion of infidelity had put her to death. Although he had received absolution from Pope Alexander IV, on condition of founding a convent of Chartreux, yet discontents still prevailing among the Bavarian nobles, who were convinced of Mary’s innocence, rendered him apprehensive of the interference of a future emperor. For this reason he received with joy the proposal of Matilda in marriage; and agreed to support the nomination of a prince, whose interests would be thus strongly connected with his own. Two of the other secular electors, Albert of Saxony and Otho of Brandenburg, were likewise gained by the hope of espousing Agnes and Hedwige.

The character and situation of the Count of Hapsburgs were admirably suited to the emergency, and to the views of the electors, who desired an emperor, but dreaded a master. His great civil and military talents rendered him a fit person to direct the reins of government, while from the comparatively small extent of his possessions, he was not deemed sufficiently powerful to wrest from the electors those fiefs which they had appropriated during the troubles of the empire, or to rule Germany with the same despotic sway as the great chiefs of the Houses of Franconia and Swabia.

Werner having succeeded in obtaining six voices artfully proposed that the princes should abide by the nomination of Louis of Bavaria. He either gained the consent of the Bohemian ambassadors to this compromise, by insinuating that the choice would fall on Ottocar, or prevailed on the other electors to reject his vote, and to allow two voices to the Bavarian princes. Louis accordingly nominated Rhodolph of Hapsburgs; the protests and remonstrances of the Bohemian ambassadors were disregarded, and the election of Rhodolph declared unanimous by the concurrence of the seven electors. The new King of the Romans was inaugurated at Aix-la-Chapelle, with the ancient crown of Charlemagne; and the ceremony was followed by the marriage of his two daughters, Matilda and Agnes, with Louis of Bavaria and Albert Duke of Saxony, which increased his weight and influence, and secured to him the assistance of those powerful princes.

Rhodolph was fifty-five years of age when he ascended the Imperial throne, and he proved by a series of great and glorious actions, that he was born for royalty. The change in his situation neither altered nor corrupted his heart, but opened a larger field for the exercise of his exalted qualities, which had hitherto been confined on a narrow theatre.

LETTER TO THE POPE.

His situation was full of difficulty and danger. He was threatened with the vengeance of his disappointed rival Ottocar, and he was opposed by the Anti-Caesar, Alphonso of Castile; both of whom refused to acknowledge his election, and sent ambassadors with large presents, to obtain the countenance of the Pope. Fully sensible therefore of the perils with which he was surrounded, Rhodolph did not rely on the unanimity of his election, nor on his coronation at Aix-la-Chapelle; but turned his first and principal attention to secure the ratification of the reigning pontiff. On the first news of his election, he dispatched a letter to Gregory X. “The Roman empire”, he said, “having been some time vacant, the electors, who have long possessed the right of choosing a King of the Romans, met at the appointed time and place; and although there were many of much higher rank, and much greater merit than myself, yet, after mature deliberation, they raised me to the Imperial dignity, and even solicited my consent, with considerable importunity. Conscious, however, of my own deficiency, and trembling with astonishment and fear, I hesitated whether I should accept so eminent a situation; until at length trusting in Him, who, in the high and ineffable decrees of His providence, changes as He wills the condition of mortals, adds strength to the feeble, and gives eloquence to the simple, I assumed courage sufficient to venture, weak as I am, upon so laborious and difficult an office, hoping that neither the grace of God, nor the favour of His Holy Church, nor your paternal affection will be wanting to me. Turning, therefore, all my thoughts to Him, under whose authority we live, and placing all my expectations on you alone, I fall down before the feet of your Holiness, beseeching you, with the most earnest supplications, to favour me with your accustomed kindness in my present undertaking; and that you will deign, by your mediation with the Most High, to support my cause, which I may truly call the cause of the whole German empire, that He may condescend to direct my steps according to His will, and lead me in the ways of His commandments. That I may be enabled, therefore, successfully to perform what is most acceptable to Him and to his Holy Church, may it graciously please your Holiness to crown me with the Imperial diadem; for I trust I am both able and willing to undertake and accomplish whatever you and the Holy Church shall think proper to impose upon me”.

Fortunately for the interests of Rhodolph, and the peace of Germany, Gregory X was prudent, humane, and generous, and from a long experience of worldly affairs had acquired a profound knowledge of men and manners. An ardent zeal for the propagation of the Christian faith was the leading feature of his character, and the object of his greatest ambition was to lead an army of crusaders against the infidels. To the accomplishment of this purpose he directed his aims; and, like a true father of Christendom, was anxious to appease instead of fomenting the troubles of Europe, and to consolidate the union of the German States, which it had been the policy of his predecessors to divide and disunite. By the most insinuating address he knew how to conciliate the affections of those who approached him; and to bend to his purpose the most steady opposition; and he endeavored to gain by extreme affability, and the mildness of his deportment, what his predecessors had extorted by the most extravagant pretensions.

The ambassadors of Rhodolph were received with complacency by the Pope, and obtained his sanction by agreeing in the name of their master to the same conditions which Otho IV and Frederic II had sworn to observe, by confirming all the donations of the emperors, his predecessors, to the papal see; by promising to accept no office or dignity in any of the papal territories, particularly in the city of Rome, without the consent of the Pope; by agreeing not to disturb, nor permit the house of Anjou to be disturbed in the possession of Naples and Sicily, which they held as fiefs from the Roman see; and by engaging to undertake in person a crusade against the infidels. In consequence of these concessions, Gregory gave the new king of the Romans his most cordial support, refused to listen to the overtures of Ottocar, and after much difficulty finally succeeded in persuading Alphonso to renounce his pretensions to the Imperial dignity.

An interview in Oct. 1275, between Rhodolph and Gregory at Lausanne, concluded his negotiations with the Roman see, and gave rise to a personal friendship between the heads of the Church and the empire, who were equally distinguished for their frank and amiable qualities. In this interview Rhodolph publicly ratified the articles which his ambassadors had concluded in his name; the electors and princes who were present followed his example, and Gregory again confirmed the election of Rhodolph, on condition that he should repair to Rome the following year, to receive the Imperial crown. At the conclusion of this ceremony, the new emperor, with his consort and the princes of the empire, assumed the cross, and engaged to undertake a crusade against the Infidels.

CONTUMACY OF OTTOCAR.

During the negotiations of Rhodolph with Gregory X, Ottocar had exerted himself to shake the authority of the new chief of the empire, and to consolidate a confederacy with the German princes. He not only rejected with disdain all the proposals of accommodation made at the instances of Rhodolph, by the judicious and conciliating pontiff, but prevented the clergy of Bohemia from contributing the tenths of their revenues, or preaching the crusade. He endeavored to alarm the princes of the empire, by displaying the views of the new sovereign, to recover the imperial fiefs which they had appropriated during the interregnum, and by his promises and intrigues succeeded in attaching to his cause the Margrave of Baden, and the Counts of Freiburg, Neuburgh and Montfort. But he secured a still more powerful partisan in Henry Duke of Lower Bavaria, by fomenting the disputes between him and his brother the Count Palatine, and by ceding to him Scharding and other places wrested from Bavaria by the Dukes of Austria.

When summoned by Rhodolph to do homage for his fiefs, according to the custom of the empire, he returned A haughty answer, treating him as count of Hapsburgs; a second summons was received with silent contempt; on a third he sent his ambassador, the bishop of Seccau, to the diet of Augsburg; and his example was followed by Henry of Bavaria. These ministers were, however, only deputed to raise a feigned contest relative to the vote of Henry, and to protest against the election of Rhodolph. The ambassador of Henry urged the protest with moderation and respect; but the bishop of Seccau delivered a virulent invective against the chief of the empire, in a style conformable to the spirit and character of his powerful and haughty master. He declared that the assembly in which Rhodolph had been chosen was illegal; that the arbitration of Louis of Bavaria was unprecedented; that a man, excommunicated by the pope for plundering churches and convents, was ineligible to the Imperial throne; and that his sovereign, who held his dominions by an indisputable title, owed no homage to the count of Hapsburg. As he spoke in the Latin tongue, the emperor interrupted him with a dignified rebuke; “Bishop”, he said, “if you were to harangue in an ecclesiastical consistory, you might use the Latin tongue; but when discoursing upon my rights and the rights of the princes of the empire, why do you employ a language which the greater part of those who are present do not comprehend?” The rebuke of the sovereign justly roused the indignation of the assembly: the princes, and particularly the Elector Palatine, started from their seats, and were scarcely prevented from employing violence, even by the interposition of Rhodolph; and the ambassadors, quitting the assembly, retired from Augsburg.

The diet, irritated by this insult, passed a decree, asserting the unanimity of Rhodolph’s election; they declared Ottocar guilty of contumacy; required him to restore Austria, Carinthia, and Carniola, which he had usurped, and to do homage for the remainder of his dominions. In case of refusal the ban of the empire was denounced against him, and supplies of men and money were voted to support their sovereign, to assert the Imperial dignity, and to reduce the rebellious princes to obedience. The burgrave of Nuremberg, and the bishop of Basle were despatched to Ottocar in the name of the diet, to demand his instant acknowledgment of Rhodolph as king of the Romans, and the restitution of Austria, Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola. They accordingly repaired to Prague, and delivered their message. “Tell Rhodolph”, replied the spirited monarch, “that he may rule over the territories of the empire, but I will not tamely yield those possessions which I have acquired at the expense of so much blood and treasure; they are mine by marriage, by purchase, or by conquest”. He then broke out into bitter invectives against Rhodolph, and after tauntingly expressing his surprise that a petty count of Hapsburg should have been preferred to so many powerful candidates, dismissed the ambassadors with contempt. In the heat of his resentment he even violated the laws of nations, and put to death the heralds who announced to him the resolutions of the diet, and delivered the ban of the empire.

During this whole transaction, Rhodolph acted with becoming prudence, and extreme circumspection. He had endeavored by the mildest methods to bring Ottocar to terms of conciliation; and when all his overtures were received with insult and contempt, and hostilities became inevitable, he did not seek a distant war till he had obtained the full confirmation of the pope, and had reestablished the peace of those parts of the empire which bordered on his own dominions. He first attacked the petty adherents of Ottocar, the margrave of Baden, and the counts of Freiburg, Montfort, and Neuburgh, and having compelled them to do homage, and to restore the fiefs which they had appropriated during the preceding troubles, he prepared to turn his whole force against the king of Bohemia, with a solicitude which the power and talents of his formidable rival naturally inspired.

Chap. III.

1275—1286.

The contest, in which Rhodolph was about to engage, was of a nature to call forth all his resources and talents. Ottocar was a prince of high spirit great abilities, and distinguished military skill, which had been exercised in constant warfare from his early youth. By hereditary right he succeeded to Bohemia and Moravia, and to these territories he had made continual additions by his crusades against the Prussians, his contests with the kings of Hungary, and still more by his recent acquisition of Austria, Carinthia, and Carniola.

In the tenth century Austria, with Styria and Carniola, under the title of a Margraviate, were governed by Leopold I of the House of Bamberg. It continued in the possession of his family, and in 1156 was erected into an independent duchy, by the emperor Frederic II and conferred on Henry, fifth in descent from Leopold, as an indivisible and inalienable fief; in failure of male issue it was made descendible to his eldest daughter; and, in failure of female issue, disposable by will. In 1245, Frederic the Warlike, last duke of the Bamberg line, obtained a confirmation of this decree; but, dying in the ensuing year without issue, and without disposing of his territories by will, a dispute arose relative to his succession. The claimants were his two sisters, Margaret, widow of Henry VII king of the Romans, and Constantia, wife of Henry the Illustrious, margrave of Misnia; and his niece Gertrude, daughter of Henry, his elder brother, the wife of Premislaus, eldest son of Wenceslaus, king of Bohemia, and brother of Ottocar. But on the plea that neither of the claimants were daughters of the last duke, the Emperor Frederic II sequestrated these territories as fiefs escheating to the empire, and transferred the administration to Otho, Count of Werdenberg, who took possession of the country, and resided at Vienna.

As this event happened during the contest between the See of Rome and the House of Swabia, Innocent IV, who had deposed and excommunicated Frederic, laid Austria under an interdict, and encouraged the kings of Bohemia and Hungary, and the Duke of Bavaria to invade the country. The pope first patronized the claims of Margaret, and urged her to marry a German prince; but, on her application to the emperor to bestow the duchy on her eldest son Frederic, he supported Gertrude, who, after the death of Premislaus, had espoused Herman, margrave of Baden, nephew of Otho, duke of Bavaria, and induced the Anti-Caesar, William of Holland, to grant him the investiture.

On the demise of Frederic II his son Conrad was too much occupied with the affairs of Italy, to attend to those of Germany; the Imperial troops quitted Austria, and Herman dying, Otho of Bavaria occupied that part of Austria which lies above the Elms. But Wenceslaus of Bohemia, prevailing on the states to choose his eldest surviving son Ottocar as their sovereign, under the condition that he should espouse Margaret, expelled the Bavarians, and took possession of the whole country. Gertrude fled to Bela, king of Hungary, whose uncle Roman, a Russian prince, she married, and ceded to him her pretensions on Styria, on condition that he should assert her right to Austria. A war ensued between Ottocar and the king of Hungary, in which Ottocar being defeated, was compelled to cede part of Styria to Stephen, son of Bela, and a small district of that country was appropriated for the maintenance of Gertrude. But the Hungarian governors being guilty of the most enormous exactions, the natives of Styria rose, and transferred their allegiance to Ottocar, who secured that duchy, by defeating Bela at Cressenbrun, and by the treaty of peace which followed that victory. Ottocar had scarcely obtained possession of Styria, before he deprived Gertrude of her small pittance; and the unfortunate princess took refuge from his tyranny in a convent of Misnia. Having thus secured Austria and Styria, and ascended the throne of Bohemia, Ottocar divorced Margaret, who was much older than himself; and to acquire that right to the succession of Frederic the Warlike, which he had lost by this separation from his wife, he, in 1262, procured from Richard of Cornwall the investiture of Austria, Styria, and Carniola, as fiefs devolved to the empire. He either promised, or gave some compensation to Agnes, daughter of Gertrude by Herman of Baden, and to Henry, margrave of Misnia, husband of Constantia.

Ottocar next purchased of Ulric, duke of Carinthia and Carniola, who had no issue, the right of succeeding to those duchies on his death. In the deed of transfer, instituted December, 1268, Ulric describes himself as without heirs; although his brother Philip, archbishop of Salzburg, was still living. On the death of Ulric, in 1269 or 1270, Ottocar took possession of those duchies, defeated Philip, who asserted his claims, and forced the natives to submit to his authority.

By these accessions of territory, Ottocar became the most powerful prince of Europe. For his dominions extended from the confines of Bavaria to Raab in Hungary, and from the Adriatic to the shores of the Baltic. On the contrary, the hereditary possessions of Rhodolph were comparatively inconsiderable, remote from the scene of contest, and scattered at the foot of the Alps, and in the mountains of Alsace and Swabia; and though head of the empire, he was seated on a tottering throne, and feebly supported by the princes of Germany, who raised him to that exalted dignity, to render him their chief rather in name than in power.

Although the princes and states of the empire had voted succours, many had failed in their promised assistance, and had the war been protracted, those few would have infallibly deserted a cause, in which their own interests were not materially concerned. The wise but severe regulations of Rhodolph for extirpating the banditti, demolishing the fortresses of the turbulent barons, and recovering the fiefs which several of the princes had unjustly appropriated, excited great discontents. Under these circumstances the powerful and imperious Ottocar cannot be deemed rash for venturing to contend with a petty count of Switzerland, whom he compared to those phantoms of sovereignty, William of Holland and Richard of Cornwall, or that he should conclude a king of Bohemia to be more powerful than an emperor. The event, however, showed that he had judged too hastily of his own strength, and of Rhodolph’s comparative weakness; and proved that when the reins of government were held by an able hand, the resources of the empire were still considerable, and its enmity an object of terror.

Rhodolph derived considerable support from his sons-in-law the electors Palatine and Saxony, and from the elector of Brandenburg; the burgrave of Nuremberg, the nobles of Alsace and Swabia, and the citizens and mountaineers of Switzerland. Having made the necessary preparations, he, with a judicious policy, turned his attention to those princes, who from the vicinity of their dominions were in a state of continual enmity, or warfare, with the king of Bohemia. He concluded a treaty with Ladislaus king of Hungary; and strengthened the bond of union by betrothing his daughter to Andrew duke of Sclavonia, and brother of Ladislaus. He entered into an alliance with Meinhard count of Tyrol, which he cemented by the marriage of his eldest son Albert, with Elizabeth, daughter of Meinhard. But his views were still more promoted by the general discontent which pervaded every part of the Austrian dominions, and by the anathemas of Philip, titular duke of Carinthia and archbishop of Salzburg, who absolved the people of his diocese from their oath of allegiance, and exhorted them to shake off the yoke of a tyrant, and receive the chief of the empire.

The prelate made repeated exhortations to Rhodolph to hasten his expedition. He drew a hideous picture of Ottocar’s oppressions; expatiated on the discontents of the natives, and their inveterate hatred to the Bohemians, and used all his eloquence to encourage the king of the Romans to invade the country. “I observe”, he says, “the countenances of your adversaries pale with terror, their strength is withered; they fear you unknown ; your image is terrible in their imaginations; and they tremble even at the very mention of your name. How then will they act, and how will they tremble when they hear the voice of the approaching thunder, when they see the imperial eagles rushing down on them like the flash of the lightning!”

HENRY OF BAVARIA

The plan formed by Rhodolph for the prosecution of the war was calculated to divide the forces, and distract the attention of Ottocar. He himself was to penetrate into Bohemia, while his son was to invade Austria, and Meinhard of Tyrol to make a diversion on the side of Styria. To oppose this threatened invasion, Ottocar assembled a considerable army, sent a reinforcement to Henry of Bavaria, augmented the garrison of Closter Neuburgh, a fortress deemed impregnable, fortified Vienna, and despatched a considerable part of his army towards Teppel, to secure his frontier; but, resigning himself to supineness and careless security, he passed that time which should have been employed in repressing the discontented by his presence, and rousing the courage of his troops, in hunting and courtly diversions.

Rhodolph, apprised of these dispositions, changed his plan, marched against Henry of Bavaria, and compelled him by force of arms to desert the Bohemian alliance. He meditated a reconciliation between the duke and his brother the Count Palatine; and to secure his cooperation, gave his daughter Hedwige in marriage to Otho, son of Henry, with the promise of assigning a part of Upper Austria, as a pledge for her portion. This success opened to him a way into Austria. Accompanied by Henry with a reinforcement of 1000 horse, he traversed Lower Bavaria, by Ratisbon and Passau; overran that part of Austria which lies to the south of the Danube without resistance, was received with joy by the natives, and rapidly marched towards Vienna.

This well-concerted expedition bore rather the appearance of a journey than a conquest; and Ottocar, awakened from his lethargy, received the intelligence with astonishment and terror. He now found even his ally Henry, in whose assistance he had confided, serving with his enemies, his Austrian territories invaded by a powerful army, the people hailing the king of the Romans as their deliverer, and the adversary, whom he had despised and insulted, in the very heart of his dominions. In these circumstances he recalled his army from Teppel, and led them through the woods and mountains of Bohemia to Drosendorf, on the frontiers of Austria, with the hope of saving the capital. But his troops being harassed by the fatigues of this long and difficult march, and distressed for want of provisions, he was unable to continue his progress; while Rhodolph, advancing along the southern bank of the Danube, made himself master of Kloster Neuburgh by stratagem, and encamped under the walls of Vienna. Here being joined by Meinhard of Tyrol, who had overrun Styria and Carinthia, and drawn the natives to his standard, he laid siege to the city. The garrison and people, who were warmly attached to Ottocar, and encouraged with the hopes of speedy relief, held out for five weeks; at length the want of provisions, and the threats of Rhodolph to destroy the vineyards, excited a tumult among the people, and the governor proposed a capitulation.

During this time the discontents in Ottocar’s army increased with their increasing distress; he was threatened by the approach of the Hungarians towards the Austrian frontiers; he saw his own troops alarmed, dispirited, and mutinous; and he was aware, that on the surrender of the capital, Rhodolph had prepared a bridge of boats to cross the Danube, and carry the war into Bohemia. In this situation, surrounded by enemies, embarrassed by increasing difficulties, deserted or opposed by his nobles, his haughty spirit was compelled to bend; he sued for peace, and the conditions were arranged by the arbitration of the bishop of Olmutz, the elector Palatine, and the burgrave of Nuremberg. It was agreed, on the 22nd of November, 1276, that the sentence of excommunication and deprivation, which had been pronounced against Ottocar and his adherents, should be revoked; that he should renounce all his claims to Austria, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, and Windischmark; that he should take the oath of allegiance, do homage for the remainder of his territories to the head of the empire, and should receive the investiture of Bohemia, Moravia, and his other fiefs. An article was also inserted, by which Ottocar promised to deliver up to Ladislaus, king of Hungary, all the places wrested from him in that kingdom. To cement this union a double marriage was to be concluded between a son and daughter of each of the two sovereigns; Rhodolph engaged to give a portion of 40,000 marks of silver to his daughter, and as a pledge for the payment, assigned to Ottocar a part of that district of Austria which lies beyond the Danube. The peace being concluded, the city of Vienna opened its gates, and readily acknowledged the new sovereign.

Ottocar was obliged to submit to these humiliating conditions, and on the 2oth of November, the day appointed for doing homage, crossed the Danube with a large escort of Bohemian nobles to the camp of Rhodolph, and was received by the king of the Romans, in the presence of several princes of the empire. With a depressed countenance and broken spirit, which he was unable to conceal from the bystanders, he made a formal resignation of his pretensions to Austria, Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola, and, kneeling down, did homage to his rival, and obtained the investiture of Bohemia and Moravia, with the accustomed ceremonies.

Rhodolph, having thus secured these valuable provinces, took possession of them as fiefs reverted to the empire, and issued a decree, placing them under the government of Louis of Bavaria, as vicar-general of the empire, in case of his death, or during an interregnum. He at the same time established his family in the Austrian dominions, by persuading the archbishop of Salzburg, and the bishops of Passau, Freysingen, and Bamberg, to confer on his sons Albert, Hartman, and Rhodolph, the ecclesiastical fiefs held by the dukes of Austria. His next care was, to maintain the internal peace of those countries by salutary regulations; and he gained the affection of the nobles, by confirming their privileges, and permitting them to rebuild the fortresses which Ottocar had demolished. To superintend the execution of these regulations, he fixed his residence at Vienna, where he was joined by his queen and family.

In order to reward his retainers, he was however compelled to lay considerable impositions on his new subjects, and to obtain free gifts from the bishops and clergy; and the discontents arising from these measures probably induced Ottocar to attempt the recovery of the territories which he had lost.

Although the king of Bohemia had taken leave of Rhodolph with the strongest professions of friendship, and at different intervals had renewed his assurances of unalterable harmony; yet the humiliating conditions which he had subscribed, and the loss of such valuable provinces, filled him with resentment; his lofty spirit was still farther inflamed by his queen Cunegunda, a princess of an imperious temper, who stimulated her husband with continual reproaches. He accordingly raised obstacles to the execution of the treaty, and neglected to comply with many of the conditions to which he had agreed.

Rhodolph, desirous to avoid a rupture, dispatched his son Albert to Prague. Ottocar received him with affected demonstrations of friendship, and even bound himself by oath to fulfill the articles of the peace. But Albert had scarcely retired from Prague before he immured in a convent the daughter he had promised to one of the sons of Rhodolph, and sent a letter to the king of the Romans, filled with the most violent invectives, and charging him with a perfidious intention of renewing the war.

Rhodolph returned a dignified answer to these reproaches, and prepared for the renewal of the contest which he saw was inevitable. He instantly re-occupied that part of Austria which he had yielded to Ottocar, as a pledge for the portion of his daughter. He also obtained succours from the archbishop of Salzburg, the bishops of Passau, Ratisbon, and the neighboring prelates and princes, and collected levies from Austria and Styria, for the protection of Vienna. In an interview at Haimburgh on the frontiers of Austria, with Ladislaus, king of Hungary, he adopted that prince as his son, and concluded with him an offensive and defensive alliance. Unwilling, however, to trust his hopes and fortune to his new subjects, many of whom were ready to desert him, or to allies whose fidelity and attachment were doubtful, he applied to the princes of the German empire; but had the mortification to be disappointed in his expectations. He was joined by a few only of the inferior princes; but many who had not taken part in the former war, were still less inclined to support him on the present occasion; several gained by Ottocar, either remained neuter or took part against him: those who expressed an inclination to serve him, delayed sending their succours, and he derived no assistance even from his sons-in-law the electors Palatine and Saxony.

On the other hand, he was threatened with the most imminent danger; for Ottocar, who during the peace had prepared the means of gratifying his vengeance, had formed a league with Henry of Bavaria; had purchased either the neutrality or assistance of many of the German princes; had drawn auxiliaries from the chiefs of Poland, Bulgaria, Pomerania, and Magdeburg, and from the Teutonic hordes on the shores of the Baltic. He had also excited a party among the turbulent nobles of Hungary, and spread disaffection among his former subjects in Austria and Styria. In June he quitted Prague, effected a junction with his allies, directing his march toward the frontiers of Austria, carried Drosendorf, after a short siege, by storm, and descending along the banks of the Taya, invested the fortress of Laa.

Rhodolph, convinced that his cause would suffer by delay, waited with great impatience the arrival of a body of troops from Alsace, under the command of his son Albert. But as these troops did not arrive at the appointed time, he was greatly agitated and disturbed; became pensive and melancholy, and frequently exclaimed, “That there was not one in whom he could confide, or on whose advice he could depend”. His household and attendants partook of his despondency : to use the words of a contemporary chronicle, “All the family of king Rhodolph ran to confessors, arranged their affairs, forgave their enemies, and received the communion; for a mortal danger seemed to hang over them”. The citizens of Vienna caught the contagion, and began to be alarmed for their safety. Seeing him almost abandoned by his German allies, and without a sufficient army to oppose his adversaries, they requested his permission to capitulate, and choose a new sovereign, that they might not be involved in his ruin. Roused from his despondency by this address, Rhodolph prevailed on the citizens not to desert their sovereign; he confirmed their privileges, declared Vienna an imperial city, animated them with new spirit, and obtained from them a promise to defend the ramparts to the last extremity.

BATTLE OP THE MARCHFIELD

At this period he was joined by some troops from Alsace and Swabia, and particularly by his confidant and confessor, the bishop of Basle, at the head of one hundred chosen horse, and a body of expert slingers. This small but timely reinforcement revived his confidence; and although he was privately informed that his son Albert could not supply him with further succours, and was advised not to hazard an engagement with an enemy so superior in number, he resolved to commit his fortune to the decision of arms. Turning then to the chosen body newly arrived, he addressed them with a spirit which could not fail of inspiring them with courage, and gave at the same time the most flattering testimony to their zeal and fidelity. “Remain”, he said, “one day at Vienna, and refresh yourselves after the fatigues of your march, and we will then take the field. You shall be the guard of my person; and I trust that God, who has advanced me to this dignity, will not forsake me in the hour of danger!”

Three days after the arrival of the bishop of Basle, Rhodolph quitted Vienna, marched along the southern bank of the Danube, to Haimburgh, crossed that river, and advanced to Marcheck, on the banks of the March or Morava, where he was joined by the Styrians and Carinthians, and the forces led by the king of Hungary. He instantly despatched two thousand of his Hungarian auxiliaries to reconnoiter and interrupt the operations of his adversary. They fulfilled their orders with spirit and address; for Ottocar, roused by their insults, broke up his camp, and marched to Jedensberg, within a short distance of Weidendorf, whither Rhodolph had advanced.

While the two armies continued in this situation, some traitors repaired to the camp of Rhodolph, and proposed to assassinate Ottocar; but Rhodolph, with his characteristic magnanimity, rejecting this offer, apprised Ottocar of the danger with which he was threatened, and made overtures of reconciliation. The king of Bohemia, confident in the superiority of his force, deemed the intelligence a fabrication, and the proposals of' Rhodolph a proof of weakness, and disdainfully refused to listen to any negotiation.

Finding all hopes of accommodation frustrated, Rhodolph prepared for a conflict, in which, like Caesar, he was not to fight for victory alone, but for life. At the dawn of day, August 26, 1278, his army was drawn up, crossed the rivulet which gives name to Weidendorf, and approached the camp of Ottocar. He ordered his troops to advance in a crescent, and attack at the same time both flanks and the front of the enemy; and then turning to his soldiers, exhorted them to avenge the violation of the most solemn compacts, and the insulted majesty of the empire, and by the efforts of that day to put an end to the tyranny, the horrors, and the massacres to which they had been so long exposed. He had scarcely finished before the troops rushed to the charge, and a bloody conflict ensued, in which both parties fought with all the fury that the presence and exertions of their sovereigns, or the magnitude of the cause in which they were engaged, could inspire. At length the imperial troops gained the advantage; but in the very moment of victory, the life of him on whom all depended was exposed to the most imminent danger.

Several knights of superior strength and courage, animated by the rewards and promises of Ottocar, had confederated either to kill or take the king of the Romans. They rushed forward to the place where Rhodolph, riding among the foremost ranks, was encouraging and leading his troops; and Herbot of Fullenstein, a Polish knight, giving spurs to his horse, made the first charge. Rhodolph, accustomed to this species of combat, eluded the stroke, and, piercing his antagonist under his beaver, threw him dead to the ground. The rest followed the example of the Polish warrior, but were all slain, except Valens, a Thuringian knight of gigantic stature and strength, who, reaching the person of Rhodolph, pierced his horse in the shoulder, and threw him wounded to the ground. The helmet of the king was beaten off by the shock, and being unable to rise under the weight of his armour, he covered his head with his shield, till he was rescued by Berehtold Capillar, the commander of the corps of reserve, who cutting his way through the enemy, flew to his assistance. Rhodolph mounted another horse, and heading the corps of reserve, renewed the charge with fresh courage, and his troops, animated by his presence and exertions, completed the victory.

DEFEAT AND DEATH OF OTTOCAR.

Ottocar himself fought with no less intrepidity than his great competitor. On the total rout of his troops he disdained to quit the field; and, after performing incredible feats of valour, was overpowered by numbers, dismounted, and taken prisoner. He was instantly stripped of his armour, and killed by some Austrian and Styrian nobles, whose relations he had put to death. The discomfited remains of his army, pursued by the victors, were either taken prisoners, cut to pieces, or drowned in their attempts to pass the March; and above fourteen thousand perished in this decisive engagement.

Rhodolph continued on the field till the enemy were totally routed and dispersed. He endeavored to restrain the carnage, and sent messengers to save the life of Ottocar, but his orders arrived too late; and when he received an account of his death, he generously lamented his fate. He did ample justice to the valour and spirit of Ottocar; in his letter to the pope, after having described the contest, and the resolution displayed by both parties, either to conquer or die, he adds: “At length our troops prevailing, drove the Bohemians into the neighboring river, and almost all were either cut to pieces, drowned, or taken prisoners. Ottocar, however, after seeing his army discomfited, and himself left alone, still would not submit to our conquering standards; but, fighting with the strength and spirit of a giant, defended himself with wonderful courage, until he was unhorsed, and mortally wounded by some of our soldiers. Then that magnanimous monarch lost his life at the same time with the victory, and was overthrown, not by our power and strength, but by the right hand of the Most High!”

The body of Ottocar, deformed with seventeen wounds, was borne to Vienna, and, after being exposed to the people, was embalmed, covered with a purple pall, the gift of the queen of the Romans, and buried in a Franciscan convent.

The plunder of the camp was immense; and Rhodolph, apprehensive lest the disputes for the booty and the hope of new spoils should occasion a contest between his followers and the Hungarians, dismissed his warlike but barbarous allies, with acknowledgments for their services, and pursued the war with his own forces. He took possession of Moravia without opposition, and advanced into Bohemia as far as Colin.

The recent wars, the total defeat of the army, and the death of Ottocar, had rendered that country a scene of rapine and desolation. Wenceslaus, his only son, was scarcely eight years of age; and the queen Cunegunda, a foreign princess, was without influence or power; the turbulent nobles, who had scarcely submitted to the vigorous administration of Ottocar, being without check or control, gave full scope to their licentious spirit; the people were unruly and rebellious, and not a single person in the kingdom possessed sufficient authority to assume and direct the reins of government. In this dreadful situation, Cunegunda appealed to the compassion of Rhodolph, and offered to place her infant son and the kingdom under his protection. In the midst of these transactions, Otho, margrave of Brandenburg, and nephew of Ottocar, marched into Bohemia at the head of a considerable army; took charge of the royal treasures, secured the person of Wenceslaus, and advanced against the king of the Romans.

Rhodolph, weakened by the departure of the Hungarians, and thwarted by the princes of the empire, was too prudent to trust his fortune to the chance of war; he listened therefore to overtures of peace, and an accommodation was effected by arbitration. He was to retain possession of the Austrian Provinces, and to hold Moravia for five years, as an indemnification for the expenses of the war; Wenceslaus was acknowledged king of Bohemia, and during his minority, the regency was assigned to Otho; Rhodolph, second son of the emperor, was to espouse the Bohemian princess Agnes; and his two daughters, Judith and Hedwige, were affianced to the king of Bohemia and to Otho the Less brother of the margrave. In consequence of this agreement Rhodolph withdrew from Bohemia, and in 1280 returned to Vienna in triumph. Being delivered from the most powerful of his enemies, and relieved from all future apprehensions by the weak and distracted state of Bohemia, he directed his principal aim to secure the Austrian territories for his own family. With this view he compelled Henry of Bavaria, under the pretext of punishing his recent connection with Ottocar, to cede Austria above the Ems, and to accept in return the districts of Scharding, Neuburgh, and Freystadt, as the dowry of his wife.

But, though master of all the Austrian territories, he experienced great difficulties in transferring them to his family. Some claimants of the Bamberg line still existed; Agnes, daughter of Gertrude, and wife of Ulric of Heunburgh, and the two sous of Constantia, by Albert of Misnia. Those provinces were likewise coveted by Louis, count palatine of the Rhine; and by his brother Henry of Bavaria, as having belonged to their ancestors; and by Meinhard of Tyrol, from whom he had derived such essential assistance, in virtue of his marriage with Elizabeth, widow of the emperor Conrade, and sister of the dukes of Bavaria. The Misnian princes, however, having received a compensation from Ottocar, withheld their pretensions; and Rhodolph purchased the acquiescence of Agnes and her husband, by a sum of money and a small cession of territory. He likewise eluded the demands of the Bavarian princes, and of Meinhard, by referring them to the decision of the German diet. In the meantime he conciliated by acts of kindness and liberality his new subjects, and obtained from the states of the duchy a declaration that all the lands possessed by Frederic the Warlike belonged to the emperor, or to whomsoever he should grant them as fiefs, saving the rights of those who within a given time should prosecute their claims. He then intrusted his son Albert with the administration, convoked, on the 9th of August 1281, a diet at Nuremberg, at which he presided in person, and obtained a decree annulling all the acts and deeds of Richard of Cornwall and his predecessors, since the deposition of Frederic II, except such as had been approved by a majority of the electors. In consequence of this decree another was passed, specifically invalidating the investiture of the Austrian provinces, which was obtained from Richard of Cornwall by Ottocar in 1262.

HE CONFERS PROVINCES ON HIS SONS.

We have already observed that Carinthia had been unjustly occupied by Ottocar, in contradiction to the rights of Philip, archbishop of Salzburg, brother of Ulric, the last duke. The claims of Philip were acknowledged by Rhodolph, and he took his seat at the diet of Augsburg, in 1257, as duke of Carinthia. On the conquest of that duchy he petitioned for the investiture, but Rhodolph delayed complying with his request under various pretences, and Philip dying without issue in 1279, the duchy escheated to the empire as a vacant fief.

Rhodolph being at length in peaceable possession of these territories, gradually obtained the consent of the electors, and at the diet of Ausburg, in December 1282, conferred jointly on his two sons, Albert and Rhodolph, Austria, Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola. But at their desire he afterwards resumed Carinthia, and bestowed it on Meinhard of Tyrol, to whom he had secretly promised a reward for his services, and in 1286 obtained the consent of the electors to this donation. By the request of the states of Austria, in 1283, he declared that duchy and Styria an inalienable and indivisible domain, to be held on the same terms, and with the same rights and privileges, as possessed by the ancient dukes, Leopold and Frederic the Warlike, and vested the sole administration in Albert, assigning a specific revenue to Rhodolph and his heirs, if he did not obtain another sovereignty within the space of four years. Rhodolph had originally purposed to include his second son, Hartman, in the investiture, and with that view had joined him with his two brothers, as co-possessor of the fiefs which he obtained of the archbishop of Salzburg, and the neighboring bishops. But as his prospects of aggrandizement became more certain and extensive, he destined a greater sovereignty for his favorite son; he intended to consolidate his dominions in Swabia, Alsace, and Switzerland, to annex to them the remnant of the duchy of Swabia, and those districts of the ancient kingdom of Arles, which he could recover for the empire, and with the title of king, to confer them on Hartman. He had also negotiated for him a splendid alliance, and preparations were made for his marriage with Joanna, daughter of Edward III, king of England. But his hopes were frustrated by the untimely death of the prince, who on the 24th of December, 1281, was drowned in crossing the Rhine, near the convent of Rheinau, as he was proceeding in his way to England.

Chap. IV.

1276—1291.

In the midst of his arduous contest with Ottocar, Rhodolph succeeded in preserving the friendship of the popes, and arranging the affairs of Italy.

The undefined and contradictory claims on the territories of Italy had occasioned unceasing contests between the heads of the church and of the empire. The promises which the popes had extorted from Otho IV and Frederic II, to renounce their pretensions to the exarchate of Ravenna and the lands of the countess Matilda, had not terminated the dispute; for those sovereigns had no sooner received the imperial crown at Rome than they revived the pretensions of the empire. Many of the cities also, during these disputes, had emancipated themselves from the papal government; some affecting a nominal fealty to the chief of the empire, and others declaring themselves independent republics. During the interregnum the popes had appointed Charles, king of Naples, imperial vicar in Tuscany, and he now refused to relinquish his office, notwithstanding the election of Rhodolph. He had likewise taken possession of the counties of Provence and Fourcalquier, in right of his wife Beatrice, youngest daughter of Raimond Berenger, last count, in opposition to the claims of the eldest daughter Margaret, queen of Louis IX of France, and to the pretensions of Rhodolph, who considered them as fiefs devolved to the empire.

Although Rhodolph had promised not to controvert the papal claims, he seems to have been induced by the death of Gregory X, and by the rapid succession of the three following pontiffs, who died in the space of fourteen months, to attempt the revival of the imperial authority in Italy. (Gregory died Jan. 10, 1276; Innocent V, June 22; Adrian V, August 18; and John XXI., May 16, 1277) .He accordingly sent his commissaries to receive homage from the towns of Romagna and Tuscany, and a few complied; but others, particularly the states of Tuscany, which were instigated by the king of Naples, refused to acknowledge his authority.

While Rhodolph was thus endeavoring to restore the imperial power in Italy, the papal chair was filled by Nicholas III, a pontiff of great talents and firmness, possessed of an aspiring mind, and zealous for the maintenance and extension of the papal power. Nicholas charged him with a breach of his capitulation, in endeavoring to recover Romagna, and artfully held forth the threat of excommunication, if he neglected to fulfill his vow of making a crusade against the infidels. Rhodolph, who was embarrassed with his second war against Ottocar, was apprehensive lest his refusal should induce the pope to favour his rival, and foment the rising divisions among the German princes. Appreciating likewise, from the experience of past time, the dreadful effects of papal animosity, by which even the powerful princess of the House of Swabia had been overwhelmed, and aware of the bold and decisive character of the reigning pontiff, he prudently disavowed the conduct of the imperial commissaries, and confirmed the possession of those territories which Nicholas demanded. He afterwards issued a decree ratifying this agreement; and instead of the uncertain and contested terms of the exarchate of Ravenna, the Pentapolis, and the lands of the countess Matilda, he yielded to the Roman see Ravenna, Omilia, Bobbio, Cesano, Forumpopoli, Forli, Faenza, Imola, Bologna, Ferrara, Comachio, Adria, Rimini, Urbino, Monteferatro, and the territory of Bagno, with all their dependencies. To prevent all future contests, and to satisfy the pope, he also obtained the formal and separate consent of the electors.

In gratitude for this ready compliance, Nicholas mediated an accommodation between Rhodolph and the king of Naples. Charles resigned the vicariate of Tuscany, and received the investiture of Provence and Fourcalquier as fiefs of the empire, without prejudice to the rights of Margaret; and Rhodolph strengthened this accommodation, by affiancing his daughter Clementia to Charles Martel, grandson of the king of Naples.

In consequence of this accommodation, Rhodolph made new attempts to revive the imperial authority in Tuscany, find sent a governor to receive the homage of the cities; but being secretly thwarted by the king of Naples, and not supported by the German princes, he could only obtain the acknowledgment of Pisa and Mignato. He, therefore, prudently relinquished the prosecution of an enterprise, which required the support of a powerful army; and indemnified himself by drawing considerable sums of money from Lucca and other cities, for the confirmation and extension of their privileges.

Some historians have condemned Rhodolph for abandoning the claims of the empire on Italy, and for confirming so large a territory to the Roman see; but others, more conversant in the affairs of that period, justly applaud his conduct, which they consider as the masterpiece of his policy, and as the most convincing instance of consummate judgment. They urge, if Frederic II, possessor of such extensive domains, duke of Swabia and Franconia, master of Lombardy, king of Naples and Sicily, could not withstand the power of the popes, how could Rhodolph, with such inconsiderable possessions, in the midst of such turbulent times, and with a powerful enemy like the king of Bohemia, venture to dispute their claims. They record the frequent observation of Rhodolph himself, that Italy had destroyed many kings of Germany; and commemorate his remark, “Rome is like the lion’s den in the fable, — I discover the footsteps of those who went toward it, but none of those who return”; nor do they forget, that in consequence of the good understanding which he maintained with the Roman see, Germany was not the centre of papal intrigues, or involved in religious troubles.

Having defeated Ottocar, transferred the Austrian dominions to his own family, and conciliated the pontiff, Rhodolph found no obstacle to his zeal for the public welfare; and was enabled to turn his whole attention to the affairs of Germany, and to establish the internal tranquillity of the empire. He had, indeed, in the first year of his reign, begun this great work, which the Bohemian war and the settlement of his new dominions had compelled him to postpone; but he now resumed it with fresh vigour and alacrity. His aim was first directed to renew the public peace, passed by Frederic II at the diet of Metz. With this view he, in 1281, had summoned the diets of Nuremberg and Metz, and persuaded or compelled the electors, princes, and states, not to decide their own differences by the sword, but refer them to arbitration; and for this purpose he revived the office of hofrichters, or imperial judges, which had fallen into disuse under his weak predecessors. But all these regulations and edicts, however wise and salutary, would have availed nothing had not Rhodolph enforced them by his own presence and example; he acted as mediator between contending parties, frequently presided in courts of justice, and was remarkable for the impartiality and acuteness of his decisions.

HIS VIGOROUS MEASURES

The principal and most useful, though the most difficult attempt, was, to enforce the laws which prohibited the building and maintenance of fortresses not necessary for the security of the empire. This prohibition had been generally neglected, and the number of fortresses had so greatly increased, that not only the superior princes, but even almost all the petty nobles, possessed castles, from which they harassed the neighboring countries by continual incursions. Rhodolph, well knowing that while these fortresses were permitted to remain, the internal tranquillity of the empire could not be permanently established, determined to carry the law into execution with the utmost rigour, and was rather encouraged than intimidated by the difficulty of the attempt. He condemned to death nine and twenty nobles of the most illustrious families of Thuringia, who had broken the public peace; and razed in one year seventy castles and strong holds, the habitation of banditti, or of powerful barons worse than banditti. In the prosecution of this design he acted with irreproachable impartiality; and his answer to a petition in behalf of the delinquent nobles deserves to be recorded: “Do not, I beseeeh you, interfere in favour of robbers, or endeavor to rescue them from that death which they deserve; for they are not nobles, but the most accursed robbers, who oppress the poor, and break the public peace. True nobility is faithful and just, offends no one, and commits no injury”.

The whole of his reign, in which he was not engaged in military expeditions, was passed in visiting the imperial cities; and if the numerous decrees and charters which he signed at the different places, did not prove his frequent journeys throughout the German empire, it would appear scarcely credible, that Rhodolph at so advanced an age could have transacted such a multiplicity of business, or have undergone such incessant fatigue. Hence he was justly called by a contemporary prince, Lex Animata, or a living law, and has been since distinguished by historians as the second founder of the German empire.

Rhodolph was no less zealous to wrest from the princes those fiefs which they had appropriated during the troubles of the empire. Before the Bohemian war, he compelled the marquis of Baden, the counts of Freiburg, Neuburgh, and Wittenberg, who had sheltered themselves under the protection of Ottocar, to restore their usurpations in Swabia, Alsace, and the Brisgau. He afterwards forced the archbishop of Metz to resign the Bachgau, which his predecessors had appropriated on the decease of Frederic II.

With the same spirit and success he attacked Philip, count of Savoy, who held several fiefs in the western parts of Helvetia, which had been dismembered from the empire. Of these Rhodolph demanded the restoration of the towns of Morat, Payerne, and Gummenen, and in 1283, on the refusal of the count of Savoy to comply with the requisition, led an army into his territories. A desperate conflict took place near Morat, in which the life of Rhodolph was again exposed to imminent danger. As he was foremost in the combat, he was surrounded by the enemy, unhorsed, and overpowered by numbers. He sprang into the lake of Morat, and holding by the branch of a tree with one hand, defended himself with the other, till he was rescued by his followers. He was conveyed in safety to Freiburg, and the victory which had been begun under his command, was completed by his brother-in-law, the count of Hohenburgh. He pursued his advantage, and taking Morat, pushed forward to the gates of Payerne. Here an accommodation was effected by the mediation of pope Martin IV; and the count of Savoy ceded to Rhodolph, Morat, Payerne, and Gummenen, and acknowledged his right to send an imperial commissary to Lausanne.

Rhodolph likewise compelled the House of Savoy to relinquish their pretensions to Freiburg in the Ucthland which they founded on the investiture of the dominions of Zteringen, granted by Richard of Cornwall, and afterwards purchased that city from his nephew Eberhard, count of Lauffenburgh, to whom he had assigned it in the partition of the territories of Ivyburgh, as part of the portion of his wife Anne, daughter of Hartman the Younger.

He next turned his arms against the counts of Burgundy, who had renounced their allegiance to the empire, and had done homage to the king of France. Having forced Rainald, count of Montbeillard, to restore Porentru to the bishop of Basle, he turned against Otho, count palatine of Burgundy, entered that province with a considerable force, and said siege to Besançon. While he was encamped on the banks of the Doux, ambassadors from Philip IV announced the resolution of their master to march against him with a numerous army if he did not quit the French territories; “Tell him”, said the gallant warrior, “we wait his arrival, and will convince him that we are not here to dance or to make merry, but to give law with the sword”.

Being informed that the provisions in his camp were sufficient only for a few days, he replied, “The victory will soon be ours, and we shall find sustenance in the enemy’s magazines”; and to encourage his troops by his own example, he gathered a turnip from a neighbouring field, eat it, and declared that he had never made a heartier meal. Thus infusing his own spirit into his troops, he reduced the count of Burgundy to submission; Otho renounced his allegiance to Philip of France; and repairing to Basle, did homage, and received his fiefs from the hands of the emperor.

The vigorous measures pursued by Rhodolph in extirpating the banditti, destroying the fortresses, recovering the fiefs of the empire, and maintaining the public peace, excited a spirit of discontent among the turbulent and licentious barons, and induced Tile Kolup, a person of low birth, to assume, in 1284, the name of Frederic the Second. Notwithstanding the grossness of his imposture he obtained a considerable number of adherents, was encouraged to summon a diet, and require the emperor to resign his dignity, and even collected forces sufficient to besiege Colmar. Rhodolph at first despised the impostor; but finding him supported by several princes of the empire, and the cities on the Rhine, inclined to join his party, he marched against him in person, drove him to Wetzlar, where he found a refuge among his numerous partisans, besieged the town, and having compelled the inhabitants to yield up the pretended emperor, ordered him to immediate execution.

These discontents, however, did not deter him from pursuing the necessary measures to maintain the peace of the empire. In 1286-7 he turned his arms against Eberhard, count of Wittenberg, the most powerful and licentious prince of Swabia, who, relying on the strength of Stuttgart and his other fortresses, impiously styled himself “the friend of God, and the enemy of the world!” and was the terror of the neighboring towns and districts. Rhodolph besieged and took Stuttgart, razed the fortifications, captured the other fortresses on which Eberhard had placed his reliance, and compelled the licentious marauder to relinquish his predatory mode of life, and respect the public peace.

With the view of extending his influence in Switzerland, Rhodolph endeavored to gain possession of Berne, which was built by the dukes of Zaeringen, but was afterwards declared an imperial city, and during the interregnum had obtained the protection of the house of Savoy. Under the pretext that the Bernese had assisted the house of Savoy, and oppressed the Jews who were fiscals of the empire, he led, in 1288, an army of 30,000 men against the city. But this great man, who had humbled the pride of Ottocar, and depressed the powerful houses of Savoy and Burgundy, was foiled by the firmness and spirit of this rising republic; and after an ineffectual attempt to set fire to the town, he relinquished his enterprise. Another expedition in the following year under his son Albert, though made with the utmost secrecy and address, was equally frustrated; and his aggrandizement was alone effectually checked by a petty republic, on the borders of his own territories.

While Rhodolph was employed in maintaining the peace of the empire, and reviving the imperial authority, he extended his care to Bohemia, which had been reduced to a deplorable situation by the dreadful oppressions of the regent, Otho of Brandenburg. After transporting into his own territories all the treasures of the church and state which he was able to seize, and suffering his troops to commit every species of enormity, Otho confined Wenceslaus and his mother in the fortress of Preising, where his education was shamefully neglected, and he was left destitute even of the common necessaries of life. He then retired to his own territories, and placed the administration of the government in the hands of Eberhard, bishop of Brandenburg, who, if possible, surpassed the regent in exactions, cruelty, and extortion.

At length the natives broke out into revolt, but were suppressed by the vigilance and power of Otho, who transferred the government to the bishop of Prague and some Bohemian nobles, and having exacted 15.000 marks of silver, as the price for releasing the young monarch, detained him a still closer prisoner than before.

The Bohemians appealed to the emperor, who himself demanded the release of Wenceslaus; but Otho would not comply with this order till he had extorted the promise of an additional sum of 20,000 marks, for the payment of which he was to retain in pledge Zittau, Ronow, Preising, and other towns and fortresses. Wenceslaus having ratified these conditions, was released in 1283, and entered Prague in triumph amidst general acclamations. Though only fourteen years of age, he assumed the reins of government, and was assisted by a council of the most upright and patriotic nobles of the realm. By them he was advised to revoke the agreement with Otho; but being a prince of strict moral rectitude, he was unwilling to break a solemn promise, and appealed to the head of the empire. Rhodolph referred his cause to the princes and states, and by their decision annulled the compact with Otho, as illegal and compulsory. In 1285 he repaired to Egra, gave his daughter Judith in marriage to Wenceslaus, invested him with the town and district of Egra, restored Moravia, and after receiving his renunciation of Austria, appointed him administrator of the district beyond the Danube. He also constituted him imperial vicar of Misnia, and ratified the agreement by which the margrave had rendered Misnia and Lusatia fiefs of the crown of Bohemia. At the diet of Erfurth, in 1290, he confirmed, by a solemn decree, the electorate and arch office of cup-bearer, as hereditary in the crown of Bohemia, and invested Wenceslaus with the principality of Breslau, and other territories in Silesia, which escheated to him on the death of Henry, duke of Breslau. By these acts of kindness he rescued Wenceslaus from the depressed situation into which he had fallen, and restored Bohemia almost to her pristine tranquillity and splendor.

Rhodolph had scarcely arranged the affairs of Bohemia before his attention was called to Hungary. Ladislaus the Fourth, by his weak and licentious conduct, had alienated the affections of his subjects; and Hungary became a scene of revolt and confusion, and a pray to the incursions of the Tartars, and the Cumani, a barbarous people who dwelt on the frontiers of Transylvania. In this distress the people placed their hopes and affections on his brother Andrew, prince of Sclavonia; but this prince being assassinated by the supposed order of Ladislaus, they turned to Andrew, grandson of king Andrew the Second, surnamed the Venetian, because his father Stephen had taken up his residence at Venice, and married a Venetian lady.

Apprehensive of a revolt, Ladislaus, in 1290, summoned the Cumani to his assistance, but was murdered by his barbarous allies. Leaving no children, the crown was disputed by Andrew the Venetian, by Charles Martel, son of Charles the Second, king of Naples, and Mary, the sister of Ladislaus; it was also claimed by Rhodolph, who considered it as a fief escheated to the empire, and conferred the investiture on his son Albert. Andrew was, however, supported by the greater part of the nation, and in 1291 crowned by the archbishop of Lodomer. The pretensions of Charles Martel were patronized by pope Nicholas the Fourth, who assumed the disposal of Hungary as a fief of the Roman see, and even crowned him at Naples by the hands of his legate. He also remonstrated with Rhodolph for conferring the investiture on Albert, and required him to support the prince of Naples. Rhodolph, unwilling to offend the pope, and embarrassed with the affairs of the empire, seems to have taken no part in the contest for the crown of Hungary; and Albert was too much occupied with the internal dissensions, which at this time broke out among his subjects, to make good his claims. Andrew was therefore enabled to maintain himself on the throne to which he had been called by the nation, notwithstanding the opposition of the pope, and the adherents of the prince of Naples.

Rhodolph was now in his seventy-third year, and began to sink under the infirmities of age. Sensible of his approaching end, he was desirous to secure the imperial crown to his only surviving son Albert; and with this view summoned, in May 1291, the diet of Frankfort, and endeavored to persuade the electors to choose Albert as his successor. He hoped that, in consequence of the essential services which he had performed for the empire, the electors would not deviate from the almost invariable custom of continuing the imperial crown in the same family. He was disappointed; for they declined complying with his request, under the pretence that the empire could not maintain two kings at the same time. Rhodolph expatiated on the dangers of an interregnum, and even condescended to solicit their consent by flattery and promises; but they continued firm in evading his instances, and referred the nomination to a future diet.

DEATH OF RHODOLPH.

To Rhodolph, who was tottering on the verge of the grave, this delay was equivalent to a positive refusal. Mortified with his disappointment, he endeavoured to dissipate his chagrin by making a journey into his hereditary dominions, and passed some days at Basle and Strasburg, in the midst of his family, and with the companions of his former wars. He then prepared to proceed into Austria to visit his son Albert, who was engaged in quelling an insurrection of his subjects; but his strength declining, and his physicians exhorting him to remain tranquil, he replied, as if presaging his fate, “Let me go to Spire, and see the kings my predecessors”. He accordingly descended the Rhine, but had not sufficient strength to proceed beyond Germesheim. He prepared for his end with marks of the most ardent devotion, and died on the loth of July, 1291, in the seventy-third year of his age, and in the nineteenth of his glorious reign. His body was conveyed to Spire, and interred with those of the former emperors.

We shall close this account of the great founder of the House of Austria with a few anecdotes relating to his person and character. Rhodolph was above the ordinary stature, being more than six feet in height, but extremely slender; his head was small and almost bald, his complexion pale, his nose large and aquiline. His natural aspect was grave and composed; but he no sooner began to speak than his countenance brightened into animation. His manners were so captivating, and he possessed the art of persuasion in so eminent a degree, that, to use the expression of Dornavius, one of his panegyrists, “he fascinated persons of all ranks, as if with a love potion”. He was plain, unaffected, and simple in his dress, and was accustomed to say that he considered the majesty of a sovereign as consisting rather in princely virtues than in magnificence of apparel.

In an age of superstition, the piety of Rhodolph was pure and ardent; and he was punctual and devout in attending the services of the church. He esteemed and honored the humble minister of religion, but chastised the insolence of the haughty prelates, who forgot the meekness of the Gospel, in the splendor and exercise of temporal dominion. Although he recovered estates and advocacies which the hierarchy had usurped from the empire, and resisted all claims of exemption from the public charges, which religious establishments arrogated to themselves, yet he supported the dignity and privileges of the sacerdotal order, and enforced, by his own example, respect and deference for every member of the church. The contemporary chronicles, among numerous anecdotes, record an instance of his courteous demeanor towards the inferior clergy, and of his unfeigned respect for the forms of religion. Being engaged in hunting, he met between Fahr and Baden a priest on foot, carrying the host to a sick person; and as the road was extremely dirty, and the torrents swollen with rain, he alighted, and gave his horse to the priest, saying, it ill became him to ride, while the bearer of Christ’s body walked on foot; at the same time he expressed his gratitude and veneration to the Supreme Being, who had raised him from the huts of his ancestors to the throne of the empire.

Of his magnanimity several memorable instances are recorded. At the conclusion of the victory in the March field, the nobleman who had killed his horse, and dismounted him, being taken prisoner, was brought before him, in order to be executed. Rhodolph instantly restored him to liberty, adding, “I have been a witness to his intrepidity, and should never forgive myself if so courageous a knight should be put to death”. Being casually wounded by an arrow at a tournament, the man who shot the arrow was seized and condemned to lose his right hand, Rhodolph forbad the execution of the sentence, by saying, “If he had before lost his right hand, he would not have wounded me; but what advantage can I now derive from the infliction of the punishment?”

After he was emperor, being at Metz in the midst of his officers, he saw Muller, the citizen of Zurich, who had rescued him in the battle against the count of Regensburg. He instantly rose up to meet him, received him with the warmest demonstrations of friendship and regard, and conferred on him the honor of knighthood. Being asked why he lavished such favours on a person of no rank, he replied, “When I was count of Hapsburgh, and fell into the hands of my enemies, this man rescued me, and mounted me on his own horse; and by his assistance I was delivered from almost inevitable destruction. It is my duty, therefore, to pay him every mark of distinction in my power, to whom, next to God, I owe the preservation of my life!”.

During the Bohemian war, when his troops were suffering from the scarcity of water, a flagon was presented to him, which he declined. “I cannot”, he said, “drink alone, nor can I divide so small a quantity among all; I do not thirst for myself, but for my whole army”. But at the same time that he was kindly attentive to the wants of his soldiers, he was not the less exact in enforcing discipline, and in mortifying those who would not practise that abstinence and self-denial, of which he was the first to set the example. Having secretly collected a body of troops to make an irruption into the enemy’s territory, he invited them to partake of some refreshment, and laid before them coarse rye bread and indifferent wine. Some of the soldiers, discontented with the meanness of their fare, purchased whiter bread and more palatable wine, with which they began to regale themselves. Rhodolph observing their fastidiousness, rose from table, and dismissed them from his service, declaring that he would retain none who could not content themselves with such fare as satisfied their superiors.

He was by nature warm and choleric; but as he advanced in years he corrected this defect. Some of his friends expressing their wonder that since his elevation to the imperial dignity he had restrained the vehemence of his temper, he replied, “I have often repented of being passionate, but never of being mild and humane”. His heart was neither steeled nor corrupted by power, and the goodness of his disposition rose superior to the paltry considerations of his own private interest. To the tax-gatherers he said, “The cry of distress has reached my ears; you compel travellers to pay duties which they ought not to pay, and to bear burthens which they cannot support. Do not unjustly seize what belongs to others, but take only your due. It is my duty to employ vigilance, and to promote justice and tranquillity, which I consider as the greatest blessings under heaven”. He was also easy of access, even to persons of the lowest condition. To his soldiers, who endeavored to prevent the approach of some poor men, he observed, “For God’s sake, let them alone; I was not elected emperor to be secluded from mankind”.

Bred up in wars, and educated in camps, Rhodolph found no leisure to cultivate letters; yet he always testified respect for the arts and sciences, and patronized men of learning. Being presented by a citizen of Strasburg with a manuscript, describing the wars of the Romans against the Germans, and the virtues of a general, he bestowed on the author a gold medal and chain, which he was accustomed to wear round his neck. One of his relations expressing his dissatisfaction at the gift, because money was wanting to pay the troops, Rhodolph mildly answered, “My good friend, be contented that men of learning praise our actions, and thereby inspire us with additional courage in war. Would to God I could employ more time in reading, and could expend some of that money on learned men which I must throw away on so many illiterate knights!”

He seems to have been no less distinguished for playful wit and pleasantry. Being at Metz in 1288, he walked out early in the morning, dressed as usual in the plainest manner, and as the weather was cold, entered a baker’s shop to warm himself. The mistress, unacquainted with his person, peevishly exclaimed, “Soldiers ought not to come into poor women's houses”. —“Do not be angry, good woman”, returned the king of the Romans, with great complacency, “I am an old soldier, who have spent all my fortune in the service of that rascal, Rhodolph, and he suffers me to want, notwithstanding all his fine promises”. “As you serve”, rejoined the woman, “that fellow who has laid waste the whole earth, and devoured the poor, you have deservedly incurred all your misfortunes”. She then virulently abused the king of the Romans, adding, with great bitterness, that she and all the bakers in the town, except two, were ruined by his means; and compelled him to depart, by throwing a pail of water on the fire, which filled the room with smoke and vapour.

Rhodolph, on sitting down to dinner, ordered his hostess to convey a boar’s head and a bottle of wine to her neighbor, the baker’s wife, as a present from the old soldier who had warmed himself in the morning by her fire, and then related the anecdote with much humour. When thus apprised of her mistake, the woman was greatly terrified, and, approaching the table, entreated forgiveness in the most suppliant manner. Rhodolph consented, on condition that she would repeat her abusive expressions, with which the woman faithfully complied, to the amusement and laughter of all who were present.

But to return from these anecdotes, which mark the character of the man, to those actions which distinguished the sovereign. The imperial dignity, which had been despised and insulted, was raised by the exertions and policy of Rhodolph almost to its pristine splendour and power; and the German empire, from a state of anarchy, weakness, and confusion, was restored to strength, order, and tranquillity. To adopt the just eulogy of a contemporary writer, “his very name spread fear and terror among the licentious barons, and joy among the people; as the light springs from darkness, so arose peace and tranquillity from war and desolation. The peasant resumed the plough, which he had long neglected; the merchant, whom the fear of plunder had confined to his dwelling, now traversed the country with confidence and security; and robbers and banditti, who had hitherto roved unshamed in the face of day, now hid their crimes in coverts and wastes”. Nor can any man be considered as a greater benefactor to his own family; from his scanty dominions, which are scarcely distinguished in the map of Europe, the courage, exertions, perseverance, and talents of Rhodolph, laid the foundation of that stupendous height of grandeur which his successors afterwards attained. In a word, if we consider the situation of Germany when he ascended the throne, and the state in which lie left it; the greatness of his actions, and the smallness of his means, his extreme prudence and address, his ardour for military glory, and yet his propensity to peace; his firmness in distress, and, what is far more difficult, his moderation in prosperity, his shining talents as a sovereign, and his amiable qualities as a man; we must place Rhodolph among the best and greatest princes who ever filled a throne.

Rhodolph was first married to Gertrude-Anne, countess of Hohenberg, who died in 1281, and afterwards, in his sixty-fourth year, to Agnes, a princess of Burgundy. She was only fourteen on her marriage with Rhodolph; and a proof of her extreme beauty, and of his pleasantry, is recorded by the author of the Mirror of the House of Austria. The bishop of Spire, in handing her from a carriage, was so struck with her charms, that he saluted her on the cheek. The empress indignantly complaining to her husband of this mark of disrespect, Rhodolph forbade him to appear at court, saying, “I will provide the bishop an Agnus Dei to kiss; but desire he will leave my Agnes unkissed”.

By his first wife he had a numerous offspring : Albert, who succeeded him; Hartman, drowned in 1281, in the eighteenth year of his age; Rhodolph, who was born in 1270, distinguished himself under the standard of his father, and died in 1290, he is usually styled Rhodolph II; by his wife Agnes, daughter of Ottocar, king of Bohemia, he left an only and posthumous son, John. After the birth of her son, his widow immured herself in the convent of St. Clair, at Prague, where she died in 1296.

The daughters of Rhodolph were, first, Matilda, who espoused Louis the Severe, count palatine of Bavaria, and bore two sons, Rhodolph, who died in 1319, and Louis, who afterwards became emperor. She died in 1303, of chagrin, for the undutiful behavior of her eldest son. Second, Agnes, who married Albert, duke of Saxony, and became mother of a numerous offspring. She died a widow, in 1322. Third, Hedwige, married to Otho the Little, margrave of Brandenburg; she died childless in 1308, and her husband, afflicted by her death, turned monk, and deceased the same year. Fourth, Catherine, married Otho, son of Henry, duke of Bavaria. She bore no children, and died in 1303. Fifth, Clementia, first betrothed to Andrew, prince of Sclavonia, but afterwards married to Charles Martel, prince of Naples, and claimant of the crown of Hungary. He and his wife died in 1305 of the plague, leaving one son, Charles Robert, or Carobert, who became king of Hungary. Sixth, Judith, or Gutha, who espoused Wenceslaus, king of Bohemia, and died in 1297, after bearing a son Wenceslaus, who succeeded his father, and a daughter Anne, who married Henry, duke of Carinthia. Seventh, Euphemia, a nun.

Cristo Raul.org

Reading Hall The Doors of Wisdom