The Foundation Of The Hapsburg Dynasty

(1438--1493.)



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

succeeds. --His Character. --The Council of Basel. --The French

Mercenaries and the Swiss. --The Suabian Cities. --George Podiebrad

in Bohemia and John Hunyadi in Hungary. --Condition of the German

Empire. --Losses of the German Order. --Rise of Burgundy. --Charles

the Bold and his Plans. --The Battles f Grandson and Morat.

--Death of Charles the Bold. --Marriage of Maximilian of Hapsburg

and Mary of Burgundy. --Frederick III.'s Troubles. --Aid of the

Suabian Cities. --Maximilian's Humiliation. --Frederick's Death.

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

Printing.





[Sidenote: 1438. ALBERT OF HAPSBURG EMPEROR.]



The German Electors seemed to be acting contrary to their usual policy,

when, on the 18th of March, 1438, they unanimously voted for Albert of

Austria, who became Emperor as Albert II. With him commences the

Hapsburg dynasty, which kept sole possession of the Imperial office

until Francis II. gave up the title of Emperor of Germany, in 1806.

Albert II. was Duke of Austria, and, as the heir of Sigismund, he was

also king of Hungary and Bohemia; consequently the power of his house

was much greater than that of any other German prince; but the Electors

were influenced by the consideration that his territories lay mostly

outside of Germany proper, that they were in a condition which would

demand all his time and energy, and therefore the other States and

principalities would probably be left to themselves, as they had been

under Sigismund. Nothing is more evident in the history of Germany, from

first to last, than the opposition of the ruling princes to any close

political union of a national character, but it was seldom so

selfishly and shamelessly manifested as in the fourteenth and fifteenth

centuries.



[Sidenote: 1440.]



The events of Albert II.'s short reign are not important. He appears to

have been a man of strong character, honest and well-meaning, but a new

war with the Turks called him to Hungary soon after his accession to the

throne, and he was obliged to leave the interests of the Empire in the

hands of his Chancellor, Schlick, a man who shared his views but could

not exercise the same authority over the princes. Before anything could

be accomplished, Albert died in Hungary, in October, 1439, in the

forty-second year of his age. He left one son, Ladislas, an infant, born

a few days after his death.



The Electors again met, and in February, 1440, unanimously chose

Albert's cousin, Frederick of Styria and Carinthia, who, after waiting

three months before he could make up his mind, finally accepted, and was

crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle as Frederick III. His indolence, eccentricity

and pedantic stiffness seemed to promise just such a wooden figure-head

as the princes required: it is difficult to imagine any other reason for

the selection. He was more than a servant, he was almost an abject slave

of the Papal power, and his secretary, AEneas Sylvius (who afterwards

became Pope as Pius II.), ruled him wholly in the interest of the Church

of Rome, at a time when a majority of the German princes, and even many

of the Bishops, were endeavoring to effect a reformation.



The Council at Basel had not adjourned after concluding the Compact of

Prague with the Hussites. The desire for a correction of the abuses

which had so weakened the spiritual authority of the Church was strong

enough to compel the members to discuss plans of reform. Their course

was so distasteful to the Pope, Eugene IV., that he threatened to

excommunicate the Council, which, in return, deposed him and elected

Amadeus, Duke of Savoy, who took the name of Pope Felix V. The prospect

of a new schism disturbed the Christian world; many of the reigning

princes refused to support Eugene unless he would grant entire freedom

to the Church in Germany, and he would have probably been obliged to

yield, but for the help extended to him by Frederick III., under the

influence of AEneas Sylvius. The latter, who was no less unscrupulous

than cunning, succeeded in destroying the work of reform in its very

beginning. By the Concordat of Vienna, in 1448, Frederick neutralized

the action of the Council and restored the Papal authority in its most

despotic form. Felix V. was forced to abdicate, and the Council of

Basel--which had meanwhile adjourned to Lausanne--was finally

dissolved, after a session of seventeen years.



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



In his political course, during this time, Frederick III. was equally

infamous, but less successful. After making a temporary arrangement with

Hungary and Bohemia, he determined to reconquer the former Hapsburg

possessions from the Swiss. A quarrel between Zurich and the other

Cantons seemed to favor his plan; but, not being able to obtain any

troops in Germany, he applied to Charles VII. of France for 5,000 of the

latter's mercenaries. As Charles, with the help of Joan D'Arc, the Maid

of Orleans, had just victoriously concluded his war with England, he had

plenty of men to spare; so, instead of 5,000, he sent 30,000, under the

command of the Dauphin. This force marched into Switzerland, and was

met, on the 26th of August, 1444, at St. Jacob, near Basel, by an army

of 1600 devoted Swiss, every man of whom fell, after a battle which

lasted ten hours. The French were so crippled and discouraged that they

turned back and for months afterwards laid waste Baden and Alsatia; so

that only German territory suffered by this transaction.



The Suabian cities, inspired by the heroic attitude of the Swiss, now

made another attempt to protect themselves against the encroachment of

the reigning princes upon their ancient rights. For two years a fierce

war was waged between them and the latter, who were headed by the

Hohenzollern Count, Albert Achilles of Brandenburg. The struggle came to

an end in 1450, and so greatly to the disadvantage of the cities that

the people of Schaffhausen annexed themselves and their territory to

Switzerland. The following year, as there was a temporary peace,

Frederick III. undertook a journey to Italy, with an escort of 3,000

men. His object was to be crowned Emperor at Rome, and the Pope could

not refuse the request of such an obedient servant, especially after the

latter had kissed his foot and appeared publicly as his groom. He was

the last German Emperor who amused the Roman people by playing such a

part. During the year he spent in Italy he avoided Milan, and made no

attempt to claim, or even to sell, any of the former Imperial rights.



[Sidenote: 1457.]



Disturbances in Hungary and Bohemia hastened his return to Germany. Both

countries demanded that he should give up the boy Ladislas, son of

Albert II., whom he still kept with him. In Bohemia George Podiebrad, a

Hussite nobleman, was at the head of the government; in Hungary the

ruler was John Hunyadi (often called Hunniades by English historians),

one of the most heroic and illustrious characters in Hungarian annals.

The Emperor was compelled to give up Austria at once to Ladislas, who,

at the age of sixteen, was also chosen king of Hungary and Bohemia. But

he died soon afterwards, in 1457, and then Matthias Corvinus, the son of

Hunyadi, was elected king by the Hungarians, and George Podiebrad by the

Bohemians. Even Austria, which Frederick attempted to retain, passed

partly into the hands of his brother Albert. The German princes looked

on well-pleased, and saw the power of the Hapsburg house diminished;

only its old ally, the house of Hohenzollern, still exhibited an active

friendship for Frederick III.



The condition of the Empire, at this time, was most deplorable. While

France, England and Spain were increasing their power by better

political organization, Germany was weakened by an almost unbroken

series of internal wars. The 340 independent Dukes, Bishops, Counts,

Abbots, Barons and Cities, fought or made peace, leagued themselves

together or separated, just as they pleased. So wanton became the spirit

of destruction that Albert Achilles of Brandenburg openly declared:

"Conflagration is the ornament of war,"--and the people described one of

his campaigns by saying: "They can read at night, in Franconia."

Frederick III. called a number of National Diets, but as he never

attended any, the smaller rulers soon followed his example. Although the

Turks began to ravage the borders of Styria and Carinthia, and carried

away thousands of the inhabitants as slaves, he spent his time in

Austria, quarrelling with his brother Albert, and intriguing alternately

with the Hungarians and the Bohemians, in the attempt to secure for

himself the crowns worn by Matthias Corvinus and George Podiebrad.



Along the Baltic shore the growth of the German element was checked, and

almost destroyed. After its crushing defeat at Tannenberg, the German

Order not only lost its power, but its liberal and intelligent

character. It began to impose heavy taxes on the cities, and to rule

with greater harshness the population under its sway. The result was a

combined revolt of the cities and the country nobility, who compelled

the Order to grant them a constitution, guaranteeing the rights for

which they contended. They purchased Frederick III.'s consent to this

measure for 54,000 gold florins. Soon afterwards, however, the Order

paid the Emperor 80,000 gold florins to withdraw his consent. Then the

cities and nobles, exasperated at this treachery, rose again, and called

the Poles to their help. The Order appealed to the Empire, but received

no assistance: it was defeated and its territory overrun; West-Prussia

was annexed to Poland, which held it for three centuries afterwards, and

East-Prussia, detached completely from the Empire, was left as a little

German island, surrounded by Slavonic races. The responsibility for this

serious loss to Germany, as well as for the internal anarchy and

barbarity which prevailed, rests directly upon the Electors, who

selected Frederick III. precisely because they knew his character, and

who never attempted to depose him during his long and miserable reign of

fifty-three years.



[Sidenote: 1467. THE GROWTH OF BURGUNDY.]



Germany was also seriously threatened on the west, not by France, but by

the sudden growth of a new power which was equally dangerous to France.

This was the Duchy of Burgundy, which in the course of a hundred years

had grown to the dimensions of a kingdom, and was now strong enough to

throw off the dependency of the territories it embraced, to France on

the one side, and to the German Empire on the other. The foundation of

its growth was laid in 1363, when king John of France made his fourth

son, called Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, and the latter, by

marrying the Countess Margaret of Flanders, extended his territory to

the mouth of the Rhine. He died in 1404, and was succeeded by his

grandson, Philip the Good, who extended the sway of Burgundy, by

purchase, inheritance, or force of arms, over all Belgium and Holland,

so that it then reached from the Rhine to the North Sea. His court was

one of the most splendid in Europe, and during his reign of sixty-three

years Flanders became the rival of Italy in wealth, architecture and the

fine arts.



Philip the Good died in 1467, and was succeeded by his son, Charles the

Bold, a man whose boldness was his only virtue. He was rash, vindictive,

and almost insanely ambitious; and the only purpose of his life seems to

have been to extend his territory to the Alps and the Mediterranean, to

gain possession of Lorraine and Alsatia, and thus to found a kingdom of

Burgundy, almost corresponding to that given to Lothar by the Treaty of

Verdun, in 843. (See Chapter XII.) He first acquired additional

territory in Belgium, then took a mortgage on all the possessions of the

Hapsburgs in Alsatia and Baden by making a loan to Sigismund of Tyrol.

Frederick III. not only permitted these transactions, but met Charles at

Treves in 1473 to arrange a marriage between the latter's only daughter,

Mary of Burgundy, and his own son, Maximilian. During the visit, which

lasted two months, Charles the Bold displayed so much pomp and splendor

that the Emperor, unable to make an equal show, finally left without

saying good-bye. The interests of Germany did not move him, but when his

personal vanity was touched, he was capable of action.



[Sidenote: 1473.]



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

In order to secure the alliance of the Swiss, who were equally

threatened by the designs of Charles the Bold, he concluded a Perpetual

Peace with them, relinquishing forever the claims of the house of

Hapsburg to authority over any part of their territory. The cities of

Alsatia and Baden advanced money to Sigismund of Tyrol to pay his debt,

and when Charles the Bold nevertheless refused to give up Alsatia and

part of Lorraine, which he had seized in the meantime, war was declared

against him. Louis XI. of France, equally jealous of Burgundy, favored

the movement, but took no active part in it. Although Charles was driven

out of Alsatia, and failed to take the city of Neuss after a siege of

ten months, he succeeded in negotiating a peace, by offering a truce of

nine years to Louis XI. and promising his daughter's hand to Frederick's

son, Maximilian. In this treaty the Emperor, who had persuaded

Switzerland and Lorraine to become his allies, infamously gave them up

to Charles the Bold's revenge.



The latter instantly seized the whole of Lorraine, transferred his

capital from Brussels to Nancy, and, considering his future kingdom

secured, prepared first to punish the Swiss. He collected a magnificent

army of 50,000 men, crossed the Jura, and appeared before the town of

Grandson, on the Lake of Neufchatel. The place surrendered, on condition

that the citizens should be allowed to leave unharmed; but Charles

seized them, hanged a number and threw the rest into the lake. By this

time the Swiss army, numbering 18,000, appeared before Grandson. Before

beginning the battle, they fell upon their knees and prayed fervently;

whereupon Charles cried out: "See, they are begging for mercy, but not

one of them shall escape!" For several hours the fight raged fiercely;

then the horns of the mountaineers--the "bulls of Uri and the cows of

Unterwalden," as the Swiss called them--were heard in the distance, as

they hastened to join their brethren. A panic seized the Burgundians,

and after a short and desperate struggle they fled, leaving all their

camp equipage, 420 cannon, and such enormous treasures in the hands of

the Swiss that the soldiers divided the money by hatfuls.



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



This grand victory occurred on the 3d of May, 1476. Charles made every

effort to retrieve his fortunes: he called fresh troops into the field,

reorganized his army, and on the 22d of June again met the Swiss near

the little town and lake of Morat. The battle fought there resulted in a

more crushing defeat than that of Grandson: 15,000 Burgundians were left

dead upon the field. The aid which the Swiss had begged the German

Empire to give them had not been granted, but it was not needed. Charles

the Bold seems to have become partially insane after this overthrow of

his ambitious plans. He refused the proffered mediation of Frederick

III. and the Pope, and endeavored to resume the war. In the meantime

Duke Rene of Lorraine had recovered his land, and when Charles marched

to retake Nancy, the Swiss allied themselves with the former. A final

battle was fought before the walls of Nancy, in January, 1477. After the

defeat and flight of the Burgundians, the body of Charles was found on

the field, so covered with blood and mud as scarcely to be recognized.



Up to this time, the German Empire had always claimed that its

jurisdiction extended over Switzerland, but henceforth no effort was

ever made to enforce it. The little communities of free people, who had

defied and humiliated Austria, and now, within a few months, crushed the

splendid and haughty house of Burgundy, were left alone, an eye-sore to

the neighboring princes, but a hope to their people. The Hapsburg

dynasty, nevertheless, profited by the fall of Charles the Bold. Mary of

Burgundy gave her hand to Maximilian, in 1477, and he established his

court in Flanders. He was both handsome and intellectually endowed, and

was reputed to be the most accomplished knight of his day. Louis XI. of

France attempted to gain possession of those provinces of Burgundy

which had French population, but was signally defeated by Maximilian in

1479. Three years afterwards, however, when Mary of Burgundy was killed

by a fall from her horse, the cities of Bruges and Ghent, instigated by

France, claimed the guardianship of her two children, Philip and

Margaret, the latter of whom was sent to Paris to be educated as the

bride of the Dauphin. A war ensued which lasted until 1485, when

Maximilian was reluctantly accepted as Regent of Flanders.



[Sidenote: 1485.]



While these events were taking place, Frederick III. was involved in a

quarrel with Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary, who easily succeeded in

driving him from Vienna, and then from Austria. Still the German princes

looked carelessly on, and the weak old Emperor wandered from one to the

other, everywhere received as an unwelcome guest. In 1486 he called a

Diet at Frankfort, and endeavored, but in vain, to procure a union of

the forces of the Empire against Hungary. All that was accomplished was

Maximilian's election as King of Germany. Immediately after being

crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle, he made a formal demand on Matthias Corvinus

for the surrender of Austria. Before any further steps could be taken,

he was recalled to Flanders by a new rebellion, which lasted for three

years.



Frederick III., deserted on all sides, and seeing the Hapsburg

possessions along the frontiers of Austria and Tyrol threatened by

Bavaria, finally appealed to the Suabian cities for help. He succeeded

in establishing a new Suabian League, which was composed of twenty-two

free cities, the Count of Wuertemberg and a number of independent nobles.

A force was raised, with which he first marched to the relief of

Maximilian, who had been taken and imprisoned at Bruges and was

threatened with death. The undertaking was successful: Maximilian was

released, and in 1489 his authority was established over all the

Netherlands.



The next step was to rescue Austria from the Hungarians. An interview

between Frederick III. and Matthias Corvinus was arranged, but before it

could take place the latter died, in April, 1490. Maximilian, with the

troops of the Suabian League, retook Vienna, and even advanced into

Hungary, the crown of which country he claimed for himself, but was

forced to conclude peace at Presburg, the following year, without

obtaining it. Austria, however, was completely restored to the house of

Hapsburg.



[Sidenote: 1493. DEATH OF FREDERICK III.]



Before the year 1491 came to an end, Maximilian suffered a new

humiliation. The last Duke of Brittany (in Western France) had died,

leaving, like Charles the Bold of Burgundy, a single daughter, Anna, as

his only heir. Maximilian, who had been a widower since 1482, applied

for her hand, which she promised to him: the marriage ceremony was even

performed by proxy. But Charles VIII. of France, although betrothed to

Maximilian's young daughter, Margaret, now fourteen years old, saw in

this new alliance a great danger for his kingdom; so he prevented Anna

from leaving Brittany, married her himself, and sent Margaret home to

Austria. Maximilian entered into an alliance with Henry VII. of England,

secured the support of the Suabian League, and made war upon France. The

Netherlands, nevertheless, refused to aid him; whereupon Henry VII.

withdrew from the alliance, and the matter was settled by a treaty of

peace in 1493, which left the duchy of Burgundy in the hands of France.



Frederick III. had already given up the government of Germany (that is,

what little he exercised) to his son. He settled at Linz and devoted his

days to religion and alchemy. He had a habit of thrusting back his right

foot and closing the doors behind him with it; but one day, kicking out

too violently, he so injured his leg that the physicians were obliged to

amputate it. This accident hastened his death, which took place in

August, 1493. He was seventy-eight years old, and had reigned

fifty-three years, wretchedly enough--but of this fact he was not aware.

He evidently considered himself a great and successful monarch. All his

books were stamped with the vowels, A. E. I. O. U.--which was a mystery

to every one, until the meaning was discovered after his death. The

letters are the initials of the words, Alles Erdreich Ist Oesterreich

Unterthan, "All Earth is subject to Austria"!



Two events occurred during Frederick's reign, one of which illustrated

the declining power of the Roman Church, while the other, unnoticed in

the confusion of civil war, was destined to be the chief weapon for the

overthrow of the priestly power. The first of these was the fall of the

Eastern Empire, when Sultan Mohammed II. conquered Constantinople in

1453. Although this catastrophe had been long foreseen, the news of it

nevertheless created a powerful excitement throughout Europe. One-fourth

of the zeal expended on any one of the Crusades would have saved Turkey

to Christendom: the German Empire, alone, could have easily repelled the

Ottoman invasion; but each petty ruler thought only of himself, and the

Popes were solely interested in preventing the Reformation of the

Church. The latter, now--especially Pius II. (AEneas Sylvius)--were very

eager for a new Crusade for the recovery of Constantinople: there was

much talk, but no action, and finally even the talk ceased.



[Sidenote: 1440.]



The other event was a simple invention, which is chiefly remarkable for

not having been made long before. The great use of cards for gambling

first led to the employment of wooden blocks, upon which the figures

were cut and then printed in colors. Wood-engraving, of a rude kind,

gradually came into use, and as early as the year 1420 Lawrence Coster,

of Harlem, in Holland, produced entire books, each page of which was

engraved upon a single block. But John Gutenberg, of Mayence, about the

year 1436, originated the plan of casting movable types and setting them

together to form words. His chief difficulty was in discovering a proper

metal of which to cast them, and a kind of ink which would give a clear

impression. Paper made of linen had already been in use, in Germany, for

about a hundred and thirty years.



Gutenberg was poor, and therefore took a man named Fust, who had

considerable means, as his partner. They completed the first

printing-press in 1440, but several more years elapsed before the

invention achieved any result. There was a quarrel between the two;

Gutenberg withdrew, and Fust took his own assistant, Peter Schoeffer, as

partner in the former's place. Schoeffer discovered the right

combination of metal for the types, as well as an excellent ink. In 1457

appeared the first printed book, a Latin psalter; in 1461 the Latin

Bible, and two years afterwards a German Bible. These Bibles are

masterpieces of the printer's art: they were sold at from thirty to

sixty gold florins a copy, which was just one-tenth the cost of a

written Bible at that time. The art was at first kept a profound secret,

and the people supposed that the books were produced by magic, as they

were multiplied so rapidly and sold so cheaply; but when Mayence was

taken by Adolf of Nassau, in 1462, during one of the civil wars, the

invention became known to the world, and printing-presses were soon

established in Holland, Italy and England.



[Sidenote: 1462. THE INVENTION OF PRINTING.]



The clergy, and especially the monks, would have suppressed the art, if

they had been able. It took away from the latter the profitable business

of copying manuscript works, and it placed within the reach of the

people the knowledge, of which the former had preserved the monopoly. By

the simple invention of movable types, the darkness of centuries began

to recede from the world: the life of the Middle Ages grew faint and

feeble, and a mighty, irresistible change swept over the minds and

habits of men. But the rulers of that day, great or little, were the

last persons to suspect that any such change was at hand.